best approach to editing with surround sound?

[David Roth weiss]

Victoria,

I think you’d best explain what your objective is. Why are you cutting something with 5.1 tracks? Are you cutting down a previously finished show or something similar? Where is your work product ending up? Also, are the tracks Dolby encoded?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Victoria Plummer]

Hi David,

Thanks for responding.

I am cutting down a feature film for broadcast on television. The producers are not sure of the final format, but I suspect it will be digibeta.

I am not sure if the tracks are Dolby encoded – how can I tell?

victoria p

[David Roth weiss]

It’s probably not a Dolby encoded 5.1 mix Victoria, they’ve probably just given you the stems that will be remixed after you cut down the show for TV. And, you’ll probably be better off not nesting the tracks. Once you get going you’ll probably find that working with the 14 tracks won’t be all that hard for you.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Michael Gissing]

14 tracks is a strange number. What are the files names? If they have names like “…Left””…Center”….LS …sub…RS then they are 5.1 tracks.

Avoid nesting as I presume the final will go out to an audio post facility to remix the cutdown, particularly if they are stems. You will be making an OMF if you are sending it out for sound post so nesting will make that messy. Also if you use mixdowns of the tracks, that will be a problem for sound post.

If you can give me an idea of the file names, I can help you set up your monitor mix so that it makes sense and also establish a track pattern that will help the sound post people to finish.

[Victoria Plummer]

Yes, there are 14 tracks – and they are stems. Two are dialogue, and 6 each are music and effects. The music and effects each have there at the end of the file names : C, L, Lf, Ls, R and Rs.

I’ve also discovered that my system doesn’t want to play down my sequence with all these tracks – I am editing in ProRes422 (HQ). It starts out fine, then starts stuttering and eventually the picture will freeze though the audio will keep playing.

I am considering just working with the 2 dialogue tracks, and the L and R of the music and efx until the piece is locked, then going back and adding in the rest of the audio tracks before the mix.

victoria p

[Victoria Plummer]

btw = I just disabled a lot of the audio ttracks and now it is playing fine. Glad I didn’t delete the tracks and plan to add them in at the end – that would have been a lot of extra work.

victoria p

[Michael Gissing]

Strange stems. The music and effects are obviously 5.1 but two dialog tracks is unusual. I think what you are doing is best. Leave all tracks to edit and mute the Ls,Rs and sub when playing.

When you make the OMF at the end, you will need to split the program into 20 minute sections, otherwise the OMF will exceed the 2 gig limit, particularly with that many tracks. When you are locked off, duplicate the sequence and delete all but 20 minute blocks to make the OMF. In Out markers aren’t recognised when making OMFs.

[Jeffrey Fitzgerald]

Hi, I am about to try my hand at editing an indie movie with 5.1 surround. Do any of you have any resources where I could learn about the track layouts, names, and the “stems”? This thread was helpful but makes me want more detail :-)…