Concert film, surround sound design

[Aaron Neitz]

You’ll definitely want to read in the FCP manuals, but:

1) create a new timeline with 6 channels of discreet audio (under User Prefs, Audio outputs). Copy/Paste your video clips into this.
2) get 6 discreet mono aiff/waves from your audio mixer. So a Left Front, Right Front, LFE, etc….
3) these go into your timeline. Typically 1/2=front, 3=center, 4=subwoofer, 5/6=rear speakers
4) you’re probably editing on a stereo only system? to hear channels beyond track 1/2, you’ll need to use the Stero Mixdown switch in the Audio Mixer
5) edit away.
6) export each track as a discreet aiff and compressor can make a 5.1 dobly digital file from a “surround group” Look this up, it’s pretty easy once you get the hang

IMHO, I would avoid trying to do anything fancy with your interviews. Just mix all that audio down and put it in the Center channel. I’ve heard that they typically mix 15-20% of the center channel into the Front’s. But I’m not an audio mixer and prefer letting them do their magic instead of me.

[David Roth weiss]

[jayarthur] “1. How do I incorporate these new 5.1 (song) mixes to my FCP timeline.”

You don’t!!! The mixed 5.1 tracks should not be further edited in FCP. Do not proceed with a 5.1 mix until picture and sound are are locked, and once the 5.1 Dolby encoded surround mix is completed, the separate tracks provided by the mix facility should be considered as final elements.

At this point thay are ready to be imported (along with with your video) into Compressor through the “Add Surround Sound” module, which aids in assigning the tracks to their proper respective positions (see the tab at the upper left). Compressor will create a single AC3 audio file with all siz 5.1 tracks, which you will then import along with the m2v video track into DVDSP to author your DVD.

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Jay Curlee]

David,

Sound and picture are locked. My timeline contains stereo song mixes, interview audio, narration, and sfx all on discreet tracks.

Wouldn’t I just duplicate the sequence and drop the new dolby mix tracks in their respective spots and zap the stereo mixes out?

This still leaves the issue of what I do with the narration, interview, and sfx tracks.

Apologies if I am just being dumb,

Jay Curlee
Rocking the Boat: A Musical Conversation and Journey
http://www.rockingtheboatmovie.com

[David Roth weiss]

Forget what I wrote earlier, your 5.1 mixed tracks are not already Dolby encoded as I mentioned above, and they are indeed editable. Pardon me for doing two things at once…

Now back to reality…

The problem you will have is that you are unable to monitor surround and so your mix will be a guess. If I were you, I would certainly have a facility with surround capability put a surround mix on the doco parts of your film that are presently stereo on your FCP timeline.

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Jay Curlee]

David and Charlie,

I was fearful that I was in so far over my head that I would not be able to ask good questions. This is apparently the case since I am no less confused than I was before.

I have been going on the theory that when I finally get my 5.1 song mixes from my engineeer, I would then drop them into my timeline and zap the stereo mixes out. My subsequent concern wwas how to incorporate the interviews into this sound design.

And regarding monitoring, am I going to have to just trust that the engineer did a great mix? I do trust him BTW. Without a surround sound system in my edit bay, can’t I just monitor in stereo to make sure everything is lined up?

Am I clear? I feel like I am in the wilderness.

Jay

[Jay Curlee]

Charlie, thanks for your post. Understand that there is no more “editing” to do. I am just trying to get all my tracks in the right place so I can eventually make a DVD master for replication which has 5.1 sound.

Jay

[David Roth weiss]

Jay,

Here’s the deal, let me make it simple…

Your mix facility is delivering six discreet mono tracks which comprise the surround mix for your concert sequences. I’m sure they’ll be just great, and you just need to trust them anyway, because you have no way of monitoring the mix accurately in FCP anyway. You can just edit in those six tracks to replace the existing stereo music tracks. Later you will use the module in Compressor that I mentioned to assign the tracks to their rightful channels.

Now, what about the stereo documentary interviews??? You have two choices, leave them as stereo, or bring them to a mix facility to have them mixed in surround. Its not going to be horrible to leave them as stereo, because there’s not a whole lot of tricky surround stuff that gets added to most interviews anyway, however light ambience and sound effects are usually directed to the rear channels to make the room more lively and the mix more natural. Its a decision you’ll have to make. Mixing the entire project in surround will cost more, but you will also know that you did everything in your power to give the project its best polish.

Hope this helps,
David

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Jay Curlee]

Thank you David. Even I can understand this. Go to my website and drop me a note and I’ll shoot a screener out to you.

Jay Curlee
http://www.rockingtheboatmovie.com

[Michael Gissing]

I would be going to a sound post facility to mix 5.1 . FCP is not an audio finishing tool.

It has no surround pan control or multi channel dynamics processing or bass management software. If you wish to sync your 5.1 mixes up in FCP before making an OMFi to take to sound post then that is fine. Open six new tracks and lay the 5.1 mixes alongside the stereo. You might need twelve tracks to chequerboard the 5.1 mixes.

They should be delivered to you as six mono or three stereo wavs, broadcast wav or aif files. I don’t know if FCP understands multichannel wavs or aiffs.

[Jay Curlee]

I never intended to mix anything. I am actually interested in what to do when I get my mixes back from the audio post facility. Then the issue is how to encode it in compressor to get ready for DVD replication.

Thanks for all the help and keep it coming if you have time.

Jay Curlee
http://www.rockingtheboatmovie.com