[Adam Taylor]

Its an age old discussion that will probably never fully resolve itself – Experience or Enthusiasm.

Personally – i want both in an editor.

i think what a lot of “young’uns” don’t realise is that linear maybe an outmoded methodology but it taught you lots of skills and techniques that are still vital parts of a good editors toolkit. It certainly taught me to think ahead. To use my eyes and mind together to quickly analyse the shots, to do a mental edit before i begin cutting because a linear suite doesn’t have a bin full of pretty little reminder icons, nor does it have multiple undos.

Cutting news, i developed the ability to analyse a betacam tape whilst it was in quick reverse shuttle. By the time the tape had rewound, i had a damned good idea of what the cameraman had shot, and also how to structure the edit. I also knew whereabouts the shots were on the tape.
Nowadays, I work in advertising, on non-linear kit, so that particular skill is hardly used, but the ability to quickly plan out an edit mentally, to have logged the shots in the mind, to scan quickly through rushes picking out relevant details that many would miss… all these skills still plays a big part in my edit decision process.

There are good and bad editors from all eras.
The real trick is to find the right editor for the job, with the right skill set, right outlook, and yes…i’ll say it – the right experience.

Sadly enthusiasm will only get you so far before a lack of experience will become obvious.

Experience is what it all boils down to. Experience to provide a solution, whatever its origin, is really the only thing that matters.
Who cares if you cut on linear or not? nobody !
Can you deliver the right solution to the current edit? Now thats the real question….can you?

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

Not quite accurate….Correct you cannot go over 6ppm, as that will get an instant rejection, BUT you can’t simply whack on a compressor and pump the heck out of it either.
In the UK I know the stations now use loudness analysers which can work out the relative loudness of dialogue and music – if you are out of the approved range you fail.

Like Michael, I too do everything…audio, video, motion graphics, grading, etc (and i’m uk based) so have first hand experience (built up over 20+ years) – I had my first audio rejection this year when a commercial i mixed was just too full-on to pass, even though it was peaking several db below the limit.
I could have stumped up £700 for Dolbys plug meter but just decided to remix it first and see what happened. It passed because being made aware of what failed, i could compare it to previous stuff i’d mixed and had passed.

You may also find that rules for programmes may be slightly different to those for commercials, so you need to be aware of the rules relevant to your particular job.

I would never attempt to do a mix for broadcast in FCP, its simply the wrong tool for the job. I use Protools LE (don’t need the £20k hd setups for my work), and a hardware PPM meter. Excellent monitoring is a definite must – and that does not mean decent hi-fi speakers. Your monitors MUST have a clear accurate representation of the audio, without artificially sweetening the sound.

For me, the most valuable plug-in is Waves L2 Ultramaximiser – (used as the final plug on the master mix )settings of output limit – -9db, Ultra noise shaping, dither 20bits, and varying the threshold to give a gain reduction (on the red meters) of around 3-4 db has worked every time for me. This is applied AFTER i have done my compression, eq’s and balancing – not instead of.

And off air, the ads hold up well against their peers.

Depending on the material you are doing, the possible pitfalls of doing audio with no experience could easily cost you more (both in time, money, possible missed air dates) than booking a session at a posthouse. Thats how I learned…as a video editor on several shows I spent many hours in a mixroom watching the dubbing mixer, asking the occasional pertinent questions, and reading everything i could around the subject. It takes time, study and practice.

I would seriously recommend phoning the Senior Transmission Engineer at whichever station your material is being transmitted from, explain your situation and ask for their advice. They would much rather you asked and got it right than blindly kept on sending and crossing your fingers. A little humility can go a long way!

Good luck, and stick with it…experience is the only way to learn.
adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

some interesting ideas..thanks everyone!

Nice mailbox Stuart…but isn’t that a G3 though?

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

there is a plug-in for ProTools called Cosmonaut Voice which will do exactly what you are after.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

sorry, thats the first thing i checked!

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

do you have multiple audio tracks, and the audio mixer set to anything higher than 2 tracks?
I have had a similar problem in the past, and i found it was rendering multiple stereo pairs – and it was creating them even if tracks were empty.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

https://www.videocopilot.net have a tutorial that will show you the techniques you need. Its showing how to zoom out from a building to outer space looking back at the earth, but the techniques andrew uses can be adapted to do exactly what you want.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

if anyone is interested, the problem was to do with the AJA 6.5 driver being incompatible with AJA ~AE plugins 6.5.
Remove the adobe aja plugins and system is back to normal.

thanks AJA support for spotting that one!

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

Steve Holmes has a really helpful tutorial at https://www.artbeats.com/episodes/11 he shows how to do almost exactly what you have described.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

In PAL – always use upper field first. The only time this is otherwise is if you are working in DV, but as you are going to digibeta…then definitely upper (or odd).
adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk