[Dowhite]

Your spec’d out system looks good. I was told by the Avid people that having a RAID configuration (the one that splits the streams to two HDs)is an unnecessary risk of instability. They said that today’s ATA Ultra 100, 7200 RPM drives are very stable and fast enough for anything you’d want to do. They discouraged editors from using RAID. …unless you use the RAID configuration that gives you a mirror image on another drive for backup purposes.

[Dowhite]

Thank you Steven. They were track keyframes. I answered my own question with a little research…so here’s the solution that was most helpful to me:

Because I had spent the time making track keyframes throughout my project, i.e., had decreased music amplitude when narration began and increased it again when narration ended, I wanted some way to move all the keyframes up or down db levels without having to do them individually. The way to do this is to simply use the pen tool and draw a “bounding box” around the all the keyframes that you’d like to move. When they are selected in this fashion they will appear slightly darker than the other keyframes. Then, simply click and drag on one keyframe and all the other will follow.

This technique allowed me to fine-tune my audio levels after I had gone to all the trouble of creating a lot of keyframes.

I’m sure that there are better workflow solutions to audio sweetening, but this one worked for me.

[Dowhite]

Thank you for the info. Sounds like -6db is a sweet spot I should be shooting for.

Once keyframes are inserted into an audio track and (using the keyframes), levels are increased and decreased–is there a way to decrease or increase the level of the entire clip or track? In other words, if I have manipulated the audio using keyframes, so that parts are increased and other parts are decreased (say +2db, and -3db respectively)is there a way to “globally” decrease that entire clip or track, say, -4dbs, so that my original keyframes drop down -4dbs each making them -2db, and -7db (using my previous example).

Is it true or not true that after inserting keyframes, I cannot then adjust the volume “globally” using the audio mixer? Is there some other tool that can make a global adjustment, but retain the relative values of the keyframes?

Thanks.

[Dowhite]

I capture just fine with a generic firewire card that is built into my Asus motherboard. I’ve never had a single dropped frame and it works great.

[Dowhite]

Thanks Martin…I know it was a tall order to recommend a fix because there are so many variables. FYI, most of the time I believe the cameras were on auto white balance. I stumbled into a fix when I tried the intimidating “Color Corrector.” The tool is intimidating because there are so many possible changes you can make for color–I’ve found that sometimes, if you keep tweaking, you end up with a muddy mess.

Regardless, for some reason I went straight to the “HSL Offset” and used the “Master” color wheel and tweaked some cool-colored footage toward the yellow–or warm, and that nearly corrected it in one tweak. I then added a little blue gain to restore some blue sky color, and it was done.

This method looks like a fairly quick fix for warming or cooling the color of shots.

[Dowhite]

Thanks for the ideas!

[Dowhite]

Thank you!

[Dowhite]

Thank you for your great recommendations! I have been applying the blur in Photoshop and then importing the still into PPro. In Photoshop I’ve been using the “motion blur” filter, on 90 degrees (vertical) and 1 pixel. I’m not aware that I can apply the vertical blur in PPro…can I do that instead?

[Dowhite]

This is really too tough of a question to answer in a forum like this. You seem to be asking about the artistry of editing. I would recommend that you rent a Ken Burns documentary (if you like his style), or perhaps “Roger and Me” or some other documentary and pay close attention to how the director tells the story. Pay attentioni to transitions, length of shots, and storyline.

Good luck.