[Gary Hughes]

It’s not a problem with the DVD or the playback system. It would be the same if your program were played back from betacam (or VHS or whatever), into your TV and into other speakers. It’s simply the fact that no two brands of speakers, or models in the same brand, are identical. Some speakers accentuate vocals, which makes your dialogue cut through the music and the music isn’t too loud. Other’s accentuate the music, which will make the music seem to overpower the voice a little more. Others are very flat or neutral and neither is accentuated.

Your goal as a sound mixer (and you just thought you were an editor), is to determine what your demographic will be playing back on and mix for that. Or, you can mix so that the dialogue is understandable on the speakers that normally make your music too loud, then worst case scenario is that others will hear the music as too quiet, but at least everyone will be able to understand the dialogue.

Personally, I mix the music to dialogue relationship on Sony MDR-7506 headphones or Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones, and I mix it so that the music is almost overpowering the dialogue. I’ve found that those particular headphones accentuate the music enough that it makes my mixes “safe” for most listening environments. I also “master” all of the dialogue to reduce the dynamic range, so it will cut through the music. I also always listen on computer speakers, TV speakers, and home stereo speakers. I also take into consideration the type of program and how much the music can hurt or help the mood. Then, basically, I find the happy medium and go with it. Just like editing, it’s an art.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

[Bob Flood] “so, how can i get this nest, the good one, into my browser to rename it”
I’m not sure, but I bet you could drag it straight from the timeline to the browser. If not, drag it from the timeline to the viewer, then drag from the viewer to the browser. I haven’t tried either, but I bet it’ll work. Although, after you drag it to the browser and rename it, I’m not sure if that will create a “copy” or an “instance” of the original. (Maybe someone else will comment.) So, after dragging it to the browser, if you find that it is a copy and not an instance of the original, simply drag it from the browser to the viewer or timeline and replace the original nest in the timeline. I know that will create an instance and you’ll be good to go.

[Bob Flood] “How can there be 2 versions of the same sequence? one in the browser thats different from the one in the timeline?”
Like most everything in FCP, there are several ways of creating and/or dealing with nested sequences. Some of the ways actually create or deal with a “copy” rather than an “instance” of the original. Rather than getting into all the details, I’ll just tell you what works very well for me.

When I want to nest a sequence into another sequence, I always drag the sequence from the browser to either the viewer or directly to the timeline. By doing so, you can treat it as if it were just a clip and you will also always be working on the right sequence. Whether opening the original sequence from the browser or by double clicking on it in the other sequence, you’ll always be editing on the original and it will always update at both places.

If, on the other hand, you desire to use a copy of a sequence as a nest inside another, I would duplicate it first, then rename the duplicate, then drag the duplicate to the viewer or timeline.

If on the other hand, you desire to use only part of the sequence that you’re already working on, and wish to just nest a complex part, I would copy all tracks for the duration of the complex part, then create a new sequence and paste that into it, (be sure to drag out some heads and tails if you wish to have a transition at the start or end), then save that and drag it from the browser to the viewer or timeline.

You can see my pattern. I always drag from the browser. There are other perfectly good ways, but that’s the one that works for me.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

It’s not a comforting thought, but I’ve done it many times. My theory is, the least amount of time in someone elses hands, the better, therefore I ship overnight with plenty of insurance.

I do take extra precautions with tapes from live events or “once-in-a-lifetime” footage, but for studio shoots, I’ll risk having to reschedule and reshoot over all the extra worry and work on something that is most likely not going to be needed anyway.

I believe it was on the special features of Sky Captain, they mentioned that they captured in-camera as well as in-deck because they shot the entire film in 6 days (if I remember correctly). This allowed them to trust that one of the tapes was good, so they didn’t shoot safeties. Their reason was to save time, but you could implement the same idea if you’re that paranoid. One thing I do on shoots with 3 or more cameras, (when budget permits), I capture a switched feed as well. Then I carry that on the plane with me and fedex the rest back home. Worst case, one or the other will most likely be OK.

Gary

[Gary Hughes]

I just did this with a 6 camera shoot. Works great, but tricky to wrap your head around. Everything has to be done in the right order.

• Log one reel in it’s own folder (to keep things simple and organized.)
• Duplicate the folder and rename the folder. Don’t rename the clips yet.
• Batch capture the first folder.
• Go to the second folder and select all clips and make them master clips
• Then make them offline (leave footage on disc.)
• Rename all the clips and change the reel name. (TIP: change one of the reel names, then select all clips and right click on one of the reel names to choose the correct reel name from the list.)
• Duplicate that folder and rename it and repeat as neccessary from the 3rd item above.

Worked like a charm for me. If you do something out of order, like renaming a clip or changing the reel name before the other matching clip has been captured, it changes both. Having an actual file on the drive attached to the first clip somehow locks it which allows you to change the second, after you’ve made it a master clip and offline. Also, you’d think that since they’re in different folders, you wouldn’t have to rename the clips, but not true. The file name is derived from the clip name, therefore causing a descrepancy. I simply added C2, C3 and so on to the beginning of the clip names, which had an added bonus of allowing me to quickly see which camera any clip came from.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Chris, I have a question for you, or any Fotomagico or PanZoomPro user. I never use FCP to move around on a photo. Depending on my mood, I will use Motion, After Effects or usually Combustion. It’s easy with tons of power. If you have done this sort of thing and can comment from experience, would you still use Fotomagico or PanZoomPro for just the occasional single photo pan, push, or rotate, or would you stay with one of my apps. I’m asking specifically about doing a single (simple or complex) move on a single image, not a photomontage, which I’m sure is simpler in Fotomagico or PanZoomPro? I’m not looking for more power, I’m just asking if it’s a quicker process.

Also, can you set up many individual animations and then batch export them to QuickTime?

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

[Alexander] depends on many variables like compression that is used. For example, I can give you 2 bits of audio at 0dB- one heavily compressed and the other not. the compressed one can sound considerably louder- even though it’s at 0dB. In lay terms, we have ‘packed’ the headroom, squashed more signal in. The output will depend on if your player, speakers and ears can tolerate the compression that’s been packed into 0dB. It’s not correct to assume 0dB is all the same without considering all the variables.
As we all know, once digital clips it distorts

You may be thinking about this as RMS levels or similar to the way a human ear hears audio. When you talk about signal on a digital device, you MUST talk about PEAK not RMS. As I said before, it is possible for a negative RMS level to exceed 0dBfs. But 0dB peak, will always be 0dB peak, regardless of how much or little the audio is compressed. And as for compression, compression itself is distortion, simply because it changes the waveform. Too much of it certainly can sound like distortion. Again, I’m saying that if the signal is clean to begin with, and it doesn’t go above 0dBfs, it will still be clean on digital tape or a digital device. I’m certainly open to disussing dynamic range via compression and limiting, but you have to separate that from the “overdrive” discussion. They simply don’t have anything to do with each other. When you’re talking about peak level, peak is peak, 0 is 0, regardless of how loud it sounds.

Also, I’m not considering the player, speakers, and ears either, simply because this discussion is not about them, it’s about digital signal. You simply can’t record a clean signal that will distort a digital device because it is too close to 0dB. In order to have distortion on a digital tape, the distortion has to be there before the signal hits the tape (the bits are always undistorted). I’m not saying you can’t overdrive a digital device, they too have analog components, but I am saying that you absolutely can record all the way up to 0dB and it will always be distortion free.

[Alexander] not sure about that. 0dB is the standard, and when it goes to broadcast they all differ. For example the BBC put 0 dB and +6 PPL…. a good example of this is watching cable tv- the US will differ to the rest of the ‘normal’ world in volumes!

I will have to admit that I only work with US broadcast, so I’m just not aware of standards outside the US. I guess I should have mentioned that. However, the real point that I was making is that whatever the standard is, you should abide by it. The above discussion about what digital tape CAN handle was only to state that it for sure can, not that that’s what you should do. YOU SHOULDN’T! Use the standards.

[Alexander] Just about all audio programs allow you to normalise.

True, but to suggest that you must use it at a certain level is the same as saying you must use the “Broadcast Safe” filter that ships with FCP. It just isn’t true. If you’ve done your job and set the levels properly, then you don’t need to use it in the final output stage. That’s not to say that normalizing is always a bad thing. I use it myself, but not at that stage in the game.

[Alexander] There are also 2 audio standards commonly used (+4 and -10) for consumer and pro audio.

Those are not audio “standards”. That refers to the level of the signal that travels over ANALOG cable. It has nothing to do with “digital” and it has nothing to do with the levels that you set on the meters.

[Alexander] no, digital can distort. if you record onto it, certainly it will distort, if it’s a straight transfer of file then it won’t.”

Again, you’re confusing the analog circuitry on a digital deck with a digital signal. It is absolutely impossible to record a digital signal hotter than 0dBfs AND it is absolutely impossible for the “DIGITAL” signal to distort because it is simply bits of data. Certainly, if you overdrive the analog circuitry in a digital deck, you’ll get distortion, but again, it is going to be “ANALOG distortion that is converted to a clean digital signal. When played back, you’ll simply hear a very clean, undistorted and pure, digital recording of analog distortion, although, I’ve never seen a pro or even prosumer deck that will overdrive below 0dBfs, providing you are sending clean signal over the correct cable type and the input levels are set correctly, on the back, to either +4 or -10 respectively. And if you’re using firewire, it is a straight transfer, just like copying a file on a hard drive. Also, since the beginning of the CD player, all consumer level digital devices can handle ouputting signal up to 0dBfs without distortion as well.

Simply put, there are a lot of places in the digital workflow for distortion to be created, but it will never be because of the tape or storage medium itself. For 16 bit audio, 0dB is represented as 1111 1111 1111 1111. Since digital is either a 1 or a 0, anything other than all 1s would equal a signal less than 0dBfs which would also be clean. For distortion to digitally exist, it would have to be 1111 1111 1111 1112 or higher, and we all know that’s not going to happen.

And to bring this back home, the original post was not about a deck, or any type of device with analog circuitry, or even tape, it was about outputting to DVD. Take that audio level right up to 0dBfs for your maximum peak in your program and put it on the DVD, don’t leave headroom because it simply isn’t needed. And if you’re outputting to tape, use the broadcast standard for your country, and all will be good.

Going back to the A-Pak app for just a second, and again, I’ve never used it because I made the switch to FCP, just this year. I started with version 5. If you could set it to normalize to the maximum peak value, you could set it to 0 and know that you would be OK, but if it only looks at RMS, I wouldn’t use it at all. I’d use STPs normalize, like in my workflow that I posted earlier.

I hope this helps,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

You say, “something to the effect that the captured clips do not match the settings of my card/project.” There is a similar message when capturing 32k audio at 48k, and vice versa. You’re obviously setup for 48k sequence and 48k capture. Be sure your tapes are 48k as well. If so, I don’t know what your problem is. If not, create a 32k capture preset by duplicating the 48k factory preset and changing the sample rate in the copy to 32k. Use that while capturing 32k audio. You can still use the 32k audio on a 48k timeline.

You may never notice the problem with capturing the 32k at 48k. It only shows up as out of sync audio and only on longer captures because it starts out in sync and drifts out over time, so check the end of your clips for sync.

I get tape that is both 32k and 48k all the time and my deck (dsr-45) will show me which it is on the display, so I’ve just gotten used to checking that as soon as I put a tape in.

Gary

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

If that doesn’t work, go into the mac system prefs and go into the Blackmagic prefs and change the input and output, then put them back. I’ve had to do this on mine. It just resets the driver (I guess). If none of this works, there is a blackmagic forum here too. See if those guys can help.

Gary

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

[Arniepix] “More likely a bug! ;-)”

There was a bug in Photoshop 7, then there was a fix, then it became a feature. I never did the fix because the bug saved me some time. Basically, in Photoshop 7, if you didn’t update it for bug fixes, if you had transparancy in your image and saved it as a targa or tiff, it automatically saved the transparency to the file and it truly would be transparent in Combustion or After Effects. The updates “repaired” the bug which forced you to create an alpha channel. Now, you have a check box option to “Save Transparency” in the “Save As” dialogue.

dzul’s bug might be a feature in FCP 6. Who knows?

Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Check out Traffic from https://www.xmedit.com/. I don’t know for sure, but it looks like a very good candidate for what you want, and a lot more too.

Thanks,
Gary