[Jade Whitmire]

Yes I’m definitely in a spot that feels like way more than I can chew. I’m not trying to kid myself, it’s just that I’m torn between spending the money on a sound mixer since this is such a low-budget doc rather than a fictional story with the need for true immersion for the audience.. but investing in a good mixing would likely be something that I will not regret at any point down the line. I will likely end up taking it to a professional at the end of the audio editing that I try to do myself.

Should I just aim to lay down all the audio tracks that I have (in an organized way) and pan them and try to make them flow with each other (the dialogue being able to understand, even with music playing for example) and then take what I have accomplished to a mixer that can apply the correct effects/compression and create the final mix?

Also can I send the audio to Soundtrack Pro and try and make the levels what I feel they should be (dialogue ranging from -16 to -10 for example) and then send what I accomplish back to Final Cut Pro, without worrying that this could affect the OMF file that the specialist would likely need for editing in Pro Tools?

In other words, can I do this: Edit Sound in FCP -> Soundtrack Pro -> FCP -> Pro Tools…?