[Jeff Friah]

That’s what I meant, John. (current phase-out)
This is my 16th year at it, so have been aware of the trends.

Thanks.
Jeff

p.s. Hey, how is the ‘working with audio’ functionality in AVID these days? ie: tracks, level mixing, plugins, etc.

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

I’m aware of the changing technologies, John. Thanks for the forewarning but, again: 3 productions in 10 years cut on AVID doesn’t make us go out and upgrade ‘just yet’.

We are just starting post on an anthology of 13 short films by various filmmakers and editors and it was put together in one 23.98 Final Cut timeline and delivered in two OMFs.

No problems.

But I appreciate the information with regard to the AVID ins and outs, especially since they and Digidesign are now one (a scary thought for me, personally). It is a system I have had absolutely no face time with so I need to rely on input and information from those that are familiar with it.

Thanks again.
Jeff

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

Correct. We’re running Pro Tools software that WORKS.

🙂

Yes I’m aware of the 2GB OMF limitation.

And it isn’t that we’re afraid of change, it is that we’ve had AVID cuts on maybe three total productions in 10 years —very Final Cut-oriented local market. So to upgrade systems / software, etc. No…doesn’t make “cents”, plus our delivery requirements say OMF.

😉

Thanks, folks! Keep on cuttin’!

Jeff

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

Yes, yes it is!
(and being a Pro Tools audio-editing software user, I’m struggling to have my brain adapt to how to maneuver around in video editing land)

Thanks for the input and welcome.
-Jeff

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

Got it—sorry for the newbie ‘help me!’ email. AutoSave vault—just didn’t know where to find such information. Now I’m a veteran user; been through a crash and back up and running again. Onward and upward.

I’m sure I’ll see you again!
-Jeff

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

That’s funny… only going to 105dB. What good is that in our industry?!?!? Hahaha.

I once claimed “no way, it can’t possibly…” to the Shazam app, which identifies songs playing. Then tried it myself one day. It was in Dec on the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. The radio had a Beatles tune (can’t recall which one now) and the app came back with……. an Alice Cooper tune. That was my first experience. FAIL!

Then it did 4 songs correctly, back-to-back. So it is kinda neat.

Other than that, don’t currently have any other audio apps on.

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

There’s no hard ‘n’ fast rule for the sequence of what you do to a piece of DIA (or any other sound). EQ first, compress first, de-ess first, etc. There are some things that tend to work better ( I de-ess my DIA last, after my compression and EQ correction/boosts in the top end for example–no sense de-essing first and then boosting those same freq’s).

Go with what sounds best to you (and your clients).

I’ve been bitten more than once by reverbs and the low/hi freq tailoring, often having to re-eq a piece of DIA after the verb gets it.

Just depends…

yeah keep in touch when you have something for us to listen to!

-J

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

Congrats (on finding some words of assistance in all that you’ve read)!

As for your process—not too familiar with Soundtrack (though I hear the Match EQ is a nice feature) but what you’ve described ‘could’ work (because you have to trust your own ears and those changes may work up against what you have, but not in other scenes/locations, for example).

If it is better—congrats!

If you had a server or webspace (or youtube…if you think it is ‘ok’ for ‘public consumption’ until you take it down), you could use something like FileZilla to post to.

Or bounce out a short video clip in stereo and create an mp4 (too technical?).

I’d be curious to hear your before and after, for sure.

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

Yes, I forgot to mention that…as we were talking about the ‘sound quality’. Doc is ‘the man’!!! Alt-takes from within production sound and ADR takes are a great thing to have in your back pocket (if you have access—just did a project where all I had access to were the offline/picture edit tracks, and what the DIA editor had in place [usually the same unless he/she has changed it]—clients were asking for different reads and I didn’t have ’em.).

Vocalign is a great tool—use it all the time!

As always: it is a TOOL. Sometimes tools work. Sometimes they don’t. I’ve had to carve up entire lines, timestretch/compress, change pitch, insert a word of ADR, a word from an ALT-take…all in a day’s work. (well…all in about 20 minutes’ work).

“Sounds good!….I think?”

[Jeff Friah]

Answering an older post but what the heck:

Is it weird… ? YES! Haha… But seriously: part of the job and glad to meet someone that loves it. We all have our niches.

I’ve always waffled / been 50-50 on diversity vs. specialization. I came from an audio shop that had large-scale specialization and I did the same thing every day for 3 years with no room to move. Just the way it was. Then moved to a smaller facility where we all had to be capable of doing everything and now almost 10 years later, I’m happy to say I HAVE done it all, have my areas I like/I’m better at through natural course/preference and those that I do because I have to in order to provide a service.

So I think it depends on the size of your environment / union rules, etc. Enjoy being ABLE to do many different things. It may change where you decide or ‘have to’ go into mainly one area. I always say to students/those starting out: get as much experience as you can in as many areas as you can on lower/no budget projects so you can (maybe) screw it up there and live to see another day and learn from what happened. Then you may end up getting better and better and quicker and quicker and find it easier and easier at mainly one thing. If that happens, accept it and love it! (and collect money for it!)

All the best.
-J

“Sounds good!….I think?”