[Neil Redman]

Hi,
they appear to be two different calibration tools for the Dreamcolor and for the lack of finding a more suitable forum I posted a question about them in the Flanders Scientific forum. I was hoping maybe someone here knows about the differences between them and is able to help me out.

The link to the original post is https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/286/460

Thanks to anyone who might have some insight!

[Neil Redman]

[bart stevens] “It didn’t seem to be referencing the correct color at the specific time, and if my frame exceeded (9), (10 and above) my color went black.”

Hey, I believe you might have been using frame numbers instead of seconds in your expression.

valueAtTime(x) uses seconds and not frames. So valueAtTime(1) would refer to the value at 1 second in your timeline (in a 25fps timeline it would refer to the value at frame 25)

When you want to refer to say the second frame in your timeline you could write it either as:
valueAtTime(2/fps) e.g. for a 25fps timeline that would be valueAtTime (2/25)
or you could write it as
valueAtTime(framesToTime(2))

Cheers,
Neil

[Neil Redman]

You can use valueAtTime to sample a value at a specific time:

LAYER = the layer that contains the fill effect
x = the time in seconds at which you want to sample the colorvalue

LAYER.effect(“Fill”)(“Color”).valueAtTime(x)

If you want the values for x to be random use:
a = smallest possible time in seconds
b = largest possible time in seconds
x = random(a,b)

[Neil Redman]

Hey, thanks for the link, I already found that document and had found out a way how to do it. The main idea behind it was to have a function call itself. It is similar to what they do on page 45 of the document when they are expanding all the nodes in a treeview. I pushed all the elements to an array and then simply searched the array.
To search the array I used indexOf which is by default not enabled in After Effects Scripting because it uses an older JavaScript version. On this site (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/indexOf) they give you some code, that you can add to your script to enable the indexOf method of arrays.
This is the code I used to push the treeview items to the array:
(Tree is the name of my Treeview and names the array)

function Names() {
names=[];
for (var i = 0; i < Tree.items.length; i++)
{names.push(Tree.items[i].text)}
for (var i = 0; i < Tree.children.length; i++)
{getNames (Tree.children[i]);}

function getNames (node) {
var kids = node.items;
try{
for (var i = 0; i < kids.length; i++){
names.push(kids[i].text)
if (kids[i].type == “node”) getNames (kids[i])};
}
catch(err){}
}

I had to add “try” and “catch” to the code, because it appears to produce errors when they are no items left. Hope this helps 😉

[Neil Redman]

Well there are some motherboards out there that do thunderbolt on a pc:

https://www.engadget.com/2012/05/21/asus-and-msi-launch-thunderbolt-motherboards/
https://hothardware.com/News/GIGABYTE-Reveals-Dual-Port-Thunderbolt-Motherboards/

So I don’t really see why it would only work on a Mac since it really is the same technology. The only thing that might be needed should be some special drivers and that shouldn’t be so hard to do (thats just my layman’s opinion though).

Of course it says for Mac on their website. But as you said thunderbolt isn’t widely used yet on PC’s, and I believe by the time the T-Tap was announced there weren’t any thunderbolt motherboards around yet for PC so the “for Mac” might be a marketing thing. Kind of like you can buy some hard drives that say specifically they are for Mac but if you reformat them they might just as well be used on a PC.

[Neil Redman]

Thanks a lot I’ll keep those things in mind, when setting up my new room!

[Neil Redman]

First of all thanks to everyone who has answered. Lots of great information and I will check out all of your speaker recommendations.

[Ty Ford] “Do you have the right space in which to deploy surround monitors?”

I am actually planning on moving pretty soon and I will have a look for a place where I can set up a room just for film editing and audio mixing. Do you have any tips about what characteristics a good mixing room should have and what (minimum) size would be appropriate?

[Sareesh Sudhakaran] “Investing in CS6 on PC is a great idea for 2012 if you’re a filmmaker. “

Thats what I did with the creative cloud, I’ll be running an all Adobe Workflow: Premiere, AFX, Audition, SpeedGrade, Photoshop.

[Neil Redman]

So I will have a look for a couple of good monitors that are also offered with a subwoofer, so that sometime in the future I could upgrade to a surround setup if I want to.

Just out of curiosity and not regarding my setup: What would be a typical setup that is used for a feature film, lets say a big budget Hollywood movie? Would they mix their stuff on a (really expensive I assume) 5.1 or 7.1 setup?
And what would a top notch music producer use? Would they have an extra sub or just two high quality monitors?

Thanks for taking your time it will narrow down my choices at least a little bit when I will force my way through the studio monitor jungle… 😉

[Neil Redman]

Hey thanks you just cleared something up to me and caused some new confusion at the same time 😉

I just realised that the 5.1 monitoring solutions I was looking at, were basically just 5 studio monitors that were sold as stereo pairs as well, so I guess that could have already answered my question more or less. Prior to this, I always thought that you wouldn’t need a subwoofer when you are using studio monitors so that raises a few new question for me now. When you are mixing sound for video (or anything really for that matter) wouldn’t you always want/need an additional subwoofer for a proper mix? I was under the impression that almost all mixing is done just using 2 studio monitors. I can see the reason from a budget point of view but wouldn’t a professional always want a subwoofer?

About correlated crossover frequency: So basically that means that not all subwoofers are designed to give an optimal result with all monitors and there are designs that are specifically for a certain monitor?

(Oh and by the way thanks for the warning but I wouldn’t consider buying some cheap computer speakers. Funny that you mention Altec though, as I still have an old 5.1 set laying around here somewhere that came with an all-in-one computer before I was getting more serious about Audio/Video 😉 )

[Neil Redman]

Thank you, I will try that!