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How do I organize an audio editing project

Hello everyone,

I am doing the post-production of a short film,

I have finished all the video editing, and I was trying to do the audio editing, but I am having problems setting up the project,

I saw online that I should make one track for every different camera/mic setup, now my question is, usually do you manage the whole process in a single timeline or do you first do every single scene alone and then bring everything together at the end?

I am asking it because I am setting up this project and I think I made some mistakes cause I will have something like 30 audio tracks.

Thanks a lot for reading, and for your help.
 
It is not unusual for a "Hollywood" budget project to have over 1,000 audio tracks. Quite obviously, you'll have great difficulty managing all those tracks and hundreds of thousands of sound bites if you don't do a lot of preparation.

The "process" is to break down the project into manageable chunks. So, yes, you will need a very large number of tracks when doing the DX edit, just as you described. For DX editing I do it scene by scene and each character will get as many tracks for each audio perspective as required. Once the client and I are satisfied with the DX edit I will do a pre-mix, usually only one or two tracks for each character. These pre-mixes will eventually be pulled into my master project file. This will apply to the other layers - Foley and sound effects.

A "master" file will look something like this:

DX (Dialog) Sub-Mix

Amy DX1
Amy DX2
Bill DX1
Bill DX2
Chris DX1
Chris DX2

Sub-Mix

Amy FSteps
Amy Cloth
Amy Props
Amy Other
Bill FSteps
Bill Cloth
Bill Props
Bill Other
Chris FSteps
Chris Cloth
Chris Props
Chris Other

Sound Effects Sub-Mix

SFX1
SFX2
SFX3
SFX4
SFX5
SFX6

Ambience Sub-Mix

Ambi1
Ambi2
Ambi3
Ambi4

Music Sub-Mix

Score1
Score2
Score3
Source1
Source2
Source3


--------------------

I would suggest that you read:

Dialog Editing for Motion Pictures - John Purcell
The Foley Grail - Vanessa Ament
The Sound Effects Bible - Ric Viers
Sound Design - David Sonnenschien
Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound - David Yewdall

There are many more excellent books, as well as YT vids, but this is a good place to start.


Good Luck!
 
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