I don't have time or interest in doing the actual final sound mix for an animated web series I'm creating, as I'm doing all the writing, art and animation already. I've already gotten a great voice actor to do the first episode/short which runs about 11 minutes and I know where all the sounds and effects and musical cues should go, I just need someone to mix all the .wav files correctly, make things sound like an actual environment. Obviously I can't afford to pay a bunch of people to do the different areas of the project but this is one section with sound where I've learned the final product needs to be done by a pro.
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How should I determine the rates for a sound engineer?
- Thread starter coalminds
- Start date
This is really a "how long is a piece of string" type question. At one extreme you could easily spend well over $20k for a top pro audio post team for an 11min short and at the other extreme you could hire a student, recent graduate or similar for a couple of hundred or so. Except in extremely unusual and specific circumstances, there would be little/no point in looking at the high-end extreme for a web series. There are no tricky/expensive technical specifications for web distribution as there are with TV or cinema sound, so it comes down mainly to aesthetics; what you're trying to achieve? On the one hand you don't want the sound to lower the quality/impact of all the visual aspects of your work and on the other hand you don't want to spend a fortune to get great sound if your visuals don't match (aren't great too).
For this reason, no one but you yourself can ultimately answer your question. Additionally, there is always the variable of the actual person/s you get to do the sound for you. Obviously some are better than others and the general rule of thumb is that you get what you pay for, although there are rare exceptions to this rule.
Have you got a scene or something from your short you can post a link to? This would allow me/others to give you an extremely rough, ball park budget range which could/would be appropriate.
G
For this reason, no one but you yourself can ultimately answer your question. Additionally, there is always the variable of the actual person/s you get to do the sound for you. Obviously some are better than others and the general rule of thumb is that you get what you pay for, although there are rare exceptions to this rule.
Have you got a scene or something from your short you can post a link to? This would allow me/others to give you an extremely rough, ball park budget range which could/would be appropriate.
G
I'll give you a way to figure a ball-park estimate.
At the low/no/mini/micro budget level it will take, approximately, between two (2) and ten (10) hours per linear minute to do the audio post work for narrative projects; for your 11 minute short that's between 22 and 110 hours of audio post work. Do you think that $25/hr is a fair wage? That's $550 to $2,750 for your project, plus expendables. This WILL NOT get you a surround mix or and broadcast standards compliance.
In the major media centers - NY, LA, ATL, etc. - hourly rates can be as high as $500/hr, or $11,000 to $55,000 to do the audio post of your project. You can add on to those figures if you want to mix at a full sized, calibrated, Dolby certified facility.
And there's the whole gamut in-between.
Why not just call/email/text/whatever a few places in your area and see what they're charging? You could PM APE or myself for an estimate as well.
At the low/no/mini/micro budget level it will take, approximately, between two (2) and ten (10) hours per linear minute to do the audio post work for narrative projects; for your 11 minute short that's between 22 and 110 hours of audio post work. Do you think that $25/hr is a fair wage? That's $550 to $2,750 for your project, plus expendables. This WILL NOT get you a surround mix or and broadcast standards compliance.
In the major media centers - NY, LA, ATL, etc. - hourly rates can be as high as $500/hr, or $11,000 to $55,000 to do the audio post of your project. You can add on to those figures if you want to mix at a full sized, calibrated, Dolby certified facility.
And there's the whole gamut in-between.
Why not just call/email/text/whatever a few places in your area and see what they're charging? You could PM APE or myself for an estimate as well.
It doesn't need Dolby certified facility or anything like that, I called several places in San Diego and most of them weren't sure what they would charge because they did not primarily do the type of work I needed. It's a web animation so I won't need the Dolby certified facility or any the other high end stuff.
That makes sense, here's a quick ten seconds of lo-res test footage that will give you an idea, there are a ton of sound elements that I need folded in, lots of ambient sound it's a horror comedy so I really need to find a person who understands both elements:
Test Footage 1
I'm doing previs stuff now and it would be great to find someone local to sit down with so if anyone has a recommended shop in San Diego let me know.
You mean that not one audio facility in the entire San Diego area could not give you an hourly rate quote? And not one has done any work with animation?
On a side note, your test footage there is actually pretty neat looking. However I went into your channel and found the "episode 1 test footage", which made me want to tell you 2 things
1) That flying thing is pretty cool and makes a really nice looking opening, however when it comes in to that green thing... the quality kinda drops to me. (I'd recommend putting some budgeting there as well.)
2) Your sounds on the episode one video is pretty bad. I hope you get an okay sound person ^_^ I'd watch this if the sound matched quality.
The ones I got in touch with were all more familiar with other things (most of them seem to have experience with commercials) but had not worked on the kind of animation I'm creating. If you're asking if I've called every single audio facility in the entire San Diego area then the answer to that is no that's why the quote you're responding to clearly said "i called several".
1) this character?
http://coalminds.com/animation/4k_goblintest_100_samples.jpg
HE's not finalized but I know what I'm doing and don't put final animation into previs/sample animations done purely for voice-over talent to use as reference
2) Yep, hate all sound related work, that's why I'm looking at hiring someone. It's definitely not my thing.
Indeed that character. And okay, I can understand that in a way... but since you made it public on Youtube it also has the chance of turning away potential viewers that don't know it's not a complete character.