sound workflow

[gpforet001]

Can someone describe to me their sound workflow?

I'm a newbie location sound guy wanting to work in post sound editing and do not have a clear understanding of the workflow from editor to sound editor and back again.

Recently, I found that the editor had made a cut and I required the sound of a previous scene for a continuity transition.

So, is there a way to perform non-distructive editing with both sound and video, on two different machines, and then be able to render a final output containing both editor's work?

I have editors who work with both FCP and Avid, and I work with Sonar Producer (but have no problem working with a different tool is that would make things easier).

Is this typically done collaberatively in the same room?

 

[Alcove Audio]

99.99% of the time sound and picture are edited and processed by different teams at different locations. Most sound editing is done in Pro Tools, although other DAWs are used at the low/no budget indie level.

At the indie level the sound editor(s) is usually given the final locked picture. The reason for this is to avoid the cost of conforming the sound edit to the new picture edit. There are a number of "auto conform" softwares, but they are wildly variable in their accuracy and most indie editors do not keep proper EDLs, in which case the conform must be done manually.

At the "Hollywood" level sound and picture are edited at the same time, but there is a very large audio team with many roles - Supervising sound editor, sound designer, dialog editor, ADR mixer, ADR editor, Foley mixer, Foley editor, Foley artist, sound FX mixer, sound FX recordist, sound FX editor, music editor, rerecording mixer. The audio post team is given pieces (scenes) of the film as they are edited; this is due more to time constraints more than anything else. Due to the sophistication of the NLEs & DAWs and the experience of the editors the auto conform programs tend to work much better. The work from each sound team (dx, fy, sfx, etc.) is frequently (re)assembled into the master timeline and pre-mixed so the director, supervising sound editor and those pesky producers can listen to the soundtrack in progress almost at will.

All "one-man-band" sound designers have their own work flow. Mine is:

Receive the .dv stream of the locked picture & the OMF and upload into Pro Tools. Budget/time permitting I also get the audio from the unused takes plus whatever wilds may have been recorded.

Check the sync and look for any other problems.

Edit the production sound. During this process I create my Foley and sound FX cue lists. It also allows me to become familiar with the story and the characters.

Do the ambiences; this is because most of the time the production sound is so poor that I have to use ambiences to cover up noisy production sound.

Do the Foley.

Do the sound FX.

Spot the score and source music.

Mix.

 

[gpforet001]

Thanks, this is what I was looking for.

I've been a Sonar user since way back when it was Cakewalk, and because I use it for other applications besides sound for film, I'm very confortable in the environment.

After completing your work, do you then send back a 2 track master to be re-rendered with the source video, or do you do the final rendering yourself?

 

[Alcove Audio]

Unless I am sending the entire session to a rerecording mixer they get a stereo 16bit/48kHz mix, usually AIF, but sometimes WAV or BWAV. I have absolutely nothing to do with the video side of the project - "It's not my job, man."

 

[gpforet]

Perfect....thanks again.