Check out the latest news, tips, tricks for audio post-production professionals. We are the number one site for audio post-production professionals offering news, tips and tricks. Trusted by thousands of mixing, dubbing, and ADR professionals daily.
As we hit the second quarter 2024 the list of things to keep engineers interested kept on growing. With the whole gamut of mics, speakers, software, and hardware covered in this month’s offering, here we round up our favourite arrivals from April.
In this article, Paul Maunder explores a powerful feature of Pro Tools called Satellite Link which allows you to link multiple Pro Tools systems over an ethernet network. Paul explains the reasons why you would want to do this and demonstrates how to configure a Video Satellite.
Templates promise a streamlined workflow, consistency, and a reduction in mundane setup tasks. But could these conveniences be subtly undermining the very creativity they aim to support? In this article we consider the pros and cons of using templates for the creative professional.
Is dialog editing part or all of what you do? Either way, you need a suite of tools to help you manipulate the spoken word, whether it’s Film, TV or Radio. In this article Mike Thornton looks at which tools, both standalone software and plugins, he feels every dialog editor should have.
Any audio professional worth hiring is always going to try and do their best on a project, but how far is it possible to go from hired-help to collaborator? We explore this question.
The audio production market is flooded with software tools promising to revolutionise the creative process. The choices are vast, but so are the claims. The integrity of these marketing claims is more important than ever. We call out some of the more dubious claims and say why they matter.
Now in its second decade, Harrison’s Mixbus sets out to bring the American console manufacturer’s sound and workflow into the box. Here we give an overview of Mixbus 10 and its new features, get some user opinion, and some background from the people behind it.
Earlier this year, we considered how AI is changing audio post production, however the industry has actually been on a course of change for some time already, most notably in the job roles which many of us have to take on day to day. In this article, Paul Maunder explores the other factors which have driven this change.
Following on from various team members sharing their list of must-have plugins, in this article, Mike Thornton shares his top 7 plugins from his lifetime of working in broadcast audio and post production.
Why would you need Andrew Scheps’ Bounce Factory if you work in post? There are multiple possible answers to this, Paul Maunder considers some of them.
Damian Kearns from 217 Audio in Toronto in Canada reached out offering to share his 5.1 with stereo fold down Pro Tools template, that you can download for free.
Avid has released Pro Tools 2021.12. This release is largely a bug fix release with one new feature, which adds support for Avid’s own Artist I/O range of video hardware units. We have all the details.
Back in November 2018 Avid bundled Falcon from UVI with all versions of Pro Tools. Today we can announce that Pro Tools users will find the latest version of UVI Falcon for Pro Tools. We have the details…
In this article, we identify a selection of new features, which we would like to see in a future version of Pro Tools for both music production and audio post-production applications.
We first asked this question in 2016, then again in 2018 and now in 2021. In this article, we compare the results from the three polls and see how the profile of Pro Tools users has changed over the last five years.
The AAF and OMF were designed to be an ‘open’ format to enable the trouble-free transfer. However, as with so many things, it’s not as simple as that. In this article, we explore the challenges of transferring from an NLE to Pro Tools.
In this article we explain Pro Tools’ Field Recorder Workflows. What they are, how they work and how to use them. Read our in-depth guide and watch the free video tutorial.
So far we have looked at producing Pro Tools friendly AAFs from Avid’s Media Composer and Adobe’s Premiere Pro. In this article, we explain how to export a Pro Tools friendly AAF from DaVinci Resolve.
We have had a number of queries about the inner working of the Session I/O Setup window, as it's a part of Pro Tools so few of us ever visit, when we do, it can be confusing because Avid has made improvements since we last used it. To help reduce the fear of the I/O Setup window, Pro Tools guru Mike Thornton explains everything you need to know about the Pro Tools I/O Setup window.
In this article, we explain how to export a Pro Tools friendly AAF from Adobe Premiere Pro. Although the basic process is relatively simple, there are some complications if the video editor has used nested clips and sequences, merged clips or you need to get the metadata from the files into Pro Tools to use with the Field Recorder Workflow.
Later this month, Avid will be releasing a new version of Pro Tools that unlocks their HDX cards so that they can be used in full conjunction with the host computer’s CPUs. In this article post-production and Dolby Atmos specialist Jamey Scott explains how the upcoming new HDX Hybrid engine will revolutionise his workflow.
In this article post-production specialist Damian Kearns shared his advice on the best way to expert a Pro Tools friendly AAF from Avid Media Composer. If you have ever had issues with AAFs from video editors, then you will want to share this with them.
You may be wondering what changes have happened in Pro Tools in the last decade, there’s been quite a lot. However it’s worth noting that 2011 was a big year for changes in the world of Pro Tools, read on to find out more.
Cueing and recording ADR is an essential part of film and narrative television production. ADR sessions are expensive to run, so going into one as organised as possible makes a huge difference. In this article, Korey Pereira shows a great free app from Pete Gates that helps to create the necessary ADR cuesheets, required for a smooth-running ADR session.
In this article, Damian Kearns helps you wrap your mind around Preference settings in Pro Tools by explaining how he uses them in his audio post-production workflow, by focussing on 5 key Preference tabs in the Pro Tools Preferences window.
When there isn’t a budget to hire out help, where do you start? Composer Walter Everton walks through his experience working on low budget Indie post-production projects. Being at the start of his career, he hasn’t had the fortune of finding the projects with really any budgets, but what he has found are dedicated and passionate people who want to create. In this article Walter shares how he has dealt with the process.
There is a lot of confusion about the difference between conforming and re-conforming in audio post-production. Community member Toby Campen got in touch and asked us to look at the thorny issue of conforming and re-conforming sessions in Pro Tools. In this article, we set out to answer the question “What Is Re-Conforming?” We look at the 4 major tools for re-conforming and our Expert Panel, tell us which one they prefer.
Composing in Pro Tools, what is it like? In this article, composer Walter Everton, shares some of his tips and tricks he has found out the hard way. It includes a detailed look at his own template, and why he thinks you should build your own template.
In this article, we answer the question, what is conforming, which is sometimes called assembly, as well as covering what tools are available to help in the conforming process, EdiLoad from Sounds In Sync, Titan from Synchro Arts and Kraken Dialog Editors Toolkit.
Picture Cut Tracks are an excellent tool in audio post-production to help show scene boundaries. When used effectively, cut tracks speed up and greatly improve the accuracy of editing. They also come in very handy during the premix and mix stages. In this article, we will show how to use three different software re-conforming tools to create a picture cut track: Virtual Katy, EdiLoad and Matchbox.
Avid has announced Pro Tools | Sync X to replace the Sync HD unit. The Sync X has been designed to be part of the backbone of any audio post or large music production studio, providing reliable low-jitter clocking, near sample-accurate lock, and precision frame edge alignment. But why? We explain…
Need to convert incoming video files to DNxHD to use in Pro Tools? With the like of QuickTime 7 and MPEG Streamclip closed to us, we still need to be able to convert video files into Avid DNxHD. We undertook some research to see what cost-effective solutions are out there. In this article, we will share 7 ways you can convert videos files to DNxHD.
In this article, Korey brings us up to date with his current Virtual Reality workflow. Find out what has stayed and what he does differently 3 and a half years on.
In the next of our series of Expert Panel articles, we are going to answer a question from a community member and take a look at the use of reverb in drama production, whether that be TV or Film drama asking “How do you use reverb? What plugins do you use and how?”
Did you know you can set up favourites for AudioSuite plugins in a similar way as you can AAX plugins? Here’s how to do it.
The Kraken Dialogue Editor’s Toolkit has quickly become an essential tool for many Dialogue Editors. The Mac OS application works in step with Pro Tools, offering enhancements to workflows and solutions to problems that Dialogue Editors encounter regularly. In this article expert dialog editor Chris Roberts will show you what it can do, and why this monster has become such a powerful ally…..
The release of EdiMarker V2 means that all the tools from Sounds In Sync are now 64-bit applications and so are now compatible with macOS Catalina. It should also mean that support for macOS Big Sur should be a little quicker in coming. In this article we have the details of all the new features add to EdiMarker in version 2.
In this extended free Pro Tools video tutorial, Paul Maunder goes through his process of compressing and EQ'ing post-production dialogue using Pro Tools. The methods he shows in this tutorial are his own approach to this, so take what you find useful from it and adapt it to fit into your own workflow.
Over the years the security requirements for post houses around the world have increased to a point where most small and even some medium-sized facilities find that the hoops they have to jump through are too high and too costly. But then COVID happened and suddenly it seemed like all of the security requirements went by the wayside in the scramble to get people working from home. In this article, Reid Caulfield, founder of Central Post L.A. and Westmount Digital in Los Angeles explains the history and the background of the changes to the content and data security from the perspective of being a Hollywood based facility. Prepare to be surprised at what Reid uncovers.
Damian Kearns from 217 Audio in Toronto in Canada reached out offering to share his 5.1 with stereo fold down Pro Tools template, that you can download for free.
In this extended video tutorial Avid Product Specialists Simon Sherbourne and Daniel Lovell give an update on audio post-production workflows, focusing on Pro Tools, EUCON, and present an overview of Pro Tools Sync X to provide a greater understanding of its new features and expansion from SYNC HD.
Composing in Pro Tools, what is it like? In this article, composer Walter Everton, shares some of his tips and tricks he has found out the hard way. It includes a detailed look at his own template, and why he thinks you should build your own template.
In this extended free Pro Tools video tutorial, Paul Maunder goes through his process of compressing and EQ'ing post-production dialogue using Pro Tools. The methods he shows in this tutorial are his own approach to this, so take what you find useful from it and adapt it to fit into your own workflow.
In the first of a series of articles aimed at music mixers who are learning about post production we examine what EQ can and just as importantly cannot do.
In a world exclusive, Post Production Expert Alan Sallabank, who has been beta testing the new Avid S1 control surface, together with the new Avid Control app, now available on iOS, Android and Amazon Fire, from prototype to production pilot, shares his experiences and observations in this very special review.
Post Production Specialist and long term Windows advocate Alan Sallabank explains why he has decided to ditch his Hackintosh and has bought a refurbished Mac Pro 6.1.
As a freelancer, as we travel around, the facility’s setups will vary, and even though Pro Tools is likely to be a constant, the way the DAW is configured may vary. In this article, I am going to share which Pro Tools settings I check when I start a new job in a new facility to hopefully help you not hit a brick wall. Some of these settings will interrupt your workflow significantly if ticked/unticked. Others will simply slow you down and stress you out if you don't know what option changes what! Some will even make you have to re-do hours of work.
If you work as an audio editor or mixer on projects that has been through a video edit, how many times have you been frustrated by what OMF, AFF and video files you have been sent from the video editor. In this article we share our recommendations as to what a video editor can do to make life easier for sound editors and mixers.
If you have been following Roger’s excellent mix-to-pix series helping music mixers make the transition to audio post-production or you are fresh out of college and looking to put together your first post setup together then this article is for you.
Are you new to working in surround sound? Then check out this video that I have aimed at those who are already familiar with Pro Tools but who may be new to working in surround sound. In this free video tutorial, we take a look at the basic concepts and workflows for working in surround in Pro Tools Ultimate.
Todd Grace is a re-recording mixer at Warner Bros. Studios, who posted this interesting request on the DUC recently asking "Why isn't everyone in the post community making noise about the lack of Routing and Pre/Post fader switch automation in Pro Tools. Even though the majority of people posting to the thread on the DUC were in favour the poll results didn't reflect that. Why?
Here is another tutorial from Oscar nominated Marcelo Cryo. In this tutorial Marcelo takes a look at how to use reverb to treat dialog tracks to give them more life and help to make them believable.
Have you ever wondered how in the days of tape, long before DAW’s, audio engineers could do seemingly simple things like reliably locate specific points in a song? Or even automate an entire mix? How about spotting a sound effect in post-production and working on a film set to get accurate synchronisation of location audio?
This article contains a selection of video tutorials that cover Post Production Loudness in Pro Tools - The Loudness Handbook.
These tutorials are arranged in order of workflow.
Pro Tools HD provides a feature called Satellite Link. This allows up to 12 Pro Tools HD systems to be connected up over ethernet, allowing them all to run in perfect sync. Functions such as solos, play selections and transport commands will be linked, creating an expanded system which will cover the needs of even the biggest projects.
I recently completed what was perhaps the most time consuming and technically challenging project of my career to date. The task was to create a number of videos for a large UK retailer, which would be shown at their annual conference The event was to take place at a major London cinema and would be comprised mainly of video content, all of which was shot in 4K and needed to be mixed in 5.1.
From the myriad of social media posts we are seeing, we can tell that the Post Production community are really excited by the new features announced in Pro Tools 12.6. In this article, Alan Sallabank discusses why Backwards Compatibility is so important, particularly with the new Clip Effects feature coming in Pro Tools 12.6.
Marcelo demonstrates the use of the Doppler effect from GRM Tools in film sound in Chatô, o rei do Brazil which was awarded Best Sound from ABC cinematography for 2016. Over to you Marcelo...
We have been featuring tips in audio post production in Pro Tools from Marcelo Cyro from the Oscar nominated animation - The Boy And The World. In this article Marcelo is demonstrating the use of time based effects in film sound in a live action film Chatô, The King of Brazil to put the viewer inside the scene.
In this free tutorial video, I run through the process of creating ADR beeps in Pro Tools using nothing but keyboard shortcuts. Even if you don't work in audio post production, the shortcuts featured here are very useful in other Pro Tools workflows and can help to greatly speed up workflows and productivity.
French: Frédéric Dubois (Taken 2, Transporteur 2, Igor, Revolver...) nous emmène à la découverte de son métier : chef monteur son. Découvrez l'ampleur du travail à réaliser sur un film d'action à gros budget et bénéficiez même de ses conseils et astuces pour améliorer vos propres bandes sons. Découvrez également pourquoi Frédéric a choisi d'upgrader son système en Pro Tools HDX, avec le logiciel Pro Tools HD.
English (subtitles): Experience the sound editing work on some of the biggest action blockbusters (Taken 2, Transporter 2, Igor, The Return...) with Frédéric Dubois. In this French video with English subtitles, Frédéric takes us through his work as a Supervising Sound Editor. Find out about the enormous amount of work that a big budget action movies entails, and get some exclusive tips and tricks to improve your own soundtracks. Discover also why Frédéric uses a Pro Tools HDX setup to carry out his work.
Learn more about Pro Tools HD: http://www.avid.com/US/products/famil...
Is dialog editing part or all of what you do? Either way, you need a suite of tools to help you manipulate the spoken word, whether it’s Film, TV or Radio. In this article Mike Thornton looks at which tools, both standalone software and plugins, he feels every dialog editor should have.
Following on from various team members sharing their list of must-have plugins, in this article, Mike Thornton shares his top 7 plugins from his lifetime of working in broadcast audio and post production.
We take a deep dive into how artificial intelligence is changing the audio post-production sector. How text-to-speech and speech-to-text are impacting post-production, how generative AI impacts sound effects creation, how stem creation from mixed tracks is coming of age and a look at what’s next for AI in audio post-production.
If you are a current Pro Tools subscriber or a perpetual license holder with a current upgrade and support plan and work in post then check out this article in which we see which Plugin Alliance plugins might be most helpful from a post-production perspective.
We came across this free library of impulse responses collected across a range of heritage spaces at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, UK. If you need to recreate spaces in your sound design or audio post-production work, do check these out.
Want a career in audio post production? In this article, post production engineer Paul Maunder shares his advice about the technical and non-technical skills that will help you to get a head start in the industry.
At Skywalker Ranch, the world-class team of sound artists from Skywalker Sound create the world’s most recognisable sounds for films like the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. In this article, we get a rare insight as they share their creative process, including the origins of R2-D2’s voice, and their journey to building a vast sound effects library.
As a result of workflow changes brought about by the pandemic, Howard Bargroff had to change to an online model of mixing and delivering audio and look at delivering a number of solutions very quickly including producing all the deliverables. Would it have been easier if Pro Tools had a Deliverables page?
In this week’s podcast, Mike is joined by Garrard Whatley and Howard Bargroff to discuss the changes we see in post production, both those caused by COVID and those caused by technology and other trends in the industry.
In this article Reid Caulfield explores Dolby® Stereo. The format which opened up the world to surround formats. You may work in 5.1 or Dolby Atmos, Dolby Stereo is where it all started!
In this week’s podcast, Mike is joined by Reid Caulfield and Kevin Dallas to discuss what the future might hold for post production sound.
How do you know which EQ and compressor to choose for audio post-production? Is It different to choosing plugins for music production? In this, article Ufuk Onen looks at answering these questions.
Have you ever wondered what happens once you have delivered your mix to the broadcaster or OTT publisher? Do you know? Should you care? In this article, Damian Kearns asks Michael Nunan, Senior Manager for Broadcast Audio and Post Production Operations at Bell Media to explain what happens next and why we should care.
In this article, our Expert Panel give their wisdom on how best to get started in the audio post-production industry and to make sure the next generation don’t miss out on the advice they wished they had been given. Read, listen and follow their wisdom….
One of the biggest issues in post-production sound, and truthfully any kind of audio work, is actually not anything to do with the sound itself; it's the communication between creatives. In this article, Alex Knickerbocker clears up a few potential communication issues by going over five terms that are integral to the workflows in sound for picture.
In this article, we will present a guide to audio post-production covering topics like pre-production, the various job roles, session preparation, dialogue editing, sound effects, sound design, foley, reconforming and mixing.
Back in the days of TDM plugins, there was a dependence on Waves DSP plugins in Pro Tools. Once the post-production community realised that Waves were not going to support AAX DSP plugins, people started to look for alternatives. In this article, we look at some examples of Waves plugins that the post community cannot do without, as well as examples we have found alternatives for.
In this edition of The Production Expert Podcast Mike Thornton, Reid Caulfield and Emma Butt look at all things dialogue for both factual and drama audio post-production, including the way we lay out sessions, the use of colour, how we handle processing and matching different takes.
In this article, Graham Kirkman looks at Oeksound’s Spiff is for banishing clicks and lip smacks from dialogs and VO’s in Audio Post-Production and sound design of pulsating, palpitating, staggery FX.
In this Post Production Podcast special Mike Thornton, Emma Butt and Alan Sallabank discuss whether problems with remote working are because because of remote working itself or because of remote working being done badly. Can it work in post production?
Air from Sound Particles is a plugin which recreates the effect of sound travelling through air, the progressive low pass effect of sounds happening at a distance is something we’re extremely used to so it has to be right to be convincing. Sound Particles has just announced that for the first time you can get now Air as a plugin on its own.
In this week’s podcast, Mike, Alan and Emma discuss their experiences of working in post-production during COVID. How have things changed? To what extent have remote working practices replaced face to face interactions and when people are actually in the same building, how is safety maintained?
In this article, iZotope contributor Nick Messitte demonstrates how Neutron can be an excellent companion during the post-production process when mixing sound for film, television, and other viewable media. The tools in Neutron are designed so that they can be transparent in timbre, which is perfect for post-production.
We came across an excellent article written by Karol Urban CAS MPSE, who is a is a re-recording mixer for television and feature films as well as President of the Cinema Audio Society, describing how re-recording mixers are rising to the challenges of continuing to mix projects through the COVID-19 lockdown. Karol has given her permission for us to publish her article here, to give people who are not members of the Cinema Audio Society, a chance to read it. Karol starts with her own experiences before asking several other re-recording mixers to share their experiences.
At last, here it is, the 2nd instalment of my studio monitor speaker shootout. Last year I built an audio post-production sound studio in my garden, which was a lot bigger than our spare bedroom, and my Genelec 8010s just weren't going to cut it. I left you on a cliffhanger waiting to find out how they sounded in my studio and which pair I finally chose for my new studio. So now we have completed the ‘previously on’, let’s get on and see how they sounded.
At last, here it is, my studio monitor speaker shootout. For those of you who don't follow me on any of my social media channels, I will fill you in. Last year I built an audio post-production sound studio in my garden. Long story short, I posted on LinkedIn and Twitter asking my connections and followers what speakers I should try out on loan and I was really surprised at the huge a response I got! This is the story of how I whittled the list down to one pair of speakers…
Neil Hillman talks about the perils of ignoring sound when budgeting for TV and movies.
Post Production Expert Alan Sallabank takes us on a history tour of three decades of post-production mixing, to explain why he’s chosen the Avid S1 as his Product Of The Year 2019
In the Production Expert podcast Mike, Alan and Emma present the second of our Post Production specials. Among other things, they discuss whether or not stems should be dipped and whether feature-length content is best tackled in reels or full-length super-sessions?
Anyone who has worked on ADR, short for Automatic Dialog Replacement, will know that there is nothing automatic about it. Most of the time ADR is about the skill of the actor, directors and audio tem to get a good take that will match the picture. There are tools that help like VocaLign and Revoice Pro from Synchro Arts but what if you could change the video to get sync rather than the audio. Check this out…
Contributions to our post-production content comes from those working in film and TV around the world. Between them they have worked on some of the biggest films and TV shows, garnering awards. You can trust our contributors because they are practitioners, many at the top of their game.
PSP Audioware has introduced a new tool, PSP Flow, designed to elevate the quality of compression in sound engineering, especially tailored for film and TV/video post-production. Rooted in the innovative work of Italian sound engineer Paolo Pasquariello, PSP Flow incorporates a unique single-band probability compression algorithm that ensures both musical and smooth processing across diverse tracks and groups.