In this article, ADR specialist Emma Butt offers an expert tutorial and review and shows how to use ADR Master from Non Lethal Applications. If you are involved in ADR, Overdubbing or Dialogue Editing this article in a ‘must-read’. Over to you Emma…

About a year and a half ago Mike Thornton introduced me to Flo Loferer of Non-Lethal Applications and his brilliant piece of software “ADR Master”. For those who don’t know Non-Lethal Applications, they are also the creators behind the wonderful synchronized video player, Video Slave, which I personally wish Avid would implement into Pro Tools but that’s a separate matter.

ADR Master has two different versions. ADR Master Editor and ADR Master Studio and just like they say on the tin, the Editor version is for dialogue editors whilst the Studio is for us in studio recording ADR with the actor.

ADR Master Editor

ADR Master Editor enables the user to cue up their ADR in preparation of their ADR session. You can do this in several ways. The most common way, which most dialogue editors would be used to, is by working through your dialogue edit in Pro Tools and selecting any problematic lines in your session using Clip Groups. Each character would have a dedicated track within your Pro Tools session; if they have a line that requires ADR just highlight the section, create a Clip Group (I still want to call them Region Groups) and input the line of dialogue as the Clip Group name. To check if the timing of the line is correct with the picture and your wipes and/or sync pops are coming in at the correct place, you can then use the software’s “Live event” function by using the shortcut, Option+Command+F3. This will automatically play the line in the ADR Master software window and trigger your wipes/sync pops to show if the timing needs to be adjusted or is spot on.

In The Studio With ADR Master

If you are a dialogue editor and are working with a studio that also has ADR Master, you can simply provide them with your Pro Tools session with your Clip Groups and the studio can record directly into that session. The engineer in the studio no longer has to spend an hour or so cueing up and the dialogue editor can feel reassured that all the cues they have marked up are there.

However, if the studio would prefer to have their cues set up in ADR Master instead of within the Pro Tools session, you can also export your Clip Groups using Pro Tools’ built-in “Export Session Info as Text” feature. The engineer in the ADR studio can then simply import that session info file into ADR Master and they are good to go.

Within the ADR Master main window, you have a number of tabs. Under the “Project Tab” you can control various functions for the whole project including cue numbering. If you haven’t done so already while cueing up your session in Pro Tools, you can give each of your ADR cues dedicated numbers. ADR Master will label each cue automatically within your Pro Tools recording session.  You can adjust the numbering and labelling system to what suits you best. For example “EMM_R1_001” Emma, Reel 1, Cue 1.

The cue numbering scheme will only apply to the cues you create within ADR Master. It will also not change the cue number of existing cues. If you want that option then there is "Assign Cue Numbers to Selected Events" in the Event menu in ADR Master.

The characters view enables you to add each character name from your episode or film. Any new cues that need to be added to your session can then be assigned to the appropriate character. Character names will be filled in automatically if you are using the “import cues from file”  function or generally when importing cue files that contain character information.

Another way to cue up your ADR is to do everything within the ADR Master Editor software and not use Pro Tools. You can do this by simply finding the line in your ADR Master project timeline, which you need to replace, zoom in to the waveform to find the start and end of the line (handily the zoom shortcuts in ADR Master are exactly the same as Pro Tools, “R” and “T” for zoom in and zoom out).

Press the shortcut “A” to create a new ADR cue. The ADR Cue Event box will pop up. Just enter the line of dialogue into the text box, assign the line to one of the pre-determined characters you entered earlier and you’re done. You can quickly check to make sure the wipe/sync pop, is starting at the correct place.

A third and handy way to cue up your ADR is by importing the script. Realistically this feature will be more useful to those working in overdubbing and games where the script is readily available. Although scripts can come in various formats and structures, ADR Master’s script import window gives you a few different options to help you determine the script pattern. You can tell it that the character comes first, followed by the text, and if the Timecode in and out points have been provided, where they are too.

All you do is select which text is a character, holding down Shift select which text is the line of dialogue. Press Shift+N to create a new cue from script selection. Then go to your timeline, find your start point and hit Shift+I for your in point and Shift+O for your outpoint. On your script import window click the “Commit Cue” button and your line is all cued up. I do realise this sounds like quite a lot of steps but once you get into a rhythm it does speed things up.

In order for ADR Master to speak or control Pro Tools, you’ll need to adjust one setting on your computer before getting started. Flo recently introduced an update to ADR Master, which meant HUI commands were no longer required. Instead, within the preferences settings on ADR Master, go to the ADR Recordings tab and DAW Control mode, then select “Key Commands only”. After selecting this go to System Preferences on your Mac, to the Security and Privacy tab, Privacy and then Accessibility. You should see ADR Master within the list and just select the box to allow ADR master to control your computer.

This enables ADR Master and Pro Tools to “speak” to one another. This only has to be set once. There are also a few settings within Pro Tools that will need adjusting and you will have to set Pro Tools to “Generate MMC” but there is a great section on Non-Lethal Applications website called “Knowledge Base” where they have detailed instructions on how to set this up for various different DAW’s, not just Pro Tools.

Under Preferences in ADR Master, you’ll also find everything you need to customise how your cues are triggered. Personally I’m a fan of a white line going from left of the screen to right. so that when the line meets the other white line to the right of the screen, that's when the actor comes in. But this section allows you to set whatever you prefer. If you’re a fan of two lines each side of the screen that meet in the middle, or a line from left to right with a “punch” (a coloured circle that flashes on screen momentarily to signal when to speak) after the streamer, here is where you can choose which one you prefer and set it up.

Also, under the Preferences tab and ADR Recording, there's one feature worth flagging up. Event Record Mode lets you choose how many cues to record at one time and when Pro Tools will come out of record. In your ADR event window, you’ll find your list of ADR cues for your session, which can be broken down character by character and cue by cue. If you just want to record one cue at a time and come straight out of record, Single Record mode is for you. Single with open end will record your chosen cue line but stay in record afterwards until you press Stop and there's Batch Record, which will record multiple cue lines within a scene.

Personally, I would advise leaving single with open end selected. Anyone else who records ADR regularly, will know we’ve had those sessions where you think the actor is only going to say the line once in sync with the picture so you come out of record, only to realise the actor has given you another take unexpectedly immediately after and without fail everyone in the room decides that’s the take and you have to give the bad news it wasn’t captured. Cover yourselves, leave this option selected and always wait a second before pressing Stop.

This option is also the one you want if the actor decides to go for the listen and repeat way of recording ADR. The other side of this is when you have an ADR cue which has breaths leading into a line. More often than not, the actor will also want to do those breaths to help them achieve the right rhythm of the line and the dialogue supervisor will also want to keep them. To make sure PT goes into record soon enough, you can adjust the “ADR Cue Expansion” time in the preferences window. 

There are a lot of features I love in this software but my top two are:

1. The ability to export Quicktimes of your picture with embedded wipes/sync pop within it

2. The ability to show your picture on multiple screens but each screen can have different overlay options.

Exporting Quicktimes

In a time when COVID-19 has greatly affected our industries and remote ADR and Voice Over recording have become commonplace, having the ability to send Quicktime movies to actors, who are most likely recording at home, with their embedded wipes, just makes things so much more straight forward. If they don’t have Source Connect Pro (to be fair, why would they??) and you can’t control their systems or find a reliable way to playback picture, this is the next best thing. It at least allows the actors to know when to come in for the line and hopefully they can get the timing right.

Even before COVID, I loved this feature. Security has become tighter on productions with most only allowing scenes to be sent to studios for ADR sessions. This export function means dialogue editors can decide on the cues that need to be done, export the picture with embedded wipes and the studio on the other end just has to import them, cutting down on prep time.

Overlay Options

Depending on your studio setup and who you might have in the room, ADR Master Studio allows you to have different overlay options for your different screens. Say you have a room with a screen for you and dialogue supervisor, one for the actor and one for the director/producers.  By going to “Preferences” then “Display” in ADR Master, you can choose to have the actor’s screen display streamers, the line of dialogue being recorded, the Time code, cue number, everything. While your director’s and producer’s screen can have just the picture, with no other overlays and you and dialogue supervisor’s screen can mirror what the actor is seeing to make sure everything looks correct. This is all set through the different Device output options.

To my knowledge, no other system out there is this customisable across multiple outputs.

In Conclusion

I really love both versions of this software, Editor and Studio. It’s easy to use, the interface looks great and straightforward to use and it has a brilliant video engine. I readily admit I’m an absolute ejit sometimes with new software and anything that looks or feels overly complicated, I just won’t use. However, ADR Master feels very intuitive.

You can tell Flo has listened to his customer’s feedback and tried to implement their suggestions. He is constantly trying to update and improve the software and that really shows. The tech support is also great, the website has a great knowledge base where you can find tutorial videos and “how-to articles” to help get you going. All in all, it’s well worth the investment whether you are in ADR, Overdubbing or dialogue editing.