Music, Sound, and Audio Technology

Bryant Falk has been a producer and engineer for over 12 years working with such clients as The Ricki Lake Show, Coca-Cola, Sports Illustrated, Valley National Bank, and MTV�s The Shop. His company Abacus Audio (www.abacusaudio.com) handles many aspects of the audio production field from creative and production to mixing and final output.

Getting ready to mix your project can be a confusing time. So many options these days can lead to an almost paralyzing fear of what is right and what is good. Need some guidance through the maze of options for mixing your project? And how about prepping the material you have so it is properly ready for transport to an audio mix house?

Many projects are brought to a mix house for the purpose of taking a project to the next level. Sure, you can decorate a cake. We all can. But a cake decorator who does it all day long every day will probably get you a much better result, given background and experience, compared to doing it on your own. Also, a new pair of ears can surprisingly give your project a chance to come to life in ways maybe you haven�t thought of yet.

Getting your project from a video editing package, such as Final Cut or Avid, to an audio package, such as Pro-Tools or Digital Performer, is commonly done using a software format called an OMF file, (Open Media Framework). There is also the AAF file format (Advanced Authoring Format) that is quickly gaining popularity in the HD mixing environment as well.

I could get into the techno mumbo jumbo about Meta Data and what�s going on under the software hood, but that just isn�t fun and is sure confusing. Instead, I like to look at OMF files as the Switzerland of transfer files. Once your data is there, it�s neutral and anyone following the basic rules of OMF land are allowed to import the data and have it all correctly aligned and ready for processing in their program of choice. Final Cut has an output audio to OMF option conveniently found in its pull down menu bar. Avid, (the creator of the OMF file) allows for more than one option. OMF type one and type two files.

Before outputting your audio to OMF, it is a good idea to try and get as much organized as possible. Sound effects should be located on their own tracks as well as dialogue and music. A common issue I run into is finding music, dialogue, and effects all scattered throughout a project. This will just lead to more prep time before the engineer can start mixing. Also, a good safety is to place two 5 frame white flashes (1 second apart) with a corresponding audio pop (sine wave) at the front and back of your project. These little blips allow the engineer to verify the video and audio are tightly in sync.

The final piece to the puzzle is outputting your reference video for the engineer to work from. This used to be done by creating a beta that would need to be locked up with the computer. Nowadays, outputting a Quicktime is much more convenient and allows for random access to any part of the project. Your final mix can be done at either the audio house with a final video copy or back at the video house once the mix is finished. As OMF files output the entire project (not just the in and out points) make sure you output your video in the same fashion. This with the two pops allows for an easy sync.

6 Steps for Prepping Your Material:

1. Clean up audio tracks placing related audio on the same tracks.
2. Remove any audio plug-ins from audio track as they won�t make the trip.
3. Add �2 pops� to the front and back of your project to verify sync.
4. Output a Quicktime of your video for reference for the mixer.
5. Output a High Res video for full screen monitoring.
6. Output a Digi Beta or appropriate final tape if mix house is laying it back.

With the above completed, your OMF file should be in good shape to make it over to the mix house. I always recommend consulting with your mixer if possible before outputting the OMF to make sure he has what he needs the way he needs it.

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Check out this article in the November 2007 print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, page 42.