Using hard disk recorder on the set in Drama

[Helge Krabye]

We are doing audio post production with ProTools 6.4 on G5 Mac's running OS 10.3.5, and usually we receive our audio files from the Avid suites via OMF, which works fine. However, we are about to start testing hard drive recorders for recording audio live on the set (drama productions), and these are able to record in 24 bit and 96 k resolution. And of course we record the same Time Code as on the DigiBeta cameras. - The big question is therefore: What is the best method in order to transfer the audio edits from Avid to ProTools? Since Avid is NOT able to use other than 16 bit audio files, there is no point in transferring the audio from Avid to ProTools via OMF. How to do it then? Digidesign's PostConform is not for OSX, so we really wonder how we can get the correct audio from the source (the hard drive of the recorder) into ProTools 6 via EDL? Any help is welcome - especially from those of you who have actually done this already

Helge K.

[espron]

Hi.

There are at least two options that I am aware of to solve this problem. Option 1 is have the Avid editors hand you an audio EDL of their sequence, and then use autoconform software to conform the edits from the original material. I have used Syncro Arts Flash Conform for this with good results. Seems to me to perform better than PostConform did.

However, there are some problems with this approach. One is that when we recieve material from harddisk-recorders, the material is file-based, ie. generally there is one file for each slate.
While this generally is a good thing it can cause some problems when autoconforming, since no EDL format will support filenames as Tape/Reel ID. Also, when receiving this kind of material from video editors, I often see that they treat each disk as a reel/tape making one bin for each disk in the Avid.

This causes problems because the EDL refers to the Reel(or in this case, the disk)name. My solution for this has been to rename all the slates with a prefix which refers to the Disk name.

This works ok, if the Video Editors has logged the material correctly..

Another solution, which I will be looking into in an upcoming production is Metaflow from Gallery. This software seems very promising in dealing with all these problems, but I will have to see if it really deliveres.

Anyhow, I see you that you are situated in Oslo, I am too - email me, and we can have a chat about this and I will try to give some advice (and it will be little bit easier for me in Norwegian than English...)

All the best

Espen

[mfranken]

Hi Helge

Another option, which is in the final stages of being launched, is ETA Pro. ETA (EdiTrace Auto) is the autoconforming software of EdiTrace http://www.editrace.com. We've created a "Pro" version that can be purchased and installed.

ETA Pro will read any CMX or GVG EDL and autoconform any audio already in a Pro Tools session. Hence your recordings must be in a session in the correct possition for ETA to work.

If you are interested, I can email you a fully featured demo version that runs for 30 days. The EdiTrace website will have all the details on it in about a week.

Regards Mark
[email protected]

[N-G-NEER]

Dear Helge,

If I understand this correctly you want to transfer the audio from the work stations to Protools in order to take advantage of the higher resolution. This depends largely upon the HD recorder. There are several out there that contain a hard drive and tis drive can be removed and put directly into an external drive case and opened in Protools. But I don't know what HD recorder you are using, so the workflo is unknown

[bigbadhenchman]

Personnally, I woulde reconsider doign the files at Higher resolutions.

Does the budget justify the extra headaches.
The fact you'll have to convert all the audo for the Avid guys, is going to add to time and cost.
all yourr SFx will have to be converted.
and in the end, it goes down to a Digibeta for broadcast. Where they wiill compress it to hell, for a low bandwidth transmission.

So, at the end of the day, you'll neverhear the difference anyway.

[Helge Krabye]

Thanks for the replies. The recorders we are currently testing, are HHB og Aaton Cantar. They can both record in 24 bit and 96 kHz. Even if the final audio mix will be in 16 bit and 48 kHz, of course we want to benefit from the higher resolution when doing the sound design. - If any of you have experience with these recorders, I would love to hear from you. And also, if you are using a software package that will transfer the audio from the hard drives according to the edl lists that the Avid editing suites will create, we will test it - before we purchase the field recorders.

Helge K.

[gallery]

Thanks for the replies. The recorders we are currently testing, are HHB og Aaton Cantar. They can both record in 24 bit and 96 kHz. Even if the final audio mix will be in 16 bit and 48 kHz, of course we want to benefit from the higher resolution when doing the sound design. - If any of you have experience with these recorders, I would love to hear from you. And also, if you are using a software package that will transfer the audio from the hard drives according to the edl lists that the Avid editing suites will create, we will test it - before we purchase the field recorders.

Helge K.

If you want all this functionality, you should consider Metacorder as your recorder, and MetaFlow for the conform (from OMF).

http://www.metacorder.info
http://www.metaflow.info