Field recorder work flow question.

[melloj]

I've been a vanilla user for the last 8 years. I've finally been able to afford HD. I wanted it mainly to access the field recorder workflow feature. I watched a youtube video where Paul Maunder gives a very concise instruction on how to use it. Basically how to find poly wavs from discreet channels of a recorder. I'm trying to use the same method to find alternate takes of a clip. Method, Highlight the clip or region then set up for field recorder guide track, then it should find matching alternatives, then expand to new tracks, but only the area selected.

I've made sure that link timeline and edit selection is turned on, but it expands the whole session instead of the highlighted region. Also when I point to the folder where I want it to search there is nothing there even though I know the folder is full with wav files. I've tried searching by timecode and match alternatives but get the same result. It seems to be finding alternate takes but the whole session when I want it to do just the selected region. Field recorder seems much more complex than I thought it would.

Naturally I'm unfamiliar with HD features. I'm running HD 12.7.1 on Windows 7.

[noiseboyuk]

Field Recorder isn't all that complex as such, but there are quite a few things that can trip it up. I think you might have a few different things going on.

The most likely reason you're not getting any matches is that the files in Pro Tools on your Field Recorder Guide Track might not have the correct source timecode they need. To check, pick a clip at random, right click and choose SPOT, then look and see what is under Original Time Stamp (forget the exact words, might be slightly different). If all is well in the world, this will have the timecode of the original clip. If not, it might well read 00.00.00.00, and you're stuffed. A lot depends on what the editing software was / is, and the export settings. If it's Media Composer you should be able to get it to work; if it's Final Cut you'll have a fight on your hands; if it's Premiere just give up now. I've never got Premiere to pass source timecode that PT can read.

If that does look ok, then the next thing to check is that your WAVs are Broadcast BWF files and have embedded timecode. To do this, you can download the free Wave Agent software from Sound Devices, and load a random file in.

If both of those are looking good, then the next thing to check is that you're definitely asking PT to look in the right place, and you've clicked Save and Index. If I select the clips I want, then right click them and Expand to New Tracks by Timecode, it just expands those clips. My real bugbear with Field Recoder is here, incidentally - it matches both clips in the folder I've pointed it at, and also clips that are already in the session, meaning I get meaningless false matches very often, and it can get really messy.

Let us know how all those tests go...

[melloj]

Yea don't think this is going to work. I checked the original time stamp of a clip in one project and it started at 1 hour (can't remember what the min, secs, frames were) the problem is the session starts at 10:00:00:00 the reason is because it's a TV pilot, it's standard practice in the UK to always start a session at 10 hours for TV content. This was done by the editor which he carried over to the AAF/OMF.

I'm assuming that the best time to do this would be when opening the omf before I cross it over to my session template?

I've not checked yet if they're BWF wavs or aifs.

Whatever I do I get the same result, the whole session expands to new tracks, what I have noticed though is it copies the length of each clip on the track I'm setting up as a FRGT but it's just all random audio instead of alternate takes, and includes multiples of takes I'm already using.

I'm definitely pointing to the original editors audio folder and not the session audio folder. I just want a method of finding alternate takes quickly without manually sifting through hundreds of clips, I thought HD would provide this. I'm wondering if the reason the index window is showing blank even though it contains wavs is because of a preference setting somewhere?

[noiseboyuk]

Hmm, yes I'm not sure Field Recorder is the right tool for the job as you describe it, if I understand you correctly. In theory this is how it should work - all the clips on the timeline have a source timecode and other metadata embedded in them. Typically this might be time of day - say for an example clip it's 15.06.19.00 . Now let's say that was recorded on roll 154 and was take 3. Even though on the show it has a timecode of 10.01.17.11 as edited into the program, its the source timecode that is critical here, not the timecode on the timeline.

Let's say you need to look up take 2, which was recorded at 15.03.17.00 . All Field Recorder can do (even when everything is working properly) is match files with the same timestamp as on the timeline. If you're matching by roll number and timecode, PT will be looking for roll 154 and containing 15.06.19.00. The multichannel files will come up for take 3, so you can access the individual microphones if they were recorded that way. There's unfortunately no way of it linking to an alternate take though, that's a manual process.

What might be happening with you is if you are matching my timecode only, you might have gazillions of files all with the same junk source timecode, meaning you get hundreds of random matches. I don't understand why the entire session is getting expanded though, that's never happened to me unless I forgot to highlight the clips on the Field Recorder Guide Track.

[melloj]

"... unless I forgot to highlight the clips on the Field Recorder Guide Track."

Mm. I'm highlighting the clip before I set up the guide track, could this be why it's expanding all of it?

Tbh I wanted the field recorder guide track function for its intended purpose - to conform discreet channels. It was preventing me taking on jobs because I had no way of doing it before. I actually once got fired because I couldn't do this task. Here, I was simply testing it out but didn't work how I expected. Thanks for your help though, I presume next time I get a job with discreet channel recordings, this thing will work.

[noiseboyuk]

"... unless I forgot to highlight the clips on the Field Recorder Guide Track."

Mm. I'm highlighting the clip before I set up the guide track, could this be why it's expanding all of it?

Ah that sounds like it. What i do is drag every clip I want to conform to the Field Recorder Guide Track (I usually label it Conform). Then you highlight the clips you want on that track, then right click to expand tracks.

Tbh I wanted the field recorder guide track function for its intended purpose - to conform discreet channels. It was preventing me taking on jobs because I had no way of doing it before. I actually once got fired because I couldn't do this task. Here, I was simply testing it out but didn't work how I expected. Thanks for your help though, I presume next time I get a job with discreet channel recordings, this thing will work.

Hopefully so, but testing the workflow first before a major project is a very good idea. As I mentioned, I have a project coming up that will be cut on Adobe Premiere (a first - the stuff I usually have comes from an Avid), and nothing any of us could do could ever make the Field Recorder track work on its own because Premiere won't pass Source Timecode through to an AAF or OMF that PT can read. What we've settled on is exporting an EDL then using EdiLoad to generate a conform track first - then it works. Good luck!

PS - the Post Production forum here is probably the best bet for this sort of thing btw.