Field Recorder Channel Names

[kkfaudio]

I'm curious where/how the metadata for Channel names comes from.

I receive all of the audio via AAF, usually Media Composer, and often find that the channel names displayed are incorrect - ie Channel A3 shows channel name "Boom" but really it's "Don", A4 shows "Don" but really it's "Sally".

75% (?) of the time, the names are correct but enough is incorrect that I need to take the time to make sure I'm selecting the proper clip, or go by Track Channel A3/A4, etc - but that can change on different shoot days with the same people.

Is this all on the location sound person to get right, or is does it have to do with how it's imported into MC?

Just curious if where this breaks down.

Really not a huge issue - but it would be nice if we could rely on that info...

Thanks!

[BScout]

The issue is with the location sound person. That's where the data is put in and it isn't altered after that unless someone went in specifically and changed the channel names in Media Composer (but it would have to be intentional.)

[mfranken]

I've noticed incorrect channel names in AAFs exported from MC. This wasn't caused by the sound recordist setting the channel names incorrectly as loading the original poly WAVs into Pro Tools showed that the metadata was set correctly. Either MC didn't translate the metadata correctly while importing the WAV files, or while exporting the AAF. From memory I think it had something to do with poly WAVs that had mute channels or a channel sequence where the recordist had say recorded A1, A2, A4, A6. In this case I think MC wasn't assigning the channel names by the actual channel number, but by channel count.

This is one of the reasons you might consider assembling a PT session using the original location WAVs so the correct metadata is loaded, and to make sure all channels that were recorded on location are available. For more information check out the new EdiLoad Assembly window that I created. A full demo video is available in this blog post.

Best regards,

Mark

[kkfaudio]

Thanks for that insight, Mark.

These are generally HGTV type renovation shows and time is tighter than ideal to manage that workflow - I would love to, but :-(

And in truth, it’s just a slight annoyance and I was mostly just being curious curious the cause.

[trevora]

Could it be where channels are skipped on field recorder?

eg Wav shows A1 MixL A2 MixR A4 Boom A7 Sally A8 Don

Imports to Avid as A1-A5

Might explain why it is different on different days (as different sound recorder tracks are enabled to RX)