track sorting advice

[vudoo]

One of the most painful task before i start mixing is having to sort out all the tracks. Sometimes small track count budget film takes more work than film with big track count but well organized and laid out.
Anyways, i 'm just curious how you guys do this. For example i'm working on a budget indie Sci-fi. The OMF has 16 tracks but all the tracks contain partially some music, Dialog, SFX, foley. I'm basically, playing through the entire movie small section at the time and reorder ( camera sound, foley, ADR, music, sfx...) and renaming sound file....very time consuming.

[JKD99]

Yep, it is :)
Personally, I consider the OMF a "Dialog, Temp Score, Source Music & Temp FX' session. This of course assumes that the OMF dialog is useable and we're not doing a separate dialog assemble from the production dailies. I import DIA A-F, DIA X1,2,3, PFX 1,2,3 Source MX 1,2, Temp Score, and ED FX (editor's FX) tracks from my dubbing template and start sorting through everything and moving things to their proper tracks. And it does take time. Once that's done, then it's ready for real editing. I don't generally cut the Editor's FX but I do keep them in the session (on de-activated tracks) just in case the director is in love with a particular effect, or in the (rare) case that the effect is great :)

I then import the blank FX and BG tracks from the template and start cutting them in context with the dialog and temp score. When the foley comes in from the stage, I import that as well; same with the final score when it shows up (usually on the 1st day of the final mix).

So the short answer is, there's no quick way, and when the editor's tracks are a mess it just takes that much longer!

good luck,

Joe

[RecRoom]

That's when a good editor is worth is weight in gold. I've gotten some pretty hideous OMFs from unexperienced editors and there's really no quick and easy way to sort them out. Just lots of patience!

[JWalkerVS]

The better OMFs I receive usually consist of a well organized layout with all the DIA (usually on top), temp FX (usually middle) and temp score (usually bottom) within their own set of tracks. Unfortunately my recent client is one of the director/producer/actor types that figures he can save a wad if cash if he also edits the film himself. In other words the audio is all over the place.

Also, I rarely find the need to rename an audio region. I figure the type of track I copy the region to speaks for itself. Temp FX are usually already named and I have no need to change the name of the DIA or MX. If I was changing the name of every region it would take a long time before I'd get any editing done!

-Justin

[philper]

This is one of the "hidden" time+effort categories that most producers never think about. On a feature length project with a very mixed up OMF (esp if the project has had multiple editors) I can often spend half a day trying to sort out where everything is, what the clip/region names mean, what is VO and what is sync, what is source music and what is temp score etc.. The upside is that I know the film and its characters much better when I'm done, the downside is that it is time-consuming work to make sure even that you have everything, let alone have it organized to your liking. With editors I do series work with we do arrive at some sort of compromise about where what kind of audio is likely to be. With one-offs, esp docs edited over many years, I resign myself to a long slog.

Philip Perkins

[Felix Rost]

that's what the producer really means when he tells you the audio is already "pre-mixed" by the editor!!

crossfades over different material and scrambled stereo pairs take a lot of waste time to fix. I try to contact the editor beforehand if at all possible. And then giving them feedback.

[TVPostSound]

You get an OMF with Music left on track 1, and Music right on track 7. Oh the music left on track 1 starts later than track 7 because the editor stuck an effect there, no worries, I have handles, oh $#!& the editor didn't give me handles. It's moot anyway because the editor imported the music mono from an MP3 that the producer emailed him.

[Sonsey]

Yeah, this can be a PAIN... Richard Fairbanks has an excellent paper on his site at www.syncheck.com... Go to the Papers & Links section... about proper track layout. I've created a similar document for editors on various shows I work on... of course a lot depends on the project. I tend to use that on low budget shows, where I KNOW I'm not going to have time and budget to spend half a day arranging tracks. And I make it very clear to the producers that NOT following the track layout will result in additional charges... Amazing how fast editors figure it out then!

[manis]

now thats good advice.., with directors and editors.., if one doesnt hand them a 20 page contract of dos and donts.., the work load increases.., everything is a mess and they are just as likely to go 'fix' something after the event.., leaving things out of sync, DC offset, ect.., with your name on it and destroying your reputation.., what amazes me is no matter how often i think i have it covered.., they (editors or directors) always seem to be able to pull another trick out of the hat!!!

m:)

[Richard Fairbanks]

Originally Posted by Sonsey

Richard Fairbanks has an excellent paper on his site

I wrote it quite a few years ago and some info (video decks, specific steps to export from Avid) is now obviously out of date, but it is otherwise still relevant. Here's the direct link:
http://www.pharoahaudio.com/audioprep.html

I've created a similar document for editors on various shows I work on...

Hi Howard! Yup, I'd say its pretty similar! It sure looks better than mine, though.