Tuesday, October 17, 2006

310 Reminders

This false info has been forwarded around school:
"Fades on every region - To prevent digital clipping (the pop that you hear on some FX if they start in the middle of a sound), you should apply a short (less than one frame in general) fade to the beginning and end of every region. This is important to do now - if you notice pops in your mix, you're going to waste your time fixing tiny mistakes that could have already been taken care of."

This is a long-time USC urban myth that keeps popping up no matter how many times I try to douse it. It is neither necessary nor desirable to put fades "on every region" for pops. Pops will not be audible on an HD system if the prefs are set properly. They may be audible on the LE systems you are using upstairs, but they will disappear when you bring them onto the dub stages.

You SHOULD use fades when you need to get into or out of a track that has background noise on it, which is usually material recorded in the field (as well as Foley & ADR at times). Those fades aren't necessarily "less than one frame," they can be quite long to mask the change.

If you put one-frame fades on everything, it becomes VERY difficult to made editorial changes later on. PLEASE do not do it.

Two other reminders:

1) Meet with your mixer again before your mix to make sure they like your track layout.

2) Put MARKERS on EVERY scene change. These can be imported into your mix session in v7.2 downstairs and it will make your mix go MUCH faster.

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