Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544300
62 M PS E . O R G assembly session and has RAW appended to the filename. I duplicate the sound rolls folder and append ABDX to the folder name and make a copy of the assembly session and replace RAW with ABDX. I then open the ABDX session and link it to the ABDX copy of the sound rolls. I run Absentia DX using the tick and medium hum reducer. I then do a transcribe pass for use with the transcription tool. I make a copy of the ABDX assembly and then do a RX decrackle pass at best quality, four to five strength, individual files/clip- by-clip with five second handles. So, I'll have three assembly basic folder tracks in my session: RAW, ABDX, and RX. I'll use the RX assembly by default and if a transient got rounded off by the decrackle, I can use the ABDX assembly and if the ADBX hum reducer messed up a fundamental frequency of dialogue, I can use the RAW assembly. In live action, how do you handle the variation between microphones and angles? Joe Schiff: I focus on performance continuity. You're dealing with different mics, background noise, and proximities, and my job is to make those variations "sound invisible." When I get to a new scene, I first assess the booms and lavs. Best case is that they both sound good and I will use Auto-Align to align the lavs to the booms and get the balance I want between boom and lav using Clip Gain. If the boom is not mic'd close enough and sounds roomy, I'll align the boom to the lav. You can run into problems if you align the lav to the boom and the guide track is featuring the lav. You will get phasing when comparing to the guide while checking sync. It's a judgment call because you never know what the mixer is going to choose to use or feature. You may align the lavs to the booms and have the mixer just use the lavs or vice versa. So, I test. I listen. I make decisions case by case. I'm a big fan of checkerboarding: Track 1 & 2 might be the boom & lav for one actor, then track 3 & 4 would be the same actor from a different angle. If it's more than two or three actors, I'll keep the actors' ISOs on their own track. So maybe if there's four actors, I might put the ISO mics on tracks 5 through 8 (13 through 16), with those ISOs going throughout the scene, and then do my checkerboarding with the booms on tracks 1 through 4 (9 through 12). I do this because the ISO mics will sound similar from setup to setup in a scene and the booms can have very different amounts of ambience/ presence on different angles. I've also found that there are cases where the actor sounds better on the ISO of the actor they're talking to if they're in close proximity. So, I'll use the ISO that sounds best. On specific shows when the sound effects may go too loud, how do you deal with dialogue when the sound effects are so heavy? Joe Schiff: I focus purely on the dialogue first and make sure it sounds right. I don't typically listen to music and effects while I'm cutting; I need to focus on dialogue integrity. Later, I'll bring everything back in to see how it interacts. When scenes move from whispers to screams, my responsibility is to maintain the relationship they set up in picture editorial. If the editor let a whisper sit low, I respect that. If a scream peaks emotionally, I don't compress it into submission. Only in extreme cases, like if someone is constantly going from soft to loud, will I split off the yelling to give the mixers more control over those vocal changes. When do you organize ADR? Joe Schiff: The ADR supervisor supplies a session with suggested alt takes and blank clips showing what is going to be looped. I copy the section being looped onto wherever I can fit it and fill it for ADR. I will have the original production region grouped and muted and the filled production region grouped. My color convention is to have booms/plant mic clips colored dark blue, ISO mics are light blue, alts are yellow clip groups and original production and filled for ADR clip groups are pink. This way, the mixer can easily see what's coming at them and quickly listen to production vs ADR or alts. I always do my best to clean up production even if it's going to be looped because it may turn out better than the ADR. How do you choose between all the AI restoration tools out there? Joe Schiff: I keep several AudioSuite plugins open, Waves Clarity Vx Pro, Supertone Clear, Accentize dxRevive Pro, Acon Extract:Dialogue 2, and Hush Pro. I'm also using a new Accentize plugin called dxSplit which splits the source into dx, reverb and noise and allows me to run dxRevive on the dx split internally in the plugin. It's not about allegiance; it's about the outcome. I'll go between these, comparing artifacts on a case-by- case basis. They all clamp down differently on certain consonants. Sometimes I just go back to manual spectral repair in RX because drawing