Summer 2000 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

PRO TOOLS DEMO FORAMPS MEMBERS
Many thanks to Ian Sylvester of DAT for hosting
what was a very successful Pro Tools demo in their
5.1 equipped preview theatre, and to Giles Farle
and Jed Allen from Digidesign for an excellent
presentation.
Digidesign's Pro Tools is a digital sound editing
and mixing package based on either a Mac or PC
computer. It has for some years been a main
contender in its field but it is increasingly becoming
something of a de facto standard in America for
sound design and general preparation work.
The Avid/Digidesign Combination
Originally designed as a music production tool, its
expansion towards film and television postproduction
was assured when Digidesign was
incorporated by Avid
Technology back in
1995. The recently
launched Version 5 is
he first release of
Pro Tools to
consciously address
the needs of the postpro
industry.
In an increasingly
competitivefield
Avid still holds the
lion's share of the
professional nonlinear
picture editing
market, especially at
the top end. Often these days sound to be
edited/mixed for television or film is imported
directly from the Avid picture editing system using
OMF 1 (Open Media Framework Version 1). The
Avid editor simply hands over a hard disk
containing all his/her roughly edited audio, which
can be read directly by the digital audio workstation
'DAW). Thus, no need for the conform.
Different digital audio workstations deal with
OMF 1 imports with varying degrees of success,
including abject failure. One limitation is that,
although it does include cue in/out fades, the OMF
1 export does not convey cue levels, so they arrive
on your DAW's screen at the level at which they
were recorded into the Avid. Also, converting the
OMF 1 file format into the native format of your
DAW (necessary to see the waveform display) can
take hours for a big file set. Not ideal.
A key feature of Pro Tools is its full compatibility
with Avid's sound and picture files. Via OMF 2
(the new improved version) the picture editor's
hard work (including levels) can be imported into
Pro Tools in seconds. It's important to point out
that for this to work, you need the sound to have
been recorded into the Avid properly in the first
place. This is not rocket science but does need care
and consideration. Currently Avids can only edit to
frame accuracy (insufficient for fine editing) and
the need for proper audio post is not diminished.
The levels and fades set by the picture editor seldom
make it to the final mix, but to have a rough outline
mix appear on your screen in seconds is handy.
You can, by the way, still conform from an EDL if
you like and indeed it's useful to have an EDL
along with the OMF for reference and to conform in
anything that might be suspect or would be better
taken directly from its original source. At the
acquisition end of the chain, Pro Tools (like many
other svstems) can read certain hard disk-based
location recording devices, such as Deva - but that
discussion is for another day.
As well as the sound, the picture from the Avid
can also be included on the same (or different) hard
disk and displayed on a coilrputer or video monitor
(depending on your
hardware). The quality of
the picture is variable
from uncompressed
(better than DigiBeta) to
basic QuickTime. You
can then locate instantly
to any point in the
programme, sound and
picture. There are even
plans afoot to allow the
sound editor to make
basic edits to the picture.
This is not the revenge
we've all been hoping for
but rather is intended to
allow 1 lth hour picture cuts to be accomrnodated
quickly and easily.
The Virtual Rack
Another attractive feahrre of Pro Tools is the
availability of rackfuls of auxiliary processing
equipment from famous names (Aphex, Dolby,
Focusrite Lexicon, TC etc) in purely software form.
These are known as plug-ins and are said to offer
the same level of performance as their originals but,
because there's no hardware involved, they're less
expensive. We were, for instance, shown how
VocAlign ( a development of the original WordFit
program) can be used to help fit an imperfect ADR
take to an original - very impressive.
For many operators, one of the main drawbacks
of the system has been its reliance upon standard
computer hardware for the human interface -
QWERTY keyboard, mouse, drop-down menus,
etc. Convoluted multi-kev kevboard shortcuts have
evolved to execute the sirirpleit function and boggle
the simpler mind. Version 5 features a new one
key/one function layout, still using a QWERTYstyle
keyboard, but clearly labelled and much
simpler to use.
This certainly helps with editing, but Pro Tools is
also a sound mixer. For years you either had to use
the mouse to grab one or more virtual faders on the
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