Dialogue Editing

214 DAMAGE REPAIR
In extreme cases, you’ll have perfect local rhythm because the tool is splicing
at mathematically ideal locations, ignoring content. But the glitches resulting
from this “damn the torpedoes” approach are often unacceptable.
Here you have to make informed compromises. All time expansion/compression
tools provide a way to control the delicate balance between “perfect
audio” and “perfect rhythmic consistency.” You just have to fi gure out what
it’s called. Usually there’s a slider called something like “Quality” that indicates
how glitch-tolerant the tool should be. The less glitch tolerance (that is,
higher “quality”), the worse the rhythmic consistency. The more you force
the rhythm to be right (lower “quality”), the greater your chances of running
into a glitch. As expected, the default Average setting will generally serve
you well.
Before you process a region with a time expansion/compression algorithm
(see Figure 12-7), make an in-sync copy of it. Here’s how this will help you:
If you need different time expansion/compression ratios for separate
parts of the line, you’ll fi nd it helpful to have the original version
handy. Given that time expansion/compression routines are far from
transparent, the last thing you want is to process an already altered
fi le.
As you construct the phrase, you’ll fi nd sections that need time fl ex
and others that don’t. With a copy of the unprocessed region standing
by, it’s easy to access the original for editing.
If you process the original without making a copy fi rst, and then
decide your entire syncing logic was wrong, you’ll have to re-edit
the line.
Word-Fitting Tools As you’ll see in Chapter 14, many tools are available for
locally time-stretching a line; that is, comparing the waveform of the original
with that of the alternate and manipulating the speed of the alternate to
match the reference. Word fi tters use, more or less, the technology of time
expansion/compression, but they’re largely automatic—able to look at small
units of time and make very tight adjustments. Still, they have the same realworld
limitations that time expansion/compression has: quality versus sync.
All of these tools offer some sort of control to enable you to make that choice.
Play with them and get used to how they work.
Time expansion/compression and word-fi tting tools create new fi les. You’ll
have to name these. Do it, and be smart about it. I’ll name a section of a shot
that I stretched something like “79/04/03 part 1, +6.7%.” A word-fi t cue I
might name “79/04/03 part1, VOC” (for VocAlign). If you don’t sensibly name
your new fi les, you’ll eventually regret it.