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Collapsing tracks


sonic_reducer

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  • 5 months later...

I would prefer 0 empty tracks but 1 is manageable, in the past I've received 8 track poly files,                                                     with 4 of the those tracks being empty, which makes it really cumbersome in the edit.  

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I'd think cast order is more important that track number. If I'm doing a scene with number 2 and 5 on the call sheet, I'm hardly going to record three empty tracks in the middle to keep #5 on track 7 (mix, boom, etc.) - But honestly I don't even go as far as to do that really. I did on one film that had three principal cast in virtually every scene, so I did always keep them in order, but I feel that if the track is named that we have done what is required.

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Interesting question. I am now using the Aaton Cantar X3 to mix and record. I have also been using the Cedar DNS2, which I chose to record to trax 21 and 22. It hadn't occurred to me that the machine was recording a pile of empty trax between about track 16 and track 21 (I use 11-16 for the radio mics). Then I discovered that my rushes folder each day was huge, so spoke to Aaton and they have now made a 'poly lite' mode where it collapses the poly trax, ignoring trax that have nothing recorded in them. It seems to work well. So, with X3 I can deliver whichever way the post folks prefer, mono, poly, or poly lite.

What are the metadata implications of collapsing trax? If I record mono trax then the track names will include whatever I call the tracks on my recorder, ie M1x1, or RM Simon etc..... If the recorder makes poly trax then do the individual track identifiers get lost? Does this matter to postprod, or are you/they used to this now.

Kindest, sb

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I'm with Robert on this, I never record empty tracks on purpose, seems a waste of "resources", I also stick to cast order number as an organizational aid, I second Robert's opinion that if track name metadata is correct that is enough,
Just my .02


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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