cmgoodin

Just posted the new version of BWF-O-Matic (1.5 Beta). It now will either Split Poly to Poly,  Poly to Mono, or Join Mono to Poly.

It does a few things other file splitter or interleave programs don't do.  Things like ability to Split out a small section out of a larger file. or to Join together just a few files from a BWF-Mono group and pull just a short section out of the middle of each BWF Mono into a single BWF-Poly file.

All Metadata and proprietary chunks from files created on any hardware or software is maintained so the resulting files can be played on the original app or device that created them and all the information and Time Code remains correct.

You can read the instructions here: http://www.bwfwidget.com/data/BWF-O-Matic%20Instructions.pdf

BWF-O-Matic is free to all registered users of BWF-Widget Pro.  If you are a registered user drop me an email request for the link to the download.

There have been new features added to the latest version of BWF-Widget Pro as well including Sound report generation. You can look at a sample PDF here: http://www.bwfwidget.com/data/SampleSoundReport%20Disk%203.pdf

---Courtney Goodin

Marc,

Welcome to the Forum.    It was nice to meet you and serve on the panel for the 695 Seminar a couple of weeks back.

There is one question I was hoping to ask you but forgot.  We heard from one of the other Telecine or post sound panelist that they still wanted that 8 to 10 second pre-Roll on each take.  However, Mike Paul who talked at length about the capabilities of the Fostex DV-40 and  DV-824 stated that in Telecine the Fostex machines as well as InDaw all "virtualize TC" on the timeline so they will supply running Time code to the edit controller if there is sound for the requested time or not.  And when matching time code in the next file is reached sound playout starts immediately.

If we are only recording on File Based Recorders (No DAT or 1/4" backup)  Why do we need pre-Roll?

The answer I have gotten back is usually an unqualified excuse like "Well storage is Cheap,  why not".  Well, I'll tell you why not.

While in the post world storage may be cheap, however on the set more storage relates to more "Time" and Time is not cheap.

It takes a lot longer to burn an extra 30% of data to Disk at break points and at the end of the Day when we are being rushed to continue shooting or pack up and get on the truck because it is leaving.  CF cards fill up faster and Hard drives need to be reformatted more frequently meaning more full backups are required.  This all ads up. Especially when you are rolling 8 tracks of Isos in case someone may need to pull in a muffled or missed line.  That job in the past was usually done by the dialogue editor and they would pull the clean words they needed from another take or the close up of that person.

And the "Stealth" Pre-Roll that happens on all the Non-Linear recorders (up to 10 seconds of sound before the Record button is pressed is added to the head of the file) can create difficult political situations on the set.  When someone calls for a playback of the previous take and they hear all those private conversations that were happening before the AD called "Roll Sound"  being played back and realize that anything they said while they thought we weren't rolling may be recorded for posterity, the excrement can hit the rotating air mover.

So specifically, why do we need Pre-Roll if we are only submitting random access media?  What function in Telecine or Post work needs that 10 seconds of sound before the slate sticks are hit?  In every dailies screening I've been to, the scenes all start with the click of the slate.  All the rest of the pre-roll sound is tossed at the telecine stage. And of course in Editing they never need to pull dialogue or sound from before the sticks since the actors aren't acting and the sound is contaminated with AD and Crew Voices..

What's up with this continued pre-roll request. 

---Courtney

I've been a member of SMPTE for over 30 Years...

---Courtney Goodin