Sonny

I'll certainly never claim to be mistake free, but line into mic level isn't the case here. Sat down with the AC and marveled at (what I thought to be) the needlessly roundabout audio menus as she set the camera inputs to line level for me. That FCP center pans everything at import is an interesting point. I'll have to follow up on that and see if getting rid of the hotter channel helps at all. Either way, we've got our clean files and our work flow figured out.

I'm pretty confident in his skill. That being said, this was our first RED experience and I know there are some workflow considerations that come with that. Based on what I'm hearing though, I'm guessing that I just hit the camera too hard. I'm still perplexed as to how it could be missed during dailies, but I don't think I'm going to find the answer to that one unless I can catch it happening again sometime. At the end of the day, my recordings are good, so this is all just curiosity. Sorry if I've wasted anyone's time here. I understand that this was a relatively minor problem given the fact that I recorded dual system. If it's related to sound, though, I'd like to understand what's going on whether it's directly related to me or not. I searched the forums and didn't find anything directly related to the issue I was having. Thanks to those willing to indulge my curiosity.

Didn't monitor on set. Because I'd heard bad things about RED audio, we were planning on using the 744 tracks. I was only feeding the camera for scratch track. It was only my laziness (love of efficiency if that sounds better?) that was allowing me to hope that we wouldn't have to go through the re-syncing process later. The confusion stems from the fact that the camera audio checked out during dailies. It wasn't until he started editing that the distortion appeared. I have to think that it's a file transfer or FCP issue. Besides, I hit the camera with tone at -20 and -30. I'll defer to your better judgment, but I'm having a hard time imagining that being too hot for the RED to handle. Sounds like I'll have to set it to peak out around there in the future.

I used padded cables to feed it. Sent one channel (the mix) at line level into two inputs. I set tone at -20 db on one channel and -30 on the other. The director and the data wrangler watched dailies, and I can't imagine either one would have missed these problems. The import is likely the problem here. I don't know for sure where he was watching dailies, I suspect he watched them pre-import. I honestly have no idea what software he used for that, other than it's a RED specific data management program. On set, drives and cards were imported onto a laptop with that software. Today we were watching the session he has set up in FCP. If he was watching the dailies on that laptop...or on his computer through that software, we may have found the issue.

As I sit here with a potent drink, I thought I'd share the events of today and see if this is the norm...That is, if my still trembling hands will allow me to type it. About three weeks ago I wrapped on a movie. It's the third I've done for this particular director. This is by far the biggest production we've done, the first that didn't feel like a student film, and the first for either of us on the RED. I'm also doing the post sound, so today I went to his house to take a look at the first 20 minutes of rough cut. Now, on location I recorded to my 744T, but I also sent a feed to the camera for him to edit with. I had heard that RED's audio was...buggy...but for the sake of ease in post, I secretly hoped that my "master" recordings could sit on a hard drive somewhere...unheard and unloved while the "scratch track" took all of the glory. Although I didn't monitor camera audio on set (obviously favoring my recorder), I knew the levels were good, and it sounded fine going out the door to the camera. I had also heard nothing but good things being reported back after each night's session with dailies. Cut to today. The big fight scene happens about 30 seconds into the film...and the first thing I notice is huge distortion any time a character raises her voice. My initial reaction is to look at the director and say "What the hell was that?" To which he replied, "Huh...I was hoping you could tell me." It happened consistently throughout the viewing, during which my color went from a healthy pink-ish to...well...the word ashen got thrown around a lot. During my two hour drive home, the director and I spent much of it on the phone trying to figure out what had happened. Neither one of us noticed any problems on set, and missing distortion of this magnitude would have been severely out of character for both of us. Still, we couldn't figure out why the camera tracks would be so terrible now...especially when they had passed mustard at dailies. I could feel an ulcer form and start growing as I sped toward my master recordings...hoping that my professional integrity would be spared. Upon arrival, I booted up and tracked down the most egregiously offensive shots. Tentatively, I loaded each one and pressed play....SUCCESS! Each track played back as smoothly and beautifully as I remembered them being on set! I called the director with the good news and he had some more intrigue for me. Thinking that perhaps the culprit was the low-res transcoding process that he's using for his off-line edit, he went back to listen to the original RED files...Distortion. He unplugged his speakers and used the ones on the computer...Distortion. He plugged in his headphones...Even the most quiet moments had some weird mechanical distortion. Fortunately, we have the masters, so everything is groovy. We're still unsure of the underlying problem. Again, I had heard bad things about recording audio on the RED, but really? This is terrible! Is this normal? Has anyone else encountered this problem on set, or am I an idiot (well...a bigger idiot than I've ever acknowledged)? I feel pretty stupid right now for doubting myself that much, but it's tough when you're facing such awful sound and have no way of knowing how bad the problem is. Sorry for the rambling. Thanks in advance for any wisdom.

Yeah...I didn't really think DVD burning would be a good idea. The USB 2.0 port is standard for computers, but as far as I know, the 744t only connects to computers through the firewire port.

See? I knew there was some blindingly simple solution I had overlooked!

Most of my work is of the run-n-gun variety, and is centered around my 744t. My usual workflow was to record to the internal hard drive then dump the files to my laptop and burn a DVD. Well, Lappy has finally kicked the bucket and I'm finding current laptop models with firewire 400 are few and far between. I'm now thinking I should be looking for alternative methods of getting the files into my computer (or directly to post). I've considered using an external drive (I have a hard drive and could always get the XL-DVDRAM), but I'm nervous about those options since firewire connections don't lock and the whole rig would be bouncing around in a bag all day. I would, of course, continue to use the internal hard drive, but in the event of an external drive error, I'm back at square one. Is anybody doing this with any success? I'm guessing the safest and most cost-effective method would be to stock up on CF cards and get a USB reader for it. Ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I stand corrected on my criticism of the hardware section! Good catch, Andy!

OK, first some love. I like the site. The Flash is very cool. Overall, the site looks good and makes good use of white space. The navigation is (for the most part) easy to use, although it's a bit odd that the "back" button changes position on your "Hardware" page. That being said, I also had to wait forever for it to load...and I know it's not my computer or connection. If I hadn't been reading another article while waiting for it to load, I would have given up on it and assumed it was broken. It's just too heavy on the graphics. The line trailing the pointer is unnecessary and a little distracting. Same thing with the blurring segments on your picture. I like the video testimonial, both the idea and the execution. The hardware page was a neat idea, but I think you could add some descriptions of the gear. After all, I (and likely everyone else on this forum) recognized everything in your bag immediately; but just pointing to each piece isn't likely to help your average non-soundie (which I'm guessing is your target audience) much. Bottom line, it's a great site, but no one will ever know that if they can't get it to load quickly. I'd cut back on the motion graphics to make it load quicker or offer up an option to go to a non-flash version. Just my 2 cents...Hope it helps. -Sonny

I quick look at IMDb confirms one of my assumptions. The re-recording mixers were Tom Fleischman and Greg Russell...two guys who have been around the block. I don't know either one, but I've seen a lot of their films, and each one has done a lot of fantastic work.

First, I have to agree about both films. I really enjoyed both, but I did find myself having to figure out what was said during Angels & Demons a few times instead of hearing it clearly. Now for the mix issue. When I was finishing up my first round of school, I interned with an Academy Award winning sound designer. One of the perks was that I got to sit in on sessions, including a set of final mix sessions at the Disney lot. I watched as my boss and the Disney mixers spent hours painstakingly tweaking and massaging all of the elements to create what, to my ears at least, sounded like perfection...or pretty close to it. Then the mood in the room got really tense. My boss told me to go hide toward the back of the room (I had been up at the board with the mixers) and to keep a low profile. When I asked him what was going on, he told me that some producers were coming by the stage to listen to the progress and that a) they wouldn't be happy with an intern being in the midst of the action and I wouldn't want to be there anyway because this was about to turn into a train wreck. Sure enough, the producers showed up and proceeded to trash the mix. For them, the politics were more important than balance, and they were apparently very friendly with the composer. It seemed like the only note they ever gave was to crank up the score. All of the nuance in the effects got trampled. I'm sure most people would never know the difference about that. What got really absurd, though, was when the music started stepping on dialog. The closest thing they could get to a compromise was to also turn up the dialog. Of course, that meant that the effects dropped even further into the background. It didn't really help, either...the music was just too distracting and comprehensibility (is that even a word?) suffered for it. I'm not sure how (or if) they finally resolved the problem (I never saw the film in question), but I know my boss came away from that session looking a pretty beat up. There is a point to all of this rambling. I don't know what happened in the Angel's & Demons sessions, but it's entirely possible that it wasn't just Peter and Phillip who got the short end of the stick. I'm assuming the re-recording mixers are perfectly competent, but I'm also assuming that they have to follow their marching orders, just like the rest of us.

I know we've discussed the Christian Bale "Terminator" rant here before and that it sparked a discussion on rights to privacy that actors should (and usually can) expect on set. Well, Christian is talking about it again, and mentions the understanding that actors have with us regarding eavesdropping. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/apr/30/christian-bale-terminator-salvation-rant

Yeah! Thanks again, man! I really appreciate it!

Anybody in LA working on a set I could visit? I'd love to hang out and see how it's done when there's an actual budget. I'm not sure what I could offer in return (unless you need a hand...that I could do), but I'd definitely owe you one! -Sonny