Joel Pinteric

Pindrop, RX is both a stand-alone app and suite of plug-ins, so there's really little chance of needing to resync; you either process the audio file (conveniently through the DAW) destructively or apply a plug-in to the relevant tracks. For myself I link it with Logic Pro in the prefs. So whenever I need to process a file, I just select the region, hit the keyboard shortcut to open RX, process, then close. Logic immediately refreshes the file information/overview (about 90% of the time anyway). This is the main procedure since Spectral repair is so useful but isn't available like the other simpler plug-ins.

I'd like to add more to this, but for the moment there's something that I was more bothered about - those with the same "love and awards" attitude but in the context of producing features (sorry if it's a bit off topic). It would help if somebody could make a further distinction here. Firstly, like jdutaillis, I'm from Australia (Sydney). What I don't understand is when I come across the odd 'audio job' post online (they're so rare that it's fine to call them that), I may read into it how great the producers are and what magnificent work they've done, you know, winning awards and counting films, all the wonderful recognition. Then read the job description - yes there's plenty to do. Then at the bottom 'This is unpaid however...'. Maybe this isn't as common as it seems, but it just shocks me that such companies can get so far in the industry and still think there's no need to pay for sound, maybe even a score too. Doesn't help when I, too, would like to get an idea of any consensus in budgets and charging people. Even when people have a budget, by US' perspective it's not even worth anything, but besides that I have no room to even think about how many hours spent on edit vs design vs mix etc. Basically just do what you have to. Sorry to say.

You're not actually answering the question, which I've asked in the context of the film industry in general. Do you have anything to add?

Cool, well the search tools are good now Marc! Will check it out, no-brainer... I'll be looking into more of this business stuff, a lot of it is still new to me. I've only been registered as a freelancer for under six months, so still a bit naive. Is there any more info I need to post? Feature length is feature length, I'm not implying anything else so we're on the same page... My question was broad, i.e. not restricted to budget (budget is not mentioned in the question). I've now gotten the impression that being solo on a large role or multiple roles like this reflects the budget of a project, generally speaking. Cheers for the advice. I will let them know of my extra efforts (on my part), but it probably won't make much difference unless they ask for further extra work at the end, because I'd certainly make sure I charge once more.

I'm reading through Sound for Film and Television (Tomlinson Holman), which is just great! Good read so far. Interesting, I can see there's probably not much trend, it's going to just come down to what people can afford. Thanks for that. Sorry but the GS search is no use to me, I have no idea why. Any special search terms? In my context? I didn't mean to miss anything if I did... I suppose you share Phil P's view on this (budgets/sizes), otherwise I'd appreciate some explanation. Thanks all.

Thanks Marc, I am searching there (I am registered too). Seems Google's Search is more useful than the GSlutz search feature at the moment... Can you please see my question on contracts? Henchman, thanks again. All very interesting. Nice price tag there haha... I suppose there are some exceptions, but yes, when given bad quality sound, there is only so much you can do. I see your point... "The Godfather wasn't recorded on a Zoom." Haha! Good one. My last Q for the moment: Again, would anyone agree that the audio-post work method as solo is uncommon for feature films? I imagine the shorter features are more likely to be a one-man band, compared to mid-longer length (120-180min), which would already have the budget for bigger studios/teams. Cheers all!

Thanks so much, everyone. In regards to he commentary on me being "lucky", I totally saw that coming, haha. No need to be discouraging, I'm well aware of the demands in this scenario but my luck is in the experience and credit. I am enjoying it but I know a professional product will be more enjoyable. Cujo: If it's so clear cut, how much time then for $2k? Can you expand on 'the quality of the finished product?' Seems a little bit tautological so far. Greg S: When you say that, do you mean full-time and excluding other projects? Geoff T: He's had a fair bit, but probably not as much to expect more... he's easygoing about it, which is just what I need. Phil P: My thoughts exactly! Except the 27 hour is my wording for worth. There probably isn't an average no. hours spent solo on a feature, so I can't say much more. Brian: Thanks for the tip, yep I've already started but I know what you mean with going the extra mile, as Phil said. Henchman: Interesting, how many hours equals a 'day' for you? And when you say "$200p/h" are you suggesting that this would be worth nearly $5k? Remember I don't really have much perspective on doing all audio-post work for a project this size. What do you mean by 'playback and fixes;' is it just letting them watch with you in person and make suggestions on the spot? Marc W: Thanks, contracts are a new thing in my world but I've asked for one now. Do you have any external reference/example for when it comes to giving/writing your own contracts (for when I am obliged to provide them)? John B: We've more or less agreed to this verbally... however the producer is the one I haven't spoken to yet but he's obviously supposed to provide the contract... Thanks again everyone, all input much appreciated!

I've been lucky to be starting audio post on my first feature (very low budget), which is just over 80mins. It is a drama between three main characters, but there's a few more. I'm already over a month into it and I've already been delayed significantly by ADR editing, although that is part of the process. Just looking for some perspective on how much time to give a project, when the Director/Producer's one "sound designer" (me) is likened to a whole audio-post department. Tell me if this is not unusual? Firstly I know there are many variables that will be affecting the size of sound post teams. Budget and work load are the main ones. In this case, it is just me working on it. I've got <5yrs experience, but I'm supposed to be paid what I would demand for about 27 hours of work. But I'm thinking the finish line is a bit more than few months away haha. No sign of contract yet. They did not have an experienced, or specially "dedicated" sound recordist, so Sound Editing is probably going to take more time than the actual creative sound design itself, although I think Editing is very time consuming regardless. I've tried to break down the time estimate to the Director since he's already asking me when I should have it finished. So I've just informed them that Editing, Sound Design, Mixing are the main blocks. If I could split that further into a time estimate as a ratio, it would probably be 5 : 3 : 2 Any thoughts/advice much appreciated. How much time should I really dedicate to something like this or what is expected? In between other (part-time) work and projects I'm thinking I'll be lucky to get this done in under a few months. Is there anything typical or any examples that I could use as a guide? That's another thing too, in the meantime how does one decide on taking on other projects? It is low budget but what of priorities?

Thanks a lot guys. I was asking specifically if you receive very hot tracks before mixing, hence why I said "...since the peak output is now, in some cases, 10-12dB lower". For example if you recieved a dialogue track peaking at 0dbFS, but your final peaks must not exceed -10dbFS: you lower it, but then you find it too quiet. That was my train of thought, but I actually just went and tried it and the RMS seemed to follow through fine, I only added a little compression with big spikes. If however there was the scenario where the attentuated signal was too quiet, but was also noisey, you'd still unfortunately have to apply compression to meet the spec...

What are your thoughts on compression (mainly dialogue) to achieve a desired loudness, since the peak output is now, in some cases, 10-12dB lower? I try to avoid compression due to the low dynamic range or noisy environments of some dialogue, but on the other hand it is unfortunate that some mixes seem too quiet without it.

Thanks a lot everybody, looks like this thread got popular with answers! Just a reminder though, I was referring the matter specifically in post-production, as stated in my OP. I.e. Ideal levels in mixing-down / dubbing, including peaks and rms. This is not about production sound recording!

Thanks for that, I knew it. I think some of the films had in-camera audio, which was probably getting compressed a long the way. Painful. Apart from our ears, is LKFS metering something we should all be using? I was going to ask about RMS, speaking of loudness.

Hey all, I'm curious what mixdown levels most (post-production) sound mixers use with films, particularly short films. I vaguely remember from college that our outputs should be peaking around -10 or -12dBFS at the most. However I think this must vary a lot depending on the application of the film and more confusion is added on what is an acceptable loudness, since peaks do not define loudness. Furthermore I suspect these levels would be inclined differently for web purposes. I've done a few sound mixes in the past that clients were happy with, following the above rule, however recently I've received a request to basically get the mixes peaking as loud as possible (close to 0dBFS) as my mix was too "quiet". I also went to a student short-film screening at a well known film school and the sound was horribly loud in some films. The films I did sounded acceptable but I hope that there's not a loudness war going on here. Any background appreciated, even if you have links to post-production mixing/mastering in general. Thanks a lot.