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For someone just entering post sound... what's a good starter DAW setup?


PLo128

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What do you all recommend as a basic post-sound setup for handling simpler media projects? I primarily work as a production sound mixer, but I'd like to add sweetening and some sound design to my services when I help out student filmmakers or do web content. And I also just want to learn more about the process, and would prefer to stick with a DAW like ProTools since it seems to be such an industry standard.

Bare in mind that I do not have a studio and was planning to do this work from home with my 15" MacBook Pro (Mac OS X version 10.7.4; 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5; 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 memory), a good set of headphones, and a zoom h4n for recording ambience and effects.

Would this starter kit from B&H along with a 2 terabyte external HD be worth it for what I want to achieve?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/730217-REG/M_Audio_Pro_Tools_Essential_Studio.html

Or would I need to go straight to ProTools 10 and a control surface if I have aspirations of handling any type of video work. Help!!!

Thank you always.

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You will need Pro Tools 10 (or 9 - anyway, the reasonably full featured one) to import OMF/AAF. SE and Express can't do that, and you will run into a track maximum pretty fast.

You can use Pro Tools 10 without any interface, or control surface. It will run through your internal Mac audio (headphone/line out and speakers).

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...a bunch of us prefer Nuendo for post.

And music.

I compose as well as sound design from time to time and Nuendo works perfectly out of the box, mixing audio tracks with several groups, aux sends, vst plugins and midi tracks with powerful and EASY intuitive tempo and composing tools, in one software, with no hardware requirements.

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I agree with everyone on going pt10. Can you put more ram in your Mac book pro? 4gb is the minimum requirement for pt10 and I'm thinking you may be a bit underpowered. Also external recording drives are a must have and Mac book pro ports are very limited. If your serious about it, maybe look into a used Mac pro. Just like location audio the gear investment seems to never end for the studio once you get started. Happy trails.

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Audition CS6 is a pretty amazing app for the $. It would work for lots of smaller non-dubstage style post jobs, and work very well. It doesn't go very deep into the esoterica of conforming or scaling up to a dubstage style system, and I sort of doubt it ever will--that's just not what Adobe's market is. Nuendo can do just about anything PT can do (and vice versa). If your work involves pretty much just you and your system then as long as you can import what the editor makes for you and export something they can put back into the picture edit system accurately, then it doesn't matter what you use. If you want to be a part of a post crew on a large commercial project or be hired as a free-lancer on dubstages etc where the DAW is already in place, then PT is the app to learn, esp. on the west coast USA.

philp

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I would also recommend these books as being great introductions to post-production sound mixing:

Audio Postproduction for Digital Video

by Jay Rose

Published by CMP Books [iSBN 1578201160]

Sound for Film and Television

by Tomlinson Holman

Published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240804538]

Sound for Picture

by Tom Kenny

Published by Artistpro [iSBN 0872887243]

The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation

by Vanessa Theme Ament

published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240811259]

The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound

by David L. Yewdall

Published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240802888]

Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art

by John Purcell

published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240809181]

If I could only afford two, I'd pick Yewdall and Purcell's books, which are extremely good (though oriented more towards Pro Tools users). I also got a lot out of Tom Kenny's book when I did all the foreign M&E work on a film a few years ago, all out of my home studio. Luckily for me, I had no client hanging over my shoulder and a month-long schedule, so I could take my time and not be under the gun. By reel 5, I was able to move ten times faster and understood exactly how to organize and route all the stems for final delivery. The client loved it, the facility was relieved, and all worked out fine.

Pro Tools is what I use, but I concede it's a personal choice and there are options out there. PT is so ingrained in my head, I don't see a need to change, especially with the wide range of available plug-ins and PT10's lower cost and wide availability.

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My vote:

-Nuendo

-Reaper+aatranslator (for cheap)

Go the Reaper + aatranslator route and use the money you would have wasted on Pro Tools 10 to buy a decent pair of small monitor speakers like the Equator Audio D5's. I use Reaper/aatranslator to do post jobs for my corporate video production sound clients and have used Reaper to do all the audio post for a full length film ( http://devilseedmovie.com ), using aatranslator to bring in OMF's and to output PT files for the final mix at a proper mix studio. If you're doing under $20K a year in business using Reaper the licence is $60.00 and is good for 2 full version upgrades. While PT may be entrenched as a standard in professional facilities, once you get into Reaper you will find that you can do more, faster and more efficiently with Reaper.

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While PT may be entrenched as a standard in professional facilities, once you get into Reaper you will find that you can do more, faster and more efficiently with Reaper.

Note that the educational version of Pro Tools 10 is under $300.

Edit: damn! Jim beat me to it. Still a great program and worth the money in terms of features, capability, and compatibility with other mixing facilities and larger projects.

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