How To Make Pro Tools Template

Ambiences, Sound Effects, Foley And Music - Building Your Get-go Film Pro Tools Mix Template Session Office 3

This series of articles is written for the aspiring mix-to-pix mixer coming from the music mixing background (P.A. or CD).

During these articles, tips and tricks will exist given to help you lot get a hold with the ins-and-outs of sound mail service-production workflows. The tools are roughly the same, merely their apply has a slightly dissimilar estimation than in the music world.

Since you already know most of the tools, I volition skip using infant steps. Equally the series develops yous will exist guided in how to modify your workflow to a surroundings sound session, upgrade your listening environment, what to listen for, and everything in between.

This article picks up afterward the dialogue routing and assignment has been demonstrated. As I am mixing, once the dialogues are roughly 98% of where I want them to exist, I go to the ambiences.

Ambiences

As mentioned in the previous article, the tracks count for the ambiences is loftier, just the same logic applies: everyone'due south target is its own environment stem, integrated to the mix with all their downmixes.

Virtually tracks will be stereo with mono specifics (distant dog bark, crow caw, etc.), but some tracks might exist M-Southward or Ambisonic encoded, and some straight out 5.1. Your template has to reflect any curveballs they might throw at y'all.

Typically, your track layout could wait like this:

16-32+ stereo tracks
4+ mono tracks
iv+ stereo M-S tracks (and/or Ambisonic)
four+ environs 5.ane tracks
One stereo aux. return (dAmbs)
Ane stereo decode aux. (M-S and/or Ambisonic)
I stereo UpMix aux. (uAmbs)
One 5.one render to deed as a subgroup (sAmbs)

Once dialogue and ambiences are done, I aim for the PFX and Foley, fifty-fifty though the production you are working on might exist set in fantasy or science-fiction, I like to anchor everything, in reality, the magic will happen subsequently on with the SFX, the Audio Pattern and the Music.

To Be Noted

The convolution reverb has to be another instance of the plugin, with the same presets used for the Dialogue. They are in the same environment, so it makes sense that they should become the same acoustic handling.

Audio Effects (SFX)

At long concluding the SFX. This is where you will be getting your first creative blitz. Where the whole matter starts to audio similar a finished piece of art! At that place are ii types of SFX: the first 1 is to augment or supersede production sound. Sounds like car doors, java boiling, figurer chime, etc. annihilation Foley can't handle… safely.

And so the 2d one: Audio Design. These sounds are betwixt music and the human imagination. They possess an intent - an artistic intent that regular SFX solitary cannot convey. Regardless, they are part of the SFX stems. On rare occasion, they go their ain stalk, so don't forget to requite them their own processing (reverbs, delays, and what take you), and assign them to a different path.

The SFX tracks layout that could look like this:

6 mono tracks (for PFX)
6-12+ stereo tracks (SFX)
sixteen+ mono tracks (SFX)
16+ stereo tracks (SDesign)
4 mono tracks (SDesign)
4 mono tracks (lfe SFX)
Ane stereo return for a convolution reverb (same type as Dialogue) (rSFX)
One stereo render for an algorithmic reverb for surround magic (rSFX02)
One stereo render for a digital delay for exteriors and dreamlike (dSFX)
Ane mono return for Depression Frequency effects (lfeSFX)
One 5.1 return to deed as a subgroup (sSFX)

SFX & Sound Design Console

And then… drum scroll please… the music!

Music

The last creative element that glues everything together. The one that sometimes saves the solar day! Upward until now the only creatives you have been dealing with are the managing director and maybe the sound designer, non that the other departments are not creative, they are in their own mode, but composers are truly off the charts creative. Which would explain why they are so protective of their piece of work.

If you are lucky, the kickoff time, you lot will be dealing with an experienced composer, and with a bit of mutual respect and a articulate communication path, the whole process should become smoothly. Not wanting to be an alarmist, the newbies are the ones you lot accept to watch out for. They are usually intimidated or unaware of the process, and definitely nervous. This is where your reassuring and confident personality comes through. A lot is riding on the terminal mix, the producers take spent money and typically a lot of years on this project, it's up to you to make all the sweat, grunts, and mistakes go away… music usually comes to the rescue.

Hopefully, you had a conversation with the composer prior to the delivery date. During that discussion, yous would accept been able to recommend a stem layout. A dirty word for virtually composers: they are e'er agape that you want stems to rearrange their work.

My 2 all-time arguments are that you are in a better position to unwrap their music in surround audio (that's always exciting for them). And secondly, if y'all accept stems information technology'southward artistically better to duck (lower) a single stem than the whole score.

They volition appreciate that yous intendance for their music.

And there you lot have information technology, a great working template fix to hit the airwaves!

Roger Guerin comes from the music recording earth, after several platinum albums he brings his quest for quality audio to the pictures. With close to 200 entries on imdb.com, he is a rare fellow member of both the Motion Picture Audio Editors (MPSE) and the Cinema Audio Society (CAS).