A Letter To The Sound Effects Editor
Every re-recording mixer and sound effects editor is different. That’s why I decided to make this page to have the smoothest experience and ultimately make the best product possible. Here I will lay out in detail what I expect and prefer to be delivered from a sound effects editor, from obvious things to nit picky details.
Template
I will give you a template to use, which will either be a simplified version of my full mix template with plugins and reverbs stripped, or my full mix template. If you would like to use my full template to use reverbs and eq’s etc, let me know and we can discuss.
There are 4 hard fx pre dubs, two vehicle, two design, and one object. 6 mono and 6 stereo in each. If a show is lighter you don’t need to use all of them, but feel free to organize in whatever way you see fit, and we can discuss if we want to dedicate a pre dub to something specific like HFX “D” being only doors, futz’d sounds, or tire sounds if there is heavy vehicle scenes, etc. Or just keeping a sound consistently across a single pre dub. If we’re working on a big action heavy show and need more, let’s discuss.
There are 3 ambience pre dubs with further broken down groups of A (winds, airs, room tones), B (traffic, city, machinery), C (birds, insects, nature), D (specifics), and E (crowd, walla). They are labeled in the comments field in Pro Tools. These categories can change when appropriate, they are not 100% rigid, just use your best judgement or ask. If there are heavy crowds, you can put general walla’s in E, but cut more specific crowds in VEHICLES or HFX, etc. A, B, and C have 2 mono and 3 stereo tracks each, D and E have 4 mono and 4 stereo. If you like to cut with quad or 5.0 files, use the leg picker in soundminer or whatever you use and place them on the mono and stereo tracks, and maybe group them with a note letting me know, and I will mix it appropriately. Please do NOT cut un-decoded ambisonic files as a quad, and if you spot your file to a multichannel track in Pro Tools to then move into the template, PLEASE be sure the channel order is correct, this is a common mistake and the translation into Pro Tools can sometimes be wrong.
Since there are 3 ambience pre dubs, it’s helpful if certain locations can be cut consistently on the same one. So if we have a recurring location i.e. “doctors office” that we return to throughout the episode, keep that location all in BG1 for instance, if possible.
If you cut something that you think would utilize atmos well (sound design, clean birds, etc) then you can cut those sounds onto the objects tracks either in the objects pre dub, or for ambiences there are two stereo object tracks per pre dub (I use 7.1 beds, and anything height related I use objects). If you’re unsure, no need to use these tracks and I will move clips onto them as I see fit.
Scene/Location Markers
The dialogue re-recording mixer and I will both expect the sound effects editor to setup scene/location break markers. This is a simple thing to do before or during your ambience pass (you may already do this), but it will greatly help us on the stage when setting up our reverbs, navigating, etc. These should be setup whenever a scene changes (including time jump in the same location), location changes, or a larger perspective shift occurs, and they should be frame accurate. I like them to be all caps and read something like PARKING LOT DAY EXT or JOHNS KITCHEN NIGHT INT.
Cutting
Please add fades to everything. You might not hear the click or the dropout, but there’s a good chance I will, and I just don’t like seeing that. Keep your edit tight with not a ton of dead space at the head and tail of your sounds if it isn’t necessary.
Fade shapes! This is important to me.
Equal gain cross fade: Please use this when cutting a file and crossfading for the purpose of gaining part of the clip up or down, or cutting a clip for a perspective cut. An equal power cross fade over the same in phase material will cause a bump of +3db across the fade, and I will hear it.
Equal power cross fade: Please use this when fading between different material. If you cut an unwanted event out of an ambience then crossfade the two sides together with an equal gain cross fade instead of power, it will leave a dip of -3db, and I will hear it.
Fades for Ambiences
I will tell you my exact preference, though you don’t have to do this all the time. Unless you’re doing a long fade in or something creative, I generally like 2 frame fades between ambience locations, and I like the equal power shape in, and equal gain shape out. I know this doesn’t align exactly with what I just mentioned previously, but for such a short fade I have found this is the smoothest most of the time. Of course I change this as needed, but that’s my starting point. Equal power on both sides is fine too and will bump much less than equal gain on both sides, the later option will have a super quick -3db dip and I will often hear it and have to change it.
Sometimes you’ll need to make the fades longer to smooth something out etc, and that’s fine, this isn’t a hard and fast rule if something else is necessary. But for the most part, keep it at a two frame fade across the same two frames. Something you should not do, is a two frame fade up to a cut, and then a two frame fade after the cut on the other side, spreading across four frames (or whatever length) with the full amplitude of both sides existing at once, because this will cause a bump, and again, I will hear it!
In the fade dialogue box, it’s helpful if you keep the fade “shape” option as “standard” because I like to grab fades and alter the shape on the fly when I’m working, and if you choose a shape that can’t be changed without opening up the dialogue box, it slows me down a little. Not a big deal, just a particular preference.
If you cut something that needs reverb in order to work in the edit (especially if it isn’t just a basic room reverb or needs reverb for creative reasons), then you can process that reverb as another clip. Maybe color it differently and label it if you think that’s necessary or helpful. Also, if a sound needs to be EQ’d to work, EQ it. Present sounds as they should be heard. When cutting I often have an EQ on my VST rack in Soundminer so I can quickly cut out excessive low end, hiss, etc. For any additional EQ or processing that you think I might want to change because it’s heavy for example, you can give me a muted copy of the original, or you can automate this in my template if you’re comfortable with mixing.
Volume VS Clip Gain
When setting your basic levels, I would much prefer if you use clip gain than volume automation. I don’t like getting sessions with my faders set super low, it effects how I start a mix and how I use pre-fader sends, etc. So set all your levels with clip gain, and then use volume automation for dynamic stuff you want to do after setting your basic level.
Panning
We should discuss panning before you start. Whether you want to pre pan, don’t want to, what to pan, what not to pan, especially if you’re not a mixer. Some panning decisions I can disagree with and slow me down, but pre panning while you’re cutting can also be super helpful. Here are some guidelines.
The panning I find very helpful is panning across the LCR for things like car by’s. This can be tedious on the stage (if I have time at all to think about it), so in general, it’s very helpful, especially if it’s small subtle stuff.
If it’s crucial to your sound design to implement some crazy panning, then let’s fuckin’ hear it!
Panning into the room is where it get’s more tricky, particularly in a 7.1 and Atmos environment. Sometimes when things are pre panned into the surrounds, it can waste more of my time than it saves because I will go through all of it and I will change all of it anyway. It’s sometimes easier and faster when things are panned to their default (according to my template) position, and I pull what I want into the surrounds (how I pan into the surrounds in 7.1/Atmos vs 5.1 can be very different), or I will move stuff into the object tracks and work from there, etc. In 7.1/Atmos the placement needs to be much more specific in the room compared to 5.1, so I need to stick close to the speakers and walls more, or utilize object tracks to use the ceiling when panning across the room, etc. There’s more wiggle room when panning into the room in 5.1. If you’re comfortable mixing and panning things like ambiences into the room, them I’m all for it, and will be really great if you’re good at it. But let’s discuss preferences etc.
In general, if you leave panning alone for ambiences, that’s fine. Creative stuff, do it. Panning things across the LCR in subtle ways like BG car bye, do it.
Automation, Etc.
Want to use the full mix template and do other automation like EQ and setting up reverbs? Let’s talk about it. If you’re comfortable mixing, it can be great, but we should make sure we’re on the same page about certain things because I have my preferences and particular workflows that could break if you don’t follow the same workflows.
When pulling sounds from other episodes or importing tracks from other sessions, please be careful with the automation data that can bring in. I don’t like seeing a bunch of random automation data between clips, and any automation on the clips should be specific to what you’re cutting, not left over from before with random automation that could be mistakes, etc.
Keep in Touch!
Most importantly, keep in touch and never hesitate to reach out with questions. You can’t really over do it with me, I like talking shop, and I’m always down for phone calls as well.