Unit 24 LA B understanding processes and techniques for audio editing

1. LA B - Techniques
Work What’sinvolved? Why is it done?
Selecting clips and cutting and
pasting to import
 Accessing sound files on recording
device
 Identifying relevant files
 Copying files into work space
 Retaining original files
 Efficiency (only having to work with
relevant material)
 Security (keeping backups for original
material)
 And so, ultimately, saving time and so
saving money in a professional project
 At least one answer to all of these points
is ‘efficiency’
Graphic manipulation of
volume, l/r panning and levels
and onscreen fader controls
 Testing volume levels and sound
quality
 Using onscreen controls to set
volume level and Left/Right balance
 Using faders to control the mix of
multi-track volume levels (so
individually controlling each track so
that all of them balance as you want
them to)
 Getting individual sound clips ‘into shape’
as a first stage before starting to work
with multiple sound clips in the ‘build’
edit
 Efficiency, save time and money
Mouse –v- keyboard shortcuts  Speed and ease of working
 Keyboard shortcuts allow you to
work quickly and (in time) to work
instinctively
 Working with the mouse allows you
to be precise and have close control
(generally much more so than a
trackpad)
 Efficiency (time, money)
 The right tools for the right job
 Professional familiarity with the software
 Personal preferences
Duplicating, copying and saving  Protecting original material –
keeping a backup of original sound
files
 Saving material on separate
removable drives – saving in cloud
storage – saving as part of the editing
programme
 Security – and so efficiency, time, money
 Having backups ready to hand in case of
need (hence cloud storage and removable
devices)
 Retaining the original unedited audio so
that any work canstart againat stage 1 if
necessary

2.  Retaining the ‘finalised’ individual sound
clips for efficiency (t/m)
Multiscreen add-ons  Using the second screen as a preview
monitor
 Particularly useful whenyou have
finalised sound files and are editing
sound and video together
 Premier lets you do this
 Workflow efficiency (t/m)
 Personal preferences
Using breathing spaces and
pauses to replicate real sound
 Editing dialogue for realism
 Using multiple sound files of
separately recorded dialogue to edit
together a conversation
 Editing to create the rhythms of real
conversation, including breathing
spaces, pauses and talking-over each
other
 Building dialogue sequences out of
individual sound files
 Realistic dialogue needs to take account of
breathing spaces, pauses in speech,
people over-speaking
 Using rumbletracks (a ‘background noise’
recording the length of the scene that sits
underneath all of the clips and hides the
edit points) to ‘knit together’ different
dialogue recordings
 To create realistic dialogue sequences that
are indistinguishable from actually
straightforwardly recorded dialogue

3. LA B - Procedures
Work What’sinvolved? Why is it done?
Logging when recording with
annotation (EDL)
 Creating a detailed accurate list of
what you record as you record it
 Efficiency – organisation – time – money
 Making it easy to identify relevant clips to
take forward into the edit and clips to
discard, as well as currently unused clips to
save in case
Reviewing detailed EDL –
errors and omissions, level
issues, poor recordings
 Using EDL to review recordings
and make preliminary decisions
about files to use
 Retaining all usable files – you
don’t know what you might need
 Review recordings to check accuracy of EDL
 Identify ‘delete’ files – there will be some that
are definitely of no use – efficient to delete
them
 Identify best files to take forward to save
time and avoid paying attention later to
unnecessary material
 Keep backups of all original material in case
it’s needed
 Efficiency – organisation - money
and so from A and B –
identifying clips most likely to
be used
 Identifying files to bring into
editing programme
 Use the reviewed EDL to identify which files
to copy onto the editing ‘machine’
(PC/Mac/Standalone editor) to make the
further editing process as smooth as possible
 Retain and backup all usable original files in
case they are needed
 time/money
Importing into software  Retaining all original files
 Copying and pasting required files
onto editing device (Mac, PC,
standalone editor)
 Importing relevant files into
software using software specific
techniques
 Using the software procedures and
techniques to move relevant material into the
programme
 So you can use ‘stage 1’ editing – to clean up
and prepare individual audio files for multi-
file editing
 And stage 2 editing – so you can bring the
different finalised audio files together in a
multi-track timeline
 Using the software efficiently and effectively
- time/money

4. Housekeeping – file structures,
relevant and useful file and
folder names
 Creating file structures to protect
assets and work in progress
 Labelling folders and files with
relevant and clear names
 Efficiency – organisation – time – money
 If you don’t organise files correctly you could
lose them
 The programme needs to ‘know’ where the
files are
Dragging clips to timeline  Building the audio timeline
 Multitrack editing and sound
levels
 Both in ‘stage 1’ editing when you are
finalising files and ‘Stage 2’ editing when you
are creating a multi-file edit, you need to
bring audio onto the timeline to work on it
 Multi track editing – so you can apply
different effectsor adjust volumes in different
sections of the audio in isolation
 Using mute and solo effects so you can focus
on one track at a time
Reviewing clips for usefulness
as product is built
 Using EDL and listening to
individual files to select most
useful clips for timeline
 Editing material from different
clips as necessary
 Using annotated EDL allows you to
efficiently select the most relevant material -
time/money
 Rechecking the clips allows you to identify
the most useful as the work develops – what
appears most useful in isolation may not be
when you are working with multiple clips
Using in and out points and
deleting unwanted data
 Only bringing relevant material
into the timeline
 Deleting unwanted material
within the system having retained
and backed up the original sound
files in case they are needed again
 Managing your files efficiently – using in/out
points lets you ‘pre-edit’ by removing
unwanted material and the beginning and
end of takes
 You have retained original files in case you
later decide you need unused material
 Efficiency / time / money
Using different audio clips to
make a single sequence for use
in final build/edit
 Using multiple sound files to
build a single sound file to export
for use in a final edit/build
 Multi track editing
 Sound levels
 L/R Balance
 Effects
 Creating single audio files from multiple
original recordings simplifies the ‘end-use’
audio edit – when you are bringing it into an
audio-visual edit suite
 This stage of audio editing is planned in
detail with the final use in mind – so you are

5. building audio deliberately for specific use in
the audio-visual edit/build
 Efficiency – time money
 With the backup available that if you get the
planned piece into the final video edit and
there’s an issue, you have the resources to go
back to to re-edit/rebuild
Using ‘Normalising’ function to
make sure levels of each clip
match
 Normalising across multiple
sound files to match sound levels
across clips
 Checking for disruption of L/R
balance in normalisation
 Checking resultant sound quality
after normalisation
 Normalising a completed audio edit brings
all of the different sound clips used to the
same level
 Normalising can significantly effect L/R
balancing – you need to disable the effect on
L/R balance or you’ll have to redo the work
 Normalising can have unexpected effects,
especially if you have built a number of
effects into your audio edit.
 So retain the pre-normalised audio and
compare with the normalised audio to check
 Time/Money/Efficiency
AdditionalEvaluation
Generally  Editing processes, techniques and procedures have standard practices but work towards
different outcomes and under different requirements in different situations. The most
significant differences come between working on fiction and non-fiction texts
 Both, however, have the issue of copyright in the background, which is most likely to be
relevant in terms of using copyright-protected music and the need to obtain a license to
use, but may also involve sound effects or reading/performance of copyright protected
writing.
Non Fiction
Texts
 There is a responsibility to represent people without mis-representation
 This is a legal as well as a moral responsibility – people have sued media producers for
misrepresenting them through the editing process
 The editing process is therefore about working to create a compelling and popular media
text that people will want to watch/listen to, by using audio techniques such as sound

6. effects and background music as well as more straightforward continuity editing, without
going so far as to misrepresent the words and meaning of the person being represented
 A particular issue might be editing a sequence down in order to fit a limited time slot
without oversimplifying a person’s message or appearing to change its meaning
 This is more complicated because sometimes the point of an interview is to challenge the
person being interviewed – sometimes they say one thing and sometimes another, and the
point of the editing might be to show that the interviewee is inconsistent- but that would be
an honest representation of their inconsistency
 There is a general duty in creating non-fiction texts toshow reality as it is
Fiction Texts  Even in fiction there may be a duty if your fictional text includes fictionalised
representations of real people – some of the above issues with non-fiction texts may apply
 However in general the processes used in fiction texts can be used much more freely to
create the impressions, representations, meanings, messages and values that the
producer/director wants to create
 There are still constraints of time and money – both production time and the eventual
running time of the item or whole text, that audio editors must pay attention to