Audio Post FAQ, ASAP

Pay attention, kids, 'cause the alphabet soup's gonna get thick PDQ:

Bruce Nazarian, M.P.S.E. has put together a great FAQ for feature film audio post. It's a very thorough overview that covers everything from THX to M&E.

Snip:

Ever since silent movies began to talk, filmmakers have been looking to control and improve the quality of the sound of their creation. As soon as creators realized there was a way to control and enhance the sound of their pictures, Audio Post was born, and has been a fact of life ever since.

Link to the FAQ, via gnomemedia.com.

Boomstick, Part Duh

How not to boom, courtesy of SNL.

Link.

The New Batch

Just a quick note today, kids:

Steve Martin (no, not that one) over at rippletraining.com has put together a short video entitled AppleScript Batch Processing that demonstrates how to automate certain tasks in Apple's Soundtrack Pro.

-Via kenstone.net (can't link to the movie directly, so look for the title in the "Audio" section).

Meter? I hardly know her....

Howdy, y'all.
Some of you out there may be too young to remember the venerable VU meter (or generation loss, or any of those other "charming" frustrations inherent in analog production technology). But with the advent of digital, well, everything, new meters, and more importantly, new practices had to be applied in their usage.

The fine folks over at Dorrough Electronics have put together a short video demonstration on how to effectively read these newer audio meters. In it, they give a quick overview of the meter's history, along with a live demonstration in a post audio context.

Snip:

From the beginning of electrical audio signals and the telephone industry's first meters through the broadcast and motion picture eras, the evolution of audio monitoring standards are presented in this interesting historical chronicle.

There is a low quality version, split into two parts, along with a high quality single clip.

Link to multimedia page, via dorrough.com.

The Five Commandments of Film Mixing

Found this article over at ifp.org the other day. In it, Steve Borne muses on the changing landscape of film post, summarizing with his "Five Commandments of Film Mixing". The article's a few years old, but the theory is still entirely relevant.

Snip:

1) Thou really ought to try and see all of the elements before the mix. Surprises = Time = $$$.
2) If thou hast ignored the first commandment, thou shalt not panic. We can fix it. Fixes = Time = $$$.
3) There is hopefully only one director. Thou shalt give your honest opinion but bow to his/her will. Arguments You Cannot Win = Time = $$$.
4).Thou shalt not talk incessantly on thy telephone while the mix is in progress. We need to hear the film. Get thee to another phone please.
5) Thou shalt consistently overpay your Sound Supervisor/Designer. He/She deserves it.

Amen to 5. :)

Steve does rant just a tad, but what do you expect from overworked audio folks? Anyway, filmmakers both rookie and veteran would do well to read and heed this...screed (sorry, couldn't resist).

Link to the article, via ifp.org.

Foam on the Range

Anyone who has ever tried to deaden their home studio by stapling up camping mattresses or used egg cartons will appreciate this brief tutorial in acoustic treatment by GK Acoustics.

The tutorial starts with a basic overview of acoustics and related terminology, before essentially turning into a shopping assistant for the company's products. Don't let this dissuade you; it's still very informative.

Link to gkacoutics.com (you can find the tutorial link on the front page)

Miclopedia

Back from the dead; or, in my case, the mixing suite. :)

While perusing the R.A.MP.S. boards the other day, I found a link to what appears to be the online catalog of mics.

Sponsored by Rycote, microphone-data.com is an exhaustive reference site for pretty much anything you'd want to know about professional microphones, including pictures.

Snip:

Microphone Data deals in facts, not opinions, with pictures, response curves and technical data from the manufacturers themselves for every currently listed microphone (and even a few that aren't).

To put the data into context you will also find a library of articles by some of the most eminent people within the audio industry that Rycote has commissioned specially.

Link to website.