Speaker Calibration Many in the industry suggest mixing sound for a film at 85dB, but in smaller room environments, this can be too loud, causing ear fatigue and other issues. I suggest mixing at 79dB, and when you think you are done, do one or two passes through at 85dB to double-check. This should give you a fairly accurate listening environment without ear fatigue. In larger rooms, you may be able to mix at the 85dB level, and in really big rooms you would calibrate each speaker individually. Now when you listen through the program if elements are too loud bring them down, too quiet bring them up. Trust your ears. If your picture editor is experienced and good at audio restoration, you may get a dialogue track with good levels and already cleaned up. There is a good chance though that you are going to be left with the job of restoring the audio quality of the dialogue track. Here is a shortlist of the tasks you will undertake, and the order they should fall in: Importing Session Files Most likely your picture editor is going to want to send you an OMF or AAF session file with all the audio data. I have worked in three different DAWs for post-production, Ableton Live, Logic Pro, and Pro Tools, and unfortunately only one of the three imports the OMF and AAF files properly…. Pro Tools. Logic is super close. It imports the tracks and the automation, but not the track names, and that can be super frustrating when you have a large session to work on. Ableton Live doesn’t accept these files at all. Pro Tools shows it’s strength in this area. You import the AAF and there you are with all your tracks laid out with the proper names, and all the automation. This can save you a bunch of time. If the price tag on Pro Tools is too steep, Logic would be my second choice for audio post-production, but you will have some cleanup and organizing to do before you really get to start working. Another […]