Dialogue Editing

72 GETTING SOUND FROM PICTURE DEPARTMENT TO SOUND DEPARTMENT
house on sand, which is never a good idea. Working without proper video
reference risks sync problems, and a poorly clocked system imposes jitter on
the digital audio stream, lessening “crispness” and robbing the dialogue of
much needed punch and depth.
Auto-Assembly Step by Step
Some digital audio workstations, such as Pyramix, have built-in autoassembly
and conform utilities. Others, like Pro Tools, use external programs
to record and conform original material to match an EDL. In either case, the
process, as described in the following paragraphs, remains the same.
Clean the EDL Check for errors, clarify COMMENT fi elds, and confi rm source
roll names. Make sure that the information in the COMMENT fi elds is consistent.
Print the EDLs for later reference.
Import EDLs Import your EDL into the auto-assembly program and choose
your preferences. Once it’s imported, you’ll see your EDL or something that
resembles it. Each line represents one event, for which you can adjust the
input audio record channels and the channel mapping. Channel mapping is
a matrix that correlates the EDL’s “Track” instruction with the input source
channels to create appropriately placed events in the completed session. In
general, leave this setting alone. Run a test, and if you don’t like the channel
mapping results, start making changes.
When you import an EDL into an auto-assembly program, it will create
record blocks, which may include only one event or several depending on
your recording preferences and the manner in which the fi lm was edited.
Typically you’re asked about handle length, which refers to how much extra
material is recorded before and after the edit event, and load spacing, which
combines several neighboring source events into one soundfi le depending on
your preferences.
You’ll also be asked to choose which comment prefi xes (such as *COMMENT:
or *FROM CLIP NAME:) will signal scene and take names for import as region
names.
Load the Sound Normally you choose to let the auto-assembly program
automatically load the necessary sounds by controlling the DAT, DA-88, HD
player, or whatever tape source holds your original recordings. After all, the
joy of using an auto-assembly program is witnessing the player screaming
back and forth, with your pristine sounds being recorded automatically while