Dialogue Editing

104 GETTING STARTED ON DIALOGUE EDITING
Syncing the OMF
Normally, the OMF won’t have any local sync variations. You can usually
select the entire OMF and move it back and forth until it phases with the
reference. Here’s how you do it:
Make an edit group of all tracks holding the OMF.
Set the nudge value to ¼ frame.
Mute all tracks other than the OMF group and the guide track.
If, as a gift, the picture department included pan automation in the
OMF, delete it and pan all tracks center.
Select the entire OMF and play the session.
Since you usually don’t have grave problems with the OMF sync,
you’ll likely hear either perfect “whistling” phasing or a very short
“slap.” If the sync between the guide track and the OMF is good but
not perfect, stop playback and press Nudge twice (the direction is
arbitrary). Play again. If things got worse, nudge in the other direc -
tion; if it’s getting better, keep it up until you hear perfect phasing.
This isn’t brain surgery.
When syncing an OMF, there’s rarely a need to set the nudge value
less than ¼-frame, as most sync problems will be in increments of
½-frame.
Syncing an Auto-Assembly
Depending on the method of auto-assembly, you may encounter weird,
unpredictable sync offsets for each region of your auto-assembly session.
Resyncing this sort of mess is slow and ugly. However, there are software
solutions for such problems.
Titan was the software package we used in Chapter 5 to conform a fi le-based
project. The original sound was recorded on a hard-disk recorder, and we
used Titan to recreate the picture editor’s project, using the original BWF fi les.
Titan has several other utilities up its sleeve. One of them is Fix Sync, which
automatically aligns an auto-assembly to a guide track. The process is sampleaccurate,
whether or not you used Titan for the conform.
If you don’t have Titan or another auto-sync program, you’ll have to do this
by hand and ear. When you have varying offsets and you don’t know in
which direction each region will vary from the reference, you’re probably
better trying a sync plan like this:
Make an edit group of all tracks of the auto-assembly.
Output the auto-assembly to one side of a stereo output. Output the
guide track to the other side. It doesn’t matter if you put the auto-