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A Basic Audio Post Production Workflow In Pro Tools
Pro Tools has long been the industry standard in audio post production, from the biggest Hollywood blockbusters and network television series to modest indy flicks, Pro Tools almost always finds its way into the workflow at some stage of the production. Ever since the acquisition of Digidesign by Avid, the commitment towards creating an industry leading, post-centric feature set has never ceased, even winning Digi an Academy Award in 2003. Although many of us here at the Pro Tools Corner, including myself, primarily focus on music production, it is important to recognize the huge audio post-production community that makes up a big part of the Pro Tools universe. So in the spirit of audio post, this week at the corner I will walk you through a basic post-production workflow in Pro Tools, showing you how to set up the session and import video.
Setting Up The Session For Audio Post
The term audio post-production, sometimes referred to as simply "post production," generally refers to the process of working with audio tied to picture (video). While Pro Tools is not designed nor billed as a video-editing environment like Avid or Final Cut, it does include many features that help users work with audio destined for video productions.
Setting Up The Time Code Ruler
Because many of us are used to working in the relative world of bars and beats, we will need to make some changes to the Pro Tools rulers and grid settings. Video productions generally work off a time-code reference that provides us with a specific time marker for each frame of video. Time-code is generally represented in the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) format of Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames. A time code reference of 01:03:22:13 would read: 1 hour, 3 minutes, 22 seconds and 13 frames.
To set the main time counter in Pro Tools to time-code choose: View > Main Counter > Time Code.
Note: If you are working in Pro Tools LE you must have the Pro Tools DV Toolkit 2 installed, which enables the time code ruler and opens up a few other post-centric features to Pro Tools LE. Alternatively you can use the absolute time counter Minutes:Seconds, but you will not be able to do get frame accurate grid points when editing.
Setting The Frame Rate
In order for the time code ruler to count time in sync with your video, you must match the frame rate of your session to the frame rate of the video you are working with. Generally this information can be found in your video editing suite or in Quicktime Player by showing the movie‘s info, otherwise be sure to ask whoever gives you the video what the frame rate it.
To Set The Session Frame Rate
- Choose Setup > Session
- Choose the correct frame rate from the Time Code rate drop down menu.
Setting The Session Start Time
It is rare for video productions to have a start time of 00:00:00:00 and since Pro Tools defaults the session start time to this value it is often necessary to change the session start time to match the start time of your program material. This will ensure that any time-code burned into your video track will match the time-code displayed in pro tools and any audio you create/edit will time stamp correctly and return seamlessly into your video-editing environment. If you are unsure about start time, a good starting point is 01:00:00:00 or 1 hour, but make sure you reference the start time in your video editing suite or ask the video editor to provide a start time for the project..
To Set The Session Start
- Choose Setup > Session Setup
- In the Session Start field type in the desired session start time and hit enter. Enter time code values left to right (hours -> frames).
Importing Video
Pro Tools LE, M-Powered, and HD software all support the playback of QuickTime video directly in the timeline. Since 7.3, Pro Tools also supports multiple video tracks and improved video track editing. Using the QuickTime video engine Pro Tools will import and playback .mov and .dv format movies and generally supports any ISO-compliant MPEG-4 codec you have installed for your QuickTime player, including the newer QuickTime HD (H.264) format. Pro Tools HD also has the ability to import and playback Avid video formats using peripherals like the Avid Mojo or V10. Note: If you wish to work with video that is not in a Pro Tools compatible format, you can generally convert it to a compatible QuickTime .mov file using Apple's QuickTime Pro.
To Import A Quicktime Video
- Choose File > Import > Video
- In the import video dialog, navigate to the desired video file and click open.
- In the Video Import Options dialog, check "New Track" and set the location to "Session Start." If you choose to import the audio track from the QuickTime movie, Pro Tools will ask you where you want to store the extracted audio files and defaults to your session's audio files folder.
Note: Video files can also be dragged and dropped into the tracks list, regions list or timeline directly from the finder, explorer or workspace. The video shows up as a new video track with the video region placed at the session start. The stereo audio track extracted from the QuickTime movie also shows up as a new audio track in sync with the video track. Choose Windows > Video to show the resizable video screen. From an editing standpoint video regions act much like audio regions, however in the case of multiple video tracks only one video track will play back at a time.
Pro Tools Tidbits
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If you have a Pro Tools related question that you would like me to take a shot at answering or have any feedback, please send it to brian@audioMIDI.com. I will do my best to select the questions that seem to stump the most people.
As always, stay tuned to the audioMIDI.com eNews for the latest reviews and new product info.
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