Titan vs VK for conforming location audio

[jahtao]

Have tried Titan and am very put off by the antiquated front end and lack of iLok, Virtual Katy seems like the way to go, but after a quick demo with a test edl on Friday afternoon, I hadn't managed to conform all the edits successfully.

We need to buy one or the other, shall we just pull the trigger on VK? Does it work?!!

Thanks,
Matt

[ErikG]

You really still need both Im afraid.

Vk can do in a pinch to conform location audio, but only as long as you just have a few recording days. Since you need to do one sort and conform for each day and for each edl it builds up fast (not to mention you need to prep the location audio first). 30 days x 12 edl's that is 360 manual conforms...

I could spend my time better...

Titan still rules location conforming (Titan 4 is in beta right now, finally).

Virtual Katy have been miles ahead Titan when it comes to reconforms though.
So I say get both. Or buy Titan and live with it for the time beeing and upgrade asap. Hopefully v4 should be more like VK in its reconform quality.

[TVPostSound]

Take a look at this:

maggot software









.

[ErikG]

Maggots Assemblerator is PT only, and will effectivey work the same way as VK.
You will have to choose the soundroll (day) and prep a trck with the original takes for that day...

No vote from me there either.

I heard that Pyramix built in conform software should be good, but personally I dont really fancy using one more daw right now, especially not just for a single function.

[jahtao]

Originally Posted by ErikG

I could spend my time better...

Yes, that seems to be the key issue. And it basically comes down to the fact that they both work in different ways - Titan is stand-alone, and VK is err sort of 'online' within PT.

But it seems to me that there are pro's and cons to both approaches. After all, with Titan you have to import your conformed session into PT to see if it's done it properly, and potentially go back and forth between the two to troubleshoot any tricky edits. I had to do a fair amount of this during my tests with both programs so I'm still drawn to VK over Titan.

But my heart sinks at the prospect of prepping several days worth of location recording for a drama type production, IE one where the recorder is turning on and off all day. Titan would surely have the upper hand there! However, we do more studio shows and, at the moment, plays. In these where there is just one long record for each night, I think I'd rather use VK.

[ErikG]

In that case you might be able to get by with just VK. But never in the case with multiple edls and lots of days as is common in Feature films and TV series...

[apple-q]

Titan has the huge advantage that it creates a PT-session directly from your audio-files. With VK and others you have to manually spot ALL your audio to the original TC in your time-line before they work.

Takes a LOT more time than Titan. A reel conformed by Titan takes about 5-10 Minutes to conform once you got the settings right.
With VK you will need a few hours to place your audio to the correct TCs first before even doing the conforming.

[Jfriah]

Yeah VK works well but we've found that it helps a lot by setting your 'go to' spots say an hour or two later in showtime which makes it a bit easier for copy/paste to where it SHOULD go if that makes sense to you if you haven't used it...?

Jeff

[jahtao]

More on this:

Titan v4 should be released in the next few days (which is quite exciting) but it is Mac OS X 10.5 and above only, so we're just gunna go (happily) with VK. We'll cross any further bridges as we come them.

Ahhhhhh, closure.

Muchos thanks for your inputs people.

Matt

[ErikG]

jahtao
Dont you have any system with newer than 10.4?
Buy one extra harddrive, install 10.5 and off you go, wrong reason to not use Titan imho.

[jahtao]

appreciate your input Erik, i'll let u know how we get on. I feel we've made the right choice for our needs... we've tested them both etc.

[ErikG]

Just for the record, I'm no huge fan of Titan as a product, but unfortunately it still seems like the most versatile out there (I wish it wasn't).

I jus tried to banish it from my own workflow and replace it with VK, but just thinking about the resultant 5-600 Manual conforms needed jut for this feature I'm working on right now plus all the prep work in the projects themselves, that almost made me faint.

[mfranken]

I haven't used Loco myself but I know a local editor who used it and said it does a great job of conforming location audio. Anyone else tried it? There's a Mac and Win version of it.

Regards,

Mark

[jahtao]

Originally Posted by mfranken

I haven't used Loco myself but I know a local editor who used it and said it does a great job of conforming location audio. Anyone else tried it? There's a Mac and Win version of it.

Regards,

Mark

liking the look of the 'uncertain' feature

[ErikG]

I've emailed them a few weeks ago, no reply...