Putting together a Post Production Setup

[Tragicdog]

Hi Guys, I am a film student at a junior college in Orange County, CA. I have asked the film department to put in a 5.1 post room for student use. Currently there is no quality mixing environment outside of headphones that I bring into the edit bays.

Anyways upon asking what the chance was of having a 5.1 setup installed when the department moves to a new location on campus, I was asked to put something together.

That brings me here. They are running Final Cut Studio 3 w/ OSx 10.5. I personally run an Mbox 2 mini at home and was wanting to have a good protools setup at school for myself as well as future students to properly mix 5.1.

I am proposing a ProTools 003r with the complete production toolkit or the dvtool kit. One place where I know nothing about is speakers for a 5.1 system.

Do you guys think I am on the right track, and what would you suggest for a student post facility? speakers, interface, software. the works.

I am trying to keep it as cheap as possible yet still give the students an environment that will help them get associated with what is used in the industry.

Thanks in advance guys, I appreciate it.

Jon

[crimsonfilter]

No you are not on the right track.

My suggestion is for you to hire a professional or consultant.

For education purpose, no school will take a risk loosing their precious name by letting a student setting up something just for the hell of it. Even with low budget, wouldn't your school rather get an instructor or professor to do it instead?

5.1 with a 003, yes...maybe but I would not go near LE system for working on a 5.1 mix...and just look at the clients' faces when they step into your studio and see a 003.

Get pro help!

[surflounge]

info and fun folks -> Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group

[dsteinwedel]

That sounds perfectly viable for what it's meant to be. In fact, as they are students, I think giving them the least fancy version of the tools to get the job done might be best, as it will force them to focus on the audio, not the tools. On that note I'd also say stereo will serve just fine. Mixing in surround uses the same foundation as mono/stereo but just takes longer.

Speaker choice is usually dependent on the size of the room and personal preference. A set of active monitors (like Genelecs, Mackies, etc.) will serve you fine. I like to put a monitor controller in front of my speakers but it's not absolutely necessary. (Check out the spl2409 for a cheapie surround controller.)

You shouldn't need a lot of fancy plug-ins. The stock compressor, eq, and other effects from digi can be made to do a lot of things very well. I'd recommend adding a better reverb unit than D-Verb though. If you want to be able to do some fancy sound design, add Pitch & Time, a doppler effect, and a basic synth.

-Dave

[josh broome]

Tragic Dog,

This sounds like a valuable learning experience, I wouldn't seek out help unless you find yourself in a pickle. Have you checked out BlueSky 5.1 systems? very affordable, that's what they have in the 5.1 room at SAE (school of audio engineering) New York.

[Tragicdog]

Thanks for the help guys.

As some of you thought (why is a student doing this), I am in the last semester of my study and a practicing FOH engineer. I have extensive knowledge of live sound, but when it comes to the studio (music) or Post I am fresh on the street.

I haven't looked at Blue Sky in a while, but I'll take a look. Thanks for the plugin suggestions, I'll keep them in mind as I put together the proposal.

As for wither to keep the current mix environment at stereo through cheap computer speakers and/or headphones that the students bring in. I ask why shouldn't we try to at least learn how to mix in 5.1? It is what the industry is doing and I say that in order to learn and survive you must try to replicate what will happen in the industry.

As for hiring a professional to come in and do this, I'm trying not to spend the tax payers(mine and yours) money. If it comes to them wanting to build out a full post facility rather than have 6-7 edit bays in a room, I'm sure they will bring in a professional to do this, but until then I'm trying to get a good audio environment at a school. Especially since the department is moving into a new building and we can actually allocate space to this project.

Sorry if that last bit was a rant, I felt I needed to do it.

Thanks again for your help guys,
Jon

[philper]

Originally Posted by Tragicdog

Thanks for the help guys.

As some of you thought (why is a student doing this), I am in the last semester of my study and a practicing FOH engineer. I have extensive knowledge of live sound, but when it comes to the studio (music) or Post I am fresh on the street.

I haven't looked at Blue Sky in a while, but I'll take a look. Thanks for the plugin suggestions, I'll keep them in mind as I put together the proposal.

As for wither to keep the current mix environment at stereo through cheap computer speakers and/or headphones that the students bring in. I ask why shouldn't we try to at least learn how to mix in 5.1? It is what the industry is doing and I say that in order to learn and survive you must try to replicate what will happen in the industry.

As for hiring a professional to come in and do this, I'm trying not to spend the tax payers(mine and yours) money. If it comes to them wanting to build out a full post facility rather than have 6-7 edit bays in a room, I'm sure they will bring in a professional to do this, but until then I'm trying to get a good audio environment at a school. Especially since the department is moving into a new building and we can actually allocate space to this project.

Sorry if that last bit was a rant, I felt I needed to do it.

Thanks again for your help guys,
Jon

The room is more important than the gear you put in it. If you want students to make mixes that translate well to other venues, (as a professional would want) then you should be putting your energy into what room they will give you and how you can make it work. A great deal of research is required. The equipment is easy by comparison, that you can figure out in a few minutes--there aren't that many choices.
Blue Sky is a great bang-for-buck 5.1 solution, BTW, with easy and intelligent setup.

Philip Perkins

[soundboy]

Check out Tomlinson Holman's books "5.1 Up and Running" and "Sound for Film and Television". You need to understand the process to know what tools you will need. Consider a Foley and ADR room as well. This will take you back to your SATs; "F.O.H. engineering is to Post Audio what framing and construction is to cabinet making".

[Gohanto]

Knowing 5.1 is important, but if you're working on a budget, a decent 2.0 or 2.1 setup is FAR better than a bad 5.1 setup. (And getting high quality 5.1 is more expensive than advertising would have you believe)

Speakers, acoustics, room dimensions, and software are all factors.

For acoustics, try to get a room where the room dimensions are NOT multiples of each other (ie. a 20x10x10 room would be TERRIBLE). And then you'll want to acoustically treat the room as well. Auralex does free "room analysis" where you basically draw the room, list a budget, and they tell you what can be done (other companies offer this as well, but I'm not as familiar with them)
Auralex Acoustics - Product Application Support

[bizzle]

Learn to mix in mono and stereo first. Throwing more speakers in the room won't help folks learn the basics. 2¢