Does anyone mix audio for TV?

[nickfever]

I have an opportunity to mix a television show that would be aired on national TV.I have never done this before, and I would like to try for the opportunity. It is a show that will be broadcast nationally.I haven't received a spec sheet from hem yet, which I know I need, but I don't know what all that entails. (I believe test tones are one of the specs that a spec sheet entails).I'm not even sure what the process is from receiving the audio from them to how i would return it to them. Is there a way it is typically done?I am not even sure what other questions to ask here, but hopefully this will get the ball rolling.FYI - I run DP 5.13 on a mac pro.Thanks,Nick

[mazz]

Nick,I've never done this before either but I do know that there are certain level specs that must be met but in the era of "digital but still analog" TV I don't know what those specs would be. The main thing is that broadcast isn't mixed like records, you're never supposed to go in to distortion (analog), I don't know what the maximum levels for digital are. Test tones are easy, you can probably download those.Try to find the maximum level specs online, I think that's the main thing you need to know. There's other folks here that might have more experience with this, Aub and Stick come to mind. Maybe send them a PM in case they miss this post, I know they're both pretty busy right now.You can mix it on anything, DP is fine. For delivery they might want surround "stems" which I believe have a labeling format that you should follow, i.e. Lt, Rt, C, LFE, Ls, Rs, or something similar. Those would be mono tracks. The other thing they might want if they want a surround mix is a stereo "downmix" which I think you can do in DP as well, I've never done surround but I know some of the terms . Of course, to do a surround mix, you need a surround monitoring system. DP has a surround master and a surround panner in it but I've never called them up but the manual has all the info you need.Also remember that broadcast uses 48K sampling rate so either work at that rate or you'll have to do a conversion before you send it, other wise the pitch will be off and it will sound funny (probably faster if you accidentally send them 44.1).That's all the info I've got for now. I gleaned that from reading every article in Mix and other magazines every month religiously, whether it pertained to me or not. I'm just fanatical that way.Good luck!!MazzGood luck, you can do it, just find out the parameters.

[mojobone]

Aug 22, 2008, 3:50pm, nickfever wrote:Is "dipping" for the narration synonymous with ducking, or is it riding the volume fader down to make any narration stand out? ... or something entirely different altogether?Ducking would be using the signal from the narration track to trigger (or key) a compressor or limiter to reduce the level of the backing track or tracks when the narrator is speaking; this is the most common application for ducking, and you can also do it with automated faders, which is more flexible, but depending on your software, can be more difficult to set up.Dipping is a similar but more subtle process that uses a keyed dynamic EQ to reduce the midrange frequencies (where the voiceover lives) leaving the highs and lows in the background tracks untouched.I'll leave your second question to the real experts. [munches popcorn]

[nickfever]

Tim, this answers my question.Thank you.Aug 24, 2008, 8:13am, twilsbach wrote:Nick,I'm a little unclear about the dialogue/music tracks you've described.Its not uncommon for video editors to be terribly sloppy with where they put sound and how they organize tracks. Sometimes its a hardware limitation. In both Avid and FCP, anything over 8 tracks you have to render to hear. That is a pain in the ass, so I'll make stuff fit where it needs to fit, even if that means putting music on an SFX track.So--If you have both music and dialogue on the same track, but at different points in the timeline. Organize it however you want, it doesn't much matter.In the case of the doubled narration, probably not trying to get it stereo, thats likely how it came from the VO talent and they just left it in to give you options. Take the duplicated one out of the mix, and you're ok, or mix it like you mentioned and you're ok.Mojo, I downloaded this.Aug 19, 2008, 11:32pm, mojobone wrote:Roger Nichols Digital's free version of Inspector (VST) is a great tool.Now, I've learned they use a Dolby LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter (which I can not afford) to measure the perceived loudness of human speech within a program. Infinite term levels should reside between -26 and -28 (only 2 dB ). Anyone have any tips or advice what to do concerning this?Thanks to everyone thus far,Nick,PS - I have only a few days, then will be gone again until the end of the month.