Radio Spots

[mitchman411]

I've been a DP user for quite a while now. But this is my first post on UnicorNation. I'm not a heavy DP user. I mostly use it for producing 30 second radio and TV (audio only) commercials. It works great for this! (I think I'm the only commercial producer in the area who uses a compressor/limiter). Anyway, I have a question about my DP work flow that I've been wondering about for years. (yes, years!) I'm going to try and describe it using an example (sorry if this is long).

Example: Produce 10 radio spots. They are all 30 seconds in length and they all consist of only 2 tracks. Mono Narration track (that I record in studio) and a pre-recorded 30 second music track. Simple stuff right? Here's my work flow:

1. Create a new project in DP4
2. Record the narration live into DP4 by creating a new Sequence for each individual commercial.
3. Edit the narration for each sequence down to 30 seconds
4. Import pre-recorded music. Manually drag into each of the 10 sequences.
5. Assign the MasterWorks Limiter and EQ to the Narration channel and adjust settings.
6. Assign EQ to the Music channel
7. Assign MasterWorks Limiter to the Master channel

(here's where it gets very repetitive)
8. I then repeat steps 5-7 for each of the remaining 9 sequences. Granted, DP4 will automatically adjust your settings if you assign the same plug-in to the same channel. But it's still a pain.

I've tried copying the entire sequence into a new one and that works pretty well. But I have to make the Narrator wait while I do this....kind of a pain, but do-able.

I've thought about recording all 10 commercials into the same sequence by using multiple "takes" on the same channel. Then my Mixing board settings would stay the same. I could label the "Takes" to keep track of them. But is this really the best way?

Any other ideas?

I don't have 4.7 yet, but I will soon. Maybe there will be something in it that will help.

Mitch

[cleantone]

Maybe I'm not understanding your question. You just want a shortcut to avoid putting the plugins on each channel manually? Why not put them on the master fader and adjust as needed for each commercial, then process and move to the next? What am I missing?

[mitchman411]

Because I want the individual plug-in's to only effect the channel I put them on.

Example:
Narration Channel = Limiter and EQ (squashes volume and boosts highs/cuts lows)

Music Channel = EQ (cuts "hole" to make room for narration frequencies)

Master Faderl = Limter (levels out Narration and Music mix)

Sorry, but I don't understand your answer.

[giles117]

well, None of us have 4.7

Here is what I do for Rappers who do mix tapes (same concept as your multiple spots.)

For Mix tapes I use 3 tracks, 1 stereo track for the Music and 2 tracks for vocals. I buss the vocal tracks to 2 sep. auxes with the processing I am gonna use. Then I mute or unmute whatever tracks I am not using and am using respectively. Genrally I will work on 10-15 mix tape tracks in one sequence using one set of plugins on my auxes.

In your cae, 1 aux for the narration tracks. Buss all the narration tracks to the vocal aux. when making your BTD's just mute what you dont wanna hear and unmute what you wanna hear. Same precessing, no need to reinsert....

That wall all you do is adjust levels of the active tracks.

Hope that made sense to you...

I can generally create all my BTD tracks relatively fast after I have recorded all the vocal parts...

[mitchman411]

I'm really embarrassed to admit, that I've never used Aux's. I dont know really understand that part of your answer.

But I think you're right about doing it all in one Sequence.

I'm an old Opcode user and I think I carried over that habit. hehehe

thanks!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

OK, I'll throw 2 cents in...

I would setup a sequence with all the plug ins and in the chucnks window, select the sequence name. Then copy and paste 9 times (still in the chunks window.)

Go back and rename the chunks appropriately (or simply #1, #2, etc.) Whatever...

Save As a template and as the default templte.

When you open DP next time, your default template will have 10 sequences with you plug ins all ready to go. If you are generally saving similar settings on the plug ins, you can sve the plug in settings as well, but still have several variations avaiable all the time.

For repetitive work, that is the best way to go. Aux tracks are great for applying the same plug in to several tracks, but if you're dealing with 2 tracks, and want seperate control, an Aux track would be more work than it might save. Actually, i don;t see it saving you any steps in your case.

Hope that helps.

[Tim]

Plug-ins can be copied into a clippings window where they can be named as presets, then dragged into mixer channels.

To copy to a Clippings window hold Option+Command and drag.

You can Shift+Select a whole string of plug-ins on a channel, then drag to a clipping window where they will be saved as one clipping.



You could also set up Master and Aux faders in a V-Rack, where whatever sequence is active will be routed to. There is no automation with v-rack faders though.

[musicarteca]

Another alternative is to use the V-Rack. Just assign all your narrator tracks' outputs to bus 1, and all the music tracks' outputs to bus 3-4 (on every sequence). Then create a V-Rack with two aux-tracks and one master fader.

Assign the input of the first aux-track to bus 1, and insert the plug-ins that you want to use for the narrator, then assign aux-track 2 input to bus 3-4 and insert the plug-ins that you want for processing the music; finally add a master fader with its corresponding plug-in. You are all set.

This is a good solution if you happen to encounter a commercial where you have to do 20 instead of 10 variations. The only thing that you would have to do is to change the assignment to the corresponding busses for each new sequence. If you want to temporarily listen to the unprocessed vocal or music track, just assign them to L-R. Make sure not to create another master fader in the sequences. Each sequence should have two clean tracks (narration and music) without any plug-ins.

[Shooshie]

Mitchman,

Aux tracks are available in the same place where you get your other tracks--Add tracks, then pull the menu down to Aux. I think there may be a keyboard equivalent, but I don't know it off hand, or you may have to create it in the Commands Window. Anyway... that's a tangent. The Aux track is a submaster. A Master Track only has an output. A submaster has an output and an input, but otherwise works very similarly. Whatever input you choose can be played "live" through DP via an Aux Track. No need to record-enable a track. Just use the Aux. Set the input to whatever you want. Out put your other tracks to that input. You can set up many Auxes if you need them, but I don't think you'll need more than a couple; maybe three.

Auxes come in handy for all sorts of things, such as stem recording, where you break down groups of tracks into one "stem," which is represented by an Aux Track. Then you route all the Aux outputs to the Master. Tracks --> Submasters --> Masters. (submaster = Aux)

Shooshie

[giles117]

Term inology is amazing to me. I have been a live guy for 15+ years (professionally) and when I heard of stems, I was scratching my head. Then one day I read about them and relaized that they were talking about subgroups. LOL I fell out laffing at myself.

Same thing different term based on segment of the market.....

Ok Enuff Idle chatter. LOL

[Shooshie]

Term inology is amazing to me. I have been a live guy for 15+ years (professionally) and when I heard of stems, I was scratching my head. Then one day I read about them and relaized that they were talking about subgroups. LOL I fell out laffing at myself.

Same thing different term based on segment of the market.....

Ok Enuff Idle chatter. LOL

Same here. I was describing mixing with submasters, and someone said "so, are you using stems?" and I politely had to ask what the hell were stems. He proceeded to tell me what I had just told him, in a different ...er.. language. Now I use that language, and hope nobody says "oh, you mean submasters?"

Shooshie