Mixing a Documentary in Pro Tools - Dipped and Undipped Stems
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2024
- Doc spec sheets often call for dipped and undipped stems, a mix minus, and a bunch of other things. I'll take you through a Pro Tools session setup to deliver these assets efficiently.
You can get this template here if you don't want to make your own from scratch: www.4lo-digital.com/shop/
00:00 Intro
00:25 Template setup for deliverables
01:32 Undipped vs dipped stems
02:45 Using VCA and busses to mix the dipped version
03:40 How to use the unit track volume and clip gain for both versions
04:46 Doing the MnE mix first
05:28 VCA setup
05:42 Interview tracks by name
06:40 OTF tracks
07:00 Nat Sound tracks
08:00 Mono background fill for interviews
08:40 Wrap up
I have been working for a 20 years with tv content as sound mixer, and never thought about dipped and undipped stems at all. Make em separately and the same time!)
Thomas, you are a genius.
Straight great content again! Much love Thomas.
Thanks Thomas, really interesting to see your workflow. It's hard to find good audio-related content like this on CZcams!
Thanks CJ. Glad to help.
Thank you for making this, Thomas!
I had a question on routing but I figured it out. Thanks for another great video
Thanks for making these wonderful tutorials!
Great tutorial as always!
Thanks, Thomas! Great explanation!
Gracias! estos videos mostrando tu workflow son de las mejores clases que tuve! thanks! Diego from Argentina
Gracias amigo. Solo quiero mostrarles algunas tecnicas para ayudarlos en el trabajo.
Great vídeo as always man 👌
I found the OTF tracks is a very good idea ;-) I will try in my own workflow !
Thank you for yor detailed video. There`re some usefull things to know.
Thanks a ton for this film mixing crash course kind of playlist. A request- Please make similar course for 5.1 mixing too likewise.
Magic is happening...now i am watching this video when here is the same time on my watch😂 now is 12:25
Hello your content is oustanding man! I wich you could do a video on how you set up the routing of all that since the dipping component seems to be trickier than the routing you've shown for a narrative program mix. thx for everything! Mat
Amazing video, Thomas. Thanks for sharing. I have a question regarding all the stem prints - obviously I know it's best practice to print into the session so you can review that final time, but have you thought about making these audio tracks into Master tracks so you could potentially offline bounce through them and save a little time? In the branded content world I like to find every second I can, haha. Once again, amazing and useful stuff!
Yesssss thank you
Thank you for the “thank you” boss!
Dear Tom! We bought all 3 of your post-templates, brilliant, thanks, I'd like to ask a question. The Nats/pfx are in the Interview folder and not in the Sfx. Is it only because they are coming from production, such as the dialogue and it makes more sense to look at them next to each other? Thanks!
Yes
Hi Thomas! Thanks for the video, now I’m trying to follow your session to build my own documentary template.
Here I have 1 question. Why there aren’t a 5.1 and a Stereo output for Dialogue stem? I don’t have many experiences to documentary. Does documentary have different stems requirements other than the DME stems?
A lot of US docs require a mono dialog stem. If the spec sheet allows for 5.1 go for it!
How about Thomas, thank you first of all for the content, it is appreciated. One question, I use pro tools but not HD, not 5.1 as in your template. It works the same for me, can I modify it for Stereo? Unfortunately I am not in the professional world so a lot of channels are not necessary, because I present for festivals and for short films on CZcams. Greetings,
Yes stereo should be fine! At lower budget levels you don't need all of these deliverables either, often just a mix and stems.
This is very informative and looks useful. Question: Have you, with the downloadable on your site have a note that explains some of the elements and perhaps the ones you didn't for reference?
Nope. But I'm thinking about doing a Zoom class to cover that stuff.
@@ThomasBoykin wish you did. I'd pay for it
Hey Thomas! I just bought the template, but still had questions about how the routing works. Have you thought about making a video explaining it?
I have thought about it, I just lack the time. I’m currently mixing one show and dialog editing another one.
Hey Thomas I had a question: Couldn't you side chain the M&E to the VO? That way when you mute the VO you'll have an undipped M&E?
Yes but it requires multiple passes that way
Hello Tom! I'd like to propose a question. If a documentary contains snippets of various feature films, are those audios fall into the SFX category and therefore the SFX stem? Thanks in advance
They usually go on archive tracks and will be routed to the sfx stem
Do you not split the dialogue type clips, like conversation between 2 characters etc, into a separate dialogue track? I saw you mentioned you would put them in OTF tracks in the video.
This is for a documentary. For those type of sequences I would use otf. Otherwise they would go on interview tracks.
Maybe i missed something but how do you keep the tracks in a drop down folder like that?
There are folder tracks in Pro Tools Ultimate now. At first I did not use them, but it's become useful to me.
Hi Thomas! Thank you for share 🙏🏻. What audio monitors Do you use ? which do you recommend to start? Thank you!
JBL is a good budget option!
@@ThomasBoykin thank you so much!
Hi. Sorry I haven't done a lot of doc work and I'm slightly confused. When you are talking about undipped stems, do you mean undipped for both VO and any sync dialogue? And you don't do any volume automation on the unit tracks at all for the whole mix? Find it difficult to understand how to create a mix without automation. - just static clip gaining? I would generally use the unit tracks to mix everything minus the VO, so automating the volume on the music tracks. Then use a dipper to mix in the VO. Obviously this means that the 'undipped' stems will have dips for sync sound (generally ok, no?) but not for any VO.
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious
Some specs ask for no dips for narration or interview clips. They dub the interviews! So you have to do the volume automation on a bus.
@@ThomasBoykin thanks for the reply. I guess in that case you can still do some unit track volume automation to level out the music and fade in and out. Then do all dipping on busses. I'll give it a try anyway. But also maybe in the case of a completely undipped mix I would try just doing 2 separate mixes. Cheers