<h1>Working with Soundtrack Pro</h1>

<div>

Sountrack Pro is a multitrack audio editor, which means that more than one track of sound can be edited and mixed at the same time. Although Final Cut Pro allows us to edit video and sound, Sounstrack Pro allows a lot more control over audio that it is possible from FCP.

<h2>The Interface</h2>

<img src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/tutorial_images/soundtrack2-full-view.jpg” alt=”" width=”540″ height=”377″ />

If for some reason your screen has a different layout or appearance, press the <strong>F1</strong> key to return to a normal view.

There are several different components to the Soundtrack Pro layout.

<ul>

<li><strong>Video viewer/Project info</strong> – This area will allow you to see video content and project information.</li>

<li><strong>Main project window</strong> – This is the main work area for your project; allowing you to either work on single files or in several tracks in multitrack mode.</li>

<li><strong>Recording levels and audio meters</strong> – This area will allow you see the recording and playback level meters.</li>

<li><strong>Show/Hide Window Panes</strong> – Allows you to hide various window panes to increase your project area.</li>

<li><strong>Browser/Search</strong> – the area on the right toward the bottom where you can see all your source media, including audio files that are on your computer. This will only show folders and compatible audio files.</li>

<li><strong>Control bar</strong> – This is the main control bar where you can initiate recording, playback and other functions.</li>

<li><strong>Mixer pane</strong> – This area has several tabs including a mixer for use during multitrack editing.</li>

<li><strong>Utility Window</strong> – the area on the left at the bottom where you monitor audio record levels, as well as video tracks associated with your audio. This is also where you find the actions window pane.</li>

</ul>

<h2>Importing Audio</h2>

<img src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/tutorial_images/soundtrack_browser.png” alt=”browser” width=”306″ height=”403″ />

Use the Browser view to find your audio files.

If you are using the Marantz audio recorder and you’ve connected it via USB, the files will be on a drive called “NONAME.”

You can also preview the files in this window by clicking on the large “Play” button on the bottom left.

<h2>Recording Audio</h2>

If you have audio from a different source, say a tape player, or you want to add a bit of narration with a microphone, you can digitize and record audio straight to Soundtrack Pro.

<img src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/tutorial_images/soundtrack_new.png” alt=”" width=”152″ height=”63″ />First, create a new sound file by hitting the “New Audio File” button

&nbsp;

<img src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/tutorial_images/soundtrack_recsource.png” alt=”" width=”302″ height=”402″ />Then, select the correct input source for your audio. If you have an MBox audio interface connected to you computer make sure to select it.

Make sure to set Monitor to <strong>None</strong> if you are not using headphones; otherwise you will cause feedback.

Next, either press the “Record” button and the bottom of the interface, or press the “r” key in your keyboard. Stop recording by pressing the spacebar.

&nbsp;

<img src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/tutorial_images/soundtrack_rec.png” alt=”" width=”60%” />You should now see the waveform of the audio you captured. If you don’t see anything the sound level might have been too low, or perhaps there was no audio at all. Make sure that the audio meters move when you play your audio into the computer; that will tell you that the computer is receiving sound.

&nbsp;

<img src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/tutorial_images/soundtrack_save.png” alt=”" width=”50%” />Once you are happy with your recording, go to the “File” menu and select “Save As…” Set the file type to “Audio File Project” and remember to name it.

<h2>Multitracking</h2>

Multitracking allows you to arrange a complex composition via the use of multiple tracks and clips. To create a new multitrack document click on the “New Project” button on the upper toolbar.

Adding sounds to the timeline is easy. Just drag a sound file from the browser into any track:

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As you can see, the interface metaphor is quite similar to the one in Final Cut Pro.

<h2>About Tracks</h2>

A track is an independent audio component within your composition, in which you may have one or several audio files; in a way, they behave a lot like the tracks in Final Cut Pro. A track has several basic parameters that can be adjusted via the interface:

<img src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/tutorial_images/sountrack_track_2.png” alt=”" width=”349″ height=”109″ />

<ol>

<li><strong>Volume Slider:</strong> Controls the loudness of the track. Note that this is the volume for the <strong>whole track</strong>, not the independent audio clips in it</li>

<li><strong>Panning Slider:</strong> Controls how much of the left or the right channels of the track to play back. Panning all the way to the right will play only the right channel of the audio clips in the track. Setting the panning in the center plays both channels equally</li>

<li><strong>Submix Selector:</strong> Tracks can be sent to a “Submix track” in which we can apply transformations to more than one track at the same time. We can have several submix tracks in our composition; you can think of them as “groups”</li>

<li><strong>Record/Mute/Solo</strong>: Record will “arm” or get the track ready for recording. Mute will silence the track. Solo will silence all other tracks. Solo and Mute are essential when we want to isolate tracks for review and editing</li>

<li><strong>Track Level Meter: </strong>Shows us the total loudness for this track. If you start seeing the meter go into the red, make sure to turn the volume down a notch. Remember that we want to be as loud as possible <strong>but we need to avoid clipping</strong></li>

</ol>

<h2>Arranging and Editing</h2>

<h3>Slicing and Dicing Long Clips</h3>

Unfortunately, Soundtrack Pro does not work on the same Final Cut idea that you never operate on the original clip (everything is always a reference). In fact it is all too easy to dice your file and lose your audio forever. If you select part of a clip on the editor (by clicking and dragging) and then you press delete, chances are that your clip will be maimed (in all of its instances!)

You could follow one of the following workflows:

<h4>The Dicer</h4>

<ol>

<li>Put the long clip in the timeline</li>

<li>Scrub, trim, razor and move the parts of the clip that you are interested in</li>

</ol>

<h4>The Copier</h4>

<ol>

<li>Open the long clip in the Single File Editor by double-clicking it from the browser</li>

<li>Find an area of interest in the clip. Select it (by click and drag), then go to Mark-&gt;Add Time Marker from Selection. This will add a marked region that you can go back to in case that something terrible happens to your copied file. In addition, these Time Markers are rather easy to select: just double-click somewhere inside them. Once selected, copy it (command+c or edit-&gt;copy)</li>

<li>Go to File-&gt;New-&gt;File from Clipboard. Soundtrack should have created a new filed filled with the audio that you just copied</li>

<li>Save this piece to your drive</li>

</ol>

In this video I follow the Copier workflow. I have a long clip from which I am interested in a small part: a telephone ring. I then proceed to follow the workflow and then add the result to the timeline (this video has sound).

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<h3>Fading out and in</h3>

You can fade out (or fade in) a clip by hovering over the top part of the clip until the cursor changes, and then clicking and dragging:

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Note that if you double-click the fade you can change the type of curve that it follows. Try the different curves and note the differences between them.

<h3>Crossfading</h3>

Crossfading, or blending one audio clip into another, is rather easy to do in Sountrack Pro:

<ol>

<li>Make sure that the “Crossfade overlaping clips” button, which is at the top of the multitrack view, is selected</li>

<li>Drag one clip over another</li>

<li>You can edit the type of fade curve by double-clicking on the crossfade</li>

<li>You can change the start and end points of the crossfade by dragging its edges</li>

</ol>

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</div>

<h3>Normalizing Samples</h3>

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<h3>Applying Noise Reduction</h3>

<iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/7178102?portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff” width=”584″ height=”365″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

<h2>Working with Sound</h2>

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<h2>Properties of Digital Audio</h2>

<h2>Quality: Sampling Rate and Bit Resolution</h2>

In video and images, you have encountered the term <em>resolution</em>, and it generally is meant to represent the<em>quality</em> of an image or video. <em>High-resolution, high-definition</em>, are typical terms that are used. In the image world, higher resolution basically means that more pixels are being captured, and more pixels being captured means more detail. For example, when people talk about <em>megapixels</em> in digital cameras, what they are really talking about (whether they know it or not) is the number of pixels that the camera sensor is able to output, so megapixels is a sort of proxy for the resolution of the camera.

In the sound world we also have resolution, but it is measured differently than in images. Because sound is a <em>continuous signal</em> you can’t just measure the resolution by looking at the complete sound. Rather, you look at how many times per second you measure or <em>sample</em> the signal, and this is called the <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_rate” target=”_blank”><strong>sampling rate</strong></a>. In broad terms, the higher the sampling rate, the more detail a signal has, and the higher quality the recorded sound will have. When working with DV video, the audio typically has one of two rates: 32,000 Hz or 48,000 Hz (32 kHz or 48 kHz). All of our cameras work at 48 kHz, so you will want to use that rate. For reference, CD’s have a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, so an audio recording made in the DV format has the<strong>potential</strong> to sound better than a CD.

There is another type of quality measurement in the digital audio world, and that is the <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth”><strong>bit depth</strong></a>. This is basically the amount of data that each sample will take; the higher the bit depth, the more data there is and the more detail the sound may have. In the DV world, sound is generally recorded at a 16-bit resolution, just like CD’s.

<h2>Channels</h2>

When you hear about audio recording technology, you will sometimes hear about the number of “channels” that the equipment can record. A channel is just an independent track of audio. Most of the audio equipment that you’ve handled in your life (CD players, MP3 players, iPods, Walkmans, you name it) are two-channel, but we tend to call that <strong>stereo </strong>(which is actually short for “stereophonic”). Basically, stereo means that there are two independent tracks of audio in the recording media, and these are usually played on independent speakers (left and right). Single-channel tracks are called <strong>mono</strong> (or monophonic) tracks. Mono and stereo can also be used to denote how many tracks a piece of equipment can record or play back, so a “stereo microphone” is one that would record two independent channels of audio.

<h2>File Size</h2>

One thing to keep in mind is that, just like in images, more quality means that more space is being taken by our audio files. If disk space is at a premium, making your tracks monophonic will slash your data size by half. Using lower bit rates or lower sample rates will also reduce the amount of space you take, but quality will suffer!

Another way to reduce the size of an audio file is to use <strong>audio compression</strong>. The most popular type of compression for sound is one that you are already very familiar with: MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, AKA <strong>MP3</strong>. This type of compression can result in file sizes that are 1/10th to 1/11th of the original file. That said, MP3 compression is <strong>lossy</strong>, which means that the decompressed data is never the same as the original. In other words, compression always causes some loss of information and detail. Regardless, at higher data rates MP3 compression is hard to distinguish from the original audio source, so it is widely used.

<h2>Recording Sound</h2>

Recording sound requires two key pieces of equipment: a microphone and a recording device. Each can affect the quality of the sound being recorded, and you should choose your equipment carefully given your particular recording needs.

<h2>Microphones</h2>

<h3><a href=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/shure.jpg”><img title=”shure” src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/shure.jpg” alt=”Shure Microphone” width=”114″ height=”114″ /></a>Shure SM58</h3>

The Shure SM58 is a microphone that is well suited to recording voice. It is particularly popular for live vocals; look for it in any concert venue. It is a <strong>dynamic</strong>microphone, which in technical terms is better explained in its Wikipedia <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_microphone#Dynamic_microphone”>entry</a>, but in practical terms it means that it won’t need <strong>phantom power</strong>, which is a small amount of current that is sent from the recording device to the microphone in order for it to operate properly. This also means that you can basically plug this microphone in just about any recorder and it will work. Dynamic microphones can also take more punishment before breaking down (hence why they are given to singers in live events!). This mic is <strong>unidirectional</strong>, meaning that it is sensitive to sound only from one direction, and it is also a <strong>cardioid</strong>, which refers to the sensitivity pattern of the mic: viewed from above it looks like a heart.

<h3><a href=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/at.jpg”><img title=”at” src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/at.jpg” alt=”Audio Technica Mic” width=”100″ height=”100″ /></a>audio-technica AT4073a</h3>

The audio-technica AT4073a is a <strong>shotgun microphone</strong>, which means that it is highly directional and very sensitive, so it is used where capturing sound at a distance is a necessity. It is a <strong><a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_microphone#Condenser.2C_capacitor_or_electrostatic_microphone” target=”_blank”>condenser microphone</a></strong>, which means that it has sensitive electronics within it that need to be served with <strong>phantom power</strong> in order for it to function properly. This means that the recording equipment must supply this special voltage to the microphone in order for it to pick up any significant sound. Most consumer equipment lacks phantom power, but professional gear usually has this feature. Condenser mics are also more delicate than dynamic ones, so treat this piece of equipment with care.

<h3><a href=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/at822.jpg”><img title=”at822″ src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/at822.jpg” alt=”at822 micorphone” width=”170″ height=”113″ /></a>audio-technica AT822</h3>

The audio-technica AT822 is a <strong>stereo mic</strong>, which means that it will record two tracks, left and right. It is a condenser-type microphone, but instead of using phantom power, it draws its current from a battery, so that it may be plugged in just about any recorder. It is sensitive in a <strong>cardioid </strong>pattern, much like the Shure described above. It is well suited for video work.

Choosing the right microphone generally boils down to the job at hand and the type of recording equipment you have. <a href=”http://www.videomaker.com/article/14111/” target=”_blank”>This article</a> explains some of the pros and cons of each type of mic, but from our selection the AT4073a is best for more controlled spaces, or for more sensitivity, while the Shure and the AT822 work well in interviews or in situations where the mic can get close to the sound source.

<h2>Recorders</h2>

<h3><a href=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/marantz.jpg”><img title=”marantz” src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/marantz.jpg” alt=”" width=”150″ height=”133″ /></a>Marantz PMD660</h3>

The Marantz PMD660 is a solid-state field audio recorder. Solid state here means that it records to a memory card instead than onto anything that has moving parts, such as a tape, CD or hard drive. It is a rugged and dependable professional piece of kit that records high quality audio in both compressed (MP3) and uncompressed formats, at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. It can provide phantom power to condenser microphones via a switch in the top of the unit, so it works nicely with our condenser microphones. When it is time to get our audio into the computer, we can either remove the Compact Flash card in the unit and put it in a reader or we can connect the unit itself to the computer via USB.

<h3><a href=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dxa-6a_angle.jpg”><img title=”dxa-6a_angle” src=”http://matadata.com/teaching/winter10/ain2220/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dxa-6a_angle.jpg” alt=”" width=”100″ height=”69″ /></a>Any video camera, via the Beachtek DXA-6</h3>

Most video cameras have microphones that range from the “ok” to the plain bad. Rarely does a camera come with a nice mic, since that alone can cost more than the camera. Attaching a nice dynamic microphone is a possibility, but condenser mics offer the most sensitivity in general. However, to use a condenser mic we usually require phantom power, which cameras rarely have. So what to do? The solution in our equipment list is the Beachtek DXA-6, which is a phantom power adapter for video cameras. It mounts on the bottom screw of the camera, so it adds some bulk but not too much. You then connect its output to the camera’s audio input, connect your microphone to it, and turn the unit on. Now you can use our nicest mics with any camera available!

<h2>General Recording Tips</h2>

We will go over the specifics of each recording option in class, but any time that you record audio you should follow these tips:

<ul>

<li>Always preview what you are recording with a decent pair of headphones. A tiny speaker won’t work, and just looking at the level meters is a terrible idea. Borrow a pair of headphones and look like a proper martian when you are out recording.</li>

<li>Set your input levels properly:

<ol>

<li>Turn the input knob to about the middle</li>

<li>Find the loudest sound you are going to record</li>

<li>Slowly turn up the volume. You want the audio to be as loud as possible without “clipping”</li>

<li>Once the audio clips, turn the input level down a notch</li>

</ol>

</li>

<li>Try to keep your hand still while holding a microphone: your movement may be picked up and recorded, which can ruin your take.</li>

<li>Just like with the camera, <strong>be patient</strong>. Record more than you need, just to be safe.</li>

<li>And just like with the camera, make sure that when you think you are recording, you are actually recording. A quick occasional glance to your recorder will make sure that you haven’t forgotten to press that record button!</li>

</ul>

</div>

Nervous Structure, 2010, String, video projector, computer, video camera, custom interactive software. 

Video Documentation

Nervous Structure 3, 2011. Elastic, video projector, computer, video camera, interactive software. 14’ x 12’ x 6’

Video Documentation

Description List and work samples

Nervous Structure (field) detail, 2012. Elastic, video projector, computer, video camera, custom interactive software. 12’ x 6’

Video Documentation

http://faradaycagefight.tumblr.com/rss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YQIMGV5vtd4

http://youtu.be/6_PLnInsh7E

http://youtu.be/6_PLnInsh7E