Perhaps this isn't such a newbie question although its being asked by one but are there any online articles or recommended books on mixing audio in post production for a stereo or 5.1 mix?
I've looked at books on Premiere and they say how to do it technically but I'm looking for general techniques like placement of sounds, audio levels of other channels compared to the center where all of the dialogue goes (I'm aware that if you want to do a mix such as this you have to record dialogue in mono and build up your soundtrack rather than depending on on-set/location audio for effects). Most of the articles I've come across on mixing by doing a Yahoo search are for mixing music rather than film audio.
I'd like info on this as well. As far as I can tell programs like Final Cut allow for a boatload of audio tracks so one thing you can do, assuming you didn't have a mic on each character...
Is to duplicate an audio track. Then turn track A into all left, and track B into all right, and track C in the center. Then go through track A and mute out everyone that should be on the right side, and go through track B and mute out everyone that should be on the left side. Track C provides a fallback so you don't end up with gaps. Adjust the all left and all right to slightly left and slightly right and you can make it sound as if the character is over there, and the other is over there.
In I AM LEGEND they had a wonderful bit where Will Smith Golfs off an old carrier and you hear the ball richochette through the theater. Of course they were playing with more than left and right. I'm not sure how you can get top and bottom speakers but I think Final Cut might be insufficient.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
I hear tell that the new version of Soundtrack Pro (included in Final Cut Studio 2) has some very intuitive tools for mixing 5.1 surround sound, although I haven't had an opportunity to try this out myself yet.
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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my vodcast on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=96931870
and my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com
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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com
and my reel at http://portfolio.exgfilms.com
