audio post production setup suggestions

rickvdvulkaan

New member
Hello!

I am looking for a way to speed up my audio post production for video productions. So no beatmaking techniques, but purely volume/edit/restauration/eq jobs.

At the moment (as a video editor), i use software as premiere/avid/resolve. For audio adjustments i mostly keep everything within the software, as it often provide just enough tools to do the job. However, when projects get a little more complex it often also gets harder to handle, naturally. The thing that stands out the most as an increasingly annoying habit, is reaching for the mouse, go to that tiny line which represents the clip volume, set a keyframe/make a cut and drag it down/up to adjust volume, if that makes sense. This is by far the most common task as a video editor dealing with audio. I don't really care that much about speed, but it's eating up creativity/feeling with the end result, so i guess speed will improve the end result.

I think i'm looking for some kind of hardware panel with knobs/faders to help me in this process.


At the moment i use resolve alot, and i know about the existence of these panels:

bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1401681-REG/blackmagic_design_dv_resf_edtdsktop_fairlight_desktop_audio_editor.html

nofilmschool.com/blackmagics-fairlight-desktop-console

Especially the first link (audio editor), which fully integrates with resolve, dealing with almost all functions within the software really sounds like music to my ears. So you'll probably think, why not just buy them? well, they are expensive, (together will be around 8k USD) and i'm not 100% sure if it's what i'm looking for, and there are no resellers around to try it out.

So my question is; Does something similar, with other software exist? For example a similar panel which fully integrates with nuendo? Or ableton? Or protools? There has to be some kind of competitor, i just cannot find any kind of alternative other then just software. I'm not afraid of round-tripping, as i'm familiar with all kinds of sofware.

Or is there another super-fast editing technique that i'm not aware of which deals with these volume adjustments over multiple tracks and clips?

Hope i'm making a bit of sense
 
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Hi,
Can't speak much about hardware solutions but certainly volume automation in most video editing software is going to be more cumbersome than in most audio software.
If I need to do anything more than fade in/fade out/set overall volume, I bring the audio in to Protools first and do the work there.

That just happens to be the one I use but Reaper or pretty much any other suite is going to be the same deal.

It's basically the same process you'd be doing in the video editor but most likely much quicker - click, drag, click, drag.

Also, where there are sections of audio from different sources, I find moving to ProTools first and video editor second makes it much easier to split the thing up and apply different
eqs, clip overall volumes, compression, etc.

I don't do much video work but I do always find it much nicer knowing audio has been handled in advance,
so one workflow isn't getting in the way of the other.

Is that any help?
 
hmm this is not the first time someone mentioned reaper, guess i'm gonna take a quick look.

I guess i was looking for a "daw controller" and reaper seems quite flexible for that
 
To answer your question various controllers do exist.
Behringer made/make cheap USB ones. Euphonix used to make pretty nice ones then I think Avid bought them out and rebranded the gear, or released the next gen.
Mackie always had control surfaces, too, and Avid always had their own stuff...Used to see Control24/C24 in a lot of studios.
They had a smaller 003, back when they were digidesgn, which was actually an audio interface with 4 mic pres and other IO but also had motorised faders, transport, etc.
The non-audio interface version of that was the Dcommand.

As far as what's available in shops right now? I'm a little out of touch but there's got to be some out there.

Unless you want to record all automation in real-time, though, I'd consider moving audio work to an audio geared suite and trying with mouse first.
You might find that simply moving that work to an audio suite makes the workflow quicker/easier enough to make the difference.

Personally I'd find hardware control great for mixing a record, when all the parts are there and working together, but it wouldn't get used for editing...I don't imagine.
 
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Yeah....IMO Steen has it right. My Zoom R16 works well as a basic transport control and a few other things.....but when it comes to editing......only the mouse will do.
 
yep, looks like Behringer has some nice daw controllers, and i've seen a few others, but nothing really seems to come close to that blackmagic fairlight one. basically it's a qwerty keyboard on steroids, buttons will light up for extra functionality (f.e, recording), or solo, mute, etc. If you hold a key it does something different, you can scroll through the tracks with the jogwheel or select banks, and instantly adjust the gain with the knobs for the clip on your playhead position, or eq, or compress (with a display for that right there), everything is closely in touch with the software, i can really see how it can speed up your workflow, but it's bloody expensive. See this picture in the link below:
drive.google.com/file/d/1qlJUtcM1fmIztYm2bfWOWlkBNjGDkEum/view?usp=sharing

Is there anything from another developer which comes kind of close? I'm even thinking of building/customizing some kind of programmable lcd/led-keyboard. I'm pretty convinced that having something dedicated to the software you're working in helps alot. Plus, i like fancy buttons/faders/knobs, it's awesome.

But.. your answers are definitely helpful, as they do seem to imply that most audio editing could just as easy been done without those fancy panels. It comes down to the right talent/mindset/skillset anyway
 
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