My Dad has an expression, “Work smart, not hard.” Now to avoid any confusion, he is by no means an advocate of laziness. By working smart and not working hard, he means that you should utilize your energy to make things work smoother and easier in the future, streamlining your approaches and maximizing your effort, instead of working hard at same thing over and over redundantly. Recently I applied this in an specific way to sound design for audio drama, but my Dad's saying has many applications outside of this as well.
When designing sound for audio dramas (and this applies just as well to audio for video), there are a lot of repetitive tasks, especially if you are doing sound design for an ongoing series. For example, in me and my sister Natasha's audio comedy The Jimmy, Sam & Tommy Show, the three title characters often gather together in scenes which take place in their tree house. In the first two episodes I was redesigning the tree house space (it's specific EQ settings, reverb distances and sizes, background sound effects etc) every time they had a scene in that location. Along the lines of my Dad's expression, I decided to work smart and create a template project in Cubase (my Digital Audio Workstation of choice) that included the correct reverb, EQ, standard ambient sound effects and “hard” effects and Foley, and group tracks (AUXs) for the tree house. This way, in the future I can simply drop my edited dialogue into the tree house template, make a few minor adjustments for timing, add any sound effects or Foley that are uniquely specific to that episode, and viola, it's done! This may sound like a lot of work, but it's only work at first. See at some point I would have to recreate these scenes anyway, why not do it now, and simply have to copy and paste dialogue later? And that's the key to my Dad's saying! Working hard would have been redundantly recreating the same environment every time I made a new episode with that location! But working smart, is streamlining any commonly repeated tasks. This has really helped me in my audio dramas so far! God's been using it to help me have more time to work on these shows, and to do a better job on the more crucial areas to ultimately bring glory to Him :) So I suggest working smart: and the smartest way to work smart is to ask God how you can work smart! Smart eh? So today, why not spend some time in prayer asking Him what areas you can work smarter in, and do a little extra work now in, to save yourself a lot of time later? In Christ, Christopher Green
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The title of this post says it all, Edit in Headphones, Mix in Speakers. It's a rather simple tip, and easy enough to understand how to apply, so let me fill up the length of this post explaining why I think you should follow this tip. Headphones are great tools, I have some very nice headphones that were given to me on my birthday. They have a wide range of dynamics and frequencies, and are true pleasure to listen through. Their great strength is the width of detail you can hear with them. This makes them ideal for editing. One might ask however, “so why not mix in them too?” Here's why: you don't mix for your high-tech listening set up, you mix for the average Joe's stereo or car stereo! Let's face it, you may have some nice gear, but your audience hasn't gone out and bought high end headphones or speakers to listen to your audio with. That's why you should always check your final mixes on multiple audio devices, in multiple listening environments (such as a stereo in your room, a car stereo, an mp3 player in the great outdoors and any other combinations you can think of). You mix for the average Joe. The problem with mixing with headphones, is that even at quiet volumes, you can hear a fairly wide dynamic range because the headphones are directly on your ears. That sounds good though right? It is, when editing. But when mixing it tempts you to have dramatic dynamics that will hinder the end product. For example, you may be mixing a song and find that your drums are overpowering the lead keyboard, so you bring those drums way down. In headphones it sounds great: you can hear that lead keyboard loud and clear, and you can easily hear those drums, without them overpowering anything. Sounds good right? That is, until you take your “cans” (headphones) off and listen in speakers. “Where did the drums go?” you ask. Simply put, the speakers (unless you have very high end speakers) don't have as much dynamic range. Or at least, you can't hear that range as easy, since the speakers aren't so close to your ears. And why would they be? Your audience, after all, won't press the speakers to their ears. It's as though in headphones you can get away with a range of volumes as wide as 20:1, and in speakers you can only get away with a 10:1, but should focus more around a 7:1 ratio. These are of course hypothetical average numbers, so you'll have to try out the volumes yourself. “But my mix sounds so good in headphones Christopher!” I'm sure it does, and listening in headphones can be fun! But simply put, if your mix sounds good in headphones, it won't always sound good in speakers. However, the converse works differently: if it sounds good in speakers, it will sound good in headphones too. And if you find that last sentence to be untrue when you try it, then that likely means you didn't have the mix as good as you thought when you used speakers. So: mix in speakers. If it sounds good in speakers, it will sound good in headphones too. Now about editing, that huge range of nuances you can hear in headphones comes in handy here! There are little clicks, pops, awkward fades, etc, that you won't hear in some speakers depending on the level of detail that the speakers produce. But even on the cheapest of ear buds, these errors are often easily spotted. That's why you should edit in headphones (in my opinion). Everything may sound fine in your speakers, but you will want to double check for trouble spots with your headphones. Just make sure you resist the urge to start mixing once you have your headphones on, save the serious mixing for the speakers. So here is a basic mixing/editing plan I am suggesting for you:
What if I don't have the money for nice speakers or headphones? That's okay, because your audience doesn't likely either. Sure, we hear lots about flat frequency monitor speakers, and monitor headphones, and they're nice! But ultimately, you make your mix for the common men and women who will listen to your audio on common devices, speakers and headphones. So if all you have are “common” speakers and headphones, that's fine. If you are into audio production at all, you likely at least have speakers that came with your computer, and some ear buds lying around. If not, ear buds or cheap headphones can even be found in dollar stores! For that matter, so can cheap computer speakers! More than likely though, if you ask around your house, you won't need to do any purchasing, because someone in your family can probably lend you some speakers and headphones. Ultimately, you make your mix for the common men and women who will listen to your audio on common devices, speakers and headphones. What Do You Use Christopher? If you are interested in what headphones I use though (and I do recommend them), they are the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro http://en-us.sennheiser.com/professional-dj-headphones-noise-cancelling-hd-280-pro. They are noise cancelling, which is a handy feature when you find yourself needing to edit on-the-go in noisy environments. As a matter of fact I have edited productions in Tim Hortons* using these, and due to the noise cancelling, the noisy restaurant was not a problem! As for the speakers I use, this is a more complex question. At GreenStreams Studio we have multiple areas with multiple speakers. Our audio control room uses speakers off a stereo. Our main studio room is equipped with large stereo speakers. We also have some fun looking speakers larger than small children. That being said, again, any old half decent speaker will do! And that's it! That's my audio advice for you today! What can I use to cite for this “principle”? First hand experience! Or would that be first ear experience? So what sort of headphones and/or speakers do you use for editing and mixing? What do you find works best? God bless, In Christ, Christopher Green *Tim Hortons is a coffee chain, founded in Canada, and is popular in Canada as well. To those familiar with the chain, have you ever noticed that the name does not have an apostrophe when it should? Seeing as it's founder, former Hockey player Tim Horton, had the last name "Horton" not "Hortons", the "S" can only be there to show that it is the restaurant he owns (or owned). Since the "S" is a possessive, why is there no apostrophe? Apparently it has to do with Quebec French language laws on signage. French apparently does not use this apostrophe, and it was cheaper for Tim Hortons to use the same signage everywhere. And now you know! :)
My favourite toy as a wee one was LEGO® bricks. As a matter of fact, I will admit that from time to time my siblings and I still enjoy playing the LEGO® Racers computer game. It's a little like Mario Karts, but you can build your own cars and characters.
As someone in a family who grew up loving* LEGO® bricks, I thought it might be fun to post this post about how to talk about LEGO® bricks and sets etc, something I always 'wished' more people did correctly**. Let's begin! Firstly and most importantly, they are called LEGO® Bricks, not LEGOs. That's right, this has been debated among children for a long time, but there is actual proof for to the fact that saying “LEGOs” is incorrect (officially speaking). Here is an excerpt from LEGO Media's website, If the LEGO trademark is used at all, it should always be used as an adjective, not as a noun. For example, say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGO BRICKS". Never say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGOs".
Secondly, they are pronounced, LEH-GOH bricks not LAY-GOH bricks. It sounds like the "le" in "let" not the "la" in "late". This is not one that I have an official source on, so it's up for debate. But think about similarly spelled trademarks like “Eggo” Waffles. You don't use the “A” as in “Apple” sound for the “E” in Eggo Waffles. You don't call them “EIGH-GOH” Waffles do you? So why would you say LAY-GOH? Eggo as in “Egg” and LEGO® as in “LEGG-OH”.
This third one is one that doesn't really bother me, but is an interesting note: it is "LEGO®" (all capitals with followed by a registered trademark symbol) not "Lego". Apparently the company is very choosy on how people refer to them. So it would be hypocritical of me to ignore this while writing a post about how to correctly refer to them. Here's what they have to say about writing the word: Proper Use of the LEGO Trademark on a Web Site
So if you have been wondering why I have used the registered trademark symbol repeatedly throughout this post on the word LEGO®, that is why.
So how about you? Did/do you play with LEGO® bricks? What kinds of things have you built? I would like to hear about it! Better yet, if you have some LEGO® bricks, either build something and take a photo of it, or take a photo of something you have already made, and insert it in the comments below! :) To get this LEGO® photo plan rolling, here is a photo of a guitar I made a few years ago, out of LEGO® bricks!
God bless,
A builder In Christ, Christopher Green PS: Fun fact, did you ever try connecting LEGO® bricks to Duplo bricks? Not only can they mix and match with most other brands like Mega Blocks, but they can actually connect to those big Duplos and those MASSIVE "first builders" Mega Blocks sets! There is also apparently adapters you can get to connect to other building toys like tinker toys (see video below)! This makes building possibilities more intense, just be sure not to hog all of your baby sister's Duplos okay? WWJB*** alright?
FOOTNOTES:
*I didn't literally love LEGO® bricks, because if I did, I would have serious mental and emotional issues. Instead I liked it, but I liked it a lot, and English lacks a word for this. The phrase “I liked it a lot” just didn't seem to fit. **I know I shouldn't obsess over petty things, but this was all in fun. ***WWJB stands for What Would Jesus Build. |
I'm a lover of Jesus, and he has called me to love and obey Him. One of the ways He has me do that, is by glorifying Him through media.
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