Sound Effects....

[James McWilliams]

What would you guys recommend for sound effects design? I don't mean what pre-done sounds can I buy, but I am working on an animation project and I want a good program that I can pan, modify, screw around with sounds that I record and also sync them to video (well, digital video formats, avi etc)

Protools? or is there something better out there.

Ok put simply, if you were hired to create the sound effects for a movie, what would you use! [:D]

Thanks,

James

[Nick Batzdorf]

Pro Tools. [:)]

[James McWilliams]

@Nick Batzdorf said:

Pro Tools. [:)]

Thought so! [:D] thanks Nick.

[mathis]

I would use my kitchen tools, my mouth, my body, some microphones, a portable DAT and maybe some library recordings. [[;)]]

Sorry, did this job for five years and became a bit oldfashioned about all these inquiries about technology. That´s in fact the least interesting part of the job, I worked on at least four different platforms and it doesn´t really make a difference what you use. Use whatever you have.

OK, and now a bit more trendy: For this kind of work Protools is indeed the standard platform. And since this job is a lot about transfering work from one person to another this is of relevance. Concerning the audio quality and features I never would choose Protools and I never bought it for my own studio.

[Dietz]

Sorry, I have to jump in here with my private opinion:

There IS a more than serious alternative to ProT**ls since quite some time: Nuendo

-> www.nuendo.com

It does already everything PT does (will do even better in the upcoming Vers. 3), plus an unbelievable lot of very usefull and/or advanced features, like perfect MIDI, complete scoring, built-in standardized file-exchange, no track-limit and so on. It comes with an healthy amount of plug-ins (both FX and Synths) and is VST- and ReWire compatible. - PLUS: it costs only a fraction of PT and runs on native PC and Mac-hardware using the omni-present ASIO-protocol.

After 20 years in music- and 15 years in post-production (the latter on Nuendo since its first release in 2000) I can assure you that it is the most complete, more up-to-date and more intuitive platform. And yes, I do many productions on PT (and Logic and Sequoia and analogue and and and ...) too, simply because i have to, so i know what I'm talking about :-]

/Dietz

[mathis]

And transfer to protools?

[Nick Batzdorf]

Dietz, have you ever done SFX in Nuendo?

I'm not voicing an opinion for or against Nuendo, since I've never used it (other than poking around the Mac v.1 I have here).

I tried doing SFX in Logic one time and realized very quickly that it wasn't going to happen. Yet I use Logic for composition all the time. As you undoubtedly know, music production and SFX are very different - even though you can "do" everything Pro Tools does in Logic.

[DG]

Much as I hate to agree with anyone, EVER, I have to say that Nuendo is great. I find myself laughing quietly when I see some of the shortcomings of the opposition. I have used PT a lot, and would agree that in many of the large studios (in the UK) it is a standard, but (thanks to Dietz) I have had no problems in transfering sessions to and from PT. It can be used for both music production and post production.

DG

[James McWilliams]

@mathis said:

I would use my kitchen tools, my mouth, my body, some microphones, a portable DAT and maybe some library recordings. [[;)]]

Sorry, did this job for five years and became a bit oldfashioned about all these inquiries about technology. That´s in fact the least interesting part of the job, I worked on at least four different platforms and it doesn´t really make a difference what you use. Use whatever you have.

OK, and now a bit more trendy: For this kind of work Protools is indeed the standard platform. And since this job is a lot about transfering work from one person to another this is of relevance. Concerning the audio quality and features I never would choose Protools and I never bought it for my own studio.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll have a look at both of these programs.

Mathis, [[:D]] well, the problem I have at the moment is that I have to do all my sound effects work in pro audio 9 and gigastudio, which is far more suited to music than sfx. I'll be going out and recording kitchen utensils and the like of course! [[:D]] thats the half the fun, the second half comes from putting it alltogether and giving extra life to the drawings of aliens, spaceships etc.

So basically... i can load up a video in nuendo and manipulate and place all my sound effects and sync them up to the video file? (does it have good wave editing tools?)

Thanks again,

James

[Dietz]

You can most easily work to picture within Nuendo - actually that's what it was originally made for. Its Wave-Editor is quite powerfull, but you won't need it as almost everything can be done on the Project-level, down to an accuracy of a single sample. Two different Edit-modes allow a scrubbing of audio-to-picture, or "ordinary" audio scrubbing, for example. ... Too many great solutions to tell here (hey, I don't get paid for that! [;)] ...)

To Mathis - Transfer to and from ProT**ls is a problem - but only as far as PT itself is concerned [H] ... Nuendo reads and writes OMF1, OMF2, OpenTL, AES-31, And I think even AAF in the meantime. With additional translation-software you can actually even import PT-sessions directly.

To Nick - Don't think of Nuendo as "the other Logic". It's in fact the better ProT**ls. (Uh - this was not the question ... yes, I did SFX and more with Nuendo, about hundred large and small projects within the last five years. [URL=http://www.ksmusic.at/ks/orf_surr1_e.asp]This older one[/URL] is even documented online.)

/Dietz

[Nick Batzdorf]

Okay, you've convinced me to take another look. [:)]

[mathis]

So my advice: If you stay completely inside your workstation and have no transfer of EDLs then Nintendo is certainly well suited. But if you have to deliver and recieve sessions, triple-check every worst case scenario.
I know, Dietz, it´s never the the fault of the other side, it IS Avid which is constantly changing their OMF and is protective about the changes. And even company-internal from Avid to Protool$ there is always some stupid hassle.

[Nick Batzdorf]

Nintendo! [[:|]]

[mathis]

You know, I thought I could tease Dietz a little bit but he seems quite resistant...

[Dietz]

hehehe ... I think I heard this joke being cracked for the first time about six years ago ... my willingness to get in rage about it has reached an unbelievably low level since then ... [+o(]

/Dietz

[mathis]

So many jokes, so little... [:D]

[SyQuEsT]

Sydec Soundscape
(www.sydec.be)

easy, powerful, low cost, vst compatible and more ...

You must check this ... I made a comparison with a Protools ... I think you know my choice [:P] .

Sydec is, for me, a VSL-like company : very friendly with a very good service ... for a great product.

Thanks

[mathis]

Dietz,
with Steinbergs aquisition by Yamaha and their 'studioconnection' this whole Nuendo thing might go to an amazing next level. Maybe your nose was very right from its beginning on...

[Dietz]

While you are perfectly right with the other things you mentioned ;-] I think you got the acquisition-thing the wrong way - Steinberg was bought by Pinnacle, not Yamaha (at least that was the last thing I know ...)

All the best,

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library

[DG]

@Dietz said:

While you are perfectly right with the other things you mentioned ;-] I think you got the acquisition-thing the wrong way - Steinberg was bought by Pinnacle, not Yamaha (at least that was the last thing I know ...)

All the best,

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library

Ooooooooooo, you haven't been to the Nuendo forum today then [8-)]

DG