Just like all the dubbing mixers that I met through my father, who was a film editor, and then director, and then producer-director of his own company.
Vernon Messenger for one: did The Dark Crysytal, Labyrinth, A View To A Kill. Vern had a huuuge library he created over the years.

For decades, watching my father as a film editor, you are wrong.

It IS a precise term! And quite a modern one. It's just that you describe something slightly different to the term, imo.

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2020

Maybe back then but nower days editors working on TV shows and advertising are often hands-on with the audio. In some cases they will combine stems from different tracks creating new compositions for the footage etc too.

 

This is not film.
Editing film requires a Steenbeck, and you have the film and the audio separate.
Which is why there was no additional messing with the dub.
You said "back then"; don't refer to the those films as my timeline.

I imagine now in the non-destructive VT world that some of thw tasks may overlap in certain situations, but in feature-films, nope.

 

I can give many examples to back up what I said. In many cases, the sound design is done before they start shooting footage. Christopher Nolan has spoken about this in an interview regarding The Dark Knight.

There way be cases where the producer works with the sound design and not the editor, but my point still stands here that it's rare that a film is shot, edited and then sent to a sound designer to make sounds over the top. That obviously happens with foley, but for sound design, they are usually edited to the footage.

 

Steenbeck? How many feature films today are shot digitally? At least 70%? Many editors today would have only ever worked digitally.

 

Totally agree. But now we're talking about sound design, not film editing.

A lot. And some were still shot in both not so long ago.

Agreed! Lucky sods!

 

But the OP stated he add samples to video footage, I said this is not sound design. Sound design is making the sounds, a sound designer does not usually (unless it's for low budget projects or a specific project) work with footage to add sounds to.

 

I don't just slap samples on footage, anyone could do that.
It's pretty rare to just do so.
A door for example is not just a door sample from a library put in sync with picture, gotta take into account the handle, the squeek, the size of the door, the speed of opening, what it opens to, and a lot of it is really instinctive and stylistic, i feel like it's already a huge amount of work to create the right sound for each instance of movement in any scene, there is a lot of treatment to do, a lot of effects to apply properly, i refuse to agree that any video editor could do that.
It takes a lot of my audio knowledge to do something as simple as a door, and this is a common sound, there is even more work to pull out when you literally have to create the sound from scratch if nothing sounds like it.
Also (this applies more with animation and motion design) it takes a lot of instinct and creativity to create the sound for a scene and objects that are quite abstract like most videos i see on behance (ignoring the soundtrack https://www.behance.net/gallery/75052727/Journey-of-the-Pixel).
Not even mentioning sci-fi or fantasy...
I don't refuse to record my sounds i just... lived under the impression that i'd fuck it up with subpar gear but i guess i was wrong. I'd love nothing more than to create amazing sounds with my recordings but i feel like a lot of freelancers depend more on libraries from what i gathered (i asked a lot of them by private messaging while trying to learn more) because recording something properly and editing/polishing it plus adding metadatas and sorting them all out takes a LOT of time ?

I just want to improve though so i'm to get my hand on any aspect i might be missing. I'll take a look at the recorders prices.

 

You actually sound like a dubbing editor or dubbing mixer! That's cool!
This is the person that dubs the ambient sound fx for the 'soundtrack'. Not to be confused with OST!
Whatever you are, I'll see if I can dredge up any useful material given from my father's colleagues.

 

Sorry Boosire, I wasn't personally attacking you in anyway here. I was just saying that it's common for editors and producers to manipulate and edit samples to footage in this digital age and that what you are describing isn't what many would consider "sound design" in the industry.

Also yes it takes up a lot of time for sure, but one single sound like a 2-second impact can license for $3,000 just for one usage in a high budget advert or trailer. Sound designers can earn a very good income and in some cases, the libraries will do the metadata themselves in regards to licensing. I also know composers will hire sound designers to make bespoke sounds for them to use as pallets for projects they are working on and also there can be bespoke sound design for films that's delivered as basically a sample pack of source material. There's lot's of variables here.

 

Oh, and to answer your question in the OP - Eventide Blackhole is a favourite for many in the industry and Krotos are very popular (but not cheap) https://www.krotosaudio.com/

 

Sorry i have a pretty straight and cold english i didn't feel attacked no worries, i never mean to sound harsh it's just my second language.

I feel like the film industry breaks up the roles a bit too much for me.
I just see myself working for specific clients for an animation they made or ads or infographics, for youtubers, short films, motion designs, anything that needs sounds on in a smaller scale project.
The thing is, i see that it's often a one or two men job on the whole audio and that's what i like, creating the sounds and the atmosphere then editing and syncing it on the video like i've been doing all this time. Does that sound reasonable as a freelancer ? I think i wouldn't feel satisfied just creating sound randomly without a motion to look at and not even placing it and editing the whole thing myself afterward.

Creating soundpacks ? Isn't it super saturated field already ?

 

If you enjoy it then you are doing the right thing. I know some people who do this type of work for documentaries and lower budget projects, but they still make some nice money from it.

Regarding soundpacks - for royalty-free sample packs you are right, it's very saturated. For high-end sound packs and publishing them exclusively for industry use, it isn't though but the sounds you make have to be AAA quality.

 

And I think the film industry has to break up the roles. The timeline between a film finishing production and release has got shorter and shorter. For them, it's better to have people who specialise in very specific roles that they have mastered.

 

Thank you for the leads anyway, it feels good to talk it out, i mostly keep these things in my head and read about other people's dialogue but i find it quite helpful to put it into words myself and get a personal feedback.

Cheers everyone.

 

True, and it isn't attractive to me haha.

 

Everyone is different! What works for one person doesn't work for another. There are many great documentaries and low budget films made by small teams that are incredible to watch.

 

Its pretty expensive and hard to rent good gear in my country, also i'd like to own my stuff (if possible).

The recorder the H6 price seems fine(i'm reading though that it's identical to the H5 when it comes to preamps ?) but the mic... 1000 hurts a lot.
I see a good promotion on the NTG4+, what do you think of this mic ? Anything better in this price range ? Is that price range even worth considering for good results ?

 

I'd love that.