Chapter 11 and Chapter 14

Mix Minus Feed

A mix-minus feed is the program material minus anything that is unnecessary for the talent to hear. The most important thing to minus is the talent's mic.

Setting your headphone Level.

A tried-and-true method for a properly setting a headphone level is to run a 1KHz tone and adjust the headphone level until the tone is irritating, not painful. Once that level has been reached, note where the headphone control knob is and try to leave it there 99% of the time.

Two Track Recorders

Are often called 'Stereo recorders.' Stereo is a word that is misleading in the production sound world. The true meaning of stereo refers to a relationship between the left and right channels. When combined, these two channels produce a single stereo image.

Circumaural (Closed-ear)

Circumaural headphones have cups that cover your entire ear and help reduce leakage both in and out of the ear cup.

Headphone types:

Circumaural, supra-aural and in-ear

Sound quality

Goldilocks balance: not to low, not to high, but just right. If you have to choose noise over distortion. Sometimes, noise levels can be reduced in post, but you can never fix distortion.

Channel Redundancy

In situations where only one microphone is recorded, it is common practice to send the signal to both channels of the recorder. This is known as Channel Redundancy.

Metadata

Is additional information (literally data about data) contained in a file.

During the recording process, there are 2 parts of the audio to monitor:

Sound quality and sound level

Track Assignments for multitrack recorder:

Track 1. MIx Track 2. Boom 1 Track 3. Boom 2 Track 4. Actor lav Track 5. Actor lav Track 6. Actor lav Track 7. Actor lav Track 8. Plant mic

There are two types of episodes:

VU and Peak

VU

VU meters are slower in response to the audio signal . VU means Volume units.

In-ear

While there are professional types of in-ear headphones, the most common is the consumer "earbuds." Earbuds should never be used for professional mixing.

VU meters

Whispers and soft dialog will read between -12dB and -9dB. Average dialog will read between -9dB and -3dB. Loud dialog will read between -3dB and 0dB. try to avoid levels that stay above 0dB for long periods of time. Note: VU meters do not "Dance" as much as peak meters, but that little movement can equal big sound.

Analog Peaks Meters

Whispers and soft dialog will read between -20dB and -8dB Analog dialog will read between -8dB and +4dB. Loud dialog will read between +4dB and +8dB. try to avoid levels that stay above +8dB for long period of time.

Digital Peak meters

Whispers and soft dialog will read between -30dBFS and -20dBFS Average dialog will read between -20dBFS and -12dBFS loud dialog will read between -12dBFS and -6dBFS Digital peak meters should never reach 0dBFS

Multitrack recording

allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive whole. The idea behind multitrack recording is to reccord isolated (ISO) tracks for each mic used on set.

Mix Track

can either be mono or stereo (two tracks). Mono track mixing is much easier since you are only focusing on one track

Supra-Aural

do not encompass your entire ear, but rather rest on top of the ear. They're often not very effective at reducing bleed and extraneous sounds.

Peak meter (also called PPM: peak program meter.)

is a blazing thirty times faster with a rise time of 10 milliseconds.

IFB (interruptible feedback or Interruptible Fold Back)

is a return program feed sent back to the broadcast position. This allows the talent and crewmembers to monitor the program.

ISO track (short for isolated)

is a single recorded track with only one microphone, although ISO tracks can also be used for T.C. and music tracks.

Reference tone

it is necessary to send a 1KHz reference tone Also know as an alignment tone) to the camera or recorder to ensure that your equipment is aligned properly.