- Posts: 20
- Joined: Mon May 07, 2018 3:59 pm
- Real Name: Keller McDivitt
Let me start by saying that I am super excited that Black Magic has incorporated Fairlight into Resolve. The possibility of having the entire post production process within one single piece of software is a workflow dream come true. However, after trying to use Fairlight on a few projects, I've come up with a list of gripes and wishes for Fairlight in the future to be a viable replacement for other DAW's such as Pro Tools or Nuendo for audio-post for film.
1) Editing is very cumbersome. I like the idea of the multi-layered editing approach on tracks, but in practice currently, this is a big test to my patience. Currently, the audio clip that is on the top layer takes precedence over the bottom layer, and once the top layer is faded in, what is fading out below it is cut out completely. This makes transitioning audio clips much harder to accomplish, as its not currently possible to hide an ambience fade out beneath the next line of dialog accurately without separating the files onto two different tracks. Having multiple tracks for different clips is historically how I've accomplished a proper dialog edit in the past in Pro Tools, but recently I've been using Reaper for my audio-post work and have been able to fade things in and out exactly how I want within a single track. This keeps the session nice and organized and track-based effects need to be copied/pasted/automated less frequently.
Also drawing fades and pulling out handles seem to be limited to a frame-grid, and is very sluggish to work with. Both fades and clip start and end points seem to have a mind of their own and don't go exactly where I'm telling them to go. Hopefully this is just buggy behavior (i'm using 15 beta right now) and will be resolved in the future. I sincerely hope there isn't a frame-grid limitation to audio editing.
2) Clip-based FX signal flow is wrong. Currently in Fairlight, if i add a VST plugin to an audio clip, the signal flow goes: Source clip-> FX-> Fades. If you add something like a reverb to an audio clip, the fade out of the clip, or end of the clip cuts the reverb trail. This can be fixed if the signal flow goes:
Source clip-> Fades -> FX. Again, going back to Reaper as an example, this is how the signal flow works, allowing me to say, add reverb to a voice or foley and have the reverb trail off after the clip has ended.
3) Nested Sub-mixes/Auxes. This is another huge one for me. Currently, if you have a submix group or aux set up, that submix can only be routed to a main master track. These submixes should be able to be routed to other submixes for stem printing. An example would be a 5.1 submix for dialog, where the dialog tracks are feeding in mono to the Center channel of a 5.1 submix group and a 5.1 reverb Aux for the dialog. For deliverables stem printing, this Dialog Reverb Aux needs be able to feed into the Dialog submix group. Currently, it cannot.
4) ADR manager. This thing looks and works great so far. I would love to see it expanded with a separate Foley manager as well. Having a checklist that's pre-mapped out with a set naming system is huge for working quickly. (this one is praise, not a complaint!)
5) General gui performance. I am having TONS of crashes from things as simple as moving audio files from track to track and moving audio files in from the Sound Library/Media Pool, pulling out audio handles, and sometimes even zooming. Also it seems the knobs on plugins require a circular movement of the mouse to control as opposed to linear mouse movement up or down. This makes it very hard to be accurate with where I'm wanting to set a parameter.
I'm sure as I dive in deeper I will find more things, but my hope is for Fairlight to actually be a viable replacement for having to export AAF's/XML's to go to other platforms for audio-post. The concept of having everything within once ecosystem is so exciting, and a dream for workflow.
Any other audio-post people working with Fairlight within Resolve coming across these issues or have similar wishes for workflow enhancement?
1) Editing is very cumbersome. I like the idea of the multi-layered editing approach on tracks, but in practice currently, this is a big test to my patience. Currently, the audio clip that is on the top layer takes precedence over the bottom layer, and once the top layer is faded in, what is fading out below it is cut out completely. This makes transitioning audio clips much harder to accomplish, as its not currently possible to hide an ambience fade out beneath the next line of dialog accurately without separating the files onto two different tracks. Having multiple tracks for different clips is historically how I've accomplished a proper dialog edit in the past in Pro Tools, but recently I've been using Reaper for my audio-post work and have been able to fade things in and out exactly how I want within a single track. This keeps the session nice and organized and track-based effects need to be copied/pasted/automated less frequently.
Also drawing fades and pulling out handles seem to be limited to a frame-grid, and is very sluggish to work with. Both fades and clip start and end points seem to have a mind of their own and don't go exactly where I'm telling them to go. Hopefully this is just buggy behavior (i'm using 15 beta right now) and will be resolved in the future. I sincerely hope there isn't a frame-grid limitation to audio editing.
2) Clip-based FX signal flow is wrong. Currently in Fairlight, if i add a VST plugin to an audio clip, the signal flow goes: Source clip-> FX-> Fades. If you add something like a reverb to an audio clip, the fade out of the clip, or end of the clip cuts the reverb trail. This can be fixed if the signal flow goes:
Source clip-> Fades -> FX. Again, going back to Reaper as an example, this is how the signal flow works, allowing me to say, add reverb to a voice or foley and have the reverb trail off after the clip has ended.
3) Nested Sub-mixes/Auxes. This is another huge one for me. Currently, if you have a submix group or aux set up, that submix can only be routed to a main master track. These submixes should be able to be routed to other submixes for stem printing. An example would be a 5.1 submix for dialog, where the dialog tracks are feeding in mono to the Center channel of a 5.1 submix group and a 5.1 reverb Aux for the dialog. For deliverables stem printing, this Dialog Reverb Aux needs be able to feed into the Dialog submix group. Currently, it cannot.
4) ADR manager. This thing looks and works great so far. I would love to see it expanded with a separate Foley manager as well. Having a checklist that's pre-mapped out with a set naming system is huge for working quickly. (this one is praise, not a complaint!)
5) General gui performance. I am having TONS of crashes from things as simple as moving audio files from track to track and moving audio files in from the Sound Library/Media Pool, pulling out audio handles, and sometimes even zooming. Also it seems the knobs on plugins require a circular movement of the mouse to control as opposed to linear mouse movement up or down. This makes it very hard to be accurate with where I'm wanting to set a parameter.
I'm sure as I dive in deeper I will find more things, but my hope is for Fairlight to actually be a viable replacement for having to export AAF's/XML's to go to other platforms for audio-post. The concept of having everything within once ecosystem is so exciting, and a dream for workflow.
Any other audio-post people working with Fairlight within Resolve coming across these issues or have similar wishes for workflow enhancement?
System: Windows 10/macOS High Sierra dual boot/ Gigabyte z170x-UD5-TH/
Intel i7 6700k/ 32GB DDR4 3200 RAM/ Nvidia GTX 980/ RME Digiface Dante
Intel i7 6700k/ 32GB DDR4 3200 RAM/ Nvidia GTX 980/ RME Digiface Dante