A few questions about Fairlight

I’m hoping someone from BMD can answer a few questions I’ve got about Fairlight. I’m very close to moving over from Pro Tools.

1) Is there an equivalent to the Multitrack Field Recorder Workflow that Pro Tools has?

2) Is it possible to set a session sample-rate or is it always 48KHz? If so, how is this done?

3) is there another way to create crossfades besides in the Edit page or using Track layers?

4) is it possible to change the sample rate of an audio clip, e.g. a 96KHz clip be marked as 48KHz and played at half speed and half the pitch?

5) is there a way to create slow-down effects like with Vari-Fi?

6) I assume the internal bit-depth is 32-bit float, when exporting at 24-bit and 16-bit is dithering applied or truncating?

7) are there plans to support Ambisonics?

8) with the Foley sampler, how easy is it to correct timings after initial performance?

So far I’m very impressed with Fairlight but just want to get a bit more info before making the jump!

Bump

[Peter Chamberlain]

Bump... really, after 12 hrs on a weekend?

Can u describe the protools thing as I don’t use it?

Hi Peter, the bump wasn’t meant in an aggressive way, only to make sure the post wasn’t lost before Monday.

Here are links to the 2 Pro Tools things I’ve mentioned.

Multitrack Field Recorder Workflow
http://akmedia.digidesign.com/support/d ... _29732.pdf

Vari-Fi plug-in
https://www.avid.com/plugins/vari-fi-audiosuite

On the Vari-Fi front there are 3rd party plug-ins that will do this, but sometimes is nice to have a quick and easy way to do it without using a plug-in with lots of other features.

For #4, right-click on it in the Edit page and choose Change Clip Speed.

Here's a video about the Field Recorder Workflow, starting at timestamp 4:26.

It's useful if the video editor only has a mono or stereo mix from the dailies.

When the video editor is done, the audio editor is tasked with exchanging the audio edits with the isolated tracks from the audio recorder so that a final mix can be created. This is where the Field Recorder Workflow comes in.

For #4, right-click on it in the Edit page and choose Change Clip Speed.

Thanks. It’d be nice if there was a way to do this in Fairlight too rather than having to go to Edit, but good to know there are options.

1) Is there an equivalent to the Multitrack Field Recorder Workflow that Pro Tools has?

Any Timeline Audio Clip may be reassigned an embedded Channel within Clip Attributes without altering the edit.

In other words, Timeline Audio Clips may be expanded to any wider or narrower Clip or Track configuration, and any of the available embedded Channels may be reassigned to that Audio Clip without requiring reimport or re-sync of the alternate Channels - embedded Channels are always linked and available to the Timeline Audio Clip via Clip Attributes regardless of any edit performed.

2) Is it possible to set a session sample-rate or is it always 48KHz?

Currently, Projects default to and are fixed at 48kHz.

Support for alternate rates is a popular feature request.

3) is there another way to create crossfades besides in the Edit page or using Track layers?

Not currently.

4) is it possible to change the sample rate of an audio clip, e.g. a 96KHz clip be marked as 48KHz and played at half speed and half the pitch?

Source media is always down/upsampled to the current default Project rate of 48kHz.

Currently, a change of the source header is required prior to ingest, to facilitate half speed playback of the source media.

5) is there a way to create slow-down effects like with Vari-Fi?

This functionality is currently only natively available on the Edit page.

6) I assume the internal bit-depth is 32-bit float, when exporting at 24-bit and 16-bit is dithering applied or truncating?

Project and Timeline bit depth is always 32bit float, and exports via the Deliver page currently truncate.

TPDF dither on exports is on the wish list.

8) with the Foley sampler, how easy is it to correct timings after initial performance?

Once printed, Elastic Wave provides one option of non-destructively fine-tuning timing.

[Peter Chamberlain]

i can add a little here.

1) Resolve has supported audio import with iXML metadata for some years. We have more than 200 items of metadata accessible in the Media, Edit and Fairlight pages.

You can as Reynaud mentioned configure the actual audio essence into the track config you wish.

2) Resolve is currently 48Hz but 96 and 192 are announced in the readme for v16 and are in QA for release shortly. The plan is to set your project rate and use other source rates, and lower render rates.

3) Cross fades on Fairlight page are almost complete. In the version i have on my desk I can now apply them both via right click and drag from the effects library. Just tidying that up before release but in the meantime you can add them in the Edit page.

4) No, but we do permit playback at different speeds and also pitch shift.

5) There are a number of new pitch and vary speed effects in v16.

6) 32 bit float is the minimum processing bit depth and in some sections its much higher.
Deliver is converted from float to integer then to 24 or 16 bit for render.
Dither is in the plan .. soon.

That’s amazing. Thank you both.

With the cross fade being accessed by dragging or right-clicking, does it show the same way as if it was done in track layers, or is it totally separate?

On the iXML front that sounds exactly like what I need, but have an example where I’d use it, and wonder if this is possible.

Location sound files are recorded as PolyWav ISO tracks and with a stereo mix track, but only stereo mix track is given to editorial to save them dealing with multiple ISOs. File names are different on the stereo version, but Metadata for scene, take, and timecode are identical. XML or AAF comes referencing stereo mix-only files and I have the PolyWAV versions with ISOs.

Can I quickly and easily reference the multitrack versions, and replace the stereo-only file, ideally as a batch process?
I realise this is long winded, but is a workflow I often utilise. If people I worked with edited in Resolve too that’d be ideal, but until then this is my workflow.

Thanks for explaining the bit-depth.

Also, is there any update on sidechaining coming in Resolve 16?

Really appreciate the time you’ve taken to answer the multiple questions I have and am feeling confident to jump ship!

FYI, there's an informative (and affordable, at US $24.00) introductory tutorial to Fairlight by Curtis Judd at https://school.learnlightandsound.com where he takes you through the process of channel remapping location sound files (with left/right mix plus two ISOs in a polywav file from a MixPre). He also goes through some basic editing in Fairlight, but the demonstration of channel remapping and subsequent workflow may be of interest to you.

With respect to sidechaining, I thought that was introduced in v. 15 already.

File names are different on the stereo version, but Metadata for scene, take, and timecode are identical.

Read through Chapter 39 of the manual (Conforming and Relinking Clips).

Thanks very much to you both. This forum is so much nicer than the DUC and Gearslutz!

I'm not having any success with "Reconform From Bins..." if the audio I want to replace is external audio that was linked/auto synced in Resolve to a video clip. It works as expected if the audio isn't linked though.

Did automatic audio dithering ever make it (I'm on the latest Studio v.)? Need to know if I should apply it myself.

Also would dearly love a 44.1k samplerate timeline option for YouTube music videos.

Did automatic audio dithering ever make it (I'm on the latest Studio v.)? Need to know if I should apply it myself.

Also would dearly love a 44.1k samplerate timeline option for YouTube music videos.

44.1k is now supported (yay), but was dithering implemented as of R17.2.2?