{Audio Post exercise - pt 3}

By now you should have finished the editing for this project. Now you're going to spend some time mixing it. Today you are going to do the following things:

• Remove the hum noise from a track using an EQ
• Add reverb to the VO track using an Aux Input
• Enhance the "whoosh" sound using an AudioSuite Plugin
  
• General mixing (volume and panning)
• Turn on the automation
• Bounce a Quicktime movie out of Pro Tools
  

Remove the Hum
On the DX2 track, there is a region called DAT.02.new.10.sine. This region has a low frequency hum that you are going to get rid of using an EQ...

1. In the Region List on the right side of your screen, find the region called DAT.02.new.sine. Click on it so that it is highlighted in your project.
2. Press E on your keyboard to zoom in on it.
3. Now go to Window>Mix to bring up the Mix Window.
4. Find the DX2 track.
5. In the Insert section of the track, insert a 1-band EQ III plugin (Plugin>EQ>1-band EQIII).
6. Solo the DX2 track by clicking the S button.
7. Press SPACEBAR to listen to the region.
8. In the 1-Band EQ III plugin window, drag the gray ball in the graphic display down and to the left until you hear the hum reduced (around 60Hz).
9. Close the plugin window and unsolo the track.
10. Press Apple = to go back to the Edit Window and press E on your keyboard to zoom out.
11. Listen to how it sounds in the full mix.
    

Add Reverb

1. Go into back into the Mix Window (Apple =) and find the track called VO.
   
2. In the Aux Send section, find the box called Bus 3-4 and click on it. The Send Window will appear.
3. In the Send Window, click on the S button to solo the VO track.
4. Press Apple = to go back to the Edit Window.
5. Using the Grabber tool, click on any region on the VO track.
6. Hit SPACEBAR to play the region.
7. While listening to the track, raise the level on the Send fader to bring up the reverb.
8. When you get a good level of reverb - not too much, not too little - hit SPACEBAR to stop playback.
9. Press the Solo (S) button to unsolo the track.
   
10. Close the Send Window.

Enhance the Whoosh
So, there's this "whoosh" sound in the project that sounds kind of boring. We're going to use two different types of plugins to make it more exciting.

(Flanger)

1. In the Region List (on the right side of the screen), find the region called Whoosh.comp.2.1. Click on it so that it is highlighted in your project.
2. Press E on your keyboard to zoom in on the region.
3. Now, at the top of the screen, go to Audiosuite>Modulation>Flanger.
4. Click on the Librarian Menu (aka presets) and choose "Slow N Deep".
5. Preview what this effect is going to sound like by clicking the Preview button. Try adjusting the different sliders to change it up.
6. When you've got it sounding good, go ahead and hit the Process button to process the audio region.
7. Close the Flanger plugin window.

(EQ)

1. Hit SPACEBAR to listen to the Whoosh playback.
2. Go to your Mix Window (hit Apple =) and find the Whoosh track.
   
3. In the Insert section, insert a 7-band EQ 3 (mono) plugin (Plugin>EQ>7-band EQ3 (mono)).
4. Experiment with raising and lowering the colored balls in the graphic display of the EQ III plugin window.
5. When you are satisfied with the results, close the plugin window and press SPACEBAR to stop playback.
6. Press E on your keyboard to zoom back out.

Mix the Project
In this section, you pretty much have freedom to mix the different tracks the way you think sounds good using the volume faders and pan sliders. Start by doing the following:

1. Go to the Mix Window.
2. Holding down the OPTION button on your keyboard, click the volume fader of a track. All the tracks should reset to unity gain (0 dB).
3. Now play the whole session back from the beginning and solo each track one at a time to listen to what each one is doing. As you listen, adjust the volume of the track to give it the right volume.
4. Also adjust the panning, going by where something is on the screen - if you see an action happening towards the left side of the screen, move the pan slider to the left so that it sounds like the sound is coming from that direction.
5. When you've gone through all the tracks, unsolo everything and watch the video from the start. Double check your mixing and make sure it still sounds the way you want it to. Adjust whatever needs adjusting.
6. At this point, do a SAVE of your project (File>Save).

Turn on the Automation

1. Go into the Mix Window.
2. Holding down OPTION on your keyboard, click on the Automation Mode Selector for and track. Change the setting to Read. All of the tracks should go into Auto Read mode.
3. Play the movie back from the beginning one more time to see what the automation is doing to your tracks.

Bounce the Movie
Last step...

1. Go to the Edit Window.
2. Using the Grabber tool, click on the movie region to select it.
3. Choose File>Bounce To>QuickTime movie. The Bounce window should appear.
4. Select a place to Save the movie in the Save In section of the window and change the filename to your name_Audio Post project.
5. Click Save.
6. Quit out of Pro Tools.
7. Find your new Quicktime movie on your hard drive and double click on it to open it in Quicktime.
8. Play it back and make sure all your audio post work is part of the movie.