File Management
So during the last two terms I have developed my own way of managing my audio files. Anyone that has used pro tools knows that when you start to record your own sound effects, adding dialog, music, and background ambient sounds that you can quickly get overwhelmed or confused with know what sounds are for what in the region list.
The most important thing I do in regards to recording sound effects using the PMD field recorder is for each sound on the PMD is in its own file. To do this I record my sound then press stop. This creates one file on the PMD and calls it for example TRACK#1. I also have a journal and write every single track that I record for example: Track#1(footsteps on gravel).
When you download all your sounds from the PMD to your computer it gives them a name; for example track one will not say track one it will have MZ000001.wav this is why I write everything down in my journal the last number in the MZ(in this case) is the number 1 which represents track #1.
Once they have all been downloaded to my computer (and this is the most important) I open each sound and listen to it refer to my journal then name the sound. Name your sounds accordingly to your scene or a time code. This information should be on your spotting sheet.
Now that you have listened to all your sounds and have given them all names now you can import them into Pro tools region list. Once they are in the region list a very cool trick is when you have several of the same sounds and you have one that is your best one but it’s in the middle of the region list put a $ sign and an underscore for example $_scene#1_footsteps_gravel what this does is puts it at the very top of the region list I call this the money shot. I find that if you use this system even though it can be very time consuming it really makes things a lot easier to find and manage all your files.
