Welcome to the official training course for Soundtrack Pro, Apple’s dynamic and powerful sound design and audio post-production software.
This book is a detailed guide to using Soundtrack Pro to create high-quality soundtracks for your music and video productions. It is based on the premise that a training book should go beyond a basic tour of the application by providing you with practical, professional techniques that you will use on a daily basis to add professional-quality sound design, music, and audio effects to your projects.
Whether you are a seasoned sound designer, or have never edited an audio project before, you will learn how to use Soundtrack Pro for a variety of real-world scenarios, including sound design for a suspense scene, audio effects editing for a film trailer, voiceover and dialog editing for a public service announcement, and mixing tracks for a professionally recorded pop song. You’ll also record and save your own files, export projects as a mix, separate tracks, and use the companion Soundtrack Loop utility to tag and organize your files.
As part of the Apple Pro Training Series, this book emphasizes hands-on training. Each exercise is designed to help you learn the application inside and out, starting with the basic interface and moving on to editing and arranging audio clips in the Timeline using some of the 5000 files that come with the application. Then you’ll move on to the Waveform Editor, where you’ll modify sound effects and repair and enhance dialog. Finally, you’ll learn to record and mix effects and output.
The book assumes a basic level of familiarity with the Apple OS X operating system. If you are new to Soundtrack Pro, it would be helpful for you to start at the beginning and progress through each lesson in order, since each builds on information learned in previous ones. If you are already familiar with Soundtrack Pro, you can start with any section and focus on that topic.
Video editors, audio hobbyists, and music producers switching to Soundtrack Pro from other audio or editing programs will have the most to gain by reading this book, which is designed to be an introduction to Soundtrack Pro and is not meant for those who have a lot of experience using this program. That doesn’t mean that the book’s lessons are basic in nature. Soundtrack Pro is sophisticated software, and the lessons are divided into seven sections to cover all aspects of sound design and audio post-production:
Working with the interface | |
Sound design and arrangement in the Timeline | |
Working with the Waveform Editor | |
Recording, mixing, and effects | |
Exporting and managing files | |
Advanced Soundtrack Pro techniques | |
Using Soundtrack Pro with other Apple Pro applications |
Lessons 1 and 2 lay the groundwork by introducing you to Soundtrack Pro, the interface, navigation, layout, the difference between time-based and beats-based projects, how to set the project properties, and some basic functions, such as searching for files and arranging them in the Timeline—techniques you’ll use throughout the book.
In Lessons 3 and 4, you’ll create the soundtrack for a suspense scene from scratch, including a full array of sound effects and music. You’ll start by planning the scene’s sound design and then add and sync reality sound effects to the picture. Next, you’ll build additional tracks with foley sound effects and ambience. Finally you’ll audition and select a musical part, double it, and transpose the score. Along the way, you’ll also learn to create and save new window layout, and work with markers to help organize and sync the different audio clips.
Lessons 5 and 6 focus on the powerful Waveform Editor. First, you’ll learn to open audio files from the Timeline into the Waveform Editor to amplify, stretch, edit, and customize the sound. Then you’ll work with voiceover and dialog in the Waveform Editor to normalize, amplify, add ambience, silence, reduce noise, and analyze files to find and fix common problems like clicks and pops.
Lessons 7 through 9 step you through recording, mixing, and adding effects. First, in Lesson 7 you’ll learn to set up your equipment and record and edit single and multitake recordings. Next, in Lesson 8 you’ll mix a song, starting with balancing the volume and panning levels, then adding automation to the volume and pan envelopes to change the values over time. Once the basic mix is complete, in Lesson 9 you’ll add effects to the tracks, group tracks together using a bus, and add effects to the entire project. Finally, you’ll modify the output levels to prevent clipping.
In Lesson 10, you’ll work with the various export methods, including exporting a mix, selected tracks, busses, or outputs. You’ll also learn to export with Compressor, reconnect media to a project, and save projects collected for archiving.
Lesson 11 is a collection of techniques ranging from scoring a marker to the playhead, to changing a clip’s speed or offset. You’ll also learn how to mix multiple outputs, and work with control surfaces so that you can use external mixing hardware with Soundtrack Pro.
Lesson 12 illustrates the basics of integrating Soundtrack Pro with the other Final Cut Studio applications including Final Cut Pro, Motion, and DVD Studio Pro.
One of the most important things in a project-based book like this is the quality of the projects. I’m very fortunate to have so many talented friends and colleagues who contributed their work to this book. The wide range of real-world projects you’ll work with originated in formats from DV, high-definition, and film. All of the projects were edited in Final Cut Pro.
Animated Clapboard. Lessons 1, 2, 10, and 12. Created by Damian Allen for the book Apple Pro Training Series: Motion, Lesson 15.
Bloodlust. Lessons 3, 4, and 10. The scene is from Bloodlust, a short film derived from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, made by students at the ArtsEd School of Acting in London, 2002. Written and directed by Michael Ferguson, starring Margeret Sverris and Terje Naudeer, filmed and edited by Lisa James-Larson, production manager Rebecca Pearson, and original music by Jonnie Harrison. Shot using a Canon XL1 camera and edited on Final Cut Pro. Contact: [email protected].
The Tangerine Dream. Lessons 5 and 11. From acclaimed producers, Teton Gravity Research, comes a 16-mm ski and snowboard film that features some of the most progressive riding and remote locations ever caught on film.
Executive Producers/TGR Founders: Dirk Collins, Todd Jones, Corey Gavitt and Steve Jones; Supervising Producer: Josh Nielsen; Editor: Tate MacDowell; Graphics Editor: Jason Fish; Principal Cinematographers: Dirk Collins, Todd Jones, Corey Gavitt, Steve Jones, Dustin Handley, Pete O’brien, and Matt Herriger; Passengers: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Jeremy Jones, Chris Collins, Micah Black, Marc-Andre Belliveau, Victoria Jealouse, Jeremy Nobis, Peter Olenick, Michael Olenick, Ryan Oakden, Dana Flahr, Dylan Hood, Dash Longe, Erik Roner, Skogen Sprang, Travis Rice, Candide Thovex, Karina Hollekim, Will Burks, and more.
The Tangerine Dream is a film that represents 10 years of broken-down trucks, whiskey bottles, wanderlust, and the most down and dirty skiing and boarding that have ever been filmed. This vagabond tale takes you through the lifestyle of outlaw athletes whose skiing and passion continues to change the face of the sport. Filmed on location in India, Turkey, Switzerland, France, Alaska, Aspen, Utah, Montana, California, and Jackson Hole. The Tangerine Dream is currently playing on tour across the United States. Contact: www.tetongravity.com.
ADA Tour de Cure PSA. Lessons 6 and 10. Part of a series of national PSA spots for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in high-definition video produced by RHED Pixel. The PSA was created to help recruit more Tour de Cure participants, as well as raise more funds to support the ADA’s mission.
RHED Pixel chose to shoot in HD so that the ADA’s message could achieve greater impact by broadcasting on both standard and high-definition channels. The Tour de Cure is one of the ADA’s key fund-raising events, and includes dramatic jib shots combined with first-person camera angles from a unique bike-mounted camera.
Extensive coverage was provided by DPs James Ball and Joe Di Gennaro during the ride. All post-production was handled in-house by RHED Pixel’s staff, and the project was produced by RHED Pixel’s Sara Evans and directed by Stephen Menick. RHED Pixel shot footage from the Napa Valley and Silicon Valley Tour de Cure events. The PSA will premiere in Spring 2006.
The footage was captured using the new Kona2 HD card, an uncompressed HDTV 10-bit QuickTime card for Mac OS X. With Kona’s HD card, RHED Pixel is able to work with footage at a superior quality. Contact: www.RhedPixel.com
Something About You. Lessons 7, 8, 9, and 10. Produced by Adam Green, Hector Rios (lead guitar), Thor Jeppesen (bass), Steve Purtic (drums), Jose Ortiz (lead vocals), and Gus Rios (rhythm guitar).
Guitar Riff. Lesson 10. Performed and recorded by Camillo Brena.
West Coast Styles. Lesson 11. West Coast Style—Freeride Fundamentals is the culmination of over 20 years of mountain bike training from world-class instructors Joan Jones and Daamiann Skelton of the West Coast School of Mountain Biking. Filmed on location in Vancouver, Canada, producer Chris Bremer and director Michael Maguire assembled a team of world champion riders, instructors, and video production professionals to create a comprehensive and easy to understand training video for beginning to advanced mountain bikers.
Freeride Fundamentals was photographed on Panasonic’s DVX-100, using the 30p frame rate. Post-production took place over six months, in Orlando, Florida, and in Vancouver. Final Cut Pro project files were transferred remotely between the editor’s workstations and instructor’s Macs using iDisk. This allowed the instructors to maintain a close eye on the educational content, while being on the opposite side of the continent. DVD Studio Pro was used to author the DVD. More information is available at www.westcoaststyle.net.
Same Conversation. Lesson 12. Same Conversation was written and directed by award-winning cinematographer Jon Fordham and produced by Melissa Drotar and Chris Bremer in Orlando, Florida. It was photographed on Sony’s DSR-500WSPL/1 in PAL DVCAM by cinematographer Chris Wissinger. Chris Bremer edited on Final Cut Pro 5 using a Powerbook G4. Soundtrack Pro was used extensively in sound design and dialogue cleanup for the two actors, Mike Lane and Meg Wozniak. Same Conversation ©2005 Karmic Pictures.
Before beginning to use Apple Pro Training Series: Soundtrack Pro, you should have a working knowledge of your computer and its operating system. Make sure that you know how to use the mouse and standard menus and commands and also how to open, save, and close files. If you need to review these techniques, see the printed or online documentation included with your system.
Macintosh computer with PowerPC G4 or G5 processor (450MHz or faster dual processors or 500MHz or faster single processor; 733MHz or faster recommended)
Mac OS X v 10.3.9 or later
QuickTime 7.0 or later
512MB RAM (1GB recommended)
AGP or PCI Express graphics card
Display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher (1280-by-1024 resolution recommended)
500MB of available disk space for application installation; 8GB for installation of all Soundtrack Pro content (may be installed on separate disks)
This book includes an APTS_Soundtrack_Pro DVD of all the necessary files you will need to complete the lessons. The Soundtrack Pro book files folder on the DVD includes numbered Projects&Media folders containing the applicable projects and media for each lesson. Some of the Projects&Media folders also contain additional files for non-Soundtrack media such as a DVD Studio Pro, Motion, or Final Cut Pro projects.
While installing these files on your computer, it’s important to keep all of the numbered Projects&Media folders together inside the main Soundtrack Pro book files folder on your hard drive. If you copy the entire Soundtrack Pro book files folder directly from the DVD to your hard drive, you should not have to reconnect your project files to the media.
Put the APTS_Soundtrack_Pro DVD into your computer’s DVD drive.
Drag the Soundtrack Pro book files folder from the DVD to the desktop, or a location on the hard drive.
To begin each lesson, launch Soundtrack Pro, then follow the instructions at the beginning of the lesson to open the project files for that lesson.
In the process of copying the media from this book’s DVD, you may break a link between the project file and the media file. If this happens, the next time you open a project file a window will appear saying that it can’t find a file and asking you to reconnect the project files. Reconnecting the project files is a simple process. Just follow these steps:
If the Can’t Find File window appears, click the Find File button.
Navigate to where the Soundtrack Pro book files folder resides on your hard drive, then go to the specific Projects&Media subfolder for the current lesson.
Select the media file you wish to reconnect from the File Browser.
Click the Use Selected Path to Reconnect Other Missing Files checkbox to make sure that it is selected (checked).
Click the Choose button to reconnect all the media for that project.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all project files have been reconnected.
Apple Pro Training Series: Soundtrack Pro is part of the official training series for Apple Pro applications, developed by experts in the field and certified by Apple Computer. The series offers complete training in all Apple Pro products. The lessons are designed to let you learn at your own pace. Although each lesson provides step-by-step instructions for creating specific projects, there’s room for exploration and experimentation. You can progress through the book from beginning to end, or dive right into the lessons that interest you most. Each lesson concludes with a review section summarizing what you’ve covered.
The Apple Pro Training and Certification Program is designed to keep you at the forefront of Apple’s digital media technology while giving you a competitive edge in today’s ever-changing job market. Whether you’re an editor, graphic designer, sound designer, special effects artist, or teacher, these training tools are meant to help you expand your skills.
Upon completing the course material in this book, you can become a certified Apple Pro by taking the certification exam at an Apple Authorized Training Center. Certification is offered in Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Shake, Motion, Logic, Aperture, and Soundtrack Pro. Successful certification as an Apple Pro gives you official recognition of your knowledge of Apple’s professional applications while allowing you to market yourself to employers and clients as a skilled, pro-level user of Apple products.
For those who prefer to learn in an instructor-led setting, Apple also offers training courses at Apple Authorized Training Centers worldwide. These courses, which use the Apple Pro Training Series books as their curriculum, are taught by Apple Certified Trainers and balance concepts and lectures with hands-on labs and exercises. Apple Authorized Training Centers have been carefully selected and have met Apple’s highest standards in all areas, including facilities, instructors, course delivery, and infrastructure. The goal of the program is to offer Apple customers, from beginners to the most seasoned professionals, the highest-quality training experience. To find an Authorized Training Center near you, go to www.apple.com/software/pro/training.
Apple Pro Training Series: Soundtrack Pro is not intended to be a comprehensive reference manual, nor does it replace the documentation that comes with the application. For more information about program features discussed in this book, refer to these resources:
The Reference Guide. Accessed through the Soundtrack Pro Help menu, the Reference Guide contains a complete description of all features.
Apple’s website: www.apple.com.