It seems that since sometime in June 2008 Youtube has been applying what sounds like an aggressive single-band compressor to the audio track of all video uploads by users. This is probably intended as a quick fix for clips that have poorly mixed or severely low audio levels, but it has an adverse effect on those that have mixed their upload audio levels with care…breathing and subtle ambient noises become overly loud, and music instruments distort oddly as the compressor attacks and decays. Listen to a Before and After compression example here.

Users have been talking this issue over, and the fix appears to be to mix in a high frequency 19kHz to 20kHz sine wave into the audio, thus tricking the Youtube compression tools into thinking that the audio is set at a uniform level. Of course, this workaround could be avoided if Youtube would just allow users the option to untick a “Enhance Audio Levels” option upon upload.

Via Andy Dickinson comes this link to Scott Simmon’s blog (can’t believe I didn’t spot it there myself) on how to view the time remaining on a Compressor encode job.

Oliver Peters has written out a thoughtful Ten Tips For A Better Final Cut Pro Experience that run the gamut from editing shortcuts and tricks to getting a handle on media management. Definitely worth the read.

 Redrock Experts Panel on Indie Filmmaking [15:00m]: Download

One of the excellent Super Sessions at NAB 2008 was a panel discussion that featured filmmakers Stu Maschwitz, Taylor Wigton, Dave Basulto, and Alex Lindsay. The panel was organized and sponsored by Redrock Micro, with Brian Valente helping moderate the discussion. Following the presentation and Q&A, the panel shot a short summary presentation and Q&A with FreshDV. We believe that this fifteen-minute discussion will be of great interest to independent and low-budget filmmakers, the professionals on the panel dispense a lot of wisdom and realistic advice that you can put to immediate use. You can watch the video embedded below, via our podcast feed, or at FreshTV.

Andrew Balis has written a detailed tutorial for how to handle a number of ingest/output formats in Apple Color, and the best practices for each. Topics include:

1) Capture Card Workflow- Original Format
2) Native Format Capture And Output - Original Format
3) Start With Native Format - Output to Different Format
4) Start With Native Format Not Supported For Output - Final Output to Tape Back to Native Format

Bimi & Herschel have released another fantastic educational tutorial on the subject of Audio Compression, both with hardware and software. You can check it out here.

Via Spice Here comes this link to a new site devoted to Avid Media Composer demos and tutorials. The Videos are well done, informative and effective. Looks to be a fantastic resource. As also noted at Spice Here, Avid Management is now blogging.

Studio Daily has a nice tutorial/demo video that shows how Automatic Duck simplifies the process of taking an edit from Final Cut Pro into Avid.

Avid2FCP has a fantastic article up that talks about how Final Cut Pro can be used to share media and projects in a very effective way that dispels some of the media management criticism from Avid editors (which is not to suggest that some of that vitriol isn’t warranted). It’s an interesting approach that requires you to slightly re-think how you approach project files.

“When an Avid editor says, “But FCP can’t share projects”, in my mind it really means that they have not taken the time to truly explore the differences between these two systems and realize that there are many ways to skin a cat. Project sharing with FCP really comes down to media sharing, and that can easily be accomplished by passing timelines back and forth. A carefully thought out file naming structure goes a long way towards keeping everything organized and is the key to making this work.

It is interesting to note that Avid’s Interplay uses this global approach to referencing media. My understanding of this product indicates that Avid is moving away from their inherent project-centric workflow and experimenting with more of a file-based organization similar to FCP.

There is no reason that you can’t duplicate the workgroup environment of Avid/Unity using FCP/Xsan. I’ve been doing it for the past four years and haven’t missed an air date yet. Good luck!”

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 7: Single Sensor Cameras Continued
Spectral response, Camera color balance: Daylight v. Tungsten, Digital Intermediate MTF comparison between Genesis and 5218, Bayer vs. RGB striped sensors.

Continue watching FreshDV’s presentation of this informative series here or at FreshTV. You can also download H.264 720p and 1080p versions of this Part 7 presentation from Panavision.

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 6: Single Sensor Cameras (Bayer)
The resolution metric for a Bayer pattern sensor, Diagonal sampling Bayer pattern sensors, Optical lowpass filter options for single Bayer pattern sensors.

Continue watching FreshDV’s presentation of this informative series here or at FreshTV. You can also download H.264 720p and 1080p versions of this Part 6 presentation from Panavision.

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 5: Three Chip Digital Cameras
Line pairs per Millimeter, Differences between HDTV and SDTV lens standards, a demonstration of the MTF-Aliasing dilemma using three chip cameras, Loading the imager MTF into the digital container.

Continue watching FreshDV’s presentation of this informative series here or at FreshTV. You can also download H.264 720p and 1080p versions of this Part 5 presentation from Panavision.

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 4: Diving Deeper into MTF
Pixels are not resolution, Practical measurements of MTF, Introduction to sinusoidal MTF charts, The Panavision sinusoidal MTF Chart, MTF benches for measuring lenses, Cascaded MTF of a DI, Sensor MTF response, Depth of Field, MTF measurements of real world lenses.

Continue watching FreshDV’s presentation of this informative series here or at FreshTV. You can also download H.264 720p and 1080p versions of this Part 4 presentation from Panavision.

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 3: Introducing MTF
Introduction to MTF, Introduction to an individual element’s contribution to final MTF, Transferring contrast, Cascading MTFs, Introduction to Otto Schade, Perceived picture sharpness and MTF, Edge Sharpness, image textures, and resolving power.

Continue watching FreshDV’s presentation of this informative series here or at FreshTV. You can also download H.264 720p and 1080p versions of this Part 3 presentation from Panavision.

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 1: What’s in a Pixel?

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 2: Keeping Harry Happy

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 3: Introducing MTF

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 4: Diving Deeper into MTF

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 5: Three Chip Digital Cameras

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 6: Single Sensor Cameras (Bayer)

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 7: Single Sensor Cameras Continued