PremierePro & Cuda on MacOS 10.8.2 on a MacPro

I now can confirm with the updated drivers for the nvidia card (GT120+GTX480) that PProCS6 works perfectly smooth even with a lot of  MagicBulletLook use (h246 and ProRes clips / 1080p25)

here are some links you might want to check:

QUADRO & GEFORCE MAC OS X DRIVER RELEASE for 10.8.2
http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-304.00.05f02-driver.html

current CUDA for 10.8.2:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda-mac-driver.html 

Optimize rendering settings:
http://film-sound-color.tumblr.com/post/31268656116/if-u-have-issues-exporting-or-even-rendering-stuff

GPU for Resolve9 AND PremierePro CS6 in ONE system:
http://liftgammagain.com/forum/index.php?threads/gpu-for-resolve9-and-premierepro-cs6-in-one-system.580/

How To Enable GPU Cuda in Adobe CS6 for Mac:
http://film-sound-color.tumblr.com/post/26071716910/how-to-enable-gpu-cuda-in-adobe-cs6-for-mac-by

some awesome commercials… they won a cammes lion

they are not that new but i just “found” them today and a wanted to share that find.
… watch all of them

 

some more info here:
http://cannes2012.grey.com

NVIDIA CUDA & DRIVER for PPro CS 6.0.2 on MacOS 10.8.1

thats my CUDA status on my 2009 MacPro

 

if u run MacOS 10.8.1 / PPro 6.0.2
make sure u have CUDA 5.0.24 and Nvidia driver 1.3.4.0 (304.00.00f20) running really helps and makes PPro more stable! (not tested or even updated to MacOS 10.8.2 yet tho’)

QUADRO & GEFORCE MAC OS X DRIVER
http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-304.00.00f20-driver.html

NVIDIA CUDA 5.0 FOR MAC RELEASE
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda-mac-driver.html 

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….updates…updates…updates

 

Well its was time to refresh all that here!
So first step is a new “design” / template ….

Next step will be a bit more nre content every now and then.
I have something in terms of Color Grading and Audio-Post around the corner (so to say)
So …stay tuned!

… also u might wanna check my Quick-Post-tumblr for fresh stuff :
http://film-sound-color.tumblr.com

 

 

QUICK POST: editors at work

Just some nice Video clips i have found … make sure u watch them!
Great inside of what is important and how editors work …

also you might wanna read this (now i know that is not new but some – like me – might have missed those posts)

Editing ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo‘

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Oliver Peters

creativecow.net: 4K DI on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
…and of course this one (even though you really might have seen this one)

quick post: why i like & use TASCAM DR-40

Just a quick post about the features I like the most on the TASCAM DR-40

Recording non stop with 48V Phantom powered Mic (Rode NTG-1) on my #Tascam DR-40 … wait for it … 4h..42min..16sec … NON STOP! … and I still have standby time and can record internal stereo mic.

A/B stereo is really nice to capture stereo nat sound fx …love it more than x/y setup. You can switch from A/B to X/Y stereo mic setup really nice and quick.

And probably the best part on the DR-40 are the rock solid XLR inputs …nothing slips out!

That’s about it. A great & solid recorder for the money. The Inputs are a bit noises maybe (really just a bit) but that is no issue if u keep your levels nice and tight and there is a good Limiter as well. I don’t really care about all there other “fancy” recording modes. It’s just nice for recording for Shotgun Mic-Recording for interviews and stuff. And of course for SoundFX (Nat-sound) recordings.

Here is a example – a clip used the Tascam DR-40 with a  Rode NTG1 to record the interviews:

Premiere Pro CS6 render & export times

(UPDATE JULY/11/2012 … plz scroll down)

A lot of numbers flying around in the interwebs regarding the power of CUDA in Premiere Pro. Mostly they are about how much layers of blur or how many “tracks” of HD video can be played in realtime without dropped frames without rendering and stuff like that. All that is very nice and indeed the combination CUDA & Premiere Pro  is very powerful. In Fact its the most impressive native codec / footage performance I have seen and experienced so far – if you have a powerful machine.

On a 2006 MacPro you will not have the same experience at all.

Anyway – i wanted to see how that “translates” to a real life / real work project. Especially with things like MagicBulletLooks.

After seeing a post from Juan Salvo about what Nvidia Card might be the best in terms of CUDA power I was curious how a GTX285 and GTX480 will perform in a real work test.

So for this test i used a rather typical 4min 20sec project. Mostly h264 files from a DSLR, some ProRes files, some HDV files, a few AfterEffects titles (via Dynamic Link) … just a Stereomix-Track from ProTools (wave file). A usual edit -  we do all the time – for a Corporate film clip. Color Grading was done via MagicBulletLooks on every clip (like we do all the time) The MagicBullet effects i created look like that:

So in the end a “Everyday-Project / Edit” for us.

I used the DSLR 1080p25 project preset in Premiere Pro. No other effects were used. Nothing fancy

All that on a 2009 MacPro 4,1,  8 Core 2.26 GHz, 32 GB Ram, 7200 rpm Hard drives, on MacOS X 10.7.3.  CUDA Driver 4.2.7, GPU Driver 1.3.4.0 (270.00.00f01)

I used different combinations of Nvidia Graphics Cards. GT120 (standard card of the MacPro 4,1 ) + GTX285 (Mac Card) GT120+GTX480 (Window card that works with MacOS Lion with the Nvidia driver …. with out boot screen though) and GTX285 and GTX480 the GT120. The GT120 was used to connect the screens and GTX card for CUDA processing only ( at least that is what was recommended by many sites and ppl)

I also tested the single GTX cards – so I connected the screens to those for these tests. (I always used DELL 17” + DELL 22”)

Here is the edit I used for that test … just so you have a better idea what i’m talking about.

Since I did not get any realtime playback even with 1/4 resolution with all that MagicBulletLooks on the clips I had to render to see any “moving pictures” with the final grade … with all the cards and combinations)

here are the numbers:

So even though the combination of GT120 + GTX card might work good for CUDA processing only it actually it’s very bad for stuff like MagicBulletLooks or Colorista 2 that uses OpenGL for GPU processing and so the GT120 slows everything down quit a bit. Also the GTX285 that actually is a Mac Card is quite unstable in terms of crashes and freezing the app during render or export ( = PPro crashes )  … so in the end the GTX480 is the better salutation (here is how I did get the card to work.

One side-note though: Sadly Premiere Pro doesn’t seem to use the rendered preview data for exports. So even if you activated the option “use preview” that really doesn’t change that much export times. So for long projects with a lot of 3rd party effects on clips export times are getting quite long. That is a big issue.
Conclusion: 

- The Combination of GT120+GTX card did not work that good especially if things like MagicBullet Looks are used.

- GTX 480 works best

- Encoding via Adobe MediaEncoder is slower especially if you count the time it takes to “send” the project to the MediaEncoder

- The option “use previews” for export doesn’t  really work

I will test an edit with transcoded ProRes footage soon just so i can see if that changes anything. I still have not found the best Workflow for Premiere Pro – so hang in there and stay tuned.

UPDATE JULY/02/2011:

so i did the whole ProRes Sequence Preset settings for better “use previews” and therefore faster export times thing:

… but did not really change a thing:

Render time was 20:36 (so around 2 min longer than native) … export time was 17:04  so not really faster than the 16:46 export time i got with native or the 17:09 export time native to ProResLT)

UPDATE JULY/11/2012:

So I still testing stuff to find the “best” workflow and settings for Premiere Pro. I’m still on a “voyage” to figure out the “use Preview” issue … I tried all kind of stuff – deactivation of CUDA – transcoding footage to ProResLT and working with that in a ProResLT sequence – using Blackmagic uncompressed Sequence settings ….

… everything I could come up with … still no real change basically export time = render time even if I rendered everything before. My guess: Its a OpenGL/MagicBullerLooks thing, because some people actually seem to benefit from the “use preview”  … just not with MBL stuff . See: Biscardi Creative Blog - Continuing Tales of an FCP Switcher – CS6 workflow, for now

So anyway I also did compare Premiere Pro vs. FCPX vs. AVID MC6 vs. FCP7 with the same project (new – a bit different form the initial test). still around 4:16, same footage (Transcoded to ProResLT), same edit, same MagicBulletLooks settings/preset.

Here are the results of that Test:

So apparently even FCP7 smokes FCPX in terms of render time of MagicBulletLooks stuff. Also FCPX crashed like every 5-10 minutes while rendering. AVID MC6 did a good job but since it was linked AMA ProRes Footage “overall performance” did not feel as solid as PPro or even FCP7.  The old school FCP7 worked actually quite OK – not surprisingly so due to ProRes transcoded footage. So at the end of the day PremierePro is “solid average” – quite usable though I guess … for now … I still will have an eye on all that and let you know as soon as I find out new stuff or solutions.

sound references

Well to make a long story short after todays “discussion” about the sound of trailers especially the kind of bad sound of the latest Batman Trailer here are some of the as i call them reference trailers for good sound design & sound mix. But let me talk about some of the issues I’ve heard - especially today – real quick. There are several things going on that result in a real issue in terms of sound that in the end kinda demolish the whole trailer experience (since many filmmakers say sound is 50% of a movie … well that is also true for the trailer, now isn’t it?!)  The First issue is maybe a not so good recording of an dialogue or / and not the best edit or cleaning up of that (maybe even no ADR done yet). Second issue is a some sort of bad mix. Loud Music & too much Sounds playing at the same time. And 3rd … after all that / on top of that a kind of poor encoding at the post facility but also on YouTube.

There also was a lil discussion about how stuff is viewed / listened to … like on Phones or iPads or Notebooks and whatnot… but in the end it should not matter that much, it should sound good on almost every device, shouldn’t it?
I talked a lil bit about that on that blog post a few days back.

But as i said there are some examples of really good work out there that are actually really good.  Listen to that and “extract” some “knowledge” about the sound for a film, movie or Project out of all this. All that kinda applies  not only to a mix for a big movie or an awesome trailer. So all i want to do with that is to invoke people to care more and think more about sound… that’s all:

http://vimeo.com/23021586

oh and BTW that is the Batman trailer that i was talking about … really makes me kinda sad bcuz the trailer it self (pictures and stuff) really is great and so will be the movie in the end (hopefully)
but that is (kinda) just a bit embarrassing especially for a big Hollywood movie.

BTW also take a look at some of the awesome work soundworkscollection is doing with great BTS of the sound work for great movies … here are some of my favorites:

also if you want to see & hear more about sounddesign & soundpost & sound-mix & stuff
join the  “its all about audio” vimeo group

Audio Monitoring and Levels

Well first of all this post is not for top-notch post facilities or audio studios. Its more for the one man shop or fellow that is just getting started with audio and/or video production at a home “office” or a smaller “simple” facility. So keep that in mind … I also will not go into room acoustic or Monitor placement (you can find some info in the KRK manual).

It really is more about how you can get the most out of an – maybe not so perfect – situation. Of course you also can translate this to any other “top-notch” post production situation.

Lets get stated: Regardless if you have a 5000 bucks or a 200 bucks audio monitor system you have to get used to them. Listen to stuff you like, watch your favorite Movies/ TV Shows and whatnot, that should help a lot judging sound with your monitors in the room you work.  At the same time you also setup your “monitoring level” (volume/output levels of your workstation / your Audio-interface). That is an essential part you always should have the same monitoring level especially in a final mix situation. It has to be a comfortable loudness so to say. If your monitoring level is too quiet, you will miss things you will mix too loud so to speak. If you have your speakers on too much power (too loud) you will mess up the signal that you hear, frequencies will kinda get mixed up, cut out, stuff like that (so to say)

It really is important to have that (good) base level. Re-check every now and then, also re-check with some reference tracks so that your ears can “tune in” so to speak. Nothing is worse than questioning your monitoring situation / loudness like “is that too loud or what is going on…?!”

You can use headphone for editing (actually you can be more precise with them) but don’t use headphones for the final mix. The Stereo-filed is way bigger than with normal Speakers and you have a different much stronger (wrong) “feeling” of loudness with headphones because they are much closer to your ears and there is no room in which frequencies can reflect and stuff like that. Belief me your headphone mix will sound much less exciting and less powerful on speakers.

Try not to use your video editing app (NLE) for sound mixing. Editing (Interviews and stuff) might be ok, you also can “layout” / arrange sounds and music or even do a pre-mix for the rough cut but always use an audio software like ProTools, Nuendo, LogicPro or even SoundtrackPro or Adobe Audition for the finial mix. You have more options, better plugins, better precision, more quality in these apps. Play with EQ and Compressor or even with Reverb and stuff like that to make your mix more exciting but don’t overdo it . (more about plug-in’s and settings after NAB / end of this month) Yes AVID MC6 has pretty good audio options with great Plugins now but if you want the best possible outcome you should use a dedicated audio software.

Last essential part (for today’s post) are levels. That can be tricky if your audio interface doesn’t have any kind of level-meter like the RME DIGIcheck. But you also can use and trust the level meter plugins in your audio software like LogicPro or ProTools. (the level-meters in the channel strips are kinda unprecise). SoundtrackPro and Audition have pretty good built-in level meters. Now what dB range is the best? Well if you work for broadcast that can be tricky because every broadcaster has his own rules / requirement but usually -10dBfs is the most safe way to go (broadcast level) but you really have to check with the broadcaster. If you do stuff for web-delivery or client DVD’s you should go for 0dBfs (or -1 for safety haha) That said it should not peak at 0dB all the time. Make sure u have some dynamic left. (your level meters should be between -20 and 0db …that is fine ) On that note: Level-meters in NLE’s are not that reliable, even though they are good to make sure you don’t clip your audio master. For anything more than that I wouldn’t trust them.

On last thing: Try to check your mix not only with your Studio Monitors also check it on stuff like your MacBookPro/ Laptop or your TV/Stereo at home or – as many music fellows like to do – in your Car. These are all “listening-situations” you are kinda familiar with. So u can hear if your mix sounds good even there and you can make changes if for example the VO is getting lost in the music or the other way around (most common issue).

So that’s it. Most important get experience by doing stuff, test stuff, re-check with reference tracks. Keep in mind that all this is only some sort of guideline. I do this for a little over 13 years now and I still learn new stuff with every new project

If something is unclear (might got lost in translation) or any questions are coming up please let me know and use the comments-section.

Oh, one little side note: Please don’t ask your audience to crank up the speakers or headphones … your mix should sound great no matter what (just saying)

UPDATE: it’s all about audio

UPDATED APRIL 8, 2012 – (original post date: Aug 25, 2010)

Well, what can i say that’s where i‘m coming from … 13 years ago ( or even more ) i started in radio broadcast / radio production … and did lots of things with sound … i don’t want to talk about that work now … i want to talk about some essential gear you need to work with your sound.

…. read more