by Eric Stratman

All sound editors, music editors, composers and re-recording mixers face picture changes on a regular basis: temp mix, preview, change picture … temp again, preview again, change again … the cycle repeats itself over and over. Updating sound elements to stay in sync with picture is a laborious and tedious process that steals days and sometimes weeks from the more creative aspects of our work. But now there is a software application that can automate the process, dramatically reducing the time spent coping with changes: Change Note Assistant from Nonfiction Software ( www.changenoteassistant.com or www.nonfictionsoftware.com).

Here’s how it works: first, open a change list in Change Note Assistant (C.N.A.) and then open your Pro Tools session and press C.N.A.’s Conform button. C.N.A. takes control of Pro Tools, applies all the changes and leaves your Pro Tools session in sync with the new picture. There is no need for any other separate application, and the process is fast: a 96-track Pro Tools session with a 40-event change list will take less than one minute to process.
Although C.N.A. was designed by sound and music editors, it also has implications for re-recording mixers, music composers and picture departments. C.N.A.’s functions include:

• Automated conforming of Pro Tools sessions to match new picture. • List simplification that shortens change lists to a fraction of their original length. • Frame-accurate translation of change notes from feet-and-frames to timecode • Distribution of simplified change notes via print-out, text files, HTML files, or EDLs.

So far, Change Note Assistant has been undaunted by any change list I have imported. It works in Macintosh OS 9 or OS X, Pro Tools 5 or 6, TDM or LE (with or without DV Toolkit). Because the application can translate the feet-and-frame or timecode information in change lists into samples (from 44.1 KHz to 192 Khz), it can even be used for conforming on Pro Tools Free systems, which can’t otherwise support feet-and-frames or timecode.

C.N.A. is not the first application to help wrangle picture changes, but at the moment, it is the only commercially available application to use industry-standard change lists, and the first to automate Pro Tools without any ancillary utilities. The other options are Virtual Katy (www.virtualkaty.com) and EdiTrace (www.editrace.com). Instead of working with change lists, they both compare source EDLs to destination EDLs to derive a “change-EDL.” EdiTrace stops there, which means you have to feed the change-EDL into another application like Titan to automate your conforming. Like C.N.A., Virtual Katy will automate Pro Tools, but it requires the macro utility QuicKeys to accomplish that task. C.N.A. is also less expensive than the other two applications: C.N.A. runs $750 for a lifetime license, while Virtual Katy costs $1,560 for a one-year license and EdiTrace is $55 per usage.

Importing the Change List

The first step in using Change Note Assistant is to get your change list as a text file. Your picture department can send these very small files via floppy, CD-R, Zip disk or even e-mail.
Launch C.N.A. and open the text file. C.N.A. can parse just about any change list generated by an Avid or a Final Cut Pro 4 system with Cinema Tools. (Support for Lightworks will be coming in the future.) If the text file you’ve received from the picture department has more than one change list within it, C.N.A. will recognize each one individually and allow you to choose which lists you want to see.

(Click on Image to See Large Version.)

Figure 1. In this example, C.N.A. starts with a 141-step change list (left), then simplifies it to 74 steps in Basic mode (middle), and finally simplifies it to 12 steps in Aggressive mode (right).

Doing The Math

Once you’ve got a change list open, C.N.A. can combine related change steps, such as a group of consecutive shot deletions, so you don’t have to spend the time doing base-16 math in your head. C.N.A. calls this “Simplify,” and there are two modes: Basic and Aggressive. Basic mode limits itself to safe adjustments, such as combining contiguous deletions and trims, while leaving complex events such as moves untouched. Aggressive mode seeks the simplest set of edits that will preserve sync and combines moves with adjacent deletions or inserts to get there (Figure 1).

For your typical dialogue or effects session, you will probably want to use Basic mode most of the time, because Aggressive can sometimes over-simplify the list. However, Aggres-sive can be useful for conforming basic ambiences, because implementing the moves individually could just create unnecessary cuts. Music editors also like Aggressive mode, since they generally end up having to re-cut entire sections to fix tempos. If it’s appropriate for you, Aggressive mode can drastically reduce the number of steps in a change list.

From here, you can print out the simplified change list and conform your session by hand, or if you are a Pro Tools user, C.N.A. can execute the changes for you.

Figure 2. This session was conformed using the aggressively simplified change list shown in Figure 1. The DAW shown is Pro Tools LE, running with an Mbox, set up for conforming in samples.

Driving The Machine

This is the most exciting part —watching C.N.A. control Pro Tools as it implements the change list.

First, open a Pro Tools session and put the edit cursor on the tracks you want to conform. Then, open a change list in C.N.A., choose the simplification mode you want and hit the Conform button. You’ll get a dialogue box asking you to confirm your choices; it will give you the option to retain deleted sections, so don’t worry about losing material due to extensive lifts. When you’re ready, hit the OK button. Pro Tools will come to the foreground, as C.N.A. drives it from the background. You can see it trimming, moving, deleting and inserting, whipping through the numbers faster than almost any human could. When it’s done, the editor can easily follow what happened because C.N.A. will place labeled markers at every conform (Figure 2).

Now that Pro Tools supports offline media, C.N.A. can be the basis of a very cheap and effective conforming station. Investing a few thousand dollars in an iMac, a copy of Pro Tools LE with an Mbox — or even just Pro Tools Free —and a copy of C.N.A. will produce a workstation where an assistant can run Pro Tools sessions through an automated conform. Editors could send their sessions to the assistant via Internet or Intranet and have them back within minutes, conformed to sync with the latest picture.

Hold the Pro Tools

C.N.A. will take a change list — simplified or not — and allow you to save it as a text file, an HTML file or an EDL (CMX 3600, either 24 fps or 30 fps) (Figure 3). If you use systems that conform using EDLs, such as Pyramix or Fair-light, you can use this “change-EDL” to conform your tracks.

Information generated by C.N.A. can even be brought into mixing consoles. AMS Neve DFC version 2, for example, has the ability to auto-conform mix automation via a change list. If used in conjunction with a change list simplified by C.N.A., the automated conform will potentially be smoother and quicker.

Figure 3. This 30 fps EDL was created from the aggressively simplified change list in Figure 1.

Can I Get Timecode With That?

Because change notes were originally designed for conforming picture, they are written in feet-and-frames. While Avid can output its notes in timecode, those timecode numbers are not always frame-accurate. But C.N.A. converts from feet-and-frames to 30 fps, 25 fps or 24 fps timecode with sub-frame accuracy (Figure 4). So if you’re a music composer who needs to conform a sequence in Digital Performer, you can now have an accurate, simplified timecode change list — just make sure to use the subframes when you conform to maintain filmframe-accurate sync.

What about Non-Film Projects?

Of course, many of us work on television, commercials or other non-24 fps projects. In the near future, C.N.A. will perform revision-tracking on EDLs. This is the long-sought “EDL change list” that many people have asked Avid to create. You will import one or more source EDLs into C.N.A., then import one or more destination EDLs, and C.N.A. will produce either a change list or a change-EDL. This will allow non-film projects to conform their online and sound work via a change list.

Figure 4: On the left is the aggressively simplified change list from Figure 1, and on the right is the same list converted to 30 fps timecode. Note that the timecode includes subframes.

Conclusion

Change Note Assistant is currently in use on The Alamo, Paycheck, The Rundown, Matrix Revolutions, The Great Raid and my current film, Jersey Girl. In the sound editorial world, stems of temp mixes are more complex and more important than ever before. I’ve been using C.N.A. to conform 32 tracks of temp stems, for temp after temp, in OS 9 and OS X. When the changes keep coming, and I want to finesse the conforms to save stage time, C.N.A. helps me get through the change notes much faster than before. Even when I work with editors who like conforming for themselves, I can hand them a simplified change list, saving them anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours. As for my own work, I use C.N.A. as much as I can, and it saves me days.