# Delivering Down to the Wire



## Bropecia (Jun 4, 2021)

Hey all, curious to hear people's experiences with delivering cues right up to mix day because I have no idea what's normal/acceptable. 
This is my first TV show, I'm now into the third season. Invariably, no matter how hard I work, I end up grinding out maybe 1 or 2 cues right up to the deadline, delivering finished stereos say, the night before, and in some cases sending the mixer or mix stage tech, a finished cue on the DAY OF. I should note that, the show creators never, ever, sweat this (not a brag, just for clarification) they don't care cuz they know I'll get it done. But I don't want to assume this mode of operation is okay for other execs, showrunners in the industry and just wanted to hear some opinions/first hand experience. Curious about features as well. Thanks.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Jun 4, 2021)

When I'm mixing scores, the composer is usually working on cues right up to when they need to deliver to me. Biggest problem is file transfer time. There have been far too many times where the composer will underestimate how long it takes. No, Dropbox isn't going to upload 20GB in an hour. Yes, that 200GB video file should be uploaded days before I need it.


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## Bropecia (Jun 5, 2021)

Okay cool thanks Gerhard. Good to know. Yeah I always try to build that time in - thankfully what I'm working on (at least for this show) are generally small-ish filesizewise, but I can see the problem of working up to the last minute on a behemoth set of cues and not factoring that in. For local collaborations at least, shuttling a drive across town in one's own car probably more effective! I was mainly wondering if I'm the only one going up to the line like this... My gut told me probably not, but hadn't really asked around yet.


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## charlieclouser (Jun 5, 2021)

I've operated in last-minute mode for years at a time, on US network series that mixed on Tuesday+Wednesday for Friday air. On one show I needed to provide a preview DVD for the show runner the night before the mix, so that gave me a false deadline that meant all the cues had to be done on Monday night, so when they hit the stage on Tuesday at least they had everything - except any re-do cues (which were few and far between). On the other show they didn't need a preview, so it was routine that I'd be shoveling cues to them during the first day of mixing. But they needed to get ALL of them on that first day so they could get to the end on day one in order to do a playback and have the second day for tweaks and notes. That also gave me that night to do any fix-ups on any cues that didn't smell good enough during day one playback.

It's a nail-biter for sure, but I never missed a cue and never held up the mix. But my music editor would usually have the temp score on a stereo pair, which was always built out of crudely-edited versions of my cues from previous episodes. So in an emergency he could un-mute that and let them mix until the real cue arrived. I don't know if the terminology is universal, but we always called these dummy cues "slugs" and if they were in danger of running out of music I'd tell the music editor to "slug it" until the real deal came through. Plus he had my entire well-organized score library right there so if none of my versions or alts were cutting it he could dig in the crates and build something on the fly.

On features I'm routinely on chat with the music editor and having him report their mix progress on an hourly basis. He'd just text me a SMPTE number that told me where they'd gotten to. Of course there's no air deadline looming, but the money is flying out the door even faster than it does with tv, so it's a no-no if the score is the reason they need an extra day on the stage. Hasn't happened yet, hope it never will.

No execs ever complained about slugs, although my music editor did report some grumpy mixers who had to go back and replace the slugs, but there was no real drama.


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## Mr Greg G (Jun 6, 2021)

Thanks Charlie for sharing your experience, this is really appreciated


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## charlieclouser (Jun 6, 2021)

A few workflow things I do that make those last-minute panic moments a little easier for the guys on the stage to deal with:

- When I print stems and mixes, they're always named very consistently, but unlike some folks I don't put the timecode numbers for the start point in the filenames themselves. I do this to avoid clutter, since those SMPTE numbers are only useful at the time of the mix. Later on, when dealing with score libraries and stuff, those SMPTE numbers are not needed and just create more confusion - but it IS crucial to have those SMPTE numbers handy at mix time in case time-stamping doesn't work. 

So what I do is make a new empty folder for each cue I'm going to upload, put all of the stems+mixes for just that cue into that folder, name that folder something like "SAW9-4m33=04.11.22.00", and then compress the folder into a ZIP archive before uploading. Then, when the music editor un-zips the downloaded file, he's got a folder with the SMPTE start point in its name, AND he's got the original ZIP file with those numbers in its name as well, in case he drags the files to import them and then tosses the now-empty folder.

Another little tweak I do in order to make things simpler on the stage is to always round off the start points of all my bounces / files to the nearest whole second before the start of audio. This means that I'll never have a cue that starts at 01.22.11.13 - it would be 01.22.11.00. This has a couple of advantages: There will always be a little bit of dead air at the top of the cue (but always less than one second) which prevents any clicks or pops on hard starts of audio. It also makes it a little easier for the music editor to drag-n-drop in a hurry, since they don't have to fiddle with single-frame nudging. And it also makes it more obvious when something is at the wrong point in the timeline - if a cue is mis-spotted by a frame or two it might not be obvious to anyone but me, but if it's off by a second then it's easier to see the mistake. This also makes any adjustment to start points a little simpler - if a cue is supposed to be at 02.04.22.00 and it's been nudged, then seeing that its start point is now 02.04.22.14 means the editor can tell me "I slid that cue 14 frames later" without breaking out the SMPTE calculator app.

- So, within those folders and ZIP archives described above, my stems+mixes are named like this:

[abbreviated show name and episode number]-[reel / act and cue number]-[unique cue title and version number]-[stem identifier]

That results in names like "Ns212-2m18v2-Rotten Liar v2-aDRM" or "SAW3-4m37v3-Breath Trap v3-dSTR" which decode as:

• [abbreviated show name and episode number] = "Ns212" or "SAW3" = an abbreviation of the series or movie title, in this case Ns = Numb3rs or SAW3 = Saw III. In the case of an episodic tv series, the episode number follows, so Ns212 = Numb3rs season 2, episode 12. I make sure that if the production has their own internal numbering scheme for seasons and episodes, then I use that instead of just using my own nomenclature. Sometimes they number episodes sequentially so the first episode in season 2 is #224 or something, and I want my numbering to match theirs. I try to keep this prefix short, say five characters or so, and that means I'm often abbreviating a title like "Death Sentence" as DS or something.

• [reel / act and cue number] = "2m08v2" or "4m37v3" = this is the standard way of naming music cues, and these should match what's on the music spotting notes and the cue sheets. I do include the version number in this portion as well for clarity. Some folks like to start the numbering over for each reel / act, which would result in 1m08 being followed by 2m01, but I think this is confusing, so I let the numbers increment all the way to the end of the project, so 1m08 is followed by 2m09. We always use leading zeros so that it's always "2m08" and not "2m8" and this helps when sorting files in list views.

• [unique cue title and version number] = "Rotten Liar" or "Breath Trap" = the cue title, as shown on the music spotting notes and cue sheets. Since cues might get moved around so that 2m09 becomes 4m33, having a "song title" that is associated firmly with the piece of music in question, as opposed to it's order within a project, is important to me. I make sure that these cue titles are reasonably short, like two words max, and are always absolutely unique phrases that I've never used before. My music editor uses a Filemaker database to build spotting notes, and that lets us set the "cue title" field to "force unique values". That means that the database for a series contains the spotting notes for ALL episodes in the entire multi-year run instead of being a single small document for each episode. This is a slight drawback but the database is still a small file, and lets the app scan every previous episode to make sure we don't wind up with two cues named "Car Chase" or something like that. Of course, not everyone will want to or be able to use such a system, but it's possible to just wing it and keep the cue titles unique, for a few seasons anyway. We also try to create very unique and descriptive cue titles, so there's never a cue called "Car Chase" or "Bank Heist" or something generic like that. Those titles might be drawn from a line of dialog where the cue is starting, or the name of a unique place where the scene occurs, etc. I also put the version number embedded in these cue titles, even though they also appear in the cue numbers, because sometimes a cue will change so much from v1 to v3 that it's effectively a new piece of music.

• [stem identifier] = "aDRM" or "dSTR" = this is an abbreviation to describe what audio is in that file. If it's a composite mix, that would be " MIX"; if it's an edited mix, that would be " MIXe"; if it's a mastered mix that would be " " MIXm" etc. Note that there is a [space] before the word MIX in these names; this is so that the MIX files will sort at the top of any list, before the stem files that follow. Since I'm on Mac, I'm allowed to use [space] in a filename, but some folks (windows users usually) don't like that so they can use [_] (underscore) or some other character to force the MIX files to the top of lists. On some shows I only provided a stereo mix, so we used these abbreviations a lot. On other shows and features where I'm providing stems, I also include a composite mix for library purposes, cutting future temp scores together, etc. When we're dealing with stems, I always use a letter prefix at the start of the abbreviated stem identifier so that things sort in an orderly fashion in list views. If your stems are named DRUM, KEYS, ORCH then they already sort nicely and these prefixes might not be needed. But if your stems are named DRUM, PERC, AMBS, KEYS, BRAS, STRG, etc. then they won't sort in the same order as the faders on the console or tracks in ProTools, so naming them aDRM, bPRC, cAMB, dKEY, etc. fixes that issue.

With all of these conventions observed, life stays clean many years down the road. Even if we dump all of the files for all of the stems in 4,000 cues into a single folder (!!!), everything will sort in a list that moves from the first episode to the last, with the cues all in chronological order, and with the stems / mixes for each cue displaying in a consistent, logical fashion. 

I adopted this naming scheme and conventions after my first series, which only ran for 22 episodes but resulted in an absolutely chaotic hailstorm of files with too-long names that didn't sort nicely when folders were viewed in list mode. So before beginning my second series I had a long think about how to format the filenames so that lists would be manageable. The "force unique values" for the cue titles came about because, yes, that first series had a cue called "Car Chase" in episode 3 and another with the same title in episode 5 or whatever, and when the only thing keeping them separate is the episode and cue numbers, that's a little too close to confusing for me.


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## tebling (Jun 6, 2021)

Thanks for taking the time to explain these details Charlie! This makes perfect sense, and it's really scary how quickly things can become confusing and slow everything down without a rational naming standard.



charlieclouser said:


> But if your stems are named DRUM, PERC, AMBS, KEYS, BRAS, STRG, etc. then they won't sort in the same order as the faders on the console or tracks in ProTools, so naming them aDRM, bPRC, cAMB, dKEY, etc. fixes that issue.


On this point, I assume these stem names have to be global across all the files, ideally for all time. What happens when you need to add a new stem category, for example if you decide to split strings into shorts vs longs? If you have dSTR already established then do you need to resort to hacks like ddSTRL, ddSTRS? Or do the stem groups never change in practice?


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## Gingerbread (Jun 6, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> A few workflow things I do that make those last-minute panic moments a little easier for the guys on the stage to deal with:
> 
> - When I print stems and mixes, they're always named very consistently, but unlike some folks I don't put the timecode numbers for the start point in the filenames themselves. I do this to avoid clutter, since those SMPTE numbers are only useful at the time of the mix. Later on, when dealing with score libraries and stuff, those SMPTE numbers are not needed and just create more confusion - but it IS crucial to have those SMPTE numbers handy at mix time in case time-stamping doesn't work.
> 
> ...


Bookmarking this post. Thanks so much for this very useful info, Charlie!


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## charlieclouser (Jun 6, 2021)

tebling said:


> Thanks for taking the time to explain these details Charlie! This makes perfect sense, and it's really scary how quickly things can become confusing and slow everything down without a rational naming standard.
> 
> 
> On this point, I assume these stem names have to be global across all the files, ideally for all time. What happens when you need to add a new stem category, for example if you decide to split strings into shorts vs longs? If you have dSTR already established then do you need to resort to hacks like ddSTRL, ddSTRS? Or do the stem groups never change in practice?


Well, my stem names are just a guideline. In fact, I usually use just Astem, Bstem, Cstem, etc. because one cue might just be a kick drum and five stems of bowed metal weirdness, while the next might be a more conventional set of elements. In the first example, I wouldn't just use two stems, DRUMS and METALS, I'd spread those elements around the available stems to give maximum separation and flexibility on the stage. I reckon this is better because out of 40 cues I might only have four that actually have "strings shorts" on them, so why have a whole stem that sits empty for the whole project when I can shuffle things around. If my music had a more consistent set of elements that appeared on most of the cues, then I probably wouldn't take such liberties. 

But in my current layout I only deliver 7 stems and a composite mix. Since they're each in 5.1 this results in eight sets of six tracks each for a total of 48 tracks per print pass. If I switch to more stems then I'd probably use actually meaningful stem labels and observe the rules a little closer.

It was actually much simpler when I was delivering tv series as three or four stems, so I'd have MIX, DRUM, KEYS, ORCH or something like that. Then I'd just shove each sound onto whichever of the stems was the closest match. The only time I go to my seven-stem layout is for features where I have the time to let things get a little more complex. The three-stem layout also made it a little simpler for the mixers as they knew where to look for a given sound instead of fishing around with the mute buttons trying to find where some little zinger was hiding. The seven-stem layout makes more sense for something like a SAW movie where there's multiple layers for jump-scare sounds and pounding industrial drum tracks, and since I am never working with final SFX elements, we haven't completely nailed down what layers will be used in the final mix, and it seems better to give them maximum separation so they can build a composite on the stage using my separated elements and the SFX that I've never heard.

For a couple of projects I was using actual descriptive stem labels, but then each cue would have a long set of notes saying stuff like, "There is no piano on this cue, so on the dPNO stem I put the bowed metal accents so they'd be separated for you." etc. So when I switched to Astem, Bstem etc. there was just less of that stuff needed - it was more like, "On the console you'll find drums to the left, keys and ambiences in the middle, then strings and orchestral effects to the right." 

I kind of try to reserve the last (right-most on the console) stem for jump-scares, accents, zingers, sucks, risers, and other stuff that jumps out so it's a quick grab for the mixers. Sometimes this scheme falls apart, like when there's multiple layers to those elements, but it's a nice guideline to keep in mind.

Not sure which approach is better, but no mixers have ever really complained about that... yet.


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## tebling (Jun 6, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Not sure which approach is better, but no mixers have ever really complained about that... yet.


I'm guessing this is because regardless of which approach you're using, you provide the notes they need to make sense of it and (key point) they actually read them


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## Mike Greene (Jun 6, 2021)

I like Charlie's naming advice, although I'm such an optimist that instead of Numb3rs season 2 episode 12 being labeled Ns212, I would add a 0 before the 2, and label it Ns0212. That way when it goes 10 seasons, the alphabetizing will stay intact. Like I said, "optimist." 

Mind you, I've never done a series that needed two digits for the season number ...

My real reason for posting, though, is that I'm the same camp with delivering at the last minute. It's something I've done a lot, going all the way back to before you could send music by internet, I would usually show up at the session, because I didn't trust a messenger to get it there in time. Then I'd stay, just in case there were changes. (Although ... the real reason I'd stay is that L.A. post production studios are really nice. They sometimes even had a chef on staff and lunch/dinner was part of the deal. Damn, I miss those days.)


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## Bropecia (Jun 6, 2021)

Wow Charlie, a treasure trove. And you may have read my mind on the naming conventions bit. I was already feeling like I'd better get a handle on that aspect -- same as you, this being _my_ first season, I'm quickly realizing how out of hand it will all get unless I create a better system. So thanks for that. And I do appreciate hearing the first hand 'down to the wire' experiences. From you too Mike! It's not like I'll rest easier or anything -- no time for that -- I just wanted to know I wasn't the only one. Whew!


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## Nate Johnson (Jun 7, 2021)

Fascinating AND terrifying all at the same time - great thread, guys!


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## NKAudio (Jun 10, 2021)

Mike Greene said:


> I like Charlie's naming advice, although I'm such an optimist that instead of Numb3rs season 2 episode 12 being labeled Ns212, I would add a 0 before the 2, and label it Ns0212. That way when it goes 10 seasons, the alphabetizing will stay intact. Like I said, "optimist."


Not stem related, but this is the reason I name my tracks Client_Project_Title_01, because of the potential that I end up having to write 10+ tracks for the same project! Though if it gets to that point, usually the "optimist" becomes incredibly sarcastic.


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