rounded by stacks of paper and post-its, it's fun to reminisce about the promise of computers creating a "paperless" office. It reminds one that technologies often have the opposite of their intended effect. Arguably, because documents are more easily produced, computers have created a more "paper-filled" office.

Audio and editing technology has undergone a similar revolution in the last decade. With sound recording programs such as ProTools having made their way into Avid suites, the newfound ease with which picture editors could drop high-quality sounds into their cuts was thought by some to signal potential shake-ups in sound design, particularly for sound designers.

"Sitting in a racecar doesn't make you a racecar driver," says Drazen Bosnjak, sound designer and co-founder of New York-based Q Department. Bosnjak says while technology has changed some aspects of sound design, notably the speed and the ease of communication, it hasn't turned picture editors into sound editors any more than they already were. "Nothing has changed: when I get stuff, it's really the same as it always was. Equipment doesn't make you a sound designer."

Bosnjak says there have always been editors who were good with sound and others, not so much. "What you want is teamwork between the sound and picture editors; you can get amazing results from the energy."

It's a view shared by sound designers and editors alike - though not necessarily by the bottom line as dictated by clients.

"People expect more than a basic sound with the rough cut," says New York-based Lost Planet editor Geoff Hounsell. "If a spot is not sound-heavy, we might be expected to finish the sound. It is nice, though, when we have a sound designer." Hounsell says that the amount of jobs coming out of Lost Planet's NY and Santa Monica studios calling for sound designers factor in at only about 30%. "For huge sound jobs, [we] always [use them]. Other times, it's mix and match." That means that some of what the picture editor did remains and the sound designer is adding or tweaking. "What they do is so expensive, so mixing is a common thing. Sound designers are probably not big fans of that, but that's the deal."

Sometimes the mixing and matching is driven not by economics but by familiarity. Enter the familiar refrain of "demo love", where creatives or clients get used to a sound popped in by the editor during the rough cut stages of post. "I get hired to do things from scratch but if someone really loves a sound, we use it, though there might be a different approach to it," says Marshall Grupp, designer at Sound Lounge in New York.

Stephanie Apt, president at Final Cut NY, says the current technology has allowed editors to do more in the demo phase and that "in the initial presentation there is more going on." And while presumably some in the process may get used to a sound, Apt says, "Even with rough cuts that have a lot of sound seemingly in place, you're still going to need a sound designer to take it to that airable level. The technology is improving but it's not A-plus [yet]." And it's no substitute for a talented individual. To whit, Final Cut has a full-time sound designer on staff. Apt says the best-case scenarios come when they are pulled in early in the process.

It's a strategy that may also help avoid the worst-case scenarios. If you don't get a sound designer in early, you may wind up with demo love gone bad. "An editor who's a frustrated sound designer might start selling effects and tracks to the director or agency that can't be used in the final mix due to either replication or copyright issues," says Johnnie Burn, creative director and co-owner of London-based sound house Wave. Burn says that Wave is more frequently getting called in earlier to avoid problems and improve the final product. On a recent job for Skoda, Wave sound designer Parv Thind went to the location to suss out sound ideas before the actual shoot had even taken place.

Grupp at Sound Lounge has also noted that trend. "Sometimes I get pulled in before shooting. They want wild tracks done before they get to set," he says. "When I started, people didn't even know what sound design was. I would meet the creatives at the mix. That went on for many years. Now, it's not unusual for me to be in on discussions about storyboards."

Perhaps the real lesson here is about how an editor and a sound designer work together. "The point of a scratch track is to help the editor out with the cut," says Bosnjak, describing how edit tempos and visual moods are driven by sound and music during the editing process. "Editors can get stuck: sound and music can help them to the next place. But it's not finished. It's just an amount of information about what works and what needs help and so on." On top of that, Bosnjak says the scratch track is a map for the sound designer. "The dynamic of the story is revealed with the rough sound. With it, I can understand what they want to do with a scene even if I wasn't in the room when they cut it."

This exchange of information doesn't have anything to do with technology and has everything to do with people. "A good sound designer can bring elegance to even the most boring stuff," says Bosnjak. "If you want cheap and irrelevant sound, it doesn't matter."

Final Cut http://www.finalcut-edit.com
Lost Planet http://www.lostplanet.com
Q Department http://www.qdepartment.com
Sound Lounge http://www.soundlounge.com