Should the recorder write poly or mono files?

Poly for almost every workflow. It keeps a take in one file with its metadata, and splitting later is instant and lossless.

Character name or actor name on the lavs?

Character name. Post works from the script, and cast changes on a role break less that way.

Do sound reports still matter?

Yes, as a summary. But anything the editor needs while editing should also be in the file metadata.

9 March 2026 | 6 min read

Naming production sound on set so post never calls you

Post production judges your day entirely by what the filenames and metadata say. Five minutes of recorder setup buys a week of goodwill.

On set, naming is not admin. It is the interface between the shooting day and everyone who touches the audio afterwards, and it is set up once, before the first take.

Scene and take, from the recorder

Let the recorder build the filename from scene and take fields rather than typing free text. It keeps the format identical across the whole shoot, it writes the same values into the metadata, and it survives a tired operator at hour twelve.

Name the tracks before you roll

Boom, or Boom A and Boom B when there are two.
Lavs by character name, not by actor name. Post knows the character.
Plants by location: Plant Kitchen, Plant Car.
Mix tracks clearly marked as mix, so nobody edits with them by accident.

Circle the takes

The circled take flag lives in the iXML metadata. Using it costs one button press and saves an assistant editor from auditioning forty takes to find the three that matter.

Notes belong in the file

Plane overhead, wild line, MOS pickup: typed into the note field, that travels with the file forever. Written only on the sound report, it is a PDF nobody opens.

Verify one card per day

Before wrapping, drop one file into an inspector and confirm sample rate, bit depth, channel count and track names are what you set. The audio inspector on this site does it in the browser with no upload, which works on set with a laptop and no signal.

Hand off the poly, not a guess

Deliver the poly WAVs as recorded. Post can split to mono stems in seconds and the names come along; a well named poly is more useful than a folder of mono files you renamed by hand at 2am.