Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1179544
28 it would take to get fifty performers wired, as well as the fact that many of them were not singers but dancers. We worked out a plan. Eighteen soloists would always be mic'd and the other six radio mics would be assigned on a day-by-day basis to the strongest singers in the chorus. This was based on which song we were shooting and how to support the soloists on those tracks with the exact mix of baritones, altos, tenors, etc. The decision on whom to mic was made by the Vocal Coach, Fiona McDougal, and our two Keyboard Players, James Taylor and Mark Aspinall. They were very adept at working out exactly where to place the six 'floating' radio mics on a scene-to-scene basis, as they knew the cast's voices, their strengths, weaknesses, and how they could be played to enhance the backing vocals. Phew—we only had to run twenty-four radio mics EVERY scene, EVERY day! Our next step was how to deliver those twenty-four tracks to Editorial daily. I had been waiting for the Zaxcom Deva 24 to arrive specifi- cally for Cats. Glenn Sanders and Roger Patel at Everything Audio, the UK Zaxcom distributor, managed to get me a very early machine to use on the additional photography we were doing on Aladdin, right before we filmed Cats. Being able to use the Deva 24 for a few weeks before bringing it onto Cats was very important to me. I found it very similar to my Deva 16 in the usual Zaxcom style. I am a firm believer in making Production Sound Mixing as intuitive as possible. I believe the equipment is only there to help and support the creative process of the director and sound mixer. The equipment I am using is no different than the instrument a musician plays. It would be unthinkable for any musician to play a new instru- ment before the most creatively complex and demanding concert of their career. I decided that track count would not decide which recorder and mixer panel I would use. I was going to have to use a second recorder because of the high track count; this was going to be the high- est track count I had recorded and mixed in my career, with an extremely diverse group of vocalists, all with different styles and levels. I wanted to give myself the best chance of capturing every subtlety and nuance of the performances, with the most appropri- ate gain structure. In order to give myself the best chance of delivering this, I decid- ed to stick to equipment I had been using for years, but make it more expansive. I was already using a custom-built twelve- channel Audio Developments AD149 desk. Their previous largest was ten channels. The company MD Tom Cryan had made my twelve-channel specifically for me. Of course, like all reliable production sound mixers, I had a spare built at the same time, just in case I was in some far-flung location and had a failure. It soon became apparent to me, however, that if I linked the two mixers together to deliver twenty-four tracks, I would not have a spare if there were a failure. My mixers were unique and we would be completely reliant on them for Cats. I made the decision to task Audio Developments to build another two from scratch, so I had complete peace of mind that if the unthinkable happened on set and both mixers died or developed faults, I could swap them out and the shoot could continue. The next decision was recorders. I decided, with Editorial's permission, to link together the Zaxcom Deva 24 with my Zaxcom Deva 16. This would give me access to forty tracks. I would then create two mixes for Picture Editorial, allow- ing them to expand on choruses if they wanted to by using both mixes in the Avid. Mix Track 1 contained a mix of the first twelve ISO tracks, and Mix Track 2 contained a mix of ISO tracks thirteen through twenty-four. We assigned the first twelve ISO tracks to our key cast members who would be in every scene. When we had a guest star in the cast for a specific song or two, we would decide the most appropriate workflow. I would also try to keep the actors with the highest amount of solo singing on the first twelve ISO tracks and Mix 1, with Mix 2 being a 'supporting' mix, which could be added or subtracted by Melanie Oliver, the Picture Editor. This suited Melanie because it gave her creative control over the 'size' of the sound in the Avid, without giving her and her team the additional workload of having to dig into the ISO tracks to rebuild the mix. Of course, all the ISO tracks were ingested into the Avid so Picture Editorial had access to them, but the plan was for Editorial to only work off the two mixes whenever possible. We then took the conversation into the musical side of the production sound recording. We had two elements as discussed earlier: The electronic keyboard would be used wherever possible Suit Techs Taz and Oscar early morning, prepping the equipmen