Post Magazine

every show and network." When looking for a source for guidance, one might think of Dolby or the FCC's DTV standard to provide some answers. "To me the FCC thing seems to be ceasing some- thing instead of adding something truly new," says Rubay. "It's about turning off the analog signal, so the digital TV thing is more of a consumer issue than a mixing one. But, ultimately, the presentation, or the medium, affects how we mix.The goal is for it to play well out in the real world. "I am not sure the Dolby LM100 is the answer to an industr y standard, but what I do know is that different networks use that information differently. What it really comes down to is where they set that Dia-norm level. And that totally affects the rest of the mix and basically the level that something will be played. I think we all need to agree that the setting needs to be at one par ticu- lar place on something like the LM100, for example, and go for whatever that magic number is. That's what we do with movies. All the trailer guys have all star ted to agree that louder isn't necessarily better." Teaney agrees: "The LM100 is an inter- esting tool," he says, "but I don't want to judge creative ideas and stor ytelling based on a number. I've never come at mixing mechanically. For me, it's always a perfor- mance and it's creative. I want to do what our creative team came up with on the stage and let everyone hear that. "DTV, and the upcoming FCC switch to broadcasting only digitally, is available now. So, we are not going to see any change in how we deliver the show. I am hoping that the consciousness of the listeners will come up a little bit, but I don't think it will change how I mix at all. Hopefully, it will represent the best of what we do. But remember that if you wanted to, you could hear it that way now." Rubay sums up, "I think that whatever Dolby says, should go. They know more about this than all of us and they are excel- lent at making standards, and they have all the R&D to back it up. So, if we could all agree on a common set of practices, it would be great. Until then, it's just going to be a lot like what you hear on the radio, where it's some kind of arms race — that's where it's all headed." J U S T B E C AU S E YO U C A N , DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD The film industr y is also being asked to turn it up. But even though the technology allows them to, it is not al- ways desirable. Supervising sound mixer Gar y Bour- geois has mixed such films as Bedtime Stories, Lakeview Terrace, Step Brothers, You Don't Mess With the Zohan and Red Belt at Culver City's Sony Pictures Post Production (www.sonypic- turespost.com). He works in the spectacular William Holden Theatre. Bourgeois believes that how loud something should be, or not, is a choice based on the film's content. "As the technology keeps getting better and higher in quality, it means we can become more de- tailed. We can utilize these tools to our benefit, but we can also abuse them. If I have a car that goes 150mph, that doesn't mean I should drive to work at that speed." When it comes to a movie's playback in a theater, film mixers are sometimes faced with a paradox. They may be asked to make their mixes louder in anticipation of the theaters being asked to turn it down. It is a self-defeating proposition. "Yes, that can and does happen," says Bourgeois. "It's the tail chasing the dog. When dealing with loudness, it's an interesting conundrum. In the past, for years, I mixed for an optical soundtrack. Consequently, there was a very narrow window for us to work in level- wise. We all had to learn how to utilize dy- namics in the mix to communicate the punch, so to speak, which was required in A U D I O www.postmagazine.com March 2009 • Post 33 CRC's Michael Coyle: "I feel that my job is to maximize the frequency range and voltage I am given to work with."

• Cover