Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1057439
20 F A L L 2 0 1 8 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y everything is put together on the dub stage. Back when there was three-person mixing on the stage, the scoring mixer would do a mix beforehand and be able to sit on the stage as well. Obviously, budgets play a hefty role in determining whether the scoring mixer is on the dub stage but it has also become a scheduling challenge. It's not uncommon for me to be mixing reel 3 or 4 while reels 1 or 2 are being mixed on the stage. It's tough to be in two places at once! When you were able to do it, did you find it beneficial to be on the stage during the final dub? Oh, absolutely. Sometimes we're throwing darts blindly at the board because we don't fully know how the music will interact with the dialogue and effects. On a recent project, I was able to get the temp dialogue and effects 7.1 from post and mix against it. That was one of the smoothest dubs I've had because I was able to hear everything while watching the picture and make music decisions based on how everything was interacting. Oftentimes, my focus is to make the music sound as good as possible—but that's just one piece of the final puzzle. Your credit list contains lots of film and television projects. Can you share what you see are some of the differences between those two? Sure. TV can be a lot like film, especially with Netflix series and things like that. The schedule, however, is much more condensed with an episodic. The composer has to write a 20+ minute score, get that to the orchestrators, then copyists, and record in seven days. There has to be a very strong focus on workflow and being able to dial stuff in quickly. As an example, I do a lot of work for Blake Neely (composer, Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, etc.) and his Cow on the Wall Studios. We have a system where all his prerecorded material is dialed-in pretty well when I get it. We'll usually go to Warner Bros. and record with a smaller orchestra than on a film. A Pro Tools operator will check everything against the score like tempo maps, etc. I usually show up 90 minutes before the orchestra for setup tweaks. I'll use close mics, room mics, and reverbs. I'll do live mixes of the orchestra and print some stems. I then go back to my mix studio to balance and fine-tune the overall mix. I'm usually working in stereo on those. My mix and stems then get sent to the dub where they'll be put in 5.1 while still maintaining the musicality of the original mix. As you'd expect, the process becomes more streamlined once we're a couple shows in. For instance, I may spend two days mixing early on instead of one. Typically, I'll have a three-hour orchestra session and, in a nine-hour day, we'll record and mix it down. Do you have a "go to" type of recording setup that you prefer? I like to change it up quite a bit. But generally, if I'm at Warner or Sony, I'm using a Decca Tree, along with flanks and accent mics as needed. I own several mics that I default to like three Neumann M50 originals and two of the KHE version of the Brauner VM1. Only a hundred of them were made and I love their sound. I also use Pueblo mic pres because they're extremely minimalist and don't color the sound. I'll also incorporate Grace and Neve pres as needed. How about for mixing? When I'm working on a film score, I love the Neve 88R. Even if I'm mixing in Pro Tools, I'll use it as a summing desk to add a little warmth and saturation that I can't get from the DAW. My studio is set up with an Avid S6 with 7.1 monitoring. Have you considered upgrading your room to Atmos? I've done some Atmos mixes. I worked in Atmos for the Marvel logo over at Dolby and it was really cool. For me, sonically it's a bigger change going to Atmos than from stereo to 5.1. I thought about converting my room and I think we're getting there. I'm talking to a lot of dubbing mixers and audio editors; there's a lot of moving parts. The workflow is improving and is much better with everything housed in Pro Tools. With music in Atmos, we're usually not flying things around since Percussion and three drum sets ready for recording for Despicable Me 3 on the Warner Bros. historic Eastwood Scoring Stage.