Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1203636
"Not necessarily an EQ": Audio Ease's Indoor reverb plug-in. 60 C I N E M O N T A G E T E C H N O L O G Y when mixing music. In fact, when mixing the music on "Joker," Ozanich went with Plug-in Alliance's SPL Passeq plug-in "al- most entirely for the way the EQ sounds," said Ozanich. "It's a passive EQ, so it sounds really good but it doesn't give you a graphic display. There isn't an analyzer with an EQ curve and all that; it's just knobs. It has a high, low, and mid EQs on one side that can only cut and then three EQs on the other side that can only boost. You work them against each other to get the sound you want." Whether an EQ adds color or not, it's important that it doesn't add unpleasant artifacts or perceptible phasing. Babcock noted, "Inferior EQs tend to break up at certain frequencies, most commonly at the low end. You can hear the quantiza- tion error on some EQs." Ozanich added, "Some EQs can get harsh or end up sounding fake or take on a grungy character that you don't want. That would be bad, and I steer away from EQs that do that." Another aspect to consider when c h o o s i n g a n E Q i s h o w f l e x i b l e t h e filtering is — how wide you can make the bands, how tight you can make the notches, and how much you can adjust the parameters of the low and high-pass filters. Both Ozanich and Babcock like FabFilter's Pro-Q 3 for several reasons; its flexibility is certainly one. "For 'Joker' and 'A Star is Born' — I've used FabFilter Pro-Q 3 a ton on dialogue specifically. It definitely gives you scal- p e l - l e v e l p re c i s i o n . Yo u c a n d i a l - i n ultra-narrow notch filters to remove hum or buzz, but then you can also do more gentle boosts or cuts. You can bend it to do whatever you need it to do," said Ozanich. "The Pro-Q 3 gives you up to 24 bands to do with as you please. I particularly like using it on dialogue because you can have filters, bands, and notches all-in- one," Babcock added. "The amount of choices you have for low and high-pass filtering in Pro-Q 3 is second to none. On a recent mix, a spirited producer hated a certain music cue and wanted it to be something else. I ended up changing the whole intent of the cue by taking certain stems and playing around with the HPF set at -96db, opening and closing the filter like you would on an EDM tune." F l e x i b i l i t y i n te r m s o f w o r k f l o w integration is also key. Many mixers are working in the box using Pro Tools sessions mapped to a control surface, l i k e t h e Av i d S 6. P l u g- i n s t h a t m a p intelligently to the control surface are preferable. "If I have to use a mouse to dial-in the EQ then I'm not happy. I don't want to spend the majority of my time on a mouse. I want to spend it on the console," said Ozanich, who is not alone in that sentiment amongst mixers. Ozanich even worked with the Avid team to help improve the way several different plug-ins were mapped to the S6, includ- ing the Pro-Q 2 (before the Pro-Q 3 was available). On a traditional console, the re-re- cording mixer is locked into using the built-in EQs. But that's not such a bad thing, according to Oscar-nominated re-recording mixer Beau Borders, who is currently finishing the final mix on direc- tor Peter Berg's upcoming "Wonderland" film, and the final mix on "Greyhound," co-written/co-produced and starring Tom Hanks. "I really love the way the EQs sound on the AMS Neve DFC, the Har- rison MPC, and the Euphonix consoles. Also, I'm very used to their functionality and very familiar with how far I can push them. The DFC will always have a fluid sound that's hard to beat," Borders said. And the built-in EQs on a traditional console let the mixer keep his/her hands on the board. "The Harrison MPC espe- cially has a phenomenal heads-up display that gives you visual feedback that's above and beyond the other consoles," added Borders. Going back to the monitor and mouse to fine-tune the EQ parameters is a pain, but the Pro-Q 3 interface makes it worth- while. "You can't beat the great graphic EQ display of the Pro-Q 3. You can see and track down specific frequencies in a fast but nuanced manner," explained Babcock. Borders is also a fan of the Pro- Q