Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335010
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 29 recording, and lots of terminology and timecode talk. My advanced class has students do all of that and mix in stereo and surround. I also run a sound effects class each summer that affords us time to explore and create. In addition to classes, I have been a thesis advisor for our MFA students, as well as our undergrad students who are part of the university 's Honors College. David Bondelevitch CAS MPSE: I could fill this issue with the circuitous route that took me into teaching. The short version is that I grew up around teachers and have a family full of teachers. In high school, I taught elementary school students about music. As a grad student at USC, I was a teaching assistant (TA) which again taught me how much I didn't know. As philosopher Joseph Joubert said, "To teach is to learn twice." I went back to USC to teach part time in 1993 and, after becoming critically ill in 2004 and it was clear I could no longer put in the long days on a dub stage, I began thinking about full-time work in education. I was offered a position as assistant professor at USC and accepted. However, I had also never intended to stay in Los Angeles, and my wife and I decided it was a good time to move in 2008, when I accepted my position at CU Denver. Over the years, I have taught dozens of classes, but the two that have been consistent are "Intro to Audio Post Production" and my film music course, now titled "History of 20th Century Film Music." How did you learn how to mix? TF: I learned to mix partly by watching and listening to what my mentor was doing in the mix, but mostly by getting my hands on material and mixing it. There is no substitute for sitting down with some tracks and putting them together, using trial and error to find what works and what doesn't. DB: Like many mixers, I began by playing with tape decks when I was a kid and took up trumpet at age 10. I'm sure my musical background has helped my mixing. In my undergraduate years, I did sound on some films I made, but was essentially self-taught at that point. At the Berklee College of Music, I was a jazz composition major, but I made it a point to take every class I could in the studio, as well as every film scoring class available to non-majors. I didn't really start to learn mixing until I was a grad student and teaching assistant at USC. I would like to give a shout-out to former CAS Board member John Coffey, who was very supportive of students when I was at USC, both as a student and as a teacher. MF: I learned how to mix by watching professionals in the studio once I was working in the field. When I was in college in the early '90s, I don't recall learning "how to mix" per se; it was more understanding gain staging, frequency masking, and what processors, generally, were used for. Application was more-or-less on your own. Did you have mentors of your own? TF: Yes, I had a mentor. His name was Richard (Dick) Vorisek and he was a pioneer re- recording mixer in New York from the 1940's through the 1980's. He mixed many of Matt Foglia CAS Mixing: POST David Bondelevitch CAS MPSE