Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335010
60 W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y eight faders, depending on the number of nominees in that category. If Tom had to manage all those separate individual feeds spread out across the console, it could easily prove to be unwieldy trying to locate a specific winner out of 120 faders. Having these per-scene groups allowed Tom to quickly focus on the winner within a given category. Tom states that in the end, "With the engineering team handling the lion's share of the remote management and switching for me, I was able to concentrate on making the winners sound as good and consistent as possible for Paul." Tom really credits both the engineering team and the Done+Dusted team with thinking outside the box and making this huge undertaking possible. In the main production truck, Paul Sandweiss shared, "For me, it was somewhat business as usual, with the exception of mixing with a mask. Tom had the hard job of wrangling all the remote feeds." Paul shared his truck space with Pro Tools playback mixer J.P. Velasco and truck engineer Hugh Healy, while audio sweetener Christian Schrader, normally right behind him, was in a different location to reduce the number of people in the truck. Paul's feeds consisted of onstage mics for Jimmy Kimmel, presenters, DJ D-Nice, video pre-records, the nominee mix from Tom Holmes, Pro Tools playback, and sweetening. What he didn't have were room ambience mics for an audience. There were two distinct differences for Paul in mixing this show. The first was the significantly subtler use of sweetening. He described it as "more to add some consistency to the reactions of the nominees' remote feeds. We were not trying to make it sound like there was a live audience." He described the second as his biggest challenge; maintaining a consistent room tone. "Consistent room tone is challenging enough with a live show when you have an audience. In this sound stage environment, it was much harder." Paul pointed out that, due to COVID-19 protocols, none of the local presenters or Jimmy Kimmel ever shared a mic, meaning many more RF's on set and in different locations on set. There were no podiums, which are often used on these types of shows to assist in capturing consistent room tone between RF mic usage. And, most importantly, there were no ambience mics, normally used for the audience response. Paul just had to use a combination of everything he had to make it work. SOUND'S OVERALL IMPACT Beyond the sound mix we heard on air, we have to step back and understand the overall impact of audio on a show like this. In my previous CAS Quarterly article, "Sound Mixing for Live Award Shows," we saw over and over how each part of the audio mix affected all the others. Just as important as the audio mix itself, we saw how each piece of the mix, from stage monitors to the house sound, enabled a better performance from the artist, whether it was a musician or comedian. Better performances create a better final mix for the home viewer. Interestingly, in many ways, this virtual experience had the same effect on the viewers' experience. Allowing the nominees to easily communicate with their segment producer eased their tension over their technical connection to the show. Communicating with the host gave them a greater sense of being there. And, most importantly, interacting so intimately with their fellow nominees made their—and ultimately our—experience more heartfelt and real. Reviewer after reviewer commented how much better the acceptance speeches were and how warm and heartfelt the experience was seeing and hearing the nominees at home with their families. These intimate moments wouldn't have happened without sound bringing people together. 60 60 60 W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Producer view during the Outstanding Director for a Comedy portion. Photo courtesy of Done+Dusted.