CAS Quarterly

32 S U M M E R 2 0 2 1 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y recorded in different places, as it was with Soul, where you have to make sure that microphones and placement are matched as close as possible between locations. In fact, the film had to be finished during the pandemic, therefore, some dialogue had to be recorded at the actors' homes' bedrooms and closets, while trying to keep the quality as high as possible. Phones were used only for scratch dialogue, but for actual production, they sent kits to the actors' homes. First, they would do a virtual tour of the talent's house to identify the best spots, and then they would get a kit for the actual recording. They had to come up with a kit simple enough to not be distracting or intimidating for the talent. They didn't want the talent to have to think about how to use it, set it up, or take care of it. And although there was the need for complex kits with a U87, Pro Tools, and an interface, they found a simpler solution consisting of two iPads. One was running Zoom, where they would see the script on screen and would communicate with the dialogue mixers and directors through a Bluetooth headset. The other iPad would be running the Audio Recorder App by Tentacle. This is a mono recording app with one red button in the middle and a virtual fader to control the level. Tests were performed to identify the right level settings for each type of dialogue or sequence. Vince, Bobby, and their team weren't actually moving faders on the fly to adjust levels for the different dialogue takes while using this setup, but they would give directions, based on the tests, on what level setting to use for each line of dialogue. After testing different USB microphones, they went for the Sennheiser MK4, a large diaphragm microphone of which there is also a regular XLR version. While it offered what they were looking for, the challenge was to get enough microphones to complete the task on time—which they managed to do by getting some units directly from the manufacturer. It was the right mic and didn't have any knobs or buttons that could accidentally be changed during the session, which was the reason they discarded other widely available and good sounding USB microphones. When the talent records in their closet, even with a simple setup like the one that was used, they might still feel that there's much more to be responsible for than the actual vocal performance; something that usually doesn't happen in the studio. Talent can become worried about having to take care of the equipment, keeping the right distance from the mic, dealing with background noise, and other factors. Vince remarks that it takes a lot more time because it is not only about performance, there are other aspects like environment and settings, plus constantly receiving and reviewing the files before moving on. They also had to cover themselves with many takes, which increased the recording and editing time. Even so, "After all the effort, putting all the heart into it, it's good to see that we had a good result and it worked well for the film." This shows the importance of the dialogue mixers in animated films as they do much more than twist knobs; all the contributions add up. Dialogue recording and mixing deserve the right credit and Pixar does a great job and tries to have as many people who contributed to the film included in the credits. Vince and Bobby would like to recognize the work of Doc Kane CAS, Paul McGrath CAS, and Mike Rivera as key team members in mixing the production dialogue. Vince was partly responsible for having Jon Batiste as the piano player for the film, and was also involved in the recording of the song played by the busker on the subway platform (they even used his 55-year-old Martin guitar for the track). In the afterworlds, Pete wanted the counselor characters to sound big compared to Joe and the other souls, without them sounding scary like a monster. Instead of looking for a down-pitched voice, Ren and David Parker came up with the idea of adding bass to the dialogue, adding a small room reverb, and then filtering it off to make it very dark. They mixed the bass portion of the voice through the LFE and they also added some LCR divergence to it subtly, but enough to give the perception of a character a little bigger than the souls, enhanced with some left and right reverb and a subtle delay in the rear, very soft, barely audible. Director Peter Docter Collaborating on the dub stage.

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