Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/16039
Audio for Spots like in a ‘big picture’ kind of way.The audio quality issues are left up to only the engineers here. Clients are paying us to make sure the quality issues are correct, even when they don’t know exactly how or what needs to be done to ensure that.” While stereo is still the preferred format in many cases, broadcast net- works still may require surround sound formats, and each network has its own specific requirements.“That makes our job more challenging,” says Goldman. “How do you mix for all these different formats and make them all work? It is kind of like trying to please everyone, or like trying to hit a smaller bullseye. It is extremely important to let people know that this makes our job and the audio indus- try much more relevant for commercials. “Kind of how like in- house facilities are falling by the wayside,” continues Goldman.“About nine or 10 years ago there was a big push for advertising agencies and broadcast networks to build their own facilities. But what hap- pened over time was they realized that it was more than just setting up a com- puter. A lot of the networks suffered greatly in their creative ideas because they built these massive in-house facili- ties and their lives became much more difficult trying to manage them. It was completely inefficient to the creative flow. Now today,we are showing clients how important we are as audio profes- sionals.There are many other things we do than just press buttons.” main of a music supervisor, who usually focuses more on licensing well-known songs.“Stock music searching is really its own thing. Just like how a mixer has to pull or use the right sound effect, it is now essential for a mixer to be able to pull the right piece of music.” The staff at Ear Goo has the talent to understand music in any form when used for commercials. “Everyone here at our company is a composer, even if they are doing sound design or mix- ing,” says Goldman. “We do a fair amount of original music for things like Hip Hop Honors and the VMAs, but the Ear Goo’s Paul Goldman: The studio used stock music, combined with its own, on The Do Something! Awards. Another widespread trend Goldman sees requires what he considers to be a new type of skill.“We do original music here, but we are often asked to pick stock music. [The use of] library music is a huge trend that is a very important part of the process. Clients have be- come very used to stock music and are savvy to all the different libraries.What I have found is that there is a new skill re- quired — stock music searching. The goal creatively is to have a music searcher pull what is right for the spot. We get a lot of clients coming to us be- cause we know all the libraries so well and can pull better stock music.” He doesn’t think that finding the right stock music falls under the do- stock music trend is interesting be- cause we have picked stock music that has been used on campaigns as a branding mechanism. The Do Some- thing! Awards — featuring Jane Lynch from the TV show Glee — is a great example of where we used all stock music and combined it with some original musical elements. I played gui- tar over some tracks to make the music feel more energetic. So we can take stock music and add our own twists to it.That can really help with the approval process. It also is more creative and fun.” The studios are outfitted with Avid Pro Tools|HD with Pro Control and D- Command consoles, and plug-ins from Waves and iZotope. Genelec speakers and Martinsound’s MulitMax monitoring system are used along with the Avalon 737SP mic preamp for recording.“I am not really about the gear any more,” ex- plains Goldman. “There was a time when you needed to be a serious gear- head to be in our industry. I was really into computers, like knowing what all the extensions and having a static bracelet around my wrist. Now all of that has changed.Those little things that we used to worry about are totally gone. It used to be that the more but-