Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/187650
Favorite Audio Tools [through Google Glass] video on YouTube. It's an interesting story about an amazing new technology, and the mix is definitely worth listening to. Soundtrack Boston's Michael Secher: one of his favorite audio tools is the Audio Ease Altiverb plug-in. 36 Morgan, Snapple, Budweiser and ESPN, to name a few. Goldblatt recently completed the sound design and mix for a Google Glass Web video, Explorer Story: Alex Blaszczuk [through Google Glass]. This short, documentary-style video tells the story of Alex Blaszczuk, who was paralyzed from the chest down after a car accident in 2011. Unable to use her hands, Google Glass has helped her be more independent. Goldblatt got to test out Google Glass for himself. "It's really incredible," he says. "You'd think it would be distracting, and you'd be bumping into things on the street, but it's not invasive at all. There's a lot of potential with the technology." An everyday, go-to tool for Goldblatt is the Waves C4 Multiband Compressor plugin. The C4 isn't your typical compressor. It acts as a dynamic EQ, giving you compression, expansion, limiting and EQ on four independent, adjustable frequency bands at the same time. You can use it to de-ess, EQ and boost separate bands simultaneously, all within the same tool. Goldblatt uses it for voiceover and on-camera dialog. "The multi-band compressor is a really powerful tool," he notes. "It allows you to have more control over the dialog tracks than an EQ can give you. It really allows you to bring out the best qualities in the dialog. It's something I use on every project." The Waves C4 is $250 on its own, but it is also included in several Waves bundles. The C4 was particularly useful for the dialog in the Google Glass video, which was shot in numerous locations, including several scenes on the street, and in the woods where Blaszczuk and her friends go camping. Goldblatt used the C4 to help smooth out the dialog. "The audio was very rough, and uneven, so the C4 was very integral to achieving a cohesive dialogue track," he explains. You can watch the Explorer Story: Alex Blaszczuk Post • September 2013 SOUNDTRACKS BOSTON Michael Secher is a mixer/composer/ sound designer at Soundtrack Boston (http:// soundtrackgroup.com). Only six months after interning at Soundtrack Boston, Secher was in the mix chair in Studio A. That's been his room since 1996. "The engineer who was in the room I'm in now left to go to New York, so he recommended me when he left," says Secher says. "At first it was intimidating, but I got through that sort of scary period and now I'm mixing for TV and radio, as well as doing a lot of sound design and composing music for spots." Secher works on spots for clients that include McDonald's, Google, Volvo, MLB, New Balance and Discovery Channel. Working with a wide variety of clients, as well as creating sound design and original music, keeps the work fresh. "It keeps me busy and happy and it's never stale," he notes. Soundtrack Boston was the first of the three Soundtrack facilities. They have two more locations in New York that handle commercials, TV series, film and music. There are seven studios in the Soundtrack Boston facility, all outfitted with the latest audio gear. Secher notes that Soundtrack tries to stay at the forefront of technology, especially when things are changing in the industry. "When Obama passed the CALM Act, we had to educate our producers and clients on how we can comply with that, what new technology we need to implement, and what it ultimately means for their mixes," he explains. "We've always been a place that people can look to for information in that regard." Other things that draw clients to Soundtrack Boston, Secher believes, are their talented engineers and client service. "We make sure the audio is the best it can possibly be, and we also make sure our client service is the best it can possibly be. We have a reputation to uphold, so we try to be a top-notch world class facility in every way." One of Secher's favorite audio tools is the Audio Ease Altiverb plug-in. With impulse responses from a wide variety of spaces, from an interesting assortment of objects, and from classic analog reverb gear, Secher explains how he can quickly effect his audio in creative and useful ways. He was recently working on a commercial featuring a talking refrigerator. "I had to come up with the voice of the refrigerator," he explains. "What does a refrigerator sound www.postmagazine.com like? Just being able to audition all these different shapes, and whether it's metal or whatever the exact material or dimensions of the thing might be, is really cool. Somebody actually took impulse responses of a tin can. Having a high-quality reverb like that and being able to access different environments and textures makes my job easier." The Audio Ease Altiverb plug-in is a convolution reverb that uses impulse responses to add reverb to an audio signal. The impulse responses are recorded in actual spaces, like Alcatraz prison and the Sydney Opera house. They are also recorded from reverb hardware units, like the Roland Space Echo. Every month, Audio Ease sends Altiverb 7 users new impulse responses for free. So the library of options keeps growing.You can also create your own impulse responses. When creating your own, keep in mind that the quality of the convolution reverb will only be as good as the impulse response you record. You can get the latest version, Altiverb 7, for $595, or there is Altiverb 7 XL for $995. With the XL version, you get support for TDM, and you can work with the plug-in in 5.1 surround. While creating the sound design on the MLB I Play campaign for ad agency Hill Holliday in Boston, Secher used Altiverb 7 to add an other worldly feel to the spots. He found an impulse response recorded in a tomb in India. "It was a really long reverb but it also had some weird whispering backwards element to it." He ran just the player's voice through it, and then panned the output only to the rear speakers, giving everything "a trippy quality." The spots were mixed in both 5.1 and stereo. Each MLB spot features a different player. The player is shot in a solitary, pensive moment, and then it cuts away to a collection of images. Every time it comes back to the player, the viewer hears a signature "boom." For each player, Secher created a signature boom that incorporates sound elements that coincide with the team, or with the city they play for. For example, Jose Bautista plays for the Toronto Blue Jays, so Secher created a demented bird tweeting sound for Bautista's spot. "There is also some wings flapping in there," he adds. "I ran it all through the Altiverb 7 plug-in so it all washes together." For Andrew McCutchen, who plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Secher added elements of steel to the signature boom. "I tried to make this giant, shining metallic sound, like if you took a piece of steel and went up to a giant girder, and you smashed it."