Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/336911
www.postmagazine.com Post • June 2014 29 Formosa Group's Benitez says a DAW's ability to layer sounds is one of pro audio's most significant achievements. placed in context of the full mix. "There wasn't too much of an issue with latency, about half a frame, with the plug-ins that I used," he says. Intelligibility was paramount, so Norris varied the amount of processing within each word, often concentrating the vocal treatment on breaths or held vowels, to make the vocals sound more dramatic without hurting intelligibility. Another benefit to keeping the processing live was being able to deliver the vocal treat- ment to the audio teams that handle the foreign versions. Norris notes, "They were able to replace the English with the foreign language, and have the same processing treatment on the foreign language voice." As technology gets better, and less expen- sive, so much more can be done in the stu- dio, but with that comes new challenges, says Norris. "Everyone wants more work for less money and current technology does allow us to do so much more. However, it still takes time to create and edit sounds. Finding the balance between working quickly and effi- ciently while still meeting our clients' high expectations will always remain a challenge. Not to mention all the excellent work being done within the sound community raises the bar every single year." ODIN BENITEZ — FROZEN Odin Benitez is a supervising sound editor at Formosa Group, located on The Lot in West Hollywood, CA (http://formosagroup. com). The multi-award winning supervising sound editors, sound designers, and re- recording mixers at Formosa Group provide top-notch audio post services and Benitez himself was recently nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing on Disney's Frozen. Coming from a film background, Benitez started his career cutting sound, one track at a time, on a Moviola. Pro Tools, he says, changed everything. "The ability to layer mul- tiple sounds together and hear how they play against each other has been the most significant advancement in the way I approach sound. In the early days, I had to imagine what it was going to sound like," he says. Another tool with a significant impact on Benitez was Soundminer. He started out as a librarian using multiple different sound effects library programs. He was even in the midst of developing his own program when Sound- miner came out. "I ditched my own program in favor of Soundminer," he admits. Pro Tools, and having the ability to layer sounds across multiple tracks, in conjunction with easily finding and cataloging sound effects in Sound- miner, were the two biggest changes in how Benitez approaches sound design. Using Pro Tools, Benitez never has to re- create sounds from a temp mix. Once a sound design moment is achieved, it's always available. And all the levels, panning, and pro- cessing used to create the sound can be exactly translated to the dub stage. Benitez designed a key sound moment in Frozen for one of the very early playbacks for the direc- tors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. The scene, near the end of the film, is when Elsa, so overwrought with grief at the supposed death of her sister, stops an intense storm that's happening around them. The storm freezes in midair. Benitez used Serato's Pitch n' Time to apply a graphical varispeed to a "Tonal Drone Effect" to create a slow-down sound. He also used Audio Ease's Altiverb to give the sound a long ring out. "When I played that for the director, Jennifer Lee, she Dot Hill Ultra48 AssuredSAN TM Storage Array Introducing the only storage array with 48 drives in a 2-rackunit space. The AssuredSAN Ultra48 High-Density storage arrays provide Wicked Fast performance in a smaller footprint, delivering on speed, energy savings, ease-of-maintenance, ease-of-use, and proven high availability. Twice the Capacity Twice the Performance Half the Space The ideal data storage solution for the M&E post production workflows! Introducing the only storage array with 48 drives in a 2-rackunit space. The AssuredSAN Ultra48 High-Density storage arrays provide Wicked Fast performance in a smaller footprint, delivering on speed, energy savings, For product details, pricing, and assistance contact ALT Systems at 818-504-6800 or visit www.altsystems.com. "NVIDIA Quadro GPUs and Adobe Creative Cloud work together seamlessly, enabling digital artists like us to work at the speed of thought." – Jeff August, Creative Director, Jump Studios Creators of a compelling ESPN ® trailer for NASCAR ® Drive. Projects. Faster. Get The Advantage. www.pny.com/quadro Get The Advantage. Get The Advantage. www.pny.com/quadro Get The Advantage. Get The Advantage. } Support for any system brand } Three-year hardware warranty } Toll-free phone and email technical support Scan code to watch trailer