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www.postmagazine.com 38 POST SEPTEMBER 2014 plain beautiful!" CATE CAHILL Freelance sound effects editor/sound mixer Cate Cahill has won several awards for sound effects editing and sound de- sign. She's been working in the film and TV industry in Australia for over 25 years. Starting out as a musician with an inter- est in electronic instruments, she studied electrical engineering at the University of New South Wales. Her experiences in a wide variety of sound applications, from creating audio for art installations to recording bands, led her to study at the Australian Film and TV School in Sydney. Cahill's training there allowed her to move seamlessly between audio produc- tion and post production. She spent five years as a sound effects editor on the 1990's sci-fi TV series Farscape, which was mixed in 5.1, a new format for TV at that time. She then spent eight years editing and mixing at Post Op Group, a post production facility in Sydney. Currently, she's a sound effects editor on Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth install- ment of George Miller's Mad Max series, set for release in 2015. With Cahill's vast audio experience as a musician, a sound engineer, and a mixer/sound effects editor, she has a long list of favorite audio tools. For audio post in particular, Cahill favors the INA's GRM Tools plug-ins from her time spent designing sound for Farscape. She says, "The way they are designed to deal with sounds, in unusual but intuitive ways, al- lowed us to create the numerous gizmos and noises you expect to hear in sci-fi." Their easy integration into the Pro Tools workflow allows Cahill to quickly turn ordinary sounds into unique creations. "I am still using them on my current proj- ects," she says. Her favorite audio tool at the moment is Iced Audio's AudioFinder, an audio asset management system that allows users to catalog every sound in their system, save it, and search it instantly. AudioFinder, for Mac OS X, retails for $69. It features the ability to audition, analyze, process, convert, add metadata, and move or copy sounds. It has a wave- form display with built-in beat detection, where users can quickly edit, trim, fade, and select parts of sounds to spot into a session. "It's amazingly sophisticated and useful for the price," notes Cahill. While there are many audio asset manage- ment programs available, Cahill feels that AudioFinder offers most of the same features as more expensive programs, but is considerably less expensive. "At $69 I wasn't expecting a great deal, but it surprised me. It ended up being a real asset," she says. "It works in a similar way in which my mind works when searching and considering sound effects." With years spent recording her own sound effects for films and other projects, Cahill has amassed thousands of unique sound files. In addition, she also purchased a number of commer- cial libraries over the years. She uses AudioFinder to help her access, organize, search, and implement her sounds quick- ly. "I needed a database that worked seamlessly with Pro Tools — ingesting and spotting to tracks — and definitely one that could intelligently interpret key- words and metadata so I wouldn't have to physically sort all my sounds into like folders, much as we did before digital," explains Cahill. "I wanted to be able to audition sounds and, preferably, be able to see the waveform. This is important for many reasons, the least of which is when you have many takes in a single sound file." One of the best ways AudioFinder fits into Cahill's workflow, is that it allows her to make favorite folders as shortcuts in a sidebar, as well as virtual lists of sounds that she is collecting into groups. "It's extremely useful to the sound design process because you can amass a collec- tion of sounds relevant to your proj- ect," she explains. "For example, 'gritty wheels,' 'wet wheels,' 'falling dirt,' etc. The sidebar also has convenient access to your drives, and you can use AudioFind- er generally — another practical search idea." Cahill adds that AudioFinder has been an uncomplicated, intuitive, stable database that helps organize her audio designer mind all through Mad Max: Fury Road. "For such a low price I'm amazed at what it has to offer and how brilliantly it works." ARDMORE SOUND Award-winning sound designer/re-re- cording mixer Steve Fanagan worked in the music industry as a recording engineer, mixer, producer, and mastering engineer for 15 years before coming over to audio post. He's currently at Ardmore Sound, located in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland (www.ardmoresound.ie/), which boasts the only Dolby-licensed feature film mix theater in Ireland. They merged with Ireland's leading post production facility, Screen Scene, in 2010. Together, both facilities handled all the picture and audio post needs for Game of Thrones, Season 1. Fanagan's recent film work includes Queen and Country, which premiered in May at the Cannes's film festival, Miss Julie (starring Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain) opening in Toronto September 12, and Frank, which opens in theaters nationwide on August 29. "Our work here tends to be from all over the world," notes Fanagan. "We work on films that have a bit more focus on the art end of cinema, which is lovely." Fanagan recently sound designed and co-mixed the film Frank, an offbeat comedy centered around a band and their eccentric leader, Frank (played by Michael Fassbender), who permanently sports a massive paper mache head. Director Lenny Abrahamson wanted the audience to believe they were watching an actual band rehearsing, interacting, and playing live at gigs. Abrahamson and composer Stephen Rennicks wrote original songs, fleshed them out with hired musicians, then taught the songs to the actors in Frank for them to actually perform on-set. Fanagan explains, "A big part of the sound design was trying to figure out ways to process and play with sound, so that, in some way, it fed into what the band was doing." Coming from a music background, Fanagan felt very comfortable creating elements to accentuate what the band was playing. Cate Cahill also likes Iced Audio's Audio- Finder audio asset management system. FAVORITE AUDIO TOOLS