Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/466366
www.postmagazine.com 33 POST FEBRUARY 2015 the Internet. "I had to fi nd one for my own," he says. He brought it with him to SuperExploder, where it's a permanent part of his workfl ow. He even has fellow mixers contact him and ask to have their dialogue tracks run through the Cat. 430. "They know what the box can do, and how quickly it can do it." SuperExploder is a boutique audio house located in New York City (www. superexploder.com). The fi ve-studio facility off ers 5.1 mixing, sound design, and music services for the advertising and TV industries. Clients include Saatchi & Saatchi, The Vault, Laird and Partners, Comedy Central and Spike TV. When working on ads, having an effi cient workfl ow is essential. Nazzaro notes that while software manufacturers may try to emulate the Cat. 430 (a modi- fi ed version of Dolby SR noise reduction), for him, there is just no replacement for the tactile control box, with its simple two fader and single attenuation knob design. Nazzaro explains, "For speed and ease-of-use, the Cat. 430 is right there at my fi ngertips. I have the highly sought after remote control unit that has actual sliders. You can't fi nd it anymore." Nazzaro can insert the Cat. 430 onto the dialogue track in Pro Tools, or onto an aux track in Pro Tools for routing multiple tracks of dialogue through it. When using the Cat. 430, he makes sure to note his setting on the box in the comments section of the dialogue track in Pro Tools. Since the box is analog, it won't automat- ically recall his setting for a session. According to Nazzaro, the two sliders on the Cat. 430 adjust the low-frequency band from 200Hz-20Hz, and adjust the high-frequency band from 20kHz-200Hz. The level knob controls the amount of at- tenuation. As the LF slider is pulled down, the attenuated frequency band gets closer to 20Hz. As the HF slider is pulled down, the attenuated frequencies get closer to 200Hz. "As I adjust these two sliders I can slowly take the top and the bottom off , where there would be rumble and hiss," says Nazzaro. "This box just starts to suck out the background noise and it also sucks out some of the reverberation. It's incredi- ble. I use it constantly." Nazzaro recently used the Cat. 430 on a series of international spots he mixed for ad agency Laird and Part- ners. The campaign for Rimmel London, titled Scandaleyes Xxtreme, stars model Georgia Jagger. It was shot to look like a typical fashion shoot, says Nazzaro. "There is a ton of background noise, with fans blowing and other set noise. It was all about how she looks, but she delivers a bit of dialogue. She defi nitely wasn't wearing a lav or body mic, so we had to go with the boom mic. The Cat. 430 came in huge for her lines." Since there is zero latency with the Cat. 430, Nazzaro inserted it onto the dialogue track in Pro Tools and let it roll with the session. "With plug-ins you can get really caught up in the processing and you can start to hear the artifacts of noise reduction. With the Cat. 430, the processing is inaudible." WAVES MAXXBASS Mixer/sound designer Seth Phillips at Sound Lounge in New York, NY (www. soundlounge.com) fi nds a common con- cern for clients is a lack of bass in Web mixes played through laptop speakers. To combat this, Phillips uses the Waves MaxxBass plug-in to enhance the low- end. The Waves MaxxBass plug-in (www. waves.com) creates a series of harmonics determined by the fundamental frequen- cy of a source's bass information. Those harmonics can be added back to the source signal. According to Waves, those harmonics trick the ear into perceiving low bass frequencies that may not actually be present in the output. Due to this psy- choacoustic phenomena, MaxxBass can extend the perceived frequency response of a speaker roughly two octaves below its physical limitation. "Small speakers can not physically produce low notes due to their [frequency response], but Waves MaxxBass allows you to empha- size the harmonics. In turn, this tricks your brain into thinking it's hearing the fundamental note," explains Phillips. Phillips used MaxxBass on the sound eff ects in BMW's :15 Leaves Web spot for agency Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners. He notes the growl that was supposed to come from the exhaust pipe wasn't coming through when the spot played back on computer speakers. "I used MaxxBass to bring out the low tones more, which greatly helped fi ll out the bass resolution when played on tiny speakers like laptops and mobile devices, and gave it the low rumble it needed." UNSUNG AUDIO GEAR VISUALIZER AUDIO ANALYSIS SUITE VERSION 2 LEEDS, UK — Nugen Audio's (www.nugenaudio.com) Version 2 of Visualizer signifi cantly expands the capabilities of the audio analysis suite designed for high-end audio professionals. Intended for music mixing and mastering, as well as audio post, Visualiz- er provides comprehensive audio analysis for recording, mixing and mastering in a single plug-in. A standardized reference set of professional tools is designed to help audio engineers work faster, avoid mistakes, repeat past successes and understand the success of others. Based on customer feedback, Visualizer now features numer- ous user interface enhancements, including a fully-resizable inter- face, a multiview feature that enables engineers to compare multi- ple sources with a single plug-in, and a "diff erence" view showing the diff erence between two input signals. Visualizer is available for Avid Pro Tools|HDX, and as a stand-alone application. SuperExploder's Jody Nazzaro with his reliable Dolby Cat. 430. Seth Phillips of Sound Lounge adds bass with MaxxBass.