Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/541232
www.postmagazine.com 34 POST JULY 2015 cleaned using the iZotope RX Advanced and the Waves W43 noise reduction plug-in. "I really rely on the iZotope Decrackle and Denoise to reduce air conditioners, fans and generator sounds in the backgrounds, and the Spectral Repair to take out people or clanking dishes in restaurants," says Valenzuela. "You can't really eliminate the noise but you can certainly make it less notice- able." To help smooth edits between different dialogue sources, Valenzuela likes the Avid seven-band EQ. He also uses pitch shifting to help blend dia- logue edits between different sentences. "If one sentence sounds more excited, I can pitch it down a bit to take some of the edge off. My job is to make the mix smooth, make the dialogue as intelligi- ble as possible, and make the music and effects support the jokes." While Richie's jokes do the heavy lifting as far as the comedy goes, the music and sound effects help further the funniness. For example, on AOL Originals Season 2/Episode 8 "Derby Doll," Richie merrily skates around a roller rink to a jaunty tune featuring sleigh bells, but then the Roller Derby team overtakes her in the rink as a death metal track comes punching through the mix. In the Season 1 episode "How To Be Friends With Hens" on VH1, Richie decides to get chickens. Valenzuela added extra chicken sounds to exaggerate what's happening on- screen. "We just try to fill up the scene with sounds that make the audience feel like they're part of what's happen- ing. Nicole [Richie] is the one selling the jokes, and her delivery of the jokes makes our job easier. We just sprinkle in the extras and it all works well together," he says. Since the AOL Originals episodes can pop-up at any moment, Valenzuela relies on help from his fellow Sound Waves Post re-recording mixers, Nozimo Furuya and Sal Ojeda. The short, five-minute episodes have a quick mix turn around time, typically under five hours. Unlike episodes mixed for VH1, mixing the AOL episodes happen in unattended sessions, sans clients. "But, we always put the same effort in no matter what. A good mix is a good mix and we always try for that," says Valenzuela. UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT The days of 30 Rock may be over, but the creative group behind that series — writers, producers, production crew, editing and post production teams — have reunited for the brilliant new Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, about recently-freed, dooms- day-cult captive Kimmy Schmidt, a naive girl from Indiana who builds a new life in New York City. Re-recording mixer Tony Pipitone at Sync Sound in New York (www.syncsound.com) has mixed episodes for all eight seasons of 30 Rock, with executive producer/composer Jeff Richmond — creator Tina Fey's hub- by — and composer Giancarlo Vulcano overseeing the final mix sessions. "After all those years of working together on 30 Rock, it has been a very comfortable ex- perience working on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," Pipitone says. As with 30 Rock, Richmond often re- cords parts of the score for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt during the final mix ses- sion with Pipitone, everything from guitar and horns to vocals. "We are mixing the score and adding parts right down to the last pass of screening. The score plays a big role in the comedy of the show and Jeff [Richmond] is definitely keen on the comedy," says Pipitone. An important job for Pipitone is to make sure the audience never misses a joke. Backgrounds and sound effects are added to keep Kimmy's world interesting but without diverting attention away from the dialogue. That doesn't mean there aren't opportunities to have a bit of fun with the sound. For example, an air conditioner falls out of a window, nearly squashing Kimmy and her roommate Titus. Pipitone enhanced the falling air conditioner sound to make it larger than life, using effects pulled from sound li- braries in combination with Foley created by the Sync Sound team. "For this series, we do a full Foley pass because we need to deliver M&Es to Netflix for the interna- tional versions," says Pipitone. Sound recordist Griffin Richardson, another 30 Rock alumni, often commu- nicates with Pipitone about unavoid- ably-rough areas on the production tracks. With many exterior shots happen- Erik Valenzuela focuses on making #Candidly Nicole's dialogue as intelligible as possible. Tony Pipitone mixes Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.