Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/6359
and equalization, and it forces you to use your ears in a different way. I felt that we walked away from that mix being better mixers, because if you can do something re- ally well with one channel, it's amazing what you can pull off in 5.1 or stereo." The mono soundtrack still required all of the sound design that would have been needed for a multi-channel release. "We always build all of the elements and all of the tracks, and make everything avail- able, because it's easier to mute things in the mix than build things up," he explains. "We definitely still covered ever ything: we had loop group recordings, we had Foley record- ings and backgrounds, and sound effects and music. Then [it was] a matter of making strong decisions during the mix." Much of the film's scenes involved "diegetic sound," with sources shown on screen, such as a CD player or home stereo. "You have to define a sense of space for that music, and not get in the way of the dialogue and ever ything else. It's easier in 5.1 to get that sense of space than it is with only one speaker." Snap Sound's two 5.1 rooms are based around Digidesign Pro Tools|HD2 systems, Panasonic 42- inch HD monitors and JBL LSR 4328 monitors.The JBLs, says Seivers, have become ubiquitous in his market, al- lowing his pre-mixes to translate pretty well when moved to a bigger room for the final mix. In total, Seivers says he nor- mally spends six weeks working on a film project, with four weeks dedicated to sound de- sign and two weeks left for mixing. The challenge with indie films and their lower budgets, he says, "is trying to find ways to cut costs without sacrificing quality. So often we don't get ver y much time. I have to be strategic with the films that I choose. Be- cause the reputation that we are tr ying to make for ourselves is that we sound design films that are impactful and impor- tant to the world, and not just the films that are going to make us the most money." E AT I N G B U C C A N E E R S Toronto-based composer Ari Posner (www.arimusic.com) is an independent who's also a member of Pirate (www.piratetoronto.com), a collective of fellow composers and sound designers in New York (www.pirateny.com) and Toronto. He operates out of his own space, working with three Macs running Logic, Pro Tools and Plogue's Bidule, a modular audio software program that allows him to host more plug- ins and additional sounds. He also keeps some Roland systems around, including the 5080, "but they've become less and less im- por tant as the sample libraries have gotten better and better," he notes. Posner is a long-time piano player who began his studies at age six and then at- tended a conser vator y. He later studied music at York University in Toronto, where he focused on Jazz and composition. He recently contributed original music to the independent film Eating Buccaneers, which has been showing throughout Canada. The comedy was written and di- rected by Bill Keenan, and centers around four adver tising executives and one of their clients. The group's plane crash-lands and they are faced with sur viving on just water and Buccaneer chocolate bars. "It was my second time working with Bill," says Posner, who worked with the writer/director on an AOL spot in the past. He's friendly with Terr y O'Reilly, who is a par tner at Pirate. This is a low-budget film and he was tr ying to call in any favors he could, so he arranged with Terry that Pirate would help out with the sound: Foley, A U D I O Ari Posner calls on Digidesign Pro Tools, Apple Logic and Plogue's Bidule. www.postmagazine.com January 2010 • Post 39 Snap Sound's Zack Seivers and Justin Davey (L-R): the studio completed sound design on The Taqwacores. continued on page 43