Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/908245
(Rob, Charlie, Glenn) wanted to sound better than they ever had before and felt strongly about getting a great studio recording. I can't remember what mic we used, but it was definitely something to give us a great studio recording rather than something that would emulate production's booms or lavs. On the day, it was all about just getting as much material to comp together. The cast had received rehearsal recordings in advance, but the day we recorded in the studio was essentially their first live rehearsal. We used click tracks (that I had bounced separately from the instrumental recordings) and looped them. We would then let the cast do some of the songs phrase by phrase—almost like a musical looping session. The cast is really talented and all of them pick up music very fast, but for some of the more intricate parts (background vocals, harmonies, etc.), it was easier to just pump it out phrase by phrase. I knew we'd pull it all together in post. Once we had the studio recordings, I comped together the audio tracks in Logic, and then would adjust timing and pitch with Melodyne (per the suggestion of our music editor, Adrian Van Velsen). I aimed to put together the absolute best version of the recordings, musically, that I could because these recordings were not only going to be the "backups" for production sound, but they were going to be the learning tracks for the cast over the next month in preparation for the shoot. They 'd also be what production would have for playback. George Flores: For me as a sound technician working in the Television Dream Factory, Season 12's musical opener really began in previous seasons of the show. The concept of on-set live performance weighs heavily on the actor- creators of Sunny. When I received the first draft of this script, I pictured what I had done in earlier episodes, where song performance was based on in-ear monitor (earwigs) music playback, helping the live performance to remain fairly intact. This "Gang Turns Black" episode, however, was a different ball of wax in that a lot of written dialogue would be intertwined with singing and dancing, therefore creating a challenge to secure on-set performances. Our actor/writer/producer, Charlie Day, wrote the songs with composer Cormac Bluestone with the idea that "The Gang" would be trapped inside a musical and would need to sing their way out. Therefore, this was the impetus to make top-notch recordings with top-notch vocal performances to be played back on the set during production. PRODUCTION George was able to make some considerations on set to get the b y J o n G r e a s l e y