Downsizing the Mixing Room

In the cozy world of Hollywood entertainment, a lot of things are “on the house.” But increasingly, some of the audio post-production is moving into the house. Specifically, some of Hollywood’s top post houses are creating high-tech Mini-Mes, allowing directors to work on a film’s sound at their own offices while supplying gear and technical talent tailored to each project.

Technicolor Sound Services (TSS) was on the trend very early, setting up an on-site mixing studio for producer/writer Mike Robbins for the first season of Nip/Tuck six years ago. From that experience, the studio developed the notion of on-site mixing into a package called DMR ‘ digital mobile re-recording. There are currently four customized DMRs in the field, where a typical gear complement might include a Digidesign Pro Tools HD system, an Apple Mac Pro with four hard drives, a 5.1 monitoring system, JBL LSR 4328P monitors and HD video playback.

The biggest issue is the monitoring environment. “We try very hard, but these are not ideal mixing environments,” acknowledges Stacey Dodds, the TSS engineer who supervises the DMR program. In fact, he says, acoustics are the main focus of set-up strategy for the on-site mix room. At the production facility, Dodds will do an on-site analysis of the available offices, picking one or two for the mixing suite. Any noisy equipment, such as fans, will be moved into another room with wire runs sent between the two spaces. “The gear is already in an iso rack, but this adds an extra layer of [sound] isolation,” he explains. To run the wiring, “we try to snake it through ceiling panels, but we’ve had to punch a hole in a wall once,” he says. The mix room walls get an application of acoustical treatments and, using proprietary equipment, the speaker system is tuned.

“We usually have three days to set it all up, do the acoustical treatments, and shoot the room,” Dodds says. “Then the mixer does a test mix and, if we need to, we tweak the room tuning. Then they’re ready to go.”

Raw sound elements are delivered to the site on hard drives. FTP or high-speed connections let the DMR connect to TSS, but Dodds says most of what the mixer on site needs is already prepared at the main editorial department.

Television Is Different …

The idea of mixing under these circumstances might raise eyebrows among some Hollywood mixers, and Dodds agrees he’d never mix film sound this way. But television audio is different. “Less bandwidth, less overall volume ‘ television sound tends to translate pretty well in this kind of environment,” he says. All the audio is checked at TSS one final time before air during layback.

Matt Gillis mixes both Nip/Tuck and Glee in two separate TSS DMRs on the Paramount lot. He doesn’t miss the big stage. “The speakers aren’t as big, but as far as everything else goes, everything that you can do on a big stage I can do on the lot,” he says. “I’m mixing two big shows that way.”

Mark Kaplan, TSS’s vice president of sales, agrees that this kind of mixing should be limited to television – and even then it’s not for high-impact audio on shows like True Blood, which TSS also does sound for. But, he adds, the on-site studio concept has gotten significant traction in Hollywood in the last couple of years. TSS has put their DMRs with directors like Michael Bay and Glee creator/producer Ryan Murphy’s production company.

“The soundstage experience will always be there, but some clients really like working like this because it’s more productive and enhances creativity,” says Kaplan. “Instead of coming into a stage for two days with two mixers, the mixer is there on site for four days, becoming familiar with the show, the sound, the people and the pace of the show. You’re embedded in their world.” And in a time of budget cuts, it’s also one more useful sticky between client and studio in the business relationship.

… But It Can Work For Film, Too

Bill Johnston, chief engineer at CSS Studios (the former Ascent Media), which encompasses studios including Todd-AO, Sound One, Soundelux, POP Sound, Modern Music, Soundelux Design Music Group and The Hollywood Edge, says his group has set up on-site sound editorial systems for FX and sound design for directors including Oliver Stone and Michael Mann. Recent projects for which they’ve gone on location, so to speak, include Wanted, The Mummy 3 and Star Trek.

The systems sent to the directors’ offices generally consist of a Digidesign Pro Tools HD|3 system with JBL LSR 4328 speakers and an LSR4312SP subwoofer for a 5.1 array, topped off with a 50-inch plasma display. Johnston says this is the most “theatrical-sounding” monitoring set up he’s found. Acoustics almost always leave something to be desired and, if needed, CSS will bring some home-built acoustical panels from one of the studios. The space ‘ usually a 12-foot-by-14-foot spare office that Johnston says isn’t that unlike the dimensions of editorial rooms at the studios ‘ is acoustically calibrated using a Radio Shack level meter, with EQ adjustments made using the speakers’ own processing. “All of the processing, for the speakers and for the audio, is done in the box, which is what makes it possible to put a really powerful system on site,” Johnston says.

A reliable high-speed connection allows the remote sound editor to access the CSS’s Soundelux FX library, and since it’s generally a one-way download even most DSL lines are workable. If the connection is less than ideal they will set up servers on site to store files or use the DigiDelivery file exchange system. “Really what this is all about is creating a transition between the work they’re doing in offices or on the lot and when they come to the cutting room for the first time,” says Johnston.

Actually, there are numerous reasons that directors would want to give up an office and turn it into a sound design studio, not least of which these days is content security. The notorious leak of X-Men Origins: Wolverine earlier this year put an enhanced emphasis on that, and it was the reason Star Trek‘s production team decided to start SFX development in their own offices.

L.A.’s equally notorious traffic offers another compelling reason for the studio to come to the director. “If they’re on the west side of town, they don’t want to have to drive in every day,” he says. “Sometimes that’s the most important reason of all.”