Utah

Several months ago I worked on Utah, a documentary short from director Kate Brown.

The aesthetic of the documentary involved all the audio being recorded on DAT tapes by Kate in Utah over multiple visits. We had many hours of recordings to master and creatively cut to the locked picture edit. Ultimately, we were able to comprise the entire soundtrack from the director's recordings. The documentary was mixed for both 16mm optical film and digital formats.

Utah was finaled at Danetracks

It was great to contribute on such an interesting project. Many thanks to Kate and the other collaborators, Felix and John for their hours of mastering/editing work and re-recording mixer Matt for making it sound great. I'll update the blog with more information about where the film will be screening at in the future.

"Sound is often subtle"

Just a few thoughts...

I've been reflecting upon my time in Los Angeles, and without a doubt it was a career affirming experience to have initially came out to intern at Danetracks.

I'm listening to The Matrix Reloaded playing on television as I write this post. Whatever I think about the story or how the trilogy holds up as time passes, the sound of The Matrix was hugely influential to me.

Quick tangent -

I had the opportunity in 2010 to listen to Craig Berkey speak. Berkey used an example of horses from True Grit to discuss his take on editing. He explained that although sync is important, it’s sometimes equally as effective to concentrate on the “feeling” of the image rather than the cuts.

The concept of feeling being equally as important as sync is something that has really stuck with me.

I always enjoyed being the last person left at Danetracks at night talking with Dane about ideas such as feeling, rhythm and harmonics. Seeing Dane take a concept and hear what he created from things I got to assist in recording was inspirational.

I truly can't express my gratitude to Dane, Francine and the rest of the great people I met through Danetracks for sharing their perspectives on the industry and passing along honest advice.

Here is an absolute must read interview in Mix Magazine with Dane, Eric and several others from Danetracks who worked on The Matrix trilogy.

Command|8

Recently I was able to score a Command 8 from a friend of mine. Secondhand audio gear can always be a little scary, but it sure helps to know who you're getting it from as opposed to someone off the internet.

I've previously worked with the MC Pro and Nuendo, and I was eager to finally have a control surface to add to my Pro Tools workflow at home.

Having an interface and control surface together like a 003 is not a huge necessity for me at my home workstation. I very rarely if ever record anything directly into my DAW. Most of what I record I do with my Zoom, and I have the option to dust off my Mbox if I need to input directly into PT.

While I'm fine working with a mouse and keyboard, the capabilities you get with a control surface have definitely increased the speed and efficiency of how I edit. I love being able to do more detailed volume automation, and I also really enjoy having my plug-in controls on a surface. The thing is, I'm truly not even using the the Command 8 to it's full capabilities. Sound on Sound has a cool article with some functions and features I won't even begin to detail.

It can sometimes be an issue for me deciding what do I really need vs want. When it comes to a microphone, or plug-in and so forth, there is a lot of research that goes into getting what will benefit your own individual workflow. Overall, I'm so stoked with the Command 8.

That is until I eventually own the Artist Series!

Mahna Mahna

So it appears that I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping the blog updated.

I've had a very busy start to 2013 collaborating with some great clients. I was stoked to see some of the spots we've been working on at 740 air during the Super Bowl. Here are a few to check out -

• Taco Bell "Viva Young"
• Volkswagen "Get Happy"
• Hyundai "Stuck"

And here's a non-SB commercial I'd like to share, just because it makes me laugh every time I watch it -

Outside of work, the more I've been diving into iZotope Iris the more I've fallen in love. It's amazing the unique sounds you can create. I've been having a blast losing track of time with it. It's the most fun I can remember having since I first started using NI Kontakt. 4 out of 5 times when I import sounds into it thinking nothing more than 'this could be cool' I don't end up with anything much, but that 1 time when I do it's awesome! Perhaps the biggest challenge with Iris is coming up with descriptions and tags for the crazy sounds. I honestly don't think I'd turn to it if I was for example under a deadline for a revision, but I'm hopeful someday I'll be involved on a project where I'll get to use some sounds from my Iris folder. If you haven't yet, I absolutely recommend demoing it.

Mastering

Hard hat for the win

Keep adding to your library and build discipline. Think of it like an old kung fu film if you will- You want to become a master, you must master every day!