LOS ANGELES – March 2017 — It’s not unusual for motion picture sound editors and sound designers to move into temporary facilities during post production, often working in acoustically challenging rooms. To optimize his 5.1 monitor system as he moves from one location to the next, freelance supervising sound editor, sound designer and mixer Douglas Murray added a Blue Sky Audio Management Controller (AMC) to his system in 2016, making particular use of its EQ curve settings and centralized level control.

“This is a portable system that I put together for my last film, Gore Verbinski’s A Cure for Wellness,” says Murray, who was the supervising sound editor on the picture. The Blue Sky AMC provides system control of Murray’s monitor rig, which includes five Mackie HR824mkII nearfield speakers with a Blue Sky SUB 15 Universal for low frequency extension. His mobile system also includes an Avid Pro Tools|HDX2, Dock and S3 mixing control surface.

Murray is currently working in temporary accommodations on the 20th Century Fox Studios lot on director Matt Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes with co-supervising sound editor Will Files and their team. Murray is also a sound designer on the project. He and Files have co-supervised every film directed by Reeves since Cloverfield, says Murray, whose extensive resume also includes The English Patient, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

Using Blue Sky’s SRO (System-Room Optimization) software, Murray can precisely measure any room and send the results to the AMC, which applies in DSP the corrective equalization curves that best fit the environment. “It runs through all kinds of options; you can see it trying different curves and finally settling on the one it thinks is going to make your room sound the flattest,” he says.

If the EQ curve is too severe, he says, “You can tweak it so that it’s almost flat but doesn’t have extreme boosts or cuts. It’s a nice procedure to go through to see what is going on in the room. I ended up doing less than it advised me to do, but the resulting sound is subtly better. It’s compensating for the space and the speakers’ own curve. It’s very close to flat. I have checked the results in other rooms and it sounds good, so I’m pleased.”

He continues, “The nicest thing is that you can tweak the levels of all the speakers from the front panel of the box. You don’t have to go around behind the speakers. It’s very simple but I use it when I’m checking the levels in my room. And you can turn bass management on and off, which is also handy.”

Brian Long in the engineering department at Skywalker Sound recommended the AMC, says Murray, who worked at the famed facility for 12 years. “It’s great in that it’s got presets that you can switch between. So now I have ‘flat’ on one button and room EQ on the other. The curve isn’t doing a whole heck of a lot but it does sound a little better in the mid-range to my ear. There is a little more presence in the ‘woody’ range, which is good, because I’m cutting and pre-mixing ape voices and there’s a lot of that in the voices.”

He adds, “And it can handle 7.1, which is essential—that’s why I got it. I also have a 5.1 system with a BMC [Blue Sky’s Bass Management Controller, now discontinued] in my home studio.” Jim Austin, another engineer at Skywalker, recommended the Blue Sky SUB 15 Universal, he says.

Blue Sky’s AMC is powerful but simple to operate, says Murray. “You don’t want a lot of bells and whistles and crazy things that could get you into trouble. This thing does have a lot of power. But I’m trying to use it in a responsible way.”

For a list of Douglas Murray’s credits, visit: www.imdb.com/name/nm0614923/

Image: Douglas Murray using his Blue Sky AMC (lower right corner) at 20th Century Fox Studios working on War for the Planet of the Apes.

As one of the leading post-production facilities, Picture Head has offered a full scope of creative solutions for the audio/video, film, television and new media industries since opening its Hollywood headquarters in 2000. For a decade, they’ve provided full-service finishing and supervision in the areas of high-definition video, sound, color-correction, advertising and promotional services, and new media technologies for a host of clients including Disney, Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros., Overture and many others.

In April of 2010, the studio embarked on the build-out of a 5.1 mix room/sound stage—Sound 7—under the guidance of Mark Herscovitz, PH’s Director of Sound. Herscovitz enlisted audio design consultant Charles Pell of Cobalt Blue Technology, along with Colin Ritchie of the Los Angeles-based full-service production design house, Aarmadillo, to specify and facilitate the purchase of much of the room’s audio and video equipment. Sound 7’s marquee technology centers around a Digidesign 32 channel Icon D-Control, flanked by a JVC DLA-RS10 HD projection system, a Stewart Filmscreen 10’ perforated screen, and Blue Sky Big Blue 5.1 monitoring system comprised of three SAT 12 mains in the front wall, a SUB 15 Universal and four in-wall I/ON surround speakers along the sides. At Right: Joe Purcell (L) and Tim Fejtek at work during initial build-out.

“Sound 7 was to designed be our premier studio for the creation and showcasing of our movie advertising projects,” explained Herscovitz, a 17-year audio post pro who helped build PH from the ground up. “One of the things we specialize in is movie advertising, which encompasses anything to do with selling a movie; from 30-second TV spots, trailers, radio, Internet pieces, EPKs, and other promotional materials. Additionally, we’ve recently gotten into TV shows and documentary and feature films. I’d researched other speaker systems and both Chuck and Colin recommended Blue Sky highly. My only experience with the speakers was having seen them in numerous studios including Skywalker Sound, and by reputation—which of course was excellent.”

Herscovitz and another senior engineer ventured over to a Hollywood Hills post-production suite that had the Blue Sky system installed back in 2008. “We were blown away! Although it was built as a DI room specifically, it sounded great, and the Blue Sky’s projected very clear sound with good, full bottom range. One of the things that is important to me is to have a speaker system that’s easy on the ears. I work crazy hours, and these speakers are very forgiving in that regard; they’re not fatiguing.  I’m definitely able to go all day on them and not have the typical ear fatigue that I get with a lot of other speakers. The Blue Sky’s sound great and don’t fatigue, what more could you want?”

He was also blown away by the company’s customer service. “I can’t say enough good things about Chris Fichera and Rich Walborn. They’re very interested in the integration, setup, and calibration of the room. In fact, Dolby came out to calibrate the room and Chris & Rich were here all day to make sure everything was dialed the way it was supposed to be. At the end of the day, we were very happy.”

And the clientele have been overly pleased as well. Sound 7’s first projects included a theatrical trailer for Anchor Bay’s “I Spit On Your Grave,” as well as TV spots for Rob Reiner’s coming-of-age summer comedy, “Flipped,” and Discovery Channel’s half-hour travel series “A Place in the Sun.”

Other recent Picture Head projects include TV spots for Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 3”, a trailer for Overture Film’s “Let Me In” and the feature documentary “The Lt. Dan Band” (the band features actor Gary Sinise and follows his work with the U.S.O. to support the military – entertaining our troops around the world.)

“We’ve gotten nothing but positive raves about the room, of both the sound and the look. It’s kind of a “wow” room and the photos don’t really do it justice. I wanted a clean theatre look and the sad part is that the Blue Sky speakers are hidden—except for the I/ONs, which are aesthetically very integrated—but that’s the beauty of it. Like a theatre, you never really know what’s there, but it sounds amazing.”

“One of the bigger gear decisions in the room was to go with the perforated screen. Having that allowed me to have a much bigger screen, and secondly, allowed me to put the center speaker where it belongs—which is dead center behind the actor’s mouth. Without the perforated screen, I would have had to go with a smaller screen and put the center speaker in some weird place at top of the screen pointing down or down below pointing up. The center positioning is everything. Where you place the center holds the whole room together, and the Blue Sky’s bring it all together.”

Career reinvention can be a tricky business move, but for Tom Salta, the transformation from programmer/producer to award-winning composer for film, television, advertising and video games has been rewarding, lucrative and extensive… to say the least.

Combining his expertise in programming and mixing hit records with a diverse array of popular artists—Peter Gabriel, Junior Vasquez, Everything But The Girl, Mary J. Blige and Sinead O’Connor—Salta has lent his high-energy mix of electronica, orchestral, breakbeat and rock grooves to television shows, commercials, film promos and before delving deep into the world of video game music scoring. Working under the name “Atlas Plug” (Atlas is Salta spelled backwards), he began building a solid resume of acclaimed video game projects including the musical score for Red Steel, Ubisoft’s exclusive first-person action title for the Nintendo Wii, which won IGN’s Award for “Best Original Score”, and his live orchestral score for the top selling Xbox 360 video game, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW), nominated for “Best Original Video Game Score” at the MTV Video Music Awards.

“I had this realization about a decade ago,” he recalls. “I had amassed 15 years of experience as an artist in a whole other industry. Playing around on my Xbox one day, I had this epiphany that video game music was the future, and that’s where I needed to be. I had been an avid gamer since I was a kid—we’re talking pre-Atari 2600, but I never saw those two things converging. I wanted to use my assets as a programmer and producer, so I began by creating an album of electronica—2 Days Or Die (Persist Records)—which would be perfect for licensing to commercials, TV films, and film trailers. I wanted to create something cutting-edge that had a long life and could be my gateway into the game industry. And the plan seemed to work out because before the album was finished, I got a call from my publisher that Microsoft wanted to license several of the songs for a game called RalliSport Challenge 2. Few of the songs were actually completed; they were just pieces of ideas. But that gave me great motivation to finish, and from there, I saw the potential of what I could do. That was my transitioning into the industry, and enabled me to slowly start getting more and more composing and original scoring gigs because I had credits behind me. It took several years to break in and slowly but surely, it escalated from there, and has been non-stop ever since.”

Creating game scores has an inherent challenge in that the lead-times are often very short. In some instances, Salta’s been given merely six weeks to deliver, complete with live orchestral score recorded and mixed. On average, it’s about 2-3 months of creation time if there are no delays in the game development itself. Such was the case in his most recent work for two blockbuster franchises, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands (for Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS), and also reprised his role on Red Steel 2 (he scored Red Steel 1 in 2006), releasing in May. “The end of last year was pretty crazy,” he laughs. “Several of the projects that were supposed to be spread out through the year, coincided at the same time. And they were both very different. They’re both unique projects that allowed me to research music that I’d never had the opportunity to listen to extensively. It’s like an actor preparing for a role. But more importantly, I focus on making sure that my vision is in sync with the game creators; it’s not about me but the music supporting the games and the emotion we’re trying to create for the characters and for the players.”

On Red Steel 2, Salta was called up to create a ‘Wild-West meets-Far East’ fusion of music. “It’s a very fun and aggressive sword-fighting/gun-slinging action game and the music had to support that style of gameplay. I loved creating high-octane, guitar-driven, Western-inspired riffs combined with Asian percussion—a fusion that I’ve never composed before.”

The score for Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands was a completely different style all together. “I took it in a direction that was very atmospheric and otherworldly, combining intricately woven details and live instruments to create an exotic, colorful and engaging score. That was a dream come true for me. Before I’d even gotten into the industry, I used to play Prince of Persia games over the years, way back when it was in 2D. I had all these ideas in my head for that game, years before I knew I’d be given the opportunity to score it.  Scoring the music for the Prince of Persia series is definitely a dream come true.”

At the heart of Salta’s computer-based home studio is a Blue Sky Sky System One system comprised of Sat 6.5 monitors, a Sub 12 and BMC. An unpleasant monitor purchase in 2002 led him to the Blue Sky’s and he’s been a fan ever since.

“I purchased a pair of speakers for a project I was working on back in 2002,” he recalls. “I was not happy with them at all. It was so confusing because I had to buy separate components for turning speakers on and off, a separate crossover for the bass…it was a nightmare. On top of that, they weren’t the kind of speaker I was used to listening to. Sure I could tell what kind of direction they were coming from but I didn’t know how to mix on them. So I sent them back. In the meantime, I was doing a lot of research and I read something about the Blue Sky’s and that Skywalker Sound had installed them, so I got a pair. Right from the start they were really great to mix on. They did everything I needed, were easy to calibrate, and had the built-in bass management controller and volume knob in one box. I immediately was comfortable listening to them. They were accurate and neither over-hyped nor under-hyped, and I knew what I was listening to. And, they translated very well no matter where I went, including a mastering studio. Since then, I don’t feel the need to switch speakers to compare things; I just know what’s going on. I’m so dialed into these things. I could take a mix I did on the Blue Sky’s, play it on a laptop, and it sounds perfect. I’ve gotten such high compliments from people who have said, ‘I love your mixes. The bass is tight and everything is very well-balanced.’ That comes with time, but it’s also from having the right speakers.”

Up until about a dozen years ago, the idea and implementation of production sound recording was virtually non-existent in India. As a film school graduate from India’s Film School Institute in 1985—and with inspiration from Spielberg to Lucas—Resul Pookutty aspired to change all that. Riding the wave of the massive success from his work on 2008’s international indie blockbuster, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (and subsequent sound design awards including an Oscar, BAFTA, MPSE, CAS, and others), the mixer/sound designer and colleague Akhilesh Acharya launched Canaries Post Sound outside of Mumbai in late ’08. The studio’s main sound design room is built around a Blue Sky 5.1 Sky System One.

“If you look at the history of mainstream Hindi filmmaking in the last, say, 10 years, it was in the mid-90s was when Hindi films were being compared with Hollywood and European cinema. We had to change how the films have been portrayed (it’s not all about song and dancing) and how the production planning has been done, and the process has benefited. We as new production technicians get to put our stamp on our work, and to also say that this is how it has been traditionally done, but it is not how it should be done. Especially with the Oscar that I received with my work in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, there is a new energy, a new enthusiasm, and a new awareness about sound. So with that, I’d say we are going through a golden period of the changing face of Indian cinema.”

With the launch of Canaries Sound Post, Pookutty is determined to change the way production sound is traditionally handled in India. With the spotlight on Indian cinema globally, thanks in large part to ‘Slumdog’, the timing couldn’t be better.

“To understand how sound functions in Indian cinema, you must understand that production sound recording was virtually non-existent until 13 years ago. In India, in its true essence of how sound has been handled, there are no sound editors or no supervising dialog editors like we have in Los Angeles or any other part of moviemaking industry. Here, we end up doing everything as one person in postproduction—so I myself handle everything from recording production sound, dialog editing, sound design, supervising of the mixing procedures, and most of the time I do the Foley recording, sound music mixes and extras. Also, there are no specialized film post-production facilities specializing in India where can handle the sound and production process. What usually happens is that I work on my production recordings here and then fly off to London, Australia, or LA for executing better mixes. That’s been my modus operandi up until now. Early in my career, I realized that good soundtrack of a movie was the result of how you handle the raw material that was recorded. That’s why we thought about having specialized post studios where we can handle the sound and production process. That’s how Canaries has come into existence.”

Seeing, and hearing, a Blue Sky ‘Sky System’ in action at Skywalker Sound, he was convinced to install a Blue Sky 5.1 Sky System One into the main sound design room at Canaries, with an Audient ASP 510 surround encoder in conjunction with a Digidesign HD Pro Tools system. Two smaller 2-track cutting rooms are outfit with Blue Sky ProDesk systems.

“A close associate in Italy talked to me about Blue Sky,” Resul recalled, “and that’s how the name came to me. I was working at Skywalker on a sound effects session and was immediately impressed with its response and power and the way sound is being reproduced. I have used Dynaudio, Genelec, and HHB monitors, and no one is good over the other; certain qualities that one has, the other doesn’t. In a film and sound design environment, working with all the music, sound effects, dialog, and background ambiences needed a certain quality in a reproduction system. The Blue Sky systems gave me a very wholesome listening environment and are very spot-on. The fact that it gives me true monitoring in a small room impresses me a lot. I’m hearing everything that I’d be hearing in big room; I’m listening to all streams of sound, which are going to be mixed to the film format in its true sense. And I really love the bass management system. It’s a very cool concept and absolutely essential in a small room. I can hear the true color of my sound, which was misguided and misleading in other monitor systems. In other words, Blue Sky made something that was very intangible, tangible.”

Moving forward, Pookutty is putting finishing touches on 3 major Indian movies including ‘Pazhassi Raja’, a biopic historical film and one of the most expensive Hindi movies ever produced, and ‘Blue’, an underwater treasure hunt movie which re-teams Pookutty with his ‘Slumdog’ composer, AR Rahman. Pookutty went on location to the Bahamas to gather underwater sounds (the first time in Hindi cinema) and is gearing up its major launch this fall.

All of this momentum is not lost on Pookutty. Not only did the success of ‘Slumdog’ open new production opportunities for him and other like-minded production folk, but also shed new spotlight on sound in film.

“In the 80 years of Oscar history, no one from India has won a technical award in the film industry,” he states. “And apart from that, the Oscar has created a lot more awareness about sound. One thing that touched me very deeply was at the Motion Picture Sound Editor Awards this February. Ben Bertt was receiving the Career Achievement Award and both George Lucas and Spielberg were there. I realized that this is something we are lacking in India: mentorship. There was nobody to guide me when I was starting out. I don’t want my own generation or the one after me to go directionless, so I am building myself up to cater to a new breed of enthusiastic film technicians and film people. I’m hoping that the Canaries Post of tomorrow will be the Skywalker of India.”

For more on Canaries Post, go to:  www.canariespostsound.com

By Diane Gershuny

A new audio post powerhouse, Sonic Union, soared onto the scene last fall in New York City’s famed Union Square. An alliance of industry veterans, Michael Marinelli (formerly of Buzz/NY) and Steve Rosen(formerly of HSR/NY), Sonic Union’s clientele includes the top advertising agencies such as BBDO, McCann Erickson, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, Fallon, DDB, J.W.T, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Y&R, and many more.

Situated in the historic 19 Union Square West building, Sonic Union is a uniquely built 8,000 square foot recording, mixing and finishing environment, comprised of four inventive, 5.1 surround mixing suites and a multi-functional, 5.1 mixing and picture finishing room—all outfitted with Blue Sky monitoring systems. It is also one of the first from-the-ground-up/new construction post facilities to emerge in NYC in over a decade.

“Being in midtown Manhattan during the boom years, when it was the center of advertising and editorial in New York, was incredibly beneficial in establishing our careers,” explained Rosen. “Over the last ten years though, the center of ‘our world’ has moved a bit further downtown, and we sought to relocate and build from scratch, a facility that exceeded on every level, the standards that we’d set in our previous incarnations, and to do that in a location that more closely mirrored our main clients.”

The eight-month, massive construction undertaking was conceived and spearheaded by studio designer and acoustician, Richard Alderson (who had previously designed Marinelli’s Buzz studio in 1994), working in concert with noted designer Raya Ani, and architectural firm Sawicki Tarella. The project was overseen by SU Managing Director and partner Adam Barone.

“Raya Ani and Richard worked hand in hand, each delivering a unique perspective in achieving our goals,” said Barone. “Raya helped us design an extremely organic feeling environment with a preponderance of curved walls and natural, sustainable materials, and low-impact LED lighting, while Richard created the shapes and design of the interiors of the mix rooms, with an eye towards extremely clean, uncolored sound. Together, they’ve given us a space that by our estimation is one of the most unique post facilities in the country.”

“I have decades of experience designing audio post rooms and therefore fully understand what these clients expect in terms of sound, feel, and look,” Alderson said. “Having a imaginative designer like Raya was a real plus for me. She was very sympathetic and accommodated a lot of the concepts that I wanted sonically in the rooms and in the physical way that they were laid out and so forth. Working as partners allowed us to accomplish this complex and challenging design within the constraints of a realistic budget.”

The whole concept of the space is unique. “It’s not like any I’m aware of,” Alderson mused. “It’s bright and colorful; full of windows and light. The production rooms each have a large flat screen on the front wall (with a 110 inch projection screen in one), with all main speakers located behind a scrim so there are no visual distractions. As the video aspect is of prime importance in this kind of studio, I wanted the whole focus directed towards the screen. The surround speakers are out of the line of sight, and all the technical furniture and equipment was kept to a minimum footprint. Also, there are no conventional large consoles in the room. The mixer’s desks consist of the latest Digidesign Pro Tools 192 workstations, Euphonics’ controllers, and Grace interfaces. We were all in agreement that we didn’t want any imposing gear layouts to detract from the relaxed, open, and comfortable working environment.”

“Our client’s needs informed our every decision,” Barone added, “and they were the driving force in prescribing exactly what we needed to build to accommodate them. Our core business being advertising and broadcast sound dictated that every room needed to be 5.1 capable, and to have two of those rooms able to accommodate advertising for theatrical release as well. We also had the benefit of a clean slate with our 8000 empty square feet, and the ability to design really comfortable, fantastic sounding working rooms. Starting from scratch, while costly, has had its benefits, as we were able to specify each room to be ultra compatible with the others. In addition to sharing similar Blue Sky monitoring systems, the rooms are outfitted identically hardware wise allowing for quick room changes with little loss of time.”

A range of Blue Sky 5.1 monitoring components was integral to each of the room’s design plan. The larger rooms (approx 35×25’) included (3)SAT 12s, a SUB 15 Universal, and a Bass Management Controller (BMC MK II), plus (6) I/ON passive studio monitors. The smaller (15×30’) rooms also featured a half-dozen I/ON’s, in addition to the newSat 8/Sub 212 monitors with a BMC MK II. The finishing room and the client lounge were each outfitted with MediaDesk 5.1 systems.

“After having worked with nearly every existing loudspeaker system, I chose Blue Sky for this critical audio component,” Alderson explained. “I knew precisely what they were capable of and designed and built SUs rooms to enhance their functionality. I’m pretty adamant about doing that. I can’t imagine building a proper room and then installing just any speakers in it. The room’s design and acoustic character must function interactively with the main audio monitors.”

Even the I/ON speaker placement was innovative in and of itself. Rather than conventionally mounting them on-wall or in-wall as they were originally intended, the six surround speakers were hung above the line-of-sight throughout each room. “We hung the surround speakers because it was the only way we could integrate them into the physical shape of the room,” Alderson clarified. “Because they couldn’t be in side walls in our design we placed them 7.5 feet from the floor and angled them down toward the mixer and clients for the focus I was looking for. In that sense, they emulate a movie theatre where you have speakers on the sidewalls directed down at the audience.”

Rosen says they couldn’t be happier with the decision to go with the Blue Sky systems. “We first looked to Blue Sky simply through researching other’s experiences with them,” adds Rosen. “References gleaned from various user groups, and industry peers led us to our first demo, in which we were simply blown away. The phrase, ‘If it’s good enough for Skywalker Sound/Lucasfilm, it’s good enough for us,’ was spoken on more than one occasion.”

“Having had some time to actually work with our Blue Sky surround systems, we can honestly say, they’re the best day-to-day studio monitors we’ve ever had the fortune to work with” says Marinelli. “The translation of our mixes to broadcast and cinema has been nothing short of remarkable, especially in a brand new facility. In the past it’s taken some time to acclimate to a new set of studio monitors, learning their characteristics and compensating for them for final broadcast. The Blue Sky’s have eliminated that for us, and provided us with a seamless transition into a new workflow with zero learning curve.”

With the growth of the downtown post-production community, the new facility places Sonic Union at the epicenter of many of the city’s elite editing and post houses.

“Our goal with Sonic Union was to create a centrally located space where clients immediately felt at ease,” said Barone, “an inviting and comfortable environment designed specifically for them. Gutting an entire floor of a pre-war corner building overlooking the Square, we bucked conventional layouts, designing a modern workspace that’s both talent and client friendly. We’re very happy with both the feel and function of the workspace, and feel the new, independent Sonic Union legitimately offers the best creative one-two punch anywhere in the industry.”

And the feedback has been overwhelming in terms of how comfortable the rooms, and how good they sound. “Our clients’ feedback thus far has been overwhelmingly positive,” Rosen concluded, “and that’s ultimately the true test of our success.”

ABOUT SONIC UNION
Some unions are meant to be. This was clearly the case when NYC uber-mixers Michael Marinelli and Steve Rosen formed Sonic Union in November 2008. Joining fellow co-founder Adam Barone in a newly built out, startlingly mod space like no other, the team offers top agency and editorial players an unsurpassed recording, mixing and finishing resource in Manhattan’s Union Square. Marinelli and Rosen have long been breaking sound barriers in the industry for leading brands and agencies. Both known for their unique style, creative expertise and industry experience, they bring the highest level of technical expertise to every job. Thoughtfully conceived and exactingly executed, Sonic Union is poised to become a top destination for world-class audio post.

For more information, go to: www.sonicunion.com

By Diane Gershuny