Lots of things to discuss. Musical and technical.

EXPERT ADVISE

I made a big mistake recently that ended up in a pretty classic, funny situation. I just finished work on a documentary series for one of the most prestigious doc producers around. They were an unusually demanding bunch, with a lot of changes on virtually every cue. Which isn’t the funny part, but to be expected at times. These guys just assume that no cue is going to be right the first time. Oh, well. I got through it, of course, and picked up the pace over the course of the project (what choice is there!) But on the final episode, there were a couple of cues that simply would not pass with them. They tend to work by consensus. If anyone didn’t like a cue, there would be notes. It’s got tough, and a few times I had to remind them that I only worked for the producers, and would not take notes from everyone in the f**king building.
One strong headed editor on the show decided to turn things up with me. I don’t know why. She kept calling me from the dub stage with changes, and the producers were out of town and unreachable. I decided (and here comes the mistake) to just do whatever would make her happy, and thus hopefully go away. After a few times around on one cue I finally invited her to come to my studio after the mix and sit with me and knock out the changes. I don’t mind doing this with a director or producer, but this was the editor, who also happened to be running the dub stage at the time.
One fix was a section of a cue she felt wasn’t ‘dark’ enough. I decided to add a low line to beef up the bottom of the cue, and pull out some of the rhythm. I hit record, layed in a part that seemed to hit the feel on the head. She thought for a moment, and with an authoritative flair said ‘Well, I really like what you added, but you seem to use this sort of ‘static’ sound in your music, like a record scratch, and it simply doesn’t work in film music’. She spoke with the authority of a seasoned director, but it didn’t make any sense to me. I had to think about it, because I didn’t know what she was referring to by ‘static sound’. And then it hit me.
“Uh, that was my metronome. I use it to record. It’s not in the music.”

She sat for a second. “Oh, well then it’s OK!”

Shoot me. Please.

Project finished.

STEMS

So I have now weaned myself completely from the use of external mixers. My sequencer is handling everything, and doing very well. I added another Digidesign DSP card, have the TC Electronics PowerCore card, and a dual gigahertz Mac. This has allowed me to not only use a great deal of virtual synths in my sequences, but I have a full mixing environment which also have inputs for all my external synths and samplers. It also can do film stems directly inside the computer, which is a huge time saver. I mix in several “stems”, which are stereo or surround tracks with elements of the score. Right now I’m scoring a project in four stems: Bass, Orchestra/Synth, percussion, and solo. Every synth or plug-in is routed to its destination stem, and from there they go out to my monitors. One of the more demanding aspects of working in stems is the need for separate reverbs, delays, or any other effects for each stem. You can have a synth part share the same reverb as a solo part. But in the plug in world, as long as you don’t run out of DSP power, you can have as many as you like. I set up “effects racks” for each stem and carefully choose the right one for each part I sequence.
MONITORING
Speaking of monitoring, I have come up with a different way to do that which I really like. My studio can run stereo or surround, and I have a powered 5.1 speaker system (the new M-Audio BX8 is pretty amazing) in addition to my stereo Questeds. I have set up my old 02R 8-bus mixer strictly as a monitor control. It works like this:
Outputs 1-6 of my sequencer’s audio interface go in (digitally) to the monitor mixer. Each input is sent to a bus, 1 to 6, which go directly to the powered monitors. In additional, I have the outputs of my digital video, CD player, DVD player, VHS deck, and a few other goodies all coming up and bussed the same way, or just to the left and right speakers. The stereo bus of the mixer isn’t used at all. This gives me a simple, discrete surround monitoring system of very high quality.



While I could control the outputs of my sequencer from the main level of the sequencer’s internal mixer, there are advantages to leaving it alone and lowering room volume externally at times, especially when it is time to bounce or print a piece of music.
So I have a great setup for hearing everything in my studio, and have a better surround monitoring system. I have a powerful full-scale mixer inside my sequencer now, capable of printing individual tracks to mix in a different studio, mix film stems in my own studio, or do stereo mixes as well through different speakers. I think this is a much better way to use a mixer than actually mixing.
I’m using this setup now in my studio as I work on multiple projects. Since the mixer is no longer project specific, it is even easier to switch gears as needed. I think I’m just lazy - I just don’t like switching things around. When I need to call up a cue on a different project, I open the sequence and open the corresponding performances on my GigaStudios. Voila, a whole new world. Now if I could get my sequencer to switch my Gigas....