StudioPro99
Looks at the
Hybridization of Audio Workspaces
By Karen Kalish
"I've been trying to integrate consoles and workstations for the past 12 years. The power of computers, what you can get them to do in a workstation environment and how they can talk to consoles, is very intriguing to me."
Bruce Nazarian, M.P.S.E., founder/ owner of The Magnolia Studios, shared these thoughts on the transformation of audio workspaces at StudioPro99, Mix magazine's second annual technical and business conference of the audio production community. The event was held June 14-15 at the Universal Hilton hotel and included 10 separate seminars moderated by Mix magazine's editors and writers, who are also hands-on audio veterans. The panelists, each savvy in their respective areas, spoke to a wide audience from the music, film and television industries, including studio owners, mixing engineers, sound editors, manufacturers and record executives.
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John Ross, Brant Biles,Bruce Nazarian, Bill Johnston, Larry Blake, Jeff Rona and Charles Dye |
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The seminar titled "The Hybrid Workspaces: Integrating Mixing Consoles and Workstations" was moderated by Guild member Larry Blake, a supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer who writes a monthly column for Mix. Panelists included Nazarian; Brant Biles, co-proprietor of Mi Casa Studios; Charles Dye, mixing engineer; Bill Johnston, director of engineering at Soundelux; Jeff Rona, composer; and John Ross, owner of Digital Sound & Picture.
The Webster dictionary defines hybrid as "one of mixed origin or composition." Blake used the term to describe the combining of traditional and new technology. He then outlined four approaches to sound post production using traditional and new technologies:
- Standard - Using consoles and
workstations in their originally intended traditional
forms, with EQ and other processing done on the console
and outboard gear.
- Standard/Hybrid - Using a console
while doing some sound processing within the
workstations.
- Hybrid/Hybrid - Having a console
not only act in a standard fashion, but also have it talk
to a workstation and do much of the same work as a
control surface.
- Total Commitment - Performing all processing within a workstation control surface paradigm.
"At Soundelux," Bill Johnston explained, "we've sidestepped the integrated environment. In some of the studios we have a standard automated mixing console as a final end for our feature film recording. It's actually in the editing suites that we're getting into hybrid situations."
According to Blake, the advantage of current digital workstation control surfaces is that "there's a one-stop feature: almost total automation of recording, editing, processing and mixing. It's economical, it's compact, and there's a software upgradeability option. There's also 'networkability,' the idea that everything can be hooked up together. In the old paradigm there was no way any piece of gear, in any of the rooms, could talk to another. Now, not only can an edit room talk to an edit room in terms of versions of a movie, you can also have the edit room talk to a mix room, or have the edit room editing while it's mixing, or any combination you can think of."
Nazarian noted, "In a time-sensitive environment, the strength of the digital concept maximizes flexibility. It keeps all options available in the workstation. For me, a fully integrated mixing system puts together the best of the worlds that I have come to know."
When it comes to advantages of the traditional console, Johnston stated, "Traditionally, consoles had knobs for each function. We're used to faders. Another reason some of us like the conventional consoles is because you mix with your eyes as much as you mix with your ears. By being able to glance at a console and see all the way across it, you can take in an incredible amount of information that's right in front of you. The ability to visually scan in that kind of information is what speeds up mixing. On a lot of these [new] control surfaces, when you have multiple layers, you have to scroll through multiple pages and then go to the screen to click at something so you can get to it."
"The time difference between wanting to do something and actually doing it in the traditional way is faster. I can make a change immediately," added Blake. "But in the future, you might have control surfaces which will have a dedicated equalizer section, a dedicated dynamic section, a dedicated time delay, and so on."
That being the case, the panelists acknowledged that while audio workstations are pushing new boundaries and the industry is enjoying all the advantages they have to offer, traditional consoles will continue to be used into the near future.
Karen Kalish works at Santa Monica-based NT Audio Video Film Labs.
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 20, No. 4 - July/August1999
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