Pay Attention To the Man (or Woman) Behind the Curtain

Good morning, true believers.

Been busy, which is good. I recently mixed my first fishing show, which was far more enjoyable for me than actual fishing. In addition, our expert guides provided an amazing lunch of teriyaki salmon steaks with rice pilaf and a dessert (!) not too far removed from tiramisu, right there on the bank of Deschutes River.

So yeah, we roughed it...

Back to the ongoing world of sound: a little while back, Editors Guild Magazine ran a piece about dub-stage engineers, the un-sung MacGyvers of film sound post. Snip:

The dub stage engineer, which is the most prevalent engineering post at the major studios, handles all of the console set up on the stage before each final mix. They confer with the mixers, sound editors, recordists and others in the sound department to determine exactly what materials will be brought to the stage, how many consoles will be required, how many tracks will be brought in, and what sample rate and frame rates will be used.

They then set the board up to enable the re-recording mixers to input those tracks and work––hopefully glitch-free––to mix them out to their ultimate deliverables...

Engineers are needed not only on the dub stages, but in sound editorial and on the ADR, Foley and scoring stages as well. It’s all about client service, especially at the major studios. Put simply, a good engineer must be able to repair anything, day or night, and have the necessary intuition to know where the problem is likely to be located.

Link.

Thanks FilmSoundDaily!.