AudioMedia - November 2008 - (Page 51)

> On the latest movie, Arnold wanted a tighter, more intimate sound a lot of the time, which obviously impacted on Foster’s recording methodology. “There wasn’t time to rejig the room between sessions or cues to change things around,” says Foster. “So I had a lot of extra UM75s and TLM50s up in the gallery for more ambient wet sounds – I had a lot more mics up and recording than I would normally use in a mix.” David Arnold’s long time collaborator, Conductor Nicholas Dodd, also has his part to play in the recording process. “The orchestra gets routined by Nick as an ensemble and we stem o the percussion, brass, and strings for the action cues,” says Foster. “This helps the parts make more sense for them musically. I often also run a stereo mix as we record, as we usually come up against the maximum number of channels Pro Tools can play – so we can use this as our monitoring as it taxes the system a bit less.” He usually runs two Pro Tools Rigs in a recording session, one playing back Arnold’s recordings and the picture, while the other is used to record the orchestra. “We build a session with all of his stems,” says Foster, “so we can also easily lose TELEFUNKEN AUDIO MEDIA AD 27/9/08 that o – putting keyboard or any ‘dingy ding’ sound that players might object to! We try and make it as exible as we can so as to get the right mix into the player’s cans.” Foster says that he sometimes uses just a stereo reference mix, but interestingly, has found that a balance that works with synthetic strings often doesn’t with a real orchestra. Once the recordings are safely on the hard drives, mixing is performed on Fosters beloved console. “I love the Neve!” he says. “It’s much ‘grittier’ than any digital desks, and nothing else I’ve heard can emulate it.” Foster splits the desk into two 72-channel sections and straps a couple of Neve 8051 5.1 analogue compressors across the outputs – both keyed by a side chain from the full mix – and prints the mixes with compression. “We obviously send out stems for the post production team in case something has changed 17:29 Page we with the dub, but 1 always try and get the latest sound e ects and dialogue les and set these up at cinema level. This makes it easier to mix my stu around so that it ts,” says Foster. These days, it’s common to be changing things right up to the last minute, but Foster feels that getting things right at this stage can have a positive e ect on the nal result. “These guys have a million and one things to think of at the dub stage,” says Foster. “If the music ts, they’ll leave it. But if it doesn’t they’ll turn it down or, in the worse case, they’ll just lose it altogether, so it’s important to get my mixes sitting nicely.” “The basic rule with the Bond movies is that of ‘don’t screw up’!” laughs Foster. “I think this applies if you’re doing a 30 second jingle for someone’s rst project or the latest Bond. My view is that I want to make it the best I can, and it wont leave me until I’m completely happy with it.” ∫ AUDIO MEDIA NOVEMBER 2008 51 http://www.unityaudio.co.uk http://www.unityaudio.co.uk

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - November 2008

AudioMedia - November 2008 Contents Recording News Post News Broadcast News Geofocus: Italy What's Up UK AES Review For the Record Studio Snapshot: Aquarium Abbey Road Plug-ins Brilliance Pack Neumann TLM67 Mercenary Audio KM-69 IZ Technology ADA Final Cut Special: Bond TC Powercore 6000 EP Productions Nagra VI Product Sampler: Location Tools Video Guide AMSR News Shure KSM9 Big Beach Boutique 4

AudioMedia - November 2008

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