“ Pro Tools HDX is powerful enough for me to do everything I need to do . At the moment , in [ the show I ’ m working on ], I probably have 200 faders , including 16 different mixes or stems I have to print . I have lots of plug-in and volume automation and I can play the session and print all my mixes at the same time without any problems .”
In between the mix theatre and secondary control room sits the recording studio . If Rissin is busy mixing in the main control room , another engineer can be recording a voiceover or ADR from the second control room – which is also wired to act as an overflow or iso booth for music recording sessions , complete with a 16-channel headphone mix .
“ A lot of people have this melancholy feeling about tape ,” Rissin offers , now talking music . “ There are some things I find attractive about tape that really I love , but to be honest , I ’ ve embraced the digital format . Just the lack of noise and the not having to worry about setting up and aligning a tape machine or not having to worry about why one track sounds noisy or a capacitor blew on one of the other tracks . Digital solves those problems .”
Although Rissin has access to many of the latest plug-ins , he believes there ’ s an inherent danger in having too many options .
“ I could look under my compressor list and I could have 50 different compressors to choose from ,” he says . “ In the end , I ’ ve returned to using the same two or three compressors and EQs . When I think of what I used to do with music , especially when I worked on a Neve or a Trident , I had one EQ per channel and that ’ s what you used for all the tracks .
“ I remember working in one Vancouver studio where I had a pair of Pultec outboard equalizers . I ’ d overdub a lot of stuff through those , adding air on top or adding some bottom . Now I have software emulations of some of that classic hardware . It gives me the ability to put it on whatever tracks I want in the mix . Modern plug-ins emulate those things really well .”
Throughout his colourful career , Rissin has received a number of awards and nominations for his musical recordings . He has also been nominated for several Canadian Screen Awards , including one that he ended up taking home . When asked how mixing for film and television differs from music recording , Rissin says it ’ s a lot more technical .
“ There are a lot more deliverable demands . For each version of the show I ’ m
working on at the moment , I have 19 different deliverables : the mix in 5.1 , the mix in stereo , mix minus narration in 5.1 , mix minus narration in stereo . Every possible stem breakout you could imagine , dipped and undipped for narration . There are all these different variations including three different broadcast versions and they all need different outputs . It gives you an idea of the amount of time I actually spend mixing as opposed to prepping for or creating all these different versions for a documentary or a series .
“ I would guess that probably half the time is devoted to mixing and half of it is re-versioning and handling extra outputs . For a documentary , I ’ ll build my mixer or work off of a template I ’ ve built . I ’ ll look at the deliverables to see where I have to end up . Then I ’ ll figure out the bussing I need to be able to do the outputs in as few passes as possible . I often end up with 150 to 200 faders .”
As for McIvor , he got his start in 1990 at Midcan Production Services . He was 17 years old , graduated high school , and advanced to being a full time employee . He quickly worked his way up from duplication to editor in linear tape suites . When the first Avid system in Manitoba made its appearance at Midcan , he made the jump to the digital world . After six years at Midcan , he left the company to gain editing experience at a documentary and commercial production house , spending the next 10 years editing docs and commercials .
He returned to Midcan as director of operations in 2006 , where he managed the post and scheduling duties . In 2014 , he had the opportunity to purchase the post-production part of Midcan from Wayne Sheldon , the original founder . McIvor also ended up purchasing the commercial division of Frantic Films , which was Midcan ’ s largest competitor at the time . And that ’ s how Frank Digital was born ; it was literally the merging of Frantic Films ’ commercial division and Midcan ’ s post services . This opened up another stream of projects for Frank : creating their own commercial and television projects .
Lately , the producers of television series and documentaries require that their programs all be mixed in 5.1 , so Frank Digital is a good fit for them .
“ Although we do produce television series and documentaries , our core business is commercials ,” states McIvor . “ And we create socially conscious and socially responsible advertising . For example , we ’ ll advertise for teachers ’ unions or nurses ’ unions across the country , anti drinking and driving spots , safe-work commercials – projects that really have meaning .
“ It ’ s also really busy right now because on top of our own normal work with commercials , we ’ re working on post with a few television series . At the moment , we ’ re working with Frantic Films on a project where they ’ re producing 208 half-hour episodes . We are supplying all of the offline suites and then we ’ re doing all the colour correction , sound editing , sound mixing – everything right up to the broadcaster .”
The studio will get an AAF of the picture editor ’ s audio , and either Rissin or another engineer will edit and mix the audio or some elements will be sent to other editors and then returned to the studio for the final mix .
An example of that workflow , Rissin offers , is on the TV series Polar Bear Town , which they ’ re working on right now .
“ I ’ m doing dialogue editing and mixing and John , the other editor , is doing sound effects . I ’ ll have a basic template that I want him to use because it ’ s a series and he worked on it last year as well . He knows how I want things delivered and he ’ ll edit accordingly so that it ’ s as easy as possible when I ’ m importing other people ’ s sessions into my session . I can load it in and I ’ m ready to start mixing .”
“[ PEOPLE ] ARE HONESTLY QUITE AMAZED THAT ALL OF THIS EXISTS IN A SMALL CENTRE .”
32 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND