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Rissin explains that how it generally works
is that he does all his mixing, and then once the
mixing is done, the producer, director, and any-
one else involved will come in to review – some-
times resulting in a fairly crowded control room.
“We’ll watch it through from front to back
and everybody will make their notes and com-
ments and then we’ll do touch ups. For the most
part, reviews go smoothly. My joke is to give
them tiny Post-its to take notes. For a one-hour
documentary, which is usually 46 minutes or
48 minutes in length, we’ll all watch it straight
through and we’ll address everybody’s needs.
Then once that’s done, they leave and I begin
working on all the outputs and different ver-
sions.
“You have to be meticulous when conform-
ing for the different versions,” Rissin emphasizes.
“You want to be sure you don’t have any oddities
with automation when you’re cutting across 200
tracks.”
Frank Digital does a fair bit of ADR as well.
Most movies that are shot in Winnipeg are being
posted somewhere else, so local actors are often
called in for ADR. Sometimes, if the film is shot
somewhere else and the actor happens to be in
Winnipeg, the producers will hire Frank Digital
to do the ADR. “We have Source Connect, so
we’ll often connect with a studio and director in
another city for ADR,” Rissin adds.
“A composer usually provides the music.
It might be as simple as a few stereo tracks or
it might be broken out into checkerboarded
stereo stems. Sometimes I’m doing the sound
effects edit and sometimes I’m doing the dia-
logue edit. For the most part, though, it’s usually
about bringing all those sound elements togeth-
er that are coming from different sources. That
all happens in the mix. I’m importing a series
of different Pro Tools sessions. Here’s the music
session. Here’s the dialogue session. Here’s the
sound effects session. I bring those all into one
big session and then mix it from there.”
McIvor says that, lately, Frank has kept its fo-
cus primarily on video production and post,
taking on fewer music recording projects.
“Over the last 10 years, GarageBand and
software like Pro Tools going to subscription
models have really changed the nature of
the industry,” he offers. “When we built our
5.1 room, we had to build it to Dolby spec
and have it inspected several times to get
certification as a print master facility. It took
two contractors a year just to build the rooms
themselves. But now we compete against
people who work in their homes and small
offices and they all say, ‘Yeah, we can mix 5.1.’
“We lose some clients, but they come
back eventually because they know that they
get quality and professional service. We’re
proud of the quality that comes out of our
facility and it’s something these little set-ups
can’t always produce. We can mix a show
or a movie in our facility and know without
a doubt that it will sound exactly the same
when we output the DCP file for the theatri-
cal distribution.”
Rissin takes over: “I think a lot of music
shouldn’t be recorded. Everyone’s using sam-
ples and loops and presets. Anyone with a lap-
top thinks they’re a recording engineer. They
use presets and they don’t even understand
what they’re doing. But in the same respect,
some of those people can get something
creative and original. I think we’re inundated
with quantity over quality. It really is a dou-
ble-edged sword.”
According to Rissin, the percentage of his
time he spends recording just music is almost
negligible. Early in his career, he dedicated
almost 99 per cent of his time to recording
and mixing music; now, he believes it’s closer
to one per cent. For the studio, it really has
become a question of economics.
“The price for recording music in studios
has changed a lot. When I think of when I
started in 1979, prices in Winnipeg were any-
where from $70 to $100 an hour or more. And
now I know you can get most music studios in
town for $50 an hour. The only time that our
studio is used for recording music is if some-
body needs a grand piano because we actual-
ly have one and a lot of local studios don’t.”
The other control room at Frank Digital
can be used as an iso booth for drums. The
hallway next to the control room has double
doors and is wired for a 16-channel head-
phone system and mic lines, ideal for music
recording. That being said, Rissin believes that
he’s witnessing the end of an era.
When asked what the future holds for Frank
Digital, McIvor replies, “I think [it will be] more
of the same. We’re purposely concentrating
on long-form TV projects. That’s where we
really want to keep pushing, both in our own
production as well as the service production
end of the business. My only real goal or hope
is that we can actually produce even more of
our own content.”
It is remarkable that so much
professional video and sound is produced,
recorded, and mixed in such a compact
facility in an unlikely market. Frank Digital,
the little studio that could, continues to adapt
its services to the market and maintain an
impressive level of success. Producing more
Canadian content would only add to an
already impressive body of work.
Ron Lamoureux is a musician, producer,
freelance photographer and writer, and
president of WhirlWind Media Group, a
digital media company that creates and
maintains 3D interactive, immersive online
and media applications.
www.whirlwindmediagroup.com.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND • 33