There has hardly been a mix that was perfect from the get go. So, this time in the progress of the mix, I want to tell you about some of the silly and difficult moments that we faced while beginning.

Test your Technique

I had written about the 9.1 panner in this blog post. One thing that I forgot to test and was actually figured by Justin was the fact that the objects and beds are Equalized from different sections. This is crucial and is very easily overlooked.

If you closely see the above figure, you will notice that the L, C, R and LFE are actually output from the CP 650 (or 750 as the case may be). While the objects are provided directly from the Vantage box. This means that the Left Center and Right Center are actually objects and so will have a different EQ compared to the Left, Center and Right. It took a while to realize this. So, the work around was to use the L, C and R outputs to Objects rather than the bed and it works!

Check your Inserts before they Play

I was setting up the mix and realised that the meter isnt showing what I was hearing. It took sometime before I figured there was a compressor that was acting a bit weird. Finding and then fixing that was another exercise in itself.

A good Team is always better than one man

Having an amazing team makes the work load quite bearable and also gives added perspective in the mix. For example after I do a premix of the dialogues, Justin would go through it for his things that I may have missed. Its vice versa once he mixes the songs. So, in the end, the output is a combined effort and so a clearer perspective. And among all of this, our trusted associate Sarath Mohan, who takes away all the load of routing and track compiling from our shoulders.

Next blog will be the workflow we have adopted for this movie as it is quite unique in its ways. Till then, enjoy!

-FM