Soundmaster is a guy’s best PAL

(Stanley Brown is president of Montreal-based audio post and production house Studio Place Royale.)

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A most unusual thing (in our studios anyway) happened recently – we had a preproduction meeting with a producer. In fact, it was a pre post-production thing, but I don’t actually think you can say ‘pre post’ in the same breath.

Also, it was with a French versioning producer, but I’ll refer to her as ‘the producer.’ Anyway, this meeting turned out very well and the producer was very pleased with our setup.

The project was to record a French version of an English tv series, Jim Henson’s Secret Life of Toys.

The basic requirements being a big room, a fast 35mm projector, a large screen for the picture and some recording and mixing contraptions and stuff – we passed with top marks!

Then we saw that the master, on D1 (I believe), was in pal format, which raised a few questions for our producer.

I did not think it a splendid idea to convert to ntsc in order to do the rerecording, and so I suggested to the producer that we complete the work while remaining in pal.

Most of the producers that we have talked to are under the impression that one can’t work in pal in North America, except in super-specialized (and of course super-expensive) studios. So you will not be surprised that my suggestion met with a raised eyebrow.

The producers, Double Vue, wanted to see a test on a rhythmo before committing themselves.

So, the next morning they brought down a pal copy of one of the programs with a rhythmoband. We had already set up the pal monitors and interfaced a pal video machine with our Soundmaster ion system the night before like good boy scouts.

Well, after loading up the rhythmo and inserting the video cassette we were off and running.

Within 10 minutes the producers went away smiling and we were committed to the series.

This video master is in Europe, though there is a clone in Toronto, and from this we are getting copies with time code and the original English sound track, together with a dat tape with the m/e tracks. This time code is, of course, ebu – coding 25 frames instead of our usual 30 (or about 30, to be more precise).

(With this in mind, you will no doubt sympathize with my terror at the very mention of converting to ntsc and then back again.)

All we would have to do is synchronize ebu with ebu – a piece of cake with our Soundmaster ion system.

I might add that the ION/88 module has enabled us to control the DA88 recorders that we chose to use for this project.

However, wait for it – something had to go wrong, right?

Some of the dat tapes arrived with smpte time code.

And df time code at that!

We had a deadline (ok, ok) and talent had been carefully scheduled, and we did not have time to waste getting new tapes, so we were in a pickle. Everybody was getting red in the face over this one, but then Normand Rodrigue, our chief engineer, muttered something like ‘batternack’ (which is a French expletive) and said we could easily sync these two disparate time codes with the Soundmaster ion: ebu to smpte Drop Frame.

It’s not something one does every day.

Well this was a piece of cake for Soundmaster, too, and we certainly slept better after that, and still do, to this very day!

In projects like this, certain basic things must be covered.

Primarily, the technical part of the team must function smoothly just like it is supposed to. And backup systems must be in place. A preproduction meeting should lead to an in-house meeting to try to predict possible problems and have the answers within reach now, not the next day. Be ready for the curved ball.

And let’s not forget the test run.

Do take the time to cover all this. At our studios we were working on two feature films (post-production) and two corporate videos as well as day-to-day recording services, and we made the time to prepare. This investment in time pays off.

Secondly, and just as important if budgets and deadlines mean anything – the co-ordination of the recording sessions and the talent. Good casting, scheduling and direction of talent in this type of project is the key to a successful job that comes in on budget and on time.

If the talent is not on time, or the direction is poor, the budget can go right out of the window. Never mind the deadline.

Anyway, in our Muppet project Double Vue is providing wonderful co-ordination and scheduling and first-class direction.

Things are going smoothly and people are smiling.

And that, really is the most unusual thing that happened recentlyÉ