Now one of the largest, most versatile full-service postproduction facilities in France, Creative Sound brings a new player in cinema and TV sound work to the Paris studio scene.
It is also one of the first mixing studios to be fitted with Dolby Atmos audio technology and hosts the first Harrison MPC5 digital film console to be installed anywhere in the world.
‘I was looking for a medium-sized building location in order to extend my first film production suite at Le Grand Pavois in Paris, to create an ideal environment for mixing and Foley production when I stumbled upon a 1,000-sq-m space in the heart of the 15th Arrondissement,’ says Creative Sound, mix engineer and studio owner, Cristinel Sirli. ‘In acquiring such an incredible place in the heart of Paris, I felt that had to build a state-of-the-art complex to
provide filmmakers, mixing engineers and recording artists the ultimate environment in which to work.’
With the premises located, Sirli called on Paris-based Amadeus to handle the interior acoustical and architectural design, including sound isolation, noise and vibration control engineering, and acoustic treatment for each of ten studios.
‘I encountered Amadeus designer Michel Deluc following the recommendation of Philippe Gureinet, Director of International Sales at Solid State Logic. Michel’s philosophy, passion and approach about sound, acquired through his work with musical and electro-acoustical fields, seduced me,’ Sirli says.
Amadeus has designed many studios over the past 20 years, with Creative Sound possibly the pinnacle of its acoustic architectural work.
‘I used and enhanced many of the techniques that we have experimented over the past 20 years at Amadeus Labs at Creative Sound, especially in field of music recording, says Deluc, Director of R&D at Amadeus and head of Amadeus Labs.
‘We designed some specific “sub-areas” in terms of acoustics for the Foley studio, allowing engineers to use sonic variations in recording,’ he continues. ‘Each sub-area of the main Foley stage has more or less high-frequency sonic properties and works in harmony with the main stage through a natural decay of the reverb time. We created a proprietary variable-diffraction system, using a special wave-shaped ceiling, designed to neutralise the standing-waves without using supplementary absorbent material.’
‘I wanted to bring together the best skills in terms of architectural acoustics with an extensive range of iconic recording equipment from Harrison, Solid State Logic, Dolby, Bricasti and others,’ Sirli says, describing his vision for Creative Sound.
The Harrison console is supported by a wide range of audio equipment and peripherals, including a 72-fader SSL C300 HD Master Studio System, a 32-fader C10 HD – the first digital console from SSL to be used for Foley and overdubbing. The MPC5 is the centrepiece of the 480m3 film-mixing stage, that also includes the Dolby Atmos system. The console includes a 1024 input Harrison Xrange 64-bit processing engine, a full suite of Harrison Xtools film specific plug-ins, and a dual-operator MPC5 control surface featuring twin master sections, 80 faders, 64 full featured input strips and ESP Waveform displays.
Most importantly, the MPC5/Xrange system consolidates the capabilities of multiple mix formats, and puts them under the user’s hand via motorised joysticks. Twin producer desks mounted at 10° on the far left and right ends round out the ‘wrap-around’ console surface that spans 18.5 ft (5.75m).
In its white paper, Dolby describes Atmos as both an advancement in control of audio elements and their placement, and also simplified distribution: ‘Atmos adds the flexibility and power of dynamic audio objects into traditional channel-based workflows,’ Deluc says.
‘These audio objects allow moviemakers to control discrete sound elements irrespective of specific playback speaker configurations, including overhead speakers. Dolby Atmos also introduces new efficiencies to the postproduction process, allowing sound mixers to efficiently capture their creative intent and then, in real-time, monitor or automatically generate Dolby Surround 7.1 and 5.1 versions. Dolby Atmos simplifies distribution so that the audio essence and artistic intent is all contained in a track file within the Digital Cinema Package (DCP), which can be faithfully played back in a broad range of theatre configurations.
‘According to the technical requirements for Creative Sound to obtain the Dolby Atmos Certification, the reference mixing position has to correspond to a position two-thirds of the distance back from the screen to the rear wall, on the centreline of the screen,’ Deluc continues. ‘This different sweet spot position – compared to control rooms in the musical fields – imply to optimise the overall acoustic treatment – LCR-based – in order to minimise local effects of the diffuse-field and other reflexives problems, without influencing the rendering of the additional surround-speakers.
‘We recreated a micro-acoustical environment for each of the additional speaker sources, in order that each one would not be influenced by the main acoustic treatment, using multiple custom acoustic cells (modules). By using these techniques, we provide filmmakers and recording artists a faithful reproduction of their works, matching the Dolby Atmos criteria,’ he adds.
Bernard Byk, co-founder of Amadeus, concludes: ‘Our aim has always been to imagine, design and manufacture devices, equipment, speakers, and design studio spaces so that what listeners hear is perceptually indistinguishable from the original sounds. Amadeus has practical knowledge in many areas of expertise that converge to create transparent listening experiences. We love to give listeners the deep emotional impact of what music and sound can really create.’
According to Sirli, Creative Sound is already building its track record for film mixing and dubbing, with work including The King’s Speech (4 Oscars 2011), Diana, Osage County and Homefront.
French mix engineer Jean Pierre Laforce is currently working on the Foley sound for Gemma Bovery, a forthcoming film drama based on the 1999 graphic novel of the same name by Posy Simmonds. The film will be directed by Anne Fontaine and mixed using the large-format Harrison MPC5 digital film mixing console at Creative Sound.
As Creative Sound is now a certified Dolby Atmos venue, Byk adds: ‘We are so pleased that the Dolby Atmos mix room at Creative Sound is getting rave reviews – from customers as well as Dolby itself.’
