Singapore-based sound recordist Justin Loh has built an extensive work portfolio, taking in everything from dramas to feature films, and from studio sound to TV commercials. With a client list that includes HBO, Discovery Channel, ESPN, Fox Networks, and Mediacorp, his latest assignment was the Singapore feature film Apprentice, where Cedar Audio’s noise suppression technology played a starring role.
‘I was on a 12-day drama shoot, and on one of the nights the production team were using a Honda portable generator,’ he says, recalling his first use of the Cedar DNS 2 dialogue noise suppressor. ‘Those things are pretty noisy and, while the gaffer did his best to move it as far away from the shoot as possible, this was only about 30m because of limitations in the power cables. I felt that this was an excellent opportunity to push the DNS 2. Using a CMIT5 shotgun microphone, I dialled in around 4db of suppression and it worked very well. Elsewhere, during an interview job, there were computer servers in the room and the fan noise was considerable. A simple 3dB down on the DNS 2 was all it took to eliminate it.’
‘Location sound recordists may feel that offering an additional piece of hardware that eliminates background noise is a double-edged sword – either a magic box that allows them to solve all manner of audio problems, or something that encourages lazy industry practices such as bad location choices and poor mic positioning,’ adds Joel Chia of Cedar’s Singapore distributor, CDA Pro-Audio.
‘There’s also the question of when noise suppression should be left to post, and when it’s appropriate to use it on location. These are genuine concerns within the location sound industry in Singapore, but the beauty of the DNS 2 is that you are able to input a single channel and output both the processed and unprocessed audio to the recorder, which adds options for both the recordist and the audio post engineer. Either way, if noise is a problem that has to be suppressed or eliminated, there’s no better solution than the DNS 2. It’s also surprisingly affordable, which places it within the reach of many people, not just location sound recordists but also studios, live broadcasters, smaller venues, and freelance production people.’
Apart from location recording, Loh was the mixdown engineer for both Coldplay’s and Robbie Williams’ concerts in Singapore. With 18 years of audio experience, he is also an adjunct lecturer at the Lasalie School of the Arts.
More: www.cedar-audio.com
