The rise of audio streaming and video-on-demand is opening up new opportunities for small- and mid-sized audio postproduction companies. But while their scale is in-line with smaller projects’ budgets, the standards expected of them are the same as those for larger operations. For its monitoring, Pacific Wave Media – a full-service audio postproduction company based in California – has found its solution in Genelec.
The company’s Los Angeles studios (next to Universal Studios) are using a Genelec 1029 5.1-channel surround system and 6010 stereo system, while founder/CEO and Lead Mixer Mike Forslund’s home studio has a 8330/7350 5.1 system. Between them, have handles projects for Discovery Channel, A&E Biography, FX Networks and The History Channel, as well as the film A Perfect Storm and a mix for director Richard Zelniker’s As Night Comes. ‘I’ve been using “Gennies” for 17 years now,’ Forslund says. ‘They are an accurate representation of what the world is, and I need that these days.’
Talking about one of the most successful of the current crop of reality-television shows, Swamp People, whose forthcoming sixth season he is about to mix, Forslund notes that the show’s dense, effects-laden soundtrack requires a lot of attention: ‘We’re talking about 130 to a 140 tracks altogether, so it’s huge,’ he says. ‘My sound designer, Erica Camp, do the full pre-lay of a show then post it to our server, and I’ll mix the entire show at my house on the 8330/7350 5.1 system, then put it on a drive and take it to my office and review it for the network’s executives on the 1029s. What I hear at home is what they hear in my office. They play flat from room to room.’
The Genelec monitors also assure Forslund the fidelity of his mixes, whether they’re played through a home theatre 5.1 system, typical television speakers or earbuds. ‘These days people are watching shows on iPhones and iPad,’ he says. ‘The sound has to be accurate on all of these platforms. And with Genelec, it is.’
In fact, his mixes for As Night Comes, which he mixed on his Genelec 1029 monitors, were transferred to the Zanuck Theater’s soundstage on the Fox Studios lot – the same studio that mixed Academy Award-winner Avatar – and the mix lost nothing in translation. ‘The kind of accuracy and detail that all the Genelecs offer actually gives me parity with the leading film soundstages in town,’ he says. ‘That makes a huge difference for a company like mine. Genelec takes us up a level.’
More: www.genelec.com
