Recent renovations to G&E Music’s New York City studio enticedproducer/director Billy Taylor and his CTB Films to call on G&E toexecute an aggressive mix on the high-energy audio tracks forCharlie’s Angels Uncensored, a half-hour movie preview thataired in June on MTV. An MTV-style preview of the latest movie,Charlie’s Angels Uncensored encompassed an intense musicalscore, requiring an energetic mix from G&E’s Brian Quill. G&Ealso recorded voice-over narration with MTV VJ, Su Chin Pak.
Quill received an OMF from editor Steve Beal at Keyframe Post on aweekday morning and finished the mix that day for the premier thefollowing evening. Quill miked the MTV VJ with a Neumann TLM 103 inG&E’s newly installed VO booth and ran the vocal through an AvalonVT737 and into the Pro Tools MIXPlus system. The multitrack audioincluded many sound effects, movie clips and excerpts from songs byJurrasic 5, The Strokes, Sum 41, Jay-z, Wu-Tang, Santana and more.
“They wanted the mix to have a ‘Top 40’ rock, MTV kind of vibe,”said Quill. “There are all these chicks flying through the air,explosions and fight scenes: very aggressive, quick cuts and changes.And as this second Angels‘ movie is bigger and more extreme,they wanted me to illustrate that in the mix. I had to make sure a realenergy was maintained throughout; it had to really punch.”
To make the score really “punch” and blend in the narrationsmoothly, Quill applied some new tools, including Waves 4.0, using thenew L2 ultramaximizer and Renaissance compressor extensively within ProTools. With the facility’s recent renovation, G&E’s mix-to-picsetup has been refined with an NHT Pro surround monitoring system,Audient ASP 510 surround sound controller, Yamaha NS-10s and Sony32-inch Wega Trinitron.
Taylor, along with co-producer Sean O’Brien and segment producerColin Moore, spent time at G&E providing direction for Quill whenneeded and were pleased with the studio environment, as both a mix roomand a comfortable place to hang out. “The studio really worked outbrilliantly,” added Quill. “We couldn’t have really done the gig beforethis upgrade. Not only was it a huge success, but the guys felt reallyrelaxed working here.”
For more on G&E Music, visit www.gemusic.com.
