Coffey Audio Files

Production Sound Post Production Hardware Software Tech Tips Interviews News Tom Stasinis Building Reality The Interior Fostex FM-3 Mixing Entourage with Wexler Video by Gary Hoffman Portable 3 Channel Mixer VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 2 | 2009 THE www.coffeysound.com COFFEY AUDIO FILES ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Survivor Dick Hansen Untouchables Mad Men Sound Mixer Details his journey Jim Tanenbaum Peter Bentley Sterling Moore from Aerosmith’s revisits the 1987 journals a typical takes us to Brazil tour manager to classic directed by day mixing this to record the production sound Brian De Palma popular AMC blockbuster reality mixer. series. series. dream EM 3732: the machine wireless Introducing the Sennheiser EM 3732 Advanced Wireless Receiver There’s never been a wireless system as flexible or powerful as Sennheiser’s new EM 3732. It’s loaded with features designed to make your life easy - so you can concentrate on the performance rather than your gear. • 90 MHZ switching bandwidth • Do it yourself tuning in 5 kHz steps - maximum flexibility • Very intuitive menu settings - fast setup • Ethernet port for computer monitoring and control. Integrates all NET1 functionality • New compander circuit is backward and forward compatible with all Sennheiser 3000 & 5000 series pro wireless gear • Daisy chain up to 16 channels without the need for an external antenna distribution system www.sennheiserusa.com coffey_ad_0908.indd 1 9/30/08 10:21:31 AM Table of Contents The Coffey Audio Files 2009 10 Volume 21, Issue 2 IN THIS Entourage by Tom Stasinis President: John Coffey, C.A.S. ISSUE Editor in Chief: Steven Wolstrup 13 Mixing American Idol Advertising Inquiries: Ed Greene Contact Steven Wolstrup at 03 Coffey’s Brew (323) 876-7525 or via email at A Message from the President. [email protected] Publishing: 18 The Coffey Audio 07 Snippets The Untouchables Files is published with postage Catching up with past stories and Jim Tanenbaum paid in the State of California. the latest news at Coffey Sound. This publication may not be quoted, reproduced or reprinted in any form without the express written consent of Coffey Sound, 31 Building Reality LLC. Printed in the USA. All with Wexler Video 25 images are copyright of their By Steve Eagle From Rock to Rolling Sound respective owners. Dick Hansen Coffey Audio Files Online: Visit us online at 37 The Interior coffeysound.com and download By Gary Hoffman the free PDF copy of this and other issues of “The Coffey Au- dio Files” magazine. This PDF 33 44 Tech Zone Survivor may be freely distributed, but Syncing BWF in Final Cut Pro Sterling Moore may not be quoted, reproduced or reprinted in any form without the express written consent of Coffey Sound, LLC. 43 Product Highlight 46 Juiced Link Interested in Contributing? 47 Fostex FM-3 41 Please contact us via email at 48 Audio Glossary (Q-R-S) Mad Men [email protected] or by Peter Bentley telephone at (323) 876-7525. THE COFFEY AUDIO FILES Phone: (323) 876-7525 | Fax: (323) 876-4775 3325 Cahuenga Blvd W | Los Angeles, CA 90068 THE COFFEY AUDIO FILES Phone: (323) 876-7525 | Fax: (323) 876-4775 3325 Cahuenga Blvd W | Los Angeles, CA 90068 COFFEY’S BREW: A Letter From The President I often feel I should apolo- ber, we were trained professionals, so don’t try this yourself). gize that our magazine sometimes Then, there was the new set cop the next day that parked his has a personal slant to it. Ok, I Harley right below us and then sat in a fold up chair next admit, the picture of my daughter to his bike. When he finally was leaning back, reading the is personal. As for the rest, my paper, feet up on his bike…we scored a direct hit. He flew defense is that your jobs are unique over backwards like a bomb had dropped. It sort of did. Of and don’t fit into the typical au- course, dealing with the huffing red-faced teamsters and cops dio magazine format. Where else rushing onto our set always took director Stallone’s very best would you find two articles about efforts to calm them down. Especially after three days of this. shooting deep in the jungle? That’s It got where they (our now unfriendly enemy) were crouch- the business we are in. One day we are working on a rooftop downtown and the next, across the ing behind barriers and using binoculars to try and spot the world in the middle of nowhere. Having been one of you snipers (us) in action. Hysterical, but all good things must end once, I also think it’s because I sat behind a mixing cart a and Sly finally told Charlie to cool it, though he was laughing lot longer than I sat at a desk. This is the kind of content I’d when he did. I’ll let Charlie tell you more when he does an talk about with you if I visited your set when I was shoot- upcoming article for us on Rocky I thru XXXVIII. ing on the stage next to yours. As the years stack up, I find I enjoy the war stories more and more. I guess that’s what happens as I ungracefully become an ‘old timer’. That’s why this magazine will always have such stories in it from me and other mixers with diverse backgrounds. In this issue, Dick Hansen will regale us about his days on the road with Aerosmith. In our next issue, Tim Cooney will discuss his start from being a former elephant trainer. How’s that for entries into our business that led to both of them becom- ing production sound mixers? Their stories got me think- ing about my own past; and in the words of Yogi, it’s Déjà Vu all over again…. My doctor says it’s a symptom of too many years on the sets looking at soundproofed walls, and then stopping cold turkey. The only known cure is to talk it out in a magazine column. Luckily, for my therapy, I just happen to have a column right here. You see, when I enter a studio stage today, like a Stage 16 at Paramount for example, where I have probably worked on several different shows, the rush of flashbacks fill my head. First, I see the same spot where I stood, next to a young Jeff Wexler on Foul Play. I then look over to one side and re-call myself sitting at the card table on set, next to Don Coufal and Dave Walsh, thirty-two years ago. Then I start flashing on the other shows, where I stood in that exact spot long ago too. Even when I drive by someplace in the middle of nowhere, I’ll suddenly realize I had spent many hours of my life with a cart parked at the very location You see, elaborate gags used to pass our time. Let’s where I’m driving by. It happens everywhere I go in this face it, without the cell phone toys of today, we would have town. Is it just me? went out of our minds from the hours of hurry up and wait For instance, every time I drive by the old Queen time we have to kill. Idle minds are the devil’s playground, of Angels Hospital (now called the Sleep Center), I clearly so a big part of the fun was in the long planning stages and remember looking down at the teamsters and set cops in the anticipation of our elaborate little plans. I know this is hard base camp parking lot for Rocky II, twenty floors below… to believe, but sets were actually fun, until about 1985, when just before Charlie Wilborn and I lobbed our water bombs they weren’t. It was the best of times for hankie-panky. No- down on them. Not one or two, but a tray of twenty, in a body can say I had a mis-spent youth. Stunts like ours would barrage that rained down for a full minute. You see, when get you fired in a Hollywood minute now, but back then, you fill a styrofoam cup with water and then gaffer tape it they were appreciated as an art form, that is, when it wasn’t closed, the explosion of white pieces mixes with big globs on you. There was a lot of the basic hanging chairs from the of water to make for wonderful carnage and an excellent greens (remember those?), hot foots and lighting their news- explosion sound to boot, as it hits the parking lot. (Remem- papers on fire while they were reading them kind of stuff. 3 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 02 2009 COFFEY’S BREW: A Letter From The President Personally, I liked the craft service table for my quickie off, Bill was shall we say… cheap. He wouldn’t pay to have entertainment. They were not as full of goodies as they commissary lunches with us. Instead, his lovely wife Cheryl are now (I could have serious fun today), but sometimes would pack his lunches. It all started slowly. One day, we they provided easy ammo for cherry tomato ambushes and switched his hard boiled egg for a fresh egg. It took him a switching the salt and sugar silliness. However, the most week to catch us. Then we put hot sauce on his peanut butter fun I ever had was scheming with Charlie Wilborn. He was sandwich and stuck around to watch him bite into it, clas- the king of elaborate gags.

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