LOS ANGELES — Grind Music and Sound (www.grindinc.com), which specializes in sound design and mixing for adventure sports and documentaries, recently installed a Yamaha Nuage Advanced Production DAW System. Grind is home to two studios: one is geared toward mixing and sound design, while the other is for music composition and editorial. The new Nuage was purchased through Hollywood Sound Systems. The studio is co-owned by Michelle Garuik, who works mainly in the mix room, sound designing and mixing, and Sangtar Heer, who writes in the composition/editorial room.
“We were researching DAW controllers and mixing consoles for the studio and first became aware of Nuage through the Internet and magazine advertisements a year ago, which led us to the Yamaha Commercial Audio Website,” recalls Garuik. “Our first physical contact and demo with Nuage was at AES in LA. Besides watching the public demonstrations at the Yamaha booth, we were given a private demo by Yamaha’s Marcel Mauceri.”
The duo were introduced to John Conard from Hollywood Sound Systems, and the following week were given an intensive demo by Hollywood Sound’s Brett Grossman and Yamaha’s David Lees.
“Nuage’s deep integration with Nuendo was an immediate draw for us,” says Garuik. “It is much more than faders, pan-pots and the usual four to five things you find on most controllers. Anything you need to do in Nuendo, you can access on Nuage. Also, the fact that it is a Yamaha Commercial Audio product was another plus for us. Having mixed on Yamaha consoles in the past. We were already familiar with the build quality and support.”
Garuik notes the ability to store different setups for their individual project. Mixing a 5.1 television documentary has a very different setup than mixing a music album, and the ability to switch quickly and seamlessly between those setups was paramount in their decision. The pair has been using Nuendo daily since its inception back in 2000 and Cubase since the early 1990s.
Grind has completed projects for Red Bull, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, NBC Sports and Specialized Bicycles. The studio’s first television mix on Nuage was for Fox Sports Training Day ‘Team Alpha Male’ episode. Grind set up the system with assistance from Hollywood Sound’s Grossman on a Friday, spent Saturday programming quick keys and setting up their system preferences, and on Monday, mixed the 22-minute episode.
In the first two weeks Grind had their system, they mixed two shows for Fox Sports, two National Parks educational videos, and a Specialized Bicycle promo. They are currently mixing an upcoming documentary for HBO.