SANTA MONICA — FotoKem’s Margarita Mix of Santa Monica, which specializes in audio post for commercials and advertising media, recently installed its fourth Fairlight EVO integrated audio production system. The new Fairlight system is being used by the studio’s sound designers, mixers and composers. With the upgrade, sound mixers Paul Hurtubise, Jimmy Hite, Nathan Dubin and Jeff Levy are now all working on identical audio post platforms in their mixing suites.
“The facility was already working extensively on Fairlight, and after careful evaluation and testing, I made the transition,” says Hurtubise (pictured), who joined Margarita Mix in late 2012, bringing over 20 years of experience in commercial audio post. Having used a number of platforms over the course of his career, Hurtubise says, “I simply think Fairlight sounds better. It’s less fatiguing on the ears, and I seem to hear things more clearly and definitively.
“The EVO workstation is also very ergonomic and easy to operate,” he adds. “I feel like I’m on a system that’s been developed for humans to work on. EVO’s jogger fits my hand, and its keyboard fits my fingers. I’m running sessions more efficiently because I’m not as focused on all the clicking.”
The team at Margarita Mix also like the EVO’s integrated picture features. “The picture’s right there when I want it. I love the Pyxis,” Hurtubise says of the dual-channel HD video recorder that is integrated into EVO as a standard feature. “I also like the streaming Pyxis video frames along the bottom of the timeline display, and being able to see the picture frames before and after the play head. This way, I can see how many frames I have until my next edit.”
Fairlight’s one-button record function also helps in voiceover sessions when the talent starts to speak. “We don’t want to interrupt them; if we press our ‘record’ macro button, the disk recorder immediately stops one take and goes right into another one in the span of one tenth of a second,” Hurtubise explains.
All four Fairlight operators at Margarita Mix use similar console control templates for uniformity. Nathan Dubin has been at Margarita Mix for over a decade, recording VO, mixing for television, ADR recording for film and commercial mixing for TV and radio. Working with clients such as Nissan, Activision, Disney, AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, and UPS, Jimmy Hite has over 30 years of experience in sound mixing for the commercial and advertising industries. Hurtubise focuses on commercial mixing as well as ADR and commentary recording. His recent credits include spots for Google, eHarmony, Old Navy, Hyundai, and Toyota, among others. Jeff Levy has been part of the team for 20-plus years and is known for his mixing and sound design skills.