NEW YORK – Gramercy Post (www.gramercypost.com) recently completed
audio post on 20 episodes for the second season of A&E’s popular reality
series, Inked. The show focuses on the
staff of a Las Vegas tattoo parlor based in the trendy Palms casino.
According to Gramercy Post’s principal/mixer Joe Mendelson,
the show came to the studio via Rogue Post, which handles the picture editing.
Gramercy, which features G5-based Digidesign Pro Tools systems running Version
7.2 software, spends two days mixing each 24-minute episode.
Audio, says Mendelson, “is all over the road.” While some
cast members wear lavalier mics, others are picked up via a boom mic. Adding to
the challenge of coming up with a clean dialogue track is the constant sound of
the high frequency tattoo machines.
“We’ve developed graphic EQ to neutralize it,” he says of
the buzzing.
Much of the show’s music comes from the Killer Track
library, and ranges from rock to hip hop. The video editors often place music
to help enhance the drama and Mendelson says it’s up to the mixers to smooth
out the music pass. He’ll use time stretching techniques and drum beats to hide
the fact that tracks are being jammed together.
The studio mixed as many a three episodes per week with
Mendelson handling approximately a dozen episodes and freelancers working on
the rest. Mendelson mixes in Pro Tools without an outboard console or work
surface. He’s added the Dangerous Music Monitor ST/SR to manage input and
monitor switching, and to provide the functions he lacks from not having a
traditional console.
The show’s 48k/16-bit final stereo mix is given back to
Rogue as an AIFF file, which gets laid back to a D5 tape.