MIXING IT UP

Fish Hooks Creative Director's Log

Fishdate: April 29, 2013

Every two weeks we board the 

starship: 

ADVANTAGE AUDIO

to mix an episode of 

Fish Hooks.

General Maxwell Atoms and I 

immediately head to the bridge

of the ship where

Navigator Melissa Gentry Ellis

and 

Weapons Control Officer Fil Brown

await us.

Communications Officer Huy Luong

is also there ready to make sure

everything happens on schedule:

As you can see,

the bridge has many buttons and dials 

to get us where we need to go:

Mixing the audio for a show involves

three things:

DIALOGUE

MUSIC

SOUND EFFECTS

(this includes FOLEY which we talked about over HERE)

But if all three of these things 

are played at the same volume

at the same time,

all you'd here

is a 

MESS!

So it's Melissa and Fil's job

to ride the volume up and down

so the dialogue is crisp and clear,

the music is driving the action,

and the SFX are accenting the right points

all without drowning each other out.

It's no small task.

That's why there are

snacks and cookies:

General Burton and I watch the two episodes

Melissa and Fil have mixed

and take notes.

We ask for some dialogue to be clearer...

For some music to be softer...

(or completely removed)

Some monkey SFX added here.

A fart added there.

And then we watch the shows

AGAIN

only this time over 

small computer speakers.

Why?

Because not everyone has an 

eleventy billion dollar sound system 

like the 

Starship: Advantage Audio.

Most people have a regular TV

with regular speakers.

And we wanna make sure

Fish Hooks

sounds great on

EVERYONE'S

TV!

I heard a story that Ric Ocasek of The Cars

used to transfer all his songs to cassette tape 

and then listen to them in his car

before approving the mix...

because that's how most people

heard his music!

Troy Underwood,

our

Series Executive

from Disney Fleet Command

(not pictured for security purposes)

attends the small speaker pass

to give us another set of ears.

After the mix is done,

it's outputted and sent back to Disney

where we prepare the last and final step

of production:

PLAYBACK!

That's our one last

viewing to make sure

everything looks and sounds

PERFECT!

And now you know everything 

you need to know about mixing!

Captain Warburton,

out.