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Reader SurveyRecording Reality
Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Gary Eskow
Once upon a time, an evening's television drama might have centered around a cast of Shakespearean actors performing a classic play. These days, though, producer Mark Burnett, whose ability to conceive and churn out reality shows of all descriptions seems inexhaustible, rules the roost. Take Burnett's latest offering on CBS: Rockstar: INXS. The show features a collection of 15 rock singers competing for an opportunity to replace Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997, as lead singer for the rock group INXS.
Paul Mirkovich in the rehearsal studio for Rock Star: INXS.
Photo: Danny Moloshok, Blue Pixel. © MBP, 2005
The show airs three nights a week. The first episode each week follows the singers through rehearsals and catches their social interactions. The second episode is devoted to live performances, and the third episode takes place after the home audience has voted for their favorites, with INXS members left to dump one of the three singers receiving the fewest votes.
Such an endeavor with tight television deadlines of course requires a strong musical director to put the various elements together. Traditional scoring chops were not the major requirement when producers began their search for a musical director, although their eventual choice — Paul Mirkovich — did end up personally compiling a library of bumpers and stingers that are edited into each episode of the show. But mainly, the gig called for an authentic musician who could assemble a talented band, run and record efficient rehearsals for more than a dozen singers, and execute live performances on national television flawlessly.
Mirkovich tracks all rehearsals and performances on a PC running the latest version of Steinberg's Nuendo software. Since rehearsal and performance footage are both incorporated into various episodes, this approach was necessary to keep pace with the show's editorial deadlines.
“I record all of the audio at rehearsals into Nuendo 3 through a Yamaha PM5D console, which we've set up in the rehearsal space,” he explains. “The producers roll cameras throughout the day [during rehearsals], and record their own audio directly into their Avid [editing bays] using a stereo mic. Initially, they thought they might be able to use the audio they were recording [to the Avids], but they realized that the quality usually wasn't good enough. Nuendo has a great audio engine, so at the end of our rehearsals, I export audio from Nuendo [at 16-bit/48k] for the editors to import into their Avids. They lock it into their audio feed and then have the flexibility to use the stuff they recorded, [or, more frequently,] the sound I've given to them. I also recorded the main titles and all of the bumpers, which the editors lay in as they see fit.”Mirkovich is sold on the host-based digital audio workstation approach. He even goes so far as to theorize that, as computer processors get faster, Digidesign — the longtime leader in the audio post hardware space — might experience stiffer competition from host-based digital audio workstations like Nuendo, and he's very outspoken on this issue.
“Nuendo 3 is a very stable and mature product,” says Mirkovich. “I find it to be quick, easy to operate, reliable, and cost-effective. Additionally, host-based systems offer much greater flexibility than Pro Tools in the choice of hardware, and at a much cheaper price. For instance, interfacing with our Yamaha PM5D board is easy. I connect the CPU we have in the rehearsal space to the optical outputs of the PM5D via an RME HDSP 9632 interface, which costs about $600 on the street. The sound of Nuendo is certainly on par with Pro Tools, and the MIDI editing capabilities are vastly superior — even many Pro Tools users admit that.”
Until recently, the potential for computer crashes that could devastate a live shoot kept audio specialists away from such host-based digital audio workstations on shows like Rockstar: INXS. Today, though, Mirkovich suggests that the reliability of off-the-shelf computers with fast hard drives and the attractiveness of programs like Nuendo 3 and others are convincing industry professionals, including himself, that the reliability factor is sufficient.
