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MillimeterDialogue for Animation
Nov 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Maureen Droney
On Family Guy, Fox's animated series popular for its cutting-edge humor, dialogue reigns supreme. The show avoids audio effects altogether whenever a character speaks. That priority is not lost on the crew that records and edits dialogue for the show (along with sister production American Dad). But while maintaining quality, the crew also has to work quickly. In fact, the same directive even applied to setting up the studios at Fox Animation suites. Set in the middle of an office building with an open floor plan, the studios consist of modular, solid-looking prefab booths.
The Fox Animation audio crew records Family Guy dialogue with Neumann TLM 193 mics through a Yamaha DM1000 console and Aphex 661 compressors, though only light compression is actually used.
“One of the caveats of working here was that we had to get a studio up and going as quickly as possible without any construction,” explains Dan Cubert, an Emmy-winning production mixer who's been with Family Guy since its very first recording. “Mike Sirna and Charles Rowe of Acoustic Systems put together these rooms for us. They went up in two days, then we did the entire wiring and install in a half day. Acoustic Systems modified things for us, and thanks to the plug-and-play nature of today's equipment — and RSPE and Russ Belttary, our equipment suppliers — it was two and a half days from nothing to a real studio. For our application, which is recording the absolute cleanest possible dialogue, it's perfect.”
Three booths comprise the setup: one serves as control room; one as the main recording space; and one as a second, smaller iso space. “On these shows, there tends to be a lot of arguing back and forth between characters,” explains Cubert. “So we keep the talent in separate rooms and record them to separate tracks. The modular booths are incredibly cost effective. By themselves they're not inexpensive, but they can be moved, stored, and reused in another location. And the building's management loves them because they're so unobtrusive.”
The recording chain is the same for everyone: Neumann TLM 193 microphones through the Yamaha DM1000 console's preamps and Aphex 661 compressors. “The TLM requires zero EQ, other than rolling off everything below 80Hz,” Cubert says. “It's the mic we've used since the beginning. [Family Guy and American Dad creator] Seth [MacFarlane] likes it, and he knows music. It has a high mid bump that cuts right through.”
Recording to Pro Tools HD is “straight ahead,” with no plug-ins involved. “We use very light compression with the Aphex,” Cubert says. “And we use limiting in the sense that we like to keep our levels between -6 and -12, [on a 0 to -20 reference] so there's at least 6dB of headroom.”
(Incidentally, that straightforward approach to dialogue continues through post, which happens entirely at Wilshire Studios, L.A. Jim Fitzpatrick, dialogue and music mixer, also uses little compression on individual vocal tracks.)
Cubert was the original recordist and editor for both Family Guy and American Dad. The current crew includes Steve Dierkens, who records and edits for Family Guy, and Shawn Kerkhoff, who performs the same tasks for American Dad. Also in the loop has been dialogue editor Daniel Ben-Shimon, who came on board for the second episode of American Dad and stayed through the rest of the first season and part of the second.
MacFarlane, also the voice of multiple characters on both shows, is a perfectionist, and each script goes through several rewrites, with new bits added until the very end. It's a complicated process, with intricate naming and numbering of each new line added to a script.
What's it like working with MacFarlane when he's doing voices for Family Guy's Stewie, Brian, Peter, and Tom Tucker — all at the same time? “He just goes,” says Cubert with a laugh. “It's a weird thing, but it's like all of them are really different people that are in the room at the same time. Logically we know it's all Seth, but we refer to them as different people. I've worked on animated cartoons for years, but I've never been on a show that makes me laugh so much. I crack up in the booth while recording. I crack up during editing. This show makes me laugh every time.”
