When agency DDB Chicago needed a system for recording vocals on site, producer Matt Green called on Mobile Studio USA. Shooting the live action at Delfino Studios in Los Angeles, Green and production company Rattling Stick arranged to have MSUSA park its mobile recording studio next to the stages where Michael Bolton could conveniently record his vocals.
DDB needed a pristine recording of the vocals for the final mix and for playback to the stage during the live shoot. Recording vocals on the stage would have held up production and sending Bolton to a recording studio would have added a production day. “We got the quality of a professional sound studio with the convenience of recording on location,” said Green. “We were on a tight schedule and the mobile recording studio allowed us to record the vocals right on site. It saved us an extra day of production and the cost of typical sound studio.”
Black Iris music collective, which composed the music and lyrics, delivered the split instrumental tracks via ftp to MSUSA. Dicken Berglund, MSUSA’s audio engineer, loaded the tracks into the ProTools LE system for playback while Bolton recorded vocals. Adding further to the quality of the recordng, MSUSA installed a vintage AKG C12 microphone in the booth to capture the finest nuances of the vocals.
The compact trailer, designed by television director/technical director, Amir Soleimani, is independently powered by a Honda Whisper generator and air conditioned by a dual zone Fujitsu 18,000 BTU HVAC unit. Fully soundproofed up to -50dB, the trailer is outfitted with digital sound recording, processing and transmission technology including ProTools and Verizon wireless Internet.
“The difficulty of scheduling voiceovers and dialog pickups inspired the creation of Mobile Studio USA,” Soleimani explained. “I wanted to find a convenient, cost-conscious way of accommodating talent in and around Southern California, whether they are at home, on set, or on location. With the MSUSA trailer, recording sound bytes and making them immediately accessible to post and production companies worldwide, has become a highly-efficient, one-stop process.”
