Mick Fowler

Clean, clear audio: It’s central to the success of CBS’hit series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Not just a matter ofconveying the show’s smart, snappy dialog, without clear audio,the complex CSI plot line would be lost - and so would the audience.Fortunately, CSI has the right man behind its audio board - MickFowler, a music-trained mixing veteran, who’s been with CSI sinceits inception.

For four days of each episode’s eight-day shoot, Fowler doeshis work in the predictable confines of Santa Clarita studios inValencia, Calif. “After two seasons, we’re pretty used tothese studios, their acoustic, and how well wireless works inthem,” he says. “We now know what to expect.”

However, for the other four days, Fowler can be anywhere from LAXairport to the middle of the desert. How does he cope, what equipmentdoes he take with him and - of most interest to this writer,who’s struggled with this problem time and time again - how doeshe hide wireless mics on his actors so there’s no clothingrustle?

“I start with an 8-channel Soundcraft GP1 board, soon to be aZaxcom Cameo,” says Fowler. “Into this, I input audio fromup to eight wireless Sanken microphones: lavalier, boom or acombination of both. The transmitter units are Lectrosonics; fouroperating in VHF, and four in UHF.”

Whenever possible, which is about 80% to 90% of the time, Fowlerrelies on boom man Donovan Dear, who he describes as “one of thebest in the business.” To make sure Fowler’s audio getsback to the board, Dear is equipped with a 250-milliwatt transmitter -1.5 times more powerful than most wireless units.

Fowler records audio on a 4-track Zaxcom DEVA hard disk recorder.“As we record, we automatically ‘mirror’ the audio toa DVD. At the end of the day, both the DVD and the hard disk are sentto postproduction.” For backups, Fowler uses “a goodol’ fashioned analog Nagra TC reel-to-reel. It’s soreliable that it almost never lets you down. And, being analog, theNagra isn’t prey to the various bugs that can affect digitalfiles.”

Finally, there’s wireless intercom: Fowler and Dear are linkedvia an Lectronsonics IFB system, while the show’s director has aComtek link that lets him hear the audio mix while it’srecorded.

In general, Fowler sites his audio station as far away from theaction as possible. “Forget the romanticism of being close to theactors on set,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve beendoing this a long time.” As he points out, being far away meansthere’s less equipment and fewer people cluttering up the set,“which makes everyone happier.”

For Fowler, recording clean, intelligible audio is what this job isall about. “CSI is dialog-driven,” he explains.“There are lots of clues provided in the audio. The viewers arevery smart; they want to hear all of the forensic details so that theycan solve the crime themselves.” However, as anyone who’sever done location audio knows, the combination of clothing rustle,varying audio levels, microphone crosstalk, wireless drop-out andbackground noise can often lead to distorted or unintelligible audio,or both. Especially both.

To get intelligible audio, Fowler records dialog “as ifI’m standing right beside the actors. It doesn’t matterwhether the actors themselves are standing in close-up or 100 feet awayin an establishing shot. The audience must feel like they’reeavesdropping in on the conversation.”

Wherever possible, Fowler gives boom man Dear the task of capturinglocation audio using Neumann microphones, specifically KMR 81 and 82models. “I love Neumanns,” says Fowler. “The sound onthem is so great.” In situations that demand the use of wirelessmicrophones, Fowler is very, very careful about where he placesthem.

On CSI’s female characters, the placement is relativelysimple. “It’s probably not politically correct to saythis,” Fowler admits, “but I take advantage of MargHelgenberger’s and Jorja Fox’s physiology and place themics between their breasts using surgical tape. Gary Dourdan - whoplays Warrick Brown - has a good set of pecs. So I use the sametechnique on him, too.”

When surgical taping isn’t possible, Fowler and Dear haveother ways to hide lavalier mics. Sometimes they hide them inbuttonholes. Other times, they use a combination of “vampireclips” and putty to attach them to an actor’s clothing. Inall instances, their goal is to balance clothing rustle againstinvisibility to end up with a mic placement that does the job.

Fowler got his start in London in the 1980s, working as houseproducer for Philips Records. “Back then, I had to mix up to 24tracks,” he recalls. “The fun part was to balance all theseparate elements - drums, voices, instruments - and produce a cohesivewhole that sounded right. Today, I take the same approach whenI’m recording CSI. My goal is deliver a finished product,not a series of ingredients. The reason is simple: I like tomix.”

For example, whenever Fowler is recording a group of CSIactors in, say, a hallway scene, “I’m riding thefaders.” As soon as one actor’s finished speaking, Fowlerpulls his channel down, which prevents crosstalk and also helps Fowlerkeeps his levels balanced. Of course, sometimes he adds an open mic atthe back of the room to capture the right reverb.

Every location job has its challenges. In the case of CSI,the biggest one is background noise. Actually, the noise itselfisn’t a big problem, as long as the viewer understands the reasonfor it. For instance, when there was a sequenced shot inside LAXairport, the audience could see why there was so much ambience on thesoundtrack. But during a shoot inside a strip club, which was rightnext to a freeway, “You could occasionally hear traffic noises onthe audio track,” says Fowler. “Trouble is, there was noreference to the freeway in the script. So the audience wasn’table to understand and then dismiss this ambience.”

When noise gets to be too much of a problem, CSI’sactors remedy the problem by re-doing the audio in the studio. However,this takes time and is something Fowler does his best to avoid.

Script changes also present minor problems. Despite what the viewersmight think, scripts are not written in stone. In fact,CSI’s scripts can be in flux right up to the moment oftaping. Typically, changes are driven by the actors themselves.“They have a solid understanding of their characters and how theyreact in certain situations,” explains Fowler. “Of course,the scripts have to be changed to take their feedback intoaccount.”

To cope with such challenges, Fowler sits in on all of therehearsals, keeping a sharp eye on each episode’s evolution.During taping, Fowler keeps a copy of the latest script on a musicstand. With each fader assigned to an individual actor, he then“plays” the mix, reading along and making his moves inaccordance with the actors’ lines.

Risky? Yes, but it’s also the best part of the job, as far asFowler is concerned. “Sometimes I’ve got two boom mics andsix lavaliers running capturing a last-minute script change, or even anunscripted ad lib. To me, this kind of organized chaos smacks of my olddays in music mixing. It’s just plain fun!”

The quality of Mick Fowler’s location work speaks for itself.Tune into CSI, and you can count on hearing everything theactors say, every time. No matter what strange place they may happen tobe in.