Sound in the City

Supplementing Sex and the City's rich visual style is acrystalline, punchy, and enveloping audio experience that's among thebest on television today. Since Season One, it's been created at NewYork's Soundtrack Film & Television by a tight-working soundediting team overseen by mixer Bob Chefalas.

While Chefalas is the mastermind, he has plenty of sonic supportfrom supervising sound editors Chic Ciccolini (sound effects), LouisBertini (dialogue), and Dan Lieberstein (music). Making things evenbetter is their brand-new facility — with two mix stages and anADR/Foley stage — in NYC's fashionable Chelsea neighborhood thatprovides the team with the perfect environment for crafting the show'ssound.

The two-position Euphonix System 5 in the Jeff Cooper-designed mixstage at Soundtrack Film & Television, the New York-based studiothat creates audio for Sex and the City. Photo courtesy: TimDriedger.

Working with a Pro Tools front-end and Euphonix System 5 digitalaudio console in his spacious, Jeff Cooper-designed stage, Chefalas hasthe process of mixing Sex down to a science. “Whether it'sa TV show or feature film, the first thing I want to do is a dialoguemix,” says Chefalas. “Sex and the City has a lot ofvoice-over, and I mix it in the whole show in its entirety, going toeach spot where there's a VO and mixing and EQ'ing it at the normal VOlevel from beginning to end. I found that if something came in later, Iwasn't always being consistent, so [now] I go right from beginning toend and record dialogue at the same time.”

Careful handling of the VOs of central character Carrie Bradshaw(Sarah Jessica Parker) is a crucial task that calls for restraint, goodtaste, and precise handling of compression. “I try to make the VOa part of the show, not above it, almost like production dialogue. It'sjust a processing thing — you don't want to overprocess it or adda lot of bottom to it. It has to pop through TV speakers, so you findthe frequencies that are little delicacies, reach for it, and that'swhat brings the VO to life.”

Sound mixer Bob Chefalas tries to make Sarah Jessica Parker’svoice-overs blend into the production dialogue on Sex and theCity.

Chefalas is willing to share his secret weapon for getting a cleansound: the Waves L2 Ultramaximizer. “In mastering you can feedmusic through it, contain it and still make it sound loud. I use thaton my dialogue to give it extra punch, but it won't go past whatthey'll allow. The compressors on-air won't start compressing mydialogue, so I can limit my dynamic range and not make it overlyloud,” he says. “I use a combination of that and the Neve33609 as a soft compressor, which with a 2:1 ratio is smoothing out thedialogue and not overly compressing it. Then the L2 will hit andcontain any of the peaks.”

Chefalas' usual four-day schedule begins with production dialogue,where the toughest challenge is smoothing out the Manhattan traffic inexterior scenes.

“Then there's scenes shot on sets,” he continues.“We don't want it to sound like a set, so you add a little roomto it with reverb, primarily the TC Electronics 6000. It's also takingout noises because in a supermarket or restaurant you'll end up with ACnoise and fluorescent light hums, and you have to notch thatout.”

The next day, it's time to attack the ADR and loop group, addingbackgrounds of people talking and forks clinking, all done with unusualattention to detail, such as getting the right diversity among the manyringing phones. “I've tried boxes that can make it sound like aphone, but I've found those make every phone sound the same. I'll bringit through the System 5, use a highpass/lowpass filter, find out ifit's a cell phone, answering machine, etc., then compress and squeezeit down a lot. I have presets to start off with, but each phone is alittle different, even though it takes a little longer than plugging ina box.

The sound crew for the HBO series. Photo courtesy: CraigBlankenhorn/HBO.

“It's the same thing when we go to restaurants,” headds. “Every show has a diner scene, but we don't just copy andpaste a diner background — each one gets treated like new, withnew ADR, new loop group, new backgrounds. For one diner scene, we mayhave six tracks of loop group: the dialogue, dish clinks, silverwareclinks, background traffic noise, and Foleys for all the movement goingon. The diner's activity comes out of the emotion of the dialogue. Ifit's a very upbeat, fast-paced dialogue back and forth, you'll find avery lively background. But if it's a very serious piece of dialogue,we'll treat it accordingly. You don't want all these happy people inthe background for a sad scene.”

Once the mix is set it's time to do playback for the editors andproducer Antonia Ellis, get their notes, tweak, and do a final playbackfor executive producers Michael Patrick King, Cindy Chupack, JohnMelfi, and Jenny Bicks. During the playbacks, Ciccolini and Bertiniwork at Pro Tools stations that flank the System 5 for up-to-the-secondchanges and easy collaboration. A 5.1 mix is generated with minimalfuss from the stereo mix via Dolby surround algorithms.

With almost 100 inputs to fuse together in the typical show,Chefalas depends on a surprisingly tight gear list to do his job.Supplementing the previously mentioned compressors and effects, fornoise reduction he uses a Cedar DNS 1000 and Dolby 430 Background NoiseSuppressor. An SPL De-Esser, dbx compressors, Avalon VT-737SP, andEventide Harmonizer Orville are also used. Monitoring comes throughAuratone monitors and the HHB Circle 3.

Now in his second season with the Euphonix System 5, Chefalas likesthe sound of the console, as well as the visual feedback. “Forexample, when you go to EQ, you get a curve on the bridge that tellsyou where it is, so you can go down the board and see what the EQ isdoing, and you don't have to read the knobs. It's the same fordynamics: As you start doing the threshold, you can see the knees andwhere it'll start to hit it.”

Chefalas finds that he works at the same pace whether his console isdigital or analog. “Reaching for an EQ and finding it takes thesame amount of time on analog or digital. The beauty of the Euphonix isit will back up and automate any bussing, EQs, and dynamics andremember your moves, so when you go back to make changes, it's allthere for you.”

Although Sex and the City is now in its final season,Chefalas and crew don't have to wonder what they're going to be doingnext. The mixing stage at Soundtrack Film & Television is alreadybooked with feature film work through January 2004, meaning Chefalaswill continue to have his hands full with faders and cue sheets. For amix engineer with sharp ears, that's as sexy as it gets.