Pro Techniques from Casey Stone on X-Men 2

By Randy Alberts

Storm, Magneto, Mystique, Iceman, Cyclops, and Stone. Casey Stone, that is — the scoring mixer on Fox Pictures' X-Men 2: X-Men United, and a longtime Pro Tools user. He can't shapeshift, he doesn't wear deadly laser sunglasses, he's definitely not as good looking as Rogue, and, unlike Wolverine, he doesn't appear to be searching for clues to his origins. But Stone can do amazing things with his Pro Tools|HD rig. With the help of Pro Tools operator Kevin Globerman and music editor Amanda Goodpaster, he recorded, edited, and delivered the final score mix to the dub stage of X-Men 2 using his favorite digital audio workstation.

Casey Stone

"Pro Tools has really taken over in the world of film post production," says Stone, whose other credits include Confidence, Boogie Nights, Eight-Legged Freaks, and The Tuxedo, to name just a few. "When I walk onto the dub stage [where a film's dialog, effects, and music mixes are finalized], it's Pro Tools everywhere: The dialog editors, sound effects editors, and the music editors are all cutting on Pro Tools in little nooks around the stage. And there are more setups in all the rooms outside the stage. On the music side, where I live, music editors have used Pro Tools for a long time. And more recently we've been experiencing the benefits of Pro Tools on the scoring stage, as well."

X-Men and Pro Tools|HD to the Rescue
Stone recalls more than a few instances during X-Men United when Pro Tools has saved more than time and money.

(photo credit: CINESITE) Pyro's (Aaron Stanford) formidable ability to manipulate and control fire is in full display as a group of mutants are surrounded by police.

"The new Pro Tools|HD hardware really shines when we record the score directly into the computer, replacing the digital or analog multitrack recorders we've always used," he says. "I still back up my orchestral sessions on two-inch analog tape, but with the great stability of Pro Tools|HD these days, I've never had to use those backups."

He recalls a scene toward the end of X-Men 2 which was added even later than "the last minute," if that's possible.

"I mean really past the last minute," Stone laughs, recalling the insanity of the moment. "A new scene was being shot in Europe the day after our last scoring date, and just over a week before the dub was finished and the whole movie was in the can. The composer, John Ottman, was also the film editor on X-2, so he had a good chance of bringing everything together. He read the script, imagined the timings he would use when he edited the film, then wrote some music that could be edited together later in Pro Tools to match."

	Deathstrike (Kelly Hu) reveals her mutant powers.

The picture cut continued to change during and after Stone's scoring sessions. On the crew's "pickup" session (an additional three-hour session with the orchestra after everything has been recorded and mixed), they had to record and mix material to edit into some existing cues, so the music would match the new scene lengths.

"Pro Tools allowed us to seamlessly incorporate these changes into our existing cues, instead of having to rewrite the cue, recopy the music, and hire the orchestra to replay it all again," says Stone. "It was a huge cost and time savings. Since we're editing right on the scoring stage, we get to hear the assembled versions of what we're working on right then and there, before the orchestra leaves. This type of immediate assembly is also vital if you're doing overdubs, like we did with the choir for X-2. If you have your cue recorded in six parts on tape and you need to overdub, you're in trouble! Pro Tools|HD solves a lot of logistical problems for those of us working in film post production."

	(L-R) Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, James Marsden, Shawn Ashmore, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman reprise their "X-Men" roles in X2, the next adventure in the epic X-Men saga.

But, he adds, "Even more important to me as the scoring mixer, Pro Tools|HD sounds fantastic. It beats any digital recorder I've used, and finally rivals 15 ips [inches per second] analog machines using Dolby SR [high-end noise reduction standard] for sound quality."

Pro Technique 1 —
Minimizing DSP usage during surround mixes
When working on surround mixes, Stone often knows ahead of time which tracks will be assigned to which channels of the surround field. Some are panned only between LCR, some are panned between LS/RS only, and so on. Although it is cool to have a full 5.1 surround panner in place on all channels, it uses more DSP to do so. Casey suggests the following tip for minimizing DSP usage, while still panning every channel to its proper final film mix destination.

	Storm (Halle Berry) makes her way through the X-Jet.

"Go to your mix output path or mix bus path in the I/O setup page in Pro Tools," he says, "and create all the sub-paths you will need, such as LCR, stereo LS/RS, a mono C, a mono sub, and so forth. Now, for any track in the mixer that will be panned only between LCR, just assign it to the LCR sub-path of your 5.1 mix. Do the same for your surround-only elements, hard center elements, and sub-only elements."

Need to send an orchestral bass drum hit to the sub channel that's also in the LCR mix? No worries, says the helpful X-Man Stone.

"Just use an aux send, and send it to the sub channel's sub-path. Also, sometimes instead of using a surround panner and ‘pulling' back something into the surrounds, I'll have the element in its LCR panning position, and add the surround output as an aux send."

Pro Technique 2 —
Getting a very big piano sound
Because the sound of an upright or grand piano comes from the instrument's entire sound board, Stone usually mics acoustic piano with two mics near the edge of the piano. The best mic perspectives in a grand piano are, with the lid fully open, looking into the instrument from where the soundboard begins to curve in.

	Casey miking up the piano

Stone reports consistently great results using full-range, high quality cardioid and wide cardioid microphones spaced about 18 inches apart and placed vertically about halfway between the edge of the piano's open lid and the soundboard. Point the mics so they are "looking" at the bridges, with the upper-range mic pointing in the direction of the hammers and the low-range mic aimed toward the back end of the piano, where the lower-register strings cross their respective bridges.

"Then just use your ears to experiment with height and distance, and fine-tune your placement. This will work with any type of grand piano, and if you remove the bottom door, and should work on an upright piano as well. For best results, use a good outboard preamp connected directly to your Pro Tools inputs. Or, if you need to go through a console, make sure the channel faders are at unity gain and the bus out masters are also at unity. Then adjust your record levels with the mic gain pots."

Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) full fury is unleashed when Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters comes under attack.

Stone concludes with this valuable EQ advice for enhancing your piano recordings. "Pull up a good EQ plug-in. I often use a 10 to 12 kHz shelf to boost the sparkle, and sometimes cut a little at 600 Hz or so if the piano sounds honky. Then cut some at around 300 Hz if it sounds muddy. If it just sounds too big, or you're getting some rumble from the action or the pedals, a 100 Hz shelf cut may be in order. I rarely use compression, but if I need some, I would use a pretty low ratio setting like 2:1 and a pretty fast release time (80 to 120ms) so that I don't hear it pump. As for panning, I put one mic hard left and the other in the center channel, since the piano is generally on the left side of the orchestra setup."

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