Chris Downs, owner of TUBE, an Atlanta-based creative media agency, readily admits to being a Digidesign ProTools editor since the product’s inception. “The first ProTools system I ever worked on,” Downs recalls, “was on a Mac CX with only a 442 as the I/O interface. The facility I was with at the time used it primarily for radio production and occasionally sound for video. We would burn timecode to the right channel of a half-inch reference tape and slave ProTools to it. It worked great, but I can’t say I miss those days of working to picture.”

While some things have changed over the years, including Downs opening TUBE two years ago, Downs says he is still relying on ProTools as his primary audio editing system. While Downs himself is currently editing on an AVID while still running the business, Casey Peery, TUBE’s audio engineer, now handles all the audio post. Operating on a ProTools MIX system, Peery handles VO record, ADR, Foley, sound design for Flash and CD-ROM applications, audio compression to include MPEG-3 and AC3 (Dolby Digital) encoding, and mix-to-picture.

The 500-sq. ft. suite overlooks TUBE’S insert stage and is configured for 5.1 surround mixing, a nice complement to TUBE’S DVD authoring capabilities. Two voiceover booths reside below the audio suite. Equipped with a mini camera peering in at the talent, a monitor in the audio suite shows the engineer what’s happening in the booths. An additional ISO booth with a large window for viewing the AVID playback monitor is located in the edit suite for any read-to-picture jobs.

A recent project completed at TUBE was a marketing video for NetBank, one the leading online banking firms. The project posed a unique situation when producer, Lance Lipman of Video Assets, wanted to build the soundtrack for the show first and then offline the program on his dpsVelocity system. After filming on-camera talent, Mark Oliver, in TUBE’s insert stage on Ultimatte blue, selected bites that were digitized into the AVID Media Composer 9000 and then exported over the network to the audio workstation. Peery recalls, “We built a pretty extensive mix combining VO, music, and even sound effects for video elements that weren’t even there yet.” Upon completion of the mix, the project took a turn when Lipman approached TUBE to complete the video post as well for the image piece. After consideration of the best method to transfer the mix to the AVID, stems were bounded off, separating all voiceover and nat sound on channels 1 and 2, music on 3 and 4, and SFX on 5 and 6. The stems allowed for flexibility in the edit in the event that the elements didn’t quite match up with the already laid sound effects.

After completing the edit, the next step was to pull a final mix. During the edit, Downs had added sound effects to two new audio channels which were then exported from the AVID as an OMF and sent back to the audio suite. Using the OMF Tool, the files were converted into a ProTools session. The two tracks were then transferred using the Track Transfer application into the master ProTools session for the NetBanks mix. One last issue had to be addressed before completing the final mix. A few edits were made to the timeline in the AVID that had to be edited to the timeline of the audio session. Since it was only a couple of edits, the timecode in and out points were written down and Peery matched the edits in his session. A 320 x 240 MPEG was then made of the final program and imported into the ProTools session for the final tweaks and mix. The final mix was then bounced off and layed back to tape.

TUBE also recently completed a two-minute TUBE services demo that is unique in that all elements were originally created for the piece. Downs created the content for the piece entirely in Adobe After Effects and wrote and recorded an original score. Peery foleyed all sound design utilizing such objects as large metal sheets, steel grates, and air compressors. He then completed the mix in both 5.1 Dolby Digital surround and in stereo. The piece is viewable in its stereo version at www.tubecreative.com and is featured on TUBE’S demo DVD with both the AC3 and stereo version of the mix.

TUBE’S audio suite hosts a Mackie HUI housed in a custom Argosy console, five Tannoy Reveal Active speakers and woofer for discreet or encoded surround mixing, a Panasonic SV3800 DAT recorder, a true Audio Precision 8 mic-pre, various outboard processors, an extensive music library, and five gigs on an on-the-network, searchable sound effects library. Microphones of choice for voiceover work are the Neumann TLM103 and Audio Technica 4050. Additional mics include a pair of AKG 414s, a pair of Audio Technica 4041s, an AKG C3000, and your “gotta have” SM57 and SM58s.

TUBE is located in a historic, pre-Civil War warehouse that has been converted into a 9000-plus sq. ft. loft space in downtown Atlanta. In addition to the AVID and ProTools suites, the eclectic studio hosts a full-service interactive division for CD-ROM, DVD, and web-based solutions, an insert stage with a permanent cyc wall, and a recently launched alternative art space (Artspot) for local Atlanta artists.

TUBE caters to an entire gamut of industry professionals from production crews looking to book the stage, ad agencies seeking post-production, or clients interested in TUBE’S ability to wreak creative havoc on their entire project.