YAMAHA DM2000 'MIXES IT UP' AT CANNES

—Small Digital Console Creates Big Production for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron—

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 5, 2002)—The recently-released DreamWorks film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, galloped off the screen at a special one-night-only, out-of-competition screening at the Grand Theatre Lumiere at The 55th Annual Cannes Film Festival, with a live performance of the musical score by Bryan Adams and Hans Zimmer accompanying the digitally-projected movie, and a new Yamaha DM2000 Digital Production Console steering the soundtrack mix. Manned by front of house engineer Jody Perpick, the DM2000 was used to mix music from the three-piece Bryan Adams band consisting of Adams, Keith Scott and Mickey Curry, plus a ten-piece group of musicians which included Zimmer, Jim Dooley, Trevor Morris, guitarist Heitor Pereira and percussionist Louis Conte.

Composer Hans Zimmer shows off the Yamaha DM2000 digital production console, the latest edition to Media Ventures Studios, his Santa Monica (CA) facility.

During the final live musical rehearsal, technical difficulties resulted in a second DM2000's recruitment. "The house console developed all sorts of hums and buzzes on all of its buses, so the festival production team used one of the extra DM2000s we had," explains Slamm Andrews, staff engineer at Zimmer's Media Ventures Studios (who also doubles as a supervising music editor on the film). "That actually worked out very, very well for the show."

All onboard effects of the DM2000s were utilized, with Andrews blending the feed from the Adams/Zimmer band mix with the dialog and effects from the film. "We had 24 inputs, including mics and DI's," Andrews explains. "For the show, there was a DM2000 pulling the live house feeds of the band playing, with a digital out from that DM2000 into the second DM2000 where I was mixing. My console had all the film elements: dialogue, sound effects, print master, and a complete safety of everything, which plugged right into the Dolby digital inputs going straight to the screen.

"The Spirit soundtrack was mixed in true 5.1 Surround," he adds. "With the picture being animated, you need to 'keep things on the screen,' perspective-wise. We were a bit apprehensive because we had a live vocal mic on stage for Bryan which was ten feet in front of the screen, but we ended up being able to fold his vocals and the score into the screen until the end credits started rolling, then we were able to massage the music out to the live fill of the house."

The Yamaha DM2000 integrates with digital audio workstations and provides extensive support for DigiDesign ProTools®. Bundled Yamaha Studio Manager Software is compatible with Macintosh and Windows platforms. "We use ProTools®, but for the show, I used a laptop running ProTools as back-up," Andrews recalls. "The eight outs were for any additional editing we needed to do. I also had two Tascam MX2424s plugged into the main desk, plus a master and a safety locked up to time code coming off of the digital projector."

"About three days before [Cannes], Hans' DM2000 for Media Ventures arrived. Hans is a big Yamaha 02R user, so the user interface is familiar to us. I knew it had all the required automation features. Plus, it chases time code and has groups, so it just made the most sense to me. It's all digital—so no hums and buzzes.

"The DM2000 gives him [Zimmer] all the patching and everything else that he needs—and it sounds good." Zimmer will soon remodel the Santa Monica (CA)-based Media Ventures Studio, removing the current system and replacing it with the DM2000.

For more information on the DM2000, visit Yamaha at the 113th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention, Los Angeles Convention Center, Booth 1401; write Yamaha Corporation of America, Commercial Audio Systems Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com/proaudio.