Despite the disruption to the entertainment industry inflicted over the past two years by the coronavirus pandemic, US full-service remote recording company, Music Mix Mobile (M3), has emerged a stronger company following significant technology investments.
‘In addition to our Eclipse and Voyager remote recording trucks, we’ve made a major re-investment into Phoenix, our latest creation, over the past year with a Lawo mc2 56 MkII system, 48-fader surface and Nova 73 DSP/IO Rack,’ says M3 co-founder, Joel Singer. ‘We have connectivity for 168 channels of Lawo preamps connected to the truck via Ravenna Link, a Waves SuperRack System, Pro Tools, UAD Live System, TC6000, Eventide Eclipse and M&K monitors – it’s an awesome system.’
At the same time, M3 acquired two smaller frame Lawo mc2 36 consoles, a 24-channel and 40-channel configuration transported in flightcases, allowing M3 to handle smaller shows and events with the same level of audio quality and streamlined workflow.
Equipment is only part of the story, however, as having the right staff in place is key to M3’s success. ‘Throughout our history, we have built a staff of extremely talented technicians – Peter Gary, Brian Flanzbaum and Corey Hilton are simply the best in the business,’ says M3 co-founder, Mitch Maketansky. ‘Fortunately we were able to retain them all throughout the past two years.
‘The same people show up all the time to all the gigs in the key positions. We work with only the best freelancers, and we’re very particular about who is on our team. That combination provides our clients with not only a very high level of expertise but also a high level of comfort because of the consistency in our staff.’
In addition to full-time staff, freelance Pro Tools operators Teng Chen and Caroline Sanchez, and Grammy Award-winning engineer Eric Schilling have spent more than their share of time working on high-profile shows in the M3 trucks, including the Latin Grammys, Global Citizen Festival, CMA Awards, I Heart Music Festival and, most recently, the Annual Grammy Awards, held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where the M3 Eclipse and Voyager trucks were on site.
‘This year’s Grammy Awards were the first live Grammys we’ve done in two years, and it was really good to be back and to have M3 there,’ says Schilling, who served as co-broadcast music mixer for the event. ‘I’ve been working in M3’s trucks for pretty much as long as they’ve been around, and their trucks are extremely well maintained and thought out in terms of system design and workflow. And their crew, because I’ve worked with all of them at some point, are really good at what they do and very focused on their jobs.
‘When I’m in those trucks, it brings comfort to me, knowing that I don’t even need to think about whether I might have some quirks or workflow issues that I have to get around. And having Pro Tools operators like Teng and Caroline, who I’ve worked with before and who both come from Saturday Night Live – were great to have on site at this year’s Grammys, as they are both very experienced. And because they’re used to doing live broadcast with SNL, you can’t really rattle them because they know what it’s like. It’s a great team.’
Pro Tools operator Sanchez echoes Schilling’s thoughts: ‘When I was at William Paterson University studying audio, I did my internship with M3, and once I graduated, I ended up freelancing with them doing gigs like I Heart Radio festivals and the Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden. I get to work with people at the top of their game.
More: www.musicmixmobile.com
