American political drama TV series Boss stars Kelsey Grammer as Chicago mayor Tom Kane, diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disorder. Determined to remain in charge, Kane conceals the disease from everyone except his physician. The show has just begun its second season.

Relying primarily on a Sound Devices 788T digital recorder and CL-8 controller, Riordan Sound Services President and Production Sound Mixer Alex Riordan and his crew captured the sound for the hit show.

Riordan’s first task was to build a new sound cart for the job: ‘I used a 788T as my main recorder and had the CL-8 connected to it,’ he says. ‘I would move the 788T and CL-8 off the cart and into a bag for some of our more mobile locations. After a while, production was moving so quickly that after a month into the show I bought a second 788T and incorporated it into a dedicated bag rig, with all the wireless gear. This way, it was ready to go at all times. It got to the point where I actually had that bag rig live on the bottom shelf of my mixer cart, so all I had to do was reach down, throw a battery in it, turn it on, grab my CompactFlash card out of the cart 788T, throw it in the bag 788T, set up my folders, jam my time code and check scene and track names, and I was off.’

Riordan sent a mix to channel one with his main boom isolated on track two. He used the remainder of the tracks for individual wireless lavalier mics, a second boom and plant mics.

Boss is the first show Riordan has recorded completely with wireless booms. As a result, he didn’t need to run any audio cable, saving considerable time in the show’s fast-moving production environment. Before production started, Riordan also purchased a Sound Devices CL-WiFi and an iPod Touch that he put on the cart for displaying meters and track names. ‘The CL-WiFi and iPod were a last minute addition to the cart and I quickly became reliant on the display to help me keep the ever-changing track names straight,’ he says. ‘Not to mention everyone on set would ask me about it and say how cool it was.’

In addition, Riordan also used a Sound Devices 442 field mixer and 744T portable four-track audio recorder on the set, when he didn’t need as many tracks. This allowed him to place the rig in the trunk of a car: ‘For most of the car scenes, we used wireless plant mics in the cars, so we had a few options in case a seatbelt rubbed up against the lav or something,’ he explains. ‘As we didn’t get rehearsals, I put a lot of mics out there, to give us more options. Since we didn’t get a second take for sound, we tried to get a lot of things recorded and then see what worked.’

In addition to his work on Boss, Riordan and his crew handle various film projects, television shows and commercials produced in the Chicago area and beyond.