With a career that spans back to his days in recording more than a decade ago, Production Sound Mixer Jos Fr as has long-held a love for the audio industry.
Although he got his start in music, he's held many different audio production roles, which has led to his working on projects for high-profile clients, such as Motorola, IBM, ESPN, Time Magazine and more.
He shares his story in this latest installment of the DPA Sound Insight Q&A:
1. How did you get your start as a sound mixer?
I got my start as a production sound mixer about eight years ago. After working in the music industry for a few years, I decided to go back to school to explore other aspects of sound. While finishing my degree, an opportunity to work as a boom operator on a student film fell into my lap. The rest was history.
2. Please tell us about your background and your career, including any notable/favorite projects or any awards you have won for your work.
I first started in sound as a recording engineer for indie artists and musicians in the mid-2000s. After trying live sound, game sound, computer programming and post-production sound, I discovered production sound and have felt at-home ever since.
During my time as a production sound mixer, I've had the good fortune to work in a wide variety of projects, ranging from indie features to docu-series to commercials and more. Some past work I'm very proud of includes the reality TV show Fire Island; Motorola's MOTO Reissued branding campaign featuring graffiti artist Futura; Time Magazine's 2016 Person of the Year interview; The Lion King on Broadway's The Circle of Life in 360 and Aladdin on Broadway's A Friend Like Me in 360 virtual reality experiences; IBM's The Sounds of IBM immersive ASMR series; Ashe 68 virtual reality experience; and an upcoming ESPN documentary on retired NBA player and NBA Cares Ambassador, Felipe Lopez, to mention a few.
These days, along with all of my adventures as a production sound mixer, I also serve as a partner and head of production at Chapter Four, a full-service production company focused on immersive media.
3. What's the biggest project you have worked on in your career?
I don't know if it counts as the biggest project in my career, but most certainly one that holds a very special place for me from a creative, technical and historical perspective: Ashe '68. This is a virtual reality experience about the first black tennis player to win the U.S. Open and premiered at last year's U.S. Open in New York. It had its festival premiere at last year's Sundance Film Festival as part of the New Frontier line-up.
This particular project was such a pleasure to work on due to the creative and technical challenges. We had to discreetly record, in sync, anywhere between one and seven actors, while simultaneously recoding as many sound effects, foley sounds, room tone, impulse responses and ambisonic sound recordings we could get our hands on. We wanted to supplement post with as much useful sonic information as we could. At the center of it all, were DPA's 4060 and 4063 Miniature Omnidirectional Microphones, which served as the main tools to synchronously capturing the actors' performances.
4. How long have you been using DPA? When did you first start using DPA and why?
I started using DPA mics around 2013, shortly after having read a very thorough article about Simon Hayes use of them for Tom Hooper's Les Miserables. I remembered having watched the movie and specifically noting how excellent the sound was. In this article, Simon praised the DPA lavalier mics for how close of a match they were to the company's boom mics, and how the lavs played a key role in capturing every performance. I was sold! I had to try them out, so I bought a few 4060 s and 4063 s and I put them to use immediately on a TLC reality television show I was working on at the time. I was blown away by how much better they sounded than my other lavalier mics. I ended up replacing most of my lavalier mics with DPA and, soon after, added some DPA boom and gooseneck microphones to my kit.
5. What productions or shows have you used DPA mics for? What DPA mics do you use?
DPA microphones can be heard on pretty much every project I produce. Every time I employ the use of a lavalier microphone, a 4060 is my choice. Every time I plant or stash microphones, especially in a car, I'm likely using a d:dicate 4018 Supercardioid Microphone with an MMP-G preamp and gooseneck shock mount, a 4098 Supercardioid Microphone or a 4080 Miniature Cardioid Microphone. My short shotgun of choice is the 4017 Shotgun Microphone.
On the Fire Island project, one challenge we had to overcome was that cast members would often end up shirtless, which was inevitable when you're filming a show in a beach paradise. Initially, we considered using the off-the-shelf solution from DPA, the 4561 Necklace Microphones (now discontinued), but we opted to make custom necklace mic rigs so that we had more control over the way they looked. We collaborated with Rave from PerePaix Jewelry to build several necklace mics using the 4060 Miniature Omnidirectional Microphones. These made it possible to record sound in very difficult situations on this show.
6. What are some of the challenges of miking for the projects you work on? How does using DPA help solve these challenges?
The main challenge I face whether it's a scripted TV show, an unscripted documentary film, or a virtual reality experience is making sure I'm able to capture the actor's or subject's performance during production as true and as transparently as possible. The microphones I use must be transparent, so a flat frequency response is a must. Additionally, with how dynamic the human voice can be, a low self-noise and wide dynamic range are
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
18/04/2024
Tom Durant Pritchard as Alexander Blake
Thursday 18 April 2024 Tom Durant Prit...
18/04/2024
Alone Australia goes from strength to strength
18 April, 2024
Media releases
The program again delivers for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vi...
18/04/2024
ORANGE COUNTY, Va., April 18, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies [NYSE:LHX] has entered into an agreement with Orange County, Virginia, to fund the expansion and mode...
18/04/2024
L3Harris Sky Warden multi-mission aircraft, equipped with the WESCAM MX-15 and WESCAM MX-20 EO/IR sensor systems, was selected for USSOCOMs Armed Overwatch prog...
18/04/2024
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 18, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has received ...
18/04/2024
LAS VEGAS The National Association of Broadcasters is reporting that more than 61,000 people attended the 2024 NAB Show, where artificial intelligence and the c...
18/04/2024
Ann Keefe, Regional Director - UK and Ireland at Kingston Technology, explains how storage and memory decisions made now are underpinning creativity in the futu...
18/04/2024
Krisha Marcano Announced as Dean of Theater for Boston Conservatory at Berklee The theater educator, choreographer, and performer will join Boston Conservator...
18/04/2024
The newly acquired UKVI licence enables Escape Studios to recruit and retain international students
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 18, 2024
The newl...
18/04/2024
Attendees from more than 163 countries were present, including 34 delegation buying groups from around the world
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 18, 202...
18/04/2024
In August 2023, Dyn Media launched as a new broadcaster in European sports, aimed at giving sports beyond football the exposure and viewership they deserve. The...
18/04/2024
Hitomi Broadcast, market leader in audio/video alignment and latency tools based in the UK, has signed a partnership deal with global broadcast rental specialis...
18/04/2024
18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative
Savage River
Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...
18/04/2024
Vislink's DragonFly V - The Company's Smallest-Ever Transmitter Debuted ...
18/04/2024
MediaSilo to Offer Camera to Cloud with Atomos
Brie Clayton April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Integration between MediaSilo and Atomos Cloud Studio unlocking ...
18/04/2024
MultiDyne Updates its SilverBULLET Series to Serve More Fiber-Optic Links
Brie Clayton April 17, 2024
0 Comments
MultiDyne Fiber Optic Solutions intro...
18/04/2024
Cinedeck Partners with Paramount to Revolutionize Content Delivery Process
Brie Clayton April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Cinedeck, a pioneer in integrated de...
18/04/2024
Unreal for video adding rocks and foliage
Graham Quince April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Welcome to my series on learning Unreal Engine for After Effects u...
18/04/2024
Best Budget Beginner-Friendly 4k Drone
Sean Alami April 17, 2024
0 Comments
Potensic Atom 4k 3 axis Gimbal Drone, ideal drone for beginners.
Some con...
18/04/2024
Rocky Mount Mills will be overflowing with runners, families and friends, all fo...
18/04/2024
Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship Lee, an assistant professor of composition, creates music based on unconventional and nonlinear struc...
18/04/2024
Ben Sherwood, former president of Disney ABC Television Group, has been named CEO and publisher at The Daily Beast. Joanna Coles, former chief content officer a...
18/04/2024
Ping pong for the masses: Bringing an old sport to a brand new audience with Wor...
18/04/2024
Fanatical fans: IMG on bringing the world of table tennis to a new global audien...
18/04/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Follows Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in New SeriesPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
18 April 2024
GlobalUnited States
Link copie...
18/04/2024
Back to All News
Chinese-Language Revenge Thriller Series The Resurrected'...
18/04/2024
Back to All News
The Witcher Season 4 Begins Production in the UK and Netflix A...
18/04/2024
Apple has reduced its overall greenhouse gas emissions by more than 55 percent since 2015, the company shared today in its 2024 Environmental Progress Report. T...
18/04/2024
Prison Journalism: April's experiences of black boudoirThabo Mthembu was incarcerated in Pollsmoor Prison from 2014 to 2019. Read Thabo's story
by Tha...
18/04/2024
Prison Journalism: Can gangsterism and violence be reduced in prison?Dean Mashimbwe, a Zimbabwean migrant residing in Cape Town, was incarcerated at Pollsmoor C...
18/04/2024
Software making music: How DJs are doing itSoftware plays a big part in music production, recording, and performances. Here's what DJs are using, and how yo...
18/04/2024
Tonight on House of Zwide: Zanele later blindsides an unwitting Faith into meeti...
18/04/2024
Debut author stuns with international bestselling thriller Anna O'Matthew Blake burst onto the book scene with his bestseller Anna O', a deliciously d...
18/04/2024
It's time to get a little wicked. Members can now stream No Rest for the Wicked from the cloud.
It leads six new games joining the GeForce NOW library of m...
18/04/2024
Skeem Saam: Wednesday's episode, 17 April 2024 [video]Missed an episode of Skeem Saam? No problem! Watch the latest episode of your favourite South African ...
18/04/2024
Watch: Trailers for the best Afrikaans movies ever madeDon't know what to watch? Here are some of the best Afrikaans movie trailers ever made, including Too...
18/04/2024
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Thales alongside partners SISINT and CONECTICABO...
18/04/2024
In response to growing concerns raised regarding the adverse impact of TikTok co...
18/04/2024
We were saddened to learn this morning of the passing of our friend and former colleague, Alf McCarthy who died yesterday.
We remember Alf as a popular present...
18/04/2024
NVIDIA today recognized 18 partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for their achievements and commitment to driving AI adoption.
The recipients were hon...
17/04/2024
Opening today, the exploration is aimed at selecting a location that will preser...
17/04/2024
On April 18 and 19, experts from across the audio industry-including artists, pu...
17/04/2024
With its particular combination of talent, ambition, culture, and, of course, wo...
17/04/2024
At Spotify, we want to equip student creators with the tools and resources neede...
17/04/2024
L3Harris Communications Australia Field Service support continues to grow with a...
17/04/2024
An optical technician lays on a diving board suspended between NASAs Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes primary and secondary mirrors. The photo is a projected ...
With a career that spans back to his days in recording more than a decade ago, Production Sound Mixer Jos Fr as has long-held a love for the audio industry. 
