Re-recording mixer Paul Massey upgrades private dub stage

Three-time BAFTA Award-winning dubbing mixer Paul Massey has called on the integrators at West Hollywood-based Audio Intervisual Design (AID) for a major upgrade to his private dub stage.

Massey has worked on more than 170 films, most recently Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise. He does all his pre-dubs in his personal studio in Ojai, north of Los Angeles, and his final mixes at 20th Century Fox in the John Ford Theater.

AID has been providing design, integration, equipment, and installation services for a decade, and has been at the forefront of Dolby Atmos room design and installation since the format’s inception.

Massey began working with Audio Intervisual Design in 2007, when Jim Pace, president of AID, consulted with Massey on the dub stage build and supplied all the computers, wiring, racks, interfaces, displays, speakers, projector and mixing console. "Jim took care of everything from top to bottom," Massey recalls. "We recently did the upgrade and AID continues working with me for maintenance as needed."

The 2017 update included upgrading his three Pro Tools rigs to HDX with additional MADI outputs, taking them all to 128 out on each one. His Harrison MPC5 console has also been boosted from 128 to 192 inputs and equipped with the latest engines and software. Massey monitors with two-way 15in JBL and BMS dual-concentric drivers with Parasound amps for the upper frequencies and Crown amps on the bottom. Lake speaker processing provides room-tuning capabilities.

The Ojai dub stage is 40 feet by 20 feet, with a Microperf Stewart viewing screen and Christie projector. "My setup here is very similar to the stage at Fox, just on a smaller scale. The room is a reasonable size and I’ve managed to get it to the point now where I have no translation issues at all bringing my work to a larger dub stage such as the Ford Theater at Fox."