he Best or Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Motion Picture Sound?

They are here to stay - digital work stations that allow editors and sound designers to cut, mix, pan, equalize, create. Instead of 12 different hands on a sequence and thousands of dollars of rental for a large dub stage with a console the size of Nevada, a single designer can sit at a small station and create highly sophisticated noise. Instead of a truckload of 1000 foot reels, sound editors and designers are sending cuts, pre-mixes, and final elements to mix stages on disks that fit in a small envelope.

Read the highly divergent observations of top industry experts as they give their strong opinions -- the pluses and minuses of this remarkable, convenient, and controversial new technology.

Mike Minkler, Mark Mangini, Kevin O'Connell, Jon (JT) Taylor, and Elliot Koretz bring their years of experience and wildly varying viewpoints to the pressing question of the work station, its capabilities and limitations: Now that they're here, how do we best use them?

©2005 California Film Industry