While newspaper publisher Horace Greeley’s now famed advice circa the 1840s was to "Go West," the direction of the West Coast chapter of the Association of Music Producers (AMP) has taken a decidedly national turn, spanning East, West, North and South. Back in ’01, AMP’s Los Angeles-based chapter established its West Coast Mixer of the Year Award, designed to recognize the contributions of postproduction audio mixers for TV commercials.
That inaugural honor went to Jimmy Hite, chief engineer/ mixer at Margarita Mix de Santa Monica. Then in ’02, the second annual award was bestowed upon Mitch Dorf of POP Sound, Santa Monica. Also honored last year were mixer award finalists Tor Kingdon of Mike Recording Services, West Los Angeles, and Jay Shilliday of Crescendo! Studios, San Francisco. Receiving honorable mention was mixer Lance Limbocker of DownStream Digital, Portland, Ore.
Now year three of the honor takes on an added significant dimension as the competition has been broadened in scope to include spotwork from audio post mixers throughout the country. The AMP honor is now called The National Mixer of the Year Award. The awards ceremony has been scheduled for March ’04 in Los Angeles.
AMP judges are looking for a body of work from a single mixer that shows high audio production value, mixing skills and sensitivity to the relationship of voiceover, dialogue, music and/ or sound design. For these reasons, spots consisting of all music or all sound design will not be accepted. Entries that have no voiceover will be disqualified.
An entry for a given audio post mixer should consist of three TV commercials dubbed onto a DVD. Because the judges are looking for versatility, spots from the same campaign will not be accepted. An affidavit must be signed by the submitting company that these mixes are the on-air versions of the spots. Titles and ISCI codes must be provided. The commercials must have aired in the U.S. for the first time sometime between Jan. 1, ’03 and Dec. 31, ’03.
The entry fee for each mixer’s submission of three spots is $150. Multiple entries from the same mixer are permitted, but none of the spots in a given entry may be duplicated in another entry. There are no entry forms, but DVDs, affidavits and fees must arrive at Trivers/Myers Music, 2816 The Strand, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, by Jan. 31, ’04.
Last year’s awards ceremony for the West Coast Mixer of the Year drew more than 150 members of the advertising community. On hand to accept AMP West Coast chapter kudos were all four honorees who made brief remarks about their experiences as mixers. A representative spot mixed by each recipient was screened for the awards gala gathering. Showcased were Dorf’s "Defining Mia" for Gatorade Ice, Kingdon’s "Launch" for Speed Channel, Shilliday’s "Orphanage" for Musco Olives and Limbocker’s "White Shoe/ Dunk" for adidas.
Dorf credited his versatile background in audio engineering as preparing him for the often demanding field of TV spot postproduction. He also thanked his wife, Lynda, for never complaining when he called at 7:30 p.m. to say, "Honey, I won’t be home for dinner."
The event was emceed by AMP West Coast VP Liz Myers, a partner/composer at Trivers/ Myers Music. Her introduction of the honorees last year underscored the importance of the award’s reach now being extended nationally. She related, "We musicians and sound designers are here to thank these ‘quiet guys’ who make us sound so good and loud on the air."
