Audio engineer Carl White is invisible. If he does his job right, he says, you won’t even know he’s done anything to a spot. "There shouldn’t be any stamp that you leave on [a mix]," says White, a mixer at Echo Boys, the in-house audio post division of editorial company Crash & Sue’s, Minneapolis. "Maybe that’s not the case all the time, but I would say that with most of my work, if something doesn’t bother you, it’s fine. Editors have to do the same thing. If an edit is jarring and it’s not supposed to be, that’s not right. Same goes with a mix."
White’s work can be heard in recent high-profile spots for clients like BMW, Target, and most recently, on several ads for Nordstrom’s, including "Re-Inventing Feng Shui" and "First Impression," both directed by Paul Gay of bicoastal Omaha Pictures, out of Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis.
White found himself in a unique position on the recent Nordstromshoes.com campaign, which included the spots "Doorstop" and "Moving Van," directed by Traktor of bicoastal/international Partizan, out of Fallon McElligott. "As a mixer, you’re relied on a little bit more for fleshing out sounds that may or may not satisfy. For example, these Nordstrom.com’s spots had been mixed before I got them," he relates. "They brought them to me to remix, and the reason was because basically they didn’t satisfy. If a sound hit the ground and seemed lame or whatever, I’d pick up on that right away and think, ‘Hey, that has to be better; we have to improve that.’ Typically, in this kind of situation, I try not to add anything—just take the mix and tweak it so that it’s improved. If I do have to add something, I will."
White says he works 80 percent of the time as a mixer, and 20 percent doing sound design. Why the lopsided split? Tom Lecher, the owner of Echo Boys, is a sound designer. "Because of his higher profile, he gets asked to do that stuff," White explains.
But White is quickly earning a reputation for his own work. He did a scratch track on BMW’s "Spring Skiing," directed by Laurence Dunmore of bicoastal RSA USA, via Fallon McElligott, that broke during the Super Bowl. He collected the sounds himself, and mixed everything. "It’s a rare, special opportunity," he says. "But when it does happen, it’s the ultimate satisfaction."
Rock Star
White didn’t spend his boyhood daydreaming of being a mixer. "When I was growing up, no one had that career path in mind," he says. Having played the cello as a kid, he wanted to be a musician. When he took up the guitar, he fantasized about becoming a rock star.
White majored in fine arts at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. "At the time, there were no accredited programs for audio engineering in my area of the country," says the Minneapolis native. He formed a band in college called Friends of the Maid, which played "mostly mid-eighties electronic pop stuff." The band released an album in ’84, but White’s rock star fantasies were already fading.
Eddie Van Halen helped. "He had so much talent and technique that I was like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t think I really want to put that much effort into it.’ I realized that I didn’t want to compete on that level. So I decided to do something in this realm [music], but maybe not be a guitarist."
After graduating in ’86, White’s band broke up, and he realized he was well-versed in audio mixing from his years as a musician. "I already had loads of relevant engineering experience from having a home studio," he says.
For the next 10 years, White was an engineer at studios around Minneapolis, including Igo Ego Studio, Sing Sing Recording Studio, and Danger Studios. At one point, he was working as the support engineer for Danger Studios during the week, and as the primary engineer for Sing Sing on weekends. "With low pay, as expected," he says. "How my wife, who was then my fiancée, put up with that is really beyond me."
He got a foot in the door at Echo Boys in ’93, when he was hired as a substitute engineer for late sessions. When a full-time position at Echo Boys opened in ’95, he took it.
White says he’s developing solid relationships with agencies, particularly Fallon McElligott. "With Echo Boys, it’s essentially assumed that I’ll be doing the mix work," he says. "But if you’re talented as an operator and people want your time, hopefully they ask for it—which is what Fallon does."
White says that the business hasn’t changed much since he’s been around. "We’re still doing the same kind of mix we were doing five years ago," he says. "There truly hasn’t been much magic for stereo mix for TV, with the exception of finalizing technology. I was all over that five years ago. If 5.1 [surround sound] comes about, that’ll be a huge change. We’ll see."
Despite the bitter-cold winters, White says he’s content to stay in Minneapolis, though he is keeping his options open. "I could see myself doing this continually, just because it’s such specific knowledge," he says. "It’s always hard to find people to just jump in the chair and go. Being the protector of the knowledge, as long as I continue to nurture it, I should continue to thrive in whatever environment I’m in."
