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Musician and sound designer DA Young co-founded the band Chocolate Hippies, and currently holds down the fort at South Park Studios, providing the audio back drop to Comedy Central's hit series. We managed to grab a few minutes of DA's time to talk about how Lounge Lizard and Tassman have found there way into his working process, live and in the studio. |
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AAS: How did you get involved with the South Park Studios? DA: After being on a national road tour with the band Chocolate Hippies I ended up in Los Angeles and called my friend Bruce Howell (Guitar player w/ Cher) to see what kind of work was available in L.A. He had just finished production for the Southpark pilot and asked me if I would like to get involved if the series took off. At the same time Matt and Trey were putting together the band DVDA for music on the show and to play live. I was asked to join the band as keyboard player and vocalist. We did a couple of live shows in L.A. and then Southpark got picked up for a whole season and I was hired to do sound design and band music. I’ve been doing the show since. What do you like most about your job ? It’s South Park, what’s not to like?! What do consider to be the most challenging aspect of it? The most challenging aspect of doing this show has got to be the speed with which we must complete the show and the numerous changes that a single episode will go through before airing. We produce a show in a week. That’s from initial dialog recording, rewrites, animation, more rewrites , video editing, more rewrites, sound design, more rewrites, music more rewrites and mixing. The show will air on a Wednesday evening and we are doing a final mix that same day. It gets pretty scary sometimes but it makes you very fast and able to handle all kinds of pressure when under the gun. Are there specific things you have to deal with in developing for television that would differ from the work you do in a musical context for CD ? With television sound it’s all about making it perfect and making sure the fx fit the picture aesthetically and sonically. You’re also at the mercy of the video editors and writers because your waiting for a locked cut of the show. In the mean time you’re working with bits and pieces of the show out of order. I do like the work but recording music for CD is my love. Both allow for spontaneous creativity and experimentation What tools (software, hardware) are you using in your studio ? I use a Power Mac G4, Pro-Tools 5.1 w/ A/V Option, Pro-Control, Yamaha O2R, Behringer MX 2004A, Apogee AD-8000, Digidesign 888’s. PC 866, Windows XP, Gina 24/96, Tascam DA-88 & 98, Alesis ADAT, Panasonic SV-3700 DAT, Eventide H3000D Harmonizer, Korg Trinity, Ensoniq TS-12, Wurlitzer A-200, Akai S-3000, Gigastudio Sampler, Lounge Lizard, Tassman, Halion, NI B4, NI Absynth, Cubase SX and Sonar 2.0, Reason 2.0, Micro Moog. How has your experience been of Tassman and Lounge Lizard thus far? Tassman and Lounge Lizard has been very useful in the studio and live. I have a Wurlitzer A200 but it’s such a great convenience to be able to have some classic Rhodes and wurly sounds provided by Lounge Lizard. A major plus is the ability to tweak the sound character and fx and personalize the patches. If you had a developer who was willing to make you your dream tool for sound design, regardless of time and budget constraints : ) ,what sort of features would you ask for? An all in one Keyboard/computer/sampler/video playback controller with unlimited recording and editing capabilities. Finally, what's coming up next for you? I am in the studio right now producing and playing keys for singer/songwriter Wenty Morris, pop rock ala Lenny Kravitz and the Wallflowers. Lounge Lizard will be used on this record. I am also producing and playing keys with singer/songwriter Star Nayea, blues rock ala Joan Osborne and Sheryl Crow, while continuing sound design and music on Southpark now going into our 7th season. Thanks! http://www.southparkstudios.com
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