With more than 20 years’ experience as a composer and audio specialist, Edward Patrick White knows the importance of creating arrangements and mixes that translate seamlessly between his own studio and a dubbing stage.
Having the right tools for the job is critical, which is why he has recently changed his studio monitoring to incorporate a pair of PMC 6-2 nearfield monitors.
“From my perspective, as someone who is writing music for video games, television, films and commercials, I feel that PMC has created the perfect speaker for media composers,” he says.
“These days composers are not just writing their music, they are also mixing it, and I believe one of the reasons I have a career is because I can bridge the gap between being a composer and a mixer.
“However, there is always a certain amount of trial and error in terms of the arrangement, the mix and how it’s going to translate.
“The 6-2s really allow someone like me to be making better choices, not just in terms of how I mix the music, but compositionally and in the arrangement.”
Although White’s customers are truly international, his main base is in the UK where he has a Carl Freslov-designed production suite in the garden of his East London home.
The studio is equipped with a Mac Studio Ultra, UAD Apollo 16 MkII converters, a powerful PC that is ‘stuffed to the gills’ with RAM, m.2 drives and sample libraries, and a second Mac that he uses for running picture and printing into Pro Tools.
The majority his projects are delivered in surround (5.1) and stereo fold downs (2.0), but he also pre-mixes for Dolby Atmos using Dolby Production Suite and Pro Tools.
“Principally, I think of myself as a storyteller who works in the medium of music and sound,” White explains. “There’s a journalistic component to the work I do, which means it’s always to a brief and there’s always a deadline.
“There’s often not a huge amount of time to ‘find it’, so you need to have a clear idea how to get the most out of your tools and get to where you’re going quickly, without fuss.”
This philosophy inspired his decision to invest in PMC 6-2 monitors, which replaced an older pair of monitors that were getting ’long in the tooth’.
“I knew my old monitors really well, but as a total audiophile I felt I could get even better results if I had the right tool – the right lens to bring everything into focus,” he explains.
“I was in Los Angeles in early August and was chatting with my friend Franc Cameli (who founded Sphere Studios in London and Los Angeles). He has some of the finest ears on the planet and he told me about the 6-2s.
“I auditioned them against competitors in the same space the difference, particularly in terms of the focus in the low end and the smoothness of crossover, was profound. I knew I’d found my new speakers as soon as I heard the PMCs.”
PMC’s 6-2 monitors are small and compact, which White says makes them ideal for his space and for the way he works.
“The traditional narrative is that you only need “big-boy” speakers for absolutely critical listening – i.e., when tracking, mixing or mastering. But for the way I work, I’m typically not handing my work over to a third-party for mixing,” he says.
“Nine times out of ten, the work is getting delivered straight out of my room, so it needs to sound stellar.
“Because I’m writing on the 6-2s as well as mixing, I find I’m not just making better mix decisions but that the production is more refined, and the arrangement and orchestration is more focused.
“It’s no understatement to say that these PMC monitors have completely flawed me in terms of their utility.”
Since installing his PMC’s, White has deployed them on a variety of projects including music for two AAA video games and a feature film called The Waterhouse.
“There’s always a TV commercial or two flying through my room at breakneck pace,” he says.
“Recent ones include a commercial for Stella Artois and another for Amazon Prime – I did some of the trailers for the Frontier Games title, Jurassic World: Evolution, which was fun because I got to play around with the original John Williams themes.
“In addition to this, my most recent shipped video game was the Gears of War title Gears Tactics for Microsoft.”
For more about Edward Patrick White, visit: http://www.edwardpatrickwhite.com