Vicki Lemar (‘Schmigadoon!’ re-recording mixer) on creating a ‘seamless’ sound from different vocal ranges [Exclusive Video Interview]
“I wanted to make sure that it was as seamless as possible,” explains “Schmigadoon!” re-recording mixer Vicki Lemar. Creating just the right sound mix for the Apple TV+ musical comedy series provides quite the test for the sound team, due to the combination of live on-set singing and vocals recorded in a studio. Those elements have already been interwoven when Lemar receives the mix, “but I can’t tell what’s what when I get the tracks,” she admits, “It’s challenging just because you’ve got to try and pinpoint exactly where it switched so you can make it match.” Luckily Lemar, a classically trained musician with an ear for this work, is more than up to the task of finessing these show tunes. Watch the exclusive video interview above.
Large group numbers with multiple lead actors singing at once are often the trickiest musical moments to even out. Lemar highlights that the challenge arises in squaring “the difference of their natural vocalizations” in the final recording. This is perhaps most evident in the “Jesus Christ Superstar” inspired tune titled “Famous As Hell.” Nearly every main cast member is involved and the finale sees most of them belting out individual lyrics, all on top of one another. “You’ve got the gamut of actors who have all these different vocal ranges and then trying to make it all sound where one’s not coming across a lot louder than the other,” explains Lemar. The high soprano of Kristin Chenoweth must blend with Tituss Burgess’ forward-placed belt, while never losing the booming bass of Patrick Page.
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Lemar holds a unique position as she is one of the last stops for audio on the series. All the songs go through an extensive process of creation, orchestration, performance, and mixing before reaching her studio. “Then it’s my job to mix it into the space and go from spoken production into the song,” notes Lemar. “And then we also intercut a lot of songs with speaking. So then you’ve got to blend for that.”
Every episode of “Schmigadoon!” features multiple tunes, and Lemar reveals that she generally has about three days to finalize the mix for each episode. “The first thing I do is I go through the song and I just put everything at one level and hear how they have intended the song to sound,” she describes. “And then I go through, just with picture and make adjustments with what we call the step-outs where one person comes forward and is singing above the ensemble.”
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These individual moments of sound are abundantly clear in a number like “Bells and Whistles.” Lawyer Bobbie Flanagan (Jane Krakowski) slinks her way through a “razzle dazzle” number with various instruments timed to her choreography. “You want different instruments to poke through at certain times,” says Lemar. “So it’s just going through and doing little adjustments based on what we’re seeing on screen…that’s where I come into the picture.”
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