Ventures where studios and composers meet all under one roof!
Media Ventures features state-of-the-art surround mix facilities,
a spacious tracking room, overdub booths and one of the most illustrious
film music mix resumes in recent history. Located in Santa Monica,
within a mile of the ocean and in the heart of the West Side film
production community, Media Ventures offers a full range of music
production and audio post production services. Media Ventures is
well known for technical excellence and adopting and applying the
latest advances in digital audio technology.
A -- Euphonix CS 3000
Studio A features
an analog Euphonix CS3000
digitally automated console with ES108 Dynamics and a Cube (provides
32 additional busses and aux sends), three Pro Tools Mix Plus systems
with Apogee and Euphonix A/D and D/A converters, and surround monitoring.
Studio A's surround mixes have a history of translating well on
dub stages. Studio B houses a Euphonix CS2000 console and
one Pro Tools System. The mic cabinet is stocked with modern to
vintage mic's including vintage C12's and an array of Neumanns.
the spring of 2002, Media Ventures was kept busy with the Dreamworks
animated feature, "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron".
Bryan Adams spent well over two months in Studio B recording
the lead vocals for both the film and soundtrack songs for "Spirit",
while Hans Zimmer's score was mixed by Alan Meyerson in Studio
of MV's other recent mix projects include "Black Hawk Down",
"I Am Sam", "Phone Booth", "Spy
Kids II", "Spy Game", "Riding
In Cars with Boys" "Invincible", "Pearl
Harbor", "Shrek", and "Hannibal".
MV include the recording and mixing of the scores for the Academy
Award-winning films "The Lion King" and "Gladiator".
Many world class musicians such as Lisa Gerrard, Bryan
Adams, Alex Acuna, Emil Richards, Heitor Pereira,
Michael Fisher, and Lebo Morake have recorded at MV.
and music projects have included Janes Addiction, Reel
Big Fish, Goldfinger, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros,
Incubus, and Maceo Parker. Actors such as Michelle
Pfeiffer, Tom Cruise, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Brannagh, and Val Kilmer
have recorded voice-overs and vocals at MV. According to manager
Tom Broderick, "due to the efficient, yet laid-back atmosphere,
Tom Cruise and Sean Penn both cite MV as their favorite studio."
video is included in both studios as access to a high capacity Fibre
Channel Storage Area Network (SAN), which enables both rooms to
access the same audio files at the same time. MV currently has a
T1 connection and several ISDN lines. This makes it easy to record
a vocal in New York or monitor an orchestral session in London.
Live Room is accessible from either Control Room A or B, is approximately
22" x 30" and features a skylight, high ceilings and a
C. Bechstein grand piano. Recording sessions have varied from recorded
a small ensemble (17 pieces - strings, winds, upright bass and grand
piano) for "As Good As It Gets" to group vocal sessions
(12-16 vocalists) for "The Prince of Egypt".
film composer, Hans Zimmer got his start as a member of The Buggles
before making the shift into writing music for feature films. He
was one of the pioneers of melding lush orchestration with modern
electronic sounds to create a unique hybrid of the two. He has scored
a wide range of films including Rain Man, The Lion King, and numerous
Ridley Scott features and he has earned numerous Academy Award nominations.
With a long
history of participating on high profile films projects, Media Ventures
experienced studio staff has fine-tuned the art of anticipating
the diverse needs of the demanding film post production process.
MV is renown for meeting impossible deadlines while staying organized
and maintaining the highest sonic standards.
services extend far beyond typical 'recording studio' services.
In addition to recording and mixing services, MV can provide pre-dubbing
and temp dubbing services, ftp transfers, ISDN sessions, coordination
services, playback screenings for producers and directors, and dubbing
studio B - Euphonix CS 2000
Members of the
MV engineering staff are experienced in operating Pro Tools at scoring
stages and printing synths in preparation for a mix in a film composer's
MIDI Studio. All staff members are highly proficient in digital
audio technology. They are adept at pitching vocals, editing, encoding
digital video, synchronizing digital devices, sorting out clocking,
frame rate and pull up/down issues, creating click tracks, conducting
audio transfers in any format, organizing and backing up data.
Ventures Studios are a division of the Media Ventures Entertainment
Group, the vision of a twenty-five year partnership between Academy-Award
winning composer Hans Zimmer and Grammy Award-winning producer
Jay Rifkin. Zimmer and Rifkin formed Media Ventures in 1989,
after Zimmer had finished his first Hollywood score, for "Rain
The idea was
simple: "To create an environment that included not only Hans
Zimmer's MIDI Studio but also a world class tracking and surround
mixing studio to create a synergy between the film composer and
the mix studio," says Rifkin. In 1994, Media Ventures expanded
by renovating over 6,000 square feet of industrial space in Santa
Monica to accommodate a larger recording studio and additional composing
and Rifkin have fostered - at least in the Hollywood music production
scene - a cooperative workplace atmosphere that cannily melds the
traditions of the old studio system, the Silicon Valley bottom-up
teamwork concept and the European mode of painters "schools",
in which artists from Michelangelo to Rodin formed groups of protégés
Media Ventures Entertainment Group boasts a studio campus spanning
over 40,000 square feet. Here you'll find multi-media entertainment's
spectrum of services with several divisions covering everything
studio services, music editorial services and music publishing to
Web design and online marketing development, and even film and television
Web: Media Ventures