"Smash Boom Best" podcast at Dubway

From the Brains On! production universe of podcasts for children and teens, Smash Boom Best is a lighthearted and engaging debate show in which guests and hosts argue the merits and downsides of two generally awesome things–think “Mermaids vs Bigfoot” or “Ice Cream vs French Fries”–to figure out which is the best through spirited and often irreverent debate. The show’s creators, and a guest star, came through our Manhattan facilities this past week for an episode that promises to be spicy: “Bikes vs Skateboards”.

This age-old debate was recorded by Dubway engineer Louis Fisher and involved a large Zoom call, a local expert in-studio, and several members of the Brains On! production team. We wont’t take sides, so to find out who won, check the Smash Boom Best cast in the next few weeks, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

New documentary series by Pangloss Films records voice-over on the Main Floor

Left to right: Peter Yost, Louis Fisher, Condola Rashad, and Edna Alburquerque, in the studio lobby.

An amazing team from Pangloss Films has joined us in the studio several times over the past month to capture VO for an upcoming documentary series, Mysteries of Mental Illness, about mental health and our long history of grappling with it as a species. When completed, the film will be premiering on PBS on June 22nd.

Dubway engineer Louis Fisher helped guide the team, lead by producer Edna Alburquerque, through the technical aspects of the recording. Pangloss owner, director, and series co-producer Peter Yost and acclaimed theater actor Condola Rashad (Ruined, Billions, Come Sunday) rounded out the talented group.

Look for Mysteries of Mental Illness on your local PBS station next Tuesday!

Adam Faze-produced podcast, hosted by Annie Hamilton, interviews at Dubway

Post-recording session pictures in the lobby; pictured from left to right: engineer Sydney Fuqua, host Annie Hamilton, and guest star John Slattery.

Producer Adam Faze’s many projects continue to generate buzz for his Must B Nice production company. We’re excited to be involved in one of the newer projects, an as-of-yet untitled series hosted by Annie Hamilton. Hamilton has been hard at work in the studios this week recording two interviews–one with actor/writer/director Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Boyhood), and another with actor/director John Slattery (Mad Men, Spotlight), pictured above.

Both sessions were recorded by staff engineer Sydney Fuqua, above left, with producers remotely calling in for notes and feedback.

You can find a previous story about Faze’s work here, and more on the linked pages above.

Quirk Creative records voice-over with Tula CEO Dr. Raj

Dubway engineer Marc Frongillo with Dr. Roshini Raj in our studio lobby after wrapping the recording.

Quirk Creative, a brand and creative agency based in Brooklyn, brought skincare company Tula’s founder and CEO, Dr. Roshini Raj, into our Manhattan studios to record VO for an upcoming project. Dr. Raj wears many hats besides being the creator of Tula–she’s also a practicing gastroenterologist–and was a treat to have in studio. Dubway engineer Marc Frongillo made sure the session’s technical elements went off without a hitch, allowing the creative team with Quirk to do what they do best.

Contemporary American Theater Festival records in the Mezzanine

The Contemporary American Theater Festival (@thinktheater) took a stop through our studios to record a new piece from playwright Kevin Artigue, titled Sheepdog. The stage play was performed into mics by the actors for recording, while sound effects were triggered from the control room through the studio loudspeaker system to create a classic radio drama-style audio performance. Studio engineer Zach Grappone managed the flow of audio through the console and audio workstation, and Violette Furton edited and finalized the recordings in post.

The play recording was produced in collaboration with the Actors Equity Association, who represented the talent. At Dubway, we pride ourselves in being one of the few studios in the city with stringent enough COVID-19 safety protocols to receive recognition and continued work from both AEA and SAG. Like both of these organizations, we value our clients’ safety above all else, and were thrilled to be a part of producing this work at the highest safety standards.

See some session views of the studio and control room above, and check the CATF’s page for ongoing productions, especially the Playcast Plus festival in July, which will host the premier performance of Sheepdog.

M. Night Shyamalan's newest film, "OLD", records ADR at Dubway with Ken Leung

Director M. Night Shyamalan has a new feature in the works, and we were delighted to contribute to the recording of the film’s ADR this past week. All-star actor Ken Leung (Saw, Rush Hour, The Sopranos, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lost, pictured left) joined us for a session with engineer Marc Frongillo, dubbing some of his lines from the movie together over the course of an afternoon session. ADR can be a grueling, difficult process that requires extremely precise acting and a lot of patience; it’s always a joy to work with actors of Leung’s caliber on this step of the post-production sound process.

OLD is a crime thriller that follows a family’s beachside vacation gone supernaturally sideways. Like all good Shyamalan movies, there’s at least one trademark twist in this, but you’ll have to wait a few months to find out–the film’s theatrical release is scheduled for July 23rd. We wish the best of luck to the producers and cast as they head into the final push!

MTV's "The Challenge" records remote VO for season 36

The cast of the 36th season of The Challenge on-location.

MTV’s hit show The Challenge just finished airing it’s 36th season this month, and Dubway was delighted to contribute some VO recording for the final touches on the season. Staff engineer Louis Fisher ran a remote recording session from our Manhattan HQ, with select talent from the show adding a few lines to finish out year 36 of the reality competition.

As with many of our sessions–especially post-pandemic–the talent was able to record comfortably from their home or office, with no loss of fidelity or efficiency.

You can find all episodes for the season here.

#TBT: Jake Shimabukuro with Crossover Media

This Thursday, we’re giving a shout-out to one of our favorite production companies, Crossover Media, and looking back to a session in 2020 in which they brought famed ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro into the studio for a series of interviews with radio stations all over the country. We frequently work with Crossover on similar sessions, in which top musical talent–often but not exclusively Classical musicians and composers–conducts interviews all over the country or world from one of our booths.

If you’ve never heard Jake Shimabukuro play, you can start below with the video that first propelled him to international recognition, a cover of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps“.

"Still Together" short film by Chris Piazza and PanopticonNYC gets official trailer!

In advance of more exciting news, Chris Piazza and PanopticonNYC have released a trailer for their newest project, a short and surreal comedy called Still Together. The film, which is at turns funny, dark, touching, and endlessly surprising, follows a window display designer and her shared affections with a less-inanimate-than-normal mannequin. We’ve enjoyed a long collaborative relationship with Piazza and Panopticon, and are so thrilled for this film to be seen by a wider audience!

Dubway’s Nathaniel Reichman mixed and supervised the audio post, with engineers Violette Furton and Louis Fisher contributing sound design/effects and dialogue editing. This follows our work on Piazza’s recent Baby Won’t You Please Come Home, which won a number of awards including a 2019 Winter Film Award for Best Sound.

Watch the trailer at the top, and follow the upcoming announcements on the film’s socials at Facebook and Instagram!

Splashlight Studios records ad spot for Maurices with Allyson Briggs

Creative production and branding company Splashlight Studios brought voice acting talent Allyson Briggs (pictured hard at work in the booth, above) into our Manhattan facility last month to record an ad spot for clothing company Maurices. The session was engineered by in-house Dubway engineer Marc Frongillo.

Our facility is extremely well equipped for VO and ADR work of this nature–plus, we’re one of the most COVID-safe recording studios in the city. If you need that crystal-clear, professional voice over sound on your next project, give us a call!

Mott Haven signs platform distribution deal

We’re thrilled to announce that Mott Haven, a 2020 feature film starring Robert Davi, has secured a new producer, Safier Entertainment, and a distribution deal with major media company, SP Releasing. Dubway was responsible for all video and audio post-production on the project. Keep your eyes peeled for Mott Haven in your Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video offerings, and congratulations to the production team!

Jer Sklar's "Tom of Your Life" theatrical premiere in Chicago

This Friday, actor and director Jer Sklar’s 2020 film Tom of Your Life is having a theatrical premiere at The Music Box in Chicago. Tom of Your Life received glowing reviews from filmmakers and critics alike following its 2020 release, and it was a joy to work on behind-the-scenes. Dubway contributed post audio work and ADR to the feature back in post-production in 2018, and we’re so happy and excited to see it getting the shine it deserves!

If you or a friend are in Chicago, you can find tickets to the premiere here. For everyone else, check out the trailer below, rent or buy the feature here (or on Amazon or Apple TV), and watch for more screenings and releases from Sklar in the future!

John Lurie's "The History of Bones" gets audiobook treatment at Dubway

Downtown-scene mainstay, primitivist painter (not to mention Russian meme-lord), and Lounge Lizard extraordinaire John Lurie’s recently published memoire, The History of Bones, is getting an audiobook, which we were honored to record. Lurie is a longtime friend of the studio, and we’ve enjoyed a relationship with the memoire’s publisher Penguin Random House for some time–it’s always nice to have a group of friends working on a recording! (Lurie himself is not physically present, as he lives and work on an undisclosed Caribbean island)

Engineering is being handled by Dubway’s Violette Furton–a Downtown-scene devotee–and recording promises to be highly entertaining; this is a man with a lot of stories. Some of these stories can be heard on the new HBO six-parter, Painting With John, which is exactly what it sounds like.

You can purchase a preorder of the book here, and find the audiobook soon on all audiobook platforms.

Jerry Wonda archives vintage Fugees tapes with Dubway

Grammy Award-winning producer and bassist Jerry Wonda Duplessis linked up with Dubway engineer Louis Fisher recently for a transfer of a 2” tapes of the classic Fugees album, The Score. We posted about this over on the music side of our website, but wanted to also mention the other component of this session, which involved a film crew documenting the transfer of the original 2” tape of mega-hit “Killing Me Softly With His Song”. Check it out below if you missed the 90’s, or want to relive Lauryn Hill, Wyclef, Pras Michel, and Wonda at the peak of their combined artistic powers. Something is definitely in the works from Jerry Wonda, so stay tuned at his Twitter in the link above!

Dipsea records new episodes with voice actor Aisha Jordan

Aisha Jordan (right) with studio engineer Violette Furton (left) in the Dubway lobby..

Production company Dipsea (@dipseastories) has recorded a slew of new stories at Dubway in the past few weeks, most recently with writer, actor, and voice talent Aisha Jordan. Jordan was joined in the studio by Dubway engineer Violette Furton, who recorded the session in our Manhattan facilities.

You can find Dipsea’s content (and Aisha’s writing) at the links above, and and interview with one of the founders here.

Composer Ira Newborn preps upcoming project with Dubway

Film composer and noted John Hughes and B.B. King collaborator Ira Newborn joined us in our Manhattan studios earlier this month to begin prepping for an as-of-yet untitled film project. Work consisted of transferring several Digital Audio Tapes (DAT) of material, which will be sent to the parent film company for use in the film’s production. Newborn worked with Dubway’s transfer specialist, engineer Merter Yildirim.

We can’t say much more about the project at this time, but it was a real treat to have Newborn in the studio with us. Check out one of his most famous songs, the B.B. King collaboration “My Lucille”, which Newborn wrote for King, in the movie Into The Night, below:

Podcaster Adam Faze signed by WME

Adam Faze.

Adam Faze, a podcaster and producer who has recently been at Dubway for work on some of his projects, has just been signed to massive management agency WME, along with his collaborator Jamie Dolan and their company, Must B Nice. The duo have produced a number of high profile music videos, including the Goody Grace featuring G Eazy and Juicy J video linked at bottom, as well as podcasts like their flagship Day By Day show, a creative tour de force of quarantine stories starring some of the biggest names in entertainment.

The Must B Nice crew, spearheaded by Faze, worked with Dubway engineer Marc Frongillo last week to record a good chunk of voice over for one of their upcoming episodes. Check out their shows at the Apple Podcasts link above, or anywhere you get quality podcasting content!

"The Mind and Music of Chopin" by Richard Kogan, completes work at Dubway

Acclaimed performer, psychiatrist, and lecturer Richard Kogan assembled his usual team at Dubway last month for a new lecture-recital on the music of Frédéric Chopin. The piece, which was filmed at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, is out now and can be viewed above.

Producer Thomas Mowrey.

Dr. Kogan and his longtime producer-collaborator Thomas Mowrey–an extraordinary classical producer with a long career at Deutsche Grammaphon and Decca–have created a series of these visual documents with the Dubway team, which transport the viewer into Kogan’s engrossing lecture-recitals on the psychology of famous composers in the Western art-music canon. Previous entries in the series have covered Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bernstein (an artist Mowrey worked with on numerous occasions) Mozart, and more, with Kogan’s masterful playing at the emotional core of each performance.

Dubway editor and engineer Pascal McGilvray-Guard edited the video, and engineer Keenan DuBois handled all sound duties for the studio.

Dr. Kogan has presented his programs on the psychological origins of musical creativity at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the World Economic Forum in Davos and Rockefeller University, in New York. 

Randall Goosby in conversation with Fred Child for Minnesota Public Radio

Violin prodigy Randall Goosby recorded a remote conversation from our studios last week, with renowned radio host Fred Child (host of Performance Today) interviewing the virtuosic instrumentalist over a Zoom connection into our Manhattan studios.

The session was recorded by Dubway engineer Louis Fisher, and produced in partnership with American Public Media and, of course, Minnesota Public Radio.

Have 30 minutes to spare? Check out this beautiful recording of Goosby playing Beethoven’s 9th Violin Sonata (Op. 47) with Zhu Wang–another superstar–with sponsorship and organizing from the Chineke! Foundation.

Danny Walsh transfers large collection of sync'd ADAT tapes with Merter Yildirim

Dubway tape technician and transfer specialist Merter Yildirim recently wrapped a large tape transfer with local NYC saxophonist Danny Walsh (Aerosmith, Mingus Dynasty Big Band, Bruce Springsteen), doing something we don’t do every day–transferring a number of synced ADAT tapes to allow for re-aligning of two or more tapes in post. This is a tricky process, utilizing several synchronized units like the Alesis ADAT recorder above, and the perfect scenario in which to call someone like Merter.

Listen to Danny smoothly take on Coltrane’s timelessly difficult Giant Steps, below.