Latte Mix's eclectic brew: this audio house services a mix of multicultural and mainstream projects - Audio Today & Tomorrow - Brief Article

Post, June, 2002 by Christine Bunish

SANTA MONICA -- Latte Mix stirs up a heady brew of music, sound design and mixing for a client base with as much variety as a good cafe menu. This audio boutique primarily does commercials for the US, Hispanic and Asian markets, both here and abroad, but also works on TV programs, independent films, motion picture ADR and entertainment CDs.

"We've always been a very multi-cultural facility," says owner/sound designer/mixer Ted Lobinger. "I've always gone after work with Asia and the Asian market in the US."

Latte Mix (310-260-9838) also has a long history of Latin American and Hispanic work dating from the days when the company was a neighbor of Missing Link, an editorial facility owned by Venezuelan-born Arturo Escobar. Awareness of Latte Mix's multi-cultural and multilingual capabilities has increased in recent years thanks to the talents of mixer Matias Lanzi, a native of Argentina, and GM/director Raquel Ramirez, who has quickly made a name for Latte Mix with Hispanic ad agencies nationwide.

In the heart of Santa Monica's editorial and film community, Latte Mix occupies the entire first floor of a high-tech building. It just opened its third studio, which will cater to music and sound design. The third studio and one of Latte Mix's other mixing rooms are outfitted with Digidesign Pro Tools Mix Plus systems with Digidesign Focusrite Control 24 surfaces. A Pro Tools/HD 3 system has just been installed in the larger, main studio which also boasts surround mixing. The Pro Tools/HD 3 features a ProControl surface.

A LONG REACH

Because of its extensive international work Latte Mix offers ISDN lines compatible with the Telos Zephyr system and CDQ2000. And they were the first in LA with DigiStudio, the result of a partnership between Digidesign and Rocket Network which allows Pro Tools users to collaborate remotly with audio pros via the Internet. DigiStudio is not realtime, Lobinger notes. "So for a voiceover session we do a realtime phone patch at the same time we're connected over the Internet [with DigiStudio]. With just a click we can upload and download files of selected takes. The benefit is these source files are full resolution, not the one-tenth resolution of ISDN links."

Lobinger's path to Latte Mix was rather circuitous. A native of Ohio, he played music and joined bands in high school, but in college, he pursued an interest in ceramics, which led to a 12-year career as a potter. After suffering from wrist problems he gave up ceramics for a year. During that time he took music and audio engineering classes and, in his mid 30s, began a new career as a recording engineer.

He served as the second engineer at LA's Killer Music in the late '80s just as the digital revolution got underway. The company was launching a library and Lobinger was assigned to edit it using an early version of Pro Tools. Since Lobinger wasn't getting the chance to do sessions regularly at Killer Music, he decided to set up his own VO recording and mixing facility inside the Killer Music building. At the core of the new enterprise was another Pro Tools system, still in its infancy.

When Killer Tracks changed locations, so did Lobinger. Having some connections in Hong Kong and speaking Mandarin, Lobinger decided to open a studio in Shanghai, which had long been China's commercial capital. "It was a disaster," he reports. Establishing a business there required a Chinese partner and the advertising industry had many restrictions. In the end, Lobinger was lucky to be able to smuggle his audio gear out of the country.

He next set up a studio in Santa Monica's Lantana Center where he remained until his expanding business outgrew the space. He then moved to his present location.

PROJECTS

Latte Mix has recently expanded its creative offerings to include music composition, "I've always done sound design, but I realized we need to do music as well if we want to be considered for sound design work: They're often so intertwined," says Lobinger.

Staff mixer Matias Lanzi is a talented composer and Lobinger frequently teams with freelance composer John Beasley. Beasley wrote a contemporary instrumental track for a large spot project for Korea's Kumho tires. Raquel Ramirez handled the voiceover translation and casting for 14 languages. Lobinger did the sound design and mix.

Latte Mix has been keeping pace with the growing domestic Hispanic market thanks to Ramirez's successful sales efforts. Her trip to Hispanic agencies in San Antonio netted spots for Burger King for the Hispanic market, Always maxi pads for the mainstream market from Bromley Communications and J.C. Penney, and the US Army from Cartel Creativo.

Mainstream market commercial clients include Rice-a-Roni, Mervyns retail and surround sound spots for Match Box Toys. "They're the only surround work we've seen" Lobinger notes, "but we're ready for more." They've also mixed promos for Friends, The Drew Corey Show and other sitcoms in syndication.

Latte Mix also gets its share of film work Lobinger and freelancer Jeff Mar mixed the independent feature Night All Day, and Lobinger did the sound design and mix for the short film Twenty Minutes, Nicolas Cage visited recently to do ADR for his new film Adaptation. The company has also handled commentaries for DVD movie titles. Titanic director James Cameron discussed Kubrick's 2001; A Space Odyssey while Brad Pitt shared his recollections of Legends of the Fall.