User Profile: Spyros Poulos
Spyros Poulos has his hands in many facets of the music business. As an award-winning composer for film and television, his credits include Dateline NBC, Fox News, 48 Hours, The Olympics and Discovery Channel. As a recording engineer and/or performer, he’s worked with the likes of Madonna, Mariah Carey, Billy Joel, Michael Bolton and Al Di Meola. He recently shared insights and information with us about how he got started, where he’s headed, and of course, what gear he uses to get the job done.
How did you get into TV composing?
It was a natural evolution as a result of being a keyboard player, programmer and session musician. I had taken a position at a local recording studio running their Midi Room and throughout the 80’s and into the 90’s I worked as freelance programmer, engineer and then producer out of several studios, my own included. I’d always been attracted to the concept of music for film and picture and then had the opportunity to write for an up and coming music library that supplied background music for TV talk shows shot in NY at the time, Maury Povich, Montel Williams, Sally Jesse Raphael and Geraldo Rivera.
The company expanded over the years and to date I have remained one of their core writers, sending in a couple of hundred tracks a year. My prior work history had given me the chops required to write, orchestrate and produce underscore for TV and now film music.
It is always a treat when I get a project that requires creating a score or sound design directly to picture. That’s a very comfortable place for me. My production company, Logic Music Inc, also provides audio post-production, dialog editing, ADR, Foley work, sound design and mixing for picture. I love it!
What is your primary audio workstation?
Digital Performer. Over the years I have worked with lots of them but as a keyboard player composing, arranging, tracking, editing and mixing in DP still is most intuitive for me. Logic Pro and Pro Tools are great and I use those platforms regularly but I’m still faster and more comfortable in DP for most of my workflow process.
What Sonnox plug-ins do you use?
I started with the Oxford Limiter and fell in love with its quality. I now use the EQ, Dynamics, TransMod and Inflator as well. Using the Sonnox plug-ins gives me flexibility and control of fine detail with great musical sounding results.
Why do you turn to the Limiter for your Master bus?
I use mine a little differently; I’ll often apply the Limiter last in my mastering chain after I print a mix - and not on my master fader during my mixdown path which is through some choice analog gear after coming out of the box and then through Apogee converters back into my DAW. I set my mix print levels without the “brickwall” limiter there as a practice. I then use the Sonnox Limiter when finalizing a 2-channel mix as my last insert plug in Bias Peak using Vbox. I avoid redundancy and set my print levels without limiting during a mix.
If I do put it on a master fader I am careful to watch my internal levels. Anybody can throw it on a master buss and then ignore internal gain staging and slam the crap out of individual channels or a mix buss. That can be a cool thing though if used deliberately to crunch things up. I mostly prefer to maintain a clean balanced signal path throughout the entire chain. Then I’ll use a subtle or more aggressive amount of the Oxford Limiter to taste after the fact, when I can focus on finalizing only a stereo file. It’s so powerful I want to be sensitive to that and get the most out of it without compromising the dynamics of an arrangement. A little goes a very long way.
What do you like best about the EQ, especially on TV or film cues?
The fine detail of the Oxford EQ gives you kind of surgical precision - yet the tone is warm, balanced and full-bodied with a crisp top end. On individual tracks its amazingly flexible in letting you carve out a space easily or pull forward (or hide) a specific element of program like the snare or high hat from a loop. On vocals it’s incredibly detailed and allows me to enhance and warm up sweet spots and tuck in problem areas to get a vocal to sit nicely in a track. On a mix buss it provides a sheen finish with tasteful bumps wherever you may need, maybe notch a little out where dialog will be, around the 1 to 2 kHz range or other lower problem areas. In general the Oxford EQ is a Swiss army knife.
How do you use the Inflator?
Sometimes as the first insert on a track to bump up level a little and give it some enhancement, prior to additional processing. Other times I’ll get a sound going first with a compliment of compression, EQ and whatever else, then give it a final presence boost using the inflator as last insert on a channel. I find it helps seat a part in a mix nicely or pull it forward a bit. Instead of just turning a channel up to get it to speak better in a mix. Inflator accomplishes that without crowding out other parts. When generating creative content it’s about having the right tools for the job. The Inflator, and all the Sonnox plug-ins, are high-end, upper echelon players in that arena.
What are you working on currently?
I’m writing a lot of mystery, ambient, ethereal underscore instrumental tracks for crime style, investigative shows and your paranormal “ooh there’s a ghost in my basement” type TV shows. I just finished dialog editing for Bravo’s “Inside The Actors Studio,” and I’m wrapping a mix on a track that I used all live players on for a songwriter client. I also just finished writing the score and doing all the post audio production and mixing on a short film that was accepted into the Cannes Film Festival. Of course, it has a generous assortment of Sonnox plugs all over it!
Interview and editorial provided by Rich Tozzoli