About HearLabs
Every company has a story about it's inception. Here's ours...
in 2015, Steve Borne was in the middle of a seven year run of mixing the highly acclaimed Showtime television series "Nurse Jackie", for which he and his team won 2 Emmy awards for mixing. This was not Steve's first or last TV series... he has mixed hundreds of hours of episodic television and feature film content, for some of the most demanding and sound focused directors and producers in the world. He has also watched as that content was translated from the mixing studio and the large screen, to the small screen of television. For someone who has lived a life in sound, seeing how that translation is often made can be very, very difficult. In fact, the mix as derived in the mix studio with hundreds of hours of hard work and creative input almost never translates to home environment.
At one point, Steve was visiting with his father who complained that he could not understand what the actors were saying on one of his favorite TV shows so his solution was to just keep making it louder and louder. In fact, it got so loud that it felt like his entire house was shaking off of its foundation. His father assumed that it was because he was getting older and his hearing was failing, and while age can be a good predictor of hearing loss, it was not the problem. And Steve knew that.
HearLabs, through 40 years of audio experience, understood the varied facets of the issue of mis-heard dialogue on TV and set out to address them.
And that's how HearLabs came to be. For the past nine years HearLabs has been working on correcting the mix. Fixing what comes out of your television so it sounds like what went in to our carefully crafted mixes. HearLabs his dedicated to protecting the art of sound for film. And while we're at it getting rid of those ugly subtitles.
Our Projects
It's safe to say that if you own a television, and have watched it at all in the last 30 years, that you have seen and heard work done directly by the HearLabs team. Our founders have worked on everything from major motion pictures and beloved indie films to television programs to radio programs to museum installations, and were instrumental in the transition to digital recording that changed the film sound industry forever. We were in the room where it happened, during the very early days of digital audio recording and it's application to film and television production. Steve was in fact, one of the very early hires at the company that started the digital audio revolution, the amazing, forward thinking digidesign whose products are the gold standard in professional recording studios worldwide.
Below, you will see a sampling of the projects our team brought you.
Mix Accurate. What is that?
Creating the sonic pallette of a film is art, integral to the cinematic experience. We call that soundscape, "The Mix". It's the combination of dialog, sound effects, music and many other elements you hear and feel when you are truly immersed in the film.
As filmmakers, diving into the intricacies of sound design requires a deep understanding of the story's narrative and emotional significance. Sound complements visual elements and amplifies storytelling by evoking mood, atmosphere, and character depth.
Meticulous attention to detail is paramount. It's not uncommon for a sound designer to spend several months crafting the sound for a feature film. Every sound, whether natural or artificial, is important to the overall texture of the film. From ambient noises to dialogue clarity, each element must be curated to resonate with the intended narrative.
Sound design involves a collaborative effort between various specialists, including location mixers, sound editors, re-recording mixers, and directors. Authenticity is the key whether replicating real-world environments or crafting fantastical realms, the sound must feel organic and believable. This may entail extensive and innovative use of technology to achieve desired effects and serve the story.
Knowing the psychological impact of sound on the audience is essential. Strategic use of silence, crescendos, and sonic motifs elicit powerful emotional responses. Creating the sound design for a film requires both technical prowess and creative ingenuity. It is an intricate process that demands unwavering dedication to storytelling and a profound appreciation for the auditory dimension of cinema. As filmmakers,, mastering the art of sound design elevates the cinematic experience, captivating audiences on a visceral level and immersing them in the captivating world of film.
And that's why we're here. HearLabs is dedicated to preserving the art of film sound.
To be Mix Accurate.