V-Mon ♥ Custom Fader Mapping
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V-Mon is a powerful TDM plug-in that uniquely adds film console stem monitoring to Pro Tools. But all that power and flexibility needs a user interface with a lot of buttons and text displays. Avid's custom fader mapping feature, which lets you map plug-in controls to channel strips on the D-Command and D-Control surfaces, is a great solution for controlling V-Mon. We asked Dmitri Chernov, a supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer based in Moscow at CHD Studios, to talk about how he uses V-Mon and D-Command. Dmitri is currently in the midst of pre-dubs for the secret-service action thriller “The Liquidator,” featuring Vinnie Jones and directed by Akan Satayev, one of Kazakhstan’s new filmmaking talents.
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Dmitri Chernov - CHD Studios, Moscow |
"I like mixing on ICON because it is very flexible and because I like to keep my desk uncluttered. It lets me call up the necessary controls at the exact moment when I need them. But ICON lacks a flexible monitoring system. The first reason I turned to V-Mon was the need to instantly solo different stems in the mix. “The Liquidator” is a fast-paced, handheld action movie and the mix is very complex. Akan, the director, is a great person to work with because he is really passionate about sound with attention to the smallest details. We needed a fast and efficient monitor matrix, similar to the one offered by large format consoles. So I created a custom fader mapping for V-Mon and D-Command and it works perfect for us."
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"At the push of a button I get V-Mon's controls for nine multi-channel stems and the Main mix bus on D-Command with each stem named on the scribble display. I can solo switch between these sources or sum them. And I can easily reassign the input sources for these stems just by inserting the corresponding input plugins on my stem tracks. So, when I premix FX, I can have eight FX stems as monitor feeds, but in the final mix I spread the monitor inputs over Dialogue, Fx, Foley, Music etc. And it’s all within one session." |
Eight Stem Selects For Monitoring On D-Command |
"V-Mon also gives me meters for all my stems within one compact plugin window, independent of what tracks are displayed in ProTools Edit and Mix windows. I like to switch the meters to combined peak and VU scale."
"D-Command has it’s own nice set of monitor controls for level, individual channel solo/mute, etc. But it has two major limitations. First, it is limited to 5.1, and second, it is strictly analog, so it’s almost useless for speakers with digital inputs. With V-Mon, the only hardware you need to buy for 6.1 or 7.1, is more speakers which is important with the growing demand for 7.1 on Blu-ray. V-Mon opens access to 4 speaker sets, individual control over speaker channel solo, mute, trims and even delays for time alignment, in up to 7.1 configuration. And I can easily take it with me to any studio, just like any other plugin. V-Mon is perfect for me."
Dmitri has shared his V-Mon plug-in map file for V-Mon users. You can download by clicking here.
