On the other side of the mic

Having been involved in the Mumbai voicing industry since the 1980s, the voices of freelance dubbing artists Kajol Mukherjee and Sujoy Sen have played their part in countless films, advertisements, television drama serials and corporate films. With audio recording skills learned along the 20-year journey, they decided it was time to cross to the other side of the microphone and get into production. And so in 1996, they formed their own dubbing company, Time & Destiny Enterprises.

Colleagues and close friends, they have enjoyed very successful careers – Mr Sen working primarily in the advertising industry as an Indian language copy chief and radio commercial producer while Ms Mukherjee honed her craft as one of the foremost voicing artists. The working experience and contact network they had established played their part in quickly building the studio’s profile, in a short span of three years, Time & Destiny Enterprises had associated itself with the world’s leading dubbing and subtitling organisation, the SDI Media Group. Quality always speaks for itself, and in a further year, another large dubbing and subtitling organisation named Medi-Lan entered the picture and the list of clients swelled to include Turner Entertainment Networks.

Initially, Ms Mukherjee and Mr Sen worked out of rented commercial studios. But while their work was appreciated and valued by their long list of clients – channels including, Cartoon Network, POGO, Walt Disney, Animax and CBeeBies – they aspired to operating their own studio. And as work kept growing, it became increasingly difficult to shuttle between studios and maintain their high standards of work. In 2005, they purchased commercial space and proudly opened their first two studios. In keeping with the Time & Destiny’s acronym T&D, the studios were named Tulip and Daisy.

Located at Andheri on the sixth floor of a business centre, the two dubbing studios are specifically designed for voice and song vocals dubbing. A lot of Indian language localisation work for animation channels as well as ad film work is done here. The studios were commissioned in 2005, after veteran Hollywood recording engineer Javier Ponton, who was also the sound designer for The Lion King, had approved the acoustics. As more work kept coming to Time & Destiny Enterprises, Ms Mukherjee and Mr Sen thought of adding a further two rooms until, in January 2008, the doors of the Turquoise and Diamond rooms were thrown open.

Inside job

Having been dubbing artists themselves, Ms Mukherjee and Mr Sen knew exactly what the basic requirements of a good studio are. The first impression visitors get when entering the complex is of a neat, tidy and cheerful place, inviting clients and the talent to feel good about the working atmosphere. The original studios, Tulip and Daisy, look as good as new – it is difficult to believe they are four years old, so well maintained is the place. Besides the tasteful interiors, the facility provides a selection of the best available equipment too.

The first two studios have an identical complement of equipment. The control rooms are compact and well designed. Yamaha 01V96 consoles mated to Pro Tools LE set-ups with Digi 002 interfaces running on Mac G5 computers form the basis of the set-up, with stereo monitoring on Genelec 8050A monitors and video capturing through Canopus ADVC 110 video cards.

The newer studios, Turquoise and Diamond, are located on the fifth floor of the same building, and being designed for film work, are larger in size – they are actually big enough to accommodate small bands too if the need arises. The equipment outlay is similar to Tulip and Daisy, and all hardware is from the same family.

In the bigger room, Turquoise, a Pro Tools HD 3 system (with a 192 I/O interface) runs on a Mac G5 with a Yamaha 02R96 mixer fitted with three AES cards taking centre stage. Roydon D’Souza, has designed the studio acoustics with input from Mr Sen on the interior layout and décor, while furniture is custom designed to keep all cables out of sight, making the room clutter free. All floors, walls and ceilings are floating and acoustically treated. Every room has tuned bass traps to ensure the acoustical space is free of low-frequency build-up, which colour the sound. The heavy acoustical treatment has led to the use of cameras and flat screen televisions for visual communication between the control room and dub room. When switched on, the televisions look like big windows. There is 5.1 Monitoring via Genelec DSP series speakers. These active speakers were aligned and calibrated by Mr D’Souza using proprietary GLM (Genelec Loudspeaker Management) software. A Manley Slam mic preamp and additional effects processors, including a Yamaha SPX2000, form part of the palette available to the engineer to polish and refine the audio track. For monitoring picture, there is a huge 43-inch Sony Bravia LCD that is mounted at the engineer’s eye level. There are two dub rooms, networked to the 5.1 control room.

The smaller room, Diamond, has stereo monitoring on 8240A Genelec speakers, a Pro Tools LE (Digi 002 interface) system running on a Mac G5 and a Yamaha 01V96 console. The microphones available to all the four studios include Shure Beta 57s and SM58s, AKG C414s, Neumann U87s and Brauner VM1s.

The equipment was planned by Ashish Saxena (a renowned Indian sound engineer and the owner of Purple Haze studio) and all the major equipment was supplied by Pace Communications and Unicorn Info Systems. Nikhil Doshi of Promedia, a leading supplier of high-quality imported connectors and cables in Mumbai, looked after the cabling requirements. Only Neutrik connectors and Belden cables have been used through the installation, and no corners have been cut whatsoever to ensure that the complex is up to international standards. Robin Monterio has supplied the Pro Tools set-ups and also takes care of all matters related to software, including maintaining software as and when Digidesign releases upgrades.

In a major project it is common for small details to be overlooked, but Mr Sen is a perfectionist and planned things to a T. ‘Having worked in countless other studios, we knew what we should have and what we should avoid,’ he says. ‘For example, very often, when we were dubbing, we would be interrupted because the flunky from the adjacent dub room would need some cable, or a headphone or a particular mic stand. These interruptions are very irritating for a dubbing artist. So we made sure that in our four studios, we would have adequate cables, mics, stands, headphones and so on, making each studio mutually exclusive from the others. There is absolutely no sharing of basic equipment between the studios; each is totally self-sufficient.’

The studio walls have colourful themes and the whole complex is very tastefully decorated. An elegant office area, clean restrooms, a sparkling pantry and a comfortable lounge where clients, artists and engineers can brainstorm, relax and have a meal – things that are lacking in some other studios, are taken care of here. There is also free access to the internet for all clients. ‘This is like a second home to us,’ says Ms Mukherjee. ‘We often spend more time at the studio than at our homes and so it was very important to us to keep the place warm, cheerful and clean too.’

‘A good number of advertising and movie industry people smoke inside studios, and most studios do allow this,’ adds Mr Sen. ‘But we strictly do not permit smoking inside the studio. There is an allocated space outside the studio for this.’ Consequently, there is no reek of cigarettes, and stale air is taken care of by an air-conditioning system that circulates fresh air into the studios, which in turn, ensures that personnel remain fresh and productive. Ducting was costly to implement – it cost more money for ducting than the air-conditioning equipment itself. AutoCAD designs for ducting, acoustic and thermal treatment were used in the designing of the air-conditioning system in the complex. Only premium brands AHU units (LG and Daikin) were used. This kind of investment in the infrastructure of the studio has proved to be beneficial, as it has added more value to the studios.

Clients from all over Mumbai come to Time & Destiny for dubbing of animation films, ad films, corporate films, documentaries, TV series and other audiovisuals. Now, with the new rooms open, feature film work has started coming in and T&D has become the one-stop-shop for audio postproduction, additionally attracting clients from out of town. ‘Earlier, clients from Delhi, Calcutta and Ahmedabad used to fly down to Mumbai, stay for a few days, record voices, do the edit and the mix and go back,’ says Mr Sen. ‘Over a period of time, a lot of our clients developed a relationship with us that is built on trust, and a strong bond now exists with all of them. These days, they avoid travelling. They entrust Time & Destiny to look after a project for them. They send us the script through e-mail and we do the entire job and send them the finished product (mixed sound files) via FTP or Digidelivery.’

‘It’s because in the past, we have helped them with their work – be it on the script, or organising artists or getting language experts – our background of Indian Language Localisation is of great use to them,’ Ms Mukherjee adds. ‘Most clients who come once like the place so much, they come back to us. Money is not our goal; our studio is not priced very highly. Where we score is proper infrastructure and a personal touch at every level of a job.’

Time & Destiny has a competent team of in-house dubbing directors, access to freelance scriptwriters as well as a bank of trained freelance dubbing artists, all experts in various Indian languages. Besides all this, they also have a team of well-trained engineers who are adept at working for international clients (like Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Discovery, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the BBC among others). Not many audio studios in India can boast such a bouquet of international clients.

When leading Indian singer and music director, Shankar Mahadevan inaugurated the new studios, his verdict was a big thumbs-up. He was very happy with the quality of recording and the services provided and described the studios as ‘uncompromising’.

Ms Mukherjee and Mr Sen are two intensely creative individuals who shared a common dream and passion and who have put their heart and soul into this venture. Their long list of satisfied clients reads like a Who’s Who in the corporate and advertising world. People have accepted them and know them as audio specialists. The vast experience that they possess, and which they readily share with their clients, has made Time & Destiny, a hot spot for dubbing work. Time will surely bring further glory in their destiny.

Time & Destiny, India: +91 22 2673 1249