Chris Kubie: The Maestro and The Mackies
By Chuck Nyren

Film and television composer Chris Kubie has been clouding the difference between sampled and they're-really-in-a-studio arrangements for years. While listening to his lush, slightly quirky scores you're never sure if you're hearing an actual orchestra with a few oddball instruments thrown into the blend – or pure electronic dazzle.

He's gonna get mad at us. Here's the truth: Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it's pure dazzle. When complex, succulent music is needed and the budget allows for only a kazoo and three triangles, more and more New York producers are crying out, "Get Chris!"  

So Virtual Maestro Kubie is pretty busy. His music enhances Discovery Channel's The Justice Files , and projects for HBO (Bobby Kennedy: In His Own Words), A&E, PBS (The People's Palace: Secrets of the New York Public Library), The Learning Channel, and American Movie Classics. The latest aired special was AMC's Radio City Music Hall: The Story Behind The Showplace. This astonishing original soundtrack replicated half a dozen different orchestra styles through the decades.

" Mackie is a big part of why I can do a project like that," Chris says. "It's affordable, professional equipment and it works great." He uses a Mackie UltraMix Automation system, a 24-8, and a 1604-VLZ for submixing. "But what really has been giving me peace of mind lately are my HR824s. I used to have these really expensive monitors – second-hand ones, actually – and I'd mix to those – but the first time I heard a final soundtrack at a screening, I  shuddered. It wasn't right. I would've EQ'd it differently. So I bought some cheap monitors just so I could EQ between the expensive ones and the cheap ones. I was EQing in my head! Not fun. I compose and arrange in my head, but EQing in your head – no one should have to do that. Then I heard the HR824s and bought a pair immediately. The sound is perfectly flat. I know exactly what I'm getting."

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