— Long-running animated hit comedy series relies on Waves audio tools for stereo and surround processing —
— Waves is now a featured brand in the show’s end credits —
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, October 27, 2009 — Waves Audio, a leading provider of digital signal processing software and hardware solutions, announces an ongoing relationship with South Park Studios, the producers of the Peabody Award- and four-time EMMY® Award-winning animated comedy series South Park. Waves will be added as a featured partner in the show’s end credit roll, and the two companies will carry on a mutually beneficial relationship as the show continues its impressive run.
South Park has long been one of television’s primary outlets for satirical and current-event-based comedy. Such an approach necessitates a hectic production schedule – often going from no script to air in six days – so time is definitely of the essence. The producers of South Park rely on Waves’ acclaimed audio plug-ins to keep post-production at the highest levels of productivity and efficiency. According to South Park Supervising Producer Frank Agnone, who has worked on the show since it began in August of 1997, “The Waves product line is invaluable to us from an audio production standpoint in streamlining our workflow. We produce an episode for broadcast every six days. Time is beyond money, and losing a mere 30 minutes equals a priceless amount of time in our daily and weekly schedule. Things need to be as efficient as possible, and Waves helps make that happen, week after week, season after season.”
In addition to U.S. television broadcast on Comedy Central and its high-definition counterpart, South Park is distributed online at southparkstudios.com and on various networks around the world, as well as through Netflix streaming and rentals, digital downloads, game consoles and home video releases. South Park’s post-production team uses Waves Diamond and Mercury bundles to suit their exact requirements from show to show, including 5.1 mixing, stereo stem creation and audio customization for alternate distribution channels.
Bruce Howell, Producer and Supervising Sound Editor for the show, has been a Waves fan for well over a decade. He has used Waves on the South Park TV series as well as the hit feature films South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America, produced and directed by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. “The schedules can become so tight that sometimes I have to mix the half hour show in 20 minutes. It’s that ridiculous,” he explains. Howell, who has also been with South Park since its inception, uses Waves MaxxBass, L2 Ultramaximizer, X-Noise noise reduction plug-in, and the Waves Dorrough Meters, just to name a few.
Howell configures all of the plug-ins in ways that maximize his efficiency. “I need to put out both 5.1 stems and stereo stems, so I’ve been using the Waves 360° Surround Tools in a capacity where, on Wednesday morning when the show has to be ready to go on the air, I’ve broken it down into a matrix that I designed around those plug-ins. When I push a button, I’ll have all the stems and everything printing to the SR digital tape all at the same time, going through the matrix that I put together plus all those mix-down plug-ins,” he explains. “This really saves me time, because in the last three years we’ve gone 5.1, so instead of having to mix 5.1 and then the next week deliver a stereo mix, everything’s delivered in the same pass.”
South Park has been a hit for 13 years, and its post-production team can choose any audio technology they want – and they choose Waves. “From an audio, video and animation standpoint, nobody is producing television animation the way we’re producing it,” Agnone says. “And Waves helps you blast through work quicker than anything.”
“Waves is proud of our new involvement with South Park Studios,” says Waves CEO Gilad Keren. “Until now, our high-profile endorsers have come mainly from the world of music – artists like Linkin Park, Kanye West and Sir George Martin, just to name a few. Now that Waves and South Park have joined forces, we look forward to strengthening and expanding our relationship with one another and exploring new avenues of creative collaboration.”
For more information, please visit www.waves.com.