Leading Post-Studio Blautöne Relies on Nuendo
Situated in the heart of Vienna, post-production studio Blautöne has made a mark on Austria’s TV and advertising landscape. Not only restricted to these fields of work, Blautöne recently worked on Let’s Make Money, one of the most successful Austrian documentaries by Erwin Wagenhofer who has been awarded the 2009 Deutscher Dokumentarfilmpreis and the culture price Special WorldShift Award at the Cannes film festival. This honor was previously held by celebrities the likes of Michail Gorbatschov, Vaclav Havel and the Dalai Lama.
Blautöne was responsible for the entire stereo mix, surround mix in several formats and the SFX.
The entire Blautöne production complex hosts several control rooms, a recording suite and editing workstations. Recently, Blautöne has expanded the facility by adding a third control room. Nuendo is the center of the production system and the daily working horse of the owners Thomas Kathriner and Christian Mayr.
- Christian Mayr and Thomas Kathriner
Could you please tell us something about the origin of Blautöne and your personal background?
Thomas Kathriner: I attended the secondary school in Salzburg and used to be a musician in several bands. To study at the SAE institute, I moved to Vienna where I founded my first sound studio. I also worked as a film mixing engineer for several TV and movie productions during that time before taking over complex production tasks for several TV stations.
Christian Mayr: I studied jazz guitar at Vienna’s conservatory and worked as a musician with live and studio bands for about ten years. I also worked as a composer and founded my first sound studio during that time. Thomas and I were neighbors back then and so it happened that we put both studios together to a 400 square meters production house which we named Blautöne.
What’s your workflow look like? Do you use several recording and editing studios or do you work in one place?
We have three studio control rooms, including one which is capable of reproducing surround-sound including ISDN transmitters, plus we’ve also two additional recording and two editing rooms. As of late we’re also equipped with a studio for composing, with a recording room and surround-monitoring. All control rooms are networked and have access to a central server.
Is Nuendo being used during the entire production process?
Yes, Nuendo is our primary software in all production studios apart from the composing studio where we’ve appointed Cubase as our workstation. We find this combination perfect for our tasks. Regarding Nuendo, we favor the editing capabilities, as well as the workflow in general, the video compatibility and, of course, the extensive surround features.
What projects have you realized so far using Nuendo?
We’ve created an advertising campaign for Mömax our jingle of which was awarded the Golden Rose of Montreux and a nomination at the Cannes advertising festival.
Our references include Microsoft, H&M, Nestea, A1 Telekom, Danone, Snickers and many more. We’ve also done numerous music productions and broadcast mixes for Austrian and German public channels such as ORF, ARD, ZDF and many more.
Thanks for your time!
Website: www.blautoene.at
