Forums | MacLife

This was a nice surprise! 

I had the pleasure of working with the guys at Mutato back in the late 90s.  And I learned something then that could have been an interesting addition to the article:  They were still using Opcode's Studio Vision Pro a few years after the company went the way of the plesiosaur.  Mark told me that he had actually hired some of the guys from Opcode to keep their system running alongside their Pro Tools hardware (this was in the pre-Pro Tools HD days when 888s were the rosetta stone of I/O).  I guess they have given up on trying to keep it running, especially in the MacOS X era.  But I found it quite interesting, nonetheless.  They even had some (even at that point) ancient NuBus PT systems in some of the ancillary studios. 

The first day I was in the studio (I was working for a certain plug-in software company in those days), a round, bright green building on Sunset Boulevard that was originally the facilities of a cosmetic surgeon, I installed the latest greatest versions of our plug-ins, and, coincidentally, the system in the main room crashed.  I know it was coincidental because the other systems in other rooms happily accepted the new software.  I spent the rest of the day with Mark and Bob trying to get the system back up and running, and eventually had success.  I think Bob thought I had messed something up, but Mark never lost faith, and knew that I could get it working again.  It was well above and beyond the call of my duties, but, Hell, I was crawling under desks with none other than Mark Mothersbaugh by my side!  I wasn't going to pass up that opportunity! 

They were working on the soundtrack to the first Rugrats movie at that point, and had the full movie, but only in black-and-white line animations.  I got the feeling they were somewhat under the gun, and so this project required the system to be up and running.  We eventually got everything coexisting peacefully (I forget what the problem was).  We then spent a couple hours in the studio, watching the movie, and I watching Mark work his magic. 

They were so pleased by the time the day ended that they took me to a vault in the bowels of the building filled to the brim with Mutato schwag and told me to take anything and everything I wanted.  Sadly, they were fresh out of Energy Domes (the holy grail for DEVO fans), but I got some stuff which still adorns my walls. 

If I may be so bold as to suggest a similarly interesting story, Danny Elfman has been making music for film with Macs (and Pro Tools and Digital Performer) for about the same amount of time.  He's an incredibly interesting person, and would make a great subject for an article.

The guys at Mutato Muzika are fantastic, Mark and Bob in particular, and have been Mac users since the word go.  I'm happy, but not surprised, that they continue to be.