Dennis Sands

Dennis Sands is a three-time Oscar nominee for Best Sound (Cast Away, Contact and Forrest Gump), a TEC Award nominee and a winner of two Golden Reel Awards for Best Sound Editing-Music. Dennis has more than 100 feature film scores to his credit, and he's adding more all of the time. As either music, scoring and/or re-recording mixer, he's worked on such high-profile films as Erin Brockovich, American Beauty, Pleasantville and Good Will Hunting. He's also accumulated an impressive album discography with projects for luminaries such as Joe Pass, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and the Count Basie Orchestra, along with numerous soundtrack albums. Music scoring mixer with over 100 films to his credit.

Notable credits include Rocky II (1979), Back to the future (1985), The Abyss (1989), The last of the Mohicans (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Independance day (1996), American beauty (1999), Erin Brockovich (2000), Spider-man (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Beowulf (2007) and many more...

As a score mixer, what characteristics of AirEQ interest you the most?
When eqing in the digital realm I look for a plugin that works most closely to the analog devices that I prefer, such as the Avalon, GML, and Manley. The AirEQ is, by far, the plugin which most closely emulates these analog devices. I find the AirEQ plugin the most musical, versatile, and powerful eq I’ve come across to date.

Are there certain tracks where AirEQ is your preferred plug-in of choice?
There are so many examples where the AirEQ plugin would excel, but I find it especially effective for percussion, drums, and any sound with overtones requiring care in eqing.

How do you use the 5.1 feature of AirEQ ?
I use this feature to eq my mix stems. I typically mix the electronic elements of the scores inside of Protools, and it is sometimes desirable to add some overall eq to one of the film mix units. The AirEQ is the first plugin I’ve found to elegantly handle this task. The Air Band is particularly useful for this task; using just a little is quite helpful.

You often find yourself faced with time constraints in your projects. Does AirEQ help save you some time when equalizing your tracks ?
Since AirEQ is so intuitive, it’s simple to find the desired frequency, Q, and/or gain/cut, and to do it quickly. Simply and excellent tool to add to the arsenal !