Hi, I’m Henri Rapp, a Production Sound Mixer & Location Sound Recordist for TV, Film, & Commercial Video Production. I’m based in Cleveland, and available for travel shoots. Ultimately I believe my job as a Sound Recordist is all about capturing performances; Whether that’s a documentary interview, comedian on stage, a musical performance, or actors in a narrative film…..it’s all about capturing those moments.
Before specializing in recording sound for video, I originally came from a recording studio background where I produced music & did audio post as well as did a bit of sound for events at local concert venues; Having this experience still fundamentally shapes the way I approach audio today when these skill sets inevitably overlap with the world of production sound. Having a this comprehensive audio knowledge from a varied background is critical when productions with unique challenges arise.
Recording sound isn’t just a “Job” for me, it’s my passion and I’ve been doing it for more than half my life (in fact since I was a teenager). Now having more than a decade of professional experience as an audio engineer, I ensure the job gets done right the first time. When you hire me, you can expect quality through experience coupled with an extensive knowledge base & top tier equipment. I love unique projects and am equipped to handle projects of any scale. Let’s discuss the unique needs of your production today!
My work speaks for itself, showing passion for high quality sound with a track record for executing a wide range of complex productions. I love deploying creative solutions & overcoming challenges to deliver quality location sound despite each production’s unique challenges. Drawing on more than a decade of audio production experience, I bring a depth of knowledge beyond the most. While no longer my speciality, having had previous experience in commercial recording studios, with post-production, classical music recording, live sound reproduction, & more gives me experience for productions with atypical needs…. I love unique projects and the challenges that come with them, from complex shoots with high channel counts and a full sound team to fast paced shooting environments as a solo operator, or talk show style productions with complex routing, it’s always rewarding to tackle these challenges head on and conquer them!
Case Study: Anatomy of a Fast Paced Commercial Video Production Recording Sound for Pepsi’s “OH! So Refreshing” Campaign Not too long ago I had the pleasure of working with Bruton Stroube as the production sound mixer for Pepsi’s “OH! So Refreshing” campaign at Mike’s Place in Kent, Ohio. A fast paced commercial production composed of…
Case Study: 144 Music Performance Videos In 4 Days 144 Music Performance Videos At A Nashville Museum In 4 Shooting Days & 1 Tech Prep Day Recording sound for the George Jones Sessions was a fun but fast paced & complex shoot. Fortunately I had an A2 and a tech prep day to get ready…
Case Study: Remote Round Table Sound For A Remote Round Table w/ 3 Talent On Site, 6 Cameras, 7 Independant Mixes, & Zoom Feed & Return of Remote Talent & Direction While round table discussions are a fairly common type of video production, doing a remote version during a pandemic with each talent in a…
Case Study: A Direct To Camera Commercial Sound For A One Talent & Single Camera Commercial for Ranpak As was the case on this production, it’s always nice when I get to work with my friends over at Black Valve, who produced, directed, and shot this video. From the perspective of the sound department, this…
Case Study: Sound For A Live Stream Concert Find Your Light Foundation Benefit Concert Hosted by J.R. Heckman & Presented by John Carroll University When I was initially contacted to do the sound for the Find Your Light Foundation’s Songs of Hope 2021 live stream concert hosted by J.R. Heckman and presented by John Carroll…
Case Study: Sound For A Netflix Comedy Special David A. Arnold’s ‘Fat Ballerina’ Overseeing the production sound & audio post for David A. Arnold’s Netflix Comedy Special, ‘Fat Ballerina’ posed a number of niche specific challenges that aren’t seen on most productions. If you haven’t seen ‘Fat Ballerina’, it was released on Netflix in spring…
There is no substitute for experience, especially when working on location as a sound recordist. Having years of experience as a sound recordist across a wide variety of content types, I’ve seen it all. I have worked on projects in nearly every production style & workflow and am ready to integrate into your crew. Having experience and a strong technical knowledge base to draw on allows me to deliver no matter what the video production style is:
Most documentary shoots consist of sit down interviews, verité style shooting, and b-roll with accompanying natural sound. Since interviews are the backbone of the story in documentary style video content, capturing clean dialog is of the utmost importance. I love employing creative tricks to tackle the challenges of working in less than ideal shooting environments and improving the quality of sound captured within them.
Commercial shoots vary a lot in content and scale, so it’s essential to be flexible enough to meet the commercial’s sound requirements whether it’s lines to camera or complex one shots with a lot of moving parts. I’ve seen commercials with a wide range of workflow requirements; Often including high channel counts, timecode audio playback, IFBs (For Clients, Agency, Producers, & Directors),, and much more. Let’s discuss your project’s specific needs today!
Recording sound for a comedy special isn’t just about capturing the comedian, but the audience in the room as well. Having done a number of comedy specials, I’ve got the experience to deliver high quality production sound for this unique style of production. With comedy specials typically having high camera counts and long takes, maintaining multi camera & audio sync is essential. There is a lot more that goes into it than simply recording the show; Check out my case study on recording a Netflix Comedy Special!
Musical artist performance videos have become an increasingly popular production style. Coming from a recording studio background, I have the experience to deliver quality musical recordings. Capturing quality music performances is all about recording each instrument cleanly while minimizing bleed for other adjacent sources. Music has a lot of harmonic rich sources that can obfuscate each other when mixed together; Based on the context of the sources, style of music, instrumentation, and many more factors will determine the recording approach. How its captured has one of the biggest impacts on the end results of a recording.
Doing film sound for narrative content is one of the most challenging types of productions to record sound for. Made possible by working with a full production sound team (Sound Mixer, Boom Operator, & Sound Utility), we work together to capture the film’s sound on location during production with boom mics, wireless lavaliers on talent, & plant mics. In addition to recording discrete isolated tracks, the sound department is responsible for sync, providing a dalies mix, IFBs, coordinating with other departments to solve problems on set, and far more.
Films, Music Videos, & Commercials often need audio playback to match performances to music. Scalable PA speaker systems and playback files striped with timecode fed wirelessly to a smart slate to burn in timecode on camera as a sync marker. This makes sync in post incredibly simple even when shooting on cameras that reference mics can’t be used with (like the Arri Alexa Mini).
Reality shows are fast paced and all about capturing moments in real time. To make the reality shooting style possible, the workflow typically involves high wireless count (such as talent mics, hops to cameras, & producer IFBs). With the long take “always filming’ approach of reality TV, t sync becomes an essential consideration as well as delivering reference mixes.
ENG & Live TV production requires the experience to make sure things go right the first time, because there are no redos. News gigs often consist of one or more correspondents in the field talking back to a television studio via an IFB (often over a phone line) & a mix fed through the camera back to the tv studio. Many locations like sports stadiums require RF coordination to operate within them. This type of work requires knowing the ins and outs of this type of work as well as having the specialized gear like dialer boxes & reporter style earpieces.
As a Production Sound Mixer (Often synonymously referred to as a Sound Recordist, Location Sound, Production Sound, Location Sound Recording, Audio Recordist, or Sound Mixer) working in Film, Televisions & Commercials, I have a lot of responsibilities; from recording clean dialog, ambiences, & action sounds, to wiring talent, ensuring audio & camera sync, providing IFBs & comms, creating a mix, logging metadata, and much more. It takes a lot of experience & an extensive knowledge-base to draw on to provide exceptional location sound recording services for video productions.
I love exceeding the expectations of my client’s and delivering exceptionally great sounding audio by employing creative solutions to elevate the quality of sound recorded in production. Knowing what it takes to deliver top tier sound quality in a variety of shooting styles comes from years of experience. From large scale multicamera productions to fast paced run & gun crews, I have done it all. Each type of work I’ve done informs my work as a Sound Recordist, It’s all about knowing not only what needs to be captured, but how to best accomplish it in every scenario, while keeping a keen ear out for things that could cause issues down the line in post.
Every video shoot has different sound requirements and challenges. Offering ‘a la carte’ field recording equipment packages, anywhere from lightweight run and gun bag based production sound rental to a full scale cart based sound recording equipment package with a fully staffed sound department that includes a Production Sound Mixer, Boom Operator, & Utility. Each gear package is tailored to the needs of your specific shoot!
As a Production Sound Mixer (Often synonymously referred to as a Sound Recordist, Location Sound, Production Sound, Location Sound Recording, Audio Recordist, or Sound Mixer) working in Film, Televisions & Commercials, I have a lot of responsibilities; from recording clean dialog, ambiences, & action sounds, to wiring talent, ensuring audio & camera sync, providing IFBs & comms, creating a mix, logging metadata, and much more. It takes a lot of experience & an extensive knowledge-base to draw on to provide exceptional location sound recording services for video productions.
I love exceeding the expectations of my client’s and delivering exceptionally great sounding audio by employing creative solutions to elevate the quality of sound recorded in production. Knowing what it takes to deliver top tier sound quality in a variety of shooting styles comes from years of experience. From large scale multicamera productions to fast paced run & gun crews, I have done it all. Each type of work I’ve done informs my work as a Sound Recordist, It’s all about knowing not only what needs to be captured, but how to best accomplish it in every scenario, while keeping a keen ear out for things that could cause issues down the line in post.
Every video shoot has different sound requirements and challenges. Offering ‘a la carte’ field recording equipment packages, anywhere from lightweight run and gun bag based production sound rental kit to a full scale cart based sound recording equipment package with a fully staffed sound department that includes a Sound Mixer, Boom Operator, & Utility. Each gear package is tailored to the needs of your specific shoot!
As a union production sound mixer, I’m available to work any union productions. I’m in good standing with IATSE (Motion Picture Studio Mechanics) Local 209 of Cleveland, Ohio. I can work as a local in Ohio, or as an out of town hire for productions in other jurisdictions, with permission from the local IATSE hall.
Every video production has varied sound requirements, I offer scalable multitrack field recording packages tailored to the needs of your production. Ranging from lightweight bag based sound equipment, to a cart based sound recording system ready for complex workflows, or working on large scale productions with a full team sound department. Every equipment package is tailored to the needs of each production.
While based in Cleveland, as a sound recordist a lot of my work involves travelling to locations. Production sound regularly takes me throughout the midwest and beyond.
