Let Frida ring: The words “Oscar-winning film score” conjure up images of a symphony orchestra, a huge recording space and a control room large enough to accommodate a committee of creative and technical people: composers, producers, engineers, mixers, supervisors, etc. If there is a downsizing trend in the music recording business — which few would dispute — then the film-scoring community seems immune to it.

However, not all Hollywood scores lend themselves to this grandiose treatment. This year's Oscar-winner for best original soundtrack, Elliot Goldenthal's Frida, was recorded mostly in a living-room environment and mixed with a mouse.

“The traditional scenario is what we do most of the time,” says recordist/mixer Lawrence Manchester, who has worked with Goldenthal since 1996. “In fact, we're working on a project right now, S.W.A.T., where we're booking the Manhattan Center's ballroom space to record an orchestra. But Frida called for a much more intimate score, with a lot of solo instruments and small ensemble pieces. It was also a low-budget film, so even if we wanted to hire an orchestra, it would have been difficult for us to do so.”

All of the pre-production for Frida took place at Goldenthal's home-based project studio, which is equipped with a smallish control room and a good-size living room with high ceilings. Manchester and longtime Goldenthal engineer, Joel Iwataki, shared the recording duties, while Goldenthal oversaw production.

After cutting tracks at Goldenthal's loft, he and his team took their Pro Tools and Digital Performer rigs — which worked in tandem — to Manhattan Center for additional recording and mixing. However, rather than use one of that studio's generously equipped control rooms, Goldenthal and company set up in an empty room and did the entire mix “in the box.”

“I was amazed to go to the dub studio and listen to music we mixed with a mouse,” says Manchester, who has also worked on such Goldenthal scores as Titus, Final Fantasy, In Dreams, Sphere and A Time to Kill. “It sounded pretty darn good in the theater.”