Aside from being lovable animated characters, Bugs Bunny and Charlie the Tuna have two things in common. First, their voices are provided by Pittsburgh voice-over artist Jeff Bergman. Second, their voices are recorded at the Uptown studios of Digital Dynamics Audio Inc. Says Thomas J. Kikta, Jr., who cofounded the company with partner Francisco X. Rodriguez:

“A lot of times Charlie has to sing parts, so I’ll be his music director and make sure he comes in on the downbeat and that he’s on pitch.”

When Digital Dynamics was launched in 1992, it worked out of space at Duquesne University, where both partners serve on the faculty; Kikta is Director of Recording Arts and Sciences as well as Director of the Classic Guitar Program. As the company grew, it relocated to the lower lobby of a Fifth Avenue office building. There, the young firm focused on mastering digital recordings and restoring old recordings and converting them to nearly any digital format.

Twice since then, the company encountered the need for more space. The first occasion came in 1997 when, to meet customer demand, Digital Dynamics added key capabilities, such as graphic design, custom packaging and CD press runs of varying sizes. Customers began dropping by to view their work in progress, and the lower lobby couldn’t accommodate them.

“We did not have customer walk-in areas,” Kikta says. “Everything was phone, FedEx, fax. Work comes in, work goes out. That was the atmosphere.” Still later, Bergman presented the company with yet another opportunity. “He was looking for a base for all his work. I said, ‘Look, we have studio space downstairs, it’s a mastering suite but we’ll add to it, make a voice-over booth area and a recording booth area,’” Kikta recalls. To seize these new opportunities, Digital Dynamics expanded in two phases. In the first stage, it rented another floor in its current building for administrative purposes. More recently, it constructed those voice-over and recording booths that now are used by Bergman as well as local ad agencies.

“We needed to transform our downstairs to a space where people could walk in and be comfortable,” Kikta says. “Since a session can take up to five hours, we had people almost living here. You need refreshments for them, you need creature comforts. That’s a different animal.”

At each stage of its expansion, Digital Dynamics pondered relocation but opted instead for enlarging and retooling its existing space. One advantage was the proximity of their offices to the university.

“That was an important thing for us,” Kikta says. “We’re close to the campus. I’ll walk up there to lecture in the evening.” Another factor was the complexity of constructing recording studios from scratch at another site. Explains Kikta:

“Here’s the problem. When you put a studio into an existing space, it’s a major investment. Here, we took out two offices, knocked out the wall between them, then put a false floor on the main floor that’s suspended on rubber grommets. The floor floats, and the walls are built into that floor. It’s like you’re building a clubhouse into a room, so that when you walk in there and close the door, it’s quiet.

“If we had seen something really incredible that met all our needs and enabled us to build a studio at a reasonable cost, we would have considered it. But nothing like that emerged, so it made more sense to go vertical.” A final factor in that decision: If they didn’t move, Kikta and company could handle most of the construction themselves with minimal interruptions in business and revenue flow — and no outside financing.

“We’ve all built studios for the joy of it, like cooking hot dogs on the weekend,” Kikta says. “So we’d take care of customers, then pick up a hammer and get back at it.” Staying put has paid off handsomely for the company and its staff of four. Digital Dynamics has forged important partnerships with such music industry giants as BMG and Telarc. It pressed a 14-CD set — and created the packaging — for the New York Philharmonic and created a 10-CD Super Bowl tribute set for the Pittsburgh Steelers. For the Pittsburgh Symphony, Digital Dynamics developed a 100th anniversary commemorative piece, CDs flanking an informational booklet.

It handles pressing for the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and, through a deal with Wal- Mart, presses and warehouses CDs for such artists as Nancy Wilson and Joe Negri. So if you’re a realtor with available space, Tom Kikta has two words for you: Sorry, Charlie.

Over the past year, we have seen a steady increase in crude oil prices, which have climbed from around $30 to over $40 per barrel, the highest level in 21 years. This factor, combined with a supply shortage, has led to an even greater increase in benzene prices, from around $1.55 per gallon to almost $4.00 per gallon. Benzene is a major raw material in the production of polycarbonate. This dramatic price increase in benzene coupled with an increase in polycarbonate demand has caused our major polycarbonate supplier to increase the price of optical polycarbonate by over 40% through several price increases.

Since receiving the polycarbonate pricing announcements, we have worked diligently to establish favorable pricing with other suppliers. Unfortunately, there are few options, and we have seen comparable to larger price increases, some as large as 75%, from the small group of alternative suppliers. Even negotiating as a major global consumer, we are constrained by market factors, and we cannot absorb the full impact of this increase in raw material costs. Therefore, as of October 8, 2004, we will impose a temporary surcharge of $.015 per CD disc based on current market conditions.

In general, there is a similar situation with jewel cases, which are manufactured from polystyrene. Pricing on polystyrene has increased by roughly 50% since the beginning of the year. Therefore, as of October 8, 2004, we will impose a temporary surcharge of $.03 on all jewel case products.

Pricing for the DVD discs and cases will for the time being remain unchanged.