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Meet the SoundField By RØDE DE NT-SF1: NT T-SF1: the most versatile microphone ne in the t world.
ONE MICROPHONE. ALL MICROPHONES. The SoundField by RØDE NT-SF1 is possibly the only mic you u will ever need. Coupled with the SoundField by RØDE Plugin, it can become a urround feed, mono shotgun mic, a stereo g-8 main pair, a complete 5.1 surround a hyper-realistic 7.1.4 with-height audio capture device, or a head-tracked 360° soundscape recorder for virtual reality. Whether you are recording music, broadcasting, capturing location sound or working at the frontiers of w, unlocking 360° video production, the NT-SF1 will enhance your workow, unlimited creative possibilities.
SoundField by RØDE Plugin Experiment with different mic orientations, polar patterns and congurations in post-production.
Based on an all-new, ultra-low noise true-condenser capsule and with RØDE’s legendary sound quality, the NT-SF1 comes with our 10-year industry-leading warranty and all accessories, including cables, shockmount, blimp and furry windshield.
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Editor Mark Davie mark@audiotechnology.com.au Publisher Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Editorial Director Christopher Holder chris@audiotechnology.com.au Assistant Editor Preshan John preshan@alchemedia.com.au
Regular Contributors Martin Walker Paul Tingen Brad Watts Greg Walker Andy Szikla Andrew Bencina Jason Hearn Greg Simmons Mark Woods Ewan McDonald Guy Harrison
Art Direction Dominic Carey dominic@alchemedia.com.au Graphic Designer Daniel Howard daniel@alchemedia.com.au Advertising Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Accounts Jaedd Asthana jaedd@alchemedia.com.au Subscriptions Sophie Spencer subscriptions@alchemedia.com.au Proofreading Andrew Bencina
AudioTechnology magazine (ISSN 1440-2432) is published by Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd (ABN 34 074 431 628). Contact +61 3 5331 4949 info@alchemedia.com.au www.audiotechnology.com.au PO Box 295, Ballarat VIC 3353, Australia.
All material in this magazine is copyright Š 2018 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process with out written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 17/12/2018.
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COVER STORY
16
Immersive Live Sound Special
The Presets Show True Colours on Hi-Viz
21
Studio Focus: Rockinghorse 14 Studios, Byron Bay
25
KRK V8 Series 4 Studio Monitors
Arturia Pres & Filters Plug-ins AT 6
ISSUE 53 CONTENTS
36
The Rubens Bunker Down
34
Audient iD44 Audio Interface
Binaural Battle: Hooke Verse vs Sennheiser Ambeo
42
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Musos Corner Celebrating 50+ Years in the Music Industry
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GENERAL NEWS
TASCAM TH-07 HEADPHONES Tascam has introduced a pair of monitoring headphones called the TH-07, tuned for a natural frequency response that’s suitable for mixing and monitoring. The custom-made 50mm drivers state a frequency response of 10Hz-30kHz frequency and a sensitivity of 100dB ±3dB. Their closed-back design allows a full bass response while blocking out most external noise. The circumaural design and leather earcups keep the TH-07s comfortable over long sessions. The earcups can be rotated and angled for maximum flexibility and easy one-ear monitoring and
isolation. The Tascam TH-07 comes with two detachable cables. One cable is coiled with a 1/8-inch connector for short-distance work; the other is straight and roughly 8.5ft with a multiconnector that accommodates both 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch jacks. A leather bag with a pull-tie closure protects the headphones when they are not in use. CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
NOVATION PEAK 1.2 Hardware synths that update are a neat phenomenon, and Novation is making the most of it with Peak. The verions 1.2 firmware update adds a number of the most requested features from Peak users around the world, as well as new presets. A whopping 43 new wavetables have been added to the Oscillator Wave menus, and two freely assignable, non-voice-specific LFOs come to the Mod Matrix and new FX Matrix (bringing the total to four). Pitch-Bend is now also available as a modulation source, with Up (BendWhl+) and Down (BendWhl-) assignable as separate signals if required. Workflow is greatly accelerated with
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an updated Mod Matrix design, as sources and destinations are presented on the same page — no more toggling between them to make and edit assignments. As a knock-on benefit, the Page button now enables quick access to all 16 modulation slots. Peak 1.2 also introduces a four-slot FX Mod Matrix, new envelope features, support for microtuning, and more presets. Innovative Music: (03) 9540 0658 or info@innovativemusic.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
RODECASTER PRO Rode’s new RodeCaster Pro is an all-in-one solution for podcasters. It’s a mixer, recorder and sample playback unit rolled into one with separate inputs for 3.5mm TRRS and Bluetooth with ‘mix-minus’ for echo-free call recording, and USB sources. Four onboard Class A preamps can supply phantom power to condenser microphones for podcast presenters who can each monitor via four headphone outputs. Eight colour-coded pads can be pre-loaded with sound effects or jingles to be triggered mid-recording. A colour touchscreen gives you quick and easy
control over settings such as EQ and processing presets which include the Aphex Aural Exciter and Big Bottom. RodeCaster Pro records directly to microSD card for a completely self-contained podcasting setup that relieves you from carrying a separate audio interface and laptop. Alternatively you can use it as an interface and record to your DAW of choice. Rode: (02) 9648 5855 or info@rode.com
SHURE BLUETOOTH 5 EARPHONE Shure’s new high-resolution Bluetooth 5 Earphone Communication Cable is the next generation in Shure’s foray into Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to ‘go wireless’ with your choice of Shure’s detachable SE Sound Isolating earphones. Featuring a dedicated, high-performance headphone amplifier, the earphone accessory provides lower noise and distortion while accurately maintaining frequency response, and also supports popular audio codecs, including Qualcomm aptX audio, aptX HD, aptX Low Latency, AAC, and SBC. You get an in-line remote and mic control and the new cable leverages the latest version
of the Bluetooth wireless communication standard. Retaining a wireless range of up to 30ft, its battery capacity provides up to 10 hours of play time with up to 350 hours of standby time. The cable will be available for purchase through authorised Australian retailers. Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or www.jands.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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LIVE NEWS
L-ISA FIRST IN AUSTRALIA For the first time, L-Acoustic’s L-ISA Hyperreal sound was used on a proper live event in Australia. Held at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Concert was treated to the immersive sound experience, with the system supplied by Novatech. L-ISA connects an audience to a performance by delivering sound that matches what they see to what they hear, more accurately depicting the spatial location of the instruments and artists. Novatech deployed a suite
of technology to handle and deliver 126 input channels and 96 L-ISA Stems including a FOH system of 84 L-Acoustics Kara, 10 SB28 subs, 24 Kiva II and 12 Kiva elements. Novatech was heavily supported by L-Acoustics, which despatched technicians to assist in the planning and delivery of this historic event in Australia. Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or www.jands.com.au
RCF GROUP ACQUIRES DPA MICROPHONES Just a few months after buying US loudspeaker company EAW, RCF Group has now acquired DPA Microphones from The Riverside Company. With its HQ in Italy and branches in the US and across Europe, RCF Group is home to the RCF brand, AEB Industriale (dBTechnologies), EAW and now DPA. More than 80% of the group’s revenue comes from outside of Italy in 120 countries. Arturo Vicari, CEO of RCF Group commented: “Since my early days I have been fascinated by the world of microphones. Our portfolio already represents excellence in
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pro audio and we are very proud to add to our roster DPA – a company that also represents excellence in the microphone industry. We can now offer the complete audio chain, from microphones to speakers for the satisfaction of professionals around the world.” Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or sales@ambertech.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
WAVES’ FIRST COMPUTER Waves announces Axis One — a standardised computer customdesigned and optimised to run Waves audio applications via SoundGrid connectivity. Axis One can act as the ‘brain’ of a SoundGrid system, seamlessly interfacing with SoundGrid I/O devices and servers such as the eMotion LV1 live mixing desk. Use it at front-of-house, at monitor position, or in your broadcast AV rack – or add it to your studio for tracking, mixing and mastering. Packed in a roadworthy half-rack 2U case, Axis One is a turnkey solution for live sound, broadcast, and the
studio. Under the hood, Axis One is powered by an Intel i5 8600 processor with 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD storage, two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, and nine USB ports (one of which is USB-C). It runs on Windows 10 and interacts with your SoundGrid device via the single EtherCon connector. Waves Axis One will ship early 2019. Sound & Music: (03) 9555 8081 or www.sound-music.com
QUEST QX-280 AMPLIFIERS Quest Audio has built the QX-280 series from the ground up to withstand the demands of a commercial environment. The class D technology makes it possible to have a compact single rack format with the right combination of power and channel density. Quest’s patented power supply technology, Dynamiq Bass, delivers power during high transients for sonic integrity at the top and bottom end where other amplifiers may lose detail through power degradation. Quest says this technology enables
the amplifier to achieve the same performance as amplifiers with two or three times the power rating, allowing uninterrupted power delivery even during rapid bursts of sound. Auto load-sensing transformerless output delivers full range to all impedance loads from 4Ω to 70/100V systems, ensuring smooth operation. Overheat protection with thermally-controlled fans and a built-in limiter circuit ensure total peace of mind. The Quest QX-280 is entirely Australian designed and built.
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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SOFTWARE NEWS
ARTURIA PIGMENTS Arturia has released Pigments — what it calls “a new-generation software synthesizer, offering unrivalled sound and workflow.” Pigments’ sound is generated by two engines, both of which are switchable between Analog and Wavetable modes. Setting an engine to Analog reveals three oscillators with four wave types each, plus a noise generator. The Wavetable option contains tons of available wavetables categorised into Natural, Processed, Synthesizers, etc. Pigments has two Filter sections with a plethora of options, some of which model hardware synth variants like the
Oberheim SEM and Minimoog. Modulation options are endless with three envelopes generators, three LFOs, three ‘functions’, all of which can be deeply customised and assigned to virtually any control. Four macros give quick control and the graphical displays of all these modulators let you keep an eye on what’s happening to your sounds. CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
PERFECT 10? CUBASE 10 LANDS Cubase people rejoice! Steinberg is at it again. After only one year, a new ‘big integer’ update has arrived that benefits all three editions: Pro, Artist and Elements. Customers who have activated Cubase 9.5 editions and earlier versions since October 15, 2018, are eligible for a free upgrade. Among the list of new features is VariAudio 3 (Pro) with more creative tools and Smart Controls to speed workflow, MixConsole Snapshots (Pro) for instant recall of different project mixes and settings to quickly compare mixes and add mix notes, Audio Alignment (Pro) to easily synchronise
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audio to a reference track. All Cubase 10 versions get a new Channel Strip that’s been redesigned with better metering and functionality. 32-bit integer and 64-bit audio continues the Cubase audio engine’s commitment to ultimate, no-compromise quality. New to Pro is the Steinberg VR production suite with intuitive virtual reality audio production tools. Yamaha Music Australia: (03) 9693 5111 or www.yamahamusic.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
DAW OPEN TO FPGA FX Antelope has released the much awaited AFX2DAW plug-in for its Zen Tour, Orion Studio and Orion Studio Rev.2017 interfaces. The AFX2DAW plug-in essentially acts as a software bridge, allowing you to utilise the processing power of the FPGA chip in an Antelope interface without leaving your DAW environment, and at zero cost to your computer’s CPU. It’s a good value proposition considering Antelope’s sizeable array of FPGA-powered processors, which include many vintageemulated compressors, EQs, guitar amplifiers and cabinets…
even a reel-to-reel tape simulator. You can stack up to four effects simultaneously per plug-in, and run up to 16 instances of AFX2DAW in a session. AFX2DAW is currently limited to macOS computers over Thunderbolt but Antelope says it is working hard to “expand its reach”. AFX2DAW is now available on the Antelope Audio website. Federal Audio: 0404 921 781 or sales@federalaudio.com.au
UVI FALCON LANDS IN PRO TOOLS The hybrid virtual instrument UVI Falcon and the exclusive Plugsound Avid Edition sound library are now included in both Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate at no additional cost. The free UVI Workstation 3 plug-in and Plugsound Avid Edition sound library is available for Pro Tools First users. UVI Falcon’s drag-and-drop functionality lets you generate sounds quickly and design complex patches with a multitude of modifiable parameters including 15 oscillators, over 80 effects, modulation generators, a scriptable event processor, and more. Plugsound
Avid Edition (included with all Pro Tools tiers) is a 2.6GB sample library that’s exclusive to Avid loaded with keyboard sounds, synthesized sounds, drums and percussion, fretted instruments, and more. The Falcon Factory Sounds library (included with Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate only) contains classic synths, percussion, and physical modelling, to sample-driven, multigranular soundscapes and multi-oscillator hybrids. Avid: www.avid.com
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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FEATURE
STUDIO FOCUS:
ROCKINGHORSE STUDIOS Byron Bay's famous Rockinghorse Studios fell into the hands of developers, with a heart of gold. Story: Mark Davie
The collision of real estate developers and recording studios usually spells bad news. That somewhere, out there, a studio is making way for yet another apartment block. Even Australia’s largest studios aren’t immune. Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne had to pack all its gear into the smaller ‘South’ studio when it couldn’t afford the asking price; Studios 301 also relocated to a completely new-built studio to escape development. Up in Byron Bay, the script has been flipped. When Taryn McGregor and her husband Rob bought the 70-acre property with Taryn’s father two years ago, they never expected to end up running a studio. Their family-owned real estate business specialises in regenerating land into the perfect plots for someone else’s dream home. Other than Rob’s profession as a tiler, they don’t do much with buildings, especially not commercial recording studios. “We bought Rockinghorse for the land, not for the studio,” said Taryn. “But when we got here and looked at the 70 acres, we realised there was a big opportunity here.” AT 14
Taryn and Rob have lived in Byron Bay for the past 12 years, “another 10 or 15 years to go” before qualifying as locals reckons Taryn, but long enough to have heard of a studio nestled up in the hinterland. Once they bought the property, they realised every man and his dog in the industry had a story about Rockinghorse. “You’d run into people on the street who would say they’d known Rockinghorse from way back,” shared Taryn. “But it also felt forgotten about. People knew it was still there but nobody knew what was going on.” ROCKINGHORSE OVERGROWN
Rockinghorse was built on the Byron Bay property’s garage slab in 1992 by Alan De Vendra, who had been the sole owner until recently. It was originally a control room, with two live rooms and a Neve V series console. The list of artists who’ve recorded at the facility include a who’s who from Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale, Grinspoon and Spiderbait, to Olivia Newton-John and Yothu Yindi. Most recently, Sticky Fingers’ latest gold
record came out of there. To a group who have built a reputation for reviving sites, making a decision to break up an iconic studio felt counter to their life’s work. When they met the two engineers who were running the studio at the time — Anthony Lycenko and Nicholas Wilson — it cemented their inclination to keep Rockinghorse’s legacy intact. “Amazing, passionate people who were already here and wanted to run it,” recalled Taryn. “They really influenced our decision to set it up again.” While the studio had remained relatively busy, it was clear the couple needed to not only perform their regeneration routine with the surrounding land, but to the studio and house, too. They got to work on the land, clearing swathes of Camphor Laurel trees and overgrown Lantana, then replanting almost 4000 endemic plants. The house was in good shape, but they replaced the weathered verandah, added a roof over it, and upgraded the facilities and furniture to resort levels. It already had a pool and immaculately-tended garden, but
ROCKINGHORSE PEOPLE: NICHOLAS WILSON In-house engineer and producer, Nicholas Wilson, is an Australian citizen, but grew up in Switzerland and studied audio engineering there. He had the opportunity to return to Australia and complete his last year of study at SAE in Byron. After that, he got straight to work. “I went down to Melbourne to work at Johnston Audio doing live sound, and was there for about eight months. Then I wanted to come back up to Byron and got a job here. I’ve been doing a mixture of live and studio work over the last 12 years, but I’ve been an engineer since I was 16. “I’ve worked with Seasick Steve, and had the benefit of working with John Paul Jones in the live environment. I engineered Sticky Fingers’ album Land of Pleasure, along with producer Dann Hume. I’ve worked with Art vs Science, did quite a bit of work with Wolfmother, and engineered most of Andrew Stockdale’s solo album.”
Rockinghorse’s in-house producer/engineer Nicholas Wilson in the main studio control room. At its heart is a Slate Raven touchscreen mixing surface, flanked by 16 channels of Neve V series channel strips re-racked by Rob Squire. The Slate monitoring system also feeds a pair of the new KRK V8 nearfield monitors, as well as trusty NS10s and Genelecs.
the refresh has certainly re-invigorated the spot as a holiday destination. In the studio, a good spit and polish brought out the lustre of the wood finishes, Taryn removed and reclad all the acoustic treatment, and commissioned a local indigenous artist to tell the story of the area on canvas. The lion’s share of the work was a complete overhaul of the studio electronics. With guidance and a wiring diagram from Bruce McBean (lead engineer on the Custom Series 75 console), inhouse engineer Nicholas Wilson completely rewired the studio. “It hadn’t had a renovation since it was originally built,” said Taryn. “Thousands of connections later, a whole new look for the colouring and tone, and a good scrub. It just felt so fresh and new again.” Something had to be done about the Neve V series console, too, which had seen better days. After a lot of thought, the console was decommissioned and Nicholas and Rob drove the modules down to Rob Squire in Adelaide to
be racked up into channel strip bays. There’s now eight professionally-racked channel strips sitting on either side of a Slate Raven touchscreen controller. The rest have been racked up into pairs, not that Rockinghorse needs any more Neve outboard. It already has 24 vintage Neve 1272 preamps and four Neve 1064 channel strips to go along with its API and Avalon preamps. It’s world-class gear everywhere. Loads of Teletronix, UA, Neve, dbx and Smart compression; a pair of original Pultec EQP1A EQs and a stereo GML EQ; plus an effects rack packed with an Ursa Major, Sansamp, Lexicon 480L, and Roland Dimension D units. They also have a Studer A820 tape machine and an EMT gold foil plate. The mic cabinet includes a pair of vintage tube AKG C12B condensers, a Neumann U89i, U87, U47 FET, a couple of TLM170s and three KM184s. There are more AKG C414s, and a range of dynamic options from Sennheiser,
Nicholas was instrumental in getting Rockinghorse back to where it is today. He’s been there since 2009. Originally, he and Anthony Lycenko (who’d been there since ’98) were working on it together, when Lycenko suddenly passed away in 2017. “The two of us got very involved in changing things around here; making decisions about how the studio should operate, and figuring out a good workflow for external producers and engineers,” said Wilson. “He was very dedicated to what he did. Anything I’ve ever heard him produce was world class. He passed away a year ago, and it was very tough, because we’d been working on redeveloping the studio, it was a bit of a shock. I ended up having to make a lot of decisions, it was hard for everyone and no one expected it.” Wilson said the decision to part out the Neve console wasn’t an easy one. If they did, he still wanted to have a tactile workflow, which is why they opted for the Slate Raven. “We wanted to update and modernise it,” he explained. “We’ve changed it into a more modular space. We’ve still got all the outboard gear we’ve always had, but we’re running Pro Tools into a monitor controller. You can plug ’n’ play anything in the studio without having to learn a console.” These days Wilson lives in an onsite cottage, and gets to appreciate the beauty of the property every day. The appeal is not lost on him, and as a producer, it’s got a lot to offer his clients: “When people come from Sydney or Melbourne, they feel like they can really escape from their everyday lives and focus on what they need to do in the studio.” AT 15
Shure, AKG and Electro-voice. As well as the Slate Raven, the desk has a Slate Control hardware monitoring system integrated into it, which feeds a pair of the new KRK V8 midfields, Yamaha NS10s and Genelec 1032As. There are three recording spaces at Rockinghorse. The control room looks directly out into the main live room, which has a woodpanelled, dome-like vaulted ceiling at one end. Its asymmetrical design gives engineers plenty of options when placing drums, and there’s loads of height in the ceiling for capturing ambience. It also looks out over the incredible landscape, giving a connection with the outdoors no matter where you’re sitting in the studio. To the left of the control room is another space with a slightly tamer acoustic. It has a direct line of sight from the engineer’s chair to the talent, which Nicholas uses to communicate during vocal takes. The renovation also converted the entrance way into another live room. Sliding wooden doors can create a connection or separation between the two smaller rooms where required. It’s a great set of rooms to work out of and plenty for a large band to make themselves at home. THE PRIVATE STUDIO
There was previously a second studio on site; a 5.1 post production suite in a large water tank just to the left of the main studio. “It’s more of a reverb tank,” said Taryn, alluding to what the engineers had been using it for lately. “It always had wetness issues, so we had to gut it and waterproof it. Understanding it’s structure, we thought it wasn’t really going to work.” The plan is to convert the water tank into budget accomodation, for bands that can’t afford to rent AT 16
the house. It’s adjacent to the studio’s kitchen and lounge facilities, and still has a killer view. Out on the property, down across the gully, was another shed that wasn't seeing much use. Although it’s only a couple of hundred metres away, it was completely obscured by Camphor Laurels before they carved out a clear view between it and Rockinghorse. “We had a bit of a go to see what we could come up with,” said Taryn. There’s now a commercial, ‘for hire’ second studio there called The Workshop, that’s also home to composer and producer Murray Burns of Mi-Sex, and producer Paul Pilsneniks. Murray helped design the original studio over 25 years ago, so it was like bringing back the original family when he and Taryn worked on The Workshop design together. It’s a homely studio, full of recycled paint and timber, and some of the pieces from the old studio. It has an oversized control room that could easily house an entire band. It’s stocked with some esoteric organs and keyboards, has an eclectic amp iso booth with everything hooked up and ready to go, and a reasonably-sized iso room, big enough to record drums. Outdoors, there’s a shower, and fireplace and full-size outdoor kitchen under the verandah. For ultra cheap stays in the outdoors, bands can simply bring a swag with them and camp out undercover. THE APPEAL
There have been a few shifts in the recording industry. Home recording cut away at the viability of commercial studios, and as recording equipment became more accessible, an appetite developed for location recording. Artists started scouring holiday rental sites for re-purposed chapels and Mechanics Institutes; somewhere with
(clockwise from above) The Workshop studio control room looking out over the Byron Bay hinterland; the gorgeous wood-panelled dome ceiling of the main studio's live room; the impeccable view from the Rockinghorse resort-style accommodation; and all that vintage Neve in the racks — 24 1272 preamps and four 1064 channel strips — to go along with the V series channels.
decent-sounding acoustics and a bed to sleep in. Partly for the experience of getting out into the countryside, and also to get a bit of space from neighbour’s sleep routines. Of course, setting up a makeshift studio can be a drag. That’s the whole appeal of Rockinghorse. You can have both: an incredible view and a working, top-flight commercial studio — 24/7. No need to lug anything more than your instruments; no need to find a spot where your monitors don’t sound like puss; and no need to travel 100km to the ‘local’ music store when you forget that one lead. You can also have the experience within a range of budgets. Go the full-hog and rent Rockinghorse and the five-star resort accommodation where you’re literally a 20-second stroll to the studio, at most. Or camp out in a swag under the stars. “6070% of artists are making use of the house as well, and staying for a few days or weeks,” said Taryn. “They’ve been loving the experience of staying here, and being able to record late at night or in the morning. “A lot of the reason people come to Byron is for the arts and culture, and connection to the land. This place inspires that connection to the land. You just want to sit still and enjoy the space. When people take time out, creativity flows!”
ROCKINGHORSE PEOPLE: PAUL PILSNENIKS Paul Pilsneniks has been in Byron since 2000, but he’s done a lot of travelling production work over the last few years and is excited to have a place to call home in The Workshop. He’s always felt a call to engineering, splicing cassettes as a kid, and recording on his four-track around the house. After school, he went searching for a job and was lucky enough to land a position at Studios 301, when it was at Castlereagh Street. He’d been looking for the opportunity to travel, so when owner Tom Misner offered him a job at the new Studios 301 in Byron, he jumped at it. Over the years he’s engineered acts like & Julia Stone, Van Halen, Alanis Morisette, Grinspoon, Powderfinger, and the Mars Volta. He and Murray Burns have always been close by. They became friends at 301 in Sydney, then Murray had the other room at 301 in Byron while Paul was there. “We’ve always been neighbours, and now we’re sharing this room,” said Paul of The Workshop studio, which is also for hire. “The Workshop encompasses all the gear Murray and I have accumulated over the years. We’ve just gone with a lot of mix ’n’ match flavours down here. We’ve got a couple of Neve preamps, APIs, MCIs, Focusrite gear, Joe Malone custom mic pres and a bunch of different mics. There are a couple of Urei 1178s and 1176s, dbx 160s, Neve 2254 reissue, and a big old tube AWA compressor. We’ve got some old school reverbs — like a Yamaha SPX990 and Evans spring reverb — and a couple of Urei filter sets. There’s enough to keep everyone happy and find a sound that will work. “I love the acoustics and the way it feels, with the open doors, natural light and fireplace. It’s a homely feel with a professional setup. I’ve always been into the bigger control rooms for the workflow as well as the social aspect. We’ve got ties all throughout the studio, so if I want to overdub a guitar or bass, I can have the artist in the control room and still have tons of space to breathe.” Paul admires Taryn and Rob’s tenacity and the way they’ve grafted to the music industry. With De Vendra ageing, and looking to sell, the studio had been in a stagnant holding position and slowly falling into disrepair. “Taryn and Rob hadn’t been involved in the music industry before this, but were passionate about making this space creative and working again,” said Paul. “They’ve stepped in and poured money into getting the gear back up to scratch and creating a thriving hub for people to make records in a space that wouldn’t otherwise exist. “You’ve got a creative hub that’s so beautiful and inspiring, but you’re also close to the airport. If you need to get back to the big smoke, it’s easy enough to do so.” AT 17
FEATURE
MORE IS MORE
IMMERSIVE AUDIO
Story: Christopher Holder
Thanks to L-Acoustics’ L-ISA and d&b’s Soundscape making headlines, it really feels like immersive audio’s time has come. Immersive (or ‘spatial’) audio has been around for a while. Ambisonics’ bubble of 3D sound was first in development in the ’70s, for example. But now the conditions are right for immersive audio to take a leap forward into mainstream concert touring, AV events, audio installation, musical theatre, museum and exhibitions, and more. Such is the flurry of activity it’s hard to separate what ‘immersive’ is and isn’t. Let’s break it down. IMMERSIVE: 1 WORD, 2 PURPOSES
When we talk about immersive audio systems we’re talking about systems designed to potentially do two distinct jobs (and occasionally, they’ll do both). The first is room enhancement. The most famous of these systems is Meyer Sound’s Constellation, where scores of loudspeakers are carefully installed within a room, along with dozens of microphones that sniff the sounds in the space then reproduce them through the speakers to simulate a room with a different tonality or decay time than the natural reverberation. Constellation has been used to rescue concert halls with shoddy natural acoustics. It’s also been used to supercharge presentation spaces. AT 18
OBJECT-BASED MIXING
THE PROBLEM
The other aim of immersive audio systems is to improve upon stereo via object-based mixing. This is the rapidly emerging application which itself is manifest in two main formats: Frontal and 360. Immersive frontal mixing sees the audio engineer sending instruments or stems to not less than five loudspeaker sources across the top of the stage. 360 mixing incorporates additional surround speakers — to the sides, rear and overhead. As mentioned, object-based immersive mixing is, at its core, about addressing the shortcomings of stereo. Stereo is great if you’re planted in the sweetspot — whether that be in your production studio’s Herman Miller or in a muddy festival field. Of course, in a gig situation a very small percentage of the audience is actually in the stereo sweetspot. You can address this by placing more loudspeakers across the front, above the stage, and creating an immersive zone. Rather than placing your source via varying amplitude between the left and right speakers, you can now position that signal into the appropriate speaker anywhere between the left and rightmost speakers. It means that no matter where you are in the room and the coverage area, the audio image remains true. For 360° mixing, you can extrapolate from there, around and above the listening area.
Forget about Pink Floyd cash registers going off behind you or THX-style glass shards flying overhead, most immersive productions will be ‘frontal’ with five arrays spaced out above the stage, and one line of subs flown even higher, above the central array (additional arrays can be placed either side of the stage for additional width). While it’s easy to dismiss immersive audio as the 3D glasses of live sound, these frontal arrays actually solve a lot of the problems of a traditional PA system. So what does hanging five achieve that a standard stereo deployment doesn’t? In a typical stereo deployment the coverage of the left and right hangs is designed to overlap as little as possible to gain the most even coverage of the venue. This creates a number of problems. Firstly — from a listening perspective — there’s only one best seat in the house. Localisation of sources by panning them to their position only works for a very small sweet spot in any venue. If you’re off to the side, you’ll almost exclusively hear one PA hang and not the other. So, even though a centre stage vocalist will be panned to the centre, instead of sounding like they’re coming out of the middle of the stage, their sound will be localised to the PA hang closest to you. From the mix perspective, this means most engineers mix largely in mono, so that people on
THE PLAYERS d&b Soundscape | dbaudio.com
Harman Immersive | pro.harman
Outboard TiMax | outboard.co.uk
d&b’s Soundscape tackles the 3D mixing and room enhancement challenges with two optional software packages: En-Scene (for 3D object-based sound placement) and En-Space (for acoustic manipulation and enhancement). Works with a DS100 64x64 engine.
Uses a Lexicon-branded ‘QuantumLogic’ DSP to upscale a 5.1 or 7.1 source to a 32-channel immersive room. Pitched at movie theatres for the moment.
TiMax is one of the godfather’s of spatial audio. It’s best known for stage tracking vocal localisation — using a delay-matrix processor and software to dynamically move an actor’s vocal pan position across a LCR loudspeaker system.
L-Acoustics L-ISA | l-isa-immersive.com Pronounced ‘El-lisa’, the French loudspeaker co. has a ‘road ready’ 3D mixing system. Not necessarily the most sophisticated interface but the easiest to jump into in a gigging scenario. Meyer Sound Constellation | meyersound.com/product/constellation Meyer’s mature acoustic enhancement system has rescued many a flawed performance space. Pricey, powerful and potentially life changing. Meyer is now turning its gaze to 3D mixing — it has the hardware, now it’s working on its SpaceMap UI to be more gig-friendly.
the left side of the venue aren’t simply hearing what’s been panned to the left side of a stereo mix — half the drums, half the guitars, and some vocals. Secondly, because there are two PA hangs, you also need to correlate the low end to those arrays. That means the core energy of the subs is typically generated in a way that creates a power alley down the middle of the venue where the sub energy is at its maximum summation. Step a few paces either side of that and you could find yourself in a low end null that could drop that energy by 30dB. Thirdly, while we have some incredibly powerful PAs that can throw long distances and disperse in a wide pattern, there is still a fight for clarity. By having everything on stage come out of the same PA hang, the FOH engineer has to heavily filter, EQ, and compress every sound to create intelligibility while also giving that sensation of sonic impact. THE SOLUTION
On paper, a frontal immersive system overcomes all of those issues. Firstly, by having multiple spaced arrays across the stage, the sound can be localised to its stage position and every patron in the ‘immersive zone’ will be treated to a ‘what you see is what your hear’ audio image of the stage. If a singer is in the centre of the stage, the sound emanates from the centre hang.
IOSONO | www.iosono-sound.com Now a Barco company, IOSONO combines a ‘Core’ DSP and a GUI to achieve loudspeaker-agnostic object-based mixing. Pitched at cinemas, events and themed entertainment. Vivace | www.mbbm-aso.com A powerful hardware/software system for acoustic enhancement, in the main. Meyer Constellation’s main competitor. Big in the classical music/concert hall arena.
Flux:: SPAT Revolution | fluxhome.com A speaker-agnostic real-time 3D-audio mixing engine that can also add room effects. Can use it to send the result to a loudspeaker setup or a pair of normal stereophonic headphones, or export the result as audio stems to use in any other audio engine. Theatres, events and Cirque de Soleil have been its hunting ground so far.
Astro Spatial Audio | astroaudio.eu Another loudspeaker-agnostic system based on a rendering engine and a software GUI. Uses an algorithm developed by the Fraunhofer Institute. Making headway in the musical theatre market.
It also means mix engineers don’t have to mix in mono any longer. Secondly, because the energy is dispersed across multiple arrays, there’s also a completely different approach to overlap. Rather than maximising coverage with two high-powered arrays by minimising overlap, there is plenty of overlap between all of the arrays. It means that the sub energy doesn’t have to be correlated as strongly to the stereo hangs, but can be primarily located as a mono source, above the central hang, that disperses evenly throughout the venue. No more power alley. Thirdly, because there are multiple arrays, mix engineers can localise a source to a particular array, like a vocal in the centre array. By spreading the load across multiple hangs, the content in each array has less to fight with and requires less volume to be intelligible. Vocals are more intelligible. Every instrument is heard with more precision, the audio engineer isn’t so compelled to resort to a bag of EQ and compression tricks to achieve separation in a mix, while the extra ‘depth’ dimension can help to create lush and spectacular soundscapes. Mixes can feel impactful at a much lower level.
winning) specialist Scott Willsallen about his audio design for a no-expense-spared UAE National Day celebration. With seven frontal arrays across an enormous stage, along with loudspeakers on the sides, rear and overhead, it’s safe to say this kind of approach will be the exception rather than the rule. Most AV events will see immersive audio’s influence via the introduction of extra frontal arrays. Saying that, aspirational concert halls would do well to consider a 360 system in their next upgrade. Sydney Opera House certainly did when it upgraded the Dame Joan Sutherland Theatre (regrettably that story will have to wait for a future issue). Naturally, it all depends on the application and the budget. Which is why we’ve tackled this story from a number of angles. I trust it gives you a solid background in what is a rapidly emerging new audio paradigm.
RUBBER HITS THE ROAD
So how will immersive audio impact on the real world of AV events and installation? We talk to big-event (and Emmy AwardAT 19
EXPLORING THE
SOUNDSCAPE
d&b’s Ralf Zuleeg talks about the beauty of ‘what you see is what you hear’. Story: Christopher Holder
Ralf Zuleeg is d&b’s head of Sales Services & Application Engineering. If Soundscape is anyone’s ‘baby’, it’s Ralf ’s. For d&b, it was a case of ‘what would be the next loudspeaker?’ With GSL, we have an amazing new loudspeaker with great properties — great directivity, SPL; everything is outstanding. Yet, still, we’re stuck in a left/right speaker world. For me, the most important thing was my belief that for 30 years we’ve been doing it wrong. Then some years ago we worked with Kraftwerk on an immersive concert system. That tour got a lot of press coverage; people heard about it; and more people began jumping on board. This is the normal way that an idea develops: you persevere, you can never make it all on your own, you need competition, you need to push some controversial ideas, you need to keep the passion going… We now have other major players coming on board, money is in the game, and we can move things forward. We now have critical mass. My original vision for Soundscape was for it to be a frontal system. Not so much a 360 system, but a system that could reproduce sound in the right way — a ‘what you see is what you hear’ system. AT 20
I recall being at a Laurie Anderson concert. I was in the 5th row, right in front of the left PA stack. It was waste of time. I want to have a proper relationship with what’s happening on stage, no matter where I am in the audience. Not that everyone is hearing the same thing but they are hearing the right thing. From there, 360 is the logical extension. At d&b this became the idea behind the En Scene user interface. And if you already have loudspeakers in the round, the next logical step is to emulate any acoustic space — something we address with En Space. There are going to be barriers to acceptance. Even at this early stage we have some productions and installations where the people don’t understand why they have all of these extra speakers. Every new idea; every new approach needs a whole new level of support. People need to see the benefits, the results and the reviews. We’re talking to a number of major bands and we’re in no doubt that there will be a whole lot of hand holding to make it happen. It’s interesting, we’re not talking to the same people. It’s not the technicians anymore. We have to talk to producers, production managers and the
artists to get there. There is an extra cost to an immersive audio production. For frontal systems with proper preparation, financially you’re talking about an extra 20-25%. A lot of that is in getting a proper set design put together. The extra rental cost is fairly minimal. You don’t have 5 x 24-deep arrays at the front. The arrays are smaller and you distribute the energy in a different way. A frontal system might have around 30% more loudspeakers. ARRAY CONFIGURATIONS
When it comes to immersive audio, you need to say goodbye to a purely technical approach to sound reinforcement system design. You have to look at energy distribution. This is not the time to rely only on a measurement microphone, you should listen and design for human beings. You of course need proper coverage but you need fewer boxes in an array. The interesting thing with immersive sound, especially with 360 systems but also frontal systems, is that it appears to be louder than it actually is. You have this impression of audio
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coming from all directions. Psychoacoustically, it can feel really quite loud, but you can turn around and talk normally to you neighbour. What, I can just talk normally?! The spatial distribution of the sources, in the horizontal and the vertical — the two-dimensional distribution of energy, if not the three-dimensional of energy — makes the game a bit different. We have to take into account that we’re using the same energy but we’re using it differently. Horizontal coverage is also managed differently to a conventional L/R array. Each array should be able to cover the entire target area (or as much as possible). Each array should be spaced such that the maximum distance between the arrays are about 70% of the distance of the closest listener. That’s the density required. There’s definitely a psychoacoustic aspect to immersive audio that we don’t yet fully understand. Which is why I say you need to design a system with your ears as much as with a tool like ArrayCalc. LEVEL OF ACCEPTANCE
We set up a d&b Soundscape system in the Acoustic Stage at the Glastonbury Festival and made it available to visiting front of house engineers — none of which had used the system before. Just one or two out of the 10 or so bands elected not to use it, most were interested and had a go. I think the barrier for some front of house engineers is not having the picture in their heads. If you’re used to doing things a certain way with channel-based mixing then you may find it harder to have that imagination. It could be easier if you’ve only had a five or six years of experience and are seeking new ideas. In other words, the barrier is psychological. There’s not much extra effort required of the sound engineers. You’re working on the same mixing console, it’s just that you’re using the most expensive panner in the world to position your signals! Look at car manufacturers. They’re now software companies. I think in the same way, d&b becoming a software company is a normal development and fascinating as well. As a loudspeaker manufacturer everything new is depending on software and signal processing — whatever is coming next is going to rely on software.
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dynamicmusic.com.au
AT 21
MONA L-ISA L-Acoustics pioneered the last major reinvention of the PA, now it’s confident it can pull off another masterpiece. Story: Mark Davie
L-ISA only debuted in 2016, and Guillame Le Nost, L-Acoustics’ Director of R&D on L-ISA, is already referring to stereo PA deployments as “the way it used to be”, “traditional”, and “stuck in a 50-year old configuration.” I guess everything looks nostalgic when you’ve poured the last few years of your life into developing the ‘next step’ in live sound technology. As Le Nost tells it, it all started when L-Acoustics’ founder Christian Heil had his lightbulb moment five years ago. Heil was sitting up in the side bleachers at a concert and hearing the vocals out of a PA hang situated 10m to the left of where the singer was physically standing. His frustration with this lack of continuity between sight and sound was only compounded by looking at the multi-storey-high video screens and lighting extravaganzas pushing the PA further out of the picture. It seemed like an imbalance. “After all, everything is a consequence of the music,” reminded Le Nost. “It’s firstly about music, not seeing a singer on a big screen.” Heil reckoned they could do better. “Inevitably, we’re going to have to adopt different sound designs anyway,” concurred Le Nost, who could foresee those video screens eventually pushing PAs further out of the picture. “We thought we had great products, but in terms of deployment and configuration, we could do something better to address the questions of localisation and give a better sense of immersion and sound quality for the audience.” It started as a research project with a team of three. Le Nost and Heil had the first two domains covered: “The simulation stage — where you can define your speaker configuration and system design; and the processing — what kind of AT 22
algorithms we should put in place to make it sound good.” The third domain: “The mixing part — what tools we give the sound engineer to create a great mix in space,” fell outside of their immediate specialties. To cover that ground, Sherif El Barbari — who has system teched and mixed everyone from Radiohead and Peter Gabriel, to the Pope — became the third member of the team. By 2016, they finally had a “technology that could really offer productions a way to put the sound back at the centre of the show.” THE L-ISA GUARANTEE
L-Acoustics has been at the forefront of a paradigm shift in live sound technology before. For four years back in the ’90s, Heil was the lone door-to-door salesman spruiking line source arrays before any other manufacturer bit. It eventually became the standard in PAs, and Le Nost says that experience helped L-Acoustics formulate key criteria for introducing new technology. Mainly, that for engineers to adopt anything new, it must work… every time. Since deploying the first L-ISA systems, Le Nost says the company’s focus has been on establishing guidelines. Each time they would take an L-ISA rig out on the road, the team would refine those guidelines, ensuring they were as effective in the field as they were in-house. “We’ve reached the stage where we’re completely sure our guidelines are robust,” said Le Nost. “It means we can provide a repeatable methodology and guarantee the result directly from the simulation stage, which is something unique in the market at the moment.” All those anxieties about SPL and sonic impact that plague the psyche of a FOH engineer transitioning
from huge lines of K1 to multiple arrays of the much smaller Kara can be dispelled, according to Le Nost. Get it right in the simulation, and L-Acoustics guarantees it will work in the field. SIMPLY DOES IT
L-Acoustics ended up with a basic deployment to achieve what Le Nost dubs ‘hyper-real’ sound. A frontal system of five arrays spaced across the stage, and a cluster of subs flown near the central hang that allows the engineer to localise every instrument on stage. Le Nost says it’s “a compromise between what’s achievable in the field, and the quality of the outcome. Sometimes, as a manufacturer, we have to give simple rules everyone can follow so that we get consistency from show to show.” For an ‘immersive hyper-real’ deployment, at minimum you’re adding “extensions on each side of the stage, maybe surround speakers and height.” The relative simplicity of the initial system was to, again, waylay engineer’s concerns over rigging complexity and time. “It was very important for productions to have something easy to use in the field,” reassured Le Nost. “We don’t want system techs to be afraid of it. The only difference between the traditional way and the L-ISA way of doing the sound design is the rule of overlapping the main arrays. The rest — tuning the array, sub alignment, array processing and angling — is quite similar and straightforward.” On the mixing side, L-Acoustics has likewise kept the parameters fairly straightforward. “You can play with the feeling of proximity via the Distance parameter,” explained Le Nost. “You can make it louder and less reverberant to bring it closer, or less
You can use the space as a way to mix, and really distinguish sources by using the pan. Something you would never do before
loud and more reverberant to create distance. Then you have Pan, the Width of the object, and in the case of the 3D layout, you also have the Elevation parameter. You can really place the sound, dictate the direction of it and how close it is to you.” L-Acoustics has just released a new version of the L-ISA processor. While they’ve previously had some spatialisation characteristics built-in, the new version “has a completely new room engine,” said Le Nost. It’s not a room simulation engine like Meyer’s Constellation, designed to replicate a specific concert hall in your gymnasium. Rather, it’s about giving the system designer the ability to tailor room reverberation characteristics to the application. “If you’re in a very reverberant venue, you can just add a few early reflections and restrict its effects to a specific frequency range,” explained Le Nost. “Conversely, if you’re in a venue that’s really dry, you can add more diffusion and late energy. You can store those tweaked parameters as presets so a single space can have multiple use cases. “Let’s say you have a fixed installation in a theatre, you could create a drier acoustic environment for a spoken word event on Monday, then switch it to a wetter preset for a chamber orchestra on Tuesday. It’s not replacing the sound engineer’s reverbs — like plate reverbs or their favourite Lexicon presets — it’s an enhancement of the space you’re in. It has an effect on all L-ISA systems, but the space effects work better if you have more extended deployment and height with surround speakers.”
based on five Syva co-linear sources, and two extensions on the side. You’re talking about an audience of 150-200. When we developed Syva, it was more or less to offer a PA solution that would act both as a front of house system and a stage monitor, so each musician onstage would be positioned right in front of each enclosure. You could certainly envision deploying the L-ISA technology for relatively small audiences using these kinds of products.” “It’s not a product issue, it’s more a sound engineer issue,” said Le Nost. “There’s the question of education. If you’re used to mixing in stereo, how much time do you need to mix in L-ISA or other multi-channel formats?” L-Acoustics are betting on that time factor. About a decade is the going rate for mainstream adoption of a category-defining technology. “It’s a little similar to what happened in the ’90s with line source arrays, when Christian introduced V-DOSC,” recalled Ecalle. “He was extremely prudent because he had to deal with a complete generation of systems engineers who hadn’t been used to deploying these systems. It’s probably going to be similar with L-ISA, a progressive introduction.” Similarly, digital consoles took roughly 10 years — after Yamaha debuted the PM1D at AES in ’98 — to become the surface of choice for mixing engineers. When it comes to multi-channel sound, there’s a slight difference, reckons Ecalle. “Although all the solutions are quite different in regards to conceptualisation, many manufacturers are already offering a multi-channel solution. It means there is a tremendous supply pressure from manufacturers.”
TOUR DE SOURCE
LOW & WIDE
The room engine has been refined since its lauch, because the primary concern of L-ISA was : “How can we improve the direct sound of the show?” It’s also the realities of touring versus installations. A new solution can be deployed and validated quickly in the field, whereas the decision processes are largely more complex when it comes to installing the same system. That’s not to say L-Acoustics hasn’t been addressing installs, it’s been trialling smaller L-ISA systems on the side. “We deployed a relatively compact L-ISA system for a live concert in Paris at the New Morning, a famous jazz club,” said Stéphane Ecalle, L-Acoustics’ Marketing Director. “It was
Supplier pressure is all well and good, but do we actually need the thing? “L-ISA is a little different to digital consoles because it brings extremely noticeable improvements to the results, when compared to a traditional stereo deployment,” argued Le Nost. “When it comes to mixing in stereo, engineers do a great job of trying to make each instrument come out of the mix by playing with EQ, dynamics, etc,” described Ecalle. “It means there’s a tendency to mix relatively loudly with conventional systems, because you’re trying to make parts more intelligible by making them louder. Using the L-ISA approach, you don’t have to mix loud for
L-ISA’S NEW FRONTIER, SPACE
it to be intelligible. This poses a response to the growing concerns over noise pollution, especially in outdoor events. You can mix at 85 or 90dB and be very comfortable and intelligible, and you’re not bothering anyone around.” “As a mixing engineer, you don’t put all the instruments into one box anymore,” said Le Nost. “You don’t have to EQ out space in one instrument to open it up for another instrument. You can use the space as a way to mix, and really distinguish sources by using the pan control. Something you would never do before.” Another major benefit is the beef down low: “The L-ISA deployment is much more coherent in terms of summation of low end, with a much smaller number of low frequency cabinets. Before L-ISA, if you wanted good summation with the main arrays, you had to place the subs close by. You’re faced with a nasty comb filter as soon as you move away from the FOH position. A good third of the audience would not get low end. With a central configuration, the homogeneity of the low frequency coverage is amazing.” As well as the central sub cluster, each of the five arrays has a LF contour of about 8 to 10dB. That’s called the ‘L-ISA Wide’ configuration. For any pop, hip hop and dance engineers who are worried that might not pack enough punch, L-Acoustics recommends another standard configuration where the three central arrays have more contour than the others, it’s actually patented as ‘L-ISA Focus’. PLUGGING INTO THE SYSTEM
L-Acoustics’ Desklink console plug-in is already up and running on the Digico SD range, having successfully tested at the Royal Albert Hall, and the team is working with Avid on a plug-in for the S6L. It allows engineers to manipulate the main object position parameters directly from the console surface, instead of sending snapshot cues to the L-ISA system. L-ISA also has a DAW plug-in for Pro Tools, which has already been used on Lorde’s Melodrama tour. It makes use of the automation capabilities in DAWs to allow sound source position changes over time. It’s simply storing position data for each instrument, and doesn’t have anything to do with down-mixing stems or bussing audio. The two parts of an L-ISA system — object positioning and speaker deployment — are AT 23
Using the L-ISA approach, you don’t have to mix loud for it to be intelligible L-Acoustics’ L-ISA plug-in active on the Digico SD console platform, and (above) its companion DAW plug-in.
completely separate. If you have an L-ISA processor handy, you can use a scaled down setup in a post-production house to define your trajectories. Once you arrive at the show, simply change the speaker layout and your simulated mix will come to life on the big stage. Alternatively, L-Acoustics has partnered with Klang, which manufactures professional binaural monitoring systems. All this is contingent on having an L-ISA processor, of course. L-Acoustics knows this isn’t the easiest way to get sound engineers to give the system a go. “Obviously the availability of the processor is still limited,” said Le Nost. “We want as many sound engineers to use it so it gets to the point of no return, so that’s something we might consider changing.”
As for the cost, well, L-Acoustics isn’t revealing its hand yet. The L-ISA processor is only commercialised as a part of a larger L-ISA system, so Ecalle would rather discuss the overall deployment cost: “Another way to look at it is how much of a cost difference it is compared to a classic stereo deployment. Because the energy is spread out over five or seven arrays, you don’t need to dimension the clusters in the same manner. When you would deploy 12-16 K2 cabinets per side in a stereo configuration, you’re going to be working with 6-9 Kara per cluster. More cabinets, but a smaller format. The average cost difference is between 25-30%, but can vary a lot from project to project.”
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“If you’re talking about just the five clusters, it’s much less than 30%,” explained Le Nost. “If you add a couple of extensions per side, then you approach that average. If you add a lot of surrounds and height, then the difference is much more.” The team at L-Acoustics are bullish about L-ISA. Not arrogant, just confident they’re sitting on a game-changing technology that takes the conversation away from what sort of rigging pin setup a PA has, or minor spec bumps. They believe it’s an undeniable improvement over that “50-year old configuration” we’ve been “stuck” in for so long.
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BAPTISM BY IMMERSION
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In just six hours, Adam Rhodes had to learn how to mix ‘immersive’ before stepping out with an L-ISA system at the famed Royal Albert Hall. Pressure’s on! Story: Mark Davie Photos: James Adams
In mid-July, The Classic BRIT Awards was due to descend on the Royal Albert Hall in the UK. It would be a televised event, with crossover artists like Tokyo Myers layering virtuoso pianoscapes and epic drum sequences over orchestral backing. It was the perfect gig to showcase L-Acoustics’ immersive sound system L-ISA, and beam the audience’s response into living rooms across the nation. Of course, an event like that doesn’t go to air untested. There had to be a guinea pig, and Adam Rhodes was it. Brit Row called up Rhodes to ask him if he wanted to demo L-ISA when Angus & Julia Stone were playing the hall just three days prior. Sweetening the deal, Brit Row said the PA wouldn’t cost a cent more. Music to the ears of any promoter. The deal was done, and a month later Rhodes was sitting in a pre-production suite, staring at a bunch of L-Acoustics speakers with six hours to get his head around a revolution in live sound. “We were the first people in the UK to use L-ISA,” said Rhodes, who’s an incredibly technically astute guinea pig. As well as being an international FOH touring engineer and a handy technician, he’s worked a lot with surround in post-production for TV and film. “Although it’s a big step from those formats, they knew it was something I would be familiar with.” It’s also not the first time he’s been at the pointy end of a new technology, having been one of the first to try out L-Acoustics K2 in an amphitheatre in Lyon (L-Acoustics is a French company). He’s had a loose relationship with L-Acoustics ever since. REAL WORLD DEMO
Inside the L-ISA system engineers can place up to 96 objects anywhere on the immersive canvas. In this case, the canvas was a ‘hyper-real’ L-ISA setup; constituting the minimum number of five hangs of KARA across the front, and AN ARRAY OF K1 SB18 SUBS ABOVE THE CENTRAL HANG FLOWN “WAY UP IN THE SKY,” SAID RHODES. “I FIRST THOUGHT IT WAS LUDICROUS, BUT IT WAS VERY USABLE.” There were also outfills and infills,
My biggest concern was the gain before feedback figures, but I had more gain before feedback than I’ve ever had before
The L-ISA system in full flight at the Royal Albert Hall
but the five main hangs and flown subs represent the core L-ISA system. When Rhodes rocked up to the demo suite at Brit Row, he was presented with a downsized version of the L-ISA rig. It was still hooked up to the L-ISA processor, but rather than line arrays, he was listening to a collection of L-Acoustics monitors — the kind he’d use for infills — set up on stands. “It was basically a virtual environment of what it was going to be like at Royal Albert Hall,” he explained. “I took my Avid S6L in there, set it up with the software and went through it with the two developers who’d been working on it.” Recently, Avid announced plug-ins for L-ISA would be available on the S6L, but this was pre-plugin. Despite Rhodes dragging in his S6L console, other than playing back a virtual soundcheck, all the work was done in the L-ISA system. The interface between the two worked fine though, “On my S6L I have multiple snap shots of songs, and they include, among other things, panning positions; solos, rhythm sections, and so forth,” explained Rhodes. “With a USB MIDI port, I plugged into their system and was able to steal snapshots really simply and easily.” AT 27
SETTING UP THE MIX
Initially, Rhodes moved cautiously. “Because we’d been on tour for several months, I didn’t really want to toss the show to the wind and start again,” he said. “I initially used the streams to recreate what we already had.” By default, when you drop a source onto the L-ISA stage map, it places it on the ‘30% line’ and in line with the centre hang. The 30% line is 6dB down from unity, or 100%. Bringing it closer to the front of the stage is just a level change, and pushing it further back starts to introduce reverberation as well as pushing the level down. “It really allows you to mix in a far more musical way,” said Rhodes. “Dragging things forward really brought them to the front. With stereo things like drum kits, if I had put the kick and snare in the centre hang, I’d be overpowering it. BY USING GROUPS, I COULD PUT THEM IN TWO AND FOUR, AND USE THE PHANTOM CENTRE FOR MY KICK AND SNARE. THEN I COULD PUT THE VOCALS IN THE CENTRE HANG AND IT WOULD CUT THROUGH IT LIKE A KNIFE. It was magnificent.
“For people who are sitting off-axis on the left and right of the auditorium, it’s not like you’re listening to one hang and only hearing that side. It’s actually coming out of the centre of the stage. “I basically ran everything out post-fader, postprocessing in individual streams. Drums and basses were the only things that were grouped. I had a pair of stereo groups for my kick and snares with a bit of parallel compression on it. Then I panned the rest of my drum kit on it on a second pair of groups, with parallel compression on them.” Once Rhodes was comfortable with his basic positioning, he started to play around with the mix. “When there was a banjo solo, rather than turning the level up, I just used a snapshot that brought it to the front of the system,” he explained. “Then the next snapshot I pushed it back where it was.” Initially, he had his stereo Nord keyboard spread out far left and right, like he normally would, “then it started to feel a little unusual, so I started placing them where they visually appeared on stage, in hangs one and two, or three,” he said. “That way the sound was coming from where it looked on stage. There were a couple of things I put in other places because I’d run out of room. There’s lots of keyboards on stage right, so I couldn’t put them all into the stage right hangs.” From there he began working on his effects: “I had my standard reverbs out in hangs one and five. Then, because I had the vocal as a dry source in the centre, I started putting other verbs into hangs two and four.” IN THE FIELD
Six hours later, the moment of truth had arrived. Rhodes moved over to the Royal Albert Hall. As well as being the first time on L-ISA, it was also his first time mixing in the legendary venue. “It’s on the bucket list for a lot of FOH guys,” he said. “I’ve got to say though, it’s a tough room. A LOT OF PEOPLE WERE TELLING ME I WAS GOING TO HATE IT, THAT THE REVERB TIME IS SIX SECONDS.
“The in-house guys and the L-Acoustics people were saying the multiple hangs actually dealt with AT 28
We were the first people in the UK to use L-ISA
a lot of those issues, and made it a lot clearer and present. I can’t really comment on that, but it didn’t feel like I was struggling with the space. My bass drum was about four seconds long, but it wasn’t unusable; I was quite comfortable with it.” In the demo suite, with Angus & Julia Stone fitting somewhere between pop ballads and rock, and therefore more upfront, Rhodes placed all of his 49 stems on the 30% line, with the exception of bringing guitars and vocals forward. He’d refrained from pushing anything back into the spatial processing. When he hit the venue for a two-hour soundcheck, that’s when he “really started pulling things around. It became evident how powerful it was. I could pull things forward, shift them between hangs. I pushed back some of the ambient pads, which makes it less identifiable as a source point. It’s just kind of hanging in the air, which was really nice.” IMMERSIVE IMPRESSIONS
After the show we asked Rhodes what his impressions of the L-ISA system were. AudioTechnology: What was your biggest concern going into it? Adam Rhodes: My biggest concern when I was first presented with the concept, was the gain before feedback figures. Angus is a very quiet singer and I’m usually on the edge, but I had more gain before feedback than I’ve ever had before. IT WAS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES WHERE I FELT I HAD GAIN FOR DAYS.
I guess that’s because you have so many hangs, instead of pushing everything into the left and right and getting all that cross talk from the two hangs back onto the stage. Everything is pushing forward. AT: Compared to a traditional stereo deployment, are you more or less aware of the physical speakers? AR: You’re less aware of the physical speakers and their interaction because the sound stage is broader and more visible. When I’m mixing in a stereo environment, I spend a lot of time walking from left to right as far as I can. One, because of the Power Alley down the middle when you’ve got the subs left and right. Or the coupling effect when you’ve got big hangs. I actually don’t like being in the middle; I want to be just off to the side in the first valley, where most of the crowd are. I didn’t have that issue with this configuration.
AT: How did the centrally-positioned low end cluster feel in the mix? AR: It felt very natural, it didn’t feel unusable or different at all. We weren’t running it like a dance or EDM show, although we have a lot of sub energy with the Moog Taurus bass pedal. It still delivered more than I needed. On the L-ISA system, they had set up an auxiliary sub, and I PULLED IT BACK ABOUT 4DB FROM 0 TO BRING IT INTO LINE WITH WHERE MY MIXES NORMALLY SIT.
AT: Did the rigging time seem like a hindrance? AR: “It’s a massive step up from what we know now. It took a long time to get it into the air at Royal Albert Hall, but that was the first day it was hung. The PA tech from L-Acoustics was very exacting about all his points, his hangs, and how it was going up. There were three hangs on the front truss, and it all had to be cabled up. If you were touring it, you’d have that all pre-rigged and it would go up a lot quicker. I can’t see it being much slower than a normal PA going up. It would take a little extra time, but you could have them prerigged, with all the hanging hardware installed on the truss, and pick it up on a few motors. AT: Did you have any idea of the cost of the system? AR: “It is more expensive, but in somewhere like Royal Albert Hall, I would have wanted K2, or even K1, to cover that area, whereas we had 90 elements of KARA. Talking to Brit Row, they would estimate that to be not much more expensive than putting up 30 elements of K1. It’s not a massive leap, it’s not even twice as much because you’re using a smaller box. It’s more expensive, but not crazy. AT: Do you think it’s worth it for productions to shell out for the extra time and cost? AR: If you want to make your show a spectacle, and do something different, it’s the way to go. I can imagine the people who sign the checks baulking at it, but if the artists start to see some acts do it and hear the benefits, they might start pushing for it. We’ve been doing left/right hangs since Moses, so it’s very impressive. Just ask anyone who goes from stereo to 5.1 surround in their lounge room. They start to hear all the nuances and space, your sources are all coming from where you imagine them. It’s equally so in the live environment. AT: Would you do it again? AR: In a heartbeat.
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WELL OILED MACHINE No expense spared, one-off event in the UAE. Story: Christopher Holder
The UAE celebrates its National Day (when a bunch of Gulf States unified to create the UAE) with a variety of cultural events, military parades, and unimaginable quantities of fireworks. A formal VIP presentation at the most recent 46th National Day last December switched things up a bit. 1800 dignitaries were treated to a noexpense-spared rich-media manifesto of UAE as a leader in the world of hi-tech and an ambitious vision-cast of the future. An enormous (40m wide by 14m high) stage was replete with LED and projections and the listening area was surrounded by an L-Acoustics L-ISA-controlled PA. It was a fully immersive experience for those present, both visually and aurally, and masterminded by UK event producers, Done+Dusted. Auditoria director, Scott Willsallen, got the call to take care of the audio design. He knew it had to be ambitious; state of the art; and at the very least in surround, if not totally in the 360 with overheads. COMPARING SYSTEMS
AV Asia Pacific: When you were considering your options in the lead up to the UAE event, how did you arrive at L-ISA as the preferred option? SWA: We did a lot of work for the Sydney Opera House when they recently upgraded the Joan Sutherland Theatre with a d&b Soundscape system. We helped them by creating an evaluation environment so they could more easily shortlist the available options — that way we could more easily switch between them and give the manufacturers AT 30
different tasks to perform so they could show us their strengths and weaknesses. Going into this UAE event, the platform I was least familiar with was L-ISA, mainly because it hadn’t been released in the field and there was only one location in London where you could really evaluate it. I spent a few weeks in London in August last year to try and get a really good understanding of it: how it worked, how to operate it, the things it does well, the things it does less well and things they’re planning on improving. At that point it was clear that L-ISA was my preferred option in terms of the user interface, and these things are almost entirely about the user interface. They all have to sound good but they all do. So really it’s about how well you can control it and manipulate it. SPACE & REVERB
AV Asia Pacific: Where a system like L-ISA is more than a powerful matrix router is in its ability to provide artificial ambience to introduce ‘distance’ or space into a mix. How does L-ISA perform in this regard? SWA: The current reverb engine within L-ISA is simplistic — not just simplistic from the point of view of how it sounds, it’s simplistic from how it can be implemented within a show. Where they’re heading is much more exciting, both from what the reverb sounds like in the time domain and in the frequency domain but also how it can be used and implemented.
DO’S & DON’TS: SUBS Do consolidate your subs: “Subs being mono blocked is something we’ve been doing since 2006. So rather than being clever with subs by putting them left, right and centre in some kind of horizontal line source, tapering it and then beam steering it… rather than doing all that, if we can place them in one spot and have enough energy there, it’s always going to deliver a better result. We had our subs stacked behind the LED display — which wasn’t a solid surface. That worked really, really well for us.” Don’t space your arrays too far apart: “We put the the main seven loudspeaker arrays above the stage no further than 15° apart to ensure smooth panning. They were about five metres apart in our case. Because of the stage height they were higher than we’d like. So we implemented front fill that pulled the image down for those at the front.”
WHO’S GONNA SPEC IT SWA: Immersive audio inevitably changes the whole look of a stage. Everyone is now accustomed to the paradigm of a wide and relatively tall LED upstage and then a long black column of PA either side of stage. We’ve had that for a while and everyone seems pretty comfortable with it. To shift that to five or seven slightly shorter lines of PA right across the top of the stage changes things. If the artist wants it, great. The set has to accommodate it. And I think that’s going to be the way this grows. If the artist wants it, then we’ll just have to make it so.
Introducing reverb has its pitfalls. You can very quickly end up in a situation where the sides speakers are much closer to most listeners than the main system. What you shouldn’t ever do is hear the reverberation before the direct sound. So the system needs to be aware of where the loudspeakers are and how the sound propagates through the room, ensuring there is no situation that can exist where the reverb arrives before the direct sound. That’s something that will soon be implemented PREPARING YOUR SOURCE MATERIAL
The soundtrack to the event was a combination of a full orchestral program (recorded at Air Studios London) along with traditional instruments and percussion. The intent is for the music program to be immersive; to transport those at the event into an amazing-sounding concert hall. From there, sound design and SFX moments would punctuate the program with creative use of the surround channels. It was a mouth watering prospect but intimidating for Scott Willsallen and his team. SWA: The loudspeaker system side of an event like this is relatively straightforward. It’s a lot of effort to install but the design side of it is really not that complicated. The complicated aspect was in the production workflow; that’s a complete departure from a regular stereo workflow. Put it this way: I’ve done a number of Olympics ceremonies and this was way more complicated. In stereo world, we would work with the music team to define a stem list that we’d need for our two main mixes: the live mix in the venue and the broadcast mix. These stems would be based around an orchestral breakdown. For example, Strings Stereo Low, Strings Stereo High, Brass Stereo High, Brass Stereo Low, and so on for woodwind,
percussion etc. And that's great; works really well in the stereo paradigm. Meanwhile, when it comes to immersive sound playback, ideally we want every instrument provided as a mono source, so we have absolute flexibility to range the instruments across the leftto-right sound stage. The problem with that is the channel count. The orchestra itself was around 120 pieces, along with 80-odd traditional instruments, another dozen inputs from a choral recording, along with some electronic production — that’s a lot of inputs. It was just not practical to try and take every input. Instead we asked ourselves what we really wanted, and that was the sound of the orchestra as though they were sitting on stage. So we worked with the music team and the audio guys at Air Studios to come up with a capture technique for the orchestra that would work for us. What we got were seven stems that sliced the orchestra up horizontally across the stage [matching the seven speaker arrays]. Within each of those seven pieces was an expertly mixed balance of the instruments in that slice along with a beautiful room reverb recording. So we ended up with 21 inputs for the orchestra, comprising a mono mixdown of the instruments in that horizontally sliced section, a feed from one of seven large-diaphragm cardioid mics that was in front of that section, and seven channels of 7.0 reverb. This approach freed up a whole truckload of channels and it meant the orchestra mix was very fast to throw into the system. When we received new tracks it was super quick. That was important because we didn’t have time in the evenings to mix. We only had time during the day and during the day you're also battling with angle grinders, battery
drills, scissor lifts beeping away etc. We used the L-ISA GUI for all of the placement of everything except the sound design. The sound of water dripping or a hyper-loop train taking off… we did within Pyramix. The Pyramix panner is extremely sophisticated. All the sound design panning was then printed in 36.1 – to reflect the 36 outputs we had. IS IT WORTH IT?
Not many clients have the deep pockets of the UAE. And this event certainly pushed the technical boat out to the very limits of what we’ve seen anywhere. But what about other less ambitious and more moderately bank-rolled events? Is the extra setup time, money and effort all worth it? SWA: It was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever heard. You might think, ‘he would say that’. But for me, apart from the success of the event itself, it was the reaction of the lighting team, the riggers, the guys creating the visual content… the comments were so incredibly positive. They thought the orchestral recording put them right in a concert hall. That’s a pretty powerful statement to make when you consider that we were in the middle of a massive car park with no reflective surfaces whatsoever. Using a system like L-ISA to correct the errors of stereo such that wherever you move within the audience area you have a really good spatial representation of what’s going on… that in itself is amazing. If you’re then lucky enough to have some overheads and some surround speakers such that you can add some room to these spaces… well, then, that’s when ‘amazing’ becomes ‘unbelievable’. Yes, it’s absolutely worth it. AT 31
FEATURE
A decade since Apocalypso, and The Presets have traded their hardware workflow for the kaleidoscope of sonic options in-the-box. Story: Paul Tingen Photos: Ben Sullivan
AT 32
Artist: The Presets Album: Hi-Viz
The deliberately tasteless cover of The Presets latest album, Hi-Viz, reads as a label warning for its graphic musical content. It looks like the aftermath of a high-velocity exploding piñata, which feels apt for the cascade of wild, zany and out-there compositions. Hi-Viz kicks off with the wild sample-glitching, chop sequenced beats, and phase-y vocal effects of Knuckles — bedazzled onto horn riffs and Julian Hamilton’s distorted vocals — and doesn’t let up from there. “We love dance music, but for us it has always been more interesting when people have taken the format and really done something crazy with it. I’m thinking of bands like The Avalanches or Basement Jaxx or Daft Punk,” explained Kim Moyes, drummer, keyboardist, and producer, and the other half of The Presets. “They have always put a lot of other information in their music to make it sound much more interesting than straight dance music. For us, it meant making music that felt very visceral, and as we proceeded we also got more and more interested in getting stylistic and sonic variety in the album. Hence the opener, Knuckles, which sets the tone because it is so out there and zany.” The Presets have been at the cutting edge of Australian electronic music for a long time now. The pair have a number one, triple platinum album; been awarded 13 ARIA Award nominations; and taken home seven. They’ve shaped the charts in all kinds of ways: from Julian co-writing with Flume, Cut Copy and Silverchair, to Moyes producing a consistent stream of indie hits for Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders, Kirin J Callinan and PNAU — the latest being DMA’s album For Now. So yeah, The Presets have earned every right to ‘do what they want’, in the brightest, most fluoro way. “The foundation was that we wanted to create an album that was fun and energetic,” said Moyes. “Once we also got into the concept of having a lot of variety, we did things like twisting and mangling Julian’s voice into different characters, and started asking different guest vocalists to appear, like Alison Wonderland, Jake Shears, Tommy O’Dell from DMA’s and others. We were looking at it from the perspective of a collage. “We were trying to get as much colour and variety from different sound sources, different samples, different choirs, different singers, and different instrumentalists. All that fit in with our other idea, which was to make the album feel like
a DJ set at a house party, where every song could be from a different band. The whole thing feels like a celebration.” TIME WARP
The last time AudioTechnology interviewed The Presets, it was for the making of Apocalypso, a decade ago back in Issue 63. Moyes said their process has changed markedly since. All the talk at the time was of warping analogue synths, and hardware like Akai MPCs, Korg MS20 and Polysix synths, Roland Strings and TB-303, EMU SP1200, Studio Electronics Omega 8, guitar pedals, and outboard like the Ensoniq DP4, Korg SDD1000, and Roland RE-201 Space Echo. “For the new album we remained entirely in the box for years,” said Moyes. “It meant we could pull up sessions from a few months or even a few years back and grab things we liked. We didn’t have to spend time recalling synth sounds, or recording the sounds of hardware synths. Writing with soft synths meant we could be far more fluid and flexible. Once songs had started to take shape, and we felt their identity had progressed enough, we started adding bits of hardware. Mouse clicking for months on end can become uninspiring, so if we got stuck we’d get out the MS20, send it through some guitar pedals, play and loop record for ages, then edit what we wanted from that. It was a really great way to loosen things up a bit and get more spontaneity and spark into the songs whenever we hit a brick wall while writing in the box.” Hardware didn’t always turn the inspiration tap on. The pair would often try to use the Studio Electronics Omega 8, which was central to the sound of Apocalypso. “For some reason it just was too difficult,” said Moyes. “AFTER WORKING WITH SOFT SYNTHS YOU GET USED TO THINGS BEING VERY EASY, AND INSTRUMENTS BEING IN TUNE. Some of the analogue
gear can be quite temperamental, and it ends up eating into your creative time if you’re sitting there trying to figure out why it is not working.”
AT HOME IN THE STUDIO
Hamilton and Moyes worked in their respective home studios, which they built soon after Apocalyso. “Julian has a studio that sits above his garage,” outlined Moyes. “It consists of one big room, which is a really good writing room, and also works well for overdubs and vocal recordings. My
studio is slightly bigger and on the bottom floor of my house. I call it Piper Lane and it is divided into a smallish control room/writing room, which has an artist/producer kind of workstation, and another room where I can do more isolated acoustic recordings. It’s not really big enough for a proper drum kit, although I have recorded kits in it, and I have all sorts of percussion there, like a marimba, a vibraphone, and tons of other noise makers.” Moyes has three sets of monitors at Piper Lane; Barefoot Sound MicroMain27s, EMES Pink TVs, and a Pure Evoke 2S radio: “I’ve had the Pink TVs for 10 years, and they are my main work horses. THE PURE IS A SMALL REFERENCE SPEAKER, BUT YOU CAN CRANK IT PRETTY LOUDLY AND IT’S NOT FATIGUING TO LISTEN TO.”
His mics include a Wagner U47, Josephson E22, and AKG C451B, “which is a good condenser, and Julian sang many of his vocals through that,” said Moyes. “He also used my Shure SM7B and SM58. On Kuckles Julian sang through the Placid Audio Copperphone to get that radio voice type effect.” At the heart of both studios are “Mac Pros from 2009,” explained Moyes. “We both have one, and they’ve reached their limits of upgradability, which means we’re kind of stuck in this antiquated past. We also both have the Lynx Aurora 16 as our soundcards, and are running Pro Tools HD from 2009, so we’re one step behind the upgrade that allows faster-than-real-time bouncing. “For a while we had incompatible versions of SoundToys’ plug-ins, and because we use Ableton for our live shows, we tried that, and it seemed to resolve the problem. When working in the studio Ableton is not quite as second nature to use for us as Pro Tools is, but sometimes it’s better to open up something you’re less familiar with, just to see what happens. There were a few times when we went to Ableton out of pure frustration and ended up doing a few things that were pretty good. Ableton is also built to be manhandled a bit more than Pro Tools is, and it can be faster to get ideas out with. To communicate between the two DAWs we simply print everything as audio.”
CLICKING TOGETHER
Being early 40-somethings, Hamilton and Moyes obviously come to DAWs with considerable experience from the pre-DAW days, augmented by their education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where Hamilton studied classical piano AT 33
PIPER LANE GEAR Soundcard: Lynx Aurora 16. Sync: Innerclock Systems SYNC-GEN 2 Pro. Preamps & EQs: Aurora Audio GTQ2 Mark 3, Quad Eight MM-310 Classic (x2), Neve 1073 (x2), Electrodyne 501 pre & 511 EQ (x2), API 3124+ (x2), Neve 1272 (x2), Crane Song IBIS EQ. Compressors: Crane Song STC-8, DBX 160SL, Empirical Labs EL8-x Distressor (x2), Alesis 3630.
and Moyes, classical percussion. Whereas many modern beat makers click in their arrangements with a mouse, with little understanding of music theory, the two Presets members engage with the DAW world with tons of musical and instrumental know-how. “Our conservatorium backgrounds are helpful in many ways, but sometimes they can be a bit of a hindrance,” said Moyes. “On the plus side, orchestrating songs or figuring out interesting combinations of sounds has always been very natural for us. One of the reasons I was drawn to electronic and dance music was because of the notion in classical percussion that whatever you can hit is basically a percussion sound. Electronic music is an extension of that almost infinite sound world. “On the other hand, many people who don’t know much about harmony or how chords fit together can have a more direct experience of music and are closer to the magic. The little knowledge we have of music can get in the way of that. What we do share with many young beatmakers is a lack of interest in virtuosity. There are players who don’t listen well and demolish bands by their need to show off, rather than play a simple groove. Today’s generation of producers — who have grown up with DAWs — look at music as one piece with lots of small components they can put together. They really think of music like true producers, which is super-positive.” TIMELY MANUAL LABOUR
Moyes says that while their experiences with analogue have an impact, “our sensibilities from performing are even more important. Rather than AT 34
Effects: Korg SDD-1000 digital delay, Roland SBF-325 stereo flanger, Roland SDD-320 Dimension D, Ensoniq DP4+, Lexicon PCM96, Overstayer Instrument Driver ID4, Aphex 204 Aural Exciter (x2), Vermona ReTubeVerb spring reverb, Knas Moisturizer spring reverb, Roland Chorus Echo RE-301. Monitors: Barefoot MicroMain 27, Emes Pink TV, Pure Evoke-2S.
things being locked to a grid, the right amount of variation in groove and dynamics is much more interesting. If you don’t, your ears become bored very quickly. We’re not doing things that are too drastic and risk throwing you out of your listening experience, but we’re always chasing subtle variations to keep things interesting without the listener being conscious of it. Entire symphonies are built around this way of thinking, and classical music performers almost take it for granted. Whereas in dance and electronic music you really have to push hard to get that kind of variation.” While Moyes said that he and Hamilton “both click and play. We try, as much as possible, to keep our unique sense of groove. Sometimes we really are into a very rigid, fully-quantised sound, but at other times we get into playing things by hand to get it to sound more natural. With this new record, FOR THE FIRST TIME WE REALLY APPRECIATED MANUALLY MOVING THINGS AROUND IN TIME TO GET A BETTER FLOW. It’s about
the way the rhythm and sounds work against each other, and the space between everything… or to stick with a good live performance that has not been tampered with too much.”
SOFT LAUNCH PAD
The pair spent a couple of years at Hamilton’s studio working at his computer and writing everything in the box with soft synths and drum machine plug-ins. Halfway through the process they then decamped to Moyes’ Piper Lane studio, because it has more scope for doing things outside of the box. “We used various starting points when writing, pulling up Native Instruments Maschine or Battery,
loading in a bunch of different sounds to get to something that felt like the beginning of something cool,” described Moyes. “More often than not we mapped the sounds out on a keyboard and played it like it was a drum kit. Then we’d pull up a bass or some other kind of synth sound, and we’d try building up a groove from the ground up. If anything felt really inspiring, Julian would grab a microphone and he’d start throwing down vocal ideas. We did this over and over until it amounted to an arsenal of repertoire. “THE SOFT SYNTHS WE USED THE MOST WERE LENNARDIGITAL SYLENTH, ARTURIA MINI V AND NATIVE INSTRUMENTS MASSIVE AND MASCHINE. That’s it. We only use a few. As songs developed, we might go through different kick drums and different snare drums, and I might throw down some live hats or grab snippets of another drum kit for a fill section. There was no limit to how far we could take things or where we grabbed sounds from. We were looking at it from the perspective of a collage. Within one song there might be six years’ worth of material. For example, Tools Down has a string part we wrote for an entirely different song that didn’t make it on to our previous album.”
CHOIR OF MANY
In their search for variety, the album went from in-the-box, to out-of-the-box, to a recording tour around the world. As well as the guest vocalist contributions and a number of external instrument recording sessions, they recorded two choirs for Downtown Shutdown, one in LA and one at Bruce Adderly Sound Studios in Victoria. “Downtown Shutdown took a long time to evolve,” said Moyes.
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PIPER LANE MICS & SYNTHS Microphones: Wagner U47w x 2, Shure SM7B, SM58, SM81 x 2, Sennheiser 441 (x 3) 421 (x 3), AKG C 451 B (x2), Josephson e22s (x2), Schoeps MK 4 (x2), Royer R-121, Miktek C5 (x2), Heil PR48 Placid Audio Copperphone. Synths: Studio Electronics Omega 8, Analogue Solutions RS Integerator, Dewanatron Swarmatron, Mini Moog, Moog Source, Korg MS-20 (x2), Solina String Ensemble, Yamaha TQ-5, Roland TB-303 (x2), Roland TB-3, Alternate Mode MalletKat Pro.
“Julian had layered his vocals to make them sound like a choir, but the melody really felt like it should be sung with voices of people from Africa or the Caribbean. So we found a community choir in Shepparton in Victoria made up of central African refugees, and they did a really good job. Then we found a Caribbean choir in Los Angeles, and they also added flavour and colour to the track. “We really wanted to take the production to the next level. We’ve always been self-sufficient, but in order to get a sense of inclusiveness, celebration and variation, we wanted to work with ingredients that are outside of our control, to some degree. It makes for very interesting music when you have all of these different components working alongside each other. “Practically organising the recordings sometimes tested our patience, but working with live elements in the sessions wasn’t difficult for us. It’s something we’ve always done. When we first started working with Pro Tools in 2001, the MIDI component was really basic, and seemingly added as an afterthought. So we used Pro Tools as a glorified sampler, always recording individual sounds from drum machines and other gear as real audio. We’d then program the audio in the time line, and build up arrangements that way. Today the MIDI capabilities in Pro Tools are much better, but combining electronic and organic sounds has always been fundamental to the way The Presets work.” AT 36
Synth line mixer: Soundcraft FX16ii. Drum Machines/Samplers: Akai MPC 3000, EMU SP1200, Roland TR-808, Roland TR-909, Roland TR8, Sequential Circuits Drumtrax, Korg Volca Beats, Ace Tone Rhythm Fever, Vermona DRM1 MK111, Dave Smith Instruments Tempest, Elektron Machinedrum. Percussion: Ludwig ’60s champagne sparkle drum kit, Yamaha 2010 Phoenix drum kit, Musser Piper Vibraphone, Marimba One 4 3/4-octave marimba.
ROUGHING IN AT HIGH QUALITY
The very last stage of the making of Hi Viz obviously involved the mix, and on seven of the songs Hamilton and Moyes enlisted the mixing skills of John Hanes, who works with the world’s number one mixer, Serban Ghenea. In addition, three songs were mixed by Scott Horscroft and one by Eric J Dubowsky. “The reason we got involved with John is because he mixed Uptown Funk, and part of The Weeknd’s Starboy,” explained Moyes. “We particularly liked the sound of I Feel It Coming on that album. Those songs were really close to the sonic ethos we were trying to achieve.” Working in the box allowed The Presets to build on the quality of their rough mixes, something Moyes said they’ve been trying to improve on with every album. “We really broke through on this record and got very good at it,” said Moyes. “It meant the differences between the final mixes and our rough mixes was minimal. We’d send the tracks off to the mixers and after we got them back, we’d pull up our rough mixes to compare, and try to figure out what we liked about what they had done and what we liked about our mixes. We got into a really forensic process to get to the bottom of what makes things sound the way they do! “During rough mixing we had the UAD SSL G Channel on the drums, as well as a UAD dbx 160VU as a parallel. We mainly used the outboard
in my studio to get the raw vocal, bass and guitars recordings in at a more controlled level, but occasionally we would do rough mixes through them to spice things up a bit. In some of my other projects I run the masters out through my Neve 1073s, and then into the Cranesong STC8, just to get everything to open up a bit. In some cases there definitely is a colour shift when you mix through a bit of outboard at the very end. At other times it’s better to keep it in the box. “ONE THING THAT MADE ROUGH MIXING MORE DIFFICULT WAS THAT WE WORKED AT A HIGHER SAMPLING RATE, 88.2KHZ. It forces you to mix things down to stereo
pairs as much as you can. Many of the songs would be made up of 10 different sessions. The recordings of the choirs would each be 25 to 30 tracks, which you’d need to consolidate into one session. “We used that higher sampling rate because the mix engineer for our previous album, Tony Hoffer, worked with it, and it’s really great for clarity and depth. Even though we slam everything hard with plug-ins like the Waves SSL G Bus compressor on the master, we still felt that 88.2k helped in getting the album to sound as bright and shiny as possible.”
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COLUMN
How-To Record Modern Pop Vocals JMC Academy alumnus, Peter Holz walks us through how he records multi-layered vocals for Peking Duk’s multiplatinum singles Column: Peter Holz
It was Christmas, 2015, and I got a call asking if I could cut a vocal with singer Elliphant for an upcoming Peking Duk song. As I have no actual life and never take holidays, I was there with jingle bells on. This wasn’t just an in-and-out engineering session. It was a writing session where the lyrics and melody (or topline) were being written over a pre-existing track. 12 hours later we had a completed, multi-layered punchy dance/pop song with close to 100 vocal tracks. Over the course of the day and a bottle of rum, the four of us — Adam and Reuben (the Duks), Elli and myself — formed a great working relationship. A few months later they sent me some more vocals to edit and mix. That became the song Stranger, which went on to win Song of the Year at the 2017 ARIA Awards. We kept working together and managed to roll out three back-to-back multi-platinum singles. Who needs presents with gifts like that! IT’S ALL AN ILLUSION
When we’re recording and mixing pop vocals, the aim isn’t to make things sound real; we’re creating an illusion, a powerful fantasy. If it sounds right, it is right! With most electronic-based music, you’re trying to combine vocals, which are fundamentally imperfect, with music that is more or less ‘perfect’ in terms of timing and pitch. While we’re not restricting ourselves to real in the sense of ‘untouched authentic’, it is important to remember that people will connect with something that feels real to them. Even if it is layers of stacked vocals with autotune, formant shifting and vocoders. There are techniques to make a less desirable vocal sound ‘good’ to a listener, but the ability to make a performance connect to the core emotion rests solely with the vocalist, not the editing/mixing. I’ve decided to break down my specific workflow into the three staples of recording, editing and mixing. I’m not saying that these are the right ways to do things (there is no right way!), these are merely techniques I’ve developed, learned, copied
and put into practice many times, then distilled down to what works for me. This issue, let’s get stuck into recording. PREP TO IMPRESS
Being prepared is everything. It doesn’t matter how great your gear/space is or what you’ve done before — you need to be ready. Being ready means: • Having the song/session laid out: In your head and on the computer. Know the structure, the key, the tempo and the majority of the words and general meaning. • Have the studio ready: Microphone set up, headphones mixed and checked, lyrics printed and on a music stand, phone/computer power near vocal area, and bottled water ready. Candles, lights, snacks, tea/coffee… you can never be too prepared. • Important: You must always know the Wi-Fi password. Most importantly, you need confidence. You won’t always have the luxury of arriving an hour or more in advance to setup. You should be able to walk into a studio at the same time as the artist completely unprepared and still get it all up and running smoothly, calmly and quickly. Your personality and vibe is vital. People have to want to hang out with you in a confined space for hours on end getting deep into their thoughts and emotions. Leave your ego and attitude at the door and embrace mutual respect. In my experience, success and talent is proportional to humility and work ethic. DON’T SPIKE THE MIC
I almost always use a condenser mic. Sometimes a Shure SM7 dynamic can do the job but it can get a little angry sounding when really compressed in the final mix. Don’t get too picky about mics unless you are in a situation where you have the time to compare a few. Throw up what you have, or whatever is closest and just get on with it. The key thing to watch is making sure the singer
doesn’t get too close to the mic. IF A SINGER EATS THE MIC, IT RESULTS IN MASSIVE SIBILANCE AND AN IMPLIED ‘OVERLOAD’ OR COMPRESSION. An experienced singer
will know how to dynamically work the mic, and if the part is gentle it might make sense to cosy up to it (see Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah). How to avoid it? Talk about it with them, watch them, and listen to what’s coming through the mic. Crucially, if the singer can’t hear themselves in the headphone mix their natural reaction will be to move in closer. Turning them up can help. Sometimes singers will be able to overload the amp circuitry in a condenser mic, and you’ll need to instantiate the pad. If I’m in a hurry and on the fly I will default to always having the pad on.
CHAINED UP
I personally never want to record vocals without an Empirical Labs Distressor. It’s hands down my favourite vocal tracking compressor. It gets in and out quickly and just does its job. You won’t hear it change the tone, even with loads of gain reduction. Most importantly, it’s quick and easy to adjust on the fly during a recording and won’t put clicks or crackle into the audio as it’s being adjusted. Sometimes you need to ‘learn’ the part and adjust it during takes. This can also be achieved by riding the output of the preamp, usually the fader. In a perfect world I would follow the Distressor with something tubey and slow, ‘swimming’ on top of the signal and never moving against the vocals, like a Tube-tech CL1B, or Teletronix LA-2A. The preamp is less important to me. I would assume it’s not a bus-powered small interface, though you can make that work. In a perfect world I would always choose some 10xx flavour of Neve. Transformers help ‘slow down’ the close miked vocal. THE BEAUTY OF A UNIT LIKE THAT IS HAVING A BUILTIN EQ BEFORE YOUR LIMITERS, THE ORDER I FEEL WORKS BEST. I would only ever EQ a vocal a little on the way in; commonly a high pass filter combined with a low frequency push, and a shelf to open up the high frequencies. Maag’s ‘Air Band’ is perfect for lifting the top end.
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PETER’S DREAM CHAIN Microphone: Neumann U47, U67, U87 or TLM 170; Telefunken ELA M 251; or Shure SM7, SM58. Preamp: Neve 1073 EQ: Maag EQ4 Compressor: ELI Distressor Limiter: Tube-tech CL1B, Teletronix LA-2A, Fairchild 660. Disclaimer: In my own studio I use a relatively affordable Aston Spirit condenser or an SM7 straight into a UAD Apollo MkII interface, followed by UAD plug-in versions of my Dream Chain. Even when I work from
HEADPHONE MIXES THAT STICK
If you have the luxury of having the artist use their own remote headphone mixing system — like Hearback, etc — definitely go for that. You’ll need to spend time tailoring specific DAW routing, but the workflow is very beneficial. Sometimes singers just want you to control their mix. In that case, you can simply send them a stereo cue that they can control with the mixer’s master level. I have a custom-built headphone mixer made from JLM components that allows the artist to adjust: • Backings (stereo) • Vocals (stereo) • Vocal effects (stereo) • Click (mono) • Talkback (mono) There is some debate that open/semi-open headphones allow the singer to feel more ‘natural’ as they’re also hearing themselves acoustically. The downside is that it’s going to spill into the mic more than when using closed headphones. It’s extremely common for the singer to have one ear off. In this scenario, you can minimise spill by routing the mix only to the side they’re wearing. IF THE VOCALIST SINGS BETTER WITH SPEAKERS BLARING AND JUST GOING FOR IT IN THE ROOM, THEN YOU DO THAT… IT’S JUST PART OF THE DEAL. It’s rare for multi-layered
pop music, but sometimes rough writing demos are cut like this and they are the ones you’ll need to use! Talkback is a big deal. I like to have it on ‘auto’ where it’s always on when stopped and switches off when in play/record, with the ability to override it if I need to talk or sing whilst playing and recording. To do this, I route a talkback mic into the DAW and use Sound Radix’s Muteomatic (it’s free). You do need to let everyone know the talkback is always open. I’ve had a few occasions where someone in the room has forgotten… DEAD ROOMS ARE BEST
In my view, most vocals should be recorded in a nearly completely dead space. This doesn’t mean a small space, just a dead space. I will commonly build a little ‘hut’ with gobos and rugs in the middle of a big room. Any setup where the sound of the room doesn’t get back into the mic, too much. EVEN A SMALL AMOUNT OF ROOM AMBIENCE CAN HINDER A RECORDING, AS ONCE THE VOCAL IS COMPRESSED, EQUALISED AND UP LOUD IN A MIX, THAT AMBIENCE CAN RUIN THE ILLUSION.
AT 40
other studios that have the actual hardware units I will still bring and use my Apollo. That way, I know exactly what I’m going to get and can recreate it in the future if needed. It also allows me to control preamp gain, EQ and compressor settings while hardly moving. Bear in mind, I spent many years recording and mixing exclusively though analogue gear before moving fully in-the-box. It’s important to understand how analogue gear works so you can implement those ideas in the DAW. Most importantly, gain structure.
The aim isn’t to make things sound real; we’re creating an illusion, a powerful fantasy
Music stands should also be deadened; you’ll be surprised how much they can ring next to a loud singer. I like to clip a heavy pillow case onto it. SHORTCUTS TO SUCCESS
During a tracking session things need to happen on the computer quickly for two reasons. Firstly, you don’t have time. Secondly, everyone loses faith in you if you fumble around, and you won’t get called back again. There’s nothing more valuable to your career than a good recommendation, and fumbling around will kill any chance of that. I use a vocal tracking template that is fairly simple but large. The basic premise I use is that I will record different parts of the song on different tracks (usually in loop record and then comp together from the playlists). This means my template has over 100 preloaded audio tracks that are all labelled with common parts of a pop vocal arrangement. A common workflow would be to get the artist to do a few warm up takes through the song. Sometimes you get the perfect take this first time, or at least a line here or there. Once warmed up, move onto doing the sections individually. Occasionally, multiple takes recorded whilst looping can be used to create doubles. Other times you’ll need to comp a final take together, then get the artist to sing against that so the timing matches as closely as possible. A helpful tip is putting the ‘guide’ in just one ear. I also have a simple busing arrangement that allows an artist to quickly and easily use the multichannel headphone mixer. Just be sure you have the pan positions the right way around, and the microphone levels aren’t changing for the artist — it should be the bedrock of the headphone mix. You also need to be sure you’re hearing the same ‘backing’ send as the artist. There’s a little golden rule when working a DAW in front of artists, producers, managers and A+R: WHEN THINGS HAPPEN QUICKLY ON THE SCREEN WITHOUT YOUR HAND MOVING AROUND ON A MOUSE/TRACKBALL, PEOPLE THINK YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Know thy shortcuts! Well, that’s the first part wrapped. Stay tuned for more on the editing and mixing in the coming issues.
A great vocal can be captured in a dead room, with a mic as affordable as the Aston Spirit, and a quality headphone mix.
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FEATURE
The Rubens’ bass player, Will Zeglis, built a studio out of a WWII bunker for the band to record their latest album. It was the perfect plan, until his console gave out days before Run The Jewels’ producers were due to arrive from New York. Story: Mark Davie
AT 42
I feel happier running around checking if a microphone is in phase. It keeps me more involved in the process
Artist: The Rubens Album: LO LA RU
Two weeks before Run the Jewels’ producers were due to fly out from New York to work on The Ruben’s latest record, the right hand channel of Will Zeglis’s console master bus stopped working. Talk about stressful. He’d already been anxious about what the New York producers would think of his space, now he had to find a tech to work on his Soundtracs IL3632 console, quick smart. “I ended up getting sick from the stress thinking the whole hub of the studio has gone down,” said Will. “At first I had problems even getting a tech to come look at the console. Then he couldn’t fix it. Eventually, at the final hour he came good and got it to work.” Will isn’t just a studio co-owner with his friend Tim Duric, he’s also bass player for The Rubens. The studio is The Rubens’ home turf, and where they recorded almost all of their latest album LO LA RU. It’s a WWII bunker on the family estate of Tim’s ex-girlfriend’s father. An “artistic sciencefiction writer,” described Will. It was filled with rubbish, but the deal was if Tim cleared it out, they could jam and do whatever they wanted in there. That was over 10 years ago, and slowly but surely Tim moved the junk. Once that was done, between his carpentry skills and Will’s studio know-how, they turned The Bunker into a vibe-y studio.
Zeglis credits his old mate Tim Nicastri — who works as an engineer and podcast presenter at the ABC and plays in a punk band endorsed by The Stooges — for getting him into the studio world. “We grew up together. He was a go-getter and worked at Sony Studios when he was 16; sweeping floors, assisting, just doing anything to get into the studio. He had the keys to the studio and the boss was cool. He told Tim if he wanted to learn the console to just bring in his mates and do some recording after hours. “As 16 year-olds, we were in this multi-million dollar studio every night making records. He taught me a lot about the realness of certain microphones, organic recording, and Steve Albini, from a young age. The passion just grew from there; collecting guitars and different instruments. I probably could have bought a house by now but I just collected that much gear and it still turns me on and I still love it. I’m constantly learning about things and how different engineers do things.” Zeglis still does it for the love of it: “We’re not really open to trying to make The Bunker a business and generate copious amounts of money out of it. We just want a great space for bands we like to record and have some fun with.”
THE BUNKER
The Bunker is essentially a long half-cylinder. The floorpan includes a control room at one end, a live room “big enough to park a semi-trailer” at the other, with a hang out area dividing the two, which was designed to soak up any leakage between the other two. Tim has also built himself a live-in extension onsite. The long arched ceiling creates an unusual space, requiring a fair bit of measuring and a lot of trial and error to work out the best way to harness the acoustics. “It’s expensive to do sound treatment, so we did a bit of research,” said Will. “We used frequency analysers to see where the nodes were, then built absorbers and diffusors to try to combat some of those. I’ve pretty much stopped making baffles because I know where to move the kit to not have those overtones. “I’ve had a few engineers comment how nice the room sounds. The drums can sound very midrangey, especially the room microphones. We’ve got so much space to be able to move mics around, so I throw up a lot of trash mics and see what the engineer likes.” Originally only half the room was treated, with the other left essentially bare “like an echo AT 43
I learnt a lot from that, having to swallow my pride. That a 57 on the overhead made for a great drum sound One half of the producer-brother combo, Wilder Zoby, sitting at Will's Soundtracs IL3632 analogue console.
chamber,” said Will. “Once we fully dampened the whole thing so it was very dry and in your face and lost a bit of character. We’ll probably adjust it and make removable panels to be able to reproduce some of those sounds again.” NEW YORK CITY PROS
The two New York producers, Wilder Zoby and Torbitt Schwartz (aka Little Shalimar), are also brothers. It fits neatly in with The Rubens’ dynamic, three-fifths of whom are brothers Zaac, Sam and Elliot Margin. “It’s a different dynamic because they have that sixth sense a lot of family members have,” said Will. “Over the years you pick up on it and it can be really good because there’s not many arguments going on. They know what’s going to trigger each other, so they don’t do it.” Zoby and Schwartz are best known as the production team that work on Run The Jewels albums with emcee and producer, El-P. The Rubens and Zoby and Schwartz got to know each other at Laneway Festival when El-P and the band were on the same bill, in 2013. “The boys were interested in these guys that played rockier music but can produce hip-hop,” said Zeglis. “Every time we went back to New York we ended up bumping into them.” Zeglis wasn’t sure what to expect when the producers arrived, so he spent a week miking up an old Ludwig kit to see what sounds he could get in the space: “Weird techniques, the Glyn Johns method, MS techniques, different overheads… just trying to have as many options as I could for them,” AT 44
said Zeglis. He even built a sub kick just to make sure he had all the bases covered. “I was nervous at first because I thought maybe these hot shots from America were going to come and tear us a new arse, but they were so down to earth and they both had different roles. Torbitt would be the technical guy, getting beats down and arrangements, whereas Wilder was more about trying to get the best take out of the band, or working on sound effects. He was the more emotional guy. It was nice to have two guys help each other. If you’d come up with an idea and one of them didn’t like it or wasn’t sure about it, they could talk about it together.” Once they arrived, he quickly realised they were “pretty much like old school loop engineers.” A SHURE SM57 MONO OVERHEAD AND A KICK AND SNARE MIC WAS ENOUGH FOR THEM.
“They weren’t really after a hi-fidelity sounding album,” said Zeglis. “It was good for me in one way and in another way I was disappointed. Being an engineer, sometimes you like to nerd out and have things sounding a certain way just because you’ve got the gear to do it. I learnt a lot from that, having to swallow my pride. That a 57 on the overhead made for a great drum sound and that’s what the producers are looking for, so let’s just go with it.” ON THE SPOT
On previous albums, before The Rubens had their own studio to play around in, they had taken the common route of a month or two of pre-
production before heading into the studio for a week. The Bunker changed all that. It was a completely different operation this time, complemented perfectly by the looping approach of Zoby and Schwartz. The Rubens brought in a ton of demos, but there hadn’t been the usual emphasis on rehearsal. The band would simply come in and replace parts as they saw fit. It was how the producers liked working, said Zeglis. “It was about making drum loops and being creative on the spot. They liked starting with beats and rhythms first because we already had the demo songs there in the background. They would start by saying, ‘let’s get this beat really cranking.’ Once the loop was working, you’d get a bass or rhythm track behind it. It was inspiring playing bass when the beat was sounding bigger and fatter. You’d immediately get a different vibe or deeper sense of the song. I’d never worked on top of beats like that before. It was a learning curve, not old school where you’d pound it out in a rehearsal for hours beforehand.” Woman Oh Woman was a typical example of the looping approach, said Zeglis. It was a basic setup of a 57 overhead, snare and kick mics, with “a few more room mics thrown in, but Torbitt processed it really hard on the spot with a compressor and bounced it down to two tracks. I thought it was pretty ballsy, no going back from that one, and to me that’s probably one of the better drum sounds.” Another was Soso: “80% of the drums were done at The Bunker and then we ended up flying over to New York to edit and do the final touches
AT 45
in their studio. They wanted a couple of little fills, but overdubbed them over the top of those drums. It works, but you can hear the difference in how it was treated. The rhythm drums are very tight and you’ve got these overdubs which are trash mic sounds.” LOOPING THROUGH ALL STATIONS
For Zeglis, the constant looping meant setting up workstations that remained there for the entire process. He couldn’t tear the drums down and set up for guitars; every station was ready to record at any time. “Everyone was making loops on the spot, so I constantly had to set up microphones for tambourines or if someone had an idea to put down.” The fixed station setups had some standard configurations like a Beyer M160 ribbon and Sennheiser MD421 on a guitar amp, and a 421 into an LA2A limiter for bass, which Zeglis would constantly refine to suit the specific sound; swapping out a mic to interact with one of Zaac’s obscure fuzz pedals, or making sure a compressor wasn’t overworking. AT 46
Soundtracs IL3632 analogue console — “It’s a British-made console. The main reason I bought it was because its patchbay is really good. Because I’ve got a lot of outboard synths, I wanted to be able to have that flexibility.” 2 x Tascam MS16 1-inch tape machines — “I have them linked up so I can run 32 channels of analogue.” Antelope Orion converter Universal Audio 1176 compressor 2 x ELI Distressors Pultec EQ clone Ensoniq DP4 reverb Warm Audio LA2A — “I know they cop a bit of a bashing, but I think it sounds good for the money. I always have that on vocals, even if it’s not doing that much. I used a Sennheiser MD421 into the LA2A for bass.”
Fostex reverb — “I don’t even use it for reverb. If I want distorted vocals, I’ll just max out all the preamps on the reverb unit and it does a really nice distortion sound for me.” Beesneez U47 & KM84 mic clones — “I went to Ben’s workshop in Byron Bay, and he was such a lovely man. To know that all the parts are made in-house by family — their aunties and uncles make the box it comes in and the daughter comes home after school and does soldering. It was inspiring. Even if it doesn’t sound as good as an original one, or sounds better, I just wanted to buy his microphones because I thought he had great energy and I’m about that, too.”
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Engineering the band you’re also meant to be playing in can make it difficult to concentrate on your performance. For Zeglis, it was his way of keeping boredom at bay. “During recording sessions, there’s a lot of downtime where you’re on the lounge on your phone. For me it’s good to be entertained and even though it can be stressful when you’re tired, I’m actually more energetic when I’m stressed. I feel happier running around checking if a microphone is in phase. It keeps me more involved in the process.” Being in their own space, with this anythinggoes perspective of the recording process meant that when it came to laying down his own takes, Zeglis felt he had plenty of time to get them right. “I enjoy that process of mucking around and coming up with something that wasn’t on the demo. Sometimes the best part of the song is when you develop a line or different rhythm by mistake.” Occasionally there was just something on the demo that couldn’t be outdone, like the ‘Boat Reverb’ on Million Man. “ON ELLIOT’S DEMO TAPE BASS, HE’D PUT IT THROUGH THIS REVERB THAT MADE IT SOUND LIKE IT’S IN A TANK. WHEN IT CAME TO THE STUDIO, IT FELT LIKE SOMETHING WAS STILL MISSING; WE COULDN’T AT 48
MATCH THE REVERB THROUGH ALL THE OUTBOARD. We
ended up giving him the bass track so he could process it in Logic and send us a print of the reverb. That exact same process happened on another song called God Forgot. We called it The Boat Reverb.”
NEVER SAY NEVER
After the sessions at the Bunker were complete, the band headed over to Brooklyn to finish off parts of the record in Torbitt’s Brooklyn studio. “It’s pretty small, in the basement of the Schwartz family home,” described Zeglis. “He’s just got some nice outboard gear to track into, an old Rogers kit. All just one big room. I think that’s why he likes the old 57 overhead because he doesn’t have that much space so he’s learnt to maximise that sound. “It was a nice, little studio. He had a couple of tube microphones and the Beyer M160 there so he could track anything he needed to overdub. I don’t know if it would be conducive to making a full record there, we flew over just to do some nittygritty stuff.” Despite being initially stressed out about the prospect of two New York producers descending on his WWII bunker studio, Zeglis couldn’t be
happier with how the sessions turned out. “It was much more of an emotional process, which I like,” he said. “I can’t give them enough praise. They were really cool dudes and hopefully we get to work with them again.” Right at the end of the process, Sam and Elliot Margin wrote a song with Sarah Aarons; an Australian songwriter who’s had a remarkable run co-writing Zedd’s Stay and top-lining Flume and Peking Duk. It wasn’t a session they were counting on for the album, but they happened to write the beautiful duet Never Ever. “It was written off the cuff,” said Zeglis. “We’d pretty much finished the record, then they ended up writing this track and the record company thought it would be good to add it to the record. “As the record was pretty much getting printed, we were in the studio again trying to get this track down. Because we’d had really good success with Hoops, we ended up going with [producer] Eric J and recording at Hercules St Studios. We’d worked with him before; he’s a great producer and mix engineer, and the rest of it, so we felt comfortable trying to get something down really quick with him that was going to be really high quality.”
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FEATURE
PRODUCER PROFILE
ANNA LAVERTY
After stints assisting UK producers Ben Hillier and Paul Epworth, Anna Laverty returned to Australia to bring her production chops home. Interview: Greg Walker
Even if you haven’t heard Australian producer/engineer Anna Laverty’s name, you most certainly know a good fistful of the records she has worked on. Originally from Western Australia and a graduate of WAAPA’s sound engineering course, Anna took her love of music production with her to London and put in the hard yards as an assistant engineer at Miloco Studios for 10 long and fruitful years. During this time she learnt her craft from producers Paul Epworth and Ben Hillier and played a big part in breakthrough albums for Florence and the Machine, Bloc Party and Depeche Mode, to name just a few. Returning to Australia Anna brought a massive skillset and a wonderful breadth of experience to bear in producing and engineering for a wide range of Aussie talent, including Meg Mac, The Peep AT 50
Tempel, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Paul Dempsey, Courtney Barnett and the East Brunswick Girls Choir. Anna’s recordings have a wonderful, largerthan-life immediacy to them while retaining a strong emphasis on the human elements of music making. She’s a consummate professional who’s carved out a fantastic career in a male-dominated industry through the time-honoured blend of talent and hard work while maintaining a downto-earth attitude to her craft. Anna took time out from renovating her farmhouse near Castlemaine in regional Victoria to meet up and talk to AT in Melbourne’s delightful Newmarket Studio. AudioTechnology: When did you first get bitten by the recording bug, and what was the moment when you decided
engineering and producing was the direction you wanted to take? Anna Laverty: I wanted to be a sound engineer from when I was about 15 years old, before that I just didn’t know what it was called, I just knew I liked anything electronic/technical and to do with music. My drama teacher in high school told me about a University in WA called WAAPA where they taught technical courses and I discovered the ‘Sound’ stream of that. It was perfect for me and I learnt all the basics of every type of sound engineering — radio, TV, film, studio, live, radio, etc. I knew I was into music so it was either live or studio for me. When it came down to it, Phil Spector and George Martin were my heroes and I knew really I wanted to be making records, even though the live experience of music is incredible.
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AT: Can you tell us about your time in London and what were some of the standout moments? AL: I’m actually English and spent a lot of my childhood there so going back to England was a bit of a given for me. I moved back three weeks after finishing University with $500, which I thought was heaps of money. I soon realised I had to get a job right away and I started working at a record store in Islington. I worked with amazing music lovers and it was great fun. I was also managing a band I had moved from Perth with and running indie club nights in a little basement bar called Push, in Soho. From there I ended up starting a record label because I knew so many great bands and wanted to help get their music out there. Anyway, after all of these (amazing) distractions I got the call in my bones to go back to the studio and volunteered at a studio in SE London for two weeks. It was pretty boring and I didn’t really get to see the inside of the studio much except on my second last day when I met Ben Hillier. That’s where it all really changed for me. He shared a studio with Paul Epworth and I ended up getting a job as an assistant engineer there. That was my first proper leg up in the industry and I never looked back. I engineered and assisted for many producers and engineers in my years at Miloco. It was exhausting, inspiring and impossible to forget. I remember I assisted on a record for a woman called Josephine Oniyama with Ben Hillier and that was a great first lesson into how important things like percussion are on a record. Ben used to be a percussionist and the stuff they came up with together was very impressive. The icing on the cake, so to speak. I don’t think those sessions were ever released which is a huge shame, but I loved every second of working on it. Another favourite session was the Florence and the Machine album Lungs. Paul Epworth produced one half of the final product but we recorded an album’s worth of material. We were very lost in the process of making the record — making the studio feel like it was under water because Florence was really inspired by being immersed. I remember having an incredible moment of pride and sense of achievement when her manager came in near the end of the session to have a listen to what we’d been doing. She was just so amazed by it, she was very emotional and I knew we’d hit the nail on the head. AT: A lot of young people take the audio school approach to learning engineering and music production these days. What are the advantages of the intern/assistant engineer pathway? AL: I did both. I studied for three years because I was 17 and not really ready to start working 16 hours days. I learnt the basic rules and then went and assisted in studios which is where I learnt how to break all the rules. There are some great courses out there right now, but I’m not really into the idea that someone graduates from college and is suddenly a producer. You really have to have experience — both in the studio and in life for a few years before you can call yourself a producer. It took me 10 years to say it and not really feel like a fraud! AT 52
AT: You have a wonderful way of capturing the live energy of a band in the studio. What is your approach to pre-production with these types of artists? AL: Thank you! I love pre-production, really it’s where I make most of the big decisions. It’s where I would change the tempo, key, arrangement or form of a song. All that big stuff. Then I leave the new ideas with the band for a couple of weeks to feel around and practice. I usually just go to a rehearsal and start acting like I’m part of the band. Often, there’s a little bit of resistance from someone in the band… usually the person who didn’t hire you… but I just kill them with kindness and let them win a couple of arguments and it all works out well. AT: How do you decide whether to use tape or digital as the primary recording medium? AL: That kind of decision comes from having a lot of experience, and it’s based on a lot of elements. Is the band good enough to record live? Does it need the sound of tape or the sound of digital recording? How many vocal overdubs do I need and should I track the band to tape then overdub to Pro Tools!? Also, the tape machine in the studio you’re working in has to be operational, properly looked after and lined up. AT: What are your must-have audio tools in the studio? AL: I’m pretty easy really and can work with whatever is there, but I have pretty strong preferences and, of course, they’re all expensive. One good mic — something big and Neumann, for sure. A Shure SM7, and monitors I know very well. I usually cart around my Genelec 1031As and a pair of Yamaha NS10s, for reference. AT: If a four-piece (drums, bass and two guitars) wandered in off the street into the studio how would you set them up and what signal chains would you use? AL: Story of my life! Well I would get them to set up and have a listen to all the sounds in the room. See if they can play together live and work out where all the amps need to go. Get the room feeling really great and make sure everyone is comfortable with sight lines, etc. Then I would think about mics. I work in a lot of different studios so I guess I have bit of a rule: Put the best mics and preamps on the vocals — hopefully a Neumann through a Neve 1073, through a UA 1176. Put a Shure SM7 on the snare and a Beyer M88 on the kick in, Neumann FET47 on the kick out and whatever they’ve got on the rest of the kit. The overheads are dependant on having a pair of something. Dream studio would be a pair of Coles 4038 ribbons. Then bass is probably an Electrovoice RE20 on the cab and a DI. Guitars work well with an SM57 and a second mic that’s hopefully some sort of ribbon. Really, it’s all about placement. Listening to the source and working out what’s going to work. I know everyone says that, but it’s really just what I do. I guess the speed and unquestioning confidence that I’ll be able to make it sound good just comes from having a few years under my belt.
AT: Can you tell us a bit about working with Meg Mac on her vocals? AL: I love recording Meg’s vocals, because she’s such a great singer. She really knows her range and if she hasn’t quite nailed something. We take our time and really layer things up, the lead is just a single lead but she has great backing vocal ideas and we go for it. We’ve done quite a few tracks over the years, but I’m guessing the recording chain would be very similar; singing through a Neumann U47 or 67, into a Neve 1073 (original), then through a black face UREI 1176. AT: The new East Brunswick All Girls Choir record sounds immense. Can you tell us a bit about your production approach and recording techniques for that record? AL: Everyone was telling me EBAGC are a fantastic live band. So I went to see them live and could tell they were one of those bands you just have to set up in a room and hit record. We did a bit of pre-production to tidy up some really long tracks and get everything as sharp as it could be and then talked a bit about instrument choices and recording room preferences. We headed to Headgap in Melbourne to track. The rhythm section in that band are tight and don’t miss many tricks so I knew they could hold it down. We put the bass amp in a little iso booth/hallway and put a Sennheiser 421 on it. They have some cool guitar amps at Headgap so the guitarists in the band had fun playing around mixing and matching heads and amps but I think eventually we mostly stuck to what we had decided on before we began tracking. We used some of the live vocal takes but wanted additional options. The singer doesn’t love a lot of attention so recording the lead vocals is one of those things you have to not put a lot of emphasis on and just suggest doing it whenever there’s a free minute, turn all the lights out and hit go — like in a venue. AT: People think producing is all about the technical side but there’s so much psychology involved in working with different kinds of people, and you don’t have much time to get inside their heads and know what makes them tick. How do you build that understanding in a short space of time? AL: I usually try to work out the dynamic of the band in pre-production and then slip right on in there. I usually find if someone is not being very nice to me and fighting everything, it’s because there’s some power play going on in the alreadyexisting band structure and it has nothing to do with me. I just try to be really nice to them and usually they mellow. It helps if you take a six-pack too!
AT 53
FEATURE
If you’ve pressed ‘subscribe’ on a podcast lately, chances are Martin Peralta has had something to do with its production. Story & Photos: Corey Hague
Martin Peralta has quickly become the ‘go-to’ audio guy for podcasts from the ABC, Gimlet Media, BBC, SBS, The Guardian and The Wheeler Centre. It’s been a busy two years for the Sydney-based producer, as one podcast project has rolled quickly into the next. “The first podcast that really kicked it off was working with Andrew Denton on Better off Dead for The Wheeler Centre,” said Peralta. “From there I went to Gimlet and did the Science Vs project. After that, I was lucky to work on the American Apparel season of Startup, as well as do some work on Crimetown. I helped out with other shows for Gimlet, but those were the main three when I was there.” Now working with the ABC, his list of credits has grown even longer and more diverse; from the light-hearted Ladies We Need to Talk through to the harrowing catholic church abuse investigation Trace. Just as the content is varied, so are the AT 54
roles Peralta plays within a project; sound design, composing music, mixing, editing and recording script reads all fall within his remit. It highlights how podcasts are unique in the world of narrative storytelling; where projects for film or television often involve dozens of people with clear and rigid distinctions between responsibilities and departments, podcasts are a much more fluid process. NO SCRIPT TO FOLLOW
Despite how popular they’ve become, there aren’t many examples out there of typical podcast production and workflow techniques. “There are no YouTube channels for podcast composers and I don’t know anyone whose job it is to compose music for podcasts,” said Peralta. “I’ve learned a lot from the film world. Watching people talk about how they compose cues or how they put things together is really useful. I try to think of it
like film; scenes within the story.” The crucial difference to film is a podcast’s sole reliance on audio to carry the entire weight of the story. Without visuals, the driving force of podcasts is the voice; everything else within the mix must serve to highlight the verbal story. “The editorial is the most important part,” noted Peralta. “IF THE MAIN TALENT OR HOST CAN’T BE HEARD, THEN THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD OR TOO BUSY, OR THE SOUND EFFECTS ARE TOO WILD. If it’s distracting it has to go. It kind of sucks, because the better the music is, the worse it is for the project. If it’s too distracting it has to be stripped back, made simpler, or you get rid of the melodies. The music is never the star; you would never move a voice so you could fit more music in. “If I’m listening through to it and I forget that I’m listening to it, then everything is working. As soon as I’m distracted by the music or the sound effects, then something is wrong and I have to start again.”
AT 55
BUDDING MIXERS
Podcasts are largely consumed on headphones or computer speakers. Mixing for the format means cutting down on sonic pyrotechnics that will only show up on larger speaker systems. To keep that perspective, he references his work on earbuds and laptop speakers as much as he does on the Dynaudio and JBL monitors in the studio. “The sound design and effects should sit pretty low in the mix, or they should occur in isolation,” advised Peralta. “You just can’t have too much dialogue on top of crazy effects. “I OFTEN SIDECHAIN THINGS; FOR INSTANCE, THE VOICE
As soon as I’m distracted by the music or the sound effects, then something is wrong and I have to start again
WOULD SIDECHAIN THE MUSIC, SOUND EFFECTS OR ATMOS.
With Gimlet we sidechained often, and used lots of hard EQ in Pro Tools. For a lot of the music there’s also a dip around 1-7kHz, and I try not to have too many instruments competing when there’s dialogue, so no strings or loud guitars. If the music is too dense it’s hard to make it stick.” DOING IT THE HARDWARE WAY
Despite these creative restraints, Peralta doesn’t simply pull up a preset synth patch he knows will ‘just work’. He prefers to delve into an eclectic range of new and old hardware, rather than scroll though a plug-in list, when generating sounds. Most individual episodes only allow for a week of production, so wrangling a collection of hardware synths, samplers, guitars and effects seems like an unusual choice for someone who has to hit such tight deadlines. However, Peralta reckons his kit offers inspiration that a bulging plug-in folder simply doesn’t. “The hardware makes it much easier for me to create things fast and jump on top of the creative process,” explained Peralta. “With plug-ins I get caught up in the technology of it all, or waiting for things to boot, or the latency. There’s just so many things with plug-ins and computer-based stuff that kills the instant speed of grabbing a synth and putting it through a pedal and playing something.” The hardware approach also saves time during the mix, as filtering and effects are baked into the sound. It all makes perfect sense, but surely that giant Eurorack modular synth rig sitting in the corner sucks plenty of time into its esoteric black hole. How can designing patches from scratch fit into short production times? “I don’t have time to noodle, so I go in knowing what I want rather than turning it on and jamming for hours,” assured Peralta. “Having so many options with sounds, samplers, effects, oscillators and sequencers in one box is great. I recently needed a cue to tell the listener they were listening to a flashback, so I went in to make that sound. I GOT A COUPLE OF OSCILLATORS GOING, FIRED UP THE MAKE NOISE SEQUENCER, ADDED SOME FILTER AND REVERB. THEN THAT ALL WENT THROUGH A TAPE DELAY, THE EVENTIDE HARMONISER AND THE MANLEY PREAMP. It sounded perfect and took half an hour. It would have taken me longer with just plug-ins. “You don’t have to trawl through sample libraries, you just twist it a little bit and suddenly you’ve got a whole new sample library. Having a AT 56
modular really helps because you pick your own palette, and know it all works together. You turn it on and it will be doing things that sound good straight away — it’s almost like a template.” SIGNATURE SOUNDS
Forming a signature sound for each series is something Peralta strives for. Choosing the sonic characteristics of a podcast series isn’t always easy. Often decisions have to be made before scripts are even written. “I like to set myself up for a challenge,” said Peralta. “Every show is different, so you have to be prepared to go with different techniques. For Ladies We Need to Talk it was all about cheesy beats from old drum machines and ’80s synth vibes. With Trace I decided to compose everything with textured drones and light music. I was going for that Scandinavian vibe of Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm; make it more like a score or a soundtrack. “Unravelled used more traditional true crime sounds. The series is about the unsolved death of an indigenous boy in Tamworth, but I didn’t want to rely on twangy guitars and didgeridoos.” Sometimes the decisions about what sounds not to include in a podcast is just as important as the sounds that make it into the mix. The omission of traditional foley within a narrative helps keep a contemporary podcast from veering into ol’ timey radio play territory. “I try to avoid cliches or signposting things too much, but sometimes if you don’t do the cliche it just sounds weird,” explained Peralta. “You have to make a choice whether to go literal or figurative. OFTEN I TRY TO EMULATE THE VIBE WITHIN THE MUSIC. IF THE STORY CALLS FOR FOOTSTEPS OR A TRAIN SOUND, YOU CREATE SOMETHING THAT HAS THAT FEELING WITHOUT RELYING ON STRAIGHT SOUND EFFECTS. It’s very tied to the scripting, but I do try to avoid falling into the same tricks.”
DRAMATIC THEMES
While many podcasts are released on a weekly schedule, an audience will often binge an entire season in one sitting. Even the catchiest theme song can become annoying by the sixth episode. In order to escape the contempt that familiarity
breeds, he alters each theme tune over the course of a season, matching the mood of the episode or building into a more complete theme as the series develops. By multi-tracking the original musical sketches, he can mix and match elements depending on what works best for the episode. It’s impossible to ignore the heavy themes of his podcast catalogue; murders, pedophilia, death, crime. Hardly the better elements of humanity, and not exactly the sort of topics you want to spend your working hours delving intimately into. “Better off Dead was the hardest I’ve ever had to work on, because I worked for hours and hours on it, editing the words of people who died,” recalled Peralta. “Sometime I’d start an episode and the talent would be alive and then that week they died. Andrew Denton is great at what he does, so the way he structured the podcast, you really grew to like these people... and then they’re dead. It happened every single week. It was pretty hard.” LEAVING TRACE
Another challenge is piecing together the hodgepodge of media and recording formats, as well as interviews and narration from non-professionals. When someone is detailing the abuse they’ve suffered, empathy takes precedence over recording the perfect take. A good example of this occurs in Trace, where some of the key interviewees have acute learning disabilities. “Sometimes the editing brain tells you to edit things out or tighten it, but we decided to leave it because we’re not going to change the way the talent sounds,” explained Peralta. “That’s the way they talk and it’s natural. You try and support it by using really simple textures or drones underneath.” There’s a lot to balance and juggle in the podcast game; some of it is creative, some of it is technical. Ethics interact with crafting a slick narrative, and the clock is always ticking. Peralta wouldn’t have it any other way: “I’m always thinking, listening, researching, learning and testing. When I’m in the studio, sometimes not much happens — it might all happen overnight or there’s a burst of amazing stuff where everything gets done. It stresses me out, but I think there’s something about a deadline that helps you make decisions.”
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REGULARS
PC Audio Do your mixes still sound flat and two-dimensional? Here are some free plug-ins that can help you push back the boundaries, while avoiding depth charges! Column: Martin Walker
Like many other musicians, I’m often asked for comments about in-progress mixes, and recently I’ve noticed a couple of common issues relating to software reverb. The first one thankfully seems to be getting rarer, and that’s the habit of slapping in a different reverb for each and every instrument, which generally results in mixes that may sound complete but very ‘muddled’. Once you point out the advantages of relying on one or perhaps two global reverbs, each instrument feeding into them via an aux send, you end up with all sounds playing back through the same acoustic space, resulting in much clearer and cohesive mixes that more closely reflect real life. FLATLINING
Unfortunately, once ‘fixed’, a second related problem often appears which I’ve nicknamed the ‘flat line’ mix. By using one main reverb, you can end up with a mix that sounds rather like a gigging live band, with all the instruments panned out across a line between the loudspeakers, but all seeming to be a similar distance away, as if they were on a stage. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this approach, and one obvious thing you can do to push some sounds further away in such mixes is to turn their direct sound down a bit and their reverb level up a bit. Some sophisticated reverb plug-ins even allow you to choose a position for each instrument for both left to right and front to back (a great advantage for orchestral mockups where each section generally occupies a well-defined position). Notwithstanding, you don’t necessarily need such sophistication. Also, there are many other creative possibilities beyond realistically positioning the instruments from front to back as well as side to side. For instance, with a little automation and extra effects in place you could have mobile sounds that swoop towards you, or echoes that repeat while fading into the distance. So, here are some free ways to add depth to your tracks! PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
First up, real life is a little more complex depthwise than simply mixing dry and wet signals, because travelling through air absorbs higher frequencies — the further away, the more top end will get rolled off. So, patch in a lowpass filter for AT 58
your more distant sounds that gently rolls off high frequencies above perhaps 5kHz, to help to push them backwards in a more realistic fashion. Another aspect is to change the reverb pre-delay time — the time between the direct sound and the onset of reverb reflections. With a pre-delay in place (typically between 10ms and 60ms on most reverb presets) the direct sound is more separated from the reverb tail, and therefore sounds closer overall. Whereas, with no pre-delay on your reverb, sounds appear to merge with it, as if they are further back and less clear. You could set up three reverb plug-ins, and just tweak the pre-delay setting on each, to say 50ms for your front reverb, 30ms for your mid-back, and 10ms for your back, and then set up three aux sends as required, to place each of your channels at one of these depths. However, why load your PC processor with three reverbs when one will suffice? Just reduce your reverb’s pre-delay to 0ms and then feed it via three aux sends, each one containing a freeware PC sample delay plug-in set to 50ms, 30ms and 10ms respectively for front, mid and back duties. You may already have a suitable delay plug-in bundled with your DAW or in your collection. If not, just download forward audio’s Sample Delay (www.forward-audio.de/sampledelay), which even displays its delay times in feet and meters as well as ms. Being further away, sounds will ideally need a little delay added to their direct signal as well. The speed of sound is 1000 feet per second, so an object 10 feet away should have its sound delayed by 10ms for maximum realism. Once again, Sample Delay could be the perfect candidate. DISTANCE — THE FINAL FRONTIER
Experienced engineers may well perform these various EQ and timing depth tweaks by ear, but if you fancy a little help along the way, why not download the freeware Proximity plug-in from Tokyo Dawn Labs (www.tokyodawn.net/ proximity). Essentially this provides a large slider acting as distance pan pot, along with a host of switchable options including the associated time delay, gain fall-off, air absorption, and so on. It looks rather complex at first sight, and some of the options are indeed subtle (particularly the air absorption roll-off), but you can generally exaggerate them if needed, and this is one useful
plug-in, both for altering spatial depth and width, reverb distancing and for all sorts of other enhancements, such as bringing sounds closer than they were originally. You can even automate its controls to move objects in real time — why not try it with repeat echos, to push them into the distance! ANALOGUE DEPTH
My final recommendation relates to the mixing process itself. There are some mighty powerful FX plug-in suites appearing on the market that emulate expensive analogue mixing consoles, with the aim of creating a ‘bigger’ and more rounded sound, with greater depth and spatial detailing. Many people have sought this sonic nirvana over the years, first through hardware summing mixers and now via full-on virtual recreations of specific analogue desks complete with EQ and compressors on every input channel, and a cornucopia of ‘analogue randomness’ so each channel sounds slightly different. On the other hand, Chris Johnson of Airwindows maintains that the sound of analogue mixing is fundamentally due to the way all the channels interact with each other at the mixing buss, and has instead distilled the analogue mixing process to its fundamentals with his free to download Console5 plug-in pair (www. airwindows.com/console5). I haven’t space here to delve fully into his entire design philosophy, but suffice it to say that it’s a two-stage encode/ decode process — you place one instance of his Console5channel plug-in on each of your playback channels, which changes their slew rate/EQ, and then apply the reciprocal process at the mix buss with a single instance of his Console5Buss plug-in. With a single playback channel, the two processes cancel each other out exactly, but as soon as you add more channels to the mix they interact in a subtle fashion. To my ears the results are subtle yet glorious. Console5 removes any digital glare (largely due to its slew limiting), provides glue and spacial depth to mixes, adding a sense of space around each sound that aids separation, while its gentle accentuation of the mids gives them extra clarity and detail in a quite remarkable way. I was so impressed I now support Chris via Patreon!
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REGULARS
Apple Notes Permission to Repair Granted Column: Brad Watts
If you’re an OS X or macOS user with half a clue you’ll know that jumping into the application Disk Utility and hitting the ‘Repair Permissions’ button can drag your operating system drive back towards peak performance. But what exactly do file permissions pertain to? OK, here’s the deal. If you select a file or folder in macOS and choose ‘Get Info’ from the controlclick menu, you’ll see a section at the bottom of the window entitled ‘Sharing & Permissions’. This section sets up how the particular file or folder is available to read, write, or read and write, and which processes have access to those abilities. Those processes can be the system itself, the admin user, or any users with access via sharing. As you’d imagine, should any files or folders end up with incorrect permission settings, the operating system will become confused when trying to write to or read from those incorrectly set files. If those files are designed to be accessed by the operating system and the system is denied access, the system is going to start unravelling. Fonts may appear incorrectly, virtual RAM space may get thwarted, and general usage will begin to slow or even fail to launch applications. So, you’ll understand the importance of keeping permissions set correctly throughout your files within your system drive. Notably, Apple has removed the option to repair permissions as of OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). The Disk Utility application simply doesn’t have the option. Since El Capitan, Apple instigated ‘System Integrity Protection’, which halts malicious software — such as installers from unsigned developers — from altering files residing in the directories /System, /usr, /bin, /sbin, or any app that comes preinstalled in the system. Signed Apple developers are given clearance from Apple to allow their applications to alter these rootlevel files, so anything you download from the App Store shouldn’t affect permissions settings. Apple advises that permissions repairs occur when you download and install system upgrades. That’s fine if you have system upgrades to install, but not so clever if you don’t.
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Obviously no operating system is fault-free, and despite what Apple claims, permissions can still become corrupted. For example, I often install apps that are from unsigned developers, so I have to jump into the System Preferences and allow those apps to open from within the Security & Privacy settings. It’s entirely possible those apps could alter permission settings. With this in mind, how the hell do you repair permissions when good old Disk Utility doesn’t? I’ve come across many variations of this workaorund since OS X 10.11, but the simplest way is to use a command line in Terminal, an application you’ll find in the Utilities folder. The commands aren’t too unwieldy, and they’re short and simple enough to keep in a text document somewhere, but there are different commands for different versions of OS X and macOS. For those running OS X 10.11.x (El Capitan) use this: ‘sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standardpkgs --volume /’. Use only what’s between the quote marks, and pay careful attention to the spacing. Paste that info into Terminal, hit return, then put your account password in and wait. Terminal will report when the verification and repair process is finished. For 10.12 (Sierra) and 10.13 (High Sierra) the procedure is quite different, as the repair permissions command is completely removed within Sierra and High Sierra. To get some way towards correct permissions for your user account, first go to your user account directory; the one with the house icon. Hold down command-I, or use the control click to open a contextual menu and choose ‘Get Info’. This will open the usual info window, where at the bottom you’ll see the ‘Sharing & Permissions’ section. Click on the padlock icon and authenticate with your account password, then click on the cog icon right at the bottom and choose ‘Apply to enclosed items’. You’ll be told you can’t undo this change, but go ahead. Do it. Once that process is finished, head to the Terminal app in Utilities and use the following command line. ‘diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`’ Again, use
only what’s between the quotation marks, and pay attention to the spaces. (The accent-looking character, or grave, is the key to the left of the numeral 1 key and above the Tab key.) Re-lock the padlock icon and you’re good to go. That’s as good as it gets for 10.12 and 10.13 permissions maintenance, but it will reset your user account directories. If you want something to repair permissions on system files, use an app called Kext Wizard. Google it and you’ll find it on Softpedia. This will repair permissions in your System/Library/Extensions directory, which is where all the kexts are kept. Kext Wizard is primarily for adding kexts to a Hackintosh System folder, so the repair permissions tool is there to make certain those additional kexts are set correctly following installation.
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REVIEW
KRK V8
Nearfield Monitors KRK has re-released its flagship V series monitors, for a very keen price.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Brad Watts
PRICE $999 each CONTACT Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au
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PROS Lovely bottom-end Great imaging Unfatiguing high-end Comprehensive EQ They sleep! They’re cheap!
CONS You really shouldn’t complain at this price White!?
SUMMARY The yellow of KRK’s V series monitors dominated Aussie studios in the ’90s, now KRK is revving the series up again with a fourth version. They still have plenty of punch and loads of low end, without the price tag.
KRK monitors aren’t something I’ve had great experience with. Even so, I’m well aware of the impact KRK’s nearfield designs had on the Australian recording industry back in the early ’90s. At the time, it seemed like every second mix engineer was jumping on the KRK bandwagon. Admittedly, there wasn’t a lot of choice back then. Still, KRKs were a clear breath of air amongst the NS-10, Tannoy, and JBL monitors found in many studios at the time. Delineating KRK from the stalwarts of the day was the use of woven Kevlar drivers, something not seen in the recording sphere until then. When KRK monitors first hit the meter bridges they rapidly gained fans who would extol KRK’s punchy bottom-end and precise yet unfatiguing high-end. Following my time with the latest incarnation of KRK’s flagship monitors I can affirm they do exactly that. A GOOD GRILLING
The KRK V8 Series 4 is a front-ported, biggish monitor, and the largest in KRK’s range. Its measurements amount to 435 x 284 x 347mm. Weighing in at 14.4kg you’ll need a substantial set of stands to keep it in place, and like many monitors hitting the market at the moment, it has mounting bracket points. In addition there’s threaded inserts on the base of the cabinets for mounting on poles if that tickles your fancy. The cabinets are primarily constructed of 19mm MDF. The drivers are housed in a cast plastic front baffle, which is finished with a brushed aluminium plate. The plate can be removed so you can install the provided protective grilles with a minimum of fuss. You wouldn’t install the grilles in a studio setting, but it’d be advisable for mobile recording and broadcast use. KRK claims there’s no sonic difference to the monitor’s frequency response with the grilles attached, but I beg to differ. I’ve never heard a set of monitors sound the same with grilles attached as when without, and to that end I had a go with the grilles on. While the difference is slight I’d still advise keeping them off if possible. KILL THE RECOIL
Amplification is very typical of the current market; a class D design with 200W for low-end and 30W for the highs. An attenuator resides at the rear of the monitors for zero to -3dB attenuation in .05dB steps. KRK even supplies a tool for accessing and altering the mini-pots. Nice! Attached to the base of the Series 4 monitors is an EVA foam cushion to stabilise the units. Apparently this aids in reducing the recoil of the low-end diver so as not to lose energy due to cabinet movement. Plus, it isolates the cabinet from its bench or stand to a degree. As you’d expect, KRK utilises its woven kevlar bass drivers and soft-dome kevlar high-end driver. The design offers a unique ‘sound’ and has been KRKs schtick since day one. In the case of the V8s these drivers provide a 35Hz to 19kHz frequency response. The crossover frequency between high and low drivers is 1.8kHz for the V8s, 1.6kHz for the V6, and 2.1kHz for the V4s — no doubt all
catered to with DSP. I’m a fan of the sound, and I’ve been considering a small pair of Rokit KRKs as an alternative monitoring system for some time. FLIP THE SWITCH
I’m actually quite impressed with the features KRK has built into the Series 4 monitors. Aside from the grille on/off option, there’s a tonne of options when it comes to adjusting the EQ, and all the models in the range feature the same controls. All up there are 49 permutations of this digital EQ, and are adjusted via a five-position potentiometer for low-end and another for high-end. These are set curves comprising a mix of different amounts of low shelving at 60Hz and cut and boost PEQ at 200Hz, as well as a flat setting (thank goodness). The V8s arrived with the +3dB 60Hz firmly on, so I spent a couple of hours mired in bass before thinking there was a tad too much bum going on and checking on the EQ settings. The high-end adjustments consist of various combinations of high shelving at 10kHz and PEQ cuts and boosts at 3.5kHz, alongside a flat setting. The V4 models are set with 75Hz low-end EQ curves rather then the V6 and V8 models being set at 60Hz, because four-inch drivers don’t, like, do 60Hz… ever. Anyway, there’s a pile of adjustment if you need it for wall proximity and/ or console muddiness. But hey, I set them flat, because I don’t have a console and I don’t believe in equalising monitors. Beside the EQ pots there’s also a set of dipswitches for, yes, more settings. These are to do with the mechanics of the system, and again, I’m impressed with the thought put into these features. First up, there’s a dip-switch for ground lift, which while helpful in a poorly-earthed system, amounts to a last minute fix for shoddy mains power wiring. The next dip-switch flips the monitor between -10dBV and +4dBu input levels — fair enough, standard fare. The next few dip-switches I love: The fourth and fifth switches turn the bright LED KRK logo on the front of the V8s on or off, or flip between two brightness settings — great if you don’t fancy blinding lights or if you like to mix in a darkened area. IDLING ALONG
Switch number three is my favourite. This will instigate sleep mode for the monitors, which means the monitors will shut down after 30 minutes of not receiving signal input. I’d love a feature like this on my own monitoring as I tend to arc up my system during the day, and often keep it running until late evening. That’s 420W of amplification running for 10-12 hours a day, drawing around about 90W each in general use and about 35W when sitting idle. A sleeping monitor saves energy and consequently hard earned dosh. To wake up, all the monitor needs is -50 dBu at the inputs. However, it was a bit weird when the two V8s came back online about two seconds apart from each other. When it first happened, and knowing about the sleep function I thought I had a faulty or DOA monitor on my hands. Another uncommon feature and something
that’s yet to be deployed with the Series 4 KRKs is the mini USB port on the back of the monitors. KRK are keeping schtum about the use for this, other than pointing out the port “... is for possible future updates and/or features.” I can imagine this being implemented for alterations to the DSP-based EQ. Perhaps an app for more precise EQ nudges? STAND UP IMAGE
Here’s something else you don’t see too often in monitoring — the Series 4 V model monitors are available in either black or an off-white cream colouring. The models I received were the white, which in all seriousness would not be my choice. Monitors should be black, or at least very very dark grey. The white models on my monitor bench were already showing signs of dirt and discolouration. I’ve no idea why you’d want white monitors, but as they say, different strokes, there’s no accounting for taste, etc, etc. Sound-wise I have to say KRK do a great job with bottom-end. The Kevlar cones, combined with KRK’s square front porting, offer some very respectable and concise low-end, whilst high end is both accurate and unfatiguing. In terms of stereo imaging the V8s are quite a smart setup. The image ‘stands’ where it should with a minimal amount of set-up and ‘toeing’. I quite liked the V8s, and could happily live with a pair were I not over-endowed with monitors. When being informed of the price for the V8s I was astounded. For the money, at the moment I don’t believe you’d find a better bang-for-buck proposition. Impressive sound and imaging, plenty of customisation, and some change out of a two-grand investment. Well worth your auditioning. AT 63
REVIEW
ARTURIA 3 FILTERS & 3 PRES DAW Plug-ins
Arturia calls these ‘filters and pres you’ll actually use’. They’re not wrong. Review: Preshan John
FILTER THE CREAM Price: $139 To the recording engineer, EQ filters are a way of carving out space in a mix. To the FOH engineer, high pass filters buy headroom in the sub sends. But to the electronic music producer, filters are practically instruments. Arturia’s new trio of filter plug-ins are derived from classic analogue synths. In typical Arturia style, every ounce of possible musicality and manipulation is squeezed from each one. No matter what kind of music you produce, these filters are creative tools you need to have in your arsenal. SEM FILTER
Oberheim’s SEM (Synthesizer Expander Module) was always meant as a modular synth add-on, so a filter spin-off is right in the SEM wheelhouse. It’s impossible to make this filter sound bad, the first spin of the cutoff knob gave a buttery gentle rolloff. The Mode knob lets you slide anywhere from an LPF to a Notch filter to a HPF. Or go all the way left to get to a bandpass filter. More than just a nice sounding rolloff, the 16step sequencer syncs to the tempo of your session and lets you drop in points to modulate the filter’s AT 64
envelope and LFO. It turns the SEM filter into an instrument in its own right. It’s like a set of cookie cutters where your source material is the dough. Set trigger points in the sequencer to initiate the envelope then make it play with the LFO to create complex sonic movements.
You can modulate resonance too (Emphasis knob). The Envelope Follower is another modulation option which affects the cutoff frequency dependent on the level of incoming audio. Great for synth drum loops and transient-heavy material.
MINI FILTER
The M12 is the Big Daddy of Arturia’s filter trio, taken from the legendary Oberheim Matrix 12. It looks like a retro computer and its functionality isn’t far off. There are two filters here, A and B, each of which has a choice of 15 modes (!), a cutoff, resonance, pan and output knob. The central Master Cutoff knob affects both and you can route the two filters four ways. Envelopes can be drawn in by hand, too. There are three of them and you can select preset shapes or put in break points on the graph yourself. The grid underneath allows you to assign each envelope to the parameter you want it to control. If you don’t want to get so intricate, the modulation oscillator lets you control a parameter with a selection of five waveshapes. It would be nice if this had a tempo sync option.
Moog’s ladder filter is among the most recognisable. Arturia’s recreation from the Minimoog is spot on, it’s pleasant with a touch of bite but the real magic lies in that Drive knob which can take you from subtle undergirding warmth to a seriously thick crunch. Couple that with an edgy resonance spike and you’ve got a very characterful filter sound that’s perfect for a lot more than just synths — try your drums bus, for example. If you wanna get crazy, engage the eight-step sequencer. The premise is the same as the SEM Filter — modulate the cutoff frequency — but the approach is different in that each step has a knob instead of a switch, so you can set how much each step is affected by the LFO or envelope section.
M12 FILTER
PRIME PREAMPS Price: $249
1073-PRE
Who isn’t up for another Neve 1073 emulation in their plug-in menu? Before getting to the EQ, the preamp itself is instantly impressive with its two
CONTACT CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
transformer options. Try increasing the Input Gain to add some magic. 1073-Pre does beautiful things on a drum bus or vocal, particularly in the lows, while subtly adding presence and compression to glue tracks together and make them pop. The EQ section has a high and low shelf, a continuously sweepable mid band (as opposed to the hardware which is stepped), and a fourposition high pass filter. Small tweaks are very perceptible and perfect for adding a touch of flavour to a mix or individual track. Unlike many other EQs, I like that you can turn down the high shelf without a track getting muddy or losing focus. It’s a safe bet that this plug will make any well-recorded track sound better. TRIDA-PRE
Not that looks should matter but the purple GUI of Arturia’s Trident Audio A Range preamp clone is exquisite. The tone is bold and works wonders on vocals. The four-band EQ is presented via faders, with high and low shelves and two mid curves. High-pass and low-pass filters are engaged with push buttons set at different frequencies. The curves feel gentle and musical and I especially liked the meaty sound of the low shelf which kept its clarity when boosted. The break-up of the TridA-Pre has a real sense of
PROS Filters offer extreme flexibility M/S and L/R options on preamps Very musical tone all round
CONS None
analogue hardware. Try pushing the preamp gain all the way up on a bass guitar for a buzzy edge. Like the other two preamp plugs, this too has M/S processing which gives you a fresh way of mixing the stereo spread on drum overheads, a BVs bus, stereo keyboard, even over the whole mix. V76-PRE
The V76-Pre is by far the most old-school looking plug-in of the bunch, thanks to the ‘I need a screwdriver’ Input Gain knobs and sunken vertical EQ dials. The Telefunken tube preamp emulation adds a pleasant low-mid warmth to synths and other harmonically rich instruments. It gets proper gnarly when pushed. The two-band high and low shelves (marked by bass and treble clefs) are about the most inoffensive and musical an EQ can get. A treble boost on acoustic guitar opened up a lovely airiness that wasn’t harsh in the slightest. And while the bass curve doesn’t punch like the TridAPre’s equivalent, it still adds fullness and weight in a transparent fashion. Filter points are at 80Hz and 300Hz, or click the dial one step further to 80Hz+300Hz and combine the two.
SUMMARY Arturia’s Pres & Filters bundle truly lives up to its name — they’re all plug-ins you’ll actually use, regularly. Electronic music creators will gravitate to the filters while recording and mix engineers will probably appreciate the preamp emulations more.
NEED TO KNOW
There’s a certain appeal in running ‘cold’ and ‘sterile’ DAW tracks through bits of analogue gear to ‘warm them up’. The next best thing — when taking tracks on a physical trip out of and back into the digital domain is impractical — is to throw a harmonics-inducing plug-in across those tracks. Arturia’s trio of preamp emulations mimic three classic channel strips and does a wonderful job curing your digital woes with analogue mojo. All three plug-ins have a few things in common, the first of which is a pair of VU meters to get you thinking and seeing analogue. The plug-in’s DNA is really showcased through its breakup characteristics. An Input Gain knob lets you drive the preamp stage from subtle warmth to the border of mayhem, while an Output knob keeps your levels in check. A minimal equaliser section models the original hardware. Then as a beneficial value-add, all three plugs let you process stereo tracks either L/R or M/S (the latter of which turns the equaliser, input gain, and output controls to middle and side, respectively). Better yet, they’re all relatively low on CPU usage.
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REVIEW
BINAURAL BATTLE Immersive recording doesn’t have to be an ordeal, it’s as easy as chucking in some ear buds. We review Hooke Audio’s Verse and Sennheiser’s Ambeo Smart Headset to compare the latest renaissance of binaural. Review: Mark Davie
Hooke Audio Verse US$189.99 | www.hookeaudio.com
PROS Easy Bluetooth operation Realtime wireless recording Lots of earplug sizes
CONS Cable operation a bit noisy WAV only a wrapped MP3
SUMMARY Hooke has not only managed to reinvigorate binaural recording, it’s also made wireless recording absolutely seamless. Simply hook up via Bluetooth for realtime 4K video and immersive audio in a jiffy. All at a very reasonable price.
Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset AU$469.95 | www.sennheiser.com.au
PROS Can record at any resolution Mics well protected Low noise recording
CONS iOS only Bulky cable lump
SUMMARY Sennheiser’s Ambeo Smart Headset takes a different tack to the Verse; it’s wired and iOS-only. While you have to plug it in, it does mean you can choose your recording resolution and it plays nicely with all your apps.
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VR may still be finding its legs, but immersive audio is well and truly available to anyone who cares to give it a go. Decent binaural capture devices have often required shelling out big bucks or nicking a mannequin head from your local Vinnies and supergluing omni capsules to the ears. No more, these days you can simply buy a pair of in-ears with integrated microphones and use your own melon as the dummy head. They’re reasonably affordable, too, so there’s no excuse not to record every intrepid adventure in pure binaural sound. If you’re new to this whole binaural thing, and wondering why on earth you’d even bother. Well, the whole idea of binaural recording is to mimic the natural sound coming into your ears. In broad strokes, the lump between our shoulders creates a distance between our ears. The difference in time between when a sound arrives at one ear versus the other helps us determine whence it came. It all gets a bit fancy when you start talking about Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF), which takes into account the size of your head, and the shape and size of all its attached anatomy, as part of the fine-tuning process. By sticking microphones where your ears are, it basically captures the sound coupled with the effects of your HRTF. Now, no two HRTFs are the same, and yours will be different to mine, but generally speaking, these do a very good job of capturing the sensation of ‘being there’. They immerse you in the perspective of the person who recorded the event. If you’re in the market for affordable binaural sound, there are a few of these earphone options available to you. Hooke Audio’s Verse; Sennheiser’s Ambeo Smart Headset, which is powered by Apogee conversion; and Roland has its basic CS-10EM earphones, which look like a Walkman accessory circa 1999. We received a pair of both the Verse and Ambeo headsets, and decided to take them on an immersive journey to see which worked better for our ears. FIRST VERSE
Hooke’s founder Anthony Mattana was the first to re-engineer the binaural concept into a smartphone-enabled pair of earphones. He was able to raise over $160k for his idea on Kickstarter in 2014, more than his $100k goal. Since then, he’s built on the success of Verse, and just recently released a full update to Hooke Audio’s companion application, which — as well as giving you more camera control, and better phone support — now allows you to record 4K movies, and also records .wav files, but more on that later. Back to the marquee feature of Verse — it’s completely wireless. The audio is piped into your phone or device via Bluetooth. Regardless of whether you’re into binaural or not, this is a remarkable feature. Bluetooth has never been bothered with low latency transmission. It’s happy to get the audio into your ears ‘sometime’,
which makes watching a movie on your phone with Bluetooth headphones like sitting through a two hour-long thunderstorm. Qualcomm has tried to solve this with various flavours of AptX, which reduce the latency to bearable levels. Hooke hasn’t solved the phone-to-headphones latency (it’s still laggy), but it’s almost perfectly synced up audio and video when going the other way. With the combination of its own algorithm and custom app, Hooke is able to record video and audio together with an imperceptible latency of 0.0042ms! Genius. Previously, the app was limited to 1080p video and .mp3 file formats, leaving you to look longingly at the higher resolution of other recording apps. The video has been taken care of, with the option of recording in 4K with the new update. However, the ability to record in .wav is a little bit of a misnomer. While technically true, the .wav files are really just the same .mp3 recordings wrapped in a WAV header, not uncompressed recording. There’s still a small tradeoff for going wireless, but the mp3s do sound good. Alternatively, in the box you also get a nifty cable doo-dad on a mini-hose reel. On one end it’s got a micro-USB connector, and on the other a two-pronged tail with a 3.5mm stereo jack and a mini-USB jack. The former lets you plug into any DSLR mic input, or audio recording equipment for super-high resolution recording, while the latter lets you go straight into a GoPro. Binaural really makes sense when it’s paired with visuals, and chucking it into your camera usually gives you control over gain. When plugging into your computer, the Verse gives you a naturally healthy level without the need for a gain control; however, I did get a ground loop hum when I plugged it into my MacBook Pro. It’s not uncommon for computers to introduce hum, and it would disappear when I touched the chassis. Unplugging all of my other devices minimised it, but didn’t eradicate it. Thankfully, it only seemed to affect the sound I was hearing; the recording went through unscathed. When plugged into the stereo input of a Zoom H6, it had a higher pitched sound coming through, which did turn up on the audio. On a Panasonic GH5s camera, it still wasn’t as clean as the wireless transmission. I’ll hazard a guess, and lay the blame at the cable manufacturing. I’d recommend recording to the Verse app and syncing up audio in post. SENNHEISER GOES WIRED
Sennheiser has chosen a different path with the Ambeo Smart Headset. Rather than pleasing everyone with a device-agnostic wireless setup, it’s hardwired for iOS; opting for a Lightning connector at the end of its cable. It’s a little more of a straightforward design. Up top, it’s the same arrangement of mics over earphones. Going down the cable there’s a microphone for voice calls, then further down there’s a chunky cable brick with controls for starting/stopping music, and adjusting AT 67
the headphone levels. Either side of that are a toggle you can use to change the ‘Situational Awareness’ setting, which can either use the ear mics to actively cancel noise, or engage a level of ‘Transparent Hearing’, whereby the signal from the mics is plumbed through the headphones. There are three levels of Transparent Hearing — Reduce, Natural (which approximates the sound you would hear if you didn’t have earphones in), and Amplify. There’s also a Smart Slider, which you can set up — using the Ambeo Smart Headset app — to toggle between different states. It can do everything from launch your favourite recording app to toggle the mic recording level between Natural and Reduce. There’s no other gain settings, but those two seemed to work for most applications. Because the Sennheiser unit is wired, it can go straight into an external app like Røde Rec ($9.99), which has become my go-to no-fuss iPhone field recording app. With it, I was able to record stereo files at up to 24-bit/48k WAVs on my iPhone. Alternatively, you can use Apogee’s own Metarecorder ($7.99 if you want to record more than a minute, $22.99 if you want to control simultaneous recording on four other iPhone devices), which allows you to record at up to 96k with the Ambeo headset. However, it’s strictly iPhone only, no connecting it to your computer, or DSLR, or Android phone. On the other hand, it does work with Apple’s built-in camera app, giving you binaural recordings linked directly to your video.
They do the job, but as is the case with standard driver configurations, they get crunchy in the upper mid range and don’t deliver really airy tops. They’re also fairly loud, so you’ll likely have them backed off your usual settings. They essentially do what other Bluetooth in-ears do in this price range. Considering the main focus is on the binaural recording side, it’s not bad. By comparison, the Sennheisers were a bit more hyped. The top end is more present, but it can be a little bit artificial sounding; like it’s overcompensating for the lack of drivers. While the onboard noise cancellation eschews the need for dense foam eartips, there’s only three sizes of silicon buds provided, which doesn’t make the best fit for some. Both function well enough if you can only carry one pair of earphones with you, but I wouldn’t rely on either pair as your sole headphones on a longer trip.
Either way, it’s just magnificent that there’s the option to record binaural in a heartbeat
PLASTIC BUT FANTASTIC
Both units feel relatively plasticky; you’re paying for the tech inside, not for a luxury pair of headphones. The mics on the Sennheiser are protected by a robust wire mesh, while the Verse mics sit flush with the exterior of the plastic housing. As a bare setup, even the act of walking indoors will induce wind noise in the Verse microphones. The Sennheiser’s aren’t similarly susceptible. Hooke does provide little foam windmuff ‘booties’ that go over Verse’s microphone housings. It does make it slightly harder to keep the foam plugs firmly in your ears, but did help cut down on wind noise. Outside on a blustery Melbourne winter day, the Verse’s booties definitely helped cut out some of the gusts when compared to the Sennheiser. Though don’t expect deadcat performance from either. If you’re recording a first-person vlog of your rollercoaster adventure, it’ll be partnered by a well-captured binaural representation of the wind rushing by your face. Verse also exhibited more noise in its recordings than the Sennheiser, when recording sources of the same level. FIT FOR PURPOSE
As far as headphones go, Verse sounds like a pair of relatively standard Bluetooth in-ears. They’re slightly better than a pair of Blue Ant bluetooth in-ears I have, but slightly worse than a wired pair of generics I also possess. Bass isn’t the issue, as Hooke has provided enough silicon and foam eartips to get a good fit; the foam ones do a better job of blocking out external ambience.
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PAIR OFF
They’re both easy to use. As far as pairing Bluetooth headphones goes, the Verse and my iPhone 8 found each other within a couple of seconds, and were able to pick up that connection any time I switched Bluetooth on or fired up the Verse. Because the Verse is tied to its own recording app, it reduces the number of controls required on the actual unit. There’s only one button to figure out. Holding it down turns the Verse on and off, with the LED backlight lit up blue. A second long-press flashes the LED red, for pairing your Bluetooth device. It also starts and stops recording with a single button press, illuminating solid red for the duration of your recording. It’s really straightforward, and while you do get used to the button position, it would have been useful if there was a raised decal on the button so you could more easily locate it while it’s behind your ear. Interestingly, the recording level on the app is set in a similar way to a compressor threshold. You pull the ‘fader’ down to turn up the gain. Another way of looking at it is you’re bringing the gain level closer to the source. You simply have to watch the meters don’t exceed your gain marker. In the Verse app, once you’ve recorded a video you also have to wait for it to export into your library, which was roughly realtime. You can’t close the app during that process or you’ll lose your video. Audio recording was instantaneous.
WILL YOU IMMERSE?
Despite ‘it’s 2018’ being a catchall for everyone’s opinion of how things should be. I personally don’t care if earphones are wired or wireless. Not to say I don’t carry Bluetooth headphones when I travel — I do — but I don’t see either of these units becoming my go-to headphones; I’d only use them when I wanted to record binaural audio. Because of that, I’d just as readily plug in a cable as a I would switch on Bluetooth. As far as microphone performance goes, they both sound great. I did find the Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset had lower perceptible noise, and the uncompressed, high-resolution capabilities might mean more to you than Hooke’s wireless functions. That said, I can see the primary use for a pair of binaural headphones occurring outside your home, in which case, the Verse — with its ‘bootie’ wind muffs — provide a less wind-affected representation of the great outdoors. It’s also cheaper and wireless — two stars which usually don’t align. Again, a huge hats off to Hooke for developing a ‘realtime’ Bluetooth codec! Either way, it’s just magnificent that there’s the option to record binaural in a heartbeat. With Instagram TV threatening to become the next big long-form video platform, it’s more important than ever that we can get quality audio into our phones. For people doing travel and nature docs, this would be a surefire way for viewers to engage in a deeper way with your content. For musicians looking to up their Insta game, getting someone to film you playing while wearing a set of these binaural in-ears will increase your engagement levels by 1000. The good news is that recording in binaural doesn’t mean it has to be listened to with headphones on. You’ll still get a stereo signal, it just won’t be ‘immersive’. If you couldn’t be bothered with Instagram and wonder how on earth you’d integrate binaural capture into your workflow, look no further than legendary mix engineer, Tchad Blake. At NAMM, the die hard binaural fan had Hooke Verse in-ears dangling around his neck like a pair of glasses. He was amped about the ease of access to one of his favourite technologies. His suggestion was to use them as the occasional secret sauce for both recording and mixing. ‘Mixing?’ You ask. Yep, Tchad’s ideas involved chucking them in your ears and dancing between your studio monitors to add some out-of-this-world panning movement to your mix. So whether you’re going for out-of-this-world effects, or more true-to-this-world immersive recordings, these really do provide the goods at a very keen price.
7
ART 7
STILL THE FIRST CHOICE OF AUDIO PROFESSIONALS THE WORLD OVER, RCF INTRODUCES THE ART 7 MK4 SERIES. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO HEAR THE DIFFERENCE FOR YOURSELF. PRODUCTION GRADE BUILD QUALITY. SEVERAL SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS (UP TO 4” VC). PROPRIETARY FIR-PHASE TECHNOLOGY. FIVE YEAR AUSTRALIAN WARRANTY. MADE IN ITALY.
TO FIND YOUR NEAREST RCF PROFESSIONAL DEALER, VISIT: WWW.RCFAUDIO.COM.AU
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REVIEW
AT PROFESSIONAL BLACKBIRD TLA1.4 Portable Line Array These Australian-made portable line array systems are a top seller, and it’s easy to hear why. Review: Mark Woods
NEED TO KNOW
The AT Professional Blackbird TLA1.4 portable line array speaker system is proudly made in Queensland by Australian company AT Professional. They make a wide range of both point source and line array speaker systems that directly compete with the high end offerings of the big international manufacturers. That’s no easy task but they succeed by aiming high with in-house R&D driven by an audiophile disposition. Using high quality components sourced from the same manufacturers as other big brand names, AT’s speakers have a reputation for producing accurate, linear sound, from cabinets designed to be physically practical and flexible in application. The appetite for point source speakers hasn’t waned at AT but the company has developed a lot of expertise with the increasingly popular modern line array designs. A big part of AT’s business is custom architectural installations using steerable arrays in difficult environments; court houses, churches, town halls, railway stations, airports, etc. Places where the controlled projection of a line array design can literally cut through the space to the listeners with improved clarity and intelligibility compared to a point source system throwing sound all over the place. Another benefit of the slender arrays in these applications is the discrete looks that help preserve the character of the venue.
CONTACT AT Professional: (07) 3376 4122 or info@atprofessional.com.au
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PROS Versatility of use Focused projection Long throw Convenient setup
CONS None
SUMMARY From under-age discos to bluegrass gigs, there wasn’t a test situation where these Aussie-made portable line arrays didn’t make point sources boxes sound secondrate. TheBlackbird systems combine powerful clarity with the party trick of taming difficult acoustic environments.
SCALING DOWN THE ARRAY
AT’s line array technology gets scaled up for bigger music-based systems. For the largest venues or big music events it offers three sizes of modular line array speakers that can be ground-stacked or flown and configured into the familiar J-shaped arrays. Smallest is the TLA306 with two 6.5-inch drivers plus a horn, next is the TLA508 with two 8-inch drivers plus horn and then the big one, the TLA312 with one 12-inch and two 6.5-inches plus horn, with a power handling of 3860W. They match with the TLA306B single 12-inch or TLA506B double 12-inch subs. Mid-sized venues or events with loud bands or higher volumes get the popular and usually ground stacked CLA700A composite line array speakers. Then there’s the Blackbird TLA1.4A system. It covers the wide ground between small and midsized events. There’s a lot of shows in that space and they’re all different. The Blackbird has been a hit for AT and has proven particularly popular with production companies who do a wide variety of events. It’s not cheap gear but it is extremely versatile and combined with the easy set-up, modern looks and focused projection of the line array design, AT has found the Blackbird system can provide significant practical and commercial advantages over regular point source, powered box systems. The latest update to the TLA1.4 is more of a tweak than a re-build but when you’re on a good thing… as they say. Speaking of sticks, the distinctive feature of the Blackbird system is still the impressive TLA1164 mid-high line array. 16 3.5cm neodymium drivers stacked in a cabinet nearly 1.5m high but only 10cm deep, 10cm wide and just over 8kg on the scales. The 16 small speakers can be seen through the front grille and the recessed rear panel kinda works as a handle so you can carry them with one hand. Custom made from extruded aluminium and finished with black powdercoat, there’s not much to them and they hide in the dark. THE SUB
The stick slots into the top of the TLA210A active sub to complete the system. Made from 18mm Finnish ply and finished with AT’s tough AcoustiCoate surface, it feels solid. Inside there are two new low-distortion 10-inch Neodymium drivers, made for AT by Italian manufacturer Lavoce. A lot of development went into matching the sub with the array and anything bigger than 10-inch drivers were found to be too slow to keep up with the fast transient response of the array. Changing over to a new amp platform was the other main update. Now supplied by Powersoft Audio the two-channel 1.2kW RMS Class D amp drives the mid-high array and the sub with noticeably better performance in use and an expected improvement in long-term reliability. The TLA210A’s dimensions of 370 x 650 x 520mm are modest for a sub housing two speakers plus amp/electronics but at 26kg it’s a chunky object for one person to carry. It can be done if
you’re on your own but it’s easier for two. The handles on either side of the cabinets are OK but the weight is a bit unbalanced so the cabinet tilts forward when being carried. These are professional speakers and production companies will likely transport them in a truck in their supplied hard cases, available for both sticks and subs. Less corporate users, bands or private owners for instance, will find that a pair of TLA210A subs and a pair of TLA1164 sticks (in bags) will fit in a medium-large wagon or SUV, with room to spare for other gear. These users should get the excellent optional canvas padded bags. Custom made for AT by Ozki Canvas, these will last. I’ve got canvas speaker covers that were made in 1980 with no problems other than the fading McLean Audio stencil, whereas I’ve thrown out newer ripped polyester carry bags within 18 months. Also available is the 2.2m 24-driver TLA1244 mid-high array for another couple of dB in volume and the extra height. Production suppliers with both 16- and 24-driver sticks and a few subs can easily scale systems for different shows with consistent results. AT offers a number of readyto-go turnkey systems for customers who just need one system. As a lot of these speakers go into custom installations where aesthetics and placement are particularly important, rigging points on the back of the sticks take a T-piece that attaches to a variety of brackets for mounting or hanging. Arrays can be powder coated in custom colours and the exposed pole mount on the bottom of the array can be replaced with a flat panel for a cleaner look. The controls and connections live on the rear panel of the TLA210A sub cabinet and the only options, apart from volume, are the four preset buttons mysteriously labelled one to four. Preset 2 is flat, Preset 1 is slightly scooped in the 100-200Hz range… I could hear that. Presets 3 and 4 had me fooled. Turns out they’re copies of Preset 2 and reserved for user settings. Frequency response, internal delays and protection circuits are all controlled by the internal networkable DSP and the factory settings give you a tuned ready-to-go PA. The USB-B connector on the rear panel provide access to the DSP and presets via Powersoft Audio’s Armonia software, which can simultaneously address two units. TIME TO DANCE
I’ve been checking out the smallest complete stereo Blackbird system, two TLA1164A ‘sticks’ and two TLA210A subs. An underage disco at the local footy club seemed a good test in a typical application. One of my boys plays junior footy and they’re popular events; a few hundred kids in the big and boomy clubrooms. There was room in the wagon for the Blackbird system and a couple of team mates. When we got there, the boys had the speakers set up in no time. The TLA1164A array simply slots into a pole mount on either the top or the side of the TLA210A sub cabinet, depending on the desired height of the stack. It makes putting speakers on stands seem awkward and old-
PRICE TLA1164 Mono System: $5995 1 x TLA1164 16-element Array 1 x TLA210A Sub TLA1164 Stereo System: $10,995 2 x TLA1164 Array 2 x TLA210A Sub TLA1164 Stereo System 2: $14,995 2 x TLA1164 Array 4 x TLA210A Sub TLA1244 Stereo System: $15,995 2 x TLA1244 24-element Array 4 x TLA210A Sub (All systems come with carry bags, canvas covers and leads)
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WHY LINE ARRAYS? Evolved from the once common rectangular boxes full of speakers hung vertically on either side of the proscenium arch in town halls, the idea behind them is that mounting drivers in an array allows their outputs to overlap. In some places they add together, in others they cancel and subtract. By controlling the number and size of the drivers in
the array and the spacing between their centres, the speakers’ directional characteristics can be controlled. Typically used to project sound in a wide horizontal plane (120 degrees) and a narrow vertical plane (15 degrees) line array systems lose less energy over distance and throw further than point-source designs.
fashioned. Connect the source via the XLR/jack combi input socket and start listening. Fired up, the Blackbird system is instantly likeable for its open but still direct sound quality, if that makes any sense at all. The published specifications for the Blackbird system are similar to what you’d expect from an equivalent point source, powered speaker system with a sub: Frequency response of 50Hz – 15kHz at -3dB, a sensitivity of 97dB, and max volume of 130dB, but these do little to describe the different types of sound output. The only spec that points to the difference is the high frequency dispersion of 120 by 15 degrees. It takes a little while to get used to the arrays; if you stand close to the sticks they sound weird, not bad but you can hear parts of individual drivers with the main sound developing behind you. It smooths out quickly when you move away from the array with the sound seeming to be on-axis and even over a wide plane. It’s not necessarily intuitive as there’s a lot of separate drivers in each array but they’re matched, lightweight and moving fast so transients are well produced and the narrow vertical focus throws them deep down the room. I regularly lend the footy club a system for these dances; usually a couple of well-powered 15-inch speakers on stands and they fill the dance floor. Granted the Blackbird is a bigger more powerful system but it’s a beast by comparison in this situation. One side pointed across the dance floor, the other angled more into the room. It filled the whole clubroom and turned the underage disco into a bigger event. To get the same width and depth with point source speakers you’d need more speakers, more cables, on potentially dangerous speaker stands, possibly delays and a messier setup. The audience didn’t think about any of this, they were young and impressionable and they thought the stick system was ‘sick as’… high praise, indeed.
sound really boxy, especially in the couple of octaves below 1kHz. Also different was how the Blackbird system ran happily without any external EQ at all whereas the powered boxes needed lots. Preset 1 is intended to reduce low-mid boom and feedback, a common problem on small stages, and that was the only EQ I needed on this small stage. A noticeable amount of sound comes from the sides and rear of the sticks but it doesn’t cause the problems you may expect. It’s nearly full-range and quite stable with open mics, I’ve had performers telling me they don’t need separate monitors with stick systems and I believe them. In this setting the spill from the sticks seemed to blend in nicely with the separate monitors. Out front of house the mids and highs cut through the Bridge Hotel’s band room easily and evenly, as I was expecting by now, and the vocals were noticeably clearer at the back of the room. Up the front there were people sitting at table’s right in front of the bottom of the sticks and they said no worries, not too loud or harsh. Job well done and an uneven comparison in the end. The customers noticed too and I packed up answering questions about how it worked and how much it cost. I took the system to the Theatre Royal Castlemaine for a loud listen, as I did in 2014 with the earlier version, and although memory is risky it seemed more powerful than I recall. It’s a big old cinema with a high roof, quite reverberant and it takes a lot of sound to fill it. It’s too big for a single TLA1.4 system to fill but I like the way it throws diction to the back of the room better than the much bigger horn-loaded house PA. The Blackbird system is quite loud and stable when pushed but it doesn’t want to yell or bite like horn-loaded boxes and full volume screamy stuff is the only thing I wouldn’t recommend it for. It hits a limit at a certain intensity and if that’s not enough you may need to move up to the AT CLA700A composite line array system. It would be perfect for a program of soul or jazz bands in a park on a sunny afternoon. The Blackbird is great outdoors, where you usually need wide coverage and long throw. The old problem of the level being too loud and too harsh near the speakers and too soft and muffled away from them is also greatly reduced. It’s the middle of winter here, there’s no outdoors shows, but I’ve listened to them from over 50m away at my place and they stay remarkably clear. You can’t see them at that distance but you can sure hear them. The
SIDE BY SIDE, TO THE POINT
The Bridge Hotel in Castlemaine was happy to let me try the Blackbird system in a pub-gig setting. On a wintry Sunday afternoon I set it up beside the venue’s good-quality, point source dual 15-inch plus horn system, with sub. That way I could A/B the two systems without upsetting the acts. It was a fairly good comparison on paper, but there were significant differences in use. Both systems worked but immediately noticeable was the way the Blackbird system made the point source boxes AT 72
technology is catching on with solo acts, duos and small bands using the smaller portable arrays. Even my friends in the Bluegrass/Ol’ Timey worlds are starting to use them and they don’t really like any speakers, and don’t use foldback. They enjoy the spacious sound and the way they can hear them when they play. MIX ’N’ MATCH
I spoke to a couple of production company owners who use AT gear and both SSL Productions Steve Pannan and Fat Sound’s Ray Eberle had nothing but praise for their Blackbird systems. They confirmed the improved power and particularly the transparency of the new PowerSoft amp platform and both agreed there’s nothing directly comparable to the Blackbird system in the way it can handle such a wide range of gigs, from music to corporate, indoors or outdoors. They choose how many subs they think they’ll need for the type of event and both used the taller 24-driver TLA1244 array for bigger shows or outdoors. The longer stick has a theoretical advantage because the longer the array the lower the frequencies included in the controlled projection characteristics. For the directional characteristics of line arrays to work all the way down to the lower frequencies the array has to be impractically long, so there’s always some compromise involved, but taller is better. All the systems in the AT range share hi-fidelity audio, high quality components, solid construction and they’re built tough for Aussie conditions. They come with a five-year warranty and excellent service. AT reports the Blackbird has become its top-selling speaker system and I can see why. From musical performances to outdoor sports events to car launches, versatility is the Blackbird system’s main strength, convenient transport and set up are great features, while taming difficult acoustic environments is the party trick. Keep up the good work AT.
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REVIEW
AUDIENT iD44 Audio Interface
Audient’s iD series has always packed console heritage into a box. But now, with dual ADAT expansion, you get a console’s worth of expansion with it.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Preshan John
PRICE $999 CONTACT Studio Connections: (03) 9416 8097 or enquiries@studioconnections.com.au
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PROS Fantastic sound quality 16 channels of digital I/O iD Mixer App is very intuitive User-assignable hardware controls
CONS iD mixer a bit ‘grey’ No onboard DSP
SUMMARY Audient’s iD44 offers a sizeable chunk of I/O in a small package, along with a robust monitoring section and intuitive mixer app. However, the real stand-out is its sound: four fabulous Class A preamps and detailed digital-to-analogue conversion.
Audient’s history is steeped in large-format consoles and time-tested circuit designs; the founders both worked at Soundcraft, before starting DDA consoles. While consoles are still a big part of the Audient catalogue, the company has done especially well for itself by pouring its ‘world class’ DNA into attainable interfaces designed to appeal to home studio enthusiasts. The iD interface series is the vehicle that put Audient designs within reach of the commoner. Starting with a cute two-input box, the iD4, the family has grown steadily into what we have today — the new iD44. It’s a 20-input/24-output USB-C interface with four of Audient’s staple Class A preamps designed by founder David Dearden. The iD44 is the first in the series to have dual-ADAT inputs lending it an extra 16 digital channels of potential expansion. PHYSICALITIES
Of the four built-in preamps, I love that there are insert points on the first two. Put that old compressor back to work! Channels 1 and 2 have DI inputs on the front, which override the XLR combo connectors. Each preamp has switchable +48V phantom power, -10dB pad, HPF at 100Hz, and basic signal/peak dual-LED metering. Over to the right on the top panel is the monitoring section. The multipurpose push-button knob controls monitor level by default and when you turn it, the central LED meter shows where the volume is. Handily, Audient’s ScrollControl feature allows the wheel to be used for other functions within your DAW. Two sets of speaker outputs let you A/B between your favourite pairs of monitors. The two optical ports can be used for either S/PDIF or ADAT. There’s a Word Clock output for syncing and a USB-C port for your computer (thankfully a USB-C to USB Type A cable is included). Audient states the dynamic range on the output DAC is an impressive 126dB, and it sure sounds good the first time I heard it through my monitors. The ADC will give you 121dB dynamic range on the inputs. The DAW roundtrip latency figures given by Audient go from 5.6ms at 44.1k to 4.2ms at 96k, with a 32-sample buffer. Want quicker? Simply monitor directly from the iD DSP mixer; Audient quotes a round-trip of 0.677ms at 44.1k. YOUR iD PLEASE
Once downloaded, the iD Mixer App (which is part of the driver download) sits in your top system tray on macOS. It initially caught me out, because
no window appeared when I opened the app. Incidentally, the first question in the Audient FAQs section is “Why isn’t my iD Mixer Application showing up?” Click on the iD logo in your taskbar and hit Show Mixer to reveal the application. The Mixer App GUI is neat and tidy, allowing you to create up to four cue mixes from the inputs. Show or Hide the Mic/Optical/DAW channels in the mixer using the three buttons on the top right. The workflow couldn’t be easier although I would’ve liked to see some colour in there — the dark grey app looks kinda dull. Unfortunately input channels can’t be reordered within the mixer to put your most-used inputs within easy reach. It just means you have to scroll around a bit if you go the ADAT route. A System Panel gives you a matrix-style routing view where you can assign mixes to any output. Here you can also switch the Digital Input and Output between two-channel S/PDIF or eightchannel ADAT, trim the Dim and Alt Speaker Output levels, set the clock source, and set the Talkback mic source (either the built-in mic or an input of your choice). Some of these settings are already assigned to the three Function buttons on the interface but you can reassign any of them by right-clicking the setting in the Mixer App and selecting F1, F2 or F3. Things are laid out very clearly and I like that there are keyboard shortcuts to display and hide the go-to views within the Mixer App. I really dig the real-time scrolling graph under each mix for a visual cue of the audio passing through. DUEL TIME
The best way to know how good something is is to compare it to something you already know. My Antelope Audio Zen Tour has a lot in common with the Audient iD44. Both have four onboard preamps, though the Audient’s topology is discrete and the Antelope uses an IC chip. Both offer builtin talkback mics, two headphone outputs, two DI inputs, two main outs, and nearly identical desk footprints. Other than DSP (the Zen Tour has it), the main difference is price; the iD44 is half the cost of the Zen Tour. Let’s see how they match up in sound. Hearing the two preamps side by side on fingerpicked acoustic guitar was fascinating. I didn’t exceed 30dB of gain from the Zen Tour for a happy level (just under half its available 65dB) whereas the gain pot on the iD44 was at three o’clock (max is five o’clock) to pull the same level. Audient hasn’t
printed actual dB values on the box — only 1 to 10 — but we do know there’s 60dB, all up. A big slice of that is in the final micro twist of the pot, hence the pot sitting disproportionately high for my medium gain settings. The good news is it stays pretty quiet the whole way. Lining up and A/B-ing the DAW tracks revealed subtle differences between the two. The Zen Tour pres stayed glassy and clear up into the extreme highs while the iD44 seemed to roll off a bit. However, Audient’s discrete preamp circuitry had a more forward sound with accentuated mids. It’s a nice, solid sound that’s easy to mix. I do miss having a comfort reverb or some basic DSP inside the mixer app, though — something I’ve come to appreciate in Antelope gear. Another difference is it’s harder to set and recall gain settings when, like me, you’re used to doing it on-screen with digitally-controlled preamps… but that’s not a biggie. Stacking more instruments with the two interfaces uncovered more of the same pattern — clean and zingy with the Zen Tour, full and upfront with the iD44. Considering its sub-$1k price tag, the iD44 has a rich and classy tone that’s miles ahead of what you would’ve gotten in ‘just another’ USB interface five years ago. It’s the Audient console heritage shining through and it’s certainly what makes the iD boxes attractive. The whole iD44 experience is top notch. The switches and knobs are solid, no wobbly bits or cheap plastic. Throwing a few monitor mixes together and routing them is super easy in the iD Mixer App. The headphone outputs are punchy enough to drive high-impedance open-backs and the three user-definable function buttons are the cherry on the workflow cake. The unit is a great size for tracking on the road. Plus, if the occasion calls for it, you can easily expand your inputs via the ADAT ports. What’s not to love!
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REGULARS
LAST WORD with
Mickey Levis, Troy Horse
Mickey currently lives in the Victorian countryside, freelance designing venue tech systems and acoustics. Prior to that he accidentally co-founded a bedrock of Sydney’s indie rock scene, Troy Horse. It grew from a rehearsal studio into a studio complex, manufacturing plant and multi-city major events company.
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I studied music at Sydney Conservatorium as a guitar and bass player. In the ’80s, I played in punk and jazz bands as a teenager. Anything I could do to make a living. I never really saw myself as an entrepreneur, I always pictured myself as a musician. We didn’t start Troy Horse with the idea of building a big business. It was very hard to find a place to live. My partner and I rented a space from 418-420 King Street in Newtown. It had two shopfronts, but our main interest was in the flat upstairs. We spent the only money we had on the deposit for this commercial building and thought we could put a couple of rehearsal studios in there to make enough money to pay rent. That was as far as we thought it would go. It proved incredibly popular and we ended up converting the whole building into rehearsal studios. We put in a tiny little eighttrack recording studio, which also became crazily popular. Every man and his dog wanted to record something in those days. The first rooms we built had no ventilation, no airconditioning. They were insulated with layers of carpet underfelt over stud walls. It was dreadful. It would get incredibly hot in summer and bands would come out in their underpants, drenched with sweat. We’d give them a free Zooper Dooper, and that would pacify them. Within three years we’d stretched out to 400 King Street and had six buildings in a row that we’d turned into two recording studios, a mastering studio, and a whole lot of rehearsal studios. We got into printing posters, and lots of bands stored their gear there; it became home base. The studios were busy. People loved recording on our dreadful Otari MX-5050, 1/2-inch eight-track. We’d just bought an Otari 24-track two-inch machine a couple of weeks before the Lemonheads were due to come in, but they still wanted to record on the eight-track. We ran it with a Soundtracs T-series console, but gradually expanded, and ended up with Tactile Technology consoles; one of the very early consoles with digital control-overanalogue circuitry. We set up record labels to release the music we were recording. We had one called Troy Horse, and another called Stunt Pram. We weren’t taking ownership of the sound recordings, just letting people use our distribution network. Very early on we invested in CD duplication and replication, because it was hard for independent bands to do small runs of CDs. It was lucky, because the recording side went swiftly downhill at the end of the ’90s. As home recording was taking off we were doing more mastering, finishing, and manufacturing projects for people. We outgrew King Street and moved to a big building on Botany Road, in Redfern. That became a Sydney industry hub. Troy Horse was on the first and second floors, the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) was in the same building, and we gave FBI Radio space to get started before they
had a license. We had recording studios, and sub rented space to bands like DIG, who wanted to work full-time. The rehearsal rooms we built in Redfern were really nice — natural light, double-glazed windows, soundproofed and nicely designed. They were built like small recording studios. We were pretty hands on, and built it with musicians who swapped labour for recording time. We were really bad at saying no. We did crazy gigs for corporate clients that were much bigger than we were capable of doing. We were creating multimedia for major banks like Westpac and Lily Pharmaceuticals, running websites, printing huge jobs, and replicating huge amounts of CDs with short turnovers. We expanded by saying yes, then we’d figure it out and buy another piece of machinery. It was much more like a family than a business. The level of service was very high. If there was a job we could pull people in from bands who needed work: ‘We need 30 people to come in and package stuff tonight.’ We ran a couple of venues in Sydney, the Journos’ Club and the Phoenician Club. Off the back of that, we set up an events company in Brisbane. We were running a lot of shows at Riverstage in Brisbane, mainly working with the council and universities. We did the Mountains to Mangroves Festival and the Oxley Creek Water Festival, which were both Brisbane council initiatives. We did Green Day with 15,000 people, Spiderbait, You Am I; all those bands that were in their heyday. I became much more engaged in the logistics side of it. Taking time lapse photography of an event coming together on Riverstage, then sitting back and seeing where the weak points were. Kitty Blackman and I started the business in ’88, and Chris McBurnie came in a couple of years later. In the early 2000s, I had the opportunity to sell my part of Troy Horse, and I took the money and ran, so to speak. I was done. I’d moved to Queensland and become much more involved with the events side. Troy Horse is still going, but I was ready for a change. Bobby Flynn came through Troy Horse’s Brisbane studio. He was noticeably talented, so we recorded an EP with him. He was 19 or 20 and just played acoustic guitar and sang. We were playing shows around Brisbane and got invited to go on Australian Idol. He came third or fourth in the season Damien Leith won; still in the heyday of Idol. We were playing shows to 20 or 30 people, then suddenly we were playing shows at Brisbane’s South Bank. It was a big step. Bobby managed to tour pretty solidly for about two and half years. We recorded two albums during the time I was with him. We’d started with a four-piece band and got to a six-piece band with a live projectionist. When you’re trying to present shows people are used to seeing on television, you have to take it a step further than an indie band. The production needs to have as much zip as TV.
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