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The RØDECaster Pro is designed to simplify podcast production whilst delivering superb audio quality. It supports up to four presenters/guests, as well as offering easy connection to phone, USB and Bluetooth™ sources. Eight programmable pads offer instant playback of sound effects and jingles. Podcasts can be recorded directly to microSD™ card, or to a computer via USB. Ease of use is assured, with intuitive controls and large full-colour touchscreen.
The Cho oice off Toda ay’s Crea ative Ge ene erattion.™ AT 2
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 PO Box 295, Ballarat VIC 3353, Australia.
All material in this magazine is copyright Š 2019 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. 24/04/2019.
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COVER STORY
Lifetime Achievement Award: Martin Benge Keeps Abbey Road & 301 Alive
22
ISSUE 57 CONTENTS
20
Melbourne Synth Festival 2018
How to Record Pop Vocals, Pt III — Mixing
32
Rode’s Affordable NT-SF1 Takes Ambisonics Mainstream
Hans Zimmer Percussion Library Virtual Instrument AT 6
44
Ballad of Buster Scruggs
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GENERAL NEWS
MADE IN VIENNA Austrian Audio is a new microphone brand. Handmade in Vienna, Austrian Audio launched at Musikmesse with eight products, including microphones and headphones. Martin Seidl heads up the company — a quick snoop through his LinkedIn page tells us he spent four years as Global VP of Sales at AKG a few years back: “Austrian Audio will debut its line of handmade large diaphragm condenser microphones. These will feature patent-applied-for technologies and will introduce Open Acoustics Technologies,” he elaborated. “It has been a huge effort but ‘Made in Vienna’ is back and so is this heritage team.”
Taking centre stage is a pair of large diaphragm condenser (LDC) microphones: the OC818 multipattern and OC18 cardioid-only microphones. The magic number attached to the naming of the CKR12 (Capsule Keramik Ring) gives you an idea of what manner of classic tone they’re gunning for. More details on the AT site. Group Technologies: www.grouptechnologies.com.au
EVERYBODY NEEDS A NERO Audient’s Nero is a desktop monitor controller offering a comprehensive range of I/O, console-style monitor control, an assignable sub output, ‘Digital Attenuation Volume Matching’ and more. Four stereo analogue inputs, including two line level inputs, a dedicated cue mix input, one aux input (RCA or Mini Jack) and both optical and coaxial SPDIF inputs give you a wide variety of connectivity options. These can be fed to three stereo speaker outputs, one assignable sub output, and four headphone outputs. The I/O combination means Nero has both
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a monitoring grade headphone output for the engineer and three foldback headphone outs for the artists. Audient has developed its own Digital Attenuation Matching Technology, which matches the volume of the left and right channels of the stereo signal. Nero features Audient’s Smart Touchpoints which allow you to save user defined monitoring configurations. Studio Connections: www.studioconnections.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
WIRED
or WIRELESS Premium Dynamics or Premium Condensers Electro-Voice ND (76, 86, 96) premium dynamic and the new RE (420, 520) premium condenser handheld microphones are available in wired or wireless models. Five wireless capsules are available for use with the handheld transmitter and the new RE3 UHF wireless system. A bodypack system and several capsule options for instrument and lavalier/headworn mic applications are also available.
Ph: 1300 026 724
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Fax: (02) 8850-2230
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Email: boschcomms@au.bosch.com
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
| www.boschcommunications.com.au AT 9
RØDE WIRELESS GO Røde Microphones’ new Wireless GO digital wireless microphone system is being pitched as the world’s smallest and most versatile digital wireless mic/receiver combination, well suited to content creators in all disciplines: filmmakers, on-camera presenters, newsgatherers, vloggers and more. At just 44mm x 45.3mm x 18.5mm and weighing 31g, the Wireless GO transmitter (TX) acts as either a quick and easy clip-on wireless microphone, thanks to a high-quality built-in omnidirectional
condenser capsule, or as an ultra-small belt-pack transmitter for a lavalier mic via the 3.5mm TRS input. The RX is just as compact, measuring only 44mm x 46.4mm x 18.5mm and weighing just 31g, making a rig that much easier to carry. Its dual-purpose mount sits snug in your camera’s shoe mount, or clips easily onto your camera strap or an item of clothing. There is also a three-stage output pad – 0dB, -6dB, -12dB – to tailor your output to your camera or recorder.
SSL’S SIX FIX Few things stir the audio imagination like a new SSL mixing console. Even when it’s small format like the new SiX; it still lit up AT’s website and social media. As a condensed professional console for use in the studio, in post-production, on stage, and for podcasting, SiX promises big console sound and an impressive set of utility features in a format that is small enough to stick in a bag. SiX offers two recording channels with SuperAnalogue mic pres, an essential one knob version of the
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classic SSL Channel Compressor, a new two-band Channel EQ, inserts and 100mm faders. There is a two-knob version of the G-Series Bus Compressor on the main mix bus and the Listen Mic Compressor on the Talkback. In mixdown mode it is a very capable 12-channel summing system that offers analogue detail, depth and width to your mixes. Amber Technology: www.ambertech.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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LIVE NEWS
ADAMSON S-SERIES ADDITIONS Adamson is expanding its popular S-Series, a line of subcompact, tour-proven loudspeakers. The latest additions include the S7 ultra-compact two-way, full-range line array enclosure and complementary S118 subwoofer, plus the S7p and S10p two-way, full-range point source cabinets. Together, they offer a substantial increase in configuration options for standalone S-Series systems in corporate, theatre, worship, and live music applications or, thanks to Adamson’s uniform voicing between product families, deployments supporting the flagship largeformat E-Series. The Adamson S7 is a two-way, full-range line array cabinet containing two ND7-LM16 Kevlar Neodymium
drivers (2 x 16Ω) and an NH3-8 1.4-inch exit compression driver (8Ω). The sound chamber produces a slightly curved wavefront with a nominal dispersion pattern of 100 x 12.5°. The chamber’s efficiency allows for increased vertical dispersion without sacrificing high frequency presence in the far field, and Adamson’s patented Controlled Summation Technology further eliminates low-mid lobing normally associated with two-way line source systems. CMI Music & Audio: www.cmi.com.au
RADIAL’S DI DAN Radial Engineering’s DAN-TX2 transmitter and the DAN-RX2 receiver are designed for use with any Dante or AES67-compliant network, utilising low-latency audio-over-Ethernet protocol while featuring 24bit/96k digital converters for exceptional audio quality. Both devices feature locking EtherCON jacks to ensure secure and protected connection to the network, and they can be mounted in standard equipment racks with the optional SA series rack adaptor kit. Power for the DAN-TX2 and the DANRX2 can be supplied using PoE or a 15V adaptor (included), and both power sources can be used simultaneously for redundancy.
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The DAN-TX2 is able to feed any line-level audio signal to a Dante network, using a number of connector types to suit multiple applications and source devices; while the DAN-RX2 is a receiver that can be connected anywhere on the network and provide balanced analogue audio outputs over XLR connectors, for reliable distribution to PA systems, powered speakers, or any other destination as needed. Amber Technology: www.ambertech.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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SHURE’S TINY CHALLENGE Shure’s new TwinPlex is the company’s new line of premium subminiature (5mm) omnidirectional lavalier and headset microphones. Designed to stand up to the toughest conditions, TwinPlex provides natural audio at both high and low frequency when professional vocal performance is a must. The new capsule is ideal for quick costume changes or discreetly placed under wardrobe with no impact on sound quality. TwinPlex supports the diverse needs of theatre, broadcast, film and television, and corporate presentations to produce high-quality audio production with superior dependability. The range comprises four lavs and an ultra-light, fully-adjustable headset microphone
(TH53) in multiple colours with accessories and options. The dual-diaphragm omnidirectional design yields off-axis consistency and low self-noise, creating lifelike vocal clarity and warmth. To simulate years of intense use the TwinPlex cable was flexed, stretched, and pulled to the absolute limit in internal tests. Available in 1.1 mm and 1.6mm options, the paintable cables are immune to kinks and memory effects, resulting in never-beforeseen flex performance due to an innovative spiral construction with redundant shielding. Jands: www.jands.com.au
D&B SLIM DOWN The ultra compact d&b B8 subwoofer stands at only 170mm tall yet provides a low frequency extension down to 43Hz. The B8 pairs with the established xC, xS and E-Series loudspeakers, with dedicated models for mobile (B8-SUB) and install (Bi8SUB). Fitting comfortably in the tightest of spaces, the B8 is well suited to corporate environments, cruise ships, small venues and more. The B8 is an actively driven subwoofer that features two 6.5-inch drivers with ferrite magnets housed within a bassreflex cabinet design. These precisely tuned drivers achieve an
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impressive low frequency extension from 170Hz down to 43Hz. d&b Product Manager, Wolfgang Schulz: “Subwoofers have often been omitted from applications due to space constraints or the visually sensitive nature of a venue. Now listeners can get a full bandwidth experience everywhere, because it’s very easy to integrate the B8 anywhere.” NAS: www.nas.solutions
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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SOFTWARE NEWS
SOFTUBE BUCHLA SPECTRAL FILTER Softube has launched a new Modular module that offers highend spectral filtering and processing – a model of the Buchla 296e Spectral Processor; one of the most expensive and exclusive hardware synth modules. The Softube Buchla 293e complements the previously released 259e Twisted Waveform Generator, and features: 16 band-pass filters, each with its own VCA and envelope follower; separate envelope decay times for each band; programmable graphic EQ; real time performance filter; morph between ‘A’ and ‘B’ level settings; performs complex spectral
transfer functions; special new feature allows for ‘playing’ the filters with MIDI; use as a vocoder, split into two banks of eight, or using two modules at once for full 16-band operation; externally controllable ‘freeze’ function stores the input spectrum as envelope values, or A and B levels, in the module’s memory; multiband extraction of envelopes from audio inputs. Sound+Music: www.sound-music.com
OLD HEAD ON NUENDO Since 2000, Steinberg’s Nuendo has been rising up the postpro food chain, working towards the go-to media production workhorse it is today. Version 10 marks what Steinberg says is a ‘milestone release’ 19 years into its history. Nuendo 10 brings a swag of new features to the table. Video Cut Detection is included, analysing videos for edits and setting markers automatically. Field Recorder Audio Import allows users to search field recorder audio files and match these with a project’s events using available attributes or metadata. Sound designers get a brand-new Doppler effect that virtually simulates the
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changing perception of a sound as its source passes (think speedy ambulance) and VoiceDesigner is added for vocal modification, giving Detune, Formant, Robot, Morph and more parameters to toy with. Also added is support for the dearVR Spatial Connect 3D audio production tool. Game devs rejoice! Many composing tools are also added from Cubase. Yamaha Music Australia: www.yamahabackstage.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
Musos Corner Celebrating 50+ Years in the Music Industry
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MORE POWER IN CIRCUIT Circuit’s latest v1.8 firmware update adds four new features to Novation’s all-in-one groovebox. Non-quantised recording: Now you can capture synth and drum tracks directly to microsteps, representing even your most rhythmically complex ideas in all their atemporal glory. Synth microstep editing: As well as recording your synth lines without quantise, you can now also edit them at the microstep level. With six microsteps to every full step, you’ve got plenty of resolution. Per-note velocity tracking: Prior to firmware v1.8, all Synth notes falling on the
same step were always set to the same velocity. Now, not only will notes recorded over other notes on the same step maintain their velocities independently, but you can manually edit those velocities after the fact. Assignable MIDI channels: Firmware v1.8 lets you set Synth 1, Synth 2 and Drums to whichever MIDI channels you like, from 1 to 15. Innovative Music: www.innovativemusic.com.au
ARTURIA’S CASIO TONE Arturia has announced the arrival of the latest edition of V Collection: seeing the addition of three all-new synths and a major upgrade of another to its flagship analogue anthology. Mellotron V: The original tape-based keyboard ’sampler’? Arturia’s reinvented version not only features all original Mellotron tapes, but also lets you import and play your own samples with tape emulation. Synthi V: The quirky British cult synth has been recreated with advanced component modelling to recreate even its most wild, unpredictable nature, with advanced
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modulation and powerful effects added to the mix. Cz V: Casio’s budget favourite is now easy to program and explores the originals’ phase distortion synthesis, huge modulation potential and effects. Analog Lab 4: More of everything. B-3 V2: A total sound engine overhaul. Synthopedia: Over 800 brand new, modern sounds created for legacy V Collection instruments. CMI Music & Audio: www.cmi.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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REPORT
Melbourne Synth Festival 2018 Traditionally the voice of those wielding ‘real instruments’ as their axe, Australian Musician (in association with the Australian Music Association), hosted the first instalment of the Melbourne Synth Festival providing a fitting finale to Melbourne Music Week. Over three days, Melbourne’s synth alumni descended upon Meat Market, curating a safespace for those subscribing to the cult of synthesis. Musicians of diverse persuasions buzzed around a cornucopia of exhibitor stands, tutorial workshops and live performances. Being a traditionally community-driven group, enthusiasts also embraced the social opportunity to shoot the breeze with fellow devotees, free to passionately discuss the merits of their latest Eurorack addition without fear of judgement or blank stares. The event promised to be an opportunity to tweak-nprod the latest and greatest in synthesisers and have some hands-on time with legendary vintage synths and it certainly delivered. The exhibitor hall bristled with an immense display of the latest and greatest of today’s synths and drum machines along with a few surprise blasts from the past (such as the rarely seen
Yamaha DX1). Rather than the usual trade-show domination by the ‘holy trio’ of mainstream synths, it was refreshing to see equal-footing offered to other key players such as Waldorf, Novation, Clavia, Dave Smith Instruments, Elektron, Arturia, Buchla, Pittsburg, among others. Waldorf ’s Quantum in particular seemed to engage visitors for extended periods as did Chris Stellar’s in-depth workshops putting the unit through its paces in the context of exploring different synthesis types. Without a doubt, the Moog One was the star of the show. Having an opportunity for oneon-one time with this premium synthesiser was a highlight of my visit equalled only by Ehsan Gelsi’s electrifying workshops and demo performances on the unit which had even the most jaded of tongues talking. Throwing convention to the wind, David Haberfeld’s (aka Honeysmack) pure-hardware performances of improvised techno were particularly spectacular! Within minutes, he dispelled the myth that live performances with modular synths are unstructured soundscape journeys. While synthesizers and drum machines were the focus, paying homage to the ubiquitous link
Report: Jason Hearn
between synths and dance music, top-tier DJ brands were well represented. For those seeking a taste of the top-end, Pioneer’s high-end Tour series was on display, complete with legendary DJ and long-term Pioneer collaborator, Phil K, on hand for personalised walkthroughs. For the Traktor faithful, the latest generation of motorised-platter equipped controllers were also available for handson evaluation. Adjacent to Meat Market, the highly-acclaimed MESS (Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio), rolled out the welcome-mat to non-members, running tours for attendees that provided a hands-on opportunity to explore their vast inventory of vintage synthesisers. Although foot traffic was quiet at times, there was a undeniable excitement from those whom attended and I’ve no doubt traffic will grow to have the attendance of more established events such as the Guitar Show in years to come. For those thinking YouTube demo videos and online communities provide a substitute for the IRL experience of getting your hands on these instruments and networking with luminaries over a few beers at the neighbouring pub, you are sorely mistaken!
REVIEW
BX MASTERDESK & SUHR UAD Plug-ins Review: Greg Walker
BX-MASTERDESK Continuing a long association with software developer Brainworx, the BX-Masterdesk steps up the UAD platform’s digital mastering capabilities. Again eschewing any one classic design’s footprint, the Masterdesk combines useful features from a number of different outboard processors with an emphasis on quick and intuitive control. There are four compressor modes, each with their own sonic signature, as well as two resonance filters, a guitar amp-style ‘tone stack’ EQ section and a clever two knob mid/side matrix for stereo widening and bass mono-ising (particularly handy for vinyl mastering). A ‘Foundation’ knob allows for very broad brushstroke tonal setting while harmonic distortion, de-essing and wet/dry parallel compression can also be tweaked to taste. The sound of the BX-Masterdesk is powerful, versatile and sonically pleasing. It can do transparent control, brutal limiting or anything AT 20
in between and certainly encourages both experimentation and using your ears. I tried it on a couple of tracks and was very pleased with the results. Flicking through the presets helped to narrow down the options and then a few minutes tweaking delivered surprisingly strong results. The BX-Masterdesk offers a relatively painless all-inone mastering process which is ideal for swiftly polishing up mixes for the client/manager/label that wants to hear them at the release-ready stage. Another very welcome addition to the UAD stable.
SUHR PT100 Guitar hero Pete Thorn has his signature on this Brainworx amp simulator which does its best work in high-gain shredder mode. The Suhr tones lean towards the Marshall Plexi side of things and there’s an FX rack with noise gate, delay and power soak to help things along. There’s a ton of gain and tone control here in a densely populated GUI and the sounds are generally fairly convincing in both
dirty and clean modes. I’m yet to play through an amp simulator that really does it for me (especially in the context of a full band track), and the Suhr PT100 falls into familiar ‘almost got me’ territory. Having said that I’m a bit of an amp snob and I’m always chasing a semi-dirty tone which seems to be a tricky one for the digital emulations to nail. People will undoubtedly get great results with this plug-in and it certainly doesn’t cost $2.5k only to sit in your bedroom studio like a tolex elephant. People who play those expensive pointy-horned looking guitars will definitely have some fun with the Suhr PT100 while indie players may want to look elsewhere for more vintage style tones.
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From Abbey Road, to 301, to Abbey Road, to 301. Producer, engineer, and studio manager Martin Benge has helped shape the world’s biggest studios by reinventing them, time and again. Story: Mark Davie
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Our previous Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Richard Lush, and our latest awardee, Martin Benge, both entered the EMI system roughly a year apart. While Lush went straight into Abbey Road, hiding behind a tower of Fairchilds and trying not to erase John Lennon’s vocal takes, Martin Benge began his journey beavering away at the EMI factory in Hayes. In 1962, 18-year olds like Benge didn’t need recording aspirations to work for EMI; it wasn’t just a music company, it was a vast, vertically integrated electronics conglomerate. “They made everything,” recalled Benge. “Pressed the records, made the record players that played them, and the radios and televisions.” Benge embarked on what he thought would be a promising electronics engineering career with the company. He worked his way through a five-year apprenticeship that began with two weeks filing the same metal block down to a square within a couple of thousands of an inch. “It seems far removed from electronics,” said Benge, “but we had to build things, and we had to get our practical metalwork skills up to an acceptable level.” From there, he learnt soldering and circuitry, then started building projects like an ‘over the horizon’ airborne radar for a defence research project. AFTER TWO YEARS, HE MOVED INTO THE AUDIO DEPARTMENT AND STARTED BUILDING REDD.51 TUBE CONSOLES, THE EXACT ONES GEOFF EMERICK AND LUSH WERE USING TO RECORD THE BEATLES, AT THE TIME. EMI had studios in 11 different countries during that era, and all of that equipment came from Hayes, “right down to tape machines, consoles, and some microphones,” said Benge. In 1965 Benge moved over to the technical department at Abbey Road Studios, where his first two weeks were the studio equivalent of filing a metal block; getting his cable coiling skills up to scratch. “You weren’t allowed to start tinkering around with equipment until you mastered the very basics of the job.” Unlike todays studios, where, if there is an assistant, they’ll set up the equipment, as well as help operate it. Those two assistant roles were divvied up into the faintly derogatory cohorts of ‘button pushers’ and ‘boffins’. The boffins, like Benge, would pull out the session sheet and go about putting out the mics, wiring them up, patching in all the equipment, checking levels and biasing the tape machines, so when the engineer (and ‘button pushers’ like Lush) arrived they could simply position the mics and be ready to record.
CLASSICAL MIXUP
By now the bug had truly bitten. “I realised recording was what I wanted to do,” said Benge. “I’d always loved music and sound, and tinkered around with old radiograms and record players. I was fascinated with the whole idea of music on a disk.” Having spent the last year building the gear he was working with, Benge had a leg up when he arrived at Abbey Road’s technical department. Then having spent the next two years setting up sessions at Abbey Road, he thought he’d have a field day when they finally let him loose on the recording side. “My first session was just an artist test, or a demo as we call it nowadays,” he began. “I sat down at the console thinking, ‘I know this
equipment backwards. I built it, I’ve repaired it, I’ve fixed it, I’ve debugged it, I’ve set it up. But operating it and trying to get a sound is a whole other ball game. Within an hour I realised I knew absolutely nothing about the recording side! I’D HOPELESSLY UNDERESTIMATED THE LEARNING CURVE I WAS ON TO GET TO A POINT WHERE I COULD BE USEFUL TO AN ARTIST OR A PRODUCER AND PULL A DECENT SOUND.”
Thankfully, some of Abbey Road’s producers were “prepared to give you a go and give you some pointers on how to do the job. They were patient people.” George Martin even asked him to engineer a couple of jobs; “far too early in my career, really,” said Benge. “I just wasn’t really up to it.” Over the years, Benge managed to carve out a path in big band and classical recording. He benefitted from a changing of the guard at Abbey Road, just as he entered the recording side. Alan Stagg, a very experienced classical balance engineer, had arrived as the studio manager, and his contemporary approach to orchestral recording immediately raised the hackles of the entrenched engineers. Benge had no such concerns, but didn’t feel ready to step up to full orchestral sessions. Stagg didn’t seem to think so, saying his experience recording 40-piece ensembles for The Black and White Minstrel Show for Geoff Love in Studio 2 was enough. “He said it wasn’t a big stretch to do symphonic recording, although you use a different technique.” He was soon helming sessions for the London Symphony Orchestra and New Philharmonia (with conductors Otto Klemperer and Sir John Barbirolli), where there’d be 120 players in the studio. “You’d only use four or five microphones. You tried to record as faithfully as possible to the sound in the room.” Other times, Benge changed the script completely. Like when he recorded the Beethoven piano sonatas with Daniel Barenboim. The typical approach was to use two mics, moving them in and out to find the best balance of direct and ambient sound. “He was very fussy about the sound and wasn’t getting the results he wanted from some of the other engineers, who were a bit set in their ways,” recalled Benge. “HE WANTED A CLOSER, MORE EXCITING SOUND. WE MIKED THE PIANO A LITTLE BIT CLOSER AND THEN HAD OMNI-DIRECTIONAL MICS RIGHT UP IN THE BACK OF THE STUDIO TO CAPTURE THE AMBIENCE AND BRING THEM INTO THE MIX WITH MORE CONTROL.”
His first orchestral session was in 1967 with Abbey Road regulars, Sidney Bowman and His Old Tyme Dance Orchestra. They would come in for their yearly drop on Parlophone Records with producer Bob Barratt, who decided to give Benge a go. It was a lot to handle as it was; recording and balancing direct to stereo on a BTR-3 quarterinch tape machine. “You had to do the mix and the recording in one hit and get it to sound good enough to go straight to the cutting room,” said Benge. What he wasn’t prepared for, and what made it most memorable, were the two ballroom dancers dancing the routines in the studio to ensure the tempos were spot on. “IN THE MIDDLE OF A TAKE THE DANCERS WOULD STOP, WAVE THEIR HANDS AND SCREAM OUT, ‘IT’S SPEEDING UP OR IT’S SLOWING DOWN.’ THEN YOU HAD TO GO AND DO IT AGAIN.”
It didn’t all go smoothly though. Another early
That was how he got to do his first Beatles session, which ended up being Across the Universe
session was with the Barry Lee Show, and David Paramor, the son of famous producer Norrie, was producing. “This was a bit of a rock ’n’ roll gig,” prefaced Benge. “David really wanted a punchy snare sound, which he’d never been able to get from Abbey Road. I thought, ‘All right, here’s my chance to come up with goods and impress him.’ So I miked the snare pretty close and spent a bit of time trying to get it to sound good. It was in the early days of the TG console, which had only just arrived at Abbey Road to replace the old REDD.51 valve desks. UNFORTUNATELY THE TG CONSOLE DIDN’T HAVE A LOT OF HEADROOM AND WHEN WE FINALLY CAME TO MIX IT, WE PULLED UP THE RHYTHM TRACK ON THE FOUR-TRACK AND HAD A LISTEN… AND THE SNARE DRUM WAS ALL DISTORTED. I’d gotten carried away with the
levels, but we hadn’t noticed it during the recording because we had it cranked up so loud. That was the last job I did for David unfortunately, but you learn by your mistakes, and it never happened again.” Benge got another chance to prove himself though, on a Beatles session, no less. “Where we beginners used to get a chance would be as a second choice because the artist’s regular engineer might not have been available,” explained Benge. “If you did a good job, you might even dislodge the guy that had been with the artist for some years.” That was how he got to do his first Beatles session. Ken Scott had been doing the White album, but he couldn’t make it one Sunday and Benge’s name got thrown into the ring. The session ended up being Across the Universe. “Paul was always good to work with. George was great. Ringo just came in to do his thing. And John, well you never really knew where you stood with him. He was difficult to work for sometimes, but he was a brilliant songwriter, had a great voice and he was always looking for something different, as they all were really. That song, is an absolute classic and haunting. It was just so good from the minute you heard it.”
ROVING TO AUSTRALIA
In 1968, with two weeks notice and a bit of disc cutting training, 24-year old Benge was shipped off to Johannesburg for a three-month stint as the studio manager. EMI needed a stop gap after the previous manager had left the one-man show. He recorded both artists that were white, and artists from the Bantu black music scene. However, AT 23
Richard Branson started his airline on the basis of that money. You can look at it this way; EMI set up Virgin Atlantic
Martin with Geoff Emerick at Abbey Road during the Beatles Anthology Sessions 1995
because of Apartheid, they never mixed. “Even though the black musicians were generally better, they couldn’t even appear on the same record,” recalled Benge. “They were given very little studio time, one take and out the door.” After eight years at Abbey Road, Benge and his wife-to-be Jeannie wanted to do some travelling. So in 1969-’70, Benge left Abbey Road, and he, Jeannie and a few friends trekked overland all the way to Kathmandu where their Land Rover died. When they returned, he planned to go back to Abbey Road, but his sister, Rosemary, was moving to Australia. Well and truly bitten by the travel bug, after he and Jeannie got married, they thought they’d try out Australia, too. At first, it was pitched as a working holiday. “We took off for Australia in 1971 without any job arrangements. I walked into EMI Studios on Castlereagh Street, and they gave me a job straight away on the strength of having been an Abbey Road engineer. I loved working there; I loved the artists, the studio, the people there, and the lifestyle in Australia. We stayed for 22 years, until I ended up back at Abbey Road.” The Australian operation was a simplified structure compared to Abbey Road. THERE WERE 12 TO 14 ‘BOFFINS’ IN THE UK STUDIO’S TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT, SOME WHO WERE SOLELY TAPE MACHINE SPECIALISTS AND OTHERS WHO WERE LOCKED AWAY IN R&D. By comparison, there were three technicians
when Benge arrived at the Australian studio. Benge was fine with the new ‘one-man band’ model, having trained in both departments. Lush came over shortly after, followed by Glen Phimister in ’76, making it majority Londoners on the recording team at the time. After a while, Benge tired of the commercial work. He had artists wanting to record music, but was constantly tied up doing “stupid commercials for cornflakes, cigarettes and Harvey Norman bedding. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, I just wanted to do music.” So very early on in the days of freelance engineering, Benge bit the bullet and had an 11year run that was heavy on music and film scoring, and lower on the jingles. “I did a lot of my best work during that period,” reckoned Benge. “I did quite a lot of jazz like Crossfire, orchestral and
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classical work.” He appreciated the lack of egos, and laborious takes of popular music. Preferring to walk out of the studio with a finished song. STUDIO MANAGEMENT 301
By 1984, 301’s manager was returning to the US, and they asked if Benge would be interested in making that transition from engineer to manager. He was interested, but only if he could maintain his recording career. Having grown up in the Abbey Road system where you barely saw the studio manager, BENGE “COULD SEE A LOT OF THINGS ABOUT THE STUDIO THAT COULD BE IMPROVED AND CHANGED FOR THE BETTER IF THE PERSON RUNNING IT WAS AN ENGINEER. You immediately know how the studio’s performing if you’re actually using it yourself.” He’d also learnt a lot about how to deal with artist’s needs, and how not to. Back at Abbey Road, Pink Floyd had been recording in Studio Three. The curfew was a strict 10 o’clock, but they were just getting going and wanted to carry on. After a bit of an argument, the security guard whose job it was to close up shop, rang the studio manager Alan Stagg, unsure about what to do. “Alan came in, pretty furious about having been dragged out of bed,” recalled Benge. “Being the very undiplomatic kind of guy he was, he walked into the control room and flipped the breaker, turning the power off right in the middle of recording a take. They were mortified.” The next day, Roger Waters was in McCartney’s ear about it, who also had frustrations about the time restrictions. “By that stage The Beatles were selling a bucketload of records for EMI. So McCartney rang the chairman and from that moment on everything changed. There was much more flexibility about session times, and the studio started to be used much more as a workshop experimentation place.” The first thing he did at 301 was to change the acoustics in Studio A. “It was lifeless. It had lots of absorption, carpets on the floor. There was no live area where you’d get anything back from the room.” They gutted it and built a new live room with tiled flooring, which could be used as an isolation room and saved them from having to record vocals in the airlock between the studios. That was a hit, so they got started on Studio B’s acoustics. FOLLOWING THAT,
HE BROUGHT IN THE STUDIO’S FIRST SSL DESK, AND RIPPED OUT THE NECAM SYSTEM ON THE NEVE 8078 AND PUT IN GEORGE MASSENBERG’S FLYING FADERS SYSTEM. “It was
a big improvement, and we got a lot more mixing work through the room.” The rest of it was a bit more boring, but crucial to the studio running as a proper business. Benge developed computer software to run the business; including the booking system, administration of engineers’ hours, and tape sales. “The place became much easier to run because we were getting the information you needed on a business level.” All those changes immediately returned a bump in international clientele. Acts that would have typically gone to Rhinoceros or Paradise Studios because of the vibe, were starting to show up; David Bowie, Duran Duran, Elton John, Prince, Bob Dylan and Split Enz. Located on the top of the EMI building, there were always a lot of suits around. “It still reeked of this corporate EMI culture and I really wanted to get rid of that from the studio.” So with all the new changes came a shift in vibe. “We managed to get the suits out of the studio and hidden away safely.”
VIRGIN TERRITORY
At the bi-annual global EMI studios conference, Benge would fly the flag for Australia. “I realised the benefits to 301. Having a really high profile within EMI would help us succeed in getting the investment we needed to keep studios up to date.” Apparently he’d done too good a job of it, because he was soon poached. In 1992, which had by then become Thorn EMI after EMI merged with another big electronics group. The company was flush with cash and eyeing off the roster of artists on Richard Branson’s Virgin Records label — The Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, The Spice Girls. They ended up shelling out £580m for the group. “Richard started his airline on the basis of that money. So you can look at it this way; EMI set up Virgin Atlantic.” WITH THE COMBINED CATALOGUES, EMI SUDDENLY BECAME THE BIGGEST MUSIC LABEL IN THE WORLD. TACKED ONTO THE END OF THAT SALE IN ’92, HAPPENED TO BE A HANDFUL OF WORLD CLASS STUDIOS. They were really an afterthought in the whole affair, but included The
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(clockwise from top left): Paul McCartney and Martin at Abbey Road Studio 3 in 1995; Handing over of the keys to Abbey Road in 1993; Working with Henry Mancini on John Laws’ poetry album in the late ’70s; Working at EMI Studios Johannesburg South Africa in 1968
Manor (where Tubular Bells was made), Olympic Studios (which was used by The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin), The Townhouse in Shepherd’s Bush (where that famous Phil Collins drum sound was discovered), and another smaller studio, Townhouse III, that was originally The Who’s Ramport Studios, in East London. There was also a truck called Manor Mobile which “used to go all over the world, like to record at the pyramids in Egypt.” All of a sudden, alongside Abbey Road, EMI now had “14 different major recording studios, with big consoles, multitrack machines, hundreds of staff and mobile trucks.” At the time Ken Townsend was managing Abbey Road, and his counterpart at the Virgin group had been Barbara Jeffries. At the top of the food chain, the decision was made that only one person was needed to run the group. Townsend was looking to retire, and Jeffries wanted the job, but Townsend didn’t want someone from Virgin coming in to run Abbey Road because of the cultural differences. It became important that the EMI culture persist in the merger, not the other way around. They tapped Benge, who’s previous experience as an Abbey Road employee, EMI studio manager, and freelance engineer, made him a good fit. Perhaps if Jeffries had been installed, we’d still have one or more of Olympic, The Townhouse and The Manor, but not Abbey Road. Benge took the role and moved back to the UK in ’93, and walked into a massive job. “I think Branson had an inkling that he was going to unload AT 26
the business, so the Virgin operation had stopped investing in its studios years before,” explained Benge. “Most of the equipment on the Virgin side was getting pretty old and the rooms were getting a little bit run down.” He had to make a call on which studios to invest in, and which to let go. Unfortunately, The Manor was the first casualty. THE HERITAGE-LISTED HOUSE NEEDED A NEW ROOF AND OTHER REPAIRS, WHICH WERE GOING TO COST A QUARTER OF A MILLION POUNDS; THE HEATING SYSTEM HAD BUSTED; AND THE CONSOLE WAS A WELL-USED E SERIES SSL THAT WAS PAST ITS USED BY DATE. It was put out to pasture to
become a country house for a well-to-do new owner. They also got rid of Townhouse III, “mainly because it was in this no-go housing estate area,” explained Benge. “Every night there was some sort of break in or artists were accosted in the street going to the studio. A security guard getting beaten up was the final straw. They’ve all gone now. EMI is now owned by Universal Music and the only surviving studio of that lot is Abbey Road.” It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Benge oversaw a complete cosmetic upgrade at Olympic. “It had a huge back garden,” said Benge. “We put in an enormous tennis court and a conservatory to make it into a really comfortable place to work. Eric Clapton loved it there because he could play tennis between sessions. The conservatory was really good for bands to entertain friends, and we had a nice restaurant there.” They also purpose-built a purple mix studio for Mark ‘Spike’ Stent. It was designed by Sam Toyoshima, who’d previously overhauled the acoustics of Olympic and who Benge went on to consult with on a number of worldwide studio builds.
ACTIVELY INTERACTIVE
At the Townhouse, they put in two new SSL consoles and and built two new mastering rooms,
but the biggest shift was the conversion of a chunk of the building into an interactive division. A similar change took place at Abbey Road, where they took over the building next door and began to build websites for bands, and put videos of sessions onto DVDs for the bands. It was a deal they’d made with Apple. Eager to get into the music space, in return for using Abbey Road branding Apple supplied all the computers and expertise. Benge saw EMI as perfectly placed to take on the next round of innovation in the music industry. It had all the ingredients; two full interactive divisions, a relationship with the most innovative computer company in the world, a long history of new product development and manufacturing… and the biggest pool of music talent in the world. Despite that, the company completely failed to make a dent on the future of music technology. “DURING THE ’90S, THE POWERS THAT BE COULD NOT SEE THE THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY OF THE INTERNET,”
lamented Benge. “They clung to CDs and the tried and tested method of stamping out product and shipping it, rather than having a more futuristic view of the industry. Digital distribution was coming, and the digitisation of all their assets was threatened by piracy. “Nobody in the upper echelons of the company was really focused on where we were going to be in five years. They were only focused on where we were going to be at the end of the month so they could get their bonuses. That’s the saddest thing about the demise of EMI. Nobody really wanted to do what Steve Jobs did when Apple invented iTunes and the iPod. EMI should have done that, or one of the big music companies should have. “In the end it had to be a computer company which came up with the new business model. The rest is history. EMI, as a company, doesn’t even exist anymore.”
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The Zoom F1 Field Recorder + Lavalier Mic is the perfect solution for videographers who need to capture the nuance of every word with professional quality audio. In Studio A at 301 Castlereagh Street in the ’70s
BACK TO SQUARE 301
After four and a half years, Benge had a coffee in the Abbey Road bar with SAE founder Tom Misner. They’d met in the ’80s, but hadn’t had any contact for years. Misner was interested in touring the facilities and divulged he was planning on building his own studio in Australia, one with a big orchestral room. Benge had already decided to move back to Australia, without any firm prospects other than returning to freelance engineering, and agreed to help out. The building was going to be in Alexandria, in direct competition with 301, which at that time was under private ownership and struggling. Initial buyout discussions hadn’t gone anywhere, and Benge though it would be a good idea for Misner to take it on. “I said, ‘It could make a lot of sense for you to buy 301 because you’re going to have a great brand, have a team of staff to run things and you’re going to get all this equipment. It could be a really good deal if you get the business at the right price.’” Naturally, the right price for Misner was “ridiculously low,” said Benge. Eventually, after months of negotiation, the deal was done. Misner tabled his name ‘Mirage Studios’ and took on the 301 moniker for his new Mitchell Street premises. “301 went on to live another day which was great,” said Benge. “THE REST IS HISTORY, AND IT’S GOT THAT BLOOD
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LINE GOING ALL THE WAY BACK TO 1926 WHEN RECORDING STARTED IN AUSTRALIA. THAT HERITAGE IS IMPORTANT, IT’S A STAMP OF QUALITY. Look at it now. It’s better than ever.”
Over the years, Benge has seen a lot of studios come and go, some under his own knife, but he’s still bullish about 301. Despite the days of the professional studio as the only way to record being over, and “a lot of projects being far more suited to doing stuff on a laptop or a phone than going into a big studio,” said Benge. “If you want orchestras or bigger groups then you should go to the studio to do it. If you want it to be the best it can be, there’s no substitute for it. “The strong survive, and 301 will live on because it’s the only one of its kind. There are only so many projects that can afford to hire a facility like that. I think it’s going to become more of a hub of excellence and collaboration. The big studio side of it would just be a part of that. The rest of it will be nurturing talent, supporting and helping to develop the artistic community.”
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FEATURE
Tracking composer Carter Burwell and engineer Michael Farrow as they hitch their wagon to the latest Coen brothers film, a Western saga called The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Story & Photos: Ben Tolliday
The characters jump off the screen as the Coen brothers leaf through the waxed protective sheets and monochromatic lithographs of their Western saga The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The collection of short frontier-life vignettes manages to draw plenty out of classic Western tropes in no time flat. Most end in tragedy; whether its the titular upbeat, serenading gunslinger or the Southern belle finding love and prospects on a wagon train. One of the more unsettling shorts amongst these motion picture tableaus centres around a pair of quietly observant bounty hunters unnerving passengers on a midnight coach ride. In present day New York City, my companions are similarly quiet as they ride the subway car away from Sear Sound in Midtown Manhattan. Having just spent all afternoon crafting the most sinister accompaniment to a man with his neck in a noose, I’m thankful these two gentleman — film composer Carter Burwell and his longtime engineer, Michael Farrow — are in the business of making music, not sounding death knells. Burwell and Farrow have been ‘pardners’ for over AT 28
30 years. Together, they have produced Academy Award-nominated scores for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and Carol, plus most of the Coen brothers’ oeuvre. Unlike other wellestablished film score composers of the modern era, Burwell doesn’t outsource any part to other composers — he writes every note himself. DOBRO DOES IT
Earlier in the day, the two had been working on a scene from chapter two, titled Near Algodones. In it, cowboy James Franco is perched on a horse with a noose around his neck, the other end secured to a tree branch. As the day progresses, the horse inches forward searching for the next tuft of grass, tightening the noose. The tension is perfectly matched by David Torn’s toothy, atmospheric dobro guitar, which Burwell scored to rattle and slide more vigorously as the noose slowly chokes Franco’s neck. Burwell and director Ethan Coen gave quite detailed feedback to Torn throughout the session, striving to improve on Burwell’s sample mock-up for the cue. Coen and Burwell even
debated whether to blend the sample with real dobro in the mix, but ultimately decided to only use Torn’s dobro. Torn crafted the part with a hybrid of his acoustic and electric sounds. The acoustic dobro was captured by a pair of Sennheiser MKH40 cardioid mics, about 40cm from the guitar, chest height, and pointed down towards the guitar at a 20-degree angle. FOR THE ELECTRIC SIDE, TORN’S PICKUP RAN THROUGH HIS BLEND OF STEREO EFFECTS, INTO TWO FENDER TWIN GUITAR AMPLIFIERS, SET EITHER SIDE OF HIM IN THE LIVE ROOM, WITH GOBOS
Farrow used a Coles 4038 mic on each of the guitar amps, placed about 30cm from each amp, 10cm off-axis from the centre of each speaker cone. Farrow went straight into Neve 1081 preamps without any EQ or compression.
FOR ISOLATION.
ABBEY ROAD ENSEMBLES
The dobro was the last instrument to be recorded for the short-story saga. The rest had been captured at Abbey Road Studio 2 over five days with five different ensembles; from 34 and 38-piece
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ensembles featuring strings, woodwinds, French horn, piano, harp, acoustic guitar and timpani; to a 10-piece brass section; a choir of 12 singers; solo piano; and timpani and percussion. The rolling timpani became the accompaniment to Torn’s dobro, adding to the sinister, simmering tension of the scene. Farrow’s main microphone array in Abbey Road comprised three Neumann M50s in a Decca tree formation, a pair of B&K 4011 TLX cardioid outriggers, a pair of Schoeps CMC5 MK2 omnis for surrounds, and a pair of Neumann KM84 cardioids over the brass. For added detail, he used the following spot mics: Neumann TLM170s (violins and timpani), Schoeps CMC6 MK4s (celli, double basses, harp, and acoustic guitar), Neumann KM86 (woodwinds), a pair of B&K 4011 TLX and Coles 4050 (piano), Neumann KM184 (French horns), and Coles 4038 (trumpets, trombones and tuba). The Neumann M50 Decca tree microphones were recorded via Avalon AD2022 preamps, while the other microphones were recorded through the AMS Neve 88RS console preamps, without any EQ or compression, into Pro Tools at 24-bit/48k. INTERESTINGLY, FARROW ALWAYS RECORDS AT THE SAMPLE
Engineer Michael Farrow at Sear Sound placing a pair of Sennheiser MKH40 cardioid mics to capture David Torn’s dobro guitar.
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RATE OF THE FINAL DELIVERY. HE BELIEVES THE WORST THREE WORDS IN DIGITAL AUDIO ARE ‘SAMPLE RATE CONVERSION’.
MIXING FOR SIZE
Back onboard the subway, as the two journeyed to Burwell’s studio in Tribeca, they quietly focused on the next phase — mixing — set to commence the following day. Burwell had spent the better part of five months composing this score — his 16th for the Coens — fatigue was setting in, but he had an eye firmly fixed on the finish line. Farrow began the mix at Burwell’s downtown loft studio, where his mixing toolkit included: Pro Tools HD, Euphonix System 5 digital console, TC Electronic 6000 surround reverb, and 5.1-channel Genelec studio monitoring system. Starting with the orchestra, Farrow used 17 microphones in the mix, with very little processing other than subtle, broad Q low cut and high shelf boost EQ, as well as reverb. During the first playback of a raw, unmixed orchestra cue from Abbey Road, the ensemble’s size felt, to the ear, far larger than the 34 players in the session. On recordings with dense instrumentation and a high track-count, it can be a challenge to make things sound big, yet sparser recordings with a lower track
count can sound effortlessly full and rich. After a couple of hours working on a key cue, The Gal Who Got Rattled, Farrow invited Burwell into the control room for a playback. Burwell’s first reaction was very positive, but somewhat unexpected. He said, ‘I think this cue sounds great, but it’s too full for the scene.’ Indirectly, this was quite the compliment for Farrow. Creating size in a mix without heavy effects processing can be a challenge. Yet Farrow had done it with judicious microphone selection and placement, a great balance and just a touch of reverb. Subsequently, the revisions on this cue were simple: lower the orchestra by 3-4dB, import a synth part that doubled the guitar and harp melody, bring the guitar melody forward, and lower some other harmonic elements to create space for the melody. In context, with the picture, these tweaks created the space Burwell was seeking for this pastoral cue. Ben Tolliday is an Australian sound engineer living in Los Angeles, who is also a 30-year veteran string player. He’s engineered RIAA platinum-certified singles, and recently received a Churchill Fellowship to work alongside industry veterans like Mark Mothersbaugh, Henry Jackman, and Alan Meyerson. This is an excerpt from his trip.
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COLUMN
How to Record Pop Vocals, Pt III — Mixing For this final instalment, JMC alumnus Peter goes from raw takes to polished production, detailing every part of his vocal mixing technique along the way. Column: Peter Holz
Here we are, at the final stage of the vocal process — mixing. Previously, we’ve gone over recording and editing the perfect vocal take, but before we move on, let’s add some doubles and harmonies to the pie. A ‘standard’ approach would be to have your big lead vocal down the middle, accompanied by two unison doubles panned hard left and hard right. This can be expanded to four, eight, 16, or as many as you want. If you record a large amount of unison doubles, you can splay out the panning and get an ‘anthemic’ sound. This will only work if the doubles — either naturally by the singer, or in the editing stage — are all very tightly locked with the lead vocal, otherwise it will sound messy. Peking Duk’s Stranger is no less than 16 vocals in unison at all times [see for a common chorus vocal arrangement]. Keeping on the unison train, try some that are sung much more softly and with more ‘breathiness’, though this doesn’t mean whispered. Adding upper and lower octaves to the vocal melody is also common. Either record them, or pitch some of your unison doubles up and down with a tool like Soundtoys Little Alter Boy and blend those in. Harmonies are no different — stack them, layer them, pitch them, pan them. Moulding all of these ‘backing vocal’ layers takes a lot of time, both to record, and to edit and arrange. Still, unless your
song sounds better without layers… do it! I will often work by building up every conceivable layer and harmony for a section of a song and getting the mix and effects to work. From there, I can build my arrangement by addition and subtraction. Maybe the first chorus has only doubles, with some breathy layers in the second half. Then the second chorus has all of those plus a harmony, and a low octave in the second half. You get the idea. LEAD VOCAL CHAIN
Okay, let’s assume you’ve perfectly edited your vocals, labelled, colour coded and setup your initial routing. Let’s get mixing. I developed a fairly in-depth lead vocal mixing chain after spending time at the inaugural Mix With The Masters seminar with Michael Brauer. The basic premise is that the vocal is feeding a bunch of different compressors that are blended together. It’s not to achieve multi-band style compression, but to blend a vocal ‘tone’ or ‘attitude’ together. Oftentimes, some of the compressors are doing little or no gain reduction. Alternatively, in some pop vocal arrangements, there may not be a set ‘lead’ vocal. In those cases, I don’t really use the Brauer approach. Here’s a basic overview of my approach to mixing a lead vocal that could be applied with any basic processors.
STEP 1 — MANUAL DE-ESSING
There is no better way to control esses than to manually adjust them. I will commonly do this with automation on the clip (clip gain) to nail it right at the front of the chain. I will also add similar automation to breaths and consonants like f, t, p, b and c. Simply fine tuning how hard a vocal transient hits, makes room for applying much more consecutive EQ and compression. I will usually perform this fine tuning towards the end of a mix, after applying all other processing, as you don’t really know where these sounds need to be until you’re nearly at the finish line. STEP 2 — TAPE SATURATION
Over the years, I’ve found that a tape simulator is the best tool to soften some of the high frequency content and transients to balance them with the rest of the signal. Sometimes I’ll record though a tape simulation plug-in in the UAD Console as well as applying it at the top of the vocal chain. I use the UAD Studer A800, fine tuning the high frequency and transient response with the bias adjustment.
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STEP 3 — AUTOMATIC DE-ESSING
Even after doing my manual de-essing I will use regular de-esser plug-ins to further massage this signal. I use these with very low ranges (-3dB or so) so I’m not relying on them to fix esses, just to fine tune what I’ve already done manually. I always use two de-essers in a row, in wide-band mode. The first one set to around 5-6kHz focussing on the ‘Shhh’ sounds, and the other up around 10-11kHz focusing on the ‘Sss’ sounds. Waves R-De-esser is my guy. I’ve never really gotten down with super detailed de-esser plug-ins like Sonnox Supressor or Fab Filter Pro-DS. Occasionally I’ll get a multiband plug-in involved at this stage if there’s some honk or squark or zing or boom, or other hard to describe sounds like that. Waves C6 is still my favourite for doing this, however, Oek Sound Soothe is amazing and the dynamic bands in bx_EQ3 are simple and always work. STEP 4 — EQ
Now there’s no dodgy stuff going on with your lead vocal, it’s time to make it shine. Here I’m commonly using a channel strip type plug-in — usually UAD Neve 88RS — to apply a slight highpass filter, open up the top end, and either boost or cut the low end or low mids, depending on what the song needs. I usually end up automating this EQ or having different channels for different sections of the song. Sometimes another ‘air lift’ plug-in like UAD Maag EQ4 or Black Box HG-2 will feature here, too. While I’m working with the channel strip I’ll sometimes kick in the compressor and just tap the signal lightly with a fast attack and release, and high ratio; very subtle limiting, always post EQ. STEP 5 — COMPRESSION
I will always put the compressor after the main EQ, otherwise you’ll bring out more sibilance. This is the stage where my signal would usually get sent off to five or six different compressors and blended back together. When I’m using a compressor on a vocal I’m never thinking of the gain reduction, the ratio, or the attack and release times. I’m not going to say ‘use these settings’ or ‘don’t use this ratio or speed on a vocal’. I am purely using the compressor as a way to position the vocal in front of the listener and control how much it moves backwards and forwards, and whether it is pushing out through the music, floating above it, riding the wave of the music, staying still, or moving against it. To me the compressor is purely a movement generator or controller. I don’t care about gain reduction and dynamic range, I care about whether the vocal is moving nicely with the music. STEP 6 — SIZZLE
Before looking at effects, sometimes I’ll get something involved at the ‘end’ of the main part of the chain. Perhaps it needs some slight distortion like another BlackBox HG-2, Decapitator, Manny Marroquin Distortion, or McDSP Futz Box. I might want to add some super silk to it with an Aphex Aural exciter.
STEP 7 —AUTOMATION
Level automation is key to get a vocal to sit ‘right’ and ‘pop’ out of the mix. Some moves are obvious and can easily be achieved by just turning a whole line or word up or down. Some are more subtle, but can make a huge difference. A common example is bringing up the tail of words. This makes the vocal feel like it’s right there in front of you (an experienced singer will sometimes do this for you with their microphone technique). Occasionally you’ll need to drastically bring up a word or line to keep it audible above the music. When the start of a verse is an anacrusis at the end of a loud chorus, those first few lines might need to come up by five to 10dB. Proper gain staging is crucial. You should always be able to have the vocal exactly where you want it; you should never be fighting against the music or your processing in terms of basic balance and level. AT 33
MIXING IN EFFECTS DELAY
My only mainstay is what I call a ‘cobweb’ delay. This is always a tape-style echo, or a send to my actual EP-3 Echoplex. Its purpose is to invisibly tie the vocal back to the music. It allows you to have the vocal in front of the music, but the two things still have a relationship. The listener should never really hear this delay. My starting point would be a dull tape echo or low passed echo of some kind, returning in mono directly in the centre behind the lead vocal. Not much feedback and no synchronisation to the tempo (my delay time usually ends up around 200-300ms). Any other use of delay to me is completely subjective and depends on the song. Make them change throughout the song. Have a slow one in the verse and a fast one in the chorus. Use an overthe-top ping pong in the middle eight. Have an obvious slapback. There is of course the standard ‘delay throw’ where the end of a phrase is echoed out. Try sending the return of your delay throw to a reverb, or widen it, or formant shift just the delay return, or automate a pitch down on it. A ducking/dynamic delay should not be overlooked. It can be very effective and add more subtlety to your echoes. It can also be used to create a ‘sucking up’ feel if the delay time is short and the delays come back up quickly.
then go big in the chorus, or the opposite. Try a subtle, wide short room reverb on your in-yourface dry vocal so it feels like the listener is in a room with the singer. Have a short, bright gated room on the lead vocal (although you can’t do that now after Niall Horan’s Slow Hands). I used to have a Lexicon 480L but sold that long ago and now commonly use the UAD 224 or the Native Instruments RC-24 or RC-48, which are great, to get the classic Lexicon sound. Listen to the vocal reverb in Elton John’s Can You Feel The Love Tonight to hear the most wondrous big splashy Lexicon sound ever. WIDENING
This can be very effective if done well. Some of the ways I’ll achieve this is with two short ‘slap’ style echoes about 6ms apart panned hard left and hard right. I usually use the Waves Manny Marroquin Delay to do this as you get extra built-in goodies. Eventide-style widening is also great with something like Soundtoys Microshift or UAD’s Eventide H910. Waves Reel ADT is amazing and I use it all the time to create a pseudo ‘tripled’ effect. A subtle chorus can be good here, too. There are so many options. PITCH SHIFTING
Sometimes I’ll have a pitched down version of the lead vocal running underneath it. Pretty much exclusively done with Soundtoys Little Alter Boy.
REVERB
DRAW THEM TOGETHER
Again, reverb is completely subjective. Maybe there is no reverb at all in the song. The in-your-face dry vocal sound is really great — use that in the verse
To me it’s important that all of these effects are returned into a vocal bus and then compressed and equalised with the straight dry vocal. If I’m mixing
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the track, that includes some other instrumental elements, too. It really lets the vocals and their effects ‘get to know each other’ and form their own relationship in the song. I commonly use a UAD Neve 33609 or a Waves API-2500 compressor to do this. Occasionally, I’ll use a final dynamic EQ/de-esser to meld all of the vocal attack and brightness together. Importantly, these processes have nothing to do with level or compression, they are there to get all of the vocals and their effects to move together. HOW LONG DOES THIS ALL TAKE?
It’s not uncommon for me to spend 10-20 hours just on the editing and mixing for one song. Always remember that people will make their decisions based on what they hear. If it’s going to the artist, manager, or A+R, don’t send them something that could be better if you worked on it more, or put in a disclaimer that it’s a ‘rough mix’ — you want them to hear your work and be impressed enough to hire you again. Your career relies upon this. Never pass blame onto the equipment, the song, the singer, the weather, the time of day… no one cares about excuses.
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REGULARS
Apple Notes The Logical Choice Column: Brad Watts
I must say it was an exuberant moment when I saw an update appear for Logic Pro X earlier this year. It had been quite some time since much had happened on the Logic Pro front, but seeing the release notes made it clear Apple’s Logic Pro team had been hard at work sculpting the new update. There were extra plug-ins and features, alongside a multitude of bug fixes and performance enhancements – such as not quitting in the middle of certain operations. Logic Pro X 10.4 and its recent iterations were welcome upgrades, and appeared for zero upgrade fees. Let’s dive in. Without doubt, the feature raising the loudest applause would have to be the ability to relocate the Logic Pro sound library to a drive other than your primary system drive. Now while this was possible in the past with the use of aliases, it’s now a bonafide menu command found in the Sample Library menu within the Logic Pro X drop down. Absolute gold, I tells ya! Frightfully handy for those running less than a 1TB SSD – which includes me. I can’t run a system drive less than 2TB these days, and I’m not ponying up $700 for a top-shelf 2TB SSD. I know how to wait. In six month’s time I reckon I’ll be shedding my hybrid drive for a decent 2TB SSD. Anyway, moving those Logic samples — and your Apple Loops if you can be bothered — off elsewhere will make things easy with your next system upgrade. The process is very simple. Go to the menu, choose the drive you want the library on, then hit the ‘Relocate’ button. Unfortunately it’s not possible to share the same library amongst multiple Macs, so networked systems will need the library installed on a per machine basis. Sample library relocation is also possible in Mainstage. Other enhancements include the option for Smart Tempo to analyse tempo data across multiple tracks and then define the project’s tempo. Similarly, imported multi-track stems can follow or define the project tempo. This means you can play without a click and the original recording will define the tempo then push and pull any imported samples and loops into sync. Also long overdue is the ability to add images to track or project notes — perfect for keeping track of any outboard hardware
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settings. Although, once an image is stored within a Logic Pro project you can’t enlarge them after that point. So have a play with the size and legibility of the images you store with a project. While these improvements are without doubt useful, I reckon most would first jump into the new plug-ins. Heading up the additions from 10.4 is Chromaverb. This is yet another reverb choice which uses algorithmic reverbs rather than Space Designer’s use of convolution. It’s a simpler way to go about ambience and it sounds superb. There are 14 different algorithms covering your traditional hall, room and plate-style reverbs, along with stranger ambiences such as ‘Airy’, ‘Strange Room’, and my favourite; ‘Bloomy’. Equally as enjoyable has been the Vintage EQ Collection. The Neve, API, and Pultec recreations are brilliant when you consider the price countless other plug-in developers charge for this style of EQ clone. While these are very good EQ models, at first the ‘fixed’ frequency points of the Pultec and Neve EQs look infinitely variable. However, if you click on the actual displayed EQ points the variable pots jump to those traditional frequency points immediately. Incidentally, if you’re looking for the older, dare I say, vintage Logic EQ plug-ins, such as DJ EQ, Silver EQ and Fat EQ, hold down the option key when selecting an effect/processor and you’ll see the additional menu for ‘Legacy’ plug-ins. For more sauce you should investigate the additions of Step FX and Phat FX. Step adds rhythmic multi-effect processing using step sequencers and an X/Y modulation pad. Phat FX purports to make your tracks ‘bigger and bolder’ using a pile of nine separate effects that claim to add ‘warmth and punch’. However the great thing about Phat FX is the LFO and envelope follower mod sources. With these you can quickly modulate the 23 parameters from the bandpass filter, the 34 standard filter options, distortion, compressor, Mod FX, and the Bass Enhancer. This plug-in offers hours of fun and copious modulation possibilities. Possibly days’ worth when you start messing with the X/Y modulation pad.
Retro Synth has also been expanded to include 18 different filter designs. These range through various styles with adjective filter descriptions such as ‘Lush’, Creamy’, ’Sharp’, ‘Gritty’, and ‘Edgey’. Oh, and ‘Lush (Fat)’. ‘Peak Creamy’ is excellent. Good ol’, not-so-old Alchemy has seen some improvements, too. Aside from the addition of numerical value editing, there are 12 new synthesised formant filter shapes and the ability to add a side chain input as a source for envelope followers. All said and done, Logic Pro X 10.4 and the recent 10.4.2 and 10.4.3 iterations really send Logic Pro X into the realm of best bang-for-buck DAW ever conceived. Worth so much more than Apple’s paltry asking price. My only fear is that Logic Pro X 11 will necessitate an upgrade to macOS Mojave. Here we go again.
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REVIEW
RODE NT-SF1
Ambisonics Microphone Rode hasn’t just made professional ambisonics affordable, it’s delivered a mic that can take ambisonics beyond its usual ‘ambiences-only’ call. Review: Stephan Schütze
These days I’m opening more VR headsets and gaming console packaging than microphones. Sleek and shiny boxes are par for the course when trying to catch the eye of the would-be consumer; less packing foam and more ‘presentation display’. With one eye squarely on the gaming audio market, it’s fitting that Rode’s NT-SF1 ambisonics microphone arrives nestled in a similarly attractive sleek black box. While I’m always tempted to retain the pretty box, the reality is it will spend its life in a more durable road case, and the build quality of Rode’s microphone looks like it will be up to the recordist’s schlep. BOX OF GOODIES
NEED TO KNOW
An ambisonic microphone has a fairly specific range of uses. Primary among those is capturing location ambiences, so mounting and wind protection are not optional extras in my mind. In the box is everything you’ll need to use the NT-SF1 in practical situations. Better yet, they’re not generic attachments; Rode has designed each component specifically for the NT-SF1. Instead of the usual hard plastic mic clip, Rode has included a tight-fitting rubberised shock mount for the NTSF1. This attaches to any standard boom pole or mic stand screw thread. Wedging the microphone into the clip is a little tricky, so you won’t be doing it in a hurry. When working with ambisonics, you shouldn’t be doing anything in a hurry anyway. Rode has also included a spherical windshield and fluffy wind sock system to work with the shock mount clip. I’ll get to how it holds up in various environmental conditions, but for now, I rate the inclusion of these components very highly.
PRICE Expect to pay $1499 CONTACT Rode: (02) 9648 5855 or info@rode.com
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PROS Very affordable High build quality Great low end Everything included
CONS None
SUMMARY The Rode NT-SF1 can change the way you view ambisonics. With generous low end detail, it can be useful beyond simply recording ambiences. You may find you’ll replace a collection of stereo and omni microphones with this one system. A system that comes with everything in the box that you’ll need to get started.
NOT JUST A CABLE
For those unfamiliar with ambisonic microphones, the mic itself contains four capsules. Each capsule’s signal is captured separately so you can create different polar patterns in post production. Naturally, a custom cat-tail cable is required to turn one output plug into four standard XLR jacks. Some ambisonic microphones I’ve used have shipped with a cable that’s too short to be of much use. The Rode NT-SF1 cable is split over a length of three meters, making it convenient for most common purposes. A second feature of the cable is that each of the four XLR jacks are clearly colour-coded and labelled with LF1 for ‘Left Front 1’, and so on. It makes my life in the field so much easier — consider this my ‘Thank You’ note to the blessed boffin at Rode who decided to add it. Anything that can improve my experience working with a piece of equipment shows an understanding by the manufacturer of what I do. In turn, making me feel comfortable and confident to work with that equipment. It’s also simply a really well-made cable. LOW END DETAIL
When I first rigged up the mic into my Sound Devices 788T SSD and had a listen, I was surprised by how much low-end the microphone picked up. I wouldn’t have been if I’d read the specs, which clearly show the condenser capsules are well capable of a wide frequency range. Still, I’ve become familiar with the idea of ambisonics only being used for capturing ambiences, so in my mind I was expecting a much lighter tone. The low-end sensitivity makes this mic very well suited to recording musical performances and this, in my mind, is an excellent use of ambisonic technology. Sadly, I didn’t have an ensemble hanging around to test it on, but from the sounds I was able to capture and a little bit of abstraction I imagine it would have a lovely warm tone at the low end for instruments. The primary purpose of ambisonic equipment is to capture that spherical sound-field, so I jumped right into testing its detail early on. I used a ratchet noise maker to create a constant clicking sound and then moved it around the NT-SF1 on a flat plane at first, then over and under the mic to test the elevation region. I chose the ratchet because humans can localise repeated pulses far more accurately than a constant ‘noise’ source. Human ears are pretty terrible at working out accurately where a sound is coming from, making it tricky to evaluate how accurately a sound sphere is represented, but there are some significant factors I found with this mic. In the obvious zones on the left and right past our ears the sound field was clear and strong. What was important was the elevation movement above and below the horizon plane. I had a very clear sense of movement and differentiation as I turned my head with a VR headset on while listening to the recordings. This is an indication that the NT-SF1 is capturing good delineation between its capsules. Effective sound field content is as much
THE SOUNDFIELD PLUG-IN I have worked with quite a few spatial audio tools and plug-ins and the SoundField plug-in by Rode really impresses me. Partially because of its functionality, but more because Rode seems to have gotten so much right on the first try. There is a function that lets you define the orientation of the NT-SF1 as it was used when recording. This is incredibly valuable as orientation of an ambisonic mic can have a significant impact on the recorded material and without this function the need to make adjustments manually could be extremely time consuming. Output can be set between ambisonic formats, mono, stereo and a series of surround formats. This is fairly standard and works well. You can also set inputs to either the NT-SF1 itself or B Format Fuma or AmbiX.
about what you record as what equipment you use, but the NT-SF1 has nice separation and creates a good sense of space. I did notice a slight pop when I moved the ratchet too close to one of the capsules, so they are sensitive to close-proximity, but this is unlikely to be an issue for 90% of the uses for an ambisonic mic. Ambisonics is not generally effective for near-field content anyway, so a sound source within one meter is not a common recording target and the sensitivity is otherwise a desirable quality. ONLY THE GOOD NOISE
The level of self-noise for a microphone such as this can be critical. Capturing ambiences is one of the primary uses of an ambisonic microphone and often that is going to be in very quiet locations. Capturing birds, gentle wind or even room tones are the sorts of things I would purchase an ambisonic mic for. I use an old wind-up clock for this kind of testing. The Sound Devices 788 I own has its own noise issues at certain gain levels, but
The real gem with this plug-in is the ability to shape the sound by defining the pattern of each sound source. You can hard switch between cardioid, super cardioid and beam forming. You can also choose to tune the shape of all the sound sources while linked, or tune each one individually. This allows for really precise focal emphasis on specific sound sources. The Soundfield plug-in is also just nice to work with. The representation of signal levels, positioning of sound sources and even the quick undo means I can focus on being creative rather than fighting with the tools, like some other plugins. This is going to be fun to play with and makes the overall NT-SF1 system even more applicable to my needs as a sound recordist.
I have been using it long enough to know exactly where those kick in and what to expect. Over 50dB input gain starts to get noticeably noisy with the 788, so anything under that is most likely the mic. The NT-SF1 is certainly very sensitive. It clearly captured the ticking clock with good definition and even picked up my stomach rumbling. That’s what I get for doing tests just before lunchtime! As far as additional noise goes the NT-SF1 added no noticeable noise to the recordings. In fact, dialling up the input gain to even 60dB on the 788 had far less hiss than many of the mics I use regularly. I am impressed that Rode seems to place the same level of importance on low self-noise as I do for a mic such as this. As a bit of extra due diligence, I reached out to a few other recordists I know around the world to check their experience. I am aware that with some products you can get a bit of variation in self-noise. However, all the comments I got back on the NT-SF1 confirmed this mic is very good in that regard, which says a lot about Rode’s automated manufacturing facility. AT 39
Stephan Schütze has been a location recordist and sound designer for nearly 20 years. His sound libraries are used by many of the top production companies in the world and in 2018 he released the first book on audio production for new reality formats.
distortion. The advantage of a microphone that captures a sphere is it can have any orientation. If the wind were strong enough to disrupt one of the diaphragms, as an ambisonic mic, it could be rotated slightly to angle the wind away from a direct path to the diaphragm. MORE THAN JUST AMBIENCES
WINDSHIELD WIPES OUT WIND
I have been a location recordist for nearly 20 years and apart from noisy humans, wind is the biggest issue I deal with, so of course I wanted to check out how the NT-SF1 copes with wind. Conveniently there is also a lookout tower about five minutes from where I live. Located above the forest canopy, it’s the perfect place to subject microphones to some serious gusts of wind. Initially, I removed both the provided fluffy and the top hemisphere of the windshield to expose the microphone directly to the wind. As expected, the NT-SF1 diaphragms did not enjoy direct exposure to fairly strong gusts of wind, what was not expected was that the windshield alone cut the wind noise to almost zero. Only the very strongest of wind gusts translated as noise through the windshield. This surprised me as although I know the shield does reduce wind, I often consider them more just the structure that allows the fluffy to be mounted. In this example the addition of the fluffy cover allowed me to record the ambience and the strong wind itself without
Ambisonics is a tricky animal for recording. Up till now there have been two main choices. Either spend a fortune on a high-end ambisonic solution, or buy one of the low-end microphones available and deal with their shortcomings. We have long needed something in the midrange that supports quality sound field capture but didn’t require a second mortgage to purchase. Rode appears to have gone one better by providing a really solid tool, that is barely more expensive than the bottom range options. This is a solid and capable microphone. The biggest surprise has been the way it’s changed my view of ambisonics. Previously, I’d considered ambisonics to be a specific narrow task; a useful piece of equipment to have on the occasion I need to capture a spherical field. After working with the NT-SF1, I realised I could use this mic for a far broader range of uses. Because ambisonic content can be down-mixed to stereo, mono or the various surround formats without any loss of content, I could see this microphone system replacing quite a few of my omnidirectional and stereo microphones for collecting
REVIEW
SENNHEISER HD 300 PRO
Closed-Back Monitoring Headphones Review: Preshan John
The Sennheiser HD 280 Pro is up there as one of the more common headphones in the modern recording room. They’re cheap, but have enough Sennheiser quality to make them fit for purpose. I have a pair, but a couple of issues have always irritated me. For one, they grip your head with a vice-like firmness that’s great for isolation but terrible for comfort. Second, I found the closed-back design still bled a lot of sound that made its way into a recording. Sennheiser’s new HD 300 Pro bears a distinct resemblance to the HD 280s, yet is a better design and twice the price. It’s still a circumaural closedback model with a stated frequency response of 6Hz-25kHz and an easily-driven impedance of 64Ω. Passive noise cancellation is up to 32dB (the same spec as the HD 280s); very usable when recording drums or loud amps. The lightweight plastic arms fold into a smaller package for easy transport. Comparing the two, my first observation is that comfort level is a lot better with the HD 300 Pro. It AT 40
maintains a secure fit with a good seal but doesn’t feel nearly as oppressive as the HD 280s. The cable is straight with a mini coiled segment near the earcup, as opposed to the majority coiled cable of the HD 280. It’s not quickly interchangeable, but is replaceable, which is great. How does it sound? The HD 300 certainly comes across less hyped than the HD 280. What can be a grating 1-4kHz midrange is relatively suppressed and makes the HD 300 easier to listen to for a long time. Low end is far more present, too — not a tall order given how light on the HD 280s are in the bass department. Spatially the HD 300s sound a little wider with individual instruments appearing a little more distant. As a pair of headphones, the HD 300 Pro represents a versatile all-rounder that you can carry between the tracking room and studio. I’m not sure it’s twice as good as the HD 280s at double the price. However, the superior comfort and sound makes me want a pair.
ambiences or recording music. Why capture a stereo image when you can capture a spherical sound-field for almost no extra effort? What really tips it for me is the inclusion of all the necessary extra pieces. Rode could have offered these pieces as additional optional extras, but it knows that a shock-mount and wind protection are not in the least bit optional. I applaud Rode for including them as part of the purchase price. Straight out of the box, you get not just an ambisonic microphone, but an ambisonic recording system.
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REVIEW
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS A SERIES Keyboard Controllers Native Instruments winds back the colour on its A series to give you the black ’n’ white essence of Komplete Kontrol. Review: Preshan John
NEED TO KNOW
Native Instruments’ S Series keyboards are the bees’ knees. What’s not to love about a controller with two hi-res colour screens and deep pre-mapped integration with your favourite VIs? The problem is, hardware features come at a cost. Even Native Instruments knows this. That’s why the new A Series makes perfect sense — a range of keyboards with obvious cost cuts compared to the S Series yet with the same Komplete Kontrol modus operandi we know and love. A Series is available in 25-, 49- and 61-key versions. They’re bus-powered via USB and have a semi-weighted keybed and basic DAW transport controls. The smallest 25-key A Series board goes for just over $200. We received the middle child A49 for review. I enjoyed the fast action of the keybed which is both heavier and springier than the Arturia KeyLab Mk II we checked out last issue. Pitch and modulation wheels are the real deal, rather than the flat ribbon sliders used on Maschine. There’s a healthy resistance to the mod wheel that works a treat when adding delicate expressiveness to orchestral sections and synth leads. I’d have liked a deeper indent but the
PRICE Expect to pay KA25: $229 KA49: $299 KA61: $379
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CONTACT CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
rubber finish is grippy enough. The puny OLED screen is a far cry from the big ’n’ bold counterparts of the S Series but it’s actually very functional — more on that later. The sparse centre panel has a single row of eight touch sensitive endless encoders (the same as the S Series). The buttons are loud and clicky as opposed to the softer rubber buttons on the S Series. Nevertheless, they are solid and brightly backlit. KOMPLETE INTEGRATION
The integration between S Series Mk II keyboards and Komplete Kontrol software is on point, and colourful. Thousands of NKSsupported virtual instrument presets are displayed on two large colour displays, and Light Guide illuminates keyboard splits and articulation controls in different colours. The A Series has a distinct lack of colour, but is still surprisingly easy to navigate, even without those big screens. Using the joystick to browse Komplete Kontrol presets on the tiny, yet hi-res screen, was still swift. You have the option of sourcing a preset by instrument, patch or type. Once selected, all NKS-supported instruments will have their parameters pre-mapped to the
PROS Serious value for money, especially for NKS users Keybed & controls feel good
CONS Pads and/or faders would be nice
encoders letting you dive right into playing. Of course, without the larger screens, you won’t know which parameter a knob is assigned to until you touch it, calling up its function on the small screen. It may be delivered differently, and there may be less visual feedback, but the same Komplete Kontrol hands-on functionality carries over from the S Series. Things like adjusting track levels in supported DAWs, transport and automation control, arpeggiator, quantisation, playback and loop settings. For the most part you can easily do all of the above with the A Series controllers without glancing at your computer. BUNDLED UP
A comprehensive Komplete Kontrol software package accompanies any purchase of an A Series keyboard, including Maschine Essentials, The Gentleman upright piano, Reaktor Prism, Scarbee Mk I electric piano and more. As a generic MIDI controller, it’s hard to fault the A Series. It delivers a fast, comfortable keybed with a host of quality controls at a very reasonable price. Throw in the software and Komplete Kontrol integration and it’s near on a steal.
SUMMARY NI’s A series shows the real magic of its controller keyboards isn’t the fancy colours and big screens, but the pre-built integration between NKS-supported instruments and all those knobs and buttons.
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SPITFIRE AUDIO HANS ZIMMER PERCUSSION Sample Library Review: Preshan John
US$399 | www.spitfireaudio.com
Hans Zimmer is the godfather of modern Hollywood film scoring. With a seemingly bottomless creative wellspring, Zimmer is renown for his emotive and dramatic scores that weave sound to sight with the bombast of a floor-to-ceiling tapestry. If his name is attached to something, you know it’s going to be big, bold and dramatic. Hans Zimmer Percussion Library is exactly that. Given just how big a role percussion plays in the majority of Zimmer’s scores — even assembling his own league of 12 extraordinary drummers for the Man of Steel soundtrack — a percussion-focused pack is a welcome addition. Hans has previously teamed up with UK-based sampled instrument developer Spitfire Audio to release Hans Zimmer Piano and HZ02 (Jason AT 44
Bonham playing his DW Vistalite kits at legendary locations in LA). The Percussion Library is essentially a re-release, combining HZ01 and HZ03 inside a redesigned GUI with extra manipulation options. All samples (nearly 50GB of them) were recorded through 96 microphones from AIR Studios’ arsenal, with up to 60 used at any given point. These fed into a Neve 88R console then into HDX and Prism converters at 192k. The range of sounds are truly exotic. You’ll find darbukas, tombeks, dhols, boobams, tamtams, surdos and more. There’s plenty of ‘standard’ stuff too, like epic cymbal hits and snare rolls. Each is sampled with up to nine round robins. There’s a clarity and intentionality in each hit from the
softest to the loudest velocity. The reverb is gigantic and lush — no wimpy room verbs here. Between the mic positioning and the reverb amount you can finely control the width and size of each sample; so while you might have it sounding cavernous for cinematic passages, there’s nothing stopping you from winding it back and throwing a darbuka or surdo on that folk acoustic song you’re working on. After having this library at my disposal for several months, it has found its way onto every track I’ve produced without fail. Yes, its sweetspot is cinematic scoring, but those beautiful samples excel in seasoning virtually any music with striking percussive elements, be it subtle or overt. This is one I’ll recommend without a moment’s hesitation.
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Up to 10 beltpacks per antenna 100 antenna, 100 beltpack system capacity Best-in-class voice clarity “Touch&Go” beltpack registration 6-channel beltpack plus dedicated REPLY button Built-in microphone and speaker for Walkie-Talkie mode Smartphone integration via Bluetooth Ergonomic, robust beltpack design Sunlight-readable display with Gorilla Glass™ Decentralized AES67 IP networked antennas Seamless integration into RIEDEL‘S ARTIST intercom matrix
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LAST WORD with
Leslie Ann Jones Director of Music & Scoring, Skywalker Sound
Leslie grew up with American musical satirist Spike Jones for a father, and singer Helen Grayco for a mother. She found her way onto the faders when barely any women featured in control rooms, and forged a path through some of the biggest studios to Skywalker Sound where she still serves as the Director of Music and Scoring. With a career spanning five decades, four Grammy awards, countless hit records and blockbuster films, Leslie will be inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame in 2019.
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There was never a dull moment in the Jones home. My dad had a great sense of humour. He made his name taking standard songs of the day and making them funny with sound effects and different voices. For most of my career, I thought watching my mother sing had more of an effect on my engineering and how I relate to vocalists. It wasn’t until the last 10 years I started to understand my father’s influence on me through how he orchestrated the music with all the sound effects written into the sequences like a radio show. In my early 20s, I had bought the PA for the band I was playing guitar in. Then the band broke up, so I started to mix sound for my friends’ bands. I already knew I couldn’t be the guitar player I wanted to be or admired. Lucky for me, I found sound. I ended up forming a PA company with a couple of friends called CoDog Productions. We combined our equipment, which was mostly Cerwin-Vega gear, and did sound for a lot of people. I didn’t get my first studio job until 1973. I was working for ABC Records at the time, and they had a studio. I actually wanted to be a producer and manager, and I thought I should learn something about engineering to be a better producer. ABC had a female mastering engineer, but I didn’t know of any other female recording engineers, certainly not in the nonclassical world. When Phil Kaye hired me, we talked about seeing how people in the studios reacted to having a woman in the room with them. Back then I didn’t think it was weird to have that conversation, I was happy he was honest about it. We both knew it was extremely unusual. About the only time I was actually kicked off a recording session was because the artist’s wife didn’t want any other women working on the record. I was grateful Phil took the chance to hire me. If he hadn’t, I don’t know that I’d be talking to you today. My job after that was in a studio in San Francisco called The Automatt. More than once I’d be sitting behind the console and the client would peek their head around the corner to ask where their engineer was. I’d say that I was. They’d look at me twice, but once we started getting drum sounds everything was fine. Now I just work and it’s not a big deal. There are still very few women doing what I’m doing, although there are a lot of younger women around now. I just did some workshops for an organisation called Women’s Audio Mission. Their primary focus is to teach girls and young women about engineering and record production. They had a two-day event in New York. Many of the women involved as producers were in their late 20s and early 30s, mixing, doing vocal production, all kinds of things. It’s getting better but it’s taken a really long time. Automatt was pretty state of the art for its time in terms of having automation on its console. It was the old CBS San Francisco studios. David Rubinson — who produced Herbie Hancock and the Pointer Sisters, among others — had one studio there. Then he took over the whole building and upgraded all the rooms.
I grew up in the analogue days, and there were methods of working, and housekeeping and preparation techniques common to all engineers I assisted. Those have stayed with me my whole career regardless of how technology has changed. At ABC, I spent a lot of time assisting Roy Halee, and he was a big influence on me. He was the Vice President of A&R and probably best known for being Simon & Garfunkel’s engineer and producer. He was very particular about how he set things up before he started working. It was like if you were a chef; you’d make sure all your knives were sharpened, you’d have all the utensils you need close by so you could go on creating the meal you wanted to create. David Rubinson and Fred Catero were also amazing. Fred worked with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and he and David did all of Herbie Hancock’s records. Herbie would just record for 25 minutes, and David would figure out how to construct a song out of it. Then we would edit it to make the tune work. That taught me a lot about paying attention to the parts of a song, how to build a song, and how to edit two-inch tape. The first score I ever worked on was Apocalypse Now, when I was at The Automatt. David was producing the music, and I was working with Don Preston, the keyboard player for The Mothers of Invention, creating all the sounds for the score. It was fascinating because there were no real instruments other than percussion, but the sounds were meant to have the flavour of real instruments. In those days there were no samples, so if there was a flute part, you had to create the sound by combining different sounds and filters. I have been at Skywalker Sound since 1997. I’d wanted to move back to the Bay Area. I’d been at Capitol since ’87 and decided I needed a change. There was a story in a magazine featuring Gloria Borders who was running Skywalker Sound at the time. They asked her what her next challenge was, and she said it was hiring someone to run the scoring stage so it could live up to its potential. It took a while to get used to what it sounds like moving the panels in the Skywalker scoring stage. You get to a point where you have an idea what something should sound like while you’re setting up. That way you can pre-set the room and adjust it as you need. Having a completely variable room sound is a great tool that allows us to go from recording a big band, to a string quartet, to an 85-piece orchestra. My dream is always to have the composer come in and say it’s just how they heard it in their heads. If I can do that, I’ve done my job. I’m honoured they thought enough of me and my work to add me to the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame. When you look at the list of past recipients, there are many people I’ve known and worked with throughout the years who are great musicians, engineers and producers… Roy Halee is on the list, and so is George. I’m still pretty stunned.
Ph: 03 8373 4817 www.linkaudio.com.au AT 47
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