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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. 30/05/2019.
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AUSTRALIA’S LEADING SUPPLIERS OF PROFESSIONAL AUDIO EQUIPMENT SINCE 1976 BEST PRICES • BEST SERVICE • BEST ADVICE • LARGEST STOCK • NATIONAL DELIVERY EDUCATION SPECIALISTS – TERTIARY, SECONDARY & STUDENT PRICING AVAILABLE ONLINE STORE www.turramusic.com.au
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COVER STORY
20
Post Malone’s Hit Man
ISSUE 58 CONTENTS
32
8th Day Sound Air Freights KSL into Aus Day Gig
New Macs & Terminally Killing Animations
40
Alan Meyerson & Hollywood’s Big Orchestral Hits
Arturia Pigments Software Synthesizer 42
Stage-ready Generic IEMs that Sizzle AT 8
48
26
RØDECaster Pro: Røde Defines Another Category 44
Moog Grandmother: Not Your Grandpa’s Axe
28 50
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GENERAL NEWS
PEAK PERFORMANCE Summit is Novation’s new flagship synthesiser for studio and stage. Built on the same innovative foundations as the critically acclaimed Peak, Summit’s deep sound design capabilities, 16-voice/two-part multitimbral engine and intuitive, tactile workflow add up to a synth that’s far more than the sum of its parts. Summit acts like two Peaks in one, enabling two completely independent patches to be split or layered across the keyboard, or switched between on the fly. Added to those engines are dual filters, extended front panel controls, audio input and the same premium-quality five-octave keyboard introduced in
the SL MkIII MIDI controller. Each patch features Novation’s New Oxford Oscillator running through a stereo analogue signal path comprising switchable dual 12dB/octave filters, analogue VCAs and three stages of distortion. Three effects with external audio in, heaps of mod and assignment options and auxiliary out also feature, making this one beast of a synth. Innovative Music: www.innovativemusic.com.au
HAVING A BLAST The long anticipated follow-up to the ROKIT G3s is finally here. KRK’S ROKIT G4s hold up the yellow mantle of the world’s bestselling studio monitors while undergoing a complete redesign and receiving much trickle-down tech from the big brother V-Series. The ROKIT G4s feature an on-board DSP-driven graphic EQ with 25 settings to suit them to any acoustic, with an LCD display to check out DSP settings. The monitors feature new drivers made with (KRK’s fave material) Kevlar, efficient Class D power amplifiers and a front-firing port, which collectively extend accurate and tight bass reproduction, and improve audio
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integrity while minimising listening fatigue.“If you compare the KRK G4 monitors with the G3s, you will instantly hear the difference between the two, especially on the low-end accuracy— it’s dimensional with a lot of detail. The high-end is more open and detailed as well.” The will be five-, seven- and eight-inch two way models, and a 10-inch three-way. Jands: www.jands.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
BELIEVE THE HYPE HypeMiC is Apogee’s next-generation do-it-all USB condenser microphone, with a built-in analogue compressor, providing everything from shapely warmth to circuit squash. The compression feature makes pro recording fast and easy, reducing the need for extensive processing and mixing after recording. HypeMiC also features the same great sound quality and headphone output features found in its predecessor, Apogee’s MiC+. Apogee claim HypeMiC gives you a “truly balanced and ‘mixed’ recording” straight off the bat, making it perfect for vocals without the need for heaps of post-production. Having
also been built for high SPL, HypeMiC can handle nigh on any other sound source, be it guitar, horns, strings, uprights bass, drums or piano. The compression circuit can be adapted to each situation and sound, beginning with Shape It, minimum compression for a musical sound, then Squeeze It, great for getting spoken word to pop, and finally Smash It, for that huge broadcast sound. Amber Technology: www.ambertech.com.au
RØDECASTER PRO KEEPS TRACKIN’ RØDE Microphones announces the next major firmware update to the RØDECaster Pro, its fully integrated podcast production studio. The version 1.2.0 update expands the RØDECaster Pro’s multitrack capabilities, enabling multitrack recording direct to microSD, and other useful upgrades, including: • Multitrack recording to the on-board microSD card: polyWAV file format, stereo live mix + individual sources • Updated companion app: offering more user-friendly file handling • The option to pause during a recording • Updated colour-coding on the record button: green – armed, red – recording, amber – paused.
The RØDECaster Pro will record 14 tracks to the on-board microSD card. These tracks are the same as if you were recording multitrack via USB to a DAW: • A stereo ‘live mix’ track • A mono track for each of the four microphone inputs • Stereo tracks for the USB, 3.5mm TRRS, Bluetooth and sound-effects-pad channels. The RØDECaster Pro also now offers the option to pause a recording at any time by pressing and holding the record button for two seconds. Tapping the button will resume the recording, while pressing and holding again will end the recording.
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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LIVE NEWS
POWER UP! Designed to set a new benchmark for full-bandwidth, highdefinition portable audio at a user-friendly price point, Martin Audio has announced BlacklineX Powered, bringing new active options to the BlacklineX family. Comprising the 12inch XP12 and 15-inch XP15 full range enclosures plus the compact yet powerful 18-inch XP118 subwoofer, BlacklineX Powered integrates acoustic, DSP and amplifier technologies to achieve the clarity, precision and richness of tone that audio professionals will recognise as uniquely Martin Audio. The new range offers optional Bluetooth control, streaming and a built-in
three-channel mixer, placing increased flexibility and features within easy reach of every user – from live venues, DJs and corporate events to permanent installs, particularly houses of worship. Users will also recognise the road-ready construction, quick set-up and adaptability of this range developed by one of pro audio’s founding brands. Shipping begins July. TAG: www.tag.com.au
SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF V’S In only four years, Bay Dreams has fast become one of New Zealand’s biggest summer festivals, attracting the likes of Peking Duk and Cardi B and drawing huge crowds. Event organisers this year bought in NZ Sound Reinforcement, a full-service production company bringing a stunning JBL Professional audio solution for the second stage with a combined audio output of 500,000 watts RMS. NZ Sound owners Ray and Brenda Ward are exceedingly happy. “We are blown away; Bay Dreams was pretty epic. The JBL VTX A12 and A8 systems have performed even beyond our expectations – they sound amazing.” says Brenda
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Ward. The system packed 24 VXT A2 line array loudspeakers and 18 of the all-new smaller format VTX G28 subwoofers, all featuring “new packaging, travel carts and world-leading rigging system, making transport and set up for more efficient” says JPRO’s Tim Robertson, who provided technical support and system design for most of the events. CMI: www.cmi.com.au
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
Introducing the
StudioLive 64S
STUDIOLIVE 64S.
76 mixing channels, 43 buses, 33 faders
Also introducing...
The StudioLive 64S offers twice the DSP of any other Series III mixer thanks to our new Quad-Core PreSonus FLEX DSP. You get an unprecedented 526 simultaneous effects, 128-channel (64x64) USB recording—more than any other mixer, 76 mixing channels, 43 buses, 33 touch-sensitive motorized faders, and 32 FlexMixes.
StudioLive 32S
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We’ve managed to squeeze every drop of large-format console power into a family of mixers that fit in the back seat of your car. Heck, one of them is even rack-mountable. When you choose a StudioLive Series III S, you’re guaranteed to get the best mixer for the task at hand. It might even be too good. Visit www.presonus.com for your introduction.
StudioLive 32SX
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STUDIOLIVE SERIES III S MIXERS ®
©2019 All Rights Reserved, PreSonus Audio Electronics. PreSonus is a registered trademark of PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
StudioLive 32SC
40 mixing chanels, 26 buses, 17 faders
Ph: 03 8373 4817 www.linkaudio.com.au AT 13
SOFTWARE NEWS
NI ROLLS OUT SUPER 8 Native Instruments are rolling in with SUPER 8, its first software polysynth since 2002’s Pro 53, and it brings vintage analogue polysynth sounds without the vintage interface. The VST comes stacked with more than 200 presets and intuitive UI that allows easy editing of sounds while always keeping users within the instrument’s sweet spot. Patches cover all analogue bases including rich strings, ethereal pads, deep basses, biting leads, electronic percussion, and unusual effects. All were inspired by iconic analog synths, but SUPER 8 has a character all its own.
Modern presets provide combinations of oscillators, filters, and modulation settings that wouldn’t have been possible on original hardware. The front panel offers easy access to LP, BP and HP filters, sync and FM on the dual oscillators which offer mixing of four waveforms each. Modulation is added in its dedicated section, and a mod matrix allow routing of almost any source to any destination. CMI: www.cmi.com.au
UBER OBER bx_oberhausen is Brainworx highly-anticipated first VI. It effectively revisits an acclaimed analogue synthesiser expander module much loved by generations of musicians for its soughtafter sound. The sound itself is reliant on fully-analogue, discrete circuits and a classic state-variable two-pole filter. First introduced in the ’70s, that trailblazing synthesiser subsequently proved popular — so much so that it was reissued in various form factors using the same circuits as the original. Thanks
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to Brainworx Audio ably boosting bx_oberhausen with full polyphony of up to 32 voices — a big step up from the original and most hardware synths. But better still, Brainworx Audio also includes its proprietary, patent-pending TMT (Tolerance Modeling Technology) that was first used on its pro audio plugins like the Solid State Logic-approved bx_console SSL4000E and bx_console SSL4000G channel strips, making this recreation all the more realistic.
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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Volca Drum DIGITAL PERCUSSION SYNTHESISER The NEW Volca Drum is a digital percussion synth with FX like bit reduction, wave folder and wave guide resonator, creating a wild and incredibly unique sound.
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FEATURE
From Fruity Loops to super hits. How Louis Bell went from nobody to writing and producing No. 1s for Post Malone, Beiber, Lorde and Cardi B in only three years. Story: Paul Tingen
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“Songs are like tornadoes,” mused Louis Bell. “They come out of nowhere and can cause some damage, but you don’t really know when they’re coming. Songs take everything around them, spin it together and turn that into a storm. It affects people, but when you’re in the eye of the storm — just creating — you don’t notice. Then after the dust settles you look at what you’ve created and go: ‘What did I just do? Was it something special, or was I just destroying stuff?’” In the last three years, songwriter and producer Bell, has been wreaking his own havoc. The ‘damage’ done includes eight tracks on Post Malone’s debut album Stoney — including the massive hit Congratulations — and all tracks on Malone’s mega-selling Beerbongs & Bentleys, which harboured super hits Rockstar, Psycho and Better Now. Add to this Bell’s involvement in big hits by Camile Cabello, Selena Gomez, Lorde, Halsey, Cardi B, 5 Seconds of Summer, Khalid, Jess Glynne, Rita Ora, and there hasn’t been a Top 10 forecast without his name attached. Despite having been in the business for two decades, Bell was a virtual unknown until 2016. By the time major success arrived, he was 34 and “over-qualified,” reckoned Bell. “I had built up my skillset for more than 10 years, by which stage I was very prepared and ready to wear a bunch of hats. It just takes one song to put your head above water. While it’s underwater, nobody knows you exist. Once it’s above water, everybody will see you bob up and go: ‘Hey, who is this guy? Let’s get him on board!’”
years I got my first keyboard, a Roland Fantom-X6, which meant I could play the ideas in my head with different sounds. I THEN STARTED CREATING BEATS
HEADS UP
have homed in on certain frequencies that can be troublesome at times, so I’m able to get the right sound and dynamics with every artist that uses the microphone. Post Malone and Swae Lee used that mic for Sunflower, Camile Cabello sang Havana on it. Every artist has their favourite mic, often for good reason, but if I can’t get the right sound from the Neumann or specific mic they want to use, I’ll ask them to at least try the Sony. I use the in-wall Genelec monitors in this studio, they’re my preferred monitors but are no longer made. I’m looking for some smaller monitors for the home setup which I am building at the moment. I want to have more advanced creativity going on at home. It’ll be a more relaxed setting than here in the studio where there’s always this urgency and worry about time and efficiency.”
The song that pulled Bell above the waterline was DJ Snake’s Let Me Love You, which features vocals by Justin Bieber and was a worldwide hit in late 2016. We caught up with him in the studio where he mostly works, Electric Feel in Los Angeles, to find out about the exact skills that allow him to whip up multiple storms in short order. Bell, a Boston native, started piano lessons when he was 13. His mother drew, played guitar, and was a computer teacher who filled the house with PCs. With those influences, it wasn’t long before her teenage son started making music in Fruity Loops. Bell’s adeptness for beat-making soon blossomed into his own studio in Boston where he worked with local artists, often in the hip-hop genre. “I grew up liking hip-hop, because it was status-quochallenging music,” recalled Bell. “They weren’t afraid of what anybody thought and I love that.” In 2013, an invitation from rapper Mike Stud to relocate to Los Angeles changed Bell’s trajectory. They made two albums together and Bell met a musician and producer called Andrew Wyatt. Wyatt, who became a friend, knew Bieber. Another LA friend knew DJ Snake, and both connections led to Bell co-writing Let Me Love You. “Learning to play piano was massively important,” commented Bell. “It gave me the muscle memory to understand chords and scales intuitively. When I hear something in my head, I can just sit down and play it and know all the possible chord progressions. After playing piano for six or seven
IN FRUITY LOOPS, WHICH I STILL USE TODAY BECAUSE IT’S VERY FLUID WHEN SWITCHING SOUNDS AND DOESN’T TAKE UP TOO MUCH CPU POWER, EVEN WITH TONS OF PLUG-INS LOADED. It allows me to have lots of options already
dialled in, so I can just start and be super-creative. “Everything is ready to go, it’s like plug ’n’ play. Everything blends well and sounds great, so I don’t have to keep going in to EQ things. It gives me the freedom to think about the melody, chords and the song, rather than whether the bass is clashing. I do all that later in Pro Tools. Creating is like wet cement; you have to keep it moving. If you wait too long, the cement starts to dry and the next thing you know you’ve hit a block that’s not shaped the way you want it.”
Michael Jackson’s Remember The Time also has just two chords, but they’re very complicated and inspire an interesting melody structure. If you’re using the same four chords over and over again, you may not be very inspired.
THAT GIVE YOUR EAR SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH.
Unfortunately, you can’t hire people to have your taste, so I have to do it all myself
JUST A PC & ONE $10,000 MIC
Not straying from his PC roots, Bell’s computer is an “ASUS PC, running Fruity Loops and Pro Tools, with a UAD Apollo Twin and Quad Core expander. That’s it. There’s an API board in the room with Apogee conversion and so on. Those pieces of gear are occasionally used by others, but I don’t really use any of that stuff. It’s pretty much me, my laptop, and a Native Instruments S61 Komplete Kontrol keyboard. I’ve always used minimal equipment and have had the Apollo Twin since 2014. Before that I had the MBox 3, the MBox, and as far back as 2003-06, a Pro Tools 002 rack. “MY VOCAL MIC IS A SONY C800, WHICH I LOVE. IT HAS A LOT OF HIGH END, BUT I CAN EQ THAT OUT IF I NEED TO. I
PREDICTABLE INNOVATION
According to Bell, he’s worked on probably 95% of those hit songs at the room at Electric Feel. “Many of my ideas start a cappella in my living room or bathroom or wherever,” he explains. “I’ll record a voice memo into my phone and email it to myself. When I get to the studio I’ll go through anything I remember being good and put chords to those melodies. If it’s magical, I’ll continue. Otherwise I move on the next idea. When I add chords, I like things to be subtly musical. I don’t want to shove it down people’s throat. THE FACT IS, YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH JUST FOUR CHORDS IN A SONG, SOMETIMES TWO. DRAKE’S GOD’S PLAN IS JUST TWO CHORDS WITH SOME EXTRA NOTES IN THEM, LIKE NINTHS,
“The initial melody and initial lyric are the most important. You can then make things more complicated, with passing chords and an interesting bass line. Sometimes you inject something different in the pre-chorus, so the hook will sound new again. Those things help you create something fresh. It’s rarer with rap music, because rappers are singing so much now. They rap in the verses and sing in the hooks, so you don’t need to differentiate between the sections as much with chord changes. “I go for what I call ‘predictable innovation’. There are percentages related to how often people expect a certain chord change to come next. Where the harmonies are, the overtones and so on, are all factored into where the brain takes us next. At the same time, within a new digital landscape, where anyone is able to make music and it’s become way more disposable, there’s some responsibility to inject something better. You need to challenge yourself, even if it is inspired by this or that artist. Find ways of taking the souls of your favourite songs and reincarnating them in new bodies.” FRUITY LOOPS, OR JUST OCD?
Bell labels himself as “super OCD when it comes to organising myself in Fruity Loops. I organise my sounds according to what song they remind me of, or according to year. I have drums sounds in folders from 2017, 2018, and so on, I put all my 808 sounds together in one folder, and I’ll have folders with thousands of wav files organised by piano, strings, harpsichord, brass, choir —you name it — with subfolders inside. I title and classify them in such a way that I can find them immediately. With his sounds organised, Bell starts working up short musical fragments into loops. “I’LL WORK ON PROBABLY 20 LOOPS A DAY, AND THE NEXT DAY I’LL DO ANOTHER 20. THEN A FEW DAYS LATER I GO BACK AND LISTEN TO ALL OF THEM WITH A FRESH PERSPECTIVE. Right
away, I know the ones I like and the ones that need more work. If I’m not immediately hearing where a loop wants to go, I quickly move onto the next loop. If you work on an uninspiring song for too long, you’re doing more harm than good. It can hurt your ego as a creator.
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“I don’t like using loops from sample packs, because I don’t know how many people are going to grab the same loop. Whatever I am creating, I want to feel like I’m the only one creating it. I like to create the most complicated loop possible in Fruity Loops. Once I know all the sounds work together, I can pull sounds out again afterwards. “I’ll always export to Pro Tools right after I’ve made the beat. I don’t take them any further in Fruity Loops. I also don’t use the Fruity Loops sequencer; everything is played or programmed by me in four or eight bar loops. The song lives in Pro Tools for the longest period of the process, it’s where I start dialling in EQs, sequence things and create the song structure.” DON’T JUST GIVE IT AWAY
While Bell whips these musical ideas into shape at great speed, he’s not hasty about releasing the gems. “If I don’t find the right song or artist for a special idea, I just let it sit there,” said Bell. “I’ve had ideas that sat around for three years before they were turned into a hit song. I don’t want to give my idea away to the wrong artist. I’m not about making songs, I’m about making the right songs. I want to make sure that everything I put my energy into and my name on is something I love in that moment. “WITH EVERY SONG I HAVE EVER MADE, I CAN REMEMBER EXACTLY WHERE I WAS, WHAT I FELT AND WHO I WAS WITH. THE SONG BECOMES A WORMHOLE IN TIME THAT ALLOWS YOU TO GO BACK TO THAT MOMENT AT ANYTIME.
If you do it right, you have created a personal little synapse network for yourself which allows you to revisit things, get nostalgic and tap into a certain emotion. It makes you a more formidable creator, and helps get an artist excited. They may come in a little indecisive or not feeling up to very much, but if you can play them songs or tell them something that triggers an emotion, all of a sudden they start playing or singing. Many artists are empaths. They can sense energy. If you have beats and emotions to tap into, you can jumpstart the artist. It’s not a matter of me telling them what to do.” Sometimes Bell doesn’t start from his pre-made song ideas, preferring to create a beat from scratch with the artist in the room. “I used to send my stuff to people, but now I see building songs like AT 20
building a house. You have to find someone who wants to live in that house. I like to have all the different materials lying around and ready to go — bricks, wood, straw, furniture, marble, whatever it may be — and when an artist comes in, I ask them, ‘What would you like your house to be?’ When I build houses with no one around, I spend a lot of time making things that may not be useful at all. Sometimes an artist knows right away that they don’t like the song’s chords. At that moment all the drums I’d put underneath mean nothing. “I now prefer to work with artists in the room. I start by playing them loops and look at their body language. I want to see whether they’re excited or
not. I’m waiting for a face that says, ‘oh-my-GodI’m-really-connecting-with-this!’ I can tell if an artist is just trying to please me, or whether they really believe in what we’re doing. Some artists may feel pressure to love my ideas, but I don’t want to push an artist into doing anything. If they’re really present, their energy is imprinted on what you do and they’ll feel like it’s their beat as well. “When I have them in the room with me I have a far better understanding of what the person really does and doesn’t like. I can change or add things in real time based on their reactions. It’s like I’m having to read someone at a poker table. To find out what hand they have, I need to see their body
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Do you keep gravitating towards the same sounds you had success with because they make you feel something, or do you try to move to the next thing?
language, hear the tone of their voice, and how they express themselves. “CREATING BEATS WITH THE ARTIST IN THE ROOM CAN HAPPEN IN DIFFERENT WAYS. USUALLY I’LL PUT TOGETHER A SOUND TEMPLATE IN FRUITY LOOPS, SPECIFIC TO AN ARTIST OR SONG IDEA. It means I have a collection of sounds
that I know fit together. I may have nine snares and ten claps that I can quickly cycle through, and one of them is usually right.” POST MALONE-WORK
Once the song is ready, Bell records the vocalist, then he’s back working on his own again. “I spend a lot of time listening to every single vocal take, comping, editing and tuning the vocals. I don’t know whether it’s my OCD side, but I feel that if I don’t listen to everything I’m going to miss something. Unfortunately, you can’t hire people to have your taste, so I have to do it all myself. I’ll send what I have done to the artist for approval, and most of the time the artist is pretty happy. “My go-to plug-ins for vocals are the UAD 1176, which really warms things up and makes them nice and loud, and the Waves CLA Vocals, for EQ. It’s a kind of one-stop shop that allows you to do many things easily. If you want more ‘bite’, it instantly allows you to manipulate the vocal in that way without really needing to know much. My favourite reverb is Waves’ RVerb, which gives you a classic sound. I do vocal tuning in Melodyne. After that AT 22
I have Antares AutoTune on, very lightly, just to make sure everything is locked in and tight. Even after applying Melodyne there may be a note that strays a little. I know that many people think Post Malone’s vocals have a lot of AutoTune, but it’s Melodyne. I THROW AUTOTUNE ON SPECIFIC LINES AS AN
kicks sound as if they have a bass underneath them. The Waves LoAir plug-in does the same thing. I also like to use UAD’s Raw for adding distortion, and then cut off some high end if it gets too noisy.
EFFECT, LIKE A FLANGER OR SLAP DELAY. IT’S NOT BECAUSE
IS REALLY GOOD FOR THAT. IT ALLOWS YOU TO SATURATE
HE CAN’T SING THE PART IN TUNE, IT’S BECAUSE IT SOUNDS
A CERTAIN FREQUENCY. You can literally dial in a frequency above the sub bass and bring that out. “Post and Swae’s track Sunflower starts with an actual bass, which is an ’80s synth sound that I ran through a bunch of stuff to give it a warbly, detuned vibe. It then has an 808 underneath to have that balance and give it a hip-hop vibe. I didn’t want the track to be a throwback to the ’80s, I wanted it to be modern. “I try not to think too much about what tracks remind me of because I fear it might take me out of the zone. Music is like a recurring dream sometimes. There are sounds that make you feel a certain way, and maybe you just keep playing it, or maybe you want to try to find a way of doing something new this time. Do you intentionally try to repeat the recurring dream, and keep gravitating towards the same sounds you had success with because they make you feel something, or do you try to move to the next thing?”
COOL. People also think that the shaking in his voice,
like in Rockstar, is AutoTune, but it’s how he sings. “Post doesn’t need AutoTune. I want his voice to sound tight and futuristic and still have his wideness. Most of all, I want his soul to shine through. I want the honesty and depth of his unique tone. His voice is so unique, you don’t want to dress that up too much. All I do is add the right reverb, because he likes a lot of reverb. He likes that wetness, because it makes his vocals feel anthemic and arena-esque. He loves ideas more when his vocals are wet, but sometimes I’ll dry them up a little before sending them to Manny [Marroquin] for the final mix, depending on what’s going on musically.” As Bell works on the borderline between pop and urban, bass is of supreme importance, and urban’s low end is dominated by 808 and kicks, often without any bass at all. “I like to use the UAD Brainworx bx_subharmonics on the bass, particularly 808s, and on kicks as well. It makes
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FEATURE
Veteran scoring engineer Alan Meyerson is known for making Hollywood sound even bigger than it is. We shadow his process on two epic films: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Thor: Ragnarok. Story & Photos: Ben Tolliday
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Rifling through Alan Meyerson’s catalogue of engineering and mixing work takes a while. His oeuvre is packed tight like extras in a wartime epic, but where one dot on the battlefield happens to be the calibre of a Julia Roberts or Johnny Depp. Films like Inception, Interstellar, Wonder Woman and Dunkirk are just some of his score credits, thanks to his longstanding relationship with Hans Zimmer and composers like James Newton Howard and Danny Elfman. He’s also mixed records for Bryan Ferry, New Order, and Etta James, which has afforded him a unique reputation in Hollywood as being the go-to guy if you want a tougher, more aggressive film score sound. When Meyerson kindly agreed to take me under his wing as part of a Churchill Fellowship, it didn’t take long to experience the sheer magnitude of a Meyerson job. He invited me to observe orchestral sessions for two big budget Hollywood film scores: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (composed by Henry Jackman) at the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage, Sony Studios in Los Angeles. Then Thor: Ragnarok (composed by Mark Mothersbaugh) at Abbey Road Studio 1 in London. Following these recording sessions, I shadowed Meyerson and assistant film score engineer Forest Christenson during mixing sessions at Remote Control Productions, Los Angeles. I was going to get the whole picture, all the way to the final act. AN ARRAY OF MIC OPTIONS
The score for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle featured a full symphony orchestra, choir, piano, celeste, harp and extensive percussion overdubs with very little use of samples or synths. For maximum flexibility, Meyerson and Jackman decided to record the strings, brass and woodwinds together, then overdub keyboards, harp, choir and the percussion separately. MEYERSON’S MAIN MIC ARRAY CONSISTED OF A DECCA TREE OF FLEA 50 OMNI MICS, FOUR MOJAVE MA-1000 MIDFIELD CARDIOID MICS, AND A PAIR OF SENNHEISER MKH800 OMNI OUTRIGGERS TO CAPTURE THE WIDE ENDS OF THE ENSEMBLE. He had a pair of MKH800 omnis as side mics, another pair of MKH800 hypercardioids behind the conductor as the surround mics, plus two more wide-spaced pairs of MKH800 omnis at the front and rear of the ensemble as the height mics. The front pair of height mics were mounted behind the conductor, approximately 20 feet high, and the rear pair were at the opposite end of the room, behind the percussion section. Above the woodwinds/choir, he placed three spaced Royer 122-V ribbon mics as LCR mid spots. Together, this main mic array captured the essence of the ensemble in the room, with closer detail captured by spot mics. Meyerson always recorded the main mic array — in addition to certain spot mics — for every recording pass. This kept each overdub sonically consistent, and meant he might capture anything from 22 mics for a harp overdub, right up to 69 mics per orchestra pass.
CLEAN & UNCOLOURED APPROACH
Before the musicians arrived on the morning of the first orchestra session, Meyerson had made educated guesses at the mic preamp levels, using his arsenal of Grace, Pueblo, Manley, Forssell and AEA preamps. As the players began their warmups, he quickly soloed each mic and finetuned preamp levels. Meyerson’s 30-plus years of experience was apparent in how fast he set an overall balance during the first take. All mics and outboard preamps on this session belonged to him, giving him an intimate understanding of their characteristics and parameters. He prefers preamps to be set up in the live room to avoid long cable runs between mic and preamp. MEYERSON’S RECORDING APPROACH IS SIMPLE: CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE MIC, THEN CAPTURE AS CLEANLY AS POSSIBLE THROUGH UNCOLOURED PREAMPS.
When tracking the orchestra, he used Bowers & Wilkins 802 D3 speakers as his LCR monitors, paired with the studio’s own surround monitors and subwoofer. Henry Jackman and his team spent three and a half months composing the score for Jumanji, which fuses influences from Copland and Scriabin, plus a mix of African and Asian percussion styles. Jackman prefers the control room perspective during tracking, where he can control the pace of the session. His energy was quite remarkable. He’d often jog around the control room during a take, somehow listening closely whilst simultaneously having a conversation with his music department. His feedback was concise, yet he was very detailoriented with phrasing, at times having the orchestra record numerous takes of a particular passage to achieve his desired outcome. MONITORING THE MIXING PROCESS
The mix sessions for Jumanji required a lot of preparation, but Meyerson and Christenson show great synchronicity. Meyerson began mixing just a few days after the final recording session, while Christenson edited and prepped the remaining music cues, racing to keep a few cues ahead. Meyerson’s 7.1 channel surround monitoring set-up includes ATC SCM100ASL Pro speakers (LCR), with left and right running via two Bowers & Wilkins active subwoofers with built-in
Seeing as engineers have access to the same plug-ins, Meyerson places a higher value on creativity to execute sonic ideas
crossovers, plus a pair of ATC HTS11 speakers (side channels), a pair of ATC SCM20PSL Pro speakers (surround channels), and a Kreisel DXD12012 Duo subwoofer. The mix rig comprises two Avid Pro Tools HDX systems connected via a Digital Audio Denmark MADI interface, clocking via an Antelope OCX-V, with the capacity to capture up to 128 channels in one pass. Meyerson’s control surface is the Avid S6. Outboard hardware includes six Bricasti M7 reverbs, three Manley Massive Passive EQs, an EAR 825Q EQ, and a Manley Vari-Mu compressor. Aside from this outboard gear, most of the mixing happens in Pro Tools. Meyerson owns just about every plug-in available, and he uses a wide range of them in his workflow. He began by listening to the orchestra mics, balancing and panning the main array, then removing unnecessary mics and filtering low end rumble. He moves fast to create momentum, adding plug-ins and twisting virtual knobs in a stream-of-consciousness fashion. I didn’t notice a formulaic approach — he would experiment with a variety of processing. For example, at times he used the Fab Filter Pro-Q 3 plug-in, yet other times he’d opt for the Massenburg MDW EQ to perform the exact same task. He’d alternate merely for the sake of tonal variation. Seeing as engineers have access to the same plugins, Meyerson places a higher value on creativity to execute sonic ideas. Meyerson regularly compared his mixes with the composer’s reference mix so as not to lose sight of AT 25
DELIVERABLES Jumanji’s largest cue had over 700 audio tracks due to multiple orchestra, choir, percussion, keyboard and harp parts! Seeing as it was to be presented in Dolby Atmos, Meyerson delivered two height stems to the dub stage, in addition to numerous 7.1, 5.1, quad and stereo stems. This gave the dubbing mixer options to assign the height stems to audio objects in the Atmos array, adding vertical dimension.
the composer’s intent and head out on a tangent. He’d also often check his work at a lowered volume, while cross-checking the reference mix. ADDING CHARACTER
Generally, Meyerson would use auxiliary sends to reverbs and delays, blending the effects returns on auxiliary tracks. Sometimes he inserted the effect directly on a track or an instrument group’s auxiliary bus, adjusting the wet-dry balance to taste. ON JUMANJI, HE INSERTED A D-SPATIAL REVERB PLUG-IN DIRECTLY ON THE AUX OF A SNARE DRUM OVERDUB, SPREADING IT AROUND THE SURROUND IMAGE AND PUSHING IT DEEPER INTO THE SOUND FIELD.
Saturation plug-ins appeared frequently in the mix, adding grit and analogue flavour, and helping to shape tonality. For example, he would insert a Plugin Alliance Black Box Analog Design HG-2, plus a Fab Filter MB compressor to control the resulting resonant frequencies created by the saturation. Occasionally he would insert a saturation plug-in after a reverb, to darken its tone and sheen. On a quiet cue, Meyerson employed a great technique to minimise low frequency rumble. Some engineers might use iZotope RX, and/or AT 26
insert a high-pass EQ for the full duration of the cue. INSTEAD, ALAN AUTOMATED A HIGH-PASS EQ FOR JUST THE EXPOSED START OF THE CUE, LEAVING THE FULL FREQUENCY RANGE OTHERWISE UNTOUCHED.
Meyerson and Christenson created a tree-like structure for his VCA groups, starting with an ‘ALL’ VCA group, controlling the overall level of all musical elements. Next they branch out to VCA sub-groups: all orchestra, all choir, all percussion and all else. Below these were another set of sub-groups: live orchestra, sample orchestra, live choir, sample choir etc. At the bottom were VCAs controlling effects returns: all reverb returns, then sub-groups of the individual reverbs and other effects. These VCAs are organised so Meyerson can select any VCA group, and easily access all of its spill tracks via the Avid S6 control surface. This workflow is key, especially given the high track count. He made all of his volume automation moves using VCAs, greatly enhancing the dramatic impact. REVISION DECISIONS
When Meyerson was ready to present his work to Jackman, a playback review was scheduled. During the review, Jackman was active on the console, doing subtle, yet very musical volume rides. To accommodate this, separate VCAs were created, so Meyerson’s automation wouldn’t be over-written. This workflow could easily have gone awry, but Jackman and Meyerson are masters of their craft, and they’re quick to call each other out if a volume ride sounds forced. Jackman’s mix revisions often called for subtle subtractive changes. For example, reducing a guitar level to serve the orchestra melody, or removing some 700Hz from the violin spot mics to create space for other parts. MEYERSON’S GOAL WHEN PREPARING FOR A PLAYBACK REVIEW IS TO MAKE EACH
CUE HIGHLY PRESENTABLE, WHILST LEAVING ROOM FOR THE COMPOSER’S REVISIONS. Meyerson has learnt not to
aim for perfection before the first playback review with a composer. Earlier in his career, he would get too emotionally invested in his mix balances. Taking it personally when revisions were inevitably requested by the composer. At the end of the session, after the mixes were approved by the composer, Christenson printed the 25 stems for the dub stage, and 29 stems for the composer’s soundtrack mix. This process requires great attention to detail. On large-scale scores like Jumanji, having an assistant who can carefully execute this volume of work is essential.
HAMMERING OUT THOR
Thor: Ragnarok’s film score was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, whose previous score credits include Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic. Mothersbaugh was previously the co-founder, singer and keyboard player for Devo. In Thor: Ragnarok, the protagonists travel between fictional planets Asgard and Sakaar, so orchestra and choir featured more prominently for the Asgard scenes, while electronic synthesiser elements were at the forefront for the Sakaar scenes. Mothersbaugh and Meyerson chose to record orchestra and choir at Abbey Road Studio 1, London. The orchestra comprised 89 players, recorded live in a single pass on all but one of the cues. ABBEY ROAD MIC COLLECTION
Abbey Road Studios has one of the world’s finest working collections of vintage microphones, maintained by microphone technician, Lester Smith. On set-up day, the jovial and eccentric
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Smith gave me a personal tour of his staggeringly impressive domain. There were 19 Coles 4038s, 18 Neumann U67s, 15 Neumann M50s, 13 Neumann U47s, and eight AKG C12… to name a few. Meyerson’s main microphone array for Thor: Ragnarok included: a Decca Tree of Neumann M50s, four Neumann U67 ‘midfield’ cardioid mics, two wide-spaced Neumann M50 outriggers, two Brüel & Kjær 4006 side mics, two Sennheiser MKH800 hypercardioid surround mics, two more pairs of Brüel & Kjær 4006 height mics, and three Royer R121s as woodwind/choir LCR overheads. For spot mics, Meyerson used: AKG C12s in cardioid (French horns), Neumann U47s and Sennheiser MKH800 Twin cardioids (double basses), Neumann U67 cardioids (celli), Coles 4038s (trumpets and trombones), a Neumann M49 (timpani), Schoeps CMC6 MK4s & MK21s (violins, percussion section and violas), Neumann KM84s (woodwinds), Neumann U87 cardioids (piano) and Brüel & Kjær 4011s (percussion). For preamps, he used Neve AIR Montserrat preamps on the main array mics, remote-controlled via the Neve 88RS console. For all other spot mics, he used the built-in Neve preamps on the console. THE MAGNIFICENT ACOUSTIC QUALITY OF ABBEY ROAD STUDIO 1 WAS ANOTHER X-FACTOR. IT WAS ORIGINALLY BUILT FOR SIR EDWARD ELGAR IN 1931, WITH A 40FT CEILING HEIGHT AND 92FT BY 52FT FLOOR PLAN.
POSITIVE RECORDING PROCESS
The full orchestra was recorded in one pass, with harp set up in a separate isolation booth. Given this approach, balance and arrangement decisions were AT 28
committed during recording. The level of musicianship from the orchestra was fantastic, with many of the players either current or past members of the London Symphony Orchestra or London Philharmonic. On day 2, I met associate principal violist Pete Lale, who has been a regular on London film score sessions for approximately 20 years. He mentioned how much the players appreciate some positive reinforcement from the control room first, before getting any constructive criticism. He said the musicians’ vibe sinks fast when all of the feedback is negative. Pete was very complimentary about the positive energy coming from the control room on these sessions. It was a great reminder that even the most experienced top-level session musicians are human. Respect, decency and positivity goes a long way towards getting the best out of the players. LONDON VOICES
The choir was made up of 32 singers (12 gents and 20 ladies) from London Voices — the UK’s premiere choir for film score sessions. London Voices comprises a pool of professional singers, so the ensemble for a session can be tailored to the specific needs of any given project. The main mic array captured most of the choir sound. THE ADDITION OF THREE LCR ROYER R121 MICS, SET ABOVE THE GENTS IN THE BACK ROW, GAVE MEYERSON FLEXIBILITY TO BOOST VOLUME AND PRESENCE OF THE TENORS AND BASSES IN THE MIX.
Meyerson used a vintage AKG C12 cardioid mic for the solo soprano, set approximately three
feet from the singer, with a Neve AIR Montserrat preamp, plus he captured the room sound with the main mic array. It was the only occasion I observed Meyerson using compression during recording — he ran the C12 through a Teletronix LA2A compressor. MIXING TWO WORLDS
Compared to Jumanji, the list of stem deliverables for Thor: Ragnarok was quite compact, due to the orchestra mostly recording live without overdubs. Also, Mothersbaugh didn’t request additional stems for a separate soundtrack mix. Because of that, Alan routed a folddown stereo mix through his analogue mastering chain — Manley Vari-Mu compressor and EAR 825Q EQ — printing stereo mixes for the soundtrack release, in addition to printing stems for the dub. His three Manley Massive Passive EQ units were inserted over the LCR and side channels of the main orchestra stem, for added warmth and sheen. On the electronic music cues, Meyerson used modern approaches to classic 1980s pop mixing tricks. If a synth part or drums needed more weight, he might try duplicating the track, pitching it down an octave and blending it with the original. Alternatively, he might add subharmonic synthesis via Waves R-Bass or Refuse Lowender plug-ins. When Mothersbaugh came in to review mixes, he was very happy with the results, and made just a few minor changes. With the first review completed, it meant Meyerson could confidently proceed onto the remaining cues with his mix aesthetic calibrated to Mothersbaugh’s taste.
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FEATURE
8th Day Sound fast tracked a 24-box d&b KSL rig for an Australia Day gig. We line up J with K for a fascinating comparison. Story: Christopher Holder Photos: Harry Holder AT 30
NO NOISE IS GOOD NOISE The rear ‘rejection’ of the PA is really quite extraordinary, a point not lost on Tristan Johnson: “It’s half of what I’m thinking about on a Forecourt gig: I’m thinking about what’s coming off the back as much as I’m thinking about what’s coming out the front — it’s that kind of outdoor gig because of the location and the neighbours.” The speed limit at the desk was 92dBA or 102dBC, on a five-minute LEQ. Tristan Johnson: “Australia has some heavy restrictions. Using the Sydney Opera House’s forecourt has always been delicate from a noise police perspective. The Opera House is intent on ensuring it can keep staging outdoor events into the future and do not want one single event to jeopardise the future of those events. It’s a really big deal for them and they take compliance extremely seriously. “For quoting purposes we use d&b’s NoiseCalc prediction software. Then I use another piece of software called ArrayCalc to take care of the PA predictions — what loudspeakers to use and where. The setup runs on d&b’s R1 software. On the day, I use a piece of software called Metrao — which gives me all the noise monitoring once the system is up and running. Those four pieces of software take me from the beginning of the process to the end. “From an Opera House perspective they engage [audio consultancy firm] Auditoria to put together a sound plan for an event, then The PA People do the official noise monitoring. They have metering in the Toaster [the nearby residential apartments], at front of house, on the northern shore of the harbour, and a mobile measurement. Finally, the Opera House has a sound management team that liaise between me and The PA people. So there’s four levels of noise management on an event like this. We all work well together with no infringements and fewer complaints over time. “KSL is another step in the right direction. “I’ve had feedback from The PA People, reporting that we were quieter behind the stage. One of their main reading points is the nearest residents straight behind the stage, so that’s a huge plus. My belief and my hope is that KSL will give us measurable improvements in the surrounding areas and so far it’s looking very much like it does.”
Air freight is a wonder of the 20th century. What for centuries took months on a boat could now magically materialise in days or hours. Its novelty has worn off somewhat. Order a $2 cable from eBay and it arrives a few days later from Hong Kong. Something that travelled 6000km was cheaper than driving to the mall. But how about the air freight of 24 loudspeaker cabinets, just in time for a gig? Surely, this is nontrivial enough to make you think twice. What’s more, this was no ordinary speaker box; and this was no ordinary gig. IT’S BENNELONG TIME
8th Day Sound was supplying the PA for the Australia Day Live concert in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. The forecourt, on the steps of the opera house is an amazing venue. There have been some unforgettable live sound moments. (Crowded House’s final concert was there, for example. The Bjork gig was something else as well.) But the Opera House isn’t the only resident of Bennelong Point; some of Australia’s priciest apartments are all less than 100m away. Ever since The Toaster (the nearby residential apartments) was constructed there’s been some tension: how to stage a gig without poking the hornet’s nest of the local burghers.
One suggestion would be to offer them all free VIP tickets. Another is to turn down the volume of the PA. Now, there’s a third way, employing d&b’s newest PA: KSL. NOT LACKING DIRECTION
KSL’s headline feature is remarkable directivity right down towards 50Hz. The spill from the rear and side is eerily negligible; meaning, you can put more sound where the people are and way less sound where the easily irked residents are. You can begin to understand why 8th Day Sound was quick to pull the trigger on getting a 24-box system parachuted into its Caringbah offices only days before the concert. “Last time I checked, 8th Day Sound has the biggest d&b inventory in the world and we were one of the first to receive KSL. These particular boxes have come from our US office. We were doing our best to get the system here for Australia Day Live for a few reasons: to better deal with the environmental noise concerns, plus we knew the Sydney Opera House would be keen to hear KSL in action.” 8th Day Sound’s head of sound, Tristan Johnson, is of course referring to the Sydney Opera House’s love affair with d&b. The Concert Hall is packed with J Series. The Opera Theatre is now refit
FOH Engineer Ian Cooper. The all important SPL figures never far from his field of view.
with a d&b Soundscape immersive system. And apparently the Opera House sound department has regularly been checking in on the status of KSL — ‘when’s it landing?!’ The arrival of KSL was so touch ’n’ go it wasn’t even on the initial 8th Day quote. But when it materialised, and occupied the main left/right hang of the Australia Day Live rig, no one was complaining, least of all FOH engineer Ian Cooper. MIXING AT THE STEPS
Ian Cooper has plenty of Forecourt shows under his belt. He’s worked with OB maestro John Simpson on a many occasions, teaming up on events that require a TV broadcast mix, such as Australia Day Live which went live to air on the ABC. The event is a variety-show-format, family concert with a bunch of talent show winners singing faves from the Oz rock songbook. Sounds reasonably straightforward, but when you add a 33-piece Sydney Symphony Orchestra ensemble, you realise you need a safe pair of audio hands. “It’s all about hearing the detail. That’s the aim for this gig,” commented Cooper. “But when you have dozens of open mics on stage there are some constraints. We have all the strings close-miked on DPAs, while there’s a good complement of Neumann and AKG condenser mics on reeds and AT 31
RIEDEL COMMS: LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE Big Picture had the no small task of running all the outside broadcast elements, as well as event network and communications backbone of Australia Day Live. Big Picture is a part of the NEP Worldwide Network and has a warehouse full of Riedel inventory which they supplemented with Riedel Australia’s rental stocks for the event. Seven Riedel Artist frames were located at key operational areas across the Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay precinct to handle all communications, and 25 Riedel MediorNet MicroN nodes were utilised for all video and audio transport between broadcast and event sites. All this was
winds. You can’t just push the level up if you want to keep the balance but that’s definitely where KSL helped us compared to last year — what didn’t come out of the back and sides of the KSL PA was quite helpful when you’ve got that many open mics on stage.” Tristan Johnson also instantly noticed the lack of on-stage spill: “Behind the KSL it’s almost silent. It’s so quiet that the monitor guys had to beef up the side fills a little bit and add a little bit more on the stage to compensate for what you would normally expect to spill onto stage from the PA.” Ian Cooper had a few more reflections regarding the KSL sound and what he was doing differently this year: “There were a few factors in play such as this year we had the KSM9 heads on Shure Axient handhelds, which is definitely a departure from KSM9 on the UHFR. There’s a lot of top end AT 32
connected with over 7km of OpticalCon Quad Fiber, and over 7.5km of 16 Core Fiber that was run between Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay, Hickson Road, the Harbour Bridge and beyond. The Artist frames were connected in a redundant fibre ring across the site and integrated with over 51 radio channels, 68 Artist Panels, 24 Bolero Beltpacks and a large array of Analogue and MADI 4-wires. “Reliable, high-quality comms are now way more than a matter of communications and convenience on an event like this, especially when the system is covering full event control in addition to the broadcast requirements,” noted Big Picture’s Special Projects
available on the KSM9 head, and it just doesn’t seem to be as nice coming out of UHFR as it does out of Axient. It did make me more aware of the KSL’s top end, which seems to be quite smooth. Other PAs can be terribly strident in that regard. Normally I’m winding a lot of top end out just to keep from sounding sibilant or unnatural. But this time around I was actually dialling in all the high end because it was sounding so good.” COMPARING J TO K
With years of being around d&b’s J Series, Tristan Johnson knew that KSL was something special very early on. “I had J Series on the side hangs of the Australia Day Live concert — which I’m a big fan of and used for a long time — and KSL as the two main hangs. When I walked out there, I listened to the main
and Business Development Manager, Josh Moffat. “It was impractical for some staff to wear five or six two-way radios so the Bolero system implemented across the job was the ideal solution,” added Josh. “It was seamless, and the audio quality was very good despite being in such an RF congested environment, in fact you really couldn’t fault its performance and integration into the larger Artist system and the audio quality is indistinguishable between a Bolero pack or wired panel, We couldn’t imagine facilitating an event as complex and demanding as Australia Day Live without using Riedel Intercom and Mediornet as the backbone, it is reliable, proven and just works.”
hang, then walked around to listen to the side hang and I was like, ‘Wow’. “What am I hearing? For starters, I’m hearing the classic sound of d&b — the German’s take on what a good box should sound like. But that was a given. On top of that the KSL’s throw is further and smoother. It’s a lot more controlled in the mid range and the low/mid range, and there’s power there. “I’ve been working with d&b loudspeakers since 1997 and power has always been a feature of d&b. KSL has power. It’s got headroom. I used to have to push the J a little bit harder. KSL, I’m not having to drive so hard. “The box has a slight tonal difference to the J, but it has a very true tonal signature to what I expect from d&b.” Tristan was tasked with tuning the PA and had his antennae up:
AT 33
The gig was a good chance to hear the combination of Shure Axient wireless and KSM9 capsules through the d&b KSL PA. FOH Engineer Ian Cooper, liked what he heard, especially in the HF.
“It sounds nice straightaway and the transition between the mids and the highs seems smoother now with that extra power in the mids. As soon as you put the vocal in the PA it seems to jump out at you straight away. Very cleanly and truly.” WORKING WITH ARRAYPROCESSING
I asked Tristan to elaborate further on the KSL tone and how KSL gels with the software tools d&b has been developing over recent years. “It’s our job to create a tonally-even audience area, front to back. While we accept there’s a level drop off over distance, we want to sound tonally the same at the back as we do at the front. ArrayProcessing is something d&b developed for the new SL range [although it also works with J Series, for example], so after we’ve set up the PA and tuned the PA we can run the ArrayProcessing. AT 34
As soon as I put that in, the linearity over distance is increased… the PA is optimised. “It’s an interesting experience. It’s my job to spec the correct PA for a job. I do that in Array Calc. It’s satisfying when you rig that PA and you know the predictions were right. Now with ArrayProcessing it takes that predictability up another notch. I can hang a huge J Series festival rig and with ArrayProcessing I can present the PA to the FOH sound engineers with flat EQ — literally no system EQ. It’s like I’m giving them a blank canvas to paint on. That’s ideal.” IN YOUR SIGHTS
Another SL Series Easter egg that came to Tristan Johnson’s attention was a feature called ArraySight. Mounted directly on the GSL and KSL Flying frame, the d&b ArraySight laser inclinometer contains
temperature and humidity sensors. This information is relayed to the R1 Remote control software via OCA/AES70 or the handheld meter unit. Tristan Johnson: “Now I’m able to look at the humidity above the crowd as well as at crowd level and see the difference, because the ArrayProcessing I use is based on humidity and temperature. I now have that comparison. “I’ve always known that what’s going on six metres above my head is totally different but it was impossible to quantify. I’ve never really thought about the solution, so it’s a cool step; it’s a very cool step.”
AT 35
REGULARS
PC Audio Fitted studio acoustic treatment, yet your mixes still don’t fly? Sonarworks to the rescue! Column: Martin Walker
I recently ended up spending some time investigating the playback chain of my little studio, after missing a couple of anomalies on a recent mix. The first was a section of string bass that proved to be noticeably louder than during the rest of the song, and which was plainly audible through my hi-fi system, yet I hadn’t noticed it in my studio. The second was at the other end of the spectrum; I’d been experimenting on the mix bus with an EQ plug-in renowned for adding ‘air’ to a mix while still sounding effortless, yet could hear little difference after adding a conservative +2dB at 10kHz. However, on my other playback system the top-end improvement was as clear as day. I obviously had some issues to explore, and wondered if there were any PC-based utilities that could help. A NEW REFERENCE
I often mix on headphones, with only occasional cross checks on my small ATC loudspeakers to check the low end balance and spatial issues in the real world, so the easiest thing to check first was headphone playback. Although it can be easy to get lost in the details, many engineers now mix under headphones — largely because so many end listeners do the same, whether on ear buds or higher-end open-back headphones. While initially skeptical, I’ve now been using Sonarworks’ (sonarworks.com) Reference 3 headphone calibration plug-in for several years, as it’s a great way of correcting any anomalies in their frequency response. I’ve got Sennheiser HD650 phones (renowned for their flat response compared with many other makes/models), which Sonarworks managed to tweak to a finer degree. My AKG K712 Pros have a somewhat harsh response to my ears, which after correction through Reference 3 sounded remarkably similar to the 650s, albeit with a more powerful and deeper bottom end. I could hear my mix anomalies under headphones, which proved that it was the loudspeaker chain at fault, but took advantage of this playback checking opportunity to upgrade to Sonarworks’ Reference 4, and I was surprised at just how many new features it contained compared to my previous version. Older PCs are now supported using a new 32-bit ASIO plug-in to supplement the original 64-bit plug-in, while loads more headphone makes and models have now been ‘profiled’ (a massive 227 at the current count). An extremely useful Systemwide app now lets you add Reference AT 36
correction to non-ASIO playback systems, so I could finally listen to CDs and YouTube videos with similar correction to my DAW. A new Zero Latency filter mode proved very useful during tracking, but I stuck with Linear Phase filtering for mixing and mastering (still the best-sounding option, at the expense of around 40ms of latency). SPEAKERS CORNER
Having got these improvements between my ears, I demoed Sonarworks’ Reference 4 Studio Edition Plug-in, which effectively performs the same function for loudspeakers as its headphone counterpart — following a calibration process using the associated Reference 4 Measure utility and a suitable omnidirectional microphone. I already had an old Radio Shack SPL Level Meter that I’d modded to extend its response down to around 20Hz, so I used that to start with. I would rarely recommend using any form of EQ to ‘flatten’ the response of a room without first installing some acoustic treatment, because otherwise you’re just EQ’ing the direct sound while still hearing unbalanced reflective sound bouncing off all the walls. In my case, I’d already installed some reasonable acoustic treatment (10 bass traps of various descriptions plus a large ceiling cloud, and had also done plenty of Room EQ Wizard (www.roomeqwizard.com) plots to minimise the peaks, dips and decays in my waterfall plots. The Reference 4 Measure process proved simple to run through, and far easier to understand than other room correction utilities I’ve used in the past. It builds up its accuracy from a total of 37 measurement points around your listening position, all with on-screen visual feedback of where to move your microphone next. At the end of this sequence, Measure presents you with a frequency response plot of your loudspeakers in situ, and then generates a corresponding filter profile to flatten everything out. The frequencies of my overloud string bass notes corresponded with a couple of measured dips at 100Hz and 300Hz, and with the correction curve in place the required loudspeaker mixing tweaks now became obvious. Measure also noticeably improved my stereo imaging, which had previously been a little lop-sided due to a large window on one side of my studio, leading to various differences in left and right channel playback response between 100Hz and 1kHz. Frankly, I was shocked at the measurements, since they also largely explained
why I’d missed the 10kHz air EQ in my mix – with a 6dB peak centred around 1kHz it’s hardly surprising that high-end subtlety was being masked. CALIBRATED MIC
After some on-line investigation of just how hugely budget measurement mics can vary in response from unit to unit (there’s a sobering set of results at www.cross-spectrum.com/weblog/2009/07/), I subsequently ordered one of Sonarworks’ own XREF20 microphones, which are individually calibrated against an ANSI-certified measurement microphone so their unique response is known and more accurately compensated for. Although the Tandy and XREF20 frequency responses proved to be similar up to around 1kHz (which is why my Tandy SPL meter had already improved my low end anomalies), above this they diverged significantly. I had already suspected that the Tandy response might be falling rapidly above 10kHz, so had already limited the Sonarworks correction curve to ignore this anomaly. Nevertheless, I was surprised that the Tandy mic response had such a large low-Q bell curve between 2-8kHz, peaking at around +4dB at 5kHz. Thank goodness I hadn’t attempted to compensate for this! The correction curve of the accurately calibrated Sonarworks XREF20 mic proved that my little studio was already reassuringly flat above 2kHz, requiring just +2dB shelving lift from 8kHz up, which restored the ‘air’ I’d previously been missing in my mixes. My top end now sounds beautifully silky and flat, while the lows are now extended to -3dB @ 37Hz (pretty good for my tiny ATC SCM10 loudspeakers). I could switch to a flat response down to -3dB @ 27Hz by changing to the Sonarworks Aggressive low end response, but that would require up to a 9dB boost at 20Hz, and I really don’t think the extra 10dB of low end would benefit my music, or the longevity of my monitor speakers. However, the most remarkable improvement is that my stereo imaging is for the first time razor sharp. Acoustic treatment should always be your first port of call, but with the basics in place I can heartily recommend the Sonarworks Reference 4 Measure software, although switching to the XREF20 mic gave me improvements in high end smoothness and stereo imaging that were nothing short of remarkable. I am now able to hear further into my mixes and feel significantly more confident in my future mix decisions. That’s a result!
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REGULARS
Apple Notes New Macs & Terminally Killing Animations Column: Brad Watts
Where’s the new Mac Pro? The fabled successor to the Trash-can released in late 2013 is still yet to materialise. That’s five entire years — then some. It’s incredible behaviour from Apple, a company which prides itself on its penchant for innovation. Being 2019, the year Apple promised a new Mac Pro after initially announcing and reneging on a 2018 release date, there’s now some credible rumours coming to light as Apple reaches closer to releasing a professional spec workstation. Revered Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, has recently prophesied Apple is about to release either a 16-inch or 16.5-inch display MacBook Pro, a 31.6-inch 6K display, and of course, a new Mac Pro. One would imagine the 31.6-inch 6K monitor will be arriving to run alongside the Mac Pro. Mr MingChi Kuo has also hinted, as has Apple, that the direction for the new Mac Pro will be both modular and upgradable. What that means specifically is difficult to define, but any upgradability would be better than the Trashcan design, which pretty much couldn’t be upgraded without tethering Thunderbolt devices to it ad nauseam. Modular? What’s the deal there? Easily upgradable GPUs? Upgradeable CPUs? Some say the new Mac Pro will be a similar form factor to the Mac Mini, with a primary CPU unit, with optional, similarlysized modules offering additional GPU, RAM expansion, SSD, PCIe and SATA storage housings etc... all daisy-chained via a proprietary connector and a stupidly quick interconnect. Thunderbolt 4 is the likely contender, which, by the way, will be backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and will use the same USB C-style connector. No doubt, the machine will incorporate the T2 chip found in the iMac Pro, which, incidentally, seems to be causing headaches for some using USB and Thunderbolt audio interfaces. Clicks and pops in audio are the unsavoury symptoms. Apparently, this is occurring with all 2018-released Macs, with the only real fix being to shell out for a Thunderbolt or USB3.0 audio interface – USB2.0 interfaces don’t like the 2018 Macs at all. So until we see the new Mac Pro, and its credit card slaying price-tag, the good old custom Mac AT 38
Pro team is successfully upgrading late model Mac Pro ‘cheese-grater’ towers to startling extents. A recent kerfuffle was prompted by a customised Mac Pro user having successfully managed to get Thunderbolt working on a 2009 Mac Pro. Previously thought to be impossible, the Gigabyte GC-Titan Ridge PCIe card will bring your 10-yearold Mac Pro up to spec with Thunderbolt 3. There’s a few caveats of course: you need to use Windows 10 to initialise the Gigabyte GC-Titan Ridge card, so you’ll have to install windows on a partition, then use Bootcamp 5.1.5621 to restart into your macOS. But once you’ve jumped through these hoops you’ll have Thunderbolt 3 connectivity – all with a card available for around $170. You really have to give the old Mac Pro cheese-grater units a stack of credit.
simply copy the command then paste it into Terminal, an app you’ll find in your Utilities folder. Some commands will ask for your account password, others won’t. Then if you don’t like the change there are Terminal commands to reinstate the default settings. Give it a go. You’ll be surprised how snappy your machine becomes, and just how much of the OS is bogged down with pointless feelgood animations.
HANGRY ANIMATIONS
New Macs aside, here’s a little tip for speeding up old Macs. I came across this recently when attempting to get MacOS Mojave running on my ancient unsupported MacBook Pro. While I did get it up and running it became pretty obvious Mojave uses a stack of graphics resources. Slow and glitchy doesn’t cut it. It was at this point that I started looking for a way to turn off some of the GPUhungry animations in MacOS. It didn’t take long to stumble across the website, defaults-write.com. At defaults-write.com you’ll find dozens of terminal commands for all sorts of augmentation in MacOS. Some are specific to particular versions of OS X and MacOS while others can be used on most versions. Of most use with my Mac Book Pro were terminal commands killing pointless animations, such as the Dock animation delay, and animations used when opening and closing windows, and commands making all animations faster when using Mission Control. You can even accelerate the animation speed for playback when adjusting window size in Cocoa-based applications. If you’re a Safari user you can disable delays when loading web pages, which does speed up the application, or you could use Google Chrome. What I’d like to know is why Safari is so slow in the first place. Instigating these changes is dead simple, you
You’ll be surprised how snappy your machine becomes, and just how much of the OS is bogged down with pointless feel-good animations
64-CHANNEL HDX & 32-CHANNEL USB 3.0 AUDIO INTERFACE
ORION 32HD GEN 3
INDUSTRY-LEADING AD/DA LOW LATENCY OVER HDX FLAWLESS CLOCKING EXTENSIVE CONNECTIVITY REAL-TIME EFFECTS
antelopeaudio.com AT 39
REVIEW
ARTURIA PIGMENTS Software Synthesizer If you’re lacking a particular colour in your sound, chances are Pigments has it.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Preshan John
Pigments is a surprising first for Arturia. The company ostensibly built a reputation on its realistic software recreations of vintage synthesisers, and it’s carved out a name for itself in the hardware synth realm with the Brute collection. So why has it taken this long to develop a software synth of its own creation? Perhaps because it already has a wealth of ‘flavours’ covered in its V Collection series, Pigments is less about mastering a particular style of synthesis and more about giving the modern creative a ridiculous range of options. Having spent a little while with Pigments, it certainly takes the cake as Arturia’s most impressive all-in-one synth instrument. You’d be forgiven if you felt a little overwhelmed the first time you laid eyes on Pigments. It’s a busy GUI with all manner of waves, colours and shapes poking through. So,
let’s break it down in a orderly fashion. At the very top of the instrument are the global controls, as per Arturia’s V Collection instruments. Here, you can enter a preset and performance view with minimal visual distractions, or use the drop-down menus to the right to select presets by type or alphabetical order. Further along are the global views — Synth, FX and Seq — to access the different layers of Pigments. There’s a handy Master level knob perched top right, just before the MIDI controller configuration view.
PRICE US$199
CONS None
CONTACT CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
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PROS Extraordinarily deep editing Lots of synth for the money
START YOUR ENGINES
Pigments’ sound is generated by two Engines which sit top left of the instrument. Both of these are switchable between Analog and Wavetable modes. Setting an engine to Analog reveals three oscillators with four
wave types each, plus a noise generator. The Wavetable option contains tons of available wavetables categorised into Natural, Processed, Synthesizers, etc. Losing yourself in the Wavetable menus doesn’t take much effort. There are all kinds of textures to be found, organised neatly enough for quick discovery and with a large central window to display the shape. Once your wavetable is selected, the Engine tab provides a number of ways to manipulate it further: Tune (Fine or Coarse), Frequency Modulate (Linear or Exponential), Phase Modulate (Key, Mod Osc, Self or Random), Phase Distort, Wave Fold and more. The Unison section has both Chord and Classic modes, letting you add up to eight voices. With stereo and detune controls, it’s a great way to thicken things up.
SUMMARY Pigments is a hybrid wavetable and analogue synthesis gone wild. Like a workshop with more tools than you’ll ever need, this instrument is paradise for those who love geeking out in the process of crafting unique sounds.
FILTERS
Moving east of the Engines, we arrive at Pigments’ two Filter sections. With a plethora of options, some of these filters model hardware synth variants like the Oberheim SEM and Minimoog. By default, most of the patches assign the Mod Wheel of your MIDI controller to the filter cutoff. Heading south now, the most striking visual feature of Pigments is its long, colourful strip of 23 labeled blocks that runs right through its centre. These exist to give you an at-a-glance read on everything that’s going on in your synth sound. The first block is Velocity and the little purple line jumps up and down in real-time depending on how hard you hit a note. The graphs in the LFO blocks oscillate constantly to the wave they’re set to. The final four blocks display the level of each Macro. When you click on the block’s label it turns the strip into a window where you can assign a parameter to that particular function. For example, if I click on Env 2 I can then click and drag the contour ring around virtually any knob in the instrument (it’ll light up the same colour as the modulator you’re assigning it to) to set the range to which the Envelope 2 shape will affect that parameter; let’s say the Wavetable Position knob. MODULATION GALORE
Say you’ve got the Wavetable Position knob tied to Env 3, and now you want to change Env 3’s shape. The tabs just below the strip of blocks let you do just that. Colour-coded according to the blocks, click on one of these tabs to deeply configure any of those modulators, be it any of the Envelopes, LFOs, Functions or Random oscillators. The potential for modulation is truly endless, with three envelope generators, three LFOs, and three ‘functions’; all of which can be deeply customised and assigned to virtually any control. There are even three constantly chugging Random modulators (Turing, Sample & Hold, and Binary) waiting to add some instability to a parameter of your choosing. Four macros give quick control and the graphical displays of all these modulators let you keep an eye on what’s happening to your sounds.
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FX & ARPEGGIATION
In appropriately OTT fashion, the FX section of Pigments has two discrete effects buses (A and B), both of which can run up to three effects in any sequence, with 14 effect options in each. By ‘effect’, that includes things like a parametric EQ, compressor, stereo panner and multi filter. Of course among the 14 options are all the usual suspects like reverb, delay, flanger, phaser, overdrive, bit-crusher and more. They all sound great and provide a comprehensive and configurable toolbox to enhance a tone. The final feather in Pigments’ hat is the arpeggiator and 16-step sequencer, accessed via the Seq button at the top. There’s plenty of flexibility here. FLYING COLOURS
The Pigments experience is utterly immersive and engaging simply because there’s a massive amount of control at your disposal. The presets list is an effective way of quickly ‘getting to work’ with this instrument, rather than building your ideal sound from the ground up each time. Because of its sonic breadth, it’s impossible to single out a type of sound this instrument excels at, besides the fact that its wavetable roots dictate a part of its sonic imprint. Notwithstanding, it’ll effortlessly generate anything from fat EDM basses to atmospheric pads to sweet arpeggiating plucks to completely weird and chaotic leads. After spending hours trawling through its tones and taking a step back from it all, I’m convinced Pigments has a freshness about it. There’s many soft synths on the market today and it’s not too often that one is strikingly distinct from the pack. By combining Arturia’s own characterful wavetables with classic analogue subtractive synthesis, you can create unique and extremely usable sounds that all have a vaguely dirty and unrefined edge, in the best possible sense of those words. The result, is an incredibly powerful tool with sounds that’ll make a statement, whether that’s producing an album or scoring a film.
Proudly distributed in Australia by Dynamic Music
dynamicmusic.com.au
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REVIEW
RØDE RODECASTER PRO Podcast Production Studio Røde just upped the game for podcasters, without making it harder.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Preshan John
PRICE Expect to pay $849 CONTACT Røde: (02) 9648 5855 or info@rode.com
AT 42
PROS Perfect product for podcasters Very easy to setup & use Great sound quality
CONS Sound processing controls intentionally limited
SUMMARY Like the VideoMic before it, the RodeCaster Pro gives podcasters exactly what they need, before they even knew it. Taking the essence of a broadcast console, but making it decidedly easy to use and podcast focussed, it’s the perfect solution if you’re telling a story with audio.
There’s no denying that podcasting has now turned into an enormous industry. Stats from mid-2018 confirm there were over 550,000 podcasts available online with over 28 million episodes on virtually any topic imaginable, with the numbers climbing daily. To endorse those stats, Spotify recently purchased a four-year-old podcast publisher, Gimlet Media, for the impressive sum of $230m. While top end podcast production can make for scintillating audio, the podcasting world is still largely untouched by the pro audio industry — it’d seem listeners will forgive poor sound quality if the content is unique and relevant — but that’s changing. With great foresight, Røde Microphones has jumped in with easy-to-use audio tools. Like its move into the video world, this has already proved very lucrative. RØDE’S GOT IT IN THE BAG
Røde isn’t new to podcasting, it has a USB mic called The Podcaster. It’s also been steadily releasing broadcast-style microphones. However, its latest product — the RodeCaster Pro — is much grander. It ties all those products together and shows that Røde takes podcasting deathly seriously. Taking the appearance of a small digital mixer, RodeCaster Pro is an all-inone podcast production studio designed to give podcasters a professional sound with minimal audio fuss. Bearing in mind that a lot of these content creators don’t possess huge amounts of audio knowledge, Røde has ensured the RodeCaster Pro is extremely simple to use. Røde sent us a comprehensive podcasting kit which not only included a RodeCaster Pro but also two Procaster dynamic mics, DS1 desk stands, XLR cables and even a microSD card, all snugly packed into a custom backpack. While you can buy all
these products separately, we couldn’t find this custom configuration on Røde’s site. Hopefully, it’s a package Røde considers releasing in time. The RodeCaster Pro unit is fairly light and kicks back at a good angle for desk use. All inputs and outputs are along the back, except for the secondary 3.5mm TRS master Headphone 1 output on the front edge. Next to the four XLR microphone inputs is a 3.5mm TRRS aux input to accept audio from a smartphone, iPod, etc. The four stereo 6.5mm headphone outputs each have a level control on the top righthand corner, as does the main left/right balanced TRS monitor outputs. The microSD slot sits next to this and a readout in the corner of the touchscreen will tell you how much storage remains on the card in hours/minutes. A USB-C connector lets you turn RodeCaster Pro into an audio interface for use with a computer and DAW. SIMPLE, YET EFFECTIVE
The Class A microphone preamps offer 100dBA dynamic range and 55dB of fairly clean gain, and the audio resolution is 24-bit/48k. The Aphex processing on board consists of both Aural Exciter and Big Bottom processing, both of which are well suited to spoken word channels. Each fader is tied to an audio source — the first four being the XLR mic inputs, then USB input, 3.5mm aux input, and Bluetooth input. The right-most fader controls the level of audio triggered by the eight sound effect pads. Sounds can be loaded to individual pads using a PC and accompanying drag ’n’ drop software, or by recording a sound straight in. A total of 512MB of internal storage is assigned to the pads. Using the companion app, you have a choice of three options for how the pads fire — Play (one-shot style, AT 43
PROCASTER IMPRESSIONS Røde’s Procaster is an end-address cardioid dynamic microphone with an RE20-esque aesthetic that’d make anyone in front of it feel like a radio presenter. Commendably, we didn’t really need an external pop shield as the built-in mesh did the trick rather well. The relatively tight cardioid pattern gives Procaster quite an exaggerated proximity effect that sounds good if a presenter maintains a consistent distance.
stoppable if you press and hold for two seconds), Replay (restarts the sample every time you hit the button), or Latch (starts/stops the sample with every consecutive button press). There is a backlit Mute and Solo button beneath every fader and these affect the recording feed. A large Record button sits next to the screen and lights up solid red when you’re recording. Headphone outputs have loads of oomph, enough to run even high impedance open-backs. In the menu are options to Boost Headphone Volume or Limit Maximum Volume. Brightness can be adjusted independently for the screen and backlit buttons. All the knobs and buttons feel sturdy, however, the fader movement did feel a little scratchy. Hardly a deal breaker, though. EASY PEASY
Powering up instantly brings the touch screen to life. The high-resolution and responsive interface make it a joy to use while the matte surface ensures good visibility even in bright and reflective rooms. Our first podcasting attempt with the RodeCaster was a success, at least by technical standards. It’s immediately apparent everything about this system is designed to provide a path of minimum resistance for a podcaster. Once the mics are connected, press the mic channel button to apply processing to that microphone. Presets for individual Røde microphones are pre-loaded into the RodeCaster, including the Procaster, PodMic and NT1A. Other processing features are dumbed down to make sense to anyone. For example, instead of terms like ‘high shelf ’ or ‘threshold’, EQ curves and compression settings are dictated by how you’d describe a presenter’s voice — by tone (Deep, AT 44
RodeCaster Pro is an all-in-one podcast production studio designed to give podcasters a professional sound with minimal audio fuss
Medium or High) or by strength (Soft, Medium or Strong). For more in-depth control, there is an Advanced section tucked away in the Setup screen; but even here you can’t get any deeper than turning a processor on and off. It can be annoying for an audio person but extremely time-efficient for everyone else. RodeCaster automatically gained up the Procaster the moment I plugged it in. Not only that, it applied the full gamut of onboard processing right off the bat; the Aphex Aural Exciter and Big Bottom, De-Esser, Noise Gate and Compressor. To hear a mic’s true character, go to Setup, hit Advanced, and flick the bottom switch to turn all processing off. As anyone who’s used an Aural Exciter will know; they can be a dangerous high and hard to come down off. When deactivated, it left the Procaster sounding a bit dull, like an SM58 with suppressed high mids. Bluetooth pairing was super easy. Just press the Bluetooth button above the fader and the screen prompts you through the rest. Not only does this let you play music into RodeCaster Pro with your smartphone, it enables you to run phone call interviews during a podcast. RodeCaster Pro automatically provides the caller with a mix-minus feed so they hear everything in the show except their own voice. Having tried it out, it couldn’t be simpler. If you want to avoid the call up process mid-show, make the call prior to hitting record and keep the channel muted until you’re ready to bring the person in. PACK IN THE MULTI-TRACK
Upon its release, the RodeCaster Pro did not have multitrack recording capability — your only option if using the microSD card was to record the stereo
output of the ‘mixer’. Røde quickly resolved this with a firmware update, however; no doubt after receiving numerous requests and/or complaints from users. Firmware V1.1.0 introduces a ‘MultiChannel Mode’ (accessed via the Advanced Settings menu) which records every input channel as an individual track in addition to the summed stereo output; a total of 14 tracks. One omission worth mentioning is that RodeCaster Pro doesn’t offer a way to pause a recording. Once you hit the big red button, then hit it again, the audio files are finalised and saved onto the microSD card. It would have been nice to be able to hit pause then continue on the same recording if you want to, say, set up a phone call, or sneeze. GETS OUT OF THE WAY
I certainly don’t possess any radio talent but I’ll still gladly admit the RodeCaster Pro is very fun to use. It’s easy to see the appeal for those whose podcasts are their livelihood and need efficiency without sacrificing professionalism. If I was a podcaster, I couldn’t care less about a mic’s input noise level and the dynamic range of my interface converters — I just want to be heard. In this sense, the RodeCaster Pro does an incredibly good job of ‘getting out of the way’. With RodeCaster Pro, Røde has nailed the winning combination of identifying a gap in the market before its competitors, and filling that gap with an extremely attractive and functional product at the right price. Well done, Røde, you’ve done it again!
Musos Corner Celebrating 50+ Years in the Music Industry
Pro Audio Interfaces
Outboard
PreSonus Studio 192 Audio Interface
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Steinberg UR-RT4 Interface Rupert Neve Design
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Control Surfaces
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RME Fireface UCX Audio Midi Interface
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API 2500 Stereo Compressor Rack Unit
API 3124+ Four Channel Preamp
SSL Nucleus 2 Dark DAW Controller with Mic Pre’s Monitor Control & Dante Yamaha Nuage Control Surface
Antelope Audio Discrete 4 & Edge Modelling Mic
Neve AMS 1073DPA Dual Mic Pre
500 Series
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Musos Corner
Neve AMS 1073LB Mono Mic/Pre 500 Series Neve AMS 2264ALB mono limiter/compressor Rupert Neve Designs 535 Diode Bridge Comp Meris Mercury7 500 Series Digital Reverb Radial Engineering Jensen Twin Servo Mic Pre
www.musoscorner.com.au
Newcastle West NSW 2302
02 4929 2829 AT 45
REVIEW
SENNHEISER IE 40 PRO In-ear Monitors
Sennheiser’s new line of in-ears rely on a single dynamic driver to rule all the balanced armature designs. But is just one enough? Review: Rob Holder
The IEM market is becoming as saturated as a sturgeon tank in a caviar farm [huh? —Ed.]. It’s teeming with generic models pitched at teenage commuters, audiophiles, touring musicians and everyone in between. Interestingly, Sennheiser has appealed directly to stage musicians with its IE 40 Pros. For those already jamming with ears, does this single dynamic driver design improve on the stalwart balanced armature heavyweights? SENN-DING THE RIGHT MESSAGE
NEED TO KNOW
At first impression, these in-ears tick all the boxes for a pair of stage monitors. Detachable cables? Tick. Flexible ear loop? Tick. The medium size tips fit me perfectly from the getgo, not even budging during a quick jog. I can’t say the same for my weightier Shure in-ears which would wiggle out over time. The time since I purchased them in 2010 has allowed Sennheiser to shave down the size of its in-ears considerably, and the cable is also far lighter. One caveat that must be tabled within these preliminary assessments comes as a product of Sennheiser’s laser-like focus on stage use: the omission of a stepped 3.5mm connector will inevitably force phone users to de-case should they want to plug in. These are, subjectively, a great pair of listening
PRICE $170 CONTACT Sennheiser: (02) 9910 6700 or www.sennheiser.com
AT 46
PROS Serious value for money Super light Detailed & deep soundstage Impressive bass response
IEMs. I’m a Shure se315 owner and have listened and performed with a range of balancedarmature single and double driver IEMs. While these lack the forward mids of other multidriver configurations, they don’t miss out on clarity. The low end is big and detailed, with those quite large 10mm dynamic drivers pushing much more air than any other IEMs I’ve heard, especially at this price. Headphones and in-ears can often be too ‘scooped’ for me, but these tread that fine line nicely. The bass response is big but never overbearing, and is necessary for vibe onstage. The instrument separation is nice, as is the sound stage; wider than my Shures, and often clearer in busier mixes. The dynamic driver approach makes the sound source seem physically further from my ear drum, which I find pleasant over the feeling of having sound injected into your ear drums. ZING, YOU GOT ME
The sound has one blemish though: quite zingy highs. After listening to the IE 40 Pros on multiple occasions, separated by time and listening on monitors and my Shures, they still continue to surprise me when I pop them back in. Hi-hats and cymbals can be especially penetrating and there were times when
CONS Zingy highs Lightweight construction sacrifices some isolation
performing high-impact synth patches I found the HF response uncomfortable. Unfortunately, despite the IE 40 Pro’s great fit, and deftness for staying wedged in, their isolation isn’t as robust as other generic IEMs. During my on-stage tests they didn’t do as much as I’d like to protect me from the full force of the bass cab and drums on the other side of stage. On later dates, I performed bass guitar with lots of drum and subwoofer leakage muddy-ing my IEM foldback mix. Upon reflection, the ear tips on the IE 40 Pros are comparatively shallow — which cuts down on weight and can improve comfort, but I wasn’t able to be insert them as far as I needed to get the isolation I desired on a loud stage. FIT FOR PURPOSE
If you’re a muso looking to upgrade your rig with IEMs, this pair are a great place to start, offering many advantages over offerings at similar (or even higher) price points. Everything else apart from the highs and iso-fit is best in class. They would also be a great choice for houses of worship, theatres or education facilities looking to invest in a complement of sets. The IE 40 Pros are priced well, comfortable, if upgrading to an ears system for foldback, especially if you’ve already tamed your stage sound.
SUMMARY A very capable, impressive-sounding pair of IEMs for the price; ones that newcomers should love, though the few ‘cons’ will give veterans reason to ponder.
Wherever songs are made. With the transparent XMAX mic preamps, high-end 24-bit/192 kHz
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©2018 All Rights Reserved, PreSonus Audio Electronics. PreSonus is a registered trademark of PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. Studio One is a registered trademark of PreSonus Software Ltd. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
AT 47
REVIEW
MOOG GRANDMOTHER Analogue Synthesizer Moog adds another ‘Mother’ to its affordable analogue synth range, and it’s pretty grand.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Preshan John
PRICE $1599 CONTACT Innovative Music: (03) 9540 0658 or info@innovativemusic.com.au
AT 48
PROS Authentic Moog tone Huge potential with patching options Spring reverb a fantastic addition
CONS Not very practical for stage use
SUMMARY While its colourful panels look like modules, the Grandmother is semi-modular. There’s enough complexity for the experienced, while minimising the learning curve for beginners. An onboard arpeggiator, sequencer and spring reverb make Grandmother worth a good look.
Prior to the Moog One, Moog’s releases had centred around those poor pups without much expendable cash, ie. musicians, not dentists. There were a few vibey sub-$1k products such as the DFAM (Drummer From Another Mother) and Mother-32 that were still fully analogue, and all Moog. Coming in at around $1300, the new ‘Mother’ — the Grandmother — joins this lineup of affordable synths, with clear influences from far more expensive Moog monophonic and modular varieties. The Grandmother synth falls under the semimodular category; which basically means it doesn’t need friends, or patch cords, to generate cool sounds of its own. The modular side of the ‘semi’equation means you do get enough patch points to make your own circuit, or plumb it into a larger modular system. Grandmother looks somewhere between toy-like and retro. Its brightly-coloured panels are laid out to mimic a modular workflow, and the classic Moog knob shapes, switches and serrated pitch and mod wheels are all retro. I really dig the aesthetic Moog has gone for — it screams, ‘fun!’ GRANDMOTHER PUNCH
After ripping Grandmother out of her box, I plugged it into the office pair of PMC bookshelf speakers. It had plenty of analogue depth and meatiness, even through a sub-less system. Two onboard oscillators each have four waveform options; triangle, sawtooth, square and narrow pulse. They just sound good… all through the range of four switchable octaves — smooth with lush lows. Oscillator 2 can be free running with the Frequency knob, or sync’d to the first oscillator upon which each wave cycle is forced to begin at the zero-crossing of Oscillator 1. The adjacent mixer section lets you balance the two oscillators and add white noise with a third control. The 32-key velocity-sensitive keybed begins with F and ends on B. To jump octaves press the Play (-) or Tap (+) buttons while holding the centre Hold button (Shift). FILTER OUT THE NEGATIVE
The Filter section is simple, with a large central Cutoff knob; Envelope Amount and Resonance knobs underneath; and a three-way Keyboard Track switch. Being Moog’s classic four-pole ladder filter, it sounds beautiful and has a smooth resonance
peak. With the Envelope Amount knob, the Cutoff frequency is modulated with the shape you created in the Envelope section. Twist the Envelope Amount knob to negative values to reverse the direction of the cutoff modulation (i.e. from low to high). Four patch points are available within the filter section. The Envelope Amount In and Cutoff In let you modulate these parameters with an LFO or oscillator, for example. There’s also an Input to introduce external signals to the filter (or internal, from another section of the Grandmother). An Output lets you send the outbound signal elsewhere, such as the Input of the high pass filter. SPRING IN HER STEP
I love that Grandmother has a completely analogue six-inch spring reverb tank built in. It’s a singleknob affair placed in the right hand corner of the dash and it affects all oscillators equally. The reverb has an appropriately wobbly sound that adds a watery vibe to most synth tones. Dial in anything from a drip to a drenching. Sounds can be manipulated to great effect just by twiddling the reverb and cutoff knobs over a looping arpeggio or sequence. I spent a fair amount of my time with the Grandmother using the reverb to push tones forward and back. It’s very wellsuited to live applications. ARP & SEQUENCER
The arpeggiator and sequencer section adds an extra bucket of fun to the Grandmother, and it’s worth noting that more expensive Moog models (such as the Minimoog) don’t include such luxuries. Three arpeggiator modes are accessed with a switch: Order, Fwd/Bkwd and Random. You can hold a chord by pressing the Play button to the left of the keybed, then the blue Hold button — freeing up both hands for entertaining LFO and filter manipulation. The three-position switch at the bottom of this section either sets the number of octaves when in Arpeggiator mode, or selects a recorded sequence to play back. Sequences can have up to 256 notes and the Grandmother lets you store three of them internally. Punching in a sequence is as easy as switching over to REC mode, then selecting position 1, 2 or 3 on the OCT/SEQ switch to dictate where the sequence will be stored. The keyboard is now armed, so whatever you play will be stored as steps.
The left hand control buttons double as Tie, Rest and Accent options to spice up a sequence. Once you’ve locked your sequence in, flick back over to SEQ mode, press Play and hit a note. You can edit a sequence in real time by switching to REC mode while a sequence is playing. GO MODULAR
Moog designed the Grandmother to be playable straight out of the box. Notwithstanding, it bears the ‘semi-modular’ title because it contains 41 patch points (21 inputs, 20 outputs) which, when patched, override the Grandmother’s internal signal flow allowing you to treat the individual sections of the synth as independent modules. While it’s capable of a massive spectrum of sounds as is, the patch cables (included) really expand Grandmother’s sonic horizons. You can make use of the keyboard’s velocity sensitivity with the KB VEL OUT patch; for example, connecting it to CUTOFF IN on the Filter section. Moog generously included a Utilities section where you’ll find an assortment of non-wired, patchable resources at your disposal built right into the Grandmother. At the top is a four-point Mult for sharing and distributing control signals. Next is a high pass filter (-6dB/octave slop), then a bipolar Attenuator, both of which have In and Out patch points. Putting together all the options, you soon realise this unassuming little synth is far deeper than it lets on. PROCESS VS PRACTICALITY
As far as making sounds goes, the Moog Grandmother is more than a means to an end. It’s about the joy of the journey — exploring sound creation— because, let’s face it, practicality is not its forte. You can’t save a preset and recall it for a performance. You can’t quickly go from a searing lead to an ambient arpeggio without reconfiguring the whole panel. While Grandmother has its place on stage, that’s not its M.O. Grandmother is Moog’s most accessible leg up into the world of modular analogue synthesis; but it offers things that much more expensive Moog instruments, like the Minimoog, don’t. Things like a built-in spring reverb tank, arpeggiator and sequencer. Whether you’re new to the modular environment or a synth nerd with lots of gear already, the Moog Grandmother promises a wealth of possibilities in the creation of new sounds. AT 49
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