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NT-USB Mini
STUDIO-QUALITY USB MICROPHONE
The NT-USB Mini is a studio-quality USB microphone designed for recording direct to a computer or tablet. With a smooth frequency response and excellent isolation from room noise and other extraneous sounds, it’s perfect for recording vocals and instruments, as well as podcasting, live streaming and gaming, voice calls and more. The included desk stand features a magnetic base that can be detached for easy mounting on mic stands or studio arms, and with its simple controls and zero-latency headphone monitoring, the NT-USB Mini delivers incredible audio for all recording applications.
The Cho oice off Toda ay’s Crea ative Ge ene erattion.™ ro ode e.ccom AT 2
Editorial Director Christopher Holder chris@audiotechnology.com.au Publisher Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Assistant Editor Preshan John preshan@alchemedia.com.au
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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 2020 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. 25/02/2020.
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COVER STORY
18
Mix Masters: How to Bury a Friend
Skills to Pay the Bills Pt. II: Plan for the Future
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SSL SiX Compact Analogue Console
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38
Arturia MicroFreak Experimental Hybrid Synth AT 4
ISSUE 62 CONTENTS
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GENERAL NEWS
SSL continues to peddle its analogue wares to the masses, this year going beyond the SiX and its true SSL “sound in a shoebox” approach and doing something even more accessible: the SSL 2 & 2+. Both are USB bus-powered, desktop audio interfaces with a distinctive look and feel, offering SSL mic preamps and legacy 4K analogue enhancement mode on each inspired by 4000 Series consoles. The 2-in/2-out SSL 2 packs two pres together with 24-bit/192k conversion, a single high-grade headphone output, easy-to-use monitor mix control for low-latency monitoring, and balanced monitor outputs. The 2+ adds onto that MIDI I/O, a second headphone out with its own send, and unbalanced outputs for DJs. Will they compete or SSLip to the wayside?
Apogee brings its top-notch conversion into a desktop format with the Symphony Desktop offering 10-in/14out I/O and all the trappings of the larger Symphony I/O MkII. This new model features Apogee Alloy: a preamp emulation creating “the richest, most authentic audio modelling available in an audio interface”. It models classic American and British tube and solid state sounds. Hardware tracking FX are also included, for dialling in EQ, compression and saturation. Print and Dual Path link modes utilise Symphony Desktop’s hardware DSP processing to provide zero-latency monitoring when tracking. Dual Path Link mode adds unique flexibility, allowing FX adjustment on the track later in the mix, eliminating the need to commit to printing FX when recording. Logic Pro X will offer full hardware/software integration with these features.
Presonus debuted its ioStation 24c, a unique mix of monitor controller, interface and DAW controller, amounting to what you might call a studio centrepiece. It’s firstly a 2-in/2-out interface, featuring XMAX preamps, 24bit/192kHz conversion, a high-powered headphone amp with direct monitoring mix knob, and standard line out for monitors. It’s DAW control will work best with StudioOne - Session Navigator allowing editing and automation of projects. Its also compatible with Logic Pro X, Cubase, Ableton Live, and Pro Tools, all of which can take advantage of the touch-sensitive 100mm, motorised fader, a real asset for automation.
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MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
Also introduced was the Quantum 2626, a rackmount Thunderbolt interface featuring eight XMAX preamps with two direct preamp outputs and two line returns for connection to outboard. Eight line outputs let users run additional pairs of studio monitors or send multiple mixes to musos while tracking. Both 1/4-inch headphone outputs have a dedicated volume control. I/O is expandable with dual ADAT optical and S/PDIF, taking the count to a maximum of 26 ins and 26 outs simultaneously.
Audient announced EVO, its first true step into the entry-level space, aimed at the podcasting, streaming and gaming market. EVO 4 and 8 have two and four preamps respectively, offering respectable 58dB gain range. All are SmartGain enabled – gain is automatically set depending on the source, with manual control available to those who want it. Conversion doesn’t reach the industry standard of 192kHz, instead topping out at 24-bit/96kHz, but maybe, just maybe, that’s enough.
In a curious move, Steinberg converted a Thunderbolt interface to USB-3.1, the AXR4U. A boon for those lacking Thunderbolt, it offers high-res 32-bit/384kHz conversion and 28x24 channel I/O. Though with Thunderbolt now available on AMD-based PCs and becoming more standard, and with USB-3’s history of long round-trip latency, it remains to be seen if USB 3 will catch on in a big way.
IK Multimedia showed off its iRig Pro Duo, a powerful mobile recording solution, with two phantom-capable combo inputs, full bus-power off mobile devices and MIDI I/O. Certainly seems a lot for an iOS focused interface, but its improved PC drivers may make it an outside option for home users as well.
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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LIVE NEWS
Debuted at the NAMM show, the d&b audiotechnik KSLSUB and KSL-GSUB operate with two forward-facing 15-inch drivers and a single, rear-facing 15-inch driver. The sleek sub weighs in at 82kg, measures 1 x 0.90 x 0.45 metres, and boasts an output of 139dB when driven by d&b D80 amplifiers. A new KSL-SUB adapter frame allows the KSL-SUB to be hung mounted above KSL top boxes in a flown line array. The KSL-GSUB has a more streamlined form without the standard rigging hardware of the KSLSUB. Its 45cm height allows for under-stage positioning.
The dBTechnologies VIO C Series made its first appearance at NAMM, the flexible 2-way active line source speakers being designed for ease of rigging and diversity of coverage options. The C12 and C15 are single woofer designs (12- and 15-inch), and the C212 features two 12-inch woofers. The whole series is equipped with latest generation 1600W RMS Class D Amp module Digipro G4 driving powerful DSP and allowing each system to deliver impressive SPL (139 dB for VIO C12, 140 dB for VIO C15, and 141 dB for VIO C212). 22.5-degree coverage is standard across the range, and cabinets can be vertically coupled or set up side by side, all controlled via RDNet cards and Aurora Net control software.
Going Quantum once again, DiGiCo released the 338 and Quantum 5. The Quantum 5 takes the shape of a scaled down Quantum 7, similarly designed to be a dropin upgrade to the SD5 console. Quantum 5 expands the SD5 to over 450 channels of processing at 96kHz, and equips the console with MADI ports and full DMI card support. In software, Nodal Processing allows for flexible and creative IEM mixes, True Solo for monitoring them, 48 channels of Mustard processing and 12 Spice Rack processing slots add flavour, including Chili 6. Mustard channels comprise tasty channel strips with pre-amp models, EQ, compressors and a gate which can be used alongside standard Quantum processing. Spice Rack functions more as a FPGA-based plug-in collection. Quantum 338 is a standalone model including 128 input channels with 64 busses and a 24 x 24 matrix, all with full channel processing.
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MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
L-Acoustics bought out Kara II, a follow up to the popular line array. It features Panflex which gives Kara four-in-one directivity, including: 70° or 110° symmetrical and 90° asymmetrical, steering to either the left or right. In its 70° configuration, Kara II packs a full 2dB more than in 110°. L-Acoustics will make available a kit to upgrade existing Kara with Panflex, for increased return on investment. The 24kg active boxes are a two-way active WST design, span a 55Hz - 20kHz frequency range and give 142 dB maximum SPL.
The PXM-12MP marks Electro-Voice’s entry into the powered stage monitor market. Created for live performances from solo acts, bands, mobile DJs and rental companies, PXM-12MP is a two-way stage wedge featuring coaxially aligned 12-inch LF and 1.75-inch HF transducers. Its small footprint and light weight of 13.5kg makes it an extremely portable solution suited to live performances on all stages, particularly excelling where floor space is limited.
Mackie SRM V-Class was unveiled, Mackie’s claimed “reimagination” of the powered monitor segment. The SRM210 V-Class, SRM212 V-Class, and SRM215 V-Class, with 10-, 12-, and 15-inch low-frequency transducers, respectively, all run new Class D 2000W amps. All have dispersion areas of 60-degree (horizontal) by 40-degree (vertical), a 4-channel digital mixer with two channels equipped with a mic/line/instrument combo input, a dedicated 1/8-inch stereo aux input, and stereo Bluetooth input. In addition, two SRM V-Class loudspeakers can be wirelessly linked, with up to 100 meters of range between linked speakers. Linked speakers can operate in stereo or as dual zones.
The EVOLVE 30M Column Speaker is designed to deliver room-filling coverage and flexible functionality combined in a very compact package. The system includes a speaker array, a two-piece pole connector, an array and pole backpack carry case, and a powered subwoofer, all made to pack up and assemble quickly.The full-range column array and its six 2.8-inch drivers provide ultrawide 120° coverage via proprietary waveguides; arrayformed 40° asymmetrical vertical coverage ensures acoustic output is directed towards both sitting and standing audience members, with 1000 watts of power shared between it and the sub. It also packs a 6 channel mixer with DSP.
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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RECORDING & PRODUCTION NEWS
Those more hardware inclined will be happy to hear Moog has released its Sub Phatty successor – the Subsequent 25. Subsequent 25 has upgraded from Sub Phatty with the implementation of wood side pieces, twice the headroom for access to a new range of tones in mono and duo modes, and an upgraded keybed for improved playability. In addition, Moog has reshaped the gain staging in the Ladder filter to boost harmonic saturation and analogue compression, as well as re-tuning the multidrive circuit and increasing the power of its headphone amplifier. Sounds like a sweet modern update to a mono classic.
Emerging from the hype around the OC818 mic, Austrian Audio slipped out a headphone reveal at NAMM, the Hi-X (High Excursion) Headphones. The on-ear, supraaural HI-X50s are specifically designed for those requiring a portable and compact option, whereas the HI-X55 circumaurals provide over-ear comfort. Both feature Austrian Audio’s exclusive 44mm HI-X driver and have a 250Ω impedance. Austrian Audio’s ring magnet system is present in the new headphone line, further enhanced with improved air-flow and the strongest magnetic field the company has made yet, for an accurate dynamic response. A three-ply membrane increases the stiffness and reduces undesired resonances, and a double acoustic wall achieves the best damping results.
Things are coming full circle for MXL, who announced the development of Revelation II, a follow up to the brand’s legendary first-gen condenser. The new mic will offer the warmth and intimacy of a quality tube microphone, but with extended clarity and punch for balanced recording. A dual gold-sputtered, 6-micron diaphragm and hand-selected EF86 pentode tube will provide warm, rich and transparent sound. The Revelation II’s polar pattern selection is virtually limitless, controllable by a variable pattern control knob. “The new Revelation II captures the performance and versatility of the original Revelation, but will be more accessible to artists at a lower price point.” said MXL’s Director of Sales.
AMS Neve has packed lunch – the AMS RMX16 Digital Reverberation System in 500 series format. Designed to deliver all the musicality of its famous predecessor, but at a fraction of the price, this new unit incorporates the nine programmes that came as standard with the original AMS RMX16, as well as the nine rare aftermarket programs that were only available to users via a remote control with bar code reader input.
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MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
Warm Audio continues delivering affordable analogue, now with BUS-COMP and two new DIs. All include switchable op-amp circuits with American CineMag transformers, giving a more coloured ‘analog’ sound when engaged. BUS-COMP is a 2 channel stereo VCA bus compressor based on classic circuitry that has provided silky smooth tone for decades, and will work its magic on stereo mixes, drum mixes, drum overheads, acoustic guitars, keyboards and piano. Channels can be stereo coupled or run separately. The new DIs come in Passive and Active flavours and are built for road-friendly clean, vintage sonics.
Drawmer has expanded its compression offerings with the new Drawmer 1970 Dual FET Compressor and PreAmp. Engineers will notice the similarity of the 1970’s layout to the company’s flagship 1960 Mic Pre & Vacuum Tube Compressor, and it is destined to fit a similar role, but instead where transparent preamps and punchy FET compression fit the bill. It’ll look a treat on a rack with backlit VUs, and it’ll sound a treat on just about any tracking job.
RME announced three new AVB and MADI products, the 12Mic, the small AVB Tool and the mammoth M-1610 Pro - all for the same environment, but with hugely different capabilities. 12Mic features 12 channel microphone and line level inputs with digital studio quality converters, remote controllable gain, integrated MADI and AVB connectivity, and a multitude of features designed for any professional recording scenarios. A web frontend offers convenient access to the device controls and its integrated 268×282 channel routing matrix. AVB Tool offers similar capabilities with 4 preamps and a 260x260 channel router. The M-1610 Pro brings plenty of analogue I/O to any studio setup, integrating 16 analogue inputs with switchable sensitivity per channel of up to +24 dBu, eight corresponding analogue outputs, and an additional headphone output.
Focusrite also made a move in networked audio, releasing Dante entries to the ISA series. They aim to bring the classic Focusrite sound to Dante networks, firstly by releasing the ISA828 MkII, which becomes Dante connected once fitted with the ADN8 A-D card, which will send out ADAT Optical, AES3 and Dante audio at rates up to 24-bit/192kHz. Also available is the ISA ADN2, an optional two-channel 24-bit/192kHz A-D card that provides high-quality analogue-to-digital conversion for the ISA One mic preamp and DI.
MORE NEWS AT www.audiotechnology.com.au
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FEATURE
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Castlemaine is a hit town. Originally they came for the gold, today they’re escaping Melbourne. Recently nicknamed Northcote North, it’s home to an increasing number of tree-changers who’ve sold their inner-city Melbourne cottages and moved to the country, but still expect decent coffee. The Theatre Royal has been the heart of the town since 1851, and claims to have been in continual operation longer than any other cinema on mainland Australia. Its day job is showing movies, but it’s also been a live venue from the start. Lola Montez, the Spanish Dancer and mistress of King Ludwig the 1st of Bavaria, famously entertained the gold miners there in 1855. As a band venue it’s intimate and real, with a good stage and a capacity of around 400. For those old enough to remember, it’s just like the Crystal Ballroom – St Kilda’s legendary venue from a time before pokies and EDM, when bands ruled the world, and Nick Cave ruled the indie scene. I used to mix The Models back then, and still do sometimes. I’ve been the house mixer/tech at the Theatre Royal since 2004. The current owners, Tim Heath (The Basics) and Felicity Cripps (Felicity Cripps Band), have been fantastic for the place and it’s now an established venue on the Australian touring circuit. PA SYSTEM
The main speakers are a pair of Meyer MSL3s, with two dual 18 inch subs per side. They’re just shy of 40 years old but hard to replace without a big budget; we tried a more modern system a while ago and it lasted one weekend, so I won’t mention names. The FOH console is a 44-channel Soundcraft MH3, ex JPJ Audio. Side of stage there’s a 32-channel Allen & Heath monitor board running eight sends of foldback into eight monitors, including four of the
old ‘Lord Nelson’ wedges and a drum-fill. Oldschool and time proven. We decided to stay analogue mainly because I prefer the sound quality, but also because of the ease of operation for the staff (the movies also go through the PA). Our timing has been good; as digital consoles take over more people are beginning to miss the quality and operating enjoyment of analogue consoles, so they’re coming back into fashion. Festivals are increasingly onto this and are offering a choice between analogue and digital consoles, and we’ve had a great reaction from touring sound mixers. I don’t mind the digital consoles for complicated stuff, but analogue consoles were made for rock.
They may look like a normal four-piece rock band but their tech rider required 44 channels from stage, plus the whole band were on IEMs
FOUR MUSICIANS, 44 CHANNELS, & IEMS...
Higher channel counts have become normal in the digital age, and we’ve embraced them at the Theatre Royal by lifting our capacity to 28 channels from stage. That wasn’t enough for Kurt Vile & the Violators, however. They may look like a normal four-piece rock band but their tech rider required 44 channels from stage, plus the whole band were on IEMs. So the crew rolled in some new consoles supplied by JPJ Audio: a Digico SD10 for FOH, and a Digico SD11 for monitors. Despite our love for analogue gear at the Theatre Royal, digital consoles offer considerable practical benefits in a touring situation like this; they’re almost essential with this many channels and the increased complexity of making mixes for IEMs. Once everyone is wired up and the show files loaded into the consoles, the operators can start from known settings and make small tweaks to suit the occasion rather than re-inventing whole mixes. Kurt Vile’s monitor operator, Lachlan Wooden, lives in Sydney. This was his third Australian tour
View of the whole show, from the balcony at the Theatre Royal. Left to right: Rob Laakso (guitar, keyboards), Kurt Vile (vocals, guitar), Kyle Spence (drums) and Jess Trbovich (bass, guitars).
with Kurt and his first time to Castlemaine. On previous solo tours he’s been tour manager and FOH engineer so he knows Kurt well, but this time the band was new. Because everyone was on IEMs, Lachlan placed a d&b Q-SUB speaker near the drums to add some low punch on stage. He also used a pair of SDCs, one on each side of the stage and aimed towards the audience, to capture audience/room sound for the IEMs and avoid the sonic ‘disconnect’ that often happens between audience and artist when using IEMs. At the end of the first song at sound check, Kurt declared it was the best stage sound on the tour – obviously things were going right with the consoles, the IEMs and the room. FOH engineer Aaron Brody started with Kurt Vile three years ago, initially mixing IEMs before moving to FOH two years ago. For the Theatre Royal gig he was happy with the room sound and stuck closely to the house EQ.
Monitor mixer Lachlan Wooden: “Stage size and room make a lot of difference, even when close miked. A lot of spill gets in Kurt’s vocal mic”. Note the Roland Space Echo; for IEMs, Kurt prefers its organic sound to the ‘too clean’ effects on-board the Digico.
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MICS & CHANNELS
The 44 channels started with 10 mics around Kyle Spence’s drum kit, largely conforming to the current touring standard with two kick mics, two snare mics, a mic each for the rack tom and floor tom, a pair of LDCs set up as overheads in a Glyn Johns configuration, and the Roland SPD pads. Bass player Jesse Trbovich and guitarist Rob Laakso swapped instruments from song to song so there were four bass channels to cover them both. For their guitars, Rob used a Fender Twin and Jesse played through a Vox. Also, between them, Jesse and Rob played eight channels of keyboards. Kurt rose to prominence playing guitar in a band called The War On Drugs; he’s a hot player who travels with a lot instruments. For amplification in Australia he used a Fender Champ for solos with a Deluxe for rhythm and some solos, plus a second/ spare Deluxe for various drones and loops. The banjo had a passive DI on Kurt’s pedal board, and his acoustic went straight into an Avalon DI. A Telefunken M80 was used for Kurt’s vocal. The M80 is becoming increasingly popular for vocals, and it suited Kurt’s voice. Add in the other vocal mics, the audience/room mics for the IEMs, a handful of channels for talkbacks and similar, and that’s 44 channels. PROCESSING & EFFECTS
For the mix, Aaron used four separate internal reverbs – one for Kurt, one for backing vocals, one for the kit and one for snare – plus a delay. The vocal channel had the HPF set at 90Hz, with a few dB cut between 200Hz and 500Hz. There was an
Aaron: “The Champ is only used for solos and always with the Deluxe, the sounds captured by the C414s are high-passed and de-essed in any areas that are harsh or might compete with the vocal. Each gets its own subgroup where they go through the multi-band compressor to keep everything level.” AT 14
Kurt’s guitar rack: three acoustics, three electrics, a 12-string and a banjo. Guitar Tech Doran ‘DB’ Tamir:“Kurt usually tours with 13 guitars and a banjo, and he uses a different guitar on each song; sometimes there’s the same guitar on a couple of songs, never consecutive though, and always on a different tuning/capo position.”
Aaron: “I try to use multi-band compression more than EQ because the EQ is quite permanent and with Kurt’s playing styles in conjunction with the pedals I find it best to let him self-regulate. I just try and smooth things out and keep his world sounding big and full!”
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antelopeaudio.com AT 15
Empirical Labs Distressor across the vocal channel and an internal multiband comp across the vocal subgroup, but each of these compressors was only just catching the midrange peaks. Overall there was very little processing on Kurt’s vocal; a touch of reverb and a little slap delay gave it some space. The other outboard gear was an Empirical Labs Fatso across the bass subgroup and another across the acoustic guitar subgroup, but neither was working hard. Aaron was generally happy to let the channels speak for themselves with only small touches of EQ (mainly HPF) and some dynamic smoothing – except for the unruly banjo. As Aaron explains, “the banjo gets high-passed and hits the multi-band compressor quite hard. A dash of the drum reverb and it stays inline, cutting through without stabbing eyeballs. Banjo picked hard and passed through a variety of drive pedals can be a bit of a wild beast!” The output of the Digico SD10 went through an API 2500 compressor on its way to the house amps and speakers. At home (British Columbia) Aaron uses a Rupert Neve Designs Portico MBP II for this purpose. Referring to the API 2500, he said, “It’s pretty punchy, but I think ultimately I’ll return to the Portico on future tours. The Portico allows a little more versatility and has a really great low pass button that stops it from reacting to everything under 125Hz”.
SOUNDCHECK & GIG
The sound in the room with the FOH off is strange, of course; all guitar amps and drums, with no vocals, keys or bass to speak of due to the use of IEMs. Once FOH was on, however, it all made sense. Aaron was ready to go after a couple of songs and the band spent most of their time rehearsing. Lachlan used a different mix snapshot for each song, and, in his words, “The update and recall scope changed as the tour went along. As I got to know the band better, I was able to add more detail to each snapshot or learn who wanted what levels to stay constant throughout the set”. The sound at showtime, with the room full of people, was great. Aaron was the steady hand at the controls delivering clear vocals and well-balanced instruments with all the parts and cues in place, and Lachlan must have done well on monitors because there was no feedback at all. [IEM joke] Special mention must go to guitar tech Doron ‘DB’ Tamir, the hardest working man on the tour; he loaded in over 20 guitar cases and didn’t stop during the whole show, always handing the musicians freshly-tuned instruments between every song. Kurt Vile & the Violators wouldn’t have been out of place at the Crystal Ballroom in 1980; their instruments, amps and musical intent are not much
Mark Woods by the warm glow of the Soundcraft MH3. Aaron took one look and said he’d be just as happy to mix on it but too late, they’d become slaves to the technology.
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different, and in those days they would’ve fitted into the Ballroom’s 16-channel desk. It’s the technology around them that has gone through a revolution since my days at the Ballroom, and it earned its money at the Castlemaine gig. The show was great, everyone was happy and a special appearance by Courtney Barnett in the encore capped off a big night. Another classic gig at the Theatre Royal.
Kurt usually tours with 13 guitars and a banjo, and he uses a different guitar on each song
FOH mixer Aaron Brody by the glare of the Digico SD10.
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TUTORIAL
Artist: Billie Eilish Album: Don’t Smile at Me
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Billie Eilish started 2019 as one of several young artists operating just below the radar, having enjoyed initial success with her debut single ‘Ocean Eyes’ in early 2016. More single releases followed but few made any significant inroads, although ‘Lovely’, a collaboration with Khalid, made it to number five in Australia and number four in New Zealand. Her first major worldwide hit, ‘Bury A Friend’, was released in January 2019, and since then the world has gone bonkers over the young singer. ‘Bad Guy’ was an even bigger hit than ‘Bury A Friend’, and her debut album, ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’, reached number one in 20 countries. An artist breaking through like this is not unusual. What makes Eilish exceptional is that her music sounds so different to everything else; it’s bass-heavy, with very little high-end and relatively little in the mid-range, virtually no reverb, lots of weird and wonderful incidental sounds (e.g. a match lighting, a door squeaking), and she sings so softly that she almost whispers. Most of all, there’s the striking production of her songs, courtesy of her older brother and co-writer Finneas O’Connell. The spaces that O’Connell regularly leaves in the production are so daring as to be almost mind-blowing – there are often gaps of two or three seconds with nothing at all. The young duo does not work entirely in isolation, however; they’re aided by mixing engineer Rob Kinelski and mastering engineer John Greenham. Although everything comes across as very understated and minimalist, there’s actually a lot going on. Kinelski explains how he got involved and describes the production process... “I’d mixed an album for a singer called LP, which John [Greenham] mastered. Finneas and Billie asked John to recommend a mixing engineer, and he recommended me. They wanted someone who was really good with the low end, and had an urban background. The first song I mixed for them was ‘Bellyache,’ as a try-out, and they loved it. They asked me to mix their next song, and they’ve kept calling ever since. Just before we did the EP (Don’t Smile At Me, 2017), they invited me over because they wanted to get to know me. We discussed their musical concept somewhat, but other than that it was simply a matter of me knowing what I’m going to get from them, and them knowing what they’re going to get from me. I know that they want the low-end to be massive without overwhelming everything else, and they want the vocals to be super-present. Everything they do is deliberate. There’s a song on the album called ‘8,’ and it has an off-centre kick drum. I made the kick mono because I thought it sounded cool, but then a little later they said, ‘you know what? Let’s put it back to where it was.’ And that was the right call. They know exactly what they want, and I just try to take it to the next level.” LEVELLING UP
The place where Kinelski takes things to the next level is his home studio in Los Angeles, which is a typical in-the-box facility apart from his extensive collection of Dangerous Music gear. “I run Pro Tools HD native, with an Avid I/O 16x16. I also have the Dangerous Music 2-Bus, Dangerous Music
Compressor and Dangerous Music Monitor-ST monitor controller. I’ve also got the Dangerous Music Convert-AD+, but I didn’t get that until after I finished Billie’s album. My monitors are ProAc Studio 100s, Yamaha NS10s, Auratones, and I just got the Avantone CLA-10s. I also have the eightfader Avid Artist Mix, and I use it a lot. For the rest it’s keyboard and mouse, and that works for me.” “I came up at Sony Music Studios in New York where I was working on SSL and Neve desks, which are great. But the workflow today is “pull this up, pull that up!” and you’d be going crazy on a console. Even in big studios the big consoles have, for the most part, become giant arm rests. In 2011 I mixed Common’s album The Dreamer/The Believer, and in 2012 Nas’ Life Is Good, both on an SSL. But then it got to the point that clients were asking for precise and minute revisions, like ‘can you turn the vocal up a quarter of a dB?’, that were impossible to do on a console.” While Kinelski has joined the vast majority of his mix colleagues by going in-the-box and working from his own place, one old habit in particular is still very important to him. “I do a lot of listening. It is really easy in this time and age to overdo surgery, because you are mixing visually and you are adjusting things by a tenth of a dB, and you swear you can tell the difference. It is so easy to fall down that rabbit hole, overdoing everything. The way I work is to listen, primarily. I do everything that’s necessary – levels, vibe, treatments – and then I do the surgery and clean-ups last. I only deal with stuff that jumps out and bugs me. Everything else I leave because I like to keep things organic.”
lip sounds, and so on. I do this by clip gaining or using the pencil tool. I don’t pitch or tune anything. I don’t know whether they tune things, but Billie’s control is amazing so they might all be real takes. The vocals usually come with the distortion effects, and occasionally I’ll add a bit to that.” “I take a day for my first mix pass, and then I’ll send it to them for feedback. They’ll come back to me with comments, usually really quickly. Sometimes they send me a new stem to swap for an old one. During the first part of the making of the album I added a small ambient reverb, barely audible, and the only comment that came back to me was: ‘take off the reverb.’ Billy is heavily involved, but I usually get feedback from Finn. With the album they sent me voice notes for revisions – they’d been talking into their phones, and they sent me the messages they had recorded! I’ve never had that happen before, but it was very cool. Billie would sing me the vocal parts she was referring to.”
This is a dark album. There really is hardly any high end in there, and no reverb. I wondered how it would translate to the world
“After that, in 2001, I studied at the SAE Institute in New York. Then I opened my own studio in New Jersey, and started producing bands for about two years. Because I was never making any major label records, I left and got a job at Sony Music Studios – first as a runner, then a general assistant. I was assistant engineer on Beyoncé’s second album, B’Day (2006), then all of a sudden I was doing all these R&B sessions; I also got to record some of Beyoncé’s vocals. I was riding high, but the studio closed in 2007. Following that I went free-lance, and worked for Sony ATV for two years recording three or four demos a day; that’s how I got my chops up. However, there was not a lot of work and the rates were bad, so in 2009 I packed two suitcases and drove to LA. I arrived on Monday, and Tuesday I had a gig. I started working with Roc Nation and hooked up with producer No I.D. for a twoweek session; I ended up working with him for four years! We worked with everyone from J. Cole to Big Sean to Nas. After four years I wanted to break out on my own, and for the last five to six years I’ve been mixing. I initially rented a room, but the last three years I’ve worked from my house, which has been great.”
COME OUT AND WORK
Specific to working with Eilish and O’Connell, Kinelski shares, “Our way of working is always the same: they have a new song, and they send it over. Finn sends me awesome stems. With some people you go, ‘oh, this is going to be tough’, but he does a really good job. I don’t normally know what treatments he has on things; if there are any reverbs at all they’ll be on a separate track, but normally things are super dry. Many of the vocals have no reverb, and all I do is add a little bit of the SoundToys MicroShift for more width.” “The vocal production is already dialed in when I receive the sessions. I do a lot of really subtle editing on the vocals, because she sings so quietly and that means there’s a lot of mouth noise: breaths,
ABOUT ROB KINELSKI... Rob Kinelski’s music career curve saw him going from Spinal Tap to urban cool. He recounts, “I grew up on the East Coast, and played bass in a band from age 15 to 20. We were doing really well, and had booked a cross-country tour, and enjoyed label interest, and had a big showcase gig in DC. The night before, our drummer got drunk and broke his hand punching a friend in the head. He played the gig with one arm, and it was terrible. Then the drummer quit the band, and I quit as well because I did not want my career to be dependent on others.”
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BURYING A FRIEND Instrument and effects tracks: 18 drum tracks (yellow), four bass tracks (dark brown), one piano track (turquoise), four keys tracks (orange to brown) and seven sound-effect tracks (purple). Vocal tracks: six lead vocals (red), nine lead vocal harmonies (yellow) and seven backing vocals (green). Each set of vocals has an auxiliary track above it (purple). Plug-ins for the vocal tracks.
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Kinelski gave extensive details of his mix of Eilish’s breakthrough single ‘Bury A Friend,’ to illustrate his approach. It all starts with his Pro Tools mix template. “I have many effects in my template, ready to go, but after I finish a mix I get rid of anything I did not use. I load all of Finn’s stems into the template session and, when I set all stems at unity, it will be virtually identical to his reference mix. Then I filter it into my template, routing and grouping things as I like them, and tweaking my master fader.” “My mix process is pretty old school in that I start with kick, snare and hats, and get those feeling great. Then I bring in the vocals and make sure they sit well with the drums. Working on the drums and vocals this way is a hip-hop approach, I guess. Then I mute the vocals and bring in the bass, and work
on bass and drums together. After that I’ll work on just keys and drums. I tend to work in groups, and build the entire track together like that.” “My method on all songs for the album was similar. After I had dialed in Billie’s vocal for the first song that I mixed, I imported that vocal chain into every mix and tweaked it as necessary. They used the same vocal chain to record all her vocals, which meant that everything that came to me was super consistent. It’s one of the reasons why the album as a whole is consistent – Billie’s vocals are always captured with the same mic through the same preamp, and I used the same vocal mix chain for almost the entire album; although I might have changed it a little bit for one or two songs.” Kinelski’s Pro Tools mix session of ‘Bury A Friend’ is, by contemporary standards, relatively modest at 69 tracks. The mix session consists of 18 drum tracks, four bass tracks, one piano track,
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Even in big studios the big consoles have, for the most part, become giant arm rests
four keys tracks, seven sound-effect tracks, six lead vocals, nine lead vocal harmonies, and seven backing vocals. Each set of vocals has an aux group track above it. Below all the audio tracks is one aux effects track (with the MicroShift), seven stereo tracks of outputs to the Dangerous Music 2-Bus, and VCA that controls these outputs, two master tracks and two final mix print tracks. The structure and track names also provide an insight into O’Connell’s production approach, with drum tracks having names like ‘dial tone,’ and ‘tension,’ sound-effect tracks called ‘nightmare,’ ‘screech,’ ‘scary shit’ and ‘voldemort,’ and an impressive 22-track vocal arrangement with lead vocals spread over six tracks. DIGGING DEEPER
Kinelski described his mix session from the top, starting by addressing the most striking aspect of the session: the fact that there are so few plugins. This obviously reflects the quality of O’Connell’s stems, but also, as Kinelski explains, “I like to keep it simple and use minimal plugins, most of the time. When I get new plugins it’s usually because they are in sessions sent to me by clients, and I want to see what they do. Other than that I have a really simple approach, especially with Billie’s stuff. I’ll be doing some volume riding, but the beauty of Finn’s stuff is that many of his transitions are built in to the session. The sound-effects create many of the dynamics, while the rest is mostly loop-driven.” “The only plugins on the drums are the Waves SSL Channel Strip doing EQ, compression and gating. It’s my ‘go-to’ channel strip; I like to pretend I’m still on a console! I have it on two kick tracks, two snare tracks, and the hats. One of the kick tracks, the ‘PitchKick’, is a massive 808 and has the FabFilter Pro-Q2 pulling the sub frequencies down. The only other plugins on the instruments are the SSL Channel Strip on AT 22
the piano track, and the SSL Channel Strip and FabFilter Pro-Q2 on the organ track.” “I’ve divided the vocals into three groups, but that’s just my interpretation. Some of the harmonies could be backing vocals, or vice versa. The chain is the same on the lead vocals and lead vocal harmony groups, but I varied the settings. The insert chain starts with the FabFilter Pro-Q2 doing a low cut. Then there’s the Waves PuigChild 670 compressor on one of its default settings, a Waves De-esser, another Pro-Q2 scooping the midrange, the UAD 1073, and the Waves Vocal Rider.” “I love the Pro-Q2, because it allows you to audition the specific frequency you’re working on. You press a button, sweep through to find what you don’t want, then pull it down. I kept doing that, combing over the vocal, and it ended up with this mid-range scoop. All EQ was subtractive, because I loved the tone of the vocal as it was and felt that all the frequencies I needed were already there. I added a hair of top end with the Neve, but that’s it. The Vocal Rider is the final insert, and it’s smoothing out any dips and peaks, maybe by 2dB. It’s a corrective thing, and I prefer using that to a compressor. I do my vocal rides, i.e. my performance automation, after I set the Vocal Rider.” “The two lead vocal aux tracks also have a send to the MicroShift, which is the only one of my template’s aux effect tracks that I ended up using for this mix and therefore left in the session. The thing that’s interesting is that I automated the Mute on the MicroShift aux because it was giving off the slightest bit of hiss. I don’t automate the Bypass, because I found out that it sometimes clicks when it goes in and out. The Mute does not do that.” “Below the MicroShift aux are the send tracks to the Dangerous Music 2-Bus summing mixer. DBus 1-2 is for drums, 3-4 is for bass, 5-6 is for keys, 7-8 is for sound-effects, 9-10 is for lead vocals, 11-12 is for backing vocals, and 15-16 is my
effect returns – in this case only the MicroShift. I have the Steven Slate Virtual Mix Rack on all DBus tracks, using various different modules. The sound effect DBus has the Pro-Q2, and the backing vocals have the Sonnox Oxford Inflator. The signal comes back summed to stereo on the two Print master tracks. They have identical plugins, with the only difference being a lower setting on one of the limiters to give John Greenham, the mastering engineer, more to play with. The chain is the UAD Ampex ATR102 set to 30ips and half inch, UAD Thermionic Culture Vulture with just a hair of drive, the FabFilter Pro-L2 limiter, and the TC Electronics Clarity M meter.” LISTEN BEFORE YOU GO
With Billie Eilish’s album still riding high in the charts everywhere, Kinelski feels on top of the world and his phone is ringing non-stop. “It’s been crazy,” he says. “But it’s cool, and I’m grateful. I knew this was going to be big, but I had no idea it was going to be this big. I had an inkling when I saw an industry showcase they did before the EP came out – normally the industry A&R people in LA are a tough crowd, always checking their phones to see where they’re going next, but from the first chord Finneas played and the first note Billie sang, you could hear a pin drop. They captivated everyone. After I finished mixing the album, I listened to it analytically as a whole for the first time, and thought, ‘Wow, this is a dark album.’ There really is hardly any high end in there, and no reverb. I wondered how it would translate to the world, but it’s been nothing but positive!” The sound that Eilish and O’Connell have created together, aided by Kinelski and Greenham, is unlike anything else in the charts. The next decade will show whether their sound will remain unique to them, or turn out to be a harbinger of a new direction in music and production.
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TUTORIAL
In the second and final part of this series Nick Franklin discusses the longer-term benefits of using good bookkeeping software, how it helps him grow his business, and how it helps him plan for the future. Story: Nick Franklin AT 24
A close friend and fellow producer/engineer came to me recently confessing he wasn’t sure he could keep it up any more. The bands he’d been working with were not enjoyable, and he had the age-old problem of never having enough money when he needed it. I knew that feeling because I’ve experienced it so many times, and you probably will too — if you haven’t already. I asked him, “How much have you made so far in this financial year?” He had no idea. I asked him, “If I gave you half an hour to work it out, could you tell me?” He could not. He was similarly in the dark about how much he’d spent in this financial year. If a producer or engineer doesn’t know how much money is coming in, how would they know how much they can spend on equipment, rent and their personal lives? The answer for a lot of people is that they don’t; they live from invoice to invoice, spend it as they make it, and scramble to get money in before the bills are due. That system doesn’t work, and it makes them unhappy. Therein lies one of the longer-term benefits of using a solid bookkeeping application: it analyses your business over time and reports to you. ANALYSIS
I can tell you within 30 seconds how much money my business has generated this month, this quarter and this financial year. I can tell you how much I made this month compared with how much I made in the same month last year. I can tell you who my biggest clients are and by what margin, and I can tell you what my biggest expenses are. I can even tell you – with a reasonable degree of accuracy – how much tax I’ll be liable for this year. I can get all of this information without even leaving the homepage of my bookkeeping application, and without any real work on my part. The knock-on effect of having all this information at your fingertips is that it helps you make better business decisions. If your bookkeeping app tells you that this month is always a quiet month, every year, then it’s obviously not the right time to buy that vintage Neumann you’ve had your eye on. That kind of information also helps you to prepare in advance so that you have some money in the bank for the quiet periods. The year I began properly using bookkeeping software I estimate I had 20% more money in my back pocket at all times, even though I earned almost exactly the same as I did the year before. That’s a lot of beer and tacos you could be leaving on the table! GROWTH
Equipped with your bookkeeping software and its analytical capabilities, you’ll soon know if your business is growing, shrinking or stagnating. In an ideal world, an amount of growth that you can handle is a best case scenario. If your business has plateaued or, worse still, is in decline, you need to ask yourself why. Engineers and producers who had their most successful years in the ’80s will be climbing over themselves at this point to tell you it’s because of the demise of the music industry, music piracy, home studios, Katy Perry, UFOs and
the government. The truth is the only person responsible for the growth of your business is you. Blaming outside factors is saying you have no control, and having no control is no good. I have a three-tiered system for ensuring that my business as a freelance music producer remains in growth. It probably won’t work for your business in this exact form, but it might help you to develop your own strategies to keep that profit/loss line moving up and to the right. No one wants to find themselves earning less when they’re 40 than they did when they were 30, but that’s the risk you run by not focussing on growth in your business. The first tier to my system is to do everything I can to ensure that every client I work with will want to work with me again. That means working really hard on every project, and making every record count. You’re probably already doing this, unless you’ve hit that period that everyone in our industry does where you actually resent your clients. If that’s the case it’s time to wake up to yourself because if you don’t make them come back, they’re going elsewhere. Be the guy the band whines to about the last guy, not the guy they’re whining about. Be nice, be friendly, be a badass, be awesome at your job. Do that at a price that makes sense to your client and follow up with them on a regular basis, and you can be their producer for life. Win four new ‘clients for life’ a year and you’ll have more work than you can handle before you know it. The added advantage of this behaviour will be solid word-of-mouth promotion — the best kind! Pro tip: keeping clients coming back has nothing to do with gear, so stop spending! The second tier to my system is to spend at least one hour per week doing what I call ‘business development’. That’s anything that has to do with growing my business. Sometimes it’s trawling back through my emails and social media messages to make sure I didn’t leave a lead hanging or a conversation unfinished. Sometimes it’s working on my website, or trying to develop promotions that might lead to more work. Sometimes it’s inviting someone for a coffee or a beer to chat about music, and sometimes it’s collaborating with someone free of charge in the hope of generating work down the line. Whatever it is, you have to put aside time to do it or it won’t get done. The best part about this tier is that I can do it with a TV show running in the background, a beer in my hand, or both! The third tier to my system is developing income streams that aren’t directly related to producing and mixing bands, so that there is money coming in from elsewhere during the quiet times. For me this includes things like teaching one day a week at an audio college, building audio equipment to sell via my other business (NF Audio), and one-on-one Pro Tools lessons. Anything you can build in to your business that will remain standing while your main income streams are having a lie down for a moment is good. There’s no shame in having a side hustle.
a lot of people live from invoice to invoice, spend it as they make it, and scramble to get money in before the bills are due. That system doesn’t work
AT 25
THE FUTURE
Pro tip: $100k invested into a low-fee index-balanced superannuation fund appreciates faster than any vintage console
Audio professionals are notoriously bad with their personal finances and even worse with planning for their futures. Many I know have more than one microphone that cost them more than the price of a used car, but not a cent in superannuation or anything else in place for when their bodies can no longer withstand 12 hour days and six day weeks in recording studios. For the following information, I must stress that I am not a financial advisor and you should not necessarily apply my systems without seeking advice from your accountant, financial advisor and/or lawyer. When you’re employed in Australia your employer is legally required to invest the equivalent of 9.5% of your wage into a superannuation fund on your behalf. Those contributions cease the moment you leave the safety net of that employment and begin your life as a freelance producer/engineer, and it is then your responsibility to plan for your retirement. You aren’t legally required to make contributions to your superannuation, but no one else is going to do it for you. Retirement probably seems like a long way away, and you probably feel like you could continue being a music producer until the day you die. The reality is that one day you’ll be sick of it, or your clients will be sick of you. Starting to build your nest egg as early as possible might make the difference between retiring in a beachside house with an incredible home studio in which to tinker away the rest of your days, or living in a caravan park with not even two dollar coins to rub together. Planning for your future may not be as fun as planning to buy a new guitar, compressor or monitor speakers, but neither is stressing about your electricity bill or groceries when you’re 70. And don’t even start with “But my gear is an investment!” Pro tip: $100k invested into a low-fee index-balanced superannuation fund appreciates faster than any vintage console, microphone or electric guitar. The thing I wish someone had explained to me when I went freelance is that if you don’t continue to make contributions to your superannuation after leaving full-time employment, not only might it stop growing, it might start shrinking – thanks to the sometimes exorbitant and arguably unethical fees and charges applied by some superannuation fund managers. If you don’t know where all of your superannuation is and how much you might have, go and find out! Google ‘find super’ and follow your nose. If you have bits of superannuation sitting around in different funds, move it all into one lowfee low-cost account, start adding your own contributions, and watch it grow. FINANCE FRIDAYS
To keep my personal and future finances in check I’ve developed my own system that I call ‘Finance Fridays’ (very nerdy, I know), which I implement each and every week. It takes me about 15 minutes. AT 26
Every Friday morning I sit down with a coffee and sort out my finances for the week. First, I total the amount of income the business generated in the last seven days and I immediately transfer 9.5% of that to my superannuation fund; just like an employer would do. Second, I take a percentage of the week’s earnings (calculated based on my tax obligations) and transfer that into an account linked to my business account that is specifically for tax savings. Come tax time, there is usually enough in that account to pay my tax bill immediately. Finally, I move around 70% of what’s left to my personal bank account for my life expenses: savings, beer money, rent at home, and the rest. The amount that remains in the business account is for business-related expenses, such as the studio rent and equipment purchases. With this system I know I’m planning for my future, I know how much I’m allowed to spend that week, and I know that the studio bills will always be covered. My specific system may not work for your circumstances, but that’s not the point. The take-away from all of this is that if you’re not dedicating some actual time and effort to the way your money comes in and goes out of your business then I doubt you’re setting yourself up for success in the future. DO IT YOURSELF!
So there you have it. Over the last two issues I’ve described what I consider to be the bare minimum any freelance producer/engineer should know when running a small business. You could (and probably should!) dig deeper, research further and develop an understanding of business that positions you for success. While not as fun or sexy as reading about the newest plug-in or compressor, time invested in yourself and your business will give back 10 times as much in the long run. So take my advice and develop your own systems of money management. It actually makes your life easier, and you may even come to enjoy it!
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REGULARS
PC Audio Where’s all that drive space gone? There’s probably plenty of audio stuff you can safely delete with suitable tools. Column: Martin Walker
It always makes sense to keep plenty of free disk space on your drives, to provide working space and buffers. However, now that so many of us are relying on much smaller solid state drives to host Windows, it’s much easier to fill them up without really trying. For instance, I recently ran into a ‘no drive space available’ error part way through a long and involved batch process, sample rate converting a huge collection of audio files. I was a bit surprised, especially since when I started this task I still had 8GB available on my solid state drive. Now it claimed to only have a miniscule 18MB available, insufficient to complete the task; which is why my audio application had bombed out. CCLEANER IS BETTER
The first thing to do in such a scenario is to run some sort of cleanup routine. I still periodically use the freeware version of the CCleaner utility (www. ccleaner.com), which not only removes a wide variety of temporary files from your drives, but can also scan for and remove issues in your Windows Registry, manage any System Restore points, as well as seeing what programs get run each time you PC starts up (sometimes sneakily added by developers whether you want them or not), and what plug-ins have been set to run each time your Internet browser is launched. I ran this as usual, but it only found and then removed a few hundred megabytes of temporary files, mostly used by my browser. CCleaner can also analyse your drives in a basic fashion so you can see what’s taking up most space — the output is a simple bar chart with different colours displaying the proportion of your chosen drive devoted to Pictures, Music, Documents, Video, and Other files. This can be a really useful function, but for a musician it can still occasionally feel like you’re searching for a needle in a haystack. My next port of call was Windows’ own Disk Cleanup utility, which apart from the usual temporary files also searches for any Service Pack backup and Windows Update Cleanup files, lets you delete your most recent System Restore point (which CCleaner by default wisely ignores for system safety), and disposes of any Windows Error Reports. However, this didn’t really find much that CCleaner hadn’t already dealt with, so I had to explore somewhat more deeply than normal.
AT 28
WINDIRSTAT TO THE RESCUE
Now at this point I reach for the free third-party utility WinDirStat (https://windirstat.net/), which is described as a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows. It’s known to run from Windows 95, through Windows 98, ME, NT4 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1, and although the website doesn’t specifically mention Windows 10 there are plenty of people using it on this latest version, as well. Its opening graphic display doesn’t impress, but once you’ve chosen one or more drives in your PC it will scan through all the files and present its results in three main graphic areas. This can take a few minutes, especially for a large drive, but it’s well worth the wait. At top left there’s a familiarlooking directory tree displaying all the folders and subfolders on your drive, now sorted from biggest to smallest by how much space they take up. To the right of this is the extension list, which provides a neat breakdown and statistics for all the various file types (each of the most common is displayed in a different colour, along with totals for how much space has been used by each type of file and the percentage of the total). Notwithstanding, it’s the third area across the bottom of the display that provides the real revelation. Its ‘treemap’ visualisation of your hard disk contents shows each file as a coloured rectangle whose onscreen area is proportional to its filesize. Folders also make up larger rectangles containing all of their files and subfolders, so their area is proportional to the size of the subtrees. Cushion shading is also used to highlight each different area of the overall structure, and you can zoom in and out at will. As often happens, a picture is worth a thousand words, so you can see a typical WinDirStat display at the top of this column. THE WOOD FROM THE TREEMAP
The biggest single rectangle on my C:Windows drive belonged to the Windows Pagefile, followed by various Windows installer files, but the most significant proportion of my drive was taken up with DLL files (around 30%), System files (14%), and Applications (8%). However, this very clever visual mapping makes it far easier to spot large groups of similar files that may be taking up far more space than expected, and, sure enough, I soon spotted a huge chunk of temporary files belonging
to Wavelab, which had been carrying out my batch sample rate conversion. I was able to click on this area in the treemap, open the appropriate folder in the standard Windows Explorer utility, and then delete the lot of them, which turned out to be some 7GB in total. While I was about it, I examined various other areas in the treemap that looked suspiciously large, and was able to recover 8GB in total on my SSD without breaking a sweat. Once any biggies have been dealt with, you can now try clicking on the TMP file extension in the extension list to see if there are any other temporary files lurking elsewhere – most can probably be safely deleted, gaining you yet more space on your drive. CACHE ON DEMAND
It’s also a very useful exercise to find out where your chosen audio applications store temporary and cache files – many let you choose a folder location for these, or at the very least tell you where the defaults are. Even after I’d deleted the morass of temporary files following my sample rate batch catastrophe, peering through the Wavelab Options menu helped me discover a further 770MB of redundant cache data that could safely be deleted. The CCleaner utility lets you add custom files and folders to be removed, so you can in future achieve this cleanup automatically. Auto-save functions have saved most of us at some time or another, so make sure your audio apps have theirs enabled (typically you can adjust the auto-save interval, but every 10 minutes seems to be a good compromise). This may avoid you losing work in the event of a PC crash. It’s always worth archiving your completed audio projects too, as then you can safely dispose of all sorts of temporary files that may not have ended up being used in that project, plus autosaved backup files that you no longer need. For a freeware utility, WinDirStat can be a revelation!
AT 29
REVIEW
RØDE TF-5
Matched Pair Cardioid Condenser Microphones Three years ago, word got out that Røde was working on a new range of high-end microphones designed in conjunction with classical recording engineer Tony Faulkner. The TF-5 matched pair is the first commercial offering. Was it worth the wait?
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Greg Simmons
PRICE Expect to pay A$1999 CONTACT Røde: (02) 9648 5855 info@rode.com www.rode.com
AT 30
PROS Easy and fast for getting a good sound. Beautifully engineered and finished. Visually unobtrusive. Price includes Røde’s Stereo Bar.
CONS Relatively low peak SPL level.
SUMMARY The TF-5 package is a complete stereo miking kit, featuring a pair of Røde’s new generation TF-5 small single-diaphragm cardioid condensers and Røde’s Stereo Bar. The microphones have been developed in conjunction with legendary classical recording engineer Tony Faulkner, and punch above their weight for recording acoustic music.
In January 2016 I was at the Sydney Opera House watching Grammy Award-winning engineer Tony Faulkner setting up to record a live performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. All the microphones were Rødes, and among the collection were some prototypes that included a pair of small single-diaphragm condensers. They were hanging above the stage by the time I got there, so I couldn’t get a close look. Tony referred to them as his “thinking man’s reverb” mics and said, “They look remarkably like NT5s with omni capsules, but these are revised capsules and electronics and they’ve got a flat black finish”. You can find that quote in my interview with Tony [‘Stereo Masterclass’, Issue 115 of AudioTechnology], along with further discussion of the work he’d been doing with Røde to develop new microphones. Three and a half years later, after much speculation online and off, Røde presents the TF-5: a small single-diaphragm cardioid condenser mic with a flat black finish, sold in matched pairs. Gone is the traditional ‘NT’ prefix, replaced by Tony Faulkner’s initials. Could the TF-5 be a cardioid version of the mics I saw hanging above the stage at the Sydney Opera House? SURPRISINGLY LARGE, SURPRISINGLY SMALL
The TF-5 matched pair’s packaging is surprisingly large for something containing two small condenser microphones. Sliding off the outer sleeve reveals a box made of stiff card, about 3mm thick, with a black finish. It’s not polished wood and it’s not injection-moulded plastic, but it’s good enough to ship its contents safely around the world and therefore it’s good enough to carry them to your next gig. Give it a layer of gaffer tape and it will probably last a lifetime. The TF-5 itself is surprisingly smaller and heavier than expected, measuring 99mm long and 20mm diameter, and weighing a satisfying 114g — it would be easier to believe you’re holding a solid metal rod rather than a microphone. In comparison, Neumann’s KM184 is bigger all around at 107mm long and 22mm diameter, but considerably lighter at 80g. The box seemed unnecessarily large until I noticed the fabric tabs at the sides. Pulling them upwards lifted out the upper tray holding the mics and clips, revealing a lower tray with a pair of foam wind filters, and, happily, Røde’s Stereo Bar. The inclusion of the Stereo Bar means the TF-5 matched pair is a complete ‘stereo-miking-with-cardioids’ package, BYO stand and cables. There’s also a small hardcover booklet with full-colour pics, specs and background information about the TF-5.
condensers from Schoeps, DPA, Sennheiser and Neumann. Two things that most of these revered mics have in common are relatively flat frequency responses and consistent polar responses across a range of frequencies. Microphones that exhibit these qualities are generally referred to as being ‘accurate’. Throughout the TF-5’s promotional materials, Røde have downplayed the term ‘accurate’ in favour of ‘natural’. I’m guessing that’s because the TF-5 does not objectively qualify as ‘accurate’; it does not have a flat frequency response, and it does not have consistent polar responses across a range of frequencies. On paper, at least, the much older NT5 outperforms it in those respects. After using the TF-5 and being puzzled by how the resulting sound was much better than its frequency response and polar responses suggested, I wondered if there was more to those deviations than meets the eye. Or ear. There’s not enough room in this review to go into it with detail, but here’s what I’ve noticed. The dips in the frequency response correspond with areas in the polar response that get wider than they’re supposed to, and the peaks in the frequency response correspond with areas of the polar response that get narrower than they’re supposed to. Also, the size of those peaks and dips in the frequency response are roughly proportional to the size of their corresponding deviations in the polar responses. Assuming the TF-5’s published frequency response was measured at 30cm and can therefore be considered an on-axis measurement made under anechoic conditions, it would be easy to believe that the unusual dip at 80Hz (which starts at 45Hz and ends at 150Hz) was engineered into the TF-5 to balance the effect of the additional low frequency energy entering from behind, as shown in the 125Hz polar response. This would allow plenty of low frequency energy/reverberation (stuff that audiophiles refer to as ‘bloom’) to enter the rear of the microphone without making it
bass-heavy. Meanwhile, the subtle boost at 1kHz works with the slightly narrower-than-cardioid directionality shown in the 1kHz polar response, compensating for the lower sensitivity from the sides at 1kHz by adding a touch more emphasis on-axis. Finally, the upper midrange dip from 4kHz to 5kHz works in conjunction with the wider directionality shown at the rear of the 4kHz polar response to tame on-axis performance noises (bow noise, fret sounds, etc.) while also giving off-axis reverberation a small boost in clarity. Could the combined effect of these deviations result in a microphone that is subjectively more ‘accurate’ than it measures, and therefore sounds ‘natural’? I suspect that measuring the TF-5’s frequency response in a reverberant environment, where sound energy can arrive at the microphone from all directions with equal probability, would yield a much flatter result.
You could probably put them in front of any acoustic instrument or ensemble and get an acceptable sound very quickly, and a great sound with a little more time.
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SPECIFICALLY SPEAKING
The TF-5’s association with Tony Faulkner makes it clear that it’s intended for recording acoustic music. It can be used in a stereo pair to capture an entire ensemble, as a spot-mic on an individual instrument within an ensemble, or as a close mic in the studio. Browse through any online forum for people who specialise in recording acoustic music and you’ll find that the most revered mics are typically small single-diaphragm
180°
180°
TF-5 frequency response: shaded areas correspond with deviations in polar responses. TF-5’s polar responses at 125Hz (blue) and 1kHz (red). Increased sensitivity to low frequencies from behind coincides with low frequency dip in frequency response curve (blue shaded area).
180°
TF-5’s polar response at 1kHz (red) compared to standard cardioid polar response (yellow). Decreased sensitivity to midrange at sides and rear coincides with midrange boost in frequency response curve (yellow shaded area). TF-5’s polar responses at 4kHz (green) and 1kHz (red). Increased sensitivity to upper midrange frequencies from sides and rear coincides with upper midrange dip in frequency response curve (green shaded area).
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WHO IS TONY FAULKNER? To engineers who work in classical music, Tony Faulkner needs no introduction. He’s one of the world’s most respected classical music recording engineers with hundreds, maybe thousands, of commercial releases to his name (including many top sellers), along with numerous awards and nominations. He’s also got two very effective microphone techniques to his name – the Two-Way Phased Array and the Four-Way Phased Array – the latter (and variations of it) being a standard for many engineers who regularly record live orchestral performances. You can find his website here http://greenroomproductions.biz/ and read my interview with him here www.audiotechnology.com/stereo-masterclass
OTHER SPECS
The TF-5’s self-noise of 14dBA puts it right in the ballpark of similar mics from Neumann, DPA, Schoeps and Sennheiser. Its 68Ω output impedance should be fine for driving long cable runs, while its relatively high 7mA current requirement remains within the 10mA maximum specified for phantom power. The maximum SPL of 120dB for 1% THD is relatively low, but when considered alongside its high sensitivity of 35mV/Pa it’s clear that the TF-5 is intended for use with acoustic instruments and/ or distant miking. I wouldn’t be putting one inside a kick drum or facing into the bell of a trumpet, but I’d have no hesitation using one to spot mic any instrument in an orchestral recording that was soft enough to require spotting, or use a pair to record a big symphonic piece from anywhere above and behind the conductor. IN USE
I tested the TF-5s on everything from drum kits, acoustic guitars and grand pianos to bamboo flutes and singing bowls. Those recordings formed the motivation behind my earlier speculation about the symbiosis between the TF-5’s frequency response and polar responses. Whether intentional or not, it’s very effective. Among other things, it creates a microphone that is fast and easy to use when recording acoustic instruments and ensembles. ACOUSTIC GUITAR
I made some comparison recordings using acoustic guitars in a recording studio, choosing two mics as reference points: Neumann’s similarly priced KM184, and DPA’s considerably more expensive 4011. Between them I aimed to create a set of comparisons that allowed the listener to determine where the TF-5 sat on the price/performance scale. You can read about those comparison recordings in this issue’s Last Word, or scroll down to ‘Hear For Yourself ’ to listen to them. There are times when any one of the three mics could be the preference, depending on the strings, the type of playing and what the recording was destined for. For close-miking applications where the acoustic guitar is intended to feature in a complex multitrack recording, most engineers accustomed to working in popular music or rock AT 32
would prefer the edgier sound of the KM184 in the belief that it would cut through the mix better. For applications where the guitar was a background textural element or a more natural sound was required, the mellower tones of the TF-5 would be the preference. Things get more black and white against the 4011. There are times when it is an obvious preference over the TF-5, and times when it brings out too much of the performance noises such as plectrums and ‘zinging’ metallic string resonances that are hard to fix with EQ. In those cases the TF-5 gives a much more ready-to-use sound. It’s important to note that throughout these comparisons the TF-5 is never out of the game, whether rubbing shoulders with the similarly priced KM184 or punching above its weight against the more expensive 4011. Whenever the TF-5 comes out second best, it’s a close second – and that’s against two mics that have been used for recording acoustic guitar for decades and have therefore helped to define our ideas of what an acoustic guitar recording is supposed to sound like. DRUM OVERHEAD
With a few minutes left at the end of the guitar session we quickly put up the TF-5 and the comparison microphones in a drum overhead position about a metre above the the crash cymbal and hi-hats, primarily to test it on cymbals. The TF-5 was clearly preferable here, with cleaner cymbals plus stronger and more extended low frequencies – a finding that seemed at odds with the published frequency response and its -1.5dB dip at 80Hz, adding credence to my earlier speculation. The in-house engineer described it as sounding as if he’d put parallel compression on the TF-5 but not on the others. I agreed with his observations; the TF-5 delivered a richer and more solid bottom end. Also, although the 4011 and the KM184 were in the same position as the TF-5, both sounded roomier; particularly on the kick drum. The preference for the TF-5 here was a no-brainer. UNCANNY KNACK
The TF-5 has an uncanny knack for capturing more of the sounds you want to hear and less of the sounds you don’t. The best examples of this were the recordings of the singing bowls and the bansuri (transverse bamboo flute). Singing bowls
have a relatively low output with very little high frequency content to mask the sound of the rod rubbing around the edges to get them resonating. The bansuri has a similar problem, but with blowing sounds. I’ve recorded both instruments before and, given a choice, I’d never use a small single-diaphragm condenser for these applications, preferring the lower self-noise and mellower upper midrange of a large dual-diaphragm. The performance spaces were average-sized rooms in a house with concrete/brick walls, polished tiled floors and lots of windows. From the moment I entered the room for the singing bowl recording I knew I was up for a challenge, so I switched to a ‘small room’ mentality: aiming to minimise early reflections while staying far enough back from the sound source to get something natural. A similar approach was used for recording the bansuri in an adjacent room. In both sessions it was surprisingly fast and easy to find the right microphone placement and, with the help of judiciously placed cushions to tame early reflections, some very good results were achieved. The TF-5’s shallow dip in the upper midrange kept the performance noises at bay without requiring the mic to be moved too far off-axis from the point of excitation, while its relatively low self-noise meant that hiss wasn’t a problem — even against sounds that did not have much high frequency content to mask it. I found it easy to get recordings that had enough of the performance noises for articulation without becoming obtrusive. Nor are those performance noises ‘harsh’ or ‘etched’ — as often results from using small singlediaphragm condensers. Everyone agreed that the performance noises were in the correct perspective relative to the music. GRAND PIANO
No review of a mic with the TF-5’s background would be complete without testing it on a grand piano. In previous mic reviews I’ve had access to well-maintained Steinways played by some of the world’s finest concert pianists in beautiful concert halls. No such opportunities came up during the review period for the TF-5s, but I’m sure other reviewers will get something out there. I was, however, very fortunate to meet an excellent concert pianist who owned a grand piano; a Yamaha G3 in a small room with about 1.5m
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They sound good enough to be considered ‘special’, but are priced low enough to be considered ‘work horses’
of space on all sides. It wasn’t a Steinway and it wasn’t a concert hall, but it was a well-maintained piano in the hands of an excellent performer, and I’m always up for a recording challenge. I aimed to capture a ‘direct but distant’ sound with minimal first order reflections and no strong attack transients from the hammers — the type of recording that, with a bit of reverberation, might sound like it was recorded from a further distance in a larger space. Taking the mics in hand and moving around the piano while monitoring in headphones, I quickly found a position that delivered the tonality I was after (albeit at the expense of a better stereo image), locked the mics into the Stereo Bar, and started recording. I came away from that ‘small piano in small room’ scenario with some very acceptable recordings, made from two different locations around the piano. Despite being less than 2m away from the hammers in both cases, the attack transients were never hard or edgy, and there was very little on-axis ‘pinging’ from the highest notes. The low frequencies are warm and clear but not as pronounced as I was hoping for; I do not know how much of that was due to the size of the piano, the microphone placement, the inherent low frequency roll-off of cardioids at distances greater than 30cm, and the mics themselves. Nonetheless, the pianist was very impressed and commented that it made the piano sound much bigger than it was. (See ‘Hear For Yourself ’ to check out those recordings.) LIVING IN STEREO
With the exception of the guitar comparisons discussed earlier, all the recordings mentioned here were made in stereo; all in difficult acoustic conditions and all with very little set up time, using near-coincident mic placements created on-the-spot by holding one TF-5 in each in hand while monitoring on headphones to find the best distance, height, spacing and angles before locking them in to the supplied Stereo Bar. All recordings turned out to be very acceptable, and I left a trail of happy musicians behind me. I also found that I could go to quite wide angles between the TF-5s before sounds coming from the centre showed any significant changes in tonality. This is an often overlooked consideration when using directional microphones at wide AT 34
subtended angles, whether in near-coincident or XY configurations. The popular ORTF technique, defined as two cardioids 17cm apart with a subtended angle of 110°, provides a good example. Typically placed a metre or so above and behind the conductor in an orchestral setting, the 110° subtended angle means the instruments to the far sides of the orchestra (violins left, cellos and basses right) are essentially on-axis to the microphones, while the instruments in the centre of the orchestra (violas and woodwinds) are arriving at up to 55° off-axis. If the microphones are duller to sounds arriving at 55° than they are to sounds arriving on-axis (due to inconsistent polar responses), the violas and woodwinds will be duller than the violins, cellos and basses — which is the last thing those instruments need, and usually leads to the addition of spot mics. I found no such problems with the TF-5s at subtended angles up to 120°, which is about the widest anyone is likely to use with a pair of cardioids. For all the stereo recordings made during the review period I stuck with the included Stereo Bar, so that I was reviewing the TF-5s as a complete ‘stereo miking with cardioids’ package. The Stereo Bar allows a maximum distance of 20cm between microphone clips, which many would consider too short for a general purpose stereo bar, but it’s wide enough for all of the standard two-mic stereo techniques that use cardioids.
so on. I also expect to see them in the microphone cupboards of many concert halls and performance venues, and wouldn’t be surprised to see a dedicated pair hanging from the ceiling as default recording mics. Finally, I would not be surprised if they became a popular choice with home studios and recording musicians because they make it quick and easy to get an acceptable sound, even on difficult instruments. Are the TF-5s an evolved cardioid version of the mics I saw above the stage at the Sydney Opera House? I’ve no idea, but I can tell you this much: they’re a beautifully-engineered matched pair of microphones that were worth the wait. They sound good enough to be considered ‘special’, but are priced low enough to be considered ‘work horses’. You could probably put them in front of any acoustic instrument or ensemble and get an acceptable sound very quickly, and a great sound with a little more time. If you’re a working pro looking for more mics to expand your kit, or you’re ready to move up from project to pro, I honestly cannot see the point in looking beyond a pair of TF-5s – unless you’ve already got them. In closing, I am reminded of a line from Tony Faulkner in one of the promotional videos, “Take them out of the box, stick two of them on a stand with the Stereo Bar, and enjoy how natural they sound.” That sums up my impression, too. It’s that easy.
SPECIAL WORK HORSE
To my ears, the The TF-5 holds its own against mics costing twice its price, and the differences in the comparison recordings do not come down to an overall better or worse; rather, it’s mostly a choice between hyper-detailed or natural. Many times during the review process the TF-5 felt like an easygoing hybrid that offered the speed and precision of a small diaphragm with the smoother and mellower upper midrange of a large diaphragm, along with an occasional hint of ribbon roundness. It has a similar low midrange warmth as the Røde NT6/NT45-O combination, but the TF-5 has greater harmonic detail in that area, along with the directionality of a cardioid and its interesting symbiosis between the frequency response and polar responses. I expect many studios will buy TF-5s as their main pair for drum overheads, acoustic guitars and
HEAR FOR YOURSELF During the course of this review I had the opportunity to make some comparison recordings that put the TF-5 against Neumann’s similarly priced KM184 and DPA’s considerably more expensive 4011. You can hear those recordings at the link below, and read about the process of making them in this issue’s Last Word. I will also try to include some of the other recordings that have been mentioned in this review, pending permission from the musicians. Go to: www.soundcloud.com/audiotechnology
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REVIEW
SENNHEISER IE 500 PRO In-ear Monitors Review: Rob Holder
Like a featherweight thrown into the ring against a super-heavyweight, Sennheiser’s IE 500 Pros come up against the big, burly flagships from the likes of Westone and Shure. Packing eight and four drivers respectively, they push huge sounds through generic nozzles. The 500s look like they’ll barely tickle their adversaries with one single dynamic driver in tow, but dude! These IEMs pack a knockout punch. HOW TO BE SINGLE
NEED TO KNOW
Everything about the IE500’s design stems from that core feature, its tiny transducer [see sidebar]. The units are small, impressively light, and solidly built from no-nonsense clear or ‘Smoky Black’ plastic. Getting them in your ears is easy — the small size, mouldable earhook and range of eartips make it a breeze — and subsequent wear secure. Though an easy fit, the isolation offered in this design leaves a little to be desired. Westone and Shure quote <36dB isolation, while these just <26dB. Once turned up on stage though, this doesn’t seem to make much difference thanks to their ultra-low distortion levels, but it is noticeable compared to the competition. The separation from your eardrum that a nozzle-less design brings may hurt isolation, but it does help with the best part of the experience here: the soundstage. It’s wide and all sources are super clear; the depth (or lack thereof) in a mix is evident from left to right as well as frequency-wise — HF sits high, and subs low… almost physically so. Most impressive are the way shimmery reverbs are presented. On a particular vocal, the high frequencies emanate from the centre like a firework and then settle across the stereo spectrum — impressive engineering accurately reproduced. PRICE RRP$1149 CONTACT Sennheiser: (02) 9910 6700 or www.sennheiser.com
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PROS Expansive soundstage Flawless sound signature Lightweight and comfortable
DYNAMICS: WHAT, WHY & HOW? Both the IE400 and 500 Pros feature Sennie’s brand new TrueResponse 7mm dynamic driver, each unit’s sole transducer, causing them to stand out among their balanced armature-driven competitors. Just like the driver you’d find in Apple earbuds, this is a miniature speaker, with a moving coil and a diaphragm. So how does it sound so much better? Jannik Schentek, Sennheiser’s professional audio product manager, describes it like an orchestra. All parts must perfectly synchronise together. The company has been working on these drivers for years over many product generations and lines,
ONE SPEAKER, ONE SOUND
So, the sound. The IE500 Pros offer a warm reference response — pleasing without being fatiguing. The LF detail is amazing — it’s crazy to think that these 7mm drivers are producing the low-end rumble of a Hans Zimmer soundtrack or the subby goodness of EDM. It’s not only extended but also punchy and precise, rendering kick drums and bass beautifully accurately. Highs are also extremely impressive, present and serving the scratchy intricacies of close miked strings very well. The 500s are touted as the most mid-centric of the series, and while I found them accurate and pleasing, they weren’t quite as forward as my Shuretuned ears are accustomed to. In short, the 500s produce damn-near the best sound one can get from an IEM. To put all this fact and opinion in context, we CONS Less isolation than competitors
and now use the highest quality raw materials and manufacture in house to build these 7mm beauties. It’s a different philosophy to multi-driver models, which rely on clean crossovers, nozzles and filters to combine for the perfect sound, filling in frequency ranges with individual drivers. Sennheiser admits that it’s not easy getting this kind of performance out of a dynamic driver, but it’s worth the effort for the ‘clearer, more precise and natural sound’. You’re also getting super low distortion (quoted 0.08% total harmonic distortion), since all sounds are emanating from one place, untouched by extra circuitry.
must address the elephant in the room. These are generic IEMs. And they have a recommended retail price in excess of $1000. For that kind of money, you could get a decent pair of customs, with perfectly acceptable sound and a perfect fit, not to mention far better isolation. So why opt for the IE500 Pros? An audiophile listening to Tidal on the bus would love them: easy to pop in and out, incredible signature and soundstage. Those on stage will miss out on some isolation, but with low distortion, you can turn these up nice and loud without hurting your ears or losing clarity. If you get a good stereo monitor send going, I can’t imagine a more pleasing way of monitoring yours and your band’s sound. Want some of the best sounding in-ears out there? Grab a pair. Just don’t go dropping them in the loo.
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REVIEW
SSL SiX
Desktop Mixer SSL’s SiX offers two input channel strips with mic preamps, EQ and compression, along with two stereo line input channels, mix bus compression based on their legendary G series technology, comprehensive monitoring controls, up to 12 channels of summing/mixing, and more.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Greg Walker
PRICE Expect to pay $2249
CONTACT Amber Technology Ltd 1800 251 367 www.ambertech.com.au
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PROS Great sound and design smarts combined in a small footprint. Feature-rich master section with good I/O and routing options. Up to 12 inputs on mixdown. Tracking and mixing solution in one. Talkback mic input includes switchable Listen Mic Compressor.
CONS EQs and dynamics offer limited controls. No mini-jack input. Short power cable and external PSU are irritating. Recessed rear power switch hard to access. No inserts on stereo channels.
SUMMARY SSL’s SiX punches above its weight in terms of audio performance and versatility. The preamps, line inputs and mix path all deliver excellent results and the onboard EQ and dynamics, while limited, help deliver satisfyingly musical results on a wide range of sources. A comprehensive master section, generous I/O and routing options open up the unit’s capabilities and 12 channels can be summed at mix down, making the SiX a genuine double treat as a tracking and summing box.
For most professional engineers the name ‘SSL’ (Solid State Logic) conjures up a heady blend of sonic excellence and commercial success, based on their legendary large-format consoles. The SSL sound was, and to a large degree still is, the sound of big-time hit records across the world. If you’re listening to current commercial Hip Hop, RnB, Rap or Pop, there’s a good chance you’re listening to the sound of an SSL console. With manufacturing based in sunny Oxfordshire, England, the price of entry was never cheap, but over the years the company has done its best to cater for well-heeled owner/operators with the streamlined yet powerful Matrix line. For the budget-conscious, the X-Desk and Sigma models offered stripped back feature sets with high-calibre back-end summing. With the rise and rise of the DAW-based home studio and the drop in recording budgets across the industry, SSL have responded by establishing a second manufacturing base in China, allowing them to bring a new suite of budgetconscious designs to market. The SSL SiX ‘minimixer’ (I have to call it that because it’s too petite to refer to even as a ‘mixer’) is an interesting offering that has been brought to market below the magical US$2000 mark, and aims to give the masses a taste of big-time SSL magic. ALL ABOARD
So what is this ‘SSL magic’ we speak of? Is it the sound of the channel EQ with its powerful tone-sculpting capabilities and pleasing top-end fizz? Could it be the wallop of the famed mix bus compressor? Perhaps it’s the channel dynamics, or the happy accident that the talk-back compressor begs to have drums smashed through it? Maybe it’s the musicality and high headroom of the mix bus itself? I suspect these are all questions that the boffins at SSL asked themselves repeatedly when designing the SiX. Going by its layout and featureset, it seems they’ve decided that the ‘SSL magic’ is, in fact, all of the above. By means of some clever abbreviations to their classic designs, and a good deal of research and development, the SiX offers an unusually rich feature-set for something that looks alarmingly like the mini-mixer your local covers duo sets up at the pub on Sundays. As I pulled the SiX out of its nifty 21st Century style packaging I found myself wondering what corners had been cut in the process of delivering all these features at this price point, and whether the SiX could perform well enough to be taken seriously as a genuine mini-heir to the SSL throne. POCKET ROCKET SOCKETS
First impressions are always telling, and I found myself immediately warming to the SiX despite its diminutive size and Sunday pub aesthetics. For starters, it fitted perfectly on the flat space in front of the patchbay of my somewhat larger console. A bit of knob twiddling, fader throwing and button pushing quickly confirmed a nice build quality with all controls feeling solid under the fingers and the full 100mm throw on the faders being a reassuringly ‘pro’ feature. Small pots for EQ, panning and input gain make accurate recalls
problematic, but otherwise there was little to complain about with the general layout. The six main input channels (two mono, two stereo) all have informative LED metering, and small LED meters help gauge the operation of the compressors on the input channels and on the master bus. Larger square buttons take care of channel mutes, master dim and cut, while in the EQ and master sections the smaller buttons are pretty tightly packed. A quick scan around the board reveals some pleasant surprises such as PFL buttons on the main channels, an Alt monitoring chain, and a secondary ‘B’ bus with independent volume control. The more you look the more you find, and these are pro-level features you wouldn’t expect to see on something this size. The master section is surprisingly rich in resources and, amongst other things, is an extremely capable monitor controller and signal routing system.
The EQs added nice clarity and sheen to vocals and drums, while the compressors offered muscularity and weight to bass and kick drum sounds.
Mic Compressor (LMC) rounds out this easily accessible panel. On the recessed back panel there’s a small power switch and a five-pin power socket from where the supplied (but awkwardly short) power cable connects to an external plastic PSU with an IEC socket at the other end. This cost-cutting appendage aside, the rear panel also offers generous I/O options including TRS pairs for the two stereo foldback cue outputs, the main and alternative monitor outputs, and the Bus B output. The main mix bus outputs are on a pair of balanced XLRs. Two DB25 sockets take care of insert points for channels and the main mix, with the main mix bus output and monitor output duplicated here. This further flurry of I/O really ups the flexibility of the SiX and, together with the well-endowed master section, means it is quite capable of being your studio hub – taking care of reasonably complex headphone set-ups, multiple monitors and input sources. Thoughtful features like independent talkback buttons for the two foldback channels, a dim switch with its own level pot, and insert points for the mono channels and main mix bus really extend the range and flexibility of the SiX. The inserts invite outboard analogue processors into the mix chain and draw the SiX deeper into the conversation when it comes to summing solutions – although I immediately wished for inserts on the stereo channels to open up the possibilities even more. The absence of a mini-jack input, the cheap PSU and the poor accessibility of the power switch are my only minor gripes in what is an otherwise impressively compact and feature-laden unit. FROM LITTLE THINGS...
At just under 27cm wide and 30cm deep, and weighing in at a hefty 3.5kg, the SiX is a petite but solid unit with a lot going on in a small space – although it’s easy to ‘read’ after working with it for a little while. The dark grey colour and wedge shape certainly won’t give owners or clients that ‘big studio’ feeling, but it’s a tidy and sensible form factor for the applications it’s set up to do. The SiX’s THD and signal-to-noise specs put it in the upper echelons of audio performance. Although people may have varied opinions about an SSL made in China, my general impression is of a well-built unit that’s ready to go to work anywhere, anytime. The row of I/O across the top of the board necessitates visible vertical cabling but also helps identify basic I/O and preamp status. It includes XLR mic and line/Hi-Z inputs for the two mono SuperAnalogue channels, each endowed with separate switches for mic/line input, phantom power and high pass filters. There are two pairs of balanced TRS inputs for the stereo channels, another two pairs for external inputs, a headphone output and a power indicator LED. An extra XLR input for a talkback mic (not included) with switchable phantom power, its own gain control and a minimalist ‘on/off ’ style Listen
Once I’d got my head around the SiX’s capabilities my first proper use was in its mixing/summing mode, where I ran a six-channel split from my DAW into the primary inputs. It’s worth noting that by routing the external inputs and Alt inputs to the main mix bus a total of 12 channels can be summed at mix down, although for the purposes of my test I kept things pretty simple. Establishing a basic balance between my splits (drums and bass in one stereo input, keys and guitars in the other, and vocals split between the two mono channels) I had a chance to listen to the unit’s mix bus and was greeted by a clean and wide open soundstage with plenty of headroom. Next I set about exploring the EQ and dynamics processors onboard. Just to be clear here, the SiX’s EQs and compressors are not fully featured iterations of SSL’s classic large format designs. The EQs on the SiX’s two mono input channels are stripped back high- and low-band affairs, inspired by the classic E-series designs but way less comprehensive. The focus here has clearly been to get the most bang-for-buck out of the smallest footprint, so the only rotary pots on the EQs are for applying up to +/-15dB of gain adjustment at set frequencies. Cleverly though, SSL have added switchable shelf and bell contours with different frequency centres (60Hz and 3.5kHz in shelving mode, 200Hz and 5kHz in bell AT 39
SSL’s preamps rarely get a mention when engineers start name-checking gear, but I’ve always found them to be super musical, balanced and coherent; the SiX’s preamps are no exception.
mode) meaning you actually have two bass and two treble frequency options. The channel compressors use an even more minimalist approach with signal-dependent attack and release parameters, auto make-up gain, and a single threshold control that works at a gentle 2:1 ratio. While this new design leans heavily on the SSL compressor designs of yore, here all finer dynamics choices have been taken out of the operators hands. I’m not one to turn up my nose at any SSL processor, however minimal it may be, so I got stuck into playing with my simple mix and found a good deal to like in the SiX’s presentation of the sounds. Clean high-headroom soundstage? Tick! Tasty high and low frequency boosts from the EQs? Tick! Smooth gain control from the compressors? Tick! Classic big-console SSL sound? Well, towards that goal I found myself reaching for the mix bus compressor. Here I was greeted by another ‘inspired by’ design with basic threshold and make-up gain controls. I was a little disappointed to find that the ratio was set to 4:1 (my SSL comp go-to is 3:1) and of course there’s no attack and release characteristics to tune to the source. Having said that, the compressor (based on the famous G-series AT 40
design) imparts a sweet and musical character to sources when used carefully. As per SSL’s usual modus operandi, the compressors can be heard going to work quite noticeably even when the gain reduction meters are barely ticking over. The SSL compressor I often have strapped across my mix bus can be metering around two to three dB of gain reduction when, to my ears, it’s doing an awful lot more than that; the SiX’s compressors certainly follow that blueprint. The trick here is to use your ears rather than being guided by the meters, and make sure the compression is adding musicality to your mix rather than squishing the life out if it. A 3:1 ratio would perhaps have given a slightly greater working range and flexibility but, as always, it’s a case-by-case situation and, of course, one person’s ‘too much’ is another person’s ‘not enough’! After tweaking away for a while and swapping channels to try out drums and other sounds through the channel EQs and comps, I came out with a range of really pleasing mini-mixes and felt like the SiX had added quite a lot to the sounds. The EQs added nice clarity and sheen to vocals and drums, while the compressors offered muscularity and weight to bass and kick drum sounds. While the gains in quality were not night-and-day, there
was definitely an added musicality to the results and there’s no doubting the quality of the mix bus itself. When using the SiX transparently I was able to pull up a clean and dynamic mix that sounded more glued together and ‘expensive’ than my equivalent in-the-box mix. When working the compressors and EQs harder I could hear the pleasing harmonic enhancement in the top-end that is an integral part of the ‘SSL sound’ and, while I struggled at times to dial in the trademark bus compressor’s thick wallop without unwanted artefacts, there was still a nice degree of ‘glue’ and general mojo going on. It is unrealistic to expect a small cut-down mixer like this to rival its large format brethren that have no-compromise designs and features up the wazoo, but to my ears the SiX delivers enough sonic quality to make the price of entry seem very reasonable. While the SiX may look a bit toy-like, its performance suggests otherwise. TRACKSIDE
My next test for the SiX was a workout as a tracking tool. I recorded an entire piece of music using just the SiX’s preamps and DIs to see what kind of sonics I could pull from it and how multiple tracks
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sounded when stacked together (always a good test of a preamp’s character). While the purest signal path is obtained by taking the output of the channel insert send with no processing engaged, I also used the channel’s EQs and compressors on the way through to see how they performed in a variety of real-world roles. First up was a strummed acoustic guitar miked with an SM57 and given just a tiny tickle of topend shelf boost and channel compression. Next came finger-picked secondary guitar parts where I switched to the bell shape for a slight treble boost and added some bell curve low-end to catch the low melody parts. These guitars all sat together nicely and had a sweet immediacy to them. The guitars sounded real with just the hint of sonic enhancement I was aiming for. The modest tickle of compression really helped smooth the dynamics of the tracks out without being particularly noticeable, and the EQs let the high strings ring out without any harshness up top. Next up was a minimalist two mic drum set-up with a Neumann U87 in a front/overhead position and an AKG 451 pencil condenser to the side of the snare facing across the rest of the kit. Here I experimented with mic positions and channel EQs, and after a while I got the mix bus compressor involved as well to try and achieve a vibey and fairly compressed drum effect. Eventually I got the sound I was looking for with the U87 sitting far enough out front of the kit that it caught the kick drum as well as cymbals and toms. The 451 caught the snare and hats and the overall effect was quite exciting in a sixties kind of way. The mix bus compressor definitely does wonderful things to kick drums and other percussive elements, and, depending on how you work it and the EQs, there’s a whole range of effects available from subtle to totally blown out. The lack of attack and release controls means that if you hit the compressor hard the dynamic control can feel out of whack with the timing of the source, but in smaller doses the effect is nice, and when you get it right the SSL musicality is on full display. Of course at some point I had to give the talkback mic a shellacking via the Listen Mic Compressor on drums (à la many a classic ‘80s track) and I tried dynamic and condenser mics in this role with bombastic results. It’s a very energetic sound and the lack of tweakability means its either going to be pretty great or pretty wrong. There’s plenty of fun to be had with this tool if you like it crunchy and larger than life. An investment in a gooseneck mic adaptor might be a good idea if you want to use the talkback mic input for actually talking. Moving on to bass, I went straight into the DI input and found the sweet spot with the channel compression and a little top end boost for greater clarity. This was a real no-brainer application for the SiX, and the bass sat in the track very nicely indeed. Sitting back and listening to all these elements together a few days later, I felt the results were satisfyingly musical. SSL’s preamps rarely get a
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mention when engineers start name-checking gear, but I’ve always found them to be super musical, balanced and coherent; the SiX’s preamps are no exception. The top-end EQ boosts gave the track a forward tone that was nonetheless very sweet up top and had that bit of harmonic fizz I’d been aiming for. The midrange was rock-solid and wellbalanced, while the bottom end packed a satisfying punch. With no additional EQ, compression or shenanigans in the mix, the track actually felt quite polished and had an ‘almost-mixed’ feeling that surprised me. This result confirmed that with a bit of familiarity the SiX would certainly be capable of pumping out high quality recordings, making it a great addition to any existing DAW system. Despite the limitations of two preamps and the cut-down processing features, there’s an undeniable sprinkling of SSL fairy dust under the hood. The SiX opens up some tasty sonic terrain to explore. LESS IS MORE
Working with the SiX is a bit of a mixed blessing (excuse the pun). On the one hand what’s here is extremely useable and delivers quality results, on the other hand it’s very hard not to find yourself wanting more. My letter to the SSL design team would go something like this: ‘Dear Boffins, can I please have just a few more controls on the mix bus compressor, another couple of preamps, maybe some midrange EQ, a couple more stereo channels (and while you’re at it add some EQ there too), and something to tweak on the channel compressors?’ I remember thinking very similar things when reviewing API’s The Box, which was a 16-channel desk with four preamps, and this perhaps exemplifies the fact that no matter what we have under our fingers, we always want more. A better question to ask then is what kind of audio tasks is the SiX best suited to? The streamlined design immediately calls to mind smaller spaces such as compact studio writing rooms or small broadcast set-ups. In these scenarios the comprehensive I/O and pro-level master section with its configurable routing systems means the SiX can patch into larger systems or be an all-in-one solution. In a home recording situation where space and/or budget is tight, and for voice-over and podcasting work, the SiX would also shine as a dual purpose tracking and stem mixing solution that wouldn’t sacrifice sonic quality despite its small footprint. In a slightly larger studio environment where there are more outboard processing choices but no dedicated console, the SiX presents an intriguing halfway house where its simple stem processing and mixing system compliments its abilities as a versatile studio hub and high quality monitor controller. In a live rig the SiX again ticks a lot of boxes in terms of portability, I/O and quality of signal path. The SiX could also find a home in churches, schools and other educational facilities where a compact but high-quality all-in-one audio solution is required.
SiX OF THE BEST The SiX’s small footprint belies an impressive feature list. Here are six of its best: • Two SuperAnalogue microphone preamp channels, each with +48V phantom power, HPF, line and Hi-Z inputs, two-band EQ with switchable bell/shelf curves at different frequencies, a simple one-knob operation compressor, an insert point, pan and 100mm fader. • Two stereo line input channels with input trims and 100mm faders. • Mute, PFL and two cue sends on both SuperAnalogue mono input channels and on both stereo input channels. • Two foldback channels routable from cue sends, external inputs or talkback. • One talkback XLR mic input with LMC (Listen Mic Compressor). • One stereo master bus with 100mm fader, insert points and built-in compressor based on the SSL 4000G.
CONCLUSION
Apart from the minor gripes mentioned earlier, it’s very hard to find fault with SSL’s SiX. As the saying goes, ‘you get what you pay for’, and in this case you’re getting quality and impressively extensive capabilities for a relatively small outlay. When you consider that a high-spec monitor controller alone costs somewhere north of $600, and then you add two great preamps, some simple but tasty EQ and dynamics, up to 12 channels of summing/mixing, a pro-level master section, the party trick that is the talkback mic compressor, and then put the SSL name on it, the SiX starts looking like a very attractive package. My only note of caution is that some owners might find they outgrow the channel count and form factor after a while. Consider your needs and the kind of work flow you want to move forward with. If you buy into SSL’s minioffering the best thing to do is embrace its design philosophy and keep things simple. Fast workflow and high-quality results in a small package are what the SiX is built to deliver; if that sounds like your bag, SSL’s pint-sized new offering may well be a perfect fit.
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REVIEW
ARTURIA MICROFREAK
Experimental Hybrid Synth Best known for their analogue synths, Arturia’s MicroFreak breaks from tradition with a hybrid design that combines digital oscillators with an analogue filter and a whole range of modulation options.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Jason Hearn
PRICE Expect to pay $549 AU CONTACT CMI (03) 9315 2244 cmi.com.au
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PROS Large number of oscillator engine types Paraphonic mode with independent VCA Superb analog filter Powerful modulation matrix Inspiring arpeggiator/sequencer tools CV connectivity makes it ideal as a controller for a hardware modular synth rig
CONS No built-in effects processor Mono output Capacitive touch keyboard won’t suit all players Some issues remain to be addressed with firmware updates Waffly, confused documentation
SUMMARY A lightweight, compact and feature-packed little hybrid synth that offers a wealth of creative possibilities for a minimal outlay.
In recent years, Arturia has enjoyed much success with their range of analogue synths. Starting with the MiniBrute in 2012, they’ve rapidly ascended to near-ubiquitous popularity appealing equally to both the cult of Eurorack users and the DAW-faithful. The MicroFreak is a curious deviation from these pure-analogue products, being their first hybrid design offering digital oscillators with an analogue filter. The MicroFreak is light-weight (1.02kg), compact and robustly built. It can be bus-powered via USB (even from a mobile phone charge bank or adapter) or from the included DC adapter, but for best pressure response from the keyboard it is recommended to use the DC adapter – as discussed below. A miniature OLED display provides access to the menu system (via the Utility button), along with a detailed display of parameter values/statuses, and the means to navigate its 256 patch memories. The panel is graced by a strip of fruity looking artwork that, you’ll discover once you dig in, hints at the sonic safari within. Instead of a regular mechanical keyboard, the MicroFreak has a two-octave capacitive-touch keyboard. Essentially, with a firmer touch from your fingers, more skin makes contact with the circuit and provides polyphonic pressure response. Since you can’t rest your fingers on the keys without triggering notes, traditional players may take time to adjust. I found its response to be lightning-fast and expressive, making it ideal for monophonic leads and rapid-fire percussive playing. Immediately above the keyboard you’ll find a horizontal touch-strip providing pitch-bend, which is also multi-purposed for use with the Spice and Dice functions (covered later). Connectivity on the rear panel caters equally for DAW-centric setups, DAW-less setups and modular hardware setups. MIDI connectivity is provided on both USB and 1/8-inch TRS connectors, with a pair of female DIN tails included in the package. Analogue CV and Pressure outputs are provided on 1/8-inch sockets allowing the MicroFreak to serve as a keyboard controller for analogue modular setups. Analogue Clock In/Out on 1/8-inch TRS sockets provide not only clock data but also start/stop signals (via TRS cables). The Utility menu provides a wide range of configuration options for the analogue CV outputs, allowing adaptation to most common formats. Audio output is provided on a single mono TS 1/4-inch socket connector. Arturia’s MIDI Control Centre app (for MacOS and Windows) has been updated to support the MicroFreak, providing a patch librarian, a global device settings page, and the means to upload firmware updates to the unit. DIGITAL OSCILLATOR SECTION
Since the MicroFreak is equipped with a digital oscillator, much flexibility is on offer and, indeed, it delivers. No less than 12 oscillator engine types are on tap, generally unheard of for a synth of this price, each capable of substantial harmonic complexity. Four easily-identified orange encoders control the oscillator section, with Type selecting
the engine and three additional parameters to tweak: Wave, Shape and Timbre. All parameters are available as modulation destinations including the type itself (an aspect that adventurous sound designers will no doubt exploit). The initial patch is monophonic by default, however paraphonic mode is easily engaged; whereby you have four voices to play shared by a single filter. Unlike a majority of paraphonic synths, there are independent envelopes per voice and polyphonic-pressure modulation is available for each note, giving an experience closer to that of a proper polyphonic synth. The first five engines cover emulation of traditional analogue waves, a harmonic oscillator, a wavetable oscillator and a physical modelling oscillator. The remaining seven oscillator engines are sourced from Mutable Instruments’ popular Plaits Eurorack module, based on open-source DSP code. Refer to the box item for a full run-down of types available. ANALOGUE FILTER SECTION
The MicroFreak features a 12dB/octave (two-pole) multi-mode analogue SEM filter providing Low Pass, Band Pass and High Pass circuits. I found it to have a gentler response when compared with the Steiner-Parker filter found in Arturia’s Brute series. However, it has a great tone with bags of nonlinear harmonics, and is capable of creating thick creamy sounds at low resonance settings through to piercing chirps at extreme settings. Since the oscillators are capable of generating such rich content, there’s plenty of sonic fodder to carve out with the filter. Also, because so much tonal shaping can be achieved within the oscillators alone, I found myself often using the filter just to tame the edgier digital artefacts of the oscillator section. MODULATION SOURCES
The LFO is equipped with six waveshapes. The Rate encoder adjusts the speed from 0.06Hz through to 100Hz, thus reaching into audio rate territory. By pressing the Rate encoder, the LFO is synced to various clock divisions of the tempo of the Arpeggiator/Sequencer Clock (which may be synced to MIDI or incoming analogue pulses). The main Envelope is a traditional ADSR that is hardwired to the amplifier and the filter. The AmpMod button allows it to be removed from the amplifier, and the amount applied to the filter is controlled by the nearby Filter Amt knob. Unusually, control of the Decay and Release times is ganged on a single Decay/Release control which purists may criticise, however it doesn’t cause much concern in practise. An additional envelope, called the Cycling Envelope, provides either a secondary envelope or a secondary LFO via two looping modes (either free running or key-synced). Unlike the main envelope, the slopes of the Rise and Fall stages of the Cycling Envelope can be adjusted to taste in a continuous fashion from a logarithmic to an exponential shape via the Shift modifier button. When the Cycling Envelope is looped and set up with very short Rise and Fall times, the resulting LFO can
OSCILLATOR ENGINE TYPES Basic Waves: Wave morphs from square and sawtooth to dual-sawtooth waves. Timbre tweaks the duty cycle of the square wave or the phase relationship between the dual saw waves. Shape adds a sine sub oscillator. Superwave: Arturia’s take on the notorious Supersaw sound via detuned virtual copies of simple waves (using not only saw but square, triangle and sine waves). Generates huge sounds! Wavetable: Provides 16 wavetables, each with 32 cycles you can scan through, with an optional chorus effect. Harmonic: Sweep through tables of harmonic amplitude content and morph between using sine or saw waves, with an optional chorus effect. Karplus Strong: A short noise burst is fed into a filtered delay network providing emulations of struck/bowed string or percussive sounds. Virtual Analogue: Based on the Plaits Pair model. Provides a detunable pair of waveforms with the first based on a variable square wave and the second based on a variable saw wave. Waveshaper: Based on the Plaits Waveshaping model. A combined ‘Westcoast’ style waveshaper and wavefolder capable of obtuse, gritty, angular sounds. Two Operator FM: Based on the Plaits Two Op FM model, provides adjustable ratio between the operators, modulation index, and feedback of the second operator. Formant: Based on the Plaits Granular Formant model. Provides adjustment of the frequency ratio between formants one and two, the formant frequency, and shape of the window by which the formants are multiplied. Expect vocal-like sonic characteristics. Chords: Based on the Plaits Chords model. Provides single-key playback of 11 different chord shapes with continuously adjustable inversions. Using the Shape encoder, you can select from a wide variety of string-machine emulations through to a mini wavetable synth as the source waveform. Speech: Based on the Plaits Vowel and Speech Synthesis model. Provides formants and small libraries of words (colours, numbers, letters and words) reminiscent of ‘80s speech synthesis. Modal: Based on the Plaits Modal Resonator model. Provides physical modelling of plucked and struck sounds, having inharmonic content. AT 45
Since the oscillators are capable of generating such rich content, there’s plenty of sonic fodder to carve out with the filter. reach substantially into audio rate territory. MODULATION MATRIX
In a masterstroke of great design, the MicroFreak has a digital modulation matrix that is entirely accessible on the front panel without menu diving. It provides five sources and seven destinations; the first four destinations are fixed, the remaining three are user assignable. Establishing routings is a slick and intuitive process – using the Matrix push encoder, spin through the LED array to select a source/destination point, press the encoder to select it, and use the encoder again to specify the amount of modulation (reflected on the display). The three user-assignable destinations are defined simply by holding down the associated button and tweaking the parameter you wish to assign. Furthermore, modulation points can themselvesbe defined as assignable destinations, allowing you to scale modulation points by each other. ARPEGGIATOR/SEQUENCER SECTION
Further inspiration can be found in the Arpeggiator/Sequencer section. The Arpeggiator and Sequencer are controlled using a row of unique capacitive touch-pad icons just above the keyboard. The Arpeggiator has four modes: Up, (note) Order, Random and Pattern. While the first three modes are self-explanatory, Pattern mode is most noteworthy since it is the gateway to achieving controlled randomness. Press a chord shape down and it will play the notes in a random pattern, press another chord shape and the note sequence will change again and so on. The lowest note you play is treated as the fundamental of the chord and is played twice as often as successive notes, usefully emphasising the root note of the chord. Sequences can be created via step recording or real-time recording and two sequences (either A or B) can be stored independently for each Preset, with each being up to 64 steps in length. A third method is available for creating Sequences: if you come up with a pattern of interest while using the Arpeggiator in Pattern mode (mentioned above), you can instantly copy the results into Sequencer slot A or B. If your patch is in Paraphonic mode you can sequence chords and even play solos over the top of sequences while they are held. Just like some classic mono-synths, Sequences can be transposed in real time simply by playing notes on the keyboard. The intriguing Spice and Dice functions found AT 46
on the icon pads, in tandem with the horizontal touch-strip, provide the means to tweak sequence content in real-time. Spice affects note triggering while Dice shuffles the order of the notes already in a sequence. With either Spice or Dice engaged, touching the areas further to the right on the touch strip results in Spice or Dice having a more pronounced effect with Spice more aggressively removing notes/reducing gate times and Dice more aggressively rearranging notes. If that wasn’t enough fun, Sequences are capable of Motion sequencing up to four parameters and may even be step-edited for radical timbral shifts on each step. Within the Preset area of the Utility menu, each Motion sequence lane can be smoothed to even out rapid transitions. It’s also possible to have Motion sequences built into your patches without having notes recorded; thus, the Motion Sequencer may be used to extend the MicroFreak’s modulation possibilities. Notes generated in the Arpeggiator and Sequencer can be output via MIDI or via the CV output jack, allowing the Microfreak to capably serve as an inspirational jamming sequencer for the rest of your hardware world or to be captured into MIDI tracks within your DAW. MISCELLANEOUS
Sensibly, knobs that are end-stop potentiometers are coloured black and have a value indicator printed on them while knobs providing endless rotary adjustment have no value indication on them. A majority of controls transmit MIDI CC data so automating essential parameters from a DAW is accomplished with ease. A wide array of shortcut functions are offered to improve efficiency when creating sounds. Such shortcuts typically involve a combination of long-presses of relevant encoders/buttons, or making use of the Shift modifier key. Another great touch is the Panel function which forces all parameters to match the front panel’s settings. CRITIQUE
The lack of a built-in effects engine is an obvious but acceptable omission considering the price and knowing that most musicians will have access to at least DAW-based effects or various pedal/rack effect units. With the latest firmware applied (version 1.1.2.390 at the time of writing), there were several occurrences where the MicroFreak completely
stopped making sound or froze (resolved by power cycling the unit). I had issues with MIDI feedback loops when used in conjunction with a DAW, even with Local Off engaged and MIDI Thru disabled. I assume these issues will be addressed with firmware updates. I also found that the line-level output is substantially quieter than other synths in my rig, even with the Preset level function in the menus turned up to maximum. Finally, as mentioned in the manual and online FAQs, I found the pressure response of the keyboard to be unpredictable when powered via USB (using the included power supply solves this problem). CONCLUSION
By now it should be apparent that the MicroFreak offers a wealth of facilities for a minimal outlay. It is so well designed that you’ll have mastered the exploration of the oscillator’s engines and the modulation matrix in no time, with little manual reading. Although it lacks a built-in effects engine and doesn’t have a stereo output, the amount of sonic diversity on offer more than adequately compensates, and after processing through effects this synth gets even better! While other synths with only simple waveforms rely on multiple oscillators and their interaction to provide complex tones, the MicroFreak’s single oscillator with its wide range of oscillator engines provides a gamut of sounds extending far beyond classic VCO designs. For those yet to dive into modular Eurorack synths, it provides the opportunity to experiment with seven of the synthesis models found in Plaits but with the benefits of working within a semi-normalised synth package with memories and four-voice paraphony. Although I’ve little doubt its facilities will keep many sound designers occupied for quite some time, I’m sure many will begin to dream of an expanded MicroFreak with dual or triple oscillators, additional voices/LFOs and true polyphony. Inevitably, such fruit would come at a substantially higher price. While it may hold limited appeal for the traditional synth player looking to cover classic analogue sounds, the MicroFreak will win the hearts of electronic musicians seeking an all-in-one inspiration machine that dares to be different.
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