AudioTechnology THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & RECORDING MUSICIANS
HIGH VOLTAGE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
GUY SEBASTIAN’S Cooper Lane Studio open for business NEAR AS DAMMIT? Preparing for Mastering ONE MIC, NO WEDGES Welcome to Harrietville
REVIEWS: PRESONUS STUDIO ONE ALLEN & HEATH iLIVE-T GML 2032 LIVID OHM64 TC IMPACT TWIN NOVATION LAUNCHPAD
THE MIX IS IN! AT readers submit their mix files... a moot point?
MORE CONTROL Two new members join the Live bandwagon
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AudioTechnology Editor Andy Stewart andy@audiotechnology.com.au
ED SPACE
Publisher Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Editorial Director Christopher Holder chris@audiotechnology.com.au
Lives lost and lives remembered.
Deputy Editor Brad Watts brad@audiotechnology.com.au
Text: Andy Stewart
I hardly know where to begin writing my editorial this issue… In the last month I’ve lost two friends to cancer, both of them influential figures in my life, and both significant to the Australian audio community As I sit here writing I can still scarcely believe that Richard Priddle, acoustician extraordinaire, and Simon Leadley, legend of the Australian audio and film industries, are gone. Writing their names on this page shocks me anew. Their deaths mean different things to different people of course. Many reading this editorial may never have even heard the names Richard Priddle and Simon Leadley, while others may know one name but not the other. Then there are those nearest and dearest that have lost family members – to these people I extend my deepest sympathies. Without a doubt, the audio industry and the wider Australian community are all the poorer for their loss. I have struggled in the days since Richard and Simon’s deaths to write anything meaningful about their contribution to the audio industry, so hopeless is the task of summarising even a small fraction of their lives in this pathetic rectangular space. What’s worse is trying to describe both of them at once, knowing them to be quite different people with different personalities and lifestyles. Simon was the consummate professional: organised, methodical, unflappable and reliable. Richard was the troubled genius: opinionated, generous, scientific yet unreliable! But having recently spent days talking to various people about both Richard and Simon – sometimes in the one conversation, sometimes separately – something has become crystal clear. The common thread that linked them – audio – is not so much a thread as a substantial rope. Both these guys lived, breathed and dreamt audio. Both were leaders in their respective fields and each applied his vast experience in a unique way. Simon worked on countless film mixes, scores and soundtracks and was a linchpin to the success of each. He won a Technical Oscar for his work on Moulin Rouge and was (and remains) widely regarded as one of the hardest working, most congenial and efficient Supervising Music Editors on the planet. (To read more about Simon’s exploits, check out the tributes on page 104.) Richard, similarly, had vast experience designing and building studios (170 at last count), and these were always achieved through a heady mixture of advanced mathematics and a passion for music. Richard was the king of the sight line, the master of the reflection-free zone. He was also the master of the disappearing act, as many who worked with him would attest. Richard – it’s no secret – fought a pitched battle with alcoholism for most of his life, and in the words his great friend and fellow audio guru, John Burnett, “it’s not so much tragic
Editorial Assistant Mark Davie mark@alchemedia.com.au
that Richard’s life was cut short… actually it’s a miracle he lived this long!” Where Simon and Richard’s lives converged was in their desire to see an improvement in Standards in the audio industry, both in terms of measurable and repeatable scientific values and practical application – what John Burnett would describe as “knowing which side of the road to drive on and what the speed limit is.” Recalling the last conversations I had with Richard and Simon, indeed, this is precisely what was discussed, though it’s only now that I’ve come to realise how closely related the two conversations were. Simon and I talked for hours on the phone only a few weeks ago – as we often did – about digital recording levels, calibration (one of his favourite topics) and industry Standards. Simon was always deeply concerned about the erosion of the latter, and was constantly amazed by the lack of technical consistency that surrounded him. “You talk to people about calibrating their digital converters, for instance,” he would say with a broad grin, “and they look at you like you’ve got two heads or something!” Simon was brilliant at making his point without ever sounding like a preacher or a know-it-all. Richard, a little earlier – right around Christmas last year – was talking along similar lines. In fact, it had been one of Richard’s great ambitions in life: to establish global applicational Standards in audio; standards that would, as he saw it, allow the industry to “grow up” once and for all, and finally provide a framework that would support its practitioners to be paid like any other professional. Philosophically they were both right, of course. The industry is in dire need of some Standards it would seem. Unfortunately, the current playing field is overrun by commercial interests and rivalry; each private interest striving to establish its own particular standards and formats – mostly to maximise its potential for profit. The rise to dominance of the lowly MP3 inside this paradigm is perhaps the perfect recent illustration of this repeated failure of the industry. While a new ‘high-res’ format was being squabbled over by private interests, MP3 snuck under the back door like an ill wind and took over. Sonically, it’s set us back 30 years. Is it possible that the Australian audio industry might lead the way in the global advancement of some new Standards for our industry, and could we not perhaps establish these in the name of Richard and Simon? Maybe it’s pie in the sky; maybe it’s a romantic notion; maybe the industry is just far too cutthroat and selfish these days. I’d like to think it’s possible. This issue of AT is dedicated to Simon Leadley and Richard Priddle – lost to us now, but not forgotten.
Design & Production Leigh Ericksen leigh@alchemedia.com.au Additional Design Dominic Carey dominic@alchemedia.com.au Advertising Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Accounts Manager Jenny Temm jen@alchemedia.com.au Circulation Manager Miriam Mulcahy mim@alchemedia.com.au Proof Reading Andrew Bencina Regular Contributors Martin Walker Rick O’Neil Michael Stavrou Calum Orr Paul Tingen Graeme Hague Paul McKercher Hugh Covill Adam McElnea Greg Walker William Bowden Anthony Touma Greg Simmons Rob Squire Robin Gist Michael Carpenter Mark Woods Jonathan Burnside Andrew Bencina Mark Bassett Chris Vallejo Distribution by: Network Distribution Company. AudioTechnology magazine (ISSN 1440-2432) is published by Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd (ABN 34 074 431 628). Contact (Advertising) T: +61 2 9986 1188 PO BOX 6216, Frenchs Forest NSW 2086, Australia. Contact (Editorial) T: +61 3 5331 4949 PO Box 295, Ballarat VIC 3353, Australia. E: info@alchemedia.com.au W: www.audiotechnology.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright © 2010 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. 12/03/10.
CONTENTS 73
34
42
FEATURES 34 FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK
The Black Ice tour rolled into town like some ballbusting, jail-breaking, TNT-laden locomotive. AT takes the white-knuckle ride.
42 “OH MY GOD, IT’S GUY SEBASTIAN!”
Andy Stewart checks out Guy Sebastian’s Cooper Lane Studio and is shocked by what he discovers.
50 HARRIETVILLE BLUEGRASS CONVENTION
Mark Woods gives us his first-hand account of what it’s like to mix a Bluegrass Festival. Wedges are out, D.I.s are out and most bands ply their trade around a single mic. It’s a lesson in ‘less is more’, more or less.
54 MIXING IN A VACUUM
AT readers have been mixing up a storm with the ‘Mute or Moot’ multitrack file from Issue 70… and some have let us know how they got on.
REGULARS 14 YOUR WORD
Readers’ Letters.
20 NEWS
News and new product information. Includes Winter Olympics coverage and the story behind Melbourne’s recent groundswell protest over changes to licencing laws. 68 HOME GROWN
This issue, Home Grown takes a slightly different tack, delving into the interactive world of Australia’s cult software program, AudioMulch. Its Australian creator, Ross Bencina, takes us behind the scenes of what makes this unique program tick.
TUTORIALS 60 STAV’S WORD
The time has come to decide. Stav helps us make the right choices under pressure. 62 PREPARING FOR MASTERING
Your mastering session is the final stage in a long and emotional journey. But are you prepared for the end of the road? Here are a few tips on how you do it.
64 ON THE BENCH
Rob Squire repairs an old Neve console and gives us a reality check about buying cheap, large-format ’80s consoles. It’s buyer beware…
74 WHAT’S ON Studio roundup, featuring
Salt Studios.
78 PC & MAC AUDIO
Martin Walker investigates USB 3.0 while Brad Watts investigates some cool new iPhone apps.
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REVIEWS 82 PRESONUS STUDIO ONE PRO
DAW
86 ALLEN & HEATH iLIVE-T 112
Digital Console System 90 NOVATION LAUNCHPAD
Controller
94 GML 2032
Analogue preamp/EQ combo 98 LIVID INSTRUMENTS OHM64
Controller
100 TC ELECTRONIC IMPACT TWIN
Audio Interface
NEWS: LIVE
www www.tonedeaf.com.au/petition www.slamrally.org.au www.musicvictoria.com.au
LIVE MUSIC SHALL OVERCOME… SOMEDAY On Tuesday the 23rd of February an estimated 20,000 Victorians rallied in the streets of Melbourne; not to protest the battlefield actions of foreign powers; not to shower adulation and ticker tape upon the latest of Australia’s sporting heroes – but rather to protest the draconian moves by the Victorian Government that threaten to destroy the state’s vibrant and proud live music scene. Bob Brown was nowhere to be seen at the rally and Peter Garrett was trapped in his well-insulated bomb shelter somewhere in Canberra. Instead, the voices of Paul Kelly and John Von Goes (3RRR presenter), among others, spoke to the heart of a community; vibrant and united. There was no need to tell Mr Brumby what we all wanted and when we wanted it. In an election year the message was clear: it’s a long way from the top if you bury rock ’n’ roll. In Issue 71, AT’s editor Andy Stewart brought you the troubling tale of the State of Victoria and its knee-jerk policy response to recent inner city
violence. This involved a blanket reclassification of all venues featuring live amplified music as ‘high-risk’ and imposing a series of irrational and money-grubbing regulations in response. Specifically, this has meant an initial increase in liquor licensing fees from anywhere between 100 to 500 percent and, more recently, the insistence that a minimum of two security guards be present to manage the unruly mob of music lovers. In some cases requirements were broadened to also proscribe the installation of expensive video surveillance. At that time the issue had already been bubbling for a year. In the months since, it has erupted. After financially crippling battles with the Department of Liquor Licensing (DLL) and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) Bruce Milne was left with no choice but to close the iconic Tote Hotel. The Arthouse followed shortly after. All over Melbourne, and in country areas, gigs have been cancelled. Those who have persevered
are punished with expensive security requirements, which undermine the profitability of their businesses and endanger the continued support of live music. No one has been spared. This is not so much the straw that broke the camel’s back but a callous jack-boot to the guts of a community already on its knees. The State Government’s response to the growing public revolt was as swift as it is piecemeal: an accord that places a freeze on future liquor licensing decisions based solely on the existence of live music in a venue. The agreement also allows for venues to apply for the roll back of currently imposed security conditions, where police and local council planning conditions do not present opposition. Unfortunately, discretion still remains with the Director of Liquor Licensing and these other bodies. No legislative change has been proposed to directly protect the role of venues in the community and the accord merely promises that further research and discussions will be undertaken
over the coming year to rectify the recognised imbalance. It’s a positive step, but a small one and while the inflated licensing fees remain venues will struggle. In the lead up to the Victorian state election in November I would encourage AT readers who weren’t at the rally, to join with those who marched last Tuesday to ensure that the voice of the Australian live music industry is heard loudly and forcefully. With new noise restriction battles emerging in the venues of Fitzroy and Collingwood in recent weeks, this is a time for a passionate community to flex its political muscle and ensure that accords and promises are made law. Sign the online petition below, join one of the proliferation of Facebook groups mobilising around these issues, write to your local member, and get behind the newly formed, and long overdue, Music Victoria. Remember, it’s very difficult to master the art of a live mix if there are no venues to practice in. Andrew Bencina
AudioTechnology THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & RECORDING MUSICIANS
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AT 6
FEATURE
g y o m d , h it’s O “ He’s the most popular (and possibly the most controversial) studio owner ever to grace the pages of AudioTechnology. Introducing the man with the most recognisable afro in Australian music. Text: Andy Stewart
Who in Australia has never heard of Guy Sebastian? I reckon if you took a photo of him to any shopping mall in the country you’d struggle to find a single person who didn’t recognise his mug. Guy is as ubiquitous as Vegemite, as well known as Bondi Beach and still the most popular winner of Australian Idol ever, even though he was the first and there have been many since. If the greater population of Australia’s musical spending habits is anything to go by, Guy Sebastian is the country’s most popular male vocalist by a mile – his record sales in Australia alone top 1.5 million and the figure is climbing steadily by the day. He’s had four No.1 hit singles in his relatively short career, and according to recently released ARIA figures, the first of these, Angels Brought Me Here, was the highest selling song of the last decade. So why is Guy Sebastian also the most divisive musical figure in Australia? Why is it that when he walks the streets of Sydney he’s regularly abused, and why, when I’ve spoken to people about writing this article, have they been so adamant I shouldn’t? It seems that if you don’t love Guy Sebastian’s music, chances are you probably hate it, and for reasons that extend well beyond the boundaries of musical preference. The extent to which Guy Sebastian polarises opinion is probably best illustrated by two small incidents. The first of these I experienced first hand, giving rise to the title of this article. After we’d chatted in his studio for a couple of hours, myself, Guy, and his best friend went out and got some Indian food in a restaurant in Surry Hills. No
big deal, just a relaxed and low-key meal in low-key part of town. But no sooner had we walked through the door of the restaurant, than a girl sitting at a table near the entrance exclaimed – loudly enough for all of us to hear it – “Oh my god, it’s Guy Sebastian!” She was beside herself with excitement. The second incident Guy conveyed to me himself – apparently a bloke abused him on the street recently, and before that individual knew it, Guy had him pinned up against a wall ready to throttle him. Luckily, Guy composed himself and walked away from the incident. “It just wasn’t worth it!” he remarked.
HANDS-ON KINDA GUY
What most people don’t seem to know about Guy Sebastian is that he’s not merely a product of television hype. Although he’s clearly been made famous by TV and the Idol phenomenon, he’s no mug in front of a mic… or a piano or a guitar or a drum kit, as a few hours with him in his new Cooper Lane Studio quickly revealed. In reality, Guy Sebastian is a driven musician with a talent and passion that extends far beyond the boundaries of his afro. You may not like his music, you may not like his success or how he’s achieved it, but the fact is Guy’s career since Idol has been largely his own making. He’s not the artificial pop construct many of his critics claim him to be. And imagine my surprise when he also turned out to be a pro audio addict and studio owner/builder with a penchant for DIY?
GS: Yeah, but it’s always been at home. When I was 15 I got a part-time job and all of my money went on recording gear. I got some pretty ordinary Roland/ Edirol monitors and my first proper preamp was a Mindprint En-Voice. I’ve still got it in fact, but only use it for songwriting these days. My new studio is really just about setting up somewhere for me to record whenever I want, so if I get an idea I can just come in here and lay it down, day or night.
Guy’s Cooper Lane Studio in Sydney’s Surry Hills is the product of his own hard yakka, right down to the plastering and new floorboards. This isn’t the work of a prima donna nor is it a job for the faint-hearted. I was surprised and intrigued…
Andy Stewart: I hadn’t realised you were a gear nut and an amateur chippy! Guy Sebastian: (Laughs). Well I guess it’s not one of those things the mainstream media knows about. I love pro audio gear and I’m pretty finicky about getting the right sound, especially on things like vocals and drums. I’m no great chippy though! AS: What made you decide to build your own space to this extent? Have you always had a place of your own?
AS: I would have assumed you’d be the kind of guy that booked other people’s studios, rather than be inclined to build your own… literally. GS: I’d always wanted to have a place where other people could record, even though I’m usually the one in here soaking up the hours. Having said that, I’ve recently moved to New York for an unknown period of time, so in the short term at least I think other people will be tracking in here more than me. The basic idea behind building the place was ‘why spend so much money recording in other people’s studios AT 7
“ ”
It’s always been a bit of a dream of mine to have a studio that other bands use
when I’ve already got so much gear?’ I figured why not build a proper space instead where I can track drums whenever I like. And as you can see (Guy points through the control room window into the main recording space), there’s a really high ceiling in the main space and I often track drums in there. The other reason for building the place is because half the time I prefer the in-the-box mixes we do here to the ones that get done in big studios, so I’d like to do more of that. For example, just recently I sent a couple of songs off to be mixed at Chung King Studios in New York, but when the finished mixes came back and we compared them to the ones we’d done immediately after the tracking sessions, we much preferred ours. It just really blew me away how some of those mixes came back.
GS: I’ve got a fair bit of analogue outboard gear but most of my mixing is done in the box. As far as plug-ins go, I’ve got the Platinum Waves bundle, the SSL bundle and the Maserati bundle, which I really like for its presets. I’ve got a few PSP plug-ins, including the Vintage Warmer, and I’ve just recently got the
AT 8
UAD-2 card as well, with all UA’s plug-ins. I had the UAD-1 card for ages, but, of course, Apple went and bloody changed the PCI slots in the Mac didn’t they! I’ve also got basically everything that Native Instruments does, as well as BFD2 and Addictive Drums, which is really easy to pull up and get a simple groove going with.
AS: Presumably ‘more ownership’ means you’re more in control of the recording and mixing process nowadays… especially now that Cooper Lane is up and running.
GS: They were just drowned in reverb; there was no presence.
GS: Yeah, to a certain extent. I engineer whole tracks on my own sometimes, but to be honest, I hate doing it. It’s hard to sing and record sometimes. I’d rather get my engineer in and just concentrate on my vocals. But I still always comp and edit everything myself in Logic.
AS: Were the engineers given any guidelines about how they were supposed to mix the songs, or were you relying on pot luck?
AS: So is mixing where you defer to the experience of a professional engineer, or are you mixing your own songs too?
GS: We gave them the original track, the original rough mix but not much else – and it wasn’t that we were suffering from demo-itis either. We hadn’t simply grown accustomed to our mix. Ours was just much more immediate, more in-your-face, and the drums were a lot snappier. Everything about the other mix was just over-treated. Nothing was in its original form.
GS: No, I’ve never put my hand up to mix something – it’s not my strength. I’m not a mix engineer. I can play drums, I can play piano, and I can play guitar reasonably well, and I do some of my own engineering during tracking, but I’m not a mix engineer. I’d be compromising my own art if I attempted that part of the process. I’d only be doing it to flatter my own ego in the end, and that’s no reason to do it. I mix all my demos, but I’d rather give the finished recordings to someone with fresh ears.
AS: What didn’t you like about them?
PLUG-IN PREFS
He’s not even a mix engineer’. Noone really knew I’d been engineering my own stuff since I was a kid and that I could hear people over-compressing stuff and doing things that sounded pretty shithouse. So for me it was a matter of learning the difference between humility in the studio and just plain stupidity at not speaking up when the need arose. Nowadays I’ve got a lot more ownership over my stuff. It’s been seven years since Idol and I’ve learned a lot in that time.
AS: Have you always been fairly hands-on then during the mixing process, apart from that particular incident? GS: I wasn’t so much on my first couple of records. I guess I used to be a bit of a pushover actually. To be honest, I just didn’t want to offend people or be known as ‘that know-it-all’ – ‘What would he know?
VOCAL TRACKING AS: From the point of view of Guy Sebastian the singer, as well as part-time engineer (shall we say), how do you record your vocals? Are you a ‘cans up loud’ kind of guy, for instance?
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GS: Yeah, I monitor with a really low instrumental, and a really loud vocal, which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. Occasionally the approach causes me not to sing as hard as I perhaps should, but I’ve learnt to combat that. I always track with Lexicon reverb too, which makes for a really nice tracking environment in the cans. I’m really fastidious and don’t like to tune vocals much later on, so for me, when I track vocals, I’ll usually run the song a couple of times top to bottom, and if it’s a really great day, I can get the track laid in a single pass. Most of the vocal compression is taken care of by a UA1176LN, which is usually patched into an LA2A just to limit it a bit more. Both of these compressors are working pretty gently; I don’t over-compress the vocal during tracking. If I’m producing my own vocals, I’ll generally go through a verse five times, a chorus five times, a bridge five times – that kind of thing, then come back in here to the control room and comp. And because I’m so anal, there’ll always be a couple of gaps here and there that I’ll have to go back and address. AS: How often do you have a vocal producer working with you then? GS: Actually, I’ve never had a vocal producer except for the Idol album. We recorded that album in five days after I won, and there was a guy in there producing. That was the only time ever I’ve had someone in with me going: ‘Add this in there’ or ‘try that’ – it drove me insane. I much prefer doing it on my own without anyone around. Sometimes my best mate, Gary Pintell, who’s a great singer, hangs around while I’m doing stuff and suggests things. He’s my background singer and a monster for pitch and feel. Sometimes I’ll be so precious about pitch that I’ll tend to choose a wellpitched take over one that has really great feel, so he’s really good for that external opinion. AT 10
THE MEMPHIS SESSIONS AS: Presumably the recent Memphis ‘tribute’ album involved a different tracking approach to the ones you mostly use here. GS: Yeah. We tracked The Memphis Album in the fantastic Ardent Studios in Memphis – stunning stuff. Ardent is an amazing studio; really well maintained, great boards, great mics, great techniques, great engineers. We tracked the whole album to tape; four takes per song – it was really great fun. It was just so fantastic to be put in a situation where all you had to worry about was performance rather than trying to get everything perfect all the time. I loved it. AS: Presumably having a great live band around you helped drag you away from your obsession with so-called perfection. Many argue one of the weaknesses of computer recording is that it gives you the ability to make things too perfect all the time, and that ultimately detracts from the final outcome. GS: Absolutely, and there are tons of examples of that. But there are some songs on the modern pop front where the producers and artists are working to combat that tendency. Alicia Keys, for example, has a song she does called No One [Guy breaks into song and sings a couple of lines… Noone, noone, noone, can get in the way of what I feel for you] and that’s terribly pitched, but it’s got a great vibe. It’s interesting that Alicia and her producers have chosen to leave it like that. AS: So if I were in here producing a vocal with you, saying: ‘I really like the vibe of that take… even though it’s flat…’ what would your response be, being ‘anal’ about pitch? GS: How flat are we talking here? I mean, if we’re talking stuff that’s just minutely out that’s cool, but if it’s stuff that’s way out, I’d have to question it. AS: Maybe five cents or so...
GS: Oh yeah, noone will ever notice that. I’m not a massive fan of the whole AutoTune effect anyway. I don’t hate it per se – I think it can work when it’s used like any other effect, like the Space Echo or something. But it’s an effect in the end, and I’ve heard it used well and I’ve heard it used badly. There’s certainly no arguing that it’s ‘pop’. Actually I bought the AutoTune effects plug-in the other day to put on a track I’m producing for my little brother, who’s an R&B guy. When we tracked his vocal and put that effect on there, it instantly made it sound like a radio song. Even though I’m not a huge fan of using it much on my own stuff, I actually prefer Melodyne to AutoTune. You can’t detect Melodyne unless you go in and individually take away all the transients. I use it on stuff where a vocal’s got a great vibe, but something’s noticeably out. But you know, it’s hard to adopt a general rule of thumb and say: ‘I’ll never use this’ or ‘I refuse to use that’. Sometimes when I record a vocal it’s done in two takes, at other times, for some reason, I’ll find it hard to nail. That’s when I’ll eventually reach for a little bit of assistance. COOPER LANE MIC COLLECTION AS: Being a singer and self-confessed gear nut, presumably you’re partial to the odd vocal mic. What are the highlights of your collection here? GS: Well, I have a few, and as you know, which one is the ‘best’ depends mainly on the song. My favorite mic for things like old ballads is the RCA R44BX. It’s got amazing depth. I know a lot of people tend to steer clear of a ribbon for a lead vocal, but they don’t realise how many beautiful frequencies there are in a good ribbon, some of them just need to be boosted, that’s all. When you boost the top-end of the RCA, it’s a knockout. I just put a shelf at around 10k and a small shelving cut at around 60Hz to get rid of the rumble. For the
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brighter pop songs, I use a [Neumann] U47 valve or an AKG C12, which I have here too. For me it’s all about frequency. If there’s room in the mix for the vocal to have quite a bit of body, then I go for either the U47 or the ribbon. If it’s a bright fun pop song, I’ll use the C12 or a Neumann U87. I love the U87 – I use it a lot on BVs. I also love the Blue Dragonfly on BVs. That’s a really bright mic on my vocals. SYDNEY STUDIO, NEW YORK APARTMENT? AS: The elephant in the room here is surely the fact that no sooner have you built this place than you’ve split to New York. Was that move out of the blue? GS: Oh mate, that was the biggest thing for me! I’ve spent three months on my hands and knees in here: I put these floorboards down, I re-Gyprocked, I repainted everything, even put the wallpaper up! I bought these couches in Wollongong on eBay. Every little piece of this studio I’ve done on my own. Out there [Guy points to the recording room] was the worst part of it. The carpet had fused into the concrete in that room. It was so rotten I had to get down on my hands and knees and scrape it off with a wire brush. Once I’d started taking it up I had to finish it – I couldn’t paint over it until it was all gone. I used acid in the end because nothing would get it off. And then I got the phone call, ‘You’ve gotta move!’ So it’s been hard to turn my back on it, but it’s not forever. AS: So moving OS wasn’t your decision then? GS: I was over in the US making the fifth record and then Sony signed me over there. AS: Why has that meant you’ve had to go and live over there? GS: You just can’t do it from here. They’ve got to be able to book you for things at short notice. Stuff comes up within days so you’ve really just got to be there and ready for the tours. So I miss being here all the time. In the last couple of months I’ve been trying to track stuff in my New York apartment – I’ve got a Nord Electro keyboard and a couple of other bits and pieces to tide me over. AS: So you’re back to square one – no gear and miles away from your own studio! GS: I enjoy it actually, not having too many toys and playthings, just the simplicity of a Fender Tele’, a keyboard, and an Apogee Duet. I also bought some RNC compressors, which are great. I got a pair for $200 from some guy who was shutting down his studio – $200 for four compressors, that’s pretty decent! VOCAL CHAIN AT ARDENT GS: The recording chain I used in at Ardent Studios in Memphis was pretty amazing. They were using the Neve 88R desk pre, and an original 176 valve compressor – that was stunning – and I was singing into a Neumann U67 valve. That was a gorgeous mic too. That’s probably the next purchase I’ll get for here. Then I’ll pretty much have everything I like.
But hey, you know what’s amazing as a drum bus compressor? A Roger Mayer RM57. I nearly bought one recently for four grand US, until I suddenly snapped out of it and said to myself: ‘Why am I gonna spend four grand on a compressor?’ AS: You’re getting addicted, you realise? GS: I am. But I was proud of myself... I resisted! BACK & FORTH AS: So when you go back to New York is the plan to be recording in other people’s studios again? GS: No not really, I think by the time I go back I’ll have done a fair bit of stuff here, and living over there will be more about getting the music out there
as opposed to recording it. I’ll be recording my whole next record here in Surry Hills now that it’s all setup, including the mixing, so that’ll be fun. AS: It sounds like you’ll be back and forth quite a bit then. GS: Yeah, a lot. AS: I must say I’m a little confused. On the one hand you say you’re mad keen on having your own studio full of great gear and then you say you enjoy not having too many toys. What gives? GS: [Laughs] Yeah, well having a whole heap of recording gear isn’t necessarily what songwriting is all about. In many ways all this gear shouldn’t be used for writing, it should just be used to capture a song. Having said that there have been times when I’ve bought a piece of gear that’s inspired a song. A good case in point was when I bought the microKorg. The day I bought that keyboard, in the midst of playing with it, I came up with a song and recorded it. So there are instances where buying gear has led to a song… at least that’s what I tell myself! AS: I wonder if there’s a song hiding under that new compressor? GS: [Laughs] Yeah, exactly! I’ll get the Roger Mayer... But yeah the way I see it, a lot of the gear I buy is pretty high quality. It’s not like LA2As or UREIs or U47s are going to start losing value anytime soon, especially the vintage stuff, the mics in particular. But obviously part of owning all this stuff is that I simply love finding and using good gear. I really love UA 6176s, for instance. I use them a lot, particularly on overheads. I bought the AMS Neve 1073 DPAs, but obviously they’re just the pre without the EQ. I figured there would definitely be times when I’d want to EQ something, so I also bought the Arsenal Audio EQ R-24, made by API. I didn’t know what I’d think about it, but I absolutely love it. It’s really nice. And I’d even use it for mastering the end of a demo – sounds really warm; great top end. But check it out... it won’t fit in a standard rack! Isn’t that insane? AS: It’s not 19-inch? GS: It’s like 19 and a little bit, it really pissed me off actually. So it’s a big investment buying all this gear, but the way I see it, it’s ultimately going to save me tons of money having my own space. I mean, if I was recording for months at 301, paying $1600-odd a day, it quickly adds up to a big chunk of dosh. But in some ways rationalising the studio in terms of its economic business benefits is self-delusion. I think it’s something I tell myself to justify what is essentially just a hobby really. I’ve set this place up because I love music, and I love having the ability to come here whenever I like and know that having great gear means I know it’s going to sound good. And I guess I’d also love to see “Recorded at Cooper Lane” on the credits of some band’s album in the future. It’s always been a bit of a dream of mine to have a studio that other bands use. AS: Sounds like that will happen sooner than you think. Cheers for showing me around Guy. GS: My pleasure Andy, any time man.
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TUTORIAL
PREPARING FOR MASTERING
The session’s booked, now it’s time to make sure preparations are in order. Text: Mark Bassett
After countless hours of planning, tracking, editing and mixing, the time has come for the final stage in the creative process – mastering. You’re ready to put the project in the hands of a trusted professional to hear the album really come alive. Or are you? Gathering together all your hard work in a coherent and organised manner before the mastering session begins is the final task left for you to perform. Once you’ve done that you can relax. Unfortunately, many think gathering together the multitude of song files, track listings, track order and mastering instructions is a job that’s best left ’til the session clock is ticking, while others think it’s the role of the mastering engineer to decipher hand-scribbled notes and song orders with ‘options’. Make no mistake, this is the last crucial link in the chain, and the task is yours. Do it before the session begins and you’ll save yourself time, heartache and a pile of cash. There are all sorts of seemingly innocuous incidents that can quickly put the brakes on a mastering session. These oversights aren’t limited to unsigned, independent or small-budget productions either; many major labels fail to attend to a few crucial housekeeping issues nearly as often as the ‘little guys’. Here are seven things that will make your mastering session flow smoothly for all involved. 1: LABELLING At a mastering session you simply can’t have enough clear labelling. This applies to basically everything you send to the mastering house. But of course, if you’re attending the session, labelling may not seem that necessary, right? You’ll be telling the engineer what’s what and there shouldn’t be a problem, right? Perhaps, but your labelling should be so clear that it’s blindingly obvious what files are what, regardless of who attends the session.
For digital files, a suggested minimum labelling protocol for each song runs something like this: track number (where it will appear on the final
album); full track name (spelled correctly); version notes (information you think might be relevant to the session); and sample rate of the digital file. Here are some typical examples: 02 – Be Prepared – 48k.wav 02 – Be Prepared – vocal up 1dB – 48k.wav 02 – Be Prepared – vocal down 1dB – 48k.wav 02 – Be Prepared – instrumental – 48k.wav 02 – Be Prepared – TVmix – 48k.wav
The sample rate (listed in the file names above) isn’t essential to the labelling process, as the mastering engineer will inevitably check the sample rate of all the files as they’re loaded into the workstation. He or she will likely load them into a higher bit-depth session anyway for the increased resolution, should any additional processing be applied (which it almost always is). However, the whole process is much faster if you have sample rate and bit depth clearly labelled. In the analogue domain, all of the above applies to labelling, although there will be no sample rate or bit depth – obviously. Label your tapes with the speed, noise reduction notes, and the location and details of the line-up tones. 2: INSTRUCTIONS Next up there’s the obvious decision about which digital files are being mastered. With all these alternate versions on hand, exactly what are we featuring on the finished master? To avoid the wrong mix ending up on your album, write clear, simple instructions that can be easily followed, and without turning these comments into an essay, base them on the expectation that noone is turning up to the session – even if you are. The written instructions ensure that all the decisions that need to be made prior to mastering have been made.
What version of each song is the mastering engineer expected to use for the album? Is the mastering
engineer mastering the instrumental and TV mixes as well as the ‘best mix’? Often a mix engineer will print these ‘alternative’, ‘instrumental’ and ‘TV’ mixes during the mixing session under specific instruction from the artists, at other times he or she may suggest it ‘just in case’. However, these are not always used and rarely placed on a CD master. Make it clear to the mastering engineer at the start of the session whether these extra mixes need the royal treatment or not. Special notes pertaining to cross-fades, transitions, when to fade out a track etc., should also be clearly detailed. It’s also important to note the presence of any distortion or clicks on the files so that the mastering engineer doesn’t spend valuable time trying to track down what he or she might mistake for a mysterious noise in the signal path. A small amount of digital distortion – clipping – on your mix is (a) likely to become more obvious if the mastering engineer adds top end to try and ‘open up’ the mix, and (b) likely to make the mastering engineer stop the session and start looking for the source of the distortion. Shipping instructions are also crucial – a return address and contact details for the mix engineer should be included with the masters. 3: SEQUENCING While it may not seem overly important to you what order the tracks are mastered in, the sequencing of an album (the order in which the songs appear) can make a real difference to the end result. If the track order changes halfway through the session, sometimes it’s possible to simply rearrange the tracks in the master destination DAW. However, when mastering an album or EP, the tracks are mastered to fit and flow together from track to track, in context. Swapping Track 2 for Track 8 might require a remaster of one or both tracks. For this reason the running order is required by most mastering engineers before the session starts. This saves time and ensures that this very important decision has been thought through well ahead of
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Write clear, simple instructions that can be easily followed, and without turning these comments into an essay, base them on the expectation that noone is turning up to the session – even if you are
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time, and not rushed with the clock ticking (which often leads to a follow-up session to rearrange the tracks). 4: ISRCs From the Mastering Engineer’s Handbook (2nd Edition):
“ISRC is a unique identifier of each recording that makes up the album. If a recording is changed in any way it requires a new ISRC, but otherwise it will always retain the same ISRC independent of the company or format it is in. An ISRC code also may not be reused.” For more information on ISRCs, visit ARIA’s website at www.aria.com.au/pages/isrc.htm, or download a free ISRC Handbook from www.aria.com.au/pages/ documents/isrc_handbook_2003.pdf
The bottom line is that you don’t necessarily have to have ISRC codes put on your master, however, it makes life much easier when utilising services such as iTunes to distribute your music. Having a unique identifier for your tracks has other benefits as detailed on the above website. 5: ALTERNATE VERSIONS It’s standard practice amongst mix engineers to print ‘vocal up’, ‘vocal down’, instrumental, and TV mixes during the mixing process. Relative vocal levels can change during mastering and with alternate versions readily on-hand, making fine adjustments to compensate for processing during mastering (or simply to turn the vocal up or down) is easily achieved. The vast majority of pre-masters I’ve encountered don’t include alternate versions; however, they’re potentially a real time and money saver for the client. Take the time to print vocal up and down mixes (or bring in stems), even if you’re confident with your levels. If you’re not confident about the level of any other element in the mix (a big dirty synth for example), print a few alternate mixes for that also. 6: CLEAN MASTERS You would be stunned by how many masters brought into a session on CD and DVD are absolutely filthy. Some are so bad I’m convinced the damage done to both sides of the disc must have been deliberate! I’d estimate one in every 30 discs I see has a corrupted/unreadable piece of data on it. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, bring the CDs and DVDs to the session in protective cases, not stuck together with sticky tape then wrapped in a sheet of A4 paper. Check the data is readable on your computer beforehand, and only use brand new
Call this clear?: A mastering engineer cannot be expected to decipher hand-scribbled and confusing information. If you’re not clear about song order, song names and spelling, you’re heading for a costly and potentially disastrous outcome.
discs. The couple of bucks it will cost you to get a brand new disc in a case may just save you an hour (and a large sum of money) driving home and back to get a new copy of your pre-master because Track 5 is unreadable. 7: BACKUP COPIES The adage that ‘data doesn’t exist unless it exists in three places’ is especially relevant in the modern recording studio, although it’s worth noting that these ‘three places’ refers to three different physical locations, not three folders on the same hard disk in your house – think one copy at home, one in the studio, and one at your mate’s house. A similar principle applies to the mastering session. Whatever you’re bringing/sending to mastering, ensure that you supply a full backup copy on a different drive or disc – duplicating a folder on your hard disk doesn’t constitute a backup. DVDs and CDs are notoriously unreliable, so burn full backup copies of all discs and bring them along. Also, check the data is actually on your discs (including backups) – you’d be surprised the number of clients that bring a disc to a mastering session with nothing on it.
So remember, a bit of careful preparation and good decision-making prior to the date of your booking is the key to a smooth outcome during the mastering session. Without it, the ride may be rough, confusing and costly. Good luck!
REGULARS
Conceived, concocted and cooked-up on these very shores, AudioMulch 2 is winning a swarm of friends both at home and abroad. We talk to its creator, Ross Bencina, about his inspiration for the program, and the elbow grease required to get a world-class application off the ground. Text: Brad Watts
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting Ross Bencina, code-creator extraordinaire, and the brains behind AudioMulch. For those of you who’ve never heard of the program, this fine audio application melds the concepts of personal computer-based production and digital signal processing into a cohesive tool for performers and recordists looking to push the boundaries of live performance and digital improvisation. But rather than interrogating Ross about the ins and out (as it were) of AudioMulch, Ross and I chatted about his background in live performance, and what it takes to get a program like AudioMulch off the ground and into the hands of eager-to-improvise musicians. As it stands, AudioMulch has already made permanent inroads into both performance and recording spheres with acts like Girl Talk and Four Tet, and luminaries such as Pete Townshend and Trent Reznor, embracing the program wholeheartedly. For a greater insight into to the nuts and bolts of AudioMulch, see the roundup of features overleaf. PREPARING THE SOIL Brad Watts: Ross, can I kick things off by asking you what’s led you to becoming involved in software development?
Ross Bencina: Well, to start at the beginning, back when I was a teenager I guess I had two real interests: music and computers. Back then I had a MIDI keyboard – an Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus – and a Mac for sequencing. That’s basically how I got
into programming. I was very interested in digital sound as a kid, and wrote very basic programs that generated waveforms and the like. I guess it’s fair to say I was a bit of a teenage computer nerd. After high school I went on to study music at La Trobe Uni, which, back in the early ’90s, had a great music technology course. This was back in the days when the sequencing programs being taught were Opcode’s Vision and Mastertracks Pro. Then there was sound synthesis software like CSound… but the really big deal was the fact that La Trobe had a NeXT machine running IRCAM Signal Processing Workstation software – that was super high-end research signal processing stuff. BW: Was all this sequencing and signal processing easy to manage with a personal computer at that time? RB: In truth, it was really only beginning to become practical . This was around the time when Apple had just released its PowerPC Macintosh. The first realtime processing I did was on the NeXT platform. These machines were completely discontinued by that stage, but I’d bought a second-hand one regardless, mainly because they had built-in DSP chips. I hacked something together to process some real-time sound with that. So I was generally neglecting my studies and spending most of my time hacking with computers. That’s how it all began really. There’s a lot to learn when you’re trying to program computers, and it can be a tedious slog at times, but when you’ve got a real interest in achieving a specific goal – like I
RB: Latency wasn’t too bad. It certainly wasn’t good, but it was manageable. I think it was around 20 milliseconds or similar, which is noticeable, but manageable. Like many others though, I saw the potential of computers to do these things, so I was confident the latency issues would become easier to manage over time. The IRCAM hardware I was using at university had less than two milliseconds latency, so I knew the technology would eventually catch up. COMPUTER MUSIC BW: How did all this coding relate back to your musical interests?
RB: I guess it all related back to my interest in samplers and hardware synthesisers. This was all occurring around the end of the ’80s when the ‘analogue’ sound was emerging from the dance scene, which is what I was interested in, along with the musique concréte movement. But the technology was also a bit hidden back then, and people seemed to regard it as some sort of esoteric format from a bygone age. By the early ’90s, my perceptions were being bombarded by marketing about digital synths and sample-based systems, like the Roland D-50 and the Yamaha SY series – the analogue-modelling concepts hadn’t really begun at that stage. So there was a vacuum of sorts, as I saw it. I wanted to create sounds with the sort of attitude most people now associate with modular ‘analogue’ synthesis.
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I wanted the kind of fluidity that invites complete improvisation, not just knob-twiddling over already established processing chains. Mulch was all about having the ability to patch stuff together live.
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For me, the first really significant machine at the time was the Kurzweil K2000. I remember thinking, “whoa, this thing does everything and it’s really deep and powerful.” BW: So when did this focus morph into an ambition to build AudioMulch? RB: Being interested in processing sound as a musical entity, rather than for sheer experimentation, I started writing programs with some musicality behind them. The first was called Oversyte – a real-time sound granulation program I wrote in about 1994 for the PowerPC Macintosh. Actually, that’s not strictly correct; I’ll confess the first program I wrote along these lines was a TB-303 Bassline simulation. That floated around for a while between friends and work colleagues, but was never ‘released’ as such, although it did end up being shoehorned into AudioMulch eventually. But with Oversyte there was a project deadline. I had a gig lined up that involved processing the Astra Choir – a chamber music choir in Melbourne – which had been organised between myself and a few other people at La Trobe. The performance involved three improvising vocalists, although we did rehearse quite a bit so we knew what style of processing we’d be doing. Leading on from that I collaborated with flautist, Kylee Smith, doing live improvised sound processing with the same software. In a lot of ways that’s what got me started with what I do nowadays – live performances using improvised sound. As a result of the collaboration with Kylee Smith, we
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BW: Was the latency monster an issue for you back then?
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had – you pursue things until you reach your goal. It was a little bit harder back then, of course. The internet was only just starting up, and gathering information was a little harder. Some things could be garnered from the net, but information gathering mostly involved asking people via email how they were doing things. It wasn’t like it is now with Google search engines and forum posts. You actually had to contact someone directly to get an answer. Having access to the university library and 20 years of research publications about the formative years of computer music technology was probably the biggest advantage I had.
ended up doing a series of one-hour fully improvised performances at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. From that point on I was hooked. The intense improvisational nature of these performances led me to develop a huge laundry list of the tools I’d need to continue. At the time I had software doing some sound processing, while other elements of the performance were pre-prepared and pre-processed as stems in ProTools. These stems would often include pre-production with non-realtime software like CSound and CMix, which are command line processing programs – completely off-line and non-real-time. So I guess the turning point for me was realising that I needed software that was more modular; far more configurable for real-time performance, and completely real-time. I wanted to improvise and I wanted to plug lots of stuff together and do it all on-the-fly. I wanted the kind of fluidity that invites complete improvisation, not just knob-twiddling over already established processing chains. Mulch was all about having the ability to patch stuff together live. That concept in itself wasn’t a new idea, of course. People had been doing that throughout the ’70s with hardware modular synths, but it was nevertheless an idea I really connected with: improvised performance where everything is completely dynamic, with no precomposition whatsoever. KEY IDEAS BW: Can you tell us a bit about the hard work involved with getting a program like AudioMulch developed for commercial release?
RB: Software stability is the main issue with
AUDIOMULCH: WHAT IS IT? AudioMulch is sometimes hard for people to grasp, so imagine it this way. Close your eyes and picture your favourite rehearsal space. The floor is cluttered with chains of esoteric effects pedals, each tied to their own instrument and amplifier via cables. There’s a keyboard player taking up a third of the room (and even more of the mixer channels). He’s surrounded by a modular synth, drum machine, sampler and controller keyboard, so there’s only a few channels left on the console for vocals, trumpet and percussion mics. A MiniDisc deck in the PA rack is documenting the jam – if you’re lucky – and once you’re all connected, that’s it. Everyone’s in his or her own channel and space – locked in. But what if, while you were playing, the guitar could be repatched via the filters in the synth, the trumpet routed through the fuzz pedal and tape delay, the drum machine used to gate the keys? What if the vocal recording from last week’s jam could be pumped back into the Fender Twin
AudioMulch, without a doubt. Getting the program to the point where it’s stable for all users – not just for me personally – has been the biggest challenge. I remember early on in Mulch’s development, the bug list was literally in the hundreds. That was a real struggle that demanded my constant attention. But my attitude to the program was always: ‘Okay if I want this thing to be rock solid I need to be paying attention to these bugs, and if someone says it’s crashing then it’s not something to just add to a list and think about later’. It’s hard to describe, but basically I like to think of software as a big clockwork mechanism, with a lot of little inter-meshing components all working together. Not just gears, but chains and pulleys and weird tracks where balls run down slots and countless switches turn on and off. Probably every kind of mechanical thing you can think of is in there, but it all has to sync together and function properly. But unlike a clockwork mechanism, where you can sit back and observe the whole thing, with software, it’s all electrons flowing through a microscopic circuit. So when something goes wrong, you can’t see what’s occurred. Even the methods and tools used to find the bugs themselves can be unreliable, which can be extremely frustrating at times. BW: Presumably you’ve got to hunt down and tag these bugs somehow? RB: Yeah, if the software crashes you’ve got to find out exactly what happened and why. I guess you could liken it to paper jamming up a printer mechanism or a trolley going off the rails on a production line. With software, beyond simply
from the MiniDisc; all on-the-fly, all without interrupting the audio and all spontaneously? What if all this could be done during a single performance, reconfigured to another combination and then returned, all before the coda? This is the domain of AudioMulch. AudioMulch is an ‘interactive modular environment’ for improvised performance, composition and sound design. Synthesis and processing can be limited to within a single computer, or alternatively, live instrumental performances can be patched into the program via audio interface for direct interaction. Several laptop performers can even interact in this way running multiple instances of AudioMulch; all locked together via MIDI or network sync. The resulting performances can then be captured as a multichannel audio recording or automation curves to be replicated later or refined. The process is as simple as plugging two modules together with the program’s virtual patch leads, so it’s not surprising
AudioMulch has been used extensively to teach students about audio signal flow and processing. Almost all of the program can be controlled via MIDI, so the concept of performance can become even more physical. AudioMulch emphasises finding your own non-linear path and removes the conventional structure imposed by the discrete multichannel environment of most DAWs. Feedback loops can be combined with Live Looping processes to create self-generating and evolving soundscapes. AudioMulch is, above all, a computer instrument. It brings together elements of traditional analogue modelling with effects and routing options only possible within the computer. The Metasurface: The Metasurface is a control interface unique to AudioMulch, which allows for the manipulation of many parameters at once through fluid mouse or controller gestures. By placing snapshots of settings around the twodimensional plane the performer
finding a problem, the real trick is to find out why it went off the rails in the first place. It could be that the rail just led off into oblivion, in which case it’s no wonder the trolley fell off, or it could be any number of other less obvious possibilities. One thing can lead to another inside a program, and in an instant, the entire application falls over. BW: User bug reports must be invaluable to you then? RB: They are, absolutely. And the program wouldn’t be where it is today without that feedback. I’ve kept a close relationship with the AudioMulch community from the beginning, and the program has really benefited from that. I’ve always encouraged people to contact me with bugs. That sort of community-based testing process has been a big part of my development process. I mean, if you’re a big company like Microsoft you can afford to have whole teams of people doing the testing for you. But I’m essentially one guy and I don’t have that capacity. CLEAR AIMS BW: It sounds like one of the things that must be hard is simply keeping the program on track, and resisting the temptation to try to make it ‘all things to all people’. Is it?
RB: I think it’s very important, when writing a program, to have a clear idea of what your goals are. That’s half the struggle with making anything, really, and it’s crucially important when writing software. To be honest, that’s something I’ve learned over time; it’s not something that’s always been foremost in my mind. It was a lot easier when I started building the program for my own
is able to create a ‘geography’ of effects. Moving between snapshots with the cursor then smoothly morphs these parameter values, creating shifting sonic effects. The Metasurface can be controlled using an X/Y MIDI controller (Korg Kaoss Pad etc), two individual MIDI controllers mapped to X and Y parameters, or simply with the mouse. If you’ve got the appropriate interface software you could even use a Wacom tablet, WiiMote or multitouch device. Coming Attractions: AudioMulch
2.1 (a free upgrade for registered users) is slated for release in coming months. Aside from the usual host of user improvements and optimisations, 2.1 promises a suite of dynamics processing effects (a compressor, limiter and gate), support for non-4/4 time signatures, and AudioUnit plug-in support for Mac users. To read about and participate in shaping the future development trajectory of AudioMulch visit: www.audiomulch.com/ audiomulch-roadmap-2009-2010
Ross Bencina: “The real challenge for me is in promoting the fact that AudioMulch isn’t for everyone and doesn’t do everything.”
AudioMulch is an ‘interactive modular environment’ for improvised performance, composition and sound design.
performances, before I went public with it. Even after I first started calling it AudioMulch, sharing it over the web, and making it available for other people to use, it was foremost in my mind that this was software I was writing for myself, and that I had to be happy with its performance. Now that the program has been around for more than a decade in some form or other, the things I mostly think about are issues like marketing – communicating the value of the product I know so well to people who may want to use it. It’s very much about communicating clearly what it is I’m trying to do, and being clear about what AudioMulch is designed for. As you say, it’s very easy to just grab onto whatever the latest hype is and attempt to ride that bandwagon, whatever it happens to be. The real challenge for me is in promoting the fact that AudioMulch isn’t for everyone and doesn’t do everything. It’s not a tracking program and it’s certainly not a DAW. I still remember the first time I got an email from someone saying, “Hey man I love your product.” I was quite confronted by the concept of my software being referred to as a ‘product’! I didn’t relate to it like that at all. These days I can look at the program in that light, and I think that’s helped a lot with keeping the concept of AudioMulch clear in my own mind, and consequently relay that concept more effectively to the user-base. BW: What’s the estimated size of your user-base now, do you know? RB: That’s a difficult question to answer, mainly because of software piracy. I don’t actually think most of the downloads are from my website. The other day I was at a bar listening to these guys from Argentina play and one of them was doing this laptop experimental stuff and I said, “I liked your set… I make audio software, a program called AudioMulch.” He was like, “AudioMulch! Wow! I use that software all the time, but I didn’t pay for it. I always use a pirated version!” So I think there’s a lot of people like that out there. Fortunately, there
are enough people using legitimate versions to allow the program to continue. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT BW: So what does the future hold for AudioMulch?
RB: There’s plenty of stuff planned for this year, but in terms of crystal ball predictions, the future for Mulch is all about creating something that’s easy to use and even better suited to live performance. Performing live with laptops is much more commonplace nowadays than when I started with AudioMulch. Back then I was carting a desktop computer around to gigs, so I think there’s still a lot of potential in paring down the equipment required for processing audio. I’m also very interested in physical interfaces – I actually spent some time in Spain, working with the research team that developed reacTable (www.reactable.com) – getting away from that sitting-behind-a-computer-witha-mouse paradigm. Things like the Novation Launchpad, the Monome, and so forth all look to be viable alternative control systems for live performance. I see that whole interface trend as something that’s going to expand greatly during the next few years, and I’m interested in taking that beyond mere control surfaces, into wearable and movement-sensing controllers, taking things more in the direction of the WiiMote idea. I’ve actually done some experiments using WiiMotes to control AudioMulch already – there are videos of that stuff online if you want to check it out. It’s looking quite promising. Whether that’s something I just end up doing for my own musical interest, or something that becomes part of AudioMulch, or indeed a separate product altogether, I’m really not sure yet.
NEED TO KNOW Price AudioMulch 2: US$189 or $189 to Australian residents via email: (info@audiomulch.com) Contact info@audiomulch.com www.audiomulch.com Supported Operating Systems Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. Mac OSX (Intel processors only) 10.4, 10.5, 10.6. Any computer capable of running a supported OS. A fully functioning 60-day trial version of the program is available from the AudioMulch website. Key Features AudioMulch contains a range of built-in signal generation and sound processing modules, including studio and performance classics like delay, parametric EQ, reverb, phaser, flanger, a drum machine and arpeggiator, as well as unique digital synthesis and processing effects like granulators, shifters & shapers, risset filters and tone generators... There’s multitrack live looping functionality, a unique Metasurface effects morphing interface, timeline automation of contraption and program parameters, and VST plug-in support for further expansion of the audio and MIDI processing possibilities. There’s support for up to 256 channels of real-time audio I/O, multichannel file recording and playback, along with playback and recording support for WAV an AIFF files up to 32-bit/192k. There are assignable MIDI input ports, patchable MIDI routing, along with quick mapping of MIDI controllers to contraption and program parameters. There’s support for MIDI & network sync with other devices and MIDI control of document switching.
REGULARS
MAC AUDIO Audio Apps for the iPad are just around the corner and already look set to breathe new life into DAW control. Text: Brad Watts
Last issue I alluded to the imminent release of Apple’s iPad. There were hardly any surprises about its release as it turned out. The countless leaks and spilt beans put paid to that.
controller. All five applications connect to your computer via a wireless network (or WiFi if you must) and I must say, they’re astoundingly useful and work remarkably well.
The main thrust behind Apple’s new Golden Child is, of course, electronic publishing. Perhaps inevitably, running in parallel with its release, is the publishing industry’s fear that Apple is mounting an assault on the way ‘printed media’ is disseminated amongst book and magazine readers – using a predictably similar approach to its successful iTunes model. The web is now awash with conjecture about whether the iPad will be the saviour of the somewhat flaccid publishing world, or the vehicle through which virtual print media will become the next format assimilated into the Apple Borg. It’s obviously too early to know which of these outcomes will eventuate, but I’ll wager the result will be a mixture of the two. Apple can’t hold all the cards in the deck, but it could certainly be left holding a large percentage of them if iTunes is any measure of Apple’s out-of-the-box thinking and tenacity.
iMUST-HAVE Hankering for a taste of this iPhone DAW control, I headed to the iTunes store to download ProRemote LE and ProTransport. ProRemote LE is the eightfader version of ProRemote that functions much like a typical hardware fader-pack. Control of these eight adjacent faders is managed in similar fashion to a Command8 or similar, whereby bank changes occur via left/right scrolling buttons. All eight channels under scrutiny are visible on both the iPhone and the ’Tools window simultaneously – a very nifty and surprising feature of the application. The more expensive and comprehensive ProRemote, meanwhile, is capable of managing 32 faders without changing banks. ProRemote costs a hefty $119, with the LE ‘light edition’ coming in at a more hip-pocket sensitive $44.
IPAD AUDIO But any effect the iPad may have on print media is perhaps largely irrelevant to the vast majority of audio inhabitants (apart from the obvious prospect that you may be, in the not-too-distant future, reading the pages of AT from an iPad). Arguably far more compelling are the opportunities for new and captivating control methods involving the iPad and audio applications.
One such application has already caught my eye, and it’s positively brilliant. Although it’s only available for the iPhone and iPod Touch at the moment, the developer, Alex Lelievre, informs me he’s working on the iPad version this very minute (see the images above). For a peek into the iPad’s future, and indeed, for some extremely useful control software, you should check out the range of applications from Far Out Labs (www.folabs.com). At the moment the range includes: ProRemote and ProRemote LE, for fader control of your DAW from an iPhone or iPod Touch; ProTransport, for simple transport and scrubbing control; ProPads, an application that offers up to 64 drum-machine style pads; and Pro XY, for a customisable XY MIDI
Running the ProRemote software firstly involves installing a MIDI driver and server software into your DAW machine – available from the Far Out Labs website. Once that’s installed you’re pretty much ready to go. In the case of ProTools, all that’s required is to set up HUI control under the Peripherals menu, and ProRemote locks into the application without the slightest bother. With Logic Pro, you simply run a scan in the controller section of Logic Pro’s preferences, and voila – instant control of your session directly from your phone. If, for some reason, you can’t get it together this simply, Far Out Labs also provides instructions for setting up the application with ProTools, Logic, and Ableton Live. The application follows HUI protocol and Mackie Control mode, so you could feasibly control any application that conforms to either of these standards. THE DRY RUN When I opened ProRemote LE on my iPhone for the first time, I must say I was immediately impressed. Lo and behold, the program adopts the same look of ProTools or Logic – the faders and background immediately taking on the aesthetic
of the host DAW. The second surprise came when I discovered just how fluidly ProRemote LE functions, despite its virtual faders traveling only a modest 40mm. There’s far more to ProRemote LE than simple fader manipulation too. Other functions include track arming and control of panning, where a double-tap on the virtual pan-knob presents a larger virtualknob on your iPhone screen. Metering is also displayed alongside each fader, and while it’s a little jerky at times compared to the DAW, it’s a nifty inclusion. Another trick (that’s common to other iPhone and iPod Touch apps) is the program’s ability to align itself horizontally or vertically; the former presenting eight faders on screen, the latter only four. Flipping your iDevice horizontally gives you full view of eight faders; the downside being that, in this arrangement, the throw of the faders is reduced from 40mm to 30. Despite this miniaturisation however, it’s still entirely possible to adjust the faders effectively. Soloing and mute control are also on offer, as is selecting automation modes for individual tracks. Then there’s a transport control, and the ability to agree with (or escape from) the DAW’s onscreen dialogue prompts. It really is a fully-fledged controller that fits into the palm of your hand. Now, how this little iPhone gem ultimately gets deployed is entirely up to you. Regardless, its purchase is surely a no-brainer. Whether you’re recording on your lonesome or driving a DAW from a recording space that separated from the control room, for a mere $44 – or indeed a paltry $10 for ProTransport – the FOL applications are pure gold… Getting back to those 30 and 40mm faders. Agreed, they’re tiny. Many will ultimately find them only occasionally useful, while others may see them as nothing more than a gimmick. But there’s no questioning the potential for the application to, at the very least, provide basic remote transport and track-arming duties from behind a drum-kit or while overdubbing vocals. More significantly is where this is all leading us in the not-too-distant future. Imagine ProRemote running on a 24cm LED-backlit iPad screen? With this in mind, I think you’ll agree the future is looking bright for the iPad and some interbreeding with audio applications. Bring it on!
REGULARS
PC AUDIO USB has suffered from a somewhat tarnished reputation on the PC, but this may be about to change with the arrival of SuperSpeed USB 3.0. Text: Martin Walker
USB audio has always had a bit of an image problem, particularly on the PC. The reason for this is mainly due to some of the early USB motherboard chipsets causing frustrating audio click and pops, while audio interfaces designed for USB 1.1 ports (with a maximum transfer rate of 12 megabits per second) struggled for bandwidth when attempting stereo in/out at a 96k sample rate. Nowadays the vast majority of PCs offer USB 2.0 ports, which provide a maximum potential transfer rate of 480 megabits per second (60MB/second), and a more typical real-world transfer rate of around 40MB/second. You can normally recognise these in the Windows Device Manager by the word ‘enhanced’ appearing somewhere in the list of Universal Serial Bus controller entries. Highspeed USB 2.0 audio interfaces plugged into such ports can theoretically manage more simultaneous inputs and outputs than Firewire 400 devices, and my own experiences across various makes and model of USB 2.0 interface have been consistently good. Unfortunately, there’s still a little snobbery on the street, and USB 2.0 remains a significantly less popular alternative than Firewire. Nevertheless, Edirol was the early champion of USB 2.0 in the audio arena, followed by MOTU, which released a USB 2.0 version of its previously Firewire-only 828 MkII interface. RME also recently launched its Fireface UC interface (reviewed last issue) with its newly optimised USB core. This increasing support for USB 2.0 among interface manufacturers over the last couple of years may be related to the ongoing (and sometimes frustrating) compatibility problems that occur between various combinations of Firewire controller chips and Firewire audio interfaces. This isn’t just a PC-only problem either, I might add – the latest MacBooks have Agere Firewire controller chips that disagree with (among others) RME audio interfaces. THE DOWNSIDES Unlike Firewire devices, USB machines are still disadvantaged by their inability to be daisy-chained. Of course, if you run out of USB ports you can always buy a PCI/PCIe card containing another USB host controller that supports two or more additional ports, or some sort of USB 2.0 hub that plugs into
one of your existing ports. This doesn’t give you any more bandwidth, of course, since all these ports will still be sharing the same host controller chip on your PC, but you will have more ports. The other main disadvantage of USB 2.0 has been the sometimes lacklustre performance of external USB hard drives. While many musicians rely on these to record and play back audio, some run into bandwidth problems when recording and playing back lots of simultaneous audio tracks onto such drives, especially when there’s an audio interface plugged into the same host controller chip (typically each pair of ports has a separate host controller). Most of the modern hard drives I’ve benchmarked over the last year or so have offered sustained transfer rates between 100 and 150MB/second, so the 40MB/second real-world performance of USB 2.0 can still prove a bottleneck when you want to run loads of audio or video tracks. UPPED BY ONE However, something has changed that may swell the popularity of the USB standard by a significant margin, and that’s the arrival of USB 3.0. While Firewire 400 generally offers a real-world performance edge over USB 2.0, and Firewire 800 is more than twice as fast, the fastest ‘SuperSpeed USB’ option of USB 3.0 is theoretically capable of a massive 4.8 Gigabits per-second transfer rate, while remaining backwards-compatible with USB low-speed (1.5Mbit/second), full-speed (12Mbit/ second), and high-speed (480Mbit/second). We’ve waited a long time for products to arrive since this technology was first announced by Intel in 2007, but initial real-world results of SuperSpeed USB suggest that sustained transfer rates of 400MB/second are quite feasible – 10 times faster than high-speed USB. Finally, we’ll be able to make the most of the fastest external hard drives – even the solid state drives that offer massive 200MB/second sustained transfer rates without compromising their performance in the slightest! The 500 milliamps available via USB 2.0 ports to power external peripherals has also been increased to 900mA in USB 3.0, so we should also see a drop-off in the reliance of those inconvenient external power supplies.
As a result of all these changes, USB 3.0 should
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Initial real-world results of SuperSpeed USB suggest that sustained transfer rates of 400MB/ second are quite feasible – 10 times faster than high-speed USB
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realistically stay ahead of the game for some time to come. It also makes it more feasible to stream video material from an external drive. The first USB 3.0 motherboards have already appeared from Asus, as well as a U3S6 USB 3.0 PCI Express expansion card, featuring two USB 3.0 ports, which means you won’t have to change your motherboard to take advantage of the new technology. There are various external hard drives available featuring the new SuperSpeed USB interface – Buffalo Technology (www.buffalotech.com) was first out of the starting gate with its DriveStation HD-HXU3, available in 1, 1.5, and 2TB models. PUTTING OUT THE FIRE SuperSpeed USB leaves Firewire 800 in the dust. It’s faster than eSATA (the external version of the SATA drives we find in most PCs nowadays), and even outperforms the forthcoming Firewire 3200. The dropping by Apple of Firewire ports on many of its latest models also points to USB becoming extremely popular with musicians in the future. Moreover, with the data transfer bottleneck now shifting itself across to the hard drive, we may see more use of solid state drives, which could well prove an ideal way to ship streaming sample libraries in the future.
There’s bound to be some USB confusion along the way, but manufacturers are hoping that the new SuperSpeed USB logo and differently coloured connectors will help differentiate new from old. As usual, it’s going to be ‘all change’, but then that’s always been the way with computers, hasn’t it?
REVIEW
PRESONUS STUDIO ONE PRO PreSonus takes on the big boys with a DAW that does more than hold its own. Text: Brad Watts
As far as audio was concerned, 2009 presented a number of interesting anomalies on the software front. I was amazed, for instance, to see manufacturers wading into the established DAW market – an arena already bustling with DAW and MIDI sequencing software companies, many of which had held a tight grip on the market for decades. One such brazen innovator was PreSonus. After years honing its hardware product range to include all manner of audio interfaces and associated accessories – including the somewhat spectacular StudioLive mixing console/audio interface reviewed last issue – the company stepped up to the plate, offering its own perspective on what it sees as the ideal DAW. Dubbed ‘Studio One’, this versatile new DAW comes in two versions: the ‘Artist’, which comes bundled with PreSonus’s FireStudio range of audio interfaces and the ‘Pro’, which is exchanged for cold hard cash. Unlike so many other ‘slimmed down’ freebie DAW applications however, the Artist version retains features such as unlimited track count and comprehensive automation (but unfortunately not support of VST and AU plug-ins). Artist users can enjoy the 20 plug-ins that come with the package, as well as four virtual instruments: three based around sampling and sample playback, and Mojito, an analogue modelling subtractive synthesiser. Studio One Artist can also be purchased separately – also for cash – for a paltry $270, with the Pro version costing $499. Clearly, neither version is an expensive proposition. THE ‘VIBEY’ ONE So what’s the vibe with Studio One? Well, to begin with, installation is a cinch – just copy the application onto your hard drive. Next up is authorisation, achieved via the web and your typical ‘challenge and response’ system. Once PreSonus hasn’t tried to reinvent the wheel here – the windows and pages are precisely where you’d expect to find them – resulting in what could be described as a brand new ‘best of’ DAW.
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you’re given clearance it’s plain sailing – you’ll only have to reauthorise when you change computers or suffer a hard drive failure and reinstall the program. Compatibility extends from OSX 10.4.11 upwards, along with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Minimum Macintosh requirements are a PowerPC G4 1.25GHz or Intel Core Solo 1.5GHz processor, whereas PCs require an Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz processor or AMD Athlon 64. (It’s comforting to see a DAW manufacturer supporting older machines… let’s face it, there are a lot of musicians out there reliant upon inexpensive computers out of sheer economic necessity.) Any ASIO, Windows Audio, or Core Audio-compliant audio interface will integrate happily with Studio One. As mentioned, VST and AU plug-ins are supported only in Studio One Pro, as is Rewire, and you can add as many plug-ins to a channel as you wish. There’s also a fantastic bypass button for bypassing all plug-ins on a given channel – take note other DAW manufacturers. Cooler still are the expanded plug-in views within a channel strip – here you can access a plug-in’s main parameters without opening the plug-in window and cluttering up the screen further. Plus there’s facility to route signal into outboard hardware by way of a plug-in called Pipeline. This includes automatic latency compensation in its swag of tricks – tracks remain in phase with plug-ins applied! SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE My initial impression of Studio One was that it felt quite snappy. It didn’t seem for a moment that the computer has become utterly possessed by the DAW, which – I’m sorry to admit – is how many other DAW applications tend to behave. Studio One will happily loiter in the background while you attend to other computer related chores without so much as a word of complaint. In fact, I’ve had Studio One Pro running
in the background on this writing laptop for well over a week now, with no unexplained crashes from the program at all. Such is the beauty of a modern code-base. The first screen you’re presented with upon booting Studio One Pro is the aptly named Start Page, offering immediate access to previously saved songs and projects. From here you can kick off a new Song (a ‘Song’ being Studio One’s most basic document), reload a ‘Project’ (effectively a mastering session comprised of a number of Song files), check out demo songs, collect web-based news about the application, and indeed, download any updates that may be available. You can also set up your audio interface and configure any outboard MIDI devices that may be patched into your rig. Following the Start Page – assuming of course you’ve opened or created a Song – is the main workspace, referred to as the Song Window. Here it’s plainly obvious that PreSonus has appropriated various aspects of other DAW applications and slotted them into Studio One. The layout is remarkably similar to Apple’s Logic, with the main arrange area flanked by a media browsing window on the right and a Mixer Window beneath. The mixer window can also be viewed as a separate window for placement on another monitor if required. This lower portion of the screen is also devoted to sample editing whenever an ‘edit’ button is pressed. Off to the left is an inspector-style window reminiscent of both Cubase and Logic Pro. To the bottom of the main window is the transport bar, which includes the various features and access points to the tool you’d expect to find in any transport bar: metronome settings, CPU performance gauges, tempo settings, and so forth. The transport is a permanent fixture of the Song Window, with no way to eradicate it from view. Further insight into where some of PreSonus’s inspiration has come from is evidenced by its choice of key-command sets – of which there are five in total. Two of these are Studio One keysets – ‘standard’ and ‘alternate’ – with the remaining three mimicking those of the big three DAW platforms: Cubase,
Logic, and ProTools. Key commands cannot be custom modified within these five sets, only chosen one over the other – a point in Studio One’s favour in my book. Logic Audio lost plenty of market traction several years ago by allowing its key commands to be customisable, which meant moving from one Logic Audio-based studio to another became a complete nightmare. Like ProTools, Studio One’s key-command set remains familiar between studios and collaborators. TAKING SOME CUES While the overall Studio One layout may be akin to Logic, the colour scheme is decidedly Cubase-esque. There’s no hiding the fact that several ex-Steinberg personnel are the brains behind Studio One. The overall look is, in many ways, decidedly utilitarian. The decor consists mostly of shades of grey, interspersed with dashes of blue to highlight buttons and represent on and off states. It is possible to colour tracks, and interestingly, the audio regions within them (described by PreSonus as ‘Events’) change colour when they’re moved from one track to another, taking on the hue of their adopted track. This action can also be overridden by defining a particular region’s colour via the ‘Inspector’ pane, which can be found on the bottom left of the GUI. Moving a region after its specific colour has been defined, preserves that colour regardless of where it’s placed, allowing specific edits to remain clearly visible during a complex shuffle of audio regions. Regions also retain their own volume level and fade in/out curves regardless of where they’re moved, for quick adjustments separate from the automation levels.
Editing can be performed sample-accurately within either the Song Window or the dedicated editor section that appears at the bottom of the Song Window (if you care to zoom down to these infinitesimal levels). The main difference is that, unlike the Mixer Window, the Edit Window remains firmly bolted to the Song Window. Regions can be edited and repositioned at the sample level, or if you use the Inspector Window to the left of the Song Window, moved forward and back by as little
NEED TO KNOW Price Artist: $270 (or free with PreSonus interfaces). Pro: $499 Contact PreSonus Australia (02) 9648 5855 info@PreSonus.com.au www.PreSonus.com.au Pros Extremely capable DAW. Superbly fast workflow. Plays well alongside other applications. Incorporates mastering tools. Inexpensive. Windows and Mac compatible. Cons Track points in the mastering section would be useful. Summary It’s a big step for a company to tackle the established DAW players, but PreSonus has some very good reasons for doing so (see the interview with owner Jim Odom for more). Get the demo and become acquainted with Studio One – chances are someone will be bringing a Studio One file into your studio soon.
FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH Jim Odom, PreSonus’s founder and company president, talks about the birth of Studio One. Brad Watts: The obvious question to ask about Studio One is simply, ‘Why create another DAW application?’ Jim Odom: Let me give you a brief history to explain why we did it. As you may well know, we’ve been bundling Cubase LE with our products since 2004. We were actually the company that worked with Steinberg to turn Cubasis into Cubase LE to make it much more useful. Cubasis was just miserably elementary. BW: You’re talking about the incredibly hobbled 16-channel version of Cubase I assume? JO: Yep, that’s the one. So we said to Steinberg: ‘Guys, you know, we’ve got eight preamps in our interfaces, we sell products to bands and groups who need to be able to record eight channels at once!’ So they broke it down and gave us eight inputs, but then they limited the plug-ins. They limited a lot of other stuff in the program too, so users ended up getting really stuck.
For example, the VST connections in Cubase were what our tech support people spent most of their time on. We got so frustrated that we eventually created a DVD called Cubase Demystified. It’s available on our website and we literally sell hundreds of them a month. We were the only company that actually created some information about the program. Steinberg themselves didn’t ever create any Cubase LE documentation or help files, nor did they even support it. Consequently, we ended up providing the support and making DVDs to train people how to use it. With Cubase LE, to get it up and running you have to open up a connection, organise your inputs, then set up your outputs, and then hope it works right! That’s a really basic workflow issue with a DAW and one that we felt needed simplifying. I’m a home recording engineer myself and a lot of the other guys at PreSonus still make records. This was one of the many frustrating things we really wanted solved. Then, as the years went by, a number of companies that were
previously aligned as partners started merging – Steinberg was bought out by Yamaha, Cakewalk and Roland got together – so the landscape was definitely changing. Meanwhile we were looking at our interfaces and the DAW software bundled with them, and wondering what the future held. Three or four years ago we could see where ProTools was headed with its M-Powered and native-based processing, and we started thinking we had to do something in a similar vein. It’s not like we woke up one morning and said, ‘Wow, all these DAWs suck, we’ve really gotta fix them.’ But we did look around and find that, on the whole, they were difficult to set up – the same issue we experienced with Cubase LE. So about three years ago I met a guy called Wolfgang Kundrus. Wolfgang was one of the driving forces at Steinberg, and it was he – along with Karl Steinberg and Manfred Rürup – that started the company back in the ’80s. Wolfgang was the chief architect of Cubase, but Nuendo was really his baby. He wanted to do the very high-end products, which
was obviously where Nuendo was aimed. Then Steinberg was sold to Yamaha, and Wolfgang got quite frustrated with the change of ownership and eventually went to Adobe for a little while to help them out with Audition. When he and I were introduced at NAMM about three years ago we got talking. I said, ‘Look man, we want to do this,’ and he said he’d actually been wanting to fix the things that were wrong with Cubase for years. The program was built with very old architecture, a 20-year old codebase, and it was really hard to move that stuff. BW: So the ‘old code’ issues really do go back to the PC and Atari days of Cubase? JO: For sure! Yeah, he did the Atari stuff and complained that it was really hard to move that codebase out of the way. So we came to an agreement and funded a start-up company in Hamburg called KristalLabs with Wolfgang and a guy named Matthias Juwan, who was also previously at Steinberg. He was the VST3 creator among other things; a really bright guy.
They then recruited two more ex-Steinberg engineers. One was the guy that did Halion and a lot of the other Cubase plug-ins. We finally started working on Studio One in 2006 – basically leaving the whole thing up to those guys. Our input was mainly issues regarding how the recording workflow should be, the problems you run into when you’re a beginner, that sort of thing… the stuff that can turn a beginner away from the entire process. We wanted to get those things right out of the way so our customers, who are primarily musicians, could get into the program quickly. In the U.S. we cater to a lot of guitarists and drummers – there are far more people making music who play in bands these days, and the ratio of guitar players to hip-hop production style guys is easily 10 to one. So we really wanted to orient Studio One toward those people. Then the Crystal Labs crew said, ‘You know that’s fine, but we’re into electronic music so we’re going to make it work with that too.’ So we combined those two spheres into Studio One.
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as 0.05 of a millisecond (the Inspector Window also displays provision for moving events/regions according to sample position). There are six tools to play with in the Song Window: your normal garden-variety pointer tool, a ‘Range’ or selection tool that selects across multiple tracks, a ‘Paint’ tool for jotting in MIDI notes and automation sweeps, an ‘Eraser’ tool for – yes, you guessed it – erasing regions, MIDI and automation data, and finally, a ‘Mute’ tool – no surprises there. All six tools can be quickly selected using the numeric keys across the top of your computer keyboard while – using the standard Studio One keyboard layout – edit windows are selected using the function keys. MORE ON THE SONG WINDOW The Song Window incorporates real-time manual and automatic time-stretching and seamlessly integrated resampling capabilities. These time stretching functions also come into play when dragging audio clips from the application’s browser window into the arrangement area of the Song Window. If an audio clip has tempo information within it, it will adjust automatically to match your song tempo, and even play sync’ed to that tempo when you’re auditioning the clip. The same browser window also provides access to effects, loops, and instruments. In fact, entire effects chains can be stored here and slotted into a channel utterly intuitively. Putting a favoured effects chain into action is merely a matter of following the drag-anddrop ethic. Pick up the effects chain file and drop it onto a channel – simple! ONE BASKET So far, my time with Studio One Pro has been a happy experience. There’s never been a sense of something being omitted, left out or forgotten despite my early expectations that the DAW would almost certainly come up short. On the contrary, tempo track changes, complete automation,
comprehensive side-chaining and PFL or AFL send routing, editing and mix groups, markers, and the metering, are all exceptional. The metering also includes the K-System devised by Bob Katz, which gives you a better idea of where to aim your peak and average levels when completing a mix. Overall, I’d go so far as to say that Studio One Pro does everything I could ask of a DAW. What’s different about Studio One Pro is how it integrates individual song production with red-book CD creation and mastering. A Project is another style of document created by Studio One. This document incorporates any number of Songs within it, and allows each of these to remain ‘live’ and adjustable while they’re being mastered and compiled in red-book CD format. Clicking on the Project tab opens the Project Window – a completely different affair to the Song Window. The Project Window includes a raft of metering facilities: a phase scope, correlation and ‘normal’ level metering (along with the atypical K-System metering), and a very snappy spectrum analyser that reads in octaves, third octaves, and full FFT mode. These tools are essential to mastering – alongside appropriate monitoring, a good room, great hearing and a broad degree of taste… but that’s another story entirely. When compiling tracks in a Project, it’s possible to apply plug-in processing to individual tracks (or ‘Songs’ in Studio One speak) as well as across the overall output. The great thing about having both your mastering and individual songs all inhabiting the same application is that you can quickly skip over to a Song and change a vocal level, for example. That change is then immediately reflected in the mastering side of the application and you don’t run the risk of inadvertently burning the wrong tracks to CD. Once you’re happy with your master, you can burn it directly to CD or commit the file to what PreSonus refers to as a ‘Digital Release’. In other words, render the master as a WAV, AIFF,
Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, or MP3 file. Here PreSonus has left out various MP3 rendering options such as true stereo and variable bitrate encoding. It’d be nice to know exactly what’s going on with the MP3 codec rendering, but you can’t have everything, especially in v1.0. I was also disappointed to find it impossible to add CD track markers within a contiguous audio file in the Project Window. This implies that DJ mixes, for example, can’t be loaded into the Project Window and have track numbers added at the vague junctures where individual tracks begin and end. CD track markers are strictly reserved for the start of each track file. Apart from this limitation, everything else required to build a CD is catered for. It’s even possible to import audio files directly into a Project without them having to pre-exist as a Studio One Pro Song file. Again, any WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, or MP3 can be imported, so there’s nothing to stop Studio One from becoming your primary mastering application. OPEN DAW I’ll admit to being impressed with Studio One Pro, and impressed with a few main points: the application works quickly and efficiently, there’s everything you’d expect to find in a contemporary DAW application, and the workflow is decidedly speedy – exactly as the designers intended. I’ll reiterate my satisfaction at how few computer resources Studio One Pro consumes when running alongside countless other ‘everyday’ applications – signs of a well-written and unencumbered software code.
Obviously there’s a lot more to the application that can feasibly be covered in these pages, so I’d encourage one and all to grab a demo from PreSonus’s website. PreSonus is certainly brave embarking on such a perilous venture, but I’m sure Studio One stands every chance of becoming a ‘name’ player in the DAW stakes. It’s remarkably capable software at an extremely congenial price.
www.audiotechnology.com.au
REVIEW
ALLEN & HEATH iLIVE-T 112
Allen & Heath’s new digital console ‘system’ hammers yet another nail into the analogue FOH coffin. Text: Mark Woods
The new iLive-T Series of digital consoles by Allen & Heath offers mainstream appeal via a simple user-friendly interface. Allen & Heath has evolved the T-Series out of the company’s modular iLive range and aims to provide distributed audio digital mixing for live shows in a convenient and affordable package. The company has a long-established reputation for high-quality analogue consoles and while the new iLive-T Series has some analogue-style operating functions, it’s real strength lies in the way it uses the latest digital technology to create a powerful mixing system that effectively replaces lots of bulky and expensive analogue gear, while simultaneously providing control options not available in the analogue domain.
PLAIN & SIMPLE On first inspection the iLive-T 112 surface seems quite large and sports inordinate amounts of vacant space. The design is somewhat plain compared to some of its competitors, but the upside to this is that it’s also less intimidating to the unfamiliar eye. The angled top section of the board has a large control and parameter display (processing strip) above the input channels, which only lights up when a channel is selected. There’s a touchscreen above the master section on the right-hand side with a row of buttons beneath it to access configuration functions and preferences. There are also eight user-assignable buttons (soft keys) to the right of this screen.
The iLive-T 112 ‘surface’ – as A&H describes it – is not a standalone mixer, but rather, part of a full-blown system. But don’t let that scare you; the system’s as simple as falling off a wedge. It begins with the Mix-Rack, which houses the same A/D and D/A converters and mix engine as the iLive range, and is capable of processing up to 64 channels, 32 mix buses plus eight stereo effects processors. There are two available models of the Mix-Rack: the iDR-32, featuring 32 XLR preamp inputs and 16 XLR outputs; and the iDR-48, with a generous 48 preamps and 24 outputs. All the audio stays in the Mix-Rack unit, and during a live show this can typically be found sitting side of stage. The Mix-Rack replaces the traditional stage box, allowing for convenient connection of the mic leads to the inputs and the processors/amps from the outputs.
Above each fader there are four buttons, an LED screen, a level meter, and a multi-function rotary knob. The LED screens display channel information that can be easily named and colour-coded by the user. The buttons are largely selfexplanatory with SEL displaying that channel’s parameters on the processing strip and touchscreen. The PAFL and Mute buttons are easy; the only button that needs some explanation is ‘Mix’. Routing channels to groups or outputs is achieved by pressing Mix on the desired group or output channel then pressing Mix on the channel you wish to route to that output while holding down any one of several assign buttons. Pressing Mix on an output channel flips the faders to show send levels, while pressing it on an input channel flips the output faders to their send levels for that channel. As is often the case with functions on digital consoles it took me a little while to get used to this feature, but after that the console felt fast and intuitive to drive.
There are three console ‘surfaces’ available: the iLive-T 80 has 20 faders in four layers for control of up to 80 channels, the iLive-T 112 has 28 faders in four layers for control of up to 112 channels, and the recently released rackmount R72 has 12 faders in six layers for control of up to 72 channels, hence the respective names. AT 26
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CONFIG & SHOWTIME Configuring the iLive-T surface is easily achieved using either the supplied templates or by following the helpful menus. There are a wide variety of channel types to choose from including mono, stereo, group, aux, main, DCA master, matrix master or engineer’s wedge/IEM. The LCD screens are easy to name but are unfortunately limited to only six contrasting colours. More (or preferably infinite) colour choices would have allowed for more creative and individual colour schemes, but it was still simple enough to make a personalised show template. Once I was over this small hurdle I was ready to give the system a whirl.
The first show was an evening event and immediately the afternoon setup was noticeably faster than usual. The iLive-T 112 is not exactly compact at 1006 x 353 x 707mm, but it’s small enough for one person to carry and it happily replaced my heavier analogue console and FOH outboard rack. The Mix-Rack iDR-48 is about the same size as a dozen bottles of wine – albeit lighter – and the connecting 50m Cat5 cable I used for the show was easier to run than a power lead. Powering up the system, however, made me glad I’d configured the console in advance. The day of the gig was a sunny one – as it often is during festival season – and even though I was under shade I couldn’t read the screen no matter what I did with the brightness knob and no matter how much I tried to shade the screen. To be fair, this is a common problem with touchscreens, but it’s nonetheless disconcerting to discover just before a show. Fortunately, the parameter displays and the LCD screens are easy to see so there was no problem operating the show, but there were a couple of preference settings I would have liked to change if I’d been able to read the screens. Once a show starts, however, the important things are: does it sound good and is it pleasing to drive? Sonically, I couldn’t fault the iLive-T and found the input preamps (derived from A&H’s ML series of analogue consoles) to be quiet and clean. I connected the Mix-Rack and 112 surface to two other existing systems during the festival season and each time it improved the sound of the system with a smooth, transparent overall quality, and equalisers and dynamics controllers that are powerful and predictable. It’s fun to operate as well. What initially seemed like unused space on the surface soon turned out to be a positive attribute, creating an uncluttered mixing environment that focuses on the channels and the mix. The console reminds me (perhaps a tad ironically) of old analogue devices with its big displays and lots of room between knobs. When an input channel is selected the control functions are displayed in large groups in the aforementioned processing strip, which takes up most of the angled top section. The parameters are adjusted analogue-style with one easy-to-reach knob per function; this goes a long way towards eliminating the operational gulf that typically opens up when an operator has to think twice as he or she reaches for a control. There’s a lot of them too, including the expected input controls, gate, PEQ and compressor. Extras include the HPF, limiter, and a handy de-esser per channel.
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AudioTechnology
I connected the Mix-Rack and T-112 surface to two other existing systems during the festival season and each time it improved the sound of the system
It’s also possible to insert external devices. Output channels get an additional graphic EQ that can be flipped onto the faders with frequencies displayed on the corresponding LCD screens. The iLive-T 112 also has a comprehensive audio monitoring system; it’s possible to listen at any point in the signal path and peaks are indicated irrespective of the layers. There’s a wide selection of on-board effects modelled on well-known units so it’s easy to predict what they’ll sound like and up to eight of these can be used simultaneously. All channels can get all the processing all the time and apparently it’s impossible to run out of DSP – impressive.
A&H’s PL series remote controllers can be connected via PL-Anet sockets for remote individual monitor mixes or changing scenes. Using iLive-T System Manager software, the system can be controlled by more than one person at a time so, for instance, one could be mixing and the other adjusting EQ or alignment settings. Using iLive-T Editor software, the mix can be controlled by more than one person/device at a time.
I eventually took the iLive to the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine (as I do with all my review equipment) for a couple of shows and here again it was quick and easy to set up and interface with the house system. The first night featured Paul Dempsey and his FOH engineer, my old mate Clinton Krauss, who took to it like a duck to water. He enjoyed the big, bold controls and commented afterwards that the sound quality during the show was “excellent”. The next night I mixed several bands in the same venue and appreciated the way the iLive-T 112 kept me concentrating on the mix, by minimising distractions during normal fader mixing. When you select a channel the controls and parameters light up like a Christmas tree, but when you’ve made your changes and de-selected the channel, the surface returns to just input level meters, faders and the dimmable LED screens. Pressing SEL on a control function on the processing strip brings that control’s parameters onto the touch screen and most parameters can also be adjusted by touching or dragging on the screen.
If that’s not scary enough then you can try mixing the show from a laptop, perhaps wirelessly. This is an interesting concept and individual operators will find their own ways of using this functionality to benefit specific productions. A laptop could theoretically be used to replace the mixing console completely and while that wouldn’t work for all shows, it could certainly work for some, particularly for operators used to computer recording. Using a mouse or trackpad to adjust levels is arguably not as fast or accurate as using a fader, and it would be hard to change several faders quickly, but for some applications the benefit of being able to mix from a seat in the house, for example, may outweigh these drawbacks. It could also be a handy tool for adjusting the sound in different parts of the venue during setup or soundcheck; switching back to the main console for the show. As expected, show settings, personalised libraries, and system parameters can be saved and recalled with a user security facility preventing unwanted overriding of any critical system settings. All settings can be developed off-line using iLive Editor software and loaded into the system as required.
UNFAMILIAR GROUND I mostly tried the iLive-T 112 and iDR48 Mix-Rack in familiar live settings but part of the appeal of the iLive-T system is the other ways the system can be controlled and the numerous interface options. As well as A&H’s ACE connection between the surface and the Mix-Rack, other network devices can be connected using TCP/IP. Local analogue, S/PDIF, MIDI and USB are available on the surface and there are four network interface cards available that can be fitted to the Mix-Racks and surfaces for M-MADI, Ethernet, ADAT, and Aviom interfacing.
The iLive-T Series digital system will no doubt appeal to PA companies, audio designers, and venues looking for a good sounding and easy-to-operate system with enough ins and outs for all but the very biggest shows. The system easily integrates into existing setups and there are enough interface options to allow for any number of audio distribution or digital recording requirements. The iLive-T 122 surface is a powerful audio controller indeed, one that combines extensive local and remote functionality with an enjoyable and focused mixing experience.
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NEED TO KNOW Price Expect to pay around $19.5k for the T-112 and $10k for the IDR48. T-Series systems start from around $13k. Contact Technical Audio Group (02) 9519 0900 info@tag.com.au www.tag.com.au Pros High sound quality. Comprehensive controls. Analogue-style audio controls. Lots of inputs & outputs. Fun to use. Cons Touch screen hard to see in daylight. Limited colour choice for LCD screens. Summary Digital consoles are moving ahead in leaps and bounds and one of the benefits of this is that digital interfaces are becoming more refined and simpler to use as feedback about workflows comes pouring in. The iLive T-Series is a sign of the times: mainstream digital mixing on a ‘system’ that sounds good, doesn’t cost the earth, and offers simplicity and mixing power far beyond the reach of an analogue system. Key Features 28 faders x 4 layers. 16 ins, 12 outs on the surface. Assignable channel strips. LCD screen for each fader. Touchscreen. User-assignable soft keys. Multiple control and distribution options.
OUT NOW
www.guerrillaguide.com.au AT 29
SIMON LEADLEY 1956 – 2010 AudioTechnology and the Australian audio community has lost one of its family members, with the recent and sad passing of Simon Leadley. Long-time friend and business partner, Geoff Watson, recalls a remarkable life cut short. Text: Geoff Watson
TRIBUTES It was attention to detail that made Simon so amazing at what he did, but also part of what made him so great to be around. It wasn’t so much an attention to the details as a passion for them. This passion and enthusiasm was very catching and very inspiring and you couldn’t be around Simon for very long without getting swept up in the enthusiasm, which always left me with fresh and exciting thoughts in my head and wanting to be better than I was.
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I will miss Simon terribly, a truly great friend and also a great teacher who’s best lessons often started with “when you come by for coffee, come into the studio first, I have something cool to show you…” Jason Fernandez
his writing. Even now, as a father of young children, I’m finding his credits listed on kids’ CDs he must have done back in the ’90s! He was a great talent who will be missed both personally and professionally. Michael Costa, Stream AV
I was following Simon’s presence from afar in many ways over the years: from his ProTools beta testing efforts – which always out-shone my own – to his great success in the studio business and trail blazing technical ways to
I didn’t know Simon that well but he helped me on many occasions when I had any questions about work or technical related matters. He did this with great friendliness, comradeship and with no expectation of anything in
return. What a wonderful, caring, super intelligent person he was. He will be sorely missed. Trent Williamson, Kunga Music Big in stature and in heart, Simon never lost his enthusiasm for life, and has left a lasting impression not only on all who knew him as friends, but on the greatest love to which he has devoted most of his life, music. Derek Williams I worked with him when I was editing a music
technology magazine called Sonics in the early ’80s, back when he was running Trackdown at Hutchings. He used to review equipment for the magazine as well as write great stories about the recording process. He was such a beautiful man; so generous with his knowledge and keen to advance everyone’s understanding – and make better music all ’round. Cathy Gray, Screen Australia I am still having difficulty coming to terms with Tim’s
news of Simon’s passing. He was a soul of superb grace and courage. Such a genuine man of outstanding skill, creativity and intellect. An unequivocal pleasure to work with. Such a choking loss. Peter Brown My brother Jonathon and I have know Simon since the basement studio days underneath Hutchings Keyboards in Edgecliff. He was then, and always remained, the most friendly and helpful guy with an easy generosity and enormous
It was this spirit of Simon – his confidence that just about any problem could be solved by rolling the sleeves up and getting to work – that helped drive our business ventures together. The very first business arose as teenagers in Greg Creecy’s parents house where Greg and Simon built amps and speaker boxes under the banner ‘Delta Sound’. ‘CAN DO’ SIMON Shortly after this, the first rehearsal/recording studio was set up in Oxford St, Sydney, followed by the major expansion into our three-room rehearsal and recording facility, imaginatively dubbed ‘The Studio’. I remember one time, I think it was 1981, a week before a newish band called INXS were due to come in and record some album demos. We needed to buy a $10,000 plate reverb – which I, being affectionately known as ‘moth wallet Watson’, said there was no way we could afford. Simon’s response was, “bugger it, I’m sure we can build one ourselves for a tenth of the price!” A few days later and after a flurry of activity with welding gear, soldering irons and Araldite we had our own great sounding, home-made plate reverb – it cost $800.
This was the essence of Simon the technician, a ‘can do’ attitude underlined by ‘I think this can be done smarter’. Without Simon we would not have Trackdown Scoring Stage today. From the beginning he drove us to try the new. He was one of the first in Australia to embrace digital recording. Sony PCM to Sound Tools, and on from there to ProTools. SIMON GOES TO HOLLYWOOD Simon also guided Yoram Gross Film Studios to become a fully digital animation house, and in the process increase their animation output five fold. He worked at Abbey Road Studios in London on the film Dark City, and shortly after on Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, which went on to receive a BAFTA for best Music and Sound as well as earning Simon an MPSE award in LA (also known as a technical Oscar).
Some of Simon’s other film credits included Australia, Happy Feet, Master and Commander – the list goes on… Simon also showed some of the sound gurus in Sydney and Hollywood simpler and more efficient ways of getting their jobs done. And, more telling, they listened to him, as Simon had that great unassuming, yet
enthusiasm for life and his work. It’s what made him the ultimate professional. Back in those days we recorded on a trusty Fostex 16-track tape machine. That Simon came from those humble beginnings to become a key contributor to the world’s paradigm shift to digital recording is a testament to his enormous talent and desire to help. He did what he loved and he did it beautifully. Bryon Jones
Simon: I remember those long days and nights as you and Peter Robinson slaved away on The Bank Job music – a really great score that was created by the collaboration of yours and Peter’s musical brilliance. Now seems too late to speak my true feelings about you. I only hope that when I last saw you I fully expressed my appreciation to you for your huge effort on my film; told you what a pleasure it was to work with you and that I hoped
to make another movie that you would be a part of some day. Simon, your sense of humour and upbeat spirit, as well as your enormous talent and dedication, will be greatly missed by those who knew you. Roger Donaldson
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I have recently dubbed Simon the ‘Computer Whisperer’. His friends and colleagues will understand what I mean. You’ve spent hours trying in vain to make your computer understand that you are, in fact, its master and all it responds with is a dull ‘boink’ and a spinning beach ball. Then, like a faithful puppy, the computer seems to sense Simon’s approach and with exquisite and frustrating timing it coos and responds perfectly to the caresses of the Whisperer’s fingers. And all Simon says is: “so what’s the problem? Seems to be working okay to me!”
AudioTechnology
I have known Simon for over 40 years. He was part of the notorious Bench Five at Vaucluse High School along with Greg Conner, Greg Creecy, Martin Archer and myself. We were basically five A-types squashed onto one small science lab bench – it’s surprising we didn’t blow ourselves up – we no doubt owe this to Simon’s natural intuition with all things technical.
Simon inspired me, motivated me and helped me through personal and professional moments through the whole time I knew such a special person. My career would not have existed
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confident approach that broke the barrier of egos so that his ideas and solutions would always get respect and attention. In the process, Simon not only built his technical reputation but also created solid and long-term friendships. TRACKDOWN ACHIEVEMENT Then, of course, there is Simon’s pinnacle: Trackdown Scoring Stage. This time we let him loose with a somewhat bigger budget, and the end result has been a sweet-sounding orchestral recording space that is now recognised as one of the best five rooms in the World. It has seen some of the biggest films – both local and international – scored over the last five years.
Simon was also the music guy. This also began with the earlier mentioned Bench of Five from Vaucluse High. Whether being a muso was thought to be the best way to attract girls or based on a true love of music – well actually, I know it was both – we all selected our instruments and promptly took over my parent’s lounge room. This was the beginning of Simon’s passion for music – and from his days as a glam rock guitarist with his band Orion to his innate skills as a music editor, Simon never failed to entertain and impress those around him. I quote from an email we received last week from Hans Zimmer who has scored such films as Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Dark Knight – “I’m so sad for Simon. I don’t really know what to say. You know how fond I was of him and how I thought he was better than anyone else I ever worked with – by a mile! I will really miss him...” I know there are many here who share these thoughts with Hans – Simon had a gift and he was more than willing to share it. SIMON THE FRIEND And of course there was Simon the friend. Simon and I have been on many adventures together – in fact, the catch phrase for most of our trips, journeys and businesses was: “it’s always an adventure.” These have ranged from carefully planned and executed girl luring strategies (let me stress this was exclusive to our 20s), to how to get the broken truck to the gig – “easy, let’s push it” … “but it’s a fully loaded truck” … “yeah, ok, well, let’s just do it!” to “hey, let’s set up a 16-track studio in Greg Hutching’s basement” … “but it has a stream running through it and its only five feet from the floor to the ceiling!” “Okay, so we dig it out and make the stream a feature!”
Then there was skiing – I know many people here today will have a tale to tell of a brilliant ski adventure with Simon. This was our collective passion and was almost a mandatory requirement if you were to be considered for employment at Trackdown. And there were rules, set by the S Leadley himself: you must be on the slopes for the first lift up and the last lift down – no excuse. If you were drinking till 3am: “Watson, no coffee or schnapps until we’ve done at least 30 runs; and Brian, we’ll meet you at the rope tow.” We watched with absolute joy as Simon consummated his recovery from two earlier battles with cancer on the ski fields of New Zealand – two of my most memorable and enjoyable ski holidays. However, this time around there was to be no magic trip to the snow – despite our dreams and wishes to the contrary. Valé, Simon.
if it weren’t for him and his patience – a great friend and mentor who will be truly missed. Every session I do, from now to my last, I know he will be making sure I’m doing the right thing. Daniel Brown Simon was a huge advocate of Australian talent. I recall the wide-eyed tales he would tell upon his return from early sojourns to Hollywood, where money seemed to be no object. His US colleagues would often be “working inefficiently” because they simply didn’t need to concern themselves with clever workarounds or nifty solutions. Little wonder
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that Simon became renowned internationally for being clever, resourceful and hard working. I’ll always appreciate Simon being so generous with his time and so committed to the success of AudioTechnology magazine. In the early days I think he saw us as a kindred spirit, being the small Aussie outfit trying our best to pull off a world-class product on a shoestring. He realised that Australians wanted to hear an Australian voice and that there’s more than enough talent in this country for us to be as good as anyone in the world. In fact, he did more than that, he proved it to be true.
Christopher Holder, AT Simon was charming, a true gentleman and a quiet achiever. I admired his dedication, his talent and his professionalism. Our industry has lost a champion. Roz Phillips, X Burbank Animation Studios & Different Film Productions All Love, all Spirit, all Joy, all Yes… all Simon. Baz Luhrmann Simon Leadley was the true gentleman of the recording world. He was involved in just about every album I made in the last 26 years and I enjoyed every single experience. My nickname
for him was Five Ways, because he could solve any problem, often in five different ways. He was the calmest person in a studio that I ever met and without peer when it came to the mastery of technology and computers. He shared his immense knowledge freely and helped just about everyone he came into contact with. He never lost his love of music. I once lost a 1/4-inch master tape by leaving it on top of my car and driving off. It was the only copy and I was devastated… until I discovered Simon had made a copy of it just in case, at 3am that night before going home.
That’s the kind of person he was and I will miss him terribly. It is hard to imagine the recording scene or life without him. Simon was a huge fan of Douglas Adams who sadly passed away in recent years. If there is any justice at the end of the Universe, Simon will now be in the room next to him. Tony King
inspired newcomers to buy (and use) decent products. Something that every mag takes for granted these days. And that was the thing about Simon, he just wanted to tell the truth. And that search for truth inevitably lead to progress. And by showing how gear really worked in real sessions, he set the bar for audio
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When Simon first began writing for Sonics back when I was editor (in the 1990s), his articles were immensely long and detailed, and virtually incomprehensible to anyone but himself. But the concept of ‘recording musicians’ was just emerging, so we had to work together to come up with a way of writing that talked seriously to engineers and yet
reviews in this country, and ended up influencing the way in which we all worked. And now? Well, Simon laid the groundwork. It’s up to us to keep on telling the truth and championing progress – in print, and in our work. That’s how things change. Gavin Hammond