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Compressor Shootout
SUBSCRIBE & WIN KRK SYSTEMS ROKIT RP10-3G2X
MAKING TRACKS IN THE OUTBACK ’60s SOUL REMADE TODAY ADAM A77X – Ribbon Art Plugin Alliance’s BIG4 Guns Turbosound’s Mini Milan MiO ISSUE 87 AU $7.95(inc gst) NZ $10.95 (inc gst) File Under ‘Music’
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REGULARS
Editor Mark Davie mark@audiotechnology.com.au
ED SPACE
Publisher Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Editorial Director Christopher Holder chris@audiotechnology.com.au
REPEAT IT WITH ME
Graphic Design Leigh Ericksen leigh@alchemedia.com.au
Editorial: Mark Davie
Art Director Dominic Carey dominic@alchemedia.com.au Advertising Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Accounts Manager JenTemm jen@alchemedia.com.au
Talk to any post-production house attempting to reach Dolby Premier Studio Certification and you’ll quickly develop an appreciation for the lengths they have to go to assure one thing: repeatability. Simply, to achieve this rarefied status the goal is for any — and only absurdly qualified — ‘name’ mix engineers to be able to slip into the Herman Miller ergonomic swivel chair at the helm of your studio and know that this facility will fit them like a glove – just like the last one did. The criteria isn’t solely based on acoustics (although it is one key factor), but boxes are ticked or crossed for monitoring standards, equipment selection, installation standards, synchronisation accuracy, mixing competence, and technical experience (hence requiring a ‘name’ engineer, as only a handful of engineers actually make the cut). Fail to meet their lofty criteria at any point, or serve them a stale donut, and you’ll be hung out to dry. Thankfully not everyone has to jump through these same hoops to make a record, dub a voice-over, mix a film, or most audio tasks. But whatever you’re doing — say, panning a guitar 60 degrees right — you want it to be repeatable, not a guessing game. The de facto recording studio version of Dolby certification has been the Yamaha NS10 – the white-coned glove for travelling engineer’s ears. And of course, the mono Auratone, which serves a similar purpose for not only checking compatibility, but a modest proxy for every single speaker system out there. The currency is in knowing your system will translate, but without stringent standards like Dolby’s Premier certification across the board, consistent speakers will only provide a vague correlation between studios. Though if we take away this ideal unification process and get back to repeatability, there’s a key criterion that needs attention in each and every studio – the acoustic environment. It’s first on Dolby’s checklist, and it should be on yours too. But when you’re enticed by numbers like 1176
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and 1073, anything starting with U, or the latest converters, it’s hard to stare at a piece of grey foam, MDF or plasterboard, and think, “I really need you more right now.” But truth be told, we probably do. Sometimes gear might have gotten in the way, perhaps it’s been ‘good enough’ to not care to know what’s missing, or you’re scared that embarking on superior studio design will end in half-finished stud walls, no place to put your gear let alone listen to it, and no money in the bank. But the issue is: how much do you value what you are listening to? Is it critical enough to warrant a critical environment, or are you happy to let your room introduce frequency anomalies, reflection compensations or biased pans will-nilly into your mix? As acoustician Andrew Steel puts it, our ears discern in nanoseconds. So having reflections in your ears is like trying to watch a film with par cans in your eyes – not easy to focus, and the focus will be different every time. The Acoustic Trap isn’t a be-all and end-all feature on acoustics or studio design. Though it’s full of simple, great advice, with food for thought for everyone — from renters who can’t put holes in the walls let alone build new ones, to a studio owner embarking on a ground-up build. But I’m not going to repeat it all for you, go have a read.
Circulation Manager Miriam Mulcahy mim@alchemedia.com.au Regular Contributors Martin Walker Michael Stavrou Harry Irvine Paul Tingen Graeme Hague Guy Harrison Greg Walker James Roche Greg Simmons Tom Flint Robin Gist Blair Joscelyne Mark Woods Andrew Bencina Jason Fernandez Brent Heber Gareth Stuckey Trevor Cronin Distribution by: Network Distribution Company. AudioTechnology magazine (ISSN 1440-2432) is published by Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd (ABN 34 074 431 628). Contact (Advertising, Subscriptions) 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 © 2012 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process with out written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 17/04/2012.
June intake enroling now Scan here to receive your brochure pack
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© 2011 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Avid, the Avid logo, and Pro Tools are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
A Gigantic Leap in Sound and Speed Introducing
Pro Tools | HDX and Pro Tools 10 software Music and audio post pros tell us that the right tools help drive their creativity, eliminate bottlenecks, and enable them to sound their best—faster. We heard you loud and clear. Introducing the blazing, DSP-accelerated Pro Tools|HDX system and new Pro Tools® 10 software. Because your dedication deserves the best.
“Pro Tools 10 is going to be a game changer… you’re going to be able to do things you’ve never been able to do before.” —Will Files, sound designer, Skywalker Sound (Tree of Life, The Smurfs, Cloverfield)
“It’s faster at getting the idea from my head to my workspace. Does that give me a competitive edge? Of course it does.” —Tony Maserati, mixer/producer/engineer (Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys)
Get the tools you deserve: avid.com/protools
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CONTENTS87 46
plus 25 years of Recording Architecture and sound advice from Aussie’s John Sayers and David Spargo.
AUTHOR & PUNISHER shows that with a bit of ingenuity, and a 100kg spinning top, you can make your own MIDI doomsday devices.
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MAKING TRACKS Andrew Bencina heads outback to the WAAC and finds a creative community like no other.
REVIEWS 38
84 88 92 96
500 Series Compressor Shootout Big4 Bundle ADAM A77X Turbosound Milan MiO
& MORE
SUBSCRIBE & WIN! KRK SYSTEMS ROKIT RP10-3G2X SEE PAGE 59
Hired guns: Behind the lines of Battlefield 3’s in-game audio with EA’s DICE team. Steve Levine: combines old and new schools to remake ’60s soul in the modern age Cover Shot: Neil Waving
GENERAL NEWS
40 YEARS ON IT’S STILL ‘RITE under $1000 | www.focusrite.com
Focusrite has introduced the ISA Two, the latest addition to the ISA family of primo microphone preamps and audio processors. The ISA Two is a dual-mono, transformer-based microphone preamplifier that features two of Focusrite’s premium ISA-range mic/line/instrument preamps,
each capable of providing up to +80dB of clean gain – yep, they’re saying +80dB of ‘clean’ gain, which is a lot. Each channel has switchable balanced insert points, variable high-pass filter and variable input impedance, which allows you to get the best results from any microphone. Metering is provided by a pair of eight-step LED arrays, and a calibration knob on the rear panel enables you to line up your analogue level to your converters. The ISA (Input Signal
Amplifier) mic pre, featuring the Lundahl LL1538 input transformer and bespoke Zobel network filter, has remained essentially unchanged and been at the heart of every ISA Series product and the Focusrite Forté and Studio consoles since the 1980s. Electric Factory (03) 9474 1000 or sales@elfa.com.au
LINDELL: CREAMY HIGHS, PUNCHY LOWS
$349 for 500 Series Modules | www.lindellaudio.se
Lindell Audio is the brainchild of Tobias Lindell (Bohaus Sound Studio, Sweden) and has some sexy product about to hit shortly, notably three new 500 series modules: the 6X-500 A transformer coupled mic pre with a passive two-band Pultec-style EQ; the 7X-500 A transformer-coupled FET compressor/limiter; and the PEX-500 A transformer coupled, passive Pultec-style EQ. There are also two new 19-inch rackmount units. First up, the 17XS – Lindell Audio’s take on the classic 1176: a single channel, transformer-coupled FET compressor with the addition of some new and exclusive features such as highpass sidechain filter, ‘Mix Knob’ mix between dry and wet signal (for parallel compression), and smooth 6dB/oct filters. Next, the 18XS – a single channel, transformer coupled mic pre, DI, line amp and EQ. It’s an all-discrete design based upon the great 990 op-amp. The EQ is Lindell’s take on the magical classic Pultec design. Lindell promises ‘15dB boost of the creamiest high end you’ve ever heard and the most punchy low end heard in the 21th Century’. Lindell is being rep’ed by Federal Audio in Australia, which promises US price parity – no need for eBay. Federal Audio www.federalaudio.com.au
Auralex’s new SonoLite bass trap is a 100mm thick, 600mm x 600mm fabric-wrapped Studiofoam Pro core absorption panel promised as an affordable solution for low-frequency sound control. SonoLite Bass Traps are reverse-beveled for corner mounting and the panel is plastic-backed for added rigidity and durability. Major Music Wholesale: 1300 306 670 or www.majormusic.com.au
PreSonus has updated its StudioLive series digital mixers, mostly derived from the latest versions of the underlying Universal Control drivers/ software the desks use that allow remote control via – you guessed it – an iPhone app. With QMix, up to 10 musicians can simultaneously control their PreSonus StudioLive monitor (auxiliary sends) mixes using an iPhone or iPod touch. Also, PreSonus has begun incorporating Rational Acoustics’ Smaart measurement technology for sound-system analysis directly into PreSonus Virtual StudioLive software. National Audio Systems: 1800 441 440 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au
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Solid State Logic has released new developments (meaning templates or preset configurations) for the Nucleus DAW controller/audio hub. The new dedicated SSL Nucleus Profiles are for Samplitude/Sequoia and SSL’s own Soundscape. SSL has also announced a close development relationship with game audio middleware developer Firelight Technologies. Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or www.ambertech.com.au
Three new models in the AKG Perception Headphone series: The K44 Perception is an over-ear, semiclosed design. The next step up, the K77 Perception is also an over-ear, semi-closed headphone. The K99 Perception is a high-performance, over-ear, semi-open headphone with larger, 40mm speakers in its design. K99 Perception is still lightweight and has a self-adjusting headband and fixed cable. Audio Products Group: 1300 134 400 or www.audioproducts.com.au
Introducing the X Factor TWO NEW TUBES FOR YOUR TUNES $299 (BlueTube DP V2) | www.presonus.com
PreSonus is offering new and improved versions of two of its tube preamplifiers, the BlueTubeDP (dual path) V2 and TubePre V2. Both devices are equipped with PreSonus’s Class A XMAX mic preamp that has 80dB of variable gain – one of the improvements on the original BlueTube DP. The Tube Drive, based on a 12AX7 tube, can vary from gentle warmth to edgy distortion. The half-rack space DP V2 has 48V phantom power, an 80Hz high-pass filter, –20dB pad and polarityreverse. With balanced XLR and unbalanced 6.25mm outputs it can be used as a high-quality DI box, too. A lighted VU meter and a clip LED will keep you entertained, if the gig gets that boring. National Audio Systems 1800 441 440 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au
Tannoy’s renowned V Series defined a new standard in loudspeaker design. Now the bar is about to be raised. The new VX Series combines next-generation Dual ConcentricTM driver technology with smart new cabinet designs, enhanced build quality, and carefully thought-out functionality. Meanwhile an all-new VXP Series integrates Lab.gruppen’s ultra-reliable, tour-honed amplification into the package, in the form of the new Intelli-Drive Energy Efficient Amplifier (IDEEATM) module,
REMIX REWARDS Musiclink is offering Australian producers the chance to remix ‘The Rudest Dude’ – the acclaimed single from one of Australia’s best hip-hop/dub Artists: Lotek. Lashings and lashings of Propellerheads product and software is up for grabs, including the super-sexy Balance. Get in touch with the Musiclink team to join the Remix Group and download the audio stems at soundcloud.com/propellerheadsaus. The guys will talk you through the other hows and whens. We’re told the winner won’t need to remix in the hip-hop style (“will be judged by a wide range of musical tastes”) – right, bring on ‘The Rudest Bluegrass Dude’. Musiclink www.musiclink.com.au/remix-competition.aspx or atdept@musiclink.com.au
delivering audible superiority in a self-powered box. Passive or self-powered, VX Series delivers that critical advantage. We call it the “X Factor”.
IDEEA IDEEA
TM
To learn more about Tannoy call 1300 13 44 00 or visit www.audioproducts.com.au
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SOFTWARE NEWS WAVES: CONSOLE LEGENDS $249 Native / $349 TDM | waves.com
Waves NLS (Non-Linear Summer) delivers the sound of three classic consoles in one plug-in. NLS recreates the sound of: The ‘magical’ solid state console belonging to Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Radiohead, Björk, Muse, Maroon 5, Madonna); the classic console owned by Mike Hedges (The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Dido, Faithless, Manic Street Preachers, U2), heard on such timeless recordings as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon; and the British console customised for Yoad Nevo (Bryan Adams, Pet Shop Boys, Sugababes, Goldfrapp, Air). In the creation of this plug-in Waves meticulously modelled over 100 individual channels in all, painstakingly analysing and recreating the distinctive colour, character, and behaviour of each and every input and summing bus amp. As Waves put it: ‘NLS delivers to the digital realm the depth and richness that has long been associated exclusively with analogue gear’. Sound + Music (03) 9555 8081 or www.sound-music.com
KORG’S MICRO MAGIC
from $89.99 (25 key) | www.korg.com If you’ve not heard about the Korg iMS20, it’s effectively an MS20 analogue synth in your iPad, an analogue step-style sequencer, six-part drum machine, Kaoss-style performance, and a mixer to control it all. The App goes from strength to strength with v1.5 adding some key features: First up, WIST (Wireless Sync-Start Technology), allows a wireless signal to simultaneously start two iMS20 v1.5 and/or iElectribe v1.5 apps on two separate iPads. Next, AudioCopy allows the sharing of audio data between apps. If you’re looking for some hands-on control, then look no further than Korg’s MicroKey family of USB MIDI keyboards, featuring the velocity-sensitive ‘Natural Touch’ mini-keyboard. The lineup includes a 25-key, 37-key, and a five-octave 61-key model. Korg is laying the largesse with bundled software and discount coupons: the 61-key model comes with a license for the Korg Legacy Collection, for example. Musiclink (03) 9765 6530 or www.musiclink.com.au
PreSonus is now shipping Studio One 2.0.5, a free update that adds several new features and fixes a variety of issues. These include: Any Studio One command can now be assigned to any MIDI CC message. Use any MIDI control surface with Studio One, even if it isn’t natively supported. Ampire XT amp models have been reworked to sound significantly better. Markers can now have a Stop flag that stops playback at the marker. The new Macro Toolbar is an extension that allows powerful customised workflow within Studio One. You also can map buttons on a MIDI controller to trigger macros, even when using control surfaces that are not natively supported. National Audio: 1800 441 440 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au
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PSP has a new version of its flagship multitap delay plug-in, the 608MD. New key features include: New Master Feedback mode — MultiFB; New preset management system which is platform- and host-independent; New license file-based authorization system (‘simpler than ever’); Avid AAX plug-in format support; and 64-bit OSX (and x86-64) support. PSP: www.PSPaudioware.com
Propellerhead introduces Rack Extensions: a new technology that opens up the Reason rack, enabling third-party developers to create instruments and effects for Reason. Through this new technology—built into the next version of Reason and Reason Essentials—users can expand their collection of instruments and effects with the Reason devices they want. Propellerhead also announces the Rack Extension Store, an online store where Rack Extensions from all Rack Extension developers can be purchased and downloaded directly into the Reason rack, as many times as needed. Musiclink: (03) 9465 6530 or www.musiclink.com.au
Music application software creator Liine has unveiled Remiix Marc Houle. The new app is modelled on the musical creativity of live artist and producer Marc Houle of the label Items & Things. A total of seven featured songs (including early releases) will allow app users to remix their favourite classics. Whether it is launching loops in tight sync and using reverb and twisted, pitched tape delays to transform the sound or bringing in bits from other tracks, the matrix-balanced mastering process delivers ‘an authentic straight-off-the-record sound’. Once the user has mastered their remix, they are able to share their version with friends on Facebook, Soundcloud and Twitter at the touch of a button. Items & Things: www.itemsandthings.com
Pearl
M I C R O P H O N E S
AUTOMAP TAKES MORE CONTROL
$FOC | novationmusic.com Novation have brought out a new version of Automap, the software application that allows Novation controllers to happily chat with your preferred DAW and makes sure the right virtual sliders slide and the proper virtual knobs... ah, knob. Automap 4.3 adds support for four more DAWs and covers all of Novation’s controllers. It comes free with all Novation controllers and gives you complete access to your DAW’s transport, mixer and plug-in instruments and effects, as well as thirdparty plug-ins, such as those from UAD and Native Instruments. Automap also gives you a full visual feedback of whatever you are controlling via its software edit window.
Novation has also launched Volume 2 of the Daniel Fisher Soundpack series, a collection of sounds made especially for UltraNova by one of the industry’s most talented sound designers. The Soundpack features patches that replicate some of the most famous and well-known synth sounds from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, along with new sonic creations for the 21st Century. This complements Volume One’s selection of evolving motion sounds and organ and clavinet patches — Fisher’s trademark sound. The Soundpack is free for all UltraNova users. Innovative Music (03) 9540 0658 or sales@innovativemusic.com.au
Special
$1299*
Normal RRP $1683
DON’T BE SLOW TO THE CHASE Have you had a stab at mixing the Slow Chase stems? If you hadn’t heard, we’re running a competition at the moment to complement Jonathan Burnside’s two part series In & Out Of The Box. All you have to do is go to www.audiotechnology. com.au, download the stems from indie band Slow Chase’s EP that Jonathan recorded at Mixmasters, mix them, upload the finished stereo mix to Soundcloud, and send a link of your entry to mark@audiotechnology.com.au.
“…compared to a Neumann KM184, the CC22 sounded subtly sweeter and rounder, less ‘steely’ on edgier high notes without sounding dull, and offered a touch of the instrument’s body and resonance that was sorely missing in the KM184…” Greg Simmons review AT issue 85. *Offer valid to 31 March 2012 or until stock lasts. Prices shown are ex GST.
The best two mixes as judged by Jonathan, the band, and the editor will win themselves a BIG4 bundle from the Plugin Alliance worth US$1176. Check out Alex Richardson’s review of the bundle later in this issue to get your juices flowing. We’ve had some great entries so far, and want to hear yours. So get on the bandwagon, off your butt, and mix up a storm. Competition ends on Friday the 11th of May. Just in time for the second instalment of Jonathan’s series.
www.proaudiotechnology.com.au P: +61-2-9476 1272 E: sales@proaudiotechnology.com.au AT 9
LIVE NEWS DIGICO’S D5 SUCCESSOR $TBA | www.digico.org
A decade after the launch of the D5 Live, British audio solutions manufacturer Digico launches its new incarnation, the SD5. As you would expect, the SD5 fits directly into the D5’s shoes, but benefits from the advancements made possible by Digico’s proprietary Stealth Digital Processing. The SD5’s worksurface is built around five digitally-driven full-colour TFT LCD screens, three of which are touch sensitive, only this time around the SD5 has a new configuration that allows easy access to single or multiple users.
As standard, the SD5 comes with a 2Gb fibreoptic system, which is capable of running 448 channels of I/O at 96k, plus 56 consoleto-console tie lines, allowing connection to up to 14 of the SD variant racks. There are three redundant MADI ports and local I/O includes eight microphone inputs, eight line outputs and eight AES I/O (mono). The SD5 has 124 input channels; 56 configurable buses, plus up to a 5.1 master; a 24 x 24 fixed matrix; DiGiTubes on every channel, bus and output; 24 assignable dynamic EQs; 24 multiband compressors; 24 stereo effects; 32 Graphic EQs; 10 x 4 (40) RGB backlit macro buttons; plus the ability to add a Waves upgrade. Group Technologies
(03) 9354 9133 or sales@grouptechnologies.com.au
YAMAHA CL: ALL WILL BECOME CLEAR
from $18,000 | www.au.yamaha.com Get the feeling that Yamaha has been cruising with its live digital consoles? Say no more, Yamaha has released something very interesting indeed. There are three new CL series digital mixing consoles. The line-up is the CL1, CL3 and CL5 models, ranging from 48 to 72 mono + eight stereo inputs. All feature 16 DCAs and 24 mix/ eight matrix output buses. Yamaha’s Centralogic user interface and now-standard Selected Channel interface have been integrated into the desks with a number of refinements. User Defined Knobs are another addition. The CL Series EQ and effects have been ‘vastly’ expanded, according to Yamaha. They include an Effect Rack that features VCM analogue circuitry modelling technology, as well as a Premium Rack that includes the Rupert Neve
The Audix TM1 is a 6mm pre-polarised condenser microphone built for test and measurement applications. The TM1 is known for its linearity, accurate response, consistency, ease of use and affordability. Equipped with a uniformly controlled omnidirectional polar pattern, the TM1 is designed to capture acoustic measurements for room analysis software programs, real-time analysers and other sound control devices. With a flat frequency range of 20Hz–25kHz, the TM1 is an essential tool for sound engineers, sound companies and recording enthusiasts.
Designs Portico 5033 equalizer and Portico 5043 compressor/limiter–developed in close cooperation with Rupert Neve himself. Two new rack-mountable I/O units, the Rio3224-D and Rio1608-D, communicate via a scalable Audinate Dante digital audio network. Up to eight I/O rack units can be connected to a CL series console, while multiple CL series consoles can share control of the same I/O rack unit. A new Gain Compensation function adds the ability to combine FOH and monitor control via a single network. The CL consoles are supplied with Steinberg’s Nuendo Live software for live multi-track recording and virtual sound check capabilities. Extra flexibility is provided by the CL StageMix application for iPad (an iPad app, surprise, surprise), providing wireless remote control capability for setting up and operating CL consoles from anywhere on stage or in the audience seating area. Yamaha Commercial Audio: (03) 9693 5272 or Jason_Allen@gmx.yamaha.com
For a few bucks more, grab the TM1 Plus – a kit which includes the TM1, threaded acoustic windscreen, shockmount clip, ½-inch calibrator adaptor and microphone calibration data on CD. The data files are a numeric representation of the TM1 frequency response. These, together with the provided sensitivity of the microphone, can be used with a variety of popular software measurement systems to correct the response curve of the microphone. Production Audio: (03) 9264 8000 or info@productionaudio.com.au
JBL has introduced its STX800 series portable loudspeakers, designed to bridge the gap between lighter-duty portable PA speakers and full-size tour sound systems. The six STX800 passive loudspeaker models combine sound quality with rugged, travel-friendly construction, ‘extreme’ power handling capability and integration with Crown’s VRack amplifier V5 level processing and JBL HiQnet Performance Manager software. There’s a variety of 12- and 15-inch versions along with subs in the range. All STX800 series enclosures are designed for easy handling, durability, and an easy truck pack (if there is such a thing). Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au
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Mackie FRS Series power amps weigh around 10kg deliver considerable power (the FRS-1700: 1660W; FRX-2800: 2800W into 4Ω bridged) at the usual Mackie-style keen pricing ($1099.99 and $1349.99). Both models features a high-current switching power supply that is ‘superefficient’, and also ‘ultra-lightweight’, so you get maximum power with minimum load-in strain. Sophisticated protection ensures the FRS will perform reliably. Musiclink: (03) 9765 6530 or atdept@musiclink.com.au
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M I C R O P H O N E S
BLACK BOXES THAT DON’T CRASH $4278 | www.joeco.co.uk
Here’s how you record a live gig or a show without having to keep a nervous eye on a bunch of DAWs surrounding your desk. JoeCo has introduced the latest in its BlackBox range of multi-channel live audio recorders and players, the Blackbox BBR64-Dante Recorder that can record or replay 64 channels. The BBR64-Dante is the result of JoeCo’s collaboration with Audinate, creators of the Dante network solution. There is an original BBR-DANTE system released in 2011 that can record up to 32 channels of audio; the new BBR64-Dante doubles that track count to 64 and still takes up just one rack unit. The
BBR64-DANTE Recorder connects to any Dante-enabled network device from a range of console and converter manufacturers. In addition to recording 64 channels at standard sample rates (44.1/48kHz), it can also record eight channels of analogue alongside the remaining 56 channels of Dante – for capturing audience and ambience, for example. Higher sample rates of 88.2 and 96kHz are possible, but they eat into your track count. Audio is recorded in Broadcast WAV format to an external USB2 (FAT32-formatted) drive, so it’s straightforward to transfer files across to your preferred Mac or PC-based DAW. The BBR64 isn’t entirely a mysterious black box doing its thing in the rack. High-resolution metering and headphone monitoring of individual or pairs of channels is possible via an internal PFL bus in case you want to have a quick listen that everything’s going to plan. National Audio Systems 1800 441 440 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au
Special
$1735*
Normal RRP $2310
Rode Microphones has launched ‘Rode Rocks’, an international band competition designed to find and showcase the best in independent, unsigned talent around the world and reward them with an all-expenses-paid recording session in Hollywood with renowned producer Alain Johannes, as well as studio prize packs consisting of microphones and speakers. To enter ‘Rode Rocks’, artists need to record an original composition of more than two minutes in length and then create an accompanying video that features at least one Rode microphone (fair enough… not a lot to ask). After uploading the video to YouTube the artist simply needs to visit www.roderocks.com and submit their details along with a link to the video. At the end of June 2012 a panel of guest judges will reduce the number of entrants to 10 finalists and those videos will be showcased on the Rode website for a two-week period in which all visitors will be invited to vote for their favourite performance.
First prize winners will receive return flights to Los Angeles to record at the famous Record Plant studios in Hollywood with Alain Johannes. Johannes is one of rock’s most in-demand collaborators following his work with artists such as Chris Cornell, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Lanegan, Them Crooked Vultures and more. Additionally the winning act will receive vocal training throughout the sessions from SLScertified instructor Robert ‘RAab’ Stevenson. The resulting recording will be professionally mixed and mastered, and given to the winning artist to release as they see fit. Second and third prize winners will each receive a studio prize pack consisting of a number of studio and live performance microphones and studio monitors from Event, totalling over US$15,000 in value. So break out your best song, a HandyCam and of course a Rode Microphone or two and give it your best shot. Rode Rocks: www.roderocks.com
“I pitted the CC22 and ELM-C against each other and a [Neumann] U87 on a closemiked male vocalist... Both Pearl microphones made the U87 sound gritty, veiled and dated. The CC22 delivered a very appealing result but the ELM-C stole the show with a sound that was remarkably ‘present’ and full-bodied...” Greg Simmons review AT issue 85. *Offer valid to 31 March 2012 or until stock lasts. Prices shown are ex GST.
www.proaudiotechnology.com.au P: +61-2-9476 1272 E: sales@proaudiotechnology.com.au AT 11
FEATURE
Tristan Shone is a white-coat-wearing, microscopy research lab rat by day that moonlights as an experimental, electronic, industrial doom, one-man band called Author & Punisher — just like any hard working engineer’s weekend warrior outlet, complete with purpose-built 300lb steel MIDI controllers. Text: Mark Davie Main Photo: Robert Kozek
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Before his engineering day job, Tristan Shone earnt a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts, which is where his penchant for building sculptural MIDI controllers began. His first collection consisted of physically demanding, heavyweight controllers that dictated his one-man band Author & Punisher’s style of dirgy, drone-y, groove metal, purely because of the effort required to move them. These were the Drone Machines; including the single-button Linear Actuator drum machine, 300lb (135kg) spinning Rotary Encoder, vocal sampling Bellows, and motor resistive Throttles. “The first machines I made,” said Shone, referring to the Drone Machines. “Were very heavy and slow, and so were the improv performances – it wasn’t about dynamic, it was about drone. I would lift this big classic noise crescendo. It seems like I’m doing a lot but I’m basically playing one pitch line of one key. There are no chords, though occasionally there are two notes.” Although the Drone Machines were entirely impractical from a touring perspective, Shone still made music, recorded and played live with them. Though these days the monolithic devices have been retired to a lab at UCSD (Uni of California San Diego) till someone can finance the muscle to get the 300lb gorillas on the road. “They were intended to be sculptures for my Visual Arts degree,” said Shone. “I didn’t expect to put them in Pelican cases and take them to the airport with me. When I built the second lot I began thinking about realistic weights I could take on an airplane.” This second set of controllers are called the Dub Machines, which although not quite as heavy, are still physical, because it “feels good,” according to Shone. The second batch is made up of the more advanced version of Linear Actuator called Rails, the dual key-sliding Rack & Pinion, and the eight capsule Headgear mic and beat box machine.
HOW I FELL FOR DUEMILANOVE
Shone’s MIDI controllers are typically built on the popular Arduino microcontrollers, specifically the Duemilanove variant. It has 14 digital in/out pins, six analogue inputs, 16MHz crystal oscillator, USB connection, power jack, ICSP (In-Circuit Serial Programming) header (for programming your chip), and a reset button. It’s an all-rounder for the type of machines Shone is building, but he says it wasn’t always this ‘easy’. “I started out like everyone back in the ‘90s,” said Shone. “Using an Atmel-based microcontroller. It was one developed at the media lab at MIT. My professor and I tried the basic pitch-shift-based controllers and all the other ones. So my first set of machines use these Atmel controllers called Number Six. “The reason I like Arduino so much better is because other specific microcontrollers require you to set a lot of variables within your Windows or Mac system – it’s not plug and play. In order to get your laptop setup to actually be able to send code to this device, it was like a bureaucracy, a real pain in the ass. I had done it for five different laptops and it still pissed me off. “arduino is so popular because it made
programming so simple, it just comes up. they
don’t have header files that you see, you don’t see the source, all the extra files are hidden.
You only have one file that’s called something like MIDI Output Button Reader. Arduino is the exact same microcontroller as many others, they’ve just worked it out to make it easier for artists. And they’re actually very high quality. We use them for microscopes in my job, where I would have to design a circuit otherwise. “Some people will use the Arduino through a Firmata (generic protocol for communicating with microcontrollers) interface. There’s another one for PD (Pure Data), basically you would
RAILS “It’s basically eight buttons and one linear encoder that’s basically just reading an initial position and a final position with very high resolution —3000 clicks of your encoder. In the programming there’s an interrupt so it’s always reading, never skipping. And it also knows which combination of the eight buttons I’m pressing with my fingers. Between all that data you can do anything you want MIDI-wise — you could control a whistle sound back and forth for instance. But what I do is take the last ten clicks of the encoder on either end and come up with a velocity-sensitive speed or acceleration to give me a MIDI output at either one of those points.” AT 13
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FEATURE
Andrew Bencina lands in-between two deserts to break in one of the most remote studios on the planet and finds it’s just like home – without the noise. Story: Andrew Bencina Photos: Luke Nicholls & Tobias Hengeveld
If you’ve been toying with the idea of selling that vintage mic collection to reserve a seat on one of Richard Branson’s ‘galactic’ adventures, forget about it. A budget red-eye flight from Melbourne to Darwin during the wet season will deliver an equally alien and mesmerising view of nature’s wonderful mystery. The small, and less than ergonomically positioned porthole a more than adequate replacement for the Hubble space telescope as flashes of purple, blue, orange and white electricity bubbled through the clouds, Six hours in layover limbo on the floor of Darwin terminal, however, was much less stimulating – and my colleague Tobias Hevengold and I were still more than 24 hours from Balgo! Nestled between the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts is the community of Wirrimanu in the Kutjungka region. The town of Balgo has a fluctuating population of about 400 indigenous residents, and white fellas (Kartiya) who administer and deliver a range of public services. By road it’s about 850km northwest from Alice Springs and 300km south of Halls Creek. I’m assured that only the drive can instil a true appreciation for Balgo’s isolation (try zooming in on satellite images of Wirrimanu using Google maps!) but I was willing to forego this privilege. Luckily, due to the surplus weight of our recording and cooking supplies it became necessary to ferry us in from Kununurra in a
chartered Cessna. Even so, as the two-hour flight proceeded the postcard landmarks eroded into into dust until it felt like we were hovering over the same stretch of country for at least half an hour. Eventually the horizontal haze filtered away and a cluster of tin roofs radiating from the edge of a red gravel footy field came into focus. The jagged coastal cliffs of a prehistoric sound, widening into the distance. A timely reminder that even the nothingness is not what it seems. THE WAACNESS
We’d been enticed here at the invitation of the Warlayirti Artists Art Centre. the waac is a nonprofit corporation that began operating in balgo in 1987. Administered by a small permanent staff, the centre’s operation is directed by a board of annually elected, local artists. Established to develop and service the talents of what has grown to be a significant group of indigenous painters, it is the commercial success of this organisation that has continued to drive the creative explorations of this ‘desert island’ community. In the last two years the centre has expanded to provide training in photography and the diverse range of skills associated with filmmaking. As an adjunct to this project it became possible to build a recording studio capable of serving both the new media department, and the bands of Balgo and other surrounding satellite communities (Billiluna and Mulan).
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FEATURE Acoustic design is perhaps the darkest art of all. And if you listened to every forum post on ‘how to make your room sound amazing’, you might end up with compressed scarab beetle walls held together by the dung of an elephant. You can also spend so much time messing about with measurement mics, staring at waterfall graphs (that could represent Niagara Falls for all you know), or building resonators with only a weak grasp of 10th grade maths. This is not a complete treatise on acoustics or studio design. But rather, a few tips to help you make the most of what you have in the real world with limited means, while pointing out some common things you might already be, or about to do, wrong. Best of all, you can stop worrying about the acoustic bomb, and get down to making music, isn’t that what we’d all rather be doing?
Story: Andrew Steel
WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING WRONG
TECH TIP
1
If you’re trying to isolate everything from 20Hz up, you might tune its resonant frequency to 5 or 6Hz. After that point it will taper off, so by the time you’re at 20Hz, you might be 10dB down, and falling.
RELYING ON MEASUREMENTS
Just to get it out of the way: This article is not going to tell you to measure anything… acoustic that is. Not to say you can’t, but keeping in the spirit of making good, affordable, and importantly, timesaving decisions that work, it’s just not that important. Especially when our ears discriminate in microseconds. Reverberation time is the most commonly used measurement in acoustic design, and I don’t think it’s that useful for most studios. Because the typical way we go about it with small studios is: set up the monitors in the right places, get a good listener position, haul in some bass traps, and put in absorbers for the first reflection points on the two side walls and ceiling to get the imaging right. By that time, there’s already a fair amount of absorption in the room. And if we’re not talking about a big room, it’s probably not too bright, maybe just a little bit. We might only put one or two more absorbers until it comes to a nice feel, and maybe one on the back wall. Then we might have a fairly big plasterboard space between the first incident reflection absorbers and the ones near the rear, and if you clapped your hand in the middle of the room, you would get a flutter, and diffusers will get rid of that. In that case, if you had the client couch toward the back of the room, you would put a couple of diffusers on either side so when they talk they’re not getting a flutter, or zingy bathroom echo. And that’s it. In a room like that, there’s not much more you could or would want to do.
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0
10hz
20hz
The other reason for not taking measurements is it’s very hard to know what you’re reading; it’s expensive to get the right measurement equipment; and even more expensive to pay someone that knows what they’re doing. It’s a good few hours to set up and do it properly, and more than an hour (at a bare minimum) to analyse it. At $250 an hour, that’s over a grand just to find out the state of your room, and that’s only once. If you’re really going to hold to the measurements, you need to do it multiple times to ensure you’re actually making an improvement. And most of the time it doesn’t really tell you anything you didn’t already know by listening to the room. It can also lead to chasing your tail. If it sounds good, get over it. My whole life was based in measurement science, so it sounds dumb, but it’s just not necessary.
30hz
WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING WRONG
2
ISOLATION INCIDENTS
If you want to isolate anything, be it a generator, record player or studio from a base, you need to know something about the range of frequencies you want to isolate, but it’s mostly about mass. If the weight of the thing you’re trying to isolate rests on the isolating material like a feather on a rhino, it’s going to do no good. Same thing applies if it’s flipped and the element you’re trying to isolate is squashing the isolating material flat like a rhino on a feather — no good. But when it’s just deflecting the isolating material about 5-10% of it’s original height, then it’s in its working region.
DON’T BE SHOCKED - Make sure the material your using to isolate matches the mass of the thing you’re trying to isolate, aiming for that magic area between 5-10% deflection.
Landcruiser on Mini Minor springs = Bottomed out, feeling every bump
Mini Minor on Landcruiser springs = Too rigid, feeling every bump
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS ABSORBERS Rockwool is fine, but it’s a bit more fragile and more expensive than fibreglass. As with all of these absorptive materials, its absorption characteristics depend on the thickness. Fiberglass is great because it’s a nice stiff regular board that you can cut with a Stanley knife. It just works. Polyester is the ‘doesn’t make you itch version’, but is much harder to cut. There are a number of properties that dictate absorption, but the most influential one is ‘flow resistivity’. Which is a measure of the pressure drop across the material for the amount of air going through it. Fibreglass and polyester are a much of a muchness, they’re both better than plain old acoustic foam. But foam is so easy to work with, because you don’t have to wrap it in fabric. And egg carton-style designs cut into the foam face? It’s just for show. It doesn’t enhance the absorption properties of the material one bit. SOUNDPROOFING FOAM? Probably the biggest thing that people ring up and ask for is ‘soundproofing’ foam. But foam just doesn’t do that. Plasterboard might give you -20dB, foam, maybe 3dB if you’re lucky. But when you stick it to a piece of plasterboard, it wouldn’t even change it 1dB. It’s the wrong thing for the job.
Landcruiser on Landcruiser springs = Just right!
The analogy: If you put a Landcruiser on Mini Minor springs, it would squash so flat you would feel every bump in the road. If you put a Mini Minor on Landcruiser springs, they would be so stiff that you’d feel every bump in the road. But when you put Landcruiser springs in a Landcruiser, they deflect a little bit, are in their operating region, and everything is fine. In a car, we not only have a spring, but also a shock absorber, which we know as a damper. Rubber type materials naturally have both those properties, but we still need to match the mass of the thing we’re trying to isolate with the spring and damper properties of our isolating material to get our isolation. If you put escalator handrails that are extremely hard, or entire sheets of rubber, how are you going to compress its height by 5%? It’s not going to happen. Even Sheerflex (the material we most often use) needs 700kg/sqm to deflect it adequately. And as it turns out, if you put blocks of Sheerflex
at 450mm centres (typical modern day stud separation), there’s not enough weight in a heavy plasterboard wall to squash it the necessary amount. So what we do on the floors is put the Sheerflex element down under a timber stud, then bolt it all down, and tighten it up till the shim measurer says it’s pre-tensioned just right. If you just put the raw material in, or worse, a whole sheet, or some other material that ‘intuitively’ isolates, it might, but all bets are off.
TECH TIP If you use one 10mm Sheerflex pad, at 450mm centres, tighten them down to 9mm, we know exactly how it will decouple. You will get a tiny bit of transmission through the bolt, but nothing compared to bolting the bottom plate to the floor. If you want to stop transmission waking up your baby or grandma asleep in the next room, this is a proven way where the results are known. If you want to use sheets of fibreglass, it seems to work, but there’s no data for it. Ceilings require the same arrangement, this time it hangs on a bracket that pulls down on the top of the rubber and compresses it.
PLASTERBOARD VS MDF Plasterboard is used over MDF in houses and everything else, because once it’s finished and set, that’s it. MDF may shrink if it dries out, or it may swell if it’s in a humid environment. The place for MDF or plywood is if you put it as your first layer, and then plasterboard or whatever you like over the top. Because it means you can screw anything into it across the wall. But as a finished construction material, it’s not great, unless it’s all veneered or laminated. OFF THE SHELF Absorbers are absorbers, there’s not a huge difference. The differences come down to cost, finish, availability, whether they’re robust, and whether they’re combustible. The ones that are difficult to recommend are some of the intricate diffusers, only because they’re expensive. I understand why they’re expensive, because they’re hard to make. It’s a lot of money for something that’s okay, and you could have done the same thing with a nice hanging curve from your ceiling with a downlight in it, and painted a funny colour. It’s pretty hard to justify hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and buying multiple of them. The people that did all the R&D in the first place should be knighted, because it’s a huge amount of work. But it would be nice if they also recognised that they’re frequency dependent and construction dependent. If you make them without walls in the wells, they’re less efficient. So the ones that you see that are just the lumps don’t perform quite so well as those with walls. By the time you get lots of them side by side without walls, it’s doing less and less each time, but they didn’t get any cheaper. AT AT 17 17
Roger D’Arcy has been one half of a driving force behind Recording Architecture for a quarter of a century. Over that time, Recording Architecture has been involved in exotic Greek Island getaways, Alberts in London, Ronnie Woods’ bunker, even Studios 301 over here in Sydney, and too many more to count. He’s seen it all, and written a book about it too. After 25 years, Recording Architecture will finally be calling it quits after the final touches are put on their latest build. Roger kindly took the time to pass on a bit of his knowledge to the budding crop of studio designers. Mark Davie: What is the most common misconception about what you do? Roger D’Arcy: There is often surprise that our work is not particularly focused on the equipment – other than the need for a general awareness of the size of a console, the focusing characteristics of a monitoring system or the quantity of outboard gear to be housed in racks, the design process (and the physical realisation of that design) is predominantly architectural. The acoustic performance, and ergonomic and operational requirements must be fully understood and strategically accounted for at an early stage, but it is a job for designers (including suitably experienced architects), but not necessarily recording engineers or acousticians – though they can often make a valuable input as part of a team. I think the name we chose originally says it all – Recording Architecture. MD: What is the most difficult aspect of getting acoustics right? And why? RD: Achieving balanced control across a broad frequency range is the single most difficult aspect of getting acoustics right. It is essential to appreciate the vast disparity of wavelengths involved – 6.8m at 50Hz down to 68mm at 5kHz – it therefore follows logically and inescapably that it is impossible to adequately control low frequencies with only wavelength AT 18
(or quarter wavelength) dependent porous absorbent materials and diffusion techniques. The application of foam-based products (or other relatively lightweight elements) to walls and ceilings simply cannot provide a workable solution – it is absolutely necessary to employ techniques that address the pressure component of a sound wave (such as membrane absorption) which is not wavelength dependent. MD: What particular types of buildings make for great retrofit studios? RD: A theoretically ideal space would be large and open, with widely spaced (or preferably no) columns, high (over 4m), and with a solid, ground-bearing floor of high loading capacity such as an industrial space. Basements can be ideal but often have restricted height, and are frequently peppered with columns that can severely restrict the planning of appropriately sized/shaped spaces. If a building is shared it’s sensible to avoid the upper floors of steel framed or otherwise ‘architecturally lightweight’ structures. There are few better alternatives than being able to construct massive sound-isolating shells off a solid ground floor. MD: What are three common things that you often see people do wrong when it comes to building a studio? RD: The placing of only relatively thin and (architecturally) low density absorbent materials (or elements) on walls and ceilings in the vain and misguided hope that this alone will create a balanced acoustic – the lone acoustic foam tile placed directly on a wall behind the speaker is perhaps the most extreme, all too frequent and saddest caricature of this approach. It
is impossible to overstress the importance of constantly thinking ‘wavelength’. Failure to achieve architectural/acoustic symmetry about the front-back axis of a control
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FEATURE
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d inefiel m e h t g te naviga ne, completin o t d e io ag gi m man te 2 game en ed game aud r. a e t o i i d a im dio’s au virgin Frostb itically accla e, unedited w u t s E ’s cr lif DIC mhall n Broo efield 3 deliver more like true-tol t t ry: Joh o a t S B s of o t sound ssion t i a h m t e h t AT 21
Battlefield 3’s predecessor Battlefield: Bad Company 2 deservedly scooped a BAFTA for ‘Use of Audio’. For Audio Director, Stefan Strandberg, and the DICE audio team, the Frostbite 1.5 game engine Bad Company 2 was built on had proved a solid, stable technology platform. But level technology ground gave way to shifting tectonic plates when Strandberg and DICE were faced with the challenge of creating another hit game whilst simultaneously building a brand new game engine, Frostbite 2. Many basic audio features were missing or late and nascent graphics-streaming bandwidth issues demanded a serious data management re-think. All credit then to the intrepid audio team for not getting trapped in a bunker of coding and memory hassles. The DICE team kept their heads down and focused on sound design not the daily bombardment of issues, as well as collaborating closely with other disciplines to create a conceptually consistent world. Oddly, this organised, organisation-wide approach was key to effectively simulating the disorganised clamour of war. WAR, UNEDITED
Strandberg: “Our fundamental vision was to create the impression of unedited war. One thing that makes our game perceived as sounding ‘right’ is that we continue to hunt down all those other disciplines that affect us. This time we worked even closer with the animators and effects people when it came to camera shake and re-coil. It’s super important that we collaborate and help drive analysis, so we captured a lot of explosions footage and examined it closely. sound designers are the disciples of timing issues
– they have a rhythmic sense, which other
disciplines don’t necessarily have.
We noticed that in order to fit together, animations had to be as snappy and short as our sounds insofar as they expand over time. It took several weeks to get this timing right. We noticed that the effects artists might have 20 frames of fire, whereas in many cases, the fire in real world explosions is consumed within approximately three frames. Even in massive explosions that propagate slowly at the
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outer rims, the actual core of the explosion happens so fast and expands so quickly that Hollywood slows them down. But we want our game to be real so we needed that snappiness and punch in the visuals. Four things work together – sound, camera shake, effects and rumble – it’s really powerful and a key factor in the perception of our sound being right and having impact. In an unusual development, the audio team ended up controlling the camera shake so they could ensure perfect synchronisation with explosions. In fact, not only are the shaking x, y and z parameters triggered and controlled from the audio engine, it also triggers rumbling of the joypad! It’s all done subtly but it makes the explosions seem louder. “it’s like we’ve got more dimensions to work in,” said Strandberg. “We are on a quest for consistency of approach, where every sound fits in a balanced way in the universe. So there are no super-designed weapon sounds. Individually, our sounds are not that impressive, but it’s our consistency in how we treat them that counts. it’s the sum of the parts
that’s impressive, not each individual component.
We build the blueprint on how they’re supposed to be used rather than focusing on making the best individual effects. Sure, you can always create a better sound, but if you go down that path, you produce an ‘inflation’ – we’re more focused on asking ‘does it fit in context, is it part of the world?’ The combination of sounds works – similar to record production where individual elements combine to sound good. You carve out a space for each component – even though the drummer wants the drums loud and the bassist wants bass in your face. sometimes it’s so tempting to make that individual big-super-mega sound, but it will actually push everything else over the edge.
BELIEVABILITY TRUMPS FIDELITY The DICE team feel their key strengths for achieving good dialogue content are simply to encourage plenty of actor improvisation and group interaction, and record multiple actors together – still not a universally accepted modus operandi in games. Strandberg: “Ensemble recording achieves a completely different result. We have two excellent full-time voice producers working with us. We also work a lot on analysing the ‘outdoors’ sound, trying to replicate that in the game – in fact, nowadays, we’re actually recording a lot of Marines outdoors. Even if the noise floor is quite heavy it doesn’t really matter – when you get it into the game, believability overrules fidelity. Actually you can tell from all of our sound content that this is a guiding principle – in eight out of 10 cases we’ll use the sounds that sound real – even if they’re of lesser fidelity. We can always pimp them later with extra detail. “Where do you draw the line? There’s clip distortion and then there’s distortion… To me, it’s like a punk band with a good set of songs – it doesn’t matter that they’re recorded ‘improperly’ – the message is still more vital or it has more energy or more attachment to us as humans.”
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Tape, inconvenient? Bollocks!
HIRED GUNS When it came to the right source material for weapons, the team were able to take advantage of a quite extraordinary gun wrangling and recording session in LA and Fort Irwin (complete with mocked-up Iraqi village), which had taken place around the time of the Bad Company 2 production. Strandberg: “I think it’s the biggest gun recording ever attempted – a joint venture with the Medal Of Honour team. For two days we had movie guys Jean Paul Fasal and Brian Watkins there with an 80-microphone set-up capturing every weapon sound you can imagine to both computer and analogue tape recorders. We even had people syncrecording in the mountains 5km away. The resulting ProTools sessions allow you to create any kind of weapon sound you like, though the portrait of the tail is a constant, which is why we still like to use ‘guerrilla’ recordings we make during the military exercises that take place around Stockholm periodically.” “We’ve worked very closely with design to make sure there are small sonically unique identifiers for everything in the game providing important audio cues that will improve you as a soldier. Though they’re not mentioned in the manual, it’s cool how people pick up on them – it’s all part of the game-play depth.”
As unbelievable as it may seem, sometimes setting up a makeshift warzone isn’t enough. “We have foley recordings of particular guns but they may have been done in a sterile environment like a foley stage. There are air soft guns available that we regularly source to get an idea of mechanisms and feel and the best way to record them. As a studio we buy a lot of army gear for the artists to look at and because most people in Sweden have done one year’s military training, they’re not newbies with this gear. One of our team will dress up in the equipment, take a small Zoom or Olympus recorder and just go out and experiment with it. Sometimes those recordings are just perfect – they’re outdoors, they’ve got a bit of wind, there are bumps, there’s dirt in there that makes you believe it’s real. For very key specific things, we might go into a live space for more close detail, but not a Neumann U87 in an ultra quiet room – all clinical and perfect – it’s rough, dirty and full of life.
Australia-wide delivery Ph: 02 9283 2077 Fx: 02 9283 1337 265 Sussex St, Sydney 2000 info@sounddevices.com.au AT 23
REGULARS
HOME GROWN. CANARY. Barn-find of the year: Canary shows that fresh ears, not gear, is what it takes to record a stunning debut album, with beat boxing no less. Story: Greg Walker
COMBINING THREE SONGS TO SAVE LITTLE CHRIST Isaac Barter: “It was a really difficult mix because it was originally three separately recorded songs that we then wanted to fit together smoothly. It also had huge dynamic range with parts that could easily be overwhelmed by other instruments. I split Ed’s beat boxing into three separately treated tracks essentially for depth, body, and attack. They then went through a few busses for more processing. After extensive exploration with a range of distortion, compression, frequency splits, etc., I stumbled across a sound that I liked. Bass tracks ended up going through some nasty metal distortion and I added some synth bass for Prelude using Olga. I liked Matt’s pick tone better than mine for the end bass riff so got him to play it. “We re-recorded some of the guitar tracks using a Japanese reissue Telecaster through a Vox AC30 AT 24
and Adam added some great Juno synth parts. Ed’s trumpet parts were twisted with lots of Crystallizer and bizarre free plugins Crazy Ivan and Bouncy. The end vocals were split and heavily filtered and delayed to get the right sense of space. I tried quite a few distortions on these vocals before settling on the Logic amp sim. Great distortion can come from the strangest of places! Xani’s violins had a long wall of thick distorted Echoboy delay and Matt kept getting me to turn them up along with the shouting until they completely overwhelmed the band. This became especially aggressive in the mastered version as the song starts to distort and squash under the limiter. I still can’t make up my mind if I like it that smashed, but there is definitely something exciting about it.”
It could have gone so wrong. Sending a few beat boxing musicians – who are admitted novices at tracking – out to a barn to record a debut album, on GarageBand, with a PreSonus Firestudio. It’s galling in a way; that these precocious upstarts have side-skipped any kind of formal introduction to the art of recording, used what was ‘lying around’, and shock horror, relied on their ears to educate themselves. And they’ve actually done it. Melbourne band Canary has managed to make a debut album that sounds both lush and huge, intimate and layered without acquiring a major-label-sized recording bill. Canary’s album Dear Universe is a truly impressive piece of work featuring great songwriting, creative arrangements, a fascinating range of styles and instrumentation (everything from beat-boxing to horns, violins and aggressive rock guitars), and to top it off the record has great sonics courtesy of time taken with mic and room placements. Not to mention the sage advice and well structured mixes courtesy of experienced producer/mixer Isaac ‘Zac’ Barter. FRESH EARS
To get the skinny on how the whole thing went down I caught up with singer/multiinstrumentalist Matt Keneally. Greg Walker: Firstly congratulations on the record – it’s a rich and complex piece of work. Can you talk a little about how you approached the recording process? Did you have a clear vision for it or did it slowly evolve? Matt Keneally: We didn’t really know what we were doing initially. We didn’t have an overall sound in mind but wanted to include a diverse array of different sounds and it evolved as we went along. We knew it was going to be colourful. And we had a certain sense of freedom knowing that we weren’t aiming for a specific sound, genre or style. It was more a case of, ‘let’s have fun recording these songs in whatever way we want to or feel is best for each and then at the end, see what we have.’ I suppose one clear direction was that, being long-time fans of Elliott Smith, we wanted to double track a lot of the vocals and acoustic guitars. It’s a sound we’ve always loved, and it worked pretty well with the vocals and the style of at least a few of the songs. That was the default, and then sometimes we pared it back to just one vocal where it suited. GW: Whereabouts did you do the recording? MK: We did all the tracking in a barn in Nagambie, various rooms in the house I was living in at the time, most of the drums in Zac’s house, the violin in Adam’s living room and beatboxing in Nagambie and Ed’s bedroom. It really just came down to what was the most convenient. Because we tracked it in so many different rooms I was a little concerned about consistency in the album’s sounds. Zac assured me that there was enough similarity, continuity, etc., in the content and the writing itself for it to work as an album. To save on costs the initial plan was that Adam and myself would borrow a bunch of mics off Zac and try to track it all ourselves. Zac would
then mix it all afterwards. He’s a Mac user so we tracked it all into GarageBand via a PreSonus Firestudio interface before giving it to Zac to mix. He was using Logic Pro and so we were able to drop in the GarageBand files and keep the initial rough mixing settings we’d put on while tracking it all. SLOW & STEADY
GW: Was it a long process to make the record? MK: It took us about a year overall. The bulk of the recording was done on and off within probably four or five months, whereas the mixing was done relatively casually and took most of the year. It took us a lot longer than professionals to initially track it all because Adam and I were constantly second-guessing everything. “Is that the right amount of gain level? Are the headphones too loud? Is it too roomy a sound? Can you hear the rain outside? There’s a slight hum, do you reckon it’ll matter?” A lot of it was resolved by a quick phone call to Zac. I’d spoken to him in detail beforehand about how we should do it and whether it was a bad idea for us to go off and try tracking it ourselves. He instilled a lot of confidence in Adam and myself to trust our ears and so, not knowing a lot about what the ‘right’ way of recording stuff was, we did our best to trust our ears out of necessity. From the start, I knew Zac and myself were on the same page with general sounds we were after in the album. We wanted it to be at times raw, stripped back and at other times, fairly produced and complex. So I had a lot of trust in him and his advice. As we were recording I’d check in with Zac to see if the sounds we were getting were usable. He was usually very re-assuring and quite amazing as an overseer to work with. This relationship allowed us enough freedom to muck around and experiment while still making sure we were getting good sounds. GW: What were some of the hurdles you had to overcome soundwise? MK: There were some results that were less than ideal. For instance we had an Audio-Technica 3035 above and behind the violin as well as a line out from the violinist’s amp on Very Impressive. But the acoustic sound ended up being way too roomy so we ended up almost exclusively using the line out takes. The guitars at the end of Little Christ were recorded at least three times – each time they were too ‘roomy’ (I was living in a house at the time that was all wooden floors and high ceilings). I took them to Zac twice and both times he suggested doing them again so he had something better to work with. On the third time, I got lucky. I ended up basically burying the mic and amp in pillows and blankets and a mattress. GW: What gear were the main and backing vocals recorded with? MK: They were all done with an AT 3035 going into a PreSonus Firestudio interface and then into GarageBand. Zac also used some ribbon mics for the backing vocals on Son and Father.
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FEATURE
’60s SOUL IN Steve Levine has been recreating ’60s soul music without getting hung up on digital v analogue. Instead, he used the best of both. Story: Paul Tingen
While nostalgia can be found in all walks of life, the music industry is probably unique in having a substantial population that believes the technology from the past remains better than today’s. No owner of a 1940s Ferrari Barchetta, however enthusiastic, will claim that it’s technically superior to a 21st century Ferrari. But, as we all know, there remain many who claim that the analogue recording format, though admittedly clumsy and expensive, is still superior to the latest digital whiz-bangery. Stronger still, many happy users of digital are increasingly shaking their heads at the degradation of the sonic quality of 21st century music through lossy formats, the loudness wars, the decimation of the studio industry and the corresponding disappearance of the art and craft of studio engineering. Equally illustrative are the swathes of artists from the good old days, many of whom have reached pensionable ages, who are still outselling the younger generation. It appears that our society as a whole has a tendency to hanker for music from the past, particularly from popular music’s Golden Age, the sixties and the early seventies, when a change in culture and an avalanche of creativity meant that new artists, new musical directions, classic recordings, and new recording formats fell like manna from heaven. As a result, the desire to go back to and/or relive that era seems almost hardwired.
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One particularly striking recent example came from Phil Collins, who for his 2010 album Going Back re-recorded two dozen sixties and early seventies soul classics as faithfully to the originals as possible. Another example are the recordings recently conducted by British production legend Steve Levine, during which he also tried to recreate the sound of the sixties, though, as we shall see, in rather a different fashion than Collins. Levine is not a known member of the analogue, back-to-the past brigade. In fact, he had many of his biggest hits in the eighties with culture club, one of the earliest bands that made it big with a sound based on glossy digital technology; in their case drum machines, synths and sequencing. Levine’s roots do go back to the tail end of the era that his recent project focuses on: he started as a trainee tape-op at CBS studios in London in 1975. He quickly graduated to in-house engineer, working with many British punk and new wave acts, amongst them The Clash and XTC, as well as CBS pop acts that recorded there, including the Beach Boys and Sailor. During the eighties, in addition to producing three platinum-selling Culture Club albums, Levine worked with China Crisis, Ziggy Marley, and Gary Moore, and won a BPI Producer of the Year and a Grammy Award (the latter for his work with Deniece William). Levine remains active as a producer to this day, but the hit songs dried up in the 90s, so he
THE MODERN AGE diversified into film scoring, began his own record company (Hubris Records) and radio production company (Magnum Opus), and is currently chair of the Record Producer’s Guild (RPG). LICENSE TO RE-CREATE
With Magnum Opus, Levine produced a radio series a few years ago for the BBC called The Record Producers, featuring Tony Vinconti, Arif Mardin, Trevor Horn, and many others, as well as a three part series called The Third Reich and Roll about the history of magnetic tape, which, as every child surely knows, was developed by the Nazi’s as a propaganda tool. The Third Reich and Roll was presented by the British actor and media personality Stephen Fry, who in turns is friends with the founder and chairman of Audio Network, Andrew Sunnucks. Audio Network is a fast-growing library of music for film and
TAPE IS FOR NAZIS
For the, er, record, the Nazis developed the use of magnetic tape for audio because they wanted to be able to broadcast Hitler’s speeches, as well as pipe music, at any time, without the Allies being aware that these were recordings. At the end of the war Major Jack Mullin discovered the Magnetophons in Frankfurt and brought them back to the US, where an impressed Bing Crosby decided to invest in a small company called Ampex. The rest, as they say, was yet more history.
TV, the company’s twist being that its music is originally composed and recorded, thereby bypassing any licensing issues. When Sunnucks and Levine were introduced to each other by Fry, Sunnucks asked Levine to add some licensable, ’60s-sounding content to the Audio Network library, which surprisingly – given the popularity of 1960s music – hadn’t been made before. “Andrew was aware of my knowledge of the history of recording and of course also of my background as a producer,” said Levine. “He said to me that Audio Network, as a library music supplier, got a lot of requests for authenticsounding sixties soul music, but that this threw up several problems. The first one is that it can be very difficult to acquire the rights to use these recordings, and that these rights often turn out to be very expensive. The other problem is that that there are a few recordings that are licensed very frequently and that consequently have a lot of associations for people. Creative directors are always on the lookout for some obscure sixties soul tracks that can bring that sixties vibe but without the baggage of a known song. Plus there are the demands of the modern film editor. So Andrew asked me whether it would be possible for me to record some new songs written in that style and sounding like they are from the sixties. The tracks would have all the advantages of library music in that they would be easy to license and use, but wouldn’t sound like library music.”
A BRAVE NEW OLD WORLD
Levine jumped at the request, which was nothing if not a wonderful opportunity to combine his production skills and his history of music knowhow. “The period we were looking at was the late sixties, but I did not want to make my life too difficult,” said Levine. “So we didn’t set out to make motown recordings, or stax recordings, or atlantic recordings. we rather tried to create a world that we think may have existed, but
didn’t. My aim and hope was to record a batch of songs that would sound like undiscovered gems, as if they were coming from a parallel universe. My task was to get the right songs and the right musicians and record them in the right studio with the right gear and microphones. Terry Devine-King, one of the writers at Audio Network, provided me with the songs, and we then set about finding the right musicians. I decided to record them as authentically as possible, so we went to Toe Rag Studios in East London. Its owner, Liam Watson, has dedicated the studio to all things from the past, and has, for example, an old pre-Beatles EMI REDD.17 valve desk from Abbey Road, which we used a lot.”
TOE RAGTIME
Toe Rag Studios was founded in 1991 by Watson (also the studio’s resident producer and engineer). The studio is almost exclusively analogue, featuring the REDD.17 desk, which dates from the mid-fifties, several tape recorders, AT 27
REVIEW
WHAT’S IN THE LUNCH BOX? 500 SERIES COMPRESSOR SHOOTOUT Review:Greg Walker
In the last five years the 500 series rack format has seen an enormous surge in popularity. Originally an analogue console ‘penthouse’ format invented by API to house its mic pres, EQs and compressors above the faders and pan pots, the 500 series went portable with the introduction of that company’s iconic ‘Lunchbox’. From being the domain of the API and/or DIY enthusiasts the format gradually attracted other boutique outboard manufacturers with its ready-made power supply solution and small footprint. Today there is nary a sonic task that hasn’t been addressed by some ingenious 500 series designer. From A/D converters to phase alignment tools and ring modulators, there’s something for everyone, and the challenge for the designer is always the same: how to pack the most useful features and the highest sonic performance into this smallest of module formats. What follows is by no means a comprehensive survey of the 500 series compressors out there in the audio marketplace. Rather it is a small sample of the ever-growing variety of flavours available, and I hope it will give AT readers food for thought when they contemplate embarking on a dalliance with the format or adding to their 500 series module collection. In future we’ll also cast our eyes and ears across some tasty EQ options but we’re kicking off this series of articles with a look at the wonderful world of 500 series dynamics control. All modules were tested in an ageing Old School Audio rack as well as a brand spanking new Radial Workhorse. To curtail any raised eyebrows it’s worth noting that de-essers compress high frequencies and that’s why there’s one in this dynamics shootout. I’ve tested each module on a wide variety of sources and applications and done a lot of listening. Of course these assessments are based on one person’s subjective experiences with each unit – my trash may be another man’s treasure so bear that in mind as you read this. Must be lunchtime! AT 28
CHANDLER LITTLE DEVIL COMPRESSOR The Little Devil Compressor is a feature rich unit that offers two distinct compression types as well as a 5-position sidechain filter, input and output gain, continuously variable attack and dry/wet mix controls. The two compression types are the harder Germanium curve and the more forgiving Zener curve. Both offer high, medium, and low compression ratios and a choice of fast, medium or slow release times. There is also a hard bypass toggle switch at the bottom of the unit and a tasteful kidney-shaped backlit VU meter that graces the top of the fire engine red faceplate, showing gain reduction only. It’s a good-looking module and offers some real hands-on dynamics control. The Germanium curve is pretty dark and coloured and reacts to transients much more quickly than the more airy and gentle Zener setting. I first tried a pair of Little Devils on drum and mix bus duties and quickly found that only the Zener curve really held up in this application as the Germanium tended to shut down tone-wise pretty quickly even at low input settings, and neither flavour really stood out as a winner here. Moving on to individual track compression I had a lot more success with the Zener setting on guitar, bass and snare, particularly when re-introducing some dry signal into the chain at higher compression ratio settings with a shorter release time. Another favourite setting was the darker Germanium curve on slightly hard and/or strident male vocals and overly bright guitars where its combination of smoother tone and mid-range power did very nice things tonally, as well as effortlessly controlling the dynamic range. the mix feature is one of the unit’s strong points, as is the variable side-chain
filter which allows low frequency information to slide in under the compressor’s nose without setting off unwanted
pumping artefacts. The choice of frequencies between 30Hz and 300Hz here allows for some subtle control of
THE VERDICT
Overall I found this comp did its best work at moderate settings (-2dB to -5dB) and indeed it was quite hard to get the Little Devil to misbehave in any useful way so I reluctantly came to the conclusion it was less of a ‘colour’ or ‘effect’ compressor than I had expected. The Little Devil is also a comp that delivers its best results after a fair bit of play and, while it wouldn’t be my first choice in a lot of applications, when it does work it works very well indeed, especially on electric guitars and dynamic male vocals. Cool, but doesn’t cover enough bases. CONTACT Mixmasters: (08) 8211 6211 or sales@mixmasters.com.au PRICE $1359
drumkit, at times the sound can get a little honky in the lower midrange. The brickwall limiter is a very handy tool when used carefully and can control overly dynamic information quite well, although the different gain structures required by this unit made it hard to tell exactly how much limiting was being applied. The Komit wouldn’t be my first choice for vocals outside of moderate settings, but showed itself to be a very handy kick, snare and bass comp, with its knack for handling low frequency content.
THE VERDICT
how much these lower frequencies react with the compressor’s knee.
A very ambitious module that goes well down low. CONTACT Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or sales@ambertech.com.au PRICE $699
EMPIRICAL LABS DERRESSER RADIAL ENGINEERING KOMIT
Radial Engineering has come up with something a little different here. The khaki and white coloured Komit offers continuously variable compression ratios from 1:1 to 10:1 and a separate stepped limiter circuit. In between these is a continuously variable gain make-up stage that can also be used to drive the limiter harder. The limiter has a few tricks up its sleeve with a bypass step, and another labelled ‘BW’ that doubles the compression ratio and acts as a bullet-proof brick wall limiter at the compressors maximum setting (effectively 20:1) [the shot obscures both limiter steps, you’ll have to squint hard or believe us on those – Ed]. The limiter’s threshold offers 10 settings in 3dB steps and utilises an old-school diode bridge circuit that can be driven into quite heavy distortion at higher thresholds. The compressor offers switchable slow, medium and fast speeds and utilises a feedforward auto-detection topology that makes the compressor less tweakable (only two controls) but also more forgiving to operate. Input level can be switched between +4dB and –10dB operating levels and there’s also a link switch for stereo operation and a snazzy 10-bar LED meter at the top of the unit to monitor output and gain reduction levels simultaneously. The Komit seemed to require more input gain (even at the higher input level) than all the other units reviewed here before I could get the compression to work on my signals. However, once I did get it properly working the komit offered up a nice thickening effect at robust settings, lending weight to kick and snare drum sounds while breaking up easily once the gain and limiter thresholds were pushed. On vocals the Komit was good on mild settings at controlling excessive dynamics while leaving the original tone of the voice well alone. On guitars and bass the Komit seemed to thrive on lower frequency information and again I found the Komit very willing to start breaking up and emphasising compression artefacts. While the distortion characteristics can deliver a pretty bombastic rendition of an electric guitar or
The DerrEsser is a bit of a surprise package and those who assume, as I did, that the DerrEsser is simply a 500 series de-esser with a funny name are quite mistaken. Subtitled a ‘High Frequency Fixer’ in the manual, the stylish black, silver and blue DerrEsser is equipped with continuously variable threshold and high frequency controls and in its most basic ‘all buttons out’ mode is a capable de-esser. When High Frequency Limit (the first of three white buttons) is activated it becomes a dedicated soft-knee compressor for the high frequency content of your signal above the selected frequency. When the ‘Listen’ button is engaged you hear only the portion of the signal acted upon by the de-esser or HF Limiter and in the latter case what you also then have is a handy high pass filter with a sweepable cut-off point down to 1kHz. When the Listen button is activated alongside the final Low Pass button this situation is reversed and you have yourself an even more handy low pass filter. The unit squeezes in a 7-segment LED gain reduction meter up its left side, a hard bypass switch, and a clip LED that lets you know when it’s gone ‘BAD!’
“
At the higher ratios and thresholds the LA500 can really smash and grab in a musically pleasing way
”
In use the DerrEsser is pretty straightforward and I had it up and doing various audio tasks in no time. First and foremost it is a very good de-esser. As with any de-essing processor you have to fiddle a bit with thresholds and frequency settings to get it to work smoothly (somewhere before lisping and other artefacts become apparent), but the results are generally excellent. Indeed you only realise how much it is doing when you hit bypass and hear the unprocessed signal! It is certainly at least a match for any of the other hardware de-essers I have used over the years and noticeably better than the usual software candidates. I was even more impressed by the High Frequency Limit mode, particularly on vocals. Most of you will be acquainted with the sound of a vocal recorded via a slightly zingy condenser microphone straight to digital.
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