Foals Flood Moulder + Aussie ENGINEER
Catherine Marks
“
The more people said I couldn’t do it, the more I wanted to prove that I could
SPLITTING UP A ONE MAN BAND Gotye’s Right-Hand Man Breaks Down Live Show
BORN TO RUN Three Huge Hours with The Boss
SUBSCRIBE & WIN APOGEE QUARTET WORTH $1449
AKG D12VR REBIRTH OF A CLASSIC KV2 AUDIO HITS A BIG LINE DRIVE
PATCH ME IN Getting Started With Modular Synths ISSUE 94
94
AU $7.95(inc gst) NZ $9.95 (inc gst) File Under ‘Music’
AT 1
CAPTURE THE MOMENT WITH PORTABLE CLARITY. FP Wireless Systems Featuring a comprehensive selection of system configurations with key wireless audio technologies and components, FP Wireless provides the ability to capture crystal-clear audio with confidence. With simple and flexible components, including a portable receiver and XLR plug-on transmitter, it has never been easier for audio to be captured in the demanding and dynamic videography and electronic field production (EFP) environments. Learn more at jands.com.au
Shure patented Audio Reference Companding technology delivers crystal-clear audio transmission, far superior to conventional wireless.
Distributed by
www.jands.com.au AT 2
Visit: jands.com.au to register
Phone: 08 9204 7555 | Fax: 08 9204 5416 Email: info@galacticmusic.com.au Website: www.galacticmusic.com.au AT 3
LIMITEDOFFER Purchase your copy of Steinberg’s Cubase 7 before 31st May and receive a BONUS CMC controller worth $149.99! Cubase 7 is the DAW that puts creativity first. The world’s most popular DAW lets you record, edit, mix and produce your songs while providing professional, studio-grade audio quality at all stages of the creative process.
RRP $599.99*
Chord Track & Chord Assist
Mix Console
VST Connect SE
Cubase 7 offers a new concept in composition. The chord track has the ability to control your MIDI and audio parts directly for advanced voicings and automatic harmonies whilst Chord Assist can intelligently suggest chords to help create new harmonic chord progressions.
The new Mix Console excels not only in terms of useability, look and feel, but also sounds better than anything before it. The versatile Channel Strip offers compression, EQ, saturation, gate, envelope shaping and spectrum analysis on every channel. It’s all in the mix!
Collaborate with musicians around the world and record directly into Cubase using VST Connect SE and your existing internet connection. The remote performer doesn’t even need to be a Cubase user!
Lotek - Producer, Melbourne
M-Phazes - Producer, Melbourne
www.youtube.com/SteinbergSoftware
See what Australia’s CMC artists have to say about Cubase 7.
yamahabackstage.com.au
facebook.com/yamahabackstagepass
Terms and Conditions: This promotional offer applies only to the full retail version of Cubase 7 and specifically excludes upgrades, education versions and other Cubase-family products. This offer is only available from Yamaha Music Australia authorized dealers and there is no obligation for the dealer to comply with the bonus CMC offer. The choice of CMC controller offered is at the discretion of the dealer and is subject to stock availability. The prices set out in this offer are recommended retail prices and there is no obligation for dealers to comply with these recommendations or the effective promotional period. AT 4
steinberg.net
CMCCONTROLLERS
CMC-CH CHannel Controller
CMC-QC QuiCk Controls
CMC-tP transPort Control
The highly precise touch fader, 16 backlit buttons and a rotary encoder brings hands-on access to all channel-related Cubase functions.
8 rotary encoders and 13 backlit buttons provide control over virtually any effect, EQ and performance parameter in Cubase with unique setups per track.
17 backlit buttons with user assignable functions and a high-precision touch slider means the CMC-TP provides instant hands-on control of the Cubase transport section.
CMC-FD FaDer Bank
CMC-PD PaD Controller
CMC-ai aDvanCeD integration
With 16 touch-sensitive backlit pads, two working modes and a rotary encoder, the CMC-PD is the ultimate controller to create dynamic grooves and remotely control Cubase functions.
The AI Knob gives immediate control over virtually any Cubase onscreen parameter. This combines with 10 backlit buttons to make a versatile general purpose control surface.
Four high-resolution touch faders with integrated LED metering, solo/mute functions and the ability to combine up to four units for 16 channels of mixer control.
RRP $149.00* EACH
UR22 2x Class-A Mic Preamps 24-bit, 192kHz Audio Fidelity +48V Phantom Power MIDI In & Out Includes Cubase AI Rugged Metal Chassis USB2.0
RRP $199.99*
AT 5
The Complete Solution AUSTRALIA’S LEADING SUPPLIERS OF PROFESSIONAL AUDIO EQUIPMENT SINCE 1976 BEST PRICES . BEST SERVICE . BEST ADVICE . LARGEST STOCK . NATIONAL DELIVERY EDUCATION SPECIALISTS – TERTIARY, SECONDARY & STUDENT PRICING AVAILABLE ONLINE STORE www.turramusic.com.au/shop
C24 MIXER Incredibly powerful & richly featured console for direct hands-on control of Pro Tools.
Software
PRO TOOLS HD: DIGITAL, ANALOG, PRE, OMNI
PC OR MAC NOW AVAILABLE: Steinberg Cubase 7, Cubase Artist 7, Nuendo 6, Cubase Wavelab 7, Cubase Elements 6, Propellerhead Reason, Ableton Live, Digital Performer (mac only) and Avid Pro Tools 10
Audio Interfaces & Control Surfaces THE MOST POWERFUL AUDIO COMPUTER INTERFACES ON THE MARKET APOGEE / AVID / LEXICON / LYNX / METRIC HALO / M-AUDIO / MOTU / PRESONUS / PRISM / ROLAND / RME / TC / YAMAHA
FOCUSRITE SAFFIRE AND SCARLETT INTERFACES AVAILABLE
NEW RECORDING BUNDLE Yamaha MW12CX with USB + Cubase AI
ARTIST MIX ARTIST CONTROL The Artist Series control surface acts and feels like a physical extension of your software.
NEW RME FIREFACE UCX NEW PRO TOOLS 11 & HD11
NEW
UNIVERSAL AUDIO APOLLO
Virtual Synth Heaven
COMING SOON
NOW authorised Australian Dealer for East West” THE DEMAND ON THESE HAS EXCEEDED MANUFACTURING EXPECTATIONS - ORDER NOW
LYNX AURORA 16
STEINBERG UR824
- US pricing for most titles.
ARTURIA / BFD / D16 / EAST WEST / FL STUDIO / IZOTOPE / MOOG / MOTU / NATIVE INSTRUMENTS INCLUDING KOMPLETE 7 / SONY MEDIA SOFTWARE / SPECTRASONICS / STEINBERG / SYNTHOGY IVORY PIANOS / TOONTRACK / V STATION / VIENNA INSTRUMENTS / AND MANY MORE…
Plug-ins APOGEE QUARTET
ANTARES / AVID / BIAS PEAK / CELEMONY / IZOTOPE / LEXICON / MCDSP / METRIC HALO / SONNOX / SOUND TOYS / SONIC STUDIO / TC ELECTRONIC / WAVES & MORE…
DSP Power AFFORDABLE STEINBERG CMC CONTROL SURFACES Six slim-line USB units for custom Cubase control. MACKIE MCU-PRO 9 Alps touch-sensitive faders, a full-sized backlit LCD and V-Pots for fast tweaking – the ultimate in hands-on command.
AT 6
HOT PRODUCT!!
Full range of Universal Audio UAD2
MBOX PRO
MBOX
Meet the third-generation Pro Tools Mbox family—the highest quality, most flexible personal recording systems ever.
MBOX MINI
NEW Thunderbolt HD native available enquire now
Studio Microphones RØDE / AKG / AUDIO-TECHNICA / BEYER / BEESNEEZ / BLUE / DPA / EARTHWORKS / MOJAVE / NEUMANN / ROYER RIBBON / SENNHEISER / SHURE / SONY / STUDIO PROJECTS / TELEFUNKEN & MORE NEW AS PER REVIEW VALVE MICS AKG D12VR
NEW UAD-2 PCIe Duo CUSTOM (includes Analogue Classics + choice of any 3 plug-ins)
RØDE CLASSIC II LIMITED ANNIVERSARY EDITION Stock is running out – order now
NEUMANN TLM67
www.turramusic.com.au TURRAMURRA PROFESSIONAL STUDIO DIVISION 1263 PACIFIC HIGHWAY, TURRAMURRA, NSW.
Keyboards & Sound Modules
NEW
TEL: (02) 9449 8487 FAX: (02) 9449 3293 WEB: www.turramusic.com.au EMAIL: hitech_sales@turramusic.com.au
NORD ELECTRO 4D
AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST STOCKIST OF KEYBOARDS ACCESS VIRUS, AKAI PRO, ALESIS, CME, DAVE SMITH INSTRUMENTS, EDIROL, EMU, KORG, KURZWEIL, M-AUDIO, MOOG, NORD, NOVATION, ROLAND, WALDORF, YAMAHA NEW HOT PRODUCT COMING SOON KORG MS20 ROLAND VR09
NEW AS PER REVIEW KING KORG
Studio Monitors
ROLAND RD-700NX
Whether your performances focus strictly on piano or a world of sound via master MIDI control, the RD-700NX is a dream instrument for the stage.
HUGE RANGE IN STOCK AND ON SHOW! ALESIS / DYNAUDIO / BEHRINGER / MACKIE / M AUDIO/ TANNOY / ADAM / YAMAHA / KRK / FOSTEX / ATC / EVENT / ROLAND / GENELEC / FOCAL
MOOG VOYAGER XL
YAMAHA MX49 & MX61
Analogue & Digital Mixers FULL RANGE OF MACKIE MIXERS / ALLEN & HEATH / SOUNDCRAFT / TASCAM DM4800 / TASCAM DM3200 / NEW YAMAHA DIGITAL 01V96i, 02R96, DM1000 & DM2000, LS9, M7CL, N8, N12 / BEHRINGER / TOFT ATB24 WE CARRY A RANGE OF USB + FIREWIRE MIXERS THAT INTERFACE DIRECTLY TO YOUR COMPUTER.
YAMAHA HS80M
Digital Media Recorders ZOOM H1, H2N, H4N & Q2HD / MARANTZ PMDs / FOSTEX FR2LE / ROLAND R-05 / BOSS MICRO BR / YAMAHA POCKET TRACK C24 / TASCAM. MANY MORE, ALL AT NEW LOWER PRICES. COMPACT FLASH RANGE + MANY MORE.
YAMAHA MOX8
MACKIE DL1608
Studio Outboard Processors & Effects
ADAM F5
YAMAHA MGP16X WITH FREE
WE NOW STOCK THE BEST OF THE BEST ALESIS / ART / AVALON / BEHRINGER / DRAWMER / DBX / EMPERICAL LABS / FOCUSRITE / JO MEEK / KUSH / LEXICON / MANLEY / NEVE / PRESONUS / SMART RESEARCH / SSL / TL AUDIO / TC ELECTRONICS / UNIVERSAL AUDIO / TOFT / GRACE DESIGNS / DANGEROUS / RUPERT NEVE PORTICO / PLUS MANY MORE!
ROLAND R-26
ZOOM Q2HD
YAMAHA POCKET TRACK C24
RUPERT NEVE RND PORTICO II YAMAHA LS9/16 DIGITAL MIXER
YAMAHA 01V96i
AT 7
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
Best Of Audiotechnology: The App
Graphic Designer Leigh Ericksen leigh@alchemedia.com.au
Column: Mark Davie
Art Director Dominic Carey dominic@alchemedia.com.au Advertising Paul Cunningham paul@alchemedia.com.au Accounts Jaedd Asthana jaedd@alchemedia.com.au
The best apps always seem to come in lists: Top 10 best business apps, the 25 best children’s apps as curated by to The Wiggles, Top 5 best ‘best app’ apps. I even came across a Top 230 best apps that ‘you just must populate your iPad with’ — surprisingly, they didn’t list any that could jolt the performance of an overstrained iPad. And what self-respecting magazine doesn’t love a list? Top 10s, List of Best ‘such and such’ for doing ‘such and such’, Nostalgic Best Ofs — we basically wrote the ‘book’ on lists. So, here’s a list of the Top 7 best things about the AudioTechnology app coming soon to your tablet. Oh, did I forget to mention that we’re releasing an app? Numero Uno — It’s going to be monthly. Before you’re done drawing the last bit of sage advice out of the Last Word column, there’ll already be another issue waiting for you. Number Two — Monthly releases means we can get more up-to-date reviews to you. If you’ve been waiting for one of our top review talent to unearth the hidden gems in a new release, or give insight into whether you should pull the trigger on that advanced ‘birthday present’ you were eyeing off, wait no longer. Number Three — More things to poke a stick at. Traditionally, we’ve been sending you to the website to grab that WAV file of Stav croaking, or some other audio-visual companion to a story, but now we can insert extra content right into the story. Accompanying audio, videos of gear or interviews, plenty of bits and pieces to help you get more out of AudioTechnology.
AT 8
Number Four — More galleries of images. Things that we may not have been able to fit into the magazine before may just make the cut now we’ve got the space to play with. Number Five — Like every Australian Federal election in recent memory, the voting population is pretty evenly split. Whether by a war of attrition (like trying to decide between the current batch of pollie no-hopers) or it’s just that both parties are so good it’s hard to split them (… perhaps not), it seems the tablet world is split down the middle between iOS and Android. There’s a small entourage with open minds and Windows, but for the most part, it’s a battle of Apples and Androids. We will cater to both, and all shapes and sizes. Number Six — It won’t change your classic AudioTechnology experience. You’ll still be able to get the magazine delivered to your mailbox, or peruse it in your local newsagent, and sit it on your coffee table. We still love the paper magazine, for all its high resolution, full-scale beauty, bend-ability, and re-visitability, so we’re definitely not going to stop making it till you tell us to. Number Seven — It’s going to be either inordinately cheap, or entirely free. So you can have both versions. It’s a bold move, but we want you to get everything out of the app you can without it costing you more than you’ve already invested in us. It’s not here yet, it’s coming soon. But when it does arrive, if you love it like we know you will, be sure to add it to the top of your App ‘best of ’ list. Head to the AudioTechnology website, click on the ‘Receive the AT Newsletter’ button, register, and be the first to hear when the AT App drops.
Subscriptions Miriam Mulcahy mim@alchemedia.com.au Proofreading Cal Orr Regular Contributors Martin Walker Michael Stavrou 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
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 © 2013 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. 09/04/2013.
TOURING 6 PACK Clip microphones from DPA โ it doesnโ t get any easier t 5BLF UIF E WPUFTM JOTUSVNFOU NJDT PO UPVS BOE MFBWF UIF TUBOET BOE nJHIU DBTFT t 5IF LJU DPOTJTU PG )JHI 0VUQVU PS -PX PVUQVU NJDSPQIPOFT BOE 9-3 BEBQUFST :PV DIPPTF UIF NJD DMJQT ZPV OFFE 5IF NJDT DPNF XJUI FYUSB EVSBCMF iIFBWZ EVUZw DBCMFT t E WPUFTM NJDT GFBUVSF UIF CFTU TPVOE RVBMJUZ BOE TBWF CPUI UJNF BOE XFJHIU t %FMJWFSFE JO B DVTUPN EFTJHOFE %1" 1FMJTM $BTF t /FFE NPSF NJDT XF BMTP IBWF UIF MBSHFS 70 5063 1"$, PO PรณFS
WANT MORE INFO? CALL US TODAY! FREE PHONE 1 800 251 367 %JTUSJCVUFE JO "VTUSBMJB CZ "NCFS 5FDIOPMPHZ 1UZ -UE 6OJU %BZESFBN 4U 8BSSJFXPPE /48 '3&& 1)0/& TBMFT!BNCFSUFDI DPN BV
X
X
X
E
Q
B
N
J
D
S
P
Q
I
P
O
F
T
D
P
N
Introducing the POWERHOUSE 10 Slot 500-Series Rack Radial Engineering produces a selection of 500 series racks and modules to suit every need. Radial power racks deliver more power to ensure optimal performance and maximum headroom. Having the right host for your favourite analogue plug-ins makes all the difference.
Hear the Difference Distributed by Amber Technology - www.ambertech.com.au
AT 9
The best advice you can give a musician
Presonus Audio Box VSL
A series of compact, rackmountable USB 2.0 interfaces with integrated software that provides the dynamics processing and EQ of a StudioLive Series mixer.
Roland RD-700NX
Featuring an advanced SuperNatural Piano sound engine, PHA III Ivory Feel Keyboard with Escapement, a unique Sound Focus feature, and more!
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40
The Focusrite Saffire PRO 40 represents the new generation of Focusrite multi-channel FireWire audio interfaces.
Roland SH01
With its massive sound, hands-on ease, and affordable price, the GAIA SH-01 is a high-performance value with old-school charm.
Apogee Duet
Duet IOS is the best solution for capturing your music to your Mac or IOS 2-in x 4-out USB audio interface.
Mackie Onyx Blackjack Mackie Onyx Blackjack Premium 2x2 USB Recording Interface.
Nord Electro 4D
Korg Krome
Offering full-length, unlooped samples of every key for a spectacular piano sound, this new keyboard redefines your expectations for an instrument in this class.
The new Nord Electro 4 series feature everything from the award winning Electro 3 series, adding the acclaimed new Nord C2D tone wheel engine and 122 Rotary Speaker simulations.
ZOOM H2N
Eve SC205
Representing a new generation of portable recording, the H2n is Zoom’s most innovative handheld recorder to date.
Mackie MR5
Active Studio Monitor
2-Way 5” Active Monitor
ProTools 11
The most powerful digital audio workstation just got more powerful. With an all-new, ultra-efficient audio engine, 64-bit performance, and groundbreaking capabilities.
AKG C214
Legendary 1” Edge-Terminated large diaphragm microphone
Melbourne’s Biggest
INDEPENDENT music store AT 10
Samson C02
Pencil Condenser Microphones
StudioLive 32.4.2AI
The 32-channel, 14-aux PreSonus StudioLive 32.4.2AI starts with all the strengths of previous StudioLive models—and then pushes the technology to the next level.
When you shop at Mannys you don’t just get the gear, you get the knowledge and expertise of 20 years of experience as one of Australia’s most influential independent music retailers.
Manny’s 161-163 St Georges Road North Fitzroy, Victoria 3068 03 9486 8555 - sales@mannys.com.au
CONTENTS FLOOD & FIRE IN
THE STUDIO Recording Foals’ Holy Fire with Flood, Alan Moulder & ex-pat Catherine Marks.
31
FEATURES SPLITTING UP A ONE MAN BAND Gotye’s right-hand man Tim Shiel breaks down Gotye’s live show and his own.
48
38 44 54 57 60 72
Born To Run: The Boss Live Modern Classic: Four Seasons Recomposed Giving China A Sporting Chance Fresh Vue: With Ken Berger, Ex-EAW Founder Nexo STM: Summer Of Love? New Wave Of Modular
REGULARS 14 64 68 70 98
AKG D12VR
Rebirth of a classic low end microphone.
76
SUBSCRIBE & WIN! AN APOGEE QUARTET
SEE PAGE 97
What’s On Stav’s Word: EQ: When The Notes Get In The Way Mac Notes PC Audio Last Word: Paul Brincat
REVIEWS 28 80 84 88 90 94
Point Source Audio Headworn Mics Acoustic Technologies FR21A Speaker KV2 Audio Line Drivers Korg KingKorg Analogue Modelling Synth 3 Zigma CHI Microphone System Bose L1 Model 1S & B2 Bass AT 11
Going digital ain’t so bad...
AUDIOTECHNOLOGY: THE MONTHLY APP
Lower latency, cheaper and more in tune … ...but with all the soul of the original
COMING SOON
AT 12
The new AudioTechnology App is coming soon to iPad and Android tablets. All the latest news, reviews, features, columns and tutorials every month for next to nothing. Stay tuned for more news at audiotechnology.com.au or like us on Facebook.
FOCUS LESS ON YOUR GEAR, MORE ON YOUR MUSIC. NEW
BOSE® B2 BASS MODULE & L1® MODEL 1S SYSTEM Our new L1 Model 1S offers the portability and flexibility of the L1 family — with a new level of performance. With the Bose proprietary 12-speaker articulated line array, it’s big enough to fill the room with 180 degrees of clear, even sound. At the same time, it’s small enough to fit in your car and light enough to carry yourself. Plus, with no speaker stands and fewer connections, it’s easy enough to set up in minutes. You’ll focus less on your equipment and more on your performance. To learn more about Bose L1 systems,
L1.bose.com.au or call 1800 233 050 visit
L1 Model 1S with B2 bass $2,800 AT 13
REGULARS
WHAT’S ON All the latest from around the studio traps.
Lots of post production, sonic salads being tossed at Mixosmosis as in-house loony Nathan Johnson racks up episodes of Rush TV for ABC, Selling Houses Australia for Lifestyle Channel and Hidden in America for Discovery Channel. Meanwhile, Nathan is also moonlighting over in the production spaces upstairs at Trackdown Studios mixing the forthcoming series 3 of Celebrity Apprentice for Channel 9. New gear for the mic cupboard is a vintage 1970s coppercoiled Sennheiser MD421-U4 and a hard to find 1960s Sennheiser MD409-N. At Toyland Recording Studio in Northcote, Adam Calaitzis has spent a week mixing Sydonia’s (epic prog rock) second album and is preparing a re-release for IKON’s (goth rock) 1993 album Echoes of Silence including fix ups, new mixes and extra tracks. The Terraces (UK street punk) have also been in recording a new EP. Hospital Hill has been working around the clock preparing to launch its new record label. The first two releases due out are a solo album by Japanese noise artist Merzbow, and a duo album with Merzbow and Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi. Recording projects have included jazz sessions with the Elsen Price Quintet, classical concerts with Chronology Arts and Ampere Electric Guitar Quartet, and an epic session at Trackdown with composer Andrew BattRawden. Matt McGuigan also recently supported Tomahawk (Mike Patton) at the Metro, and he and Jake Craig have been writing and demoing with singer/songwriter Eleanor Witt — think Kate Bush meets Stevie Wonder. Next up: Filming and recording a new Sydney Chamber Opera production.
And here’s a note from long-time reader, Adrian Symes, who decided it was a good idea to set up some long-in-the-tooth gear… and it worked! Thanks for the pics Adrian, and good luck. Hi, I always enjoy reading AT magazine and I’ve got almost every issue back to number 1. Recently I dragged my old recording gear out of storage just to dust it off and plugged everything back in. Yes, I’m one of those tragics who can never part with anything. It all worked perfectly, including Cubase 1 and Pro 24, even the clunky S50. The Atari has never crashed. It’s all set up in my vintage caravan now. I thought you might be interested in the attached pics... Ah, the good old days.
At Deluxe Mastering Tony ‘Jack the Bear’ Mantz has been twiddling knobs on projects for Neighbourhood Youth, Lemonberry, Justin Bernasconi (produced by Jeff Lang), Bass Kleph, Whitley, Dave Havea, Western Synthetics, The Geta Mob, Black Aces, EC Twins, Daniel
WHAT’S HAPPENING? Got any news about the happenings in your studio or venue? Be sure to let us know at whatson@audiotechnology.com.au
AT 14
“Elton John played my piano in my lounge room!” Is Yamaha Music Australia’s Leon Blaher’s claim to fame. And it’s a big claim, because Sir Elton wasn’t even there. Instead, his fingers were beamed in by Yamaha’s RemoteLive technology direct to the ebony and ivory of a nine-foot Yamaha Disklavier grand piano sitting in his lounge room. It was quite a party trick for his 21
guests, with live video and vocal tracks playing on a big screen to complement Elton’s tinkling direct from Yamaha’s 125th Anniversary Concert that took place in the Hyperion Theatre at Disney’s California Adventure Park. “Watching the keys and pedals going up and down as Elton performed was truly magical. It’s an experience we will never forget,” said Leon.
str8.150 TURNTABLE
djc.4
DJ CONTROLLER
4 channel (Dual-Stereo) 16bit/48kHz audio interface allowing comprehensive connection to your sound system Included Virtual DJ LE soware allows for 4-deck control, video mixing, effects, with plug and play functionality 2 or 4 channel control with deck shi functionality and browser loading, giving direct access to the controls you need fast 95 assignable MIDI controllers (63 buttons, 5 faders,12 push encoders, 22 control dials, 2 touch-sensitive jog wheels) & shi function
st.150 TURNTABLE
Distributed in Australia by
www.gibsonami.com (03) 8696 4600 AT 15
Champagne, Shiva & The Hazards, and Atticus Jones, to name a few. Adam Dempsey has had a privileged condition he’s coined ‘Sontec thumb’ — a callus from EQ switching — while mastering new releases for Courtney Barnett (mixed by Dan Luscombe), Alister Turrill (produced by Lloyd Spiegel), Lucy Wise & The B’Gollies, The Stillsons, Sinead Beth, 23 AOA (mixed by Kent Len), Wild Oats, The Morrisons, Wiley Red Fox and the next huge Sounds of Melbourne compilation. Andrei ‘Ony’ Eremin has been tweaking tracks for Lower Spectrum, Swimming, DD Dumbo, Stockades, Second Hand Heart, Skyways Are Highways and Joel Driscoll. At Studios 301, The Voice has kicked off recording for Season 2, with Eric J on board as producer with his team, as well as 301’s Jono Baker and Simon Cohen, all settling nicely into Studio 2 and two production suites for the upcoming months. In Studio 1 in Sydney, Tim Whitten and Simon Todkill have been working with The Necks, Papa vs Pretty have been in recording, and a dream team of players put together by the Hartl Music have recorded a Ricky Ho composition. Tim Carr has been working with The Rockets, Vydamo and The April Maze, as well as welcoming a new baby boy to the world! Nick DiDia and Jordan Power have camped out at Byron Bay on and off for the last four months, putting the final touches on Karnivool’s new record. Over in Mastering, Leon Zervos has been working on songs for Anthony Callea, Kate Ceberano, Jessica Mauboy and Brian McFadden. Steve Smart has been working on the final touches of the next Empire of the Sun album plus Wolf and Cub, British India’s album Controller, EMA_AT94_HR.pdf
1
10/04/13
Music Recording Expedition
The Vines, 44th Sunset, and Penelope Austin’s Running from the TV show A Place To Call Home. Ben Feggans has been working on an upcoming album by Suburban Dark, remixes by Christian Vance and Andy Bull’s single Keep On Running, and Andrew Edgson has been working on Feeding Edgar’s album Journeys, The Paper Arcadia’s EP, Vydamo’s album and an EP for Fun Machine. Sameer Sengupta has been working on Alex Oram’s single Tomorrow, Harts’ EP Offtime, The Son’s single More Fire, remixes for Andy Bull, plus a seven-track EP for Melbourne songstress Chela produced by Ben McDonald and widely touted by Sameer as one of the most interesting pieces of independent electronic music he’s heard in a while. Bire Haust Hundt (formerly Beer House Dogs) has been at Wombat Rd Studios again to record the bed tracks for another six tracks, with further sessions planned for overdubbing vocals and mixing. Barrie Clissold says the studio hadn’t been taking bookings in recent weeks due to bushfire threats and even moved some equipment into safe storage, but is back up and running despite fires still burning nearby.
10:46 AM
Looking for something new and exciting? Have a sense of adventure? Interested in the music of other cultures? Greg Simmons, AudioTechnology’s founding editor, is planning his 10th group recording expedition and this time the focus is firmly on India. Scheduled for this coming December and January, the proposed journey travels the length and width of India to record music in studios, concert halls, temples, monasteries, villages and jungles. “Over the past five years I’ve built up an extensive network of contacts in India, and they never fail to deliver great musicians and great recording opportunities,” says Greg. “This time I’m bundling them all into one journey. Many of the recordings we’ll make on this expedition will be once-in-alifetime opportunities, and some will be of great cultural importance.” Since 2004, Greg has spent considerable time on location recording the music of other cultures. He’s also taken more than 60 people on recording expeditions through Nepal, India, Tibet and Thailand, so he’s no stranger to leading groups through these fascinating but challenging cultures and terrains. “My group recording expeditions combine a passion for music and recording, with a sense of adventure and a desire for escapism. They’re challenging enough to be highly rewarding but they’re not too difficult,” Greg says. “They’re also highly educational, not only from a recording point of view but also from a life point of view. Rather than taking snapshots through the window of a tourist bus, you’ll find yourself rubbing shoulders with some of the most fascinating people you’re ever likely to meet.” If you’re interested or want more information, contact Greg at simmosonic@gmail.com
"Going with EMA was one of the best career moves i made for my live shows! I should have done it much sooner, they are unbelievable!” - Mr Wilson, DJ
Custom Moulded and Generic Fit In-Ear Monitors
Ear Monitors Australia® 38 Hall Road, South Warrandyte VIC 3134 T: 03 9844 2524 www.earmonitorsaustralia.com
EMA Supporting Australian Touring Artists AUSTRALIA WIDE & INTL SERVICE
AT 16
From the company that has redefined the synthesizer market for 50 years come two instant classics: the new KingKORG and MS-20 Mini. KingKORG is the ultimate modeling performance synthesizer, capable of recreating classic sounds using models of sought-after synth filters. It’s also your secret weapon for sculpting your own new sounds, with intuitive knobs and displays that make sound design easy and fun. On the more retro side is the true analog MS-20 Mini featuring the circuitry from the legendary MS-20. Patch, tweak and twist your way into the next generation of music creation with Korg.
www.korg.com |
/korgaus |
@KorgAU AT 17
GENERAL NEWS A PLUS FOR AUDIO-TECHNICA $249 | www.audio-technica.com
Audio-Technica has tweaked its AT2020USB microphone to create the AT2020USB+, a cardioid condenser microphone with USB digital output. Designed for digitally capturing music or any acoustic audio source, the AT2020USB+ offers studio-quality articulation and intelligibility perfect for home studio or field recording, podcasting and voiceover use. A built-in headphone jack with volume control provides for direct monitoring in real
time with no latency using a builtin high-output internal headphone amplifier. The AT2020USB+ also offers a mix control that blends the microphone’s signal with audio prerecorded on the connected computer. The unit’s cardioid pickup pattern delivers excellent off-axis rejection, while its 16-bit, 44.1/28k A/D converter, ensuring articulate sound reproduction. Technical Audio Group: (02) 9519 0900 or info@tag.com.au
GLOBAL MUSIC SALES… UP! Here’s some good news from the IFPI (or the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). You may not have heard of the IFPI, however it represents the recording industry worldwide with some 1400 members in 66 countries and affiliated industry associations in 56 countries. So the news? It comes from the Digital Music Report 2013 (note the term ‘digital’) and announces that global recorded music revenues are up 0.3 per cent, boosted by downloads, subscription and other channels. You may not think that 0.3 percent is worth breaking out the champagne for. But it’s a big figure, because it’s positive — the first the music industry has seen since 1999. And in Australia it’s 4.03% in the black, the first upward trend since 2009.
It’s also being regarded as a strong indication the war against piracy is being won mainly by promoting streaming services and simplifying MP3 purchases and downloads. For example, the number of music consumers between the ages 16-24 who use a licensed digital service has jumped by 81%. For the record, the IFPI report also lists the best sellers for 2012. Topping the list of global singles sales is Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe with 12.5 million units sold, pipping our own Wally — sorry, Gotye — by a mere 700,000. Global album sales went to Adele for her 21 record with 8.3 million sales. The report is at www.ifpi.org/content/section_ resources/dmr2013.html and at the very bottom is a link to an Australia-specific report.
The recession-busting Wally de Backer
German synth stalwart Waldorf is fighting the proliferation of apps and iDevices for making your mobile sounds, telling us there is a trend to mini-hardware and the tactile experience of real knobs and switches such as you’ll find on its Rocket synthesiser. Despite its dainty 185mm x 185mm size the Waldorf Rocket promises to pack a big analogue punch. It can be used stand-alone or hooked up via USB and MIDI to a DAW. Audio Chocolate: (03) 9813 5877 or www.audiochocolate.com.au
AT 18
French band Phoenix stumbled over an eBay bargain — the original Harrison 4032 solid-state recording console used to make Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Feeling sure it would make all the difference to their new album, Phoenix decided to buy it. Apparently, according to one forum thread, the desk was originally priced some time back at $500k, others say $200k. The true value, without the MJ connection, could be less than half what it finally sold for, $17,000. Hopefully it works.
There is still a lot to be said for a simple device that encourages songwriting on the run and idea-sketching without your creative flow being interrupted by an email from your mum. The DP-006 ($289) has six channels (two mono and two stereo/mono), while the Tascam DP-008EX ($449) eight-channel PocketStudio offers more per-channel controls and built-in input and master effects. Tascam build both units with the same user-interface it’s been perfecting for years — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
Røde Microphones has announced Colin Hill will be retiring from the company after more than 22 years as International Sales Manager. Colin was instrumental in establishing the company’s presence in almost every major international market and in the process became a well-known and popular figure among the audio industry. Sadly, Colin was diagnosed with lung cancer last year and needs time to allow for treatment. You can still contact Colin and wish him all the best, as does everyone here at AudioTechnology, at colin.hill@rodemic.com
AT 19
BEHRINGER TAKES COMMAND $255 | www.behringer.com
The Xenyx Control1USB combines a high-resolution USB Audio Interface with switching and control functions, making it suitable as a ‘command centre’ for broadcast or recording studios. A centrally-located illuminated volume knob provides fast, ‘high-precision’ level adjustments, while the rear panel offers USB connectivity and I/O including three separate monitor outputs; a computer/DAW stereo output; two-track A and B stereo outs; L/R studio outs; one stereo out to connect
external headphone amplifiers; four independent stereo inputs, including one that doubles as a phono input with high-end RIAA preamp and a computer/ DAW mix input — all with individual level controls/switches. In fact, the front (or top really) panel appears quite simple, but have a look at the rear connections and you’ll see the Control1USB offers a lot of possibilities. Galactic Music: (08) 9204 7555 or www.galacticmusic.com.au
AWS GETS CHOP
$POA | www.solid-state-logic.com Solid State Logic has taken out the chainsaw and lopped off a bunch of channels to present a new addition to its AWS series consoles. Originally launched in 2004, the AWS series combined SSL’s classic SuperAnalogue console technology with comprehensive DAW control hardware in a single work surface. Following the original AWS948 console and the AWS924, SSL has now added the AWS916 – no prizes for guessing the console’s configuration. The AWS916 has been designed to bring the features and benefits of the AWS range to a much wider audience with the reduced channel count more
MORE WAYS TO MONITOR
$3499 (apiece SC407) | www.eve-audio.com Eve Audio, out of Berlin, is on the up ’n’ up, putting together a rather desirable full line of monitoring systems. Near the top of the Eve tree are its SC4 four-ways. Both models — the SC407 and SC408 ($5249 apiece) — feature a powerful amp array, with one amplifier per driver (hence the ‘four-way’ we’re guessing). The larger woofers duplicate all frequencies up to a certain crossover frequency. The mid-range woofer picks up from there. This also means all four-way speakers are symmetrical, as the woofers do not serve different frequency bands, but essentially duplicating the bass frequencies with utmost precision. Eve Audio talk about AT 20
‘incredible bass reproduction’, a very linear response, and plenty of power to shake up your main studio control room. The grey plate in the middle of the speaker not only houses the midrange woofer and ribbon tweeter, but it can also be rotated so you can place the speaker vertically or horizontally. If you need some more oomph then Eve Audio is unleashing the TS107 ($699) seveninch ‘Thunder Storm’ sub — the smallest sub in the range, which extends down to the 12-inch TS112. Electric Factory: (03) 9474 1000 or sales@elfa.com.au
suitable for private and smaller commercial studios. Otherwise, the AWS916 offers identical functionality to the AWS924 with the only difference being that the frame is loaded with 16 channels instead of 24. With an eye to the future, the AWS is expandable to full AWS924 specifications by the addition of an eight-channel upgrade package available separately – which explains the bare area on the left-hand side of the console. You’re going to have to install the extra eight channels just to stop people putting coffee cups on it. Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or www.ambertech.com.au
Graphite & Carbon USb MiDi ControllerS Samson’s line of controllers offer stunning displays, intuitive controls with smooth semi-weighted keys that invite you to start playing. With options for every level of performance, production & portability, these controllers betray an elegant sophistication at superb value for money.
Š 2013 Samson. Apple, MacBook Pro and iPad mini are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. | www.elfa.com.au Distributed by Electric Factory Pty Ltd 188 Plenty Road Preston Victoria 3072 Telephone: 03 9474 1000 elfa.com.au E & EO 2013 AT 21
HIGH PRIORITY $995 | www.pearl.se
Pearl Priority is a large membrane condenser microphone with a fixed cardioid pick-up pattern and is Pearl Microphone’s big tilt at the mainstream — bringing its rectangular membrane capsules to a wider market. The capsule has an unusually large membrane for a single membrane capsule which contributes to its sonic capabilities. The
frequency response of the Priority is just as flat as other Pearl mics. It’s a versatile mic and can be used for any acoustic instrument or vocals. However, Priority’s capsule has been deliberately tuned and the frequency curve shows a slight presence peak (2-3dB) around 5kHz. Professional Audio Technology: (02) 9476 1272 or www.proaudiotechnology.com.au
A SUPER NEW TRUCK Professional Audio Technology has supplied Global Television with key audio equipment for Global’s sophisticated high definition ‘super truck’, the newly-launched HD9. Designed and built in Australia to the exacting standards of Global’s broadcast engineering services team, HD9 boasts a new level of integration and user features. Equipped with the latest Lawo mc2 56 MkII audio console and Riedel communications system, this combination is a first for Global’s mobile fleet. Professional Audio Technology supplied a wide range of equipment including the Lawo console
with HD core, the truck’s VSM control system, various DirectOut products, hybrids from Comrex, secondary monitors from Focal and even smaller items such as fibre converters from Microsens. At 13.2m long and 52sqm of internal space when fully expanded, HD9 can accommodate up to 22 operators and 20 cameras. The HD super truck will be deployed for diverse outside broadcast events. Of course, the really important question is; can you watch the footy with it? Professional Audio Technology: (02) 9476 1272 or sales@proaudiotechnology.com.au
THE MAGIC OF TELEVISION TC Electronic’s DB6 is a TV and mobile TV transmission processor able to handle everything concerning loudness in one simple process — loudness metering at the input stage, up or down conversion, loudness processing, online lip-sync delay, loudness metering at the output stage and logging of all relevant loudness statistics – all regardless of codec and delivery platform. Efficiency in space and productivity is important particularly in OB vans and with this in mind the DB6 platform is housed in a single rack
AT 22
space unit that allows processing of up to three simultaneous SD/HD/3G streams, providing what TC call a “highly competitive cost per stream”. The DB6 features two 5.1 capable processing engines per SDI stream, each capable of delivering to any platform and any codec. The LoudnessWizard algorithm takes care of loudness correction, up-conversion from stereo to surround formats and down-conversion from surround to stereo. Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or www.ambertech.com.au
JK SERIES DI BOXES & AUDIO TOOLS
THE ULTIMATE DI TECHNOLOGY • HIGHER HEADROOM & LOWER OUTPUT IMPEDANCE THAN ANY OTHER DI ON THE MARKET
JKA
JK1
SINGLE CHANNEL ACOUSTIC DI BOX with RESONANCE NOTCH FILTER
STEREO DI BOX
JK2
SINGLE CHANNEL DI BOX
Crystal clear, distortion-free audio Hand-built in Czech Republic Full transformer balancing Phantom power optimised True line-driver capability Heavy-duty steel enclosures
JKP
SINGLE CHANNEL PASSIVE DI BOX and LINE SPLITTER
JKT
5-year Warranty
TONE GENERATOR
Named after company founder and chief engineer, George ‘Jiri’ Krampera - KV2 Audio are pleased to announce the new... JK Series of DI Boxes and Audio Tools The JK Series deliver crystal clear, distortion-free audio from the hottest sources - without a hint of distortion over greater distance. KV2 has optimised the use of phantom power witha switching power supply on the JK Series to enable a huge 20 volts of peak power on the internal rails. This allows the JK Series to deliver 50 Ohms on the XLR output giving true line driver capability, delivering greater audio integrity and the ability to send high-quality signal four times the distance of its nearest competitor. for information:
The JK Series are hand-built in the Czech Republic, utilising the highest-quality components and transformers. Full transformer balancing ensures the highest possible signal integrity without interference from RF or ground loops. The heavy-duty steel enclosure provides maximum protection for the electronics and further shielding against external interference. KV2 stands by the build-quality of these units with a full 5-year warranty.
(02) 4388 4152 info@kv2audio.com.au
AT 23
SOFTWARE NEWS MINIMOOG ON YOUR iPAD US$21.99 | www.arturia.com
Arturia has released the iMini app, an ‘authentic’ recreation of the all-time classic Minimoog monosynth. iMini is based on the TAE (True Analogue Emulation) synthesis technology found in Arturia’s Mini V soft synth, modelling the distinctive tones and analogue nuances of the legendary ’70s-vintage Minimoog Model D monosynth. That hasn’t stopped Arturia adding a few 21st century tweaks. The Main mode screen is an almost-faithful rendering of the Minimoog Model D front panel with additional chorus and delay level controls, as well as a poly switch for playing polyphonically (impossible in 1970, kids). A gearwheel icon above
REASON TURNS 7
$399 | www.propellerheads.se Propellerhead has announced a new major version of its Reason music software. Interestingly, Propellerhead admits that with over 90 third-party Rack Extensions expanding Reason’s rack of instruments and effects already available – essentially doing that part of the work for them – it has focused attention on new creative and inspirational improvements for the mixer, the rack and the sequencer. With Reason 7, users can integrate all their instruments into Reason with MIDI out,
Native Instruments’s annual Komplete package is available in two flavours, Komplete 9 and Komplete 9 Ultimate. The Ultimate version comes with just about every expansion pack that NI has, including all the Studio Drummer series and the Reverb Classics, Premium Tube and Solid Mix series of plug-ins. It also means getting a couple of esoteric expansion packs you’ll never use, but hey – it’s supposed to be complete, not perfect. RRP in Australia will be A$699 and A$1299 respectively. CMI Music & Audio (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
automatic audio slicing and audio quantize, and convert their recordings into REX loops. For mixing, Propellerhead is introducing a spectrum analyser with visual EQ controls, group and parallel mix channels, and many other workflow improvements. It’s also going to be easier to import audio, while the new Audiomatic Retro Transformer effect unit adds a ‘futuristic-vintage’ sound to any tracks – we might have to give that one a bit of thought. Electric Factory: (03) 9474 1000 or www.elfa.com.au
To celebrate the release of the Audiobus-capable version of the CMI App, Peter Vogel Instruments is running the ‘CMI on the Bus’ competition. PVI is awarding a $1000 cash prize for the most creative track made using the CMI app connected with other apps through Audiobus (A Tasty Pixel’s new inter-app audio router system). To enter, create a video and upload it to YouTube. There are a few conditions that you’ll need to familiarise yourself with, including the use of footage of you with the app on a real bus. Yup. Go to the PVI site for more. Entries must be submitted by 30th April, 2013. Peter Vogel Instruments: www.petervogelsinstruments.com.au
AT 24
the keyboard gives you Glide, Decay, Legato and Scroll switches, plus a Scale function. If you’re a preset kind of person, the iMini has hundreds organised into sound designer or category menus. A Performance page accesses an arpeggiator with two latch modes and two assignable XY pads for creating patterns and real-time morphing sounds. The FX page provides in-depth controls for the chorus and delay. For every iMini sold, Arturia will make a donation to The Bob Moog Foundation, an educational initiative which teaches children the science of sound through the magic of music.
Virtual instrument and plug-in developer Rob Papen has released two limitededition synth plug-in bundles, the EDM (electronic dance music, in case you didn’t know) Synth Bundle and Urban Synth Bundle, each comprising three Rob Papen virtual instruments. Limited quantities of the EDM Synth Bundle and Urban Synth Bundle serial downloads are available to purchase online or can be bought online directly from Rob Papen. Rob Papen: www.robpapen.com
Here’s a good way to alarm the neighbours. Sample Logic’s Assault is a suite of over 850 ‘bone-crushing’ instruments and multis that transform sound design into cinematic percussive instruments. In creating Assault, Sample Logic teamed up with sound effect mastermind Rick Allen to record a collection of real-world material ranging from rifles, flame throwers, hand guns, jets (let’s hope OHS were close to hand) and an arsenal of traditional percussion. Sample Logic: www.samplelogic.com
SENNHEISER’S WIRELESS MASTERPIECE VOCAL SWEETENER
$99 (Elements) | www.izotope.com It’s Izotope’s turn to bring out a plug-in promising to turn any half-decent vocal into ear-candy brilliance all within the same effect – no pesky effects chains required. Nectar can improve things quickly and without too much effort by first loading one of Nectar’s Style presets in genres like Rock, Pop, Folk, Soul, and Voice-Over and Dialogue. From there, you can customise your sound by adjusting special per-Style controls like Presence, Drive, and Grit. It can even fix pitch problems on the run, has a de-esser and reduces room noise in your recording. Nectar does
all this courtesy of 10 powerful vocal processors working hard behind the scenes. Nectar Elements offers all the above, which you’d probably think is enough. However the full version of Nectar gives you 11 effects overall, including parallel compression, a doubler, reverb and delay. For both versions there are extra Style expansion packs you can download for free that have presets created by the likes of Tony Maserati and Stefan Skarbek, and other ‘problemsolving’ presets.
DIGITAL 9000
Musiclab: (07) 3332 8188 or www.musiclab.com.au
Fully Digital Rock Solid RF Pure Audio No Companding No Data Compression Sennheiser Reliability PROTOOLS BOUNCES UP TO 11 $769 | www.avid.com
ProTools has turned 11 with Avid announcing that the biggest tweak to the DAW is under the hood, rather than any bunch of new plug-ins and flashing lights to get excited about — although new metering options in PT11 HD might qualify as the latter. A whole new 64-bit audio engine, called the Avid Audio Engine (AAE) is promising a turbo-boost to your PT sessions without touching your hardware at all. Aside from 64-bit, what will probably get most people behind PT11 and the AAE quickly is, finally, an offline bounce
facility — hurray! Caffeine and alcohol consumption in studios around the world will plummet with PT11 introducing a faster-than-realtime mixdown up to 150 times normal speed. You can also now view HD video directly on a PT11 timeline thanks to the inclusion of Media Composer’s Avid Video Engine. ProTools 11 won’t be available until ‘later in Q2’ of 2013. Prices in Oz will be $769 for a full version or $329 for an upgrade. Cross-grade prices are available, too.
Designed and Built in Germany A pinnacle of innovation and a future proof investment.
Freecall 1800 648 628 sales@syntec.com.au www.sennheiser.com.au
Sennheiser Aust & NZ
twitter.com/ sennheiserAU_NZ
Avid: 1300 734 454 or www.avid.com AT 25
LIVE NEWS SHURE GLX-D COMES CLEAN www.shure.com
Shure’s new GLX-D Wireless microphone series is worth a closer look at – and doing a bit of battery-life maths. It’s a digital system, thus the ‘D’, which operates in the 2.4GHz ISM band (industrial, scientific and medical) rather than the UHF TV broadcast band. This provides a worldwide compatibility (no Digital Dividend gotchas), a good thing, but the ISM band is notoriously jammed with competing Bluetooth gadgets and the like. The Shure GLX-D avoids interference issues by concurrently using three redundant frequencies and if any of those three detects interference, an Auto mode will instantly change to a clean frequency – a
kind of triple insurance against drop-outs. The GLX-D uses rechargeable lithium-ion batteries promising 16 hours of operation and 10,000 hours working life. Depending on where you shop, that could be around $4000 of AAA batteries you don’t buy, albeit over a long period of time – it’s not $4k you’ll find in your wallet tomorrow. Lastly, the GLX-D has an all-metal transmitter and foot pedal receiver units specifically for guitarists, and Shure says that being digital means the guitar’s tone isn’t messed with at all. Cool! Well, you can leave that job up to the guitarist, at least. Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au
GET THE STAGEBUG $99 | www.radialeng.com
Radial Engineering has graced our pages lately with more specialised boxes such as the Gold Digger Microphone Selector and the Cherry Picker Preamp Selector. Don’t be tricked, Radial’s other claim to fame is as a manufacturer of boutique guitar effects such as the Tonebone series which offers full-blown, classic circuitry including real vacuum tubes to recreate genuine overdrive and distortion sounds without an actual amplifier head. In other words, they’re not your bog-standard stompbox. Radial has put its expertise into two compact DI boxes, the StageBug SB-1 active phantom powered DI and the
ATC Loudspeakers has selected CDA Pro Audio as the exclusive distributor to the Australian market. It’s a good fit given Sydney-based CDA Professional Audio already has Prism Sound, Masalec, Sadie and Cedar Audio. CDA Professional Audio: (02) 9330 1750 or www.cda-proaudio.com
StageBug SB-2 Passive for Bass and Keyboards. The Stagebug SB1 is designed primarily for acoustic guitars and Radial purposely made it small enough to fit inside the string compartment of a guitar case. The emphasis is on keeping an ultra-clean, high quality signal. The Stagebug SB-2 is a similar size and meant for bass or keyboards. Here the transformer electronics are promising a natural compression and vintage sound. Radial has still managed to squeeze the usual pads and thru connectors, plus a phaseswitch for connecting to vintage consoles. Amber Technology: 1800 251 367 or www.ambertech.com.au
The Dante Virtual Soundcard (DVS) allows a PC/Mac to connect to a Dante audio network by using the Ethernet port on the computer to communicate with a network of other Dante-enabled based devices. The single seat license which normally sells for $149.99 is now discounted 80% and can be purchased for $29.99 for a limited time. Audinate: www.audinate.com
Concert AV has been expanding fast, investing in around $4m-worth of audio, lighting, vision, trussing etc. More recently Concert AV raised its audio stocks with the purchase of a HK Audio Cohedra system. Aside from the features that Cohedra offered, there is a lot of HK Audio already being used in the corporate AV market and since Concert AV has a significant sub-hire network, any HK Audio gear in the inventory not out on the road with Joe won’t be languishing in the new factory. CMI Music & Audio: (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
AT 26
The Hills SVL Group has been appointed as Australian distributor for French line source array pioneer, L-Acoustics. The timing of the deal will make things interesting with new L-Acoustics products emerging, including ARCS Wide, ARCS Focus and ARCS II. Not every regional rental company will be buying a full-blown K1 rig, but Hills sees plenty of potential for L-Acoustics’ products in the high-end installation sector especially. Hills SVL: (02) 96471411 acoustics@hillssvl.com.au
AT 27
AUSTRALIA’S BEST SOUNDING ROOM? The words ‘Event Centre’ hardly scream ‘rock ’n’ roll’, but The Star in Sydney has, in all likelihood just unleashed the best sounding amplified concert venue in Australia. There are two principal reasons for this: the PA and the acoustics. Unlike most big performance spaces (the Event Centre will cater to 4000 in Concert mode) this room is built from the ground up to have high SPLs pumped into it. And The Star had decided from the onset it was going to have the best PA money can buy — and rumoured to spend $1m in the process. I hasten to add that AT isn’t saying the d&b J Series system hanging in the Event Centre is ‘the world’s best PA’, but Technical Manager Ben Whatmore is yet to hear any complaints from visiting engineers or tour managers — Farnham kicked things off earlier in the year, followed by Garbage. It’s a blue-ribbon purchase that says “we take sound seriously”. The main PA packs 12 J cabs aside (10 x J8 and 2 x J12s), with 4 x JSubs flown and six of the cardioid 21-inch Infrasubs on the floor, all powered by D12 amps/processors. There’s a whole phalanx of additional E and Q series boxes that complement the main rig. Ben Whatmore: “We had Garbage sitting at 115dB at the mixing console and the amps were only ticking over at
POINT SOURCE AUDIO CO7 EARWORN MIC $344 | www.point-sourceaudio.com
Shure and Sennheiser should be all over this, but for some reason they’re not. The first names in headset mics are still DPA and, to a lesser degree, Countryman. Musical theatre led the way, with its all-singing, all-dancing antics, a micro capsule taped onto the cheekbone would allow the performer freedom without sacrificing audio quality. The likes of DPA cottoned onto the fact its miniature mics were being used in this manner and designed products that would attach securely to the ear. Broadcasters followed. Including the likes of the Channel 9 cricket commentary team. When Heals or Tubs are showing you the finer points of a stumping or a forward defence, they’ll be sporting a headworn mic. Anyway, if you’re a broadcast engineer or an audio pro in theatre you’re unlikely to need convincing of the benefits of headworn mics. But there are still plenty of regular clip-on lavaliers out there and most should probably be swapped out for a headworn alternative. I recall a couple of years back switching our church from a lav to a headworn and the difference was night and day. The hours spent trying to coax a few more dB out of presenters, and riding the fader as they looked up and looked down, or the regular accidental thumping of the capsule — a real chore. Meanwhile, the headworn, in our case a Da-Cappo set, had gain for days and sounded incredibly natural in comparison to the lavalier that had been hacked to pieces with remedial EQ. It was like handing a lumberjack a chainsaw. AT 28
I also recall being a little reticent to introduce the headworn, fearing a ‘can I take your order please’ backlash. Not so, just about everyone I’ve dealt with has been perfectly cool with a low-profile headworn mic. Chances are they’ve seen Anthony Robbins or a TED lecturer using one, so it must all be okay, right? These Point Source Audio microphones performed very well. There’s plenty of gain, they’re comfortable to wear, and easy to adjust (thanks to a bendy boom) to fit on any noggin. These mics fit over one ear. Anthony Warlow may insist on a model that hangs off both ears for extra security, but most presenters will be perfectly fine with the single ear approach. These Point Source Audio mics are so lightweight you hardly notice them on (other Point Source Audio models hook over both ears). The mics I had for review used a mini XLR output, most commonly seen on Shure wireless system, but there are models for all the other flavours, such as Sennheiser, Audio-Technica and AKG. In fact, if you head to the Point Source Audio site you’ll find a whole host of variations, including waterproof versions. I wouldn’t hesitate to use these Point Source Audio mics for any presentation. And if you’re still stuck in the world of chasing your lavalier tail, then I suggest you look into it. It’ll be the best $300-odd you’ve spent. — CH. Madison Technologies: 1800 007 780 or www.madisontech.com.au
around 30 percent. There’s mountains of headroom.” Knowing the exact spec of the PA early in the piece made it easier for Simon Lappas, from audio visual and electroacoustic consultants Audio Systems Logic (ASL). It allowed the EASE modelling to be more precise and the room treatments to be tailored to the PA’s output. Simon Lappas. “With the system installed, flat, un-tuned, straight out of the box, it sounded great; less than 2% deviation from the prediction. In a building this size that’s very, very close. From our perspective the Star Event Centre is like sitting in a listening room with a pair of high-end hi-fi loudspeakers, it’s that good. The d&b J-Series has a very smooth top end, good mid-bass performance, and a very tight low end. The combined effect with the room is a space exhibiting a high degree of musicality and a venue for concert touring that exceeds anything else available in Australia.” AT was yet to hear the rig go full throttle as we went to press (the Australian Girls’ Choir doesn’t really count!), but we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Sydney gig listings. — CH. National Audio Systems (d&b): 1800 441 440 or www.nationalaudio.com.au
AT 29
AT 30
FEATURE
FLOOD & FIRE IN
THE STUDIO Flood and Alan Moulder teamed up for the first time in years to produce Foals’ Holy Fire, and turning the dynamic duo into a trio was Aussie engineer Catherine Marks. The sessions turned Assault & Battery Studios into a hands-on experimental lab, and everyone had their hands in.
Story: Paul Tingen
AT 31
“ ”
To have the opinions of a woman coming in all the time was invaluable
Exactly how British rock band Foals managed to go from almost complete unknowns in Australia to topping the ARIA chart earlier this year with their third album, Holy Fire, is a bit of a mystery. The many enthusiastic local reviews provide a clue, but particularly notable is the credit many reviewers give to the production, writing things like, “the album sounds a million bucks,” “despite the wide-ranging sounds, tones and influences on this album, Holy Fire hangs together perfectly, thanks in large part to great production,” and, “if this album doesn’t sound amazing at full volume, tearing down the street at night…” It’s rare for mainstream reviewers to comment so extensively on the production, but one listen to Holy Fire immediately reveals that the band’s angst-ridden vocals, and ultra-tightly played rock arrangements are stirringly augmented into a wild cocktail with all manner of loops, synth sounds, and other sonic landscaping, making it an immensely impressive-sounding record. Responsible for the production aspect of Holy Fire were legendary British mixers and producers Flood and Alan Moulder. The former has worked with U2, Nine Inch Nails, Nick Cave, and PJ Harvey, while the latter is known for his achievements with Depeche Mode, Erasure, Foo Fighters, and Led Zeppelin (he mixed the recent Celebration Day DVD/CD). A crucial role in the way Holy Fire sounds was also played by Australian Catherine J Marks, who engineered the entire album, and who has in her relatively short career already built up a respectable set of credits, including Futureheads, Goldfrapp, PJ Harvey, and Placebo. Marks gained many of her earlier credits in working with Moulder and/or Flood, as the two mentored her (see sidebar for more details about her), so it’s easy to see how she ended up working on the Foals project. AUSSIE CONNECTIONS
Holy Fire’s Australian connection is further strengthened by the fact the band spent the beginning of 2011 working in Sydney with Jono Ma, guitarist and keyboardist of Sydney band Lost Valentinos and his own project Jagwa Ma. The band reportedly went back home with stacks of loops, samples and grooves that supplied a “foundation to the new record,” according to Foals keyboardist Edwin Congreave. Foals must have felt they needed the help of some world-renowned, dyed-in-the-wool professionals to take things further, because they once again turned to Alan Moulder, who had mixed their second album, Total Life Forever (2010), with assistance from Marks. Flood and Marks take up the rest of the story of the making of Holy Fire. On the phone from Los Angeles, Flood recounted… “I’ve long had Foals on my radar, so when Alan asked me whether I fancied doing the production together, it seemed like a really good idea. The two of us do projects together once every five or six years, and it’s great because it pushes both of us. The band had been sending us song ideas over the summer, and during the last months of 2011 and early 2012, Alan and I repeatedly went over to their rehearsal studio in Oxford to work on these. The idea of this pre-production period was to put all ideas on the table, no matter whether it was just a riff or a fully-formed song, and give them the right feel and groove, arrangements, structures, key, tempo and so on. Some songs fell by the wayside and others came to the fore during this process, and we ended up with about 15 strong song ideas. There was a laptop with Logic and Ableton in the room, and three microphones that were pointed roughly in the direction of the band, just to document what they were doing. For Alan and I it was important to get a sense of how they played together as a band, find out how everyone felt about the songs, and establish a chemistry between everyone. Before walking into a studio that costs a lot of money, it’s important to make sure the chemistry works!” ASSAULT & BATTERY
The actual recordings for Holy Fire took place in Flood and Moulder’s studio, beginning March 2012. Since 2008 the producers have been running a studio complex in north-west London, Assault & Battery, with Moulder predominantly residing in the downstairs mix room, Studio 1, and Flood taking care of the upstairs Studio 2. Recordings for Holy Fire took place in Studio 2, which is one of the UK’s prime tracking facilities and sports a 77m2 live room with two sizeable booths of an additional 30m2 each, and a 36m2 control room with a Neve VR60 60-channel console with flying faders. AT 32
The live rooms are full of all manner of musical instruments, including synths, keyboards, and amplifiers, aimed at making it a very creative place for musicians. With the downstairs studio an ideal place for programming, mixing and additional recording, Moulder and Flood had everything in place to successfully conduct the Foals album sessions, but they still felt they could do with some help. “Although Alan and I both engineer, we wanted to have someone who could do all the engineering for us, so we didn’t have to think about that, and could focus fully on the production side,” explained Flood. “We decided on Catherine, because she’s an amazing engineer with great ideas, and the other thing is that she’s a woman and could balance the nine-man strong male energy in a room with five band members, two producers, and two assistants. She listens to things and approaches things from a female point of view, and the way she will balance a song, or just her take on the way a certain version of a track feels compared to another one, is just different. To have the opinions of a woman coming in all the time was invaluable. I mean, we’re making music for men and women, so you want to take all viewpoints into account. Catherine also recorded most of Yannis’ [Philippakis] vocals. Because he will interact differently with a woman than with a man, this of course affected his performance, as it would do for every singer.” DUPING YOUNG FOALS
Marks: “We began recording on March 12th, and took a break for 10 days in April, and then came back, and worked until proper mixing began in August. Prior to recording we spent time thinking about how to arrange the layout of the live room and where to position each member of the band. This was crucial as we wanted to be able to not only have the ability to record the band in the same room, but also to have the potential for separation should we need it. Each band member had their own area with their own workstation and pedals and amps, and we also had a small PA in the room through which we played back a kick drum, or a bass, or a loop, or whatever. It took about three days to set up the room, and we decorated it with tropical plants and rugs and there was lots of lighting. It looked amazing, like a jungle. During the first two weeks of recording we told the boys that we were only demoing the tracks, and were not really focussing on getting actual takes, and this meant that they were a lot more relaxed while they played together. There was no red-light fear, so the energy was more natural. The band has mentioned they felt they had been ‘hoodwinked’ by Flood and Moulder — but they knew what was going on.” Flood: “It wasn’t a deliberate decision to effectively dupe the band, but Alan and I were very conscious they had had difficult experiences during recording in the past, and so we thought
it’d be really good if they didn’t feel the pressure of the red light being on. Setting up took quite a long time, two to three days, so once everything is in place and mic’ed up, you pretty much record everything anyway. But we suggested to them to do some demos of songs that were already pretty well-formed, which meant that there was none of the freaking out and getting overly tense that often happens when the red light goes on and can really affect performances. After a couple of weeks they had laid down most of three or four tracks, and after that they were so comfortable with the process it didn’t matter that we were now formally going for so-called ‘proper masters’— it was just an extension of what we had already done.” HANDS IN, HANDS ON
Duping the band into thinking that only demos are recorded will only work so many times, but it does reflect a principle that every good engineer is aware of, which is to be ready to record before the artist or band expects it. In this case, getting the feel factor right was especially important, because, despite the fact Holy Fire sounds awash with loops and post-production textures, both Flood and Marks stressed that the band played a large proportion of the album together live in the studio. Flood elaborated, “I’d say that the backing tracks for the majority of the songs on the album were played live, and whenever they played together we aimed to keep all the backing tracks, not just the drums, or the drums and bass. For most of the time we also tried to keep the guitars and the keyboards. One thing that bands always ask in the studio is why they never sound the way they do live, and this tends to be because the process is so different. In this case we really wanted to get the energy of the band playing live and start layering and crafting after that, looking at parts that maybe don’t quite work, adding overdubs, and adding vocals. This meant that there were often many different rooms with people working, Alan might be off downstairs working on a mix or on guitars, I might be in another room doing sonic treatments, vocals were going on all the time, other people might be working on other songs, Edwin would be doing stuff to tracks and was at times almost remixing them and we’d then bring what he’d done back into the main session.” This seemingly manic approach of all-hands working all the time, was facilitated by Marks’ split setup: “I had the Neve VR60 desk set up with the mic channels on the left, and monitoring on the right, so Flood or Alan could be over on the right if they needed to do things while recording. I set up everything knowing that when working with Flood and Alan things can change at any moment. I had to be prepared for 100 different scenarios. We had two different drum kits set up, one with its own little drum house, surrounded by baffles, and we hung a leopard print rug over the top and put some flashing lights in there. We also had a drum kit set up in AT 33
Say you have a well-paying creative job at a respectable architecture firm in sunny Australia, with a team of people working for you, and a bright future ahead of you. Surely, the last thing on your mind would be to leave that job, move to grey and grim London and start a job that involves sitting in the back of the room for most of the time, not speak unless spoken to, and being paid a pittance? For most people it’s a no-brainer — that is, ‘No way!’ — and yet it’s exactly what Catherine J Marks did. Growing up in the Camberwell area of Melbourne, she learned to play classical piano and had dreams of being a pop singer, but chose to study architecture at Melbourne University. As part of her degree Marks was required to do work experience, and decided to do it in Dublin, Ireland, because her mother is Irish. One night, at a Nick Cave concert in Dublin, she met a certain Mark Ellis, completely unaware that the man was a famous producer, better known as Flood. “We started chatting and became friends. I knew he was a producer, but still didn’t quite understand how significant his role in the music industry was, and at my going away dinner I jokingly suggested that he should produce me. He said, ‘No, but if you want to work in the music industry, I suggest you go back and finish your degree, and we’ll see what we can do.’ Flood recalls, “She didn’t really want to finish her degree, but she did and after that came over to London, in 2005, where I employed her at the studio I had at the time in Kilburn (north-west London). When Alan and I took over Assault & Battery in 2008, she moved there with us.” Marks must have had some second thoughts about stomping off abroad to an uncertain future, because after completing a Masters in Architecture she did work for a year at architecture firm H2o in Melbourne. But eventually she followed what she regards as her true calling. “I didn’t have any aspirations anymore to be on stage, but I really wanted to become an engineer and a producer, and the more people said I couldn’t do it, the more I wanted to prove that I could. But when I came over to London, I really had to change my personality, learning to be invisible and being a support. I was quite a bubbly person, and learned to rein that in, and I also started to dress very conservatively, almost like a boy, and also cut my hear very short, all because I thought it’d be easier for me to fit in.” DRESSING DOWN It seems crazy that Marks would have had to repress her femininity to fit in, but demonstrates the conundrums faced by women trying to fit into an almost completely male-dominated studio world. “It’s a really sad situation,” commented Flood. “Because I think that when albums are made with a balance of male/female energies, you make better records. I really think that music in general could take a massive leap forwards if women were more involved in the process of recording and producing it. I don’t know why there are so few women working in studios. Sometimes I wonder whether it is because the process of getting there is so male. It’s quite difficult for women to break into the studio world, and then to be part of the process and be comfortable being a woman at the same time. Catherine has managed that.” Marks concurred: “Studio life is definitely all-encompassing and can mean that other aspects of your life have to fall by the wayside. You have to be prepared to make sacrifices. Days can be very long and weekends non-existent, especially when you’re first starting out. It also requires a certain amount of maturity and tolerance. I didn’t start until I was 25 and I now know I would not have coped at 18. I think it’s not really about whether you are a male or female in the studio, everyone has something different to contribute, but more about whether you are prepared for the commitment. Flood and Alan have always told me that it’s an asset to be a female engineer, and I learned to embrace that. Initially I felt that I had to work harder than my peers, but these days I get asked to do sessions where people feel that the artist needs more time and attention, and I guess I’m more tolerant of that. So it’s totally not a problem now.” MIX EXPANSION Since 2010 Marks has been working as a freelancer, and she has also been expanding her work into mixing and producing. Her credits over the last few years include Editors, Ian Brown, Placebo, Shakira, PJ Harvey, Depeche Mode, Death Cab For Cutie, Killers, and many more. To accommodate low-budget projects, she’s even gone as far as to mix some projects on her laptop. She explains, “The projects I mixed on my laptop were Duke Spirit, We The People, and Matthew Mayfield. I did this on my MacBook Pro, ProTools 9 and just the standard laptop soundcard, and listened back via my Sony MDR7506 headphones and M-Audio AV40 or Genelec desktop speakers. It’s not something I particularly enjoy doing, although I am really proud of what can be achieved with these limitations, it’s really out of necessity when there’s no budget. I much prefer working on a desk, and with proper monitors, my favourites being Unity Audio The Rock monitors, M-Audio DSM2s, I also have some baby Genelecs, and I love Alan’s ATC SCM20s.” In recent years, Marks has also finally managed to make another dream come true, which is that she now regularly comes back home to her native country to work with Australian acts. “That actually took ages to happen,” said Marks. “Initially I thought that I’d go to the UK and learn everything there is to know, and then I’d go back home and work with Australian artists. And I did keep coming back and having meetings, but something wasn’t connecting. But the moment my career in the UK took off, I got interest from Australia, and I now regularly go back. It means I have the best of both worlds. I do regard London as my home now, though. And yes, I have long hair now. I’m fully back to being me!”
AT 34
MAKING HER MARK
a separate booth, which we called the dull kit, or the close kit. Jack [Bevan], the drummer, had headphones on, through which we usually played a click, and the others also had headphones on if they wanted them. There were amplifiers in the main live room, as well as in the booths, so we had the option of separation if we wanted it. But the idea was that spill would be part of the live takes. I don’t think we ever had problems with it. It just added energy to the songs.”
he could play around with for a slightly duller sound. We split the vocals so they were also going through an effects pedal which he could control. The effects were monitored via a Maestro amplifier that we had placed in front of him. It is something that looks like it’s from the ’50s or ’60s, but Flood says he bought it at K-Mart. We put an AEA R84 ribbon mic on the Maestro to get that crunchy, dirty vocal sound. And we used a U47, the R84 or an SM58 on backing vocals. To be honest, it was whatever was there and ready to go!”
CALLING MY NUMBER
OUT OF THE BOX BOXES
My Number, the catchy second single off Holy Fire, combines influences from Rick Jameslike eighties disco, Talking Heads, electro, and 21st century alternative rock, if such a thing is possible. Marks highlighted a few of the pieces of kit she used during the session: “I used a lot of outboard to record the drums, including Alan’s new Helios mic pres on the kick, snare and overheads, as well as Trident mic pres for the floor and rack toms, a Summit, and the Neve 1073, amongst other things. But everything could change very quickly. Assault & Battery contains so much amazing gear that Flood and Alan have amassed over years and years, it’s hard not to want to try everything! I felt like Indiana Jones going into the archives sometimes when looking for gear, because there are so many foreign pieces of kit from so long ago. That was really exciting. On the kick I often used the Beyerdynamic Opus 65 microphone, which is another one of Alan’s, a Neumann U47 at the hole and a Yamaha NS10 speaker mic outside, and I also often used a C-Ducer contact mic on the rim. The snare often had Shure SM57s top and bottom, a Neumann KM184 on the hi-hats, overheads were a mix of Neumann M7, Coles 4038, and perhaps a couple of Shure SM57 microphones, and the toms had Sennheiser MD421s on them. “One of the most important ingredients for the sound of the album became a Shure SM58 hanging from the ceiling, which was initially used for foldback. We squashed it to pieces so we could hear what the guys were saying, and in the end we used it constantly in the mix. It sounded great, pumping and glueing everything together. We also had another four room microphones scattered around that were used most of the time, and a Neumann KU100 binaural dummy head. On the bass I used a DI and a Neumann U47FET on the cabinet, both going through the Chandler TG1 mic pre, the DI through an Empirical Labs Distressor, and the amp channel through an Inward Connections Vac-Rac TSL compressor. The guitars also had a DI, and I had an SM57 and a Sontronics Delta ribbon mic on the cabinets. I had all the microphones, apart from the drums, coming up on the Neve desk, whether they first went through a mic pre or not, and used the desk as a gain control for the levels that went into ProTools. In addition there were Yannis’ vocals, which were recorded with a Shure SM7B, going through a Neve 1073 mic pre, and then a Distressor. The SM7B has a pop shield that
Marks’s recording setup for Holy Fire is one factor in the album’s gorgeous, multi-layered, and full-on sound, but both she and Flood emphasised that the mainstay of Holy Fire’s imposing sound came from getting the sounds right at source level, and using a plethora of out-of-the-box, erm, boxes. Flood: “The ideas for adding textures came during the time at Assault & Battery. Foals are not a straight rock band, and they were really into experimenting with sound. These explorations were for the most part exclusively done out of the box. I hate using the word ‘organic’, but it was a fluid process, involving the musicians at every stage. They would play together, and then they’d build loops upon loops, mostly using sequencers and pedals, often from Line 6, and they’d use synthesisers to create all sorts of textures. I have a Roland System 700 in Studio 2, which I use mainly as a giant effects unit, and there were times when we decided to shove everything through the System 700. Jimmy [Smith, guitarist] also really loved the Sequential Circuits Pro 1, and we used quite a bit of the old Roland Vocoder. Edwin did quite a lot of stuff with soft synths in Ableton, which we then processed outside of the box, or tried to mimic with the MiniMoog or pedals, things like that. Then somebody might go off and do a lot of looping and editing in another room, and we might then reconvene and play it as a complete band, taking the information from a loop, but not using that loop in the track. For Alan and I this process was a huge bonus because it meant that we could explore new options, and not do what everybody else does.” “This experimental aspect was really exciting for me,” said Marks. “We’d record the band then have a break, and Alan and I would be in the control room and say, ‘let’s process something, what should we try?’ We’d spot something in the room and say, ‘OK, let’s try this!’ Whether it was processing a kit through the Korg MS20 or Time Mod, or running a guitar part through the Eventide H910. It meant we were responding to what had just been recorded. I think the boys had saved some loops from the Jono Ma sessions, but a lot of the stuff was created and manipulated in A&B. I’d never thought about the record containing many loops, because I just considered them as other instruments. It was an element the band responded to. Everybody was constantly working on and coming up with things for the band to respond to and many of the songs had two or three versions before we settled on a final shape. I recorded the loops direct into ProTools as well as putting them through amplifiers and the PA and miking them. I’d go into the archives and get
Flood’s natural light-flooded home studio setup, where Catherine recorded Yannis’ vocals
PEDALS & SYNTHS North Electrics Russian Big Muff Clone Big Muff Electro-Harmonix POG Line 6 delay Boss DD-3 delay Boss RV-5 reverb Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe Boss Space Echo pedal MXR Micro Amp Strymon Blue Sky reverb pedal Boss RV-3 reverb Electro-Harmonix Nano Holy Grail Klon Centaur Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Empress Super Delay Vintage Echoplex Providence Sonic Drive Providence Stampede Overdrive Providence Velvet Comp Roland Juno 106 Fender Rhodes Sequential Circuits Pro 1 Moog Little Phatty Solina Mini Moog Roland System 700 Oberheim Xpander Arp 2600 Arp Sequencer EMS VCS3 (The Putney) Roland Super Jupiter
AT 35
boxes out, like Alan’s new Marshall Time Modulator or the Voodoo-Vibe by Roger Mayer, which sounds the way it looks: chunky and dirty. We also used the Eventide H910 Harmoniser a lot. Flood would often go off to another room and work on loops and textures — we called it ‘wormholing’ — where he’d spend hours programming his Roland System 700 or the ARP 2600 modular synth and would come up with something that made the track infinitely better. Alan tends to be more on the board, and would spent a lot of time tweaking sounds and balances that improved things and provided new inspiration. The band was incredibly motivated and each one of them was always doing something. This was probably the first session I have worked on where there was no sitting around!” Flood: “Alan’s strength lies in his ability to refine and craft the raw energy of the backing tracks, where we often joke that I am quite happy to leave all the microphones open, use monitors, have the PA to 11 and everything bleeding into everything else. But he hates that kind of thing! He likes to be really precise about how it sounds. So we often have a labour division where I can set up the live room the way I want it, while he looks after how it is recorded, in this case together with Catherine, so he can get the level of precision he wants. Generally speaking I was in the live room guiding the band with performances while Alan was in the control room, and once we had enough backing tracks, he’d go and do some trial mixing downstairs to try to get inside of the sounds and work out what parts were and weren’t working. Sometimes we’d swap, with him going upstairs and recording overdubs and me doing some mixing and refining. Meanwhile Catherine was holding the ship steady.” STRINGING ALONG
In addition to all these extraordinarily industrioussounding goings-on, there was also a last-minute decision to add some real strings to some of the tracks. Marks has the low-down: “They were also recorded at A&B2. The band was still around, so they had to clear the room. We had about 12 players in the room — two double basses, two cellos, four violas and four violins — and used so many microphones to record them, it was ridiculous. I felt that we were using too many, and I knew which ones we’d actually eventually use, but it was an exercise in making sure nothing went wrong and that we captured everything, because a string session is typically quite expensive and you have a relatively short time to record the players. All close mics were Neumanns, with U47s on the basses, M93s on the cellos, and M7s on the violas and violins, and for room microphones I used Coles 4038, Neumann M55K, and AEA R84 ribbon microphones — pretty much every mic that we had. The string players were incredible, and they played great parts, but once they were in the studio, everyone got very excited about making them do things that didn’t necessarily sound like a traditional string section, such as making the strings sound like bumble bees or seagulls. Hugh Brunt had done the string arrangements, and Yannis was also quite vocal about trying these different sounds. “We did rough mixes throughout the entire recording process, usually at the end of the week, whoever was at the desk would get all the tracks up, and Alan and I would AT 36
balance them partly in ProTools and partly on the Neve desk, so everybody could make decisions on what they were happy with. But we were trying not to be too precious about it. As the sessions progressed, more and more balancing took place inside the box. Once we had done the bulk of the recordings, Alan moved downstairs to do rough mixes, so the band could focus on recording vocals. I actually recorded the vocals in three rooms; I started upstairs in A&B2, and then moved to a side room in Studio 1, and then during the very final weeks both studios were booked, so we moved to Flood’s house for vocal recordings. We spent a good month just recording vocals. Yannis likes to craft his lyrics, and for him it’s more about how they sound than how they look on paper, so he had to sing them to be sure that they worked. It was quite fascinating.” FLUID FLOOD & MOULDER
Flood: “Some songs took a long time to come together. Inhaler, for example, was one of the songs that they had worked on in Australia. It had been around forever, and just wasn’t happening. Then one afternoon we were trying out some different ideas, and everything suddenly slotted into place and it worked. We tracked it straightaway and Alan went downstairs and mixed it. He didn’t do a final mix, it was just a matter of making sure it had the right feel. In this process, mixing was almost like another instrument. There are very few overdubs on Inhaler, in contrast to My Number, which was one of the songs that was the most fully-formed. They played it to us in their rehearsal space during pre-production, and it was immediately obvious to Alan and I that it’s an amazing song. But a song like that can run a fine line between being a bit lightweight and having real integrity and depth about it. Alan and I knew that it would be the hardest song to get right, and we tried loads of different ways of doing it. We spent a lot of attention in the detail and really pushed that song to its maximum, so now that every time that song is played, everybody goes: ‘This is great!’ “Proper mixing for Holy Fire began in the last two weeks of August,” explained Marks. “And then we took a month off and finished mixing in October.” The final mixes took place at Assault & Battery Studio 1, on a 72-channel SSL SL4072 G Series with G+ computer (the desk in fact has 24 E-series channels and 44 G-series channels), with Moulder manning it for most of the time. Flood: “Yeah, the album was predominantly mixed by Alan, but there were a couple of songs where he said, ‘I can’t get inside of this, can you have a go?’ Things were very fluid, as they had been during the entire recording process. We were trying things all the time, and sometimes it felt as if we were going round in circles, but as long as everyone was on top of things, we always ended up in a better place.” Marks: “We had to be prepared that with all this experimentation not everything was going to work. But ultimately we were all on board with whatever needed to be done, because we all had the same goal: To make one hell of a record!”
Better Sound is Elemental VUE Audiotechnik is advancing loudspeaker design, utilizing ultimate performance
cutting edge technologies to achieve dramatic results. A
powerful example is VUE’s flagship h-Class, which deploys a revolutionary compression driver with pure TruextentŽ beryllium at its core. Beryllium outperforms both aluminum and titanium thanks to an unparalleled stiffness-to-mass ratio, which dramatically reduces mechanical deformation (breakup), and shifts resonant frequencies outside the audible range. These unique qualities allow the h-Class to deliver exceptional high frequency definition at much higher SPLs than more conventional designs.
Visit www.vueaudio.com to find out how you can hear the difference.
Distributed in Australia by Amber Technology Unit 1, 2 Daydream St Warriewood NSW 2102 FREE PHONE 1 800 251 367 sales@ambertech.com.au
VUE audiotechnik AT 37
FEATURE
Photo: Marty Philbey AT 38
Bruce Springsteen rocks the house in a huge three-hour show. Story: Christopher Holder
There are 192 potential songs on the set list and tonight Bruce Springsteen picks one they haven’t rehearsed. The Springsteen touring ‘caravan’ has plenty of multi-decade veterans, and that includes a good chunk of the audience. And they know to bring placards with song requests, because Bruce is quite likely to pick you out and, if inspired, bash out an obscure B-side you made your own. And so it was the night AT checked in. Bruce pulled the placard from the audience found a key on his electric, “No, that sounds too high… let’s try this… Okay, E Street Band, we’re in the key of C.” “They give us a set list on the night but that’s only a guide. Bruce will call a song he picks out from the audience and you have a couple of seconds to find the right snapshot on the console. I have an ‘Oh Shit!’ snapshot for when he picks out something we haven’t rehearsed!” FOH Engineer, John Cooper, has been touring with Bruce for nearly 12 years, which he figures makes him a relative newcomer. Wrecking Ball is a big complicated show that powers on for over three hours. At 55, ‘Coop’ is at the top of his game and clearly enjoys the challenge. With backing singers, a brass section, percussionist, fiddle player, a Hammond B3 along with the drums/ bass/guitars nucleus, the stage is crowded and so are the Avid Profile’s input panels. “It really sharpens your chops up to be involved in something like this,” observes Coop. “It’s three hours of very intense concentration. You’ve got to watch the band. This is not a show where you can stare at the sound board.” WRECKING BALL: IN FULL SWING
Wrecking Ball, as the name suggests, is a loud rock ’n’ roll show. The stage volume is punishingly loud. Along with all the foldback, there are two arrays of Vertec for sidefill. Bruce’s two Marshall amps, in themselves, are scary-loud. Similarly, the JPJ L-Acoustics K1 rig earns its keep and Coop isn’t shy with the subs. And when all 18 musos are in full flight it’s what I can only describe as a glorious, unholy racket. It’s exhilarating, but it’s not politely pristine. Coop: My aim is to deliver it the way it’s been played. There’s
not a lot of magic in what I do, I’m just trying to reproduce the performances through a narrow window — it’s a lot of audio info to squeeze out through that PA. AT: So how do you achieve a measure of separation in the mix? Coop: It’s about how to tonally separate and spatially separate everything. There’s just too much information for everything to be heard all at once, so you have to spread it out over the stereo spectrum and spread it out over the tonal spectrum. You’ve got to be very cautious with it. There’s only a finite amount of real estate there and a seemingly infinite number of input sources. So you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do to make the most of the dynamics for that particular song. And it’s not always the same from song to song, in fact, it can be quite different. We might go from one song where everyone on stage is playing full throttle to the next song where it’s really quite stripped down. It’s about finding the important elements when they’re needed. AT: Are we talking about savage EQ song-to-song, for each element to occupy a niche? Coop: It’s very rarely done with EQ, more often it’s done with volume balance and spatial balance. I leave the 12 o’clock (centre) position open for only four things in my mix: Bruce’s vocal, bass guitar, kick and snare. Everything else has a ‘clock’ position. I don’t pan hard (mostly between ‘10:30’ and ‘1:30’) and the panning generally adheres to the player’s position on stage. I’ll also do a lot of stereo simulation. Which means I’ll take a mono source like the horns or backing vocals, I’ll put those through a stereo delay and bring them back with time offsets, left and right, to create a stereo perception of that group of instruments which pushes them ‘around the clock’. AT: While always keeping Bruce’s vocals riding high? Coop: Bruce is always telling a story, so you’ve got to maintain the vocal intelligibility regardless of the war that might be going on underneath musically. VOCALS: RIGHT OUT FRONT
Bruce Springsteen is 62. He’s been on the road off and on for 40 years or more. At this point in his career many would cut AT 39
TOM & STEVE Guitarist Tom Morello has deputised for E-Street stalwart, Stevie van Zandt, because Stevie has chosen to ‘freeze his ass off in Norway’ — referring to a tough-guy role he’s playing for Norwegian telly. Tom (from Rage Against the Machine) has collaborated with Springsteen before but given how integral Stevie is to the E Street Band sound, it was always going to be a shock to the system. Or was it? Coop: Their styles are dramatically different and so are their musical perspectives. Tom is more up front and Stevie is a ‘tasty lick’-type player. I love them both for different reasons. AT: How did you accommodate such a radical change in sound and approach into the mix? Coop: I wish I could say I’d made a bunch of profound changes to the tone and to the mix but I didn’t change a damn thing! I didn’t even change the EQ or compression. We mic Tom’s amp with a Shure SM57 and with Stevie I use a vintage Sennheiser MD409. That’s the only difference. The 409 is slightly warmer sounding. Stevie generally plays a Strat through Vox amps — a clean sound and the 409 just warms that up a little. Tom plays a 50W Marshall head with a 4 x 12 cabinet and his sound is a little more upfront so I put a 57 on there. They both work fine, they’re kinda interchangeable, but that’s the only change. I swear to you, I never touched an EQ or a compressor.
FOH Engineer, John Cooper at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne.
You’ve got to maintain the vocal intelligibility regardless of the war that might be going on underneath musically
Coop: A good deal of the time he’s in the audience. My approach is to, first and foremost, set his vocal mic up for stability — about 12 to 16dB above his operating level. Bruce’s vocal is routed independently of the stereo bus, so there’s independent control of the vocal through the matrices that drive the PA. Then on a daily basis I ring his vocal mic out, like a monitor engineer would, so he can be on a platform 30m in front of the PA and we won’t have feedback issues. He can be in the aisles singing. He can be on his back crowd surfing and singing and we don’t have feedback issues.
the K1 switch because he liked what he heard in previous tours. But when invited to express a preference for XYZ over ABC there’s a barely concealed impatience. The gear is secondary. “It’s all about the music, and being emotionally involved with the music.”
The PA packs a lot of horsepower, it’s a loud show, and the vocal mic is a deadly item in those circumstances. After all that work is done, you still have to be very active in the way you mix the vocal. You have to turn things up and down, off and on, religiously — you have to stay on top of it. AT: Including when he’s back on stage and not in the crowd?
AUDIO CREW FOH Engineer: John Cooper Monitor Engineers: Troy Milner, Monty Carlo System Engineer: Etienne Lapré, John ‘Boo’ Bruey Assistant Engineers: Ray Tittle, Rob Zuchowski JPJ Techs: Adam Smith, Karl Sullivan
AT 40
“
the man some slack. You might even allow him a retirement-fund Vegas residency. But Bruce is still doing it the ‘hard way’. He’s the bandleader, the star, and the spiritual guide of a large group of people. And talk about leading from the front! He pushes his uncomplaining compadres through three-plus gruelling hours where Bruce gives his absolute all — the bloke even crowd surfs. Bruce is a total pro. Still, from an engineer’s point of view he’s hard to keep a handle on. The guys on monitors even have a screen dedicated to ‘Bruce Cam’, for when he makes one of his loping runs into the crowd.
Coop: The stage is very loud and I’m riding that fader hard. It’s not like some acts where you can leave the fader and rely on muting/unmuting the vocal, you have to throttle it on and off because he may phrase things differently night to night. So when he’s on stage, I have to watch him like a hawk, because he’s always moving. Most nights I’ll spend no time looking at the sound board. If he’s downstage centre with an acoustic guitar, then that’s one of my more leisurely moments — I don’t have to work the fader quite as much. But if he’s playing electric and he’s singing and he steps away from the vocal mic, his guitar amps are right behind him. That mic has to be ducked out immediately. TEAM OVER GEAR
Coop will politely and cogently run you through what he’s using and why. He sings the praises of the Avid Profile’s reliability, for example, and made
”
Coop: Don’t get me wrong, technology does help. The first tour I mixed for Bruce I used a Midas XL4 and racks of outboard electronics. I would be totally comfortable doing that today, but it just takes up a lot more space and many more guys to set it up, and lift it in and out. It’s just as effective, only a little more mechanical. Meanwhile, the automation allows me to have a starting point for each song. It keeps me from spending the last 30 seconds of Song A worrying about Song B and the first 30 seconds of Song B making sure the preparations were correct. In other words, it keeps me mixing more, where previously I had to manually turn things on and off. I’ve been a proponent of automated consoles since the mid ’90s. I was one of the first brave souls to take the Amek Recall out on the road and I had great success with it. It was a life changing moment — I wasn’t spending all that time prepping one song while mixing another. I was mixing the whole time; I was engaged
Troy Milner: We use a lot of trusty standards on stage, like Shure SM57s and 58s — we know they’ll work. Something different are the Heil PR28s on toms. Max, the drummer, doesn’t like big mics but wants a big mic sound. So credit to Heil there, they’re very consistent in the monitors, and they have a very tight pattern — you don’t hear a lot of cymbal bleed. We’re very happy with them. Max likes a clean look so we position the ‘overheads’ under the cymbals — ‘underheads’ we call them… Shure KSM137s.
MONITORS: 140 CHANNELS & COUNTING The Wrecking Ball stage is big and demanding. So much so that monitor duties are split between two boards and two engineers positioned either side of the stage. Monty Carlo takes care of the all-important Bruce mix, along with the musos stage left, while Troy Milner controls the drum mix, the horns and others on his side of the stage. Both engineers use a Digico SD7. Troy Milner: The SD7 has been great. I think I’m sitting on 140 channels at the moment and 60 outputs for all the effects, mixes, wedges and ears. There are plenty of zones on stage. For example, Bruce will head back towards the horn section and want to hear more of the horn section when he’s there. So I have a wedge in that zone just for horn solos, so he can stand there and see and hear them, right in his face. That I/O count includes 70 channels of wireless (Shure mics/Sennheiser IEM). Which is a lot.
That said, I double-assign many of the inputs. For example, I do a set of inputs of drums for the drummer and a set for the wedges and ears and everyone else. I can tailor the sound for the drummer without it affecting everyone else. That eats up more channels. Previously, we used PM1Ds, but we outgrew them. And you don’t want to be the guy who has to say, ‘ we can’t do that’. With the SD7 we can, ‘we got it’. Still, it’s a lot to manage. The drummer (Max Weinberg) plays with two drum subs — two double-18 subs — and then he’s on a hardwired ears system. It’s pretty loud. I’m using headphone amps, that I keep in my rack, for his ear mix. It’s a little silly to run a speaker cable 100 feet away from me, but I know these amps are working when I’m looking at them — there’s some visual security. I lose a bit of signal driving it 100 feet but it’s still plenty loud. Max likes a warm
analogue, grainy sound, and everything’s so pristine with the digital stuff, so I’ll use some Waves SSL Channel Strip plug-ins for him — that’s from my Soundgrid server. I mix the drummer manually on VCAs, just like I would out front for the audience. Everyone else is programmed in but at the top of every song I go through every mix as fast as I can, just to make sure everything is in the right spot — touch things up to compensate for the room. All the ears are in stereo. We had a couple of people trying the one-ear approach but it just doesn’t work. I always try and steer people away from that. Two ears is always better than one.
AT 41
musically with the band until the last moment of that song and the first moment of the next. And that for me is the single biggest benefit of today’s consoles. THE BOSS IN THE HOUSE
Bruce Springsteen commands respect. According to Coop he’s always educating; always being the consummate band leader. If he’s offering advice to one member of the band then it behoves all involved to pay attention — The Boss isn’t verbose, but it pays to hang on every word. And the Springsteen professionalism is contagious. “He’s made me such a better audio engineer because he always comes to play with his A game. He’ll never let up. He’ll come in today, he’ll flip open his notebook and he’ll have a note about something during the last show or he’ll have a note about a new song he wants to work up, or he’ll want to try this or try that.” In other words, if The Boss cares, then maybe you should as well. Coop: I go back every single day, and I’ll brush over every song from the mix. What I hear through the sound system on the night Wrecking Ball was a great hitout for JPJ’s L-Acoustics K1 PA. Apart from the racks ’n’ stacks, it was a Solotech is obviously the most gig — with Solotech equipment and crew. Solotech hails important thing that from Canada and fairly recently bought out fellow rental company Audio Analysts. System engineer Etienne Lapré I do but at a later date joined the tour early last year and took us through the they might take a system. video cut of that night Etienne Lapré: You’re looking at a typical arena setup with the main hangs comprising 10 x K1s with because it looks great, 6 x dV-DOSC down, flown with K1-SB subs. There’s a and then it lands in centre hang with 12 x dV-DOSC. Then there are four rear hangs of 12 x dV-DOSC. We have eight cardioid subs my court, and if the on the floor. I use the LA Network Management for the audio isn’t so great processing — L-Acoustics has improved that side of things so much — and the Meyer Galileo for matrixing, as then they can’t use it’s quick to use. The K1 is very revealing, you cannot make it. So it’s up to me to a mistake and get away with it. If your finger slips, you’ll hear it 100 times over through the system. Compare that make sure the mix to a Milo or a J or an i5, you can make a mistake. K1? Nup! translates to all the There’s nowhere to hide. It’s a great PA for this music. It brings what Coops is trying to recreate. different destinations. But you can’t really focus on those ‘derivatives’ in the moment. The only way to do that is to go back and listen back to 60 seconds of every song that I’m recording in ProTools. AT: What are you listening for? Coop: I’m focussing on the mix balance: where it should be and where it is; see how it ebbs and flows with regards to the dynamics of the band on the night; how that emotion reads and turns into audio. I carefully pay attention to that on a song-by-song basis. K1 REVEALS ALL
Solotech out of Canada has the Springsteen account. Coop got the chance to use L-Acoustics K1 while mixing Sheryl Crow and liked what he heard. So come time for preparations for Wrecking Ball the call was made to Solotech. JPJ has the account in Australia, supplying ‘stacks ’n’ racks’ for the tour. The arena configuration is pseudo in-the-round: mostly shooting up the room but with those behind the stage trading off eye contact for an up-close experience. Solotech system engineer, Etienne Lapré, likes the approach because the AT 42
PA isn’t exciting the whole room symmetrically. Four hangs of K1 with dV-DOSC underhangs do most of the work, and tag teams with the flown K1-SB subs. Etienne assures me that low-end isn’t a problem, “The whole bowl is covered.” Groundstacked subs provide additional support for the floor area in front of the stage. The sides and back of stage are covered by four hangs of dV-DOSC. Coop: For me, the goal is consistency. In production rehearsals you have the sound system and that’s the static element in the rehearsal period. Everything else is changing as the band work on their parts and you refine your mix. It’s being built. Once rehearsals are over, that role is reversed. Now the music is fully formed: the parts are finalised, the tone is set and the balance leaving the console
becomes more constant. Now the dynamic element is the environment — the room. If I’m achieving consistency from the mixing side and we have the technology and know-how to set up the sound system so it’s reproducing in a uniform manner day to day, then we’re firing on all cylinders — we’re working perfectly. And that’s the luxury we have on this tour — a spectacular sound system managed by real professionals. The canvas is white when I start the show. It’s not yellow. Whatever colour I lay on the canvas will be there. If it’s shit brown then that’s what it is. And if it’s a beautiful sky blue, then that’s what you’ll hear.
amplify your future S A E
I N S T I T U T E
ENROLNOW APPLICATIONS
FOR
M AY
CLOSING
SOON
CERTIFICATE, DIPLOMA & DEGREE COURSES IN: AUDIO PRODUCTION FILM PRODUCTION ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCTION LIVE SOUND PRODUCTION
Fast-track your career with 2-year accelerated degrees. Enrolling now for May and Sept 2013. FEE-HELP available.
FIND OUT MORE AT: sae.edu.au OR CALL 1800 SAE EDU
Brisbane | Byron Bay | Sydney
| Melbourne | Adelaide | Perth AT 43
FEATURE
MODERN CLASSIC Max Richter recomposed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the note level, breathing life back into the venerated hold music with a dab of electronic influence. Story: Mark Davie
AT 44
Hold music, elevators, shopping centres, and hotel lobbies have all spoilt Vivaldi’s Four Seasons; cursing it to a fate of playing on repeat as the world’s never-ending background concerto. Like a viral hit, it’s been overplayed, but for centuries, not days. Memorable, yes, but remarkable? Well, it’s lost its lustre for many. Enter Max Richter. The wunderkind composer who was asked — as part of the Deutsche Grammophon Recomposed series where current composers tinker with past work — to rework Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. While his predecessors in the series have been taking more of a remix path using recordings out of the Deutsche Grammophon vault, Richter went straight to the note level and recomposed from the score. “Composers have always worked with pre-existing material to some extent,” explained Richter. “As composers, we’re music fans first. All music fans like to talk about other music, composers do that by working with other music. Vivaldi did it, Bach recomposed Vivaldi, and Handel borrowed stuff from everywhere. Everyone does it all the time. And equally, within rock and pop music culture there’s a continuous recycling going on. It’s just one of the things that music does. This is my first step into that process... in an upfront way, anyway.” To some, it’s instant sacrilege. To others, it’s a
stroke of genius. Either way, taking on such a definitive work is definitely bold. But helping out were celebrated violinist Daniel Hope, playing a Stradivarius, German conductor André de Ridder, Berlin’s Konzerthaus Chamber Orchestra and Classic Sound audio engineer Neil Hutchinson. At first, both Daniel and André were skeptical about aligning themselves with the project. Daniel, for one, had played the concerto so many times he was doubtful anyone could do anything interesting with it. Initially, Richter had his doubts too. “I did it because I had this strange dual relationship with the Vivaldi,” said Richter. “In that I could see it was wonderful, and I kind of loved it, but I’d also grown tired of hearing it all the time — on TV, at the cinema, on hold with call centres, it’s just around. So I wanted to try and reclaim it, for me.” ANALOGOUS SAMPLING
Richter’s method was to go back to the note level, recomposing the piece sitting at a piano with a copy of Four Seasons and a notation pad, trying to write a new route through the material. “Normally when I’m making something I start with a blank sheet of paper, but in this case there was already a fantastic score. So it was about figuring out how to represent that material in a new way that made sense to me
now. That was very tricky actually, and not easy to find my way into it. Some of the material I left completely as the original version because it made perfect sense as it was. “It was like trying to solve a puzzle. Sometimes I would pull a little phrase out and make something new with it. Like sampling, but on paper. Loop the material, cut and paste it, and transpose it. All those things that we’re used to doing in the computer, I was just doing it on the page with notes. In a way, it was like analogue sampling.” The live recording sessions happened at B Sharp in Berlin, and were a mix of classic orchestral recording techniques with a touch of electronic influence used in a very sympathetic way. In fact, it happens right off the bat. The opening, Spring 0, is a dubby cloud Richter assembled on the computer from excerpts of the orchestral recording. And the computer re-enters the fray at the close of Summer 3, providing a foreboding, pulsing ambient tail end to the season. Perhaps the most blatant electronic influence was that Richter used a Moog synthesiser to enhance the bottom end. While obvious in its influence, the outcome was subtle. “I did quite a lot of work to the low end of the recording,” said Richter. “There’s a whole sub octave that you just can’t do
AT 45
“
I was just doing it on the page with notes. In a way, it was like analogue sampling
”
acoustically. Mostly, I used sine waves out of a Moog — very pure and deep. It just sits underneath the basses. You don’t really hear it, but it just makes the orchestra sound twice as big — which is a good thing. “I’m a bass head, so I think that everything needs more low end. I always loved the incredible, sparky energy in the original Vivaldi. That was one of the qualities I wanted to turn up in my new version, taking the looping/cycling/energetic things and intensifying those so they feel a bit more connected to electronic music.” ELECTRONIC, YET ORGANIC
The initial speculation over Richter’s idea to recompose at the note level turned into genuine enthusiasm for the new approach to an old classic. And the goodwill is evident in the execution. While from the outside, the sheer logistics of orchestral recording would seem to make it a rigid process of rehearsal and rote playing, Richter says the collaborative approach of all parties lent to “a lot of willingness to try things that maybe they hadn’t thought of at first. It was very organic.” And organic seemed to be the sentiment behind the whole approach. While Richter could have deftly assembled a remixed homage to Vivaldi on his computer, instead he chose to rework the original, record it with a real orchestra and classic mic techniques, and mix mostly in a traditional manner — out of the box, on an analogue console. While there is an electronic undercurrent, it’s only there to serve the updated vision and draw even greater attention to the brilliant composition and playing — it’s a truly modern classic. AT 46
MIXING: SPOTTING UP Neil Hutchinson of Classic Sound mixed the sessions on a Neve V series console at B Sharp. He started the mix with the classic Decca Tree as his foundation. “The Decca tree tends to give quite a spacious sound with a lot of depth due to the nature of the three omnis in relatively close proximity,” said Hutchinson. “I always use the tree as the bedrock of the sound and build up from there. That way you always keep a foothold in the world of real musicians in a real acoustic. “I tend not to use much in the way of EQ or dynamics. I generally deal with EQ by choosing an appropriate-sounding mic. Likewise, dynamics are dealt with during mixing, generally by pushing faders up and down. That always makes things sound more natural and less obviously squashed. I’m not a big fan of sounds that are pinned to a certain level, I think it’s much better to compress manually when required.” Hutchinson had to dig a little deeper than usual to get the spatial effects Richter was after. He used more spot mics than he typically would, which gave him finer control over the overall balance. “I probably made much more use of artificial reverb than I normally would,” said Hutchinson. “Using it for reinforcement and for space effects. I’m a big fan of the good old Lexicon 480L so that was the reverb of choice.”
While Richter was attempting to lend an electronic hand to Vivaldi’s work, much of Hutchinson’s tasks remained the same. “The technology has changed a lot in the past few years, but the basic techniques for recording orchestras haven’t really changed. Get the musicians in a good acoustic, choose the correct mics and put them in the right place and you’re 80% there.” As for the low end augmentation, Hutchinson’s job, as always, was to achieve exactly the right balance. “Too much and it sounds obviously synthetic, too little and it’s not worth doing!” he said. “The sine waves tended to blend very well with the natural resonance of the acoustic basses in the room, giving the effect of adding a lower octave. “We still wanted the orchestra to sound real, but at the same time punchy and a bit edgy. I feel that’s best achieved by being sympathetic to what the musicians are doing and just giving it a bit of a helping hand to exaggerate things a little. It’s all about getting exactly the correct amount, which is something that only comes with experience. “We were conscious of not moving too far away from a real sound. What we were trying to achieve with the sound was create a different way of listening to Four Seasons, just as Max has done with the music.”
21st Century Studio Wiring RedNet is Focusrite’s new Ethernet-based professional audio networking system, featuring a full range of remote-controlled, high-quality input/output devices for microphone, line-level analog and digital audio signals. RedNet interfaces to any DAW with up to 128 workstation I/O channels at 24/96 for every RedNet PCIe interface card in your computer – expand the network as your needs demand. RedNet is based on industry-standard Dante™ ‘audio over IP’ architecture. This proven, robust system employs economical, standard Ethernet cabling and standard managed GigE switches – minimizing costs and maximizing flexibility. Eliminate the downsides of traditional audio wiring, while enjoying superb Focusrite quality sound anywhere you need it. Whether you’re in the studio, auditorium, school or place of worship, there’s a RedNet system for your application. Contact your Guitar Center Professional expert today or visit our web site for further information – and wire your future with RedNet.
R E D N E T 1 – 8 channel A-D/D-A interface
R E D N E T 2 – 16 channel A-D/D-A interface
R E D N E T 3 – 32 I/O digital interface
R E D N E T 4 – 8 channel remote controlled Mic preamp and A-D interface
R E D N E T 5 – 32 I/O HD Bridge adds RedNet to your Pro Tools HD system
R E D N E T 6 – 64 channels of MADI I/O to the Dante-based RedNet network
R E D N E T PCIe Card – 128 I/O low latency RedNet interface for PC and Mac
www.elfa.com.au Focusrite is proudly distributed, guaranteed & supported in Australia by Electric Factory Pty Ltd 188 Plenty Road Preston VIC Tel: 03 9474 1000 AT 47
FEATURE
ONE MAN BAND Gotye’s right hand lieutenant Tim Shiel helps the world’s favourite one man band multiply onstage, applying a few tricks to his own project, Time Shield, along the way. Story: Jason Allen
AT 48
Gotye is the quintessential 21st century one-man band. Give the man behind it, Wally de Backer, a copy of Ableton, a microphone and a crate of old records, and he’ll churn out, well, left of centre, world-beating hits. But translating primarily sampled and synthesised music that Wally has created mostly by himself into a live theatrical experience with a full band takes a bit of creative forethought. For the last two years, the international live touring juggernaut that is Gotye has been running on an electronic backbone under the command of trusted lieutenant Tim Shiel. Tim met Wally when they were both undergrads at Melbourne University. The length of their friendship combined with Tim’s deep experience in electronic music production ensured the level of trust needed to realise the Gotye vision live. Together they developed a flexible, reliable live rig capable of handling sampling, synthesis, video, triggers, multiple MIDI controllers and the pressure of packed houses in some of the world’s most famous venues. A SPECIFIC VIEWPOINT
During the Making Mirrors tour, Gotye took to the stage with two Macbook Pros, both running Ableton, connected via Firewire to two RME Fireface 800s. The first Macbook was dedicated to playback of each song’s background parts and effects, triggered by drummer Michael Iveson on a Novation LaunchPad. It was also responsible for the video elements of the show. “Ableton has a very basic implementation of video playback,” explained Tim. “Because we played to a click, film clips could be cut to a song and synced to our performance. You can drag video clips into a track and a little video window pops up. We’d then drag that window onto the second screen, which might happen to be a two-storey video wall at Radio City Music Hall.” The second Macbook really got a workout — it sat with Tim and was dedicated to sample triggering. “It was one Ableton session for the whole set that was full of Drum Racks containing samples cut up from stems of the final mix of the record. The Drum Racks were routed to various MIDI controllers for each individual song,” explained Tim. “We had about 140 individual channel strips in that set!” As a writer and producer, Tim prefers to work in Ableton’s Arrangement view rather than its unique Session view. “Session view is a useful creative tool, and it’s especially useful for live performance, but I find it makes it harder to manage the development and flow of a song. When I’m working on a song I very quickly start to think in terms of how it’s going to flow, and visualising that is very important,” said Tim. But for the Making Mirrors tour he used both; the playback and video Macbook running in Arrangement view, and the sample trigger Macbook running in Session view. Arrangement view gave drummer Michael Iveson an easy horizontal reference of the band’s progress through a song, while Session view allowed Tim an immediate vertical overview of which Drum Racks were armed and unmuted. Even with the show so dependent on the Macbooks, the tour was completely free of any show-stopping technical issues. “The only problems we’ve ever had on the road I could count on one hand and were the result of, umm, human error,” said Tim with a sheepish grin. “I don’t know why, but I take it personally when people are anti-computer in a live setting.”
ABOUT TIM SHIEL
TEENAGE ROADTRIP
Despite spending almost all of 2012 touring with Gotye, Tim has kept up a rigorous schedule of writing and production, a lot of which was carried out in various hotel rooms and backstage spaces around the world. Tim’s portable production tool of choice is Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 portable synth/sampler/controller. “I don’t really fixate on gear, but the OP-1 was the one thing on my wish list. The interface is so interesting to muck around with. It’s an idiosyncratic piece of gear. It has appeared on every track I’ve done in the last six months in some way. It’s just cool, and super portable — it was fun out on the road. I would basically take over any empty room I could find and set up my portable rig, which really just consisted of the OP-1, a Korg microKEY and Ableton.”
Tim Shiel is a self-taught composer, producer and performer who as well as releasing work as Faux Pas, and performing live as Time Shield, is a regular presenter on Melbourne’s RRR FM, has hosted Triple J’s The Sound Lab, is a former judge for the Australian Music Prize, and has spoken at events including Sound Summit/ TINA and the Melbourne International Film Festival.
AT 49
Two years on the road, including gigs at the Sydney Opera House, Coachella Festival, the Late Show with David Letterman, Radio City Music Hall and the Hammersmith Apollo was both an inspiration and a challenge to Tim’s productivity. “2012 was full-time touring, with a couple of breaks — a month here, a month there. I naively expected that I’d get more done on tour than at home, but it turns out when you’re in Paris, or London, or Dubai, there’s a lot to do! It’s fun to hang out in a hotel room and play with beats, but if you’re hanging out with 20 of your closest friends in Paris…” Despite the distractions, Tim summoned the discipline to work a three-day lock-in at a London hotel: “The third time we got to London we had a fourday break. I had a few songs and ideas kicking around, and I knew if I just sat down and concentrated I’d get a lot done. And I did. As part of it, I got on Twitter and asked people to send me sounds and ideas. I got a lot of files from friends and random people who follow me. I was posting the results as demos to Soundcloud as I finished them. A lot of the ideas and demos I cooked up in those three days I’m still working on now and will form a major part of my next release.” A FAUX PAS
Tim’s releases as a composer and producer over the last eight years, including the critically acclaimed albums Entropy Begins at Home and Noiseworks, have been under the moniker Faux Pas. However, he’s retiring the name to mark the beginning of a new phase in his career. One of the major changes to Tim’s musical landscape has been his recent forays into collaboration. “It’s really good and really challenging — it’s a completely different skill to anything else I’ve taught myself over the years. It’s a really interesting way to learn about and develop your own ideas; essentially by getting other people to explain what they think music is.”
“
I don’t know why, but I take it personally when people are anti-computer in a live setting
Tim’s new collaborators include Sydneybased folk singer/songwriter Caitlin Park, and Ben Abraham, a songwriter who splits his time between Melbourne and Nashville. The partnership with Ben, under the name Telling has already spawned a release in the form of a cover of Bertie Blackman’s Stella, available as a free download from the duo’s Soundcloud (soundcloud.com/tellingmusic/ stella). “Ben and I met at a festival in 2011,” said Tim. “He has a very friendly and open nature, and also an incredibly expressive voice. I’ve also gotten to know Bertie Blackman recently through working with some of the same people — Gotye’s drummer Michael Iveson played on her record and Franc Tetaz produced it. She heard some of my work as Faux Pas and asked me if I’d do a version of one of the songs from her album. I thought it’d be a good opportunity for Ben and I to work on something together. I didn’t realise at the time how deeply personal the song is. Bertie wrote it for some friends who were dealing with a very deep loss in their lives — it was a daunting prospect to do the song justice.”
”
Telling’s output is being created with Tim and Ben working both together and independently. Stella’s vocal was recorded in Nashville, while Tim orchestrated and produced the track while on the road. “We ended up recording Ben’s vocals in Nashville because he was in town when the Gotye tour rolled through. Some of Ben’s friends found us a recording space that ended up being opposite Ben Folds’s studio, which is the historic RCA Studio A. Thanks to the guys we were recording with, we managed to talk our way into getting a tour of Ben’s studio. It was a beautiful space; a grand old room. So many pianos! I took Ben’s vocals with me and he went back to Melbourne. I went on to Europe and continued to piece the song together, mostly in backstage areas and hotel rooms.” Working with singer/songwriters is changing Tim’s perceptions of his own music, as well as showing him a way forward: “A lot of the music I’m working on now is vocal based. I’ve realised it was what I was trying to do with Faux Pas — a lot of those tracks are one hook or vocal line away from being conventional songs. It took me a while to realise that was what I wanted to do.” AT 50
HANDS ON WITH GOTYE The MIDI controllers used by Gotye include conventional keyboards and triggers, but also incorporate exotica such as Tim’s Digitalent MIDI Theremin and Wally’s Alternate Mode malletKAT MIDI percussion mallet controller. Wally owns both a malletKAT Pro and a malletKAT Grand. Both models are available with a synth on board featuring over 1000 sounds from Kurzweil, but Gotye tours with controller-only versions. Tim was previously unfamiliar with the malletKAT, and was thrilled to incorporate it into the rig. “The malletKAT is designed for drummers and percussionists. In the hands of someone like Wally, it’s an amazing device.”
TIMELY INTERVENTION
While the now-departed Faux Pas was firmly a studio creature, when Tim wants to present his music live, he takes to the stage as Time Shield. A Time Shield show begins with Tim hanging a large white sheet in front of his performance space before unleashing a deep sub bass drone on his unsuspecting audience. Video is projected onto the sheet, which Tim manipulates live with Vidvox’s VJ software VDMX via his MIDI controllers and Ableton. The swirling, psychedelic results are created by
THE WORLD GOT MORE
RRP
$699
KOMPLETE
RRP
$1,299
KOMPLETE 9 expands the horizons of professional music production – two unbeatable instrument and effect bundles to turbocharge your creativity. KOMPLETE 9 gives you 33 products and over 120 GB of sound. KOMPLETE 9 ULTIMATE is our most “komplete” ever with all* 65 products and a staggering 370 GB of premium sound on an easy-install USB drive. Both feature the new monosynth powerhouse MONARK, the redesigned BATTERY 4 drum sampler, the updated SOLID MIX SERIES and much more. With so much inside at the same great price, the world just got more KOMPLETE. See your nearest NI dealer or find one at www.cmi.com.au
AT 51
Time Shield, Tim Shiel’s live incarnation combines musiic with live improvised visuals. Shiel’s Ableton session below.
Photo by Laura Owsianka
ingenious mappings of audio functions to video parameters — a filter sweep controlling opacity, a pad triggering a new clip. Tim, behind the sheet, blends with the images as he plays, sings, manipulates and controls his way through a totally immersive set. It was an encounter with Vidvox’s VDMX that first brought Tim out of the studio and onto the stage. “My VJ friend Sean Healy (aka Jean Poole) was asked by The Australian Centre for the Moving Image to do a live performance as part of the Tim Burton exhibition they were running. He suggested we do it together, so we set up side-by-side and he improvised Tim Burton-style visuals while I improvised Tim Burton-style music. I learnt so much from him about his software and his processes that I bought VDMX and took it from there. Before that experience, I’d never thought it was possible to improvise audio and video and work them together.” Time Shield was born. Tim has thought deeply about the challenges of presenting electronic music created by a solo musician to an audience whose primary experience of live music is rock bands. “I want to have something to look at when I’m seeing AT 52
a band,” Tim explained. “I want to have some idea of what people are doing to generate the sound that’s coming off stage. If you’re tweaking knobs and pressing buttons, that doesn’t make sense to most people. Finding ways to do things physically so that people understand it’s having a direct effect on the sound has been really important for me.” CONTROL WITH X-FACTOR
This basic principle has led Tim to investigate a range of exotic control and instrumentation solutions, including repurposed XBox controllers, DJ Hero turntables and the MIDI Theremin; “With the Theremin, you can move your hand up and down and a big filter sweeps across the whole show — people see that and think, ‘Oh, that’s what that thing does.’ You can then go on to use it in more complex or subtle ways in the rest of the show and people will pick up on it because you’ve made it obvious.” And the XBox controller? “Microsoft sells a USB wireless receiver designed for using the XBox controller with a PC, but you can install a script on a Mac that converts that into MIDI. A couple of times I got my friend Galapagoose (electronic artist and producer Trent Gill) to play a drum solo on it. It’s
wireless, so he wandered around the crowd.” Time Shield also sees Tim deploying an array of more standard MIDI devices including a Korg nanoKontrol, Novation Launchpad, Roland GR-20 guitar synth system and an Akai MPK Mini. “The MPK Mini is my favourite compact MIDI controller,” said Tim, “It’s got keys, pads and knobs, all of which I use for various things on various songs, including video manipulation.” All of Tim’s devices connect to a Macbook Pro running Ableton and VDMX. To date, Time Shield has played in very different environments to the Gotye tour. “Most of the shows I’ve done have been in local venues, 100 to 200 capacity, playing on bills with regular bands. When I’ve managed to look out from behind the sheet, which can be difficult, the audience has looked a bit stunned — hypnotically staring at these unfolding psychedelic visuals, just trying to take it all in.” The thrill of live solo performances has given Tim a taste for it, and we can expect to see more. “I had one show at The Buffalo Club where people really got into it and started dancing; that was a great experience. I miss it a lot. I’ll do it again.”
Worlds best audio interfaces www.apogeedigital.com
Symphony I/O Next generation convertor quality. 32 channels I/O with future proof connectivity.
Symphony PCI 64-channel Express Card
Apogee Mic Compact studio quality USB microphone available for iPad, iPhone and Mac.
One iOS 2 IN x 2 OUT USB audio interface/microphone for iPad & Mac
Quartet The ultimate desktop USB audio interface
Symphony 64 Thunderbridge Symphony I/O to Thunderbolt™ connection
Duet iOS 2 IN x 4 OUT USB audio interface for iOS & Mac with 24-bit/192kHz recording
BigBen 192k Master Word Clock
Jam Studio quality guitar input for iPad, iPhone and Mac
GiO USB Guitar Interface and Controller for the Mac & Logic Studio
One USB Interface & mic for the Mac. Single 24-bit input, stereo output. distributed by
Authorised Apogee Pro dealers NSW Guitar Factory 02 9635 5552 Intermusic 02 9369 3922 Sound Devices 02 9283 2077 Sounds Easy 02 8213 0202 Turramurra Music 02 9449 8487
QLD Musiclab 07 3332 8188 Ellaways Music 07 3359 8266 Ellaways Music 07 3290 5656 ACT Better Music 02 6282 3199
Wide Eye Cable
VIC AWave 03 9813 1833 Factory Sound 03 9690 8344 Mannys 03 9486 8555 Soundcorp 03 9694 2600
WA Concept Music 08 9381 2277 Music Park 08 9470 1020 Kosmic Sound 08 9204 7577 SA Deringers Music 08 8371 1884
www.sounddistribution.com.au AT 53
FEATURE Standing on the wire netting suspended over the middle of LAX’s anechoic chamber is disconcerting. The netting has a wave effect without the kind of resistance you’d get from a trampoline; you rise and fall automatically, with each step only adding to the wave’s amplitude. Once inside the chamber, a heavily reinforced steel door thicker than any bank vault and covered in 1.2m-long foam spikes slowly rolls forward to lock you into… The Dead Room. While dramatic, it’s lucky there weren’t any translation errors. Getting trapped in a silent Room For The Dead for instance, may be a tad more disconcerting. THE DEAD ROOM
The Dead Room is the centrepiece of LAX’s R&D centre in the Guangzhou province of China. It’s not too far from Uli Behringer’s Music Group Factory, and even Uli makes occasional visits to LAX headquarters, returning with the odd orange and white showbag of paraphernalia. The Music Group doesn’t have its own anechoic chamber (yet), so uses the one at LAX to conduct some testing. And despite being one of the first western audio companies to see the margins in Chinese manufacturing, Behringer still hasn’t managed to carve out the kind of ubiquity it enjoys globally, in the country it builds its products in. It’s a problem that only LAX can help with. Deep down, our loyalties are reserved for product made locally, and it’s no different in China where loyalty and distribution networks are on a closed loop.
LAX, a Chinese domestic speaker manufacturer arrived on our shores without the OEM coating, so AT went to the source. Story: Mark Davie
But back to LAX. The brand has been around since 1997, though we’re only starting to see this Chinese-made product on our shores, courtesy of Galactic Music. By now, we’re used to electronics being manufactured in China, but for the most part tend to stick to brands with some American, European or Aussie design connection. As if to say that design is god, and manufacturing is merely an exercise in accurate reproduction. But it’s a fallacy. China isn’t a machine, it’s a country, full of people, business people; some that are industrious, some that are lazy, crooks or opportunists, and some that are geniuses, just like any other country. And LAX is one of the local heroes. SPORTING PROWESS
For the most part we tend to judge a PA’s notoriety by the number of times it appears on large-scale touring riders, doubling as the litmus test for system performance. But for LAX, it’s all about sport, and there’s no greater example of human triumph than a well-executed games — university games, youth games, Olympic games — whatever the flavour, there’s a sense that the service providers are equally as valued as the participants. You only have to watch the Olympic Games coverage and count the amount of times you see a volunteer onscreen or hear the commentator’s lavish praise on them to see what LAX is on about. There’s plenty of goodwill to go round for everyone. For a Chinese company, where excellence and pride in achievements are prized, it’s a no brainer. AT 54
LAX has provided PAs for the Asian Games, Beach Games, Universiade, National Games, but the coup (or coop) was winning the contract to supply the main Bird’s Nest stadium at the Beijing Olympics. In all, LAX ended up providing a sixth of the PA for the whole Olympics. It was a big win, and gave LAX a chance to prove its product on a world stage. GOING GLOBAL
Since then, there’s been a gradual move into international territories. The percentage of business from overseas markets is minuscule compared to the business LAX is doing in its home market, so the board doesn’t need to care if it’s only just scraping by. Ken Lau, Lax’s Global Sales Director: “Our major income is from domestic projects and wholesale. The strategy the boss gave me is to keep it balanced, because the company doesn’t expect to earn money from this department at the beginning. The most important thing is to help our distributor earn money, and to maintain the interest in working with us. Once they raise up the brand name, maybe five or 10 years later we will share the harvest. But at this stage, we keep it about survival and give the space to our distributor.” It’s about building up the reputation of the brand, finding those ‘Bird’s Nests’ of opportunity to showcase the brand. LAX now has over 30 distributors spreading the gospel worldwide and have hired Aussie Gary Compson as Vice General Manager, showing the board’s laid back attitude towards profits belies an outpouring of energy into the global marketplace. And it’s paying off. B&K Braun, the distributor in Western Europe, has plenty of clout and will be announcing LAX on some big tour rider specs soon. SINGING ITS VIRTUES
As well as voice transmission for sporting events, electronic music is definitely where LAX systems excel. The demonstration rooms at LAX headquarters include a small club-sized area, another blank space that would comfortably hold a few thousand and will be renovated into a large auditorium at some future date. But perhaps seeing the most action are two fully pimpedout karaoke lounges with plush banquettes, chandeliers, beer and champagne — the perfect demo room. It is China after all, where if you’re not selling into the karaoke market, you’re not selling. And it seems that market has a particular effect on LAX’s voicing, tending to feature the presence portions of the vocal range, and plenty down low. Five years before the brand LAX came into being, the parent company Ruefing Audio was an OEM manufacturer, so a lot of that expertise has flown across into the LAX lines. “You can never have everything from A-Z, it’s too hard,” said Lau. But you can try, and LAX certainly does. Across the demo rooms, there’s everything from concert line arrays to toadstool garden speakers. The pro audio range covers everything from the smaller U series, the covering-all-bases FP series, and the
LAX’s luxe karaoke dens provide contrast to the test machinery. And a peekaboo at the springs holding up the anechoic chamber.
reassuringly-named Operation series, which is LAX’s big line array system. AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION
In Australia, the ATEC series of line arrays is an attractive proposition, bringing affordable line array systems to school auditoriums and the like. The first couple of installs at the Methodist Ladies College and St Mary’s Anglican Girl’s School in Perth have used the ATEC series, with the single eight-inch element providing great value. MLC’s Theatre Manager, Adrian Arnold said, “We were so impressed by the incredible value and the capacity of the LAX system to meet our production needs for years to come that we convinced school management to purchase the complete system.” LAX uses RCF and Eighteen Sound drivers in its speakers and manufacture most everything else onsite in China, though there have been talks with well-known amplifier manufacturers to potentially provide amplification for the line arrays, hoping big-name alliances will help the brand’s reputation globally. But for the moment, the price is more than enough for anyone looking at a PA to seriously consider it. Performance is a bonus. LAX: www.laxpro.net Galactic Music: (08) 9204 7555 or www.galacticmusic.com.au
R&D ON DEMAND LAX’s R&D facilities are centred around Asia’s biggest anechoic chamber, called The Dead Room. Its double sound insulated shell structure is massive, covering an area of 360sqm. The inner shell is completely isolated from the outer on a bed of 528 locomotive springs. It’s no hype either, LAX has a secret latch door behind a bush you can open to check out the springs through some thick plexiglass. The actual size of the anechoic chamber is 14.8x16.8x10.95m. There’s also a sound-proof power testing lab, where speakers get abused day-in, day-out, and an electromagnetic shielding room to test reliability and electromagnetic safety of amplifiers and DSP systems. The list goes on: Salt spray corrosion testing, frequency vibration testing, fall testing, temperature and humidity testing, water testing, and tensile testing. Suffice to say, LAX products have gone through their due diligence. AT 55
AT 56
PREVIEW
FRESH VUE Ken Berger, who was a co-founder of EAW, took the time to chat with AudioTechnology about his latest venture Vue Audiotechnik, and how the speaker world looks today.
Vue Audiotechnik seems to be aiming for the best of both worlds, an American company taking on a distinctly European-sounding name. But does it really need to? With Ken Berger, co-founder of a little speaker manufacturer you may know called EAW and CEO of Pro Sound Web; Jim Sides, a member of the original Apogee Sound team, as well as years with Nexo and Meyer Sound; and Michael Adams, FOH/ monitor engineer for Jimmy Buffet, Jackson Brown, and Emmylou Harris, all sitting in the top jobs at Vue Audiotechnik — from day one they’ve encapsulated as big a part of the audio world as any company. While Ken and Jim provide a pedigree of audio business success, and both had a hand in developing Vue’s product line, Michael brings the most recent engineering pedigree to the table. He was co-founder of Audio Composite Engineering, who played a key role in developing JBL Vertec, QSC’s Wideline, as well as Yamaha’s Installation Sound series. “I’ve worked with a bunch of great speaker design engineers,” said Ken Berger. “And they tend to be really practical with a seat-of-the-pants understanding of acoustics and electro-mechanical aspects, or they’re really good electro-acoustic engineers who can model this or that but really don’t have a firm understanding of the application. Mike’s pretty unique in his ability to address both sides and it’s reflected in the sound of our products as well as practically, like the way it packs into the truck.”
NET EFFECT
In under a year, the company already has four product lines to show. Its h-Class represents the cutting edge of Vue’s line with 12- and 15-inch full-range, two-way loudspeakers with all the goods — in-built amplification, Ethernet control, DSP, digital and analogue inputs, and a proprietary four-inch berylliumbased compression driver. There are also h-Class companion subs (see sidebar). From there, the a-Class fills most other black box requirements, the i-Class for AV contractors, and there’s also the tiny, but tech-filled al-4 subcompact line array system. MARK MY WORDS
It’s still a new company, and experience doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. One thing Berger is sure about though, is that he wants to avoid Vue Audiotechnik turning into EAW. We asked him what he meant: Ken Berger: Today, EAW Mk II would be something very different to what EAW was, which was an organic phenomenon between the ’70s and ’80s. It took close to 12 years for EAW to get strong momentum, and it was really a struggle. The funny thing is, we’d like to think that years of slogging in the market is what turned it, and it really wasn’t. It was television and video. When companies started spending millions of dollars to install a Jumbotron and they wanted to play some music along with whatever was up there on the screen, that’s when they realised their sound system sucked. Spending hundreds of thousands of
Right now, not all the boxes in Vue’s line are networked, but it’s the intention moving forward. As it stands, Vue’s H series and the V4 and 5 Engine Rack amplifier/ DSP systems theoretically support AVB and meet the Dante specification, and its partners are currently running AVB through the Ethernet port anyway. But it all depends on the adopted standard. Ken Berger: “We have a partner that’s developed a DSP with built-in network control. We plan to use it in everything that can afford it. Right now, doing it in a sub-$500 product is tough. With that said, our friends at Presonus have just introduced some interesting retail product that has wireless and Ethernet control connectivity. The cost of putting Ethernet is falling to next to nothing. The problem is you need enough processing power to run the IP stuff — the
microprocessor in the DSP has to be able to talk to that Ethernet. But again, that’s going away pretty rapidly. I don’t see any reason why three or four years from now, everything down to lowest end product can’t be networked. “Control is easy. Getting audio to go across that connection is a bigger challenge. Ethernet was designed to send packets, it didn’t matter which order the packets got there. Streams of audio are different. “If Apple or Microsoft comes out with the native AVB driver tomorrow, and AVB really starts to become adopted, we should be able to support that with just a minor software upgrade. But nobody has done all the goods to make AVB really usable by itself. The Dante guys have done all that stuff, but it’s too expensive to include as standard.” AT 57
“
FRESH LOYALTIES
I don’t see any reason why, three or four years from now, everything down to lowest end product can’t be networked
”
AT: Back in 2000, EAW had good product, but it was also a lot about relationships and loyalties. People buying in with the new brand, are they buying in to the old names or are they actually buying into the product? KB: I don’t think there’s any need to separate the two. We’re very proud of our standards for the quality of the product. Particularly with the h-class, we are establishing totally new levels of performance standards and capabilities in terms of the networking. That said, there are very few really bad speakers out there. There used to be a lot of bad speakers in the olden days, but it’s more of a finesse difference these days because the baseline is really good. There’s no question that the relationship side is a very important part of this business. Most of the companies out there that matter in the loudspeaker business have lost sight of a lot of the things that built them and the industry. Long term relationships are simply not being focused on in this quarter’s numbers. It’s about doing what it takes to make sure the customer gets the product when they need it. As opposed to, ‘We have a Material Requirements Planning system and we’re not going to ship any for two months while we implement it!’
ABOVE PAR SUBS Vue has been keen to focus on innovation and integration in their products, but perhaps most interesting are its sub enclosures. The HS28 is a hybrid direct radiating and band pass design that Vue has given the patent-pending name Active Compliance Management (ACM). It’s a double-18 sub where both woofers share the same vented chamber, but one of them is turned 90 degrees to the side and fires into a band pass vented chamber. DSP and separate amplification is used to synchronise the three outputs at the face of the box — the direct radiation of the front-firing woofer, the chamber vent common to both woofers, and the band pass chamber vent driven by the second woofer. The natural benefit is size, as the width of the box is decreased by the side-firing woofer, bandwidth control and increased output depending on how the band-pass vent is tuned. But one unexpected benefit was that in practise, the box went lower than they expected. “If you model the vented or band-pass box, based on the dimensions we got, it shouldn’t go down as low as it does,” said Ken. “When you time-offset the two drivers, each driver thinks it’s in a bigger box because the pressure wave coming back is different to the standard configuration where both fire at the same time — the effective compliance of the air in the box has been changed. We’re good down to 35Hz. If you’re looking for a real infrasonic sub-woofer, that’s not what this is. This is a concert sub-woofer. It doesn’t start to roll off till below 40Hz.” Another benefit of having both direct radiating and band pass designs combined, is that Vue is able to tune two bumps in the frequency response with the two vented chambers over the main operable sub octave between 40-80Hz. The combination of the two wide bumps, one from the common vented chamber and the other from the band-pass vented chamber means that the box can deliver a broadband-rise of 2.5dB over that octave. So not only is it smaller than most double-18 subs, and goes lower than anything its size, it can also deliver more output than a direct vented box. AT 58
dollars didn’t look like a big deal when they’d just spent ‘x’ millions of dollars on video. Pretty much the whole team are now the old men of audio! We aren’t the young Turks. One of our objectives was to make sure we had the resources and the team and the partners to establish ourselves in a few years, not in a decade. In less than a year from signing the papers to become a company, we’re shipping a lot of product and have distribution throughout most of the world. Also, when I sold EAW in 2000, one of the big issues we identified was the integration of loudspeakers, amplifiers and DSP. One of the reasons I was interested in selling it was we would have had to re-invent the farm at that time period to develop things we didn’t have — amplifiers, DSP, software, all those bits. AudioTechnology: I guess most of the competitors would have outsourced, bought it in or had alliances? KB: My view of the marketplace is it’s still pretty primitive. Meyer is certainly the leader in terms of championing the higher end of powered product and they seem to do a great job, but network control is still not really well integrated in any of the products. The industry as a whole still desperately wants and needs an audio distribution network that is ubiquitous. AT: Dante does a pretty good job. KB: Nothing against Dante, I think it’s great, but it’s not ubiquitous, which is what integrating really is.
Many people asked me, ‘Why another speaker company?’ And we honestly felt that the market was being under-served despite the number of people playing in the market, there are a lot of small companies doing interesting things but don’t have the capability or scale. AT: What is the dream design, a big line array? KB: Our large scale system we have in development has a number of components that are still concepts. We’re along the path but aren’t there yet, so that is where our longest term technology investments have gone. We are looking at some unique technology for the mid range section, amplification, electronics, and certainly in the packaging side. Pieces of those concepts may hit the market in other products first, but all the products are about coming up with something that’s unique and effective in the space it’s built for. We’ve got some interesting software that we’re trying. Everyone has a reasonably primitive array calculator for line array product, and other companies have interesting products for DSP and system control. There’s not many that are integrated so you can model your array and it will tell you how to adjust your processing. AT: Whose idea was it to go with the vaguely European company name? KB: It was intentional. I give credit to a friend of mine, Eric Hansen, who’s now head of marketing for Universal Audio. Our manufacturing partner is a German company that owns a factory in China. He thought the China element scares people, so he suggested, ‘You want to emphasise European.’ www.ambertech.com.au/brands/vue-audiotechnik
AT 59
THE ULTIMATE,
EASY-TO-USE
PA SYSTEMS FOR ANY APPLICATION. Since 2005, the Yamaha Stagepas series has been Australia’s favourite all-in-one PA solution. Now, in 2013, the Stagepas 600i and 400i take the original Stagepas concept and combine powerful Digital Signal Processing technologies with increased power output and iPhone/iPod connectivity. Contact your local Yamaha dealer today to arrange a demonstration of our best ever Stagepas yet.
facebook.com/yamahabackstagepass
AT 60
yamahabackstage.com.au
UR22 2x Class-A Mic Preamps 24-bit, 192kHz Audio Fidelity +48V Phantom Power MIDI In & Out Includes Cubase AI Rugged Metal Chassis USB2.0
RRP $199.99*
steinberg.net
yamahabackstage.com.au
facebook.com/yamahabackstagepass
*The prices set out in this advertisement are recommended retail prices (RRP) only and there is no obligation for Yamaha dealers to comply with this recommendation. Errors and omissions excepted. AT 61
FEATURE
NEXO STM:
SUMMER OF LOVE? It’s early days for Nexo’s new flagship PA. We talk to three of Australia’s busiest engineers about what they thought about STM over the summer. Story: Christopher Holder
AT 62
The story so far: Nexo has bet the farm on a new flagship PA. Why is it a gamble? Because it’s not another gigantic line array in the mould of a d&b J or an L-Acoustic K1. It’s modular. Combining four different boxes, the idea is you can cater for any show, from an acoustic gig in a pub, to the biggest festival you can imagine. [Check out our full explanation of STM in Issue 91.] After its release in the second half of last year, some key sales have been announced. High-profile purchases by Capital Sound and Wigwam in the UK, and Morris Light & Sound in the US have stolen most of the headlines, but Monitor City in Melbourne was actually the first to sign up for an STM system internationally. Monitor City, best known for its inventory of in-ear systems, and then for its Digico consoles, was looking for a PA that would complement its existing stocks of Nexo Geo S12 rig. And in many ways Monitor City epitomises what STM is all about. Multi-purpose; flexible, you can break the inventory you have into smaller systems or consolidate it for a big gig. In other words, it’s perfect for the smaller to medium-sized rental outfit because you don’t necessarily need a bunch of different PAs.
Are your wireless mics ready for the Digital Dividend ?
Monitor City’s STM was out at the Falls Festival in Lorne and the Port Fairy folk festival over the summer. So I thought we should track down Ern Rose (who babysat front of house for Stages 1 and 2 at Port Fairy) and Tim Millikan (system engineer on both festivals) who both spent a lot of time working with STM. I also caught up with Adam Rhodes, who not only used STM at The Shebeen pub during the Port Fairy festival but months earlier took STM out on tour with Angus Stone. These gents know what they’re talking about and are more than happy to share their thoughts: STM FLEXIBILITY
Ern Rose: I was able to hear STM on a good variety of acts. The quieter acts needed a really soft system — for example, Suzannah Espy, and Baby et Lulu (vocal/acoustic acts) just sounded fantastic. The vocal quality was excellent, very natural. Surprisingly, the next act, such as The Popes going full bore, sounded just as great. Adam Rhodes: The smallest configuration I had on the Angus Stone tour were two STM Main and Bass modules a side with one Nexo RS18 sub. The largest comprised four Main and Bass modules and two subs. And that’s a whole lot of PA, even for places like Waves in Woollongong which is a long room, and it just punched right through to the back, it stayed very present. I would have expected that sort of performance from a far bigger PA, where I’d have more boxes focussed back there. STM LOW END
Ern Rose: It being a folk festival, we ran the system without subs at Port Fairy but the amount of bottom end was excellent — and it was real bottom end (I don’t like to hear artificial sub thump). I was very impressed with the low end, as were a couple of bands who came in with their own engineers; they were amazed how big it sounded. Tim Millikan: The STM Bass modules (not the subs) go down to 63Hz and it gets right down there. At Port Fairy, without the subs, two or three acts could have used some support under there. For everything else I didn’t miss it. STM RIGGING/SETUP
Tim Millikan: The rigging is unbelievable. It’s a simple and efficient way of rigging. There are no external parts to add on. The piston system is idiot proof — the moment you start lifting your array, if something’s wrong you can tell immediately. We were flying nine STM a side at Falls and we had everything up in the air within 12 minutes or so.
OURS ARE ! By the end of 2014, all analogue TV transmitters will be turned off and all digital TV transmitters will have changed frequency. The band between 694 MHz and 820 MHz will be cleared of all users so it can be used for mobile data services. Check your wireless microphone systems now ! If they operate between 694 MHz and 820 MHz you need to start planning to operate between 520 MHz and 694 MHz before the end of 2014.
Make certain your systems are ready!
visit
ddready.com.au for more information
Adam Rhodes: We took STM into a bunch of different venues, from small pubs to large venues. I only ever ground stacked, though. And the dollies it comes on makes the process very easy. Venues like Waves in Woollongong, we wheeled the ground stacks onto the stage, plugged
AT 63
Nexo STM in action at the Port Fairy Folk Festival
Tim Millikan
them in and turned them on. Job done. Tim Millikan: The software is easy to use. Give it a trim height; play around with your angles; and look at your prediction curves and so forth — individual frequencies or full band — and it’s pretty true… what the software is telling you is consistent in the room. STM SOUND
Tim Millikan: I was doing the system engineering at both Falls and Port Fairy festivals and I was mixing most of the bands on those stages. I got to use it a fair bit. We ran the Falls stage through an Avid Profile, while at Port Fairy we had a Digico SD8 — two completely different consoles. In both cases I didn’t need to do anything out of the ordinary, there was nothing about STM that made me rethink the setup. There was no need for excessive filtering; there weren’t any phase incoherencies. Adam Rhodes: Tuning the PA is easy. The NX Amps do the processing: just dial in the box configuration you’re using which sets up the array EQ settings. It’s fabulous. And the PA tunes up and lines up really well. I think it’s the least amount of processing I’ve ever done… and I’m someone who likes to process. Tim Millikan: STM seems pretty consistent box for box. It’s not like some systems where you’ve got a processor setting for 16 elements but when you’ve got eight up in the air, it’s terrible. The STM is far more balanced box for box. At both festivals I ran the system in a tent. I had to filter the 2-5kHz region but that’s a tent for you, there was nothing that was killing me — it was just a matter of reducing the hocker’s ‘beach ball’ factor. From there everything else sounded great. The stereo imaging was excellent and there was great vocal clarity — it’s like having a separate PA for the vocal, it just cuts through and sounds natural... not processed to buggery, no radical EQing on the channels. I didn’t touch the system EQ at the Port Fairy folk festival the whole time I was there. We provided an inline graphic for visiting engineers. One guy pulled some 200Hz and that’s it. I think I had four filters in the Lake DSP but that was it — the rest is art, the science part is over. If you’ve got a drums-heavy band you might want to pull down 150 to 315Hz a little to clean that area up a little. But that’s just to taste. STM PATTERN CONTROL
Adam Rhodes: On the Angus Stone tour we went to a venue AT 64
Ern Rose
I always dread: the Lake Kiwana Community Centre on the Sunshine Coast. The place is effectively a basketball court. I’ve tried everything in there, with probably only the d&b Q being small enough and focussed enough to have any success. But the STM performed well and above what I expected. So I reduced the number of STM, focussed it really tightly and it covered the room really well. I’m not saying I was confident. I didn’t go into the room saying, “STM is going to kill this room!” But it worked… after 90 minutes of pointing and focussing. STM POWER/EFFICIENCY
Tim Millikan: STM is super efficient — this thing throws for days. I had to re-hang it the second day of the Falls Festival, because we were a little high with the top box — we were getting comments from one and half k’s away! So the throw is pretty good! During my tuning, I remember running the STM up — I pushed it up and up until... f**k me it’s loud, but it stays coherent. It doesn’t introduce any comb filtering. It reminds you of the fact that it’s back to the engineer these days. Poor engineering will sound shithouse and a good engineer will sound great. You should be able to walk up, and mix CD quality or better, or it’s time to find another line of work. At Port Fairy we were in an 80m-long hocker, with five STM a side. 80m is a long throw, but I was only around 5dB down at the back of the room. The mid/high frequencies were getting all the way to the back. The low end began to taper off at 60m. But that was the nature of the array and our low trim height. We had some quiet vocal acts, and had no problems getting them to the back of the room. We had one request to turn up the PA on the first night and quite a few compliments, including one from an ex-ABC sound recordist who thought it was the best sound he’d heard in years. FINAL COMMENTS
Adam Rhodes: I’ve been a long-time fan of the Nexo Alpha. I always loved how Alpha packed in the truck, how you could use as much or as little as you needed for the venue. And in this country where you might be doing some outdoor show in Queensland and then flying the PA in a theatre in Canberra the next week, Alpha was great. I always had some power alley challenges with Alpha, though. Not with STM, the coverage is very even. Is it a worthy successor to Alpha? Yeah, absolutely. Tim Millikan: How would I sum up? STM is versatile with plenty of whack. And the rigging is great — it’s a dream to fly.
Manufacturers of the finest audio systems in the world.
let ATC speak for themselves.
SCM16A Pro SCM25A Pro
SCM16A Pro
SCM20ASL Pro
SCM25A Pro
SCM50A Pro
SCM100ASL Pro
SCM110ASL Pro
SCM150ASL Pro
www.cda-proaudio.com
SCM200ASL Pro
SCM300ASL Pro
sales@cda-proaudio.com “Our products quite simply redefine state-of-the-art”
Follow us:
Sydney, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Perth, Australia
Unit 5, 45 - 51 Huntley St. ALEXANDRIA NSW 2015 T: + 61 2 9330 1750 F: + 61 2 8338 9001
Asian Pacific Business Centres Suite Garden 1, 215 Bell St. PRESTON VIC 3072
Unit 4, 17 Welshpool Rd. ST JAMES WA 6102 T: + 61 8 9470 2211 F: + 61 8 9472 3617
T: 1800 266 876
AT 65
This Is Your Moment
The sessions are done, you’re happy with the mix and it’s time to let the band hear it.
© 2012 MUSIC Group IP Ltd. Technical specifications and appearance are subject to change without notice. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Thirty seconds into the first track you see the smile on the lead singer’s face as she hears her voice. Good thing you threw that Dual Pitch and followed it with a dash of Flange; she loves it! Now you’re in a flow with the X32 as your wing-man, helping you track, mix and crank out a hit. You smile as you recall the session and watch the motorized faders jump to the call. You look over your X32 with its MIDAS-designed mic pres, on-board FireWire™ interface and Ultranet™ connection straight to the P16 Personal Monitor System. Get your hands on an X32 and live your moment! Contact Galactic Music to find a X32 premium reseller near you. PH: 08 9204 7555 or sales@galacticmusic.com.au
AT 66
AT 67
REGULARS
MAC NOTES A Thunderbolt of inspiration Column: Anthony Garvin
Recently I had to update one of the studio computer systems at Studios 301 and I was most reluctant to spend the money purchasing a ‘new’ Mac Pro. It didn’t seem right to spend thousands of dollars ‘upgrading’ to a computer that hasn’t been improved significantly since 2010, and even then, really hasn’t seen any huge change since it’s inception in 2006. So I started lamenting… why has it been so long since the Mac Pro models have been updated? Has Apple forgotten about its professional customers? Surely we, the artistic leaders of modern culture (loosely grouped with video makers and graphic designers), haven’t been left by the wayside? After all, it’s we that helped sustain Apple through its beginnings, and prevented it from total failure in the mid ’90s when no-one else wanted to buy their ugly and over-priced, but reasonably reliable computers. However, as I worked through the hurt, I came to a conclusion that that we have not been forgotten and that the solution is sitting in plain sight… Thunderbolt! Come to think of it, as I write this I wonder if Apple is intentionally holding off the release of a Mac Pro update/replacement, in the hope that Thunderbolt proliferates more widely in the meantime. Together with Intel, it has spearheaded the R&D of the technology, which I’m sure doesn’t come cheap, and is obviously aimed at the pro end of town — with enough bandwidth to replace the current Mac Pro’s provision for PCIe cards, multiple SATA hard disks, firewire and graphics all in one simple connection smaller than a USB port. In fact, Thunderbolt is a PCIe buss and graphics connection rolled into a smaller form. So why do we need the behemoth Mac Pro tower whose design dates back to the G5? Plus, the current speeds of Apple’s range of nonMac Pro computers have effectively caught up
AT 68
to the Mac Pro. For example, recently Minicolo, a Las Vegas-based tech company, benchmarked the current Mac Mini and found it to be comparable to the current base model Mac Pro (for use as a server). Obviously the major obstacle is that the serious multi-channel systems like ProTools HDX run via PCIe cards at this point in time, and whilst Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has promised us a new Mac Pro (or Mac Pro replacement?) at some point in 2013, we are still bound to using desktop computers with PCIe slots to run more high-end recording systems. Thunderbolt interfaces are starting to proliferate via models from Universal Audio, Apogee, MOTU and even Avid ProTools HD Native, but the big gap for me is the larger ProTools interfaces allowing for I/O counts over 30. THE PRO BENCHMARK
However, we don’t all need 30+ I/O from our systems, so recently I have been using other models from Apple’s range as alternative nonMac Pro options in pro DAW setups. When mastering engineer Sameer Sengupta joined us at 301 in 2011, he required a system based around Logic, his chosen DAW. With little fuss, I got hold of the base model Mac Mini at the time, installed Logic and integrated it with our converters via Firewire interfaces. And to this day it’s still running as the centrepiece of his mastering setup. When it came to updating Steve Smart’s mastering playback system — an old ProTools HD rig — we did a similar thing and installed ProTools 10 (native) on a Mac Mini. Not only does it outperform the old ProTools HD1 system, the machine runs whisper quiet and can sit in Steve’s mastering studio amongst all his other gear — making it much more convenient to transfer client files when they are sitting in session with him. When the new mastering
facilities were built in 2006, an entire server room was set up to house noisy computers, which is almost empty today! As an aside, one thing to note on the installation of these systems is an apparent lack in hardware which can interface AES/EBU (for our Prism, Lavry, Benchmark, Genex and Apogee converters) to a Mac without PCIe slots. It seems ridiculous to spend $1500+ on an interface with a single AES/EBU I/O on it, particularly when we’d really like multiple channels (for comparing a dry track vs a DSP-processed track, or looping analogue hardware through the system). Apart from MOTU’s upcoming HDX-SDI with Thunderbolt, it’s looking pretty desolate for AES/ EBU interfacing with next-generation Macs — a bit of a worry for those with high-end converters, as AES/EBU is still the most reliable and jitterfree way of integrating with these. Noticeably, these systems aren’t usually put under the day-to-day stress of large multi-track projects (though on occasion when they are running projects of that size, they perform surprisingly well). So for an upcoming installation in one of our new studios, I’m about to acquire an iMac with a ProTools HD Native Thunderbolt/HD Omni system (that’s a mouthful). Coming in at about $7000 all up, it looks to be comparable on paper to the $20,000 Mac Pro/HD3 system we bought a few years ago. But I’m yet to test this, so perhaps I’ll report back with the results in the near future. Beyond that, there are options from Sonnet, Magma and others to connect PCIe chassis to a Mac via Thunderbolt but it seems to me like a stopgap rather than a viable solution for a system I’d install to run for the next few years. I’ll be eagerly watching for future Avid Thunderbolt hardware, as well as Apple’s updated Mac Pro hardware, hopefully sometime this year.
TAKE CONTROL.
New ZLX portable powered loudspeakers stand apart with the most complete and innovative package of features in their class, giving you more control over your sound to ensure your audience connects with your creative moment, whatever the gig. www.electro-voice.com/zlx PRECISION - Visual control and monitoring with presets POWER - Custom-built 1000-W Class-D amplifier PERFORMANCE - EV-engineered components for superior sound PORTABILITY - Unique hi/lo grip handles and lightweight construction
AMAZING INNOVATIVE FEATURES
PRESENCE - Stunning enclosure design ZLX is available in 12” and 15” versions. Passive models also available.
Powerful DSP engine accessed by a clean SINGLE-KNOB design
Scan the QR code with your smartphone for more information on the Electro-Voice ZLX series.
Uncluttered and precise control panel - less really is more Presets to optimise according to your application (music, live, speech) and location (pole mount, monitor, install) Bosch Communications Systems 25 Huntingwood Drive HUNTINGWOOD NSW 2148 Email: boschcomms@au.bosch.com
Ph: (02) 9683 4752 Fax: (02) 9890 5928 Web: www.boschcommunications.com.au
AT 69
REGULARS
PC AUDIO Do you know exactly what audio files are on your hard drives, and which folders they inhabit? If not, it’s time to invest in a sample player/browser! Column: Martin Walker
Most of us have hundreds, if not thousands, of samples and music files stashed away on our hard drives, but Windows doesn’t make it particularly easy to audition them — if you double-click on a WAV, AIFF or MP3 file it will by default launch Media Player, and of course if you shift-click a batch of files you can play one after the other. However, if you want to quickly browse back and forth through loads of audio files across multiple folders then a dedicated audio player/ browser utility is a must — especially if you want the audio ones to be automatically filtered out of a morass of other file types. EXTREME SAMPLE CONVERTER
I’ve used quite a few over the years, but still love the browsing features of the PC-only Extreme Sample Converter (www.extranslator. com), which seems to run on every Windows version I’ve tried. This standalone utility from Wlodzimierz Grabowski is essentially designed to convert sample collections from one format to another, which of course is perfect if you’re about to make the switch from a hardware to a software sampler, or to a new software sampler, so you can carry on using your existing sample libraries. Many software samplers will import other formats, but they may not support the particular format you need, or do a less-than-thorough job of conversion, leaving you with sounds that simply don’t ‘feel’ right, even if all the samples end up in the right place. As its name suggests, Extreme Sample Converter offers an impressive range of source and destination formats for the conversions themselves, but it’s also capable of a lot more. For instance, it excels at audio file browsing with its Explorer-like navigation and excellent graphical display of the sample being auditioned, along with any internal loop information contained in WAV/AIFF files. It can also display the sample key and velocity mappings of multi-sampled formats in its Preset window, and audition sounds from proprietary media such as CDROMs, Zip and magneto-optical drives, as well as virtual disk files on your hard drive that contain
AT 70
raw data copied from such formats. I’ve had no problems reading Akai and Emu CD-ROMs, as well as virtual disk copies taken from old Syquest 270MB cartridges used many years ago with my Akai hardware sampler. Archivists can also create their own virtual disks and copy them onto Zip or MO media. ESC also includes a very capable Loop Editor whose ability to auto-find glitch-free loops is better than that of some extremely expensive software packages, as well as offering crossfadelooping for the ones that refuse to play ball. Moreover, for the more creative amongst us who design their own sounds, it also provides utilities that let you capture the sounds of software and hardware synths and convert them to any destination sampler format. These also feature a 16-slot Virtual FX Rack that accepts VST and DX plug-ins, so you can assemble effect chains to treat your synth patches while they are being captured — you simply define how many key regions and velocity splits you want (up to 128 of each are available) and then start sampling, whereupon a sequence of MIDI notes and velocities is automatically played and the resulting audio output is captured. Overall, while it doesn’t currently cope with exotica such as multi-channel audio, for just €69 Extreme Sample Converter version 3.6 is an extremely handy package! RESONIC PLAYER
If you don’t need conversion, capture or looping functions, another standalone PC-only player/ browser that recently grabbed my attention is the Resonic Player (resonic.at). Designed by Austrian developer Thomas Wolf (aka Liqube Audio) to be ultra-fast, it’s currently free for personal use (although donations to fund further development are always welcome) and the tiny 3MB download is available in both installer and portable versions (the latter suitable for USB sticks so you can carry the utility around with you). Running on Windows 7, 8, XP and Vista (32 & 64-bit), Resonic Player is based around a visual display across the top with a browser beneath displaying folders in its left hand panel and recognised
audio files on the right (which include WAV and AIFF up to 64-bit float and 192k as well as a host of other lossless and compressed formats). Nothing out of the ordinary here, except that the visual display offers high resolution logarithmic/ linear spectrum analysis options as well as the normal waveform — while waveforms are ideal for anticipating the rhythmic nature of an audio file, the log spectrum analysis in particular is perfect to see whether particular samples would fit into an existing mix, spotting subsonic rubbish or studying the spectral balance of commercial tracks. However, even the waveform option automatically displays mono, stereo or multi-channel files, while the note event option is perfect for auditioning multi-track MOD (Tracker) files. A moving cursor handily displays playback progress for all visual modes, while the associated transport bar offers a few more unusual options. For instance, file playback in sequential order is ideal for auditioning your way through folders full of audio files while you get on with something else, and of course for listening to MP3/Flac albums, while with random playback order I rediscovered quite a few files that I’d forgotten about. The sample looping option also works seamlessly right down to single cycle waveforms, making it a great tool for anyone exploring new hardware/software synth sounds. After a year of development Resonic Player is already a slick and very useful utility, with a host of keyboard shortcuts to streamline the user experience. New builds are released every few days, while Thomas offers an incredibly pro-active response to user requests, which will become especially useful once the promised Resonic Pro version is released, as it could incorporate your suggested features — more technical stuff like the display of metadata, markers, cues and the ability to grab loop markers from WAV/AIFF files is apparently already in the works. Wunderbar!
AT94 Stav HR.pdf
1
8/04/13
9:29 AM
Stav’s shortcuts to great sounds! brother gave me your book for my birthday. It is one of the “bestMybirthday presents I've ever had - a real eye opener. I am really enjoying the read and I'm learning so much (new techniques and ways to improve in existing techniques) Also I'm listening to music with a fresh new approach, thank you so much. Scot M. - UK
”
Your book is like fine wine. It get's better with age and repeat “visits. I am able to pick up on different things every time I reread it. The methodology you taught has also turned my ears, and brain, up to look at recording in a different light. Thank you so much for writing it and making yourself available to your readers!!! J.R. - Stone Groove Studios, Waukegan, IL USA
”
Get 'Stav on Tap' when ordered from Stav's website.
Get the book: www.mixingwithyourmind.com
AT 71
FEATURE
New Wave Of Modular Working regularly with synthesisers, you know the features you value (and wish for). So isn’t it about time you hand-picked some synthesiser modules and built your very own sound? Chris Steller shows you how. Story: Chris Steller
AT 72
Presets can be the perfect entry point to instant creativity, but can also bring swift death to your originality. Modular synthesis is the antidote for saved files, software and presets. It doesn’t even offer recall, so a patch you spent hours deliberating over could potentially be unrepeatable. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but neither is true originality. Take a few left-field ideas, like putting a distortion effect in the middle of a traditional path; maybe splitting a waveform’s output to go through multiple filter or effect treatments to be combined again further along the signal path; or using the output of a wavetable to modulate a pitch, filter or volume, instead of your common garden-variety LFO. While these experiments are possible in the software realm, the best way to get to grips with these sonic departures is by choosing and combining your own synthesiser components, and entering the modular world. BACK ON RACK
Modular synthesisers have been around for a long time, in quite a few different size and power formats, with a slow rise and fall in popularity every few decades. Traditionally the domain of larger educational institutions, modular synthesis has been hampered by issues of cost, size, and consequently, a relatively small following… until recently.
Modular’s most recent standard, the Eurorack format, was introduced with Doepfer, Analogue Systems, Analogue Solutions, and the now defunct Plan B. Doepfer and Analogue Systems offered more traditional modules, and Analogue Solutions specialised in analogue drum modules — reproducing individual components of the ‘TR’ drum machine. New arrivals followed from Livewire and Cwejman (try ‘Shwayman’ as an approximate pronunciation). Now there’s a huge number of companies producing modules for the format, at least 100 brands, with companies spread from Portugal to Australia, selling everything from kits to completed modules. With a number of modular blogs and forums (like www.muffwiggler.com) now in full swing, many more designers are selling their PCBs directly to users, with user orders financing the production runs, and member collaborations providing improvements and updates, as well as designs for module front panels. There’s never been a better time to buy in. NEW WAVE
Obviously, with so many manufacturers and experimenters in the market, it would be impossible to mention every module that’s available in this article, so I’ll focus on some interesting and innovative offerings.
THE DAW IS OPEN If you are thinking that the downside of a modular system is that it can’t be integrated with your current DAW hardware/software, then here’s some news will really brighten your outlook. Another relatively recent innovation in the modular synth world is the introduction of control voltage and gate control through a specified audio interface being used in conjunction with your computer: what about eight channels of CV from an ADAT port of your audio interface, controlled by Expert Sleepers’ Silent Way VST/AU plug-in, with their ES-3 module? MOTU has also been working with this concept via its Volta software plug-in and outputs from its industry-standard audio interfaces. Kenton and Pittsburgh both produce a MIDI/CV module, and ADDAC Systems of Portugal actually has a USB sound card module — plenty of connectivity to integrate your modular.
DON’T JUST FLOG IT WITH A STICK Another plus in the new wave of Eurorack modules has been the introduction of a plethora of new controller modules (traditionally, modulars were limited to joysticks and not much more). For example, Make Noise manufactures a series of controllers, especially the Pressure Points module, which allows real-time control of expression or pitch. Synthwerks has a series of force sensing resistor (FSR series) and slide potentiometer (SP series) modules capable of sending CV messages.
MODULUXXX FESTIVAL If this has piqued your interest in getting your hands dirty one module at a time, then getting along to the Moduluxxx Mini Modular Synth Festival , Sydney, May 25-26. In its second year, the festival will include: Sample & Hold Petting Zoo This event is an all day ‘expo’ of modular synthesisers open to the public. Local instrument builders, inventors, manufacturers, distributers and collectors will gather together to present their modular synthesisers to the public. Something like a cross between a synthesiser convention, a museum and a LAN party. It’s a great chance to see the impressive array of modules and their ‘handlers’ in one place. DIY Modular Workshop Many people choose to build their own modular synths from an ever-expanding selection of kits available from around the world, then building their own enclosures and designing their own panels. This represents a much cheaper way to get into modular synthesis but can become an obsession in itself. The workshop will include a hands on soldering session where you build your own Eurorack format mixer that is yours to take home. Moduluxxx Dork Talk Dorkbot is a regular meeting for ‘people doing strange things with electricity’. Sydney Dorkbot will present a very special Moduluxxx edition featuring presentations by local makers and designers of modular synthesisers. Moduluxxx Showcase Gig A raucous gig featuring 100% modular synthesiserusing artists. The gig will be held at the Red Rattler in Marrickville on Saturday the 25th of May. More info available at www.moduluxxx.com
AT 73
One of the most significant changes in modern synthesiser module design, is the introduction of new sound generating and processing methods; the first notable entries were in the proliferation of distortion/bit crusher modules, many of which were converted from stomp boxes (4ms Pedals and Malekko Heavy Industry), or wavetables for signal generation and modulation (The Harvestman Model 1991 Piston Honda, WMD Geiger Counter, Synthesis Technology E350 Morphing Terrarium), digital oscillators, programmable DSP effects (TipTop Z-DSP), voltage-controlled WAV players (ADDAC Systems ADDAC101 and Mungo Enterprises’ w0 and g0), and of course, the advent of USB connectivity on a module for programming (Snazzy FX Ardcore). Highly respected analogue synth designer, Ken MacBeth (search for Macbeth’s coveted M5n and M3x modules) has also joined the fold, offering high-end oscillators and filters, along with envelope generators and audio mixer, plus some very neat keyboard controllers to come. Australia’s own Mungo Enterprises recently launched three modules, the most complex of these, the g0, described as a Granular/ Microsound/Sampler/Delay/Pitch Shifter module. The g0 uses an SD card slot to access mono WAV files which can be manipulated down to individual sample level, including elastic manipulation of audio in real time, and control of the playback in length from grains up to rhythmic loop sampling. More home grown product comes from Innerclock Systems, based on their industry standard Sync Gen range of desktop products — the Sync Gen II LS. Innerclock Systems’ synchronisation products have found themselves in systems belonging to some of the better known music technology artists around the planet.
DIY MODULAR One of the best aspects of current modular, from a person of average means, is that there are quite a few manufacturers who produce kit versions of their modules. My start in Eurorack modular was with some of Elby Designs’ offerings; Laurie Biddulph is based in northern NSW and he has produced a good number of strange and wonderful modules which can be purchased as complete kits, including PCB, faceplate and components. You can even purchase the PCB on its own and do the rest as you see fit. 4ms Pedals, as its name implies, started as a manufacturer of guitar effects pedals, and soon realised that its kits were being utilised in other places. The natural progression was to offer Eurorack-format module versions of its effects, in the form of the Swash and Atoner. 4ms also offers a series of clocking divider and multiplier modules which are ideal for sending timing signals to other clock related modules. For lovers of analogue drum machines, Hex Inverter in the US specialises in reproducing individual replica PCBs with its NeinOhNein modular clone series, as well as other complete sequencer modules and effects.
BUILDING A WISHLIST Modular Grid allows you to recreate your current system, or plan your next chunk of modular expenditure. Selected modules are also tallied to give visitors insight into the most popular modules. www.modulargrid.net
The Modular Planner allows you to add modules from different manufacturers, and view space requirements and electrical current draw. www.modularplanner.co.uk The Eurorack Database is possibly the easiest to navigate of the modular planning sites, with sensible categorising of modules, cases, power supplies, and more. www.eurorackdb.com
Another left-field module idea, attempting to take advantage of the popular notion of using effects pedals with modular synths, is The Harvestman’s Model 1979 Stilton Adaptor — a four-channel effects insert module, which utilises TRS cables for the convenient insertion of pedals into the signal path. This is more of a starting point for people who want to research modular synthesis and how to get involved. It can be as cost-effective or wageconsuming as you like, but fortunately, there are plenty of on-line resources to see and hear individual modules, and discuss them with other users. As I said earlier, there is so much available, and different plans for each person, so get cracking on your research, and enjoy the journey.
AUSTRALIAN EURORACK IMPORTERS Equinox Oz: www.equinoxoz.com Rhythm Active: www.rhythmactive.com.au Elby Designs: www.elby-designs.com Awave: www.awave.com.au Chris Steller has worked as a composer, programmer, sound designer, product specialist, product manager, clinician and teacher. What he doesn’t know about synthesisers he is certainly willing to find out. Ask via Steller Sound Technology: steller_tech@pacific.net.au
AT 74
POWER Mackie DLM Series Powered PA
• 2000W power per cab via ultra-efficient Class-D amplification • Top boxes with DL2 powerful, one-touch digital mixer with bright OLED screen • Sub with DLP powerful, one-touch digital processor with bright OLED screen
&
DLM12S - $1,499
DLM12 - $1,299
DLM8 - $1,049
Mackie DL1608 Digital Live Mixer with iPad Control • 16 Onyx mic preamps • 6 aux sends for monitor mixes • Tons of Built-In Processing
DL1608 - $1,299
PASSION Mackie MR5 Mk II & MR8 Mk II
MR5MkII – $199 each
• High-resolution, powered studio reference monitors • Precision Class A/B amplification with Active protection circuits • Optimally-sized custom waveguide provides seamless transition of HF and LF
MR8MkII – $299 each
570 City Road South, Melbourne, 3205 phone: 03 9694 2600 sales@soundcorp.com.au www.soundcorp.com.au
AT 75
REVIEW While reminiscing with an old sound mixer friend recently we were wondering how long the AKG D12 has been around. To me they were the kick sound of the glory days of Oz rock. I fondly remember bands like the Oils and Cold Chisel roaring away in sticky, smoke-filled venues, the kick drum whacking you in the stomach and flapping the legs of your jeans on every hit. Ah, the good old days. I also have a picture on my wall of a band I was in around 1976… I can’t say the band was any good, but there’s a D12 on the kick drum. My friend thought they’d been around for longer, maybe since the late ’60s or early ’70s, but on making the enquiry we were surprised to learn they were the first dynamic mic produced by AKG, and production began in 1953! It’s also claimed they were the world’s first unidirectional (cardioid) microphone. Manufactured with a bass chamber in the rear compartment to give a fuller sound, for the first 20 years or so they were used mainly as voice mics for recording, radio and TV productions. I would imagine they were adopted for kick drum use with the rise in popularity of loud, bass heavy bands who would have appreciated their low frequency extension and ability to handle high levels without distorting. TIME FOR A NEW CAPSULE
Time caught up with the D12 during the ’80s and its ballsy, thudding sound gave way to more hi-fi mics. I was mixing Men At Work in 1982-83 and I recall moving from a D12 to a Beyer M88 for what was a more modern sound at the time. AKG brought out the D12’s replacement the D112 (the egg) in 1986 but it wasn’t the same. Still a good kick mic, it was big and boomy with a scooped mid-range and boosted high-mids to bring out some clicky attack.
AKG D12VR
But now, 65 years after the original was released, we have the AKG D12VR. The VR stands for Vintage sound Re-issue and AKG describes the mic as a ‘vintage-style premium bass microphone’, obviously regarding it as an update of the original D12. But is it just a marketing ploy attempting to cash in on the name and nostalgia of the original?
LOW END MICROPHONE AKG reissues a legendary model, but updates the insides to modern standards. Is this just faux vintage patina or the real deal?
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Mark Woods
PRICE $699
PROS Sound quality
CONTACT Audio Products Group: 1300 134 400 or sales@audioproducts.com.au
LF extension
AT 76
Build quality EQ options Nostalgic connection
CONS Level drops with EQ presets
SQUARE EYES
If you had to judge this mic by its cover, you would instantly think the D12VR was a modern D12. From side on the identifiable band around the centre of the mic is still there, and the galvanised nickel grille on the front is silver while the grille on the back is matte black — just like the original D12. Its body is deeper and houses what AKG describes as an optimised bass chamber, and looking into the front of the mic, it’s square rather than rectangular. Weight was an
SUMMARY AKG’s D12VR looks like an updated D12. While it doesn’t sound exactly like AKG’s first dynamic mic, it follows in its footsteps as a specialist low frequency mic, but designed in the 21st century. With more extension, a transformer (albeit from the ’70s), ultra-thin diaphragm and active EQ presets, it’s one of the most versatile low end dynamic microphones on the market.
issue with the original D12; at over 700g it needed a strong stand to avoid falling over on a long reach. The D12VR is lighter at 500g but it’s still heavier than most live mics. The original’s captive connecting lead is long gone and that is an improvement. They were too easy to damage in the rough and tumble world of rock ’n’ roll and they were often cut back to just a few inches of cable with an XLR plug hanging off the mic, but this was still a precarious arrangement. AKG addressed this by releasing the D12E that had an integral male XLR connector. The D12VR also has an integral XLR connection mounted in parallel to the simple but strong stand mount fitting. Once on a stand the D12VR can only be tilted upwards through 90 degrees whereas the original tilted up and down, but only through about 60 degrees. This makes the D12VR slightly less flexible but means it can be positioned right inside the drum and still point directly at the beater head. The hole in the drum head will need to be at least 13cm in diameter to get it in at all. PRESET SCOOP
The D12VR is a large-diaphragm, cardioidpattern dynamic mic and while the ‘ultra-thin’ diaphragm is new the output transformer is the same one used on the AKG C414 that was developed in the 1970s. The original standard D12 did not use a transformer and had an impedance of 60Ω, but there were three variations that offered impedances of 250Ω, 500Ω or ‘Hi’ impedances. AKG claims the C414 transformer enhances the audio quality, especially at high levels, by cancelling out impedance differences between the mic and the mixer input. Interesting technical specifications include a stated frequency response of ±2dB from a rumbling 17Hz up to 17kHz, with a maximum SPL of a deafening 164dB SPL. So as well as kick drums it would be great for close-miking a cannon. The other big inclusion inside the mic is the addition of an integral filter circuit that offers three different EQ presets. It’s an active analogue filter system with a transformer, and as it gets powered by the mixing desk’s 48V (phantom power) it loses some overall output level. Without phantom power the D12VR is a normal dynamic mic with a wide, flat frequency response. Hit the phantom power button and it switches to one of three presets. Each D12VR is supplied with a signed and dated computer plot of its individual frequency response. Like the original, the D12VR is a good vocal mic with a fairly flat response from 50Hz to 1.5kHz. It doesn’t look like much on the frequency response plot but there is an audible scoop from around 200-500Hz. It’s only a couple of dB but it fattens the sound and emphasises the octave below 200Hz. Up higher it’s boosted between 2-8kHz then falls back to flat at 10kHz, before rolling off quite sharply. Speaking into it is fun; getting right on the grille and using the wellcontrolled proximity effect gives a big, rich, chesty tone — instant radio voice. Even the admirably low handling noise is thick and you get a deep thump if you put the mic down on a flat surface
with it turned on. Rejection at the sides and especially the rear of the mic is excellent. Swapping to an original D12 for the same voice test is like going back in time, the original has less highs and lows, and its output level is approximately 10dB lower, but it has a similar quality to the sound both on-axis and moving around the mic. The D112 is quite different, for a start it could only have looked good in the ’80s… and to be fair it wasn’t intended for vocal use. Its mids are somewhat subdued but a presence peak centred around 4kHz makes it almost crisp on vocals. The big bottom end is boosted between 60200Hz anyway and when you add some proximity effect it’s quite boomy. It can be tamed with EQ or a HPF but it takes a fair amount of attenuation to control it. It also has comparatively high handling noise, and the LF attenuation at 180 degrees is not as good as the others. Interestingly the maximum SPL for 0.5% THD is listed as ‘unmeasurable’ so you could have used it to record the Big Bang. KICK IT
But the D12VR is primarily intended as a kick mic, so I lined it up against the original D12 and the in-between D112 for a kick drum recording shoot-out. The original D12 (a 60Ω, ‘notransformer’ model) was first and performed well; it had an old-fashioned woodiness to the mids but was strong and thumpy with plenty of level down to 40Hz on the analyser. When it was first released its frequency response was quoted at ±4dB between 40Hz and 12kHz which would have been outstanding in 1953. Next was the D112, and compared to both the D12VR and original D12 it had a big peak centred around 125Hz. This gave it a boxy quality that begged for some taming EQ. Reducing the peak with a narrow cut around 125Hz fixed it and let the bottom end come out. It was strong down to 40Hz, with the presence peak doing its job of adding some click. The D12VR was the standout in this test with an instantly appealing thump that reached all the way down to 25Hz on the analyser and sounded just right without even thinking about EQ. This was the test that made me want one of these bad boys. It had a smooth top end, the click was detailed and accurate, but the combined deep and tight bottom end won it for me. LURKING PHANTOM PRESETS
And then there are the three preset EQ settings. By applying phantom power you instantly get whichever setting is selected, but you lose approximately 10dB of level. There are icons on top of the mic’s silver band that visually describe each setting, and a sliding switch that changes colour to indicate the different settings. The centre setting (pink light) has a scooped midrange, to the left (green light) the same scooped mids plus added lows, the right (blue light) has scooped mids plus added lows and highs. AKG recommends green for open kicks, pink for a vintage sound and blue for closed kick drums. The only trouble with this system is remembering the colour for each setting in the dark, when you can only see the lights and not the icons. If the lights were behind the icons so they were silhouetted AT 77
“
The D12VR was the standout… with an instantly appealing thump that reached all the way down to 25Hz
”
then you could see what setting you were getting in the dark without having to remember the colour scheme. Anyway, the lights are pretty colours and the switch is silent so it’s easy to audition the settings to hear what happens. The different EQ settings are distinct and offer the most commonly used EQ shapes; cutting the mids to fatten the sound up is fairly standard, a bass boost makes sense, and added lows and tops to give a heavily scooped, more aggressive sound, may be used for heavy bands. They loosely fit with AKG’s suggestions about open or closed kick drums but they can simply be auditioned to find the setting most complimentary to the particular instrument. It took me a while to warm to the presets; there’s nothing wrong with them but the volume drop seemed a little odd — and the mic sounds so good as a simple dynamic mic. At first I was inclined to use the ‘natural’ sound and add EQ on the mixing desk, but after hearing the presets in action I began to appreciate what a handy option they are. Some users will benefit from the way the presets work for their situation, others for the convenience of not needing external EQ. CONSPICUOUSLY COOL
Time for some live use and on a stage the D12VR looks fat, in a good way, standing out like a large German car on the road. You could, but you wouldn’t use it as a live vocal mic unless the singer was extremely shy and wanted a mic to hide behind… it would be good for that. It’s too big for vocals and for full effect it should be used on bass instruments. I first tried it at a Save The Kimberley Benefit at super-cool artist colony, Lot19, in Castlemaine. Over the course of the event I used it on several kick drums, a bass amp, two didgeridoos and a big saxophone. It was great on all these sources, with plenty of body in the lowmids on the brass and bass amp, an overall natural presence and real weight down deep on the kick drums. This was not a show for experimenting with EQ shapes so I relied on the desk EQ. But I didn’t use it much — the D12VR is one of those mics that AT 78
you put in front of things and look forward to what it will give you rather than having to look for a sound that works. It also got a run at the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine when Sol Nation came to town. Their driven dance grooves need a big, punchy and deep kick drum sound and the D12VR was a natural. We had time for a good soundcheck and it was fun to audition the EQ presets. I chose green (scooped-mids, added lows) for the closed-drum-with-a-hole kick and was able to then run the channel flat. The sound system has plenty of subs and the D12VR had lots of controllable energy well below 50Hz. If you want to explore the very bottom of a system, this is the mic. The next weekend was even more fun. Over three nights the D12VR got used successfully on kick drum for English folk-rocker Seth Lakeman, Aussie singer Pete Murray’s cajon and, most revealingly, with blues legend Tony Joe White. His drummer was Nashville’s own Brian Owings whose credits include Justin Townes Earle and The Amazing Rhythm Aces. They had their own kick mic but were happy to try the D12VR; it only took a few hits on the kick before the band mixer declared that he wanted one and Brian was asking me how much they cost. That sort of instant response only happens when something really hits the spot. Overall the D12VR was a pleasure to use and while I found the mic to be perfectly functional without the EQ presets, they’re available if you want them, and the lights add a theatrical touch. I think AKG has designed the D12VR to be a logical and worthy successor to the much-loved D12; like the original, it’s not just a one kick wonder, but presents a truly contemporary design. Its retail price is not bargain-basement but this is a high-quality, distinctive microphone that feels strong enough to match the longevity of the original. Many thanks to Broden Penna for the loan of his original D12.
AT 79
REVIEW
ACOUSTIC TECHNOLOGIES FR21A SELF-POWERED SPEAKER Acoustic Technologies’ Australian-designed and manufactured FR21A speaker blows away the plastic fantastics without blowing the budget.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Mark Woods
PRICE $2995 each CONTACT Acoustic Technologies: (07) 3376 4122 or info@atprofessional.com.au
AT 80
PROS Sound quality & consistency 1175W of onboard power Built tough
CONS None
Acoustic Technologies Audio Systems is an Australian company making world-class audio products. Based in Queensland, Acoustic Technologies designs and manufactures in Australia. That it can compete with the flood of readily available cheap and cheerful imports, as well as established high-end brands, speaks volumes about the integrity of its designs and the quality of its products. Specialising in equipment that comes after the mixing desk, its range includes several series of speakers, amplifiers, processors and processing software. SUMMARY The Australian-designed and manufactured FR21A speakers from Brisbane-based Acoustic Technologies do what all speakers should: sound consistently great across a full frequency range and over a number of sources; handle plenty of power; be built tough; and have a long warranty.
MORE PLEASE
StudioLive 32.4.2AI 32x4x2 Active Integration Digital Mixer Easy to use, with high-end audio quality, wireless networking, and the most DSP power of any compact digital mixer. A great-sounding 32-channel digital mixer that’s easy to use and compact, yet delivers extensive signal processing on every channel and bus, an onboard 48x34 FireWire S800 interface, Wi-Fi networking, Quick Scenes, and tightly integrated, state-of-the-art software, including VSL-AI with Smaart Measurement Technology™.
• 32 mic/line channel inputs with 100mm faders and insert sends/returns • 4 subgroups and 14 auxiliary buses (pre/post-fader send) • The most DSP power of any compact digital mixer • On all channels and buses: 4-band parametric EQ, compressor, gate, limiter • 16 31-band graphic EQs (assigned to mains and aux outputs) • 48-in/34-out FireWire S800 recording interface (24-bit/44.1kHz and 48kHz) • Dedicated USB 2.0 port for included Wi-Fi LAN adapter
AT 81
“ ”
All speakers should be of this quality
… THEN THERE ARE SPEAKERS
The AT FR21A is a new release and provides a reminder that there are speakers… and there are speakers. These are not in the same category as the multitude of plastic powered speakers that are cheap to buy, easy to carry and include lots of connection options via mini-mixers on the rear panel. These have fewer features but they’re much better made, they sound much better, and they’re designed for professional applications including production supply companies, nightclubs, corporate presentations, installations or other venues that need high-quality, powerful sound reinforcement. The Acoustic Technologies FR21A is a selfpowered full-range speaker with a 12-inch neodymium woofer and a one-inch neodymium compression driver on a proprietary wave guide. Acoustic Technologies has invested considerable time and expertise in the crossover and gives it credit for the speaker’s smooth response across the mid-range. It’s a passive design and crosses over at 1.3kHz. The physical design of the speaker is understated but it looks both tough and professional. The cabinet is made from 12mm and 18mm birch ply with a shiny black textured finish. The perforated steel grille is finished in black powder coat paint over acoustic foam and looks like it could take a lot of flying drinks without anything getting through. The sides have recessed handles that facilitate a balanced lift when it comes time to carry them, and that’s good because at more than 24kg they are heavier than many powered speakers, especially the plastic fantastics, and a fair lift for one person. Still, it can be done safely and there’s a pole mount socket on the bottom of the speaker for putting them on sticks. For more solid mounting or installations there are integrated rigging tracks top and bottom. The rear panel has only the bare essentials; a power switch, XLR input and XLR link sockets, and a Powercon AC mains inlet. Most of the rear panel is taken up with a large heat sink to provide cooling for the integrated Class D amplifier that delivers a maximum of 1175W into the speaker’s 8Ω load. There are only two indicator lights on the panel, one for power, the other for limiting, but internally the amp has protection circuits for AT 82
heat, over current, and HF input level, as well as an output limiter. ACCURATE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT
I started off testing with vocal mics and straight away I could hear the speaker was cohesive and loud. The horn has an extended high frequency response and the overall sound is quite bright and sparkly up high. Up close with a Shure Beta 58 the horn bites a bit around 2.5kHz but that’s more to do with the mic’s response than the speaker. Tested with a Neumann KSM9 the sound sat just right without any EQ. Using a range of vocal mics I was pleased with the way the speaker brought out each mic’s individual characteristics — it’s a good indicator of a speaker’s accuracy. Resistance to feedback up close at high levels was good, a further testament to their even frequency response, and even moving quite a way from the speaker the voice stayed crisp and clear with excellent intelligibility. Moving around the front of the speaker revealed a wide and even horizontal dispersion. Acoustic Technologies quotes the high frequency dispersion at 100 degrees horizontal by 40 degrees vertical. Moving around the sides the sound faded smoothly with commendably little sound coming from the sides or behind. The frequency response is quoted at ±3dB between 90Hz and 21kHz and while they don’t go down to the lowest depths, there is good body between 100Hz and 200Hz, so they’d only need subs for bass-heavy applications. FILLING IN FOR THE MAIN ACT
Off to the Theatre Royal with these. I’d planned to use them as side fills for Justin Townes Earle. He’s one of my favourite performers, he’s been to Castlemaine before and it was a sold out show. I set them up and they made excellent side fills; they threw easily to the middle of the stage with a noticeable clarity to the mid-range and plenty of volume in hand, even though I was using an Audio-Technica AE5400 LDC vocal mic, which sounds great but is by no means the tightest pick-up pattern around. If I kept turning them up they eventually tried to feedback around 10kHz (the mic is hot there) but they’re very stable unless provoked. These are powerful, focused speakers and I could have spun them around
towards the audience and they would have done a commendable job as the front-of-house PA. Anyway, Townes Earle arrived for the soundcheck and he’d changed since last time… he wasn’t drinking and he was using in-ear monitors. So he didn’t need side fills. His touring sound mixer Gareth Lindsay suggested we use them as in-fill for the people up the front. It was a good call and they ended up being run at a level just under the main PA and covered the front centre of the room very well. Any EQ was more to do with taste, the room and mic choice, rather than compensating for any speaker non-linearity. It was a great show and Gareth thought they sounded terrific. SWEET SPOT
The FR21A sits beneath the same-sized but DSP-equipped, bi-amped, networkable SS24A in Acoustic Technologies’s range of speakers and its RRP of $2995 seems like good value to me. I imagine these would be especially appealing for production supply companies. One of these and a sub each side would make a compact but powerful PA and having several of these would make it easy to configure systems to suit various situations. There are any number of cheaper speakers available but there’s some high-end design and technology gone into these and they compete against the best, and most expensive speakers around. Acoustic Technologies offers a five-year warranty on the components and I’m sure they will still be going strong long after the plastic fantastics have gone to the tip. All speakers should be of this quality.
See us at NAB Stand C4937
WHEN IT REALLY MATTERS ...
YEARS
Real-Time Networks for Video, Audio, Data and Communications
Sports
Outside Broadcast
Events
Space Jumps
Riedel Communications in Australia
NEW ADDRESS
Unit 2 / 38 Morley Avenue Rosebery NSW 2018 +61 2 9669 1199 australia@riedel.net
Theaters
Broadcast Studios
Stadiums
Houses of Worship
www.riedel.net AT 83
REVIEW
KV2 AUDIO LINE DRIVERS A handful of quality-made boxes that can drive your signal all night long, all cable long, and solve a few problems along the way. Review: Mark Woods
Czech-based company KV2 Audio has been around for a little over 10 years but co-founder George ‘Jiri’ Krampera has a long history of designing and building audio equipment, including time working for RCF. The company specialises in high-quality, live-audio speaker systems but is branching out into control/processing devices including the recently reviewed and extremely desirable SAC2 analogue speaker controller. This review looks at its JK (named after the founder’s initials) range of DIs and the LD4 rack-mounted four-channel line driver. The JK Series consists of four DIs and a tone generator, all made in the Czech Republic. Build quality is very high; the cases are thick steel that provides strength, and also help with electrical shielding, while the bottom of the cases are covered in slip-proof soft rubber to stop them sliding around the stage, as well as protecting any surface they are placed on. The circuitry inside uses high-quality, low-noise components based around proprietary transformers that are hand-wound by KV2. The XLR connections are Neutrik, the switches are fully-sealed, the knobs are firm enough to resist accidental movement, yet smooth to operate. The basic functions of the JK Series are the same as other DIs; converting high-impedance, unbalanced sources to low-impedance, balanced signals to send to the mixing desk, as well as providing a ground lift and a split for connecting to an amplifier. What’s different about these DIs is the way the KV2 VHD (Very High Definition) line drivers on the outputs use phantom power and a switching power supply to provide up to 20V of peak power internally. This is used to deliver an output impedance of 50Ω, compared to around 600Ω in standard DIs. This enables long cable runs without loss of signal quality, with reduced distortion and increased dynamic range.
NEED TO KNOW
There are four models in the series; three active designs and one passive, and they each serve a particular purpose. For convenience, DIs should be as small as possible. The JK Series all share the same size case with dimensions of 40mm x 80mm x 131mm, which is just big enough to get all the controls and connections to fit on the end panels. They’re beautifully finished and feel solid to the touch. Each DI is colour-coded and has its model name displayed prominently on the top of the box and a brief description of its function. The quoted specs are impressive with a frequency response of -1dB between 20Hz and 100kHz, THD of better than 0.005% (slightly more for the JKA) and a greater than 130dB dynamic range.
PRICE JK1 — $290 JK2 — $380 JKP — $280 JKA — $330 JKT — $230 LD4 — $2495
AT 84
CONTACT KV2 Audio: (02) 4388 4152 or info@kv2audio.com.au
PROS Excellent sound quality Audio integrity over long cable runs Focused functionality Build quality
JK1 ACTIVE DI
The JK1 is a single channel active DI with some handy extra functions. It’s in a blue box and the input end has the usual two ¼-inch jack sockets beside a three-position switch labeled Parallel, –15dB Pad, or Mix. Switched to Parallel the unit operates as a normal DI with the signal from the Input socket being sent to the Thru socket for connection to an external amplifier. The -15dB pad position is the same but the input signal is attenuated. In the Mix position the signals from both Input and Thru sockets are mixed together and sent to the output. This could be used for mixing two different sources or for combining both outputs of a keyboard or computer into one channel. Also included on the input end is a ground lift and HPF at either 80Hz or 160Hz. The output end has an XLR output socket and a phase switch that could be used to avoid phase problems with a mic and the DI, or KV2’s suggestion of correcting the phase if you meet an old ‘pin 3 hot’ mixing console. I tried the JK1 with a variety of high-impedance pickups and 100m of cable and the results were most impressive. In an A/B comparison the sound from the JK1 over the long run was unchanged compared to a 5m cable from the DI. When I swapped to a range of my usual DIs the difference was stark; dull, lifeless, reduced dynamics. I’m convinced.
CONS None
SUMMARY KV2’s comprehensive range of DIs and audio problem solvers are quality, built-tough boxes. With onboard VHD (Very High Definition) 50Ω line drivers, and quality components, the JK Series won’t degrade your sound, rather, they’ll keep it pristine.
microphone. The 1:4 ratio switch decreases a condenser microphones impedance by a factor of 16 and improves the sound quality over long cable runs. The 1:2 ratio position is intended for dynamic mics or other lower impedance sources. The JKP does not require phantom power to work but to enable the use of condenser mics it will pass phantom power through the unit if the Phantom Through and Ratio 1:4 switches are engaged. The JKP can also be used as a mic splitter with the line out operating at 100Ω feeding, for example, the FOH desk and the monitor out at 600Ω going to the monitor desk.
“
JK2 STEREO DI
The JK2 is a two-channel active DI that I always seemed to find useful when I took it to shows. Crammed onto one end of its green case are two pairs of parallel ¼-input jack Input/Thru sockets. Each pair has a -12/-24dB pad switch and a phase switch. An interesting inclusion is a ground switch with an ‘RC’ option. When selected, the grounds of the inputs and outputs are connected, to suppress static disturbance, according to KV2. The other end of the JK2 has two output XLRs as expected… and a pair of RCA inputs… they’re at the output end because they wouldn’t fit on the input end, but it’s a handy addition. I alternated between using the JK2 as a stereo keyboard DI and for connecting computers, iPods, phones or whatever else passes as professional audio equipment these days. The unit will work with phantom power engaged on either channel but for best results KV2 recommend engaging it on both channels if both are being used.
while you can’t give a DI credit for the whole show, the JKA played its part
A notch filter completes the package; it can be switched between -12dB, -6dB, or off, and works at centre frequencies sweepable between 75Hz and 1.6kHz. It was impressive when bluesman Eric Bibb performed at the Theatre Royal. He’s a great performer and interested in sound quality. He had two acoustic guitars that came alive when connected to the JKA. The notch filter is narrow and clean and we used it to trim some feedbackinducing resonance in the low-mids. No other EQ was required; the sound was warm, close and dynamic, with great body and none of the fizzy top end that DI’d guitars sometimes have. Performing with Swedish guitarist Staffan Astner the show was superb, standing ovation stuff, and while you can’t give a DI credit for the whole show, the JKA played its part and the artists were most appreciative.
” JKT TONE GENERATOR
JKA ACOUSTIC DI
JKP PASSIVE DI/MICROPHONE SPLITTER
The JKP is a single-channel transformer-balanced passive DI/mic splitter. Used as a normal DI it offers parallel balanced/unbalanced XLR/¼-inch jack inputs going to two XLR balanced outputs (line/monitor out), with a ground lift. But wait, there’s more. Besides the input sockets there’s a Ratio switch that toggles between 1:4 and 1:2 and changes the impedance of the source
I deal with lots of acoustic guitars, both live and recording, so I probably got most use from the JKA Acoustic DI. It’s got a red case and it’s been designed for high impedance sources such as pick-ups on acoustic instruments. At one end of the box there’s the familiar unbalanced ¼-inch input, an unbalanced ¼-inch link output and a balanced XLR output. The other end has the interesting stuff starting with a 10dB gain switch for boosting the signal from low-level sources. A 180-degree phase switch is also included and its uses would include providing a solution in situations where the signal from the instrument is out-of-phase with a mic on the same instrument.
The final device in the JK Series is the JKT Tone Generator. It’s not a DI/line driver at all but it’s in the same sized box and made from the same quality components. It’s run by phantom power and can generate sine wave tones from 20Hz up to 30kHz as well as white and pink noise. It’s got an output level control that drives two separate XLR outputs, one with a ¼-inch jack in parallel. The JKT can be used for trouble shooting in many audio applications. For live sound or in recording studios it can be used as a continual source to trace levels through the signal chain or to test a system’s response at various frequencies. Combined with an analyser it could be used to tune a PA and the multiple outputs mean it can check different system components at the same time. I’m often checking/chasing levels through my console-into-DAW-and-back-again setup and while I’ve got tone generators in-the-box it’s much better to use an external generator as it applies signal right from the console inputs.
AT 85
VHD LD4 LINE DRIVER
Included with the JK Series of DIs, I was also sent KV2’s VHD LD4 line driver. It’s a dedicated fourchannel line driver in a single rack unit case with nothing on the front panel except a power switch and the company/product logo. The rear panel has four pairs of XLR I/Os and each channel uses a ground-lifted, transformer-based power supply to produce a 50Ω output load. It’s designed for large-scale productions with long cable runs and the idea is the outputs from FOH (for instance) get connected to the LD4 using as short a cable run as possible (3m recommended). The LD4’s 50Ω output then travels to the amps on stage. It can be used with normal amplifiers but it’s been designed
AT 86
SERIOUS STUFF
to be used with KV2’s EPAK2500R and VHD2000 processor/amplifiers. These have a switchable 50Ω/10kΩ impedance switch on the inputs (the 10kΩ setting is so the amps can be used normally, without the LD4) to create an impedancebalanced connection system. This 50Ω system allows for improved performance over long cable runs by reducing reflections in the cable, lowering distortion, maintaining a flat frequency response (reduced HF roll-off) and improving dynamics (less signal compression). KV2 claim cable runs of up to 500m will not degrade the signal in any audible way.
KV2 has produced a range of high-quality audio products that will mainly appeal to professional users and production supply companies. Their selling points are low output impedance, high voltage supply, superior components and excellent build quality. The LD4 line driver is a specialist product for use in large-scale productions or big venues/theatres wanting to maintain signal integrity over long cable runs. The DIs will appeal to production companies, studios or artists wanting the best available technology. The four models allow users to choose exactly which functions best suit their own situations. Serious DIs for serious users.
AT 87
REVIEW
VITAL SPECS Up to 24 voice polyphony 300 programme memories 127 oscillator types Up to 3 oscillators per timbre Up to 2 timbres
KINGKORG
ANALOGUE MODELLING SYNTHESISER Korg engages in gorilla tactics, aping designs from its own stable and others to make a lightweight monster of an analogue-styled synth.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Brad Watts
PRICE $1599 CONTACT CMI: (03) 9315 2244 or info@cmi.com.au
AT 88
PROS Great sounding modelled selections
CONS Multi-timbral features are lacking
Like editing a ‘real’ synth
CV/Gate needs a dedicated MIDI channel
Not expensive
SUMMARY Korg uses all its digital trickery in the KingKorg to model analogue synths from the golden age. It’s lightweight, but grunty. And with a CV/gate output, it even talks to analogue synths, including Korg’s new mini monsters.
As little as 10 years ago, the synthesiser absorbing public were positively gagging for affordable analogue instruments, and the price of vintage machines consequently escalated alarmingly. However, vintage synthesisers require constant upkeep, and repairs aren’t always possible given the availability of replacement parts. Alongside their quirky, and sometimes downright cantankerous operation, these machines can become a hinderance to music production despite their often sublime sonics. At the same time, manufacturers prepared to put the effort in and construct ‘remake’ analogue-based machines, in my opinion, were cashing in on this vintage lust and charged an arm and a leg for such products. It’s with these views in mind that I find myself applauding Korg wholeheartedly. Korg realised early on what synthesists wanted: analogue-style sounds from reliable equipment and modern amenities such as stable tuning, USB interfacing, and dare I say, MIDI integration. And, they wanted all this at an affordable price point. Korg has always kept at this goal, with instruments such as the MS2000, Radias, and the well-worn Z1, and more recently with real analogue machines such as the diminutive Monotron and Monotribe. So without further ado, let me introduce Korg’s latest analogue-styled synth: the KingKorg. Yes, it’s a big name for a synth, but the sonics possible with Korg’s latest beast are, indeed, monstrous. Let’s inspect the anatomy of KingKorg. CHAMPAGNE SYNTHESIS
The name belies its lack of heft, in fact, the KingKorg is refreshingly lightweight. Unlike the machines it emulates, this unit can be carried from gig to gig without the need for a crew — it’s a mere seven kilograms — a road-case would weigh more. The top panel is finished in what Korg describes as ‘Champagne gold’, which is in fact, anodised aluminium. This is somehow indicative of a ‘vintage vibe’ although I can’t recall any synth from yesteryear being finished as such. What is indicative of the unit’s vintage styling is the array of dedicated knobs across the top panel — 28 in total and primed for immediate tweaking. All offer plenty of space around them and are suitably sized for live control. Being an instrument aimed at live performance I would have liked to see an indent or raised marker on the rotary (continuous) knobs so one could ascertain by feel where the knob was positioned before moving it. That aside, the layout makes sense, with oscillator, filter, amplitude and LFO controls to the right of the main display, and effect controls to the left. Three displays provide information as to filter type, oscillator choice, and patch name, and all are easy-to-read OLED displays — no menu-driven touchscreens here — it’s all extremely hands-on. There’s also a stack of back-lit buttons (red), and when you arc up the unit the buttons all glow in a Mexican wave movement from left to right across the keyboard. Neat! Speaking of power-up, the power button requires holding down until the central OLED
displays a welcome message. There’s no click or indent confirming you’ve switched the unit on. KONG’S RUMP
Out the back are a couple of unusual inclusions. Aside from the typical jack audio outputs, MIDI I/O, USB and pedal inputs, Korg includes an XLR microphone input for shunting signals into the KingKorg’s 16-band vocoder along with a CV/ gate output. Included is a cable for connecting the CV/gate output to a Korg Monotribe or the soonto-land reinvigoration of the MS20; the MS-20 Mini. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anywhere in the manual, or within the unit, a method of driving the CV/gate output from a separate MIDI channel to the KingKorg’s own internal sound engine. Apparently any multi-timbral operation is restricted to merely splitting two patches across the keyboard. As far as I can see there’s no way to use this as a dedicated CV/gate engine while simultaneously accessing sounds from the KingKorg. It is however, configurable for different voltage standards. Equally elusive was the editor software mentioned in the manual, however, I’m sure this will appear on Korg’s website soon.
“
KingKorg includes modelled filters, unabashedly aping (sorry) classic machines
”
UNDER THE BONNET
KingKorg is an analogue modelling synth. The name of the game here is approximating the sound of synthesisers manufactured from the ’70s and ’80s — the golden age of analogue synthesis if you will. Korg has focussed on replicating the more popular synths from this era. The engine behind this is Korg’s ‘Xpanded Modeling Technology’, or XMT, and is derived from Korg’s Radias system from 2006. Aside from PCM waveforms covering all your basics such as the M1 Organ, and recreations of voltage controlled oscillators such as square, saw, and noise, the system also includes Korg’s DWGS (Digital Waveform Generator System) originally developed for the DW8000 (a brilliant synth in my opinion), but with 64 DWGS waveforms, four times as many as the original. All the staples of analogue sound creation are set and ready to mould. What is unique however, is how the KingKorg provides preset oscillator setups which include combinations of waveforms — combinations prepped for sculpting sounds with classic tone, yet primed for use in modern compositions. On
top of this, KingKorg includes modelled filters, unabashedly aping (sorry) classic machines such as the Roland TB-303, Oberheim machines, the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 ‘Rev 2’, Moog, and Korg’s own Radias and MS-20. Then there are high and bandpass versions of each filter to add an extra twist not possible using the original machines. But does the KingKorg replicate these synths perfectly? I can’t tell you because I sold all my old analogue gear (apart from a few choice morsels). So I can’t really compare. Does the KingKorg sound good? Hell yes! Whatever’s going on with ‘Xpanded Modeling Technology’ is, indeed, a splendid thing. Of course no analogue-inspired synth would hold its own without an arpeggiator of some description. KingKorg provides a programmable step arpeggiator where duration, interval, and on/off status of each step can be set. It certainly isn’t Korg’s outlandish KARMA arpeggio construction kit developed with Stephen Kay, but it doesn’t have to be. This arpeggiator/sequencer is pretty standard — in many ways like the synths that inspired virtual analogue machines like the KingKorg, yet it’s still possible to get notes falling where you need them. Bringing it all home is the comprehensive effects section, all quickly editable from the three large knobs on the left of the KingKorg. This section is intuitively arranged into three groups. ‘Pre’ effects such as ring modulation and distortion; modulation effects like chorus, phase, flanging and rotary speaker simulation; and reverb and delay effects. The tape echo is excellent and the BPM delay syncs to MIDI clock flawlessly. High and low EQ knobs provide a nice slope at each end of the spectrum for quick changes also. To the left of these is a single knob with the word ‘Tube’ above it. The knob provides drive to a tube situated to the left of the KingKorg, and there’s a neat little metal grille cut through the top panel so you can see the tube in action. If you can’t see any change there’s also a red LED under the grille that glows more as drive is added. Pointless, but kinda cool — in a ridiculous kinda way. Same could be said of the multicolour LED inset into the KingKorg logo like a crown jewel, which changes with the moving filter cutoff. Regardless, the drive circuit sounds great on countless sounds, and a ‘Boost’ button takes the drive/tube circuit to another level again. It’s a nice touch. CHEST BEATING?
Would I own one? If I were after a synth to replace a number of instruments I wouldn’t dare take outside for fear of them breaking down, yes. If I needed a bunch of standards such as organ, electronic keys, strings and pads, and wasn’t concerned with those sounds being ‘realistic’. Yes I would! If I wanted some analogue style sculpting with a great collection of filters and analogue sounding oscillators? Yep, I sure would. In fact, for the price, I reckon it’d be best to own two KingKorgs. Now that… would be huge.
AT 89
REVIEW
3 ZIGMA CHI
MICROPHONE SYSTEM ADK Microphones has spawned a spin-off, boutique stuffing for its high-end 3 Zigma capsules. The 3 Zigma CHI interchangeable head and body system is class kit, in kit form.
NEED TO KNOW
Review: Greg Walker
CONTACT Professional Audio Services: (02) 6059 1652 or adam@paservices.com
PROS Flexible system that can grow over time Extremely low noise and distortion specs LD capsules are real studio workhorses Look great
AT 90
CONS No figure-eight option ‘Honest’ mic voicings may be unflattering on compromised sources Still need multiple bodies to record simultaneously with multiple heads
PRICE Head Amps HA-TL-II (Transformerless): $655 HA-FX (Transformer-Coupled): $714 Lollipops C-LOL-251: $767 C-LOL-12: $631 C-LOL-47: $712 C-LOL-67: $657 Lipsticks Omni Diffuse Field: $435 Omni Flat Field: $545 Cardioid: $435 Hypercardioid: $435
SUMMARY The 3 Zigma CHI microphone system is well-built and stylish, and delivers excellent sonic realism with a variety of coloured and uncoloured capsule and body options for different applications. The large-diaphragm heads are excellent studio workhorses, but fair warning, collecting them all could get addictive.
3 Zigma is a specialist boutique brand created by established microphone manufacturer ADK for the purposes of bringing the CHI (Capsule Hybrid Integrator) system to market. The CHI microphone system is a new variation on an old theme: a simple cylindrical microphone body contains a basic amplification stage to which a variety of capsule heads can be screwed on for different applications and sonic results. Where the 3 Zigma design differs from Neumann and Schoeps classics is that the same mic body will accept both large and small diaphragm capsules, thus significantly expanding the system’s reach as a microphone toolkit. OFF WITH ITS HEAD!
The CHI system is based on two simple head amp designs. The HA-TLII is a ‘straight wire’ transformerless FET body and the HA-FX is a transformer-coupled body that adds threeposition switches for attenuation and bass roll-off. These designs are extremely low noise (most capsules are quoted at a pin-drop S/N ratio of 80+ dB using the HA-TLII body) and require a standard 48V power source, so no old-school PSUs sitting on your floor. Conceived as tools for both the classical recording and studio worlds, the idea seems to be to keep a transparent, uncoloured circuit at the head amp and let the various available capsules do the colouration if required. The small diaphragm CHI capsules aim for clarity and purity of signal while the large diaphragm capsules are more coloured. There are also plans afoot to release a valve-driven body later in the year which would be an interesting alternative to the straight wire approach. Just to be clear, there are no polar pattern selectors to be seen here — if you want to switch from a cardioid to an omnidirectional pattern its ‘off with its head’ and time to grab another capsule out of the box. Given that one head amp and a set of capsules will cost you upwards of a grand there’s a considerable buy-in to be made if you want to assemble a real studio toolkit in this way, but the flexibility of the CHI system does have a definite appeal and it’s something that can grow according to your needs over time. LOLLIPOPS & LIPSTICKS
The resemblance of the large diaphragm capsules to lollipops so struck the folks at 3 Zigma that it even found its way into its nomenclature (or it’s trying to appeal to the kids, LOL!) — so we have the C-LOL-12, C-LOL-47, C-LOL-67 and C-LOL-251 head capsules, each referring rather bluntly to a classic ’50s or ’60s microphone of European origin. Spelling it out, 3 Zigma says that these capsules were designed with the AKG C12, Neumann U47 and U67, and finally Telefunken ELAM 251 ‘in mind’. Reading between the lines I’m guessing the 3 Zigma boffins spent a fair bit of time trying to mimic the tonal signatures of these 20th century milestone models. Personally it always disappoints me when manufacturers hijack the names or numbers of revered classics while the actual design elements (valves and
transformers anyone?) bear little resemblance to those of the original models. It’s a cheap shot given that what’s on offer here is aimed at a relatively high-end market and the mics themselves are well-built, robust and very easy on the eye. The kits come in attractive wooden cases and are supplied with robust and reliable suspension mounts. Mesh grill covers either side of the circular LD capsule heads and a stylish engraved logo and polar pattern symbol indicate which side is the front of each capsule. Both bodies and heads are finished in silver, and the mics have a timeless look about them. All the LD capsules are cardioid and exhibit slightly different frequency contours, especially in the area above 2kHz. The C-LOL-12 has pronounced peaks at 5kHz and 12kHz, the C-LOL-67 has similar but more gentle rises while the C-LOL-251 has a 5kHz peak and a steep rise around 15kHz. Finally the C-LOL-47 (the slightly more expensive sibling) has the most modest peaks of them all at 3kHz and 12kHz. Below this, they all exhibit very flat tonal response and most of them taper off gently below 50Hz although the C-LOL-251 stays strong in the lower frequencies down to around 30Hz. By contrast the ‘lipsticks’ (the small diaphragm capsules) are simply named according to their cardioid patterns. They are the SD-C cardioid, SD-H hyper-cardioid, SD-O-D diffuse-field omnidirectional and SD-OMNI-F free-field omnidirectional models. The diffuse field model is aimed squarely at ambient recording situations where an even treble response is required off axis. The free field model has a more conventional omni pickup pattern where treble response is maximised for on-axis sources. The two cardioid models exhibit a gentle taper below 100Hz but the omnis are ruler flat out to 20Hz making them ideal for live concert and other distance miking applications. There’s no figure-eight option available yet. BIG TOPS
I didn’t have much time to reflect on these mics before throwing them in the deep end during a week of overdubbing with Wollongong country folk maestro Patrick Lyons. I pretty much stuck to the C-LOL-47 with the HA-FX transformercoupled body for most of the tracking as I screwed it together first and it worked well on a wide variety of sources straight off the bat. By the end of the week I’d had it on BVs, kick, drum overheads, electric guitars, double bass, acoustic guitar, banjo, dulcimer and piano and I’ve got to say I was never tempted to replace it with something else. Going through either a Neve or Universal Audio preamp, the tonal balance was spot on for most of these sources — perhaps a little dark on double bass but that was easily rectified by some gentle EQ — and the sounds sat happily in with what was already tracked elsewhere. I was really pleased with how this mic translated everything in my studio space. AT 91
The kits come in attractive wooden cases and are supplied with robust and reliable suspension mounts.
Later, as an experiment, I recorded an entire track using just the C-LOL-47 head on the HA-TLII transformerless body. Any concerns about a thin or characterless sound (given the transformerless design philosophy) were quickly banished. Tonally, the finished track sat surprisingly well with no EQ or compression, and I was particularly pleased with the vocal tone and the sense of dimension in the drum overhead position. I repeated this experiment with both the C-LOL-12 and C-LOL-67 using the transformerless bodies and again the results were favourable. Though each mic had its own sound I was a little surprised by how similar the three mics sounded. The C-LOL-67 had the lowest output of the three and particularly shone on overheads and guitars while the C-LOL-12 exhibited a stronger and somewhat less controlled top end which gave acoustic and electric guitars a bit more sparkle and sense of aliveness. Both the C-LOL-12 and -67 worked well as vocal mics with their extra presence bringing forward both detail and sibilance, but for my voice the C-LOL-47 on the transformer-coupled body won this particular shootout with its midrange realism and tonal control a real standout. I double checked that this was still my preference even with the transformerless body — and yes the mojo was definitely in the capsule. I overdubbed some vocals on a few older tracks and really liked AT 92
the way the C-LOL-47 punched through the mix while sounding ‘honest’ in a way that none of my other LDC options do. Overall I’d describe the tone of these three capsules as realistic but with an ability to convey nuances of performance and tone in a flattering way given the right sources. SMALL DETAILS
Last, but not least, I turned my attention to the small diaphragm capsules. On acoustic guitar and piano both the cardioid and omni free field heads did a very good job of delivering clean, detailed acoustic images, and the omni definitely ‘held its head high’ as a room mic with less presence boost than the directional models. Having said that I somehow expected a little more magic from them and in this regard they were more honest than flattering. Perhaps the lack of a valve gain stage is more evident here, and while they did narrowly best my AKG C451s, I couldn’t help but mentally stack them up against the stunning sound of a Neumann KM56 or Mojave MA100. On a strummed acoustic guitar part I preferred the large diaphragm C-LOL-67, but when it came to a more restrained picking part, the cardioid small diaphragm capsule won the day. The cardioid head also won my respect as a hi-hat and snare mic, where the pad on the transformer-coupled body helped deliver clean accurate transients with no audible smearing or distortion.
HEADMASTER
The 3 Zigma mics are a very interesting proposition. While at first I was a little sceptical about their abilities, I quickly grew to know and like them a lot. It’s a testament to their sound and flexibility that in close to three weeks of tracking I’ve used almost nothing else and I’m really happy with the results in a wide variety of contexts. Indeed the C-LOL-47’s performance has really got me thinking about acquiring one as a long-term option for lead vocal and general duties in my studio. These mics deliver an honest yet vivid representation of what you put into them, and if you are in the business of regularly capturing good performances using good sounding instruments in decent sounding spaces then you will love the 3 Zigma mics. In more compromised spaces they will almost certainly be less flattering. In the lavish acoustic environments of concert halls and other purposebuilt performance spaces the small diaphragm mics may well be a step up in specifications and overall tonal quality to many of the current favourites. The CHI system is a serious set of quality audio tools that involves a significant investment, but for the right buyer they will deliver balanced, realistic sounds and flexibility in a simple and elegant package.
Mid-Side recording means total control Mid-Side recording allows independent adjustment of all parameters of direct and ambient sound offering exceptional control over the stereo field width. The first handheld recorder to offer Mid-Side stereo recording, the H2n features our best microphones yet and is the only portable recorder with five mic capsules onboard. Isolate mid and side tracks for adjusting, affecting and individual processing at any time after recording. Convert to mono for broadcast without phase cancellation. Get great recordings instantly by capturing 360째 sound without monitoring and refine your recordings into finished works with the included WaveLab LE software or your choice of digital audio workstation. The H2n offers four unique recording modes: Mid-Side (MS) stereo, 90째 X/Y stereo, 2-channel and 4-channel surround sound. USB 2.0 interface. Analog Mic Gain for precision volume control. Edit audio onboard. Onboard reference speaker and stereo output. New data recovery function. 20 hours of battery life. Linear PCM recording at up to 24bit/96kHz quality. Broadcast Wave Format support. 32GB SDHC card support. WaveLab LE software included for editing and mastering. Two Year Warranty when purchased from Authorised Australian dealers
facebook.com/ZoomAustralia
dynamicmusic.com.au AT 93
REVIEW Bose has always revelled in the power of psychoacoustics to squeeze a little something extra out of its designs. While other speaker box manufacturers tend to provide speakers loosely based around the idea of setting up a left/right configuration, or something like it — leaving it to the engineer to create any spatial separation within their mix — Bose has had different ideas. The Bose 901 hi-fi units fired eight drivers into the wall, and only one directly towards the listener, using room reflections to advantage rather than trying to avoid them. And its satellite systems were always designed to sound much bigger than they look. In the PA world though, Bose, while still innovative, was seemingly towing the same PA line as everyone else. While the 802 eschewed crossovers and tweeters for eight similar drivers, it was still designed to sit left/right, LCR, or similar. Then Roommatch came out, which allowed installers to not rely on DSP, but rather, pick their line array modules based on how each box’s performance characteristics matched the space it was going into. But again, still designed to operate in one of the de facto setups. But perhaps the most interesting device to come out of Bose’s boffinry is the L1 system. Various iterations have been around for a few years now, but Bose just updated the line with the release of the L1 Model 1S and B2 Bass module, so we thought it would be a good time to revisit the technology. COCKTAIL CLOAKING DEVICE
The issue, as Bose saw it, was that by shoehorning the output of multiple musicians into one or two sides of a PA, then the potential for them to mask each other is much greater. It’s commonly referred to as the Cocktail Party Effect. (Well, the opposite really, the Cocktail Party Problem.) See, we humans are pretty good at eavesdropping at parties, so long as the person(s) of interest are spaced around the room and not standing on top of each other. As soon as multiple sources come from the same spot, you’re ability to distinguish between whether they’re talking about your mate Richard or being a tad inhospitable decreases dramatically.
BOSE L1 MODEL 1S, B2 BASS & T1 TONEMATCH Bose has added more design ingenuity to its ingenious column speakers.
NEED TO KNOW
STICKING WITH IT
This, of course, requires a markedly different kind of speaker system to what we’re used to. The system, instead of being a speaker on a stick, is a stick speaker. The roughly 2m-tall L1 Model 1S unit splits in two, with the top being a vertical array of 12 speakers, and the bottom half an extension that slots into the base, which also doubles as an amplifier.
Review: Mark Davie
PRICE $3600 (L1 Model 1S, B2 Bass & Tonematch engine)
PROS Minimal level loss over distance
CONTACT Bose: 1800 173 371 or www.bose.com.au
Very portable package
AT 94
The idea behind the Bose L1 is to return sound reinforcement to the days before triple system amplification (backline, monitors and front of house) became the norm, and go back to individual instrument amplification. The benefits being that each instrument has its own PA, which helps not only the audience localise the sound and enhance intelligibility, but also allows the musician to control their own sound, knowing that the sound they’re producing is what the audience is hearing too. The Bose L1 systems are designed as a cure-all for instrument amplification, foldback and PA in a single package.
Great-sounding wide dispersion
CONS Must all buy-in, to buy into Bose’s big idea
SUMMARY Bose has updated its L1 column speaker with more design ingenuity and bottom end options. It’s a perfect room filler, and still brings a way of thinking about PAs that’s worth checking out.
The Bose L1 works as a cylindrical wave source. Losing only half its intensity with each doubling of distance, as opposed to a spherical source (think: typical 12+horn-style speaker) which retains only one-fourth of its intensity with every doubling of distance. It also has a horizontal dispersion of 180 degrees. The result is a naturally wide spread that can fill a room with ease, and less level loss from the front of the room to the back. It means the performer can tailor their own sound and EQ, without it sounding completely different in the cheap seats. It’s actually quite remarkable how well the system works. It’s by far, one of the most even-sounding small systems I’ve heard. You can be standing 25m away, need to adjust the EQ or level and walk right up to the unit without it tearing your head off.
Going digital ain’t so bad...
I only had a single system to test out, so I wasn’t able to put into practise Bose’s idea of having an L1 for every performer. But to get the idea behind using it as both monitoring and FOH simultaneously, we used a couple of volatile instruments, namely an acoustic guitar and a vocal mic. If anything was going to set it off, it would be one of these parked directly in front of the array. But, with plenty of level for a 100-person sing-a-long and definitely space for more, there wasn’t even a squawk from the PA with the performer sitting 1.5m in front of it. Adding a backing vocalist to the mix didn’t phase it at all either, but that was starting to move away from the one artist, one stick formula. The B2 Bass was more than adequate to keep up with the column speaker, and does its job admirably. BREAKING IT DOWN
The two halves of the main PA — the power stand, and column — break down into roughly 11kg lots with their padded carry bags, while the B2 bass module is a 20kg box, and comes with a slip-on cover. The whole design is incredibly well thought-out. While original versions of the L1 had a base support system more akin to a portable basketball ring (one of those plasticbottomed contraptions you fill with water), the newest models have a sleek base unit with operable legs. The legs are the sort you’d imagine folding out from a Bond amphibious vehicle — all four are connected, so tugging on one will unfold the lot in unison. It’s these little refinements that have really turned the series into a gigging musician’s dream. There’s even an incorporated loop and hook to tuck the Tonematch mixer’s Ethernet cable out of the way. Which brings us to… the T1 Tonematch. It’s a little mini-mixer you can purchase with the L1. It hooks up and talks to the base via Ethernet, including drawing power from it. It’s got three combo mic/DI inputs with direct preamp outs on ¼-inch jacks, as a stereo line input, and two mono outputs — master and aux — on ¼-inch jacks for any extra hookups you may need. The Tonematch has small rubber knobs for trim and channel volume, buttons for mute, FX mute and channel edit, a master knob, phantom button, a small screen big enough to show all the metering at once, as well as a large dial for most everything else. Bose has really packed a lot into this microphone stand/L1 column-mountable package, including Bose’s Tonematch presets. With Tonematch, performers can pick their instrument, say vocals, then choose between whether they’re using a handheld or headworn mic, want a bright sound, or any other number of options. Once the general preset is nailed down, the EQ function gives a basic low/mid/ high EQ with set frequency and Q. For more detailed adjustment, users can twiddle the parametric EQ. There’s also an onboard tuner and dynamics, modulation and delay effects for each channel, as well as global reverb mixed to taste on each channel. Users can also set up multiple scenes if, say, the system is alternating between an acoustic duo, to speech, and then a DJ during an event. Bose is intentionally obscure about providing specs for the system. As such, there’s no dB SPL ratings, frequency response plots, or even cross-sections of the mysterious 12-speaker line array column that manages to spit out 180-degree coverage. But it sounds great, and Bose has developed the package so it’s not only a joy to use, but simple and effective to pack up at the end of the night. While it functions perfectly well as a PA, if you really want to buy into the Bose ethos, you’ll have to convince your playing partners to buy one too.
AUDIOTECHNOLOGY: THE MONTHLY APP
Lower latency, cheaper and more in tune ...but with all the soul of the original The new AudioTechnology App is coming soon to iPad and Android tablets. All the latest news, reviews, features, columns and tutorials every month for next to nothing. Stay tuned for more news at audiotechnology.com.au or like us on Facebook.
COMING SOON
AT 95
AT 96
SUBSCRIBE & WIN AN APOGEE QUARTET WORTH $1449
Apogee’s Quartet packs in the company’s famed conversion and top-quality preamps into a svelte, perfectly-angled desktop form factor. With four combo mic/line inputs, and two ADAT optical ports for capturing eight extra inputs at 96k, the Quartet is no lightweight. The front panel is typically high quality, with a generous aluminium control knob for navigating the important elements and a neat OLED screen for all your metering. And with an extremely healthy dynamic range, it’s a serious addition to any studio — home and pro alike. If your conversion stable is already full, don’t worry, the Quartet is a perfect mobile recording setup. Its ‘Made for iPad’ sticker means it’s designed to work and talk perfectly with your iPad. So you can record with any Core Audio-compliant iPad DAW, anywhere you want. Bonza! Thanks to Sound Distribution for this amazing prize. To be in the running to win, subscribe (or re-subscribe) to AudioTechnology magazine and answer the following question.
Which dynamic duo reunited to produce Foals’ Holy Fire? [A] Flood & Fire
[B] Flood & Moulder
[C] Scully & Mulder
[D] Flood & Mould
Pay by credit card online: www.audiotechnology.com.au; by phone, call Miriam on (02) 9986 1188, or mail in the form below with a cheque or money order. Easy!
The competition is a game of skill that’s open to all new subscribers (and re-subscribers) to AudioTechnology Magazine. The competition cutoff date is 30/05/2013, with entries judged by the AudioTechnology staff. Winners will be notified by phone or email and announced in the following issue of AudioTechnology magazine. The judges’ decision will be final and no further correspondence entered into.
Circle the correct answer here:
[A]
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 20% OFF THE COVER PRICE
BUSINESS NAME:
7 issue subscription $44.00*
FIRST NAME:
*N.Z. = AU$49.50, Overseas = AU$119. Special offers apply to readers in Australia and N.Z. only. (Price includes GST) Please complete and return this form, or a photocopy, along with a cheque or postal order to: Alchemedia Publishing, PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Please make cheques/postal orders payable to ‘Alchemedia Publishing’. COLLECTORS! BACK ISSUES! We have a limited numbers of back issues available for $11 each (including P&P). Contact Miriam for back issue costs. subscriptions@audiotechnology.com.au
[B]
[C]
[D]
SURNAME: ADDRESS: SUBURB: POSTCODE: PHONE: EMAIL: METHOD OF PAYMENT: CHEQUE
POSTAL ORDER
CREDIT CARD
CREDIT CARD PAYMENT: VISA
BANKCARD
MASTERCARD
TICK THIS BOX IF YOU REQUIRE A TAX INVOICE
CARD NUMBER:
EXPIRY DATE:
AT 97
REGULARS
LAST WORD with
As a sound recordist Paul ‘Salty’ Brincat has worked on dozens of feature films and TV dramas since the mid ’70s. His CV includes work on the more recent Star Wars films, Mission Impossible II, and The Thin Red Line (for which he scored an Oscar nomination). He’s currently doing a lot of TV drama, having recently won an Australian Screen Sound Guild award for Redfern Now.
PAUL BRINCAT
I got my start as a soundie working for Reg Grundy Productions on Young Doctors, back in 1976. Things were very different back then. Not only were we recording dialogue, we also had to lay up the music playback, ambience and any effects. We had two Mole-Richardson or JL Fisher 20-foot booms, and concealed ‘plant’ mics for dialogue. We mixed all that live via our 16-channel Neve console in an OB van and recorded it to video tape. So, effectively, we were doing ‘post’ while we were doing the shoot. That was wild. So you might have the sound of a door chime or a car arrival in the distance and you would have that set up on cart machines or quarter-inch tape — miss the cue and everyone would have to go again. The only thing they had to do was slap the credits on and it was ready for air. I’d never go there again! Maybe for a school panto... These days we’re shooting hi-def video, not film. We’ve got to provide timecode to the cameras keeping sync. In my case we’ll use my Sound Devices 788T as a master clock. We didn’t do that with film so much, we used a clapper board and sync’ed it after the fact. I’m still working with Sennheiser mics and Electrosonics radio systems. I rely on radios a lot more now. With the move from film to hi-def video there are a lot more cameras on a project. This means it’s harder to use booms and we’ve got to be on the ball. I’m on a US drama series (called Camp) at the moment and there are three cameras running the whole time. All the actors are miked up. We still run booms wherever we can and use them on close-ups. So I’m recording both — we’re multi-miking drama more than we did. And off screen, providing you’re not using all eight tracks (of your HD recorder), we can record ambiences on a stereo mic. I’m using a Rode NT4 XY stereo mic. Laptops have their place. I have a couple I use for doing sound sheets and another for taking care of playbacks, but I wouldn’t trust a laptop to record my audio on location. When things are fast and furious you can’t beat a specialist portable hard disk recorder. My first feature film experience came in the mid ’80s with Emoh Ruo, produced by David Elfick. We were a young crew and he took a punt on us, including Andrew Lesnie behind the camera — and he didn’t turn out too bad [Lesnie’s credits include Lord of the Rings, Babe and others]. For that shoot I had a Nagra quarter-inch recorder and an Audio Developments six-channel 145 Pico mixer. Simple as that. We had booms and a few radio mics, which I mixed straight to the mono Nagra — no iso tracks; purely dialogue. I’ve worked in a lot of extreme locations. Being a sound recordist is physically very demanding. Lugging gear in jungles, up mountains, in rough seas… it’s not a desk job. Humidity plays havoc with the gear. And you can’t whisk your
AT 98
stuff back to the air-conditioned hotel, you have to leave it out in that temperature the whole time. I’ve had mics fry on me because of humidity and heat. I’ve had the 788 lock up on me because of heat. I had to cool it down with wet cloths. Sand is terrible. I remember doing a movie years ago called Sahara. We shot it in Nelson Bay in the dunes — “this is going to be fun.” I built a box especially for my gear — an Esky with a dustproof cover I could stick my hand through to control my recorder. The sand was horrific. On a stormy day it moved a whole sand dune in a day. Everyone was in face masks. It’s the sound recordist’s challenge: try and beat ADR [overdubbing dialogue in post production]. But on sets where you’re combatting two or three giant wind machines and your job is to get a guide track… well, sometimes it’s a challenge to even get a guide track! Probably my favourite spot for a bud mic is just in the hairline, which means making friends with the Makeup department. It can be a pain for them to incorporate the mic into their routine. If that’s the case we’ll go for the centre of the chest. Again, you’ll need your friends in Wardrobe to use as much natural cotton as possible. But these mics are designed to sit on the centre of your chest and sound fantastic there. We’ll use certain surgical tapes to keep the mic in position. For women with good cleavage then big bosoms are fantastic. You can get the mic in there and there’s a bit of natural wind protection... and it’s an interesting spot to go to put a mic. My favourite film I’ve worked on has to be The Thin Red Line (1998). The director Terrence Malick was such an ‘audio’ director — he gave us the room to ‘go get it’. I had Greg Burgmann as a second soundie. He brought along a multitrack that he set up in the back of a 4WD and he’d pick up a lot of sounds out there. I was trying to do what I could with traditional machines out in the field while I was recording dialogue. But Terrence Malick made the difference. For example, he’d hear an odd screech of a bird in the Daintree, and he’d stop an entire shoot to allow us to get that bird — point a shotgun mic at it, so we could get 30 seconds of audio, and have it on the loop. We boomed that film. Coverage was so tight and so fantastic, we were able to get great dialogue from shotgun mics — the clarity (compared to small bug mics) was brilliant. I also had the chance to record the Solomon Islands choirs, which Hans Zimmer brought to life with the London Symphony Orchestra in his soundtrack. It was pretty magical.
AT 99
ec
d or
R
it
b 4-
2
up
to
*
Hz
k
6 /9
Scan to see the iXY in use
Studio quality recording,
anywhere, anytime.
iXY
STEREO MICROPHONE for iPhone® and iPad® Broadcast quality audio, in your pocket, everywhere. The RØDE iXY is a professional-grade digital stereo microphone designed for use in a wide range of applications. It’s perfect for recording live music, meetings, lectures, reporting, dictation and sound design, and is also ideal for use on-camera as a dual-system recorder for DSLR.
www.ixymic.com *96kHz recording with RØDE Rec app, native recording at 48kHz iPhone® and iPad® are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
AT 100