presents: AT World will be like a show within a show at Integrate 2010, for AT readers to chill, learn and network. • Presentations • Workshops • Panel discussions • Visiting Audio Pros & Personalities • Meet AT Staff & Writers • Gear Demos • Hands-on Displays • Hourly Giveaways! • It’s Free. AT World will have its own presentation area where you can dip in and out of whatever happens to be going on. It might be Andy talking about the recording of an album, it might be Rick telling us about the travails of moving studio… again, it could be Simmo playing us some sounds out of the Subcontinent, Rob Squire pulling apart a Neve pre, Stav performing some close-up magic, or Bruce Jackson providing tips on how to cover a gazillion people with a PA. It’s like AT magazine, only live and in the flesh. Where will you find AT World? At Integrate, 24-26 August 2010, Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park, Sydney. How much will it cost? It’ll be absolutely free. AT World: www.integrate-expo.com/atworld
2010
24–26 August 2010 Hordern Pavilion & Royal Hall of Industries Moore Park, Sydney
integrate-expo.com
AudioTechnology Editor Andy Stewart andy@audiotechnology.com.au
ED SPACE
Publisher Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au
Stick a sock in it…
Editorial Director Christopher Holder chris@audiotechnology.com.au
Text: Andy Stewart
Deputy Editor Brad Watts brad@audiotechnology.com.au Art Direction & Design Leigh Ericksen leigh@alchemedia.com.au Additional Design Dominic Carey dominic@alchemedia.com.au
When humanity does something collectively stupid I always find myself asking the same question: “What must the aliens be thinking as they look down on this scene right now?” Surely in this situation we must look completely unevolved to them: they with their intergalactic hyperdrives and shiny silver space suits, and we with our plastic Vuvuzelas. Perhaps Stephen Hawking was right when he famously described humanity as “chemical scum occupying the surface of a typical planet, orbiting a typical sun.” I think probably the only thing this definition fails to incorporate is just how bloody noisy this chemical scum can sometimes be. When the world gets together to produce a soporific din like the one we’ve been witnessing at the World Cup these recent weeks, I can’t help but wonder, “What must they be thinking?” It’s been fascinating to see how much negative press the sound-mix for the World Cup has received lately. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that there has never been a more unpopular soundtrack in the history of television broadcast. Nor has there ever been so much hyperbole and bollocks written about it. Everyone from the Prime Minister to my aunt Sheila have thrown their two-bob’s worth into the debate. People who have previously never even thought about television sound mixing have suddenly become experts on the subject, and some of their solutions have proved more annoying than the Vuvuzela itself. I’m reluctant to add to the din here, partly because it’s a tired old subject now, and partly because the World Cup may be over by the time you read this, but since every man and his dog seems to have had a crack at either ‘solving the problem’ of the Vuvuzela or simply prattling on about how the instrument works, scientifically speaking, I thought I’d offer a different solution. For anyone who’s still interested in watching the World Cup finals without the sound addling their brain or setting off their tinnitus, try sitting in front of the telly with a couple of large pots and pans. Bang these together with force while attempting to learn the didgeridoo and the sound of the Vuvuzelas should fade into the background pretty quickly. Failing that, try watching re-runs of Magnum P.I. or Bewitched on HDTV instead. Neither of these have Vuvuzelas in their audio content. INFERNAL TOOTLING The Vuvuzela will surely go down in history as being ‘the sound’ of the World Cup in South Africa – that ceaseless unholy racket that permeated every mic, every mix suite and every lounge room that tuned into it. I’m assuming everyone’s heard it by now; that magnificent ‘instrument’ that sounds like the drone of a million blowies trapped
in an outside dunny. The Vuvuzela has been a nightmare for viewers and broadcasters alike, and although it’s impossible to calculate the figures, I’d wager it’s turned fans away in their millions. I know I switched off after about 10 minutes the first time I checked in on the big soccer carnival in South Africa. I’d been mixing a song all day and sat down to ‘zone out’ in front of the telly for a while… but I just couldn’t hack it. The sound was relentless as it was inane, and my estimation of soccer has, in the weeks subsequently, taken a dive worthy of an Italian striker. It’s a shame really; I was looking forward to the World Cup. One thing the Vuvuzela has most certainly done is spark serious debate in the audio community about how a sound of this type should be managed in a live-to-air broadcast. The difficulty seems to have been that the sound of the Vuvuzela is literally everywhere in the stadium, and any kind of crowd ambience is dominated utterly by this twofoot dumb stick. One solution has been to simply turn down the stadium and effects mics relative to the commentary, but as any broadcast mix engineer will tell you, there’s a fine line between producing a mix that makes you feel like you’re part of the action, and one that makes you feel entirely cut off from it. Another solution being debated right now is whether to simply ‘modify the reality’ by adding sampled crowd noise from another similarly large stadium event. The extent to which a mix engineer should be allowed to do this provokes heated debate in the audio community; some argue it’s ‘falsifying reality’ and ‘faking’ the event, while others simply see it as a practical solution to which the viewer would be oblivious. There’s also the arguably more insidious solution of potentially banning noisy instruments at venues so that the home viewer isn’t driven crazy by them. But frankly, if I were at a sporting event where I was told by an official that I had to cease and desist from clapping, tooting or yelling because it was disturbing the home viewer, my response would almost certainly be: “How does f##k off sound?” So what’s the solution? Is there, as Dennis Baxter comments in his article on page 66, scope for adding a sampled soundtrack to the live feed – and in extreme cases, replacing the live soundtrack altogether? It’s a curly debate that will no doubt continue in the coming months. For now, my solution is simply this: if you’re sitting next to someone playing a Vuvuzela at the cricket this summer, simply turn to them and say: “Hey mate, stick a sock in it would ya!”
Advertising Philip Spencer philip@alchemedia.com.au Accounts Manager Jenny Temm jen@alchemedia.com.au Circulation Manager Miriam Mulcahy mim@alchemedia.com.au Proof Reading Calum Orr Regular Contributors Martin Walker Rick O’Neil Michael Stavrou Calum Orr Paul Tingen Graeme Hague Paul McKercher Hugh Covill Adam McElnea Greg Walker William Bowden Anthony Touma Greg Simmons Rob Squire Robin Gist Michael Carpenter Mark Woods Jonathan Burnside Andrew Bencina Mark Bassett Chris Vallejo Distribution by: Network Distribution Company. AudioTechnology magazine (ISSN 1440-2432) is published by Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd (ABN 34 074 431 628). Contact (Advertising) T: +61 2 9986 1188 PO BOX 6216, Frenchs Forest NSW 2086, Australia. Contact (Editorial) T: +61 3 5331 4949 PO Box 295, Ballarat VIC 3353, Australia. E: info@alchemedia.com.au W: www.audiotechnology.com.au
All material in this magazine is copyright © 2010 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process with out written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 23/06/10.
CONTENTS 75
30
50 FEATURES
REGULARS
30 TORTOISE SHELLS
14 YOUR WORD
One on America’s most enigmatic ‘Post-Rock’ bands recently headlined at Melbourne’s Jazz Festival. We caught up with three of it’s extended family to get the low-down.
36 JACQUIRE KING: THE MAN WHO LISTENS
He’s one of the most successful producer/engineers on the planet, having recorded successful albums with everyone from Kings Of Leon and Norah Jones to the iconic Tom Waits. He’s a hands-on expert and the ‘King of Kings’.
42 THE GOLDEN MILE
Mixing and composing Underbelly’s Third Series. AT investigates Tom Lowndes and Burkhard Dallwitz: two of Underbelly’s most inf luential audio figures.
50 NOTHIN’ BUT THE BLUES
Behind the scenes of the Blue Man Group.AT goes behind the blue screen of the Blue Man Group only to discover that their heads really are blue!
TUTORIALS
Readers’ Letters.
20 NEWS
News and new product information, including big news about... Integrate, and Waves’s lawsuit against users of crack software in the US.
70 HOME GROWN
Punk isn’t dead, and neither are cassette four-tracks. Brad Watts discovers both f lourishing in St Kilda.
74 WHAT’S ON Studio roundup featuring
The Grove Studios and Heliport Studios.
78 PC & MAC AUDIO
REVIEWS
56 STAV’S WORD
82 QUESTED V3110
Even though M & S are the initials of Mike Stavrou, that’s not why he’s so into MS recordings at the moment. ‘Simple’ and ‘challenging’ are the main motivators here.
62 ON THE BENCH
Hello? Can anyone hear me? Rob Squire get his ears checked.
Three-way Active Midfield Monitors
84 sE GEMINI III
Valve condenser microphone.
86 JLM FC500
Analogue FET Compressor
90 DPA 5100
Mobile Surround Microphone
66 TELEVISION SOUND DESIGN
96 LEXICON PCM NATIVE REVERB
When it comes to live television broadcast, no two venues are ever the same. Sound designer extraordinaire, Dennis Baxter, offers some expert insights into live-to-air surround sound.
Plug-in Bundle
102 DYNAUDIO ACOUSTICS BM5A MKII
Active Nearfields
This issue Martin Walker has a few suggestions about ground loops, while Brad Watts goes loopy about the iPad.
104 THE PULL IT APART CLUB
Rick’s motto has always been: “If it ain’t broke, it soon will be!” Moral of the story: never loan Rick anything.
SEE PAGE 101
SUBSCRIBE & WIN a JLM Audio FC500 FET compressor and power supply!
NEWS: INTEGRATE
AT WORLD HAS LANDED! Brace yourself for AT World! Yes, it’ll be like one big AT toga party, where we’ll be inviting writers and friends to hang out, present and chat. Last year, at Integrate 09, we had a stack of ATrelated stuff going on – George Massenburg, software workshops, tech panel discussions, a PA shootout panel, Stav doing his thing, Simmo doing his… and we were racing around like flies with blue bottoms making it all happen. Being Tommy Tear-Arse is okay – and Integrate will still have a great bunch of seminars and workshops like last year – but it meant there wasn’t somewhere AT readers could come to and hang out, talk and swap war stories. That’s all changed with AT World. AT World will have its own presentation area where you can dip in and out of whatever happens to be going on. It might be Andy talking about the recording of an album, it might be Rick telling us about the travails of moving studio… again, it could be Simmo playing us some sounds out of the Subcontinent, Rob Squire pulling apart a Neve pre, Stav doing some close-up magic, or Bruce Jackson providing tips on how to cover a gazillion people with a PA. In other words, it’ll be like AT magazine, only in the flesh.
PAIN IN THE ARTS? We’ll also bring along some of our favourite bits of gear. Get hands-on with mics, outboard and software. What’s more, we’ll give stuff away… every hour! Don’t get too excited, sometimes it might be a pre-loved AT sweatband (okay, I might be making that up) while at other times it’ll be a you-beaut compressor. We have readers out there who have been picking up AT since Issue One; loyal friends of the magazine who’s names we know from years of subscribing… it’s like you’re part of the family. Well, think of AT World like a family reunion. We’ll provide the venue, the entertainment and the Cheezels, all we need is for you to turn up and take part. Where will you find AT World? At Integrate, 24-26 August 2010, Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park, Sydney. How much will it cost? It’ll be absolutely free. Are you from out of town and can’t afford a hotel? Get onto our Facebook page and send a shout-out to Sydney readers who might give you a bed for a night or two. They’re a generous bunch. In the meantime, get online to find out who you’re likely to run into at AT World and some of the stuff you’re likely to learn. AT World: www.integrate-expo.com/atworld
Upgrading your performing arts centre is like giving birth… to triplets – painful and prolonged, with plenty of sleepless nights. Which is why Integrate is convening a Performing Arts Centre panel discussion. The panel will be populated by veterans of a lifetime of upgrades and will walk you though the minefield of funding approvals, shootouts, and specifying. Hear about all the mistakes the panel has made so you don’t have to! Quiz the panel on the ‘small stuff ’ that can make all the difference. Not up for a big chunk of change just yet? Then learn how to properly prepare the ground for an upgrade once you get the nod. On the panel you’ll find: Marshall Day theatre consultant, Craig Gamble, who will recount his experiences working on the Melbourne Theatre Company and the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, and how to make the budget work for you without the ‘what might have been’ regrets that often plague technical upgrades. Sydney Opera House Technical Director, David Claringbold, will have plenty to say about the enormous technical upgrade recently-completed at the Sydney icon. Craig and David will be joined by Gold Coast Performing Arts Centre’s Chris d’Bais, who is fresh from a $5m upgrade. The panel will be moderated by AV Magazine Editor – and long-time performing arts centre stalwart – Andy Ciddor.
SIMMO’S SOUNDS OF ASIA
PROTOOLS MASTERCLASSES
Greg Simmons has spent the noughties taking various combinations of microphones and portable recording gear to SE Asia and the Subcontinent. In that time he’s compiled a fascinating and formidable collection of location recordings – atmospheres, chants and musicians. Greg will showcase a ‘best of’ selection of stereo recordings and recount the audio challenges he’s surmounted to get them. Lovers of location sound and/or stereo/ surround miking techniques will find Sounds of Asia absolutely gripping, while all those who just love a good audio yarn should reserve a seat as well. And finally, for those who attended Greg’s Sounds of Asia session during last year’s Integrate, we’ve been assured that there will be plenty of ‘never heard before’ new material to sate your appetite.
UTS: Pro School presents two ProTools masterclasses, conducted by the incomparable Brent Heber – Avid Certified Instructor, and author of the blog www.protoolsprofessional. com. The two masterclasses will cover the same turf, and ensure you’ll have ProTools jumping to your command. Topics include a look at the latest features like Elastic Audio, windows configurations, session templates and recent MIDI additions. Alongside the new bells and whistles Brent will revisit key features like tempo mapping, keyboard shortcuts and creative ways of using the industry’s standard audio workstation. These sessions sold out last year so best secure your ticket now.
THE MAIN EVENT ‘The Main Event – Sound & Vision for Winter Olympics and World Expo Opening Ceremonies’, is a panel discussion presided over by Integrate’s guest of honor, Bruce Jackson. Bruce was Audio Director for both events, and has years of enormo-events experience under his belt. Productions such as Olympics and Expo Opening Ceremonies provide unique case studies. With so much at stake and with the whole world watching, the productions are lavish, using state-of-the-art gear and with the sort of redundancy levels you’re unlikely to find outside a NASA Shuttle launch. Still, with the entire world oo’ing and ah’ing at the spectacle, things don’t always go to plan, as witnessed by the Sydney Olympics cauldron cliffhanger… Bruce has pulled together a panel replete with some amazing creative and technical brains. The panellists include: Chris Kennedy, Norwest Productions: The Norwest supremo has seen his jet-setting PA inventory hop from one big international event to the next. Chris brings his experience in supplying large-scale sound to the panel. Peter Milne, The Electric Canvas: The Electric Canvas is a world leader in large-scale projection projects and Peter Milne will share his considerable expertise in how to meet the technical challenges of turning a huge space into a ‘big screen’. Nick Newey, David Atkins Enterprises (DAE): DAE is synonymous with big events like Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. Nick Newey will provide an insight into the technical challenges and logistics of pulling off ‘best Games ever’ grand flourishes. Integrate is super-excited to have The Main Event dream team convene for this session. Doubtlessly Boris Johnston will be along to gets some tips for 2012. Integrate 2010 Seminar Bookings: www.integrate-expo.com
MORE COOL STUFF As well as the new sessions we’re telling you about this issue, don’t forget about all the other stuff. For example, don’t forget about the Stav Session, where you can see/hear key Stav concepts in action and in person. Don’t forget about Simmo’s Studio Fundamentals sessions, where you can bone up on the basics like monitoring, microphones and building a system. Don’t miss out on Andy Stewart convening an AT Mixing and Production panel discussion. Most of all, don’t get locked out of Bruce Jackson’s Headline Presentation – Jands, Elvis, The Boss, Babs, Apogee, Dolby Lake, Olympics, Expo… it’ll be incredible. Get online and reserve your seat now. Integrate 2010: www.integrate-expo.com
OUT NOW
www.guerrillaguide.com.au
TORTOISE SHELLS When Tortoise hit the road they leave their rock egos and shells at home. Whatever works is fine by them. Text: Andrew Bencina Photos: Dean Walliss
For many, ‘fusion’ is a very dirty word. Long gone are the familiar connections with Miles Davis’s stellar Bitches Brew ensemble or Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters. Instead these have been replaced by visions of extravagant drum kits adorned with tuned cymbal trees, slap or, even more unconscionable, fretless bass meanderings, and blistering chorused guitar solos. Perhaps due to their punk and indie origins, Chicago instrumental five-piece, Tortoise, have been more commonly and kindly tagged with the ‘post-rock’ label. At different points along the band’s 20-year timeline they’ve been acclaimed as the movement’s leaders. Interesting then that as the band arrived in Melbourne to commence a new international tour in support of their 2009 release, Beacons of Ancestorship, it was as a headline act at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. How do you mediate between the highly disciplined and sonically pure aesthetic of jazz and the rough and ready free-for-all that is indie rock, and what happens when you try and serve up an equal measure of electro along with it? In the hope that we might get to the bottom of this question and the evolution of this most original band’s live performances, I was happy to share a brisk May afternoon and a platter of Rosa’s famous antipasti with founding member John Herndon and Tortoise’s long-time collaborator, and now Melbourne-based engineer, Casey Rice. MULTIPLE STRAND THEORY Andrew Bencina: It’s always seemed like there’s a range of contrasting and complementary musical strands running through the music of Tortoise, from the highly dynamic live performances to carefully composed tape pieces. Has there ever been a clear decision to keep the technology of the studio off the stage to avoid any technical hang-ups and maintain the flow?
John Herndon: So far it hasn’t really been something that we’ve thought too much about. If there are elements that we’ve created in the studio, from some kind of modular synthesis, generally that stuff will get sampled and then played back live via [Propellerhead] Reason. It’s the only thing we have running on the laptop on stage. We have patches for each song and it’s a combination of using the samplers and occasionally some of the soft synths in Reason to reproduce some of those sounds. Casey Rice: All of us used to make tracks using Akai samplers, and the closest thing to an Akai sampler in software is Reason. The Reason NN-XT sampler is exactly the same as the Akai in the way the keygroups work – it’s an Akai copy basically. Tortoise used an Akai with those zip disks for years … those things are tanks – they don’t break. Although eventually ours most certainly did – fried in South America at a gig where the voltage was mismatched. I think a friend of ours in San Francisco had been helping to develop Reason around that time – he writes books on power tips for Reason – and I think he was the one who suggested we try it. It worked really well as a replacement because it’s so simple. It just looks like equipment. It has the same interface so even though Dan (Bitney – percussion,
John Herndon (left) and Dan Bitney hammer it out at The Forum.
keyboards) doesn’t use Reason and Jeff (Parker – guitar, bass) doesn’t use Reason, they can look at it and go: “Oh look, it’s the Akai! I know how that works.” JH: Having said all that there are generally at least a couple of songs on each record that we don’t attempt to reproduce live, because they’re out and out studio constructs. But we’ve made an effort this time to get almost all the tunes together. There were three things that we really didn’t have together that we only got happening right before we came over, so they’re still a little rough around the edges. But if it’s a modular synth piece that’s edited together in ProTools then it’s like, ‘why bother playing that live?’. For instance, when we did the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in England and we were playing Millions Now Living Will Never Die [Tortoise’s third album released in ’96] there was a song on the record that was all put together on tape called Dear Grandma and Grandpa. For that song we literally taped the key down that triggered the song and just let it play while we all moved around the stage... rather than trying to figure out how to do it live. TRAVELLING LIGHT AB: What equipment do you guys travel with and what are the key elements of the hired rig?
JH: Well, we carry the computer that runs Reason obviously and then there’s an additional rack that has an audio interface in it that’s essential to the computer rig. We were using a MOTU 888 for ages but we’ve just switched over to the MOTU Ultralite. It’s new for this tour actually and tonight will be the first use of that interface since rehearsal. There’s a mixer in the rack with everything split for separate outs. There’s a synth line, a beats line, and a sampler line, all of which are split and fed into the on-stage mixer, which has an Aux out to a self-powered monitor so we can mix the levels of these instruments from the stage. We also bring a Nord Electro for electric piano and organ sounds, and some foot pedals… there’s a new digital version of the Roland Space Echo pedal that’s really great, so we use that... it sounds really good. I used to use a laptop myself for some of the stuff that I was reproducing from records, but I eventually got sick of having the laptop sitting there staring at me on stage, so I swapped it out for a Moog Voyager. I still get close to some of the sounds, but I don’t try to match them exactly any more. I’m just trying to capture the vibe. That’s more important to me now. We also have a MIDI keyboard: a Korg Control49,
with some pads and other twiddly bits on it. In the past we were using some smaller keyboards, like Casiotones, which could easily float around the stage but now Jeff uses one of those MicroKorgs for some synth basslines that he plays. Everybody travels with their own guitars. Jeff has a Gibson 335 and a Fender Precision that he shares with Dan sometimes, while Doug [McCombs – guitar, bass] has a Fender Tele bass, a six string Fender bass [Fender VI] and a Jazzmaster. John [McEntire] and I bring cymbals and a thing called a Marimba Lumina. We hire everything else basically. Here we’ve hired a vibraphone, all of our amps and two four-piece drum kits. And I know it surprises some people, but it doesn’t really matter to us what the kits are. I think if you can spend some time before sound check tuning the instrument you can get it to sound close to how you want to hear it... and that’s good enough for me. You get the kit, then you try to find out how to make it sound good – or not! Often times it’ll be a festival situation where there’s no time to tune a kit anyway, so in that situation you just get on and go. My experience of touring around the world is that it’ll be a different musical experience on a drum kit every night. Having my drum kit with me is the exception rather than the rule. CR: Tortoise all started out playing punk rock at a really super low D.I.Y. level, and a lot of how you learn to do shows and operate as a musician comes from those formative experiences. That’s why they don’t have a huge road crew. John’s attitude has always been like: “I’ll play any kit, I don’t care,” whereas a lot of people really need the experience to be predictable and exactly the same every time. I actually think, a lot of the time, the people who are precious about their gear have had limited experiences of playing in different contexts. These guys are the opposite; they’ve all played in so many different bands – and some of the crappiest clubs on Earth – that when they play here at the Forum, for instance, it doesn’t faze them in the slightest if the monitors aren’t perfect. They’ve heard worse, guaranteed. When Tortoise started playing, they weren’t playing the Forum. They were playing somewhere like the Arthouse or whatever – the Silver Pumpkin in Chicago. They were playing all those places where super underground kind of funky bands play, and it was much harder then. That’s when I first did sound for the band. JH: You’re right, it was bloody hard going back
Top row, from left to right: Dan Bitney (on drums), Doug McCombs (on bass), John McEntire (on keys), John Herndon (also on drums) and Jeff Parker (on guitar) soundcheck their ‘new’ equipment at The Forum. Above left: John McEntire stays on keyboards as Jeff Parker joins him. Middle: John McEntire switches to the drums while John Herndon ditches them for the Marimba Lumina. Right: Dan Bitney goes for it on drums while Jeff Parker and John McEntire look on.
then. Although I will say this: in the last few years I’ve been touring Europe with a bunch of different improvisational groups and those tours are on the train mostly. You bring cymbals and that’s it, and those drum kits are hardcore; heads that are totally clapped out; toms that spin around when you hit them! In that situation you just have to figure out a way to make it work. You’re not going to be the guy who brings things down by throwing a fit, you just get in there and do it. SWAPSIES AB: John, can you discuss the evolution of your current stage setup; where the two drum kits feature prominently at the front of the stage and everyone’s constantly changing roles?
JH: We originally thought about it as a visual thing after seeing the latest incarnation of Japanese noiserock outfit, the Boredoms. They play with three drummers with the leader, Eye, sort of in the back. They’re essentially spread right around the stage. It looked so cool that we were like, ‘why don’t we put our drums up front too?’. Once we did I also had the instant reaction of, ‘Wow man, I don’t have to have a monitor any more. I can hear the band just fine!’. I really like that aspect of the setup because it allows me to just hear the band volume and address the dynamics to that. It’s been a huge added bonus to the setup change. It keeps the touring experience fairly similar to the rehearsal room too. The other consequence of the setup is that as you move around the stage you’re not moving into areas that are tailored specifically for one person, so it’s a bit more flexible in that regard too. Up to this point it hasn’t been necessary to consider alternatives like in-ear monitoring. We don’t follow a lot of sequences and there’s obviously no singing either. Sometimes there’ll be a loop that we play out of a keyboard by sticking down the key with a piece of duct tape and
then we simply play along with it. AB: Does the lack of lyrics in Tortoise’s music and the fact that the audience doesn’t have a ‘front man’ to connect with change the level of interaction you get from live performance? JH: It’s funny you should ask that question. I definitely think in terms of delivering a performance to the audience. I always try and give as much of myself as I can to each song, to the music and to the people watching us. We all do I think. Some of us in fact – not me – have developed a very strange, almost theatrical on-stage persona. (Laughs). Keep your eye on the stage tonight and see if you can spot the person. [One suspects that John McEntire’s excellent imitation of the guitarist from The Angels is what John was referring to here.] CR: There also used to be a video component to the show at one stage because the common response to Tortoise, when they first started playing bigger venues, was that they didn’t seem interested in whether they had the right clothes on; they just wanted to get on with playing music. There was some ‘encouragement’, shall we say, on the part of booking agents and promoters along the lines of: ‘You guys have to get a lighting person or something because the show’s a bit boring’. So we thought, ‘Why not do video instead?’. JH: The video was beautiful. Casey did that for us for a while, which was amazing, as did another friend of ours who toured with us for years. But I think eventually we all just wanted a change – to do something different; have the stage look different, rather than having it just be Tortoise with some type of video thing attached to it. This time around we wanted it to be more about being a band again, playing the music and seeing how far that could take us.
“
I know other people can’t get into the right frame of mind at all sometimes unless they can hear everything exactly as they want it. These guys are the opposite of that. They can really roll with it.
”
Elliot Dicks, cool as a cucumber at FOH.
FRONT OF HOUSE MAN – ELLIOT DICKS Elliot Dicks has been doing live sound since he was a teenager. He also does a lot of live sound for Joanna Newsom, Shellac, etc and is a well-known character on the US scene. He also runs his own hire company. I caught up with Elliot at soundcheck for a quick (and relaxed) chat.
AB: One of the interesting things about Tortoise, Elliot, seems to be the relatively generic nature of their on-stage hire rig. Does that relaxed attitude extend to your own touring specifications? Elliot Dicks: Pretty much. I ask for stuff… but then, with a band like Tortoise, if I don’t get what I’ve requested, am I gonna have them rent it? “Ah guys, can you spend an extra $800 for me on a console. I have a preferred selection of mics as well.” In reality, I’m not going to make a fuss; they really just don’t have the budget. I just work with what I’m given and often, when it comes to things like mics, I just bring my own. I brought three [Sennheiser] MD421s with me for this leg of the tour. I would have brought more but I have two gigs happening this weekend back home so I couldn’t steal too much from the inventory. AB: And how would you describe your approach to their sound? ED: I don’t really try to impose my concept on their sound. I try to keep it relatively natural sounding. I’m not trying to get the most perfect kick drum sound, and sometimes you don’t even have time to develop one anyway; you’re just thrown onto a festival stage and told to go. These days I try to choose microphones that will get me closer to what I want, faster! For a while there, back in The States, John McEntire had an all-stainless steel drum kit, which was a nightmare to mic up. No regular kick drum microphone sounded even workable inside
it. Then I tried this new dynamic mic, an Audix D6 – it’s pretty common now – which for some reason John had at his studio. He let me borrow it and it just worked perfectly for that drum. I ended up getting really into that mic and bought one of my own for the other kit. It allowed me to pull the sound together really quickly and I no longer had to sit there and sculpt; it just had the right highs and lows for me. I also really like the Sennheiser E604 clip-on tom mics – although I couldn’t bring them with me on this tour unfortunately. I prefer them over any fancy condensers or even 421s – which are incidentally about three times the price. I really like a 421 on the bass guitar amps and I don’t use D.I.s on the bass channels. I have to add some presence to it but I just think it sounds better for this band. AB: What about instruments like the vibraphone? ED: The vibraphone’s a little weird. Our instrument back home has little piezos glued onto every key and these are all are wired together so that live, all you have to do is plug in a guitar cable. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really capture the sound of the resonators very much, and recently we’ve been experimenting with a combination of the pickups and conventional mic setups. The pickups have been sounding really artificial. At first it was like; “great, they’re loud! I can really crank it up now.” But then I began noticing how unnatural it was sounding. The problem we have though is that the mic setup essentially has the opposite problem. It sounds too natural, and it’s extremely hard to pump up because the mics pickup so much stage spill. Maybe the vibraphone’s getting a little tired from being beaten on, I’m not sure. They’ve had it for a long time and have experimented with running it into a Moog pedal, a ring modulator… all kinds of weird things. We’ve tried to utilise the MIDI marimba as a vibraphone with mixed results
and we even did a show once with no vibraphone at all, which was a radical step for Tortoise. We were playing a gig in New York one night where the backline got kind of confused, and we couldn’t get a vibraphone at the last minute, so the band actually played the vibraphone parts on a MIDI keyboard. They had a library of samples that seemed to work and it actually sounded pretty good. But the people in the crowd were... well… they weren’t heckling, but they went close. When you’re known as ‘the band with the vibraphone’... SHELL SHOCKED AB: Can you discuss some of the issues surrounding the live representation of such a dynamic instrumental group, incorporating dual drum kits and constant instrumental changes, when you’re passing through so many disparate venues?
ED: Luckily Tortoise play in venues that are usually a nice size and have pretty decent acoustics. We occasionally play in small clubs still, and on those occasions having two kits can get loud. They’ve got some jazz in ’em, these boys, but they’ve got some rock in ’em too. So the small rooms sometimes get insanely loud. In that situation I’ll throw a couple of kick drum mics in there and not use overheads, and only add a little bit of low end from the toms into the PA. But most of the time they play bigger venues where the sound can naturally dissipate. Some people think it’s weird that the drum kits are down stage and facing each other but I usually don’t have any problems with the kick drums interacting. I do have problems with the drum kits getting in the vibraphone mics but, of course, this is lessened when we’re at home with the Electravibes. Occasionally I try to use some gating on their drums too, to add a bit of control, but that’s tricky because they often end up playing so lightly that I have to
“
You bring cymbals and that’s it, and those drum kits are hardcore; heads that are totally clapped out; toms that spin around when you hit them! In that situation you just have to figure out a way to make it work. – John Herndon
”
Focused and in the moment: John Herndon gets down with the Moog Voyager.
MARIMBA LUMINA Designed by synthesizer pioneer, Don Buchla, alongside percussionists Mark Goldstein and Joel Davel, the Marimba Lumina 2.5 is an electronic MIDI controller that combines a marimbastyle keyboard layout with trigger pads and ribbon controller strips. It also features its own built-in synth. Its luminous pads and controls can be programmed to act as sliders, pots, pitch and mod wheels allowing for a new degree of gestural control over a mallet instrument. It can even be setup to respond differently to the four different coloured mallets accompanying the unit: John Herndon: We just use the Marimba
Lumina as a MIDI interface. It’s a really complicated and deep instrument that we don’t use to its full potential at all. We sampled our marimba years ago and we used to use a bank of samples recorded in our own space. Then I saw The Residents play and their percussionist was using just a Lumina and so I was like, “What is that thing?” I told John McEntire about it and then next thing I knew we had one. It’s funny though, I have a friend in San Francisco who has a daughter with Buchla’s daughter and he saw us using it and he was like: “Hey man, the father of the mother of my kid invented that thing... cool!”. Yes Indeed.
undo it all anyway. I’ll waste all this time trying to get the gates all tight and then they’ll head off in the opposite musical direction. They hate gates – if they can hear them [Elliot smiles]. I always use a little if I can. Sometimes with Tortoise I want to hear a rock sound as well as a jazz sound. But it’s the same drum kit so I like to have a little bit of gating. I like to crank toms up you see, more than most other engineers do. But this can bite you in the arse, with the sub woofers interacting on the stage, so I’ll often just move the mics a little instead to achieve a similar effect. The guys, they don’t like to hear a digital reverb, they don’t like to hear gates. I like to use a little of both. Typically I use reverb to create the illusion of space, rather than as an obvious effect, especially in a really dry, acoustically dead environment. You’re brain doesn’t like it if it can’t hear any space, so it’s a psychological approach perhaps more than anything. I’m just trying to establish a sense of a band playing in a space, rather than a band in a box. AB: Dynamically are you doing a lot of fader work, or are the band creating that themselves on stage? ED: They control a lot of what goes on dynamically from the stage. I’m not actually doing a lot of active mixing; I’m mainly balancing the levels. When Casey was the sound guy he had his own role. He was more of a dub-style mixer and the songs were different in the early days: sparser, more receptive to input from a sound guy. Nowadays, when the guys write songs, they’re not looking for that from me. They propagate a lot of weirdness and effects on their own. I’ll throw a delay or two on certain parts for them but I’m not actively doing that kind of stuff so much. It’s like musical chairs up there sometimes: one minute it’s bass coming out of this speaker and the next it’s keyboards, and then suddenly it’ll be bass out of that speaker. Then it’s guitar and then
sometimes both amps are playing the Fender VI. So it looks symmetrical on stage but there’s always something different happening. The one thing that never changes is the dual drum kit setup. NO VOX, NO STRESS AB: Does the band’s de-emphasis of stage monitoring make life easier for you?
ED: Their monitors are actually mostly for the cues. John or Dan have to hear a certain loop while they’re seated at the drum kits, but then sometimes the two guitar players are so far apart on stage that they need a touch of foldback so they can hear what the other person’s playing. But certainly, with Tortoise, aside from some electronics and some guitar, there’s nothing in the monitors. They can play a set with no monitors at all if they need to. They’re pretty versatile that way I think. I know other people can’t get into the right frame of mind at all sometimes unless they can hear everything exactly as they want it. These guys are the opposite of that. They can really roll with it. But while that’s all great, I don’t think I necessarily gain any advantage from the quiet monitor levels. Those guys just play loud. The bass amps are loud and they beat the crap out of the drums. Even the vibraphone gets the crap beaten out of it. Tortoise play at rock levels, even when the music goes into different realms like jazz and electronica. The monitors may not be all that loud and spilling off the stage, but all our instruments sure are. I like to try to get everything checked in the PA first – each instrument – and only after that do we check the monitors. I start with all the faders down, listening while they’re playing. Bringing them up subtly around the stage volume. Once in a while you have to go up there and ask someone to adjust their level... but it doesn’t happen all that often. No one is ever heinously loud!
AudioTechnology THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & RECORDING MUSICIANS
Full magazine out now
TUTORIAL
ON THE BENCH Hello? Can anyone hear me? Text: Rob Squire
Sitting down to write this article I’ve taken myself away from the work bench and instead planted myself front and centre in my listening room. Slipping on the CD of a local band I picked up last weekend – one track after another throbbing through the Tannoys – I’m reminded of the reason I’m in this pro audio caper. It’s the music; it’s always been about the music. While I typically spend all day working on audio equipment: repairing, refurbishing and modifying gear, there’s always one piece of equipment that seems beyond analysis and yet is without doubt the most important piece of gear any of us will ever own – our ears… or more accurately, our hearing, where the ears and brain combine to create one amazing instrument. THE HUMAN EAR The ear is a remarkable piece of engineering and accomplishes a large number of functions within the small space of a dozen or so cubic centimetres. The ear contains a resonating chamber, an impedance transformer, a mechanical amplifier, a mechanical-to-electrical energy converter, a spectral analyser, and if that’s not enough, a system to maintain hydraulic balance. The outer and middle ear is the impedance transformer, converting sound energy from the low impedance of the air to the high impedance of the fluid in the cochlea. The auditory canal of the outer ear also forms a resonant tube, which can double the sound pressure over the frequencies of 2 to 5kHz. It’s over this band of frequencies that our hearing is most sensitive and it’s no coincidence that it’s also the most important band for speech intelligibility. Airborne sound then reaches the eardrum where it is converted into mechanical vibration. The eardrum passes this vibration onto the three small
bones of the middle ear: the hammer, anvil and stirrup – collectively known as ‘the ossicles’. These form a lever system that can potentially triple the vibrational force. This force is then transmitted to the oval window of the fluid-filled cochlea. The size of the eardrum is 15 to 30 times that of the cochlea’s oval window and represents further impedance matching, this time between the mechanical vibrations of the ossicles and the fluid contained within the cochlea. This also yields a potential 30-fold increase in amplification, resulting in a total amplification factor in the ear of up to 180 between a sound wave entering the outer ear and the hydraulic pressure in the fluid of the cochlea or inner ear. Impressive stuff… This amplification within the ear may seem surprising, given the huge amount of power invested in large concert PAs, but consider the other end of the volume scale. The threshold of hearing at 1kHz corresponds to a change in air pressure of around one billionth of one atmosphere! Back in front of our loud concert PA with the sound reaching painful levels, the pressure changes can be a billion times greater than that at the threshold of hearing. Thus, the dynamic range of our hearing, from the threshold of perception to a point of pain, is enormous. Some high-frequency sounds that move the eardrum less than the diameter of a hydrogen molecule are still audible thanks to this extraordinary mechanism. UNDER PRESSURE It is within the cochlea that the remarkable task of converting minuscule changes of pressure into the perception of sound takes place. These hydraulic pressure changes caused by mechanical motion of the stirrup against the oval window, flow through the vestibular and tympanic canals and around the cochlear duct, reaching the basilar membrane
where the organ of Corti is stimulated. It is the hair cells of this organ – through a shearing action – that convert hydraulic pressure into electrochemical nerve impulses. The basilar membrane is taut and light at the end nearest the oval window, and looser and thicker further away. This is the system by which our sense of frequency discrimination is perceived. As a particular frequency sound wave moves along the basilar membrane its amplitude increases until it reaches a maximum, after which the amplitude falls off sharply. The point at which this amplitude maximum occurs is used to determine the frequency of the sound. LOUDNESS CURVES Our perception of the loudness of different frequencies is also very dependent on the actual loudness. Research by Fletcher and Munson in 1937 yielded a set of curves that have since been refined and are generally now known as the ‘equal loudness contours’ – these days they’re considered an ISO standard. It is against this standard that threshold audiometric hearing tests are performed. Generally the curves demonstrate the significant lowering of perceived loudness at low and extremely high frequencies, and conversely, the increased sensitivity in the 2 to 5kHz region. The other aspect clearly demonstrated by these curves is that our hearing is not ‘flat’; that it is not until sound becomes very loud that our perception of the loudness of different frequencies over our range of hearing even approaches a degree of equality.
Neither does our perception of loudness scale linearly with respect to actual sound intensity. A 3dB increase represents a doubling of sound intensity and yet we actually require a 10dB increase in intensity for it to be perceived as a doubling of loudness; although this is a broad generalisation as perception of loudness changes are
very dependent on the actual spectral content of the sound and the overall level. Recommendations or indeed workplace regulations on noise exposure are dose related; meaning that the maximum allowed exposure is a function of noise intensity over time. While Australian OH&S regulations allow for an exposure of 85dBA over an eight-hour period, the exposure period is halved for every 3dB increase above 85dBA. Due to the nature of our perception of loudness, it is very easy to be fooled into not realising the extent of loudness increases and thus be quickly exposed to a situation where damage can occur. A loud concert for instance can easily reach levels of 100dBA. At this level OH&S guidelines tell us that the exposure time should not exceed 15 minutes… which means we really should be walking out of gigs after three songs regardless of how well the gig is going. DID ANYONE HEAR THAT? Human exposure to noise has changed dramatically over the last couple of hundred years and certainly as a primitive people there were advantages to being able to hear the quietest of sounds. Detecting the sounds of prey or predators in the distance was of distinct benefit for obvious reasons. But the human ear has its limits and evolution has effectively put a threshold (or noise gate if you will) across our hearing to prevent us from hearing the tiniest of sounds, lest we go mad with continuous background noise from the random vibration of air particles and the scurrying of millipedes. This mechanism is produced by the intrinsic stiffness of the hearing system.
Our hearing also has a built-in protection system to minimise damage when we encounter loud sounds. At around 85dB two sets of muscles are triggered. The Tensor muscle tightens the eardrum, restricting its ability to vibrate, while the Stapedial muscle pulls the stirrup away from its link to the oval window. This protective system is relatively slow to act however (soft-kneed), taking up to 150 milliseconds for levels just above the 85dB threshold, although this response time quickens as sound pressure levels increase, shortening to 30 milliseconds for very loud sounds. Considering how much of the loud noise we experience in the modern world is very transient in nature and persists for only very brief time intervals – ie. snare drums, hammer strikes – this mechanism cannot be relied upon to prevent damage to our hearing. Adding to our susceptibility to hearing damage from loud sounds, our perception of loudness is dependent on the persistence of the sound. Once a sound lasts up to 200ms its perceived loudness doesn’t change. However, perceived loudness is inversely proportional to its length of persistence below 200ms, falling to a 20dB lower perceived level for sounds lasting only a few milliseconds. Curiously, a longer sustained sound will desensitise our hearing, rendering following sounds of the same loudness to being perceived as quieter. PITCH UNMASKED Of course, hearing involves more than just the mechanics of the ear and in the perception of sound the other significant part of the equation is the brain.
For a musician, one important but little known
aspect is the effect of loudness on pitch perception. At high pitches, above around 2kHz, pitch is perceived to increase (sharpen) as the loudness increases. Below 2kHz, however, pitch is perceived to decrease (flatten) as loudness increases. Since the fundamentals of most musical instruments lie below 2kHz, generally speaking there’s a perceived flattening of pitch as a sound increases in volume. This perceptual change is not insignificant either, with tests indicating a 20-cent (one fifth of a semitone) flattening in pitch perception as loudness increases from 60 to 90dBA. Certainly for singers working with headphones, the volume of the headphones can have a marked impact on their ability to sing in tune. Even our ability to perceive tones at all is highly dependent on the overall spectral content we’re exposed to. ‘Masking’, as it’s known, is the phenomenon by which some frequencies are rendered imperceptible in the presence of others. A louder tone will mask the presence of close but higher frequencies and to a lesser extent close but lower frequencies that occur simultaneously. Indeed loud sounds can mask the presence of softer sounds that occur up to half a second after the loud sound ends. This psychoacoustic effect is exploited in digital audio compression technologies such as mp3 and AAC encoding where up to 90% of the audio information can be ‘thrown away’ as it’s considered imperceptible in the presence of the louder frequencies.
“
A loud concert can easily reach levels of 100dBA. At this level OH&S guidelines tell us that the exposure time should not exceed 15 minutes… which means we really should be walking out of gigs after three songs regardless of how well the gig is going
”
HEARING DAMAGE “The real reason I haven’t performed live for a long time is that I have very severe hearing damage. It’s manifested itself as tinnitus – ringing in the ears at the frequencies that I play the guitar.” – Pete Townshend.
Exposure to loud noise causes both short-term hearing loss through an increase in the threshold of hearing from which recovery can occur over a period of hours or days, and long term or permanent damage. This hearing loss is due to physical damage to the hair cells in the organ of Corti and in permanent hearing loss, the hair cells are broken or flattened. Since different hair cells are involved in the perception of different frequencies, hearing loss of this type is always exhibited as a shift in the threshold of perception at specific frequencies or bands of frequencies. Just as the resonance of the ear canal creates an increased sensitivity to frequencies around 2 to 5kHz, it also increases the susceptibility of hearing loss in this range. There is a certain irony here in that the evolution of human hearing, which has lead to an increased acuity at frequencies critical to understanding speech, also disposes us to an increased likelihood of hearing loss in this important frequency band. Hearing loss is also inevitable. As we age a loss of high-frequency acuity occurs, more so in men than women. However, the extent and type of hearing loss that is actually found in modern populations is much more to do with damage from a lifetime of noise exposure than simple aging. A quick hearing test by an audiologist will reveal threshold shift at the typical frequencies tested at octave spacings from 250Hz to 8kHz and certainly
Foam ear plugs: better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick!
Rob’s audiogram test results, holding up well despite all the nights mixing FOH for punk bands in the ‘80s.
provides an indication of hearing damage. Hearing tests are rarely done at higher resolutions than one octave points, so they don’t provide a lot of detail about the real peaks and dips that can occur in hearing loss. Similarly, standard hearing tests only look at the threshold of hearing so they don’t provide any information either about perceived loudness of different frequencies once they exceed the threshold of hearing. Indeed, there’s a phenomenon amongst many people with hearing loss called ‘loudness recruitment’ in which sounds at higher levels are perceived to be just as loud or even louder than they would be for an unimpaired listener. This can perhaps go some way to explain how a person with significant hearing loss can have trouble interpreting speech due to the imperceptibility of critical frequencies at typical speech levels but can still appreciate a fuller bandwidth in louder music. Quite simply we can’t run a frequency sweep over our hearing and plot its response like we can a piece of electronic audio equipment. Hearing frequency response is not only subjective, it’s also loudness dependent, affected by the complexity of the sound, the sound’s persistence, and not least on how loud the sound actually is. The University of NSW provides an interactive web page that, while not yielding a true audiogram or hearing test, is certainly instructive to play around with. It not only gives you a feel for just how difficult it is to subjectively assess the loudness of different frequencies, it also provides some sort of guide about the state of one’s hearing response: www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html ROTATING PLAYERS OFF THE BENCH Professional symphony orchestras are today taking the issue of hearing protection and the potential for hearing damage very seriously. Every new
The test results of an audiogram showing significant hearing loss in a 55 year-old following years of FOH mixing and industrial noise exposure.
member to the orchestra is given information on hearing protection and disposable foam earplugs are always provided. New members are also informed about – and encouraged to use – custom molded in-ear attenuator plugs. Education of these new members about auditory health and safety is taken very seriously, and protection from hearing loss is a significant part of the induction process. Hearing tests are performed every two years on all orchestra members as a means of tracking any potential degradation that might be occurring, and this also provides the opportunity to take action at the first sign of hearing loss. Further consideration is also given to different sections of the orchestra; in particular the use of sound screens around horn players, platforms to elevate players and their instruments over the heads of other sections in front, and even the rotation of players over several nights when a series of performances of a particularly loud piece is taking place. This consideration of exposure levels is also venue dependent, especially when orchestras are performing in the orchestra pit as they do for ballet and opera, where due to the enclosed nature of the pit, high volumes are often encountered. This issue is exacerbated and thus appropriately responded to at different venues with varying pit designs. Even the annual repertoire and the choice of players for concerts during the year is given due consideration to ensure that both the sound exposure and indeed the physical demands that can lead to injury is spread across orchestra members. Of course wearing earplugs can be a compromise for musicians, particularly for those who play in an orchestra where the dynamic range is often so wide. It’s not uncommon these days for musicians to mark on their scores when they need to put
earplugs in and then later take them out, sometimes wearing just one earplug to protect the ear facing another loud instrument or section. LISTEN UP Hearing loss is a significant social and health issue and some believe the increasing use of ear buds and headphones is likely to exacerbate the issue in the future. Despite the inevitability of some hearing loss with age, the acceleration of that loss and the extent to which it occurs at lower critical speech frequency bands should give everyone – particular if you use your ears to earn a living – pause to think. Most people will dash out to get their eyes tested at the first hint of loss of visual acuity but very few regularly have their hearing tested.
One aspect of hearing damage that doesn’t receive enough consideration is tinnitus. While there are many potential causes for tinnitus there is usually a strong correlation between hearing loss and tinnitus. Tinnitus is a very subjective experience and the extent of the problem can range from a mildly annoying occasional ringing to a perceived constant stream of noise that can lead to depression and other severe impacts on general health and well being. I’ve spoken to many people around my age – 50 if you must know – and almost without exception those who have had a long career in music, particularly in live sound, either mixing or playing, have some degree of tinnitus. I know I have, and the experience is insidious. While the impact of tinnitus on daily life can be variable, I’m very aware of its significant effects on simply listening to and appreciating music, as sounds decay away everything resolves into the constant high frequency noise that is my tinnitus. Silence is no longer golden, it is now somewhat tarnished.
AudioTechnology THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & RECORDING MUSICIANS
Full magazine out now
REGULARS
home grown
Punk isn’t dead, and neither are cassette four-tracks. Both are alive and flourishing in St Kilda. Text: Brad Watts
It came to my attention during some errant Rage viewing, and I was pretty stoked to see some good old Aussie-style punk music on the TV again. The four fellows behind the masks in their terrytowelling dressing gowns and Hush Puppy slippers had grabbed my attention and swung it around my lounge room for good measure. Suddenly the sounds of The Saints, X and Radio Birdman were flooding back into the memory banks – this was ‘proper’ punk, only this time dressed in terry-towelling dressing gowns and Hush Puppy slippers. No glued-up mohawks, Doc Martin boots or Dickies ‘quality workwear’ around here mate. This was straight-out, slack-dash, honest-to-goodness Aussie punk music, albeit in masks, and, you know, the dressing gowns and the slippers. Heck, I was in my dressing gown and slippers myself at the time; I had to track them down for an interview. I was soon in contact with the man behind the Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s recordings; guitarist for the band, recording engineer, and producer of everything ECSR has ever done (eight seven-inch singles, three albums, and various EPs), Mikey Young. Mikey quickly revealed his love of the long lost cassette format, and his angle on capturing as much as you can with as little as possible. CAPTURED ON TAPE Brad Watts: How long has Eddy Current Suppression Ring been going, Mikey?
Mikey Young: We had our first jam in late 2003, which was an accidental, drunken sort of thing. We said we’d just make up two songs and before we knew it we had five songs so we released a seveninch single. Then we thought we’d just play one gig for our friends. We played one show and people really liked it, so we thought, ‘maybe we should keep doing this’. BW: Your stuff reminds me very much of The Saints. ECSR are obviously into that era of music.
MY: Yeah, well we’re all big fans of that kind of thing, as were the crew at Corduroy [Records] where I worked at the time, and probably the biggest influences out of anything I listened to during that period of my life. The owners were really into that stuff, so I found myself constantly surrounded by ’60s garage and punk – heaps of old bands that I’d never heard of. It was great. Nowadays my tastes are changing though. I’m a big Rod Stewart fan now actually. I love old disco stuff, and heaps of ’60s garage… anything really. I’ve got a heap of old records packed away. My tastes are pretty all over the shop. I think that’s why I’ve ended up starting a lot of different bands. I just get bored of one kind of sound. BW: You play guitar with Eddy Current Suppression Ring now, but where does the recording angle come into the picture? MY: I’d bought a bunch of recording gear in around 2000 and used to sit in my bedroom making instrumental stuff – just an extension of a four-track really. Anyway, I did that for years and just reached a point where I really needed to start a band again. I’d kicked off initially with a G4 and a Digi 001, but a while back I decided I couldn’t work with it any longer. At that stage I was still mixing via a console. I’ve got an old British broadcasting desk, a Chilton, and I was doing all my mixes through that and the 001. Even though I was recording initially to my eight-track, I just felt something bad was going on with that system. BW: Were the converters letting you down, or was it recording to tape that was the problem? MY: The converters were the issue for sure, because I still use the tape machine. It’s not like the type of music I make needs to be super-pristine, but something was really letting me down. After getting a set of RME converters things seemed to improve a lot. Now I’m actually mixing in Logic rather than via the Chilton. Plus the more bands I started to record,
the less I was able to keep track of any of the settings. At one point I was taking photos of the desk just to remember how the sessions were set up. In the end though the console was just making things difficult. I’m still using the eight-track, but like all good tape machines, it’s in for repair at the moment! BW: What’s the eight-track machine you’re using? MY: An Otari F5050 – the flatbed one on the slight angle. That’s combined with eight channels of Sebatron preamps that I picked up in about 2003. They seem to do the job really well. BW: You’ve certainly got a hybrid approach going on here. Describe your process when recording with the eight-track. MY: Over the last couple of years recording bands, including my own bands, the process has basically involved carting the eight-track around and going straight through the Sebatrons to tape. I don’t go through a desk. Then I’ll bring the eight-track machine back here and transfer it all to Logic Pro. Once everything is in Logic, I don’t like having to go over things and fix up countless mistakes. I like a recording to be as live as possible. I can’t stand doing heaps of overdubs. I don’t have a million dollar mic collection either. I have an Audio-Technica 4050, but that’s about as expensive as things get. I did buy one of those Rode Broadcaster mics recently and I’ve been quite impressed with it. The rest of my mics are basic things like SM57s and Sennheiser e609s for guitar amps. I used to use a lot more condensers, but most of the bands I record are quite loud, so I find I don’t need the separation. RANDOM SPACES BW: How do you go about setting the scene for a recording?
MY: First and foremost I want people to play well, and if they set up in the same way as when they jam they usually play a lot better, which is what I’m trying to get out of a rock band. I do a lot of
recording in places like warehouses and rehearsal studios, or in people’s houses. I prefer to record in random places rather than studios; places where people feel comfortable, like their lounge room. Plus lately I’ve been using three mics on drums; just kick, snare and a mono overhead, so it’s much easier than miking the entire kit. I used to use two overheads but I always ended up mixing them mono anyway. In fact, pretty much the whole mix ends up mono. BW: Effectively adding a whole bunch of phase anomalies for no reason… MY: Totally – now my kit recordings sound more like a drumkit, and with way less mics. BW: Which drum mics survived the cull? MY: Pretty much the standards: a Sennheiser e602 on kick, the Audio-Technica 4050 as a mono overhead, and then a Shure SM57 on snare. If I’m using tape I’ll usually have the overhead going down to tape pretty hard. If I’m recording a really hardcore band, or band that uses a lot of toms, I might use a Rode Broadcaster mic on the floor tom – so four mics maximum on the kit. Guitar and bass I’m pretty lazy about – they’re usually just SM57s or a Sennheiser e609 on the amps. I find I’m sticking to dynamics predominantly, and using condensers much less. I actually like the sound better. I like everything to be pretty dry. Having said all that, I recorded a band the other night, and because my eight-track is in for repair, I did it straight into the computer through the Sebatrons, and I think this is the way I’ll go for now. I’m getting sick to death of carting the tape machine around, and I can process it back through tape later anyway if I really need to push the drums. I’m actually surprised by how much I like what I’ve done straight to hard disk, and it’s made me question what the benefits of tape really are. The only real benefit I get out of it is if I want to push the drums, or if I just can’t get that wash sound happening with the cymbals. I like to over-blow that part of the kit in a
“
I used to use two overheads and I always ended up mixing them mono anyway. In fact, pretty much the whole mix ends up mono.
”
“ ”
I like dumb, stupid rock ’n’ roll, so I’m happy to leave it as it is
mix, and I can’t seem to create that sound digitally. I like the old ’60s garage stuff where the cymbals can’t go any further – they’re just a constant wash. As long as the kick and snare poke through a bit, that’s all I need. Going straight to tape I’m forced to commit how much I want to drive everything. This way I can play it safe in a quiet atmosphere and adjust the tape saturation to taste. So I think this is what I’ll be doing in future. The band I recorded the other night was pretty quiet, and there was no reason to go to tape. Hitting the valves in the Sebatron pres hard gave me a nice sound anyway. I’ve actually switched back to recording a lot of bands on fourtrack as well. BW: No way! Talk me through that. MY: It’s really just a move back to getting as simple a drum sound as possible, and I really like the drum sounds from my Tascam four-track. Often I’ll record with two drum mics, guitar and bass. Then we do overdubs for other parts back here in my bedroom. I love that drum sound. It sounds like a drum kit in the lounge room. On this particular recording the room was so bright I actually had the condenser on the kick drum and used my kick mic as the overhead. BW: Any particular cassette preferences then? MY: I do like the mid-’90s BASF chrome ones, but I was using an Opus C90 that I found floating around the house the other day – they’re pretty good too. BW: So before we go on, are you an ‘in-the-kick’ guy or an ‘out-of-the-kick’ guy? MY: I’m still a ‘trial-and-error’ guy on that one.
To be honest the kick sound is probably the least important thing when I’m mixing anyway. I like it pretty dull. I’m more of a snare and guitars guy; more of a treble man. I’ve never really concentrated on kick sounds. I think bad snares are the only things that annoy me.
is getting that bleed to sit correctly. The way I get around that, while still maintaining the energy, is to filter out the unwanted low-end stuff so the bass sits right. That’s pretty much all I stick to, besides grouping the drums together and slightly compressing them.
BW: So how do you make sure you capture a good snare sound?
BW: No doubt you’re also pretty light-on with plug-ins?
MY: Like I said, I don’t really interfere with the band too much and I usually only have a day to record them. So it’s really just a case of ‘set up and let’s go!’ If they’ve got a bad snare it’s going to sound shit. I like recording bands that have just started out – surviving on energy and naivety. I’m not trying to create hits for anybody, so it’s a case of taking it as it comes. I like dumb, stupid rock ’n’ roll, so I’m happy to leave it as it is. Old Kinks records have got heaps of bung notes, for example, and those mistakes end up being my favourite parts. Those recordings have an unmistakable human element to them. Most rock ’n’ roll, well… ‘pop’ rock ’n’ roll records of the last 10 years don’t even sound like bands to me. They just sound like completely contrived formulations.
MY: I don’t use a lot of reverb on vocals, but I’d have a tiny bit of reverb there. Barely any reverb on the drums, and I like to limit the hell out of the bass to keep that from going up and down, and I compress the guitars to hell too. It’s just getting rid of stuff I don’t want really, but I definitely don’t go crazy. I always want to just capture the sound of a band playing in a room. The easiest way to do that is get a band to play in a room, and then not f**k with it too much.
MIXING ALL 12 BW: What’s your mixing regime once you’ve got everything into Logic?
MY: Well if I record to tape I’ve still only got eight channels, if someone wants to do extra vocals the session will drift out to twelve tracks maximum. I’m not heavily into gating. I’ve got a habit of filtering out frequencies I find aren’t necessary in each channel – cutting out heaps of low end from the guitars. Because I like to record things live and there’s a fair bit of bleed, a lot of what I’m doing
BW: Does automation help you out for this kind of material? MY: Hardly ever. I guess that’s the other good thing about having a band play live; they sort of automate themselves and feed off each other’s levels. If there’s a guitar solo or something that needs to be brought out I’ll automate it, but that’s about it. It’s funny, I’ve never really watched other people record so I don’t know how other people do it. When I hear about other recording sessions I think I’m probably on a totally different train of thought to most. Maybe I’m lucky to record bands I think are good and that’s it. I’m not doing anything special; I’m just recording good bands. Maybe I’m just lucky to have good friends who play good music.
AudioTechnology THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & RECORDING MUSICIANS
Full magazine out now
REGULARS UN-BALANCED OUT
PC AUDIO
BALANCED IN XLRM
JACK PLUG
Does your PC audio interface whistle along with your music? Would you prefer it didn’t? Read on and discover more about the wonderful world of ground loops.
• TIP TO PIN 2 XLR
Text: Martin Walker
• SLEEVE TO PIN 3 XLR
1 3 2
• PIN 1 XLR NOT CONNECTED
I regularly receive emails from musicians desperate to eradicate background noises from their PC audio. Contrary to popular belief, these problems are rarely due to ‘mains interference’. Instead, they’re nearly always caused by ground loops in audio wiring. Problems range from straightforward ‘hums’ to a wide range of ticks, buzzes, whistles and other digital gremlins that are often associated with computer activities such as graphic redraws, mouse movements, and hard-drive activity. If you’re experiencing any of these ground-loop problems you won’t solve them by installing a power conditioner or an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), so before you even think of spending money on either of these expensive options, examine your basic wiring first. Temporarily unplug all the audio cables from your setup, and if you’ve got gear bolted into a metal rack, it may also be worth disconnecting the mains cables of this equipment to rule out problems associated with several metal cases touching each other and causing yet more ground loops. As tempting as it might seem, shortcuts such as leaving the cables plugged in and just switching off the connected gear at the mains won’t work, since the mains cables and any resulting ground loops will still be in place. Unplugging one cable can therefore make the background noises better or worse, depending on how this affects the remaining ground loops. Only by removing every audio cable from your setup and then patiently reconnecting the system one item at a time, can you properly identify (and then hopefully eradicate) ground-loop problems. FROM THE GROUND UP With all the audio cables removed from your studio setup you should now hopefully hear silence from your loudspeakers or headphones – apart from a little hiss and possibly a tiny amount of hum or buzz if you turn the amplifier right up and place your ears nearby (be very careful when doing this, since an unexpected signal at this point could damage your ears or blow up your speakers). If there’s still more hum than you expect, it might be due to a nearby ‘wall-wart’ power supply, in which case, you should try rotating it to find its ‘quietest’ position. If you’re still unhappy with the levels of hum and
noise from your amp/speakers you may need to get them checked out by a technician – remember, hum levels of both solid-state and valve amps can increase over time due to deteriorating capacitors or valves. Assuming all is well at this stage, mute the speakers, connect your mixer to the amp, turn the monitors back up and listen again (if you route all your gear directly to a multi-channel audio interface, this can be considered your ‘mixer’). You’ll probably hear greater hiss levels from the combined contribution of all the input channels until you pull the master fader right down, but at this stage there still shouldn’t be any obvious hums or other interference. If there is, it’s generally because you’ve just created an earth loop – the amp/speakers are already earthed via their mains cable, and the mixer is earthed in exactly the same way, so when you connect the two with an audio cable its shield connection completes the loop, causing unwanted earth currents to flow. If your amp has balanced inputs and your mixer/ interface has balanced outputs, the cure is to connect the two via balanced audio cables (twin core plus shield). If not, you may be able to achieve the same results by disconnecting the shield of an unbalanced cable at one end (in the case of soldered cables you can do this inside the plug, normally at the destination end). Similarly, if the amp has a balanced input, but your mixer/interface only provides an unbalanced output, you can make up a pseudo-balanced cable (see the picture above for basic wiring details). Don’t be tempted – under any circumstances – to disconnect the earth of either the amp or the mixer/interface inside its respective mains plug – this is a recipe for electrocution if any of your gear becomes faulty and simply isn’t worth the risk. Occasionally the only way to cure a ground-loop problem is by installing a line-level D.I. between the mixer and amp to galvanically separate the two circuits – commonly by using a transformer to transfer the audio signal. The audio gets through perfectly, but there’s no direct connection at all between the input and output cables inside the D.I.. This is sometimes the only way to cure PC laptoprelated ground-loop problems; most others can be dealt with by simple cable modifications.
Once your mixer, amp and speaker chain is reconnected and possesses an acceptably low level of signal noise, plug each remaining item of audio gear back into your mixer – one device at a time – and power it up, on each occasion listening for unwanted noises. As soon as you spot a problem, you know you’ve either got a faulty piece of gear or a ground loop, but at least now you’ve isolated the culprit and can make moves to sort it out! (There may still be other issues of course, so remain vigilant.) If it’s rack gear, you may need to temporarily unbolt it from the rack to check that the problem isn’t due to its case touching other earthed metalwork and creating a further ground loop (if it is, use nylon rack bolts or ‘Humfrees’ to isolate it). Low-level circuits such as mic preamps can also pick up mains interference from the mains transformers inside nearby rack units. SILENCE IS GOLDEN This systematic approach is the only way to deal with ground-loop problems. It may be tedious, but if you do it systematically you only have to do it once and the benefits can be enormous!
Unfortunately, I do occasionally come across a situation where mains powered USB or Firewire audio interfaces result in unsolvable ground loop problems (thankfully this happens rarely), since your PC and USB/Firewire interface are each earthed via their respective mains plugs, and the ground loop is, in this situation, completed via the USB/Firewire cable that connects the two. Laptop owners can safely bypass their computer’s mains earth by running on batteries or replacing an earthed mains PSU with a replacement Universal double-insulated model. However, desktop and tower PCs always require a mains earth, and for safety reasons you should never – under any circumstances – remove it. If you experience this problem you may simply have to minimise its effects. Plugging all your mains appliances into the same distribution board, to create a ‘star’ system with everything powered from the same mains wall socket, can often reduce the interference, as can trying different lengths of USB/ Firewire cable (generally, shorter ones will be better). Good luck and may all your audio be gremlin-free!
REGULARS
MAC AUDIO iPad therefore I am. Text: Brad Watts
At long last, I finally get my paws on an iPad! The courier turned up with the package barely 24 hours after Apple had promised it would, and as you’d expect, we pounced on him like a pack of feral Apple fanboys. The packaging was the typically sublime affair we’ve all come to expect from Apple by now: open the box, and out pops an iPad. Of course, none of us could resist doing our Trigger Happy TV ‘big mobile phone’ impersonations the moment we grabbed hold of it. Once that inevitability was out of the way, we proceeded to fill it up with software. When I say, ‘fill it up’ we’re still a very long way short of maxing out the unit’s 64 gigabytes, but that day will no doubt dawn at some point – if only my iPhone could harness that much memory. First impressions? The iPad is certainly a sexy piece of technology. The screen is very bright and easily viewable outdoors – far brighter than you’d expect after operating an iPhone (the iPhone 3G/S being the obvious point of reference when you first use the iPad). Consequently, the viewing experience is nothing short of sensational. Colours are clear, crisp and explicit, inviting your fingers to swipe and stroke away at the oleophobic (lacking affinity for oils) touchscreen. Performance is remarkably swift courtesy of the 1GHz A4 OS-implanted processor, and yes, I can’t wait to have the same processor under the hood of an iPhone 4G when the floodgates finally open on that device in Australia. Battery life is better than acceptable. This is typically dependent upon the applications in use, but generally I found myself recharging it every couple of days, and that was while giving it a fair old thrashing. It mostly goes without saying that, in terms of durability, the iPad is a well-crafted item. It feels solid and sturdy, and well up to the task of general laze-about domestic use. However, having seen my kids in action with ‘Dad’s big phone’, I don’t advise leaving the unit laying about in child-prone areas as, again, like the iPhone, the greatest fear is dropping it and cracking that magnificent 1024x768-pixel touchscreen. Which brings me to the issue of ergonomics and implementing the iPad into everyday life…
iSHIFT While the iPad is assuredly a new paradigm in personal computing, or perhaps more succinctly, internet and ‘cloud’ surfing, while carting it around the house I’ve found using the tablet just a bit on the annoying side of cumbersome. Compared with the constantly comparable iPhone, you can hardly pull the iPad out of your pocket to check your email and then plonk it back into said recess. No clothing repository is that big! To be honest, at times I felt like I was presenting a tray of hors d’oeuvres – ‘rice crackers and dip anyone?’ The iPad remains a large item to be wielding about, although it’s certainly far easier than toting a laptop or netbook. The other annoying aspect of the iPad – which I actually find quite objectionable – is the lack of Adobe Flash
“
…at times I felt like I was presenting a tray of hors d’oeuvres – ‘rice crackers and dip anyone?
”
support. Browsing websites with the device can quickly become a drag – and literally impossible with some sites – due to the bun-fight between Steve Jobs and Adobe over the Flash protocol. This aspect alone saw me putting the iPad down in disgust and heading for a bona-fide computer quite regularly. But I must digress at this point; otherwise I’ll run out of space to comment on the device from an audio-centric standpoint. There were two control surface applications I’d been hankering to give a run on the iPad (rather than mere tinkering with the same applications on the iPhone) the moment I powered it up. The first is the more inexpensive of the two, and at $13 represents jolly good value for a control surface. Saitara Software’s AC-7 Pro provides all the bells and
whistles of a dedicated hardware control surface. In fact, the look of the AC-7 Pro is incredibly reminiscent of the first Mackie Control (initially marketed as the Logic Control). Aside from the requisite faders and transport, there’s a jog/shuttle/ scrub wheel, access to editing plug-ins, automation modes, modifier keys, schmick graphics… the list goes on and on. The beauty of AC-7 Pro is how the button layout can be altered according to the DAW it’s paired with, which in itself, is the inherent beauty of ‘virtual buttons’ on the iPad itself. If you pair the application with Digital Performer, for instance, you’ll see buttons pertaining to that DAW on the iPad. However, unless you’re on a strict budget after shelling out for an iPad, I can’t say I’m overly impressed with AC-7 Pro. Sure, it’s cheap, but the app requires two third-party applications running alongside your DAW to operate it. Both are freeware: MidiPipe is a MIDI re-router, mapping and filtering application, and DSMI Server for OSX enables MIDI via wireless. Perhaps it’s the reliance on these two intermediary applications that makes AC-7 Pro feel as flakey as it does: it drops out, it does strange things. It may look like the business, but when pushed, it’s not the ‘pro’ controller it claims to be. The second control application I tinkered with has already been mentioned in Mac Audio. ProRemote LE costs a good deal more than $13; kicking off at $24 and blowing out to around $120 by the time you pay for all the ‘in-app purchases’. Just grab the straight version of ProRemote for $120 and be done with it. The great thing about ProRemote (both the LE and fully-fledged versions) is that the server software which facilitates communication between the iPad and your DAW is a bespoke server application written by the ProRemote developer, Far Out Labs. It just works: sturdy and seamless, without the slightest hint of weirdness. ProRemote will also take on the look of the DAW you’re using, with skins for Logic, ProTools (versions 7&8), Ableton Live, Digital Performer, Cubase, and Soundtrack Pro. If you’re considering mixing via an iPad, don’t skimp on the software. If you want something that does the job properly, look no further than ProRemote.
REVIEW
JLM AUDIO FC500 Another new compressor from JLM Audio has hit the street. This time it’s an ‘Enhanced FET Compressor’ in the 500 series module format. Text: Greg Walker
Joe Malone is a familiar name to regular AT readers and and his Brisbane-based JLM Audio is very well regarded both here and overseas. Being an early convert to the now snowballing API 500-series module renaissance, Joe has been ideally positioned to watch this market re-develop and spot where new designs might fit into the rapid growth cycle. Having already used the impressive JLM TG500 mic preamp a few times it was with some curiosity that I opened up an API-badged box only to find a hearty JLM lunchbox tucked away inside. Featured amongst an impressive collection of other 500-series JLM modules was a pair of Joe’s new FC500 FET compressors. CHICKENHEADS ANYONE? Like the other 500-series JLM modules on offer, the FC500 is a stylish rack unit module featuring a chunky black faceplate, bulletproof toggle switches and dials, and a larger ‘featured’ chickenhead knob for input level adjustment. A funky semicircular white backlit VU meter takes pride of place in the upper half of the module and the general vibe is of a serious piece of kit that’s built to last.
Looking inside the unit the crowd pleaser is definitely the oversized custom output transformer. Below this a JLM 99V Opamp sits snugly amongst a busy yet tidy layout and the build quality is uniformly robust. Joe Malone describes the FC500 as a ‘reworking’ of the UREI 1176LN compressor and many of the control functions are reminiscent of that famous design. Overall level and threshold settings are achieved through the adjustment of the variable input and output controls, while the bypass toggle switch up top allows for the easy A/B-ing of compressed and uncompressed signals. This switch has a third setting whereby the unit can be linked to another FC500 for stereo work. Switching the compressor on activates a bright blue LED at the top of the unit as well as a lamp on the VU meter, leaving you in no doubt about your current status. Speaking of meters, a neighbouring toggle switch lets you choose between gain reduction level, +10dB and 0dB VU output metering options – always handy on any compressor. Attack and release controls are situated at the bottom of the unit and these utilise the smaller variable (and beakless) pots. The FET circuit in the
FC500 is a very fast one, making it suitable for a wide variety of compression effects including extremely sensitive and speedy attack settings. This strength can also be its weakness in the wrong hands. ENHANCING A CLASSIC Although it’s ‘reminiscent’ of the classic UREI compressor of yore, in fact the FC500 departs quite significantly from the famous Bill Putnam design in several respects. Firstly, the compression ratio is continuously variable from 3:1 to 20:1 whereas the 1176 provides stepped control via buttons that begin at a ratio of 4:1. Mechanically speaking, you won’t find an equivalent for the ‘all buttons in’ setting either, but be assured, when you crank the input gain full throttle and the ratio to 20:1 you can still give your signal a fair old shellacking in the time-honoured fashion, and depending on how the unit’s other controls are setup, this ratio can in practice be more like 40:1. The other important innovation in Joe’s design is the internal side-chain high-pass filter, which allows you to effectively remove the bottom-end from the compressor’s control signal anywhere below 10 – 200Hz. This is a great addition to the circuit that allows you to either avoid blatant pumping on bassheavy material, ‘tune’ the sidechain for maximum musicality, or even relatively increase the dynamics of the bottom-end. Needless to say this feature is not about making the audible signal at the output ‘thin’ sounding; it only removes bass frequencies from the sidechain signal that feeds the compression circuit. These last two controls make the FC500 a more versatile compressor and greatly increase the unit’s tweakability.
Finally, a small output control that sits above and to the right of the VU meter allows you to balance the signal before it leaves the lunchbox. After using the unit for a while my main gripe became the size of this dial, as you need to accurately set this level to properly A/B your compressed/uncompressed sounds. Like a lot of modern 500-series modules, the FC500 controls are a little crowded and there’s a certain finickiness when accessing all the
smaller controls, but I guess that’s kind of the point – if you take your lunchbox to a location recording session and leave your cumbersome 2RU devices behind, a little delicate finger work is a small price to pay. One last feature that may surprise many, but which is also common to the original 1176, is the capacity of the FC500 to act as a ‘medium level’ mic preamp. If you have mics that don’t need phantom power or indeed mics with their own dedicated source of phantom, you can get 45dB of gain out of the FC500 without needing a dedicated mic pre – nifty indeed when you’re running low on preamps in a session! OUT OF THE BOX Now that we’ve got the ergonomics and other paperwork out of the way, let’s look at what the compressor is best at shall we? For starters there’s no doubt this is a great sounding compressor. The FC500 shares something of the euphonics of its cousins in the JLM range: it’s fast and vibey and does that little something to the sound that you can’t quite put your finger on. Perhaps a little coloration and harmonic enhancement, perhaps a little resetting of the soundstage so that things feel like they sit together more comfortably. It’s the hallmark of great gear and the FC500 has definitely got it without being overly coloured for meat and potatoes work.
The FC500 may share some aspects of the 1176 design, but it’s certainly no clone and definitely has its own sound. It’s great on bass guitar and really shines on percussive tracks where it reveals rich detail and balanced tone, even at more aggressive settings. Having said all that, I’d also have to add that the FC500 is not the easiest compressor in the world to use. It took me quite a while to find the sweet spot on some vocals and other instruments where I needed subtle control. As opposed to a Summit or a dbx, say, where there’s generally a certain level of confidence and predictability about the majority of the settings, the JLM demands a much more precise approach. The meter has an alarming tendency to flip right out to 20dB of gain reduction, even at low compression ratios on some material, so you really have to use your ears to hear what’s going on and really work on your attack and release settings to get them settled. [Apparently this problem has been rectified since we received the modules for review. According to Joe Malone, a mod to the circuit has damped the VU’s response, reducing the ‘flip-outs’, and making it behave more like the meter in an 1176 – Ed.] On the flipside there’s danger too at extreme settings. Heavy transients can slip through and create alarming pinging sounds and even cut off the signal altogether for a few milliseconds if you get the setup all wrong. This is, however, fairly easy to solve through the judicious use of the I/O levels, HPF and ratio settings, but nevertheless this tendency may freak some users out at first. Using the two FC500s in ‘link’ mode I was able to get some pretty bombastic stereo drum bus action going on at high settings – a little less distorted than an 1176 maybe, but still very aggressive. They also retained that certain euphonic sheen and evenness of tone that gives this unit its mojo. On program material the FC500 did a beautiful job of smoothing things out without leaving telltale artefacts and again it added its own subtle tonal signature, which I really enjoyed. On vocals the FC500 seemed to add a smidge of low-end warmth to the signal while otherwise being pretty transparent. PASS THE FILTER I found the compressor pretty sensitive to bass frequencies in general and this was where the HPF really came into its own. A world of options comes into play here depending on where you set your filter, ratio and I/O levels, and the variations within
“
When you crank the input gain full throttle and the ratio to 20:1 you can still give your signal a fair old shellacking in the time-honoured fashion…
”
these four controls kept me busy for a good half an hour on one particular drum bus setup. I did try out the FC500 briefly as a mic pre and it did a very creditable job on strummed acoustic guitar through a condenser with its own power source. On snare through an SM57 it had just enough juice to do the job and again sounded more than adequate in this role. I love this trick and reckon it’s a real bonus having a multitasking compressor like this in the rack. While I was testing the FC500 I couldn’t resist patching in its neighbouring module, the PEQ500 passive EQ, and I had a blast running the EQ into the compressor on various sources. The standout was a King Curly track I’d been asked to mix where the main vocal had previously been heavily compressed and EQ’d in ProTools to create a thin midrange effect which was a little harsh. I undid all the digital effects and set about creating something similar with analogue gear instead. I EQ’d the vocal with a very heavy (yet passive) 1.5kHz boost and some bass roll-off and then hit the compressor hard with pretty fast attack and release times. I had to work at it to get the compressor to catch the transients without sucking all the life out of them but after some patient twiddling I found what I was looking for… replete with strange sucking and breathing noises between words that were accentuated by the FC500. As luck would have it, this perfectly suited the song’s lyric about a lonely bong-pulling misanthrope. In the end I achieved a really dramatic vocal sound that, remarkably, still had some hint of warmth and softness in it despite the extreme treatments. The sound started to bleed and break-up beautifully at the edges and generally did all the pleasant ‘analogue’ things that we bang on about all the time in AT. It was a million miles away from the harsh nasal sound of the digital treatments and added a theatrical edge to the song that worked a treat. TWEAKER’S DELIGHT Although I’ve had a pair of the JLM FC500s on my desk for almost a month now I feel like I’m still learning more about this quirky FET compressor’s strengths and weaknesses. A one-trick pony this compressor certainly is not, but conversely, it’s not a compressor you can just patch in, set and forget either. It’s a bit like a racehorse; it performs beautifully if you know how to ride it, but it’s somewhat sensitive and can misbehave in unexpected ways if you’re not careful with the reigns. For myself I found it easier to work with in a mixing rather than tracking scenario where there’s more time to explore the possibilities on offer. Like a lot of gear with the capacity for more subtle control, there’s a fair learning curve to get through and I wouldn’t recommend the FC500 for the home recordist’s first foray into outboard compression. However, for the more seasoned tweaker, this is a quality module with a lot going for it in both single track and bussing applications. You get a functional mic pre thrown in and, most importantly, it sounds very good indeed.
NEED TO KNOW Price $1095 Contact JLM Audio (07) 3891 2244 sales@jlmaudio.com www.jlmaudio.com/shop Pros Great sound. Flexible compression architecture and fast FET response. HPF lets you dial in bass sensitivity. Links to another unit for stereo applications. It’s an extra mic pre stupid! Cons Over-sensitive in certain applications. Little knobs a tad fiddly to set accurately. Takes a while to get to know. Need a 500 rack to power it. Summary The FC500 is a flexible compressor based on the classic UREI 1176LN design with some tasty enhancements such as a continuously variable compression ratio and a side-chain HPF. It sounds great on a wide variety of sources and has a classy sonic signature that rewards the careful tweaker who’s willing to spend quality time with it. It also has a party trick – doubling as a useful extra mic pre when required.
REVIEW
DYNAUDIO ACOUSTICS BM5A MKII
The original BM5A developed quite a reputation after its release back in 2004, and users of this modest looking nearfield still pledge their solemn allegiance. Now the MKII has arrived sporting several improvements. Text: Al Craig
I must admit I have a certain fondness for Dynaudio speakers. A little over 10 years ago, when I was designing the broadcast control rooms for the Sydney Olympics, the question of what monitors to use inevitably came up. I had no favourites at the time and thought the fair thing to do would be to organise a ‘shootout’ – of the speaker variety of course. I contacted Michael White at Sound On Stage and he organised a double-blind listening station in his showroom, where he assembling bookshelf-sized speakers from most of the current speaker manufacturers. Steve Mitchell, Trevor Bird and I then took on critical listening duties. With roughly 10 pairs of speakers to audition, we scored each pair in turn and determined the best overall performer. It was only when the speakers were revealed to us we realised that all 10 pairs were passive. We then asked that our first choice be included in a second test alongside some active nearfields. A week later, we returned and repeated the process, this time with six pairs of active speakers and the passive winner from the previous session once again setup in a double-blind test. Again, we listened to our favourite music, some voice-only tracks and recordings of actual Olympic commentary. Scoring was based on clarity, apparent frequency response, fatigue factors, damping factor and eventually size and cost. The Dynaudio BM6A was the overall winner and 10 pairs were subsequently ordered. Nine of these went into the control rooms that looked after track & field and gymnastics, while the 10th pair went into my Quality Control listening room. I believe all 10 pairs are still in use in studios and OB trucks here in Australia some 10 years later (there’s that number again). I now have the honour of reviewing the latest speaker in the Dynaudio Acoustics range – the BM5A MKII. This is the little
brother to the BM6A and offers several improvements over the original BM5A. Although they look essentially the same, the MKII has had its woofer re-engineered to allow for a longer excursion and to minimise distortion, while the tweeter now comes with a waveguide that’s designed to tighten up the sweet spot. Both speaker elements are handmade at the Dynaudio factory in Skanderborg, Denmark using aluminium coils and other high-grade materials. The low-end response has been extended by 5Hz and the maximum output has been increased to 117dB SPL. FLAT OUT Of all the equipment in your signal path, speakers must have a flat frequency response. Combined with the acoustics in your room, if things are not as they should be, then you’re essentially being lied to and your mixes will suffer. Mics don’t need to be flat; preamps don’t need to be flat; plug-ins and outboard gear don’t need to be flat. Indeed, all of these devices, with their varying responses, shape the colour and character of our audio world. The response of a Shure SM58 for instance is nothing like a Neumann U87, but in certain instances the SM58 is the mic to choose because of its character. One of the fundamental tasks a mix engineer must perform is to deliver a mix that will play out no matter what the consumer is listening through. For example, if our speakers (in combination with the room) are bass heavy, then we are likely to unwittingly mix bass thin. If there’s a rise in the midrange, then we’re likely to unknowingly adjust the EQ to compensate. Ask any mastering engineer and they can tell you any number of horror stories about mixes that have arrived on their doorstep sporting more lumps than a camel train. So how do we know that we have flat speakers? Well, most
manufacturers print their specs in the manual of course. It’s very common to see something like: “20Hz – 20kHz (±3dB)” printed proudly in a specifications page, and the Dynaudio BM5A MKIIs, under scrutiny here, are no exception. These have a published specification of 48Hz – 21kHz (±3dB). We’d like to believe we can trust the manufacturer, but I’m much too sceptical to believe the marketing and would rather test them myself. But how can you test your speakers? Unless you have an anechoic chamber, a calibrated test mic, some sort of Real Time Analyser and appropriate software its nigh on impossible. Or is it? TESTING, TESTING I placed the Dynaudios on the ledge next to my ATC SCM Series and Auratone 5s speakers. The ATCs are being driven from the monitor section of my SoundWorkshop 34 mixer. I connected the BM5A MKIIs to a pair of aux sends, fired up my Sadie DAW, routed a bus out from the desk into track 1 and recorded a sweep tone from 20Hz to 20kHz across three minutes. (I don’t own an SPL meter so I adjusted the volume to somewhere in the area of 80dB SPL – for those of you with iPhones, there’s an app for that.) I then set up a B&K 4007 mic two feet from the speakers and routed it through my Wendt x4 ENG mixer and sent that to another bus. (If you don’t own a B&K 4007, dig out the original packaging on your best mic and see if it came with a frequency plot. Otherwise, set your best mic up using the omni pattern and test away.) I put Track 2 into record, played out Track 1, repeating this procedure a couple more times and recorded the response of the ATC SCM20s and Auratone 5s for comparison. The screen grab below shows the results: As you can see, the amplitude of the direct feed (Track 1) is constant across the entire range. The speaker/mic combination shows remarkably similar amplitudes, except for in the bottommost octave (20Hz – 40Hz) as per the spec. The wavering amplitudes in the mids is mostly due to reflections off the mixing desk. DETAILS OF THE MKII The new Dynaudio BM5A MKII – the baby brother of the BM6A – is a two-way active monitor that houses a seven-inch woofer and a 28mm soft dome tweeter. The power amps are rated at 50 Watts each (I know it doesn’t sound like much, but man these babies can get loud). There’s a bass reflex port on the back tuned at 55Hz, and the two drivers cross over at 1.5kHz. The speaker weighs just under 9kg and its physical dimensions
are 186mm wide, 320mm tall and 320mm deep. It sports several switches that allow you to contour the frequency response if you so desire, and there’s also a three-position high-pass filter switch featuring ‘flat’, 60Hz and 80Hz positions. This is provided for anyone who might be working with a sub. There’s also a boost/ cut shelf switch for the low end: (+2, flat or –2), which allows you to compensate for nearby walls; a bell for the mids (+2, flat, –2 or –4), which allows you to compensate for reflections that might come off your work surfaces; and another shelf for the highs (+1, flat or –1). My biggest gripe with all these controls is the distinct lack of numerical detail about exactly where the knee frequencies and slope rates kick in. There’s nothing in the literature or the back panel. Finally, there’s an input sensitivity switch (+4, 0 or –10). There’s a fair degree of built-in protection to keep you from blowing up these things too. An overall thermal switch will shut off the amps if they get too hot. Another on the tweeter will specifically shut down the high amp if the tweeter coil gets too hot. There’s also a limiter on the woofer to protect it from extreme excursions. SOUND DESIGN So, how do they sound? Pretty damn good. When I fired them up in the studio I immediately loaded my latest album project. I was captivated by the clarity and richness of a mix that had previously left me feeling a tad, well… flat. The richness in the low end was smooth and warm; the mids had none of the bark I’ve come to expect with modern monitors of this size. The high end sizzled without being strident. The sweet spot in my studio is usually a pretty small sphere, but the Dynaudios delivered a broader coverage, both horizontally and vertically. Even out near 180 degrees (where my co-writers often sit) I was impressed by the response.
NEED TO KNOW Price $1695 Contact Amber Technology 1800 251 367 www.ambertech.com.au Pros Great sound. Very reasonable price. Light weight. Flawless pedigree. Cons No variable gain pot. Power switch on the back. Summary If I were in the market to buy some bookshelf speakers for my studio, these would be my first choice. Although they have a very nice low end, adding the BM9S subwoofer would complete a system that would arguably rival speakers three times the cost. If you’re installing a stereo or surround system, these are definitely worthy of consideration.
If I were to have any complaints about the BM5A MKII it would be that the power switch and gain pot should be on the front rather than around the back, although many would no doubt disagree with this. I power up all my electronics from a single breaker and the speakers deliver a not-so-healthy thump when powering down. The BM5A MKIIs are a very respectable speaker that would perform very well in any studio or OB truck. They would also be the perfect choice for a surround system. (Hmm… I wonder if I could buy five speakers?) AudioTechnology is gonna have to chase me to get these babies back. I think they’ve found a permanent home.
Pure Sine Wave Sweep from 20Hz to 20kHz Frequency response recordings of the Dynaudio BM5As, ATC SCM20s and Auratone 5s.