Audio Media International Issue 5

ANDY PRICE

Andy has Bylines for Guitar, NME and Uncut. He talks mixing with Noah Glassman on p12.

SARAH JONES

The Grammy.com writer has a revealing chat with Jeff Balding on p18.

ANDY JONES

Gear expert Andy spends time with the latest from KRK on p42 as he reviews the KRK GoAux 4.

@AUDIOMEDIAINT

A brave new sound

Audio formats have never had it easy. From stereo sound to CD, vinyl and high-res, there’s not been a format without critics from the start. And that’s before we mention MP3 or MQA. What has ultimately proved true is that the success, decline and rebirth of these technologies is based around a love of music. Talk to anyone making, mixing or producing immersive music and this is what always comes across - a gang of music fans let loose in a new galaxy of possibilities. There are still critics, of course and those that feel stereo is the endgame of music production. As a listener, I love my high end stereo system as much as Atmos mixes and it’s no exaggeration to say immersive headphone tech has transformed my gaming experiences. In 2023, perhaps this is the year when the ‘wild west’ of immersive experience production (as Jeff Balding says) begins to settle down. Jeff kindly shares his valuable knowledge on P18 and talks about his studio, immersive work and the new Recording Academy document ‘Delivery of Recorded Music Projects’. Jeff co-chairs the commitee authoring the document so it’s important reading for many. Elsewhere in the issue we speak to Noah Glassman AKA Mixgiant about his career on p12, investigate a neurofeedback installation on p10 and name our top 10 spatial audio albums on p30. We hope you enjoy the issue and have a great start to 2023...

This issue is also online: audiomediainternational.com/magazine

THANKS

Audient, AMS Neve, PMC, HHB, Neumann, TYX, Miloco, TIDAL, Martin Audio, Meyer Sound

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“There are critics, of course and those that feel stereo is the endgame of music production”

WPS punches well above its weight, it’s a stunning sounding PA and opens doors for my business. It’s great to be involved with an expanding new network of Wavefront Precision users and I couldn’t be happier with this investment.

Paul

Inside The Miloco Pro Audio Gear Showcase 2022

THE

POOL AND THE VAULT

Flare Audio’s E-Prototype and Calmer distortion-reducing earphones were the first products to take our interest. The E-Prototype in-ear ‘phones boldly claim to change the internal shape of the ear canal so sound quality heard by users is dramatically increased. This ‘Mirror Image’ sound technology is startlingly innovative. “What we’ve discovered is that we’re able to create two flat surfaces inside the earphone, a bit like a periscope, and we can produce a mirror image of the impulse and the driver onto the surface of the eardrum. It’s unlocked a whole new world of sound quality.” Flare explained to us. Calmer, Flare’s initial foray into in-ear technology, uses a similar ear-canal-adjusting philosophy to reduce stress-inducing, peaky sounds that people might hear in their day-to-day lives. They’ve become a big seller.

Sony’s brand new entry-level C80 microphone took a central position in the space (and would later be road-tested in The Bridge studio) Alongside it’s legendary brothers, the C-100 and C-800, the microphone features a two-part metallic anti-vibrational body structure, dualdiaphragm and Noise Elimination Construction which minimises vibration.

First held back in 2017 at their own studio complex, Miloco’s Gear Showcase was on the way to becoming a bright new fixture in the calendars of the UK’s music technology industry. With the pandemic sadly ending the event in recent years, the re-launch –which happened on the evening of November 24th 2022 – was met with a high degree of enthusiasm from attendees, exhibitors and industry pros alike.

Having evolved into one of the world’s biggest studio and production-related

companies, Miloco currently oversees 170 studios across the globe, as well as offering studio construction via Miloco Builds, a huge array of gear via Miloco Gear and a bespoke sample library outlet via Drumdrops. Connecting with the industry is essential to Miloco’s ethos, making the return of the open-door Gear Showcase something that had clearly been expertly planned.

Upon entering, our first port of call was the central live room of The Pool studio. Within, the likes of Sony, KMR, Trinnov, Flare Audio,

Up in a separate vocal booth, Source Distribution had a plethora of astounding synths set-up and ready to play, including the Moog Matriarch, Arturia’s analog polysynth the PolyBrute and ASM Hydrasynth. This gave us our first chance to explore the Polybrute’s new in-built multi-axis MPE performance controller, the Morphée, allowing X, Y and Z axis navigation of sounds. We might have spent a little too long getting lost in its five dimensional universe…

KMR Audio presented a multitude of wares. From outboard, microphones to some choice speakers – namely the jaw-dropping NNNN Comium 30 speakers. Sporting a distinctive, fan-like appearance, these full range 2-way monitors harness your room’s boundaries, turning them into an amplifier to generate higher SPL. It also does away with back wall reflections. Elsewhere, choice hardware from

From immersive product demos, in-depth masterclasses and a raft of eye-popping new gear peppering the corridors, booths and studios, the return of Miloco’s gear showcase at their London HQ brought sights and sounds to remember…

Chandler, Help Musicians and Source Distribution were eagerly presenting their latest wares…

Gainlab Audio, Universal Audio, Cranborne Audio and an always-staggering Shadow Hills mastering compressor stocked the racks, while a Townsend Sphere L22 microphone could be modelled to any other microphone voicing at will.

In the Pool’s Control Room, a pair of Genelec’s state-of-the-art 8651Bs were wowing ears via their incredible, precise power. This latest addition to ‘The One’ family, delivers exemplary point-source monitoring. With newly elevated SPL, room calibration and further-reaching high frequency response.

In the smaller Vault area, Audient’s ASP 4816 Heritage Edition desk was being demonstrated. This in-line, completely analogue mix console brings large-format multi-channel dexterity with a much smaller footprint. Audient were keen to explain the range of clever things the 48 input console is capable of; “This is available in two configurations, there’s the Standard Edition and the Heritage Edition. It contains the recording and monitor paths in just one channel strip, this halves the space required yet has the same functionality as a larger desk.”

THE BRIDGE AND THE RED ROOM

One of the most fun parts of the evening came when Sony demonstrated the new C80 mic with a live vocalist. “The C800 was a classic in the studio world, but very hard to get hold of in Europe and the UK.” Sony explained to a studio-full of enthusiasts. “What we did about ten years ago was bring out the C100 as a new flagship studio mic. As of yesterday, when they arrived in the country, we’ve now got the C80. Sony’s first studio mic that’s less than £500.”

Singing a two minute section of a song, the guest vocalist, Sophia, put Sony’s world-class family of mics to the test. While differences were detected between all three during the shootout, the overall quality bar was extraordinary, particularly for the ultraaffordable C80.

Elsewhere, numerous other engaging experiences were on offer, with an Atmos Demo in the Red Room, revealing the full scope of the space’s Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 setup. Harnessing the power of the ATC SCM45A as the left, front and right speakers, four ATC SCM25A’s overhead and dual subs, the Atmos experience in this gold-standard mixing studio is nothing short of mind-blowing.

Later at The Red Room came the event that many people had been waiting for, a production masterclass with the acclaimed Charlie Hugall. The producer and mix engineer’s credits included Ed Sheeran, Florence and the Machine and Celeste. Hugall was talking us through his approach to the arrangement of Tom Grennan’s huge hit, Found What I’ve Been Looking For “I thought I’d talk through this tune because basically, a lot of it was done on a bit of a shoestring budget, and it’s really the sum of the parts. Some of those parts are a bit ropey, but

the attendees how some of those basic recordings wound up in the final mix. “When I opened the project up after five years, I was like ‘Oh my God, what was I doing?’” Laughed Charlie, “But I wasn’t thinking about the solo’d tracks as individual things when I was arranging it, if things felt good for the song overall. They stayed.”

that’s part of the charm.” The MPG-award winner explained. “Tom came in with this amazing, gravelly, gritty voice. So one of the main things that I believe in with production is to just try and support the vocal, and facilitate its feeling.”

Opening up his original Pro Tools project, Charlie divulged how he had taken the original demo and gone away and added instrumental and rhythmical life to it, experimenting with quite freeform ideas (including some ‘obnoxious’ piano and ‘dodgy’ strings). He told

While the packed studio looked on in awe, Hugall isolated each of the huge-sounding track’s constituent parts, and explained that when it comes to production, often questing for things that sound too ‘perfect’ in isolation can be detrimental to the feel of the song. Once a vision is secured, Charlie told us that he needs to inhabit that song’s world “I wanted to create a feeling where the listener felt like there was too much going on. It was an intentional kind of thing. It informs my conduct on a personal level as a producer too. I’m not going to be sitting back being low-key. If I want the track to be lively, I’m going to be up on my feet, hyping up the artist. I want to match the energy of the artist and bring energy to a session that I want to get in the track.” It was a fascinating and inspiring masterclass.

It’s fair to say that those in attendance at Miloco’s Pro Audio Gear Showcase gained much from the evening. Whether by testing out mouth-watering pro-end gear or learning from the wisdom of seasoned pros. Next year’s event can’t come soon enough.

“In the Pool’s Control Room, Genelec’s state-of-the-art 8651Bs were wowing ears”

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STUDIO PROFILE: GATWICK PRODUCTION STUDIO

In professional audio, there is little doubt that the Dolby Atmos immersive audio format is here to stay, and with that in mind, Business partners Brandon Knights, Allan Sayers and TD Simon Ryder, with help and support from the team at HHB have built a new recording, mixing, mastering and Dolby Atmos certified facility close to Gatwick Airport, conveniently situated between London and Brighton. The first room at the new Gatwick Production Studios called Treehouse not only meets the very strict Dolby Atmos specifications but surpasses them. In part, thanks to its acoustic design philosophies but also thanks to its amazing sounding and stunning looking Genelec 9.1.4 speaker array in its custom white finish. “Obviously, there are many monitor speakers out there,” says Technical Director Simon, “but as we were not just retrofitting a space for Atmos, we were building our new immersive studio from the ground up, we looked at the ideal room dimensions to fit the very strict Dolby specs, and we had to hit both the Dolby SPL and frequency response targets. A personal target for us was for there to be no bass management used to stop any low-frequency phase anomalies below 80Hz, and the only speakers that fit these requirements without being physically enormous were Genelec.”

The specific speakers used at Treehouse are Genelec 8351 for the front five speakers and 8350’s are used for sides, rears and height speakers. There is an amazing 3x12 inch 7382 subwoofer, which was custom painted by Genelec to match the rest of the speakers and makes it the first white subwoofer of this type in a professional installation. There are also two W371A SAM woofer stands which are used to provide a full-range monitoring system for stereo mixing and mastering.

Treehouse is based around a rack-mounted Apple Mac Pro running Avid Pro Tools Ultimate with an HDX2. Audio I/O and routing is taken care of by an Avid MTRX, which is in turn controlled by a DAD MOM desktop controller. The MTRX features Dante connectivity, which not only allows for easy and inexpensive routing of audio to other rooms within the new facility, but also allows for massive expandability for future studio requirements, such as a newly planned recording space with the ability to record orchestras or other large ensembles.

The system is controlled by three Avid S1 eight fader controllers, and an Avid Dock. All have touch control from the latest Apple iPads.

“The team at HHB recommended the Avid S1,” says Brandon, Managing Director of Gatwick Production Studios, “We needed some

kind of control surface that was scalable, had a smaller form factor but would be instantly recognisable and useable for any outside engineers visiting the studio and the S1 and Avid Dock have the operational links to the bigger S4 and S6 control surfaces. Also, when all is said and done, the S1 just works and integrates perfectly with Pro Tools alongside the Dock.

Dolby Atmos duties are taken care of by a Dante-equipped Dolby RMU, in this case, based around an Apple Mac Mini in a Sonnet chassis with a Focusrite Rednet Dante card interfacing it with the Avid MTRX.

Simon and Brandon took a very real-life approach to their studio design and functionality as Gatwick Production Studios included the ability not only to monitor content in stereo or Dolby Atmos but also in more conventional consumer formats via a JBL SDP-55 AV processor & Apple TV as they realise that this is how much of the studio’s output will be consumed. They also have a space with a Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar for Atmos reference monitoring. “It’s important to be able to check your work away from the studio,” says Brandon, “so we have the Apple TV and Soundbar set up so you can grab a coffee, relax and check your mix in a more real space.”

The team from HHB were not only on hand to advise on, supply and install the studio equipment but they also consulted with both Simon and Brandon about the best ways to future-proof and optimise the gear they eventually chose for the new facility.

HHB’s John Johnson, who oversaw the project said, “It was a pleasure to work on such a fun project and on a site with so much potential - effectively a blank canvas. Brandon’s vision for the studios, combined with Simon’s technical expertise, allowed us to design the room to fit Dolby’s optimum speaker positions and specify the Genelec SAM speakers to deliver a really impressive mix environment. It’s incredible how well-controlled the room is, with custom acoustic panels which also look phenomenal thanks to Brandon’s artistic graft. The whole studio complex is underpinned by a network infrastructure which relies on Dante for most of the audio routing, allowing for so many options of sharing audio across the facility.”

Training was an all-important part of the studio creation experience, and while neither Simon nor Brandon, with around 50 years of professional mixing experience between them, needed any help with the fundamentals of audio mixing, HHB were able to supply both Avid’s Dolby Atmos training as well as HHB’s own Dolby Atmos training designed specifically to the cater for the need of Gatwick Production Studios and their new rig.

Simon – “Myself and two of our in-house engineers took the Avid Dolby Atmos training, and I believe we are now numbers 7, 8 and 9 on the Avid certification list of Atmos engineers in the UK. The HHB team were also able to help create routings when it came to monitoring consumer formats such as Apple’s Spatial Audio format, offering a more efficient workflow than just copying the files to a phone or iPad for great mix checking.”

Brandon, Allan and Simon have some amazing plans for the studios, and unlike many with grand plans, they also have the space in their current building to expand and build a creative and technical hub with the amazing transport and communication links of Gatwick Airport that is brilliantly designed and kitted out as well as being physically well connected both nationally and internationally.

“It’s important to check your work away from the studio so we have a soundbar set up so you can check your mix in a more real space”

MUSIC ON YOUR MIND

Providing an insight into the inner state of the human brain when listening to music, and presenting a creative audio/visual spectacle to boot, Sound Mind is a neurofeedback installation like no other. We caught up with its builders to learn more…

e all know how music makes us feel inside, but what if we could peer inside our heads and see, visually, how our brain waves are reacting to different forms of music? Part scientific exercise and part artistic installation, Sound Mind has been designed to lift the lid on precisely this all-important interaction.

Conceived by dBs Institute graduate Mark Doswell, and serving as the major project for his Innovation in Sound MA, Sound Mind ‘paints’ the activity in the human brain via LED lighting arrayed across a large dome-like structure. Based in Bristol, Mark enlisted team mates, Rory Pickering and Jim Turner to construct this futuristic dome.

Doswell crafted a slick signal chain, beginning with a consumer-aimed electroencephalogram (EEG), running through a brain-wave organising application, into Ableton Live and then out to a light-controlling workstation, which triggers different LED lighting states across the structure.

Keen to dig into this fascinating new foray into brain/music interfacing further, we spoke to Mark and his team to find out more…

AMI: Hi guys, firstly what was the starting point for Sound Mind, and had the world of neurofeedback been of interest to you generally?

Mark Doswell: There were a few starting points really, I was really surprised to find out that there were consumer-grade EEGs available on the market. There was one that was used to aid in meditation and therapy. After that I discovered that there was a third-party app called Mind Monitor. That allows you to send OSC (Open Sound Control) messages which you can then pick up inside software like MaxMSP or Max for Live (inside Ableton Live). Both these things were quite exciting to me.

I’d built a biosensor before to use on plants, in the hopes of making music with them. I used it on myself at one point then started to wonder about what other bio signals you could use in a musical context. I played around with my heartbeat and galvanic skin response before I thought it’d be cool to scan human brainwaves.

AMI: At what point did the Sound Mind project find its feet then, and how did the team come together?

Mark: I met Rory at Hackspace, and Jim is an old friend of mine. Hackspaces are cool creative places which are equipped with laser cutters and 3D printers. They’re great for facilitating ideas. I started talking to Rory about my idea of illuminating a brain via EEG, and

he explained how he typically makes light installations. Then we became collaborators.

Rory Pickering: I’d been building a few things using LEDs and I’d always wanted to do something with music. I heard Mark’s idea and just thought it sounded very cool. For quite a while we were talking about building a literal brain that sits above somebody’s head. Over time we realised it didn’t need to be quite so literal. It’s more an abstract representation.

Mark: Studying at dBs forces you to get stuff done, but the fact that we had this deadline, as it became my major project, meant we had a motivating force. The innovation course was great, and it was really useful for showing me what MaxMSP was capable of.

Rory: I’d never heard of dBs before getting involved with this project, but they were very encouraging, and facilitated our mad idea. I was quite impressed by the space and the people.

AMI: So what are we seeing when we’re watching the colours light-up, are they representing emotional responses?

Rory: So we had five channels of incoming data (corresponding to brainwaves), the hardest part was mapping these to different visual parameters. The data stream that indicates excitement, we might map to a visual parameter that is indicative of that state of mind. Like a strobe effect, or the speed at which some kind of LFO in the visuals is scaled. We used several different programs per track. We’d change the mapping for different songs, so you get quite interesting results. It also varies depending on the person.

Mark: At the moment, we do know that alpha waves are more active during a music listening session, or during relaxation or meditation. So we can demonstrate this. It’s also true that gamma waves are more likely to appear when stressed. We were focusing on emphasising this but then we realised that the best approach was to balance the science with art. We wanted to make it a creative installation ultimately.

Sound Mind is not mapped to brain *regions* yet. So, if you’re processing a certain element of music, like rhythm, the left hemisphere of your head should probably be the most active. This is something we’re looking at doing for the next iteration though.

AMI: So Rory and Mark were responsible for the concept and technical set-up, and Jim was tasked with building the structure itself?

Jim Turner: Yeah, I designed the structure of it. I was throwing ideas out to Mark and Rory over a weekend. The whole thing was made on a very low budget, so we had to be creative to make it look impressive, and have an angularity to it. To display the ideas we had. Overall it took three to six months.

Mark: Over half of that time was deciding where to go with the structure. We didn’t want to do anything that had been done before shape-wise which made it quite challenging.

AMI: What was the first test, and I guess a big question is how do participants interface with it?

Mark: So we use the Muse Headband, it’s designed for meditation but is a four-channel EEG. It’s surprisingly very reliable. There’s a lot of academic papers written on it. So we used that as our brain-scanner. This was going to my phone which had an app called Mind Monitor, which renders the incoming EEG data. That’s sent via OSC data to Ableton Live to automate some Max for Live devices. This is sent to the video mapping and light projection suite Mad Mapper.

Rory: It was Mark’s girlfriend that first tried it out. She recorded her brainwaves into Ableton Live, so then we had a recording to work with. Even though we were bending the DAW to a new purpose, it did become our main way of organising the control data, whereas the visuals were determined by Mad Mapper, taking the MIDI from Live.

AMI: Were there any big surprises, and how responsive was it?

Mark: One caveat to using SoundMind was that you had to close your eyes. Any eye movements would make litter jumps or artefacts. I had a conversation with Alan Harvey, a neuroscientist who did a great TED Talk called ‘Your Brain on Music’, which was very inspiring. He told us to make sure the subject’s eyes were closed.

It differs from conventional neurofeedback, because usually you’d be getting that data back in real time and you’d learn to control your brainwaves. With Sound Mind the participants are getting it later. The audience is watching this happen in real-time and getting an insight into what’s going on in the subject’s brain.

WIDESCREEN MIXING

OOne of the mixing world’s ascending lights, Noah Glassman (aka MIXGIANT) has applied his subtle, considered touch to such world-beating records as Doja Cat’s Planet Her and Burna Boy’s Love, Damini as well as a multitude of tracks and projects. Working often in conjunction with his mentor – Grammy Award-winning Jesse Ray Ernster - Noah injects his particular narrative sensibility into his mix philosophy, letting the track lead the way and zoning into its emotional core. We spoke to Noah about this approach, his career development to date and gained some all-purpose mixing advice. But first, we asked about his first steps into the world of mixing…

AMI: Hi Noah, Firstly, can you tell us how you first became interested in music production and mixing?

I guess the start of it was my guitar. When I graduated high school I decided I really wanted to pursue electric guitar. I was really into Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix and people like that. So, I just bought this Strat –which I named ‘Suzanne’. I decided to really throw myself into it, and that naturally led to production. I wanted to learn how to make my stuff sound good when I record it. So basic early production led to engineering and, eventually, mixing.

I didn’t study music ever. I studied film production in college. I worked with this artist called Tiffany Day

and produced a music video for her. She told me that I should see the setup of the guy that mixed some of her tracks, that was Jesse Ray Ernster. So I hooked up with him via his Instagram, and that’s how we first met.

AMI: So you began working together shortly after, I’m guessing you learned a great deal from starting working with Jesse. What were some of your biggest takeaways from that relationship?

I would say the biggest takeaways were how to maintain and interact with clients. How to please people and make sure that they’re happy. Jesse and I have always been on the same page about not gatekeeping knowledge. At the end of the day, no-one is going to hire me just for the way I EQ a snare!

Jesse was and is great at listening to his clients and figuring out what they need. That’s something that I learned from him. I think making that human connection is more important than the technical stuff more often than not. I know a lot of mixers have hard and fast rules, like ‘no revisions after three passes’, but I don’t think the job is done until the artist is happy. If that takes five or ten tries, so be it.

Jesse is an amazing friend and I’m grateful he took me under his wing, and now we’re in a collaborative, co-mixing place which is cool. I don’t assist him anymore. We kind of mix side-by-side.

Applying subtle polish to a growing list of top-tier tracks, including crucial cuts from the new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, we spoke to the Grammy-nominated MixGiant himself, Noah Glassman to learn more about how he found his feet in this competitive world, and his narrative-driven philosophy

AMI: How do you start on a typical mix project, do you listen to the demo and bounce around ideas?

I’m quite flexible. I go through his battle in my mind constantly over whether I should make a more formal starting place. It really just depends on every song. I’m not at all of the belief system that a mixer should start with dry stems, I hate that idea. If you work with an artist really closely and have been building a song that the artist loves and has an emotional connection to, then not trusting their judgement is a mistake. Everything you do in isolation, even putting on a compressor, is doing something to their song.

I do think producers are mixing more these days, I think all these roles are changing. We’re not all recording at Abbey Road or EastWest. You have to do things to sound good in small rooms. So, I like to receive both dry and wet stems, but I usually use the wet – especially for the instruments. Why would I want to create your guitar delay?

I think my job is slowly revealing itself to be more of a song ‘finisher’. I love mixing and I love production, really every part of it and I think depending on the song, it might just be like ‘hey can you finish the record, and tidy up the loose ends?’.

AMI: So you see yourself as someone rounding out the rougher edges and colouring in some of the space? But, are there any catch-all techniques you apply to the majority of your mixes?

I guess. I’m detail oriented. One thing that I’ve started doing a lot more of as a standardised thing is clip-gaining vocals. I go through an entire song and clip-gain every syllable if I have to. I don’t use de-essers because I like to manually turn down every ’s’ and every sibilant sound. It takes a long time but it proves to be very worth it.

I really like dynamics and open sounds. Compression has its uses and can sound effective in small doses but I’m still trying to find that balance between wider dynamics and compression – I want to preserve the space as much as possible. I’m using a clipper instead of a limiter at the end of my mix bus. Acustica Audio’s Fire The Clip plugin has proved to be a great way to bring warmth. I was about to analogue mix buss stuff, but now I’m not, because of that.

AMI: I was listening to the Burna Boy track, Alone earlier. It’s got a real sorrowful vibe with that constant acoustic guitar, and his vocal. What was your mindset when working on that track?

So I’d been working with Amaarae on her Black Panther tracks, and was in Amsterdam when Jesse called me to say he’d been working with Burna Boy for the film. I had done Burna’s album previously and brought Jesse onboard there, so it was a nice way to return the favour. I jumped at the chance to do it.

After some initial mixing in Amsterdam, I heard that Burna wasn’t a fan of the arrangement. I returned to LA and heard that they’d re-recorded the arrangement, so we got some updated stems. I

basically started going in and worked all night, Jesse did his thing, too. The next day, I was invited over to Burna’s house and I set-up on his kitchen table. It was very cool, his mum made jollof rice for us.

We just went through the song and worked on perfecting the hook. Burna has such an incredible instinct. It’s sometimes easy as a technical person to get lost in the analytical stuff, and you forget the overall song. He’s got such a superb presence, and I did the best to keep as much low end in his vocal. I used Eventide’s Squid EQ to EQ the transient and the tone separately. That’s a great plugin that can really help you to play with that separation.

AMI: Can you explain more about your narrativebased philosophy when it comes to mixing?

It’s funny, I’d never really realised it until recently, but my filmmaking studies definitely have an impact. I’m always thinking about how I can enhance the emotional experience. For me, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I care a lot less about sonic fidelity than I care about emotional connection. I would rather my mixes feel really good rather than sound really good.

If a track needs to be chaotic, I allow it to be chaotic. Of course, if I make it sound terrible nobody will hire me, but I definitely think there’s a balance to be struck between something technically good, and something feeling good.

You also need to know what not to mix. Know what to leave alone. I really want to remove my ego completely from the songs I’m working on. If the track needs one EQ on one thing, then I’ll just do that. I feel like I’m trying to be a servant of the song.

AMI: What’s next on your agenda, Noah?

Well, I’ve been working on an album for a little over a year and a half with an artist called Amaarae, a Ghanaian singer. It’s really fantastic. If I showed you the Pro Tools backups it’s absolutely massive. I engineered the whole album as well as production, so being part of every process has resulted in this huge Pro Tools project. But that’s pretty much finished now, and should start being released this month.

Find out more about Noah’s work at mixgiant.com

ANALOGUE OR DIGITAL HOW TO BALANCE HYBRID PRODUCTION WITH WORKFLOW

The secret behind all your favourite songs is well-designed music production workflow, the combination of analogue equipment with digital recording software, according to AMS Neve Product Specialist Joe Heaton.

Highly experienced audio engineer Joe has spent decades delicately balancing audio and digital elements, creating music that is accessible while still having heart or soul.

Managing analogue and digital aspects during the production process can be tricky, so a well-designed hybrid workflow is vital to creating music with unique sound.

All producers need to decide how they want their final tracks to sound, and there are a multitude of steps that can be taken during the recording process to influence the audio.

One of the most important considerations for any producer is how they are going to manage their recording workflow, through careful choice of analogue and digital hardware.

All acoustic instruments, including vocals, must be captured with an array of microphones – the microphone itself is the first piece of analogue gear in the recording chain.

For years microphones have used purely analogue circuitry, but increasingly digital signal processing (DSP) is finding its

way into modern studio gear, including microphones that use modelling algorithms and filtering.

Utilising DSP at this first stage is becoming increasingly common, but many have not warmed to this process and still prefer to use high quality purely analogue microphones, leaving DSP to the software at the digital audio workstation (DAW) mixing stage.

The microphone signals are then converted into digital files via an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC), which is then mixed on a computer before being mastered.

A key piece of studio equipment is the ADC, the crucial first step into transferring an analogue signal into digital.

DAWs are powerful programmes used for producing songs, but many feel digital sound is lacking life when compared to analogue.

They are the most common way of recording audio nowadays, having replaced tape machines that were ubiquitous to the recording process for many years.

The DAW has effectively replaced not only the functionality of a tape machine, but also most of the entire production chain – including analogue consoles and processors such as EQs and compressors.

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The standard modern recording workflow is transferring sound from the source – an instrument or a voice – using a microphone, passing it through a preamp, into a console, before being run through an ADC and processed in the DAW to create the final stereo master track.

In a traditional, analogue recording setup, the finished track is printed to vinyl, and all the mixing is done through 24-track tape machines and analogue consoles, but nowadays, this method is seen as more expensive and harder to achieve due to convenience of technology.

Purely analogue recording is not that common, but it is making a resurgence in certain genres, including subgenres of American indie music, because it is a lot more expensive and time consuming.

All sound preference is subjective, but modern producers say that using analogue technology brings a warmer and more ‘glued together’ sound than digital-only can offer, which is far more convenient, accessible and quicker.

At the end of the day, every modern studio has elements of analogue and digital recording equipment, and it’s up to the producer to decide how much of each they want to use in their final recording, and that’s down to personal preference.

Even a track that is 90 per cent produced digitally in the DAW can still have the warmth and sound of an analogue recording added at a later stage, and this can be done in several ways.

Bringing the individual tracks from the DAW, spread out through a summing mixer, or using individual elements of the song in processers, like an EQ or a compressor, can also add analogue sound, which then recorded back into the DAW, forming the Hybrid workflow.

Vintage EQs like the 1073 use Class A circuitry, and components such as inductors and chokes, and these old designs, while inefficient by today’s standards, add some ‘magic’ to the sound.

Reamping through analogue gear is another good way to add warmth to the sound at the mixing stage.

Running individual stems through an analogue preamp, like the Neve 1073OPX, will bring a great transformation and colouration to the song, while still being accessible via a convenient USB output.

While the first digital recordings were created in 1971, that technology was incredibly expensive and not very common.

But during the 80’s, recording shifted from purely analogue to using more and more digital equipment, as technology improved and became more accessible.

Accessibility is so important, so digitising tracks via ADCs, create files that are highly portable – even if eventually the tracks are run through an analogue summing mixer or console, via a digital-to-audio converter (DAC), to finalise the mix.

Digital sound can be worked on from almost anywhere in the world, so producers are no longer limited to having to be in the same studio as the recording artist, though obviously that does have some benefits.

But digital sound is also devoid of weight, depth, colour and warmth, all adjectives commonly associated with analogue audio.

And so, while there is a heavy reliance on digital processing, almost all recording chains are a hybrid mix of analogue and digital, whether it’s a tiny set up at home or a full service professional studio.

Producers are always looking to add the gravity, depth and colour of analogue into an otherwise purely digital process, and preamps like the 1073OPX are great for that, because they

add desirable analogue weight without the undesirable aspects of being limited technologically.

One of the main benefits of using modern hybrid gear is having digital control over analogue circuitry. This provides a ‘best of both worlds’ situation, where sound quality remains pure and uncompromised, but has all the benefits of a fast DAW-based workflow.

Selecting digital and analogue elements for a hybrid recording and mixing setup is also genre dependent. Classical recordists want the best, clear sound possible, so will often use less analogue processing, particularly at the tracking stage, opting for premium microphone choice and positioning.

When digital technology came out, for a few years some completely eschewed analogue recording gear, but over time there has been a resurgence of hybrid mixing.

It’s easier, cheaper and more accessible than purely analogue recording, but even with a hybrid system, tracking through a high-quality analogue preamp into the DAW often adds the desirable weight that a traditional analogue workflow provides.

Producers need to decide when they want to convert the sound from analogue to digital in the recording chain. This is often done straight after the preamp stage.

However, many modern producers ‘commit to tape’ by tracking through outboard EQ’s and compressors, this method cements the analogue sound directly into the DAW, often making mix decisions easier and providing a glue that is difficult to achieve via software plugins alone.

Once digitised, tracks can then be mixed in the DAW, or tracks can be ‘summed out’ through an analogue console or through a summing mixer, such as the Neve 8816.

Supported by AMS Neve /audiomediainternational.com

“Producers are always looking to add the gravity, depth and colour of analogue into an otherwise purely digital process”

Analogue summing is another leap forward in modern hybrid workflows, separating individual DAW tracks through DACs and back into analogue circuitry provides a realistic sound stage with depth that in my opinion cannot be achieved in the DAW.

Summing mixers are a great addition to a home studio. While the easiest and cheapest way to get a deeper, richer sound is to use an analogue preamp at the tracking stage, adding a summing mixer to impart analogue character at the mixing stage, is a significantly cheaper option than employing than mixing desks or consoles and they keep the signal flow as good as it can be.

Ultimately, even with an involved hybrid workflow, that utilises high end analogue preamps, outboard gear and analogue summing, the final master must be re-digitized via ADCs before mastering.

Everybody knows about the ‘Neve Sound’ - that famed gravity and colour that tracks produced on our equipment possess.

While there will always still be a place for professional studios, people can now produce a premium sound at home by using the right preamps, including the plug-and-play USB-powered 88M.

Personal experience is everything, and while I have been recording music at home for years, it was only when I started at Neve that I realised that no Pro Tools plugins would be able to bring to life the sound and tone I had in my head.

Mid-level users, like I class myself, sit somewhere between a keen hobbyist and a professional, and tend to not have access to the most high end equipment, but want the music they make to sound as good as possible.

Hybrid workflow is key to this, and using an analogue preamp, as well as potentially using an analogue summing mixer, and several key pieces of analogue outboard gear creates better sounding music than a purely digital recording process.

I had been recording at home for years, but using a purely digital process left my tracks cold and lifeless.

Even though I had good instruments, and a top DAW, the tracks I was producing at home sounded nothing like music recorded in a professional studio.

There was always a bit missing that plugins couldn’t fix, and I couldn’t put my finger on how to get what I wanted, but when I ran a couple of my tracks through an analogue summing mixer, they suddenly had the warmth and weight that I had been searching for years to find, and now I recommend everyone interested in music recording goes down the hybrid workflow path.

Gear is so important, because that’s how the pleasing qualities we expect all music to have comes to life, but not every element needs to be analogue.

Hybrid workflow brings the sound and tone you have had in your head to life, without the inconvenience of working with tapes and vinyl.

“Analogue summing is another leap forward in modern hybrid workflows”

THE VEILS

Back from the brink after a life-changing wrist injury, we catch up with The Veils’ frontman Finn Andrews on the eve of the release of the band’s new double-LP, And Out Of The Void Came Love…

I t takes a lot to slow a talent as prodigious as The Veils’ captivating frontman and principal songwriter Finn Andrews. Since the band’s 2004 debut, The Veils’ boiling hot energy, rapturous live performances and passionate fanbase have grown far beyond Andrews’ expectations. But, on the heels of the band’s fifth album Total Depravity, a high-profile appearance on David Lynch’s jaw-dropping third season of Twin Peaks, and a well-received solo album, something happened that put The Veils’ future in doubt.

After a particularly intense performance, Andrews broke his wrist on stage. Recovering at home, Finn found that the act of songwriting had suddenly become much harder. Undeterred, Andrews persisted, eventually amassing enough material to fill a double-album. Produced by Tom Healy in a converted ballroom under Crystal Palace New Zealand, the new record is a testament to Finn, and the band’s creative endurance. We caught up with Finn to find out more…

AMI: Let’s talk about And Out of the Void Came Love, can you take us back to the start of the writing process for this record – how did the wrist injury affect your approach?

Breaking my wrist basically just meant I had an extra six months holed up at home watching boxsets before

the pandemic kicked in. It also meant even more time isolated and writing. Honestly, it was a real little pressure cooker in there.

AMI: The song Undertow feels like a kind of hymn to songwriting and creativity, was this an important song and did it come early?

Yeah I think that is the oldest song on the record by some margin. I really felt like I was about to quit writing songs for good, and then I wrote this and that line saying “all it takes is all my love” made me think about the whole thing differently. Songwriting is a loving process, or at least at it’s best it is. You just have to keep all the other bullshit out of your head and get on with the beautiful thing.

AMI: We’re assuming that when you were writing the album’s songs, you worked in a home studio?

For the first stage I keep it all very simple, just pianos and guitars and hundreds of notebooks. I enjoy making demos during the second stage as a way to explore really, especially as most of these songs were written during lockdowns and playing with other people wasn’t possible.

My friend taught me how to use Logic and I just noodle around in there really. I used quite a few Spitfire Audio instruments which I found really inspiring to use, as well as lots of other Kontakt instruments.

AMI: So you recorded with Tom Healy in a small studio under an old cinema in Mount Eden, it looks like a really cool environment to record in. How was the experience of working with Tom there?

Tom was the reason this album got made, there’s no doubt about that. We spent years on this thing, and he never worried about it. It would just take as long as it took and that was tremendously freeing. I’m not really married to anything other than the instruments themselves - we tracked everything onto tape so most of the tech we were using was from the 1960s anyway.

AMI: At what point was it decided that the record should be a double album?

It was in my head for the last few years that this would be a nice opportunity to make something of that scale, but it was really only decided at the last minute by virtue of there being so many songs. I think it was also a reaction to the lockdowns - I didn’t want to be precious about it. Songs felt like life, and I wanted all these songs to live. No Limit of Stars we recorded 3 or 4 different times with different bands in different places before we got the right take. I’m really happy with how that turned out.

LEADING WITH

INTEGRITY

A new studio and 800 mixes in, Nashville producer/engineer Jeff Balding is setting the bar for immersive production— and it’s about so much more than the music.

All photos: credit CJ Hicks

roducer/engineer Jeff Balding has always envisioned soundscapes in three dimensions. So when the six-time Grammy nominee, known for his work with iconic artists like Dan+Shay, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Morgan Wallen, Shania Twain, The Eagles and Megadeth, started getting requests for immersive mixes, he dove in and never looked back.

In 2021, Balding opened Imogen Sound in the heart of Nashville’s Berry Hill, where he focuses almost entirely on immersive mixing, both new releases and re-issues, in Dolby Atmos and Sony Reality Audio 360.

We chatted with Balding about launching his immersive mixing business, advocating for better studio workflows and practices, and how immersive music has the potential to forge deeper connections between fans and the songs they love.

AMI: When did you know the time was right to launch Imogen Sound?

Early in summer 2021, when Apple announced they were going to support immersive with Spatial Audio, the labels and everybody signed on. The reason I thought it was going to stick was, all of a sudden there’s an outlet for all consumers to get immersive content. Whether they knew they were getting it or not, there was an outlet, and there were a lot of big players involved, so it was like, “Okay, if this fails, it’s going to fail big.” But, I thought, “I’m in, I love the idea, I love the format.” Although I had already been doing immersive mixes, that was the real tipping point for me to put in the immersive room and focus on mixing. I had to move pretty quickly because calls were coming in.

AMI: It was like the Wild West; everything was moving so fast.

It was like the Wild West. My first panic was, “Well, I’m going to need a room big enough to accommodate all of the speakers needed for immersive mixing.” Then it was a matter of post-pandemic supply chain issues, trying to get speakers, speaker stands, everything I needed. Luckily I was able to get Genelec onboard and get some speakers in quickly, but the speaker stands were another issue. I ended up going to Home Depot and getting concrete blocks and painting them, and honestly they are probably some of the best-sounding speaker stands you can have, because they’re really solid.

AMI: You have a 9.1.4 system based on Genelec 8351Bs; you’ve used Genelecs for a long time, right?

Yeah, for years I used Genelec 1031s, as well as my Tannoy SGM10s with the Mastering Lab crossovers, for tracking and mixing. One of the selling points of the new Genelecs was being able to manage and tune the speakers with Genelec’s GLM software. My studio

is set up with both a Sony 360RA speaker layout and a Dolby Atmos speaker layout, so I’m able to go between GLM profiles to easily switch between formats. It was challenging to figure out how to have both speaker setups in the room and manage them, but I’m happy with the end result.

AMI: You must have to have really efficient workflows to do the amount of immersive work you’re doing.

I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking the workflow. It’s a little bit like a mastering house workflow where you have different people taking responsibility for different aspects of the process. This style of workflow covers all the bases and guarantees delivering a consistent, high-quality product to the client.

AMI: Has QCing become more complex with immersive projects?

Yes, the deliverable is more complex so there’s a lot more to the QC process on both the front end and back end. Also, sonic artifacts become more obvious in an immersive mix because of the sonic landscape. So the QC on the front end involves everything from

removing noises like ticks and pops as well as making sure we have all the right parts, the right instruments and the right takes. A lot of times with the released stereo mix, mastering will clean up noises like ticks or pops. We have to go through each song and take them out before I mix, mainly because they’re so obvious in an immersive format.

On one project there was one song I mixed that had vinyl scratches going through the song on the multitrack, but I noticed I didn’t hear them in the released stereo mix. It seems mastering went in and removed all the vinyl noise from the song. It made me laugh when I figured that out. I left it in since it was part of the production decisions made by the producer for the song.

On the back-end delivery side, with Dolby Atmos in general, the ADM file is what gets delivered as the final mix. But there are a lot more aspects to delivery,

Immersive Mini Playlist

We

Listen

For KING & COUNTRY

Relate

Dolby

Listen for: dynamic scene changes, when sonic elements transition from being oriented up front to surrounding the listener

“There was one song I mixed that had vinyl scratches going through the song on the multitrack, but I noticed I didn’t hear them in the released stereo mix”

asked Balding to share a couple of his favorite immersive tracks; these mixes are best experienced on a component speaker system.

Blake Shelton Boys Around Here

Dolby Atmos mix available on TIDAL, Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited

for: panning placement and movement of background vocal hooks, sweeps, and uplifters; and for movement across the top of the soundstage

Atmos mix available on TIDAL, Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited

and we deliver the mix multitrack and all the appropriate metadata. We do a full deliverable because for long-term assets and archiving it’s the proper thing to do.

AMI: Let’s talk about your creative process. With your pivot to immersive, how are you thinking about things differently?

The things that you take for granted, like panning in a stereo mix, only have an effect as far as where sound is going between the two speakers. In the Dolby and Sony rendering process, panning affects the tonality of the instrument in the headphones. When you pan up high, you get more treble; the lower you pan, the fuller the sound. That all affects where you put something in the room and how it translates to headphones. You really have to be aware of those elements.

If there’s an acoustic guitar or instrument in the stereo mix that may not have been that bright, you have to watch where you pan it, or compensate for it with EQ, to make sure you’re matching the intention of the stereo mix. Another factor is both Dolby and Sony have a little bit of a room sound when going through the rendering process, which helps the headphones sound more immersive. But if you have a really intimate, dry stereo mix, it can be challenging to get the mix to have the same dry, intimate vibe in an immersive format.

AMI: We talk a lot about immersive’s expanded sound stage, but there are so many opportunities for shaping tonality...

Well, it’s definitely a bigger palette, no doubt. You have a lot more sonic space to play with. The trick with the expanded sonic space is, is the song connecting with the listener? For me it’s the song first, and then, is the approach I’m taking effective? Is the listener having a great experience and a connection to the song? I believe you can give a listener a deeper experience in an immersive format because it gives you additional space to draw the listener into, if it’s used effectively.

AMI: How do you walk the line when you’re re-imagining beloved, familiar recordings?

I do a lot of new releases, but the projects that’ve been previously released is always a challenge. Especially in headphones. If the listener is not aware that they’re hearing an immersive mix—it just happened to turn on because it’s the default setting on their phone—are they going to think, “Well, this doesn’t sound like I remember the song sounding”? There’s a bit of that matching the stereo mix that’s really crucial as far as listener experience. But at the same time, lay it out in a way that gives somebody a new experience, gives them something that helps them connect on a new level to their favorite song.

The other thing to think about with immersive mixing is translation of the mix moving forward toward the future. You can mix for headphones right now because that’s the majority of the listeners experiences, but what happens when more auto manufacturers come out with immersive systems in their cars? Then more people will be hearing the mix in speakers, in the car. So you have to plan for the future by making sure the mix translates both in speakers and headphones.

AMI: Do you think having easy access to immersive music will encourage fans to listen more actively?

Absolutely. Obviously it depends on having a great immersive mix, so they have a new listening experience with the music. As immersive has become a more viable and solid format, I’m finding clients are becoming more particular with the mix and more interested in the details of the mix. And that’s a good thing.

Documenting the Details: Delivery Best Practices

In 2023, the Recording Academy will release its updated Recommendations for the Delivery of Recorded Music Projects, which outlines best practices for organizing and managing files throughout creation, delivery and archival and covers everything from file naming to project folder hierarchies to metadata checklists. Jeff Balding co-chairs the committee authoring the document.

AMI: You’ve helped shape this evolving set of guidelines for two decades. Why has it been so important for you to advocate for these best practices?

Personally, I always believe it's important to give back to the industry. And as creators, I believe it’s critical that we advocate for the preservation of the music we make for future generations, and that takes best practices to accomplish that. The committee brings their experiences into the room; I refer to it as our “wisdom,” meaning making a lot of mistakes and learning what works best in a workflow, through those mistakes. It’s about bringing that to the table so others can take that guidance and build off of it.

AMI: There are a million different ways to arrive at a mix or a record. Why standardize practices?

It’s really about best practices. Deliverables are more about a consistent delivery process for project assets in order to preserve the music for the future.

In the beginning what started the delivery recommendations project was one of the label administrators came to us and said, "I have a data DVD, and there's no writing on it. What is this? Is this the project that I paid $200,000 for?" And this was happening across several of the labels.

AMI: In outlining these recommendations, how do you walk the line between establishing best practices and informing someone's workflow or creativity?

The committee in general is very conscious of that—to the point where if we make a workflow suggestion, we suggest it be used as a building block to start from, because sometimes, like in writing, a blank page is the hardest thing to deal with. If you have a starting point you can say, "Okay, I understand what they're saying. I can customize that and adapt it to fit my workflow." But you have to be very careful: People use a lot of creative methods, but when it comes to documentation and archival, some methods are prone to failure and some are reliable.

And that's what we base our recommendations on, to provide a baseline that people can apply to their own creative workflows.

Download Recording Academy technical guidelines at www.recordingacademy.com

“Dolby and Sony have a little bit of a room sound when going through the rendering process, which helps the headphones sound more immersive”

INSIDE NEUMANN’S MICROPHONE AND MONITORING DAY AT TYX

Decamping to Tileyard’s Dolby Atmos Studio, Neumann presented their fresh spin on a microphone legend, and wowed the ears of attendees with their Atmos-tailored KH monitoring setup

Revered by those within the audio industry – and a name of some repute for those beyond, Neumann’s heritage is a major factor as to why their position at the upper tier of the microphone sector is still held to this day. While other manufacturers might bandy around terms like ‘legacy’ and ‘prestige’, the Berlin-based company’s story is one of the music technology world’s foundational pillars. Since launching the very first commercially sold condenser microphone – the famous bottle-shaped CMV 3 back in the late 1920s – Neumann subsequently developed numerous era-defining, industry-standards including the hailed U 47, widely used by Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, amongst others. In 1991, the company joined the Sennheiser family of brands.

On November 16th, Neumann invited us to Tileyard’s new TYX studio complex, to learn more about their evolution, as well as allowing us to hear the company’s latest monitoring solutions in a breathtaking Atmos context, within Tileyard’s own Atmos Studio. We also got a chance to test out their acclaimed range of microphone offerings. These included the U 47 FET and the brand new M 49 V.

Attendees included journalists and artists, such as A1pha Romeo, who was on the lookout particularly for a microphone

that saved him time in the studio later. He told us, “I’m looking for something to help me get more efficient, and get the best out of the experience I enjoy. Especially working in a place that isn’t professionally treated.”

Monitors

Firstly, we were given a presentation in Tileyard’s 7.2.4 Atmos room, which is already equipped with Neumann’s KH420 midfield monitors, KH 870 subwoofers and KH 120 nearfields. “All of our monitors can be used in Atmos configurations” Jonas Næsby, Sennheiser’s Pro Audio Technical Application Engineer explained to attendees, “It’s also most likely one of the cheapest options out there. People think Neumann is expensive, but that’s really not the case in the monitoring world.”

With the acquisition of Klein and Hummel by Neumann’s parent Sennheiser back in 2009, Neumann engaged with the innovative company’s design philosophy to craft the K&H series, it’s name a cap-doff to the speaker pioneers who were held in supremely high esteem. “[Klein and Hummel] used to do PA speakers, and column speakers and things like that. There are plenty of other people doing that so we didn’t pursue it, but their studio monitor philosophy absolutely excelled.

Now branded as Neumann, their brilliance is now revealed to a global audience.” Jonas said.

A chief ambition of the day was in demonstrating the standalone power and precision of the newly released KH150 monitors. These DSP-driven low-end heavyweights seriously wowed when put through their paces– particularly when Jonas revealed that the room’s KH870 subwoofer was deactivated, and the room-shaking rumble was emanating solely from deep within the pair of 150s, which sport a bass response extending down to 39 Hz. Jonas also stressed that the solely Berlin-based construction, testing and fine-tuning can take time, only ending when the quest for perfection is met. “We would have loved to release that speaker three years ago, but then it wouldn’t have been as good as it now is.”

Built around a 6.5 inch woofer, the KH150 is nothing short of a masterclass in monitor design. Its 20 litre bass reflex cabinet, highly precise drivers and MMD waveguide are impressive enough, but once you factor in DSP room calibration the true extent of KH150s studio monitoring prowess becomes apparent.

Jonas demonstrated how Neumann’s proprietary MA 1 Automatic Monitor Alignment microphone and software is used to scale their response to the room. While all Neumann’s monitors have DIP switches, the precision of the DSP reigns things in on a whole different level. Jonas stressed that DSP alignment shouldn’t replace acoustic treatment, but that it certainly helps to tame untreated rooms.

Jonas illustrated the MMD waveguide around each of the KH series tweeters, which controls its dispersion across the frequency range; he also demonstrated how the build quality of the monitors tamed harmonic distortion and intermodulation distortion. “Basically, what we wanted to do was build a speaker that makes your life easier. We want it to be as accurate as possible, and be the best measurement device. Which means you can make good mixing decisions.”

ATMOS

The day’s most exciting moment came when we got to hear the KH-kitted Atmos Suite at Tileyard in all its glory. “Mixing in Atmos requires you to think in terms of objects. Wherever you place the sound object in the Atmos mix, the appropriate speakers will render it as good as possible. The more speakers, the better the localisation” said Jonas, before allowing us to listen to a choice playlist of Atmos-mixed tracks. Ranging from Tiesto to Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift, the various mix elements circled, swooped and teleported themselves astoundingly around the room.

As Jonas explained, “We also make monitoring plugins which means you can build a large Atmos system, just like this one, on a pair of headphones. We can virtualise a speaker configuration, and our software knows how to make a headphone sound as close to a control room as possible. That means you don’t necessarily need a large room like this to mix in Atmos, you could even be in a hotel room.”

Microphones and Headphones

Next on the agenda was to take a look – and a listen – to Neumann’s hallowed microphone range, recently joined by the M 49 V. This re-birth of the original M 49 valve microphone (first released in 1951) maintains the original specifications of the classic original, including its continuously variable polar pattern, while also bringing new adjustments to

improve the signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range.

The M49 V was situated alongside fellow Neumann heavyweights, the TLM 103 cardioid condenser, the legendary U 47 FET, and the M 149. Vocalist Etoile Marley tested the various mics vocal capabilities and allowed us to listen to the isolated stems she recorded with each. The M 49 V was particularly impressive, bringing pinpoint clarity of vocal reproduction and something we could only define as ‘sparkle’, while the mighty U 47 FET brought depth and warmth to Marley’s vocal take.

Listening back to tracks using Neumann’s new headphones, the closed-back NDH 20s and open-backed NDH 30s, gave us the chance to dip our ears into the company’s latest diversification. Both headphones bring extreme isolation and detail, as well as that all-important comfort factor. It’s highly likely this branch of the company will continue to grow, however cards were being held close to the chest on what further additions to the headphone line might entail.

The day comprehensively underscored Neumann’s continuing brilliance in making some of the best music technology on the market today. It also revealed how being part of the Sennheiser family has broadened the company’s scope, and how this nearly century-old company is leading the charge into the future, with some of the most mind-blowing – and affordable – Atmos-ready monitors around.

Supported by Neumann / audiomediainternational.com

“The M49 V was situated alongside Neumann heavyweights: the TLM 103 cardioid condenser, the legendary U 47 FET and the M 149”

The Japan Audio Society (JAS) has certified MQA’s latest scalable codec, SCL6, for use with its Hi-Res Audio Wireless logo. It will be marketed as MQair.

The new codec aims to improve wireless audio quality by focussing on the time domain, which it says is a critical factor when it comes to our perception of high-resolution sound.

“High resolution isn’t necessarily defined by the big things, it is shaped by small elements in the sound that convey details, separation, colour, and space,” explains Bob Stuart, MQA Founder & CTO. “Our reference for transparency is air itself. With MQair we can extend the MQA ecosystem to wireless devices.”

The technology is another solution to a better audio experience from consumers, says MQA.

Working over Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Wi-Fi, MQair supports both MQA and PCM audio up to 384kHz. The encoded data rate can be scaled from 20Mbps to below 200kbps. Benefits include low latency, and extended battery life.

Wireless devices now account for a huge segment of music listened over headphones, earbuds, and wireless speakers. According to market analyst Futuresource, Bluetooth speakers and wireless headphones are forecast to have a combined annual retail value of $69bn in 2022, with wireless headphones securing a market penetration rate of 85 per cent.

MQA ‘MQair SCL6’ wireless codec supports MQA and PCM audio up to 384kHz

VENUE PROFILE: THE ROUNDHOUSE

ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC VENUES IN LONDON, CAMDEN’S ROUNDHOUSE HAS RECENTLY BEEN KITTED OUT WITH STATE OF THE ART SOUND CONFIGURATION…

Originally a Victorian train turntable, it’s fair to say that in terms of iconic gig venues, Camden’s Roundhouse is up there with London’s most beloved. First re-fitted and opened as a performance venue back in 1964, the space fell into disuse until 1996, when it was reborn at the peak of Cool Britannia. With its distinctive circular shape and ring of 24 cast-iron Doric columns within the space, the venue is never in danger of feeling generic. Playing host to around 250 events per year, the Roundhouse holds gigs, awards, performing arts shows and other live events nightly.

In 2019, sound engineering outfit DeltaLive were appointed the venue’s principal sound supplier, and scale the venue’s sound setup according to the needs of each event. We spoke to DeltaLive’s Roundhouse Account Manager Cara Smith to learn more…

AMI: Can you give us a little background on DeltaLive and the other venues you’ve installed at Cara Smith: DeltaLive have been at the forefront of the audio industry for over 30 years, with a heavy focus on supporting venues directly in London. For over 20 years we managed our installed PA system and audio elements for shows at the Royal Albert Hall, which we upgraded several times during our

tenancy and installed alternative tailor-made systems for larger productions. We are particularly proud to have supported the BBC Proms over many of these years in this location. We also offer event specific support at many other accredited venues across London, including Outernet, Tate Museums (Modern and Britain), The National Gallery and Kew Gardens, to mention just a few.

AMI: When did you get the call to take on sound supply to The Roundhouse?

We went through a three-month tender process at the beginning of 2019, after which we were awarded and took over the contract in April of that year.

AMI: Can you tell us what the biggest challenges were when first gauging The Roundhouse as a space, what were the main issues with previous setups there?

As the venue was a conversion and not originally designed to be a live music space, we had to approach it completely differently from any other venue. Luckily we have great experience working in unconventional spaces so we were able to predict how the space would respond to certain PA setups, and over time really fine-tune how we approach it. Our engineers have also been able to learn how the space reacts in different temperatures, or with/without a crowd for example, and therefore pass that expertise onto every touring engineer that comes in and help them achieve a great sound for their show.

AMI: You equipped the venue with an L-Acoustics K2 loudspeaker setup, what made you choose this approach?

L-Acoustics are at the top of all touring riders, especially K2, so it was a no-brainer for us to use it as our main system. Although we don’t need the system to throw as far as it’s capable of, for the types of events that come through the Roundhouse, we really needed the punch and dynamic range that K2 gives you.

AMI: How frequently do you have to modify the setup there?

We usually modify the system on a monthly basis, whether it’s adjusting the angles of the main hangs to ensure all tables are fully covered on a gala dinner, or removing the main system entirely and installing a bespoke system for an in the round performance. When we did the initial install we knew the infrastructure would need to be flexible so we ensured its design would make any modifications as easy as possible, including the ability to change the standard stereo system into an L-ISA immersive system.

AMI: What other tech is pivotal to The Roundhouse setup?

Our main control package in The Roundhouse is DiGiCo which is just as easy and flexible to use as L-Acoustics, and again is very rider friendly for all the tours that come through the venue. The two SD12 desks we have onsite offer the capability to cover the majority of events we work on, and with DiGiCo certain elements can be easily added to or upgraded if an event requires much more.

SPATIAL AUDIO MUSIC ALBUMS

Different techniques and different sounds from 1958 to now

Tears for Fears The Tipping Point

The seventh studio album from the prog pop rock duo, since 2004’s Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, proves to be a stunning showcase for Dolby Atmos, and a great jumping on point for anyone interested in the art of spatial audio. Mixed by Steve Wilson, founder of Porcupine Tree, it’s at times disorientating and intense, then stripped back and expansive. Standout Atmos tracks include My Demons, with its soaring synths, and the final surround swirl that is Rivers of Mercy. At times The Tipping Point recalls the giddy heights of Trevor Horn and Yes, and then it opens the door to somewhere new entirely.

While some spatial mixes assume the listener wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with the musicians, others opt for a more conventional front-of-stage approach - and that’s what we have here: this is unapologetic rock and roll, and the resulting soundstage is huge and enveloping.

Here Dolby Atmos is used to emphasise space, giving more air to Joe Elliott’s vocals and a sharper edge to the riffing axes of Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell. The opener, Take What You Want may be vintage pop rock Leppard, but the spatial audio mix has the band sounding fresher than ever.

A mulch of clanging riffs, soaring choirs and propulsive rhythms, Closure / Continuation is an exciting, exhaustive, exhilarating listen. It’s prog for the spatial generation. Tracks that demand to be demo’d in Dolby Atmos include the dynamic Harridan, and the epic Chimera’s Wreck, a spatial tour de force that delights with guitar arpeggios and bludgeoning rhythms. Fans have waited more than a decade for this, the band’s eleventh studio album, but they’re sure to feel it was worth the wait.

This radical 3D redux was masterminded by producer Giles Martin at Abbey Road, utilising the original four track master tapes from the studio sessions. First released in mono, with the stereo iteration a bit of a throwaway, this latest iteration of the legendary album shouldn’t work - yet somehow it does.

The original recording didn’t have a lot of bass, but Martin has used elements of the kick drum to add weight. His spatial mix places you at the heart of the concept. The result is endlessly fascinating.

The Porcupine Tree Closure / Continuation

Def Leppard Diamond Star Halos

The Beatles Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Oozing atmosphere, this Dolby Atmos mix of Tom Petty’s legendary Fillmore residency sounds as live as they come. Crowd noise is omnipresent in the mix, but held apart and aloft from Petty and the band. Slaughter on Tenth Avenue sits you between Petty’s dancing licks, with drums just behind your head, while I Won’t Back Down, is gloriously immersive; the crowd whooping and singing along to the rear and up high.

Original soundtracks are natural candidates for Dolby Atmos music release, but few are as sonically inventive as Ludwig Goransson’s score for this Marvel sequel. The album opener, Nyana Wam, presents tribal chants and rhythms, courtesy of vocalist Baaba Maal and drummer Massamba Diop, in a three dimensional wrapper which then blooms into poignant orchestration, while the Namor theme drops such a heavy subterranean bass beat from on high you’ll stagger under its weight.

The latter track adds reverb to create a sense of space and grandeur, while pipes and other Mayan musical instruments add authenticity.

There’s even some propulsive dance tracks in the mix: listen to They Want It, But No (by Tobe and Fat Nwigwa), here given a cinematic sheen, and Rihanna’s end credit offering Lift Me Up, which appears to be a direct instruction to the mix room.

REM Automatic For The People

One of the first 3D remixes of a recognised rock classic remains one of the genre’s most entertaining. Reimagined by engineer Mike Mills, along with original producer Scott Litt and producer Clif Norrell, this spatial mix from 2017 has been hailed by some as the definitive way to enjoy this album - and we’re not going to argue. From the pirouetting piano of Nightswimming, with Stipes slightly croaky vocal swamped by a tide of strings, through to an almost ethereal presentation of Man on the Moon, the album invites clinical analysis, with every aspect of its recording identifiable for discussion.

Art Blackey and the Jazz Messengers

Moanin’

Time travel is possible - at least it is if you shut your eyes and let this remarkable remix of this 1958 Blue Note recording wash over you. Dolby Atmos isn’t just about engulfing audio. Here it’s stripped back and used primarily to create dimensionality when there was precious little to begin with.

As the titular jazz drummer provides a perfect backbeat to saxophonist Benny Golson, you can sense the physicality of the recording venue in the mix. There’s room to bop between trumpet and piano, but the separation never sounds gimmicky. The 3D presentation is always restrained and artful.

Kraftwerk

3-D The Catalogue

This Grammy award-winning electro-dance concert album was tailor made for Dolby Atmos. Mixed by Tom Ammermann, it features live (but not so much that you would notice) versions of many the band’s crowd-pleasers, so there’s plenty to enjoy. If you went to a disco in The Matrix it would probably sound like this.

Radio Stars makes full use of the Dolby Atmos platform, with bleeps and pulses orbiting your head space, while Trans Europe Express directs its synth train right to left, arcing high.

Ozzy Osbourne Patient Number 9

Spatial audio isn’t just about Dolby Atmos, there’s also Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format, and it can be every bit as immersive. While we wait for the Black Sabbath back catalogue to get a 3D long overdue remix, this new album ticks all our metal boxes. The title track, with its ear candy hook, is a dimensional treat, from the opening madhouse cacophony, to the crunching Jeff Beck riff, it occupies every available inch of 3D space. For a real whiff of Sabbath gone spatial, try Degradation Rules, in which Ozzy reunites with Tony Iommi. Binaural audio benefits headbanging, who knew?

Tom Petty Live at the Fillmore 1997

Black Panther Wakanda Forever Original Score

MAIDA VALE FOR SALE

The iconic BBC Maida Vale Studios, in West London, where legendary artists including The Beatles, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Beyoncé, Radiohead and Coldplay, have all performed, are up for sale for over £10.5 million.

But, arguably, it’s as the home of the Peel Sessions that the building will be best remembered – so many acts got their big break there.

Over 4,000 sessions were recorded for John Peel’s Radio One show between 1967 and 2004 – most of them in Maida Vale’s Studio 4.

We speak to Matt James, former drummer and co-writer with ‘90s Britrockers Gene, who recorded several Peel Sessions at Maida Vale, and ask him to share his memories of playing there.

AMI: When did you record your first Peel Session at Maida Vale?

Matt James: Gene wasn’t the first session I did there. I was in a band called The Go Hole, with certain members of Sp!n , who went on to become Gene. In 1987 I did my first ever Maida Vale session.

I got into the habit of calling John Peel while he was on the air – one day he actually picked up the phone and I got through to him. He said, ‘Hang on, I’ve just got to do the link’, then he talked to me. I told him I’d sent him a single and he went through his stuff and found it. I did that two or three times when I was in The Go Hole.

Eventually, he offered us a session – we had Dale Griffin from Mott the Hoople producing us, but I can’t say it was a great experience because we knew absolutely

nothing about what we were doing. He got quite testy and grumpy with us. That was my first experience of Maida Vale and we were way out of our depth. We got there too soon, but it was because I’d hassled John Peel. It gave me an aspiration to be better in the studio. When I was in Gene, we did at least six Peel sessions at Maida Vale – we grew in confidence and by the end we would do alternative versions of songs. We learnt how to use the studio and be comfortable, and we got to know the producers, Miti Adhikari, and Simon Askew, quite well. We used to really enjoy our sessions there. John Peel himself turned up to one – there’s a picture of him wearing a Gene t-shirt.

AMI: Didn’t you play a gig at Maida Vale for John Peel’s birthday?

We did – that must’ve been where that photo was taken. We got used to playing at Studio 4, but I think we did record in two or three of the other studios.

AMI: What was Maida Vale like?

There was amazing history there – old instruments that had been hanging around at the BBC for many years. It was like a treasure trove.

AMI: How do you feel about it being sold off?

I feel quite sad – it’s lamentable. It’s a unique thing to be able to record a band in that way, like had been done successfully in the ‘60s and the ‘70s.

Matt James from Gene recalls his time recording at the legendary BBC Maida Vale Studios as the building is on the market. Sean Hannam looks back to the 90’s...

John Peel wasn’t a massive fan of Gene records, but he loved us as a live band and he loved us doing the sessions. I was very fond of John Peel – I met him loads of times and he was almost a hero of mine. I can remember listening to his radio show under my pillow as a young kid, hearing early punk bands and stuff like Nick Lowe.

AMI: Gene often used the Peel Sessions to preview new songs from your forthcoming albums, and you tried different ideas out, didn’t you?

Yes – we got used to doing that. We thought that alternative versions were really useful. Songs go through a process – when we worked with producer Chris Hughes [on 1997’s Drawn To The Deep End album], he changed a lot of our original versions, but it’s really good to capture your first ideas. It can also work the other way round – when you have a finished song for an album, but then try and do a different version, like an acoustic one.

We always took the Peel Sessions really seriously and rehearsed hard for them – I think that was because of the first time I did one and my memories of being so scared and completely out of my depth. I was determined to never let that happen again – any session at the BBC is a great opportunity and a real privilege and an honour.

We got used to eating in the café at Maida Vale –the itinerary of the day became second nature to us. We’d arrive and unpack our gear but nothing would actually happen because everyone had gone to lunch in the café. Eventually they’d come back some time in the afternoon…

We worked furiously for a few hours and then the producer would insist that we all went to the pub afterwards. It was like The Beatles, going off to have a pie and a pint – it was very BBC.

You’d walk down the corridor and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra would be in another room and you’d gawp through the door and see them working –there was a real sense of gravitas.

AMI: After Gene split, in 2004, you formed another band, Palace Fires, and then you left the music industry. But now you’re back, writing and recording and playing gigs – in 2022, you released your first solo album, Breaking The Fall, which was produced by Stephen Street. You recorded some of it at his studio, The Bunker, in Latimer Road, West London, which is in the same building as Damon Albarn’s Studio 13. How was it being there?

It’s not that big but it has a lovely control room where you can hang out.

Stephen’s on the ground floor, but I think Damon mostly works at the top of the building. It’s a great place. For me, having not been in the music industry for such a long time, it was nice to be in a professional environment – I was wandering about… When I was there, Blur were having a meeting, which was quite secretive – they were probably setting up their Wembley show. They looked surprised to see me.

Stormzy came in to use the same vocal booth as myself the day after.

Stephen doesn’t have a drum room, so we went somewhere else to do the drums – the Fish Factory, near Harlesden. It’s an amazing studio and it has a really good drum sound. I also did some drums in a studio in Tunbridge Wells, above The Forum – the roof has been turned into a recording space.

AMI: How did you feel being in a studio again after such a long time away? Did it all naturally come back to you?

It was joyful, mainly. There were a couple of moments when I was slightly scared, when the record button was on – red light fever – and you’ve got the producer there and you have to sing or play guitar, but not as many as I thought there would be. I slipped back into it. It was such a release of creativity and emotion – thoroughly positive.

AMI: You don’t have a home studio, do you?

No. In my shed, I have my drum kit, guitars and microphones set up – it’s very like a studio, but I don’t have a recording desk. I use my phone which has GarageBand on it. We did actually use some of the bits I recorded on my phone for the album.

AMI: So, any plans to make a follow-up album?

I’ve got nine songs written that are definitely good enough for an album. I’ll try and put some new material out in the spring. I’m really excited about the new stuff I’ve done.

Breaking The Fall by Matt James is out now on Costermonger. musicmattjames.bandcamp.com

Gene: The Albums box set (Demon Music Group) is available in a deluxe 180g coloured vinyl edition, or a nine-CD collection.

Images by Andy Willsher

HOW ANALYTICS SHAPE THE MUSIC WORLD

In a world swimming in data, interpreting and acting on analytical data has become central to the music industry. Whether you’re an artist, producer, promoter or a label manager, the abilities of infoconsolidating platforms bring deeper insight into

If you’ve ever looked out from the stage to the soul-crushing sight of a silent, near-empty venue, perhaps underlined by a handful of sympathetic faces, then you’ll understand that carefully planning just where you choose to gig is massively important to growth – and avoiding the demotivating feel of playing to nobody.

Originally rolled out with this tour-planning aspect as a central motivation, music analytics platforms have now expanded into wider-ranging resources. Arming users with the means to keep a handle on how their fanbase (s) interact with their music, and the ebb and flow of individual track popularity. All built atop their usefulness in answering that fundamental question, ‘where should I gig next?

Now central to A&R and label management, audience-tracking platforms such as Viberate and Chartmetric dig deep into cross-platform streams, as well as the rate of fanbase growth and engagement across social media.They also indicate recommended markets to target. These types of platforms aren’t just dashboards aimed at those working in music business and strategy. Indeed, to even catch the eye of these savvy platform-equipped talent scouts, getting signed up as an artist is a must.

CHART-ATTACK

Getting validated on an app such as the widely-used Chartmetric instantly increases the likelihood of label and A&R discovery. Particularly if you’re able to demonstrate steady audience growth. Traditionally scouting around venues and learning about new acts via word-of-mouth, consolidated analytics platforms provide the modern A&R agent a meaty resource with which they can discover talent instantly. Briskly exploring back catalogues and studying the behaviour of engaged fans. Should they like what they hear, they’ve already got a substantial understanding of the artist, and are able to propose a more tailored plan of action.

Speaking to Chartmetric’s Marketing Manager, Rutger Rosenborg, we’re told that the platform sports the biggest and most diverse database in the world, with daily tracking for over 8 million artists across over 25 sources. As with many other platforms, Chartmetric is particularly adept at aggregating complex datasets into easy to digest metrics, assigning a ‘rank’ to both artists and releases. Giving A&R teams the means to filter based on exact specifications is undoubtedly a boon. “Most A&R teams understandably keep their Chartmetric strategies close to the vest, but we find

just who is listening and why…

that using the Artist Filters on the Artists List is one of the most powerful ways to comb through millions of artists and drill down to exactly the kinds of artists you’re looking for.” Rutger tells us, “Now that we’re back in a singles business, the filters on our Tracks List is also a powerful tool for track and artist A&R purposes.”

The platform even points out those that its algorithms have determined are on the road to success already, via a useful Prediction Model feature. This smart, algorithmic-driven system displays around 500 artists that it views as a safe bet for investment. Scrutinising Spotify streams primarily, the feature allows A&R teams to drill down by genre. “There’s not really a problem finding good artists to discover; the difficulty, if you’re an A&R person, is finding artists who could fit. You can then invest if you have the skills to add to what the artist is doing in order to lift something which is small.” Chartmetric’s CCO Chaz Jenkins told Music-Tomorrow.com.

As with evaluating any social media-based brand, audience engagement and retention matter more than the flat quantity of listeners. If an artist or producer can prove that they have been making significant headway in that regard, the interest of labels and managers will be piqued. Rutger explained to us how Chartmetric can be beneficial for self-sufficient artists. “From our social media channels to our blog and learning hub, our aim is to empower artists with the knowledge they need to get the most out of the Chartmetric platform, both through understanding how to use Chartmetric features and also how to apply them to the real world.” Rosenborg says, before pointing out that the company’s acquisition of one-sheet generator onesheet.club is an important step for making the platform’s metrics even more simpler for artists to use.

As Chartmetric develops, more artist-aimed features appear to be just on the horizon. “We’re constantly rolling out new features, and I think some of the most exciting ones coming down the pipe include Songwriter Pages and Venue Pages. Most importantly, we want to make the platform more intuitive and actionable so that users spend less time analysing and more time executing.”

TALENT SPOTTER

Chartmetric is far from the only platform offering deep-level analytics. Just look across at the more artist-aligned platform Viberate. Using aggregated data, Viberate ties together numerous strands of the live, studio, venue, streaming and venue worlds into a neatly displayed dashboard of information. “Viberate was officially launched in 2017, but the idea was born back in 2012 when we started a side project for ranking electronic music DJs called TopDeeJays.”

Viberate’s Denis Čalaković explains to us. “We were managing the biggest Slovenian techno DJ and worked with hundreds of artists through his record label at the time, so we needed some kind of a tool

that would put their social media stats into context and help us track the artists’ growth.”

Čalaković explains how the platform’s industryspanning scope was hit upon accidentally; “As the platform grew, other genres and entities were added to the mix, and it soon became clear that this is a project with a potential to change the music industry as we know it. Viberate’s database has all the artists interconnected with the labels, festivals, venues and events creating a complete music ecosystem with everything in one place which is one of our main advantages. It is carefully curated, which eliminates double entries and other discrepancies.”

Another source of pride for Viberate is its slick UX design. “Our simple, intuitive and aesthetic UX appeals to all user groups.” Denis proudly shares, “We combine social media stats with streaming and airplay data to form comprehensive and customisable dashboards

“Viberate’s database has artists connected with labels, festivals, venues and events in one ecosystem”

that serve a broad spectrum of music industry professionals.”

Viberate seems to be more artist-aimed than its competitors, as Denis details; “On their artist page, they can monitor all aspects of their career, from their social media stats, such as their fanbase growth and engagement, and the geolocation of their fans, to their performance on streaming platforms, which includes the most relevant KPIs, such as Spotify playlists or radio airplay placements. Artists can even see how they measure in comparison to other artists from their genre with the help of our Viberate chart or Compare artists feature. We also enable them to explore and discover suitable venues and festivals for booking purposes.”

AN ANALYTICAL WORLD

It’s an undeniable fact that harnessing platforms such as the two highlighted can equip artists and producers with the insights that previously were only dreamed of. “Speaking as an artist myself, I do think analytics are unavoidable at this point—from Spotify for Artists to Instagram Insights, there really is no getting around it.”

Chartmetric’s Rutger Rosenborg says, “That said, artists should always focus on creating music first and foremost. Once the music is there, data analytics

paired with the right strategies can really be powerful for helping that music reach the right ears.”

It’s a view echoed by Denis Čalaković, “We cannot disregard the huge impact social media has on artists’ career development. Understanding and correctly addressing their fanbase has become vital for their success and a comprehensive analytical tool will definitely help with that. Almost every platform now has a designated artist backend, which demonstrates the need for artists to access this info, so here we are bringing it all together in one place and putting it in context.”

While the aforementioned platforms, and similar services from the likes of Beatchain, Soundcharts and PlayTreks require subscription fees, it’s really a cost worth paying once you grasp the centrality of analytics today. With A&R and labels so plugged in to this new means of navigating the music world. Harnessing data is arguably essential for success.

“We cannot disregard the huge impact social media has on artists’ career development”

Our new generation of active reference near and mid-field monitors and subs take monitoring to the next level. They deliver a forensic level of detail that allows you to work faster, without fatigue and with complete confidence, knowing that your finished mix will translate technically and emotionally anywhere.

Every cutting-edge element of their new ground up design has been created for the highest possible resolution with the lowest possible colouration, so they are packed with innovation such as all-new drivers, sophisticated DSP & Class-D amps, and our latest ATL™ bass-loading and Laminair™ air flow technologies. With digital connectivity and configurable via the inspired SOUNDALIGN network interface, these scalable solutions can grow with you with the option of active subs to create one of PMC’s unique XBD systems for extended bass and dynamics.

Whether you’re recording, mixing, or mastering in stereo or the latest immersive formats, with our monitors you’ll know why we are regarded as the absolute reference and guarantee the best possible results.

Hear more – make contact sales@pmc-speakers.com www.pmc-speakers.com

SOMETHING ATMOS {

dBs Institute Installs Two New PMC Equipped Studios To Teach Students About Dolby Atmos

There are two things that are vital when it comes to teaching the next generation of audio engineers the skills they need for their future careers. The first is exceptional teachers who really understand the subject and can impart their knowledge; the second is access to exceptional facilities that are kitted out with the type of equipment students will encounter in the commercial world.

Tackling the second part of this equation is the reason why dBs Institute of Sound & Digital Technologies has installed two new Dolby Atmos Music studios at its Manchester and Bristol campuses, and why it has equipped both rooms with exception products including monitoring systems from UK manufacturer and immersive audio industry leader PMC.

dBs Institute, which also has a campus in Plymouth, offers degree and master’s programmes across a range of music production, audio technology, games development and digital technology disciplines. The new Dolby Atmos studios will be used by all students, including those working in Game Development, Game Sound and Sound Design.

“We are always striving to be at the forefront of all technologies, as our facilities demonstrate,” says Nige Burt, dBs Institute’s Director of HE. “As such, it is vital that we provide Atmos facilities for students to access as it is becoming increasingly commonplace in the industry.”

NEW IN THE PHERE }

Supported by PMC / audiomediainternational.com

Matt Bernard, Head of Operations at dBs, adds: “We spent a lot of time researching Dolby Atmos setups and received a lot of support from Dolby and our acoustic designer, Miloco Builds. It became clear from the research that PMC is an industry standard for Atmos studios, and we wanted to make sure our students were working with the same kit that they will find in commercial environments.  Also, the fact they sound incredible helps!”

Originally founded in 1998, dBs Institute believes sound is a powerful force, and one that should be leveraged for good. This philosophy informs everything it does, including how it approaches audio technology education. Students are given personalised attention and support and are encouraged to foster enduring relationships with each other, with staff and with the local community.

With the centres in Plymouth and Bristol well established, dBs turned its attention north to Manchester for its newest campus. Often nicknamed the ‘Gateway to the North’, Manchester has a rich musical heritage and a strong reputation in the creative world for its media, sound and gaming scene, so it was the ideal place for dBs Institute to focus its expansion plans.

“Manchester is such a thriving city for the creative industries that we felt we could really help in improving that development further,” Nige Burt says. “It’s vitally important in our provision that we have great links with top employers in the area and with

Manchester being such a hotbed, it made sense for us to set up in that environment.”

Further impetus was given by the redevelopment of Manchester’s New Century Hall, which is where the new dBs Manchester campus is based. Dating back to the 1960s, this iconic venue has played host to artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Kinks, as well as being the venue for the legendary all night Acid House parties of the 1980s MADchester era.

“We had the opportunity to be part of New Century’s redevelopment and we saw it as an amazing opportunity,” Nige Burt says. “The venue is absolutely incredible and our involvement with it means that dBs Institute’s Live Sound students can gain practical experience in a real working environment. The venue also links down to our studios, providing endless opportunities for exciting projects.”

dBs Institute Manchester opened in September 2022 and has already welcomed its first cohort of degree students. In terms of technical facilities, it has one 7.2.4 Atmos studio with 11 x PMC 6s and 2x PMC Sub 8-2 monitors. It also has a large control room with an AMS Neve Genesys Black console and three more production studios, all of which are equipped with PMC result6 monitors. There is a large live room and two separate recording booths which can be patched to any space via analogue and Dante tie-lines. In addition, there is a 40-seat lecture

theatre with a 2.1 monitoring system comprising PMC 6 and Sub 8 monitors.

“PMC’s new SoundAlign software was really helpful when we were setting up the lecture theatre as it allowed us to easily calibrate the monitors in the room,” Matt Bernard says.

This year’s upgrade to the facilities at dBs Institute Bristol have also been significant. Alongside the installation of a new Dolby Atmos studio, dBs installed a Games suite, made improvements to the common spaces at its Mitchell Lane campus and invested in more d&b T Series speakers so that it can provide a full line array for small festival stages.

“When we decided to install an Atmos studio in Bristol we faced some particular challenges with the allocated space,” Matt Bernard says. “To ensure we met the height requirements for the overhead speakers we needed a thin speaker, so we opted for PMC Ci65s because they were perfect for this.  Similarly, the Atmos studio also has to accommodate a number of students, so we wanted side and rear speakers that did not protrude too far into the room. The Ci140 speakers were the answer as they worked within Dolby requirements for the sides, while PMC Ci65s gave the required SPL for the rears.”

In total three PMC6-2s were installed, along with six Ci65s, two Ci140s and two PMC8-2 subs. The studio, which also had an Avid MTRX, is now fully operational while the Atmos room in Manchester will be ready for students to use in January 2023.

Staying at the forefront of emerging technologies in the creative and technical arena and providing students with both the practical and personal skills they require to succeed in the audio industry are key tenets of dBs Institute’s philosophy. Alongside regular staff, the Institute also brings in guest lecturers whose experience of the real world is vital for student learning and development. PMC will be supporting these efforts by organising workshops in Bristol and Manchester so that students can learn tips and techniques from audio professionals who are already mixing Dolby Atmos projects.

“The ability to be innovative requires that the students have the freedom to be so but also access to innovative teaching concepts and the facilities to push the limits of what exists at present,” Nige Burt adds. “That has been a major aim of the dBs Institute for the past 25 years and remains so.”

For more information about dBs Institute of Sound & Digital Technologies visit www.dbsinstitute.ac.uk

“In total three PMC6-2s were installed, along with six Ci65s, two Ci140s and two PMC8-2 subs”

Above Left To Right: James McCrea, Matt Bernard, Nige Burt.

KRK GOAUX 4

The studio monitor is, of course, the pro producer’s best friend. And once you get to know your monitor’s sonic character, you should be able to mix any track to sound good anywhere. But for the travelling producer or mix engineer who (fortunately) finds themselves working in multiple studios, learning the in house studio monitors could be a time consuming exercise for each session. Wouldn’t it be good, then, to take along your own monitors that you know and love?

That’s impractical with most studio monitors, but KRK’s new GoAux speaker series could be the monitor saviour for any producer who is often working out and about. There are two in the range: the GoAux 3 and GoAux 4 with the numbers, as you might expect, referring to the bass driver size. What stands out immediately on unboxing is the beautiful overall package: a lovely carry case with both speakers nicely protected. It’s not a completely novel concept – IK Multimedia’s iLoud Micro speakers come in a similar bag – but to see the recognisable yellow hue of KRK monitors in such a mobile package is quite something to behold.

KRK’s

FLEXIBILITY AND FEATURES

The GoAux 4 system is truly portable, with an overall weight of just 4.3kg which includes all of the accessories, of which there are many. You get a stand for each speaker which can be angled, and these are easy to use and necessary; placing speakers on your computer desk often requires this

Andy Jones takes a look at the latest KRK portable monitor system

angling, yet it’s something missing on many other smaller desktop speakers. You also get an Auto ARC (Auto Room Correction) measurement microphone to connect to the speakers at the front for some simple room correction – more on this below.

OVERALL SOUND

GoAux 4 are bi-amped 100 watt speakers (33 watts rms per woofer, 17 watts rms per tweeter). There’s very flexible connectivity, with 1/4” TRS balanced, RCA, USB-type B, 1/8” Aux connections, plus an input for the measurement microphone. There’s even a Bluetooth option so you can pretty much connect up any device you wish.

And when you do you might be surprised with the clout of the sound given the size of the speakers. They don’t sound too enhanced anywhere, although given the small woofer size you’d expect some colouration. They deliver a clear and punchy tone, relatively flat although not quite as detailed and accurate as our reference speakers (which are much larger and more expensive).

The key here is to set these monitors up with trusted mixes first and then adjust their response, and there are two ways to do this so the sound can be improved anywhere you decide to take them. First there are three-way HF and LF controls around the back, but by far the better way is via the ARC microphone. Place it at ear height and the speakers spit out some audio to ‘listen’ to how the room affects their frequency response and adjust accordingly. It might not be as sophisticated as Genelec’s SMART system, but it is easy to set up and apply. It also does make a difference – sometimes subtle and sometimes very noticeable – but the sound does improve.

BOTTOM LINE

Despite the KRK marketing showing people mixing music with a laptop on a plane, these are probably not practical enough to get out and start working with on a bus or train – you should most definitely turn to a decent set of closed back headphones for that, just to preserve the sanity of your fellow passengers. They do, however, make great monitors to break out in a hotel room, and also a fantastic set of second monitors to A-B your mixes with. They’re reasonably priced, the overall package is superb and the flexible connectivity and positioning options make these some of the best mobile studio monitors on the market.

KRK GoAux 4 monitors are available now for $419 / £399 per pair.

“The GoAux 4 has an overall weight of just 4.3kg which includes all accessories”