Headliner USA Issue 8

ISSUE 08 / FEBRUARY 2022 HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET UK £3.95 / USA $6.95 / CANADA $7.95

SUPPORTING THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY

MAGAZINE / 08

WE ARE FAMILY

SISTER SLEDGE STEPHAN MOCCIO

THE LUMINEERS

BRIX SMITH

SUPERSTARSONGWRITER TALKS NEW ALBUM

INSIDE LONG AWAITED NEW ALBUM BRIGHTSIDE

MEET THE F-LIST’S NEW PRESIDENT

“Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.”

— Mick Jagger

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SUP P

IV E C EAT O CR

ING THE T R O

NITY MU M HEADLINER USA

08 It may have been the case for two years now, but it still feels a little disconcerting to be typing a January editorial welcome note without the double header of NAMM and ISE looming large on the horizon. Those stalwart events not only present an ideal platform from which we can scope out the technology, trends and innovations that will set the tone for the year ahead, but also a great opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues we’ve not seen since, well, the previous year’s NAMM or ISE.

But while the situation looked far less certain this time 12 months ago, 2022 is starting to look a little more solid, with both events pushed back until the warmer months of May and June.

And what’s particularly encouraging, as you’ll discover across these pages, is that there is already plenty to be excited about.

While we may not have quite the same wave of new products entering the market, with many looking to make big announcements closer to those aforementioned trade events, many of the market’s key players are still setting their stalls out for the coming months.

Whether it’s Meyer Sound and its new PANTHER line array system – described by founder John Meyer as the most significant loudspeaker launch for the company in over a decade – or comms and networking

specialist Riedel’s ongoing expansion into ever-more ambitious and groundbreaking pursuits, such as the United Battle League, which melds aspects of virtual worlds and gaming with real life martial arts, there is certainly no shortage of activity in the market.

What’s more, in addition to the new technologies that are being introduced to the sector, artists and music creators across the board, from our legendary cover star Kathy Sledge, to the aspiring stars of tomorrow, are finding ever-more exciting ways to produce and release their work.

Of course, when the industry does indeed come together in a few months’ time, those shows will likely be jumping like a Downing Street work event, but until then there should be plenty to keep us going in the meantime.

Daniel Gumble Head of Music, Headliner HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

18 / MATT MOTTO 14 / TY BRASEL 08 / AMANDA FRANCES

32 / DANNY BYRD

24/ KATHY SLEDGE

36 / THE LUMINEERS

40 / HALINA RICE

46 / JAKE MILLER

50 / STEPHAN MOCCIO

66 / CHRIS LEE

56/ IMMERSIVE AUDIO

60 / THE F-LIST

72 / BELLA MOULDEN 70 / VENUE FOCUS 78 / JAMES REYNOLDS

84 / AUDIO PRODUCTION

82 / NATALIA SCHLESINGER

88 / LIVE SOUND

92 / TECHNOLOGY

96 / PRO AUDIO

100 / SPOTLIGHT REVIEWS

122 / ED BULLER

126 / MAOR LEVI

130 / BOOM DICE

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AMANDA FRANCES

HEADLINER USA

Let’s Be Honest

ASPIRING HEADLINER

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LET’S BE HONEST

AMANDA FRANCES Originating from Toronto, indie synth pop artist Amanda Frances and her blending of soothing melodies, dreamy vocals, and sometimes-alittle-too-honest lyrics has seen her build an impressive following during lockdown. Here, the rising singer-songwriter tells Headliner about her musical journey so far, and reveals what we can expect from her upcoming EP…

The last two years have proved to be a particularly interesting time creatively for the likes of Frances, who has used her new found extra time to focus on writing and recording new projects. In April 2021, she released a track called Cute, the first single from an as yet untitled EP due for a release later this year.

“Cute is about a turning point in my life where I had this relationship ending and it was a very tumultuous one,” she explains. “It was a time when I started to learn what love was and what it wasn’t, and what it should be and shouldn’t be, and bettering myself through therapy to get over that situation.

“Oh gosh, Cute is just so raw,” says Frances with a slight air of irony. “And it’s honest; it’s probably the most honest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. That’s something that’s become very important to me as a songwriter.”

The second track from Frances’ upcoming debut EP, Say That – a collaboration with A-SHO that combines melodic guitars and ‘80s synths with spirited lyrics to create a romantic summer soundtrack – saw a July 2021 release, and Frances tells Headliner that we’ll be able to catch a similar vibe from the other songs on the record.

The track chronicles a messy relationship that Frances was involved with, which culminated in an equally messy trip to Mexico.

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Let’s Be Honest

it’s such an incredible city, and it has really, really good food!”

“THIS IS PROBABLY THE FIRST TIME IN MY CAREER WHERE I MOST FEEL LIKE I’VE FOUND MY SOUND.”

“The thing that very much ties all of my music together is this almosta-little-bit-too-honest songwriting.

It’s something I’ve always prized as an artist, and from looking at other artists and those whose songwriting I admire,” she admits. “I’ve always been a big fan of people like Julia Michaels, the kind of songwriter who really makes you feel as though you’re sitting in that moment as everything’s happening.

“So all of my songs definitely have that similar theme to them,” Frances continues. “I’m actually working with one producer on the whole album –– his name is Father Bobby Townsend, and he’s amazing. For the most part, the lyrics especially are just the things coming from my head. I have a plethora of messy relationships from throughout my lifetime that I can draw from for years, so we’re good! It’s been interesting, because this is the first time that I’ve ever cut my own vocals and got involved in the production side. Father Bobby Townsend is in Edmonton, so we produced all of the songs over a series of Zoom calls [somewhat of a new normal during the Covid era]. But it’s kind of cool to see the rhythm that we’ve been able to get into with that.”

Many of Frances’ early songwriting projects were in fact country songs.

Unsurprisingly, it was immersing herself in Nashville’s burgeoning music HEADLINER USA

community that led to her discovering and honing her writing skills.

“I think that’s why you see the detailed storylines creeping into my music,” she acknowledges. “I definitely still have that now. It’s like, you can take the southern out of the girl, but you can’t take the girl out of the southern, or whatever the saying is!

“It was a very serendipitous series of events for me. I had just graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and I knew that I wanted to pursue music full time. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to go about doing so however. I was working in a restaurant at the time, and through a very weird series of events I ended up meeting another country artist; we had both heard of each other and he said he liked my stuff. He told me that he had some contacts down in Nashville who I could go to write and record with, because at the time I was actually playing as part of a pop country project. Two weeks later I was on a plane down there and I was introduced to a bunch of cool people. Oddly enough, there’s actually a huge Canadian community down in Nashville too, and so that was a really great stepping stone for me to be able to meet more writers and to get a little bit more ingrained in the community there. And honestly, one of my favorite experiences in my entire life is spending time in Nashville, because

Frances reflects that one of the hardest things to learn as a musical artist is that there is sometimes a stark difference between the music you like, and the music you make.

One of the biggest hurdles she was faced with as a new songwriter was accepting things about herself and her writing style that were different from the music she was actually listening to, and figuring out how to get to a point where she also liked that about herself.

“But for this new project, honestly, this is probably the first time in my career where I most feel like I’ve found my sound,” she reveals. “In the Nashville community, the thing down there is co-writing. In most genres these days, I find a lot of people are big on collaborations, but I actually prefer writing my own music by myself most of the time. And that was kind of a weird thing to accept, and to be okay with, because a lot of the time in the music community you’re told that collaborations are the best way forward.

ASPIRING HEADLINER

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Let’s Be Honest

“But then you have artists like Billie Eilish and Finneas who wrote and recorded almost all of her music in his bedroom, so all of a sudden that kind of becomes accepted in the mainstream, and you start to open your mind to ‘Oh, maybe that’s okay that I do things a little bit differently to the norm sometimes.’”

So with a debut EP in the works and a whole archive of lyrical material ready to go, has Frances had time to think about what her show might look like once live events return in full force?

“100 percent,” she responds eagerly. “I will literally tacklehug the first person that hands me a microphone after this is all over. That’s actually been one of the weirdest things for me, because throughout my career as an artist I’ve done HEADLINER USA

a tonne of live performing and it’s been a huge part of my artistry, and one of the things that I love most. So that’s been an odd thing to not do as much of. I’ve done a little bit of live streaming here and there and we’ve also been focusing on a lot more video content as we wait for everything to open up here in Canada. It’s OK though, because it’s given me some time to put my live set together for the new album and everything. And then hopefully, by the time the summer rolls around, I’ll be dancing on stages again.”

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TY BRASEL

HEADLINER USA

Cooking Up Vibes

ARTIST

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COOKING UP VIBES

TYBRASEL After Memphis-born rapper Ty Brasel found himself walking a road of substance abuse and crime, a spiritual encounter caused him to change his ways, and to focus his energy entirely on his music. Here he speaks to Headliner about that period of his life, and how he now sees himself maturing and developing as an artist on the straight and narrow.

There’s a buzz about Ty Brasel from the moment Headliner joins him on a Zoom call shortly after the turn of the New Year. He’s keen to talk about his latest album Destiny: Vol. 1, a project that came about while Brasel was in fact already working on another record. The Southern rapper’s albums are usually quite serious affairs, with connecting narratives and themes, however this time around he wanted to step out of his comfort zone.

“I just wanted to simplify things and make some more fun, anthemic music,” he tells Headliner. “I figured the best way to do it was to start a whole

new project, and it actually came together in just a few months.”

Brasel created Destiny: Vol. 1, a collection of catchy hooks and empowering lyrics, with his friends and Grammy Award-winning production group COBRA, which consists of Dirty Rice, Joseph Prielozny, and Juice Bangers, with whom he says he has always had “a pretty nice chemistry. I definitely always gravitated towards hip-hop, because I felt like it was the most free way to express yourself. One of the things that I’ve always tried to do is fuse the melody and the lyricism.”

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TY BRASEL

Cooking Up Vibes

“I’M THANKFUL THAT I MADE THE CHOICE TO LOCK IN ON MY MUSIC AND MYSELF AS A PERSON, AND REALLY FOCUS ON THAT.”

Brasel’s upbringing in the Bible Belt saw him immersed in religion from a young age, perhaps contributing to his rebellion against society that occurred during his high school and college days.

and maturing as he continues to create songs with a universal appeal.

Despite coming from the streets, he takes pride in the fact that he doesn’t curse in his songs, making it arguably the most accessible form of rap music.

“Some things happened in my life that made me run away and get into the street life,” he recalls. “Personally I ran into some brick walls that really made me reflect on my life and where I was, and what I wanted for myself.

I got arrested a lot, and started to feel like the path that I was following with those people would see me end up in jail or shot, or whatever would transpire.

“I have more stories to tell for other audiences, I’m trying to make music for everybody,” he says. “In 2019, when I was working on The Divine Storm, there were a lot of crazy things going on even before the pandemic. There were the big wildfires in Australia, a lot of natural disasters, lots of mass shootings, and lots of chaos throughout the world, and so I started to make an album about how the world was losing control, and how it seemed like the ship was sinking.

“I didn’t want to waste my life, and so looking back on it, I’m thankful that I made the choice to lock in on my music and myself as a person, and really focus on that.”

Having been in music for around a decade now, Brasel admits that he is now starting to see the bigger picture – his musical awareness progressing HEADLINER USA

“It’s crazy, because I wanted to release the album right away in mid-2019, but then it got put on hold. Then 2020 was the year when everybody started to acknowledge how crazy the world had become, and my album came out in the May, right after the pandemic was at its strongest. It turned out to

be the perfect time for that message, because it was a story about how the world was in chaos, but with a positive, hopeful spin.”

Headliner looks forward to Brasel’s next project, which will undoubtedly serve as another beacon of musical hope as the world continues to find its feet in the wake of the pandemic.

TYBRASEL.COM

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Since last year, he has been settling in with the new setup, mixing several projects and even recording an entire album specifically to be mixed in Atmos – helped in no small part by his arsenal of interfaces and a RedNet R1 controller from Focusrite Pro.

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MATT MOTTO

HEADLINER USA

Back in the Saddle

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ENGINEER

BACK IN THE SADDLE

MATT MOTTO

Musician and sound engineer Matt Motto has been performing, writing and teaching guitar since the age of just 14. Here we talk through his creative process in the studio, the ways in which he uses oeksound plugins, and the exciting plans in store for his Chicago-based prog metal band, Dissona…

2022 is set to be a big year for guitar aficionado Matt Motto. Having just wrapped up a big symphonic metal album for a client and with his hands deep in a whole host of other projects, his excitement about what’s to come is palpable to say the least.

His studio and full service facility, Black and White Music, is where he carries out the majority of his production work. During the Covid era however, he has often found himself relocating to his home studio, where he works on smaller projects and tracking sessions with singers and songwriters. Under the Black and White umbrella, Motto teaches

music privately, whereas his audio production work falls under the banner of Formless Audio, the other half of his business.

When the pandemic first hit, Motto and his band Dissona had just finished writing their third album.

“I did all the pre-production, which involves me programming in the synths and getting rough drum tracks,” he explains. “We were just moving on to record bass guitar two weeks before the lockdowns were enacted in the States, so as time went on, I created a ‘clean room’ space at the studio, because it’s large enough to do so.”

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MATT MOTTO

Back in the Saddle

With no idea of what a release strategy would look like in the current environment, the band made the extremely difficult decision to sit on the album for the time being.

“Now we’re back into the production phase, and I’m getting the album all edited and put together and it’s definitely going to be coming out this year,” he tells Headliner excitedly.

“We’ve got so much planned; basically we’re trying to make up for all the dead air that’s existed in these last two years.”

Being exposed to classical and jazz guitar at high school “without a doubt” shaped Motto’s composing ear and expanded his chord library, as he explains. When he was about

to leave high school he had already met Dissona’s singer and bassist, and the band were already creating music together. It became clear very quickly that the band needed greater creative control, which is what inspired Motto to pursue audio production at college.

After building a solid clientele base, Motto and Dissona released their eponymous debut album in 2012.

To the band’s surprise, their music gained a rather intense underground following, and many blogs in Europe started to create a buzz about Dissona online.

“We’re very, very tough on ourselves,” Motto admits. “I think that shows up in the authenticity of our music, and I hope that’s part of what people are drawn to. The guitar is kind of

“PLAINLY PUT, BOTH OF THESE PLUGINS ARE TIMESAVERS – AND LIFESAVERS – FOR THE MODERN MIXER.”

HEADLINER USA

otherworldly. We try not to write stuff that’s too predictable, but it still has to be interesting; you need to give your listener a reason to listen to the music.

You can show off your skill level and all that, but it’s not going to stick unless there’s real human emotion there to grab the listener.

“I also have an electronic project called C3D3. When I’m sitting down to write an electronic song, it starts and ends in Pro Tools in the DAW. I’m at the MIDI controller, I’m poking around with sounds and I’m composing and creating the chord changes and the melodies all within the DAW from the get go.”

When it comes to Dissona however, his process is radically different.

“I start by composing using a piece of software called Guitar Pro,” he continues. “I get the composition sounding as good and as exciting as possible with just pure MIDI sounds, and then that’s what I send to the guys. If that feels good, then we start to move into the pre-production process. I immediately move all of the MIDI stuff into Pro Tools and I get the tempo mapped and all the parts labelled. For how intricate our music is, I need to lay everything down and feel how those electric guitars are reacting with the drums, and then things get shifted again. Then I’ll add the synths and the orchestration to just fill in the cracks, making sure the composition is being amplified and not bloated.”

ENGINEER

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Back in the Saddle

The discussion moves on to gear, and while he couldn’t be without his complement of DI boxes and preamps, it’s oeksound’s popular soothe and spiff plugins that have been helping Motto significantly streamline his workflow. “soothe in particular, I got turned onto maybe three or four years ago, and I’m so grateful that I did,” he reveals.

“That plugin is just wonderful. I heard about it being used on vocals, but I end up using that thing on anything with harsh, gathering frequencies. It’s so easy to abuse that plugin and make it your go-to for solving those kinds of problems. I use it on guitars, cymbals – anything that has a lot of mid-range information that might be gathering and affecting your mix.

“It’s seamless and effortless. I usually just open up the plugin and then adjust the depth, and then I might play with the mix knob to get the amount right as time goes on. It’s definitely a part of my vocal chain, but like I said, sometimes I’ll use it on cymbals, and sometimes I’ll actually throw it on the whole drum bus. That’s where you’ve got to be careful though, because sometimes the hi-hats will disappear if you’re using too much. As with anything when you’re dealing with an entire bus of processing, you’ve got to be really gentle with it because HEADLINER USA

it’s very, very easy to destroy the whole bus too quickly with extreme processing. I’m actually trying to think of something I don’t use it on!”

And while he hasn’t used it quite as extensively as soothe, Motto is also a big fan of spiff from oeksound – “that’s their transient shaper that’s good for pops and clicks in dialogue, etc. I have nothing but good things to say about both of these tools; plainly put, they are timesavers – and lifesavers – for the modern mixer.”

Motto nicely rounds up the conversation by guaranteeing that Dissona’s new album will land this year, with at least one music video and some exciting performance-related content also in the works.

“It’s gonna be a very, very busy year,” he says with a smile. “And I’m very excited for it, so there’s a lot to look forward to.”

Keep an eye out for Dissona’s third album, coming later in 2022. Headliner is sure it’ll be worth the wait.

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SISTER SLEDGE

We Are Family

SISTER HEADLINER USA

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COVER STORY

WE ARE FAMILY Kathy Sledge, the youngest and founding member of iconic family group Sister Sledge, is performing at Indigo at The O2 in London this year, although until recently she was barred from using the band’s name alongside her own. She explains who sued whom and reveals how the sisters are forging a path ahead, together, for fans old and new.

Kathy keeps hearing about a new Sister Sledge song that was released during the pandemic.

“My daughter’s friends have been saying, ‘I hear your mom has a new record out’. I’m like, ‘Yo, that’s Thinking of You. That’s been out; we’ve been singing this all around the world, forever!’” she laughs warmly.

From her home located somewhere between New York and Philadelphia, in a soothing voice Kathy explains that DJ D-Nice (Harlem-born Derrick

Jones) became something of a beacon of hope during the depths of the pandemic for founding what the digital media-verse knows as Club Quarantine, a series of Instagram live DJ sets that rapidly snowballed, before long welcoming over 100,000 locked-down viewers to the virtual party. Special guests included Oprah, Michelle Obama, Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Steph Curry and Joe Biden, and the club’s theme tune, says Kathy, was Sister Sledge’s 1984 single, Thinking of You.

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We Are Family

“What’s interesting is that it’s still the original recording, and it’s still working,” she says fondly – still excited by the twists and turns that her career continues to take since hitting the big time with her sisters Debbie, Joni and Kim in 1979 when they released their breakthrough album, We Are Family.

“It’s funny because it wasn’t remixed or anything, although there have been remixes of it,” she considers, “but the one that everyone’s loving is the one that was out years ago. It goes to show that the music is timeless. Disco / dance music, or however you want to refer to it – it’s feel-good music, and I think it’s one reason it’s working so well now. I love seeing this resurgence of a whole new generation of kids thinking it’s brand new and knowing every word.”

Thinking of You also happens to be Kathy’s favorite Sister Sledge song.

“I love We Are Family, who doesn’t?

But Thinking of You is sexy. It’s fun. It’s a real sing-along song, and it makes you feel good. What happened here in the United States is, when the world shut down, people wanted to hear it.”

The Philadelphia-based sisters formed the group in 1971 and although they were steadily releasing music, they didn’t find breakthrough success until 1979 when Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards revamped their sound and HEADLINER USA

image with the release of We Are Family, which featured hit songs, He’s the Greatest Dancer, Lost in Music, Thinking of You and We Are Family.

Keen to capture a spontaneous vibe, Rodgers had a 16-year old Kathy record the lead vocals to We Are Family line by line, having never heard the song before.

“I was never allowed to hear anything before it was time to record it in the studio,” she remembers. “They believed in spontaneity, so it would be one take, a line at a time. He would go, ‘Okay sing: ‘Everyone can see we’re together’, and I’d repeat, ‘Everyone can see we’re together’, ‘Okay, cut; ‘And we fly just like birds of a feather’, and it was like that.

I had braces and I used to follow Nile around the studio like a little nerd,” she chuckles. “I’d ask, ‘Are they even going to play this record?’ Nile and I laugh about that to this day. He said, ‘Not only are they going to play it, it’s going to be huge’. I just loved their confidence and I trusted Nile and Bernard – they were only in their 20s at the time and they were geniuses with their music. To be able to sing these songs and not ever have heard them, it showed the trust there.”

That reminds Kathy of another story involving Rodgers: “Here’s something really crazy,” she discloses, suddenly singing the opening

line to Chic’s I Want Your Love. “That was our song, and He’s the Greatest Dancer was their song, and at the last minute they flipped it. I think that was more Bernard’s call. What I’ve learned is they were both pillars in their band, but I think Bernard was more of the lyricist, and he felt like this song would be better for these girls to sing, and he was right.”

This seems as good a time as any to address the rumor that the young sisters weren’t fans of He’s the Greatest Dancer’s suggestive lyrics, ‘My crème de la crème please take me home’, asking for them to be changed to something more wholesome.

“I want to clear this up too,” Kathy volunteers. “There’s always this thing where they say I had a problem singing that line; I’ve never had a problem… I think my sisters had a problem with that line! I was very naive.

I felt like, ‘Yeah, take me home – you’re gonna marry me’,” she laughs, shaking her head. “I was 16! I made it make sense to me. I Want Your Love was a little more mature, and a better fit for the Chic singers. They knew exactly what they were doing. I mean, we’re still playing their music now. Our music now,” she corrects herself.

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We Are Family

Like any family, the Sledge sisters have had their ups and downs over the years. Kathy left the group to pursue a solo career in 1989, while her three sisters continued to perform as Sister Sledge. After this, various lawsuits restricted her from using the name Sister Sledge at all.

“I was actually sued by my sisters,” she clarifies. “I’d like to really make this clear: I never sued anyone, I never would. And I never left the band. I did a solo project and I was asked to leave the band. I was sued so that I couldn’t perform as or from Sister Sledge, and that was frustrating to me. I like singing with a group! I’m not fighting my sisters, but I had to fight for the right to sing.

I’m finally having a voice because the truth is I missed out on having any kind of vote in our corporation and in our company. We all built it in our own lives, and I would never have stopped anyone from using [the name] but I had been stopped for years from using it. If you knew me, I’m just a happy person – and that’s the truth. At the end of the day, the truth rises to the top.”

Kathy shares that she and Kim made up fairly recently, and that she is now allowed to use the name Sister Sledge again.

“Kim lives around the corner from me, and she actually knocked on my door right before the pandemic and she apologised. She said, ‘I’m sorry that we’ve been so mean to you throughout the years’. I was like, ‘You know what?

Let’s just fix it. Let’s not make it nebulous anymore to the market out there’.”

She’s got good reason (aside from legally being allowed to) to want to clarify who Sister Sledge are these days, as fans wanting to see “the authentic sisters”, as Kathy calls them, might be confused when turning up for a live show. Check out their live tour dates and the line up is not Debbie, Kim, and Kathy (Joni passed away in 2017), but Debbie alongside family members Camille Sledge, Thaddeus Sledge, David Sledge, and Tanya Tiet.

HEADLINER USA

“My sister Debbie is out there touring with her kids as our band, and we’re fixing that because I think that people need to know who we are. I think that’s fair and it’s right. Debbie, Kim and I – the remaining sisters – are really trying to make sure that you are seeing the

authentic sisters. You will never see… well, unless we decide to do something together…” she trails off.

“Kim and I are working on fixing the website so that it represents the authentic, real sisters, and not Deb and

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“AT THE END OF THE DAY, WE ARE FAMILY WAS WRITTEN ABOUT US AND THAT’S WHO WE ARE, AND WE’LL GET IT ALL FIXED.”

her kids,” she clarifies, not unkindly.

“That is something we’re sorting out, but it will be sorted. Maybe you might see us together, but right now, when you see Sister Sledge performing, you have to be sure that’s what you’re getting. As long as it’s the truth, you can’t go wrong. I’m making sure that that happens.”

Child presented an awards show years ago and Sister Sledge was named something like the fifth all time greatest girl group. One of the things they talked about was that we were the first girl band to ever dance, full on. So for the newcomers that come to see the show, I like to show what we brought to the feast in the industry.”

Sister Sledge ft Kathy Sledge are performing at Indigo at The O2 in London on May 14 2022, and as well as performing all the group’s biggest hits, Kathy will use her experience in producing festivals and concerts to make sure that the production feels fresh for modern audiences.

Kathy’s daughter helps out with the design of the sets and what the dancers wear, which she stresses has to be very “Sister Sledgy”, and ticketholders concerned about the songs being updated with modern remixes they can’t sing along to needn’t worry – Kathy sticks faithfully to the melodies that the fans come to hear, ad-libs and all.

“It’s important to make sure you stay relevant as an artist. I’m loving that the music is new to a whole lot of people, so when this new market comes out and sees the show, I like to make sure that they see something relevant. I remember when Destiny’s

“You’ll hear Lost in Music, and by the time I step out on stage, you’re already on this all time high. It starts up there and it stays there. I remember watching Queen, and I

loved the heck out of Freddie Mercury because he was his authentic self.

He was uninhibited and he knew he had a gift. I was kind of the opposite growing up – I was almost shy that I sang all the leads on most of the songs, and now I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m proud to sing these songs!’ Anyway, I remember Queen saying, ‘We will start with We Will Rock You. We start with our strongest song’, and I’m like, ‘That’s it. We’re gonna start with Lost in Music’.

From the minute that show starts, it’s just hit after hit after hit.

“And I sing my records like I sing them.

I don’t deviate from the ad-libs. When I go to a concert, I want to sing it just like the record; I want to hear the words I know. If I go to hear Chaka Khan sing Sweet Thing, I want to sing every line, and it’s the same thing with Thinking of You. I’m a real stickler for that.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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SISTER SLEDGE

We Are Family

“It’s gonna be such a party,” she smiles, warming to the idea of performing live again using the Sister Sledge name. “It’s almost like when we came out of the Great Depression in the ‘40s or the Roaring Twenties and they all wanted to have entertainment and to dance – we’re living that now coming out of this pandemic. People want to feel good and they want to sing along, and the music that I recorded years ago is resurfacing…”

HEADLINER USA

While she might not quite have all of her sisters with her with regards to touring as Sister Sledge, for now Kathy is happy for the family to turn a new page.

“I feel like I’ve been given the opportunity to carry the torch of what our family is. The world has to understand that, A: No pun intended, we are a family, B: Do we have challenges? Yes. C: Are we under a magnifying glass? Yes. But at the

end of the day, We Are Family was written about us and that’s who we are, and we’ll get it all fixed. It’s been hard trying to navigate that while the world watches. We all are allowed to use a platform that we build all our lives. Will we ever do something together? Maybe. Are we allowed to grow? Of course. And that’s where we are. It’s that simple.”

SISTERSLEDGE.COM

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DANNY BYRD

HEADLINER USA

Return Of The Rave Digger

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by ALIC E ds

RETURN OF THE RAVE DIGGER

STAFSON GU

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PRODUCER

DANNY BYRD Drum and bass icon, DJ, record producer and musician Danny Byrd may have just signed a shiny new record deal with Ministry of Sound, but he explains why he keeps it old school when it comes to testing out new tracks.

Photographer: Sam Neill

When Headliner catches up with Byrd, he’s just returned home to his small village just outside of Bath after filming the music video for his hit new track, Selecta with D Double E – and he’s exhausted.

“I’ve just had a couple of days in London filming a music video and I’m a little bit tired,” he says, immediately laughing at how that sounds. “That sounds really arrogant doesn’t it?

Selecta’s numbers are picking up and doing really well, so they wanted to do a music video for it. We wanted to do one for a while, but it was all: it wasn’t going to happen, then it was going to happen… It was all very last minute, hence the stress involved there. But it’s all good fun. I’ve got

that ‘driven to London’ feeling today that you just can’t shake.”

The ‘they’ in question are Ministry of Sound, who Byrd recently signed a new record deal with, although he’s worked with the iconic dance label on numerous drum and bass remixes over the years.

“I finally sent them some original tracks, and they seemed to be into them,” he says. “They are probably one of the biggest dance labels in the world, so if you are making any kind of dance music, you probably have got some ambition to want to be associated with them. That logo is iconic, isn’t it? The Ministry of Sound logo was the best thing when we HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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DANNY BYRD

Return Of The Rave Digger

were doing the artwork for the first single! It’s a real stamp of approval.”

Long before dropping his debut album Supersized in 2008, a young Byrd was obsessed with the idea of creating a computer game.

“When I look back, I wasn’t very good at it,” he reflects, “but I was good enough to make a very basic game in the basic programming language, and that transferred into music. If you think about the two, they’re both programming, and at some point, music took over. I was really interested in all the rave music in the early ‘90s. When you listen to those early rave records, they’re really raw and kind of…I’m not gonna say, ‘basic’, but you listen to it and in my naivety I thought, ‘I could do that’, and then two years later you realize, ‘no, I can’t do that easily’. It takes years to do that and learn that, but the DIY nature of it appealed to me.”

Byrd was one of the very first to sign to Hospital Records at the turn of the millennium. With his unique take

on the genre with strong hip hop and R&B influences ever present in his music, his signature mixing style and production flair render him one of the scene’s greats to this day.

Supersized really put Byrd on the map, including club bangers Shock Out and Red Mist – the former of which he admits he only ever saw as an album track.

“This is the interesting thing about that track,” he discloses, “I never saw that track as a single. I just saw that as an album cut. At the time, I was like, ‘No way, that’s not coming out as my first single, that’s just a little experimental piece’. And they were like, ‘No, no, no, that’s coming out as the first single’. And they were right, you know? That track was the start of that album in terms of kicking off that campaign. It’s so hard to be objective with your own music.”

Despite the long drive to London, Byrd still takes his inspiration from the urban scene where he soaks up the energy from the hustle and bustle.

“I don’t find myself so much inspired by nature – a lot of people get inspired by the trees and the grass, and I’m the sort of opposite – the urban environment gets me going, although you have to be quite selfmotivated. I have these periods of great laziness and then great motivation. It’s feast or famine!”

He’s currently in the process of building a home studio after working in what he refers to as “a little shoebox room” throughout the majority of the pandemic.

“For me, personally, having a home studio has always been essential because all the best ideas always come when you’re just messing around,” he shares.

Photographer: Sam Neill

It transpires that Byrd was the first person in the UK to install Genelec’s original 8351A studio monitors, which, among many things, he used to perfect Selecta from home.

HEADLINER USA

“I’ve got my trusty Genelecs set up and they’ve done a great job with the room correction using the GLM software,” he nods. “Once I set them up, it was life changing because I was working in the little box room in my house, which was great for writing, but you would have to mix elsewhere. When you take the mix to another studio, you probably spend about four hours just trying to get it to sound like it did at home! During the pandemic I was mixing stuff fully at home, and the Genelecs changed everything for me: the accuracy, the way they translate. It’s just incredible.

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Photographer: Sam Neill

PRODUCER

“I’LL DRIVE DOWN TO BATH TOWN CENTER, WIND DOWN THE WINDOWS AND BLAST IT REALLY LOUD THROUGH THE BUS STATION AND JUST SEE HOW MANY LOOKS I GET.”

“Nothing is more honest than a club set up,” he furthers. “If your mix isn’t right, a club will show it up. Even if the bass is one dB too quiet, it will sound really quiet on a club system, so the mix has to be perfect – almost. No mix is perfect from version one, but the Genelecs are so much quicker at getting me to that point where it’s finished.”

Byrd’s still a big fan of the ‘car test’.

surprises. It reveals things in the mix that maybe you could change, so the translation is very important. The car test is not so much about the mix and how it sounds though, it’s about giving it a market research test,” he adds. “I’ll drive down to Bath town center, wind down the windows and blast it really loud through the bus station and just see how many looks I get. You think I’m joking. I’m not,” he laughs.

“I love the car test! Now, I take the mix out to the car, and there’s hardly any

“If you feel like you’re confident enough to play something really loud with the

windows down driving along, then you’ve got something. If you feel a little bit like, ‘I don’t know about this’, then maybe the track’s not quite right or needs more work.”

Byrd shares that he’s got a few releases planned for 2022, including a soonto-be released track with Dynamite MC. If you want a sneak peek, try your chances at Bath’s bus station.

INSTA: @DANNY_BYRD GENELEC.COM

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

THE LUMINEERS

Always A Brightside

s by AD rd o

THE LUMINEERS HEADLINER USA

PROTZ

ALWAYS A BRIGHTSIDE

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ARTIST

Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, best known as the multiGrammy nominated band The Lumineers, have made their longawaited return to the airwaves with new singles Brightside and Big Shot. Headliner spoke to Schultz about the band nearing two decades together, his thoughts on artistic longevity in this TikTok and Instagram age, and how their experience and recent solo projects helped the swift recording of their new music, as they release their long awaited new album, Brightside.

It seems a pertinent place to start the conversation with the fact that The Lumineers are fast approaching two decades together as a band,

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an increasingly special thing in an age where it seems many people would sooner seek a fleeting glimpse of viral fame on TikTok, rather than carve out a creative career. Having formed the band in 2005, Schultz is kind enough to grant us a lesson in longevity, and the great value hidden in failure.

“Part of what helped us be together this long is that there’s a lot of trust,” he says of his long standing friendship with Fraites that commenced while they were growing up together in New Jersey (they met through their brothers).

“When we make songs together, we split everything. There’s no paranoia like, ‘Why does he like this idea more?’ We’re trying to create an HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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THE LUMINEERS

Always A Brightside

environment where the best idea has to win. And so you really have to work on just shutting your ego down and serving the song.

“I was almost 30 before we got signed and had any sort of break. By that point, I knew what I wanted out of those boundaries. We were able to make albums and finish them entirely, and then hand them over to a label and say, ‘Can you please promote this now?’ I think a lot of bands, in the beginning, are told what to do. But since we had failed so long, we got to dictate the terms more. And I think that really helps us – to this day – to be a lot more content with just how things go. The benefit of failure can be immeasurable sometimes.”

Could it be linked to the fact The Lumineers were one of the first bands to advocate fans putting away their phones while at concerts, to enjoy the experience directly instead of through their phone screen? It must be so, given that they value their audience having a special experience at their show HEADLINER USA

above hundreds of people posting their photos and videos of the concert on Instagram, Twitter etc the day after the show — as it creates a very special connection, as opposed to a viral dopamine hit.

“We began busking in the streets,” Schultz says. “And it all began on a level that we understood the way to someone’s heart, and to actually have an impact on somebody is through that intimacy and through that direct contact. And so when phones became ever-present at shows, I would ask people to put them away. It’s funny because the picture and the audio is never very good quality, it’s just a strange placeholder for a memory. The very worst is when you’re at a concert, and you have someone in front of you filming it, so you’re seeing the stage through their screen! It’s just another filter. The direct to source way has always been the most exciting for me.”

Despite the fact Schultz and Fraites have been separated for some time now, due to lockdowns and the latter

moving to Italy with his wife, their first new single of this year was recorded in a single day. It’s very exciting to hear about a very new approach to writing the pair have adopted, one that almost leaves the ego at the door of the studio, allowing gut feeling and emotion to shape the music. Perhaps a terrifying prospect for writers who have to have a crystal clear vision in their head before they write a single lyric or strum a chord…

“We got to the studio that particular day, we just started trying things, and it took shape in front of us,” Schultz says.

“It was strongly based off a feeling, and I think the album is full of that, much more than, ‘Here’s my point I’m making, or here’s the exact story I’m telling.’ It’s much more about conveying.”

ARTIST

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“WE’RE TRYING TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THE BEST IDEA HAS TO WIN. AND SO YOU REALLY HAVE TO WORK ON JUST SHUTTING YOUR EGO DOWN AND SERVING THE SONG.”

And as Headliner points out that second single Big Shot offers a lovely contrast to Brightside, Schultz expands on this: “This whole album was us trying to be less literal about everything. I was really mystified and intrigued by how some of my favorite writers growing up, like Neil Young and Kurt Cobain, weren’t on the nose about a lot of things. They knew how to find the right words to cast the spell and create a feeling. A lot of how they wrote their lyrics was not by writing

it, it was by saying it. And then going back and saying, ‘Oh, that felt right.

What was that?’ So a lot of his album was not really written lyrics, it was lyrics that were just sung out loud, over the existing chords and melodies.

And what you end up with is much different than when you’re sitting at a desk, trying to write out some sort of poetry that tells the story.”

there’s quite some chance that you, dear reader, may have a very strong feeling of connection to this new music from The Lumineers. The album is out everywhere now, so stick it on and, for goodness sake, put that phone away.

THELUMINEERS.COM

And with this intuitive approach to writing their new album Brightside, HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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HALINA RICE

HEADLINER USA

Brave New Worlds

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IMMERSIVE AUDIO

BRAVE NEW WORLDS

HALINA RICE

London’s Copeland Gallery recently hosted a unique live performancecum-art exhibition from electronic artist Halina Rice. Headliner caught up with her to discuss her approach to advancing the possibilities of immersive live events, and how L-Acoustics’ L-ISA technology helped bring her sonic vision to life.

“It felt like you had one foot in a gig and one foot in an art exhibition,” Rice tells Headliner as we join her via Zoom at her London home. She’s explaining the concept behind her recent performance at the Copeland Gallery in London as part of her New Worlds project, which is designed to intertwine music with mixed reality visuals and 360° audio. As both a producer of electronic music and a visual artist, she has consistently strived to create increasingly immersive AV environments in which to envelop her listeners. And with New Worlds, she has finessed this vision to its sharpest point yet.

“In 2017 I had an album out through a label called Blurred Recordings, and after that I had been working with a visual designer Yan Petýrek,” she elaborates. “We were really interested in the idea of immersive events, and I had seen a show where artists were projecting themselves live via mixed reality into visuals and I could not figure out how they were doing that in a live environment. So, we studied these videos and realized they were just using a Kinect 2. At that moment I

decided this was the type of show I wanted to put on.”

Rice’s plans to begin work in earnest were, however, scuppered by the onset of the pandemic. But while lockdown may have slammed the brakes on any plans to put on such a show in-person, it also provided an opportunity for her to start investigating and researching what might be possible in the realm of live streaming.

“In September 2020 I self-released a project called Spheres, and we created this file where I could be mapped live, even though I was in my living room, into the file and Yan had all these beautiful cinematic camera angles, yet I’d stay fixed to a platform in this universe.

“Then, for the last release, I started working with a new designer. We wanted to do something that was audio reactive, so every time I released a record it had an entire visual environment and story around it. Each one is almost like a mini album, but really my heart was in taking this live.

I did a couple of shows to explore how we could offer immersion for the audience.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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HALINA RICE

Brave New Worlds

It was at this stage that Rice called upon the services of L-Acoustics and its L-ISA object-based sound technology to help enhance the immersive audio aspect of the show.

“I’d been working with L-Acoustics since 2019 when I did a show at Abbey Road,” says Rice. “Within two days I reprogrammed a show I did there in the L-ISA system and stayed in touch with them. Then they reached out because they had just launched L-ISA Studio software, which includes their binaural monitoring system. This meant that rather than having to be in a studio to mix, I could do it at home, which is amazing because when I was HEADLINER USA

programming for Abbey Road I didn’t know what it sounded like in the room until I got into the room.

“I did a couple of shows in stereo, which went well with the immersive visual side, and I thought it would be amazing to do it with immersive sound as well. I also felt I needed to do a show in order to launch this show and have video and photography so I could pitch it to venues and festivals. I wanted documentation.”

The L-ISA design used for the Copeland Gallery performance was based around 12 X8 coaxial speakers in a surround configuration. So how

did Rice utilize the technology to achieve the desired effect?

“I use it in a way where I would bounce maybe nine or 10 stems of each track, and each of those sounds L-ISA would refer to as objects,” she picks up. “The software is then connected with Ableton, which is the DAW I work in, and then back into the L-ISA Studio software via use of the L-ISA plugin. I would lay out the groundwork of stems in a scene in Ableton and within each clip I would define the values for where that object is panned, what its distance is and its width - so how many speakers I want to cover with that sound.

IMMERSIVE AUDIO

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“IT FELT LIKE YOU HAD ONE FOOT IN A GIG AND ONE FOOT IN AN ART EXHIBITION.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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HALINA RICE

Brave New Worlds

“For the Copeland Gallery show, we had a 12-speaker setup,“ she continues. “It’s not a huge room, it has a socially distanced capacity of about 150. And then within the software I can see precisely where I am going to map those objects. It was a steep learning curve; it was across maybe 14 tracks, which is about nine or 10 clips, each of which I have to define where that sits in the room. It was a lot of hard work but it’s a really magical experience when you see it working.

“With L-ISA immersive, you’re not playing to the front of the room as you normally would. Sounds are coming to the audience from all around, and for a show like this it felt like you had one foot in a gig and one foot in an art exhibition. I just want to displace people from being in a standard gig environment, that’s not what my eventing is about.

I want it to feel special. Someone described it the other day as being like somewhere between a rave and an art happening!”

As for the future, Rice is currently in conversation with a number HEADLINER USA

“I JUST WANT TO DISPLACE PEOPLE FROM BEING IN A STANDARD GIG ENVIRONMENT, THAT’S NOT WHAT MY EVENTING IS ABOUT. I WANT IT TO FEEL SPECIAL.”

of parties about how to take this iteration of the show on the road.

“I’m talking with L-Acoustics and looking at some more venues,” she concludes. “I’ve been booked for the Sonica Arts Festival in Glasgow, so I’ll be playing there on March 19.

But now that I have the footage and imagery from the Copeland Gallery, I can reach out to venues, festivals and promoters.”

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JAKE MILLER

HEADLINER USA

Godspeed

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by alic e ds

Godspeed

stafso n gu

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ENGINEER

JAKE MILLER Record producer, mixer, engineer and songwriter Jake Miller is used to being on the move, so he was more than ready to get back into the studio following a lengthy working-fromhome stint. He explains how he hit the ground running at Snap Studios, recording a promo single for the new series of American Gods.

“I have more or less the same cliché story that everyone has getting into studios,” admits Miller, who’s speaking to Headliner from L.A. “I hung around with some bands, and I was the least talented musician as a kid, or at least wasn’t willing to practice my instrument as much as everyone else was. I definitely really loved music and I was obsessed with it, but I guess my parallel love for computers and technology fed into it. Eventually I was like, ‘Okay, well, all my friends are better guitarists and piano players than me’, so I found my way over to studio recording.”

Based in Queensland, Australia at the time, a teenage Miller begged a local studio to let him help out, which saw him gain experience in engineering,

mixing and programming – eventually leading to him being mentored by Guy Sigsworth in London, and becoming a familiar face at studios including Abbey Road, RAK, Strongroom and Snap Studios as an engineer, mixer and producer.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m not coming to London to assist anyone anymore, I just have this job now!’ Guy really leaves you to your own devices; he might give you some feedback on a mix or whatever, but really it was like trial by fire. It ended up being more of a masterclass and like a musical education.”

Recently Miller worked with his good friend Hugh Brunt (composer, orchestrator and co-artistic director and co-principal conductor of the London Contemporary Orchestra) on an unusual audio book recording of Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood’s Ness – a part-novella, part-prose-poem, part-mystery play revolving around a figure called The Armourer, who is leading a ritual with terrible intent on a salt-and-

shingle island inside a ruined concrete structure known as The Green Chapel.

However, something is coming to stop him…

“It’s a very ominous story set on this island which is an ex-military base called Ness, and they wanted to do a score that fit it,” he explains. “Hugh doesn’t do anything in half measures, and he really wanted to go for it, so he came up with this idea of going to the island to do a lot of field recording and incorporating that into the score.”

The team not only went to extraordinary lengths to get onlocation recordings from the setting of the book – they then processed them using almost exclusively period-correct EMI technology.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

JAKE MILLER

Photography: Hugh Brunt

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HEADLINER USA

Godspeed

ENGINEER

Photography: Hugh Brunt

“It’s an unusual project – there is not usually a score for an audio book,” Miller points out. “The concept behind it was to use as much period-correct equipment as possible, and EMI used to supply audio / sonar equipment to the military. Anyone in London knows the place with the most EMI stuff laying around is definitely Abbey Road, so there was a lot of playing with this tape machine there. A lot of the recordings had been sped up and slowed down and pitch shifted, so in the spirit of the project we did the pitch shifting, all-analog. We would spend a lot of time with a spreadsheet and a tape machine putting things on and off tape at various speeds. We went through and very systematically reconstructed a very digital approach to these recordings and how they were treated, and recreated it all with tape.”

Miller has been using Neve desks and preamps in the studio since his university days. He still recalls the very first time he used a 1073 preamp: “I was probably around 18, and my mind was just blown because suddenly it sounded like all the records that I listened to,” he remembers. “One of my formative experiences was hiring a pair of 1073s and a C-24 mic, and it was a rug pull moment where I was like, ‘Oh

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“ONE OF MY FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES WAS HIRING A PAIR OF 1073S AND A C-24 MIC, AND IT WAS A RUG PULL MOMENT.”

shit, I’m really gonna need to up my game with what studios I’m getting into because this is obviously the way to sound more professional and more like the records that I’m trying to sound like as a starting out engineer.”

Miller recently recorded a promo single for the new series of American Gods with London band Gengahr, recorded at Snap Studios on their ultra rare, 1972 Neve 5316 recording console with mic pre/EQ modules based upon the legendary original Neve 1081.

“Everything on the track (apart from a couple of things in the box that were added a bit later) was done through the console, which was part of why the day was so much fun, because I’d spent all year working from my home studio where maybe I only have two channels of something, so I have to ration it and re-patch things all the time if I want to use it again for something else,” he explains.

“Suddenly having all these channels was great because I could just put everything on the console. As a starting point it was nice to put everything in there and go, ‘Yep, it all sounds good.

Neve consoles are quite ubiquitous in the studio world,” he adds.

“I used one in Flux Studios in New York when I was working with Guy on a project, and that was brilliant. The thing that’s really great about using an old desk is the luxury of having one desk that has a bunch of great EQs and pres on it, and you can just move along without thinking about that stuff. It’s great for workflow when you’re being tasked with a million other decisions and you have something that’s reliable, and you know that none of it is going to sound wrong or bad. Then you can really get on with the job on the creative side and not worry about if you’ve got exactly the right pre – if you’ve got 32 of them on a desk and they all sound really good, then that’s just one thing taken care of all day!

“It was just nice to be back in the studio with people again,” he reaffirms. “The desk being the centerpiece of it was definitely a reminder that this is a really fun way to do things, because it’s easy to get wrapped up in being in your own studio where you develop your little workarounds for everything.”

JAKEMILLER.COM.AU AMS-NEVE.COM

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

STEPHAN MOCCIO

The Art of the Matter

Photographer: Jeanné Kietzmann

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HEADLINER USA

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PRODUCER

THE ART OF THE MATTER:

STEPHAN MOCCIO Stephan Moccio, songwriter and producer for some of the biggest artists on the planet, including the likes of Celine Dion, The Weeknd and Miley Cyrus, tells Headliner about his new solo album Lionheart and what it takes to become one of the world’s most in-demand studio talents…

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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STEPHAN MOCCIO

The Art of the Matter

There was never really any doubt that L.A-based, Canadian musical maestro, songwriter and producer, Stephan Moccio, was going to make a career in music. Born into a family of accomplished musicians and entrenched in classical music education from the age of three, it was perhaps inevitable that he would enter his teens and early adult years with a considerable set of musical chops at his disposal. What wasn’t quite so predictable was the reputation he would carve out as one of the finest and most sought-after pop songwriters and producers on the planet.

Among the standouts on an extensive list of writer and co-writer credits are: Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball, The Weeknd’s Earned It, numerous songs and a long-standing relationship with Celine Dion and a string of hits with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Josh Groban, Dua Lipa, Lykke Li, Seal, James Blunt and many others. He’s also notched up three Grammy nominations, one Oscar nomination and was a judge on Canada’s Got Talent. Oh, and he was also the composer of 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics theme I Believe, performed by Nikki Yanofsky.

“Writing that was huge,” Moccio tells Headliner as we reach him via Zoom at his spacious, sunlit L.A home. His demeanour is incredibly laid back.

HEADLINER USA

His meditative tone, slight frame, thick mane of dark hair and few days-old stubble possessing shades of lateBeatles era George Harrison. “There was the song, but there were 257 musical cues I wrote for TV and the Olympics ‘suite’. I learned so much and it was such an enriching experience, but it was the most stressful thing I’ve done in my life. The pressure on my shoulders was huge but it was a colossal success because I knew that piece of music was golden.”

So how did Moccio make the leap from prodigious young talent to bona fide studio superstar?

“My parents were adamant that my brother and I start piano lessons at the age of three, at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto,” he says. “The entire lineage on my mum’s side are all pianists, so it was expected that I would have some kind of life in the arts.

Some children aren’t as fortunate, and their parents think that pursuing the arts is not a stable thing for the future.

I immediately had season tickets for the ballet, and I went to numerous concerts.

“I grew up in Canada, in a border city to the United States, and by virtue of being so close I listened to a lot of American radio. So, while I was learning my classical chops I was being

seduced by American pop culture, that’s where the duality, the swiss army knife in me came from – the classical and the pop amalgamated and my love for both is strong for different reasons. From then I learned other instruments, played in bands, and that helped me become a better producer.”

Despite the seemingly idyllic path into music and the arts, things weren’t always quite so straightforward for the young Moccio. With an elite educational institution and equally lofty expectations levelled at him, the pressure that bore down on this child’s shoulders took a significant and pivotal toll.

“Music is 100% in my blood,” he states.

“It chose me, I didn’t choose it. But there was a crisis when I was about 10 years old, because I was expected to be the best in my age group. I was winning all these festivals and competitions and there was a lot of pressure. So, I had a small breakdown. I had a big conversation with my parents and said I didn’t want to compete on the classical circuit anymore. That was a big turning point for me. My disdain at that point came from the pressure of always having to be the best.

Once I removed that at the age of 11, everything changed.”

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STEPHAN MOCCIO

The Art of the Matter

“BECAUSE OF MY TRAINING I HAVE A LOT OF TRICKS UP MY SLEEVE, AND I REALIZED ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO, WHEN YOU ENTER A ROOM WITH AN ARTIST, YOU ARE IN SERVICE TO THEM AND THEIR VISION.”

And change, things did. Over the coming years, Moccio would establish himself as one of the most talented and acclaimed songwriters and producers in Canada, with a reputation that would serve him well into his teens and early 20s. However, it was in his mid20s that his profile would truly make the leap from national to international star.

“I had a plethora of big breaks in Canada, but you can’t survive on being a hit songwriter in one country – you need those breaks in the US, the UK, Germany, Japan,” he explains. “That came in 2002 writing A New Day Has Come with Celine Dion. That put me on the map as an international songwriter.

A lot happened after that. When you write one of the biggest hits of the year, everyone wants to get in a room with you. It was extraordinary and it was intoxicating having one of the biggest hits in the world.”

Though he knew he had a hit song on his hands at the time of writing, Moccio insists you can never be sure of when something will land with fans in such a fashion.

“With that song, it was the perfect collision of events,” he continues. “It was a great song, she was the biggest artist in the world, combined with her comeback after three years off… It was like the return of Adele at that time.

There is no guarantee that all your songs are going to be recorded by the artist, there’s politics, the timings of things. Some of my best work is still sitting on a shelf, but there are so many things that need to line up for something to be a global hit. Of course, HEADLINER USA

the most important part is writing a great song, but that’s not enough, you need the vehicle. In that case it was Celine.”

According to Moccio, one of the keys to his success as a prolific and versatile collaborator is his ability to assimilate his talents fully into the vision of the artists. Sometimes under intensely challenging circumstances.

“Because of my training I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve, and I realized about 20 years ago, when you enter a room with an artist, you are in service to them and their vision,” he elaborates.

“Sometimes you meet them and almost immediately you’re asked to come up with a song, and you may only be given four hours. And with some of the biggest artists, if you can’t do it in that four hours, the chances are they aren’t going to come back. But that’s never really happened with me; I always try to be super prepared, whether it’s with Abel (The Weeknd), Miley Cyrus – that was a whole different situation with how that song came about - and with Celine I’m privy to what she’s looking for. Now she just calls me and says, ‘I want a song about this’. I write five songs and she’ll take two or three of them.

“Being in service to the artist is a beautiful thing, but they have the final word on things. Sometimes I fundamentally disagree with certain decisions, and that’s normal. I have strong opinions, as do they, but it’s their vision and they have to perform it every night. So eventually I said I want to take a break from this and do some solo piano music. That’s one of the main reasons I came back to the piano, I just

wanted to do things I believed in 100% and were authentically me.”

It was this desire to take full control of his art that drove him back into his home studio to begin work on 2021’s Lionheart, Moccio’s latest album of instrumental piano music. While very much a classical piece, it bears traces of more conventional pop structures and arrangements, melding the two opposing strands of his creative sensibilities.

“In 2018 I was in London, and I had this epiphany that I wanted to come back and reduce everything in my life,” he says. “Everything seemed complicated, so I wanted simplicity and control, at least in my art. I wanted to stop producing big records for a minute. I’ll go back to it, but I was ready as an artist to say something with my instrumental piano music. It’s my most focused work to date because I wanted to treat these pieces of music, classical as they are, as songs, little vignettes that have shape. And I found that by giving myself those boundaries it helped the process and gave a lot more focus to everything.”

Does he find working completely alone to be a liberating experience?

“It’s not quite that simple,” he concludes.

“But it feels right. I never did it to become more free, because I’m my biggest critic, and you can end up chasing your own tail. I wanted to know that when I signed off on it I could say I believed in every single note and every single space. I just wanted control of the art.”

STEPHANMOCCIO.COM

BRIAN AND ROGER ENO

A Family Affair

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Performing together for the very first time, legendary artist and producer Brian Eno and his brother, pianist and composer Roger Eno, took to the stage at Greece’s Odeon of Herodes Atticus amphitheater to perform music from their debut collaborative album Mixing Colours.

And according to FOH engineer Chris Hamilton, the one-off show was made all the more unique due to the 360-degree d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system at the core of the performance.

For more than 50 years, Brian Eno has cultivated a reputation as one of the most important and

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influential musicians and producers of all time, having shaped defining records for the likes of Roxy Music, David Bowie, David Byrne, U2 and Talking Heads. He has also carved out a distinguished solo career, particularly in the world of ambient music. And it was his recent Mixing Colours collaboration with his brother, Roger Eno, a solo recording artist and film and TV music composer, that spawned this live show at the iconic open-air performance space of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a renovated stone amphitheater originally constructed in the year 161 AD.

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“WE DEFINITELY TOOK A RISK TOGETHER, BUT THERE WAS TRUST AND THE RESULTS SPOKE FOR THEMSELVES.”

“Due to the age and size of the amphitheater, I thought that it would be a real challenge to analyze how the sound spreads in the space, and how we would manage coverage and reflections,” commented Hamilton.

“Luckily, because it’s such a historic venue, there has been a lot of studies done on it and someone had previously conducted a full audio study for the space, so we had great audio info to work with.”

Hamilton was previously introduced to d&b Soundscape by Massimo Carli of BH Audio, and suggested that it was used to achieve the requisite power and clarity for what is inarguably a challenging outdoor venue.

HEADLINER USA

“I spoke with management about the opportunity we had to do something really special here and something that no one has done before,” said Hamilton. “The challenge was more reassuring them that this will be simple, easy to install, and reliable — and the audience won’t even know it’s there, but they will hear it. We definitely took a risk together, but there was trust and the results spoke for themselves.” d&b Soundscape is powered by the DS100 Signal Engine, an audio system processor based on a Dante-enabled signal matrix and is designed to provide maximum creativity through its two software modules En-Scene and En-Space.

d&b En-Scene is a sound object positioning tool that allows for the individual placement and movement of up to 64 sound objects. It depicts stage scenarios so that each sound object corresponds both visually and acoustically.

Meanwhile, d&b En-Space is an in-line room emulation tool which creates and modifies reverberation signatures for any space. These reverberation signatures are emulations derived from acoustic measurements of nine internationally renowned performance venues and convolved within the audio processor.

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For many, including Hamilton, this was their first show back since the lifting of social distancing restrictions.

And, said Hamilton, both the audio quality and the performance from the brothers Eno were very well received by fans.

“After the show, everyone was beaming and saying how good it sounded,” Hamilton remembers.

“The future for me is all about spatial audio tools such as Soundscape.

Soundscape helped me build not just volume, but also spread and move sound as the show built. The clarity you get compared to a standard L/R setup is wonderful. It’s definitely something I’m looking to bring in for more shows with other artists in the future.”

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“There is nothing like experiencing 360-degree audio for the first time,” Carli concluded. “And having introduced Chris to Soundscape a while back in our studio in Italy, I’m pleased he finally got to try it out in the ‘real’ world, and with such compelling results.”

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Punching The Glass Ceiling

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THE F-LIST The F-List founder, Vick Bain, and its new president, legendary post-punk musician Brix Smith, have spoken to Headliner about the organization’s mission to make the music industry more inclusive, Smith’s plans for her new role and the upcoming release of her first solo material in 30 years.

Launched last year, The F-List is a not-for-profit directory that lists over 5,000 professional musicians and is designed to make it easy for the likes of festival organizers who want to promote female artists to discover a vast range of talent outside of their own network. It is also a key resource for venues, bands and other industry organizations looking to be more gender inclusive.

It was recently announced that US artist and musician Smith, who was formerly a guitarist and songwriter in The Fall and has since led bands such as Brix & the Extricated, would be taking over as president of The F-List following the completion of previous president Anoushka Shankar’s HEADLINER USA

one-year term. “I have been a female in the music industry for 38 years, since the age of 19 when I joined The Fall as a guitarist and songwriter,” Smith said on her appointment. “If you look at my hands you will see the scars from punching the glass ceiling.”

Here, Bain and Smith sit down for a chat with Headliner about their hopes and ambitions for The F-List, the need for music festivals to be far more inclusive and what to expect in 2022.

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Punching The Glass Ceiling

It’s been an incredibly eventful year for everyone, but particularly the music industry. How have the past 12 months been for you?

BS: It’s been a tale of peaks and valleys. On the good side, I have been able to write and record a new album remotely with my producer, Youth over the last year. I set up a little studio in my bedroom, taught myself how to use it and we were sending files back and forth. Making music during the first and second parts of lockdown really saved me.

I did, however, experience some immense tragedies. I lost my father and my younger brother – both in America – and I couldn’t get back there to my mother. I became very depressed and quite despondent. But I got through it and it was music that really saved me – writing it, making it, singing it. It filled my soul with joy and gave me the hope to carry on.

How has it been for you, Vick?

VB: It’s been a real rollercoaster. It’s been fantastic in many respects – The F-List was my lockdown project. I had lost all of my work in the first few days of the first lockdown in March 2020. I was feeling like everybody else, absolutely lost. Then The F-List organically emerged, and we did the official launch last November.

Since then, we have been mega busy. Thousands more women have signed up, we ran 14 online events last year with over 400 musicians in attendance, we’ve partnered with loads of industry organisations, and we have loads of really exciting announcements coming up. My feet haven’t touched the ground. It’s been the silver lining in what has been a very difficult time.

For those who may not be familiar with The F-List, what can you tell us about it and the work that it does?

VB: Because of The F-List directory, women in music in the UK will HEADLINER USA

be able to start and sustain their music careers for longer, because commissioners, festival bookers, journalists, promoters, orchestral fixers and other musicians will all be able to find female musicians very, very easily. It’s a directory with over 5,300 listings, which is made up of 300 companies that represent female musicians, nearly 1,500 bands with women in them and nearly 4,000 solo artists/musicians covering all genres of music. It’s a searchable directory so anyone can go on there and find a female musician, sign them, book them and commission them.

What has the response been like from the industry? Particularly from festival bookers, promoters, and those looking to diversify their line up.

VB: I’m still building those relationships.

We started an initiative called Doing The Right Thing, which is a list of festival and venue promoters who we are collaborating with and celebrating, as they are either doing the right thing already or they are trying to do better and are using The F-List in order to do that. At the moment, they are tending to be the small to mid-size festivals and venues.

Where we really want to reach out this year – obviously not too many

events took place last year – is to the bigger festivals and we want to see some real improvements. Some of the lineup announcements we’re starting to see, it’s like, ‘Do they not know any female musicians’?! We really want to celebrate those who are doing the right thing but there are festivals out there that need to be doing better.

Why do you think this is still such a problem with some festivals? Do you think some of them are almost taking a deliberate stance against diversifying their line-ups?

BS: When I was a kid there were only a handful of female players that I could look up to. My mum took me to my first concert, which was The Carpenters, and I could see Karen Carpenter not just singing but playing the drums and it blew my mind. You need to be able to see people, to see that that’s a possibility.

In the past there have been few of us, but there are many, many more now and there are so many women in bands. It’s about educating people. People can always do better, and if they haven’t already heard of The F-List, by the end of my term as president they surely will!

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Photographer: Paula Scala

THE F-LIST

“THINGS ARE CHANGING AND PEOPLE ARE WAKING UP AND WANTING TO DO BETTER, BE MORE DIVERSE AND BE MORE INCLUSIVE.”

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THE F-LIST

Punching The Glass Ceiling

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How did you come to be involved, and indeed become president of The F-List, Brix?

BS: I hadn’t heard of it until my manager called me and asked if I knew Vick or The F-List. So, I looked it up and was like, ‘Wow’! It’s an incredible resource that I wish had been around years before, but thank goodness it’s around now, as it’s the right time. Things are changing and people are waking up and wanting to do better, be more diverse and be more inclusive.

So, Vick spoke to my manager and asked if I would be interested in being president. I have never been president of anything, but it felt like a really important thing for me to stand up as a woman in the music industry and as a woman with scarred fists from punching the glass ceiling my whole life. I’m still learning about it. Vick has all the stats, and they are sickening, some of them. It’s a matter of educating, enlightening, and opening their minds to do better and take off the limitations.

Are you encouraged by changes we’ve seen since your years in the post-punk scene?

BS: It’s definitely changing. There are so many women who have realized they can do it and are doing it. It’s just about getting the wider world and the people in positions of power that run record companies and festivals to wake up. But it’s changing for sure.

I’m doing my first solo album in 30 years with Youth but I’ve put together a touring band that is all women, so it’s time for me to put my money where my mouth is. They are all superstar musicians, some of which I’ve played with before and who you’ll know, but I can’t say who yet. I’m just so excited to go out with an allwoman band!

What can you tell us about what’s coming next with The F-List, Vick?

VB: We launched an online event programme that was really successful, so we are putting together around HEADLINER USA

a dozen new events for female musicians. These will offer all sorts of career advice – everything from home recording studios and creative practice to business skills. But we are making a few announcements

in the coming weeks. One of those is supported by Help Musicians and we’ll be working with a professional recording studio, so watch this space.

THEF-LISTMUSIC.UK

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UNITING YOUR AUDIENCE FOR 50 YEARS

CHRIS LEE

On The Beat

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Accomplished monitor engineer Chris Lee – who’s mixed shows for some of the biggest acts on the planet – discusses what it’s like to be back touring with the likes of J.Lo, why he can’t be without his JH Audio IEMs on the job, and offers his thoughts on the state of the live music industry in the US. The last time Headliner spoke to Lee was in November 2020; we discussed his origins in mixing live sound, his use of DiGiCo desks and his creative approach for mixing a Kendrick Lamar show, but a lot has happened since then…

As was the case the previous year, the in-demand Lee remained as busy as ever in 2021, ringing in the new year with J.Lo in Times Square (he’s been mixing her shows for four years now).

“That was an amazing experience, and it was a little sombre to be there,” he recalls. “Despite bringing in the new year with a party and watching the ball drop, Times Square was practically empty. And then shortly after that we did the inauguration for newly elected President Biden. Then we built a new stadium here in Los Angeles for our two football teams – the Rams and the Chargers – and held one of the first full live events with I think around 50,000 people, and that was in April.

“It was also another sombre experience. We had J.Lo, Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder and more. I was seeing crews that I hadn’t seen in a year and a half. We were all standing around the stage doing line checks and when we heard that kick come through the PA, everybody kind of just stopped.

I think it was an emotional moment for everybody to be back in that environment again.”

Much of the recording projects that Lee was involved with in 2020 also

continued into 2021, including an on-location video project with SZA, several shows like the Billboard Music Awards (also with SZA, and Doja Cat) and the VMAs with Normani.

However when it comes to the live events business, does Lee feel like we’re in a better position now than we were this time last year?

“There have been quite a few cancellations lately for a number of tours, but quite frankly, anything that I have scheduled hasn’t been cancelled yet from my end. I’ve got a few things lined up, and I’m pretty positive that we’re getting past what we’ve been dealing with for the past couple of years. I’m genuinely optimistic.

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“The Roxannes give you that full dynamic range across the entire audio frequency spectrum that I feel no other model can really deliver.”

Our conversation soon moves to gear, and Headliner learns that everything Lee does involves in-ear monitoring technology from JH Audio. His go-to is the company’s popular Roxanne model, and while he also owns all the other heavyweight models from JH’s inventory, the Roxannes are what he primarily uses on all of his big artists, including Kendrick Lamar.

“When I got my first pair and put them in, I was hearing things for the first time – subtle little nuances and tracks that I’d never heard before. It HEADLINER USA

was really mind blowing,” he says.

“The Roxannes give you that full dynamic range across the entire audio frequency spectrum that I feel no other model can really deliver.

Whether it’s classical music, pop, hiphop, whatever it is, it’s going to give you what you’re looking for in your mix.

“I of course have greater control over what I’m delivering to my artists, and I’m not affected by the environment I’m in if I’ve got a bunch of wedges and side fills trying to deliver a clean

mix every night. I’m not competing with the house either, because while that does still affect my inner mix, it’s not as bad as with wedges, and therefore I’m not destroying the front of house mix – it just allows me to really tailor what I want to hear. My JH in-ears allow me to have that same sound every single night because in my environment, nothing’s changed.

They have, however, changed the game for me entirely.

INSTA: @JEDIMIXER JHAUDIO.COM

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CODA AUDIO

A Night At The Opera

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ANIGHTAT THEOPERA HEADLINER USA

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Held in the concert hall of the National Centre for Performing Arts, the symphonic performances not only demanded high quality audio, but also that the loudspeaker system was as discreet as possible in order to avoid compromising video feed sight-lines or other aspects of the presentation.

Production specialists and CODA Audio’s distributor in China, Tongbo, supplied a CODA System based around the German manufacturer’s latest N-RAY product.

The system comprises six N-RAY with one SCN-F subwoofer per side, as well as four HOPS5 for a stage lip system and a further eight HOPS8 for monitoring. The compact nature of the loudspeakers meant that they were largely invisible in the live video feed.

Following the performance, Wang Lei of the Technical Department of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and the sound designer for the production, declared that the audio was “exceptional”.

David Webster, global marketing director for CODA Audio, commented:

CODA Audio’s compact line-array system, N-RAY, was recently selected to provide reliable sound reinforcement for the Chinese Peking Opera Arts Festival…

launchpad for a large number of toplevel productions and performances, and has been instrumental in the advancement of Chinese traditional culture.

The 9th Chinese Peking Opera Arts Festival, organised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Beijing Municipal People’s Government, took place over a three-week period in September and October 2021 at The National Centre for Performing Arts. As the leading opera art event in China, the Festival has been the

The principal work featured at the Festival was The Grand Canal of Beijing, a complete orchestral suite for the Beijing Opera, combining a range of different vocal genres with orchestral music. The presentation was a multimedia stage event, combining music, choreography and costumes.

“It’s fantastic to see N-RAY being deployed for such a prestigious occasion. Tongbo’s excellent work in delivering the CODA Audio message to the Chinese market is having a strong impact judging by the number of high-profile events with which the systems are involved. N-RAY was clearly the ideal choice for this particular application, where as an ultra-compact yet very powerful solution, it was able to meet the production team’s precise need for discreet, high quality coverage.”

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BELLA MOULDEN

HEADLINER USA

Seeing Double

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SEEING DOUBLE

BELLA MOULDEN If Juliette Lewis says you’re cool, you’re cool. In October 2021, the actress shared a video on her Instagram of a double neck guitar-wielding Bella Moulden performing a loop video of Ozzy Osbourne’s 1980 hit, Crazy Train, followed by a share from Mrs Osbourne herself.

“Juliette Lewis, my queen! She shared it first,” says a still slightly dumbfounded Moulden, shaking her head at the memory. “And then Sharon shared it too. Juliette Lewis is so cool. All I know is when I saw that she followed me, I was crying and throwing up,” she laughs.

“I was like, ‘Excuse me? The queen of actressing (I just made that a word) has followed me? What’s going on?’ I was actually crying on my toilet seat, like, ‘Is this real?’”

Hailing from Buffalo, New York but now based in North Carolina – “I’m not used to not having snow at this time of year,” the independent artist and multi instrumentalist is cool though – she’s totally mellow and candid during her first ever recorded interview and often stops mid sentence to poke fun at herself for losing her train of thought – “Don’t you just love the way I talk?” she laughs after forgetting a question.

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Check out her social media and you’ll see what caught the Natural Born Killers star’s attention – Moulden regularly updates her Instagram and TikTok with fuzzed-up covers of Black Sabbath, Stevie Nicks and The Black Keys – whilst rocking a wardrobe that’s straight out of the ‘70s.

“I love ‘60s and ‘70s classic rock,” she nods, “So, Jimi Hendrix, of course, although my tastes are pretty sporadic, like The Jonas Brothers, Prince, Gwen Stefani and Adele; I fell in love with her voice immediately – she is so funny. I love her. If I met her I would just pass away. I don’t even know what I would do,” she laughs, adding that listening to Adele made her explore the soulful, singing side of music.

Listening to Prince inspired a young Moulden to become a multi instrumentalist – she plays piano and is self taught on ukulele, bass guitar, banjo and electric guitar.

“I remember watching him on MTV when I was young,” she recalls. “He was playing guitar and he was just shredding. I was like, ‘Holy crap. I want to do this – someone hand me a guitar real quick’.”

HEADLINER USA

An old soul through and through, the first music Moulden bought with her own money was a Led Zeppelin record, which is ironic given that it was the band’s very own Jimmy Page that invested in a double-neck guitar in order to do Stairway to Heaven justice live on stage.

“My parents surprised me with a loop pedal and the double neck guitar last Christmas, and from then on I just practiced every day, even during my class lectures,” she grins, gesturing to the guitar in question, which Headliner can just make out in the corner of the Zoom screen.

“I was getting super frustrated before when making my loop videos, like, ‘How the heck am I gonna hurry up and grab the bass and grab the guitar at the same time?’ So I would actually stack my guitars on me with the bass at the bottom, which was really bad for my back, plus the guitars would overlap. So I did my research and boom! What do you know? Eastwood Guitars had this super cool double neck guitar, I instantly fell in love.”

Despite catching the internet’s attention with her electric covers of rock classics, Moulden has also been

quietly releasing her own music since 2020, and produces her own material on Garageband, although she insists her producing skills are terrible.

“You’ve got to start somewhere,” she shrugs, “but as long as you have the right equipment, there’s no need to go to a studio. I use GarageBand, but there’s only so much you can do with it. I sit on my floor and I am always hunched over – I forget to stretch out my back, so I’ll just be sitting there for six hours straight working on a song that I never release. I feel like The Hunchback of Notre-Dame after eight hours.”

Although not all of her kit is entrylevel, as helping her create her recent loop performances is her new Focusrite ISA One preamp, hooked up to her looper pedal, her trusty Walrus Audio Eras Five-State Distortion pedal, vocal mic, DAW, and her old Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface.

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“I USE A LOT OF FUZZ FOR MY PERFORMANCES, INCLUDING FOR THE MICROPHONE, AND THERE’S NO EXCESS STATIC – IT REALLY CUTS OUT THE NOISE AND GIVES A LOT OF CLARITY.”

“It’s phenomenal and clear,” she remarks about the ISA One. “I use a lot of fuzz for my performances, including for the microphone, and there’s no excess static – it really cuts out the noise and gives a lot of clarity. Regarding the double neck for the bass part, it gives it an extra boost, and I could hear it much better than I usually can.

“It makes a lot of difference and it gives you a lot of control over the sound that you want in real time, which is so important, because you don’t want to sound like crap,” she states, laughing wickedly.

“When you perform live you want it clear cut – you don’t want any background noise or anything while you’re performing. You want it to be, in lack of a better term, perfect. If I perform live just with my amp and my looper, it’s super staticky and there’s always some issue that I can’t control, but using this preamp, it was much easier to control. It definitely makes a huge difference when performing and it blends it all together, especially because it has that independent DI so I don’t have to deal with two separate things that I have to work with. So I HEADLINER USA

can just use the same preamp for a microphone or an instrument.”

Melding ‘80s synths and ‘70s guitar licks, Moulden wrote her recent original track, Season of the Witch after a midnight viewing of 1993’s Hocus Pocus.

“I was watching it at 12am, eating candy, and the part came on where Bette Midler is singing, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what if I make a song about witches and make it super cool?’

So I sat down at my janky computer, went on GarageBand and had this cool bassline stuck in my head that I wanted to try out, and that’s how it happened.”

On her songwriting, Moulden isn’t quite ready to put all her innermost thoughts out into the world just yet, preferring to lean on hypothetical scenarios – for now…

“I pretend to be in someone else’s position or I use one of my experiences

as a way to write, but not making it so exact, because I don’t like making songs that are about me and what I’m going through. I like to change it up a bit to make it feel more relatable. I don’t like my personal stuff being super out there either… I’m weird about that right now, but I feel like one day I’ll be able to express a lot of the things that I’ve been through.”

Does that mean some original music is on its way? (A question new fan, Lewis has also asked).

“I am working with some people, I guess I should say,” she says carefully, grinning. “I’m certain there’ll be an album soon. I don’t know when. But soon.”

INSTA: @BELLAMOULDEN FOCUSRITE.COM/EN

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SPACE HUB C Powerful and easy to use C Low latency performance C Up to 128 objects x 128 output channels C 3D panning algorithms selectable per object C Advanced Reverb Engine C Stereo, Mono and Aux (with fader per object) downmixes for subwoofers, fills, etc.

C Redundant DanteTM interface. MADI optional C SPACE HUB Control software optimised for Windows and MacOS C Layout import from System Optimiser C Snapshots with adjustable fade time C VST3, AU, AAX and AAX-DSP plugins for automation and control C Open Sound Control (OSC) C PosiStageNet compatible (stage tracker) C Ultra silent cooling C Redundant power supply (optional)

JAMES REYNOLDS

Mix Master

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JAMES REYNOLDS

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ENGINEER

Having mixed records for the likes of BTS, Tinie Tempah, Disciples, Snoop Dogg, Zayn and many others, James Reynolds has carved a reputation as one of the most talented and versatile engineers in the music business. Here, he tells Headliner about his unlikely route into the industry, mixing with the biggest pop act on the planet, and the Merging Technologies kit that is so central to his workflow…

“I came into the music industry by a weird twist of fate,” laughs Reynolds as Headliner sits down for a Zoom chat with the revered mix engineer.

“I grew up wanting to be a skier, then in my early 20s I had a bad accident and broke my leg in many places. I had to learn how to walk again, and while I was recuperating – I was very lucky, I had a grand piano at home – I started playing a lot more music. I really enjoyed making my own music, so I got a four-track machine and started recording. That got my mind whirring and thinking about how I could record things better.”

This period of musical discovery lead Reynolds to begin engineering all manner of records, eventually winding up in a Hammersmith studio recording house music with his friend Matt Schwarz.

“That was the first part of the industry I fell into,” says Reynolds.

“From there I went to Brick Lane where I made lots of house records for a lot of the big DJs at the time.

I did that for five or six years, and I also had my own act called Braund Reynolds. We had a song called Rocket which was big at the time.

Then I made an album with my manager at the time under the name Public Symphony, that was a very Pink Floyd-inspired album and took about six years to make. We recorded, mixed it and produced

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“the most important thing about mixing is finding out what everyone wants, so that you have the clearest picture of what the project requires.

Then you start from a really empowered position.”

it, so I was learning how to work in all these different styles as I went along.

unanimously chose my mix. So, they asked me to mix the album and it went on to go double platinum.”

“Then I moved to my studio in Parsons Green in about 2005. There was a management company on the other side of my studio, and I became friends with them. While I was happy being an artist I decided I could easily mix records, as I know how to write, produce and mix. I spoke to the management company, and we started pitching.

One of the first pitches I did was for Tinie Tempah’s album Discovery and the song I was given to mix was Written In The Stars, so I mixed it, sent it off, and I was against two other engineers. And they initially rejected it. But as far as I can tell they may have just gone with a bigger name. But later they did a sound test somewhere on Written In The Stars mixes and they

Crucial to Reynolds’s success has been his highly adaptable approach, moving seamlessly between projects differing vastly in style and genre. This, he explains, is something he had to learn the hard way.

“After Tinie’s album, I was like, ‘I know what I’m doing and I’m going to do things exactly as I think they should be’. As we know, music is very subjective, so one producer will want their mixes to be very bottom heavy, others will prefer an overall clean balance. So the most important thing about mixing is finding out what everyone wants, so that you have the clearest picture of what the project requires. Then you start from a really empowered position.”

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Mix Master

Having worked with some of the biggest names in music, it isn’t easy, he tells us, to identify too many individual career highlights to date.

And with Snoop Dogg, Paloma Faith, Disciples, Zayn, Tinie Tempah, Calvin Harris and a long-standing relationship with BTS to his name, it’s easy to see why.

“There are so many I love for different reasons,” he says. “My career working with BTS from the beginning to seeing them become HEADLINER USA

the biggest band in the world has been amazing. I was one of the first western mixers to be asked to mix a Korean record. We became good friends, and I mixed all the singles for many years, and it was amazing to see them blow up.

a song, keep it as loud as any other song and give everything its place.

It’s a long process and takes a lot of focus and time to get right. I’ve heard a lot of people get it wrong because they aren’t used to dealing with that many stems.”

“BTS mixes are also a huge technical challenge. I’m getting 250 stems on some of them, which is enormous compared to a normal mix, which is around 30-50 stems. You’re trying to fit a lot of sonic information into

A little over a year ago, Reynolds revamped his London studio, taking his kit spec to increasingly new heights.

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“My speakers are particularly crucial,” he says, detailing some of the most essential pieces of equipment in his new set-up. “I have the Kii Three BXT system, which is incredible. The level of detail I get out of these speakers is amazing. Even Bob Katz has a pair and he’s blown away.

there around the room,” he concludes. “It’s brilliantly programmable, so I can create separate channels within the mix and have all my reference tracks, so I can super quickly flick through all the different mixes at the touch of a button. It’s just a brilliant bit of gear and it ties my whole studio together.

“Another thing that’s made a difference is the new DAW I work in. About five or six years ago I started using Studio One and I absolutely love it. For me it’s the perfect hybrid of creativity and functionality. I used to use Logic because I was spending my time creating music. Then when I shifted over to mixing, I stayed with Logic, and it was fine and I did some big records using it. But I found it frustrating because Apple became so big that there was no user interaction and feedback to developers, and the engine still has flaws. So I started looking around and heard a lot of people talking about Studio One. I didn’t want to go to Pro Tools because I wanted that creative angle. I don’t just mix, I get production gigs too, so I want that to be good, and Studio One is an amazing hybrid of Logic, Ableton and Pro Tools. The workflow gets better and better. I’ve worked with PreSonus for five years giving them feedback and they’ve implemented nearly everything I’ve asked for, which has been incredible.”

“For my soundcard and converting, I use the Merging Technologies Hapi. It’s absolutely brilliant and gives me so much flexibility to route everything around to my analogue gear if I want to. At the touch of a button, I can have it going in and out of anywhere. And sound qualitywise it’s incredible. When I completely rebuilt my studio, these pieces of Merging gear were a key part of that process.”

MERGING.COM

Another vital component of his studio is his Merging Technologies Anubis and Hapi systems.

“I have the Merging Technologies Anubis and I use it as my hub - I have all my different speakers on HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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NATALIA SCHLESINGER

In The Art House

IN THE ART HOUSE

As an in-house engineer at Art House studio in Miami, songwriter, producer and engineer Natalia Schlesinger has had her work cut out of late. Here she speaks to Headliner about her recent Latin Grammy nomination, getting involved with the Abbey Road Institute, and her work with Leapwing Audio plugins…

HEADLINER USA

How busy have things been at Art House lately?

The last couple of years have not been easy, but I’m happy to say that we’ve still had a lot of work here. Crazily enough, I actually started working here right at the start of the pandemic in April 2020 as an intern, and have continued working here since.

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You recently received a Latin Grammy nomination for Spanish singer-songwriter Pablo Alborán’s album, Vertigo. What was your role on that project?

I never ever thought that I’d be lucky enough to be involved in something like that so soon after starting my professional career, so it’s incredible for me. After I started working here in-

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“The whole Atmos thing is still quite new to us here, so we’re able to share lots of creative ideas with each other from a mixing and engineering standpoint.”

house, that project commenced with the recording and all the production.

I was involved with the recording and assisting the producer Julio Reyes Copello.

What other musical projects have you been doing at Art House recently?

The most exciting thing that we’ve been doing is Atmos mixes since we opened a dedicated immersive mix room here. Some of them are going to come out soon, including some for Colombian artist Sebastián Yatra. The whole Atmos thing is still quite new to us here, so we’re able to share lots of creative ideas with each other from a mixing and engineering standpoint.

Tell us about the Abbey Road Institute Miami.

While I’ve mostly been doing mixes and recordings, I’ve also had the chance to help out with arrangements, which has come about through the incredible Abbey Road Institute programme that Leapwing Audio founder Robin Reumers established here. Lots of artists are getting

involved with the project and it’s been really nice to be a part of the process of helping them find their sound, and with new songs and ideas. The students are very talented and it’s created a real buzz in the studio. It’s been super nice for them to get involved in a place where real productions are happening, and we’re putting a lot of energy into that side of things.

I’ve played around with the new UltraVox vocal processor too, and I really like it, especially to get a nice sound and some air when recording your vocal. For the singers it’s been amazing too, because they feel really comfortable with their voice as we’re recording.

INSTA: @NATALIASCHLESINGER LEAPWINGAUDIO.COM

Could you tell us about your use of Leapwing Audio plugins?

The Leapwing stuff is just amazing and I use these plugins a lot, on nearly every one of my mixes. They’re super easy to use. I use CenterOne and StageOne a lot for my stereo image and to manipulate the depth on a mix. They really give me that space that I need to get my vocal very clean and with room to breathe in the mix.

RootOne is also very cool. Depending on the music and the genre, it helps me get a nice sounding low-end that’s clear and defined, but also big and punchy.

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Behind The Audio Process

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BEHIND THE AUDIO PROCESS As a one-stop shop for location recording, post-production and studio recording in Toronto (the third busiest media production city in North America after Los Angeles and New York), Audio Process has over 50 feature films under its belt, plus extensive experience with reality shows, episodic television, commercials, shows like Netflix’s Trailer Park Boys, and more. In short, no job is too big or complex.

In addition to its full-time team, Audio Process employs over 80 contractbased location sound recordists, postproduction engineers, music producers, service technicians and administrative staff. The team are longtime Lectrosonics users, and recently made the leap from their beloved Digital Hybrid Wireless to the fully digital D Squared line.

Their cart and bag rigs run the gamut of digital receivers: DSQD fourchannel, DCR822 dual-channel and DCHR compact stereo units. Sending signals to these is a host of DBSM body-pack transcorders, the DPR-A plug-on transmitter for boom work and DCHT camera hop transmitters.

Communications are all-digital as well, thanks to the M2 Duet system’s fourchannel M2T transmitter paired with M2R beltpack receivers.

I’ve experienced,” shares lead location recordist Rob Morrice. “To see the spectrum at the resolution it does and then control everything centrally in real time is a game-changer.

“We dove into the Lectro digital world headfirst,” he continues. “This past summer we did a show which follows a teenager who wins a singing competition, not unlike The Voice.

It covered the behind-the-scenes of his life and the other contestants and was challenging because at any time we were jumping between musical performances and scripted scenes, with as many as eight talent members at a time needing wireless.

We used the DBSMs and DSQDs in this application, and with those plus comms for producers, there were a lot of frequencies flying around. It all worked flawlessly the first time out.”

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Behind The Audio Process

“THE FIDELITY OF DIGITAL HYBRID WIRELESS WAS ALREADY BETTER THAN ANY OTHER GEAR WE’D PREVIOUSLY HEARD. BUT THE NEW ALL-DIGITAL STUFF IS A LEVEL UP!”

When asked what improvements are noticeable in the D Squared system, Morrice answers: “First and foremost is range,” he explains without hesitation. “The legacy gear – say, SMVs being picked up by SRCs – was always pretty robust. But with any transmitter, you could get dropouts or a bit of a noise floor if you got out of range. The DBSM doesn’t do that. First of all, the range is just phenomenal. Second, if you do push it too far, you just hear a little roll-off of the high end and that’s how you know. But that hasn’t happened on any actual show I’ve used them on. I haven’t had to worry about signal issues, especially for my critical talent mics.”

“This has improved our workflow on all our productions,” concurs co-owner and location recording manager Ryan Altschuler.

“We recently did a car-to-car shoot for Rogers, the telecom company that also co-owns sports teams like the

Netflix’s Trailer Park Boys

HEADLINER USA

Toronto Maple Leafs, so dialogue is going on in the film car and we’re in a chase vehicle. Several plant mics were hardwired into a Sound Devices mixer, which was then sent to us using a DCHT and SNA600 antenna flown on the exterior of the car. We in the chase vehicle had two more SNA600s outside and a DCHR inside and were shocked at how far ahead of us the film car could get while we still had crystal-clear reception.”

The team also found out that their new digital gear sacrificed nothing in terms of Lectrosonics’ well-known resilience to abuse.

“We were working on a TV movie where this city slicker character is learning to paddle a canoe,” recalls Morrice. “The canoe was stabilized with a rope on either end. I received every assurance that it wouldn’t tip, even though the talent was supposed to look like she’s tipping when she takes a selfie. I guess she was too good an actress! She was in the water a full minute, with her DBSM and mic.

We removed the battery, dried it out, and fired it up the next day. It worked fine, with no perceptible impact on performance.”

Audio Process insists that the D Squared family ensures impeccable audio quality across the board: “We do a lot of post-production as well,” notes Altschuler. “We’d heard there was a big difference on paper in terms of lower noise floor and more headroom. When you actually listen in post, it’s very discernible.”

“Clean, clear, low end is more important than you’d think for dialogue,” agrees Morrice, “and the DBSM and DSQD and other new digital devices deliver. The fidelity of Digital Hybrid Wireless was already better than any other gear we’d previously heard. But the new alldigital stuff is a level up!”

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MARTIN AUDIO

Getting Back to Work

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The return of live events has been exciting for US production company Soundworks of Virginia for a couple of key reasons. One being the opportunity to get back to the business of putting on stellar shows, the other being the brand new Martin Audio system it has been itching to blow audiences away with. Owner, Steve Payne, president and chief engineer, Grant Howard, and system tech, Bryan Hargrave, speak to Headliner about the return of live shows and its partnerships with the UK pro audio specialist…

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“THE FACT WE’RE ABLE TO MAKE A LIVING AGAIN WIPES ANY INCONVENIENCE OFF THE MAP.”

How encouraged have you been by the return of live events?

GH: I’m very optimistic. Seeing how things have progressed since around April 2021 when people were very tentative about having events. Folks started doing more and more and we got busier and busier, so if we can keep on that track, I think we’re heading in the right direction.

What have been some of the key shows you’ve worked on during this time?

GH: The first things that started were local concert series. For the most part it’s been music, but we do have some clients where it’s more spoken word things, like college graduations. We did the Richmond Folk Festival with a few stages and that seemed to go well. It’s kind of been the norm, but just not as much of the norm!

Have you seen an increase in things like regional tours during this time?

GH: The weekly concert series we’ve done used to have more international and national acts, but to get the ball rolling there have been more local and regional acts. That was beneficial because we got to have shows again and the local acts got to perform in a big environment. That’s certainly how people have been approaching it here.

SP: The Richmond Folk Festival historically hosts international artists across seven stages, with crowds reaching almost a quarter of a million over three days. This year, we didn’t have any international, so we’re really grateful the organisers stuck their necks out and went ahead anyway.

The crowds, of course, weren’t quite as large, but they were really happy with the turnout.

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Getting Back to Work

Have you been encouraged by the way the industry has continued to make live music happen despite the challenges so many have faced?

SP: Absolutely. We knew the desire was always there because we were all personally feeling it. We were in no doubt that as soon as it became safe to do so, people were going to come out en masse. There has been a huge desire to hear live music, get together and socialize.

What does it look like to be working on a show now? How has the job of running a show behind the scenes changed?

BH: At first it was pretty rough, especially our first show, which was in September 2020. It was a billion degrees and you’re wearing a cloth face mask… And there were days where you would have to travel with a lighting guy in a truck going to some venue a couple of hours away, you do an all-day show and by the time you get back you’ve spent 18 hours in a mask with the backs of your ears feeling like they’re bleeding! But once the vaccination started to take hold, HEADLINER USA

things started to feel pretty normal.

There have been different events where you may have to take a test the morning of load-in or you had to be vaccinated to work the show.

Sometimes you see a band come through and you know they are high risk because they’re moving from cityto-city, so that’ll require masks, and that’s fine. It’s just part of getting back to work and that’s the most important thing. We talk about the joy of going to concerts but for the crew and the bands it’s really the joy of making money again after living through a year of not knowing how they’re going to eat. The fact we’re able to make a living again wipes any inconvenience off the map.

Tell us about your partnership with Martin Audio.

SP: We’ve been around since 1976 and we had a 30-year-plus relationship with another British manufacturer, which a few years ago took a bit of a left turn. So, we had to make a decision and we were auditioning speakers.

We were ready to pull the trigger on

a particular brand, and I talked to Brad Stevens who is a friend of mine who used to work for Turbosound. We hadn’t approached Martin yet because they didn’t have a 12” box and that’s what we were looking for. Brad says, ‘We’ve got one in the pipeline, so I can give you a demo of the 10”, which is just a smaller version of the 12” and you can consider it’. So, we did it and we were sold. I also had a long-standing relationship with Martin Audio MD Dom Harter. We were sold on the product and that relationship made it a no-brainer to commit to Martin Audio.

So, we and Southard Audio, a company we’ve worked hand-in-hand with for years, made a commitment to buy 48 WTL and 24 SXH218s, sight unseen. The first one had not even been made but we put down a six-figure deposit and said ‘We’re onboard’. When they came in, we were not disappointed. It’s a WPC on steroids. It’s a great-sounding box and we used that for a year and knew that we liked the technology, and based on that we invested in WPS and WPC.

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“WE’D HAD THE SAME LINE ARRAY FOR ABOUT 10 YEARS - THAT’S A LONG TIME IN SPEAKER TECHNOLOGY. YOU WOULDN’T USE A 10-YEAR OLD PHONE, WOULD YOU?”

What is it about the systems you’ve been using that you like so much?

BH: Not to take away from the technology of another box, but we’d had the same line array for about 10 years - that’s a long time in speaker technology. You wouldn’t use a 10year old phone, would you? So the fact we were coming out from this 10-year-old box with this WPL… it was bigger, it was better and it just blew our minds. The predictive software is magic. When you use Display for the first time and then you hear this greatsounding box take advantage of that technology, a big lightbulb goes off

over your head. People are doing research and developing cool things all the time and we didn’t know about it. So, we’re going into these venues with a current box with software that makes the audience experience uniform throughout the venue. You can give everyone in the audience what they deserve.

change. Now, nine times out of 10 they don’t make any changes, and that’s very satisfying.

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GH: And it’s really cool to have a guest engineer come out, do a soundcheck, walk the venue and come back and make no changes. In the old days, they’d walk out and before they get 20ft, come back to make an EQ

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A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

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Inside The UBL

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A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

INSIDE THE UBL In a first-of-its-kind platform, the United Battle League is a newly launched concept designed to take martial arts and integrate live fights within a virtual environment, complete with life bars and the kind of surrounding worlds typically found in the realm of video games. But how exactly does it work? To find out more, Headliner spoke to Steffen Kellner, managing partner at Ignore Gravity, one of the the firms behind UBL, about how the concept came together and the Riedel infrastructure that underpins its production.

Having served in various management roles across the globe with Red Bull prior to joining Ignore Gravity, Kellner had built up significant experience in the art of not only conceiving new ideas for innovative events, but also in executing them. When formulating the blueprint for UBL in collaboration with 2020 Armor co-founder and CEO, Ali Gharfour, the focus, he explains, was very much on maximizing the more visceral elements of combat sports and applying the same levels of excitement to their setting and presentation.

“Taekwondo was suffering from the scoring system, which was leading to

very technical, unattractive fights, so 2020 Armor created this armour with sensor technology, which registers not only when you receive a hit, but also its intensity,” said Kellner of the UBL’s origins. “We then translate this into a life bar, which makes the scoring very transparent. We had a look at the market and apart from WWE, much of the market is positioned similarly.

They are cage fights and it’s very one dimensional. We thought that we should differentiate ourselves.”

Given the company’s tech-driven background and the incorporation of features such as the armour and life bars, the team decided to develop something that “hit the sweet spot between gaming and martial arts”.

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Inside The UBL

“THE TECHNICAL POSSIBILITIES HERE ARE ENDLESS. WE’RE BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN REALITY AND VIRTUAL REALITY.”

“In early 2020 we visited Thomas Riedel – who thought it was a great idea – to tell him we needed support,” Kellner continued. “Then Covid happened, and the world wasn’t really waiting for the next event series to be introduced! My experience from events is that, of course, audiences are great, but before you make significant money you have the high costs and high efforts of bringing people to you. So, we thought we should focus on a competition series as a media product, then we could be much more radical with the gaming approach, such as showing the fighters embedded in a virtual world.”

Unsurprisingly, the technical challenges not only in creating the virtual worlds, but also the onsite production, were significant, with Riedel playing a vital role in bringing the project to life.

“Nobody has done this before, so bringing the right competencies together is vital,” said Kellner. “You have the guys who developed the virtual world and the guys who do the production onsite and also the media production, and to really sync them was a challenge.”

For the UBL, Riedel delivered what had to be a seamless and reliable comms HEADLINER USA

infrastructure for the production environment, including Bolero wireless intercom, Artist matrix intercom and DSP-2312 panels.

the Metaverse. Fans can select their own avatar, meet other attendees, explore the virtual worlds and watch the fights either live or recorded.

ETC Paris, a member of the Riedel family of solution providers, has technically implemented the virtual set with their media server, while Wige Solutions developed the visualization concept.

In each competition, there are two teams with three athletes per team.

To progress to the next round, a team must win two out of three rounds to win the match.

Thomas Riedel, also an investor in UBL, told Headliner: “It’s always great to see how our technological innovations help create groundbreaking new sports and entertainment media formats.

Bringing together the best of physical and e-sports, the UBL is taking the metaverse concept to thrilling new levels, while opening up entirely new perspectives on martial arts.”

The pilot UBL show was published on January 15 on ubl.gg as well as several other international platforms in a virtual world dubbed the ‘UBL Metaverse’. The inaugural event was held in the virtual Cyberpunk city of Hee Mang. With further details still to be announced, the 22/23 UBL season is set to become a series of competitions with seven contests per year, each taking place in a new virtual location with fans able to enter

Currently a virtual-only event, Kellner says that the technology is there to render UBL as a live, in-person event in the future.

“Technically it’s possible to have both,” said Kellner. “The virtual world is brought to life by massive LED screens.

We are also talking to investors that run, for example, casinos in Vegas.

And we are talking to some folk from Dubai, and when they come to us and say ‘We have a big venue, you bring the show’, there will be no problem.

The technical possibilities here are endless. We’re blurring the line between reality and virtual reality.”

UBL.GG RIEDEL.NET

INTRODUCING THE NEWEST MEMBERS

D Squared Digital Wireless Family • excellent flexibility • ultra-fast setup • studio quality audio • ultra-low latency • superior RF performance

DPR (digital plug-on transmitter with recording)

DSQD/AES-3 (digital receiver)

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UNLEASH THE PANTHER

Animal Instincts

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In what has been described by company president and CEO, John Meyer, as “our most significant loudspeaker launch in over a decade”, the new Meyer Sound PANTHER line array system looks set to be one of the biggest pro audio product announcements this year. Headliner hears from the US giant’s senior product manager, Andy Davies, to find out more about the power of PANTHER. Designed to meet the ever-more complex and visually focused demands posed by today’s live events industry, Meyer Sound’s new flagship linear line array system, PANTHER, boasts an acoustic output that is closer to the much larger and heavier LEO line array, yet matches the more compact measurement of the LYON loudspeaker. While still very much designed to deliver in stadium-sized shows, it weighs only 150 lb (68 kg) and offers savings on current draw from the previous generation flagship line array loudspeaker. Its dual analog/Milan AVB network input module facilitates flexible signal distribution options and each cabinet comes standard with an IP55 weather protection rating.

“This is our most significant loudspeaker introduction in more than a decade,” said Meyer when announcing the product. “PANTHER advances my commitment to making loudspeakers with linear response, predictable coverage, and extended headroom for dynamic, uncompressed music reproduction — transient peaks in particular. Essentially, PANTHER produces nearly the same power and headroom as LEO in the footprint of LYON. I’m proud of how our engineers achieved ambitious performance benchmarks while reducing weight and increasing energy efficiency.”

“THIS IS OUR MOST SIGNIFICANT LOUDSPEAKER INTRODUCTION IN MORE THAN A DECADE.”

The electronics module in PANTHER is a new, lightweight design featuring a four-channel Class D amplifier coupled to an ‘innovative power supply’. The new amplifier package delivers higher peak current to the loudspeakers while presenting a stable load to the AC line. It also features new, longer-excursion 12-inch low-frequency cone drivers and new three-inch compression drivers. These incorporate advanced magnet structures using new materials for higher flux density despite substantial weight reduction.

Combined with a new LF port design, PANTHER has a maximum peak output of over 150 dB SPL. The reduced weight means that more PANTHER loudspeakers can be flown on a single motor, and larger arrays can share the same truss and hang points with extensive video and lighting gear. Furthermore, larger and longer arrays can be flown outdoors while complying with new safety regulations related to wind events.

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Animal Instincts

The PANTHER range is comprised of three cabinets with different horizontal coverage patterns. PANTHER-M and PANTHER-W are 95 and 110 degrees, respectively, and will be familiar to existing Meyer Sound owners. Meanwhile, PANTHER-L features an all-new long throw horn with a tightly defined 80-degree horizontal pattern. Three options allow system designers to precisely tailor coverage in any size venue with uniform response and enable deployment of fewer arrays or shorter arrays in certain applications, such as in-the-round configurations.

According to Davies (pictured), the concepts that underpin PANTHER have been in the pipeline for many years.

HEADLINER USA

“It’s always difficult to pin down a specific date for any product because we’re constantly looking at a development cycle, and that goes through everything we do,” he says.

“You could argue that there are aspects of PANTHER that have been in development for two decades. Things like the acoustics layout of PANTHER and the internal style of the box has grown through the whole LEO family, so the layout of the high frequency drivers and the horn is something we’ve carried through the family and are constantly refining.

“But PANTHER specifically came out of a lot of conversations we were having pre-Covid about what systems needed to look like in the future, what people needed and where the pain points were for big PA

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owners. We spoke to a lot of people to understand where everybody was at. Covid changed a lot of things, but interestingly it didn’t change a lot of the needs of the industry. The pain points were largely the same. But things opened up things like Zoom and Teams as there was more communication and that helped us from an R&D perspective. We had time to sit down and talk, rather than having a quick chat next to a speaker before a gig.”

These conversations, Davies elaborates, could be boiled down to three main areas: size, weight and power.

“Time and time again, you’ve got the audio side of any event desperate to deliver the most fantastic audio experience, but that needs to live happily alongside the visual element.

The best shows are the ones where they all work together, so trying to help the balance between visuals and audio was a big thing. And that couples across into weight. But we were always underlining that the product has to sound amazing – there could be no compromise on audio quality.”

Once the blueprint was set for what Meyer Sound was aiming to achieve with PANTHER, Davies explains that the next step was putting the company’s engineering team through its paces to find out what was achievable.

“We have an incredible engineering team and when it comes to these kinds of challenges, we put everything in the box so we have a complete system.

That gives us a lot of complexity to deal with, but it makes things a lot simpler for our end users. We go to a whole team of people and say our customer wants something that’s this powerful and this small and no heavier than this – where are we at? Is this achievable?

And that was the throw down. There is a team, and every aspect of that team has really got to push. Can we do this?

And the answer was yes. That’s where the development arc kicked off.

“Weight was the single biggest target and we really have a passion for making self-powered systems easier and easier to deploy. Getting that weight down to a point where even in the largest systems we were coming out as lighter than unpowered competitors was a big challenge.

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Everything in our systems is bespoke to that system, and that’s what made this possible.”

As for the possibilities that PANTHER opens up for the company, Davies believes that there are major opportunities not just for the company itself, but for the wider pro audio industry.

“We’re already a well-known brand and we have a lot of friends in the industry,” he concludes. “I think PANTHER will open up more people to come and talk to us, perhaps people with allegiances to other manufacturers. The performance package we are proposing with PANTHER is going to make people take notice. Of course, I hope it will attract new partners, but at the same time I hope it challenges the industry to think about where it is going, what sort of equipment we should be coming up with and how the industry should be moving forward.”

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Paragon ST

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REVIEW

SPOTLIGHT

NUGEN has been creating some very interesting products over the last few years and Paragon – a true convolution reverb using the actual impulse responses from real spaces – is definitely their most ambitious to date…

The idea of convolution reverbs is nothing new, and there are several available, however where Paragon differs from others is in the way it resynthesizes the impulse response (IR) and generates a new IR based on the parameters set by the user. In effect what you have is an algorithmic style of control and manipulation of

actual 3D spaces in real-time with no time stretching. In fact, Paragon has created quite a buzz in the world of film and post production because of its amazing sound, usability and its support for multi-channel formats up to 7.1.12, as well as Dolby Atmos and other immersive technologies.

This resynthesis technology was developed by Dr. Jez Wells at the University of York, England and is based around a modeller and an interactor. The complex modelling which is at the heart of Paragon was done in-house by a team of NUGEN engineers and forms the basis of the preset library. The reverb models are not the IRs but a blueprint for construction, and generate key components of the IR as they are selected. The interactor allows smaller sections of the IR to be regenerated depending on the parameters set

by the user in real-time and with no artifacts.

Late last year, NUGEN released an update to Paragon which reflected suggestions and ideas from users and the design team alike. One of which resulted in the release of a version called Paragon ST, which as the name implies is a stereo rather than a surround sound plugin aimed squarely at music production. My initial look and click through told me this is no ordinary reverb, and while the reverbs themselves are absolutely lush and bold, it is the unbelievable level of control and manipulation of the reverbs in real-time that make this such a unique and interesting product.

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Paragon ST

“If you’re relatively new to producing your own music and are struggling with the paradox that is reverb, then Paragon is a game changer.”

Placing in the Space One of the immediate things that sprung to mind as I was familiarizing myself with this comprehensive reverb, is if I had two or three instances of the same space but set the microphone at a varying distance from the source, I could in effect place my instruments on a three-dimensional sound stage.

Modern music, with the ability to place a different reverb plugin on every channel, doesn’t always sound like it’s played by a group of musicians, rather a collection of sounds and hooks designed to grab your attention. But what grabbed my attention first and foremost was the quality of the small spaces. I’ve often struggled to find authentic small space reverbs that give you the front row experience, or the inthe-studio-with-the-band illusion. This reminds me of the ‘80s when major studios might have had two or three top quality reverbs at most. I think what I’m trying to say is, you can’t replace quality with quantity!

Back to the small spaces, because this is where convolution reverbs – and particularly Paragon – win out over plate, springs, digital synthesis and other emulations. With all of the HEADLINER USA

aforementioned, there’s the perception that you’re adding an effect to a sound and thereby changing the original sound in some way. With a convolution reverb the original sound is still present, only now you’re hearing it in a given space or environment. I’ll use an example: my wife and daughters all have a habit of singing while they’re in the bathroom. It’s a small bathroom with very reflective close tiled walls and a lot of standing waves, depending on which way you turn your head, but it really gives them angelic voices. Try as I might, I’ve never come anywhere close to recreating that tight, tiled room sound and I’ve often thought I should place a speaker somewhere in the bathroom along with a number of mics to create my own reverb. Well now I don’t have to; Paragon has a couple of very good tiled room IRs ready for use, both of which can be altered to taste!

The preset library features some truly diverse spaces, from a van interior to a forest, passing through a church, club, halls, chambers and a cave on the way.

Of course, you’re thinking the focus of these is cinematic, and of course the full surround sound version was clearly conceived with film and TV sound design in mind, but there are a whole

host of other music-related drum, studio and vocal specific presets which are superb. Having said that, I found many of the cinematic presets just as usable and utterly believable in music creation. NUGEN actually bills Paragon as the first 3D convolution reverb with outdoor environments. Just like being there.

If you’re relatively new to producing your own music and are struggling with the paradox that is reverb, then Paragon is a game-changer. I assumed that from the quality of the sound and the unbelievable level of parameter editing available, this was going to be a pricey addition to my collection of plugins. How wrong I was.

While the full surround sound version is available for approximately £500, you can actually pick up Paragon ST for a little over £200 – not at all expensive when compared to the competition, and even more impressive for such an innovative product.

SPOTLIGHT

Space Editing With NUGEN interfaces, you almost instinctively know what a control is going to afford you before you even move it; they’re so logical. I was immediately drawn to the center section of Paragon where we see a Stereo Width control, a Mic Distance control, and a Modulation control.

It’s the combination of one or more of these three controls that allow you to actually place the source in a different position within the space – something which really helps to bring a performance by a collective group of musicians to life, and something I believe sets this reverb apart from the competition.

To the left is a combined High and Low Pass slider for narrowing the frequency range of the reverb. Below that is a slider to adjust the Pre-Delay length and to its left a very handy Tempo button which syncs your Pre-Delay to your track tempo with a range of 1/4 to 1/32 of a beat. Next to this is a Decay

slider for tail length adjustment. On the right of the interface is a Crosstalk slider which is very useful for combining the left and right signal feeds of, say, a wide-panned string quartet, giving a better unified same space sound. Also on the right are the size and brightness sliders; altering the size or length of a convolution reverb is normally a step too far, as it involves time stretching.

With Paragon ST – the space simply gets bigger, in real-time, with no artifacts.

The all important center section starts with a Stereo Width slider that I have to say reminds me very much of the Stereoizer Elements plugin I reviewed back in May of last year – simple, effective, and perfectly phase coherent.

It’s perceived as a widening of the source signal which in turn opens out the space in the reverb as well, especially with a low crosstalk feed. The Mic Distance control is also extremely good and it allows you to move your perception of where the source mic (original signal) is in relation to the

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listener. Another brave addition is the Modulation control, which can be blended in by percentage but also gives a basic control of the frequency and rate, as well as the handy Tempo button for syncing modulation rate.

I was able to recreate a very good, slightly out of tune saloon bar-style upright out of a stock piano using Paragon.

The Modifier window, meanwhile gives you yet another level of editing, and a handy set of test recordings so you can check how your tweaks affect the overall reverb. Especially useful is the ability to saturate a particular frequency; you could take a standard Hall IR and with a little knowledge create the presence of the Barbican or the low-mids of the Royal Festival Hall. As well as altering the amplitude of particular frequencies, you can also adjust the decay rates in a particular frequency range, increasing or decreasing them.

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Paragon ST

Conclusion This is an intelligently laid out convolution reverb which has taken an algorithmic style of control and created an unbelievable level of manipulation while maintaining consistent musicality.

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No more spending hours trying to programme the perfect reverb on an algorithmic reverb. No more weird artifacts when you try to edit a convolution reverb. I didn’t need the full 15 days free trial to decide if this one was a keeper – more like 15 minutes!

Paragon ST is available in all the usual formats for all major DAWs and for both Mac and Windows. Head over to NUGEN’s website and try it out for yourself.

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LANCE POWELL ON USING ANUBIS MISSIONS “I’m constantly moving between my personal mix room and various studios and spaces, which means the need to have absolutely pristine quality on-hand all the time is really important. With the Merging Technologies Anubis I have a pair of really powerful mic preamps, brilliant A/D and D/A converters and a perfect monitor controller all in one box. I finally have a centerpiece that I trust completely for both recording and mixing.”

Lance Powell- Engineer / Mixer Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Miguel, Snoop Dogg, Jess Glynne, Blxst.

merging.com/anubis Independent Audio, Portland, Maine.

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W www.independentaudio.com

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A Mic For All Seasons

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SPOTLIGHT

A MIC FOR ALL SEASONS

LAUTEN AUDIO EDEN We put Lauten Audio’s flagship Eden tube mic to the test during a vocal session with frontman of UK rock band, Fuzz Skyler, to see how effectively its three dedicated circuits and filters can alter the sonics of a quality vocal performance.

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A Mic For All Seasons

“USING THE NEUTRAL SETTING WITH A HARD CUT, THERE IS A SHARPNESS IN THE ATTACK WITH PUNCHY, FOCUSED MIDS; THE VOCAL SITS IN THE MIX WAY BETTER AS A RESULT...”

There are many ways to record vocals, and a long list of quality mics that will get the job done: from the good to the very good, to the outstanding.

As a recording engineer, I have my go-to mic(s) and chain; and from a production standpoint, I have a reliable starting point when heading into the box that will usually complement that chain. Yet sometimes catching that extra air at source or punch in the midrange will vary depending on the vocalist that’s performing, and more work will be needed in the box than I might have originally envisioned.

Another time consuming process, of course, can be finding the right mic for the right singer, and a bit of chopping and changing can be required before HEADLINER USA

tracking. It can be a hindrance, particularly when working to deadlines and in small spaces. Some mics, for example, require external power and need warming up, and without the luxury of a sizeable vocal booth or spacious live room, they’ll often need setting up from scratch, which in my case means heading pretty deep down into a flight case which holds my mic collection while simultaneously propping up 6U of outboard, two drum machines, and a Vox guitar head. In a word, tricky.

A third potential issue is noise. My mix room is tuned and my monitoring setup is fully calibrated, so it sounds great and true – but it’s also small and vocal booth-less, so it can be

challenging at times achieving the right gain structure, particularly when trying to get the vocalist maximum headroom and headphone output, and keeping the background noise low enough. Not helped, of course, by the proximity of vocalist to my 2017 Mac Book: when the fan kicks in, I know I’m in for a rollercoaster of a session. Bring on my Mac M1 Max, which arrives in February!

This was even true when I was fortunate enough to babysit a beautiful Neumann U67 in November 2020; it’s a truly brilliant-sounding microphone, and it got me some great results, but even that was not necessarily as manageable in my recording environment as I would have hoped.

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you can choose from one of three separate analog circuits: F (Forward), N (Neutral), and G (Gentle).

I set Fuzz up at the mic - a great rock singer – to lay vocals on a new track I’ve been producing for his band, and ask him to run through the track a couple of times.

The vocal chain is as follows: Eden into a Focusrite ISA 828 pre, into a Black Lion Audio Bluey, into a Merging Anubis audio interface. As I start turning the dials on the pre and then the Bluey, it is somehow night and day to the experience I had with the U67. To the extent where I think, ‘have I got this mic turned on?’ That’s how quiet it is.

I then find I am able to generate fantastic headroom in Fuzz’s headphone mix, and the tone of the mic (in the G position initially) is just fantastic: warm and rich, with some genuine character. Way less ‘predictable’ sounding than many of the other top grade mics I’ve enjoyed working with.

We do a take in G position, and play it back – soloing it at regular intervals, I am still trying to establish how it’s so isolated despite my usual little room quirks still happening.

Perhaps this will change when I move to the more aggressive of the settings?

The timing, then, was perfect when I was able to get my hands on a Lauten Audio Eden during December, just days after I reluctantly returned the U67. I’d heard a lot about these Lauten mics, knew they were handbuilt in California, and were built like tanks. I also knew that the brand recommended – and understandably so after setting one up – that you don’t skimp on your choice of mic stand when using this beast, as it weighs 8lbs!

When you open the box, Eden immediately has the wow factor: it’s a stunning piece of kit, aesthetically,

and its heavy duty shockmount is as solid as I’ve ever seen on any mic. No corners have been cut here, and it is clear that this is a very serious piece of engineering all round.

I have been told to let Eden warm up before using, as is often the case with a quality tube mic, so I decide to head out for a coffee or three. Two hours later, I am back in the room with artist, and ready to record.

Eden is a tube mic with three switchable polar patterns and two high-pass filters, but its huge USP is a three-way switch on the back, where

But actually, there is hardly any change at all.

I soon discover that each of these circuits has a genuinely unique voicing, and the vast tonal palette I am able to access starts to become apparent. The second thing I can confirm is that even when driving the gain on the pre and the input and then output on the compressor (which is generating a pretty hot headphone mix), I am getting, at a guess, 50-60% less background noise than I normally would – and a stonking vocal sound.

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LAUTEN AUDIO EDEN

A Mic For All Seasons

“I SEE EDEN NOT ONLY AS A NEW CENTERPIECE, BUT ALSO AS A CREATIVE PRODUCTION TOOL.”

Because the track we are working on requires an up front, in your face sound – and despite the ‘G’ take sounding warm and lovely – we decide to track it again, switching to ‘F’. And it works perfectly. It’s brighter, it adds air, and now has that bite I was craving – yet it retains the smoothness that I know I’ll need when I’m processing it in the box later. Also, I haven’t needed to crank the gain as much to get it to where I need it to be – so it’s actually quieter still on this setting. Madness.

Two days later, Fuzz (ever the perfectionist) tells me he wants to redo the vocal as he isn’t happy with his performance. As good as I think it is – and sounds, of course - I bring him back in. The thing is, in the time he’s been gone – just 48 hours – I have continued to experiment with Eden’s high-pass filter system. High-pass is the first port of call in the mic’s signal path. Another excellent vocalist I work with, Grace McGuigan, had come in the day after Fuzz, and I’d realized

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that playing with these low cut settings significantly impacted the character and color of her vocal.

To recap, Eden essentially has three filter positions if you include ‘Off’, which lets in the full frequency spectrum.

Then there is a Soft and Hard setting, each of which basically does what it says on the tin: Soft provides a steep curve at around 40Hz; Hard cuts way higher at around 160 Hz. So in theory, with three voicings, three polar patterns and three filters that’s... a lot of mic options!

After a few takes, I decided that actually moving Fuzz from F (Front) to N (Neutral) with a Hard cut provides the magic sauce: a sharpness in the attack with punchy, focused mids creates a vocal that sits in the mix way better than any of our previous efforts.

He sings it better, too – kudos, Fuzz.

After the session, I experimented further with some acoustic guitar recordings and, as expected, each of

the voicings allowed for a different sound: F is terrific when positioned on the neck of the guitar to get a driving acoustic sound, and playing with the filters here really mixed things up in terms of generating body versus sparkle; and I love the sound of a fingerpicked acoustic on G position with the Hard filter in place.

So the bottom line here is, despite the fact I have a healthy and pretty eclectic mic collection, after spending a few days with Eden, I see it not only as a new studio centerpiece, but also as a creative production tool. It is a breath of fresh air, and a genuinely exciting microphone to work with, with all the qualities you’d expect of a great mic, and an abundance of color up its sleeve – it’s up to you how much you choose to untap it. There is simply nothing not to like about this microphone; it will deliver, no matter who or what you’re capturing.

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Aperture: The Stack

SPOTLIGHT

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APERTURE: THE STACK

SPITFIRE AUDIO Ever wondered what 56 amps and four subs would sound like if you stacked them all together and ran guitars, basses, drum machines and modular synths through them? Spitfire Audio has done all that, and more, in its new beast of a library, Aperture: The Stack. Touring musician and composer, Daniel Pereira, finds out just how powerful and inspiring this quirky VI can be...

Since the pandemic started, it seems to me that more musicians are turning towards instrument sample libraries. When it comes to composing, I have always struggled to filtrate which libraries I really need, although when it comes to Spitfire Audio, they always seem to hit the nail on the head. Aperture: The Stack, Spitfire’s latest offering, was recorded at London’s iconic AIR Studios, and is arguably the manufacturer’s most inspirational yet.

Anyone who knows Spitfire will be aware of their prestigious orchestral sample libraries. However, Aperture: The Stack was a surprise, and is unlike any other thus far. Guitars and basses are at the core, along with many a drum machine and modular synth, all of which have been played through a whopping wall of 56 amplifiers. As a guitarist for the band Fuzz Skyler, and a composer with a fascination in modular synths, it’s essentially all my Christmases come at once.

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Aperture: The Stack

“PRESS A KEY AND THESE SOUNDS WILL START TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU IN A WAY THAT NO OTHER SOUND LIBRARY HAS DONE...”

My first thought when opening the product is how user friendly it is. It is organized in a way that everything you need is on display and therefore easy to find, enabling creativity to quickly flow. As I’m sure any composer will agree, this makes the process of creating way more enjoyable.

Aperture: The Stack has four different elements: Dave (which mainly consists of pad-like sounds); The Synths; The Guitars; and The Machines (drum machines). Each of these has a depth to it worthy of full score creation in itself, though it’s The Synths category that really blows my mind. If you have used modular synths, you will know that those machines are spectacular, and breathe life, and Spitfire has managed to grab that exact same feel and essence across the board. These sounds will start to communicate with you in a way that no other sound library has done the minute you start to explore them.

Being a guitarist, The Guitars element is also a natural draw. Spitfire’s approach is somewhat unique, and sonically these sounds are nothing short of jaw-dropping. It’s important to get across that these are not regular guitar emulations – far from it. They’re guitar sounds that would be extremely difficult to replicate in any conventional studio, and that, I find really special – no doubt heightened

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by the acoustic of the magical room they were recorded in. They all boast immense detail and their own unique character with varying levels of punch and depth, and although the presets are epic, these sounds are so easy to manipulate – dramatically, should you choose to. The Guitars sound great on their own, but they would also work perfectly as an extra color or flair element to a band production.

Versatile is the word, basically.

Furthermore, I was also impressed with The Machines, which for me is the cherry on top, because I get an 808 drum machine with a very welcome twist!

The most challenging part of this process was trying to pick my top three favorite sounds… But here goes: ‘Synth Pulses’ is simply beautiful; ‘The Failed Ascent’ is awe-inspiring – try to imagine a huge ensemble of horns performing a crescendo with a bend up kind of sound and you’re getting close; and ‘15,000 Watts’, which is what it says on the tin: wonderful guitar tone at the core, recorded through a wall of 56 amps, which needs no further explanation, really!

Having made a score composition using only Aperture: The Stack – and in no time at all - I can honestly say that the sounds themselves are truly inspiring, and the ideas started to flow

immediately and beautifully, without much effort. Using the Aperture control with the modulation wheel, you can make the sounds go from tame to wild, making them jump out of your speakers to give you that smack in the face, thump on the chest, or fall off your chair type feeling.

So to summarize, I believe any musician looking to further their sonic palette, or to add color or pizzazz to existing projects, will get a lot out of this library. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it can massively enhance your productions regardless of genre.

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Using amp modellers or IRs? Then check out the revolutionary new Celestion F12-X200. It’s the first and only guitar speaker to combine the Full Range performance your modelling amp requires with the Live Response you need to feel connected to the music. Find out more at celestion.com

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Fusion Transformer

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SPOTLIGHT

On the original device, the Transformer button was just that – a transformer circuit to add in that transformer characteristic. This plugin however has had a bit of a rethink, and SSL has come up with a number of great new controls that let you adjust and shape the flavor of your transformer’s saturation.

To be precise, there are four new controls – three relate to the transformer’s sound and then there’s a mix control to let you blend the dry/wet percentage.

Essentially, there is nothing new to the idea of modelling the sound of transformers, after all they feature in nearly every piece of analog audio equipment ever made. Since the move to digital recording, a whole industry has built up around maintaining that analog flavour. While we hear mention of valves as a source of this analog-ness of sound, the importance of transformers cannot be underestimated or ignored!

Setting Up The System Every sought after piece of vintage audio gear uses transformers. Every famous tube compressor, limiter and EQ owes as much of its sound

character to its transformers as it does its tubes. Transformers come with many different design features in all shapes and sizes and likewise have unique sound characteristics.

This is why Neve, API and SSL consoles have such a unique sound all of their own.

The traditional EI core transformers – the sort you’ll find in the back of your Marshall amp – tend to radiate a noise-inducing magnetic field, which is why they’re mounted on the opposing side of the chassis to the rest of the components and encased in mu-metal cases. Toroidal transformers, which resemble doughnuts or moon buggy wheels, are lighter and produce much less magnetic interference, but are still more often than not housed in mu-metal to shield nearby electronic components. Both types of transformer are regularly found in professional audio equipment.

All components in an analog circuit together make up its sound, but transformers are a large part of what makes up the sonic qualities of any audio device and are even more key when it comes to solid state circuitry.

Transformers are used extensively in audio circuits on everything from DI boxes to loudspeaker crossovers and all points in between, especially those traditional and sought after mic preamps and channel strips where it is common to find input and output transformers.

Transformers are used to isolate one circuit from another while at the same time transferring electrical energy across circuits. An analog console for example will have several transformers along the signal path from mic input to the point where it exits the console to your DAW.

Given that valves started to disappear from consoles in favor of the more neutral sounding and less colored transistor, a move which also resulted in lower power consumption and less heat generation, it then fell upon the transformer as the tonal and saturation source of audio character.

Saturation is generated when an increasing flow of current in the coils produces a magnetic field beyond the point where the core’s flux density can increase. Saturation of the core then results in that very pleasing audio distortion which manifests itself as increased low frequency harmonics. The harder you drive the transformer, the more low frequency harmonics, the warmer the sound. It’s these flavors of sound that will never go away – not while people still have passion and love for their sound and their analog equipment.

REVIEW

Recently I gave an insight into one of my favorite EQ plugins in SSL’s Fusion Violet EQ, a plugin that followed on from the previously released plugin versions of Fusion Vintage Drive, Fusion HF Compressor and Fusion Stereo Image, but with the addition of the FAT button. Transformer is the latest analog circuit from the Fusion hardware device to make the transition to plugin, only this time it seems SSL have gone way beyond providing a plugin version of the Transformer button…

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Fusion Transformer

Mix Bus Magic I’ve heard the argument on so many occasions that a plugin will never sound the same as the actual piece of equipment, but I can honestly tell you that even the same two pieces of analog vintage compressor for example – from the same company, manufactured a week apart – don’t sound absolutely identical.

The SSL Fusion Transformer plugin goes way beyond the simple in/out button of the original Fusion, and in many respects beyond the beautifully clean warm sound of SSL mastering consoles like the Sigma Delta. It gives you a plugin you can drop onto a channel in your DAW and not just hide away on the mix bus for mix bus magic. It has the ability to add dimension to sound that mere EQ cannot. I found it particularly good on vocals where the additional body and depth made rock vocals really sit up in the mix. The new control, Shine, adds a presence equally suited to guitar and vocals which just gives that impression of having taken the sound and added that third dimension. I’d like to say that this is similar to the drive and saturation parameters that you’ll find on other SSL plugins, but with the level of control SSL has afforded you here, it simply isn’t like any of the others. It’s way more flexible and audible.

The same is true for the mix bus; it has some really lovely analog glue that, not unlike compression, adds that special

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filling of sonic goodness and dimensional density which contributes a certain analog-ness to your mix. I could call it a richer sound at the risk of promoting a well known high street AV vendor, but that’s exactly what it is. It adds value to your mix. I wouldn’t be so brave as to speculate on what SSL used to come up with these manipulating algorithms, but what I can tell you is that it sounds good.

As with all of the Fusion range, you get a comprehensive set of user presets as well as the option to store and recall your own. There are all the usual SSL undo/redo A/B options along with an Eco button to reduce latency. On the left and right are input and output meters respectively together with trim controls for gain matching if necessary. In the middle of the display is a handy meter which gives an indication as to how hard you’re driving your transformer. Below this are the three controls for Shine, which changes the flavor of the saturation, Amount, which drives the transformer to produce the saturation, and Mix, which blends wet and dry signals by percentage. To the right below the output trim is a LF EXTND button which adds a little more low end.

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“THIS PLUGIN REALLY DOES GIVE YOU HINTS OF SITTING AT A CLASSIC STUDIO CONSOLE, AND I LOVE IT.”

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Fusion Transformer

CONCLUSION This is another excellent plugin from SSL which, far from copying the flavor of the unit from which it takes its name, extends the range of analog glue available to you in your DAW. This is definitely SSL’s most exciting Fusion plugin yet, and demands your closer inspection.

If you have the I/O capabilities and enough quality AD/DA conversion and spare rack space at your disposal, I would strongly recommend you go and buy the Analog SSL Fusion. The SSL Fusion Transformer plugin however is the odd one out in that its additional

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controls give you a far greater range of Saturation character than the standalone analog unit. In this respect, it’s a plugin you can use either instead of, or as well as.

This plugin really does give you hints of sitting at a classic studio console, and I love it. I’m fully aware that the majority of people, including myself, are working in the box these days and we have limited space in which to add additional pieces of kit, but you no longer have to. Just take a closer look at the range of SSL Fusion plugins. Better still, get a monthly subscription to all

of SSL’s plugins including the Native, Native X and Fusion range and start experimenting.

SSL Fusion Transformer is available for all major DAWs as 64bit AAX/AU/VST/ VST3 for Mac and Windows.

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DRUM RE-SYNTHESIZER

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ED BULLER

HEADLINER USA

Producing Britpop

PRODUCER

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ds by A L or

N O

USTAF EG S C I

PRODUCING BRITPOP

EDBULLER After leaving The Psychedelic Furs, songwriter, producer, engineer and programmer Ed Buller knew he never wanted to be a front man, preferring to sit behind the desk in the studio. He reflects on working with Pulp as the Britpop movement kicked off in the ‘90s, and clears up what really happened with Suede during those fraught recording sessions.

What are your memories of producing Pulp’s breakthrough studio album, His ‘n’ Hers?

From a career perspective, I’ve got to be honest, I think Pulp was a bit of a disaster for me because when I first worked with them nobody knew who they were, and I was trying to get them signed. I remember going around record companies saying, ‘You’ve got to sign this band!’ They had a terrible time – no money, nothing, and eventually they got signed to Island, so I got the call to do the album. We went to Britannia Row, and one of the things that was really obvious to me when I was working with them was that some of their playing wasn’t quite up to

speed for a record. It was still very indie and it wasn’t as tight as it should be. I locked horns a bit with Nick and said, ‘You’ve got to practice, mate’, and then when we did the record, he was just in a different league. It was like a different drummer turned up: he was so good. It was unbelievable how much better he got. They’re fun people; there’s no drama with Pulp; Jarvis is just a hysterical character.

They’re hyper-smart people as well.

I’m very proud of that record.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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ED BULLER

Producing Britpop

“DORICO 4 IS ANOTHER HUGE LEAP FORWARD. IT’S SUCH A POWERFUL PIECE OF SOFTWARE – THERE’S NOTHING LIKE IT.”

It’s no secret that there was a lot of tension during the recording sessions for Suede’s second album, with arguments about production and between the band members leading to sessions being recorded in shifts and ultimately, Bernard Butler leaving the band. How did that affect the production?

Well, I thought I was doing a really good job until I got fired [laughs]. To set the story straight in the sense of a timeline, this had been brewing for a long time. It’s not like we all rocked up to Dog Man Star and things went south. It had gone south long before.

Bernard is a very, very different person to Brett, and they were in a pressure cooker environment together, posing on magazine covers together and being asked about each other all the time, and it just turned into this kind of thing. Brett was much more comfortable being a frontman than Bernard. Unbeknownst to me behind all of this, I think Bernard was quite critical of some of the sounds I was getting, and I think his ear was being bent by Geoff Travis.

When I finished the album, he said, ‘Look, I don’t like the sounds you get’, but he didn’t say any of that to me. So when I started the record I didn’t even know those sorts of conversations were taking place, but I did know that he’d fallen out with the rest of the band fairly badly by the time we started the record. It was very uncomfortable. We spent all our time trying to keep Bernard in a good mood, and it was absolutely awful.

Then it all exploded over that stupid interview he gave to some magazine HEADLINER USA

where he slagged everybody off, and it just collapsed in the space of two or three weeks. All these awful stories have come out that are completely untrue. One of the classic ones is that they left all his guitars in the street. This is just complete fiction. Of course we didn’t leave his guitars in the street! He rang me up and said, ‘I need to pick up my guitars; I don’t want to come into the studio’. I said, ‘I’ll leave them in reception for you; is that alright?’ So they were leaning up against the front desk inside the building; they weren’t in the fucking street [laughs]. It’s just nonsense.

Things like that just really upset me because it all got very poisonous. It’s a shame because the record is such an incredible record. I mean, it’s not flawless – there are some songs on it that didn’t turn out the way they should – and I made many mistakes on that album. But the bulk of the album is fantastic. It’s a shame that Bernard left, but he left.

Your composing work has seen you work with Hans Zimmer on the soundtracks for Chappie, Little Prince, Boss Baby, Dunkirk, and the recent Lion King reboot. Steinberg recently released the new version of its notation and composition software, Dorico Pro 4. How has that helped your composing work?

Like all software, you’ve got to wait for them to make the software that they really want to make. I got hooked on Dorico last year when I moved over to 3.5 – I was just blown away. Dorico 4 is another huge leap forward. It’s such a powerful piece of software – there’s nothing like it. For

me it’s a dream come true because the front end looks like an orchestral score, and on the back end is a very powerful DAW. It’s a massive leap forward. I mean, it was a big leap in three, but the huge leap in Dorico 4 are the editing capabilities in the MIDI data. It’s now got a dedicated window and it’s very easy to write CC data and draw CC lines. I’ve got three screens, and a brilliant feature lets me click on a note and it opens up a different screen, and on one of the other screens you can see all the MIDI data for that note without interfering with the score data. That’s really, really clever because you can manipulate it so that the MIDI is a separate thing. So if you want a note slightly early or late because your sample library isn’t quite on the beat with that particular note, you can nudge it in the MIDI page without changing anything on the score editing page, which is absolutely fantastic. I think it will become THE program in a few years. I think more and more film composers will be using this because so many of them read and write music. People that are used to looking at scores, I think they’ll fall in love with it.

EDBULLER.COM STEINBERG.NET

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MAOR LEVI

A Cosmic Trance

ds by A D or

HEADLINER USA

PROTZ

MAOR LEVI

AM

A COSMIC TRANCE

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ARTIST

Musician, producer and DJ, Maor Levi is a young man hugely increasing the dance music stock of his home country of Israel, even though his big, melodic trance style goes over much better with his American and European fan bases than back home. Headliner chats with Levi about his refusal to stop releasing bangers over the last year, the state of trance in 2021 going into 2022, and how fellow Israelis, Waves Audio’s plugins have been a key part of his music and career for a very long time.

“I never had a plan to be a musician,” Levi says as Headliner asks about his first forays into music. “What I wanted to do was animation — to draw comics and cartoons. Then, when I was around the age of 12, one of my friends introduced me to DJ Tiësto, and I was really hooked on that music.

Trance music is seen as being for adults, and we weren’t really allowed to hear it. It’s electronic, it’s for nightlife and parties, but I was listening to it and I fell in love. I got very curious about the process behind making the music.”

Listen to Levi’s music and you’d probably struggle to immediately picture a 12-year-old wannabe cartoonist. His take on the trance genre hits all its high points with euphoric electronic melodies and patient build-ups, interspersed with pummeling kick drums and basslines that easily fit the mould of dance music people would ascribe the term ‘banger’ to. He found himself signed with Anjunabeats at 15, the heavyweight trance and dance record label. And in a relatively tiny space of time, he has already worked with the likes of Steve Aoki, Skrillex and David Guetta.

As Levi and Headliner discuss the dilemma of releasing epic dance music in a time where people are

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“FOR ME AS A DANCE MUSIC PRODUCER, I’M STILL GOING TO MAKE DANCE MUSIC REGARDLESS [OF WHETHER OR NOT CLUBS ARE OPEN]. I DO IT FOR MY SOUL.”

stuck at home and clubs are shut, he explains why he nonetheless released his stunning EP, Am I Dreaming?

With such cosmic tracks as Creator, Constellations and its title track.

“Most of the tracks are bangers,” Levi says. “But also, one or two tracks are more on the progressive and chill vibe.

For me as a dance music producer, I’m still going to make dance music regardless [of whether or not clubs are open]. I do it for my soul. Especially during the pandemic — I was going crazy. I figured, if I’m not going to make the music that I like, I’m gonna lose my mind as well. So I figured I’m just gonna do my thing.”

As we discuss how Levi’s love of Waves plugins began as a teenager, he explains that “as I became more professional in the music industry as a 16-year-old, I discovered Waves, but back then I had the pirated version.

They’ll forgive me because back then I didn’t have any money to do anything!

But Waves was one of the first bundles I installed on my computer; I could tell right away how pro they looked and sounded.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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MAOR LEVI

A Cosmic Trance

“I think a lot of companies offer the same kind of plugins, but Waves has its own signature. I love using their H-Delay — it’s probably my most used plugin when it comes to vocals and synths. H-Reverb is also very useful. Waves just released the new SSL EV2 Channel and that has been used a lot in my recent projects. It has saved a lot of headaches for me. I’m using all their Multiband Compressors: The C4 and the C6. I also love their MetaFlanger, and a lot of the Abbey Road stuff as well.”

HEADLINER USA

And as synths and drums are such a key part of Levi’s sound, he explains how using Waves plugins gets them sounding at their absolute best.

“I like to use all the Maserati plugins from Waves,” he says. “It’s a really nice way to color the sound of the synths and drums. And then I’ll add some EQ with the SSL Channel or the SSL EV. I think the Maserati stuff in combination with the C6 compressor for taming harsh frequencies is a very, very good combo. I love the Maserati GTI on basslines as well.”

Hear such stunning work and production on Am I Dreaming?, out now. And don’t forget, when Maor Levi fulfils his wish to be back fully touring, do not miss one of his blistering live sets.

MAORLEVI.COM WAVES.COM

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130 BOOM DICE

HEADLINER USA

A Dynamite Dynasty

131

AM PROT AD

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ords by W

PRODUCER

A Dynamite Dynasty

BOOMDICE A true journeyman of the music industry, Bryan Wilson, aka Boom Dice, has done it all. Winning a Brit Award for his production work on Stormzy’s Gang Signs and Prayer is only skimming the surface. He releases dance music and always features the most exciting young talent, and runs Boom Dice Presents, a label which puts on events and is an opportunity for him to mentor young musicians. We talk to Bryan about his latest single Extroverts, his incredible career so far, and why he’s so keen to give a helping hand up to younger artists.

Originally hailing from Toronto, Wilson moved to the UK several moons ago to see his production career take off. And what a glistening career it has been: he has already worked with Sofi Tukker, Stormzy, Wolf Alice, Disclosure, John Newman, Lianne La Havas and Emeli Sande, and this

of course is only naming a handful.

Headliner asks about that work with Stormzy in particular that won him his Brit Award statuette.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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BOOM DICE

A Dynamite Dynasty

“AS A PIECE OF ADVICE, TO BE A GOOD ENGINEER, I THINK YOU NEED TO BE FLEXIBLE, AND YOU ALSO NEED TO GO WITH THE FLOW.”

“I was there in the early days of Gang Signs and Prayer,” he says, Canadian accent still intact despite his long residence in London. “I was there around a month or so, helping formulate ideas with the live musicians who would come in — I was more involved on the ‘jam’ tracks like Blinded

By Your Grace Pt.2. It was incredible to see how that song evolved over time.

Fraser (T. Smith) and Stormzy had just flown to New York, then one morning when I got to the studio, they had recorded all the choir parts for that and sent it back to me in London. So it was very much about putting the focus on making their vision into reality.

“I didn’t always know who was coming in next — one of the days I got to the studio and was having some coffee, and then Lily Allen walks in. So next thing you know I’m working on one of the tracks on the album with her. You’ve

got to just be nimble with what you’re doing. Generally, as a piece of advice, to be a good engineer, I think you need to be flexible, and you also need to go with the flow.”

And yet Wilson still finds time to release music as an artist-producer, a brilliant case-in-point being his latest single Extroverts featuring Florida-born, Serbia-based singer-songwriter MadLeo. An extravagant slice of darkpop, MadLeo jumped on this Boom Dice track to deliver a narrative song about her experiences with social anxiety.

“She wrote it from her perspective of feeling like an introvert surrounded by extroverts,” Wilson says. “Which I think is quite a common problem. And it was fitting, because this was her first time collaborating with anyone outside of her solo material. So a new thing

outside of her comfort zone to try to figure out. I thought she tapped into the mood really well.”

In terms of Wilson’s studio, a name that has recently become a key part of his work is Hedd Audio, who he entrusts with his studio monitors. He got himself a pair of their speakers in “2019 I’d say.

And that was huge. I was lucky enough at the start of my career to be working in some of the best commercial studios with all of this classic gear. But it became impractical for me to pay five or 600 pounds a day just to try vocals out with somebody. And so I set up in my bedroom at home and I developed the home studio and the Hedd Type 20 Monitors were such a savior for that.

The weight that they have is fantastic.

I don’t have a huge amount of room but with these it’s not an issue. They sound clear and crispy; they give you the weighty bass when you need it.

Once I find something like this in terms of equipment, I tend to be very loyal.

So I would certainly continue to use these for the foreseeable future. I have been out there recommending them to everybody.”

Whether you’re feeling extroverted or introverted today, go and double click on Extroverts now for Boom Dice’s irresistible bassline and MadLeo’s sultry vocals, and follow his other work, particularly his admirable efforts to elevate his fellow artists.

BRYANWILSONMUSIC.COM

HEADLINER USA

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