Spotlight Journal Issue 3 by Headliner Magazine

ISSUE 03 / AUGUST 2021 HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET UK £3.95 / USA $6.95 / CANADA $7.95

issue 03

EXISTENTIAL WAYS

MOBY PRODUCER PROWESS

L-ISA STUDIO

HOTONE SOUL PRESS II

IZOTOPE MUSIC PRODUCTION SUITE PRO

IMMERSIVE MIXING LIKE NEVER BEFORE

NEW WAH PEDAL WITH EXPRESSION

“Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.” — Mick Jagger

©2020 QSC, LLC. All rights reserved. QSC and the QSC logo are registered trademarks of QSC, LLC in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other countries. Play Out Loud is a trademark of QSC, LLC. Artist: Printz Board. Photo by Mikel Darling.

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03 As the old saying goes, third time’s a charm, so Headliner decided to pull out all the stops for this latest edition of Spotlight Journal – and has put none other than one of music’s most recognisable and influential figures on the cover. Moby has had quite the year so far, releasing both his spectacular new orchestral greatest hits album, Reprise, and his original music documentary, Moby Doc, at the end of May. The film, however, is far from a simple celebration of a legendary musical career.

Chronicling both his traumatic childhood and incredible success as a musician, Moby Doc provides a candid insight into Moby’s rapid rise to fame, which brought with it increasing addiction issues and heavy depression. Headliner learns that it was that very fame that left him feeling empty in the first place, and questioning whether success, materialism and being respected by our peers does in fact provide endless validation. Yet it’s not all doom and gloom; one of the film’s most positive moments sees Moby urging people to recognise causes bigger than themselves, and to support them as much as possible. This noble sentiment and his position as one of the world’s most passionate animal rights activists, it would seem, is Moby’s key to happiness, if only

further fuelling his desire to uncover humanity’s true purpose in this infinite universe. Reprise on the other hand, if you’ve not got around to listening to it yet, is a brilliantly star-studded record, both in terms of the greatest hits in question and the guest features that compliment them. To this end, Moby ponders the way in which his cinematic single Extreme Ways became the iconic theme song for the Bourne films, and took on a huge life of its own. Truth be told, there’s very little that Moby hasn’t accomplished, and you can read all about his remarkable achievements – along with why we should be questioning every aspect of our lives(!) – on page 20. I think you’ll find there’s some valuable lessons to be learnt...

Colby Ramsey Group Editor, Headliner

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

ISSUE 3

Spotlight Journal

REVEAL 10-12

URBANISTA

Los Angeles

14-16

GENELEC

GLM 4.1

IN THE MIX 20-26

MOBY

Cover Story | Existential Ways

28-32

L-ACOUSTICS

L-ISA Studio

ISSUE SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

CONTENTS

REVIEWS 36-40

IZOTOPE

Music Production Suite Pro Pt.3

42-44

HOTONE AUDIO

Soul Press II

46-49

APPLE

Mac Mini M1

50-54

MERGING TECHNOLOGIES

HAPI & Anubis

56-59

UDO AUDIO

Super 6

60-62

NUGEN AUDIO

Stereoizer Elements

64-67

MOD DEVICES

Dwarf

68-70

SENSEL

Morph

UE 03 HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

REVEAL

Los Angeles

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URBANISTA Billed as the world’s first ever self-charging solar-powered headphones, the new Los Angeles range from Swedish lifestyle audio brand Urbanista promises to be something of a game changer for the industry.

headphones aim to provide users with unlimited play time due to their solar-powered charging technology, which continuously charges the headphones whenever they are exposed to light both indoors and outdoors.

Designed to “revolutionise your listening experience”, the Urbanista Los Angeles noise-cancelling wireless

An accompanying mobile app for iOS and Android is also set to launch imminently, providing user

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

GUMB el L Ni

LOS ANGELES

URBANISTA

information on how to maximise the product’s play time, as well as visual indicators for solar charge levels and usage. Furthermore, the app will enable users to customise the headphones’ controls. It will later become available for other products in the Urbanista range. Anders Andreen, Urbanista CEO, commented: “We’re really excited

REVEAL

to announce the pre-order of Urbanista Los Angeles. The response to the launch earlier this spring has been nothing short of amazing, it’s obvious that this kind of headphone technology is a welcome shift in the industry. It has also been an important step forward for us to launch our Urbanista mobile companion app. “The app will be available when the product ships and will really enhance the innovative features of Los Angeles, making the interaction with the self-charging element effortless and engaging,” he continued. “We also have some impressive features in development, which we will look to launch in the near future.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

URBANISTA

Los Angeles

The Urbanista Los Angeles range is currently available for pre-order, with a precise on sale date yet to be confirmed at time of publishing. At present, two colour options will be available – Midnight Black and the brand new Sand Gold finish. Key features of the range include up to 80 hours of battery reserve, hybrid active noise cancelling, on-ear detection, USB Type-C charging, Bluetooth 5.0, Siri and Google assistant and compatibility with iOS, Android and Windows.

HIGHLIGHTS + Powered by Powerfoyle solar cell material + Active Noise Cancelling + Ambient Sound Mode URBANISTA.COM

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

Since launching in Stockholm, Sweden in 2010, Urbanista has introduced a wide range of headphones named after cities across the globe, including lines such as Madrid, Berlin, Stockholm, London, Paris, New York, Miami and Athens. The brand also produces a range of Bluetooth speakers.

Unleash your creativity Introducing GLM 4.1 loudspeaker manager software For 15 years, GLM software has worked with our Smart Active Monitors to minimise the unwanted acoustic influences of your room and help your mixes sound great, everywhere. Now, GLM 4.1 includes the next generation AutoCal 2 calibration algorithm and a host of new features – delivering a much faster calibration time and an even more precise frequency response. So, wherever you choose to work, GLM 4.1 will unleash your creativity, and help you produce mixes that translate consistently to other rooms and playback systems. And with GLM 4.1, both your monitoring system and your listening skills have room to develop and grow naturally too. Find out more at www.genelec.com/glm

GENELEC

GLM 4.1

REVEAL

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

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GENELEC

GUMB EL L NI

GLM 4.1

REVEAL

Genelec recently marked the 15th anniversary of its GLM loudspeaker management software with the launch of GLM 4.1, a significant upgrade that is compatible with all Genelec Smart Active Monitors and subwoofers.

The new update brings a raft of major new features and sees the introduction of the next generation AutoCal 2 automatic room calibration algorithm, which has been designed to deliver a more precise frequency response in a fraction of the time than was previously possible. Based on data from thousands of real-world room calibrations, GLM 4.1 is built to offer the user control over a room’s detrimental acoustic aspects, enabling them to produce mixes that translate even more consistently to other rooms and playback systems. The GLM reference microphone kit allows room acoustics to be analysed, from which point each monitor and

subwoofer can be automatically calibrated for relative level and relative distance delay, as well as subwoofer crossover phase and frequency response. GLM 4.1’s new AutoCal 2 feature produces a faster and more accurate discrimination between direct and reflected sound and is complemented by a new 64 bit architecture and efficient code, rendering it a suitable tool for mobile engineers and content creators who regularly work on the go.

down to 100Hz and time aligns all the monitors in a room, across types. Other key features include a higher number of EQ filters, weighting refinements and a Solo-X mode for faster soloing of monitors when working with immersive content. To find out more about the new GLM 4.1 upgrade, Headliner caught up with Genelec US marketing director, Will Eggleston, for an exclusive chat…

Meanwhile, for users of the 8331A, 8341A, 8351B and 8361A models from Genelec’s ‘The Ones’ series, GLM 4.1 is able to extend phase linearity HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

GENELEC

GLM 4.1

Tell us about the origins of the new GLM update. What were you looking to add when developing the technology? GLM 4.0 was originally focused on 64-bit Catalina Mac OS compliance. At the same time, our programming tool needed updating to 64-bit compatibility, which forced a redesign of the UI and brought new monitor control attributes to the Main GLM screen. Versions two and three had been out for almost 10 years, so it was a good opportunity to have a complete makeover.

better subjective LF to HF results as well. In addition, our DSP team had been researching and developing more linear phase filtering in ‘The Ones’ three-way coaxial products, similar to the extended linearity found in the 8300 and S360 two-way monitors. Extended phase linearity results in a more stable sound stage, and from the user’s perspective it also allows better coherency when multiple models are used in a multi-channel system.

Also, within this development period we had been looking at a substantial number of calibrations that were sent via our cloud services. From this data we’d been able to discern quite a bit of information regarding room types, reverberation, early reflections and of course direct sound. This led to the development of GLM 4.1 and the inclusion of the AutoCal 2 room calibration algorithm within it.

When selecting AutoCal 2, the user has the option to employ Extended Phase Linearity in the Group definition and Calibration process to the 8331A, 8341A, 8351B, and 8361A models in The Ones series.

What are the benefits of AutoCal 2?

The last year hasn’t given much opportunity for location use, but some engineering tasks are being done in more challenging locations that our customers call their ‘temporary studios’. It’s affected the sales of our Smart Active Monitors in a very positive way. So yes, there has been an increase in demand.

First off, speed of calibration. In stereo, the time difference might not seem consequential, but in immersive with 7.1.4 or 9.1.6, it’s tremendously quicker. Secondly, the algorithm has shifted its ability to better distinguish between direct and reflected sound. This results in a better objective calibration and target setting along with what we believe, after significant testing, to be SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

Are you seeing an increase in demand for this kind of technology from recording engineers who are predominantly out on location rather than in a studio?

Fifteen years on from the launch of GLM, how much of a game changer has it been? For one, our early adopters are still with us. I can’t think of anyone I’ve talked to over the years who said it was a bad idea or investment. Our users cover all recording disciplines; bedroom, basement, penthouse, post production, editorial, mixing. Proper playback monitoring is essential to everyone. GLM levels the playing field - pun intended! Could you have foreseen the impact it has had on the monitoring world? In the early days before it was released, it was incredibly difficult to not get excited. I saw the writing on the wall and our first beta users had quite positive impressions. When it was released, we took some lumps for not being Mac compliant, but the development course was well defined and being bug free was an absolute stake in the ground. Not to be long-winded, each year we sell more products and over the years the product model offering has expanded to cover more and more applications. The supporting GLM software continues to develop, and from that the impact just evolves organically. GENELEC.COM

IN THE MIX

MOBY Existential Ways

MOBY SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

Photographer: Travis Schneider

COVER STORY

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EXISTENTIAL WAYS There is very little Moby has left to put on a bucket list — he’s won the awards, played to audiences as far as the eye can see, collaborated with his hero and idol David Bowie, and lived the rockstar lifestyle as much as one can without a fatal ending. Not to mention he is widely regarded as one of the most important and pivotal figures in dance and electronic music since music ceased to be purely acoustic. And yet, Moby has been very keen to let as many people as he can know that all that fame and success left him feeling empty (he goes as far as to say he’d pack it all in to spend more time on his animal rights activism), as seen in his brilliant new film, Moby Doc, and in this retrospective time where he releases his orchestral greatest hits album, Reprise.

Moby Doc, which was released in May 2021, is about as original, creative, funny yet sardonic a music documentary you could hope to see. It’s unconventional because it seeks to tell the fascinating story of Richard Hall and his road to becoming Moby and the eventual all-engulfing success. But there’s no hint of self-congratulation or pats on the back: his traumatic childhood is wryly shown via quirky animations, and he narrates how his spiralling success and fame went hand in hand with increasing addiction issues and heavy depression.

which he describes as one of the happiest times of his life. Yet, when his breakthrough single Go sees him performing and appearing around the world, the fame lifestyle did damagingly seduce him. As the film gets more existential and we see Moby stood atop a mountain (to show what tiny lifeforms we really are), lauded filmmaker David Lynch fittingly turns up to discuss what life really means.

We see him living in an abandoned factory with no bathroom or running water, but just enough electricity to make music on his basic equipment, HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MOBY Existential Ways

Headliner kicks off our conversation by remarking that May 28 of this year must have been a pretty special date for Moby, as it saw both the release of Moby Doc, and his latest album, Reprise. “I did go out to dinner with a few friends who had also worked on the movie,” he says. “You would think, rationally, that releasing a big orchestral album and releasing a movie would be a day of joyful celebration. Of course, I was happy to be releasing both things. But I just kept working on new things. It’s almost a compulsion. I feel like I should be dealing with that in SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

therapy, the compulsion to work seven days a week. Friends have called me a workahoIic, but I think that I have more enthusiasm for work than for anything else.”

still one of the most beautiful downtempo songs ever released, and likely to have been heard by virtually every set of ears on the planet at this point.

If you watch the film, you’ll undoubtedly agree that Moby being a bit of a workaholic these days is definitely a bestcase scenario. After Go sees him become the biggest name in electronic music, Moby Doc charts his failed punk rock album Animal Rights, leading to the dizzying heights of his landmark record Play in 1999. Its success was largely down to the song Porcelain, surely

With that being said, this period was the absolute height of Moby being completely and utterly lost in the bubble of fame and partying every single night, in which he would very rarely go to bed before 7am. Hence why the film makes sure to cleverly downplay his huge material success by setting it against shots of nature’s overwhelming power and beauty, and the incomprehensible vastness of outer space.

COVER STORY

Collective agreement can provide comfort, but it doesn’t mean that it’s right.” Which leads very nicely into this question about whether success, materialism and being respected by our peers actually provides endless validation and happiness.

“the moment I was confronted with a degree of fame and wealth, I bought into it completely.”

And that’s not even mentioning the point where, perhaps at his very lowest ebb, Moby was in Barcelona for an MTV Awards show. Staying at the opulent seafront Hotel Arts, he was sharing the ludicrously expensive top floor with Madonna, P Diddy and Bon Jovi. At the peak of his career, where “I’d been given everything and I’d never been more depressed”, Moby spent his night getting drunk to the point where he says the only thing that stopped him killing himself was the fact that he couldn’t open the hotel windows wide enough. With these kinds of life experiences, it’s perhaps not too surprising that the conversation takes a very existential turn quickly, as Headliner asks him about the decision to overarch Moby Doc with this implied question about humanity’s place in an infinite universe.

“That is one of my ongoing obsessions,” Moby says. “It started back in university where I was a philosophy major, and a bit of religious studies. And I don’t want to sound too weird or esoteric, but for thousands of years, philosophy has been consumed with this question of, ‘in the human form, what objective knowledge are we capable of having?’ Do our lives have any significance? “There are lots of really nice aspects of religion: humility, service, charity. But more often than not, religion is just a structure that people employ to create fast answers to complicated questions. Like looking at a 15 billion-year-old universe and not understanding if we have any significance. We often think, ‘well, of course, there’s significance because we all agree that there’s significance’.

“I think most of us assume it will. Part of the underlying ethos of the movie is me, almost presumptuously and with a degree of hubris, saying I was a former punk rocker, philosophy student, and even I bought into it. If you’d asked me when I was 17 what I thought about the power of fame and wealth to deliver happiness, I would have towed the punk rock and philosophy student party line and said ‘these are shallow institutions. They are facile and promote leading an unexamined life’. But then the moment I was confronted with a degree of fame and wealth, I bought into it completely.” Moby continues his Socratic line of answering with “you can wrap yourself in the darkest, most obscure philosophy, but the moment a public figure is nice to you, or the moment someone offers you money to sell your art, almost everybody buys into it. And to my great shame, I bought into it, but I’m also really grateful that I went through it; I was unsuccessful in trying to kill myself, so hopefully I have some degree of insight around this. The collectively held belief we all have is that somehow, fame and public figure status are going to fix everything when, if you look at the evidence, it’s just not true.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MOBY Existential Ways

Conscious that Moby’s words could be misconstrued as nihilistic, hopeless and self-defeating, Headliner asks why anyone would pursue a career in music (or anything similar) with these things in mind. “What attracted me to music in the beginning as a teenager was simply the love of music,” he says. “Listening to music, going to concerts, writing songs. And then after I got sober, it almost delivered me back to that original naive, simple joy that I had around music for the sake of music. I remember being roped into doing this terrible panel once for a talent agency in Beverly Hills. It was something repulsive like ‘the monetisation of digital brands in

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

the 21st century’. I sat on this panel and I said nothing because I was so depressed that I was there. “At the very end, the moderator, realising I hadn’t said anything, asked for my thoughts. And I said to them that nothing I’ve ever bought has given me the profound joy and emotional release that I get from listening to Heroes by David Bowie. And listening to music doesn’t really cost anything if you don’t want it to. It shut up the entire room. Not because they were having an insight, but more that they were super annoyed that I dare challenge their assumption that monetisation of digital brands was the key to happiness.”

Headliner then asks Moby, one of the world’s most passionate vegans and animal rights activists, where he feels the animal rights movement stands in the context of a world brought to a total standstill by a zoonotic disease. Particularly as one of the film’s most upbeat moments sees him urging people to give themselves to a cause bigger than themselves. He does a huge amount of work and fundraising for charities such as Mercy For Animals, and is also the owner of the plant-based Little Pine restaurant in Los Angeles. He even recently had ‘vegan for life’ tattooed on his neck and ‘animal rights’ inked across both his arms.

COVER STORY

“AFTER I GOT SOBER, IT ALMOST DELIVERED ME BACK TO THAT ORIGINAL NAIVE, SIMPLE JOY THAT I HAD AROUND MUSIC FOR THE SAKE OF MUSIC.”

“On one hand, there’s evidence to support the idea that we are making a lot of progress, especially in the UK,” he says. “More and more people in the UK are now aware of the issues around animal agriculture — the deforestation, climate change, zoonotic disease and antibiotic resistance. But one trillion animals are still killed by humans every year. So on one hand, I’m encouraged by the progress, but I’m so overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem. If humanity were rational, we would all stop using animals for food tomorrow, because it doesn’t just destroy animals. It causes diseases, causes climate change, causes cancer, diabetes, heart disease,

deforestation, ocean acidification, just every aspect of animal agriculture causes destruction. It’s the most selfdestructive thing we’re doing, and we keep doing it.” While not wishing to enable the workaholism that Moby mentioned earlier, it’s at least an encouraging sign that Moby’s new orchestral greatest hits album, Reprise, is not his swansong and he’s been making new music since its release. It’s a spectacularly star-studded record, both in terms of the greatest hits in question, and guest appearances from the likes of Gregory Porter, Kris Kristofferson and Mark Lanegan.

And intriguingly, it’s a very acoustic and orchestrally-based album from one of the most recognised names in electronic music. However, Moby does have thoughts on the ‘electronic’ label being plastered over him so often, saying “in a sort of self-involved way, the irony around being labelled an electronic musician is that my background is actually in music theory and acoustic music, and then punk rock. Long before I discovered electronic music, I was studying music theory and training to be a classical guitarist. And then I ditched that in a punk rock band in Connecticut.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MOBY Existential Ways

“So when I started to be seen as a DJ or an electronic musician, I was very bemused, because my background was actually so different from that. Working on this record, it was a really nice challenge to make an entire record without any electronics, and just rely on humans playing instruments and singing. It reawakened some very old parts of my brain regarding orchestration and music theory. And I got some great support working with an orchestrator and conductor to be able to translate everything to the orchestra.” Headliner asks about working on Extreme Ways in particular for Reprise, because Moby has been asked to rework this song a few times now — it was chosen as the closing credits music for the Matt Damon spy-thriller The Bourne Identity (2002). The song was used in SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

the sequel also, and as the franchise gained more and more fans and popularity, Moby was asked to rework the track to be even more cinematic for the third, fourth and fifth films; The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy and Jason Bourne, respectively. He explains to Headliner how it was so odd to write the song when he did, which didn’t perform as well as he hoped as a single release, but took on a huge life of its own as it became the theme song that followed Matt Damon’s amnesiac super-assassin around. “That’s an odd song,” Moby says. “When I wrote it, I was so in love with fame. And somehow I wrote this really sad song about fame and degeneracy leading to destruction. I still don’t know where that came from. I wasn’t aware that fame and degeneracy were going to lead to destruction. It is so much

more explicitly autobiographical than almost anything else I’ve ever written. The version that’s on Reprise is so far from the original version. Even the versions in the Bourne movies are very big and orchestral. For this version, I wanted to strip it back and make it feel like a lamentation and get to that despairing, austere core of the song.” Before he has to dash, Headliner lets Moby know how appreciated his work to help animals is. “That is my life’s work – everything else is fun, but if I had to pick one thing to focus on it would be working on behalf of animal rights.” MOBY.COM

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L-ISA STUDIO

Immersive Headspace

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L-ISA STUDIO We bring you an exclusive review of L-Acoustics’ brand new L-ISA Studio – the French manufacturer’s immersive mix system which allows for up to 7.1.4 mixing on any set of headphones using only a laptop. And you don’t even need an audio interface.

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

IN THE MIX

L-Acoustics is, of course, most recognised for its work within the live sound sector; a leading manufacturer of loudspeakers with a product range that suits pretty much any audio application: touring of all levels, events, install, AV, house of worship – the list is long. The company has also earned the reputation as one of only a handful of brands to really ‘crack’ an immersive audio experience at a live show via its L-ISA technology (which stands for Immersive Sound Art). Used by a bunch of international touring artists including Mercury Prize-winners, alt-J and US rock band, Soundgarden, L-ISA’s multidimensional capabilities allow creatives to literally shape their own sound at live shows – so what you hear is quite literally what you see. And it’s not only the huge acts and full-size venues that are benefitting from L-ISA. Headliner contributor, Adam Protz, experienced this firsthand at a Samuel Kerridge show at EartH Hackney back in 2019 - a great

little venue fitted out with a full 360° L-ISA setup. He wrote at the time: “I’m pretty sure my soul has been astral-projected into the next dimension; L-Acoustics 360° technology ensures that every audio vibration pervades the being of the audience from every direction; it’s a trippy experience.” Recently I was invited to the L-Acoustics Creations headquarters in Highgate to check out the manufacturer’s highly impressive immersive showroom. To cut a long story short, standing in the sweet spot in the centre of the room, and with all speakers engaged (there are many configurations available), I was able to listen to an immersive mix of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android taken from a live show, and my jaw hit the floor. Wherever I looked in the room, I heard – like Adam said about the show at EartH, and like alt-J’s manager told me when he was first introduced to L-ISA.

I was taken into the adjacent room - a recording studio, boasting a 23.1 L-ISA setup. In here, I was to witness L-ISA Studio for the first time. Set up with Reaper (my choice of DAW, so further excitement there right away), a full immersive mix project was laid out and ready to demo, and it had been mixed using L-ISA Studio. Before questions could be asked about the product, I was offered a seat, and shortly after, the dulcet guitar tones of Mark Knopfler were flying from the speakers (quite literally). I sat and listened, turning to face various different speakers as the track played, and the best way I can describe it is that it felt like I was on the stage with the band. Everywhere I turned – you guessed it – I heard.

But then came the really interesting part. HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

L-ISA STUDIO

Immersive Headspace

[L-ISA] Studio Vibes One week later, I was sat in my mix room with the following in front of me: a copy of [at the time unreleased] L-ISA Studio; a head tracker; and a set of Contour XO inear monitors, an industry-first L-Acoustics collaboration with IEM giant, JH Audio. This trio of tools would be the fuel to get me to my first ever immersive mix.

quality audio interface is imperative. Not here, however. The idea of L-ISA Studio is to enable the user to monitor and mix immersive content accurately anywhere, with great audio – so my IEMs are connected direct into my laptop, and the head tracker is connected via one of the USB ports.

Just to reiterate, I am essentially remixing an existing project that I have already got into a decent place in the stereo world in my mix room, using L-ISA Studio and Contour XO – so I won’t be able to ‘check’ the mix against my original outside of my in-ear mix. I plan on doing so in part two of this review when I return to L-Acoustics Creations to hear my mix in all its glory (I hope!) which will be the real litmus test.

L-ISA Studio has an almost daunting amount of control and flexibility: Binaural Engine, Room Engine, Scale Simulation, a plethora of L-Acoustics’ finest reverb algorithms all right there at your fingertips, and that’s just to name a few of its USPs. But for the purpose of this review, I’ve tried to think as any producer and mix engineer brand new to immersive would and should: get the track into the 360° headspace. Perhaps the truly advanced stuff – no doubt targeted at the FOH engineers and sound designers looking to map out their venues and prepare or tweak their next show – I can dive into at a later date.

Assigning each of my tracks within Reaper to L-ISA Studio takes less than 10 minutes, then within the beautifully laidout L-ISA Controller I was able to quickly set up my head tracker via a Binaural Engine to track my own head’s movement. To keep the tracker in place – as IEMs don’t have a headband – I cunningly donned my Stetson flat cap. Other brands are also available, of course... As I moved my head from side to side, up and down, it tracked the movement remarkably accurately – and if the head tracker slips, you can reset at the click of a button. Then came L-ISA’s rather magical Audio Bridge – I say this because even with headphone monitoring, using a SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

For now, it’s 40 channels of audio – a full-band track ready to find an immersive home.

IN THE MIX

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

L-ISA STUDIO

Immersive Headspace

IN THE MIX As I began to ‘move’ tracks within L-ISA Studio’s visually beautiful ‘Soundscape’ I was immediately drawn to the audio quality coming from my laptop. It sounded fantastic. The interface allows for several viewpoints including a full-screen Soundscape mode which, when I started playing with the track and getting to grips with just how wide and far and high you can send audio, I found the most enthralling. After a while I was even comfortable minimising the DAW screen and getting right into the mix using only L-ISA Studio – it felt fresh and exciting. This song, by the way, has a piano running through it and features a handful of stems created using the Auras sound library by Slate + Ash and Sensel Morph, a highly advanced MIDI controller complete with MPE (Midi Polyphonic Expression) capabilities. Why am I telling you this? Because the sounds within Auras can be manipulated using MPE to change the timbre, pitch, amplitude, and more of each note – so even before they hit the immersive sound field, they were already weirder, wider, and more edgy than most. Using L-ISA Studio I was able to bring the piano forward, and move each of the Auras stems wide across the soundscape. It immediately offered a filmic quality I hadn’t

been able to achieve in stereo. At one point, in fact, I physically turned around in my chair (about 140 degrees) to my left and found myself face to face with one of these Auras stems in a way I have never experienced. It was an ‘is this happening?’ moment for me. But it was. And on that note, a shout-out to Contour XO – it’s an excellent full-range IEM. I did switch to regular headphones for a short period during this mix, but went back quickly such was the difference in stereo (or should that be immersive) width, overall depth of sound, and in particular the midrange really impressed me. The track had more guts when I was mixing with Contour than without, that’s for sure.

right up front, hitting hard with the kick and driving the piano, which by this stage I’d widened slightly so it was kind of ‘hugging’ the rest of the band.

This song also has six guitar parts – and again, in the immersive headspace, I was able to break them up a bit, bring them in at what felt like different points in the song, where in fact in some cases that wasn’t even the case - they were just positioned with more intent.

So six hours in, I flipped back to my stereo mix, and then back to my immersive – and what a pleasant surprise. In the way that many producers and mix engineers are afraid of sub (I was until I got one), I had always been a little afraid of surround mixing. I wasn’t sure how to go about it – until I spent the day with L-ISA Studio. Now I want to turn my room into 5.1 at minimum! So for me, a keen producer and mixer with a passion for audio, brand new to immersive mixing, this was quite the revelation.

For my drums, I kept the kick and snare as central as possible with overheads out wide as standard, though some of the additional percussive samples that were centred in stereo world found themselves out pretty wide, pretty quickly – this immersive thing is addictive once you get the hang of it! The bass – again, I brought it

HIGHLIGHTS + Mix 3D audio anywhere with speakers or headphones + Audio bridge removes the need for an external soundcard + Integrated room engine provides superior spatial control

L-ACOUSTICS.COM

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

And for vocals, my favourite part of the mix process, I was able to bring the lead even further up front and centre, allowing the several layers of BVs to fill the soundscape. At this point I was desperate to dive into the L-ISA Studio FX, but that’s for next time – what I did find myself doing was going back into the DAW occasionally to extend a reverb tail or big up a delay here and there. So I can only imagine what is truly achievable using the entirety of this system.

ESTELLE RUBIO ON USING THE MUSIC MISSION With amazing audio quality in the studio that transfers to live and streaming scenarios, thru or bypassing a DAW whilst still using its FX and keeping full control; what kind of magic is this? Ultra-low latency mixing gives unbeatable timing for singers and musicians; it is totally transforming my performances! estellerubio.com

merging.com/anubis Merging Technologies SA, Le Verney 4, CH-1070, Puidoux, Switzerland

T +41 21 946 0444

E anubis@merging.com

W merging.com

REVIEWS

IZOTOPE

Music Production Suite Pro / Pt.3

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

REVIEW

s ord by W

N O

DICKER CK S I R

MUSIC PRODUCTION SUITE PRO / PT.3

IZOTOPE

In this, the third and final part of Headliner’s close look at iZotope’s ‘Music Production Suite Pro’, we’re looking at the range of Neutron mix plugins together with iZotope’s Nectar Pro plugin, which features a range of vocal mix tools. Lastly and by no means least there’s the intelligent Neoverb, rounding out a comprehensive array of products designed to help you create better mixes with a more efficient workflow.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

IZOTOPE

Music Production Suite Pro / Pt.3

Music Production Suite Pro features the full complement of Neutron 3 plugins including Neutron Pro, which utilises all of the available plugins as modules in a similar way to Ozone Pro (which we looked at in Part Two of this review) and RX Pro (in Part One). Neutron Pro features the Intelligent Assistant which in this instance is known as the Mix Assistant. I think this is a great place to start when you’re getting to grips with these excellent modules. I’m convinced they really aid your ability to speed up workflow and can even throw up interesting combinations that you might not have otherwise landed upon without a few spare hours on your hands. Neutron Pro is also a great way to build and save presets which can be tailored to your particular way of working, and used to help create your signature sound. There’s the added bonus of a limiter which is only available from within the Neutron Pro plugin, ensuring you’re happy with your processing chain preset and its ability to cope with a greater dynamic range of source material. As with all things iZotope, there’s a comprehensive range of presets already available for all the Neutron plugins.

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

Particularly useful in the Neutron Pro Gate. The display is a clear graphical representation of everything that’s going on. Having a scrolling waveform that reflects the audio either side of the gate in real time makes this a particularly easy gate to quickly set up and use.

which shows how much gain reduction is being applied. There’s also the familiar crossover section which takes this from a full range compressor to a multi-band. The Learn button on the compressor also searches your audio for the optimal crossover points for multi-band processing.

Of course, you could speed up your starting position by simply pressing the Learn button and allowing the gate to set itself up. However, the Gain Reduction Trace is perfect for tweaking the ratio, attack and release controls as it shows in real time how the gate is responding and by how much it’s attenuating. I have to admit that I always thought a gate was a gate, but within seconds of loading this Neutron Pro Gate, I’ve realised all gates are not born equal and this is now my go-to.

There’s a Vintage button which adds that authentic character and colour of analogue devices, especially when driving the signal at higher ratios. In Vintage mode, the Auto Release is active, furthering the analogue authenticity.

Another really useful feature is the crossover selection which provides a means of selecting the frequencies at which the gate becomes active or which triggers it. This is also an option on a number of the other Neutron plugins/modules. The layout and interface for the compressor are very similar to the gate. There’s a real time audio waveform display along with the familiar Gain Reduction Trace running across the top

Three level detection options are available: RMS, Peak and True. To the left of the manual gain slider are the Auto Gain (A) button, which matches the compressed signal to the level of the uncompressed one, and the Auto Release (L), which analyses the input signal and automatically applies release times that maintain that inyour-face sound but as transparently as possible. If you want that pumping characteristic, then switch to Vintage mode and increase the ratio.

REVIEW

The more I have played with the Neutron compressor plugin, the more I have warmed to its versatility and array of options, not to mention a vast library of presets which make this a very flexible compression tool and in no way a one-trick pony. In true iZotope tradition, the EQ is a fully featured bundle of delight. Like all of the Neutron Pro plugins/modules it suddenly became apparent how quick, flexible and powerful this EQ is. To help you in your EQ manipulation is the spectral display which shows the amplitude and frequency of the incoming audio. When it comes to metering, I like the inclusion of the Piano Roll option along the bottom which allows you to quickly identify issues relating to mic placement or fundamental resonance. For each selected node there’s manipulation of Frequency, Level and Q which is represented by a filter response curve, which makes up the permanently displayed composite curve. Each node has a number of available band filter options depending on what you want it to

do, while a Soft Saturation button further increases the creativity of the Neutron Pro Equalizer. The Exciter is another really easy-to-use but effectively creative tool, and you can be as subtle or as brash as you like with it. Control-wise there’s a simple heads up display that controls the ratio and type of harmonic distortion you want to introduce, followed by a mix control that blends the harmonic distortion with the original signal. Transient Shaper meanwhile is very similar to Exciter in its control layout, but is used to enhance or reduce transient attack and/or sustain. I was able to make a drum kit sound a whole lot closer and bigger with just a few simple clicks. Sculptor is a multi-band compression tool which can utilise up to 32 frequency bands to help make your tracks better versions of themselves. It works by applying a target curve from a menu of curves under various instrument and application headings. I was pleasantly surprised to find it worked extremely well on bass and some of my piano recordings. HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

IZOTOPE

Music Production Suite Pro / Pt.3

NECTAR PRO Nectar Pro is a dedicated plugin specifically aimed at vocals. Unlike RX, Ozone and Neutron whose modules are also available as standalone plugins, all of Nectar’s modules are only available from within Nectar Pro. Nectar has an intelligent Vocal Assistant which is there to help create a good starting point and vocal chain for your vocal track. Vocal Assistant gives you an Assist option and an Unmask option, the latter of which is there to help make room for your vocal by affecting a track which may be masking the vocal. Assist on the other hand offers an optimised processing chain for your vocal. Nectar Pro has a pretty good pitch correction tool which, if used carefully, works very well and doesn’t sound like obvious pitch correction. The DeEsser is also beautifully transparent and always well set up by the Vocal Assistant. The EQ is very similar to the EQ I described earlier in Neutron Pro; it doesn’t feature the saturation and has slightly fewer nodes but it behaves and sounds similar. The compressor is a very different animal but is also very easy to use. There’s a selection of compressor types from which you can select either Digital, Vintage, Optical or Solid State. The Gain Reduction Trace and real time audio spectrum are still here. For additional vocal production, Nectar Pro includes a Harmony module, as well as Reverb, Delay, Dimension and Saturation, similar to the Neutron Pro Exciter.

Nectar Pro is no slouch. None of its modules feel like cut downs of other iZotope plugins. This is another really useful plugin clearly refined to get the most out of your vocal recordings and speed up your workflow.

You’ve been living in a dream world Neo Neoverb is a collaboration between iZotope’s intuitive interface, Intelligent Assistant, and Exponential Audio’s legendary reverb engines. Exponential Audio was recently brought into the iZotope fold and is famous for its high quality algorithms and incredible reverb sounds. I remember the first time I loaded Neoverb I was struck by just how good the reverbs sounded and how easy it was to blend them, creating everything from a small room reflection to a massive hall just by simply dragging a little circle around the ‘Blend Pad’. The intelligent assistant in Neoverb is a little like filling out a questionnaire, and while it doesn’t always come back with what you might have had in mind, it most definitely gives you usable options. It can also inspire you to move out of your comfort zone and take a different journey. Dare I say it; I love you Neoverb! In conclusion, I personally think this is an unbeatable package of software for anybody who takes their music seriously. If you’re interested, head over to the iZotope website, download the full package for a free trial period, and draw your own conclusions!

HIGHLIGHTS + Track Assistant & Enhance + Intelligent audio processing + Inter plug-in communication

IZOTOPE.COM

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

DRUM RE-SYNTHESIZER

A revolutionary way to design your own drums – Backbone is your new, innovative drum designer for single kicks, snares, hi-hats, percussion, rises, hits and more. Layer up to eight samples and shape them with classic subtractive synthesis, decompose samples into tonal and noise elements and re-synthesize samples to manipulate them in unheard ways.

HOTONE SOUL PRESS II

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

Guitar FX

s by DAN rd

GERSON RO

GUITAR FX

REVIEW

HOTONE SOUL PRESS II The Hotone Soul Press II is a wah/volume/expression pedal that represents a significant revamp of the Soul Press I, adding sonic versatility and greater economy when it comes to floor space…

Hotone first became known for its broad series of compact, affordable yet authentic-sounding pedals. More recently, it has branched out into multi-effects and amp modelling hardware that competes with the beloved Kemper Profiler and Line6 Helix. I first became aware of the original Soul Press when searching for a multi-purpose wah/volume pedal. For about a year I was using a Cry Baby wah and a volume pedal that looked almost identical. I only had enough space on my pedalboard

for one and had a couple of gigs that demanded heavy use of either one or the other. After a few nights that involved a lot of hand stretching to reach the volume knob for swells on my Gibson 339, or trying to make a phaser sound like a convincing wah, I decided to finally put a label on one of them to avoid mix ups. I also decided that my life would be easier if I could have both effects in one pedal. The first thing that struck me about the Soul Press II was the sleek new design; the metallic blue sparkle

looks great, especially under lights, and the metal casing seems robust. This pedal is still smaller than most units of similar style, but due to the wide top and the grip tape-like surface it feels easy to use and the rocking action of the pedal itself feels comfortable and familiar. Of course, the other main feature is the strip of LEDs on the side of the unit that turn on and off in real time to indicate the position of the pedal; this not only looks cool but is very practical. If you’re not a fan of the LEDs, you can simply turn them off.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

HOTONE SOUL PRESS II

Guitar FX

“THE SOUL PRESS II BELONGS ON THE BOARD OF EVERY GUITAR PLAYER.”

to clean up a more driven sound, the LED strip is a useful visual cue. When the V/W setting is selected you can switch between wah and volume by pressing down at the top of the pedal - an LED on the side of the unit will flick between green and blue to indicate which mode you’re in. The separate expression output is another great feature, providing the option to connect to any effect with an expression pedal output; you can control parameters within that pedal using the Soul Press II. When the pedal is deactivated, you can use it just as an expression, but you can also use the expression function and the wah or volume simultaneously; this gives potential for some very interesting effects. I used the expression output of a Line 6 Dl4 to manipulate delay speed alongside the wah mode of the Soul Press II – this, combined with a fuzz, led to some amazing extraterrestrial sounds.

The wah-wah section of the pedal has two tone options – warm and classic. To activate the unit, press down when the pedal is at the ‘toe position’ – just like a standard wah. The ‘classic’ setting is suited to the more traditional wah user and has a similar response to classic effects such as the Cry Baby. The ‘warm’ setting occupies a slightly lower range in the frequency spectrum and is perfect for less abrasive sounds. These two modes, combined with the Q control knob (which controls how high the peak of the boosted frequency is), provides a variety of tones.

With the Q control at around eight o’clock on the ‘warm’ setting you have a smooth and subtle effect; using the ‘classic’ setting with the Q at 12 will give you the familiar sound of a classic wah. A favourite of mine is on the ‘warm’ setting with the Q pretty much cranked – full harmonic resonance but never really venturing into brittle, high frequency territory. The Soul Press II has an active volume circuit, meaning that there’s no loss of tone that you might experience with a typical passive volume pedal. The volume control feels natural and smooth, so it’s perfect for swells. If you like to back off the volume

HIGHLIGHTS + + + +

4 in 1 functionality (volume, expression, wah, volume/wah) Q and WARM/CLASSIC controls for a more flexible wah tone Active volume design for keeping lossless tone Separate tuner and expression outputs

HOTONEAUDIO.COM

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

This pedal has been designed with a lot of thought and care. It is so easy to set up quickly with a very usable sound, yet it allows you to go relatively in-depth if you wish. That, combined with the fact that it’s affordable and well-built, leads me to believe that the Soul Press II belongs on the board of every guitar player - I certainly will be getting plenty of use out of it.

U N LO C K T H E A R T I N A U D I O W I T H L- I S A S T U D I O Put the power of mixing and creating immersive sound anywhere - at your fingertips - with L-ISA Studio software suite. Made for speakers or headphones with binaural monitoring, L-ISA Studio can process 96 inputs and 12 outputs. Developed to improve the workflow and unleash the creative potential of concert-proven L-ISA technology, it seamlessly interfaces with leading digital audio workstations and show control software. Download and start creating. More information on www.l-isa-immersive.com

www.l-acoustics.com

MAC MINI M1

Nine Months Later

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

s byRICK rd

NINE MONTHS LATER

CKERSON DI

W o

REVIEW

MAC MINI M1 Initially, as those of you who read the earlier Mac mini M1 article from last December will know, there were a host of little niggles, all pretty much software related. As time has gone on, these have been all but confined to history with successive updates from both Apple and the various software packages I run. So let’s run through the list of packages and let’s find out where we’re at with our Mac mini M1 nine months later...

It’s unbelievable what this cheap little desktop computer can do. The thing that impresses me the most about day-to-day use of the MmM1 is how I now work in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Gone are the constant whirring of fans from my old Apple products. Being able to record vocals and acoustic guitar in front of my screen without the constant background fan noise is a luxury I’d never known before. I use Logic most of the time mainly because I know it well, having first been a C-Lab Creator and Notator

user on the Atari. Another DAW we have a fair bit of experience with and find more stable than Pro Tools is Reaper. I have it installed on the MmM1 – more for trial than active use – but Reaper is the main DAW in Headliner’s London studio.

have come unsurprisingly from the likes of Universal Audio and Waves for addressing the move to Big Sur, who were relatively on the ball and early this year released updated versions of their interface software drivers and plugins respectively.

Back in February, Apple’s 11.2.2 release of Big Sur made some significant improvements, as did a couple of updates to Logic, especially the update 10.6.2 in April and the latest 10.6.3 last month, which have all helped to reduce one little problem after another. The biggest changes HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MAC MINI M1

Nine Months Later

Interface Options In March, I reviewed Antelope Audio’s Zen Go Synergy Core; the initial review and recordings were done using my Hackingtosh, but in April after a couple of updates from Antelope I switched it over to the MmM1. It worked perfectly and when I checked in the activity monitor it was running natively. It was around mid-May that I noticed UAD v9.14 had been released, so I reloaded the UA drivers and full complement of plugins on the MmM1,

and this time all was sweetness and light. I have to say that even though all the UAD software in Intel and Apple Logic is native, we’re clearly at the stage where you really don’t notice unless you’re specifically keeping a close eye on the technical aspects. In June, I reviewed the Merging Technologies Anubis which is a truly wonderful sounding interface. The associated Ravenna drivers and software for the Anubis are

already Apple Silicon optimised and it is now my monitoring interface of choice, while the UA Apollo x8p is my input/recording interface. The great thing here is that both are on and permanently connected. Both automatically switch sample rates if I load a project from another studio that was recorded at 96k or 44.1k. When recording, I change the DAW’s output to the Apollo so I can use my own constructed preset plugins in UAD’s low latency consul and monitor all recording in real-time.

PLUGINS Waves features a fair few of my favourite plugins, The two plugins I’ve had absolutely no issues with and that although I have a lot of the same models and alternatives just kept on working have been from oeksound. Spiff and in the exceptional Universal Audio library. Soothe2 just continue to do their thing to perfection. This library was possibly the last to install after the early failed attempts, and bar a few GUI and preset issues, all is well. It was after I had this all up and running that I finally switched off the Hackingtosh and my old Mac Pro for the final time.

At the time of going to press, none of the third party plugins we use are Apple native optimised. These include offerings from major vendors like iZotope, Universal Audio, Leapwing Audio, Sonarworks, Sonnox, oeksound and Waves, and that’s also the case for instrument plugins from Spitfire/ LABS, XLN Addictive Keys, Output’s Arcade and Signal and For what I do, I couldn’t do it as well or efficiently without Xfer’s Serum. my iZotope plugins. I love a fair few of them which are still proving their worth on a daily basis. I recently did a I suspect that until there’s a major commitment from DAW three-part review series for iZotope Music Production developers to produce native Apple apps, then we’re a way Suite Pro and still didn’t manage to cover everything it away from seeing Apple Silicon optimised plugins. It’s likely has to offer. that as long as Apple’s Intel machines stay supported by MacOS, developers will continue to produce Intel versions.

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

REVIEW

CONCLUSION Was I right to warn people off using Apple Silicon for music production? I believe so, as when the machines first appeared there was a double whammy: new architecture and new operating system. It’s not surprising then that not much worked correctly to start with. Having vastly improved speed and performance, there is no room for a constantly faltering workflow when you’re trying to create in the moment.

Would I recommend the change now? Absolutely. For a cheaper, better performing machine that works without a fortune spent on RAM, on a stable platform like the MmM1, it’s a no brainer!

HIGHLIGHTS + + + +

8-core CPU Up to 6x faster graphics performance 16-core Neural Engine (machine learning) Big Sur provides major performance benefits

APPLE.COM

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MERGING TECHNOLOGIES

HAPI & Anubis

s by RIC K rd

HAPI & ANUBIS

KERSO N DIC

w o

MERGING TECHNOLOGIES SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

REVIEW

Merging Technologies has been around for over 30 years now, and in that time have gained a reputation for excellent audio products. The company moved into Audio over IP (AoIP) with the launch of the Horus AD/DA converter in 2012, a RAVENNA interface with truly transparent conversion and outstanding quality mic preamps. Followed a year later by the HAPI, both units are now AES67 compliant and with audio network management software to route everything where it needs to be, the scene was set for something of a revolution. In keeping with the gods of ancient Egypt, Anubis was brought back to life in 2019 as a desktop network controller and audio interface in the spirit of its ancestors, originally designed to monitor and route multiple AES67 streams at everything from major sporting events to remote broadcast studios. However could this small professional desktop audio interface soon be worshipped by us mere mortals? When Anubis first shipped, its software was a one-size-fits-all interface called ‘Monitor Mission’, but with talk of more missions to follow. We at Headliner got hold of an Anubis around two years ago and it immediately became the audio interface of choice for all sessions in our Hertfordshire studio. The interface, I might add, by which all others are judged. Such was the quality of AD/DA together with four outstanding quality mic/line preamps, multiple speaker and sub bass control; it was a no brainer. Though aimed at the serious

professional, Merging’s Anubis is actually very competitively priced and represents outstanding value for money. On May 20, an Anubis firmware update was released which included the brand new ‘Music Mission’, designed specifically with creatives and studios in mind. In other words, it’s now a recording studio as opposed to a post production or mastering suite. Of course this firmware is available to all current Anubis owners at no extra cost, but if you’re looking for a really comprehensive studio console in a small desktop box that you can control via a colour touchscreen, computer or tablet — featuring pristine audio quality and fast latency free workflow — then read on.

all at near zero latency. Peering offers you expandability up to 48 channels, giving you the facilities, control and exemplary audio quality of a large format studio mixer in a small desktop interface and a couple of Horus 19” rack units. It was interesting to note that the peering system still works even without a computer attached, which means you could potentially go do a live gig with the Anubis and a Horus or two, although you’d need a computer or a tablet of some description to help you navigate your way around.

The Music Mission effectively becomes the mixing console of your studio, and can include as many peered inputs as you have HAPI or Horus A/D cards, with up to 48 channels. This allows you to control all functions of the additional mic pres with the bonus of a full fourband parametric EQ section, a range of Dynamics with a Gate, Compressor and Limiter as well as an internal reverb engine - a must for putting your vocalist and sax player at ease. There’s the ability to set up up to five stereo foldback cues (monitor sends) for the musicians. All of which feature additional bus processing of EQ and Dynamics. Plus additional busses for three stereo Aux sends to either plugins in your DAW or via the peered audio interfaces for external hookup to analogue devices. And HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MERGING TECHNOLOGIES

HAPI & Anubis

Setting Up The System On March 8 2021, the HAPI MkII was announced, and I was delighted when Merging offered to send me one so I could get a clearer picture of what my new Anubis Music Mission is all about. I was also interested to find out if everything was as easy to set up as Dante, for example. Upon glancing around Anubis’s new ‘Music Mission’, I dug out an old Cisco SG300 and swapped a Dante configuration for one from Merging’s website. There was a small issue with security settings using Apple’s M1 chip, but with that resolved, everything fired up and synced up pretty quickly. It was then just a matter of going into Anubis’s menu and selecting Peering. You can select as many or as few of the available I/O on the HAPI MkII as you want to use. The RAVENNA driver for core audio features two options: You can go down the traditional

route and use ANEMAN, Merging’s RAVENNA AES67 network manager, and put virtual connections on a matrix patchbay, similar to Dante Network Manager. Alternatively there’s a handy UNITE button which takes the hassle out of making specific connections, and just works. UNITE essentially demystifies AoIP connectivity and makes the I/O interfacing plain and simple. Running a switch with PoE (Power over Ethernet) means you can do away with the power adapter, handy for keeping your desk cabling to a minimum, or you can use the power adapter as a redundant supply if you’re out on location. I could have written page after page at this point about all the functions and features of the Anubis. It’s such a clever controller, it’s much easier to tell you what it can’t do, so here I go: It can’t make tea and it can’t raise the dead.

Music was My First Love In the words of the John Miles classic! With the Music Mission, there’s a well designed and thoughtful approach to tracking and recording. Whether you’re a creative individual in a bedroom studio or an engineer in a small modern studio facility, the key to any musical journey is growth and expandability. Merging clearly has a vision when it comes to audio production and the expandability of your system. SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

At the heart of Anubis HAPI and Horus is class-leading 32-bit AD/DA conversion. Each of Merging’s mic preamps utilise a dual path, dual converter design featuring different gain structures which are DSP combined to increase headroom and reduce the noise floor, achieving a huge dynamic range of 137dB. With all the usual mic pre control including phase reversal, if

REVIEW

“WITH THE MUSIC MISSION, THERE’S A WELL DESIGNED AND THOUGHTFUL APPROACH TO TRACKING AND RECORDING.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MERGING TECHNOLOGIES

there’s a better mic pre out there, I’ve not heard it yet! It’s hard to describe just how good the result is at your speakers but if you imagine a sound with natural depth as well as width, even from a DAW like Logic, then you’re getting close. Some of the recordings that have been made in the Headliner studio with Anubis and Reaper have been beautiful. Seems the Reaper and the God of the Dead have more in common than first thought. A quick mention to the two headphone outputs on the front, which are by default attached to Cue 1 and Cue 2;

HAPI & Anubis

these are by far the loudest, sweetest and cleanest sounding headphone amps I have ever heard. Together with programmable crossfade, Anubis also supports MIDI (as does the HAPI) and GPIO functions via its TRS in and out jacks, which in theory means you can transmit MIDI punch-in punchout commands from a foot switch. Perfect for the current climate where more than ever we’re forced to work in isolation and collaborate via the internet. I understand there are plans afoot to set up an Anubis Exchange community

HIGHLIGHTS + HAPI: Configurable and scalable ASIO/Core Audio interface + Anubis: Compact desktop AoIP interface + Assignable Music ‘Missions’ for focused creativity MERGING.COM

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

so people can share their user created presets to help quickly set up particular tasks. This means you could start out with a serious interface, including all the control and expandability you could ever need. And even at around £1500+, it’s unbelievable value for such a great interface.

UDO AUDIO

Super 6

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

REVIEW

s by A D rd o

SUPER 6

PROTZ

UDO AUDIO Is it analogue? Digital? Modular? A bird or a plane? Well, this Spotlight Review certainly incorporates a few of those things. Fresh-faced in the synthesizer game since founding in 2018 in Bristol, UK, the UDO Super 6 is both their first product and synthesizer (that’s right, please take note that this instrument is the first thing they’ve released). And they have truly birthed a beast. Join Headliner as we delve into why the Super 6 polysynth deserves your attention at the very least.

UDO delivers us a fantastic mixture of presets but, crucially, the opportunity to manipulate sound on top. So often, synths are either all presets, or the opposite extreme: 100% customisation. With the Super 6, you really do get the best of both worlds. Its tagline is ‘inspired by the classics,

built for today’. In the case of this product, these are not empty words. That said, the presets sound excellent if you quickly need a great sound to work with off the bat. Huge leads, the more cutesy square sounds are offered, FM-style bell sounds,

ambient pads and plenty more. Speaking of ambience, the built in delay buttons really do the business. And if you really want to go fullblown ambient, adding reverb via a pedal or a plugin sounds stunning on this thing.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

UDO AUDIO

Super 6

“IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GO FULL-BLOWN AMBIENT, ADDING REVERB VIA A PEDAL OR A PLUGIN SOUNDS STUNNING ON THIS THING.”

The sounds on offer give the opportunity to opt for retro sounds from the ‘80s onwards, or you can keep it more contemporary. This is in part thanks to UDO’s hybrid technology that brings together the powers of both digital and analogue. The analogue side gives you that unmistakable warmth and organic feel you just can’t get from a virtual synth in your DAW or a purely digital synthesizer. Plus, there’s that charm in the touch of wonkiness (much more subtle than if you bought a really old synth) that synth-heads are renowned for loving and seeking out so much. Speaking of adding plugins, I had the Super 6 plugged in via a UAD x4 Thunderbolt, and the two sounded quite unbelievable together. It’s a great build — not too large and unwieldy, but doesn’t come SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

close to being so small that it limits the functionality of the synth. Too often, modern synths have tiny keys that feel a bit too plastic and too light to the touch. The weight on these keys feels just right. All 49 of them! A great number, as it means you don’t have to reach for the octave button constantly. It’s definitely a performance instrument that’s for proper keyboardists as well as producers and electronic experimentalists. Modern synths often boast a central display with a screen as the centrepiece, but UDO’s designer felt these are sometimes unnecessary and distracting from the music and sound designing process. Hence the Super 6’s common sense design; all the buttons and faders are single purpose. Single purpose features

are increasingly rare on the newer synths of the world, but this decision makes everything wonderfully user friendly and enjoyable. And of course, it’s great to have an instrument that gives us some respite from screen time. The Super 6 boasts its own USB port. You’ll still need a guitar cable to plug it into your DAW via a soundcard (again, I used the UAD Thunderbolt). But UDO has plans to start posting additional waves for this bit of kit, and via USB you will be able to load them straight onto the Super 6. The LFO 1 control is where some of the real fun begins, as you can really start toying around with the pitch and wave modulation. And if you’re in stereo, you can enjoy the full binaural potential of this thing, as the detuning

REVIEW

shifts in and out of tune. A fantastic feature with no need for additional effects or pedals to achieve. The Super 6’s main filter is an analogue 4-pole, 24 dB per octave, resonant lowpass filter using a classic polysynth filter design from Sound Semiconductor (SSI). Similarly to the LFO control, it’s one of those classic features that makes a physical synthesizer such a fun way to lose all track of time, something you just can’t replicate in a virtual synthesizer. It’s also where the modulatory features come into play, with its own dedicated faders and LFO modulation.

And just as an aside, there are two colour options, a sleek and subtle grey, or baby blue for those wanting a bigger splash of colour at home or on stage. The onboard arpeggiator and sequencer are also classic touches on the Super 6. The former has the all-important hold button, as seen on some of the best instruments from the ‘80s. Whereas you occasionally see performers using recent keyboards having to place an object on the key when this feature is not available. The sequencer allows 64-step patterns, which you can save to your computer

with USB if you run out of the 64 slots within the synth. It’s quite easy to see why UDO’s Super 6 has caught such a buzz of hype around it, as the amount of boxes ticked makes it a stunning allrounder. If you are in the market for a premium synthesizer, newcomers UDO absolutely deserve a look. If you do invest in one, make sure to clear some space in your diary.

HIGHLIGHTS + Binaural analogue signal path + Massive modulation without menus + Analogue voice architecture UDO-AUDIO.COM

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

NUGEN AUDIO

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

Stereoizer Elements

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STEREOIZER ELEMENTS

REVIEW

NUGEN AUDIO Bizarrely, this product could have been made with me in mind. I remember many years ago looking at NUGEN Audio’s very excellent Stereoizer, from which Stereoizer Elements takes its inspiration, if not its algorithms. Again, some time back, I recall being impressed by the equally brilliant Stereoplacer together with Monofilter – a plugin no dance producer, in fact any producer, should be without. At the time, the three were offered together, and I’m pleased to say they still are – as the Focus Bundle.

I have most definitely tried these impressive plugins, including – more recently – their amazing Paragon reverb. I know this because I have a NUGEN account and they offer a really useful ‘try before you buy’ option, which begs the question: why hadn’t I bought any sooner? In my defence, when I first came across Stereoizer 10 years ago I was out on tour a lot more and I wouldn’t have considered spending money on what was then more of a hobby than a profession – a wise investment. How that has changed over the last year... But if like me, you are conscious of making your investment

go further and getting real value for your hard earned cash, read on.

MISAPPREHENSION When I was invited to review Stereoizer Elements, I made a couple of calls, just to see how many of my home and small studio-owning friends used imaging plugins, and if so, what it was they used. Surprisingly, there was one who came out with much negativity on the subject. I heard talk of phasing issues, difficulty in setting up, results not worth the time and effort, too expensive for something that works properly, etc. None of this aimed at Stereoizer, I might add.

I’ve got an inkling as to why this particular person clearly wasn’t a fan of this kind of plugin. Most stock plugins for imaging and stereo enhancement or stereo widening are not good. From personal experience, I’ve attempted to get to grips with the two which come with Logic Pro X. For example, Directional Mixer is a slightly over sophisticated pan pot that is very difficult to find a sweet setting that actually preserves the quality and integrity of the original audio while doing its placing. Likewise, Stereo Spread is also not entirely reliable for its described task, HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

NUGEN AUDIO

Stereoizer Elements

and has a tendency to sound suspiciously like a tight reflective room reverb – almost like a standing wave tells you where you are in a space. Either way, nothing with the sort of musicality that makes you glad you didn’t have to part with any hard earned cash. On a positive note, NUGEN Audio’s Focus Bundle did get a huge thumbs up from one mate who uses all three plugins on a regular basis for his cinematic work. He also confirmed the two things that I thought about the original Stereoizer: it was both easy to use and sounded excellent.

CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK Stereoizer Elements does exactly what the original Stereoizer does: it increases the stereo spread of mono and stereo signals. The original Stereoizer features three algorithms: Linear width, Interaural Intensity Difference and Interaural Time Difference, plus a number of other movable points on the display to manipulate one, the other, or both algorithms at the same time. The

results are a feeling of natural space with no unusual digital artefacts – the result of which could also be seen on a screen which showed the frequency range on the vertical axis and a representation of width/ space/time on the horizontal axis. (Although the screen is slightly more akin to a radar scope.) Stereoizer Elements has managed to remove all the algorithmic controls and replace it with a one metrestyle slider that follows the curve of a very similar screen, giving you the same visual representation of the algorithms doing their thing. The widening of the image via this single control is smooth, natural and incredibly musical – it sounds as good as the best of the original. Only now it’s just so incredibly easy to use. To the left is a Trim control that allows you to adjust, as increasing the width by definition will give you the perception of increased level. To the right is the Mono button, but if you’re like me you’ll simply go to your DAW’s master output bus and click the mono/stereo toggle so you can check that the claims of a completely mono compatible stereo image are indeed true. I know it’s true, but I keep on doing it! There’s a handy A/B button as well as a preset box and the usual Undo, Redo buttons – depending on your DAW. I had a little chuckle to myself when I saw the 45 available user presets, as with only one real control fader to manipulate I thought it overkill, but if you’re revisiting projects regularly, then maybe.

HIGHLIGHTS + + + +

Three stereo width algorithms via one control Add polish and spatial balance Create stereo audio from a mono source Create a super wide stereo image

NUGENAUDIO.COM

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

CONCLUSION The NUGEN Audio Stereoizer Elements has to be the biggest range of completely usable effects from a single control I can remember hearing in a plugin. Moreover, it has all the quality and transparency you’d expect to hear in a product more than twice its price, which at £84, is a great value product. For anyone who is looking for a great plugin to add to their arsenal of mixing and production tools, head over to NUGEN Audio, look for Stereoizer Elements and hit the Buy Now or the Try button, and get ready to give your mixes those polished, professional touches. Whether you need to enhance a vocal, bring forth that guitar solo, create a huge sound for the dance floor but don’t want to lose that sound in the club/bar, the shopping centre, or the fitting room at Superdry – £34 is a very small price to pay for the second best stereo image enhancer available.

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MOD DWARF

All Mod Cons

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ALL MOD CONS

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MOD DWARF

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

REVIEW

The MOD Dwarf occupies a unique area when it comes to multi-effects processing. It combines software containing vast effects options and capabilities with portable and durable hardware, resulting in a tool with plenty of potential for use on stage and recording. The unit is designed to comfortably fit on a pedalboard but, when connected to the browser-based web interface, you can create intricate effects chains from your computer that can be recalled on the Dwarf in an instant. Effectswise the Dwarf contains all that one could want, with many more effects available to purchase or download from MOD’s plugin store which is frequently updated. Thanks to the new assignable control system, it’s also relatively easy to edit and save assigned parameters from the device itself meaning you can take it out and edit sounds without having to connect to a computer.

“IN TERMS OF QUALITY SOUNDS, THE DWARF HAS SOME GEMS; MANY OF THE DISTORTION PLUGINS HIT THE MARK REGARDING THE ORIGINAL PEDALS THEY’RE IMITATING.”

Most of the effects seem to be aimed at guitarists and are based on familiar stomp boxes. There are plenty of options for distortion, dynamic effects (such as compression and noise gates), filters, some great reverbs, delays, and lots of modulation effects. There are also utility plugins which include a metronome, gain meters and A/B switches. You can get more plugins from the plugin store and if you’re into coding you can even write your own plugins and make them available online for other MOD users to download. In terms of quality sounds, the Dwarf has some gems; many of the distortion plugins hit the mark regarding the original pedals they’re imitating. Reverbs and delays such as the Open AV Roomy and Shiro Modulay sound excellent and amp

sims like the Veja Onyx are also convincing. Using the MOD interface is relatively simple once you get your head round it, though I would highly recommend visiting the MOD Dwarf wiki page before trying to use this device. To connect the Dwarf to your computer you can run a USB cable between them or connect via Wi-Fi which can be less responsive. If this doesn’t work automatically you can easily download a driver from the MOD website.

Creating pedalboards is quite intuitive; you simply drag the plugins at the bottom of the page and patch them together with one click. Each plugin has visible parameters from the pedalboard, but most have additional controls that are accessible by clicking on the Settings icon above each plugin. The best way to switch between different sounds quickly is by creating ‘snapshots’ which are accessible in the top right corner of the screen.

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MOD DWARF

All Mod Cons

With the Dwarf, the software has received some updates, the main one being a file manager to which you can upload audio, MIDI and impulse response files. The impulse response files can be used for profiling and there are plugins available that allow you to make your own profiles.

snapshot mode you use foot switches B and C to scroll up and down the list of saved snapshots for a given pedalboard; this is the quickest way to switch between varying sounds. In control mode you can assign any parameter on the pedalboard to a knob or switch on the front of the Dwarf.

Having had some previous experience with the MOD Duo, I was keen to see how the Dwarf would perform. MOD had hinted that the Dwarf would allow you to create new pedalboards using the controls on the device, and while this isn’t the case (yet), it has far more flexibility than the Duo. There are two modes for using the Dwarf: snapshot mode and control mode. In

The three endless knobs are all assignable and can be used as switches; footswitches B and C are also assignable. The three buttons underneath the knobs represent different subpages and footswitch A flicks between these optional pages. There are eight pages available meaning that in total there are 88 potential controls available to assign for each pedalboard.

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

REVIEW

When it comes to hardware, the Dwarf seems robust and road-worthy. It also doesn’t seem out of place next to other guitar pedals looks-wise, certainly when compared to the Duo and Duo X. The controls respond well although not everything is accessible by foot, especially when wearing shoes. A downside is the lack of expression pedal input which renders most wahwah or whammy style plugins as pretty useless; this is probably due to MOD’s plans to release an expression pedal that plugs into the control chain port along with additional assignable

footswitches which can be daisychained together. It’s definitely possible to use the Dwarf on the fly but it does become difficult if you have multiple pages of effects; flicking between pages could put a damper on the spontaneity of a jam. Another downside is that the current power supply that is provided with the Dwarf is quite noisy although this has allegedly been rendered and future power supplies will not have this issue.

are holding it back. I would however recommend this to anyone who is into patching many effects together or who is keen to integrate a large variety of sounds into their recording and live rig. I can certainly see myself using this in the future and I’m keen to see how the future of MOD devices pans out.

I love the concept of this device and I think it has tons of potential, but there are still a few teething issues that

HIGHLIGHTS + Build pedalboards with an intuitive GUI + Comprehensive analogue and digital I/O’s + Vast and expanding plugin offer

MODDEVICES.COM

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SENSEL MORPH

Beyond The Curve

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SENSEL MORPH It’s the size of an iPad, it’s an incredibly responsive Bluetooth MIDI controller, and it’s got MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) multi-touch technology. These are just three of many reasons that the Sensel Morph is well worth a look.

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

REVIEW

infinite palette of electronic sounds, enabling you to morph them (hence the name) into something totally unique. There are a few keyboards and controllers on the market designed for MPE workflow, and a number of hardware synths can receive MPE signal – though the VST software instruments that are MPE compatible are perhaps the most exciting to work with.

The Sensel Morph is very well built, and looks fantastically sleek. Imagine a cross between an iPad and a giant Apple Trackpad, except this surface is super-smart. It features approximately 20,000 sensors which allow it to detect an incredible range of pressure (from 1g to 5kg) – and it is remarkably accurate, which is evident when you bring up the Visualiser in the Sensel App. Sensel Morph is priced very attractively at £185 and is probably the easiest way of getting into using MPE technology. It’s an incredibly simple and intuitive device, superportable, and works with beautifully designed magnetic overlays which become your work surfaces: from a simple Piano (which I am using for this review) to Music Production, Drum Pad, and Buchla Thunder – and this is just for audio, there are loads more Sensel overlays designed for developers, video editors, designers, and artists. So it’s very much a multi-application device. But today I am using the Piano overlay, which feels quite piano-like to me right away despite the fact it’s almost pocket sized; probably due to the slightly raised black keys which gives you the feel of a keyboard. There are also a series of macros which allow for sustain, changing of octave, full chord

mode, and so on. And if you want to change your overlay, you don’t even need to switch the unit off – just pull one off and slap on another. The Sensel App sends ‘maps’ of said overlays to the unit in seconds once you’re connected via USB and you’re good to go. It couldn’t be simpler, in fact. The Morph works on Bluetooth too, which is a dream in a small space – especially in my studio, as I have four keyboards in here, and you couldn’t swing a cat! The Morph sits on my lap or desk without taking up any real space, and once you get used to the sensitivity, you realise it’s an incredibly playable and creative tool. The battery life is also fantastic – it didn’t get close to losing power despite the many operation hours.

MPE MPE is pretty new to me as a producer and musician. I am aware of it, but before the Sensel Morph arrived at my studio, I was yet to experiment with it in a creative fashion. Such was the excitement of using MPE, I’d bought Auras by Slate + Ash – the first Kontakt library designed to work with MPE. And boy, was I in for a treat. So what is MPE? For those who aren’t aware, it essentially allows you to take the articulation of an acoustic instrument with an

So sticking with the Piano overlay, after importing the Piano map (with MPE) within the App, in an instance it sends out controller and pitch information to the Morph, and you’re ready to play. There is pitch bend on each key, after pressure, and a vertical dimension to work with which gets the oscillators working as you move up and down the keys. As I experiment with some of the sounds within Auras, I realise I’m literally taking control of the parameters with my fingers, and it unleashes a world of possibility creatively. Sliding into a different note or chord is weird – but cool! Within Auras – and any VI that is MPE-enabled, I would imagine – I am able to play with the filtering and parameters, the delays and reverbs, among other things – and as I do, the more pressure I apply and as I vary the distance that I glide my finger up and down the piano keys gives me different overtones, effects, noises, all sorts of weird and wonderful after effects on a sound that, if not played with MPE, now seems, dare I say it, quite ordinary. In a nutshell, it’s addictive! I also instinctively reached for my sustain pedal, which is plugged into my Novation master keyboard – and was happy to see that it worked with the Morph, which was a nice touch. After playing – and indeed creating – for about an hour using Morph, to call it an MPE or MIDI controller feels like a bit of an insult, because it’s much more than that. HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SENSEL MORPH

Beyond The Curve

“AS I EXPERIMENT WITH SOME OF THE SOUNDS WITHIN AURAS, I REALISE I’M LITERALLY TAKING CONTROL OF THE PARAMETERS WITH MY FINGERS, AND IT UNLEASHES A WORLD OF POSSIBILITY CREATIVELY.”

It’s a pint-sized powerhouse, and it’s a genuine platform to enable creatives to, well, create! And it’s so easy to use. I think considering the price point – the most affordable device within the MPE realm as far as I can tell – and its plug and play workflow, it feels like an all-in-one solution. Although a deeper dive into the App will show you how to create your own overlays (without the need to input any code) and unveil a ton more options, this unit is also a superb choice for beginners; it comes with Bitwig Studio 8 Track - so there is a DAW included – as well as Arturia Analog Lab Lite. As I play more with Morph using the Piano overlay, I become better at using it – I didn’t initially notice the grooves within this overlay which ‘separates’ the white keys, and acts as a guide for your hands, and I was able to add strings patches, some actual piano playing, and a number of different effects using the excellent Auras palette without a single hiccup.

And the cherry on top for me – veering away from the world of MPE for a second – is using it for drum programming. As a Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 user, I couldn’t ask for a better control surface. The Morph’s sensitivity is a dream for beatmakers, and I am now about to Google the best drum VIs with MPE compatibility – because that with the Morph is an absolute no-brainer. And for advanced users, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Morph outputs polyphonic after touch – which most hardware synths can receive – so even if you don’t have MPE-capable hardware or software, the Morph can certainly add something flavoursome to your favourite synths without any additional setup required. Sensel Morph is a fantastic unit which can be used on the go pretty much anywhere, or in the studio – I think it’s handsdown the best option for an affordable road into the world of MPE, and a great controller in its own right.

HIGHLIGHTS + + + +

Make beats, melodies and mixes Unmatched pressure sensitivity Control your DAW Per-note pressure, pitch bend, and timbre (MPE)

SENSEL.COM

SPOTLIGHT JOURNAL

Featuring eight legendary 1073® remote-controlled preamps with Marinair® transformers, digital/analogue monitor signal path and optional USB and Dante digital connectivity for the modern studio environment.

Neve

8424

The modern analogue console for today’s connected workflows Legendary 80-series Neve® sound, 4 Groups, 24 Channel faders

Connect. Compose. Create. DESIGNED & CRAFTED IN ENGLAND BY NEVE ENGINEERS

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