Audio Media January 2014 by Future PLC

No. 278 January 2014

www.audiomedia.com

From Studio to Stage The quest to bring studio-quality sound to the live arena p24

TEARAWAY The sound behind the next big release from Media Molecule

IN THIS ISSUE

SHOW PREVIEW

Everything you need p16 to know before this year’s ISE opens its doors

BROADCAST

The secrets of dubbing TV drama from three of the industry’s best

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LIGHTSHIP95

A look inside one of London’s most unique recording studios

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TECH FOCUS

Studio monitors

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WELCOME

January 2014 Issue 278 MEET THE TEAM Editor – Jory MacKay jory.mackay@intentmedia.co.uk Deputy Editor – Jake Young jake.young@intentmedia.co.uk Managing Editor – Jo Ruddock jo.ruddock@intentmedia.co.uk Sales Manager – Graham Kirk graham.kirk@intentmedia.co.uk Head of Design & Production – Adam Butler adam.butler@intentmedia.co.uk Production Executive – Jason Dowie jason.dowie@intentmedia.co.uk Designer – Jat Garcha jat.garcha@intentmedia.co.uk Publisher – Steve Connolly steve.connolly@intentmedia.co.uk Press releases to: pressreleases@intentmedia.co.uk © Intent Media 2014. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owners. Audio Media is published by Intent Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England. Editorial tel +44 (0)20 7354 6002 Sales tel +44 (0)20 7354 6000 Audio Media ISSN number: ISSN 0960-7471 (Print)

Circulation & Subscription enquiries Tel: +44 (0)20 7354 6001 email: audiomedia.subscriptions@c-cms.com Printed by Stephen & George, Wales

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I’VE never been much of one for New Year’s resolutions. Not to say that I haven’t made them in the past – quite the opposite in fact. Each December 31st has brought grandiose plans of new skills to learn, bad habits to drop, and relationships to rekindle (all of which are conveniently forgotten at the first possible moment). So this year I’ve decided to take a different approach and commit to two smaller, (hopefully) easily achievable resolutions for 2014. The first one is easy: get out more, see more shows, watch more movies, and listen to more albums. With the recently announced Oscar nominations I’ve got plenty of movies to catch up on and with every magazine, blog, and newspaper releasing their lists of 2013’s audio zeitgeists we could all easily spend the next few months searching through the tracks that slipped under our radar. The second resolution goes hand-in-hand with the last one: slow down, digest, and reflect. With so much content coming at us, both by choice and not, it’s easy to move on too quickly to the next, more exciting film/album/game/whatever without truly appreciating the work and talent that has been put into it. In our increasingly busy lives, taking the time to turn a critical eye on the things around us is something that has lost the importance I think it deserves.

“With so much content coming at us, both by choice and not, it’s easy to move on too quickly to the next, more exciting film/album/game/whatever without truly appreciating the work and talent that has been put into it.” Resolutions aside, here at Audio Media HQ, we’ve got some exciting New Year news to share. Industry veteran, studio guru, and all-around good guy Jim Evans will be joining us as Consulting Editor in 2014, lending his years of experience to the magazine. Jim trained as a journalist at the Glasgow Sunday post and was the first editor of Pro Sound News Europe before moving on to edit and produce in-house magazines for EMI Records, APRS, and ASCAP. He has been a longtime contributor to Audio Media (see his most recent feature on live sound production on page 24) and works closely with industry organisation PLASA. Along with the addition of Jim to the team, Jake Young, who worked tirelessly as Staff Writer throughout 2013 has stepped up to take on the Deputy Editor role, while I’ve officially become the magazine’s Editor. So, along with the New Year and new goals we’ve got some new titles and new faces. Here’s to an exciting and busy 2014.

Jory MacKay, Editor

January 2014 03

CONTENTS

TECHNOLOGY NEWS .........................6 Sony rolls out the PCM-D100

FEATU RE Jim Ev an

Behringer adds to X32 range New USB mic from Apogee

curren s taps into t performstate of the lithe ve ance in p24 dustry

INDUSTRY NEWS.............................10 Warner Bros De Lane Lea adds new suites Yamaha to acquire Line 6 Show reviews: MPS and InMusicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

>FEATURES Drama Dubbing Masterclass ..........22 Will Strauss learns the tricks of the trade from three drama mixing masters

Game Sound: Tearaway ..................28 John Broomhall explores the sound for the next big thing from the makers of LittleBigPlanet

Studio Profile: Lightship95.............30 Jake Young is welcomed aboard a studio at sea

p28

>TECHNOLOGY

>ALSO INSIDE

FOCUS:

Show News: NAMM & ISE............................................................14

Studio Monitors................................32

p30

REVIEWS: SSL Live...............................................40 Focusrite Red 1 500 .........................42 Allen & Heath Qu-16........................44 Lewitt LCT 940..................................46 Electro-Voice ZLX-12P.....................48

Geo Focus: Scandinavia.............................................................20 Interview: Multi-platinum selling producer Jake Gosling...........................................................50

ADVERTISERINDEX >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2014 NAB Show........................................47 AMS Neve.....................................................7 Audio-Technica ..........................................8 DPA Microphones ....................................52 Dynaudio .....................................................5 EVE Audio ..................................................19 Genelec ......................................................15 Integrated Systems Europe 2014..........49

04 January 2014

KMR Audio.................................................33 McDSP ........................................................13 NuGen Audio ............................................37 PMC Loudspeakers..................................39 PSIAudio ....................................................23 Radial ..........................................................51 Richmond Film Services..........................14 Sennheiser..................................................11

Slate Pro Audio ...........................................2 Sonnox .......................................................43 Sonodyne ..................................................35 Studioking .................................................45 TC Electronic ..............................................3 Waves .........................................................25 Zaxcom.......................................................31

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Sony Brings the PCM-D100 to Europe FIRST LAUNCHED back at AES in New York, Sony has announced that its newest PCM recorder will be making its way to Europe early this year. The flagship of Sony’s portable digital recorder range, the PCM-D100 is compatible with 2.8MHz/1-bit direct stream digital DSD, a format that records source sounds using digital signals, but in a format that closely resembles analogue waveforms. It is also compatible with recording and playback in 192kHz/24-bit linear PCM High Resolution Audio. “This new model is Sony’s highest-quality portable digital recorder, designed to faithfully reproduce sound sources such as instrument performances and sounds of nature, as closely to the original as possible,” said James Leach, marketing manager, professional audio, Sony Europe. “The PCM-D100 recorder is part of our HighResolution Audio initiative, a complete series of

products designed to help music lovers conveniently access and enjoy the digital music they love in the best playback quality available.” The recorder features a highly sensitive directional microphone that incorporates a newlydeveloped 15mm unidirectional mic unit. This enables the user to adjust the sound collection range of the mic to suit various sound, from performances with a small number of people, through to concert halls with a much larger group of performers. In comparison to conventional 24-bit D-A converters, the PCM-D100 has adopted a higherclass 32-bit converter to achieve accurate playback of the sound. The headphone amp incorporates a high-capacity, ultra-low impedance 0.33F (330000μF) electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC), equivalent to 750 times the capacitance of conventional capacitors. www.sony.co.uk

PreSonus Adds Miniature Version to Eris Line-up

ROUNDING OUT its latest studio monitor offering, PreSonus has revealed the smallest version of its Eris line – The Eris E4.5. Designed for home studios and situations where space is at a premium, the E4.5 features a 4.5in Kevlar low-frequency transducer, a 1in silk-dome, high-frequency tweeter with protective grille, and a rear bass-reflect port. Each speaker is powered by a 25W Class AB amplifier with peak SPL rated at

100dB. The speaker ranges from 70Hz to 20kHz and measures 6.42 x 9.45 x 7.09in For accurate mixing contour, a four-position Acoustic Space switch controls a second-order shelving filter, centred at 1kHz, that provides three attenuation points (no attenuation, -2dB, and -4dB), giving users control of the bass response. A high pass switch sets the low-frequency cut-off (secondorder slope, -12dB/octave) to be flat, 80Hz, or 100Hz. You also get continuously adjustable (±6dB) high frequency and midrange controls. For connections, the E4.5 features a balanced 0.25in TRS and unbalanced 0.125in TS, RCA inputs, as well as a 0.125 stereo headphone output. www.presonus.com

WaveDynamics Amps to Make a Splash THE NEW Audac SMA and SMQ Series of two- and four-channel power amplifiers include the new WaveDynamics digital signal processor in combination with a 2.5in LCD display that is claimed to give “an unmatched user experience with intuitive functions overview for easy configuration”. Acoustics can be optimised using the filters selectable between Low/High & Band Pass and the seven-band equaliser, which both have adjustable frequencies and Q-factor. Other provided functions are delay (for time-alignment of different speakers) and dynamic bass boost. These settings can be customconfigured using the amplifier’s front panel, whereby access can be given in two different levels (User and Administrator) using password or

USB-key protection. Loudspeaker protection is provided by an output power limiter where maximum output power (in Watts) for every channel can be configured. Full system configurations can be selected from a library, which includes loudspeaker performance parameters, and uploaded with a USB drive. The lightweight Class D amplifiers are available in 350W, 500W, and 750W versions and incorporate flexible input and output configuration, XLR and terminal block source compatibility, and RS-232 control. www.audac.be

New Developments from RTW THIS YEAR will see a raft of new developments from German manufacturer RTW for its TouchMonitor range of audio metering and monitoring products. Following the recent release of the DPP’s recommendations that UK audio should be compliant to the EBU R128 Audio Loudness specification by October 2014, demonstrating compliance will be essential and the first of RTW’s developments, the Loudness Quality Logger (LQL), addresses this problem. LQL is a software module for loudness 6 January 2014

logging, true peak data analysis, and reporting for the TM9, TM7, and TMR7 meters. Data from an LQL-enabled TouchMonitor will be delivered via an IP connection to a PC installed with RTW’s free downloadable software where the loudness information will be logged and stored. R128-compliant loudness metering tools available for the TouchMonitor series include loudness and SPL display, loudness range (LRA), true peak, moving coil, and a loudness radar display. RTW is releasing a Timecode Reader module to

decode and display SDIembedded or LTC timecode. In addition, the Timecode Reader is available for the LQL logging application. The third innovation is a 16-channel AES3 I/O interface for the TouchMonitor TM7 for all digital environments. www.aspen-media.com www.audiomedia.com

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Behringer Releases the X32 Producer

DESIGNED FOR live sound and recording or studio situations, the Behringer X32 Producer is the most compact of the X32 family of digital mixers and works equally well on the desktop or in the rack. The board features 16 Midas-designed mic preamps, eight stereo FX engines, a 32 x 32 channel USB 2.0 audio interface – plus computer, iPad, or iPhone remote control. Inputs and outputs can be expanded via AES50 ports on the console that permit the addition of up to six optional

8 January 2014

S16 digital stage boxes, for a further 16 remote mic preamps and eight XLR outputs per device. All routing is achieved through the colour TFT screen. Additionally, the X32 Producer features motorised faders and onboard stereo FX racks that include reverbs, compressors, delays, EQs, and more. Music Group’s X32 product manager Jan Duwe said: “Our X32 Producer puts full-scale digital recording and live sound mixing within the grasp of musicians and engineers who use their mixers wherever their work takes them – both in the studio or on the road. Packed with incredible processing power, Midas-designed preamps and all the FX you could ask for, the Producer lives up to its name in every way. ” www.behringer.com

Universal Audio Brings AAX Compatibility to Mac Users A NEW public beta version of the UAD software (v7.4.1) allows Pro Tools 11 users on Mac OS X to take advantage of the complete UAD plug-in library. The release supports the entire UAD-2 product lineup, including all Apollo interfaces, UAD-2 PCIe cards, and UAD-2 Satellite devices. The update also gives users support for Pro Tools 11’s faster-than-realtime (offline) bounce feature.

Besides support of the new Pro Tools 11 AAX 64 format, version 7.4.1 also adds new enhancements for users including AudioSuite processing for file-based workflows, which allows

users to process files and selections with UAD plugins complete with handles, as well as multi-mono support, which allows users to use UAD plug-ins on surround and stereo tracks with full linking and unlinking capabilities. While the beta is currently only available to Mac users, a fully tested and qualified cross-platform release is expected within the next few months. www.uaudio.com

Swapping Subwoofers with SWAP12 THE NEW SWAP12 by Active Audio is the company’s own subwoofer and can be used in passive and active modes. Connection in passive mode is useful when no main power is available near the subwoofer or when reusing existing cables. Equipped with a 12in woofer, it’s seen as

ideal to extend the bass response of StepArray and Ray-On column loudspeakers. Its slenderness and colours (black and white) facilitate integration in conference rooms, houses of worship, bars and so on. www.activeaudio.fr

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Apogee Reveals the MiC 96k CALIFORNIA-BASED Apogee Electronics has introduced MiC 96k, a professional, studio-quality cardioid condenser microphone for iPad, iPhone, and Mac that can be used to record vocals, voice-overs, acoustic guitar, piano, drums, as well as almost any other audio source. First introduced in 2011, the original MiC quickly became one of the leading options for those looking for a mobile microphone including both aspiring and professional artists. The newest version, the MiC 96k, holds onto the heritage of its predecessor through featuring the same look and portable form factor as the original, but now provides the ability to make higher fidelity recordings – up to 24-bit/96kHz –

while the Apogee engineered microphone preamp gives you up to 40dB of gain. The made-in-America MiC 96k also features an all-metal construction and multicolour LED for status indication and input level monitoring as well as a control knob for quick input level adjustments. The mic is compatible with a number of DAWs including Apple’s GarageBand and Logic Pro, as well as Pro Tools. The mic comes packaged with an iOS Lighting cable as well as a microphone stand adapter in the box. Like its predecessor, MiC 96k also includes an iOS 30-pin cable, Mac USB cable, and tabletop tripod stand. www.apogeedigital.com

Dave Smith Instruments Announces Tabletop Prophet 12 BASED ON Dave Smith Instruments’ (DSI) recently launched flagship Prophet 12 synth, the Prophet 12 Module boasts the same power and sound as its larger, keyboard-endowed version, but in a smaller, more transportable design. Each of the Prophet’s 12 voices is composed of a brand new hybrid digital/analogue architecture created by a digital front end (that can be used for thickening the signal, adding harmonics, or completely destroying the signal pre-filter) followed by an all-analogue signal path output. Each voice has five high-resolution oscillators, a digital character effects section, a resonant Curtis low-pass filter, a high-pass filter, a tune-able feedback circuit, a fourtap delay line with feedback per line, four loopable five-stage envelope generators, four syncable LFOs

with slew and phase offset, a sophisticated arpeggiator, and a 16-slot modulation matrix with 26 mod sources and 97 modulation destinations. The Prophet 12 Module’s streamlined intuitive interface promotes quick and easy control of every parameter on the synth with each section able to be selected at the press of a button and edited through the OLED display. Dedicated low and high pass filters potentiometers provide quick and smooth control of filters while modulation assignments can be created using the Assign Mod buttons. Despite its comparatively diminutive dimensions, the backpanel I/O of the Module matches that of the Prophet 12 keyboard in almost all aspects (apart from featuring an external power supply in the interests of making it as compact and portable

as possible) including: Headphones, Main/A Outputs, B Outputs, MIDI Thru, MIDI Out, MIDI In, Pedal 1, Pedal 2, Sustain, and USB. www.davesmithinstruments.com

Meyer Sound Introduces New Stage Monitor MEYER SOUND has expanded its on-stage solutions with the new selfpowered MJF-210 low-profile highpower stage monitor. The MJF-210 is the lightest stage monitor in the company product line, and carries the sonic performance of the MJF-212A stage monitor. “The MJF-210 started with a customer’s request to bring the intelligibility and power of the MJF212A into a more production-friendly package,” said Pablo Espinosa, chief loudspeaker designer and vice president of R&D. “The end result is a product that reflects users’ needs in the field, and its small footprint also offers more flexibility in bringing the myriad self-powered advantages to the stage.” The MJF-210 features a low-

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profile design with an impressive power-to-size ratio, and very low distortion. Each monitor measures less than 14in high and weighs 67 pounds. In

addition, it provides the sonic and practical advantages of a self-powered system, including reliability, low distortion, and ease of setup and configuration. With the amplifier

built into the cabinet, the MJF-210 eliminates amplifier racks and saves valuable backstage and truck space. The front of the MJF-210 slopes at an optimal 40º from the stage, while the well-behaved constant directivity horn gives the performer more freedom to move on stage while staying within the wide vertical coverage. The drivers are powered by a three-channel Class D amplifier. For real-time monitoring of loudspeaker parameters, the MJF-210 can be integrated into the Compass RMS remote monitoring system using the optional RMS module. Compass RMS features the RMServer and can be controlled in the Compass software. www.meyersound.com

January 2014 9

NEWS

>>> POST PRODUCTION

Dubbing Brothers Upgrades to Dolby Atmos LOCATED ON the outskirts of Paris, Dubbing Brothers is a postproduction facility that specialises in adapting major films into foreign languages. With such major releases as Escape Plan, Saving Mr. Banks, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug coming through its doors, Dubbing Brothers recently decided it was time to update its main mixing stage. “When we decided to update our main 7.1 mixing room to Atmos, we wanted monitoring of the highest quality,” said Mathieu Taieb, sales director for Dubbing Brothers. “We knew other major postproduction houses were using Meyer Sound for Atmos, so we arranged a session to listen to a Meyer Sound

system. We were very impressed with what we heard. The sound was dynamic and precise, warm, and never aggressive. Both bass and high frequencies exhibited very high resolution.” Supplied by Paris-based cinema audio specialist 44.1, the loudspeaker system was designed to Dolby Atmos specifications. It includes three Acheron 80 screen channel loudspeakers, four X-800C cinema subwoofers in the front, two X-400C cinema subwoofers in the rear, and four HMS-12 and 34 HMS-10 cinema surround loudspeakers. “I enjoy mixing on the system immensely,” says Taieb. “You can work all day on a movie with very high dynamic levels, and not feel tired or

mugged by the sound. I’m continually impressed with the precision and clarity.” Designed and supervised by Paul Henri Wagner of 44.1, the complete technical renovation of the room

includes new wiring, a 244channel/48-fader Avid System 5 mixing console, and two Pro Tools HDX systems. www.meyersound.com www.dubbing-brothers.com

>>> POST PRODUCTION

>>> EVENT

De Lane Lea Adds New Suites

Product Launches Aplenty at Music Production Show 2013

A YEAR since its acquisition by Warner Bros Studios Leavesden, Soho-based audio post-production facility De Lane Lea has revealed new suites and extensive upgrades following a significant refurbishment and investment programme. Now under the Warner Bros De Lane Lea moniker, the studio completed work on 22 movies during 2013, including Alfonso Cuarón’s critically acclaimed Gravity as well as box office successes Philomena, and Captain Phillips, to name a few. The refurbishments include extensive upgrades to the facility’s infrastructure with updated MADI routing and ADR streaming, as well as the installation of 18 new Pro Tools HDX and HD Native Systems with D-Command control surfaces and a variety of plug-ins.

10 January 2014

An additional 18 cutting rooms, as well as a new ADR suite have also been built on the first floor of the facility’s adjacent building, Royalty House, with full access to De Lane Lea’s Dean Street location. Director of operations and business development Helen Alexander commented that the upgrades and new ADR suite have helped the facility to push more into broadcast: “We have worked on major scripted drama for BBC and HBO, including The Politician’s Husband, Veep, Ripper Street, and Game of Thrones, and hope to attract more in the future.” Further additions also include a new dedicated 5.1 TV pre-mix suite that has been built into the old studio 5 along with refurbished reception area, entrance, and bar. www.delanelea.com

SEVERAL EXHIBITORS launched new products at the Music Production Show (MPS) held at Emirates Stadium in north London late last year. Steinberg showed Cubase 7.5, Affinity Audio used the event for the first UK showing of the AEA N22 Active Ribbon Microphone, THE BOX from API had its UK debut through Source Distribution, and Solid State Logic showed its Matrix 2 console for the first time in the UK. “MPS was a great event for Steinberg,” commented Richard Johnstone, Steinberg business development manager, UK and ROI. “Using the show for the first public showing of Cubase 7.5 meant for a busy stand throughout the show. The reaction to the new features in Cubase 7.5 was superb, with full houses for each of our seminar sessions.” MPS organiser, One Louder Events, reported a healthy increase in visitor numbers. Show manager Jason Hunt revealed that numbers were up 12 percent year-on-year. “The quality of visitors remains very high, with the vast majority either professional musician/ producers or committed students looking to pursue a career in the recording industry,” he said. “As such, exhibitors’ feedback has

been hugely positive, both in relation to the level of sales made during the show, and the engagement with those visiting the booths.” Lisa Coley, communications and media director for Sontronics, said: “It was a pleasure for Sontronics to once again be part of the Music Production Show this year, and we were very impressed by the number of attendees, the wide variety of exhibitors and the quality of the seminars. Over the two days, we enjoyed meeting and speaking to hundreds of visitors and were also very pleased to see that some of those visitors took advantage of our special show offers and went home with a Sontronics mic or two.” Paul Germain of MPS retail partner The Production Room stated: “Music Production Show 2013 again delivered for both exhibitors and visitors with an amazing array of music technology innovations and education seminars. From a retail perspective the London show is an ideal opportunity to introduce the Production Room face-to-face model of retailing to a new group of potential clients. The organisation of the event was once again efficient and pain free, regardless of the challenges the venue brings. MPS is and will be in our plans for many years to come.” www.musicproductionshow.co.uk

www.audiomedia.com

NEWS

>>> POST PRODUCTION

Factory Studios Adds Two SSL AWS Consoles AUDIO POST facility Factory Studios, which specialises in audio for advertising, TV, radio, digital media, and music, has stepped up Studios 1 and 2 with a new Solid State Logic AWS 948 Hybrid Console/Controller in each room. The consoles were chosen to streamline workflow by replacing existing DAW controller/ plug-in/outboard gear with a user interface and integrated DAW control. “When it came to refurbishing these two studios we wanted something that would be a flagship for the future,” said Ben Firth, sound engineer and technical support manager for Factory Studios. “The AWS 948 does everything we need in one unit. Pro Tools has always been our main DAW and we couldn’t compromise on functionality there. That plus the

beauty of the SSL preamps is brilliant. This ticks all our boxes.” The updated facilities at Factory Studios are set up with live rooms for recording music, dialogue, and sound design for projects ranging from TV and radio commercials to music and cinema releases. Studio 1 and 2 both capture to a Pro Tools DAW system that is controlled by the AWS 948 console. Additionally, Factory’s Studio 3, which is a Dolby Approved Cinema Suite, runs SSL Duende Native plug-ins for sonic consistency across the facility. Recent award-winning projects from Factory Studios include the Honda Hands commercial for Channel 4 Idents, which won a Silver Medal for Sound Design at the London International Awards 2013 and

Outstanding Sound in a commercial at this year’s Hollywood Post Awards. The Camelot National Lottery’s Heroes Return commercial was recognised for Best Sound Design in TV Advertising at the MAS International Awards. Heroes Return and the company’s Guinness Cloud and Nike My Time Is

Now videos were each Cannes Lion 2013 award winners. Factory Studios has plans to expand even further in the coming year and add new studios, which could include a Dolby Atmos room. www.factory.uk.com www.solidstatelogic.com

>>> INDUSTRY

Line 6 to be Acquired by Yamaha YAMAHA AND Line 6 have announced a definitive agreement for Yamaha to acquire Line 6. Under the terms of the agreement, Yamaha will operate Line 6 as a wholly owned subsidiary with Line 6’s operations continuing as before and its management team remaining in place. “I am very happy that Line 6, which has been creating innovative products and new market opportunities consistently over its history, will

become a member of the Yamaha group. We look forward to accelerating our growth strategy by pursuing the beneficial effects from both companies and by utilising Line 6’s core brand power centred on guitarists that is so highly regarded worldwide as well as its unique technology, planning, and development capabilities,” said Takuya Nakata, Yamaha president. “Yamaha’s acquisition of Line 6 will help accelerate the realisation of our vision to drive

innovation for musicians across the globe,” said Line 6 CEO and president Paul Foeckler. “We’re proud that Yamaha recognises the innovation and value in our people, IP, and processes and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead to expand our reach.” The transaction is expected to be completed this month, after receipt of regulatory approvals. www.line6.com www.yamahaproaudio.com

>>> INSTALLATION

Powersoft Drives ‘Wall of Bass’ in Austrian Nightclub

LOCATED IN a residential area of Wiener Neustadt, Austria, the new 300-capacity Club SUB wanted to integrate an extremely loud and clear low frequency sound solution while maintaining acoustic isolation. “Given the concerns of local residents, when Wolfgang Sauter [project manager, pro performance] surveyed the building, with its tube like architecture, the abstract idea of

12 January 2014

a ‘vibrating wall’ became more logical,” commented Steffen Kroschel, director at Lambda Labs. Lambda Labs’ project manager Richard Nell supported the concept with simulation data, parameters and measurements – applying his knowledge of high-performance concrete ‘closed box’ enclosures and amping. The drivers were developed especially for this application, going

through 10 prototype stages, while the club owners helped with casting the concrete loudspeaker enclosures. For the club’s rear wall, 400kg concrete blocks were cast using 13 tonnes of heavy concrete. Each block serves as a loudspeaker enclosure with pressure-resistant rear chambers implementing the perfect impulse response of a ‘closed-box’ design and maximising the radiation resistance of the woofers through the acoustically hard surface. A selfenveloped 15in speaker was produced and adapted to the demands of this project. The single chassis are designed to act together like one single swinging wall similar to a piston in a cylinder. Yet to make this all work, each driver needed to be powered by its own dedicated amplifier: “As we have been using Powersoft amplifiers in our regular self-powered

loudspeakers for four years it was obvious to choose the company again for this project as we have a lot of experience with their modules, such as the Digimod 1500, which we use in our subwoofer product MF-15A and our full range enclosure TX3A,” continued Kroschel. The 32 Lambda Labs OEM CX 15in ultra-long excursion drivers, with ±25mm linear excursion capability are each driven by 800W amplifying modules, with the maximum desired SPL reached at an excursion of only ±3mm. Therefore the ‘Wall of Bass’ manages with only 500W peak music power during operation. Summing up, Kroschel said that everyone who has played through the system has been hugely impressed: “For some it has changed their awareness of music.” www.powersoft-audio.com

www.audiomedia.com

NEWS >>> INDUSTRY

DPA Partners with Riverside DPA MICROPHONES has joined forces with global private equity firm The Riverside Company. “DPA is already a very successful and profitable company, which has been experiencing a 15 percent increase in sales, year on year, for the last five years,” said DPA’s CFO Christian Hoff (pictured, right). “With Riverside involved, we anticipate even stronger sales growth in the next five years.” “This is a solid foundation for further growth, and Riverside’s global network and experience in the audio industry should help propel DPA to further success,” Riverside partner Thomas Blomqvist said. Under the terms of the new deal, DPA’s CEO Christian Poulsen (left) and Hoff have retained their current positions in management and on the board, along with a 40 percent shareholding. Riverside is now the majority shareholder and will also have representation on the DPA board. “For our day-to-day operation, it is business as usual,” Poulsen said. “What has changed is our ability to capitalise on our current success and make this even more significant in the future. Riverside has an extensive network worldwide, many of whom are specialists in the

audio industry and have deep technical knowledge and experience that we can exploit. This investment will allow us to develop new technologies and new products at a much faster pace. It will also allow us to move into new markets and attract more good people to our brand, while still properly supporting our existing customer and partner base.” DPA joins California-based Blue Microphones in the Riverside Company’s growing portfolio of pro-audio brands. www.riversideeurope.com www.dpamicrophones.com

>>> EVENT

Success For InMusic’13 By Justin Paterson THE INAUGURAL Innovation in Music conference (InMusic’13) took place in York over 4-6 December, jointly hosted by the University of York and York St John University, and backed by KES International. The scope of this new annual European event extends from the artist to music production, through technology and audio engineering, the music business, games audio, mastering, and more. The two-day event was preceded by an opening concert where London band IMPRINTS played a quadraphonic immersive live tape loop performance, with a darkly ambient set of grainy, tape-saturated atmospheres merged with pedal-steel-guitar, circuit-bent machines, and synthesisers. Mastering engineer Crispin Murray opened the first day of InMusic’13 with an insightful keynote about ‘quality’, which was followed by a mixture of parallel paper sessions and other special events from Jerry Fleming’s robotic drummer that responded to audience tweets, to Phil Dudderidge and Dave Hodder from sponsors Focusrite/Novation discussing innovative aspects of their business. Thomas Lund of TC Electronic gave his keynote on loudness and perception while Dr Paul Ferguson of Edinburgh Napier University discussed live performance over the internet with the LOLA AV system.

www.audiomedia.com

The second day commenced with Jeff Levison discussing his incredible 103.4 array, followed by Andrew McPherson demonstrating his multi-touch piano keyboard overlay and then Liz Dobson’s ‘CollabHub’ enterprise project. For the final keynote, top producer and entrepreneur Jake Gosling gave an insight into his working practices through an interview with Rob Toulson. Further parallel papers were presented on topics ranging from multi-touch control of audio waveform visualisations to producerdefined semantics to assist parameter modulation, while mastering legends Ray Staff and Barry Grint collaborated for a paper on the embedding of ISRCs in BWAVs. The conference journal and ‘best of ’ book will be published in early 2014. InMusic’14 will be held in Cambridge at Anglia Ruskin University. www.innovationinmusic.com

January 2014 13

SHOW PREVIEW

NAMM Heats Up As the pro-audio industry prepares for a few days in the Anaheim sun, we take a look at what’s hot at this year’s NAMM Show. RUNNING FROM 23-26 January at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, this year’s NAMM Show will bring together the latest in proaudio technology along with the chance to network and enjoy a whole host of live music performances and guest appearances. The day before the event a pre-show party will be held at the GoPro Stage on the Grand Plaza between 6pm and 7.30pm featuring Bernie Williams and

Gil Parris. The live music continues once the show opens its doors with Shocka Zooloo bassist TM Stevens being joined live on stage by friends such as Grammy Award-winning drummer Ricky Lawson daily at 5pm on the KLOTZ stage in Showroom 210C, Mezzanine Level 2. TECHNOLOGY While many companies are keeping tight-lipped until the show’s opening

day, a few companies have let slip what they will be showing this year. As well as revealing new products, Audio-Technica will be showing its recently released BP894 MicroSet subminiature cardioid condenser headworn microphone. Featuring a rotating capsule housing with talk-side indicator and perfect polar pattern placement the MicroSet BP894 allows the cardioid capsule to be aimed directly at the sound source. B&C will be showing its 8NDL64 woofer. Incorporating a 2.5in copper voice coil, this new 8in woofer features a 350W nominal power rating, which is 70% more than B&C’s typical 2in voice coil woofers. The double roll surround design also uses a shorting copper cap for extended highfrequency performance and a ventilated voice coil gap for reduced power compression. With low distortion, a well-behaved frequency response from 80-4,000Hz, and a respectable 97dB sensitivity, the neodymium magnet 8NDL64 is intended to be a versatile addition to the B&C line. Blue Mics has announced details of a new small-diaphragm condenser microphone named Hampton. Designed for live and studio applications, Hampton features Blue’s B1 small-diaphragm, cardioid condenser capsule. Measuring less than 8in tall with a rotating head, it is designed for optimal placement and convenient adjustment. Studiomaster is debuting numerous new products at NAMM 2014, where

the company will occupy its largest ever exhibition stand. The new Studiomaster Venture Series is described as an ultralight, high-power, high-performance PA series, comprising 12in and 15in twoway cabinets, and a matched 18in sub; available in both 1,000W active and passive models. Two other major new Studiomaster product series at NAMM are the final production versions of the Horizon powered and passive professional portable mixers and the Starlight combined stage-sound and lighting cabinets. AWARDS As part of this year’s Winter NAMM Show H.O.T Zone, 10 of the top proaudio inventions of the past century will be inducted into the ninth NAMM Foundation TECnology Hall of Fame. “Modern-day audio and recording professionals all have the early fathers of invention to thank for superior creativity and breakthrough ideas that allow for 21st century innovations,” said George Petersen, TECnology Hall of Fame chairman. “It is both beneficial and important to honour these early pioneers who made significant contributions that continue to be heard all around the world.” This year’s inductees range from the first practical audio amplifier from Western Electric in 1915, through to the 1964 Studer J37 four-track recorder (used for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) as well as the 1984 Klark Teknik DN360 graphic EQ, 1991 Genelec 1031A active studio monitor, and the 1998 Royer Labs R-121 ribbon microphone. www.namm.org

Studiomaster will launch its Venture Series of PAs

14 January 2014

www.audiomedia.com

SHOW PREVIEW ISE 2014

On Trend In our second preview of the pro-AV industry’s best-attended tradeshow, we focus on the technology and trends that will be shaping the sector in the year ahead and beyond.

THE LATEST technology from across the pro-AV market will be on show in Amsterdam during ISE 2014 (4-6 February). Once again the audio sector will be well represented with a host of product launches planned. Alcons Audio is presenting the CRS8 surround high-fidelity full-range

EV’s Sx600 conforms to the EN54-24 EU standard

16 January 2014

loudspeaker. Designed for the digital cinema market, the CRS8 is a two-way passive-filtered loudspeaker and features one proprietary RBN401 pro-ribbon driver for MHF and a vented reference-quality 8in mid-bass for LF reproduction. Biamp Systems will be launching a number of substantial updates to its Tesira, Nexia, and Vocia product lines at ISE 2014. “Over the past decade ISE has established itself as the most important AV show in the European market. The level of innovation and thought-leadership on offer each year continues to impress even an industry veteran like myself,” said Graeme Harrison, EVP of marketing at Biamp Systems. “We’re very excited for this year’s event and we believe that ISE offers us an excellent venue to launch and showcase some of the key products that will drive our market strategy moving forward. We want to build on the achievements of 2013 and believe this year’s ISE will be our most successful ever.” Biamp will be hosting product presentations throughout the show, giving attendees an opportunity to speak directly with the company’s sales and technical teams, as well as get a hands-on demonstration of the new products. C-Mark Audio will be showing two new digital mixers – the 24-channel CDM24 and the CDM12 ‘universal’

mixing technology, now available in mini mixer. On the input side the audio mixers from Yamaha, Avid, and CDM24 offers 16 mic/line plus four Waves Audio. stereo analogue inputs (with +48V The Dugan-MY16 card for a wide phantom power and phase switch on variety of Yamaha mixers provides up each mic input channel), two SPDIF to 16 channels of automatic coaxial and two SPDIF optical fibre microphone mixing per card at 48kHz ports, an AEX/EBU port, and one on-board digital audio source. It has 12 or eight channels at 96kHz. Channels can be partitioned into as many as three mixing busses, supporting the main independent auto-mixers. It includes and monitor outputs, four-channel Windows or Mac software for virtual group output, four-channel AUX remote control over a local network. output via analogue, AES/EBU, The Dugan-VN16 for Avid Venue SPDIF optical fibre, and coaxial consoles manages multiple live interfaces. A USB interface supports microphones to keep gain consistent digital disk recording. throughout the system. It offers 16 The CDM12 is aimed at providing auto-mixing channels or eight autoa “really affordable and easy-to-use mixing channels plus eight channels of choice for various small and mid-size ADAT I/O, and may be linked with applications”. The 12-input unit up to seven other Dugans to expand features: a professional audio DSP the number of microphones in the processing core and algorithms; 24-bit system. It is operated from the Dugan A-D/D-A conversion; analogue and Control Panel for Java (included), or a digital interfaces, including optical separate iPad app. fibre, coaxial, and AES/EBU; threeWaves Audio’s new Dugan band parametric EQ input and nineAutomatic Mixer plug-in is a software band graphical EQ output; and eight emulation of the popular Dugan mixing channels, supporting main, Speech System for managing multiple AUX and sub output, preview, and live microphones. It is Waves monitor output. MultiRack SoundGrid – and Dan Dugan Sound Design’s Model MultiRack Native – compatible and E-2 automatic mixing controller for works on 32 or 64 channels. live microphones is the company’s new Bosch brand Electro-Voice will be top-of-the-line automatic mixing showing its latest loudspeakers that controller with analogue I/O in a have been certified to conform with smaller frame, and at a lower price EU standard EN54-24. The company’s than its predecessors. Sx600 series two-way loudspeakers, It includes eight channels with both Dugan Music System and Dugan Gain EVF-1122S front-loaded systems, EVH-1152D horn-loaded systems, Limiting (analogue I/O), and 12 and Zx1i series two-way loudspeakers channels with Dugan Speech System now satisfy the European standard for (analogue I/O) or 16 channels with Dugan Speech System (ADAT digital). voice alarm systems. “The certification of our It comes with the Dugan Control loudspeakers to conform with the Panel for Java, and can be controlled EN54-24 standard offers our either via an iPad app, the Model customers Europe-wide CP-2 physical control panel, assurance that or the front panel mute they and bypass buttons. The E-2 links with all meet other digital the rigorous Dugans to form requirements it lays larger systems. out,” commented Oliver The company will also be Sahm, technical support highlighting its C-Mark Audio’s new 24-channel digital pro audio, EMEA. seamless auto- mixer, the CDM24

SHOW PREVIEW ISE 2014

The latest addition to the 4000 Series of loudspeakers, designed for the AV install market, will be on show at the Genelec stand. The active loudspeakers are suited to music playback and speech amplification projects, which makes them a strong choice for critical commercial installations. The speakers’ Directivity Control Waveguide provides broad and flat coverage for precise imaging in all environments, while Practical Room Response Controls optimise the loudspeaker’s tonal characteristics for any environment. Once installed, overload protection ensures reliability and 12V contact closure allows for seamless integration with any in-house automation or AV control system. Lawo has integrated D’accord into its JADE software tool and EDIT editing software. JADE is a powerful software tool for PC-based audio and broadcast production, which acts as a mediator between audio hardware and software, allowing the use of multiple audio interfaces for one or multiple audio applications without restrictions. The release of JADE 1.0.2 adds a number of new features, including ASIO direct monitoring support; this allows low-latency monitoring connections for ASIO devices,

centrally managed in JADE environments. Furthermore, it adds up to four independent WDM driver instances, enabling separated audio input and output connections for applications that rely on Windows audio driver interfaces. In addition, a limited access mode now permits hiding the access to the configuration for easy and failsafe end-user operation. Designed for the calibration and verification of cinema sound systems, the XL2 Cinema Meter from NTi Audio is being showcased by the company at ISE. Taking NTi Audio’s XL2 acoustic and audio analyser and extending its capability with the cinema option, an interactive assistant guides the cinema engineer through dedicated measurement scripts for what the company describes as intuitive management of audio performance requirements. With the introduction of dBu, dBV and volt measurement units, the handheld XL2 Analyzer is now able to www.audiomedia.com

Dan Dugan Sound Design’s Model E-2 automatic mixing controller

determine the spectrum of audio devices, measuring the frequency response as well as the intrinsic noise spectrum of an audio device. The latest V2.60 release of XL2 Analyzer firmware enables on-site measurement of all commonly used noise curves according to ANSI and ISO standards. It determines the acoustic noise spectrum of a room and immediately displays the results, together with the reference curves, according to the standard selected by the operator. Rane will highlight the fact that users can now control its HAL DSP system with any device, anytime, anywhere. On show at ISE are the latest version of HAL (HAL4) and Rane’s EXP7x device. Featured in the box, and now on Rane’s website, is Halogen 4.0 software, which adds support for the Web Controls feature in any HAL, as well as a firmware update to existing HAL

Riedel will be showing new universal video I/O cards for its MediorNet Modular realtime network.

devices that enables customisable web pages to be created within Halogen. Simply run the custom page(s) on any smartphone, tablet or computer’s web browser; no iTunes store or app installs are required. Riedel will be showing new universal video I/O cards for its MediorNet Modular real-time network. Supporting a variety of small form-factor pluggable (SFP) optical transceivers, the MediorNet MN-COPT-HDMI and MN-HDO-4IO cards enable the flexible configuration of MediorNet systems for bidirectional transport of analogue composite video, HDMI, DVI, and optical or coaxial SDI signals. Depending on the SFP transceivers installed, the cards can provide a combination of either four HD (1.5G) or two 1080p (3G) bidirectional video signals or analogue video, HDMI, DVI, or optical SDI video I/O. The HDMI ports employ self-locking mini HDMI connectors.

Also new is the CPX-AVB expansion card, which allows its Artist 1100 series Digital Matrix Intercom control panels to interface with AVB (Audio Video Bridging) networks, allowing all of the panel’s ports to be accessed from across the entire AVB network. It is a dedicated card that converts two Artist ports to the AVB network and vice versa. To further enable signal integration, Riedel offers a comprehensive suite of AVB-enabled interfaces for its Artist intercom platform. Besides the existing Connect AVB X8 panel interface, the Connect AVB C8 offers eight AES connections on BNC. The device supports both bidirectional AES for intercom panels and unidirectional transport for broadcast AES. The Connect AVB A8 provides eight analogue inputs and outputs on RJ45 connectors. Riedel’s AVB Manager offers full AVB network management and features system-wide control of all AVB components. One of the first Indian companies to enter the world of reference-grade pro audio, Sonodyne is showcasing its Opus speakers, which merge the worlds of digital content and analogue electro-acoustics. Product highlights include: a Kevlar cone woofer and midrange to minimise cone breakup and distortion; a Kevlar cone midrange and silk dome tweeter in waveguide for controlled dispersion; and transparency in critical mid, upper mid band, and soundstaging. Opus, says Sonodyne, also features DSP-enabled crossover for smooth on and off axis response, a Class AB power amplifier with MOSFET output stage for exceptional dynamics, high-grade SMD components used in compact two-layer PCB for reduced noise, an aluminium/MDF rigid enclosure to minimise vibrations, and software tuned ports for maximum LF extension. The new Stealth Acoustics SA2400 dual-channel amplifier with

built-in DSP is claimed to offer “maximum ease and flexibility of powering and tuning Stealth speakers or other speaker systems”. Rated at more than 450W RMS per channel, the SA2400 uses Stealth’s Class A/B output stage coupled to a traditional high-current power supply for professional output and long-term reliability. It also marks the debut of the newly designed Stealth Signal Management System (SSMS), which allows for complete per-channel programming of advanced DSP features including: 11 bands of fully parametric EQ; high/low pass filters with variable slopes; fully programmable limiters; and delay and phase controls. All SSMS functions can be programmed from the front panel, or via Stealth’s free SSMS software via USB connection to the amplifier. Several new products for the installation market are making their debut at the Yamaha Music Europe GmbH stand. Among other items, Yamaha is adding to its Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) series with EN54-24 certified versions of the VXC and VXS loudspeaker ranges, which are specifically designed for use in PA/VA voice alarm systems. At the show, Yamaha is demonstrating its full CIS series, including all VXC and VXS loudspeakers, XMV multichannel amplifiers, MTX matrix processors and DCP controllers. www.iseurope.org

Sonodyne’s Opus speakers will be at ISE 2014

Published by sister title Installation, thedaily is the official newspaper of Integrated Systems Europe. Produced from an office just off the showfloor, it is printed overnight and distributed each morning of the event. To get involved in any of these issues contact ian.graham@intentmedia.co.uk or les.wood@intentmedia.co.uk

January 2014 17

NEWS ANALYSIS

Keeping Sound in the Cloud Kevin Hilton investigates the recent use of Cloud-based storage for post-production facilities and how it is changing the audio industry. SOUND HAS a nebulous quality. We are aware of it through our sense of hearing but as far as music recording, broadcasting, and live sound are concerned, when there is no playback the only real pointer to its existence is the equipment involved in its creation and reproduction – mixing consoles, recording/editing workstations, microphones, loudspeakers – and the buildings where that kit lives. While these physical pieces of gear are still necessary, the audio (and any accompanying video) can now be even more removed from the physical tools of its creation and held in Cloud storage. This not only reduces the amount of space needed at the actual facility for server stores but also makes it easier for anyone involved in productions to load material and then access and work on it from any location. The Cloud has followed other IT innovations into the broadcast, music, and live sound domains despite initial doubts and concerns about reliability and security. The main selling points of Cloud storage – flexibility of use and access, easy connectivity, and a large data capacity without the need for installing an expensive ingest and data server infrastructure – have won over many companies and operators in the broadcast and post-production sectors. A recent high-profile adopter of the technology is dock10, the TV studio and post operation at MediaCityUK (MCUK) in Greater Manchester. The MCUK development at Salford Quays began in 2007 with MediaCity Studios, a complex of sound stages for film and TV drama production built into the old Pie Factory. That continues to run today but more attention has been given to the neighbouring MCUK ‘campus’, housing the main TV studio centre, three BBC buildings, and other blocks for ITV, independent production companies, and the University of Salford media department. The HD/5.1 facilities at The Studios block opened during 2011. The BBC moved several departments, including Sport and Children’s, up to Salford that year and is committed to using at least two studios on an ongoing basis. Cynics in the industry 18 January 2014

MCUK was built on the site earmarked for the 10th dock at Salford Quays

viewed MCUK as a one-client facility but the number of producers using the studios as well as leasing office space on site has increased in the past year or so. TOP TEN The Studios were rebranded in the middle of 2012 as dock10 (there were nine docks at Salford Quays in its industrial heyday; MCUK was built on the site earmarked for the 10th) and has expanded its original in-house post department to include independent facilities leasing space in a post-production hub known as The Landing. Dock10 initially had one dubbing suite, featuring a 48-channel Avid ICON desk with Pro Tools. Last year it was joined by a new audio room, Dub 2, a smaller area with a 24channel Avid C24 controller. It was co-designed by dubbing mixer Mike Stewart, a well-known presence on the north-west post-production scene with a long list of drama credits. The theatre is used, under his old company name The Sound House, for Stewart’s regular clients, but is promoted as a dock10 facility. Audio is a growth area at MCUK, with London mixing, voice recording, and ADR specialist Tamborine Productions opening a new room at The Landing and production company Timeline

Television North running a Pro Tools with D-Control studio in a building adjacent to The Studios block. The studios and facilities at dock10 feature the latest equipment and technology, including a Calrec Audio Hydra2 network, for fully integrated TV production. But in many ways the real selling point in a broadcast/post market where most facilities have the same gear, is dock10’s IT infrastructure. The campus is fully cabled for fibre connectivity, which allows internet access over the site and provides audio and video connections not just round the building but also out on the central piazza. Over the past year or so dock10 has built on that by offering Cloud services, working in conjunction with Hilversum-based CentralParq, which was set-up by live post-production company Infostrada. The system comprises four stages, beginning with capture, during which the project is assigned its own QR (Quick Response) code and metadata is created to identify the content. This is followed by ingest, from a laptop or desktop using the Mediadoq interface to sync metadata with the media files. Once in the system, different users with access to the material (some in remote locations) can work on it as low-res proxies over online connections. The fourth stage is final

editing, using platforms including Avid, EVS, and Quantel. A spokesman for CentralParq said the original audio settings were not touched and are kept as they were when the sound was recorded. REMOTE WORKING Dock10’s position in adopting Cloud working is that it eliminates what are described as “convoluted, frequently broken delivery paths, long lead times and waiting cycles, and panic communication”. Commercial director Ian Munford comments: “We can deliver both digital media and Cloud services with a blend of skills combining broadcast and IT. We have connectivity with BT circuits and Sohonet but we asked ourselves what happens if someone is not on the MCUK campus. So now people can ingest material wherever they are and the material is delivered to the editing suites or anywhere else it is needed.” CentralParq is a private Cloud system with personalised codes issued to users for full security. While dock10 is based mostly on Avid systems, both Media Composer and Pro Tools, the Cloud technology is “vendor independent”. It connects to local storage, in this case ISIS for online, Isilon nearline, and Spectra Logic in the archive, with file transfer based on Signiant software. www.audiomedia.com

GEO FOCUS SCANDINAVIA

Nordic Noise Consistently ranked in the top countries to live in the world, the Scandinavian triumvirate of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have recently produced some of the most influential technologies and services in the audio industry.

POPULATION: DENMARK – 5.6 MILLION NORWAY – 5.1 MILLION SWEDEN – 9.5 MILLION WHILE FIRST thoughts of the Northern triumvirate of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark can conjure images of pristine fjords and the mindful design aesthetic that made Ikea the furnishing superpower it is today, the countries could just as equally be recognised for their influential pro-audio industries, which include everything from worldclass recording studios to manufacturers of industry-shifting technologies. In the music industry, Sweden in particular has made its mark by producing artists ranging from ABBA and Ace of Base, to some of the biggest electronic acts of the past few decades (Eric Prydz, Swedish House Mafia, and Avicii, to name a few). Yet, it is not only the musicians themselves that have made their mark on the global audio industry. Spotify, the Sweden-based music streaming service has, since its launch in 2008, fueled the access vs. ownership debate that is ravaging the traditional recording industry model. In its latest annual review, Spotify revealed that 24 million active users

had streamed over 4.5 billion hours of music in 2013 with Daft Punk, Avicii, Robin Thicke, and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis making the service’s list of most-played artists. Yet the company’s quick rise to recognition has not been without its own share of controversy, with many artists outspoken about the low amount being paid out to rights holders.

better long-term… but that’s hard for people to understand. “All they see is millions of streams and they see, you know, not millions of dollars in the end, but thousands of dollars, and they think that a million streams is compatible to a million downloads, which it obviously isn’t.” The region’s film and TV industries have also seen a sharp rise in popularity over the past few years with

“The move from physical music to digital is the single-biggest shift in the industry since the invention of the recording.” Daniel Ek, Spotify In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last summer, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek commented that “[the move from physical music to digital] is the single-biggest shift in the industry since the invention of the recording”, and that “the focus of the artist ought to be how to maximise the number of streams, because that, in turn, will be

Danish crime dramas such as The Bridge and The Killing broadcast internationally, prompting adaptations for US audiences. The film adaptations of Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium Series’ have also achieved critical acclaim internationally with the first film in the series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) grossing more than

$100 million (£60 million) worldwide. Along with the region’s audio technology companies and content creators, Scandinavia has spawned a number of top pro-audio manufacturers. Denmark-based DPA Microphones has been in the news lately due to the increased market presence brought about by CEO Christian Poulsen (who famously took Swedish high-end camera brand Hasselblad into the digital era). Since taking over from the company’s founder, Morten Stove, Poulsen has changed DPA’s image, streamlining its branding, and, most recently, striking a deal with global private equity firm The Riverside Company (see news, page 13). Other pro-audio brands from the region that have flourished globally include Danish holding company TC Group, which includes TC Electronic, Tannoy, and Lab.Gruppen, among others.

>>> DISTRIBUTOR

Denmark’s Matrix Group Appoints new CEO WHEN THREE of Denmark’s biggest pro-audio players came together to start the Matrix Group in 2011, the ultimate goal was to become a resource that would provide a one-stop shop for the country’s entertainment industry. The group comprises three separate and distinct companies: pro-audio distributor Matrix Sales, which handles distribution in Denmark for Shure, L-Acoustics, Midas, Powersoft, RCF, Klark, DIS, and Proel, among others, servicing everyone from rental companies to

20 January 2014

musicians; Nordic Sales, which is a specialist broker of used audio, video, and lighting equipment that also takes on project sales and installations; and Nordic Staging Systems – a manufacturer and developer of staging systems and barriers. An 18-year veteran of the Scandinavian pro-audio business, Thomas Christensen joined as CEO of Matrix Group this month after a stint as manager of the audio department at Nordic Rentals, also based out of Denmark.

“Thomas is highly qualified for the job, has a good knowledge of Matrix Group and the industry as a whole, and I am convinved that he is the right man to take the company forward into the growth plan we have for the future,” commented Matrix Group chairman Claus Reher-Langberg. Christensen takes over as the group’s leading figure for recently departed CEO Kenneth Bremer, who joined the group in March 2012. www.matrixgroup.dk

www.audiomedia.com

GEO FOCUS SCANDINAVIA

>>> SOUND DESIGNER

Tormod Ringnes Three-time Amanda Award-winning sound designer Tormod Ringnes talks about his work on Kon-Tiki and the growing Norwegian film industry. How did you get started in the industry? After film school I had an internship with a great Norwegian sound designer, Jan Lindvik. He got me going early on as a sound editor on Norwegian feature films and the first big one I worked on was the Oscar nominated Søndags Engler [The Other Side of Sunday]. I worked with him for about 10 years before I began working with other companies that later became very successful in feature film and advertising. With the success of films such as Kon Tiki, which was nominated for both an Oscar and Golden Globe last year, where do you see the Norwegian film industry going? It is a very exciting time for both Norwegian and Scandinavian film. Several of the feature films I have worked on have garnered success abroad. It used to be very rare that our films had either been seen or heard about beyond the Norwegian border but now we see more and more cross-border co-productions between the Scandinavian countries. They also have larger budgets as a result of larger audiences. I think films like Kon-Tiki helped other productions reach out into the world and raised the bar on the quality of filmmakers here in Norway. Speaking of Kon Tiki, tell me about creating the sonic landscape of the film. What sort of ‘sound story’ were you trying to tell? We started early in the production to create a separate soundscape for KonTiki and had discussions that [the raft] needed its own indigenous voice and therefore the composer, Johan Søderqvist, made many different recordings using conch shells because they sound like the oldest instrument in the world. We also made recordings with several other ethnic instruments in order to produce a soundscape that blended well with the overall sound design. For us it was important to work subjectively with the sound design. We always wanted to work with how Thor and the rest of his crew experienced

www.audiomedia.com

and felt about the situation they were in by creating a sort of hyperrealism. Due to the fact that almost all sound was exchanged, we were able to work on the small details, select what was to be heard and often amplify the tiniest sound in order to create a subjective realism. In going beyond reality and trying to give a subjective experience driven by the different characters’ states of mind, it made it possible to substantiate and drive the story (i.e. when removing the sounds of squeaks and water, other sounds will come forward like a sort of extreme realism). All of a sudden one can hear breathing, or a cigarette ember that will describe that perhaps things are not in order. We had discussions early on with the directors about making the raft as a character of its own in the film. Like everyone else, both on screen and in real life, the raft also changed during the 101 days they were at sea. We adapted this notion to the story’s development so that the raft eventually became more willful and the crew became more and more captive under its influence. So the raft’s actual sound changes from a tight, well-tied raft, to a looser, creaking tumble of logs. In essence, the raft took on its own soul and had its own mood. How did you go about defining the sound of the raft? Basically, we had some sound recordings taken from the shoot at sea, so we did have some sort of documentation on how the raft actually sounded. Based on that, we were able to make a whole variety of raft noises/sounds. With this sound library, we were able to make the sound design a subjective point of view of the characters on board and how they evolved during the voyage under the influence of the raft, and not just the raft itself. We ended up building the whole soundscape of the raft from the very beginning and used very little of the production-sound from set. Besides recording all sorts of sounds from waves to storms, we made all the movements, creaks, ropes, sail, and not to mention the

roof of the cabin. This enabled us to make some sort of geographic placement on a relatively small area, by laying specific sounds in specific channels. What were some of the other major concerns on the audio side? For Kon-Tiki, we were very concerned about dynamics. In some scenes we go large with lots of sound, but it was also important to have the courage to use nothing. Silence is incredibly powerful and instrumental in the film’s sound. Kon-Tiki is in many ways an ensemble cast where the ship’s crew is ‘trapped’ on this little raft. With the use of sound, and the absence of it, we can create a claustrophobic experience on the raft itself, while at the same time the ocean can seem infinitely large. In one scene where the whale shark is approaching the raft dead-on, we built the scene with lots of sound and tension along with the score. But then the whale shark takes a dive and we view it underwater as it floats under the raft. We tried a lot of different sounds to make the whale shark feel big, but realised that going quiet with a few clicking sounds and bubbles made the whale shark feel gigantic. Both the directors and we wanted to work with the dialogue inspired by ‘New Hollywood’ films. To bring out the ‘documentarian’ and realism we put a lot of effort in placing the dialogue in the mix according to picture a little more than what is common today. We worked a lot on the perspective and placement, even on the raft. That added a lot of life and dynamics to the story, and we could often tie together several other storylines by choosing where to focus. Much of the inspiration for that came from Robert Altmans MASH (1970), which was shot with big epic pictures where the sound

had to decide what was in focus, often with the dialogue overlapping. Also, Francis Ford Coppolas The Conversation (1974) for its dialogue and the radio sequences among other films from that era. How closely did you work with directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg? Baard [Haugan Ingebretsen], who I shared the sound design job with, and I have worked with Espen and Joachim since their first short film and previously on Max Manus. We design a lot of sound during editing and start early on with the whole soundscape in total, including the music. I became the middleman, or link, between the composer Johan Søderqvist and the production team. It was important to create a soundtrack, a combination of music and sound effects, that would function as an emotional unit, with the aim of making the audience not know where one started and the other ended. Using Skype for daily discussions, we collaborated on cues and sound design concepts before I would show the sketches to the two directors. What upcoming projects do you have planned for the New Year? I have already begun work on a feature film called Beatles. It’s an adaption of a well-known Norwegian coming-of-age novel. We are very lucky to have obtained licenses to many of the great Beatles songs and we will record all the music next to Abbey Road Studios. I am also in negotiations regarding a large-scale Hollywood production that possibly could be in post production in 2015, so the future looks bright!

January 2014 21

BROADCAST FOCUS

Last But Not Least Mixing great TV drama is more than just pushing faders and keeping the levels at the relevant broadcast spec. Will Strauss talks to three leading dubbing mixers in this TV drama dubbing masterclass.

Howard Bargroff, Sonorous Post Selected TV drama credits: Sherlock, Luther, Broadchurch, Ripper Street, Law and Order: UK Kit: Pro Tools TO BE an exceptional TV drama dubbing mixer, argues Bafta Craft award winner and Emmy nominee Howard Bargroff, you need to be patient, diplomatic, and have a good sense of story. Oh, and you need to know how to read minds. “People ask for things and you kind of know what they mean but they don’t ask you directly,” he says, slightly tongue-in-cheek. “Now, through experience, quite often, I will know what [a director is] going to say before he or she says it.” It’s a skill that also comes in handy when attempting to interpret people’s ideas, and sometimes the solution can be something simple. “I’ve had a 10-minute long explanation about a sound and about how it should transform a scene,” he says. “And I’ve just turned it up by 2dB and they say ‘yes, you’ve nailed it!’” Like most dubbing mixers, Bargroff is generally the last link in the drama production chain but that has started to change. “With [ITV drama] Broadchurch, before they’d even locked the first episode, we sat down and we had a big tone meeting with everyone to decide which bits of the guide track we liked,” he reveals. “Ideally I like to get involved as a show is being edited, at the point at which they’re deciding on the tone of it. That way I can get involved and can start talking about making broad [sound] brush strokes.” At whatever stage he gets on board, Bargroff describes himself as a very instinctive mixer. “On Sherlock, all of the weird sequences with all the funny graphics and noises,

Scott Jones, Molinare Selected TV drama credits: The Bible, Yonderland, The Wrong Mans, Silent Witness Kit: Pro Tools AS FAR as Molinare’s Scott Jones is concerned, doing a great drama mix requires technical know-how and high levels of diplomacy. “You’ve got to have a good knowledge of the tools you’re working with, an understanding of what a soundwave is, and an awareness of all the ingredients that make up sound,” he says. “If you can get that then you’ve got a good chance of twisting and turning sounds into whatever it is you want to make.” “You also need to be adaptable with clients,” he adds. “They’ve probably been working on the project for a long time so you need to adjust to their wavelength and suggest things that they may not have thought of. You also have to be cool under pressure, especially when there are a lot of clients in the room.” Jones acknowledges the importance of teamwork, of being involved in a project as early as possible, and of making the most of what you’ve got. After that it’s all about dynamics. “I’ll spend a day dialogue pre-mixing, cleaning up the dialogue, mixing in the ADR, and then a day on the FX pre-mixing. Then I’ll add the music with the Foley. Every time you add something, the dynamics change in the sound. Then I’ll look at what holes we’ve got and what else we can put in the scene to make us feel like we’re in the story.” His biggest recent challenge was on The Bible, a History Channel mini series for which the sound was Emmy nominated. Jones says that the signature scene

22 January 2014

Sherlock (courtesy BBC)

they’re all track-laid, but none of them have a plan or a concept. If you presented me with a new episode I couldn’t tell you what I would do with every section. I would just start mixing it and I would know if it does or doesn’t feel right.” A big fan of technology, Bargroff likes to be ready for all eventualities ahead of the final mix, pulling together a soundscape that is not complete but works from start to finish. “If I haven’t been given guidance up front I’d rather just turn up with my interpretation,” he says. “Everything is live but at any point I can press play and it should just run as a proper cohesive whole – but with flexibility built in everywhere. Any take of ADR, any treatment, any music can be changed. This offers complete flexibility for the client.” Experienced in both TV and film, does his style change depending on the medium? Other than “minor technical considerations in level”, no. “What I change is story,” he says. “Telling the story is our entire job.” www.sonorouspost.com

where Moses parts the sea was particularly tricky: “It had people chasing people, horses, carts, thousands of extras, the parting of the waves, screaming, shouting, dialogue, and driving music. The energy was fast, it’s cut big, it’s epic. That one four-minute scene took nearly two days.” The key to making it work was finding ways of dropping bits of sound to make other bits heard and ensuring that the scene maintained its intensity but wasn’t just a “wall of mush”. To do this, Jones made sure he filled up the full spectrum of sound. He says: “You’ve got levels that are high continuously so what you do is find frequencies that aren’t being used and fill them up with something else, finding or making pockets for the dialogue to sit in, EQ out the waves or the sea, and push it through. But without anyone hearing the fades or the mix. It should be smooth. That is the whole trick of being a great mixer.” www.molinare.co.uk

The Bible (courtesy The History Channel)

www.audiomedia.com

BROADCAST FOCUS

Nigel Heath, Hackenbacker Selected TV drama credits: Downton Abbey, Whitechapel, Spooks, The Musketeers Kit: AMS Neve MMC and Pro Tools “[A great mixer will] bring something worthwhile to the production, rather than just being the bloke who blends it all together soundwise,” argues Hackenbacker’s double Bafta Craft award winner, Nigel Heath. “By dropping sounds on certain scenes or playing something mute that would normally have a sound you can increase the sense of drama.” And to do that successfully, you really need to be a team player: “An awful lot of hard work and consulting goes on with the exec, the director, and the composer beforehand,” he says. “If they say it’s really important that a moment is really quiet, I’ll make the scene before it sound super frenetic so that when we get to that quiet moment it seems super quiet. It’s about collaboration.” Once a tone is agreed, his modus operandi is a simple but effective one. “I work very quickly,” he says. “I do that because if I mess around with [the mix] too much I think I’ll spoil it. I love seeing people’s reactions in the studio when you do something a bit mad or unorthodox. And we’ll lock it off there and then because it might be useful. You have to tap into your gut reactions. And they’re normally the good ones. If you over refine you can spoil interesting and original ideas.” Getting clear dialogue is key and Heath ensures they get it absolutely right. “On shows like Downtown Abbey, the dialogue is king. It is beautifully written and is delivered by fantastic actors. That is what we need to get across. “With the editors who supply dialogue tracks to me I am quite a hard task master,” he continues. “We seldom get clarity notes during exec reviews because we tend to get all that stuff done at the pre-mix stage. The first time I hear a scene if I don’t understand a word or two I will send a note up to the editors and they may

www.audiomedia.com

Downton Abbey (courtesy ITV)

find a clearer reading or take and we’ll drop a word or two into the tracks. This avoids you having to push the level to make something clearer. When the director comes in you sound them out about it. If they’re not cool with it, we’ll go back to what they’ve shot but we explain we’re doing it for the clarity of the programme.” In Heath’s experience, one of the biggest challenges for a dubbing mixer working on a TV drama is creating an illusion of size. “I’m doing a show at the moment for the BBC with lots of horses stampeding and swords fights and thunder,” he says, referring to his latest project, The Musketeers. “My challenge is to make the sound the right scale for television so that it’s clear but you still get the dynamism of the story while forcing those guns and those hooves through the screen.” These constraints might be a barrier to some but to Heath, it is one of the beauties of mixing a TV drama. “In telly you cannot do what you like,” he concludes. “It’s a challenge to generate a big explosion for the producer and the exec but still hit PPM 6, if still appropriate, and get the excitement through.” www.hackenbacker.com

January 2014 23

FEATURE LIVE PRODUCTION

DiGiCo consoles were on many bands’ riders for Glastonbury 2013

In Search of Sonic Excellence The quality of live sound found across the performance spectrum from festivals to back-room bars and everywhere in between has improved immeasurably in recent times, Jim Evans sounds out industry views on the state of play. THE ADVENT of digital, new loudspeaker technologies, wireless, in-ear monitoring, and advanced sound processing techniques have all contributed to the now established high levels of sound reinforcement offered to and expected by the paying public. The punters are accustomed to hearing quality sound in their homes and in their cars and wherever else. Not surprisingly, they expect the same in concert halls or festival fields – especially when they’re paying top dollar for the privilege. A number of factors have come into play, not least the change in music industry profit centres. Playing live and the associated marketing spin-offs now provide more 24 January 2014

income than record sales and digital downloads. And technologies originally developed for the recording studio are being adapted for the live sector. A prime example of this is the widely reported move of Solid State Logic into live console manufacture. SSL debuted its Live console (read the full review on page 40) at the 135th AES Convention where the company stated: “The Live combines SSL’s signature audio quality and console ergonomic experience into a unique approach for live performance FOH and stage monitoring sound production, and promises to bring something very special to the live sound arena. Drawing on more than 35

“The quest for the ultimate loudspeaker driver, waveguide design, and sonic purity is still on-going.” Nicola Beretta

years of industry-leading analogue and digital console innovation, the Live has inherited the DNA from multi-award winning, ground-breaking, and much loved consoles for music, broadcast, and post production that SSL has produced over time.” Leading concert sound provider Britannia Row was one of the first to endorse the new SSL desk – using them on Peter Gabriel’s 2013 Back to Front tour. Speaking more generally, MD Bryan Grant notes: “I’m sure sound quality has improved, but I couldn’t honestly quantify it in terms of pure audio quality; audio memory is notoriously short and subjective, and I still believe that the talent of the

engineer is the major factor. I do think that audio quality has definitely been more consistent in recent years. “It’s a combination of better components, better designed speaker systems, better drive systems, and more skilful systems technicians using that equipment to deliver a system to the engineer that is tuned to its optimum for the venue. The importance of the systems technician can’t be overstated. “As with all things audio, there’s no one development that has changed the world. IEMs have generally made the stage environment more manageable, and incremental improvements in speaker design, amplifier design, DSP, etc have made the www.audiomedia.com

FEATURE LIVE PRODUCTION

“Technology keeps moving and so do expectations and needs.” James Gordon A Coda Audio system was used on Volbeat’s recent gig at Oslo Spektrum

tuning of PA systems much more precise. Digital consoles have become extremely powerful tools, although some would argue that many have not necessarily provided audio that is any more pleasing to the human ear than the old analogue mixers. Again, the quality of the audio technicians and engineers has, in general, improved in recent years as companies, manufacturers, colleges, and universities have improved the quality of their training.” Capital Sound provides reinforcement for many major events including the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park (see box out below). General manager Paul Timmins comments: “Sound quality has improved although while

there were significant leaps forward during the ’80s and ’90s, I don’t see the leaps being huge since around 2000 when digital consoles started to become commonplace in live sound. “We are now working in an era of compromise where everyone wants smaller packaging to save transport costs for touring. The improvements in technology are seen mainly in these areas while maintaining audio quality. “The move to digital has enabled more consistent sound, especially at festivals where engineers can load up sessions onto consoles and ensure top level sound reproduction. Modern speaker systems – line array and multi-cellular – can give

much more consistent coverage so everyone in the venue receives good sound rather than just the ones in the expensive seats!” CLEAR POTENTIAL James Gordon, managing director at DiGiCo, says that the potential to provide quality audio at events has never been greater: “There are still challenges but new speaker technology and the arrival of digital consoles has played a key part in solution options. It is still important that engineers get the basics, like microphone position correct, but after that they can really use the options our consoles provide to lift and position the performance. Having that flexibility is an amazing opportunity.

“Digital consoles have certainly played a key part in modern shows. When we launched the D5 it was a 96-channel console into 48 busses. For mid-size consoles, even 10 years on this is the standard quoted specification, but in reality it is too small and restrictive for where shows are going. Technology keeps moving and so do expectations and needs. “We are increasingly seeing the move to SD10, SD5, and SD7 where you can go beyond those decadeold channel and bus restrictions. Having the need to do so may seem over the top today but production sizes and expectations have increased greatly. It is now common for some of our

broadside array – made up of 32 MLX subs – is now a tried and trusted ‘electronic arc’ concept, with one backfacing enclosure for every two forward-facing ones providing cancellation at the rear. “The beauty of this design,” says Capital Sound’s Ian Colville, “is that you can adjust the horizontal dispersion and rear rejection electronically without needing to physically move anything.” In addition, there were 10 delay masts. The front two arcs of four MLA masts each contained seven elements and a single MLD.

For the larger shows, two further delay towers at the back were enabled, made up of eight MLA Compacts. Critical distances were 50m (from FOH to stage), while

large shows to go well over 140 channels and consume 80-plus busses.” And Gordon emphasises the ‘recording studio factor’: “Twenty years ago, investment in studios meant that they had the latest electronic technology compared to the less funded live sound sector. This changed significantly about 10 to 15 years ago when live sound converted into the best medium for artists to make revenue. This now means the advancements in live sound technology have accelerated past the studio developments. DiGiCo has invested into a new brand, DiGiGrid, which is taking the live sound advancements back into the studio in terms of audio quality, networking, and processing flexibility.” Phil Dudderidge, chairman of Focusrite, Soundcraft founder, and live sound engineer, has firsthand knowledge of the market, and stresses the importance of the human element – the skills of those at the controls. “The quality of the technological developments over the years enables the engineer to achieve outstanding results. Unfortunately, the engineer at the desk is often the weakest link, and sometimes because of a reluctance to pay for a true professional!” He continues: “Sound engineers are seriously undervalued; only paying someone £200 to mix a show

NEW TECHNOLOGY CONQUERS HYDE PARK A revolutionary sound system and reoriented stage provided the perfect recipe for the AEG-Barclaycard British Summer Time festival at London’s Hyde Park, as Bon Jovi and the Rolling Stones kicked off the 10-day season attracting crowds of 65,000 people. Historically, Hyde Park concerts have been dogged by offsite noise pollution leading to complaints from local residents and the need to reduce sound levels on site – meaning that the audience couldn’t hear the performances. So new tenants AEG/Loud Sound 26 January 2014

adopted Martin Audio’s Multi-Cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) system to help solve the problem. Sculpted into the oak shrubbery of the concept stage’s proscenium – the inspiration of set designers MDM working with Star Rigging – were left and right hangs of 16 MLA elements (with a single MLD Downfill box at the base). Outfills were provided by 12 MLA (and a single MLD each side) with eight pairs of the small-footprint Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Arrays for front fills. The subwoofer cardioid

the delays were set at 90m (from the stage), 160m and 210m (for the MLA Compacts). www.capital-sound.co.uk www.martin-audio.com www.audiomedia.com

FEATURE LIVE PRODUCTION at an arena or theatre is crazy (and apparently not uncommon) – pay peanuts, get monkeys! So you risk either getting inexperienced or incompetent engineers or the profoundly deaf ! My experience at the O2 a year or so ago was a case in point: the engineer was using all the power, all the time, so that even in ‘quiet’ passages the dB meter on my iPhone app was off the scale. At a good gig it hovers around 95. It was painful. Low pay will not attract or retain really talented engineers and shows, however good the performers, don’t mix themselves. “A recent Barry Gibb concert at the same venue was a delight! The console was an analogue Midas – bliss! To my ears digital consoles rarely sound as good. The PA was from Clair Global. The sound was warm, dynamic, and not over-processed. And the engineer, Randy Lane, knew his craft.” And the impact of digital? “From the console onwards digital audio can provide great benefits; digital audio networking (like the Dante protocol adopted by most of the live sound manufacturers now, and employed in the Focusrite RedNet products), enables low latency, lossless distribution of high channel count 24-bit 48 or 96kHz digital audio. The quality of conversion and microphone preamps is essential to the outcome and can offer quality gains over analogue (long analogue multicore cables suffer signal degradation that has been tolerated until today because

of a lack of a better alternative). “An example of nocompromise studio technology benefitting the live environment, RedNet is now installed in opera houses and is being evaluated by many tour sound companies. (RedNet is fully compatible with other Dante-enabled products, eg consoles). “Certainly since the mid70s engineers have brought studio tools to the live venue – gates and compressors, notably, as well as digital reverbs. This now extends to remotely controlled microphone preamps like the RedNet 4, eight-channel pre. RedNet also offers a bridge to Pro Tools [RedNet 5] and MADI [RedNet 6] as well as 8- and 16-channel A-D/D-A converters [RedNet 1, 2].” LIVE SUCCESS Christian Poulsen, CEO, DPA Microphones, observes: “In recent years it has become harder and harder for artists to make money from just their recorded music, and this has led to an increase in the importance of live music. The feedback we get from our customers is that there are two ways of being successful with live music – either create a really loud sound or create a really good sound. Happily, it seems as though good sound is winning. Creating good sound in most live venues is a challenge – especially for the microphones. DPA’s reputation for delivering high-quality live audio has resulted in a rapid growth in sales for our live microphones. This is especially noticeable across

The Capital Sound team provided kit including an Optocore X6R-FX interface rack for the Nitro Circus Live at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden

our range of directional live microphones for instruments and vocals. “Better directional microphones and the recognition from end users that the more difficult the sound environment, the better the microphone has to be. I don’t feel that digital developments have had a lot to do with the improvement in live sound. The sound is not necessarily better because it is digital, but many digital solutions have offered easier use and probably also, in some cases, more reliable products. But the sound quality for live sound is more about speakers and microphones in my view.”

Console manufacturer Allen & Heath has contributed much to the development of digital consoles for the live sector. Digital product manager Nicola Beretta declares: “The quality of sound is equally dependent on audio technology and on knowledge/expertise of audio professionals. Luckily both have registered a steady growth from the ’60s onwards. PA systems went from column speakers to modified cinema cabinets to the point source clusters of the ’80s, and eventually line arrays. Meanwhile, the term ‘sound engineering’ was coined, books were written,

and today we have schools and learning resources available everywhere. Mixing desks followed a similar path and we are now light-years ahead of those early quadrant-faders and valvebased electronics. “Some say there is not much left to invent in this field but recent progress has proved this wrong – the quest for the ultimate loudspeaker driver, waveguide design, and sonic purity is still on-going.” www.allen-heath.com www.britanniarow.com www.digico.biz www.dpamicrophones.com uk.focusrite.com www.solid-state-logic.com

CODA AUDIO’S PAUL WARD WEIGHS IN ON RECENT ADVANCEMENTS TO THE LIVE SOUND INDUSTRY How much has the quality of live sound improved in recent years? Live sound has improved a great deal over the past 10 years. Artists have to work live nowadays and not just to promote a new album. It’s often through the live performance that their fan base is built. The emphasis on good live sound is a natural consequence of this. www.audiomedia.com

What particular developments (trends and products) have contributed to this improvement? There have been many technical advances in live sound throughout the audio chain. From a loudspeaker perspective, Coda Audio has developed its patented technology at transducer level, offering high fidelity and low distortion

performance, giving great audible improvements. There have also been nonaudible improvements as well including more compact, high-power PAs with lighter weight and quicker set-up times, which all contribute to the sound providers’ efficiency and delivery. Has the further development of recording

studio techniques and equipment had an influence on live sound? There are a number of FOH engineers who also work in studios so there are definitely influences. Additionally, fans visiting a live show have come to expect a high standard from a sound perspective, due in part to advances in studio techniques. www.codaaudio.com January 2014 27

GAME SOUND PRODUCTION

Paper Profit Media Molecule John Broomhall talks with Kenny Young, audio director/composer at Media Molecule, the game developer behind LittleBigPlanet, about creating innovative audio for the new PS Vita title Tearaway. TEARAWAY, THE new adventure game exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation Vita, offers players a tactile papercraft world in which they help a little papercraft messenger buddy deliver the message trapped inside their envelope-shaped head – from the papery world of Tearaway into the real world. It’s original, charming, and engaging, in no small part due to its delightful music and sound content.

chaos. That spawned the idea of a papercraft world – something tactile you could poke and rip through. Then we endeavoured to build upon all the Vita’s other features – traditional gaming controls, front touch, gyros, accelerometer, front and rear cameras, and even the microphone – but, not just in gimmicky ‘because we can’ ways, but in ways that really integrated with the world and story.”

TACTILE Kenny Young, audio director/composer at Media Molecule, which created the audio for the game, explains: “The kernel of the project was Rex Crowle, Tearaway’s creative director, considering how to make use of Vita’s unique rear touchpad and having the idea of one’s (virtual) fingers cleverly emerging into the game world from underneath the handheld console to cause

A MAKE-BELIEVE WORLD OF PAPER The early days of the project were quite frustrating, as Young explains: “People would moan about the game not sounding papery, and I’d bang the same drum for months – the game might look papery, but nothing in it behaves like paper! If nothing in the world moves there’s no excuse to make it sound papery – things have to unroll or tear into existence

28 January 2014

not just slide onto screen! You need papery behaviours to describe with sound – unfolding or ripping to shreds... It sounds obvious, but that’s why games with a papery schtick usually fail at pulling off the illusion – paper isn’t just a look or a sound that you can crowbar in. So when the game world started bending, flexing, folding, crumpling, and tearing like paper, it became

infinitely easier to back it up with sound – subtle stuff like the little sound a flap of paper makes when your messenger walks over it, or the dynamic wind in the game making the grass rustle. “But paper has a limited range of sonic possibilities! There’s a lot you can do but you can’t afford to be slavishly literal the whole time. Conversely, if you ignore the papery requirement, you fail

to support the illusion. Striking that balance and developing that language and aesthetic was a big focus. It was also an early aim to push the ambient soundscape and not have music everywhere. Giving the player a break from the intensity and purpose that music provides (and in doing so creating more impact the next time music appears), and thereby letting the world really speak

The title is designed for Sony’s new Vita handheld console

www.audiomedia.com

GAME SOUND PRODUCTION

for itself was something we embraced.” That said the game does feature a great deal of critically acclaimed original music. And it’s not every day that folk music turns up in a videogame… Young: “Rex drew a lot of influence from his Cornwall upbringing, so there’s a heavy folk-culture influence. Tearaway’s papery world is formed from stories – the notion of storytelling in an aural tradition has an analogue in folk music. My favourite music-writing collaboration moments working with composer Brian D’Oliveira were when I’d

completely analogueelectronic, passing through folk-infused break-beat and dubstep, renaissance-hop, and ambient mash-ups of earlier tracks along the way – quite a ride! GAME AUDIO TECH “Working with Vita wasn’t much different to working on a PS3 actually – you’ve got 16 channels of streaming audio supported ‘for free’ in hardware which places it miles ahead of any other handheld gaming device,” continues Young. “We had two-stem interactive music, a couple of ambient streams plus separate streams for cut-

“Generally you consider it a win to have your game audio work even mentioned in passing in reviews, but people have gone out of their way to call out both the sound and music of Tearaway.” Kenny Young, Media Molecule create variations on a tune he’d written, and then he’d build on top of those. This idea of a tune changing over time, having different versions interpreted by different players and performed in different styles in different cultures is a phenomenon you can see in folk music; it resonates with the game’s attempt to encourage players to customise their experience in order to tell their own version of the story. There’s also a naïve quality to the game’s hand-made papercraft visual aesthetic which finds a brilliant parallel in the handmade soundtrack – folk music is the perfect fit. It doesn’t have to be slick (though it often is these days) – for me it’s about great tunes, dancing, honest emotions, and stories about life. What could be better?” Though the game starts out fairly folky and traditional, over time it becomes deconstructed and surreal as the messenger gets closer towards leaving the paper world and reaching the player in the real world. By the end the music has gone www.audiomedia.com

scene audio, dialogue, and gibberish – with room to spare for special-cases – and we had around 26MB RAM for sound – not bad!” FMOD Designer facilitated configuration and management of all sounds while level assets such as ambiences, music, spotsounds, VO, cut-scene audio, and gibberish were all implemented by the audio team using the proprietary Tearaway level editor. By the end of the project there was a powerful workflow in place. “I’m really happy that sound and music are as much a part of the experience as any other element. That’s the goal, right? And people have responded to this – generally you consider it a win to have your game audio work even mentioned in passing in reviews, but people have gone out of their way to call out both the sound and music of Tearaway. Eurogamer actually opened its review by mentioning how important the audio is. Wow. I think I might wake up at some point...!” www.mediamolecule.com

TIME AND TALENT “Unusually, I was involved pretty much from the beginning – three years ago – when it was just six people working on early concepts, prototypes, and tech. This was a totally new experience for me as normally audio gets involved when the game is defined – but I was able to help invent this world, a new IP, from scratch. Matt Willis handled audio coding duties, and joined the project about six to nine months in, when we had something playable. The sound/music content was primarily put together in the last 12 months of the project when we’d honed the audio direction and developed the audio features in the game engine. “Audio is always up against it, but the chaotic way that Media Molecule works makes things even more, how should I put this, ‘interesting’ for audio – the only way to achieve the high standards people expect from our games is by having a crack team of audio ninjas at my disposal. It’s taken a long time to put together the right team – Ed Hargrave (audio designer, Media Molecule) and Todd Baker (contractor) were a pleasure to work with and brought an amazing attention to detail to the game’s sounds, ambiences, and their implementation. “A sympathetic production department that understands the audio department’s needs is absolutely central to everything we

Kenny Young

do. Siobhan Reddy, our studio director and head of production, makes sure I’m kept up to date, informed, and involved with all the latest goings-on in the project. Games are made by teams, and great teams have a great production department behind them.”

KENNY YOUNG’S GEAR LIST Kenny Young explains: “Central to my approach is a ready-to-go recording setup – a mic is always plugged in, ready for when inspiration strikes. There was an awful lot of bespoke sound required for Tearaway and getting fresh material is always preferable to a library, even if it is proprietary. This is something I provide for everyone on my team and encourage them to use – each edit suite has an AKG C414 workhorse mic and a couple of Clearsonic Sorber baffles to further improve acoustics. “Everyone has the same setup – an RME Fireface 800 with Nuendo, a pretty rock solid standard in PC land. Meanwhile, Ed and Todd were more comfortable with Vegas. I do all my sound effects editing in Sound Forge (an extreme experiment I embarked on when I joined Media Molecule that I’ve stuck with because I find the lack of options and single track editing forces me to be more ruthless, focused, and productive!) and made the jump to version 11, which has been fairly smooth so far. “Brian and I needed to be able to swap sessions, so he invested in Nuendo and I invested in some of his plug-ins (Altiverb, and the FabFilter stuff, both of which are great). This all worked surprisingly well considering he was on Mac and I was on PC. “We make all of our promo videos inhouse, and the Atomos Ninja HDMI capture

box was a really handy way of moving the capture setup from desk to desk.”

Gear list • AKG C414 XLS mic • Neumann U87 mic • Universal Audio LA-610 MkII channel strip • RME Fireface 800 • Genelec 8030 monitors with 7050B sub • beyerdynamic DT250 headphones • Gefen HDMI audio convertor • Nuendo 5.5 (haven’t made the jump to 6 yet – will do now the project has finished!) • Sony Sound Forge 11 • CDN Netmix SFX Databse • Waves plug-ins • FabFilter plug-ins • Audioease Altiverb and Speakerphone plug-ins • iZotope Vinyl and RX Advanced • Ohm Force plug-ins • Camel Audio plug-ins • XILS-lab plug-ins • XLN Audio Addictive Drums • NI Kontakt (almost all the acoustic instruments were live, apart from the tuba – don’t tell anyone!)

January 2014 29

FEATURE STUDIO PROFILE

Photo by Laura Oakley

When Your Ship Comes In

Lightship95 Lightship95 owner Ben Phillips has been consistently busy, recording nearly every day for the last year. Jake Young is welcomed aboard for a tour of a studio on a ship. ARRIVING AT the Trinity Buoy Wharf centre for the arts and creative industries, the site’s long and varied history is quickly apparent. Littered among the Wharf ’s original buoy workshops, which have now been converted into gallery and artistic working spaces, are a number of new rehearsal rooms, a school, a classic American diner, and three of the sustainable Container City buildings built from shipping containers linked together. Yet one of the most striking features of this thriving artistic community is the bright red 1939 lightship moored to the wharf that is home to the contemporary, self-built Lightship95 recording studio that owner and engineer Ben Phillips shares with producer Rory Attwell and engineer 30 January 2014

Jack McKenna, as well as the numerous other producers and engineers who hire it for its unique space and greatsounding live room. After four years of trying to find an interesting, classic building that would fit his plans for a custom studio, Phillips found the decommissioned lightship on the River Medway. Disillusioned by the process and limitations of trying to convert a conventional building, the boat breathed fresh life into his quest. “I just got really fed up with the constant wrangling with planners and local authorities, the tiresome waiting around for solicitors and agents, and all the suited people that go home at 5pm on the dot, have Friday afternoon off, and are on holiday every other week,” says Phillips

With the purchase completed, Phillips made a trip out to David Gilmour’s Thames-based Astoria houseboat to do some initial research: “It’s beautiful but it’s not a boat, it’s a floating summerhouse,” he laughs. “It’s very small; the live room is not much taller than me, but the control room is amazing. The stuff they’ve got in the shed on the land, which they don’t use, is probably more than most people have in most studios. “It’s not a commercial facility. When I was there the guys were just testing cables and they had been for about three weeks. It’s a totally different thing for someone with an infinite pocket to get someone else to build a studio compared to someone who had to shower under a hose for

a year and eat tuna and sweetcorn.” MOVING IN The boat’s conversion took nearly two years, with more than 20 tonnes of steel having to be removed before any of the build could even be started. What is now the large, naturally lit control room started life as the ship’s diesel tank, with the even larger live room situated where the engine once was. The floor is essentially floating and the walls are built on the floor and supported by neoprene mounts all the way around, which join to the ribs of the ship. What would have almost certainly been an impossible project was made viable thanks to the fact that after being automated in the 1980s the ship had been highly modified

with a large amount of the original engines and mechanics removed. While an API 1608 console was originally specified in the design of the studio, a year and a half later when the studio was finished and Phillips was ready to take-up his asset finance the recession was in full swing and he was only offered a third of what was originally promised. Opting for a Calrec console instead, it took Phillips a couple of years to get to the point where he could shell out the money for his long-awaited 1608. “The API is the obvious choice for recording drums and guitar music. There wasn’t really any alternative anywhere in the price range. “I’ve always wanted the space to be good for drum recording and that’s how I www.audiomedia.com

FEATURE STUDIO PROFILE

looked at it from an acoustic point of view. London’s bigger rooms are dwindling and certainly the ones that are affordable are not so great.” Although he would prefer to use more classic recording techniques, the control room is based around the industry standard Pro Tools HD. “It’s a tool and that’s it really,” states Phillips. “I’m not overly enamoured with working with software but there’s no way around it. Budgets and time constraints mean that it’s a necessity.” For the live room, Phillips tried to keep the space as open and live sounding as he could. “There are definitely sweet spots for microphone placement but overall you’d be surprised just by how much separation you can get.” A reverb chamber is in progress with Phillips experimenting with three diesel tanks that run along the middle of the ship, while an isolation booth has been built in one corner. Phillips is also planning to build an extension on the front deck, which in time will be a second studio. “We’re too busy really and we need a second space to move into,” he adds. “It makes a lot of sense to use the space better. Originally there would have been a larger wheelhouse on the front deck, so it’s kind of reinstating it but it will be bigger than it was.” BUILDING AN AUDIENCE Fairly early on in the life of his floating studio Phillips invited international recording studio group Miloco down to have a look at his space. “We’ve gotten really busy by ourselves, and because many of Miloco’s clients are major labels looking for a one-stop shop, booking fairly short notice we don’t do as much work with them as we’d like. To be associated with them is a really good platform for being advertised because they’re a very professional organisation and great to work with.” The majority of Lightship95’s work is repeat work, which is why it has built and built in the past few years. According to Phillips it is www.audiomedia.com

getting clients in the first place, particularly producers, which is the tricky part. “When looking for a studio you look for the safe bet, you don’t look for something that might cause a problem. So until you go somewhere it’s difficult to know. The word of mouth has worked really well for us as well. The whole of February is booked, most of March is booked, and half of April is booked.” Phillips’ most recent sessions in the studio include psych/jazz band Melt Yourself Down, carrying out two or three sessions to make up an album, and prog/electronic geniuses Teeth Of The Sea. www.lightship95.com www.miloco.co.uk

GETTING SHIP SHAPE While the ship’s exterior maintains its vintage appeal, inside Phillips has specified a combination of classic and modern gear to satisfy the needs of the modern recording process. The 300sqft control room features an API 1608 as its centrepiece along with a small amount of outboard and monitors including Quested VS3208s and Yamaha’s classic NS10Ms. The jewel of this seabound studio, however, is the 520sqft live room, which is naturally lit, large enough to fit a whole band, and finished in a ‘classic’ 1980s style. The room’s acoustics have garnered it with a reputation as an

affordable option for highquality drum recordings and it now sees steady work from those unable to squeeze into the time constraints or budget of London’s larger commercial studios. Live recordings are where the studio excels and both the rooms are littered

with gear from Phillips’ personal collection including Sonor and Yamaha kits from the early ’80s, guitar and bass amps from Fender, Orange, Marshall, HiWatt, and Vox (among some of the other, more esoteric options), as well as various synths and effects.

Gear list Console • API 1608 Monitoring • Quested VS3208 active three-way monitors • Tannoy Hafler Pro 2400 • Yamaha NS10M Studio Dynamics/Mic Pres/EQ • AEA RPQ500 • API 525 discrete compressor • API 550A discrete three-band EQ • API 560 • D.A.V. Electronics BG501 mic pre • Drawmer DS201 • Empirical Labs EL-8 distressor • Great River Harrison 32 • Helios Type 69 • Lindell PEX-500 • Lindell 7X-500 • Neve 1073DPA • Purple Audio Action 1176 Compressor • Standard Audio Level-OR DAW hardware • Apple Mac Pro 2x 3GHz Dual-Core • Avid 96 I/O (HD interface) • Avid Pro Tools HD3 • Lynx Aurora 16 16-channel A-D/D-A converter Software • Apple OSX 10.5 • Avid Pro Tools 10 • Various plug-ins January 2014 31

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS STUDIO MONITORS

Expert Witness Mark Thompson, industry veteran and Funky Junk boss, breaks one of his longest-standing rules and offers his thoughts on one of the most intimate subjects: studio monitors. Mark Thompson

MY GUIDE to monitors on the www.proaudioeurope.com website used to read… ‘I don’t advise on haircuts, girlfriends or studio monitors’. Well, age has withered and custom staled me somewhat, and these days I will occasionally advise others about their haircuts. But I still go out of my way to avoid pontificating on more sensitive areas, such as studio monitoring. In the course of my work I advise scores of clients every day. Like grasshoppers at an audio Sufi’s knee, they come seeking enlightenment, definitive answers to life, the universe and everything… everything, that is, to do with their burning desire to make enough racket to terrorise their neighbours. Politely, I explain that only a fool, a simpleton, or a mealymouthed sales-weasel would present opinions as facts when it comes to monitoring. Because so far as loudspeakers are concerned, the preemancipation adage of one man’s meat is another man’s poison holds true. Before going further, I should define what, to me, represents the difference between hi-fi speakers and studio monitors. Most hi-fi speakers are designed to gloss over imperfections in order to 32 January 2014

enhance the listening experience, whereas studio monitors should be analytical, revealing every nuance to enable an engineer to identify, and so rectify, anomalies. And, of course, monitors should reflect a degree of accuracy, ensuring that performances translate faithfully and that every instrument and voice sounds real, assuming that this is the object of the recording exercise. Of course, these are glib generalisations, but they offer an explanation as to why high-end hi-fi speakers are rarely seen in studios. Sure, the lines get blurred and of course there are exceptions with every rule. After all, an outstanding loudspeaker is an outstanding loudspeaker. Take the ubiquitous Yamaha NS10 that started life as a hi-fi speaker, as did the Acoustic Research AR18LS, for many years the nearfield of professional choice after George Martin sneaked a pair from his living room to mix some Beatles tracks. Indeed, I occasionally suggest to clients on real-world budgets – bugger-all cash in other words – to check their local junk shop for a second-hand hi-fi amp and pair of KEF or similar speakers. A hundred pounds judiciously spent on granddad’s cast-offs can deliver excellent results, far better than many expensive Chinese or Indian made ‘professional’ thunderboxes. That’s how I came across my prized Phillips Motional Feedback speakers. I lashed out forty quid on a second-hand pair and fell in love. It was only later that I learnt that Pink Floyd used them to mix The Wall. That sounded OK, didn’t it? You bet. Later on I used to cart a pair of cheap Mordaunt-Short MS10 hi-fi speakers to sessions. I knew them, trusted them and they sounded fine for balancing a mix. I guess I wasn’t alone. I learnt not to leave them in the studio overnight after three pairs went walkabout in quick succession. Come on guys, you know who you are… have you no shame? Beauty is in the ear of the beholder. One size can never fit all. Platitudes, I know, but applicable in respect of

loudspeakers. There are plenty of great engineers who produce awardwinning recordings with monitors that I wouldn’t personally use as bookends. The crucial ingredient is trust. An engineer must trust his or her monitors implicitly. What counts is to ensure that a mix translates faithfully to the cutting room or film and television screen, that what you print in the control room is as close as possible to what you’re going to hear outside. In short, trust means more than technical specifications ever can. The importance of trust in monitoring was bought home to me in the 1980s. My client David Lord, one of the most gifted producers of his generation, regularly used Tim Young at CBS in Whitfield Street to

“There are plenty of great engineers who produce award-winning recordings with monitors that I wouldn’t personally use as bookends. The crucial ingredient is trust.” Mark Thompson master his finished albums (Tim is now at Metropolis I believe). Tim’s cuts sounded wicked, which translates into English as spiffing – top notch and tickety boo. I seem to recall that his room was dominated by a massive pair of Altec dual concentric monitors, the ones with an

exponential horn mounted in the centre of a 15in driver, like Urei 813s. Yet for 98 percent of the time, he listened back through a pair of small two-way Boston A40 hi-fi speakers that carried a massive price tag of £70, almost as much as the cost of an A&R executive’s lunch back then. The Altecs were used rarely, usually when Tim wanted to double-check the bottom end, but even then he seldom had to tweak the Boston cut. He knew those little beauties intimately and trusted them, with reason. As an aside, I would add that none of the producers or mastering engineers I respect monitor at high levels. Not only does sustained volume lead to hearing loss, but the louder the level, the more the room acoustics will affect the sound. No room is perfect and most are far from flat, hence the modern balance and mastering engineer’s preference for near and midfield monitoring most of the time. I always smile when audiophile friends brag about the gazillions they’ve just spent on the latest esoteric hi-fi speakers. ‘You should come and hear the new blah, blah, blah album. It sounds amazing on my humungous thirty-five grand rig.’ ‘No thanks,’ I respond diplomatically, taking care not to mention that I was present when the tracks were mixed… on compact nearfield monitors. And if my friend persists in boring me with details of his latest stereophonic folly, then I proffer some choice bits of advice about his latest girlfriend. That usually shuts him up.

Expert Witness Mark Thompson has worked in most areas of the music industry. After years as a session musician in the early 1970s, he moved into tour production, working with clients such as The Selecter and Haircut 100 before graduating to artist and producer management in the 1980s. That’s when a passion for making records first laid seed, and after a decade of working with major labels such as A+M Records, CBSm and JVC Victor, he founded equipment consultancy and supply company Funky Junk in 1990. Now Europe’s leading supplier of new and used professional audio equipment and services, Funky Junk has branches in London, Paris, Milan, and Vigo, Spain, with clients in more than 50 countries worldwide. www.proaudioeurope.com

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Studio Monitors With such a great variety of frequency, power, and size options available, customers can easily choose a studio monitor that fits their specification and budget requirements. ATC’s SCM25A studio monitors are the manufacturer’s most compact three-way studio monitoring loudspeaker system. They are designed to offer the balance, resolution, and reliability of ATC’s larger three-way systems but in a more affordable and compact package better suited to smaller control rooms,

The Adam Audio A77X powered studio monitor distinguishes itself with transparent clarity, high compression-free sound pressure levels, and a significant dynamic range. As with all models of the AX series, the A77X features Adam’s proprietary X-ART tweeter, which is manufactured by hand at the company’s Berlin headquarters and has a frequency response up to 50kHz. Combining the X-ART tweeter with two 7in woofers creates the ability to produce high sound pressure levels as well as a wide frequency response. Each of the A77X’s 7in drivers has its own dedicated 100W Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) amplifier while the X-ART tweeter is powered by a 50W A/B amplifier for clean, distinct high frequency. www.adam-audio.com

Built to provide the performance of main monitors in a near-field position, the Barefoot MM27’s approach consists of a three-way speaker design with integrated side-facing subs. Now in their second iteration, the Barefoot MM27 Gen 2 incorporates new technology developed by Barefoot for its flagship MiniMain MM12. This includes a 1in ring radiator tweeter powered by an advanced neodymium motor, new Hypex amplification, analogue and AES3 inputs, and brand new DSP technology which offers four ‘voices’ including ‘Old School’ (NS10 type), ‘Cube’ (Auratoneslike) and ‘Hi-Fi’ modes, all selectable from a dedicated remote control. The result is a

more immersive performance with a more accurate stereo image. For smaller studios, the Barefoot MM35 Gen2 provides similar performance in a two-way design. www.kmraudio.com

The ESI uniK 08 monitor features a new 8in Kevlar low-frequency driver and a custom engineered and powerful high-frequency ribbon tweeter with a light membrane. This provides a very clear, strong, and precise sound image especially in the high frequencies. With less moving mass compared to conventional tweeters, a level of impulse response with minimised distortion is achieved. www.esi-audio.com

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production suites, and broadcast facilities. The SCM25A feature drive unit and amplifier technology from ATC’s highest performance studio monitors such as the 75mm/3in soft dome mid-range and Class A/B amplifiers. This ensures that the SCM25A can be integrated with larger ATC monitors when performing as the surround loudspeakers as part of a 5.1 monitoring system or when used as an alternative option alongside larger ATC stereo loudspeakers. Both the 7in bass driver and 3in mid drivers and amplifiers are hand-built by ATC in its UK facility. Precise engineering of the drive unit components ensures that drive unit-borne anomalies that are difficult, or in most cases impossible, to rectify within the electronics are minimised. This makes the integration of the drivers simpler and results in a better balanced, much more linear finished system. The result is that material monitored on the SCM25A loudspeakers is more consistent in a wide range of listening environments and translates with ease to a customer’s own playback system. All ATC products are covered by a sixyear warranty. www.atcloudspeakers.co.uk

The AIR 12 from Dynaudio Professional is a powerful two-way nearfield monitor with an 8in woofer and a 1.1in soft dome tweeter, suiting all sizes of control rooms and OB vans. Its highprecision amp/driver system (+/- 0.2dB accuracy) ensures complete consistency with the entire AIR family in a variety of stereo and 5.1 setups. AIR monitors are also remote controllable via the AIR Remote or the included AIR Soft application, and DSP room adaption allows for customisation for any room construction. The AIR 12’s inter-monitor level calibration feature ensures consistent levels in all sessions, which is extremely important when mixing and mastering regardless of the platform for delivery. www.dynaudioprofessional.com

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

EVE Audio offers a range of two-way, three-way, and four-way professional studio monitors along with four Thunderstorm (TS) subwoofers to complete the Silvercone (SC) series. EVE Audio founder and chief designer Roland Stenz wanted to offer a family sound across the series that would enable different solutions to be put together from simple 2.1 systems to multichannel surround options. The SC305 and SC307 models fall within the middle of the SC range and incorporate three independent drivers and amplifiers to accurately separate the low-, mid-, and high-frequency bands. EVE Audio loudspeakers employ high-resolution Burr-Brown conversion after the analogue input stage that feed directly into Eve’s proprietary DSP filter section. The one-touch multi-function front panel encoder knob allows for room acoustics to be factored and adjusted for a simple tailored response adjustment of the studio environment. Each frequency band within the DSP filter system is fed directly into PWM Class D amplifiers to provide a clean and efficient signal path for the drivers. The bass and midrange drivers are made up of glass fibre coated honeycombed diaphragms with large voicecoils offering a fast and controlled output thanks to the high efficiency PWM amp and driver combination. The high frequencies are taken care of by EVE’s proprietary Air Motion Transformer Tweeter. The result of incorporating these digital filter and amplification technologies along with precision driver manufacturing is a sound that is both forensic and distinctly pleasing on the ears. The fourth order Linkwitz-Riley brickwall filters ensure high frequency cutoff at 21kHz, which minimises the additional high-frequency energy that can often fatigue the ear over prolonged use. Both the SC305 and SC307s are nominated for the TEC Awards to be hosted at NAMM this month. www.nova-distribution.co.uk

Featuring an advanced coaxial design that works integrally with Fulcrum Acoustic’s TQ Temporal Equalisation algorithms, PreSonus’ Sceptre-series CoActual studio monitors deliver clarity and coherence that has previously only been available in ultra-high-end systems yet they are an affordable investment. The series includes two models. The Sceptre S8 CoActual Studio Monitor combines an 8in low/mid-frequency driver and a 1in (25mm), horn-loaded, highfrequency transducer into a single coaxial unit with aligned voice coils. The Sceptre S6 CoActual Studio Monitor’s coaxial speaker integrates a 6.5in low/mid-frequency driver and a 1in, horn-loaded, highfrequency transducer. A 90W RMS, Class D power amp, powers each

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transducer. Both models have acoustic ports. Sceptre’s controls enable full integration into any studio environment. A four-position Acoustic Space switch controls a second-order shelving filter with four attenuation settings to account for the bass response relative to room dimensions and speaker placement. You get a 12dB/octave highpass filter, a switch that adjusts the tweeter's overall level, and a Sensitivity control. All Sceptreseries monitors have a balanced XLR and 0.25in TRS line-level inputs with A-taper level control and offer RF shielding, current-output limiting, and over-temperature protection. An amplifier ‘soft start’ feature eliminates popping on power-up. www.presonus.com

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

The new Genelec 8010 is the smallest member of the 8000 product range. The 8000 Series is widely used in broadcast, music, and postproduction studios across the world. Its professional heritage is reflected in the compact-sized 8010. Suitable for professional work in small studios it offers accurate monitoring capability with ease of installation. The sound quality is said to make 8010 ideal for small studios, OB vans, and a suitable companion for portable recording devices and other mobile production work. Featuring a balanced XLR input, 3in bass driver, 0.75in tweeter, and efficient Class D power amplifiers – one for each driver – 8010 produces more sound pressure level than

you might expect from a monitor of this size. The Intelligent Signal Sensing (ISS) circuitry saves energy by automatically putting the monitor to sleep when the audio signal has been absent for a while. Once a signal is detected again, the monitor wakes up automatically. This circuitry can be bypassed when the automatic standby function is not desired. A full range of versatile accessories is available for 8010, which cover all mounting needs. For example, an elegant Lshaped table stand can be used to optimise monitor orientation towards the listening position and to minimise undesired sound reflections. www.genelec.com

The KRK Rokit Generation 3 Series from Gibson Pro Audio was announced in August 2013 and features the RP5 G3, RP6 G3, and RP8 G3. This latest generation is a natural evolution of the company’s design philosophy: deliver natural, balanced spectral response, with low distortion and superior imaging. High- and lowfrequency amplifier adjustments allow users to tailor the monitor to taste, as well as provide a better ‘fit’ to individual room acoustics; the extended, accurate high- and lowfrequency response results in mixes that translate over a wide variety of playback systems. Focusrite distributes KRK in the UK. www.krksys.com

Mackie MRmk3 Powered Studio Monitors include an allnew minimum-diffraction waveguide for a wider sweet spot and custom-tuned rear porting for smooth, extended bass response. A variety of full-range options and a powerful studio sub are also available. Furthermore, optimised electronics as well as custom-matched amps and drivers add clarity and balance. www.mackie.com 36 January 2014

Bringing professional studio reference monitoring to customers at an affordable price, the 3 Series of studio monitors is the first studio monitor line to incorporate JBL’s Image Control Waveguide. Originally developed for JBL’s flagship M2 Master Reference Monitor, the waveguide is the product of intensive R&D, allowing the subtlest detail to be heard, and producing a wide stereo panorama with a solid phantom-centre image. The JBL 3 Series features two models: the LSR305, 5in powered studio monitor boasting a response of 43Hz to 24kHz and a peak SPL of 108dB; and the LSR308, 8in powered studio monitor with a response of 37Hz to 24kHz and a peak SPL of 112dB. As the sound generating engines, the 3 Series’ longthrow woofer and its damped woven composite tweeter are designed from the ground up to reproduce the powerful transients and

The Neumann KH 310 three-way active triamplified monitor features a Mathematically Modeled Dispersion Waveguide (MMD), flexible acoustical controls, various input options, and an extensive range of mounting hardware. This allows the loudspeaker to be used in diverse acoustical conditions, with any Source equipment and in a wide variety of physical locations. The KH 310 represents the latest in acoustic and electronic simulation and measurement technologies to ensure accurate sound reproduction. The KH 310 is designed for use as a nearfield monitor, as a front loudspeaker in mid-sized multichannel systems, or as a rear loudspeaker in a larger

micro dynamics of any mix. These drivers deliver deep bass and smooth highfrequency response beyond the range of human hearing. JBL’s Slip Stream lowfrequency port design works in concert with the woofer to produce deep bass response at all playback levels. Also, the 3 Series ‘Trim’ switches allow the loudspeaker’s response to compensate for room acoustics, program material, and personal tastes. www.jblpro.com

The RCF AYRA 5 is a two-way reference studio monitor that is designed for nearfield applications as well as being equally suited to a home recording studio. AYRA 5 features a high-quality 1in soft dome tweeter designed on a precision directivity waveguide and a 5in composite fibreglass woofer. It is equipped with a new generation of true active 35W + 20W Class AB design amplifier. The result of this is very high output, extremely low distortion, and an incredible natural sound. At the rear panel of the AYRA there are XLR, Jack, and RCA inputs. www.rcf.it

multichannel system. It can be used in project, music, broadcast centres, OB vans, and post-production studios for tracking, mixing, and mastering. www.neumann.com

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

The three-strong twotwo range is British reference monitor manufacturer PMC’s latest foray into the powered nearfield market, combining the company’s Advanced Transmission Line (ATL) bass loading technology with sophisticated digital signal processing. The midnight-blue twotwo.5, twotwo.6, and twotwo.8 share the same core design and features, including a custom-designed 27mm precision soft-dome tweeter; the larger model numbers refer to the approximate size (in inches) of the bass driver, with the larger models providing higher SPLs and more bass extension. Connections include analogue phonos and XLRs as well as an AES3 digital input, which will handle all sample rates up to 192kHz. It’s therefore as easy to set up twotwos in a rehearsal room with a phono cable and a laptop as it is to connect them to a console in a studio. The onboard DSP engine optimises the response of the twotwo's drivers, maximises dispersion, and provides non-invasive protection using modelled excursion limiting. The built-in Class D dual-amplification system produces high-resolution audio with great headroom and detail. The twotwo series may be mounted vertically or horizontally without compromising tonal accuracy or stereo/surround imaging, making them ideal for use in situations where space is at a premium, such as in outside broadcast vehicles, project music studios, and post-production suites. www.pmc-speakers.com

The PSI Audio A21-M highpowered active monitor is the jewel in the crown from the Swiss manufacturer, for any studio that wants that big monitor sound in a compact cabinet. Its highly optimised assets make it perfect for near, mid-field, and surround applications where ultimate precision flat monitoring is required. The powerful biamped Class G amplifier features two technologies in ‘AOI’ (Adaptive Output Impedance) and ‘CPR’ (Compensated Phase Response). The result is extremely low coloration and an impressively tight transient behaviour, even at low frequencies with correction of additive phase shifts and group delays inherent in conventional crossover filters and mechanical transducers. This enables a precise stereo image and an accurate sense of space projecting a wide horizontal and vertical listening area. The electronics are housed in a unit mechanically isolated from the speaker cabinet to avoid resonance at high sound pressure levels. PSI Audio monitors provide detail and resolution across the bandwidth, and do so without any sense of fatigue even after hours of critical listening. Designed to work in harmony with the full range of A series monitors, the PSI Audio A21-M also makes an ideal front speaker in a surround setup, or can be part of a more powerful system by adding the A225-M sub. www.psiaudio.com www.audiomedia.com

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Sonodyne has launched the SRP series. The five models are the SRP 350, SRP 400, SRP 500, SRP 600, and SRP 800. The monolithic, pressure die-cast moulded rigid cabinet eliminates coloration caused, typically, by cabinet vibration. The non-parallel edges minimise standing wave build-up. This results in a smooth and extended low frequency response. The SRPs use two discrete amplifiers per speaker. These hefty class AB amplifiers have oodles of power and headroom and provide a clean, undistorted signal. DSPbased internal processing with high quality ADC and DAC is employed for the crossover and also provides the 0.75dB step calibrated HF and LF room compensation EQs. The silk dome tweeter in each of the SRP models is nested in a custom waveguide to produce on- and off-axis linearity and a wide, detailed soundstage. The stiff woven fibre of the Kevlar cone minimises cone breakup. Combined with a powerful motor system this results in high-grade performance both in terms of deep bass and excellent transients. Sturdy wall mount brackets allow for smooth motion and positioning in both horizontal and vertical planes. On the front is a level control ranging from mute to +6dB with centre detent at 0dB. www.sonodyne.com

The original Studiospares SN10 studio monitor was inspired by the demise of the Yamaha NS10. The NS10 was – and still is – used in studios to gauge the sound that the average listener would hear when they replay a track on a CD. Now the SN10 takes the same idea but improves it in three ways: giving it a more substantial tweeter that doesn’t blow so easily; a larger 8in driver to provide more lowfrequency bottom end; and an enhanced power output of 80W. With its attractive price point it has found a home in thousands of studios over the last few years. More recently Studiospares has introduced an active version of the SN10, the SN10A. The difference between the two is the Aktivate85 powering unit, which Studiospares also offers as a separate product that will turn any passive monitor into an active one. www.studiospares.com

The SP Acoustics SP1MA is a three-way speaker exhibiting virtually no harmonic distortion, delivering a true representation of the sound perfectly suited to critical listening. From the choice of aluminium cones, constrained layer damped cabinets, and under hung voice coil drivers to their 24-bit/96kHz digital crossover, SP Acoustics monitors deliver detail with a wide bandwidth and accurate time and frequency response. The SP1 range includes the SP1M passive speaker, the SP1MA active monitor, and landscape counterparts the SP1ML and SP1MLA. SP Acoustics has just released the smaller passive SP25M and the active version SP25MA, which use the same high-quality components used in a smaller sized cabinet, ensuring the same stunningly transparent and neutral sound albeit a slightly smaller bandwidth and SPL. www.kmraudio.com

The next active professional monitor following the Unity Audio Rock is the Boulder. This shares some of the same interesting material and designs such as a Baltic birch plywood cabinet but this time 18mm instead of 12mm as used in the Rock. A Corian front baffle is used again like the Rock and bonded to an internal wooden baffle, but the Boulder uses a 30mm slab of Corian instead of the Rock’s 12mm and with large radius edges to reduce reflection. Like the Rock, this new model will boost true fidelity, fast, accurate detailed sound but with extended bass response, even more detailed mid range, and higher SPLs for larger rooms. Two 180mm (7in) woofers are used; the same woofer model as in the Rock, and this will increase low-frequency extension and achieve higher SPLs. A new dual coaxial midrange and tweeter is employed. This unit is a combination of a flat aluminium honeycomb midrange ring radiator and a concentrically arranged folded 50kHz ribbon tweeter. This design realises the vision of an acoustic point source. Due to the modular design of the Rock amplifier, the Boulder uses the same amplifier modules from the Rock but it employs a total of four amplifier cards per cabinet: one for each woofer, one for the mid, and one for the tweeter. www.unityaudioproducts.co.uk

The second generation of Yamaha ‘HS’ nearfield reference monitors, like their predecessors, share the same design philosophy as the NS10M studio monitors and the subsequent MSP range. Providing accurate signal reproduction and excellent sonic performance, the new HS Series consists of three models – HS5, HS7, and HS8

– which employ a new, highly efficient tweeter providing an extended high frequency range up to 30kHz. The matching HS8S 150W powered subwoofer provides an extended bass when a well-defined bottom end is required. A low resonance bass-reflex enclosure built using a three-way mitred-joint technique ensures that the

corners of the speaker are firmly anchored leading to improved durability and the elimination of unwanted resonances that can colour the original sound. Yamaha’s ‘Vortex Sound Control’ technology is deployed to decrease unwanted airflows around the speaker ports. This in turn reduces audible noise by up to 6dB. www.uk.yamaha.com

The Focal SM9 concept is the result of over three years of R&D where every component and function was designed from scratch utilising over 30 years of design experience. The SM9 uses the best of Focal technologies such as a brand new pure Beryllium inverted dome tweeter, 6.5in and 8in ‘W’ composite sandwich cone drivers, and an 11in passive radiator. The SM9 also uses FOCUS, the latest Focal technology that combines two monitors within the same cabinet (three-way monitoring system and a two-way monitor) to verify mixes on a bass-limited speaker like televisions, computer systems, car systems, and iPod speakers. www.focal.com

38 January 2014

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TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

SSL Live

DIGITAL LIVE AUDIO CONSOLE

It never really was a question of ‘if’ SSL was going to make a live console. Simon Allen reports on his turn at the controls of the new SSL Live console.

AS A LIVE and studio engineer, with experience using both digital live and studio consoles, I was more than excited to finally try out SSL’s new live console. The company’s well-known and respected live product manager, Jason Kelly, gave me my personal introduction to the console at SSL’s Oxford HQ. UNDER THE HOOD Before you even see the new Live, the specifications make interesting reading thanks to SSL’s new Tempest processing platform, which were designed from the ground up for the sole purpose of powering this desk. Depending on the number of stage boxes and external devices used, there can be up to 976 inputs and outputs connected with 192 internal audio ‘paths’ all running at 96kHz and 64 bit floating point – easily one of the highest spec counts in this price range. Running at such a high bit depth and sample rate allows the console to have a staggering amount of internal headroom, Jason tells me it’s in the region of 3000dB. 40 January 2014

All preamps on board and in the stageboxes are SSL’s SuperAnalogue pres including analogue high pass filters. After that point, all audio remains in the digital domain by 96kHz, 24-bit AD converters until it finds its way to an output. There is a good selection of local I/O with 16 analogue ins and outs and four pairs of AES/EBU. (This can be expanded to twice the amount if required.) Each AES/EBU connection has an independent fully variable sample rate converter. External remote I/Os are connected with coaxial MADI or an optional SSL Blacklight connection which carries 256 channels via a single optical fibre. Each coaxial connection can either be run with a redundant connection or each port can be utilised as an independent connection. SSL has also made great use of the extra data embedded within the MADI stream. All the available SSL remote stageboxes are auto sensing and appear automatically in the software

routing pages on the desk. Another benefit is the extra gain data for when two or more consoles use the same stagebox. The ‘master’ console with the control over the analogue preamps also transmits any changes in the analogue gain to other Live 500s. The operator then has a channel-by-channel option to enable gain sharing where the slave console can digitally trim any offset needed in real time. Instead of having set templates or a given number of digital busses and auxiliaries available, the Live 500 offers the user a total number of audio processing paths to distribute in whichever way they need. There are 144 full processing paths and 48 ‘dry’ paths. This is then further broken down into some restrictions for total numbers of input channels, stem groups, auxes, masters, and matrixes. However, with a maximum of 96 full auxes and 24 dry auxes as well as 32 in and 36 dry out matrixes, there is plenty of scope to make the mixer work as you wish.

“Even though the Live 500 holds all of the heritage and prestige that comes along with the SSL name don’t be fooled into thinking it misses out on the benefits of digital audio.” Simon Allen

THE DASHBOARD The overall design of the control surface is well organised with clean and simple lines. The main focus is the 19in centre touchscreen, which SSL claims to be one of the brightest on the market. The main screen is also the first to support major multi-touch gestures, which we have all become accustomed to thanks to the iPad. Around the main screen are three fader tiles with 12 100mm fader strips containing rotary encoders and colour changing backlit buttons. Each strip has 14 segment level meters with separate compression and gate meters. Each fader tile is independent with five scrollable layers containing five recallable banks. Each bank can be set to anything from input channels to masters allowing the console to be set up any way you like. One feature I like is that each channel has a Query button that then spills out all of the channels associated with it. This can quickly help to solve simple routing issues, or allow for direct and simple send adjustments. In the master tile there is a focus fader that can be

assigned to any channel for right-handed fader riding and more hardware-based parameter editing. The focus fader works with the control tile that uses a smaller 5.7in touchscreen with a number of hardware controls for more traditional operation. The controls are set out in dedicated effects, EQ, and dynamics sections. I should make it clear, however, that all parameters can be altered from either the control tile or the main large touchscreen. Although the control tile is more natural to use it’s really special to be able to edit an EQ via multi-touch gestures on the large screen. DRIVING THE MIX For the purpose of this review, Jason set up SSL’s live multi-track recorder with video footage from one of Peter Gabriel’s concerts. The last Peter Gabriel tour used three SSL Live consoles – one at FOH, one for Peter’s personal monitors, and one for the band’s monitors. Everything soon fitted into place once I got my head around the console’s unique configurations, best distributed the full processing and dry channels, made my fader tile layers, and learnt about routing. Once you’re in www.audiomedia.com

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

the mindset of any new console it doesn’t take long before you find yourself getting used to the controls. There is a feeling of fluidity between the multi-gesture touchscreen UI and the control surface with its distribution of processing power. It feels effortless to jump straight to parameters and edit them, including inserting new effects without any drop in audio. The idea of having a single screen with large graphics that are easy to manipulate by touch is so simple but effective. The Live exhibits its SSL heritage in two ways: Firstly, it uses all of SSL’s digital algorithms from EQ through to reverbs. It has the simulated analogue EQs, compressors, and the famous bus comp and effects, which all sound great. I tried out the bus comp in the only way I knew how from regularly using an analogue one and, to my surprise, Jason remarked, “So you’ve used one before then?” It hadn’t occurred to me, as I was just punching in some standard settings, but

sure enough it behaved just as expected (and on a touchscreen too). There are also a few very neat sonic features SSL has introduced with this console. There is a new ‘tube warming’ feature on the channel compressors, which is out of this world. Before you apply any other processing on the channel, or even edit the compressor’s threshold, the simple action of enabling the tube warmth is really distinct. I’m now left waiting for the plug-in version to have in my DAW in the studio. Another unique feature is the addition of an all-pass filter on every full processing channel. All-pass filters are not something you regularly see but they make perfect sense. With so many potential phasing issues when working live I can see these simple to use all-pass filters being considered as a closely regarded secret by many engineers. Even though the Live holds all of the heritage and prestige that comes along

with the SSL name don’t be fooled into thinking it misses out on the benefits of digital audio. It wasn’t until I had been mixing for a while that I realised the amount of processing power the console has. Inserting effects and changing the order of the signal processing paths on each channel is simple and fluid, unlike some other live consoles. With this architecture, SSL is now also introducing something called stem groups, which are very much like normal subgroups but with the capability of full processing and effect inserts like standard input channels. Additionally, unlike normal sub-groups, stem groups can be routed to other stem groups or auxes to allow for flexible mixes. AROUND THE CORNER Along with the release of this new hardware is, of course, the first release of its software, which has been completely purpose built by SSL and isn’t based on any commonly found operating system. This has given SSL

the ability to fine-tune every aspect of the digital domain for audio. As this is still early days, there are a number of updates already planned for release with some exciting new features. For now, SSL has been focusing hard on making sure the system is as stable as possible. One additional feature that is still in development is remote control for the console and expansion features. As yet we are not sure of how this will be implemented, or what it will entail, but it’s important to know that there have been plans for such features from very early on in the design process.

INFORMATION

CONCLUSION The new Live console from SSL certainly lives up to expectations. It encapsulates everything I’d hope to see from an SSL console in terms of quality, build, and sonic reproduction. At the same time, it has a few tricks to excite even the most experienced engineers and surprised me with the fresh approach to digital processing. This is a truly remarkable pro audio release. THE REVIEWER SIMON ALLEN is a full-time sound engineer and record producer. After a stint as senior engineer at City Studios in Cyprus where he headed up the new music studio, he can now mostly be found at Woodbury Studios in Hertfordshire.

Feature set • • • •

Up to 976 inputs and outputs connected with 192 internal audio paths running at 96kHz and 64 bit 19in multi-gesture touchscreen control More than 30 SSL effects processors Extremely flexible processing power allocation and I/O architecture

www.solidstatelogic.com

Jory MacKay speaks further with SSL Live console product manager Jason Kelly about the history, and importance, of this new desk. interface should be intuitive and, as far as humanly possible, liberate the engineer to focus as much of his/her attention on the creative process as possible. So we’ve taken an approach to the control surface that supports different ways of working and utilises the latest touchscreen technology. Naturally we had to make a console with unrivalled sonic performance but also with the robustness that touring gear demands.

Tell me how the SSL Live project started. Why was it the right time for SSL to move into the live industry? Creating a console for live audio production has been a part of the SSL development plan since 2006 when the current owners of SSL took over. The actual development for the console has taken over two years. A considerable number of high-profile people in the live sector asked us to do it. It seems there was a strong desire for a live console with the

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audio quality and tone of SSL and for a control surface with the elegant ergonomics SSL is known for in other sectors. What was the initial thought/design process behind the desk? How did you decide on the shape/ergonomics? This was very much a ground up development. As with other applications, we first consulted with the engineers in each specific sector. A core design philosophy is that the

How does the SSL Live meet the demands of the modern FOH engineer? It gives them a superb sounding console and a collection of excellent processing tools within a great control surface. Live gives them plenty of processing power, a wealth of connectivity options and an open architecture approach that lets engineers lay out the console in a way that suits each individual project. The combination of gestural multi-touch screen technology with assignable hardware controls and a high degree

of visual feedback helps them keep in control of the show and deliver a great performance. What are some of the SSL Live’s key features that set it apart from the competition? As with many designs, it’s the combination of features – and how well they work together – that differentiates one solution from another. Familiarity with a particular product and how it works understandably gives you a particular perspective. The Live console adapts well to a variety of approaches and will be readily adopted by mixers with diverse backgrounds. There are a number of unique features such as the 30 SSL effects processors, the full size effects GUIs, the low latency performance (<1.5mS mic to IEM including effects), the Eyeconix displays, the multi-touch touchscreen, the versatility and flexibility of the routing architecture that contribute to this; and of course we hope that the audio quality will set new standards.

January 2014 41

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Focusrite Red 1 500

MICROPHONE PREAMP

Stephen Bennett explores whether the new Focusrite Red 1 500 lives up to its heritage. WHENEVER I’M booking a commercial studio, one of the first things I look out for when scouring their equipment lists is to determine if they have any of the original Red series of processors from Focusrite. I’m particularly fond of the Red 1 preamplifier, a Rupert Neve design based on the modules found in his famed Focusrite Studio Console. These have become vintage collector’s items, whose current prices on the second-hand market are testimony to the high regard in which engineers hold them. Unfortunately, this kudos has also meant that I’ve never actually managed to purchase one! You can therefore imagine the excitement I felt on opening the box containing the new 500 series version of the Red 1 preamp and gingerly slipping it into a spare slot of my API lunchbox. The preamplifier features the same circuit design and components as the original Red 1 neatly wrapped up into the 500 series ‘lunchbox’ format. This feat of miniaturisation is, of course, made possible because the power supply, microphone input, and line output for the Red 1 are provided by the 500 chassis itself. The preamplifier ships with a 12-page manual – which you probably won’t need as the concept and control of this device is so simple – some tools for securing the preamplifier into the lunchbox, and an invitation to access a free download of Focusrite’s useful ‘Midnight’ suite of plug-ins. FEATURES As you may expect, the Red 1 500’s front panel is, well, red! The beautifully finished – and uncluttered – anodised aluminium frontispiece features a nicely milled ‘1’ logo, an analogue backlit VU meter, a sturdy Grayhill gold-plated military-grade 12-position stepped rotary gain switch, and push buttons for +48V phantom powering and phase. The rear panel sports the lunchbox edge connector and a switch to allow the meter to display 0VU as -4dBU or +10dBU. Internally, the design is identical to the original Focusrite Red 1 preamplifier, complete with a 42 January 2014

“If you’ve always wanted access to the Red 1 ‘sound’ and have a spare slot in your lunchbox, Focusrite has created an almost exact replica of the original preamplifier, complete with all of its strengths and limitations.” Stephen Bennett

recordings to ‘gel together’ – and the Red 1 is no exception in this area. In comparison with the (extremely good) microphone preamps on my Metric Halo ULN-2, the Red 1 felt just that bit ‘rounder’, with a slight mid-low boost that gave the sound a touch more body. I tried recording vocals, guitars, and cello using an AKG 414 ULS II microphone into both the 500 series Red 1 and my ISA 430 Mk I channel strip – whose microphone preamplifier is also based on the original Rupert Neve designed ISA 110 circuitry. There are significant audible differences between the two preamplifiers, even when the latter’s EQ and compressor sections were bypassed. The Red 1 retains the richness and clarity that I’m used to from the ISA 430 however and, if I had to stick my neck out, I’d have to say that I prefer the 500 series unit in this particular recording scenario. Over the period of a week I put the Red 1 though its paces in several different situations, including recording drum overheads, snare and bass drum, piano, guitar, vocals, and a string section. The preamplifier performed impeccably. Having one of these in your lunchbox enables you to stop fretting about having the best preamplifier for the job – it just works well and is almost completely transparent in operation.

IN USE The 500 series unit has that clean yet weighty sound that I recall from my use of the original Red 1 preamplifiers. It also doesn’t like being overdriven, which again is a characteristic of the original – this isn’t a preamp you’d want to use if you wanted to add some ‘colour’ to your recordings. The Red 1 is one of those microphone preamplifiers that simply allows you to produce a high-quality amplified signal from the microphone you’re using – and which also reminds you just what a good microphone the humble Shure SM57 is! I often find that using high-quality preamplifiers helps a lot when mixing, as they somehow allow the differing

CONCLUSION You may have noticed that there has been no mention of instrument or line inputs, filters, equalisation, limiters, compressors, or digital interfaces in this review – that’s because there aren’t any! This, of course, makes the Red 1 microphone preamplifier something of an expensive choice when compared to some of its all-singing, all-dancing 500 series competitors. However, if you’ve always wanted access to the Red 1 ‘sound’ and have a spare slot in your lunchbox, Focusrite has created an almost exact replica of the original preamplifier, complete with all of its strengths and limitations, wrapped up in a modern format and at an affordable price. I hope this release is

Lundahl LL1538 transformer on the input and a custom Carnhill transformer on output stage. The input transformer provides 14dB of the total 60dB of gain available, leaving the active amplifier stage to handle the rest. The bandwidth of the unit – as specified by Focusrite – is 10Hz to 140kHz with low harmonic distortion. The labelled positions on the gain control are in 6dB increments and there’s enough headroom to cope with some ribbons and most capacitor and dynamic microphones, with low noise levels even at high gain settings. The output stage was perfectly capable of driving the converters on my Metric Halo and RME interfaces and the Red 1 should slip into most systems with no interfacing problems.

just the start of a new range of 500 series units from Focusrite – personally, I can’t wait for the Red 3 compressor to appear. THE REVIEWER STEPHEN BENNETT has been involved in music production for over 25 years. Based in Norwich he splits his time between writing books and articles on music technology, running Chaos Studios and working in the Electroacoustic Studios in the School of Music at the University of East Anglia.

INFORMATION Feature set • Original Red 1 circuit topology and components • Lundahl LL1538 input transformer with Carnhill custom output transformer • Backlit VU meter with switchable calibration • Grayhill gold-plated militarygrade gain switch uk.focusrite.com www.audiomedia.com

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Allen & Heath Qu-16

DIGITAL MIXING DESK

Boasting much of the same performance as its bigger siblings in a package that could potentially fit in your hand luggage, Alistair McGhee finally gets his hands on a Qu-16. I HAVE a small confession to make, when the Allen & Heath GLD-112 arrived recently for review, I was a bit disappointed. Not at all disappointed with the desk itself – it is a very, very nice desk, (read the review in Audio Media November 2013) – no, I was disappointed that it wasn’t a Qu-16. Now that may seem silly as the GLD is a much more comprehensive and capable mixer with all sorts of features not available on the Qu-16, but I’ve been waiting for the Qu-16 for a long time now. But has that wait been in vain? I finally got to unpack one to find out. The desk is a 22-channel mixer with 16 XLR inputs equipped with mic amps and three stereo inputs. Part of my excitement over the unit was generated by the confluence of a range of Allen & Heath technologies. You get 16 moving channel faders (17 including the main fader), touchscreen and hardware control of channel parameters, FX rooted in the same algorithms as the bigger desks, access to audio over Cat5 via the dSNAKE technology, on-board multi-track recording over USB direct to a USB drive (not to a USB flash disk), separate USB connector for audio streaming to and from your Mac (I’m reliably informed they are working on Windows support), an iPad app, and interoperability with the new ME series of personal mixers, all in a 19in rack space. LOOK THE PART Where to start? Well how about the finish. The Qu-16 feels like a proper bit of kit and not a toy. All knobs and buttons feel positive and professional. Only the feel of the motorised faders reflect the 44 January 2014

fact that this is not an expensive desk. There was a lot of speculation before release about this fitting in your hand luggage, and well yes if you are Catherine Zeta Jones, but no if you’re only Michael Douglas (or indeed any other normal human being). The wraparound design is striking, practical, and guaranteed to catch the eye at a gig. The specs are online but a few notable things: 16 busses; RTA with peak band indication; separate mic and line inputs; mics on XLR, line on TRS jack; two stereo line inputs on 0.25in jacks, and a third on the surface on mini jack (for your walk in music, of course); 10 outputs on XLRs alongside main L and R; and a patchable AES stereo output with another patchable output on TRS jacks. FUNCTIONALITY If you plug in a dSNAKE (8- or 24-channel boxes are available) it will give you audio over Cat5; however, you can select on each individual channel between local input at the desk, remote from the dSNAKE stage box, or USB. The USB can be audio streamed from your PC or from your attached USB ‘Qu-Drive’. Remember though this doesn’t add channels to the desk. So an AR 2412 will max you out at 22 inputs. However, they can be 22 mic inputs, three will be stereo pairs but nonetheless it is a way of upping your mic channel count. If I was using the Qu-16 in a venue with existing tie lines I might be tempted to buy an AR 84 and use it locally for just such a purpose. Remember though that currently using an AR box does not add to the absolute number of channels, if you are

tempted to be grumpy about this please read on. There is a subtle problem with the sheer range of facilities on the Qu-16. It fools you into thinking you have bought a much more expensive system. The Qu-16 offers so much that we get piqued when we run up against a limitation. Like the issue of the dSNAKE

“The wraparound design is striking, practical, and guaranteed to catch the eye at a gig.” Alistair McGhee channels or the fact that the Qu-16 can record 18 tracks of 24-bit 48kHz audio – a little voice in my head says, ‘Where is the 96kHz? Why not all the channels?’ (we are such ungrateful people). Just remember this is not a twenty grand desk. IN USE Setting up the mixer is, relatively speaking, fairly simple. Out of the box everything is routed to main L and R so if you plug in a mic and open the channel fader you will hear something, which in digital desk world is kind of reassuring. While there are no sub-groups – beyond mute groups of course, four of which

its own. The iPad app allows remote control over WiFi and once connected is nicely responsive and is a useful live tweaking tool. are available on board – you do get layers. Top layer is your 16 mic inputs (also selectable to dSNAKE inputs or USB returns) your second layer controls, three stereo inputs, FX sends and returns, and your 10 mix busses. The third layer is a custom layer, which you can build using any mix of inputs, FX sends or returns, or mix master faders. A quick tour of the effects and stuff reveals all the hard work those five ARM processors are doing. You get parametric EQ, compressor, limiter, gate, and delay on every channel. You get 28-band graphic EQ on all mix outputs. The Qu-16 has four on-board FX slots, selectable from a range of reverbs, delays, and modulators. These effects can be inserted into single channels or combined in an effects mix. I should mention compatibility with the new ME series of personal mixers, but I can’t do more than mention it as the ME is worth a review on

CONCLUSION In summary, the Qu-16 has all the joys of digital in a wellcrafted package at an attractive price. A desk that records as a multi-track, offers audio over Cat5, iPad remote, wellestablished workflow and effects, and the extensibility of a personal mixing system. On top of this, it is a desk with a professional feel and features set that integrates with the Allen & Heath GLD system, sharing the same stage boxes so when it’s time to upgrade things are simple. Hats off to Allen & Heath, the Qu-16 may well be the Sultan of Swing. THE REVIEWER ALISTAIR McGHEE began audio life in Hi-Fi before joining the BBC as an audio engineer. After 10 years in radio and TV, he moved to production. When BBC Choice started, he pioneered personal digital production in television. Most recently, Alistair was assistant editor, BBC Radio Wales and has been helping the UN with broadcast operations in Juba.

INFORMATION Feature set • • • • •

22 channels with 16 XLR inputs FX derived from iLive pro touring series 800 x 480 touchscreen with dedicated data encoder dSNAKE compatible with connectivity over Cat5 Qu-Pad iPad app for real-time live sound tweaking

www.allen-heath.com

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TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Lewitt LCT 940

TUBE AND FET CONDENSER MICROPHONE

In a world where the word ‘unique’ has lost most of its meaning, Lewitt has created something truly special with the LCT 940, writes Andrew Graeme. JUST WHEN you thought that nobody could come up with anything new and genuinely useful in the largediaphragm condenser microphone market, Viennese microphone design house Lewitt has done just that. The LCT 940 is unique. Not only is it a valve mic and a FET mic all rolled into one, but the power supply also acts as remote control to alter characteristics and to mix the valve and FET stages. IMPRESSIONS The first impression of the LCT 940 is of extreme quality. The mic is heavy and is supplied with a really nice cradle that easily supports its 660g weight. Together they weigh-in at 1.1kg, so a decent mic stand is needed. The power supply/control box is beautifully engineered and only reveals what the knobs and buttons do once it has been switched on. Little LEDs light up the hidden functions such as attenuation, high-pass filters, polarity patterns, and the mix-knob for valve and FET stages. The whole thing comes in an attractive black case, with handbook, an eight-metre long 11-pin XLR connector, and kettle-lead. There is a little Perspex window that shows the valve inside the mic glowing when switched on, but as the glow is a sort of greenish-yellow, it reveals that it is actually an LED behind the valve – a pleasant, if perhaps ‘cheesy’ effect that impressed singers. My first ‘gotcha’ was to assume that the logo side was the front, so when I placed the mic in front of the first vocalist, she sounded distant, so I knew that I had placed the mic the wrong way round 46 January 2014

and that the LCT 940 is more directional than most valve mics when set to cardioid. The control on the left of the box mixes the signals from the FET and valve stages and a red dot indicates the setting. Polar patterns are set with the right-hand control. Five basic patterns for omni, broadcardioid, cardioid, supercardioid, and figure-of-eight, with stages in between are available. In the space of a week, we used the LCT 940 on a variety of sources including drum overheads, room mic, various guitars, and singers. After that I tested the mic, comparing it to the usual suspects.

300Hz) and a pad-switch for -6, -12, and -18dB. There is also an automatic pad function in case of very loud noises. However, used as a valve mic, it can go to 140dBA, so I could imagine that someone could own this mic all their lives without ever triggering that function – in my time with this mic, a screaming rock vocal certainly wasn’t enough! This mic has a very wide dynamic range. TESTING, ONE, TWO The handbook claims a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz, but in common with most high-end mics, it goes well beyond both figures in both valve and FET mode. At

“The idea of having a remote control over polar pattern, attenuation, and valve and/or solid state is brilliant.” Andrew Graeme AT THE ROCK FACE In pure valve mode the LCT 940 came over every bit as open and clear as the best valve mics out there, making it ideal as a room mic, or for ‘breathy’ and close-up vocals. In pure solid-state mode, it is clear and precise and very good for such sensitive beasts with complex overtones as piano and acoustic guitar. We tried a little bit of male voice-over and the proximity effect was warm and smooth. It ‘popped’ significantly less than other mics and with a shield, it didn’t pop at all, despite the fact that the basscut filters were not being used. The cradle kept out nearly all mechanical noise that might get in via the stand. There are three bass-cut slopes (12dB per octave @ 40Hz and 6dB @ 150 and

the upper end, at 25kHz it was down 10dB and by 30kHz the signal was almost completely gone. There is an increase of between 3dB and 5dB between 10kHz and 15kHz, depending on which pattern is chosen. This is a function of the capsule and is not affected by choosing valve or FET. Self-noise is low at 8-9dB as FET and 12-13dB as a valve mic. Sensitivity is the same as for almost every other LDC, so we did not need any extra gain. The polar patterns really lived up to the measurements given in the handbook and differences in directionality between the frequencies only begin to show above 3kHz. CONCLUSION I just loved this mic. The high quality of the construction was matched by the high quality of

the sound. Everything we used it on sounded good, especially vocals and this is where I believe the LCT 940 will find most of its fans. It is good on everything, but it excels as a vocal mic. The idea of having a remote control over polar pattern, attenuation, and valve and/or solid state is brilliant. It means you can be sitting in the control room and be able to change the microphone according to what you are hearing without having to run out into the live room to push those little switches back and forth (by which time, I tend to forget what things sounded like in the first place!) Just flipping back and forth between patterns and mixing valve and FET and being able to listen to those changes as they take place is ideal for recording critical vocals, or indeed anything else where you just need to be able to listen to the results as changes are made. Somebody should have come up with this idea ages ago. (If you do intend having the remote in the control room, check that the supplied eight-metre cable is enough – you may need an extension.) Overall, this mic is keenly priced, placing it at a sweet-

point where it is nose-to-nose with some solid-state LDC classics on the one hand and considerably cheaper than the better valve mics. It is however, every bit as good as the best in both classes – a sort of twofor-the-price-of-one! THE REVIEWER ANDREW GRAEME has been in the audio business since he was 16. He began his first studio, music shop, and PA company in Germany in 1979 and continues to have business interests in Germany while running The Byre recording studio in the Scottish Highlands.

INFORMATION Feature set • Combines the sonic characteristics of a tube and a FET mic in one housing • Continuously variable switching and merging of tube and FET sound • Nine directional characteristics including four intermediate patterns – remote controllable via included PSU/control box • Four-position switchable pre-attenuation pad as well as automatic pad function www.lewitt-audio.com

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TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Electro-Voice ZLX-12P

TWO-WAY POWERED LOUDSPEAKER

With 1,000W via Class D amplification – the current standard for pro-grade full-range portable PA enclosures – EV hits the market with an impressively built and well featured 12in model, writes Strother Bullins. OVER THE past couple of years, I’ve had the pleasure to use and evaluate much of our market’s new portable PA that falls in the full-range 1,000W/Class D category. In doing so, I’ve almost as a rule requested 12in models from participating manufacturers; I find they are the most flexible for gigging musicians and bands (as we generally don’t know exactly what is needed until arriving at the venue). Matched with a powered sub, a pair of 1,000W/Class D mains can most often cover any gig. So, thanks to these highpower/lightweight products, the bar has been significantly raised on my personal benchmarks. I no longer worry so much about whether such speakers have enough power; I now search for models that provide the best overall fidelity, with unique, job-easing features and a build quality that most closely resembles touring-grade enclosures. Having reviewed a previous 1,000W/Class D ZLX model from Electro-Voice, expectations were already high for the new ZLX-12P, an approximately 35lb powered two-way featuring a 12in woofer and 1.5in highfrequency titanium compression driver with a frequency response of 65Hz to 18kHz, delivering 126dB maximum SPL. In application, I found this ZLX to be the best yet – with super-simple DSP built-in, accessible from a rear panel push/rotary knob and LCD display, while comprehensive I/O and build quality closely resemble strengths within EV’s pro touring gear. FEATURES The ZLX-12P’s cabinet is built of one of the best balances of polypropylene, 48 January 2014

“In application, I found this ZLX to be the best yet – with super-simple DSP built-in, accessible from a rear panel push/rotary knob and LCD display, while comprehensive I/O and build quality closely resemble strengths within EV’s pro touring gear.” Strother Bullins truly understands gigging with portable PA. Too often, I see corners cut here, eventually resulting in stripped threads for what may be the most important (and overlooked) physical feature of portable speakers: the quality of built-in mounting hardware.

steel, and rubber I’ve seen in portable PA. Angles are bolstered by the inclusion of smart rubber feet. Carrying handles are well placed and ideally shaped from an ergonomic perspective. Plus, the overall design is unique; there’s really nothing in the design that says, ‘me, too’. The unit’s I/O includes two Neutrik combo XLR/TRS inputs for mic/line input with adjacent rotary level adjustments; an XLR output, passing the ZLX-12P’s twochannel mix to monitors or a subwoofer, etc; and an aux in 0.125in TRS stereo input – its signal appears on Channel one, summed to mono. As such, the ZLX-12P is a great multipurpose powered speaker, too.

The rotary knob next to the ZLX-12P’s LCD screen acts as Master Volume and DSP control. Adjustable parameters include Mode with Live, Speech, and Club EQ presets; Location with Pole, Monitor, and Bracket EQ presets; Treble (-10dB to +10dB); Bass (-10dB to +10dB); Sub (a HPF with 80Hz, 100Hz, and 120Hz settings); among a few LCD screen contrast/ brightness adjustments. I found both the Mode and Location settings to be very well chosen and employed all successfully (except Bracket, as I did not attempt an install application). Finally, the obligatory pole-mount came with strip-resistant brass threads, another indication that EV

IN USE I swapped the ZLX-12P pair into my normal gig rig for a couple of weekend club dates, handling main monitor duties while paired with a smallish 600W powered subwoofer – a standard I’ve found works ideally with this particular venue and four-piece rock band. The PA handled a relatively low-input setup: vocals, guitars, kick, and snare/hi-hat mic. First impressions came quick: in soundcheck for the first date, the guitarist – unprompted while standing out front – commented how ‘full’ and ‘open’ the ZLX-12P pair sounded. I agreed. A week later, I employed a single ZLX-12P on a very simple singer/songwriter

coffeehouse gig, where vocalists used only the EV’s built-in mixer with a mic (the great feedback-resistant Electro-Voice PL80a supercardioid, my favourite affordable handheld dynamic) and a DI input. Placed horizontal and set to the Location: Monitor DSP preset, the ZLX-12P impressively served as both a monitor and a main with a full, small room-filling sound. One performer sang to prerecorded material, thanks to the EV’s aux in feature (and the performer’s iPhone). In this application, the ZLX-12P’s feature set allowed it to be the only ‘live gear’ on the stage – clean, impressive, and efficient. SUMMARY Electro-Voice further bolsters its reputation in the portable PA market with these extensions to the ZLX Series. For the money, it’s hard to beat. THE REVIEWER STROTHER BULLINS is the editor of Audio Media sister title Pro Audio Review.

INFORMATION Feature set • • • •

12in woofer with 1.5in high-frequency titanium compression driver 1,000W (Class D) power 126dB max SPL 65Hz-18kHz frequency range

www.electrovoice.com

www.audiomedia.com

INTERVIEW

This Life Following his keynote at new European music industry conference Innovation in Music, Jake Young spoke with Jake Gosling about his process and what’s next for the award-winning producer. You’re a producer, songwriter, remixer, manager, publisher, and studio owner. Do you spend as much time as you would like on each role? I work with different people, so with the publishing side I work with a girl called Sarah Liversedge who is a fulltime publisher. She’s got a team of people as well who do A&R and stuff like that. It’s about having support networks around, so it’s not just myself doing everything, otherwise I think I would be dead. On the management side, I work with Adam Coleman. The producing I do myself, unless I co-produce with someone else, but it tends to be just me, and again songwriting will be collaborative with different people. Which artists have been your favourite to work with? It’s a really hard one because I’ve actually enjoyed all the experiences with each of them. They all bring different things to the table and that’s why I work with them. If I didn’t like them then I wouldn’t do it. Audio Media sister title Music Week named you top producer of 2012. Was 2013 another successful year for you? It was, yeah. It was awesome. I worked with Christina Perri on her album, which comes out later this year. A lot of stuff I did in 2013 is 50 January 2014

coming out this year, so I didn’t really have that much stuff out last year, but I did a lot of work that will come out for 2014. It was a busy year but it was really good and I’m looking forward to getting the new stuff I’ve done out for people to hear it. What was it like working with songwriter and producer Ryan Tedder on One Direction album Midnight Memories? It was really weird because with technology now we never actually met – it was all done through a few emails. I was in Amsterdam with the boys and Ryan had done a track and he was like ‘could Jake do some production stuff on it?’ and I was like ‘yeah, I can, that’s fine, love to’. So, yeah, it worked out really well, and he’s a genius songwriter. Who is in your Sticky Studios at the moment? I’ve just finished an album with The Original Rudeboys, an Irish band whose first album I did, which has been a real laugh, good fun. I’m writing with Chloe Howl, who was nominated for the Brits Critics’ Choice Award. I’ve just got some writing with a girl called Max Marshall who’s another new artist. So a bit of writing really, and finishing off a couple of things. One more song with Christina I’ve got to finish off,

Nina Nesbitt’s album’s done and then I start a new album with a guy called Taylor Berrett.

“It’s about having support networks around, so it’s not just myself doing everything otherwise I think I would be dead.” Jake Gosling

What did you think of the BRITs Critics’ Choice nominees this year? I think Sam Smith’s awesome. I think he’s got an amazing voice. Chloe Howl again is brilliant. Ella Eyre’s awesome. I think they’re really good

choices to be honest with you. I like all three of them. There are differences between them as well. There’s always great new music, it’s whether or not it connects with everyone and all the rest of it. What’s your current studio set-up? I’ve got an Avalon compressor, which I use for pretty much all my vocals and guitars. I’ve got a Prism pre, four-channel, which I use for my acoustics, that mics two SE Electronics SE4400as. I’ve got a Telefunken AK47 as my vocal mic. I don’t have a desk anymore; I’ve just got the Mackie Big Knob, which goes down well with the girls. I’ve got John Lennon’s speakers. They came from Trident Studios. And I’ve got some new Focals, the Focal Twins. They’ve got the bass sub that’s in the speaker on the top as well.

INMUSIC’13 Hosted by the University of York and York St John University, the first Innovation in Music (InMusic’13), took place on 4-6 December in York, England. Other keynote speakers included Crispin Murray, formerly of Metropolis Studios, and TC Electronic’s Thomas Lund. www.innovationinmusic.com