AMI July/August 2018 Digital Edition by Future PLC

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July/August 2018

PARK LIFE Behind the scenes with Capital Sound at the ﬁrst All Points East festival in London’s Victoria Park

FEATURE

We delve into the world of portable PA systems

REVIEWS

Focal Clear Professional, Buzz Audio DBC-M compressor and more...

Credit: Jessica Gilbert

CONTENTS

REPORT

13 DPA Microphones AMI visits the manufacturer’s Danish HQ and factory

FEATURES

17 GCVRS Inside Grand Central Recording Studios’ new immersive audio mixing facility

22 All Points East Behind the scenes with Capital Sound at the inaugural All Points East concert series 27 Portable PA systems Stephen Bennett reports on the latest developments in the market for portable PA solutions

PRODUCT FOCUS

31 Live instrument mics

REVIEWS

38 Focal Clear Professional 45 Aston Spirit

July/August 2018

WELCOME

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CONTENT Editor: Murray Stassen mstassen@nbmedia.com, +44 (0)207 354 6035 Staff Writer: Tara Lepore tlepore@nbmedia.com, +44 (0)207 354 6021 Designer: Tom Carpenter tcarpenter@nbmedia.com, +44 (0)207 354 6041 Production Executive: Warren Kelly wkelly@nbmedia.com, +44 (0)207 354 6046

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t the time of writing, the weather in London is 30 degrees and partially sunny, the England football team is playing Croatia in the World Cup semi finals in a couple of days and I’ve just returned from my honeymoon. As far as I’m concerned (ignoring the Brexit negotiation chaos and looming Trump protests in London), it’s been a pretty good summer so far. The summer months are always really significant for me because there’s an incredible music festival taking place somewhere in the UK almost every single weekend. Any audio professional will tell you that one of the key elements of a successful festival is good sound and there’s obviously no shortage of pro audio companies to assist with that fact. So with the festival season in full swing, this issue is dedicated to live audio. For starters, our cover feature is a special report on this year’s All Points East and APE Presents, the inaugural, multi-weekend event that took

place in London’s Victoria Park, which has of course played host to the likes of Lovebox and Field Day for many years. The new event saw performances by (our cover star) St. Vincent, Björk, LCD Soundsystem, Patti Smith, Nick Cave and more.The sound reinforcement was supplied by premier rental firm Capital Sound. In this report, the company’s senior project manager Martin Connolly tells Stephen Bennett how its Martin Audio MLA system was once again put to the test in a challenging outdoor venue. After that we explore the world of portable PA systems and elsewhere in the issue, veteran FOH engineer John Delf gives his honest and educated opinion about his favourite mixing desks for digital summing and later on, we feature some of the top live instrument microphones from a range of different manufacturers in our July/August product focus. There’s also all the other usual reviews , comment pieces and features we hope you’ve come to love about AMI. Finally, it’s with a heavy heart that I write that this will be my last welcome column for Audio Media International and alas, my last issue as Editor. It’s been an absolute pleasure to make this magazine over the last 12 months and an even greater honour to have worked with everyone involved in its production, from the engineers to the sound designers, composers, producers and product managers we’ve featured, as well as the PR professionals and AMI’s designers and writers, without whom we couldn’t have made a magazine. Thanks everyone! I hope you enjoy this issue and I look forward to seeing the next phase of AMI’s illustrious publishing journey.

Murray Stassen Editor Audio Media International

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Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne Non-executive chairman Peter Allen Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand

Maggie O’Herlihy is head of Europe and the Americas for Avex Classics International and an expert in the FIlm with Live Orchestra genre.

Marialessia Dell’acqua is a London-based live sound engineer who has worked with Tony Allen, Sun Ra’s Arkestra and many others.

John Delf is a studio owner and FOH engineer who has mixed for acts ranging from James Arthur to Lily Allen, The Script and Plan B.

Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244

Cover image: St. Vincent at APE Presents on 3 June. Credit: Derek Bremner

July/August 2018

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OPINION

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LIVE AND KICKING Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bringing cinematic masterpieces to life by placing soundtracks front and centre or producing original theatrical and musical content, Avex Classics International is at the cutting edge of live classical entertainment. Maggie Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Herlihy, head of Europe and the Americas for Avex Classics International tells AMI about the Film with Live Orchestra genre.

Alien Live at the Royal Albert Hall (Courtesy of Avex Classics International)

July/August 2018

OPINION

MAGGIE O’HERLIHY

he Film with Live Orchestra (FwLO) genre, which sees full commercial feature films presented with live orchestra and choir, began in 2008 with the pioneering project, Lord of the Rings in Concert. The show was an instant success and paved the way for the 40 or so feature films which are currently being presented in this way at concert halls across the world. My work as a FwLO producer with Avex Classics International began in 2012 and our first undertaking was Titanic Live, which premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2014. FwLO was still in its infancy, but the late composer James Horner understood the potential and was instrumental in helping us secure the necessary approvals from the key rights holders and contributors along the way. Titanic Live encompasses 130 live musicians including key instrumentalists such as uilleann pipes, whistles and solo vocalists. The challenges we faced when creating the show were twofold. Firstly, the score was not available in any digital format because that software did not exist until the mid-late 90s. Film scores were typically handwritten in those days and it took a significant amount of time to decipher what music had been used in what cue from the 25 boxes of music Twentieth Century Fox supplied. Secondly, James Cameron was very adept at editing sound files and once James Horner had delivered the final master, Cameron made some further edits to the film and picked out stem files from various music cues to match the revised scenes we see in the final picture. There was no road map for these edits, so it took our team of orchestrators and engravers an entire year to reverse engineer and recreate the Titanic score. Of course, Film with Live Orchestra is still a relatively new genre, and nobody imagined that movies would be presented in this way back when Cameron and Horner were creating Titanic. Once the digital score was completed, a

conductor video was built to map out every beat of the score so that conductors could synchronise the live music to film right down to the millisecond. The synchronisation is so precise that on occasion, an audience member will ask whether the orchestra is indeed playing live or if they are simply miming! Titanic Live tours to over twelve countries annually. Once it was up and running, we turned our attention to Milos Forman’s 1984 classic Amadeus, a period drama which encompasses Mozart’s “greatest hits”. Amadeus Live posed a different set of challenges in that there are multiple opera scenes with up to 12 singers. It is not feasible to bring multiple opera singers on the road with a FwLO show, so we had to find a way to keep the solo vocalists on tape but without the recorded orchestra. As is typical in opera, the soundtrack was recorded with the vocalists and orchestra in the same room so for Amadeus Live to work, we had to find a way to fully isolate the vocal soloists so that the live orchestra can accompany the taped singers. After weeks of painstaking work by Wild Woods in Los Angeles, isolated vocals were achieved without compromising on quality. Amadeus Live now tours to over twenty countries annually and recent highlights include multiple sell out performances by the New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony. Further titles in production include The English Patient Live (Gabriel Yared, composer), which will premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2018, and The Age of Innocence Live (Elmer Bernstein, composer) which will tour in Europe and North America in 2019. While Film with Live Orchestra is thriving in many major cities throughout the world, there is still untapped potential in terms of secondary markets. One of our goals at Avex Classics International is to bring these shows to smaller cities over the coming years so that audiences everywhere can experience the magic of music performed live to picture.

Maggie O’Herlihy is head of Europe and the Americas for Avex Classics International. www.avexclassicsinternational.co.uk

July/Auguat 2018

OPINION

SUM AND SUBSTANCE

With the summer festival season upon us, veteran Front Of House professional John Delf delves into the world of digital summing to share his opinion about his favourite digital desks to work on in a live environment.

JOHN DELF

Soundcraft Vi6

recently mixed sound for X Factor Winner James Arthur at three separate European festivals. Due to logistics and local availability, I had to use three very different desks. As social media rules everything these days I mentioned that fact in a post on Facebook and an engineer I highly respect asked me: “Which desk is the best for digital summing in your opinion?” I thought,that’s a really good question as all these new desks do a pretty damn good job and all have incredible features, but not everybody gets the opportunity to try them all in anger, in a small space of time so that an opportunity for an A/B comparison can arise. If you are touring a desk for any length of time you get to know that one inside out, but sticking to one desk you may miss out on new developments by other manufacturers. There are plenty of engineers who always demand their favourite desk, and for good reason, but what happens when you turn up to a festival and can’t use your console of choice? Being able to set up your file quickly on a new desk is a very important issue for the engineer but there are a few desks out there where this isn’t such an easy task, as their walk-up ability can be quite problematic. Comparisons of their ease of use and layout is another article that could stretch many pages so getting back to the question about summing. Essentially they all sound very different from one another in a similar way that a Fender guitar sounds different from a Gibson or a Rickenbacker. But which is best can be down to the taste of the operator. In the space of three days I had to use a Digico SD12, a Soundcraft Vi6 and an Avid S6L.

Digico SD12 I really like this desk, it sounds very clean, you have to work at it to warm it up a bit but is very easy to get around and the mix can sound very pro and poppy though a little bit two dimensional at times. The internal Multi Comp is a game changer and is the ﬁnal piece in the mix jigsaw to make the vocals sit right. They’ve got the layout right too. I don’t have as much fun on some of the others in the SD range due to the single screen. It’s great if you like a clean pop sound.

Soundcraft Vi6 After coming back to the Soundcraft after a year using Digico and analogue setups, I’m happy to be hearing this great desk again. It is the most punchy sounding desk. It rocks. I think it’s still the nearest to an analogue sound that you can get from a digital board, but if you push it a bit too hard it can get a bit crunchy. The mix always rocks out of this one and is great if you are after a powerful punchy sound.

Avid S6L It seems to be the most musical with really nice presence on the vocals in a full mix and and warm low end (but that could have been the lovely PA subs). This is the second time I have used this desk and it was just as good the ﬁrst time. The stereo mix is very coherent and the audio depth is very good too. It seems to sit in between the previous two in that it can be punchy yet also very clean.

and the rest? Outside of this weekend my thoughts on the other manufacturers: I think the Midas sounds nice and warm but the comps are too harsh and it is slow to get around.

They miss a touch screen and need a software layout redesign to keep up. Pro X, 6 and 9 are all good, but the Pro2 and 1 are very hard to get around fast. Sound wise they are great though. I haven’t had much experience with the Allen & Heath D-Live but what I have had is good. There are people I highly respect that say the D-Live is by far the best sounding desk of them all. Hopefully I will get a chance to tour one at some point. The SSL Live is a very good sounding board and sums brilliantly and deﬁnitely has that “studio quality” sound with a high-end sparkle. When they ﬁrst came out the software layout was very confusing and not clear but they have really worked on it and now its so much better to get around. It sounds great and I’m seeing more and more of them at festivals, which is a good thing. To summarise (excuse the pun), there are a lot of good desks out there and if you can’t make a good mix on one of these desks then you can’t mix. The choice I make all comes down to the desk you can get around the fastest, feel most comfortable with using and a preference for its overall sound. In fact the choice can come down to which desk makes this band sound best, in the same way you’d choose a type of a guitar for a certain sound. The latest range all do a great job at summing but the next thing to consider is the on-board compressors, but with my 800 words exceeded I’ll leave that one for another day. John Delf is the owner of Edge Recording Studios in Cheshire, UK and also a live FOH engineer who has mixed for many acts including James Arthur, Lily Allen, The Script, Plan B and 5 Seconds of Summer.

July/August 2018

OPINION

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AI AND ITS IMPACT ON THE MUSIC HARDWARE BUSINESS Advancements in AI, AR and VR are making a big impact on the music and audio hardware businesses. The development of new user experiences with AI and related technologies in particular is going to drive the next wave of innovation. Here, Pete Downton (deputy CEO) and Manan Vohra (operations director) from digital music solutions company 7Digital tell AMI about the current – and future – impact of AI.

MANAN VOHRA

Manan Vohra: There’s no doubt about it - hardware is changing. Over time, there has been a real convergence of software and devices. For example, Amazon’s Alexa is the product of the evolution of research in natural language processing, speech recognition, machine learning, microphone and speaker enhancements. The device is the Amazon Echo product you see, but it’s actually the advancements of software and hardware technologies that come together to deliver your contextualised experience. Pete Downton: They’re great consumer products, but we’re just at the stage of using a first-generation technology. The quality of the voice interface and its ability to understand what we’re asking of it remains limited. You need to know exactly what you want and how to manipulate the voice assistant in order to get the desired response. That’s going to develop over time. In fact, technology already exists that is much better than Alexa, but Amazon has the market dominance. Vohra: It’s true: smart speakers right now are dealing with simpliﬁed tasks and we do see fundamental user experience problems. But considering the nascent stage of these products, there is a lot more to be done with the underlying 10

July/August 2018

PETE DOWNTON

software (with all the machine learning algorithms and deep learning processes that entails) and availability of user behaviour data that will help improve the end user experience. Downton: We’re going to see more companies coming into the smart speaker category, trying to take advantage of the mainstream audience that these products have opened up. They want to reach the kind of people that are used to spending their time listening to the radio rather than just targeting the seasoned music streaming aﬁcionados, who are only a small portion of music listeners out there. Vohra: And the term ‘smart speakers’ is a somewhat misleading label considering they are more input than output devices. In the case of Google Home, Amazon Echo and Apple Pod, these devices listen to our music needs (“Play me some jazz”), process these commands against vast amount of music metadata, debate the context using machine learning algorithms, and then out comes a track or playlist to provide us a lean-back experience. They create a moment of serendipity for users who don’t know what they want. Downton: Where do you think AI is going to lead the music hardware business? In the immediate future, AI means an increase in the sales of smart speakers

(we’ve already seen that happen), and will probably cause a continued shift towards hardware that has voice recognition functionality and less reliance on displays and touch interfaces. That’s only likely to increase as consumers become more familiar to interacting with music in this way, and as things like improved natural language processing and better availability of metadata makes music discovery easier. Vohra: Right, and ultimately, technology is going to enable a future that is less about carry-on devices and more about wearable and shareable devices. Looking ahead 50-100 years, you’ll be able to take your unique experience anywhere with you without actually owning the device. Logging into your own account through fingerprint recognition on any device means there will be no need to carry a phone everywhere with you. In that world, the idea of ownership of any kind of device, or even a car, becomes an old-fashioned idea. Downton: That vision of the future isn’t as far off as it may seem! Having previously worked in the labels for decades, my concern is that we’ve seen the music industry be complacent in the face of new technologies before. There’s an opportunity to recognise the value of AI and immersive experiences in music here, but it could slip through our fingers. We need to collaborate and grow through connections with other industries (like consumer technology, automotive, and others) before the world moves on to solve other problems. Vohra: Obviously, I’m really interested in how we can use new technologies, but it must always be rooted in what is useful and makes a real difference in the lives of consumers. Technology should be seamless and frictionless. As much as the industry promotes the idea of ambient interfaces powered by AI, there is still a need for hardware that uses tactile interfaces (not least for reasons of accessibility), and many users will need time to adjust to emerging voice-enabled search and discovery models. Downton: Absolutely. We’re starting to see that there’s a significant market out there for this new generation of hardware – one that’s been created by music streaming.

REPORT: DPA MICROPHONES

COPENHAGEN DREAMIN’

Credit: Murray Stassen

Denmark-based microphone manufacturer DPA marries meticulous scientiﬁc research with a visionary narrative about achieving perfect sound reproduction with its microphones. Murray Stassen reports from the company’s HQ.

July/August 2018

REPORT: DPA MICROPHONES ’ll be the ﬁrst to admit that I don’t always consider the production processes behind every piece of audio equipment I use, whether that’s a microphone or a pair of headphones. In a world of mass-produced technology, the concept of something being built by hand is getting rarer and rarer, so when you do get hold of a piece of gear that’s been hand assembled, it makes it feel all the more special. If there’s one company that excels in this field, it’s DPA. The company was launched in 1992 by two former employees (Ole Brøsted Sørensen & Morten Støve) of Danish sound vibration measurement specialist Brüel & Kjær, who decided to set up their own firm, with Danish Pro Audio being brought into the world thereafter. Now known simply as DPA Microphones however, the company is of course well-known for the likes of its 4060 and 4061 miniature microphones, which have become a staple on film sets, theatre stages and orchestral pits around the world. Last year it delved into the world of digital audio

Nielsen on success in the market: “You cannot force your way into success. If you are not solving customer problems better than the alternative then you are not going to be successful anyway. So it’s not about looking at competitors as enemies or anything like that. It’s just about looking at it as if we are partners in crime trying to work together and if they have some products from one company and products from other companies, then we need to make it work together. Some of our biggest competitors are also our biggest partners.”

devices with its d:vice preamp. DPA’s flagship d:dicate 4006A was directly adapted from an original Brüel & Kjær measurement microphone and is described by the company as “one of the most accurate proaudio mics in the world.” All of the company’s products are developed, handbuilt and rigorously tested in its facilities in the Danish countryside and Audio Media International was given a tour of the factory to witness their meticulous manufacturing process first hand as well as to sit down for an interview with CEO Kalle Hvidt Nielsen. Seeing something as small as a DPA d:screet 4060 miniature microphone being put together by hand with a microscope makes you all the more appreciative of the precision Danish engineering that has gone into these products. According to DPA Microphones, there are two key things that inform its products. The first thing is scientific research and the second, “objectively good” sound. “DPA has roots in a very scientiﬁc and very objective way of looking at the world,” explains Nielsen. “That is in our blood and our hearts and we really want our microphones to reﬂect the real world and be objective in the sound they provide, ideally giving the same 14

July/August 2018

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“We want as many people as possible to experience great sound”

DPA CEO, Kalle Hvidt Nielsen

signal as the sound that hits the microphone.” Nielsen joined DPA in 2016 from Topsil Semiconductor Materials A/S, where he held the CEO position since 2011. Previously, Nielsen occupied CEO positions at Bang & Olufsen A/S and Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S. “Our mission is to have as many people as possible experience good sound,” he continues. “There are still a lot of areas where we can improve. There are still a lot of people in the world that we can provide better microphone solutions for.”

Nielsen on the ideal microphone: “We try to [make] the ideal microphone, which is of course not possible, but the ideal microphone should be invisible, because you don’t want to see it; it should reflect true sound and it should be consistent and sound the same between different microphones. They also need to be extremely robust. So that is our ambition. Even though we are humble, we think we are doing really well, but we always need to do better.

Nielsen recounts an anecdote about a business conference where “a very high ranking CEO had his presentation destroyed” by a microphone headset that wasn’t working properly. “It was very irritating for the audience, but also because he was distracted all the time, trying to correct it. He says that this is “so sad” and adds that it’s problems like this, no matter how small, that the company likes to try solve for end users. “I am the irritating guy that, if I check into a hotel and there is noise in the room, I will complain,” says Nielsen, commenting on how important sound is for him and

everyone else at DPA. “I don’t want to hear bad sound. Sound is really an important part of our lives here.” In addition to DPA’s unique approach to sound capturing products, the company also has an unusually positive outlook when it comes to the wider industry, referring to other companies not as competitors, but as ‘partners’. “It’s our mission for as many people as possible to experience great sound, whatever they do. With that in mind, fundamentally we should not care whether it’s us that [makes] the microphone or the competitor. “Of course we also have a business to run. But sound is really the driving factor. If you go and speak to one of the employees here, you’ll see that it’s this that they care about, more than if we sell a microphone. “I think from my point of view, that’s the right attitude to have, because no one, myself included, wants a company to say, Buy my product, buy my product. What we want the suppliers to do is to think carefully about your issues, your challenges, and your problems and not focus on selling a product but focus on solving a problem.” If you do that, concludes Nielsen, then competitors are no longer competitors, they “are partners in trying to solve the customer’s issue”.

Nielsen on DPA’s mission: “Our mission is to have as many people as possible hearing good sound. If you look at a typical sound chain, starting with the microphone, going through a wireless system, sound processors, amplifiers and loudspeakers, we are only a tiny bit of this chain, but we believe that the microphone is a crucial element, because what comes in through the microphone, the signal that the mic delivers, cannot be fixed. If that’s distorted, nothing [in the chain] can fix it.”

REPORT: DPA MICROPHONES

Factory production manager, Finn Mortensen

July/August 2018

FEATURE: GCVRS

Space age: GCVRS’ Audio Lab 2

GRAND SLAM

Being the ﬁrst UK post-production facility to totally convert from analogue to digital, Grand Central Recording Studios (GCRS) has always had its sights set ﬁrmly on the future. Its newest studio, boasting Dolby Atmos and Ambisonics sound, is set up to create hyper-realistic soundscapes for VR applications in an environment dedicated to creative collaboration. Tara Lepore went to Soho to hear it for herself… he sudden popularity of all things VR has made spatial sound seem like a bit of an overnight success. For the team at Soho post-production house Grand Central Recording Studios (GCRS), it’s anything but. When AMI visits its all-new dedicated immersive audio mixing facility Audio Lab 2, GCRS technical

lead Steve Lane reveals that the team have been experimenting with 3D audio for around 12 years. The diﬀerence is that now, the demand is there – interest in such projects from its roster of world-class clients is currently at an all-time high. GCRS mixes sound for TV, cinema, radio, online and interactive media. In March this year, it won an

IDEAS award for its immersive audio work on a Sky VR project (which proudly sits on the studio’s AMS Neve DFC Gemini desk during our visit). High-proﬁle clients also include tech giants Google, Samsung and fashion label Burberry, and increasingly, these world-renowned brands are reaching out to GCRS to push the boundaries when it comes to creating audio in their VR endeavours. July/August 2018

FEATURE: GCVRS “More clients were asking for things in VR,” Lane explains, which led to the arrival of the new Audio Lab 2. The studio space is fitted with a full Dolby Atmos system and Third Order Ambisonics speakers on the lower level, creating a mixing facility with ample desk space for creative collaboration. This recent addition to the London premises proves that GCRS has its sights firmly set on the future of audio – being the first post-production studio facility in the UK to make the full transition from analogue to digital technology. “Things have changed,” Lane says. “This new studio is the basis of our research and development into the 360 immersive audio sphere. Our previous R&D gave us a fundamental understanding about how we hear, and also how we position sounds within an environment. However, there previously wasn’t really a platform available – for a consumer at least – to experience that.”

“It’s not a full experience unless the audio matches what you’re seeing visually” Then VR got big. With the growing popularity of headsets and investment into small VR developers from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the like, the medium has an ever-increasing reach to the general public, which is only going to get bigger. Lane comments: “Now, leaders in that field are developing these algorithms that play sound around you. Since that started to occur, the ability to use immersive audio in more constructive and technical ways became a lot easier. A general realisation that audio is as important to immersion as visuals are is now here, and people have started to take it more seriously in the past three or four years.” In April 2017, the studio launched its VR arm, GCVRS, to focus on the far-reaching potential of the format. Six months later, the Audio Lab 2 was officially open for business. Where the Atmos system gives a big, cinematic sound, the Ambisonics speakers are essential in creating the realism needed when designing a soundscape for an immersive video game, for example. Joining Lane on the VR team on the day of AMI’s visit is Mirren Malcolm-Neale, a VR tech assistant with a degree in maths and music, who’d initially worked at the studio as a runner. Now, Malcolm-Neale tends to assist Lane with the sound design and Lane assists her on the development side. GCRS co-founder and technical and finance director Ivor Taylor explains that the “creativity and experimentation involved” in this new kind of working relationship is creating a “lucrative new skillbase”.

The collaborative environment is attractive to clients

July/August 2018

FEATURE: GCVRS

Technical lead Steve Lane

The new studio and its specialist VR team have already proved popular with clients, and it’s clear to see why. A long table and row of chairs at the back of the room allows for full collaboration between creator and client, as people from all stages of the project’s creative process can witness the audio being made collectively, with everyone experiencing the same ‘sweet spot’. This accommodating space combined with the dual Atmos-Ambisonics systems means this is the ﬁrst studio of its kind in the world, according to Taylor. It’s a futureproof set-up, as VR moves from being something that is experienced mostly through headphones, to something that will be heard more on speakers, with the rise of installation and experiential-based audio. “The type of people we work with are creative whether they’re directors or producers or something else - they all want to come in and be part of that process when we’re designing the sound,” says Lane. “We would previously sit there with a headset on, listening to headphones while we were doing it, [and the client] would be kind of obsolete at that point. So I would have to say, OK it’s your turn to check the mix, until everyone had listened and said their comments and then would have to work on it again for another 20 minutes. So, with this room, what we can do is come out of the headphones and have everything in the speakers around you. It’s revolutionised the way that we’ve been able to approach sessions and allows people to feel much more involved in the process.”

Taylor comments: “The idea that we’d end up with the VR crew in here wanting to use the entire room as a development place – with clients coming in to be involved with the VR session – is transformational.” The Atmos set-up comprises a 32-speaker array with 12 high level speakers in the ceiling and 20 speakers nominally at sitting-ear height. Richard Furse of Blue Ripple Sound, a pioneer in the area of spatial sound technology, collaborated with David Bell from acoustic specialist White Mark on the Ambisonics design. “We’d bought the Atmos system but weren’t completely sure where to install it,” explains Taylor. In the meantime, we were developing a relationship with Richard Furse, the managing director at Blue Ripple Sound and a guru in Ambisonic sound. Because VR was charging forward very rapidly, software had started allowing you to put immersive cues in. “At that point, we said we’d actually like to have a Third Order Ambisonics studio, but it made sense to do the Atmos installation at the same time. So, in the hardware sense, we installed the Atmos speakers and then put the additional low-level [Ambisonics] speakers into it.” The Dolby Atmos system was originally intended for Studio 5, where feature ﬁlm trailers are usually mixed, but an executive decision was made to leave the room as is and instead install the speakers in Audio Lab 2. “Studio 5 was so busy that actually taking it oﬄine for about two to three months was not commercially practical,” Taylor explains. “Studio 5 has also gained a particular reputation

for developing sound for feature film trailers, so the idea of ripping it apart and putting a completely new acoustic design in had a lot of risks attached to it. Therefore, we made the commercial decision not to do it.” The forward-looking features of Audio Lab 2 mean the studio will be able to adapt with changing developments in the VR sphere within the next decade and beyond. Lane comments: “What we’ve been finding is that what can be done visually [in VR] is pretty impressive, but a lot of people assume the audio side will be fine without actually putting that much craft into it. But now, more and more people are starting to realise that it’s not a full experience unless the audio matches what you’re seeing visually.” And with the unstoppable rise of immersive sound, what does the future hold for mixing sound in postproduction? Taylor points to the desk. “This desk, and other desks like it, will be fundamentally obsolete within five to 10 years, technically speaking. The work that’s going on in VR will bleed across into other areas. Other mixing styles will start to emerge. That doesn’t invalidate something that the Beatles did, for example, as that’s a particular style of mixing. But what we’re interested in is having a room in which we can experiment. We’re already doing things in this room that we never imagined we’d be doing.” Now GCRS has the full capabilities to explore the VR realm even further, who knows what the next 12 years could hold? July/August 2018

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Credit: Tom Hancock

FEATURE: LIVE SOUND

CAPITAL CITY:

SUPPLYING SOUND FOR LONDON’S ALL POINTS EAST The inaugural All Points East festival took place in London’s Victoria Park this summer with Capital Sound providing the audio coverage for the mammoth event. Here, Stephen Bennett speaks to senior project manager Martin Connolly to ﬁnd out more about the challenges of specifying sound for an event of this scale.

LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy

July/August 2018

Credit: Jessica Gilbert

FEATURE: LIVE SOUND

Catfish And The Bottlemen

ontrary to what the name may suggest, the All Points East (APE) festival is not a celebration of Indian sitar music in Lowestoft but is, in fact, a ten-day extravaganza located in London’s slightly less Easterly Victoria Park. The 2018 festival ran with concerts over the weekend of 25-27 May, featuring, among others, Björk, Beck, LCD Soundsystem and The XX, while the ‘APE presents’ strand - running from 1-3 June - offered what the promoters called three ‘huge standalone headline shows’, featuring Catfish and the Bottlemen, The National and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. There was also a midweek British Summer Time festival a-like ‘In the Neighbourhood’ event, offering various free-to-access activities and entertainment in collaboration with the local community, businesses, organisations and suppliers. These included outdoor cinema, live music and entertainment, street food, pop up bars, theatre, arts, sports, wellbeing and children’s activities. Finally on the late May Bank Holiday Monday, the ‘All Points Equal’ event celebrated “100 years of votes for (some) women, and 90 years of equal voting rights for women and men.” So, not your average festival weekend then! In total, there were 99 performances on the programme spread across the eponymous East Stage, the North Stage, the West

Arena, the X-Stage and Jägerhaus - I’m sure you can tell who the sponsor of that stage was. Victoria Park is slap bang in the middle of a residential area, so the sound crew and engineers had to build this into their preparations along with the usual task of coping with potentially recalcitrant musicians and technology. The company to take on this seemingly daunting task was Capital Sound,

Victoria Park being in a residential area, we know that care has to be taken when designing our systems,” says Connolly. “We always start every potential design for an outdoor show with a blank canvas so we can take into account not only what the promoter wants to achieve but how this can be best done without creating oﬀ-site noise problems - which ultimately could lead to licence reviews.”

“Martin Audio’s MLA is the most controllable system in pro audio” with Martin Connolly, Capital’s account manager for the All Points East festival, overseeing the technical sound coverage. “Capital have a history of working successfully in Victoria Park where we have supplied the sound for the Field Day festival,” says Connolly. “We also have history working with the All Points East promoter AEG Presents Ltd., so when I was approached by the promoters, Larmac Live, to quote for the sound production for the festival, it felt like coming home - even though it was a new event.” Of course, the Victoria Park area is also all about ‘coming home’ in a very real sense to many people who live nearby, so the Capital team had to take particular care when sourcing and placing equipment. “With

The venue’s multiple stages all required individual technical solutions. ”With the East and North stages, which were both outdoors, we used Martin Audio’s MLA/MLX system with MLA-C/W8LM delays,” says Connolly. The West stage was a tented venue, while the South stage was a bespoke ‘in the round structure’. For both of these venues, Capital supplied Outline’s speaker systems - the GTO C-12 line-source elements for the former and the Superﬂy compact line-array for the latter. “Outline themselves claim that these devices are built speciﬁcally for large-scale sound reinforcement applications and Connolly says that they were perfect for use in the festival. July/August 2018

FEATURE: LIVE SOUND “All of the systems were driven via Capital’s custom digital drive racks with either Lake LM44 or Outline’s Newtons as the processors,” he adds. For such a complex setup, tried-and-tested is almost always a better bet than cutting edge technology, as Connolly explains. “Martin Audio’s MLA (Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array) is the most controllable system in pro audio and offers great advantages when it comes down to even coverage throughout the site, while being able to keep the lid on offsite noise pollution at the same time as producing the levels at the front of house that engineers really want to operate at.” Connolly cannot praise the MLA equipment enough, as it enabled Capital and the promoters of the festival to keep audience, sound engineers and local residents happy. “MLA did the trick and once again worked its magic,” he says. “We were able to give the front of house engineers running levels of 101 to 102dBA, a Leq (equivalent continuous sound level) of 15 with peaks of 108dBA, whilst keeping 0.5dB below the off-site limit of 75dBA.“ These latter sound level measurements were handled by Jim Griffiths and his team from the environmental sound company, Vanguardia. The rest of the equipment supplied by Capital included Avid Venue Profile, Yamaha CL5 and PM5D and Midas Pro 2 desks, with fairly standard microphone packages from the usual suspects of Shure, AKG, Sennhesier,

Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

July/August 2018

Audio Technica and Audix—though as Ian Greenaway of Lamarc says (see box), pains were taken to make sure the choice of equipment was driven by the need to make the entire day run smoothly. The proof of the audio pudding is always in the aural execution and Matt Crosbie, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ front of house engineer, was mightily impressed. “The PA system was fantastic and gave me the headroom I needed for a Nick Cave Show. I was very happy!” He says that the Capital crew were more than helpful and pleasant to work with. “I would recommend them in the future - overall, it was one of the easiest and most pleasant festivals I have worked at for some time. Ten out of ten.” One would expect with an event of this complexity and magnitude, many and multifarious issues and problems with equipment and the talent would emerge to frustrate the technical crew, but Connolly says that it all went very smoothly. “We really didn’t have any issues to overcome as Ian Greenway and his team at Larmac headed oﬀ any potential problems before they became real ones.” According to Connolly, the only thing that had to be changed was the front of house position on the South stage, which was moved in the midweek to give better sightlines for the audience. “The entire event was a great success for all involved,” he says. “I’m looking forward to doing it all over again next year.”

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Credit: Jordan Curtis Hughes

FEATURE: LIVE SOUND A walk in the park: LArmac Live

Ian Greenway is one of two directors of the company Larmac Live and was the production director on All Points East, responsible for providing technical direction and all artist liaison services for the festival. It’s usual for artists to have personal preferences with respect to equipment and this provided a challenge to Greenway’s team. “We’ll typically get a rider from the artists that lists three or four preferred systems and while we are not governed to supply those, we have quite a task to educate artists and make them comfortable with using new technology,“ he says. Greenway adds that most FOH guys are now familiar with MLA systems, but less so, for example, with GTO. “My job is to make the show as streamlined and efficient and, to be blunt, as financially effective as possible - we can’t put one of every console under the sun at FOH, it’d become a ridiculous game.” Managing the level of expectations, cooperation and flexibility of the talent is one Greenway’s roles. “That’s where Capital comes in, as we can rely on those guys as they have a great relationship with Martin Audio and can explain what the capabilities of the system are and put that ‘comfort blanket’ in for people.” Victoria Park is challenging acoustically as to what levels the sound engineers can put both on and offsite, but Greenway says that the levels obtained for the festival far surpassed what has been seen on other shows at this venue. “Once we got everyone to the table, everyone was really content with the results we got - which augurs well for next year’s festival.”

July/August 2018

FEATURE: PORTABLE PAS

PUBLIC SPEAKERS Although most mid-to-large sized venues now have quite excellent and sophisticated PA systems, smaller ones are often an unknown quantity with respect to the quality of their public address equipment - if they have any at all. Stephen Bennett reports...

Adam Hallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alexander Studte in an anechoic chamber with the Maui 5 Go

July/August 2018

FEATURE: PORTABLE PAS hen I was paying my rock and roll dues in the halcyon days of the 1980s, I recall carting around a huge 1,000w HH PA system that required its own separate ex-Post Office van for transport, just so we could be sure we’d have decent sound in the pubs and clubs that were the ‘circuit’ then for up-and-coming-bands. Time and technology moves on and our old HH system appears as a dinosaur-like physical and sonic behemoth compared to today’s compact portable systems - and there are a range of approaches and design philosophies to choose from in this marketplace. Matt Redmon, director of product marketing for Mackie, says that the company has spent nearly 30 years bringing pro technology to users, providing exceptional value, with tank-like build quality and user-friendly designs. “When you think about it, sound reinforcement gear - when it’s not trying to be ‘invisible’ - should be easy, even fun, for its operators to use,” he says. “Artists and presenters should be focused on their performance, and engineers shouldn’t have to spend their time buried in menus or running around the venue trying to solve problems.” Redmon adds that Mackie offers innovative solutions that aim to simplify user interfaces, remove unwanted cabling, integrate third-party devices like tablets and phones and automate common processes. “We aim to improve the customer experiences through the implementation of cutting edge technology platforms,” he adds. According to Ray van Straten, senior director of marketing at QSC Professional, one of the guiding principles at the company is to deliver the best-in-class products for the customer segments that they serve. “Innovation and great design are paramount in achieving this goal, as are world-class global sourcing, state-of-the-art manufacturing and steadfast quality control,” he says. “Once the price/performance target is determined, the transducer, amplifier, DSP and design teams work together to deliver a finished product that is far greater than the sum of its parts.” Straten says that the DSP component is critical in optimising the performance of the system’s components, while also continuously monitoring and adjusting total system functionality for maximum performance and overall component and system protection. Martin Audio has also taken the approach of developing portable systems using cutting edge technology. “This offers many of the advantages of system operation and coverage that is usually only available with high-end touring arrays,” says Nigel Meddemmen, product support manager at Martin Audio. He adds that the company’s CDD-LIVE system marries several technologies in a series of compact, lightweight enclosures for a multitude of portable applications. “When it comes to new technology, a lot of people

July/August 2018

tend to focus on the larger systems, where we are among the market leaders,” says Sean Maxwell of Electro-Voice. “But in fact the portable sound market is an extremely important and highly competitive segment and technology is most often the driving force behind a user’s choice of system. The days when one black box was much like another are a long way behind us.” Maxwell adds that today’s customer is usually very knowledgeable about what they want to achieve and how they want to make it happen. “For Electro-Voice, that means oﬀering what we believe is the most powerful family in portable sound - a range of solutions for every scenario, channelling all of the expertise that we have from our touring sound solutions into these much more compact enclosures.”

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addresses the real needs of music professionals. “The challenge in developing this type of product is that we have to combine factors which are normally mutually exclusive, such as high SPL vs. compact-size, powerful bass vs. lightweight and high-powered batteries vs an attractive price point.” One of the major problems in producing a system that is both powerful enough and compact is that these criteria are often at odds - ’big bass’ usually means big speakers, powerful amplifiers usually mean large, fancooled enclosures. “The contemporary audio customer, in an era of rapid consumer electronics advances, also expects a continuing evolution of product attributes that might seemingly define logic, such as a desire for smaller and lighter systems that also offer higher levels of performance,” says Straten.

“When it comes to new technology, a lot of people tend to focus on the larger systems” John Monitto, director of business development for Meyer Sound, says that fundamental to the company’s design philosophy are self-powered loudspeakers with a linear response - meaning that, according to Monitto, the system maintains an accurate delivery of the audio signal with its full original dynamic range no matter what the output level. “We have achieved this goal in our LEO Family of line array systems, including the new LINA which is the smallest and most portable in the family.” Alexander Studte, team leader of R&D, audio at Adam Hall, says that “portable PA Systems are a more diﬃcult product in a ‘prosumer’ niche. Either they are on the lower-end of mass-produced products from China with poorer sound quality or are smaller hi-ﬁ consumer products which cannot deliver the sound pressure level required for PA purposes”. He says that the company’s Maui 5 GO is one of the very few products in the market which actually

A good example of this is our KS212C powered cardioid subwoofer. In responding to customers’ desire for “more bass” from a small box, this solution offers more useable low end where the customer needs it - in the listening area.” Straten says that the system is about the same size as the previous offering but considerably smaller than traditional front-loaded designs. “Our KS212C 3600watt amplifier could have been put to work powering a front-loaded large-diameter transducer, but that wouldn’t have helped with cabinet size.” “Our ZLX series are the best-selling pro audio speakers in the world,” says Maxwell. “They are available in 12” and 15” powered and passive versions and are lightweight with intuitive single-knob DSP features. The new ELX200 range is a step up, featuring a heavyweight performance in a lightweight package compared to others speakers in the same class. Maxwell says that the company’s QuickSmartDSP

QSC’s K.2 series

FEATURE: PORTABLE PAS

Mackie’s FreePlay series

system gives the user a tremendous amount of flexibility and control but with the same usability that he claims EV are known for. “The ETX is the flagship range, with six models that we are proud to call the highest performance portable speakers available today, designed for the most demanding applications,” he adds. “LINA is extremely compact, measuring only nineteen inches wide and weighing forty-three pounds, yet it achieves exceptionally high output while maintaining very low distortion,” says Meyer Sound’s Monitto. He adds that the technologies applied to LINA include a new and highly efficient class D amplifier, upgraded power supply, and a refined magnet structure for the HF driver. “The internal processing incorporates Meyer Sound’s proprietary Native Mode for ‘out of the box’ setup of common array configurations,” he says. In a small venue, the listening experience can often be compromised by the dispersion characteristics of the system, as Meddemmen explains: “The patented drivers in our system are two-way coaxial, overcoming the usual beaming effect of such a system at high frequencies, by using a differential dispersion waveguide passing through the LF pole piece seamlessly onto the LF cone.“ Meddemmen says that this differential dispersion gives wide horizontal coverage in the nearfield, narrowing in the far field to produce an almost rectangular coverage pattern to match the majority of audience areas that have to be covered. “A couple of recent Mackie product launches that speak our design philosophy are our Thump Boosted loudspeakers and our recently refreshed and expanded FreePlay Portable PA series, both of which offer their users wireless audio streaming – and mix control – over two separate loudspeakers or portable PA systems from anywhere in the venue,” says Redmon. This system, he says, offers Mackie’s customers the

“amazing beneﬁt of streaming high-resolution house music or backing tracks – in addition to the ability to mix their performances from the mic stand (or wherever else they want to mix from).” Redmond claims this is “just one example of Mackie’s continued goal to leverage developing technology trends into customer-informed designs

“Sound reinforcement gear, when it’s not trying to be invisible, should be easy and fun to use” that delight artists and engineers alike.” While ‘portable’ can often mean compact, there is one other element of design that can make a system truly useable in every environment–assuming the technology is right. “A portable sound system is only of marginal use for a musician if she/he needs a mains powered mixer to operate it,” says Studte. “Therefore, we offer a battery-operated smart solution with an integrated mixer and accessories to allow the musician to carry everything she/he needs for the gig with minimal effort.” Meddemmen, however, says that a powered system offers a number of advantages. “ Our CDD-Live speakers incorporate two channels of amplification for bi-amp operation together with DSP for crossover and box EQ, additionally making a comprehensive array or parameters available to the user to tailor the system precisely for its given application.” “To find the right compromises is the tricky part for us engineers in the development department,” says

Studte. “We decided to use our existing Maui 5 sound system as a basis for our portable Maui 5 GO system.” To achieve acceptable battery runtimes, he says that it is necessary to reduce the idle power consumption as much as possible. “Due to the characteristic of music signals, the average power consumption is much less than the maximum power available. Reducing the idle power consumption while keeping noise and distortion down is a much trickier task than with comparable systems without a battery.” My band’s old HH PA system came with a long - and expensive - copper multicore, but Martin Audio is taking a more contemporary route with connectivity. “Networking is now very common in audio systems and the CDD-LIVE range can be accessed using a standard Ethernet LAN,” says Meddemmen. “The cabinets have an on-board 2-port switch so the network can be daisy-chained between units.” Dante is now pretty much the industry standard for multi-channel audio over network and the CDD-LIVE range is Dante-enabled. “This offers an extremely neat and efficient system configuration with audio and control over a single CAT5e cable, routing via Audinate’s Dante Controller with EQ, delay, phase, level, and monitoring using Martin Audio’s Vu-Net software.” Monitto says that compact systems such as LINA will redefine what can be achieved in a small venue, portable PA system. “The linear response characteristics found in LINA’s larger siblings, LEO, LYON and Leopard – whether installed in a massive football stadium or on tour with artists like Metallica and Ed Sheeran – are scaled down for use in many other applications.” Meddemmen says that the CDD-LIVE system has proved extremely successful and popular with users. “The incredible flexibility coupled with remarkable sonic performance is proving to be an excellent solution for the most demanding applications.” Redmon says that as technology trends continues to evolve, Mackie continues to strive to offer newer, better ways of “solving common user pain points, and presenting superior user benefits that aim to simplify and improve their customers’ lives.” Maxwell says that Electro-Voice stands apart as one of the few companies to design all components in-house - enclosures, waveguides, drivers - thus “ensuring excellent quality for every audio application, from a standalone loudspeaker to a networked sound system”. “We strictly adhere to the toughest test procedures in the industry, and everything is tested in the largest demo hall in Europe (in Straubing),” adds Maxwell. “Our products literally speak for themselves: we strive for complete transparency and linearity in our transducers, so the need for external processing is minimised.” Straten says that because of QSC’s ability to have power, transducer, DSP, design, test and manufacturing capabilities all under one roof, it makes innovative solutions possible and, he adds, “of course, that many of us are also users of pro-audio products helps tremendously.”

July/August 2018

PRODUCT FOCUS INSTRUMENT MICS

LIVE ON THE MIC Whether you’re miking a choir, an orchestra or a single instrument for a recital, the wide range of live instrument microphones on the market means that there’s something for every application. With varying specs and price ranges, choosing the right product can make the world of difference to your live show...

DPA d:vote 4099 DPA’s recently launched CORE by DPA amplifier technology has now been applied to its award-winning d:vote 4099 instrument microphones, giving a clearer sound to the products by lowering overall distortion and expanding the dynamic range. The new d:vote CORE 4099 instrument mics sees the dynamic range increased from 100 dB to 108 dB for the loud SPL version and from 95 dB to 109 dB for the extreme SPL version, giving the microphones a more open sound across the whole level range. DPA has also introduced a new streamlined design that features a more distinguished foam cover, which helps decrease vulnerability to wind or movement during a performance. To make it easier for users to tell the difference between the two versions available, the new d:vote CORE mics are colour-coded at the bottom of the mic: a red mark represents Loud SPL and a yellow mark represents Extreme SPL. The d:vote 4099 Series is designed for use with every woodwind and acoustical instrument, the most popular being guitar, violin,

cello, trumpet and saxophone. The interchangeable clip programme, which includes units for drums, microphone stands, piano and many more, means that one microphone can fit many instruments by easily changing the clip. Known for its discreet size and flexibility, the d:vote 4099 mic is a great fit for a variety of applications ranging from the live stage and theatre to live performances during primetime broadcasts.

Key Features Frequency range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz Weight: Max 50 g (1.8 oz) Microphone length: 45 mm (1.8 in) Cable length: 1.8 m (6 ft) RRP: from £403 ($538)

Audio-Technica ATM350a Audio-Technica’s ATM350a cardioid condenser microphone is designed for versatility and rock-solid mounting on a wide variety of instruments and is well-suited to a tough life on the road. The ATM350a capsule delivers a well-balanced response and handles high SPL levels, making it an ideal option for dynamic instruments such as the piano, drums, brass instruments and more. A wide frequency response and 12dB/octave low frequency roll-off at 80Hz add to the flexibility of the ATM350a, while the cardioid pickup pattern helps to minimise spill from other sound sources on busy stages. There are many mounting options available for the microphone: universal clip-on mounts come in both long and short gooseneck options while the drum mount allows access to tuning rods and adds suspension to isolate the mic from shell vibration.

A magnetic piano mount and woodwind Velcro strap mount round out the ATM350a’s hardware option list. As with the rest of Audio-Technica’s Artist Series liveoriented wired microphones, the ATM350a is covered by a lifetime warranty. In addition to the complete microphone systems, the mount components are also available separately, without the ATM350a.

Key Features Frequency range: 40 – 20,000 Hz Weight (mic): 14.5 g (0.5 oz) Polar pattern: Cardioid Dynamic range (typical): 130 dB, 1 kHz at Max SPL RRP: from £224 ($297)

July/August 2018

DIGITAL 6000

No intermodulation. More channels. More power for your business.

Others dodge problems. We prefer to solve them. Of course, you can work your way around intermodulation and do some software magic — but that is no real solution in the already congested and limited frequency spectrum. By design, Digital 6000 has no intermodulation artifacts. Our superior RF technology results in more channels and more flexibility for any production and any stage — with no trade-off in transmission power or quality. Smarter, leaner, more efficient — this is the built-in principle from user interface up to spectrum efficiency. Redundant Dante™ sockets and the command function are just two components of the recent update. More about the next step towards the future of audio: www.sennheiser.com/digital-6000

PRODUCT FOCUS INSTRUMENT MICS

Sennheiser EW 500 G4-Ci1 The fourth generation of Sennheiser’s EW series is flexible, easy to use and reliable. Whether you are on tour, at an outdoor shoot, in the conference room or in the auditorium – Sennheiser’s G4 suits many applications. Renowned sound engineers rely on EW 500 G4‘s flexibility, especially when handling multi-channel settings. There is up to 88 MHz bandwidth and up to 32 channels. Ethernet connection for Wireless Systems Manager (WSM) control software is also included for advanced frequency coordination in multi-channel setups. The EW mic is well-balanced while being upfront for guitar and bass instruments. A powerful bodypack transmitter and Ci1 instrument cable also adds to the product’s package in a full-metal housing with intuitive OLED display.

Key Features High RF output power (up to 50 mW) Up to 32 compatible channels Up to 88 MHz bandwidth with 3520 selectable frequencies Weight: approx. 980 g RRP: £799 ($1,067)

Beyerdynamic MC 930 This universal condenser microphone has a good price to performance ratio. Features of the MC 930 are the wide frequency response of 40-20,000 Hz and a signal-to-noise ratio of 71 dB. The MC 930 is suitable for miking choirs, orchestras and solo instruments. Due to the switchable preattenuation of 15 dB it provides great performance at high sound pressure levels. The switchable bass roll-off filter with 6 dB/Octave at 250 Hz compensates for proximity effects. With the WS 101 windscreen the MC 930 can be used for vocal applications and speech. The MC 930 is phantom powered (11-52 V) and is suitable for live applications and installations. Due to its cardioid polar pattern, the MC 930 has a high-gain-before feedback and eliminates noise from the rear. It is not only a first-class tool for studios, but also for sound contracting systems, where great sound and maximum gain-before-feedback is required.

Key Features Switchable pre-attenuation -15 dB Switchable bass roll-off filter with 6 dB/Octave at 250 Hz High off-axis rejection RRP: £402 ($539)

July/August 2018

Keep bass in its place.

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Introducing the KS212C K Cardioid Subwoofer. The world’s ﬁrst-in-class single-box cardioid subwoofer for mobile applications. Perfect for dance ﬂoors, stages and outdoor events where you want your bass energy focused on the audience — not on the neighbors.

qsc.com

PRODUCT FOCUS INSTRUMENT MICS

Shure KSM313 Ribbon microphones are well-established in the recording studio thanks to their ear-pleasing low-mid response and smooth top-end. For live sound applications, though, engineers have tended to favour dynamic microphones, as they are traditionally more durable than delicate ribbon mics. The Shure KSM313 challenges this trend, by offering the sonic advantages of a well-designed ribbon microphone, without the associated downsides. This durability is thanks to the microphone’s unique Roswellite ribbon material, which replaces traditional foil ribbons for superior resilience at extreme SPLs. The KSM313 is also dual-voiced, offering a different frequency response on each side to suit user preference. The front side is warm and full (well suited for amplifiers), while the rear side is a little brighter (great for adding sparkle to vocals). It is the robust nature of Roswellite as a material – combined with the dual-voicing – that has now made the KSM313 a firm favourite with many touring engineers for guitar and bass cabs. Recent examples include acts such as Catfish & The Bottlemen, Bruce Springsteen and Slash.

Key Features Bi-directional polar pattern Roswellite proprietary ribbon material Frequency response: 146dB SPL / 30 – 15,000 Hz True Dual Voicing tuned specifically for user’s for choice of response RRP: £1,119 ($1,490)

Royer R-10 Ribbon Microphone Royer Labs’ new R-10 ribbon microphone is handbuilt in Royer’s Burbank facility and was designed for studio and live use. The R-10 features a 2.5-micron ribbon element (identical to the company’s R-121) and a David Royer custom-designed transformer. Its ribbon transducer is wired for humbucking to reject electromagnetically induced noise. The R-10 handles SPLs of up to 160 dB @ 1K and features a protective three-layer wind screen system, making it an ideal choice for live electric guitars, brass and drum overheads and delivering all the low-end, midrange warmth and punch that Royer ribbons are well known for. The three-layer wind screen system provides protection from air blasts and plosives while simultaneously reducing proximity effect (LF buildup caused by close miking) - enabling guitar cabinets and acoustic instruments to be close-miked with less bass buildup. Equally notable, the microphone’s internally mounted ribbon transducer isolates the ribbon element from shocks and vibrations, thus increasing the ribbon element’s durability. The R-10 features a David Royer custom-designed

transformer which minimises saturation at extremely high SPLs—making it nearly impossible to overload the microphone. The microphone’s open grill design minimises standing waves and associated comb filtering effects. As a result, its smooth frequency response, phase linearity, and lack of self-distortion make the R-10 a terrific choice for all digital recording and live sound applications. The new Royer Labs R-10 ribbon microphone ships in a foam-lined, protective aluminum case and includes a microphone mount designed to provide flexible microphone positioning.

Key Features Polar pattern: Figure-8 Generating element: 2.5-micron aluminum ribbon Frequency response: 30Hz-15,000Hz +/- 3dB Weight: 13 oz (368g) RRP £374 ($499)

July/August 2018

Reaching beyond, obtaining new heights, achieving a higher level of listening. This is what drives Audio-Technica in the creation of our transducers and audio solutions. It is a perpetual quest to produce a sound experience that

transcends

expectations and gives listeners the deeper connection to their music.

PRODUCT FOCUS INSTRUMENT MICS

AKG D40

Key Features Polar pattern: Cardioid Audio frequency bandwidth: 50–20000 Hz Sensitivity: 2.5 mV/Pa Electrical impedance: ≥ 600 Ohms RRP: £74 ($99)

The AKG D40 professional instrumental microphone, with its solid all-metal body, will stand up to the hardships of nightafter-night onstage use easily. Its patented ‘Varimotion’ diaphragm uses a unique laminated material to damp high resonance peaks, leading to a noticeable leap in audio performance. The D40 microphone’s transducer is protected by a sturdy wire-mesh cap and can take extremely high sound pressure levels with ease - up to 156dB for extreme situations without any distortion. An integrated stand adapter in combination with the included H440 mounting bracket makes the D40 a highly versatile tool for use on drums, percussion, wind instruments and guitar amps.

Audix i5

Key Features Frequency response: 50 Hz - 16 kHz Polar pattern: Cardioid Output impedance: 280 ohms Sensitivity: 1.6 mV / Pa @ 1k RRP £89 ($119)

Designed, assembled, and tested by Audix in the USA, the i5 is a dynamic instrument microphone used for live stage, studio, and broadcast applications. The i5 features a cardioid pickup pattern for isolation and feedback control and is equipped with a VLM (very low mass) diaphragm for natural, accurate sound reproduction. With a wide frequency response of 50 Hz-16 kHz, the i5 provides clear, accurate, natural sound reproduction without having to rely on EQ. The i5 can handle sound pressure levels in excess of 140 dB without distortion and can be used to mic a wide variety of musical instruments, vocals, and speech. When paired with the optional Audix CabGrabber tension-fit microphone holder, the i5 is also a great solution for guitar and bass cabinets. The i5 is manufactured with a precision cast zinc alloy body, dent resistant steel grill, durable black E-coat finish and gold-plated XLR connector.

July/August 2018

PRODUCT REVIEW

www.audiomediainternational.com

FOCAL CLEAR PROFESSIONAL Alan Branch revisits Focal’s headphones after reviewing the Utopias in the Jan/Feb issue of AMI. This time he gets his hands on Focal’s new Clear Professionals and gives us his verdict on this high-end pair of cans...

ith the world of music making becoming more mobile via powerful lightweight laptops and audio interfaces packed with DSP plugin power, the need for portable professional monitoring becomes vital. But surely you can’t mix and master with headphones? When one of the world leading speaker manufacturers starts making pro audio headphones, you probably can. The Focal Clear Professional are a set of highend headphones aimed to match the experience of listening to studio monitors. Focal, while relatively new to the headphone scene, is quickly becoming one of the leaders when it comes to design, style, innovation and quality. The Clear Professional completes a line up of three headphones in Focal’s pro audio headphone range, the Spirit Professional being the older model and the ﬁrst venture for Focal into the proaudio market, now complemented by a new closed back model Listen Professional, a lower cost product for general music production and the open-back Clear Professional, headphones made for critical listening which is the set of cans I shall be testing today. Slightly confusing there are identical spec Clear and Listen models in Focals consumer range, apart from colour styling and accessories.

In the Box The Clear Professional comes in a luxurious hard carry case, a hard moulded flip clamshell design with a lovely textured finish and chunky zip, this sets the tone of workmanship right away, not wasted opulence but a nice touch of luxury with a professional and practical sense to the design. The included accessories are a spare pair of ear cushions and two low resistance OFC copper 24AWG cables, a 5m spiral 38

July/August 2018

HEADPHONES

PRODUCT REVIEW

Key Features 20mm memory foam ear cushion Low impedance (55 Ohms) Frequency response 5Hz-28kHz 0.99lb / 450g RRP: £1319 ($,699) www.focal.com cable and a 1.2m straight cable terminating via stereo 6.5mm adapter and mini-jack to the headphones via a Y split fitted with mini-jacks that lock into the headphone shells. Each mini jack is marked L and R but not obviously, a common problem with headphones that seem to hide the markers, making you waste time figuring out the orientation before you can listen to them. I often think a quick colour identification marker would be more helpful.

“From the moment you open the Clear Professional case, the high quality finish is obvious” In detail From the first moment you open the Clear Professional case, the high quality finish is obvious, with solid aluminium yokes that mould to the face shape and stand out leather and red pin cushioned fabric that lines the headband and thick ear cushions. These 20mm microfibre wrapped memory foam ear pads fully enclose the ear, to form an integral part of the sound isolation and part of the way the headphones adjust themselves to the head. The other obvious design difference is the angled drivers. Based on their top of the range Focal this design is one of my favourite features. The chunky open back metal grill covered ear cups enclose a weighty driver, specifically designed for the Clear Professional, an Aluminum/ Magnesium M-shaped dome, low impedance (55 Ohms) 40mm full range driver with a unique 5.5mm unsupported copper coil.

Conclusion Focal’s aim to produce a set of headphones that can replicate the openness and response you get from working with a trusted set of monitors is an aspiring concept. The ergonomic design of the Focal Clear Professional headphones combined with the R&D that has gone into the driver assembly produces an open sound with an incredibly high detail. The low impedance also supports it’s mobile versatility, driven from low power outputs like a laptop. I use

Sonarworks Reference 4 monitoring software in the studio, Sonarworks kindly provided a Clear Professional calibrated Profile that worked perfectly for me to match my monitoring setup. The Clear Professional frequency response is superb and there is no “hifi” mid range scoop, boosted bass and treble to be aware of. After listen testing on finished mixes, I turned to using the Clear Professionals whilst mixing. This is my critical listening process, the sound reproduction is the canvas on which I build the sonic picture, each audio colouration of EQ or compression, when to cut or boost and audio clues, like how well the mix is starting to come together. The Focal Clear Professional was a pleasure to work with, what surprised me was the frequency separation, the stereo field had nice width and depth, but the height impression of HF to LF was superb, the bass felt low to my jaw while sweet ear cookies of sparkling highs sat on top. That might sound poetic but as a mix engineer that is the 3D box I like to create. Without a set of monitors helping me to reproduce that faithfully and

consistently, it’s going to be a tough mix process. Focal might have producers mobility in mind with the Clear Professional, and there is even mention of space for an iLok key in the case, but they are quite heavy and the open backs means spill is easily heard. However that’s a small price to pay for what the Focal Clear Professional headphones give you, the ability to have something you can sonically trust anywhere.

The Reviewer Alan Branch is a freelance engineer/producer. His list of credits include Jamiroquai, Beverley Knight, M People, Simply Red, Depeche Mode, Shed 7, Sinead O’ Connor and Bjork.

July/August 2018

PROFESSIONAL

With DeltaQ technology, new ShowMatch array loudspeakers more precisely direct sound to the audience in both installed and portable applications. Each array module offers ﬁeld-changeable waveguides that can vary coverage and even create asymmetrical patterns. The result is unmatched sound quality and vocal clarity for every seat in the house. Learn more at SHOWMATCH.BOSE.COM

NEXT-GENERATION ARRAY TECHNOLOGY

PRODUCT REVIEW

BUZZ AUDIO DBC-M New Zealand-based Buzz Audio is known as manufacturer of some of the best analogue pro audio gear around, thanks to the design skills of founder/owner Tim Farrant. AMI reviewer Nigel Palmer says that he took notice when he heard about an all-switched mastering version of the company’s DBC-20 diode bridge compressor. “This type of gain reduction element, long used by Neve and others, has a vintage sound I’m familiar with,” he explains...

COMPRESSORS

Overview The Buzz Audio DBC-M diode bridge mastering compressor is 1 rack unit high in a 250mm/10” deep case. Build quality is confidence-inspiringly sturdy, and the front panel features two identical compression channels. The controls are, from left: Gain - for post-compression gain makeup in 0.5dB steps; next is Compress, which controls the amount of gain reduction: both this and Gain are high quality Elma rotary switches – all controls are switched on the unit, aiding audio quality and making recalls easier. Next are two smaller six-position rotaries, Attack and Release, both offering a variety of speeds – Attack includes a Fast (less than 0.5ms) setting handy for taming transients, and Release features an Auto position, where faster elements are allowed through but slower operation applies on more constant signals. To the right of the control knobs are three toggle switches: firstly, Hard/Soft. Diode bridge compressors typically have no ratio control; instead, as here, ratio changes with gain reduction so at small amounts the ratio in the DBC-M starts at about 2:1, rising to around 10:1. In the Hard position the self-adjusting ratio works normally, whereas in Soft mode some dynamics are retained when only light compression is required. The next switch is Flat/ Bass: when Bass is engaged, a high-pass filter is added to the sidechain to reduce the sensitivity of the compressor at low frequencies – this can be useful when mastering bass-heavy music to retain low-end dynamics and avoid LF elements pumping the whole track. The final toggle of the three is Bypass/Engage, a ‘proper’ hard-relay bypass. To round up front panel components, there’s an LED gain reduction meter above the switches mentioned above, then to the right a switch to link the two channels for stereo operation. Finally, on the extreme right I was

pleased to see a power switch: lack of these at the front of a piece of gear - or at all - is something of a pet hate of mine, so having one is always a plus point for me.

In Use When the review unit arrived it was plumbed into the mastering console here at Lowland Masters, and listening tests took place over a period of about a week. As I already own a diode bridge compressor from another manufacturer, I started by taking existing mastering projects, substituting the DBC-M and comparing results. While I’m not about to rush out and sell my unit (yet!), the Buzz did extremely well: among the first things I noticed was how good the on-board steel transformers sounded – although they had a colouration of their own, it was clear and tight, a good fit for much music in the pop, rock and dance/urban genres although surprisingly good on acoustic material as well. The sidechain bass rolloff really came into its own on electronic dance music: I don’t have this on my own diode bridge unit, so it was refreshing to be able to have more control over how the lows were presented. The warm and musical compression action of the DBC-M was largely as I expected in a compressor with this kind of gain control element, but I appreciated the variation I could achieve using the Bass and Hard/ Soft switches. After a while with the unit, unlike some compressors I found that for any given program material there would usually be a range of settings that worked, something to be welcomed: while too much choice in mastering isn’t always a good thing, in this case I felt it put control firmly in my hands to create the dynamics that best fitted the project. My only comment with the Buzz concerned the gain reduction meter: it measures up to 20dB, which I’d be

Key Features Maximum input level; +27dBu Maximum output level; +27dBu Noise; -80dBu (measured A Weighted with 10dB gain applied) Gain; variable -2.0 to +10dB in 0.5 dB steps RRP: £1,910 ($2,517) + VAT www.buzzaudio.com unlikely to use in mastering; also, the smallest amount indicated is 1dB, but I regularly use a fraction of that. Fortunately, ‘ears before eyes’ did the trick during the review period, the onset of compression being clearly audible. If I was to buy a DBC-M, I might ask for a meter scale modification, as Tim Farrant is known for being receptive to user requests.

Conclusion The Buzz DBC-M is a fine compressor, well suited to the mastering environment and more. While it might not be your only compression choice, it’s surprisingly versatile and can get great results in a range of musical situations.

The Reviewer Nigel Palmer has been a freelance sound engineer and producer for over 20 years. He runs his CD mastering business Lowland Masters from rural Essex.

July/August 2018

PRODUCT REVIEW

PRISM SOUND VERIFILE Verifile might be a completely free addition to the latest software and firmware update for all Prism Sound USB interfaces, but it’s an incredibly valuable tool to incorporate into your workflow, writes Alistair McGhee...

SOFTWARE

here are many things we might miss about analogue recording, like editing with razor blades for example, the physicality of tape and working with massive pieces of Swiss mechanical engineering. Studer A80 how we miss you. But what we miss most of all is off tape monitoring. By the simple expediency of putting the record head before the replay head in the tape path, you could listen off tape and be pretty, very, almost certainly sure that you had a serviceable recording. Digital has come bearing many gifts but off tape monitoring (with the notable exception of some professional tape based formats) is not one of them. So how can we be sure that the digital file we have written is intact? Well we can rely on the tried and tested method, which is basically assuming that as most of our recordings are ok then this one is probably ok too. When you write that out it doesn’t seem like such a good idea, which is why Prismsound have come up with Verifile. Verifile is a means of alerting you to errors in your recorded files that has been four years in development and is now available free and gratis with every Prismsound USB interface. So how does it work? Well at the ‘how do I drive a car level’, it is simplicity itself. You open the control panel of your PrsimSound USB device and hit the Verifile button, it turns green and hey presto we have verifile engaged. Now every recording you make over your USB connection to the computer via the analogue inputs to your interface will have Verifile information encoded into the dither of the audio file. The integrity of this invisible, indeed inaudible information is then able to be queried by a Prismsound Verifile app in a matter of seconds. So within a minute of finishing your recording you will be able to say with confidence that the performance is ‘in the can.’ The extra Verifile information is hidden in the random dither applied to the digital output of the interface. But what do we mean by ‘in the can’? Well we can now be 99.99999% sure that our recording is bit perfect, in fact much more confident than that but I’ve run out of my quota of ‘9’s for this month. You can check your file in real time during playback and you can check your signal path E to E in and out of the Prismsound converter for Verifile compliance. But how at

risk are we? Well we don’t know until we have a reliable way of testing our systems. That is actually one of the benefits of Verifile - if your recording workflow is problem free then you will have visual confirmation of that good news. Last week I took a Prismsound Titan with Verifile out on a gig - a simple three-piece band with six mics. The job was to record and play back - very straightforward except when we came to playback we experienced some tweeter shredding noise that signified something seriously wrong. Ironically on the first job I have ever done with Verifile - talk about timing. As it turns out a misbehaving DAC was the culprit and the audio files were fine. Back at the ranch I ran some simple recording tests on my office PC and what do you know, on the third file I recorded I saw my very first Verifile error. Now Verifile is not in the business of attributing seriousness to error conditions - though obviously if your file is riddled with errors it is more likely to be audibly damaged than be the single sample problem I experienced in my sixteensecond-test file. In fact the error was inaudible and not a problem, however if it was a never to repeated record session - I would have the warning I needed to at least cover that section of the file with a retake. Now, the Verifile signal itself is sensitive - any changes you make to the original rushes will destroy the Verifile information. Even a small change in the level of the file, or even re-saving it with a dither option enabled will be enough to ‘deVerifile’ your file. Probably all of us have experienced system update misery - a Windows update, a new MAC OS release or just

Key Features Analyses audio streams for any clicks, pops, drop-outs, errors Doesn’t impart anything onto the signal Can be played back through any normal audio paths and devices RRP: Free www.prismsound.com a new driver can reduce our computer-based recorders to junk. In fact we may well have existing problems recording bit perfect audio that we don’t even know about. Verifile makes that ignorance a thing of the past, it makes quantifiable the state of our recordings and by extension our recorders. It’s a milestone for those who take their recordings and recording systems seriously - it is digital delivering in a significant way on that original promise - ‘Perfect Sound forever’.

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.

July/August 2018

d&b Soundscape – and a feast for the senses. Hearing, seeing, feeling, joined up. A new listening experience. Involvement with a most beautiful intensity. The interaction between artist and audience, more intimate than ever before. Enveloping sound reinforcement, succeeding so much more than right and left. d&b Soundscape is a revolutionary audio system processor, an object positioning tool, a reverberation system, akin to a musical instrument – a tool for artists, sound designers and engineers – to stage feasts for the senses.

dbsoundscape.com

PRODUCT REVIEW

ASTON SPIRIT Simon Allen reviews this switchable pattern condenser microphone from British manufacturer Aston...

MICS

elatively-newcomers to the microphone world, Aston Microphones, managed to stir much hype around its initial release Origin. Not only did they release a microphone, which looked great, complete with new innovations and a remarkable low price, but the company flew the British flag very high. Just as the similarly-named luxury sports car brand from the UK, it’s clear that a product made in Britain still grabs attention. The influences Britain has had on the music industry, are world renowned. Within pro audio, “that British sound” is something we hear quite a lot, and something Aston are clearly pushing. According to Aston, they are the first brand to solely manufacture their microphones in the UK, with minimal Chinese OEM parts involved. With the release of the company’s slightly more expensive microphone, Spirit, I was certainly keen to see what all the fuss has been about.

From The Top

Key Features Low-cut filter 80 Hz 48 V phantom power Integrated pop filter Frequency range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz (+/- 3dB) RRP: £322 ($430) www.astonmics.com

The Aston Microphone design team set about to re-evaluate the purpose of each element of a professional microphone. This lead to several innovations and new ideas brought into play. Their first release, Origin, wasn’t just another inexpensive studio condenser. It offered several new features and a fresh design not seen before. The Spirit essentially sports the same design ideas, but in a slightly larger package including changeable polar patterns. As well as cardioid, the Spirit also performs omni and figure-of-8. The unique “wave-form” spring head around the capsule has been carried over from the Origin. This is Aston’s unique method to try July/August 2018

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music therapy

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PRODUCT REVIEW and protect the capsule should the worst ever happen. I think this is a great design element, which has in turn delivered the brand an easily recognisable look. Behind the wave-form is a stainless steel mesh-knit pop filter. Slowly we are seeing built-in pop filters coming into modern microphone design, which is clearly a great idea. Aston also claims that you can even hold the Spirit in your hand, as the capsule chassis has it’s own isolation. These are excellent features to have, even if they realistically only minimise these un-wanted side effects from recording to a degree. Thanks to the isolation, the microphone can be directly mounted to a stand, or via an optional shock-mount. These features are great, but it’s the build quality that most impressed me. The Spirit is a decent size and weight, as well as being constructed from quality materials. This is a pleasure and surprise to see from something that almost re-defines “cost-effective”. The tumbled custom finish to the chassis is beautiful and, (not that I tried it) but apparently very hard wearing.

Put In Perspective After testing the Spirit in several scenarios, I certainly see why the brand has managed to cause quite a stir and I feel it is well deserved. In simple terms; yes this microphone delivers the results it promises extremely

well. Couple that with the clever and well delivered marketing strategy for our industry, there’s no wonder nearly everyone has heard about these mics already. However, if all this sounds like a no-brainer purchase for every studio in the land, then let’s just remind ourselves of two very important points. Firstly, there isn’t a single microphone that is perfect for every eventuality. Choosing the best mic for each application is a skill that’s still required. For me, I would describe the sound of the Spirit as “current”. This is great for many of course, especially pop singers of today for example. However, others will very quickly criticise the sound as “bright”. Secondly, we must remember; you get what you pay for. Whilst this is a phenomenal product that will stand up against microphones ten times the price, it is cheap. A very general school of thought may suggest a ‘bright’ sounding mic can usually help bring a vocal forward in a mix. However, the low-mid to mid range of this mic doesn’t jump out of the speakers, in the same way nameless valve microphones can. Of course, a different pre-amp in the recording path might be part of the answer. Regarding the microphone alone though, it was this character which I thought delivered an interesting proximity effect. The Spirit seems to handle differences in distance to the sound source

very well - useful if you’re working with a animated performer. In turn though, I believe other condensers can feel closer and more intimate when used carefully.

Conclusion The success that Aston Microphones have very quickly generated is well deserved. This is a brand that we can be proud of here in Britain, delivering a high-quality product. The suspect artifacts I’ve experienced in other equally inexpensive microphones, thankfully aren’t present here. The Spirit does deliver it’s own unique character, which is refreshing to see, amidst other new microphones aiming to be as neutral as possible. I’m not sure I’d call it the British sound, but it’s certainly a sound from Britain.

The Reviewer Simon Allen is an internationally recognised freelance engineer, producer and pro audio professional with nearly two decades of experience. Working mostly in music, his reputation as a mix engineer continues to reach new heights.

July/August 2018

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Jul 5

Girls on the Mic students showing off their Pro Tools VNLOOV #ChangingTheFaceOfSound

July/August 2018

PRO SPOTLIGHT

www.audiomediainternational.com

LIVIN’ IT UP

We’re in the midst of the busiest season of the year for those working in live sound. AMI spoke to Marialessia Dell’acqua about how to get the most out of your work, her favourite audio gear and why the FOH engineer is just as big a part of the band as those standing behind the microphone… What do you do? I’m a freelance live sound engineer based in London. I work mainly at music events, venues and at festivals. When I’m not working, I love to play drums and spend most of my free time in my studio recording and mixing anyway! How did you get into the industry? My interest in music and sound started when I was young – I use to spend hours listening intently to my parents’ records. I’ve always been intrigued about every kind of music device and all sorts of instruments. As a teenager, I learned how to play drums and eventually started performing live and going to recording studios as a session musician. That’s when my interest towards sound became stronger. I decided to spend some time studying in London to deepen my knowledge and after completing a diploma in live sound I started a residency working in a world music venue. Here I began making links with other engineers and musicians and built a network of contacts. What have been some of the highlights so far? Some special memories so far have been working with the legendary drummer Tony Allen, as well as a two-day special event with Sun Ra’s Arkestra and being part of a great crew at Glastonbury 2017, on a stage where we hosted a high-energy performance from King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. What was your favourite project and why? For three years I was responsible for the organisation and running of a main stage at a small festival in the 50

July/August 2018

UK called Cloud Cuckoo Land Festival. Although a lot of work was necessary to make it happen, this was my favourite project because it taught me so many things I didn’t know. From the planning of all the technical aspects to turning a Somerset barn into a stage, every year was a challenge and with the help of a fantastic team in the end, it was always gratifying. What is your favourite item of audio gear and why? My headphones! I’m always dealing with noisy environments and I need something that can screen off the external noise and give me an exact and reliable idea of what is coming through the microphones. I have a pair of Sennheiser HD25 IIs and a pair of Focal Spirit Professionals which I find amazing for this. I also have a soft spot for d&b Audiotechnik monitors – they’re my number one choice because they’re both loud and clear and have good feedback rejection. What are some of the challenges that you face as an FOH engineer? Every time I’m in a venue or live space I’ve never been in before, understanding its acoustic is fundamental to give value to the music I’m mixing. Lots of people don’t realise that the FOH engineer is not only a technician but also an important part of a band that can really make a difference. My everyday challenge is to win the trust of the musicians, make them feel comfortable, understand what genre they play so I can bring out the character of their music because we are both working towards the same goal, making a great show.

Who would be your dream band to work with, and why? My dream show to do FOH at would have been Woodstock in 1969! Only joking – it’s impossible for me to name just one band as there are a lot of old funk and jazz musicians I would love to work with. I like so many diﬀerent styles of music. There have been many times where I’ve been pleasantly surprised by musicians I have never seen live before. A few names I can think of Kamasi Washington (I love bands with two drummers), Erykah Badu, Portishead, PJ Harvey and some of the bands from the Daptone Records label. What industry professional inspired you the most to do what you do? Engineers who are innovative like Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire. Pioneers of modern sound or passionate and creative studio engineers such as Phil Spector, Alan Parsons, Andy Johns, Eddie Kramer and Susan Rogers as well as all the talented musicians that inspire me to do the best job I can. What’s the best bit of advice can you give anyone trying to break into the industry? Listen to a lot of music. Train your ears, watch live concerts and be enthusiastic. Try to build your network and be around people who are better than you; get yourself involved on the frontline by asking an engineer if you can shadow them. You might get your first job when they can’t make it. Don’t be discouraged by any bad experience or mistake, it happens to everyone and it’s the only way to learn.