Resolution V6.3 April 2007 by Resolution

AUDIO FOR POST, BROADCAST, RECORDING AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

V6.3 aprIL 2007

Paul Sutin’s Dinemec Studios — what a modern facility can be Eddy Joseph — BAFTA-winning British ﬁlm industry audio success We ponder the producer’s cut of the digital pie Meet your maker: Malcolm Toft — Toft Audio Why we shouldn’t be scared of the DAW Ten ﬁlm credit oddities REVIEWS: Korby KAT Red/KAT Blue • RME Micstasy • SSL X-Rack Mixer Schoeps DMS Tool • CB Electronics PD-1 • True P-Solo • Neve 8803

es i g o nol

m o r f W

ch e T g ergin

Live cueing with Audio, Video, MIDI and GPOs for Theatre and Broadcast

www.merging.com/ovation

april 2007 V6.3 ISSn 1477-4216 AUDIO FOR POST, BROADCAST, RECORDING AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

News & Analysis 4

Leader

Craft

News

Sales, contracts, appointments and biz bites.

Dinemec

Swiss four-studio complex with a magniﬁ cent orchestral hall and event hosting capability shows what a modern facility can be if you have the vision.

Eddy Joseph

Richard Rainey

From assisting to engineering for U2 in not very long at all, Rainey talks producing, Radar, loudness and why music can get shoved into the background.

Sweet spot

The background on the technolgy in Mackie’s new HRmk2 next-generation studio monitors.

The producer’s cut

Maybe the cheque really has been in the post but can today’s production pros afford to work on the promise of a future slice of digital pie?

New introductions and announcements.

Headroom

A BAFTA-winning example of a British ﬁ lm industry audio success story.

Business

Products

Source of the NS10 and cheese-ﬂ avoured bands.

Mike Fraser

Part of Canada’s outstanding output of sound talent on drum miking and tuning, band recording and mixing other people’s stuff.

Katz’s column

Bob has a major computer near-miss and ﬁ nds himself between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Meet your maker

Malcolm Toft — Toft Audio designer is still designing and still recording.

Ten

Film credit oddities.

Progress: why nothing’s really new

Paul Wolff says the DAW is scaring people but ‘progress’ has been doing that for as long as the industry’s had a name.

Your business

For all the iPods, downloads and Internet streaming, regular old radio is still the king of non-sales music distribution.

Technology

Developing Orpheus

Prism Sound’s new Orpheus audio interface explained.

Slaying Dragons

Watkinson relates some of the excitement of being an expert witness in a technical litigation.

Reviews 22

RME Micstasy

Roger Nichols Digital plug-ins

SSL X-Rack Mixer

CB Electronics PD-1

Schoeps Double MS Tool

Neve 8803 Dual EQ

Korby KAT Blue and KAT Red

True Systems P-Solo

edItorIaL editorial director: Zenon Schoepe tel: +44 1444 410675 email: zen@resolutionmag.com editorial ofﬁce: po Box 531, Haywards Heath rH16 4Wd, uk contributors: rob James, George Shilling, Jon thornton, keith Spencer-allen, neil Hillman, nigel Jopson, andy day, philip newell, Bob katz, dan daley, John Watkinson

adVertISeMent SaLeS european Sales, clare Sturzaker, tel: +44 1342 717459 email: clare@resolutionmag.com uS Sales, Jeff turner, tel: +1 415 455 8301 email: jeff@resolutionmag.com

productIon and LaYout dean cook, dean cook productions, tel: +44 1273 467579 email: dean@resolutionmag.com

news appointments JÖrG Wuttke has retired from his position as technical director at Schoeps GmbH after nearly 37 years with the company. He will remain involved as a consultant and partner. His departure brings a b o u t c h a n g e s i n the leadership team at Schoeps. Helmut W i t t e k i s a s s u m i n g overall leadership in technical matters and in technical support for customers. Research and development will be led by Christian Langen, a graduate engineer in control systems technology with a special focus on digital signal processing. New to the company is graduate media consultant Karin Keitsch-Fléing who will assist the leadership team in marketing. LonG-tIMe faIrLIGHt veteran Steve Rance has formed FairlightUS as the new independent distributor of Fairlight in the US and Canada. FairlightUS has assumed ownership of MediaGear, the previous Fairlight distributor in North America. The team includes Steve Rance (pictured), president; Phillipe Guichard, national sales manager; Michael Haprov, national technical support manager; and Michael Mueller, East Coast sales manager. founded BY CEDAR Audio Ltd and Stephan B e h r e n s , C E D A R Deutschland has been established to bring CEDAR Audio and its products closer to its German-speaking customers in Germany and Austria. Behrens ﬁ rst worked with CEDAR in 1993 when he was employed by CEDAR’s dealer at that time, Mediacom GmbH. Stefan eLBert has joined Lawo to support t h e s a l e s t e a m i n Germany and Austria. He has worked for Mediacom and Midigitall, as well as managing a studio.

©2007 S2 publications Ltd. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publishers. Great care is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication, but neither

Leader

climate change has not been out of the news with the current swell coming from those contradicting those who believe that mankind is to blame. to me the argument is largely irrelevant because the underlying issue that nobody can dispute is that the resources we have are finite; we’re using them up at an alarming rate and polluting the world as a consequence. now, you can take that and go where you want with it but you have to agree that it is in everyone’s interest to save energy and resources simply because it saves you money. I’m baffled why directives on educating and encouraging people to save energy and resources is not pursued with the same vigour as proposed forms of taxation are — those that aim to discourage you for doing something because it will cost you even more. Such forms of taxation would be better applied to those who produce what we use. Why do I qualify for proposed taxation if I need to take a plane when I have no choice? there is little enough pleasure left in air travel but it’s not as if I can take a boat. Surely it is the responsibility of the aerospace industry to create more ‘efficient’ and cleaner planes. We should be allowed to make smart choices from equipment or services that have been optimised for efficiency (freezer manufacturers now quote an efficiency rating) not penalised for living in the modern world in the way we do. It’s not joined up thinking. as I ruminated on this leader I remembered that I had flown over this very subject recently. It was actually in 2003, inspired by an exceptionally warm summer, when I said: ‘I would applaud any manufacturer who puts improved power efficiency and intelligent power management forward as a product plus and I want to hear from them. I believe this should be put on the industry’s agenda as a priority.’ I’m still waiting. We are now at the point where the energy cost of ownership could become a real factor in the acceptability of product. Yes, you can put a remarkably fine rig together for not very much money but the constant expense remains the stuff that comes up the thick cable and illuminates the meters. and that doesn’t care how much you paid for the box. the cost of better engineered equipment that offers improved efficiency could save you a lot longer-term particularly when you start stacking it up. It’s an interesting concept and a practical one, so why in such a competitive market as ours isn’t power efficiency promoted as a selling point? Zenon Schoepe

Loud buys Martin Audio Loud Technologies has entered into an agreement to purchase the entire share capital of Martin Audio Limited, UK. ‘Over the last few years we have built an incredibly strong and dedicated team of professionals and their knowledge of our industry is second to none,’ said David Bissett-Powell, MD of Martin Audio. ‘Our worldwide distribution partners have also become a strong part of this team and in order to utilise these talents and beneﬁ ts to their maximum potential we need to have access to a wider base of technologies and for this reason have been looking at potential partners for some time. Ours is one of the few mature industries that has no dominant player. Even the largest has only a single digit percentage of the business so there is still a lot to play for. It seems apparent, however, that to be a small independent is becoming tougher on the world stage. Customers are seeking more of an integrated approach and the merging

S2 publications Ltd or the editor can be held responsible for its contents. the views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers. printed by the Grange press, Butts rd, Southwick, West Sussex, Bn42 4eJ.

of technologies is inevitable. We recognise the need for multiple disciplines and by becoming part of Loud we immediately have access to further resources, both technical and ﬁ nancial, to assist our team in reaching their goals.’ ‘The management at Martin Audio have a proven track record of success in developing premium and innovative products along with an excellent international distribution network,’ added Jamie Engen, CEO of Loud. ‘These core strengths will be a great asset to the further developments of our existing brands. Similarly, our commanding position within the USA pro audio market can be a great source of knowledge to support the current Martin Audio North American team. It is envisaged that Martin Audio will remain an independent brand within the group, however, we expect there to be synergies that can be exploited to the mutual beneﬁ t of all our customers and our newly expanded group.’

S2 publications Ltd. registered in england and Wales. company number: 4375084. registered ofﬁce: equity House, 128-136 High Street, edgware, Middlesex Ha8 7tt.

resolution

BBC World Service chooses Dalet for Arabic channel BBC World Service has chosen DaletPlus News Suite for integrated video ingest, media asset management and production platforms for its Arabic TV channel that will be launched in the autumn and will broadcast in Arabic to 22 countries across the Middle-East. The deal is said to be worth Euro 1.8m. DaletPlus will control ingest of video feeds and ﬁ eld material as well as provide 80 journalists with desktop editing tools and digital archiving. The built-in workﬂ ow management and approvals processes will be central to the BBC Arabic TV operation. ‘DaletPlus News Suite went through a rigorous selection process and is the best match for our requirement,’ explained Jerry Timmins, head of Africa and Middle East Region, BBC World Service. ‘The coming BBC Arabic TV channel will be a true multimedia operation that will span content across television, radio and BBC interactive services; the Dalet media asset management platform provides us with the adequate platform to do so.’

The Sounds Expo 2007 exhibition, which was held in London in March, saw a 13% increase in ticket sales compared to 2006, according to the organisers. Total attendance stayed level at just over 6000.

Liverpool-based pro audio company Studiocare was chosen to record guitarist John Martyn at London’s Roundhouse venue in February for a DVD release. The setup consisted of a 40-channel Pro Tools HD3 Accel system, Millennia HV3D, Neve eight-way 1081 rack and A&H ML3000, backing up to a Radar Classic 24 synced to a Tascam MX2424. Engineer Kevin Toms selected a combination of DPA 4041 and 4011 condensers to provide 5.1 ambient coverage.

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April 2007

news Holding hands at Fame Academy

dS-00 hits Singapore

Hand Held Audio’s growing involvement in outside broadcasts has kept it busy in the ﬁ rst part of 2007. Apart from the now regular contribution of wireless at the BAFTAs and the Brits, the North London wireless specialists had a large system of Sennheiser 1046 radio mics on the Celebrity Fame Academy TV programme. A complex system spread across the facilities of BBC 1, BBC 3 and CBBC, had a total of 44 channels of radio microphones and 9 channels of in-ear monitoring. A combination of personal mics for the reality section and chromed hand-held mics for

Describing itself as ‘compact, ﬂ exible and music-centric’, Resonance Audio is a new studio in Singapore primarily engaged in the recording, mixing, editing and mastering of studio and live music projects. It is also engaged in DVD and TV audio postproduction and mastering. Running Nuendo and Pro Tools HD3 systems, a Soundtracs DS-00 is central to operations. ‘It gives us the ﬂ exibility not only to do music recording and mixdown, but also postproduction,’ said Resonance Audio’s Bryant Hwang. ‘The ergonomic control interface of the DS-00 is also a major advantage. Together with its powerful onboard EQs and effects, plus its practical MADI connection, it is the ideal console for the cutting edge studio that we run.’

JBL at the GRAMMYs

presenters Patrick Kielty and Claudia Winkleman used ﬁ ve of Sennheiser’s 8-way 1046 receiver racks and two of its 3-way 203 racks. Transmitters were SK50/SK3063 body packs with MKE2 Gold for the personals and the new SKM5200 hand held transmitters for the presenters. Sennheiser provided the contestants performance mics.

Third of HD homes watch HDTV

New research from Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that there will be 151 million HDTV homes worldwide by the end of 2011 — more than three times the number at the end of 2006. At end-2006 the US had 27.7 million HDTV homes, 58% global share, followed by Japan with a 20% share and the two represent by far the most dominant forces in the global HD market. Significantly, of the 48.2 million HD households at end-2006, just 16.4 million had the necessary set-top box (or integrated HDTV set) to enable content to be viewed. This means that only a third of homes with an HDTV set are receiving HD content. By 2011, Informa expects some 70% of HDTV set homes will be receiving content.

JBL loudspeakers were prevalent at the 49th GRAMMY Awards with LSR4300 Series studio monitors installed in the 5.1 music mix control room and audience reaction mix control room, and an LSR6300 5.1 system installed in the TV committee room used by the Recording Academy TV Committee to monitor the show. GRAMMY Awards telecast veteran Paul Sandweiss (pictured) mixed the 5.1 surround feed for the HD broadcast and Klaus Landsberg engineered audience reaction mixes. GRAMMY audio coordinator Michael Abbott worked with the engineers to specify audio speaker systems for the telecast. ‘Because mixing for the GRAMMY Awards

telecast takes place in multiple control rooms at the Staples Center, our goal is consistency and accuracy from all rooms,’ said Abbott. ‘The JBL LSR systems with RMC Technology allowed us to set up quickly and achieve accurate response in these rooms.’ ‘The objective is great sound in the viewer’s living room,’ added Sandweiss. ‘Creating the 5.1 music mix in a small mobile environment can be challenging. This year we used the new LSR4300 5.1 system with the LSR4312SP subwoofer. The system produces excellent detail. It sounded great in the truck and viewer reaction this year has been terriﬁ c.’

appointments dpa MIcropHoneS h a s r e v i e w e d i t s distribution structure in the Benelux resulting in long-standing Belgian partner Amptec taking on responsibility for the entire region. Martin Goosen (pictured), DPA product specialist at former Dutch distributor TransTec, has joined Amptec to work with Bart Hilberink, Peter Van Houtven and George Lemmens in a specialised DPA product team. DPA has also appointed a new distributor for Turkey. Istanbul-based Radikal Ltd has taken over sales for the region. p H I L M a S S e Y h a s b e e n a p p o i n t e d general manager of Sennheiser UK following the promotion of MD Paul Whiting to the Sennheiser executive committee in Germany. Phil joined the company in 1998 and was promoted to director of operations and ﬁ nance in 2002. T h e d e p a r t u re o f director of sales Simon C u r t i s h a s re s u l t e d in promotions within the company for Nick Longland and Dave S m i t h . N i c k j o i n e d Sennheiser in 2004 to head up MI sales in the South and his new role is as sales manager for Install, Pro Systems and MI Live. Dave joined Sennheiser in 2002 and his new role is sales manager for Consumer Electronics, Communications and MI Retail.

aMS neVe has appointed KMR as subdistributor for the Neve outboard range of products throughout the UK. dk-tecHnoLoGIeS HaS appointed Jørgen Broberg as director of sales and marketing. He has financial and management experience in the telecoms, Internet and hightech industries, as well as sales and marketing experience with Danish and international corporations.

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April 2007

resolution

news appointments audIo-tecHnIca HaS announced the resignation of UK sales director Tony Cooper after more than seven years service. ‘I have very much enjoyed my time here at Audio-Technica and feel the time is now right for me to pursue other interests,’ he said. ‘We are extremely sorry to be losing Tony,’ said A-T MD Adrian Rooke. ‘His talents will be greatly missed and we wish him every success for the future.’

r I e d e L c o M M u n I c at I o n S celebrated its 20th anniversary in February with more than 800 customers, employees and partners from around the world at its Wuppertal HQ.

‘My years on and behind the stage have helped me to understand what a live event means,’ said MD Thomas Riedel (pictured). ‘No matter if it’s theatre, opera, broadcast, sports or other events — communications technology forms the central nervous system of the event. The limitations of the available technologies drove me to specialise in communications.’

Jazz takes to the high seas

Photo credit: Herman Burney

DPA Microphones have again been used on the annual Jazz Cruise on the MS Oosterdam, which sails from San Diego down the Mexican coastline to the accompaniment of contemporary jazz. DPA ambassador Gary Baldassari was chief sound engineer for the week-long cruise, working closely with fi ve other engineers who included DPA marketing director Morten Stove together with American engineers Jim Fay, Gary Faller, Nils Warren and Mark Deadman. The Jazz Cruise has been running for more than 25 years, switching to the Holland American Line in 2002. With this move, organiser Traveline LLC decided to upgrade the sound and contacted the above engineers. DPA mics were used exclusively for 75 musicians playing on four different stages. Performers included 19-piece swing band the Clayton-Hamilton jazz orchestra with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton; Barbara Morrison; Monty Alexander; Freddie Cole; Tom Kennedy; Herman Burney; Wycliff Gordon and others. In the 900-capacity Vista Lounge, Stove and Fay employed DPA 4023 compact cardioids on fl amingo stands for all frontline. The seven-foot Yamaha grand piano was miked with the DPA3521 stereo kit while two 4006 omnis were used for the drum kit, with one 4023 for the kick and a 4021 with VH4000 holder for the bass. The second largest concert hall, the 500-seater Crows Nest on the 11th fl oor, faces the forward part of the ship. ‘We had to get creative on this one as it is not designed to do this type of show,’ explained Baldassari of the space. They began by placing a DPA 4041 large diaphragm omni on a ROWI clamp mounted near the low end of the piano, with the presence boost of the mic pointed toward the high end. The 4041 was preamped by an HMA4000 with the piano lid open. The next balance point was the acoustic bass with an IMK4061 instrument miking kit with 4061 miniature omnis on the point of the bridge. DPA 4011 compact cardioids, 4021 cardioids and 4015 wide cardioids were used for the front line with a 4091 omni spot mic on drums.

Keane engineered on GL2400

Linear Acoustic president Tim Carroll (centre) with Ralph Dunlop (left) and Pete Wandless from Sound Network. LInear acouStIc has appointed Sound Network as its exclusive distributor for UK and Ireland. tHe WaLterS-StorYk Design Group has opened a full service ofﬁ ce in Mexico City. Developed under the guidance of Sergio Molho, long-time head of Buenos Aires-based WSDG SA, the new branch will specialise in acoustical consultation, design and construction.

Keane’s audio ‘I had a set c r e w c h i e f , budget and Ant Carr, has in all honesty, b o u g h t a there wasn’t 2 4 - c h a n n e l another desk Allen & Heath available for G L 2 4 0 0 t h e p r i c e c o n s o l e f o r t h a t c o u l d t h e b a n d ’s provide the new studio in a professional converted barn features that in the South of t h e b a n d England. needs. Having As well as recently used a r e h e a r s a l other models space, Keane f r o m t h e will be using G L S e r i e s I the premises to write new material. ‘I had a knew the GL2400 would deﬁ nitely meet look at what consoles were available before our requirements –- a small, simple desk deciding on the GL2400,’ he explained. sounds really good.’

resolution

Genesis catalogue remastered for 5.1 L o n g - t i m e G e n e s i s associate Nick Davis has spent t h r e e y e a r s remastering the entire Genesis back catalogue in 5.1. ‘I’ve just kind of stayed within the family,’ said Davis of his relationship with the band. ‘Once they ﬁ nd people they like to work with they stick with them. I’ve done some of their live albums and produced a couple of their later albums. They decided to remix the catalogue in 5.1 and it’s been a fantastic project albeit one that’s been almost three years in the making.’ Nick’s idea was to keep the new processing in keeping with the original recordings, choosing a host of analogue gear including a Focusrite ISA215 EQ. Towards the end of the mixing he took delivery of a Liquid Mix, which helped in some of the more unusual areas of the project. ‘I used the Liquid Mix for some rarity stuff and bootleg material that came in from various sources around the world,’ he explained. ‘One of them was this interview Genesis did for an American chat show in the 70s and the sound on it was terrible so I used the Liquid Mix to EQ and compress that for the DVD. I do like having so many compressors and EQs on hand to switch between, and I love the fact that the processing is on-board. It is a big selling point that the box doesn’t drain your computer processing power. ‘Various members have been more or less involved,’ Davis continued. ‘Tony Banks very much so. He’s come in and heard every mix and helped me ﬁ nish them off. Mike [Rutherford] has heard about 20-30%. Steve Hackett has been very good on the stuff he’s on and Peter Gabriel has been very good too. Phil [Collins] has probably been the least involved and has just let us get on with it.’ • Producer Dave B a s c o m b e i s currently setting up his own room at Metropolis Studios L o n d o n w h e r e he has installed a Liquid Mix. ‘ T h e s o u n d i s great and I love the fact that I can choose to make up my favourite EQ,’ he said. ‘In fact now it’s the default setting, which is a couple of bands from a Neve and the top end of something else. I like to be able to mix and match. I also did some comparisons with some software emulations and it [Liquid Mix] just seems to have that something extra, something fruity, something more like the real thing. It has a bit more balls compared to other stuff I’ve used. I use it on all my stuff, pretty much everything I’ve been doing for the last few months.’

April 2007

news appointments

Sky Italia’s Vista for diretta Gol

adaMSon SYSteMS Engineering has appointed Sotex as its exclusive representative in Brazil. InnoVaSon HaS appointed Camco as its new German distributor. Camco is a manufacturer of power ampliﬁ ers but also distributes Nexo loudspeaker products.

Sky Italia has purchased one of the ﬁ rst Studer Vista 5s in Italy for use on Diretta Gol, its satellite TV coverage of the national Serie A league and UEFA Champions League football. At Sky’s studios in Milan, the Sports Department has installed the compact Vista 5 mixer in a studio adjacent to the production room where 16 commentators each work on a separate monitor, covering different matches. All the matches in Italy’s Serie A League are covered here; the studio receives feeds from stadia all over the country, adds commentary and prepares the broadcast audio. The 32-fader desk distributes feeds that include 16 channels for the commentators, 16 channels of audio coming from the stadia, as well as auxiliary feeds, such as intercom and checking on-air. (l-r standing) Hanson, Hart, Marx, (seated) Christenson, Stappard. I n d u S t r Y V e t e r a n S D a v e Christenson, Erik Hanson, John Hart, Jeremy Stappard and Justin Marx have formed Audio Agent LLC as a sales and marketing agency in the US. Clients include Symetrix, Brainyard/ Fender Musical Instruments and LOUD Technologies/Mackie.

AMS Neve’s Mark Crabtree and Dave Christenson. aMS neVe Ltd has named Audio Agent as distributor for the Americas.

caMBrIdGe uk-BaSed Audica Professional has appointed Trius as its distributor for Germany.

• Staged in Oslo’s Spektrum Arena, the concert that celebrated the award of the annual Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank was recorded by NRK and broadcast to more than 100 countries. It was watched by more than 500 million viewers. NRK brought three of its OB vans in to handle TV production; all are equipped with Studer digital desks, including the fl agship of the NRK fl eet, HD-1, which has a 52-fader Vista 8. Six Studer stageboxes positioned at the side of the stage handled 264 inputs. Inputs from the artists on two side stages were sent to music producer Gaute Nistov in Truck 1, NRK’s OBL12, which is equipped with a Studer D950 audio console. The Orchestra was mixed by Truck 2, the TR-23 which has a 52-fader Vista 8 desk and the mix was then sent on to Truck 1/OBL12. The fi nished stage mix was delivered to Truck 3, the HD-1, where NRK’s Jon-Dag Skagmo (pictured) added presenter and audience feeds to create the fi nal mix.

resolution

Empire Cinemas’ all-digital first Empire Cinemas in the UK has launched its fi rst all-digital cinema in High Wycombe. All six screens at the High Wycombe site have been equipped for digital cinema and the development is the result of a partnership with Kodak, Barco and Bell Theatre Services. Barco 2K projectors are being used alongside Kodak units that handle 2D or 3D movies and automatically recognise the compression format used -– JPEG or MPEG. It is designed to be used in network configurations and to employ Kodak’s future Theatre Management System (TMS) that automatically loads all content from multiple suppliers via hard drive or satellite and distributes it to targeted screens over the in-cinema network. ‘Over recent years digital cinema has been gradually growing in Europe, however now that we are seeing the fi rst fully digital multiplexes appearing, it is indeed an exciting time for the industry,’ said Max Bell, MD of Bell Theatre Services who carried out the digital installation.

SEs are Somethin’ Else

(l-r) Marat Berdyyev, John Samuelson, Barry Gardner. Somethin’ Else is a team of three sound engineers and the largest independent radio producers in the UK. They are also radio partners with the Brit Awards: ‘We broadcast the show live around the world and provide interviews with all artists and performers,’ said senior engineer Barry Gardner. ‘The ceremony is massively popular internationally, and for 2007’s ceremony we syndicated the audio rights out to over 20 countries worldwide.’ The team use SADiE, Cubase and Pro Tools and are also SE fans and own a pair of SE1As, an SE2200a and an SE Mini, which have been used to record artists such as Mika, Billy Cobham, The Long Blondes, Paolo Nutini and Amy W inehouse. ‘For band sessions,’ says Gardner, ‘we’ve used the SE1s for pretty much everything: drum overheads for Billy Cobham, guitar mics for Amy Winehouse’s guitarist, violins, even guitar amps on occasion when we have a very crowded studio. We’re also very happy with the 2200a for vocals and have used it to record Radio 2 and Hit40uk sessions for artists such as Mika, Amy Winehouse, Amp Fiddler and many more.’

April 2007

Studio Legends. Refined over 35 years. AKG® C 414 B-XLII | C 414 B-XLS | Since 1971, the C 414 has been recognised as one of the premier studio condenser microphones. That’s why you’ll hear it on literally hundreds of classic recordings. These latest incarnations represent the pinnacle of this classic design. The stunning clarity and beautifully detailed sound are joined by enhanced features including a choice of five polar patterns and 3 switchable bass filters. The B-XLS delivers superb quality recordings across a wide range of acoustic sources, while for solo vocals and instruments the B-XLII has been specifically designed to capture every detail of the performance. When it’s time for a new microphone, choose a legend.

www.akg.com

Distributed in the UK and Eire by: Harman Pro UK T: 01707 668181 E: info@harmanprouk.com W: www.harmanprouk.com

news Biz Bites r e c e n t LY r e L e a S e d fi gures indicate 9 0 m i l l i o n i P o d s s o l d and over 2.2 billion songs d o w n l o a d e d f r o m t h e iTunes store, writes Nigel Jopson. This statistic graphically eclipses a chart in my business article — compiled from 2006 fi gures — indicating the rapidly expanding rate of digital sales (p50). ITunes also sold 50m TV episodes and 1.3m feature-length fi lms. Following the trail blazed by the Nike ‘Rock ‘n’ Run’ iPod shoe sensor (which gives a time, distance and pace readout on the iPod screen) Apple has plans to introduce a new device code named Pu’erh. A special sensor monitors blood pressure, flavonoids and LDL, hyper-linking to iPod audiobook c h a p t e r s recommending m e t a b o l i s m e n h a n c i n g a n d cholesterol-reducing health regimes for the day, co-ordinated with sympathetic playlists (This is the April issue, right? Ed). tHe 2006 media biggie w a s s o c i a l networking, fascination with ‘user generated content’ and the runaway success of YouTube, acquired by Google last October in an all-stock transaction of US$1.65b. Content owners, including NBC, UMG, and Japanese rights society JASRAC, have rattled sabres progressively louder as users post music videos, Anime, home movies with hit song soundtracks and classic TV shows. YouTube is a treasure trove of old footage — chances are someone has uploaded an excerpt of your fave TV moment. In February, Viacom demanded YouTube take down

100,000 clips, including MTV and Comedy Central content. This followed what the media conglomerate felt were frustrating distribution negotiations. Now comes the big one: Viacom are suing for $1b. Viacom boss Sumner Redstone is not a man to trifle with. Google didn’t feel a tremor in their purse when they wrote the $1.6b stock check for Youtube, but how can you value a company that carries copyrighted content from other sources without permission? Of course — it’s not the content — it’s the users. But how many registered users are duplicates/ inactive?

audient in deep for training

Three years after Deep Recording Studios upgraded its facility by installing an Audient ASP8024 console, it has grown to become the main off-site annex for Kensington and Chelsea College. The studio is currently completing three new levels of updated and replacement vocational qualiﬁ cations, along with the City & Guilds Institute and several consultants. ‘Using the ASP8024 console ensures Deep trainee’s continue to learn pro signal paths within the analogue domain alongside 48 track recording,’ said Mark Rose, studio manager and chief engineer at Deep. ‘An individual trained on an analogue desk is much better equipped to navigate around the many hybrid digital consoles and surfaces; not least because all digital consoles have taken their primary layouts and functions from all previous analogue designs.’

Pyxis in post S e v e r a l v i d e o production and postproduction companies have recently installed Fairlight’s Pyxis n o n - l i n e a r video playback a n d r e c o r d i n g systems. SSI Advanced P o s t S e r v i c e s i n H o l l y w o o d purchased a Pyxis to bring HD capability to one of its two dubbing stages, as the other stage is already outﬁ tted with a Pyxis. ‘We needed compatibility between the dubbing stages,’ said Gary Fradkin, director of engineering, SSI Advanced Post Services. ‘Our Pyxis system has been a reliable and easy-to-use tool for us, so adding a second system was an easy choice.’ Dick & Roger’s Sound Studio in Vancouver, recently bought a Pyxis for its digital audio postproduction studio that provides music scoring to dialogue breakdown for animation to 5.1 channel mixing. Visual Image Display used a Pyxis to design and integrate content shown at Panasonic’s exhibit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Pyxis was used for uncompressed video playback on Panasonic’s new line of HD plasma displays. Using a laptop and an SDI connection, Visual Image Display edited video content on-site, which was then transferred to the Pyxis for playback. Panasonic can now quickly custom-edit its video content to

suit a particular venue. CBS Television City mixed audio for up to 120 CBS promos per day during the week l e a d i n g u p t o Super Bowl XLI, in February. While the preparation time for Super Bowl programming is typically closer to a month, this year posed a slightly different challenge. The commercials this year included preview footage from upcoming episodes, so they had to wait until that material was completed to begin mixing the spots. With time constraints being an even greater challenge this year, CBS Television City once again turned to Fairlight for around-theclock audio mixing of the numerous Super Bowl promos. In early 2006, it purchased two Fairlight Constellation-XT consoles, and recently purchased a third with the option of upgrading to an FPGA-driven Dream II Constellation-XT in the future. ‘Timing is everything in our line of work,’ said Jeff Ross, audio mixer, CBS Television City. ‘Any downtime affects our whole department, and if one room shuts down all the content gets bumped to another finishing audio suite and bottlenecks production. That’s obviously something we can’t afford to endure when preparing for the Super Bowl, which is our biggest event of the year.’

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SBC in Japanese Quested ﬁrst

Shinetu Broadcasting Station (SBC) has recently installed a number of Quested monitoring systems at its new offices in Nagano, including the fi rst Quested 5.1 surround system in Japan to use S Series monitors. ‘We compared and tested a lot of products for this installation and fi nally we decided to use Quested monitors because they can reproduce the mixed sound faithfully,’ said an SBC spokesman. ‘We were very happy with this so we installed S6, S7, S8 powered speakers for each fi eld. For the production room, we installed the S7 and made a 5.1 surround system, also using the SB10 as the subwoofer.’

Dresdow’s Auroras L o s A n g e l e s tracking and mixing e n g i n e e r D y l a n ‘ 3 - D ’ D r e s d o w r e c e n t l y a d d e d two Lynx Aurora convertors to his North Hollywood-based Paper VU Studios. Dresdow has the Auroras with the LT-HD interface for connection to his 32-channel Pro Tools rig. ‘After comparing the top convertors out there, and getting a chance to hear Aurora in my own studio, I was sold,’ he said. ‘Auroras are perfect for me, due to their functionality and sound. With the LTHD interface, I just plugged in the Digilink cables and I was up and running.’ The ﬁ rst session Dresdow used the Auroras on was Hip Hop is Dead by Nas. His credits include The Black Eyed Peas, Ice Cube, Coolio, Redman, Method Man, TLC, Wu Tang Clan and contribution to the cover of Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Mya, Lil Kim, and Missy Elliot.

Beethoven Street Studios London is celebrating its first year as a mix and tracking facility since undergoing a complete rebuild. The studio offers a spacious control room with a refurbished 48-channel SSL 4000 E series console (with G computer) and ATC monitoring. Recent clients include Richard Rainey, producer Dimitri Tikovoi, producer/ mixer Dave Bascombe and producer/mixer Rob Kirwan.

April 2007

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news Biz Bites

Glossop’s new prism d-a

Over 25,000 channels in use.

HV-3R uBc IS set to bring downloads to DAB radios in the UK. Starting this month, listeners to station Heart will be able to push a button on their radios to store songs they like; the same track is then available as a DRMprotected PC download. The service also works with DAB-capable phones like Virgin Mobile’s Lobster. A brilliant idea, marred by an overambitious price of UK£1.25 per song. Get real, UBC. Meanwhile, UK high-street music retailer HMV issued another profits warning, blaming tough competition from supermarkets and online. Which begs a question: if it’s so damn tricky to get music onto any player/phone (other than an iPod) that my family and friends constantly pester me for help, where are the in-store HMV digitalloading booths? File under: missed opportunity. unIVerSaL HaS told EC r e g u l a t o r s it will divest s i g n i f i c a n t catalogues, including Zomba Music Publishing, 19 Songs and 19 Music, in a bid to win the EC’s approval for its takeover of BMG Music. Earnings bumped for UMG during 2006, EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) moved to €744 million ($978.3 million), up 10.2% from 2005. Vivendi pointed to improved margins on higher sales and legal settlement gains as contributors, despite rising marketing and A&R costs.

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Producer Mick Glossop has installed a Prism Sound Dream DA-2 convertor in his new studio in Shepherds Bush, London. ‘Building the studio has been a major project,’ he explained. ‘I employed a specialist company to excavate our existing cellar to create sufﬁ cient height and to make the building structurally sound. Then I commissioned Munro Acoustics to design the studio so that it was properly soundproofed and as acoustically accurate as any commercial facility. I now have such a well-insulated control room and a drum booth that I can make as much noise as I like without upsetting the neighbours. ‘I consider Prism Sound’s digital to analogue convertors to be the best in the world,’ Glossop said. ‘I am using my DA-2 in conjunction with my Pro Tools system to sum in stereo. It requires a certain amount of experience and conﬁ dence to do this but I am achieving really great results. However, to get those great results it was imperative that I had the right convertor. If you are working in stereo and mixing in the box, then the convertor is as critical as the monitors because it is integral to the chain.’

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Riedel’s Artist Intercom matrix played a communications role at the NBA All-Star Game at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in February. Connecting four locations 1000-feet apart, the Artist Intercom matrix supported all of the pre-game, half-time and postgame entertainment events. The Artist system provided a decentralised fibrebased network backbone for intercom and distribution of analogue and digital audio and TCP/IP signals.

‘The beauty of Riedel’s Artist intercom is that it’s customisable and easy to use even for non-techies,’ said Kevin Sanford, founder and president of supplier Wireless First. ‘The Director confi guration software with its remote control function makes it very easy to trouble shoot and change things on the fl y quickly.’ The four Artist mainframes at the game were linked via a redundant fi bre ring and were supported by approximately 30 Artist 1000 series control panels.

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facility

dinemec It’s a new complex in Switzerland with four studios, a truly magniﬁcent orchestral recording hall, video editing and ﬁlming, remote recording, a hire operation and the ability to hire the space out for events. Zenon ScHoepe reports on what a modern facility can be if you have the vision.

IneMec StudIoS In Gland, Switzerland was completed early last year and represents one of the largest recent facility builds in Europe and certainly the largest and best purposebuilt orchestral recording spaces its side of London. Owner Paul Sutin (pictured on the cover) is unusual in combining music and engineering experience with business qualifications and a realistic appreciation of precisely where the studio industry now stands. ‘Being diversified, that at the end of the day is what makes the difference,’ he says. ‘From my experience I know that when I have built something that is permanent it becomes obsolete the next day.’ Any theories Paul might have had about business models were born out of practical observation and experience. He previously ran a studio in Geneva with one control room and live room plus a Sonic Solutions editing and mastering suite. It opened in 1986 with a Soundcraft TS24 and upgraded to an AMS Logic 2 in 1994 at the same time as he bought a truck. This was fitted out acoustically and Paul would move the Logic from studio to truck according 14

to where the work was coming from. The mobile’s activity started with the Menuhin Classical Festival for which it recorded hundreds of concerts over the years. Postproduction was a natural extension and they would park outside Menuhin’s chalet and he’d come down to the truck after breakfast to go over the tape and do edits. Phil Collins then started using the truck for his ‘orchestra’ in 1995, he was on tour and they were recording it. Meanwhile Jermaine Jackson was in Switzerland, needed a studio and stayed in it for a year and a chunk of audio post work for Unicef also came through. ‘Every time we had a traditional project in the studio there was always a postproduction issue or a video crew that was needed,’ explains Paul. ‘At the time one of my specialties was editing classical music and that led to some mastering.’ It was a happening place with plenty of varied work that was paying well but… ‘it was extremely inefficient in the sense that if we had a recording session one day and a video or rehearsal next, we’d spend two days switching the studio around for the resolution

next project,’ he says. ‘I needed to find another place but in Geneva everything is so expensive; I looked for ten years and for a while I gave up. ‘Then I saw an auction in a paper of a furniture warehouse that had gone bankrupt. I came out here and there was nobody at the auction — it was just me and the bank. They were so relieved I was interested. They wanted a minimum price, which we agreed on, and I bought 3000sqm with the buildings.’ Paul says the low purchase price allowed him to do the building work he required and he knew exactly what he wanted as he’d enough time to think about it. What’s interesting is that even parts of the plot that were not yet converted were pressed into money-making opportunities while the building work continued elsewhere. Thus the massive warehouse space was turned into a production space and taken over by Disney for some filming. The apartments that existed in the property were refurbished and Dinemec’s offices were moved in. Recording was also carried out here with Steve Howe recording an album in one of the rooms. ‘We shifted around where they weren’t constructing at the time and used the space creatively,’ says Paul adding that they also started hiring out the whole facility for events. This has remained a key aspect of the completed Dinemec complex — rental of the main hall for event use. The hall offers 573sqm with a 12m ceiling; you can fit a 120-piece orchestra in comfortably together with a choir. Moveable panels allow adjustment of the reverb time from 3s to 0.8s. The studios were built by Studio People but acoustics for the hall were designed by WSDG. The floor is 4cm thick cedar and April 2007

facility

is a replacement of the original which didn’t have the pickup to do the room justice, according to Paul. It’s worth remembering that the Dinemec hall is one of very few new large orchestral studio spaces; most historical and famous orchestral rooms in studios are adaptations of existing spaces — they weren’t built like the one at Dinemec was. There is nothing quite like it. I have to say that the hall is exceptional and positively sings; the floor is superbly responsive, the isolation is total and the air con is silent. Above all it is a lovely space to be in. There’s an upstairs recessed balcony area that houses a video edit suite and can serve as a control centre for the area below when an event is on. There’s 200sqm of staging available and a 6m x 5m cinema screen. The area that serves as the ‘back stage’ has feeds for powering multiple OB trucks, lighting and even catering equipment. ‘The idea here is versatility,’ says Paul. ‘The studio business is very difficult and for me to survive I’ve had to be super-diversified. One day the big room is a set for a television show — it’s all cabled for TV complete with lights — the next it’s for a recording. We also have concerts here, charity events for Unicef, auctions, showcases. It’s a room for hire as well as being a fantastic acoustic space.’ And to protect that aforementioned beautiful floor from the 500-capacity audience they have a special protective carpet that they roll out for events. A car park 200m away can take 500 cars. Control room 1 has an AMS Neve 88RS, Pro Tools, daylight, and 5.1 Dynaudio monitoring. Dave Richards, formerly of Mountain studios, is a room regular and is in the process of remixing DASH multitracks from previous Montreux Jazz Festivals for 5.1. Studio 1 also has another large associated live area although all spaces in the complex are tie-lined to everywhere else. You’ll also find a variety of international mains socket types and voltages in the walls. Studio 2 has an AMS Neve MMC 12 and a fantastic band-sized live area complete with a pristine B3. Studio 3 houses Paul’s original Logic 2 and has a multipurpose live area that is good for drums but is also used for webcasts, interview shoots, and APTApril 2007

ISDN sessions. They have Media 100s and Final Cut and have two broadcast cameras. ‘If a group comes here and they need a quick video bite for MTV for their concert tour and they want a crew then we’re here and the gear’s here,’ says Paul. Studio 4 runs an SSL 4056G with G+ upgrades and custom Boxer monitors and is almost constantly occupied by mixer Philippe Weiss who has populated the racks with his collection of superb outboard. The original van soldiers on and can be backed into a dedicated bay and connected up to serve as an additional control room. It’s now mostly employed for broadcast work with 48 Neve 1081 preamps straight to Pro Tools, monitoring on a DM2000. it can also be pressed into PA duties as Dinemec offers a hire service for instruments, backline, PA and lights. It amounts to a staggering array of technology and disciplines in incredible acoustic spaces that have been designed from the onset with flexibility in mind. The attitude of the people involved is also open-minded and ‘can do, will do’. ‘On a day like today, in Studio 1 we’re doing an album for a classical record company, in Studio 2 we’re doing a 40-part TV series with dialogue, Foley, and music and Studio 3 is doing the sound effects for that,’ explains Paul. ‘We were all classical for a month this summer and there was recording and editing going on in the whole place.’ Early indicators point to a work split of around a third classical, a third pop and third postproduction and TV. ‘I set apart the event side of the business, where the hall is rented out,’ he says. ‘We’ve done three perfume brand launches and press conferences. They want the hall and then they ask if we have PA — no problem — a stage – no problem — catwalk, lights, backline, they want the whole thing recorded and filmed, edited and a DVD ready for everyone when they leave — no problem. The auto show in Switzerland every March is one of the biggest in Europe and they’ve locked out the whole place for this year. Just for journalists, Mercedes will launch a new car in the big hall here. They can take the car out of the gates and test-drive it; the highway is just over there. There’ll be catering all day long and rooms for the journalists where they resolution

can write their reports.’ He describes this as one of the pillars of the business and aims to hold one event per month. Paul says that the complex is a ‘powerful tool’ with a lot of hot potential business centres and he’s hired the head of marketing and sponsoring from Swiss TV to handle it. Located 15 minutes from the centre of Geneva it’s also a few minutes from the French border. They get a lot of orchestral work from France and some composers and production companies from the UK. It’s a truly international business spread with undoubted appeal and growth potential. ‘For orchestral recording it’s always the same thing — you want ideal conditions,’ he says. ‘The best acoustic, technology that is transparent, the know-how to be impeccable, and you have to have access to the best orchestras and the best musicians. I think that here we’ve got it all. This region of Switzerland is the richest area of classical music anywhere except for London. We have the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, which has a huge reputation, and they’re in Geneva. We’ve got the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Verbier Youth Orchestra. People in the business here call this the Golden Triangle between Geneva, Montreux and Lausanne and there’s a reservoir of top international musicians.’ All the ingredients are in place to make Dinemec a very important player on the international recording circuit. It has so much to recommend it and such a diversity of talent that it is quite unlike any other new complex I have seen. It also flies in the face of suggestions that such a large orchestral hall and so many studios cannot be sustained by today’s market demand. By concentrating on uniqueness, high quality, cross-discipline technology, flexibility of approach, and the means to generate income from outside the traditional recording pool, Paul Sutin has created a new model for what a studio facility can be in this day and age. It’s a remarkable achievement and one that you must see for yourself. ■

contact dIneMec StudIoS, SWItZerLand: Website: www.dinemec.com

gear

products equipment introductions and announcements.

nuendo edit Edit is a new hardware controller from WK Audio that is designed for Steinberg’s Nuendo. Targetted at users who re q u i re a c o m p a c t control surface for editing and multitrack recording rather than a complete mixing desk, it is derived from the ID Controller and shares an almost identical layout and construction but differs in that the individual function areas are optimised for editing and working with tracks. It has a range of keys with LED indicators and track numbers to directly select Channels or Tracks numbered 1-48 or 49-96 and Cut, Solo and Record functions. The keys can also be used as a PC keyboard and Edit includes a trackball. Frequently-used Nuendo functions can be accessed directly via buttons and there are also freely-assignable keys for user-deﬁ nable Nuendo key commands. The weighted 60mm dial can be used for Jog, Shuttle and Scrub and extra keys to position and zoom events in the Nuendo project window are positioned directly around the dial. Integration of the Control Room Monitor section is also included with reduction keys for Mono/Stereo, Front/ Rear, LFE and LR, as well as two keys for the speaker management, meaning that the features in the Nuendo Master section are addressed directly. Available in April, the price is €4,590. www.wk-audio.de

new rSS Snake A d d in g t o it s S 4000 Digital Snake S y s t e m , R o l a n d Systems Group has announced the S1608/0816 Digital Snake System in a fi xed 16 x 8 confi guration. Based on the same 24 bit/96kHz low-latency REAC protocol used in the S-4000, the S1608/0816 features 16+8 remote-controllable microphone inputs and 8+16 returns over Cat5e cable. Consisting of the S-1608 Stage and S-0816 FOH units, t h e S - 1 6 0 8 / 0 8 1 6 Digital Snake System can also be used in conjunction with an S-4000 Modular Digital Snake System to create a 48-input, 16-return snake. When used in pairs or multiples, the S1608/0816 can be used for fl exible split-stage or stage zone set-ups. The input gain for the preamps can be controlled using the S-4000R remote controller or remote software with preset memories. The S-1608 audio signal can be split using the S-4000-SP Splitter or other standard gigabit switch. The S-1608/0816 is also compatible with Cakewalk REAC Recording Technology. www.rolandsystemsgroup.co.uk

platform news: digidesign digidesign’s 003 family, which includes the 003 factory and 003 rack, offers professional I-o, pro tools software, and a bundle of up to 80 plug-ins, including the pro tools Ignition pack 2 software collection. the 003 factory provides hands-on control of pro tools Le through a control surface and has eight touch-sensitive motor faders, eight motion-sensitive rotary encoders, and a jog/shuttle wheel with visual feedback via an Lcd and Leds. It can also function as a standalone MIdI controller. the 003 rack mirrors the same I-o, audio capabilities and connectivity as 003 factory in a 2u rackmount. the pro tools Ignition pack 2 a n d p ro to o l s Ignition pack 2 pro bundles are available free with pro tools|Hd and pro tools Le systems. pro tools Ignition pack 2 includes: ableton Live Lite 6 digidesign edition; propellerhead reason adapted 3; Ik Multimedia amplitube Le; fXpansion Bfd Lite; celemony Melodyne uno essential; digidesign Xpand!; digidesign Synchronic (Ignition pack 2 pro only); M-audio proSessions Se sound library; Sound libraries from Big fish audio, cycling ’74, Sonic reality, and Zero-G (pro only); Way out Ware timewarp 2600 Lite; arturia analog factory Se; iZotope effects: ozone 3 Lite, trash Lite, and Spectron Lite; tL everyphase (pro only); and tL utilities (pro only). www.digidesign.com

korg 1-bit recorders K o r g h a s u n v e i l e d 1 - b i t professional mobile recorders for source recording, podcasting, ENG/EFP, and archiving. The hand-held MR-1 is capable of 1-bit/2.8MHz recording and playback while the tabletop MR1000 delivers up to 1 - b i t / 5 . 6 M H z . B o t h support formats that include DSDIFF, DSF and WSD 1-bit formats, as well as multibit PCM format (BWF) up to 24-bit/192kHz. Korg’s included AudioGate software (Mac and PC) can convert 1-bit recordings into WAV and AIFF formats at various bit-rates (and vice versa) and offers real-time conversion/playback of 1-bit ﬁ les. The software can also provide DC offset, gain control, and fade in/out. Users can transfer data from the internal hard drive to a computer via USB 2.0. The MR-1000 f e a t u re s u l t r a low-impedance m i c p r e a m p s with balanced X L R / 1 / 4 - i n c h i n p u t s w i t h phantom power and built-in limiting, plus XLR and phono outputs. The MR-1 offers dual mini balanced inputs, a stereo electret condenser and a stereo headphone jack. Both feature lightweight yet rugged metal housings and a large backlit LCD. Each MR-recorder comes in a soft case and can be powered by batteries (MR-1 -– rechargeable lithium polymer; MR-1000 -– AA) or via AC. MR–1 UK£499.00 inc VAT; MR-1000 £899.00 inc VAT. www.korg.com/mr

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charteroak pop filter Charteroak claims its PF-1 Pop Filter outperforms others in three areas. The SaatiTech Hyphobe Acoustex fi bre used in its construction is extremely effective at repelling moisture. The B010 Acoustex used in the PF-1 is said to stop plosives without compromising the frequency response of the microphone. The fi lter is designed to eliminate the need for bulky mic-clip/goosenecks and secondary mic stands, as the PF-1 comes attached to a Velcro strap that will fi t most side-address large diaphragm microphones. www.charteroakacoustics.com

analogue guitar speaker simulator

In a cooperative developmental with Tonehunter, SPL’s Transducer is connected and operated exactly like a guitar speaker cabinet. It sports two main controls to adjust its sound: Speaker Action is analogous to the behaviour of a speaker’s cone at different levels while Miking Level recreates a microphone‘s characteristic at different recording levels. Other switchable functions allow the choices of alnico or ceramic speakers, closed or open housings, condenser or dynamic microphones, and adjustments to miking distances. www.soundperformancelab.com

April 2007

gear Mobile transmitter for Guideport Sennheiser has added Mobile Transmitter to its Guideport wireless multilingual visitor information system. The belt-worn Mobile Transmitter and headset gives tour guides speaking to a group with pre-assigned Guideport headphones the ﬂ exibility to mix their live guided tour with prerecorded audio at the press of a button. The Mobile Transmitter Guideport system monitors the location of the tour group so that when the guide switches to prerecorded audio, visitors hear content that is context appropriate. www.sennheiser.co.uk

calrec omega with Blueﬁn

Calrec’s Omega console employs the company’s Bluefi n High Density Signal Processing technology and features 160 channel processing paths packaged as 48 stereo plus 64 mono channels and allowing up to 24 x full 5.1 surround channels. Omega is positioned between the Zeta and Sigma consoles. Bluefin is based on patent-pending FPGA (FieldProgrammable Gate Array) technology that can provide 480 fully featured channels on a single card. Calrec says it was the fi rst company to perform all DSP functions with FPGAs when it launched the Alpha at NAB 2006 and the Sigma in September 2006. Available in three frame sizes — 24, 32, and 48 faders — Omega with Bluefi n has 8 x 5.1 surround, stereo, or mono audio groups, 20 auxiliary outputs (which can be 20 mono or 10 stereo) and 48 outputs for multitrack or general purpose feeds. The console also has two main stereo or 5.1 surround programme outputs with full equalisation and compressor/limiter facilities, plus full control of the stereo downmix of the surround main outputs. www.calrec.com

fireWire card for aurora

The Lynx LT-FW LSlot FireWire interface allows Lynx Aurora 8 and Aurora 16 A-D/D-A convertors to be interfaced to and controlled by computers with FireWire. The LT-FW is a FireWire 400 interface that allows up to 32 channels of analogue and digital I-O at sample rates up to 96kHz. At 192kHz the user can access 16 channels of I-O. It supports ASIO and WDM for W indows and CoreAudio for Mac OSX. LT-FW’s full WDM implementation allows multiple channel support of 5.1 and 7.1 surround playback formats. www.lynxstudio.com

tiny mixer Mixy is an analogue mixer with digital I-Os and an OLED screen and joystick. The analogue interfaces can be controlled from the front panel by potentiometers or via the menu while digital interfaces are exclusively activated via menus. An internal Ni-MH battery gives more than 10 hour’s operation but it can also be powered by external battery with automatic and silent switching between sources. Stereo and MS are supported. Despite its 160mm x 43mm x 120mm dimensions and 1.2kg weight it offers ﬁ ve analogue inputs (three mic/line XLR3s and two line inputs on XLR5), SPDIF input, AES/ SPDIF outputs, Toslink output and stereo I-O over USB. www.aeta-audio.com

When enthusiasm leads to passion ...

fostex ﬁeld recorder The Fostex FR-2LE f i e l d r e c o r d e r records in stereo or mono to Compact F l a s h o r M i c ro Drive card in BWF and compressed formats. Features include transfer to computer via USB, mic inputs and a prerecord buffer. www.fostex.com

Blue ribbon With an exotic wood finish and active circuitry, the Woodpecker ribbon microphone combines the low noise of Blue’s ClassA discrete handmade electronics with a handmade aluminium ribbon pressuregradient transducer. The Woodpecker package includes a custom solid brass shockmount and a wood storage box. www.bluemic.com

April 2007

SCHOEPS Mikrofone Spitalstr. 20 76227 Karlsruhe - Germany +49 721 943 200

Diana Mayer-Blaimschein and Martin Mayer are:

www.schoeps.de

www.mistermaster.at

resolution

gear X-rack eight Input Module Solid State Logic’s Eight Input Module is a response to requests from X-Rack users for a module designed to accommodate larger numbers of stereo inputs from studio sources, such as sub mixers and synthesisers. The Eight Input Module offers greater connectivity than the Four Input Module but does not offer independent Level, Solo and Pan control. The Line Input modules are both designed for use in conjunction with the recently released

Projekt1

18/02/07

sound engineering

12:55

Master Bus Module, the summing, metering and control room module that enables users to conﬁ gure the X-Rack as a multi-input, dual-stereo bus mini SSL with Total Recall. The module offers eight line level inputs configured as four stereo pairs with mono/stereo switching for each stereo pair, additional insert points for inputs 1&2 and 3&4, and independent On/Off switches for each stereo pair. XLogic Delta-Link MADI HD is now shipping. The MADI convertor facilitates direct interconnectivity between Pro Tools|HD systems and MADI-enabled equipment. www.solid-state-logic.com

Side 1

RM8 TUBE MODULES

noise cancelling a-ts Audio-Technica’s ATH-ANC7 is the ﬁ rst of its QuietPoint range of active noise cancelling headphones. Reducing background noise by up to 85%, A-T says the price is almost half that of any comparable headphone. The headphones employ a miniature microphone in each earpiece and onboard electronics identify the difference between this and the listening source and mixes in an anti-noise signal. The headphones fold flat for portability and are powered by a single AAA battery but can operate in passive mode without the battery. www.audio-technica.co.uk

k8 digital audio transport Klein + Hummel’s K8 digital audio distribution system can be used for simple point-to-point connections or can form a distribution backbone for sending 16 audio channels at 48kHz and 24-bit to multiple remote locations and claims very low latency. The system is fast to implement as it requires no confi guration and is connected together with up to 200-meter lengths of Cat5 cable. The entire system may be monitored from a single Ethernet port with no additional cabling. The same cable also carries bi-directional data for remote monitoring and control of all devices connected within the K8 system over a single Ethernet port. Refreshing the line with a K8 distribution amplifi er allows endless additions of 200-meter cable lengths. Multi-output K8 distribution amplifi ers may be used to implement a star distribution confi guration. Failure of a single K8 audio output device allows other devices on the system to continue to function. Audio is placed onto the distribution network at up to two locations with eight channels of input at each. It employs EtherSound audio networking technology as the core system backbone for transporting 128 low latency audio channels and for interconnection to third party products. The K8 distribution system is used as a branching distribution architecture from the core EtherSound backbone. www.klein-hummel.com

Holophone Side Winder-6

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LYDKRAFT 18

www.tube-tech.com resolution

Using the encoding and preamplifier technology first seen in its H4 Supermini camera-mountable surround microphone, Holophone has introduced the Side Winder6 terminated mic snake. When used in combination with any of the microphones in the Holophone line, including the H2-Pro and H3-D, the Side Winder-6 encodes a 5.1 surround recording into stereo. The Side Winder-6 is an accessory that connects to the H4 Supermini multichannel preamplifier, monitor, and encoder with Lt/Rt outputs. Attached to the Side Winder6 is a 1m Monster cable that terminates in six Neutrik 6-pin XLR connectors. The Matrix encoded surround output created by the module can be transmitted, shared and processed via any surround infrastructure. Additionally, the output can be decoded by most popular surround decoding schemes. Because it uses the H4 Supermini encoder, the Side Winder-6 has access to all of the microphone’s features, including a virtual surround headphone output with gain control for on-location monitoring of surround sound. www.holophone.com

April 2007

gear bands as well as ﬁ ve shapes per band — shelf low, blunt, medium, and sharp bell curves, and shelf high. On each band you can choose to shelf up or down on any frequency. All EQ points are based on the note C and are spaced in half and third octaves based on that. It is thought that this is part of the musical sound of the equaliser. www.chandlerlimited.com

new eMIs

The EMI TG12345 Curve Bender was conceived by Chandler designer Wade Goeke and Abbey Road senior engineer Peter Cobbin and is based on the vintage EMI TG12345 desk used to record The Beatles and Pink Floyd. This newest EMI equaliser continues the tradition of EMI EQs started in 1951 with the RS56, affectionately entitled the Curve Bender by EMI designers, and continued with the TG12345 in 1968 and TG12412 in 1974. Peter asked for four bands and ﬁ lters based on the slopes of the original desk but with overlapping and expanded choices. Wade turned the nine selections on the vintage version into 51 EQ points plus a multiply switch that increases the boost/cut to 15dB (as well as sharpening the Q) plus ﬁ lters and bell/shelf selections on the high and low bands.

The EMI TG12413 Zener Limiter is based on vintage EMI circuits and borrows from the RS168 Zener Limiter and TG12345 console strip. New controls include switchable input impedance for hard or soft driving of the unit, 11position attack, 21-position release, side-chain ﬁ ltering, and Comp1, Comp2, and Limit settings. The EMI TG12412 plug-in EQ has 20 selections on four

April 2007

Bigger cMS

Superlux stereos Superlux has released three new models specifi cally for the location recording market. The E523/D and E522/B feature similar design and specifi cations and each is supplied with a cable that connects to the mic on a 5-pin XLR. The E522/B terminates in two 3.5mm jacks while the E523/D terminates in two XLRs. Both can be camera mounted. Both are permanently polarised condensers for X/Y stereo with low frequency roll-off and AA battery powering. The E531/BCS is similarly compact in design but has the ability to switch the coverage between 90 and 120 degrees with a cardioid at the front and fi g-8 at the side. www.scvlondon.co.uk

d-Sub connectors

With the CMS 2200, Dynacord says it is responding to requests for more input channels without sacrificing the advantages of the existing CMS 1000 and CMS 1600 consoles. The new model adds six mono channels and along with the other CMS models has a master section that offers 7-band equalisers for the main LR mix or monitor outs as well as two feedback ﬁ lters. Two independent effects blocks, each with 99 presets, round off the feature set. www.dynacord.com

resolution

S w i t c h c r a f t ’s E H S e r i e s range of panel-mount XLR receptacles fitted with USB, FireWire, BNC, phono, PS/2 and SVHS connectors has been expanded with the addition of versions fitted with 9-way and 15-way HD D-Sub connectors. The EH family uses Switchcraft’s E Series XLR housings that fi t industry-standard 24mm diameter panel cut outs. The D-sub versions have three feed-through options -– male to male, male to female, and female to female -– and can be supplied with nickel or black plated front fl anges. Male to female inserts are reversible and mating cord connectors can be secured by tightening locking screws into the front fl ange. www.switchcraft.com

gear 360 Systems Image Server MaXX 360 Systems’ Image Server M a x x v i d e o server offers fast FTP transfers to other servers, non-linear editors and network-attached storage; embedded audio; Remote Workstation software for operation from PCs; AsRun logs, Sony IMX (D10) fi le compatibility, and improved operation with MXF fi les. It provides a high level of compatibility with fi le-based workfl ows but also maintains traditional video standards with baseband composite video and SDI ports. An input framesynchroniser allows ‘wild’ sources from tape or satellite to be recorded. New time-stamps create accurate As-Run logs for reconciliation of playlists. The server’s internal RAID array provides Maxx with up to 170 hours of storage. www.360systems.com

Belden SlimSnake aeS-eBu multipair Belden’s halogen-free and ﬂ exible AES-EBU multipair cable is called SlimSnake on account of it being the smallest AES-EBU multipair cable at 10.3mm. It consists of two tinned copper foamed polyethylene insulated conductors over which individual spiral braid is applied. Each pair is individually jacketed with a grey halogen-free polyamide material with an overall diameter of 2.9mm. Paper tape has been placed between the pairs and the overall >90% tinned copper braid. To increase durability a ﬂ exible halogen-free purple jacket is used. It will fit in D-Sub 25-pin connectors, despite being halogen-free it has greater than normal flexibility, the impedance is stable and consistent (110ohms +/-15ohms), and it is easier to solder wire with tinned copper. www.belden.com

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optimod 6300-daB ships

The Orban Optimod 6300-DAB for digital broadcast and professional audio is now shipping. It succeeds the Optimod-DAB 6200 with improved processing algorithms and more fl exibility and contains a stereo enhancer, AGC, equaliser, phase-linear multiband compressor/limiter with two or fi ve bands, and two independent stereo look-ahead peak limiters. Peak limiting can be ‘fl at’ or pre-emphasisaware at 50 or 75 microseconds. For video applications, broadcasters can activate the 6300’s CBS Loudness Controller to prevent loud commercials.

An upgraded DSP board for the Optimod-FM 8500 can produce up to 16.4 seconds of diversity delay in HD Radio installations. The original 8500 hardware produced 8.2 seconds of delay. The upgrade process consists of upgrading the 8500’s software and then swapping the old and new DSP boards. Orban has announced the implementation of Coding Technologies’ latest improvements to the aacPlus encoder engine. Orban’s upcoming 5.1 surround sound applications will use these improvements to reduce bit rate by 20% without compromising subjective quality. Orban will offer free upgrades to all Opticodec 1010PE and 1020FE Enterprise users. www.orban.com

BeL in-rack monitors

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The expanded BEL Broadcast Monitor (BM) range offers a choice of three new audio monitors speciﬁ cally designed for integration within HD and SD environments. The BMA 2 - E 8 S H D is a 2U 8c h a n n e l a u d i o monitor capable of monitoring discrete HD/SD multichannel audio, and decoding Dolby E/Dolby Digital sources. It accepts 2 x SDI (with active loop-through) and 2 x AES sources, and automatically d e t e c t s between SD or HD video, displaying the video format on the LCD display. Eight demuxed audio channels can be selected directly from front panel rotary controls. An integral audio mix system enables any demuxed audio channel to be mixed on either or both speakers while maintaining a constant output level. Eight highr e s o l u t i o n t r i c o l o u r b a r g r a p h s h a v e u s e rassignable ballistics and colour break points. The BM-A1-2SHD is a 1U 2-channel audio monitor capable of monitoring discrete HD and SD multichannel. It accepts 2 x SDI sources (with active loop-through) and automatically detects between SD or HD video streams. An eight-position rotary control enables the operator to monitor any channel pair from the selected SDI source. The BM-A2-4SHD is a 2U 4-channel audio monitor with SD and HD functionality. It has dedicated HD SDI and SD SDI inputs plus two AES pairs and four analogue inputs. www.beldigital.com

April 2007

gear digigram Visiblu

Digigram’s Visiblu is described as ‘audio processing and networking middleware’ developed speciﬁ cally for building network-centric digital radio infrastructures. Visiblu is a standards-based software services framework that combines audio processing and networking technologies. It uniﬁ es Digigram’s legacy sound cards and audio processing together with EtherSound protocol and audio IP streaming into an engine that runs under Windows and Linux. Visiblu allows broadcast solution providers to develop IT-based audio and data routing, transport, encoding, and processing systems across local facilities and wide areas. Remote management of distributed audio processing resources and IP audio streams is possible using a graphstyle application programming interface (API). Visiblu’s interoperability principles allow broadcasters to combine several vendor solutions into a coherent system, providing integrated control of the whole system from a single point. Visiblu has been adopted by several radio solution providers, including Jutel Oy, AEQ, Netia, AdeuxI, and Broadcast Bionics. The potential applications include low latency IP audio links for contribution and distribution, programme insertion and remote system control. www.digigram.com

on-board amp dSp A&AG, Italian-based manufacturers of the KIND range of power ampliﬁ ers, has introduced the DSP Board1 input card that can provide all of the functions of a loudspeaker system crossover/ controller without the need for an external processor. Suitable for KDL, DDX and DQX series ampliﬁ ers, the 2-in, 3-out processor has crossover, EQ, compressor and delay functions, providing a cost effective and tamperproof system solution for most applications. The card is programmed by PC with the provided software. The input card uses 24-bit, 48kHz A-D/D-A conversion. RAM allows for eight programme presets and eight default presets while two control registers allow for complete control of modes and memory transfers. www.kindaudio.com

updated reddI

A-Designs Audio has updated its red tube DI box with a 1/4-inch Thru input jack on the front panel. The new version of the REDDI now features a 1/4-inch Switchcraft input jack on the faceplate replacing the heavyduty power toggle switch that has now been relocated to the rear panel. www.adesignsaudio.com

The S3 possesses quite astonishing amounts of headroom, and will quite happily put out peaks approaching +30dBu all day long without sounding the least bit flustered. Jon Thornton, Resolution Magazine

I used the S3 on a drum subgroup and it allowed me to shape the drum space with an amazing amount of control in a way that I never would have been able to do with EQ or full bandwidth compression. Thom Monahan (Engineer), Tape Op Magazine

crown tops cdi range

Crown’s CDi Series of power amps has been expanded with the highest-powered CDi 4000. Like its siblings, the CDi 1000 and CDi 2000, the CDi 4000 is able to run low-impedance 2-, 4- and 8-ohm loads as well as 70- and 140-volt outputs. A front panel LCD enables tailoring of system parameters for onboard loudspeaker processing (including crossovers, EQ, limiting, compression, and delay), while 20 user-defi ned DSP presets can be recalled. A rear-panel USB connector permits the amplifi er to be confi gured and controlled via a PC running Harman Pro’s HiQnet. Protection circuitry guards against shorted outputs, open circuits, DC, mismatched loads, general overheating, highfrequency overloads and internal faults. Quiet proportionalspeed fans keep the amplifi ers cool and front-panel LEDs provide amplifi er status. Rear-panel connectivity includes detachable Phoenix-style input connectors, barrier strip output connectors, and a NEMA 5-15P inlet for AC mains. www.crownaudio.com

April 2007

The new Signature Series S3 from

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review

rMe Micstasy rMe has one of the most comprehensive ranges of convertors and computer interface cards, all of which ‘play nicely’ together. It has added a multichannel mic preamp. roB JaMS drops an e and enters Micstasy.

IcStaSY IS an 8-cHanneL mic/ line preamplifier and analogue to digital convertor. It combines features familiar from other RME products such as Intelligent Clock Control (ICC), SyncCheck and SteadyClock with some interesting innovations. Perhaps the most significant of these is dubbed AutoSet but more about this later. The box is fully remote controllable via MIDI or, if the option card is fitted, MIDI over MADI. A free Windows application can be downloaded from the RME website. All the status displays are also returned to the controlling device and local functions apart from the Remote switch can be locked out using the software. MIDI remote is also compatible with Pro Tools, although facilities are more limited thanks to the more restricted protocol, e.g. gain cannot be adjusted in 0.5dB steps. Analogue in to analogue line out is available simultaneously with analogue to digital outputs so Micstasy can obviate the requirement for a separate splitter box. Analogue input gain range is a spectacular 85dB, from -56.5dBu to +30dBu. Despite this, noise is astonishingly low throughout. Rather than compromise the excellent performance figures by fitting a conventional analogue limiter, RME has chosen to use the digital control of analogue gain to implement a variation on AGC, AutoSet. When invoked, signals exceeding the preset threshold result in the input gain being reduced to the point where peaks are contained. Threshold level is adjustable in four steps (-1, -3, -6, -12dBFS) in the set-up menu. The gain reduction applied is reflected in the Gain display and gain can still be adjusted manually with AutoSet active. Once AutoSet reduces the gain the value is retained until the function is switched off. Gain reduction is pretty quick, around 20dB in 10ms. This introduces the possibility of momentary clipping but, in practice, I found this to be inaudible. As you would expect, channels can be linked to avoid image shifts. Channels link to the left and separate groups can be set up, for example Channel 5 linked with Channel 4 and 3, Channel 8 with Channel 7 and Channel 6. Thus it is possible to have four independent stereo groups and two groups of multiple channels. 22

Decorated in the RME house colours of dark blue and silver, the UK£2552 (+ VAT for MADI version; £2297 + VAT standard) 2U is busy back and front. Each of the eight identical channel strips has a twocharacter alphanumeric display showing the current gain setting and a 13-segment LED bargraph with switchable peak hold. LED indicators show +48V phantom, Phase, MS decoding, Lo Cut, AutoSet active, and Hi Z (high impedance for the front panel jack). A single non-latching button selects the channel and turns functions on and off and multiple selections are allowed. In the Set section a single multifunction rotary encoder/switch selects which of these functions is to be altered and sets variable parameters, such as Gain, which is switched in 0.5dB steps. MS encoding/ decoding is digital so the analogue outputs mirror the input format. When decoding, even numbered channels are M and odd S. The high-pass filter is a low distortion 18dB per octave design with a cut-offfrequency of 65Hz. All settings are stored when the unit is switched off and two buttons enable all Micstasy settings to be saved and recalled from any of eight internal memory locations. When saving or recalling, channel 7&8 alphas display SA or RE plus the memory location number. All settings are saved apart from analogue output level, sample rate, sync source and remote. Pressing Save and Recall together accesses the setup menu. Analogue output level is sequentially adjustable via a button and indicator LEDs between +13, +19 and +24dBu. Maximum output level is +27dBu so there is 3dB of analogue output headroom even when using the hot +24dB setting. Remote control is invoked by a button that steps through MIDI, Option Slot (MADI), and Off. Clock source and Sample Rate are set in the same manner with the choice of Word clock, AES, Option (MADI), and internal. Internal Sample Rate steps through 44.1kHz, 48kHz and double and quad speed for each. Around the back, 16 XLRs deal with analogue Mic/ Line inputs and Line outputs. A 25-pin D-Sub carries the four stereo AES single-wire channel outputs in Tascam pin-out. The channel 1&2 Input can be used resolution

as the clock source while two shuttered optical Toslink sockets provide ADAT Main and Aux outputs. SMUX is supported with correspondingly reduced channel count. By using both sockets, eight channels can still be output in double-speed modes. However, only four channels are possible in quad-speed modes. Word clock in and out are the usual BNCs with a small switch to set 75-ohm termination. Two DINs deal with MIDI remote and an option slot accepts the I64 MADI card, which adds coaxial and optical MADI. With this number of features there is always the danger of the user interface becoming cumbersome or confusing. RME has made a good job of avoiding the pitfalls and the resulting interface is surprisingly intuitive. Transparency and silence are the defining audio qualities. RME’s product line is now one of the most comprehensive sources of preamplifiers, convertors and computer interface cards, all of which ‘play nicely’ together. Micstasy is a new entrant in what is probably the most crowded part of the market, mic pre/convertors. Mic preamps are very personal things but this box is certainly well up to playing with the big boys. It has the RME pedigree, something not to be dismissed lightly, and a number of interesting and innovative features. Most notable is AutoSet. I can see this being a real boon in live work. Latency from the Cirrus-Logic convertors is remarkably low, a mere 12 samples at 48kHz. The forthcoming matching RME ADI-8 QS D-A will continue this trend with a latency in the range of 5 to 10 samples. MADI will be of particular interest with multiple remote units and up to eight can be daisy chained to return 64 inputs down a single cable. Delay compensation aligns all signals to sample accuracy. In the end, choice of front end comes down to three main factors; price, features and sound. The first is dictated by budget, the second depends on what you are trying to do, and the third can only be determined by careful listening. If the first two boxes are ticked, Micstasy will repay handsomely the time and effort invested in a critical audition. ■

proS

Low noise and wide gain range; intuitive; autoSet.

conS

there are now so many good mic pre/ convertors that making a choice is hard; otherwise, nothing signiﬁcant.

eXtraS

rMe’s BoB-32 is a universal breakout box for aeS-eBu XLr or d-Sub. one side offers eight XLr aeS-eBu I-os and the other provides two d-Sub connectors. the box can be ‘folded’ in the middle, bringing all connectors to one side. It comes with pin-out formats for tascam or Yamaha.

It is a companion product to rMe´s HdSp aeS-32, adI-6432, octamic-d, Micstasy, adI-8 QS, and other devices that use the pin-outs.

contact rMe, GerManY: Website: www.rme-audio.com

April 2007

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review

SSL X-rack Mixer the move to compactness is a logical one but I bet you never thought you’d get access to an SSL in this sort of size. GeorGe SHILLInG ﬁnds a worthy contender for analogue control central.

e took a look at the SSL X-Rack in Resolution V5.1. However, back then the only module available was a Dynamics processor. In the meantime, SSL has introduced a series of modules that enable the user to configure a custom system, much like any other lunchbox or powered rack system, such as the API 500 series. The configuration sent for review brings together some predictable additions to the X-Rack range, plus modules that enable configuration as a mini-mixer. Unsurprising add-ons, derived directly from SSL’s large analogue consoles are a mono Input module with mic, line and DI inputs, plus filters, and also an EQ module, with familiar 4-band E/G Series EQ. The mixer module is a four input Line Return unit; this is designed to work in conjunction with the new Master module, the latter’s features resembling a desk’s centre section. All modules employ Total Recall using LEDs in the module panels as detailed in the previous review. The knobs have a tiny LED to indicate above/below positions. This is something no rival can boast, being as it is self-contained, with the option of storage in a DAW via MIDI. Unlike SSL consoles and newer AMS-Neve outboard, there are no on-screen graphics to watch. Because your eye is always on the unit there is therefore less chance of turning the wrong knob. It is a very neat system, but there was some audio interference on the 24

main Master monitor outputs when in recall mode. One initial drawback of the Line Return and Master modules is that their compact size necessitates the use of 25-pin D-Sub connectors. This wouldn’t be such a problem, but SSL makes things marginally harder by employing non-standard wiring formats for these. This is partly necessary due to the unique combination of inputs and outputs required, but it does seem odd that they have used reversed polarity for the pin wiring compared to the more commonly adopted Tascam standard. Custom cabling will be required! The comprehensively featured Input module includes a neutral and quiet SuperAnalogue microphone preamp with excellent transient handling and clarity, and plenty of gain. An Impedance knob allows wide variation of the mic input, even matching the connection of Line sources, although there is a dedicated Line input section with separate XLR input and gain knob. The Instrument input jack on the front panel includes a useful Ground Lift switch and this input sounds particularly solid on bass guitar. A tri-colour LED senses level prior to the output amplifier, and there are useful routing buttons to select Left and/or Right Record Bus on the Master module (see below). Smooth sounding filters are also featured. The EQ module features the familiar Black-knob type SSL EQ, with the usual colour-coding for the four bands. The EQ In button is central, adjacent is a G-EQ selector button that makes resolution

the shelving steeper and adds overshoot, or undershoot (if cutting) below the selected HF frequency (or above the selected LF frequency). Additionally, this mode sees bandwidth vary according to gain for the parametric bands. The EQ sounds exactly the same as the console EQ, clean and tweaky. So, to the mixer. The Line Return module features four line inputs. The rear of this module features two D-Sub 25-pin connectors, allowing provision for fully balanced inputs and returns on one connector and Insert Sends and Returns on the other. The Insert Send is simply a parallel of the Line input. The Insert Returns are switchable via a separate Insert button on each channel. On the front, each channel features a Level pot with calibrated centre détente and a tricoloured signal level LED, a centre-détented pan pot, and in addition to the insert buttons there are Solo and Record Bus routing buttons (channels normally route to the Mix Bus). It’s crowded, but all buttons are sensibly accompanied by LEDs. The Master module acts in conjunction with up to seven Line Return modules. Further racks can be chained with a Master Link D-Sub (although this does not feature on earlier X-Racks) allowing busing and soloing across very many channels. The two D-Sub connectors on the rear of the Master module provide (in conjunction with front panel pushbuttons) Main and Alt Monitor outputs, Mix Insert Sends and Returns (these can also be selected to sum with the Mix bus), (Stereo) Record and Mix bus outputs (the Record bus can also be summed with the Mix), External Inputs (2-track monitor) and Follow Monitor outputs. The front panel also provides a Headphone jack. Small LED meters show monitor levels and there are knobs for Mix, Solo and Monitor levels. Like a proper console there are Mono, Dim and Cut buttons. Dim level is even adjustable via the Recall section. Separate Monitor and Mix sections allow you to monitor external inputs or listen to the Record and/or Mix buses. You can easily create separate record path and monitor mix setups using the two different stereo buses, it is an elegant and logical system. Absent from the Line Return modules are any auxiliary sends; you have to route from within a DAW directly to outboard or headphones, making this X-Rack configuration perhaps more of a summing mixer, albeit with the huge advantage of Recall. But for summing, the (even newer, see p18) eightchannel module is probably more appealing. To use the X-Rack as a centrepiece of a studio, careful decisions about placement for ergonomic convenience must be made -– controls and legends are tiny, and you need to have the Master section within easy reach. There are interesting possibilities here, there is no question about the sonic quality, and I suspect further modules may be on the way to make even more of this system. ■

proS

excellent total recall implementation; similar circuitry and sound quality to large-format SSL consoles; clean, highperformance audio; comprehensive Master section module; ultra-compact mixer format.

conS

no aux sends on Line return module; less ‘character’ than most summing mixers; non-standard d-Sub connections; audio interference in recall mode.

contact SoLId State LoGIc, uk: Website: www.solid-state-logic.com

April 2007

Character of sound. Clarity of purpose. Black Series redefines the art of creating a classic signal path. The exceptional transparency of David Dearden's audio path design has been married to unique transformer coupled, discrete Class A technology, to provide the ultimate tool for creating and controlling classic character and complexity.

Black Series < The Dark Art > Distributed in the UK by Stirling.Tel. 020 8963 4790 Email info@stirlingtrading.com

www.stirlingtrading.com www.audient.co.uk

Totally Flexible. Sonically Superior. Modular Audio Processing System Five wart hogs gossips, and tickets incinerated two partly schizophrenic Macintoshes. Afghanistan comfortably tickled aardvarks, even though umpteen dwarves ran away. One quite irascible ticket very drunkenly bought the pawnbrokers. Umpteen speedy tickets comfortably tastes two obese subways, however five pawnbrokers annoyingly telephoned the almost speedy elephant. Two mats quite drunkenly auctioned off the sheep.

review

Schoeps double MS tool MS is a commonly used technique that has great potential as an acquisition means but is not accepted in all production chains. Mic manufacturer Schoeps has released a free VSt plug-in that harnesses the increased ﬂexibility afforded by the double MS provided by its mic clusters. roB JaMeS straps up and goes walkabout.

IddLe and SIde, MS, is a simple location technique but despite or perhaps because of this it remains a major source of confusion. It is important to understand that the term is used pretty indiscriminately to describe both microphone and stereo encoding techniques. As the name implies, all you need to make an MS recording is a forward facing mic, the Middle, and a mic positioned at 90 degrees to the first one’s axis, the Side. The M is usually a directional capsule, e.g. a cardioid, and the S is either a fig-8 with its in-phase side pointing left, or two cardioids arranged back to back connected in parallel to produce a fig-8. If the signals from these M and S mics are added in a particular way conventional Left-Right stereo can be obtained. M+S gives Left and M+(-S) gives Right (-S = phase reversed). This can be achieved passively, using transformers or actively with buffer amps, a mixing console or a DAW. However, the process is reversible. A Sum and Difference signal can be derived from any AB source by using the same arithmetic in reverse, i.e. A+B = Sum and A+(-B) = Difference. Sum and Difference is a less ambiguous term for such recordings. There are two good reasons for making the conversion. First, varying the level of the difference component adjusts the width of the stereo signal, avoiding the phase cancellations that occur with simple panning and also allows the width to be increased. Second, more important in analogue systems, dropouts or variations 26

in level only give rise to a change in image width rather than disturbing image shifts. From the location recordist’s point of view, MS mics are very useful since they enable recordings to be made using the same techniques as mono. I write from the perspective of a re-recording mixer with extensive experience of being on the receiving end of stereo MS recordings. I have observed that many of the mic combinations used result in ‘phasey’ recordings that are very uncomfortable to listen to. This is equally applicable to ‘all-in-one’ designs and to separate capsules. Still worse, such recordings played havoc with the matrix used in Dolby stereo. This led to blanket advice from re-recording mixers not to use MS for film. However, in reality there are some honourable exceptions and one of the more notable has always been Schoeps. Back of envelope scribblings have long suggested that the MS principles should be extensible to surround recording by using a second, rear facing cardioid capsule. Now Schoeps offers a convenient collection of components for the purpose and a free VST plug-in to decode and control the resultant fMSrM recording (front Middle, Side, rear Middle). We used two compact CCM 4V cardioids and a CCM 8 fig-8 in a Schoeps custom Rycote modular mount with Windgag and Windjammer for recording. A ‘Connbox’ attached to the mount combines the mic outputs into a single XLR7 cable that ran down my Rode pole and was subsequently split out into three XLR3s to plug into the recorder (in this case an Edirol R-4 Pro). Subjectively, the complete mic package is no heavier or more unwieldy than a 416. I made a number of recordings, monitoring just the forward facing cardioid capsule. I used Wavelab as the host application. Installing the plug-in is as easy as throwing the DLL file in the VST folder. After a quick check on studio monitor levels while transferring the files over USB, it took no time at all to place the three-channel recordings and load the DMS plug-in in Wavelab’s Master Section. The DMS Tool control panel is divided into five areas. Horizontal bargraphs show the three input and five output channel levels. Each of the three input channels has a level fader and Mute button. The Centre, LR and LsRs Polar Patterns can be varied anywhere between omni and fig-8, the LR angle can be varied from 0 to 90 degrees and the LsRs angle between 180 and 90 degrees. Variable Rear Delay can be added to ensure correct localisation. (Haas Effect, the brain locates a sound with identical loudness and frequency characteristics in the position it is first heard). A variable low pass filter is also provided to help avoid localisation errors. Preset offers the choice of five set-ups optimised for different purposes. User presets can also be saved and loaded. In the centre of the panel the resultant polar diagrams are displayed graphically. The results are highly impressive. My favourite is a stormy day with heavy surf, birds, dogs and a tolling bell. As you might expect, if there are specific sounds like the bell behind the mic, the delay needs resolution

to be used with caution or these sounds will appear to be in front of you. A less obvious bonus with the plug-in is that it overcomes one of the disadvantages of simple stereo MS, namely that varying the polar pattern also varies the acceptance angle. Here, they are independent, making this an interesting tool for stereo. While playing with this I was struck by a phenomenon I’ve noticed before with MS recordings. The aforementioned bell, when recorded behind the mic, still appears to come from the rear even in stereo. This effect was so marked I even checked twice to make sure the rear speakers were muted! If you wish to record the ‘point 1’ as a separate channel rather than deriving it in the mix, Schoeps suggests the use of an omni capsule with a LPF since the bass response of the omni is better. For the same reason this is better mounted outside the Rycote gag. Incidentally, there was no trace of wind noise on my exterior recordings despite the 20mph plus wind speed. Outside of a SoundField, this is the first mic combination for location surround recording that has me convinced. The DMS-Tool controls offer a very useful extension to what can be achieved using a simple decoder or console. It has been specifically tailored to suit the sensitivities of the CCM 4V/MK 4V and CCM 8/MK 8 and the equalisation of the CCM/ MK 8. Make no mistake, injudicious use of the plug-in can produce some very disturbing effects but, used with care, this is a great tool for producing truly immersive surround-sound environments from DMS recordings. ■

proS

It’s free!; provides excellent and intuitive control; far more convenient than other post decoding alternatives; speciﬁcally tailored to the Schoeps capsules.

conS

the mics aren’t! (free that is); would be even more convenient if the .1 channel was also handled.

eXtraS

In the context of dMS, Schoeps supplies a number of options.

dMS-Splitter — a passive device that takes a dMS input and outputs the centre channel plus the two MS pairs while preventing any overlap. M dMS u Matrix — uses transformers to form a passive decoder matrix. the microphone signals are converted directly into 5.0 Lrc LS/rS surround signals. a switch accesses a second setting, for four-channel Lr LS/rS. Lp 40 u low-pass ﬁlter — a 12dB/octave in-line XLr design with a -3dB point at 40Hz.

contact ScHoepS, GerManY: Website: www.schoeps.de

April 2007

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review

korby kat Blue and kat red deviating slightly from the ‘boutique’ nature of its other products the red and Blue kat see korby moving towards a wider market. Jon tHornton is mightily impressed by both colours.

orBY audIo tecHnoLoGIeS has come a long way since 1994. From a background in restoring and repairing classic microphones, founder Tracy Korby moved into designing and building his own microphones, drawing heavily on design principles and production values from the ‘golden age’ of large diaphragm capacitors. While the first products were one-of-a-kind, custom pieces, the company eventually developed its own product line — the crowning glory of which is the KAT 4 modular microphone featuring interchangeable capsule assemblies. And in an age where off-shoring manufacture and assembly is commonplace, even with established marques, Korby has resolutely stood by the principle of designing, building and fine tuning every component

in its new Nashville facility. Boutique manufacturing doesn’t even come close as a description. So the introduction of the KAT Blue and KAT Red (UK£2095 + VAT each) is something of a surprise — moving as it does towards a wider market place, and towards something that seems a little more off-the-peg than a designer one-off. Both of these microphones are fixed pattern cardioid, large diaphragm capacitor designs and both feature valve output stages. At first glance they look very similar, sharing the same svelte machined body and ‘U’ shaped yoke assembly for a mount that screws directly into the microphone body. Under the skin, though, the similarity ends. The Blue features a centre-terminated diaphragm, whose tuning owes more than a nod towards vintage U47s and U67s, while the Red has an edge-terminated design, and tends towards a more ‘Austrian’ sound — think C12 and Telefunken here. There’s nothing to differentiate the two microphones externally other than squinting through the steel mesh, so if you were fortunate enough to own both of them you might think this would make for problems in knowing exactly which one you’d set up. Until you turn them on. Both have a funky coloured LED at the base of the diaphragm housing that illuminates the diaphragm assembly in the appropriate colour. Views on the taste factor of this varied wildly. I have to admit to viewing it as a little bit ‘pimp my mic’ at first, but most performers (particularly vocalists) seemed strangely attracted to it — a little bit of that ‘specialness’ that helps them get in the mood. Power supplies for the two mics are simple, sturdy and straightforward. The supplied 6-pin XLR connects it to the microphone and provides mic level output. A front panel power switch on the supply is the only user control, apart from a mains voltage selector switch on the rear. I did find this switch a little alarming — rather than the slide type arrangement that requires an implement and a concerted effort to switch between voltages, the KAT supplies use a standard toggle switch. Granted, some effort has been made to shield it, but in a dimly lit studio it could easily be mistaken for a ground lift switch by someone who didn’t know the mics well — ouch… Both microphones seem eminently suitable for vocal recording, so female vocals were first on the agenda. From the resolution

outset I’ll have to say that tonally both microphones are fantastic on first audition. Both deliver a full, compelling sound, with none of the rasp or honkiness that seems to have crept into quite a few modern designs. They also, despite the radical differences in diaphragms, sound quite similar at first but there’s enough difference on critical listening to see that each does have its own peculiarities. The Blue delivers a nice up-front vocal sound. A gentle mid boost helps here and a progressively tapering HF response meant that even a quite sibilant singer was easily tamed. It takes EQ nicely too, although for vocals this wasn’t really necessary as the sound just sat in the mix — not even any need for a gentle cut in the low mids as backing off the mic reduced the LF bump, but still managed to sound very close and intimate. The overall sound here is very reminiscent of a U47, but with a slightly more extended top end. The Red proved a little less forgiving on the same vocalist. There’s definitely a sense here of more HF extension, but with a slightly harder sound overall that didn’t flatter this particular singer. Given its design cues, you might expect it to sound similar to something like a Soundelux 251, but in reality it’s just that little bit harder sounding in this application, and quite similar in some respects to a Brauner Phantom C. Moving on to acoustic guitar and the Blue again turned in the most rounded performance — solid and detailed, especially in the low mids, which really seemed to capture the low harmonic detail of a strummed acoustic. The Red seemed to catch just a little more transient detail and air though, but without sounding brittle, just a little less warm than the Blue and seemed more suited to a picked playing style. Individually both microphones are sonically very impressive — as a pair they complement each other brilliantly. You’d be hard put to think of a situation where if one of them wasn’t quite right, the other wouldn’t solve the problem. They’re not without issues though. The first is the yoke assembly that acts as the microphone mount. While this works well and offers a good degree of movement, it’s a fixed mount, and some kind of elastic suspension really is necessary with these microphones. The second is sort of a byproduct of this issue, in that the shape of the yoke means that you find yourself handling the body of the microphone more than usual to adjust its tilt. And in doing so, I discovered that the head grille was not anchored on one of the microphones, which led to it popping out and having to be twisted around to reseat itself. This is a shame, and something I hope is just a one-off problem in what otherwise appears to be absolutely bullet-proof build quality. Even so, I’d be inclined to forgive on the grounds of sound alone. If I were picking just one, it would have to be the Blue as on balance it seemed to be the most versatile performer to my ears. But the pair is incredibly tempting… ■

proS

Great sounding microphones — warmth and detail without hype; red and Blue complement each other nicely; compact and lightweight.

conS

no suspension mount; pSu voltage select switch seems a little vulnerable to mis-setting.

contact korBY audIo, uS: Website: www.korbyaudio.com aSap europe: +44 207 231 9661

April 2007

review

roger nichols digital plug-ins It’s a brave step to launch a suite of native plug-ins in today’s market and roger nichols digital recently did just that with its detailer (multi-band limiter), dynami-zer (compressor), finis (limiter), frequal-izer (linear-phase eQ), uniquel-izer (eQ) and Inspector XL (metering). the plugs are available for pc and Mac in VSt, au and rtaS. nIGeL JopSon plugs in and freaks out.

nd IS fronted BY seven-time Grammywinning engineer and producer Roger Nichols whose name still has resonance in the US owing to his work with Steely Dan. Four of the plugs were formerly available from Maryland outfit Elemental Audio, which now has an exclusive agreement with RND and continues to develop software for the Nichols brand. I purchased Dynami-zer and Uniquel-izer when they went by the even more preposterous names of Neodynium and Equium. Sadly I seem to have been in the minority and it’s a salutary tale for developers: the Elemental lads adopted a hype-free profile with musician-friendly serial number authorisation. Predictably, the whole shebang was soon available on BitTorrent networks, despite reasonable pricing. RND has now iLoked all the plugs, and is putting considerable effort into explaining some of their unique qualities, providing training, support and downloadable presets from Roger. The Dynam-izer was the plug-in that first got my attention — and it’s still unique — a fine testament to lateral thinking on the part of the programmers. RND starts its explanation: ‘Don’t get confused — this is not multiband compression.’ Wise words, as it has the look of a multiband and many a freshmanengineer probably produced crazy results trying to get it to function. If your analogue roots go back as far as mine: think Eventide Omnipressor. When Roger announces: ‘This is a revolutionary, whole new way of looking at compression/expansion’ — against all music-industry odds he’s right! The centre of the plug-in has a rectangular fourzone window; these are dB zones, rather than crossover points. Any input zone on the left can be dragged up or down to map to the output zones on the right. It’s not immediately obvious, but the tiny beige button labelled ‘Advanced’ needs to be clicked for the output zones to be similarly slid up or down. With this device, you can take a very ordinary drum loop and drag all the low level ambience right up so 30

it’s massively exaggerated, without squashing peaks. Also not immediately apparent is the fact that a nochange area can be established right at the top of the dynamic range. The whole red zone can be lowered (on each side) by 3dB or so, in order to let all the most dynamic peaks remain untouched: the Dynamizer can be configured as a particularly good bootstrap compressor. But for the fact that a predone fade-out plays havoc, the Dynam-izer would be a splendid native mastering plug-in. It does function very well as a final stereobus compressor playing the loudness game, although it’s wise to leave set-up until the mix is completed. Clicking on tiny dots (resembling squashed sideways semiquavers) unlinks attack and release times of each band, and ratios are independently variable for each zone. There’s a handy sidechain with a very widerange key filter EQ. A key listen button makes it easy to set up, and the Dynam-izer excels as a de-esser. I approached the newest plug-in, Detailer, in a detached manner, as it resembles a reworked version of the Finis limiter, my least favourite member of the clan. The Detailer is a 3-band Finalizer-type processor, with four pre-limiter sliders intriguingly labelled Mid and Hi Detail, with a cute blue and red spiky display. I’m all for anything that can lift a bit of detail in a mix, but when I listened to the effect on its own (at unity gain, with a scrupulously clean signal) it seemed to muddy the signal — a de-detailer — if you like. However, as I started to adjust the limiter, I realised the Detail section is actually a useful foil for high-end brashness once you’ve got it pumping. We all know the havoc a TC Finalizer can wreak in the enthusiastic mitts of a muso, and the more I used Detailer the more I appreciated how tweakable it is, a far more malleable tool than others at its price point, like the ear-rending iZotope Ozone, and with many more tricks than Sony’s Inflator. The tonality of audio varies noticeably with input gain setting and although it seems perverse to trim gain back with a resolution

‘helper’ plug-in before the Detailer only to crank it up again in the RND unit, it seems to pay some dividends aurally. The limiter controls are rather basic, I missed solo/mute buttons for the three frequency bands and stereo-linking for the Detail controls, but overall this is one of the best of its ilk at the price. The Uniquel-izer is a very competent multiband EQ although I used it mainly for subtractive work because my analogue brain yearns for something a bit more coloured. There’s now an Uniquel-izer LE, a very serviceable 5-band with HP/LP filters, a great improvement over most bundled DAW EQs and keenly priced at US$69. The newer Linear Phase Frequal-izer is the flagship Nichols EQ. In the past I’ve tried to use my Waves Linear Phase ... but I’m generally frustrated. PSP’s Neon is quite nice but can bring a Mac G4 to its knees. The issues of time on session and impatience/ear fatigue do get in the way with these rather fiddly EQs, and the Nichols programmers have some good solutions. The EQ points can be moved independently by clicking above or below, or the neighbouring points can be moved as well by dragging. Holding the option key enables horizontal dragging. But my favourite feature is the Smooth slider, which can progressively turn an anal-retentive multiband zigzag into a curvy-shape that would please Peter Baxandall. The overall curve can easily be slid up and down, and a slider called History rapidly rewinds changes step by step — a vast improvement on ‘control z’. For the ITB mastering guys, there are 50 snapshot EQ States that may be automated in the host DAW. The Inspector XL package provides a wealth of professional metering, including FFT, Phase, Spectrum Analyzers, K-System and PPM meters. I especially like the Statistics module, which is unique in offering ‘hidden clip detection’ (see Thomas Lund’s article Distortion To The People, Resolution V3.2). I always have the statistics module open when bouncing or rendering a mix, as it displays a handy tally of ‘over incidents’ that the eye might have missed. The threshold to define a clip is tweakable in sample increments, so you can push the over samples beyond 6 if you’re having a ‘Vlado Meller’ day. The true test of a native plug-in for a production professional today has to be: is this really delivering something useful that I haven’t already got in the screen-spanning list that pops up when I click my insert? In the case of Inspector and Dynami-zer the answer is a resounding yes, and the Uniquel-izer is a worthy contender if you like Linear Phase EQ. ■

proS

dynam-izer offers unique creative features; Inspector supplies muchneeded professional native metering; detailer is better than most ‘all in one’ ﬁnalisers; comprehensive eQ from uniquel-izer Le at a budget price.

conS

detailer would beneﬁt from 3-band isolate buttons and detailer in/out buttons; finis peak limiter should offer more adjustments for price; uninspiring boost sound from uniquel-izer.

eXtraS

detailer uS$289, dynam-izer, finis, frequal-izer, Inspector, uniquel-izer $249 each, uniquel-izer Le $69. the full bundle costs $745. Inspector free is a wonderful peak/rMS stereo meter with a headroom indicator.

contact roGer nIcHoLS dIGItaL, uS: Website: www.regernicholsdigital.com

April 2007

Recent console installations include:Andrew Lynwood • Thames Valley Uni Bandwagon Studios • Leeds Metropolitan Uni Alaska Studios • Millfield School Platform One - 2x consoles! The Parlour Studio • Millenium Phonographic Centro is a Master Section designed to give DAW users all of the intuitive control of a large format console. Switching, routing, cue mixing and talkback all happens Centro-lly. Listen to any of 6 digital and 6 analogue stereo sources. Audition multiple analogue sources simultaneously, even throw in a digital source if you like. At the same time, you can route any digital source to the dedicated digital output which means no more replugging or respective patching.

Retain your software’s automation and plug-ins, whilst adding the sound of the best large format console technology. Summing in the analogue domain ensures no reduction in resolution – making your bass fuller, cleaner and more coherent.

The ASP008 is a compact, 1U rack mount unit featuring eight ultra high quality mic preamplifiers developed from the renowned mic-pre design used in the acclaimed ASP8024 recording console. The design uses an 8 transistor discrete Class A front end.

The ASP510 integrates easily and seamlessly with any console or DAW based surround set-up to provide comprehensive control of the monitoring and record functions for multiple surround sound formats including: 5.1, LCRS, Dolby Surround, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DTS and SACD.

review

cB electronics pd-1 despite its best efforts the virtual world has been unable to replace certain physical controllers. roB JaMeS sticks his oar into a paddle controller for the virtual world.

ILM productIon IS a wonderful melange of tradition and state-of-the-art technology. A glance at the credits of any contemporary film demonstrates this perfectly. Terms such as Best Boy, Alligator Wrangler and Color Timer sit cheek by jowl with Digital Modeller and Render Wrangler. Often old job titles are recycled for new technology and you can view all this as charming eccentricity or as a kind of almost Masonic obscurantism. The sound department is no exception. The industry is sometimes accused of being slow to adopt new technology but this is a calumny. In truth, film people are delighted to welcome new technology that improves the end product and/or productivity. All too often disappointed purveyors of high tech solutions fail to understand that many film operating practices have evolved for very good reason. Like any mature industry film has its own buzz vocabulary. Despite the wholesale adoption of digital technology many of the older terms and ways of working are still very much in evidence. In dubbing theatres (re-recording stages) Pec-Direct monitoring control is an obvious example. PEC is the acronym for PhotoElectric Cell, the replay head on an optical sound camera. These have not been used for mixing in decades but the term has remained, as has the control paradigm. Pec-Direct is just another way of saying Playback-Direct or DiskDirect. The process of film mixing, whether to magnetic film, multitrack tape or, as is almost universally the case today, some form of hard disk recorder requires fast access to record and monitoring control over a large number of tracks and track groups. It is far from uncommon to find audio elements spread across several hundred tracks in a single scene. These are mixed down to multitrack stems that are

summed to produce the mix. Thus the monitoring section has to be a big multi-bus-summing mixer in its own right. Stems are generally up to 8 channels wide and 8 stems are often used for a total of 64 record tracks. This means 128 channel feeds to the monitor mixer, 64 direct and 64 playback returns. Today, it is a great deal more cost-effective to do all the summing and switching inside a DAW or DAWs. However, the hands-on Pec-Direct and record control is arguably still best undertaken with traditional, internally illuminated paddle switches. This is exactly where the UK£2200 (+ VAT) CB Electronics PD-1 fits into the scheme of things. It is

uSB422 duaL rS-422 uSB Interface — until now, using a pc or Mac with rS-422 Sony 9-pin p2 protocol devices has often been a rather painful experience. the available convertors required a lot of fiddling about with driver and com port settings and, at least in my experience, have always been a bit finicky. the uk£120 (+Vat) uSB422 only needs drivers to be installed and then it just works. of course, there are adjustable settings for particular situations but this is the first device I’ve encountered of this type that worked first time. as supplied there are two rS-422 ports, one device Input, one controller output. four Leds indicate tx and rx activity on each port. the Input can be re-configured as a second controller output via internal jumpers. the uSB422 is housed in a compact extruded alloy case with two 9-pin d-Sub sockets and a 4-pin uSB socket for the uSB cable supplied. a video reference Bnc input is available as a £40 (+ Vat) option. the unit is powered from the uSB port.

proS 32

cost effective; simple; it just works.

conS

You have to unscrew the lid to get at the jumpers.

resolution

a dedicated serial controller for Pec-Direct and Record with two rows of internally illuminated paddles and three rows of buttons, familiar from other CB kit. PD-1 shares the new house style first seen on the UR-422 Universal Remote Control. The entire case is constructed from heavy gauge brushed stainless steel. The fixed two-line LCD display shows white characters on a blue background. As with the UR422 the front panel overlaps the ‘box’ by a few millimetres so installing the unit into a console panel will be a breeze. Eight control ‘channel’ strips and the master strip have an identical complement of buttons and paddles. Pec-Direct is at the bottom followed by Rec On — Rec Off. Above, the three buttons are Safe/Ready, Mute and Solo. On the left a further three buttons switch between Stem, Global and User Modes, Assign tracks to Stems, Stems to Global and User Groups and give access to, and navigation of, the set-up menu. Power supply is a compact in-line block and the PD-1 comes with the excellent USB-RS422 interface included. (See panel) I used Pyramix 5.1 as the target DAW and the PD-1 immediately recognised it. With a properly set up Pyramix project the unit can be set to automatically configure itself. It picks up track names and also uses track group names as stem names and makes other appropriate settings. (Pro Tools is catered for in a similar manner and Nuendo will follow shortly when the next version is released.) In operation, PD-1 quickly becomes intuitive. In a Global or a User mode, pressing the Stem button followed by a Stem record paddle expands that stem across the surface. A second press on Stem returns to the previous mode. Master controls apply to the level currently displayed. The precise features vary according to set-up and the device being controlled. Suffice to say that most operating styles can be accommodated and software development is ongoing as users come up with new ideas. With highly flexible set-up options the PD-1 will be equally at home in a large multi-operator environment or in a small tracklaying/premixing room. It can ‘play nicely’ alongside RS422 machine controllers and will also control dedicated hardware recorders. A PC set-up applet will be provided that will also enable user setups to be saved and recalled at will. If you’ve ever wondered what on earth those funny paddles were for or what all the fuss is about this is the ideal opportunity to find out. For experienced users who miss the logic and efficiency paddles provide in the brave new world of the DAW, the PD-1 is an obvious answer. ■

proS

If you want traditional paddle control with a daW this is the way to get it; neat, compact and good looking.

conS

Limited number of display characters means cryptic track and stem names, although these are expanded when selected; not much else.

contact cB eLectronIcS, uk: Website: www.cbelectronics.co.uk

April 2007

review

neve 8803 dual eQ every facility needs at least one good outboard eQ and manufacturers are lining up to sell you one. GeorGe SHILLInG reports on a dual-channel eQ with recall and even more features than its fully loaded front panel suggests.

He 8803 craMS two channels of EQ into a single rack space, so by definition the controls are fiddly compared to vintage Neves. But miniaturisation is ever-popular; even Rupert himself now markets a single 5-band EQ crammed into a half rack box but his Portico 5033 has slightly better knob spacing. The 8803 (UK£1250 + VAT) features comprehensive 4-band EQ plus high and low filtering. The case is fairly shallow, and while the colour scheme is very Neve, the build quality is not quite as reassuring as chunky 1073s and 1081s. The EQ is based on a ‘classic’ Neve design, the 8108. These were late-1970s era consoles that were never as popular as older Neves but it seems this was mainly due to a poorly designed centre section. The rear includes Combi-type sockets for XLR or jack input and separate XLR and jack output sockets. The power supply is an external lump-in-the-line, with a worryingly flimsy 8-pin DIN connection that is oddly sunk, upside-down, behind the rear panel; seemingly something of a bodge. Also on the rear — and this is interesting — is a B-type USB socket. This connects to a Mac or PC for storage and recall of settings. The manual on the CDROM was less than helpful regarding this feature, as it simply suggested visiting the downloads page on the Neve website to acquire the Recall Manual. The recall software eventually worked very elegantly on my Mac, much like Neve’s large console recall software. Upon loading a previously saved setting, a smart, clear graphic appears and it is simply a matter of twiddling the knobs until everything matches. The front panel power button lights up with a delightful red vintage N logo, although it feels slightly crunchy. The two channels are laid out logically side-byside. First you get useful Clip and Signal LEDs and this is plenty enough level information for confidence checking while adjusting. Clip comes on at 25dBu and headroom is usually adequate, although with modern DAW levels overload is certainly possible with big boosts. The EQ turns out to be exceptionally warm and sweet so you may be tempted to turn the knobs to extremes. An Input Trim provides gain from -20dB to +20dB, allowing matching of hot +4dBu signals or weak -10dBV sources, this is a continuous centre-détented pot. Sensible colour coding has been used for knobs, dark blue ones adjust frequency, grey is Q for the mid bands, and dark red covers gain controls. All very logical, except that the two mid-bands are arranged differently from each other in order to cram everything in. Some of the 8803’s knobs have a ‘hidden’ pushpush function. Hi and Lo Pass filters are enabled by a push on their frequency knob, independent of the main EQ On buttons that are large and light up in yellow. The filters cover 30-300Hz and 1.5-18kHz respectively, there are a few numerical indications around the knobs and these are very small. The filters are 12dB per octave and are nicely progressive, sounding much as you would expect them to. The wide-ranging Low and High Frequency EQ bands include a few clever April 2007

features, despite just two knobs. Pushing the Gain knobs changes the mode between Bell and Shelf. In Bell mode, Q can be set to 0.7 or 1.8 by pushing the Frequency knob. In Shelf mode this switches between Normal and Resonant mode, adding an extra boost around the corner frequency (or a cut when cutting). It sounds great, but one minor irritation is that it is easy to accidentally push these knobs while adjusting. The two mid bands are conventional three-knob parametrics. These are lovely and silky, the low-mid has the potential to sound like the world’s smoothest wahwah pedal at the narrowest Q setting, and these bands excel with wide ranges for general sound-shaping. The sound of this unit is smooth and forgiving, and it certainly has a ‘Neve’ character with a richness and warmth of tone. At full tilt, each band boosts or cuts a claimed 18dB, but you’d never guess it was as much as that from listening. It’s a subtle difference, but I did not sense quite as much of the low-end glow here that is achievable on RND’s 5033. However, at the top end, boosting extreme high end on female vocals the 8803 was marginally smoother than the 5033, more open, less squeezed, and the extra power of 18dB boost (as opposed to 12dB on the 5033) was occasionally useful. The knobs are nicely damped and scaled, tweaking is enjoyable, although even with my small fingers I wished for larger knobs and bigger spaces between them. With such tiny knobs, it is difficult to exactly match the channels when working in stereo. Indeed, when recalling settings it is often easier to see when channels are not quite matched from the screen representation rather than from the front panel. However, saving and recalling settings just to match the channels is a rather tedious method of working, although in a critical situation this might be worthwhile. Some might miss the fixed frequencies of ancient Neve designs. But the flexibility is useful, and with plenty of range on all knobs, this is amply provided. Every studio should have one decent analogue stereo EQ and this Neve more than fits the bill, providing comprehensive facilities, with ‘character’ rather than surgical precision, and the bonus of recallability. It’s vastly cheaper than comparable units and although there are small niggles, this case full of ICs and a lack of transformers sounds almost as expensive. ■

proS

Very smooth neve sound; good ﬂexibility with wide frequency ranges; excellent recall software for Mac or pc.

conS

precision set-up requires use of the recall software; closely-spaced knobs make it easy to accidentally push the push-knob pot switches; mains adaptor connection lacks robustness.

contact aMS neVe, uk: Website: www.neve.eu

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“ The Liquid Mix has become an essential tool in my studio. The EQ and compressor emulations are unparalleled in their warmth and clarity. Its just un-real, man!” BT – Producer, Composer & Performer

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PO X E O I D TION U A O PR EN V N O & C

May 5-8 2007

Austria Center Vienna

review

true Systems p-Solo true Systems has a product range that already includes a highly acclaimed 8-channel mic preamp and a rather clever stereo mic preamp, and the p-Solo is an almost inevitable next step in reductionism to a single channel preamp in a compact, ﬂexible form factor.

HILe tHe cHanneL count may have been cut down, the same is fortunately not true of the design and manufacturing philosophies. Indeed, the electronic design of the P-Solo (UK£579.95 inc VAT) is near identical to that of its larger siblings. That means it pays homage to solid-state design principles -– not a transformer in sight in the signal path, and not much in the way of capacitors or extraneous switches and relays. What you do get is a combination of discrete components and highend integrated circuits arranged in a dual-servo, DC coupled design. The published specs are impressive in terms of noise (-132db EIN), distortion (THD 0.0008 @ +26dBu) and slew rate (>40V/uS) — testament to minimal compromise in the design and component choice. The P-Solo’s anodised aluminium box is designed to sit free-standing on a desktop rather than in a rack. Build quality appears very good although it looks like it should be a little weightier than it actually is particularly given the welcome inclusion of an internal power supply. The rear panel is straightforward enough: microphone input on XLR and two electronically balanced outputs on XLR and TRS jack. Both outputs are simultaneously available if necessary but with the caveat to be cautious of inducing earth loops by doing so as the outputs are not isolated from each other. The front panel is dominated by the large gain control, which though big and tactile looks and feels ever so slightly low-rent compared to the rest of the unit. A click stop on the gain control allows it to be set in a fixed, low-gain mode for high-level signals, giving about 6dB of gain. Clicking past this gives a normal gain range of 15.5dB to 64dB. Two push buttons with associated LED tallies select phantom power and a high-pass filter (80Hz), and four LEDs look after level indication. Sensible choices for the thresholds of these LEDs mean that it’s not quite such a crude indication as it might be — signal present illuminating green at –24dBu, with additional orange indicators for +4dBu and +12dBu. The red overload indicator kicks in at a relatively cautious +26dBu, giving around 5dB of headroom from the P-Solo’s internal clip point. A high-impedance, unbalanced input is also provided on the front panel for DI purposes. Patching the P-Solo into the console for the first time, and first impressions of cranking the gain both loaded and un-loaded are that the specs aren’t lying — this is a very quiet piece of kit. With the ubiquitous C414-BULS as an initial reference source, first impressions are of a very transparent, open sound that captures the nuances of a vocal performance well. Switching to a more taxing source with the same microphone as a close overhead on April 2007

Jon tHornton

a pair of timbales showed plenty of transient resolution, with the attack of the instrument captured well without any trace of smearing. An A/B comparison with a Focusrite ISA220, chosen as having similar design principles, revealed similar amounts of detail and resolution to transients and the same sense of transparency. Curiously for a totally solid-state design, the P-Solo didn’t sound quite as clinical as the ISA220 sometimes can, seeming to impart a little more in the way of low-mid guts to an acoustic guitar. It’s hard to unsettle the P-Solo. Experimenting with the upper ranges of the gain control results in a completely unflustered sound with little in the way of additional noise, and plenty of headroom means that its terrific transient response remains intact. Granted, this means that there’s little in the way of change in its sonic character to be had by driving it hard but sometimes this predictability and uniformity is an advantage. It does seem happiest, though, when mated with relatively high output microphones. Every capacitor microphone I auditioned (AKG 414, Audix SCX-25 and DPA4006) performed beautifully, with plenty of gain on tap. Switching to dynamic microphones, for the most part it remained very predictable and wrung a very accomplished performance out of an SM58 on a rock vocal track, managing to capture some HF detail and low-mid warmth that surprised everybody in the room. With a Beyer 201 though (not renowned for its high output), I was left wanting a touch more gain on quieter sources. As for shortcomings, they centre on the physical packaging of the unit. Putting it on the desktop is something you either will or won’t want to do. While you could argue that a phase reverse on a single channel unit isn’t absolutely necessary, it might have been handy. Despite these minor niggles, the P-Solo is a very nice sounding unit indeed. If a single channel is all you need, and you want a unit that is very natural and open sounding that you can almost set and forget, it’s an attractive proposition. ■

proS

clean, quiet and accurate preamp; pretty much set and forget in most applications; nice dI with plenty of lowend punch; not as clinical sounding as you might expect; compact with internal pSu.

conS

form factor might not suit some applications; could run out of gain with very low output microphones; no phase reverse switch.

contact true SYSteMS, uS: Website: www.truesystems.com uk, audio-technica: +44 113 277 1441

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“FREEDOM” FREEDOM “ I‘m always searching for unique sounds, so I need lots of options. Liquid Mix allows me to try things I simply couldn’t do before, like creating hybrid EQs from four or more units, or...I just love the freedom it gives me.”

Cenzo Townshend - Engineer / Mixer Credits include: Kaiser Chiefs - The Zutons Snow Patrol - Editors - Bloc Party

Eddy Joseph Fresh from picking up his second Bafta (for Casino Royale) and about to head for Hollywood with an MPSE Golden Reel award nomination, Eddy Joseph is a perfect example of a British Film Industry audio success story.

on of a producer, Eddy Joseph tried several other careers before finally convincing his reluctant dad that film was the only career for him. After a year as a runner at Shepperton he needed a union card to progress any further. In those days there were two choices, the cutting rooms or the labs. Eddy joined Illustra Films, a commercials company in Soho, as a bookkeeper on the promise that when he had sorted out the accounts they would take him on as a trainee assistant editor. A year later he had his ticket and worked on cult TV series The Strange Report at Pinewood. From there he progressed to features, sometimes as assistant picture editor, sometimes assistant sound editor. As his experience and reputation grew, Eddy did three films as picture editor and others as a sound editor. This dichotomy continued until Alan Parker’s producer, Alan Marshall, invited him to become the sound editor on Shoot the Moon. He went on to do the sound for The Wall, Birdie and Angelheart then supervised countless other films until Hollywood made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, heading up the London office of Soundelux, part of the Ascent Media Group (A subsidiary of Liberty Media). 36

ROB JAMES

An unusual move, picture to sound, why? I’d cut three films, including The Bitch, which in a strange way I’m quite proud of! But with a mortgage and three children, it was simple economics. I realised that there is only one picture editor on a film but three sound editors. How did Soundelux London come about? It was incorporated by the founders of Soundelux, Wylie Stateman and Lon Bender, who also founded the Hollywood Edge sound library. When Wylie was offered Troy as supervising sound editor in the UK he realised he didn’t know anybody. After being a freelancer for 35 years I was offered a job. We are a very small part of Soundelux, largely autonomous I’m pleased to say. Wylie did Troy and we then did King Arthur, Doom, Corpse Bride, all sorts of films, more recently United 93 and Casino Royale. There are five staff, me, three assistants and Carol Jones who looks after us. We bring in freelances as we need them. I always think of Soundelux as my extended family. Richard, my assistant, has been with me since Lost In Space in 1997. Martin Cantwell resolution

and Colin Ritchie haven’t worked with anyone else in seven years. We try to keep together because we know how everybody works. Soundelux has an infrastructure. We use a server. Everything is linked to that server including the entire Soundelux sound effects library from the States. If I said it has a million effects that would probably be low. Think of the films that Soundelux have done in recent years, ranging from The Last Samurai to the Oscar nominated Blood Diamond. The African tracks are already available. It’s invaluable and unique.

When did you start using digital? At Twickenham Studios on Damage in ‘92 because Louis Malle wanted to keep all the dialogue in the digital domain. As luck would have it, the late Gerry Humphreys said that he would train me up on one of their machines. I’ve only done one film on 35 since. How about Pro Tools? I switched in 2003 on Cold Mountain when Walter Murch said, ‘I presume you’ll be using Pro Tools.’ I said, ‘Yeah...’ and went out and bought one. I’ve never come to terms with it in the way that I did with SoundStation. That was a dedicated sound-editing machine. Pro Tools is not, it’s an adjunct to a computer and more developed for music than sound editing. It is evolving but it’s still a touch clunky, whereas the SoundStation was a very smooth machine. It could do things no Pro Tools can do or will ever. Pro Tools won’t rock and roll. You can use a D-Command but the machine itself won’t do it. And no reverse play, I’d forgotten how useful that was. However, it’s friendlier than it was and all of us April 2007

craft at Soundelux are working on decent HD systems. The advantages are obvious. You don’t get quirky things going wrong when you’re all on the same platform. It’s much better than the SoundStation days when we were obviously limited in the number of tracks and vastly better than 35 when we were severely limited in tracks and what we could do with those tracks. Now we’re pre-pre mixing in our rooms and every room has 5.1. Doing crowds, for instance, we can lay them properly and not rely on the mixer to push things around the room. It can still be undone when we get onto the stage, but, if it’s right, it makes the mixer’s job easier and we are hearing what we’ve layed, which is a very pleasing thing.

How does Soundelux make Pro Tools more efﬁcient? On 35 there was only one way of doing it, which was a blessing in some ways. Any editor could take over the job if needed. When the digital age started this wasn’t the case, there were no formats, or rather there were loads of them. There were no disciplines. On 35 there was basic discipline and you even knew which way the cans had to face on the shelf. It had to be done in a certain way and it was very difficult to get it wrong. In digital, it’s very difficult to get it right. At Soundelux, both here and in the States, we developed a system of naming and labelling so that anyone coming in can work with us once they’ve learned our very simple system. We produced a track layout that can go on from film to film to film and nobody has to worry about it anymore. We train our people to do that, we give them a template to work to. It’s efficient. Other people don’t do that and without these efficiencies I sometimes do worry about the future of Resolution Half Page 7/12/06 17:10 Page post in the UK.

The re-voicing people work methodically though? The foreign versions have to be like this. They keep all the reverbs and things from the originals. So when they drop the ADR in it sounds exactly like the original. Thank goodness the international tracks are sounding better and better. Do you approve of pre-mixing in small rooms? In the last 12 months I’ve done five pictures with Mike (Prestwood-Smith) and all the dialogues have been premixed in his barn, which actually sounds very similar to the mix room in De Lane Lea 1. But we insist there is time to bring the pre-dub tracks into the final mix room to make sure they are as they should be. If you are pre-mixing sound effects on a big movie, you should do it on a big stage. I don’t know how you can do it if it’s not in a big stage. Lower budget movies are already mixing in small rooms then bringing the results to a big stage to titivate. Is there any danger of this happening with big movies as well? Oh absolutely, I don’t think there is any doubt at all. Financially, yes, it is the right way to go, but I’m absolutely not convinced. The audio post on a film is one percent or less of the budget and I do question if this is the right way to do it. It’s such a small part of the budget the saving won’t make any difference. It’s a false economy, but I argue that one and I lose so... Do you work with a common set of plug-ins? People can’t just do their own thing? Well they can, but let’s go back a bit. SoundStations had no plug-ins. You had to go outboard and back 1 in again through effects boxes that weren’t that

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Putting Sound in the Picture

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craft good. If you rendered that and brought it in to the mix the mixer was often very unhappy indeed and would issue the edict that no reverbs were to be put in by sound editors. It’s changed. You can have a plug-in that is pretty well as good as the £5-6000 outboard with the same reverbs, the Lexicons, the TCs, whatever. We talk about it in advance with the mixers. We’d be stupid if we didn’t and we sometimes just put them on real-time so we can have them with us on the mix stage. If they want to use them or not, it’s there. They can hear what we intended. We’ve been working on the film longer than any mixer and talked with the director more and what we’ve prepared is probably pretty close. We can show that to the re-recording mixers and, if they’re happy with it... If they want to change it that’s also fine. We have the capability to do both.

What do you miss from mag days? Time. Before, a picture change was a physical thing. If they wanted to keep the previous cut they had to make an overnight dupe of the last version. There was also ‘rewind time’. The assistant would take all the spools from your bench and then put up some other reel to work on. It would take 15-20 minutes, which gave you time to think or go for a wee or something. Nowadays you’re in a room with the door closed and you don’t necessarily have to speak to anyone all day because everything is done by email or text and you don’t have any waiting time at all, just milliseconds to put a new reel up or take a reel down. Where are the sound supervisors of tomorrow? One idea we are trying is to create more supervisors with experience. For example, on United 93. Oliver Tarney is a very gifted sound designer and editor who should have been doing films on his own. But

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April 2007

craft he was always going to find it difficult to get that so I suggested he do the everyday supervising and I’d be there to take the goal kicks. That worked really well. He looked after it right through until we got the mix when, without exaggeration, in the midst of final mixing we were ADRing on four stages throughout the world on one day at one time. Having me there as a solid presence in a grand-fathering role meant that he could do the everyday running the room and making sure that everything else was being brought up to date and up to speed. I think I can do more of that, if the British film industry will let me. It’s an American way but it doesn’t seem to be acceptable over here.

And sound editors? There are many wonderful computer operators and my job is to try to give them a little bit of what I’ve acquired in experience. There’s no training now, as such. The problem we have is cost. Producers want to pay less each year for a project than they did the year before. Films are becoming more expensive but the sound budget is getting less. If we can’t bring on trainees then our assistants can’t become editors. It’s a natural progression, it’s how we all did it. It was an apprenticeship. I’ve been to meetings with Skillset and they ask me, ‘How can we do it? We’ve got all these wonderful people with fantastic MAs in Sound or Music Technology?’ I said, ‘They’ve got to go back to basics and they’ve got to make tea and they’ve got to be trained in the discipline.’ What do you look for? I love light and shade. I’ve always said, if you have nothing at all then the audience holds its breath. A lot of directors, and we have to blame them in the end, are frightened of silence. It’s an insecurity and a

big mistake. Light and shade means that when you want to be loud, you don’t have to go excessively loud. But, if you’re loud all the way through, and I wouldn’t dare mention films like that, but there are very many of them, they begin at eleven and there’s nowhere to go. Total Recall was interesting because it was done half mag and half digital. Steve Flick did the whole of the Mars boring machine on 35. Something like 180 tracks, God help the premix guy! I love that because it’s great fun and great use of sound. The first film I did, Shoot The Moon, has no score. I never thought about it at the time but that’s a pretty rare thing. I look out for films that tell stories without using a score to push you emotionally. You can always talk to your composer and say, ‘Look, how are you going to approach this because what I’d like to do is so-and-so.’ If you’re lucky, you can share a film and I feel that in Casino Royale we actually achieved that.

them because we can barely afford to run ourselves, the margins are so slight. So, the future for UK audio, and us, is a tricky one. People haven’t invested for the future and unless more money is put into audio post on films it’s going to be difficult.

And for you personally I’m not quite old enough to retire although I think I’ve done more than enough hours to qualify! Maybe another year or so full-time, then I’d like to be a consultant of some kind. I would love to work again with directors I worked with in the past, Alan Parker, Neil Jordan or Jean-Jacques Annaud. But I don’t want to have to keep doing the hours that we do. I’m already teaching a module at Brunel University, which I’m enjoying, and I’ve done other bits and pieces as well. My ears are still good. I can read a script and I can hear what the film should sound like. If you haven’t got that you won’t succeed. You have to have passion and I still have that, although it may be beginning to diminish as the budgets get lower... ■

Any unfulﬁlled ambitions? I would have loved to have worked with Robert Altman. United 93 reminded me of Altman with the layers of sound like he did in Nashville. I thought it was fantastic. I’m so pleased to have the bookends. I got a BAFTA in ‘83 for The Wall that I probably didn’t deserve and I’ve just received one for Casino Royale that I think I did deserve! If not for that film, then for the work over the years. I would have loved to have had an Oscar nomination, but there you go. What’s next? It’s getting harder, there are more Supervisors around now and I don’t have a problem with that. I wish they would all become like us but it’s almost impossible for

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April 2007

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Richard Rainey From assisting to engineering for U2 in not very long at all, Richard Rainey remains dedicated to his craft. He talks to GEORGE SHILLING about producing, Radar, loudness and why music can get shoved into the background.

s a teenager, Richard Rainey claims that being a recording engineer was the only thing he ever thought about doing. He played piano ‘but then I got a computer and that all stopped’. He got started in the studio while still at school — over weekends and holidays at Homestead, a studio near Belfast. The owner Shaun Wallace was ex-BBC and gave him a good technical grounding, answering the inquisitive Rainey’s questions. He worked there after leaving school, but ambition led him to an assistant engineer role at Dublin’s Windmill Lane Studios where he experienced international artists and orchestral sessions. He soon went freelance, working with all kinds of genres, from folk to heavy metal, along with programming and mixing dance records. Word got to Rainey that U2 were looking for someone to help out in their studio behind Windmill Lane at the start of rehearsals for a project, 40

and they were impressed that he could program as well as engineer. Eno and Lanois arrived later and jammed with the band for a few weeks, at which point Eno brought along his engineer for whom Rainey assisted. But then it was back to just Rainey and the band for a few months which Rainey describes as a ‘baptism of fire, really exciting, really stressful. It’s hectic and disorganised — or appears to be — and out of the madness comes the great bits, but it takes a lot of patience. It’s a really interesting process.’ Eventually, they decided to officially begin recording the album, and asked Rainey to engineer the sessions, which turned into the All That You Can’t Leave Behind album, keeping him busy for the next year and a half. He’s also clocked up credits including Mansun, Mando Diao and The Beautiful South. (Photos www.recordproduction.com) resolution

How technical are Dan and Brian, would they lean over and twiddle? Not really, they both had their own corners in the room. Brian would make noise all day on his keyboards — he plays his keyboards through a couple of amps, so you couldn’t not hear him — you can’t turn him off! Dan would have a corner with his guitars, they were both pretty hands-off. So they were more like extra band members? A lot of the time, yeah. Sometimes it was just a way of inspiring the band to do things. They would play, maybe they would get something happening in the room between the two of them, and the band would come in and get off on that, and they’d start playing something themselves. It took a long time, what went by the wayside? Dozens and dozens of songs. Parts of their last album came from that album in some shape or form. Everything is kept, and Edge has an incredible memory. He’ll say ‘There’s a verse we did, three or six years ago, there’s a lovely guitar part that might work.’ And Chris the assistant will go and find it, it’s an amazing system. April 2007

craft

What was the multitrack format? We did it all on Radar, I think we were one of the first to use the 24-bit one. I’d just done an album using a Fairlight MFX which I absolutely loved at the time, but no-one else in the world was using them, unfortunately, it didn’t really take off. So Radar seemed like a simplified version of it, and I grew to love it. It was a good half-way for the band who had been analogue die-hards; it was a good step-up to that without going to Pro Tools, which just wouldn’t have been possible, the way they work, because Radar is like a tape machine. While going along, you can arm tracks and drop in, do stuff on the fly which you could never do. If somebody wanted to do a vocal, in Pro Tools it was, just wait a minute, I’ll make a new track, I’ll name it, assign an output — forget it! So they kept you on your toes? Oh yeah, it was absolutely chaotic at times; now that it’s all done I look back and think it was great, but at the time I was probably stressed to the eyelids, probably very close to a nervous breakdown [laughs]. But they love that, they love trying to break people…! Did they try to wind-up Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois? Well I think they’re too long in the tooth, Dan and Brian, I’m sure they’re part of it as well, because they all play in the room as well. The control room was the playing room — bar the drums. We actually tried them, but it just got so silly. So we had a small playing room, and the control room was really big. It used to be the other way round. They built the place as a traditional studio, then went, ‘Sod that!’ So they just moved the desk into the live room, and the live room became the control room. Which was fine, but it meant all the amps would be in the room, so you couldn’t hear, most of the time, when everyone was playing. April 2007

Y Flying on the meters? It was just meters, and make sure, check your routing.CM You’d play it back, and I’d be as curious as they were what it sounded like sometimes. The band would playMY in what was the control room, they’d use wedges. CY CMY So you had that setup miked up as well? Yeah, everything has to be live all the time, so someoneK could just walk in — there’d be various vocal mics lying about, someone could just lift it, and it had a piece of tape on so I knew which mic it was. We didn’t spend any time on sounds, it was just about the ideas on that album, and making sure you got them.

You mixed some of the tracks too… Yeah, but that was frustrating for me, because it wasn’t mixing traditionally where you finish recording, here’s the track to mix, and we’ll come in at dinner to have a listen. A song might take two weeks to mix, or three weeks, but it’s not somebody sitting tweaking the desk. They drop in new chords, and whole new sections would appear, new melodies and new vocals as part of the mix. For them, it’s just the last bit of recording, so it’s not a very defined process. And trying to mix while six people are playing behind you is difficult. What brought you to London? Well after the U2 album I stayed in Dublin for a bit, but I’d thought of living in London, and it wasn’t all about work. I just wanted a change from Dublin, and it seemed a good time, because having done the U2 album it opens a few doors. I only thought I’d be here a few years but I’ve been here about seven. I just came and got a manager, then got work. What are you up to at the moment? I’ve just finished an album for EMI for a Danish band called Grand Avenue, which I produced and mixed. We did half the recording in Denmark, and half in London, then mixed. resolution

craft Who’s your engineer? I use an Irish guy, Kieran Lynch. But you’re an engineer, is it difﬁcult to step back from the mixer? No, I tried, but I can’t engineer if I’m producing, I start listening like an engineer and not like a producer any more. With Kieran, obviously I get involved if I want things a certain way. Just not having to baby-sit the desk, getting headphone mixes and miking up things, it just frees you up to concentrate — sitting at the desk and twiddling isn’t what the producer’s supposed to do anyway. I think there are very few people who can, there are some engineers who are producers, but it’s sometimes because they work with bands who don’t really need a producer, they just need another opinion.

How long do you spend in preproduction for an album? A week, that’s enough. By the end of the week people start getting a bit bored. On the last two records I’ve done, a new song has come out of the preproduction each time, and both of them have probably been the band’s favourite at the end. So I actually enjoy preproduction now, where I used to hate it. It was because I had spent so long with U2, they don’t demo, the studio is where they make their record. You got so used to someone having an idea and you’d record it, and that was it done. Where do you like to mix? Recently I’ve been mixing a lot in Beethoven Street, a little SSL room that re-opened in the summer. It’s a really good little room, they’ve loads of good

outboard, and it’s two minutes from where I live — which is just a coincidence! It’s private, and I know the room there quite well now. That’s what a lot of it’s about, I’m just comfortable in there. It’s got an old E Series which I like…

So you’re an SSL man? Yeah, just out of convenience, because I know them so well. I’ve travelled an awful lot, and you know if you just walk in anywhere, and there’s an SSL and a set of speakers, you know you can go. Instead of scratching your head, going, what does that do? I think the layout of the SSL has never been beaten as you can see [indicates Neve 88R]. Ergonomically it is the best, and then like everyone else, I love the dynamics, they can fix so many things. Obviously, Neves sound a lot better, but in terms of end result, I get a quicker result on an SSL, just because I know them so well. What did you learn from Lanois and Eno? I totally relearned how to approach recording with them, but it’s not about where I could say you do this, and this, you get this result. I wasn’t aware of how much I’d learned until it was over, because it becomes normal — I worked with Dan for a year and a half. He controls the session in a very background kind of way. But he’s an incredibly inspiring person, probably the thing I took most from him, he was very good at encouraging me, the assistant, the band, anyone — just getting the best out of people. That’s what he’s brilliant at. Is there any conﬂict with getting the best out of people and being honest with them? No, I think the two go hand-in-hand, that’s why honesty is important, if you believe someone can do something better, you should tell them. People respond to that, it’s just pushing them, ‘I think you could do better, do you?’ And normally they go, ‘Yes, you’re right’. Because they are inherently lazy, musicians. Do you think they’ve got lazier as technology has advanced? Definitely, I was shocked on a session I did with a really young band. We were using hard disk, and

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craft the guitar player was struggling with a performance, and he turned to me and said, ‘Can you not just loop that up and stick it in the next time?’ In his head, it was ‘God, why doesn’t Richard just copy and paste it? It would save so much time’! So I don’t think musicians practice as hard as they should.

Is that because musicians are too busy learning Pro Tools? Yeah, you do start seeing people look over your shoulder. I’m all for bands being able to do more, but then sometimes you wish they’d concentrate a bit more on what they’re supposed to do, as opposed to what’s going on from our end. And people limit and master their demos now; you’re mixing it, and it doesn’t sound as loud as their demo, and yours doesn’t sound as impressive. That’s probably the number one mix comment these days — it’s not loud enough…! Listening mixes, everyone limits now, because you have to, otherwise they don’t think it’s a good mix. You just can’t risk it, because everyone’s doing it, and they’ll have the demo from the band, which will be L2ed to hell, ha! They’ll play yours against it and don’t think it’s as good, and it’s just volume. I don’t know where it all stops. What’s the future? Well, for big studios, the future’s not great, certainly in the area I work, with bands, because budgets are getting chopped, and Pro Tools has enabled people to record at home. But I think people in our end of it have to adapt and accept this is the way things are going to be done. There’s also a minor obsession towards mixing. People are listening to a record and going, ‘That’s amazing, who mixed it?’ The music is just getting shoved further and further back. If you get a track to mix that’s been arranged properly, recorded well, it’s easy to mix. So if it comes out great, everyone goes ‘Who mixed it? Oh, Lord-Alge, God he’s brilliant.’ And the producer, whoever did it, people don’t even know who produced it. But I don’t want to come across as doom and gloom, I love what I do! ■

April 2007

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re-inventing Mackie’s Hr monitors Mackie has introduced its next-generation studio monitors with the Hrmk2 models. Mackie’s product manager JaMeS WoodBurn explains the background to the new speakers and how they believe they have improved on a classic design.

ackIe’S GoaL In creating the original HR Series active studio monitors was to build a product that achieved sonic results found in high-end reference monitors, yet was also affordable. To determine optimal monitor design and which components to use -— based not only on sound quality but also on cost-effectiveness -— Greg Mackie recruited a team of seasoned acoustic and amplifier design veterans, including Terry Wetherbee and Cal Perkins, and invested in advanced analysis and measurement tools. Using computer-aided technologies including Finite Element Analysis (FEA), other computer modelling programs, as well as FFT real-time laser vibration analysis, Mackie and his team were able to select just the right parts. The HR824 was born, and the highly respected monitor is now a staple of high-end, project and home studios. Since the release of the original HR Series, audio recording and the studio environment have changed by leaps and bounds. With greater bit depth and higher sampling rates, recorded audio now encompasses a fuller frequency and dynamic range. Along with the higher quality audio has come accessibility; more people can afford professional-level recording and audio equipment, and as a result, more studios have found their way into people’s homes. With all these changes come new demands and expectations for a studio monitor. Mackie revisited the original HR Series with the objective of equipping it to take on these demands, while at the same time maintaining its sonic character. Chosen for the mk2 makeover were the HR824 and HR624, the most popular monitors in the HR series. The engineering and design team set out to improve upon the characteristics that helped seal the classic HR monitor’s reputation, such as its ability to handle low frequencies very well, its detailed high-frequency output and its broad stereo imaging, as well as develop higher performance standards for the new generation of monitors. The design team tapped the expertise of Mackie and EAW engineers who spent hours listening to a variety of high-end monitors alongside the original HR Series, as well as prototypes of the HRmk2 Series. Notably, the team found that while the performance measurements of the more expensive monitors were favourable, the character of their sound was dramatically different from one speaker to the next. This emphasised to the team the importance of a monitor’s unique sound qualities, and reinforced their desire to improve the HR in such a way as to not destroy the underlying sonic character that earned the classic its loyal following. Being under the LOUD Technologies umbrella means Mackie product developers can draw on a variety of human resources and unique tools as well. Alongside traditional techniques used in the voicing process, one of the most valuable tools available to Mackie was FChart -— sophisticated proprietary software created by EAW’s research and development engineer David Gunness. FChart models all elements of a speaker, including 3D polars. By simulating placement of a microphone to obtain polar information, the team could see objective data 44

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sweet spot that verified or challenged their assessment of the monitor’s performance on- and off-axis. The HRmk2 team assessed that the original HR’s baffle edges produced visible diffraction ripples, therefore significant benefits could be achieved from redesigning it. Engineers in Mackie’s Industrial Design (ID) team developed a prototype for a new baffle with rounded contours replacing the edges. Over a course of listening and modification by ID, the design was finalised. Created from a single piece of cast aluminium, the HRmk2’s Zero Edge Baffle produced dramatic results: edge diffraction was greatly reduced and time domain characteristics improved. The onepiece construction also reduces the possibility of vibration or resonance from the transducers. The passive radiator design was a radical choice in the design of the original HR Series and it was one that paid off. It avoids the drawbacks of ducted ports or slots that can cause low frequency distortion and audible vent noise. In the HR Series monitor, the low frequency transducer is coupled to a composite honeycomb, mass-loaded, elliptical passive driver that ‘fires’ out the rear of the enclosure. This passive radiator produces most of the ultra-low frequency sound; there is very little distortion from the woofer because its cone movement is minimal at those frequencies. With a radiating area equivalent to a 12-inch woofer, it effectively doubles the low frequency transducer’s ability to move air mass and, in the HR824, delivers flat response to 42Hz with a 37Hz 3dB-down point. In the HR624, it delivers flat response down to 42Hz with a 39Hz 3dB- down point. This design was carried into the new HRmk2 monitors, with other modifications made to improve bass frequency performance. While the original HR monitors offered low-end extension, some people complained of a lack of detail at frequencies in the 180Hz–200Hz range. The new Zero Edge Baffle significantly improves articulation across the low end. In addition, the size of the cabinet has been increased to achieve the full frequency range without driving the amplifiers too hard, producing smoother lowfrequency response and reducing the chance of distortion. The HRmk2s retain the class A/B amplifiers used in the original HR monitors: the HR824mk2 boasts 150W low frequency and 100W high frequency amplifiers, while the HR624mk2 features 100W low frequency and 40W high frequency amplifiers. The team had weighed the option of a class D design but concluded that while there could be space- and weight-saving benefits, switching amplifier design would fundamentally change the sonic character of the HR speaker, which was something they were determined not to do. Using the same amplifier design also ensured the new monitors could carry April 2007

over the Acoustic Space circuitry of the original HRs, which allows users to tune the monitors to their room and compensate for placement in their listening environment. As in the original HRs, the amplifiers are voiced to match the entire monitor system, and are hand-trimmed to compensate for typical manufacturing tolerances between the drivers. The selection of the new drivers in the HRmk2 Series was based on maintaining sonic quality at accessible price points. Each HRmk2 monitor features a high-precision, low-distortion woofer —- 8.75-inch for the HR824mk2 and 6.7-inch for the HR624mk2 —- and a 1-inch ferrofluid cooled titanium dome tweeter. The high-frequency driver is mounted on the die-cast aluminium exponential waveguide, which is now incorporated as part of the one-piece Zero Edge Baffle. HRmk2 monitors retain the wood cabinet with internal bracing to increase strength and rigidity. To absorb internal reflections and dampen standing waves inside the cabinet, an open-cell adiabatic foam material is placed strategically inside the box. The design team chose wood for the cabinet based on opinion rather than scientific fact -— they simply felt the inertness of an all-metal cabinet produced sound that was overly sterile. The team found that using wood in concert with an inert frontal surface adds that un-quantifiable ‘bit of life’. The design team chose to pursue THX pm3 approval to emphasise the versatility and reinforce the quality of the HRmk2 monitors. Like the original HRs, the HRmk2s are the only widely-available monitors with such a distinction. Also like their predecessors, they passed the specification tests in the first round, and in most areas, significantly surpassed the minimum requirements. With the potential for the speakers to be used in settings from home theatres to gaming rooms to studios, even appearance became an important factor in the HRmk2 design process. The team opted for a high-gloss, piano black finish for the cabinet, a complementary shade against the deep charcoal grey of the Zero Edge Baffle. At the end of the day, the process of designing the HRmk2s was about re-inventing a classic. The design and engineering team took great pains to retain the character and affordability of the original HR monitors, while at the same time preparing them to take on any challenge in today’s studio. Measurement specifications for the HRmk2s reveal they offer near-flat frequency response, as well as greater accuracy and depth of field than their predecessors, resulting in a wider, more even sweet spot. And while the charts and graphs confirm the team succeeded in achieving their goal, more importantly, their ears do too. ■ resolution

Mike Fraser Part of Canada’s outstanding output of sound talent, Mike Fraser has teamed with the likes of Bob Rock and Bruce Fairbairn on a career diet of rock. GEORGE SHILLING asks his opinion on drum miking and tuning, band recording and mixing other people’s stuff.

ike Fraser started at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Studios as janitor and assisting British engineer Roger Monk on jingle sessions. But Bob Rock was just starting there and in the evenings Fraser would assist Rock on sessions with local punk bands. Bruce Fairbairn started producing sessions there, and he, Rock and Fraser became something of a team after working together on an album with the band Prism. Fraser had been assisting for eight years when they were doing Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation and was almost at the point of changing careers due to frustration. But Bob Rock had to go on tour with his band The Payolas, so Fairbairn promoted Fraser to engineer the rest of the record. Then Fairbairn left for three days, instructing Mike to rough mix all the songs. While he 46

was gone, the band came in and said ‘You should just mix this’. So that was the break he was waiting for. This put Fraser in the hot-seat to engineer a catalogue of classic rock albums including Aerosmith’s Pump and several AC/DC albums. He has mixed several Metallica albums and British acts have also employed Fraser — Thunder, The Cult, Robert Palmer and Big Country, to name a few. His CV also includes work with Van Halen, Poison, Whitesnake and Yngwie Malmsteen but recently he enlisted Canadian Recording Services’ Mimi Northcott to source mellower projects in Nashville’s country scene. Resolution found him in the UK working with Canadian producer Garth Richardson where the two were finishing a project with Scottish alternative rockers Biffy Clyro. (Photos www.recordproduction.com) resolution

You grew up in Vancouver, what is it about Canada that produces such a disproportionate amount of talent? A lot of the more famous Canadian musicians seem to come from Winnipeg, and because it’s such a dreary, cold — sorry to anyone there, I’ve never been to Winnipeg so I’m not putting it down — but it’s one of the tickets to get out. And I think it’s the same over here in some of the more dreary towns. They don’t want to be stuck there in the mines. The Geffen A&R guy used to say, ‘What’s with you Canadians, is there something in the water? You just corner everything!’ So I don’t know if it’s the water, lack of sunshine, whatever! That’s probably more it, we’re used to being stuck in a studio somewhere! Pump sounded fresh, exciting, yet highly evolved. How long did it take? Typically for recording we would take four to six weeks, then two weeks to mix. I think they came in quite prepared, previously we’d done Permanent Vacation, that one was a lot of fun because they were newly sober. Steven said it was the first time I’ve done music that I know what I’m doing as I’m doing it! In the past, he was so out of it, they’d throw pillows on the floor, lie him down with a microphone and April 2007

craft headphones on and say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Just sing when you hear musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;! He said he never knew what the record was going to be like until after it was out. So with Pump, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been successful and werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t all nervous, so Pump was that extra kick for them, and I think that got on tape.

And on that record, there are all kinds of delays, stacked vocals, crazy panning â&#x20AC;&#x201D; were they your ideas? Well probably, then Steven would have a great idea, with the stacked vocals for sure. With that record we did all these segues. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a guy in Vancouver [Randy Raine-Reusch] goes round the world collecting instruments, then he learns how to play them â&#x20AC;&#x201D; didgeridoo, Chinese violinsâ&#x20AC;Ś so Steven and Bruce went over to his house, and went through â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oh, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great, that oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. So we had him come in one day and just recorded all these sounds, and then we built all these little segue songs, just to make the record a little more interesting. How have your techniques changed over the years? I guess the biggest change is the disappearance of analogue tape, because Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a very staunch analogue guy, and I hung onto it as long as I could. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had to adjust my style a little bit. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think you can ever stop learning. Talking to colleagues from the same era, we look back and say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;It sure was better,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; but I think you always tend to do that. Listening to my Dad, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oh they sure knew how to make cars in my day!â&#x20AC;&#x2122; You always look back thinking it was better, whether it really was or not, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know. I try and hang onto that old school stuff, and sometimes I think I get projects because of that. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just something about being able to capture the magic better. Nowadays you can edit and edit

and make it sound like youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got magic, but you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t captured it. And you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say enough for trying to get most of the recordings done live, as opposed to one-at-a-time and piece it together. Sometimes you have to do that, when the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not good enough to play, or time constraints, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no substitute for a great live performance. Like working with AC/DC when we did the Stiff Upper Lip record, that was all live, nothing was added. We punched in a few guitar and bass parts, just for tuning. The vocal is re-done, and any of Angusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solos are re-done, but in essence itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a live record in the studio. But theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a great band.

Yeah, well I think that goes back to doing the jingle days, and Bob Clearmountain and I used to talk about that, because thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how he came up through the ranks, doing jingles. As youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got one day to do a 60-second jingle with all these little bits, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to do it quick, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just how youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve trained. Your ear is trained, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, okay Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d better carve a little bit of this out, this needs a little more 10k, okay, the bass needs a little compression, so youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re always quick. So I guess thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sort of ingrained into you, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t walk in and have your cup of tea, and go, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I think Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll work on the hihat for a little bit, mmmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just there [claps!] Right! Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s get this done!

So presumably, when you turn up on day one, the pressure is on you to get everything sounding great pretty quickly? How do you approach that?

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a typical rock drum mic setup? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll use two mics on the snare, top and bottom, sometimes three on the kick drum â&#x20AC;&#x201D; two different kind of mics in the kick drum, then an NS10 woofer

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craft squeaky rumbly — because that’s what a drum kit sounds like. If you stand in the room or watch them live, they’re not being gated.

But if you listen to AC/DC or Aerosmith they’re very clean sounding records… It just happens. You’ve got to take care when you record the drums that the snare can’t have a weird ring or be out-of-tune sounding. The same thing when you’re recording guitar, you can’t record them out-of-tune and then expect them to have that nice big sound. You’ve got to take some care getting the source of the sound properly. And then it becomes easier. Obviously if the toms are really ringing a lot, it’s going to get messy, so you make sure you tune, and I like open sounding toms, but sometimes you’ve got to put a little bit of tape. Sometimes with floor toms, before they put the top skin on, I’ll rip up some strips of newspaper and put it in there, because they’ll ring with the tom and then slowly damp down, instead of shutting it down, so it has more natural ring, but it doesn’t decay on and on.

for the sub. I don’t ever really mic the front beater of the kick, that’s never worked for me. I’ll usually double-mic the toms, top and bottom. Depending on the number of cymbals I’ll use two, three or sometimes four mics on the cymbals, and then close overhead mics, and room mics as well.

Has that expanded as more tracks became available? Somewhat, but it’s been this way for me at least 15 or 20 years. In the late 70s or early 80s, there’d be no bottom skin on the toms, the technique was to put the mic right up inside the tom, that was it. And that worked great, because you have less cymbal spill. But I like lots of mics, because I like all the spill and the rumble. I like using drum techs for the drums, getting all the drum tuning, and I like to get the drums tuned in the key of the song we’re working on. So all that tone of the toms ringing is in key, so when the bass is playing you don’t hear this wobble. And I don’t gate anything, I hate gates on drums, even when I’m mixing. I’ll ride the toms sometimes, when they’re playing I’ll scooch them up a bit, but I like all that

Do you keep all the mics separate in the DAW? No, I don’t like spreading it all out. I do if I’m recording something live, I’ll do one to one, because you never know when something goes down, or something was out of phase and you didn’t catch it because you were going so fast. One of the problems with some of the stuff I get to mix is that people have it spread out too much. At some point you have to make the decision, what’s the sound that you’re going for? Because when you’re doing guitar sounds and mixing multiple mics together, you’ll find a sweet balance, and it’s ‘Oh yeah, I like that!’ Well then commit that to tape, instead of later on. I don’t know what sound, because you move one mic up and there’s one sound, you move the other mic up and there’s another sound. How do you choose a vocal mic? Sometimes I’ll line up some obvious choices, and have him talk through each one, and I’ll just see what works with his voice. If you don’t know the singer style, sometimes it might take a few mic changes, which I hate, because when the singer’s ready to go, he’s ready to go, and you’ve got to go with it. But for guys like Brian Johnson and Steven Tyler I’ll use a

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58. Because their voices, over the years, live, they’ve been tuned to that, and they just sound great. Very little EQ, they sound very rock and roll, and boy can that ever pop out of the mix.

Do you ever do vocals in the control room? Yes, the communication is a lot easier and faster, the only thing I don’t like is spending most of my day under headphones, I find that’s wearing on me. If they’re out of the control room I like having it quite quiet, your day can last longer. You can have your own volume control, but your ears get all hot. Does it take longer to mix tracks you didn’t record? No, not at all. I actually prefer to mix tracks other people have recorded, because it’s quite fresh. I’ll throw the faders up, listen to the song a few times, as I’m listening I’ll do a quick rough mix. I’ll sit back, listen to the song a couple of times, and a song will speak to you, tell you where it wants to go, or most of the time you will see what they were trying to do, and I just take it there. I don’t have any preconceived notions, I don’t like that sometimes they’ll send me a CD of all the rough mixes, I like to be surprised a little bit. Rough mixes are sometimes good if they’ve had a specific idea, a panning thing or an effect they haven’t printed, but I like the freshness. How do you keep perspective? I’ve got a few CDs, it depends on the project, but I’ve got a few references. Back In Black is one, even if it’s not that type of music, you can throw that in and know where the bottom end is, or the top end. So at least for the first couple of songs of a new mix, I’ll reference fairly often, and once I get used to where we’re going and the sound of the room I’ll A/B less. And when I’m working, I’ll work 10 or 15 minutes, then I’ll take a smoke break or have a coffee, so I pace myself during the day. And initially, when I’m checking the bottom I’ll mix quite loud for the first little bit. Then most of the day, you can’t even whisper in the control room, I’ve got it as quiet as I can get the NS10s down, that’s how I work most of the day. Then towards the end of the day I’ll crank it up again and have a little blast. But I’m quite quiet most of the time. I work 12 or 14 hour days, sometimes 16 hours mixing, that’s the only way you can do it. ■

April 2007

katz’s column

Between the devil and the deep blue sea a few weeks ago BoB katZ took a ‘working’ vacation in panama, bringing along his iBook to produce a very important chapter for the second edition of his book. But his return home threw up a technical dilemma that he believes we could all learn from.

etWeen VISItS to the Canal, the Caribbean, Indian villages and historic places, I researched and wrote — on the airplane coming and going until the battery went dead, at the airport using a purloined AC outlet, on the beach, in a corner of my hotel room far from Mary’s sleeping ears, sometimes in restaurants, everywhere I had a chance, and still managed to get a tan! I was in the creative writing zone, folks. I wanted that chapter to become the best, simplest and easiestto-read explanation of a complex audio topic that anyone has ever done. I slaved over that keyboard for over 40 hours. It was a pretty exhausting vacation, come to think of it, but by the end of the week, this chapter was taking incredible shape. With a little editing it would surely be a gem. Late Thursday, while we were packing, Mary offered me her USB memory stick, saying ‘don’t you dare leave without a backup.’ ‘Thanks,’ I replied, ‘I brought along this portable FireWire drive to make clones.’ But at the end of the night I decided I was too tired to run the cloning software, went to bed, and the next day we rushed to the airport, having made no backup at all. Friday we arrived home sweet home and at night I settled into bed with the iBook connected to the local

wireless network. Like a good boy, the first thing I did was run my synchronisation software, to copy all the changes back onto our ultra-safe document server, which runs a RAID 5 array that is also backed up to another drive every night through Retrospect. After that I decided to write some more; I went to the recent files menu of Microsoft Word, but Word said my file could not be found. It wasn’t on the server, or on my local drive. How could this be? My heart rose up to my throat, I literally had palpitations; Mary reports my face became white enough to erase the Panama tan. Yes, it seemed true that somehow the synchronisation software had deleted my file from both locations. In a few minutes I was fairly sure the file was gone and real panic set in. Mary kept asking me the same questions that were going through my frantic mind, ‘Why didn’t you make that backup, it’s so simple to plug in a USB memory stick.’ But no amount of remorse would recover that file. I tried not to panic, but blood pressure was rising, not being able to conceive of the incredible labour it would take to recreate that chapter. How could I possibly put myself back in the mood to rewrite 10,000 words? How could I recreate the complex intertwined argument? So I decided I would not give up until and unless I had proved unequivocally that this file was gone forever, and I would fight with my life in my hands. The first thing that struck me was that I should immediately quit all applications, because if the original file had not been overwritten and if it still existed somewhere, it was now officially in ‘unallocated space’. I should say ‘endangered space’, because any application, even the operating system running a log, could overwrite the data at any minute, and then it would be permanently erased. I had to hope that only the directory pointer to the file had been changed and that all of its bits and pieces were still located on the hard drive. So I quit my email before it could do a check, and all applications. The next step was to thoroughly search the drive and its digital trash can, in case the file had been misplaced, but I couldn’t find it. After that, I shut down the iBook and connected it to another Mac via FireWire. I rebooted it while holding the letter ‘t’, which turns the iBook into a FireWire slave, and mounts its drive onto the other computer’s desktop; then the iBook OS is not running and cannot change the drive’s data.

I then ran the host Mac’s Disk Utility, which said there was nothing wrong with the disk, as I had expected. The only thing wrong was the knucklehead who should have known better. After banging my head ten times on the desk, I Googled for Mac file recovery software, settling on a downloadable application called FileSalvage, which has a try-before-you-buy mode that lets you inspect files without being able to save. User reviews were mixed, but all of them pointed to the impossibility of recovering a file if it had been overwritten. All I could do was hope that I had found the error in time. By the way, it turned out that the synchronisation utility was not broken, just that I had inadvertently checked a box that reversed the sync direction, and it had dutifully restored everything in my project directory from the document server instead of putting files onto the server. I thought I had thoroughly tested the synchroniser before I went to Panama. Hmmmm... so much for beta-testing. It was now 11pm. Performing a short test scan, FileSalvage found a few MS Word files, so I went online, paid US$89.95 and was registered a few minutes later. Then I told it to do a complete scan of unallocated space on the disk, looking for signatures of known file types. This took a suspenseful 3 hours, during which time I survived on hot chocolate and pacing all corners of the house. When FileSalvage finished, it had found 920 rogue Microsoft Word files on my iBook! Now it was 2am, but I would not be able to sleep without learning whether one of them was my precious chapter. The rest of the night was spent painstakingly inspecting each fragment using FileSalvage’s 30-word preview function. It was an archeological expedition; I found pieces of documents I hadn’t seen for years. Midway through there was a glimmer of hope, but it turned out to be a very old version. That encouraged me to feel I had dug past the first layer and maybe King Tut’s mummy was underneath. Around 10am, at file number 720 I located what looked like the top of my document, so I told FileSalvage to convert the fragment to a Word doc on a disinterested hard disk under a new name. Crossing my fingers I double clicked and lo and behold, I had reached the mother lode! The entire document, embedded images and all, appeared intact, not missing a single syllable. I became so delirious I couldn’t see straight. I had danced with the devil, and lived to tell the tale, thanks to FileSalvage. The moral of this story is, don’t try this at home! Even if you’ve only worked an hour on a document or a Pro Tools file -— back it up. If you are going to dance with the devil, you better be a computer expert. For no matter how expert you may be, you are always one mouse click away from disaster. ■ Footnote: Bob’s work commitments means that he’s going to take a brief break from his column but he will be back later in the year.

Information Resolution recommends Bob Katz’s book Mastering Audio — The Art and the Science as an essential source of information for every pro audio enthusiast who cares about sound. You can buy it on line at www.digido.com

April 2007

resolution

business

the producer’s cut twenty years on, nIGeL JopSon ﬁnds his cheque really was in the post but wonders whether today’s young production pros can afford to work on the promise of a future slice of digital pie.

oMetHInG QuIte uneXpected happened recently: Universal Music wrote to me asking if they could send me money. In the past, I’ve had record companies write to me saying they were certainly not going to pay me the money I thought they owed me, and even to say I owed them money ... then the penny dropped ... I’d recouped an advance! The surprise was that the 20-year-old soundtrack I had 3 points of as a producer had long been deleted. The compilations department at Universal Germany do their best — but a track on One Hit Wonders Vol. 3 or the 80s Jahre Box is never going to deliver much — a diminutive €0.0008 in the case of the latter compilation. I’m sure it’s a story familiar to most producers and points-earning engineers: if it wasn’t a world-wide smash, the stream slows to a trickle, then a drip, and ends a stain not worth the paper statement it’s printed on. Only territories like Germany, which prize accounting, will even continue to print you one. As I rummaged through the filing cabinet I noticed the quarterly pages for this production had been growing more plentiful, and the ‘Configuration’ columns were mainly printed with just one word: E-COM. It seems I’m the beneficiary of a Pareto (power law probability) distribution, popularised with the Internet generation by Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. In other words, if you make it easy for consumers to find narrow-interest items, they will buy. My original production had a little traction, as the music featured in a popular TV series, and I notice the out-ofprint CD is being sold on Amazon for €49.00. All my E-COM sales were from the minor radio-hit theme, so I could easily imagine what had happened: Mr & Mrs Dorfmeister have their shiny new iPods and, after buying a few obvious songs from iTunes, they turn to each other and say: ‘What shall we buy now — which music is it that we really, really like — what was the name of that song we always played when we first met?’ They remember the name of the slightly sentimental tune — and there it is, just one easy little click away. They could have driven to Munich, fought their way through the shopping crowds, rummaged through the racks in 15 shops and found the song on the 2-CD compilation Kuschelrock 3 ... but you just know they never would, even if they knew it was there. They’re pleased to have easily found and purchased music that has real meaning to them, and I am pleased as well. I’m pleased because Kuschelrock 3 bought from Karstadt pays me just €0.0037 for my track, or as a record club item €0.0013, or as a mail-order CD €0.0009. That’s because I have just one track on a big compilation, and any discount CD is usually contractually subject to at least a 50% reduction in royalties. As a rookie producer I was lucky my contract gave me 0.25% on the mail-order club sales, as these are normally excluded completely in the dreaded small-print. The iTunes download 50

pays me €0.0183, about 10% of what I’d get from each song on the original CD — and the Mr & Mrs Dorfmeisters of Germany are buying far more digitally just because it’s so easy. Since 2004, my average earnings more than doubled for this production, and 55% of current revenue is from digital. Of course, this is just one very small example, on most of my other statements digital contributes a more modest 3-4%. Razorlight, Muse and Supergrass producer John Cornfield (Resolution V5.8) estimates digital’s share of his overall royalty revenue is nudging 30%. This seems to be on the high side of average, maybe because of the profile of bands John produces, but all the points-earners I’ve spoken to indicate digital is assuming real importance for their income stream. Million-selling downloads are increasingly common, with weekly iTunes Store volumes often exceeding 20m. There’s been a deal of deliberate obfuscation about whether iTunes is profitable for Apple. ‘The dirty little secret of all this is there’s no way to make money on these stores,’ Apple boss Steve Jobs declared. Finding solid numbers for any digital music enterprise is like looking for a plectrum in the Latin Percussion box ... but I charted sales of iPods vs iTunes song sales by correlating

resolution

various ‘vanity’ milestone announcements. This graphically demonstrates there’s an exponential relationship between burgeoning iPod sales and music sales. By the end of 2006, 25 songs had been purchased at iTunes for each iPod sold, but, as I observed in Resolution v3.2, every significant music player introduction has soon been followed by a dramatic speed bump in music sales. When I peeked at Apple’s Q4 2006 SEC earnings report, I noticed that ‘other music related products and services’ increased to $634 million compared to $491 million in 2005. So the store does make money, and grew year-on-year by 29%, eclipsing an increase in iPod sales of 18%. If itemised sales are downplayed, facts concerning how the download income is divvied up are clothed in DPM. Some silly numbers are being given out, even by industry lawyers who should be nimbler with their calculators. Fortunately, sufficient sales periods have passed, so we have solid figures from royalty statements. Apple takes 29% or $0.29 from each iTunes download. In the UK, that means 24% after VAT, leaving labels with 45% (assuming a typical artist royalty of 12% and a producer royalty of 3%). TuneTribe COO Ronnie Traynor confirms a favourable label cut for the non-Apple sector: ‘You can’t go above 79p. We give Sony BMG roughly 65p per track and Warner about 54p.’ In the CD pie chart I’ve illustrated 12% artist and 3% producer royalty rates, and assumed an 8% discount for retail (national chain) on the CD’s PPD (Published Price to Dealer). In the example, the distributor is also owned by the label parent company. For the mobile download I’ve shown an aggregator’s cut; I’m sure MCA’s parent UMG deal directly with Telecom companies, so this merely illustrates what a smaller label might pay. I also understand that, as of 2007, US Telcos are likely to be paying ASCAP/BMI fees. Contrast the US digital revenue pie chart with the installed-base bar chart, the latter compiled from a survey of 1.5 million computers by online audit company PC Pitstop. Maybe some users are just streaming music and never downloading? The scale of Apple’s sales dominance is demonstrated by their 75% US digital share — some people are making good money; others would like some more. Veteran rockers The Youngbloods and the Allman Brothers have filed a class action suit against Sony BMG over the amount paid to BMG artists for downloads. When he wrote his bitchy open letter to the music industry, Steve Jobs made the mistake of saying that Apple must ‘license’ the right to distribute music from the four majors. In class-action suits, the artists claim Sony and BMG have been paying royalties on downloads and ringtones as if recordings were sold, resulting in much lower payments than if they were licensed. Under their recording agreements, licensed recordings require artist’s payments to equal 50% of the net license fees received (a fairly standard arrangement). The Youngbloods claim they receive about 4.7 cents per download, while the Allmans receive 10.57 cents. The poor old Youngbloods are clearly being taken to the cleaners on the ‘shellac breakages and LP packaging’ deduction clauses, but it looks like the Allmans have a fairly typical royalty deal. As iTunes clearly follows the old ‘buy it and keep it’ model, this smacks of some sort of contract renegotiating ploy, but the law suit — April 2007

business

and the crucial differences between licensing and royalty payments — highlights a very important point for the future. Every time users just listen to songs from Rhapsody, Napster, MusicMatch or similar services, a ‘per stream’ payment is made to the rights holder who has licensed the music. So every time someone plays a track I produced on their AOL/whatever computer music player, how much is the record company paid? This data has not been publicly released, so I called a friend who’s a manager for a US indie: apparently Rhapsody pay 1.1 cents, AOL Music Now pay 2.2 cents, and Napster pays 0.9 cents. What about when my wife (who subscribes to Napster To Go) downloads one of the songs I produced to her portable player? Is that a sale or a license? It is a license, because it’s ‘tethered’ to her player, and the play capability of the track will expire (DRM) when she stops paying Napster the £14.95 monthly subscription. The record label will be paid 2.3 cents for that track, and the artist will receive a licensing cut according to the terms of their deal. But I will receive nothing, because my contracts were signed when licensing was seen as some sort of bolt-on-bonus, not an income stream meriting its own business unit at the label, and certainly not for sharing with greenhorn knob-twiddlers. ‘Traditionally, negotiating a good contract with a label on behalf of a record producer has focused on matching the artist’s units, in respect of world-wide physical sales and deductions, and on retaining some points in the event that original recordings are remixed, or placed on compilations,’ explains lawyer Fiona Lynch, ‘with April 2007

the type of digital deals currently being struck, the licensing aspect is sure to assume greater importance.’ Napster currently only has 5% of US digital sales, but its music rental-system has potential for future mass-market platforms. ‘Our focus has always been on subscriptions and one of the pain points we’ve experienced is that the iPod doesn’t work with our subscription model,’ admitted Napster president Brad Duea. ‘But if you look at the progression of the phone as your iPod, we see that as the future. Mobile is strategic for us as a distribution model. We’ve secured Cingular, the number one carrier in the US, and NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, the number one and two carriers in Japan, and in Europe we’ve launched with O2 in Ireland and TMN in Portugal.’ At the January CES Motorola discussed its iRadio subscription music service, which will offer 435 commercial-free radio channels to cell phones for a monthly fee. I believe the music recommendation systems I explained in Resolution V6.2 are going to be vital for future digital sales, and they all depend on licensing. Following a similar deal with Warners, Last.fm has just made a licensing deal enabling streaming of songs from all EMI artists. On imeem.com recently, I noticed an Avenged Sevenfold track (the epic I Won’t See You Tonight) had been played 187,750 times ... people are using these community music sites like CD players, and as usual when technology surges forward, traditional content gatekeepers are left behind. Last month I was depressed to learn from Jonathan Morrish that Last.fm, despite being headquartered in the UK, have not even bothered resolution

to obtain a PPL license: ‘...well, we are currently talking to them about it ...’ the PPL Communications Director assured me. PPL is the UK organisation responsible for collecting and distributing airplay and public performance royalties from licensees such as broadcasters, clubs, shops and pubs. Aren’t you supposed to get the TV license for your home BEFORE you buy the TV set and invite the gang round? The producer/points system has enabled many great records to be made. We trade our daily-rate skills for a slice of the future pie which, depending to some extent on our best efforts, may or may not emerge from the studio oven as a tasty soundbite. It’s a virtuous circle, even the also-rans will continue rolling pennies into the pot and –- if we have enough small successes — might make up for not landing the big one. When Last.fm’s Martin Stiksel was asked in a 2005 interview what the greatest challenge to his success was, he replied: ‘Impossible-to-work & confused music licensing regulations.’ I guess that plays well with the e-people, but Last.fm are being paid for music we made. Perhaps it’s up to us to explain the technology to the rights organisations and lawyers who work for us ... if we want the regulations that deliver our percentage to be workable and transparent ... and if we still want those pie-points. ‘... going with a partner or two is dangerous. Murder’s always lurkin’ about. Partners accusin’ each other of all sorts of crimes. Aw, as long as there’s no find, the noble brotherhood will last, but when the piles of gold begin to grow, that’s when the trouble starts.’ Walter Huston (as Howard) in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). ■ 51

meet your maker

Photo: Herald Express

Malcolm toft His name is forever included among the analogue console greats and his design career boasts desirable desks and a notable before-its-time contender. Still designing and still recording, Malcolm toft talks to Zenon ScHoepe

aLcoLM toft Started his career as a recording engineer in 1964. In 1966 he joined CBS recording studios in London and in 1968 became the first engineer employed at Trident Studios when it opened its doors for business. At Trident he worked with Tony Visconti for three years and engineered three T-Rex albums, David Bowie’s Space Oddity album, James Taylor’s first album and was involved in the mixing of Hey Jude by The Beatles. In 1972 he founded Trident Audio Developments and was managing director until 1988 when he sold the company. In 1992 he set up MTA to design large format consoles and among his customers were Radiohead, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) and Stephen Hague, producer of the Pet Shop Boys. For the last four years Malcolm has been an exclusive consultant to PMI audio in California who manufacture the Toft Audio Designs range of products, which include the ATC-2 dual FET compressor and equaliser, the EC-1 single channel compressor and equaliser, the DC-2 dual FET compressor and AFC-2 dual equaliser. He recently launched the Series ATB small-format 8-bus console, which is his first new mixer design for some eight years. He is also coowner of The Music Mill recording studio complex in Newton Abbot Devon, which as well as being a commercial recording studio, runs weekend courses in recording techniques. 52

What’s special about Toft Audio products? I think you’d probably have to ask my customers but I think it’s a combination of things. Most people know my history as a recording engineer and as the founder of Trident Audio Developments, so they know there’s a bit of pedigree there. I think they’ve also come to expect a certain sound from me, especially when it comes to equalisers. I’ve always designed with my ears rather than test equipment and designed equipment that I know I would want to use. The test equipment is necessary to confirm that it’s doing what it’s supposed to and to make sure that it meets the specs that I have set, but it doesn’t dictate the design of the circuit. If something looks a little quirky on the test equipment but it sounds good, the quirk stays in! I’ve also always tried to offer good value for money, even during my Trident days. My tenet is to build equipment with as little compromise in audio quality as possible and as mechanically stable as possible with a big emphasis on serviceability. That last statement being the reason why I have so far resisted surface-mount technology. That belongs in mobile phones not analogue recording equipment that is designed to last. What has happened to the analogue mixing console market — is it that there is just no demand for larger consoles or that manufacturers cannot make a business out of the demand that exists? resolution

The analogue mixing console market is still there, but the demand for larger consoles has dramatically fallen. I think there are two reasons for this. First, the number of large studios that can afford this type of console has reduced significantly over the last few years in particular. People no longer need large recording rooms and there are only so many symphony orchestras in the world. A lot of film music that used to use large orchestras is now done on sampled orchestra software (which lowers costs for the film companies), and many producers now have mobile recording rigs so that they can convert rented houses in exotic locations into temporary recording spaces. This combined with the sophistication and lowered cost of recording hardware and software has seriously eroded the need for large studios. Secondly, large control surfaces such as the Digidesign Icon have meant that engineers can now have the look and feel of an analogue console with all of the benefits of digital technology, such as recall of settings, etc. This technology is also no more expensive (and in fact in a lot of cases is cheaper) than its analogue counterpart. There is, however, a growing demand for smaller high quality analogue consoles as we have experienced with the Toft Audio Series ATB. This was conceived when I was asked by a lot of people at trade shows whether I would make a summing unit for them as they were not happy with the sound they achieved inside the computer. The mixes sounded ‘cramped’ with no space or separation due to bit truncation etc. Once I agreed to look at it, I was then (of course) asked if I could add some equalisation and other facilities such as a few auxiliary sends. In researching the market I realised that there were very few high quality analogue consoles in a small footprint at an affordable price. I therefore worked on a feature set that would be in tune with today’s market and as a design philosophy decided to make it like I would a Trident console of 20 years ago, i.e. semi-modular, aluminium control knobs, high quality faders, etc. With the advantage of being able to manufacture in greater volume than before and using overseas manufacturing that we knew could produce the required quality after having used them for nearly ten years, we also knew that the price would be very competitive without having to make design compromises. I have to say that it has been far more successful than I ever imagined. Our first batch of one hundred consoles was pre-sold even before we got delivery with some customers being prepared to wait almost a year for it. I am also extremely gratified that we have a number of high profile clients among the first users such as Peter Gabriel’s producer Tchad Blake, Hard-Fi who are using it as the main console for their next album, and Leeds College of Music who have bought three. We have a close relationship with the college and I am extremely proud that they have named their new recording studio ‘The Toft Room’.

What is it about an analogue desk that still makes it applicable to modern working methods? I think the example of Leeds College illustrates the point perfectly. They have replaced some of their digital consoles with my analogue console because they find it much better for teaching students the flow of signal through a mixer. One of the problems with a digital console is its ability to be extremely flexible, as it is no longer constrained by hardware limitations. This is, of course, an irony because it is this very feature that makes digital consoles so desirable. However, every April 2007

meet your maker manufacturer (software programmer?) has a different approach so you very often have to take quite a steep learning curve to operate a new digital mixing console. If you don’t have a good basic understanding of how signals flow in an audio sense through a mixer, it can really become very confusing and difficult to understand. However, pretty well all analogue mixers follow a very similar audio path with small variances in how things are laid out ergonomically, so if you understand how one analogue console works you can adapt to another very quickly. If you have a good grounding in analogue signal flows, it becomes a lot easier when trying to configure a digital console so the same theory applies. For example, in general terms, equalisation follows the input stage, insert sends follow the equaliser, channel fader follows the insert return and so on. Another reason why analogue consoles are still applicable to modern working methods is that most people doing any sensible recording realise that a good ‘front end’ of microphone preamplifiers and some form of analogue equalisation is pretty much an essential requirement. If you couple this to a preference (as discussed earlier) to mix ‘out of the box’, an analogue console becomes a very useful addition to the studio because it is a cost effective way of achieving the above requirements.

What are the key ergonomic and electronic constituents of a good analogue console? As far as ergonomics are concerned, I think it’s very much a question of deciding what the console is specifically going to be used for. As an example, the layout of controls and facilities required by a live recording console are quite different from those on a multitrack recording console. As a consequence I think it is very important that the designer has a very good working knowledge of the application to which the console is being put. This is the main reason why I have never attempted to design a serious PA console. I simply don’t feel qualified enough to decide what facilities a live sound engineer needs and where they should be placed. Having been a recording engineer for many years I feel that I have a reasonable grasp of what facilities a studio engineer requires and where those facilities should be placed. One of the reasons I got into console design back in the early 1970s was because I was tired of working on consoles that were clearly not designed by someone who understood what a recording engineer needed. A misplaced control as simple as the talkback button can be an annoyance at the beginning of a session; after ten hours without a break it can be the most frustrating thing on earth. As far as electronic design is concerned, I have a few main principles that I have always adhered to. One is that every part of the circuit, wherever possible, should be able to maintain maximum headroom. I don’t like the idea of lowering the signal at one point because the following circuit can’t accept a decent level and then amplifying it afterwards to make up the level that is lost. It all becomes very messy and increases noise and distortion. I also try to make sure that nothing runs hot. I don’t think I’ve ever designed a console where the front panels run hot. I have often been amazed at how hot the front panels are on some large format consoles. This is in fact the main reason why there has been a big problem with capacitors drying out and having to be replaced on older consoles. The heat dries out the electrolyte and renders the capacitors unusable. It is then a very costly and time consuming job to replace these capacitors and, of course, over time it will happen again. April 2007

Finally, power supply design is enormously important. The power supply must work in any country and be able to deliver the current and voltage required without any drop whatsoever. I always make sure the power supply has plenty of spare capacity as this has a direct bearing on the console’s ability to deliver transients.

How has your approach to the design of outboard changed over the years? Over the last decade, outboard gear has become an industry in its own right. Twenty to 30 years ago, the console, tape machine and monitors were the main items in the control room and limiters, compressors and outboard equalisers were seen as ‘accessories’. Nowadays, the console is no longer the centrepiece or necessarily even present in a computer-based studio. Outboard gear has a different role, either as a front end to a DAW, or to add some ‘analogue’ warmth to the recording process. As outboard equipment therefore has a different role to fill, the design has also changed. The main change is in the preamp section. When outboard gear was used with a console and tape machine, the console mic preamps were nearly always used so the limiters, compressors and equalisers were resolution

all line level input devices, the Urei LA-2A and Urei 1176 are just two examples of this. Nowadays because customers want an all encompassing unit, nearly all modern outboard processors will have a switchable mic and line input.

Has the demand for cheaper equipment stunted innovation and development in design? I don’t believe that to be the case. There is still a tremendous amount of innovation and ‘out of the box thinking’ in some of the new designs. The demand for cheaper equipment is there because the ability to make high quality recordings is no longer the province of an expensively equipped recording studio. People can record hit albums at home and this has made the pro audio business reach a larger audience. Because of this, equipment can be manufactured in larger quantities and therefore at a cheaper price. An absolutely prime example of this is studio condenser microphones. Only a few years ago, it would cost at least a thousand pounds for a decent studio condenser mic. Due to the fall of the Berlin wall, the technology which was to a large part East German was able to migrate to the West, becoming more in the public domain and therefore more easy to replicate. Large53

meet your maker scale manufacturing was then possible due to larger demand for these products as the industry changed. We now have a far wider range of studio microphones available and at lower prices than ever before.

The Trident Di-An is regarded as a pivotal product in digitally controlled analogue, what lessons did you learn from it? I learned never to be the first with radical new technology! We were simply too early with the product and the concept that we were trying to promote. At that time (mid 1980s) the recording world was dominated by SSL and we needed a product that would effectively leapfrog them if we were to stay as a major player. The Holy Grail was (and still largely is) the ability to be able to store and recall every console setting instantly, statically and dynamically. We hit on a way of doing it and the

problem was not so much the technology but how we developed the human interface. I came up with the idea for a single channel being represented by a number of panels that controlled the input section, EQ, auxiliary sends and busing using large, easy to read displays similar to those used on aircraft that used digital readouts with no parallax problems. An ‘access’ button on every channel chose that particular channel’s full information. This concept is still used by many manufacturers today and I’m sure that many copied this from us. The main problem was that many potential customers were frightened that they would not be able to understand the new technology and were therefore afraid to try it. Those that did, soon realised how easy it was to operate, but it’s fair to say that there was healthy opposition to the changes that we offered. Interestingly a lot of people thought that we

were defining the way all future consoles would be, which of course was not the case. This was merely the way we proposed a digitally controlled console should operate. Today, no two digital consoles or DAWs operate in exactly the same way but people accept this, as they are far more open to new methods of operating

What is it about your older desk designs that still makes them highly regarded? I think this goes back to my roots as a recording engineer and how we started Trident. I didn’t consciously go into the console manufacturing business. We were a bunch of guys running a recording studio that needed a new console and none of the existing manufacturers of the time could provide us with what we wanted. I had always been interested in what went on under the front panel and had been trying to build my own console in the hope that I would one day own my own studio. Barry Porter was a maintenance engineer at Trident and he had been giving me advice on the electronics side. I proposed to the Trident management that between us, Barry and I could possibly design a mixer that would meet our requirements. Looking back with hindsight I realise that I had no idea what I was taking on. During the design stage we then had a number of people asking if we could build them a console and I then suggested that we form a company to make mixers. That was how Trident Audio Developments was born. The point of this is that we did not consciously set out to start a mixer company as a business proposition, it really all came about by symbiosis and a great deal of passion for what we were doing. We also had firsthand knowledge of the application of the product from an end-user perspective. I don’t really know of any other companies set up in quite this way. I think the older designs — and hopefully the newer ones as well — reflect the fact that we were recording engineers first and designers second. What’s next from you? I’ve got so much on my plate at the moment I don’t know which way to turn! The new console has far exceeded our expectations and is now fully in production. The next project is an absolutely faithful reproduction of the original A Range equaliser complete with the transformer input mic preamp. The whole unit will be completely discrete transistor with the original inductor specifications and everything as close to the original as is possible. I am very excited about this and we should have it ready for the AES in New York in October. There’s still a lot more analogue gear to come from me and I’m really looking forward to all of the new projects. Who do you regard as the signiﬁcant contributors to analogue desk design? I think just about everybody who was involved with consoles from the early 1970s until the present day although these days with companies getting larger, console design is more of a team effort than down to one individual. Obviously I would like to give a great deal of credit to Barry Porter and of course you cannot talk about analogue console design without mentioning the great Rupert Neve. Other significant contributors have to be Dick Swettenham of Helios, Nick Franks and Graham Langley at Amek, Colin Sanders at SSL and Graham Blythe at Soundcraft. We all started as pioneers in what was then almost a cottage industry, so I’ve seen quite a few changes along the way. Mostly good, but some not necessarily to the best advantage of the industry. But that’s a whole other subject! ■

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April 2007

ten of accurate data on takes, film stock, simple camera maintenance and — continuing a close parallel to the music studio’s tape op — they may still get the tea and coffee for the camera crew. tHe Lead Man and tHe SWInG GanG — The Lead Man (not an actor) is part of the Art Department who assists the Set Decorator. He breaks down the script into the items needed for the sets, looks to source them. He also directs the Swing Gang, additional crew who may or not be specialist, in building and striking a set and frequently supervises the set dressers. There is further liaison with the initial set construction department of carpentry, paint, upholstery, and those who will be working within it.

Photo: istockphoto.com

VIdeo aSSISt — The name of a process and role. The majority of film cameras have the facility for a video output that is derived from the feed to the viewfinder/eyepiece. This is then distributed mute to key personnel on the set on small video monitors with a larger one for the director possibly with sound and possibly recorded. It allows instant judgement of a take in terms of action, story, continuity and visibility of unwanted objects but probably not image or lighting quality. The person (or trainee) charged with organising this is the Video Assist. When shooting with HD Cine Video cameras this role can be developed to include a Hi-Def on-set monitor and a feed to on-set computers for instant trial edits/scene assembly.

film credit oddities You’ve watched the ﬁlm and you’re following the endless credits to see if they’ve listed the music used just before the hero leapt from the bridge; but who and what are those crazy words ﬂashing past? keItH Spencer-aLLen says they’ve not a great deal to do with audio but they might just help you win a few points in a pub quiz.

ILM WaS one of the first ‘high tech’ industries and as the technology progressed a host of new jobs evolved to fill necessary roles in movie making. These jobs were given, or acquired, names that were probably pertinent at the time but the reasons for the naming, as with so much of early film terminology, have long been lost. So, despite the oddness of the title, there’s a real job behind it.

rigging. Head of the department is the Key Grip who works closely with the Gaffer supervising movement and construction of camera platforms and lighting effects. Specialist roles develop so the Grip responsible for the camera mounted on a dolly (platform on rails) becomes the Dolly Grip, and so on. While Grips once had a reputation for a ‘lack of refinement’ much of their modern role is increasingly skilled.

Gaffer — The title of the chief electrician who reports to the director of photography. As his role is almost entirely the implementation (and sometimes design) of the set lighting he may also be known as the chief lighting technician. A skilled role that involves depicting the lighting quality for the script’s location and time of day, use of colour to achieve that, as well as ‘active’ lighting for trains, etc. There are numerous suggestions for the origin of the term but old English is the most likely with its meaning of ’head of a group of labourers’, which would have been appropriate in the pre-electric lighting days of film when large numbers of men were required to move blinds and screens to control natural light. They may have had the Tape named after them.

BeSt BoY — The term that everyone puzzles over but it’s simple. A Best Boy is the assistant to the head of the department and so you see Best Boys to the Gaffer and Key Grip, effectively running the daily activities of the lighting or Grip department’s crew and equipment. By promoting the department’s ‘best boy’ to supervise, their bosses, the Gaffer and Grip, were able to concentrate on their role of working with the cameraman on set. Outside of Hollywood, these roles may be better know as assistant chief lighting technician/grip and don’t have to be male.

GrIp — A grip has been described as a ‘cross between a construction worker and a moving man’ but skilled in support of the camera crew, lighting crew and all April 2007

cLapper Loader — One of the least obscure film jobs when you know that it is actually two separate roles, Clapper and Loader. The visible part is the operation of the slate or clapperboard at the beginning (or end) of a take with all the correct info written on it to allow identification of the take on the film. The bulk of their duties are loading and care of the film, keeping resolution

MatcHMoVer — Specialists in movement who are part of that vital link between computer generated images (CGI) and real shot footage. Either ‘animating’ images within a CGI environment or creating movement in a CGI object prior to insertion on real footage, Matchmovers work with suitable costumes covered in index points tracked by computer that records and reinterprets the movement with CGI. For a new role, it may appear inverted as Movematcher. GreenSMan — A member of the art department with full responsibility for all things green on the set — sourcing, positioning and maintenance. This of course refers to plants, trees, flowers, dependent upon story requirements, and nothing to do with Greenscreen shooting (the modern alternative to Bluescreen). HoneYWaGon drIVer — When working on location it is still necessary to provide dressing rooms and relaxation areas for the actors. Usually these are in the form of a suitably fitted out trailer or truck. That is the broader interpretation of the term Honey Wagon, however, for the majority of film people it is simply the mobile toilet! This raises the question that if the film credits are a listing of people who have contributed to the creation of a film, how would the film differ if the Honeywagon was driven by driver X rather than Y? and tHoSe cLoSeSt to uS — Starting with the sound side of film — the Production Mixer (AKA Sound Recordist, Recordist, Sound Mixer) is responsible for all sound recorded on the set with the Boom Operator positioning microphones for dialogue within the limitations of the camera shot. Production sound passes to the Sound Editor for editing, additional sound requirements (FX, ADR, etc), and syncing with picture. Large productions may have Foley (sound effects, footsteps) mixers/editors and Dialogue Replacement mixers/editors (ADR, looping). The final soundtrack is balanced by the Rerecording Mixer (Dubbing Mixer). ■ 55

technology

developing orpheus prism Sound has unveiled its orpheus audio interface. GraHaM BoSWeLL and Ian dennIS talk us through the thinking and the technology behind it.

He LauncH of Orpheus represents a real breakthrough for Prism Sound as it addresses the needs of a much wider community of professional musicians, songwriters, engineers and producers. Before anyone accuses us of taking Prism Sound ‘downmarket’ it is worth pointing out that Orpheus does not make any compromises in audio quality. Orpheus not only embodies years of research and development into digital audio conversion, but is also the product of a long, hard look at the market. In the 20 years since Prism Sound was founded, we have seen the music recording market change dramatically due to the advent of low-cost digital recording equipment. The old-fashioned model, where producers, artists and composers spent months in a commercial studio working on albums or film scores has changed forever, and the bulk of any given project is now carried out in a smaller facility, often belonging to the producer or the musician. Commercial studios, with their powerful automated consoles and acoustically critical environments, still have a role to play when it comes to mixing but for the early stages of a project a computerised private studio is often now more flexible and cost-effective. As a company, we have always been very protective of our brand and our reputation for quality. We didn’t want to compromise by introducing a product that was anything less than the Gold Standard we’ve already established. With most of our competitors focussing on ever lower cost, we recognised that there was an opportunity to provide a really high-performance solution. We researched the market to find out exactly what was needed so that we could develop a product to suit and Orpheus is our response. The starting point for us was: How can we get Prism Sound quality into a box at a lower price point? While we’ve had to sacrifice some flexibility compared to, say, our ADA-8XR, we were determined to go the whole way with the sound quality. We’ve got the same no-compromise analogue front and back ends, with the same fullybalanced-throughout architecture, the same isolation barriers protecting the analogue from digital and computer interference. Increasing standardisation is leading to more choice for those wishing to ‘mix and match’ editing and production software with various audio interfaces. We have taken on board the increasing importance of native processing power for professional users 56

and the fact that software products for standard PC and Mac platforms have been greatly enhanced in recent years. We are probably best known for our A-D and D-A convertors, not least the ADA-8XR, which already provides a solution for those needing a FireWire interface. However, the flexibility and versatility of the ADA-8XR comes with a high price tag, reflecting the fact that no other interface provides the audio performance or can work directly into Pro Tools Core/ Processing cards, as well as running a concurrent DSD processor or FireWire interface. Our solution to these new requirements was to create a unit that is dedicated as a FireWire interface and is compatible with Windows PC and Apple Mac computers. Our research also showed that, along with FireWire connectivity, professional users wanted a highly integrated solution with instrument and microphone inputs, and line outputs that could be used for stereo or multichannel monitoring and/or foldback to performers. Orpheus offers eight analogue recording channels, eight monitoring outputs, SPDIF coaxial I-O plus optical digital I-O ports that can interface to SPDIF or ADAT formats, giving Orpheus a maximum capability of 18 concurrent input and output channels plus stereo headphones. This is the first time that a Prism Sound product has provided support for the ADAT optical interface. Orpheus’ eight analogue inputs support various capabilities. We wanted it to have really good mic amps built in — with too many computer boxes people are bringing in additional mic amps because the built-in ones aren’t always very nice. With Orpheus, we thought: OK, you may want to do that, but you won’t need to do it. The Orpheus mic amp has software-controlled gain in 1dB steps, individually-switchable phantom power and very low noise and distortion. Four of the inputs are multi-functional and autosensing and all four support microphone and line input with digitally-controlled mic gain in excess of 60dB. Two inputs also support DI instrument connections on 1/4-inch jacks. All inputs have individually-selectable Prism Sound ‘Overkillers’ built in, just as on the higher-priced ADA-8XR, to catch those fast transients. The Overkiller threshold automatically follows the operating line-up level selection (+4dBu or -10dBV). Our market research also identified a need among users for low latency foldback to performers, resolution

particularly when tracking and overdubbing. Orpheus has a built-in digital mixer that can be configured from the host computer to provide foldback feeds to performers, each with their own stereo mix of workstation playback and any of the inputs. The question of latency (see side panel) in computer interfaces, especially USB and FireWire boxes, is an important one. There are situations where the round-trip latency needs to be really short, like in overdubbing. The problem is that even if you make the latency on the interface and in the driver as short as it could ever be, there is so much else going on in a native DAW over which you basically have no control. The workstation is always groaning with plug-ins, buffer times are probably set long. The only answer is to provide local foldback mixing in the interface. This is nothing new, and many other products feature it, but the trouble is, most local mixers in these boxes are just too basic. We wanted to provide ‘console quality’ local mixing in Orpheus. Every output has its own independent mixer, with channel strips for all inputs and workstation feeds, complete with fader, pan/balance pot, solo and mute buttons, and full metering. Strips can be stereo or mono, and the mixes are dithered with filtered coefficients, just as in a top-end digital mixer. There is some residual delay through the A-D and D-A conversion process in the foldback path, mostly from filters used for anti-aliasing, decimation and interpolation. However, with the low-latency Prism Sound DSP mixer, the worst-case delay through the A-D and D-A path is only 0.5ms and is significantly less at higher sampling rates. This is generally reckoned to be small enough not to be problematic. Although the unit’s outputs will mainly be used for monitoring or foldback, the fact that they are high quality makes them suitable for a range of other applications such as insertion points, analogue summing or stem-based mastering. As well as wanting great analogue recording channels, the DAW user also needs top-quality monitoring. The eight analogue outputs on Orpheus allow monitor setups from multi-stereo up to 7.1 surround. We have a real volume knob too, which can be assigned to any or all of the analogue or digital outputs for use as a control room monitor control. There are two headphone amps, each with its own volume control. As well as having its own workstation feed and mixer, the headphones can also be quickly switched across the other output pairs, which is handy for setting up. Orpheus is easy to connect to your computer and outboard gear. For Windows XP or Vista users ASIO and WDM drivers are provided, while for Mac OS X 10.4 or later, it interfaces directly to Core Audio. For Mac and PC platforms, there is a controller application to configure the unit and control its built-in mixer and other functions. Aside from the monitor and headphone level controls, everything else is operated solely from the Orpheus controller application. The controller software opens on-screen as a separate panel alongside your existing editing software. At Prism Sound, we have always made extensive use of precise software calibration techniques in our convertors — pots and tweaks are always unreliable, so we got rid of them. That’s the same in Orpheus and it aids reliability. We have gone to great lengths to minimise noise and interference, in particular hum. All the analogue circuits have galvanic isolation, while the unit’s electronically balanced I-O allows it to handle common mode interference sources as well as enabling troublefree connection to unbalanced equipment. April 2007

technology It is often said that THD+N figures do not always correlate well with the perception of sound quality and this is true partly because the traditional measures of THD+N or SINAD expressed as RMS figures are rather a broad measure. With that in mind, we have taken great care to make sure that not only is the unit’s noise and distortion spectrum beyond reproach, but also the RMS distortion result measures up to the state of the art. Orpheus’ inputs and outputs typically measure about 0.0004% THD+N –- that would be about 4 microvolts of noise and distortion for a 1V output! The microphone amplifier stage performs well too. With mic gain of 40dB, Equivalent Input Noise is down around -130dBu and this is quiet enough for the most demanding applications. The digital output is equipped with the four Prism Sound SNS noise-shaping curves and includes our synchronous sample-rate conversion, allowing outputs to various external devices at other sampling rates. The sample-rate convertor can be used at the outputs as well as the inputs, so as well as dealing with unsynchronised or wrong-rate digital inputs, you can also generate, say, a live 44.1kHz output

from your 96kHz session. Since Orpheus also includes the full suite of Prism Sound SNS noise shapers, you can also reduce to 16-bits at masteringhouse quality. In the 1990s Prism Sound pioneered testing of sampling and interface jitter and as a result our digital audio products deliver unsurpassed jitter rejection. Our digital audio products lock up fast and re-generate ultra-stable clock outputs. Another aspect of the traditional Prism Sound convertor that we were determined to retain was the clocking — it’s just as important as analogue-path considerations sound-wise. We believe that Orpheus delivers exactly what our personal studio customers have asked for — all the performance of a Prism Sound product in a dedicated FireWire unit that handles line, microphone and instrument inputs with good foldback and monitoring capabilities, yet at a more accessible price tag. We are confident that customers using the new convertor will agree that it sounds as good as it looks. By launching this product, we hope to give many more people the opportunity to bring Prism Sound quality to their productions. ■

VISIT US

AES 122nd

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Latency in computer audio interfaces the foldback issue is particularly important. It is often said that product X is better than Y because it has ‘low latency’. this measure usually applies to the signal path through the host computer plus the fireWire interface.

first, there is the question of whether delay in the signal travelling to and from the hard disk matters. If simply recording to disk, then is does not matter. Simple playback is also generally problem-free, but when playback or recording must be synchronised with something else or each other, latency can become a real issue. Most good editing software is ‘aware’ of the I-o signal path delays and can calibrate itself so that the precise timing of recorded overdubs is compensated automatically. In other words, the record and playback latency problem is eliminated by the software. However, if the foldback signal is routed via the computer by the editing software it is very difficult, even with a low-latency driver, to reduce the delay through the signal path sufficiently to avoid distracting the performer. this is mostly because the data stream flowing through the computer is buffered (stored) in large chunks, to ensure a continuous overall flow of data. Buffering is necessary because the computer is multitasking and cannot serve the real-time audio I-o stream exclusively. So even a low-latency driver does not necessarily solve that problem. the solution is to route the foldback path direct within the interface, so that the delay through the computer is eliminated.

April 2007

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progress: why nothing’s really new technological advance has been scaring the pro audio industry for as long as it’s had a name. tonelux’s pauL WoLff says the daW is having a similar effect and gives an entertaining run through history pointing to lessons that have and have not been learnt.

paul Wolff impresses some young trade show wannabes.

ctuaLLY oVerHeard In a store front around 1470 AD (Germany): ‘With the invention of the printing press, things… well, things just haven’t been the same. I haven’t had a lot of work for about two years now. It seems like the only work I get are those cheesy novelty books where someone wants that ‘natural look’ for a gift or award. I spent most of my life hand-penning books and even started the Feather Pen Company that was starting to do well and developed quite a following. In fact, I was almost famous. I just paid off a lease for a quill-making machine. If I had one wish, I would like to be in a room alone with that Gutenberg fellah for 10 minutes…’ Of course, just like the music industry, there is infighting about who actually invented the printing press too, as now they say it was China that had the first one, and then Italy… I wonder if there was a ‘mechanical copyright act of 1468’. In actuality, Gutenberg was forced to give up his claims to the rights for the Gutenberg Bible because of his partner. Maybe the first copyright law suit? Sound familiar? With the inventions over the last century major changes in the way we do things, or are used to doing things, always have the effect of what we are seeing first hand with the DAW. Of course, our own ‘mega industry’ doesn’t affect as many people directly as we would like to think — as parts buyers, all of us added together are still only a 58

blip on the screen of parts suppliers — but indirectly our industry affects everyone. As humans we don’t handle these kinds of changes without a fight at some level. We tend to take it too personally. If you take a quick look backwards, you can see that the naysayers have always looked at change in the same way. With the invention of the printing press, the book penners, who had the corner on books, lost that lock on the industry and the wealthy at the same time lost the lock on keeping written material away from the poor and ignorant. When the first cars came out, the manufacturers of horse and buggies thought that the world was coming to an end. They complained about the noise, how the horses were reacting, and after the first accident, they all were able to say, ‘See!’ When Les Paul had his idea to do sound on sound with separate tracks, several tape machine companies that he presented it to thought he was out of his mind. He finally presented it to Ampex and they saw the vision. Seeing his original 8-track at his house was a treat. It was taller than I was and the console that went with it was 6 feet wide and had 8 channels (maybe the first DAW summing box?). He was getting ready do have it sent to the Smithsonian for all to see. It was a big deal when he and Mary Ford did their show, but he had to record the sound on an acetate (a record that can be cut directly to with a cutting lathe), which meant that they had to stay resolution

in one place to do their shows. When WWII ended, a fellow called him up and said ‘you need to see this’. It was one of two tape recorders that had some real fidelity. Apparently they belonged to Hitler, and were used to play his speeches in different locations with look-a-likes so no one could pinpoint where he was. The difference with these machines was that the engineer had figured out AC bias, which extended the high end considerably. When Les got the machine, he put it in the trunk and took their show on the road. Maybe the first remote recording? One of the first ‘real’ live music broadcasts with a DJ was Michael Block’s (studio owner, equipment broker) father, who would take a record player into the bathroom of a concert hall or ballroom and with the live mic used to broadcast the live show, he would play the records (with the reverb of the bathroom) during intermission and talk between them, creating a live radio show called The Phantom Ballroom. Maybe the first live location DJ? Of course, if that happened today, what would be the first thing you would do? Go in and rip one, of course... As things continued to be invented and created, which is known as ‘progress’ (remember this word, it is the key to your success), recording became a very important part of society, for archiving (my mother was in an all-girl big band during WWII called the Victory Sweethearts, and because of the original archived recordings, I can listen to her band any time I want, including the Ovaltine ads), broadcast and personal enjoyment. You now had an industry that would include live shows, recordings, broadcasts and content to sell to customers. This progressed into what we have known for most of our lives (provided that you are over 30), and has pretty much stayed the same, with steady jumps in technology like more tracks, good tape, better tape, quicker punch-ins, bad tape, worse tape, better tape, digital tape recorders, 32k sample rates, 44.1, 48, 96, 192, no tape, 352, 384, DSD, and of course LS/MFT, BVD and LSD. In come the first hard disk recorders and then the DAW editors and then the end of the world. When I look at the DAW I kind of include the entire related technicallica (kind of a mix of technology and Metallica) because as a whole, it has made huge changes in the way we deal with music from the basic track to the listener. Of course, ‘anyone’ could have seen it coming ever since Tascam came out with the Portastudio. Get a timeline and a piece of graph paper and it was the next logical step. I remember everyone freaking out about that, but, because it didn’t have the quality that ‘real’ studios had, the panic died quickly, and if anything, the result was that musicians were more prepared than before when they came into the studio. Musicians could make demos in their own homes instead of going to a studio. This did affect the industry a little but it actually added to it more than it took away because artists that normally wouldn’t have been able to record their music had a way to put together a demo and present it to the ‘record label’ in search of the golden deal in the sky. So, did it cost the industry or help the industry? One good example was a guy who worked for Polaroid during the day and recorded at home and in a small local studio, only to create one of the largest selling April 2007

technology bands that ever came up from nowhere (Boston). To get the real answer, you have to back away from the actual invention so you can view a much wider market. With the Portastudio, it may have affected recording studios doing demos, but it may have added to their business by them getting the actual recording project instead of the demo. It offered more music to listeners, which got played more by radio stations, which could charge more for advertising, which allowed more products to be sold, etc. So, did it cost the industry or help the industry? A similar effect has happened with portable media and the ever-so-successful copy protection schemes that have plagued us since Gutenberg. ‘The cassette is destroying the record industry! Just look at all the records that aren’t being sold because so many millions of cassettes are being sold.’ That brought about the first of a series of laws that taxed media to help pay for the industries ‘losses’. Then the VHS tapes came out and the movie industry said: ‘This is the end of movies as we know it. The industry will collapse because of this format.’ Of course, it is what gave the movie industry one of its biggest boosts in decades. So many movies that flopped in the theatres became cult hits at home with the VCR. ‘Music’ CDs cost more (for consumer recorders) because of this tax, as your home recorder won’t record music on a standard blank CD. So, did it cost the industry or help the industry? In the early days of the different copy protection schemes, there were many failed ideas that appeared worth the effort on paper. I was told once at a private tour of the Disney World underground city that Disney went to Xerox and said ‘We need something that will copy an animation cell so we can make minor changes to it for the animation sequence and speed up the whole process.’ One of Disney’s secrets was that they used more frames per second than the competition, making the work they did appear so much better. Xerox came up with a special machine, and some say that Disney had it exclusively for one year. When it hit the open market, two things happened. First, even though the ‘Xerox Copier’ used expensive ingredients (silvered paper), the book publishers thought the sky was falling, so they came up with a type of paper that would turn black if the pale blue/green light of the Xerox copier hit it. Oh yeah, and then there was the sun… ‘why are the pages of my book turning black?’ Second, the carbon paper industry instantly went from the only way to made copies (remember carbon copy?) to an industry that probably got into making pencils.

‘If you do a history of copy protection, you will find that they ALL fail. Always. You can’t litigate success.’

off the street, and something like all of them could tell the difference. If you do a history of copy protection, you will find that they ALL fail. Always. You can’t litigate success. So, after all that energy and all that has been tried in the past, with all the experience and observation, why did the industry just sit on their asses when MP3s started to get passed around the Internet? They used the cassette as a medium to sell music, they used the VHS tape as a way to save failing movies and add to the sales of successful ones, so it seems to me that anyone with a brain in the industry would have bought up Napster in a second to either shut it down or use it as a channel to sell music. What happened? They all sat around, watching kids trade music, never thinking that they could make money at this, CR500 Resolution 3/13/07 or maybe142x194 simply never thinking. 13-3 To make matters worse, signing of new artists was dropping and the

CD Mastering

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Broadcast Playback

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CD-R/RW Master Recorder with 24bit /96kHz BWF Recording. Not only will the new Fostex CR500 professionally master stereo recordings to CD-R/RW, it also offers the world’s first direct Broadcast WAV recording to a UDF formatted disc at up to 24bit/96kHz resolution. This means, among other things, easy transport to Pro Tools® and other computer-based professional editing environments without audio ripping.*

K When colour copiers first came out, the government required that the green die or ink had to be a little off so they couldn’t copy money. That’s why they always had a bit of an olive tint. That worked. As copy protection progressed ‘forward’, out of nowhere came the idea for a pair of magic notches they wanted to put in the audio band of the CD. The National Bureau of Standards did the testing with hundreds of people

release of shelved artists was increasing as everyone started to merge into one big mega record company that also sold booze. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as they would like to ‘think’ as the main gripe was that every download was a lost sale. Actually, in a lot of respects, so many kids got one or two songs from a new CD and said ‘there is only one good song on the CD. I am not going to buy that crap.’ When you bought a new record only to find it was full of crap except the one song you liked and heard on the radio, what did you do? Record it to a cassette with all the other A-side songs from other records so you could have your favourite music. It took Steve Jobs innovation to really turn ‘sell by the song’ into an industry. He wasn’t the first, but was and still is the best. A lot of us didn’t know that at one time Wal-Mart 9:25 AM third Page 1 MP3 music for sale downloader was the largest in the US. WALMART. Hello? Is my mic on?

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*CD recorded in BWF (UDF1.02) can be recognized only on Windows XP, not on Mac OS (as of May 2006)

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technology

‘Hello!? Yes...who is it?...opportunity?... OK. Yes the record companies are here, hang on a second... Hey — it’s for you...It’s the Clue Phone...’ The record companies still thought it wouldn’t be large. Now, since they have allowed themselves to be pretty much gutted, they want to charge everyone that has a successful download business model more for the songs because they finally realise that it is the future. Of course, just like adults always do, we spin it into whatever makes us look smarter, like ‘Oh we are focused on content now, so this downloading thing is just a minor glitch’. And of course, the RIAA is now suing the parents and grandparents, pets and relatives of the casual downloader for thousands of dollars, trying to make up for the billions that they let pass while sleeping. Stupidity. It’s the new black. Enough ranting… Then as studios upgraded (or downgraded as some believe) their consoles and other equipment, private studios bought up everything used that they could, refurbing old consoles, joining them together, adding features like GML or Flying Faders, and outboard gear, building the B studio industry into an A studio industry at a lower price. Then musicians started building home studios with their record company advances instead of spending it at the big studio. And when they went on the road they rented the studio out to others. The big studios then lost most of the overdub part of their business. Most of us have always looked at the studio schedule as 25% for basic tracks, 50% for overdubs and editing, and 25% for mixing so loosing 50% of your business is nothing to sneeze at. Once some of these home project studios got known, it started cutting in to the other two ends of the studio business, prompting movements from legitimate studio owners to start campaigns to close studios that were doing business in private homes (remember California’s HARP?). And rightfully so in some ways, as they weren’t paying business taxes, didn’t have insurance, weren’t paying rent in commercial area, didn’t follow building codes, etc. At the same time, these private studios offered a private, personal atmosphere. This influx of smaller studios did cause quite a few major studios to close, as did the ‘power package’-type leasing deals that sold any studio that had a pen a lease on a 72-input console 60

‘This influx of smaller studios did cause quite a few major studios to close, as did the ‘power package’type leasing deals that sold any studio that had a pen a lease on a 72-input console and a digital recorder.’ and a digital recorder. This hurt the industry just as much. The large studios bought the package, then the B studios bought the same package for magic leasing deals that allowed them to charge $75.00 an hour for the same equipment that costs $3000 a day at a big studio. A few more big ones dropped off the face of the earth and then quite a few of the B studios went away. So, did it cost the industry or help the industry? OK, OK, let’s get back to the DAW. During the same period, drum machines and samplers came around, and the sky continued to fall. Memories are once again short as this happened with the Mellotron, where in England, they actually required the users to pay union fees for each ‘musician’ that they recorded. There is no doubt that hard disk recorders pretty much killed the 2-inch multitrack recorder industry. The one large US tape company, as it was losing market, purchased its competition, which probably appeared to look as if it was actually growing instead of shrinking, wrapped it in a nice bow and sold it to what looks to be the same people as the ones that let the MP3s flow for free or maybe the same ones that made the brilliant decision to stop signing bands. Has loss of the ‘love’ sound of tape really been outweighed by an overwhelming collection of apparent advantages? In a case like this, it appears that the resolution

advantages outweigh the disadvantages to such a large degree that it is impossible to stop the forward movement. What has changed the sound of records today? Has it simply been the loss of the tone of the tape (in walks the Distressor) or do they sound better because of all the fixes now available? Of course it isn’t the music… Is there a talent issue? No artist development? Couldn’t be that. The ‘consoles’ within the DAW, and the use of an M-box type interface with a good Chinese mic, once again started to erode the studio market, or did it? So, did it cost the industry or help the industry? Just like with the Portastudio effect, yes, it did affect the industry as the quality progressed, but how many new musicians did it add to the market that would not have otherwise been able to even think they could record? How many new engineers would have never had the chance to play with a Pultec if there wasn’t one as a plug-in for $399? Regardless of the closeness to the real thing, it does make a difference. I personally think that most are at best 80%, but 80% is way better than 0%. Too many times, we say that it sounds like crap, but in reality, it just doesn’t sound like the original, but still sounds good, or at least better than nothing. The aftermarket industry that has been created has become one of the driving forces — from plug-ins to hardware. It is the same logic as AutoDesk had when it came out with AutoCad. Everyone had a copy of it, and it seemed like Autodesk didn’t care if they did. The real deal was that every kid in the world learned how to use AutoCad, and when it came down to getting a job, they could say ‘I know AutoCad.’ It also ensured that the DXF file format would become a standard. The same goes with the major players in the DAW industry. Pro Tools and Logic have done a spectacular job making the recording experience accessible to anyone that has the desire. You can spend a little or a lot, but either way, you can make a record. I think the most important aspect of these companies is that they can be recorded on a cheap system, then be used directly on a more expensive one without a lot of pain. So all in all, the changes within the industry are inevitable, as new inventions replace the old ones. For those who look at it as a conspiracy, they will ultimately become a victim of living out their own prophecy. It is tough to change a working model that has worked for so many years. There were many studio owners who never really had the original vision but were in a position to copy an existing business model and succeed, by adding their own touch, and there was so much business that it was easy to make money. The real problem now is that if you want to succeed, you have to have the vision because we are at the beginning of a new era. Not everyone can be the next Beatles, but you can travel in the same direction. At the same time you have to be able to identify the new way and expand on it. Just about all studio owners have no choice but to adapt. It isn’t the end of the world, as some think, there always is the slingshot effect, where everyone runs to one side of the room to avoid something on the other side, but then as time progresses, many start to come back to the middle and a few go back to the other side and start over. I see this with the industry, where a studio, whether old or new, throws out the traditional studio model and builds the control room concept around a couple of monitors, a mouse, keyboard and some outboard gear. It didn’t take long for many of these to wonder if selling all their original gear was a mistake, as customers started to have a real problem paying April 2007

technology high hourly rates for a studio with nothing in it (apparently). And, of course, you can’t get laid with a mouse and monitor. The early invention of the controller gave the engineer two pluses. He can reach and adjust, view and control much like a console, and the customer has a feeling of being in a studio with something in it. In the Icon, Digidesign saw the need for a console interface for ease of use and the visual appeal of something to grab. Not many remember the AT&T computer that interfaced to the recall of an SSL and turned the knobs into controllers for the digital console in the AT&T box. Now you see the introduction of products that work with the DAW, such as the SSL AWS900 and the Tonelux range with the fader automation setup. Daking is also working in this direction. The hybrid integration of these products allows a studio owner to provide a level of service that makes use of the advantages of the recording, editing, and plug-in power of the DAW, while keeping control of it in a more traditional format that also sounds better to many. The traditional format, what does that mean? So many of today’s engineers have never been in a large studio. The normal reaction of many of us older generation engineers is to say ‘no, that’s not the way it’s done’, which gets the usual reaction. I have many opportunities to redirect a new customer towards something that has been tried and true, but I make the decision not to. By not doing that, the customer, who may not do it anything like I would have done it, does a better job at what he does if he is able to do it the way he thinks it should be done. There is a definite pattern with all of this, and it follows the usual 30-year ‘what is old is new again’ cycle. Colours, clothes, car designs, music, TV shows, etc.

‘It is kind of funny, but I have seen some of the original recording problems resurface as new that were solved years ago.’ It is kind of funny, but I have seen some of the original recording problems resurface as new that were solved years ago. Recently, when asked about a solution, I said to myself ‘I have dealt with this problem before, now what was it?’ This was with reference to a customer wanting to know how he could switch the headphone mix from the recorder (DAW) to the input so the artist could hear the direct signal from his setup when he pressed record. Sounds like the Sync button on the old consoles. This was a button that allowed the console to switch from tape to input at a time before tape machines had input monitoring and switching. After years of bitching, the tape machine manufacturers finally added that feature to their machines — they called it Input Switching. With the flexible assignability of the I-O, the channels going into the DAW may not always be the same as the ones coming out unless the unit is configured as a recorder with the same number going in as coming out. The Sync problem becomes that much more complex, because you have to be able to follow what output is assigned to what channel, etc. What needs to happen is either a feature in the DAW or an external box that routes the audio directly from the input connector to the output connector when Record is pressed. This would end any latency and tonal changes going through the conversion process. All in all, it is the way things are and will be, and it’s fun to sit around with a beer and talk about the old days. I remember my grandfather sitting around with his buddies and bitching not only about rock ‘n’ roll, but also how the Big Band era destroyed the Barber Shoppers, which was the only true music… To make matters worse, this morning, a neighbour was selling the stuff in her garage, and in the pile was a Royal Typewriter. One of the kids around walked up to it, looked at it and asked his Dad where the screen was. It’s 1965 all over again, and things old are new again. For the artist, some things will never change, like ‘work hard’ and ‘you have to be better than 10,000 other bands to make it’, etc. The big cash advances of old are probably gone, at least until you have a few gold sellers under your belt, and getting signed is a term we use but may not actually exist in reality, at least not how we remember it. For the engineer/studio owner, you might as well learn the computer, or create such a groove that people will go there just to experience tape, even if it’s just the smell. For the manufacturer, if you are not on the train, you are on the tracks, and trains aren’t late very often. So it is either the end of the world, as some think and will always think, or the once again rebirth of an industry that has been re-invented many times before. My advice is to look forward, and remember the old love rule; if you look back, it isn’t really over in your mind. One more piece of advice. Stop whining, get off your ass and become a leader. If you take a step back, your instinct will provide you with a direction. If it doesn’t, get out now before you get eaten by the ‘new way’. ■ April 2007

resolution

slaying dragons

Being an expert dragons don’t come much ﬁercer than the other side’s Queens counsel in a technical litigation. Here JoHn WatkInSon* relates some of the excitement of being an expert witness.

HaVe a tHeorY that setting one’s heart on having a particular job is a recipe for disappointment. For reasons that are unclear I never really knew what I would do when I grew up, and that gave me the freedom to take any opportunity that arose. I suspect that society has a way of dropping jobs on people who it thinks can do them. One of the hallmarks of adulthood is the reluctance to ask questions for fear of appearing foolish. Having failed to grow up to any significant extent, I retain, even revel in, the ability to ask questions to a degree that would be considered a nuisance in many situations. Stated simply, I don’t care how far I have to dig, but I like to get to the bottom of things. So what niche does society find for Olympic grade iconoclastic truth seekers? We get to be expert witnesses. I didn’t set out to do this, but having written a few books, I started getting phone calls from patent agents and lawyers who wanted something explained and it grew from there. I am never bored because the variety of tasks is so great. It can also be very rewarding to see justice being done. It can be very sobering when millions of dollars or someone’s career and/or reputation is on the line and what you have to say may influence the outcome. On the other hand situations can arise that are so farcical that I have

laughed until I cried. In the UK the overriding duty of an expert is to the Court. Even though he has been retained by one side in a case and is being paid by that side, he has an unusual position because of that duty. An expert cannot say what the lawyers want him to say, he can only say what he knows to be true. Occasionally I am approached and someone says we are looking for someone who is prepared to say such and such. If I can’t prove that such and such is the case, or I know it to be wrong, I tell them to keep looking. Occasionally experts who are trying to impress their client will agree to say a whole lot of stuff, only to get taken apart in cross-examination. It’s painful to watch. The last thing an honest Law firm wants is an expert who rows with the tide. If I think we are going to lose, I will say so. Once in a while I find myself an ex-expert as a result of expressing my views, but I can live with that. Once I was asked to assist a patent holder who was seeking royalties from manufacturers. When I opined that virtually the entire patent portfolio was invalid because of prior art I wasn’t asked for any more assistance. In many technical cases it is not known where the truth lies and an investigation has to be carried out. Needless to say I can’t mention specific cases, but with the growing popularity of camcorders, increasing amounts of videotape evidence exist. Interestingly the soundtracks of videotapes can be even more revealing because the microphone picks up events that are out of view. The recording environment may be, shall we say, sub-optimal and the recordings may need some form of processing to make them useful. Disputes may arise where the quality of recordings is not as good as it should be. Given the many stages audio waveforms can pass through it can take a long time to establish what happened. Digital audio workstations are very useful on occasions like this, and are often used for purposes their designers didn’t envisage. It is becoming public knowledge that classical piano CDs that purport to be performances by one Joyce

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Hatto appear to have waveforms that are uncannily similar to those of published performances by other artists, once some time compression is removed. On Radio 3 it was alleged that the CD is a hoax. Clearly finding out who did what and when would be a nontrivial task. One interesting side effect is that the critics and reviewers of the disc are a bit miffed. Sometimes it is necessary to carry out a reconstruction. In speeding cases, it is always necessary to work out where the camera must have been from the images that are supplied as evidence. This may be video, or a pair of photographs taken a fixed time apart, depending on the apparatus. Once the camera has been located, it is not too hard to use geometry to establish the distance to the vehicle at various times and thereby estimate its speed. In an ideal world the speed estimate would be exactly what the radar or laser ranging unit said. We don’t appear to live in an ideal world. Occasionally I am asked to investigate why something doesn’t work. Usually the legal goal is to establish fault in one or other of the parties. However, in order to be absolutely certain what is wrong with something, you have to fix it. Thus in some cases what began as an investigation ends up with a working device at which point the litigation suddenly doesn’t seem so important. Traditionally in a litigation each side will find their own expert and each will prepare a statement according to his view of the facts. These will then be exchanged to see if there is common ground. Experts may meet to see if they can jointly agree on a position that avoids going to Court. By and large the experts I have met have also been aware of their duty to the Court and are as interested in the truth as I am. According to circumstances, experts may work together and issue joint statements. More recently it has become accepted for a joint expert to be appointed in a case who can look at the technical arguments of both sides. I did once act as a joint expert in France. Under French law every one of my findings had to be described in French to an officer of the Court who wrote it down, hopefully fixing my grammar as he did so. That was an extra excitement, but we got there. In most cases the results of a technical investigation on which both side’s experts agree will result in a settlement. However, sometimes a settlement isn’t reached. It may be due to good old fashioned pride or avoiding loss of face, or it may be that the law has

April 2007

slaying dragons changed and the two parties are interpreting the law in different ways. Both will go to Court, the latter will be a test case. This usually means that the media will be interested and one has to negotiate a forest of Betacams on the way out. In the UK, the legal system is adversarial, meaning that each side has to put its own case while undermining the other side’s case as effectively as possible. The Bench has to endure all of this and form a view about where the truth lies. Being an expert in this system can be quite exciting because having given evidence for one party, the other side may then seek to minimise the impact of the evidence in cross-examination. This may take a number of forms, including outright challenges to the evidence, or more

sinister attacks on some small detail to see if the expert can be proved wrong in one small detail. If this can be done the argument can be made that the rest of the expert’s views are wrong by association. Clearly this kind of thing is not for the fainthearted. The only way to proceed is for the statement to be prepared with great precision so that everything in it can be proven, corroborated or logically deduced. Only in this way can one survive what one knows is coming. It can be very useful to have on one’s own side a lawyer who will challenge everything before it is put to the other side. This is the original devil’s advocate. It’s good discipline to write as if one’s worst enemy is reading over one’s shoulder. I try to do that with everything I write, including the Slaying

Dragons pieces. It’s quite important; dragons have hot bits and sharp bits. Coming through a heavy cross examination without too many arrows sticking out is quite satisfying in a perverse sort of way. It’s a bit like the intellectual equivalent of the Cresta run. The precision needed in litigation is for good reasons, but sometimes it can go too far, hence the joke about the two solicitors who were travelling by train and passed a field of sheep. One of the solicitors observed that the sheep had been shorn, whereas the other would only agree that they had been shorn on the side he could see. ■ * John Watkinson is a member of the Society of Expert Witnesses

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April 2007

resolution

your business

Mixing it up for all the ipods, downloads and Internet streaming that music passes through, regular old radio (what we in the age of satellites must now refer to as ‘terrestrial’ broadcasting, just a digital compelled us to call tape ‘analogue’) is still the king of non-sales music distribution.

dan daLeY

adIoS are In every home and car, and most every place else. Since radio broadcasts went commercial in 1920 in the US (radio covered the presidential campaign and election live that year), it remains the core marketing platform for music. Additional evidence of that is found in recent Federal and state rulings against all four major record labels in the last year on charges of payola — pay for play, essentially — resulting in fines costing them over $40 million collectively. If radio is worth risking that kind of offence in the age of the download and word-ofMySpace-mouth, then it’s still a major factor in the music business. But radio as a business has changed. In the US, over 90% of commercial music radio stations are owned by fewer than five companies, the largest of which is Clear Channel, which controls about a quarter of the US radio market, over 70% of rock-formatted stations in some markets, and earned US$3.5 billion in revenues in 2005 — $1 billion more than its closest competitor. (Do not underestimate the influence that hegemony brings. The no-play list of songs the company compiled after the 9-11 attacks included the Beatles A Day In The Life (had a car crash in it) and Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven.) Other major players include Cumuulus Media, CBS Radio, and Cox Radio. It wasn’t always this way, of course; in the 1950s and 60s lots of niche- and genre-based start-ups appeared that channelled the music no one else wanted — country & western, hillbilly, ‘race’ records, rockabilly, jazz and so on — onto the airwaves. But as rock ‘n’ roll got bigger in the 1970s and 80s, the beginnings of consolidation took place, among record labels and radio stations. A funny thing happened to music in LIMITED EDITION - UNLIMITED PERFORMANCE the process of becoming more productised, though, and it was the same thing that The Brauner Phantom Anniversary Edition had happened to Celebrating a decade of sonic excellence Hollywood in the postblockbuster era in the late 1990s: competition theartofmicrophones.com with so many other entertainment formats compelled the film 64

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studios to release fewer films, and to fund the flagship releases with more money. The idea was to do as much as possible to make every film a hit, and from there a franchise, a la Pirates of the Caribbean. Let the yobs at Sundance worry about the edgy stuff. (Disney announced last year that it was cutting back releases yet again.) In the era of Pop Idol/American Idol we’re seeing the same dynamic at work — fewer releases from a consolidated base of major labels, which have been passed through a market research process disguised as a television show, and many of which have more production people associated with them than records of previous eras: multiple producers, multiple songwriters, many engineers and studios, a small army of leading lights designed to create a guaranteed hit.

‘The ubiquity of the immortal phrase “We can fix it in the mix” illustrates how important the final mix and the mixer have always been to records. But only in the last decade has the mixer emerged on a par with the producer – a time frame that correlates exactly with the record industry’s turmoil.’ Enter the mixer. The most intriguing rubric that this Colin Powell-like approach to record-making (never enter battle with less than overwhelming force) has in its arsenal is that relatively new and increasingly critical nexus that the recordings pass through towards the end: the mixer. The amalgamation of expensive talent that labels array around blockbuster projects needs some kind of final filter that can unify the project creatively (mastering can do so technically) and address the behemoth radio, which takes the attitude that for every record, failure is not an option. A small and increasingly powerful coterie of mixers has evolved that the radio conglomerates look to for their imprimatur before they’ll OK a new single into heavy rotation. All the payola in the world is still not going to give a record the boost at radio that a mix by Spike Stent, Tom Lord-Alge, Tony Maserati, Michael Brauer, Kevin Shirley, Jack Joseph Puig or a few others can deliver. This is a world in which hits are mixed, not simply made. I spoke with Brauer about this at his room at Quad Studios in Manhattan on a cold, snowy day in February. He’s encountered the phenomenon of radio looking for the stamp of assurance from a particular mixer. ‘I had one programmer at a London station that would add certain artists’ records only if I had mixed them,’ he recalls. (He also likes to work there with UK mastering engineer John Davis, whom he says has a remarkable ability to ‘tune’ his masters for specific April 2007

your business outlets such as Radio One, Sky and XM.) Brauer doesn’t believe there’s any shamanism necessarily developing around the mixer at radio or labels, but he does say that it makes sense that as executives from both domains see hits consistently coming down the pike with a few names on them over and over again, they would at some point take notice and make a connection. To Brauer, it’s mostly a mechanical function. ‘You can mix a song so that you experience the huge dynamics from the verse to the chorus on a record,’ he says. ‘But once those broadcast compressors kick in and knock it down 4 to 6dB, it can be cruel. What I’ve learned, what a few of us have learned, is how to get as much implied dynamics into as little amount of dB as possible. How to get 3dB of dynamic contrast into 1.5dB.’ It’s possible that those who control the fortunes of radio and records understand this. It’s possible they also understand the creative component to mixing or remixing a record to optimise it for radio. That’s a much different proposition than the dance/club remixing that the Recording Academy granted a GRAMMY Award rubric to last year. The latter is about creating a new work of art from elements of the previous one; the former is about taking a work of music and tailoring it with bespoke armour for broadcast. The art and the craft here are to allow the original artistic intent to come through unmistakably while accommodating the brute force of analogue compression. Kind of like James Bond after every fourminute explosive car-chase opening sequence: each hair and cufflink still perfectly in place. A book could be written about how to do just that. But what I’m most interested in here is how the mixer has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the music machine. A good mix was always a prized accomplishment, and the ubiquity of the immortal phrase ‘We can fix it in the mix’ illustrates how important the final mix and the mixer have always been to records. But only in the last decade has the mixer emerged on a par with the producer — a time frame that correlates exactly with the record industry’s turmoil. Mixers may have something of a nominal advantage here, as well; unlike the amorphous record producer whose brief can include everything from writing songs, picking musicians, choosing studios and wrangling budgets — all before noteone is ever recorded — the mixer has a very specific primary mission: make this song work for radio. In fact, I’ve found a number of mixers to be very sensitive about how they’re perceived. Jack Joseph Puig made a point of spelling out the hierarchy to me once saying he is a mixer first, then a producer, then an engineer. (Although he’s fond of being remembered as a bass player.) The mixer gives the music industry a kind of secret weapon, a combined technical/creative one-two punch that’s welcome at a time when the traditional business is in disarray. Having radio look to a mixer as a marque of quality I think is preferable to relying on 18 seconds of music played through the telephone to thousands of Midwestern housewives as part of the focus-group market research the radio conglomerates also conduct. Or payola. But it’s not the fault of the mixer if the equivalent of a fetish is being shaped around them by an industry that is terrified of failure. If a record is being remixed because an artist or producer or label wants a second opinion or a fresh perspective, that’s one thing. If it’s being remixed because it wasn’t mixed particularly well in the first place, well, that’s another. And if it’s being mixed to help it get through the thicket April 2007

of compression that radio has always confronted recorded music with, that’s at the very least prudent, and is a level of sophistication higher than Berry Gordy’s approach to the same problem, which was to simply make the whole damn record as loud as possible, thereby pummelling the compressors with a kind of shock-and-awe. But if the radio business is looking at the presence of a particular mixer as the equivalent of a sure thing, then it speaks to the entire music industry’s frame of mind in this time of tumultuous change. You can’t pick a record because it’s ‘good’; no one knows what ‘good’ is because music, like most aesthetic arts, is a subjective proposition. If you decide that a record is ‘good’ based on who mixed it, you’re only getting it half right. The ears that used to figure stuff like that within the industry are largely gone now, the victims

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of budget cuts and punishment for nonconformist thinking. The mixer, then, is an act of evolution; the circumstances that have led to a changing market that radio and records can’t reliably parse on their own has also produced a Rosetta Stone with its own Pro Tools rig, ready to make the record work at radio and give it its best chance at success. And in a business where virtually anyone can declare themselves a producer or assert themselves an engineer with Garageband, the mixer is truly an earned position. The mixer has become the Simon Cowell of the industry: the talented filter that finds not simply what’s good but also what works — for radio, for the culture du jour. I wonder if we’ll ever hear, ‘And the Grammy for Best Filtering of a Non-Classical Recording goes to…’ ■

headroom Source of tHe nS10 When Phil Ward, writing about designing the AE22 nearfield in Resolution V6.2, posed the question — who was the first recording engineer to use the NS10? — I felt I really should know the answer, having at least been one of the first-of-many to pop a pair on my meterbridge (1982). My NS10Ms were given to me by a producer back from mixing one of my recordings at the Power Station NY. According to him, Rhett Davies had taken a pair there when mixing the excellent-sounding Avalon by Roxy Music. Bob Clearmountain was the best mixer in the world! Here were his secret weapons –- I was given a box of special ‘Power Station Kleenex Tissues’ (so I could stick them over the tweeters, just like Bob). So I got in touch with the legendary Clearmountain, and he told me: ‘I believe Rhett got turned on to them by us. Another mixer and dear friend at Power Station named Bill Scheniman had done a session in LA at Motown, where they had a pair. He liked them, then bought a pair for himself to use. He recommended I try them, which I did and also liked them, although when listening to my mix at home, I thought it a bit on the dull side. I then asked the Power Station techs if they could install an attenuator for the tweeter, which they would have no part of. So I took a bit of tissue and taped it over the tweeters, which seemed to solve the problem. Yamaha later changed the design with the NS10M Studio that smoothed out the top end, eliminating the need for the tissue, which is what I use to this day.’ Tracking Bill down was hard, as he was no longer Music Production and Engineering Chair at Berklee College of Music, which was my last sighting, but eventually I persuaded a previous employer to give me his mobile number. ‘I was the first person to bring a pair to New York and the Power Station,’ he confirmed. Clearmountain had been right about Tony Bongiovi releasing him to go to LA with Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (a Diana Ross album for Motown), but it had been at Sunset, he thought. It was true he’d spotted some NS10s, the assistant may have said they belonged to Greg Ladanyi, but he had first been persuaded about the Yamahas earlier when he visited Japan to work with former Power Station client Yoshiyuki Osawa. ‘I used them in two studios, the first called TakeOne, I can’t tell you the name of the other ... if I say it in Japanese I’ll probably order Octopus! I used the NS10Ms there and they just seemed to work: they had a good amount of bottom, and made a great stereo image with a razor sharp centre when the triangle was set up right. The only problem was the high frequencies were a little bright. Bob was the guy who said — take one of these Kimwipes and put it over the tweeter. Everybody was watching Bob for what to do next, because he sounded different and better. If it was found out that Bob was doing something, they would try it.’ So there you have it. A Japanese engineer, possibly at TakeOne studios, was the first to use Akira Nakamura’s domestic design in a professional setting. Bill Scheniman took them to the US and gave them to Bob Clearmountain who made them (and himself) famous. I was the first to use NS10Ms in Germany, but never became famous like Bob because I was given Kleenex, not Kimwipes. Nigel Jopson The wheel goes round and round — and I was interested to read about the AE22 speaker (p50) which brings back memories of the GEC aluminium-coned ‘speaker of ~50 years ago. Indeed I still have a pair of these which were remarkable for their very flat LF response, and low distortion. Their intended use as a full-range driver was marred by a 7kHz resonance, but as a bass unit up to say 1kHz they are good. I had to replace the PVC surrounds on mine due to hardening and leaching of plasticisers, but they soldier on! The short (underhung) voice coil on the AE22 is a very desirable feature, and I wish more manufacturers (other than ATC) used this topology. David Birt, Bletchingly, UK

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Schoeps .............................17

Drawmer / Soundfield.......21 Enhanced Audio ................63

SCV ....................................12 SE / Sonic Dist. .................54

Fairlight .............................47

Sennheiser .........................48

Focusrite ...........................33

Sonifex ..............................62

Focusrite ...........................35

Sonnox ..............................19

Fostex................................59

Stirling Audio ....................31

Genelec .............................68 Ghost / Sonic Dist. ............65 Harman Pro .......................09 Holophone ........................41

resolution

Milennia Music ..................13

Charteroak ........................61

DPA ...................................20

Merging Technologies ......02

Studer ................................39 TL Audio ............................27 TL Commerce ....................63

Interfacio ...........................66

Waves / Sonic Dist. ...........42

JESA Alpha........................07

Violet .................................57

April 2007

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