Resolution V7.2 March 2008 by Resolution

AUDIO FOR POST, BROADCAST, RECORDING AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

v7.2 marCH 2008

Jon Cohen on crossover classical Room-to-room compatibility of cinema soundtracks Form and function of Cadac’s S-Digital console TV2 broadcasting from Oslo’s city centre Meet your maker: Stephan Peus — Neumann Ten ways to beat consumerism rEviEWS: CEDAR DNS1500 • RME DMC-842 • Sonic Studio SoundBlade Digidesign RM2 • TC Konnekt 48 • Primacoustic Stabilizers • Logic Studio

Designed to Adapt L i ke N a t u r e, G e n e l e c DSP ser ies products h ave t h e a d va n c e d ability to adapt to their environment. To solve challenging acoustic issues associated with smaller working environments Genelec introduces the new SE (Small Environment) DSP System. With it, the new SE7261A 10'' DSP subwoofer provides connectivity for up to eight 8130A digital bi-amp monitors. Newly designed GLM.SE software provides computer control of all essential monitoring functions. Genelec AutoCal™ optimizes equalization, level and distance compensation through the SE7261A low-pass/hi-pass outputs to quickly adapt the subwoofer and each loudspeaker to its immediate environment, even in multiple locations. Genelec’s pioneering work in measuring and calibrating customer systems worldwide using our proprietary Room Response Controls led us to develop our new range of DSP monitors, bringing more flexibility and accuracy for our customers. The Genelec SE System brings your listening confidence to professional levels, and provides the most natural and accurate audio monitoring to today’s smaller environments.

www.g enelec.com

AUDIO FOR POST, BROADCAST, RECORDING AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

v7.2 marCH 2008

iSSN 1477-4216

News & Analysis 6

leader

Products

News

Headroom

tv2

modern World Studios

Jon Cohen

ten

meet your maker

Sales, contracts, appointments and biz bites.

New introductions and announcements. Importing IRs and attentional selectivity.

Craft 14

Norwegian commercial broadcaster’s Oslo centre location creates practical challenges and technological solutions. A main player in the classical crossover arena talks about the genre and his recording techniques.

iain roberton

How the fat end of a long tail tempted this Sarm studio alumnus to work in library music.

One owner’s story of how a move to a slightly larger personal production space ended up mutating into a full-blown facility. Ways to beat consumerism. Stephan Peus — Neumann’s president of development shares his thoughts on microphone technology and progress.

Sweet Spot

Room-to-room compatibility of cinema soundtracks — the goals and the problems.

Business 50

reaching out in pro-audio retail

There are more people involved in audio for a living now than there ever have been before and savvy suppliers are tapping in.

Your business

The movement in record company ownership and game plans doesn’t excite Daley.

Technology 57

Cadac S-digital

A look into the form and function of the production version of Cadac’s new board.

Slaying dragons

32 34 35 36 38

logic Studio Centrance micPort Pro Primacoustic recoil Stabilizers CEdar audio dNS1500 digidesign rm2

Knowing how stringed instruments work helps when you come to record them.

Reviews 22 24 26 28 30

rmE dmC-842 dangerous music d-Box tC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48 Sonic Studio SoundBlade Presonus FaderPort

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 Holland, 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, magazine Production tel: +44 1273 467579 Email: dean@resolutionmag.com

news news appointments EUPHONIX HAS appointed Jeff Levison as director of international sales in the Pacific Rim and South America. He was most recently an independent producer, engineer and consultant and held a series of similar positions with DTS, Warner Hollywood Studios and Electrosonic. Mike Franklin has been named vice president of sales for North America. He joined Euphonix from SSL in 1997 as sales manager for the company’s Southern region and went on to lead broadcast sales in the US. US PRO audio d i s t r i b u t o r G ro u p One, under the direction of president Jack Kelly (pictured), is now distributing DiGiCo products in the US and Puerto Rico. Allan Nichols (sales manager), Taidus Vallandi (technical sales) and Amy Vallandi (sales and service support) will join the Group One team.

(l-r) Rakesh Aggarwal of Comcon, Marcus Brooke of Sonifex and Iain Elliott of Canford Audio.

Gibson and tC to merge

leader

it is disturbing that the gaming controller should have finally made its appearance in force at Namm this year and that we witnessed the incongruous sight of people queuing up not to get an autographed t-shirt, calendar or photo from some tattooed and multipierced grunge deity, but to have their go at some rock star-style playalonga game in public. Now we truly know that the mi industry has begun to gag on the beginnings of its own tail. to cap it all, i clocked the immortal words uttered by a reptile-like presenter during his gush of feature-led benefits ‘…don’t worry about the pitch, don’t worry about the tempo, it Will fit.’ if you can’t hit the tempo or the notes then, in my book, there’s not much left. tell that to the queue of wannabes waiting for their go on the game because they’ll make it look like it’s about right even though it is the technology that will actually take care of the detail. to me, this is madness. the mi industry — once the very nurturer and groomer of fodder for the music chain — has, in its attempt to stay hip and in-touch with the kids, started to bring in and appeal to people who don’t really belong to the clan of musicians because they’re not going to go anywhere in it. You can see how it happened; some younger and hipper-than-thou marketing nerd has told greying management that they have to broaden their product appeal into new growth areas — Peavey now makes guitar game controllers for crying out loud. While i can believe that the mock guitarists lining up to mime could have been players — on account of them being suss enough to blag their way into the ‘trade only’ Namm event for one — i can’t imagine that there is any feed through of guitar gamers who go on to become budding malmsteens; certainly not after the first time they feel the cut of the cold steel under their finger tips. Similarly, why develop software tools that do all the work for you? Where does that product evolution lead to? You hit Play and you dance around pretending to be in control — in my day you had a tennis racket and a full length mirror. it’s madness and it’s sadness because it’s such a pathetic attempt to connect with a modern ‘disposable’ mentality. Yet, if anything represents longevity, personal betterment, fulfilment and dedication to seeing something through to an end, it is the mastering of an instrument. i have no beef with the gamesters who ironically were probably bought an electric guitar pack (with lead, tuner and plectrum) from a catalogue one Christmas that promptly emerged in the small ads in February. they were likely treated this Christmas by the same well-meaning parents to a guitar game as they remembered that ‘Zak really wants to play the guitar…’ actually, Zak is wasting his time and your money because he hasn’t got the patience, application or aptitude to persist with anything as demanding as an instrument. and i don’t want to see him at Namm. Zenon Schoepe

Gibson Guitar and TC Group are planning to merge. The announcement marks a preliminary agreement between the two companies. Under the terms of the new merger, Anders Fauerskov, CEO of TC Group, will remain based in Europe and serve as COO of the new combined Gibson Guitar Corp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ‘This merger will create exciting new opportunities for all employees within TC Group and Gibson, and in particular, fantastic new tools for our markets and customers,’ said Fauerskov. ‘This partnership will allow us to expand our leadership position in the marketplace.’ ‘This merger will revolutionise the music industry for many years to come,’ added Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar. TC Group is a holding company of five individual companies consisting of Tannoy Group, Lab.gruppen, TC Electronic Group, TC-Helicon and TC Applied Technologies.

rmE sponsors film festival sound award

The End Of The Pier International Film Festival is offering a range of awards for independent film makers who submit work to the 2008 event, and this year it has introduced a sound award sponsored by Synthax UK, distributor of RME. The festival, held between 25 April to 3 May in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, is in its fifth year and showcases work from aspiring young and low budget film makers from around the world.

SAE moves HQ to UK

SONIFEX’S DISTRIBUTOR of the year awards have gone to Canford Audio as best UK distributor and Indian distributor Comcon as best export distributor. PANORAMADTV, THE video products division of Wohler Technologies, has launched Wohler Asia, a new Hong Kong-based division that will provide local service, technical support, and Wohler products to the Asia-Pacific market. Wohler Asia is led by Scott Fountain, who brings 15 years of experience within the Asian broadcast market to his role as division director.

©2008 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

The SAE Institute is to move its global HQ to Oxford at Littlemore Hospital and open the world’s biggest technology school alongside. The new campus will offer state of the art facilities with a number of fully residential places available. SAE is spending UK£12 million on updating the old Littlemore hospital for the new operation — a further £8 million

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.

will be spent on the company’s London college later this year. Oxford will have bespoke teaching facilities, individual workstation areas for students, recording studios equipped with the latest technology (including one capable of recording an 88-piece orchestra), comfortable student accommodation and a library with books, films and other creative media.

S2 Publications ltd. registered in England and Wales. Company number: 4375084. registered office: Equity House, 128-136 High Street, Edgware, middlesex Ha8 7tt.

resolution

London independent postproduction group The Farm recently commissioned studio furniture specialist AKA Design for the relocation of its Uncle facility to Soho. As well as custom-designed studio furniture and interiors, the company has also developed off-the-shelf, flat-packed furniture (AKA Product). AKA provided technical and office furniture for 26 edit suites, two audio studios, one grading suite and four technical areas.

SUBSCriBE www.resolutionmag.com annual Subscriptions: UK £37.00, Europe £46.00, rest of the World £53.00

March 2008

news town House Studios auction in may Equipment and contents from The Town House Recording and Mastering Studios will be auctioned at the beginning of May following the closure of the three-studio complex at the end of March. MjQ has been commissioned to handle the sale, which will be conducted online between 7-9 May and as a Sale by Treaty, which will take place at the studio on the same dates. The auction will include more than 1,000 lots including SSL consoles, Pro Tools systems, vintage mics and vintage and modern outboard and lathes. ‘The Town House Studios was always one of London’s key innovators and this heritage is reflected in the extensive range of highquality, well maintained equipment included in the auction,’ said Malcolm Jackson, MD of mjQ. ‘We believe that the opportunity to own a piece of music industry history will prove to be a strong draw for many of the people bidding for these lots.’ www.mjQ.co.uk

SBES further changes The organisers of SBES, Point Promotions, had announced changes for the scheduling of this year’s event to include a Saturday but has now rethought the decision and gone back to its usual Wednesday-Thursday format — 5-6 November at the NEC. ‘The feedback that we’ve received from visitors has indicated that holding the exhibition on a Friday and Saturday although interesting, was not proving as popular as the initial research indicated,’ said David McVittie, organiser of SBES.

K+H monitors Coronation Street

appointments

(l-r) Nikolaj Rudyk (DPA), Piotr Dolewka (Audiostacja), Poul Koza (DPA), Piotr Dygasiewicz (Audiostacja).

the manchester Studios has upgraded its monitoring in its five multicamera studios with Klein + Hummel. the UK’s longest-running soap opera Coronation Street is still filmed and produced at the manchester Studios, which now operates under the 3sixtymedia title, and remains the Northwest’s busiest tv studio. the studios now boast five pairs of o 300d actives, six pairs of o 110 nearfields and three o 800 subs. the task of upgrading the postproduction facilities has started with the introduction of an o 500C/o 110 system in audio dub 3, while o 110 nearfields have been introduced in the track lay suite. ‘the aim is to upgrade to 5.1 throughout, firstly in audio post, with the addition of extra o 300ds and a o 900 sub system, followed by the tv studio installations,’ said mike Hayes, operations manager audio department at 3sixtymedia. ‘Given that we didn’t have the budget to completely redesign the control rooms, we needed to find a family of monitors that allowed us to create a confident, solid, listening environment across all studios. None of the products tested came up to the standard or gave the absolute value for money of Klein + Hummel. ‘When the audio is passed on to postproduction it isn’t changing, so everyone has confidence in the monitoring. the key things are clarity, imaging, detail, accuracy and integrity,’ he said.

DPA MICROPHONES has appointed Audiostacja as its new distributor for Poland. The company is based in Warsaw and was founded in 2005 following the merger of two existing pro audio distributors. MARIA XITHALIS has joined Klotz Digital as director of sales — Americas. She served previously at RVA Canada where she was responsible for sales and prior to that was a member of the management team of Lawo North America and VP of Studer North America.

Waterproof AKGs for Rugby refs

www.sbes2008.com

roland ups share in Cakewalk Cakewalk and Roland have announced an expansion of their strategic relationship with Roland increasing its investment in Cakewalk. The companies say that together they are committed to creating a series of impressive software/hardware joint products. The move is described as the natural progression of a relationship that goes back more than a decade. In 1995 Roland began distributing Cakewalk products in Japan. In 2003 Roland invested in Cakewalk to help fund the development and marketing of joint products. At that time it also started distributing Cakewalk products in many markets outside the US. ‘Although Roland now owns a bigger share of Cakewalk, they didn’t acquire the whole company,’ said Greg Hendershott, founder and CEO of Cakewalk. ‘Cakewalk is not becoming a “division” of Roland. On the contrary, we remain committed to developing standalone software, as well as hardware/software products.’

Prestidge and Salloch.

PATRICK SALLOCH has been promoted to general manager of Klotz Digital Asia Pacific. Keith Prestidge will oversee and manage all engineering resources as technical director Asia Pacific.

UK broadcast equipment provider and rental company VME employed 20 AKG C77 WR lavalier mics for use in its work for television sports broadcasters, including the Rugby Union Heineken Cup, Six Nations Championship, Guinness Premiership and major Rugby League games. It equips pitch officials with lapel

mics so they can communicate with each other, the television commentary team, and, in the case of the referee, so he can add live on-air comments on the action where required. The CK77 WR‘s dualdiaphragm omni has a water-resistant head, which is handy for typical Rugby conditions.

THOMAS MARCHER is now sales director for Asia and the Pacific Rim for Crown International. He joins from Klotz Digital Asia, where he most recently served as managing director. Prior to that, he was sales manager for Danish Interpretation Systems following eight years with TC Electronic. MICROPHONE MANUFACTURER Lauten Audio is now distributed in Germany by Analog Audio.

Subscribe now online at www.resolutionmag.com UK £37 • Europe £46 • Rest of the World £53

March 2008

resolution

news appointments

digico integrates with tools

SOURCE DISTRIBUTION in the UK has appointed Chas Levin as technical support specialist for all its brands. Levin worked as a studio engineer and latterly producer at studios in London and Rome, before running the technical support department at SCV London for the last four years.

TL AUDIO has appointed Music Marketing as its distributor in North America (above) and PEK AG as its distributor in Switzerland (below).

Engineer dave Wooster handled FoH at Gary moore’s recent tour with a digico d1 console and recorded to Pro tools. ‘the idea of recording the show is to give Gary some further material to use for various things, whether that’s a full release, a release of bonus material or a release as a digital download,’ said Wooster. ‘alongside that, it was being recorded as a production tool for me to use. i could work on the sound checks and the show without needing Gary and the band. at the end, i think we did 18 shows worth of multitrack recordings.’ Wooster took the material back to his own Koolworld studio in luton, cleaned it up, edited it, and mixed it down as a final master for Gary to listen to and choose from. ‘the integration between the live recording and the studio was completely seamless,’ he added. ‘acoustically the d1 is far, far better than anything i’ve used to date. at the end of this we will have a nice bank of settings that we can transfer into Gary’s shows at a later stage, whether we use a d5 or a d1.’

Sky News covers Globe with Sennheiser

NBC olympics makes splash with alpha NBC Olympics has selected a 56-fader Calrec Alpha with Bluefin console to be stationed at Beijing’s National Aquatics Centre at the 2008 Olympic Games. System integration for the console, which will provide coverage of swimming and diving events, will be by NBC Olympics’ official partner Bexel Corporation, based in Burbank CA. The console brings the total number of Calrec boards used by NBC Olympics at the 2008 Olympic Games to eight; NBC is using two Sigma with Bluefin consoles at the International Broadcast Centre, and a further five Omega with Bluefin consoles in fly-packs at various locations in the city. In addition to swimming and diving, Calrec consoles will be used to cover the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, gymnastics, trampoline and beach volleyball. ‘Even our “smaller” events are quite demanding,’ said Bob Dixon, NBC’s project manager for sound design at the Olympics. ‘The number of real and virtual tape machines with four to 12 audio tracks each, has gone up tremendously. What used to be a stereo source is now a sixchannel source. For example, crowd mixes, sound effects mixes and music playbacks; all of these have dramatically increased our requirement for more input and output channels. If many inputs make up a 5.1 channel group, and you have several of these groups making up your 5.1 programme mix, that demands quite a sophisticated console,’ he said.

monastery museum project

BELDEN HAS announced that Larrie Rose, VP, operations a n d p re s i d e n t o f Belden Europe will re t i re a t t h e e n d of February after 35-years with the company. Belden has appointed Henk Derksen as interim MD. Derksen is VP, finance for Belden Europe. GEMMA BATTERS has been promoted to the role of bookings manager at London Soho-based postproduction house Rainbow Post. Originally employed as facilities assistant, she was previously a runner and then a junior producer at Evolutions. QUESTEK BROADCAST Technologies in Southern Africa has been appointed as the local agent for Chromatec and Chord Professional audio monitoring, Chromatec video display and openGear products on behalf of Michael Stevens & Partners.

Sky News has recently joined the list of broadcasters using Sennheiser’s Electronic News Gathering equipment by purchasing 68 radio mic systems for its cameramen and reporters in the field. It has chosen SK 3063-U bodypack transmitters paired with EK 3241 receivers and a selection of MD 46 reporters’ microphones and MKE2 lapel mics. George Davies, head of cameras, Sky News, said that, given the microphones and cameras had to be used worldwide, sometimes in hostile environments, it was the equipment’s physical toughness that

had primarily informed the broadcaster’s choice. ‘Sennheiser kit is made from metal and is therefore heavy duty,’ he said. ‘It is also capable of reasonably high-powered output which is important to us, as our journalists want to do walking, talking pieces to camera and sometimes start 50 yards away.’ Sky News is currently using the equipment in Washington, Delhi and Brussels and in the last six months the broadcaster’s three travel kits, based in London, have covered stories at the American elections, the Arctic and Iraq.

resolution

Refurbishment of the Sant Benet de Bages monastery, near Manresa by Catalan bank Caixa Manresa, includes a sophisticated audiovisual system, designed by TESI, to support a museum project by Produccions Culturals Transversal and its manager Eudald Tomasa. The main idea of the project is to explain the monastery’s history in sound, light and picture and to lead visitors around the different spaces. Twenty-three HD video projectors add to the sound while lighting is mainly by LED projectors. The system is controlled by TESI’s TALIA show control software, which can drive 1024 channels of light and an unlimited number of HD video and multichannel audio players. The routing of sound sources to the loudspeakers (up to 70 in some spaces) is by CODA digital audio matrices by TESI.

March 2008

My Personal Euphonix I

ntroducing the Artist Series. Bring the powerful mixing and control capabilities of Euphonix audio consoles into your personal studio. T h e s t a n d - a l o n e M C M i x 8 - f a d e r u n it includes touch-s e n s i t i v e rotary encoders for plug-in control, and OLED displays for track info and metering. Connect to any EuCon, HUI or Mackie Control application on your Mac(s) via highspeed EuCon protocol over Ethernet.

MC Control £ 999*

MC Mix £ 699*

Up to three 8-Fader MC Mix units may be clipped together, and the MC Control unit can be added for serious editorial work.

euphonix.com ©2008 Euphonix Inc. All Rights Reserved. MC Control, MC Mix, & EuCon are trademarks of Euphonix Inc. Mac and Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc., Registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. *Estimated street price including VAT. Mac computer, monitor & keyboard not included.

news appointments THE HARMAN Pro Group has promoted Michael MacDonald to the newly created position of executive VP of marketing and sales. MacDonald will continue to report directly to Blake Augsburger, president and CEO of the Harman Pro Group. K e n Ya s u d a , president of Harman Japan, is expanding his responsibilities to assume the newly created position of Country Manager of Harman Japan. In his new assignment, Yasuda will report directly to Harman International CEO Dinesh Paliwal. SONIC STUDIO has made two appointments to its North American sales force. David Larsen is the new direct sales representative and Jay Harper has been named product specialist for the Sonic Studio line.

RIEDEL COMMUNICATIONS has opened an office in Sydney, Australia. Led by Peter Cochrane, it will cover rental and sales activities for the Australian market. SOLID STATE Logic has appointed Simon Jacobs as product specialist for its MediaWAN technology platform. He has designed and run training programmes at SeaChange International and worked for Quantel and Pinnacle Systems. ATG BROADCAST has two additions to its team. Jonathan O’Connor has joined as support engineer. He has worked for the Picture Canning Company and Visual Impact Group. David Green has joined in a logistics support role and was formerly with logistics company Sameday Solutions.

Say anything say tonelux

Say anything’s double album in defense of the Genre owes much of its vivacity to the modular tonelux analogue mixer according to producer/engineer Brad Wood. Brad tracked drums, guitar, and bass with the band at Electric lady Studios in New York before returning to the tonelux mixer in his los angeles studio to track vocals, electronics, and miscellany. He mixed all 27 songs with Pro tools Hd 3 accel, with individual tracks and submixes to the tonelux for final mixing, and a return to Pro tools to record the 2-channel mixdown. Wood’s customised console consists of eight mX2 mono line inputs with sends, four FX2 dual line inputs with sends, two mP1a mic preamps, two tXC compressors, and one Sm2 stereo master, for a system that has 16 mix inputs. ‘i’ll never sit behind a large console to mix a record again; i much prefer my computer monitor, my speakers, and my modest outboard gear,’ said Brad. ‘i can’t stand the comb filters that come off of a large console — it’s too much. at the same time, it’s obvious that when you take your mix into an aPi legacy or comparable console, it instantly sounds better.’ to find a happy medium, Wood underwent a months-long test of all small-format modular systems. ‘the tonelux sounded amazing,’ he said. ‘it had tons of headroom. the first thing i did was send audio through it at unity. Just like those big consoles, it instantly sounded better. When i built a mix from scratch, i was sold. i could push it hard and it took it all and sounded solid. it wasn’t a tough decision.’

Dual control XL8s in Maly refurb Midas’ Russian distributor Theatre Te c h n i c s and Te c h n o l o g y h a s installed a dual control surface XL8 Live Performance System into the State Academic Maly Theatre in Moscow, one of the country’s oldest theatres, as part of a renovation spanning six years. The historical aspect of the building and its architecture had to be taken into account while updating the technology. ‘We had to come up with a solution which could provide us with a great number of audio channels with a minimal amount of cabling,’ said the Maly’s head of sound, Alexander

Kazarin. ‘The XL8 has completely fulfilled our criteria. All the channels can be relayed from the console to the stage via just two Cat6 cables. We also have a huge input and output count compared to what we had before.’ The theatre has two mix positions, one at the rear of the stage and a second control surface in a box to the side of stage. A recording studio one level up can also be fed with 48 channels of audio from the stage via four Cat5 cables. Last year the theatre celebrated its troupe’s 250th anniversary.

resolution

Wlodek Sielski It is with great sadness that AuviTran SARL has announced the death, at the end of December, of business development director and co-founder Wlodek Sielski after a seven-month battle against cancer. He leaves his wife Fiona and children Poppy and Liam. Born in Poland in 1955, Wlodek had a university education in electronics but found himself living the highlife soon after as touring sound engineer for the country’s top Communist-era rock band. Travelling throughout the then Soviet Union he flew regularly on Concordski. He later settled in the Netherlands and began sound design and engineering for one of the country’s major theatres. In the late 1980s he moved to the UK where he engineered for broadcasters Central Television and Sky TV and it was while at Sky that he met his wife Fiona. Capitalising on his broadcast experience, Wlodek took a career shift from engineering to sales and began distributing Digigram products in the UK. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful business relationship that ultimately saw Wlodek head up business development for Digigram France and become director of its Asian subsidiary. It was at Digigram that he met Yves Ansade and Jeremie Weber and between them they created the spin-out AuviTran. In addition to his work at AuviTran he latterly consulted on development projects at Fostex Japan and K+H Germany. Wlodek will be greatly missed by his friends and colleagues in the industry and will be remembered for his beliefs and enthusiasm in everything he did.

Soho is Blue for Scrub

Located across six floors in the heart of London’s Soho, end-to-end postproduction facility Blue has added Digidesign Icon consoles to three of its five Pro Tools rooms. Installed and supported by Scrub, the upgrade includes a 32-fader D-Control with Surround Panner, a 16-fader D-Control and a 24-fader D-Command. ‘Icon and Pro Tools is the only solution that offers the speed, flexibility and integration to cater for the multi-studio, back-to-back projects of the variety, scale and schedules we deal with daily,’ said studio manager Jim Jacobs. ‘We also have 26 networked Avids that pass files to the studios, further facilitating the tapeless workflow.’ Scrub has also supplied a Pro Tools HD3 system with a 24-fader D-Command to allApple, all-HD Soho post house Unit in a package that included plug-ins, monitoring, metering and outboard.

March 2008

Fascinated scientists since 19 05:

Fascinates sound engineers from 20 0 6:

No compromises

When perfection is the goal, there is only one convincing answer: the mc 2 90 from

Lawo. Because the mc 2 90 guarantees the best possible result in the most challenging production situations. And because this new, top-of-the-range, console sets new standards – thanks to its maximum flexibility, double redundancy, up to 200 physical faders, and its intuitive user control interface. Welcome to the next generation of audio technology. Welcome to Lawo. Headquarters: Lawo AG · Rastatt/Germany · +49 7222 1002-0 · w w w.lawo.de

Frankfurt, 12 th - 15 th March 2008, Hall 8.0, Booth E20

news Biz Bites THE COSTLY and damaging highdef video format war is over, writes Nigel Jopson, as Toshiba admits it is set to scrap HD DVD. February’s announcement by US retailing giant Wal-Mart that it would no longer stock HD DVD kit proved to be the final nail in the coffin for which the format was evidently being measured, after Warner’s revealed it was switching to Blu-ray at January’s CES. Sony has spent its way to victory by subsidising the sale

of Play Station 3 consoles equipped with its expensive-to-manufacture players. Sony’s PS3 division racked up losses of $1.97bn in the year to March 2007, plus a further deficit of $991m in the following three quarters. Blu-ray films have been outselling HD DVD by 2:1 in the US and 4:1 in Europe. Sony has shipped an estimated 3m PS3s, Toshiba around 200,000 HD players. ‘Recently customer demand has moved strongly towards Blu-ray as a result of the decisions made by the US film studios,’ said John Kempner, buyer for UK department store John Lewis, as he confirmed no more HD DVD players would be ordered by the chain. This victory is a significant morale boost for Sony, a vital validation of the culture of engineering excellence close to the heart of many Sony bigwigs, and a precursor to rapid consumer acceptance, and ramped-up demand for high-def content. If ISPs (Internet Service Providers) fail to come to an agreement with the recording industry on P2P activity by 2009, the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport claims that the government will: ‘shortly consult on options for a statutory solution.’ This has been widely reported as a legislative clampdown and John Kennedy, CEO of the IFPI commented: ‘Within the space of only four months, two governments, in France and Britain, have now embraced the simple idea that Internet Service Providers are uniquely positioned to help in the fight against digital piracy.’ Liberal commentators and ISP’s have responded with the usual common carrier ‘we just provide the wires’ argument. The common carrier argument is undermined by technical facts: it comes down to this -– if ISPs can identify and re-route music and video

Big Bear equips rtE’s main oBv

RTE’s Anton Timoney (left) and Donie Stritch.

ireland’s Big Bear Sound supplied broadcaster radio telefís Éireann (rtÉ) with two digidesign venue consoles for use in its outside broadcast vans (oBvs). the broadcaster’s main oB radio truck is equipped with a d-Show console, Stage rack, and FoH rack and rtÉ also has the more portable d-Show Profile console, which will be used as a backup system for smaller venues where carry-ins are required, and for additional redundancy and channel capacity at larger classical events and festivals. a number of factors worked in the venue’s favour, according to rtÉ’s senior radio producer anton timoney, including its durability and dual redundancy, the d-Show ease of use, and the ability to create a consistent workﬂow with rtÉ’s existing Pro tools|Hd systems. rtÉ has four Pro tools|Hd systems installed in its radio studios, a 48-track Pro tools|Hd system in the Concert Hall, and other oBvs equipped with Pro tools lE for stereo recording. Big Bear Sound also supplied rtÉ with additional mix Engine dSP cards and venuePack Pro for each desk. With this setup, rtÉ now has all of the same main Pro tools plug-ins used in its studios in donnybrook replicated in the truck. ‘We are all Pro tools literate at rtÉ, and compatibility is a major issue,’ said timoney.

Twin mc²66s for Munich State Theatre M u n i c h ’ s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz has installed two networked Lawo mc²66 consoles. ‘The previous console was analogue, and technically outdated,’ stated Dirk Buttgereit, head of the sound department. ‘The mc²66 console offers a clear and well designed control surface, which makes for user-friendly operation.’ Lawo delivered two mc²66s in September. W ith 192 DSP channels, two 3000crosspoint router cards and two DSP boards for room equalisation (providing around 400 parametric filters for the loudspeaker channels) they can handle very large productions. ‘One Lawo console is installed in a control room, equipped with a

retractable window, on the second balcony level. During rehearsals, the sound engineer uses the mobile mc²66 console in the auditorium to devise presets for the performances,’ e x p l a i n e d Buttgereit. Because both consoles are networked all the settings can be transferred to the console in the control room. Parallel operation is also possible, enabling a show to be mixed in the auditorium while the second mc²66 in the control room is used for recording. The mobile console is housed in a flightcase, and can be moved to different locations easily. Another benefit is that the Bavarian broadcaster BR’s OB trucks, which are also equipped with mc²66 consoles, can directly share the console data.

resolution

news Biz Bites file sharing requests to save themselves money, shouldn’t the sharers either be stopped, or the content creators be paid? Meanwhile the Canadian Recording Industry Association is speaking out against a proposal from the Songwriters Association of Canada that would see $5 added to each Canadian Internet user’s bill. Music recommendation website Last.fm (acquired by CBS in May for $280m) has seen user numbers rise 59% after introducing a free streaming service, launched with deals from the four majors. Last.fm said its free ondemand service has been a driver of traffic growth in the US, where the site is not as well known as in Europe, and claims 21m unique users per month based on internal traffic figures. ‘The music industry is looking outside itself to maximise existing revenue opportunities while developing new ones, and Last.fm and CBS are showing what can be done,’ said co-founder Felix Miller.

Irving Azoff’s bold idea to have The Eagles 2007 comeback Long Road Out Of Eden available only through WalMart has paid of. His determination to withhold the songs from iTunes, and to leverage Wal-Mart promotional muscle, has also delivered packed shows as the band tour. ‘We figured out that [total iTunes royalties] equalled about 45 minutes of one concert at any city in the world,’ Azoff revealed. ‘As much as The Eagles are making on sales of 8.5m albums around the world, it pales in comparison to the touring revenue. The business is going to have to wake up and realise that recorded music sales are an ancillary business.’

Showtime Pro Light + Sound, Frankfurt .......................12-15 March NAB, Las Vegas .............12-17 April AES Europe, Amsterdam .17-20 May BroadcastAsia, Singapore ......................17-20 June Plasa, London ........7-10 September IBC, Amsterdam ..12-16 September AES US, San Francisco .. 3-5 October Broadcast India, Mumbai .................... 17-19 October SBES, Birmingham .... 5-6 November Tonmeistertagung, Leipzig ................. 13-16 November InterBEE, Tokyo ... 19-21 November

Sounds of Sahara

munro acoustics has completed two recording studios for the Sahara Corporation in mumbai, india. one of india’s largest companies, Sahara is involved with housing, finance, Bollywood and sponsorship of the indian cricket team. the company also has its own television channel and production facility. the project was originally commissioned by Saapna mukherji, who heads up Sahara’s studio division, to completely rebuild the existing studios at a site in Goregaon, mumbai. the design was finished and work had begun but the site was ﬂooded by the worst tropical storm in mumbai’s history. the building was deemed unusable and a new one was found close to andheri, the media hub of mumbai. the new complex consists of two studios. Studio one has a large control room with an SSl 9000, custom dynaudio m4 5.1 monitoring with Bm15s for the surrounds and two 18-inch subs. the live area can record a 40-piece orchestra and has a separate vocal booth. Studio two has an SSl 4000 console and the same monitoring setup as Studio one but its live area is smaller and has variable acoustics.

DPA stereo kit mics rare ﬁddle

DPA Microphones’ Australian distributor Amber Technology has supplied a DPA 3506 stereo kit to the Australian Chamber O rc h e s t r a f o r u s e with a very special instrument: one of the world’s rarest violins. The Carrodus, created by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù in 1743, is one of only 100 in the world today and is regarded as being among the finest in existence. It has been acquired by an anonymous Australian private benefactor for the use of the ACO’s artistic director Richard Tognetti. ‘The ACO is most proud to own a stereo pair of these exemplary 4006-TL

mics,’ said Tognetti. ‘I have personally tried many different set-ups and without doubt these DPAs pick up the inherent warmth and clarity of my del Gesù violin. ‘ We a re l u c k y t o work with some of the best musicians and halls nationally and internationally, and we look for clear natural sound, depth, texture, and sublime detail in a recording,’ he added. ‘We are using the mics for close stereo work recording in our studio, and also as an AB pair for recording concerts. The included stereo bar means you always have the hardware ready to go with the mics, a great timesaver for the sound engineer.’

resolution

Gemini is martyn’s choice

Singer/songwriting and one-time member of Travis, Geoff Martyn, uses an SE Gemini as his main mic after encountering it first on a session. ‘As soon as I heard the results coming through the monitors I just knew that I had to have that sound,’ he said. ‘And when I asked the engineer a few questions about the mic I realised I could easily achieve the same sound in my studio. ‘Shortly after that I was recording in a studio in London, and we had a Neumann, an AKG and the Gemini set up for the session. The Gemini won hands down, there was just no doubt that it gave the fullest, richest reproduction of the vocalist’s voice.’ Geoff now owns a Reflexion Filter, SE 2200a, SE4 stereo pair alongside the Gemini II. ‘With the Gemini I have a great valve mic that captures incredible vocals every time. It’s the ultimate vocal microphone,’ he said.

driverack tames augspurgers at legacy Legacy Recording Studios in New York City has installed two dbx DriveRack 4800 System Processors in Studio A and Studio C. The DriveRack units are used to provide speaker control, alignment and equalisation for a set of Augspurger main monitors in each room. The installation was part of a major upgrade to the facility, after two leading New York studios, Sound On Sound Studios and Right Track Recording, were merged to create one of the most advanced suites of studios in the US and with one of the largest and newest orchestral recording studios in the world. ‘Part of the upgrade to Studios A and C was the addition of the new Augspurger monitors,’ explained Frank Filipetti, partner and chief engineer at Legacy Recording. ‘The Augspurgers are sensitive speakers, especially in the upper harmonics and in their directionality. They’re complex and require tuning, like a sports car. Brad Leigh [chief technical engineer at Legacy] and I weren’t happy with most of the digital or analogue crossover options available out there. We looked very hard and it came down to two possibilities, both of which we tested extensively. In the end, the dbx DriveRack was the only game in town. The DriveRack 4800s tamed these speakers. It is the only speaker management system that has ever allowed me to get them to sound exactly the way I want them to. Everyone who works in Studio A and Studio C tells us these are the best-sounding Augspurgers they have ever heard. That’s the kind of feedback you want to hear.’

March 2008

facility

TV2 Oslo This Norwegian commercial broadcaster’s Oslo centre location has created practical challenges and technological solutions. ZENON SCHOEPE says it’s all about getting the job done.

hen you’re travelled around and visited a number of different broadcasters you begin to create a picture of what the service they provide represents to the communities they serve. You also become aware of recurring themes and trends that run through all broadcasting facilities and studios. Most notably you realise that most existing studio complexes are steeped in compromise. It is only at the very point of completing a brand new purpose-built facility that the technical staff will tell you that everything is at the peak of its productivity and that they have factored in enough slack to accommodate any immediate and foreseeable growth. But, most will also tell you that even with the best crystal ball in the business it won’t be that long before the changing demands placed on a broadcaster’s operations start to nudge and test the perimeters of its capability and the need for workarounds and adaptations become apparent. Broadcasting emerges therefore as a short-lived period of ideal followed by an extended period of 14

making do and being versatile and creative with what you have. The production flow is relentless and these are the tools you have been given to create output — successful broadcasting often has much more to do with the attitude of operators to get the job done. TV2 is Norway’s leading commercial station. It was established in 1992 and has its headquarters in Bergen but it has a presence throughout the country including the capital Oslo. And it’s in the very centre of Oslo in its pedestrianised shopping area that you’ll find its studios. ‘It is actually too small and we want bigger studios and more space so we’re using the building next door for offices,’ says Stig Goran Nordahl, head of studio productions and studio crew. ‘It is too small but we manage — and we have to stay here for ten years.’ Such a city centre location is unusual these days when so many broadcasters are moving out to the suburbs but it remains convenient. Aside from TV2’s base, sport, film and youth programming, last year saw the launch of the country’s first around-theresolution

clock news network, TV2 Nyhetskanalen, and the Oslo facility, with its proximity to the parliament buildings, is extremely well positioned to be in the thick of the news. Oslo’s news is on-air from 6.30 in the morning until 5pm in the afternoon at which point Bergen takes over until midnight. Then there are reruns during the early hours until Oslo picks up again in the morning. Like many other broadcasters, TV2 has developed a highly automated news studio with integrated control of the sound, vision, cameras, lights and autocue — all of which is supervised by engineers. The news studio is a sight to behold and at the time of my visit was being run by a sound engineer who says he now finds himself doing everything but sound in a role that is referred to in-house as ‘the octopus’. There’s a Studer OnAir 3000 in here with Genelec monitoring in a set-up that is apparently very similar to what you’ll find at the Bergen facilities. Engineers work in shifts and, despite the degree of automation and preplanning, you can see that the job is intense and stressful. Elsewhere in the building there are two sound control rooms and two vision controls allowing maximum flexibility of the associated studio spaces — there are fours studios covering news and current affairs. TV2 also creates non news programming in Oslo, such as the daily Good Morning Norway show March 2008

facility

and regular current affairs slots but it also helps out with bigger projects when needs dictate. TV2 has another studio complex with three huge studios on another site in Oslo that it uses for its big show productions. When these spill over Oslo central takes up the slack. At the time of my visit the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Pop Idolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; heats were being shot here and were attracting a lot of interest in the media and on the street outside. The big studio plot does hot have control rooms and so employs TV2 trucks from it OB Team fleet to handle the duties. OB Team recently added two new HD vehicles from Sony Broadcast with design, systems integration and project management handled by Broadcast Networks. They are equipped with Sony HD cameras, HDCAM VTRs, HD vision mixer/DVE, HD matrix, HD LCD Monitors, Axon interfacing equipment, EVS HD slow-motion systems, Studer Vista 8s and Dolby processing equipment. Vista 8s are also installed in the two sound control rooms where they replaced SSL Aysis Air and Yamaha PM1D desks. The Vista has been adopted very strongly by Norwegian broadcasters â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as indeed has Genelec monitoring. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Genelec is our standard,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; says Stig. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;When I started here 14 years ago we were using Yamaha NS10s everywhere â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I guess that was what

they could afford. I came from NRK and there were Genelecs everywhere there. We now have Genelecs here in the sound controls, edit suites, OB vehicles, everywhere.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; The 8240s they use in the control rooms are DSP models and their ability to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;tuneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the room has proved invaluable to sort out less than ideal monitoring environments. Part of the issue in a busy sound control room is the collection of screens, monitors and ancillary bits and pieces that accumulate in the process of getting the job done. The room itself might have sounded fairly pleasant when it was empty, but things become more complex as it fills up with clutter.

Stig says the DSP monitors have made a difference and points to the mic used to measure and set up the room that is kept on its stand behind the deskâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right hand equipment rack. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also looking into the use of DSP models in the OB trucks â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an application that is crying out for a friendly, simple solution. As you walk around the facility you begin to realise that it is all built in an enormous converted department store. The news offices are arranged on a floor that has been suspended across what was once the central atrium of the store. Reporters use Quantel server-based news production systems and iNews and the central floor area is surrounded by suites used for content preparation on Avid or Quantel and each room has Genelec monitoring. TV2 employs around 300 in Oslo and a similar number in Bergen and while the environment in the news areas is spacious and relaxed this contrasts to the frenetic activity that is going on behind the scenes. The production staff are being genuinely creative in their use of space and resourceful in their choice of technology and its application. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a case study in how to get the job done. â&#x2013;

Contact tv2, NormWaY: Website: www.tv2.no

AT THE OF AUDIO 192kHz Professional Range

AKMâ&#x201E;˘ is the brand name of Asahi EMD Corporationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ICâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

AK4396 AK4397 AK4620B AK4125 AK4113 AK5385B AK5394A

Low power 120dB DAC 32 Bit Premium Sound DAC New Space saving 114dB CODEC Master clock free SRC AES/EBU DIR inc. 6 ch.selector Pro Standard 114dB ADC Industry leading 123dB ADC

AKM COM PRO From advanced mixing consoles, music on the go, cinema, live performance you name it - AKM mixed signal technology is there. From mastering grade ADC to our space saving CODECS, AKM has the professional solution. AKMâ&#x201E;˘ is the brand name of Asahi Kasei EMD Corporation ICs March 2008

resolution

gear

Products Equipment introductions and announcements.

Euphonix artist Series controllers

The MC Control and MC Mix professional control surfaces from Euphonix feature EuCon connectivity for simultaneous control of multiple applications and workstations over an Ethernet cable at 250 times the speed and eight times the resolution of MIDI. EuCon automatically detects whatever application is in the foreground and instantly sets the highresolution touchscreen and OLED displays, motorised faders and controls to match. The controllers also support HUI and Mackie Control protocols. www.euphonix.com

rycote studio mic suspensions Rycote’s InVision is a range of noise-reducing microphone suspensions for compact microphones. A patented design called the Lyre, comprising virtually unbreakable dual W-shaped clips of varying sizes, forms the heart of the new products, which are designed for studio and installed sound applications and are not for use within a windshield. The first three sizes in the eight-strong InVision range — INV-1, INV-2 and INV-3 — are designed for desk, stand-mounted or hanging microphones. The remaining five sizes — INV-4 to INV-8 — are designed for boommounted mics, and will follow later in 2008. The different models use Lyres of varying sizes to fit microphones of different lengths and diameters. INV-1, for example, fits the AKG C747, Audio-Technica ATM350, Sennheiser ME36, and Schoeps CCM. www.rycote.com/products/invision

aeon upgrade Klotz Digital has upgraded its Aeon OnAir mixing console and now offers MADI interface cards that can be configured to 56 or 64 channel mode. Audio networking of Aeons via Octo-Bus allows the linking of several Aeons or the connection of the console to the Main Control Room via Cat5 cabling and providing eight bidirectional channels per bus. Each Octo-Bus card features four bus lines and free buses can be used for break-in and break-out boxes. www.klotzdigital.com

Platform news: digidesign d-Show 2.7 software has been expanded to provide support for the latest venue family member, mix rack, and also includes workflow enhancements for all venue systems, including improved cue workflow for monitor mixers, top-level system lock, view vCa contribution in real time, and automatic plug-in update. venuePack 3.0 is the latest version of the software bundle that comes with all venue systems while venuePack Pro 3.0 includes five plug-ins, including the digidesign Eleven virtual guitar amp plug-in which replaces the line 6 amp Farm in the Pro bundle. mix rack is a new hardware option for venue systems that combines all stage, local audio i-o, and dSP processing into a single 11U rack. With its simplified and lower-priced configuration, mix rack is compatible with d-Show and d-Show Profile. as an alternative to the venue FoH rack and Stage rack system, it includes flexible i-o options, native tdm plug-in processing, Pro tools integration, and complete show file portability. the base configuration comes with two mix Engine cards (expandable to three for additional tdm plug-in processing), dShow 2.7 software, venuePack 3.0 plug-in bundle, a built-in ECx Ethernet port for remote control, and a complement of primary and ancillary audio i-o. www.digidesign.com

Platform news: Steinberg Steinberg has released the Software development Kit (SdK) for vSt3, the latest generation of its vSt platform. vSt3 claims new capabilities for developers of host applications, audio plug-ins and virtual instruments. ‘vSt3 opens up new possibilities for products and technologies in the audio industry,’ said andreas Stelling, Steinberg’s general manager. ‘the new capabilities provide a new platform for innovation, with features that will make a big difference to developers and users alike. the release of vSt3 underlines Steinberg’s ongoing commitment to innovation and creativity in audio technology.’ already implemented in Steinberg’s Cubase and Nuendo products, vSt3 claims a range of new features and advantages over other standards. these include enhanced CPU efficiency with a silence detection feature, which automatically switches off the plug-in if no audio signal is being received, and multiple dynamic i-os — vSt3 plug-ins are fully surround-capable, and can be configured to receive from any output to any i-o configuration, including any surround format. With dynamic Bus management vSt3 plug-in output buses can be reassigned at any time, streamlining the integration of plug-ins with the vSt mixer. With sample-accurate automation parameter changes are supported, including support for ‘ramped’ data. the new SdK allows dynamic resizing of windows, vStXml file support allows parameters to be represented on remote controller surfaces, and vSt3 instruments can be assigned audio input buses. vSt3 extends the midi i-o capability for plug-ins, allowing multiple midi inputs and outputs simultaneously, and combined with the use of the additional Steinberg Kernel interface (SKi), vSt3 plug-ins can integrate directly into Steinberg host software at application level, enabling vSt3 plug-ins to create tracks, perform copy/cut/paste tasks and other operations. www.steinberg.net

Sony recorder

duende mini

Sony’s PCM-D50 is a 96kHz/24-bit recorder that draws on many of the features and looks of the PCM-D1 PCM recorder. It has a two-position stereo microphone, a 5s prerecord buffer, a digital pitch control and A/B segment/repeat. The PCM-D50 has 4Gb of memory that can be expanded with a memory stick using the Pro-HG duo slot. File transfer is via USB. www.sony-europe.com

resolution

Duende Mini is a third1U desktop box that hooks up to a computer via FireWire and drives 16 channels of plug-in processing (at sample rates up to 96khz) within your host application. Duende Mini is upgradeable to 32 channels of processing and you can run two Duende units on a single computer system for up to 64 channels of processing. It ships with the EQ and Dynamics Channel. X-Comp follows the recent release of X-EQ and further extends the range of plug-ins available for Duende. The X-Comp is a stereo compressor that can reproduce the characteristics of a wide range of modern and classic vintage compressors. www.solid-state-logic.com

March 2008

gear Ua la-610 signature edition

Universal Audio’s LA-610 Signature Edition, is a limited (500) run version of its LA-610 channel strip with US-made NOS valves, CineMag transformers and a unique ‘blackface’ cosmetic look. All are signed by Bill Putnam Jnr. New plug-in partners to the UAD DSP Platform are Valley People (US), Sound Performance Lab (Germany) and Empirical Labs (US). www.uaudio.com

JZ Black Hole SE JZ Microphones’ Black Hole SE (BH-2) is a fixed cardioid pattern mic with a lower price than the original Black Hole. The Black Hole SE has one large, true electrostatic capsule inside the compact head made by ‘golden drops’ technology. The capsule has a single, less centre-tapped diaphragm with patterned variable sputtering that uses a specially mixed alloy for coating. www.jzmic.com

mix daW controller from WK-audio German manufacturer WK-Audio is introducing the IDMix DAW controller optimised for Steinberg’s Nuendo 4. It is based on the company’s flagship product but has an emphasis on mixing operation and offers the same fader module as the ID-Controller — 12 motorised, touchsensitive faders each equipped with a double spaced LCD. Twelve additional encoders, each with a double spaced LCD and a field display, can be operated as additional channel-level controllers and be flipped to the faders below. The encoders also edit EQ, aux and studio buses as well as plug-ins. A Global Mode permits gain trim, pan or an aux bus for all channels together. Pushbuttons activate Nuendo automation and there’s also a control room monitoring section. www.wk-audio.de

Fostex adds location recorders

Fostex has released the PD606 (8-track) and PD204 (2track) location recorders. The machines offer simultaneous recording to 12cm DVD/HD with two V-mount battery spaces, automatic file closing every 60s, 10s (max) of prerecord, 99 cue point memory and extensive timecode options.

Both machines record to 80Gb internal HD and to 12cm DVD. Both media types can be recorded to simultaneously by mirroring or auto-copy. Further backup can be achieved with the automatic ‘background mode’ which allows HD audio to copy to DVD while the machine is idle. The drive will also accept DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW discs. A loyalty scheme exists, where existing owners of Fostex PD machines can upgrade to the PD606 at a reduced cost. www.fostexinternational.com

audix CabGrabber The CabGrabber from Audix is a means of placing a microphone on a guitar amplifier or cabinet without the use of a mic stand. Made of aluminium tubing, the CabGrabber is lightweight but can hold a mic weighing 16 ounces and will fasten to cabinets ranging from 8 to 14 inches in depth. The tubular arm, which is threaded to hold any standard microphone clip, can rotate 180 degrees and can be locked into position with a thumb screw. www.audixusa.com

March 2008

Karlsruhe · Germany +49 721 943 200 www.schoeps.de

resolution

gear Crimp Xlr Neutrik has introduced the first Crimp-XLR cable connector and chassis receptacle. As the crimp termination version of its XX and DLX series, the Crimp-XLR offers a solderless construction f o r f a s t e r a s s e m b l y, offering an ideal solution for large cable assemblies and RoHS applications. It is available in several models and the product line offers designs that can be terminated with a semiautomated crimp machine as well as a standard B-crimp

hand tool. Neutrik’s enhanced 32-Amp PowerCon is a locking 3-conductor AC connector with contacts for line, neutral and premating ground. Suitable for highpower distribution systems and supplies for audio and lighting equipment and installations, it replaces appliance couplers wherever a rugged solution, in combination with a locking device, is required to guarantee a safe power connection. The system consists of two connectors –- a chassis receptacle and an in-line cable connector with locking mechanism. www.neutrik.com

(pic: dr1, ssr, ssc)

tascam recorders Tascam’s DR-1 portable digital recorder has built-in mics and a 1Gb SD card. It records in MP3 or WAVE formats and includes auto gain control, analogue limiting and a low-frequency cut-off. It also has a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, USB connectivity, a built-in tuner and vocal cancel features, and an overdub feature to add to an existing recording.

The company’s SS-R1 and SS-CDR1 are 1U Compact Flash recorders designed for applications that previously used a cassette or MiniDisc recorder. The SS-R1 records in WAVE or MP3 formats while the SS-CDR1 adds a slot-loading CD recorder for additional recording and transfer functions. Each recorder includes balanced and unbalanced audio inputs and outputs, RS-232 and parallel control and a wired remote control. www.tascam.co.uk

Uniquel-izer tdm RNDigital has released its EQ plug-in Uniquel-izer and Uniquel-izer LE as Pro Tools HD TDM versions. The TDM implementation has been carefully coded to produce the same ‘sound’ as with the RTAS versions. Both EQs are often used in many instances in one project and with RTAS this can add up to a high processor load and RTAS-induced latency issues. The TDM incarnation eliminates such limitations. In Pro Tools HD, only TDM plug-ins stay online during recording while RTAS plug-ins are bypassed. The company has also released its brick wall limiter Finis as a TDM plug-in for Pro Tools HD 7+. www.rogernicholsdigital.com

aKG d 4 dynamic AKG’s D 4 dynamic stage mic employs the company’s patented Varimotion diaphragm technology and comes with an integrated stand adapter as well as a mounting bracket making the unit adaptable for almost any instrument, including drums, percussion, wind instruments and guitar amps. A software upgrade to AKG’s HiQnet System Architect allows its IVM 4 and HUB 4000Q network concentrator to create the world’s first computer-controlled in-ear monitoring system. The Harman HiQnet system enables compatible components from different Harman Pro Group manufacturers to be connected to the same network through standard computer interface devices, including wireless. With the software update installed, several HUB 4000 Qs can be hooked together to control a large wireless system. For the first time, the IVM 4 and WMS 4000 can be used and controlled on the same network. The new Auto Setup gives users quick tools for easy RF frequency configuration. www.akg.com

resolution

March 2008

gear a-t iEm A u d i o - Te c h n i c a h a s entered the wireless In Ear Monitoring market with the M2 and M3 UHF systems. The M2 is for the mid market while the M3 is designed for large scale music, theatre and broadcast production. Both systems offer a lightweight body-pack stereo receiver and a stereo transmitter equipped with two 1/4-inch/XLR combo input connectors. Operation is selectable mono or stereo, and both systems are equipped with AudioTechnica’s EP3 earphones. The EP3 earphones come with three sizes of rubber flexible eartips and a universal-fit foam tip for a custom fit, increased isolation and listening comfort without ear fatigue. Both feature Audio-Technica’s proprietary Personal Mix Control feature, providing individual control of the balance between the personal signal level and the individual monitor mix. The M2 system provides for 10 UHF frequency bands — four of which are available for use in Europe — each with 10 selectable channels. LED indicators enable easyto-read level monitoring. The M3 provides for six fixed selectable frequency bands and three user-programmable bands, with 16 channels each; a 32MHz bandwidth with 25kHz stepping. A backlit LCD provides visual monitoring of frequency bands and signal strength. The M3 uses AT’s proprietary Automatic Frequency Scanning function; automatically determining and setting the best available frequency (open channel). Audio-Technica’s PRO 92cW subminiature omni condenser headworn mic uses a very small condenser capsule. A 55cm cable, an attachable windscreen and a clothing clip are included. It is available in black or beige and is terminated with an HRS connector. The AT2020 USB is an affordable, large diaphragm, USBequipped studio condenser mic based on the AT2020 cardioid side-address model. www.audio-technica.co.uk

extract the formant and amplitude information from a vocal or other dynamic source and apply it to any other audio track. Warm Tube Saturation Generator is based on Antares’ Tube plug-in and warms up vocals with tube modelling technology. Aspire Aspiration Noise Processor modifies a voice’s breathiness independently of its harmonic content. These new additions join the original five Avox plug-ins Throat, Duo Vocal Modelling Auto-Doubler, Choir Vocal Multiplier, Punch Vocal Impact Enhancer and Sybil Variable Frequency De-Esser. www.antarestech.com

antares avox 2 vocal toolkit Antares Avox 2 is described as a ‘second generation’ vocal toolkit and builds on the original Avox plugin bundle but adds five vocal processing modules. These include the Harmony Engine Vocal Modelling Harmony Generator — a real-time harmony generating plug-in — and Mutator Extreme Voice Designer for special vocal effects and postproduction sound design. Articulator Vocal Formant and Amplitude Modeller is a modern-day version of the talk box and lets the user

= I: ; kh Z ] \ Z l m F b \ kh i a h g ^ l

Ehg` kZg`^% hk ni \ehl^ Zg] i^klhgZe

KrK ErGo room correction KRK Systems’ ERGO is a digital room analysis and correction system. ERGO (Enhanced Room Geometry Optimization) is said to be compatible with all recording and monitoring systems and improves any studio mixing space by correcting for ‘real world’ acoustic problems. The ERGO connects to a PC via FireWire when it is performing its room analysis, but since all correction processing resides in ERGO, no overhead is needed from the computer audio system. This means that ERGO can function in analogue systems as it can work as a standalone room correction/ speaker control unit after room analysis is complete. The ERGO hardware contains a thousand precision filters to control the audio environment. ERGO also acts as a speaker switcher and master volume control and creates a full-range monitors-plus-sub system with subwoofer integration. It is also a 4-in, 6-out FireWire audio interface. KRK now offers protection grills for its VXT4 and VXT6 reference monitors. www.krksys.com

March 2008

]

Bg \kbmb\Ze [khZ]\Zlm Ziieb\Zmbhgl% =I: fb\khiahg^l l^m g^p lmZg]Zk]l bg Zn]bh \Zimnk^' ?hk ehg`&kZg`^ phkd% ma^ -)*0 Lahm`ng Fb\khiahg^ ibgihbgml lhng] pbma ]^Z]er Z\\nkZ\r Zg] makbeebg` ]rgZfb\ kZg`^' R^m Zm cnlm 0* `kZff^l bg p^b`am Zg] +*) ff bg e^g`ma% bmÍl ikh[Z[er ma^ eb`am^lm Zg] fhlm \hfiZ\m p^Zihg bg ma^ lhng] k^\hk]blmÍl Zkl^gZe' :g] pa^g bmÍl mbf^ mh `^m ni \ehl^ Zg] i^klhgZe% ma^ -)1) FbgbZmnk^ <Zk]bhb] Fb\khiahg^% EZoZeb^k \hf[bg^l Z li^^\a&himbfbl^] ib\d&ni iZmm^kg pbma Zg bg`^gbhnl fbgbZmnk^ ]^lb`g maZm ^glnk^l Z[lhenm^ ]bl\k^mbhg Zg] Z fbgbfnf h_ ^qmkZg^hnl ghbl^'

DPA4017/80 Resolution JP.indd 1

resolution

13/09/07 10:16:38

gear more mackie monitors MR Series monitors feature a baffle moulded to minimise diffraction and a waveguide for broad, even dispersion, and a smooth transition between highs and lows for an ‘ultra-wide, even sweet spot’. The amplifiers have Class A/B architecture. The MR5 has a 5.25-inch woofer and a 1-inch tweeter coupled with a 55/30W Class A/B bi-amp. The MR8 has an 8-inch steel frame woofer and a 1-inch tweeter with a 100/50W Class A/B bi-amp. Mackie has expanded its VLZ3 compact mixer line with the 402-VLZ3 and the 802-VLZ3 premium mic/line mixers. They feature ‘studio-grade’ XDR2 mic preamps, proprietary active EQ, and modern summing bus architecture. The all-

steel chassis houses switchable line/Hi-Z instrument inputs, phantom power and bright stereo LED meters. The 402-VLZ3 features two mono mic/line channels, a dedicated stereo line channel and an assignable stereo RCA input channel. Mono channels have an XDR2 preamp, switchable high-pass filter, 2-band EQ and a channel overload LED, and can be hard-panned for stereo applications. The 802-VLZ3 has five channel strips with three XDR2 mic preamps, the Alt 3-4 bus, a pre-/post-

switchable aux send, a dedicated stereo aux return and a control room section. Mackie has entered the lightweight power amplifier category with the FRS-1300, FRS-1700, and FRS-2800 — with rated outputs of 1300W, 1660W and 2800W respectively into 4 ohms bridged. The FRS Series include a high-resolution, 6-segment LED meter per channel, defeatable clip limiter, subsonic filter, and on-board protection circuitry (short, under-impedance, over-current and thermal). www.mackie.com

Square one Splitter

New PD Series Location Recorders

Klark Teknik has added a third model to its Square One range. The Square One Splitter 2U combines a simple eight-channel solution with a high-performance, Midas XL8-inspired preamp design with 143dB dynamic range and high CMRR to accommodate input levels to +22dBu. The Splitter’s third set of transformer-isolated, gainindependent outputs located on the front panel allow for easy connection of recording devices and OB facilities. There is also a 1-16 media split function, which allows input 8 to be routed to all 16 rear-panel XLRs simultaneously via a single recessed switch on the rear panel, making it suitable for press feeds and other multiple-signal distribution applications. Other features include a 9-position rotary gain switch per input, 30Hz Hi-pass filter with switch and status LED per input, duplicated inputs on front and rear panels, and front-panel and remote 48V switching with status LED per input. There’s a solo bus with integral headphone amp and level control, a separate ground lift switch with LED status indicators for each set of rear panel outputs, and individual 4-segment LED output metering for each input. www.ktsquareone.com

Sonifex launches rackmount monitors

Audio acquisition that’s as versatile as you are. Designed from the ground up to excel in ‘real-world’ applications, wherever you happen

www.fostex.jp Fostex Company, 3-2-35 Musashino, Akishima, Tokyo, Japan 196-0021 Email: info_sales@fostex.jp

to be in the world. The new PD606 (8-track) and PD204 (2-track) location recorders both offer spectacular audio quality, flexible recording to 12cm DVD-RAM, hard disc or a combination of both, rock solid timecode implementation, extended battery life, loads of ‘instant access’ knobs, buttons and switches plus a whole battery of interface options. But impressive features are only part of the script. Fostex’s unrivalled pedigree in designing and manufacturing world class location recorders for over 16 years and our unique understanding of the broadcast, film, tv and audio acquisition environments means that these new recorders aren’t just the best PD recorders ever, they’re simply the best professional location recorders available today.

resolution

Sonifex will launch the Reference Monitor range of three rackmount audio monitors at NAB in April. The RM2S4 has two LED meters and four stereo inputs, the RM-2S10 has two LED meters and 10 stereo inputs, and the RM-4C8 has four LED meters and eight inputs with dual selectors. Each unit offers loudspeaker monitoring and highresolution metering of up to four or ten stereo sources (more with the addition of an optional expansion card) selected via a front panel rotary. The speaker system is fed via a DSP-based active crossover and a trio of Class-D amps. Sources may be in any mixture of analogue and AESEBU formats and a 5-band parametric EQ can be used to tailor the unit’s sound. www.sonifex.co.uk

March 2008

gear trantec expands racked ‘n’ ready range

Following from its S4 Racked ‘n’ Ready wireless microphone system, Trantec has now applied the same concept to its S5 range. The system is available in two formats and two price points. The entry level S5.3 operates up to 12 simultaneous channels in nine banks within a 11MHz window (854-865MHz). Computer monitoring software comes as standard. The S5.5 system caters for larger projects and can simultaneously operate up to 24 channels in ten banks within its 35MHz window (830-865MHz). Fully interactive PC monitoring via a USB port controls all aspects, including a frequency download function, RF and AF monitoring, and transmitter battery status. www.trantec.co.uk

Naked Eye roswellite

Ultrasone updates

Crowley and Tripp’s Naked Eye Roswellite now joins its el Diablo as ‘the toughest and most powerful ribbon microphones ever created for music recording and live sound reinforcement’. The Naked Eye Roswellite features the same True Dual Voicing design and tone of the Naked Eye Classic, plus it adds the power of the Crowley and Tripp nanocomposite ribbon material — Roswellite — that was first introduced in the el Diablo Mercenary Edition. The el Diablo ribbon microphone with Roswellite is now available in a stainless steel finish to match its current line of professional ribbon microphones. The thick stainless steel body of el Diablo, Studio Vocalist, Proscenium and Soundstage Image ribbon microphones provides shielding,       very high strength, and greatly reduced resonance.  www.soundwaveresearch.com

Ultrasone has updated its headphones ranges. The Ultrasone Pro (formerly known as Proline) now has an aluminium nameplate and a semi-hard case for storage and transport of headphones and accessories. New features of the HFI line include the addition of the HFI 580 and 780 models with new S-LogicPlus. The S-Logic Plus system is the enhanced version of S-Logic based on the ear cup design of Ultrasone’s limited-run Edition9 headphones. The HFI 2200 has also received an update with an aluminium nameplate, MU metal shielding, and a velvet   transportation bag. www.ultrasone.com

SSl matrix desk launched

POWERED PLUG-INS

SSL’s Matrix is an affordable small-format console that combines a 16-channel, 40-input analogue line mixer with a multilayer 16-fader DAW controller. An integral signal router offers DAW-style plug-in management of external analogue processing and eliminates the need for complex external patchbay interfacing of outboard equipment. On-board Total Recall allows the system to be reset for different projects and it supports the SSL X-Rack Modular Rack system to further expand its processing and mixing capabilities. It has 16 mono line channels with two separate inputs per strip, separate inputs that can provide 32 summing line returns each with a send and a pair of aux buses, and a 32 x 16 x 16 dual port insert router for up to 16 external processing devices. There are six aux buses with stereo and two mono send controls per channel, ‘Input to Cue Stereo’ doubles the mixdown channel count, there’s new DAW-driven fader automation (Matrix faders follow DAW automation) and a single cable, high speed Ethernet connection to DAW and PC/MAC browser. www.solid-state-logic.com

Essential audio upgrades for your DAW From classic EQ and dynamics through to revered precision mastering tools, UAD brings an unrivalled collection of vintage audio hardware to your DAW, meticulously recreated as Powered Plug-Ins for our unique DSP platform. Accessible and affordable, UAD systems are available in PCI, PCI-e or new laptop-ready ExpressCard configurations. And for more flexibility, there are three Plug-In PAK sizes plus the new Nevana X2 Neve Classic Console package, so you can choose from a basic suite up to a fully-loaded rack of studio-grade mixing and mastering tools.

UAD-Xpander

UAD-1

UAD-1e

UAD-Nevana X2

The world's first ExpressCard audio DSP expansion system for Mac OS X and Windows Vista laptops available with 3 sizes of plug-in bundle – Xpress, Xpert and Xtreme.

UA’s revolutionary combination of DSP hardware and highly-prized software plugins available in 3 strengths – Project, Flexi and Ultra.

A sophisticated audio processor runs your choice of Express, Expert or Extreme plugin PAKs, leaving your computer’s CPU free for other native mix effects or virtual instruments.

Includes 2 x UAD PCI-e DSP cards with 7 Neve plug-ins to bring the coveted Neve sound directly to your DAW.

For more information on the entire range of UAD Plug-Ins, visit www.uaudio.com

Korg free batteries To extend the usage time of its MR1 recorder, Korg is offering a free external battery pack as part of the package when you buy one of its recorders. The MR-1 also comes with two XLR to stereo mini jack cables. When combined with a fully charged internal battery, the MR-1 will give up to 5 hours of use. The battery pack accepts AA batteries. www.korg.co.uk

March 2008

UK distribution by Source • Find a dealer at www.sourcedistribution.co.uk/ua • T: 020 8962 5080

resolution

review

RME DMC-842 & Schoeps CMD 2U After something of a shaky start, digital mics are with us and most importantly there’s now a standalone preamp that understands and talks to them all. JON THORNTON does some of his best work in explaining the concepts and the operational principles.

t’s taken a good while, but the adoption of AES42 as an interconnect standard for digital microphones seems to be gathering momentum. While Neumann has developed its original Solution-D concept and packaged it in the smaller form factor of the KM-D range, Schoeps has entered the fray with its CMD 2U digital mic amplifier. As this is effectively just another mic body option in the already extensive Colette modular microphone range, it means that it can take advantage of all the existing capsules and accessories. Unlike Neumann’s approach, which involves putting an A-D stage immediately after the capsule, the CMD 2U features a standard preamplifier (sonically the same as the CMC series bodies), which then feeds an onboard A-D convertor. The unit supplied for review was the ‘xt’ variant, which features an extended frequency response (>40kHz), and can use any capsules from the Colette range that are axially, rather than side-, addressed. Until now, microphone manufacturers that have experimented with digital microphones using the AES42 standard have supplied their own interface boxes, with varying degrees of software/hardware control and scalability. The RME DMC-842 is a first example of a third-party manufacturer designing an interface that supports the standard. In essence, the unit functions as an eight-channel mic preamplifier with analogue and digital outputs. The difference, of course, is that the microphone inputs are all AES42 digital source inputs. So, a better description is a multichannel digital mic controller and D-A convertor. A quick glance at the rear panel reveals eight digital microphone inputs on XLR. These can also accept AES3 signal pairs if required, making it possible to use the unit as a straightforward D-A convertor. Analogue outputs are on individual XLRs, and digital output is available as standard as four pairs of AES3 on a 25-pin D-Sub connector, or as ADAT format on lightpipe. A secondary lightpipe output allows sample rates higher than 48kHz to be supported using S-Mux. An external Word clock input, with switchable termination, is provided on a BNC connector as is a separate Word clock output. The AES3 connector also looks at incoming AES3 inputs 22

for external sync purposes only. A MADI card is also available as an option for the unit, supporting either 56 or 64 channel I-O. This might seem like overkill for what is an 8-channel device, but multiple units can be cascaded together going from the MADI Output (coax or optical) of one unit into the MADI input of the next. Each unit adds eight channels of audio to the MADI stream, and the unused blocks of eight channels are passed through to the next unit. The MADI output of the final unit — up to a maximum of eight — will then contain all of the audio channels. A neat if rather expensive solution. The front panel is dominated by eight identical strips, each featuring a LED level meter, a number of status LEDs, a single pushbutton and a two segment numeric display. In most cases, this display indicates the amount of (digital) gain applied to each of the inputs, ranging from 0 to 63dB. Most of the operations and parameter adjustments are made using a single rotary encoder. Repeatedly pushing this steps all eight channels through different parameters, indicated by the status LEDs on the channels. The relevant parameter can then be switched On or Off on a per channel basis (for example, digital phantom power) using the pushbutton on that channel. Or, in the case of gain adjustment, the switch selects the channel to be adjusted, and the rotary encoder sets the level. A nice touch with gain level adjustment is that if this function is selected, but no individual channel is selected, the encoder will ramp the gain level up or down across all channels taking into account any individual offsets already in place. It sounds a little fiddly, and it does take some getting used to, but after a while it’s quite a straightforward and quick user interface. As well as toggling Digital Phantom Power (DPP) on or off for each channel, other basic parameters include switching odd and even pairs to function in stereo mode, with the option of MS decoding. In this case, the even numbered display strip becomes inactive (shown by a LED), and gain adjustments are applied equally to both channels. Sample rate conversion of the incoming signal to the unit’s current sample rate can also be toggled on or off. This is an important function, as a microphone resolution

like the Schoeps CMD 2U is what you might term a ‘no frills’ implementation of the AES42 standard. Clock source for the A-D is always internal to the microphone (known as Mode 1), and the sampling frequency preset at the factory with the rate engraved on the mic body (192kHz in this case). In fact, other than the requirement to use DPP over AES42, it could simply be described as a microphone with an AES3 digital output. Clearly, mixing and matching different microphones with different clocks and potentially different sample rates requires a sophisticated and high quality approach to synchronisation and SRC. The clock source for the DMC-842 can be sourced internally, from an external TTL Word clock source, or from embedded clock from an AES input or MADI input. RME makes a big deal of the clock circuitry employed by the unit, called SteadyClock. Essentially this makes use of high-speed digital synthesis, a digital PLL and ultra-high (100MHz) sample rates to provide highly accurate clock generation or refreshing. Initially designed to clean up and reduce the high jitter values found in embedded MADI clock, the system enables any external clock source to be designated as a master clock, refreshed and jitter reduced, and then passed on to other devices if necessary. Sample rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192kHz are supported regardless of clock source, selectable from the front panel. Regardless of which clock source is chosen, a clever use of status LEDs for all available digital inputs also ensures that any potential problems with asynchronous clocks are also quickly indicated (if anything other than the current clock source is flashing, it’s asynchronous). In conjunction with a digital microphone, such as the Schoeps, operating in Mode 1 for sync, what we’ve described so far is nothing more than a very good sample rate convertor and D-A convertor, with the capability to alter gain digitally. To really get to grips with the capabilities of the DMC-842, you need to plug in a digital microphone that makes greater use of the capabilities of AES42. Remembering that the standard allows bidirectional communication, this means that more is possible in terms of microphone control, and indeed allows a certain amount of DSP to be undertaken March 2008

review by the microphone itself. Perhaps most crucially, it allows some designs to make use of Mode 2 synchronisation if they support it. This means that, while the microphone’s on-board clock still runs the A-D convertor, this clock can be controlled and locked to the DMC-842’s clock source by sending control pulses up the AES42 link, alleviating the need for sample rate conversion. The DMC-842 automatically detects a microphone that can run in Mode 2, and signals this with a status LED on the channel strip. The microphone (for test purposes a Neumann KM-D with a 183 omni capsule) will then synchronise its internal clock with whatever clock source and sample rate the controller is running at. In addition to synchronisation, this control data can also be used to remotely command a variety of functions and processes onboard the microphone. These include pattern selection, a low-cut filter, peak limiting, muting, and pre-attenuation. Not all microphones support all of these functions, but the DMC-842 can control them if they are supported — again on a per channel basis. Pressing a ‘Parameter’ button under the rotary encoder enables it to scroll through these functions, which are somewhat cryptically displayed across the unit using the numeric displays. Holding down the select button on an individual channel then lets the rotary encoder select a numerical value for that particular parameter. It works, even if it is a bit clunky, largely because the values are simply numerical. You have to know, for example, that a value of ‘2’ for pre-attenuation corresponds to Resolution Half Page 7/12/06 17:10 Page -12dB. Similarly, there’s no way of knowing from the

front panel whether a particular function is supported by a specific microphone, so you can merrily alter the parameters with no effect. These issues are largely solved by the remote control software provided, which requires a PC running Microsoft’s .NET framework version 2.0 or higher with a MIDI interface to communicate with the unit or units. Perhaps most confusingly, AES42 also allows the microphone itself to manipulate its digital gain. To accommodate this, the DMC-842 can be configured to either use its own digital gain processing, or to send this information over AES42 and allow the microphone to perform this function (in this case the DMC-842 applies no digital gain, and the gain control acts as a remote for the microphone). In a mixed economy, it can also be configured to automatically detect the capabilities of individual microphones and use internal or AES42 gain accordingly. In use, the unit performs admirably. The quality of the D-A conversion is fabulous — very open and full sounding with plenty of detail resolution. There’s plenty of headroom on the analogue side too, and the outputs can be switched on the front panel so that 0dB FS equates to +13, +19 or +24dBu. There are a few annoyances. Using AES42 to control gain at the microphone end has a very ‘laggy’ response — you twist the encoder and then wait half a second until the gain level switches. This is better when using the unit’s internal digital gain controls, but still slightly apparent. And switching the gain setup between automatic and interface controlled with a mic plugged in resulted in maximum gain being applied for a brief period — ouch! 1 Sonically, the Schoeps CMD 2U and MK2S combo

WITHOUT US, THERE’S NO STORY

offered no surprises at all — character-wise it sounded just like a Schoeps. Detailed and neutral, with a gentle HF lift, it works beautifully at all but very close distances to sound sources. It’s clear that Schoeps has taken quite a conservative approach to the ‘digital microphone’, which has advantages and disadvantages. There are the clear advantages of being able to use existing capsules and accessories from the Colette range, and there’s a reassurance in a very familiar quality of sound coupled with the shortest signal path before A-D conversion. But this comes at the expense of not taking full advantage of the AES42 standard. As far as the DMC-842 is concerned, it’s clear that this is still something of a developing area in audio. RME seems to have come up with a product that, as much as is possible in a relatively new area, seems to be able to cover all the bases and cope with any AES42 implementation or digital interfacing requirement you can throw at it. Nice one. ■

ProS

Great sounding d-a and SrC; ﬂexible enough to cope with any combination of aES42 implementations; straightforward in operation; every sync option you could wish for; madi option.

CoNS

aES42 remote control functions a little tortuous without the software remote control; gain control a little ‘laggy’ — especially over aES42.

Contact rmE, GErmaNY: Website: www.rme-audio.com SCHoEPS, GErmaNY: Website: www.schoeps.de

When you’re mixing audio for live production and on-air broadcast, you’ve only got one chance to get it right. That’s why the world’s most successful broadcasters rely on Calrec consoles. Because we are dedicated exclusively to the broadcast industry, we understand what’s most important to you – whatever your size or production capacity. As well as being outstandingly reliable and intuitive to operate, our consoles are also uniquely adaptable to evolving broadcast needs – such as surround sound. Integral Bluefin high density signal processing technology, for example, delivers twice the signal processing capacity of conventional systems – in a fraction of the space. If that sounds like good news to you, get the full story at calrec.com

calrec.com

March 2008

Putting Sound in the Picture

resolution

review

Dangerous Music D-Box Combining summing and monitoring control in one unit sounds like a good idea providing neither aspect is compromised by the other. GEORGE SHILLING reminds us that this is a Dangerous box…

angerous Music of Edmeston, upstate New switches latch reassuringly. Function buttons feature York, is best known for its summing boxes a novel ‘Momentoggle’ operation: a brief touch — it was onto the concept early on and latches the button On or Off, while a longer press is offers a range of high-end solutions that momentary. Most other functions are obvious, but for are widely regarded for their sonic integrity. It also Setup mode you will need to refer to the manual (or makes quality monitor controllers — essential for read on!) those determined to dodge using a traditional console. The rear of the box is crammed with connectors The D-Box brings both these concepts together in one and they’re quality components and clearly labelled. handy 1U, with the aim of providing the best bits from Power enters from a proprietary in-line transformer its high-end solutions into a cheaper (despite using via a 5-pin DIN. There is no Power button and the the same components) product for the professional or possibility exists of a loud blatt on the monitors if this project studio working to a budget, or even for mobile plug is pulled out or power is killed — I know because situations. It has been dubbed the DAW user’s Swiss I tried it. A number of XLRs provide analogue and Army Knife. digital audio connections, along with a multipin D The brushed aluminium front panel is littered connector for summing input. with knobs that have a quality feel to their damping, For basic monitor control, you will obviously need with dual rubber grips around them — they feel to position the D-Box within easy reach, which is not very smooth. Pushbuttons illuminate with integrated always straightforward with a rackmount unit. But LEDs, switching smoothly, with the only audible when reachable, the large Volume knob is a joy to adWarranty(ResolutionMag)216x125.qxd:Mise en page 1 7/11/07 12:26 Page 1 clicks emanating physically as (silver contact) relay use. It is exceptionally smooth, and tracks perfectly

down to very low levels with no hint of the image shifting sideways or dropping off suddenly. On the left of the front panel are two headphone jack outputs that mirror the Input Select and Speaker Outputs. There is, unfortunately, no way of deriving a different cue mix but each has its own independent level control, and a healthy volume is available from the clean and powerful amplification — you should easily be able to run several sets from one output. It’s a small point, but it might have been better for one of these to appear on the rear panel for neater integration into a studio system, especially as the provision of an in-built Talkback mic implies that the talent is likely to be in another room. But Talkback level is independent of headphone level — a nice touch — so that when the talent wants the mix louder, your next comment shouldn’t hurt! The summing section of the D-Box comprises eight mono inputs that connect using a Tascam-wired Dtype 25-pin connector on the rear, so a custom cable will need to be sourced (George’s cable was specially prepared for him by Sommer Cable. Ed). The first six of these inputs are arranged as three hard panned stereo pairs, with inputs seven and eight coming via front panel pan pots with (subtle) centre détente positions. There are eight Signal LEDs that indicate music flowing into each input. There are no level trims, but there is one overall Sum Output Trim knob, which is set so that full tilt equates to unity. However, this is not the recommended position of the knob. Ingeniously, the D-Box allows you to, er, gain some extra headroom, by running your eight DAW outputs into the D-Box’s summing input stage which is at -6dBu. This results in the possibility of running the DAW’s faders higher — closer to unity — and also effectively lowers the noise floor of the DAW’s outputs by 6dB.

We may not be able to give you any guarantees when it comes to your love life....but at least you can now start a lifelong love affair with some of the world's best loved studio microphones….

– and that’s guaranteed! Audio-Technica is so proud of their 40 Series studio mics that they now come with a comprehensive Lifetime* Warranty. *The Lifetime Warranty applies to the serviceable life of the product deemed to be 15 years and is available only to the original purchaser of the microphone upon completion of the guarantee registration form online at www.audio-technica.com/warranty within 30 days of purchase.

ETIM

Nothing lasts forever.

To find out more, email info@audio-technica.co.uk or telephone +44 (0) 113 292 0461.

RAN

...or does it? www.audio-technica.com

resolution

March 2008

review There is tremendous headroom in the D-Box, so you can then use the Trim to optimise the level returning into the DAW for mixdown. The only obvious downside to this is the lack of precision recall of the Sum knob, but in practise this is not a major problem, as the range of the knob is only about 12dB, and once it is optimally set you probably won’t move it much, if at all. There are four buttons for Input selection, these comprise Sum, which is self-explanatory, Analog (an external stereo input on a pair of XLRs), DAW and CD, the last two comprising external digital inputs on XLR connectors. There are no settings for the last two inputs; AES or SPDIF is supported, the only caveat being that only one digital source can be monitored at a time. These will lock to any digital signal from 32kHz up to 100kHz, and the convertor sounds remarkably clean, stable and neutral as expected. In fact, the D-AC sounds rather better than most ‘standard’ convertors, so this is definitely the best way to connect the DAW main outputs (if you can). Talkback, Mono and Alt Speaker selector buttons operate using the aforementioned Momentoggle mode, this is handy for quick checks or comments via Talkback, although care will need to be exercised in the latter case to make sure you don’t accidentally latch it. However, this possibility can be eliminated with a jack in the Talkback pedal socket on the rear. The hidden Setup mode is entered by simultaneously pressing the Mono and Alt Speaker buttons, which then start flashing alternately. Two parameters can be set from here. First, by illuminating the Sum button (and exiting Setup) you are able to monitor multiple input sources — Sum, Analog and DAW or CD. This has myriad uses, for example, when composing or practising and this makes the D-Box a useful helper even in the writing and demoing stages. Or you could monitor programme while working on Foley or effects tracks. In standard mode, selecting a source is exclusive, and you can also select ‘no input’ in either mode to mute the outputs. However, there is no way of muting the speakers without muting the headphones (apart from lowering the Volume), and that might have been useful for control room overdubs. The other Setup parameter relates to the external Analog inputs. These are normally set to accept +4dBu sources but to enable connection of -10dBV devices, illuminating the Analog button before exiting Setup mode adds 11.7dB of gain. With regard to summing, the figures in the back of the manual imply that the D-Box’s audio performance is just about as transparent as is technically possible. For example, the frequency response quoted is 1Hz to

100kHz within 0.1dB, with distortion, crosstalk and noise boasting similarly impressive figures. Despite the accuracy of the figures, there is undoubtedly an audible difference when summing with the D-Box compared to in-the-box mixing. (The difference is said to be due to the use of multiple D-ACs feeding a quality analogue summing circuit and thus running hotter than the internal DAW’s stereo bus would permit. Ed) In the grand scheme of things, it is subtle, but the difference is apparent when sending subgroups via the D-Box. The vocals and bass end seem more present in the mix, and there is a clarity in the high frequencies that breaks out of that yucky ‘closed-in’ digital character that is apparent even with 96kHz material. Despite careful level matching, it all seems louder. However, I also bounced mixes in-the-box but ran them out through my convertors in stereo and back in for comparison, and there are certain aspects of the sound that change purely due to conversion — going out and back through boutique high-end convertors seemed to open out the sound a little in itself. But the winner was always the D-Box version, and although the difference was very small, there were richer sounding drums, a better defined stereo image, and a general crispness missing from stereo bounces. Another benefit to external summing that occurred to me during the review period is the ease with which you can introduce external bus processing. Taking the drum and bass bus, or the vocal bus and compressing using outboard on the way into the D-Box encourages experimentation and a re-acquaintance with some neglected toys. The D-Box’s manual is clear, and any concerns or queries were quickly explained by Dangerous Music’s eager to help co-owner and founder Bob Muller. Coowner Chris Muth has spent more than 20 years as a chief studio tech in such establishments as Sterling Sound Mastering, designing and building custom mastering consoles, monitor controllers and digital routers. The D-Box inspires confidence, sounds great, and is truly ‘Pro’. Yet the price makes this something almost any project studio owner can aspire to. There are cheaper solutions, and summing is not a priority for everyone, but investing in a top-notch monitoring controller should be, and you certainly won’t regret getting a D-Box. ■

Contact daNGEroUS mUSiC, US: Website: www.dangerousmusic.com

ProS

a great value way of acquiring a premium summing mixer and monitor controller in one box; crystal clear sonic integrity; compact 1U format — great for portable rigs; simple to operate.

CoNS

all small things, but… no alt Speaker level trim; no speaker mute button; no Power button; headphone sockets both on front panel; no headphone cue input; no remote (apart from talkback socket).

EXtraS

dangerous music’s additional Switching System is a 1U expander for its monitor St and Sr controllers. the aSS offers two banks of two options each, allowing four additional capabilities for the monitor controller available directly from the St-Sr remote. options introduced include mastering quality stereo d-a conversion — daC-St — and dual-format video input switching for monitor St and St-Sr systems — vidswitch. Upcoming options include 5.1 surround bass management with selectable filters and crossover points (Bass-Sr), comprehensive subwoofer control (Sub-St), comprehensive 5.1 to stereo fold-down and downmix control (Folddown), meter feed and selected output source for monitor St (meter-St), 6-channel d-aC for surround setups (daC-Sr), and multiple input listening and input mixing for monitor St (mix-St).

March 2008

resolution

review

TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48 Building on the trend to create ever more sophisticated single-box DAW support devices, TC has eclipsed the competition by putting more in its box than the rest. ROB JAMES says there’s even more in there than you’d think.

ust like the real (?!?) world, audio is subject to trends and fashions. One season you cannot move for flares and mic preamps, another it is ra-ra skirts and monitor controllers. Now it seems that Ugg boots and onebox workstation support devices are everywhere you look. The basic premise is: ‘You can get rid of that big ugly mixer, our box provides all you need to build a complete studio, apart from the workstation itself, mics and monitor speakers/amps.’ (And the Ugg boots too? Ed) Most examples simply combine the functions of a number of discrete units into one box and present them in a familiar way — mic pre(s), A-DC and D-AC, monitor controller and MIDI interface, sometimes with the addition of a remote control for monitoring. To obviate the need to install an internal soundcard many manufacturers have opted to use FireWire to transport audio, MIDI, clock and control signals to and from the DAW. I’m still not convinced by the notion of using IEEE 1394, FireWire, i.Link, call it what you will, for real-time audio and always recommend internal cards, but I cannot deny the attraction of a one cable connection and, of course, internal cards are less practical with laptops. TC Electronic’s Konnekt series of interfaces ranges from entry level to the current top dog, the Studio Konnekt 48 (Euro 1499 suggested retail price). Offering a glittering array of features, there is more to this 1U than meets the eye. Certainly the expected components are all present, four mic and instrument combi analogue inputs with switched phantom power, meters, front panel pots and -20dB pads plus another eight analogue line ins. There are eight analogue line outs, two independent stereo headphone outputs and an XLR stereo pair of main outputs. Sixteen channels of optical digital I-O switchable between ADAT and SPDIF and a stereo coaxial SPDIF pair nicely complement the analogue I-O. The DICE II FireWire chipset provides 24 channels to and from the DAW along with accurate and stable clocking and there are three assignable speaker sets for stereo and surround monitoring with level and dim control and talkback. All of which is indisputably useful but there are some unexpected and very welcome extras. First, a dinky remote control with a big domed knob/button and LED ring. Then there is a 24/8 DSP mixer 26

with recall and DSP effects insert points and speaker management, with individual level and delay control, and bass management based on the AIR technology found in Dynaudio speakers. The mixer uses 48-bit double precision summing on all mix buses with 56-bit internal processing. If all that isn’t enough to make your ears prick up then how about two (at 48kHz) simultaneous stereo Fabrik C channel strips with 4-band EQs and multiband compression based on TC System 6000 algorithms and a built-in Fabrik R reverb, based on TC 4000 technology? As the icing on the cake TC has thrown ResFilter and Assimilator Konnekt plug-ins into the mix along with an Integrator plug-in for external hardware effects and a guitar tuner that makes use of the big, bright LED ring on the remote control. The whole shooting match is controlled via the TC Near application. Installation is simple on Mac and PC with the usual ‘install the software before plugging in the FireWire’ routine. The plug-ins are supplied in VST and AU flavours and applications can use the FireWire interface in VST, WDM and Core Audio modes. Multiple Konnekt units can be daisy chained with common monitoring, all controlled from a single instance of TC Near. The front panel meter block also has indicators for FireWire, MIDI and digital I-O. Once set up, the Konnekt 48 can be used ‘standalone’ without a computer if required. As a change from my usual PCs and applications I have been using the Konnekt 48 with Final Cut Pro and Soundtracks2 on a Mac for monitoring and acquisition. The TC Near application is not the most intuitive I have encountered. The labelling of the playback DAW FireWire channels was particularly confusing when used with Soundtracks. Talkback dim only affects the headphone outputs. I would like to have seen an option to dim the main monitor output as well. A number of features are sample rate dependent. For example, at the maximum 192kHz you lose the mixer completely. At 96kHz you only get one stereo Fabrik C or the Fabrik R. The drivers are now at V2 but there are still some anomalies. I had to re-start the Konnekt once because of garbled audio and to restore to factory defaults because of corrupted graphics. After this, things seemed to settle down. resolution

Studio Kontrol is the hardware remote. The big encoder controls the Master output level by default and after one of the modifier buttons is pressed it automatically reverts to this mode if no change is made for a user-determined period (default 2.5s). When the knob is pressed it invokes dim and controls the dim level. A second press returns to main output level. The Panel button toggles popping-up the TC Near window over the DAW application and minimising it again. Further buttons allow the knob to be used to adjust level and pan, etc for inputs. Modifiers enable muting of inputs and invoke the guitar tuner and control effects. Although this is a far from conventional set of functions on a small remote, it repays the learning curve with near instant access to many frequently tweaked parameters. Fabrik C and R are world class processors. OK, you only get one reverb and two stereo channel strips at 48kHz but they are more than worth the effort and the GUIs are both based on the MINT interface and offer a revolutionary glimpse of what is possible when designers stop imitating conventional analogue controls. Even so, the effects allocation seems a little stingy considering that Studio Konnekt 48’s junior siblings, the Konnekt Live and Konnekt 24D, are similarly equipped. The mic pres and analogue I-O are subjectively excellent and the audio in general can be characterised as clean and quiet. However, as I said at the beginning, FireWire remains questionable as a professional realtime audio interface. Driver performance is critical; the TI FireWire chipset is highly recommended, if not essential, and don’t even think about connecting anything else to the same FireWire bus if you want reliable performance at low latencies. Bottom line is that the sound is excellent for the price, the effects are a big bonus but, despite TC Electronic’s sterling efforts, questions remain over the drivers and it may take a while to get your head around the patching. ■

ProS

Excellent sound at this price point; Fabrik effects are superb; versatile; nice remote.

CoNS

Complexity; more instances of the effects would be welcome; suitability of FireWire as a professional real-time audio interface?

Contact tC ElECtroNiC, dENmarK: Website: www.tceletronic.com

March 2008

www.solid-state-logic.com

Give your studio a new heart

Control your DAW

Integrate your outboard

• 16 +1 Fader Controller • Plug-in control • Ethernet DAW connection • Control up to 4 DAWs simultaneously • Programmable Soft-Keys • DAW automation control of Matrix

• Advanced 32 x 16 x 16 routing matrix • SuperAnalogue™ router to manage the sends and returns of sixteen outboard processor units • Save FX chains and set-ups • Full control via PC application

An SSL console at the heart of your studio. Focusing your creativity and streamlining workflow. Seamlessly integrating your outboard analogue equipment within a powerful routing matrix. Elegant control of up to four DAWs simultaneously. And a first-class SSL mix surface. The future of the project studio is Matrix. Find out more at www.solid-state-logic.com/matrix

Matrix. This is SSL. Oxford +44 (0)1865 842300 New York +1 (1)212 315 1111 Los Angeles +1 (1)323 549 9090 Paris +33 (0)1 48 67 84 85 Milan +39 039 2328 094 Tokyo +81 (0)3 5474 1144

review

Sonic Studio SoundBlade Most DAWs are said to ‘do’ mastering yet few actually ever master as their primary function. ANDY DAY encounters a mastering speciﬁc program that he describes as a Sonic Solutions for the naughties.

ith several DAWs already in the market, it’s refreshing to encounter a new one that is aimed very specifically at mastering with specialist features for the discipline. Mastering remains a much underrated process and while all DAWs or computer based systems offer ‘mastering’ features, such as plug-ins for EQ, dynamics and other signal processing to make mixes sound punchier or tighter, there are many other more technical aspects of the mastering process that are not really addressed by the average DAW. That’s where Sonic Studio’s SoundBlade comes in. Apart from having some unique editing tools (more of which later) it has all the pre-mastering requirements, such as PQ editing, to create Red Book standard audio CDs. Those of us old enough to remember, will recognise the name Sonic from the original Sonic Solutions DAW, which was the first DAW to use a computer and was the standard mastering and editing tool for most studios in its day. Time has moved on and people use more integrated solutions for music creation, like Logic and Pro Tools, but the need for dedicated, focused software for mastering is still there. Incidentally, the Sonic Solutions brand now concentrates on DVD authoring and Sonic Studio is the audio spin-off. SoundBlade runs on Mac OSX 10.4.3 or newer 28

on Power PC or Intel processor machines. There is a 1GHz minimum processor spec but that is really not such a big deal nowadays. Authorisation is done using an iLok and one really nice feature of SoundBlade is that you can use any OSX core audio interface, which opens up just about every audio interface on the market. Sonic Studio also makes its own high quality reference audio interface but it’s good to know that its confidence in its software is so strong that it supports other interfaces too. Sonic Studio breaks Red Book CD production into four distinct steps. These are: loading the audio tracks and assembling the audio; editing and processing the tracks; adjusting crossfades between tracks; and finally burning the project to a CD. I’ll use these steps as the basis for this review and create a compilation CD while I‘m at it. Loading tracks is easy to do either from the File menu in the software or by dragging audio files directly into SoundBlade. All formats are supported including WAVE, BWF (including timecode), AIFF and SDII. If you have your finished mixes as separate files in a folder, you can select them in the finder, drag and drop holding the command key, and SoundBlade will automatically create CD tracks within the software (including PQ codes). This makes it really fast to create a compilation, but you still need to spend time in the next section to match the tracks sonically. resolution

This stage is handled nicely too with straightforward editing and easy (or complex) crossfade creation. There’s even support for VST and Audio Unit plug-ins so you can still apply your favourite mastering plug-ins at this stage. This is done in a mixer window with inserts similar to those of most other DAWs. Sonic Studio is responsible for the excellent NoNoise restoration process, which was the industry standard for many years, and while it’s not included as standard it can be applied as a plug-in. Another very useful feature of SoundBlade that you encounter at this editing stage is AutoSpace, which puts a predefined space between all your tracks. However, the real power of SoundBlade is in the PQ code editing and creation that generates the final TOC (table of contents) for the replication master. Some replicators can create these for you but professionals will always want to create their own. As mentioned earlier, they can be created automatically by the software when importing files or they can be inserted manually. As you create the PQ codes a DDP image is automatically created and this will be used by SoundBlade to generate your master CD. DDP, or Disc Description Protocol, is the standard method for delivering all the data and metadata needed for disc replication to a replicator. Unlike audio CDs, DDP file sets contain error– protected audio data plus all ancillary metadata. DDP file sets, when used for replication, avoid the potential errors that can crop up between the time you create a replication master and the moment that a glass master is created during replication. CD-DA discs, or audio CDs, do not protect the audio data from errors since they assume that the CD player will hide or ‘conceal’ any errors during playback. This situation leads to errors in replication when recordable CDs, formatted as Red Book (audio) discs, are used as replication masters. Finally, SoundBlade will then burn your completed disc and you’re ready to deliver, knowing that you’ll get exactly what you created when the CD glass master is created. I found the software relatively easy to use, although being more of a Pro Tools user the interface is less ‘clickable’ than I am used to but that is just a personal preference. For the specialist pre-mastering and CD production facility, this software is unique. It’s basically a Sonic Solutions for the naughties with the added benefits of not being hardware specific and supporting VST and AU plug-ins. If you’re involved in mastering or still limping along with a NUBusbased Sonic Solutions then this is a no-brainer. ■

ProS

dedicated PQ editing and creation — very focussed on Cd mastering; autospace for track spacing; not hardware specific; vSt and aU plug-in support.

CoNS

Priced at US$1495 it may limit mass market sales.

Contact SoNiC StUdio, US Website: www.sonicstudio.com

March 2008

review

Presonus FaderPort Sick of mixing with a rodent? ROB JAMES tries to alleviate his RSI with Presonus’s affordable mini-controller.

e have a l l become familiar with performing everyday mixing tasks using a computer mouse, often in combination with keyboard shortcuts. However, just as it is possible to bang in a screw with a hammer or open a paint tin with a screwdriver (Or a hammer. Ed), it works a whole lot better with a purposemade tool, and so it is in the audio and video world with faders, knobs and buttons. Now, I’m a self-confessed control freak, and I’ve always found the mouse to be a poor (paw?) substitute for the real thing. However, conventional hardware control surfaces are not necessarily the answer. Sometimes less is more and this principle is equally applicable to controllers. Certainly a ‘knob per function’ control surface is highly desirable in some circumstances but, with today’s operating practices and workflows, it can be total overkill — and that’s without considering the cost. Middleweight hardware control surfaces are frequently more trouble than they are worth because of the inherent compromises. It is a lot harder to get to grips with eight or nine faders and associated controls as a window on a much larger virtual console than a single control strip. Keeping track of what is going on becomes a feat of mental prestidigitation worthy of Mr Memory. There have been single-strip controllers before, but Presonus’ new toy the FaderPort (UK£109.78 + VAT) distills the essentials, without trying to be too clever, at a highly attractive price. For starters, at a mere 180mm deep by 130mm wide and 40mm high, it doesn’t hog valuable work surface space. The gently raked top and back is a single sheet of metal imparting a sense of solidity to the whole. The fader is a touch-sensitive, motorised ALPS 100mm-throw item with 10-bit resolution that translates into 1024 steps; enough to avoid zipper noise. This fader is the real McCoy with the same dual-servo belt-driven mechanism that you will find on many expensive consoles. The pan 30

rotary controller is a shaft-encoder with the same blue knurled knob found on other Presonus devices, and none the worse for that. The buttons are less satisfactory, at least on first acquaintance. They need a firm press and have a short travel, which is fine for selection but initially off-putting as transport controls. In operation, this impression quickly dissipates to be replaced by gratitude for their positive action. Around the back there are just three connections, a fourpin USB socket, a low-voltage power inlet for the motorised fader and a 1/4-inch footswitch jack for hands-free punchins. The unit itself is powered via the USB connection with fader power supplied by a wall wart. With the fader on the left, the top row has the pan knob, Mute, Solo and Rec-enable keys. Next down comes the Channel Select row with left and right ‘shift by one channel arrow’ keys and an Output key. If the channel shift keys are used in conjunction with the Bank key the focus is shifted in 8-channel increments. In the Fader Mode row, Read, Write, Touch and motor Off keys control automation. Dedicated keys toggle Mixer, Project Panel and Transport Control Panel panes on and off. Last key in this row is Undo which is also Redo when used with the Shift key in the Transport row which also has Punch User and Loop keys with Shifted functions of Previous, Next and Mark, respectively. The transport keys themselves are where they belong at the bottom with Rewind, Fast Forward, Stop Play and Record. Stop and Rewind together give Return-To-Zero and Shift + Rewind/Fast-Forward give Start and End. In HUI Control mode (for use with Pro Tools, Logic and the like), the Output and User buttons don’t do anything. Installation can be as simple as plugging the FaderPort in. For applications that only support HUI, that’s it; the necessary drivers are installed resolution

automatically. If there is a dedicated driver, then this needs to be copied and installed. I used Nuendo and here it’s a simple matter of dropping a DLL file into a folder. Application set-up obviously differs according to the software of your choice, but in Nuendo at least, it only took a few seconds. If you wish to customise the control assignments, there is a dedicated window. For Nuendo the driver comes ready-programmed: Shift + Mix toggles the top part of the Mixer on and off and Shift + Transport switches the metronome on and off. Personally, I would resist the temptation to map too many other controls to key combinations, in the interests of keeping it simple. Protocols are hardware controllers’ Achilles heel. Although Mackie’s venerable HUI protocol is something of a lingua franca it isn’t particularly comprehensive and many current applications do not support it. The Rolls-Royce solution is a purpose-written controller driver for each specific application. This takes time and therefore money to implement and thus frequently produces a ‘chicken and egg’ situation where neither the hardware manufacturer nor the software author wants to write drivers unless they think it will result in more sales. For the moment, the FaderPort has purpose-written drivers for Steinberg’s Nuendo and Cubase (albeit only on the PC), Cakewalk’s Sonar 6 and Mark of the Unicorn’s Digital Performer. Other applications, including Digidesign’s Pro Tools, are supported via the HUI protocol. In operation I found the FaderPort completely intuitive and a very valuable addition to the mouse and keyboard; but then for all except the most forensic of level changes a fader will always be my weapon of choice. If you have any fader jockey skills whatsoever, writing automation this way is a lot better than mousing around with an on-screen fader and infinitely preferable to dragging points on a rubber band. At this price, as long as the audio or video application you use can be persuaded to support it properly, the FaderPort is a winner. ■

ProS

Elegant simplicity; price; brings about a real productivity boost.

CoNS

limited native driver support for the present; button action takes a while to get used to.

EXtraS

the Presonus FireStudio FireWire and midi interface also has an optional monitor controller, the mSr or monitor Station remote, and these two can be combined with the FaderPort to create a complete system of i-o and control.

Contact PrESoNUS, US: Website: www.presonus.com UK, Source distribution: +44 20 8962 5080

March 2008

review

Logic Studio It’s one of the biggest updates for the program and it addresses many former issues well. It also creates a few new ones but it comes bundled in a magniﬁcent package. GEORGE SHILLING is also magniﬁcently packaged and feels strangely drawn to it.

ogic Pro version 8 comes as Logic Studio, bundled with MainStage for live use, Soundtrack Pro for audio-for-video duties, Waveburner for CD mastering, and other items such as Apple Loops Utility. Furthermore, all the previous Jam Packs are now included, so you get a humungous total install of 46Gb. The XS-Key is gone, authorisation is simply via Serial Number, and the price is reduced — Apple is banking on you needing a hardware upgrade to handle the increased overhead required as you can just about run Logic on a very late G4 PowerMac, but the 8-Core Mac Pro looks ever more desirable… Logic 8 is a truly major update, with a vast number of changes to interface and operation. Following the lengthy install the most apparent change is the complete overhaul of the appearance: the whole look is vastly improved. The menus have changed, and a number of new buttons make access to frequently needed items more immediate. Apple has attempted to enable the use of the program from one main screen, with the central Arrange window (which now allows sample accurate editing) flanked by other useful expanding windows. From the right hand side, you can pop open a Media and Lists area. This has several tabs, including a brand new and highly intuitive Library for searching for instrument sounds and plug-in settings. A Browser enables scouring for other files, and the Audio Bin section replaces the old Audio Window, and is tidier. The enhanced Loop Browser makes using Apple Loops, or any other type of Loop, easy to search and import. In many situations, Media and Lists items can simply be dragged into the Arrange area to create a new channel with the desired settings. The Inspector area on the left is an enhanced version of the previous Parameter window, now helpfully featuring two fader strips as appropriate — in addition to the current channel, its destination channel is also displayed alongside. Edit windows now open up at the bottom of the 32

Arrange window with direct access buttons for each editor type. This keeps things tidy, but although the height is adjustable, a floating window will still be the preferred option in many instances. At the top of the Arrange is a customisable toolbar, while at the bottom is the fixed customisable Transport window. The possibility to easily hide this was introduced in v8.01 after some whining by seasoned users. Despite such radical interface reworking (no doubt with major code rewriting), almost all previous features are retained, but one or two things have caused ructions with die-hard users. Notably, the Audio Configuration Window has completely disappeared. Part of its capability to paste complex plug-in setups between projects has been snuck back into 8.01, but the situation is still not entirely satisfactory; when there are any pre-existing plug-ins in the destination project, it seems that all plug-ins revert to factory default settings. Some of Logic’s terminology has been rationalised. For example, an Audio Object becomes a Channel Strip, an Audio Instrument becomes a Software Instrument, and so on. To hardcore dyed-in-the-wool users, these changes are minor irritations, but to any new or casual user, these changes make the whole experience more, well, logical. There are plenty of small annoyances for familiar users. For example, even pressing the Record button again when in record doesn’t work the same way it used to by default. But overall, the casual user and new user will find things far easier. A great deal of criticism was previously levelled at Logic’s audio editing functionality. However, there are a number of improvements in this area. A new Junction tool becomes available when the mouse is correctly placed where two audio regions meet, so you resolution

can avoid problems with regions becoming hidden when overlapping. You can now zoom the height of waveforms within regions using a slider, making it easier to see the audio when zoomed in. Take management is now catered for with new features. Recording multiple takes on a single track results in a folder containing the takes while an innovative Quick Swipe Comping feature allows clicked and dragged sections of different takes to be automatically compiled. An Input monitoring button is now available on channel strips for tracks that are not armed (although this doesn’t apply to DAE channels). A whole raft of features relating to Surround have been introduced, including the option to bounce to DVD-A format. Plug-ins are now surround compatible, either with dedicated versions or by automatically configuring as multichannel versions. An enhanced panner, proper surround metering and a new master channel strip all make surround work rather easier. The Mixer has been rationalised, combining the Environment Mixer and Track Mixer into one window, with a useful Arrange view that shows only the channels relevant to the Arrange window. The Project Manager has gone, and the whole handling of songs and projects has been much improved. There is now far less chance of related files being spread across different locations, as any new project ties everything to the same root folder in a (ahem!) logical manner. Global Track functions are vastly enhanced and are easier to set up with a new configuration dialogue, and Nodes are easier to set up and use. Audio Units can now be processed, and if connection is broken or the other computer shuts down, there are no problems on the host. There is a new Low Latency mode for recording when plug-ins are in circuit — this limits the maximum delay time to a preset amount, automatically bypassing the worst offending plug-ins and it’s fantastic for overdubs during mixing. And plug-ins’ header sections have been given a makeover, with a transparent grey masthead and a smart new layout. EXS24’s Instrument Editor is way better, and many plug-ins and instruments have benefited from improvements. The new Delay Designer offers up to 26 individual taps and includes filtering, level, pan and pitch transposing. Of course, Apple hasn’t quite perfected Logic yet, but this is a huge leap in the right direction for logical thinking humans. Some of the bugs have been ironed out with 8.01, but there are undoubtedly some tweaks, fixes and improvements still to come. Apple’s alleged censoring of ‘support’ forums, and the secretive nature of software development can mean that users feel frustrated while they wait, but that is true of most platforms. Logic 8 is mightily impressive, and is now far closer to becoming all things to all men (and women). ■

ProS

logic is now much more logical in behaviour and usage; it’s cheaper and includes useful extra software.

CoNS

Still enormously complicated; some bugs, and some daftness such as the loss of audio Configuration functionality.

Contact aPPlE, US: Website: www.apple.com/logicstudio/

March 2008

“Astonishing levels of resolution and clarity place these monitors in the serious league”

digidesign.com © 2007 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, Digidesign, and Pro Tools are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. Product features, specifications, and system requirements are subject to change without notice. All prices are UKMRP for United Kingdom only and are subject to change without notice.

Sound on Sound Review of Digidesign RM2, October 2007

Experience next-generation near-field monitoring for yourself at the following locations: Absolute Music

Poole

Tel: 0845 0255555

Big Bear

Dublin

Tel: 01 410 0212

Digital Village (Acton)

London

Tel: 020 8992 5592

Digital Village (Clapham)

London

Tel: 0207 819 3900

FX Rentals

London

Tel: 020 8746 2121

HHB Communications

London

Tel: 020 8962 5000

Jigsaw Systems

Nottingham

Tel: 0870 730 6894

KMR

London

Tel: 020 8445 2446

Media Tools

London

Tel: 020 7692 6611

Digidesign revolutionised the music and post-production industries with Pro Tools®, empowering audio professionals to create the best-sounding audio possible. To further ensure this audio integrity, Digidesign now looks to redefine the near-field monitoring experience with the introduction of the Digidesign® Reference Monitor Series (RMS), co-developed with world-leading professional monitor manufacturer, PMC. Price per monitor

RM1 £750exc. VAT. RM2 £1,050 exc. VAT. Learn more about the Digidesign Reference Monitor Series at digidesign.com/clarity

review

Centrance MicPort Pro Simple and portable recording devices have been generating a lot of interest and there are two main approaches — USB with a computer or small portable recorders. These obviously address different applications but the MicPort Pro neatly slots into the USB category. ROB JAMES

’ve been tempted by the convenience and utility of USB microphones, but the currently available models are just too much of a compromise to make me reach for the plastic. In any case, I have a number of mics I know well and am comfortable with so why buy another one if I don’t have to? MicPort Pro to the rescue. For a mere UK£93 (+ VAT) MicPort Pro squeezes a mic preamp with A-DC and D-AC for monitoring through the built-in headphone amp into a compact anodised alloy tube with a chopped-off ellipsoid cross-section. That’s the first bit of clever design. With an XLR at one end it can be plugged straight into a mic or connected via a cable. If the casing was cylindrical it would be prone to rolling off surfaces and the two rotary controls, mic gain and headphone level, would perpetually be out of reach. The flat on the case means it sits nicely on the desktop when connected via a cable to the mic. A transparent plastic shroud surrounds the XLR. Thanks to an LED this gives enough light to make it very obvious when the device is active. At the other end of the case a standard mini USB connects to the computer and a 3.5mm jack socket provides the headphone connection. The tiny momentary pushbutton switches 48V phantom power on or off with a small red indicator LED. This defaults to ‘off’ to preserve mics that might not take kindly to phantom. The whole thing is powered via

USB and the 48V is generated internally from the 5V USB supply. Centrance claims plug-and-play operation and this was my experience on a Vista box but it doesn’t support legacy Windows 2k (I tried it). Output is mono and Centrance offers a free download of its Universal Driver which allows the use of multiple MicPorts. You’ll also need this to provide an ASIO2 interface for Cubase/Nuendo etc and a GSIF2 interface for GigaStudio. In operation the MicPort becomes surprisingly warm but this does not appear to have any adverse effect. Operation is simplicity itself. I used it to record a video tutorial with complete success. There is plenty of mic gain and the headphone output is prodigious. Since the analogue mic output is mixed with the D-A converted return from the computer there is no mic latency on the monitor output.

MicPort offers 24-bit 96kHz and it is the 24 bits that make the difference. Although still more bits are desirable in some circumstances, the analogue gain adjustment is relatively uncritical — i.e. getting the balance right between not clipping and low noise is very easy. That said, I would be more comfortable if there was at least a clip LED on the device. A tricolour metering LED would be even better. For many applications this is the perfect solution. It even has ‘green’ credentials. If I hadn’t used the MicPort I would have had to turn on the mixer, the monitors and all the rest of the studio paraphernalia to achieve the same result. This device is perfect for those quick recordings you might otherwise never make because it’s just too much hassle to set everything up. As you may have gathered by now, I like it. ■

ProS

Price; simplicity and convenience; 24-bit means decent dynamic range without over critical set-up.

CoNS

No clip indication or metering; not much else at this price.

Contact CENtraNCE, US: Website: www.centrance.com UK, SCv london: +44 208 418 1470

Sumo

The right tools for the right job. Audient Workstation Peripherals When it comes to recording excellence, Audient are the masters of analogue design. The sonic integrity of their high-end consoles, the ASP8024 and ACS8024 is legendary. Audient offer the same classic sound with their range of workstation peripherals - a collection of high specification tools designed to create the optimum signal path in the analogue domain. For more information, see audient.com

Ten21 Studio (UK). Control room featuring Audient ASP8024 Console

High Resolution Summing Amplifier

review

Primacoustic Recoil Stabilzers Freely admitting to being something of a cynic when it comes to audio ‘tweaks’ ever since a group of hi-ﬁ aﬁcionados tried to convince him that a phono lead could be directional, JON THORNTON assesses a better speaker stand.

ith any product that claims snakeoil type properties, my first response is to look for the underlying science. Fortunately, this is an easy job with Primacoustic’s Recoil Stabilizers. Essentially an isolating pad for monitor speakers, they are a variation on a well-trodden acoustic theme. Consisting of a pad of high-density foam topped with a fairly hefty chunk of laser-cut steel, and finished off with a non-slip neoprene top layer, the idea is that the foam decouples the speaker from structureborne resonances in the stand/ meterbridge or whatever. In addition, the added mass of the steel plate allegedly minimises the recoil action caused by the movement of the driver. While you can’t really argue with Newtonian Laws, the effect of this on perceived sound quality is a little less clear-cut, but the manufacturer claims that this results in a generally better transient response, with increased detail at all frequencies and a generally tighter

bottom end. The Stabilizers are available in different sizes to accommodate different speaker sizes and weights, and can also be ordered with a shaped foam base that gives a 5 degree down-firing angle if needed. They look nicely made, with the steel plate curving around the front of the foam base slightly. The units supplied for review were the middle size of the range, with a 10-inch x 13-inch base, and weighing in at nearly 5kg each (UK£71 + VAT each). They were set up initially on a console meterbridge, supporting a pair of Genelec 1030As. Initial A/B tests with another pair of 1030s on the meterbridge without the Stabilizers (not quite A/B as the spacing and angle had to be slightly different as a result) did reveal some quite pronounced sonic differences. Bass is better defined — actually sounding like you’ve dropped in a high-pass filter that’s clearing all the mud below about 40Hz — but you’d expect that with any degree of decoupling from a resonant structure like a meterbridge. Imaging seems a little tighter too — even after swapping the stabilisers to the other set of 1030s to ensure that it wasn’t just differences in monitor spacing that I was hearing.

But for me, the most obvious sonic difference was a very noticeable increase in the definition of the midrange, with a hugely increased depth of field. And these differences aren’t slight — it’s a very apparent shift in response. Moving on, I was interested to see whether the Stabilizers would have any effect when used on an existing high mass, low resonance speaker stand. As you might expect, the differences here were nowhere near as pronounced — although there did seem to be a slight tightening up of the bass again. At the end of the day, the principles involved aren’t exactly rocket science and we’ve always known about the importance of speaker mounting. What Primacoustics has done though, is package these principles together in an attractive, wellengineered solution. Home-brewed solutions would probably be nearly as effective, but nowhere near as pretty or as compact. For situations where monitors are already mounted on decent stands, the sonic improvement probably doesn’t justify the cost. But in less than ideal situations where proper stands just aren’t feasible for nearfields, they are worth their (considerable) weight in gold. It’s almost like having a new set of monitors. ■

ProS

Nice looking, compact design; really does improve the fidelity of nearfield monitors with less than ideal mounting.

CoNS

Pricey for what they are; not a huge improvement in sound if you already have decent stands.

Contact PrimaCoUStiC, CaNada: Website: www.primacoustic.com

Centro Monitor and Foldback Controller

ASP008 8 Channel Variable Impedance Mic Pre

- think clarity

www.audient.com

Distributed in the UK by SCV London. Tel: 020 8418 1470 www.scvlondon.co.uk

review

CEDAR Audio DNS1500 With content production values suffering at the hands of the budgetary constraint there’s never been a better time to make audio amends with a dialogue noise suppressor. ROB JAMES ﬁnds the new right tool for the job.

round seven years ago CEDAR came up with a digital alternative to the Cat.43a (Dolby A) and Cat 430 (Dolby SR) analogue noise reducers with its DNS1000 dialogue noise suppressor. Like the Dolby units, its primary purpose was to improve location sound for picture recordings by removing extraneous background noise. As a bonus, it can also reduce reverberation. It is a tribute to the essential rightness of the original concept that it has taken this long for a replacement to appear. Following the very sensible principle of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ the DNS1500 builds on the foundations laid by the DNS1000, adding a number of useful tweaks while retaining all the sonic virtues of the original. Cleaning up location recordings is one of the most time consuming aspects of sound for picture in documentaries and drama and the quality of location recordings has, in the main, deteriorated. This is not simply due to environmental factors but has a lot to do with diminishing budgets. ADR is one answer, at least for drama, but this is generally undesirable if it can be avoided and is always expensive. We all have our favourite devices and techniques to help mitigate the worst excesses — filters, expanders, gates, and dynamic equalisers, like the BSS 901 — and the DNS1000 does not render all other devices redundant because some will be better with some problems than others. It is however, fair to say that the popular broad-band noise removal plug-ins are seldom effective at dealing with the kinds of pollutants the DNS process addresses so well. Live sound engineers and sound supervisors, whether for PA or broadcast, also realised that the low-latency DNS could help them too since they frequently also have to contend with less than perfect sources. The DNS1500 follows the same form-factor as its predecessor in being a heavy desk-mounting unit with seven full-throw faders and six buttons (one fewer than the DNS1000). The look is sleeker and the buttons now light up blue, although the processing LEDs are still red and green, but otherwise it will be familiar to anyone who has seen a DNS1000. Around the back a pair of XLRs and a pair of phonos cater for AES-EBU and SPDIF I-O. The mains power supply is integral. An RJ45 Ethernet socket is new to the DNS1500 and is used solely for software upgrades. Under the hood the changes are more profound. The original Texas Instruments DSP processors have been replaced by Analog Devices SHARCs and the unit now operates at sampling rates up to 96kHz. The other major change is that the channels are now analysed and processed separately. Before, the control logic, in what was in effect the sidechain, was summed in the interests of preventing stereo artefacts. Feedback from many users indicated that, in the majority of applications, two individual signals were more useful than the previous arrangement. In 36

practice, since the thresholds are set for both channels at the same time, there are no audible artefacts on stereo recordings while twin mono operation benefits from the new arrangement. More good news is that the price, UK£3500 + VAT, remains unchanged. The ‘missing’ button is ‘Both Channels’. On the DNS1500 simply pressing the Left and Right Channel buttons latches or unlatches each of them. On the right, the bypass switch is essential for regularly checking the effect. The remaining three keys determine the frequency range to be treated. Logically enough, the left-hand key gives low, the middle, mid and the right, high. A wider spread can be obtained by using the keys in combination either simultaneously or in quick succession while the first is flashing. Low and mid, mid and high or, by pressing the left and right keys together, full range. Selecting a range directs all of the filters within the DNS1500s to that part of the audio spectrum. The maximum frequency treated varies from 12kHz at 32kHz sampling rate to approximately 45kHz at 96kHz sampling rate. The left-hand fader is used to set the overall level of noise present in the input signal. The remaining six faders have LEDs that indicate the activity in each of the control bands. Off equals less than +/-0.5dB of processing, green means cut and red indicates boost. I did have a couple of minor operational issues with the DNS1500. Although the LED brightness can resolution

be adjusted, this affects all of the indicator LEDs as well as the ones embedded in the buttons. The blue button LEDs are dimly lit to enable them to be located in studio lighting conditions and they increase in brightness when pressed. However, with the indicator LEDs set to a comfortable level, the difference in brightness between an On and Off button is not great and in certain lighting conditions it could be difficult to determine if buttons are on or off. Also, since there are very few buttons on the unit they are all ‘multi-function’. For example, pressing and holding the Left channel button accesses LED brightness on the main fader. This has necessitated using a momentary action when using the buttons operationally. The window during which the button must be pressed and released in order to register a change is pretty short. (A bit like having a fast double-click time on a mouse.) A further issue is that pressing and holding the ‘band’ buttons accesses a filter calibration mode and it is too easy to do this inadvertently. But, no need to panic, after a lengthy conversation with CEDAR all these points are being addressed in the next software version. The button timing will be increased, button LED brightness will be independently adjustable and it will be made more difficult to enter calibration mode (Can’t think of many manufacturers that would be this responsive. Ed). Like its predecessor this unit is a near perfect compromise between effectiveness and simplicity of operation while providing adequate control over a highly complex process. Since its introduction, workers in other fields including forensics have discovered its virtues. Other CEDAR processes have been much imitated and it says a lot about DNS that no pretender to the throne has appeared thus far. The DNS1500 certainly isn’t cheap but, when you consider that it remains the only game in town and has become absolutely indispensable to many engineers all over the world, it doesn’t have to be. ■

ProS

Simple and fast operation; outstanding results; a real-time low-latency device.

CoNS

Expensive; minor operational issues that have now been addressed; short travel button action may not suit everyone.

EXtraS

dNS1500 frequency ranges: mid — 200Hz-6kHz High — 4kHz-maximum low + mid — 20Hz-6kHz mid + High — 200Hz-maximum Full range — 20Hz-maximum

Contact CEdar aUdio, UK: Website: www.cedaraudio.com

March 2008

m802 8 channel remote controlled microphone preamplifier Our second generation remote DPOUSPMMFE NJD QSFBNQMJGJFS DPNCJOFT TUVOOJOH QVSJTU BVEJP QFSGPSNBODF XJUI B GFBUVSF TFU TJNQMZ VOBWBJMBCMF XJUI BOZ PUIFS QSFBNQMJGJFS EFTJHO 8JUI UIF TUBOE BMPOF SFNPUF DPOUSPM VQ UP FJHIU N T DIBOOFMT DBO CF DPOUSPMMFE GSPN VQ UP BXBZ PS EJSFDUMZ GSPN DigidesignÂ® Pro Tools|HDÂ® systems PS BOZ IPTU DPNQVUFS WJB .*%* "EE UIF PQUJPOBM SFGFSFODF CJU L)[ " % DPOWFSUFS DBSE BOE UIF N CFDPNFT UIF DPNQMFUF JOQVU TPMVUJPO GPS FWFO UIF NPTU EFNBOEJOH SFDPSEJOH BQQMJDBUJPOT 5IF N EFMJWFST VONBUDIFE BVEJP QFSGPSNBODF XJUI WBTU IFBESPPN BOE VMUSB XJEF CBOEXJEUI XIJDI DPOUSJCVUF UP B NBSLFEMZ PQFO BOE NVTJDBM DIBSBDUFS 5IF N XJMM FGGPSUMFTTMZ SFTPMWF FWFO UIF MPXFTU MFWFM ambient information, resulting in a sonic QJDUVSF PG BTUPOJTIJOH DMBSJUZ BOE EFUBJM XIJDI TFSWFT UP DBQUVSF UIF FTTFOUJBM DIBSBDUFS PG UIF NVTJD CFJOH SFDPSEFE 5IF N OPX JODMVEFT PVS VOJRVF SJCCPO NJD NPEF XIJDI TIJGUT UIF QSFBNQMJGJFS T FOUJSF HBJO SBOHF VQ XIJMF EFBDUJWBUJOH QIBOUPN QPXFS PQUJNJ[JOH JOQVU JNQFEBODF BOE CZQBTTJOH UIF EFDPVQMJOH DBQBDJUPST 0QUJPOBM 130V DPAÂ® JOQVUT BSF BMTP BWBJMBCMF 8IBUFWFS UIF BQQMJDBUJPO XF JOWJUF ZPV UP EJTDPWFS UIF SFNBSLBCMF TPOJD QFSGPSNBODF BOE GVODUJPOBMJUZ PG UIF N 8F SF DPOGJEFOU UIBU JU XJMM IFMQ ZPV NBLF UIF GJOFTU SFDPSEJOHT PG ZPVS DBSFFS

" % DPOWFSUFS DBSE PQUJPO GVMMZ CBMBODFE USBOTGPSNFMFTT EFTJHO t DPOUSPM GSPN %JHJEFTJHOÂ¥ 1SP 5PPMT])%Â¥ TZTUFNT t 7 QIBOUPN QPXFS PQUJPO t SJCCPO NJD NPEF t DIBOOFM HSPVQ NPEF t 3$6 DPOUSPMT VQ UP VOJUT GSPN VQ UP BXBZ t SFGFSFODF RVBMJUZ CJU L)[ " % DPOWFSUFS DBSE PQUJPO t PQUJPOBM "%"5 -JHIUQJQF PVUQVU XJUI 4.69 GPS L)[ t T -PDLÂ&#x2122; EVBM TUBHF 1-- GPS FYUSFNFMZ MPX KJUUFS t Ã¶WF ZFBS XBSSBOUZ

Power â&#x20AC;¢ Detail â&#x20AC;¢ Grace

JO UIF 6, Aspen Media Ltd t XXX BTQFO NFEJB DPN t XXX HSBDFEFTJHO DPN

monitor benchtest

DigiDesign RM2 KEITH HOLLAND

he Digidesign RM2 is an example of a new breed of loudspeaker featuring on-board digital electronics, and is the result of collaboration between Digidesign and transmission-line loudspeaker experts PMC. It is a two-way design featuring a 170mm doped cone woofer and a 27mm soft dome tweeter. The cabinet is a transmission line design that has external dimensions of 400mm high by 194mm wide by 370mm deep with drivers mounted in a symmetric vertical alignment on the front panel above the transmission line exit. The rear panel carries the mains power socket and switch, the input sockets, various controls and four threaded anchor points for wall brackets. XLR sockets are provided for analogue (balanced) and digital (AES 3) signal inputs, along with RJ-45 sockets for digital input and Thru connections. There are controls for high-frequency response and low frequency response, both of which are variable from -4dB to +3dB in 0.5dB steps, along with a gain trim (0dB to -15dB), a digital channel assignment switch and a ‘bass port emulation‘ switch that applies equalisation to emulate the response of a ported speaker. This review was conducted with input via the analogue socket, the tone controls set to 0dB and the bass port emulation switched out. One criticism is that the controls are somewhat flimsy in construction and do not have end stops so that, for example, the gain can be turned down though minimum straight to maximum. The on-board electronics features 24-bit,

Fig. 1. on-axis frequency response and harmonic distortion.

96kHz A-DCs, digital crossover, digital equalisation (bass port emulation and tone controls) and class D amplifiers rated at 100W for the LF and 50W for the HF driver. Figure 1 shows the on-axis frequency response and harmonic distortion (at a level of 90dB at 1m) for the RM2. The response is seen to be within ±3dB from 160Hz to 20kHz, but is somewhat uneven at lower frequencies with a 4dB dip at about 150Hz followed by a +4dB peak at 100Hz before a 3rdorder roll-off that reaches -10dB at around 40Hz. Harmonic distortion at low frequencies is very good lying below -40dB (1%) at all frequencies from 50Hz upwards. The vertical off-axis response (Figure 2) shows the characteristic crossover dip at 2.5kHz due to the vertical spacing between the drivers, and the horizontal responses (Figure 3) demonstrate good directivity control with only slight mid-range narrowing between 1kHz to 2kHz.

monitor benchtest

Fig. 2. vertical off-axis response.

Fig. 4. acoustic source position.

Fig. 6. Power cepstrum.

Fig. 3. Horizontal off-axis response.

Fig. 5. Step response.

Fig. 7. Waterfall plot.

Figure 4 shows the acoustic source position for the RM2 in which the low frequencies are seen to emanate from a position about 2m behind the mid and high frequencies. This is a good result and is typical for a loudspeaker having a 3rd order lowfrequency roll-off. The step response of the RM2 (Figure 5) is commendably accurate, with the tweeter responding only about 250 microseconds before the woofer, and the power cepstrum (Figure

6) shows little evidence of echoes or reflections. The waterfall plot in Figure 7 shows evidence of a resonance at about 160Hz that corresponds with the dip in response noted above, apart from this, the response is seen to decay rapidly and evenly at all frequencies. Overall the Digidesign RM2 is a fine loudspeaker. Apart from a problem in the response at about 160Hz, there is little to criticise about the measured

performance. Of particular note is the time domain response. The combination of a rapid, even decay, fast step response and reasonably compact acoustic source position should ensure that transient signals are very well reproduced by this loudspeaker. â&#x2013;

Contact diGidESiGN, US: Website: www.digidesign.com

craft

Jon Cohen Producer Jon Cohen has established himself as a main player in the Classical Crossover arena. Self-taught musically he learnt production on the job. He talks to GEORGE SHILLING about the genre and his recording techniques.

he Classical Crossover market goes from strength to strength, led in the UK by the remarkable penetration of Classic FM. One of the most successful producers in the field is Jon Cohen, whom I first encountered during the making of the OperaBabes debut album. Recently, due to a diary clash he drafted me in to fill the shoes of his regular engineer Phil Da Costa to help mix a couple of tracks on the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards’ Spirit Of The Glen album. At the time of writing, this 40

album is riding high in the UK album chart Top 20, as is another Cohen production Voices Of The Valley Encore by the Fron Male Voice Choir. In the Classical Charts these albums sit at numbers two and one respectively. The previous Fron record (also Cohenproduced) was the fastest selling classical record of all time, going Gold within three days, and still in the top 10, nearing Double Platinum status at the time of writing. Remarkably, Cohen received no formal musical resolution

training at any stage, yet he developed a love for classical music and jazz that led to him teaching himself piano to a point where he was in demand for gigs and recordings. He taught himself music theory from books, and made the most of networking opportunities to land himself a position as established producer Nicky Graham’s right-hand man and assistant, learning production ‘on-the-job’. In a few short years Cohen’s work has garnered four Classical Brit nominations for Best Album and four number one classical albums. He has written and produced for the likes of Vanessa Mae, Myleene Klass and Amy Nuttall, along with pop artists such as Darius and Backstreet Boys. He also works with dance remixers Moto Blanco and together they have remixed tracks by Mary J Blige, Leona Lewis, Shayne Ward and Lionel Ritchie. Resolution met up with the self-effacing Jon in his ‘home from home’, Studio 2 at Sphere in London. (Photos www.recordproduction.com) March 2008

craft How did you start arranging and producing? I had a little setup at home, an Atari ST, which had the best MIDI timing of anything I’ve used, running Cubase. No audio recording, but I used to do a lot of MIDI-based stuff at home, I used to do imaginary film scores. Nicky Graham got me doing vocal production and learning about the process as a whole, seeing the records through from the writing stage to mixing and mastering. That’s the way to learn this business, there are a lot of people doing these courses in various colleges, and you learn the theory and how it’s supposed to go, but I really believe that there’s no substitute for actually doing it — field work — and being able to make mistakes. What guides your tastes? I like music that has a degree of intelligence in it, so that can really transcend genres. I particularly like jazz because of the rich harmonies. The more interesting work I’ve done has been where I’ve been allowed to stretch out on the harmonic stuff. I love certain elements of classical music, certain composers in particular, I love Mahler, who doesn’t love Mozart and see the genius there? And Bach, the geometric beauty in that music. I was never really a fan of pop music particularly, even though I ended up working in that area. I think you can understand what makes good music and what is a well-made record without needing to immerse yourself in that culture all the time as a matter of choice.

the music has to be created. It is time-consuming, although on the last couple of records there was quite a lot of time pressure. I have been in situations of having to get ten arrangements done in two weeks, so you have to plot it out, you have to be able to work to deadlines.

How did you demo the Fron Choir vocals? I used generic vocal samples to indicate what the choir would be doing, which helped me do some of the vocal arrangements. How do the 55 choir members monitor the track for their performance? We tried a couple of different approaches, and it took a while to get it to work. We tried the speakers out-of-phase, and it didn’t really work. Initially I was a bit reluctant to put headphones on them,

because some of these guys have been in the choir for 60 years, they’re not used to that kind of thing. They’re used to going into a nice big church hall somewhere with a beautiful acoustic and just belting it out. But I wanted a much more controlled sound than that, so I wanted to record them in a reasonably dry place — quite unorthodox from their point of view, but much more sensible from mine. So we eventually settled on a way of doing it using headphones. Teaching them to wear one ear off — we didn’t have the luxury of one-sided headphones. We developed an interesting way of recording. We recorded them all together, but I wanted to have a bit more control, so I recorded sections of them separately as well, which enabled us to do really interesting things in the mix stage, such as panning parts, sending stuff to the back of the room with loads of reverb, and stuff that could

You have an incredible attention to detail, the small things that make a difference… Yes, to me that’s what makes a good production. If you were to say, why do you think that record’s well produced, it’s often because I’m hearing little details and thinking, wow, they so easily could have missed that, but they didn’t — that little slight harmonic change in the second verse where they’ve chosen to do something a bit clever, or a little sound that’s serving some role — you blink and you’d miss it, but it’s there for a reason. And economy, knowing how not to overcook it. The records I love the most, you can hear there’s a balance of elements, and everything you hear justifies its place. What was your first ‘classical crossover’ record? The first one was the OperaBabes, and that was a real baptism of fire. The act was signed by Sony in a high-profile deal, and I was given the opportunity to do a demo for it. I ended up getting to do about half the record, and it was the first time I was dealing with a fairly high budget, and orchestral recording –which I’d never done before. I’d always done MIDI stuff, and suddenly I was able to put together a MIDI string arrangement and some guys would actually play it. It occurred to me that this idea of taking classical music and translating it into something that could cross over and become a mass market rather than a niche product was an interesting challenge. I think the key to doing that is to approach the production of the music in a way that will make it appeal to people who wouldn’t necessarily listen to the pure product, because they perceive it as a niche thing. But to treat the material sensitively and intelligently, and embrace modernity as well. Why not use programmed rhythms or synth sounds, as long as it’s done tastefully? Assembling the demos must take an enormous amount of time and effort… It does. And in some ways it’s the most challenging part of the record, because that’s the bit where March 2008

resolution

craft never be done if you’d recorded a choir traditionally. I think spending some time getting it wrong with the approach recording them ultimately was a very good thing, because it led us to this broken down approach which yielded an interesting sound.

Tell me about the recording of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards… The pipes record was done in a really unorthodox way. The regiment are based in Germany, but they came over to the UK in August to perform at the Edinburgh Tattoo. They had to perform every evening, but I had them during the day to record for a period of two weeks. We recorded on a farm near Edinburgh. I got them to play what they normally play to a click track. You recorded them in stereo and double tracked? Yes we had a pair of U87s and there were three phases of the recordings. I recorded the drone, I wanted to separate the drone and the pipe chanter. I thought, do I want a low drone on everything all the time? I thought, no, we’re making an interesting record here, you can break the rules. On the first day we recorded a bunch of droning — the whole group, a few of them, or just one of them, so there was a palette of drones to draw from. The drone has an interesting sound, with a sort of internal phasing as bits cancel out, I didn’t want to cut and paste, so I recorded five minutes of droning so we had a chunk of five minutes to use, as and when we needed it.

resolution

March 2008

craft They can only play in one key, can’t they? That’s right, the pipes are tuned in a mixed Lydian mode, and there are all sorts of interesting issues. What they call an A is somewhere between a concert A and B flat. We did manage to get hold of some concert-pitch chanters, so what they call an A is now actually a B flat. There was a bit of transposing to do, it was a bit of a minefield, but we got there in the end, I got my head around it. Generally we’d record a solo pipe playing the melody, group pipes playing the melody and tracked up to create a bigger sound. But apart from a couple of tracks I hadn’t really done the arrangements at that point, so they were just playing to a click track. I got back to London with a hard drive full of pipes recordings, then built the arrangements around the recordings. So were there no demo backing tracks for the A&R? What actually happened was that I did present them with backing track demos, but with the real bagpipes on them. The pipes are an interesting instrument — and they are really very, very loud, if you stand in a room with six of them your ears fall off. But there’s not a great degree of subtlety in the variations of one way of playing it or another way. It’s kind of right, or not right. And the pitch, intonation and rhythm have got to be right, but there’s no dynamics, it’s either on or off. So I thought, as long as I can get the melodies down, that’s how they’re played on the pipes, they’re not going to be played a different way. And I had a rough idea of the tempo for each piece. Once we were all happy with the arrangements I went off to Prague and recorded a bunch of orchestral stuff, then came back here and did some extra stuff — there were some guest vocals recorded here at Sphere, and then mixed the record in this very room.

getting started now. I will always wax lyrical about Moore’s Law, increased computing power, and where that’s going to lead us. But I still think that right now, at this point, I don’t think there’s a substitute for splitting audio tracks out and running them through lots of channels of nice expensive analogue EQ and compression, summing them at the other end. I have tried doing it the other way, and for certain types of music it can work, but I think for this type of music there is a sort of big expensive sound that I haven’t figured out how to get without this kind of stuff.

And Phil Da Costa brings some creative input too? Yes, Phil mixes a lot of the stuff I do, and you and I have worked together as well, and I think that you have to know your limitations. I’m not a mix engineer, I don’t always know how to get there as

quickly as someone else who is experienced in that area. If it’s not right, I can generally say why, but I think there’s no substitute for a good mix engineer, and Phil brings a lot to the table. It’s a good process, the combination of the digital equipment, having the plug-ins, certain remedial things we’ll do in the box, multiband compression and so on, you develop your favourite tools. Then we’ll use some of the outboard gear to give it the size and depth.

You’ve done some pop writing too, would you like to do more of that? I quite enjoy flitting backwards and forwards in different areas of music. I love the thrill of working with a symphony orchestra one day, and working on a dance record the next day. I don’t care what type of music, as long as it’s well done, intelligent, well executed and musical. ■

Why do you come to big expensive studios and use big expensive engineers rather than mixing in the box? I’m certainly not a purist, and I’m one to really embrace the digital revolution, and I think we’re only

March 2008

resolution

craft

Iain Roberton Sarm studio alumnus Iain Roberton talks to NIGEL JOPSON about recording Bono in a hotel room, melting monitors with William Orbit, and how the fat end of a long tail tempted him to work in library music.

ain Roberton started work at Sarm West in 1996, and as an assistant worked on projects with artists like Radiohead (Kid A and Amnesiac), Blur, Suede, Bush, Hanson and the Pet Shop Boys. Iain leveraged his talents as a Pro Tools operator, progressed through the ranks at Sarm and soon became a house engineer at the prestigious London studio owned by Trevor Horn. Roberton subsequently mixed Frankie Goes To Hollywood in 5.1 and worked on the Princes Trust gig and other projects with Horn. In 2001 Roberton went freelance, and began a productive working relationship with producer, multi-instrumentalist and Adagio For Strings re-worker William Orbit. Having turned the dials for Sasha, Orbital, U2 and Berth Orton, two years ago Iain gave the prospering business model of production music (the new, politically correct moniker for library music) his vote by joining Boosey & Hawkes. B&H PM clients include BBC, ITV, Five, Channel 4, Virgin Media, JWT, Saatchi and Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather and Endemol. Signature theme tunes from Boosey & Hawkes 44

adorn the likes of radio drama series The Archers and sports programme Ski Sunday, while tracks from the library have recently been used in Orange, Walls and Capital One TV adverts as well as computer games like the Colin McRae driving epic.

How did you get started in music recording? I quit University and went to a London college called Alchemea, did the diploma course and worked there for a bit. It was 1993, Pro Tools was 8 or 16 track and certainly not stable enough to record an orchestra on. It was Slo Tools! So they trained us on analogue tape and an SSL. The main thing they taught us was to stay up late — you’d spend 40 hours a week in the studio, then record bands on the weekend. They had three little studios and for the first half of the course, my session in the SSL studio was 10pm on Saturday night to 10am on Sunday morning. They used to put adverts in the classified ad paper Loot saying: ‘Are you in a band? Send us a demo!’ ... so we would get some strange people in and that was a pretty freaky training. I went straight to Sarm from there, I was very lucky. resolution

Did you learn a lot from working at Sarm? I engineered for Peter Collins, I assisted Nigel Godrich on the Radiohead sessions ... Peter Collins is quite an old-school producer, it was amazing seeing someone like that work because a lot of the producers I worked with at Sarm were doing boy bands and pop music and they had a very different way of working. Peter had a proper plan: this is what we are going to do and this is how we are going to do it. I worry about what is going on with the next generation of engineers and producers because a lot of studios where producers learnt their trade are closing. I think it is really important: it’s not like someone sits you down and says this is how you record a drum kit, these are the possibilities for mics. You just take it in by osmosis, you watch these people who are at the absolute pinnacle — someone like Trevor Horn just would not use an engineer who didn’t know what they were doing. When I was an assistant he used Steve Morris a lot who is an amazing engineer with racks of really cool gear, and instead of the typical one mic into the back of Pro Tools, he was a proper 10 mics on the drum kit man. Were you inﬂuenced a lot by the way Trevor Horn worked? Trevor was one of my heroes when I was a teenager because he did all those albums like Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Grace Jones, he practically reinvented production. It’s true he’s won several Grammies but I still think he is quite under-credited. In terms of the way people make records now compared to the March 2008

craft way they did pre-Trevor, I think he has had a huge influence: big production values and also ... just that level of perfection. Mixing Frankie Goes To Hollywood in surround with Trevor was great fun. The good point about the big commercial studio system was that it gave young engineers a chance to work with producers like him, it trained people to be really professional about recording. The big studios got the best clients, so in one sense it made it easy to learn, because you didn’t have to deal with bad musicianship or terrible songs. You were dealing with the ‘A list’, which means working with the best engineers and big budgets. You learnt how all the best people work, and there is really no substitute for that.

Having built up your skills on dedicated studio hardware, how did you feel when computerbased recording replaced the ‘last word’ in analogue? The two main producers I worked for as a freelance, Willie Orbit and Trevor Horn, have been Pro Tools people for a long time. At first I wasn’t totally convinced — it seemed alien to me — you have to learn a different set of rules. You have no headroom, but equally you have no noise. It’s a different set of techniques, William and Trevor worked in such a way that moving between tracks so quickly would be completely tight if you were using Total Recall and analogue tape. If you are going to a certain place with the mix and then they say: ‘Actually can we go back to where we were two days ago,’ nowadays you double click it and are back where you were without doing hardly anything. Did you work on many productions with William Orbit? I worked with him for nearly five years, I was his Pro Tools guy and engineer. I met him through Sarm when I assisted on Blur’s album 13, which William produced. For the first couple of years I worked with him he had a studio in a hotel room in West London. He had moved back from the States and we just set up the studio in a room in a hotel, we even recorded Bono in there, it was quite an experience! Tell us about recording Bono in a hotel room ... We had done two songs for their greatest hits album, Electrical Storm and The Hands That Built America (which is the theme from Gangs of New York). The way U2 work, they do a lot of versions of a song so they can decide on the mix half way through. We had sort of chopped up stuff that Bono had sung before for Electrical Storm and he phoned us and said: ‘I’m coming to London, can I pop in and redo the vocals?’ I recorded him straight into a Neve mic pre with a bit of compression from an LA2A, and it was one of those moments when you say: ‘that’s a rock star, that’s what it’s all about’ because he was belting it out at the top of his lungs with a £80 stage mic, and giving an absolutely amazing performance. With a singer like that it doesn’t matter what mic you use, it will still be an amazing recording.

were having a party, why wasn’t I invited?’ We did do some work with a Kentucky hip-hop outfit called the Nappy Roots, and that got quite loud, loud enough to overheat one of the Genelecs (they have a cut out which activates if they get too hot). I think the hotel in question was quite a rock and roll hotel.

So how did you go from melting Genelecs to producing library music? I got involved through Alex Black, the production manager at Boosey & Hawkes. He formerly ran a company that promoted dance music and also managed me when I was a freelance. His job at B&H is to evaluate the type of material which broadcasters are demanding and to commission a set of composers. I thought we might be working with writers who didn’t like pop music or whatever, but a lot of our writers now come from film or TV work, and pop

as well. I think the thing that’s changed in library music is in the ’80s and ’90s most of the firms had stock writers, they would copy genres which were fashionable — reggae for example — but production values were very low. We are having to change the way we work and that’s why Boosey & Hawkes built a proper studio here. We can’t compete with the likes of BMG, Zomba and EMI because they are enormous. We can’t compete on scale, we can’t compete on price — because the price is fixed by the MCPS and PRS — so we have to compete on quality.

So how do you establish a quality product — are there ﬁxed budgets, how many albums do you produce? We are making around 40 albums a year — I work on roughly one a week. Sometimes I am involved from the tracking process right through to editing, other

THE SYMPHONY SYSTEM

The Most Powerful Audio Workstation Available The Symphony System combines Apogee’s legendary X-Series and Rosetta Series converters with Apple’s revolutionary Mac Pro and Logic Pro audio workstation using the 32-channel Symphony PCI card.

BEST SOUNDING The most sonically advanced audio hardware interfaces combined with the most advanced music creation and production tool

Introducing Logic Studio

HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 1.6 milliseconds at 96k and up to 192 simultaneous channels of audio

A suite of powerful, easy-to-use music creation and production tools, Logic Studio gives musicians everything they need to write, record, edit, mix and perform.

GREATEST VALUE A fraction of the cost of popular card-based, DSP systems

Symphony PCIE Card 32-Channels of I/O per card & up to 96 channels per system

The Total Package

What did the other hotel guests think of Orbit’s recording studio? The owners of the hotel knew William’s management really well, so they had a policy where they would fill the room immediately under the studio last. We got a note through the door once, which said ‘I heard really loud music coming from this room at 3am,’ so we sent an apology through the hotel, because normally after 11pm or midnight we would turn the monitors down. Then a note came back the next day saying: ‘I wasn’t complaining, I just thought if you March 2008

resolution

craft times we get stuff that is basically done and I just tweak it. We produce albums that are kind of a kit of parts where each sound will have multiple versions, sometimes in different keys and certainly different tempos. Budget for production varies completely and depends on the degree to which we have to record live elements, most of the pop stuff is done completely ‘in the box.’

AE22 Timing is everything

Your recording room here is vocal booth-sized, what do you do when you need to record live drums ... or an orchestra? We did some orchestral romantic comedy music with Ray Davies, he’s been composing for 30 years for artists like Tony Bennett, Liza Minelli, Shirley Bassey and the Rolling Stones. He is a traditional orchestral writer so he writes on manuscript, we recorded the strings in Bratislava, then I went to Sarm and recorded the drums, piano and the brass section, then did a few overdubs and mixed it here. Paul Mottram — who has written music for TV programmes such as Dr Who and Horizon, and orchestrated films like Rain Man and Shirley Valentine — composed an album called Rhythm & Strings, which was more of a crossover project with big orchestra and a rock band elements to it. His demos were mocked up with Vienna samples or something similar, then we recorded the strings in Slovakia and the drums at Strongroom studio in London before mixing here. What is the workﬂow for a production music project? We will say to the writer: here is the brief, this is the style of track we want and they will send us a bunch of demos and we will pick the ones we like. The demos will sometimes be quite rough, but we know from experience with the writer what the difference is going to be between what they deliver as a demo and what the final track will sound like. Then we go back and forth, we’ll give them a list of things to change. We did an album with a rapper called Lewis Parker, we gave him access to all our Cavendish library catalogue from the ’60s and ’70s and said use as much as you want. Old library music — like the KPM LP The Champ by ‘The Mohawks’ [Alan Hawkshaw] — is incredibly popular for sampling. Lewis’ Home Grown Hip Hop CD has an underground hipness a bit like Crazy the Gnarls Barclay single,

Accurately reproducing music is as much about time as it is about frequency. So along with a frequency balance specifically tailored for the studio environment, the AE22 from Acoustic Energy Pro is uniquely designed to reduce time smearing distortions to an absolute minimum. So what you hear is what you recorded - nothing missing and everything in its place. Visit www.acousticenergypro.com or call +44 (0)1285 654432 for the whole story.

UK distribution by Sound Network T: 020 7665 6463 E: sales@soundnetwork.co.uk W: www. soundnetwork.co.uk

n e t w o r k

resolution

March 2008

craft it’s all sampled and he came up with an amazing album. Some of our writers use Pro Tools so we just say: here’s our list of plug-ins, please record anything we don’t have. If composers use Logic, we ask them to bounce tracks with plug-ins to audio. There have been a couple of times when the writers have wanted to come in and mix here because they know we have an amazing studio and it will be better than in their little production room. Sometimes it’s more like a mastering studio, other times I will do a complete mix from scratch.

How do you ﬁnd the Mackie Control for mixing? Things like vocal rides I still find a bit tricky to do with a mouse. The resolution of process when you move it one pixel is about half a dB: that’s quite a lot for something like a vocal ride. That’s probably my only criticism of the Digidesign system. The throw of the faders on screen is only 3cm or something, whereas on a board it’s at least 10cm. The Mackie is quite a useful unit, the transport controls are nice and you’re not constantly swopping between hands.

can move them at will without having to chop audio up and put in loads of crossfades and time stretch the end so that everything still sounds natural. I probably wouldn’t want to use it on vocals and I am not sure how it handles drums, but I’m really very impressed. It will probably put a lot of operators out of work because they are not going to have to sit there and chop everything up and do clever little time stretches!

Is the quality of library music becoming as polished and strong as commercial music, are producers and composers looking to it for a reliable source of income as CD sales decline? We’re seeing that with our writers. It used to be that you’d have an Ambridge music album which echoed a current trend, but sounded like a slightly cheesy parody. Now we have writers like Laura Rossi who produce

amazing and original music. Previously, the idea of a professional film score writer working on library music — Laura scored the film London to Brighton — would have been inconceivable. At Boosey & Hawkes PM we are at the fat end of the ‘long tail’ of licensed music. ■

Are there any special plug-ins you use for making key or tempo-shift versions of the productions? In Pro Tools 7.4 the new Elastic Audio is unbelievable. We are just in the early stages of doing some traditional ‘Island’ tunes, some calypso and Hawaiian tracks. Some of the guitar playing was not matching up with the calypso track. Beat Detective is quite a blunt instrument, whereas the Elastic Audio seems to roughly seek and find the correct transients, then you

March 2008

resolution

sweet spot

Modern World Studios It’s the typical story of how a move to a slightly larger personal production space ended up mutating into a full-blown facility. NICK COWAN, owner of Modern World Studios in Tetbury, UK, tells us how he built his room.

s a guitarist I had always been interested in playing live and writing but most of all I was really interested in recording. Having started with a Fostex 4-track in 1982 I began learning about ping-ponging and bouncing pretty early on. In my previous job, I was posted to Tokyo for 3 years in 1989 and while there I invested in one of the very early Mac systems running Digidesign Sound Designer 2 and Logic software as well as an old Akai mixing desk that used video tape for its recording. Over the years I graduated to my garage using a pair of Esmono rooms for control and live, Pro Tools LE using a Digidesign 001 interface and eventually taking the plunge and going to the full HD3 TDM system with a Pro Control surface. However, I was still unhappy with the isolation and acoustics of the rooms. I was made redundant from the City [London] in 2004 and spotted an old kitchen cabinet maker’s unit on our local industrial estate in Tetbury for sale. Although it was a total wreck, with no power and a leaking roof, I could see the potential. I had a vague idea of what I wanted with the original idea being to create a fully isolated room while still using my existing Pro Control system and Quested monitors (...if only!) I had bought a lot of gear over the years from Sound Control in Bristol and Ben Muscat, their Pro Audio specialist, referred me to acoustic architects White Mark. At this point the studio was still intended to be a non-commercial personal affair for me to pursue my long-term interest in composition and production while also working part-time with my 48

brother’s property development company. White Mark visited Tetbury and the ideas started to take shape including whether the studio would be equipped in the event that I ever wanted to rent it out — an idea that was developing rapidly. Following visits to some London studios I could see the magnitude of the task ahead if I was to open a commercial venture and I started making decisions The Pro Control was to be replaced with an analogue desk. I had always wanted an SSL and the AWS 900+ seemed to fit the bill. The monitors had to be upgraded. I had been impressed with the Exigys I had heard at Kore Studios so I got in touch with the maker, Matt Dobson. I wanted silent air conditioning so Hewitts were called in. I wanted the live room to use the full height of the unit so we decided to build a tapered ceiling rising to 14ft. I wanted the room to be very controlled allowing anything from classical instruments and pianos to be recorded as well as guitars. I also wanted a viewing gallery so that you could view the live room from the client lounge upstairs. The first drawings from White Mark were delivered in September 2006 and the complexity of what I was planning was beginning to hit home. The studio was to be built on two floors. The ground floor was to have a single large live room, large control room, a rack room, a sound-lock, large store room, an edit suite, a gym, a loading bay, a reception area and a toilet. The first floor would have a huge client lounge including reclining chairs and cinema, a pool table/diner, a kitchen, a bathroom, the office and the air con plant room. resolution

Having been used to small home studios, the specification for a commercial complex was so completely different and I was beginning to wonder if I had taken on too much — ramps for wheelchairs, emergency lighting, exit signs, fire extinguishers, 3-phase power, insurance, fire regs, planning… However, White Mark took care of everything and specified the building plans, material requirements, electrical diagrams, structural engineering issues, air con routing, health and safety, contacting the planners, etc. Planning approval arrived in October and building commenced 1 November. Ben Muscat from Sound Control was advising me on equipment and had engineered and produced for years, and was interested in joining the dream. Hiring Ben as our head engineer was the statement of intent…we were going commercial! My brother and I had spent almost two months clearing the unit and erasing all evidence of its previous life as a kitchen maker’s workshop. A new roof had to be installed as the existing one leaked and all the doors and windows needed replacing. What remained was a vast open plan unit rising to around 18ft with a concrete floor and breeze block walls. White Mark had recommended Oakwood as a building company that specialised in studios. The first phase was the floating floor of the live room. Acoustic rubber separators were laid on the existing concrete floor. On top of these were laid sheets of metal upon which was poured concrete to a depth of around 6 inches. Upon this base of around 480sqft the outer wall was built consisting of double layered gypsum, wooden frame and Rockwool, and another double layer of gypsum. Ducting was created for the Quested foldback speakers, air conditioning and wiring. The ceiling was suspended on top of the wall using three enormous glulams (huge pine beams up to 12 inches deep and 25ft long) which were winched into place. The inner wall was built using exactly the same process as the outer walls. Finally, the third wall was March 2008

sweet spot

built but finished with a fabric covering. Sunk into the fabric walls were six oak diffusers with led spotlights. The ceiling was stepped down from the peak at 14ft down to 9ft at the lowest point. Each of the six steps had two oak diffusers installed totalling. Additionally, two light wells were installed in the ceiling. A large window was installed to create a viewing gallery from the client lounge. Also, a huge opening was left to the control room. The control room was built alongside and directly onto the original concrete floor of the unit and was constructed from extra heavy breeze blocks. The inner wall was constructed in the same way as the live room using gypsum, wood, Rockwool and fabric. Again ducting was left for the cabling, air con and soffit-mounted monitors. Meanwhile the contractors were busy installing the electricity fuse boards, the plumbing for the toilets and bathrooms, and the gas and air-conditioning systems. The air-con was designed using a baffle system that allows near silent fresh air to keep the rooms at the correct temperature. Following a visit to SSL the decision was taken to upgrade from the AWS 900+ and break the bank and buy the newly launched Duality console. The demo was simply awesome. The Duality combines the sonic edge of analogue audio with immediate visual feedback and total DAW control, including 5.1 surround mixing and Total Recall. Ours would be the first Duality installed in a UK commercial studio. Matt Dobson began the building of the monitors, three soffit-mounted Exigy 515s, an Exigy subwoofer and four rears for 5.1 surround. The amps were located directly above the control room in the air con plant room allowing the shortest possible speaker cable lengths.

March 2008

By March the main studio was nearing completion so our attention turned to the client lounge and the office area. I had always been surprised at how little studios offered clients during the long hours of tracking. Our lounge area includes a surround sound cinema, 60-inch plasma with Sky, four reclining chairs, and a large film collection, a pool table, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, XBOX 360, a pin ball machine, an arcade mania console, a dart board, a kitchen, a pop corn machine, and a CD collection of more than 1000 discs. The Duality arrived in May and White Mark began the task of connecting the desk to the patchbays, though to the mic panels in the live room and to the four 192s in the rack room. The edit suite was built using my old Pro Control system. The time had come to start investing in mics and outboard. Having come this far, I wanted to ensure that the gear we put alongside the new desk would offer some different sonic character and to that end we installed Chandler and Neve preamps and other outboard from API, Audient, Bricasti, Cranesong, Empirical Labs, Purple Audio, RND Portico, Thermionic Culture, TRP, Lexicon, Universal Audio. Mics include AEA, AKG, Audio Technica, Audix, Beyer, Blue, Earthworks, EV, Neumann, SE, Shure, Sony, Soundelux, and Telefunken. Testing began in June and finally the kitchen, the gym and the garden were completed. A cottage I own locally was equipped to accommodate clients. There are a number of key lessons I learnt from the experience that I want to pass on to anyone else who is thinking about taking on such a challenge. First, there is a school of thought that says acoustic consultants are a waste of money. Nothing could be

resolution

further from the truth. Every detail was covered in the planning documentation from White Mark and this has been priceless. The live room has delivered awesome recordings. Also, clients are willing to travel to get quality and are willing to try a new studio. The Duality has attracted rave reviews from clients as has our monitoring. Producer Greg Haver described our Exigy monitors as the best he has ever heard. Our outboard, mics and our vast plug-in range have delivered incredible results — always go for quality — and our lounge, gym, cottage and the beautiful location of Tetbury have all added to the client’s experience. Breakfast, lunch and dinner can all be served at the studio. We also have one of the largest instrument collections of any studio, including around 50 fine guitars, and they are included in the day rate. These have been used extensively and have been an attractive addition to clients’ expectations. A year after the project began, Modern World Studios opened in September 2007 and has been mostly fully booked. Ben acts as head engineer and studio manager and we have a team of freelance engineers who regularly work at the studio along with our assistant Jack. Our approach is simple: we want the client to feel completely at home when they visit Modern World. Attending a studio can be a daunting experience for musicians so we do everything we can to help them relax. We also believe that if you provide the best equipment possible and record in an incredible room, the results will be clear — great music. ■

Contact modErN World, UK: Website: www.modernworldstudios.co.uk

business

Reaching out in pro retail Despite a downturn in CD sales and the well documented closure of former recording emporia, there are more people involved in audio for a living now than there ever have been before. Savvy suppliers are tapping into that seam of spend and adapting their approaches to the speciﬁc requirements of their modern customer. NIGEL JOPSON is on the case.

egular readers of this section of Resolution magazine will be well versed in the financial twists of the recorded music industry: digital sales may be blooming (rising 38% to $2.9bn last year), but not blossoming fast enough to compensate for wilting CD revenue (down 16.7% to $15bn.) In most industries, seismic changes like these have an immediate and catastrophic knock-on effect for the service sector. Record company budgets have shrunk, recording studios go out of business or make less money ... so the music technology companies supplying studios with the type of equipment we review in this magazine must be suffering as well. But it ain’t so. TOA Corporation recorded a 9.5% increase in sales last year and Yamaha Music’s annual report noted a 3.8% increase and expected ‘dynamic growth’ from its professional audio business. Harman’s pro-audio division scored a year-on-year quarterly sales bump of 10.5% and, in a financial climate that has scuppered several high-profile buyouts, private equity firm Bain Capital bought the US Guitar Center chain for $1.9bn in cash — a 25.8% premium over the November 2007 share price — and a multiple of 19.25 times earnings. What’s going on? ‘The demise of the big studio system has been wonderful for us: what has happened with the closure of commercial facilities? A thousand little project studios have appeared, and they are doing really, really well,’ says Keith Malin of London’s KMR Audio. ‘Our clients have set up small project studios with fantastic equipment — maybe they don’t have the physical space — but they certainly have the quality of equipment, and they are turning out great mixes.’ ‘The recording industry is changing, and as a retailer you have to roll with the changes,’ observes Ray Edwards of Digital Village, a UK chain of eight high street pro-audio stores and a web shop. ‘It’s a smaller spend per customer these days — but there are more customers. Our turnover is up over the last 8 years, but we have changed our business model. When I look through sales numbers for hardware outboard equipment, it’s not dissimilar to what it was in 2000. Our overall presence has kept us at the same level, but now more customers tend to buy one product at a time rather than ten together as a package.’ The way production pros purchase equipment is changing. In the 80s and early 90s, there was a definite hierarchy to the supply chain, recording engineers and producers were more likely to hire equipment for projects, and rental companies had privileged access. The idea of buying a Neumann microphone or a Neve compressor in the high street would have been fanciful. Malin and Niki MelvilleRogers set up KMR Audio after spotting a gap in the market: ‘We perceived there was a latent desire for real quality gear, but it wasn’t being presented: you could get the equipment, but you had to sort of already know how to go about it,’ says Keith. ‘None 50

an evening with George massenburg at london’s Kmr audio. (www.recordproduction.com)

of the high-end places seemed to have a shop front or big demo facilities.’ This has all changed, and pro-audio distributors have also taken on more dynamic, pro-active roles. ‘We only started Sonic Distribution six years ago, and part of the whole brief was to start a distribution company based on modern principles, not old-school systems,’ explains James Young. ‘What we have done as a distributor is to put together a sort of one-stop-shop for each particular part of the chain of a DAW-based system.’ Sonic distribute products including Apogee, Apple, Rupert Neve and Waves. ‘When it comes to the high-end gear, I would say that probably 50% of the time we have an extensive demonstration associated with it,’ confirms James. ‘Something we have done since we started Sonic is to operate a free loan service [with the exception of Apple computers.] A good proportion of the Apogee and Rupert Neve sales our dealers make are off the back of our loans through the dealers, the closure rate for us on that loan service is about 90%.’ Websites have given pro-audio specialists like Sonic a reach beyond their geographic locations and, in some cases, the distinction between distributor and retailer has become a little blurred. ASAP Europe distributes products from Avalon and Speck, and boutique outboard from Phoenix, Fearn and Buzz Audio amongst others. ASAP also has a retail web store selling products alongside a wider range of hardware and software. ‘We decided it was the best business model we could pick up on, especially as we are based in a major music centre, the Music Bank in London,’ explains Alan Stewart. ‘It can be tricky, but we can see which of the other distributors are playing the game sensibly because of what we sell as retailers. The two sides are symbiotic. Guys come to the website and have a look at it, they may not understand the finer nuances of what is a distribution product and what is a retail product — and they probably don’t care — but they might resolution

remember when they need an API or a Neve that we are certainly one of the players.’ Average sales per employee in the UK music shop sector are £109,000 — as this is the median figure from a survey of 2,920 shops, including many small local stores, it’s realistic to think pro-audio sales would be nearer the upper industry average, which is £170,017. Internet research and shopping has become a way of life for a new generation of musicians and production pros, and having a good web store has piled on the sales for several audio retailers. A successful website for Dolphin Music delivers more than 45,000 unique monthly visitors, far more than could be expected to troop through the doors of their two physical shops in Liverpool and Huddersfield in the North of England. Online shopping inevitably leads to price comparisons with other countries. The thorniest of international misconceptions is the perceived 2:1 ratio of $ to £, and the misplaced idea that UK suppliers are somehow ripping customers off with their prices for US-sourced products. ‘Do we lecture the British public on the real cost of importing, or do we assume the end user will work it out for themselves? The answer is usually that they won’t ...’ muses the ever-thoughtful Alan Stewart. ‘If people were armed with that information, then they’d be able to make a more sensible decision. It’s almost a fault on our collective part for not running an awareness programme.’ Any package arriving in the UK from the US is subject to import duty of around 8% and VAT of 17.5%. You won’t be charged when placing the order online, but before any shipping company will deliver even the smallest of items (an iLok key, in my own case recently) you will be asked to pony up the cut for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. What is more, the $-to-£ rate your credit card provider will charge is far worse than the headline rate in the newspapers. ‘It’s a huge problem,’ mourns Malin, ‘people think they are being very clever and savvy, the exchange rate now seems to be part of the national vocabulary.’ Importing hardware from the other side of the Atlantic also means giving up all the support that specialist local suppliers provide, including rental or loan of replacement gear in the event of breakdown. ‘If the gear is out of warranty then we have people here like Chris Myring, who’s been looking after our Avalon Design repairs for 12 years,’ points out Alan Stewart. ‘Just the shipping cost of a round trip to the US for servicing is going to be an absolute minimum of £150-£200.’ It’s tempting to think downloadable software might be exempt from this wisdom, but production pros who have used serious computer-based systems will realise that upgrading and software patches form a large portion of the cost of ownership. ‘Waves, for example, operate a policy of sending us all of the product registrations for customers from the UK who have bought products outside the UK,’ James Young reminds us. Young explains that all the UK dealers whom Sonic distribute the popular plug-ins to will actually match the European and US best prices. ‘It’s a struggle for us to put the message across, probably 15-20% of customers who phone up looking for support have bought Waves products direct from the US and we just have to turn them away. When they find out they have to pay the VAT and import duty to join the update programme, and would have got a better price in the UK anyway, they sometimes get quite humpy!’ March 2008

Welcome to the place where creativity originates, inspiration comes alive and dreams become reality. If you create, manage, finance, distribute or deliver content today then you’re part of the ever expanding and evolving Broader-casting industry. Whatever your role, you need to stay abreast of the latest technology trends like 3D, IPTV, mobile video and social media. Attend the NAB Show this year and you’ll see why it’s THE world’s marketplace for product introduction and the single greatest gathering of content professionals. In fact, it’s the most comprehensive display of digital communications technologies — more than twice as large as any comparable event — and that equals more value. More tools. More techniques. More connections. SM

Invest in your future and be a part of a global forum unlike any other. Join more than 110,000 professionals from 163 countries who make the NAB Show an integral part of their business strategy and career planning every year. Content comes alive at the NAB Show — and so does your future. Register today!

Be our guest at the NAB Show. Use VIP Pass code A151 to register for your FREE NAB Show Exhibits Pass at www.nabshow.com/free

Selected by the U.S. Department of Commerce as the most significant industry event in which to participate in any hemisphere. Visit www.nabshow.com/international to learn more.

business There’s always been a requirement for specialist knowledge in pro-audio sales, but as personal computers became the operational platform, so the potential for complex snags increased. When Pro Tools rigs are installed in TV and film postproduction rooms, tight deadlines mean there’s no room for sloppy configuration. Ben Nemes runs specialist retailer Scrub, and explains that an understanding of his client’s workflow process is essential. ‘So much of it is about understanding the bits which we don’t sell, where the programme is being originated, what is happening to the tapes out of the camera next — is it all going to end up on some sort of central storage — is it going to be sent around the world? You have to slot into a very proscribed way of operating. What is the Esperanto, the common language which is used to make sure all the different production pros can talk to each other? If you get that bit right you minimise the amount of really hairy support you are doing at the back end.’ Scrub has just added another studio to the 2008 Broadcast Awardwinning Envy facility, and Ben was also called in to convert the venerable British TV show Coronation Street (40 years without a break) to Pro Tools with Icon mixing surfaces. ‘Five half hours a week, that’s a very demanding project which has to be the most well-oiled machine you can envisage. You can’t turn around and say — sorry, Wednesday’s Corrie is cancelled because we had a bit of a problem with the disk drive!’ A trend that seems to be growing as a result of the expanding market for pro-audio equipment has been the manufacturer-owned local distributor. Any brand turning over more than $20m annually can justify putting a small office in each territory, doing the job themselves and keeping all the margin. James Young sees this as a continuing modus operandi:

‘Over the next ten years you are going to see most of the local pro-audio distributors disappear, it has already happened with TC Electronics and Dynaudio ... hence our plan to increase the portfolio of products we manufacture ourselves.’ For Sonic, these currently comprise SE Electronics microphones and the Ghost range of acoustic treatments. And a

resolution

sales phenomenon from the past has recently had a resurgence: ‘The guitar is once again the weapon of mass choice,’ says Paul McManus, chief executive of the Music Industry Association. ‘The figures speak for themselves. Last year, the British spent £105m on guitars in UK shops, as compared to £30m ten years ago. It’s a dramatic recovery.’ Ray Edwards observes that, having moved away from selling guitars in 1993, Digital Village had now determined to reintroduce the instruments in special sections of its Barnet and Cambridge shops. Ray also identifies live sound and education as potential growth areas for his company. ‘We partner with Gateway, who were the first school of audio engineering in the UK, we’ve moved one of our sites into the Gateway school at Clapham, London. We are going to be working more on teaching as part of the portfolio.’ The democratisation of the recording process has expanded the market for equipment; company profits and pro-audio retailer sales figures clearly demonstrate this. Sound Control, the UK’s largest chain of 25 physical stores (now including the Media Tools/Turnkey operations), increased turnover from £28.9m in 2004 to £61.2m in 2006, with gross profit increasing from £7.3m to £14.9m. The dramatic development is for producers — musicians even — to actually own the flagship tools of their recording trade. ‘The market is growing for non-mass produced — dare I say expensive? — equipment,’ suggests Keith Malin. ‘We see young production pros we have dealt with over the years coming back to us and saying: “I just want the right thing. I’m fed up with the halfhearted approach to recording. If it’s a £3,000 EQ, I’ll never sell it ... and if I have to, for whatever reason ... it will have held it’s value. It’s an investment, it’s a tool.” They believe they will make money from it.’ ■

March 2008

ten

Ways to beat consumerism Modern life ain’t easy and we are encouraged to believe that the road to happiness is through our wallets. JOHN WATKINSON says bugger all that…

e live in a consumer society where individuals have never had so few skills. We can no longer make anything ourselves; we are supposed to buy it instead. We are bombarded with advertising that suggests how much better our lives will be if we buy this or that product and how others will admire and envy us if we are seen with it. And if we don’t have the money, someone will lend it to us. The reality is that when the consumer knows little about the technology, the product is not likely to be much good. It won’t last long and when it fails it will turn out to be unrepairable. Time to be a good consumer and buy another one. Short-lived and inefficient products damage the environment, but when the subject is raised, industry can afford to spend a lot of money on spin, pseudo-science and lobbying in order to confuse the debate. The media deliver the confusion. And classically educated politicians, whose criterion for success is staying in power, don’t know who to believe. Their decisions are generally bad and they add their own spin to the media.

Pics by Ovis

THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do is to stop worrying about what other people think and learn to be independent. I think it was Nietzsche who said that what most people think most of the time isn’t worth much. The first step towards independence is to understand the industry/consumer/ political/media complex and to step outside of it. The more people that step outside, the more impact it will have.

IF YOU MUST always have the latest gadget and are always buying new things and chucking the old ones away, you may be caught up in the consumer complex. You are a manufacturer’s dream and an environmentalist’s nightmare. If you buy the stuff on credit you are a banker’s dream as well. Consider whether material things truly contribute to your happiness, or whether you are working harder than you need and causing yourself undue stress to make somebody else rich. Perhaps there is satisfaction to be had in life from achieving things rather than from buying things. It is then a small step to realise that there is no need whatsoever to impress anyone with possessions or spending power. March 2008

TAKE A COOL critical look at your financial position. Do you owe too much on too many credit cards? Have a big overdraft or loan? Try to figure out how you got into that position as a precursor to getting out again. Banks have made borrowing too easy for too long and made pots of money from interest charged. Now the number of defaults on loans is soaring and everyone looks surprised. Look at a month’s worth of spending and see what you could have managed without. Years of working freelance taught me that income varies dramatically and that in a thin patch I would have problems repaying loans. With the exception of my mortgage, I learned never to borrow to buy anything. If I wanted some capital item, I would save up and buy it for cash, thereby getting a good price, and guaranteeing that no one could take it away because I couldn’t keep up the repayments. CONSIDER THE QUALITY of information that you receive through the media. Technology has ensured that we are up to our ears in data, but that doesn’t mean it is all useful. Look out for the spin, the hidden agenda and the bias in TV and newspapers. They are like cue dots, once you see them you wonder why you never saw them before. The proliferation of TV channels has spread the talent pretty thinly and in conjunction with the omnipresent dumbing-down it might be worth reviewing how much TV you watch and whether you need all that advertising. Perhaps better use might be made of the time. TV watching encourages passivity of body and mind. TV viewers have a shortened attention span because everything on TV takes place more quickly than it does in real life. They also have a distorted view of how dangerous the world is because of the preponderance of violence on the screen. Life is far richer, safer and more fascinating than the simplified glossy version depicted on TV. Go to the theatre; listen to live music or better still make music. When people ask me how I find the time to do so much I tell them it’s because I don’t have a TV. NEVER, EVER CALL a helpline. You will end up speaking to someone at the other end of the earth who doesn’t know who you are and who doesn’t understand your problem. It will just waste your time and make you mad. Write a letter instead. resolution

PUT OFF BUYING that new car. The energy required to make a car is roughly the same as that required to drive it for two years. If you buy a new car every year, you use twice as much energy as if you buy a new car every four years and you pay four lots of depreciation. Even better, get a second-hand car. Car technology is stultified and incremental, and this year’s model is scarcely better than last year’s, but has more gadgets and gimmicks, so you are not missing out by driving an older model. There are too many car manufacturers in the world and too many of them are not making really efficient vehicles. GET RID OF your incandescent bulbs at home and at work and encourage everyone you know to do the same. The variety of low-energy bulbs now available means that there is practically no light fitting that can’t be adapted. Incandescent bulbs are so inefficient that they amount to environmental hooliganism and the electricity they waste damages your wallet. Incidentally, approaching legislation will outlaw incandescent bulbs within a few years, so why not be ahead of the game? Buy your electricity from a sustainable source. DON’T ACCEPT GOODS in plastic bags. Plastic bags are made from oil and are not sustainable. They are usually not biodegradable and many are discarded and do harm to wildlife. Buy a shopping bag made from natural materials. Avoid buying branded goods that are over-packaged if you can buy generic goods loose. CONSIDER THE QUALITY and quantity of what you eat in conjunction with your circumference. There might be a connection. Learn to cook for the satisfaction it gives and so you can have more control over what you are eating. Buy fresh food locally. If you can walk there so much the better. CONSIDER HOW MANY of the journeys you make are really essential. With modern communications, some meetings can be conducted at a distance. I work mostly from home. My daily commute consists of walking out of the kitchen. Cut down the number of times you fly. Either don’t go or find another way of getting there. ■ 53

meet your maker

Stephan Peus A graduate in electrotechnical and acoustical engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, Stephan Peus joined Georg Neumann as development engineer in 1974 and has been president of development since 2000. He talks to ZENON SCHOEPE about digital mics and Neumann clones.

What is special about Neumann products? Neumann products owe their reputation to the 80 years of experience we have gained since 1928, and to the value that our products have for customers. Of course, this was true particularly for capital goods such as the disc cutting machines (for mastering vinyl records) which we manufactured for more than 60 years and the mixing consoles that we supplied for more than three decades to all well-known broadcast studios, concert halls and theatres in the German-speaking world. However, it also applies to our microphones, for which the name ‘Neumann’ is known worldwide. What is the most widely held misconception about microphones? This question brings two points to mind. First, the fact that we are quite often asked which is the ‘best’ of our microphones; and secondly, the commonly held belief that the sound of a microphone can be described essentially in terms of its frequency response. For the readers of Resolution magazine, a detailed description of our range of products would be superfluous. In fact, every type of microphone has its own individual features and strengths, which cannot be ranked in any particular order. For several years we have 54

provided a Microphone Finder on our website, which can be used to narrow down the search for an appropriate microphone by means of certain selection criteria, as an aid to decision-making. However, this is not done by means of qualitative ranking, but rather on the basis of technical and sound characteristics. Regarding the sound of a microphone: with the aid of comprehensive technical data in accordance with existing standards, we endeavour to provide customers with extensive information concerning individual microphones. Nonetheless, even with a great deal of additional data, we realise that we can never really describe the sound of a microphone. Serious customers always take into account the directional characteristics, sensitivity, dynamics and self-noise values, for example, in addition to the frequency response. However, unfortunately such important aspects as the impulse response of a microphone do not appear in any standard. In fact, a microphone is a three-dimensional sensor that converts sound into electrical signals in the frequency and time domains. Thus, the frequency response represents only one aspect of the overall properties of a microphone. This fact also indicates the weakness of microphone modellers that cannot model the impulse response of a microphone or its behaviour in threedimensional space.

What elements contribute to the sound character of a microphone the most? The heart of every microphone is of course its capsule, which acts as the actual sound transducer. The signal generated by such a ‘condenser capsule’ can be output only after impedance conversion. In Neumann microphones, with very few exceptions, this impedance matching does not affect the frequency response, since we develop our capsules so that they alone determine the sound, with no further correction required. The reason for this is that electrical intervention with regard to the frequency response would also change the impulse response, which is something we wish to avoid. This is our own, very individual, purist conception of sound fidelity. This does not mean we claim that our microphones are physically neutral sound transducers; this would be an impossibility. In the final analysis, every microphone acts as an obstacle to the propagated sound waves, and every microphone can capture only the sounds associated with its presence. Even smalldiaphragm microphones represent obstacles in resolution

space, around which the sound waves must travel. The art of microphone development consists in designing the totality of the ‘sound wave obstacle’, which is the microphone, to ensure the ‘correct’ sound character. Of course, this applies particularly to large-diaphragm microphones, which have a greater physical influence on the sound field than do microphones with a smaller diameter. However, it is no accident that our large-diaphragm microphones, such as the U 87, are the most popular; last year we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the U 87!

How have the methods employed in modern audio production put demands on the performance of microphones? Today’s computer technology and powerful software have made quality standards formerly achieved only by top studios and public broadcasters more affordable and manageable. As a result, ‘studio technology’ can now also be found essentially outside of classic studios. This in turn has greatly altered our customer portfolio, and has led to an increased demand for good microphones at an affordable price. We have responded to this change in two ways. With regard to the constantly improving technical performance, it should be kept in mind that for decades, microphone electronics were unavoidably the limiting factor as far as quality was concerned. However, in our microphones the quality of the electronics now equals that of the capsule. In response to the growing downward pressure on prices, in recent years ever more sophisticated machinery has been acquired, to facilitate the inexpensive production of everything that can be automated. Here we are fortunate in having Sennheiser as a very successful parent company, which provides machinery facilities that would be impossible to maintain solely for our own needs. However, particularly in the case of capsule production, adjustment and assembly, and the final inspection of our microphones, there is still much work that continues to be done by hand, by employees with years of training. This is the only way we can ensure that the sound performance of our microphones remains unchanged. From a technical standpoint, how are modern Neumanns ‘better’ than the classic models that everyone refers to? As I mentioned previously with regard to our wide range of models: when comparing equipment with a high overall quality level, in fact, one cannot really speak of higher or lower quality microphones. However, for Neumann microphones a comparison is possible in the sense that we have been constructing some proven capsule types unchanged for decades, while developments in circuit technology have permitted continual improvement of the specifications of the microphones involved. For example, this applies to significantly improved self-noise values, to an extended dynamic range, and, last but not least, to resistance to interference from walkie-talkies and cell phones, a factor that was not yet an issue when the classic models were developed decades ago. When we speak of classic models, most people immediately think of the U 47. For us, an important technical advancement was a polyester (PE) material suitable for diaphragms, which became available in the mid-1950s. Since then, it has been possible to March 2008

meet your maker construct an age-resistant version of the well-known M 7 capsule. Previously, the only available material was polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which lost its plasticiser over time, thus becoming harder. This change resulted in an increase in high frequencies. Since this is a slow, gradual process, it is often noticed only when the capsule is replaced. The new capsule thus sounds more subdued than the old one, and customers sometimes complain that the modern K 49, as it is now called, does not sound as good as the old M 7. In reality, the new capsule merely restores the original specifications of the old capsule. From 1949 to around 1953, the U 47 was constructed with a PVC diaphragm, and then until the end of the U 47 era (1965), it was made with a PE diaphragm. A misconception held by many is that a U 47 is ‘genuine’ only if it has an old capsule with a PVC diaphragm.

What is holding back the wider adoption of digital microphones and how real are their beneﬁts to the user? Since we began offering miniature microphones as part of the Solution-D series of digital microphones at the end of 2006, many interesting projects have been realised that have demonstrated the user benefits of this technology, and have created something of a sensation. This confirms to us that we have taken the correct approach. However, the first years were difficult, for several reasons. From the point of view of many customers, the first reason is the quality of our analogue microphones. Customers ask themselves, ‘Why should I purchase a digital microphone, when I

March 2008

am completely satisfied with my analogue one?’ In terms of the sound, this is correct. Admittedly, we are proud of the fact that every sound comparison, for instance of an analogue KM 184 with a KM 184 D, yields the result that there are no audible differences! This demonstrates that the capsule has been introduced to the digital domain with no loss of quality, which is certainly a significant achievement. To accomplish this, we do not work 1:1 with commercially available convertors, but instead combine these with a patented procedure, so as to be able to process the very extensive dynamic range of the capsules. As is the case with our analogue microphones, the goal is for the electronics to do nothing except to output the capsule signal, with no limitations. Another factor affecting the adoption of digital microphones is the deep mistrust that is evident with regard to digital audio technology, at least in terms of such a sensitive element as the microphone. This mistrust is the result of previous bad experiences, as well as prejudices that we can overcome only when the customer agrees to test our digital microphones. We have found that every time this has happened, we have gained a new customer. Last but not least, a digital microphone also requires an

resolution

appropriate environment. For example, it would be very helpful if the relevant studio devices were equipped as a matter of course with microphone inputs corresponding to the AES 42 standard. This is comparable to the situation in the 1960s when Neumann invented 48 V phantom power; some time was required for it to become widespread, but today this type of power is provided for practically every microphone input. Just as corresponding P 48 power supply units were common at that time, today we offer digital microphone interfaces, to make digital technology accessible to every user. With regard to your question concerning the benefits for users, today the standard end product of any recording is digital. If it is possible to transfer the audio signal to the digital realm unimpaired, directly at the capsule, this will prevent any later loss of quality associated with non-optimal dynamic levels or nonoptimal subsequent devices. For example, the AES3 signal from the microphone can be input directly to a flash recorder, where the 24-bit signal is optimally stored, without the need for additional equipment. In other words, it is very easy and economical to make high-quality recordings with digital microphones. With conventional technology, a comparable result can be achieved only if very good (and expensive) equipment is available, and if it is operated in an optimal manner (which requires extensive experience).

meet your maker Since these conditions cannot necessarily be fulfilled in practice, under ordinary circumstances, recordings are often less successful than one might wish. An additional advantage of digital microphones is the controlling many microphone settings remotely. This applies to functions such as gain, low cut, peak limiter and compressor/limiter settings, as well as to the 15 directional characteristics of our double diaphragm microphone. Thanks to the compressor/limiter built into the microphone and the separate peak limiter, signals can be processed and signal peaks can be intercepted at the source, so to speak. This prevents peaks from causing distortion in subsequent devices, as is the case with conventional technology, where signal processing does not take place until the signal reaches the mixing console.

What are your thoughts on Neumann ‘lookalike’ mics? The microphone that is most often copied is certainly our U 87. On the one hand, you can take a certain pride in being copied, rather than having to copy due to a lack of ideas or ability. On the other hand, as a result of my more than 30 years of experience as a Neumann developer, I am aware of how much multi-faceted, detailed knowledge must

be applied and precisely adapted in order to create not only a good, but a very good microphone. It is not enough merely to imitate the brass plates for the back electrodes hole for hole, to mount diaphragms, and to install everything together with electronic components in housings that look as similar as possible to the original. We are visited regularly by students, and always surprise them by stating that after a brief introduction from us, with a few ‘ingredients’, any of them would be in a position to construct a condenser microphone. However, only the knowhow of a top manufacturer makes it possible to bring a condenser microphone to the highest level of perfection, and above all to manufacture it in series production, with a consistently high quality. It is the materials, facilities and inspection procedures required for this that are costly. Of course, we realise that not everyone is prepared or in a position to invest in a Neumann microphone. Many users also do not require that several microphones of a certain type should sound exactly the same, or that microphones purchased years later should match the sound of already available microphones. This

resolution

is quite understandable, but in this case it is not necessary for the mics used to imitate the appearance of Neumann microphones. For many people, such microphones merely serve as an introduction to studio life; later, once they are successful, they often become our customers...

Most people have a favourite Neumann mic, what is yours and why? That is a difficult question, since I am neither a sound engineer nor a customer. However, as a developer, one of my favourites is the TLM 103. I find it is very well designed not only in terms of shape and proportions, but also with regard to the capsule and all of its features. In addition, this microphone was the first on the market with a self-noise level of only 7 dB-A, and was the first Neumann large-diaphragm microphone that cost less than $1000! Altogether, it has inspired positive reactions, and we have often almost had to justify the fact that the most economical microphone of this type also had the best specifications. Although everyone has looked for ‘hidden defects’ in this mic, so far none have come to light. Will the mics you make today be considered classics in 50 years? I very much hope so! The chances of this are good, since we are developing and producing today’s microphones in accordance with the same principles and high standards that were used for the microphones which are now considered classics. ■

March 2008

technology

Cadac S-Digital In February Cadac showed a production model of its new S-Digital mixing console at a private viewing in London. NIGEL JOPSON gets in to look at the technology at work.

t wouldn’t be too bold to describe Cadac’s current J-Type flagship console as the ‘last word’ in analogue design for theatre, with around 75% of Broadway shows, maybe 60% of London’s West End and near 90% of Japanese musicals being run on them. The J-Type has established herself as the Grande Dame of musical theatre, with unquestioned audio quality and reliability giving sound designers a healthy comfort zone for highgrossing shows. But where do you go when you’re at the top of your game, especially when the playing field changes beneath your feet? The demands of newer productions, especially when touring, have inevitably drawn designers to digital, whether it means Yamaha DM1000s stashed underneath a J-Type for Billy Elliot, a Digico D5T running Mary Poppins or the Digidesign Venue for Footloose. There are several pro audio manufacturers with digital expertise who would dearly like to wrest the crown from Cadac for the big-budget theatre market. It was clear Cadac had an ambition to respond with its own all-digital desk, indeed the S-Digital concept was unveiled at PLASA 2006, but with the mixer’s subsequent non-appearance there were many who March 2008

perhaps doubted the old lads from Luton were up to the task. Software development and high-speed digital communication protocols present quite different challenges from traditional analogue circuit design, and Cadac has a rather compact team of engineers compared to larger corporations. But in true British style, it was actually more a case of back-to-the-shedblokes perfecting the design, and Cadac has entered its 40th anniversary year with a truly stunning new product, and with several orders already taken. ‘I think we have a unique advantage at Cadac in that we are not driven hard by accountants,’ Philip Jones told me. ‘We are in the business for the quality of audio and the quality of the product for our customers. We are given the freedom to experiment a bit, to try things out in the lab.’ Philip is Cadac’s senior design engineer responsible for the digital engineering and software team. ‘The team is just five to seven of us,’ added Mark Bladen-Hovell, who’s brief covered design of the proprietary high-speed comms, ‘we brought in Keith and Glyn as graduates — we needed two brains the size of a planet we got them, and they don’t conflict, which is unusual!’ The look of the S-type console the team has resolution

produced is less digital surface, more modular mixer. The superficial appearance is pure J-type, reflecting the chosen analogue audio benchmark in the product’s look and feel. Sales engineer Mark Ray explained that the user consultation process had spanned two years: ‘We took an original prototype to New York, they said — it’s not big enough, we need more displays and buses, we need more inputs, plus some other bits of technology appeared on the market that were not available then.’ Improved circuits for the A-D convertors became available, and the price of OLED displays reduced sufficiently to allow their liberal deployment on each module. ‘Even two years ago those weren’t on the original plan. By coming late to the market, when there are already several other digital desks available, we’ve had quite a lot of useful feedback concerning what people do and don’t like about them. We’ve taken all that feedback and incorporated it in our own product.’ The control surface is made up of various combinations of input and output frames, together with a CCM (Central Control Module) frame. The CCM houses an embedded O/S computer with flash memory, a screen, keyboard and trackball, and runs the SAM2 show control automation software. The input frame comprises 18 input modules with faders, one CAM (Central Assign Module) with display and 72 input LED bargraph meters. A single input frame has the capability to control 144 input channels in 8 layers or 8 user assignable banks. The output frame has 16 assignable group/aux/ matrix modules with faders, master faders and 57

technology

CAM, a listen module with three independent stereo buses, and 66 output meters. Because no audio runs through the control surface, there’s a useful degree of flexibility concerning where the frames are located within a theatre. During rehearsals, for example, there might be a full rig with two input frames, one output frame and the CCM frame bridging seating positions in the auditorium. When the show is running, the sound designer might sit in the stalls with just one input frame, with the

other input, output and CCM frames repositioned backstage. There’s always a considerable amount of negotiation involved for a sound designer to secure a good mix position in a theatre. With Broadway seat prices for a popular show typically running from $250-$430 at the orchestra (stalls) level, we’re talking about saving at least 20 seats, a revenue increase of thousands of dollars nightly with the S-Digital frames separated. Alternatively, the three totally independent listen buses mean the S-Digital can be configured

resolution

for operation by three engineers, for example: one position for the orchestra mixer, one for the radio mic engineer and one for the sound designer. The control surface is linked to the DSP and IO racks by either coax or optical links, with two HSD (High Speed Digital — a new proprietary data interface) comms cards fitted within all racks to provide for main and redundant connections to other I-O racks and the control surface. ‘When we started looking at the comms, we had certain things we wanted to incorporate in the Cadac-ness of it all,’ explains Mark Bladen-Hovell. ‘To do a highspeed data backplane where you can hot-unplug a card without affecting the audio was not an easy problem to solve, because standard data interfaces are not designed to be broken. Also, certain of the channels need to be transmitted in real time, with extremely low latency.’ During the February demonstration of the S-Digital I witnessed fader and input strips removed while music continued uninterrupted and, most impressively, the control surface being repeatedly power cycled while the DSP racks retained last-set values and with no loss of continuity. The surface was back up and running within two seconds of power application. This is a major design theme for Cadac: every rack has two completely independent power supplies, with status monitoring locally via OLED displays and information on temperature, load, voltage and fan speed sent back to the Central Control Module via the HSD system to flag any problems to the operator. The CCM frame is also equipped with a ‘Kill Audio’ button, which enables all outputs within I-O racks to be hard muted via separate dedicated copper cabling rather than the digital link. This facility can be activated by a remote input, handy for integration into any existing emergency evacuation systems. ‘We

March 2008

technology can continue to operate the S-Digital surface as a live mixing board if we have to reset the SAM2 show control automation,’ explains Bladen-Hovell. ‘Everybody these days is terribly worried about audio that depends on computer-based operating systems, they question how long it will take to re-boot in an emergency.’ Apart from robustness and theatre-friendly design, the overriding concern at Cadac was to build a digital beast that would live up to its reputation for audio quality. ‘One of our benchmarks for introducing this console was to make it sound as good as a J-type,’ explains Mark Ray, ‘all our customers said it had to sound at least as good.’ The first step was to quantify exactly what it was about the analogue J-type and its EQ that clients admired, so this could be accurately modelled in the new software. Keith Ovenden and his predecessors at Cadac spent four years of investigation and three years of development to get it right. ‘The J is the benchmark,’ confirms Ovenden, ‘so we’ve spent a long time making sure the digital EQ is as close as we can possibly get. We’ve mapped the phase and frequency responses so they sound as near as possible.’ Keith used tools like Prism’s D-Scope to constantly measure the effect of changes he was making while programming the Analog Devices SHARC chips using the VisualDSP programming language, with data visualisation and algorithm development being done in Matlab. There’s a dedicated channel of SHARC DSP per channel of the console, so there’s no question of running

March 2008

out of processing power when using the four band parametric EQ, dynamics and delay sections on each channel. Like any complex digital system, word clock synchronisation across the mixer was essential. ‘Every card in the system has a different oscillator clock, with different phases. The challenge was to get the jitter down as low as possible,’ said Glyn Ward. ‘We reduced it initially with VHDL code to shrink the jitter from wide to a higher frequency band, then we put it through a high quality PLL to shrink it into the picoseconds — one nanosecond and you’ve had it, basically!’ Physical construction of the S-type presented Cadac with many production challenges, new subcontractors had to be found to manufacture complex DSP circuitry and the 18Gbps-capable PCBs with impedancematched tracks. Some of the impressive control aspects of the mix surface turn out to be Cadac inventions. Unlike several other digital mix surfaces, it is possible to determine the value and pointing position of each knob without actually altering the setting. Four years ago an experimental surface was built at Cadac with LED rings and encoders, just to try out ideas and see how best they could be manufactured. ‘The LED rings we had to make ourselves because off-the-shelf components are quite large in diameter, and we wanted to cram a lot of controls onto a relatively small panel,’ reveals Philip Jones. ‘So we designed our own LED rings and our own mouldings to be a light guide, then we assemble them ourselves at the factory.’ As an old-school analogue engineer, I find LED

resolution

rings rather vague indicators at best, but the S-Digital has a solution: ‘We realised that the LED ring is a very coarse indication of how the controls are set. You can go to the computer and interrogate that for lots of data, but for instant information you just have to press the knob’s shaft switch and it shows you, on the most appropriate OLED display above where your hand is, the exact value the control is set to. If you press the control shaft in and turn it, the control then changes to a fine resolution mode, tenths of dBs and tenths of Hz.’ The double width Central Assign Module of the input and output frames provide a more complete set of parameter controls than can be adjusted on the strips: all four or six bands of EQ can be tweaked simultaneously, and some less-critical functions, such as the dynamics side-chain, can only be controlled from this module. But the CAM also neatly solves the operational conundrum of instant access to a channel/ output that is not currently within the layer or page dialled up on the frame. Pressing the appropriate select button located under the channel/output meter (there are four meters per strip) gives the engineer instant and comprehensive control of that audio path at the CAM, without disturbing anything displayed on the current surface page. I’m sure it would have made Dick Swettenham smile to see such an elegant implementation of a variation on ‘the future of mixer design’ which he proposed in an article many years ago — on a mixer from the company founded by Clive Green whose early recording consoles were renowned for baffling young engineers (myself included) with a veritable forest of small toggle switches, the logic of which was apparent only to Green himself. The new S-Digital ticks all the big theatre boxes — audio quality, resilience and operational ease — and it’s sure to draw an audience wherever it goes. ■

sweet spot

Room-to-room compatability of cinema soundtracks Most people reading this magazine will have seen photographs of large dubbing theatres where ﬁlm soundtracks are mixed for commercial release. It has been traditional to mix cinema soundtracks in large mixing theatres so the many variables involved in transposing a mix from the studios to the cinemas could be minimised. PHILIP NEWELL says the practical reality is different.

n general, as rooms become larger they tend to exhibit a decay time that rises at low frequencies. The larger rooms also tend towards their first reflections arriving later than those in small rooms, and the subsequent reflections are more separated in time. The X-curve, shown in Figure 1, has been applied to cinema loudspeaker systems (both mixing rooms and public theatres) as it has long been recognised that different high and low frequency roll-offs have been needed to achieve a natural perceived response in rooms of different sizes and decay times. It has also been noted by many people that the relative level of the dialogue to the music and effects can seem excessively loud in small rooms when listening to films that have been mixed in large, more reverberant rooms. The more recent needs for compatibility with smaller commercial cinema rooms and DVD releases have highlighted the need to relook at the problem, because the use of the X-curve, alone, does not seem to suffice. The X-curve was developed by Dolby in the early 1970s. In the original experiments, carried out in a large dubbing theatre at Elstree film studios in the UK, a soundtrack was reproduced via two KEF loudspeakers with a wide and flat frequency response, at a distance of about 2 metres from the mixing console. The same soundtrack was then reproduced via the behind-the-screen system, about 12 metres away, and the system was equalised to give the best compatibility when A/B switching between the near and distant systems. Somewhat surprisingly, the equalisation required for the distant system was something similar to what was to become the X-curve. In a paper to the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers), Ioan Allen demonstrated how the reverberation in a room would develop in response to pink noise, and three figures from his paper are shown here as Figures 2a, b and c. [1] Given a reverberation characteristic as shown in Figure 2a, it can be seen from Figures 2b and c how the first arriving signal, having a flat response, is subsequently subjected to a reverberant build-up that is moderate at mid frequencies but greater at low frequencies and less at high frequencies. This is significant in that it affects transient signals and longer duration signals in different ways. The short sounds of the spoken word are essentially in the range of 100Hz to 2kHz, but their duration is too short to exhibit signs of reverberant build-up. They are also above the frequency band that would suffer the greatest reverberation in a complex, wide-band soundtrack. Consequently, in such a soundtrack, any low frequency build-up would tend to mask the short sounds of the dialogue and reduce its intelligibility as compared to dialogue at the same level but in a drier acoustic space. The natural tendency therefore is for the person making the mix to elevate the dialogue levels when mixing in a room with a longer and low-frequency-dominant 60

reverberation time, as compared to mixing in a less reverberant room with less low frequency build-up, because despite the large and small rooms both being equalised to be flat in their overall response, the time-smeared reverberant response exhibits a greater masking effect. As a result of this, when such a soundtrack is played back in a smaller, drier room, the dialogue levels may seem to be excessively high in terms of their relative balance with the rest of the ambience, music and effects. When a room/loudspeaker combination is equalised to be flat in response to a pink noise signal, with the equalisation of the loudspeaker system compensating for the reverberant build-up at low frequencies, the time-history of the response would tend to be as shown in Figure 3, also taken from Allen’s paper. The tendency would be for a direct signal to be reduced in bass and increased above around 2kHz, leading to a thinner, harsher sound, that is exactly what is being reported by many people as being the nature of some soundtracks when auditioned in small rooms after being mixed in larger, more reverberant rooms. In real life, if a human being were to speak in rooms of different sizes, the characteristics of the direct sound would not change. It is probable that the direct sound (in all but highly reverberant conditions that would not be suitable for cinema use) forms a significant part of what a listener would deem to be the ‘natural’ sound of the voice. Therefore, to linearly distort the direct sound to compensate for room effects (which although affecting more steadystate sounds do not make a significant change to the perception of the spoken word) would seem to be detrimental to the uniformity of its perception in different rooms. That is to say, once a large room has been equalised to the X-curve with pink noise such that the direct response from the loudspeakers is similar to that shown for the first arrival in Figure 3, the re-recording mixers will probably equalise the dialogue to give it a more natural characteristic — in effect adding the inverse of the first-arrival response, although the extent to which they do this may be dependent upon how exposed the dialogue is with respect to the rest of the soundtrack. (In some cases the need for intelligibility may override

the goal of naturalness.) When the soundtrack is played back in a smaller or drier room, with a reverberation characteristic more akin to that shown in Figure 4, and in which the loudspeakers have been equalised with a flatter general characteristic, then the dialogue may tend to be perceived with a much ‘heavier’ sound. These phenomena give rise to perceptual differences in the balance of the different components of a soundtrack, dependent upon the sizes of the rooms in which they were either mixed or reproduced, but there may also be other mechanisms at work. The level of early reflections in a room can reinforce the short sounds of dialogue if they arrive with a delay of less than about 40ms relative to the direct signal. The reflections will tend to reinforce dialogue levels in smaller rooms more than in larger rooms, where the reflection density will be less, and where the reflections will tend to be at a lower relative level due to the fact that they have travelled greater

Figure 2a

Figure 2b

Figure 1

Figure 2c resolution

March 2008

sweet spot

Figure 3

Figure 4

distances than in small rooms. They would also suffer a high frequency roll-off due to air absorption, at the rate of about 1dB for every 5 metres travelled at 10kHz. Where the direct and reflected paths differ significantly, say by more than 10 metres, the rolloff of the high frequencies may become noticeable in the reflected sound. Therefore, taking a mix from a large room, with a reverberation characteristic similar to that shown in Figure 2, and playing it back in a smaller room with a drier, flatter decay characteristic, we could observe four things. The overall flat (or X-curve) response of a large, more reverberant room with a significant rise at low frequencies (in the RT) will consist of a direct signal that is bass light and, perhaps, slightly treble heavy. People mixing in such a room will probably compensate for this effect by adding equalisation to the dialogue that will restore the natural frequency balance of the direct signal. Subsequently, on playback in a smaller room that has been equalised with a flatter direct response, the dialogue will sound to have been altered by the applied equalisation, which would not have been necessary in the

flatter direct monitoring conditions of the smaller, drier room, and which therefore sounds excessive. Perhaps consideration should be given to equalising the centre loudspeaker, carrying most of the dialogue, to be flatter in the close-field rather than in the farfield. For example, at one-third of the distance from the screen to the mixing position. The dialogue will receive no significant reverberant support in either a large or a small room, so the effect of reverberation can be largely discounted when considering the dialogue only. However, the music and low frequency ambience would not receive as much reverberant support in a small, dry room as in a larger, more reverberant room, and so may sound weaker. Note that even if the levels of these signals had been boosted at low frequencies by the flatter direct signal from the loudspeakers in the smaller room, the faster overall decay may well still leave the dialogue more exposed. The dialogue may receive more support from early reflections in the smaller room due to the closer proximity of reflective surfaces, because the reflections arriving within 40ms of the direct sound will reinforce its level. This would perhaps be noticed

March 2008

resolution

more on the short sounds of the dialogue than on the longer sounds of the music and ambience, because the last two had received reverberant support during the mix while the dialogue had not, and the reverberant support would have been much stronger than any subsequent reflective support. Air absorption at high frequencies could be less in the smaller room, so any reflections would tend to be brighter than in a larger room, once again giving a boost to signals that were being supported by the higher reflection density. It appears that we could be dealing with a situation where the equalisation and level of the centre-front loudspeaker needs to be linked to the size and decay time of the room when the systems are aligned. The implication would appear to be to use the existing standard procedure in dry rooms, but to raise the centre loudspeaker level and roll-off less of the low frequency response as the decay-time (especially at low frequencies) increases. However, only listening tests will confirm this. The effect upon the music and effects levels would depend on how much of these were also carried by the centre channels. â&#x2013; rEFErENCES: 1. allen, ioan; the X-Curve: its origins and History, SmPtE Journal, vol. 115, Nos 7&8, pp264-275 (2006). FootNotE: this article was based on an extraction from the paper: the Perception of dialogue loudness levels Within Complex Soundtracks at Similar overall Sound Pressure levels in rooms of different Sizes and decay times, P r Newell, K r Holland, B Neskov, S Castro, m desborough, a Pena, m torres, E valdigĂŞm, d Suarez. Proceedings of the institute of acoustics, vol. 29, Part 7 (2007)

slaying dragons

Strummin’ and a-pickin’ A good deal of sound recording involves musical instruments and JOHN WATKINSON is of the view that it can’t do any harm to know how they work. In this issue it’s the turn of the stringed instrument.

he stringed instrument is too old for anyone to say when or where it was invented. Without doubt this was in more than one place, given the wide range of instruments that can be found in different parts of the world. This range is too great to deal with in any detail so we will stick to the principles and consider a few representative examples. Any long thin element that is under tension can be made to vibrate with more or less success, as suspension bridge and helicopter designers have discovered the hard way. The vibration is a resonance, which, like any resonance, is a continuous interplay between two types of energy. There is tensile energy stored in the elongation of the element, and kinetic energy stored in the transverse motion. If the fundamental resonance is considered, when the string comes to a halt at one end of its travel, in a slightly arched shape, the kinetic energy has all been converted to tension energy. When the string reaches its maximum speed in the centre of its travel, the tensile energy is at a minimum. Harmonics occur when some point on the string called a node remains stationary while the parts either side vibrate in anti-phase. With a single node, a string vibrates an octave up. With two nodes, the string vibrates at three times the fundamental and so on. The resonant frequency is determined by the length and elasticity of the string, the tension and the mass-per-unit length. Just making a string thicker doesn’t have much effect, as the increased cross sectional area makes it stiffer, which raises the frequency, and heaver, which lowers it in the same proportion. As a result, low frequency strings tend to have an inner tension member with another layer wound around it to add mass without raising the stiffness. There is any number of ways of exciting the string. It can be plucked, as in the harp, guitar and harpsichord; it can be hit with a hammer, as in the pianoforte, or bowed as in the violin family. The vibration can be stopped, or damped in various ways. The harpsichord does it with a little pad for each key that contacts the string when the key is released. The pianoforte has foot62

resolution

operated damping. On guitars it has to be done by hand. The form of excitation determines the attack. Clearly the pluck offers a sudden attack, whereas bowing causes a gradual increase in amplitude. Exciting the string in the centre produces the purest note, whereas most instruments deliberately excite near one end in order to produce more harmonics. Harmonic structure has a lot to do with the resultant timbre. Music gets more interesting when a greater range of notes can be played. The simplest approach is to have one string per note, which does, however, result in quite a large instrument. Resisting the combined tension of all of those strings requires a substantial frame as can be seen in the harp and the pianoforte. Alternatively, there can be a smaller number of strings whose effective length can be changed in some way. The effective length may be changed in steps by the use of frets, as in the typical guitar, or changed with infinite variability in fretless instruments such as the violin and the steel guitar. Incidentally the term steel refers to the lump of metal that is used to determine the length of the string in the absence of a bottleneck. The plane of the strings is determined by the shape of the bridge and the nut and is subject to some variability. In the violin, the string plane must be curved strongly so that an individual string can be selected by the angle of the bow. The sides of the violin need to be cut away to allow the bow to adopt extreme angles. In the typical guitar, the string plane and therefore the frets have a slight curvature to make it easier to get the left hand around the neck. In a steel guitar the strings must all lie in the same plane so that the steel can contact them all at once. The square-necked guitar has a perfectly flat bridge and a high nut that keeps the strings well away from the neck. There are no frets as such, but often there is inlaying where the frets would have been. It is impossible to play squarenecks like normal guitars. They have to be played lap-style. By definition, strings are quite thin and as such they don’t radiate sound very well because they have such a small surface area. Invariably the stringed instrument incorporates some means better to couple the vibration of the strings to the air. The forces on the bridge due to the vibration of the strings are quite large, but the velocity is low. What is needed is an impedance conversion to suit the way sound propagates with small forces but higher velocities. This is simply done by mounting the bridge on a large near-flat surface that is caused to vibrate. In the violin and guitar this surface is of thin wood, whereas in the banjo it is drum skin. Radiation from the strings can also be augmented using acoustic resonance. The sound hole of the typical guitar acts in conjunction with the volume of the body to make a Helmholtz resonator. The volume of the body needs to be large to get a deep tone. The Weissenborn guitar is designed to be played lap style, and so it does not have a separate neck. The body and the neck are integrated into a single hollow structure that has a large internal volume for its size and thus the Weissenborn sounds bigger than it is. March 2008

showcase

In the solid-bodied electric guitar, there is no attempt to radiate sound from the strings directly. The vibration of the steel strings changes the reluctance of a magnetic circuit around which is wound a coil of wire. The changing magnetic field induces a voltage in the wire that can be amplified. In practice several pickups may be fitted at different distances from the bridge that produce different harmonic structures. These can be selected or combined as desired. In the absence of body resonances, the electric guitar relies upon non-linearity in the amplifier and break-up of the loudspeaker cone to add richness. Amplifiers using vacuum tubes are often preferred because their nonlinearities are more harmonious. The Dobro is an instrument that is effectively a cross between a loudspeaker and a guitar. The bridge is attached to a large cone, typically of spun metal, that is mounted across an aperture in the body that acts as the speaker enclosure. The enclosure is usually ported, commonly with a pair of circular vents, but sometimes with f-holes. The cone is protected by a perforated cover plate that is usually highly polished, hence the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shining like a National guitarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lyric. The augmentation system of the Dobro is probably the most effective of the non-electric stringed instruments. For patent reasons, there is a version of the instrument called a tricone in which the bridge is supported on a tripod, each leg of which leads to a separate cone. Despite the creative use to which they are put, stringed instruments are machines and obey the laws of physics. They need to be maintained and adjusted in order to work properly. Good set-up is vital to playability and tonal quality. In the guitar, poor set-up usually results in buzzes and rattles. In a fretted instrument, the relationship between the fret board and the strings is determined by the nut and the bridge. The bridge is higher, so the strings slope down towards the nut. If the slope is too shallow, the string will buzz against the fret next to the one it is pressed against. Worn frets can also have this effect. If the strings are too steep, higher notes are hard to play as the string needs to be pressed down a long way and this will affect the tuning. If the neck has developed a curve over time owing to string tension this may give the illusion of a high action. If the action is correct and the string is tuned, it should produce the correct pitch on every fret. If it does not, the bridge is probably in the wrong place. Some guitars have a bridge for each string supported on a shoe that can be moved along the string by turning an adjusting screw. Electric guitars can have additional problems due to the pickups and their controls. In my experience, a lot of electric guitars appear to have been wired up by a gorilla using a blowlamp. The grounding philosophy appears to be to maximise output of hums, crackles and the conversations of local taxi drivers at the expense of signals from the pickups. Many electric guitars benefit from rewiring using the principles of electromagnetic compatibility. â&#x2013; March 2008

resolution

your business

You’re in good hands – maybe The times they are a-changing and recent movement in record company ownership and game plans has seen the music industry transition to a more generic ﬁnancial model. DAN DALEY, quite reasonably, is not that excited by the prospect.

brauner.familysnapshot

theartofmicrophones.com

64 RESOLUTION MAG.indd 1

have seen the future and it doesn’t look very appealing, at least from the perspective of staying within the major-label infrastructure. This brief excerpt from the Financial Times really puts the last five decades of the music business into pathetic perspective, representing new heights of cluelessness. ‘New EMI boss Guy Hands has claimed that artists must work harder for his record label in the future. A memo leaked to the Financial Times revealed that Hands wants EMI to be more selective about acts they choose to work with. Hands said: “Some [artists] unfortunately simply focus on negotiating for the maximum advance. Advances which are often never repaid.” The new owner did not reveal what had prompted his remarks, but insisted that it would be “open to us [EMI] to choose which artists we wish to work with and promote” in the future.’ Let’s parse this sentence by sentence, like some cryptic hieroglyphic from across the ages. ‘New EMI boss Guy Hands has claimed that artists must work harder for his record label in the future.’ This implies first that artists are not working hard enough, which any producer or engineer knows is not the case most of the time. Artists may be a lot of annoying things but lazy usually isn’t one of them when it comes to their music, particularly in this day and age of independent artists scrambling to make a living on stage and selling CDs out of the boot of their cars. This first sentence also dictates that not only do artists have to simply work harder but also they ‘must work harder for his record label.’ This suggests a significant shift in the relationship between label and artist; it seems to be positing the artist as one more cubicle-dwelling corporate employee. You know, the type that for a while actually gets regular pay cheques and benefits and a pension. And the type that has been regularly made redundant and jettisoned at other corporate buyouts engineered by Hands, not least of which was Le Meridien Hotels. But speaking of working harder, last November it was leaked, this time through the New York Post, that Hands was seeking additional equity partners to absorb the £2.4 billion ($4.73 billion) that Hands’s company, equity trader firm Terra Firma, VM1: The Archetype laid out last May to snatch EMI out from under longtime suitor Warner Music. resolution 25.02.2008 10:18:44 Uhr

According to a confidential investor presentation obtained by The Post, Hands is telling prospective partners they can nearly quadruple their money in the struggling major label and cash out within five years. How is Hands planning to accomplish this even as CD sales continue to plunge nearly 20% a year? A mix of cost cuts, improved digital revenues, and strategic acquisitions is intended to wring out $223 million in fixed costs, on top of existing EMI cost-saving initiatives. But the artists will have to work harder for the company, let’s remember. Not sure if they get to participate in Hands’s investment Ponzi scheme, though. Back to the hieroglyphics. The Times article ‘revealed that Hands wants EMI to be more selective about acts they choose to work with.’ OK, you have a record label that routinely consorts with musicians, songwriters, record producers and recording engineers. These are people who have been known to have eccentric and at times even somewhat unsavoury characteristics, as have some of the people who are actually directly employed by the label. Like what’s left of entire A&R staffs, not to mention a new generation of accountants that have made figuring out royalty statements even more difficult then they were before. ‘Some [artists] unfortunately simply focus on negotiating for the maximum advance. Advances which are often never repaid.’ Wow. What an amazing statement coming from a venture capitalist, whose mission in life is to generate maximum return on investment knowing full well that the word ‘venture’ specifically refers to money that is by nature completely at risk. Hands knows where some more of that lost money can be recouped: Reuters reports that EMI is planning to significantly cut back on the amount it contributes to trade organisations, including the IFPI and the RIAA, which despite some interesting tactics such as lawsuits against preschoolers and grannies are still the only two major organisations that are proactively fighting music piracy. Short-term thinking is a hallmark of boiler-room brokers. We could keep going. The phrase ‘open to… choose which artists we wish to work with and promote in the future’ suggests that EMI had to sign Kylie Minogue at gunpoint, perhaps? But we know the business model for record labels for the last half-century was dodgy: labels laid out enormous sums of money betting on unknown artists even while the historical data clearly indicated that they had a one in ten chance of recouping that investment. Worse, the artists that they invested in that failed to recoup never had to repay any monies paid to them in the event the label dropped them, which of course is what you do with poorly performing investments. (Again, the parallels to venture capitalism are vivid.) But most astonishingly perhaps, the 10% that did pay a return on investment did so to such an extent that until digital files became the coin of the realm they actually generated a profit for the labels. That profit is where the money came from to pay producers their royalties. See where this is going? March 2008

showcase 22/2/08

MJQ_Resolutionmag 140x60mm Ad:Layout 1

Named in 2003 to the post of CEO at Sony Music Entertainment, Andrew Lack was the first real ‘outsider’ to be brought in to run a major record label. A former producer for CBS news, he was expected to run Sony like a business. Other than a documented love of musical theatre (he is a big fan of Bernstein’s West Side Story), Lack had no professional music sensibilities — perfect for a changing business environment, or so Tokyo supposed. During his tenure so far, Lack’s accomplishments include the Dual Disc, which rivalled SACD as a failed format, and engineering the merger with BMG, which the European Union is still looking at breaking up. But the pattern had been set and it logically leads to someone like Guy Hands, who will approach the music business for what it is, at least from the perspective of The City and Wall Street: a venture capital proposition. In yet another leaked memo, Guy Hands pointed out to prospective investors that EMI’s previous management had blown millions of pounds on wretched excesses such as £5.6m on a three-bedroom townhouse for former EMI head Eric Nicoli in Park Lane, central London, that he was said to visit as infrequently as once a fortnight, as well as vast severance packages for executives. The point of letting this bit of information out is to suggest that a real businessman, such as Hands, can clean up the operation and make it run more efficiently. Plans to do so include using corporate sponsors to defray the costs of producing and distributing music; so far, Nordstrom, Victoria’s Secret and the New York Daily News have all paid for the right to put their brand on music from EMI artists, including Joss Stone and the Spice Girls. And a move that could be as pique at the band as it is a marketing decision, Hands will get back at label defectors Radiohead by releasing a hits package this year without the band’s approval. But as mechanically ridiculous as the old music business regime’s business model was, it somehow seemed to jive with the fact that everyone, from the artists to the CEOs like Clive Davis and Herb Alpert, were also involved in a creative enterprise. We wanted the people in the music business to be a bit daft. We needed them to be crazy so the rest of the world could live vicariously through them. But now, the eccentricity is petering out and the business is transitioning into the hands of Hands and his brethren. You know at some point it will occur to this cohort that, ‘Here, what’s this about “producers’ royalties?” Weren’t they paid when they did the work years ago?’ (I’ll always find a few ways to hammer the theme home: producers can no longer reasonably expect there to be a back end in production anymore. The only way to assure that is to get your name in there as a co-writer on the songs. Put the emphasis on the front end.) The transition of the music industry to a more generic financial model completes what the digital revolution started. A transformation of the music business from its analogue era in every sense of the word to one in which its elements are as disposable as the music increasingly is. I’m neither romanticising the past nor disparaging the apparent future. I am pointing out that the transitions are both economic and technological, and that they’re clearly linked. Guy Hands may turn out to be one of those guys who never met a record producer he didn’t like, only because he never met a record producer. Record makers should be prepared for a very different business experience in the future. Your next client may be a hedge fund manager, but look at the bright side: maybe you’ll get a hot stock tip. ■ March 2008

in conjunction with The Town House, London present an online

15:32

Page 1

Auction

& Sale by Treaty of the Equipment and Contents

at The Town House, London W12 8HH May 7th-9th Inclusive Over 1000 lots of pro-audio equipment and studio contents will be sold Auction catalogue available from April 2008 at www.mjq.co.uk

Register for the auction at www.mjq.co.uk 01923 285266 or 0771 2817533 email: sales@mjq.co.uk Unparalleled service to the recording industry for 40 years

resolution

headroom altiverb irs into tlSpace Firstly, thank you for producing a great magazine — informative, imaginative and some good debates too... On page 50 of the November/December Resolution, Donal Hodgson says that the TLSpace reverb takes impulse responses from Logic’s Space Designer and Altiverb. I’ve managed to use the Space Designer impulses myself in TLSpace but have had no luck with importing Altiverb impulses. I’ve read about other people being able to use Altiverb stuff in TLSpace but have never been able to find out how. Would it be possible to find out how he’s done it? I’ve contacted Digidesign (who own TL Labs) but they haven’t been able to help (apart from directing me to a TLSpace download pdf that isn’t any use). Any help would be much appreciated. Justin Richards, Macclesfield, UK The answer to Justin’s question is as follows. In the open TLSpace plug-in window navigate to the Impulse Response Library window (on the right side of the plug-in) and select the Edit menu. Select the ‘import other IR’ command. This will bring up an ‘Open File’ Dialogue. Now all you have to do is hunt down those IRs on your hard disk and select the top level folder to install them. Generally IRs are hidden away as follows. TL Space — Mac HD — Library — Application Support — Trillium Lane — TL Space — IR Folder Space Designer — Mac HD — Library — Application Support — Emagic — IR Folder Altiverb — Mac HD — Applications — Audio Ease — Altiverb — IR Folder I hope that helps. Donal Hodgson

attentional selectivity Always appreciate John Watkinson’s contribution to Resolution. I notice in this month’s mag (V7.1) he says that ‘it can be demonstrated that attentional selectivity doesn’t work on spaced microphone recordings.’ Although I’m in no doubt that he is quite correct, I wonder if you might ask him on my behalf if he would be kind enough brieﬂy to explain how. Or, to let me

know where I might ﬁnd a published reference to such an experiment. Andrew Hallifax, Harpenden, UK In the case of coincident microphones there are plenty of published works that explain how a source in a particular location produces a virtual source between two loudspeakers in the same location, whereas no such explanation can be found for spaced microphones. Spaced microphones produce a spatial effect that may be more pleasing than mono, but they do not produce an image. As a result there is no ideal spacing between spaced microphones because practically any spacing will produce some kind of effect. Omnidirectional microphones are favoured because they reproduce ambience and reverberation well and can have good phase linearity. Directional microphones used singly sound drier, of course, and may sacrifice phase linearity by using time effects to achieve their directional characteristic. Cardioids are particularly suspect in this area. As a coincident pair of omnidirectional microphones is not useful, one can see why people would try spacing them. The effect produced by spaced omni microphones is spatial smear. Point sources of sound are reproduced as distributed sources. One of the attributes of legacy loudspeakers is image smear. If the smear of the speakers is as bad as the smear due to spaced omni microphones, you might conclude that they sound better than a coincident pair of directional microphones especially if the latter have the time accuracy of an intoxicated brontosaurus. With good loudspeakers you would realise that both are flawed. A crossed pair of fig-8 microphones captures sound from 360 degrees, so the ambience advantage of the omni disappears, but an accurate image can be obtained. The best way I have found for demonstrating attentional selectivity in reproduced sound is to record, using a coincident microphone, a cocktail party or similar event in which numerous unrelated conversations are taking place. It should be possible to concentrate on one particular conversation if the imaging is any good. Try it with spaced omnis and see how the intelligibility disappears. John Watkinson

Missed an issue? Need to build up your collection? You can buy Resolution back issues and complete volumes on CD-Rom.

Everything you need to know to keep ahead

www.resolutionmag.com 66

resolution

Hirsuit groups

Motley Crewcut Peter, Paul and Hairy Plaits Domino Everything But The Curl Quiff Richard Brush • Simply Dread Afro Tull • Pubic Image Limited Bob Segar and The Silver Mullet Band • ZZ Crop

advertiser index Acoustic Energy ................................................ 46 AES .................................................................... 63 AKM .................................................................. 15 ALSO .................................................Classified 65 Audient......................................................... 34-35 Audio Technica .................................................. 24 Calrec ................................................................ 23 Cedar Audio ....................................... Back Cover Dangerous ......................................................... 29 DigiCo ............................................................... 03 Digidesign ......................................................... 33 DPA ................................................................... 19 Enhanced Audio ................................Classified 63 Euphonix ........................................................... 07 Fostex................................................................ 20 Funky Junk ........................................Classified 63 Genelec ............................................................. 02 Grace ................................................................. 37 HHB UA ............................................................. 21 JZ Microphones ................................................ 52 KMR ...................................................Classified 63 Lawo .................................................................. 09 Lydcraft ............................................................. 18 McDSP ............................................................... 55 Merging ............................................................. 61 Microtech Gefell ............................................... 59 Millennia ............................................................ 13 MJQ...................................................Classified 65 NAB ................................................................... 51 Neue Heimat .....................................Classified 65 Neutrik .............................................................. 58 Primacoustic ................................................. 38-39 Radial ................................................................. 31 RME .............................................................. 10-11 RND ................................................................... 25 Rycote ............................................................... 62 Schoeps ............................................................. 17 Sonic Apogee.................................................... 45 Sonic Ghost ....................................................... 41 Sonic SE............................................................. 43 Sonic Waves ...................................................... 47 SEA Brauner ...................................................... 64 Sonifex .............................................................. 49 Sonnox .............................................................. 56 SSL ..................................................................... 27 TL Audio ............................................................ 67 TL Commerce ....................................Classified 63 Unity Audio ....................................................... 42

March 2008