Earning an ARIA

ARIA ENGINEERS Jimi Maroudas. GettingEarnin nominated as the ARIAG Engineeran of ARIAthe Year doesn’t happen to all of us. CX talks to two guys who got the nod this year. By STEPHEN BRUEL possibility without, my Mum and Dad “Around this time Chris started work who gave the courage to chase this career, on The Waifs ARIA award winning s this magazine rolls off the press, my brother for his musical influences album Up All Night so naturally I tagged the 23rd annual ARIA Awards and most importantly my wife for whom along on those sessions,” said Schram. Ceremony is being held at Acer without her support this would still be a “From Chris I learnt the most important AArena in Sydney. Established in 1987, dream. Of course all of the great artists/ aspects of record making which are the ARIAs have 28 award categories producers/engineers that I have worked performance, great tones and good people to honour excellence and innovation with who put their hearts and souls out management skills. Chris and his best across all genres of Australian music. For there every day deserve a mention also.” mate Tony Cohen (Bad Seeds, Cruel this year’s Engineer of the Year award Sea) passed on a bunch of artists and nominees Steven Schram (Little Birdy STEVEN SCHRAM albums to cut my teeth on.” – Confetti) and Jimi Maroudas (Eskimo Schram (whose credits include Little Joe – Inshalla) being nominated is an Birdy, Little Red, Art Of Fighting JIMI MAROUDAS honour, a dream, and recognition from and Public Enemy) began his audio For Maroudas, (whose credits include the industry for their respective audio production career through forging a Eskimo Joe, The Living End, Tim production skills, hard work, dedication relationship with Triple J sound engineer Rogers and Pete Murray) the journey to and professionalism. Chris Thompson. an ARIA nomination started with a more “Its great to know that people in the “I was living in a house which had a traditional ‘musical’ beginning. voting pool scrolled down and saw Little computer with some music on it and “I picked up the guitar at age four Birdy’s Confetti on the list and thought none of us knew how to burn a CD,” said and began playing in bands at age 12,” it warranted an engineering vote,” said Schram. “I called the ABC and asked said Maroudas. “I moved from guitar to Schram. “Most of the voters probably to speak with Chris as he was the only drums to lead vocals, all the while writing don’t know who I am so it is particularly sound engineer I’d heard of.” songs. I think it is this understanding of rewarding that the nomination is based According to Schram, Thompson had many instruments which forged a great on the strength of the sound of that injured his elbow the day before and said foundation for a career in producing album.” if Schram carried all of the equipment he records and how things all fit together to “The nomination is a huge honour could tag along on his next Live At The make a great song.” and in many ways a way a dream come Wireless recording and pick his brains as The road to securing a job in the true, but really it’s all about the music much as he wanted. After tagging along industry wasn’t easy (it never is) and and doing the best and right thing by for numerous recordings Schram received involved a lot of door knocking and a lot it,” said Maroudas. “It has also made work to record a live to air broadcast of rejections before finally getting a break me reflect on all the important people from a nightclub in Melbourne and more at Melbourne-based Sing Sing Studio. whom this couldn’t even have been a work from Thompson. “I started looking for assistant gigs at 28 CX 15 JANUARY 2010 www.juliusmedia.com Tune in to the comprehensive pro audio range from Sony Jimi at Work on Eskimo Joe’s Album. any place that would take me,” said Maroudas. “Unfortunately I had no contacts in the industry and as an outsider trying to get in it was impossible. I learnt how to take the answer ‘no’ many times and every studio in Victoria would have said ‘no’ to me at least three times. According to Maroudas, Sing Sing is one of the best studios in the country and in this part of the world. Producers and engineers from around the world came to work at Sing Sing and Maroudas was working alongside them and most importantly learning from them. “I spent the best part of my 20s at Sing Sing working 100- plus hours a week, being first in and last out,” said Maroudas. “In that time I learnt a lot of what to do and what not to do, got to work on some incredible music and made some great friends in the process. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.” The Professional Choice From wireless and wired microphones to versatile A/V mixers PREPARATION IS THE KEY offering integrated control with a variety of projectors - Sony’s Schram describes himself as not being the most technically comprehensive range of pro audio solutions offers an savvy engineer around, and prefers to keep things in the studio assurance of reliability, quality and consistency. simple while focussing on getting the artist to deliver the sound and performance which suits his taste the most. With a host of systems and accessories to choose from, “All of the hard work is done in the rehearsal room including together with proven performance in broadcast, production getting the equipment sounding great and working out tones,” and AV applications, it’s hardly surprising that Sony’s pro audio range is the professional choice. said Schram. “Once the band is ready to perform those songs in their sleep then all you need to do is head into the studio and record it. It simply becomes a matter of setting them up and pointing some microphones at them.” PCM-D50 Linear PCM Recorder Maroudas agrees with the importance of a band being well The latest addition to Sony’s family of prepared, long before there is any talk of recording. portable audio recorders, built rugged “The key to any project being a success is the initial and compact to withstand the demands interaction between the producer and the artist,” said of any environment. Maroudas. “We spend whatever time is necessary in pre • 96kHz/24 bit, virtually noise-free recording production before going anywhere near a recording studio. The quality last thing I want to do is to go into the studio with the band under prepared and with question marks over the songs, parts, • 4GB internal Flash Memory, plus and/or arrangements. It’s a waste of all of our time and makes expandable Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo™ for an inefficient and unproductive session.” slot for up to an additional 4GB SPACE, SOUNDS AND www.sony.com.au/production PERFORMANCES [email protected] Schram prefers to spend more time getting the sounds that he 1800 017 669 wants from the recording room as opposed to the control room, www.juliusmedia.com CX 15 JANUARY 2010 29 PCM Ad CX.indd 1 15/10/09 9:51:30 AM ARIA ENGINEERS Steven Schram (centre) takes a break while recording with Spun Rivals. placing emphasis on the sound source. they need to worry about is delivering they had an album. For example, Schram will spend a lot of incredible performances and nothing “I like to work like this as it helps time listening and making changes to the else. This includes spending time writing me get the right sounds for each song drums in the drum room rather than in down exactly where he wants every band rather than have all the songs sound the the control room ensuring the tone of the and instrument set up in the room, and same,” said Schram. “This method also instrument is the sound he wants. then listing every signal path for every keeps everybody in the band continually “With Confetti, this was very much the instrument. involved in the process and spreads case and we set out to make a recording “For drums that means going through the vocals out over the duration of the that didn’t involve studio tricks or boo what mics/mic pres/EQ’s & compressors session. There’s nothing worse than a jiggery,” said Schram. “The band had I want on every path from the kick singer needing to record an albums worth great songs which were extremely well and snare, right through to the room of vocals in a couple of days. I don’t want rehearsed, and we were all meticulous microphones,” said Maroudas. “I’ll do to listen to somebody singing for ten about the tones and the performances.” this for every instrument and then send hours a day either.” The album is an extremely live my assistant this list so that he can get in Mixing followed a similar process to recording with three tracks featuring early and get this all set up so that we can the tracking in the fact Schram would vocalist Katy Steele singing live with the have a flying start to the session. totally reset the board following each band. “Invariably I’ll make changes on the song. At the end of each day Schram “In the track Into My Arms, Katy is day as I’m hearing things in the room, would email a version of the song to all singing louder in the room than the but this means that we get off to a flyer, band members to listen to the mixes in a piano she is playing,” said Schram.

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