REPORT REVIEWS REVEALED /  Eurovision: digital wireless solutions / Trinnov MC: a paradigm shift / Ewan Pearson: producing / Calrec Connect: managing AoIP / DPA CORE 4099: gets de vote /  Wimbledon tennis: Olympic sound inspiration / Mixing console special / Focusrite RedNet X2P / Restoring classics from Petula to Hendrix

V17.3 | May 2018 | £5.50

The

Interview

XxxxxKevin Churko Xxxxxxxx Xxx / Contents There is nothing else on the market that comes anywhere close 36 V17.3 | May 2018 Hugh Robjohns – Sound On Sound

News & Analysis 5 Leader 6 News Conventions, studios, appointments 12 New Products 54 Media Production Show 55 Playlist Which movie soundtrack for Resolution writers? 58 Pro or No? Catherine Vericolli, owner and engineer at Fivethirteen Recording

Columns Kevin Churko 14 Business The value of music: could Universal be for sale? 16 Broadcast aside Excellence is about building on past successes… and failures 18 Crosstalk 40 The future of music production 20 Sound Opinion Fix it in the mix: who’s the fader monkey now? Craft 32 Mixer Special 36 Kevin Churko producer known for his work with artists such as 49 , Five Finger Death Punh, .. ooh, and that nice 40 Ewan Pearson DJ, and remixer, and Producer of Tracey Thorn’s new Record 46 Eurovision Getting the sound right for 180m viewers 49 David Hadzis The project manager for United Music Foundation, Switzerland, talks audio restoration 52 Tape One of the capital’s most fêted private members’ clubs has a high-spec recording studio built-in 52 58 56 Technology Streaming ahead: managing connections between AoIP devices

REVIEWS

22 DPA d:vote CORE 4099 23 Focusrite RedNet X2P 24 McDSP ML8000 25 Lectrosonics M2 Duet 26 Nugen VisLM 2 27 Softube Weiss DS1-Mk3 28 Trinnov Optimizer MC genelec.com/theones 30 Leapwing CenterOne 46

May 2018 / 3 Craft

his own studio and Capitol Studios (with the great Steve Durkee engineering), Michel taught me how to do vocal edits and to select the best takes, which made me realise the importance of human emotion over technical perfection. I started my own recording facility in Geneva, working with many artists including Petula and Charles Aznavour. I restored and mastered audiophile jazz reissues for a Japanese label, some French or international pop recordings for other labels, was given the opportunity to re-master Saint Germain’s classic album Tourist, and kept embracing all types of music with an open heart. All this work led to being offered a position as project manager for the United Music Foundation, which would require all the experience I already had for my clients.

What type of source material has the Foundation worked on? We’ve already preserved hundreds of recordings, from various audio tape standards, acetate discs, and other more unusual media such as late ‘50s Minifon cassettes. These

Photo: © Steeve Lunker TDG recordings include previously unreleased works by artists in all music styles, ranging from jazz with legends Sidney Bechet, Lionel Hampton or Sarah Vaughan to pop and rock icons such as David Hadzis or Jimi Hendrix. The project manager for United Music Foundation, Switzerland talks audio preservation with NIGEL JOPSON

tarting his career in the music industry as How did you first become involved in audio a musician and composer, Hadzis restoration? progressed to engineering and I never had any formal training in audio. Sproduction, working with artists such as Experience and instinct were the only keys for Charles Aznavour, Petula Clark, Michel Colombier, me, in an era where this was more common. Siedah Garrett, Paul Jackson Jr., Esther Ofarim, Over the years, working was my learning curve. Bernard Estardy, St Germain and Andy Williams. As a young man I started recording as a singer, He now specialises in recorded music heritage and went to MIDEM in Cannes to promote my preservation, restoration and history. record. I sang at a showcase, and some guy came up to me afterwards and gave me his When was the United Music Foundation business card. It was Claude Nobs of the created? Montreux Jazz Festival. Back in Switzerland, In 2013, after finding out the big void there is in we met again and we talked about Petula this field: currently, most foundations are Clark who, just like me, lives in Geneva. Claude concerned about preserving their own archives, Nobs asked me if I wanted to retrieve Petula’s such as INA in France, Fonsart in Switzerland, master tapes. the BBC in the UK, or the Library of Congress in I thought I would find about one or two the US. They tend to limit the source of what tapes, but eventually, I found seven full boxes of they preserve to their own country. them in Montreux, and took them back home Although the United Music Foundation did, where, by chance, I had just set up my very first of course, preserve some recordings from the home studio. There were also multi-tracks, archives of public radio services, and some mainly from Pye Studios in London or United- unreleased Montreux Jazz Festival concerts, Western Recorders in Los Angeles (recorded they also aim to be there for all the recordings with the Wrecking Crew), on 3 or 4-track 1/2” that are not currently covered by any other tapes, as well as 1” 8-track and 2” 16-track similar non-profit organisation, regardless of tapes, also recorded in the US. Little by little, the music style or the country they come this led me to start working on Petula’s reissues from. The amount of tapes that can be in the ‘90s and 2000s. I also got to write some preserved only depends on the available funds songs for her, and went on to co-produce three to do it, so it is up to patrons and sponsors to of them in Los Angeles with the late Michel keep us going. Colombier. During these sessions, held both at / Before, After

May 2018 / 49 / Craft David Hadzis

What has been your most extreme restoration recordings available to the public by releasing challenge? ‘no-compromise’ Collectors Editions including Last October, I restored about 20 tapes from not only the best possible restoration and the late ‘50s to early ‘60s that had been in a mastering work, but also all their historical flood in a basement. Their AEG hubs were background through biographies, interviews, so rusted that they disintegrated like crackers! pictures and memorabilia. This process requires lots of patience and ‘soft One of our releases, the Sidney Bechet in experimenting’. One of these tapes had become Switzerland box set, which includes four CDs of so loose it wouldn’t stay flat on the tape head, rare or unreleased recordings preserved and resulting in a warbling sound. So I had to restored from original audio tapes and acetate transfer it holding it with my thumbs on both discs, plus a 216-page art book, has received two sides of the tape head to keep it still. In this field, national awards: The Best Reissue Award from

anything goes! It’s the result that counts. The the Académie du Jazz (Paris), and the Memoriav Millot Jean-Baptiste © Photo: golden rule is to always be gentle with the tapes! — Swiss Commission for UNESCO Award. What motivates copyright owners to bring material to you? Which digital format do you archive to? The Sidney Bechet box With the come-back of vinyl, I hear more and We only preserve audio in high resolution set sounds like a more about labels wishing to cut lacquers (minimum 24-bit 96kHz) using state-of-the-art labour of love! directly from tape. But this becomes converters and wiring (Prism Sound and Vovox That set took two years increasingly difficult since, over time, tapes get respectively). Most importantly, when it comes in the making. Not only dropouts, clicks, splices no longer stick and to audio tape, our policy is to always set the because of the need to be replaced, and there’s the dreaded tape head’s azimuth to the recorded content, to condition and the ‘sticky shed syndrome’ that requires baking the avoid phasing and get the most complete various types of media tapes before being able to play them. The frequency range. We don’t use any sort of involved (mainly tapes, baking process dries the tapes and temporarily computer-automated system running a series rarely in good condition, and 78rpm acetate restores the chemical properties of the binder of tape machines, and we never will. We aim to discs), but also because we had to source all the that holds the different oxide layers together. use technology to serve the music and not the information behind these recordings. Eventually, I’ve had to do that a lot, especially with Ampex other way round! it became a 216-page art book with four CDs, tapes from the ’70s and ’80s. Not to mention including a quite thorough essay in French and working with tapes so covered with mould I had What happens to the audio after restoration? English, as well as 250 restored photos and 140 to wear a surgical mask to avoid bronchitis, due With the support of patrons and sponsors, the facsimiles of rare memorabilia, most of them to the nature of that kind of fungus! United Music Foundation aims to make these restored and seen for the very first time. Subscribe!

REPORT REVIEWS REVEALED REPORT REVIEWS REVEALED REPORT REVIEWS REVEALED / you’re gonna pay / Sennheiser gets real / / letter from PyeongChang / Distressor in-the-box / production process Net neutrality: Ambeo VR: Shivoham — The Quest: Mics on ice: Arouser: The Voice Norway: / Eventide: audio creativity, since 1971 / Session guitarist: NI Electric Sunburst / Stephen W Tayler: mixing for Kate Bush / what next for Sky News? / Lynx lights it up 4 continents, 9 studios, 200 players / UMG revenue up 11% / Convolution evolution / movie sound design Disney-Fox: Aurora(n): Music industry grows: Acustica: Orient Express: / Harman Experience Centre: new solutions / Warm Audio: two flavours of ’47 / Recording in Chislehurst caves / so long to a silent past / / Mixing Hollywood blockbusters / refi ning its message of value / / building Miloco Audio preservation: Hi-Res C-100 gets high praise for Sony Abbey Road: Mastering: DPA CORE records Daytona Nick Young: / Prolight + Sound: through the lens / Spitfire Hans Zimmer Strings / John Lennon’s ‘home studio’

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50 / May 2018 I can access from the Mac’s finder. For the audio part, I routed the AES outputs to the inputs of the excellent Metric Halo ULN-8 sound card, which I use for mastering. So ergonomics are now guaranteed. A few days ago, I was asked to transfer a series of LP’s since the original tapes have been lost. One of them was heavily clicking! I then decided to use Cedar’s DeClickle module and — just like magic — all the clicks disappeared leaving me with a much cleaner audio file.

How can potential clients take advantage of your services? Further to the acquisition of our CEDAR system, the United Music Foundation has decided to offer its tape preservation and audio restoration services to all private and public tape owners, including independent labels, record companies, music publishers, radio stations, or even private owners of recorded music heritage. All profits arising from these services will be used by the / CEDAR Declip processing foundation to pursue its mission. The Cedar Cambridge IV system was How do you deal with the background noise How did you integrate CEDAR Cambridge IV acquired thanks to the support of Loterie from 78rpm and acetates? with your Mac computer, as CEDAR is based Romande, Fonds Mécénat SIG, a Geneva Before the United Music Foundation acquired on PC? private foundation, as well as Carigest SA, in the the CEDAR Cambridge IV system, even with During my training session at the CEDAR name of a generous donor, who have all access to a broad range of audio restoration Cambridge headquarters last December, I was understood the importance of making a system software and plugins, I had no other choice advised to use the free Microsoft Remote available for the first time in Switzerland. than to send our more complex restoration Desktop Software, which connected fine, but So far, we have noticed that preserving work to a company outside Switzerland. Last due to the lack of available screen resolution audio-visual heritage is much less supported December, during my visit to the CEDAR Audio options, all desktop elements, including icons financially than restoring paintings, sculptures headquarters in Cambridge, I was blown away and the Cedar software screens, were too small and buildings, etc. Even though it has been with some miracles that could be achieved. The or, when set to the right size, looked a bit blurred! recognised that the media that contains processes included in the CEDAR Cambridge So I looked for another solution based on the audio-visual heritage is much more fragile and IV are much more straightforward than same protocol, and found an app called Royal at risk, and has a much shorter lifespan. If the anything I have worked with so far, and I could TSX, which had a more complete set of screen owner of some vintage recordings wants to hear and apply satisfactory results right away. resolution settings, and allowed me to get the have them restored, the foundation will mainly Besides, it’s the only system that can really same display quality as the output of the Cedar act as a service provider with the necessary efficiently remove distortion and even correct Cambridge monitor card. However, the RDP expertise and equipment, unless that specific azimuth instabilities that happen when some protocol is extremely slow when it comes to project is being financed thanks to the support audio tapes get warped due to chemical transferring files from one computer to the of donors or sponsors. degradation. other. So I just created a LAN connection which www.unitedmusic.ch

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