AUDIO FOR POST, BROADCAST, RECORDING AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

v7.4 maY/JUNE 2008

The Trevor Horn interview

Le Voyageur is back on the road Getting studio foldback right Are downloads leading to a classical revival? Dominique Blanc-Francard and a room of his own Cornering feature fi lm dubbing at Moscow’s Pythagor

rEviEWS: Josephson C720 • Grace Design m802 • M-Audio ProFire 2626 Sonifex RM-4-C8 • Gyraf XIV • IK Multimedia ARC • Sonnox SuprEsser AUDIO FOR POST, BROADCAST, RECORDING AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION Designed to Adapt

V7.4 May/June 2008 ISSN 1477-4216 Like Nature, Genelec DSP series products have the advanced News & Analysis ability to adapt to their environment. To solve challenging acoustic issues associated with smaller working environments Genelec introduces the new SE (Small Environment) Craft DSP System. With it, the new SE7261A 10'' DSP subwoofer provides connectivity for up to eight 8130A digital bi-amp monitors.

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Reviews

Editorial Advertisement Sales PRODUCTION AND LAYOUT Editorial Director: Zenon Schoepe EUROPE: Clare Sturzaker, tel: +44 1342 717459 Dean Cook, Tel: +44 1444 410675 Email: [email protected] Magazine Production Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 1273 467579 Editorial office: PO Box 531, EUROPE: Lynn Neil, tel: +44 208 123 5040 Email: [email protected] Haywards Heath RH16 4WD, UK Email: [email protected] Contributors: Rob James, George Shilling, Jon Thornton, www.genelec.com Keith Holland, Keith Spencer-Allen, Neil Hillman, Nigel Jopson, US: Jeff Turner, tel: +1 415 455 8301 Andy Day, Philip Newell, Bob Katz, Dan Daley, John Watkinson Email: [email protected] AUDIO FOR POST, BROADCAST, RECORDING AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION

v7.4 maY/JUNE 2008 iSSN 1477-4216 News & Analysis 6 leader 16 Products New introductions and announcements. 6 News 74 Headroom Sales, contracts, appointments Notes on notes and praise for a leader. and biz bites.

Craft 14 le voyageur v1 mkii 50 Sweet Spot V1 is back on the road. We report on The owner of Ireland’s new international- nine months restoring one of the world’s grade studio explains the arrival process. biggest and best mobiles. 52 NFtS — educating for sound 38 trevor Horn Factoring in time for training in your He defi ned what it was to be a record busy and successful post sound career producer in the 80s and pioneered the can be useful. production methods in use today. 58 Getting foldback right 42 dominique Blanc-Francard Musicians who can’t hear themselves A leading player in French recording is a clearly can’t perform at their best. survivor and an inspiration. 62 ten 46 Cameron Craig US recording centres. As happy to grunge up a drum loop as record an orchestra, he’s won a Grammy 64 Pythagor for his efforts. We visit a Moscow post house that has cornered feature dubbing in Russia.

Business 54 Classical on an up 72 Your business Recent data suggests that downloads are Live Nation — the son of Clear Channel leading to a classical revival. has potential to do good or not.

Technology 68 lawo mc256 70 Slaying dragons The addition of it latest and smallest Air movement and wind instruments desk gives Lawo access to a new — Watkinson muses. broadcasting model.

Reviews 22 Grace m802 30 iK multimedia arC 24 Gyraf Gyratec Xiv 32 Sonifex rm-4-C8 26 Josephson C720 34 Sonnox oxford SuprEsser 28 m-audio ProFire 2626 36 Holophone H4 Supermini

Editorial advErtiSEmENt SalES ProdUCtioN aNd laYoUt Editorial director: Zenon Schoepe EUroPE: Clare Sturzaker, tel: +44 1342 717459 dean Cook, tel: +44 1444 410675 Email: [email protected] magazine Production Email: [email protected] tel: +44 1273 467579 Editorial offi ce: Po Box 531, EUroPE: lynn Neil, tel: +44 208 123 5040 Email: [email protected] Haywards Heath rH16 4Wd, UK Email: [email protected] Contributors: rob James, George Shilling, Jon thornton, Keith Holland, Keith Spencer-allen, Neil Hillman, Nigel Jopson, US: Jeff turner, tel: +1 415 455 8301 andy day, Philip Newell, Bob Katz, dan daley, John Watkinson Email: [email protected] newsnews

appointments PlaSa gains awarding talk of world body status EMERGING LTD, leader e c o n o m i c The Qualifications and Curriculum the sales, service and migrations, globalisation of trade and Authority (QCA) in the UK has announced support company the changing dynamic of employment that PLASA is the first trade association b e h i n d M e r g i n g is nothing new for us in the professional to become an awarding body in the Technologies in the UK, audio business. the sheer compact entertainment, conference, architectural has expanded its team nature of our customer base has meant and communications industries. by taking on Kevin that most manufacturers have been PLASA’s accreditation is part of an McCue as product specialist for Pyramix winning export awards for years and initiative designed to allow the national and VCube. He was formerly a dubbing have been looking carefully at what qualifications system to recognise the assistant at Twickenham Film Studios. they make and how they make it. i specific needs of SMEs and larger regard the Scotch Whisky industry as a organisations across the industry. It KMR AUDIO Ltd has announced an glowing example of how you can make means that PLASA now shares the same Audio for Education service with a a market your own and exploit and status as other awarding bodies, such dedicated brochure and department protect it and still retain strong quality as City & Guilds and Edexcel, and all within the company aimed at serving brand images alongside more populist future qualifications developed by the educational community. KMR have concoctions for livers like mine. it is the organisation can be submitted for taken on Gavin Beckwith to head up the the content that sells here, just as it National Accreditation. new department. is the content from all those budding mozarts and Zappas, who use the gear that our manufacturers make, that fi lls the vats and is drawn off and sold as the music we buy. But if you look at the lot of the modern music content creator today then it’s really not that brilliant. if you go back to the very beginning of the Six decades of musical man — let’s say 1948 for purposes of convenience — you arrive at a time when popular music hadn’t really caught on. People enjoyed their music but it was through the radio, • According to the organisers, the PLASA08 performance or from even singing around the piano; but they didn’t consume exhibition is on course to break all records it. if you leap forward in ten year jumps you see popularisation, an increasing with a worldwide visitor preregistration association with youth and fashion, and a commendable rise in recorded sales offer attracting ‘an unprecedented’ 7,000 alongside good live appearance money. By the 1970s it’s exceeding the excesses visitors to register online. More than 85% of Pompeii. after the new broom of the New Wave the live context began to of PLASA08’s exhibitor space had been wane and the model shifted to primary income through record release. the world confi rmed by February, a record fi gure in fi lled with musicians who spent their time making records they hoped would sell the event’s 31-year history. FOCAL PROFESSIONAL monitors are lots and who had little interest in playing live. the gradual downturn in recorded now being distributed in the UK by SCV sales that followed over the next couple of decades was inevitable because d&m Holdings buys London. consumers weren’t being offered a high value package and the structure wasn’t allen & Heath there to rebalance income for the musician across a variety of sources. D&M Holdings has bought UK console NAMM, THE US trade association You could no longer take a band on the road and build it up because you’d manufacturer Allen & Heath. of the international music products die trying. No one would have signed messers Zeppelin if they’d arrived from ‘The acquisition of Allen & Heath is industry, has established NAMM the late 1980s onwards — ironic really when you consider just how much current a strong complement to our Calrec and International, LLC, a new branch of live performance trades on the old days. they’re now selling nostalgia and it’s D&M Pro brands,’ said chairman and CEO the association that will service the not all good memories. Eric Evans. ‘This acquisition broadens our needs of Members abroad, which now and what of our content-providing musician today? He won’t get much of product offerings to our longstanding DJ make up 23% of NAMM’s membership. an advance, certainly no multi-album deal, but he has the prospect of gigging customer base and expands our business Betty Heywood, NAMM’s director in order to create a community that he can sell his mp3s and t-shirts to direct. if in the professional market into installed of international affairs, will oversee he’s really lucky he might record a song that is used in a fi lm or an ad. in 1948 he live sound.’ NAMM’s place of business in the UK in would have been an Honest Joe, who did what he loved and earned a crust for Founded in 1969, Allen & Heath late summer 2008. his art. today’s musicians don’t even have the 60s and 70s to look forward to. operates from its Cornwall manufacturing Zenon Schoepe facility and has more than 150 employees. SOLID STATE Logic in The Company will continue to be led by the US has appointed Glenn Rogers and its current management Katy Templeman- Lawo acquires majority shareholding in Innovason team. Holmes as broadcast Lawo has acquired a majority shareholding ‘We’re adding another dimension to sales manager in in French console manufacturer Innovason, our position in the professional audio the Western region. which terminates the receivership period marketplace with this acquisition,’ said S h e j o i n s f r o m for Innovason. Evans. ‘Allen & Heath is a strong brand in Euphonix where she oversaw sales and ‘Our investment in Innovason adds a new the professional live sound performance customer service for the broadcast, dimension to our activities at Lawo,’ said market and well suited to benefit from postproduction and music markets. Lawo CEO, Philipp Lawo. ‘The opportunity the D&M business platform. Like our to create new synergies will be to the other premium brands, Allen & Heath can APOGEE ELECTRONICS h a s benefi t of both companies. Innovason is continue to focus on innovation while D&M announced that its Duet 2-channel a strong brand in the live sound market, provides expanded global market reach audio interface will be sold in select and we are looking forward to taking it to Innovason’s Xavier Pion and and other support. We also see useful tie- Apple retail stores across the US. the next level.’ Gerard Malvot and Philipp Lawo. ins with Calrec, our live-to-air broadcast console brand, and Denon DJ.’

©2008 S2 Publications ltd. all rights S2 Publications ltd or the editor can S2 Publications ltd. SUBSCriBE reserved. No part of this publication be held responsible for its contents. registered in England and Wales. www.resolutionmag.com may be reproduced or transmitted in any the views expressed are those of the Company number: 4375084. annual Subscriptions: form or by any means without the prior contributors and not necessarily those of registered offi ce: UK £37.00, written consent of the Publishers. Great the Publishers. Equity House, 128-136 High Street, Europe £46.00, care is taken to ensure accuracy in the Printed by the Grange Press, Butts rd, Edgware, middlesex Ha8 7tt. rest of the World £53.00 preparation of this publication, but neither Southwick, West Sussex, BN42 4EJ.

4 resolution May/June 2008 news tC Group and Gibson merger fails appointments TC Group and Gibson Guitar have Hewitt makes tonelux Float discontinued discussions regarding a potential merger between the two companies. A statement said the decision followed an intensive effort by both parties to ‘consummate’ the deal within the targeted timeline, but a number of issues remained unresolved, and both Gibson and TC agreed that it was best that the merger proceedings not continue.

Prism buys Sadie SOURCE DISTRIBUTION in the UK has appointed Richard Powell as Northern Regional sales manager. He has spent the last four years covering the North of England, Scotland and Ireland for Tascam UK.

Ryan Hewitt recorded LA-based seven-piece band Flogging Molly at Grouse Lodge BOSCH COMMUNICATION Systems Studios, Ireland for the album Float and because they planned to track the whole has appointed Daniel Nix as VP of band on an ambitious schedule of one song a day, Hewitt brought along 32 channels sales — Americas for the Pro Audio of Tonelux MP1 mic pres and six channels of Tonelux EQ4P proportional-Q 4-band Group. He previously EQ. From this Tonelux input stage, Ryan ran signal through the console before its fi nal served as principal destination in Pro Tools|HD. of The Nix Agency, Prism Sound has acquired the business Hewitt said that the all-discrete Tonelux MP1 (recently re-released as the MP1a, with a southwest rep fi rm, and intellectual property rights of DAW the addition of an output level control) has a sound all its own. With the exception of and has been part of manufacturer SADiE, which went into guitar cabinets, for which there simply weren’t enough inputs, Hewitt ran everything the Bosch family for administration in February. The merging of — vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo, fi ddle, accordion, concertina, mandolin, the last fi ve years. the two businesses under the Prism Sound and drums — through the MP1s. name creates a stronger and more potent When the raw sound wasn’t quite what he wanted, and when mic choice or placement E R N E S T O player in the market for high-quality audio couldn’t correct the issue, Hewitt turned to his Tonelux EQ4Ps. ‘For subtle EQing, you MONTAÑEZ has been production tools, according to Prism Sound get a nice wide Q,’ Hewitt explained. ‘When you need to really dig in, you get a tight, appointed Telex sales directors Graham Boswell and Ian Dennis. surgical Q. The top shelving gives a beautiful sheen and the bottom is as thick as you manager for Mexico. ‘The company’s reputation for innovation like. Apart from all that, I think the most important thing about the EQ4P is that it does He previously worked and creativity is truly remarkable and exactly what I expect it to do.’ as sales manager Pro its digital audio workstations are rightly Hewitt mixed the album Float on a Neve 8078 at The Pass Studios in Los Angeles, with Audio for Sennheiser considered to be the best in the world,’ generous Tonelux EQ4P and TXC compressor inserts. Mexico. said Boswell. ‘SADiE has always insisted on the highest standards of engineering and UWE PEPPLER h a s this is refl ected in the quality of its product Neumann and DiGiCo make AES 42 happen been appointed product range and the tremendous loyalty of its A collaborative hard disk, with manager, Dynacord Pro customers. effort between optimal quality,’ Sound. ‘Prism Sound is financially secure and UK-based console added Neumann’s in an ideal position to take on the SADiE m a n u f a c t u r e r p r e s i d e n t o f brand,’ added Boswell. ‘By combining D i G i C o a n d m a r k e t i n g / two complementary product ranges with m i c r o p h o n e sales, Wolfgang overlapping customer bases, we are confi dent m a n u f a c t u r e r Fraissinet. ‘The that we can create a formidable and highly N e u m a n n h a s addition of the competitive business for the future.’ resulted in the DiGiCo console Prism Sound’s initial aim is to place direct connection (l-r) Pappas; DiGiCo’s James Gordon connection gives the existing SADiE product range on of Neumann’s and Dave Webster; Fraissinet. an added benefi t a secure business and financial footing. digital mics to DiGiCo desks via AES 42. to our customers by eliminating the need Existing customers will have full access to ‘Despite the development of the AES to use an external workstation, which makes DC AUDIO Products SL has taken over product support as before using the same 42 interface, there wasn’t any easy way to the process even easier.’ the distribution of Dynacord audio telephone numbers and email addresses directly connect Neumann digital series ‘Although the AES 42 protocol was systems within Spain. as previously and new orders are now once microphones to a console,’ explained developed in 2001, the interconnection with again being accepted by Prism Sound’s Sennheiser’s senior applications engineer, consoles has moved slowly,’ said DiGiCo’s U K - B A S E D sales offi ces in Cambridge, UK and New Mike Pappas. ‘Now, with DiGiCo directly marketing director, David Webster. ‘Back then, M A R Q U E E Jersey, USA. Deliveries will resume almost supporting AES 42, we have a digital path the use of digital consoles still wasn’t that wide I n s t a l l a t i o n s h a s immediately, although availability of certain from microphone to speaker.’ reaching. However, with their onslaught across a p p o i n t e d R o b products may be limited initially as a result ‘This ensures that the legendary Neumann the market, the desire to be able to stay digital Whitaker as senior of reduced stock levels during the period sound is captured unchanged on the user’s throughout the audio chain is much greater.’ project manager. of administration.

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May/June 2008 resolution 5 news

appointments discovery takes four audio-technica UK roadshow System 5-mCs

Audio-Technica UK is hitting the road this spring with a seven-city roadshow that takes SF MARKETING is the new intercom the brand directly to audio professionals and end users. product distributor for Telex in The ‘Road to Success’ tour is designed to allow visitors to attend a quality seminar Canada. and workshop programme as well as get hands-on experience with new Audio-Technica Discovery Communications in the US product in a specially designed mobile display vehicle. The vehicle will traverse the UK has purchased three 16-fader and one BBE SOUND has between 22 May and 10 June. Audio-Technica will not be exhibiting at PLASA 2008, so 8-fader System 5-MCs for its in-house opened a Tokyo offi ce the roadshow is an opportunity to experience the brand in the UK this year. postproduction facility, based in Silver and added three ‘Audio-Technica is known for its innovative approach in all aspects of business and Spring. The Discovery Production new members to its we wanted to do something fresh and exciting in terms of the way we present our Center, which is responsible for various global licensing sales products and know-how in 2008,’ said Audio-Technica senior UK marketing manager postproduction and media creation and marketing team. Harvey Roberts. ‘We’re also aware that our customers’ time is precious — by taking processes across multiple platform Heading the new Audio-Technica to our customers, we hope to make it as easy as possible for them to distribution mediums, specialises in sound offi ce is Takeo Kubo (pictured), general access all that we have to offer in terms of product innovation and advice.’ design, post mixing, and VO recording manager for the Japan region. Yasutaka Visitors to the free-to-attend roadshow will have the opportunity to hear seminars on a wide range of programme types and Toda, sales engineering senior manager, and take part in a Wireless Workshop. The dates are: 22-23 May, Lingfield Park applications. The System 5-MCs will be will oversee existing accounts and Racecourse and Golf Club, Lingfi eld, Surrey; 27-28 May, Tewin Bury Farm, near Welwyn, used for posting original programming, Katsuhiko Iida will be responsible for the Herts; 30 May, Cadbury Hotel and Country Club, Congresbury, Bristol; 2 June, The repackaging and language reversioning of company’s audio licensing development Belfry, Sutton Coldfi eld, West Midlands; 4-5 June, Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire; Discovery programmes. and providing customer support. 6 June, Oulton Hall, Leeds, West Yorkshire; 9-10 June, Hopetoun House, near ‘Even a simple renarration, in which we Edinburgh, West Lothian. just replace the narrator, might mandate PRO-BEL HAS announcing a number More information at www.audio-technica-roadshow.com the creation of 16 or more auxiliary of new appointments and internal configurations of the programme — so promotions in its EMEA sales any system we use has to be able to be department. Mark Gardner has been Tannoy fi ts Fox truck with Precision reconfigured quickly and easily,’ said appointed VP of sales for EMEA. He is Mark Edmondson, manager of audio returning to Pro-Bel after a period as postproduction services for Discovery. international sales director at QuStream. ‘The Euphonix System 5-MC will allow us Malcolm Butler has been promoted to to take advantage of all the workstation regional business manager for the UK offerings available — Logic, Nuendo, etc. and Ireland. Butler is a Pro-Bel veteran, as well as our workhorse Pro Tools systems having originally joined the company — allowing us to create an environment in 1984. Scott Barber has joined as a in which the rerecording mixer or sound senior account manager for the UK. designer can use any platform.’ Barber was most recently at Sony. Anthony Harries joins from Miranda, France 3 goes SoundField where he was QA Team Leader, and is for Hd internal sales co-ordinator. Sarah Dover has been promoted to sales office manager. She came to Pro-Bel with the acquisition of Vistek, where she was in charge of sales administration. For its NFL and NASCAR coverage, FOX so the housing is quite a bit deeper to Sports conducts on-site audio/video accommodate the electronics.’ Tannoy twin SHURE DISTRIBUTION UK has been production from a multitruck unit provided driver Arenas were selected as the back left appointed exclusive representative by Game Creek Video. The unit consists of and right speakers. for Primacoustics acoustic treatment four mobile production trucks that travel to ‘I wanted all of my 5.1 speakers to have in the UK. NFL stadia in the autumn and racetracks in the dual concentric driver in them,’ Aldous the spring, serving as audio headquarters for continued. ‘The Arenas have those drivers A U R A L E X regular season coverage and the Super Bowl and are small enough to fi t into my control A C O U S T I C S h a s and NASCAR’s Daytona 500 broadcasts. room, but also provide great sound. Using France 3 broadcast engineer Christian appointed Tim Martin FOX Sports audio consultant/senior mixer, Tannoy speakers, I can mix and match any Mouttet. as director of sales. He Fred Aldous, chose Tannoy speakers for all size dual concentric speaker and still have French state TV channel France 3 has most recently served the unit’s monitoring environments. a consistent soundfi eld.’ begun using SoundField systems, as project manager at ‘Space was my biggest issue,’ said In addition to the main audio control room, comprising SPS422B microphones and Celerant. Aldous. ‘I wanted a good nearfi eld monitor the FOX Sports mobile production unit also SP451 processors, to provide surround for my main left and right speakers, so I features an audio sub-mix environment, with audio for HD sports broadcasting. At BBC WORLDWIDE, ITV and Channel chose the Tannoy Precision 8Ds. But I also a set of Precision 6Ds and Arenas, and the present, all of France’s state broadcast 4 have appointed Ashley Highfi eld as wanted surround monitoring, so Tannoy ‘racer radio sub-mix’ control area, which transmissions are in standard defi nition, CEO of Kangaroo, the working title for built me a customised Precision 6D centre also features Precision 6Ds. The FX HD but the SoundField systems are now the new video on-demand service set speaker. The housing for the 6D driver Production System is outfi tted with 17 Sony installed in several of France 3’s OB to launch in the UK in 2008 that will be and electronics needed to be 12-inches x HDC cameras, ten EVS XT2 servers and vehicles, ready for the HD sports owned by the three broadcasters. 10-inches though depth was not an issue, Calrec Alpha Bluefi n and Sigma consoles. coverage that France 3 will be offering in the future.

6 resolution May/June 2008 To create a masterpiece, sometimes it only takes a simple tool.

mc²56 – Performance, pure and simple. A reduced control surface with maximum performance from the system core – these advantages of the latest mixing console from Lawo will really impress you. With the mc²56, not only do you benefi t from the well-known highlights of the mc² family – powerful HD core, absolute reliability and innovative features – you also benefi t from the console’s intuitive user guidance system, which guarantees unprecedented ease of use. The worldwide success of mc² quality, paired with groundbreaking functionality – just two of the features that make an mc²56 the perfect tool Experience the mc²56 live at the AES 2008: AES Amsterdam, 17th - 20th May, Hall 10, Booth 1817 for daily broadcasting. For further information visit www.lawo.de

Lawo AG | Rastatt/Germany news

mK 5235/SKm 5200 combo appointments is Faustino’s idol metropolis installs aE22s As an engineer, Randy Faustino toured BEYERDYNAMIC IN North America with acts like Frank Sinatra, the US has appointed Anita Baker, and Jeffrey Osborne before D a n a F r o u l a a s working at Osborne’s studio, Wings West, market development and later Echo Recording. With the help manager — Pro Audio. of Mark King, Faustino then turned his experience to the world of television sound and worked on many shows. In 2007, he Anthony Zammit has formed Creative Sound Solutions with King been appointed as and Gerald ‘Butch’ McKarge to provide sales and marketing high-calibre music mixing for television. support specialist The company has since mixed American — Pro Audio. Idol and a host of Idol-inspired shows, including The Next Great American Band, FOLLOWING THE Rock Star, and MTV’s Rock The Cradle. recent organisational At Faustino’s request, all American changes at Yamaha Idol contestants use the Sennheiser MK Commercial Audio 5235/SKM 5200 combo and when a wired that saw Nick Cook vocal mic is required he prefers the e 935 take up the role of dynamic. ‘What I really like about the MD European marketing 5235 dynamic capsule in combination with director and Karl Christmas become London’s Mertropolis Studios has installed Acoustic Energy AE22 nearfi eld monitors in the SKM 5200 transmitter is its immediate deputy general manager for the UK its tracking and mix studios A, B and E. presence and warmth, even without any operation, the company has appointed ‘The AE22 has already proven to be a popular choice with many of our clients, many EQ,’ explains Faustino. ‘It ends up being Gianni Abruzzese as CA sales choosing to use it over the NS10s,’ said Metropolis engineer Matt Lawrence (Resolution a lot less work than comparable models manager. V2.3). ‘It offers even better analytical ability than the NS10 while at the same time having from other manufacturers. When we have signifi cantly extended low frequency bandwidth and being able to play louder without to use other mics, because of artists’ GENCOM TECHNOLOGY will serve distortion or compression. Client feedback has been extremely positive.’ contractual obligations, we always end up as a Linear Acoustic dealer for New The AE22s at Metropolis are passive units driven by Bryston amplification. A using more EQ than we normally do with Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, bi-amplifi ed active version of the AE22 is also available. The AE22 has been specifi cally the MD 5235. and South Africa. designed to excel in time-domain, distortion and thermal compression parameters. ‘The same is true of the wired e 935 that I’m using on backup singers and as my own LINEAR ACOUSTIC talkback,’ he continued. ‘Without doing has promoted Erik Capturing Sparro with UA anything, the e 935 has better high-end Booth to director of and tighter low-end.’ engineering. He was For instruments he uses e 906 dynamic previously a senior cardioids on guitar cabs, and a collection of hardware engineer. e 604s on toms, e 602 II on kick, and e 914s for hi-hats and overheads. When doing TERRATEC AXON Technologies has overdubs or group prerecords, Faustino appointed the PB Music Group as its uses a pair of Neumann TLM 49s. distributor in Germany, Benelux and Denmark. tCt happens with aid of Focusrite S Y S T E M S The Teenage Cancer I N T E G R A T I O N Trust’s annual one- specialist Broadcast w e e k m u s i c a n d N e t w o r k s h a s comedy extravaganza appointed Jon Flay as at the Royal Albert Hall, general manager. Flay, London has become who has previously one of the most high- worked for Dell and BP Marine, joins profile fundraisers of the company from PBDS. the music calendar with artists such as Muse, Paul Weller, The Fratellis, Madness and The Who taking part. UK producer Paul Epworth has produced starts in this room,’ he said. ‘The quality Recording and mixing albums for Bloc Party, The Futureheads, of the UAD plug-ins means I can get of the event is handled The Rakes, Maximo Park, Babyshambles professional-sounding mixes from my by Matt Hay and Gareth and Kate Nash’s debut album and has laptop. I just wish you could chain these Johnson who employed KLOTZ DIGITAL Asia Pacific has now turned his attention to Sam Sparro’s things together –- I’d buy another four a lot of Focusrite gear appointed Wincomn Technology album. Much of his output has come from straight away. with recording engineer Matt relying on a Development as its distributor for all his small studio near London’s Paddington ‘The 1176 is such a standard piece of fl ightcase of eight Focusrite OctoPres. Varizone Performance-Line and VAB- where his ‘control room’ consists of an kit, so I checked out the UA 6176 and I ‘I record everything at the shows,’ he Line products in China. Apple MacBook hooked up to a Universal thought: UA mic amp, UA compressor, one said. ‘The audio is then backed up onto Audio UAD-Xpander, Yamaha NS-10M unit — boom — sounds amazing. I got the our hard drives before Gareth takes it away KLOTZ DIGITAL has appointed and Quested monitors, and a small rack 6176 about nine months ago, and I use it and mixes it at his studio. Those OctoPres Technical Audio Group (TAG) as that includes a Universal Audio 6176 on everything. It does a particular job for have been great, really clean, very easy to exclusive Australian distributor for its channel strip. me, and the Røde mic [Classic II] is always use. But it’s not just the sound — I also love Varizone range of products. ‘Nearly everything I do at the moment plugged in to it.’ the soft limiter on them, which really keeps those levels from going over.’

8 resolution May/June 2008 SSM_Auratus_WVorteil_07:SSM_Anzeigen 27.03.2008 17:03 Uhr Seite 1 Kubitza | Lieck | Renner

A definitive display of competitive edge

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Sonnox plugs shine Biz Bites on daryl webcast S T R E A M I N G WSdG creates ‘invisible’ wall Grammy award-winning engineer/producer/ V I D E O a n d mixer Pete Moshay, who has worked with music across the Average White Band, Ian Hunter, Barbra Internet, an IPTV Streisand, and Hall & Oates, is a confi rmed network, or a Sonnox plug-in fan. mobile handset One of Moshay’s current projects is will generate recording and mixing Live From Daryl $ 7 0 b n i n Hall’s house for a monthly webcast. ‘The network-derived show features Hall and his special guests and content- performing in the “Great Room” of his derived revenue upstate NY house,’ explains Moshay. ‘It’s over the next made from Hemlock and hard pine, and six years, writes it has an amazingly distinctive sound. The Nigel Jopson. show is pretty laid back, with Daryl doing According to a new market research classic Hall & Oates material, songs by other study from Insight Research Corporation, artists, anything that strikes his fancy.’ the market will grow at a rate of Moshay captures Hall’s performances 29% annually, driven by on-demand The wall separating musicians from producers with a mobile hard disk recorder, using a audio, video, and the accompanying and engineers was rendered largely invisible combination of stage and studio mics. He advertising revenue. ‘Questions at Diante do Trono Studio in Brazil through a then transfers the material into Pro Tools for surrounding consumers’ willingness to design by Walters-Storyk Design Group who fi nal mixing and editing. New shows, which pay for content have been dispelled by installed a glass wall. Renato Cipriano, head are available online, are ready to roll by satellite radio and iTunes,’ states Robert of the WSDG Brazilian offi ce, said that a clear the 15th of every month. Moshay uses the Rosenberg, Insight Research president. sight line between the live and control rooms Sonnox Limiter on the production. ‘It’s great ‘The forecasts that we present are was a critical design goal for the new complex. Diante do Trono is the 50-member gospel for providing extra density for tracks,’ he said. conservative and in line with current band of Batista da Lagoinha, one of Brazil’s largest worship ministries. In addition to ‘I’ll ease it across the bus mix, very gently, and performance. If, however, per-stream attracting huge crowds to stadium-level venues, the group has recorded 25 albums and open it up with a bit of the Enhance feature. costs drop faster than anticipated, we sold more than 3 million CDs since its formation in 1997. It’s an incredibly musical tool and the perfect have quicker acceptance of IPTV, or The ground fl oor of the complex has a 600sq.ft live room (with ceiling level windows touch at the end of a chain.’ improvements in 3G delivery take place facing the tropical sky), a 350sq.ft 5.1 control room with two isobooths, and an equipment Moshay finds the SuprEsser’s visual faster than expected, it could blow the room. Studio B on the 2nd fl oor features a 600sq.ft live room/control room/edit room feedback exceptionally helpful. ‘You get doors off of our forecasts, propelling tracking facility and a video edit suite for music video projects. instant feedback watching the FFT,’ he said. this industry into explosive growth,’ WSDG architect/acousticians John Storyk and Renato Cipriano developed variable ‘If you want to get right to that offending Rosenberg enthuses. A key point of acoustic panels, including motorised units installed in the ceiling that can be operated 6kHz peak, you can get in there and nail it. interest for from the control room. The studio’s most striking design is the expansive forward-looking I’ve been de-essing my whole career, and c o n t e n t panoramic glass wall separating the live and control rooms. The three main Genelec 1032 basically working by ear. But no matter how producers is 5.1 surround speakers are housed in the glass via a baffl ed confi guration. Positioned good you may be, the ability to actually see the cost of over the equipment rack, they establish an unobstructed view between the rooms. The what’s going on lets you zero in and do the bandwidth installation meets all ITU standards. fi x immediately.’ over wired ‘The challenge of fl oating the main monitors within a panoramic front viewing glass connections: we have already seen wall in an acoustically acceptable confi guration has been a long-time design goal,’ said audient leaps into a lot of grumbling from UK Internet Storyk. ‘In 2004 I was a member of the acoustic team for Jazz At Lincoln Center. The Salmon Grove service providers (ISPs) concerning the 500-seat Allen Room performance venue there features a 50ft high by 90ft long glass unexpected success of the BBC’s new wall overlooking NY’s Central Park directly behind the stage. The experience we gained iPlayer. Having marketed all-you-can- from that project was extremely benefi cial in helping us realise Diante Do Trono.’ eat broadband services to customers, there have been ludicrous claims from ISPs that the Beeb should in some way underwrite the network overhead of iPlayer’s IPTV service. It would seem prudent for media owners to develop When setting up a music production facility new revenue sharing strategies for at Hull University, technical engineer Michael tackling this possible blockage in the Fletcher had to build a studio that catered pipe to the consumer. If they don’t, for the professional market but was also then ISPs will undoubtedly institute equipped to teach music undergraduates. covert bandwidth-throttling, which will ‘We decided that these criteria were best spoil the online media experience for met through the combination of a high consumers and limit take-up. quality inline analogue console, and a digital Philips Content audio workstation with a control surface. This Identification is the combination which initially attracted i n t r o d u c e d us to the Audient ACS8024,’ he said. ‘It transactional watermarking and made perfect sense to us to have access live fingerprint registration with the to a Command 8 for our Pro Tools rig in the Mediahedge video fingerprinting mix position.’ system at the NAB show in Las Located on the Hull Campus of the Vegas. Transactional University, Salmon Grove Studios form watermarking — inserting part of the teaching resources for all music a serial number or the With facilities in London and New York, Goldcrest Post has recently added to its London degrees. The University’s Centre for Lifelong identity of the device that operation with The Television Studio, a surround sound television mixing suite based Learning offers short courses in the studio, is downloading the media around a 32-fader Icon D-Control with Pro Tools HD3, supplied by Scrub. The addition and with its experienced engineer and content — is gaining in takes the studio count at Goldcrest London to fi ve surround rooms, complementing the talented session musicians it doubles up as full service High Defi nition and 2K picture and sound facilities in New York. a commercial music production facility.

10 resolution May/June 2008 Tonelux 0508 FP.indd 1 29/4/08 11:10:30 news

Biz Bites Herman’s motown approach Paul Herman has popularity as an alternative to Digital Sonacom installs four Xynergis co-written with Rights Management (DRM). Philips also D i d o , N a t a s h a announced transactional watermarking Bedingfield and for music files. Its technology inserts Mint Royale and has watermarks on the server side (before a mic cupboard full user download), meaning client devices of SE 3As (stereo do not need special players or plug-ins. pair), Reflexion Philips said major labels have expressed Filters, Z5600a, Gemini, and SE mic stands great interest, but did not announce and pop shields. any specific online music retailers ‘The Refl exion Filter is just a great asset that plan to use it. It’s easy to forget for any vocal performance — even when that content tracking was once just as recorded in a vocal booth,’ he explains. important as device or user-tethering ‘It gives me an even more neutral starting when DRM systems were fi rst planned. point for what I’m recording. And as a result The auditing of who is playing what we now use it on all our lead vocals. over which pipe is going to become French postproduction specialist Sonacom has transformed its facility in Neuilly sur ‘We have a simple philosophy when increasingly important — even if Seine by installing Fairlight Xynergi systems in each of its four HD 5.1 surround sound it comes to recording. I guess it’s pretty production pros have already given up studios. Alongside its four Xynergis with Pyxis SD/HD Video, Sonacom has also installed much the same philosophy they used for on the idea of royalties — the issue is six Xynergi 12-fader sidecars with metering units, fi ve SX-48 MADI interfaces and a those old Motown classics, which is to still very important for songwriters, label centralised AudioBase3, which is localised on two 16Tb redundant servers. The facility try to write great songs, record them live owners and TV channels. started initially with an MFX3 before upgrading to a Dream Station powered by QDC. with fantastic musicians — no click track ‘Fairlight has always offered the fastest workstation on the market and we’ve had very good — through fantastic equipment. As long experiences with its products,’ said Dominique Perrin, CEO of Sonacom. ‘By combining as you do all that in great sounding rooms Xynergi with Fairlight’s Crystal Core Digital media engine, we now have all the tools we need then you’ll be sure to guarantee two things for high-end audio for video production in all widely used surround formats. — big smiles on everyone’s faces and great ‘We have an intense workload, therefore it is very important that we use every minute results every time.’ of studio time productively,’ he said. ‘When clients arrive they want to know exactly how long their project will take — and the sooner we can complete the project, the happier Jutland avenue calls on Kmr IBM has demonstrated a new type they are. Installing Xynergi systems into each of our studios has already enabled us to of digital storage that would enable speed up our workfl ow, and as we become increasingly familiar with the features offered a media player to store half a million by Crystal Core and Xynergi we are fi nding even more ways of working faster.’ songs — or 3,500 movies — and be economical to produce. ‘Racetrack’ memory uses the spin of an electron LiveWire is mobile with C200 to store data and can operate far faster than regular hard drives. Like fl ash memory there’s no moving parts, LA-based producer Jay Kyon has meaning battery life is extended and assembled a new studio, Jutland Avenue, no skipping or damage from physical in London’s Battersea through KMR Audio. bumps. Unlike Flash, Racetrack can The studio is an extension of the ‘lifestyle’ write data extremely quickly, and does market that Jay has been used to servicing not have the ‘wear out’ phenomenon though his LA Roadstarr Specialists custom that means Flash memory devices can car bodyshop. ‘I am interested in music only be used a few tens of thousand as a lifestyle and the studio is designed times before they die. The technology to provide the sort of facility that can could be in devices within a decade. be used any time of the day or night by Motley Crue is people wanting to make music when the releasing its latest desire takes them,’ he explained. ‘It is not single ‘Saints of just for our own record company but is a Los Angeles’ as commercial facility open to anyone.’ a downloadable LiveWire Remote Recorders recently installed snapshot recall of all the parameters. We Jay sourced a large amount of panelling p l a y a b l e t r a c k a 48-channel SSL C200 HD console and do a lot of shows like Virgin Fest where and acoustic treatment from the auctioning through the Rock Band store. Gamers two SSL C-SB Stageboxes into its 32-foot there are 10 or 12 bands performing and of Eden Studios, which also provided the can buy the track for $1 via the Xbox Live mobile truck. The truck records and supplies having to reset everything between bands Pro Tools system and some of the outboard. Marketplace, and via the PlayStationStore live stereo and 5.1 mixes for broadcast manually, is a real pain, not to mention KMR Audio supplied an SSL AWS900+ and for the PS3. It is the fi rst time a new single productions throughout North America. risky,’ he adds. ‘Because the microphone KRK main monitoring together with AKG has been released for purchase on a game ‘In the last year, every other call we preamps are on stage, we’re running cables 414B and Neumann U87 vocal mics. The platform in advance of its street date. received would ask if we had 5.1 surround 500 feet, 850 or 1000 feet if we’re doing studio has already attracted the attention abilities,’ said LiveWire owner Doug a stadium gig. Since we’ve got Neutrik of Hip hop artist Akon and catered for pop, McClement. ‘It’s really become a factor for fibre optic snakes running from the SSL indie rock and dance acts. Showtime video production companies; if you are Stageboxes back to the truck, there’s no AES Europe, Amsterdam .. 17-20 May going to hire an HD video truck, you need signal loss. That’s a major thing for us duffy sings 5051 BroadcastAsia, Singapore ....17-20 June an audio truck that can work in 5.1. With because you need that added reliability Singer Duffy has been using the TL Audio Plasa, London ...... 7-10 September this console, working in 5.1 is seamless, it’s when recording live.’ 5051 tube voice processor on her vocal for IBC, Amsterdam ...12-16 September part of the console’s architecture.’ • Korean Broadcasting System’s ‘Studio her UK, US and European tour. AES US, San Francisco ..3-5 October Within days of the installation, LiveWire 1625’ has installed an SSL Duality with ‘She needed something to warm up her Broadcast India, Mumbai ...... 17-19 October was on the road recording Alanis Morissette integrated patch bay and redundant power vocals and give a top sound, plus Duffy is SBES, Birmingham .... 5-6 November for an MTV Canada broadcast and a live supply. KBS Studio 1625, part of the KBS very particular about her on-stage sound,’ Tonmeistertagung, recording of Canadians Blue Rodeo at Group, is responsible for recording and said Duffy’s monitor engineer Nikoma. ‘It Leipzig ...... 13-16 November Massey Hall in Toronto. mixing material for KBS music, broadcasting needed to be warm, smooth and rich all InterBEE, Tokyo .... 19-21 November ‘Another thing that we needed was and postproduction projects. at the same time, TL Audio seemed the obvious choice for me.’

12 resolution May/June 2008

facility

right rear axle, fi remen, drilled holes in the panel work (and, consequently, control room walls), and poured Le Voyager V1 mkII lots of fi re-retardant foam and water into them. As a result, the console was saturated and defi nitely 12th June 2007: the Voyageur V1 mobile studio is on fi re on a Spanish motorway. 13th April beyond repair. The four computer screens, situated between the front speakers, melted with the heat. 2008: V1 is back on the road, with a brand new console and an improved digital architecture, The direct radiating loudspeakers received their lot of water too, and the hardwood fl oor was destroyed. to record a French show at Paris Zénith. FRANCK ERNOULD reports on nine months of hard Happily, no one was injured in the fi re. work to bring one of the world’s biggest and best mobile studios back to life. Most of the costly analogue outboard gear, installed in foldable FX racks behind the sound engineer position, was not touched by the water and neither speakers and the LEDE control room is 6m long, 4m was the machine room, situated in front of the lorry, wide: the sound engineer sits with his back to the because it was protected by its closed door. However, trailer’s tractor. smoke and dirt got everywhere but when the V1 crew The console itself is swivel-mounted: it is came to visit the lorry a few days after the fi re, they longitudinally oriented for transportation but is used realised that it could all be cleaned. The hydraulic transversally when the extensions are out (a hydraulic system was destroyed, but the main question was: system powers the extensions, and moves the front ‘Is the trailer structure damaged by the heat?’ V1’s wall, which is the trailer’s rear, 70cm back). French maker Toutenkamion said it could manage with it. acoustician Christian Malcurt fi ne-tuned the room’s Insurance experts were called and agreed to repair the acoustics, which is said to be fl at down to 15Hz. The trailer and to replace its equipment. ‘We certainly had he original Le Voyageur mobile studio was outboard racks are full with Lexicon, TC, GML, and to inject some money,’ says Laurent Israel-Alexandre, built in 1980 by the Château d’Hérouville Millennia gear. Le Voyageur’s technical manager, ‘but it was possible team in a small Mercedes truck. It then The machine room is located at the front of the to put the V1 back on the map, with a new console, changed owners; Voyageur 2 and Voyageur trailer. At the time of the original build the recorders and a modifi ed audio architecture, but reusing many T3 were built in the 1980s and were seen in France were PCM-3348s, and the room hosts the amps, the of its parts.’ and in Europe. The company was fi nally bought in patches, the console’s power supply, and ancillary When the V1 was back from Spain at the end 1992 by Dispatch (a major French SR audio supplier equipment. V1’s total budget was around £800k in of September, Toutenkamion workers had replaced and renter, and a member of Dushow Group). Its new 1999 — that was never heard of in France at the the rear axles, cut out several square meters of the owners then began to think about building a really time, and since, for an audio-only truck! lorry’s burnt plastic panel work and replaced them huge mobile studio, fully digital and 5.1-compatible, V1 had a rich and varied life: it was used to capture with new elements. They completely dismantled the with a custom monitoring system, perfectly tuned to national and international concerts, festivals, DVDs, trailer, including its two lateral extensions, examined the truck’s acoustics. and even on-location records (like William Sheller’s and checked every aspect and then built it again. As a result, Voyageur V1 was born in July 1999. Les Machines Absurdes, mostly produced in a La Everybody was happy to be able to re-use most of Among V1’s main designers are French sound Baule mansion with the V1, mixing and mastering the parts, after cleaning and ‘decontaminating’ them. engineer Yves Jaget, who came with the fi nal drafts, by Jaget himself included!). It was also used as Rockwool had to be changed, but wooden acoustic and Dispatch’s specialist in monitoring systems a deluxe OB van, praised for its fl exibility and its parts were put back in place after careful cleaning conception and tuning Marc de Fouquières. It is a 5.1 capabilities. Even if fees were high, it had no and sanding. Great care was taken to put things back 30-ton lorry with powered lateral extensions (1m equivalent in Europe, and was often out and about. exactly where they were, as the original V1’s acoustics width each), a 96-channel, 144-input SSL Axiom For example, it was to be used to broadcast the MTV were praised by every user of the mobile studio. MT, and a proprietary 5.1 tri-amplifi ed monitoring Awards in Madrid, but travelling there on that fateful All the wiring had to be re-done, in a more modern system built in the front wall with TAD horn-loaded day in June 2007, it almost disappeared in fl ames. way. ‘With the Axiom MT, we had more than a tweeters. Surround channels are small powered Meyer To kill the fi re, which was started on the lorry’s dozen analogue multipoint connectors and a patch

14 resolution May/June 2008 facility integrated in the console,’ says V1’s project manager Jérôme Blondel. ‘So there was a lot of multicore wiring involved. Using a modern digital console allowed us to simplify the wiring.’ As the trailer only came back to Le Voyageur headquarters in late February, most of the wiring had been done and tested in advance. As the SSL Axiom MT had given total satisfaction to V1 crew, freelance sound engineers and customers, it was natural for the V1 team to go for a digital SSL console again. They chose a 48-fader C200. ‘It can handle 96 mic inputs, and 126 channels, even in 96kHz!’ says Jérôme. As a matter of fact, according to Laurent Israel-Alexandre, the new V1 is the only 5.1 96kHz/96-channel sound truck in the world. As the C200 is less deep than the Axiom MT, there is more space in front of the speakers, and the control room seems even bigger now than before. Two SSL CSB 48-channel stageboxes have been bought and employ military-spec multimode optic fi bre and around the console the wiring has changed. There are no AES-EBU multicores and MADI fi bre connects the console with the rest of the audio Yves Jaget (right) and Jérôme Blondel. world. Several analogue audio cables run monitoring together with VGA and Cat5 and recordings are In the machine room, everything seems familiar, improved! We all missed the V1 during all this time,’ made on two PowerMacs running Pro Tools HD, but there are some small changes here too. The C200 says Jérôme. ‘We had to run complex operations with with 96 tracks each. V1 has its own network with power supply takes up less space than the Axiom our V2 truck, which has still an analogue architecture. Wi-Fi capabilities, and every computer can be used MT’s, and there are now four SSL X-Logic MADI We always managed to do what we were asked for, from almost everywhere, with keyboard/mouse and interfaces. Master digital clock is a Mutec iClock; two but the fi rst time I could just roll out our two fi bres with monitor switching (there’s a PC in the machine room, SYNC I/O interfaces are present for the Pro Tools rig, the V1 and have 96 audio channels up and running in used for ancillary tasks). and original Crown Studio Reference I and II (three no time on the console, it was such a relief.’ The outboard rack changed only slightly. Most of the of each) are now complemented by a Lab Gruppen The V1 will be used at the beginning of May for a boxes were cleaned, and some gained a very personal power amplifi er for the rear channels. live 5.1 broadcast to Japan of a concert taking place at ‘bronze’ fi nish in the operation (like the Millennia). An Most importantly, the monitoring system is now Le Zénith. Record companies probably can’t afford the Eventide H3000SE and a TC 2290 had to be replaced, managed by two Dolby Lake digital processors, V1 as much as they could in 1999, but the truck’s 5.1 but every other module is back after cleaning, including working in 96kHz mode. ‘They replace BSS capabilities will be of great appeal to HD broadcasts. four vintage dbx 902 de-essers and the analogue patch Omnidrives, and they allow us to reach a new level ‘We just began to communicate about the new V1, was moved to the machine room. of quality in terms of transparency and tuning,’ says and it seems customers will be present and willing The monitoring system stayed basically the same Jérôme. Computers and the console have separate to hire it. There’s no equivalent in France, or even in for the LCR. Some loudspeakers were replaced with uninterruptible power supplies and there are also Europe. And when Bob Clearmountain visited us, he identical models — the four 18-inch direct radiation some DAT machines and CD burners and two Pro told us that even in the USA, there’s no truck like the boomers for the .1 have been changed, as Marc de Tools operators can now work easily in the space V1 — some are as powerful, but smaller, with just one Fouquières had found alternatives. The most apparent formerly occupied by the 3348s. extension, for example.’ change took place at the rear where the small powered After nine month’s absence, V1’s aura is intact. A real 5.1 all-digital studio, on wheels: the original Meyer speakers were replaced by a horn and four PHL V1 mkII was inaugurated by Yves Jaget (as had been concept is still valid, but improved. ■ loudspeakers, directly integrated into the acoustical V1 mkI), to record a Sol en Si show (a major musical walls. ‘This is Marc’s idea,’ says Laurent. ‘One of charity event involving great French artists). ‘Yves Contact the loudspeakers is used for the mid-range, the other was delighted to be back in V1, he designed the lE voYaGEUr, FraNCE: three for the bass.’ original version, and found that after the fi re, it had Website: www.levoyageur.com

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May/June 2008 resolution 15 gear

rNdigital d1 8-track 788t

D1 is a graphic Products dynamics processor based on RNDigital Equipment introductions and announcements. Dynam-izer Zone A u d i o L e v e l technology. D1 was dangerous daC-St developed to make Sound Devices’ 788T 8-track recorder is designed for RNDigital’s dynamics multitrack on-location productions and features a signifi cant control technology expansion of input and output capability with eight full- more intuitive. The featured mic inputs. In a stainless-steel and aluminium graphic elements chassis weighing less than 4lbs and roughly the size of of the GUI now a hardback, the 788T accommodates individual controls represent the signal fl ow from left to right. and connectors for each of its eight inputs, plus numerous ‘We came to realise that many users fi nd it diffi cult to additional I-O and data connections. Dangerous Music is shipping the DAC-ST digital convertor grasp the concept and therefore the benefits that are The 788T comes equipped with a 160Gb 2.5-inch internal option for the Monitor ST controller. The DAC-ST is the fi rst provided by Dynam-izer,’ said Reinhold Probst CEO and drive and, additionally, CompactFlash cards with UDMA available option in the line for the new Additional Switching owner of RNDigital. ‘I came to the conclusion that Dynam- support and external FireWire mass storage volumes can System (ASS) one-rack space expander that can house up izer may be too advanced to serve as an introduction.’ be used. All three storage mediums can be selected for to two banks of two cards each, adding four additional D1 is not a light version of Dynam-izer and has all the simultaneous, redundant recording. functions switchable directly from the ST-SR remote. functions required to perform most dynamics control Each of the eight input controls has a corresponding The four rear-panel digital inputs on the DAC-ST accept tasks. If further options are needed, presets saved by D1 tri-colour circular LED, making level adjustments simple. AES or SPDIF formats and have active Thru outputs for can be imported into Dynam-izer. It has also introduced The 788T’s Input Control Toggle allows for quick access to routing these input signals to other devices. a new concept called Zone Gain Control that controls common settings such as input type, limiter engagement, The Additional Switching System is sold as a chassis/power what happens with audio levels ‘outside’ of the level zone high-pass fi lter activation, and phantom powering. Its LCD supply set with one or two user-selected options, each option defi ned by D1, in many cases eliminating the need for display is viewable in all lighting conditions. having a specifi c price. Users can purchase a single option makeup gain and/or gating. As with the 702T and 744Ts timecode recorders, the 788T along with a chassis, then purchase a second option later and RNDigital plug-ins will now be available for electronic has a high-performance, full-featured timecode generator. self-install that card; or purchase a chassis with two options download only. Retail box versions will no longer be available. It is also equipped with selectable Word clock sync source, already installed. Several other options are in the works www.rogernicholsdigital.com including numerous video sync sources. The 788T is including the DAC-SR, a 6-channel D-AC for surround setups, powered by 7.2V Li-ion batteries or external DC (10-18V) and a companion to the Monitor SR expansion. and offers an on-board Li-ion battery charger. www.dangerousmusic.com mKH 800 twin www.sounddevices.com Sennheiser’s MKH 800 Twin is based on the MKH 800 RF condenser microphone and is a Grace design m101 preamp dual-capsule microphone that provides two dtrS tape from HHB separate sound signals at the microphone output. This means that the pick-up pattern does not have to be set at the microphone before the recording but can be remotely fi ne-tuned and corrected at the mixing console under Grace Design is shipping the m101 preamp as the successor monitoring conditions, and even to its model 101 preamp. The m101 includes a number during postproduction. of sonic performance and feature enhancements over its The signals of the two linear symmetrical predecessor while retaining the price point of the former push-pull transducers are fed separately to model. The audio signal path incorporates 0.5% precision the mixing desk. The pick-up pattern is then metal resistors, higher performance output line driver and generated as required by adjusting the fader HPF amplifi ers have been added, and RFI suppression has setting and signal phase. As the Twin has two been enhanced. The 12-position rotary gain switch is now separate cardioid capsules, co-incidentally gold plated and a sealed gold contact relay is used for Hi-Z mounted back-to-back, it is simple to add input switching. an MKH 30 (fi g-8) or MKH 800 (in fi g-8 mode) Another big change is the inclusion of a built-in, universal and, using the MSM ‘double MS’ format, produce 5.1 power supply and the 1U, half-rack m101 sports a new look. surround from just these three capsules. New operational features include the addition of Grace’s The new member of the MKH family also features low ribbon mic mode as standard, which provides a wide 10- self-noise and a frequency response that is said to extend At a time when other professional audio media 75dB gain range. Three output connectors are now present to 50,000Hz. Recessed LEDs front and rear help with manufacturers has abandoned the market, HHB’s DA60DC on the rear panel; XLR balanced, ¼-inch TRS balanced and alignment and the microphone is available in a satin nickel and DA113DC double coated DTRS tapes provide users ¼-inch TS unbalanced. LED status indicators have also been or dark grey Nextel fi nish. of the Tascam 8-channel recording system with the latest added for +48V, ribbon mode and the HPF. www.sennheiser.co.uk metal particle tape formulation to deliver high output and www.gracedesign.com carrier to noise ratio, along with low block error rates. A non-magnetic layer beneath the recording layer contains rtW ‘loudness Family’ a lubricant for smooth running of the tape, while the tape Green Black Hole RTW’s SurroundControl, substrate itself is designed to minimise friction during JZ has launched a third Black Hole SurroundMonitor, and DigitalMonitor high speed shuttling. The binder is specially formulated to microphone. The Black Hole PE (BH-3) has now include an integrated loudness minimise the shedding of the metal particle recording layer, a fi xed cardioid polar pattern and adds a display conforming to the ITU even after repeated use over many years. pad with options of -5dB and -10dB to BS.1771 guideline as a standard Approved by Tascam for all DTRS recording applications avoid overloading mic preamps. Visually feature. With this line-up, the and now the only double coated DTRS tapes available on it looks similar to the previous two versions manufacturer now offers solutions the market, the 60 and 113-minute tapes are packaged (BH-1 — multipattern, BH-2 — fixed for monitoring the loudness of stereo, multichannel, and in library cases and are supplied with labelling formatted cardioid) but it is dark green in colour. surround signals in a wide range of applications. specifi cally for professional use. www.jzmic.com www.rtw.de www.hhb.co.uk

16 resolution May/June 2008 gear

Fibre interface Holophone Portamic and coders encoded using the H4’s or Porta-Mic 5.1’s encoder from the camera’s recording medium or other two channel source, Euphonix Holophone’s PortaMic 5.1 retails and decodes into six discrete audio channels. The recording h a s a for US$599 and like the H4 device is connected to the D-Code through two phonos m o d u l a r Supermini features a 2.5-inch and decoded audio is delivered via six phono outputs or r e m o t e x 1.5-inch mic head with six multichannel USB directly to the computer. a u d i o separate mic elements arranged The Holophone N-Code takes six interface solution for to correspond to a 5.1 speaker channels of audio from the broadcast applications featuring setup. PortaMic’s encoder, H2-PRO or H3-D and converts redundant fibre audio connectivity and control. It equipped with Dolby Pro Logic them to two channels using connects multiple high-density stage boxes into the II encoding, is low profi le when Dolby’s Pro Logic II. The box Euphonix DSP SuperCore via MADI over fi bre with control connected to a camera. The Surround encoded audio is has six XLR/1/4-inch inputs with directly from the console’s channel strips. output to stereo mini plug and 6-pin balanced mini XLR. mic/line selection and two XLR outputs A modular 3U stage box can handle up to 56 mic preamps The mic features a unity gain control and plus 48v phantom through six preamps. It is and can also be fi tted with combinations of I-O, including a 12dB pad. battery powered. analogue, AES-EBU (75 and 110ohm), SDI and MADI. A The D-Code multichannel Rycote is developing windscreen systems for all second stage box could be fi tted to provide analogue or Pro Logic II decoder takes the Holophone microphones. digital splits of the mic preamp outputs from the fi rst stage two audio channels, which are www.holophone.com box for feeding the local PA/monitor mixers, for example. Euphonix now offers integration with the Ross OverDrive Production Control System available in its Synergy Series Production Switchers. OverDrive offers centralised control of many studio devices including servers, routers, and robotic cameras, as well as the audio console. The system’s Rundown Control playlist software allows for fully automated productions. The optional software upgrade requires no additional hardware and enables external control of all channel faders, on/off switches, pans, and PFL. Other console functions will be added in future releases. www.euphonix.com

iZ convertor system iZ Technology, maker of the RADAR digital multitrack recorder, has introduced the ADA multichannel A-D and D-A convertor. Each ADA is made- to-order with 8, 16, or 24 channels of iZ Technology’s Classic, Nyquist, or S-Nyquist convertor cards –- the same cards found in the iZ RADAR multitrack recorder. With ADA’s modular design, users can select the desired number of analogue I-Os, then reconfi gure the I-O ratios and add channel count to the unit whenever needed. ADA also interfaces with Logic, Nuendo, and all native DAWs via MADI or with Pro Tools via the iZ Dual Pro Tools HD interface card. www.izcorp.com

Fairlight dream 2 v1.5 Fairlight has released Dream 2 Software Version 1.5, which has more than 50 new features. All Dream 2 systems are supplied standard with on-board video and the new release extends the capabilities to include support for a comprehensive array of video and audio interchange formats as well as providing support for a wide range of commonly used media fi le formats. These include AVID (QT Ref), MXF OPAtom, MXF OP1A, AAF, OMF, OMF2, D10, Thomson/Grass Valley XML, AES-31, BWAV, Aif, MOV, AVI, BMP, Mpeg2, VMU (native Pyxis), MT, and DR2. ML EDL formats supported include AAF, OMF, OMF2, Thomson/Grass Valley XML, AES-31, MT, DR2, ML, and Sony 9100. In addition the system supports native playback of a wide variety of video codecs such as Avid DnXHD, QuickTime H.264, DVCPro HD, IMX 30, IMX50, Mpeg2, and DV100. Users can drag and drop their required fi le to the project Karlsruhe · Germany timeline. Alternatively the Dream 2 video system can be +49 721 943 200 used as an HD VTR with 9-pin machine control to capture www.schoeps.de video directly from HD video decks. www.fairlightau.com

May/June 2008 resolution 17 gear

C200 Hd tweaked lawo plugs Studer onair 2500

L a w o , D o l b y a n d M i n n e t o n k a A u d i o S o f t w a r e h a v e announced the Lawo SurCode for Dolby E Real-Time Decoder plug-in that operates in the new Lawo Plugin Server. A Dolby E Encoder module will follow later this year. The Lawo SurCode for Dolby E functions as a VST plug- SSL’s C200 HD console now has expanded features that in allowing for control and recall on the fl y, completely include routing system expansion to over 5,600 inputs and integrated into the Lawo production environment. The outputs. The desk now offers support for Tri-level sync with integration allows one or more instances of the Dolby solid internal clocking and also supports HD playback machine E Decoder on the Lawo Plugin Server to be used in control and dynamic automation at SD and HD frame rates. combination with existing Dolby E hardware products. Studer’s OnAir 2500 radio on-air console uses the software www.solid-state-logic.com www.lawo.de technology derived from the OnAir 3000 console and builds on the operational concepts of its predecessor, the OnAir 2000. With the OnAir 2500, the control surface, I-O breakout, DSP Core and power supply are all integrated within a single compact chassis. The Fader strips include a graphical OLED screen, which contains a channel label, level and gain reduction meter and parameter readouts, adjustable via a rotary encoder and two pushbuttons below the display. The large TFT colour touchscreen uses Studer’s Touch’n’Action system, where only the most important functions have hardware control elements in the channel strip. The touchscreen can also display the relevant settings and configurations for each channel in addition to the OLED displays. A simple touch on one of the eight small channel pushbuttons, e.g. equaliser, dynamics, Aux send, immediately opens the corresponding page on the main screen. As well as interfaces on XLR and Sub-D outlets (microphone inputs, headphone outputs, Line and AES I-Os), the internal audio system also offers interfaces to digital multichannel formats such as MADI, ADAT and IEEE- 1394 FireWire. Three standard confi gurations with 12, 18 and 24 faders are available, with motorised channel faders available as an option. www.studer.ch

Whirlwind adds CobraNet i-o modules

Whirlwind has introduced the CI8L input module that converts eight analogue line level audio inputs to CobraNet digital networked data. The CI8L is also available in a 2- channel line level input module, the Whirlwind CI2L. The CI8L is Whirlwind’s 8-channel CobraNet line level input module. It can be temporarily or permanently connected to the CobraNet network, anywhere network access and AC power are available. Connect any line level source, such as mixer matrix or aux outputs, speaker system crossover outputs, or surround sound processor outputs, and instantly send them throughout the CobraNet digital audio network.

The CO8a converts CobraNet digital networked data to eight analogue line level channels. The CO2a, a 2-channel version of the CO8a, is also available. www.whirlwind-europe.com

18 resolution May/June 2008 gear

Headzone Pro Xt ati portable digital audio monitor Head-worn mic

Phonak’s proVocanto is a miniaturised boom microphone with patented mechanics, a Headzone PRO XT from Beyerdynamic is an updated system weight of 2g, and easy version of the original Headzone portable surround handling and positioning. sound mixing system. It uses DSP technology to provide Length and orientation of the headphone-based 5.1 surround sound reproduction and ATI Audio Technologies’ DM500 is a boom are adjustable — you the headtracking system to locate the orientation of the digital audio monitor and a D-A convertor in a portable open the loop, put it around listener’s head with respect to the source material and form factor. The unit has 96kHz digital inputs, a powerful your ear and tighten it with a adjusts the audio accordingly. headphone monitor amplifi er, a weather-protected carrying gentle tug. The PRO XT version includes enhanced headtracking case and alternate mounting confi gurations. T h e o m n i d i r e c t i o n a l functionality by providing more routing possibilities (left/ It has XLR, BNC and phono inputs, displays sample microphone is protected from right and front/back) in the software control panel. Also new rates and digital errors, has a calibrated digital level meter moisture, salt and dust and an are added XLR inputs, an adjustable communication input showing headroom, can read analogue level, and provides anti-perspiration ring keeps with volume control, and a second headphone output. a balanced analogue line output. sweat away. The Headzone PRO XT also allows for three individual www.atiaudio.com www.phonak-communications.com user presets to be directly accessed through buttons on the unit’s front panel and includes an adjustable, password protected limiter for hearing protection. Headzone PRO XT offers an advanced room simulation program, which allows the user to create an auditory space within which to monitor the surround audio and, therefore, provide the optimal ‘sweet spot’. www.beyerdynamic.co.uk

Zaxcom Fusion The Fusion audio mixer and recorder from Zaxcom achieves its low weight and power effi ciency by eliminating the use of a hard drive. This has the added benefi t of removing concerns of hard drive damage from extreme temperatures or motion. The system instead records to two CompactFlash cards simultaneously. For fault-tolerant recording, the Fusion records to one card in the mobile audio recording format (MARF), which allows audio to be recovered even if power is lost during recording. Simultaneously, Fusion records a redundant copy of the audio fi les in the FAT32 format to the second CompactFlash card, creating an easy way for the postproduction team to have immediate, portable access to the fi les. Fusion includes an integrated, lockable touchscreen interface and users can adjust more than 300 mixer crosspoints and 200 controllable parameters. Four balanced AES inputs with sample rate conversion allow eight channels of audio to come from four different devices with varying sample rates or unlocked sample rate clocks. Fusion can mix together 16 inputs to eight output buses for recording up to eight tracks. The system additionally works as a FireWire bus master to control and supply power to external hard drives or DVD-RAM drives. Fusion also offers an optional effects package and each channel can feature a soft knee compressor, high-pass fi lter, delay, and 3-band EQ with peak or shelving fi lters. The system includes six fi lters per channel, with frequency-selectable high pass fi lters included and optional EQ and notch fi lters. Zaxcom has introduced the Deva Mix-8 and Deva Flash Drive to expand the functionality of its Deva product line. Deva Mix-8 is an 8- fader mixing panel that integrates directly with the company’s Deva IV, V, 5.8, 16, and Fusion systems. The Deva Mix-8 unleashes the internal mix functions of the host audio recorder. The unit has 100mm faders, input trim pots, and input level meters and is powered directly from the Deva unit via a cable. The company’s TRX systems are now available with a wireless dynamic range expander and an adjustable RF output power feature, both of which increase the operational fl exibility of the unit. www.zaxcom.com

May/June 2008 resolution 19 gear

drawmer S2 and 4x4 variable frequency control (500Hz to 20kHz) and amount telescopic pole of dynamic enhancement. Dry mixes a user-defi ned amount of ‘uncompressed’ signal with the compressed signal to create a ‘parallel compression effect’. The Kickbox 4x4 is an ‘all terrain’ 4-in/16- out mic/line signal s p l i t t e r t a rg e t e d The S2 Signature Series dual channel tube compressor is through its robustness the latest product to emerge from Ivor Drawmer’s high-end at live production designs and offers an ‘all tube — no technical compromise’ a p p l i c a t i o n s . I t circuit. The S2 features new creative processing possibilities. incorporates four Big retains bass frequencies and minimises undesirable studio-grade mic/ Lightwave Audio Systems’ new G5-4M telescopic production ‘pumping’ by rolling off the detection signal at 75, 125 line preamps, each providing up to 66dB of gain, and 16 pole is a 4-metre long version of the existing 2.5-metre G5 or 250Hz (user switchable). A fully variable level control balanced output stages, each with the option of transformer pole, with the same patented, easily serviceable triple-cam allows for the desired amount of Big processing and an isolation. The 4x4 is supplied in a road-proof case with a locking system. Weighing 618g and just one metre long in/out switch provides the option to bypass it. Bright is FR-2LE Resolution 142x194 5/1/08 12:58 PMremovable lid for access to all controls and connections. Page 1 when collapsed, the carbon-fi bre G5-4M is a solution for a dynamic high frequency enhancer with continuously www.drawmer.com newsgathering or location recording teams. www.lightwavesystems.com

dolby media meter The new Dolby Media Meter, as well as new features to the Elegant, Professional Dolby LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter and Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer, are part of the company’s showcase of loudness, transcoding, and licensing solutions. Field Recording to Dolby Media Meter, which is new to the Dolby Media ™ Producer family of products, is a software loudness meter for CompactFlash Mac and PC applications that uses measurement techniques, such as Dialogue Intelligence technology, adapted from the Dolby LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter. The upgraded LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter incorporates the new ITU-R BS.1770 Loudness Algorithm — recognised as a worldwide de facto standard for broadcast programme measurement. The LM100 includes true-peak measurement support per ITU-R BS.1770 Annex 2, and ITU method Dialogue Intelligence support via user control. The ITU-R BS.1770 method is included in addition to the legacy Leq(A) method that the LM100 has used for years. www.dolby.com

Charteroak m900t CharterOak’s M900T front address small diaphragm tube condenser employs the same cardioid, hypercardioid, and omni capsules used with M900 transformerless small diaphragm condenser but combines them with a vacuum tube head amplifi er and US- made Cinemag output transformer. The M900T features a two-step sensitivity switch (0dB and -15dB) and 75Hz bass roll off (6dB per octave) and the mic will ship in a metal fl ightcase and includes three capsules, Gotham Audio cables, power supply, shockmount FR-2LE and mic clip for US$1299. 24bit 96kHz Field Recording to CompactFlash™ The SCL-1 solid state compressor/limiter will be released under the CharterOak Entertainment Group brand. The Fostex have done it again with the launch of the new FR-2LE - a compact audio unit employs all discreet electronics and is capable of recorder designed from the ground-up to meet the needs of professionals in the field. providing a constant output level regardless of input level The FR-2LE records to CompactFlash in Broadcast WAV Format at 24bit 96kHz quality or frequency, without pumping. The unit claims extremely and it's equipped with two professional phantom powered XLR microphone inputs complete with precise control over the recording level. In addition, it features a 1 take fast attack times without overcompensation, and a release equals 1 file recording system which eliminates overwrites and the 2 second ‘pre-record’ characteristic, which is a function of dynamic range and buffer means there should never be a missed take or lost soundbite. There’s even an average programme level. MP3 mode and built-in stereo microphones designed for interviews. www.charteroakacoustics.com Feature rich and elegant in operation, the pedigree of the new FR-2LE looks assured. Korby expands Kat Famed for his ‘Hot Swap’ Convertible microphone designs, Tracy Korby has expanded the KAT range to include cardioid and multipattern standalone models. The products included in this latest design phase are the Effect acquisition Interview Musical notepad Kat Red cardioid, Kat Red multipattern, Kat Blue cardioid, Kat Blue multipattern, Kat White cardioid, and Kat White Fostex Company, 3-2-35 Musashino, Akishima, Tokyo, Japan 196-0021 multipattern. The cardioid only products list at £1975 and www.fostex.jp Tel: +81 (0)42-546-4974 Fax: +81 (0)42-546-9222 Email: [email protected] the multipatterns list at £2195 (both + VAT). www.asapeurope.com

20 resolution May/June 2008 gear

Crown anniversary amps or Internet between venice router local and remote users. The interface has drag- K l o t z D i g i t a l ’s and-drop functionality Venice audio router and point-and-click has been designed controls. The ‘Presence for applications where a large number of channels need Aw a re n e s s ’ f e a t u re to be routed and offers a routing capacity of 2624 x 2624 monitors participants’ channels and an almost unlimited size can be achieved by availability. cascading multiple units. It offers support of optical and The system is scalable coax MADI standard protocols and Klotz Digital’s Vadis fi bre to many hundred users optic network. The StudioNet Octo-Bus is also supported and is designed with and Ethernet AV (IEEE 802.1 AVB). proprietary protocols and Venice’s synchronisation capabilities including AES sync, error recovery algorithms Word clock in and through. All principal functions are for mission-critical controlled via LEDs, status display and via an Ethernet port applications like live and the device has redundant fi bre I-O and redundant power      broadcast production.   supplies with separate power inlet to sync redundancy.    www.clearcom.com www.klotzdigital.com Having crossed its 60th year and more than two decades of producing the Macro-Tech Series of power amplifi ers, Crown is commemorating both milestones with a run of 600 MA-2402, MA-3600VZ and MA-5002VZ boxes as Anniversary Edition models. Each features a copper- The Art of Analogue

plated front panel (including handles, knobs, and buttons) and be shipped in a custom wood crate. The Crown’s XLS Series has been extended with the addition of the XLS 5000. Delivering 1800 watts per channel in 4-Ohm stereo mode, and 5000 watts in 4- Ohm bridge-mono mode, the XLS 5000 packs more than twice the punch of the next highest-powered model in the range, the XLS 802. It’s equipped with a forced-air fan and the front panel sports dual detented rotary level controls and six LEDs indicating signal, clip, and fault for each UA founder M.T. ‘Bill’ Putnam channel. Rear panel connections include two electronically balanced XLR inputs as well as touch-proof binding post and Speakon outputs. Universal Audio has been making music sound better since 1957. Today, UA continues the legacy of founder M.T. ‘Bill’ Putnam with world-class Crown’s 135MA and 160MA mixer-amplifiers are audio hardware and software – designed, manufactured and quality- capable of providing 8-Ohm and constant-voltage controlled with passion and pride in Santa Cruz, California, USA. outputs (70V and 100V). Each is housed in a compact The new DCS Remote Preamp combines two half-rack chassis, the 135MA is equipped with three console-grade mic-preamps, specialised inputs and a 35W amp output, while the 160MA monitoring capabilities for artist and engineer, provides four inputs and a 60W amp. Both models and easy remote control/DAW integration making it an ideal upgrade to the basic provide priority muting, which can be voice-activated features and sound quality found or triggered via an external switch. in most audio interfaces. www.crownaudio.com And who better than UA to evolve the classic LA-2A into the stereo 2-LA-2, combining the unique sonic signature NEW! intercom controller of the original with two channels of DCS silky, tube-amplified, stereo matched Remote Preamp Clear-Com now offers control of its optical gain reduction in one unit. Eclipse Digital Matrix Intercom System with a compact V-Series Desktop unit. Find out more about the art of analogue at: The desktop unit, complete with a www.uaudio.com loudspeaker and gooseneck microphone, has individual audio level controls for each of its 12 talk-down/listen- u p k e y s , i n c l u d i n g NEW! one dedicated for 2-LA-2 answer-reply. A bright Twin T4 Levelling g r a p h i c a l d i s p l a y Amplifier shows ten international characters including Chinese, Japanese and Russian and a shift button gives access to eight further switch pages and the menu button provides access to assignment and UK distribution by Source • Find a dealer at www.sourcedistribution.co.uk/ua • T: 020 8962 5080 set-up menus. Based on Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, Clear-Com Concert delivers sound over a standard LAN

May/June 2008 resolution 21 review

the manual, as it involves pressing and holding the Group button having selected the fi rst channel to be grouped, and then scrolling across channels with the data wheel to include them in the group — not as intuitive as other operations but easy enough. A setup button on the front panel steps through a number of additional modes, which allow presets of the current unit status to be stored and recalled, the behaviour of the meters’ peak reading to be altered, and other housekeeping stuff like display contrast and backlight settings. If a digital option board is fi tted, this mode also provides options to activate it, and allows adjustment of sample rate, clock source and digital output format (single or bi-wire). With the A-DC option enabled, the bottom line of the main display shows the current status of these settings with a ‘lock’ indication if using an external clock source, and the metering switches to a 0dB FS scale, rather than the dBu scaling otherwise shown. The relationship between full scale at the A-DC and output level of the preamp channels can also be altered by accessing a ‘hidden’ menu on power-up — with four possible choices between +18dBu and +24dBu = 0dBFS in 2dB steps. Grace Design m802 The fi nal function available in setup mode is to confi gure the input routing for each channel. For There’s a real demand for outboard preamps to handle multimic recording duties as standard microphone channels (i.e. those without the DPA option fi tted), the choices here are between conventional console use wanes. However, not all pres are made equal. JON THORNTON normal and ‘Ribbon’ mode. Both of these modes use the standard 3-pin XLR input as a source, but encounters a batch of eight at the higher end of the evolutionary scale. engaging Ribbon mode increases the available gain range by 10dB, disables and locks out phantom power ased in Boulder, Colorado, Grace Design quite happily operated without it. on the channel, and bypasses the +48V decoupling is one of those pro-audio companies that Starting with the base unit, the rear panel gives capacitors to minimise signal path. If a DPA option started manufacturing built-to-order custom eight microphone inputs on XLR and two sets of is fi tted to a given channel, the choices are between designs and just grew. Founded by Michael eight balanced line level outputs, also on individual normal and the 130V option, which uses the 4-pin BGrace, the company’s fi rst standardised product was XLRs. As an option, the M802 can be ordered with XLR installed on the rear panel if fi tted. Strangely, a the m801 microphone preamplifi er in 1994. Since additional 130V microphone inputs for use with DPA DPA optioned channel can’t be set to Ribbon mode, then, the range of products has grown steadily high voltage microphones. This option is available in which seems a shame. and includes pro audio and high-end audiophile blocks of two channels and when fi tted, these (4-pin If required, connecting the optional Remote Control offerings. What has remained constant, though, is a XLR) inputs replace the second row of outputs. One Unit (RCU) is simple enough. The Philips I2C serial commitment to quality in manufacture and design. of two digital output boards can also be specifi ed as bus is employed for communication purposes, and a The visible aspect to this philosophy is apparent an option, giving eight channels of AES3 on a DB25 serial input and output on the back of the main unit in the physical appearance of most of the product connector, plus either AES3-id outputs on BNC or allows up to eight units to be daisy-chained together, range, which adheres to the ‘build it from girders twin ADAT outputs on lightpipe. The unit supplied putting 64 channels of preamp under the control of a and make it last for all eternity’ school of thought. for review had two channels of DPA 130V input, and single RCU. Serial connections between RCU and the And underneath this solid, if vaguely utilitarian the ADAT variant of the digital board. A chunky DC main unit(s) use 9-pin D-Sub connectors — although exterior the same approach is taken to the internals input socket, remote input and output (on 9-pin D- the RCU ships with adapters that break these out — highest quality components, no capacitors in the Subs) and a pair of MIDI sockets fi nishes things off to male and female XLRs, allowing a standard audio signal path, highly specifi ed power supplies, at the rear. microphone cable to be used for long runs (up to a highest tolerance possible with passive components; As a 2U 19-inch rack unit, the m802 is a maximum of 1000 feet). the list goes on and on. For those interested in such symphony in brushed stainless steel, with a front The RCU itself is a compact unit, but requires things there’s a four page document on the company’s panel that is decidedly minimalist. It’s dominated its own external wall-wart PSU to operate. The website that spells it out. by a backlit LCD display with a resolution of 240 LCD screen on the remote is exactly the same size The m802 is a recent addition to the product x 64 pixels, which in operation shows the status and resolution as that on the main unit, and all of range, and at heart goes back to Grace Design’s of all eight channels in terms of gain, signal level the pushbuttons from the main unit are duplicated core competency — high quality microphone and indicators for phantom power, phase reverse, on the remote, although in this case they are preamplifi cation. Where it differs from the rest of the etc. Basic operation is extremely intuitive — scroll illuminated instead of black. There are some additions, range is in eschewing the rather chunky analogue across the display with the data wheel until you though. Each of the eight displayed channels has an controls of its stablemates in favour of a large reach the channel you need to edit, push it to select, individual channel select button under the display, LCD panel, a rotary encoder and a smattering of and then adjust gain with the data wheel and toggle which makes channel selection much quicker, and pushbuttons. With the addition of a remote control unit, phantom power or phase reverse for the channel two additional buttons allow the remote to scroll back this gives you eight channels of remote controllable with dedicated front panel buttons. Gain range in and forth across channels if more than one unit is analogue preamps. The whole system comprises the normal mode is -7dB to +63.5dB in (more or less) being controlled. A large LED display shows the gain base unit, an external power supply and the optional 1.5dB steps. Any number of adjacent channels can level of the currently selected channel, and a View remote control unit. It’s optional, because unless you also be grouped together, so that any subsequent button can switch the display to allow metering of 24 need to control it from a distance or want to control gain adjustments are applied to all channels in a channels at a time, which can again be paged through multiple units from a single source, the unit can be group. This was the fi rst time I had to delve into up to a maximum of 64 channels. Handily, even in

22 resolution May/June 2008 review

this meter mode, individual channels can be selected So, it’s intuitive, easy to use and fl exible. but how non-rackmounting external PSU. and the gain level altered using the data wheel. does it sound? I was lucky enough to put the m802 But what stands out more than anything is But the RCU isn’t the only remote control option to work in an application that I suspect it will fi nd that the remote control functionality has not been available, as Grace Design has cleverly designed the much work in — a live recording of a musical. That implemented at the expense of the quality of the m802 to emulate a Digidesign PRE so that it can be the recording in question needed 63 channels of analogue signal path, and vice versa. This unit remotely controlled from Pro Tools via MIDI. There mic pres running off a heap of active splitters meant sounds just as substantial as it looks, and given the are a couple of caveats to this, though. The fi rst is that that a pretty broad spectrum of 8-channel preamp fl exibility of control options, is equally likely to fi nd a the gain range and resolution of a PRE is different to solutions was pressed into service, including the home in the recording studio or on location. ■ that of the m802 (0-63dB in 3dB steps, as opposed m802. And in comparison to all the others — from to the m802’s -7 to 63.5dB in 1.5dB steps). No real all price points — the m802 shone simply in its total ProS Build quality; headroom and noise; problem here, as in MIDI control mode, the m802 transparency, frankly astonishing headroom and intuitive user interface; scalability; simply ignores the additional steps. The second is lack of noise even at quite high gain settings. There emulates PrE for control via Pro tools. the fact that the PRE has certain features (pad, HPF) is a little noise in the form of slight clicks as the gain CoNS Slight audio artefacts present when that the m802 does not — again trying to use these settings step up and down, which could be an issue changing gain steps; not much else. features from Pro Tools simply has no effect. Other in this sort of application if emergency gain changes than these minor differences, this works just as are needed, but this was the only signifi cant blot in its advertised — just tell Pro Tools that it has the one or copybook. And if I’m nit-picking, building a touring Contact more PREs connected and it happily controls gain, rack of multiple units could be a little untidy due to GraCE dESiGN, US: Website: www.gracedesign.com phantomResolution power Half and phasePage reverse 17/3/08 remotely. 16:50 Page 4each one needing its own and not insubstantial and

When you’re mixing sound for light entertainment, it’s best calrec.com to expect the unexpected. You need to set up and handle multiple sources quickly and easily, access pre-sets, network your i/o and instinctively control the whole thing without missing a beat. At Calrec we’ve been dedicated to live production and on-air broadcast audio mixing since the first Elvis impersonator wiggled his pelvis. Today, as well as all the practical functions you could want, we also offer the most IF ELVIS LIVES, innovative and economical solution for surround sound. Bluefin technology provides twice the signal processing YOU’LL BE THE capacity in a fraction of the space of conventional systems, at no extra cost and with 100% redundancy. FIRSTTOHEAR Sounds exciting? Find out more at calrec.com

Putting Sound in the Picture

May/June 2008 resolution 23 review

Internal assembly is worth a peek. A pair of ECC88 valves are centrally mounted, and four Gyraf Gyratec XIV Lundahl transformers are apparent. The interior is fairly sparse, but most remarkable is the neatly There has never been a bigger selection of valve-based EQ available to us. arranged forest of carefully matched capacitors behind the frequency knobs. Inductors are made GEORGE SHILLING sticks his neck out and says he’s sure you have never used an in-house to get the quality and tolerances within EQ as smooth, silky and satisfying as this one. spec. Making this unit operate in perfect stereo undoubtedly means a lot of fi ne-matching to achieve accuracy. Unusually for a unit designed for mastering, there is no calibration on boost and cut knobs, and these are potentiometers rather than switched controls. This lack of legending is something of a feature of Gyraf equipment — the EQ section of the GII recording channel doesn’t even indicate the actual frequencies selectable! Maximum boost for each band is about 10-12dB but this depends on the Q setting. There are other characteristics that won’t be apparent from staring at the front panel. As with all passive EQs, there is no ‘adding up’ of adjacent bands when similar frequencies are boosted, (although there is a distinct tonal change). Furthermore, the maximum available Q is higher at the upper frequencies of each band compared to the lower frequencies, and is sharper in cut mode than in boost mode. In practice, nothing seems odd, it all works beautifully, and any ‘limitations’ seem to pretty much stop you from being able to make things sound at all bad! With 55 frequencies to choose from, from 35Hz up to 22kHz, there is plenty of scope for seasoned tweakers, but setting a wide Q and adding a couple of notches of brightness or bass is just as satisfying. I am absolutely sure that you have never used an EQ as smooth, silky and satisfying as this. Choosing a few good frequencies and making a few small yraf is a Danish company that has been The impressive looking 3U black box is sturdily tweaks can feel like a monitoring upgrade, it really quietly making valve-based outboard built and beautifully etched with the legending. is that amazing. I normally love fi nding offensive equipment for more than 15 years; There is no obvious provision for heat dissipation, frequencies by boosting then fl ipping to cut, but and it’s been a few years since but the two valves have plenty of space to breathe often, the boosts sound unexpectedly good. This GResolution last looked at any of its products. Its in the large case. Bakelite-style knobs follow the is true sonic sweetening, without getting sickly. high quality hand-built processors are one of those Gyraf house style, a sort of macho retro-cool Highs are crystal clear and exceptionally smooth; best-kept secrets, beloved by afi cionados, although (Something that can only come with age; not the lows are hugely effective without resonating or prices are really rather reasonable for what you Bakelite-style knobs, that is. Ed) All switches are booming. Full boosts never sound nasty, but subtle get. Designs are steadily developed by designer rotary. Large rack handles usefully protect the front boosts can work wonders too. The ability to bypass Jakob Erland who is based at Feedback Recording panel, while rubber feet are attached to the base and each band easily is always useful. The lack of Level in Denmark’s second city of Aarhus. Erland is these can be removed for rack mounting. The rear is calibration is little problem in practice, even when obviously a good old-fashioned boffi n with the simple and neat with IEC mains socket with integral mastering, and the Gyraf website helpfully provides curiosity to experiment, and the knowledge to fuse holder and XLRs for audio connections. some slightly shaky hand-drawn recall sheets. adapt circuitry to achieve excellent sonics. Designs There are very few other dual channel EQs that As a programme or mastering equaliser this are tested extensively in the studio there, and Gyraf use just one set of controls, but this is something really is beyond dreams, but furthermore the XIV steadfastly keeps solid state electronics out of the of a revelation, just tweaking and listening, rather makes an amazing general purpose recording EQ, audio path in all its products. than trying to match two channels. All matching even if you are just using one side in mono. The The Gyratec XIV (or G14; Euro 2703 + VAT) has already been done at the unit’s assembly stage. valve circuitry undoubtedly adds a certain amount is a stereo Parallel-Passive Equaliser, essentially On the front panel, the frequency bands start with of sonic magic. But that is not to say the unit providing a single set of controls covering two the lowest on the left. The top row of knobs select sounds at all gloopy or crunchy or unnaturally channels of 5-band parametric EQ. There are no frequencies. Below these is an oversize rotary hyped in any way. The valve contribution adds to high or low pass fi lters, and no shelving bands. All switch that selects boost, defeat or cut, alongside a the wonderfully silky and open sound without any frequency controls are switched, with a choice of small Q control for each channel. overblown distortion or colouration. Using the G14, eleven frequencies on each band, with a varying At the bottom are the Level knobs for making it feels as if you’ve gone from colouring in with amount of overlap between bands, but no exact boosts or cuts. These are continuous potentiometers. crayons to painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. ■ duplication of frequencies anywhere. The tactile feel of these is not great, by Erland’s The most obvious comparison for the XIV is own admission. But these are custom items with ProS arguably the fi nest sounding EQ Manley’s Massive Passive. But the Gyraf approach an unusual value/stack, so Gyraf was tied to the — ever; no faffi ng around matching is slightly different. Like the Massive the Gyratec is one supplier capable of making these to the required channels. passive, but Gyraf boasts that there is no solid state standard. I am assured that their quality and life op-amp drive as found in the MP. The EQ comes expectancy is excellent, but it does feel as if you are CoNS No high pass, low pass or shelving immediately after the input transformers. The signal turning rusty oil-soaked bath taps! Main controls at bands. is then fed to a minimalist all-tube gain and output the right are a large Level trim knob with a boost stage — Erland says he wanted ‘the organic nature of about 5dB available — this has a rather more Contact of the tube processing itself to shine through’. Like pleasant knurled feel — and Power and In switches GYraF aUdio, dENmarK other Gyratecs, the XIV uses commonly available reside here also. The power light dims in bypass Website: www.gyraf.dk UK, Home Service: +44 208 943 4949 valves, in this case two 6DJ8/ECC88s. mode and this is a true hard-wire bypass.

24 resolution May/June 2008         

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Control your DAW Integrate your outboard • 16 +1 Fader Controller • Advanced 32 x 16 x 16 routing matrix • Plug-in control • SuperAnalogue™ router to manage the sends and • Ethernet DAW connection returns of sixteen outboard processor units • Control up to 4 DAWs simultaneously • Save FX chains and set-ups • Programmable Soft-Keys • Full control via PC application • DAW automation control of Matrix

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.

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In fact, it’s hard to get away from that adjective even after more detailed listening — there’s a depth and Josephson C720 reach to the low-mids that gives a solidity to male vocals without even the vaguest hint of boxiness or The fact that the choice and affordability of proper ‘grown up’ microphones has reached strange resonances. Higher up the frequency range things remain very neutral and understated, the new peaks in recent years has made it that much harder for small and ‘different’ brands response sounds quite fl at with nothing overly hyped, and products to cut through the glare. JON THORNTON believes he’s found a great one. but at the same time manages not to sound clinical. How much of this is attributable to the novel capsule housing, and how much to the capsule and electronics lthough in comparison to some of the bigger so there’s an additional very fi ne mesh screen inside is debatable, but it does give the impression of almost German or Austrian outfi ts, hitting 20 years the basket to help out. direct-injecting a sound source to your brain. in the business of microphone This unusual construction houses a dual, large Things really get interesting, though, when you manufacture might still diaphragm capsule, with each side delivering start combining the two outputs. Bringing the Aclass you as a young upstart, a cardioid response. However, there’s a rear facing capsule up in the mix to an equal for a company like singular lack of a pattern select switch (or level obviously results in an overall omnidirectional Josephson Engineering any other switches for that matter) on response, with the expected increase in ambience it’s a significant the microphone itself. And therein lies and a reduction of proximity effect when used close milestone. Signifi cant, the other slightly unusual feature of the in. The latter effect is somewhat useful on vocal because ‘boutique’ is C720. The captive cable that leaves the sources, but this really works a treat when recording the order of the day microphone terminates in a 7-pin XLR, an acoustic guitar. Bleeding in just a small amount here — volumes are and a splitter lead is included that delivers of the rear capsule widens the pickup pattern slightly low, quality is high, the output of each capsule half via and really lets you balance room tone against direct and customers have separate impedance conversion/preamp sound with a minimal amount of colouration or arguably some of the stages on two 3-pin XLRs. As a result, phase issues. most critical ears in the you can choose to use either of the two Getting back to a vocal source, bringing the rear industry. And despite all of capsule halves in isolation, or combine facing capsule back into the mix but this time with this — or perhaps because them at different levels and phase it’s polarity reversed, and the cardioid pattern starts to of it — there’s still time and relationships to achieve any pickup tighten — eventually leading to a near fi g-8 response. space for some innovative pattern you want. The key advantage At the same time the tonal characteristics of the on- thinking. The C720 is a case here is that this can also be done axis sound start to shift as well — most noticeable as a in point. Made in a limited in postproduction if required, by little more high-mid presence and ‘reach’ to the sound. production run of only 20 simply recording both outputs to It really is a very ‘tuneable’ characteristic, and sounds microphones (one for each year two separate tracks. Of much richer than simply reaching for some EQ. of the company’s existence), course, in itself, this is Inspired by these initial experiments, it was time it’s a curious confection not particularly new — for something a little more radical, so I tried the C720 of classic microphone Josephson has offered as a room mic on a drum kit. It was set up with the design and construction a number of variations diaphragms at 90 degrees to the drum kit, and the and some novel ideas. on this theme with other outputs mixed to give a near fi g-8 response with a This is immediately microphones in its Series null point facing the kick drum. Again, adjusting the apparent as soon as you 7 range, and Sennheiser’s relative levels of the two capsule halves allows you to open the rather nice Pelican MKH 800 Twin has identical almost steer the null point around a little, with similar case that the microphone functionality. results to moving a conventional microphone around ships in. The microphone Internally, the C720 uses slightly to fi nd that perfect bit of ‘air’ in the room. itself is a large, metal-bodied a discrete Class A circuit There are also some interesting results to be had by tubular construction with an for each capsule half — a keeping the polarity of the capsule halves the same, integrated yolk assembly. pair of FETs in a ‘cascode’ but panning them left and right rather than summing But what at fi rst appears arrangement directly them together — there’s a nice stereo ambience effect to be a foam pop shield drive a custom Lundahl to be had here that’s highly mono compatible. over the business end is in output transformer. At a time when the choice of microphones and fact the capsule housing. This uses amorphous manufacturers is arguably wider than it has ever Rather than the traditional metallic glass as its been, there’s a real danger that your palette can start metal mesh, Josephson has core, which apparently to become a little jaded (Very good point and well created the housing from results in a much said Jon. Ed) So when a microphone comes along an open-cell metal foam. As higher overload that really grabs your attention and inspires you, this structure is entirely self- point. The whole it’s a wonderful thing. And the C720 does just that. supporting, it avoids the need thing looks and There’s virtually nothing you can point to that’s bad for supporting bars or rings feels incredibly well about this microphone. OK, it’s not cheap (UK£2760 inside the housing, which, engineered and + VAT), there’s no shockmount, and you’ll have to it’s claimed, signifi cantly assembled, and move quickly to secure one of the 20 that are being reduces internal refl ections the end result is a manufactured. If your pockets are deep enough, I’d and the associated ringing very solid and quite recommend you do just that. ■ or frequency response weighty package. anomalies. The material Despite this, the C720 sets ProS Fabulously solid sound; accurate and is open enough to be up nicely on a stand (and I honest without being clinical; massive reasonably acoustically do like American manufacturers fl exibility in twin outputs; great build transparent, yet rigid enough who thoughtfully provide a thread quality. to protect the capsule and adapter as standard for us Europeans), and CoNS Price and availability — that’s about all… provide the necessary screening the thumbwheel screws on the yolk tighten and properties. The one downside is loosen fi rmly and easily to aid in placement. that it doesn’t provide quite the First test for the C720 was male vocals, using Contact degree of pop, wind and (let’s a single, cardioid output from the microphone JoSEPHSoN ENGiNEEriNG, US: face it) spit screening of more via a Millennia HV3C preamp. First impressions Website: www.josephson.com conventional approaches — are that it sounds like it looks — incredibly solid. UK, Kmr audio: +44 208 445 2446

26 resolution May/June 2008 Redefining AN ICON

“ICON’s direct integration with Pro Tools With tighter deadlines, post-production facilities such as Sonygraf Digitsound are in search of better optimizes the time spent at the desk, letting technologies and solutions to meet increasing demands. us focus on the mix and improving the quality At Digidesign, we strive to continuously improve our of our product. The D-Control ES quickly fitted products in order to ensure that customers like Sonygraf into our established working environment. ” Digitsound have what they need to get the job done quickly and easily. For this reason we developed the Miguel Torres enhancements found in ICON D-Control™ ES. Technical Manager, Sonygraf Digitsound Visit www.digidesign.com/icon_res or visit your local ICON dealer to learn more about the D-Control ES worksurface, and how ICON is revolutionizing the art of mixing.

digidesign.com © 2008 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, Digidesign, D-Control, 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.

icon_Digitsound-245x297.indd 1 25/4/08 15:13:38 review

M-Audio ProFire 2626

Adding value to the notion of a FireWire interface with extra bells and whistles is what this new box is about. ROB JAMES says that it also takes the brand further up market than it has ventured before.

ireWire, i-Link, IEE1394, whatever you instrument-level input. Although this does not alter to stuff 52 or more channels of SD audio down one want to call it, has been around for some impedances or levels, it is possible to record audio FireWire link doesn’t mean you have to. It is likely years now. It promised much and in some from both inputs simultaneously. A point to watch if to be a whole lot more reliable if you don’t stress it to applications at least, for example digital you are using the line-level inputs together with the the maximum. M-Audio tacitly acknowledges this by Fvideo, has actually delivered. Audio manufacturers instrument jacks. recommending that although there are two FireWire were quick to jump on the bandwagon of a cheap The aforementioned mic inputs are commendably ports, only one should be used and other FireWire and wide interface. Unfortunately, most audio quiet with very low distortion and a usefully wide peripherals such as hard drives should be connected implementations have been plagued with niggling gain range. Hardware metering is limited to a pair of to an alternative socket on the computer. Similarly faults and in some cases total failure to operate in LEDs per analogue input channel, green for signal they also suggest that the software Control Panel a useful manner. It may be that the technology is present and red for clip, not ideal but adequate. is used to reduce the number of software returns to fi nally maturing, albeit with a number of caveats. It After the eight gain pots come two headphone minimise the demands placed on the FireWire bus is no great trick to send a couple of channels of even sockets with volume controls and the rather clever and decrease the amount of system resources used. high defi nition audio in close to real-time down a assignable master volume control. The headphone This function also differs slightly between the Mac FireWire link but lots of channels increase the risk of outputs take the analogue line out 1&2 and 3&4 and PC implementations due to the different ways in failure or, at the very least, problems. M-Audio is no respectively. The eight ¼-inch jack main analogue which the two platforms handle audio. Also worth stranger to the FireWire arena and its latest offering, outputs are to be found in a block on the rear panel mentioning here is that you should always use ASIO the ProFire 2626, pushes it close to the top edge along with the two FireWire ports, four optical drivers in PC applications in preference to WDM, if of the performance envelope. However, this unit is Toslink ports for up to 16 channels of ADAT I-O, available. Performance is almost invariably better. a great deal more than a simple way of getting a with the alternative of SPDIF on one pair, and the The software supplied is pretty and useful. The decent number of audio channels into and out of a 15-pin Sub-D breakout connector. Smux and Smux ProFire is versatile and the software enables it to be computer. IV support up to 192kHz but the number of channels confi gured easily for widely differing applications, As the name implies, the UK£408 (+ VAT) and returns from the DAW are reduced accordingly such as stereo tracking or 7.1 surround mixing. In ProFire 2626 offers a maximum of 26 concurrent SD and the specifi c returns dropped differs between the latter scenario the master volume control can channels in each direction between audio interface Macs and PCs. be used as master monitor volume. The DSP mixer and computer. It can also be used standalone as A breakout cable is supplied with MIDI I-O, coaxial handles up to 18 ins and 16 outs and can provide an A-D/D-A convertor or A-D plus SPDIF format SPDIF I-O and BNC Word clock I-O. Power supply is virtually zero latency monitoring for tracking. Inputs convertor. Also in the mix are eight preamps with an external in-line brick and the rear panel connector are sourced from hardware and the software returns, Octane technology, a user assignable master volume is non-locking. Last item of front panel interest is the i.e. DAW outputs. Destinations can be hardware or control and on-board mixer and router. blue power LED. It lights solid with power on and a DAW input streams and the router allows inputs and Each mic preamp has a 75dB gain range and a valid clock (internal or external) and fl ashes in the outputs to be reconfi gured without physical patching -20dB pad accessed by simply pulling the gain knob absence of sync. although this can give rise to confusion if you are not out. The knobs themselves feel a mite ‘plasticky’ and Although a great deal of the hardware and careful. I have looked at a lot of FireWire audio boxes rough around the edges but this soon wears off. At software appears at fi rst glance to be self explanatory and the ProFire is far from shabby in comparison to fi rst I found the unusually long length a touch off- you will soon discover that there are hidden depths units at twice its asking price. ■ putting but, rather like a long handled screwdriver, and a few ‘gotchas’ in some scenarios. Fortunately this seems to give fi ner control in operation. 48V the user manual is a model of excellence and covers ProS Price/performance ratio; versatility; phantom is available, switched in blocks of four everything you will need to know in depth and with relative simplicity if you don’t inputs. clarity. I used the ProFire with a Mac and a variety deliberately make life complicated. The main eight analogue inputs can be found on of applications including Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4 the rear of the unit with Combo XLR jack sockets at the end of the review period. ProFire is quiet and CoNS in Hd (96kHz and 192kHz) modes for mic and line. Channels 1 and 2 also have front elegant. In combination with M-Powered it may well complexity increases; rudimentary panel instrument ¼-inch jack inputs with a push be all that many applications require. Just add mics, hardware metering; not much else at switch to determine whether the XLR or Instrument instruments, hardware and/or software, and an the price input is active. The ¼-inch line input sections of the amplifi er and speakers for monitoring. Combo connectors are not routed to the preamps, One key to success with FireWire in the audio Contact however, the unit does sum the ¼-inch jack line- context seems to be, ‘moderate your enthusiasm’. In m-aUdio, US: level input of the Combo socket with the front-panel other words, just because it is theoretically possible Website: www.m-audio.com

28 resolution May/June 2008 m802 
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including some complex maths and fuzzy logic. However, fuzziness does seem remarkably reduced by the resulting EQ curve. I have encountered a number of music producers who work from what are obviously less than perfect rooms, and having built my own room (with minimal consultation from expert acousticians), I would assert that my mixes have steadily improved since the studio was set up, purely from my becoming used to the monitoring environment in relation to how mixes translate elsewhere, and getting to know how great records sound in there. Using ARC, the stereo imaging was certainly improved in my room, but the frequency response adjustments to my powered monitors took some getting used to. Although the imaging was clearer, high and mid frequency adjustments did tend to make things a trifl e harsh, and this was emphasised by a reduction in the low frequencies. I grew up in a commercial studio where the low frequency response was slightly exaggerated, and have always preferred hearing an ‘enhanced’ low end — as do many musicians and artists, in my experience — it’s simply more fun. Having spent two years becoming more and more used to my current situation, I found the short period of the review was IK Multimedia ARC not really enough time to adjust to working with a corrected response. I suspect that over time this could Here’s something unique and interesting: software to correct control room monitoring prove worthwhile, but I’d personally have liked an ‘enhanced low frequency’ preset to be added to the problems. GEORGE SHILLING says as more large commercial music studios close and list of target curves, or a ‘custom’ curve. increasing numbers of hours are clocked up in less than ideal environments, it is perhaps a With large powered monitoring systems, becoming used to a fl atter, more accurate response is probably timely release aimed at remedying monitoring problems. a very worthwhile pursuit. With smaller ‘real-world’ monitors such as Auratones and NS-10s, it was K Multimedia’s ARC package comprises a interesting to hear their corrected responses, but this measuring microphone along with analysis perhaps rather defeated their purpose. Making things software, plus a plug-in (RTAS, VST and AU) sound good despite less than ideal systems is part of that loads the derived settings acquired from the the skill set developed over many years! Corrected Imeasurements taken. The system uses a technology responses seemed to make the powered monitors developed by Audyssey called MultEQ. This was and NS-10s sound even harsher and more fatiguing, apparently developed over fi ve years with $6 even with the compensated curves. Conversely, the million of University-based research. It provides Auratones sounded rather more pleasant, but that’s an automatic system designed to correct audible not necessarily helpful! sound distortion caused by room acoustics over the A small drawback is the latency introduced into whole listening area and not just the sweet spot. why, but going into the preferences it was possible the monitoring chain. With a hardware buffer of Along with the IK ARC (Advanced Room Correction) to disable time delay functions, and the result was 128 samples, the plug-in delay was 6.7ms, and of package, Audyssey has provided the technology to rather better. However, I subsequently took a number course at 256 this doubles to 12.5 and so on. I’d be other third-party companies. For example, Denon of further measurement sets without such an obvious reluctant to record musicians with this kind of delay has incorporated the system into a range of home delay-related problem, and it may well have been that in their monitoring chain, so you might not want theatre products. The ARC package is stereo-only, I made a mistake somewhere during the measuring this plug-in inserted during overdubs, although it but it seems likely that a surround version will procedure. depends how your monitoring chains are routed. And become available in the future. The plug-in window displays the left and right switching presets when fl icking between different sets The instructions for taking measurements frequency graphs with an ideal ‘target’ response of monitors could prove a nuisance. essentially tell you to point the (omni) measurement curve that is fl at from 20Hz to 20kHz, along ARC (Euro 539) works extremely well; it is probably microphone towards the ceiling at ear level. The with before and after curves, showing roughly the not for everyone, and perhaps money spent on room software takes you through the steps of setting effectiveness of the correction. Along with the Flat acoustics might sensibly be a priority, but it is a novel the inputs and outputs of the audio interface and target curve, it is also possible to select a preset approach to the problem of imperfect monitoring. I’m setting a rough level. Then each measurement high frequency roll-off, which can reduce excessive sure this technology has an assured future. I haven’t sends a series of 10 frequency sweeps through each brightness. There is also a midrange compensated yet decided whether I want to start learning the sound speaker (separately). It is required to take no fewer response that puts a dip in the middle to provide of my room all over again, but ARC is certainly an than 12 measurements in different spots, and 16 a more natural sounding response for horn-loaded eye-opener and functions beautifully. ■ to 20 for better results. This is done by moving the speakers or those with crossover circuitry that adds microphone around the listening area between each some harshness here. And there is also a response ProS Quick fi x that ensures a fairly fl at set of sweeps, the main proviso being that you take combining high and mid reductions. response in most circumstances; even numbers of measurements at each deviation It is interesting to note that the system doesn’t improved stereo imaging; microphone left or right of centre. When you think you have simply average the frequency response measurements also useful for recording. enough measurements, the calculation is computed to apply correction, as this would achieve nothing if CoNS large latency; limited selection of quickly and you can store the settings. Multiple there was, say, a boost at 200Hz in one position target curves. settings can be saved. and a dip at another: the average would be to leave Loading up the plug-in in your DAW then enables the response unadjusted. Instead, MultEQ looks at recall of the measured settings. patterns in the time domain responses and classifi es Contact My fi rst attempt at this seemed to add a rather odd them into clusters, based upon the similarities in those iK mUlitmEdia, italY: delay between the left and right speaker; I’m not sure patterns. Some complicated processing is then applied Website: www.ikmultimedia.com

30 resolution May/June 2008

review Sonifex RM-4-C8 Designed for non-critical listening in mission critical environments, rackmount monitors need to be seen and heard. ROB JAMES fi nds one that redefi nes the breed through its fl exibility and also doesn’t sound bad.

nyone who has spent any length of time in monitor various signals in a rack environment is still there are just two, with four mono channels per Bank, a big facility or a broadcaster will be familiar there but, in the digital age, we are faced with stereo thus there are two groups of four XLR inputs on the with the concept of rack audio monitors. AES streams, Dolby Digital and Dolby E encoding and, rear panel. In each of these groups two sockets accept The idea is simple, provide a means of in video facilities, embedded audio streams within SD either mono analogue or stereo AES digital streams, Amonitoring signals passing through the rack for (Serial Digital) and HD SD (Hi Def SD) video. While auto-sensing which type of signal has been applied; identifi cation and checking purposes. With a properly there are already ways of dealing with such signals, very clever! There are a maximum of six Banks designed analogue jackfi eld this is simply a matter of Sonifex has produced a compact and elegant solution depending on which option cards (if any) are fi tted. jacking the monitor into listen jacks of the source or for monitoring several formats in one unit. Sonifex Banks are selected using the left-most rotary source sources you are interested in. Old style rack monitors has a great reputation for producing the essential but selector on the front panel. Pressing the rotary steps are mostly pretty simple beasts with a couple of PPMs often ‘forgotten until you need them’ red boxes at a through all the Banks, returning to the fi rst when you (stereo in some cases) and fairly rudimentary audio reasonable price and its new departure into the new press the knob with the last Bank selected. Turning the amplifi cation and loudspeaker(s). If you were lucky and blue Reference Monitor series is no exception. knob selects the input in the Bank for monitoring on the most commonly used sources would be hard- The UK£950 (+ VAT) RM-4-C8 version I had on test the Left Speaker and headphone output. As you would wired to a selector switch. The audio quality would combines local metering and monitoring of up to eight expect, the right-hand rotary source selector does the have disgraced the average tranny but that wasn’t mono audio sources in analogue and/or AES digital same for the Right Speaker and headphone output. really the point. formats with extensive remote control via USB. The four 26-segment LED bargraph meters look Fast forward to today and the requirement to Audio sources are divided into Banks. As standard at the four inputs of the selected bank. A variety

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Sumo High Resolution Summing Amplifi er The right tools for the right job. Audient Workstation Peripherals ASP008 8 Channel Variable Impedance Mic Pre 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 specifi cation tools designed to create the optimum signal path in the analogue domain.

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Ten21 Studio (UK). Control room featuring Audient ASP8024 Console Distributed in the UK by SCV London. - think clarity www.audient.com Tel: 020 8418 1470 www.scvlondon.co.uk review

of common characteristics/ballistics are provided, for longer than 20 seconds, and the Sustained metal knobs are deliciously tactile. Everything feels as selected via DIP switches on the base of the unit. Phase Error Alarm is triggered when the phase if it should last a lifetime. These include BBC PPM, VU, Nordic, DIN and AES- difference between the currently selected inputs The optional extra interfaces rocket it into a EBU digital PPM. Self adhesive scales for each option remains consistently above 90 degrees for longer different league in price and capabilities. You will are provided and brightness can be adjusted using an than 5 seconds. These tallies, together with an alarm know if you need the pricier options and will be well instrument screwdriver via a small hole in the front reset have obvious applications in transmission and used to paying the premium. panel. Adjacent to the level meters, fi ve LEDs are transfer suites. The mains socket is IEC and, as For the rest of us the RM-4C-8 and its siblings are used as a phase meter. This simply indicates the is often the case with professional rackmounting professional pieces of kit at very reasonable prices degree of correlation between the left and right boxes, there is no power switch. that should receive a hearty welcome in all manner sources selected currently. Input termination for the AES-EBU inputs is of facilities. ■ Positive, internally illuminated pushbuttons provide switchable via the base-plate DIP switches to suit the expected functions of Dim (by 10dB), Left Cut, specifi c installations but Sonifex wisely recommends ProS massive build quality; ideal blend of Right Cut, Mono Sum, Phase Invert (Right-hand that for optimum reliability, termination is left switched function and form; value for money. Source) and M+S (Middle and Side). The M+S on at all times. Input level selection is also on a DIP CoNS Good reproduction but not hi-fi ; function is both encode and decode, i.e. if the unit is switch bank with gain switched in 6dB steps for a options pricey (but par for the course); fed with L+R then engaging M+S encodes and when maximum of +18dB over the standard settings. bottom panel diP switches may not be fed with M+S it will decode. This affects the internal Although this is a 1U unit Sonifex has gone to great convenient in some installations. speakers, the headphone and line level outputs. The pains to ensure that audio quality is streets ahead of centre detented +/-6dB balance (pan) pot affects the the average rack monitor. To this end the three-way EXtraS there are two other units in the Sonifex reference monitor range. the rm- internal speakers and headphone output and the speaker system is fed by class D amplifi ers via an active 2S4 has two lEd meters and four stereo Level pot affects the internal speakers, the headphone crossover with the drivers mounted in sealed, custom inputs and the rm-2S10 has two lEd output and, optionally, the line-level outputs. Four profi led and moulded, infi nite baffl e, magnetically meter and 10 stereo inputs. indicator LEDs show if the loudspeaker protection shielded chambers and the whole unit has been built limiter is operating, if the currently selected source is like a tank with welded stainless steel case, more within 0.5dB of Clipping and if Left and Right digital lid-fi xing screws than I have ever seen before, foam inputs are locked. sealing and a megalithic slab of alloy for the front panel Returning to the rear panel, the inputs are to eliminate the possibility of internal rattles. For the accompanied by two XLR line level outputs for stereo really keen, there is a fi ve-band parametric equaliser to analogue or an AES pair on the left-hand socket further tailor the sound to the installation environment, (confi gured by the bottom panel DIP switches). A accessible from the SCi software. 15-pin D-sub gives GPI-O access to remote functions I was delighted by the RM-4C-8. It does what and tallies and there is the alternative of a 9-pin D- it purports to do and is completely intuitive in Sub RS-232 or a B Type USB serial for remote control operation. Output level is more than impressive for from a PC running the freely downloadable Sonifex such diminutive speakers. Truly this is the ghetto- SCi software. blaster of rack monitors. At more modest levels, Tally outputs include an Audio Overlevel Alarm, although it cannot break the laws of physics, the Contact Underlevel Alarm, triggered when either of the bass is more implied than present but it is surprisingly SoNiFEX, UK: currently selected input sources falls below -20dBu accurate. The build quality is impeccable and the Website: www.sonifex.co.uk

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Sumo High Resolution Summing Amplifi er The right tools for the right job. Audient Workstation Peripherals ASP008 8 Channel Variable Impedance Mic Pre 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 specifi cation 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 Distributed in the UK by SCV London. - think clarity www.audient.com Tel: 020 8418 1470 www.scvlondon.co.uk review Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser

There has been something of a rash of plug-ins concerning themselves with the management of uttered plosives. GEORGE shILLING is especially impressed with this de-esser.

The vertical slider at the right then sets the threshold in conventional fashion. However, the threshold moves dynamically thanks to continuous level tracking, and the resulting de-essing is natural and seems consistent with differing levels of sibilance. There is also an Attack time setting, but for general de-essing, I found no need to fi ddle further. The graph can be zoomed in either direction by dragging the mouse logically from one point at the bottom left corner, but it scrolls automatically when setting the frequency, if one is zoomed in. Other bonus items on the display are tall LED-style meters for input and output, with corresponding Trim settings, and a Wet/Dry mix setting. An Access button (‘More’) opens up further setting options, with Hold and Release to accompany the Attack setting, and a Ratio control with unnecessarily odd scaling in degrees. Further, there is Level Tracking On/Off and Damping setting. And here, the Trigger ew from Sonnox is the Oxford SuprEsser, samples. There is also a ‘low latency’ version that sensor and the Audio modes can be switched from designed to be ‘the last word’ in De- is set for 512 samples. However, this is unsuitable the Band setting to Wide mode, opening up further Essing. A number of plug-in designers for low frequency accuracy below 400Hz. The other processing options. have recently turned their attention to de- problem caused by such sophisticated processing is Sonnox has introduced its own Waves-style preset Nessing, and there are some excellent alternatives, but that the SuprEsser uses an enormous amount of CPU manager with this plug-in, allowing users to dial up Sonnox’s new release avails the user of more control power, so depending on your computer and what else the same settings across differing platforms if, say parameters than any rival. The busy plug-in window is taxing the CPU, you might be limited in the number tracking in Logic and mixing in Pro Tools. This part features a whizzy real-time graph display; there is of instances or which of the three versions you can use, of the window is hidden by default, and its view a ‘More’ button revealing extra parameters, and a or fi nd that you need to further increase the buffer… setting is one of the options viewed by clicking the further hidden preference menu. Unlike traditional This soon leads to the high resolution version causing Sonnox logo, where you can also choose the default hardware de-essers, the full audio frequency range the accumulated delay to go beyond the capabilities view (Easy/More), Clip light settings, and so on. is selectable, resulting in the possible application of of the Pro Tools delay compensation engine, although Sonnox supplies a number of presets as starting this plug-in for all kinds of frequency-conscious or the actual delay is accurately reported in the track points for different situations, and these are provided broadband dynamic processing. delay information. in the native host’s normal library as well as in the The SuprEsser comes as a native-only plug-in SuprEsser uses the excellent Oxford Dynamics proprietary menu. But you won’t generally need in VST, Audio Units and RTAS formats. There is no processor, adding two linear phase crossover fi lters them, such is the ease with which areas can be TDM or PowerCore version, nor is there planned to enable complete control of a particular area of the identifi ed and processed using the graph display. ‘Ess’ to be. Sonnox is at pains to point out that this is frequency range. The signal is split into the band to and ‘Sh’ sounds are dealt with exceptionally well, and not a policy decision signalling the end of TDM or be processed and the surrounding bands that are not with minimal tweaking, effective de-essing is achieved PowerCore support, but merely a technical decision as processed, then these are re-merged with appropriate with no loss of brightness. For other uses such as the processing used by the SuprEsser is too complex to delay compensation within the plug-in, and you can reducing instrument harshness or resonances, or de- implement on fi xed-point DSP. select monitoring of either path (‘Inside’ or ‘Outside’) popping, results are very good indeed, and made all Three versions of the plug-in are installed, each set separately for checking purposes, as well as the the easier with the excellent graph display. The only up to use varying Kernel sizes. The linear phase fi lters intended mixed output. downer is the processing overhead and latency but require a processing time — an ‘Impulse Response Despite the processing complexity, it is fairly easy the initially daunting interface soon becomes familiar Kernel’ to model the fi lter response. So there is a to set the de-esser for normal function thanks to the and the results are excellent. ■ trade-off between the accuracy of the low frequency excellent moving graph display that shows spectrum processing and the plug-in delay. The three different analysis. ‘Esses’ are pinpointed on the fl y with a ProS Unquestionably the de-esser with the versions of the plug-in have different preset kernel vertical line and a frequency readout, so watching a most parameters; phenomenal control. sizes, so it is up to the user to choose the appropriate few go by will soon show you the range where they setting. The standard version uses a kernel size of 2048 are most problematic. A horizontal slider at the bottom CoNS No tdm version; large latency of all versions but especially the Hr version. samples, and it is recommended to use a similar sized allows you to centre the frequency to be targeted, and buffer to lower the plug-in delay. Lowering the buffer the band can be narrowed by dragging a point at the EXtraS the fi rst wave of oxford SuprEsser too much is claimed to cause problems as the plug-in top downwards or adjusting the Filter Width setting on purchasers will get 10% off the purchase won’t have big enough blocks of audio to process, but the left numerically or by dragging, causing the vertical price of UK£180 (+ vat) if they buy in practice I didn’t fi nd a huge problem with lowering boundary lines to narrow. This can be set down to before 30 June 2008. a fully functioning the buffer, although a ‘Warning!’ indicator appeared at 0.2 octaves, or as wide as 10 octaves (full range if 15-day demo can be downloaded from the top of the plug-in. centred). Fainter lines show the slope that can also the Sonnox website. The standard version is suitable for working on the be adjusted from a numerical display on the left of the entire frequency range at 44.1kHz, but for high sample graph — normally this is set at a remarkable 72dB Contact rates the high resolution version is recommended, per octave, which, thanks to the linear phase fi ltering, SoNNoX, UK: which exhibits an enormous kernel size of 8192 causes no problems. Website: www.sonnoxplugins.com

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duplicated on the left-hand side of the unit, alters the gain relationship in favour of the front capsules. Holophone H4 Supermini Beside the Zoom indicator LED lies the Mic Gain control for all capsules. Holophone advises It’s compact and tidy and represents a real-world solution to real-world that this should be set and left. Sound advice since it exhibits zipper noise-like multichannel acquisition issues. ROB JAMES tries a Supermini on for size. steps that render it all but useless for adjustments during recording. Another he rapid rise of HDTV broadcasting and even feared that the combination of small knob, Ext Centre Mic, adjusts the gain HD for weddings and events has brought capsules and a foam gag would be of an external mic connected to the side with it the requirement to produce cost- a recipe for excessive wind noise. In socket. Below this is the Phones level effective 5.1 surround sound. fact, the amount of wind it can tolerate control. A further button switches the 12dB TThe feature fi lm approach, where the 5.1 track is was a pleasant surprise. pad into circuit. Finally, the power switch has meticulously constructed from many elements just The H4 has six capsules. One points a positive sliding action. All the buttons have isn’t an option for many productions and, in any case, forward, two are angled left and right along associated indicator LEDs. this approach won’t work for live. So, the hunt is on the pointy bit of the ellipsoid also facing The manufacturer states that the H4 is for a practical 5.1 mic system. forward, and two are angled along the intended for on-camera mounting and the If you already have strong opinions about stereo hemispherical part, facing backwards. The primary mount is indeed a locking cold shoe mic techniques you will fi nd corresponding ideas in sixth LFE mic is hidden within the casing. type. However, I do not believe this method of surround. The coincident and M&S camps are already The control unit is housed in an alloy mounting is its forte. The combined mic head well represented by the SoundField and Schoeps’ extruded casing with a locking hot/cold and control unit is quite heavy at a measured double M&S system. The near-coincident, spaced mic shoe mount at the bottom and the head 725g with 4 AA cells on board for power. The fraternity has SPL Atmos/Brauner and any number socket at the top. The right-hand side has weight is only part of the problem. At around of custom mounts for other capsules. This leaves all the sockets. There are 3.5mm stereo 250mm from the mount to the top, if even ‘dummy head’ as the wild card. Dummy head has jacks for the three pairs of discrete outputs modest pressure is applied at the top there is found little favour in sound for picture circles for the and two more for the stereo Dolby encoded considerable stress on the shoe. With smaller, simple reason that, in stereo, the effect only really output and headphone output. An XLR lighter camcorders (Sony PD170, for example) works well on headphones. allows connection of an alternative centre the extra weight can unbalance the camera Physically all the Holophones are an abstract channel mic and there is a phantom power and I found it unwieldy. representation of a human head. The H4 is no switch below with a coaxial 5V DC external There is a good reason for the height. Even exception but this head, a plastic, ellipsoid shaped power socket below that. On the back, when hand-held there is considerable scope housing with large rubber grommets mounting the six bi-colour LEDs, arranged to mimic the for the cameraman’s body to form an effective fi ve external capsules’ has been subject to a serious capsule layout, glow green when the signal screen for the rear elements. On the end of a shrinking process. It attaches to the control unit via an reaches a certain level and red when clipping boom it’s a lot of weight to hold for any length edge connector and two thumbscrews. The H4 arrived approaches. It takes something pretty loud of time. The actual mic head is very light. I with a somewhat ill-fi tting Velcro fastened foam to light them and then the reds come in suspect it would be feasible to use an extension windgag and a Rycote Windjammer furry cover. I had soon after. Under the LEDs a zoom button, cable between the head and control unit. If review

Holophone decide to offer such an not claim super accurate imaging. I Good wind resistance; light and compact accessory it would make for far better have considerable reservations about ProS head; versatile outputs. ergonomics in many circumstances. using it for acquisition of material The idea of adding an external likely to be subject to manipulation CoNS Control unit with capsule attached heavy mic for the centre channel is just fi ne in post and subsequent delivery and ungainly with a lightweight camera; but... This is only really acceptable through a broadcast chain. In these signal lEd sensitivity odd; steps in mic when the other capsules cannot pick circumstances I would advocate using gain control. up signifi cant amounts of the centre the discrete outputs. The headphone EXtraS Newly released channel sound, for example, a close monitor outputs Virtual Surround but, at NaB is the miked voice in a noisy environment. at least with the headphones I was H4 multi-Cable If they can, then the phase effects using, I didn’t perceive much of a which reduces caused by the lack of co-incidence surround effect. the height of the between the capsules may well be I am a huge fan of coincident H4 by dropping horrendous. Something similar was mics and less than enthusiastic about it 6-inches. it also attempted 30 years ago when people dummy heads for reproduction on allows the H4’s encoder, preamp were experimenting with M&S for speakers so you won’t be surprised to and monitor TV. Somebody had the bright idea of hear I was somewhat sceptical about module to be mounted in a variety of pointing the M capsule at the action the Holophone premise. In use it’s a locations. the multi-Cable is available and hanging the S capsule over their lot better than expected. It certainly with 90cm or 1.5m cable, which connects shoulder to pick up the ambience. It manages to produce a tangible the multichannel microphone head to the sounded kind of OK on headphones surround fi eld with good separation encoder. an upgrade to the and absolutely horrendous on while capturing the crucial main event H4 adds balanced speakers. And here is the danger with at the front. Perhaps the relative outputs to the non-coincident mic techniques, it may proximity of the capsules confers some mic’s encoder and will now well be that it is only when the post of the benefi ts of coincidence? I suspect have one 6-pin people get to hear it on speakers that that there is also some surface effect mini Xlr output phase problems become evident. involved. Whatever, there is obviously that contains lt Holophone has equipped the H4 something going on here beyond and rt balanced control unit with a Dolby ProLogic ‘conventional’ dummy head theory. information. II encoder in addition to six discrete Handheld, on a stand or boom the microphone outputs. Full surround captured in mounted, the H4 delivers, even in is priced at just two channels. It’s a seductive quite boisterous wind conditions. If US$2,695. premise, but let’s examine this you can set aside purist prejudices, a little more closely. The Dolby it is a pragmatic answer to feeding Prologic II system is primarily a the growing demand for ‘real’ 5.1 Contact phase relationship matrix and even recordings in a variety of real-time, HoloPHoNE, CaNada: its most ardent supporters would real-world locations. ■ Website: www.holophone.com craft

Horn and Downes briefl y joined legendary prog- rock band Yes, before Trevor quit to pursue his career as a producer. Dollar and ABC won him chart success, with ABC’s The Lexicon Of Love giving the producer his fi rst UK No.1 album. He produced Malcolm McLaren and introduced the hitherto-underground world of scratching and rapping to a wider audience, then went on to produce Yes’ biggest chart success ever with the classic Owner Of A Lonely Heart from the album 90125 — No.1 in the US Hot 100. Horn and his production team of arranger Anne Dudley, engineer Gary Langan and programmer JJ Jeczalik morphed into electronic group Art Of Noise, recording startlingly unusual-sounding songs like Beat Box and Close To The Edit. In 1984 Trevor pulled all these elements together when he produced the epic album Welcome To The Pleasuredome for Liverpudlian bad-boys Frankie Goes To Hollywood. When Trevor met his wife, Jill Sinclair, her brother John ran a studio called Sarm. Horn worked there for several years, the couple later bought the Island Records-owned Basing Street Studios complex and renamed it Sarm West. They started the ZTT imprint, to which many of his artists such as FGTH were signed, and the pair eventually owned the whole gamut of production process: four recording facilities, rehearsal and rental companies, a publisher (Perfect Songs), engineer and producer management and record label. A complete Horn discography would fi ll the pages of Resolution dedicated to this interview, but other artists Trevor has produced include Grace Jones, Propaganda, Pet Shop Boys, Band Aid, Cher, Godley and Creme, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, David Coverdale, Simple Minds, Spandau Ballet, Eros Ramazzotti, Mike Oldfi eld, Marc Almond, Charlotte Church, t.A.T.u, LeAnn Rimes, Lisa Stansfi eld, Belle & Sebastian and Seal. Horn received a Grammy Award in 1996 for Seal’s second album. (photos www.recordproduction.com)

When you came to record Malcolm McLaren at the studio where I worked as a house engineer in 1982, I was completely riveted to see how you worked with the (then new) Fairlight II. Playing your bass into it — fi nding just the notes you liked and then sequencing them to make a track. Did we have the World’s Famous Supreme Team there with Malcolm?

Malcolm had a huge box of tapes you had recorded of the US rappers and scratch artists. I was fascinated to watch you sample snippets of this audio and build a song from it. In the early 80s a lot of people didn’t really know Trevor Horn what was going on. If you tried to explain a Fairlight to them — ‘it’s a digital Melotron’ — they didn’t know Trevor Horn defi ned what it was to be a record producer in the 80s, and pioneered the what you meant. That was a wonderful period ... technology was so expensive you had to be successful production methods in use today. NIGEL JOPSON talks to a legend for whom he once to get it! I tried to explain it to the World’s Famous Supreme Team: ‘You guys scratch records, but we’ve moved a fader a very small distance. got this Fairlight, look at the amazing things it can do’ — I saw their eyes glaze over — they weren’t really revor Horn demonstrated how the new reassembled songs as pop classics, and provided interested! There was something new every week, the wave of electronic musical instruments a template for the cut-and-paste DAW production fi rst time we ever locked a Fairlight to a drum machine could be used, not just for electronic bleeps techniques used today. Having played bass in a was when we did Relax. There was a device called a and sweeps, but to fashion mainstream dance-band and backed 70s disco star Tina Charles, Conductor which was made by Syco Systems, God Tpop hits. Horn’s Sarm Studios modelled the next Horn formed The Buggles in 1977 with keyboard knows what it was, but that was a totally new thing, generation of recording facility, where the control player Geoffrey Downes. In 1979 they had a UK being able to lock sequencers together. rooms hosted as much — if not more — of the No.1 with the single Video Killed The Radio Star, recording process as the rooms in which microphones the video for which became famous when it was Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie of Fairlight didn’t and pianos stood. With his innovative use of drum the fi rst (and later millionth) to be played onthe think of their machine as a sampler, they built machines, synths, samplers and synchronisers he seminal entertainment channel MTV. that feature in for waveform modelling, it

38 resolution May/June 2008 craft was really you who turned the Fairlight into a things to be clear, I think pop music is a great form of The interesting thing about Slave To The Rhythm is ‘sampler’ by using it. I worked with other early communication, and whatever the artist is trying to that it was really engineer Steve Lipson [Resolution owners of the Fairlight II and they just played communicate, I’d like to try and get that across. I come V6.8], he made up a drum loop using two Sony DASH it like another keyboard. from the background of being a dance band musician, recorders. We had a Go-Go band in, they were all I never spoke to anyone from Fairlight ever, and rather than a rock musician. I’ve always found rock the top stars from the Go-Go world. The percussion they never spoke to me. I just paid full whack music rather simple harmonically, and quite tedious players were from EU (Experience Unlimited) and the for it — in fact, I’ve generally been like that with most of the time — except for bands like Yes or Steely drummer was a guy called Ju Ju, they were all great manufacturers — you can get too side-tracked if Dan — they would be much more to my liking than but they just couldn’t remember arrangements. They you get into those kind of things. I do remember Black Sabbath, who I can respect and appreciate, but didn’t get the idea of start here and stop there, they just just before I got the Fairlight, I received a phone call who I wouldn’t listen to by choice. I didn’t really even played. We were trying to record the song with them from a guy called Brad Naples, who ran Synclavier like Led Zeppelin until they split up ... playing, but it was hopeless. We did have a recording at the time, and who gave this whole sales pitch to of this little bit of a jam they had done, before we me saying: ‘If you’re looking for gimmicks, then the The Grace Jones album Slave To The Rhythm, started trying to show them the arrangement. The feel Fairlight is the thing for you, but if you’re looking which followed your ‘Fairlight II era’, seemed of this jam was really good, Steve took a few bars and for a serious scientifi c instrument then you should like a bit of a departure sound-wise. At the made up fi ve minutes of playing. At the time Steve buy the Synclavier.’ So I said to him: ‘Actually I’m time it was speculated how much of the groove was pretty hot with the two Sonys [DASH PCM-3324 looking for gimmicks, I’m a record producer! So I’m might be programmed in the Synclavier, or multitracks & IF-3310 edit controller] he could do just going to buy the Fairlight.’ I subsequently bought played by Luis Jardim. about anything with them, it was all done with SMPTE a Synclavier as well, but I must say this was the single biggest waste of money in my whole career, $260,000. We did use it, but once the audio quality became ‘normal’, sampling lost its fun aspect for me. If you put something in the Fairlight, it came out sounding slightly different, it was romanticised in some sort of way. The Synclavier was perfect quality, so it felt more like a recording, it was no fun anymore. Somebody asked me about six months ago what I thought of sampling, it’s a stupid question now because everything is a sample these days!

Was the guitar solo on Owner Of A Lonely Heart sampled and played from the Fairlight? No, Trevor Rabin played that on guitar, it was one take apart from the last two notes.

...and one pan pot I believe! Yeah, he was annoyed with me about that, because every time we used to play it back I would pan it and crank the reverb up. When he heard the fi nal mix he was really upset, because he thought I had only been doing that as a joke. I said: ‘No, of course I was going to do it on the record, I used to do it every time we played the bloody thing back!’ When he played that solo, Chris Squire [Yes’ bass player] wasn’t there. We got a harmonizer and put a fi fth on the guitar, we rolled the tape and he played the solo and said: ‘I think we should do something like that, we should work on it.’ I said: ‘That’s it, you’ve just played it, it’s brilliant!’ We argued for a bit, then I gave him another go, but kept the original. It wasn’t like nowadays, we probably only had one other track. The new solo was crap, I didn’t like it. In the end, I agreed to let him replace the last two notes in the solo, so we had to erase the original last two notes to punch the new notes in. Just after we’d done that, Chris Squire arrived and I said: ‘Check this guitar solo out, you’ll love it’. He said: ‘It’s good, but I don’t like the last two notes!’ I said: ‘No one’s touching it, it’s staying just like that!’

Trevor Rabin said about you: ‘There’s always a Trevor Horn stamp on his productions.’ Is that because you have a vision in your mind of what you want a piece of music to communicate to listeners? I have an idea, but I can be convinced otherwise. People will try and persuade me, so I will listen to something again and try and like it. Sometimes if you try and like something you will, and you’ll realise that before you were prejudiced against it. I do have certain things I can’t tolerate. I wouldn’t say I have any great vision, I think sometimes having a vision in music can be a damn nuisance, you’re much better off taking what comes along. If the guys play a different way and it’s better, then go with that. I like

May/June 2008 resolution 39 offsets. We slotted all the drum fills into the loop, then we slotted eight bars of the guy actually playing freely into the middle of it. It was a bit of a departure, because it was arranged as if it was programmed, but it had the sound quality of a beautiful recording. It was quite tough to play to afterwards. Luis Jardim didn’t play the drums on it, but he played a great bass part. I remember Luis saying ‘it’ll take me 20 minutes, Trevor’ — it took him eight hours, in fact — because the drum loop was just slightly out of time, you couldn’t lay back on it in the way that Luis was used to. Slave To The Rhythm had its problems, but it’s a great sounding record, and to this day it’s one of my favourite productions. It had some elements of ‘hi-fi’ to it which previously I possibly hadn’t used. Frankie didn’t have much of that.

We’re sitting here in one of your studios, Sarm West, tell us how you came to own it. Twenty-six years ago when I made Buffalo Girls with Malcolm McLaren, Chris Blackwell [Island’s founder] bought the album for the world outside of the UK, just because he liked that track so much. Chris said he’d like to meet me for dinner, so I went along with my wife Jill, who was managing me at the time. Half

40 resolution May/June 2008 craft

With the current ‘analogue myth’, it’s hard to explain to people who didn’t experience it how terribly frustrating it was to lose all that presence on recordings. It certainly is an analogue myth. We checked out some modules and eventually bought the SSL because it 48-channels, had the most top end. I was dead against computers, I can remember Gary Langan [Resolution V4.5) and pristine sound, Julian Mendelsohn kicking me out of the control room, because I was saying ‘it’ll break down, we should mix it by hand’ ... but it didn’t. The fi rst song fast set-up, we mixed on the SSL computer was ABC’s The Look Of Love. But once I’d had a couple of hits, everybody else wanted to book Sarm [East]. So I was constantly great show. traipsing around the studios of London, sometimes it was alright, but a lot of the time it was crap ... going to places with awful old Neve boards that everyone raves on about now, but I could never get enough top end, I had the knobs fl at out. So when Blackwell suggested this place I was very interested and we did a deal. My wife, who is an astute businesswoman, made an arrangement to buy the building off him as well. I think the fi rst record we did here was Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax. It was an extremely tense moment, because it took a few months to become a hit, and Jill and I had borrowed £1 million from the bank to do Basing Street up. Digital Snake It was the Top Of The Pops TV appearance that REAC 24-bit audio transfer really broke Frankie, wasn’t it? Yes, I can remember the TOTP people made the band promise they wouldn’t misbehave. That was wonderful — not that they had to promise to behave — what was wonderful was that people were a little M-400 V-Mixer scared of them, it gave them an air of excitement. 48-channel / 16 Aux Onboard FX / GEQ Now that it’s possible to Autotune every Holly USB record / play Johnson ad-lib, has music technology lost a bit of its appeal for you? You can put people in tune, but you can’t give them a great voice: there’s a huge difference between singing in tune and having a great voice. Music is really still about the same sort of things as it was before. Everybody expects you to tune them up these days, sometimes you can be a little bit sad ... but I would never tune someone up when their natural pitch helps the sound of their voice. Sometimes I get stuff to work on, I look at the waveforms and they are these little, awful, crummy recordings. I think ‘project studio’ recordings are generally mediocre. How could way through dinner I asked him what he was doing they possibly not be, because unless you have really at Basing Street, and he said: ‘Oh, I’m selling it to accurate monitoring, how can you take any chances? Richard Branson, why? Do you want it?’ To which I It’s the room the equipment is in and what you can said: ‘Yeah!’ and Jill kicked me under the table. Chris hear. Everyone seems to think that if they’ve bought said: ‘I’ll let you have it if you’ll start a record label some sort of Neve mic pre — probably made in China, for me there.’ I said OK. It’s amazing how quickly now — that that’s going to make the quality of their you can do a big deal with someone if you both recording good. Bunk! It’s not bad recording that’s the Take a test drive want the same thing, I think we wrapped it up in two enemy, in fact it’s an achievement if you can make weeks. Sarm [East] had an old Trident mixer, Geoffrey something sound terrible these days, everything Call Martin Thomas [Downes] and I had been working on a Buggles track sounds blandly mediocre to me most of the time. at the Townhouse — they had an SSL which we loved 07876 345 164 — although it didn’t have automation yet. The Trident You’ve produced so many talented performers, was a good desk although a bit noisy, while recording is there a particular artist you haven’t worked you monitored through this sort of jukebox section, with who you’d like to produce? then you had to switch over to the main board when With me it’s more to do with material, I’d rather work it came time to mix: the difference in the sound was with good material, whichever artist I don’t mind. I’d terrible, it was always an awful moment. I had had a also prefer to work on someone’s fi rst album rather really bad experience elsewhere with the Neve Necam than their twentieth. I still like making records ... I automation system, losing all my mixes. I was really love making records. However long I’ve done it, I into top end as well, I had been to America and worked still feel like a complete novice when I start a new on MCIs, the engineers out there put more top end on record. It’s a good feeling, I’ve been doing it a long the tracks than I’d ever heard in my life, it really was time but everyone starts from the same place on a www.rolandsg.co.uk a cool thing because in the days of analogue tape, all new recording. ■ the top end would be knocked off later.

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How is your work made up? Benedict and I split the rooms between us, she does a The current state of technology in the lot of producing now and I continue to also do mixes for people who come to the end of a project and their recording and reproduction of sound is at mixer doesn’t suit. So my work is split into the 5.1 a very high level today thanks to tireless DVDs, producing compete projects for artists, and efforts of a handful of pioneers. This doing mixes for people who have already recorded. relatively small group of researchers and The idea about this place was to try and recapture innovators, all of whom were continually what I discovered when I started in this business. I started in a small studio and when I listening to records Audio striving for sonic perfection included Horst I always wondered where they were recorded and what Klein and Walter Hummel. In 1945 they the studios would be like. But they would never let you courageously founded a company that is in to see the place; it was mysterious. That magic is still to this day, exclusively dedicated to very important for the myth surrounding the recording the perfect reproduction of sound. of sound. The result is always 25% the equipment, and perfection 75% the people behind it. I’ve very happy with the www.klein-hummel.co.uk equipment we have but if was up to me, and it’s not, and it was not a necessity, which it is, then I’m not in love with Pro Tools because it doesn’t sound too good to me. But working with other software can be a mess because it’s not very easy to translate them. The way we work with Pro Tools and the Euphonix is like working with a master tape -– you can tweak and edit it, put a plug on specifi cally to get the sound we want, and then mix with the desk and put the mix back in the Pro Tools session.

How does that compare to mixing in the box? One test that we’ve done is comparing mixing in the box, with the Euphonix Hybrid, and mixing through the digital desk. Using the digital desk sounds 50% better and we used the Hybrid to create the same balance and the same levels. What’s interesting is that if you only have a vocal track, acoustic bass, guitar Dominique Blanc-Francard and a tambourine, it sounds very similar. Add electric guitars, drums and keyboards — 40 tracks — you start He’s a leading player in French recording with a career that goes back to the 1960s, yet to hear the differences. It’s not black and white but it is much better, so much so that we bought another desk he’ll tell you he’s as busy now as he’s ever been. ZENON SCHOEPE meets a survivor and instead of running both studios with controllers and an inspiration to us all. mixing in Pro Tools, which would have been much easier. We chose the S5 because I expect in the next ominique Blanc-Francard is an elder producer sons in 1996, initially to serve as a place three or four years maybe new Pro Tools cards that statesman of music recording in France to hatch their musical ideas with Yamaha 02Rs. He may be much better -– then we’ll already have the having started his career in the 1960s. was tracking around Paris studios and returning with controllers. We are covered either way. What is interesting about his life and his DA88s and continuing on the 02Rs. Things came to a But I’m happy because it was diffi cult switching Dapproach is that he has adapted continuously and crossroads when one of his sons decided he wanted to from the digital toys that the Yamahas were to high- successfully to changes in musical style, recording record an album in their studio. They rented another end digital equipment — and that’s in an industry methods and attitudes, and technological change; desk, multitracks and discovered that the studio was a where everything is falling apart. I’m not anxious he’s a survivor. good place for recording. ‘I wanted to escape from the about the music industry; I’m anxious about the He’s old enough to remember mono operation, big Paris studios just because it was so boring to go recording industry. The music industry is still earning the enormous changes that increasing multitrack into a studio every morning and see an SSL and two money, in different ways, and what ever the future track counts had on the production process, the young assistants telling you they’d put the mics up will be they will always need content. Content is individuality of different console brands, the impact of and that everything was ready to record and it always songs, singers and good songs because people love fl edgling digital, the standardisation of console types sounded the same -– same desk, same speakers, same music. We have to think differently today and that and recording methods, the crashing democratisation room and…the same music too.’ means optimising the ratio between spending money of technology and the new and more stable dawn of Later, an initial Euphonix System 5 purchase was and earning money. No studio can work today like modern high-end technology. His career has covered made largely on an expected boom in 5.1 for music they did in the past when record companies spent stints as an ordinary employee, house engineer, and when that didn’t materialise they had a big money shamelessly. freelancer, studio owner, engineer, mixer, remixer and console in a small studio. They started working with I’m not sure that everyone can record themselves. producer. His credits include a host of top French acts record companies by offering a complete package The main point there is that you have time; there’s over the decades while his international credentials ‘they give us an artist and we give them a master tape plenty of that and you can spend two days on your are assured from his time as house engineer at — they don’t care what equipment we use, they only mix. But you are alone. You need someone to help Château d’Hérouville in the 1970s where he worked want to sell records.’ you when you are producing a song. It’s not true that with Gong, Magma, T. Rex, Cat Stevens and many A couple of years and a couple successes later you can go to a shop, buy your own studio and make other acts that passed through the studio. and the momentum had been gathered, to the extent your own record alone. Today he works with his wife engineer Bénédicte where they didn’t have enough capacity. They added Many studios will disappear, many will stay, but Schmitt in his own studio Labomatic, which is in a a second-hand CS2000 in the large ‘offi ce’ area then the new studios will be places where people can be premium Paris plot just off the Champs d’Elysses. in 2007 replaced it with another S5. The two rooms, helped to fi nish or start a project if they think in There’s been a studio on the site since the early which share a live area, are completely independent the same technology terms as the musicians do at 1960s and it had the distinction, as one of the but can also work together if required. home. And there comes a point at which you can’t fi rst independent studios in France, of being the Dominique still clearly enjoys the job and has have all that equipment at home because it is still recording venue for The Beatles recording in arrived at the sort of work that he can apply all his too expensive. It’s still like 25 years ago when you German of She Loves You. experience and knowledge to. For example, he’s been had a Revox at home but you wanted to work on Dominique took the studio on with his two working with Carla Bruni for some years now. those Otaris.

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0300_A4.indd 1 23/4/07 12:28:45 pm The current state of technology in the recording and reproduction of sound is at a very high level today thanks to tireless efforts of a handful of pioneers. This relatively small group of researchers and innovators, all of whom were continually Audio striving for sonic perfection included Horst Klein and Walter Hummel. In 1945 they courageously founded a company that is still to this day, exclusively dedicated to perfection the perfect reproduction of sound. www.klein-hummel.co.uk

0300_A4.indd 1 23/4/07 12:28:45 pm craft craft

So how can you work in such a market? It’s the diffi cult balance of explaining with arguments that if they do give you a project then they will be able to sell it. So, we need to have successes to make this believable. They need to look in the charts and see Labomatic, Labomatic, and Labomatic — then they know that they should work with us. And the artists that come here are happy and when they’re happy they make better records. It’s a combination of knowledge, commercial attitude and doing the job right -– then you can live with it but you have to be very precise in your judgement of your work. Your work transforms the money of the record company into much more money in sales, whether that’s a CD or a download; you have to make music that people want to buy in whatever way. In the next years people will buy music in a variety of different ways, but they’ll still have to like it enough to spend money on it. People discover one song on the Internet and they buy it but they don’t buy an album that has only one good song on it anymore! So you’re saying that there needs to be a does some sound at home and that’s great, and I play difference between the equipment a studio my guitar at home but each of us has different levels You seem well set up for all eventualities here… uses and what the musician has… of expertise. The problem is that the industry has Technically it is outstanding, people like the mood of There is a need for a difference just for the quality sold individuals the idea that they can do everything it and they come back but it is very dependent on our of the result and for the feel of the person behind it. on their own. When I work with Carla I send days continued success. We always have to choose the It’s not a question of the equipment, it’s about the recording guitar parts just to give the real musicians technology that is best for us. I’m always thinking knowledge of the operator and the job they do and the the idea of what I want them to play — and they’re about what’s coming next and I won’t fi nd that on tools we choose to use. We stopped working with the ten times better than me. the Digidesign website; I fi nd it on the components Yamaha 02Rs not because of the sound but because There’s also the issue of price. A record company websites. Two years ago when Hitachi bought the we had musicians coming into the studios and saying; today wants to spend as little money as possible and hard disk business from IBM that told us that IBM ‘I don’t like the EQ used on my guitar, why don’t you when someone tells them they can do the job for 1 thought hard disk was dead and that solid state put 3dB at 2.5k because that’s what I do at home Euro at home rather than 10 Euro in the studio, they storage was coming. and it sounds good.’ I told one guy ‘That’s funny, want to believe it. The record companies don’t care It’s important to know what the technology of you have a Fender and you don’t sound anything about the quality to that extent but they do care about the next two years will be because it avoids you likeRoadshow Eric Clapton.’ Resolution(216x125mm).qxd:Mise He’s a guitarist, I’m an engineer, he en pagethe cost. 1 30/04/08 13:56 Page 1 spending badly.

Your road to Success The 22nd of May will see the start of Audio-Technica’s 2008 Roadshow stopping at 7 key locations across the country over a 3 week period. Our custom designed trailer will offer you the chance to view a selection of our key product offerings and discuss issues pertinent to you in a relaxed and informal manner. To find out more, and register to attend an event near you, visit www.audio-technica-roadshow.com

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How did you start your studio That machine sounded brilliant but it career? ate tapes and people were scared of I started as a musician in the 1960s. it. You’d put a tape on and rewind My father was a sound engineer in it and it would spill on the ground. TV and I spent a lot of time going The brilliant engineers at 3M had put to TV shows. He left and went to a some stroboscopes under the motors radio station and we always had tape and when you put the machine in fast recorders at home because he was rewind there was one speed at which fi nishing edits so we played with tape the machine would think it was in play recorders. But I wanted to be a guitarist because of a stroboscopic effect. A very and it was hard to make a living so my expensive experience. father had a friend who had set up a small studio and I went to work in it. You seem to be working as hard I went in and the man asked me to do now as when you started… some edits and, of course, I knew how I’ve never worked as much as I do to do that and I was hired as easy as now and with so much tension. I like that! It was a mono studio and nobody that but you have to have a break in was ever there so I brought my guitar between just to get some inspiration. in and recorded that every day. Then But you can’t do more than three of suddenly it was the start of multitrack four full projects a year. A production recording and we got a second-hand is around two months and then you 3-track from Studio Davout and we need a holiday. Mixing for me is ended up in 1968 with the fi rst 8-track like a holiday because you have no 3M. I had a good friend who was a implication -– you’re just doing the jazz producer who knew someone who best you can to make the record sound was setting up an incredible recording good. You don’t have to take nights studio in the country and he wanted and nights on getting a good guitar me to see it — it was Michel Magne part. When you produce you have and Château d’Hérouville. a lot of pressure about the content I went to that place and was of the song and you are responsible absolutely amazed because nobody for the fi nished product. It’s always a had put a recording studio in a château fi ght between the artist, who wants a before. He explained the project to keyboard here and not a guitar, and me and then one night I went there the record company that says you to help on a recording session, fell in should put a fl ute there, and you have love with it and then left my job and to be tough when you are sure that started there. That was the real start the success of the song needs to have of my career and when the château a guitar. If you’re a good diplomat you closed I went freelance. The fi rst studio can say ‘It could be a guitar sounding I opened was Continental in the 80s, like a piano.’ In the end, you do what which had the fi rst 3M 32-track digital you want but if it is a success then in Paris…it was a complete mess! you know why! ■

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Tell me about your more unusual mics… I don’t know their names. There’s one little mic Cameron Craig called Winston because I’ve seen a picture of Winston Churchill and he’s got four of them across the front of him. A great little mic, I think it’s made Quiet and unassuming yet equally happy to grunge up a drum loop as record an orchestra, by Vitavox, with Admiralty written on the back of Cameron Craig has won a Grammy for his efforts. He talks GEORGE SHILLING through his it, so probably ex-military. I’ve used it on all sorts of things, even vocals, a lot of drum things, it’s attitude and approach. quite middly.

n his native Australia, Cameron Craig was engineering career as he could expect to in his native Apart from the stuff you could replicate with always playing in bands, organising the PA surroundings. His work encompasses an enormous EQ, what else do these mics give you? and making recordings, and this naturally led to spectrum of musical styles including dance, indie, I think it’s too complex to try and do with EQ, and the pursuit of studio work. He traipsed around and orchestral recording. (‘I’m not fazed by different just the way the mic reacts to things is quite different Ihis hometown of Melbourne and landed a job at a styles. In Australia I did everything.’) He recently to EQ, so a condenser mic will act a lot differently studio run by an early hero of his (Ern Rose) that collected a Grammy for Best Engineered Album for to a ribbon mic. So even though you might get the was equipped with a classic combination of Harrison his contribution to the latest Suzanne Vega album. frequency thing the same, the actual reactions are console and MCI multitrack, and which had a useful A hugely impressive credit list notably also includes quite different. I’ve got a lot of weird and wonderful affi liation with a hire company, giving Cameron two albums with UNKLE, along with names like mics, and a few nice ones. It just started out from the opportunity to experiment with gear. He had Joe Strummer, The Hours, Duffy, Baaba Maal, going to studios and not having weird and wonderful a rather brief training, and was soon thrust into Paulo Nutini, Amy Winehouse and many more. mics, so the collection’s grown –- there’s no normal the engineering chair. He was ‘the AMS kid’ and He recently fi nished a Grace Jones album that was mics at all. I’ve got a U47 because a lot of studios the fi rst on the block with SoundTools. However, completed in a shared private studio, which was didn’t have them at the time, and a lot of ribbon he ‘went retro’ for a while and got interested in essentially built to complete the record. Possibly mics, because studios don’t have them. I just love microphones, amassing a collection of unusual one of the softest spoken and most charmingly the sound of them. models, including many ribbons, along with valve shy interview subjects that Resolution has ever and crystal models. encountered, we met up with Cameron at another Watching you work, I noticed you miked a Craig moved to the UK in 1996 on something of his favourite studios, Beethoven Street in West guitar amp with your RCA ribbon from quite a of a whim, feeling that he had gone as far in his London. (Photos www.recordproduction.com) long way back…

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That’s one thing I like about ribbons, you can have In Australia I did all sorts of things, and that was just ribbons sometimes. The UNKLE stuff was done at them back but they still have a lot of presence. I something you did. I seem to have become the strings AIR, it’s quite a bright room, so I put up ribbons as use a lot of distortion on drums, with ribbon mics, man for a select group of people. Suzanne Vega was a tree, and it worked quite well because it toned the just distorting them a bit. I use amps live with the done at Olympic with the London Session Orchestra, brightness down a bit. drums, I get the sound feeding back into the drums. and Will Malone did the arrangements, I’d worked I’ve got some Turner crystal mics that are great for with him on UNKLE. Is orchestral recording a high stress situation? feeding guitar amps, with the right impedance. I Once you get over the fact that it’s costing £30 a plug that into an amp, and just have that feeding Do you use a minimalist arrangement, or stick second or something, it’s quite enjoyable. As long as the room. millions of mics up? you understand what you’re doing, technically it’s I tend to stick millions of mics up, and then use three! quite easy, it’s all in the preparation really. If people Where do you put the amp? They’re all just there for safety really. I use the tree throw a few curveballs, that’s when you’ve got to be Usually where it is, it doesn’t make that much mainly, and some ambience mics. on the ball. You get about a minute and a half to get difference, it’s just feeding the room. your levels, you generally know roughly, the close A Decca tree with three M50s? ones are going to be the ones that might be a bit You don’t close mic the amp? Depending on the room. I think they were U67s different. It’s not such an issue because they’re only I have done, but I generally just use it to fi ll up the room. on that session because Olympic don’t have M50s, there if you want to bring up a part or add a bit more I thought that was a good alternative. I’ve used defi nition to the bottom end. Do you pick vocal mics depending on the singer’s gender? Sometimes, I’ve got a really nice 47 but it just hates female singers for some bizarre reason, they never sound right on it. It gets a bit sibilant. It does tend to like deeper male voices. So I’d probably use a C12 or 87 even. But it depends on the songs. In some cases ribbons suit the vocal.

Are you particular about mic preamps? Yeah I’ve got a rack of Neves, a rack of Telefunkens, and I did have some Universal Audio ones. Ribbons don’t like SSLs, and even some studios, it took me a while to fi gure it out, but going to big studios like Townhouse or Metropolis, the ribbons used to always buzz. And it’s just that the cable runs are so long. So I ended up using remote mic preamps, and that sorted it out. You’ve got to be a bit careful where you use them. They’re like single coil guitar pickups, especially the old ones.

And you EQ on the way in with the Neves? Yes. I still use software EQs as well.

Isn’t it a nuisance to set up an EQ on an Aux input and route it when recording though? Yes it is, and it’s always the latency issues that are a problem. If you want to just EQ the bass drum, you have set up the whole kit; they all go through Auxes then into channels just so you can put one EQ in, it is a bit of a pain. But it’s not that bad — it’s better to get it right onto tape.

So you try to make things sound as you envisage them ending up? When I’m mixing it, it makes it a lot easier, because I got it to sound the way I want it to sound. A lot of projects, I end up mixing as well, because you get there and go, Well, it’s nearly mixed isn’t it!

But presumably there’s some re-invention goes on at the mixing stage? It’s more about balances when I get to that point, hearing the song breathe, because a lot of those decisions have been made. But when you’re mixing someone else’s song, that’s when all your plug-ins come out, because you’re trying to make it into something you want it to be. Disrespectful is the wrong word, but I won’t have any shame in going, that snare drum sounds wrong, I’ll just sample one and put that in. Mainly things need beefi ng up, so I’ll add things in and get it working.

You recorded a large string section on the Suzanne Vega album, where did you learn orchestral recording techniques?

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And a good headphone mix must be essential? Well, that’s all in the preparation, it’s good if you’ve already got stems. And I make sure all the levels between all the tracks are about the same, so when switching from one track to the next the levels don’t vary wildly.

For mixing, do you prefer in-the-box, a summing mixer, or a console? All of the above, depending on the situation. Some records it’s half and half, some on the desk and some in the box. One record, it was ‘track reduction’, we had so many tracks that we actually mixed, but mixed to stems. We took the stems away and worked on those.

What about the sonic differences? They’re just different, I don’t think there’s anything right or wrong about either way. Some things actually sound better in-the-box, because it seems a bit more contained sounding. Some things need the width of coming out on the desk, it just depends how it was recorded, and what you’re trying to achieve in the end.

Do you use mix bus compression? I’ve really gone off it, I’m trying not to lately, it’s usually a [Smart] C2 if I do it, but I’m not enjoying mix bus compression at the moment. I do a lot of mixing to stems now, where I’m listening to the stems as I’m mixing, and it gets complicated when you’re putting things across the mix bus, so I try and avoid it where possible.

Do you use stem bus compressors, say across the drums? Yes, but I tend to get everything out of 32 outputs,

48 resolution May/June 2008 craft and get those back into Pro Tools, so essentially I can Do you think musicianship has declined? pull it back up in Pro Tools as it was on the desk, but I don’t think so, the only thing I think we’re battling with all the processing as it was on the desk. with now is a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. A lot of people can make records at home but What’s good about this room at Beethoven Street? not have the knowledge to make it a great record, yet. I like mixing in here, it’s an old SSL, and at one That diminishes some things. But there’s some good point we used to hate them, but now we quite stuff coming through. like them because everything is so clean, it’s a bit grungy and it’s helping now. I get good results Do you often pull tracks in from demos? here. I use KRK 7000s, NS-10s and usually some Yes, it happens a lot. I’ve come to terms with it, Auratones as well, and keep switching between the because of Pro Tools you’ve got the scope to do three. I usually start off quite loud to get a vibe for whatever you need to do with it. A lot of mixing what you’re doing, get excited about it, then turn it work’s done from people who record their own stuff, down and get to work. and you’re like a fi nishing producer; they’ve done this stuff and you’ve got to turn it into a record, but When did you last multitrack to tape? you’ve got all the tools now to be able to do that. It’s 2003, that was 2-inch, 16-track, but literally straight not that fast any more in that respect. A lot of things into Pro Tools as well, and immediately the tape come from Logic, it drives me crazy having to sort was done, it was dumped into Pro Tools, so almost out Logic and transfer it over. using tape like an effect. But it was good to switch between them and hear what tape was actually doing. Why do people employ you? Everyone liked the tape better. I think because I’ve done diverse things, they know I can sit there and record the drum loops and get it Does the tape do something to the bottom end? really trashy sounding, scrabbling around connecting Yeah, but in a nice way. We’d tweak the bass and wires in someone’s home studio, and then being at bass drum tracks’ bias to get it just right for them, AIR the next day doing a 40-piece orchestra, and not and that did extend the bottom end range, and at 15 being fazed by either situation. [ips] it did help. You’re a fairly quiet chap, is that an advantage? Do you tend to roll off the low end when I think so, I keep my head down when things are recording to Pro Tools? going wrong! I don’t get easily fl ustered. There have Not really when recording, I like it to be there, then been a few sessions where things have got out of in the mix trim it accordingly. I don’t like to do it in control, technically or emotionally. Just being able to the recording, because the rumble might be good, keep working through it — everyone will calm down and I don’t want to not know it was ever there, I’d eventually. When everyone is freaking out, I’m just, rather know and then fi lter it out a little bit. Yeah, no problem, and everyone calms down. ■

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could and could not do. Bands felt so relaxed here that we ended up experimenting and in no time at all we had bass amps in the bedroom and drums in the kitchen. All great fun but not something I’d do everyday. Around that time I started to do some business with Paul Brewer at a Dublin-based pro audio dealer Audio Warehouse. He’s originally from Tullamore, down the road, and we vaguely knew each other through the music scene. I quickly added an Audient ASP 008 to up my mic preamp count and Paul advised from the beginning that to maximise the studio’s business I needed to focus at being the best at one thing, not a Jack of all trades as many studios try to be. With my musical interests and the space I had available the obvious thing to concentrate on was rock bands, of which there are many in Ireland. I also needed to move the studio forward at a speed that matched the fullness of the diary and the coffers, so we looked at taking three steps. The fi rst was acoustic treatment. While the studio was well built from a room to room isolation point of view, I really was guessing with the acoustics. The untreated rooms sounded OK (again down to luck, more than planning) but I knew I needed to improve this. With my limited budget Paul put together an Auralex solution. This involved quite a lot of bass trapping (big rooms!) a good deal of absorption (breaking up standing waves and reducing RT time) and quite a bit of diffusion in the live room. With a few tweaks we now had a very usable control room and a lively but controlled recording area that sounded great for drums. The second step was also logical if not typical. As the customers I wanted to attract initially were Indie bands, they would come here to track drums and maybe stay to overdub, or maybe not. The (l-r) Paul and Joe. thinking then was to maximise results with the minimum outlay and to specifi cally aim at tracking. Paul suggested 8 channels of Neve 1073 DPA and an Apogee Ad16x that I bought in early 2006. While my The Nut Shed back end left room for improvement (God bless the humble Digi 002) the front end was A1. Ireland has a new international grade studio planted in the centre of the country. The third thing to address was more living space. The Nut Shed owner JOE EGAN tells us how many steps it took to get there. I thought that to attract more clients I needed space for them to live, so I built fi ve bedrooms and a big lounge area. This allowed me to attract good tracking ’d always wanted a ‘proper’ studio. A studio I wanted was to have access to great gear in great work and as we predicted, a lot of guys came here to where I didn’t feel I’d be making compromises rooms. Early on I cottoned on to the fact that rooms track and overdub but went to mix elsewhere. Once technically or musically… I guess that’s every maketh the studio. My family are in the building the word got out, bands started to come down from ‘studio’ owners dream? I’ve now been lucky trade so I decided to build my own studio. Unlike the Dublin regularly as it’s only an hour away. The plan Ienough to realise that dream. route that a lot of guys take, I made the building the was working. Like a lot of readers I started off in bands in school, priority, initially. I could easily add or replace gear, In fact the plan was working so well it wasn’t long playing Guns’n’Roses covers and the like in my case. unlike walls! before myself and Brewer hatched up some more My town, Clara in County Offaly in the Irish Midlands, In 2005 we built a spacious control room with steps and that’s where things got really interesting. has always been a town full of music and still is, even natural light and lots of height (4m) and a similar My next logical step was Pro Tools HD, to which I though the population is only 3,500. When I was 16 I sized live room plus a vocal booth. I started off with added the Waves Gold Bundle. As I’d already bought was in a band that did well on the local scene and we a Digidesign 002, a Focusrite ISA producer pack, the computer and Apogee AD16x I was one third of recorded a couple of songs in a local studio that were Genelec 8050s and a motley collection of mics. It was the way to HD already. An integral part of my buying hits in Ireland and that’s when the recording bug hit. basically a ‘bedroom’ setup but never-the-less ‘The process is ‘buy for now, but also for the future if you I was fascinated by the recording process, so much Loft Studio’ was in business. can’. I ordered a Manley Massive Passive EQ and a so that I decided to study recording in Dublin and was The next few months were spent fi nding the Manley Vari-Mu Compressor — gorgeous. We plugged lucky enough to train on SSLs and Neves. I quickly limitations of my rooms and equipment while making in my new HD3 system with an Apogee DA16x for discovered that the only way to make the recordings some pretty OK recordings, while I explored what I outs and away I went. I’d built up such a solid working relationship with Paul that we started to do some production work together at weekends and he’d often send down gear for me to test (or was that to buy...?) At the beginning of 2007 it was suggested that Audio Warehouse hold a pro audio show at my studio — it has a good central location in the country, with lots of room for guys and gear so it was ideal. In July 2007 little ole’ Clara became the centre of pro audio in Ireland for 24 hours. Twenty- two industry guys, including Zen from Resolution, descended on Clara coming mostly from the UK but

50 resolution May/June 2008 sweet spot some came from as far as Germany and Switzerland. studio The Nut Shed, it’s now home for myself and costs of pro studios, which were realistically beyond One of the exhibitors was Jim Motley from SSL Paul’s production duo The Nut Heads. the reach of everyone except professional bands. Now who had an X-Rack and an AWS 900 with him. I My next step is to upgrade my monitors, which those same pro studio prices have dropped so much loved the idea of the X-Rack, perfect for my setup I’ll do after Chris Walls has done his acoustic jiggery that you could ask why anyone would bother putting once I’d discovered the positive effect that out-of- pokery. I started with the Genelecs and still use them together one of their own when it won’t match the the-box analogue summing has on a track. But, I plus NS10s and PMC TB2s. I love the PMCs and results of the now affordable, professional setup. also thought ‘Gosh, that AWS 900 Jim bought (and we’re going to try a bigger set after the acoustic ‘lick The future looks very good for the Nut Shed. fully connected up to my system) looks and sounds of paint.’ Let the ‘real’ work, the recording of music, begin. ■ fantastic, perhaps I ought to buy that instead?’ Things Despite all the nay saying that goes on in the were racing ahead quicker than I anticipated and I industry, I feel there is still room for ‘proper’ studios. had to wonder if the studio warranted that kind of I feel my investment will pay off as I can now offer a expenditure so early in its, and my, life, level of technical excellence that hasn’t been readily We decided to do some research. We were very available in this country. Everyone knows that familiar with the Irish scene and decided to ask our recording budgets have shrunk — but that’s a reality. questions further a fi eld. London has always been a I accept that and am prepared to work within that centre of excellence for recording and is only an hour constraint. I think it’s interesting to remember that away by plane, so that was the logical choice. Through the main reason a lot of home studios started initially Paul’s SSL contacts and help from Ian Downs from (apart from enthusiasm) was to avoid the very high PMC we opened the doors to some of London’s premier studios. Running parallel to the gear development we decided we needed a more professional acoustic look at my rooms. It was around that time Paul spotted an article in Resolution mentioning Chris Walls from Munro Acoustics designing Julian Lennon’s studio. As we were in town, we arranged to meet with Chris. So, last autumn, like many Irishmen before us, myself, Paul and another studio owner friend Peter headed off to where the streets are paved with gold, London. On the way we went to SSL and spent an afternoon mucking about on their fi ne consoles. In London we visited Metropolis, British Grove (the ‘Taj Mahal’ of recording studios in my opinion), and AIR Lyndhurst. Rejuvenated, we returned to the Emerald Isle and thought long and hard about how to proceed. I toyed with the idea of getting an X-Rack and taking that route but that AWS had looked fabulous in my room and sounded even better — so perhaps that was the way. After a few week’s thinking I bit the bullet and took the big step and I’m recently the owner of a 48-channel SSL Duality; the fi rst in Ireland. I’ve rewired the studio with Vovox cabling and have been recognised by Vovox with its Purum Certifi cate. I’ve got 48 channels of Apogee A-D/D-A and a very full rack. I also have an extremely large loan… and a Gaggia Coffee Machine. I felt that a Duality was my ultimate console ‘goal’ and that an AWS would have been an intermediate step. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to charge more daily for it but I will be able to sleep well in the knowledge I have a studio that sounds great and should leave no one wanting. We installed the equipment in early March and while Paul lost a bit more hair during the process, it was relatively simple. We had a bit of fun getting the two console halves up the stairs but nothing that the muscles from the local Mark Hogan band couldn’t sort. As nearly all the ins and outs are on D-Subs we were in a position to prewire the studio so the rack was populated and plugged up by the time the console arrived. This meant that on the evening the console arrived we were mixing… well, at least listening. There was the bit where the 4-bay rack arrived and turned out to be 2m high instead of the 1m one I ordered, but it would be unfair of me to Paul to mention that. I’m now at the stage where Greg Haver (Resolution V4.2) is producing the above-mentioned Mark Hogan band here today. All is working well, and Greg must be very pleased if he’s listening to the monitors that loud. Nearly everyone who has worked here has rebooked at least once and a lot of the engineers in the country agree that if Ireland is to compete on the international stage it needs facilities to produce recordings as good, if not better, than abroad. I’ve recently renamed the

May/June 2008 resolution 51 postproduction

In 1992 the arrival of a new principal, ex-head of the Danish Film School, Henning Camre, signalled the beginning of a new more structured arrangement for the NFTS in general and for the sound department in particular. He believed in the equality of all departments, raising the status of sound and putting it on an equal footing with the other disciplines. In 1994 BBC sound recordist Andrew Boulton became head of the sound department and was charged with devising a new three-year diploma course in sound. This was the basis for what are now the MA in Sound Post Production and the diploma in Sound Recording For Film and Television. In 1998 the school won lottery funding to the tune of £4,000,000 which, with support from manufacturers, translated to around £8,000,000 worth of new kit. This allowed all departments to be re-equipped and moved the school fi rmly into the digital age with new DAWs for the audio department and Dolby Digital for the main dubbing theatre. The new kit was great but 27 years after its inception very little had changed to the main architectural structure of the place. There were still no purpose-built teaching spaces as such, and lectures, discussions and seminars were held in modifi ed rooms in the admin block, dressing rooms and temporary buildings. This just didn’t seem right for a National Centre of Excellence approaching the dawn NFTS – educating for sound of the third millennium. A bold new plan was needed, If you haven’t factored in any time for on-going training in your busy and successful post but the path ahead wasn’t destined to be easy. There was a two-year involvement with Ealing sound career, then it is time that you did. JIM BETTERIDGE looks at the example of the Studios at the end of the ‘90s that was interesting but fi nally aborted. After that, detailed plans for a move to NFTS and likes what he hears. a smaller, central London location were drawn up at signifi cant expense, but were also dropped after long hat you are reading Resolution means more organic than today’s highly organised, highly consideration. Instead it was decided to initiate a three- there’s a reasonable chance you’ve at least monitored educational structures. The nominally phase development of the existing site. By selling off considered acquiring some structured training three-year syllabus sometimes took seven years to some land to a developer and raising a mortgage in audio at some time in your career, if not complete, with some students going off to make fi lms against projected income, the school raised enough Tactually attending a course. for a year or so, almost like a modern day sandwich money for phase one: The Educational Building, If so, you’ll know that the UK is brimming with course. Interestingly, Nick Park wouldn’t have which fi nally opened its doors in January this year. colleges offering short courses, diplomas, BAs, MAs completed A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit It’s a big new £8m block housing a wide range of and MScs in media related studies with a variety if he hadn’t been given a full seven-year term. teaching and meeting spaces, a library, a new short of angles and specialisations — including audio. In 1983, rumoured to be under pressure from course unit, a canteen and a big new Dolby-equipped The National Film and Television School (NFTS) in incoming American multiplexes, Margaret Thatcher did cinema. Phase two will be a new admin block and Beaconsfi eld is different from all the other media away with the Cinema Tax. Though the government phase three will see a range of cutting/editing/prep colleges in the UK. It’s generally recognised as a kept up the grant for a few years, by the end of the rooms plus a second large surround dubbing theatre National Centre for Excellence and as an educational 1980s they had halved it, raising the balance through to match the existing one. establishment it is uniquely funded by the department contributions from the main broadcasters. This remains The sense of excitement and renewal that has of Culture, Media and Sport and the fi lm and television the situation today although, in an effort to get greater accompanied this extremely impressive new building industries (as opposed to Education). It was originally industry involvement, Iain Smith OBE, producer of is palpable and its expanded facilities mean it can established in the 1971 as a government initiative Cold Mountain, Children of Men, The Fifth Element offer more back to the industry. For instance, this intended to foster the talents of future leaders in a UK and Seven Years in Tibet, among others, is to chair a year’s Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) fi lm industry. new Film Industry Training Board (FITB) with statutory AGM was held in the new building with great Prior to the NFS taking the site it had been a fully levy powers to ensure that companies across the fi lm success. AMPS Council meetings are also often held operational fi lm studio dating back to the 1920s, with a production industry invest in training. It will oversee there as will be various meetings and seminars put truly impressive list of famous names and productions the delivery and operation of the Skills Investment on by AMPS. It’s an excellent new meeting place to its credit (see http://www.britmovie.co.uk/studios/ Fund (SIF), a training levy for the fi lm production for the industry and an invaluable way for students beaconsfi eld/biog00.html if you’re interested). When industry that will move from voluntary to mandatory to meet professionals. I found myself wondering if the college opened its doors in 1971, just 25 young status at the end of 2008. So the tap’s been moved government couldn’t do a bit more to support what fi lmmakers were admitted as students. The courses further back up the pipe, but once again the industry’s should be something of a fi gurehead for a thriving adapted to individual’s needs in a process that was far being asked to contribute to its own future viability. British fi lm/TV industry. ‘The governments of other countries like France, Denmark and Norway spend a lot of money on their national fi lm industries and education to ensure that their own cultures are expressed through fi lm; they know that if they didn’t they’d be swamped with American product,’ says Andrew Boulton. ‘We need to do the same to ensure the future of our industry; as a centre of national excellence we need to be just that, excellent, and that requires proper funding. It can’t solely be a matter of “how much money will a Sound MA graduate make once he or she leaves school”; it’s also about a more socialist idea of keeping the culture and creativity of our society alive.’

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As any new entrant knows, the number of decent People who’ve spent many years teaching themselves available openings in the television, radio, fi lm and on sophisticated, low-cost DAWs learning “the wrong games industries each year is tiny compared to the ways” to do things and relying on a vast array of number of graduates. From the point of view of the one-button plug-ins to make things work, may be (already massively over-subscribed) sound industry, too set in their ways. Hence our choice of Fairlight as it’s apparent that holding an MA in a sound-related our main DAW (although Pro Tools and Nuendo are fi eld is no guarantee of a job. In the case of the NFTS also used), it’s not something many new students will only eight new students are accepted each year on have had experience of. We’re looking to get back to MA courses and the standing of the school gives them basics; thinking in terms of what sounds should go a better chance than most of working at the higher where, supporting the fi lm, understanding how to end of the industry. What of the thousands of others effectively mix the elements together: skills that can that leave college each year? be transferred to any workstation. School projects are Alan Tutton was a senior lecturer at the BBC’s much like the real world in that you’re working with training centre, Wood Norton and he recently took a team and receive constant feedback from the other a similar position at De Monfort University. ‘Even disciplines who may have no technical understanding before the proliferation of media courses, top jobs but are very creative and know what they want to in sound production were hard to come by. Only a achieve. So we look for someone with potential who andrew Boulton small fraction of those starting out wanting to mix isn’t set in their ways and who has the personality to broadcast drama or feature fi lms have ever realised their dreams,’ he says. ‘Today the demand for sound engineers is greater than it’s ever been in that there are so many more channels broadcasting to the world through an ever expanding range of media. It’s good to aim high but as ever you may have to be pragmatic about getting employment. And even if you don’t end up working in media it still holds true that earning a degree is great training for life and demonstrates your ability to handle complex tasks and achieve your end. The fi rst thing is to choose your course carefully. At De Monfort we offer BScs in various audio disciplines, rather than BAs; we consider it very important to produce graduates with a good balance of technical and creative capabilities. It’s no good wanting to be a “Sound Designer” if you haven’t got to grips with the basic ideas and tools of your craft. Having been involved at the heart of the industry for so long my intention is to create graduates who’ll be properly equipped to do real world jobs.’ Someone who has made it to the top and who has had a different experience of education is Adrian Rhodes, a leading UK rerecording mixer and part owner of sound post facility De Lane Lea. He was at the NFS in the late 80s: ‘Mine was the fi rst year to stream the new student intake into specifi c disciplines — director, camera, sound, etc. Before that they just took “fi lmmakers” and it was up to you to chart your own course. The emphasis was very much on creativity and the tools were there to help you realise your ideas. Today the course is a lot shorter, there are many more students and there’s an exam to pass at the end of it. These pressures are bound to have an affect on creativity. The danger is that we churn out lots of skilled DAW operators who lack the spirit of experimentation and adventure needed to make a good fi lm. When I take people on as trainees I always look for creativity fi rst; that and personality: you’ll be spending many hours in a confi ned space with these people and they have to be able to rub along. I’ve found people with a strong musical background often work out well.’ With Department of Education funding on a per- student basis, and colleges required to perform like any other business, there’s an irresistible pressure to get as many bodies through the door as possible. The NFTS’s funding is different as is the number of students per year and the real cost of their audio MA is more than twice that of most other MA courses. So how do you get in? ‘With all the resources involved we have to be responsible in our choice of students: who’ll benefi t most from the training,’ says Boulton. ‘An applicant may actually be too advanced in their career; we often need to take them right back to square one and so they need to be open to change and new ideas.

May/June 2008 resolution 53 business

In The New Statesman, Joseph Horowitz published a piece entitled ‘Classical Music in America: An Classical on an up Oxymoron?’ as famous classical broadcasters such as WTMI-FM, WNIB-FM and WNCN-FM in the US either put out for-sale signs or reinvented themselves The sales and prospects of classical music have not looked good in recent years with the as rock stations. The American music critic Samuel genre suffering greatly from record company ‘reorganisations’ and consumer technological Lipman wrote that ‘... classical music today is in deep trouble. It is not clear whether we can do more than ‘progress’. It may be down but it’s certainly not out: recent data from Soundscan suggests bear witness,’ as classical music disappeared from that downloads are leading to a classical revival. NIGEL JOPSON US network TV, and 17 orchestras closed. Polemical journalist and music critic Norman Lebrecht seemed to be making a career out of documenting classical’s lassical music reached an all-time market Telegraph newspaper sneered: ‘A run of pinstriped decline, as he penned the books ‘Who Killed Classical share high of 5% of the CD market in MBAs and former wine salesmen was put in charge Music’ and ‘Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness: the early 1980s. The designers of the CD of classics, only to depart before their signings cut a the secret life and shameful death of classical music.’ extended its capacity to 74 minutes (at debut disc.’ BMG had won 24 trophies for pop music Although widely criticised and denigrated by the Cthe insistence of Sony’s Norio Ohga) specifi cally at the Grammy Awards, and classics accounted for high priests of the classical world, there was a harsh to accommodate Wilhelm Furtwängler’s 1951 less than 4% of BMG’s annual revenue of $16.4bn element of truth in Lebrecht’s assertion that it was the performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and from more than 200 label imprints. ‘When the bottom promotion of a ‘star’ culture for soloists and conductors classical buffs pumped sales of the new format as line reddened amid a general classical downturn, the that had contributed to classical’s decline. He shone a they replaced vinyl in their collections. By 1987 the division [DG] was swatted by an executive fi st, like a light on some unsavoury practices and inequalities classical recording industry was delivering around fl ea on a giant’s hide. That is the way of the corporate that riddled the system, and highlighted the weakness 700 new releases a year but, just a decade later, world, and that is what is killing classical recording.’ inherent in a business where the chosen few — such the hope of a major recording contract had pretty The decline continued: classical music shipped to UK as super-agent Ronald Wilford of Columbia Artists much disappeared for all but a handful of classical stores fell by over 2,500 units between 2003 and Management (who controls the careers of more than performers. 2004, to its lowest point since before 1986. The 100 conductors) — wield disproportionate power. As fi le sharing threatened mainstream rock and value of those units sent out had shrunk by a quarter The only dispute about classical music seemed to be pop, even the titans of classical looked vulnerable, and, by 2006, releases were down to around 100 whether it was dying or already in the coffi n. and by 2000 sales of new classical performances new recordings a year — many from the tousled-hair So what went wrong? More effective recording were plummeting, Deutsche Grammophon cancelled crossover repertoire that purists would not count as technology offered a method of comparative evaluation its recording contract with John Eliot Gardener. The ‘classical’ at all. not available to earlier performers, and not anticipated

54 resolution May/June 2008 business

by composers of former centuries. Tenors measured personality.’ An unhealthy recent concentration on a themselves against Caruso, pianists benchmarked particular canon of classical music resulted in a gross Rubinstein, and during the post-War period hubris oversupply of premium-priced recordings. Vivaldi’s prompted conductors like Von Karajan to deliver Four Seasons had been largely forgotten about until ‘defi nitive’ performances of famous works. Modern a manuscript discovery in 1926, yet now there are vibrato technique teaching plus entrenched ideas over 400 recordings, with at least 100 CDs currently about mic placement and application of reverb only available. There’s possibly an element of the virtuous led in one direction: a succession of similar sounding circle in this, but how many Beethoven’s 5ths do we recordings of the same works released over the last really need? We might choose Kleiber/Vienna (now on 30 years. SACD), Furtwangler/Berlin, Klemperer/Philharmonia Compare this with the stark differences in and Bruno Walter ... so where does that leave the performer’s readings from earlier recordings — for other 200 recordings of the late 20th century? example, the Ricci/Sargent/New Symphony recording But just when this gloomy outlook and A&R of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in 1950 compared mistakes had caused classical to be written off by with Heifetz/Reiner in 1939. Lebrecht mourns most senior executives, a boost has come from an the passing of this interpretive tradition, which he unexpected quarter: classical turns out to be the describes as ‘a scatty riff of fi nger fl iers who renew fastest-growing music genre in the digital music familiar masterpieces with the magnetism of real space. According to Nielsen Soundscan, classical

May/June 2008 resolution 55 business business

The reason for this out-performance online has no almost as much hip-hop to classical buyers [on the defi nitive explanation, but common sense suggests iTunes store] as we do jazz. We’ve made iTunes a several plausible reasons. If you wish to buy anything safe place to try classical music. It is easy to sample more than the blandest or most budget of classical and the buying is low-risk.’ David Pakman, CEO of CDs from a shop, you need to make a journey to eMusic, reports similar customer behaviour: ‘Classical a megastore or specialist where there’s a dedicated represents 12% of our sales in Europe and the US classical department — such as HMV in Oxford is not far behind. Our subscriber base has always Street, London — and the closure of the Tower been passionate about discovering music outside the Records chain two years ago deprived most US mainstream and the free sampler statistics are a perfect citizens of access to such retail meccas. There may example of how eMusic is able to increase sales of still be downsides to visiting such bricks-and-mortar classical music and encourage consumers to discover havens of high fi delity and classical acumen. It might great music outside the commercial mainstream, as be termed ‘shopper humiliation risk’. In the hushed well as outside of their preferred genres.’ and air-conditioned calm of the classical department, The samplers Pakman mentions were an initiative the knowledgeable customer approaches a counter started in late 2007, offering free downloads from download sales grew by 22.5% in 2006, and digital and asks: ‘Have you by any chance got the ’70’s the Harmonia Mundi and BIS labels, featuring download classical album sales rocketed 47% in 2007, recording of Il Trovatore with Placido Domingo and performers such as Paul Lewis playing Beethoven accounting for 7% of the genre’s 18m total album Fiorenza Cossotto?’ Without missing a beat, the Piano Sonatas and the excellent vocal ensemble sales, up from 4.4% the previous year. Total classical assistant fl icks a withering glance over his horn rims Anonymous 4’s interpretations of American album download sales breached the million mark for and asks: ‘Was it the Red Seal or newer ORF recording folk music. eMusic is the world’s second largest the fi rst time, shifting a total of 1.2m units. The album you were after?’ The customer’s face begins to colour download retailer after iTunes, they have always Appassionata, released last year by renowned cellist as he realises he will have to confess complete and sold non-DRM mp3s, with over 3m tracks available Yo-Yo Ma, achieved the all-time highest percentage abject ignorance of the existence of a second recording from independent labels only. of fi rst week digital sales for a Billboard Top 200 of the opera with both famous singers, much less one Higher quality audio may also prove a unique release on Sony BMG, as well as peaking at number that features the Vienna State Opera with von Karajan selling point for classical. Jonathan Gruber, VP of two on iTunes’ overall album charts. It fi nished the conducting ... ‘Classical music retail is an intimidating new media at UMG International’s classics and jazz week in fourth place with 57.1% of all sales being by environment,’ LSO label boss Chaz Jenkins says. division, says that recent availability of improved download. ‘With digital, you can experiment and listen to new quality audio has drawn in core consumers. Sony Classical were inspired by this success to music in your own time.’ The London Symphony Universal’s Deutsche Grammophon label has a create a podcast series based around the Appasionata Orchestra’s 8-year-old label, LSO Live, which has new DRM-free webshop that offers around 2,500 album, which was then featured on iTunes’ podcast offered digital versions of its recordings via iTunes albums — including over 600 out-of-print CDs page. ‘Classical music over-indexes a great deal more since 2005, says it now sells more downloads than — as 320kbps downloads for between $10.99 over the fi gures commonly quoted for physical retail,’ CDs in the US. and $11.99 in 42 countries. At Magnatune, an says Chris Bell, the director of world-wide product ‘An interesting fact I recently uncovered is that, independent online label featuring artists such as the and music marketing at iTunes, referring to the 3-4% when you look at different genres in terms of sharing Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, downloads come market share that has been the norm for classical over and cross-pollination, there’s more dabbling going on in fi ve different formats, from WAV fi les to mp3s. many years. than you might expect,’ explains Chris Bell. ‘We sell Shannon Coulter, Magnatune’s A&R director, says

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1SP'JSF
 High-Definition 26-in/26-out FireWire Audio Interface with Octane Preamp Technology

In creating the ProFire 2626, our engineers pored over the details that add up to an exceptional recording ™'+m'+h^bjaiVcZdjhVcVad\$Y^\^iVa>$D ™YdjWaZhVh-"X]VccZab^XegZ$-"X]VccZa6$9"9$6XdckZgiZg experience. The eight mic preamps feature award-winning Octane™ preamp technology designed for optimal ™Z^\]iegZVbehl^i]VlVgY"l^cc^c\DXiVcZiZX]cdad\n ™jeid')"W^i$&.'`=o[dgeg^hi^cZ]^\]"YZÃc^i^dcY^\^iVaVjY^d headroom—resulting in extremely low distortion through the entire gain range. The preamps have also been ™ÄZm^WaZdc"WdVgY9HEb^mZg[dgbjai^eaZjc^fjZXjZb^mZh ™Xg^i^XVaanVXXaV^bZY?ZiEAA_^iiZgZa^b^cVi^dciZX]cdad\n tweaked to offer a generous 75dB gain range and an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio, allowing you to ™jhZg"Vhh^\cVWaZbVhiZgkdajbZ`cdW accurately capture performances across a tremendous dynamic range. Careful selection of components— including high-end converters with low band-pass ripple and linear phase response—results in cohesive, detailed audio with a wide frequency response. Complete with low THD+N and preamp circuitry that follows the shortest possible signal paths, ProFire 2626 remains uncoloured and true to any input source. We laboured over these details so you can concentrate on what’s most important: making a great recording.

© 2008 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements and availability are subject to change without notice. Use of enclosed software may be subject to a related license agreement. Avid, M-Audio, the “>” logo and ProFire are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and in other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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56 resolution May/June 2008 business

AE22 Timing is everything

the WAV format is the most popular imprints, and selling them as burn- choice: ‘Real classical music fans tend on-demand CDs in a special section of to be audiophiles,’ she observes. The the online store. Although the quality Philadelphia Orchestra sells downloads of packaging is not up to the standard of its performances as non-compressed of the originals, CDs are supplied in FLAC fi les, which feature double the standard jewel boxes with facsimiles encoding rate of the mp3s it also sells of the original cover and tray card. from its webstore. Christopher Amos, Liner notes are not included. ‘There the orchestra’s director of electronic are more out-of-print [recordings] than media, says about half of sales are in in-print ones,’ says Eric Feidner, CEO the FLAC format. ‘We’re dealing with of ArkivMusic. ‘When we go into the a very sophisticated audience,’ he deep catalogue of classical recordings, says, ‘we’ve had a lot of traction with there are many recordings that do not specialists.’ have a demand of 1,000 or 2,000 units Accurately reproducing music Although it’s too early to trumpet a in the US, but they have a demand of positive trend, the digital outperformance 100 or 200 units,’ Feidner reveals. So is as much about time as it is looks very good for classical. With the if you hanker after the 1968 recording about frequency. So along with disappearance of many physical retail of Eugene Ormandy conducting the outlets, easy access to catalogue and Philly playing Romeo & Juliet, you can a frequency balance specifically deep catalogue (the so-called long tail buy the reissue version for $14.99. phenomenon) must be playing a part. There are now 5,518 titles in the tailored for the studio environment, Although I’ve not seen genre-precise ArkivCD range. Warner Classics, Sony the AE22 from Acoustic Energy numbers to support this assumption, BMG, Universal (Decca, Philips and there are some interesting statistics Deutsche Grammophon), EMI (EMI Pro is uniquely designed to reduce that suggest this may be the case. Classics, Angel Records and Virgin Overall, catalogue sales for downloads Classics) are now all on board, as well time smearing distortions to an are around 20% less than for current as more than 20 independent labels. absolute minimum. So what you releases. But sales of older recordings At iTunes, it’s an easy hop between are growing at a faster rate than for genres for some customers, many of hear is what you recorded - nothing new releases: around 15% faster for whom would never even consider catalogue (12-36 months old) and browsing the classical section of a missing and everything in its place. 10.5% faster for deep catalogue traditional shop. Some who have Visit www.acousticenergypro.com (over 36 months.) What’s more, this snapped up the soundtrack for the fi lm phenomenon of online classical growth The Man Who Cried are also purchasing or call +44 (0)1285 654432 for doesn’t seem to be limited to digital. tracks by such diverse acts as Peter the whole story. Online classical-only CD retailer Bjorn & John and Right Said Fred(!). ArkivMusic posted a 30% year-on- Perhaps after hearing Osvaldo Golijov’s year jump in sales for 2007. They are haunting score, they may buy his no Amazon –- think $1m in monthly masterpiece The Dreams and Prayers of sales rather than $1bn — but this is Isaac the Blind. The backward-looking a specialist retailing from a decidedly emptiness of post-War modernism plain, but informative, website selling generated a musical vacuum that only physical product. Founded in sucked in Elvis, The Beatles and the Bryn Mawr (Pennsylvania not Gwent) entire art form that became pop music. in 2002, ArkivMusic started out as If classical is to live again, stunning an innovative database of classical contemporary composers like Golijov music, now it’s an online store with a must fi nally be given their voice, and if UK distribution by Sound Network catalogue of over 82,000 classical CDs, the ones and zeros streaming down a T: 020 7665 6463 SOUND E: [email protected] SACDs and DVDs. Recently Archiv has broadband connection allow the genre n e t w o r k hit upon the inspired idea of licensing to reinvent itself as a living art form, so W: www. soundnetwork.co.uk deleted classical albums from famous much the better. ■

May/June 2008 resolution 57 know how

aware of the importance of foldback to the musical performance, and I felt a bit ashamed of my prior lack Getting foldback right of understanding of the musicians’ needs. Back in those days, we usually used high No matter what the acoustic properties are of a recording space, and no matter how great impedance foldback systems, and what provoked this article was the fact that for the fi rst time in around 20 may be the recorded sound, if the musicians cannot hear themselves clearly in it then they years I have begun installing these systems again in may not be able to perform at their best. PHILIP NEWELL looks at foldback. the studios I have recently been designing, albeit in conjunction with the more typical systems of today. The response to the installations has been very n the world of orchestral public performances, the say ‘these days’, but I remember times as a recording favourable, and to many people the idea has been ‘feedback’ (as many musicians call the refl ected engineer when I was also dismissive about foldback perceived as something totally new. sound that helps them hear their own performances balances. The foldback seemed to me to be little more The idea is shown in Figure 1. The foldback mix in the context of the other instruments) can be than the means of allowing the musicians to keep in is made in the control room, usually via the auxiliary Icritical to the quality of the performance. Not all of tune and in time. In those days (just before the Boer sends, and is then sent to a power amplifi er of the best-sounding concert halls are considered by War, as it now seems) perhaps it was largely that typically 50W into 8ohms. The amplifi er output is the musicians to be easy to play in, and in some the majority of studio musicians were consummate sent to the studio, where distribution boxes allow cases a better overall perception of the music by professionals, and if a ‘pop’ group couldn’t get the many headphones of 400ohms impedance to be the public may arise in a hall where the musicians recording right then session musicians were often plugged in as needed. The high impedance of the can play together easily, in the stage acoustic, even brought in to play on their behalf. headphones allows only about one Watt to be drawn though the hall acoustic may not be of the highest My attitude to foldback balances changed in a from the amplifi ers, so there is little risk of burn- quality. Somewhat similarly, in recording studios, the matter of minutes when, for the fi rst time, I was sent out or ear damage. As most modern amplifi ers are foldback is the stage acoustic in which the musicians into the studio to play on a track. I could never claim considered to be constant-voltage sources (which are playing. Their performances can critically depend to be a good musician, but I was formally trained and means that the output voltage is not dependent on on how well they can hear themselves and the rest of I did play from time to time. It just so happened that the load impedance), the volume level in any one the instruments, and if the performance is not good, one day I had an idea that I was having diffi culty set of headphones will not be affected as more are then the quality of the microphones hardly matters: explaining, so the band told me to go and play the connected. Set the volume level on the fi rst set of nor the preamps; nor anything. part myself. As it was, they liked it, but due to lack headphones and no change will be heard as ten or 20 Unfortunately, in many studios, the attention paid of experience, nerves, and probably other sentiments more are connected in parallel. to getting appropriate foldback balances is minimal. that no doubt affect many more of today’s recording A socket for headphones, on the same circuit, is Often, the job is passed to the musicians themselves, musicians, who may not be able to play any better provided alongside the mixing console, and whatever with the recording personnel washing their hands of than I could back then, getting the foldback right mix is heard on these headphones will be exactly the it. These days, it seems to me that there is lack of was the only way that an acceptable performance same in terms of mix and volume level as would be understanding of the importance of foldback. Well, I could be coaxed out of me. I soon became all too heard by the musicians in the studio. Traditionally, it could be the recording engineer, the assistant, the producer or a ‘spare’ member of the group who would do the mix, depending on their availability and experience. Often, it would be the producer, who would have a good idea of what would be required musically, and this would also leave the engineer(s) free to concentrate on the recording. This had two great benefi ts. First, time could be saved because the foldback could be adjusted while the recording levels were being set (and time saving could avoid musicians getting bored and frustrated while waiting too long to get started). Second, the producer could stay listening to the foldback during the performance, and could control not only the volume but also the appropriate balance of instruments in terms of how to ‘drive’ the music. For example, a certain drum in the kit could be emphasised to encourage all the musicians to follow a specifi c rhythm, in the way that a conductor leads an orchestra. Using the wiring arrangement shown in Figure 2, by plugging the same distribution boxes into different sockets, either one stereo or two different mono mixes could be made. Often, two stereo amplifi ers are used, allowing two stereo, one stereo and two mono, or four different mono mixes to be used simultaneously. This can be useful when a drummer needs a mix with little of the drums and much bass guitar, the bass guitarist needs the opposite, and the rest of the musicians need something a little more balanced overall. No extra equipment is required, things just get re-plugged. The same patching arrangements are provided in the control room for whoever is making the balances. It can be seen in Figures 1 and 2 that XLR connectors are being used. This is normally done to prevent short circuits on the amplifi er outputs during the plugging/unplugging processes, as jacks often make short circuits as they are being connected and Figure 1. Constant voltage foldback system. N.B: if individual volume controls are used for each set of disconnected. The system also prevents typical, lower headphones, they should be potentiometers of about 600ohms, linear track, and should each be capable impedance headphones from being connected to the of dissipating at least 5W, or they will tend to burn up. system, as these could draw more power from the

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IBC Fifth Floor International Press Centre 76 Shoe Lane London EC4A 3JB UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7832 4100 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7832 4130 Email: [email protected] know how amplifi ers and either burn out, literally, or damage needed. The system is self-adjusting. in which they are playing. It can be diffi cult to get a peoples’ ears with the excessive power levels. Typical headphones for use on these systems clear, non ear-damaging mix for a drummer using Figure 3 shows a ‘tracking loudspeaker’ in use. would be Beyerdynamic DT100, 400-Ohm models, open headphones when the acoustic sound from the Many vocalists do not like wearing headphones see Figure 4. They are closed headphones. Despite the kit can still be heard at full level. The other drawback while recording, so if a loudspeaker is judiciously fact that many musicians prefer open headphones, relates to vocalists and players of quiet acoustic placed facing them, a cardioid microphone is used, they have two serious drawbacks due to their lack instruments. In these cases the ‘tizz-tizz’ of high and the loudspeaker faces an absorbent surface, little of isolation. When recording a group of musicians frequencies in the foldback mix, or the sound of ‘click’ of either the direct or refl ected sound will enter the playing together, the precise mix to which each one is tracks, can enter the recording microphones, and they microphone. The loudspeaker is plugged in exactly listening can be hard to assess from the control room may become very noticeable when compressors or as the headphones, but the 8-Ohm impedance will because of the quantity of sound that the musicians other effects are used in the fi nal mix. It can be bad allow the full power to be drawn from the amplifi er if can still hear directly from the instruments in the room news when these sounds are only heard for the fi rst

Figure 2. Wall socket arrangement for constant voltage foldback system. in the above arrangement, the headphones are wired with the positive of each Figure 5. capsule connected to pin 1 of the Xlr; the negative of the left-hand capsule to pin 2, and the positive of the right-hand capsule to pin 3. When plugged into the mono outlets (or into distribution boxes plugged into the mono outlets) the two capsules of each headset will be connected together, in parallel, from whichever mono channel of the amplifi er they are connected to. in the stereo outlet, pins 2 and 3 are connected to different amplifi er channels, so the signal in the headphones will appear in stereo.

Figure 6.

Figure 3. Use of tracking loudspeakers. in this situation, a directional microphone is used to record the vocalist, with a loudspeaker providing the foldback. a typical arrangement would be for the loudspeaker to be placed directly behind the microphone, and pointing towards an absorbent surface to control the amount of refl ections of the foldback signal returning to the front Figure 7. of the microphone.

60 resolution May/June 2008 know how time in a mastering studio. People want comfort, but from the control room but where the musicians can recorded and their work load. sometimes the greater benefi ts need to be considered. add various instruments to taste. Many experienced recording engineers are shocked In days gone by, when the majority of recording For the musicians, the foldback system is their when they hear what some less-experienced musicians vocalists could sing in tune (they had to, because working environment, and it can greatly affect their have been mixing for themselves in the studio. Autotune systems did not exist), an occasional creativity. Stereo foldback can greatly ease the task Conversely, many experienced musicians are appalled tendency to go sharp or fl at was also sometimes of hearing the individual instruments, but multiple when they hear what they have been sent from corrected from the control room by means of the mono mixes can sometimes be more tailor-made to inexperienced recording engineers in the control room. foldback system. If there was a tendency to go the requirements of individuals. In many studios the Getting the foldback balance(s) right is a fundamental sharp on a certain note, then raising the voice in musicians can make their own foldback mixes, but this necessity for any good recording. Think of it in terms of the foldback mix could sometimes cause the vocalist can run the risk of them not all playing to the same the stage monitors at a concert. It doesn’t matter how to back-off a little, and stay in tune. Conversely, a rhythm. Which system is the best is very dependent good the front-of-house engineer is if the musicians tendency to go fl at could sometimes be corrected by upon circumstances. With large numbers of musicians, are not playing well on stage. The stage mixes can reducing the vocal level, thus causing the vocalist to the system shown in Figure 1 still reigns supreme, be so important that the monitor mixers may even be strain a little and perhaps pull up the pitch slightly. but when recording the instruments individually, or in considered to be part of the band. ■ There is still a lot to be said for having a recording smaller groups, which system is preferable can depend team in the control room because one person doing on the relative experience of the people in the studio or ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Sergio Castro for the everything can lead to a work overload, which the control room, not only in terms of making foldback drawings, which were taken from Recording Studio Design, precludes attention to the foldback. mixes but also their prior knowledge of the music to be Second Edition, Focal Press, Oxford, UK (2008). In fact, it is probably this overload that has led to passing much of the foldback responsibility to the musicians. This can often work well with one-musician-at-a-time recording, but when many musicians are playing together a system such as that shown in Figure 5 can lead to anarchy in the THE SYMPHONY SYSTEM studio. If the musicians are playing to different mixes and at different levels, then who is ‘conducting the The Most Powerful Audio Workstation Available orchestra’? They may all be going their separate ways. Some people like this system, but if a producer The Symphony System combines Apogee’s legendary X-Series and Rosetta Series converters with is supposed to be directing events it can remove a lot Apple’s revolutionary Mac Pro and Logic Pro audio workstation using the 32-channel Symphony PCI of control from his hands. Figure 6 shows a system card. that can restore some of this control, but the level at which each musician is listening is still unknown from the control room. However, one benefi t of this system over that shown in Figure 1 is that different makes, models and impedances of headphones can be used because their differences in sensitivity can be compensated for by the individual volume controls. With the ‘common power amplifi er’ systems the different headphone sensitivities would give rise to different sound pressure levels in the ears. Another variation on the theme of Figure 6 is shown in Figure 7, where a basic stereo mix is sent

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Figure 4. the author, with dt100 headphones and a charango, in the Silo, london, in February 1983. (Hasn’t aged a day. Ed)

May/June 2008 resolution 61 ten

black middle class to the town after WWII. Homeboy and the King of New Jack Swing, producer Teddy US recording centres Riley, bought the two-room Future Recording studio there in 1991. It became a hub not only for his Music recording in America has always been a peripatetic proposition. Granted, New York productions, including Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown and New Kids On The Block, but also a boot camp for and Los Angeles have been the epicentres of the money (and in LA’s case, the occasional the next generation: Missy Elliot has a house there earthquake), but they are only two of a long and varied succession of music recording and the Neptunes and Timbaland made it home base for their own studios. What happened? Riley went centres in the country, most of which have fi zzled completely. Then again, says bankrupt in 2002, joining co-poster boy MC Hammer in the ‘WTF-did-you-do-with-all-your-money?’ club. DAN DALEY, it’s a big country and you gotta be someplace, I suppose. The studio is now on the block to pay off creditors and back taxes. As for everyone else, it turned out to be B R I S T O L M I N N E A P O L I S much more fun to bling people from your Maybach in ( T E N N E S S E E ) — Prince, Morris Miami, where la paparazzi could get room service. — Worthy of Day and the Time, note as the fi rst Jimmy Jam & WOODSTOCK (NEW instance of remote Terry Lewis. First YORK) — Synonymous recording — and off, how did this with the famous this place is pretty many talented rolling-in-the-mud damned remote. In African-Americans festival of 1969, Bob 1927, Ralph Peer, wind up in a place Dylan manager Albert a record producer that was settled by Grossman opened for the Victor label Scandinavians and is covered in snow for much of Bearsville Studios in Woodstock that same year. It in New York, journeyed into the rustic North-eastern the year? That’s easy — their grandparents and became and remained a rural Mecca for hundreds corner of the state and did the fi rst recordings of parents were part of the mass migration from the of artists over the next 20 years, but decline set in legendary hillbillies (and I use that term endearingly) South drawn northward during two world wars to after Grossman’s death in 1986. Worse, rising real like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter family. Peer paid fi ll factory jobs. But why aren’t Paisley Park and estate values turned what was once a genuine arts them US$50 per song, which was pretty good coin its minions still the centre of the R&B universe? ‘A community into a generic, artsy-craftsy weekend for those days. But it couldn’t last: once the Grand city’s only as good as its people,’ says my friend retreat for affl uent cityfolk. Big Pink, The Band’s home Ole Opry, which began broadcasting on WSM out of David Z, Paisley Park’s chief engineer back in the there, had simply gone Big Beige. Nashville in 1925, got traction, it became the magnet day. Exit Jimmy and Terry to LA, Prince to Toronto for country music for the rest of the century. Bristol’s for a while. You get the picture. motto is ‘A Great Place To Live’. Just not a great place to record. S E A T T L E — R e l e n t l e s s MUSCLE SHOALS precipitation and — The Petri dish lack of sunshine for modern R&B make this city the and a place so west of Ireland cool that the but with more Rolling Stones caffeine. Small jetted in back in wonder that such 1970 to track four an environment songs from Sticky attracted angst-ridden grungers like Nirvana and MACON (GEORGIA) — Home of Capricorn Records, Fingers. For one Soundgarden. But the main studio in town, Reciprocal this hamlet south of Atlanta was the capital of gorgeous decade, Recording, might have been a bit too grungy. Once Southern rock, where founder Phil Walden’s trailer from 1965 to 1975, the studios in this tiny cluster mainstream success occurred in the wake of Nirvana’s park-ambient empire encompassed artists like Wet of four cotton-pickin’ towns in northern Alabama, Nevermind, Seattle’s talent base headed for cities with Willie, the Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker including FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound, more Neumanns. Band. Southern roots rock never went away, it just buzzed with a who’s who of the music industry, went elsewhere, like Austin and East Nashville, attracting the likes of Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler in a kind of redneck Diaspora. Urban decay set in, and Tom Dowd. Wha’ happened? The controlling blighting the area and the record label’s studio — my personality and legendary stinginess of producer last pass through Macon saw the building standing and publisher Rick Hall, owner of FAME Studios and but utterly trashed. As part of an announced US$29 arguably the motor beneath Muscle Shoals’ bonnet, million scheme to build condos and a boutique hotel caused many of Muscle Shoals’ musicians to fl ee to in the area, a planned restoration of the studio — as a Nashville’s higher pay. museum — was included. Irony, anyone?

MEMPHIS — Pretty VINNIE’S SPARE BEDROOM much the same — Generically speaking, story as Muscle SAN FRANCISCO — What started it? Hippies. What this studio is anywhere and Shoals: Nashville’s killed it? Hippies. everywhere in America. better money, It’s the home studio where thanks to the VIRGINIA BEACH so many people thought Columbia, Decca — This coastal resort that they could throw and RCA marques town was once so off the oppressive yoke being there and hot/cool that the of overbearing record labels and the expense of an aggressive London Daily conventional studios. Instead, it became a lonesome musicians’ union local, lured key players like Tommy Telegraph asked cave where a generation of would-be producers Cogbill, Reggie Young and Steve Cropper away me to do an article and engineers forgot that social interaction is what from the studios that had made history: American, on it. Its proximity engendered musical creativity in the fi rst place, and Goldwax and Sam Phillips’ Sun Records, where Elvis to major US naval who are learning that MySpace or FaceBook aren’t a Presley fi rst recorded. But they still have Graceland… bases brought a proper surrogate. ■

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a much healthier cinema culture, which means, of course, that somewhere there is postproduction work that needs to be done. While the State-owned Mosfi lm fi lm production and facilities operation stands as testament to the existence of a fi lm industry in Russia, market forces have also cultured a commercial sector. Chief among these is the curiously titled Pythagor digital recording and postproduction studio — a classical demonstration that given the space and some technology you can make it pay and enjoy an exemplary reputation for quality if your attitude and approach is right. As with so much in Moscow, not everything is what it seems and rather than being housed in one of the Capital’s many modern looking new blocks, Pythagor is housed within a factory. It hasn’t taken over an entire former industrial building and converted it for its purposes, it has built its 800m2 multiroom complex within a fl oor and half of a mostly working light engineering factory. Not that you’d ever know once you are inside as this facility exudes a relaxed air of confi dence and professionalism with welcoming staff and impressive rooms. Described as probably the fi rst studio in Moscow that used computers for audio, Pythagor now has seven studios including a Dolby theatre and specialises in dubbing of feature fi lms. It started some 13 years ago, director Leonid Dragilev originally worked in TV — mostly in dubbing — and when Disney came to Russia he started working with them in a rented studio. He quickly created a studio of his own and Pythagor toiled with all the infl exibility of a 24-track Tascam. However, the fi rst computer audio systems were Take a market that is enjoying expansion and you’ll fi nd entrepreneurial spirit at work. coming into Russia and Leonid was torn between a Studer Dyaxis and Digidesign V1.12. Eventually he ZENON SCHOEPE visits a Moscow post house that has cornered feature dubbing in Russia. went with a 4-track Pro Tools system in one room at the Actor’s College near the Kremlin and had two he reason it is hard to talk about Russia today State subsidised tickets to the ballet was a common studios and another Pro Tools within two years. without referencing, at some stage, to the time occurrence that ensured its continued popularity today, ‘It was a very budget studio but we were the fi rst before under the former regime is because they didn’t go to the cinema that often. In fact there studio in Moscow that didn’t have a conventional the implications of the old system were so far weren’t many cinemas and there wasn’t much that recorder or a console and ran picture from a card with Treaching. While the sight of Muscovites queuing for people wanted to watch anyway. Russia now has the Pro Tools too,’ explains Leonid.

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They became popular with advertising companies and were involved with around 60% of Russian TV advertising but decided to start concentrating on dubbing into Russian for features and before long were making four dubbed fi lms a year. ‘There was a time when there were hardly any cinemas here but gradually its popularity increased and then the majors came in,’ he says. ‘We didn’t have a Dolby studio, which was a bottle neck for us because there were only two Dolby studios in Moscow and both of those were at Mosfi lm. So I mixed movies just about anywhere. Most of it was in Turkey, there’s a wonderful studio at Imaj in Istanbul and they had Pro Tools with all the plug-ins, which meant I could make premixes in my studios and take it there to fi nal fi nish it. That was cheaper than using Mosfi lm even including the hotel and the fl ight. But we needed more studios because the clients kept coming and we had too many projects.’ They moved to the current site three years ago and went from two rooms to fi ve, including a Dolby theatre, and from Mix to HD and to 1Gbit Ethernet in one jump. A year ago, another recording studio was added on another fl oor along with a room identical to the fi rst Dolby room but which hasn’t been certifi ed and is used for preparation mixes. Pythagor has mixing and edit rooms for 5.1, Foley and ADR, and a music recording room with a piano — important because they record music for cinema and TV and all the engineers are from a music academy. Each room is Pro Tools HD and there are Icons in the two mix theatres. ‘When I planned this Dolby room I planned it with the Icon,’ says Leonid. ‘It’s Tools LE before! She did everything with her own always short on the deadline — always — and Icon quite cheap and I can put anybody who knows Pro mouse because she hates trackballs but two weeks helps us a lot to make up the time. We’re doing Tools in front of it and he can start working — if later she told me that Icon is faster. It suits our needs around fi ve movies a month now.’ he doesn’t know Icon then he can use the mouse. absolutely — we have everything in Pro Tools, we The advertising work has dropped off on account There are fi ve of us working on it now and it’s fi ne have a bunch of plug-ins and Icon really is very of Pythagor now being too expensive for many clients and the last girl who was on it came from using Pro fast. We’re working mostly with dubbing and we’re and most of the advertising companies are now

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Fairlight Xynergi_Resolution mag1 1 2/5/08 6:12:38 PM May/June 2008 resolution 65 facility equipped with their own small rooms with a DAW. Pythagor has gone with the money and while Leonid says they are proudly audio-only, he has had requests from clients for some video editing capability, which he is thinking about. They are also proud to have kept all their original staff so continuity and stability, that enormous advantage in any competitive environment, has been retained. They offer translations for all European languages and Japanese, Chinese and Korean with text adaptation, casting for actors and singers, dubbing director services and most importantly the creation of a dubbing team for a project of translator, lyricist, adapter, dub director, casting director and musical director. They work regularly for Disney, NBC Universal, Paramount, DreamWorks, WB and many others. With the pick up in cinema in Russia their future seeing many Russian fi lms at Pythagor. ‘It’s always a that we do — printing, location shooting, and so on,’ growth looks assured but they don’t expect to be matter of elements that are beyond the postproduction explains Leonid. ‘Russian companies prefer to work with one company that can give them it all and that’s why I don’t think we’ll be getting much Russian fi lm J>;F;H<;9J87B7D9;E<9B7H?JO7D:9ED9?I?ED work. For the Russian market, usually the guys who care about sound do come to us.’ The acoustic design is mostly self-done and Leonid says that he has maintained the same feel and acoustic in all the similarly sized rooms so operators can move from studio to studio with ease. What differentiates œV>Ê/܈˜ÈÊ i the rooms is individual colour themes. The music studio live area has variable acoustic panels on the walls. These are well-built ‘rooms within rooms’ that -ˆ“œ˜Êœ}iÀÞÊ,iVœ““i˜`ÃÊœV>Ê/܈˜ÊÈÊ œ˜ˆÌœÀð are really well isolated and they’re serious about it. º½ÛiʘiÛiÀÊLii˜Ê >««ÞÊÜˆÌ Êº“ˆ`wÊi`»Ê“œ˜ˆÌœÀÃ°Ê Leonid says that one of the rooms had to be renovated recently and placed on isolating springs as the factory, 1˜ÌˆÊÀiVi˜ÌÞ]Ê>ÊÌ iʓœ`iÃÊÌ >Ìʽ`ÊܜÀŽi`ÊÜˆÌ Ê>˜`Ê which was largely dormant when they moved in, had >Õ`ˆÌˆœ˜i`Ê >`ÊܓiÌ ˆ˜}ʓˆÃȘ}Ê­œÀÊܓiÌ ˆ˜}Ê>``i`t®°Ê become a little busier and had set off structural noise 1˜ÌˆÊÊÜ>Ãʈ˜ÌÀœ`ÕVi`Ê̜ÊÌ iÊœV>Ê/܈˜ÊÈ]Ê>˜`Êwʘ>Þ transmission into the one room. ÊvœÕ˜`ÊÜ >ÌÊÊÜ>ÃʏœœŽˆ˜}ÊvœÀt» There’s a lot of Blue Sky monitoring throughout. ‘Every studio has them. They’re quite inexpensive but they’re also very good because the voice you hear in -ˆ“œ˜Êœ}iÀÞÊ the edit studios is exactly the same voice you’ll hear in the Dolby room,’ he says. ‘So they’re important for dialogue and just what we need. You can’t use them for music though. ‘Normally a movie should take at least fi ve days for recording and at least two days for mixing. On -ˆ“œ˜Êœ}iÀÞÊÜ>ÃÊ the other hand for War of the Worlds and Mission ÀiVi˜ÌÞÊ>Ü>À`i`Ê Impossible, recording took about a month and we mixed it at Skywalker. Projects vary and depend on >ÊÀ>““ÞÊvœÀÊ ˆÃÊ how much they want to spend on getting it right,’ ܜÀŽÊœ˜Ê1Ó½ÃÊ says Leonid. ºœÜÊ/œÊ ˆÃ“>˜ÌiÊ Getting it right is clearly what Leonid considers
˜Ê
̜“ˆVÊ œ“L»° to be the objective of their operation. ‘Russia is a very different market and it has different ideas about I]Z Il^c+ 7: ^h Vc VXi^kZ! ( lVn! egd[Zhh^dcVa cZVg$b^YÒZaY bdc^idg budgets. I travel a lot as a mixer and supervisor and Àiµ°ÊÀi뜘Ãi\ Xdbeg^h^c\i]gZZWj^ai^cVbea^ÒZgh'm&*%l &m&%%lgbh!ild+#*^cX] they all ask me what console we have. When I say &+#*XbÆLÇXdcZhVcYl^X]Xdbedh^iZYg^kZgh!adVYZYWnildaVg\ZhZXi^dc *&^p#*&a>p it’s an Icon and they ask why it isn’t a Harrison like aVb^cVgWVhhedgihVcYV;dXVa^ckZgiZYYdbZejgZ7Zgnaa^jbilZZiZg# they have, then I tell them it’s because we have a >݈“Õ“Êë\ ™7di] +#*Ç Yg^kZgh ]VcYaZ adl [gZfjZcX^Zh Wji dcan dcZ d[ i]Z ild budget that they certainly don’t have,’ he says. ‘For '')ZX hZaZXiVWaZ^heVhh^c\ad"b^Y[gZfjZcX^Zh# us, I don’t think there could be any other choice for this money and this quality.’ ™;dXVa^ckZgiZYYdbZejgZ7Zgnaa^jbilZZiZg# The Icon fi ts the scale of the operation, its ambition and the depth of its pocket. It’s also a lot easier to get 8[hobb_kcJm[[j[h 9edjekh9edjhebi Efj_edWbIkX8Wi[ support for than the fi rst Mac he bought in 1992. ‘I bought it from the US,’ remembers Leonid. ‘There was a 1Gb hard drive for around $2000. But Macs are so easy to use and they’re reliable. One of our co-ordinators joined us and she had never used a computer so we gave her an old Mac. After three months she phoned me and said that her mouse didn’t work. I told her to restart it and she said what does that mmm$iYlbedZed$Ye$kaJ[b0&(&.*'.'*-& mean? That says a lot about the reliability.’ ■ H8KAdcYdc!)%8]^\lZaaAVcZ!DV`lddY=^aa>cYjhig^Va:hiViZ! Adj\]idc!:hhZm!><&%(CNJ@ Contact PYtHaGor, moSCoW, rUSSia: Website: www.pythagor.ru

66 resolution May/June 2008 Maintenance Engineer SIS Outside Broadcasts Ltd has a fl eet of over 90 vehicles covering everything from international sporting events like the Olympics to major festivals like Glastonbury. Clients include the BBC, ITV and Sky. We are looking for an engineer to work as part of an audio support team, based in Langley.

The job involves maintenance of With a competitive salary and great analogue and digital audio equipment, benefi ts package, we offer excellent down to component level, repair of opportunities for development and complex broadcast systems, project progression, as well as a friendly and work and advising operational staff. professional environment in which to Knowledge of digital audio interfacing work. Hours will vary and you may is desirable. be occasionally required to work evenings, weekends and public holidays. You should also have proven skills in the maintenance of technical Please send your CV to: equipment used in radio or Sharon O’Rourke, Human Resources, television production or broadcast SIS Outside Broadcasts Ltd. and knowledge of music recording Station Road, Langley, SL3 6DB. techniques and equipment. Closing date 23rd May 2008.

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May/June 2008 resolution 67

RESOLUTION MAG.indd 3 26.04.2008 14:24:05 Uhr technology

are now also focusing on users further down the 2 rankings, who are going digital perhaps for the fi rst Lawo mc 56 time, and on organisations that have rethought their infrastructures and have factored in more fl exibility Lawo has assembled a family of consoles that share core competencies but offer a spread and more compact consoles. This is demonstrated by the fact that the 56 has been shown on a fl ightcase on price. ZENON SCHOEPE takes a quick look at the latest and smallest addition. as part of a broadcast-to-go package in tune with the now real-life requirements of certain types of awo’s transformation as a console its attention to a more mass market position below broadcasting. manufacturer now looks complete. Much of that occupied by the 66. So here we have the mc256 Like all Lawo desks the 56 is a bundle of a this may have been missed by users outside — the fi rst fi ve units of which will be employed at the worksurface, core and I-O resource. The back-end of its home German broadcast market but the Beijing Olympics with full roll out shipping starting in core is the same as that in the 66 and 90 and very Lbrand has been working hard to reinvent itself while September. little has changed in it since the introduction of the carefully retaining its family values. The brand was You have to put the release of the 56 into a context of 90. However, when the 56 ships in September then it know up until relatively recently as a purveyor of the other two desks because it now underpins Lawo’s will incorporate a new router module in the core that large, modular, custom solutions and, it has to be new product range. It’s also interesting to observe that will also house the control system for the desk. This said, with rather an ‘individual’ take on operational Lawo did not do what most manufactures do when is different from the 66 and 90 which house their principles that caught the ear and the eye of its core they spin out new technology. It didn’t launch in to control systems in their desk surfaces where there’s market in German broadcasting. That all changed the top of its range with a fl agship product that it then a computer with Ethernet and ATM connection to when it started to look at the export market and the trickled down in subsequent iterations for different the core. In the 56 there are obvious cost saving arrival of the mc266 was radical from a number of price points and market positions. Instead it launched implications for treating the worksurface purely as a different perspectives not least its relatively ‘fi xed’ into the middle of its range with the 66 — its BMW remote controller. confi guration and the way the thing looked. It didn’t 5 Series. While I am unsure whether the 90 is a 6 Because of the use of the common HD core, this look like a Lawo. The balance was slightly redressed or a 7 Series, I am certain that the mc256 represents means a maximum of eight DSP cards for 384 fully with the launch of the mc290, which was its new Lawo’s 3 Series. equipped DSP channels running at 96kHz, 144 fl agship product — the type, size and scale of which Of course, we are seeing a lot of activity at this summing buses, MADI, ATM or AES connections at most other manufacturers had not attempted for level within the broadcast console market and that the core and analogue or digital I-O and control via many years. I remember thinking at the time that it is because the market’s maturity is dictating it. The Dallis. The routing matrix capacity spans from 3072 was heartening that a manufacturer could still build large organisations need digital desk technology at a x 3072 to 8192 x 8192 mono channels. The desk is a desk that grand. level of sophistication and fl exibility that corresponds available in fi ve frame sizes with 32 to 80 faders and However, the 90 is a niche product in this day to the complexity, channel count and throughput there’s an option to expand with 16 or 32 fader bays. and age and it was inevitable that Lawo would turn that their big productions require. Manufacturers The worksurface can also accommodate double fader rows and stereo PPMs or phase meters. It also has downlighting built in. Visually the worksurface falls somewhere between the 66 and the 90 and while it is not as dark and sophisticated looking as the 66 (which I particularly like) it is not nearly as pale as a 90. The 56 looks best and most balanced to my eye when it has at least one fader bay either side of the centre section. These fader bays are signifi cant in being 16-fader blocks and this pertains as much to ease of manufacturing as it does to any operational benefi ts. Lawo was, with the 56, not just trying to get the price down, it was also trying to get the size down. The space between faders is a little tighter than is traditional for Lawo, which doesn’t bother me, and it’s a very compact surface to get around. Visually the biggest innovation for Lawo is the use of large touchscreens to cover channel information, metering and centre section feedback. This will look

68 resolution May/June 2008 technology pretty although the functionality is not quite in Soundtracs/Digico territory yet; Lawo is using the touchscreens as supplements to the physical controls. They’ve looked at typical operational needs and kept physical controls for high-usage tasks and placed the less frequently used controls on the touchscreen. Thus timecode-based automation controls, EQ bell/ shelving selection, and the specifi cs of whether you will see the parameter or its value displayed after you’ve touch-sensed a knob, for example, are touchscreen functions. The 56 employs the same ‘reverse assignment’ principles of the other desk worksurfaces and takes them a little further. Attempts have been made to simplify operation as Lawo believes a different type of operator will be sitting in front of 56 than uses a 66, for example. The strip assignment buttons have been retained and the 56 is probably closest to the 66 in operational terms but it does incorporate some of the colour-coding principles introduced with the 90. replaced with a pot. the impact that can have on the other products in It only has two Free Controls per strip — the Gain It’s not common knowledge, but dynamic and its portfolio. On the one hand it has to be different control is always available on a top-most dedicated snapshot automation has been interchangeable enough to justify a lower price tag; on the other it has knob — and this possible limitation has been neatly between Lawo desks for years and the 56 joins the to be similar enough to justify its membership of the addressed by the use of 16 user-programmable club. Apparently the software kernel on the different family. Lawo has stopped a long way shy of short presets. These can be confi gured to display any consoles has also been the same for some time changing the buyer with a compromised product; combination of two parameters across all the Free although they have been confusingly differentiated by in fact it could have gone a lot further and still have Controls at the press of a button. There are also different release numbers. The release of the 56 has been in an operational comfort zone. It’s possibly nice OLEDs on the strips, smaller than on the 90, been used as an opportunity to underline this cross signifi cant that the 56 was apparently on the drawing of course, but giving 8 characters to play with. An compatibility and all desk software across the range board before the 90. Audio-follow-Video function is available on every has now been aligned at 4.0. Given a brief encounter with the 56 there is little channel as is Lawo’s General Purpose Channel, in Prices for a 56 start at around Euro 100,000 to dislike about it. The operational aspect is the only which the channel’s controllers are disconnected from including the core and if you need to make comparisons one that has been addressed in the creation of the 56 the processing and access instead the console’s MIDI to a 66 then, depending on how you confi gure it, the — there are no changes to the back end. The saving and Ethernet interfaces with mapping to control DAWs 66 will always be at least 30% more expensive. is made in producing a more compact and less control- and MIDI-controllable devices. Other concessions to Producing a bottom-of-your-range product is rich worksurface that happily also fi ts in with new space saving have seen the 56’s ‘fat channel’ fader always a tough call for a manufacturer sensitive to broadcasting models. ■

May/June 2008 resolution 69 slaying dragons

mass in the neck and the compliance of the enclosed volume form a Helmholtz resonator. On initially blowing over the bottle neck, the sound produced is broad band, but the air mass in the neck of the bottle will respond only at the resonant frequency, and when it begins to oscillate, it modifi es the airfl ow over the lip of the bottle in such a way that the excitation occurs at the resonant frequency. The Helmholtz resonator only responds to one frequency, so it isn’t musically rich. In contrast, standing waves in pipes can exist at several musically related frequencies simultaneously, giving a more colourful sound. The aerodynamically excited pipe, or fl ue, has no moving parts and is built with a sharp lip, or labium, over which the incident air supply fl ows. The fl ute works in the same way. The sound, particularly the onset, will be ‘chiffy’ as the initial broadband sound due to turbulence over the labium gradually gives way to the resonant frequency. The envelope of the sound increases gradually and continues until the wind ceases. The sound continues for a while as the resonance decays. The slow onset and sustain of this class makes a marked contrast with the powerful starting transient and decay of plucked string instruments. The other major sound generating mechanism is the reed, named after the type of vegetation having a slim, fl at, structure that can be made to vibrate if held in the hands in a certain way and blown by mouth. In the organ pipe application, the reed is a fl exible slightly curved plate, often of metal, that sits above a partially grooved component known as a shallot. When the reed is relaxed, air can pass into the groove and thereby to the pipe. However, the forces on the reed due to air fl ow tend to close it down on to the shallot, sealing the groove and cutting off the air fl ow, so that the cycle starts again. In the pipe organ, the resonant frequency of the heavy reed determines the pitch and tuning is done by adjusting the effective length of the reed. The harmonica works in the same way, as do squeaky toys. In other reed instruments, the reed is much lighter, and the pitch is primarily determined by the length of the associated pipe. In the clarinet, there is a single reed on one side of the mouthpiece; the latter performing the function of the shallot. In the oboe, there is no mouthpiece as such. Instead there are two reeds and the player blows air between them. In brass instruments, there is no reed or labium per Wind instruments se. The player’s lips perform the function of the reed. In all mouth-blown instruments, the sound is affected The use of air movement to create a musical sound is the basis of all wind instruments and to a greater or lesser extent by the forces exerted by the player’s lips and by the air pressure. The general the name suggests that the inspiration for their development probably came from sounds term is embouchure. The reed or the player’s lips produce a type of occurring naturally when the wind blows. JOHN WATKINSON continues his musical theme. excitation that is rich in harmonics and has a different colour to that of the fl ue. However, the excitation is proper understanding of how wind the fl ow will separate from the surface of the object, only the beginning. The remainder of the instrument instruments work requires us to consider leaving a volume containing turbulent air between the acts as a fi lter or equaliser that further modifi es the aerodynamics, or, to be more precise, a object and the main fl ow. The pressure experienced by colour. The remainder of the instrument may also branch of that interesting subject known as the object in the smooth fl ow is different in turbulent serve to improve the coupling with ambient air and Aaero-elasticity, in which the fl exibility of a structure fl ow. If the position of the separation point moves, the thereby increase the level. interacts with a non-steady air fl ow. The phenomenon force on the object will move. An alternative method of producing more sound is that we strive to obtain in a musical instrument, With some shapes, the separation point will not to obtain the wind mechanically rather than from the because it is the source of sound, is the same one stay still and there is an oscillating force on the player’s lungs. The accordion and the uilleann pipes that we try to avoid in aircraft because it can result in object. If the object is not perfectly rigid, the change work in this way. The operation of the accordion break-up of the structure. in force will cause it to fl ex. If that fl exing causes the is self explanatory. In the uilleann pipes, the air When an initially steady fl ow of air encounters change of force to change further, there is an unstable supply comes from a bellows operated by the players an object, the result depends strongly on the shape condition and the system will fl utter, sometimes to elbow (uilleann is Gaelic for elbow) and is stored in of that object, as well as on its stiffness and mass destruction. a bladder similar to that used in the bagpipes. The distribution. Loosely speaking, air fl ows reasonably The frequency or pitch of the oscillation can be harmonium gets its air supply from pedals. The well around the front of the object, until the cross determined using resonance. It is easy to produce a organ requires a blower that might once have been section begins to diminish. At some point after that tone by blowing across the mouth of a bottle. The air a manually operated bellows worked by an assistant,

70 resolution May/June 2008 showcase but nowadays is electric. Incorporating a pipe into the instrument allows a vast number of variations. Where compactness is a goal, the length of a single pipe may be changed to allow a musical scale. Having one pipe for each note allows chords to be played and produces a lot more Wellie. Flues are naturally open at the mouth end and if also open at the other end, will produce strong even harmonics, because the open ends form antinodes. A stopped fl ue will have a node at the stop and so will produce strong odd harmonics. Reed pipes are acoustically closed by the reed assembly and so the other end must be open. They produce odd strong harmonics. Reed organ pipes often have a characteristic offset when the air valve closes. The sound from the pipe decays, but seems to rise again in one last little toot before the fi nal decay. I don’t know the reason. Narrow pipes tend to emphasise harmonics whereas wide pipes emphasise the fundamental. Colour can also be adjusted by tapering the pipe. The material also affects the tone, with high lead content alloys having a darker sound than pipes made from stiffer metals. The pipe organ keyboard operates various ranks of pipes according to what stops are selected. As the valves are either open or closed, this is a binary logic problem. Originally solved mechanically, it then went to electrical operation using relays and fi nally to electronics. The well known console manufacturer Solid State Logic began by making organ control systems, hence the name. The street organ that can pneumatically reproduce music recorded by holes punched in a medium is another forerunner of digital audio. (It’s involved retraining of the monkeys. Ed) The simplest instrument is the traditional bugle. Having a fi xed length metal pipe, it can resonate only at the fundamental and a few harmonics. The player selects one of the available notes by embouchure. With no moving parts, the bugle could survive as a military signalling device. The length of the pipe can be changed in an infi nitely variable way by moving a piston along it as in the Swanee whistle or by using a telescopic pipe as in the trombone. A set of fi xed notes can be obtained by uncovering holes in the side that effectively short circuit some of the pipe as in the recorder. In an instrument that uncovers holes to select the note, the sound comes out of the hole, not from the end of the pipe. The small holes that a fi nger can cover or uncover form an impedance mismatch with the surrounding air and not much sound is radiated. Such instruments tend to be quiet. Generally the pipe will be conical, thereby having a constant taper. Thus the width of the pipe at each hole is a constant proportion of the length, maintaining the same timbre for each note. In most of the brass family extra lengths of pipe are switched in and out using valves. There are no holes and all of the sound emerges from the mouth. In this case it is possible to form the mouth into a horn-like shape that forms a better impedance match with the surrounding air and thereby produce more level, hence their position further away from the audience. This leads to the musician’s joke regarding the arrogance of certain conductors. What’s the difference between so-and-so’s orchestra and a cow? The cow has the horns at the front and the asshole at the back. ■

May/June 2008 resolution 71 your business your business Live Nation and the 360-degree turnaround

We’re going to be talking about a different kind of producer this issue, one that will have a signifi cant effect on all kinds of producers in the not-too-distant future. DAN DALEY says the son of Clear Channel has potential to do good or not.

ive Nation, the world’s largest live concert producer, increased its revenues by 12.8% to US$4.2 billion, a year-over-year increase of US$473.3 million, according to its Lannual report released last March. Under Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino, the live music business is coming more to resemble Wall Street rather than Bleecker Street, at least from an operational point of view. When Rapino talks about music his tone is more like that of a City hedge fund manager than a Clive Davis or Doug Morris. Listen to him wax poetic on how the concert touring business is changing — or more to the point, how he’s changing it: ‘During 2007, we made substantial progress in executing on our strategic plan to fully capitalise on our global leadership position in live music. We consolidated our global network and strengthened our core business through changes in how we drive revenue, manage our costs and measure our success. Our improved performance refl ects early returns from the investments we made in transitioning our core business into a more focused, profi t-driven organisation. We also made substantial progress in building an integrated platform aimed at further strengthening and monetising the relationship between artists, fans and sponsors — before, during and after live events. In the year ahead, we remain focused on driving our core business and implementing our plan to capitalise on the transformation of the global music industry.’ He’s not P T Barnum, or even Simon Cowell. But Live Nation is the biggest promoter in an industry that’s shown a compound annual growth rate of 15.5% since 2001, and which generated $3.6 billion in revenue in 2006, up from $1.8 billion in 2001, says Pollstar. This in an era when CD sales are plummeting 20% a year. In 2008, Rapino expects live concert touring and revenues to expand further, and plans initiatives to further build out Live Nation’s ticketing services. (The company will take ticketing completely in house starting 1 January 2009, ending

72 resolution May/June 2008 your business the company’s deal with Ticketmaster. Instead, Live innovate. But so is the drive to be and stay number Nation announced a 10-year deal with Germany- one. Live Nation continues to exercise the same based CTS Eventim, Europe’s largest ticketing leverage its erstwhile parent did in demanding that company, which last year sold 60 million tickets to artists commit to their venues or play none of them at over 100,000 events in 17 countries.) all. Aside from the 10-year, US$120 million Madonna Michael Rapino may not be exciting but he’s no deal, no one really knows what the terms of a Live Guy Hands, who took over a barely breathing horse at Nation record deal are. Will everyone get 360 deals, EMI and then proceeded to beat it, demanding that his or can there be a 270 deal, say, that leaves out one artists work harder for the good of the label. Rapino is revenue component, like music publishing? actually building new infrastructure. The CTS Eventim By extension, then, we also don’t know how those is more than a snub to the historically obnoxious who produce records for Live Nation will fare, either. Ticketmaster; the deal allows Live Nation to collect Will the producer’s royalty remain part of a producer’s data from those sales: consumers’ names, addresses, compensation? If, as has been the mode for some time mobile numbers, preferences, MySpace links, and so now, producers continue to seek revenue by co-writing on. All that data can be cross-colateralised (Only in with the artist they are producing, will their share of America. Ed) with MusicToday, the fan management the publishing revenues be affected by the artist site Live Nation acquired in 2006. The company now having a 360-type deal with Live Nation? For that has the concert production business as a lever to work matter, how much control over the ‘product’ will Live in other directions, underscored by Rapino’s statement Nation demand? The establishment of the recording that, ‘Live Nation will use its most important asset, studio division is telling. In the US, Sony Music was the concert ticket, to build artist careers and customer long the last holdout label owning a recording studio, relationships….’ till it cratered last year. EMI hangs on to Abbey Road Onlookers tend to see the snatching of Madonna as much for its historical, real estate and coffee mug- from Warner Records in 2007, and then Jay-Z sales value as anything else. In a market with a vast earlier this year in an even bigger deal, as the amount of low-cost recording overcapacity, where windvane indicating Live Nation’s strategy going the technology is cheap and plentiful, why build forward. But it’s not just about a high-profi le signing recording studios? Unless, of course, you want to for Rapino. While Live Nation is at fi rst glance a exercise a greater degree of control over what comes live music proposition, Rapino is building a much out of them. more comprehensive infrastructure that could replace Steve Jobs revolutionised the music business by what’s left of the old-guard music industry. Aside developing a distribution system that acknowledged from signing Madonna, Jay-Z and being in discussion the fact that music was now an exchange of fi les, with reportedly several dozen lesser lights for the not discs. Despite some high-profi le moves, Michael company’s new record label, Live Nation also started Rapino won’t be able to pull off anything as radically its own recording studio group. The company’s amazing as iTunes/iPod. David Kronemeyer, a former vertical integration now includes fan club services, concert promoter and major label executive, laid out Internet content, publishing, touring, promotions, Live Nation’s potentially precarious fi nancial position sponsorships and talent management. Rapino helped in his blog, where he notes that nearly a quarter of pioneer the concept of the 360 deal, in which the label the company’s assets are attributed to ‘intangibles’ participates in all revenue channels, from recordings and ‘goodwill.’ States Kronemeyer, ‘Booking a to ticket sales to merchandising, in exchange for $120 million long-term contractual commitment to bigger royalty percentages. Madonna… will increase Live Nation’s long-term According to Forbes, 75% of earnings for top liabilities by 29 percent. Put differently, if Madonna’s moneymakers in the music industry in 2006 were $120 million was shareholder’s equity, she would earned from touring. That’s not going to last forever. own 19 percent of the entire company. Which is With the top grossing live tours now consisting ludicrous, and which is the reason why companies mainly of classic rock acts from the 1960s, ‘70s and that survive from touring season to touring season ‘80s, the end of that greying gravy train is already — Live Nation’s business model — have no business in sight. The ‘Steel Wheelchairs’ tour, perhaps? making long-term contractual commitments that far Building out a comprehensive vertical infrastructure exceed any reasonable revenue horizon…’ that can fi nd, sign and develop new artists is critical As long as live music continues its ascendancy as for Live Nation going forward. It is, in fact, critical if a money maker for the music business, Rapino and there is to be a viable music business in the future. Live Nation are well-positioned. It might not have Hubris, anyone? made a lot of economic sense to give $120 million to Live Nation’s accomplishments are the stuff of a 50-something Italian-American chick, but it gave moguls. Annually, Live Nation puts on more than Live Nation an enormous amount of bandwidth in the 10,000 events at over 140 venues (many of which market of perception. they also own) in 19 countries. Live Nation is But a lot of Live Nation’s own bandwidth is going the biggest promoter in the industry, according to to be used up staying number one. A joint venture Pollstar. Live Nation’s website is second only to that between LN’s jilted ex, Ticketmaster, and Cablevision of Ticketmaster’s for unique visitors seeking artist (which owns Madison Square Garden and Radio City and tour information. And as for selling tickets, Live Music Hall, among other venues) is poised to acquire Nation outsold their closest competitor, AEG, by a 3:1 a 49% stake in AEG Live, Live Nation’s closest ratio in 2007 — 27.9 million ducats to 8.5 million. competitor. This brings AEG Live something that Live There’s one thing that the numbers don’t measure, Nation doesn’t have: its own music video channel though: hubris. Live Nation was spun off only three (Fuse TV) and teleproduction facilities. years ago from Clear Channel, a mega-corporation When you look at the agents of change in the that had earned the industry’s enmity by creating music business in recent years, you fi nd them to be, focus group-generated pabulum-like playlists for like Jobs, Rapino, and even Microsoft co-founder Paul their empire of radio stations across the US, stifl ing Allen, fi nancially astute and passionate about music. competition and institutionalising mediocrity. How You used to do the concert to promote the record; much of that DNA still actively resides in Live Nation? now, you distribute some songs to alert people to The ambition is there, as is the clarity of vision and your upcoming tour. Change may be good, but it takes the willingness to compete as well as the ability to some getting used to. ■

May/June 2008 resolution 73 headroom

PitCH aNd tUNiNG instruments and voices both tend to rise in pitch Where can I download a copy of this Trombone when louder. Thus considerable skill on the part of Hero of which you speak so glowingly? (Headroom As a sound engineer with much experience of tuning the performer is needed to compensate for all these V7.3) According to my golf tutor my arms are not of issues, I’d like to add some observations to John factors to ensure a pleasing result. The combination of appropriate length for mastering of the trombone Watkinson’s article on the subject (V7.3). trumpet and organ in particular calls for immense skill. therefore I must resort to software-solutions. Will it Regarding the many alternative unequal Interestingly, the perception of pitch can be vertical run on OSX 10.5.2 and still be compatible with all my temperaments in use, typically with organs and (the relationship between all the notes currently plug-ins including AcidTripSpectacular for Photoshop harpsichords, there are digital tuners available offering sounding) and horizontal (the relationship between and FighterAce 3.0? some of the more popular options (e.g. Werckmeister successive notes, typically in a single part). In the case Also, do you know anyone at Fostex who can explain III) thus saving the user the need to get bogged of a solo line, such as with trumpet and organ, the why the output of their MR-8 MkII multitracker is down in cents. There is no doubt that these subtle horizontal aspect often predominates, so that it is suffi cient only to drive the inputs of their PM0.5 Active temperaments produce some distinctive sound colours possible to tweak the pitch of an individual trumpet Monitor loudspeakers to the barest whisper, even with which can be very pleasant indeed, while avoiding note and the ear does not register the shift in organ both loudspeakers’ input gain level knobs cranked the occasional eye-watering dissonance of the earlier pitch at all! round to 11 out of 10 (try this with any normal mixing mean-tone temperaments. I have also observed that proximity to the sound desk and you will fi nd the mid/bass cones embedded in However, even with equal temperament each key has source can affect the perception of pitch. For example, your skull)? Do people who toil within such companies its own fl avour (although at fi rst sight the maths might when recording a piece for viola and organ, the viola generally operate a policy of talking to each other? lead one to expect otherwise) and a variety of factors was consistently slightly fl at over the monitors, yet it Did the designers of Roland’s D10 synthesiser ever could play a part in this. The tuning beats generated sounded fi ne to the performer, right next to his left talk to the sullen mystic who wrote the manual for by intervals other than octaves get faster, the higher ear. When he came through to the control room he it, but who had never tried to edit a sound, let alone up the scale they are played; many instruments instantly agreed that it was indeed fl at. The solution compose music, on it? vary signifi cantly in tonal colour with pitch; indeed, was to give him a pair of headphones so he could hear Thank you for a brighter Thursday morning. since a degree of absolute pitch is involved with the the recorded mix — instant success. Singers have a Mike Lethby, Horsham, UK recognition of vowel sounds, it may be that human particular diffi culty in that they hear their own voices as hearing itself imparts distinctive colours to each key. much internally as externally, and sadly the two routes John rightly distinguishes between pitch (subjective) don’t always subjectively agree, which typically results advertiser index and frequency (objective). Although there is a general in fl atness. Much diplomacy can be called for on the part Acoustic Energy ...... 57 degree of agreement between the two it is certainly of the producer in avoiding the dreaded ‘F’ word. Also Dynax ...... Classifi ed 71 not absolute! For example, piano tuners frequently One of my pet gripes is that music students are Audient ...... 32 adjust the upper octave or two of a piano fractionally insufficiently coached in the art of tuning their Audio Technica ...... 44 sharp, as this sounds more ‘correct’. Instruments with instruments. At music competitions it’s all too Calrec ...... 23 Cedar Audio ...... Outside Back Cover 76 different harmonic structures can appear to be tuned common for the candidate to look questioningly at the Dangerous ...... 47 to slightly different pitches when played one after the accompanist for guidance as to whether they’re sharp Digico ...... 03 other, and yet there is no beat when played together. or fl at. I have to say the answer they get is not always Digidesign ...... 27 Also, higher frequencies appear to fall in pitch as correct, either. In this age of digital tuners it is a simple Euphonix ...... 35 the sound level drops — a practical consequence of matter to learn about the tuning eccentricities of your Fairlight ...... 65 which is that unaccompanied choirs are more likely instrument, and educate your ear in the process, so Fostex ...... 20 to gradually go fl at in buildings which have a long that you can make your own judgments. Imagine how Funky Junk ...... Classifi ed 71 Genelec ...... Inside Front Cover 02 HF decay. much sweeter the school orchestra would sound if they Georg Neumann ...... 53 The well-known choral conductor David Willcocks all knew how to tune their instruments! Grace ...... 29 is widely quoted as saying ‘better sharp than out of Having said which, it should be apparent that I’m not IBC ...... 59 tune’. My fi rst choral experience some 45 years ago advocating an obsessive dependence on digital tuners — Josephson ...... 67 was in a local church choir which included a soprano however, they can be a very valuable tool. You probably Klark Teknik ...... 31 (inevitably the most faithful attender!) who habitually have already experienced how utterly bland and robotic Klein + Hummel ...... 43 KMR ...... Classifi ed 71 sang sharp, to my considerable irritation, so this a basic MIDI realisation of piece can sound (having said Lawo ...... 07 dictum didn’t fi nd much favour with me back then. which, I’ve heard some superb examples from expert Lydkraft ...... 18 However, over the years it has become apparent to me hands!). That sort of ‘perfection’, in terms of uniformity M-Audio ...... 56 that, strictly in moderation, David Willcocks was right. of pitch, tempo, and dynamic level, is simply not musical. McDSP ...... 49 A solo voice or instrument sounds brighter and more It is the subtle and controlled degrees of ‘imperfection’ Merging ...... 48 vibrant when minutely sharp, particularly in relation which make for a really great performance. This is widely Microtech Gefell ...... 69 to a keyboard accompaniment. Conversely, perfect appreciated in relation to tempo and dynamics, but Millennia ...... 13 Prism Sound ...... 67 tuning can sound bland or dull. perhaps less so in the area of pitch. Radial ...... 36 In choral music it’s very noticeable that even one David Wright, Gemini Sound, Southwell, UK RND ...... 73 or two singers slightly under the note can make RSS ...... 41 the whole section sound flat, leading to a degree Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup ...... 09 of frustration on the part of the ‘righteous majority’ SPooliNG lEadEr Schoeps ...... 17 when the conductor takes them to task. On numerous Just wanted to say how much I, and my lads, enjoyed SCV London ...... 66 SEA Brauner ...... 67 occasions I’ve been able to sweeten the odd note with your leader article this month (ears vs plug-in EQ). SIS Recruitment ...... 67 the use of ‘surgical’ EQ to lessen the contribution of Couldn’t agree with you more. In fact, your leader is Sonic Apogee ...... 61 the offending minority. More surprisingly, on a few the fi rst thing I read every issue... don’t ever hand it Sonic Rupert Neve Designs ...... 19 occasions I’ve successfully applied the same technique over to another writer. Keep it up. Sonic SE...... 55 to a solo voice or instrument! This leads me to suppose Alex Murray, Welshpool, UK Sonic Waves ...... 39 that ‘real’ notes contain a slight spread of pitches Sonifex ...... 72 (quite apart from any vibrato) which allowed me a I pretty much always liked your leaders. But the current Sonnox ...... 51 Source/Universal Audio ...... 21 degree of selectivity. I wonder if this ‘spread’ is lost one (V7.3) beats it — couldn’t agree more! I have SSL ...... 25 with heavy use of Autotune, and contributes to the organised a panel at AES Amsterdam with the title: Studio Spares ...... 63 resulting synthetic quality? ‘Wow, this sounds great!’ about our criteria for quality TL Audio ...... Inside Back Cover 75 Many instruments e.g. brass have internal (audio quality in particular), also within other fi elds — I TL Commerce ...... Classifi ed 71 inconsistencies of tuning which compound this issue have enough great panelists already, but you are top Tonelux ...... 11 and great care is needed to ensure that the residual of the list for a possible further session in the future. Trinnov ...... 15 Vertigo ...... Classifi ed 71 discrepancies are northerly rather than southerly. Pitch Keep them coming like this! That had to be said. Vintage King ...... 45 can also be a function of the dynamic level — wind Florian Camerer, ORF, Vienna, Austria

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