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Youth
Getting it right
REVIEWS
• Mackie digitalXbus • SE Electronics
SE1a, SE2a, SE3
• Dolby 585
• Sony Vegas +DVD • Toft Audio Designs ATC-2
Craft
14 Alchemy 54 Broadcast
London combined mastering and The annual V Festival now combines
postproduction aims high and creates radio and TV output as part of its remit.
rooms with views. Our man is in the thick of it.
38 Youth 56 Katz’s column
Bass player turned remixer, writer and Mastering engineer Bob Katz introduces
producer talks about the mystery of getting us to Becky and Fred who have a
it right and his new studio in Spain.
common audio dilemma.
42 Dan Swift 58 Power
Recording live bands with mics is back
in; we talk to a man who can and does. You have the power but is it clean and
reliable? We look at solutions.
46 Sweet Spot
A room at a price. After the building comes 59 Ten
the finishing: speakers, garnish and trim. Most influential albums.
Business
50 Indies 64 Your business
Independent labels look increasingly Daley says that there are people out
like a fig leaf for the majors’ A&R there who want to organise you.
inadequacies. So let them.
Technology
48 The matter of Metadata 62 Slaying Dragons
The business of moving data around Don’t abandon your own standards,
between disciplines has technological and get some test and measurement
economic implications for all involved. equipment instead.
Reviews
22 Mackie digitalXbus 30 Toft Audio Designs ATC-2
24 Dolby Model 585
32 Sony Oxford Dynamics and R3 EQ
26 SE Electronics SE1a. SE2a, SE3
28 Manifold Labs Plugzilla 34 AKG WMS 40 Microtools
29 PSP Prozilla 36 Sony Vegas +DVD
news
Smart AV has
Leader Jose Rosillo (pictured) from
Madrid is already enjoying
appointed Patrick As an industry we have come a long way. I recently had the TL Audio 5060 com-
Woolcocks as the pleasure of listening to what I regard as a couple of pressor he won in the
European sales stonking old albums in an absolutely superb control room Resolution magazine com-
manager respon- on absolutely superb monitors. The experience was petition a few issues ago.
sible for Europe, enlightening. While the immediacy of the albums was not We can also announce
Middle East and lost, nor their appeal, I have to concede that they were the winner of our Audix SCX25 competition.
Africa. He has many years’ experience lacking in a number of areas. The performance caught the The lucky recipient is Steve Nelson
in sales and business management in band in question at their naive freshest and it was well recorded and mixed to the from Ellington, UK. Our thanks go to Audix
the broadcast market, recently with good standards of the late 1960s (I won’t embarrass myself by naming them) and distributor Sterling Audio for making
Clear-Com Communications Systems but it lacked the low end, the spacial info, top end and clarity that the room this happen.
where he was responsible for Europe, could clearly reproduce. Still sounded good mind, just not stonking. It was as if You have a chance to win a fabulous set of
Middle East and Africa and previously I was listening through a ‘window’. SE Electronics mics in this issue on page 57.
as Regional Sales Manager with Leitch. I recently also had the opportunity to compare a variety of popular compression
DK-Technologies
algorithms directly against originals and quite frankly the results were frightening.
I would encourage anyone with the remotest interest in high-quality audio to
Management buy
has appointed engineer the opportunity to do the same and to witness precisely what the out of Netia
Dorte Ibsen as compact, convenient and compressed generation is making do with. The amount The management team and employees
personal assistant of information that they are missing out on beggars belief. have bought out Netia from its existing
to CEO Karsten One thing about the great old days that you cannot dispute is that progress shareholder EVS Broadcast Equipment. The
Hansen. She joins was driven by a concern to make things sound better. Sure there were ‘business’ move has the support of investors I-Source
from a Danish forces at work, but engineers in all disciplines were aware of, and were frustrated Gestion (France) and Mangrove Capital
telecommunications company where by, the limitations that they had to work with. They used their skill and craft to Partners (Luxembourg).
she held a similar position. She has squeeze the absolute best out of what they had. We arrive at the present day with ‘The years 1990 to 2000 were marked in the
extensive management and market- a selection of high quality, wider and faster formats driven by very powerful audiovisual sector by the passage from
ing skills and a background as an equipment, which is generally used well within its absolute capabilities, only to analogue to digital. We are now experiencing
export engineer. deliver product that is then distributed over the air waves or the web in a form a new revolution in this sector by the
that is only a pale shadow of what hit the 1/2-inch, CD-R, or the output bus. overwhelming arrival of IT (IP technologies).
DK-Technologies The biggest danger we face as a production industry is that we will become Our wish is to make Netia a major international
has boosted its irrelevant and that our best efforts at output will no longer be appropriate. I player in this field,’ said Christophe Carniel
international sales can’t help thinking that if the energy and boundless technical experience that and Pierre Keiflin the founders and Directors
team with the has gone into trying to establish new high-end formats and broadcasting methods of Netia. In parallel to the MBO, a European
appointment of had been applied to improving the quality of popular current delivery methods project with several partners including RTL in
Lars Beyer as sales perhaps we could all be concentrating on getting the best out of what we have. Belgium is in the process of being registered.
manager for Zenon Schoepe ANVAR (National council for the promotion
Europe and Asia. He has nearly 20 of research in industry) has already confirmed
years’ experience in the audio and that it will finance the project.
broadcast industries having previously
DK-Technologies relaunches brand • French software company Manreo has
held senior sales and project man- joined the Netia group. The new entity will
agement positions at NTP Elektronik Karsten Hansen, founder and CEO of Danish be able to offer simple, innovative and
and AEQ. audio and video manufacturer DK- competitive solutions to major players in
Technologies, has unveiled the company’s the IP Media market.
Frank Rocco has joined Wohler new name and logo, a re-branding exercise
Technologies as director of market- that marks its transition from DK-Audio to
ing. His initial projects include mar- DK-Technologies (abbreviated to DK for
keting initiatives to promote wider general use).
recognition of Wohler Technologies. ‘We have changed our name and image to
He previously managed a full-service reflect the direction in which DK is moving
marketing agency in New York, which and to remove any uncertainty over our
had many clients in the broadcasting product range,’ Hansen explained. ‘Having
and production industry. He replaces both DK-Audio and PTV branding was
Cian de Buitléir who is leaving Wohler confusing for our customers. Our aim is to (L-R) Lundgaard’s Dave Hyatt, Sayer,
to concentrate on his new Web consolidate all our products — whether they Heyworth and Lundgaard’s Ebbe Ravn.
Hosting business HOSTING.io. are destined for audio or video application industry towards products that can handle Following Resolution’s report on Danish
— under a simple DK tag. This will allow us both audio and video,’ Hansen added. ‘We Lundgaard studios, Leo Sayer has since
DPA Microphones has promoted one to concentrate on providing conceptual have the technology to create these taken his DVD project to Simon Heyworth’s
of its German dealers, Mega Audio, to solutions, not just product, which we believe products and we aim to position ourselves Super Audio Mastering facility in Devon,
the status of sole importer and exclu- is what the industry wants. as a modern, progressive company that can UK for some stereo mastering to ATR Aria-
sive distributor for the country. ‘There is a general move within the adapt to the demands of it customers.’ Ampeg 1/2-inch.
©2004 S2 Publications Ltd. All rights S2 Publications Ltd or the editor can be S2 Publications Ltd. Printed by The Grange Press, Butts Rd,
reserved. No part of this publication may held responsible for its contents. The Registered in England and Wales. Southwick, West Sussex, BN42 4EJ.
be reproduced or transmitted in any form views expressed are those of the Company number: 4375084.
or by any means without the prior written contributors and not necessarily those of
consent of the Publishers. Great care is the Publishers. Registered office:
taken to ensure accuracy in the Equity House, 128-136 High Street,
preparation of this publication, but neither Edgware, Middlesex HA8 7TT.
news
news
news
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a completely new system upto 96 freely configurable I/O’s (AD/DA, AES/EBU,
or upgrading an existing TDIF, ADAT) • choice of control surfaces • huge range
setup, DVpro can help you of available plug-in effects • MIDI • MacOS and
optimise your Pro Tools rig Windows compatible • OMF import/export • modular
and ensure your budget is system allows you to expand with your needs •
being put to the best use. unrivalled DSP power • industry standard platform
www.dvproaudio.com « « protools@digitalvillage.co.uk
news
The DPA 3521 stereo kit. Two DPA 4021 compact cardioid microphones
matched within 2 dB on frequency response, sensitivity and self noise.
Supplied in a robust carrying case with an XY/ORTF holder, two goose-
neck mounts and two magnet bases, the DPA 3521 is designed for low
profile mounting inside pianos. It's also the perfect stereo pair for drums,
horn and string sections and choirs, and a spot pair for acoustic ensembles.
The DPA 3521 stereo kit - the perfect partner for your instruments.
news
T
HE FACILITY IN question is Alchemy and I feel I need to get the issue of Alchemy’s panoramic we did find a nice building it wasn’t suitable enough to
the building is Centre Point, which when it was view of London out of the way now so I don’t keep put mastering and recording studios in next to each
built in the 1960s towered out of place of New referring to it later. It is truly incredible. Perched at the other, and there were generally pillars all over the
Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road but now appears North West corner of the Soho boundary you get place,’ says Rowan. ‘Barry had this bright idea about
pleasingly retro and right on the London skyline. uninterrupted views across the city in all directions — Centre Point but I thought it would be way out of our
The move to these new premises was necessitated by Alchemy has the whole of the 29th floor — and league. We looked at it and at the time they were
the growth of Alchemy’s business and coincided with control rooms have vistas that rival those of any trying to encourage media associated companies into
some major shifts in the London mastering and post studio in the world. Certainly beats a Soho basement. the building. We were looking at the 16th floor — it
scenes and created a timely home for some heavyweight Master mastering engineer Ray Staff had taught gets more expensive the higher you go. We managed
engineers. Ray Staff, John Davis, and Chris Potter (all ex- Barry Grint to cut records at Trident and when Trident to do a good deal on the rent but then realised that we
Sony Whitfield Street) joined Alchemy mastering was bought by Tape One and became Audio One, wouldn’t be able to run the air conditioning from the
engineers Martin Giles (ex-CTS) and Alchemy co- Rowan Laxton was recruited for his background in top or the bottom so we went back to the landlords
founder Barry Grint; Tim Lofts (ex-Saunders & Gordon) commercials and music mixing. Barry and Rowan and cut the same deal with them for the 29th floor,
headed up the postproduction wing with Alchemy co- started Alchemy eight years ago on £15,000 in a little which we knew was available.’
founder Rowan Laxton. The new site has two mastering building in Goodge Place. During the day Rowan was After all the glitz and glory of its opening as a new
rooms with lathes, two post rooms, CD duplication, a doing his voice work with Barry as teaboy and in the London landmark that typified the era that saw it built,
digital transfer room, an e-copy room, a machine room, evenings Barry mastered CDs with Rowan as teaboy. Centre Point went from flash and brash to trash as the
plus a kitchen and a reception area not far off the size of One control room, one voice booth, one reception, building stood empty for a good many years and its
many small Soho post facilities. 450sqft and two client bases. environs became popular with down and outs and
facility
gear
gear
PYRAMIX V4.3 through OMF or AAF solves the sync issues that are com-
Merging Technologies has launched Pyramix V4.3 mon with CMX EDLs.
with new features for film dubbing and editing environ- V4.3 also offers Virtual Tape Mode — a true
ments. Support for the AAF is available as an option and BWF file destructive record punch-in, punch-out
new Re-conform features include ‘Re-link To New Media’. mode. Quick Mount dramatically reduces the time
This allows a complex edited file imported from a taken to mount media files by creating a specific
video editing station referencing 16 bits stereo files to cache file of the mounted media. Pyramix’s CD mastering
properly relink the 24 bits multichannel original location allows the system to modify the CD image, PQ editing,
recording media with all edits seamlessly extended to CD Text, and track names without having to regenerate a
whatever number of tracks the original media was new image.
recorded to. For multitrack source destination music Dayang Technology Development in collaboration with
editing, Pyramix can reassign a stereo edited mix of a Merging has unveiled its D3-Edit NLE video workstation,
multitrack project to the original multitrack media which uses Merging’s Mykerinos DSP hardware and
V2.0 File Processing instantly recreating the edits across all tracks. The ability to synchronisation features.
capabilities allow users relink sessions transferred to Pyramix through EDL and www.merging.com
to analyse and process
selected parts of, or
whole, WAV and AIFF
files rendering the
results back to hard disk (disk-to-disk) in a fraction of the
time needed to process audio in real-time. It also allows
passing WAV and AIFF files through the processing chain and
outputting the results so you can monitor them in real-time.
The 64-bit Dynamics Processor contains three new
modules: a compressor, an upward expander and a
downward expander. Each offers eight audio channels and
you can use any combination of processes simultaneously.
All three processes offer precise envelope control and side-
chain linking and processing with IIR Precision EQ. The
Cambridge Limiter also offers eight channels of processing.
www.cedaraudio.com
POWERCORE COMPACT
TC’s PowerCore Compact is
a lightweight and portable
hardware platform with
FireWire ports for easy laptop connection. Price is Euro 760.
It comes with nine standard plug-ins — two reverbs, two
compressors/limiters, a chorus/delay, a parametric EQ, a
synthesiser, a complete voice channel and a guitar amp
simulator — it also has the Character plug-in from Noveltech,
the dual ‘analogue’ filter bank Filtroid, and the Master X3
incarnation of the Finalizer.
PowerCore Compact supports any VST or Audio Unit
based DAW and runs a 266MHz PowerPC and two 150MHz
Motorola DSPs each with 512k RAM.
TC now offers PowerCore in three hardware configurations
with a differentiated number of plug-ins included: PowerCore
Element still comes with 9 plug-ins; PowerCore Compact
features 12 plug-ins; and PowerCore FireWire includes 14
plug-ins in total.
www.tcelectronic.com
gear
gear
SOUNDSCAPE MIXPANDER GOES NATIVE miking kick drums and grand pianos, while the frequency NOISE REDUCTION HEADSETS
Soundscape’s Mixpander Power Pak allows users of Native response of the e902 has been optimised for very low
based systems to enjoy the same benefits as Soundscape frequencies, making this cardioid dynamic good for kick
DAW users when recording and mixing. The Mixpander Power drums, bass guitar amps, and tuba.
Pak combines the power of DSP mixing on the Mixpander 9 The compact cardioid e904 is designed specially for drums,
with the new iBox 48-TA or the iBox 64-MADI/TA I-O inter- the dynamic e905 is described as an all-rounder suitable
faces, which are configurable with up to 128 analogue and dig- for a wide range of instruments, and the supercardioid e906
ital I-Os. Prices start from UK£2499 (inc. VAT) for the Mixpander is designed specially for guitar amps. The e908 condenser
Power Pak 48 supporting 48 tracks of simultaneous I-O. comes in two variants — the e908B for brass instruments and
www.aspromedia.com the e908D has all the features of the B variant but is supplied
with a dedicated clip for use with drums and percussion.
The e914 condenser microphone is designed for cymbals,
AT PRO HAS STEREO CONDENSER hi-hats, and overhead miking.
The reengineered Pro Series range of performance and Sennheiser is also showcasing a new professional headmic
general production mics features three new models, three range, the HSP Series. The omnidirectional HSP 2 and the The Telex PH-100 and PH-200 headsets are medium-weight,
updated models and improves still further on competitive cardioid HSP 4 headmics are unobtrusive yet rugged and are noise reduction headsets with dynamic microphones. Both
available in black or beige. The boom is adjustable for length have noise attenuation of 21+dB and feature a headband
and angle while the HSP 4 additionally features a flexible design that distributes ear cushion pressure evenly.
gooseneck. The dynamic mic arm has a sealed ball-and-socket joint and
www.sennheiser.co.uk flexible boom for precise placement.
www.rtsintercoms.com
gear
review
Mackie digitalXbus 200 Waves plug-ins will soon be available. Just one
illustration of where the ‘depth’ comes in. This is a
comparatively ‘open’ system. You can install any
It is one of the most eagerly awaited digital consoles of recent times and repositions well-behaved VST plug-in. A ‘first’ to the best of my
knowledge and most welcome.
Mackie as a contender. ROB JAMES believes it is revolutionary and that it will redefine The on-board DSP available for plug-ins is, of
course, finite, as is the DSP for more basic functions.
expectations of the digital 8-bus sector. At 44.1kHz I managed to activate 64 iterations of
four band EQ, compressors and gates plus 28
iterations of the SaneWave reverb. At higher
sampling rates (up to 192kHz) you get
proportionately less. If and when you run out, up to
four of the excellent UAD powered plug-ins are
already supported and, PC permitting, there is no
obvious reason why support for other proprietary
hardware plug-in accelerators should not follow.
Functionally, the digitalXbus 200 is a 72-input
console with 8 buses plus a master stereo bus and 12
aux sends arranged as three input layers, master and
‘VCA’ group layers, and a MIDI control bank/layer. By
using its Universal Control as a starting point, Mackie
has been able to provide software control of the
following workstations: Adobe Audition,
Apple/Emagic Logic, Cakewalk Sonar, Digidesign
Pro Tools, Sony Vegas, Steinberg Cubase SX/SL
and Nuendo. In the future, the list will no doubt
grow and there is no reason why alternative surface
D
ESIGNING A RADICAL NEW console is a UK£8932 plus VAT, with all the optional interface ‘skins’ should not be provided.
complex business, requiring artistic and cards at UK£297 plus VAT, apart from the 8-channel This console is revolutionary because it successfully
scientific rigour. But this is not sufficient, there mic/line at UK£510, I believe it will redefine our combines the discipline of a traditional, fixed
has to be lateral thinking and a dash of luck in the expectations in this 8-bus segment. Its up-market architecture, analogue desk with the almost anarchic
brew. Get it right and once potential customers take the sibling, the digitalXbus 400, may well do more than flexibility of the WIMP interface and the workstation.
time to investigate, they will experience that ‘light- that and frighten some much bigger fish. (It’s worth This means 4-band parametric EQ and
bulb’ moment as suddenly it all seems so obvious. pointing out that the desk when originally compressor/expander dynamics on each channel plus
This will be followed by, ‘Why didn’t somebody think announced was called the dXb but the owners of the 8 aux and 2 stereo cue sends, inserts and direct outs.
of this before?’ as they reach for their credit cards. dbx brand name complained and claimed it was too You also get surround panners and effects slots.
When I first saw this console, at a trade show back similar to dbx. Mackie refers to the desk now as the Channel strips are consistent with EQ, dynamics,
in February, I was distinctly underwhelmed. Two digitalXbus. Ed) auxes, etc. in the same place every time.
pretty screens, each with 24 Penny and Giles motor The digitalXbus is unashamedly built on a PC The touchscreens are used to maximum effect. A
faders, 24 V-Pot rotary encoders with 4 x 24 buttons platform, as was the d8b before it, but here the PC is single touch on any element block in a strip opens up
underneath, a master strip, monitor section, the usual in the control surface, a lot more convenient than an expanded window for the function. Another touch
transport controls and a few other blocks of buttons separate units, but with the disadvantage, at least on moves to the same parameters for the channel before
and knobs. But where were the rest of the forest of the one I had, of being very noisy. I have six PCs in or after. In the EQ window there is the choice of
knobs and the usual minefield of buttons? There is no my studio/office (not all on at any one time) and the altering parameters by using the encoders under the
hardware ‘fat channel’, one of the defining features of digitalXbus is noisier than any of them apart from the screen/above the faders or touching and dragging
the d8b. OK, so the screens are touch sensitive, but I one the children use. Making a quiet PC power supply directly on the graphic EQ curve nodes. Seventy two
don’t really like touch screens on the grounds that if is no longer ‘rocket science’ or even especially input channels plus masters and DAW control means
you’re touching them, you can’t see them. So, when expensive in components so I’m sure Mackie can do bank or layer switching to access then all and, yes,
the big cardboard box arrived, my expectations were better in this area (Mackie says that a retrofittable you can hold or lock channels on the surface when
not especially high. ‘ducting’ silencer will sort this issue. Ed). you switch.
I have always been a great believer in the old adage Unlike the d8b this console is running Windows One really clever bit is translating familiar PC
of ‘When all else fails, open the manual’. In other XP which brings many benefits such as easier porting conventions to the hardware surface. For example,
words, the first test with any new piece of kit is to see of third party plug-ins, for example, the estimable lots of useful and semi-intuitive double-click functions
how far you can get without having to resort to the
book of rules. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating
ignoring the technical author’s art, but this approach
gives a much better idea of the likely learning curve.
Diving in recklessly, the digitalXbus turns out to be
amazingly intuitive, at least for me. Far more so than
any digital console I have ever previously
encountered. (Of course, you have to take into account
all the hard won learning that has gone
before...)(You’re being modest but the point is a fair
one. Ed) There could be a downside to this, lack of
depth. But, as I was delighted to discover, nothing
could be further from the truth.
Mackie has learnt a lot from the d8b experience.
The d8b was always slightly quirky but ultimately
close to being just another ‘me too’ console and I was
never a great fan. The digitalXbus is a horse of a
completely different colour. At the asking price of
review
on the buttons — the Shift key, when double-clicked, and the surface controls. Again, this is all arranged in the rest of the move. I think this may be done to avoid
selects all strips in the current bank. Double-clicking a an intuitive and logical manner with operational fader jitter or hunting, but it is unsettling until you
channel Select key opens the EQ and Dynamics controls mapped to the surface and set-up options become accustomed to it. Needless to say, audio
windows for the selected strip, one on each screen, relegated to pull down menus. Routing to the main transitions happen exactly as they were originally
giving near instant access and a further double-click stereo bus can be made directly from the surface made, it is just the faders that lag behind. The
closes them again. Leaving your finger on a channel although curiously, routing to the 8 buses has to be automation needs a bit of work. It could use more
select for a couple of seconds opens the Channel done via a pop-up. I suspect this will soon change. options and the editing is a bit clunky in practice,
Settings window. All this translates into a fast, productive interface, although the theory looks good. A method of quickly
The V-Pots above the faders are ‘soft’. When a often with several ways of achieving the same result. zeroing pans and EQs would be nice. All this and a
window is open with adjustable parameters, for I found myself using the touch screens much more great deal more is eminently possible thanks to the PC
example EQ, the V-pots below become controls for the than I would have expected. Of course, you can software nature of the beast.
window. Otherwise the block of buttons to the right of connect a standard mouse or trackerball and QWERTY At present, the digitalXbus is something of a work
the screens governs their global function. LR pan, FB keyboard as well if you prefer. in progress and to some extent, it probably always will
pan aux sends 1-8, digital level trim, level to tape or As ever, the devil is in the detail. The V-Pots or shaft be. This goes with the territory when there is a PC
cue send 1&2 level or pan. This is far more intuitive in encoders are inferior in feel to those found on the d8b involved and should be seen as a virtue rather than a
practice than in description. The same logic applies to and lack the concentric circle of LEDs. vice. Throughout the product’s life it can be updated,
the programmable Macro keys. By default Macro 1 The fader motors retain the curious ‘damped’ improved and extended and this includes the PC
opens the Effects Rack window; another press on the action found on the d8b. This gives the illusion that hardware and the DSP accelerator(s) should this
key closes it. When opened, plug-in effects can be the faders are slow. They aren’t, but when a fader become necessary or desirable. To judge from Mackie’s
added, removed, routed and controlled from a moves automatically from, say, unity to infinity, the previous form, this will undoubtedly be the case. The
combination of pull down menus, the touchscreens last centimetre or so takes significantly longer than hardware is sleek and good looking, the buttons and
faders all feel positive and the jog-wheel is superb.
SMPTE generation is built in and the digitalXbus is
I-Os
On the rear panel are two USB ports, an
also a 9-pin controller. Throw in a scrolling automation
display and editing, VST plug-ins, surround in formats
up to 7.1 and, whether used with digital multitracks or
Ethernet port, MIDI I-O, two footswitch jacks workstations, the fluidity of the interface offers a
and a serial 9-pin socket. The digitalXbus is a considerable enhancement to productivity.
9-pin controller (but not synchroniser). Lurking underneath a metal plate are the normal motherboard connectors. What we have here is a glimpse of the future, a
The digitalXbus comes with a Mix card and a Sync card already installed. The card cage has a dedicated slot hardware audio mixer/controller for the Playstation
for the included sync card, (which has BNCs for Wordclock I-O and Jacks for SMPTE I-O) plus three A slots, three generation, with a seriously powerful DSP engine
B, three C and a single D slot. underneath, supported by flexible I-O options. Where
One C slot is occupied by the Mix out card which has 8 analogue balanced jack outputs for stereo speakers others have sought to disguise the PC basis of their
A and B, phones 1 and 2 and mix out and two XLRs for stereo AES-EBU I-O and two phonos for SPDIF I-O. There consoles so far as is possible, the digitalXbus celebrates
is only one digital stereo input, software switched between AES-EBU and SPDIF. this fact and exploits it to maximum effect. Best of all,
anyone who is PC literate and knows what an audio
OPTIONAL I-O CARDS mixer is supposed to do, can operate this console
Mic/Line 4 Card: 4 XLR balanced analogue mic/line inputs; 4 TRS balanced analogue line level inputs; digitally without spending a ridiculous amount of time learning
remote-controlled mic preamps; independent (+48v) phantom power per mic input channel. how the designer’s mind works. Check it out. ■
Mic/Line 8 Card: 8 balanced analogue mic/line inputs; 8 balanced analogue line level outputs; independent
phantom power (+48v) per input channel; digitally remote-controlled mic preamps; two female 25-pin
D-Sub connectors.
PROS First of its kind; shallow learning curve;
Huge potential.
Line Card: 8 channels of balanced analogue line level inputs and outputs; +4dBU/-10dBV jumpers for each
channel; two female 25-pin D-Sub connectors. CONS Noisy power supply fan; automation
Digital Card: 8 channels of ADAT optical digital audio input and output at 96kHz (4 channels at 192kHz); up to needs work; LP and HP filters in
8 channels of TDIF digital audio input and output at 96kHz; direct digital connection between digitalXbus and addition to the 4-band EQ would have
been nice.
external digital devices; female 25-pin D-Sub connector (TDIF) and four TOSlink optical connectors (ADAT x 2).
AES Card: 8 channels of AES-EBU digital audio input and output at 96kHz; direct digital connection between
digital X bus and other AES-EBU compliant equipment; uses one female 25-pin D-Sub connector. Contact
FireWire Card: direct digital audio streaming between digitalXbus and any compatible computer running
Windows XP or Mac OSX; ASIO 2.0 or OSX Core Audio compliant; 2 IEEE 1394a FireWire ports. MACKIE, US:
Website: www.mackie.com
review
Dolby Model 585 a limited amount of material and play it back time-
scaled by up to 15%. (23 minutes 11 seconds of mono,
pro-rata for multichannel formats.)
The ability to shrink, stretch and alter the pitch of programme is a routine requirement The 585 is housed in a 2U with a sculpted alloy
front panel in keeping with other recent Dolby
in front-line postproduction. There are a number of ways to achieve products. In the same vein, it interfaces with the rest
of the world via BNCs for audio at a nominal 48kHz
it and now Dolby has released a one box solution. sampling rate. In, Loop-through and Out connections
ROB JAMES checks out its time are provided for the four pairs of AES-EBU channels
along with AES reference In and Loop-through. 9-pin
scaling processor. D-sub connectors allow for remote RS232 updating of
the software and GP I-O for remote reporting the 585’s
status. Four further ports, not currently active, service
Metadata to and from Dolby E devices and Remote (9-
pin) in and out.
Around the front, the oval screen is backlit in orange
and accompanied by six buttons, a knob and three
indicator LEDs. There is no immediate indication as to
the health of reference or audio input signals on the front
panel or the main status menu, you have to use the
cursor keys to get to the Digital In or Reference screens.
Twenty four different Program Configuration
permutations of the eight channels range from 5.1 + 2
E
VER HAD THE FEELING that your favourite There are three groups of time-scaling technologies through every practical combination up to 7.1. Display
juve lead isn’t sounding quite as butch as you available, frequency-domain, time-domain and modelling. Mode allows the choice of units for pitch shifting,
remembered? Or that the leading lady is even The first practical device for restoring correct pitch to frames, cents or percent. The display conveniently tells
more shrill than she was in the cinema? Or if you are a speeded up or slowed down tape was time-domain you when the percentage is appropriate for the
blessed/cursed with perfect pitch, does the music based and employed a rotating playback head on a common 24FPS to 25FPS and vice-versa conversions.
sound wrong? If you are watching a film on TV in any conventional analogue tape transport. This repeated or As with any pitch shifting device, latency is an
country with 50Hz mains, or come to that a VHS or discarded sections of material to achieve its results. At issue. The 585 allows the user to choose a value
even DVD, chances are you’re right. Not only that, the best this could be described as ‘lo-fi’, but I well between 400 and 480mS. With the lower value still
film will finish sooner and it isn’t the censors at work. remember using an EMI ‘Eltro’ tape machine equipped approaching half a second, real-time time-scaling will
The sad truth is that films are shot and seen in the with just such a system in the early 1970s to convert either require separate video and audio passes, the
cinema at 24FPS but telecined at 25FPS, which means TV film rushes tapes from 24FPS to 25FPS in the introduction of a significant video delay or separate
they run 4.16 recurring percent faster than they absence of any viable alternative. video and audio sources with a timecode offset.
should and are pitched up by the same amount unless A frequency domain solution proposed by The oval screen, reminiscent of a thousand sci-fi
steps are taken to ameliorate the problem. Schroeder in 1967 produced characteristic artefacts images, is not as informative as it could be. Operation
You may already be thinking, ‘so why don’t they just including phase and loss of transient definition and in a hurry with a mere six buttons and a knob isn’t too
pitch-change by a reciprocal amount?’ Well, sometimes frequency domain processes have never taken off. much fun either. In Transport mode, all the buttons
‘they’ do. But pitch-changing introduces artefacts and, Later time-domain solutions are, unsurprisingly, take on new functions, not entirely intuitive.
truth to tell, I’ve only ever come across one stereo pitch- digital variations on the original rotating head splicing None of this would matter a jot if the unit actually
changer I would even consider using on an entire movie technique using circular memory buffers with achieved its goal — i.e. Time Scaling/Pitch changing
in real time. (I don’t intend to embarrass other algorithms looking for zero crossing points to make the without audible artefacts. Even on short acquaintance
manufacturers by naming it...) The emphasis should be joins less audible. More sophisticated versions analyse and with not especially challenging material I could
on the word ‘stereo’ because up to this point I have not the signal content in an attempt to minimise artefacts hear it in action. Playing with the sensitivity setting
heard any pitch-changer I would even think about such as echoes, stuttering and loss of definition. helps, but artefacts are still audible and the
using on an entire 5.1 movie. (And I’m quite prepared Modelling emerged as a bright hope in the 1980s, requirement to adjust the process sensitivity to suit the
to be convinced otherwise, if other manufacturers are but only proved to be applicable to less complex material material takes it out of the ‘plug-and-forget’ category.
feeling slighted.) One problem is phase coherence and each model tended to be highly specific to a few This should not be taken as a negative verdict. The
between channels. Phase shifts are undesirable in any types of audio. Processing time is significant so this is 585 finishes a considerable distance ahead of the rest of
case, but can be catastrophic when the ‘extra’ channels not an obvious choice for a near real-time solution. the pack. The artefacts are less objectionable than usual
are downmixed for poor unfortunates listening in mono The best chance has always seemed to be a and, in the absence of the other leading contenders for
or stereo. sophisticated analysis engine controlling a time- direct comparison, I believe the 585 is at least as good
Movies are not by any means the only application for domain process and this is substantially what the in multichannel as it’s nearest rival is in stereo only. The
a time-scaling processor. Adverts are another obvious Dolby 585 offer is, but in an interesting package and at 585 is certainly the best option I’ve come across for the
target since they are frequently made for the cinema but a competitive price of UK£4450 plus VAT. Psycho- function it is most obviously optimised for — adverts. I
used for TV or vice-versa and here time really is money. A acoustic analysis and processing techniques similar to would still think carefully about routinely applying it to
30-second slot is just that. Broadcast is another rich seam. those employed in data-reduction audio coding entire movies in real-time. ■
As schedules become ever more inflexible, programmes schemes are used to minimise artefacts. The unit has a
are stretched or shrunk to fit. If programmes can be scaled fair claim to the title ‘Time Scaling Processor’ rather
with few audio artefacts this is likely to prove a better and than simply pitch-shifter, partly because of the way PROS Phase synchronous pitch shifting/time
less expensive solution than editing them. information is presented but also because it can record scaling; this is as good as it gets.
Contact
DOLBY:
Website: www.dolby.com
review
A
S THE LANDSCAPE of microphone looking, but perfectly functional shockmount. This is consistently good results.
manufacture has shifted in recent years with in comparison to the cardboard packaging and plastic While manufacturers like DPA are not exactly going
newer, low cost manufacturers entering the clip that accompany the SE1a. to be quaking in their boots as a result of SE
picture, most attention has been paid to the increasing Actually, if you delve under the hood a little Electronics’ small diaphragm offerings, there’s no
number of low cost large diaphragm studio capacitors bit deeper, you find that economies of scale do doubt that the SE1a and SE2a are useful tools that
entering the market. Sure, the large diaphragm tool come into play here. Although the SE1a is represent terrific value for money. In my opinion, the
has always had a certain prestige associated with it, sold as a fixed pattern capacitor, the capsule pick of the bunch is definitely the SE3. For the price,
but let’s not forget the need for small diaphragm will actually unscrew, and will happily accept it’s more than capable of delivering a natural, but
designs. One company that hasn’t forgotten is SE the capsules that ship with the SE2a — which slightly larger than life sound — and it does so in a
Electronics — indeed it has been producing small could prove a very cost-effective way to mix very fuss free manner. And while it would be
diaphragm capacitor microphones for some time. But and match capsules and bodies. Sonically, the overstating things to say that it is nipping at the heels
alongside recent changes in manufacturing and cardioid and hypercardioid capsule sound very of the likes of Neumann’s
worldwide distribution, it has also taken the similar to the stock capsule on the SE1a — KM184 — it’s closer than it’s
opportunity to update and expand its range. although predictably the pricing might have led you
Logically, if rather unimaginatively titled the SE1a, hypercardioid’s off axis response to believe. The folks at
SE2a and SE3, all three of these microphones are is a lot lumpier and coloured. Sonic Distribution also tell
small diaphragm, pencil type devices. Least expensive The pick of the capsules is me that an SE4 is in the
in the pecking order is the SE1a, a development of the probably the omni, which offing, which will
company’s original SE1. Even at a recommended retail manages to sound less effectively be an SE3
price point of UK£69 (inc. VAT), the SE1a ‘closed-in’ than the with interchangeable
has a capsule that is a true, externally other two capsules. I’m looking
polarised capacitor design rather than a sometimes can — forward to it. ■
back-electret. and did a nice job
While the capsule is the same fixed on acoustic guitar.
pattern cardioid design found in the original At the top of the
SE1, the electronics have been overhauled food chain is the SE3, which is a much
to reduce self-noise and improve sensitivity weightier proposition in more ways
slightly. This has all been packaged in a new than one. Physically longer and thicker
enclosure that is a great improvement on the than the SE1a or SE2a, the SE3 uses an
original, and whose overall dimensions are entirely different capsule design to that
slightly thicker and longer than, say an AKG employed in its smaller siblings. Higher
SE300. In fact, in looks it’s probably more specification components in the electronics
like a longer version of a Neumann KM184 and an improved PCB design further up
than anything else. Looks are one thing, the ante, as does the provision of a -10dB
though — sounds are quite another — and pad and a high pass filter. All of this puts
so in deference to its pricing as much as on a bit of weight, and it’s only when you
anything else, I put it up against an AKG pick it up that you really appreciate just
SE300 with a CK91 cardioid capsule, and a how big it actually is, and realise that those
Beyer Opus 83. circular side entry ports give the
PROS Cheap as chips — particularly SE1a; true
condensers for back-electret money;
In purely operational terms, the SE1a microphone a curiously retro, almost SE3 a versatile and classy performer.
lacks some of the features of the 1970s look.
comparison microphones as it possesses no All this, another one of those utilitarian CONS SE1a and SE2a can sound a touch brittle
high pass filter or pad. In sonic terms though, it turns shockmounts and a nice wooden box, can at times; SE3 not as compact as some of
in a fairly creditable performance. To my ears it has the be yours for UK£129 (inc. VAT) — almost its competitors; supplied shockmounts
look a little ‘industrial’.
edge over the (back-electret) Opus 83, as it seemed to double the price of the SE1a. And, I have
resolve low level detail that little bit better. Overall to say, sonically it also represents a big EXTRAS As mentioned in the review, SE has an
sound of the SE1a is bright but not forward — jump. Initial auditioning of the SE3 gave interchangeable capsule version of the
although on some sound sources, particularly vocals, the impression that somehow all of the SE3 on the cards, which will emerge as the
it can start to sound a little brittle at times. Extension little quibbles you can point to in the sound of the SE1 SE4. SE3s will also be available as matched
at the top and bottom end is fairly good, and overall and SE2 have just been ironed out. And while each stereo pairs for UK£349 (inc. VAT).
response seems smooth with just a little lift around one marks an incremental step — the lows seem to Incredibly, you can win an SE1a, 2a and
10kHz. In the final analysis, the AKG SE300 manages just have that touch more authority, the sense of 3 as a complete package by entering our
to sound more convincing and generally more natural brittleness to the high mids has been softened slightly, competition on page 57.
and open. the HF extension seems better and more open —
For those wanting more flexibility in the polar- collectively they add up to a very impressive sounding
pattern department, the next microphone in the range mic. It still sounds that little bit brighter and more Contact
is the SE2a. Featuring the same electronics and body forward than the AKG SE300 does, but now it seems
as the SE1a, for UK£149 (inc. VAT) you get three to have the bottle to back up that slight brashness. SE MICROPHONES, CHINA:
interchangeable capsules in cardioid, hypercardioid Admittedly, the SE3 might not be the first choice on Website: www.sonic-distribution.com
and omni flavours. Also for the price, the microphone vocals, but on electric and acoustic guitar, percussion, Worldwide: +44 1525 840400
US: +1 617 623 5581
comes in a wooden box together with a fairly crude snare, overheads and even viola it delivered
review
P
LUGZILLA IS A STANDALONE plug-in host, are used to access and bypass each plug-in. In the — MIDI and audio latency is extremely low, probably
designed to run plug-ins that would normally centre are overall machine bypass buttons, page considerably lower than would normally be achieved
run in a computer DAW. Designed by digital scroll buttons and primitive meters. by the average DAW software instrument plug-in
boffin Tony Agnello and built by Eventide, it presently Five illuminating buttons on the right select main running on a normal computer. This is where Plugzilla
loads and runs Steinberg Windows format VSTs and modes. Snapshot is a quick way of saving and excels, and would prove extremely useful for onstage
VSTis, compatibility mainly dependent on copy loading the entire setup of the unit into one of 8 use of software synths and sample-based
protection systems. It will also soon support Linux locations. Load/Save takes you into menus for more instruments. With VST studio effects, the convertors
Audio Developer’s Simple Plug-in API (LADPSA) specific file functions for individual plug-ins, sound excellent, and the knobs tweak very
format. machines, plug-in settings, system setups and more. effectively, although in some instances missing GUI
The box itself is a deep, heavy, wider than normal In Knobs mode you can access the parameters for the detail slightly mars the experience.
2U rackmounter, containing much of the innards of a plug-in, usually spread across multiple pages. In theory Plugzilla should eliminate some of the
PC, running Linux on a Celeron processor, complete Each screen’s page up/down buttons can be stability problems normally associated with running
with whirring hard drive and fans. There is, as yet, no pressed simultaneously to enter Zoom mode where any DAW on a PC or Mac. However, I overloaded the
monitor support, but you can plug in a USB keyboard you can use all eight knobs for a single plug-in. CPU and crashed it with (an admittedly ridiculous) six
for entering text when saving settings. Knobs can be pushed for coarse editing, and also, for instantiations of PSP MasterQ at 96kHz, and I was
The architecture has been designed with two example, to Load settings or display parameter unable to make any kind of Save function work. This
‘machines’, each of which can simultaneously load values. By pressing Knobs again you enter a Hot caused an error message, and ‘unloaded’ the plug-in
four plug-ins. An extremely flexible routing system Knobs page where you can assign the most useful I was trying to save.
allows for instrument plug-ins to merge their output functions for immediate access to essential settings, But Plugzilla is fairly straightforward to use, and
with incoming audio, and each machine may be using the knobs and buttons above. It is also possible for VSTi live use Plugzilla is undoubtedly preferable
routed in series or parallel with the other machine, or to set ranges, and control parameters via MIDI and more robust than a laptop, and the low latency
sent to any desired outputs. Individual plug-in slots controllers and even USB joysticks. is very welcome for musicians. The physical
can also derive input and send output to any separate Confusingly, this is referred to as Automation, whirring noise of the unit is irritating in a studio
single analogue or digital connection. A large number although unless recorded as MIDI in a sequencer, situation, but for sheer flexibility of function
of setup presets are available for different routing nothing is automated about it. Meters mode handles Plugzilla is hard to beat. ■
combinations including M-S and 4-channel settings many pages of possible points to monitor signal levels
using different clock rates. and these are displayed on-screen numerically; useful
Contact
On the rear are XLRs for four analogue inputs and but not especially clear to read. Finally, Setup mode
outputs. XLRs are also provided for stereo AES-EBU provides MIDI and audio connection configurations, MANIFOLD LABS, US:
I-O, along with a pair of Wordclock connectors for CPU usage indicators, and all the other configuration Website: www.manifoldlabs.com
operation up to 96kHz plus SPDIF on phonos. There setups, such as sample rate. Website: www.plugzilla.com
are two TRS footswitch sockets, MIDI 1 In, Out and A huge number of plug-ins is included preloaded
Thru, plus a MIDI 2 In/Out on a single 5-pin DIN plug.
There is a power rocker by the IEC socket, and
computer connectivity in the shape of two USB A PROS Great VSTi host for live keyboard performance; ultimate flexible effects unit.
sockets, a USB B, and an Ethernet connector. The unit CONS Noisy HD and fans; problems saving settings.
can directly access system updates from the Internet
and PZView software for Windows provides file EXTRAS Manifold Labs consists of veterans of the
management using a networked PC. The USB sockets pro audio and telecoms industries. (L-R)
Marc Lindahl (went from dbx to co
can be used to connect external drives, and there are
founding Sonorus and doing design work
a further two USB A connectors on the front. for Avid, Mackie, TC Works, Swissonic,
Another Power button on the front panel boots the Midiman, Event, and others before joining
machine and it takes about 85 seconds before relays Eventide as VP of marketing & strategy
click to switch on the audio signal connections. The and moving to Manifold Labs); Jim Sieniki
front panel has been neatly designed with rows of (lead software engineer with AT&T Bell
buttons and eight continuous clicking rotary Labs, Ariel, and UTStarcomm); Don Elwell
encoders with surrounding LEDs for pointers or (started at Ariel Corp as a hardware
metering; these are officially known as the Knobs. engineer, eventually led the department
as VP Engineering); Tony Agnello (while at
Functions and values are displayed on a pair of two-
Eventide invented the Harmonizer and SP2016 effects processor, has been involved in DSP since the
row LED displays. The bottom row displays the 1970s, including cofounding Ariel Corp); Joe Waltz (veteran of Lexicon and Eventide, worked on
function of the knob underneath, while the top row JamMan, Lexicon 300, Eclipse and Orville among others); Todd Mizenko (musician and senior software
shows related information. Above each display is a engineer with Ariel, General Atronics, and Dot4).
row of four buttons, one for each plug-in slot, that
review
PSP Prozilla
Plugzilla currently ships with an evaluation version of this suite of VST plug-ins that will not run on any other host than this machine. After
25 uses you are encouraged to buy the plug-ins from the PSP website. GEORGE SHILLING goes from Plugzilla to Prozilla.
T
HERE ARE NINE DIFFERENT plug-ins limiting algorithms (or thru). All bands include bypass a Gain knob and channel swapping options.
included in this comprehensive suite from Polish knobs, and the only downside of this great sounding StereoController comprises a bunch of tools for
company PSP, mostly useful as mastering and incredibly powerful EQ is all the page-scrolling corrective mastering, such as phase reversal, L-R swap
processors (Euro 512). necessary on Plugzilla’s front panel, although this is and Balance correction. The Sides setting cleverly uses
AutoComp is designed to emulate classic opto- probably no more of a nuisance than mouse- the differential signal to balance the stereo signals
electronic compression. Ratio is apparently fixed, controlling the DAW equivalent. without influencing centrally panned signals, and
while Knee is available as a percentage setting for the MixPressor includes more possibilities than the similarly Center moves the central elements without
range below the threshold level, and there is an option aforementioned AutoComp, but apparently works on affecting the sides. Correlation and Balance meters are
between RMS and Peak operation — both modes included on two of the knobs, and another knob
sound great. With Plugzilla ‘zoomed’, all parameters controls a very accurate short delay for corrections
are available on one page, with two knobs’ LEDs used between the channels.
for metering of Gain Reduction and Peak Level. A Time StereoEnhancer uses differential signal adjustment
knob adjusts attack and release simultaneously, and and comb-filtering to enhance stereo width. There are
there is an element of automatic adjustment. Gain is several different modes and a comprehensive set of
automatically made up — the make-up seems a little controls for tweaking the exact effect, including selection
over-generous at times, although there is a knob to of the base frequency for the comb filtering and an
trim this! AutoComp sounds remarkably analogue- Emphasis setting to use a high pass filter, reducing the
like, and is quick to set up. effect of spatial enhancement on lower frequencies. A
EasyLimit is a brick wall limiter with just four knobs correlation meter is included, and there is also a mode
for two variable controls, plus bypass and a meter. The for making mono signals into spatial stereo effects. This
controls are Input level and Release time. The plug-in is great fun and works really well.
threshold is fixed — level coming out appears to broadly similar principles. The Compress knob seems to VintageWarmer is yet another compressor/limiter,
remain below -6dBfs. Release time is oddly shown as operate much like a threshold knob. Make-up starts this one including a 3-band multiband mode, and tape
a percentage, and again there is an automatic element with Auto then moves into a 0 to 47dB range, but there saturation effects. In single band mode, a three-band
to this. It sounds good, and by tweaking the release seems to be a slight software glitch that makes the Auto
you can vary the degree of pumping. The sound mode display ‘Auto’ when in fact there is 0dB gain.
remains pleasantly crunchy at fast settings. This plug includes a sidechain filter with a listen
MasterQ comprises parametric EQ with high and facility, and separate Attack, Hold and Release settings,
low filters (12 or 24dB/octave), high and low shelving the Hold setting effectively providing LA-2A-style dual
bands, and three parametric bell curves with slightly release times. A Delay setting (on or off) seems to act
as a look-ahead and contains transients more
effectively, and there is a Limit or Saturate option before
output that stops things getting nasty. It sounds much
like the AutoComp but the extra knobs give the user a
few more options to tweak.
MixSaturator adds distortion and enriching
harmonics to mixes or individual instruments. There
are three Valve settings, three Tape settings, and one
review
Toft Audio Designs ATC-2 certainly fast but its squash factor has much more in
common with ‘classic’ designs than its modern
presentation would suggest. There are fully variable
Malcolm Toft returns after a short absence with a new line of outboard with his name on. Attack and Release pots (marked only as fast and
slow at their extremes), Ratio (apparently unity to
ZENON SCHOEPE attempts to resist a dual-channel mic preamp, compressor, and 12:1) and the essential Gain Make Up (-50 to +20).
VU-style meters can follow output level or gain
EQ that has real character. reduction. The former could really do with a Peak
LED, to my mind, and
the latter could do with a
means of desensitising
the meters when
hammering hard as
mine spent most of their
time twitching on the
hard left end stop.
But it’s really very
good, I can’t knock it.
There’s a creamy quality
to what it does that is
M
ALCOLM TOFT’S NAME is so strongly To quote the rather poor manual, which really immediately flattering and very refined. It’s very
and immediately associated with the should have a front panel layout with pot by pot and similar in quality to boxes costing very much more
Trident brand that is has largely switch by switch descriptions, the box’s mic pres are that have those funny plastic controls on the front.
overshadowed much of his other work. While many derived from his earlier desks and the EQ and This is a good mix compressor, excellent on drum
would want to keep him firmly back in the days of compressor sections ‘borrow heavily from vintage subgroups if you want to get that sucky room mic
that limited short run of first A series desks, allowing Trident designs’. The EQ, in particular, will stir Series sound, and very handy on snares. It’s also fabulous
him perhaps to venture as far forward as the Series 80 fans. on a quality vocal mic because it can be remarkably
80 and TSM, I like to look as his work over a much Starting with the equaliser then, you get a transparent and doesn’t have to overpower and
broader period. For me, his days at MTA did switchable 12dB/octave 50Hz rolloff and +/-15dB stamp its mark on the singer. I’m fumbling for a word
epitomise much of what was good about what on all for four bands. LF and HF are shelving with here and ‘smooth’ probably gets closest and will
Malcolm does. Well thought out desks that were switchable 60/120Hz and 8/12kHz frequencies. The mean most to you.
stacked full of features, that were well laid out, and mids are peaking and seem to sweep (there are no It goes without saying that the mic preamp is damn
that sounded great on pretty much all fronts. They figures in the manual) 100Hz-1.5kHz and fine — very quiet and responsive — and surprisingly
looked a tad sudden with their light back colour and 1-15kHz. This is a great design and I love it. It might unfussy about what mic it is being fed.
bright red switches but they’ve probably aged more not read like much but believe me that it has a EQs and compressors can be bypassed individually.
gracefully than some of the cosmetic atrocities that subtlety that is now increasingly lacking in modern EQ is fixed before the compressor which is OK for most
were hitting us at around the same time. Most designs. It’s pure sweetener, whether in boost or cut, things but there are times when I like to run things the
importantly they were always extremely good value generous and full bodied. You can pile it in with other way around.
and still represent a great second hand buy today for enthusiasm but I found I ended up using little bits of The ATC-2 is very hard to fault in any major way
those who want a proper desk. each band and used it lots. and amounts to a quality unit of remarkable character
The MTA days also saw the release of the desk EQ To my mind when you get a tracking EQ you want — again that’s something that is starting to be lacking
as a Signature series rack unit and it remains one of to be using it, the special occasion EQs are all well and in a lot of ‘affordable’ outboard. I love the EQ, the
my favourite EQs simply because it is so usable and so good but they do tend to spend a disproportionate compressor and the mic pre. I’ve think I’ve just added
effective. An all to brief association with the Trident- amount of time On and unplugged. This circuit is a another box to my list of favourites. ■
MTA brand and Fletcher Electroacoustics did, high usage design that I love to death. Admittedly
however, produce the rather superb and very you’re not going to be pulling out mains hum with this Contact
underrated A Series EQ mic preamp that I regard as thing but you will very quickly find it can improve and
among the finest ever built. After a another quiet correct with ease. TOFT AUDIO DESIGNS, UK:
period, it’s great to see Malcolm back again with a Now the compressor is a different sort of Tel: +44 1803 215111
Website: www.toftaudio.com
range of boxes with his name on. proposition mostly because its action is quite different
US, PMI Audio: +1 877 563 6335
The ATC-2 breaks no immediate ground with what from the more common VCA-type designs. It’s
has become a fairly standard list of features but
because it has the Toft name on it we can expect
something a little special. We have a dual channel mic PROS Quality, characterful processing; ultimately usable EQ; real retro compression; a great box.
preamp, with line and instrument inputs, FET CONS Could do with a Peak LED and the ability to desensitise the VU for gain reduction extremes; no
compressor and EQ housed in a stylish case with switchable EQ-compressor order; poor manual.
nicely sculpted recesses for the switchgear. It’s built in
the Far East but you really wouldn’t think it as it’s EXTRAS
chunky, tight and well screwed together with smooth
pots, which are centre detented where appropriate,
positive switches and good hardware. Most
significantly it’s UK£699 (inc. VAT).
The rear panel has XLR connectors for mic and line
balanced inputs and outputs plus unbalanced jack I-
Os. The front panel adds instrument level inputs to
both channels.
I’ll say straight away that the compressor has a
Stereo Link switch that merely links the control
voltages and leaves each channel’s individual controls Other products in the Toft range include the AFC dual channel equaliser and mic preamp, the EC-1
fully independent. So there is no master channel mono channel compressor, EQ and mic preamp and the DC-2 dual channel mono/stereo compressor.
allocation just like in those old desirable FET designs.
‘ My investigation
into the many
facets of the
SCX-25 has
proved to be
most rewarding!’
David Grisman
Legendary Mandolinist
Audix Corporation, PO Box 4010, Wilsonville, OR 97070. In Canada, C-Tec, Tel 604-942-1001, Fax 604-942-1010 ®Audix Corp 2003. All rights reserved. Audix and the Audix logo are trademarks of Audix Corporation.
Resolution 3.7 October 2004 12/10/04 10:34 PM Page 32
review
T
HE SONY OXFORD R3 EQ and Dynamics plot graph, I preferred this, despite the semi- The bands have big 20dB ranges, and enormous
plug-ins are directly modelled on the Oxford OXF- obliteration of the pointers. frequency overlaps. Type 1 is the most clinical, with
R3 console’s respective sections, and are available Unfortunately there is no way to enter numbers minimal ‘Gain/Q dependency’ — this does what it
for Pro Tools LE and TDM, as well as for TC Powercore. directly. When the plug-in is instantiated, twiddling the says on the tin, seeming similar in character to Waves
The EQ comprises five bands of fully parametric EQ, knobs does absolutely nothing initially: each band Renaissance EQ or McDSP FilterBank.
with top and bottom bands switchable to shelving includes an ‘In’ button that must be clicked first — the Type 2 has a similar boost characteristic, but in cut
function, plus high- and low-pass filters. There are default is bypass. In the centre are A and B buttons for retains constant Q, useful for more precise notching
four types of EQ available, mysteriously labelled Type storing two different overall EQ setups for comparison, out, particularly when tweaking drums. Type 3 makes
1, Type 2, etc. Everything else about the appearance although there was no way I could copy settings from the Q narrower at higher cut/boost levels, and so
makes the function fairly obvious, with each band A to B or B to A, even using copy and paste, as that sounds more ‘musical’, and Type 4 takes this even
including conventional Cut/Boost, Frequency and Q copied the A or B setting too. further, where when increasing gain it’s more akin to
controls. As soon as the mouse is hovered over a An overall level attenuation knob is useful for the Waves Paragraphic plug-ins. Shelf bands use the Q
control, the value appears as a ‘tooltip’ in text form. avoiding clipping when boosting loud signals. Here knob to vary the undershoot/overshoot at the
There is an option for these numeric values to display also is the Type selector, where you can nudge up and turnover frequency, and are unaffected by the Type
on all knobs at all times, and with the rather shallow down the list before clicking the In button to activate. selected. Filters are variable from 6dB/octave up to
review
The Dynamics plug-in includes simultaneous Gate, EXTRAS Sony Oxford has launched its Oxford
Expander, Compresser, Limiter, Sidechain EQ and Reverb plug-in. Designed as a flexible
Warmth sections, each with their own dedicated stereo reverberation generator it has
control page and bypass button. The compressor presets and complete control of its many
parameters, including a comprehensive
section in particular is comprehensively featured, with
early reflections section and integrated
five different knee settings where you can lower the 5-band EQ. It is compatible with ProTools
onset of compression below the threshold point in HD and ProTools LE.
steps of 5dB. Another interesting feature is the
implementation of a Hold knob, which delays the
release part of the compressor effect, enabling some
very smooth programme compression.
The Limiter section features similar timing controls
that have large ranges — for example, Release goes
right down to 0.005S and up to over 3S. These timings
can be controlled by three different modes. Normal
generates logarithmic timings and the Classic mode is
similar but fixes time settings to emulate the dbx 160.
There is also a Linear mode that provides a constant
rate of gain change, which can generate dynamic
sound effects.
The Compressor’s Ratio control also boasts enormous
range, but sensibly the 2:1 position is half way round.
The Compressor is extremely versatile, and in some ways
similar to an analogue dbx in its precision. Perhaps
slightly bland compared to vintage models, this deficiency
is partially addressed by the Warmth section where a
variable control adds some pseudo-valve richness and
depth which is particularly enjoyable on vocals.
The Limiter is astonishingly good with a built-in
look-ahead function that keeps things very well tamed
without any unpleasant artefacts. The very effective
Gate and Expander sections both include Threshold,
Attack, Hold, Release and Range knobs, with the
Expander additionally providing a Ratio. The Side-
Chain EQ is a powerful 2-band parametric/shelving
section that can by switched to the dynamics side
chain or even into the main signal path.
An enormous graph shows very clearly the
combined theoretical effect of all active sections on the
gain curve. This is a fixed display, while virtual LED
meters show input and output levels, plus gain
reduction separately for each section. These meters are
small and could have benefited from a little more
resolution. The Dynamics plug-in additionally offers a
16-bit dithering mode for mastering situations —
normal audio resolution is 24 bit, of course.
In conclusion, both plug-ins are extremely versatile,
thoroughly designed and boast supreme sonic
integrity (TDM EQ: UK550 + VAT; TDM Dynamics:
UK£550 + VAT). These are Rolls-Royce models, and
the downside of their powerful performance and
flexibility is that they use slightly more processing
power than some of the competition. There are no
‘cut-down’ options of, say, instantiating just the
Compressor section of the Dynamics plug-in, although
there are versions of the EQ with fewer bands in the
TDM version. It could be argued that the GUI designs
of both are a little fiddly — precision mouse-work is
required. Their overall sonic character is refined, dry
and slightly bland compared to vintage valve
outboard. However, these are plug-ins and sonically
the best of their kind. ■
Contact
review
M
ICRO. FROM THE GREEK ‘mikros’
meaning small. So far so good. An adjective:
extremely small in scope or capability; trivial.
But as far as those definitions are concerned: no, no
and, well, no. The only thing small or trivial in this
range is the attractive semi-professional price tag that
accompanies each item.
Designed expressly by AKG to be entry-level, the
WMS 40 range has succeeded in lowering the price-
point for such-specified kit, while simultaneously
providing a quality that will have other manufacturers
of serious systems pausing awhile to maybe consider
their own offerings. Yes, the casings are plastic, yes, the
battery compartments will need the respect that only a
freelance owner would afford them; but given the
finances faced by the jobbing recordists servicing
today’s television (the micro-economy, in microcosm),
or if you were just embarking on a road-career, it
suddenly becomes less of a compromise to consider
these products as a low-cost and flexible way to tool-
up. However, one of the proviso’s is, inevitably, the
obligatory licensing arrangement with JFMG in the UK.
The WMS 40 range operates in the 710-865MHz
band, which neatly spans the allocated bands for UK
Channel 69 ‘specific locations’: indoors (854.250-
862.000MHz) or outdoors (854.250-858.750MHz
and 859.750-862.000MHz), or ‘free-roaming’
(854.900-860.400MHz): all of which require an
annual license fee to be paid to operate legally;
although some of the WMS 40’s channels are in the
license-free (863-865MHz) smash-and-grab zone of were best suited to each purchaser. offer an output level control that allows adjustment of
the bingo hall and aerobic instructor. However, the There are three receivers in the WMS 40 range; one the receiver’s output between -30dB, 0dB and +6dB.
fixed, preset, frequencies of the transmitters and is a portable diversity, the PR 40, for location use and RF and Power levels are displayed on the front
receivers let the system be set-up quickly and easily, two stationary models: the SR 40 and the SR 40 indicator panel. The audio bandwidth for the whole
and ensure that a recordist need never inadvertently Diversity. Both of the stationary SR 40 receivers — WMS 40 range is stated to be 40Hz-20kHz; THD as
slip across the wrong side of the tracks. Either way, I which may be rack-mounted or free-standing — carry 0.8% and a claimed signal-to-noise ratio greater than
would assume that any AKG supplier would take the a balanced XLR output along with an unbalanced 1/4- 108dB. Reasonable then, even if only 4 channels may
time and trouble to determine which preset frequencies inch jack-socket, provide an adjustable squelch, and run together inter-mod free.
DAC 1
Two Channel 24-bit, 96-kHz
D/A Converter
Listening to audio from the DAC1 is an amazing experience.
The distortion free output is so clear it feels as though someone has
lifted the curtain! Now you can hear detail that was previously
masked by jitter induced artifacts and distortion. If it was an
exceptional recording, you’ll hear it, if it wasn’t, you’ll hear that too.
The DAC1 offers just about the finest analog conversion available -
right up to 192-kHz, plus all sample rates playback with a 52-kHz
analog bandwidth. Performance is unrivaled. THD+N is an
astonishing low -106 dB (0.0005%) measured at 0 dBFS, at any
playback frequency, at any sample rate, with any degree of input
jitter, and it just gets better from there.
For more information, contact your local dealer.
review
The PR 40 diversity portable receiver is specifically various dynamic microphones. Its single AAA battery PROS A brilliant bangs-for-bucks price-point
designed for location recordists — as a mixer-bag power should last for up to 8 hours; but even this little coupled with a refreshing sense of style,
pocket item — or for camera-persons, fixed to the device is designed to sit comfortably in the CU 40 class and quality.
camera of their one-man-band crew. It carries two ‘drop-in’ charger.
folding antennae, an on/off switch and indicator, and, The Microtools range also includes a guitar-jack CONS While the WMS 40 is disrespectful to its
peers by blurring the boundary of
in an easily scanned row of three: a battery level LED, transmitter (the ‘Guitar Bug’ GB 40) for musicians, where it ought to stand given its price,
an RF level LED and an audio level LED. There are two and for lecturers, a lavalier microphone with a you do — ultimately — get what you
conjoined outputs: a combined line-level and detachable head; worn like a ball-point pen in a breast pay for.
headphone arrangement on a 2.5mm TRS jack socket; pocket (the ‘Micropen’ MP 40). This whole AKG WMS
the fixed line-level signal appears on the tip, whilst the 40 system shows a considerable, and pleasing, Ikea-
adjustable headphone feed is carried by the ring. esque style; combined with a satisfying sense of Contact
The unit is powered by two AAA batteries, giving a ergonomic flair and economic prudence.
useful life of 8 hours; or by an optional Powering Adaptor In a world where there’s no such thing as a free AKG, AUSTRIA:
(PA 40) which fits neatly into the battery compartment lunch, the AKG WMS 40 certainly makes for a Website: www.akg.com
UK, HARMAN PRO: www.harmanprouk.com
of the unit and takes power from a suitable camcorder tempting finger-buffet. ■
supply outlet operating between 5-18V; or by
rechargeable cells, replenished via an optional drop-in,
walkie-talkie type charger (CU 40) that conducts
through an array of contacts located on the bottom of the
receiver. This highly convenient feature is common to all
of the transmitters in the WMS 40 range, too, with a re-
cycle time of around just 1 hour. Comforting.
Users are spoilt for choice with the transmitters on
offer. My favourite in a moment; first there is the HT
40 handheld transmitter. Designed as a robust vocal
microphone — with a bright edge to its output — the
transmission technology is housed within the body of
an AKG D880, a dynamic cardioid microphone whose
rugged body hides the integral antenna.
The transmitter is operated by a silent on/off switch,
and there is a low-battery indicator; although with
around 35 hours of operational life from two AA
batteries, that could amount to an awesome 700
renditions of My Way; or a spine-tingling combination
of 350 each of I Will Survive and Hey, Big Spender
before it starts to glow. Staggering.
The PT 40 bodypack transmitter is, surprisingly,
quite large, though light, and may be worn in the
traditional manner of either a presenter’s pocket or
belt, and may be coupled to a selection of suitable
lavalier microphones. Simplicity itself in ergonomics
and controls, it carries a mini-XLR connector, an on/off
switch, a Mute slider-switch and a low-battery
indicator. A small display window provides an LCD
showing Carrier Frequency or sub-channel of a
Frequency Group, audio input level, battery level and
remaining operating time, error messages and the set-
up menus for Frequency, Preset and Gain.
A jog switch on the side of the unit is used to alter
variable parameters and activates the screen’s
backlight for 10 seconds when momentarily pushed.
The key to the inherent quality of any transmitter is its
compander, or more precisely its ability to process HF
transients; and its here, probably for the first time, that
a cognoscenti will pause and reconsider the merits of
the performance-cost ratio in the WMS 40; in
particular the critical coupling of a PT 40 with a PR 40,
processing a variety of male and female voices.
But my favourite of the WMS 40’s Microtools is,
without a doubt, the delightful SO 40 ‘Snap On’
transmitter. It is tactile and elegant, efficient and
effective, and the cheapest way I know to instantly
transform any cabled dynamic microphone into a
hand-held transmitter. The SO 40 is so small and light,
it weighs less than the cable and XLR it replaces.
Sturdily made in a light, reinforced glass-fibre case that
houses an integral antenna, there is a silent on/off
switch with a centre mute position, yet retains the
power to the device while it continues to transmit the
5mW RF carrier. A recessed rotary pot allows the input
gain of the SO 40 to be optimised for the outputs of
review
T
HE MIDDLE GROUND nonlinear editing
market is moving on apace. Neatly mirroring
the DAW experience, prices are falling and the
feature count is rising. Although necessarily there are
common factors to all the big players’ packages, there
is one wild card that has always managed to go its
own way. Adobe’s Premiere, Pinnacle’s Liquid Edition
and even the new Canopus Edius all follow the model
set down by the phenomenally successful Avid Media
Composer to a greater or lesser extent. Vegas Video,
on the other hand, began life as Vegas Audio,
developed by Sonic Foundry, and these audio roots
arguably make for an easier transition to video for
people who are more used to audio workstations. For
example, there is no twin-screen source-edit window
but there is an excellent trimmer.
When Sony Pictures Digital Networks bought Sonic
Foundry, it was the cause of some consternation
among the existing user base because of worries
about the future development directions that Sony
might impose. This is the first major release since the
take-over and should successfully allay any
remaining fears and win plenty of new adopters.
The standalone editing part of the package, Vegas
5 is now priced at a very reasonable UK£424.68
(+VAT) and includes Boris Graffiti 3.0 LTD for 2D
titling. But the real steal is the whole package,
complete with DVD Architect 2 and 5.1 Dolby
licensed AC-3 encoder for a mere UK£638.30 (+VAT).
To put this into perspective, a few years back, when I
reviewed Sonic Foundry’s earlier AC-3 encoder, Soft
Encode, the price was the same or more than this
complete package.
Vegas 5 has been given on-the-fly, punch-in music. It has also gained envelope automation ‘rubber-band’ technique. Vegas also has support for a
recording. This will be useful for recording recording. This can be written using the on-screen single Mackie Control Universal or up to five generic
commentary to picture and, of course, ADR as well as faders for audio and further adjusted using the usual MIDI controllers. Continuing with the audio
the daddy.
. C O M
review
improvements, the already useful collection of support and I am inclined to agree with them. One of
plug-ins has been augmented with three new, 5.1, the joys of native processing with a standard PROS Cost effective all in one package;
effects — Track EQ, dither and Wave Hammer (a soundcard and OHCI compliant FireWire is that you network rendering; doesn’t follow the
surround compressor). can have several packages installed on a machine and herd; intuitive user interface.
Bus to bus routing now allows sub-grouping and do various parts of a project using the most CONS DVD Architect lacks DLT support and
there is film-style surround panning with support for appropriate one or just the one you are most CSS/Macrovision; may seem alien to
panning between adjacent pairs of speakers using a comfortable with. people used to other editors; 2D only
constant power pan law. Real-time downmixing from This is a cost-effective and relatively painless way titling seems a bit mean.
5.1 to stereo should help improve efficiency. of acquiring a complete postproduction suite. Vegas
On the media management front it is now itself is an unconventional but very seductive editor. I
possible to create subclips, which reference a section find it works more naturally than most. The surround Contact
of a media file. These can be defined in either the sound tools and DVD authoring are intuitive and
SONY MEDIASOFTWARE, US:
Trimmer window or directly in the Vegas timeline. quick to use and can give highly impressive results. It
Website: www.mediasoftware.sonypictures.com
These subclips are added to the project’s media pool doesn’t condescend and it doesn’t feel rigid. I liked the UK, SCV London: +44 208 418 0778
and are used in exactly the same way as ‘normal’ previous incarnations; it’s a whole lot better now. ■
clips. The ‘bin’ architecture has been improved to
help housekeeping on long-form projects but could
still be better.
As an aid to workflow for projects destined for
DVD, frame accurate subtitles can be entered in Vegas
and exported to DVD Architect by creating named
regions in Vegas. These are exported as a text file
using a script then imported into DVD Architect to
create frame-accurate subtitles in a DVD project.
Unique on a product at this price point, the
provision of networked rendering is a big advance.
Vegas comes complete with two additional render-
only ‘service packs’. If these are installed on
networked PCs, Vegas can break down a project into
smaller chunks and, from the users point of view,
transparently manage the rendering and
reassembly process.
Vegas uses the popular MainConcept MPEG
encoder. There is now a twin pass option
that certainly enhances the picture quality but, on a
modest system, at the expense of very long
render times.
DVD Architect has been comprehensively
revamped with a new Project Overview Window, Real
Time External Monitor preview via FireWire, 24p DVD
encoding, Fit To Disk Compression, programmable
end actions for menus and media, multiple audio
track support, subtitle creation and import support,
enhanced optimisation tools and asset behaviour
control. These features and others, such as audio
track waveforms and up to 32 subtitle streams (16 in
widescreen) add up to make DVD Architect 2
arguably the most comprehensive solution available
The Direct-Access Console
at anywhere near this price point.
However, there are some omissions, which will
appear glaring to some and irrelevant to others.
There is no support for multiple angles and Architect
Instant access is essential in live situations. This is
cannot import complete menus in Adobe PSD format. exactly what the unique AURUS Direct-Access con-
However, Architect’s own design tools are very good. cept provides. Developed from scratch, the AURUS
Anyone contemplating commercial duplication will Digital Audio Mixing System sets new standards in
have a problem because DLT is not currently the high-end digital audio market.
supported and, there is no provision of CSS or
Macrovision copy protection, although the stable Industriegebiet See
door has long been flapping in the breeze where Features: D-96155 Buttenheim
these are concerned. Leaving these minor concerns Phone: +49 9545 440 - 0
• Totally new design Fax: +49 9545 440 - 333
aside, Vegas +DVD makes a compelling argument for • Perfect for live and production applications sales@stagetec.com
itself as a finishing package. • Instant control access via unique dual concentric www.stagetec.com
Despite, or perhaps because of, its unusual encoders in the channel strip
approach, the user interface is relatively quick to learn • Up to 96 channel strips and 300 audio channels
and works well on a single screen, unlike many • Patented 28-bit TrueMatch converters
others. Subjectively, many common tasks need fewer • NEXUS STAR-based
keystrokes and/or menu delving to achieve. You can • Compact, portable, and silent – fan free
do pretty much anything with Vegas that is possible
with its rivals but it might take a while to work out
how if you are already used to an alternative
approach. Those who have persisted are vocal in their
I
FIRST MET YOUTH at Livingston Studios in 1988 For some years he ran his own Butterfly Studios in want to build my ideal studio, you’re not going to
when we were both working on the Yazz album for Brixton, along with a bunch of record labels — he spend hundreds of grand on it like you would in the
Big Life. He was at that point best known as the currently runs Dragonfly, Liquid Sound Design and old days. And even if you did, making it commercially
former bass player in Killing Joke (they have since Kamaflage — through which he releases development viable would be ridiculous. I didn’t want to get into a
sporadically reformed, with Youth producing their projects, remixes, and his own work under situation where I’d invested so much I’d have to make
latter-day output). He had also been a member of the pseudonyms. He is presently resurrecting the Butterfly it commercial — which is kind of what happened in
Stock, Aitken & Waterman produced Brilliant label for a project featuring folk-based artists, and he the 1990s when I had Butterfly Studios in Brixton.
(alongside KLF’s Jimmy Cauty), but by now was continues to write and co-write material. Recently he’s And also the technology’s changed — it’s so good now
building a reputation as a remixer, writer and producer. been working on a classical crossover project with Mel with Logic and Pro Tools, it’s as good as, if not better
He was associated with the burgeoning post-Acid Bush and a Croatian pianist, writing and arranging than tape ever was. So what we decided to do is have
House UK dance, trance and chill-out scene, with an orchestra, and has completed albums with more of a mastering studio centred around a big HD
contrasting dramatically with the art-punk leanings of String Cheese Incident, Howie Day and Keith Flint. I system, and really the TLA desk — at one point I
Killing Joke. Since then he has developed an interviewed him in his garden summerhouse studio in really didn’t want a desk. Maybe 12 channels of old
exceptional CV as a producer, including the London while he worked on a remix for Juno Reactor, Neve, that was one idea. When I saw the TLA, apart
monumentally successful Urban Hymns by The Verve, who featured in The Matrix movies. However, after 30 from this being a great desk it has great mic inputs;
plus Crowded House, Tom Jones, James, Dido and years in London, he is planning a move to Spain and I’ve got to get those anyway, so it seemed like a really
Embrace’s recent number one album. is currently constructing a self-designed house good solution.
craft
craft
and things like that. I’ve heard people say that studios hand, you’re trying to get the technology out of the awesome, but it only sounds awesome when you’re in
that are by the sea are very good because of that. It’s way of that stuff, so that stuff can really fly around. a 5.1 studio and you stand right in the middle.
a bit far-fetched, but there could be a lot to it! On the other you’re really trying to keep that stuff well Anywhere to the left or right, it’s awful. I’ve heard
There’s all this other stuff that no-one knows under rein, so it doesn’t spin everybody out, make some terrible ones where you stand at the back and it’s
anything about as to why something clicks and everybody freak out, and get what you’re playing and just the guitars, all the drums are at the front, it’s like,
works, I suppose that’s why I’m quite superstitious, all that emotion recorded so it actually sounds good. where are you supposed to be? Under the stage?
because I’m aware that there’s a lot of other stuff that I think it’s great for movies, but generally in
goes into it. And I think it’s balancing all that other Have you done anything in 5.1? movies they want a stereo image up the front with
stuff with the practical, rational, functional side of I’ve experimented a little bit, but the only thing I’ve the odd effect flying around. When you split the
recording a song that makes something great. On one heard that I liked was Metallica and that sounded band up, you lose a lot of the weight, and also you
lose a lot of the illusion a recording gives you,
because, don’t forget, it is an illusion, it’s not live.
And like any good illusionist, as soon as you start
showing how it’s done, it doesn’t have any kind of
magic to it. I think I preferred Quadraphonic! I think
it’s funny because a lot of studios have invested in
5.1 rooms and they’re not being used very much. It
remains to see anyone using it as a creative tool
other than for sound design. I haven’t heard music
work that’s been specifically recorded for that, and
only works in that context, in the way that stereo
was when it first happened.
www.tlaudio.co.uk
Designed and
manufactured in England
TELEPHONE
+44 (0)1462 492090 //
EMAIL
info@tlaudio.co.uk // PASSIONATE ABOUT TUBES
Dan Swift
Recording live bands with microphones is a
skill that’s suddenly back in demand as A&R
departments jump to sign real music.
NIGEL JOPSON talks to a man with the
skill and the demand who is busy
redefining his role.
D
AN SWIFT IS THE ENGINEER capturing the
vibe for chart-storming and Mercury Prize-
listed act Snow Patrol. He engineered
Aqualung’s critically acclaimed album Still Life and has
also recorded The Datsuns, The Thrills, Clay Hill, The
Libertines, Nickelback, The Delays and Kasabian. Dan
is one of the UK’s up and coming production talents,
having recently produced well-received albums for The
Futureheads, Winnebago Deal and Help She Can’t
Swim, he’s currently working on tracks with All Saints
singer Melanie Blatt and Ikara Colt.
craft
Snow Patrol may have been awarded 4 Did you use Logic with the TDM Bridge to In the late 1990s, the recording engineer’s role
stars by Q magazine for their ‘Simmering, record Snow Patrol? seemed past it’s sell-by date as musicians
sophisticated cool,’ but they also got the I think most engineers agree it’s a bit of a pain made electronic music on their own ... do you
coveted 4Ks and a rave review in rock/metal using Logic in TDM. With Snow Patrol, we moved think engineers have regained an important
mag Kerrang! How did you record the to Pro Tools because it just wasn’t working, we position as a sort of system integrator?
energetic rock sound that whips in between were having a horrible time with synchronisation. I Electronic technologies are finally taking their place in
the cool bits? tried to get Garret’s laptop to talk to the studio G4, proportion to their worth, they’re no longer seen as the
There’s a lot of overdrive in the drum sounds. The bulk and run both at the same time, but it was heaven-sent answer to everything. It was very
of the sound was an RE20 gaffa-taped to the bass wandering. The Pro Tools rig with a USD unit and noticeable to me yesterday with a band I’m producing
drum, pointing at the shell of the snare drum, and an tape machine all worked fine ... it’s still a problem called Dorp, I walked in and there was a beaten up old
AKG C414 placed roughly underneath the snare, we’re trying to crack as Garret wants to work PC with a sequencer — it just looked like a load of
driven to hell on the desk. A lot of the sound on the straight into Logic. If you’re working with someone band gear — it was no longer: ‘This is our new
album grew from this one C414, the whole kit was like Garret, he wants to jump in and do his thing — computer — we don’t need you anymore!’ Now you’ll
present there, you can hear it prominently on Tiny if we’re in Pro Tools he can’t — because all his toys see a drum kit, an AC30 and a laptop with gaffa tape
Little Fractures. Britannia Row is not a huge studio, so aren’t there! all over it. Computers are not favoured over guitars as
I had a couple of U87s as far away as I could get them,
an SPL Transient Designer with release on full
exaggerated the sound of these room mics. When
Garrret (Lee, Snow Patrol’s producer) mixed it he
chose those tracks —- in fact, once you are using
“Some day” has finally arrived...
those mics all the other mics aren’t delivering any sort
of noise that can compete anyway!
Do you use Pro Tools or Logic as your DAW? For more details contact your dealer today or visit
I use both. I have Logic in my home studio because www.dynaudioacoustics.com
I’m running 48 outputs — to do that in Pro Tools
I’d have to re-mortgage the house! I work in Pro
Tools in commercial studios because it’s not worth
trying to swim against the tide. A lot of studios do
have Logic as well, but they haven’t really TC ELECTRONIC A/S DENMARK • ✆ + 45 8742 7000
TC ELECTRONIC UK • FREE ✆ 0800 917 8926 • INFO@TCELECTRONIC.COM
invested in it, it’s quite common to find Logic not W W W. D Y N A U D I O A C O U S T I C S . C O M
working properly.
craft
they would have been six years ago. However sampler, running up a huge budget, until it’s the
musicians choose to generate their music, today way I want it to be!’ I think it’s not so easy to do that
there’s a sense returning that somebody has to do with young bands now, because they are better
something to help them deliver. Enablers and helpers educated about the whole process.
— people like myself — have had our roles redefined.
It used to be that the recording engineer held the How did you acquire and hone your own
keys to the studio, and if you were nice to him, he’d recording skills?
let you in. It’s possible that in the 1980s, people I come from a background where you just thunder
who worked in studios had too much power and into producing records, then about five or six years in
became too arrogant. I don’t think the recording you realise you are rubbish! When I realised I was
process itself is such a mystery anymore, so rubbish I busted myself back to assistant and asked
musicians are not shoved around as easily. Bands Blackwing if I could work there. I assisted there for a
that recorded in the 1980s have described their few years with the objective of learning how to do it
studio experiences to me ... ‘you’ve played your bit, properly. Eric (Radcliffe) would listen to my mixes
now get lost and I’ll sit here rolling the wheel of the and talk to me about it. I also learnt a lot from
producer Hugh Jones, he has a wonderful way of
making people feel they are getting better at what
they do. He has a brilliant ear for balance, I quickly
bsyo up ne do pel ne g w
learnt I was just overdoing everything! After I’d
i nheoe rci an rge
GREAT NEWS FROM START TO FINISH worked with Hugh the quality of what I was doing
went right up. You can learn a lot from people who’ve
been recording successfully for a long time.
We are proud to introduce two new additions to our Tube-Tech line of all tube-based studio equipment
It sounds like you put that experience to
good use on Still Life, the Aqualung album.
That’s some of the best work I’ve done. Matt Hales is
very clear about what he wants and is a great
musician. It was recorded at Jacobs, a lovely studio, I
had a lot of fun recording slightly unusual drum
sounds, we did percussion with huge orchestral drums
... and maybe the odd crisp packet on the floor!
craft
I use my hands to get all the basic levels and when I get Do you miss following a production all the
to the bit where I’d normally turn the Flying Faders on, way through as an engineer, trying different
I just go into Logic and do the final trims. The rest of it techniques out on overdubs or rough mixes
is completely within the computer, the more I work like as the opportunity arises?
that, the more I don’t want to do it any other way. The work I do as a specialist recording engineer —
You start to get a frighteningly good sound out of like with Snow Patrol — is informed by the other
that kind of equipment if you play the analogue game work I do on productions of my own. For example,
and give every track its own bit of electronics. when I produced Help She Can’t Swim, there was
Software EQs still seem a little weak, though. I’ve tried something I wanted to try on guitar, similar to Tony
doing mixes just using software EQ, the Waves and Visconti’s trick of recording extra room microphones
Logic plugs, but I found I just couldn’t get there. The with noise gates, opening dynamically on Bowie’s
Mackie EQ is not the best in the world, but you just voice: the louder Bowie sang on Heroes, the more
lean in and turn the bass up and you get ... bass! The room mics opened up. I wanted to make a small
marriage of an analogue desk and digital audio seems Do you see recording engineers, at the top guitar part very important, so I placed stereo pairs
to be increasingly where it’s at now. level, becoming almost like Second Unit down the full length of the studio — I didn’t need to
Directors in film making? use gates of course — I could just snip it around in
Do you use Space Designer (the new Logic Officially you have artists, producers and engineers — Pro Tools. Every time the guitarist played this part it
convolution reverb)? but I think if you don’t allow a free discourse and a would be recorded across several mics, then in Pro
Just recently there’s been a huge improvement in flow of ideas between everybody, it’s not going to Tools I could swap between the mics and make the
the quality of plug-in reverbs, which initially were work — you can’t just sit there and say ‘all right, what sound appear to change location. Something like that
astonishingly awful! I’ve flicked through the 500 do you want to do next?’ But for each member of the takes a bit of time to set up.
presets ... I changed my mind about software team, there’s only a few other individuals they can If, as an engineer, you throw a wild idea you’ve only
reverbs when I found some settings that really do work with in this manner. I’ve produced albums thought of in the bath last night at a producer — ‘I’ll
work on voices. I’m a big fan of EMT plates and if myself so I’ve got an appreciation of what it involves, just need an hour to build a tunnel and put mics
you like plates you are probably totally hopefully that means I know when to offer something everywhere’ — you’re being quite presumptuous, it
unimpressed by digital reverbs! Inside Altiverb (a and when not to. For example, on the Snow Patrol might not work! I need to be doing my own
convolution reverb for Pro Tools RTAS and TDM) album at the end of Spitting Games you hear Gary productions so that if I go back and engineer in a
the Wendy Carlos 140 plate is pretty good, and the singing on the stairs. That was born out of the fact that recording scenario, I’ve got recent experience of having
Cello Studios echo rooms are amazing. The I really wanted to record the acoustic guitar on the done something experimental (to me, anyway.) Then I
transparency is there and once you get used to stairs — if you want something to sound distant then can suggest ideas with authority and even play people
having as many as you want wherever you want, put it in a distant space! He started to play and sing as what it sounds like. If I only ever worked as an
and being able to change them if you feel like it, it’s well — I think that’s a good example of ideas coming engineer, there’d come a point where I wasn’t sticking
quite hard to let go of that. together and growing into something good. my neck out enough ... so I need to do both! ■
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U
NTIL RECENTLY, QUIET AIR conditioning barrier matt. The felt and the matt were cut so as to up with the idea of using recycled plastics for the
has required a fully ducted system with vast hang freely inside their frame. The booth was treated cladding. In the event we used recycled CDs for the
airways and plenum chambers to reduce sound similarly but it was made more dead because when sides (the most astonishing translucent blue with
transmission, all rather impractical unless you have a doing Foley or ADR work you really don’t want any specs of red, gold and silver) and recycled coffee cups
large, industrial space and a matching budget. To my reflections or colouration. for the tops. It looks beautiful and it’s Right On.
surprise there are now wall-mounted (split system) Although DLP technology is newer and sexier than
units that will produce a constant draft of chilled air at LCD especially in terms of contrast ratio, a
as low as 24dB which, with some careful mic combination of optical neutrality and operational
placement, is fine for just about any practical flexibility led me to chose an LCD projector, the Sanyo
application. We got a single Daikin roof-mounted PLV-Z2. We housed the projector in an 18mm MDF
condenser to power four wall-mounted units, and
even the condenser is so quiet you have to strain to
hear it above the general London hum. The experts at
Purified Air persuaded me that with an opening roof
light in the central kitchen area (we’re on the top floor)
and opened windows at either end of the building
there would be sufficient air exchange when people
opened and closed doors as they moved through. Frames awaiting material.
Thankfully they were right and it’s a very pleasant
working environment. To cover the treatment we made open frames of
With regard to acoustic treatment, we did end up 9mm MDF over which we stretched acoustically
using quite a lot of Rockwool but only between the transparent material. The frames were fixed to the
skins of stud walls where it would be sealed-in and not studs using a system of plastic sockets (attached to the Projector housing.
allow particles into the breathable air of the studio. studs) and plungers (attached to the frames). These
Elsewhere Roger Quested used a combination of allow the frames to be removed and accurately box, lined with under felt and acoustic foam and with
profiled acoustic foam, carpet under felt and lamb’s replaced should we decide to change the treatment or a 10mm optically neutral glass front. This was
wool batts for the general treatment. The lamb’s wool someone throws some red wine up the wall. (Your connected to the machine room with a similarly lined
is quite new to Roger’s list of materials but he favours clients do that sort of thing regularly then? Ed) 18mm MDF boxing containing a 110mm pipe which
it because it’s all-natural, non-irritating and provides A system of three trunkings was built into the 2- was connected using flexible trunking to the projector
excellent linear absorption. inch x 2-inch studwork to allow cables to run freely exhaust at one end and to a specially acoustically
To fix these materials to the walls and ceilings we and to allow mains cabling to be kept as separate as housed extractor fan inside the machine room. As the
used a pneumatic stapler. The treatment was installed possible from signal cables. The lower run, holding hot air is pulled out, cold air is pulled into the boxing
within a 2-inch x 2-inch stud frame except on the rear exclusively mains cabling was sealed behind an and through a port at the back of the projector box into
wall of the control room where a 4-inch x 2-inch upstand of carpet while the other two remain the projector’s air intake. In practice it works like a
frame was erected either side of the window into accessible behind dado rails. dream with no noise and adequate cooling.
which was built the bass trapping. Here a piece of I went for a Yamaha DM2000 console and a One of the great shocks of this project was the price
under felt was hung 25mm from the wall and then Pyramix DAW. After the 02R I believe the DM2000 of acoustically transparent projection screens. Where
50mm in front of that we used a piece of 1060 Revac offers another quantum leap in terms of production ever I looked in professional facilities around the world
sweet spot
I found Stewart screens are pre-eminent. They go to In the past I’ve seen several top professional largely because we didn’t allow anything shoddy to
extraordinary lengths to fill their screen with tiny engineers sit with a graphic EQ, noise generator and slip through: if it was wrong we’d redo it and we’d
perforations that allow the sound through with minimal analyser pushing and pulling sliders trying to get a always go for the better quality ingredients. With an
effect on the picture. However, for the size of screen I perfectly flat response and the results have been excellent acoustician, an excellent designer and a
wanted, around the 80-inch mark, I was looking at invariably horrible. The effects of phase shift thus dedicated work force we’ve managed to produce a
about UK£4,500 — ouch. Of course you can put your introduced are generally as bad or worse than the beautiful looking and sounding studio. My thanks to
speakers below the screen level or go for a phantom original deficiencies of the room. Better by far to try them all. ■
centre, but I just didn’t want to settle for that. and tackle the problem acoustically and allow some
Then I happened upon a new kind of projection slight variation around an ideal curve. Contact
screen called Clear Pix, from French company Screen Like so many other projects of any size, this one
Research, which had recently been awarded THX ran over time (more than seven months from lifting Acoustic Materials: Siderise +44 20 8549 6389
certification and was being installed in various West the first board to the first paying session) and over Air Conditioning: Purified Air www.purifiedair.co.uk
Frame Fixings: AMCO +44 1763 242040
Coast American facilities. I quickly got a sample of the budget (well, if you amortise it over 28 years and
Lambs Wool batts: www.secondnatureuk.com
screen material to Roger and amazingly he found it to blue sky the cashflow...) and it often felt like pulling Recycled Plastic: www.smile-plastics.co.uk
be considerably more transparent than the Stewart at a tiger backwards through a thorn bush. But that’s
about two-thirds the price. Okay, it’s still not exactly
cheap, but it’s considerably cheaper and offers superior
aural performance; so that’s what we went for.
When last I used Quested speakers in the early
1990s I only needed a couple of them and so price was
not such an issue. When I upgraded to a 5.1 system in
the mid 1990s, though, unit cost had more of an
impact and I’d opted for a less expensive option — a
decision I regretted, but you’ve got to draw a line
somewhere. It’s worth remembering, incidentally, that
it generally costs more than three times as much to
install a 5.1 system compared to a similar one in stereo.
Happily, when I phoned Roger I discovered that he was
in the process of developing a less expensive, though
no less high fidelity, range of powered monitors with a
matching sub bass aimed at just my kind of set-up. It’s
unlikely that Quested will ever compete merely on price
or be a really mass-market product and there’s no
doubt you can get cheaper systems that call themselves
professional. But ask around and see if you find a
single (unbiased) person with a bad word to say about
them — I never have.
Roger supplied me with three Quested metal section
speaker stands for the front three units. These had holes
at the top matching the tapped mounting holes in the
base of the speakers, and at the bottom to screw down
to the floor. There were also holes through which to fill
the stands with sand to kill them acoustically. Initially I
tried three F5 Quested powered monitors containing a
soft dome tweeter and a 5-inch cone driver in
conjunction with a pair of 12-inch F19 Quested
powered subwoofers. The F5 is the forerunner to the
recently released S6, which features a new cabinet
design and a superior HF driver. I’d always liked the
sound of the F5 but after hearing the S6s I decided to
use them for the four surround speakers and wait for the
6.5-inch versions, the S7s, for the front three.
When working in stereo the system works as a
traditional 3-way left/right array, with the subs acting
independently. Because the subs become progressively
more directional at higher frequencies it’s better to
have two, one beneath each of the main speakers.
Having two smaller subs, rather than one large, also Trevor Horn and Hans Zimmer
makes it easier to get a balanced bass response in the
room. When I switch the DM2000 to 5.1 its bass have trusted Questeds since 1985.
management comes into play and the bass from all
five channels is monoed below 80Hz into the two
subwoofers along with any actual sub bass sent from
Isn’t it time you listened too?
the sixth output. The crossover frequency can, of
course, be altered to match different systems. Make a sound judgement with the new
Roger spent some time with pink noise and a S6 monitor speakers from Quested
spectrum analyser making sure the main system was
in phase with the subs, tweaking the levels, the various Contact us now t +44 (0)1404 41500 f +44 (0)1404 44660
HPFs and LPFs and getting the angle of the surrounds e sales@quested.com w www.quested.com
right. The results sound excellent to my ears and I’ve UK Distributor Sonic8 Limited w www.sonic8.com t 08701 657456
had nothing but praise from clients and colleagues.
technology
I
F THERE IS ONE area where profitability can preferred workstations, in the immediate future. This audio information available to any of the workstations
trickle unrecognised or unchecked through a pleasing promise of a panacea occurs as the crowning- en-route. And if your favourite manufacturer is not
postproduction facility’s fingers, it is the integral and hour approaches for AAF and MXF; so let me offering you this ability, now is the time to be asking
inescapable process of data transfer; specifically introduce you to our two, new, best friends. the very pointed question ‘why not?’
getting the raw material from an originating picture We’ve been waiting 10 years for this. Through AAF Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) is a project
suite into an audio-post’s chosen DAW before work and MXF we have the ability to cut a picture sequence, format. It contains edit data such as events, transitions
can begin. In fact, only in studio downtime can the move it to the dubbing suite, mix it and then return it or effects, along with the reference to the source
data-transfer be considered lossless; keeping paying- to the picture editor, complete with all the visual and material. Media Exchange Format (MXF) is a media
punters off the equipment for a few hours each week
amounts to a sizeable loss of cash over the course of a
year. You do the maths...insert your rate-card hourly-
rate and allow one hour for each of the 200 days the
average facility would conservatively expect to be Synchronicity, substance and information
operational on; then read on. The basis of all audio-visual file transfer centres around the delivery of synchronicity, substance and
Avid’s temperamental and imperfect, but none-the- information. Back in the mists of time, two planks of wood painted with converging black and white
less industry-wide, Open Media Framework (OMF) chevrons were brought before a camera lens. Bells rang and cries of ‘Turnover!’ culminated in a sharp
system was the first of the file formats that hinted at crack, as wooden strips were banged together to make a noise that the film camera could see, and
such oil and water, picture and sound, a sound recordist could hear. This was ‘synchronicity’ between pictures and sound. The sound’s ‘substance’ was
interchangeability; and this only recently became more recorded onto a 1/4-inch magnetic tape recorder. At the end of each take, the recordist would place onto tape a
viable as a working practice through third-party short burst of 1kHz tone from the in-built oscillator of his tape recorder. This was the ‘information’: the clapper
software applications such as the more reliable and at the head showed the start, the pip at the tail indicated the end of the recording. Basic; but a start.
robust AV Transfer. What the Holy Grail has become for Film and television postproduction technologies converged in the 1980s, coinciding with the
postproduction disciples is the comprehensive ability to introduction of nonlinear editing devices such as Lightworks and Avid. Video came to replace
transfer data and content, across a range of magnetic and film stock — irrespective of the final delivery media — with timecode as the life-blood
manufacturer’s platforms and devices, coupled with a of the system. When an editor digitised sound into these new systems, either from separate rolls or
way of readily describing those bundles of information: from audio recorded straight to the picture recorder, and then created a cut, the editing device could automatically
the data about the data; more simply described as generate a telephone directory’s worth of numbers, addressing where the original picture and sound material
Metadata. Actually, what we hanker after is an IT had come from, and where they were located in the cut version. This Edit Decision List was passed via floppy disk
solution: cheap, universal, reliable, robust. And why to the dubbing mixer, allowing the audio import process to be repeated again through an auto-conform process.
not? The ones and zeros differentiate not one jot But why, you ask, take the sound into the system twice?
between home, office or professional applications. With Avid’s OMFI process, sound tracks loaded onto their range of editing devices could be exported
Here’s the good news: we’re getting there; and as as a file to media such as a Jaz disk and then be recognised by many audio DAWs. In theory, anyway;
members of the sonic fraternity, we are there and we until the intervention of dedicated software from AVTransfer, the OMFI process was desperately
benefit, in this instance, from sound leading pictures. unreliable between various machines.
With the relative file sizes and the complexity being MXF and AAF place a robust structure around the essence of Avid’s OMFI process. The substance,
proportionally less for audio than for video synchronicity and information are packaged, are freely available to the picture editor, and importantly
applications, a great deal of development has already from an audio perspective, pass transparently through the picture editing stage, untouched from disk
enabled manufacturers to be at a point where we truly to dub.
should see open file exchange, irrespective of our
technology
format. It contains the actual video and audio for the AES31-3 defines a Simple Project Structure — based useful ID information that incorporates the SMPTE’s
project. Think of them this way — material is ingested on a sample-accurate Audio Decision List (ADL). Unique Material Modifier (UMID). This UMID
and played-out via MXF files; AAF files are the work AES31-4 is an Object Oriented Project Structure — associates external metadata with the audio files,
in progress on your system. as yet undefined, but possibly based on an extensible useful for tracking the source or ownership of AES31-
MXF ‘wraps’ the media inside its openly-defined object model capable of describing a much wider range compliant data within a library system.
structure, allowing professional applications to access of parameters. And here’s the best part: Broadcast Wave files can
and understand its contents, and crucially, join in The Broadcast WAV (BWF) epitomises this proposal be played on any humble, home, PC capable of
partnership with AAF compositions. While AAF of marriage between professional audio and IT replaying conventional WAVE files. Welcome to the
works with a variety of media types such as solutions. The now large-scale use of BWF is due in no future of pro audio. ■
Windows Media, QuickTime and MXF itself, the MXF small way to the deceptive ease and simplicity of its
Contact
standard allows for the inclusion of any kind of raw use, combined with its ability to convey useful
media format such as WAV, MPEG or AVI; making it information. A BWF’s data bits can define the audio The AAF association www.aafassociation.org
a useful and a powerful format. AAF and MXF share format, describe the sound sequence, its originator, Pro-MPEG implementation group www.mxf.tv
the same internal structure to handle the data and plus an EBU timecode reference. It time-stamps each The Audio Engineering Society www.aes.org
both use the SMPTE Metadata dictionary as a audio file with its proper location in a project, and adds
standard for high-level data and workflow
information. And, of course, they are platform
independent working equally effectively on
Windows, Mac, Linux or Unix.
Both AAF and MXF are descendents of Avid’s OMF
system and retain the spirit of it — somewhat DIGIDESIGN ICON
redesigned and updated however — along with I N T E G R AT E D C O N S O L E
business
‘I
DON’T THINK THEY’RE weak at A&R — I talent gatherers currently, is not the only indie playing should be as realistic as possible and respect what the
don’t even think it’s on their radar any more!’ this game. market needs.’
says Alan Wills, head of Liverpool label Darrin Robson is the boss of a smaller label who At Deltasonic, Alan pursues a cautious financial
Deltasonic. His theory is that arty A&R types lost their likes music so much he actually reserves time for strategy as well. ‘The biggest advance we’ve ever
corporate clout with the introduction of the CD, as listening to demos. ‘We get between 6 to 10 demos a given a band is UK£2000. When we re-negotiate and
marketing men and lawyers suddenly found day. In a few weeks time I’ll sit down with a couple of take them to a second level, then bands get bigger
themselves able to make a bigger impact on bottom hundred demos and listen to them. A lot of times it’s deals. The Dead 60s are still on level 1, but with their
lines selling back catalogue. ‘Dumb and R is the best just by word of mouth, though ...’ single going into the top 40, we’re about to sign them
way to describe it. When someone takes a polaroid As a record shop owner, Darrin knew the retail up to level 2.’ There’s a policy at Deltasonic of putting
photograph, it’s just a blank — the game is all about market well, and started his Fantastic Plastic label bands into the Top 40 before risking the full weight of
— at what stage can you guess it’s going to be a great doing one-off vinyl EPs for bands he liked. ‘We Deltasonic — and Sony — resources. ‘I think it takes
photograph? Most A&R people today need that generally split the profit with the band — and of course roughly 18 months to break a band, if you’re good
polaroid fully developed, in a frame, and on someone they’re free contractually — a major would want to and you work hard. I don’t believe in luck,’ declares
else’s mantelpiece before they can tell it’s a good have a band tied up for much longer. That can work Wills, ‘I believe preparation meets opportunity —
picture ... really you have to be able to look at the both ways, but sometimes it can be good for an indie that’s luck! It’s a lot of hard work, and the only time
shadows and say: That’s going to be great!’ What Alan to have that association of doing a first record with a you can really test whether you’re right or wrong is
is actually talking about is talent scouting — and he’s band who then go on to great things.’ Since Sanctuary when you put the band in front of an audience.’
canny enough to recognise that scouting and took a stake in his label, Darrin’s been able to focus on Neither of these labels, at contrasting ends of the
management are his forté — and play them to the hilt. albums. ‘Ikara Colt would be our biggest selling band indie spectrum, are totally independent in the true (not
Deltasonic, perhaps one of the most visible of UK to date, we licensed that in other countries and they’ve music industry) meaning of the word. They’ve both, in
business
different manners, taken the shilling of a major in the musos. Perhaps it will soon be time to drop the conceit bringing musician’s songs to the public. Which is not
form of a so-called Label Deal. Anyone who bought a that major labels can and should A&R acts all the way to say that these entrepreneurs should be
Coral album will realise Deltasonic is globally from inception. After all, no one seriously expects ‘businessmen’: in 1983 I’d been mixing an album by
distributed (and 49% owned) by Sony, and Fantastic commercial TV networks to produce all their own content The Go-Betweens, a band who — as the fashion
Plastic has sold a chunk of equity to Sanctuary Group. — they commission from independent producers and wheel swings — might not seem out of place today.
Darrin explained to me: ‘It came about through Joe assign an executive to manage it. Nourishing a bunch of When I went to see them play a gig in Brixton, they
Cokell (now CEO of Sanctuary records) who I’d known creative 20-somethings is possibly best left to someone were supported by a young group from Liverpool
because he was interested in one of our bands when he who was once a creative 20-something themselves. called The Room, who were receiving quite a bit of
was head of MCA. He went on to buy Castle Perhaps this is part of a new model for the future: majors press interest at the time. Livening up the earnest
Communications when he left MCA, and then Castle consolidate into distribution conglomerates, independent presentation of this post-punk outfit from behind the
were bought by Sanctuary Group. Sanctuary let us talent-gatherers are responsibly managed through more drums was ... Alan Wills. Actually he’s better known
develop and do our own thing, but they’re in the intelligently structured label deals. as the skinsman for psychedelic scousers Shack, but
background if we need.’ This arrangement is analogous As new genres of music develop, or old genres my point is that Alan has been a musician, and Darrin
to a large pharmaceutical group like Glaxo buying an become newly fashionable, new generations of has been a maverick music fan, since The Bunnymen
interest in a small science research lab in Cambridge ... entrepreneurs are needed to manage the business of found their Echo. ■
just in case the boffins come up with something!
Sony’s arrangement with Deltasonic is more
comparable to NBC Universal’s stake in British film
production company Working Title (Four Weddings &
A Funeral, Bridget Jones, etc). Indeed, the name
Deltasonic is nowhere to be seen next to Zutons or
Coral tracks on Apple’s iTunes online store. Alan
explained to me the thinking behind his association
with Sony: ‘Everyone was telling me not to do the deal
— saying “you’ve got to hold on, you’ve got to own
your company” — but not one of them had a good
reason for remaining independent. I was saying “Show
me one successful indie in the world that is privately
owned!” They’d all go — “Beggars — they’re privately
owned and independent” — but as soon as Beggars
Banquet get a band that’s big, they license it to majors
worldwide, they’re only independent in Britain!’
In his forthright way, Alan gives voice to the hip
independent sector’s dirty secret: you cannot break a
band worldwide independently — you certainly can’t
in America. ‘In order to get to the position where I’d be
licensing acts worldwide I’d be dealing with bank
managers or a venture capitalist from the city. They’re
only interested in profit, they aren’t music people.’
There was another pressing aspect to the deal, for
Wills. ‘My house was about 10 days away from being
repossessed! I was putting every penny that I had into
the label. I knew that if we didn’t have Rob Stringer
and Muff Winwood coming in, the bank would have
foreclosed on us. I’m very confident ... and very stupid
as well! You don’t really put your entire house on a
music venture unless you’re a bit stupid!’
A great deal of discussion, time and energy in the
music industry is spent finding new or improved ways of
selling more records. But Darrin Robson would rather
leave the ins and outs of online sales to Sanctuary, and
Alan Wills is not in the slightest bit interested: ‘Every
week there’s another way of selling records, but I’m not
interested in any of it, I’m interested in making records.’
It’s this focus on music that renders indie labels like these
so attractive to young musicians. ‘All I know is that it’s
about individuals,’ explains Alan. ‘You need to be
making seminal records, then your label becomes a top
label, therefore young creative artists want to be involved
with you. You’re building up your imprint, your brand.
That is why you can’t screw your artists over, that’s why,
when times are hard, you’ve got to put your arms
around your artists and help them work through it.’
At a major label, A&R executives are employed on
three-year contracts and have set budgets and sales
targets. The temptation is to throw the entire budget at
everything in sight and hope something sticks, knowing
you’ll be sacked in three years anyway, or if there’s a
corporate take-over. Quarterly appraisals and sales
targets are appropriate for selling finished product, but
probably not for nursing potentially creative young
craft
craft
come over here. I don’t think it’s a good thing at all. What gets you into trouble?
In England and France, sound design in the modern There’s this moment on every mix where I’m
sense is a more recent arrival and as a result, people are overwhelmed by the situation. You could solve the
taking bigger strides. Twickenham is better equipped in problem by just pushing the Stop button and saying,
many ways than studios in the US. Just having Pyramix, ‘I’m sorry but we just have to start all over again.’ But
some kind of master recorder that makes sense, in the US nobody really wants to do that.
we’re still using MR-8s. This is a better-integrated solution. Or when the director asks me for something and I
don’t really understand what he wants and he’s
What are your must haves? insisting on it. I keep trying things and they don’t
The Lexicon 960, a superior device. Another is the work and that’s when I have to let go and get into that
Behringer single-ended de-noiser. I just can’t work mental state where you can move around without
without it. And Lafont’s dip filter, but with digital constricting yourself so much. It’s hard to do under
consoles now... a really excellent cup of coffee is at the pressure and it’s frightening for me.
top of the list. You have to stop and re-evaluate what you’re
doing. Just take the time to get it right.
How about workstations?
Unfortunately, I have to. Maybe I sound like an old How about tools?
fogey, but I’ve spent so much time perfecting my There’s no panacea. I rate tools in this order of
ability to operate a console in real time, that the whole effectiveness; fader, equaliser, then all the outboard
Pro Tools experience is kind of sad for me. You can do gear. Don’t forget your fader is still the most effective
a lot of stuff and it’s powerful, but you have to listen tool. That’s the organic approach, maybe the ‘green’
to the final result. It’s not interesting for me that I can approach. EQ is next because it’s not that invasive if
get 150 plug-ins to turn on and off at different times. used properly, then the outboard gear. I always try
You can mix in Pro Tools, but I don’t find it’s as to set it the way I like it, then back it off a notch,
accurate. I still feel I can do a much better job on a because in the heat of the moment you feel like
good console. you’re working miracles and then when you get
back later it sounds like crap. If you just back it off
Working in the ‘digital dubber’ sense? a little bit you get a nice compromise between
It’s more appealing and reliable. Pyramix has a very thinking you’re getting rid of everything and
robust feeling to it. So far it’s just been in the background making it sound acceptable.
when I’ve been working, but I like its appearance and
that it’s on a PC. It’s funny because it’s like I’m becoming Where’s this business going?
a reverse snob now everybody’s got a Mac! I think it’s going straight to the toilet. It’s all 12 or
14-hour days, seven-day weeks, high alert, stress,
What do you like or hate? picture changes. We all appreciate computers but I
I like intuitive equipment. I love the AMS harmoniser, think we are all aware of the negative side, making
but it was so unintuitive it would drive me crazy too many choices possible, postponing final choices
although it’s still the best there is. The AMS Neve until very late in the game. Since Dolby Digital made
console was a real head-scratcher for everybody, now it possible, there’s been a big creative gluttony where
we’re very casual about it. we just threw everything we could at the screen and
All consoles have their strengths and weaknesses, that was good for then. I hope, I believe, we are
but I really like the Harrison. The AMS Neve is now entering a new period where people are taking a
the industry standard and it’s got a lot of great more selective approach, more minimal. There’s a
things, but it’s infuriating on various simple, stupid new style of filmmaking that’s going to be more
things. One thing that really does bug me is this idea specific in the integration of sound and picture. I was
that it’s the equipment that matters. It’s the people talking with the director of Aeon Flux about films that
who make the decisions, who have the aesthetic we loved and we both landed on Alien, very sparse
control, that matter. but brilliant. ■
craft
Broadcasting from V Festival enamoured of the C200. ‘For what we do, the
combination of facilities and ease of use, they’re way
better than anything else you could use,’ he says. ‘You
Occupying a regular slot in the event calendar, the V Festival now also combines radio and don’t want a desk you have to configure for every job,
because you haven’t got time. It’s all the things I liked
TV output as part of its remit. GEORGE SHILLING was in the thick of it and doing his bit. about the MT, but it’s fast, it boots from scratch in 25
seconds instead of 5 minutes.’ This is evidentially true,
as the truck arrived directly from a job in Edinburgh on
the setup day, and was ready to rock when the festival
started at noon the following day.
The C200’s first festival outing had been the Isle of
Wight Festival, having been tested on a classical job
before that. The SSL mic amps were onstage with a
fibre system connecting back to the truck. The only
band multitracking was The Strokes, so four rifles,
Sennheiser 416s, pointed out from stage was enough.
Will: ‘There’s not much else you can do outdoors. 816s
I find are too pointy and close, but 416s are just the
right balance for getting the right audience reaction on
an outdoors stage — two looking fairly close at the
mosh pit, and two looking halfway back to the PA desk
— any further back and you don’t really get anything.’
For processing, all the dynamics requirements were
satisfied by the C200 according to Will. ‘The mix bus
compressor is like the old Quad Compressor, and much
better than the MT one.’ For effects he employed a
Lexicon 480L with TC M5000, M3000 and two D-Two’s.
The Sony DMX truck was put to work at the Virgin
VIP-guest tent, where Virgin Radio staged acoustic sets
and their own Mark Robinson bravely mixed for Radio
while simultaneously balancing not only the PA, but
also onstage wedge monitoring, all from the truck’s
Sony DMX100, something Mark described as ‘in
retrospect a stupid move! We were pushing the
DMX100 to its limits, using every input and output.’
The Virgin tent had in previous years used the old
W
ILL SHAPLAND WORKED with Manor Manor Raindirk and analogue SSL trucks. Last year it
Mobiles for 14 years, and his name became used one of the Sanctuary Euphonix trucks. ‘We
synonymous with its fleet of recording figured Virgin have Sony DMX desks, so Mark
trucks. He was associated with Manor throughout its Robinson was more than capable of using that, but we
expansion — it bought an ex-Fleetwood trailer when hadn’t got a vehicle to put it in,’ explained Will. ‘Steve
that company ran into difficulties, and fitted it with the Williams (Sound Moves) had a half-built truck so we
ex-Manor Studios SSL desk. Then it acquired bought that and finished the build, so we have a truck
another truck, which it fitted with the SSL MT digital now to house the gear that was originally in the SSL
console. Ultimately, like Fleetwood, Manor was Floating Earth truck.’
swallowed up by the Sanctuary Group, but for the last This truck was the only one of the four to run
year Will has been freelancing and his new venture analogue multicores. Here, all outboard duties were
effectively reinvents the spirit of Manor Mobiles, now performed by a Lexicon 960L with compression and
under the banner of Will Shapland Mobiles. He and his EQ provided by the desk. Mark used a pair of Beyer
partner in the venture, Zoe Fawcett-Eustace (also occasion where he covered the event with his new shotguns mounted on the lighting rig for audience.
ex-Manor) have entered into an arrangement with company. Will’s operations covered four stages — all Many of the acts appearing on the larger stages
classical specialists Floating Earth to share two trucks, for Virgin Radio, with feeds also provided for TV from dropped in to perform acoustic sets to entertain Virgin
the main one boasting the first UK installation of an the two main stages. Will manned the SSL truck and Radio VIP guests, including Badly Drawn Boy,
SSL C200 digital console. The other truck houses a provided stereo mixes for all bands from the main V Starsailor, The Thrills, Easyworld and Snow Patrol.
Sony DMX100. Stage over the two-day event including sets from The For the other two stages, Will engaged the services of
The annual V Festival in Chelmsford has been a Pixies, Dido, Pink, Jamie Cullum and Muse. Steve Williams’ Sound Moves operation. His two trucks
regular gig for Shapland, and this year was the first Will is a fan of SSL digital desks and he is particularly both house Soundtracs DPCII consoles. The larger of
Audio PCs & Drives “We needed complete peace of mind - from the outset 020 7692 6611
available for a wide range of applications Media Tools gave us that” Dan Klimcke, Metro Broadcast www.mediatools.co.uk
including Digidesign approved ProTools HD. info@mediatools.co.uk
craft
katz’s column
A
UDIO ENGINEERS SEEM to have some opinion. Let’s listen in on their phone conversation... ‘Never. But you can get an excellent idea of how
trouble communicating. Let me present Becky and ‘Hey,’ says Becky, ‘I like your mix, it really compressed or how dynamic a recording is by how
Fred, two friendly engineers who live in different punches. I just got this new monitor controller — my much monitor gain you have to use. So having a
towns and collaborate on music production through the technician calibrated it. It’s marked in SPL from 65 to calibrated monitor control can be a very important tool
Internet. Last week Fred sent Becky a new mix for her 95, and 83 is the new Dolby level standard. So, now I for mixing (and mastering) engineers.’
can listen at the same level as you! Just tell me what ‘I’m going to re-label my controls right away. It
level you’re listening at!’ makes so much sense to label the monitor pot with
‘Great,’ replies Fred, ‘I’ll call you back after I measure relative gains,’ says Becky.
with my little sound level meter.’ [Five minutes later] [Making better-sounding music] Yes, folks, it turns
‘OK, Becky, I played the loudest passage, and it out that both Fred and Becky were listening at exactly
measures 90dB, so I must be mixing at 90.’ the same intensity, but speaking completely different
‘All right,’ says Becky, ‘let me set my knob to 90 languages! Fred was speaking the language of SPL and
and check it out... Ouch!’ she screams. ‘You must be Becky was struggling with the language of gain. This
going deaf. If I turn mine past 80 I’ll blow my speakers, very confusion causes fights between engineers. Just
or my ears. For me it sounds loud enough at 77.’ like other attenuators, monitor gain controls should be
‘What the hey!’ replies Fred. ‘Mine is just cooking marked in decibels relative to a zero reference.
when I set the loud passage to 90 on my meter. This If every 21st Century engineer installs a calibrated
can’t be right — your technician must have miscalibrated monitor controller on their console we will end up
your controller.’ making better-sounding musical productions.
So Becky calls her technician, Bob, who explains how Visit the CD Honour Roll at www.digido.com, where
The UK’s largest selection of it all worked. ‘Beck, the problem is that your monitor you’ll see some examples of ‘honourable’ compact
controller isn’t really marked in output SPL. It’s marked discs and how they relate to monitor control position
audio equipment under one roof. in the SPL it would produce if you fed it a calibrated pink in my listening room. If we all learn about calibrated
noise level, and 83 is the reference point.’ monitor gains and their relation to compression and
‘Bob, that’s the biggest pile of geek talk I’ve ever loudness, we’ll progress towards a better way of
Shop online or call for a free catalogue heard. Try again in plain English.’ thinking. Write me and tell me what you think! ■
‘Well, if you turn it up to 90, it means that you’re
www.turnkey.co.uk turning your monitor gain up by 7dB above the standard
reference of 83. You would go deaf at that setting!’
Contact
‘You mean the control is somehow marked in gain Resolution recommends Bob Katz’s book
We have another expensive and exclusive giveaway to offer you courtesy of our
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The SE1a, SE2a and SE3 are the new stick mics from SE Electronics, China’s
premier manufacturer and designer of studio microphones.
The SE1a is an improved version of the company’s original cardioid while the
SE2a offers cardioid, hypercardioid and omni patterns as interchangeable
capsules. The SE3 has already caused quite a stir by setting a new standard of
performance at its price (see the review on page 26).
We’re giving away the complete package of three mics, which will grace any mic
cupboard with its quality and versatility.
• All the latest industry and product news • Product reviews by the industry’s leading reviewers •
• Facility reports • Producer interviews • Practical application features • Business issues and trends •
Everything you need to know to keep ahead
www.resolutionmag.com
Resolution 3.7 October 2004 12/10/04 10:51 PM Page 58
know how
Do you have the power? ideally combine spike and over-voltage protection with
RF filtering and voltage regulation.
Spikes can be dealt with by using MOVs (Metal
Those who believe that lightning never strikes twice are not so secure in their trust of Oxide Varistors). The better examples are robust, fast
acting (15nS) and reliable. Cheap ones are, in effect,
clean and continuous electrical mains power. ROB JAMES says that the problems exist sacrificial. Zener or avalanche diodes can offer a
quicker response to fast transients but not as fast as
but so do the solutions. 1nS gas-discharge tubes. The better designs use a
combination of technologies.
For surges and sags, a power conditioner with
I
T DOESN’T TAKE A GENIUS to notice a toroidal transformer and big capacitors can
power cuts and thunderstorms. smooth out longer-term voltage
It may be less obvious that it variations. The transformer has multiple
doesn’t take a direct hit to do damage output taps and a sensing/control circuit
ranging from immediate destruction that monitors voltage and automatically
to insidious over-stressing of vulnerable switches to the appropriate output tap.
components. Induced spikes from In cheaper designs the output may step
nearby lightning can run to many between taps producing spikes. More
thousands of volts. A recent lightning sophisticated solutions employ solid-
strike near here demolished a state switching to smooth out the steps.
chimneystack and destroyed the A more ‘industrial’ answer will employ a
electrical installation. It also took out servo-mechanical voltage stabiliser with
14 PCs in a travel agent’s more than a sensing circuit driving a motorised
200m away. variable transformer or ‘Variac’.
Lightning is not the only source ‘Inrush’ problems can be avoided
of spikes. Any contact generating a with a sequencer. This simply turns on a
spark is a potential source of trouble, as number of sockets in a defined order
are fast transients generated by with a delay between each, and does
switching appliances such as the opposite when turning off.
refrigerators, fluorescent tube starters, It is often assumed a so-called UPS
and thermostats. (Uninterruptable Power Supply)
Longer supply voltage variations, regulates, conditions and removes
surges and sags, cause more subtle spikes with the added bonus of
effects. Years ago, we experienced a digital console power factor correction (PFC) makes a complex AC load protection against power cuts. In fact, there are three
crashing at the same time every day. Monitoring look like a simple load such as a light bulb. classes of UPS and only the most expensive is any
revealed a supply spike of several kV. We never found Just switching on can be a problem. Audio and substitute for proper regulation and conditioning.
out the cause, but an On-line UPS solved the problem. video devices, including computers, often require a In the cheaper SBS or Stand By power Supply the
‘Switch-mode’ power supplies, ubiquitous in very high current when first switched on, known as output is effectively a pass through of the input until
computers and many other devices, are a rich source of the ‘inrush’ current. When several devices are the input power fails, then it switches over to a
harmonics. Unless filtered, induced noise and switched on together, this inrush current can trip battery-powered inverter. Inverters are very variable in
harmonics spread throughout the building and back to circuit breakers. quality and most cheap ones output stepped or square
the grid substation. Then there is the matter of power Using a Furman power conditioner as a meter, I’ve waveforms that are unlikely to be appreciated by
factor and power factor correction. Manufacturers often been keeping an eye on the mains voltage here. It audio/video devices.
use this as a marketing tool but few people know what varies from 228V to 245V, well within tolerance but Next up the food chain is the Line Interactive UPS.
it is. Power factor indicates the effect of a load on power not confidence inspiring. We also experience short- This combines at least some degree of voltage
supply system efficiency, i.e. the ratio between the term variations that cause the lights to flicker in regulation with standby backup. Then comes the true,
actual power draw of a circuit (kW) and the apparent stormy weather. Despite this, I have few problems. On-line, UPS that produces a stable, accurate voltage
power (kVA). Poor power factor results from high Switch-mode supplies, especially universal voltage output and waveform at all times. In effect, the load is
harmonic content, phase differences between voltage types, are quite good at dealing with surges and sags. isolated from mains borne effects.
and current or distorted current waveform. In essence, However, it is obvious that expensive and/or We all tend to think ‘It will never happen to me’,
mission — critical equipment needs at least some but after two near misses, I’m now in the market
protection beyond conventional circuit breakers and for some insurance. Every rented workstation rig
ten
ABBA / GREATEST HITS gigging had made him a major R&B attraction. This album wins prizes for most remixed — even available
VOLS 1&2 (1976/79) — album made #2 in the mainstream charts, was in all four original quadraphonic formats. To many
Strong melodies, predominantly released outside the US, and made him a star this represents garden party easy listening, to
meaningful lyrics, outstanding by capturing the energy and musicianship of a musicians it was the realisation that if 19-year-old
arrangements, tasteful production band that excelled in live performance. With Oldfield’s doodling could sell... For Mr Branson, the
and skilled recording. Superior the assistance given by this success Brown key to an empire.
pop music that set new was influential in the development of soul music
standards despite the fact that it and later funk. Certainly the first live album that PINK FLOYD — DARK
may have taken the passing of the years for this to ever made any impact on the charts and ironically SIDE OF THE MOON
become so universally apparent. Represented by the was funded by Brown himself because his label (1973) — Any album that
Hits album but this could be replaced by any of their didn’t think it would sell. sells as many as this has over
later albums, which showed enhanced sophistication. 30 years will influence.
ABBA set the standards for chart music that few had the MICHAEL JACKSON — Beautifully recorded at Abbey
energy or ability to equal — and English wasn’t even THRILLER (1982) — One of Road, it showcases a band
their first language! those albums that was hugely working in harmony, rather
influential through the 1980s than the eclectic mix of earlier albums, taking
BEACH BOYS — SURF’S but listen now and much intelligent themes to create a concept album with
UP (1971) — Most name Pet sounds almost quaint. Jackson minimal cringe factor. There was something to listen
Sounds as the definitive Beach was one of the first to embrace to, and yet, could play low without intrusion over
Boys work but why isn’t clear. the ‘new’ music technologies dinner party chat — it marked the arrival of superior
True there are some good of sampling and synthesis in mainstream pop. The easy-listening — with credibility.
songs and carefully sculpted vast success of this album largely defined how pop
arrangements but those same music would use the new tools for the next decade. RUN DMC — RAISING
elements are also present in Unfortunately much of it now sounds wooden and HELL (1986) — Some albums
Surf’s Up together with a Wilson-inspired realisation of stilted relying purely on Jackson’s vocals and songs seem to kick-off on the wrong
his own quirkiness expressed through songs, — such are the dangers of pioneering before the premise but they capture the
recording style, arrangements and vocal gymnastics. paint is dry. public imagination. The idea of
The album marked a collective return to form by a crossing rap, still largely just
band that had been desperately trying to creatively LED ZEPPELIN — II (1969) New York black street culture
match Sgt Pepper, and here they did it on their own — While their first album set at that time, with heavy metal
terms. Layered dry vocals and unpredictable directions the tone, II realised the riffs would not seem a predictable success. But this
are echoed in later work by others, while the treatment promise. It focused years of album did it in a big way. Although their previous two
of introspective emotion of the title track is unique. rock recording experience to albums had sold well, this went multi-platinum, broke
refine the elements that would down a lot of barriers and brought rap/hip-hop culture
THE BEATLES — SGT transfer live excitement to into the mainstream of popular music. It was melodic,
PEPPER (1967) — The recipe vinyl — dynamics, ambient relatively innocent, and with a sense of fun that had a
is simple — some great songs, drums with power, guitars that sounded live but broad appeal, and the collaboration with Aerosmith
virtually definitive interpretation controlled, four musicians entering the zenith of their instantly drew a new audience. Their appeal waned as
and immaculate production and skills, and a disregard of musical noise (e.g. amplifier an alternative side of rap emerged but by then their job
a physical presentation that was buzz, drum rattle) in preference to performance. was done.
in a different league. Freed from While II’s songs display more derivation than
the need to consider physical originality, this was powerful rock music that STEELY DAN — CAN’T
performance of the tracks, and the money to support the sounded the way we’d imagined it should. Later BUY A THRILL (1972) —
project, this album transcended ordinary critical albums refined the elements but were never as Formed as a vehicle for the
judgements. Other Beatles albums such as Revolver consistently energetic as this. songs of Fagen and Becker,
may be more musically satisfying and have better songs this album expressed them by
but this was a gauntlet, realised by skill, talent and MIKE OLDFIELD — drawing a wide range of
technology, that was thrown down as a marker that left TUBULAR BELLS (1973) — musical styles into a rock
their competitors floundering to equal. The one-man-band school of context, blending them with
recording was not new when elaborate harmonies and skilled musicianship. This
JAMES BROWN — LIVE AT this album arrived — Les Paul, was their first album and although the songs
THE APOLLO (1962) — This Emmit Rhodes, Terry Riley developed in later recordings, the variety of stylings
simple 30-minute live album and others had preceded but decreased with a move towards a jazzier base. This
recorded live at New York’s here was something that was album showed how rock music could draw on wider
Harlem Apollo Theater enabled an immediately accessible single minded vision full of influences, embrace technical perfection without
James Brown to break out of repeated melodies that defied the listener to ignore. being sanitised, and address a more adult audience.
playing to just black audiences Clearly made with love and dedication, and despite Others watched and learnt but didn’t always get the
where hit records and constant the imperfections of limited track recording, this balance right. ■
W
ITH A DEGREE IN Music and Electronics, some of the top audio facilities in the world in all its place and is ideal for a specific application. We
Martin Kloiber has been working as an markets. We have worked very hard over the years don’t build analogue consoles because we feel that
independent music producer and engineer to get to this position and we feel we are at the this is a specialised declining market, well covered
since 1984 and has had a stint at Austrian broadcaster cutting edge of the technology that includes the by companies such as SSL and AMS/Neve.
ORF as an engineer from 1989 to 1991. He has option to integrate with third party applications and However, we do address the other three mixer
worked with Terence Trent D’Arby, Baka Boyz, 98 the art of console design. Euphonix deployed non- product areas and also manufacture high-quality
Degrees, Yello and Norman Brown and has also been proprietary computer technology from Silicon analogue convertors.
involved in film scoring, sound design and dubbing. In Valley, and has architected a scalable and very I think it’s best to look at this from a market
1992, Martin co-founded, designed and acted as flexible hardware platform. To communicate within perspective, as the requirements are different for each
studio manager and chief engineer for Soundproof this networked computer environment, we had to market. The last few years we have concentrated on
Studios in Los Angeles — home to the European develop a control protocol — EuCon. We have now the broadcast and long-form audio post markets as
music duo, Yello (one half of which is Euphonix expanded this protocol, so we are able to control there is a growing demand for high-quality digital
chairman Dieter Meier). and integrate third party DAWs into our consoles that we can satisfy with the System 5 and
The studio now includes a Euphonix System 5 and environment, therefore offering an end-to-end Max Air products. In music and short-form post, all
R-1 recorder but Martin first became familiar with production solution from a workstation up to a full- projects involve workstations and there is a need for
Euphonix in 1991 when the studio installed a CSII. featured production console. integration between the workstation and console. That
‘This was during the early days of the company, but I is why we are introducing the MC DAW controller and
was totally blown away by the power and sound of How has the dynamic of manufacturing cost the System 5-MC mixing control surface that directly
the digitally controlled analogue mixer. Since then, I and R&D effort changed over the transitions integrates with DAWs such as Steinberg’s Nuendo and
have been a big fan. As a client, I spent a lot of time from all analogue to digitally controlled Merging’s Pyramix via our high-speed EuCon
working with their product development and sales analogue to all digital desks? protocol. Therefore we can offer the user best of class
When we introduced the CS Series digitally controlled products in an integrated environment.
analogue console in 1991, we basically
halved the price of a 96-channel How have end-user attitudes to ‘assignability’
console by separating altered and are there still operational principles
the digital surface from in which desk designers still have to play safe?
the analogue processing Early digital consoles took the analogue route, laying
racks. The System 5 range out channels in a linear fashion — 1-48, 49-96 — and
introduced a digital surface with a paging between them. Engineers initially felt
fully digital back-end. comfortable with that but soon found that it is not the
Obviously the surface design best way for an operator to mix. It’s clumsy, slow,
uses completely different requires a large surface, and does not take advantage
technology from analogue but still is of one of the most exiting operational improvements
constrained by the physical you get with an assignable console: freedom to put
hardware necessary to provide a any channel anywhere on the surface.
superior surface. Now we have a Euphonix took this a stage further with System 5,
great surface, and we will stick allowing any source to be placed in any position on
with it in various forms in the the console and saving that as a ‘layout’ for easy
future to maintain recall. It is possible to do standard 1-48 linear
operational compatibility. ‘layouts’ with a System 5 for beginners but anyone
who works on a System 5 soon figures out how easy that the most important and difficult aspect of the design What are the popular misconceptions
it is to lay out the channels you need in logical is the surface — its what the engineer sees and feels and about digital desks?
positions close to the sweet spot and swap between connects with to produce an artistically stunning mix. That they are difficult to operate, unreliable and don’t
‘layouts’ when moving from mixing one set of The best analogue consoles always had the most sound very good. Its 20 years since pro digital
sources to another. Early designs also forced the ergonomically effective surface and that is still true consoles came on the market and back in those early
operator to do many channel functions from a central today for all-digital consoles. The back-end has changed days these fears were justified. However, I think in
assignable set of channel controls. We know now that from analogue to digital processing core to DAW, but the the past five years all those issues have been
it is much better if the engineer can have control from art of designing the surface always remains the ultimate addressed, certainly in the case of System 5, and any
the channel strip as well as from the centre — that’s challenge and separates the men from the boys. At engineer who has spent time on a good digital
why System 5 has 8 knobs per channel that can be Euphonix our design philosophy with digital is to console knows that it can match what analogue has
switched to control all channel functions. concentrate on designing the best surface and to allow to offer with the bonus of assignability, full
it to control any back end via our EuCon protocol, which automation, recallability, greater flexibility and
Are console users really as conservative as even supports a single surface controlling a combination integration with DAWs.
modern console designs would suggest they of DAWs and our own DSP processing core.
are or could they embrace far more radical The pressure to be price competitive in
control technologies? What could the desks What do you see as the main differences large-scale desk design is apparent, but
of 20 years’ time look like? between the worksurface requirements in where can compromises be made to
Consoles have evolved over the years constantly music recording, post and broadcast? accommodate this and where can they
improving the way an engineer can control and mix There are a lot of similarities between music and not be tolerated? What frustrates you as
sources. In some ways a modern design like System 5 post requirements and both these markets are DAW- a designer?
is conservative as it has faders, channel strips, knobs based so integration of DAWs is important. The To produce a good console surface design that looks
and meters but in many ways it is a radical change high-end post console requires a more sophisticated and feels professional and that speeds up operation
from an analogue console that is confined and monitor matrix and panel and there is the issue of and allows the engineer effortless creative control
constrained by the mechanics of the electronics. multiple operator film consoles, but other than that costs money — it’s simply a matter of the cost of
Separating the control surface from the ‘engine’, they can have very similar surfaces especially now components that go into the design. The back-end is
analogue or digital, has profound implications in size, that surround is important in each market. The obviously getting cheaper and we have embraced
layout and flexibility of the mixing surface, plus broadcast console is different in that reliability is that with our integration of the System 5-MC with
everything can be automated and recalled. critical and there is no DAW integration. There are DAWs, such as Nuendo, which greatly brings down
This separation also allows a surface such as also many applications where the surface can be the cost of a system.
System 5 to directly control a DAW such as Nuendo much smaller and simpler with fewer controls such For some markets, such as broadcast, reliability and
as its engine with the bonus of recording and editing as in a local news environment — hence the modularity are more important than cost so these
integration. So, in some respects, it is conservative Euphonix Max Air surface designed specifically for systems will continue to be more expensive than a
but at the same time quite radical. I think in a this type of market. surface/DAW solution. At Euphonix we actually offer
professional environment it is important to provide a However, there are many broadcast applications two different surface designs for broadcast to match
practical solution that really does speed up operation where the console has to handle hundreds of sources control surface needs of different areas such as live
and allow for more creative flexibility, and basing that include music as well as dialogue — such as a production (System 5) and local news (Max Air). I
some of the design on proven mixing principles is a variety show, or a complex sports event — and in this think that right now is an extremely exciting time to
good thing. Since cars still have a steering wheel, case a surface such as System 5, with the redundancy be in the console business especially with the
despite some experiments, I believe that in 20 years options, is perfectly suitable for on-air broadcast. integration of console and DAW.
there will still be a pro mixing surface with faders One big caveat I see in the above-presented
and knobs, there will be more touchscreens but Would the adoption and standardisation of a concepts is that we want and need collaboration
definitely there will be one or more PCs at the back particular ‘digital interconnect’ make your with other manufacturers. We have to work together
end. In order to create a good product, you have to life and that of end-users simpler? and not against each other. But not all
solve a problem for the customer. In our case, we Yes, of course, standardisation helps in a big way but manufacturers believe in this concept. Some more
provide a tactile, ergonomic and comfortable tool to it is important to remember that no one digital than others would like to keep their users in a
get the work done. standard can work for all applications, especially in the proprietary and very controlled environment. It is
high-end professional market where the requirements hard for some companies to understand and support
Would you agree that with computer processing are totally different from the consumer or project an open architecture, but Euphonix can and will lead
power continuing to increase, as an industry we studio. In many cases there is no standard to solve the way. ■
are shifting our attentions away from harnessing some of the problems we face as console
that power to the business of controlling it — it’s designers. There are many open standards
now all about the interface again, just as it was in that console manufactures can adopt,
analogue’s heyday, and it’s what differentiates such as AES10 MADI, AES31, etc.
different manufacturers’ approaches because the Also I can see the industry going
processing is now largely similar? down a path using a protocol
I definitely agree that computer processing power will like Sony’s Super-Mac and
continue to increase. Everybody now accepts the fact Hyper-Mac, which solves
that you can cut and edit a movie on your laptop the problem of
computer, something that would have been combining a high-
impossible a couple of years ago. The same channel count of
revolution is now starting in the audio business and digital audio
the border between audio and video production is signals with
very blurred. As a manufacturer we have to harness control and sync
the power of commercial computer development, information.
since we simply can’t keep up with technical However, there are also
progress if we have to reinvent the wheel constantly instances, such as console
and also try to accommodate the need of users in connectivity to DAWs, that are so cutting edge
video production. and complex, for which no standard exists yet. In this
On the other hand, DAW developers have long case a company like Euphonix, with a great deal of
acknowledged the limitations of a point-and-click experience in surface networking, has to further
mouse interface for sound mixing. Therefore I believe develop a protocol such as EuCon to bridge this gap.
slaying dragons
T
ESTING FALLS INTO a number of categories. are purveyors of images, yet we don’t have a standard misleading assumption that it is inaudible. DAB should
Testing for fire safety or likelihood of for image accuracy. Instead we have equipment that have been wonderful and it is advertised as such, but
electrocution isn’t unique to audio and I don’t varies wildly in its imaging ability. The majority of it isn’t. It reached the market based on flawed listening
plan to discuss it beyond saying it’s important. In traditional loudspeakers are hopeless in this respect. tests. How much better would it have been if the
audio, testing generally is taken to mean sound quality Lacking comprehensive test procedures, the best we testers could have heard the damage? Perhaps there
testing. In electronic devices it’s a lot easier than in can do is to combine listening tests with objective tests. would have been a decision to wait for AAC.
transducers. The listening test is a kind of catch-all, because if there Although easy to measure, phase linearity doesn’t
In a generic device under test, the waveform is anything wrong, we ought to hear it whether or not get considered often enough, probably because of the
coming out won’t be identical to the waveform that there is an objective test for it. Unfortunately, we can well-known myth that the ear is phase deaf. The ear
went in. There are three sources of difference: signals only listen through loudspeakers and if these are is phase deaf on continuous sounds, but unfortunately
that are added from elsewhere, such as noise and imperfect, other defects will be concealed. it isn’t on transients and lack of phase linearity is a
interference, signals that result from the original signal One of the most obvious artefacts of bit-rate common cause of poor realism.
passing through a non-linear process, and lack of reduction is damage to the imaging, yet if we listen Probably as a result of poor loudspeakers we have
phase linearity. Most general-purpose audio test sets through traditional speakers we don’t hear it, whereas any number of incompatible spaced microphone
can measure all of this. When measuring distortion, on high-resolution speakers we do. As a result audio techniques for stereo recording, none of which has a
the input signal is nulled at the output, and what is left compression has entered wide service on the valid theory of operation and none of which produces
is measured. What is left, however, a recognisable image. Instead they
cannot exclude the noise the device has display an effect by which sound is
added, so in practice, to be precise we spread around. The only microphone
quote THD + N — total harmonic technique that can produce an image,
distortion plus noise. I have a small and for which a theory of operation
gripe, which is that some processes exists, is the coincident microphone, and
produce anharmonic distortion so the this is obvious when heard on
term THD is not strictly correct. Total loudspeakers of appropriate specification.
Non-linear Distortion would be better. However, there are many who won’t use
In principle anything that can be coincident microphones because they
heard can be measured objectively, but don’t like the sound. Maybe it’s the tricks
the audio industry is one of the few in the microphones employ to achieve
which measurements of key parameters directivity, maybe it’s the directivity itself.
still have no agreed test method. Thus Maybe it’s subjective nonsense. If we had
we have a situation where lack of imaging accuracy measurement we could
comprehensive test procedures allows resolve all of this, perhaps by seeing the
the situation where equipments having need to invent new types of microphone
identical test results can sound different. that don’t presently exist. But we don’t,
Another difficulty is to relate the so we stay stuck in the mud and
quantity measured to what is acceptable. professional audio slides inexorably
The finest array of test equipment on towards the oxymoronic.
earth is of no benefit if the user has The distinction between accurate
insufficient knowledge to interpret the reproduction and the creation of an effect
results, or lacks the authority to have isn’t difficult to grasp, and I have long
something done about it. stressed the importance of knowing
For many years the figure of 0.1% which is the goal before entering any
was considered good enough for audio debate. However, it appears that a lot of
power amplifiers. Given the kind of equipment is chosen because it gives an
distortion product spectrum a valve effect that someone finds desirable under
amplifier produces, this is reasonable. certain conditions. Unfortunately this
However, when transistorised amplifiers effect is an inherent colouration that
were introduced, they were designed to cannot be turned off and thus for other
the same figure, yet many sounded applications this equipment is not good
dreadful. There are a couple of reasons enough. Thus we have one piece of kit
for that. Valve amplifiers work in Class that’s good for this, one piece of kit that’s
A and don’t have crossover distortion. good for that, and the users erect a wall
The distortion gets worse as level of mystique regarding the principles by
increases and so they are tested at full which the appropriate item is selected.
power. Transistor amplifiers working in How much easier it would be to have
Class B produce distortion at low levels, neutral equipment and put in the effects
as indeed did early A-DCs. The in a controlled process. I recall recently
distortion product spectrum is different reading a review of a microphone in
and the human auditory system is more which it was judged to be ‘perhaps too
sensitive to it. neutral’. I would have thought it
When we sell stereo recordings, we axiomatic that it is not possible for a
microphone to be too neutral either from a linguistic Pro-Tools for Post Pro training
standpoint or from an electro-acoustic standpoint. As I ALCHEMEA
already owned a pair of these microphones, I was College of Audio Engineering
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Certified post production operator course
Another problem is that good test equipment is
expensive. With the explosion of consumer Topics include:
Linear & Nonlinear Video with Pro Tools, DV,
computing, a PC or Mac based home studio can be put OMF import/export, editing automation data to picture
together at incredibly low cost. Chances are there Mixing for Picture, groups/stems, surround Synchronization,
won’t be any test gear at all because it would cost machine control, multiple decks, offsets, etc.
more than the rest of the system. Another problem is Avid AVoption|XL Layback Options and more
that if testing revealed a deficiency, there wouldn’t be
anything that could be done about it. The knowledge
of audio in the local computer superstore could
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which isn’t a solution. The commoditised hardware is
made by the thousand in the Far East and isn’t going
to be changed because you don’t like it.
Most audio installations consist of a significant
number of boxes connected together. Testing each box
individually is fine as far as it goes, but even if each
box passes, it doesn’t mean the system is good. I have
seen too many examples of low-resolution systems
that were the result of poor installation practice.
Screens on analogue cables disconnected at one end to
stop hum, instead of fixing it properly; Pin 1 of XLRs
not going direct to chassis; and various other insults to
EMC compliance. Poor quality clock distribution can
have a disastrous effect in digital systems as jitter gets
into convertors.
Today we have MP3 and DAB that use bit rate
reduction and give me no pleasure. Analogue FM radio
has its dynamic range modified. Modern equipment
needs next to no maintenance. It’s no longer important
to have someone who understands how it works and
it’s cheaper to hire employees that don’t. In this context
it’s hardly surprising that quality is going to go down.
One could be forgiven for wondering if it’s worth
trying to uphold any standards. I would argue that it
is. Whatever the industry, the mass market products
will always be mediocre, yet there is always space for
a smaller number of higher quality products for the
base of discerning customers that won’t go away. The
only difference between the two markets is that in
one, test equipment is used to make sure the
specification isn’t exceeded as this raises cost,
whereas in the other test equipment is used to move
the state of the art forwards. ■
showcase
Remember to test the system, not just
the components.
your business
Herding cats good for linking to more exotic and unique sites, such
as www.vocalist.org.uk, which itself has one of the
most eclectic and interesting link assemblies I’ve run
Perhaps music folks are hard to organise. That’s fine, since there seems like more than into. www.hungrybands.com, indeed.
One of the sites I like is the National Association of
enough others out there willing to do it for them. But will producers get lost in the Record Industry Professionals (NARIP)
(www.narip.com), run out of LA by a seemingly
organisational shuffle? asks DAN DALEY tireless Tess Taylor. The site represents the vocation of
the organisation — which last year opened a chapter
in London — which is about the changing nature of
W
E’VE TALKED ABOUT organising the larger entertainment industry. It will encompass a
producers, and it’s been done, more or less lot of things that might not seem directly germane to
successfully, at various stages of the industry’s record producers. But in that is its virtue, since
history, in the UK and the US. But the emerging and still- everything is directly related to just about everything
evolving vista of the music business in the digital age else these days.
seems to have created a byproduct in the form of many, A recent conclave made these points about how
many, many organisations, formal, ad hoc or blog-like music might be monetised in the future,
in nature, centred around the Internet and directly or suggesting a form of compulsory licensing in
tangentially useful to record producers. which the creator of a recording (often also the
The Internet has always seemed a poor producer) would register it with the appropriate
surrogate for actually interacting with people, government copyright agency, which would grant
whether you want to hire them or date them. it a unique file identifier as well as copyright, which
But it’s that same ability to broach vast would be used to track Internet transmissions of
distances that, while making it less intimate, the file (song). A company called Big Champagne
makes it far more efficient. “Efficient’ is not in the US is already experimenting with this.
a word I’ve used often in writing about the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the makers of
process of making records. Imagine: media and hardware used in file sharing would then
‘Leonardo Da Vinci was extremely be charged accordingly. These firms would, in turn,
efficient in his use of colour in his work.’ charge their users. Some say this is analogous to
But it’s telling that efficiency is one of the the way you are now charged only for the
criteria by which many producers are amount of water that flows out of your tap. Use
judged these days, by their employers if more, pay more; use less, pay less.
not by those who buy the records Of course, Taylor continues, there is
they produce. the possibility that there might not be a
Thus, the plethora of one-to-one ratio between downloading
organisations out there becomes a and fees. ‘Recording artist Asha Corpas, an
bit like the way religion is approached by event attendee, likened it to the now-accepted
many in the 21st Century: pick a bit payments most households make to cable television
from this one and a bit from that providers. “You receive 500 channels, but you don’t
one and assemble to suit your watch all of them, yet the fee includes the
needs du jour. And I say that cost of providing all of the programming.”’
without a trace of condescension. Taylor believes that record labels are
To expect to pull all of your hiring again, which bodes well for them
information from one or two sources remaining as players in a rearranged music
these days is limiting. industry landscape. However, as with most other
There’s not a lot out there dedicated strictly to industries, they’re being hired at lower wages,
producers, though there are a number of engineering Dave Mellor’s www.record-producer.com is thick with commensurate with lower operating costs across the
threads. I’m more of a fan of actual websites than I am stuff that most novice producers will find useful. Mellor board, including record budgets. (The producer
of threads and blogs, though the last two are great for uses the site to sell his books and a distance-learning connection becomes clearer now.)
detecting pulses and trends. curriculum whose content I cannot comment on but I NARIP’s website also has a few producer
The Music Producers Guild (www.mpg.org.uk) is love the idea simply because it takes something he’s interviews, useful in that they don’t take a technical
about as official a site as you’ll find. Andy East and good at and finds another way to make it earn money. tone for granted. An interview with producer team The
company have kept it up well and it’s the one I’d You can get a lot of studio news at Underdogs — Damon Thomas and Harvey Mason, Jr,
recommend for authoritative insights on legal and www.rpmdirect.com, a subscription site whose front who have written and produced records for artists
certain business issues. free section is always worth a look, especially for the including Brandy, Faith Evans, Dru Hill, Pink, Tyrese,
Recordproduction.com is probably the most ‘missing persons’ section, an appeal to update the Justin Timberlake, Toni Braxton and Mariah Carey —
innovative and technically advanced. The online video whereabouts of producers who have dropped off asks those sorts of questions that make the technically
interviews with engineers and producers, such as Al industry (and airport) radars. I rather like that since savvy cringe but which result in useful answers.
Schmitt, are fun and informative, as are the virtual this is a business in which you’re only as good as your Here’s an excerpt:
tours of recording studios in the US and the UK (where next record, let alone your last one. Q: What do two of the top producers in the record
the site is based). There are also links to tons of stuff, The frenetic look of www.breakingartists.com is the business look for in an artist?
some as useless as a subscription to Rolling Stone, template for what we’ll be seeing a lot more of: central A: ‘What helps make great artists is a story in their
some as useful as information on insurance, a topic on commercial enterprises selling books and tip sheets songs,’ said Damon Thomas. ‘It also helps if they
which I have been, I’m sure, as boring as I have been with numerous links to a myriad of independent seem to be about a lifestyle.’
relentless. (But for the benefit of our US readers, get producers and producer management and related On the subject of equipment, Thomas replies, ‘It’s
some damned health insurance, as miserable as it is in organisations. not the gear that matters, it’s the song. You can give
the States. I’ve had it for 25 years and had virtually Websites like www.taxi.com have been around a us an old beat-up 8-track and we’ll make you a
never used it until this year, and the US$25,000 or so while and have attained a certain amount of credibility record.’ Mason: ‘Technology is a tool, but it’s not the
it just saved me was worth all those premium via features in papers like the New York Times. Still, main thing.’
payments. UK readers: Rant about national Health all they play to the American Idol/Pop Idol crowd more For career advice, Thomas suggests, ‘It’s not about
you want, but we’ll take it!) than anything else. However, sites like these are fairly how much you charge for your work. It’s about being
able to charge something fair for doing great work.’ the least variable aspect of the recording —
Mason adds, ‘If you focus on the money, you’re going A GOOD SPACE especially if we consider modern Pop and Rock
to hurt your career. Be in it for the love of music and recordings that create stereo out of over-panned
the money will find you.’ instruments. Why colour the tonal balance, which
excessive diffusion can do, just for the sake of
Then there’s the individual producer websites. everybody in the room having the stereo imaging?
Understandably, most of these are by younger While working on the balance of a mix, the stereo
producers. But there are a few by established imaging for all in the room is usually a rather low
producer engineers, like Bryan Carlstrom priority. And I could also give you a few good
(www.bryancarlstrom.com), who coproduced Rob examples where owners of such types of control
room have had to buy some resonant, flattering
Zombie and has recorded bands including Alice In
near or mid-field speakers — which they refer to as
Chains and Offspring. I’d call his about perfect for the ‘the bad ones’ — only to please their recording
purpose: good, stylised photo up front with a menu customers. At the end of the day, and as soon as the
of just-the-facts — bio, discography, gear list, links to customer goes, the main monitors are the ones to
interviews done on him in magazines, and a product rely upon.
recommendation link that subtly hypes his One last thing is that I really don’t think that the
Resolution is indeed a great magazine and I can’t continuous drop in the price of studio gear justifies
preferences and doesn’t duck product endorsements. help but look regularly in my mail box in the hope anything at all or that it is something that we should
Most of what’s on the web for producers is pretty that my issue is sitting there. One of the main feel proud of, and I especially cannot accept that it
basic stuff, but there’s enough of it, and enough reasons, apart from the many excellent features and drags acoustics down to the same level. In reality it
variety, to give producers and engineers some ideas as articles (such as Thomas Lund’s on digital levels V3.2 is economically impossible. On the other hand, and
to how they best can fit themselves and their careers and V3.3), has always been reading John unfortunately for this industry, this price drop goes
Watkinson’s Slaying Dragons, where he normally along with a quality drop and, believe me, I know
into the marketing engine that is the Web. Troll a bit touches the wound with incredible objectivity. what I am talking about as I sell some of it.
and use links randomly, sort of like closing your eyes This time, however, I think that he has over- Anyhow, I cannot wait for the next issue of
and hitting a patch on a DSP box just to see what you stretched himself by attempting to write during his Resolution because I really enjoy reading John, even
get. At the very least, you’ll get an idea. ■ sleep (Defining a good acoustic space, V3.5). when I do not agree (partially) with his ‘presentation’.
Obviously this is a guess, and maybe he had only Sergio Castro, AMIOA, Vigo, Spain
fallen asleep half way to the end of his article. Then
Advertisers Index
he started dreaming about reverberant control- The audio industry is an easy target and sometimes I
rooms with a good sound definition, perfect feel as if I could bring the axe down in my sleep much
loudspeakers and other strange issues. Maybe in his as Sergio suggests. However entertaining, such cheap
nightmare he dreamt he was a studio ‘near-field’ shots are not my style because they are destructive and
Alchemea ..........................Classified 63 salesman (do we need another one?) at odds with my own creativity. Thus, whenever I take a
Audix ..................................................31 One curious thing is that John starts his article saying swipe at something, I try to soak up the blood by
Brauner ..............................................55 that ‘no one has ever heard what a musical instrument suggesting a better alternative.
sounds like’. Well, this is the reason why I think that in If there is any difference between our views, it must be
Cedar Audio ........................Back Cover close to hemi-anechoic conditions (read Non- that Sergio is focussed on pan-potted mixes for
Resolution – WIN ..............................57 Environment control-rooms) we can hear exactly how commercial stereo recordings. These are an art form that
Dean Cook Productions ....Classified 63 our ‘monitors’ sound, and hence what’s on the mix, cannot be wrong any more than a painting can be wrong.
Digico/Soundtracs DS-00 ..................13 furthermore avoiding big surprises in the tonal I am concerned with broader horizons, including
balance of our songs when played anywhere else. All realistic reproduction of natural sounds, not necessarily
DigiDesign..........................................49 this because we simply sent our room out of the musical and not necessarily for entertainment. I am
Digital Village ......................................9 equation. Reverberation belongs in the recording comfortable with the fact that Sergio and his
DK Audio............................................23 space. The control-room needs a highly damped colleagues have perfected the traditional dead control
acoustic to allow the recording personnel to hear the room and speaker combination and I don’t need to
DPA ....................................................11 true reverberation that has been recorded — in other hear it because I have already moved on.
Drawmer/Soundfield..........................36 words, the reverberation that has been ‘locked into’ In a sense Sergio is right that I have been dreaming,
ESE ....................................................12 the recording. but he was out with the time scale. The dreams took
Then John goes on with an extensive analysis on place some time ago and since then they have been
FAR ....................................................35 the interferences between different types of music replaced by actual hardware that performs exactly as I
Genelec ....................Inside Front Cover for the different types of acoustic spaces, or on have described. I have used omnidirectional speakers
Harman Pro/AKG ..............................25 what has been lost with modern multitrack to relay live classical music into highly reverberant
Interfacio............................Classified 63 technologies — superb. But then the truth becomes spaces such as the Tate Modern with highly acclaimed
a dream... And no, not all big monitors are a pain in results. The reverberant glass control room is a reality;
Jim Hawkins ......................Classified 63 the ear. And when they are, in many cases it is a it’s under design right now. I’m looking forward to
KMR Audio ........................................40 function of the room, hence rooms and monitors are integrating linear phase omnidirectional speakers into
Loud ....................................................7 not totally independent. In fact, I am persuaded that it. Then the points I have been making all this time will
they cannot survive without each other. be transparently obvious.
Lydkraft ..............................................44 In the remote case that it has not been a dream, John Watkinson
MC2....................................................47 my only suggestion to John would be to have the
MediaTools ........................................54 experience of a good set of loudspeakers in a well While I agreed with much of what John Watkinson said
designed ‘Non-Environment’ highly damped control in his article in the July/August issue (Defining a good
Merging Technologies........................21 room. Nothing special or esoteric about it — not acoustic space, V3.5), I feel that he made a great
PMC....................................................45 even secret — and all well scientifically documented. mistake when he began to discuss control rooms. He
Sadie ........................Inside Back Cover In the end, who cares about the real sound of an seems to be confusing control rooms with listening
Salzbrenner Stagetec Media Group ..37 instrument? Instruments are used to produce a form of rooms. Certainly in my opinion, a control room has a
art, known as music, and in Art all (almost?) is valid. On quality-control function that far exceeds the simple
SBES ..................................................51 the other hand, when it comes to deciding how you enjoyment of the music with a nice stereo image. A
Schoepes ............................................17 want to ‘pack’ your form of art, you really ought to control room should facilitate the recognition of
SCV London ......................................34 have the ‘microscope’ type facility of a well defined, problems in the recordings — processing artefacts, bad
Sonic Distribution ..............................33 fast transient, phase accurate system inside a room edits, timing errors (where relevant), noises. etc. This is
that remains innocuous to your programme material. all better achieved in rooms with much lower decay
Sonifex ..............................................32 In a studio, diffusion is a great help for recording, times than those for optimal listening for pleasure.
Studio Spares ....................................27 but simply not commendable for monitoring Furthermore, this is not the pseudoscience that
TC Electronic......................................43 purposes. Diffusion in the control room can, with John claims it to be. As John is not an acoustician by
room decays beyond about 0.25 seconds, mask and profession, his lack of knowledge of the science is
TL Audio ............................................41 confuse the reverberant sound on the recording, probably just a result of his unfamiliarity with this
TL Commerce ....................Classified 63 and make its assessment difficult. But, to type of work. [For example, see Fazenda, Avis,
Turnkey ..............................................56 understand that, you need to experience it. And Davies, Difference Limes for the Q-factor of Room
also this emphasis on stereo imaging. Once set it is Modes, AES Convention paper, New York, October
Vintage ..............................................53
headroom
2003; which also makes a clear distinction between occupational hazards in dragon slaying is that DSD64 will be dwarfed by noise’. I can assure him, as
listening rooms and control rooms. And these are sometimes the dragon turns out to be a brontosaurus. someone who has been working with this signal for the
people from Salford University, UK, quite well-known John Watkinson last 13 years, that there is indeed audio above 22kHz,
for its work on diffusers.] In fact, David Bell, of White and that although the S/N ratio does get less as the
Mark, is a great user of diffusion, but in a contribution THE SACD RESPONSE frequency rises it certainly isn’t dwarfed by noise.
which he kindly made on the subject of LEDE control I’m sorry to read John saying that ‘to perform
rooms in a recent book that I wrote, he clearly stated Before I begin I’ll nail my colours firmly to the mast, I production steps with DSD it has to be converted to
that ‘Modern control rooms are built to impose huge work for Sony, one of the co-developers of SACD, and PCM and then back again’. There exist commercial and
amounts of acoustic control, and their acoustics have I’ve been working with DSD since 1991. I’ll start with my Sony in-house workstations that retain the full DSD
to be robust to the way in which they are used....It is main message and append a few comments on recently sample rate throughout their processing and recording.
important to note the difference between the listening published letters and articles. You do not have to convert DSD down to 8fs PCM or
and the monitoring processes, here. “Monitoring” is It is actually quite simple to make a recording for even lower in order to perform recording, mixing,
not consistently possible in many [listening] release on SACD, and there are multiple ways to do this. equalisation or dynamics processing.
environments as these artefacts [of a listening The golden rule is to retain as much sound quality as I’m saddened by Richard Elen’s letter in the
acoustic] may conceal aspects of the programme or you can all through the chain. You can start with an September edition, in which the whole of the first two
modify them in ways that make objectivity impossible.’ analogue tape or a digital recording, if you’re using a paragraphs are directed at ‘partisan authors’. He spends
So there you have it, both a loser (absorber) and a digital recording go for the highest sample rate you can the rest of his letter attacking Mr Vest and SACD. May I
diffuser in general agreement about short decay time achieve and if at all possible don’t then reduce the remind your readers that Richard Elen is Head of
requirements in control rooms. And what does John sample rate only to raise it again for final release on Creative Services at Meridian Audio Ltd, the patent
mean when he says ‘It’s simply not possible to mix SACD. If you can start with a DSD recording then do so, holder of MLP, a key technology in, you’ve guessed it …
surround sound in a dead room because there won’t with presently available recorders, editors and DVD-A. Pot, kettle?
be any sound at all from the side loudspeakers’? As processing you can stay at the full DSD sampling rate all To end on a happier note, with over 2400 SACDs
far as I am aware, the surround systems with indirect the way to release, and don’t let anybody tell you it released so far it can’t be that difficult. It is also probable
side/rear loudspeakers are only for domestic use. can’t be done, there are hundreds of workstations in the that just about every possible chain of recording, editing
Professional systems do not use dipole loudspeakers field doing it every day. and processing equipment has been used at least once
at the sides because they produce a sound that is too If DSD recording isn’t available for some reason then to create recordings that have satisfied musicians and
arbitrary and room dependent to be any serious DXD, as outlined in Mikael Vest’s article in the listeners alike. Just remember, keep the sound quality
reference to anything. July/August edition, is your next best choice, especially and the sample rate UP!
I also know from direct conversation with John that if you can stay at its 8fs PCM sample rate through all of Peter Eastty, chief consultant engineer, Sony
he refutes the need for high-level monitoring, but in production. If this 8fs system isn’t available, then 4fs is Pro-Audio Lab, Oxford.
practical circumstances this can be very necessary to better than 2fs and 2fs is better than fs. It really is that
animate musicians during a creative process; thus simple to understand and to do, try to keep the sound Proving that romance is
powerful loudspeakers can be very necessary. It quality, and the sample rate as high as you can all
alive and well and living in
therefore follows that rooms may need to be designed through the chain.
Shoreham-by-Sea,
to take this into account. Recording can be a very In an amicable spirit I’d like to address some of the
points Mikael Vest’s made in his article on his new 8fs Resolution's very own
complex process, so to make over-simplistic statements Dean Cook recently
about it can tend to do more harm than good. 24-bit PCM A-DCs and D-ACs. This is a very high quality
format, it certainly should be, requiring 12 times the CD married Claire, the love of
However, at least John has precipitated a debate.
data rate or three times the SACD data rate. his life. The honeymoon in
Philip Newell, Moana, Spain
Mr Vest says in his article, ‘Since DXD is a PCM-like the Dominican Republic
I should make it clear that Philip Newell and I are signal, editing can be made using conventional lossless was apparently frustrated by single beds in the hotel.
seldom in any real conflict. After all, we have both been digital processing.’ I’ve two points to make here. First, (picture by Georgia Gargett, age 6)
critical of the deficiencies of ported loudspeakers and DXD is not just ‘PCM-like’ it is PCM. Secondly no digital
that message is slowly getting across. processing is lossless. While I agree that digital
All I have done is to move on to another deficiency to transmission and storage are lossless, digital processing,
which I have also found a solution. Quite simply, the i.e. gain control, cross-fade, filtering, etc. is not. At
traditional loudspeaker cannot radiate sound of whatever sample rate it is done, 1 or 2fs for traditional
identical quality in every horizontal direction and the PCM, 8fs for DXD, or 64fs for DSD, all processing
ear’s own abilities to isolate the direct sound from the involves the creation of long multibit words each time a
reverberant are compromised. As a direct consequence multiplication by a coefficient is executed and also
different conditions are needed in a control room and a involves the correct addition of dither, used to reduce
listening room having traditional loudspeakers. the bit-width from that generated in the processing back
I assure Philip that I never confuse traditional control to that used for interconnection or storage.
rooms and listening rooms. I can tell them apart Mr Vest mentions at several points in his article that he
blindfold because the acoustic in a traditional control believes that no editing or processing can be done on
room makes me feel like a bird in a cage. They are the DSD signal without converting it to PCM. Clearly
oppressive, I find them damaging to my serenity and I ALL digital processing is done via multibit internal
representations, but it is not necessary to down convert Sonic Distribution's two-wheeled petrolhead Warren
refuse to get used to them.
But never mind my subjective feelings. It is simple the DSD signal to the traditional PCM sample rates of 1 Stean has forsaken his tricked-up Ducati in favour of
physics that loudspeakers designed to work in dead or 2fs in order to process it. Commercially available more sedate transport as a result of his numerous trips
rooms must be more powerful and must therefore have solutions exist using moderate down conversion to the to SE Electronics' manufacturing base in Shanghai. Said
higher distortion and worse directivity and Philip must 8fs sample rate of DXD and using no sample rate Warren: 'I've come to realise that acceleration and mid
accept it. conversion at the full 64fs sample rate of DSD. range grunt isn't everything and there's a lot to be said
The point I am making is that when loudspeakers of Despite these minor niggles Mikael Vest’s article for the out and out handling and extra load carrying
adequate directivity specification are used, the presents an effective method of recording for release on capacity that an extra wheel can give you. Frankly, it's
distinction between control room and listening room SACD. also more of chick magnet and it's much easier to park.'
vanishes. All of the problems that Philip lists are easily Most unusually for the good Mr Watkinson his amusing
discernible, possibly more easily. In fact I have written at article in the September edition contained a few factual
length about measuring loudspeaker performance by errors.
the ability to reveal compression artefacts. The number of combinations per second for CD is
On the subject of surround monitoring, I regret that (216)44100not (216) * 44100 and the number of combinations
Philip has misquoted me. I did not say ‘there won’t be per second for SACD is (21)2822400 not 2 * 2822400. Thus
any sound from the side loudspeakers’. What I said was the figures he gives, ‘2900 million combinations per
‘there won’t be any sound from the side’. In a four or five second’ for CD and ‘5.6 million combinations per
channel surround system with a centrally placed forward second’ for SACD are incorrect. The correct numbers
facing listener in anechoic conditions, there is a stereo are 10212407 for CD and 10849627 for SACD showing, not
image at the front, a stereo image at the rear and surprisingly, that there are 10637220 times as many
nothing is perceived from the sides at all. Sound can combinations in one second of SACD than in one
only be received from the sides if there is reverberation. second of CD. There is indeed four times as much
Traditional control room design isn’t appropriate for information in the SACD channel. A new slim-line and svelte Greg Mackie graced the
surround sound working. New loudspeaker technology John says that SACD has ‘a practical bandwidth of recent Mackie 15-year celebrations in Woodinville
allows a different and better room acoustic. One of the 22kHz’ and that ‘any signal above that frequency in and allowed himself a momentary dietary lapse.
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