Headliner 24

ISSUE #24

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TIVE CO

PORT

THE CR

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MAGAZINE

UNI T Y

Paloma Faith

THE ARCHITECT LIVE IN LONDON

Hansa Studios

BERLIN’S FINEST RECORDING HUB

Catherine Marks

ISSUE 24 | £3.95 UK/$6.95 USA/$7.95 CANADA

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#24 From the Editor

“The big sound is always going to influence other people, so you have to reinvent yourself, which is such a huge challenge.”

David Guetta

Welcome to Issue 24 of Headliner, in which we are proud to feature an exclusive with David Guetta. The Parisian dance music icon chats to us about some of his latest projects and studio techniques, and reveals why, as an artist in this genre of music, you must always be prepared to change direction when necessary. Could Guetta be dropping the big beats in favour of something completely different? Turn to the page 30 to find out.

We’re also on set with Mike Christie, the man responsible for producing and directing the excellent Hansa Studios: By the Wall 1976-1990 documentary for Sky Arts. For those of you that aren’t aware, Hansa is located at the East/West divide in Berlin, right where the wall once stood. During this period, it’s where Bowie made Heroes, Iggy made Lust For Life, and U2 made Achtung Baby.

Steeped in musical folklore, it’s an enchanting film, made by a true music fan.

Furthermore, we chat to Supergrass drummer and singer-songwriter, Danny Goffey (who features in Christie’s movie) about his new solo album, Schtick, and what it was like to record the band’s Diamond Hoo Ha album [in 2008] within those historic studio walls.

On the road, we descend on the O2 Arena (twice), first to check out the fabulous Gorillaz production, then to go backstage with Paloma Faith’s team to find out how their slimline Coda Audio PA system has helped transform the entire production. Then, we’re off to chat lighting with Metallica, before rounding up our live sector in the US with Nickelback – the band that, apparently, everyone loves to hate... that sell out every arena show they play. Don’t believe everything you read, evidently..!

In the studio, we talk mix tips and favourite kit with Danton Supple, whose list of credits is so mad, it’s hard to know where to start (so we won’t), and we pay a visit to this year’s MPG UK Producer of the Year, Catherine Marks, about recording techniques, and how to get in the zone when working with artists.

All this and much more inside - we hope you enjoy the issue.

Paul Watson Editor

SOCIALISE WITH US: headlinermagazine.net @Headlinerhub HeadlinerHub headlinermagazine

HEADLINER | ISSUE #24

CONTACT Paul Watson paul@headlinerhub.com +44(0)7952-839296

Yerosha Windrich yeroshasound@gmail.com +44(0)7804-583457

Artwork Eli Stapleton Eimear O’Connor

Contributors Adam Protz, Rhona Lavis, Henry Sarmiento, Jon Tessier, Robert the Roadie, Yerosha

There is nothing else on the market that comes anywhere close Hugh Robjohns – Sound On Sound

genelec.com/theones

Contents #24 Cover Story

P30 / David Guetta 08

38

SONIC VISTA INSIGHTS

NICKELBACK

10

40

Our friends from Ibiza head out to Nashville to meet the team behind the iconic Strait Music Company.

SEARCHING FOR SOUNDS

Yerosha scores a video from scratch using a DiGiGrid interface, Waves plugins, and Spitfire Audio LABS.

12

HANSA STUDIOS:

BY THE WALL 1976-1990

Filmmaker, Mike Christie, talks to us about his latest doc, which tells the amazing Hansa Studios story.

14

SUPERGRASS, SCHTICK & OTHER STORIES Danny Goffey talks life after Supergrass, Gloria Gaynor in Berlin, and a new solo album.

18

DANTON SUPPLE

The Strongroom-based producer and mixer chats new monitors, travel, and keeping things fresh.

22

CATHERINE MARKS

The MPG UK Producer of the Year takes us through her musical journey, and top studio techniques.

26

PALOMA FAITH

We find out how a sleek, smart Coda Audio PA system has transformed Paloma Faith’s tour.

30

COVER STORY: DAVID GUETTA

Could this absolute leviathan of the dance music scene be about to embark on a career in underground techno, and leftfield dance music?

The Parisian icon chats to us about the importance of reinventing yourself as an artist in an industry where the big sound is influential, but not always cut and dry.

34

GORILLAZ ON TOUR

We’re at the O2 Arena with Damon Albarn and co. to find out what makes this show tick.

HEADLINER | ISSUE #24

We go Stateside with Nickelback and discover why sell-out shows are always guaranteed.

SHAI BRANDER

How do you prepare quality backing tracks for reality shows?

Shai Brander reveals all.

42

METALLICA

A huge sound needs a huge light show. Metallica’s WorldWired tour delivers, and then some.

44

FESTIVAL BOX

This cool bit of kit from Optocore could totally transform the festival experience for all sound engineers.

46

THE DRIVE TO DIGITAL

Shure’s Tuomo Tolonen explains what will happen to the UK audio industry if we continue to be deprived of our wireless spectrum.

50

PRESIDENT STREET

One to watch. This Australian pop collective discuss their career so far, and an inspired new video.

52

TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE

We road test Lectrosonics and JH Audio wireless kit on the UK’s most promising Bowie tribute.

54

FIGHTING TALK

What have MMA fighting and music got in common? Ali Jacko will certainly let you know..!

56

EXCLUSIVE: FINDING YOUR MOJO

We put Cranborne Audio’s Camden 500 preamp to the test with an Audio-Technica 5047.

58

GRUMPY OLD ROADIE

This issue, Robert warns us of the dangers of not looking after your ears while on the road... Pardon?

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Sonic Vista Insights

Strait Music

KEEPING AUSTIN WEIRD SINCE 1963

Over 50 years and still counting, Strait Music has mirrored its Austin community in so many ways. They have grown, but still have that small town family-owned feel, and you can definitely say they’ve kept it weird. They’re proud of their history, and still operate on the same principles set forth by Dan Strait when he founded the store in 1963. It was a pleasure to talk with Clint Strait, third generation owner of Strait Music Company, and we’re happy to share it with our readers here at Headliner.

Clint, tell us about your business...

We’re a full line music retail store, meaning everything from pianos to guitars, amps, basses, pro audio, and recording; we basically do everything, and we also service everything that we sell. We even have band repair techs, three guitar techs, an electronics tech, and a full service piano shop.

My grandfather started Strait Piano and Organ back in ‘63, when we were a Baldwin Piano franchise. How we expanded into other instruments was that Baldwin owned Vox amps, and then The Beatles started playing them, and they became the most popular amp in the world! As the years went by, we expanded into other parts of the business, and today, I pretty much run it.

dealt with. Yamaha is another great company; there’s nothing Yamaha does poorly, and they have good people. Martin is your age old classic American brand; Chris Martin, who I know personally, is like the seventh generation. His family has been making guitars since the 1800s, so that’s pretty awesome. There are many more brands, but those are the three that come to mind at first.

What are your favourite brands?

Taylor Guitars is one, they’re great to work with, from the top down: from Bob Taylor, the way he runs a company, and the way he views a business should be run, down to the people that he hires, and the reps that I’ve

What is the craziest moment in the history of Strait music?

In 1981, there was a catastrophic flood in the city of Austin on Memorial Day; a lot of people lost their lives, and our store was at ground zero at 9th Street and Lamar, and

08 Headliner

What do you sell the most of?

Guitars. We do a lot of business in pianos, but it only accounts for 25% of our overall business. Band orchestras are also big, but here in Austin, it’s the guitar business, and that includes amps, basses, ukuleles, and all folk stringed instruments.

the piano department was under six feet of water. There were pianos floating out the door!

It was pretty crazy, we lost a million dollars’ worth of inventory, and had no insurance at all. But by the grace of god, good friends, and good vendors, we were able to stay in business.

I think my grandfather retired the next year; he was over it, and handed the business to my father in 1982. Another crazy thing is that we flooded again in 1991..!

How has your store impacted the Austin scene?

It’s not how we impacted the Austin music scene, it’s more like how the Austin music scene has impacted us, or how we have grown together. My grandfather’s motto was: ‘a place where customers become friends’. It’s still what we live by today, and we’ve made a lot of friends in the Austin music industry. A lot of musicians have shopped here for a long time, and we take good care of them. I was at a music ceremony not too long ago, and Charlie Sexton was accepting an award, and he said,

Sonic Vista Insights

Strait Music

“Austin used to be a small town... it’s grown so much.”

‘Well, that reminds me, I have to go pick up my guitar at Strait Music!’ So there’s a lot of musicians that call this place home.

And since Strait Music has been around since 1963, when big things like ACL (Austin City Limits), SXSW (South by Southwest), and Stevie Ray [Vaughan] came about, we kind of grew with it. I’d like to consider us a part of the Austin music scene and culture, this store in particular, because it’s the only one that’s been here through all of it. I like to think that we’ve played a part in why Austin is now considered the live music capital of the world. A small part, but a part, none the less.

I don’t care what you’re into, it’s at SXSW! I don’t want to sound like it’s a bad thing, because we’ve certainly benefitted from it, but it’s not as local anymore. There’s a lot of outside stuff, like ACL and SXSW, and it’s been great for our city. But it’s harder for working musicians living here doing that. The cost of living in Austin has gone up a lot, and that has nothing to do with the music scene, it’s just that the town attracts a lot people, and they want to live here. That’s really good for people in the retail business like myself, but it’s not necessarily good for someone who’s trying to make a living being a musician.

How do you feel Austin’s music scene has evolved over the years?

Austin used to be a small town, and it’s grown so much, it’s just ridiculous. The high school that I went to is now a 5A high school (2,500 students). Back then, it was a 2A little country bumpkin school, and all the places where my friends and I grew up were just ranches.

That’s back when it was just a college town, and it’s not just a college town anymore. The music scene was just an underground thing, with up-and-coming-cool spots like this famous honky-tonk bar called The Broken Spoke. It might have started off like an outlaw country sort of thing, and then, of course, guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan put us on the map again; and now it’s evolved to SXSW, and there’s no genre in it, it’s everything.

Has it reached tipping point yet?

I don’t think so, no. I am an Austinite, born and raised; there’s a lot more outside people living here, and for me, that’s okay. It just means the city is different. I’d say this started to happen during the tech-boom era in the late ‘90s - not that it was the cause of it - but that’s when I started seeing a lot of changes happening. A perfect example would be my favourite swimming hole when my friends and I were the only ones going there; now there are 40 cars lined up down the block.

That, for locals, is annoying, but it’s not going to change. But you can still go and find your spot; and as a business owner, it’s been beneficial for Strait Music, as people are moving in to your market with disposable income, and you sell a luxury good.

In Europe, DJ kit is now outselling guitars and pianos... What about here?

We’re seeing a trend that shows that type of music is more popular, the kind of music you make on a computer with a MIDI controller - whether that be hip hop or EDM - but history would say that nothing sticks forever.

14% of the albums sold this year were vinyls, and that number is only going to go up, so let’s look at that as a reversible trend: 10 years ago, it was probably around 2%.

Guitar sales as a whole are hurting, but I can tell you right now that at Strait Music Company, we’re not. If you went back to the ‘80s, everybody said synthesisers and drum machines were taking over, but that didn’t stick. In the ‘90s, it was grunge rock, and you couldn’t sell enough electric guitars. More recently, there have been a lot of people playing folk instruments, or as we like to call it, ‘the Mumford & Sons effect’ [smiles] Right now, that music is driving kids to play guitar.

Ultimately, I want Strait Music to remain the place to come to: stock cool gear, in a badass store, and have the best people in it. And I think if we continue to do that, we’ll continue to be successful.

We agree! Thanks to the Sonic Vista guys for heading Stateside on Headliner’s behalf. www.sonicvistastudio.com www.straitmusic.com

09 Headliner

Yerosha

Seasoning for Sounds

YEROSHA: SEASONING FOR SOUNDS

London-based artist and producer, Yerosha, set herself the tricky challenge of composing a musical score in just a couple of hours, using some specific audio kit. She turned this experiment into a cool little video (check out headlinermagazine.net), and below, she takes you, the reader, through some of the finer details, giving us an exclusive insight into her workflow, as well as some of her musical tricks, techniques, and manipulations.

I have been a composer on a number of projects: commercial and artistic. Some of my composition work includes a score for BBC’s The Story of Women and Art doc, and also on a short film featured on the platform Nowness, for Audi.

My work with artists includes: productions for GAIKA on his debut EP, Spaghetto, for Warp Records, as well as a collaboration with the artists GAIKA and Mykki Blanco on a track called Push More Weight for a label called Spacial Awareness.

My first vocal EP came out in April, along with a number of musical projects out later on in the year, including two albums, and an EP of a new band I’m in.

I’m always up for creating, so it only made sense that I put together a little composition for the review video I was featured in for Headliner. It was a great opportunity to challenge myself on how to work quickly, and within a particular set of parameters. It also gave me the opportunity to really get to road test some DiGiGrid review kit, and also the Spitfire Audio sounds from their LABS range. The LABS range is an initiative focused on supporting

10 Headliner

charities, and welcomes fledgling composers and producers. These sample libraries are also being given away free! Access to such quality products is such a hurdle when you’re starting out, as I can very clearly remember. They are just as fascinating as they are heartwarming!

I very rarely use default straight out of the box sounds from libraries. I tend to give things my own twist and feel - injecting character and feel is key to how I work.

Leaning heavily on plugins and manipulation through editing, I tend to compose and produce by warping sounds, altering rhythms, and generally try to give things more of a flavour. I time stretch, cut up, pitch up and down, reverse, and use a wide variety of plugins to create my own sounds, textures, grooves, and soundscapes. Seasoning for sounds, if you like…

Making the Movie

In the video, I play a melody on the piano; as a start point to get ideas down, it’s nice to sit in front of a real instrument. I’ll often sit and chew through ideas this way. I’ve spent a long time making music ‘in the box’, so the opportunity to sit outside and play the

piano was appealing (I didn’t get many opportunities this winter, because it was crazy cold in the live room in the studio I use!). I also like to mic up the piano, and just start tracking while I jam. You never know; some magic might come out that won’t happen again. Track everything - think later.

This was my first chance to test the portability and recording quality of the DiGiGrid D, from the company’s Desktop series. I found a long Ethernet cable in one of the cable boxes in the studio, and from the live room to the control room, I connected the D to the computer. It was a joy! No wrestling with multicore, just one connection over a long distance from the control room to the top of the piano. I miked up the piano using my trusty Earthworks TC25s, and started putting down ideas.

The DiGiGrid D worked wonderfully, delivering an accurate and detailed recording.

It was easy to use the trims to get the right level, as the box was sitting right next to me.

Using the iPad as a transport controller for Logic made it easy to track the piano in a different room; that, and having the easy controllability of the input on the D, made

Yerosha

Seasoning for Sounds

“Spitfire’s Dulcimer is a great, bright instrument that I knew would suit the sentiment of what I was doing...” recording any sketches really quick and easy.

Once I got some ideas down on the piano, I recreated aspects of it, and overdubbed some MIDI using Spitfire Audio’s Dulcimer from the LABS range. It’s a great, bright instrument that I knew I could really work with, and would suit the sentiment of what I was doing. I found the samples easy to work with, and unobtrusive in a mix. I then bounced the parts, and used Logic’s reverse function, to give things a bit of atmosphere.

Stacking Sounds

On my plugin stack for the bounce, I made sure I had a Waves L1 Ultramaximizer, as the last one to boost the level after all my effects.

It’s a great tool for bringing out fine detail, or any interesting artefacts in sound design. It’s also very quick and easy to use - which was the name of the game for this task. It tends to be my go-to, as it’s a one stop shop for making sure levels are good, controllable, and don’t get lost in your mix, especially when you want to throw down ideas quickly. With the L1, I can get everything to the level I like without squashing things into oblivion, but still getting that gain. I’ve used it on the Warp EP for GAIKA, and his upcoming LP frequently; and if I come to think of all upcoming releases, it’s been intrinsic to my workflow.

I edited and manipulated the Dulcimer sample further, and the overdubs I created, then added Waves GTR Amp for further

sound design. I decided to go for the Cream setting, a tone which, I can only assume, is a nod to Eric Clapton. Not something you’d usually associate with the Dulcimer, but it gave it textures and qualities that I was looking for. It’s great to add plugins to sounds that you wouldn’t normally expect, and GTR Amp really adds grit, presence, and space to sounds - adding character to the track.

I’m a big fan of automation, and see it as a key aspect to my sound, and method of creation. Giving plugin parameters some movement through the composition brings the music alive, and helps to give another layer of performance. I flicked Logic into ‘touch’ automation mode, and automated the treble setting on the plugin to suit the sample, and bring the part to life.

Something I tend to lean on a lot when it comes to composition is the Soundtoys suite.

In particular, EchoBoy Jr. For delay, it’s very easy to dial up a preset, and start manipulating from there. On this occasion, I opted for the Lost in Space Echo (like the movie?), and again automated freehand from 100% dry to 100% wet. It adds an extra layer of vitality to sounds, giving them a life and performance of their own.

I’m very lucky in that the studio I use regularly has a Minimoog Voyager synth.

Again, another opportunity to use the DiGiGrid D interface. I plugged balanced jacks directly into the instrument input channels on the back, and used the trim to get

levels on the top of the D to get a nice level on the input. Again, the D did not disappoint: the interface sounded smooth, clear, and detailed. There was a lot of headroom in the line amp, and I got a solid recording with very little effort. I can’t stress enough how useful this is when you want to get ideas down quickly, and when you’re flowing.

I used Waves GTR ToolRack setting Chorusella (like Cinderella, but a chorus?) to give it some thickness and extra warmth. To finish off the sound of the Moog part, I added the Native Instruments RC 24 reverb to grow from dry to wet. The drone in the score is the sound Dumpfi from Native Instruments’ FORM library - something that I’ve used in some of the LPs I have coming out this year.

Through the video, I move to using Spitfire Audio’s Frozen Strings from the LABS range, taking up the role of the drone from the NI Form synth. It has a beautiful quality, and the dynamics ebb and flow instinctively by just holding down one note. To make it come alive in this way, I’d usually want to automate some dynamics for interest, but this has it already incorporated, which is great.

Towards the end of the video, you can hear my track, Tell It To Me Now, in which I used Spitfire’s Harmonic Bird Song to add extra depth and atmosphere to the outro. www.spitfireaudio.com www.waves.com www.digigrid.net

11 Headliner

Hansa Studios

By The Wall

HANSA STUDIOS: BY THE WALL 1976-1990 Abbey Road and The Beatles, Electric Lady and Jimi Hendrix, Sound City and Nirvana.

But what about Berlin’s Hansa Studio? Don’t be too alarmed if you haven’t heard of it, as the story’s never really been told (until now), but if we were to tell you that Bowie’s Heroes and Low, Iggy’s Lust for Life, U2’s Achtung Baby, and the three big ‘80s records by Depeche Mode were all recorded here, it may give you some idea of how iconic this place is. Meet Mike Christie, whose documentary, Hansa Studios: By the Wall 1976-1990, has made waves across Europe. Stunningly shot, this film is as heartfelt as it is inspiring.

Before we get to the film, a little about Hansa Studios: it is located in a building that was never meant to be a recording studio, known as the Meistersaal - a concert hall in the ‘20s, and one of the few buildings in the area that survived the War. Post WW2, it was a cabaret venue and cinema, and in 1961, when the Berlin Wall was built [just yards away], everything changed. It was cut off from the East, right on the border of the West of Berlin. Through a window, you could even see a lookout tower populated by armed guards.

The Wall, and the fact the Meistersaal had nothing surrounding it, meant it was now a desolate location – perfect for recording music. That same year, it was first opened as a recording studio by record label, Ariola.

Fifteen years later (1976), the building was bought by music producers and publishers, Meisel, a company famed for putting out German ‘Schlager’ music (think Eurovision of today, and you’re in the right ballpark), who enjoyed huge success under the Hansa record (L-R) View from the Watchtower; Hansa Studio 1.

12 Headliner

label. But the real history of Hansa was written via some of rock and roll’s greats, starting with David Bowie and his producer, Tony Visconti, who recorded the second of Bowie’s ‘Berlin Trilogy’, Heroes, at Hansa.

“There have been about 3,000 albums recorded at Hansa, but you wouldn’t have heard of 95% of them, as most of it is Schlager music,” opens Mike Christie, with a smile. “I was nervous. We couldn’t ignore the Schlager roots of the studio, but I was cautious as to how far I should take it!”

We can assure you he did a fine job.

This film is an inspirational and, at times, very emotional watch. It’s pretty staggering that Christie and co. only took five months to make the film – and perhaps more surprising still, the fact that, although he worked in the music biz for the first half of his professional life, this was the first music documentary he’s ever attempted. “[laughs] It is very strange, I have to admit; I have been making docs for 20 years,

and before that, I worked with bands. I first started making films working with Suede in the ‘90s, then docs in the late ‘90s,” Stevens explains. “I’ve done films for Red Bull, Apple, 80 odd films for Channel 4, Sky, and the BBC, some of which have been successful around the world... but I had never made a music doc! So all my pigeons came home to roost in one go... Or should that be chickens?”

I decide not to Google that, as I can’t be sure, either, and rather like the mystery...

Artistic License

What’s quite beautiful about this film is the fact that it all takes place within the walls of Hansa – and in the control room, not much has changed. Also, credit to Christie and his team for getting so many epic artists and producers involved in the project: R.E.M’s Michael Stipe (the band recorded their final album here); Depeche Mode frontman, Martin Gore; and Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey of Supergrass, to name just a few.

Hansa Studios

By The Wall

(L-R) The Wall; Mike Christie & Tony Visconti.

“Berlin was an entire city frozen in time. A hell of a situation to find an amazing recording studio in.”

“The hardest thing is getting to people, and we were fortunate in two ways,” admits Stevens. “First, Hansa attracts such attention to all that have been there, as it has been part of a monumental period in their lives, so once you get past the labels and management, they all responded. Second, I still have a lot of contacts in the music business, so that made life slightly easier, as well! [laughs] “I remember I asked Martin [Gore] how much he remembers about his career in general, and it was very strange; he said, ‘I don’t remember all that much, as it was very intense, but I remember Hansa in incredible detail.’ So everyone jumped on that. I was surprised also when Michael Stipe said late on that he wanted to be involved. We had to travel to Denmark to get anywhere near him, but he was very keen, and it was worth it.”

The film captures one particularly touching scene where Stipe calmly says: “You can wonder, is the spirit of the people who recorded these fantastic, incredible, life-altering, transformative songs or moments - is that imbued in the wood, in the grain of the fabric of the place? [pauses] Maybe...”

It’s a ‘hairs up on the back of your neck’ moment, for sure. And he’s not the only one who felt the Hansa ‘aura’. Producer, Flood, described the place as ‘as much an instrument as any guitar, drum, or synth’. Indeed.

The story Christie was originally going to tell would be focused on Bowie, but around this time, Sound City had not long come out, and it suddenly became very clear to him that Hansa was the real elephant in the room.

“It’s the most interesting recording studio that has ever existed,” he insists. “Berlin wasn’t just about the Wall, it was an entire city frozen in time, and the affect it had on people when they went there, to lose themselves, to find themselves. A hell of a situation to find an amazing recording studio in.”

A Labour of Love

It’s not unusual in TV for people to direct and produce their films – but considering the hours Christie personally put into this film, was it not a bit of a headache at times?

“It really wasn’t, because it was such a passion project, so it didn’t bother me that I was in the edit suite at 2am; there was an incredible following wind pushing us along the whole time,” he smiles. “I was also executive producer, as my company made the film, and we did the whole thing from start to finish in less than five months, which is a bit mad for a project of this size. I was actually filming up until three weeks before I’d finished the edit, which is ridiculous!

“Credit to the studio, because the production in itself had a lot of challenges, and is more experimental than it appears on the surface. I knew we had to communicate a sense of being in the building, and being in Berlin, and hopefully that comes across.”

It does – I felt like I’d spent an hour and a half in the studio after watching it, in fact.

“And aren’t we lucky that it survived, and didn’t get turned into restaurants and a hotel?

It’s only because the Miesel family and the

Hansa label and publishing was so successful that it didn’t matter that it was effectively mothballed for the ‘90s. They took over when it was doing barely anything, then everyone fell in love with it again.

“There is always something quite timeless about studios. Hansa was Tardis-like: the studio two hall and live room - even though it isn’t a studio anymore - you know that great art was made in it. And the studio one mix room hasn’t changed; when you look at the Depeche Mode archive, and the shots we took in the mix room, it’s the same stripy soundproofing on the walls!”

And what a fitting end to the movie – Gaz and Danny of Supergrass, both of whom have recorded here also, got together with Tony Sales and let rip into Lust For Life.

“And they genuinely hadn’t rehearsed it! I was talking to Danny Goffey about the drum sound in Lust For Life, so up until a few days before, we were just going to try and recreate that, and then it expanded. There is something wonderfully circular about going back to your roots, and to cut direct to disc – which is what they did in true Emile Berliner fashion – well, you can’t go any further back can that, can you? One quick run through, then one take, and that is what you see in the film.”

And all smiles while doing so. What’s not to smile about, after all? Headliner urges you to check out Hansa Studios: By the Wall 19761990 – it’s a must-see for any music fan. @HansaMovie

13 Headliner

SUPERGRASS, SCHTICK & OTHER STORIES 01 Headliner

Today, I’m sat with Danny Goffey, founding member of Supergrass, drummer, and singer-songwriter. He’s been working on his second solo album, Schtick, which drops in a few weeks, and he also featured in the Hansa Studios documentary that Headliner has covered in this issue.

Before I try and convince him to get the band back together, I’m keen to find out about his experiences in Berlin, and whether the rumours about late night drinking sessions with Gloria Gaynor are indeed true.

Words Paul Watson

I

t seems unthinkable that Supergrass formed 25 years ago. I also think they’re remarkably underrated. After signing to Parlophone in ‘94, their first album, I Shoud Coco, became the biggest selling debut album for the label since The Beatles’ Please Please Me, for example. The Oxford four-piece followed that up with a string of excellent albums, which for me, got more creative and brilliant as the band itself grew momentum – if you’re not au fait, have a listen to Life On Other Planets, Diamond Hoo Ha, and their self-titled 1999 offering. We start chatting a little about Mike Christie’s epic music documentary, Hansa Studios: By the Wall 1976-1990, in which Goffey and fellow bandmate, Gaz Coombes, feature in.

“Watching the whole thing condensed, you just get a real appreciation of what’s happened and gone on in there,” says Goffey.

“We knew when we went there to record Diamond Hoo Ha [in 2008] that it was really steeped in history, but because no-one was really using it at the time, it felt that we were making something new. I didn’t realise we were kind of the first band to help to get the studio functioning again properly, and it was down to Michael Ilbert, who mixed the album we did previously (Road to Roeun) – Mick [Quinn, Supergrass bassist] was chatting to him a lot at the time, and he suggested we went there to do the next record.”

Unsurprisingly, the experience was one to remember. The studio’s history in itself would see to that. But the Supergrass boys got seriously into it on a whole other level.

“The first couple of weeks, we stayed in Kluisberg,” Goffey recalls.

“We were on the next street along from where Bowie and Iggy Pop lived, so we really got into the history, and tried to do the whole thing properly, you know?”

In the film, Goffey and Gaz Coombes are involved in, for me, the

best part of the whole thing: the epic finale, which sees them team up with Iggy’s bassist, Tony Sales, to perform an off the cuff version of Lust For Life – in the same room it was originally recorded, and direct to vinyl. That must have been quite something...

“Yeah, the unfortunate thing is, we were staying the night before, and I hadn’t seen Gaz for a few months, so we had a lot of catching up to do,” Goffey says, with a chuckle. “Mike put us up in this little hotel, and we got really pissed, because we had both been so busy.

We stayed up until 4am drinking, but didn’t realise we’d got this 8am call to go in! So we were suffering quite a lot that day going into the studio! But when we saw all the gear set up, we thought, ‘fuck it, let’s have a go’. Looking back on it, I wasn’t getting the drum beat quite right, so if I’d properly researched it, and tried to recreate it, it might have been a bit better. Then again, it’s one of those things... When stuff like this happens in music, it’s often more fun to do and to watch, as there is no chance of it going stale.”

Agreed. Must have been fun to do it half-cut. It was a particularly cool experience for Goffey on a personal level, as the drum sound on the original track is his favourite ever drum sound: “It’s the most exciting, invigorating sound when it comes in,” he enthuses. “From the age of 15, we used to listen to it a lot, so to have the chance to play with the guy on the record was really a case of, ‘come on man, we have got to do this’.”

In the film, Michael Stipe, in particular, suggests that there is a serious vibe happening there. Would Goffey agree?

“Yeah, I think in the main room – the big hall – definitely. When we recorded there [with Supergrass], we didn’t record in that hall, though; and that day for the film recording, we were in the room where Lust For Life was recorded, but it was a separate little studio bit. I do remember Tony saying it was pretty similar to how it Headliner 15 Headliner 02

“I look back now and appreciate it more than I probably did at the time.” was back in the day, it was just a bit more of a clangy room before, whereas there is now sound treatment and soundproofing. But he remembered it, and got some tingles and vibes going, for sure.

“But the main room is the one that gets you; it’s decorated really amazingly, and it’s kind of awe-inspiring. We were in Studio Two for the Supergrass recording - it’s equally impressive in its own right, though, just more like a cavernous labyrinth up there.”

I ask a little more about the Diamond Hoo Ha sessions, which I discover were pretty rock and roll, with a touch of extra curricular old school disco thrown in for good measure.

“We used to play until midnight or 1am, then walk back to Kluisberg,” Goffey smiles. “And on the way back, there was this really good railway train carriage that had been converted into a ‘70s cocktail bar. It was perfect. We could just go back and listen to some Gloria Gaynor, and have some cocktails. It just made the experience that little more soothing!”

From Gloria Gaynor to fellow Oxonians, Radiohead. Both bands were represented by Bryce Edge and Chris Hufford at Courtyard Management – also Oxford-based – but Supergrass were the younger and, well, more mental, within the camp. A 17-year-old me once visited Courtyard - the studio where Radiohead recorded High & Dry. It was just before OK Computer came out – and my band were fans of both Supergrass and Radiohead in equal measure. I asked Edge: ‘what are they like?’ His response: ‘Radiohead like museums, Supergrass love drinking’. Has much changed? “[laughs] They had their moments... Colin [Greenwood] is a good drinker, but they were also a little bit older than us, and yes, we were a bit more mental at that time,” Goffey admits.

“Today, we do a bit of both... A nice beer in a museum cafe, maybe? [smiles]” 16 Headliner

With Gloria Gaynor on in the background?

“Obviously...”

I ask Goffey if he misses the Supergrass days.

The guys are still good mates, of course, but isn’t it difficult making that transition from spending all day every day playing music to... Well, not doing that? “[pauses]... The thing is, as a songwriter – because I wrote a lot of the songs in the band with Gaz and Mick – it just took me a few years to get my head around what I should be doing after the band,” Goffey reflects. “I was so bored for a while, I even went on Celebrity Master Chef! It took me a while to get the confidence, I think, and then I realised I wanted to put out my own songs, as I believed in my songs.

I would also still quite like to do some more material with Supergrass; I’ve got a load of stuff.

I think Gaz has got to get more into it, and maybe at some point we’ll do some stuff.”

Excellent news! Good to know that some bands can stick together for decades and more.

Not much chance of any new bands having a similar success the way the industry is today, wouldn’t you agree?

“I suppose it’s just a lot easier to drift and collaborate these days, as there is so much more going on. Before, it was your little gang, but now a lot of it is filtered through, and it’s really easy to work with other people, or to get on the phone and go online and say ‘come down here, I’ve got a project idea’, and people can woo you with this kind of thing,” Goffey says. “When we started, that wasn’t really going on. But yeah, we lasted over 15 years, and I do look back now and appreciate it more than I probably did at the time; there is a certain magic that happens with people that is very hard to find, and even when things are not going as well as they have been, or people aren’t talking, it’s easy to lose sight of what that magic was. When you get it, you have to try and nurture it.”

I ask if Supergrass always recorded in big

studios with budget, or was it less rock and roll?

“We never really did anything too outrageously rock and roll, as in trashing budgets; we did our first two albums in Sawmills in Cornwall, quite a remote beautiful place, and perfect for us at the start,” Goffey explains. “We could be as mental as possible, and no-one would hear us! [laughs] It was a cute studio with a medium sized live room, and small control room - perfect for us.

“Then we did some work at Rockfield, and we did bits and bobs on our own – at Gaz’s family barn in Normandy we did Road to Rouen. But we never really did an Abbey Roadtype, centrally located session in a city, aside from Hansa. I would have been more up for that, doing an 11am til 10pm session in a big London studio, but because we were all Oxfordbased at the start, we picked somewhere we could all just go to.”

Tell me a bit about your new record, Schtick.

“It’s out in May. I did a soft release in January of Ancient Text – which is about the ridiculous rules of religion, and the consequences of that in the modern age... it’s a bit mad! I just don’t think anyone really sings about stuff like that,” he says. “But all the songs I write are hooky actual songs with verses and lyrics.

“Two years ago, I released Take Your Jacket Off & Get Into It – there is a song on there called Race of Life, which I did a great video for, with my son miming to the song. This album takes on a pretty similar vibe.”

I’m looking forward to hearing it. As I bid Goffey farewell, he leaves me with this: “I grew up with a guy called Paul Watson, one of my best friends... Lived in Maidenhead, near Slough. It’s probably not you... Is it?”

No comment.

@DannyGoffey

In the Studio

Danton Supple

DANTON SUPPLE

Be it his work with U2, Coldplay, Morrissey, Starsailor, Ed Harcourt, or something completely different, the one constant has always been keeping things real, and fresh.

There are no ‘rules’ to this music production game, Danton Supple tells Headliner, and the more diverse your day to day studio work is, the more rewarding it will become.

Today, Danton Supple flits between Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch and Beethoven Street Studios in Queens Park, the latter of which is one of those classic facilities that survived the studio crash.

“I do far more at Beethoven Street than I anticipated; it’s one that has lasted as a building, as opposed to everyone else disappearing. Studios have literally been decimated, haven’t they?,” opens Supple.

He has a point. It was at SARM where the Grammy-nominated producer trained during the ‘80s, alongside Trevor Horn - a legendary studio which, inevitably, is being turned into apartments. I ask Supple about his journey in.

“I had no plans of coming into music, but I went out with a girl whose uncle worked for the BBC radiophonic workshop, and he had studios in Hammersmith; I went to see the place, and he was writing theme tunes for Doctor Who and The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Supple recalls. “But the concept of studios was a new world for me, and here I was in a place full of technology and music...

And the lifestyle appealed! I was very aware

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of production without being aware of what it was at the time, so I looked into that, and in those days, there was one course you could do at college – Tonmeister – but I didn’t have grade 8 in music, although I had the physics and the maths, so I looked into finding out ways to get a job somewhere in a studio and work my way up.”

Supple was soon taken on by Strongroom, and during this period, was introduced to a producer from SARM: “It was 1986, I think, right at the start [of my career] - and one of Trevor’s guys had come to that studio and said SARM was the place to go; it was pioneering, and had so many hits coming out of it; it also had a huge budget for technology.”

That was Supple’s launchpad for four years of audio training, and he never looked back.

“I then went to Westside Studios with Alan [Winstanley] and Clive [Langer], engineering those sessions, which was really great training, as I was doing loads of drum kits, day in, day out,” he says. “If you could record bands well, you could work. I’d done dance music at

SARM for three years, and then moving onto acoustic instruments fused nicely as experience for me when I was to go freelance.”

Supple feels very fortunate to have worked with such a diverse range of producers as well as artists (Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite being just two more legends that ease into that category).

“It’s definitely helped me get to where I am today – and I am so glad not to be stuck working in one genre, because a lot of the time, I love the diversity,” Supple explains.

“Over the last 30 years, it’s been a mix of guitars, American folk, and full-on female pop, so that diversity keeps me as interested as I was, all those years ago.”

I ask Supple if he still gets involved in any projects as engineer – apparently only once in the last 20 years, with the notorious mad genius that is Phil Spector. And what an experience that was..!

“They wanted someone with experience, and I’d seemed to get a name for dealing with awkward bands by this point, which is perhaps why the Phil thing came up,” Supple smiles.

In the Studio

Danton Supple

“There is a very narrow bandwith of music in major labels now; it’s pretty much all R&B and hip hop...”

Was he as barking mad as one would assume?

“Oh yeah, bonkers! It was amazing working with such a legend, and I had a fun time with him, but it was indescribable... [pauses] Like a cross between working with a stand-up, and your grandad after too many drinks at Christmas..! But we got things done!”

Unfortunately, Spector was arrested for murder during the sessions...

“Yeah, we were still on the project, so that was a bizarre one,” Supple says. Moving on...

In the Studio

One thing Supple loves about his job today is the amount of travel it now involves.

“There is a very narrow bandwidth of music in major [labels] now; it’s pretty much all R&B and hip hop, which is not a world I normally compete in, but there are lots of ways of financing other music today, and the world is a different place for the business,” he insists. “In the last few months, for example, I have been in Colombia, Slovenia, Greece, and Cuba – all fun places to be, and to be working.

Colombia in particular was a real eye opener.”

At Strongroom, Supple works mainly in the box, but also has a fantastic Calrec analogue console. He has his trusted Genelec 1031s and a pair of NS10s, but recently, the studio invested in a pair of the new Genelec 8351s, which have upped the monitoring ante somewhat.

“A lot of the time, I am bouncing up and down, volume wise, on the 1031s – quiet listening and cranking, to get the dynamics; the NS10s were the workhorse, but not anymore. Mostly, it’s the 1031s.

“Then I was introduced to Genelec’s new 8351s – which are kind of bizarre looking... ‘where’s the tweeter?’ But I have found them to be fantastic. The 1031s are so familiar, but the new ones have boosted it further with more detail still, to the extent that when I went back to my 1031s, I was in a better place than I would have been on the 1031s alone. I found that very interesting.”

Supple has worked on the 8351s a lot now, and has moved his 1031s into his production room: “I am really enjoying them, and there is such good detail within them. I don’t have a crazy EQ going on, but there is a subtle little tweak to it - and they also have the 1031 character - but I applied a very small bit of bottom end lift in the room, so we didn’t have to use a subwoofer. I didn’t want one in there: it annoyed the neighbours with any EDM stuff, so that was a good reason to get the sub out! And with these speakers, I really don’t need one. I did with the 1031s, but not now.

People also tried them out when I wasn’t in the studio, and they became very popular, so Strongroom bought them.”

Supple feels there is a definite new depth to

the sound of the new monitors, which helps all round: “On reverbs in particular, they’re great; and in the top end, it’s so much clearer and defined; it’s definitely pushing things forward.

You also get the rewarding ‘level’ without having to drive them too hard. It just makes sense all the way up, as you don’t need them at a certain volume to make them do what they do.”

Analogue Domain

There is also plenty of old valve gear in Supple’s mixing environments, ‘churning out the heat’: “I love my Chandler TG1 – that thing is brilliant. I’ve had it 10 years, and that’s because it’s either mental, or can be quite subtle. I tend to use it in mental mode for parallel compression, or if I don’t know what to do with something, this can take my mind somewhere else with the sound. The unit can inspire you, as well as look after stuff, so for me, it’s a ‘shake my mind up’ tool a lot of the time. I like to run it with the Total Harmonic Distortion on, so it has this kind of warming effect. I use it a hell of a lot.”

Although he loves his Calrec console, he uses it today more for summing, as in the box is where it has to be at, so to speak: “It takes me forever to do a studio recall on my Calrec! [laughs] And it’s actually an

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“On reverbs in particular, the Genelec 8351s are great; and in the top end, it’s all so much clearer and defined.” an A&R thing, too: people aren’t prepared for the analogue recalls, or to wait for very long at all!

“The Calrec desk has stereo channels on the right, like a summing mixer, with half a dozen stereo outputs from Pro Tools. I love the EQ on it, and just being able to get four pairs of stems on the desk, to hear it a little bit more open. I also think the summing out of Pro Tools in general sounds so much better than it used to.

“Then I use a bit of tape simulation. I spent half my career on tape, so I understand people’s yearning for it, and it’s a fun medium, but it’s also very frustrating at times! People that want to work on tape often haven’t ever worked on tape, and there is a reason for that!

What about plugins, then?

“I use Waves and UAD in equal measures: I really like the [Waves] Dangerous EQ; I’ll have that over a mix doing very little at all, but I tend to use that as a go-to.

“Also, I love the API2500 – which I have the hardware version of - but I really like the Waves version, so I use that a lot. Although I am pretty much in the box these days, I will bring the mix up and run some parallels to it -

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everything from the Thermionic Culture Vulture to the TG1 – to do some different types of compression to see what they do to what I have already got, really. I also like the Manley Summit levelling amp, that’s very cool.”

Analogue Domain

Two artists that Supple has recently been working with are singer-songwriter, David Boone, and New York popster, Sasha Siem.

Both are very different artists and projects, which suits Supple just fine.

“With David, I just received demos acoustic guitar and vocal. It was not the greatest recording, but there was something about them that I loved, so we went out to an empty house in Montana, took a bunch of mics and guitars, and put down the rest of the album,” he explains. “It wasn’t overly zealous when we came to production; in London, I tidied it up, added bits and pieces, and then I mixed it here, too. We had Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam play bass on some of the tracks; so did Pete Wilkinson of Echo & the Bunnymen and Cast – so that’s been great, and is literally coming out now.”

What about working with Sasha?

“Yeah, this is a very different approach – a real pop album from this cool girl from New York,” Supple explains. “She has a young guy programming some pretty amazing beats, and different people playing different parts on it, and a lot of it was done very remotely.

“The guitars and stuff I did in London, the rest I was getting sent, tweaking, and sending back. Two projects: one big Americana rock act, one young pop girl; so the diversity was great. And as I say, that is what I love about still doing this job.

“It would be great to get something I produced mixed by other people, but there is a kind of expectation from people you work with, and it works nicely for budgets if I can mix it also. But it would be nice to do that someday. Saying that, there is a satisfaction to doing everything yourself, baking the whole cake, so to speak! [smiles]” And we’re pretty sure Supple will keep that eclectic apron on for some time yet. www.genelec.com www.waves.com www.chandlerlimited.com

“I explored every option, but time and again found myself pulled back towards the sound of the Horus�

Jack Ruston, MPG Breakthrough Engineer Nominee

Horus and Hapi converters you deserve merging.com

CATHERINE MARKS: UK PRODUCER OF THE YEAR I feel very blessed that on International Women’s Day, I was able to interview recent MPG Award-winner for UK Producer of the Year, Catherine Marks.

She’s become the poster girl in the music industry for this shift we have seen globally to be more supportive, and to acknowledge the women who excel in male-dominated professions.

However, I am rather wary of asking questions to do with being a woman in the industry: on the one hand, highlighting ‘female’ such-and-such with an overzealous display of support can separate rather than include; but on the other, I think we need to re-address the balance we must shout about: acknowledge and support women’s successes and achievements.

Words Yerosha

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I

THINK IT’S PRETTY INTERESTING, BECAUSE IT’S A conversation,” opens Catherine Marks.

“I don’t know that anyone has definitive answers - or at least I don’t - but the fact that we are having the conversation at all, and that the men are involved, feels really positive to me.

“Ultimately, what we are after is equality across the board. I do wonder if it’s because women, due to social conditioning, have felt like it’s not an option. But if we celebrate all the women who are kicking arse in these fields, then maybe that will inspire the next generation of women to be involved. All around the world, it doesn’t matter what industry, there will always be mistreatment of women, of human beings even, but that’s a separate issue altogether.”

Given the #MeToo campaign of 2017, it was very apparent that the misogyny ingrained in some industries and individuals affects the vast majority of women either directly, or experienced by those in their circles. I ask Marks if she herself has had to deal with any such incidents?

“It’s so hard, and makes me so angry. I haven’t necessarily experienced it, but I know some women who have, and I just don’t understand why it still exists. My opinion keeps changing, the more I learn, and the more I speak to people,” she says. “Even 10 years ago, the acceptability of a woman

having a career and a family wasn’t what it should have been. Olga FitzRoy is an amazing recording engineer who is campaigning for equal paternity leave; and just because we are having this conversation, things are starting to change.

Obviously we are not 100% there yet.”

Goddess Worship

I’ve heard phrases such as ‘The Year of the Woman’, and though heartwarming, it all seems slightly bizarre. What does Marks make of it all?

“It’s sort of heightened and magnified at the moment, the ‘yay, women!’ attitude, because it’s escalated exponentially; but it’s what we asked for,” she reflects. “We can’t choose how it looks at the moment, and it will become less of an issue, and just be the norm. But it’s been going on for decades, so it’s not like it just happened overnight. I do think, though, that women have been very competitive with other women in the past, but now that’s changing, as well. Women are seen to be celebrating each other more.

“The sexism that I experienced when I first started was actually from other women assuming I was in this position because I was sleeping with someone. I was talking to Laura Marling a couple years ago on a podcast, and she called it ‘Goddess Worship.’

We laughed at how hippy it sounded, but it’s

Catherine Marks UK Producer of the Year

“Having an understanding of musicianship definitely helps.” totally apt! Everything feels nuts at the moment: globally, economically, politically. I don’t know if it’s just me becoming more aware of it with age, or that there is a legitimate mega shift in the world. It’s fascinating, but it also makes me very anxious, as it’s so overwhelming.

At the same time, Marks says she did feel very welcome coming up in the music industry.

“The attitude of most people was, ‘it’s really awesome, there’s finally a woman!’ So in a way, I actually felt special rather than hindered. In the early days, definitely producers like Ben Hillier, Dimitri Tikovoï, Dave McCracken, Alan Moulder, and Flood encouraged me, and took the time, and had the patience to teach me, but also pulled me up when I’d done something wrong. They did it with lots of other assistants and engineers, too; they are just good people.

And the Music Producers Guild are incredibly supportive. They really get that equality and diversity is very important in a creative industry.

“It’s genuine, and not just because its super cool right now to champion women. They’ve been doing it a long time, and as long as I can remember, they’ve been incredibly supportive of me, and encouraging to other women. It’s heartening to know that there is this great community within the MPG that is really supportive of women and each other. Maybe I’m looking at it very idealistically, but that is genuinely how I feel about it.”

Starting Out

Growing up in Australia, but now working and living in the UK, Marks started off her career in music as legendary producer, Flood’s assistant.

How did that happen, exactly?

“I have a masters degree in architecture, and I had been working for six months in a firm in Ireland when I met Flood at a Nick Cave

concert at the Olympia in Dublin. He laughed at me for getting the lyrics wrong to a song, and we’ve been friends ever since!

“I didn’t understand at the time that he was a producer, or what that meant, but I knew that he worked in music, and that was something I was interested in. The architecture firm I was working for was very supportive, but we all thought I’d last six months - and it’s been 13 years now!”

Working with Flood who is known for his work with U2, Sigur Rós, Nine Inch Nails, and Depeche Mode amongst others, must have been rather daunting. Does Marks still remember her first session working as his assistant?

“I remember it very clearly! I just remember sucking, being really rubbish, but not knowing what I was doing wrong. Getting thrown in at the deep end is always the best way to learn.”

The Process

I ask Marks what tends to happen once she has been given an artist’s demo, in terms of turning it into a full production.

“I enjoy working with the live energy and interaction of the players in the band, so the rehearsal stage is really important; in fact, it’s where a lot of the problems get solved,” she explains. “We deal with the detail: for example, comparing the way the guitarist strums, to what the drum groove is doing; and whether they support each other, or how the riding drum patterns support the vocal rhythm, or vice versa.

It’s about finding the details that strengthen what already exists.

“Sometimes an artist comes to me with a spark of an idea that feels really exciting, and then I help them flesh it out, and that happens in rehearsal. That usually involves me lying on the floor throwing out ideas and getting them to

play, which they then can live with, and resolve the ideas in the way that they would naturally do it, rather than me saying ‘do this, do that.”

And how does she express these ideas?

“I am classically trained on piano, and I can play a little bit now. Occasionally, I’ll start playing something, and then one of the people in the band will take over and play it infinitely better. Having an understanding of musicianship definitely helps.”

Are there any specific templates that Marks works with, or is every project different?

“Because I came into it without any real technical understanding, and the people that I learnt from were quite maverick in their approach, I sort of learnt that the rule is, there are no rules; it’s whatever feels right, and I don’t get it right all the time, but we do get there eventually.”

Marks is credited as co-producer/producer, as well as mixing engineer on a lot of her work; both quite different disciplines. When she’s spent so much time producing, I ask her if she struggles hearing it from a fresh perspective?

“Sometimes I really want someone else to mix the production, but also I have to trust that I’ve recorded it the way I want it to sound. It will be getting that extra 10-30% when mixing just to make it bigger, brighter, more sparkly, and not having to reinvent the wheel. But sometimes projects do need that,” she reveals. “I work hard with the band while recording to get it how we want it. It might be just making the kick a bit punchier, brightening up guitars, or clearing away any mud that might exist.

“If I’m mixing a project that I’m producing, it’s a fluid process. But also, there are no rules to mixing, as well. When I start to think, ‘oh this is what should happen’, it often takes away what was good about the track in the first place.”

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“It’s heartening to know that there is this great community within the MPG that is really supportive of women...”

Mixing Stage

So what about when Marks has been brought in to work some mixing magic on a project she hasn’t actually produced herself?

“I start with everything in, big broad strokes, and really reference the rough mix. When it’s someone else’s production, they’ve instinctively spent a lot of time on the balances, which gives a good indication on how it should be,” she explains. “I’ll then solo the drums, and the vocal, and then I’ll gradually add in the rest. I listen from the start a lot, as well, as you need to understand the journey of the song.”

I ask Marks if she believes in getting as close to a one-take-wonder as possible, or if she is happy to comp to get the sound she’s after?

“It’s a bit of both. I definitely have a reputation for making people do it ‘one more time’ when actually it’s like, the 25th take,” she laughs, “but often I’ll comp in between takes if it needs it. I do like having what I call ‘the base take,’ where overall it’s great, and the one you comp into. There might be mistakes, or the mistakes are really cool from another take, and you want to bring that in, but again, it’s got to be about the flow of the song. The way a band pushes and pulls against each other will vary from take to take. Sometimes I’ll hit record, and the click isn’t even going, and they’re just rehearsing, and that might end up being the one.”

Over the years, Marks has worked with predominately guitar music; bands such as The Big Moon, Wolf Alice, and The Wombats. Is it a choice, or does it just so happen that she’s fallen into that particular genre?

“It totally happened by accident. I definitely did not expect to be working with guitar music, but I do love rock and roll now, that is for sure!

There are a few solo female artists that are doing really beautiful things that I’ve been talking to, however. That’s exciting to me, because it’s not necessarily heavy guitar riffs. I love a challenge, and to constantly learn.”

Half the battle in any creative field is to know when you have finished, and are happy with the end result. Who does Marks go to, for feedback?

“I always want the band around, and I like input from management and A&R, as well; it is a collaboration, and everyone has their input, and we work together to get it to be the best it can be. Alan Moulder’s studio is down the corridor from mine, and often we’ll pop into each other’s rooms, or I’ll run and go, ‘I’m having trouble with this; can you come in and have a listen?’ He either says, ‘sounds great’, or ‘why don’t you try this?’ It’s nice having feedback from someone like him.

“I like unexpected, quirky, and weird sounds,” Marks continues. “I have this rainbow sparkle sound which is usually something that is stealthily sitting in the high end frequencies, either melodic or distorted, which you

don’t notice, but it’s doing a lot of work. When recording pianos, I like them to not sound too perfect; I prefer capturing the squeaks of the pedals and the hammers - stuff like that. I also like collaborations; I worked with Mark Crew on The Wombats’ record. He has such a different approach to me, and working with another unshackles your ideas, and opens your mind a little bit more to other ways of doing things.”

There are a few instruments that Marks always loves to record: “I love a Les Paul. I feel like even if you just wanted a single note, a Twin Peaks-style pluck, it’ll sound beautiful, no matter who is playing it.

A Juno-60 is also great, and I’d say drums are fair game; I feel it’s very dependent on the player. I love the Audio Kitchen amps because they are really flexible, and you don’t have to crank them up to get a really full rich sound. And a JC-120 with the chorus on really adds width and depth.”

Marks also has a cool approach to drum recording: “On drums, my go-to is close miking, but I also like having a lot of different room mics spotted around with various different compressions that I can manipulate. Maybe using an interesting mic in between the kick and the snare, heavily compressed, and EQed differently; that one mic might become the sound of the drums rather than it being super clean and precise. I want to get character when I’m recording because that’s what everyone’s reacting to; they’re playing to that sound. I really love a Shure SM57 - perhaps not the most glamorous of microphones, but I’ve used them ever since I first started, and they are such reliable workhorses.”

I ask Marks what her mixing setup is, and what her go-to kit is: “At the moment, I’m using a Fat Bustard summing mixer, firstly because of the simplicity of working the mix into it, but also its simplicity of use, and the way it colours the sound. There is something really human about the Thermionic Culture products; they can be subtle and transparent, but also completely expressive and brutal. I use an Obsidian compressor, a Massive Passive stereo EQ, and a Vac Rac EQ to run the mix through.

“I have so many favourite mic pres, but Chandler’s TG2 is something I always end up using. I do end up driving it pretty hard, but I love that it allows that. I love it on the bass amp and DI. “I tend not to use too many plugins, but I love the Waves RVox and RBass; I end up using these ones by default. The RVox gives a thickness to a vocal without even altering the settings, and RBass on a bass guitar or kick allows you to compress and push certain frequencies in the low end.”

Let’s hope Marks continues to impress - we’re pretty sure she will..!

@cjmarks

Toolbox VoxDoubler

“Does an astonishingly good job of double-tracking vocals.”

Computer Music

Oxford

Dynamic EQ

“A serious working tool that combines ease of operation with exceptional sound quality."

Sound On Sound

Paloma Faith

The Architect Tour

A FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION Paloma Faith is one of Britain’s best loved songstresses. She also cares about her sound more than most, which we can vouch for personally after being treated to a full soundcheck experience with her at the O2 Arena show last month.

Words Paul Watson It’s been another great year for Paloma Faith. The Architect is her fourth studio album, and probably her best yet: a fusion of big beats, soaring vocals, and layered melodies, with some very nice production techniques courtesy of Jesse Shatkin, the man responsible for Sia’s epic record, 1000 Forms of Fear.

Now Paloma and co. are touring The Architect - and her production team, 24/7, are travelling pretty light, to say the least: remarkably, of the seven touring trucks, just one is required to transport all of the audio kit - and there’s still room for more. This is not normal...

“We’ve managed to get an entire Coda Audio arena system in there - and I don’t mean just the AiRAY speakers,” smiles front of house engineer, Andy Williamson. “We have subs on dollies, and fills strapped to them, so we don’t have to move them, plus all the rigging, and amps, and cables, all flat-packed in a 45 truck, with eight foot of

26 Headliner

space still to play with – I honestly couldn’t believe it when I saw it!”

The full Coda Audio system is vast and varied: 112 boxes in total, powered by 52 LINUS10 amplifiers, and configured as follows: two main hangs of 11 AiRAY, eight ViRAY, and four SC2s; and two side hangs of 11 AiRAY, eight ViRAY, with 18 SCP subs positioned left, right, and centre in blocks of six. PA control was achieved via two LM44s and two LM26s with a LiNet digital returns system and an analogue backup.

When Williamson first heard this Coda system, he was entirely blown away by the bottom end: “My first impression was that the subs were phenomenal; I have never heard one like it, to be honest, especially nowadays, where the trend with engineers seems to be a thumping low end all night long - which I have never liked. I have always said, if you want low end, add it on the desk,” he explains.

“The Coda system sounds like a huge hi-fi;

it goes up super quick, and goes down super quick; and the fact it takes up so little truck space means it’s a winner right away, but because it just sounds phenomenal, it’s a real double whammy!”

It was during production rehearsals that Williamson started to realise just how strong and transparent this Coda system was: “It was just so tight, and it didn’t feel like there was a lot of low end in the room...

Until you walked out! [laughs] I was like, ‘Jesus, this is punchy’. Paloma’s MD, who is a Grammy-winning engineer, sat next to me and said he had never heard low end on a system like it in his life - and I was absolutely the same.

“Also, at those rehearsals, and all the gigs ever since, I have not taken any high end above 4k out of this system – and normally I am taking sibilance out early, around 5k.

Not once have I had to do that, and that is something I have never not done, especially on this size gig,” he reveals. “I found what I was

Paloma Faith

The Architect Tour

“Paloma’s MD said he had never heard low end on a system like it in his life, and I was the same...” doing was taking off high end I had added on other systems, because this Coda system is so clean. It also makes you a better engineer, as suddenly, you can hear everything you do.

“I have done things at shows, such as pushing a frequency up 2dB to see if it made a difference, and I’ve looked across at James [Coghlan, system tech], and he has heard it right away. So yeah, it’s really responsive, and the subs are super-fast.”

Coghlan - who works at leading tour provider, Adlib Audio - has had this Coda system out on three tours so far (The Script, Enter Shikari, now Paloma), and says every time, it’s been a fantastic speaker cabinet to use. Three very different sounding acts, too, which is very encouraging from a Coda perspective.

“Oh, all of our Coda boxes are out all the time,” Coghlan reveals. “It’s compact, it’s loud, and it sounds really nice, so it’s very popular.”

The system tech’s day begins around 9am, when he checks in with his tour rigger: “I make sure my points are in the right place, and I fly the system; then get out the Smaart rig at front of house to time align the mains to the sides, and the mains to the subs, and then all of the fills down at the front of

the stage,” he explains. “Then I’m back to front of house to do just a little bit of EQ to keep it flat in the HF region, with a low bump up on the low frequency to generate that impact you want in the live environment.”

Mixing Paloma

Mixing the Paloma show is no mean feat, it seems. The show’s channel count is at 75, which is broken down into drums and electronics, 20 lines of keys, guitars, vocals, and various drum triggers. The sheer size of the show meant a DiGiCo console was a must-have: “I could have done this on an SD5, but we’re using that on monitors, so I’m on an SD7; and I have to say, this show really is an exercise in chopping,” Williamson says, with a smile. “There is that much going on, it had to be a DiGiCo - and I have a comedy amount of Waves plugins on here, too. I have to use dynamic compression across the whole thing, and all the tracks are cut to hell; it’s a bit of a noisy jigsaw, really, but it works great, and these consoles are always super-reliable.”

Williamson has been a DiGiCo user for many years, and is a fan of the overall ease of use and functionality within the console.

“I’m a big fan of the DiGiCo preamps, and for this show, I use snapshots on every song,” he explains. “I run simple MIDI program changes from my Mac, most of which are the usual: mutes, FX changes, level changes, and VCAs and faders; but I’m pretty hands-on with the console when it comes to Paloma and the backing vocalists, as she really is very dynamic.”

I ask a little about the array of Waves plugins in the Paloma chain.

“I love the Waves F6 - that’s your get out of jail free card, the Swiss Army knife of plugins,” Williamson insists. “I also use the Waves Abbey Road series, as well as the H-Verbs, and the API compressors. The SSL E-Channel I recently came back to, and thought it sounded fabulous - and for the BVs, the R-Comp is my go-to; it’s the plugin equivalent of the old dbx 160 - twist a few knobs, and job done.”

Paloma uses a DPA d:facto microphone, and Williamson recently decided to add the linear capsule, which he says has really helped the overall sound.

“She has a phenomenal voice - totally unique, and instantly recognisable, but she has such a lot of high mid in her voice, so the

27 Headliner

Paloma Faith

The Architect Tour

“The Coda system sounds like a huge hi-fi; it goes up super quick, it goes down super quick, and it takes up so little truck space...” linear head takes away all that presence, and has made a big difference all round.

“We did a bit of a mic shoot-out recently, using various models with different capsules, but we came back to the DPA, and she and I both agreed it just sounded way better. Getting the strings on top is the tough thing to do on this show, but Paloma has a thing about Phil Spector’s production - that wall of sound - and she’s got that.”

Improved Logistics

Duncan Ladkin has found transitioning from backline tech to stage manager a pretty smooth experience thanks to the professionalism of the whole team, and the tiny Coda Audio footprint.

“I see my role within stage management as not to annoy anyone, really,” he laughs. “It’s my job to get the skilled people - the audio and lighting guys - what they need to do their jobs well, and if I can do that, I am pretty happy.”

Ladkin is just as surprised as the rest of the team that only one truck was required for audio.

“One truck PA for doing the O2

28 Headliner

Arena?! But Coda’s AiRAY system just fits in, somehow,” he says. “I’ve come in during the morning during a PA load in, gone off to do something pretty quickly, come back, and the PA is already up - all of it! The amount of space we have is fantastic for budget purposes, and when [production company] 24/7 took over and first planned for Paloma’s arena tour, Coda was our first choice. The coverage is really good - and it doesn’t look like there is a lot of it, does there? But it’s just incredible.”

As was the sound during the show, which wasn’t such a surprise after witnessing soundcheck; that in itself sounded show quality, and once full, it was outstanding: loud, but not aggressive; fantastically punchy; and no audible distortion whatsoever, unlike so many shows we’ve been to at this venue.

Paloma was in fine voice, of course, and the front of house mix was right on the money sparkling in the highs, and rich in the bottom end. All in all, we’ll be hard pushed to find a better O2 experience than this in 2018. www.coadaudio.com www.digico.biz www.waves.com

SPITFIRE AUDIO

Cover Story

01 Headliner

DAVID GUETTA

Is David Guetta, one of the enduring leviathans of the dance music scene, about to embark on a career in underground techno, and leftfield dance music? That might sound faintly ludicrous to some people — the Parisian songwriter and producer has made his name, and millions, through releasing radio-friendly and night club-conquering tracks such as When Love Takes Over and Titanium. However, last summer, fellow French house producers, Justice, suggested that David releases ‘really, really good music under fake names.’ True or not, it’s an exciting idea — and as I chat to David, who turned 50 not too long ago, I get the sense throughout our conversation that he is leaning towards releasing more instrumental music, that doesn’t totally revolve around a big Justin Bieber chorus that tens of thousands of festival-goers can sing back.

Words Adam Protz Photographs Guerin Blask

D

avid Guetta has absolutely exploded into 2018, having released three new singles already, on the back of several others at the tail end of 2017, including the particularly excellent So Far Away with Martin Garrix.

His more recent singles have featured the likes of Sean Paul and Charli XCX. It’s his most recent record, Like I Do, which really gets us talking, though.

“You might be surprised by this one,” Guetta says, in his very French accent. “I didn’t do it for the radio, but a lot of radios are starting to play it in Europe.”

Like I Do is Guetta’s second collaborative effort with producer, Martin Garrix, and I notice from his discography that he’s been regularly making tracks with his fellow producers of late.

“Sometimes I like to work with people from a different field, that produce completely different music,” he says.

“Because you can learn from them. There’s always new sonic tricks, and a new approach.”

One thing’s for sure — all of Guetta’s recent output has seen great variety and contrast, partly thanks to working with such a plethora of singers such as Justin Bieber, Kiiara, and more.

“I think it’s a very interesting moment in music,” he tells me. “Because there was a moment where I started to suffer as a producer and DJ. When I started, I did this because I wanted to be free — not to obey orders. At the end of EDM, dance music became even more formatted than pop music.

“This was becoming a little painful, especially to me as a DJ. All the records were using the same sounds, most of the time even the same key! So many of these tracks were in F minor, because the bass sounded really good. As usual, when everybody is trying to milk a movement, it loses

its creativity, and then something else comes out of it. In the last two years, we’re at this moment where people are hungry for a new sound, and new production. It’s like the biggest moment of freedom for us, but a lot of us are scared, because there’s no formula right now.”

The way Guetta describes this creative crisis in dance music is almost intoxicating in its optimism.

“A lot of DJs feel lost and scared — I feel, ‘this is amazing!’ [smiles] This is the opportunity to try many things. I want to make people dance; that’s what I do as a DJ. But I’ve always listened to lots of styles of music. So for me to be able to experiment... I love it.”

Of course, we haven’t yet got into any specifics of what form that experimentation might take. With Justice suggesting he’s already putting out less commercial music, albeit secretly, it’s an enticing prospect.

“I’m going through an interesting phase,” Guetta explains.

“I just completed a European tour, and I played a lot of purely electronic music, which I was not doing anymore. I used to produce a lot of those beats when I was playing at the more underground places. It is where my heart is. It was really successful, and gave me motivation to start making some of those beats again on the road.

“This actually all started when I played at a warehouse in Brooklyn, in New York. I was like, ‘okay, I’m playing at a warehouse, I should play more deep house, some techno.

And it made me feel so happy to play like this. So I’m actually making beats like this again — and I’m not sure yet, but I might do another double album like I did with Nothing But The Beat, and have all the more electronic tracks on the second album.”

I ask Guetta if he feels that it’s actually tougher for someone like him to go down this route — seeing as he’s such a name brand, and known more for putting out dance

Headliner 31 Headliner 02

“The big sound is always going to influence other people, but when it’s everywhere, people get bored with it. So you have to reinvent yourself, which is such a huge challenge.” songs rather than dance music.

“No, I don’t care! [laughs] I always did what was making me happy,” he admits.

“When I started out, I was performing at underground clubs, playing deep house and underground music. I did this for years, and then wanted to do something different. So I started incorporating pop elements, which was completely new at the time. And this eventually became EDM! “But I didn’t do it because I had a masterplan for world domination. I did it because it was exciting for me to do something different. But now that everybody is doing it, it’s exciting for me to go back to doing the electronic beats! [laughs] I just want to have fun, and that’s why I chose this life. The only way to stay relevant is 32 Headliner

to do something you’re passionate about.”

With Guetta speaking about those times where he was unknown, and playing at tiny underground clubs in Paris, I ask if he ever compares those experiences to the festivals with 20,000 people with their hands in the air in unison, singing every lyric back to him.

“It’s just a different type of energy,” he declares. “I was one of the first to play house and techno music. Witnessing the first days of a new musical movement, and being part of it, is extraordinary, of course. Unfortunately, I can’t have this feeling anymore.”

You quickly get the sense of how Guetta has been in the dance music scene for so long, and how much he has shaped it.

“Every genre has an evolution,” he continues.

“The normal evolution is, it starts in the underground, then becomes a trend, and then becomes popular, and then becomes commercial music. That is the evolution of every musical genre in history! And it’s okay, you know? I was always the guy who wanted to share my passion with more people, so I’m not complaining!”

GETTING CREATIVE

Knowing that most budding producers and DJs would love to bask in David Guetta’s studio knowledge, I ask him which gear is rocking his world, at this present time.

“I’ve just got these huge JBL monitors — insane,” he says, with great enthusiasm. “For software, I use Ableton, like many others. I love it. I also use Logic, because people in my crew use Logic, so when I do collabs, I have to be able to swap sessions. But the one I really love to work with is Ableton.”

Plugins are vital in dance world, so I ask Guetta which ones he tends to use as go-tos.

“I love the Cableguys HalfTime plugin — you can do some super creative stuff with that,” he explains. “I also use their VolumeShaper for side chain. I’m loving Synth Avenger from Vengeance right now; other synths I’m using are Spire, Serum, Sylenth1, and Arturia — some amazing sounds. All of the FabFilter stuff, I absolutely love, too.”

One plugin David talks very glowingly about is the Oxford Limiter v3 from Sonnox.

“I think the Sonnox plugins are just incredible in terms of quality,” he says. “I use their Oxford v3 Limiter on a lot of my projects.

So what is left for David Guetta to do, having achieved so much already?

“It’s really about having fun,” he says. “Of course, I’ve asked myself so many questions, because of this evolution of dance music, and the panic. The big sound is always going to influence other people, and that’s nice; but when it’s everywhere, people get bored of it. So you have to reinvent yourself, which is such a huge challenge. I came to the conclusion that the only way to be creative is to do things that I’m having fun with. Like making this pop record with Sean Paul for the radio, but at the same time, making a track with Martin Garrix, which is completely DJ-orientated.

“That makes me happy. Not to think in terms of limitations, and not being scared of trying different things. Because otherwise, when you want to be safe, you’ll actually just create what’s commercially successful in the moment, which will only ever be okay. Not groundbreaking. I’m just trying to be creative.”

@davidguetta www.davidguetta.com

New from DiGiCo

SD12 SETTING A NEW STANDARD

Predictably Stunning In 2015, DiGiCo launched its compact S-Series, which boasted a modern workflow at an affordable pricepoint; last year, the whole SD Range became much more powerful thanks to the introduction of Stealth Core 2

Main Features

Software across the board; now, in DiGiCo’s 15th year,



72 input channels with full processing

meet the new and predictably stunning SD12.



36 aux/grp busses with full processing



LR / LCR bus & 12 x 8 Matrix

The new DiGiCo SD12 doesn’t just re-write the book on

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12 FX processors & 16 Graphic EQs

compact multi-application consoles, it simply rips it up

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119 Dynamic EQs, 119 Multiband Compressors, 119 DiGiTuBes

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Advanced surface connectivity with optional DMI cards



UB MADI & optional Optics

and starts again.

www.digico.biz DiGiCo UK Ltd. Unit 10 Silverglade Business Park, Leatherhead Road Chessington, Surrey KT9 2QL. Tel: +44 (0) 1372 845600

MIXING GORILLAZ

The Gorillaz story is a pretty amazing one. The ‘virtual’ band was the brainchild of Blur frontman, Damon Albarn, the idea being members would play behind the set, and let the visuals do the talking. Although that’s still its core, Gorillaz has evolved in a very big way. The musicians are now centre stage, there are horns players, a strings section, and always a very special guest star or two at every show. It’s become bigger, perhaps, than even Albarn himself could have ever predicted. There is a new album planned for 2018, with a different direction rumoured, and artwork to match. We go backstage with the two sound men that make everything tick.

M

ATT BUTCHER WORKS FRONT OF HOUSE for Gorillaz, and his relationship with Damon Albarn dates back to the Britpop era. He and his compatriot, Dave Guerin (monitor engineer), have a solid trust with the artist, and the whole crew has quite the family feel about it, he tells Headliner.

“I started with Damon after Parklife came out, so we go back a long way,” Butcher says. “Right at beginning of the year, for pre-production, we wanted to not compromise on any of the audio – and that’s the way to go: don’t mess around, do it right.

“So we spent a couple of weeks in rehearsals meticulously going through everything, then the band came in for a day, and we would spend the evening playing back what they’d done. At least once sober, then we’d run through it after a few cans of Stella, and make notes! [laughs] Because I have known Damon for so long, I can get quite involved, so I can suggest things he should try – it’s quite good leverage, because we have a good understanding of how each other works.”

From an audio perspective, this show is huge. The front of house and monitor consoles – both DiGiCo SD7s - are maxed out, plus there is an SD11B deployed just for the shout system.

“The SD11B is also there for monitoring for the playback and the keys tech,” Butcher

explains. “He can monitor off the Optoloop rather than the submix of something, so he can see all the individual channels off of the Optoloop. Furthermore, we have a [Waves] LV1 which the RF guy uses to monitor all his RF; that’s on a patch from the SD11 to get the channels to him.”

“We use the chat feature on the SD11 a lot, and with [RF engineer] Andy, too,” adds monitor engineer, Dave Guerin. “And having RF on the same loop means we can all text chat during the show, which is really useful, as in the middle of the gig you can’t always hear what they’re shouting.”

Some of those messages must get heated... “[smiles] Ah, the magic of the clear button,” laughs Butcher.

Stage Fright

The stage is equally as packed as the mixing consoles: in addition to Albarn, who’s on guitar and grand piano, there is a drummer, a percussionist, a bassist, guitarist, two keys players, six BVs, and for this London show, five ‘hypnotic’ and a five-piece string section.

Where to begin?!

“Yeah, since Demon Days, it’s got bigger, with lots of guests and walk-on choirs; some of the guests have been mind-blowing, then from there, we had the big string section, and probably only four BVs at the time,” Butcher reflects. “It’s turned into quite a big orchestral thing, and Damon has plenty of

Dave Guerin at his SD7 during soundcheck.

34 Headliner

On Tour Mixing Gorillaz

Matt Butcher at front of house position.

ambitious ideas about what he wants in the band, which is great, but very challenging because it does mean we get amazing people playing, and you get some amazing textures.”

“It’s all about the different layers, and we try and keep on top of all of that,” Guerin concurs, “Tonight is the first night with both strings and brass, but it is a bit of a shoehorn to fit it in. I am full out.”

So the SD11 is ultimately to take the pressure off of Guerin’s desk, and that, too, is pretty stacked: 20 channels of shout. And the full audio spec is a staggering 35 pages long, which, Guerin says, is mostly channels. But it was always going to be about ‘doing it properly’, Butcher reiterates: “At the start of the year, we took all the tracks and keys all digitally, so that’s all taken from the main stage from the keys, and running from Ableton for the tracks. There’s probably 28 channels of track, eight of digital keys, and a whole load of analogue channels for Damon’s piano, and a few other bits, then 16 tracks of audio, eight of click - depending what they need for a track - and we have analogue backups for it all, as well (36 channels, with macro buttons to switch the inputs). It’s all been thought out to be instantaneously fixable, if we were to need a backup, that is, which we never have so far.”

Butcher pauses, and then announces that he can record the show ‘just’ with 128 inputs. For that, he uses a DiGiGrid MGB running off two MADI streams, running at 48kHz to make the recording ‘not ridiculous’. It all sounds pretty

hectic, but these guys seem to take the whole thing in their stride.

“The thing is, the SD7 is the best – and probably only - control surface to do something like this on,” Butcher says. “[nods] Nothing else would work for this, absolutely,” Guerin concurs.

“The symmetry of the SD7 means you can have a left bank, a right bank, and a bank in the middle; that means you can be doing three things at once,” Butcher says. “So I have one or two layers of instruments on the left, and vocals on the right; we are running eight radio mics and doubling them up into individual channels for guest artists, so individual artists get their own channel, and you don’t have to worry. Then I keep the automation to some sensible level.”

The SD7 is also crucial to keep everything moving nice and quickly during the show, adds Guerin: “Damon might want a guest for a certain song, so you can’t go to a snapshot where the guest is in, get their settings, and go back to the song you know, as it’s taken too long already – a bit like an analogue desk, you turn the channel on.”

“Yeah, for me, it’s channel faders, channel mutes, effects, aux sends - basically the same as Dave,” says Butcher. “I am also running a Waves SoundGrid package on an external rack, but I love a lot of internal stuff I use, too; I love the dynamics and multiband compressor on the SD7, and the Waves stuff is doing the live Autotune stuff in one De La Soul song – that’s

Waves Tune Real-Time – and also some de-essing, some multiband stuff here and there, some distorted snares, a gated fuzzbox with reverbs, basically all the daft stuff! And again, through the course of mixing Gorillaz, we have always had a go at doing some dub stuff to make it exciting, and get more involved in the whole sonic thing. The Waves stuff is great for that.”

Creative License

As an artist, Albarn must have sonic visions, so to speak...

“Oh yes. At the beginning of the first tour, it was very different: they had one record out, and they played behind a screen, so we used to liven things up doing tone generators, doing a lot more dubby stuff; me and Jason Cox worked at Damon’s studio on that, and then he came out and messed around out front,” Butcher explains.

So it’s a bit like bringing the studio on the road – a bit of a hybrid setup.

“Yeah exactly,” says Guerin. “I use a couple of Distressors, which are great for limiting vocals; gets them in your face easily. Then for me, everything FX wise is coming from the console, and they’re all great. I’ve got 30 stereo mixes and 20 monos, basically: all the ears are stereo, the sidefills and front wedges are stereo, and you can do BVs left, right, and front, and Damon’s vocal sits in the middle.

“It all sounds better in stereo – and the piano wedges are stereo, too, which gives Damon more space. It also means you can get the strings into the mix on the sidefills without feeding back.”

35 Headliner

Getting hands-on with the SD11.

“The SD7 is the best, and probably the only control surface that you can mix a show like this on...”

Both Guerin and Butcher have been DiGiCo advocates since the days of the D5.

“I first used a D5 in 2009,” Butcher recalls. “Great automation. Then I went to a Midas, but going from the old MADI racks to the SD racks made everything sound amazing; and the automation and general layout on the SD7 is brilliant. Having three bays means you can be doing three things at once: instruments left, vocals on the right, and mixing VCAs in the middle; then the small faders just as FX keys.”

“The small faders are my output, but other than that, it’s all the same as Matt,” Guerin adds, studying the show’s spec. “I’m at 192 inputs, I just worked out... [smiles]” The spec is particularly important document, Butcher says, and everything is there from the patching and the routing input numbers to the record outputs: “With this sort of sized show, we have to be on top of things. Dave writes the spec, and we all add to it. So rack-wise, we have three SD racks and one [DiGiCo] Orange Box, and that’s got two MADI outs, and that is the digital in for the keys and tracks, and sends for record. So we’re patched for that, as well.”

In terms of RF, there are 50 channels of radio mics and ears. That seems a hell of a lot.

“It is,” smiles Guerin. “We are using the new Shure Axient system, which sounds amazing, as it’s so clean. We have 28 channels of Axient.

We were concerned about the spectrum, so went with Axient for the radio mics and guitars and bass because they are a much narrower bandwidth per channel, so you’ve then got more bandwidth for all the ears, which makes it easier to get 50 channels of stuff in.”

“They’re really, really clean, actually,” Butcher adds. “Obviously a very well matched preamp in the actual stick, because the mics sound really

good; and obviously it’s going AES out of the racks to avoid any conversions at any cost, so they sound great. Noticeably great, in fact.”

Listen Up, Everyone

When it came to choosing the in-ear moulds, Guerin let the band do the talking.

“We did some listening tests in the new year; HandHeld Audio sent us down some Ultimate Ears E18s, some JH Audio JH16s, and some other Ultimate Ear moulds, all of which were generic, and I put some coloured tape on all the different cables and gave them to the band, and said ‘try these’,” Guerin reveals. “And every single one of them came back and said, ‘the ones with the red tape on’, and that was the JH16 V2 Pros. So they’re all on them. There are four lows, two mids, and four highs, and the band love them. I wasn’t around when they got the custom moulds done, or I’d have got a pair, too!”

It was evident even during soundcheck just how meticulous Albarn and co. are with their sound – they were still tweaking song arrangements half an hour before doors were due to open, and it all felt very organic.

The special guest for this London show was none other than Noel Gallagher – Albarn’s nemesis-turned-BFF – and the whole band were tight as a drum.

Gorillaz will hit the road again in March, heading to South America for the next leg of their tour, playing in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil; and will play a string of major European festival dates this summer. www.digico.biz www.jhaudio.com www.shure.com www.gorillaz.com

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James Bump

Nickelback

ON TOUR WITH NICKELBACK

James Bump started out doing monitors in 1995 when working with Showco. Prior to that, he was working for his guitar teacher, standing in front of a desk, trying to work out how it worked. But, as he concurs, being thrown in at the deep end is often the best way.

His first major show was The Beach Boys, and in his 23 years in the biz, he has worked with the late, great Chris Cornell, The Moody Blues, Ted Nugent, and he’s now in his second year working with Nickelback, a band he is in no hurry to leave any time soon.

Words Paul Watson “I was sat in front of a desk, had a lighting desk to my right, which had push button memories for different scenes, I looked up, and the stage was black,” opens Bump, with a smile. “So I looked over to the lighting desk, hit a button, and all good – that’s when I realised, ‘ok, audio is more important!’”

Bump is describing his very first live show experience, where he multitasked for The Waking, a band based out of Atlanta. They never took off, as such, but it was definitely an all or nothing situation..!

“I was roadie, front of house guy, monitor guy, and I did some lighting, too,” Bump laughs. “But professionally, my first gig was The Beach Boys in 1995 as technician; though I also mixed for the opening acts: America, and Christofer Cross.”

No pressure, then..?

“Yeah, right! [smiles] But my first mixing gig was for the great Chris Cornell of Soundgarden back in ‘99. I was with him for some 10 years after, and some of my favourite

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touring memories are with him,” he says, with a hint of reflection. “I can still remember the hairs standing up on my neck when he sang, thinking how cool it was that I was the one in charge of allowing him to do that every night to his audience. He really was a very special talent.”

Indeed, he was. Since then, Bump worked a long stint with The Moody Blues, off and on for Mötley Crüe, and still works with Ted Nugent.

Popular guy, then, and not genre specific, evidently?

“Well, whenever they call me and say, ‘hey, you wanna do this?’, I normally say yes,” is Bump’s humble response.

Conversation turns to Nickelback, a band whose longevity shouldn’t be understated, especially considering some of the bad press they seem to constantly receive for some reason. They’re still selling out arenas every night, aren’t they?

“Absolutely!” Bump says. “And as you say,

if you were to look at the Internet, you’d think everybody hates them. Then they sell out every time and you think, ‘well who are all these people, then?’ [smiles] We did Mexico last month – for the first time, would you believe – and the crowds were great. Everyone seems to like them wherever they go, in fact.”

Bump has stayed loyal to Clair since they bought out Showco, and remains an employee of the company. It was through Clair that he got the Nickelback gig at the beginning of 2017.

“I went out and tried it with the band, and loved it right away,” Bump insists. “They are no drama, all good guys – band and crew - and very friendly. The guys get up there, play their instruments, and I make it sound good... I hope! So we’re all happy. They are very into their sound, too, which is great; they are full-energy every time, and there has never been a half-assed show at any point.”

Being monitor engineer, Bump has to have a very strong relationship with the band:

James Bump

Nickelback

“Roxanne IEMs have this great, full-bodied sound, and everything is so precise in the mids and high mids.”

“They’re great to work with. I figure out what they need, hit my cues on time, and everyone is happy. A lot of people say the monitor seat is the hot seat, but I beg to differ: in monitor position, if the artist isn’t happy, they’ll let you know, so you always know where you are; out front, you have to deal with lots more people’s ears as well as the band, so it’s not nearly as tough out here as front of house can be.”

Consistency on Stage

Bump works from the new Yamaha PM10 console, which suits his workflow perfectly; and all of the band and techs are on JH Audio Roxanne IEMs. He runs a total of seven monitor mixes, including guests.

“My relationship with JH is very strong; I heard about them when I was mixing Papa Roach, and I ended up talking with Jerry Harvey, and he got me a pair to listen to – they were JH13s at the time, and I instantly loved them. I thought they were the best I had ever heard,” Bump explains. “At that time, I was doing most of my ear stuff with Ultimate Ears, and their customer service was really going south. But right away, Jerry was there all

the time, working with us; and he customised some ears. At that point, they sounded so good, and Jerry was so helpful, and the service was always there, so it was a complete no-brainer to stay with JH. They are always on top of it, and I never have to be concerned that it won’t be right.”

Nickelback were already on Roxanne IEMs when Bump arrived, so it was a great fit.

“The band have really grown to love them, I can tell you,” he says. “These ears have such a great low end – and that’s an adjustable low end, of course - so they have this fantastic, full-bodied sound, and everything is so precise: you can hear everything in the mids and the high mids extremely clearly, and Roxanne also has this amazing spatial quality, too. I reference on my [Roxanne] IEMs also, so we always know where we are.

“We also made at least two backup pairs, just in case anything should happen to the band’s main kit, and I can tell you, these guys have no desire to switch to anything else.

They’re very happy with their JH ears. Having them all on ears also means the front of house guy is not battling extreme stage volumes, so he can make it precise out there also. It allows

for a real consistency to their shows, too; I pretty much have everything dialled in every night, so it’s a great show to work on, and a great bunch of guys to work with. It’s one of those gigs that I am so happy it fell into my lap, and I will not let it go anytime soon!”

Finally, I ask Bump if he has any tips for any budding monitor guys and girls out there?

He absolutely does: “As a monitor engineer, do not go in and tell the artist what they are going to get, or what they need – or what they want, or are looking for. I have gone out and replaced some people, and that has always been the artist’s biggest complaint.

“You have to be a bit of a psychologist in artist world; listen to what they are looking for, and work it out that way.”

So there you have it - easy as that! We wish Bump and the whole touring team the best of luck with the rest of the shows; and if you get the chance, check out one of Nickelback’s live arena gigs in the UK this month, before they head out to Europe in June. www.jhaudio.com www.nickelback.com

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Shai Brander

Musician for Life

SHAI BRANDER: MUSICIAN FOR LIFE

Shai Brander was born in Tel Aviv, and ‘has been a musician forever’. Since discovering music production in his teens, he has combined playing, arranging, and producing and mixing music to carve out a successful career working in the world of TV and commercials.

Today, Brander is the man behind the audition music for Israel’s Got Talent, and The X Factor Israel, and his workflow has to be so quick, he needs a specific audio setup to get him across the line in good time, every time. Headliner investigates...

Words Paul Watson “I started getting into sound world when I was 18, and knew I wanted to combine this world with music world,” opens Brander, with a smile. “I realised what I really wanted to do was some kind of music production.”

Brander started work at Pluto Studios in Tel Aviv – or ‘Israel’s Abbey Road’, as he calls it. It was here that he met producer, Tomer Biran, who opened several musical doors for him.

“Pluto is a very large, commercial studio, and I studied and worked there for two years,” he says. “I met Tomer, who is the master of music for commercials in Israel, and has worked with everyone. He took me under his wing, and I worked with him for four years; I then realised I wanted to work to picture: TV and commercials. And then I gradually started to know this industry, and through Tomer, I got talking to all these people who we were working with together, and it gave me a road into that side of the industry.”

Shai has just finished the current season of Israel’s Got Talent, and for the past year, he has been doing his second season of Israel’s The X Factor, this time, on his own. From the pre-auditions, he is heavily involved: “I take all my kit, I listen to the singers, and I record them; and then we talk about the brief, how the arrangement of each song should be - as it’s not always like the original playback of the song – and I record a guide.

Then it’s back to the studio, where I play all the instruments and record the backing tracks for the auditions,” he explains. How long does that take? “Oh, it’s quick – maybe two hours per song. I have to work quickly in this business, believe me! [laughs]” It’s precisely for that reason – speed – that Brander needs to know that what he hears is what he really hears: “In reality shows, and in the commercial industry in general, it’s all so fast, so I simply cannot afford to work with any piece of

equipment that doesn’t tell me the truth,” he confirms. “From playing and arranging, to recording, mixing, and producing.

“You’re working through the mix all the time, so when you are arranging and producing, you’re mixing as you go, so you need to hear any detail from the top, as everything you do is going to be the final version. You don’t have time to fix things.”

One Box Solution

Brander needed a quality D/A, and, he estimated ‘about eight good preamps’.

He began searching, and soon discovered Merging Technologies.

“I started to look at D/A converters, and realised they are very expensive, the same with buying preamps. I then came across the Merging Hapi, and when I got hold of the unit, I was entirely amazed,” he says. “When I first got Hapi in the studio, I was like, ‘ok, I haven’t been hearing the full picture’, because

The trusted Waves H-Delay in action.

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Shai Brander

Musician for Life

“I now know that I hear any detail from the top using Hapi, and all the dynamics - it makes me work faster...”

I was hearing stuff I had never heard before.

That really surprised me. I now know I hear any detail from the top using Hapi, and all the dynamics – and it makes me work faster, because I can make realtime decisions that I know I couldn’t make if I was working with another D/A.” Hapi also saved Brander having to go preamp shopping: “I didn’t realise you had eight high-quality preamps in there, as well as very high-quality conversion – all in one box, so this was fantastic news,” he laughs. “It’s no wonder that the top mastering engineers and classical music recorders are using Merging – it’s often brought in for applications where pristine audio is required, like recording orchestral music, for example.”

Brander was also surprised to discover the personality within the Merging preamps: “Every preamp has its own character, and they all affect the sound in different ways.

I knew I wanted something very clean, and versatile, but what shocked me when listening to the Hapi preamps was that if I want something warmer, all I needed to do is record louder, and drive it a little; I don’t know how to tell you... [pauses] It’s like a tube preamp, somehow. So incredibly warm – like analogue warmth, seriously.”

So you ultimately get the best of both worlds, then?

“Exactly that. I honestly expected with Merging only the cleanest preamps, but no - it seems you get whatever you need using Hapi. You can literally do both,” he insists.

“And when you don’t have a lot of time to search preamps for this guitar, or this piano, or whatever, it is hugely important that you have this versatility.

“It’s amazing. The D/A conversion is simply unbelievable, the preamps have just blown me away, and it’s a very clean signal flow to work with. An amazing box.”

More often than not, studios work at 44-24 in Israel, but when Brander cuts his vocals, he often opens a new session, and records in 96kHz: “This is not only because I know it sounds better, but the Melodyne works way better at this resolution,” he smiles.

I couldn’t possibly comment..!

Another key part to Brander’s workflow is his use of plugins – mainly Waves ones: “I love the H-Delay; it is amazing, and my go-to delay; and the Waves SSL Channel strips I like to use for drums – they are very, very good. Also, for VO (Voice Over), I use the L2 on the main buss. For reverbs, I tend to go to the Manny Marroquin one.”

Because of the nature of the beast, so to speak, Shai has many plugin presets ready to go – however, he created them all himself: “When I have a project that is very similar

to a project before, I make it a preset; and then for sessions – and especially reality stuff - I probably have 50 general plugin presets and library presets for different kinds of music: hip hop, trap, orchestral, and so on. I open the preset, and just play. But I do it all from scratch at the beginning. So I create my sounds within the Waves kit, then save them as my go-to presets. It works very well for me.”

Unsurprisingly, everything Brander does is in the box – it has to be, he explains: “For example, I had to fix something for The X Factor, and I was driving at the time, so I stopped at the bus station, put on the blinkers, opened the laptop, and just did the fix! It had to be now – it’s always now, now, now! I was there with my Internet connection via my cell phone, sending files. It’s so crazy working with commercials and TV, because there is never any ‘real’ time [laughs]. But I love it, and I wouldn’t change it!

It’s no wonder that The X Factor and Israel’s Got Talent takes up most of Brander’s time, then, although he still has time for other bits and pieces – mainly in the commercial world.

“I just finished a Romanian hair colouring commercial, actually,” he says, with a laugh.

Googling it now, Shai... www.merging.com www.waves.com

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Metallica

WorldWired

METALLICA GO WORLDWIRED Metallica are one of those bands who have always known exactly what they’re doing, and how to do it. We first realised this at Headliner when we headed out to a former prison somewhere in Denmark four years ago to see them play as part of ‘The Big Four’ (alongside Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer), which was an absolutely epic experience.

From backstage crew to technicians, production, and, of course, the band themselves, it was an incredibly well-oiled ship. And if the reviews for their WorldWired tour are anything to go by, nothing seems to have changed. We go behind the scenes to find out more.

Words Paul Watson | Photographs Ralf Larmann On our 2014 trip with Metallica into Europe, what we didn’t learn much about was the lighting show, so when they hit the European leg of their current WorldWired tour (which opened last Summer in North America), we thought we’d do some digging.

As the reviews so far suggest, the band are as on the money as ever, and their extraordinary set, devised by production designer, Dan Braun, and built by Tait Towers, is the perfect centrepiece to show off a hell of a light show.

To light up a bunch of heavy metal heroes such as Metallica is not a particularly easy

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task. First, the music is constantly up-tempo, and the atmosphere is raucous, therefore static fixtures would never cut it.

So it came as no surprise to find out that production designer, Rob Koenig, called on no less than 16 of GLP’s new JDC1 multi-faceted strobes to light and punctuate this mega-show, and at the same time, minimised the amount of devices populating the stage floor. These were all supplied by Premier Global Production (PGP) of Nashville.

Dan Braun’s concept had been to do away with a conventional lighting truss entirely for

this tour, and instead deploy a threedimensional moving video on multiple plains, so that every seat in the house could see the show from a different viewpoint. Not only was he able to use kinetic movement, interacting between the video cubes and the lights, but also indulge [frontman] James Hetfield’s desire to integrate drone technology. Very smart stuff.

Koenig is no stranger to GLP LED effects, having first used the original impression 90 with co-designer Paul ‘Arlo’ Guthrie on Billy Idol’s 2005 tour. He was introduced to the JDC1 by GLP sales manager, Andreas Brandt,

Metallica

WorldWired

“The JDC1 is a highly effective, very bright, robust fixture, and the wash portion is used frequently through the show...” in Stockholm prior to the start of this tour.

“The JDC1 came out of necessity,” insists Koenig. “The original floor lighting plan was much larger, but the stage itself is 44ft, so by the time we loaded all of the other departments’ gear onto the stage, it was not looking great. We have guitar pedals, monitors, drone transponders, plus the lighting. Too much kit, and not the clean look that Dan was trying to achieve.”

As a result, he needed to achieve the same dynamic from a much smaller footprint.

PGP’s Anthony Kordyjaka wasted no time at all in introducing the GLP man, who met up with the party in Copenhagen the following day.

Efficient & Powerful

“We looked at the JDC1, which I hadn’t even heard of at that time,” admits Koenig. “It has become one of two instruments we have been utilising on the floor, in one housing. It saved

space on the floor, helped us clean the look of the stage, and gave us the added feature of the tilt motor.”

In fact, deployed in this fashion, the JDC1s gave the lighting designer exactly the ride he had been looking for: “The stage for this show is white, so we wanted a fixture from the floor that would help paint the stage colour from that angle, to juxtapose the lights from the cubes above.”

“The JDC1 is seldom used as a strobe, but when it is, it is highly effective,” he says. “It is a very bright, robust fixture, and the wash portion is used frequently through the show.

“Combining an LED wash light and LED ‘discharge’ looking strobe into one fixture makes this an incredibly useful tool.

Already, I can’t wait to see the next iteration of the fixture!”

Programming the lights were Joe Cabrera and Troy Eckerman, while Rob Koenig has remained the touring lighting director. All

three found it very easy to work with.

Souns like the fixture has lived up to expectations, then?

“Oh, very much so,” Koenig enthuses.

“What’s nice is, the functions of this fixture can be very straightforward or very involved, as are many multi-instance fixtures. This show doesn’t demand the breakdown of all individual cells, relying more on the power of the overall fixture.”

But all that could change next time around, as Rob Koenig has vowed to use it again in the future: “I am working on a design right now to incorporate these into, and am very much looking forward to it,” he concludes.

Metallica’s WorldWired tour seems to have some serious legs. Dates in Europe run until the Summer, and the US leg kicks off again come September. Be sure to check it out! www.glp.de

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Live Sound

Festival Box

HELLO, FESTIVAL BOX! Christmas has apparently come eight months early this year - well, it has if you work in the live touring industry, because fibre specialist, Optocore, has unveiled its slick, revolutionary Festival Box - a 1U gem, which makes it very simple for any live engineer to use any console at a festival without causing any headaches whatsoever. Headliner takes a much closer look...

Festivals can be pretty chaotic places for sound engineers – and often at the top of the ‘frustrating’ list are the insane turnaround times, where line check is a luxury, and loading a show file is, well, a fantasy.

Regularly, engineers won’t get their standard rider, as so much is going on at such a rate of knots; and in some cases, they won’t even know what console they’re going to be working on (or stuck with, as the case may be) until they’re stood in front of it.

With this in mind, you can understand why some festivals tend to play it safe, opting for large-format analogue desks, just to keep everything in one place, and as straightforward as possible. Everyone’s in the same boat, at least, right?

But that might not be a problem for much

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longer, because Optocore, in collaboration with its partner company, BroaMan, has designed a quite superb new product called Festival Box. Unveiled to the world at this year’s Prolight + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt, this sleek, smart, 1U rack could make mixing sound at a festival smoother and more enjoyable than ever before.

No More Headaches

Although Optocore and BroaMan might not be able to control the weather just yet, or that annoying drunk punter that spills beer across your console while slurring that ‘the band sounds great, maaaan!’, this Festival Box will go at least some way to making life easier for you guys and girls that work relentlessly through festival season behind the boards.

In a nutshell, Festival Box allows all protocols to tunnel over the same fibre – it’s what we call a hot-swappable SFP solution, and it will radically streamline multiple-band festival bills.

“It was a response to feedback we were getting from the live sound community, asking for a more elegant and efficient signal transport system,” says Optocore founder, Marc Brunke. “The process was actually quite quick, because the idea was pretty simple, and fibre is what we do best, so from inception to delivering the product was probably only about three months, total.”

“We have called it Festival Box because it is perfect for festival situations when lots of bands are appearing, and each sound engineer is bringing a different console, and running

Live Sound

Festival Box

“It’s perfect for festival situations when multiple bands are appearing, each sound engineer bringing different consoles, running different protocols to the stage box.” different protocols to the stage box,” explains Optocore’s applications engineering manager, Maciek Janiszewski. “Everything can now be transported using just a single duplex fibre, thereby you save yourself a tremendous amount of cabling between front of house and stage; and because the SFP optical module transceivers are hot-swappable, they can simply be exchanged to meet any demand.”

Of course, from a production company standpoint, there are even more benefits: “What makes this so perfect for the rental market is that Festival Box supports all fibre protocols, as well as Cat5 Ethernet-based standards, or even HDMI. It doesn’t need to ‘know’ the protocol, it will just pass it transparently. The customer can use the SFP flavour of choice to achieve really simple connectivity.”

Pretty groundbreaking stuff, and launched just in time for the festival season.

For more information on Festival Box, head to the Optocore website below.

www.optocore.com

BOX CLEVER BASED ON BROAMAN REPEAT48 WDM MEDIA CONVERTER CONFIGURED WITH: 6 X DUPLEX SPF SLOTS MULTIPLEXED INTO A QUAD FIBRE 12 X DUPLEX SPF SLOTS MULTIPLEXED INTO A DUAL FIBRE 6 X DUPLEX SPF SLOTS PLUS 12 X BNC PORTS 24 X BNC PORTS 12 X BNC PORTS

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Tuomo Tolonen The Drive to Digital

THE DRIVE TO DIGITAL

The UK is internationally renowned for producing some of the greatest musical talent, and a thriving live music scene.

The numbers alone speak for themselves, with the latest figures revealing that live music attendance rose by 12% in 2016 to 30.9 million – up from 27.7 million in 2015.

It’s a reputation the UK should be proud of, with the quality of these shows drawing an international audience, helped in part by the impressive production values attendees have come to expect.

Sadly, however, these high standards could be under threat as the first point in the signal chain (often a wireless microphone) is continually squeezed by the mobile sector.

In essence, large portions of radio frequency spectrum used by wireless microphones as the cornerstone of modern productions have given way to next-generation mobile broadband services, making life for engineers at the front-line increasingly difficult. With the next round of clearance scheduled for 2020, we speak to Shure’s Tuomo Tolonen to get the latest scoop, and discover why the shift to digital wireless tech is affording us some breathing room.

Our big problem is still this diminishing spectrum, then...

It is, and understandably so, because we are all suckers for it: we wake up in the morning, and it’s not long until we are staring at our phones, so making more bandwidth available for mobile services is hardly a difficult sell for regulators.

The entertainment sector, even if we take theatre, TV, touring, and corporate AV all together, is still tiny compared to the mobile sector. And sadly, because of this, we are always a consequence – the entire sector – of policy decisions made in favour of mobile.

The clearance of the 700MHz band isn’t a surprise – these discussions were ongoing during the 800MHz clearance, in fact. We had already seen documents on a European level fairly early on so we knew what to expect. It also doesn’t come as a surprise that these plans were expedited and the clearance is now happening sooner than initially announced.

And this clearance is due to come in

by May 2020, right?

Yes – and there is a fair bit that needs to happen before then. On a consumer level, millions of

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people will have to re-tune their TV sets as the re-jigging of DTV continues. It’s quite amazing to think we only did this in 2012 and here we are again. For users of wireless tech, the task is to make sure you aren’t running equipment in the so-called cleared band any later than 2020 as you will be prone to high levels of interference.

Those who own equipment are facing having to buy new equipment, and in some cases, the gear they have now might only be a few years old. It does sometimes feel like you’re constantly banging your head on the table: why don’t they understand how widespread the use of radio is, and how detrimental loss of spectrum is to our sector, you know?

You described the 700MHz clearance is more of an operational issue than a financial one...

Yes, but the financial side still holds true. There are people that spent a significant amount of money buying new kit in the 700MHz band and here they are having to buy new equipment once again only a few years down the road. It does look like there will be a financial package for those people who are affected and they should be

entitled to receive some money from the g overnment towards the purchase of new wireless equipment The reason I say the 700MHz clearance is far more an operational issue is that following this clearance, the sector will have lost nearly 50% of usable UHF spectrum. Once complete, we will be left with 47-703MHz and there is no doubt this a far more hostile environment to work in than ever before. If you aren’t careful, it could cause a series of issues…

Such as...

The biggest issue would be interference. We will be operating in a harsher environment and in less UHF spectrum so the recipe for issues is there. I would estimate that 85-90% of the shows should be fine, because they run smaller channels counts (say 20-40) but the largest and most prestigious UK events like the F1 Silverstone Grand Prix, Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor, Children in Need, summer festivals, the larger West End theatres and other one-off events where RF demands are immense (you’re talking hundreds of channels); those simply can’t be done the way we’ve done them in the past, because there is not sufficient UHF spectrum to go around.

Tuomo Tolonen The Drive to Digital

“Digital doesn’t fix everything; you still need access to clean, continuous blocks of spectrum...”

Some credit should go to Ofcom, as they did recognise this was going to be an issue to they opened up a block of spectrum known as the Airband, which is used by the aeronautical sector today. It’s a new band, though, and the incumbents aren’t exactly pleased it’s been opened up so there is lots of work to be done before we can actually deploy systems in this band. I go back to my original point, we always seem to be a consequence of policy decisions as this example shows you!

So it’s made manufacturers like yourselves have to think a lot harder – and perhaps out of the box at times – to make sure you can keep producing top quality product?

We’ve definitely had to think harder about making changes, and we made a lot of changes internally during the 800MHz clearance: we put even more resources into wireless development, and what’s come out of that are digital wireless systems. Traditionally, all wireless systems were analogue but over the last few years, we have seen digital systems emerge and there are some huge benefits to gain. Now, the landscape is changing, but at least there are systems capable of dealing with what’s being thrown at them.

The main difference is that we can pack a lot more channels into less spectrum meaning we can live with less spectrum and still co-exist. It’s the largest shows as mentioned before that will still be strained. Also, no-one wants to run all your frequencies too close as the show has to go off without issues so it’s commonplace to use some guard bands. Just gives you the peace of mind that

everything will be OK during show.

So once you move to a digital system, it cures a lot of the issues?

Well, you have to be careful that digital doesn’t get the designation that it’s like a silver bullet, and fixes everything; you still need access to clean, continuous blocks of spectrum, and it’s not an excuse for the regulators to say, ‘well look, now they’ve improved the tech, we can take more away.’ Not the case at all. We have addressed issues, absolutely, but if we continue to lose spectrum at the rate we are losing it, we will hit a brick wall eventually.

When is the next spectrum review?

That will be at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2023. They have said they will review the UHF bands at this event, and how they are being used, and that no changes would be made to sub-700MHz spectrum until at least 2030. That is the official statement for now. But we’ll wait and see... [smiles] The reality is, mobile is always going to be king?

Yes, as we all use that technology 24/7, and it generates a ton of money. Lobbyists are spending millions on making regulators favour mobile when it comes to decisions on allocation. The thing is, although the music industry itself might be small, one of the main drivers as to why mobile needs more spectrum is that people are streaming HD video and audio content on the devices; and right at the forefront of that signal chain, in most cases, is a radio mic. So the very same spectrum being used to make the content is also being

allocated to deliver the content.

Sounds like we could get into a situation where we have the bandwidth to deliver the content, but there will be no content to deliver, so to speak?

Kind of, yeah, though I think that is painting too bad of a picture, as there will always be something. I don’t think we’ll ever see this ‘falling off a cliff ’ moment where everything became terribleovernight. But I think if the right measures aren’t taken [by Ofcom], we will see a gradual degrading of production quality. It’s not going to sound as good as it used to. Will the masses hear that? I don’t know – we’ll see what comes out of it. But nonetheless, we would find ourselves in a situation where we have the bandwidth to deliver amazing content, but the content itself sounds less than amazing.

Is latency in digital wireless pretty much under control now?

Our Shure Axient Digital system has 2ms latency, which is absolutely useable; but you have to realise that the accumulated latency of everything is the important number. So if your radio mic on the front end is 2ms, then you go into a digital desk that might be running a series of plugins, for example, so that’s probably another 5ms; and by the time you get to the speaker, you’ve added a lot more than 2ms. You probably don’t want more than 5ms in there, total – it depends on the application. So it’s important to understand latency, but it’s certainly not a hurdle to adopting digital technology.

As UHF spectrum continued to disappear

47 Headliner

Tuomo Tolonen The Drive to Digital

“I think the hardest thing for people to understand is that we all consume content every day...” productions was increasing, there was an expectation that Shure would deliver something good.

To accomplish this, a few things happened. We spent so many hours at events, for a couple of reasons: first, from a support point of view, it’s great that we can be there to assist with frequency planning and make sure that large events works as expected; and reason two is what we learn and get out of it, and we use that directly in our product development. What better place to learn how a high end radio mic should work than onsite at a large event? That is why Axient Digital has gone down so well; it literally answers all of the questions users might have. I don’t think it would have been possible if we had developed it without being in conversation with users of radio mics.

What would you say are the best bits about digital wireless?

It’s ultimately a good thing to move on from analogue FM based wireless systems. It’s old technology that goes back decades and decades.

And there are some trade-offs. We’ve all sat in a car and listened to AM and FM – and FM sounds better; but which one sounds better, FM or DAB? DAB is noticeably cleaner, and that’s because FM has some inherent limitations, one of which is a limited frequency response as they just can’t reproduce the highs and lows as naturally as you’d like. So one of the benefits you get out of digital isa wide open frequency response; if

48 Headliner

you plug an electric guitar into a UHFR system versus an Axient Digital system, it’s literally night and day, as all of a sudden, the lows come to life, and the transient response from the top end is far more transparent than it was on an analogue FM-based system.

Another thing is the dynamic range; if I want to put an electric guitar through an FM transmitter - as people have been doing for ages – it simply doesn’t have the dynamic range without utilising a compander and they can add artefacts to the audio if it’s not well designed. A compander squashes the signal in the transmitter enough for it to fit within the dynamic range of the FM signal, and then in the receiver, it expands it. In a digital system, again, the dynamic range is so huge, and the front end is so wide open that you don’t need a compander in the system.

Gorillaz and James Bay are two major names using Axient Digital right now...

Yes, and through rehearsals, both those production teams were floored at how similar it sounded to a cable. There’s a long list of other names using it today and whether or not you know it, you’ll be listening to a lot of Axient Digital transmitters in the coming years.

I think the hardest thing for people to understand is that we all consume content every day – we turn on the TV, watch a movie, watch

football, whatever it might be, and without knowing it, you’re listening to radio microphones.

We don’t think twice about it, but there are people behind the scenes that have been working for weeks, sometimes months, preparing for all of these shows, and there is very little, if any, tolerance for failure on a show; if the audio cuts out during a West End performance for instance, it’ll ruin your night in a heartbeat. That is what people don’t realise: the minute the curtains go up, the production staff are under huge pressure to deliver, and narrowing the spectrum wireless devices operate in only makes that task more difficult. Yes, new technology absolutely helps, but it’s not as simple as saying, ‘look, now everyone makes digital, there’s nothing to worry about.’

It needs regulators around Europe and the world to protect spectrum access for the entertainment sector. We’ve had some success so far through discussions with regulators but we will always be second when it comes to mobile.

After all, everyone owns a mobile device but not everyone owns a wireless mic… but whether or not you know it, we all enjoy the benefits they provide. www.shure.com

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One to Watch

President Street

PRESIDENT STREET Pop fusion collective, President Street, have enamoured listeners worldwide with their unique sound and contemporary musicality. Having made a splash in the US, they have now turned their attention to the UK. We sit down with Peter Moses, the musical maestro at the helm of the group, to talk about his extraordinary life, his journey so far, and the inspiration behind a brand new music video.

Hailing from Perth, Australia, it was not long before Peter Moses’ world was shaken by tragedy.

“A few weeks before I turned two, my mum and the three eldest kids were walking to the shops to buy a birthday present for the kid who lived next door; we lived on President Street in a pretty rubbish suburb called Kewdale in Perth,” opens Moses. “The area had no footpaths at that time, so my family was walking on the side of the road. A car accident happened, and one car went off the road and hit them; they died instantly.”

Moses’ life was struck with hardship once again with the untimely passing of Yvonne, one of his older sisters, just a few years later, and then again at the age of 13, when his father passed away as a result of an unknown and aggressive brain tumour.

“At this stage, I’m 13, and an orphan; and to

50 Headliner

be honest, I was a bit of a mess. I really spent the next few years just trying to get my life together,” he explains. “I moved in with my sister and her husband, got a Quasi Scholarship to a Catholic school, and then put myself through university.”

Pretty hard times, to say the least. Bored with the monotony of life as a first year lawyer, Moses decided to break the cycle, and move to Hong Kong. It was here that he jumped on stage to improvise with a Latin band, a move that would ignite his love of music, and irrevocably change his life.

“I jumped up on stage and started playing congas; I’d never played any instrument at that point in my life,” Moses recalls, with a smile The musicians that he played with were impressed by his clear musical ability, and invited him to perform with them more permanently. The ante was being upped.

Production Chops

“After gigging around for a bit, I realised that my real passion was actually in the creation of music,” Moses explains. “And so I turned my attention to music production. I bought GarageBand, and started to figure out how to build and layer sounds together.”

Music was always present in Pete’s life, but he could never have predicted how important it would become: “Like all kids, I found solace in music, but it never occurred to me at all to learn music - I think I was just too busy working day to day trying to get my stuff together and putting one foot in front of the other.”

Music became a way of coping, and in a strange way, operated as a form of therapy for the trauma experienced in his childhood years.

“I still don’t really understand if I found music, or it found me,” he admits.

One to Watch

President Street

“I bought GarageBand, and started to figure out how to build and layer sounds together...”

President Street’s first EP, Involuntary Actions, was picked up by some 100 radio stations in the US with solid rotation, with it even hitting some charts. They are now making a dramatic comeback with a new single, Need You Now, and a cinematic new music video.

“I was writing the song when I got to the point of absolute desperation; it was written at my absolute darkest hour when everything in my life had just become too much,” Moses reveals. “It was about trying to explore and understand that desperation.”

“It was actually written for the acoustic guitar, but the energy of the song needed more instrumentation, as I needed to take it into a different direction to capture the emotion that I wanted the song to have.”

The song comes accompanied by a music video featuring Kate Jenkinson, Australian actor and star of Wentworth, who has previously worked alongside Rebel Wilson She plays the main character in a quite disturbingly beautiful music video. Moses explains how he came to work with Jenkinson, and where the inspiration for the music video came from: “We met through a mutual connection; I

had met Kate a few times prior to filming, and then I just reached out to her and asked if she would be interested in appearing in a video, and she said, ‘cool, let’s do it’.

“My favourite story comes from the first day of shooting. It was 7am, and we were just somewhere on the streets in Melbourne. I went down as they were setting up, and Kate was just sitting in this scummy public toilet getting her hair and makeup done. I freaked out at that point because I thought she was going to get really mad or refuse to work with us or something, but she was just so chilled and amazing to work with. She went completely guerrilla with us all day’.

Involuntary Actions

The music video itself was born in a rather unusual way. Jenkinson suggested that President Street look into hiring one of the graduates from the Victorian College of the Arts, one of Melbourne’s top art institutions. Moses received proposals from many of the students before deciding to follow the creative vision of Peter Nathan, as well as giving him full creative control.

“We gave him no direction, and we said

to him that this would be his interpretation, that we would leave it up to him to create the visual environment. He and the producer had complete freedom, which meant that the project ending up being really fresh.”

The video is daringly arthouse and cinematic, yet it has a truly sinister vibe.

Featuring hyper-realistic mannequins, and dystopian faceless women, the video is visually superb; and Jenkinson gives a stellar performance.

The video starts off fairly naturalistically, and it becomes more abstract the longer it continues. Jenkinson wanders around, with each shot of her fading to another scene, where she looks progressively more unsure.

We witness what seems to be the physical manifestation of her mental demise, and it is truly haunting. It is a song about desperation, about reaching your limit, about futile escape attempts, and this video reinforces these themes very well.

Need You Now will drop on June 15th, and with other new material being released this summer, this collective are ones to watch. @PresidentStreet

51 Headliner

Rick Dickerson

Road Test

TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE

We asked experienced live sound man, Rick Dickerson, to take some Lectrosonics wireless kit and a box of DPA mics out on the road with two artists who have never used any of it before: first, alt-soul singer-songwriter, Piines; then, one of the UK’s leading Bowie tributes, Paul Antony. Let’s see how he got on, and if he was able to convince the talent to tap into this new technology...

“Making tweaks to any live setup is always going to be a challenge, especially when you’re dealing with artists who are so used to their own equipment,” opens Rick Dickerson, with a smile. “They tend to be very wary of change, and that’s entirely understandable. But they have to trust me... I always try to convince them that, anyway! [laughs]” The original idea for the debut Piines show had been to get the new Lectrosonics Duet M2R unit and HH Handheld condenser mic onto the show, but due to delays at US customs, they only arrived on show day.

“It wasn’t too much of a problem, though,” Dickerson says. “I was never going to try and convince an artist like Piines – on his first ever live show - to switch brand allegiance without even getting the chance to try the kit out, but I did get the chance to try the Duet M2R myself during the Piines soundcheck, with my

52 Headliner

JH Audio Roxannes, and I was pretty blown away at the quality I was getting. Remarkably so, actually.”

Forced to bypass Duet for the time being, Dickerson deployed two DPA 4099 mics on Pines’ brass section (trombone and trumpet), and a Lectrosonics SSM/E01 wireless receiver on each of the musicians.

“The 4099s are a complete no brainer for brass – and the players seemed to enjoy using them [during the show], as being wireless, it frees you up to move around as much as you like, which those guys both seemed to like doing,” Dickerson explains. “We didn’t have the Duet on stage for this show, but any Lectrosonics wireless is so rock solid, as the live recording of the show [which we did on Logic] told us the following morning, and the SSMs are great, reliable bits of kit.

Dickerson then had 4099s on the kick,

snare, toms, hats, guitars, and bass cabs: “It was basically a DPA stage; it’s just a brilliantly versatile mic for a whole host of applications, the 4099.”

The show went down a storm, and we know what Dickerson meant about the recording – we are currently busy mixing the show in Headliner’s studio, The Hub, and it sounds great. Some surprising separation between tracks, too, which seems crazy considering how squashed up the band seemed to be on stage. Credit to the mics – and the engineer, of course..!

Changes

Post-show, Dickerson was able to get some alone time with the Duet and the HH Handheld mic, and was still keen to try both out on the two upcoming Paul Antony shows, both of which were to be filmed as part of a

Rick Dickerson

Road Test

“What I really like about the Duet M2R is, you’ve got two receivers - so a pair of very high-quality stereo IEMs - in just half a rack...” showreel for Antony’s soon to be launched David Bowie tribute.

After watching some of the footage, I am amazed to say that this guy really does sound like Starman. “[laughs] I know, he really does, doesn’t he?”

Dickerson smiles. “I ended up putting Paul on the [HH] Handheld, which, at first, he was very reluctant to use, but he soon came round when I compared the previous mic we were using against the HH on playback. Absolute light and shade, and way cleaner. And actually, the separation in the audio is a lot better – it’s extremely transparent.”

Dickerson says that although the HH Handheld was perhaps not quite as dynamic as the previous mic Antony had been using, the sound quality was simply outstanding.

“Being a condenser, it also had that little bit of natural compression, which Paul liked,” he explains. “At this point, he also realised the consistency of his vocal was better within a slightly larger range, if that makes sense? And a lot cleaner at the top end. He grew to love the HH mic pretty quickly, and I am sure he will be very upset when I take it away, and it has to go back!”

And it’s not just on stage where the HH brightness comes through, Dickerson says: “On the recording, there’s no muddiness, like you get in many dynamic mics. Also, you can be a bit more subtle and gentle with

compression to bring the voice to the front.

Even though it picks up stuff around it – as condensers do - it doesn’t sound so ‘giggy’.

It’s more studio sounding when a vocal goes into it, therefore you can gate it gently, and it works great.”

Digital Wireless

Sounds like the Handheld went down a treat, but what about the Duet?

“It’s just superb, that bit of kit. It takes five minutes to set up, too, as its user interface is very intuitive. I first tried it live on [guitarist] Richie Watson, and the combination of that and his JH Audio Roxannes, running off Dante, was incredible,” Dickerson explains. “I was also interested to try it with an analogue send, and actually, the level was only slightly lower than the Dante - so another positive.

“I also found I didn’t have to drive it that hard. If you do drive it harder, you get more battery life, as you can turn the pack down, but it’s easier to drive at level without it sounding like a mess, put it that way. Duet is perfect for in-ears, because it has that Dante port at the back, which you can daisy chain to other units; and what I really like about it is that you’ve got two receivers - so a pair of very high-quality stereo in-ears - in half a rack. So 1U would give you four people.

“If you were to do a large band, it would be a hell of a space saver. You’d get double the

capacity of a competitor’s equivalent, and at least double the quality, in my opinion.

For the Bowie shows, Dickerson used his newly acquired Allen & Heath GLD-80 Chrome console with Dante card and AR2412 stage box. He also deployed his Lectrosonics Dante Breakout Box. “We used QLab on a Mac to trigger the [Bowie] shows, and I used the Breakout Box to change scenes on the console, and to run the show, and play the backing tracks – which are mainly backing vocals and percussion, and some little bits of guitar, for when we run out of guitarists..! [laughs] “QLab triggers it, and if I don’t have the GLD console with me, I use the Breakout Box to feed eight channels of audio to whatever mixer I am using. It’s like taking a soundcard with me in a rack form, with pristine sound quality. We recorded at 48kHz, but it is also capable of 96kHz, so it can also do high-res.

“I love this little GLD console, I have to say, and I’ve already loaded the Piines show into it, and have done a virtual soundcheck from that first gig, so we’ll be very well prepared come the next one in May. And we will definitely have Duet on that one..! [smiles]” Watch this space..! www.lectrosonics.com www.jhaudio.com www.dpamicrophones.com

53 Headliner

Ali Jacko

Fighting Talk

ALI JACKO: FIGHTING TALK

We sit down with this five-time kickboxing champion to talk about his drastic career change, and his plans to ‘knock on the music industry doors with a bulldozer’.

“My parents always watched boxing,” opens Ali Jacko, “so Muhammad Ali was a legend in our house. Then, one day, when I was about eight, we were flying to Bangladesh, and he was on the same flight. He was playing around with me because I was one of the only kids on the plane, making like he was going to hit me, so I actually punched him first.

And since then, all I got was: ‘how can you hit Muhammad Ali?’ I met him a few times after that when he came over. He was my hero.”

So, inspired by this unplanned meeting, an obsession with Bruce Lee films, and the unsolicited racist abuse he was facing at school, Jacko signed up for martial arts classes.

He was 15 at the time, began on the punch bag, and soon became the biggest success story that his club had ever seen, winning multiple international titles.

Things, however, were never easy. Jacko suffers from a rare heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia, a disorder that he has recently gone through keyhole surgery for. He’s a fighter in every sense of the word: “I’ve fought with 22 stitches in my hand, and still won. Mind you, I did splash everyone in the front row with my blood,” he says.

But it wasn’t just fighting he was good at: faced with in-your-face racism, he made it his mission to win anyone with a negative

54 Headliner

attitude towards his community over. He still has home-cooked Indian dinners round his house with people whose first response when they met him was to racially abuse him.

Having achieved World Champion status no less than five times, Jacko made a start on his singing career. It was a shaky start, as he was told that he couldn’t sing, however, with the help of a vocal coach, he honed his craft. It was when he lost a girl he was madly in love with that he decided to take music as seriously as fighting, to try to win her back: “With a bit of work, I sang Bryan Adams’ (Everything I Do), I Do It for You, and sang it well. Then I thought, ‘if I can sing, I will write my own music’, and wrote my first song not long after that.”

But did he get the girl?

“We’re now married, and we’ve got a oneyear-old daughter called Leonore,” he smiles.

Jacko is now ready to take on the music industry head on, and as a close friend of Rohan Marley (son of Bob, and husband of Lauryn Hill), he knows how cut-throat the industry can be. With his usual rigour, he has decided to make 2018 a very busy year for himself, with a very full release schedule.

“I am going to do something that has never been done before, and see how many heads I can turn, until I am taken seriously,” he says.

“I’ve decided to do 11 songs in 11 months, with 11 videos - something a bit different. I want to prove that I’m a serious artist.

“You have to believe in yourself, regardless of what negative people say,” he says. “I was the underdog in almost all of my earlier fights, until I started winning major titles. I have the same motivation when doing music as I did for Kickboxing.”

Within his 11 songs, the artist traverses through different topics, covering subjects from the desire to settle down, falling in and out of love, and even about how we are destroying the planet - it’s a diverse collection.

He has also brought music to a place that you wouldn’t usually expect, such as singing at pre-bout walk-ons. No hecklers, I assume..?

“Well, I recently performed for an MMA fighter who was making his ring entrance, and the crowd seemed to love it,” he smiles.

With this attitude, why not try and conquer the music industry? It’s certainly not the easiest industry to break, but nor is MMA! With a new song and video being released every month from now until November, Ali Jacko seems set to prove all his [brave] cynics wrong. For this guy, losing just isn’t an option. @AliJacko

CLEAN AS A WHISTLE

GROOVY, BABY

CAMDEN 500 The CAMDEN 500 is the most astoundingly clean, linear, transparent front-end youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever heard. But it also has MOJO, two discrete custom analogue saturation circuits that can be applied, exaggerated, and perhaps best of all... bypassed

CRANBORNE AUDIO

CAMDEN500

METICULOUSLY engineered & MANUFACTURED in THE UK

EXCLUSIVE

Finding Your Mojo

FINDING YOUR MOJO We head into The Hub armed with an Audio-Technica 5047 microphone, and Cranborne Audio’s Camden preamp, to track some vocals - and got a lot more than we bargained for!

Words Paul Watson Recording vocals is a very personal thing.

There’s no right or wrong way, per se, but we’ve always been under the impression that if you treat the signal with care on the way in, you won’t go far wrong. Also, we don’t have a huge rack of mic pres or compressors, so since having built The Hub, Headliner’s recording space, we have always kept it simple, and gone direct into our RME Babyface Pro interface (which we love), leaving any processing for when we’re in the box. Today, however, we are going to be mixing it up.

Joining us in The Hub is Ed Holmes, inventor/tweaker/obsessor from pro audio newbies, Cranborne Audio. He has brought along the latest iteration of the firm’s debut product, the Camden 500 preamp, to see if he can warm up our vocals a little, and for us to have a general experiment with this cool product. This will be the first time that the Camden has had an outing in any studio, and we are going to see what kind of impact it has when applied to our vocal chain.

Today, we’re also joined by Jack Mercer (AKA Piines), the former Carnabys frontman,

56 Headliner

who we have been working with for the past 12 months on his new alt-soul recordings. He is no stranger to this studio, and understands the workflow perfectly well. It’s his track, Golden Gai, and his voice, that we are going to be working with today.

Earlier on, we tracked Jack’s lead vocals through an Audio-Technica 5047 mic, with great success. It’s the first time we’ve had a real go with this mic, too, and it provides a brightness we are not entirely used to, to the extent that we found ourselves rolling off some of the high end rather than applying it. What’s also so impressive about the 5047 is its instant warmth and richness in tone as soon as it receives signal: it’s great before you apply any processing, which makes the whole experience of using it so easy and enjoyable.

First Impressions

So, the four of us start off by having a listen through to the track, and we decide the best way to get started is to record some new BVs, adding the Camden to the vocal chain - so it’s going to be the 5047 into the Camden, into

the Babyface Pro, and into the DAW. The Camden has three settings: clean, cream, and thump; and a rather marvellous ‘Mojo’ button, which basically allows you to decide how clean, crunchy, or entirely outrageous you want your signal to hit.

We go with clean (for now), set our gain levels, apply a 20dB pad to the Babyface Pro via the RME TotalMix software, and we’re off.

One take later, we have our first BV, and we play it back. First thoughts: this is a very quiet unit; and it’s somehow brought more top end out in the vocal. We A/B it with Jack’s lead vocal (recorded 5047 direct into the Babyface Pro, no Camden), and realise it’s also added warmth to the sound. Impressive. But I get the feeling we’re only scratching the surface.

We move onto another backing vocal this time a really low one - and get similarly impressive results. Jack already loves singing into the 5047, which is a good sign, as he’s not ordinarily one for change. He’s also starting to become more and more intrigued by this ‘magic box’ Ed’s brought with him today.

We are all noticing that the A-T 5047 is

EXCLUSIVE

Finding Your Mojo

“The A-T 5047 provides a brightness we are not entirely used to; and an instant warmth and richness in tone.” definitely putting Jack’s vocal across in a very honest way, and it’s clear that the frequency response is phenomenal. We heard engineers say similar things when we were at the launch of the 50 Series at Real World, but it’s only when putting it to the test in your own space that you really ‘get’ it. And we definitely do.

Reamping

Ed is keen for us to get as much out of the Camden today as possible, so suggests we try reamping the backing vocals, coming back in on the Camden’s ‘thump’ setting. So we give it a whirl. As is the way when we get excited with new kit in the studio, we decide to turn it up to 11, just to see what it can do. And my word, what a difference.

On playback, with Mojo at absolute max, there is suddenly this smoothness and thickness that we haven’t yet experienced in The Hub could this be ‘analogue warmth’, perhaps?!

We apply the same setting to BV number two, then reamp the signal again, this time on the Camden’s ‘cream’ setting, about 20% on the Mojo, which seems to smoothen it out a little, and helps it sit more comfortably.

Jack, like myself, is now particularly keen to see what else this Camden can do, and suggests we reamp the entire lead vocal. ‘Why not?’ we concur, and we slam this clean 5047 signal through the ‘thump’ setting at max.

Not only does this add warmth, it appears to have improved the dynamics of the lead, while still preserving the fabulous open high end that the 5047 gave us. This is very cool.

I realise the track count is rising rapidly, and Ed’s only been here an hour! But when in Rome and all that... I bring up a loop that our producer pal, Selasi, has sent us to add something to the choruses. He’s labelled it ‘dirty snare’, and it is just that - but a little on the thin side. Can we do something with this?

Indeed, we can.

We reamp the loop through ‘thump’ with Mojo at max (again), and it thickens it right up. We insert a little Waves CLA-2A to squeeze it a little, and after a little envelope manipulation in the DAW, we play it back.

Suddenly, it’s fatter, clearer, and bolder.

You can see where this is going... We do the same with the main kick, which just instantly improves it; and get a seriously chunky snare tone using the ‘cream’, which, by this point, we are realising is ideal for thickening any mids.

The bass guitar also gets the treatment why wouldn’t it? First, we reamp on ‘thump’, which adds weight; then we reamp again through ‘cream’, which brings out the growl, and emphasises the attack. We pass that through Waves GTR Distortion and Buzz plugins, which adds a nice edge; and when we combine the signals, we have ourselves a

lovely, aggressive, and full-bodied bass tone.

In Conclusion

Although we are obviously a little overexcited about having such a cool mic and mic pre in the studio at the same time, hence the gungho: ‘let’s just use it on everything’ attitude, it really is an extraordinary combination.

Yes, there are plenty of great mic pres on the market - we have some experience with the phenomenal Neve 1073, for example - but the most staggering thing about the Camden is its affordability and performance when compared to the big guns in the biz.

When this unit goes to market (in the coming months), you’re going to be looking at roughly £300 - an absolute snip, when you consider it probably outperforms most offerings that are double its price. If you want to bring true analogue sound to your projects at a great price point, this is the kiddie, no question.

And as for the 5047: it’s wonderfully warm, and its top end is on another level to anything we have used so far. This is a special mic with an extremely wide dynamic range, that we will next be trying out again (with the Camden!) on up and coming female vocalist, Rhianna Abrey later this month. Watch this space! www.audio-technica.co.uk www.cranborneaudio.co.uk

57 Headliner

%!*@

GRUMPY OLD ROADIE

Falling on Deaf Ears How long do you need to have been in this industry to qualify for the gold par can/speaker? 10 years? 20? 30, even? The industry hasn’t been going much longer than that, surely? Nineteen seventy fucking four is when I started. I make that 44 years.

I left school with six O Levels, and no clue what I wanted to do. I joined a band, left the band, and became a roadie. It seemed a good idea at the time. There was no ‘industry’, as I’ve mentioned in previous editions of this mag, just a bunch of young people in loon pants with carabiner attached, and a van full of junk ‘specialist equipment’, designed and built by hobbyists, and, generally, not fit for purpose.

We wandered around the UK from top to bottom playing ‘shit hole’ venues that have long gone, in our rented Hav a Vans from Phil Clark in Rickmansworth (you’ll have had to have been there to understand, but please let me indulge myself a little), making the shit gear perform to the best of its ability with not a care in the world. No per diems, no catering, no buy outs, no local crew, no power, no sleep (until Hammersmith, of course), and no health and safety directive, no mission statements, no public liability, no hard hats, and, most important, no fucking sense.

Because, dear reader, we, the crew of bygone years, the mavericks of our age, were doing ourselves untold damage without having a fucking clue. I’m talking hearing damage, and specifically, in my case, tinnitus.

The noise boys didn’t realise the harm they were doing to me in their effort to make Suzie Q the loudest touring act ever to have played West Runton Pier Pavilion.

It started about a year ago, although I can’t be specific. I booked a hearing test with Boots (the chemist, not the cobblers. That would have been daft). The audiologist, a young lad, said I had a 3k loss. Knowing fuck all about audio, I thought it was a very expensive appointment. The young audiologist explained that it was a technical expression relating to frequency - or in my case, loss of frequency. He went on to explain that it was caused by long exposure to loud music. He asked if I’d ever thought about protecting my hearing. I asked him if he’d ever heard of Suzie Q. And since then, I’ve been more aware of it. The constant buzzing and ringing in both my ears that just doesn’t go away. It’s there when I get up, it’s there when I lie in my bunk. So I Googled it. About 10% of us, not just the touring industry, will suffer from it at some stage in their lives, and for most people, it’s a direct result of hearing loss. I put my tinnitus down to my long and drawn out exposure to getting the drum sound right. Excessive exposure to noise. I call it noise, they call it music.

So if I’d known the harm that this was doing me, I’d have done something about it long ago. I’m doing my best now, wearing pads when I can, but the damage is done, and I guess I’ll have to live with it.

But there are two relevant points that come out of this tale: one, what is the industry doing to protect us? I see bins of ear pads on stages at festivals, but I don’t see their use as being obligatory. We have an industry body, but what have they done to promote safety awareness here? And second, there’s my advice: all of you youngsters out there working on the road without [ear] protection – use it, or lose it!

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“I put my tinnitus down to long, drawn out exposure to getting the drum sound right. I call it noise, they call it music...”

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