AudioTechnology Issue 79

AudioTechnology THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & RECORDING MUSICIANS

welcome to jingletown Green Day’s Oakland Studios

reviews AVID PRO TOOLS 9 NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KOMPLETE 7 ZOOM H1 HANDY RECORDER KORG MONOTRON RYCOTE INVISION USM-L JOECO BLACKBOX RECORDER STEINBERG WAVELAB 7

Subscribe & Win

A FABULOUS SSL NUCLEUS!

GIGPIGLET RETURNS!

US tour diary of the best & worst venues Patching your iPod into a professional audio system – the right way!

ISSUE 79 AU $7.95(inc gst) NZ $10.95(inc gst)

Introducing the next generation of Pro Tools.

Professional audio production as you’ve always wanted it.

Run Pro Tools® software with Avid®, third-party audio interfaces, or standalone. Develop superior mixes with Automatic Delay Compensation. Enjoy more professional features, now included as standard.

Go hands-on with Euphonix controllers and EUCON integration. And collaborate more easily than ever.

For more information or to get Pro Tools 9 visit – www.avid.com/reseller © 2011 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Avid, the Avid logo, and Pro Tools are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

AT 2

CONTENTS 79 38

32

FEATURES

REGULARS

32 GIGPIGLET’S TOUR DIARY PT II

During the second leg of Brooke Fraser’s US tour, Gareth ‘Gigpiglet’ Stuckey discovers what makes some of the best (and worst) US venues tick.

38 WELCOME TO JINGLETOWN

Green Day’s private clubhouse/ studio has grown into a fullblown facility over the last couple of years. AT investigates why the go-carts are out and an SSL has moved in.

12

YOUR WORD

Readers’ Letters.

16

NEWS

News and new product information, including interviews with SAE’s Tom Misner and live mixing legend, Howard Page.

58 HOME GROWN

AT ventures back into the world of beats, rap, and megaphones to talk to hip-hop exponent, Leigh Ryan.

62 WHAT’S ON

Studio roundup, featuring DOMC Mastering and Megaphon Studios.

66 PC & MAC AUDIO

Martin Walker has grave concerns for DIY’ers walking over Intel’s new Sandy Bridge.

Brad Watts, meanwhile, has high praise for the new App Store.

96 DRY SAILING

SUBSCRIBE

TUTORIALS 46 STAV’S WORD

Stav explores the wide world of click tracks, and offers a few tips on ways to make playing with artificial control easier for the musicians rather than harder.

50 ON THE BENCH

This issue, Rob Squire offers several ways to connect your various iDevices – iPods, iPads and laptops etc – to the external inputs of a studio or live production setup.

54 PRODUCTION ABDUCTION

James Wilkinson discusses what can happen when an album project becomes its own master.

REVIEWS 70 AVID PRO TOOLS 9

DAW Software 74 RYCOTE INVISION USM-L

Universal Shockmount 76 JOECO BLACK BOX RECORDER

Digital Multitrack Recorder 78 ZOOM H1 HANDY RECORDER

Portable Recorder 80 SUPERMEGAULTRAGROOVY FUZZMEASURE & AUDIOFILE ENGINEERING SPECTRE

Room Analysis Software 84 KORG MONOTRON

Miniature Synth 86 QUE AUDIO SNIPER KIT

Location Mic Kit 88 NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KOMPLETE 7

VST Instrument Suite 94 STEINBERG WAVELAB 7

Digital Editing Software

Rick hops aboard the good ship Turtlerock and heads out to sea once more.

& WIN!

an SSL NUCLEUS Studio Control Surface SEE PAGE 92 AT 3

REGULARS

YOUR WORD Readers’ Letters

HAPPY HOLIDAYS Dear AT Just thought I’d shoot off a photo to you just to show you how much I enjoy the mag!

Here I am (above) with the family on the way to Lake Eyre last week for a picnic. The weather was terrific but the water was too hard to get to so the rubber boat stayed in the car.

The lake was amazing despite being down to 40%, but we had a ball regardless. All nine of us stayed overnight and slept under the stars, woke with the sun and ate with the wildlife. Could be a song in that!

Cheers.

Martin (Woody) Woodward Raymond Terrace NSW ––

THE BIG PICTURE Re: On The Bench Issue 78. Hi Rob, Regarding the On the Bench article in Issue 78 about the monitor controller. Firstly, I’d just like to say I think it’s a great article. In fact, I’ve already started my own project so thanks very much for the step-by-step walk through.

Then Mark wrote to us again: Hi again guys. Thanks for your assistance with the photo. It helped out my build project no end! I spent about 50 bucks on parts and re-used an old external hard drive case that was lying around in the shed for the casing. I don’t have any labels on it yet, but hey, I know what all the controls are!

Mark.

I have a question though: do you have a larger version of the completed wiring picture that appears on the first page of the article – the one in the lower left hand corner on page 52? A larger photo would be a great help to me just for a reference to confirm my wiring is correct, as I’m using slightly different components.

Thank you kindly for your help.

Mark Eaton Perth, WA.

IMPRESSIONS OF BRUCE JACKSON: LEGENDARY INNOVATOR KIM RYRIE writes:

We subsequently sent Mark this photo, but also figured there were a few other AT readers out there straining their eyes to see it clearly in the printed magazine. So here it is – bigger this time – for the benefit of readers.

AT 4

As Bruce’s astonishingly unexpected departure was still sinking in, AT called to ask if I might contribute a few words about my dear friend Bruce Jackson, on our early teenage friendship as neighbours on Point Piper’s waterfront. I’d consider it an honour…

In retrospect, those early years with Bruce turned out to be a pivotal period for what was to come many years later, when, in 1975, Peter Vogel and I started a company called Fairlight Instruments, which developed the first computer-based sampler, synthesiser and realtime music sequencer. Bruce was to become a critical part of Fairlight’s success in America.

Bruce’s fascination with sound in particular may just have rubbed off on me. I was riveted when I heard the Moog synthesiser for the first time, and talked my father into starting an electronics magazine called Electronics Today in 1970 – where one of Bruce’s inventions graced the cover of the very first issue. (I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I remember it was something that used a diode matrix (hardwired!) to make character displays on a CRT.) My secret agenda was to use the magazine’s facilities to make my own ‘Moog synthesiser’, which we eventually published across 12 issues as a DIY project. My frustration with analogue’s inability to make natural sounds eventually led me to asking school friend, Peter Vogel, to help establish Fairlight in 1975 to, as I so confidently put it: “make the world’s best synthesiser using these new microprocessor things.”

A lot of good luck and introductions to clever people, such as Tony Furse, followed. By the time the Fairlight CMI was ready for launch in 1979, Bruce had already spent many years in America, developing friendships with several of

AT 5

the world’s most talented musicians through his dealings with Clair Brothers. When he eventually saw the CMI, Bruce offered to “show it to a few people” in the USA, and the rest is history.

Bruce provided the essential ingredient to Fairlight’s early success – an introduction to the trendsetters of the industry, by someone they implicitly trusted and respected. Would it ever have happened that some of the industry’s leading lights would hand over $25,000 (1980-dollars don’t forget) to a totally unknown company from Down Under? Without Bruce’s imprimatur, I suspect not.

Despite his well publicised accomplishments, I will mainly remember Bruce’s unselfish spirit, his immediate willingness to help Fairlight and I for virtually no financial return, and his more recent interest in my new company’s technology, again with no thought as to ‘what’s in it for me?’

Thank you Bruce, I know I’m not the only one that’s going to miss you, with special thoughts to Terry and the family.

Bruce returned to Australia a couple of years ago to head up a research team for Dolby Labs. Just two weeks ago I had breakfast with him at Dolby’s San Francisco headquarters, where (amongst other things) he told me – with great enthusiasm – that ‘the old Mooney’ was still operational and how much he enjoyed flying around the USA. The world has lost not only a great innovator but a kind and modest man who was always happy to share his knowledge and good fortune with others. My heart goes out especially to his wife and four children.

Rest in peace dear friend.

Best wishes, Peter Vogel.

Co-Founder – Fairlight Instruments

––

Kim Ryrie.

Co-Founder – Fairlight Instruments

–– TRAGIC LOSS OF A FAIRLIGHT PIONEER PETER VOGEL writes: I’m devastated by the news that my friend and long-time Fairlight supporter, Bruce Jackson, has died in a plane crash. He was flying solo over the Death Valley desert in California on the 29th of January when the plane crashed for unknown reasons.

Bruce grew up literally next door to the harbourside house where Fairlight started.

Bruce, of course, is well known in the Australian audio industry for starting the PA and lighting company JANDS and then moving on to become an outstanding live music engineer – described

by Barbra Streisand as “the best sound engineer in the world.” He was mixing for Elvis Presley when Elvis died in 1977, whereupon Bruce returned for a holiday in Australia and came to check out what Kim and I were up to. He immediately saw the potential of the Fairlight and offered to introduce us to some of the artists he had worked for. The outcome: I quickly packed up the one and only prototype and set off for a whirlwind tour of the USA. Over several months, Bruce flew the Fairlight and I back and forth across the country in his tiny Mooney aircraft, which had been a gift from Elvis. I demonstrated this first Fairlight to Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Larry Fast, Bruce Springsteen, Carly Simon and too many others to recount. In record time, Bruce had put Fairlight on the map.

AT 6

REMEMBERING A TRUE VISIONARY HOWARD PAGE writes: I am shocked and very, very saddened to hear of Bruce’s death. We go way back to the beginning of JANDS and our career paths in both Australia and the US have intertwined ever since.

In the narrow field of live sound equipment design, Bruce was a true visionary. His audio equipment designs are revolutionary and have become the industry standard for most large-scale live sound systems. While a seemingly quiet, shy sort of guy, he was absolutely passionate and determined when it came to getting the vision of his designs realised.

Working with him on a large-scale Clair project like Barbra Streisand was a joy as, like me, he was an absolute perfectionist – an average sounding show just wasn’t going to ‘cut it’ for Bruce. Nothing in his career was ‘average’. He was an amazingly creative, talented guy who made everything he did the ‘state of the art’. Our audio world will truly miss him.

Howard Page.

Senior Director – Engineering, Clair Global.

!

A public memorial for Bruce Jackson is being held in the the Sydney Opera House concert hall on Feb 25, at 10am. All are welcome to attend.

AT 7

NEWS: GENERAL

TOM MISNER: THE $300M MAN Text: Christopher Holder

So, how does it feel to have $270m sitting in your piggy bank? Two hundred and seventy million dollars… $270,000,000… count the zeros. When I recently spoke with a relaxed and chipper Tom Misner from his home base in Oxford, he wasn’t quite sure how he felt. But he wanted to clear something up. The reported $279m sale of his SAE empire was only the first payment and the total deal was well in excess of $300m…

Right. And, furthermore, the deal didn’t include any of the real estate the SAE colleges are sited on (Tom retains ownership of all that, on the whole). If it did, “the deal would be double” the $300m figure. Tom also owns legendary pro audio manufacturer, Neve, as well as Australia’s highest profile recording studio, Studios 301. What about those?

“Neve has been sold…” but only coincidentally, and not to the SAE purchaser, Navitas [a leading Australian education provider], and it hasn’t actually been entirely sold – not exactly – and

Studios 301 hasn’t been sold – not in the least bit.

In fact, there are plans for its expansion. Phew… clearly there’s a bit to cover here. But first, I had to press the point…

Christopher Holder: How are you feeling Tom? It’s a mind-boggling amount of money that we’re talking about.

Tom Misner: Yes, it’s mind-boggling. But you’re talking to the guy who has all the cars you can have. I’ve learnt how to fly a helicopter, so I now own a helicopter. I have my own private jet that I travel in. It’s a Falcon 2000 jet, the Rolls Royce of jets. So the money makes no difference to my life, as strange as that sounds.

My main drive has always been to make SAE bigger. People have said, ‘oh he’s only in it for the money’, and the money is nice but I make more money from selling shopping centres than I do from SAE. So I don’t know how it feels yet... but it’s interesting.

CH: Presumably it means you have the cash to turn your hand to anything…

TM: I’m negotiating to buy Abbey Road Studios, which you didn’t know about.

CH: Right. Crumbs. Because EMI [Abbey Road owner] isn’t doing so well these days?

TM: That’s right, EMI is in trouble. On the other hand you never know with me, I might end up buying EMI as well, which I’m capable of doing now.

CH: You started SAE back in 1976. Selling up must have been like putting your first-born up for adoption?

TM: It was. But at this stage it’s like a semiadoption. I’m still at SAE, I’m still the president of SAE global operations. I’m staying on, guiding and running the company with my team. That was part of the deal, and that was the reason why the Navitas offer was so attractive. I had 11 offers all up, from investment funds, banking funds...

BACK TO ’75 Tom Misner has outlined the design philosophy for the Custom Series 75, now let’s take a look at the specs in more detail: The Custom Series 75 is designed to combine classic Neve 1073/1081 circuitry and modern circuitry in one console.

The classic Neve circuitry has been painstakingly re-created, keeping faith with the original while taking advantage of modern assembly methods. For example, rather than running the length of the console, the voltage summing buses are only 150mm long and are now balanced, resulting in lower noise and less crosstalk. Other ‘charming quirks’ of the original circuits – such as the level onto buses varying as more are AT 8

assigned from a channel – have been overcome. Improved BA338 amplifying stages and BA283 output stages combined with classic Neve LO1166 output transformers, sound ‘warm, defined and punchy’.

Here’s the really nifty bit: stereo buses are implemented in both classic (voltage summing) and modern (current summing) technology and the feed to these can be selected on a per-channel basis. The two buses are combined at the master fader then passed via (patchable) 2254 compressors and an insert, to the stereo outputs. There are both modern (transformerless) and classic (transformer) outputs,

providing maximum flexibility of sonic ‘flavour’. Naturally, the AFL buses are also replicated for correct solo monitoring.

The eight group outputs use classic circuitry, with the added bonus of stem outputs, inserts and eight dedicated faders to feed groups or playback to the stereo buses. A 32-channel console can mix a total of 80 inputs to stereo.

The 2081 in-line channel module features a blend of the best features of Neve’s 1073 and 1081 modules. The mic preamp and four-band EQ is straight from the 1081, while the output amp is based on the 1970s BA283, single-ended, Class-A circuitry with a gapped core

So for the next couple of years SAE will keep its team in place. What Navitas does after that is up to them, but it wouldn’t be in their interests to change things – there’s nothing ‘broke’ about SAE. CH: How does it feel to work for someone else after so many years as your own boss?

TM: I don’t know yet! I’ll let you know soon.

CONCERNING NEVE CH: What’s the deal with Neve?

TM: The sale of Neve is a different deal that just happened to be at the same time. The management approached me for a buyout, led by [Managing Director] Mark Crabtree. I wasn’t interested in owning Neve any more. It achieved what I wanted it to achieve in the last five or six years and that was to promote SAE. It was big news then and helped SAE reach the next level.

I’ve sold all the Neve IP and the factory, the tooling etc., but what I’ve negotiated is the rights to maintain the manufacture of a mixing console called the Custom Series 75 (see below).

It’s a new analogue console. Neve didn’t want to make a non-automated analogue console, but I believe the market is ready for it. People use automation in ProTools or Logic but they’re no longer using console automation that much.

What they want is a clean recording path and a clean mixing path – they want the sound for that.

CH: A Neve sound?

TM: That’s right. It’s a genuine Neve – the only product [a post-Rupert Neve] Neve has ever made that uses the genuine Neve transformers, pots… Neve everything, including the circuitry of the preamps and EQ – it’s the sound of a genuine Neve.

transformer, as used in the 1073 and 2254. Five auxiliary sends, fader swap and a choice of either classic or modern channel output circuitry are provided.

Two 2254 compressors, four stereo reverb returns, eight recallable scenes, monitoring of up to 12 sources simultaneously and comprehensive 7.1 monitoring are just some of the features found in the master section.

Available in a 16-, 24-, 32-, 40-, 48-, 56- or 64-module chassis, the Series 75 is flexible and able to suit a variety of studio applications from broadcast to music and even film production.

Typical pricing: $43,000 for a 16-channel console.

Custom Series 75: www.customseries75.com

CH: Right, so you’ve built a new Neve…

TM: More than that. People traditionally like to record on a Neve and mix on an SSL. And the reason is: the Neve sounds richer and fuller while the SSL sounds tighter. So I thought: let’s put the two together. It’s the only console in the world that I know of that does current summing similar to an SSL – a tight, punchy sound – and the voltage summing of a Neve that gives you that warm full sound but not as tight. And you can get that with a push of a button. That’s the unique feature.

CH: Who designed it and where will it be built?

TM: It was designed by Neve along with my design engineers – Bruce McBean and Steve Crane – 301 guys based in Australia. And it’ll be built in Byron Bay – it’s cheaper to build it in Australia than the UK. CH: How much is it estimated to cost?

TM: About $39k for a 24-channel console. It’s a fully-featured console up to 64 channels and comes in buckets of eight.

CONCERNING 301 CH: What about the studios? You’ve got Studios 301 in Sydney and Byron Bay as well as a couple of international 301s, are they part of the SAE deal?

TM: 301 is definitely not part of the deal. In fact, 301 is expanding into Brisbane [a site in Newstead is currently being built on]. And I’ve got a new vision for 301. There’s going to be the mastering, of course, but it’ll soon be: ‘Recording and Rehearsal Studios’. The Other 301s will stay where they are and rehearsal studios will be added where possible. But not at the Byron Bay 301.

CH: Why are you so excited about rehearsal studios?

TM: The market is such now that 301 needs to diversify. You can’t just make money from recording and mixing alone. Mastering is one thing and rehearsal is another – you can get the band while they’re rehearsing and have them record and master as well – close the circuit, as it were.

CH: Presumably we’re not talking about an empty room with sticky carpet and chipped black paint?

TM: These will be fully-equipped rehearsal studios, and some will have a stage so bands can actually do their act live. In fact, we can retract walls and they can perform an unplugged session for people in the studio café. Needless to say the studios will have Custom Series Neves in them!

CH: Now you’ve sold SAE, can you reflect on why the schools have been so successful?

TM: It’s a very good product. In Australia, in particular, there was a stigma about private education – the inference is: if it’s any good you

should get it for free. But SAE has a very good product.

Some students have become very successful, while other students haven’t been successful – they’ve been failures in their jobs or lives. But regardless, SAE gives you genuine knowledge and access to equipment.

CH: Does it irk you that there are still so many SAE naysayers?

TM: It is annoying. The strange thing to me is that myself and SAE have huge respect in Europe and on a global level... but in Australia, it’s just ‘oh it’s him’, and the presumption is ‘he’s ripping everyone off ’. Nothing’s changed in 38 years and nothing will. Now [after the SAE sale] it’ll be ‘oh he’s ripping somebody else off by selling the company’! Whatever…

CH: Has some of your motivation been in proving the detractors wrong?

TM: It used to be the case in the ’80s, but not since. People have their set ways and they’ll stick to that until their dying day. I created the SAE concept and the phenomenon, as such. And from a global level I saved Neve from bankruptcy, and 301 in Australia from the same fate.

CH: How’s your own playing and recording going?

TM: I play in a cover band just for the fun of it.

We play gigs down at the pub for $200 a night.

The band is called No Future – a bunch of 50 year olds in a cover band playing songs, what have you got? No Future!

CH: Classy! So can you exclusively reveal to AT readers what your guitar setup is?

TM: Sure. I use a Tele with open G tuning for The Stones numbers. Otherwise I’ve got a Duesenburg guitar, with my own effects rig: a T-Rex Mudhoney pedal which has two distortion settings, a Cry Baby wah pedal and an Aldi Flanger.

CH: Aldi? From the deli aisle?

TM: I walked into Aldi one day to buy groceries – as you do – and I saw a package of five effects pedals for $100. So I bought them and the Flanger is actually really good! Apart from that I’ve got a TC multi-delay system and I use two Vox AC30s.

CH: Sounds like you’re living the dream.

TM: I’m a musician. And for $200 a night you too can book me.

!

Subsequent to this interview, Citigroup has taken ownership of EMI Group after its previous owners defaulted on more than $5b in borrowings. Abbey Road is no longer for sale… at least for now.

AT 9

NEWS: LIVE

STING & STRINGS Text: Christopher Holder

Sting’s well into his 50s and I dare say has a bob or two by now. Embarking on an arduous world tour is therefore not something his bank manager or a tribe of Amazon Indians is pressing him to do. Sting is a muso and he clearly enjoys himself on stage. And when Sting phones and asks you to come on tour, he can be a very persuasive man.

At least, that’s what Australian live sound veteran and Senior Director of Engineering of the world’s largest rental company, Clair Global, Howard Page found out recently. As a rule, Howard doesn’t tour anymore. But Sting wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The Symphonicity tour is effectively Sting singing with an orchestral backing group. Forget about other rock band/orchestra tours – and from Metallica to Elton John there have been a few – where the orchestra plays second fiddle (so to speak) to the rock band; Sting’s vocal is like a solo instrument in a large ensemble.

With this in mind Howard Page mixes the Symphonicity shows like an orchestral gig, with the emphasis on detail and dynamics. AT magazine caught up with Howard at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne to find out how he keeps 86 channels under control:

“You take a lot of time at the beginning with the structure of the mix – that’s the way you mix any big show. That way you have an absolute ‘reference’ mix to always fall back on. Before we toured we went into Abbey Road Studios in London – a totally closed, controlled environment – with the real FOH system and that’s where I spent – under ideal conditions – plenty of time setting the gain structure and formulating my reference mix. If you look at my board [Howard favours the Studer Vista 5 SR] you’ll see that every fader is absolutely ruler flat for most of the night.

That’s because I’ve got the ideal optimised gain structure on all the mic pres.

“In the old days there was good reason to believe you should get as much gain as possible out of every mic pre. And the faders ended up where the faders ended up. Those days are long gone.

The noise floor on the modern state of the art mixing console is so low that the ambient noise of the stage just sitting there is way higher. All those traditional rules are out the window.”

And what about miking?: “In the old days when you did shows like ‘Opera in the Domain’ (in Sydney) we needed area mics to get the ‘real’ violin sound because the close mics weren’t

providing that – they accentuated the screech and the bowing, not the body of the instrument and unfortunately it ended up sounding like a pack of squealing cats. I’ve spent a considerable amount of money on the right – the best – bud mics: the DPA 4099. If you position them correctly, they give you the real string sound with virtually no EQ at all. Which means you’re not constantly fighting to recover the real sound of the instrument. Here every stringed instrument in the orchestra has a 4099.”

There were some truly sublime moments at the Myer Music Bowl this night, with Sting’s wellpreserved vocal sitting effortlessly above a highly nuanced orchestral mix. Howard takes his cues from Sting’s vocal delivery – contemplative songs are mixed whisper quiet, while more raucous songs still retain detail, with every member of the orchestra individually represented through the Clair i5 PA. We’ll hear more from Howard Page next issue as he takes us through mix and PA tuning techniques. In the meantime, head online to the AT website for a look at the Abbey Road Symphonicity rehearsals.

IN BRIEF The Wharfedale Titan 12 speaker can be used as a floor monitor, an array, or mounted on a stand.

The cabinet is moisture-resistant, making it ideal for outdoor gigs and festivals, and the side handles sport a rubberised coating to avoid slippage in the wet.

The Titan series even provides basic mixing functions; with a variety of direct line/mic and RCA input options, with overall balance and tonal controls. The amplifier supplies 250W RMS or 500W peak to the woofer, while a more conventional Class-A/B amplifier, rated at 50W RMS or 100W peak, drives the tweeter.

Price: $799.

LSW: (02) 9789 0444 or www.lswonline.com.au

ATAT 10 10

Finding ways to streamline the different aspects of designing, transporting and setting up complex audio systems is a constant challenge for sound companies. ATK Audiotek in the US handles events such as the Super Bowl, political conventions, the Grammy Awards and the Academy Awards, and recently instituted a new system design approach revolving around a single type of power amplifier to drive all types and brands of speakers. To bring this design strategy to fruition, ATK purchased 450 <<Powersoft>> Digam K10 Aesop-equipped amplifiers to drive its inventory of JBL VerTec speaker systems, amongst others.

Production Audio Services: (03) 9264 8000 or info@productionaudio.com.au

JoeCo has announced the arrival of its Blackbox Player. Able to replay 24 channels of audio at up to 24-bit/96k, the BlackBox Player is the first dedicated multi-channel playback device specifically developed to replay backing tracks or multiple surround stems for live shows. It can be triggered using timecode, with a footswitch or Qwerty keyboard, or controlled via MIDI commands, giving the live engineer, installation sound designer, musical director or artist full control of the show at all times. Audio files can be stored on a standard USB2 drive, or Flash RAM drive.

National Audio Systems: 1800 441 440 or sales@nationalaudio.com.au

JBL Professional has introduced the latest suspension hardware accessories for its VerTec subcompact line arrays. The VerTec hardware enables quick assembly of variable curvature vertical or modular constantcurvature horizontal line arrays.

In addition to the standard VT4886-AF array frame – for suspending up to 24 boxes – and the VT4886-UB and UB1, the line of equipment now includes the VT4886-SF short frame, the VT4886-HB horizontal bar, and VT4886-DF88 and VT4886-DF89 downfill frames. Application flexibility ensures VT4886 and VT4883 elements provide effective sound design tools for performance audio facility system designers.

JBL also has a new active loudspeaker – the EON515XT

– which extends the reach of the current EON technology by lowering the noise floor and adding user-selectable EQ control. The two-way EON515XT incorporates a JBL 2414H high-frequency neodymium compression driver, a 15-inch JBL 265F-1 Differential Drive dual-voice-coil woofer and a Crown Class-D amplifier.

Input sensitivity has also been increased by 10dB to benefit electronic instruments and DJ mixers.

The EON515XT offers two 1/ -inch TRS inputs, one 4 combination XLR/TRS input and an XLR output, for connecting another EON or for routing to external devices.

Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au

EXPERIENCE MORE .: REALISM :.

Audio-Technicaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new stereo condensers, the BP4025 & AT8022, introduce an innovative space-saving capsule design. In a compact, elegant housing, each offers the pristine sound quality & spatial impact of a live sound field.

Whatever your broadcasts & performances demand, experience more. audio-technica.com

BP 4025 FEATURES

AT 8022 FEATURES

MORE INFO?

t -BSHF EJBQISBHN DBQTVMFT FYDFQUJPOBMMZ MPX OPJTF t 1IBOUPN QPXFS PQFSBUJPO GPS VTF XJUI QSPGFTTJPOBM equipment t *OOPWBUJWF DPJODJEFOU DBQTVMF DPOÃ¥HVSBUJPO GPS 9 : stereo image in a compact housing t 4XJUDIBCMF MPX GSFRVFODZ SPMM PGG E# QBE

t *OOPWBUJWF DPJODJEFOU DBQTVMF DPOÃ¥HVSBUJPO GPS 9 : stereo image in a compact housing t 0QFSBUFT PO CBUUFSZ PS QIBOUPN QPXFS GPS VTF XJUI pro or consumer equipment t *ODMVEFT CBMBODFE 9-3 UZQF VOCBMBODFE NN 534 DBCMFT t 4XJUDIBCMF MPX GSFRVFODZ SPMM PGG

Technical Audio Group 1

E. info@tag.com.au W. www.tag.com.au

AT 11

FEATURE

GIGPIGLET’S TOUR DIARY

PART TWO – WEST COAST USA In this second instalment of Gareth ‘Gigpiglet’ Stuckey’s Brooke Fraser US tour diary, AT gets the low-down on what makes some of the best (and worst) US venues tick.

Text: Gareth Stuckey

AT 12

LONDON TO LA Tuesday 30th November: The last few days have been good times: a couple of great days off in Chicago, my first Thanksgiving dinner and some sightseeing, including going to the top of Willis Tower – the tallest structure in the US. Then it was off to London for a one-off show at the Scala. I was mixing there not a month ago for Tim Finn so I knew what I was in for. Weirdly, it was nice to be around some whinging poms again for a couple of days. Back to reality, I guess! Then, no sooner had we acclimatised to the sub-zero temperatures (sure! I’ll never acclimatise to that) than it was back to LA for more shows.

It’s funny how 10 hours on a plane can bring you back to the reality of your life – one day it’s all fun and games and the next you find yourself sitting on a flight, doing your tax, writing this article and counting how many days you’ve slept at home this financial year (less than 10 so far). Once we touch down in LA, we’ll have another two days ‘off,’ so to speak. That will be nice. I have some people to see, meetings to attend, friends to catch up with… but is it really a day off if you’re in a hotel on Beverly Blvd and home is in a different time zone?

THE EL RAY – LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Thursday 2nd December: Now this place is an institution.

The El Ray was a theatre in the ’50s, and a live music venue for nearly 20 years. It’s not on ‘the strip’ but I’ve seen a video of Metallica playing here (on their Ride the Lightning tour I think it was – the house guys remember it) so the place has certainly got some vibe about it.

We bump in from the street, and all our freight arrives from Chicago and London on time. I know what to expect here: PM5Ds at both FOH and Monitors, while the PA is a RATtrap – a bit of an LA staple. Dave Rat started the company in the ’80s, looking after bands like Black Flag before moving onto the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam. Like a bit of a Lee Conlon/Revolver Audio type scenario in Australia, Dave designed and built the equipment himself back in the ’80s when a lot of the gear simply wasn’t available. The RATtrap was one of those products borne of necessity, and I can see why it did so well in the ’90s. It was loud – like sledgehammer loud – with a similar amount of finesse. While the show this night sounded fine, I could never get the details out. The drum reverbs didn’t seem to work (they sounded like they were either ‘on’ or ‘off ’ – but didn’t seem to have any decay or tail.

The vocal delays either couldn’t be heard at all, or seemed to jump offensively out of the mix. By halfway through the set I resigned myself to this fact, opened another beer and mixed a ‘loud dumb’ rock show!

After the show I got to thinking about just how far PAs have evolved since the RATtrap was built, and how much our expectations have changed in that time (both as engineers and punters). What was fine in the ’90s – big and loud, and if you could hear the vocal, then that was great – is now the absolute bottom rung of our expectations. People expect studio quality sound all the time nowadays, and it’s fair enough too. We have the technology, so why shouldn’t they? It does, however, mean that PA companies, venues and engineers have to keep up!

RIO THEATRE – SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA Saturday 4th December: From the beginning Dave is lovely, and when I say Dave, I mean all of them. There are four Daves here... the FOH and monitors techs, Lighting

Designer (LD) and venue rep are all named Dave. What are the odds of that? One of these Daves (I’m not sure which one) recognises me from a past gig in Australia. He usually tours with the Polyphonic Spree, and we recount a particularly difficult show at Playground Weekender earlier this year.

I was there tour managing The Cribs (as my buddy Johnny Marr was playing with them). What ended up happening as the stage fell apart was that I became the monitor engineer, patching guy, and all-round make-it-happen guy… Bjorn Again played before us, and Polyphonic Spree afterwards.

Simply put, the stage was a mess. No one really knew what was going on, and I eventually stepped in when the systems monitor guy couldn’t get lead vocal to the centre send…

“Really?” I said. “It’s metering on the console, it’s metering on the crossover, it’s metering on the amp, so it’s pretty well got to be a speaker cable, yes? Get me a speaker cable now and run it straight to the wedge.” And then, lo and behold, it worked! Who would have thunk it? Troubleshooting is one of the most important skills you need as a live engineer. But I digress…

The PA today is some local proprietary thing… it sounds okay. But then I walk down the front and it sounds completely different. I walk over to the side of the auditorium and it sounds different again. Everywhere I walk it sounds different. The coverage is so uneven it’s embarrassing.

What I would love to see here is the PA lifted up in the air.

They have rigging points for the job: there’s a front bar for lighting; they have six boxes a-side (well actually it’s four a-side and then some strange stereo in-fill set up that I choose to mute), and all the boxes have rigging on them.

Nearly every PA in the world sounds better if it’s hung. If you can get the boxes above people’s heads and shoot down at them, whether it’s a line array or a point source, you get more direct coverage to everyone. Each person’s ears have a more direct line of sight to the PA: if you can look up and ‘see’ the PA, you can hear it too. Conversely, if it’s buried behind a whole lot of heads, then that’s what it will sound like too.

CAFÉ DE NORD – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Sunday 5th December: Oh dear…

I was here in the early 2000s with Paul Kelly and I remember it was horrible back then. And it truly is. In fact – I don’t think anything has changed since then. Correction… perhaps it’s a little worse.

There’s an Allen & Heath GL3300 at FOH that also controls the monitors, and sports my favourite thing of all time: channels that don’t work. The Presonus dynamics rack has Channels 1, 3 and 6 taped over. I presume that means they don’t work… so the eight channels of gates and compression we have on our spec is actually only five. Thanks for that.

For a little club gig (and we are talking little; this is maybe 250-cap) the place is fine apart for some basic issues. If only someone fixed these we’d be rolling. My list of ‘easy-to-fix-ifthe-house-guy-gave-a-shit’ complaints are, in no particular order: 1: Your FOH boxes are meant to sit upright. Don’t chain them to the roof on their side to give you better sight lines.

Speakers have feelings too – you can only hang a box on its side if it has a horn that you can rotate, and then you have to make sure you actually do it! Otherwise the 70x15-degree AT 13

Nolan Rossi (Monitors)

Troy Welstad

SYSTEM TUNING Everyone has a different way of tuning a PA system.

It’s one of those processes that has no ‘right way’ as such – if you get the result you need to mix the band well, then you’ve succeeded. Lots of guys use their lead vocal mic patched into a channel at FOH and perform the old tried and true ‘check one two’ technique and from there work on the graphic.

Others use pink noise and Smaart software (or similar) to analyse a room with something other than their ears. I find neither of these approaches really works for me. I like to use a CD (well, an iPod strictly speaking these days). I play a particular song – it’s not always the same song but one of a couple of options, depending on the artist’s style of music, to get a ‘feel’ for the PA. I’ll walk around the room, see if there are any big changes in particular places, then make any broad changes on the crossover gains, or system processor (Lake Processors or whatever is there) or onboard parametric EQ in a digital console.

Then I’ll skip the track back to the top, and make any fine (or not so fine) adjustments on the graphic.

Sometimes this involves next to nothing, sometimes I hack into nearly everything. I have a belief here that it doesn’t matter what your graphic looks like, it only matters what the PA sounds like. So don’t be afraid to boost and cut like crazy if it sounds right.

When I end up with the PA sounding like I want it to, then I can pretty well guess my EQ starting point for most instruments, and just do a line check for gain.

By using this method, I find that I really don’t need a soundcheck – if the PA sounds exactly how I want it to, and all the lines are there gained up, then I should be starting from where I always start.

This is a great way to treat a festival for instance, where you don’t really have any control – you can’t be ‘check one two-ing’ away for the whole 20-minute changeover. Line-check the band, roll your intro music, and EQ the system while the band are coming on stage!

AT 14

Brooke Fraser

(or whatever it is) dispersion is smashing into the ceiling and floor, and not getting to the audience at all, basically making your already shit PA sound even worse.

2: If monitors are being run from FOH, put the graphics at FOH too. What is with the thought process that puts the monitors graphics at the stage, when there’s no monitors console? I mean really, what am I meant to do, run down there when something feeds back? Why are you pretending that you have half a monitor rig, when really you don’t have one at all? I’d be much happier having a bit of average gear that I can reach to control, than nothing at all.

3: Label your stuff. If there are a couple of delay boxes running through matrixes 1 and 2 for the back of the room, let’s see those labelled on the console, and likewise on the dodgy DOD graphic that feeds them. At least if I know what it is I can try and make it sound okay.

4: Why, in a 250-cap room, do I need to be on a two-foot riser, so that everything sounds completely different to me than the rest of the audience?

5: We have 31 mic inputs, but today make that 24; that’s all that was available via the multicore (yes I can do without a bass mic and snare bottom, and even run keyboards in mono in small rooms – thanks for asking) but when we line check and three of these lines don’t work either, we’re now down over 10% on the channel count! It’s just not good enough. When I agreed to 24, I meant 24. I

Sean Cimino

didn’t mean 21. Where did this confusion come from?

THE DOUG FIR LOUNGE – PORTLAND, OREGON Tuesday 7th December: It’s cold in Portland – hell cold – and raining. And the load-in is a good distance around the corner from where the bus is parked. Portland is such a cool music city though. Actually, it’s just a cool city in general.

It has art, it has culture… and food (probably the best food scene in the USA). I have always thought that Portland is like Sydney: it’s very multicultural, the restaurants are amazing, nothing is open on a Monday, and there are lots of hippies. If Portland is Sydney, then I guess the Doug Fir is perhaps The Civic (in Sydney’s CBD).

It’s all rather classy: there’s a bar and restaurant and a band room downstairs in the basement, the space is really well looked after, the décor is great, load-in is horrible, and the PA is ‘state of the art’ (even though it’s 10 years old). It really could be the same place!

FOH consists of a pair of EAW650Zs each side – at least they’re the Z-series. (Whatever the mod was with the Z made a huge difference.) There are some subs under the stage (which we hate), but worse than this they’re also raised off the floor on car jacks? What? Not sure what they’re trying to avoid here – maybe some bottom-end coupling into the floor… of the basement? Monitors are also EAWs, controlled from the FOH console, which is a Midas Verona.

“ ”

I mean really, what am I meant to do, run down there when something feeds back?

Live at Lincoln Hall

Nolan [the Monitors engineer] and I do the usual console dance; we have it pretty well down by now. We use a couple of Y-splits to double Brooke’s vocal channels into extra input strips so that Nolan can have complete control over her inears. I let him run the soundcheck and set gains etc to suit. Even if you aren’t touring a monitor engineer, a couple of female-to-2x-male XLR Y-splits are a really good thing to have in your kit.

It’s a simple and small thing to keep around, and can really save your skin when you rock up to a venue that has no monitor console.

THE TRIPLE DOOR – SEATTLE, OREGON Wednesday 8th December: This place is another one of those odd ‘dinner and show’ setups… it’s all tiered levels, consisting of tables, chairs and booths. I certainly get the sense from a fan’s perspective that I would like to see a show here, but as an artist, I don’t think I would like to play it. The things that makes it a great gig to go and see as a punter – excellent food, good service, bottle of wine on the table – are the very things that make it a difficult show to play (and mix).

Think: The Basement in Sydney, only twice the size… and, of course, a much better PA. There are JBL Vertec boxes, six-a-side, some delay and in-fill speakers, and the awesome (albeit outdated) Yamaha PM1D at FOH. The console is set up such that the second layer consists of duplicates of all the channels, and a tablet PC then controls monitors on stage referencing these channels. All we share is gain, and everything else is independent. Good enough for me, even

if mixing monitors from a touchscreen tablet sounds like some evil detention task set by a sadistic teacher at sound school. I’m sure Nolan will be all over it this night.

I have never been a huge fan of the PM1D – I guess as a band FOH guy I’ve never really had the need to be. The ability to do almost anything (or multiples of anything) has made them a favourite among monitor engineers and live theatre types (I think it’s still the only console out there that can do 48 mixes). Yamaha has only recently discontinued this console, which immediately led to a conversation about them replacing it. If they made another console of this style it would be in direct competition with the Midas XL8, but I guess that’s always been the battle line in the live console market hasn’t it: Yamaha or Midas? So I guess it’s almost inevitable that they’ll develop something new, but how big is the market that the PM5D doesn’t already cover I wonder?

VENUE – VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLOMBIA Thursday 9th December: We get back on the tour bus and head over the Canadian border again. As I mentioned last issue, I do like Canadians. They’re just friendlier, more laid back – on reflection, I think they just remind me of Australians more. Things seem easier to do here.

We pull the bus up in the back alley to loadin direct to stage. The house crew are in there putting the monitor system and FOH console in. I guess on the weekends this place is a ‘dance

club’ where they pack the place out on Friday and Saturday nights with a bad DJ and try and make some money (at someone else’s risk), with live bands on the other nights. Hey, it really does remind me of Australia!

The PA is typical club fodder: JBL Venue series, which isn’t really that bad. But what’s strange here is that there are three cabinets a side. And rather than being stacked three wide, they’re flown, in a ‘line’, namely, curved and everything, just like the guy who installed it would have seen at all the big concerts. This box has a dispersion of 60 degrees (horizontal) x 50 degrees (vertical) so hanging a line of it is never going to work, is it? Sure enough, the room sounded just like it looked: really uneven coverage, phasey weirdness at a couple of points, and lots of dead spots. I spent half an hour with a CD track playing – I like to tune systems with a recorded track [see the ‘System Tuning’ box item to find out what this is all about] – but didn’t really get anywhere.

I feel like I could have done a better job if I could have accessed the crossover, but it was an Ashly digital unit, all locked out and behind a panel.

So I resorted to doing a broad tune with the amp volumes… not ideal I know, but with no parametric at FOH (the console was an A&H GL3000) and no access to the crossover I didn’t have a lot of choice. Subs and high-mids both got wound back to 50% before the system sounded listenable… and then I laid into the graphic.

This is the kind of show where I was happy (and relieved) to have my vocal outboard chain with AT 15

What do you watch when you’re touring the US in a bus? Rattle and Hum of course.

me, which consists of a Midas XL42 preamp/EQ, followed by a BSS402 comp/limiter/de-esser, and a Klark-Teknik DN3030 graphic EQ. I wouldn’t have stood a chance here without this gear (especially the graphic on Brooke’s vocal). As it turned out, once I did a nasty system tune, everything went quite well. Monitors were run on a Soundcraft Spirit, which I haven’t seen for a while. It had one aux not working, which meant that Brooke’s in-ears had to be in mono, so Nolan was having a harder time than me. We got there though, blundered through soundcheck with everyone happy. This night was a real rock show – I remember thinking to myself: ‘It will be loud, and a bit dirty, but soon it will be over’.

THE CASBAH – SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Sunday 12th December: The last show! It feels like I’ve been writing this article forever! The Casbah is a real San Diego institution. Opened back in 1989, this place has seen the likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Ben Harper, Death Cab for Cutie, The Arcade Fire and countless others. It’s a proper West Coast dirty rock club: the carpet sticky, the ceiling low.

This show sees some added difficulties for us, mostly because it was added on to the end of the tour, so the logistics are a bit strange. The tour bus, for instance, is still driving back from Canada, so we flew out to LA. This means we’ve had to hire a backline from SIR, which shifts the goal posts a little. It’s a small room – 200 capacity – but the PA is decent, a Soundcraft GB2 for FOH and Monitors and an EV XLC array (though with only one box per side it’s not really an array is it?). I actually really like these boxes – they have a lovely clarity about them (even if they hiss a bit) and for acoustic-style music they work really well. I find their ‘presence’ really works nicely for vocals and acoustic guitars.

So the show rocked, everyone had a good time, we had to turn the aircon off in the quiet songs because it was so loud (yep – that’s how quiet she sings), but apart from that, we had a ball.

AT 16

YAHOO PROMO & THE FLIGHT HOME Monday 13th December: we drop by the Yahoo offices to do a quick bit of promo: record three songs acoustically in their ‘music room’ – which consists of two mics and a Zoom four-track recorder. Awesome! It really shows where consumer music is at right now… Even a multinational company doesn’t seem to see the benefits of spending money on audio. Incredible. As long as it gets recorded and comes out on the net, then it’s seen as a viable product.

Sitting on the plane home and reflecting on the tour, the thing that stands out most is just how good it was. The production values across the board were pretty damned good, and aside from a couple of simple things, most of the venues were really well equipped for their size. The tour has reminded me once again that the task of making engineers and bands happy at venues always involves the simple things. Every decent touring party can be flexible with specs to a point, as long as the gear is clean, organised, and in good working order. Point being, if a cable doesn’t work, put it somewhere separate from the rest, and get it fixed. If a channel or output on a console doesn’t work, get a tech in to sort it out. If a mic gets beaten up, buy a new grille for it etc.

This leads me to one final point. There’s a bad attitude that’s rife in Australia at the moment: “It’s just the house gear,” they say, so consequently it doesn’t get looked after. Worse than that, this is somehow becoming regarded as a default standard that’s almost to be expected. Venue owners don’t spend any money on it “’cause it just gets wrecked!”. One big plus to the unionised system in The States is that everyone is working for someone, and has a job to lose. So they have to do it well, with pride and respect. I feel like the freelance system here means that no one is accountable, and therefore nothing is accounted! Let’s turn this around shall we – and it starts with the engineers. Look after the gear, clean up after yourself (even as simple as pulling off the tape and zeroing the console). If something doesn’t work, complain about it and if it’s not fixed the next time you’re back, make a big deal of it. Let’s lift the standard so that when American engineers come into our venues we aren’t embarrassed!

621,& $&&85$&<

The Quested roll-call includes Abbey Road Studios, Berklee College of Music, Hans Zimmer, Sony Pictures, Sting, Enya, Carl Craig, UNKLE, The Neptunes, Michael Cretu (Enigma), Robert â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Muttâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Lange (AC/DC, Nickelback, Def Leppard), DJ Umek, Yello and thousands of others around the world. And, with affordable, self-powered near-field models such as the S6R, S7R and S8R, you can have legendary Quested accuracy and response in your project studio at an affordable price.

Check out these amazing specials and give your project studio the sonic accuracy it deserves.

12: 025( $))25'$%/( 7+$1 (9(5

RQO\

RQO\

D SDLU

D SDLU

*5($7 RQO\ 48(67('

D SDLU '($/6

S6R

S7R

S8R

RRP $1,995 pr

RRP $2,595 pr

RRP $3,995 pr

Dealers: QLD Musiclab (07) 3332 8188, Ellaways Underwood (07) 3290 5656 | NSW Bondi Intermusic (02) 9369 3922, Sounds Easy (02) 8213 0202, Musoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Corner (02) 4929 2829 | VIC Mannys (03) 9486 8555 | WA Kosmic Osborne Park (08) 9204 7577

Distributed by CMI Music & Audio (03) 9315 2244 Email: quested@cmi.com.au Web: www.cmi.com.au

AT 17

AT 18

jingletown welcome to

Green Day’s ‘clubhouse’ in Oakland, CA has been a secret warehouse hideaway for the band for some time now. But a new (second-hand) SSL console recently changed all that and now the place is a full-blown studio.

Text: Andy Stewart

Walking in off the street through the razor wire fence into a car park that seems big enough to host go-cart races – which I later discover it occasionally does – you might be forgiven for thinking the industrial premises you’ve just entered manufactures car parts or poker machines or something. Either that or it’s a drug cartel that’s none too keen on visitors. You’d certainly never pick it as the home base of one of the world’s biggest rock bands.

Just over the back fence is a frenetic eight-lane freeway and all around you in nearby businesses, semi-trailers back into giant warehouses, with little regard for people in cars. It’s not exactly tranquil. But hey, this is Oakland, the industrial sister city of San Francisco. If a car comes crashing through the back fence I wouldn’t be surprised.

Right up the back of the warehouse is the first clue that all is not as it seems behind these impenetrable tilt-slab walls. Painted on the modest doorway is a graffiti-styled mural of the guys from Green Day – with all three members pictured sitting down like they’ve just stepped out of the warehouse for morning smoko.

Buzzing the door prompts a quick response.

Suddenly the band breaks up – or at least the mural does. Billie Joe and Tré Cool disappear behind the opening door and Mike Dirnt is left on his lonesome wondering what happened.

Standing next to him in real life is Chris Dugan, the band’s engineer.

inner sanctum of Green Day’s world, replete with motorbikes, surfboards, more instruments and amps than you can poke a fretboard at, and three studios (at least two with their own control room). If you’re a Green Day fan this is Mecca.

One room in particular is filled to the rafters with literally hundreds of guitars and drums – it’s an impressive sight, and immediately my mind is drawn to how complicated the decision must be about which amp to use with which guitar and for which overdub. The options must be paralysing at times for Chris and the band. I had to ask…

Chris Dugan: Actually, not really. Billie [Joe Armstrong] sits and listens to guitar amps for hours on end and he basically knows all his instruments back to front. He has this crazy ear.

It’s the same with the other guys in the band. Tré [Cool] sits and tunes his drums like a madman.

He knows what heads to use and always wants his drums to sound awesome. He’s fastidious… and a very heavy hitter. The same goes for Mike [Dirnt]. Nothing gets past these guys in terms of their sound. When we get going in the studio all the sounds are already dialled up; I don’t have to worry about any of that stuff really... it all comes from the band. Everyone knows their gig – you don’t really have to say anything to them. As an engineer it’s hard to make sure everything sounds good sometimes – especially instruments – so having fantastic players and great instruments to mic up makes my life just so much easier.

“Come in man,” Chris motions politely. “I’m just in the control room doing some editing.”

Andy Stewart: Would you say the band and their raw instruments are essentially ‘the Green Day sound’?

With that I enter the Jingletown ‘clubhouse’, the

CD: Absolutely, it’s what you bring to the table

and how you play your instrument that matters most. And they’re so on top of all that stuff. They can play a song in the studio and just nail it, just like they do every night when they’re on tour. But they’re also equally as comfortable cutting tracks individually. Either way, they’re still gonna knock every song out of the park.

TRACKING GREEN DAY AS: What’s a typical Green Day recording session like for you in terms of tracking. How do songs kick off?

CD: Usually the guys have already worked on a demo at home, so most of the time they’ll come in with an idea already developed, show it to each other, jam it out, play it, and then, if it’s something that they want to proceed with, we’ll have a crack at it. On the last record [21st Century Breakdown] it was kind of a mix of both, whereas on the previous record [the smash hit American Idiot] we were essentially living in the studio for a while and at one point or another everything got miked up: the B3, the pianos… everything.

That way it was easy to record anything, anytime.

That’s the best thing about having your own space too, of course: we can just set the whole show up and leave it.

AS: Are things fairly set-and-forget once they’re set up or are you constantly moving things around and changing things?

CD: It depends. These guys have a different approach to each instrument, depending on the song. Having said that, for the most part it’s guitar, bass and drums so we’ll generally cut those first, starting with the drums. While we’re doing that, Billie’s always laying down a scratch guitar track. When the drums are finished we AT 19

usually remove everything, then typically go back and knock out guitars.

AS: Does the band ever track whole takes together?

CD: Yeah, we do. Although, we’re now getting into the habit of going back and getting right into recreating unique sounds at that point anyway. So often the original guitar performances aren’t used.

After we listen back Billie will often say, “Hey you know what? I think I might use the other amp for that.” So yeah, even when the band tracks as one, most of the time we still re-cut Billie’s part again anyway.

AS: You never run several amps together so you have choices later?

CD: No, we’ve never really done that. But that’s not to say we won’t in the future! The guys have this little side project band called The Foxboro Hot Tubs and on that record we did everything completely live in the studio. That was really cool and spontaneous. The guys basically wrote the songs right there and then and tracked them live, which was a blast.

AS: They’re all obviously great players. I can’t imagine that they couldn’t just get in there and nail most things pretty easily.

CD: They can and they do. They absolutely do.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, (BANG!) AS: Can we talk a bit more about your typical recording process for a Green Day song, assuming there’s such a thing? For instance, do they usually start with click tracks etc?

CD: Yeah, I mean if it’s a song they know the tempo of, we’ll usually setup a click… feel it, lift it up or down a few notches and get it right. A lot of stuff on the recent record [21st Century Breakdown] was played to a click track, but not right the way through ’cause the tempo often changed in the chorus. Butch Vig [who produced the album] had a little metronome app on his Mac that was really cool. He would just sit and tap it while we were playing the core tempos for different parts of the song.

AS: So how do you record the famous Green Day drum kit? Do you have a refined approach by now or is the sound of it still open to interpretation?

AT 20

Breakdown record I double-miked the toms, which was certainly different to what I’d done before. It was an experiment really, just to see how it sounded. Turned out I absolutely loved it.

I’ll probably continue to run with that idea for a while.

AS: Keeping the bottom skins on I assume?

CD: Yep, Tré’s a big double-head kind of guy, so they were all miked much like you would a snare drum. You just flip the phase. The difference in the double-miked sound was particularly noticeable on the floor tom. It was just huge sounding, almost too big – so much more sustain, particularly when the drum was in tune. Actually, in reality, it was a bit of a problem because the note was often too long for the speed of the song.

The floor tom was just going boooooom and by the time the sub finally calmed down it was like, “Wow, that’s a lot of low end!” No need to EQ-in extra bottom-end that’s for sure.

AS: I guess it’s the same sort of mentality as two mics on a guitar amp, where you can pretty much EQ the amp with just fader positions…

CD: Exactly, and that’s how we do the guitars too.

If there’s no reason to use EQ, I don’t. On guitars, I’ll always put an SM57 up. It’s my standard reference mic, like NS-10s in speaker land. I just put it on and go, ‘Oh okay, if I put a [AKG] 414 or a [Sennheiser MD] 421 on this I won’t have to touch a thing!’ I typically do that with the snare drum too just to get going.

ROOM TO MOVE AS: Does Tré’s drum kit get miked to hell in terms of room mics?

CD: Certainly on this last record I kind of went overboard because we had the space. We were at Ocean Way in LA. It was my first time working there so I selfishly put up more room mics than I figured we’d ever need. It was more about me listening to the room really than needing the ambient channels, but I didn’t go completely nuts.

But funnily enough, when I eventually gave Chris [Lord Alge] the three stereo pairs to use in the mix, I think he used all of them in the end. For fun we flew some RCA ribbon mics way up in the air just for an effect, which was kinda cool.

CD: I don’t really go for ‘a sound’ but perhaps what you’re referring to – what you’re hearing – is just Tré beating the drums the way he does.

He’s got the heaviest hands I’ve heard in my life.

There are certain drums we just can’t use because he hits so damn hard, which is a good thing and a bad thing… bad for his snare drums that’s for sure. We use Dunnett drums these days that are just amazing. They’re perfect for him. My general approach to the kit is simply to capture it as a whole.

The main recording space at Ocean Way is deceptive – where you put your mics in the room isn’t where you might expect. It’s a great drum room, almost the perfect room. It just sounds so good – live and big. The funny thing about it is, listening to the drum kit, I almost got caught off guard because it didn’t initially sound as big to me as it did later. My first reaction was to stick my mics at the back of the room, against the advice of my assistant who was going, “Umm… I don’t think you want to go that far.” He was right… the first setup sounded god-awful – just too big.

About halfway into the room was the sweet spot.

AS: With conventional mics and setups?

AS: Were the mics always facing the kit?

CD: Pretty much. On the recent 21st Century

CD: All apart from the two RCAs that faced

sideways, with their nulls facing the kit.

AS: Do you compress the kit while you’re tracking, or is Tré more of a Dave Grohl-type drummer, where there’s so much consistency in his performance you don’t need to compress things much?

CD: That’s exactly what it’s like. I used to try to compress the kick and snare drum but there’s actually no need to at all. There were a couple of slower songs on 21st Century that we compressed for effect, but only after the recording. For the most part, given the nature of Green Day’s songs, Tré plays like a machine so I tend to just let the drum kit do what it does.

AS: What about signal chains for the kit? I noticed a Neve BCM10 in the other room earlier… is that ever called into action?

CD: BCM10s are usually involved, for sure, whether it’s here or at Ocean Way. Let’s see, on the last record I used a Vintek 1073 preamp for the snare drum, the kick drum chain was just a Chandler TG channel, overheads were 1073s run through these crazy solid-state Pultec-styled EQs called Lang Peq-2s. Toms were all API pres.

Room mics were all through 1073s.

AS: Why APIs on the toms?

CD: They’re punchier – at least that’s how I hear them – and they’re nice and clear. I know everyone’s got their own take on all that stuff, but with Tré, because his performance is usually dominated by hi-hat, kick, snare and a lot of

cymbals for a good portion of the songs, when they’re hit, the toms need to be absolutely crystal clear.

AS: How do you control cymbal spill into other mics during the recording – Tré seems to be really smashing some of that stuff. Does that ever pose a problem? I’m presuming you’re not putting fake cymbals up or anything like that?

CD: No, though it would be fun to try that with him. But it works out. Tré – and this goes for all the guys – really cares about the process, so if something hinders it or crosses the line I’ll typically say something like, “Hey, I think that cymbal’s just too hot,” and he’ll go, “Cool, I’ve got a quieter one… try this.”

Again, like the guitar collection out there in the next room, Tré’s cymbal collection could quite literally fill this room, and in all honesty and on a very serious note, he’s got a reason why he buys each one and he knows how each one sounds. He’s got quiet cymbals and even quiet hi-hats, which he needs because when he plays he generally murders them, and they used to get into the snare mic constantly.

“

If the phase isn’t quite right in your two mic setup, my trick is to nudge the cabinet around. It’s easier than messing with your mics all the time.

”

I found a really great mic to eliminate the hi-hat spill though, which you should try yourself: the Telefunken M80. It’s a vocal mic: it’s super tight, it’s bumped on the top end – though not in an obnoxious way at all – and it’s nice and smooth.

We did a shootout one day and Tré was like: “Hey let’s try this one with the fancy grille on it.” It

AT 21

The ‘Trident’ control room has lots of toys including a ProTools HD rig with Apogee converters, Focusrite, Neve, UREI, Langevin, Altec, Avalon and dbx gear in the racks, and Ampex and Otari tape machines.

There’s also an immaculate Neve BCM 10 (pictured left).

was the obvious winner on the day and I haven’t looked back since…

RECORDING IN CANS

Generally I find spill is less of a problem when you don’t try and close mic everything too much. I know that sounds ironic, but my general approach with his kit is not necessarily go for a very close mic sound where everything has got its individual sound and you have to worry about bleed. I tend to go a bit more aerial with my mics and overheads become more like spot mics. If you hear him playing, he’s taking all these weird contraptions and forming a balanced sound from it, and that’s really what I’m trying to reproduce – a balanced sound.

Chris Dugan: We always track with cans. We did a funny thing with U2 at Abbey Road once. U2 – as you probably know – like to record with wedges, which was completely different for us. We tried it but quickly discovered that we’re definitely die-hard headphone fans. It just was a very odd experience for the guys. They weren’t into it at all! Live they now use in-ears too, so wedges are completely off the scene for Green Day… the last world tour was the first time everyone wore in-ears and they loved it.

AS: What do you do with that remarkable kick drum of his?

In the studio they’ve got little mixers but to be honest I’m not too sure who likes what in their cans now.

Billie likes a lot of guitars, I know that much, and lots of drums. It’s usually up way too loud for me to even put their cans on my head.

AS: Four and a half feet?

AT 22

CD: I do an inside mic (a Shure Beta 52) and an outside mic (a Neumann U47FET) – pretty standard stuff. I also use one of those Yamaha [SKRM-100] sub-kick things… the 47 is usually back about four and half feet from the kick drum.

CD: Yep, and with no ‘tent’ protection or anything like that. It works out fine. The kick drum Tré used for a great portion of the last record was this big 24-inch Gretsch, with no front head. I’m not a fan of doing that; I love front heads on kick drums. I like the resonance they produce. But this particular drum just had this magical quality. It was enormous sounding.

BILLIE JOE’S GUITARS AS: What about guitars? Some of the sounds you and Billie get are pretty huge. Is there a lot of complexity to what you do to them?

CD: No, I don’t do much. There’s no science behind it – nothing weird going on as you’ve probably surmised by now. It’s all about his amps.

They’re amazing. He’s got these old Marshalls that we’ve been running of late: a 100W cab and a 300W cab. On the 100W cab I’ve been running a [Shure SM] 57 and a Royer 121 together, right next to each other, doing what we talked about earlier; blending the two together to get the tone we wanted. On the last record I was also summing the two of these together to tape. And those two were going through the Chandler Germanium stuff. Bitchin’ EQs those.

On the other cab were a C-414 and a 57 amp’ed through Neve 1073s, and on that particular cabinet I lucked out. I didn’t have to use any EQ, just the two mics. That was it. The sound was bigger and heavier… I used to look at guitars when I was younger and think, ‘you’ve gotta shape the sound and stuff ’. That’s what got me in trouble in my early recording days. When I listen back to that stuff now I go, “Oh, what was I doing?” I was overcomplicating a sound to try and achieve something.

Basically, if the amp’s good enough, all you’ve got to do is make sure you’re hitting the speaker right, capturing the notes right and getting a big sound.

I certainly don’t want to take what Billie plays and make it sound smaller. You just want to recreate

The Neve BCM 10.

Chris Dugan at the J-series SSL.

an amp’s sound without colouring it. Just capture it with a blend of two mics – works for me. And one thing, if the phase isn’t quite right in your two mic setup, my trick is to nudge the cabinet around. It’s easier than messing with your mics all the time.

AS: Do you compress Billie’s guitars much?

CD: Not at all. Chris [Lord Alge] might during mixing, but I certainly don’t. I’ve never really been a fan of it. I know some people do and totally love it. A good easy reference for me is when you’re able to look at the tracking in ProTools and see the waveform of the guitar amp sitting there chugging along and it’s all solid level.

Mostly I don’t see or hear the need to compress, and I don’t want to make anything even remotely smaller than it should be. When a song’s slower and mellower we might only put compression on the guitars as an effect to create a neater sound.

On the big, distorted, heavy sound though there’s no real need to. It’s the same with drums. Unless it’s for effect I don’t use any.

BASS MIKE AS: What about bass? Is this yet another example of a pretty straightforward setup?

CD: Mike has a very unique sound. He’s got a tough gig man – he’s gotta cut through all those guitars and a wall of drum kit, so he likes a lot of bite.

AS: He seems to like to almost pull the strings off when he plays, from what I’ve seen…

CD: He likes a lot of 1 – 2kHz. AS: Is there a lot of distortion work going on or not?

CD: It’s funny, when we demo I distort his bass, but when we track a record, I don’t. CLA [Chris Lord Alge] told me he’s got this really cool trick he does to Mike’s tone where he runs it flat through a 1073 for some extra bite. I’ve heard it soloed out during the mix and it’s never really distorted, but it ends up working.

What I try to do is never go too far; that’s always my concern. So I play it kind of on the conservative side. We’ll always have a miked cabinet and a DI – a Vintek – and both these channels typically go through a Distressor. The amp usually has a Neumann U47FET and a [Sennheiser] 421 on it. Normally I don’t use a two-mic setup on Mike’s bass cabinet but on the recent record it worked. There were a lot of phase problems with those two mics though. It was tough getting them set to go.

AS: Because the 421’s capsule is set back from the grille?

CD: Yeah exactly, it’s a little deceptive… the 421 has this big housing but the capsule is actually set back a bit. I had to pull the mic apart to figure that out! When we finally got it right, it sounded great. Again, like how we perceive API gear to operate; that 421 has gotta capture that bite, that clack and clatter. I’m using the U47 to capture the nice warm tone. It worked out perfectly on 21st Century.

AS: Does Mike have much distortion in the amp sound itself?

CD: Not really, no. He overloads his preamp through an SPT, and he’s got this old P-bass that’s super hot – a very loud bass. I make sure the DI channel is as clean as possible; I certainly don’t add to the distortion levels. He could be overdriving his preamp naturally ’cause he plays really hard in fast songs. The guy’s forearm is the size of my calf, he picks so hard for so long. Live he runs through a little booster pedal in parts where it does get a little crunchy.

AS: It sounds like the band doesn’t really require much in the way of preamp gain anyway!

CD: We use a lot of pads!

VOCAL CHAIN AS: What about Billie Joe’s vocals? What does he sing into generally here?

CD: On this last record he sang into a Neumann U47 going through a Chandler LTD-1 and the Retro 176.

AS: My favourite compressor at the moment...

CD: Yeah, and I’ll tell you, since this record – and we did this on another project too – I run bass through it… I’m gonna forever run bass through it, they’ve sold me on these.

21ST CENTURY MIXING AS: Chris Lord Alge mixed 21st Century. Did you converse or have much to do with him before he got hold of it?

AT 23

The main recording room at the rear of the complex is tied to the ‘Trident’ control room (which is behind the photographer). Here, drinks are served at the bar under the stars and stripes.

CD: No. I don’t know what he likes actually, and frankly I don’t want to know. That way I can just do what I do, you know? There’s enough pressure knowing it’s going to him already! It’s like, ‘Shit, I’ve gotta make this sound good; I’m not gonna skimp on anything’. To know that he likes a particular mic on something would only drive me more nuts.

American Idiot tour. We were just kinda all living here at that stage and the Trident console that’s in the studio up the hall replaced an SSL 4k. In the control room we’re in here there used to be this tiny little digital board.

I was there for a lot of the mixes and hung out with him. I was doing some last-minute editing while they were mixing in the other room and he’s a fun guy to work with and talk shop with – like we’re doing now. I thought maybe I’d given him too many room mics – too much of the same thing – but he was really into what I gave him. He likes what I do, so it’s worked out great.

CD: Yeah, pretty much. The guys have the ultimate say, of course – they’re the owners of the place after all. Anything that we get or install I put to them first and they say yes or no. We try and not go crazy, but again it certainly helps that they’re into the recording process – they love this place! You find some artists who really don’t care about the geeky stuff but we can geek out and talk about this stuff for hours!

JINGLETOWN’S EQUIPMENT LIST AS: Are you mostly recording straight into ProTools here?

CD: Yeah. Although the plan is to hopefully start using tape machines again [Jingletown has at least two Otari MTR-90 MkIIs]. We did on the last record with mixed results. It’s a funny thing; I’ve always been a fan and always wanted to utilise tape but on this last record we did a shootout and everybody chose the digital recording over the tape. I think the preference changes depending on the song too. These were fast songs where we needed transients and definition. On the slower stuff we ended up using tape for the drums and bass.

AS: When did you get the J-Series SSL? CD: As soon as we got off the road from the The

AT 24

AS: So in terms of this place, is it your job to organise what gear goes in here?

AS: You mentioned the other day when we first spoke here that you’re going to open Jingletown to the public? I imagine that will change things a bit.

CD: Yeah! I’m pretty excited about it to be honest.

AS: What prompted that idea?

CD: Well, when the guys are on tour for 18 months at a time, and then take a break to decompress for a while the place basically sits idle. The option this time around was to either shut down the power, turn everything off and lock the place up again, or open it and, you know… let our friends from the Bay Area have access to it. There was a time when we were tracking the last record in LA that some friends of ours needed a studio but unfortunately we just weren’t set up. There was stuff everywhere

here basically – amps and fancy guitars and stuff… that you don’t really want other people particularly having access to. It’s your own personal stuff, you know?

So we were sort of kicking ourselves at the missed opportunity for them and us. It would have been great to let our buddies in and use the place and get something out of it.

Before this place became a full-blown studio this was just our clubhouse you see. That room next door had probably twenty motorcycles in it, two of which were dismantled. The other room out there was the jam room and we even had cars out the front that we were working on. Now that we actually use most of the space for recording it’s a bit more of a business in here. That’s not to say it won’t turn into that again at some point…

Prior to us moving in here and setting up the clubhouse – when we were in here working on American Idiot as clients – we kind of commandeered the place. We got so comfortable here in fact that we even had go-kart races in the carpark... it was pretty insane.

AS: What?

CD: The go-kart races were amazing. You’re so close to the ground: you’re fast, you’re sliding… even the owner got involved. He’d bring all his interns out and make everyone move their cars and built these elaborate tracks.

Since it became Green Day’s clubhouse, we’ve always included some sort of fun into our work – some sort of release. We’re still doing that in here now with the motorcycles and everything.

Everyone’s got a bike…

FREE PHONE: 1 800 251 367 email: professional@ambertech.com.au website: www.ambertech.com.au

TM7 Loudness Meter

Reference Standard Family

AWS 924/948

Nucleus

BM5A MKII

601A Active Studio Monitor

H E A R B E L I E V E

Spark

Workhorse 5000

Recoil Stabilizer

®

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK AND WIN ! WEEKLY GIVEAWAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!

To join us on Facebook, search for Amber Technology and

our Facebook Page AT 25

TUTORIAL

PRODUCTION ABDUCTION This is what can happen when the music and the medium take over…

Text: James Wilkinson

Sometimes you wonder if you’re an idiot, and other times it seems by official decree that you’re dumb as they come. I (being a Libran) am always weighing up the two alternatives with much consideration, but after completing a recent project the votes are in and it’s a clear majority. I am a Wally.

You can try to be smart: plan, research, discuss and make decisions based on experience, but often it’s not until later that you realise just how wrong and misguided you were. I recently recorded an album where each of these so-called considerations combined to build a ‘thing’ that grew and grew until eventually it was out of control. Sometimes the sum of the parts fit together to make a creature that behaves beyond the force of your will. “It’s alive!”

In my teens the humble four-track portastudio was a sophisticated device and it took my remedial brain some time to comprehend how four tracks of audio fitted on to a compact cassette. To the naïve soul of a genuine adolescent, unquantifiable joy was possible by committing your genius – in the form of verbal expletives – to tape, ejecting the cassette, turning

AT 26

it over and then listening to what you’d just recorded backwards. Now that was a revelation.

Dropping in and out, bouncing down and mixing using the primitive EQ amongst a sea of hissing tape noise was (and still is) a complicated, focused and high-risk operation. Decisions were permanent – there was no turning back. No undo function. Many an urban classic was ruined when, in a conflicted synaptic understanding of the technology and what was happening musically, all or part was erased by that final overdub. And sometimes the machine literally chewed the tape. Recording on a four-track recorder was serious stuff and sometimes it meant the life or death of your music!

NO GOING BACK By comparison, today’s digital audio workstations offer vastly more tracks, a whole range of options with which to edit, manipulate and automate your material, and in doing so give a much broader framework for the creation of recorded music. But is all this liberty a good thing?

Let’s get one thing abundantly clear: I’m not here to propose that ‘young people of today have too

many audio recording choices and they should learn to cut their teeth recording local church sermons on a Fisher Price cassette recorder with one hand tied behind their back’. Not at all. Rather, I’d like to simply relate a recent experience of what can happen when a recording starts to grow beyond your capacity to manage it – let alone mix it – in the hope that others might learn from my mistakes.

TO INFINITY & BEYOND For the obsessive type, driven to attain his or her own unique standard of achievement, the world of digital recording, with its ability to infinitely finesse a performance or sound, is a powerful and sometimes dangerous proposition. Around the planet, as you read these words, there are solitary types hunched over laptops, scrutinising, dreaming and constructing elaborate works of art that no-one will ever hear, engulfed in a process that enslaves them to work and rework their idea forever and ever and ever. I for one support these individuals in their quest but there’s a juncture where the technology of composition becomes the platform for addiction, and anything addictive is potentially unlawful!

A recent experience of mine illustrates just how easy it can be for an engineer or musician to get tangled in the digital recording process – what follows here is a reflection on a recent project where I was employed to record, edit and mix an album of 13 songs.

NO-LIMIT ‘60s The artist is a friend of many years. He studied classical music in Australia and overseas, releasing a double CD of his work a few years ago – one written for contemporary classical ensemble and the other a piano concerto – which I helped to edit and mix. The current album is a collection of original pop tunes, some of which were written a decade ago, inspired at times by The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Stereolab and others. The music is positive, elaborate and densely composed with many additional instrumental and vocal parts built around a six-piece band. His recordings (although acoustic in nature) are subject to a lot of reinterpretation by computer. The brief was to engineer the recording at a studio after which he’d take it home to audition and edit the takes, followed by more studio overdubs and then mixing. Simple!

As the musical inspiration was albums mostly recorded in the ’60s we went for an approach that drew upon these recordings, choosing a studio that, in addition to being able to track the band live, had recording equipment similar to the era concerned. Plans to use a multitrack tape machine were swiftly ditched when it broke down, and the entire album was recorded instead directly to ProTools HD. Being able to employ a large session band (like The Wrecking Crew as The Beach Boys did) wasn’t an option financially, so all additional parts, except the string arrangements, were done as separate overdubs.

For overdubs the approach was to record each instrument with both near and ambient microphones, and use the natural acoustic to blend the ensemble by controlling how near or far the instrument sounded in the soundstage. My intention was to fabricate an ensemble and its surrounds using only my genius and ProTools HD, the only problem being… I am no genius.

To counteract the limitations of 64 simultaneous tracks in ProTools 8 LE (which the composer used at home), each multitrack recording – from the original tracking to

overdubs – was done in a separate session. A stereo mix of the completed parts and a click track were used as the basis for recording all the additional overdubs, and to keep things clearly defined, three ‘groups’ were established to separate the different elements: Band, Orchestra and Vocals.

Dividing the musical elements into these categories made it easier to work on; it also meant that there were three overdub sessions associated with each of the 13 songs, or in all, nearly 40 independent sessions. When it came to mixing, these three overdub sessions would then be merged into one on a ProTools HD system.

GROUP SESSIONS The first tracking session involved five days recording with the musicians playing together in the studio. The band consisted of drum kit, electric bass, two electric guitars, two keyboards, vibraphone and guide vocals. After recording the ensemble and some basic overdubs, roughly 36 tracks for each song had been recorded in ProTools, or 468 separate audio tracks for the album.

The second session was all about vocals. The songs had been auditioned and edited into shape by this point, to which we recorded lead vocals, vocal overdubs and a choir of five singers. The largest total of tracks for the vocal session on one song was 32. Now we were sitting at around 780 separate audio tracks for the album… and climbing. (I would have left the vocals till last, given the complexity of the music, but the main female vocalist was leaving the band so we had no choice.)

Session 3 involved overdubbing guitar, keyboards, piano and percussion, using at least two tracks for each individual part.

Total in all: around 24 tracks per song, bumping us up to four figures – over 1000 tracks for the album.

Session 4 was recorded over two days and it was big – with clarinets, saxophones, flutes, piano, percussion, vibraphone, trombones and trumpets all tracked separately. A five-piece string ensemble sounded fantastic using a Blumlein pair of ribbon microphones, but again, no less than two mics were deployed and recorded for each instrument, with the total track count for the larger songs for this session alone comprising over 60 tracks. Is anyone adding all this up?

The fifth and final session was arranged to re-record some bass parts with the band’s new bass player, backing vocals with the band’s new keyboard and vocalist, and other sundry instruments. On average about 16 tracks were added to each song during this session, and in total the album now consisted of about 1500 individual tracks.

I know it might sound a little weird to be adding the track counts of each song together to create one large number like this, but that’s just the point. I wasn’t, and that was the problem. I was aware that the sessions were getting large but I was also determined to see my original concept carried through regardless, rather than change tack mid-course away from what was an ever-increasing track count and workload.

LOSING TRACK In total all the larger songs were pushing 170 tracks, which although well within the 200-odd track limit of a ProTools HD2 system, were certain to generate a major time crunch given there was only one person to prep them into shape – me. If, for example (as was pointed out later during the mixing sessions) only one minute was spent on each track – and let’s face it, who only spends one minute on a track AT 27

– just editing and auditioning all the tracks on one song would take about three hours to cover every element in the mix. Add to this, fades, edits, beat correction, re-pitching and anything else that might be an issue, multiply that by the album’s 13 tracks and it was going to take a minimum of three days just to review the material we’d recorded, and in reality, more like a week! We set aside two weeks to compile and pre-mix the sessions, but even this turned out to be a gross underestimate. At the end of 12 long days I’d only addressed the fundamentals, i.e.: is everything in order and ready to go? And what hasn’t been conveyed thus far makes these technical issues at hand even more complicated.

“

How do you say: “Stop, it’s finished!” when the digital medium perpetually promotes your unbridled desire to keep recording!

”

HOUSE OF CARDS In making an album, the prospect of success or failure most often hangs in fragile balance. From experience the themes of money, creativity and personal relationships are central to any project’s success. If one or all of these elements are missing it’s not uncommon for everything to be compromised or, at worst, laid waste. This project took over two years to complete, and two years is a long time to keep up the momentum of a record, as a lot of unexpected things happen in that time.

When it came to do the majority of the editing and mixing, not surprisingly a lot of the sessions had become ‘creative works in progress’. The composer had re-worked some of the music into sound collages using and effecting material from different sessions, and as a result there were now two new songs on the album (making a total of 15). There had also been a lot of doubling of parts using different takes (which pushed one song to 275 tracks!) and various versions made of the same session with less than explicit names. Files were missing or spread across four different hard drives and Audiosuite processing had overwritten the original sessions’ regions. Politely put, it was a total mess.

For better or worse, the logic that underwrites computers is not always conducive to the needs of the creative artist, and simple things – like what you name your session – can sometimes be the difference between mistakenly deleting or keeping your work; every bit as dangerous as those old fourtrack cassettes. But when you’re in the thick of a creative mood, file management is not always at the forefront of one’s creative mind.

Tape machines have time and track limits and musicians can only play for so long, but theoretically you could press record on your computer and, provided there was the disc space, keep it rolling until the end of time (except that there would of course be no-one left to do the overdubs). Tape degrades. Musicians die. Meanwhile a recording made on a computer will exist in its pristine state – in theory – AT 28

forever. So how do you say: “stop, it’s finished!” when the digital medium perpetually promotes your unbridled desire to keep recording, improving upon and revising the last improvement of an improvement?

With a ProTools system at home, my friend could audition, edit and add to any of the album’s parts throughout the project’s development, and rightly so – it’s his music! But, from my end, as the engineer, what this added was a great amount of uncertainty as the process became completely fluid – what you’d just completed could well come back with new parts to include the next day. Add to this the analogue domain of large format mixing consoles, dynamic processing and effects – i.e., mixing in a room of nonrecallable devices – and the romanticism and ‘amazing sound’ of a classic analogue studio quickly becomes irrelevant in the face of just dealing with the immense amount of work at hand.

In addition to the unforseen issues, my desire to recreate an ensemble using close and ambient mics was also problematic and short sighted. Not because of how it was recorded or some other technical issue – the overriding factor was that there simply wasn’t enough time to mix!

Instead, other elements needed time spent more urgently, and a similar result could have been achieved by summing the ensemble parts as they were recorded, saving time on mixing later.

MIX MAYHEM Having lots of stereo recordings was difficult to include in the mix too. With so many tracks and layers of sound in the arrangements, finding a place to put something between the two speakers was surprisingly challenging. It had a lot to do with the arrangements, but how many glorious fullrange stereo recreations of a piano can you have when there are three of them all playing together? And if they’re also competing with another five stereo keyboards, what then?

Next time I’ll be recording in mono and mixing in stereo.

In retrospect I’d mix the album completely on a computer and forget about mixing in the analogue domain given what I now know of my friend’s process – although in this case a four-track portastudio would have imposed appropriate limitations! It suits him to be able to redress anything, anytime and continue to review until he’s satisfied. For a while there I thought the process and its deadlines would limit his urges to keep finessing the music, but like any true creative, he just kept on keeping on making the record he wanted to make, and who am I to tell him how, for the true success or failure of the work lies only with those whose music it is. The rest is incidental.

The moral of this tale is not so much about song arrangement and artistic limitation, it’s really about simply understanding the process and learning from your mistakes.

Mine were several and varied, but possibly the greatest single mistake I made was to let the channel count climb rapidly without any real understanding of how much work it would present later. I also misread the appropriate application of technology given the needs of the artist, and that digital multi-tracking’s many choices would provide us options to the point of paralysis. Defining sounds during the tracking session and printing them to a minimum of tracks might sound like an old fashioned and limiting concept to some – it did to me at the time – but ironically it’s turned out to be more relevant now than ever before!

)($785,1* 3238/$5 3/8* ,16 )520 7+(6( 3$571(56

AT 29

AT ventures into the world of beats, rapâ&#x20AC;Ś and megaphones. Brad Watts talks to hip-hop exponent, Leigh Ryan, about the making of his latest collaboration.

Text: Brad Watts

AT 30

Recently, I dropped in on Australian hip-hop producer, Leigh Ryan, more commonly (and no doubt more affectionately) known as ‘Plutonic Lab’. The reason for my visit: a nicely crafted hip-hop album that arrived on my desk a month or so ago that’s a collaboration with American hip-hop artist, Garrett Dutton, a.k.a. G-Love (the frontman for G. Love & Special Sauce). The talents of the pair combine old-school hip-hop with G-Love’s even older-school slide guitar and harmonica influences. It’s a potent yet refreshing hybrid; a bit like the Stereo MCs sleeping over at the White Stripes’ house for the weekend (even though it sounds like the Stripes just broke up). The album is dubbed Moonshine Lemonade, and should be available right about the time you’re reading this.

LEMON AID Brad Watts: What’s with the “lemonade” backing vocals on Party [track two on the album]? They’re brilliant.

Leigh Ryan: Oh yeah, G-Love’s got a history of throwing lemonade into the crowd at gigs you see. He had an album called Lemonade, and a track called Lemonade, so while we were brainstorming titles for the album we came up with that. There were some real shockers in there, but as soon as I saw the Moonshine Lemonade title I was like, “That’s the shit, we should do that.” So it was just inevitable that we’d have ‘lemonade’ BVs at some point.

And that little skit at the end of the song there [Leigh pointing out the last bit of track two]: G-Love sent through a bunch of different skits not knowing if they’d fit in – I just sampled that little thing in after the track.

BW: How long did it take you to put all this together Leigh?

LR: I reckon we were hand-balling stuff around for five or six months. I’m normally a bit quicker than that, but G-Love was on tour constantly, which slowed the process up a bit.

If I’ve got someone in the studio with me I’m usually pretty quick ’cause we can just go hard. Then again, I’m also always juggling different projects simultaneously. About the time I finished the G-Love record, the following week I went into the same mastering suite and finished another album with a guy from Sydney called Dialectrix, which was more of a traditional hip-hop record. We’re all label-mates from Obese Records you see. I’m sort of their in-house producer for all sorts of different records now, as well as doing my own thing. Then I’ve got a group called Muph and Plutonic – we’ve done a few records together. That project is the main act that gets me out on tour and lets me do fun stuff like festivals. In the meantime I’m always working on recordings.

BW: How often are you on the road?

LR: It all depends. For the Muph and Plutonic stuff we’ll do spot shows when there isn’t a current release. When there is we’ll do a 34-date tour for that record. It depends on the lifespan of the record. At the moment I’m doing a lot of different things: I’m doing the Good Vibrations Festival, which has Erykah Badu playing at it, and I’m playing drums for Koolism – I’m doing that national tour in February.

There’s always something. I’m trying to keep my fingers in a lot of pies I guess.

BW: A shrewd policy.

LR: Yeah, when I was drumming in bands I’d be working with all these different heads. But then shit would suddenly fold and you’d find yourself back at square one again. After you do that a couple of times you realise you should start building a production career instead of going from one band to the next.

MASCHINE CONTROL BW: Can you show us the inner workings of your studio – it seems pretty well set up? What’s the usual workflow?

LR: There are a few different ways we make tracks here.

Lately I’ve been relying on Native Instruments’ Maschine.

I’ve had that for a year or so and it’s become a bit of a nervecentre for me.

BW: Were you doing the Akai MPC thing before Maschine came along?

LR: Actually no. I came from using Ensoniq ASR-10s. I never did get into MPCs even though I was obviously aware of them. I was more into keyboard samplers. I don’t know why that is ’cause I’m a drummer, so it doesn’t really make sense. But the ASR was great. One of the things I liked about it – and what I tried to keep doing when I moved to computers for sampling – was being able to map a sample across the whole keyboard range quickly. I’ve made tracks where I have a single sample, but I make the entire song by using it in different ranges and triggering it in different ways. Before, I’d chop up things solely on the ASR. On other things I’d do some of the drum programming first and then put live kit over it for fills and cymbals. In fact, with most programmed drums I’ll put real hats over the top just to give it a more human flavour.

With this track for example [Leigh plays me a track from Moonshine Lemonade] the template of the song was based on the bass line. Then I added a guitar part, some Wurlitzer and we were pretty much there. My go-to instruments are usually bass, guitars, Wurly, and some synth – either from samples or real synths. It’s easier now I have a decent bedroom setup.

BW: I notice the Allen & Heath ZED-R16 console there with the Firewire connection. That looks like a much easier proposition than the console and audio interface scenario.

LR: Yeah, everything’s patched in and ready to go. Then, because it’s a Firewire desk, anything I have running can automatically be patched to Cubase for recording. It saves me heaps of setup time. Plus, I can send back to the desk from Cubase for mixing on the board. For example, I have the [Empirical Labs] Fatso Jr permanently patched into it.

So with vocals I can run them through a send in Cubase back into the desk, and then back into another Cubase channel. Even running the EQ section like a plug-in is really useful. It’s so versatile.

BW: I assume all your outboard is patched in too?

LR: Yeah, the [Roland] Space Echo and the [Emu] SP12 are patched in and ready to go. I just have to turn them on and they’re immediately there on effects sends. With the Space Echo in particular, because that’s coming back in on a channel, it gets recorded on its own channel so I can capture little manipulative delay things. The Avalon in the rack there [Leigh points to the VT-737SP] is used mainly for vocals, and the Universal Audio LA610 for pretty much everything else – it’s even my guitar amp.

BW: Do you use the Emu SP12 much?

LR: Yeah, but mainly as a sound shaper. I don’t sequence on it anymore. I just feed stuff into it from records or whatever to get that crunch, and then put it back into Maschine and sequence from there. It’s got that characteristic 12-bit sound – much the same as the SP1200, which came out a couple of years later. It’s all there to get that gritty quality happening.

BW: And Cubase is your DAW of choice?

AT 31

Hard Wired: Leigh Ryan in the hot seat .

LR: Yeah, Cubase is the guts of everything, whereas Garrett uses Logic and GarageBand.

Maschine runs as a plug-in inside Cubase so it’s not like having an MPC where I’ve got to bounce it all. It can just run as a plug-in and if I need to change anything I don’t have to re-bounce anything; it just happens in real-time. But for final mixdowns I do end up rendering stuff from Maschine so I can do more editing of that audio.

BW: How finnicky do you get with your editing of samples?

LR: I’m pretty fussy. A lot of it doesn’t look that fussy on-screen because I’ve bounced most stuff into stems, but yeah, I’d say I’m quite fussy. It still has to be pretty tight. Internally – within Cubase – I can get really exacting with my edits. I can then add stuff like the UAD2 effects. The Mac is a quad-core and the UAD is just a Solo card but it’s doing the job nicely.

BW: Which Universal Audio plug-ins do you tend to call into action first?

LR: I use the Fairchild compressor a fair bit, which is great, and the Neve EQs get a solid workout too. I’m also using the plate reverb – the 140. I use that a lot if I’m not using convolution reverbs… especially for the Moonshine Lemonade record. I tried to use a lot of springs and plate reverbs on that album to give it more of a gritty, guitar echobox flavour.

BW: Is all the guitar on the record played by Garrett, or yourself?

AT 32

LR: G-Love plays the guitars. I’ll usually send him a framework of samples and drums and he puts a song over the top. I’ll work with that and edit it down or whatever… at other times I’ll just send stuff that’s already had guitars played onto it and he raps over it.

FILE EXCHANGE BW: Tell me, when you guys are sending stuff to each other via the web, how do you condense it down so you can easily swap files… you mentioned Garrett’s working in Logic and GarageBand?

LR: Yeah, he’s often working on multiple projects, and during this record he was laying stuff into GarageBand in hotel rooms. Some of these recordings were great, especially some of the harp tracks – really gritty. We liked them so much in fact that we initially tried re-recording them, but of course that nearly always ends up losing its flavour completely! Consequently, a lot of the takes are straight from GarageBand, and here we’d swap straight stem files. That way you can’t really go wrong. One stem was pretty much guitar, vocal and harmonica all together. I had to go through and automate anything that was jutting out, to tame it a little bit, but even then I started feeling like a control freak. So I let a lot of stuff go for the sake of the performance, rather than just polish everything till the soul has been sucked out of it completely.

BW: And they’re all his vocals on the record?

LR: Yeah, I did some back-ups myself but it’s pretty much all Garrett. The vocals were sometimes recorded in a studio using Neumanns and at other times it was just him in his hotel room using the MacPro laptop mic, which sounds amazing. I’ve even heard dudes record drum breaks through those mics and they’ve definitely got a cool sound to them. Actually, a friend was telling me recently they’ve stuffed it up with the new MacPro laptops – apparently they’ve put the microphone right next to the fan. But I think the older ones – even up to as recently as a year ago – sound great.

BW: And the megaphone you’ve been using?

LR: Yeah, it’s just something I picked up; I thought I might be able to use it for something. It’s pretty different. I keep suggesting to vocalists: “maybe you could go on stage with this?”

ATTRACTION TO HIP-HOP BW: What defines your attraction to hip-hop?

LR: Well, it’s not just the beats; it’s a lot of things.

Using whatever’s at hand to make new music. The MC’ing and DJ’ing are further elements, which begins to move toward rap. There’s definitely some very fine lines there, but I can still consider what I’m doing with G-Love to be hip-hop mainly because of the way I’ve gone about putting it together.

We’ve a few copies of Moonshine Lemonade here.

Join the AT Forum and mention the album and we’ll send you one!

Capture it, because you can.

Brilliant l liant Stereo with h Full ll HD Video d One Size Fits All The H1 features Zoom’s renowned audio recording technology & fits it into their easiest-to-use, most portable device ever. Ideal for anyone who needs stunning audio quality in an ultra-portable device.

Record video in FULL HD video resolution and include audio with two studioquality condenser microphones configured in a wide 120° X/Y pattern. Use the Q3HD as an audio recorder with clarity that far exceeds CD-quality. Upload your videos to YouTube, Myspace or watch direct to your HD TV via the HDMI output.

With the Q3HD’s 2.4-inch LCD screen, you can monitor important information while recording, and the screen can also be used to show video file thumbnails or to display the menu screen with graphic icons representing the unit’s functions. Turn the Q3HD on its side and press play to watch your videos in “widescreen” 16:9 format.

Recorder. Control Surface. Interface. Sampler.

Simultaneous Simultaneous 8-track recording; audio interface; control surface; sampler. Built in mics, guitar FX, drum machine, XLR/1/4” inputs plus phantom power. 96kHz/24bit encoding.

Connects to PC & MAC via USB2.0. 8-track recording; audio interface; control surface; sampler. Built in mics, guitar FX, drum machine, XLR/1/4” inputs plus phantom power. 96kHz/24bit encoding.

Connects to PC & MAC via USB2.0.

G\QDPLFPXVLF FRP DX

]RRP FR MS AT 33

REGULARS

PC AUDIO Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors offer great potential for the musician, but they seem to be making life a lot more difficult for the DIY PC builder.

Text: Martin Walker

They say that, ‘In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’, and nowhere is this more appropriate than in the realm of the DIY Audio PC. In Issue 78 I discussed some of the ways your PC could be ‘throttled’ by an inappropriate BIOS or operating system setting designed to save energy, but which could also bring audio performance to its knees. Musicians can be excused for not automatically knowing such things, but what I do find hard to understand is how many think that building an audio PC is simply a matter of getting hold of a suitable list of parts and spending a couple of hours bolting them together.

I’ve lost count of the number of forum threads I’ve followed worldwide that start with a request for such a parts list, plus request for advice on how fast the processor needs to be, how much RAM is needed, how many hard drives, and so on. Remembering that the vast majority of forum posters are relative strangers to each other, it’s amazing that people are prepared to spend so much money on the advice of comparative strangers whose music-making requirements may be quite different, especially since so many of these ‘internet experts’ have probably only built a single PC for themselves during the last couple of years.

The reality for the professional audio PC builder is rather different. Whenever a potentially desirable new CPU range appears they generally try at least several different motherboards to partner it, in search of the one that’s most widely compatible with audio hardware and software.

Other components such as the PC case, PSU and graphics card are specially selected for their low acoustic noise contributions, while RAM is only sourced from the most reliable component manufacturers.

However, this is only the start. Once a new model in their range has been assembled, it’s torture-tested to weed out any weak components (you don’t want to find out you’ve been sent a faulty RAM stick halfway through an important project now do you?). During these tests CPU, graphics card and hard drive temperatures are also monitored to ensure they stay within safe AT 34

limits, while the cooling fans and their speeds are carefully adjusted to ensure this happens with minimum acoustic noise. I recently spotted one DIY builder complaining that his new PC was haunted, since it switched itself off after an hour or two – in reality his CPU had probably overheated and powered itself down to avoid long-term damage.

Windows tweaks are no longer quite as critical as once they were to ensure best possible lowlatency audio performance, but BIOS tweaks are becoming increasingly vital to avoid audio clicks, pops and glitches, particularly at low latency settings – they can make all the difference between disappointment and joy on a new build.

This is largely because mainstream computers are being designed to be ever more energy-efficient.

For the majority of users this is welcome news, but for musicians it means attempting to bypass increasingly more sophisticated schemes that change CPU frequency and voltage behind the scenes and result in short audio clicks during each changeover.

SANDY BRIDGE The reason I mention all this now is that the battlefield has just become a lot more complicated with the arrival of Intel’s new ‘Sandy Bridge’ processor range. After months of build-up this new 2nd generation Core i7 processor range is finally here, and what a frustrating situation for the musician! Offering huge potential improvements over its predecessors, and with a new socket and chipset to support them, initial reports showed excellent audio hardware/software performance for the price, particularly from the Core i7-2600K model with four cores running at 3.4GHz (there was even more excitement when samples of this were easily overclocked to 4.4GHz!) However, things went pear-shaped when it was discovered that this audio performance was very system-dependent – while one system worked extremely well from day one, many others managed worse audio results at lower latency than the previous first-generation Core i7 range, despite extensive low-level BIOS and driver tweaks. Even worse, my professional builder friends tell me

that low-latency audio performance can change radically between BIOS revisions, and not always for the better – sometimes an excellent audio performance can plummet when a ‘new and improved’ BIOS update is released.

Performance with well-established PCI audio interfaces has also been particularly badly hit on some motherboards, the reason being that the Intel P67/H67 chipsets found on new Sandy Bridge motherboards lack native PCI support, so motherboards manufacturers have been fitting their own choice of PCI Express to PCI Bridge chips. Rumours are already spreading that Intel is trying to kill the PCI slot by force. The new P67/H67 chipsets offer tighter integration with graphics cards, so further problems are half expected as video card manufacturers find new ways to optimise their wares at the expense of audio performance.

Sadly, making music is very low down on the ‘desirable’ list for PC component manufacturers, if at all, so although some specialist PC Audio companies have contacts within motherboard manufacturers so they can point out current audio problem areas and hopefully encourage future BIOS revisions that benefit us all, just at the moment it looks like being a particularly rocky road for the Sandy Bridge DIY builder. You not only need to know which components work well and which don’t, but also the most appropriate BIOS revision, critical BIOS settings...

Overall, the Sandy Bridge offers huge potential for the musician, with excellent audio performance at low latency on some machines, but lack-lustre performance on others. If you’re thinking of building yourself a new PC for making music, I recommend you either do a lot more research than normal, and prepare for the occasional hiccup – such as Intel last month finding a flaw in the four 3Gbps SATA ports on the Sandy Bridge chipset that may require all Sandy Bridge systems to be returned under warranty – or point your credit card at the professionals who have already successfully navigated their respective ways through the minefield and emerged grinning, if exhausted, on the other side.

AT 35

REGULARS

MAC AUDIO Morsels on sale for a song at the App Store.

Text: Brad Watts

It happened and it’s here. January 7th saw Apple inevitably bring point-and-click application purchasing to OSX – a scenario that was previously the exclusive bastion of the iPhone/iPad/iPod/iOS platform.

App Store is exactly what the name implies: a shopping mall of Mac applications. Like the iTunes Store that originally vended music, later expanding to include applications for the iPhone and iPod, App Store keeps a watchful eye over the applications you’ve downloaded. If an application needs updating, App Store lets you know, and like iOS applications, Snow Leopard-compatible applications downloaded from the App Store are inextricably linked to the machine they’re downloaded to. I discovered this purely by accident when I forwarded everyone in the office a free virus checking application I’d downloaded using App Store (VirusBarrier Express). When VirusBarrier Express needed updating, my cohorts had to sign into the App Store with my Apple identification in order to upgrade it. Hey, I was merely attempting to save a little bandwidth, but as it transpires, that free application was tethered to my machine.

WHISTLING DIXY While it may seem like Apple is pulling a swifty and locking you into the apps you purchase (either those that cost money or the freebies), it makes a lot of sense for Apple and OSX software developers. You see, if you cast your memory back to when the App Store didn’t exist, one could easily buy an application, then ‘lend’ it to somebody else with another Mac and nobody would be any the wiser – most especially, the application developer and vendor. The practice became somewhat alarmingly known as ‘software piracy’.

The resulting impact of piracy is that software manufacturers are forced to sell their wares at a price that will make up for the pirated copies that slip through the net (as it were). This creates a vicious cycle in itself: the software is expensive so more people ‘lend’ their friends a copy of the version they originally bought. Then, before you can say ‘Bit Torrent’ the software manufacturer is out of business, your application ceases to be developed, and you can whistle it goodbye at your next operating system upgrade.

App Store could well be the answer to this tail chasing.

Why? Well because the applications on App Store are linked to your Apple ID so you can’t disperse it amongst

AT 36

your mates. Immediately the software developer knows how many people have bought the application, and knows there are far less – if any – pirated copies floating about.

The developer can then keep the price of that application much lower. It’s a win/win in anybody’s book. The developer makes a living, and the users get software they can afford.

This is the theory anyway.

LONG-LIFE APPS So, as you might tell, I’m all for the App Store, primarily because I’m all for owning great software and not having it reach a use-by date all too quickly. And just to keep this Apple advocacy on an ‘audionomic’ keel, I’ll point out just a few of the applications you’ll find on the App Store that will make your sound producing lifestyle a touch more productive.

After you’ve downloaded App Store (you’ll need Snow Leopard 10.6.6), head to the categories and choose ‘Music’.

Yes, I’ll agree there’s some rubbish in there: Burp and Fart Piano for example (then I do love playing the Mission Impossible theme with fart noises – and ‘burp’ is really taking me places). On a more serious front, apps like Sound Converter will convert more sound file formats than I knew existed for a scant $12.99, and if you’re into playing MP3 files in public, Cadence BPM Analyzer Pro is excellent at a negligible $13.99. Then there are some weightier audio tools such as the Redmatica stable of audio helpers such as Auto Sampler – an app that will automatically play through a synth’s entire set of sounds, multisampling patches for use in the EXS24, Kontact, Structure, or Reason soft samplers.

And Keymap One – a brilliant instrument editor for EXS24, Kontact, Structure, and Reason. This is a must-have app, especially if you keep sound libraries in varied formats.

There are some great tools for creating beat-synced DJ sets too. MixTape Pro lets you drop files straight from the desktop or iTunes into an arrangement window, beatmatching and syncing them perfectly for your private mix CDs – ideal for the not-so-talented record selectors amongst us (myself included). Hell, there’s even GarageBand for $18.

Download App Store and have a look. As more developers come on board it’s bound to become a bit of a one-stop shop.

ZZZ NRUJ FRP NURQRV

The Game Has Been Changed

&5($7( 086,& $1<:+(5( /,)( 7$.(6 <28

.52126

086,& :25.67$7,21 Prepare to be Amazed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

COMING SOON...

086,&/,1. $8675$/,$ 6RXWK &RUSRUDWH $YH 5RZYLOOH 9,& 3 ) : ZZZ PXVLFOLQN FRP DX AT 37

REVIEW

JOECO BBR1 BLACK BOX RECORDER This unit will happily record all your gigs, even the disastrous ones!

Text: Gareth Stuckey

NEED TO KNOW Price $4499 Contact National Audio Systems (03) 9761 5577 info@nationalaudio.com.au www.nationalaudio.com.au Pros Lightweight and portable.

Simple and uncomplicated.

Headphone monitoring.

Records until the drive is full!

Cons Headphone output on the rear.

Transport controls take some getting used to.

Summary The JoeCo Black Box Recorder is something the world of live recording has been hankering after for years. Simple in its functionality – which is a good thing – and exceptionally lightweight, the unit does one job well: it records gigs.

I love live recording, and I’ve tried most of the methods out there. In my ‘Masters’ cupboard I have most of the careers of Machine Gun Fellatio and George documented on all kinds of formats. Back in those days I was tracking to MiniDisc. I recorded My X-Girlfriend’s Boyfriend Has Got a Band for MGF’s platinum selling Paging Mr Strike live to MiniDisc at the Hopetoun in Sydney, before George bought a CD burner and I moved over to that format. Next came the Tascam DA38s, and finally the pinnacle – my Tascam MX2424.

I bought the first of these machines when they were the new cool thing. It’s served me well for 10 years and I’ve recorded countless shows and broadcasts with it: Make Poverty History, Thirsty Merc for Austereo and Nova, DVD releases of George, Dave McCormack and Lyrics Born, and generally punished it in every way possible (if airline baggage handling isn’t punishment I don’t know what is). Unfortunately, the MX2424 is getting to the point now where it’s just too far behind current technology. Even though they might work well and sound great, who has time to deal with SCSI discs and an unsupported GUI? This is why I’m so excited about the new Black Box Recorder: it’s current technology, it’s small and light – as a portable rig should be – and the hard-drive is external to the unit, making the need to transfer files out of it a thing of the past.

NO BULL The ‘Joe’ in JoeCo is none other than Joe Bull of Sadie fame – so from the outset there’s an implicit understanding that the Black Box Recorder should at least be half decent. And so it is.

The Black Box Recorder is aimed directly at the niche market of live recording. And having spent so much time doing just that, I’m well aware just how niche this market really is, and how specific its needs are. Sure, other manufacturers have units that can be used for live recording, but this is the only device I’ve seen that’s specifically designed for it.

WHAT IS IT EXACTLY? The BlackBox Recorder is a 24-track, 24-bit/96k recorder.

To be clear – this unit is designed as a live recording unit only. It’s not a standard multitrack recorder, nor is it a DAW in any shape or form. There’s no overdubbing AT 38

capacity, you can’t punch in and there are certainly no onboard editing facilities. The unit just records tracks – from beginning to end – so you can import them into your DAW of choice afterwards and do with them what you will. The unit intentionally trades away complexity for simplicity – rare in this day and age – and with that tradeoff comes a massive reduction in physical size. It’s 1RU only, and weighs just over a kilogram – extraordinary.

There are no bells and whistles so consequently it’s rock solid – I left it recording overnight on more than one occasion, and came back to a full disc with no issues each time. On one occasion I even pulled the power on it a couple of hours in, just to see how it behaved – flawless – recording up to the moment I pulled the cord. Tick box.

The unit I’ve had with me on the road is the balanced version, the rear panel of which is comprised of six D-sub connections: three for the inputs, three for the outputs.

There are other versions available too, offering digital inputs (in a variety of formats) and an unbalanced version that ships with looms so you can use the insert points on your console to record feeds from your FOH preamps.

This allows for things like clubs offering an in-house live recording service the ability to have the setup patched in permanently, or for bands to perform a ‘virtual soundcheck’. The idea here is: record a short soundcheck, play it back off the machine through the insert return and continue tweaking to your heart’s content after the band’s left the room.

FAT 32 DRIVES The BBR1 runs with FAT32-formatted drives for the simple reason that it’s the only format that’s easily read by all computer systems. Drives connected to the Black Box will almost certainly be passed around to multiple users at some point so it’s vital everyone can read the data.

The unit records Broadcast Wave Files (BWAVs) direct to your disk. You can choose the sample rate and bit depth, and then it just gets to work. One very cool point to note, given that live recordings are often lengthy, and DAWs like ProTools, for example, have a maximum file size limitation, the Black Box is smart enough to keep every file under this maximum. Even if you recorded all day, the unit just does some fancy maths and keeps starting new files when it needs to. You wouldn’t even know it was doing it, but when you later plug the drive into your ’Tools rig – it sees all your complete files without any problems. Smart.

One thing I do find a little tedious about the JoeCo unit are the transport controls. First there’s the illuminated data wheel – which doesn’t move, but rather responds to touch… just like your iPod! This sits beside two rows of ‘buttons’ and transport controls. All of these are touch-sensitive – the idea being that you simply have to place your finger on them to operate the unit. The upper row carries the Back, Mark, Loop and Menu/OK functions, while the lower row features the main Play, Stop and Record layout. (Fast Forward and Rewind are accessed by holding down the Stop button and ‘turning’ the data wheel in the appropriate direction.) This all sounds great on paper and perhaps works with an iPod when you’re holding it in your hand, but rack-mounted at a show (or for that matter in the studio) with sweaty fingers – they’re pretty hard to use. More often than not I found it took several attempts and a few incorrect commands to achieve my initial intention. I can see what the designer was aiming for here – the setup is modern, easy to use and familiar – but in a rack-mounted situation it’s difficult to use. A simple stop/play/record button setup – that you could confidently press (in a hurry) would have been much more appropriate for a unit intended for the live environment.

SIZE DOES MATTER Taking the BBR1 out on an event and running it as the redundant backup for the Tascam MX machine, it was almost comical to see the two sitting next to each other – 4RU and 25kg vs. 1RU and less than 1kg – knowing they were doing the same job. The rack space saving alone on the BBR1 makes the JoeCo unit invaluable, especially in cramped confines like broadcast trucks etc. There are very few differences in the units as far as functionality is concerned; the main standouts being that the Black Box only has a very simple (and undefined in terms of calibration marks) metering system: Green/Yellow/Red. More significantly, the BBR1 boasts a built-in headphone amp. With this facility you can monitor individual pairs of tracks – odd in your left ear, even in your right – solo tracks in mono or listen to a ‘rough mix’ of all the inputs dumped out to the headphones. While this is not the ideal monitoring situation, it’s a big step up from the other recorders on the market… that offer nothing at all! Even if you had your fullblown ProTools rig out at a show, you’d still need to add some sort of monitoring system (ProTools HD interfaces don’t have headphone outputs). Another thoughtful feature – the headphone output is routed through an automatic gain control so quiet signals can be heard during a concert. This does not affect the recording at all, mind you, only the monitoring level, and this is adjustable in the Setup menu. I did find it a little odd, however, that the headphone output was located on the rear. While at first this seems almost bizarre, it may save your skin one day. One of the easiest things to do at FOH is trip on a cable and having these connections in the back makes this scenario unlikely, even if it is a tad annoying.

AFTER THE SHOW Ironically, after the show is where the Black Box Recorder really shines.

I used to spend full days transferring files from my MX machines. With the Black Box Recorder I now simply connect the recording drive to a ProTools rig (you can use any system) and import the audio straight into a new session without a hitch. 10 minutes later the files are copied and I’m away. Let’s face it, studio time is money, and not having systems and studios tied up doing file transfers is a big advantage. Even better, if a client has only contracted you to do a recording (i.e., not deliver a mix) you can simply hand them the drive at the end of the show. How easy is that?

The bottom line with live recorders is that they need to work! And the BBR1 does just that. It’s fast to set up, easy to get recording (and keep recording), it sounds great and files are dead-easy to transfer after the fact. With the exception of the touch buttons – and even these may be something you’d eventually get used to – the Black Box ticks all the boxes. Will I be looking at updating my live recording racks with these machines in 2011? You betcha.

Worlds best audio interfaces

Symphony I/O Next generation convertor quality. 32 channels I/O with future proof connectivity.

Ensemble Multi-Channel, 24bit/192kHz Audio Interface

Rosetta 200 2-Channel, 24bit/192kHz AD/DA Converter

BigBen 192k Master Word Clock

One USB Interface & mic for the Mac. Single 24-bit input, stereo output.

Symphony PCI 64-channel Express Card

Wide Eye Cable

Symphony Mobile 32-channel Express Card for Apples MacBook Pro

Duet Firewire 400 solution Two channels of 24-bit/96k Multifunction controller knob

GiO USB Guitar Interface and Controller for the Mac & Logic Studio

Authorised Apogee Pro dealers NSW Intermusic 02 9369 3922 Sound Devices 02 9283 2077 Sounds Easy 02 8213 0202 Turramurra Music 02 9449 8487

VIC AWave 03 9813 1833 Factory Sound 03 9690 8344 Mannys 03 9486 8555 Soundcorp 03 9694 2600

QLD Musiclab 07 3332 8188 Ellaways Music 07 3359 8266 Ellaways Music 07 3290 5656

WA Music Park 08 9470 1020 Kosmic Sound 08 9204 7577 Kosmic Sound 08 9258 4236

ACT Better Music 02 6282 3199

SA Deringers Music 08 8371 1884

www.apogeedigital.com AT 39

REVIEW

KORG MONOTRON

Korg has a history when it comes to analogue synthesis. Some of that legacy has now been crammed into a handheld box.

Text: Brad Watts

NEED TO KNOW Price $119 Contact Musiclink (03) 9765 6565 atdept@musiclink.com.au Pros A real analogue synth.

Audio input to the analogue filter.

Goes anywhere for immediate analogue squelching.

Sounds great.

Cons Plastic case may not enjoy a drop on the pavement.

Summary For such a teeny little synth, the Monotron really does pack a wallop. Analogue goodness doesn’t come any cheaper than this. For a superb little synth and a very useful voltage controlled filter, Korg’s Monotron has to be the best value instrument on offer to date.

We hope Korg builds the same analogue circuitry into a bigger version this year.

These little monsters have been kicking about for a while now, but I’ve only just managed to get my mitts on one. It seems the stock disappears as quickly as it arrives in the country, and I can see why. The Korg Monotron is a fabulously neat bit of synth kit. Many will no doubt pass the Monotron off as an insignificant toy, and sure, it does look like one, but there’s absolutely no reason why this mini analogue synth can’t stand on its own as a bonafide electronic instrument. I’ll admit, when I first looked at these units online I was skeptical, but now that I have one in my hot little hands I’m happy to concede the Monotron is a whole bunch of fun. So now you’re aware of my position on this teeny-weeny synth, let’s have look at it.

PUT IT IN YOUR POCKET It’s small – about the size of a mobile phone, perhaps slightly larger. Okay, about the size of an iPhone in a hard case – a fit-it-in-your hand kind of doo-dad. The entirely plastic unit runs on two AAA batteries – which Korg supplies – and which provide about eight hours of use. The rear panel has a headphone/line output, an input for routing audio through the filter – both are 1/8-inch jacks – and a volume control wheel, much like you’d find on an old ‘transistor’ radio. There’s an additional potentiometer accessible with a small Phillips-head screwdriver, which adjusts the ribbon controller’s range. Audio is also delivered via a built-in speaker, so you needn’t be tethered to any ‘outboard’ amplification.

Across the top panel are five pots and a three-position power switch. The switch slides from standby (off) and on through two modes of operation for the ribbon (keyboard) controller. The first offers pitch modulation via the LFO, the second position provides modulation of the filter cut-off via the LFO. The five mini potentiometers provide control over pitch, LFO rate (backlit so it pulsates according to the LFO rate), intensity of the LFO, filter cut-off, and a rather aggressive resonance control (labelled ‘Peak’). Winding ‘Peak’ up to its maximum puts the little tyke into complete squeal mode.

AURAL MODULATION The only oscillator available is a saw wave, as is the shape of the LFO modulation envelope (albeit an inverted saw).

AT 40

The LFO oscillates between excruciatingly slow through to hummingbird fast, so there’s a stack of effects you can glean from this right down to electro kick drums with four-onthe-floor repetition. Sure the controls and modulation options are quite limited, still, the array of tones you can squeeze out of the Monotron is surprising. Combined with the continuously variable ribbon controller – i.e. the pitch being continuous, with the printed keyboard acting as a guide – it’s remarkable how expressive the Monotron can be. In fact, one clever modulation method going around the traps involves holding the Monotron to your face with the speaker pointing into your mouth, then waggling your mouth cavity around the speaker – jaw harp style. You’d have to mic it up of course. Incidentally, if you find your fingers are too big for the ribbon controller, you can use a stylus of some description on the faux keyboard. Even a pen with the nib retracted will do the trick.

MOUSE THAT ROARED Now while the Monotron sounds fairly undernourished via the internal speaker, plugging it into some decent sound reinforcement lets this little mono synth shine. You see, this is a real analogue synthesiser, with a real voltage controlled oscillator and filter. Korg claims the filter is the same design as the legendary Korg MS-10 and MS-20 units released back in 1978. The MS-style analogue filters were a force to be reckoned with back then, and if you’re after that same smooth and emotive filtering, the Monotron will certainly deliver.

Like I’ve mentioned, many people will write off the Monotron as a plaything, which is admittedly very easy to do given the plastic housing, the tinny speaker, the ‘keyboard’ printing on the ribbon controller and indeed, the Monotron’s diminutive size. The impression is of a 21st century version of Rolf Harris’s Stylophone from the late ’60s. Even the one-trick Stylophone made it into David Bowie’s Space Oddity and Kraftwerk’s Pocket Calculator. The bottom line is: the Monotron is a lot of fun, and well worth the paltry asking price, even if you only ever use it to filter external material.

Melbourne

Quote this ad to receive 20% off all mastering, artwork, photography & video production and 10% off CD manufacture in March, April & May 23- 25a Jo hnst o n S t , C olling w o o d Vic.3066 PH s FAX - OB s P AUL ST UD IO COM AU

Wor l d c l as s s ound and pr oduction &OR FURTHER INFORMATION GO TO WWW STUDIO COM AU

REVIEW

QUE AUDIO SNIPER KIT

Australia’s Que Audio is kitting out location sound.

Text: Jon Marsh

As a professional audio engineer for the last 42 years, the first thing I thought when confronted with Que Audio’s Sniper Kit was: ‘This is an interesting-looking toy’. It didn’t take me long to realise that its sound really does belie its size. What’s more, its diminutive stature allows it to go places that bigger, more traditional location mics wouldn’t dream of going.

The Sniper Kit is very well organised, light weight and compact. It’s crying out for everyday use: pop it in the boot, bundle it in your carry-on luggage, or toss it in a suitcase.

NEED TO KNOW Price $479 Contact Syncrotech Systems (02) 9879 0800 www.queaudio.com Pros Good vocal clarity.

Excellent rejection.

Extremely portable.

Well priced.

Cons A little fiddly.

Summary Price is now no longer a barrier to high-quality professional location sound.

The Sniper Kit will suit countless circumstances and everyone from the rank amateur to the pro.

Inside the leatherette pouch is the phantom powered mini-shotgun microphone, a telescopic boom (that can be adjusted anywhere up to nearly 1.5m,) a shockmount, table stand, a rubber mount to insulate the microphone even further from vibration, foam wind gag and furry wind gag that the makers are calling a ‘Wombat’ – yet another gag!

There are various audio adapters to suit numerous audio devices such as video cameras and digital recording devices and a cold shoe to suit video cameras, a two-metre straight lead and an optional curly lead that comfortably expands to one metre. All of this comes in a carry case that measures only 42cm x 20cm x 6cm with enough room for extra spares.

The many adapters allow the Sniper to slot into almost any circumstance and I would envisage its use by both amateur and professional filmmakers alike. The microphone can be mounted on the camera and the audio directed to the camera or a separate recording device, or even fed to an optional wireless device, should you wish. You can also mount it on the table stand for more intimate interviews without all of the clutter of larger microphones. The small size and light weight make it unobtrusive and easily handled in tight situations, making it easy to keep the equipment ‘out of shot’. This kit would also be very useful for journalists and interviewers for the same reasons – even with the Sniper in the shot, its impact would be subtle compared to its much larger cousins. I could also imagine drama or music students using the Sniper to video and or record their rehearsals and performances for later self-appraisal or criticism.

HEARD BUT NEVER SEEN That’s the Sniper package, but how does the mic sound?

This microphone, despite its small physical size performs excellently. Recorded dialogue is clear and crisp, and AT 42

background atmosphere is smooth and non-intrusive.

The first test I conducted was to set up the microphone in my home studio a mere half-metre from the speakers and subject it to a 1kHz tone at normal listening level. By rotating the microphone 180° I found a remarkable 20dB of rejection. Next, I recorded a short interview in my back garden, which is very close to a busy arterial road in Sydney. Again, the voice was very clear and the rejection of traffic noise from the road was excellent – in fact, most of the extraneous noise came from the reverberations from surrounding buildings. Next, I tried mounting the Sniper on an old video camera using the shockmount, rubber insulator and cold shoe, and this arrangement was very effective at reducing noise from the camera motor. Finally, I set out to find the mic’s distortion threshold. I subjected it to various extreme noises, from shouting in close proximity to hitting metal bars with a hammer, and found it quite difficult to make the microphone distort or square the waveform – so loud noise applications, such as a crowded media pack or at major event such as a sporting arena, are well catered for by the Sniper.

Only time will tell how robust the Sniper Kit is when subjected to the rigours of location work. At first glance, the cables and connectors seem somewhat flimsy but with due care they seem to stand up to the job. I definitely wouldn’t leave home without a spare cable. There again, I’ve never left home without a spare heavy-duty XLR microphone cable (I’ve had many a dry solder joint and even XLRs disintegrate in my hands over the years).

This kit is now be part of my repertoire. I’m still maintaining a larger shotgun, a dynamic and a cardioid hand microphone in my general setup for particular circumstances, but thanks to the sound and portability of the Sniper I’m confident it’ll suit a great deal of my needs – I’ll certainly keep it packed in my car for that unexpected opportunity.

The Sniper Kit sounds good, and is a well priced, wellappointed, lightweight, compact and easily transportable option. I’ve no doubt anyone – from the seasoned pro, such as myself, to the novice – will find it very attractive. Yes, microphone technology has generally improved over the last few decades but this is the only one I’ve seen of this power, size… not to mention the price.

AT 43

REVIEW

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KOMPLETE 7 This VST instrument offers a wealth of instruments and effects that should keep you satisfied for years to come..

Text: Graeme Hague

The English language can be a confusing beast, particularly when you don’t spell it properly. Take for example Native Instrument’s ‘Komplete’ 7, a bundle of instruments and plug-ins. What exactly does the company mean by calling it complete… sorry, ‘Komplete’? Is it claiming that it’s all you’ll ever need in your studio – the complete package? Or does it simply mean that when you buy Komplete 7 it practically cleans out the store at NI? Dunno, but if you have a host DAW that offers reasonable channel strip plug-ins, Komplete 7 is such a large and diverse range of applications it’s possible you won’t need anything else for about 10 years. It’ll take you that long to figure out Reaktor 5.5 alone. As for diversity, you couldn’t get more poles apart than ‘The Finger’ electronica plug-in compared to the fully-sampled Viennese Grand Piano.

WHAT IS IT? Komplete 7 is a suite of NI software comprising 23 different products, plus a few utilities like Kore Player 2 and Controller Editor. Of these, seven are big-ticket items that can operate as standalone instruments, like Kontakt and Battery 3, while the rest are add-ons that either function AT 44

inside Kore Player 2, or require these seven acting as host.

So for example, the aforementioned Viennese Grand Piano has to be run inside Kontakt, and the fabulous Reflektor convolution reverb is a Guitar Rig effect, and so on.

Some of the seven host applications have been around awhile and I don’t want to go over old ground for too long, so let’s get them out the way first shall we. Despite Native Instruments displaying a blatant disrespect for certain consonants, I’ll begin alphabetically:

ABSYNTH Which brings us straight to arguably NI’s most influential virtual instrument, Absynth, now at version 5. I doubt there’s been a spooky television or film musical score that hasn’t used an Absynth sound since around the late ’90s. Although there are plenty of core (sorry, Kore) samples like piano, bass and other real instruments behind many of the Absynth patches, it specialises in atmospheric, evolving kinds of sounds that often aren’t really playable with a melody, but are musical nonetheless. New features in Absynth 5 include additional filters: the new Aetheriser effect and a Mutator, which are supposed to provide simpler ways of altering the

sounds without needing to really understand the synth engine under the bonnet. I’m sorry to tell you, you’re still going to have to experiment a lot and read the manual before you’ll get your head around these gadgets. With a huge library of 1800 presets chances are you’re not going to dabble too much anyway. You’ll probably keep surfing for something better from the lists. The names of the presets sometimes provide a clue to what they’ll do, like “Distorted Piano” while others will make you shrug and think, ‘okay, I just do not get that’. Some were obviously chosen by hurling a copy of Lord of the Rings across the room and seeing what page fell open. The browser filter, which is common to several NI synthesiser instruments, works well though. Learn how to use it and you won’t spend an inordinate amount of time searching for the right patch. A really interesting trick is that Absynth can be used as an audio effect across any DAW channel. A lot of the patches are effects in their own right and worth layering on a vocal, for example, to create something really different.

BATTERY 3 Battery 3 was released in 2006 and has been graced with a few significant updates since, but is still basically the same drum sampler. Five years is a long time between makeovers in the software world which suggests that either NI doesn’t particularly care about its development or that it has tremendous faith in the product’s longevity – I’d say it’s the latter. I reviewed Battery 3 when it came out and I still reckon it’s the programmer’s drum sampler. The sounds are great, the kits diverse and the level of manipulating each drum sample can be as complex as you want – but Battery 3 won’t play or mix drums for you. That’s up to you.

FM8 FM8 emulates the classic FM synthesiser keyboards of the ’80s and ’90s, then adds a big lump of 21st century tweaking to give you a choice of both vintage and modern sounds. Use the browser to filter out everything except synths and pads, and the resulting presets displayed have got Jefferson Airplane’s entire back catalogue figured out. The patches have a lot of variety and are almost all very playable as an instrument.

FM8’s arpeggiator is well executed and takes a lot of grief out of creating rhythms. Really, I reckon FM8 is the first go-to virtual keys instrument in the Komplete 7 suite for dialing up a quick, usable patch.

find on forums, Guitar Rig 4 offers a wide range of high quality amplifier and effects sounds.

Whether or not the patches are authentic replicas of the equipment they’re supposed to represent has become a moot point as all plugins like GR build reputations based on their own merits, with the module descriptions becoming a guide rather than a promise. From screaming metal lead breaks to twanging country rhythm, GR4 has got them covered.

KONTACT Kontakt, like Absynth, made a big impression when it first arrived on the scene and subsequent versions have carried on the good name.

Kontakt is so versatile that you’d be forgiven for asking why you need anything else, but when you use it in conjunction with other NI software you can see more clearly Kontakt’s place in the synth hierarchy. It caters for the genuine, natural samples like orchestra, pianos and acoustic instruments. A new Choir library provides very good male and female vocals, plus extra instruments add up to another 10GB of samples for a total of 43GB (Komplete 7 is 90GB altogether). If it needs to be real, you’ll be reaching for Kontakt.

MASSIVE Conversely, Massive is a synthesiser that specialises in speaker-shredding phat sounds, sub-bass tones that will shift full pints of beer across the bar and aggressive, in-your-face lead tones. It’s an acquired taste that mostly suits serious dance club styles of music – but not necessarily, of course. Massive is the go-to synth for practioners of genres demanding extreme LFO filter gymnastics such as DubStep and Crunk, thanks to Massive’s flexible modulation matrix and Performer step envelope facilities.

“

Some [preset names] were obviously chosen by hurling a copy of Lord of the Rings across the room and seeing what page fell open

”

A nice convolution reverb, Reflektor nestles inside Guitar Rig 4 as a plug-in, but is definitely not just for guitar patches. Talking of which, see Rammfire below it – serious, neighbour-annoying grunge.

GUITAR RIG 4 Guitar Rig 4 copped a fair amount of stick from the GR faithful when it was released in late 2009. NI had bitten the bullet and done a lot of revamping which included some big departures from GR3 features, in particular the snapshot facility. New amplifier models and a control room module seemed to be ignored in preference to whining about the dropped GR3 stuff. Regardless of the negative comments you’ll AT 45

Abbey Road ’60s Drum kit inside Kontakt: Great-sounding and well laid out drum sampler, plus a pretty-picture-type of GUI, if the nuts and bolts style of Battery 3 doesn’t appeal.

NEED TO KNOW Price $799 Contact CMI (03) 9315 2244 info@cmi.com.au www.cmi.com.au Pros A wealth of instruments and effects that should keep you satisfied for quite some time.

Cons Full install requires 90GB of HD space. Even these days, that needs some planning.

Summary Although there’s bound to be someone out there with a list of reasons why Komplete 7 isn’t complete, this is one hell of a VST instrument collection. It’s a lot to take in and you’ll need time to appreciate all that it has to offer, but once it’s all installed and happy, and inside a good DAW, you’ll have everything you need plus a few things you probably don’t.

Devotees of these kinds of massive sounds will no doubt, find something unique and exciting in Massive. Meanwhile, a lot of Komplete 7 users who don’t care for techno may wind up leaving Massive on the virtual shelf.

REAKTOR 5.5 Reaktor 5.5 isn’t an instrument – it’s a ‘modular studio’.

Offering a huge amount of sounds and textures, it has 70 of its own internal synthesisers, sound generators and effects that can be combined into a limitless number of patches. Reaktor’s GUI has also been substantially overhauled, providing for more intuitive operation, and now features a brand new synthesis facilities offered by the Modal oscillator block. This brings Additive synthesis capabilities to Reaktor, which lends itself well to creating physically modelled instruments. The Modal block makes possible the new synths (‘Ensembles’ in Reaktor-speak) included for Komplete 7: Laser Bass, Reaktor Spark and Reaktor Prism. Overall, the emphasis is strongly on synth-type sounds with rhythmic grooves and the ability to create precise patches. Not surprisingly, for those wishing to build their own synth and effect ensembles from scratch, the learning curve is steep, and it may take a while for you to confidently find a place for Reaktor in your studio. I’d expect a lot of Komplete 7 purchasers will also put Reaktor to one side for a rainy day (unless they specifically wanted Reaktor and consider the rest of Komplete 7 the bonus), but this is to ignore its versatility. With the 70 included factory Ensembles in addition the the 2800-strong library available for download, Reaktor is the gift that keeps giving.

Now we can start looking at the extra plug-ins and effects that come with Komplete 7.

MORE KOMPLETE THAN EVER I used to work with a piano tuner, a kindly old Austrian gentleman called Adolf – unfortunate for a chap of his generation and geographical roots. Adolph could chat for hours about famous pianos he’d tuned and how the only AT 46

other professional tuner in town wouldn’t know his A-sharps from his B-flats. Adolph was always talking about the subtle tones and performance characteristics of individual pianos, something I couldn’t really appreciate. If you’re like me, you’ll struggle to get too excited over the four different pianos included in Komplete 7. The Upright Collection can have obvious applications, but otherwise the Vienna, Berlin and New York Grand Piano packages offer distinctions that only dedicated enthusiasts will care much about. It’s hard to imagine someone leaping outraged to their feet after hearing a studio mixdown and yelling, ‘You fool! You used the Berlin Grand, when it should have been the New York!” Still, people have been outraged by less.

The grand piano add-ons run inside Kontakt 4, as do several Komplete 7 components, some of which cater for exacting musical tastes. The Scarbee Clavinet/Pianet is a pair of classic ‘electrophonic’ and ‘electro-mechanical’ (respectively) keyboard instruments used in the late 1960s. I’m all for being sentimental, but if you’re not trying to recreate exactly that music, chances are these won’t get a lot of track time. More useful, Vintage Organs has a choice of three Hammond organs – surprise surprise – a Vox Continental and a Farfisa Compact… we might have to take NI’s word for it that these last two are classic instruments and not just dragged out of the basement and dusted off for the sake of it.

Also from Scarbee, the Mark I and A-200 Electric Pianos add-ons are instruments that should certainly make it into your DAW’s VST Favourites menu. There are always occasions when an electric piano is the only piano patch that will cut through a mix and both these instruments not only sound great, they truly have that classic tone. A lot of sample-based virtual instruments will offer some kind of electric piano and even come close, but these two instantly make the grade.

Finally from Scarbee, the MM Bass gets a guernsey in

Reaktor 5.5: A modular studio, not just a plug-in.

Bring your pilot’s license.

Komplete 7. A bit like MIDI guitar tracks, bass playing simulators are usually treated with much distrust unless you’re after that extremely annoying, Seinfeld sound. But the MM Bass really pulls it off, albeit in a ’70s funk and disco style that might not lend itself to more modern genres. It’s kind of alarming really – being a bass player myself – how well MM Bass comes across. Now I know how drummers feel…

Standing alone as the only add-on that uses just the Kore 2 player, Acoustic Refractions (yes, with a ‘c’!) has a sample base of everyday sounds like washing machines, car doors shutting, alarm bells… you get the idea. AR twists these into musical notes to be played as an instrument and the effect is quite clever, if a little bizarre. NI mentions the term ‘sound design’ in the blurb, which pretty much sums it up.

Back we go to Reaktor 5.5, since the next three add-ons work inside it. Just when you’re starting to overload on bleeping, ringing, pad-like sweeping piano synthesiser sounds Reaktor Prism and Reaktor Spark provide different textures yet again. Could you achieve these in Absynth or FM8? Maybe, or at least you’ll come close, but herein lays one aspect of Komplete 7 where some duplication in the actual sounds is unavoidable, despite which synth is responsible. These would be useful add-ons, if you only owned Reaktor.

GIVEN THE FINGER Next, you have The Finger. Yes, it’s complicated… and simple at the same time. The Finger allows you to stack and layer complex combinations of ‘performance effects’ across your MIDI keyboard, and is aimed at DJ performers. For instance, you could trigger four samples to play together and your next key-press tells them to keep looping. A huge, layered dance sound can be built... but I’m guessing if you buy Komplete 7 for those three grand piano samplers, you just lost interest in this review.

While we’re cutting a swathe across the dance floor, Traktor’s 12 is included in Komplete 7. These are 12 of the best crushing, slicing, mashing effects from Traktor Pro, but whereas Pro is designed as live performance DJ software, Traktor’s 12 is for bringing those effects into a DAW environment. Again, if you’re not a fan of techno then Traktor’s 12 might not get a run, but there’s no reason why it can’t be applied to other genres. To do this, Traktor 12 needs to work inside an instance of Guitar Rig 4.

It’s not the only one.

Rammfire is a new guitar amplifier simulator based on the personal setup of the impressively named Richard Z Kruspe of the band Rammstein, who apparently make Metallica sound like Air Supply having a nap. Usually, in my never-so-humble opinion, a lot of amp sims get worse the heavier they are, sounding more like a computer ripping zero’s and ones apart than overdriven valves and circuits trying to destroy a speaker cone. But Rammfire is an exception. Somewhat miraculously the quality of distortion in this simulator stays realistic. If you’ve ever thought the metal content in GR4 lacking, check out Rammstein.

Also residing inside GR4 is Reflektor, the first convolution reverb boasting a ‘zero latency’ algorithm. A lot of us use convolution reverbs, and many of us only have a rough idea how they work, without really grasping what’s going on. What many of us do know is that many of them sounds great, and aside from it being slightly perplexing to require GR4 – a guitar amp simulator – to host a reverb, Reflektor is excellent. The interface is simple – that’s a good thing – you get a good sense of what you’re doing and I was particular pleased with the drum room settings over my Battery 3 outputs.

Lastly – and talking of drums – Komplete 7 also has the Abbey Road ’60s Drums collection for Kontakt. A quick story here – The Beatles were asked at a packed press conference if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world. Lennon quipped back, “He’s not even the best drummer in the room.”

Mention Abbey Road and drums in the same sentence and you’ll instantly think of The Beatles, Ringo Starr and despite their notoriety – why would you want them? Fear not and forget Ringo, this is two ’60s drum kits meticulously sampled in Abbey Road and the scope of that sampling, plus the way it’s presented inside the Kontakt GUI, make this a really cool instrument.

Variations on how the kit pieces are hit (off-centre, centre, etc) maybe aren’t so innovative, but the on-screen display greatly helps in programming diverse strikes that add realism. The kits overall aren’t stuck in the ’60s either. The only slight snag was the 400MB+ of RAM the kits swallow.

Phew, that’s it. All 23 different – and maybe not-so-different – components to Komplete 7. Is it complete? Will you need anything else? Well, some people are never satisfied, but Komplete isn’t a bad start. I know it’ll be a while before I start looking for other VST instruments.

AT 47

AudioTechnology THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & RECORDING MUSICIANS

SUBSCRIBE

&WIN!

an SSL NUCLEUS audio hub and DAW controller!

Over the next two issues, subscribers to AudioTechnology have the opportunity to land one of the most stupendous prizes we’ve ever offered. With immense thanks to Amber Technology, we’re excited to be giving away an SSL Nucleus audio hub and DAW controller! This amazing new console features a complete SuperAnalogue monitoring path, two high-class analogue mic preamps, 16 motorised 100mm faders and 16 V-Pot encoders. There are digital scribble strips and 10-segment LED meters per channel, jog/shuttle/navigation wheel and transport controls, ethernet and USB connectivity, two headphone outputs, an ‘iJack’ input for your iThing, and support for HUI and MCU command protocols. There’s even a bundled SSL Duende plug-in suite. Hell, it even acts as a professional 2x2 USB audio interface! Seriously, if anyone was going to do a DAW controller the right way, SSL is the company to do it.

AT 48

PRODUCT SEMINAR TOUR One incredibly fortunate AT subscriber will win this fabulous prize, valued at $5999! For that subscriber to be you, all you have to do is subscribe (or re-subscribe) to AudioTechnology magazine between 15/2/2011 and 26/5/2011, and correctly answer the following multiple-choice question:

Which of the following people is a co-owner of SSL? Is it: [A]: Julia Gillard [B]: Peter Gabriel

There’s also an SSL & DPA Microphones Seminar Tour coming to Australia in March. Amber Technology is hosting the free events, which begin in Sydney on the early evening of March 2nd, followed by Melbourne on March 8th and Adelaide on March 10th.

Factory representatives from both DPA & SSL will be on hand to discuss the latest studio recording techniques and technology. Topics will include: music production, the facts behind SuperAnalogue technology, and the benefits of coming out of the bedroom and ‘out of the box’ (including A/B testing).

There will also be several SSL products on display including the SSL AWS 948 analogue mixing console, the Nucleus audio hub & DAW controller and the SSL Duende Native plug-in suite.

These events are free to attend but seats are strictly limited, so register your interest without delay at:

[C]: Homer Simpson

www.ambertech.com.au/events/roadshow

[D]: Rick O’Neil

Leave your answer in the “50 words or less” field when subscribing via the AudioTechnology website.

Amber Technology: 02 9452 8600 www.solid-state-logic.com.au/ professional@ambertech.com.au

Pay by credit card online: www.audiotechnology.com.au By phone: call Miriam on: (02) 9986 1188 or mail in the form below with a cheque or money order. Easy!

The competition is a game of skill that’s open to all new subscribers (and re-subscribers) to AudioTechnology magazine.

The competition is open from 15/2/2011 to 26/5/2011. The winner will be notified by phone and announced in Issue 81 of AudioTechnology magazine. Subscribe now at www.audiotechnology.com.au

Write your answer here:

AT 24

AT 47 N/A

AT 70

AT 02 N/A

AT 25

AT 48 N/A

AT 71

AT 03 N/A

AT 26

AT 49

AT 72

AT 04 N/A

AT 27

AT 50

AT 73

AT 05 N/A

AT 28

AT 51

AT 74

AT 06 N/A

AT 29

AT 52

AT 75

AT 07 N/A

AT 30

AT 53

AT 76

AT 08 N/A

AT 31

AT 54

AT 77

SURNAME:

AT 09 N/A

AT 32

AT 55

AT 78

ADDRESS:

AT 10 N/A

AT 33 N/A

AT 56

AT 11 N/A

AT 34

AT 57

AT 12 N/A

AT 35

AT 58

POSTCODE:

AT 13 N/A

AT 36

AT 59

PHONE:

AT 14 N/A

AT 37

AT 60

AT 15 N/A

AT 38

AT 61

AT 16

AT 39

AT 62

AT 17 N/A

AT 40

AT 63

AT 18

AT 41

AT 64

AT 19

AT 42

AT 65

AT 20 N/A

AT 43

AT 66

AT 21

AT 44

AT 67

AT 22

AT 45

AT 68

AT 23 N/A

AT 46 N/A

AT 69

BUSINESS NAME: FIRST NAME:

*N.Z. = AU$44.00, Overseas = AU$99.

Special offers apply to readers in Australia and N.Z. only. (Price includes GST.) Please complete and return this form, or a photocopy, along with a cheque or postal order to: AudioTechnology Magazine, PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086.

Please make cheques/ postal orders payable to ‘Alchemedia Publishing’.

We have a limited numbers of back issues available for $10 each (including P&P). Please specify which issues you want and add the appropriate amount to your subscription. (NB: readers outside Australia contact Miriam for back issue costs: subscriptions@audiotechnology.com.au) AT 01 N/A

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 20% OFF THE COVER PRICE 7 issue subscription $44.00*

COLLECTORS! BACK ISSUES!

SUBURB:

EMAIL: METHOD OF PAYMENT: CHEQUE

POSTAL ORDER

CREDIT CARD

CREDIT CARD PAYMENT: VISA CARD NUMBER:

BANKCARD

MASTERCARD

TICK THIS BOX IF YOU REQUIRE A TAX INVOICE EXPIRY DATE:

AT 49