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The Music of Moulin Rouge! ★ Raphael Saadiq and Jimmy Lee ★ Grace Potter Finds Daylight ★ Shinedown Live! October 2019 \\ mixonline.com \\ $6.99
>REVIEWED WARM AUDIO WA-84 MIC USEFUL ARTS SFP-30 PREAMP/BF-1 DI FOCUSRITE SCARLETT 18I20 INTERFACE
MUSIC PRODUCTION • LIVE SOUND • SOUND FOR PICTURE
STRANGE WEATHER,
HOT MUSIC MARC GOODMAN, DANIEL SCHLETT & THE BEST ROOM IN BROOKLYN
10.19 Contents
Photo: Matthew Murphy, 2019
Volume 43, Number 10
26 FEATURES
MUSIC
TECH
12 Raphael Saadiq
36 Audio Test Kitchen: Unbiased Product
Opens Up on Jimmy Lee
Testing, Comparison BY TOM KENNY
BY LILY MOAYERI
38 AES New York 2019 News & Notes
14 Studio News & Notes: Lennon Bus Tour
44 Review: Warm Audio WA-84 Microphone BY STEVE LA CERRA Photo by Katja Ogrin/Redferns
18 On the Cover: Strange Weather, Brooklyn BY TOM KENNY
22 Grace Potter Steps Back Into Daylight BY MR. BONZAI
26 The Music of Moulin Rouge! BY ANTHONY SAVONA
30 Studio Designer Bob Suffolk’s World of Recording BY STEVE HARVEY
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16 Mixing It Up Live With Shinedown BY CANDACE HORGAN
DEPARTMENTS 10 From the Editor 49 Classifieds On the Cover: Marc Goodman and Daniel Schlett at the API Legacy AXS in the Wes Lachotdesigned control room at Strange Weather, Brooklyn. Photo: Dan Perrone.
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46 Review: Useful Arts SFP-30 Preamp & BF-1 DI BY WES MAEBE
48 Review: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Audio Interface BY MIKE LEVINE
50 Back Page Blog: Artificial Intelligence and Front Row Seats BY MIKE LEVINE AND STEVE LA CERRA Mix, Volume 43, Number 10 (ISSN 0164-9957) is published monthly by Future US, Inc., 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036. Periodical Postage Paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Mix, PO Box 8518, Lowell, MA 01853. One-year (12 issues) subscription is $35. Canada is $40. All other international is $50. Printed in the USA. Canadian Post Publications Mail agreement No. 40612608. Canada return address: BleuChip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
Vol. 43 No. 10
October 2019
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CONTENT VP/Content Creation Anthony Savona Content Director Tom Kenny, thomas.kenny@futurenet.com Content Manager Anthony Savona, anthony.savona@futurenet.com Technology Editor, Studio Mike Levine, techeditormike@gmail.com Technology Editor, Live Steve La Cerra, stevelacerra@verizon.net Sound Reinforcement Editor Steve La Cerra Contributors: Strother Bullins, Eddie Ciletti, Michael Cooper, Gary Eskow, Matt Hurwitz, Steve Jennings (photography), Sarah Jones, Barry Rudolph Production Manager Nicole Schilling Managing Design Director Nicole Cobban Design Director Walter Makarucha, Jr.
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Current From the Editor
Information, Internet Searches and Stories to Tell It wasn’t that long ago that Mix would break new product information in a monthly print issue. We were the media, the primary gatekeepers of information. We had contacts, we received press releases, we got phone calls about upcoming “exclusive” product launches or “special access” to tours. A producer might call about an album project that nobody even knew was taking place. And we got to tell the world about it, every 30 days. There was a staff of 40-plus, and the magazine was fat. Then came the Internet, followed by mobile, and the music and publishing worlds changed dramatically and forever. Thankfully, Mix stabilized a few years back, albeit in a much slimmer print form, and the recording industry seems to be settling into its new hybrid form. Products are still put out, audio projects are more numerous than at any time in history, and new revenue models for studios, recordings and distribution will eventually find a way to bring the money back. But I suffer no illusions: Mix will never return to its halcyon days of 228 pages a month. So what’s an editor to do? I used to edit in-depth technical articles, featuring schematics and specs and titles like “Clocking and Conversion” or “Perceptual Coding.” Excellent articles, bordering on the AES Journal in their approach. But with only 52 pages a month, what goes and what stays? I’ve thought long and hard about that these past 10 years. In a nutshell, I keep coming back to stories. The Internet is overloaded with information. If you need a schematic to repair an old Studer tape machine, you can find the parts in an online search and then watch a video on YouTube rather than run down the manual. If you need a studio’s equipment list, the studio’s site has it. If you need a manufacturer’s stated frequency response graph, it’s easily searchable. Mix is a features magazine, and it’s a product review magazine. That’s our core. Mix has access to top talent in the industry and the opportunity to go behind the scenes at major events or major releases. That’s what we do. We’re fortunate to have a sister publication in Pro Sound News, and its editor Clive Young, who is committed to his mission of news and business. He’s good at it. Mix is good at stories—feature stories on studios, music, recording, tours, films, universities, design, new technologies, industry trends, emerging talent and countless other aspects of our industry. All of this came to mind this month while editing the issue, where we have a number of damn fine stories. Look at the cover. We’ve all heard about Brooklyn and how it became a hipster haven and hotbed of recording once Manhattan prices forced out
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artists, same as they did big commercial studios. That started more than a decade ago, and Strange Weather Studios was part of it. But then Marc Goodman started thinking bigger, and he met engineer Daniel Schlett, and the two zigged while the rest of Brooklyn zagged, and they built a world-class, single-room, API and analog-centric facility in 2012 at a time when the rest of the recording industry seemed to be scaling back in major markets. It has sure worked out well for them. And it’s a good story. We also have Grace Potter sit for an interview, where we emphasize her story, especially as it relates to her life in music and her reluctance to record again. Last December we told the story of her husband, Eric Valentine, an in-demand producer who also happens to own Barefoot Studio and UnderTone Audio. The technical detail is almost a bonus in this case, and we’re fortunate that Grace and Eric’s stories come together on a very personal record. That’s a good story. And Raphael Saadiq? He could talk all day about recording and analog/ digital and building grooves, but this story is about how the death of his brother, Jimmy Lee, informed his current release. He’s human. He’s real. And you can likely find most of the technical information elsewhere. This is what matters to him, right now. And Audio Test Kitchen? Here’s Alex Oana, a guy with an idea. He sees a hole in the pro audio retail chain. He meets another guy, Ian Hlatky, and they spend three years bringing the idea to market. It must have felt like a lifetime in today’s world. But this month they launch an online search/comparison tool for listening to analog products and comparing them against others—providing an objective, nonbiased source for what is most often a very subjective decision. The amount of work that has gone into building just the large-diaphragm condenser microphone category is staggering, and there are many more categories to come. It’s a good story. I wish I had room to talk about Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Tony Savona has penned an excellent piece on the making of a cast album in the midst of a hit Broadway show’s run. Yes, we still do plenty of product news and the product review section remains a bedrock. But when a good story comes in, we have to tell it…
Tom Kenny Editor, Mix
Music Raphael Saadiq Opens Up on Jimmy Lee Intensely Personal, Bass-Driven Storytelling—In Album Form By Lily Moayeri
O
n the day Raphael Saadiq’s latest album, Jimmy Lee, was released, he played a hometown show in Los Angeles where he performed the entire album in running order. “I always wanted to see if I could pull off having people listen to an album all the way through, the first time out,” says Saadiq the following week at his North Hollywood studio, Blakeslee Recording Co.—a high-ceilinged, high-quality space on par with the professional ones he would get booked into as one-third
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of Tony! Toni! Toné! Jimmy Lee is an album with a story that needs to be heard from start to finish. Like much of Saadiq’s work, it is a concept album of sorts. This is never his intention. In fact, he didn’t realize there was any kind of theme on the self-produced Jimmy Lee until he started promoting the album and had to respond to what listeners were taking away from it. The album is named for and, in large part, about, Saadiq’s older brother, whom he lost to addiction
many years ago. Jimmy Lee is one of four of Saadiq’s deceased siblings. He wrote Jimmy Lee as a way to speak up for his brother. “Thinking about my brother selfdestructing, once I had the vision, I started coming up with more songs with that vision,” Saadiq says. “I have friends who have dealt with drugs. I’ve been around it myself a little bit, even though I never got into it. Everybody is hooked on something. I go to Kaiser with my mom and it looks like New Jack City. Where you pick up your meds is huge. It’s like a Home Depot. Everybody in there is like a zombie for pills. I felt I knew how to talk about this.” Musically, Saadiq refers to Jimmy Lee as not so much of a time but of a space. Spaces he has occupied in his 53 years, specifically referencing the MTV heyday of Duran Duran, Tears for Fears and David Bowie in the early to mid-‘80s, with an emphasis on synthesizers and synthesizergenerated strings. Saadiq’s music is known for going backwards referentially, as much as he pushes forward. The drums are the futuristic element on Jimmy Lee, aided, in part, by his forays into Ableton. Three years ago, Saadiq started using Ableton as a writing tool. His recordings are still to Pro Tools with the help of his primary engineer, Hotae Alexander Jang, but Ableton is the first interface Saadiq has used entirely on his own and the only studio piece he has ever taken home or used to make music in other locations. He might have started drums in Ableton, or he might have had hi-hats come from a drum machine, or put the snare back into Ableton after recording it live with a drummer. Drawing from the endless wall of drums Saadiq has at Blakeslee, he plays drums himself on four songs, including “Rear View” and “Belongs to God.” It is the bass, however, that is Saadiq’s first and primary instrument. The Fender 1962 Precision is his go-to piece, which, interestingly for a bass playing producer, is quite muted on Jimmy Lee. Playing with flat-wound strings for a deader sound—which Saadiq sometimes mutes even further with his hands—that doesn’t mean the bass isn’t doing a variety of clever things, most
of them percussive. “The bass is the other side of my voice,” Saadiq says. “I believe in my singing, but for many years, it’s been about protecting my voice with the bass, meaning if I falter in my vocals, the bass will take care of me. It’s my voice, too. “I’m a simple bass player,” he continues, “I don’t have a lot of soloing in me. I don’t play a five-string. I play a lot of syncopated basslines, a lot of rhythmic basslines. Some of the songs don’t even have a bass, but there is a bass note in the chords. I see it as the instrument that pulls all my production together. It makes everything better.” Even with his affinity for the instrument, Saadiq hands the bass duties to whomever he feels is the best fit for the song. One of the more prominent basslines on Jimmy Lee is on “Glory to the Veins,” where the instrument illustrates the story of the song moreso than any other sound. It is played by Saadiq’s partner, Charles
Brungardt, who originally wrote it for a videogame the two were producing for their videogame production company, IllFonic Saadiq didn’t have the patience to wait for a choir to sing the vocals on “Riker’s Island” so he sang them himself. He sang the chorus over and over—in tenor, soprano and alto—taking on different characters each time. He then multiplied those recordings for the full and rich vocals heard on that song. Saadiq tends to record his vocals in isolation, without an engineer, going through an original Neve 20173 compressor. The Neve is one of the many vintage outboard pieces of gear that he has amassed the past 15 years and incorporated into Blakeslee, which also houses a jukebox-looking, immaculately kept Studer tape machine, a classic DAT player and three SSL desks in three different rooms. “I use the Shure SM7B almost 90 percent of the time,” says Saadiq. “You can get really close and personal with an SM7B. I’m a tenor, and sometimes my voice is too bright. It has developed some warmth around it over time, but I’ll use the U 87 for a different bite. There is a lot of slapback and reverb in my vocals. My thing is to play with effects to distort my voice and do some wacky stuff. I’m not trying to win a singing contest. I just wanted the album to come from my perspective. I really wanted to tell whatever story I had on any particular day, or whatever story I knew from a long time that I could tell today.” Part of Saadiq telling these stories is the sound effects, a doorbell indicating a drug dealer coming to the house, for example. There are preintroductions, an interlude and a redux heard in between the almost jarringly abrupt, but very much intentional endings to each song. Saadiq attributes these quick switches to watching Adult Swim cartoons and a vehicle for shuffling through musical palettes and mindset channels. “Everybody has a Jimmy Lee in their life,” he says. “The album is opening up different wounds for different people. Starting a chapter and maybe closing a chapter for others. At this point, Jimmy Lee has taken on a role that I don’t feel has anything to do with me.” n
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Music // news & notes John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Targets Gun Violence The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus (Lennon Bus) returned to New York City Hall for the launch of the sixth annual Come Together NYC month-long residency on September 16. This year’s launch event, entitled “Imagine A City With No Gun Violence!,” began on board the Lennon Bus with a roundtable discussion bringing student activists and elected officials together with the Bronx-born musical artist Prince Royce to discuss the next steps needed to end gun violence. The event then moved outside to the steps of New York City Hall for a program featuring the participants in the roundtable, including Councilmembers Daniel Dromm, Mark Treyger, and Alicka Ampry-Samuel, along with over 200 students from all five boroughs coming together to inspire student activism in honor of John Lennon, who was killed by gunfire. “John would be very proud to know that this project encourages young people everywhere to embrace their creativity, and share their ideas for ending gun violence. I The Lennon Bus stops on Rego Park, NY.
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am so happy to be celebrating the Lennon Bus’ 22nd year,” said Yoko Ono Lennon. Students and others present were able to write their suggestions on a white stepladder to illustrate the steps that need to be taken to help to resolve the plague that gunfire has brought to America. Throughout the New York residency, the Lennon Bus will be making stops at schools, public events and trade shows across all five boroughs of the city. Visitors to the Lennon Bus will receive an exclusive look at the latest in music products as well as audio, video and broadcast technologies found on board. Students also learn about potential career paths first-hand from the engineers who live and work on board the multimillion dollar facility that travels year round throughout the U.S. Students at each stop will spend a full day developing an original project, creating the music, video, and images needed to take their ideas from concept to delivery. Partners include Apple Inc., Yamaha Corporation of America, OWC, the Mayor’s Office, the NY City Council, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the NY State Assembly as well as anti-gun violence organizations Everytown For Gun Safety, Students Demand Action and Peace is A Lifestyle. n
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Photo by: Terje Dokken/Gonzales Photo/ Avalon/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Live Guitarist Zach Myers and bass player Eric Bass just wail in front of vocalist Brent Smith and drummer Barry Kerch.
Mixing It Up With Shinedown Analog Touches With Digital Control By Candace Horgan
A
pproximately halfway through their 100-minute set, the lights go down and the members of Shinedown walk off stage. Through back pathways, the foursome makes their way to individual platform risers arranged in a diamond pattern out on the floor among the audience, with bassist Eric Bass to the right, guitarist Zach Myers to the left, drummer Barry Kerch at FOH and vocalist and Shinedown founder Brent Smith on the lawn. The lights come back on, and they launch into “Amaryllis,” the title track from their fourth album, released in 2012. The four-song mini-set is
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a powerful and popular moment with the crowd, before the set then resumes on the main stage with a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.” For front of house engineer Andy Meyer, the mini-set provides its own challenges, as Kerch’s riser is located right next to his mix position. “Once the mix is solid, you just need to be able to work the nuances, so I just throw on headphones while he’s going at it 10 feet from my head,” laughs Meyer. “We put some plexi around three sides of it so the fans wouldn’t get hit too hard. They really love the gag, man. I mean, I tell you, to watch their faces and see how much fun
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everybody has with it, it’s really cool. You might want to ask me about the time difference? It’s there, all of us that understand it, it makes you crazy, but I don’t see one person going, ‘Oh, my God, the snare is out of time,’ you know? They don’t care. The super fan that’s right there, they’re just so thrilled to be right up next to it that I don’t think they even perceive it that way, to be honest.” Meyer joined the Shinedown tour this summer after coming off a three-year stint working for Justin Timberlake. He has been working in live sound for four decades now, with some of his previous gigs including the Smithereens, Dada, Everlast, Pat Benatar, Widespread Panic, Rage Against the Machine and Guns N’ Roses, among others. “I’ve kind of bounced around from rock to pop,” Meyer says. He started with Shinedown after a call from band members Myers and Smith. “Brent called me and we talked for a couple hours, just about
Photo: Sanjay Parikh
Photo: Sanjay Parikh
FOH engineer Andy Meyer at the DiGiCo SD7-centered, analog-enhanced mix position.
Monitor engineer Chris Lightcap at his DiGiCo SD5, buttressed by two Waves servers.
people more than anything, how they treat people. Things you want to hear, like respect. After we talked, I thought, ‘You know, I haven’t done that type of tour in a really long time.’ Last time I did sheds was Mötley Crüe, and I thought, you know, this would be good.” Meyer mixes at a DiGiSo SD7 with Shinedown, in part because of its snapshot capabilities, which he uses frequently in the set. While he appreciates the flexibility of digital consoles for snapshots and the highinput counts, he also likes an analog vibe. “I use a lot of analog insert gear, so I’m still utilizing all the great advantages you have in the digital domain to be able to control those things, and then you still have that nice analog warmth. We’re using a lot of Rupert Neve gear, Shelford Channels, Portico Channels and a Portico Master Buss Processor, the 5059 and the 5060 summing consoles, 5045 enhancers, 5043 compressor-limiters, 5042 tape emulators, 511 pres, and the R10 chassis for those. “Something I’d like to touch on, too, is for the conversion back to digital, I use Apogee Symphonys,” he continues. “I get all the analog into all the analog gear, summing everything, then I put analog into the Apogees and convert it back to digital with state-of-the-art converters. That’s the real trick, right? I clock everything with one clock so I can turn off all sample rate conversion. So now, when you insert a piece of analog gear, it actually improves it.” D/A clocking is handled by Antelope Trinity and Antelope 10M units. Meyer also has a variety of Thermionic Culture gear at FOH, including the Phoenix Mastering Compressor, Swift Mastering EQ, Kite Mastering EQ, and Little Red Bustard. He also uses four Universal Audio Apollo MKIIs at FOH. In addition to his appreciation of analog gear, another thing that sets Meyer apart is his rejection of room tuning the P.A. system, which on the Shinedown tour is a Clair Brothers system, utilizing Cohesion 12s on the main hang, Cohesions 10s for the side hang and CP-218 subs. “All these new line arrays are excellent; there’s millions of dollars of R and D, and if it’s flown properly, timed properly, you put in a mastered CD of something you know sounds good, and it sounds great,” he explains. “A lot of the EQ you do live is fighting atmospherics. I utilize the mastering gear inserted on the master bus to clean all that up every day, so I just make little finite touches, and that’s all I ever do. I don’t EQ at all anymore. I just use my virtual playback, play a song from the night before, touch it up a little bit, and I’m good.” Shinedown uses mostly sE microphones on stage. The vocal mics are all V7s. On the drums, he uses sE VKick mics on the toms. The snare top is an sE V7 X, and the snare bottom is an sE8 condenser. The overheads and ride are also sE8s. Shure Beta 91s face in opposite directions to get depth
on the kick drum. To get the instruments into the P.A., Meyer is using direct boxes, including the Rupert Neve Designs RNDI and a Universal Audio OX amptop attenuator box on guitars. “I changed us over to Neve RNDIs; you can also use them in speaker mode,” he says. “For the bass rig, we run right out of the amplifier into an RNDI. We run the bass guitar dirty amp into a second RNDI and then right into the cabinet, as well. We’re pulling our source direct from the Neve DIs. They sound really natural, really fantastic.” Chris Lightcap, meanwhile, is mixing monitors, as he has been with Shinedown for 12 years. Other artists he’s worked with include Anthony Hamilton, Staind, Nelly and New Kids on the Block. He got his start in sound as a teenager. Like Meyer, Lightcap turned to DiGiCo for the console, using an SD5 along with two Waves servers and an Eventide Eclipse for some vocal effects. He started using the SD5 with Shinedown after using it with New Kids. While he uses the onboard gates and channel multiband compressors from the SD5, he relies on the Waves. “I’d say about 70 percent of my Waves stuff is compression, just an SSL Buss Comp on everyone’s mix,” he explains. “I’m using the H-Reverb for vocal and drum verbs, and then the normal C6 on Brent’s vocal and some C4s on the acoustic guitars. Nothing really too wild.” The band uses Shure PSM 1000s for wireless monitoring, and they all have JH Audio Roxanne custom in-ear earbuds. “Everybody’s pretty much getting full mixes, with them on top a little,” explains Lightcap. “Zach likes a full, round mix, like a studio mix, but he likes to hear a lot of the room, so he gets the audience mics in his mix constantly. The other guys, I’ll ride the audience mics, but he hears a lot of the room, as well as the mix. He likes that vibe, if you will. For the other guys, it’s just kind of up between songs or certain parts, that crowd participation. Within the song itself, most of the time the audience mics are off for the other guys.” For the diamond mini-set, Lightcap employs a secondary set of wireless transmitters. “Because of the distance in some of these sheds, we opted to have a second set of transmitters at front of house for the ears—just to cut down on the distance—that were controlled via Shure’s Wireless Workbench. All the wireless stuff was networked together so I could mute or unmute transmitters for ears, turn off the set for the stage on their walk out there and then unmute the ones out in the house and then vice versa for them walking back.” n
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on the cover
STRANGE WEATHER,
HOT MUSIC MARC ALAN GOODMAN, DANIEL SCHLETT AND THE BEST ROOM IN BROOKLYN By Tom Kenny
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very major city in America now has its own “Brooklyn.” In the Bay Area, people look at the changes taking place in Oakland and refer to it as Brooklyn. In Los Angeles, the same was said of the Silverlake area, and now East Hollywood. In Chicago, it’s been Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and it’s now moving to the South Side. It refers to a form of gentrification, common enough throughout history, but the Brooklyn moniker refers to a first wave of artists and hipsters fleeing the newly overpriced city. New restaurants, new venues, new First Friday arts fairs. Third- and fourth-generation families are forced out of long-established neighborhoods by the rising rents; then eventually the first wave of artists is forced out by the condos and cranes and the invasion of tech and finance and investors looking for the “new place to be,” bringing along their $9 coffees and $18 avocado toast for breakfast. It’s happening everywhere as the suburban dream is slowly being replaced by a return to city life throughout the United States. But it started in Brooklyn. And it showed its effect on
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the recording industry long before the national magazines picked up on the inner-city migration. Back in the early 1990s, when Marc Alan Goodman and Daniel Schlett, now partners in Strange Weather studios and pictured on this month’s cover, were still pre-teens and just picking up guitars, the Alesis ADAT debuted, soon followed by ads in The Village Voice for “24-track digital recording, $45/hour, engineer included.” Then came Pro Tools, Napster and big real estate money in Manhattan, and by the mid2000s, a few storied big studios started to close, followed by others over the next 10 years. Brooklyn was just over the river and began building on its indie approach and vibe, picking up recording work. The rooms were smaller, and so were the budgets. But there was still a good business. FROM PHILLY TO BROOKLYN The first incarnation of Strange Weather was in Philadelphia, circa 2003. Goodman, a recent NYU graduate in music business, realized that he was more entranced by production than
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The Wes Lachot-designed live room at Strange Weather, Brooklyn. Having a space where “a band could record as a band” was one of the main reasons Marc Goodman and Daniel Schlett decided to build the new space.
distribution, which was the hot topic at the time. He decided to go back to his hometown of Philadelphia, where he found the opportunity to set up a makeshift studio with a friend in an apartment they were renting for $150 a month. Over the next 18 months there would be two more versions of the studio, in similar spaces, before Goodman decided to return to New York and began immersing himself in the studio scene, working all around town before ending up working mostly at Studio G within a Brooklyn facility, moving in his now-large collection of mics and outboard gear. There he would meet engineer/producer Daniel Schlett. Schlett, a New Jersey native and in his mid20s, owned Hypersnake Studios but often found himself producing and engineering at Pigeon Club in Hoboken and more and more often in Manhattan. “I first moved to New York about 12 years ago and I met now-famous New York City musician Tony Maimone at a grocery store just on a chance. We were there almost every day, and we ordered the same drink every day. “He told me that if I ever want to come by, he had a recording studio next door, and Marc
Photo: Dan Perrone
had been an assistant there,” he continues. “I kept in touch with him for a couple of years, and when I closed my space in New Jersey I called Tony and said I’m going to move all my gear into Studio G and I’ll work there with you guys. And he said, ‘You know that’s a great idea. But our assistant [Marc Goodman] is going to leave and he wants to start a new studio. Why don’t you call him?’ I said, ‘I don’t fucking know this guy.’” [Laughs] Goodman and Schlett met, and within a half-hour had decided to embark on a studio venture together. They had seen first hand The Wes Lachot-designed control room, based around the the decade of changes in New York, worlds’ first API Legacy AXS console, Dynaudio monitoring and they saw an opportunity to and a whole lot of analog outboard gear. build a single, world-class room, an option that was increasingly rare in Manhattan make them is that we don’t have the right outside of Sear Sound, Germano Studios, Avatar space, the right build-out.” when available and a few others. While the rest of Brooklyn was zigging toward small and mid- BIG DECISION #1: BUY THE BUILDING sized rooms, Goodman and Schlett decided to “I remember exactly the day we were in the basement of our studio base and Marc zag. “For years I had had other spaces and Daniel brought up the idea, saying, ‘I think it’s time had other spaces and then we had a space for us to move and expand and make this together,” Goodman says. “They were all rentals big live room—build a professional studio and we never wanted to invest heavily into the that New York City doesn’t have anymore.’ And build-out. Even if you had a good lease in New I was like, ‘I think you’re crazy. This basement is York, it didn’t mean anything. It was just too amazing. We have an API console and it is the scary to do that. So we spent all our money best.’ But Marc really encouraged it, saying that and interest focusing on gear and collecting the there is a market in New York right now because stuff we have right here. But then the time came most of the major studios have closed. Those where we realized that the thing that’s holding real tracking spaces where a band can walk in us back from making the records we want to and play all their instruments together, like we
Photo: Dan Perrone
couldn’t do at our old studio.” So, Goodman started looking for properties in Brooklyn, not knowing that he would soon be consumed by two-plus years of negotiations with Department of Buildings, inspections, weather delays and a thousand other obstacles that anyone who has invested in mixed-use space in New York City is all too familiar. Photos: Dan Perrone
The producers desk and side rack at Strange Weather feature plenty of prize units that Goodman and Schlett have been collecting for years, including two TriTronics Department of Commerce Maxson limiters, two Limpanders, Federal Aviation Authority Limiters, Collins 26C and many others.
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DECISION 2: BUILD A SINGLE ROOM It’s a big decision today of whether to build a single-room facility or a big studio plus secondary space. From a business standpoint, each option has its advantages, each has its concerns. “We finally had the building, and we said we could have two workable spaces or we could have one great space,” Goodman says. “New York City is full of these kind of mid-sized workable rooms, maybe with a small production room attached to them. Everywhere. So we thought, ‘You know, if we can’t have the room we want, it doesn’t make sense to build rooms at all.’ We wanted to have a space that we knew was right all the time and be able to focus on it. That has allowed us to continue to develop in our own way, like putting in the first API Legacy AXS, or we just bought a new piano yesterday, a Steinway B. We only have the resources to maintain this level of quality because we can focus on a single room.” DECISION 3: HIRE A REAL STUDIO DESIGNER The very process of buying the building made Goodman and Schlett realize that their indie DIY days were coming to an end, and that they
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The microphone cabinet at Strange Weather is an old card catalog from a branch of the NYC Public Library system. It now houses a Neumann U48, Sony C37a, RCA 77, Neumann m49 and many more vintage and new microphones. Photos: Dan Perrone
The ordeal is chronicled so well—humorously, realistically and frustratingly—by Goodman in a blog that he did for SonicScoop.com back in 2010-2012 that it would be a shame to try to paraphrase it here. Look it up. Suffice to say, eventually they ended up in a house on Graham Avenue, the edge of Williamsburg, with a ground-floor studio and apartments upstairs. Meanwhile, work continued, and Goodman and Schlett became more comfortable working together, their different skills complementing each other. Goodman moved more toward the business side, having dealt for two years with construction, and Schlett slid into producing and engineering. Their personalities mesh handin-glove. “Eleven years ago, when we first met, we were both young and were both willing to work 90 hours a week, and we both wanted to do every job, wanted to have our hand in every part of the operation,” Goodman recalls. “And over the course of our friendship, we both have kind of figured out what our own roles are and backed off of the other person’s, and we’ve ended up making space for each other. I knew from the beginning that Daniel would become an amazing engineer. But he doesn’t answer emails and he doesn’t know what to do if his computer crashes. [Laughs] So I deal with that.”
were entering a new level. Not that their clients or approach would change, simply the business. With building in place and interior walls about to be gutted, they went looking for a real studio designer. They did their due diligence, they knew the right calls to make, and eventually, after Goodman made a mad 13-hour motorcycle dash to Charleston, S.C., to see and hear the new Charleston Sound, they picked the thenrelatively unknown Wes Lachot. “I met with Wes and his wife, Lisa, and we sat down and put a record on and listened for about 30 seconds,” Goodman recalls. “Then I stood up and I sat on the couch for about 20 more seconds. And then I stood up and shook his hand and said, ‘I don’t know what are you doing here, but this is what I’ve been looking for. I’d like you to build me a room. This was a room that I could make good decisions in, where the first decision I make is going to be the right decision. I don’t have to worry about going out and checking the mix in my car.” Strange Weather opened officially in December 2012, with Dynaudio monitoring, Studer tape machines, Pro Tools, an API 1608 console and racks and racks of esoteric vintage outboard gear and mics. In late 2017, the 1608
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was replaced by the first API Legacy AXS. With Goodman focusing more on the business and less on engineering, they hired an engineer, Garret De Block, who Goodman says has proven a life-saver. After seven years, the studio has seen its packed runs and its dry spells. But life is good right now. A small selection of recent clients includes Steve Gunn, GhostFace Killah, Arto Lindsay, Diiv, Big Yuki, Theo Croker, The War on Drugs, Combo Chimbita, Sophie Auster, Curtis Harding, Sessa and CHAI. Visiting producers and engineers have brought in the likes of D’angelo, No Vacation, GRiZ, Life Of Agony, Nothing and Nels Cline 4, among many others. Projects come in from all over the world. You get the sense that this is home for a long, long while. “I think it goes back to the whole ethos of the business model in the first place, which is that we want to focus our energy on making the record,” Schlett concludes. “I don’t want to be worrying about whether a camera is in focus while we’re doing this take. I want to make sure that the vocal take is good. I want make sure that the drums take is good. We’re here to be making a record and it’s hopefully going to stand the test of time. That’s what I’m interested in.” n
Grace Potter Steps Back Into
Daylight
Rockin’ Singer/Songwriter Rejuvenated By Love, Life and Happiness By Mr. Bonzai
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n October 25, Grace Potter will deliver her second solo LP, Daylight, following four years of tectonic changes brought on by the release of her debut solo album, Midnight. At one point, she says, she considered leaving the music world entirely, but as a result, the new work is her most revealing and daring to date. The album was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Potter’s husband, Eric Valentine at his Barefoot Recording studios in Hollywood. Potter is described by Spin magazine as “one of the greatest living voices in rock today,” and she has not only played every major music festival from Coachella and Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo and Rock in Rio, she’s created her own exuberant music festival, “Grand Point North,” in her former hometown of Burlington, Vt. Still, a few years back, the mojo started to disappear. “I had gone through a period of thinking I wasn’t going to make music anymore because it had stopped being fun,” Potter explains. “I found myself in a band and touring when I wasn’t sure if that was really what I wanted. And then 13 years later, I find myself making a record with this guy Eric Valentine, and subsequently fell hopelessly in love. “It was about being as honest as I possibly could be with myself in showing the dark corners of my life through music,” she continues, referring to Daylight. “It’s very scary to reveal all these feelings. When I started writing the album, it wasn’t for anyone else. It was for me. These were essentially songs that were meant to be therapeutic, like journal entries. As it opened up into an album project with Eric, the real honesty had to come into play because I hadn’t thought about it as something
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Grace Potter and Eric Valentine. Photo by David Goggin
I would share. And then I had to figure out how to be at peace with the truth.” Daylight first took shape in the Topanga Canyon home (with studio) that Potter and Valentine had recently settled into. Without a record contract, she slowly developed ideas and the two began laying down tracks. Moving to Valentine’s Hollywood studio, the songs came to life with the help of longtime Potter collaborators, including guitarist Benny
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Yurco and drummer Matt Musty, friends Benmont Tench and Larry Goldings on keys, and evocative vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the indie band Lucius. On the album’s first track and lead single, “Love Is Love,” Potter belts her heart out as her voice shifts from delicate to roaring. It was the first track written and proved so jarring that it temporarily halted the project. “’Love Is Love’ is so confessional, it was terrifying,” she reveals. “After we recorded the demo, I had no desire to
Photo: Laurence Jacobs
From left, Larry Goldings, Eric Valentine, Grace Potter, Matt Musty, Dylan Day, Benny Yurko and Greg Camp.
keep on writing because the feelings were still too raw. I was scared to dig any deeper.” But perseverance won out in the form of a song that has a deep spiritual core. “Gospel music has always inspired me,” Potter says. “Through my whole career there was a spirituality and an essence in those chords that always pulled me in. It’s not surprising when you listen to a singer like Al Green and then find out he’s still down there preaching and singing in church. The human heart finds a center through those amazing gospel chords.” Essentially, Daylight moved from a private home studio experiment to a full-on live band recording at Barefoot. Valentine explains, “We decided, let’s just re-record the whole record live with a band and see what happens.” Potter adds, “When you’re live and there are all these incredible musicians around and everybody is moving in the same direction, that momentum carries me and helps me turn up the dial an extra five or six notches. I think I’m kind of a pain in the ass for Eric to record.” How does Valentine rope in the wildly dynamic vocal on “Love Is Love”? “Grace starts singing very softly in a low register,” he explains. “So it’s extremely quiet, and by the end of the song, she’s singing absolutely full volume, just blasting as loud as she can. The difference in volume between those two is gigantic. I haven’t actually measured it, but I’m sure it’s probably about a 40dB difference. So getting all of that captured on two-inch tape is challenging. You have to bring those levels, that dynamic range, closer together so the quiet stuff isn’t buried in
tape hiss and the loud stuff isn’t totally distorted. “We used Barefoot’s original vintage Telefunken 251 to record the vocals,” he continues. “Then I used an UnderToneAudio mic preamp, which has a huge dynamic range and has really beautiful harmonic color in it. When she does start singing really hard, the harmonic distortion that’s introduced becomes very musical. And then I had to put two compressors in series to manage all of the level that she puts down. The first one is a custom model made by Decca Studios in England. That would do the initial round of trying to even things out. After that I put the UTA UnFairchild compressor as the final stage of compression, which also adds some really beautiful color and helps marry the elements together. I wanted the levels to all show up at the same place because ultimately she needs to sit in front of the band for the whole track. If she’s 40 dB quieter in the beginning, I’d be chasing that level with faders all over the place. So that was the magic combo, and I ended up using it for all of the vocals on the whole record. Everything was sung with that mic through that chain of processors.” Potter adds, “When we got evacuated from our home during the Woolsey Fire last year, the only thing from the home studio that Eric brought was that microphone. “This album is our story,” she continues. “It’s a story of what happens when you fall helplessly in love, and everything gets completely fucked up and blown out of the water. And then how you rebuild. And so that song was a central part of our story, the reckless abandon of love and how amazing it feels, how exhilarating it is when you
finally just let the feeling completely flood in.” Benmont Tench simultaneously plays Wurlitzer, piano and organ on Daylight. “There are some musicians that are so good that you don’t have to rehearse, and he’s one of them,” says Valentine. “In fact, Benmont is just off the charts, gifted and musical in ways that you very rarely encounter. For the specific type of music that Grace is making on this record, he ended up having the perfect instincts. “We knew on the demo that we had both piano and organ, and maybe Wurlitzer in one section,” he adds. “We wanted him to play all three, and I just assumed we’d overdub, but Benmont said that usually he just plays all three at the same time. So we set up the organ, piano, and Wurlie so he could reach everything. He even does this trick with the B3 where he uses weights, actually little padlocks. They’re the perfect width for the key on a keyboard, and he’ll drop one so it’ll hold down a note for the sustain.” One song, “On My Way,” seems reminiscent of early Aerosmith, a notion not lost on Potter and Valentine. “I love Aerosmith,” Valentine says. “It’s from that era, late Sixties, early Seventies. Just cool, raunchy rock and roll that has a swagger to it. That’s what we were hoping to capture with that song.” Drummer Matt Musty adds an indelible foundation to the album, Valentine says: “Incredible drummer. He’s been playing live with Grace for a few years leading up to this, and so he had really learned what works with Grace’s music. When we started working on a song, I really wouldn’t have to give much direction. He
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just already knew what feels right for her music.” Potter elaborates: “The way that he came into my life is pretty incredible— you couldn’t write it into a fiction book. It’s just such a beautiful path. He was opening for me in another band. When I suddenly found myself in need of a drummer, Musty stepped in without any rehearsal at all. He’d been watching my performances from side-stage and already knew my songs by heart. So he is the drummer on the new record. He just joined in, and since then has become a very integral and wonderful part of our life. He’s actually our son Sagan’s godfather.” “He’s just an amazing drummer,” Valentine interjects. “This is Matt’s time to be discovered. So I brought him into play on a Keith Urban song, and he played amazing and Keith loved it. And he played on the Gwen Stefani record, and on and on. I just recommend him to everybody because I know people are going to fall in love with him and his drumming.” “Desire,” one of the standout songs on the
incredible journey. There’s a precipice that we crossed where he realized that the things that he does are pretty far away from the things that I do, but that if both of us got out of our own way, we could make something really incredible together." Photo: Laurence Jacobs Valentine adds, “The golden rule for album, begins with a haunting instrumental this record was making sure that anything and intro. “Isn’t that the weirdest, creepiest, coolest everything that was done fits with Grace’s voice, thing ever?” Potter asks. Valentine explains that basically, where her voice is really going to it is a Guitalele, a miniature guitar that was a gift resonate and open up. “On this record, the arrangements are simple for their son, Sagan. The song quickly develops into a passionate exploration of making love. and straightforward, with the traditional sounds “We have some really great footage in the studio of bass, electric and acoustic guitar, piano, organ, of me and Lucius singing that one. We even have and drums. When Grace tours, it will be a some dance moves that are pretty suggestive. faithful re-creation of the album.” Potter adds, “For our last tour we used tracks Jess and Holly are a big presence on this record because I wanted strong female voices. They and keyboard triggers for all kinds of sound effects don’t just hold their own, they elevate the music because there were so many other-worldly sound effects and wild soundscapes that just couldn’t be and lyrics in every way.” Does marriage get in the way of making a recreated live. For the songs on Daylight, we kept everything very simple and honest—even a bit record? “Not at all,” says Potter. “Being married to Eric has made it an naked. And we like being naked.” n
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f o c i s u The M
! e g u o R n i l u Mo
New Broadway Production Uses Over 70 Popular Songs Across Seven Decades to Tell Its Tale By Anthony Savona
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hen you arrive at New York City’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre for a performance of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, you are dazzled by the set design before you even reach your seat. The entire interior of the Broadway theater has been turned into a fictionalized version of Paris’ Moulin Rouge; to the left of the stage sits a large red spinning
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windmill; to the right, a sizeable blue elephant stands next to a brass cage where performers will dance. The stage itself has “Moulin Rouge” spelled out in deep red neon floating before a series of heart-shaped openings that shrink in size as they retreat toward the back of the theater. However, for all the striking visuals, this show is really about the music. Like the 2001
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Baz Luhrmann film it is based on, Moulin Rouge! The Musical tells the story of an ill-fated romance through very familiar pop music, but to call this a jukebox musical would be a gross simplification, as music supervisor Justin Levine pulls from the ridiculously vast catalog of pop tunes and cleverly arranges them so they not only entertain, but drive the story forward and
Justin Levine wore many hats for Moulin Rouge! The Musical, including music supervisor, arranger, dance arranger, orchestrations and co-producer of the cast album.
Photo: Matthew Murphy, 2019
The main leads of Moulin Rouge: The Musical! — Karen Olivo as Satine and Aaron Tveit as Christian.
elicit audience reactions from laughter to tears. The show’s creative team knew the legion of fans who loved the film would have certain expectations from the show, but they did not let that drive the project. “I don’t think there was a strong sense that we had to do anything,” says Levine. “I think we just wanted it to be essential, and we knew that there were going to be certain expectations from some of the fan base, but I wanted to treat this like we were building a new piece and not feel like we were shoehorning anything into it. We outlined the show the first week that I spent with John [Logan, book] and Alex [Timbers, director], and then we had at least 50 percent of the songs that were in the movie included. But the movie uses a lot less than we’re using because there’re just so many more added songs. I think the movie probably had about 30 songs quoted, and we have over 70 songs.” The show paints with a wide swath of pop music history, with songs representing the ’50s through to contemporary hits. With such a deep palette, how do you choose which colors to use? “The focus in my searches were lyrics,” says Levine. “It became a puzzle for me to figure out musically. ‘How am I going to approach this to serve the story?’ The characters have to sing lyrics that could come out of their mouth. For example, in the moment at the end of Act One, ‘The Elephant Love Medley,’ there’re 20 love songs and anti-love songs being thrown back and forth. The order of that and the way it is structured is completely built on the scene. The dialog was the key. I started there, and then, once I had a scene that made sense to me, I had to go in and solve the musical puzzle. “I also wanted there to be variety of choice from the catalog. I wanted more soul music; I wanted more jazz; I wanted more rock ‘n’ roll. I didn’t want to leave anyone behind. It’s fun to watch the audience during the show because you can kind of see what is recognizable to them. The Rolling Stones musical medley is the moment that usually scoops them up and brings them along.”
Matt Stine is show music producer for Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and also a co-producer of the cast album.
WORKING BOTH WORLDS Matt Stine was brought in as the show’s music producer to aid in the editing and producing of the
live tracks. Stine had worked as music producer with Timbers on another recent Broadway hit, Beetlejuice—sometimes overlapping with the Moulin Rouge! work—and had managed a band that Levine was in, in addition to other show collaborations with both of them such as Here Lies Love. “Music producer is a relatively new concept for Broadway,” says Stine. “I act as a bridge between the music departments and the sound departments because I have the technical knowhow of a sound designer, but I work very much from within the music department. It’s almost like being a music designer in the sense that I’m getting into the nitty gritty of building arrangements with Justin; creating some of the prerecorded track material that the band would play to, but then I’m also stepping back and getting behind the console with the sound designer and working with them on how it should sound. “I think what’s happened over the years is that there’s this expectation that these musicals need to sound like records. So it’s a good opportunity for me because I can get in there and try and help both the sound and music departments achieve that. “It’s similar to when you go into the studio to produce a record and you’re working with an engineer on the one hand and you’re working with the band on the other, and you’re trying to put the two worlds together to achieve the sonic vision of the record.” The Moulin Rouge! theater setup includes two Avid S6L consoles; one of which is used by the show’s mixer to control all the live microphones and one fader each for the band and the prerecorded track material. The second console handles all the inputs from the band in addition to the 32 channels coming from Ableton. The full band mix lives in this console—all the drum mics, the electric and acoustic bass, the guitars, the keyboards, strings, brass and so on. “What I did frequently was stay on the secondary Avid console and, as we’re working through numbers, I’d adjust levels and look at fader moves for individual moments of the song that adjust internal balances between the band versus the track material,” says Stine. “All that material gets sent from that console into that ‘BAND’ fader that the mixer is operating in the show, and we’re storing scenes—sometimes multiple scenes—within the song to try and create the kind of sonic shift that you can create when you’re making a record, but it is unusual to
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Photo: Matt Stine
The control room at DiMenna Center for Classical Music.
have that kind of flexibility when you’re mixing a live musical. “Thankfully, we have an incredible sound designer in Peter Hylenski, who is just game to go farther, and a fantastic mixer in David “Digz” Dignazio. David is in charge of all the live mics that are on stage, and that has to be 100 percent his focus, so Peter and I do everything we can to make the mix we send to him dynamic so Digz doesn’t have to ride that BAND fader too much.” FROM STAGE TO STUDIO With the release of the cast album, co-produced by Levine, Stine, Timbers and Luhrmann himself, the nuances of the performances and arrangements can truly be appreciated— including grasping those brief bits of tunes that were recognizable but quickly moved on to the next song before the brain could identify it. Unsurprisingly with this group, the production of the cast album was going to be more than a re-creation of what is being done on stage each night—especially with the addition of Luhrmann to the production team. “One of the things that Baz, Matt, Alex and I have discussed is that we wanted to represent the show, but also make the album a listening experience,” says Levine. “One of the
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things I love about a cast album is that, because you’re not also taking in the other elements, you can really listen to the orchestrations and arrangements in a way that you might not in the live experience. The goal was to start from the place of capturing the show and then doing whatever we could to highlight the things that you otherwise might not experience.” “Baz was hugely helpful in motivating the performers and in giving them license to mess it up,” adds Stine. “He got them to let loose and see what happens. It was fun for everybody to have him around.” The performers were not the only ones Luhrmann was able to motivate. “He actually convinced the label to pay for an additional 22 string players in addition to our 14-piece show band!” says Stine. The cast album was recorded at DiMenna Center for Classical Music in the typically condensed recording process that these kinds of albums demand—after all, the artists all have
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day jobs performing the songs that are being captured. The band was recorded in a day and a half, and there was an additional half day of recording strings (thanks to Luhrmann). The cast was recorded in one very long day, with the ensemble coming in first and then the principal cast, and then the following half-day for the two leads—Aaron Tveit as Christian and Karen Olivio as Satine. “The rooms at DiMenna are fantastic,” says Stine. “Their smaller room, which is really quite large, is where we recorded this album, with the setup for the band and the vocal days obviously being different. “One of the guys who runs DiMenna, Lawrence Manchester, lent us his three Neumann M50s, which are incredible microphones that we used in a Decca tree for the large string section. We also relied pretty heavily on a bunch of Sennheiser MKH800s, which are fantastic microphones and DiMenna has a large number of them. “Jared Schonig is an absolutely incredible
“Baz [Luhrmann] was hugely helpful in motivating the performers and in giving them license to mess it up.” —Matt Stine on recording the Moulin Rouge! cast album
Photo: Isaiah Abolin Photo: Matt Stine
Above: The vocal recording setup with booths on the left for the principal cast and a semi-circle of mics for the ensemble on the right. Left: The Decca tree with Neumann M50s that was used for the large string section.
that are not necessarily experienced in recording studios—they have good eye contact with each other so they can play off each other and still be in front of the microphone.” To accomplish that, DiMenna’s baffles had windows on the front and sides where the performers could see one another. As for the lead vocals, “Peter Hylenski owns one of the best U 47s in New York; it’s a classic,” says Stine. “We were fortunate enough to borrow that for some of the lead vocals.”
drummer, but we did want to keep him separate so he could just bash away. We also decided to keep our four horn players in a separate isolated room, as well, which is actually similar to how we have it set up at the theater. That enabled us to record the rest of the rhythm section in the room with the string players at the same time without too much concern for bleed.” To record the guitars, Stine transferred another technique from the live show—using Palmer impedance load boxes with guitars instead of miking amps. “Peter Hylenski introduced me to the Palmers, and it seems more Broadway pits are using them,” says Stine. “Basically it’s everything that a speaker is without the actual speaker itself. We’d still use tube heads—we had a Fender Super Sonic 22 head that would just plug right into the Palmer, and then go right into the board. There’s not much to it—you just plug it in and it sounds great.”
When it comes to vocals, planning is key, according to Stine. “The trick to a good vocal recording for a Broadway cast album is to just set up the room so that you’re flexible and able to do whatever you need to do quickly,” he says. “We’ll bring all the ensemble members in and pair them up in front of a semicircle of microphones—just out in the room; no baffling or anything. We’ll get a pair of room mics up and the actors will get shoulder to shoulder around a close mic. I think we did about six hours straight with the ensemble. “DiMenna doesn’t have actual vocal booths, but is very flexible, so engineers Isaiah Abolin and Derik Lee built six booths on the opposite side of the room from the semi-circle of ensemble mics for us to put the principal cast members and soloists in. We have a couple numbers where all six of them would be singing at the same time, so it’s important that—for Broadway performers
CREATIVE COLLABORATORS Both the show and the cast album required an extraordinary amount of creative collaboration, the key to which, according to Levine, is trust. “You have to be able to trust the people you work with enough that you don’t mind looking foolish in front of them,” he says. “In other words, you need collaborators that encourage you to step out and be yourself. There were times where we went down very long roads only to find that it was the wrong path, and it’s important that we supported each other in those choices, because otherwise we would have just made it an exact replica of the film on stage, which I don’t think anybody wanted.” The cast album is now available through RCA Records/House of Iona and on all streaming music services, so you can hear the clever combinations and uses of famous pop tunes for yourself. Although if you can see the show before listening to the cast album, do it—part of the joy in seeing the show is discovering the songs used; like a favorite playlist on shuffle, you don’t know what’s next, just that it will be familiar. n
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The Recording World of
Bob Suffolk
From Rock Star Days in London to the Studio Designer’s Life in Dallas By Steve Harvey Photo: TK
Studio designer Bob Suffolk
B
ob Suffolk’s first day as a teaboy at Pye Studios in London might easily have been his last. It was 1966 and the Kinks were at their label’s studio working on the Shel Talmy-produced album Something Else by the Kinks, which included the hit singles “Waterloo Sunset” and “Death of a Clown.” When Suffolk pushed open the door with his first tray of teas, everyone in the control room looked up. “I was in the tracking room—and Ray Davies
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was tracking a harpsichord,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘What have I done?’” Not that Suffolk, then 19, was at all phased by being in the same room as a rock star. “I wanted to be in a professional band all my life,” says Suffolk, a keyboardist who grew up in the southeast London neighborhood of Beckenham, an area that spawned numerous musicians. His first band, a mod outfit named The Depth, rehearsed at a local school with Steve Marriott and The
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Moments, the band he left in 1965 to form the Small Faces. Marriott went on to found Humble Pie with local guitarist Peter Frampton and Suffolk later worked with younger brother Clive Frampton. Suffolk adds, “I was with David Bowie in the Beckenham Arts Lab,” a late-’60s creative arts scene that attracted local musicians such as Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown. Suffolk’s ambitions never led to stardom, but his early years working as a tape op, apprentice
The panoramic view from the control room into the large live space at Memphis Magnetic Recording, bringing together the best of Bob Suffolk’s design philosophies to become one of “his favorite rooms.”
mixdown engineer and recording artist provided a foundation for his studio design career of the past 34 years. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before working at Pye, Suffolk had bombed around London on his scooter delivering sheet music for various publishers on Denmark Street, the city’s equivalent of Tin Pan Alley. A friend got him the Pye gig, and he also worked as a teaboy and tape op at other studios around town. Eventually he landed at Spot Productions’ studio in Mayfair. “Spot Productions, which became Mayfair Sound, was a filthy hole at the time,” Suffolk laughs. “I helped out on sessions with people like Marc Bolan, the infamous Gary Glitter, who was then called Paul Raven, and Mike Leander.” As 1975 rolled around Suffolk put together the Fabulous Poodles, a five-piece proto-new wave band combining elements of the Who and the Kinks with a keen sense of humor. Suffolk left in 1981, contributing piano to just a couple of tracks on the debut album. In the following years he formed the short-lived band Luxury with Squeeze bass player John Bentley, and he collaborated with musicians from Kate Bush’s band and others. But a new career beckoned. “A friend of mine bought an abandoned rehearsal complex and asked me to help design and put it together,” he says. “My very first room designs were for Prime Time rehearsal studios, near London Bridge. After that I kept getting
asked to design studios, but I didn’t really think of it as a job until I designed the control room at Elephant Recording Studios. The manager of Trident Studios was in there. She loved the vocal room that I had designed and built, a Tom Hidley-influenced room—dead ceiling, live floor.” She invited Suffolk to pitch his ideas for a Trident remodel. Understandably nervous, Suffolk met with renowned engineer Barry Ainsworth at Trident. “He said, ‘Why should I pick you and not Tom Hidley to do this room?’ I said, ‘I’m younger, I think I’m better’—which was a lie—‘and I think I’m cheaper.’ He said, ‘I’m going to let you do it. But if you eff it up, you know you’re ruined.’” Suffolk was mindful of Trident’s legacy, having stood outside hoping to see The Beatles when he was 15. “The day I got a key to get in there and work was a personal thrill,” he says. One day, while Suffolk was playing Trident’s legendary piano—the one you’ve heard on “Hey Jude,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Killer Queen”—Ainsworth asked him what he planned to change in the main tracking room. “I said, absolutely nothing, the acoustics are perfect. I redesigned the control room, didn’t make a cent and Mr. Ainsworth loved my respectful design style, which left the famous sound untouched.” By the end of the project Suffolk had refurbished both Studio 1 and 2 control rooms and all the vocal rooms. In Studio 2’s tracking room he did something unheard of at the time:
“I found a window behind a wall, opened it up and brought light in.” He continued to work on London facilities such as Copy Masters and Animal House, a studio with a resident toucan. “There was no school of audio or acoustic design then,” says Suffolk. Instead, he learned through experience, study, working with numerous talented engineers, and speaking with Glyn Johns and other producers. Plus, he says, his childhood had set him up for a life in music and sound. “My mom was a musician, and my father was an architect and an inventor for the Royal Air Force in the last war. He had an electronics shop and taught me about harmonics and frequencies. I was always playing with oscillators when I was a kid.” But change was in the air again. Suffolk had visited the U.S. and liked what he saw, eventually relocating to Texas. The rooms that Suffolk encountered when he first visited the States typically had live ceilings and dead floors. “Tom Hidley was a genius; he turned rooms upside down. And it worked,” he says. The rooms in which Suffolk had initially worked during his early years in London were relatively dead acoustically. “Until I went into some of Hidley’s rooms—his rooms were fantastic, so I studied some of his studios and plans. Tom Hidley has been a great influence in my life as I have worked both sides of the glass in many of his studios,” he says. “In fact, there are many great designers I
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room.” Artist accommodation and a admire,” he continues, “but at Suffolk second studio are in the works. Studio Design we do custom design for “We put in a panoramic window. the client’s taste and style, but always There’s a lot of engineering in our with correct acoustics to fit the style the 18-foot panoramic window; you have to client wants—modern, contemporary, get a structural engineer involved,” says vintage. I won’t do cookie-cutter rooms.” Suffolk. “It’s the focal point of the room. Suffolk prefers 12-plus feet of ceiling Everyone enjoys the view of the entire height to accommodate HVAC, silencers, tracking arena.” acoustic treatments and so on. “And I At Memphis Magnetic, as with any like the tracking room ceiling to be 14 studio he has built, Suffolk says, “I or 15 feet,” he explains. “The higher the adjusted the acoustics to the room as better, as long as the room also has the we completed it. I’ve always used my width and the length.” ears and senses I have acquired. I like Niles City Sound in Fort Worth, Texas, to be a part of the room and feel the for instance, has an 18-foot ceiling. The acoustics within the room. I use test raised control room sits on a 4x4-inch tones, naturally, but I do like to put sand-filled steel framework with the on Donald Fagen’s Nightfly, no EQ. If I window looking down into the tracking can hear the Fender Rhodes in stereo, space, a design borrowed from Pye’s zero phasing, and hear that bass and Studio A, he says, with a staircase inspired kick coming down and hitting me in by Abbey Road. “I installed a 110-year-old the chest, I know the room’s pure. I tell wood floor in classic herringbone style,” The tracking space at Memphis Magnetic Recording. younger engineers and designers, ‘If you he adds. The facility is among his favorites, along with Pleasantry Lane in Dallas don’t understand harmonics, displacement of sound reflections and the and Paul Middleton’s Palmyra Studios in Palmer, Texas. But if he had to mix focal point, then you’re going to screw mixes up.’” Now in his 54th year in the industry, with more than three decades as pick one favorite, it would be Memphis Magnetic Recording, a facility in which Suffolk recently partnered with co-owner Scott McEwen, an a studio designer, Suffolk shows no sign of slowing down. “I wanted to be a rock star, but I was getting tired of the music business,” he says. “But I engineer and producer, and his wife Claire. “I’ve done everything I’ve always wanted to do in a studio there,” he feel closer to music now by having recordings coming out of my studios. says. “Very musician-friendly, down to the lighting and comfort. There’s a I found I had a knack from an early age for sound, and I haven’t stopped. tracking room big enough for an orchestra, and a large vocal and control I’m on my 205th room now. That’s a lot of rooms!” n Photos: TK
The control room sits above the tracking space at Niles City Sound in Fort Worth, Texas, building on a few different styles carried over from Suffolk’s days in London.
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The Opening of Audio Test Kitchen Online, Unbiased Audio Product Comparisons, Starting Where It All Starts— At the Microphone 36
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Pictured in in Chris Lord-Alge’s CanAm Studio A, Tarzana, Calif., the Audio Test Kitchen team, clockwise from front: co-founder Ian Hlatky, cofounder Alex Oana, Jesse Ray Ernster, chief sales officer Jeff Ehrenberg, audio guru James “Fluff” Harley, Adam Allison, Hunter Lee Alexander, Johnny Coddaire, and Alexander Groat.
By Tom Kenny No matter what way you look at it—from the past three years in development, the upcoming October 24 launch, or the future of a complete pro audio product performance database—the creation of Audio Test Kitchen is a massive undertaking. The sheer number of products to test seems daunting; the fact that each product category requires its own meticulous methodology and measurement criteria adds complexity; and the core mission to build a user base founded on trust and the absolute rejection of bias takes time. Audio Test Kitchen isn’t simply an online directory of audio products with media and specs attached. It’s a search-and-compare tool for the pro audio industry, based loosely on the mission of Consumer Reports: Deliver reliable, complete, measured and relevant information that the customer needs, and let them make the choice that’s right for them. But instead of green check marks on full pages of magazines, the user gets standardized, personality-revealing audio files to compare, in this case,
PHOTO: Adam Chagnon
Tech
PHOTO: Alex Oana
The laser-based microphone alignment system for ensuring proper comparison parameters, with close-up of two-mic setup on kick drum. Later, the mics will be swapped and realigned, with lasers aiding the position of the capsule.
PHOTO: Alex Oana
one Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone against another—along with frequency response graphs, videos, multiple sources across multiple genres, testimonials, Share functions, A/B comparison tools, Spotify examples from hit songs, and other features that might contribute to a buying decision. “As a recording engineer and producer with sales, marketing and product design and development experience, I kept coming back to this one pain point,” says Alex Oana, founder of Audio Test Kitchen. “Most pro audio sales are Internet, email and phone based. It doesn’t matter where people are trying to get their information, it matters that they’re getting reliable information. That information may be out there, but it’s in a scattershot way and it varies widely in its reliability. The customer simply wants to know, ‘What’s the best gear for me?’ Every individual compares products individually, according to their needs and their way of working.” “Audio Test Kitchen is actually a better-than-showroom experience because it empowers you to make these critical comparisons in your listening environment which you know best,” adds co-founder Ian Hlatky, a producer/musician who originally hails from Vermont, moved to L.A. to work under producer Kim Fowley, relocated to Colorado, built a recording studio and made records, attended law school, and finally returned to L.A. to practice law as a start-up and venture capital attorney. “Audio Test Kitchen meets people where they are: Some want the science, some want the blind A/B test, some want to hear the gear in examples of released songs on Spotify. Salespeople, friends and industry icons can be a wealth of knowledge, but as Alex is fond of saying, they don’t have your ears.” Nearly three years ago, Oana came up with the bones of the idea. He started talking to a small circle of trusted friends and colleagues, and they encouraged him. Through mutual friend producer manager Jerimaya Grabher, he was introduced to Hlatky, and within half an hour, the two were in business. Over the next two years they worked on the functionality and user interface, getting feedback from advisers Tony Maserati, Phil Wagner, Jeff Ehrenberg from Vintage King L.A. (now chief sales officer) and engineers James “Fluff” Harley and Jesse Ray Ernster. But it would still be a long time before they entered a studio to record with the mics. First they had to get the mics. “The key to making this all work was the relationships we developed with all the manufacturers early on,” Oana says. “We had a clickable prototype on the Web doing everything but the audio, and we walked
them through the features and the recording methodology. We went to their offices, we went to NAMM, and the industry ended up getting excited and participating.” “Man, it would have been really hard to do it without the manufacturers’ support,” adds Hlatky. “But it was more than just getting access to their products; we wanted to substantively engage with them. What are the processes they use? What do they consider important in measurement? We designed the platform with them in mind, the same as we designed it with the user in mind. It’s that perfect combination of science and art that forms the core of our industry.” The final step of the process was going into the studio and lining up the mics. First stop was EastWest for piano, guitar and bass recording. Vocals were captured and reamplified in Harman’s anechoic chambers through ADAM and ATC monitors to get apples-to-apples comparisons using the human voice. Later they went to Chris Lord-Alge’s Can-Am Studio A, Gold Diggers, and Plastic Dog Studios. At each step, tweeters and capsules were lined up by lasers, distances of instrument to mic were absolutely equal, and the same signal chain was employed: from XYZ mic to Accusound MX4 microphone cable > Grace m108 microphone preamp with Grace m108 analog to digital converter, 24-bit, 96k > Focusrite Red 4Pre Dante Thunderbolt interface > Pro Tools Ultimate, 32-bit file recording, 96k. Along the way they also did vocals and some acoustic guitar up at JBL’s Northridge, Calif., headquarters, where they had access to a variety of anechoic chambers and the expertise of Harman researchers Dr. Sean Olive, Todd Welti and Omid Khonsaripour. They also were able to capture a catalog of frequency response graphs. In late summer, with recordings in hand and UI fixes complete, Audio Test Kitchen released the product to a limited group of beta users. On October 24, the partner launch takes place, co-promoted by the participating manufacturers, and the rest of the world will chime in. There are still plenty of questions to be answered, including the right revenue model to ensure the best, most accessible resource, what happens when a participating manufacturer disputes their findings, and even what will be the next product category. That’s all coming, and with the platform in place, Oana and Hlatky can start adding products at a much greater pace. The goal of entering the MI market is on the near horizon. “This is just the beginning,” Hlatky says. “It’s the first step of what we hope is a new approach to how people can have the conversation about audio gear.” n
Audio Test Kitchen co-founder Alex Oana measuring female vocalist Jessica Streitfeld’s distance to the mic in one of the anechoic chambers at Harman headquarters in Northridge, Calif.
Tech // new products The Mix Guide to AES Some Things to Look for When You Hit NYC’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
I
t’s almost here—the annual AES Convention in New York City when audio pros of all shapes, sizes and talents come together to learn, network and see the latest toys and tools. To help you maximize your time there, we’ve sifted through all the pre-show materials and scoped out some highlights that you may want to add to your schedule.
NEW PRODUCTS Let’s get right to the gear! Many exhibitors keep their cards close to their chest and reveal nothing prior to the show, but we’ve got some insider information to share with you.
Genelec Expands ‘The Ones’ Family Genelec is presenting its newly expanded “The Ones” series of Ultimate Point Source Monitors at booth 322. The new 8351B and 8361A coaxial three-way monitors, alongside the complementary W371A Adaptive Woofer System, deliver The Ones’ uncolored and neutral reference monitoring performance to a much wider range of room sizes, listening distances and SPL requirements. Featuring two newly designed Acoustically Concealed Woofers that generate low distortion and feature brand-new MCC coaxial and midrange drivers, the new 8361A three-way coaxial monitor offers extremely high dynamic range, solid directivity and imaging and a short-term SPL of 118 dB with peak levels even higher — at any listening distance up to five meters.
DPA Showcases 4097 Choir Mic DPA Microphones is unveiling its new 4097 CORE supercardioid choir mic at booth 633. Intended specifically for capturing dynamic choir sound, it has the same sonic qualities as the brand’s 4098 supercardioid microphones. The 4097 features DPA’s flat off-axis supercardioid pattern, with a very high gain-before-feedback that makes the entire choir sound natural from all angles. This sets the possibility for multiple mics to be used on the choir without having to fight the artifacts created from uneven mic pattern pick-up, simplifying the process for a sound engineer. Configured with a MicroDot connector and a DPA adapter
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for wired or wireless applications, the 4097 Choir Mic allows the user to go wireless, increasing flexibility on stages where there are multiple uses of the same space. Featuring CORE by DPA amplifier technology, a clear sound is achieved as it lowers the distortion and expands the dynamic range.
Sound Devices Adds Dugan Automixing to Scorpio Sound Devices, LLC (booth 530) is adding Dugan (booth 833) automixing to its new Scorpio premium portable mixer-recorder. The Dugan Speech System algorithm incorporated in the Scorpio gives users maximum flexibility for management of multiple live microphones in the field. Sixteen channels of Dugan automixing are supported in the Scorpio, which offers 32 channels, 12 busses and 36 tracks of recording and incorporates 16 ultra low-noise Scorpio microphone preamplifiers. The announcement follows earlier additions of Dugan automixing to Sound Devices’ 688 mixer-recorder and the 633 mixer-recorder. Sound Devices’ field mixers and recorders have an exclusive license for Dugan technology.
DiGiCo Puts Mustard on The Market This year’s AES show sees DiGiCo (booth 629) reveal Mustard, a new set of algorithms and options for SD7 Quantum channel strip processing that offer enhanced flexibility and choice when extra control and creative adjustment is needed within a mix. Making full use of the Quantum engine’s new seventh-generation FPGA infrastructure, the Mustard channel can be used in conjunction with the standard SD processing to add preamps, filters, EQ, gate and a selection of compressor types to any existing channel strip. The Mustard Tube options include a fully controllable Pre-Amp Modeler, which gives users access to every aspect of their frontend drive, while the Mustard Dynamics include Vintage VCA and Optical compressor types that emulate some of the best-known devices available.
Photo by John Staley
DiGiCo will also be introducing the Spice Rack, which delivers additional new processors that can be freely inserted on any channel type in any position.
L-Acoustics Unveils New AVB Switch LS10 is L-Acoustics’ new plugand-play, Avnu-certified AVB switch that integrates seamlessly within the L-Acoustics ecosystem to further simplify connectivity, binding audio and control distribution together. LS10 runs AVB out of the box to provide users with a simple and reliable network solution, and you can experience it at demo room 1E02. With front and rear connectivity, the LS10 can be mounted in the LARAK II, distributing audio and control to amplified controllers or other LA-RAK II through eight Ethernet connectors and two SFP cages for fiber optic transceivers. Two units can be coupled side by side in a 1U rack space for effortless redundancy. Its five-second power-up time provides a short recovery time in case of power loss, and, for even greater reliability, an auxiliary DC input (24V) takes over in case of a mains failure. Furthermore, a GPO can trigger external devices in the event of a fault detection.
Riedel Issues BOLERO in Standalone/AES67 Mode In addition to the Integrated/Artist system mode and the Standalone/ Link system mode, Riedel’s Bolero now has a Standalone/AES67 mode. While Standalone/Link mode uses a configuration-free, proprietary ring topology with optional power distribution, Standalone/AES67 mode relies on standard Gigabit Ethernet connections and switches between the antennas. This allows Bolero antennas to be distributed over new or existing AES67 IP networks. Other new features include DECT Master selection that gives users more control over which antenna takes over should the designated master antenna go offline, the maximum number of supported Beltpacks in Integrated/Artist mode has been raised to 250, and the E Ink display on the entennas includes several improvements, including the ability to be inverted, the display of far more detailed information and the ability to perform configurations from scratch without need for the web interface. See it at booth 969.
the-art near-field, mid-field and far-field speakers. • The same well-balanced sustain across the entire frequency spectrum-the hallmark of expertly treated rooms. • The same accurate low-end sustain--notoriously difficult to achieve on headphones. In addition, this plug-in also delivers full 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, modeled after the studio’s original surround setup.
Focusrite Offers ‘Something for Everyone’ at AES With the AES Show attendees ranging from seasoned audio professionals to just-startingout music students, the Focusrite Group (booth 632) is primed to offer “something for everyone” at its booth. With the third generation of its Scarlett USB interfaces having launched this past summer, AES will be the first major public exhibition showing the full range. The third generation improves upon its predecessor with upgraded audio performance specs, low-latency rock-solid USB drivers, the addition of Focusrite’s unique “Air” mode, type-C connectivity and an interactive online setup process. Also on display: Focusrite’s Clarett range of USB-C interfaces, now including access to the free exclusive Brainworx bx_console plug-in (a $350 value), which faithfully captures the sound, feel and styling of Focusrite’s
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Waves Issues Abbey Road Studio 3 Plug-in The Waves Audio (booth 640) Abbey Road Studio 3 plug-in brings the impeccable acoustics of the legendary Abbey Road Studio 3 control room to any set of headphones. For the first time ever, thanks to Waves’ Nx technology, the complete acoustic response of Abbey Road Studio 3 has been captured for immersive use on headphones. The Studio 3 control room is Abbey Road’s flagship mix room. Now, users can produce and mix as if they were inside Abbey Road Studio 3, producing and mixing with greater confidence with: • The same supreme clarity of stereo and surround image. • The same acoustic response that unveils every detail in your sessions. • The same combination of impeccable room acoustics and state-of-
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original ISA 110 and ISA 130. Additionally, Focusrite Pro is highlighting its Red and RedNet ranges and their compatibility with the new Dante Domain Manager software. Dante Domain Manager and AES67/AES 70 compatibility will be demonstrated in the new version 2.4 update to the RedNet Control software. The Focusrite Group also recently announced the acquisition of ADAM Audio, and ADAM speakers and the STUDIO PRO SP-5 headphones are being showcased at the booth alongside Focusrite and Focusrite Pro products.
A-T Marks 25th Anniversary of AT4050 Microphone Audio-Technica is celebrating the 25th anniversary of one of its most acclaimed and ubiquitous microphones, the AT4050 multi-pattern condenser microphone at booth 422. Since its introduction 25 years ago, the AT4050 has been a go-to tool for professional and aspiring recording engineers worldwide. It was designed for the studio, but due to its consistency and durability, it was quickly adopted by live engineers as well and continues to be employed for all manner of live applications. For many engineers, the AT4050 makes the shortlist of “desert island mics,” or the very top essential tools that they need in order to do their work. With three switchable polar patterns, the large-diaphragm AT4050 exhibits a remarkable combination of qualities: high-SPL capability with transparent and airy uppers/mids complemented by rich low-end qualities. Its dual large diaphragms are gold-vaporized and aged for consistent, outstanding performance. The AT4050 is ideal for studio use and live sound productions.
Hardware and Software Key Eventide AES Presence The presentation of market-leading processing solutions at AES NY 2019 by Eventide can’t be contained by a single exhibition space, with DSP hardware and software at booth 222 and plug-ins also featured at booth 504C in the Avid Partner Pavilion. Anchoring Eventide’s AES booth is its H9000 Network Effects Platform, joined by predecessor hardware and plug-ins. The H9000 features a full front-panel interface, with a familiar-to-Eventideusers jog wheel and a large, crisp, color display. Also being demonstrated is the H9000R, which has a blank front panel. Both the H9000 and H9000R can be controlled by Eventide’s Emote control software app for Mac and PC, available as a standalone app or as an AAX, VST or AU plug-in. Debuting at AES is VSig 3.0, a free visual editor app for creating H9000 custom algorithms. The app lets users add and connect processing building blocks from Eventide’s library—EQs, delays, compressors, reverb, pitch shifters, etc.—to create new effects. Rotary, an iOS rotating Leslie emulation, will be introduced at AES and shown with three additional recently released iOS plug-ins—the “extraterrestrial” reverb Blackhole; the unique multi-tap effect UltraTap; and the dual-voice pitch shifter MicroPitch.
LynTec Offers New Power Control Options LynTec (booth 446) is showcasing its robust family of innovative power control, sequencing and management solutions for the company’s inaugural exhibition at AES NY 2019. During the show, LynTec will have its patented line of RPC panels on display. Designed based on the G3 Powerlink hardware platform by Square D, this cost-effective and open platform can control lighting and AV systems across multiple control zones using multiple control protocols (HTTP, Telnet, sACN, DMX, and RS-232). At the booth LynTec is showing how its new XPC series of remote relay modules extends beyond the traditional reach of the company’s RPC and RPCR relay panels and motorized circuit breakers. Enclosed in a metal cube, the XPC modules can be placed anywhere imaginable: in the rack, on rigging, behind line arrays or anywhere else equipment is located.
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EDUCATION There are a ton of educational opportunities at the AES Convention (just check out www. aes.org/events/147/calendar/calendar.cfm if you don’t believe us. Here are a few options worth leaving the show floor for.
P&E Wing Focuses on Loudness in Panel Sessions The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing will be focusing on issues associated with loudness in two informative expert panels at AES NY 2019. On Wednesday, Oct. 16, from 2:45 to 4:15 p.m., the panel “The Loudness War Is Over (If You Want It)” will take place in the Special Events Room. GRAMMY-winning engineer George Massenburg will serve as moderator, with panelists to include acclaimed engineers Serban Ghenea, Gimel “Guru” Keaton, Bob Ludwig, Thomas Lund and Ann Mincieli. Now that streaming dominates the music listening landscape, it’s time to revisit what loudness really is and how to manage it. This conversation will shed light on both the current unhappy state of loudness and what creators can do to make it better. The following day, Thursday, Oct. 17, from 4-5 p.m., the panel “When Loud is Not Loud: What You Need to Know About Loudness Measurement Today” will take place on the show floor at the Recording Expo Stage. Alex Kosiorek (manager of the award-winning production service Central Sound at Arizona PBS; executive producer of Classical Arizona PBS productions; and current AES vice president— Western Region of USA/Canada) will serve as moderator, with panelists represented from Adobe, iZotope, Nugen and Waves. Whether it is music or spoken word (such as podcasts), care is needed to preserve the artistic intent of the content’s creators. It is critical that producers, recording, mixing and mastering engineers understand what truly is at stake, and how to read, measure and manage the loudness of audio files. Join representatives from four highly regarded audio tech companies who will
inform and enlighten about the proper use of today’s loudness meters and measurement tools.
SR Takes Center Stage at AES 2019 Whether perfecting your sound for a one-off event or setting the stage for an international touring act, the Sound Reinforcement Track sessions at the AES Convention offer insights for sound professionals of today and tomorrow. This AES New York Sound Reinforcement Track’s varied and informative series of educational opportunities includes sessions revealing crucial details of sound reinforcement implementation such as “Seven Steps to a Successful Sound System Design” and further ideas and techniques in “A Cookbook Approach to Sound System Optimization with Bob McCarthy.” Delving further into system specifics, the multi-part RF Super Session will host a discussion of RF spectrum and regulatory changes, an update on the latest compliant equipment and best and advanced RF practices, including filtering techniques and RF over fiber. Another Super Session, “AC Power, Grounding and Shielding,” will cover theory and practice of AC power for small to large sound systems, including multiple transformers and company switches, service types, generator sets, single- to three-phase mains, AC source voltages and more, while mitigating hum and buzz noise problems. Perception of live audio by the audience, engineers and performers is also of top importance for proper sound reinforcement. The tutorial “Psychoacoustics for Sound Engineers” will present topics such as how we integrate and perceive sounds, perception of frequency and frequency balance, audible effects of latency, IEMs and sound / video synchronization and more. For the larger captive audience, including inadvertent audiences, sound exposure and noise pollution due to outdoor entertainment events are addressed in the session “Your Noise Isn’t My Noise: improving Sound Exposure and Noise Pollution Management at Outdoor Events.” n Photos by John Staley
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Tech // reviews Warm Audio WA-84 Stereo Pair Small-Diaphragm Condenser Microphone Holds Up Against Original By Steve La Cerra
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arm Audio has had quite a bit of success creating “tributes” to classic audio products, including microphones, preamps and compressors. The company’s ability to capture the spirit of these products, manufacture them using modern production techniques, and sell them at reasonable prices is an attractive formula for engineers and studios seeking to recreate the vibe of vintage gear while not breaking the bank. It is with that intention that Warm Audio has introduced the WA-84. Based upon the wonderful, German-made KM84, the WA84 is a small-diaphragm cardioid condenser microphone featuring discrete Class-A circuitry and high-quality components in the audio path. A custom-made capsule spec’d by Warm and manufactured in Australia was designed to reproduce the sound of the original capsule, and the output is coupled using a nickel-core CineMag transformer. Warm’s decision to use an output transformer is a nod to the original design and is an important ingredient to the sonic character of both mics. A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON The original KM84 was introduced in 1966 and was the first microphone to employ phantom power. One of its strengths is a classic cardioid pattern with extremely smooth off-axis response. Sounds reaching the capsule from the sides exhibit a very similar frequency response and lack of color when compared to on-axis pickup. The KM84 was discontinued in 1992 and eventually replaced with the KM184, which utilizes the same capsule but is otherwise a different animal. The WA-84 is available in nickel or black finishes and looks very similar to the KM84. It has the same distinctive side ports and a similar profile, though the WA-84 is slightly fatter and about an inch longer than the KM84. Like the vast majority of KM84s, the WA-84 has a -10 dB pad switch, though it is different in design from the original. Also like the original, the WA-84’s capsule can be removed, which makes me wonder if Warm Audio has an omni capsule planned for the future. Its frequency response differs from that of the KM84, reaching down to 20 Hz, as opposed to 40 Hz, and the WA-84 has a gentle bump of about 2.5 dB in the region of 15 kHz. The WA-84 runs on 48-volt phantom power. Warm sent Mix a stereo pair of WA-84s for this review. The set is packaged in a foam-lined, hard plastic case with compartments
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for the mics, windscreens, hard mounts and shock mounts, all of which are included. The manual provides some useful information regarding cables, pop filters and using a pair of WA-84s in spaced pair and XY stereo configurations. LINE ‘EM UP I’m lucky enough to own three original KM84s: a pair with consecutive serial numbers that look like they just exited the factory, and a single that’s not quite as nice cosmetically but sounds equally good. I’ve used these mics for drum overheads, acoustic guitar, piano, percussion, voice and occasionally on snare drum— but only if I really trust the player! I also have access to multiple pairs of KM184s, so it was only natural to do an A/B/C comparison between the mics. Mercy College Music Studios Manager Sam Stauff and I set up spaced pairs of WA-84s, KM84s and KM184s overhead a Ludwig Legacy Mahogany Series drum kit with Zildjian K Custom Dark cymbals in Mercy Studio A. Sweet.
PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: Warm Audio LLC PRODUCT: WA-84 Small Diaphragm Condenser Microphone WEBSITE: www.warmaudio.com/wa-84/ PRICE: $399 single; $749 stereo pair, MSRP PROS: Close re-creation of KM84; robust bottom end CONS: A bit brighter than the original; pad switch is difficult to access All of the microphones were routed through a Focusrite ISA828 preamp for fair comparison, and recorded into Pro Tools HD. Gain on the ISA828 was set the same for all of the mics; in general, output levels from the WA-84s and KM84s were within a few dB, while output from the KM184s was a bit hotter than the other two. The results were interesting. The WA-84s and KM84s sounded very similar. The KMs had a smoother top end, but less whump in the lower frequencies than the WA-84s—probably due to the WA-84’s ability to reach down to 20 Hz. Midrange from the KMs was beautiful, and though the WAs were close, they didn’t produce that grind you can get when the KM transformer saturates. Snare drum was more focused and imaging was better with the WA-84s than the KM84s, which speaks to the matching of the two WA-84s. The transformerless KM184s were quite different from the others, as expected. They were the brightest of the bunch, but kinda vanilla—though I might prefer that for certain applications. In terms of brightness, the WA-84s fell in between the KM84s and KM184s. We then compared the three mics on a vintage Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar, this time using an API 3124V (4-channel) preamp. In this application it was difficult to tell the mics apart. Low-mids were a hair more emphasized by the WA-84, but if you switched tracks when someone walked out of the room, they probably wouldn’t notice the difference when they returned. The KM184 was a little bit thinner, brighter and quieter than the other two mics—though noise was really not an issue with any of the microphones. For fingerpicked acoustic guitar, the KM184s produced more presence, but when the guitar was played with a pick we preferred the WA-84 and KM84. Back at my studio, I put the WA-84s and KM84s through more A/B comparisons, first close-miking a Ludwig Supraphonic snare drum
from the late 1970s. I used a Grace 201 preamp, not because it’d be my first choice for use on a snare but because it’s very transparent and I wanted to hear differences in the microphones as clearly as possible. The KM84 generated that nice midrange saturation and an extended top end, while the WA-84 was more polite, well-controlled and tighter-sounding—which I preferred to the sound of the KM84. Hi-hat leakage was more noticeable in the KM than it was in the WA. When used to record a strummed acoustic guitar with the Grace pre, the bottom end extension of the WA-84 easily revealed the sound of the player tapping his foot on the floor, whereas the KM84 did not. The KM84 had more breath on a male vocal while the WA-84 yielded more thickness, giving it some “larger-than-life” character (almost like proximity effect), but again, they were difficult to tell apart. This lower-mid character is a plus when using the mics for drum overheads, as it adds impact and presence to the toms. Imaging of the WA-84s arranged in an ORTF stereo array was excellent: the ride, hat and crash cymbals were positioned exactly where they should have been. One of the attributes of the KM84 is its ability to capture off-axis sound without adding color, and the WA-84 shares that trait. Sounds coming at the WA-84 from 90 degrees off-axis pretty much sounded the same as they would at 0 degrees, save for a little “air” at the top and a
slight reduction in low end. I then used both microphones to record a variety of percussion instruments, including glockenspiel, wood blocks, shakers and tambourines. Full disclosure: I prefer ribbon microphones for percussion, but the WA-84 and KM84 sounded very good in this application. The WA-84’s high-frequency response produced more definition on the leading edge of attack, but not obnoxiously so. One minor gripe I have with the WA-84 is the pad switch, which requires a small screwdriver or paper clip to access; I suppose that also means that it can’t be changed by accident. It’s worth noting that the KM84’s pad switch was also a pain in the arse and could be damaged if one wasn’t careful. Purchasing a pair of original KM84s will set you back anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 depending upon condition, and you may be rolling the dice on whether they’ve been used, abused or modified. A pair of Warm Audio WA84s cost a fraction of that amount and sound very close to the originals. The WA-84’s accessories are kind of generic— you don’t get the sexy packaging that you would expect with a high-priced mic—but the mic definitely captures the spirit of the KM84, and you can place it on a snare drum without having a heart attack. If you’re looking for the KM84 sound but are hesitant to commit that kind of investment, the WA-84 would be an excellent alternative. n
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Tech // reviews Useful Arts SFP-30 & BF-1 Handbuilt Vacuum Tube Preamp Makes Everything Sound Better By Wes Maebe
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seful Arts first popped onto my radar at an AES convention in Milan, Italy, where Wave Distribution’s Gil Griffith introduced me to Peter Swann, Useful Arts’ designer. When you build audio gear that reminds me of vintage broadcast equipment and add to that some cool blue meters, you have my interest piqued. My initial hands-on experience was with the SFP60 stereo unit at a great space in Tuscany called The Garage Studio. We’ll be focusing on the mono unit, the SFP-30, though I’ll also throw in some information on the BF-1 Preamp/DI. It became instantly obvious that Swann cares a great deal about sound and the signal path. Everything he designs is Class A tube and hand-built in the USA. The Useful Arts philosophy is that they don’t make clones of classic gear, but rather devices inspired by units from the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s paired with modern design octave highpass at 120 Hz, a 22dB pad, 48V Phantom Power and, of course, the very techniques. The SFP-30 is vacuum-tube preamp that packs a serious punch. cool blue VU meter. So how did this little box of wonder In the user manual it states that “it is designed to make microphone signals pop in a mix.” And trust me, it does just that! Before we find perform in the recording environment? So out how this unit performs in the studio, let’s have a quick glance far I had only heard what the unit could do on my own vocals at trade shows. Now I wanted to try it out on a snare drum; I wanted at the controls on the front panel. The balanced Inputs and Outputs are gold-plated XLRs with to hear how it behaved on high and fast transients. I like to do this thing where I have a Sennheiser 441 and an pin 2 hot configuration and a nominal 600-Ohm impedance. There’s a green, illuminated, rocker-style power switch. In order MKH-40 on the top of the snare. I used the SFP-30 on the MKHfor the tubes to warm up, the high-voltage PSU will engage after 40 channel, a decent amount of input, and once the Color went up both the drummer’s and the producer’s eyebrows went up. It 15 to 20 seconds. The gain structure in this unit is not just controlled by the usual was stunning that an already kicking snare sound was improved “gain” pot. There are three controls—Input, Output and Color— instantly by driving this unit a little harder. I subsequently used it on Luke Higgins’ fine acoustic guitar playing and on the singer’s which interact in order to get the right levels and sonic character. The Input knob controls the level between the first stage, which lead vocals. In all instances, the SFP-30 delivered warm and punchy material has the input transformer and EF806 pentode, and the next stage in the chain, containing a triode voltage amp. It’s right here where that slots perfectly into the mix. In all these applications, the magic number on the Color control seems to sit around the number 6. you can acquire some pretty significant tube saturation. This unit can be subtle, too. We got to Output controls the drive of the signal to use it on one of the celli in a string quintet the output transformer. PRODUCT SUMMARY where a subtle amount of Color just brought The Color control dials in second- COMPANY: Useful Arts harmonic distortion. This will offer you PRODUCTS: SFP-30 Microphone Preamp that cello to life. It started to get annoying that things that sounded great before now bite and extra detail in the signal. This & BF-1 Instrument DI sounded even better! And of course, in true feature can be extremely helpful when WEBSITE: www.usefulartsaudio.com analog fashion, you can go over the top using microphones that are harsh or thin- PRICE: SFP-30: $1299. BF-1: $799 without it sounding bad. If it sounds good sounding. Adding Color can beef up the PROS: Sturdy build; sonically versatile for the job, it’s right. Moving on… signal and reduce some of that harshness. CONS: SFP-30: no instrument input I needed to record a vocal for a punk track In addition to the controls, there’s a 6dB/
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Useful Arts BF-1
I was going to mix. Everything else had been recorded already, but the client wanted me to produce and record the final vocals. So I spent a fun day at The Park Studios in London tracking lead and backing vocals. It was a pretty angry tune, and it really wanted some kick-ass, mean vocals. Usually I’d rely on some distortion tricks when it comes to mixing, but since I new the canvas for the mix, I was in a position to make these decisions during the recording process. The client had a little bit of red light fever, so he booked the entire day, which gave me some time to do a few microphone/preamp shootouts. The winning pair was the Advanced Audio CM251 and the Useful Arts SFP30. The mic gave me an open and detailed vocal to feed into the preamp. Driving both the Input and the Color controls resulted in a solid, punchy and pretty aggressive vocal that slotted into the mix perfectly. The SFP-30 packs the original SFP-60 dual-channel unit’s design in a sturdily, hand-built desktop unit. The three-way interactive input/output control design makes this an extremely versatile microphone preamp that can go from transparent to subtle to a full on tube powerhouse. If there’s one drawback someone might flag, it’s the lack of a DI/Instrument input. But fear not, BF-1 to the rescue. The BF-1 is not just a DI. This box was designed with guitarists and bass players in mind, with the remit to make sure all the dynamics and delicate nuances are translated to amp, console or DAW. As Swann explains, “It all boils down to impedance. DAWs and consoles generally have an input impedance of about 10-100kΩ which is far too low for a guitar or bass pickup.” Swann and Useful Arts approached this design by making the pickup do less of the hard work, and they achieved this by making the BF-1 have 20 million Ohm input impedance! As it turns out, the perfect tool for this job is a vacuum tube. So that begs the question: “I already have a tube
amp, why do I need a tube DI?” Well, they do different things. The tubes in amps deal with high gain stages, which lowers the input impedance. The tube stage in the BF-1 works in a similar way to a tube microphone. Here, the tube converts impedances without high gain. In addition to the stunningly high impedance conversion, the BF-1 also offers a Class A tube preamp, a nifty two-band EQ and multiple outputs. As on the preamps, the connectors are gold-plated. As with other DIs the Input jack accepts the input from the instrument. The Thru jack gives a carbon copy of the unprocessed input signal. On the back of the unit are a balanced XLR to feed your favorite preamp and an extra jack to feed the amp. The red pushbutton on the front panel selects between Lo and High gain. High gain allows you to run the unit with a line level output. If you’re going to link on through to an amp, the Lo setting should be used. The Lo setting also allows you to engage the EQ. This is not your regular console-style EQ. It has been designed to be bass/guitar-friendly. The LF control will provide a gentle bass boost from 1 to about 8. From 9 to 10 it will boost those frequencies dramatically. The same character goes for the HF, which is set around 700 Hz. I got to use the BF-1 in various situations, the most memorable being a recording for the National Theatre in London. The music is a 10-minute oeuvre that goes from reggae to soca, then into grime, spoken word and calypso. Everything was being recorded live, and I decided to track the bass through the BF-1. The unit was being blasted with not just various styles but with a whole array of bass pedals. My usual B-15/Fet47 bass setup did a great job. When I blended in the Useful Arts channel, things changed dramatically. The BF-1 delivered so much detail, warmth and control that it instantly became the main bass channel with some extra amp support. Useful Arts has created some outstanding tools for a digital world with a constant desire for analog warmth. Get your hands on these units, plug in and be amazed. n
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (REQUESTER PUBLICATIONS ONLY) Publication Title: MIX
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Publication No.: 473870
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Filing Date: 9/27/2019
a. Total number of copies
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Issue Frequency: Monthly
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No. of Issues Published Annually: 12
b. Legitimate paid and/or requested distribution (by mail and outside the mail)
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Annual Subscription Price: $29.97
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Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: Future US Inc., 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036-8002; Contact Person: Kwentin Keenan, 703-852-4604
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Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: Future US Inc., 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036-8002 Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher: Carmel King, 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036-8002; Editor: Tom Kenny, 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036-8002;
10. Owner: Future US, Inc. (Future PLC), 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036-8002 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders: None 12. Tax Status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months 13. Publication Title: MIX
m i x o n l i n e . co m | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 | M I X
Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months
1.
14. Issue Date for Circulation Data: September 2019
15. Extent and Nature of Circulation
(1) Outside-county paid/requested mail subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541
No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date
11,911
11,961
9,661
10,174
(2) In-county paid/requested mail subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 (3) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid or requested distribution outside USPS (4) Requested copies distributed by other mail classes through the USPS c. Total paid and/or requested
9,661
10,174
1,476
798
d. Non-requested distribution (by mail and outside the mail) (1) Outside-county non-requested copies stated on PS Form 3541
(2) In-county non-requested copies stated on PS Form 3541
(3) Non-requested copies distributed through the USPS by other classes of mail
(4) Non-requested copies distributed outside the mail
353
593
e. Total non-requested distribution
1,829
1,391
11,490
11,565
f. Total distribution g. Copies not distributed
421
396
h. Total
11,911
11,961
i. Percent paid and/or requested
84.1%
88.0%
16. Electronic Copy Circulation a. Requested and Paid Electronic Copies b. Total Requested and Paid Print Copies c. Total Requested Copy Distribution d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies) e. I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are legitimate requests or paid copies.
17. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requestor Publication is required and will be p rinted in the October 2019 issue of this publication. 18. Signature of Vice President/Group Publisher: Adam Goldstein, September 27, 2019
Tech // reviews Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 This Third-Generation Interface Offers Improved Specs & Useful New Features By Mike Levine
The 18i20 offers two front-panel inputs and six on the back.
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he third generation of the Focusrite Scarlett series of USB 2.0 interfaces has arrived and it offers quality sonics and features for a surprisingly low price. This review focuses on the flagship of the line, the 18i20, which includes a generous assortment of onboard I/O and expansion capabilities. Focusrite redesigned the preamps and electronics in the third generation of Scarlett interfaces, resulting in improved dynamic range and reduced noise and distortion specs. It also added optional AIR functionality to each input channel. AIR emulates the transformer-based sound of the company’s vaunted ISA mic preamps. All of the Scarlett third-generation interfaces are tabletop units, including the 18i20; it’s also the only one that can be rackmounted thanks to a pair of included rack ears. START ‘EM UP Focusrite made it easier to get up and running on your Scarlett with the inclusion of the software Quick Start Tool (for Mac and Windows). When you connect the unit to your computer through the USB port, you’ll see a Scarlett icon appear on your desktop. During the Quick Start process, the interface functions as a mass storage device. Clicking the icon activates the Quick Start Tool (the process is a bit simpler on the Mac than on the PC), which brings you to
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the Focusrite website. There, you’re urged to register your hardware and are offered instructional videos based on your answers to a series of questions. During the Quick Start process you’re also directed to download the Focusrite Control software. Some of the functionality is redundant to the hardware switches and knobs, but you can access many essential features (particularly in the area of setting up monitor mixes) only through the software (much more on that later). The Quick Start Tool also gives you access to your downloads and license info for the included third-party software, which consists of Avid Pro Tools First, Ableton Live Lite, the Focusrite Red 2 & 3 Plug-in Suite, Softube’s Time and Tone Bundle and XLN Audio Addictive Keys. Registering your interface also gives you membership in the Focusrite Plug-in Collective, which periodically offers significant discounts on music software. I/O YOU Without question, one of the strengths of this unit is its analog inputs and outputs. You get a total of eight combo inputs. You can use the two front-panel inputs for mic, line or instrument connections. Six more on the back can handle mic or line signals. All eight input channels have corresponding input gain knobs on the front, as well as individual -10dB Pad switches. They don’t offer highpass filters, however.
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Channels 1 and 2 have INST switches to configure them to accept high-impedance signals. You can switch phantom power on in blocks of four channels: 1-4 and 5-8. A front-panel matrix of 5-step LED meters provides an easy-to-see visual representation of input levels. The top step glows red when clipping occurs. You can also see a more detailed view of levels from inside the Focusrite Control software. On the output side, you get 10 ¼-inch TRS outputs. Eight are line outputs, and the other two are a stereo pair for monitors. If you need to expand beyond the builtin I/O, two pairs of optical TOSLINK connectors allow you to add up to eight channels of additional inputs and outputs of ADAT digital audio. You also get two channels of S/PDIF on RCA jacks. Two independently addressable TRS headphone jacks, each with a volume control, are located on the front panel next to the monitor level knob. The knob defaults to controlling the monitor outputs but can be switched in Focusrite Control to control another pair of analog outputs. MIDI In and Out jacks are also provided, offering another option for connecting your MIDI controller and other devices. Also included is a BNC Word Clock output for synching other digital audio gear. CONTROL AND FOCUS The 18i20 offers an excellent selection of
PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: Focusrite PRODUCT: Scarlett 18i20 (third generation) WEBSITE: focusrite.com PRICE: $499 PROS: Excellent sound quality for the money; witchable Air feature provides transformer-like sound; 8 onboard mic preamps; 8 analog outputs; front-panel volume and pad switches for all inputs; well-designed metering; dim, Mute, and speaker switching functions; built-in talkback mic; configurable standalone operation; expanded functionality through Focusrite Control Software CONS: No effects for direct monitoring; no highpass filters on inputs; phantom power not individually switchable monitor-control features, which you can access either with hardware switches or through the software. Among them are Dim, Mute and Talkback buttons. The talkback circuit has a built-in mic, which is handy. You use the front panel Alt button for speaker switching. Although there’s only one dedicated monitor output pair, you can designate any other set of outputs to be the alternate speakers—again, using Focusrite Control—and then switch between them from the front-panel button. The Focusrite Control software is integral to the workflow of the 18i20. Reconfigured for the third-generation interfaces, it’s pretty straightforward to use, which is a nice change from many such software mixers, which tend to be user-unfriendly. Focusrite Control has two main sections: Input Settings and Output Routings. In the former, you see each channel and can turn on and off the Air and Pad functionality on a perchannel basis. For channels 1 and 2, you can also switch on the Instrument level option. The Output Routing section shows you graphic representations of all the outputs on the unit and lets you configure which input sources are feeding them. Loopback functionality is also included, allowing you to capture computer audio sources along with external ones. This feature is particularly useful for podcasters and others creating live content. Once you’ve configured the input and output assignments in Focusrite Control, the 18i20 will remember those settings the next time it’s turned on. As a result, you can preconfigure the unit and then use it without the computer should the need arise. One example of how you could take advantage of computer-less operation is for a live recording setup. DIRECT TO HEADPHONES Focusrite Control’s most important function is setting up headphone mixes. You can configure a stereo monitor mix for each output pair on the unit. If you’re using an expansion unit through the ADAT optical jacks, you can also create mixes for those outputs. What’s more, by clicking off the Stereo button on any of the output pairs in the software, you get two mono outputs. So, if you needed a lot of different monitor mixes, you could create twice as many mono ones.
Focusrite Control offers a nicely designed and very graphic user interface. Each output pair has a pulldown menu that lets you choose from several different preset routing options or select Custom Mix. The preset options include direct routing, 2-channel analog recording, analog plus digital, and so forth. If you’re hosting a session with many musicians who all need separate mixes, you’ll probably want to set them up using the Custom Mix option. It allows you to configure your own mixes. You can choose which inputs will be available in each mix and adjust their levels separately with sliders. The input sources in the mixes are all pre-computer, so latency is not an issue if you monitor directly. That’s how the 18i20 can compete in the same market with much faster Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interfaces. The only drawback is that the 18i20 doesn’t offer built-in effects to use when monitoring, so musicians and singers will hear themselves dry. I replaced my regular studio interface with the 18i20 for a couple of weeks during the testing period for this review. I used it to record several projects during that time. I tracked electric and acoustic guitars, bass, resonator guitar, mandolin and vocals through the unit, and the results were quite good and were on par with my regular interface, which is a much more expensive unit. I liked having the option of turning on the Air feature. The preamps sounded more present with it on and provided a more transformer-like vibe. That said, I was glad that Focusrite made it switchable because there were some sources I recorded which I felt sounded better and more natural with the Air turned off. Overall, the sound quality of the 18i20 was impressive. If you’re looking for an interface with eight built-in mic preamps, the 18i20 is one of the best values on the market. Yes, it has some limitations, such as lack of effects for direct monitoring or highpass filters on the inputs. But if you’re setting up a studio where you want to be able to record a lot of sources with quality on a limited budget, or if you’re looking to expand your current ADAT-equipped setup, the 18i20 is an excellent option. If you don’t need as many inputs, you can spend less and get the same quality with one of the other Scarlett interfaces. n
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Tech // back page blog Artificial Intelligence and Front Row Seats Mike Levine: Mix Technology Editor, Studio
Steve La Cerra: Mix Technology Editor, Live
Get Smart?: I recently read a fascinating op-ed in the New York Times called “How to Build Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust.” Its basic premise is that although AI is good at looking for particular patterns in data, it doesn’t factor in time, space and causality. That got me thinking about AI and music software, and whether a related argument applies. These days, there’s no shortage of “intelligent” music software. You have smart compressors and EQs that analyze your audio and come up with optimal settings; smart channel strips that set multiple processors based on your track; and smart mastering software (both computer and cloudbased) that can analyze your mixes and create mastering settings for them. Many of these programs use machine learning, a form of AI, to digest vast amounts of musical data to use as reference when analyzing your music. They recommend settings based on recognition of the patterns in your music. But can such software do as good a job as a musician, engineer or producer? My answer—which is not based on empirical data but simply intuition and logic—is “not really.” That’s because the software lacks an important contextual item: your creative vision. That said, I do think such software can be quite useful. I’ve used iZotope’s Ozone mastering software quite a bit and Neutron channel strip to a lesser extent and found that they can often be convenient for getting you to a useful starting point. In fact, iZotope goes out of its way to point out that that the results from its AI-based “Assistants” are just that: starting points. I think that’s critical. As long as you view this type of software as a tool, rather than a substitute, for the judgment of a mixing or mastering engineer, it’s fine. If the results you get don’t fit your vision, be ready to tweak them or start over. It’s similar in some ways to when you’re scrolling through presets and trying out different ones. Some work, some don’t.
The Expensive Seats Aren’t Always the Best: One of the issues that I deal with on a constant basis is making a P.A. sound good for the front rows of a venue. It sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But the truth is that while the first few rows of seating provide patrons with a great view, they don’t usually provide patrons with great sound. It’s simple physics: those seats are usually too far forward to be within the field of the house P.A. system. In fact, there are some venues where the first several rows are behind the house P.A.—which means you simply ain’t gonna hear it if you’re in those seats. Vocals in particular are a problem because unlike guitars, bass and drums, they don’t produce any volume coming off the stage. In the old days, when the stage was raging with blazing loud wedge monitors, this wasn’t so much of an issue. Sound from those monitors would spill into the house, making it easy for the front rows to hear the vocals (as well as the rest of a musician’s monitor mix). Eventually the band went to IEMs, the wedges disappeared, and so did the spill from those wedges that allowed the front rows to hear vocals. Buy a cheaper seat? Maybe. Enter the front fill. In a club or theater, a front fill, or lip-fill—small speakers placed across the front edge of the stage—is the solution. I typically route an aux send to those fills that primarily consists of vocals, thus restoring vocal balance to the money seats. At some venues I’ll add a bit of lead guitar or keys—but never bass or drums because they’re loud enough coming off the stage. Part of my soundcheck routine is to test drive the front seats. I’ll dial vocals into the front fill, go and sit in the seats while the band plays, and listen for the vocal mix. Usually after a few hundred trips back and forth I have it dialed in.
Product of the Month: TC Electronic Finalizer Software options for DIY mastering are getting more plentiful and powerful. The latest entrant in the space is TC Electronic with an application called Finalizer, a standalone program for Mac and Windows. The Finalizer software offers both individual modules that you can load into the signal chain and preset module chains. Its processor lineup includes a 5-Band Parametric EQ, 3-Band Parametric, Low-Cut and High-Cut filter modules, Dynamic EQ, full and multiband compressors, a Stereo Width module, and a Limiter, Master Limiter and Loudness Limiter. The module list offers multiple variations of each processor, with settings for purposes such as Brighten, Lift 2kHz, Mud Reduced, Comp Soften, Slow Leveler, and so forth.
Product of the Month: Tectonic Audio Labs DML500 Tectonic Audio Labs has expanded its line of flat-panel loudspeakers with the addition of the DML500. Based upon Tectonic’s patented Distributed Mode Loudspeaker technology, the DML500 is a diffuse di-pole loudspeaker employing a carbon-fiber composite panel coupled to four highly optimized electrodynamic transducers. This unique design produces audio across a broad frequency range, delivering exceptional intelligibility with an extremely wide and predominantly diffuse coverage pattern of 160 degrees in the horizontal and vertical planes. Frequency response for the DML500 is stated as 90 Hz to 20 kHz ±6 dB, with a 10dB down point of 75 Hz. n
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