Mix 516 - December 2019

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Sound Design for The Aeronauts & They Shall Not Grow Old ★ David Byrne on Broadway ★ Iron Maiden Live December 2019 \\ mixonline.com \\ $6.99

> REVIEWED: FOCAL TRIO 11 BE 3-WAY/2-WAY MONITOR KALI AUDIO IN-8 COINCIDENT MONITOR SENNHEISER SB01 AMBEO SOUNDBAR MUSIC PRODUCTION • LIVE SOUND • SOUND FOR PICTURE

ONE UNION BOUNCES BACK

STUNNING, FUTURE-PROOF REBUILD OF SF'S LEADING POST FACILITY

> EDITOR’S CHOICE

AES 2019

BEST OF SHOW

12.19 Contents

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Volume 43, Number 12

26 FEATURES

LIVE SOUND

22 On the Cover: One Union Recording Reborn—San Francisco’s Audio Post Power Player

BY TOM KENNY

26 Sound for The Aeronauts: Dramatic Story, Dolby Atmos Immersion

SOUND FOR FILM SPECIAL Blue: 100% Cyan, 25% M

14 Tour Profile: Iron Maiden Going Strong

BY CANDACE HORGAN

38 The Sound DP+D: Wylie Stateman on the Importance of Sound

Kali Audio IN-8 Coincident Monitors

BY BARRY RUDOLPH

46 Review:

Focal Trio11 Be Studio Monitors

BY MIKE LEVINE

48 Review:

Sennheiser SB01 AMBEO Soundbar

Utopia: On Broadway

BY ANTHONY SAVONA

18 International Wireless: Global Conference on Spectrum

BY JOE CIAUDELLI

6

AES 2019 Best of Show

BY THE MIX EDITORS

16 David Byrne’s American

BY MATT HURWITZ

40 New Products: 44 Review:

BY JENNIFER WALDEN

32 The Sounds of World War I: Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old

TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENTS 10 From the Editor: This

Sound-for-Picture Thing

12 Current: AKG Celebrates 70

Years, Honors Quincy Jones

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BY JOHN SCIACCA

39 MPSE Honors CeCe Hall; CAS Spotlights Tom Fleischman; Best Sound Awards Season Timelines

50 Back Page Blog:

Plug-in Interrupted, With Newberry

BY MIKE LEVINE AND STEVE LA CERRA

On the Cover: John McGleenan, owner and president of One Union Recording in San Francisco, at the Avid S5 in Studio 4, one of two 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos suites in the newly rebuilt five-studio complex, designed by Carl Yanchar. Photo: Steve Jennings.

Mix, Volume 43, Number 12 (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. 12

December 2019

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Keyboard Presents: the best of the ’80s

The ArTisTs, insTrumenTs, And Techniques of An erA

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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

That Sound-for-Picture Thing Even though I wrote the page, it didn’t occur to me until I was proofreading this month’s Table of Contents that perhaps for the first time ever— certainly in the 31 years I’ve been here—the monthly print edition of Mix doesn’t have a single feature story related specifically to a music recording project. “Oh, no!” I thought. “There’s one day to go! Am I going to have to start ripping up pages? This is Mix. The recording industry magazine. We have to have a record project.”

Then my breathing slowed down and I figured all was okay. We have plenty of content for music recording professionals. There’s Iron Maiden live, David Byrne on Broadway, a couple of speaker reviews, plus a ton of products we rated Best of Show from the recent AES convention. And we just got a piece in on the making of the new Tom Waits tribute album, along with a story on the making of Celine Dion’s new album ready to go for the January NAMM Show issue. We’re okay.

Plus, we have a cover story on an amazing rebirth of San Francisco’s premier audio post house, One Union Recording, rebuilt into a five-studio powerhouse with two 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos rooms, five Avid S5 consoles, seven fullblown Avid MTRX systems and more brand-new Genelec monitors than you’ve likely seen anywhere at one time. It’s cutting edge, it’s secure beyond belief, and it’s Atmos. It’s a good audio story.

Plus, we have two stellar features on films that will likely fly under the radar amid the flurry of titles released during the holiday season, though each features an excellent immersive soundtrack. Jennifer Walden brings us the story of the sound design behind The Aeronauts, Amazon’s first theatrical release, in development in England these past two years. The eight-minute clip shown in September at Mix Presents Sound for Film, in Dolby Atmos at Sony’s Cary Grant Theater, stole the show. The care and attention that went into the original recordings, the Foley, the sound design and the Atmos mix definitely shows on the screen.

Meanwhile in Peter Jackson’s WWI documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old, compiled from raw footage in Germany in 1916 and now held by the British Museum, Matt Hurwitz tells the story of how the team created a

complete immersive soundtrack, including the foundational voice tracks, from material that didn’t exist. The footage was obviously shot MOS. The period sound was re-created, and it’s both accurate and enveloping. War is loud, and it can be scary. All told through sound.

It’s an exciting time to be involved in all things sound for picture. In late September, Mix hosted a hugely successful event at Sony Pictures Studios, with a foundation based on immersive sound. Tommy McCarthy, head of audio post-production, says he can’t find enough editors or rooms to fill the demand in content.

Studio designers around the country are all building 7.1.4 and 9.1.6 near-field immersive studios. Carl Yanchar, who designed One Union Recording, on this month’s cover, just completed a 12-Atmos-room facility in Woodland Hills, Calif., for an established pair of Hollywood sound designers.

Companies like Avid, Yamaha/Steinberg, Dolby, DTS, Focusrite, iZotope, Sound Particles, Meyer Sound, Genelec, JBL, Audeze—they’re all developing products to address the sound-forpicture market. And audio networking protocols have entered the vernacular throughout the post-production chain; even production sound mixers are talking about Dante.

All of this benefits the music recording industry and will continue to do so in the years ahead. The recent demand for 3000-plus Dolby Atmos Music titles from UMG by the end of the year tells you all you need to know about where this is all heading.

So, no, I’m not sweating the fact that there is not a music-recordingrelated feature in this month’s Mix. It’s all about audio, as it always has been, and as it always will be.

"It’s an exciting time to be involved in all things sound for picture."

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Tom Kenny Editor, Mix

Current // news & notes AKG Celebrates 70 Years By Honoring Quincy Jones Lifetime Achievement Award Presented at Capitol Studios Party Photo: To Come

By Tom Kenny

O

n Tuesday, November 12, as part of the company’s 70th anniversary celebration, AKG hosted a stellar party at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles to honor Quincy Jones with a Lifetime Achievement Award. About 100 invited guests, including a host of producers, DJs and artists, were on hand to fete the legendary producer, and all were treated to an exceptional evening of music performance and goodwill.

Held in Capitol’s historic A and B studios, guests were treated to multiple performances throughout the evening, including DJ Kita Klane in A, DJ Austin Millz in B, Ramzoid upstairs in the Crow’s Nest and MJ Ultra greeting guests at arrival. But the highlight of the night was unquestionably when the doors between Studios A and B were opened up, Quincy Jones came out to the front row, and his protégé, Grammywinning artist Jacob Collier, sat down at the Steinway Grand and performed three of the producer’s memorable hits: “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson, “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra, and “Give Me the Night” by George Benson.

True to fashion, when Jones later stood to address the crowd, he mentioned Collier first.

Then, the evening’s host, broadcast journalist Nic Harcourt, presented Jones with the AKG Lifetime Achievement Award.

“For almost seven decades in this business as a musician, composer, arranger, conductor and producer, I have always gone for the music that gives me goosebumps. And whether it was Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie Orchestra, the Brothers Johnson, Michael Jackson, the artists who contributed to the recordings of We Are The World, right up until today, without fail that music was delivered through AKG audio products,” said Quincy Jones.

“As you celebrate your 70th anniversary, I have no doubt in my mind that AKG will continue to be an essential part of the music recording

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Quincy Jones accepts the AKG Lifetime Achievement Award from music journalist Nic Harcourt at a special celebration in Studio A at Capitol Studios, Los Angeles.

and listening experience for many, many more decades to come.”

The night was also about technology. AKG released its first microphone in 1947, soon after the company founding, and its first headphones in 1949. Both traditions were on display at Capitol, as the night also marked the release of the Lyra USB microphone and K370 and K371 professional headphones.

In the Studio B control room, two mixing stations allowed guests to plug in AKG K371 studio headphones and listen to individual instrument and vocal tracks from “Billie Jean” while creating their own mixes of the song, live. Other headphone stations were set up for listening to a variety of classic Quincy Jones songs.

In the Studio A control room, prior to the main event, a small group of journalists and a few guests (including Steve Vai!) were treated to a conversation about the history of headphones between Nic Harcourt and Dr. Sean Olive of Harman, AKG’s parent company. The talk started with telephony back in the late 1800s, then military use, then the advent of stereo and a

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consumer market, on through the confounding present need to solve the riddle of Head Related Transfer Function and deliver true immersive sound.

Olive is a most interesting audio personality; a musician with a scientist’s mind. He got his doctorate from McGill University in Montreal in acoustics, and he worked many years on the introduction of JBL’s all new waveguide and drivers in development of the M2 Reference Monitor, which trickled down to the 7 Series, 3 Series and so on.

For the last couple of years, he’s been concentrating on headphones. “Throughout his legendary career, Quincy Jones has created some of the most iconic records in the history of the recording industry, and we are honored to present him with a Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Erik Tarkiainen, vice president of global marketing, HARMAN Professional Solutions. “For 70 years, AKG has been creating headphones and microphones that empower the spirit of creativity and innovation, and no one embodies that spirit more than Quincy.” n

Photo by Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via Getty Images

Live Janick Gers, foreground, with bassist Steve Harris of Iron Maiden perform during the Legacy of the Beast tour at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The Three-Headed Beast Iron Maiden Makes Guitar Rock Current, 44 Years In

By Candace Horgan

N

ow in their 44th year since being founded by dynamic bassist Steve Harris and approaching the 40th anniversary of the release of their debut, self-titled album, Iron Maiden seems virtually timeless. They continue to sell out arenas and stadiums all over the world, and on their current U.S. tour sound as strong from the opening notes of “Aces High” to the closing wail of “Run to the Hills.”

Currently mixing at front of house is Ken “Pooch” Van Druten, who has been with the group for two years. Like many engineers, Pooch got his start in high school playing in bands, though his high school bands were more on the jazz front. He went to Berklee College of Music on scholarship for bass, and that’s when he transitioned to engineering. His résumé is quite diverse and includes rapper Jaz-Z, Eminem, Whitney Houston, Justin

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Bieber, and what he calls “legacy” bands like Kiss and Guns N’ Roses.

Van Druten has been using a DiGiCo SD7 Quantum with Waves plugins at FOH for Iron Maiden. His plug-ins include the C6, PSE, De-Esser, Vocal Rider Live, CLA-76, H-Reverb, Doubler, SSL Channel, DBX-160, Saphira, RVerb, SSL Comp, API2500, Renaissance Axx, HDelay and F6. He also uses some outboard gear, including a Rupert Neve Designs Master Buss Processor.

“It’s a piece of analog gear that I really like,” Van Druten explains. “It’s a compressor and a limiter, but it also has a feature that spreads frequency stuff around. You can actually take the midrange and kind of spread it out, or take the low-end part of your mix and push it forward. It’s a great unit.”

Iron Maiden does have a few prerecorded audio bits before songs like

Iron Maiden FOH engineer Ken "Pooch" Van Druten.

“Where Eagles Dare” and “The Number of the Beast.” Aside from the Winston Churchill speech excerpt at the start of show opener, “Aces High,” Van Druten is triggering all the sounds from a Maschine MK2. He also uses triggers on the drums to open gates.

“What we’re doing is using the triggers to open the gate threshold of the toms, so it really makes the gate super-tight as opposed to just using the analog audio signal to open the threshold,” he explains.

Another interesting aspect of mixing Iron Maiden is the simple fact that there are three guitar players.

“Honestly, the biggest challenge I face with Iron Maiden is that all three guitar players play similar-sounding guitars,” Van Druten says. “They have very similar tones, and they all need to be defined. People who see Iron Maiden are Janick [Gers] fans, and fans that are Adrian [Smith] fans, and Dave [Murray] fans. Everybody that comes to the show wants to be able to hear each individual guitar player. I mostly mix that by creating pockets of space for them in the left and the right. I place them as they are on stage. Creating EQ and panning space for each individual guy to give them their own space is what I do.

“It’s also difficult because Steve Harris’ bass tone doesn’t have a lot of low end in it, and it has a lot of the same frequencies, so for the most part, there’s four guitar players,” he continues. “Obviously, his tone is important and should be forward in the mix. If you listen to any of the records, you know his tone is upfront. It’s not your typical rock band where you just throw up drums and throw some guitars in there and then a vocal over the top. It’s a difficult band to mix.”

On the current tour, Maiden partnered with Clair Global and are flying a Cohesion system with CO-12s on the main hang and CO-10s on the sides.

“It’s a really great P.A. with 12-inch drivers, so it lends to a band that has three guitar players in it,” Van Druten explains.

System engineer Mike Hackman, who has been with Iron Maiden for more than a decade, plays a key role in getting the P.A. to sound its best, according to Van Druten, who defers to Hackman to set the P.A. each night while concentrating on the mix.

Iron Maiden still mostly has an old-school approach to amplification.

All three guitarists, plus Harris, have amps and cabinets on stage, and Van Druten says he depends far more on miking the cabinets than on using DIs, though he does have those in the loop, as well.

“We use Palmer PDI 09 speaker DIs on all three guitar players, but the main tones that I use are the mics in front of the guitar amps,” he explains.

“For instance, for Dave Murray, who has a traditional loud guitar tone, the Shure SM57 sounds the best in front of it, so I lean hard on the SM57 and have a speaker DI underneath to add some more clarity and definition.

As far as the other guys go, its similar. We’re using a couple of different manufacturers’ microphones up there, but a quite a few Shure up front as well. It’s really a traditional loud stage.

“We are miking the bass cabinet, too, and that is also what we lean on hard. It’s a Shure SM7B, which is a great large-diaphragm microphone for bass guitar. The DI alone doesn’t get the sound that everyone knows as Steve Harris, so we mike his cabinet.”

Though Iron Maiden has experimented with other microphones, Van Druten still feels the tried and trusted Shure SM58 is the best for vocals, especially for Bruce Dickinson. “It’s one of those microphones that everyone tries to replicate and make better, and they can’t,” he laughs. “As soon as you put an SM58 in front of Bruce, it just sounds really good.”

The drum kit is miked with a greater variety of microphones than the other instruments, according to Van Druten.

“We have a Shure Beta 91A and a Beta 52A in the kick drum. They are totally enclosed in the kick drum, there’s no hole in the front. There’s a Randy May rail system there for both microphones that we use to adjust the distance between the inside of the kick drum, and those two microphones work very well together. The snare drum is an SM57 on the bottom and Telefunken M81 on top. Hi-hat is a DPA 2011. All the toms are DPA 4099s. The overheads and the cymbal are Mojave MA-201 FETs.” Working monitors is Kevin “Tater” McCarthy, who previously worked with Van Druten on the Linkin Park tour. McCarthy’s résumé includes Slash, Stone Temple Pilots and Judas Priest. He, too, is mixing on a DiGiCo SD7 Quantum with Waves plug-ins.

“I really only use three—a C6, an L2 and an SSL G-Master Buss Compressor—and I only use them on the in-ear mixes,” he says. “I also use Klang. I have two units. Everything I have is redundant in case I have to switch engines. I have double the Waves, double the Klang, and that’s about all I use. All the effects I use are onboard DiGiCo.” All three guitarists have Shure PSM 1000 in-ear setups. Smith and Gers are using JH Audio Roxanne customs, while Murray recently switched to the JH Audio Lola. Drummer Nicko McBrain, as well as Dickenson and Harris, eschew ears, favoring Turbosound TMS-3 wedges. The three guitarists have the TMS-3, as well, to supplement their ear mixes.

“The one little tricky thing with them is all three of them like a nontraditional ear mix,” explains McCarthy. “They like what it would sound like on stage if they didn’t have ears, just quieter. I use the Klang to help me place those instruments. They like to hear the guitars from behind themselves, not really left and right in the ear mix. The Klang helps me really make it feel like those sounds are behind them; like the guitar, their backline is behind them just like it is on stage.

“Now, Bruce, I have a lot of different kind of wedges for him all over the stage and side fills,” McCarthy continues. “I don’t mix Steve. Steve has his own monitor mixer, Steve Smith, ‘Gonzo’ we call him, and he’s on a DiGiCo SD12, and he mixes Steve’s wedges and Steve’s side fills.”

In talking with Pooch and McCarthy, it’s clear both love being on the road with Iron Maiden. Says Pooch: “I’ve mixed a bunch of other acts, including acts that are hot right now, and they don’t have any experience before last year. Working for a band that’s been around 44 years is an absolute pleasure.

They understand what it takes to put on a rock show, and they treat their crew with respect in regard to that. I will work here as long as they will have me.” n

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Live // profile

Big Performance, Small Stage These Days David Byrne Is Burning Down a More Intimate House — Broadway’s Hudson Theatre

By Anthony Savona // Photos by Matthew Murphy

T

his is not your parents’ cabaret act.

As the music heroes of the ’70s and ’80s enter new stages of their careers, they are finding new ways to entertain audiences in more intimate spaces. Take Bruce Springsteen’s recent run at New York City’s Walter Kerr Theatre, which is now home to the 2019 Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown. Likewise, in support of her latest album Madame X, Madonna has taken to smaller theaters such as the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, NY, the Chicago Theatre in Chicago and the Wiltern in Los Angeles to give her fans a different experience.

Then there is David Byrne’s American Utopia, with performances six times a week at the Hudson Theatre in NYC. Prior to making its 16-week stop in Manhattan, Byrne took the tour to 27 countries last year, but re-tooled it for the smaller setting. It is still a concert, but Byrne and his troupe, which consists of two dancers and nine musicians, fill the small stage with a nonstop energy that is transferred directly to the audience, who at times has trouble sitting still as is common practice at Broadway shows.

The staging is simple—the curtain lifts on Byrne, alone at school desk, holding a plastic brain as he sings the song “Here,” from the 2018 album American Utopia, and a curtain of thin metal chains raises around the sides and back of the stage. As the show progresses, more performers join Byrne, all dressed identically in gray suits and shoeless. Eventually the stage is filled with performers, singing, swapping instruments—some wearing complex body harnesses—and constantly moving. Everyone is completely untethered—there is not a cable to be seen on stage.

It takes a wireless wizard to keep the performances running; fortunately, David Byrne’s American Utopia has that in Pete Keppler, the show’s sound

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David Byrne’s American Utopia takes his worldwide tour to a single, more intimate venue for 16 weeks.

designer and FOH engineer. Mix caught up with Keppler at the Hudson Theatre for the lowdown on how it all comes together.

MIX: With 60 channels, how do you keep track of open mics—especially the vocal mics that have to be open and closed constantly?

PETE KEPPLER: To be fair, I have to give John Chadwick and Jamie Nelson [monitor engineer and RF Tech for the 2018 tour], as well as the RF teams at both Shure and Clair Global the majority of credit for getting much of the RF sorted out. They really did the bulk of the work on a system that we’re still using today.

By last count it is actually just over 70 inputs, 54 of them being RF— we’ve added more vocal mics and a few new percussion instruments for the Broadway version. To keep a handle on any open instrument mics, each song has its own snapshot programmed with mutes, fader levels, dynamics and EQ per channel. Vocal mic channels gets a bit more involved: I use a Waves MultiRack system that has a rack dedicated to each vocalist, with a software version of the Neve Primary Source Enhancer (PSE) and the Waves F6 Dynamic EQ. Both plugins are incredibly useful in keeping spill and leakage to a minimum, while also maintaining as much useable gain as possible. These are also programmed on a per-song basis to account for varying dynamics. The Waves hardware and software has become a crucial part of this show. It would really be sonically inferior without it.

The show has a spontaneous feel to it, but is there anything that deviates from performance to performance?

There are 12 musicians, all completely wireless, who never stop moving—

Gear List Mics: • Drums: Shure Beta 98AD/C, DPA 4099, Audix D6 and D4, Audio-Technica 2300, Sennheiser E904, C-Ducer Contact Mic • Vocals: Shure TwinPlex TH53, DPA 4088 • Ambient/Audience: Shure VP88, Sennheiser MKH 416

The performers of David Byrne’s American Utopia (from left to right): Daniel Freedman, Mauro Refosco, Jacquelene Acevedo, Gustavo Di Dalva, Angie Swan, Stéphane San Juan, David Byrne, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Tim Keiper, Chris Giarmo and Bobby Wooten III.

Input/Output RF Systems: • Shure Axient Digital AD1 Transmitters, AD4Q Receivers (52 channels of inputs) • Shure P10T Transmitter, P10R+ Receivers (24 channels) Consoles: • Monitors – DiGiCo SD-Five • FOH – DiGiCo SD-Ten • Both consoles share DiGiCo SD Rack head amps, running on OptoCore fiber loop Speaker Systems: • Main FOH – Meyer Leopard • In-Fills – Meyer Mina • Under-Balcony – Clair CP6 and FF2 • System EQ – Lake LM44 and LM26

one song to the next. In addition, the Shure TwinPlex TH53 headset mic everyone wears has a very low profile, so there are no issues putting on or taking off the drum harnesses.

All the performers wear their instruments and the show is completely wireless, creating challenges for Pete Keppler, the show’s sound designer and FOH engineer, who used Shure Beta 98AD/C for the body mics and the Axient Digital AD1 transmitter to help overcome them.

that’s enough deviation for me! It is not a trackbased show. These are human beings playing music completely live on stage who feed off the audience and various other inspirations, and that makes each show unique. The production itself is somewhat scripted; it has to be from a technical standpoint, especially for the adaptation to Broadway. The song setlist is the same from show to show, but David added a bit more narrative to the Broadway version, and that changes somewhat nightly. After over 200 performances of this show between the 2018 tour and Broadway, I feel incredibly grateful that I get to mix it, and it’s still challenging and fun!

How did you overcome any miking challenges?

It was a lengthy process of trial and error during 2018’s production rehearsals, finding the bestsounding, lightweight and durable mics and

mounting systems we could. We use the Shure Axient AD1 transmitter for every instrument.

They are light, small and incredibly rugged.

Much of this gear takes a literal beating on a nightly basis, and the mics and transmitters have held up amazingly well. And because it’s digital RF instead of analog, it sounds amazing, especially on the drums.

How does this Broadway version differ from the tour version of the show?

The set, which is three 30-foot-tall curtain-walls made of aluminum chainmail, is basically the same as the touring set, albeit much smaller due to the size of the Broadway theater. The show itself has changed some: more narrative and a few song changes from the 2018 tour. This version is much more intimate, mostly by virtue of the theater.

The Hudson Theatre is a beautifully-renovated 115-year-old playhouse, quite tall and not very deep—the entire audience is much closer to the stage throughout the theater. n David Byrne’s American Utopia runs through February 16. Get more information at americanutopiabroadway.com.

Did the instrument body harnesses create any challenges with placing the body mics?

The body mics and their transmitters (for any small handheld percussion, cymbals, etc.) are actually mounted in the harness. We use the Shure Beta 98AD/C for the harness mics and the AD1 transmitter. All other drum mics and transmitters are mounted on each individual drum, not on the harnesses. The drums have to be quick-changed between musicians from

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Live // news & notes ITU Resolution Benefits Wireless Microphone Operators

By Joe Ciaudelli Joe Ciaudelli, Sennheiser’s director of spectrum affairs, was selected to be a member of the U.S. State Department delegation to the international Radiocommunication Assembly, leading the effort to enact Resolution ITU-R 59, which could prove highly beneficial to future wireless microphone operations.

Here is his report:

E

very three to five years, government delegations from around the globe gather at the Radiocommunication Assembly and World Radiocommunication Conference conducted by the International Telecommunications Union—the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies.

This year these events, designated RA-19 and WRC-19, took place from October 21 to November 22 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

A primary issue at RA-19 was Resolution ITU-R 59. Calling for harmonization of radio frequency bands used for electronic news gathering and related content, Resolution ITU-R 59 is the fruit of a multiyear collective effort by audio industry manufacturers, associations and thought leaders.

With their support, Sennheiser has been active in the relevant ITU working parties during the past four years leading up to RA-19/WRC19, documenting the exponential growth of news and entertainment programming during this era when radio frequency spectrum available for wireless microphones has been constrained.

Within the U.S. ITU delegation, many practical solutions developed through industry collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission were integrated into ITU reports and recommendations.

These include allowing wireless microphones to operate in suitable alternate frequency bands and refining regulations that factor in realworld conditions, such as permitting wireless microphone transmission on channels used for TV broadcast if the local terrain or building shielding makes such operation feasible. These efforts were reinforced in Europe through the ITU delegation from Germany and the Association of Professional Wireless Production Technology.

The United States is the undisputed leader in TV/radio broadcasting, motion pictures, professional sports, performing arts and other live cultural events. Copyrighted programming contributes well over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy, supports more than 5 million high-paying jobs, and has the highest export-to-import ratio of any American made product or service.

Wireless microphones are indispensable tools that fuel this ecosystem.

In promoting Resolution ITU-R 59 in particular, the fact that electronic news gathering is an essential service during emergency situations such as natural disasters was emphasized. At such times wireless microphones are the front-end of a broadcast chain that delivers life-critical information to the public. Regional and global harmonization is essential for cross-border spontaneous newsworthy events and will benefit any production team that operates internationally.

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A session at the Radiocommunication Assembly and World Radiocommunication Conference.

The U.S. proposal for Resolution ITU-R 59 was vigorously debated during the Radiocommunication Assembly, with points raised by many administrations including the Russian Federation, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and Australia. In the end, the proposal from the United States was ratified with only minor edits. Resolution ITU 59-2 now instructs the ITU to post a publicly accessible database of links to the relevant regulatory information regarding wireless microphones from the U.N. member nations. It also calls for charts and other documentation that will aid in harmonization of permitted frequency bands among countries.

The next step is to encourage other countries to contribute their information for inclusion in the ITU database. The ITU only accepts information about a country if it comes directly from that country’s administration. Wide international participation throughout the fouryear study cycle leading up to the next RA and WRC in 2023 will be a key element to harmonization.

Toward that goal, an informational technical paper was presented through the U.S. State Department delegation to the conference of the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission that took place in August. CITEL is a regional coalition for North, Central and South America that forms ITU proposals with consensus from the Americas.

It’s noteworthy that Canada recently finalized a proceeding that largely harmonizes wireless microphone operation with the United States, including portions of the 941.5–960 MHz band. Also, an invitation to provide the information for the ITU database was distributed to the member nations attending WRC-19.

This is all part of a grassroots effort by a wide variety of stakeholders within the content creation industries. Milestones such as this resolution would not have been achieved without the backing of individuals and associations who included their names in industry petitions or, better yet, wrote to the FCC, the State Department or their elected officials directly. n

on the cover

One Union Recording 2.0 (V.3.0)

Celebrating 25 Years, By Rebuilding for 25 More

By Tom Kenny // Photos by Steve Jennings

I

t wasn’t the fire itself that caused most of the damage, as John McGleenan would learn over the first few hours of surveying the site at One Union Recording, the San Francisco audio post facility he owns and operates. It was the smoke and water. He had just been through Studios 1, 2 and 4, and they “just stank,” he recalls. The other three rooms seemed “okay.”

It was now 5 a.m., and he was on his hands and knees in a hallway with a ShopVac, trying his best to get a start on cleaning up the puddled water.

A San Francisco firefighter looked over at him and just shook his head: It was a waste of time.

The call had come just two hours earlier, at 3 a.m. on Monday morning, July 9, 2017, with the alarm company letting him know that there had been a “breach” in the building on Union Street, a steel-concrete-brick structure in the heart of San Francisco’s Media Gulch off the Embarcadero.

The fire department had been called and it had gone to two alarms. McGleenan threw on some pants and made the 30-minute drive from his home in the Oakland hills in about 12 minutes.

“I remember driving down Embarcadero and thinking in the back of my head that maybe a window or door had been left open,” McGleenan says today. “Maybe a smoke sensor had picked up something. I wasn’t believing what I was hearing.

I was convinced that it was a false alarm.

“Then I turn onto Union and there are two fire engines, with their ladders out, lights going, hoses everywhere,” he continues. “They let me through and I drive in my garage and it’s raining in my garage. I’m now dazed and confused. I go into the building, and I walk into a smoky hallway. The studio is smoke-filled. The blownout back end of Studio 1 is dripping in water. It is the Hollywood scene of a fire aftermath—the crackle of radios, flashlights. I’m thinking, ‘What the f -%*.’”

It’s hard to imagine that feeling. One Union Recording was McGleenan’s baby. He, Jeff Roth and Eric Eckstein had opened it as a single room in 1995, quickly growing to six. Roth got out early, and then Eckstein sold his stake in 2007. For the past ten years, McGleenan had been owner and president, and things were clicking. They had survived and grown through the dotcom implosion of 1998, the recession of 2008, the real estate craziness of the past decade, and emerged as San Francisco’s leading audio post facility.

Studio 5, designed by Carl Yanchar and housing an Avid System 5 console and Genelec SAM monitoring, is one of two Dolby Atmos 9.1.4 mix stages at One Union Recording, San Francisco.

Clients included the top of the ad agency world as the foundation and a new breed from Silicon Valley, the likes of Apple, Google, SalesForce, Uber, LinkedIn and many others. There were new types of jobs, including multichannel onsite and event productions, movies and corporate web projects, to go with their bread-and-butter voiceover and spot work. There was much more sound design, and plans were already moving along for the upgrade of one of the studios to Dolby Atmos within a few months.

Just a year earlier, the company had gone through a massive overhaul of its Pro Tools systems, increased its security and streamlined its workflow. Two Avid/Euphonix System 5 consoles were in place and working. Four more had just been purchased and were awaiting installation. The company was completely debt free and the rooms were packed. Life was good!

Then the fire hit.

DECISION TO REBUILD “I was on vacation in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and I get a call at 7 a.m. I’m still in bed,” recalls senior engineer/chief engineer Andy Greenberg, who has been on staff at One Union for 21 years.

“It’s John, and he wants to know how to turn off my console. I think, ‘It’s 4 in the morning on a Sunday there, why does John want to turn off my console?’ He told me that he wanted to protect it from the water. Kind of started off my day a little freaked out—36,000 gallons of water

(Opposite page) The loyal and mostly longtime One Union Recording staff, from left: Eliza Gonzales, Zach Chapple, mixer/chief engineer Andy Greenberg, mixer Joaby Deal, owner/president John McGleenan, studio manager Jaylen Block-Smith, Eben Carr, Isaac Olsen, mixer Matt Wood.

in my studio.

“That was a low point of the day, when I spoke to him that morning,” he continues. “Then there was a high point at the end of the day when I got hold of John and we were already talking about what we were going to build. He was already thinking about the next best thing. The Atmos room. So there was a low that ended in a high.”

Still, at this point they had no idea of the extent of the damage. When McGleenan assembled his nine-person staff, five of them engineers and most of whom had been with him a long time, he thought that they would be rebuilding three studios, maybe 12 months max.

He told the staff that they would all remain on salary, with benefits, a commitment he stuck to even after learning in the following month that all six studios would have to go, and 12 months turned to nearly two years.

“Anytime you put water into wire and equipment, it’s going to be pretty severe,” Greenberg says. “What we didn’t realize at the time is how severe toxic smoke is. Water is detrimental to cable, but smoke is detrimental to PC boards. The smoke seeped into all of our PC boards. Then, of course, what water does to drywall is pretty bad, too.”

By August 2017, it became clear from inspectors and the insurance company that the place would have to be gutted, though three of the rooms could remain functional for awhile.

This allowed the team to juggle clients and schedules, while embarking on a rebuild. Joe Montarello of the Recording Studio Insurance Program, McGleenan says, was a huge help.

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Left: Studio 4, the second Avid System 5 and Genelecbased Dolby Atmos sound design/mix stage at One Union Recording, San Francisco.

Below: The One Union Recording central machine room, with Dante connectivity throughout, and security systems in place to rival any military installation.

“We went from six rooms to four rooms, then three, then one, then none, then back to one, then three and four, and finally to five,” McGleenan says. “Over a 22-month period, we turned them off and turned them on. We did triple time, double time. I might have had guys starting at 7 a.m. or 7 p,m., 12–16 hours a day.

The engineers were tag-teaming in and out of the rooms. We waived overtime for our clients.

The entire staff was amazing, and so were our clients. Everybody pitched in.”

BIGGER AND BETTER The first weekend after the fire, McGleenan contacted studio designer Carl Yanchar, who built the original space back in 1995. He told him about the fire, the three damaged studios (at the time, that’s what he was aware of), and the desire to start right away on a rebuild, with two of the new main studios to incorporate Dolby Atmos.

Matt Levine and his team at Bug ID handled the integration.

“Our timing couldn’t have worked any better,” Greenberg says, noting the irony. “Right before the fire we came across four brand-new System 5s, and we love those boards. They’re so powerful, and they have EQ and dynamics inside them. It’s still a console. And the monitoring section is excellent, but it’s only up to 7.1.

“Then, right at the same time, Avid came out with MTRX, the DAD version,” he continues.

“With that and MADI in the S5, it was no-brainer to go with MTRX across the board. Each room has MTRX and MADI to the console, mic/line boards, and D-to-A for the Atmos rooms, which are 9.1.4.

The others are 5.1 and all work great with the MTRX. We got rid of our 64x64 AES router, which was the heart of our facility for years. Now each room has a 64x64 Dante built into each MTRX.”

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The facility has included all Genelec monitoring since it opened in 1995, and the systems have all been updated, supplied by Cutting Edge Audio & Video Group. For Studio 4, on the cover, three Genelec 1237A active monitors are used as the room’s L-C-R array, while eight Genelec 8341A Smart Active Monitors constitute its rear-surround and overhead monitoring arrays, with a Genelec 7380A Smart Active Subwoofer for the .1 channel. Same for Studio 5.

The crown jewel of the facility, however, just might be the central machine room, with its 300 TB jukebox and enterprise-level security systems. With the types of clients that come into the facility, switch-level security systems were a requirement, and their systems are audited regularly, both on a file-transfer level and in the wiring and cabling. If you walk in the door, your cell phone is noted. This month the facility goes on total lockdown for a client; that’s simply part of today’s world. The clients demand it.

“There are some fundamental requirements to work with some of our clients,” McGleenan says. “After the fire, we had the opportunity to solve certain issues by adjusting the layout and flow of the facility. Then it also enabled us as part of the rewiring to go to enterprise-level security.

We decided to go dual or triple enterprise, in terms of our power and wiring, which was an immensely fun exercise. I was in hog heaven.”

“It took two years out of my life, working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, but we’re back.

And I’m glad to be back.”

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—John McGleenan

BACK IN ACTION One Union Recording is back clicking on all cylinders, the rebuild finished and the rooms full. It would have been easy for McGleenan back in August 2017 to say, “I’ve had a good run, I’m at a good point in my life, I think I’ll just take the insurance money and call it a day.” But he couldn’t, though he admits it was tempting…

For one, the changes rippling through the industry are just too darn exciting for a guy like him. But, more importantly, he felt a commitment to his staff and to the larger Bay Area post community.

“When I sat the staff down, the main focal point for me was based on two things,” McGleenan says. “First, the staff. Many of them have been with me a long, long time. I’m loyal to my staff to a fault. And second, One Union had sailed under the radar for 23 years with an exemplary client base. I’m proud of what we’d done. There was a huge pressure to continue delivering the product to the Bay Area. Because I went from Ireland to Gooby, to TLA, to One Union, I had worked with all these clients. There’s a connection and commitment. I know their kids! If One Union folded overnight in August of 2017, I do believe that there would have been a gaping hole in the local post community. Clients would have to go to L.A. in a lot of cases. The consequences would have been big.

“Plus,” he says in summary, “when I left Ireland a little more than 27 years ago, my dad said don’t be embarrassed to come back home.

I’m Irish! I couldn’t do that. It took two years out of my life, working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, but we’re back. And I’m glad to be back.” n

Sound for The Aeronauts Dramatic Storyline Taken Even Higher by Dolby Atmos Immersion

By Jennifer Walden

L

ooking for a reason to splurge for that Dolby Atmos home theater? Try The Aeronauts. Amazon Studios’ aerial adventure, set in Victorian-era England, follows meteorologist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) and balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) as they travel higher than anyone had yet dared in order to study upper atmospheric conditions and their effects on weather patterns.

The Aeronauts will run in select U.S. theaters beginning December 6 before becoming available worldwide via Amazon Prime on December 20. This release tactic—similar to Netflix’s Roma last December—is great for getting the film to the masses faster while still qualifying for Oscar consideration, but the main drawback is that viewers who live far from a big city (or just like to avoid them generally) will probably miss hearing the Dolby Atmos mix. That’s a pity, because director Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts fits the format like a hand in a glove.

The body of the story unfolds in an 8-by-6-foot wicker basket suspended miles above the ground by a massive gas filled balloon called “The Mammoth.” Multi-award winning rerecording mixer/supervising sound editor Lee Walpole, at Boom Post in London, used the Atmos format to put the audience in the basket with the actors—panning the balloon and its requisite network of ropes into the ceiling speakers, darting individual wisps of wind around the theater, playing wicker creaks across the front and side walls, and assigning the tinkling and whir of scientific instruments to pinpointed locations in the surrounds.

“Stuart Hilliker [dialog/music re-recording mixer] was also panning the dialog with me, following with the Foley movement to match,” Walpole says. “We panned the dialog way more than we traditionally would—using sound to create a first-person perspective for the viewer.”

Early on, as Harper was exploring picture ratio options and the possibility of shooting the balloon sequences in IMAX, Walpole pitched a similar approach for sound—to mix in 7.1 on the ground and then open up into Dolby Atmos when they’re aloft.

“Tom [Harper] was instantly on board with that idea,” shares Walpole, who’s collaborated with Harper on projects like Peaky Blinders, War & Peace and Wild Rose.

The spatial separation of Atmos’ extended surround field allowed Walpole to pack a significant amount of sound into complicated, dense sequences while still maintaining clarity. For instance, the Aeronauts encounter a massive storm that thrashes the balloon, heaving it through the sky.

“There are ropes straining, rain pounding against the balloon and its fabric buffeting, and thunder across the ceiling,” he explains. “We have different wind sounds spinning around the

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

In one of the more dramatic sound scenes, Amelia must climb the balloon to release a frozen valve and stop its ascent.

walls to totally surround the viewer, and rain across the front three speakers hammering the wicker basket. That separation allows the viewer to absorb way more audio information than they could with a traditional 5.1 or 7.1 mix.”

Starting the design and mix in 7.1 gave Walpole a clear picture of how to upmix to Atmos and downmix to 5.1. “I knew I’d be putting ropes and balloon sounds in the rear surrounds for the 7.1 and 5.1 mixes. That gave the sense of immersion without getting in the way of all the detail in the front. I knew the mix worked in 7.1, and from there it was easy to choose which elements would get height information or would get pulled to object tracks while I was premixing

for Atmos.”

The mix’s translation to 5.1 is essential; due to The Aeronauts’ limited theatrical run, most viewers will experience the film at home on a 5.1 surround or simple stereo system.

MADE FOR IMMERSIVE But there are many magical moments best experienced in Atmos, like the swarm of butterflies. For this scene, Foley artist Anna Wright recorded a variety of fine tissue paper on the Foley stage at Boom. Next, sound designer Andy Kennedy fed the recordings through GRM Shuffling and GRM Warp plug-ins to create delicate, fluttery sounds for individual

butterflies. Those were placed onto 10 object tracks and supported by several stereo beds that Walpole created to form the base of the swarm.

“It was real trial-and-error,” he recalls. “We were treading gently to see how much sound we could get away with. You accept the idea that hundreds of butterflies would make a cumulative sound, whereas hearing individuals would draw you out of the film. So we wanted it to be the bare minimum, just enough to make the scene immersive and have a sense of movement.”

The moments of thick fog also play best in Atmos. On the way up, for example, the balloon passes through a dense cloud. Director Harper wanted to feel the mist swallowing the sounds.

Walpole achieved that by gradually condensing the ultra-wide Atmos surround field, “pulling back on the sounds to amplify the silence. The spot effects and balloon sounds are super-dry, with absolutely no reverb and a little EQ rolloff to make them dull.”

Another Atmos-optimized scene occurs at the apex of the balloon’s ascent. Up to that point, the interplay of the balloon’s four key sonic ingredients—the fabric, the ropes, the basket, and the scientific instruments—signaled the conditions the characters were experiencing. But as the balloon climbs higher, the temperature drops, the ropes and basket freeze, and the air is still. The sound of singing wind is replaced by a deep, subharmonic drone. It’s up here that Amelia discovers the air release valve has frozen shut and she must climb to the top of the balloon to open it so they can descend.

CHILLING SOUND DESIGN In this cold, quiet atmosphere, every sound plays hyper-real. Each time Amelia grabs a rope there is the sharp crystalline crunch of ice. “Her peril is emphasized by the macro-focused details of her actions. You’re hearing the repercussion of her every movement,” Walpole clarifies.

The Foley team froze leafy vegetables like cabbages and lettuce, and froze nylon and taffeta. They layered those frozen materials with different fibrous ropes, manipulating those to create the sound rather than freezing the ropes themselves. They even froze a wig for the movement of Amelia’s hair.

Walpole adds: “We used real crusty snow footsteps for her feet in the frozen basket. We also added in frozen, crispy ice elements to give a constant sense of tinkling icicles, to make the ropes feel very brittle. We had some contact mic elements, too, to support the extreme close-ups

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Left: The sound of a butterfly swarm was created in Foley and blown up in the Dolby Atmos mix.

Below: Foley artists Anna Wright and Catherine Thomas in the handmade replica wicker basket brought into Boom Post, London, for adding realism to the effects track.

Photo: To Come

and macro-focus on Amelia.”

As Amelia climbs higher, the ropes become tauter. Unable to use her frozen hands, she slides her arms under the network of ropes to pull herself up. Her elbows impact the frozen balloon, creating a deep wubby sound.

For this, Walpole layered subharmonic drum hits—timed to match pings and emanations of the sheet ice covering the balloon—with hydrophone recordings captured under lake ice that he pitched down to fit the balloon’s scale.

The frozen ropes pop and twang under the force of Amelia’s weight.

“They’re constantly evolving and changing in character. They’re deceptively

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complex,” says Walpole. “We had a frozen rope bed that Andy [Kennedy] captured that first winter we began work on the film, which adds an allimportant sense of reality. We have leather-and-rope layers we captured from the basket on-set. We had icy rope sweeteners from the Foley team, too. Finally, we went to town with layering in ice recordings that we accumulated over the last few projects. My library of recordings for The Terror series on AMC certainly came in handy.”

At the top of the balloon, at 36,000 feet, Amelia drags herself to the center of the balloon. Here, Walpole chose elements like frozen wood creaks and body slides on ice-crusted snow, and Foley created close, icecracking sweeteners using polystyrene sheets and dry noodles. Amelia stands up and stomps on the air release valve trying to pop it open. Again, the wubby balloon impact plays in addition to snow elements, fire bursts and deep-pitched rock impacts. “It’s a nice partnership of real and unreal sounds,” says Walpole.

He also added in the sound of snow and ice falling into the basket below.

Walpole says, “We tried to have as much off-screen sound as possible, not just here but throughout the entire film, to add to the sense of realism and scale, and to tell the story of cause and effect.”

Amelia passes out as the balloon slowly deflates and she wakes to the sound of cracking ice. As her body slides over the edge, there’s a swirling rush of air. The camera pans one way and the wind whooshes pan the other, flying across the wall and ceiling to amplify the sense of disorientation.

Walpole adds, “The nice thing about Atmos is that you can get a completely fluid pan and can properly spin the audience around with

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

who makes wicker coffins.

The custom basket was nearly too large to fit onto the Foley stage. “I thought I was going to have to saw it in half!” exclaims Walpole.

He took down decorations, took doors off their hinges and cleared their path of any obstructions. “It got stuck in the stairwell but we managed to get it around the corner and with one final kick, it popped free like a champagne cork onto the stage,” shares Walpole. “It was great because a Foley artist could climb inside and perform the sounds to picture. We then layered the basket recordings from the soundstage on top of that.”

Re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor Lew Walpole.

Williams’ dedication to clean production dialog didn’t attention to be drawn to it too it. It doesn’t sound disjointed as you pan from end with the basket treatment. the front across the room. The movement feels much, but it’s always there to He took advantage of the smooth, and that takes the audience along for varying degrees; we’re changing soundstage’s blue screen by the character of it from scene to the ride.” putting blue covers on his boom scene,” he explains. poles and mics and having the For rain on the balloon, SOUND SOURCES, ORIGINAL RECORDINGS boom ops dress head to toe Walpole and his sound team captured massive they recorded hoses spraying in blue Lycra—even over their amounts of custom recordings for The Aeronauts. on canvas and nylon, which heads. This meant he could get They created their own rope rigging, choosing they pitched down to match the booms right in the shot. He ropes for their particular sonic qualities, the balloon’s size. This bass-y also put lavalier mics on each of which they attached to a wooden handle bar element plays in contrast to the the actors. and hoisted over a tree branch. The rubbing, higher-pitched wave sprays they “This kind of diligence creaking, twisting sounds they generated created put in the front speakers to enabled him to get us clean a realistic, open rope bed against which they set represent rain on the wicker sound in the most compromised basket. their effects and Foley details. conditions—even getting Sound effects editor Saoirse For James’ scientific instruments, they some usable production dialog captured the actual props on-set, plus random Christopherson led a live Foley during the storm sequence,” items that the Foley team chose purely for their session in the production basket says Walpole. “Tom [Williams] sounds. “We spent a hell of a lot of time editing while it was suspended from First sound assistant Peter Davis also worked with the practical those recordings and making sure they stuck to the soundstage ceiling. This wears a blue Lycra bodysuit so effects team, trying to minimize was prior to the application that he could get the boom mics the images on screen,” says Walpole. tighter in the shot to capture water spray impacts on the mics.

He and his team recorded various silk sheets of a glue solution—devised by crystal-clear dialog.

He did a fantastic job.” and yacht sails that they pitch-shifted and production sound mixer Tom With so much of the visuals relying on CGI, filtered to create the gentle swishing sounds of Williams—meant to quiet the basket’s creaking.

In addition, Walpole commissioned a 5-by- Walpole’s goal was to minimize the use of the balloon’s fabric rustling and flapping above the audience’s head. “We didn’t want people’s 5-foot wicker basket from a woman in Wales ADR because, “If you have too much ADR and too much VFX, then the film starts to lose its anchor of reality. Things feel disconnected; it’s in For rain on the balloon, they recorded hoses spraying on danger of feeling constructed and fake. Having canvas and nylon, which they pitched down to match the the production dialog supports the illusion of balloon’s size. This bass-y element plays in contrast to the this being real. You need some element or layer higher-pitched wave sprays they put in the front speakers to of reality to help the constructed aspects feel represent rain on the wicker basket. realistic.” n

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The Sounds of World War I Sound Design of Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old”

By Matt Hurwitz Courtesy of Wingnut Films

Restored and colorized WW1 footage from Peter Jackson’s documentary They Shall Not Grow Old.

T

he voices of aged World War I veterans guide us through their lives leading up to “The Great War,” on through their training, as grainy, silent, flickering black-andwhite footage accompanies the sound of a stuttering film projector.

Then, just 24 minutes in, as a band of soldiers traverses the muddy trenches of Germany, one young warrior stares right down the barrel of the lens, and suddenly the war comes to life.

The image becomes color, the soldiers move at normal speed, and the audience now hears, over their voices, what they hear. “When that kicks in,” says veteran re-recording mixer Phil Heywood, “you just think, ‘Oh, man, here we go!’”

They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.) is Peter Jackson’s extraordinary World War I documentary, a collaboration of his own

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Wingnut Films and England’s Imperial War Museum. Built out of silent film footage supplied by the museum (mostly from 1916, and restored, retimed and colorized by Stereo D, along with Wingnut’s Park Road Post in Wellington, New Zealand), Jackson sought to bring the silent footage to life. That included creating a soundtrack from which, of course, none existed.

“That was the initial steer from Pete [Jackson]: all of the authenticity and realism we could make to give the effect that there was a sound recordist there on the day,” says co-supervising sound editor Martin Kwok, who worked alongside fellow supervisor Brent Burge. An extraordinary amount of research went into the soundtrack, much of it from military historians at Wingnut, Pete Connor and Chris Pugsley, as well as another in the UK, Andy Robertshaw.

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VOICE AS THE FOUNDATION The dialog for Grow Old is two-part: historical narration and ADR/loop group recording. The former holds the core of the story, from which Jackson and picture editor Jabez Olssen built their narrative. Jackson was provided 600 hours of interviews done by the BBC in the 1960s and 1970s, with more than 120 WWI veterans.

The initial cut of the film—the original plan and budget—was 34 minutes, but Jackson soon realized there was far more story to tell, resulting in a constantly developing edit, eventually to 98 minutes.

“We weren’t handed over a locked voiceover cut to begin with,” explains Kwok. “We saw the voiceover grow and grow, before the picture cantilevered out to meet it. The movie is 98 minutes long, and there’s 88 minutes of dialog.

It runs almost from woe to go, which was

Courtesy of Brent Burge, Justin Webster

The real thing: Recording live fire of one of the New Zealand Army’s 105mm guns at Waiouru Military Camp.

something I’d never experienced before, from a dialog point of view, having no air gaps.”

The work was twofold: audio cleanup and an immense amount of editing. The repair end, addressed after a first pass at Pro Tools edits, was itself threefold, most of which supervising dialog editor Emile de la Rey addressed with a thennew release of iZotope RX 7. “The interviews were recorded in various places at various times,” he explains. “If they’re sitting in the garden, there might be traffic in the background, or if they’re in the kitchen, there might be a doorbell or the wife talking, or even room tone. And each interviewee—70 voices—had ten reels of tape.”

While the veterans handled the narration, part of bringing the silent footage to life was putting words in the mouths of the soldiers seen onscreen. Jackson early on decided to use forensic lip readers to try to identify precisely what was, in fact, coming out of their mouths. De la Rey reviewed all of the huge list of suggested script lines, along with the associated scenes/ footage, and made recommendations for any tweaks he thought might help the lines sync

best for the most natural appearance with the soldiers’ mouth movements.

Loop group director Nigel Stone, a frequent Wingnut Films collaborator in London, worked with British loop house Louis Elman Associates to assemble a voice actor pool of 12 to 20 experienced ADR voice actors, who then recorded the remarkable number of lines in a little over two days.

While true ADR was used, when possible, for loop group work, de la Rey still had to use common ADR editing craft to try to fit lines into onscreen mouths as best as possible, sometimes by time-stretching to get a good fit.

“Grab bag” group lines, offered by the actors, were sometimes carefully combined with library crowds from other Wingnut films, such as Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit series, as well as some from an old CineSound 1/4-inch tape library Jackson had purchased and has been slowly restoring. “Those helped create the glue between the really modern-sounding ADR and the restored footage,” de la Rey states. “It’s pretty hard to dirty up new ADR material.”

To assist in managing the new cuts as the film grew in length, the team made use of a piece of software called Conformalizer, created by sound effects editor Justin Webster. “We were able to, as quickly as possible, make those conforms between picture and sound happen, so that we could get back to the creative part without getting caught up in the technical breakdown of piecing the track back together,” says Kwok.

“Conformalizer was essential in that regard.”

PERIOD SOUND EFFECTS As with the dialog and ADR, Jackson’s charge to the effects editors was the same: “Authenticity was absolutely paramount,” states Brent Burge.

“Often, we’re not recording the sound that’s actually onscreen. We’re recording something else to make the sound sound like what you think you would hear.”

For Grow Old, Jackson made available his large and comprehensive personal collection of WWI artifacts: weapons, personal gear, uniforms and vehicles. “He has a collection of props and historical items that he was happy for us to

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Courtesy of Wingnut Films

Co-Supervising Sound Editor Martin Kwok

Recording the breach action of one of director Peter Jackson’s historic 18 Pounder Guns outside his storage facility in Wellington, NZ. From left, firearms specialist Aaron Huriwaka and supervising effects editor Mel Graham.

record, for just that reason, which is not usually the case. Here, it was, ‘No, no, that’s what they’re there for.’”

Based on the research provided by production, Burge broke the effects into two categories: “Foley, which can be shot-by-shot specific, and momentary effects, such as guns going off, things we could see onscreen.”

For ambience, typically only those items seen

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onscreen would be tracked, Kwok says. “You wouldn’t hear, say, horses and milk carts in a village scene unless they’re seen. If we’re inside villages, and it’s about an artillery setup, those elements are the predominant sounds.

We wanted to provide a sense of realism and authenticity that Pete was looking for, but not to clutter it.”

The sounds of the marching soldiers’ hobnail

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boots were recorded—as were most items—by Foley artist Craig Tomlinson and his team on a variety of surfaces. “We would also introduce other tricks, such as slowing them down or pitching them up slightly, to get a real sense of difference,” Burge says, then giving the steps body by adding some library march sounds from Jackson’s CineSound library.

Indeed, some sounds received a little bolstering, Burge explains, “because some of the props, such as the soldiers’ kits, things they carried with them, are just absolutely banal and don’t make that much noise. So we had to embellish certain things, but not much, mainly to create a sense of difference between the battalions, the British and the Germans.”

Small arms, such as the 0.303 rifle used throughout by the Allies, were recorded from Jackson’s collection, as were carts carrying guns on tracks across specific surfaces seen onscreen.

“Pete also had some older guns with different breaches, so we could record the sounds of men loading and unloading shells as we would see them do onscreen.”

The team was also fortunate to be able to, on Jackson’s urging, visit an army base in New Zealand to record shells being fired, setting up recording stations both at the gun locations

Courtesy of Wingnut Films

FX Editors Justin Webster and Brent Burge in Waiouru, NZ

to give it more realism.”

One piece of weaponry that Jackson was keen to represent properly was shrapnel bombs.

“The men refer to them in the voiceover a number of times, and Peter gave us a good detailed explanation of what they were,” Burge explains. “They were shells that would explode in mid-air, and then the shrapnel would fire down onto whomever was unfortunate enough

Courtesy of Wingnut Films

and on the “receiving end.” Those sounds were combined with historical recordings of such guns at work.

“We wanted it to be authentic, not modernsounding,” Burge notes. “The recordings done back then weren’t really representative of the sounds that soldiers were hearing. So we added more impact, the bottom end, as well as concussive top end, from these new recordings

Foley artist James Carrol provides the sound of soldiers’ shoveling.

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to be underneath. That wasn’t something that we could record, so we had to work out a way of building them,” creating a crack in mid-air, followed seconds later by concussive sounds of shrapnel spraying down on the ground—all building on Jackson’s own instinct of what the weapons sounded like. The effect is terrifying.

The ongoing sound of background battle was also key, particularly representing the distance the soldiers in any given scene were from the front. The battle sound was constructed in layers, duller-sounding with less detail when the boys are simply seen in camp opening their mail, “And, as the men get closer, we would then add more particular layers of battle, such as armaments, artillery and guns.”

THE FINAL MIX While it was initially expected that longtime Jackson collaborator Mike Hedges would mix the film, delays in production ended up with Hedges on another project, so another veteran, Australian Phil Heywood, came aboard. “I landed in New Zealand on a Sunday, went straight to Park Road into a screening, and the next morning hit the ground running,” he recalls, finishing the project 2.5 weeks later. “It was like going through your own little war—the only difference was we had the luxury of being able to walk away; the people onscreen didn’t.”

Heywood mixed the film in Theater 3 at Park Road Post, the smaller of three state-of-the-art mixing stages. “Park Road is the best sound

facility in the Southern Hemisphere,” he states.

The two larger rooms, he notes, are outfitted for mixing in Dolby Atmos, though Theater 3 is not. (Grow Old was mixed initially in 5.1 and 7.1

by Heywood, and its Atmos mix created later).

All three stages feature Euphonix System 5 consoles, with Heywood preferring to work in EUCON mode. “It allows you to use the desk like an extension of Pro Tools, instead of mouse clicking. I’m a fader man. We mix completely in the box, and this allows me to use the desk, but use the Pro Tools EQ, not the Euphonix EQ.” The mixing approach was a constant dance, walking a fine line to keep the voiceover narrative at the center of the listening experience. “The mix balance that needed to occur within not only the crowd layers and loop group layers, but ambience, effects and Foley and music,” Kwok explains. “It all had to work with and around the central narrative.”

One of the most remarkable things about the soundtrack is the consistency with which the voiceover plays—nearly all of the speakers sound as if they were recorded around the same time

and in the same place, something both de la Rey and Heywood aspired to achieve.

“It took a while to get that!” Heywood states.

“The idea was to keep it smooth, so one guy sounded the same as the next. I just EQ’d each line as I went, line by line, and I’d sweep through the EQ frequencies. If something was bugging me, say, at 350 Hz, I’d just sweep it up and use the EQ like a notch filter and notch out whatever I didn’t like. And I’d EQ three or four in a row, until it was smooth across them.”

Background battle was neatly handled, with Heywood giving the proper distance effect to each scene as needed. “One of the things Peter told us was, ‘The barrages never stopped.’ And if you don’t place it in the proper distance, you just have a constant battle going all day, and, in a film sense, it’s boring. So you need to give it a directional sense so that we know where the main battle’s coming from. Even when the soldiers are just relaxing, you can still hear it, but it has to be mixed so that you know there’s no direct threat where they are at the moment.”

Essential to the mixing process was the ability

to allow the busy Jackson to pop in, hear playback and offer notes, and then be able to make any and all adjustments on the fly, immediately.

Says Burge, “With Peter, it’s always a pretty wild ride in the mix. Things can change on a dime. And you have to be really forward, have everything in place, and ready to go. If he asks for something slightly different, you have to be able to just do that on the stage. There’s no, ‘I’ll get to that tonight, Peter.’ We try to have everything available so he can sign off on it then and there.”

The weight and gravity of the process, without exception, wasn’t lost on any member of the team, especially as the re-recording wrapped up in New Zealand. “In a normal situation, you’re having fun throwing things around the room, doing a surround mix,” Heywood states. “But this is quite different. No one ever thought of it as fun. Because it wasn’t fun. This was a horror journey, really. The sound had to be horrible. It was the reality of war, the tragic reality of what these young men were going through. And we were all here, every one of us, to honor and respect them.” n

ACOUSTIC ROOM KITS FOR ANY SIZE ROOM London Room Kits have everything you need to turn your room into a great sounding studio! Carefully designed to address acoustic concerns that are common to all rooms, Primacoustic offers a selection of absorptive panels and diffusers to control primary reflections, flutter echo and excessive bass.

Find your room kit at www.primacoustic.com

Mix Sound For Film & TV Update Blue: 100% Cyan, 25% M

An Open Letter to All Sound Directors Wylie Stateman Delivers Keynote Speech at Mix Presents Sound for Film & Television 2019 Editor’s Note: At the sixth annual Mix Presents Sound for Film & Television 2019, held at Sony Pictures Studios September 28, 2019, supervising sound editor/sound designer Wylie Stateman delivered a pointed, yet rousing speech on the importance of sound in visual mediums, imploring all sound professionals to own the title of Sound Director, or more accurately, Sound DP+D. Following is an excerpt of the speech, the full version of which is available at mixonline.com.

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ost audio people pursue show business because they connect with sound. Working in sound is not a random choice. It is a passion; a lifestyle.

Today I am going to share with you the four most important words of advice ever given to me by a mentor. It came from a director, producer, writer and showrunner. His name is William H. Brown. Bill would say that when a director, producer or virtually anyone on the production asks you for your opinion, whatever the question is, the answer should always begin with, “In terms of sound….”

When film directors ask, “What do you think of the script?” they are not really asking you about the script. They are seeking input about how it might be imagined by an expert in sound.

You might say: “Well, in terms of sound, I hear multiple themes,” or, “In terms of sound, I see these as pivotal moments, worthy of exploring beats.” If picture editors ask, “How do you feel about the pacing, or the visual effects?” They are not asking you about the cut. The answer should always be: “Well, in terms of sound….”

I went on to collaborate on more than 20 feature films with Bill, starting with John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, then moving seamlessly onto The Doors, JFK and Natural Born Killers for Oliver Stone. This journey brings us to today’s keynote, in which I offer this room a big-picture idea for achieving respect in terms of sound: the Sound DP+D. DP/D stands for Director, Producer, Designer—that is Sound Director, Sound Producer and Sound Designer. This idea is a compilation of three very different mindsets, and the result of my 100,000 hours of in-thethick-of-it industry experience.

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SOUND DIRECTOR The Sound Director is a role that begins where it should—in pre-production. It involves breaking down the script, studying the shooting schedule, outlining sound-related action moments, and building an audio-specific mission list. The Sound Director discusses big-picture expectations with all applicable department heads, and consults regularly with the production mixer, editorial, sound designers and final re-recording mix teams.

In terms of sound, every film project has some kind of novel idea at its core. It is the Sound Director’s job to pitch a sonic vision to the director and the editor, refine it, and guide the sound team toward those goals. This involves considering the entire process in sequence.

Designer. This part of the sound making process emphasizes the creative presentation. As a Sound Designer, for years I have been working with teams experimenting with a process we call “Post 2.0.” It starts with “ABC,” Always Be Cutting, and then “ABM,” Always Be Mixing.

Every Sound Designer will be asked at various points to deliver temp mixes—not rough mixes.

This means “ABP,” Always Be Prepared, to version out a sound track that demonstrates the full dynamic range and spatial capabilities of the sound team’s creative work. Whether you are making sound for film, television or streaming media, you are involved in the process of creating sound, and the business of finishing it.

It is a business—your business, my friends.

SOUND PRODUCER While nobody makes a movie just to save money, Sound Producers manage the cost of creative opportunities against their budgetary drawdown. From the Sound Producer’s point of view, filmmaking is a business, perhaps not in its heart, but for sure in its execution.

We should never forget that they call this show business, not “show friends” or “show patience,” and definitely not “show restraint.”

Standing up for good sound at the start saves money downstream.

Sound Producers must be precise communicators. They discuss schedules daily with the production team and continue until the project is delivered. They are the keepers of the “sound” calendar. Using “R.B.S.” (i.e., Reality-Based Scheduling), you eliminate “B.S.” scheduling.

CONCLUSION Sound is a form of art, governed by science and subjectivity, worthy of individual recognition, elevated compensation and respect. There is an art to making movies and, quite possibly, a lesser-appreciated art to finishing them.

Mixers are transforming themselves into great sound designers. Sound designers are becoming excellent mixers. There is a new seamless workflow now possible. Work your skills. Refine your taste. Be brave. Be curious.

Be open-minded. Whether you’re looking at new content, new software or a new piece of equipment, acquire every edge and work to sharpen it. Own the title of the Sound DP+D, and make it work for your clients.

Ordinary people focus entirely on outcome; extraordinary people focus much of their time on process. Define these processes for yourself.

Manufacturing content, working in show biz, making movies…it is a wild and wonderful ride.

Never forget to enjoy it. n

SOUND DESIGNER The final “D” in Sound DP+D stands for Sound

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MPSE Career Achievement Award CECILIA “CECE” HALL, MPSE The Motion Picture Sound Editors will honor Academy Award-winning supervising sound editor Cecelia “Cece” Hall with its 2020 MPSE Career Achievement Award. A past president of the MPSE, Hall served for many years as senior vice president for post-production sound at Paramount Pictures and currently teaches sound design at UCLA. She will receive the Career Achievement Award at the 67th Annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards ceremony, January 19, 2020, in Los Angeles.

“Cece Hall is one of the pillars of the sound community,” says MPSE president Tom McCarthy. “She is an exceptionally talented sound editor who has created imaginative sound for many great films. As an executive at Paramount Pictures, she was a tireless advocate for filmmakers and sound artists and their projects. We are delighted to recognize her diverse contributions to the art of entertainment sound with our Career Achievement Award.”

After beginning her career as an independent sound editor, Hall landed at Paramount Pictures in 1978 as the first woman hired in the sound-editing department. At Paramount, she supervised sound for films including Star Trek II & III, Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Witness, Searching for Bobby Fisher and Days of Thunder. As senior vice president of post-production sound, she oversaw projects for both Paramount and its subsidiaries including The Hours, Stop-Loss, Charlotte’s Web, Black Snake Moan and Hustle & Flow.

In addition to her Academy Award in 1987 for The Hunt for Red October, Hall has won two MPSE Golden Reel Awards, among nine nominations.

She was elected president of the MPSE in 1984, the first woman to hold that office.

“I am honored and humbled to be recognized by my peers in the MPSE,” says Hall. “I have a long association with the organization and am committed to its mission to promote sound editors and the craft of sound editing. I am grateful for having had an exciting career and most proud of having had the opportunity to hire so many talented women on the movies I supervised.”

CAS Career Achievement Award TOM FLEISCHMAN, CAS The Cinema Audio Society’s highest accolade, the CAS Career Achievement Award, will be presented to multiple CAS and Oscar-nominated Re-Recording Mixer Tom Fleischman, CAS, at the 56th CAS Awards on Saturday, January 25, 2020, in downtown Los Angeles.

“Tom is a world-renowned sound mixer with a portfolio of over 190 films and over 20 television projects,” says CAS president Karol Urban. “It is hard to be a fan of the small or large screen without having experienced the work of this talented sound artist. Whether collaborating with Martin Scorsese or mixing rare footage of some of the world’s most renowned musical artists, Tom is a powerhouse professionally, as well as a true citizen of his community.”

Fleischman says, “I am thrilled to be receiving this honor. The recognition of my peers is the greatest gift I could ever receive.”

Tom Fleischman was born and raised in New York City, the son of legendary film editor Dede Allen and television documentary writer/

producer/director Stephen Fleischman. He began his career in 1969 as an apprentice film editor, and in 1973 he joined Trans/Audio Inc. where he worked in the transfer department and was given the opportunity to begin mixing under the tutelage of re-recording mixer Richard Vorisek.

In 1979, he mixed his first commercial feature film, Jonathan Demme’s Melvin And Howard, and in 1981 he and Dick Vorisek were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound for their work on Warren Beatty’s Reds.

While at Trans/Audio he also first worked for Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, doing temp dubs on Raging Bull and then joining Vorisek on King of Comedy. This began a career-long collaboration with Scorsese that continues to this day.

In 1985 Tom moved to Sound One where he continued to develop longterm working relationships with many other great directors, including Jonathan Demme, Spike Lee, John Sayles, David Frankel, Oliver Stone and Ron Howard, and earned four more Academy Award nominations. His most recent projects include Lee’s BlacKKKlansman and Scorsese’s The Irishman.

Best Sound Awards Season ACADEMY AWARDS TIMELINE The 92nd annual Academy Awards will air on ABC on Sunday, February 9, 2020. Key dates for the nominations and voting process include: • • • • •

Preliminary Voting Begins: December 6, 2019 Preliminary Voting Ends: December 10, 2019 Nominations Voting Begins: January 2, 2020 Nominations Voting Ends: January 7, 2020 Oscar Nominations Announcement: January 13, 2020 • Final Voting Begins: January 30, 2020 • Final Voting Ends: February 4, 2020 • 92nd Academy Awards: February 9, 2020

MPSE GOLDEN REEL AWARDS TIMELINE The Motion Pictures Sound Editors will host its 67th annual Golden Reel Awards banquet on Sunday, January, 19, 2020, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In the meantime, key dates for the awards include:

CAS AWARDS TIMELINE The Cinema Audio Society will host its 56th annual awards banquet on January 25, 2020, at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Hotel in Los Angeles. In the meantime, key dates for the awards include:

• Submissions Close: November 15, 2019 • Nomination Voting: November 16, 2019 December 9, 2019 • Nominations Announced: December 13, 2019 • Final Voting: December 18, 2019 - January 15, 2020 • MPSE Awards Presentation: January 19, 2020

• Nomination Voting Ends: December 4, 2019 • Outstanding Product Entry S ubmissions Due: December 5, 2019 • Final Nominees Announced: December 10, 2019 • Final Voting Begins: January 2, 2020 • Final Voting Ends: January 14, 2020 • CAS Awards Presentation: January 25, 2020 n

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Tech

AES 2019

BEST OF SHOW

Best of Show: Hit Products from AES NYC 2019 Three Mix reviewers/editors—Mike Levine, Steve La Cerra and Barry Rudolph—walked the aisles of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York mid-October and picked the following Best of Show products.

Here, in no particular order, are the pro audio products they found.

and intelligent drum-type matching to separate the hits you want to keep from the spill you don’t. You can also create custom drum profiles to isolate unusual drum types or fix the occasional kick, snare or tom mismatch. The Decay curve adapts to the velocity of each drum hit, giving you consistent spill reduction on dynamic performances, and the Spectral Decay editor lets you preserve the resonance, ring or rattle of each drum hit while quickly clamping down on the spill. The Leveller’s dual target and amount controls let you improve level consistency without losing the contrast between loud hits and soft ghost notes.

Roswell Pro Audio Mini k87 Microphone Solid State Logic Origin The big “star” of the show was SSL’s new Origin Console, smartly priced at $50K base. In less than 2 meters width, the Origin is an all analog, inline, dual-channel design, with 16 buses, E Series EQ and the Classic stereo Bus Compressor. It has new PureDrive mic pre that can switch character to a warm, harmonically rich and driven tone that varies with mic pre gain.

There is a new mix bus and mix amp architecture said to deliver a low noise floor along with a high headroom summing bus. There are balanced insert points per channel path, dedicated channel direct outputs, stemready 0 dB fader bypass switches and a new center section that allows easy modification. The board comes in just one configuration with 32 large faders, 32 small faders, E-series Black Knob EQ and a 12U of rack space in a 19-inch wide center section in which you may add 500 racks or other outboard. There is also a place for a QWERTY keyboard and a position for a DAW screen, if desired. It is all analog with no automation or controller layer, no patchbay, and conforms to the new EU energy efficiency standards with a sleep mode where it consumes just 40 watts versus 1 kW when in operation.

Sonnox Oxford Drum Gate This powerful plug-in provides intelligent detection, Adaptive Decay, Leveller and MIDI triggering. It also features precise transient detection

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This small-sized largediaphragm cardioid condenser mic sells for $349 and is designed for clean reproduction.

It is the sibling to the existing Mini K47, which has a more “vintage” sound. The Mini K87 aspires to transparency rather than color. The mic’s sound comes from a combination of a specially tuned K67/ K87-style capsule and a circuit that has been designed to enhance and complement it. The Mini K87 excels on vocals (sung and spoken, including voiceover and podcasting), guitars, acoustic strings and drum overheads. The Mini K87 goes through an extensive burn-in, QC and audio testing process prior to shipping in order to ensure that every microphone delivers solid performance out of the box. The Mini K87 ships with Roswell’s exclusive Cutaway shockmount, Roswell branded microfleece mic sock and an aluminum flight case.

AES 2019

BEST OF SHOW United Studio Technologies UT FET47 Condenser Microphone

Soyuz The Launcher The Launcher is not meant to be transparent and clean like other gain boosters on the market. The Launcher makes your mics sound like they’re running through a vintage console—even when they’re plugged into a simple interface or P.A. system. With its custom hand-wound transformer, the Launcher’s warm character will change the way you look at dynamic and ribbon microphones. Whether on the stage, in the booth, or in your bedroom, the Launcher gives your microphones the ability to perform with virtually any interface or preamp by optimizing the sound of your source, boosting your gain by 26 dB and lowering the amount of audible noise in your signal chain.

Cranborne Audio 500R8 It’s an audio interface, it’s a 500 series rack, it’s a summing amp—the 500R8 has everything you need to build your dream analog/digital hybrid studio, including a USB Audio Interface that connects directly to your PC/mac via USB and uses the 500R8’s built-in 28-in/30-out USB audio interface for recording and playback directly to/from your chosen DAW. It also features a Monitor Controller that allows you to switch between two sets of speakers, toggle Mono sum, Mute, Dim and Talkback facilities while monitoring the peak level of your mix with 28 segments of LED detail.

The 500R8’s Zero Latency Artist Mixer lets you monitor live sources in the analog domain with zero latency by using dedicated mix level and pan controls per-channel combined with the high-powered headphone amps.

Finally, the Discrete Summing Mixer can sum eight USB sources through the 500 series modules and into the discrete analog summing mixer to be summed and recorded back into your DAW as a stereo track.

United worked with capsule designer and manufacturer Eric Heiserman to develop a commercially produced version of his German style dual-backplate K47 capsule. This process required the analysis of everything from the sourced Mylar to the thread types of screws; but after many months and many iterations, they finally achieved what they had hoped for in the HZ Series capsules. While many of the HZ Series design secrets will remain so, one attribute United revealed is the use of dual, matched backplates. With the HZ Series matching process, a far more accurate and consistent quality from side to side and capsule to capsule is achieved.

The HZ series capsule is still manufactured only a few at a time, stringently listened to, and only are used if they meet both United’s and Heiserman’s expectations. The UT FET47 also includes a Cinemag output transformer, which is a large transformer made from a striped core of interleaved sets of high nickel and steel laminations. Its humbucking design delivers clean and quiet operation.

Tonelux JC37 Microphone The Tonelux JC37 is a cardioid-only version of the Sony C-37a. The “JC” is for Joe Chiccarelli; he and Sunset Sound have quite a collection of the original mics to reference. The Sony C-37a was always a favorite for snare drums, brass and solo trumpet, piano, acoustic guitar and vocals. Retaining the base elements of the original design—a vacuum tube buffered 37mm single diaphragm transducer with transformer output, the JC37 foregoes selectors for pattern, frequency response, output impedance and level of the original in favor of a cleaner signal path. As with the mic stand mount, a 3-meter cable is integrated into the body of the mic and connects to a Tonelux Universal Microphone Power Supply that is capable of powering two microphones as a stereo setup. Price is $4300 a pair.

Steinberg WaveLab 10 Mastering Software WaveLab 10 introduces a new track type in the Audio Montage workspace, the Reference Track. This allows you to add a reference audio file and switch playback between the reference track and the montage tracks that you are working on, without any glitches or latency. A Reference Track can be routed to the main outputs, to the Playback Processing Section or to a user-defined reference track output, where unused audio outputs on your hardware can be utilized for playback. It also comes with video file playback in the Audio Montage, allowing you to arrange, edit and process the audio of a video. With WaveLab 10, you can now integrate other audio editors

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AES 2019

BEST OF SHOW

(like SpectraLayers or iZotope RX) into your WaveLab workflow, giving you the option of modifying an audio file range (in the Audio File Editor) or an audio clip range (in the Audio Montage) in other editors, directly from within your current WaveLab session.

Microtech Gefell M Cube Microphone System The M Cube is a 9-channel microphone system for time-delay-based 3D recordings. The nine microphones are arranged in the shape of a cube with a length of approximately 1 meter each side. The positions of the microphones are adjustable—so the dimensions of the microphone arrangement can be adjusted to the dimensions of the room and the sound source. The mounting bars have distance markings, so that any setting can easily be repeated. Five M 102 capacitor microphones are used for the lower plane and four M 221 capacitor microphones are used for the upper plane. All the microphones are omnidirectional pressure microphones. Price is $20,000.

AEA KU5a Ribbon Microphone The supercardioid KU5A breaks new ground in ribbon technology with its acutely focused directionality that rejects bleed from other instruments, room reflections and loud ambience in the studio and on stage. As a near-field ribbon designed for close-range recording, the KU5A delivers the low-end heft and pronounced midrange one expects of AEA ribbons and with moderate, manageable proximity effect. Vocalists can sing directly into the grille of the KU5A, as its interior components are the most protected of any in the AEA lineup. The KU5A is equipped with active electronics, fit for any preamp in the studio and on the road, as well as an integrated high-pass filter to roll off low end in close range recording applications. Price is $1119.

Eventide H9000 and H9000R Multi-Effects Processors with Version 1.1 Software The studio staple has been significantly updated with a new bank of Vintage Emulations such as H3000 Micropitch, Unitide, SP2016 Reverb, Instant Phaser Mk II and Instant Flanger Mk II. You also get the new HotSawz algorithm and a bank of 3D Tools and Surround algorithm, as well as a 5.1 panner. This version allows each Effect Chain to support up to 32 channels of I/O, map parameters to external controllers or MIDI and provides support for DAW automation on Mac/PC/VST/AU/AAX. The H900 with full front panel user interface is $6999, while the blank front panel H9000R is $4999 and requires the remote V1.1 update.

Apogee Clearmountain Domain plug-in For Domain, Bob Clearmountain has created presets based on specific instruments and vocal processing from his big hit records. There are five processors in a single plug-in: delay, pitch-shifted delays, and three personalized convolution reverbs with many internal parameters for each that can be tweaked to taste.

According to the company, Clearmountain has carefully created each preset based on specific instruments and processing from his extensive catalog of timeless hit mixes. Looking to nail the Bowie “Let’s Dance” guitar and vocal delay or the Springsteen “Born in the USA” snare sound? Simply load the presets! Price is $349.

Pultec EQM-1S Mastering Equalizer The EQM-1S is the mastering version of the EQP-1S with a fullrange progressive-taper Elma Switch stepped controls instead of continuous variable pots. The EQM-1S’ Boost/Atten controls provide 0.5 dB steps for the initial 50 percent of rotation and then increase step size as the rotation is increased toward 100 percent.

This gives you the fine control you need for subtle boosts and cuts that are commonplace in mastering and mix-bus applications, while still delivering the full range (16 dB–20 dB) of Boost/Atten for more aggressive applications during tracking. In addition to adding mastering controls, Pultec has replaced the EQP-1S’s 6 kHz peak boost center frequency with the 16 kHz center. Price is $4895.

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Nugen Audio SigMod Plug-In Update SigMod is a single-process plug-in that now has 12 modules. With it you can add mid/side functionality to classic stereo compressor and EQ emulations, or get creative with mid/side delays, distortion and many other effects by inserting the mid/side encoder/decoder either side of any left/right plug-in instance. Insert the Protect unit across your output

AES 2019

BEST OF SHOW bus and this safety module will automatically cut in to prevent bursts of noise or feedback howls due to system errors, saving both your nerves and your speakers. Use the Crossover module to split the highs from the lows and apply different effects to different frequency ranges, which is great for avoiding muddying up the low frequencies or getting creative with automation and sweep effects. There is also a dual-mono option that allows for independent processing of two parallel channels.

Dynaudio Core 47 The Core 47 is a three-way compact monitor with a frequency range of 13 Hz to 200 Hz, 120 dB, all in a small cabinet. It has both analog and AES/ EBU digital inputs and weighs over 100 pounds. Core 47 fills the gap between the Core 7 and Core 59 models. Its footprint is comparable to Core 7, but it’s a three-way design with a dedicated midrange driver for the highest degree of detail when reproducing sound in the critical frequency area—where, for instance, vocals are located. Core 47 supports up to 24bit/192 kHz signals, and the internal DSP operates at the same high level when using the analog inputs. For amplifying Core 47, three Pascal Class-D amplifiers offer a total of 1150 watts power. MSRP is $4000.

Metric Halo Labs 3d Family Metric Halo’s ULN8 3d is the result of the company’s 20-year research program into the fusion of digital and analog audio technologies. It is a one-stop shop for all of your audio needs. The combination of ULN-8 3d’s transparent microphone preamps and Metric Halo’s insertable Character Component Modeling Processing provides flexibility and sound quality that’s hard to find. All 3d devices feature MHLink—Metric Halo’s audio interconnect technology. MHLink and 3d enable true multibox operation.

Multiple units connected via MHLink automatically share a common clock, mix engine and computer interface. As a result, you interact with all your 3d units as one unified device—even if you spread them around your recording space with long spans of MHLink (Cat5e) cable between units.

1 Sound MS34 Loudspeaker The MS34 is a 2-channel, point-source loudspeaker.

As a standalone mono loudspeaker (switch and preset dependent) it can become a horizontal line source, helping to preserve its off-axis frequency response

while adding 4 dB of gain. This loudspeaker can be used as a front fill, under balcony, monitor, or as part of an installed distributed system. The M+S/Mono Switch transforms the MS34 into a mono line source (vertical or horizontal) with 5 dB more output than MS mode.

Waves eMotion LV1 Proton The Waves Audio eMotion LV1 Complete Live Mixing System incorporates everything needed to create live sound experiences in an all-inclusive mixing solution. The system allows transition between disparate productions such as musical performance and conferences (the latter facilitated by the use of dedicated Dugan Automixer and Dugan Speech plugins). Further, the LV1 Complete Mixing System is scalable—users can expand the system I/O count from 16 to 32, to 64 and beyond—and is compatible with Waves’ TRACT System Calibration plugin for rapid hall analysis. The comprehensive system includes the Waves eMotion LV1 16-stereo-channel live software mixer, a SoundStudio STG-1608 stagebox, a SoundGrid Impact Server-C, an Axis One Waves-optimized computer, a 24-inch Dell touchscreen, an eight-port network switch and network cables.

Pliant Technologies MicroCom Available in 900 MHz (where legal), MicroCom provides single channel, full-duplex, multi-user intercom for applications where high-quality audio and excellent range are essential. MicroCom has the capability to provide unlimited listeners without the need for basestations, providing a great deal of flexibility. This compact wireless intercom is ideal for houses of worship, videographers, corporate events, schools, and a wide array of other applications. The system features small, water-resistant lightweight beltpacks and provides excellent sound quality, ease-of-use, and long-life battery operation.

Additionally, MicroCom is designed with advanced RF technology and its software is tailored for professional use. Several different headset options are also offered that are suitable for a wide array of application needs.

Audio Precision APx500 Flex Audio Analyzer The APx500 Flex audio analyzer— comprised of APx500 measurement software and an APx500 Flex Key— allows you to select the ASIOcapable audio interface of your choice to use along with AP’s APx audio measurement software. Start with the measurement options you need now, with the freedom to add additional measurements as your test requirements evolve. The APx500 user interface is fast and intuitive. Just click to select a measurement, then click to add a filter and drag limits to set pass/fail points right on the results graph. The APx generator can output steady tones, twin tones, sweeps, chirps, multitones or play WAV files as arbitrary waveforms. n

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Tech // reviews Kali Audio IN-8 Studio Monitor Three-Way Coincident Model

By Barry Rudolph

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he latest entry in the Kali Audio line of affordable, powered studio monitors is the IN-8 three-way speaker, expanding on the Kali two-way LP-6 and LP-8 powered models.

The IN-8 has an 8-inch woofer, a single 4-inch midrange driver and a 1-inch tweeter, making use of the same woofer, tweeter and front port shape/design as the Kali LP-8 monitor. However, the two monitors differ significantly with the LP-8’s large, oblate waveguide surrounding its tweeter replaced by the IN-8’s coaxial, or coincident, midrange/tweeter transducer and integrated waveguide.

COAXIAL (COINCIDENT) SPEAKERS In the past, coaxial speaker designs like the famous Altec Lansing 604E placed a midrange/treble horn driver in the center of the woofer. Another popular method used in compact car stereo speakers is to mount the tweeter on a perforated plate in front of the woofer. In both examples, the midrange/tweeter assembly is not physically attached to the woofer and is, for the most part, (acoustically) transparent to the woofer’s bass frequencies.

Drivers with coaxial designs share the same acoustic center and produce a single, coherent acoustic point source. When monitors with physically separated midrange and tweeter drivers (like most two-ways) reproduce the same frequencies, two or more wave lobes are created that will interfere with each other; i.e., add or subtract from each other. Acoustic off-axis “lobing” is most problematic at or near the crossover frequency between the two drivers.

With the Kali Audio IN-8, the woofer is mounted in the cabinet just below the midrange/tweeter transducer—a concentric driver that has a dome tweeter placed where normally the dust cap of the midrange driver would fit. There is a small plastic trim ring outside the tweeter’s edge and then a small air gap physically separating it from the midrange cone itself. There is no inner suspension between the midrange cone and the tweeter. The circular driver’s midrange cone acts as the waveguide for the coaxially mounted tweeter.

But using a vibrating midrange cone for the tweeter’s waveguide will result in tweeter/midrange inter-modulation distortion (IMD) if the design is poor. To prevent IMD, the total amount of peak excursion allowable for the midrange cone has to be under 1 mm.

Excursion is constrained by the driver’s electro-mechanical limits, including damping, maintaining a predictable SPL output and, most importantly, the chosen crossover frequency. Back and forth

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cone travel is a function of frequency, with more excursion at lower frequencies.

Using a second-order filter, the crossover frequency is 330 Hz between the woofer and the midrange/tweeter driver. Furthermore, the woofer and midrange/tweeter drivers are mounted close together in the cabinet, within a quarter-wavelength of each other (quarter wavelength of 330 Hz is 26 cm), so the two effectively act together to produce a single point source.

WHAT’S INSIDE? The IN-8 monitor cabinet is made from MDF and uses three separate Class-D power amplifiers, with 40 watts for the tweeter (the midrange-to-tweeter crossover uses a fourth-order filter at 3000 Hz), 40 watts for the midrange and 60 watts for the woofer.

All three amplifiers have protective peak limiters to guard against accidents. The tweeter has a 1-inch textile dome, while the midrange uses a poly-coated paper cone.

PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: Kali Audio PRODUCT: Kali Audio IN-8 Three-Way Coincident Studio Monitor WEBSITE: www.kaliaudio.com PRICE: $399/each PROS: Amazing and realistic sound; low price CONS: None As compared to Kali Audio’s LP-8, the IN8 is taller at 17.7 inches, but retains the same footprint with a depth of 11 inches and a width at 10 inches. The IN-8 also weighs a bit more at about 30 pounds.

The IN-8’s frequency range (±3 dB) is specified at 45 Hz to 21 kHz, and max SPL is 114 dB at 1 meter. The IN-8 measures 85 dB continuous SPL with 20 dB dynamic headroom at 2.8 meters away.

Rear panel connections have both unbalanced RCA, balanced XLR and TRS input jacks, standard world IEC/power on/off switch connector, and a ±6 dB volume control knob with center-detent.

There are the same eight DIP-switches as on the LP series. Switches 1 to 3 offer eight different boundary curves for low-frequency rolloff filters to compensate for where you place the monitor in your room. Switches 4 through 7 are for ±2 dB low- and high-frequency shelving filters with 0.7 dB/octave from 800 Hz down to 100 Hz (LF) and from 1.25 kHz to 10 kHz (HF). Switch 8 turns the RCA input on/off.

The Kali Audio IN-8 also conforms to the new EU regulations regarding power consumption, standby and off modes. The monitor uses 20 watts while in use and 0.5 watts in standby/sleep mode. When no audio is present on the input of the monitor for 20 minutes (green LED), it will go into sleep mode (orange LED). It takes about 3 to 6 seconds of audio input to wake the monitors from sleep mode.

WHAT DO THEY SOUND LIKE? I placed my pair of IN-8s on a pair of IsoAcoustics Aperta 200 Speaker stands on top of my Sound Anchor monitor stands. That puts the IN-8s 48 inches from the floor (measured to the center of the woofer), and I angled them downward (using the Apertas) to aim directly at the listening position. The monitors were set up 56 inches apart, measured from the center of each woofer, and that worked out great for my listening position in front of my desktop, out front at the third corner of the equilateral triangle.

Because of its small size, my mix room (2.9 meters wide) has to be on the dry side (non-

reflective), but it’s not acoustically dead. It is acoustically treated with bass trapping, a combination of diffusion and absorption for the ceiling cloud, and there are no reflections coming from the left and right side walls on either side of the IN-8s.

For my first tests, I used the AES/EBU digital input on my Cranesong Avocet IIa monitor controller to play mastered CDs I know well, as I had a hand in engineering and/or mixing them.

RESETTING MY EXPECTATIONS I’ve never had monitors with concentric drivers in my room before, and I was immediately impressed. To be certain for this review, I rechecked everything, established the IN-8’s symmetrical setup, and measured and calibrated the output from the Avocet IIa. I’m still getting used to these new main monitors, but I found the stereo imaging and center soundstage locked, consistent and solid.

The stereo field is wide—it sounds wider than the actual physical distance between monitors!

The center image also does not move as I move about the listening position. I got a full and natural sound without overkilling and beaming high frequencies or a hyped-up bass. I found it very easy to hear deep into these mixes; lowlevel dynamic passages and subtle details such as reverb tails and other effects were heard exactly as intended.

I pulled up a Pro Tools session to mix a song I had not heard in a while to see how mixing goes using the IN-8s. I wanted to do a fresh mix to hear how it “translated” to my various playback devices I use for checking mixes: CLA-10s, IK iLoud MTMs, iTunes, iPhone, headphones, inears, in L+R mono on a cheap speaker.

While mixing, I was amazed at how well the IN-8s tracked musical dynamics with open and good reproduction of both transients and lowfrequency, EDM-style “pumps.” The recorded dynamics from kick drum punches, snare drum accents and bass guitar “pops” are heard accurately, with some of the unprocessed, natural transients hitting too hard or not hard enough.

I started with the default DIP-switch positions: all down, or flat, but that would soon change.

In my room, the monitors are 0.45 meters from the wall behind them and 0.6 meters from the walls on either side. I found the IN-8s just slightly bass heavy and a touch bright for me in this room. I changed Switch 1 to the “up” position (as recommended for speaker stand placement less than 0.5 meters from the rear wall) and also Switch 6 to roll off high frequencies. I’m using these settings for now, and I’ve found them to work just like the HF and LF trims on the LP-6 and LP-8 models; ±2 dB tilt EQs centered at 1 kHz. I started mixing a soulful R&B tune with very percussive drums and spikey electric guitars.

While getting pan positioning and basic levels, EQs and compressors set, I would go back and forth between the IN-8s and a couple of pairs of different headphones. I could hear and set pan positioning and EQ on them just as easily as I usually do on headphones.

The mix’s vocal production was massive, with many tracks of singers panned about the stereo field. The final mix level of the individual harmony parts was easy to attain, and that balance held up on the alternate speaker checks later on.

I also noticed that the IN-8s were less fatiguing than the two-way monitors they replaced. Sitting back on the couch 3 meters away, where a lot of my clients like to sit and listen, the sound was more even than before, and that is good thing!

I finished the mix and checked it on all my usual listening touchstones, and I had no surprises. I’m recommending the IN-8s as an excellent yet inexpensive studio monitor for small mixing spaces. You’ll have crystal clear stereo imaging, along with a truthful and accurate representation of what you have recorded and mixed immediately. n

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Tech // reviews Focal Trio11 Be High-End Studio Monitors With a Split Personality

By Mike Levine

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he Trio11 Be, designed for accuracy and versatility, is Focal’s new flagship monitor, and it can be set up in both mid- and near-field applications—and between 3-way and 2-way operation. Given Focal’s reputation for quality, I was eager to test a pair out. They’re large monitors, but not ridiculously so (their dimensions are 25 x 13-9/16 x 17-3/4 inches); still, at 82 pounds each, they were too heavy for the monitor stands in my studio.

So instead of listening to them at home, Mix arranged for me to go to Fab Dupont’s Flux Studios in New York City, which already had a pair in the control room of its “Dungeon” studio. I did an extensive listening session there.

BACKGROUND The Trio11 Be is equipped with a 1-inch beryllium inverted-dome tweeter, a 5-inch woofer and a 10-inch subwoofer. Its ample triamplified power section includes 300 watts for the sub, 150 watts for the midrange driver and 100 watts for the tweeter.

A nice-looking, red-colored wood veneer covers the cabinet, which features a horizontal port at the bottom and small ports on either side of the aluminum plate that houses the midrange driver and tweeter.

That plate is one of the innovative features of this monitor. If you remove its screws, it can be rotated freely, making it easy to reconfigure the tweeter orientation for horizontal positioning.

Focal includes four rubber feet to help with decoupling, which you can attach either on the bottom of the monitor or the side, depending on how you’re orienting it.

On the back of the Trio11 Be you’ll find a power switch, a socket for the included power cable, a fuse housing and a voltage selector that needs to be unscrewed to be accessed. You can switch the unit between 115V and 230V operation. Because the monitor is fuseprotected, if you want to change the voltage, you first must swap out the fuse for one of the appropriate ratings before powering up.

On the top of the rear panel is the XLR speaker input, a –10 dBV/+4 dBu sensitivity switch and a switch for enabling the Auto Standby feature. The latter, which is on by default, puts the monitors in a power-saving standby state when you turn them on.

When a signal is detected at the input, Standby is automatically turned off. After a few seconds, you’ll hear the audio. If the input receives no signal for 15 minutes, the Trio11 Be reverts to Standby mode.

The back panel also houses control knobs for three EQ bands

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The Trio11 Be is a 3-way monitor that can be used in near- or mid-field applications.

provided to compensate for room acoustics. Each knob is a 7-position switch that offers –3 dB, –2 dB, –1 dB, 0 dB, +1 dB, +2 dB and +3 dB settings. The LF Shelving band corrects at 250 Hz and below. The LMF EQ is a bell-filter with a center frequency of 160 Hz and a Q of 1. The HF Shelving works at 4.5 kHz and above.

FOCUS ON THIS Also on the back panel are two 1/4-inch jacks labeled Focus Input and Focus Output. You use these for connecting a standard footswitch (not included) to turn on and off the Focus mode feature, and for connecting the monitors together.

Turning on Focus mode switches the subwoofers off, transforming a pair of Trio11 Be monitors from a 3-way to a 2-way system, with significantly less bass response. According to the specs, the bass goes down to 30 Hz with the subwoofer on and to 90 Hz when in Focus mode. What’s more, switching to Focus mode activates a shelving filter that cuts the maximum high-frequency reproduction from 40 kHz to 20 kHz. The concept is that instead of switching to other monitors to check your mix, you can turn on Focus mode and it’s like having a second set to compare to. It’s a clever idea, although you’ve got to figure that any customers who can afford the Focals will almost surely own one or two other speaker pairs they can switch to when checking a mix.

And even though the Trio11 Be monitors do sound different with Focus mode on, the difference is not as significant as it probably

PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: Focal PRODUCT: Trio11 Be WEBSITE: www.focal.com PRICE: $3999/each PROS: Excellent-quality reproduction; tweeter and midrange driver can be rotated; plenty of power for nearor mid-field use; Focus mode gives you the perspective of a different sound; three EQ bands for adapting to room acoustics; well-crafted and aesthetically pleasing; Auto-Standby mode saves power CONS: Pricey; footswitch not included for Focus mode

music, orchestral music and more.

I was extremely impressed with how the Trio11 Be monitors sounded for every kind of music. In their normal mode, they offer incredibly accurate and crisp reproduction. Thanks to the subwoofers, the bass was substantial. Particularly on EDM and contemporary R&B, you could clearly hear what was going on in the subsonic range. That said, the bottom end didn’t seem overly hyped, which is a good thing from a mixing-accuracy standpoint.

The midrange was rich and full. Stereo, distorted rhythm guitars on the Foo Fighters song “Monkey Wrench” and Green Day’s “Welcome to Paradise” sounded warm and thick. The beryllium tweeters delivered extremely crisp high end. On a couple of mixes, particularly Art Pepper’s saxophone on the song “Move,” the highs were at the borderline of being too bright for my taste. But with the high-end shelving filter on the back, you could always adjust for that if it seemed problematic in your studio.

I also listened in Focus mode, switching back and forth between it and the 3-way mode.

The difference was fairly significant, particularly in the bottom end with the subwoofer off.

It certainly provided another perspective on the music that would be helpful when mixing.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE? Clearly, Focal put its considerable experience and resources for designing monitors into this new, flagship product. Between its premium quality reproduction, its ability to be both a near- and mid-field monitor, and the versatility of Focus mode, it has a lot to offer, as it well should at this price point.

Because of their cost and size, I’m guessing the Trio11 Be will mostly appeal to commercial facilities, but I do know that Focal is marketing it as a high-end home-studio solution, too.

Indeed, if you’ve got the money and some hefty speaker stands, the Trio11 Be could be the monitor you’ve always dreamed of. n

Record. Encode. Stream. Decode.

SIMULTANEOUSLY.

Three different EQ bands are included for tuning the monitors to your room.

would be switching to a completely different make, model and size of monitor. You’re still listening through the same power amps, tweeters (although filtered) and midrange drivers.

LISTENING At Flux, I sat at the console and listened to a wide variety of music through the Trio11 Be monitors in a near-field position. I had a footswitch handy, and the monitors were connected to each other so that I could also turn on and off Focus mode.

I listened to everything from hip-hop by Nas to Steely Dan’s “Peg” (you can’t test speakers without listening to Steely Dan; I think it’s a law) to Foo Fighters to thumping EDM from Deadmau5 to Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” to jazz from Art Pepper. I also listened to solo acoustic guitar

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TASCAM

VS-R Series Answer your customers’ growing demand for external stand-alone encoders. The full 4K/UHD (VS-R265) and full HD AV (VS-R264) over IP streaming encoders and decoders simultaneously record, encode, stream and decode multiple video stream formats while utilizing High Efficiency Coding (HEVC) that delivers H.264 video quality for 4K content at half the bit rate.

Sound. Thinking.

www.tascam.com

Tech // reviews Sennheiser SB01 AMBEO Soundbar The Mother of All Bars

By John Sciacca Editor’s Note: While not typically within the Mix purview for product reviews, consumer soundbars have made enormous leaps in quality in recent years, and are a leading force in bringing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X into the home. Sennheiser, through its AMBEO division, has put years of research into sound perception and 3D immersion technologies. So for this holiday season, buy yourself a gift!

T

here are essentially three kinds of soundbar customers: the person looking to improve the TV’s anemic audio; the person wanting better sound but not the complexity and components of an actual surround system; and the person who would love a true surround system but can’t install one for some reason.

It is this second and especially third group to whom the new Sennheiser SB01 AMBEO soundbar will primarily appeal. This bar is designed as a true surround system replacement in one chassis. No wireless rear speakers, no separate subwoofer; just a lot of drivers, amplification, and some sonic magic to create a fully immersive surround experience from a single bar.

I know. I’ve heard that promise before, too.

But I first experienced the AMBEO at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2018 where Sennheiser was demonstrating it in a packed room that had a constant line to get in. They promised true Dolby Atmos immersive audio from this single bar, and I remember them doing some A/B comparisons between the bar and a true 8.2-channel surround system said to cost in excess of $50,000. I left feeling the bar had shockingly held its own, and I immediately requested a review sample.

Unfortunately, the bar was not ready for production. However, the bar made a return at this year’s CES where it was officially launched as Sennheiser’s first foray into the home entertainment speaker category. “Developed,” said Stephane Hareau, Sennheiser’s global head of consumer products, “with the ambition to create one of the best soundbars on the market.”

It is not any hyperbole to say that the AMBEO bar is unlike any other bar you’ve ever seen. First off, it’s huge. In fact, let’s just get this out of the way up front — the AMBEO is so big that its size might be a deal killer for some right off the bat. At just shy of 50 inches, it’s wider than a 55-inch TV, and stands nearly half-a-foot tall, making it difficult to sit in front of a TV, and it sticks off the wall almost 8 inches if mounted. (And, surprisingly for such a premium-priced bar, the AMBEO does not include a wall bracket, rather Sennheiser offers one separately.)

Also, you know how some soundbars are so flimsy and light you wonder how there could be anything of value inside of them? Yeah.

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Not this. Pick this up (#ProTip: Don’t lift with your back!) and you’ll know it’s filled with real drivers and serious construction. At nearly 41 pounds, this weighs just slightly less than my 7x150-watt Marantz MM8807 theater amplifier!

That why I started calling it MOAB – Mother of All Bars.

Any doubt that Sennheiser expects this bar to have worldwide acceptance is erased when you see the included Quick Setup Guide, which is in 29 languages. This is the UN of setup guides and a record as far as I know. The far more comprehensive 55-page instruction manual (English only) is available for download.

The bar has a nice brushed aluminum exterior, with fronts and sides covered by a large grille, and perforated metal grille protecting the upfiring drivers on top. The grille is just transparent enough for you to see the nine front-mounted and two side-firing drivers, part of the bar’s 13-speaker array. There are some top-mounted buttons for basic control and a small but effective OLED display in front.

All connections are actually made on the bottom of the bar, but they are in a recess so they aren’t impacted if the bar sits on a shelf.

One nice bonus to the wiring being on the bottom is it makes it much easier to check, confirm, or add connections when the bar is wall mounted. The AMBEO has three 4K HDR (including Dolby Vision) capable HDMI inputs, along with Toslink optical digital, and RCA analog audio. The HDMI output features eARC, and an RCA pre-out is available for adding a wired subwoofer. Streaming is provided in the form of Google Chromecast and Bluetooth, with the bar connecting to the network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: Sennheiser PRODUCT: SB01 AMBEO Soundbar WEBSITE: www.sennheiser.com PROS: Incredible AMBEO immersive technology; serious bass without a sub; room calibration CONS: It’s huge; Sennheiser app a bit glitchy; no remote backlighting Sennheiser offers pretty specific recommendations for placing the AMBEO. First, the bar should be centered between the side walls, with the optimum distance between the bar and the side walls being between 1-5 meters. Second, you shouldn’t have any object that blocks or absorbs the sound between the bar and the side walls and ceiling of the room. Third, the bar should be placed at least 10 cm below the TV, and between 1-5 meters from the ceiling, which should be flat, not sloped.

Finally, the seating distance should be at least 2 meters from the bar.

Of course, most rooms likely won’t conform to this ideal, and I installed it in my bedroom, which I would score a 5 out of 10 for an “ideal” AMBEO-shaped room. Meaning, I think results could be even better than what I experienced.

Prior to using the bar for the first time, you are prompted to run the room calibration using the included microphone and stand. This is a pretty straight-forward process that involves connecting the mic to the bar’s front input, placing the mic at ear height, and running a series of test tones; a process that takes about five minutes and that is very effective.

Basic control is performed via the included IR remote, that, sadly, offers no backlighting. (It’s such a simple thing that makes such a difference.) The remote does give discrete access to the six different sound modes: Movie, Music, News, Sports, Neutral, and Night. Accessing additional features and configuration options is done via either the iOS or Android Sennheiser Smart Control app. With the app you can relabel inputs, adjust the brightness settings of the front panel display, tweak the acoustical settings, and more. I used the app quite a bit, but found it a bit finicky for connecting, often not “seeing” the bar when opening the app.

Sonically, the AMBEO bar is just flat out amazing. I know the specs say it will play down to 30 Hz, but actually hearing those six 4-inch long-throw bass drivers produce bass that is that startlingly deep and tight is another thing. One of my favorite bass test tracks is The Crystal Method’s “High Roller,” and the AMBEO delivered the big bass notes without any strain.

Music is great for checking if the processing is coloring or affecting the signal, and I felt the AMBEO’s width and height drivers coupled with the DSP and room correction produced a front image that is stable and uncolored while providing a ton of width and space. You can easily toggle the AMBEO effects on/off and I never once felt it sounded better off. Ditto with the effects of the room correction; when defeated, the soundstage just collapsed and felt thin.

Surround performance was equally impressive, with the bar

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breathing tons of life into Dolby Digital and DTS tracks by upmixing audio to deliver a far more immersive experience. I ran a couple of favorite scenes from my Kaleidescape through the bar, and I was continually amazed at how much height and width the bar produced. In U-571, depth charge splashes clearly came high up on the front wall, with explosions rattling overhead all around me. The opening scene from Master and Commander has the sounds of sails clearly flapping overhead along with creaks and groans from the ships and footsteps of people walking around. The “refueling the plane” scene from World War Z filled the room with a rainstorm and echoes far more impressively than a regular 5.1-channel system could do.

As good as the bar does with upmixing, it really shines when it comes to playing back true Dolby Atmos and DTS:X encoded content. And I also loved that that front OLED display clearly indicates Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, letting users know they are getting what they paid for. Pick your favorite demo scene and the AMBEO delivers all the excitement you’ve come to expect. Planes and helicopters soar overhead, explosions and fireworks go off all around you, vehicles race along the far sides of the room; AMBEO delivers it all.

The “It’s just an illusion” scene from Spider Man: Far From Home uses the height speakers to great effect with dialog that comes from all around overhead, and the AMBEO nails it. Another great demo is “The First Challenge” from Ready Player One. The scene opens with a firework that streaks up and explodes directly overhead, and is filled with cars driving, crashing, and mayhem swirling by and around in every direction. About the only possible room for improvement would be adding a sub or two to deliver truly subsonic bass performance, but most users likely won’t miss it.

For many, home theater’s Holy Grail is a single device that can deliver a truly immersive listening experience. Without a doubt, the AMBEO comes closest to replicating a discrete surround system experience than anything else I experienced.

There were many moments where sounds were clearly localizable in points all around the room and overhead. And this in a room that was nowhere close to the ideal. I’ve reviewed many soundbars; the AMBEO stands head-and-shoulders at the top of the pack, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. n

Classifieds ACOUSTIC PRODUCTS

Tech // back page blog Plug-In Interrupted; Working the Newberry Opera House Mike Levine: Mix Technology Editor, Studio

Steve La Cerra: Mix Technology Editor, Live

Plug-In Interrupted: I subscribe to the Slate Digital “All Access Pass,” a software subscription program where, in addition to the Slate Digital software, you get access to a selection of third-party plug-ins that Slate Digital licenses for use in the bundle. I’ve always been hesitant about software subscriptions because, although they certainly have some significant advantages, they also put you in a vulnerable position.

So about 10 days ago, I got an email that was sent out to every All-Access Pass subscriber. It said that Scuffham Amps/S-Gear, a third-party guitaramp-modeling plug-in that had long been included with the subscription, would no longer be available after the end of October. Slate Digital was apologetic in the email, even contrite. “We try our best to offer the greatest products, services and support. And when we screw up, it hurts.”

The email also said: “We strongly suggest that you print and/or freeze your S-Gear tracks in old projects.” Well, that’s a lot easier said than done.

I’m a guitarist, primarily, and most of my projects since I started with the Slate bundle have used S-Gear, which is an excellent plug-in. For me to search through everything I’ve worked on for the last year looking for instances where I used S-Gear and then render all those tracks would be a significant inconvenience and time suck.

Rather than having to deal with that nightmare, and because I don’t want to lose access to S-Gear, I bit the bullet and bought the plug-in.

I’m not bringing this up to bash Slate, I think they’re an excellent company that makes a lot of fine products. But the fact that every AllAccess Pass customer is losing access to S-Gear is a cautionary tale that shows one of the things that can go wrong with a software subscription.

Newberry Opera House: Eighteen eighty-one, United States. President James Garfield is assassinated. Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company. Billy the Kid escapes Lincoln County Jail in Mesilia, N.M. On October 26, the Clanton gang face off against the Earps in a gunfight at the OK Corral. At the same time, in Newberry, S.C., construction of the Newberry Opera House was completed at a cost of $30,000.

Fast forward to 2019. The Newberry Opera House is still in operation, though the shows are a little different these days. A restoration of the exterior was completed in 1994, and renovation of the interior began in 1996. An additional 10,000 square feet was added to the original building in order to create a full theatrical production facility. Total cost of the renovation was approximately $5.5 million.

This year the Newberry Opera House will host more than 150 shows, ranging from The Kingdom Choir to Once: The Broadway Musical to Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Blue Öyster Cult (gratuitous plug) to ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas. Amazing.

Capacity of the Newberry Opera House is 426—making for a very intimate space. “It’s a warm, solid room that resonates really well,” says Steve Windsor, House Audio Engineer. “There’s not a bad seat in the house.”

The house system includes Yamaha M7CL consoles at front of house and monitors, Worx Audio X3i-p powered line array for the mains, Worx Audio X1i-P line array for the balcony, Bose 203s for downstage front-fill and Danley TH115 subwoofers powered by QSC amplification. Installation was handled by Sid Gattis of Gattis Pro Audio, Lexington S.C. The mix position can be a little tricky because it’s dark compared to the center of the main floor. If your mix is bright at the FOH console, you’ll take the heads off people in rows F through H. Be sure you take a stroll around the room during soundcheck.

Product of the Month — Sonnox Oxford Drum Gate. Sonnox Oxford plug-ins have a reputation for quality, so when I learned about the Oxford Drum Gate at AES, I had pretty high expectations. Oxford Drum Gate is divided into three sections: Detection, Decay and Leveller. In the former, an excellent real-time display shows you the waveforms, giving you a visual target for graphically setting the Threshold, which is represented by a horizontal line that you move vertically. The Decay section lets you set a threshold and a Resonant Decay frequency range. The final section, Leveller, lets you even out the levels of the transients going to the output, should you want to. It also allows you to specify level targets for both Loud and Soft hits and can be used to control the dynamics of your track and add consistency.

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M I X | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 | mi x o n l i n e.co m

Product of the Month — Clair Brothers C10-TrueFit Line Array Loudspeaker. The latest addition to the C-Series Loudspeakers line, the C10-TrueFit from Clair Brothers, is a mid-sized, passive line array element featuring a custom horizontal waveguide.

The C10-TrueFit employs dual 10-inch drivers and TrueFit Technology to optimize the array for a specific venue, reducing the amount of energy wasted on spill toward walls and extending the stereo image across a larger audience area. This is achieved by inputting venue-specific parameters into Clair software for the creation of a smoothly formed waveguide with continuously variable geometry. The finished waveguides are CNC-milled in-house from Baltic Birch wood. n

9000