David Broza’s En Casa Limon ★ Live By Phone ★ Here Comes MIDI 2.0 ★ Classic Tracks: ‘White Punks on Dope’ August 2020 \\ mixonline.com \\ $6.99
>REVIEWED PRESONUS QUANTUM 2626 AUDIO INTERFACE NUGEN AUDIO SEQ-S LINEAR PHASE EQ
MUSIC PRODUCTION • LIVE SOUND • SOUND FOR PICTURE
A Console Reborn The Story of Sound Techniques
Shooter Jennings’ Truth Producing Tanya Tucker or Playing With Marilyn Manson, It’s All About Honesty
08.20 Contents
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Volume 44, Number 8
MUSIC
TECHNOLOGY
10 David Broza Lets
36 New Products: Mixing
His Guitar Speak on En Casa Limón BY BARBARA SCHULTZ
12 Classic Tracks:
“White Punks on Dope,” The Tubes BY MATT HURWITZ
18 Tour Update:
Live Streaming From the Artist’s Perspective BY LILY MOAYERI
FEATURES 22 On the Cover: Shooter Jennings —Artist/Producer Living in the Moment, Searching for Truth
Consoles—Studio and Live
38 Review: PreSonus
Quantum 2626 Audio Interface BY MIKE LEVINE
BY SARAH JONES
40 Review: Nugen
26 Richard Devine: The Art of Manipulating Machines in a Modular World
Audio SEQ-S Linear Phase Equalizer Plug-In
BY SARAH JONES
BY BARRY RUDOLPH
42 Back Page Blog: The Trade Show Conundrum; The Arts Get No Respect BY MIKE LEVINE AND STEVE LA CERRA
On the Cover: Artist/producer Shooter Jennings has forged his own path in the music industry, with a penchant for rock, a heart in country and an overriding need for truth in self. Photo: Scott Dudelson.
30 Resurrection of a Console: Danny White, Geoff Frost and the Legend of Sound Techniques
DEPARTMENTS 6 From the Editor:
BY STEVE HARVEY
Trade Show Quandary
Mix, Volume 44, Number 8 (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.
8 Current: InfoComm Best of Show— Special Edition
34 MIDI 2.0: Supercharged Improvements, But It Might Take Awhile BY MIKE LEVINE
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Vol. 44 No. 8
August 2020
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Current From the Editor
The Trade Show Quandary February seems like such a long time ago. But way back then, three weeks before San Francisco announced a citywide shutdown on March 16 and two weeks before the NBA canceled its season, the Game Developers Conference sent out an announcement that its 2020 event would be postponed. Exhibitors and attendees were to stay tuned for further updates. Then on March 20, NAB canceled its April show in Las Vegas. Avixa/ InfoComm followed on March 30 with the cancellation of its June event, also scheduled for Las Vegas. Then Summer NAMM in July. Then IBC, CEDIA and our own Mix Presents Sound for Film & Television in September. Then AES New York in October… So far, it’s been a rolling, month-by-month series of cancellations, typically about six months ahead of the particular event. (As of this writing, NAMM 2021 was officially still planning for a January in-person event in Anaheim, with some restrictions in place. That, of course, could change any day.) Each of these events, in the meantime, has either already held or already announced some type of virtual equivalent. Everyone reading this, no doubt, has taken part in one or more. NAB and InfoComm had to figure out how to do it pretty quickly, hustling to gather assets. AES has had more time to plan and has announced a monthlong, online alternative, integrating live virtual sessions and multimedia presentations and a host of other features. At Mix, we’re in the middle of converting our Sound for Film & Television event to two half-day sessions, with a combination of virtual-live and pre-recorded program. It’s not easy to put it all together, as I can attest. More than ever, it requires committed support from partners, and attendees, often in new and unforeseen ways. The temporary loss of trade shows is merely a tiny puddle in magnitude compared to the oceans of losses suffered these past six months by the entertainment industry at large, the live sound and event industry in particular, and by so, so, so many talented artists and audio professionals, with no clear end in sight. But to each segment of the many and varied entertainment technology industries, these trade shows are their own big deal. Their own market’s massive loss. And for each, it means loss of the main source of annual revenue for the organization. Still, it’s more than that. Trade shows have become a central component in the yearly cycle of life within each and every technology industry, like Bonnaroo or Coachella to music fans. To some attendees they represent an odd sort of pilgrimage (How many people do you know who say, “This is my 34th straight NAMM!”). To manufacturers,
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they become the place to launch new technologies, to meet customers, to gather leads. To researchers, they become a gathering of the best academic minds in the industry, an exchange of theories that leads to innovation years down the road. To everyone, they provide a chance to network, to renew old friendships and to have way-too-expensive dinners on the company credit card. Virtual events by themselves are not the answer; we all know that. So many people are spending so much time on Zoom sessions these days that it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to spend three uninterrupted, 14-hour days in front of their computer. Things change. Models change. Industries change. There will be physical, in-person trade shows in the not-too-distant future. That’s a safe bet. But I think it’s also safe to say that live streaming, remote access and virtual interactions will be a part of the future of each and every trade show moving forward. Cataclysmic changes have always forced rapid and innovative technological adaptations. Already, in just a few short months, the platforms that host these virtual events have become much more sophisticated and feature-laden. They offer possibilities for access and connection that could never take place over the course of three days on a convention center floor. Yes, the social interaction is largely absent; but, there are a lot of other cool opportunities coming. And they will continue to get cooler. Believe me, I would love to be in New York City in mid-October for the AES Convention, walking crosstown, then down 11th Avenue to Javits Center. Then a dinner downtown with Troy Germano, a visit to Ann Mincieli at Jungle City Studios, a chance to catch up with John Storyk. This was going to be my first year at Fab Dupont’s famous rooftop bash! Oh, well. None of that is going to happen. But I will tune in online each day for the month of October. In the meantime, provided everybody keeps wearing a mask, washing hands and taking smart precautions, I’ll see you all next year on one of my annual pilgrimages Stay safe!
Tom Kenny Editor
Current // news & notes
InfoComm Best of Show —Special Edition
O
n the opening day of InfoComm Connect in mid-June, this year’s virtual equivalent of the year’s top North American trade show for the audio-visual installation industry, winners were announced for a Special Edition of the InfoComm Best of Show Awards, presented by Sound & Video Contractor, AV Technology, Digital Signage, Rental & Staging Systems, Residential Systems, Pro Sound
News, Mix, Tech & Learning, and Government Video. These awards are intended to honor outstanding products launched during these unprecedented times. Winners were made by a panel of experts and selected from submissions made by professional audio manufacturers exhibiting at InfoComm Connect 2020.
AKG K361-BT and K371-BT Headphones
AKG K361-BT and K371-BT headphones are ideal for mobile artists, engineers, podcasters and beatmakers who want the flexibility of wired or wireless connectivity combined with studioquality sound. The K361-BT and K371-BT feature an over-ear, closed-back design that is precision-engineered to reproduce natural, balanced audio in exceptional detail, so users can make more confident decisions when mixing and editing. With a stunning frequency response—15 Hz to 28 kHz in the K361-BT and 5 Hz to 40 kHz in the K371-BT—they deliver the deepest bass and highest highs in their class. Both models offer the convenience of switchable Bluetooth wireless and wired connectivity, with a built-in microphone for two-way Bluetooth communication. Plush, ergonomic earcups cradle the listener’s ears to provide hours of uninterrupted, comfortable enjoyment.
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SSL SiX Desktop Mixer
To the casual observer SiX looks like any other compact desktop mixer. Look a little closer and like all SSL consoles, SiX reveals a carefully considered feature set that is driven by an obsessive desire for total flexibility, to encompass every creative eventuality. It may be small but SiX is a classic SSL design. It carries the DNA of 40 years of true expertise in creative studio workflow. Listen to SiX and you will experience the impeccable sonic performance that is the hallmark of every SSL console. It is powerful and intuitive. Inspired and rewarding. SiX is a condensed professional console for use in the studio, live sound in post-production, on stage, and for podcasting. SiX offers big console sound and an impressive set of utility features in a format that is small enough to stick in a bag a go wherever you need it. SiX is stunning value; it offers two recording channels with SuperAnalogueTM mic pres, two band EQ, an essential one knob version of the classic SSL Channel Compressor, a new two-band Channel EQ, inserts and 100mm faders. There is a two-knob version of the legendary G-Series Bus Compressor on the main mix bus and the unique Listen Mic Compressor on the Talkback. In mixdown mode it is a very capable twelve channel summing system that offers analogue detail, depth and width to your mixes.
AKG Podcaster Essentials Kit
The AKG Podcaster Essentials kit includes everything needed for professional quality audio in a USB-based system for the home studio. Whether the application is podcasting, home studio recording, gaming, teleworking or distance learning this reasonably priced package will be a hit. The kit includes the AKG Lyra USB microphone, AKG K371 headphones, Ableton Live10 Lite audio production software, free Berklee Online introductory recording course, and all interconnecting cables.
Music PHOTO: Lorenz Schmidle
David Broza’s En Casa Limón Singer/Songwriter Lets His Guitar Speak By Barbara Schultz
W
ith roots in Israel, Spain and the UK, singer/songwriter David Broza has been fusing musical traditions and genres for decades. He’s recorded 14 albums in three languages, breaking down barriers along the way: His landmark album East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem (produced by Steve Earle) brought
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Israeli and Palestinian artists together as a united voice for peace. Broza’s latest album, however, is his only record where he never sings. En Casa Limón (S-Curve) is his first instrumental release, beautifully fusing flamenco, Mediterranean, and Latin jazz sounds, and revealing more of his versatility as a guitar player. The idea for Broza to make an instrumental album came from the founder and CEO of the
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S-Curve label, Steve Greenberg. “He called me out of the blue and said, ‘Do you have enough instrumental pieces for an album?’” Broza recalls. “I said, ‘No, I don’t have any.’ He said, ‘Well, I think it’s time that you put out a guitar album.’ “I’m thinking, I’m not a guitarist; I’m a singer/ songwriter, I’m an accompanist,” Broza adds. “So this particular album is very different for me. I had to develop my sense of melody to a different degree so that when I’m playing something on
PHOTO: Adam Lubroth
Above: David Broza (left) with producer Javier Limón in the control room of Casa Limón studio (Madrid) Right: Broza surrounded by guitars in Javier Limón’s tracking room.
mix with the analog preamps and EQs that I like to use if you are not a really good engineer. This is a guy who can open a console and fix it if it’s broken.” “We used an overdubbing recording style; each person played alone in the main tracking room of the studio,” Estébanez explains. “Only the electric bass [by Dany Noel] was recorded with an Avalon U5 DI in the control room.” The engineer recorded Broza using a Neumann U67 microphone placed near the bridge and a KM184 pointed at the upper bout; those went through Neve 1083 vintage preamps into Pro Tools. Estébanez offers a couple more details about the tracking process: “The cajón [by Israel Suarez ‘Piraña,’ who played a variety of percussion instruments] was recorded with a Neumann U87; harmonica was captured with a Shure SM58 and an Avalon M5 DI.” “The main instruments are the guitar and bass; the other instruments are there to support the melodies and let the guitar breathe sometimes,” says Limón. “It makes everything easier on your ears. I would say it’s like water in a meal: Drink a little bit of water between bites of your main meal.” A few other instruments on En Casa Limón—
PHOTO: Adam Lubroth
the guitar, it’s strong enough to capture my interest and to captivate an audience. “Something I didn’t know about being an instrumentalist is the difficult emotional duress it takes,” he continues. “When you sing, your vocal cords are working with your body, your muscles are working and adrenaline kicks in. This was really new for me—letting the instrument speak for me—and it really affected my approach to the guitar. When I play my songs with a band, my right and left have very different intensities; my left hand is almost like a sledgehammer, hitting those chords, and my right hand is like a shadow—very light. But this music is a different animal. Everything is lighter.” That all translated to the fact that writing the songs for this album took awhile; not only did Broza have to work and think differently to arrive at a collection of instrumental pieces that he felt happy to record, but then a mishap cost him months of work. His songwriting process includes capturing composition ideas to his phone, but a few months in, his cell needed a repair, and when he got it fixed, the songs were gone. “I didn’t remember half of those pieces, and of course I was also touring and traveling all over the world, but I tried to concentrate on these pieces,” Broza says. “It took me a long time to reconstruct them!” Broza eventually re-created his beautiful pieces, and then he asked Spanish producer Javier Limón to produce the new album in Casa Limón studio in Madrid. “David is probably the most important singer/ songwriter in Israel,” Limón says. “When he told me he was thinking about doing an album playing guitar without singing, it was a little like if Bob Dylan said that, and I was surprised. But he is a great soloist, and when I heard his songs, I could tell they were amazing—full of his life experience, and he had so many beautiful ideas and hooks.” The sound of Broza’s record comes from those hard-won songs, and from the guitars Broza played on the album, including a handcrafted Spanish instrument built by luthiers Vincente Carrillo in the town of Cuenca and Manuel Contreras in Madrid. The album also includes support from a handful of musicians selected by Limón. Most of the tracks were engineered by Aurelio Estébanez. “In my opinion, Aurelio is the best engineer in Spain,” Limón says. “He is young—in his 30s— but he is old-school in a technical way. He knows the digital stuff, of course, but it’s very hard to
including recorder by Tali Rubenstein and some violin by Layth Sidiq—were recorded in Boston, where Javier Limón is now teaching courses in Flamenco, composition, songwriting in Spanish, and studio production at the Berklee College of Music; the producer has a smaller personal studio there. But, given the album title, Broza clearly recognizes the sound of Casa Limón as the sound of the record. “I first recorded in Casa Limón back in 2002 on Parking Completo,” he says. “Javier’s studio is on the outskirts of Madrid, in almost a bluecollar neighborhood. It’s a relatively small room, and what’s nice about it is, there are so many stories coming out of that room because Javier has worked with such amazing artists, but it is also very low-key and relaxed. You never feel like you’re in a corporate place. You feel like you’re at home because Javier is so welcoming. The album has a lot to do with his presence and the way he made recording an intimate experience.” ■
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Music // classic tracks The Tubes on stage, circa 1976.
“White Punks On Dope” The Tubes’ Anthemic, Zany, Crowd Favorite By Matt Hurwitz There are a few bands that have been fortunate to have created true rock and roll anthems. The Tubes are one of them. The first single from their very first album, The Tubes, was the satirical and outlandish “White Punks On Dope,” released on A&M in June 1975. The band had emerged following the conjoining of two Phoenix-area bands, The Red White and Blues Band, featuring drummer Prairie Prince, guitarist Roger Steen, bassist David Killingsworth, and their roadie, a former hippie cowboy named Fee Waybill. The other band, The Beans, had guitarist Bill Spooner, bassist Rick Anderson, keyboardist Vince Welnick and drummer Bob McIntosh. Prince moved his band which had changed its name to “Arizon,” to the Bay Area in 1969 so that he and Cotten could attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Spooner’s band followed in summer 1970, moving in with their pals at a small two-bedroom condemned bungalow (dubbed “The Noriega Hilton”)
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at 48th Avenue and Noriega Street in the city’s Sunset District. Arizon spent four months playing at the Expo 70 World’s Fair in Japan, then upon their return fired Killingsworth and were without a bass player. After an unfruitful search, Spooner and the bands’ managers suggested merging the two groups into an “Arizona superband,” still performing as The Beans. Waybill, who had begun covering for Killingsworth’s lead vocals, was brought to the front mic. “They said, ‘You sing so damn loud, why don’t you sing lead then?!” he recalls. Cotten, meanwhile, had purchased one of the first ARP 2600 synthesizers, initially to add sound effects to film soundtracks at school. But soon he began sitting near the console at the band’s live shows, adding effects to various songs and processing Spooner’s guitars via a patch from the stage. The band quickly became known for its theatricality, creating characters and their own costumes. “I suggested we let Fee sing a few songs—we could dress him up,” Spooner remembers. After a show in which Waybill dressed as Carmen Miranda, complete with fresh fruit on his head, belting
out “Brazil,” Spooner recalls, “We went, ‘This is a thing! This might work!’ So we kept it.” One night in late 1972, Spooner and Evans were attending a party at Prince’s apartment when Evans told the guitarist about an article he had read about recording artists coming to San Francisco and recording with The Jefferson Airplane or The Dead. “He said, ‘They smoked a lot a pot and had ashtrays full of cocaine. And it was just a bunch of white punks on dope,’” Spooner recalls. “Then he said, ‘That’s a great song title, don’t you think? Let’s sit down and write some lyrics for it.’ The apartment was so packed, the only place we could find was underneath Prairie’s kitchen table.” The next morning, they presented their unusual lyrics to the band, in the back bedroom at the Noriega Hilton, where their manager had his office. “We woke up and Bill was all excited—they had stayed up too late and come up with this idea, but they didn’t have any music,” Steen remembers. “It had a shocking title, so we all went, ‘Oh… what?’” Steen had what would become the chorus melody as a riff, “kind of a blues tune, ‘Don’t let my paycheck down,’” he sings to the tune of “We’re white punks on dope.” The band rehearsed the song, as they typically did, in the basement of the house, and began playing it not long after, the song finding its long, jammy extension as time went on. “We’re in a band house, playing all day every day,” Steen says. “We had tons of parts trying to find a place for.” The “We’re white punks…” answer phrase soon became an anthemic chant from fans at shows. The character delivering the song was one called “Rod Planet,” a cross between Rod Stewart and Robert Plant. “I wanted to do the quintessential cross-dressing rock star drug addict,” Waybill explains. “So I had this big wig, effeminate clothing and big shoes.” Rod evolved further on September 5, 1973, the first night of a three-night stand at The Matrix opening up for The New York Dolls. The Dolls showed up for soundcheck in full regalia— hair, makeup, women’s clothing, and BIG platform shoes. “I thought, ‘God, this is so pretentious,’” he says, “Well, I’ve gotta take the piss out of them.” So Waybill went out and got four giant tomato juice cans, emptied the juice, and taped the cans to his boots with gaffer tape, covered it all with
glue and sparkles. You know, 10-inch platform shoes! One of the Dolls, he thinks, also slipped him a Quaalude before he went on. “I was completely whacked!” Rod Planet thus became Quay Lewd, Feebill eventually adding other pieces to his spandex costume— including an 8-inch rubber dildo, hanging out from his crotch. The band, by the way, had, a few months before, been forced to find a new name. “We were in that same back room, and somebody brought in an album by some group from the Northeast, called Beans,” released the previous year, says Steen. Adds Prince, “It had a cartoon on the front cover of a guy eating beans, until they were coming out his ears.” So the fellas went through the laborious process of trying to find a name, writing on a blackboard names like “The Radarmen From Uranus” and “The Comic Ozzies,” among others. Cotten had suggested “Tubes, Rods and Bulbs” (based on parts of the eye), which was thrown into a hat, along with 100 others. Cotten’s apparently had been treated with mayonnaise – a favorite of house dog The Husky Baby Sandwich, who then pulled it out of the hat. The Tubes it was.
PHOTO: Courtesy of the Tubes
Everyone around the console in Record Plant Studios.
RECORDING “PUNKS” The Tubes had been sending out demos for a couple of years, typically with the same results. “They’d send them back,” says Spooner, “and if they’d had emojis back then, it would be a guy scratching his head: ‘What the fuck is this? Are they a show band? A punk band?’” A video demo, made with the help of choreographer Kenny Ortega, was made, drawing the attention of A & M Records A & R man Kip Cohen, who scouted the band at a gig in San Francisco. Not long after inviting Prince and Cotten to come paint the outside wall of A & M’s large studio building with flying records in Fall 1974, they were signed to the label. “I think it was a case of, “Okay, you
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take ‘em, because you need a weirdo band,” Spooner notes. Producer Al Kooper had wrapped up work on the latest Lynyrd Skynyrd album, Nuthin’ Fancy, in early 1975, and, looking for his next project, queried a friend, Dorene Lauer, who worked with Cohen at A & M, to see if there were any acts in need of a producer. Kooper had actually heard one of The Tubes’ demos a few years earlier and loved it. Kooper flew to San Francisco to see meet with the band at a rehearsal stage at S.I.R., where they played him a selection of songs from their stage act. “I knew nothing about what that was like,” he says. “I based it solely on their music, which I just thought was incredibly original. People were going to have to hear this and want to go see them, without knowing what they were going to see. And when I watched them rehearse, I was floored.” The producer selected eight songs— including “White Punks on Dope.” Kooper returned to L.A., the band coming down in early March 1975. They then began additional rehearsals and rundowns with Kooper at The Record Plant, where the album was to be recorded, practicing in the studio’s then-unfinished Studio C. The first thing Kooper addressed was getting the band members to learn their parts. “We would play him a song, and he would say, ‘Okay now just the drums and bass play the song,’ and we couldn’t do that,” Spooner recalls. “It was the first time we had realized everyone had to individually learn their The live shows sometimes turned part—and play it the same way, take into performance art. after take. So that’s what I learned from Al Kooper.” Kooper had been a regular visitor to both Record Plants, and he had been to the Los Angeles studio ever since attending opening day in 1969. To engineer this project, he turned to studio veteran Lee Kiefer, who started there in 1970, earning $40/week as a janitor, eventually creating a training program for new engineers. Early in 1975, Kooper was visiting the studio’s Sausalito facility, where Kiefer was at work on another project, and asked for Kiefer’s help with something. “He had come from Atlanta, where he had recorded Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Nuthin’ Fancy album, that he had engineered,” the engineer recalls. “It sounded as big around as a peanut—it sounded absolutely terrible.” While there, Kooper also played Kiefer The Tubes’ demo, and he was immediately smitten. “I was really excited about The Tubes. I definitely wanted to do that album. And Al said, ‘Well, here, if you can fix this [the Skynyrd album], you can do The Tubes.” Kiefer did both. “Lee was incredibly competent,” says Kooper. “He was able to do anything I wanted.” The sessions began Monday March 17, 1975, with Don Wood assisting, recording into the middle of the following week, March 26, tracking four songs: “Mondo Bondage,” “Space Baby,” “What Do You Want From Life,” and the album opener, “Up From the Deep.” There was an 11-day break,
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before they returned to work, during which Kooper finally got to see the band perform live, at a surprise showing at The Palomino Club in North Hollywood. The band, just for laughs, played one of their favorites, Marty Robbins’s “El Paso,” in which Waybill would feign being the victim of a gunshot, squirting fake blood all over the audience, while leaning up on one arm on the floor, continuing to sing. “We actually won!” he laughs. “They gave us a little plaque.” They returned on Monday April 7 for another 10 days’ work, recording the remaining four songs, including “White Punks on Dope,” whose basic track was recorded on April 8. The band was set up in the smaller Studio B, perfect for the tight sound Kooper was looking for. [They couldn’t have used the larger Studio A anyway; The Eagles were busy recording One of These Nights with Szymcyk.] Prince’s Rogers drum kit, complete with two kick drums, two rack toms and two floor toms, and snare, was placed in the isolation booth at the back of the narrow, long live room. “I bought that kit when I was 16, at a big music store on Central Avenue in Phoenix, from money I earned mowing lawns,” the drummer says. “Bill Spooner’s son still owns it; I sold it to him in the 1980s. And he became a great drummer, with that same kit.” Kiefer miked the set with E-V RE20s on the kicks, a Shure SM56 and, suspended by its cord, a tiny Sony ECM-50 lavalier on the snare, and Sennheiser 421s for overheads, pointed crossways from each other, to help cancel the remaining drum sound. But the reason Prince’s drums have such a powerful sound on this album is one additional trick. “I needed that ‘shotgun’ sound out of them,” the engineer explains. To accomplish that, he removed the heads from the kicks and toms, and suspended small radio speakers across the openings. “So when he hit them, I could enhance those with EQ to make the strike louder. And that gave them a bigger, expanded bottom and a louder strike, which made the drums sound huge.” Spooner and Steen’s 40W Fender Super Reverb amps were set up, midway back, in two of the right-hand studio walls’ sound trap coves, which were stuffed with absorbent material, for isolation. Spooner played his Gibson Flying V, purchased, he says, at Lederman Music in Phoenix in 1969. The amps were miked with Shure SM56s or 57s, as well as recorded direct. “I need to be able to control the clarity of the guitar, which I can do using the direct signal,” Kiefer explains. He also used some SHS (sample-and-hold signal) noise gates, made by a friend in San Diego, who loaned them to Kiefer to try out. “I’d place those right between the mic and the console,” so there’s no chance to pick up any noise in the line. And when the guitars weren’t playing, those channels were not turned down, they were off.” Welnick played a smaller Yamaha grand piano, located between Prince and the guitarists, blanketed off and miked with Neumann U47s. And
Anderson’s Fender Jazz bass was played through an Ampeg B15 bass amp, and recorded both direct and miked with an RE20, with it’s low-pass rolloff on, to get rid of any hum. The band tracked “White Punks,” as they did the whole album, live, with Kooper mainly focused on nailing the bass and drums. “That, I wanted perfect,” he says, “and the rest could be overdubbed, if they wanted to replace any parts. I’d make sure that was correct, and then we’d all listen, and I’d say, ‘Okay, anybody got any grief with their parts?’” Either Steen or Waybill would typically sing a guide vocal, but, of course, for “White Punks,” it was the latter. And when it came time for tracking his final vocal, during several vocal overdub days, he did it in a
single take, Kiefer recalling him moving about, essentially performing the vocal as he would on stage. “He didn’t have a mic technique—it was a performing technique,” the engineer recalls. “He would actually perform the song as he was singing. And there was no problem with him being off-axis. His voice was so loud and clear, with a high SPL—he could sing right through the side of a battleship if he had to. He is just a magician with his voice. He’s amazing.” As for the single take, Waybill says, “I just started off, and I never stopped. I remember saying, ‘Okay, that’s it. I’m done. I’ll never beat that.’” Cotten also overdubbed his synth parts, recorded in the control room, utilizing both his ARP 2600, as well as another larger system he had developed from parts of another 2600. “Anything musical or chromatic, that was either played or invented by Al, or even Vince,” he explains. “Anything that was an effect or dramatic sound effects or processing, that was me.” He and Kiefer worked together to create the sounds of rockets “crucifying Quay,” the engineer notes. “I worked hard to give those a power and a clarity, to make sure they have the effect of being right in your face.
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It’s a trick of clarity; you have to get rid of all the noise, without losing any of the dynamic of the instrument.” For the loud trademark chant of “WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE!” sung in response to Waybill’s voicing of the phrase, in the chorus in the voluminous buildup later in the song, *everybody* was drafted in – including Glenn Frey and a few of his friends from across the hall. “I remember thinking, ‘What a ridiculous and wonderful song this was,’” Prince recalls, “and how much Glenn couldn’t wait to sing on it.” Though Steen also notes, “I remember they were kinda not fully thinking that this was the coolest thing they’d ever done. But they were into it, they came in for a few minutes and did it, and that was that.” When it came time to mix at the end of April/early May, after some orchestral overdubs Bill Spooner on the by Dominic Frontiere, Kiefer made use of a flying V guitar, with Roger Steen. technique that had been passed down to him from Phil Spector, via Gary Kellgren—cascading tape echo. A vocal, say, was played back and recorded onto an Ampex 440 4-track machine, onto the first track, and then its return, via mults at the patch bay, would send the delay return both to a channel on the desk and onto the second track on the machine, and so on, eventually using all four tracks. “And you can pick any or all of four of those channels of return to apply to the mix,” Kiefer explains, to pan as desired. In addition, he utilized ADR Panscan to make perfect pan bounces, producing unique and impactful tape echo effects. “White Punks on Dope” finishes the album. But Kooper added a couple of finishing touches, including effects sounds by Cotten, a stereo toilet flush (“That’s both the men’s and the women’s heads,” says Kiefer), followed by a raucous laugh, and then Japanese voice-over, lifted from a TV show taped at Arizon’s appearance at the Expo 70 World’s Fair five years earlier. The laugh, though, is taken from one of many recordings Prince would make of his father, who was beloved by the whole band. “He liked to drink gin and sing songs and tell stories,” the drummer recounts. “So we would just sit down, and we’d record him. I played those for Al, and he said, ‘We gotta put that at the end of the record,’ a big laugh following the toilet flush, as if something naughty was being disposed of. So what was the big joke which produced the laugh? “It was the unforgettable ‘piece of pie’ joke.” Whatever that was. . . The end product, says Kooper, “was definitely the most complicated record of any record I ever did.” Kiefer agrees. “’White Punks’ is, I think, my greatest engineering feat, especially in the day I did it.” To this day, The Tubes still, 45 years later, close their show with the song. And they have to. “It’s amazing,” says Waybill. “And it’s still the song where I can’t wait to go out and do it, and hear people sing ‘WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE!’ They all go crazy when we play it, and they wait for it. There’s something anthemic about it, and we knew it when we started doing it. I said, ‘We’re gonna play this till the day we die.’ And we pretty much have.” ■
Live Tori Kelly, in June of this year, and in her Delta H Design home studio, which serves as the set for her Instagram Live show, QuaranTEA With Tori.
Live By Phone The Artist’s Perspective on Summer 2020 By Lily Moayeri
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Tori Kelly
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PHOTO: Benjo Arwas
o matter what level of success a musical artist has attained, the struggle in the current scenario is similar. Until musicians can perform in a face-to-face setting again, virtual interactions through social media—Instagram in particular—have become one of the only options to connect with fans and bring awareness to their work. At the time of lockdown, Billboard charttopper and multiple Grammy Award-winning
artist Tori Kelly was starting a tour for her third album, 2019’s Inspired by True Events. That soon ended. Donna Missal, who was on an arena tour of Europe, supporting the likes of Lewis Capaldi, was rushed home to the U.S. ahead the release of her second album, Lighter. Second-generation guitarist and songwriter Nile Marr had all his activities stalled: finishing recording an album and cultivating a grassroots following in his hometown of Manchester, England. Marr has a comedic and natural persona on social media and is topping the coveted 10K mark on Instagram followers. He has a monthly Q&A while he’s getting his hair dyed, a communal feeling to his posts, an observational slant to his stories, and is good at building momentum. By contrast, prior to the shutdown, Missal, who has more than 80K followers on Instagram, had never used social media to bond
PHOTO: Elizabeth Miranda
IN NEED OF OUTLETS “Trying to be an artist is difficult, especially when your outlet is playing live and there is no outlet for you,” Marr adds. “You can’t play gigs, a lot of people aren’t going to make records, and maybe you want to wait it out. I can’t do that. If I’m going to tell people I’m a musician, I need to act like I’m a musician every day.” Marr has released the three-song EP Still Hearts during quarantine, plus the single “Are You Happy Now?” He has more singles lined up over the course of the next few months, leading up to an album at the end of the year. He has hosted a Q&A with a longtime music friend from his car. He has been a guest on three podcasts: Gigwise, Underground England and Groupie Therapy. He has done an Instagram Live performance for famed guitar shop, Chicago Music Exchange, for Jimmy’s, a gastropub with live music in Manchester, and for United We Stream Greater Manchester curated by Night & Day, where Marr had a residency. All but the last have been streamed from his home. “I want there to be a way to do livestreams with better audio quality,” says Marr. “I don’t like singing into my phone. I recognize people like it and aren’t bothered by it. But if I’ve got a new song and I’m going to play it on the livestream, I want it to sound brilliant. People are already looking at their phones more than they would normally because they’re inside. I’m asking someone to sit with their phone for 25 minutes as I play into it. I want to sound good. I struggle with the fact that I could hook up a microphone and make it sound better, but I don’t know how to do that yet.” Missal sometimes has to work around her three housemates, letting them know in advance when her livestreams are scheduled and asking them to stay off the wi-fi, turn off their Bluetooth and remain quiet, giving her the living room, which has favorable lighting and whose vaulted ceilings give her the best acoustics. Even so, Missal is not able to present her songs without assistance. She plays enough piano and guitar to write songs, but not enough to perform them. She asked her band members to send through their parts, which she has running as backing tracks off one laptop through a Bluetooth speaker. She has a second laptop with lyrics and her notes about the livestream, which
Donna Missal
PHOTO: Erica Hernandez
with fans as such, and certainly not as a performance space. “I always thought of these platforms as a place to give information,” Missal says. “They’re not built for creating and sharing experiences. For my last album, This Time, I was in all these different cities performing the record, doing a ton of promo. I was going to radio stations, doing live performances for late night TV. I promoted it in a live, present way. I never did anything on social media.” Kelly, on the other hand, got her start on YouTube as a teenager and is very comfortable on social media platforms, where she has 3 million-plus followers on Instagram (and YouTube). Two weeks into the lockdown, Kelly started “QuaranTEA with Tori,” a daily series on Instagram Live. It was named by her fans after her “Tea with Tori” pre-show meetand-greets. Kelly is fun and casual in the series, where she sometimes performs on her own and sometimes beings in a few famous friends, such as Demi Lovato and Alessia Cara. “I only did four shows of my tour before it got cut off, so it felt really natural to transition to performing online because I was already in performing mode, singing every day,” says Kelly, who hosts QuaranTEA with Tori out of her acoustically treated home studio. “In a way, it felt like going back to my roots. I didn’t want to overthink it or make it this big production.”
Donna Missal at home in the studio; she admits that it hasn’t been easy to adjust to social media as her primary performance outlet.
quite often has a charity aspect to it. She has her phone propped up for the actual performance, creating a command center of sorts. This is the setup she had for a Vevo livestream performance for Consequence of Sound. “I haven’t spent my time as an artist learning self-reliance,” she admits. “I had to reevaluate my standards, understanding that it wasn’t going to be like a live show, it wasn’t going to sound great, but it was going to be the best that I could do. I had to get over that mental hurdle in order to even agree to participate.
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“I sing so loudly, and the phone does this crazy throttling thing where if you sing too loud, it is not conducive,” she continues. “It automatically realizes the level is peaking and pulls the volume back suddenly. Luckily, the audience on the receiving end, they don’t really care. The only thing I found people having a hard time with is if your connection isn’t strong enough and you’re glitching. It’s really hard to watch that. It can ruin the performance.” Kelly also had to improve her wi-fi signal, as neither her home nor her phone service provider were powerful enough. Her intention, however, is to keep her streams as stripped down as possible to go back to her early YouTube days. Kelly has performed on Good Morning
viewer, Marr needed a solid week of preparation in order to pull it off. “I had not been singing loudly, outwardly, and I had not been singing enough,” he says. “You have to be gigging to get back that vocal ability you’re used to. I had to learn how to play acoustic, which I love, but don’t often do. I’m used to going to new tunings really quickly live when I’m on electric because I don’t have a tech. On acoustic, it’s completely different and there’s no applause break, there’s just people waiting on the stream.” Even though he was playing to the bare bones staff at United We Stream, Marr still prefers that to performing to his phone. “What people don’t realize,” he says, “even just playing on the
Musician/composer Nile Marr has been active on social media, and he’s been busy professionally, from solo on stage to scoring movies.
America from her home and participated in Instagram Live interviews with E! News and Access Hollywood, as well as Human to Human 2020, a Facebook Live donation event. For these she has had to up her game with a ring light and a Sony C800G microphone and pop screen, while running her audio off Apple Logic Pro. ON STAGE, ALONE IN THE HOUSE For his United We Stream performance, Marr was asked to come to a large theater in the Greater Manchester area. He came on his own armed with his guitars. Ahead of time, disinfected microphones, color-coded per artist, were positioned on stage. His performance and interview were filmed professionally with less than a handful of people in the cavernous space. As low-key as this experience might seem to the
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phone in my house, I still treat that like a gig. I get worked up before. I’ve got the adrenaline rush, but I don’t get the release. I get nervous playing into my phone. I want people to like it more than when I’m at a gig. Playing through my phone, I want people to feel like bringing me into their home and deciding to look at their phone for 30 minutes without changing apps, without doing anything. I want them to feel like it was worth it.” Marr is not alone in feeling this way. Missal, who after the first couple of shows in a tour hits her groove and is comfortable and confident, has gone back to square one with livestream performances. She says: “I’ve never been more nervous. I get sweats. My face gets flushed. I feel intense anxiety. Once you’ve done everything that you can to set the livestream up, you have to
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still go through the process of performing into, essentially, a mirror. Sometimes to get the notes out, you just have to look like a crazy person, and that’s got to be okay.” “Performing is a big circle of energy coming out of the performer to the audience and then the audience gives the energy back to the performer,” she continues. “When you’re performing into your phone, watching this little marker of who’s there and who’s leaving and who’s coming, the comments are scrolling, it’s not a cyclical experience. It’s no longer about passing and sharing of energy, it’s about giving yourself to something and you don’t get anything back.” Nevertheless, it has been a productive time for Missal, who tapped her record label to purchase Logic and a Universal Audio Apollo Twin, and is teaching herself to use those from what she has absorbed working in studios and via YouTube tutorials. Kelly, who received Logic as a Christmas present when she was 15 and learned how to record herself years ago, has written and recorded an EP, Solitude, which sonically is more in touch with her origins as an artist and is more reflective of where she is now than where she was at the time of Inspired by True Events. Marr has completed the soundtrack for the upcoming Ron Howard film, Hillbilly Elegy, with Hans Zimmer and David Fleming. And he has returned to writing songs on acoustic guitar, which is how he got started as a songwriter. He is finding that with his mind unoccupied by soundtrack responsibilities and live gigs, ideas are free-flowing and fast. Says Marr, “For bigger artists, this has been a massive hit. For an artist at my level, it might slow me down, but people have gotten hyperfocused and close to the artist because you can’t access them anywhere else. I like the live interaction experience.” “I feel like I’ve really reconnected with fans,” Kelly says. “That’s been awesome. Whatever coming out of quarantine looks like, I want to keep that connection, even if it means spontaneously going on Instagram Live and doing an impromptu jam session, or hopping on chatting with people. I can credit my whole start to posting YouTube videos and going on livestreams, talking with fans and playing very small coffee shops and meeting every single fan afterwards. That is super important to me. I can’t see myself straying from that connection.” ■
The Mix Interview:
Shooter Jennings Artist/Producer Living in the Moment, Searching for Truth By Sarah Jones
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on’t call Shooter Jennings an outlaw. The son of country legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, raised on tour buses in the company of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson, it seemed that he was destined for a career smashing the boundaries of country and rock in pursuit of his own musical truth. Yet Jennings, an ’80s kid at heart, is less interested in the superficial trappings of the modern outlaw movement than its spirit of embracing honesty, however that may manifest. A musician since the age of 5, he left Nashville in his late teens for Los Angeles, releasing two EPs with his Southern rock band Stargunn before focusing on solo work. Since 1996, Jennings has released eight studio albums and a mountain of live albums, singles and EPs. A hellraising rock and roller, he also spends time at home programming sequencers and crooning busted ballads; in his discography, traditional country records coexist with dystopian concept albums and disco collaborations—from his 2005 scorcher Put the ‘O’ Back in Country; to 2016’s Countach (For Giorgio), a synthy, vocoder-laden tribute to Italian electro-pioneer Giorgio Moroder; to 2018’s Shooter, a return to his rowdy country-rock roots, coproduced and cowritten by longtime friend and collaborator Dave Cobb. In recent years, Jennings has focused more on producing, collaborating with Jamey Johnson, Wanda Jackson and Billy Ray Cyrus, and helming albums by alt-country artists Jamie Wyatt, American Aquarium and Hellbound Glory. Since coproducing Brandi Carlile’s landmark By the Way I Forgive You in 2018 with Cobb, Jennings has been immersed in wall-to-wall high-profile rock and country projects, producing Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan’s solo effort, Tenderness, and collaborating with Marilyn Manson on his 11th studio album, slated for release later this year. Last year, Jennings, together with Carlile, produced Tanya Tucker’s 25th album, While I’m Livin’. The record—Tucker’s first in 17 years—has been celebrated as one of her finest, drawing comparisons to the late-career work of Cash and Kristofferson and earning Grammys for Best Country Album and Best Country Song and Americana Award nominations for Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Artist of the Year. Mix sat down with Jennings to talk about evolving musical mindsets, funky vintage gear and the impact he hopes to make as an artist and producer.
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PHOTO: Jimmy Fontaine
How are you weathering sheltering in place? I got lucky; I worked on a bunch of records last year, and they’ve all been coming out during this time. I was working on the Marilyn Manson record in January and February, finishing the mixing and the mastering, and then this thing hit. Then there was a record that Margo Price produced with my mom, Jessi Colter, that I’ve been mixing. Luckily, with my home rig I’ve been able to work the whole way through.
Where do you like to record? I use three studios a lot. I use these two engineers all the time, David Spreng and Mark Rains. There’s a studio in Echo Park called Station House. The Duff McKagan record, the White Buffalo record, the Jamie Wyatt
PHOTO: Derrek Kupish
What’s your home studio setup like? It’s pretty unique. I have a Pro Tools HD setup, and I’ve got a bunch of really cool outboard gear. I’m kind of eccentric in the sense that I like to pick up odd versions of things. For instance, everybody uses the UREI 1176 Rev F; I’ve got a Rev H, which is what ELO used in the early ’80s. And I’ve got an LA-2A and an Eventide H910, which is essential in my opinion. I do it all in the box, but I have one of those little Artist Mix [control surfaces] that Avid makes, and then I’ve got a Lexicon 224, one of the original 1978 units that was actually Neil Young’s personal one. It has his notes on the back—settings and things—so that’s really fun. I’ve got a bunch of great Spectra 1964 pre’s and a couple of dual Chandler TG2s.When we were mixing the Manson record, [engineer] Spike Stent turned me on to a piece of gear from Overstayer called the Dual Imperial Channel. It’s two channels and has a pre, limiter, EQ, it’s got lots of cool gain functions, and it’s all modular. I use that a lot when mixing to run things through, especially drums, like sends, when you want to keep the bite and the low end but you can kind of carve out EQs in a different way. I have a Shadow Hills preamp, I’ve got the Chandler RS124 compressor and Focusrite Red preamp. And I just ordered a Binson Echorec 3, which I’m very excited about. That’s my whole home rig. It’s really built for mixing. I record a lot of projects that I’ve done the basics for in my home studio and then take them somewhere to do live drums and things like that.
At Sunset Sound, from left, Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker and Shooter Jennings.
record and the Hellbound Glory record were all recorded at Station House. And Mark engineered the Tanya Tucker record. I’ve recorded probably 20 records in that place. The American Aquarium record was cut with David Spreng at Dave’s Room, which was Dave Bianca’s old studio. David Spreng’s studio is deep in the Valley; it’s a little larger, so it’s got more hang room and isolation. It’s got tons of amps and gear and an amazing rack, everything is prewired, it’s all top-of-the-line. Then, Sunset Sound, if the budget is there, it’s my preferred place. I did Tanya’s record there and a record for The Mastersons there in the Purple Rain room. Looking back, when did you first become aware of the recording side of music? Well, my dad, when I was very little, he would go in the studio; I loved being there. I remember very early memories of Chips Moman’s studio on the east side of Nashville; he had an arcade and a poker machine, and I remember going there at night thinking this was the coolest place I had ever seen. When I was 13 or 14, I got into Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral and was so blown away that this one dude had done all of that. I was a computer nerd from a very young age. I played drums first, and then piano. Guitar was last, kind of out of necessity. I’m still not a great guitar player. But I realized, hey, I can play keyboards and I can run a computer and do all that. So I got this software, Studio Vision Pro, and it was what Trent Reznor used. I would save up money as I got a little older. I would go to Sam’s Music in Nashville and buy
little drum machine brains, and I had a cool Korg keyboard that one of my dad’s keyboard players wasn’t using anymore. So I started piecing a home studio together and put together a band. I would program all the instruments and I had two guys who played guitar. My parents had put together a college fund, but I was like, “I would rather not go to college and [instead] get a starter Pro Tools kit.” I spent two years messing with that and recording a lot. And then I was like, I’m moving to L.A., I’m going to be in a band and I’m gonna bring all this shit with me. It wasn’t until I met Dave Cobb that I started recording again; he flipped me back into that world and became somebody who taught me a lot about gear. When did you start making records for other people? That was really a natural progression that started when Dave Cobb moved to Nashville, around 2010 or 2011. I produced Marilyn records, I produced a record with Jason Baldwin and a band called Fifth on the Floor. I did records with a couple of other bands along the way and started getting my own legs. Once I got to a place where people wanted me to do their records, I realized that, as an artist, I only got to do a record a year, maybe two in three years. To do a record every month for a different artist, to jump into someone else’s band and their concept, apply it through my lens and then jump to another one, it became very apparent that this is what I enjoy the most. I love my own stuff, but playing on the road and doing shows, that’s just time that I can’t be in the studio and be making up new stuff.
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It’s interesting when those lines blur. When you’re playing on records that you produce, do you feel like you’re moving in and out of a producer role? When they happen, they’re as important as anything I’ve ever done as an artist. When you work with people, you bring the A riffs and the A ideas all of the time, and it doesn’t live in the same house in the same way, the artist side and the producer side. But I’m using the same brain. It’s fulfilling to do a record like American Aquarium’s where I didn’t play anything on it and was just behind the console, or one with Brandi Carlile when I’m playing piano the whole time, or with Marilyn Manson where I’m writing all of the music. They all become my favorite project in the moment. And they all become like The NeverEnding Story: In that movie, this kid goes into the bookstore and the dude’s got a book and says, “This book is not safe, you can’t be this book.” I feel like that guy, like that’s my role. I’m so glad you brought up The NeverEnding Story. I heard that you and Brandi Carlile bonded over that movie. I love that movie! We still connect over that. I asked her to sing that theme song on the Giorgio Moroder tribute album. Right after that, she asked me to do By The Way, I Forgive You with Dave Cobb. Then about a year later Manson came, then Duff came, and Tanya came and Jamie and Hellbound Glory, and White Buffalo, they all just rolled in at once. By The Way, I Forgive You was such a watershed moment. Did things change after that?
Always a producer and musician, Shooter Jennings with artist Jaime Wyatt in the control room at Station House studios.
Yes, but not immediately. It wasn’t until about halfway through the year that people started paying attention to it. But when the Grammy thing happened, it was feeling like being in training for something for your whole life, then something happens and it’s like, “Are you ready?” I’m like, “Yes, I’ll try to be ready.” And Chariots of Fire is blazing in the background. While I’m Living is Tanya Tucker’s first album in 17 years. How did you know the time was right, and how did you help her overcome her reluctance to record? Well, a lot of things happened in the process. The Brandi record came out in the beginning of 2018, and I had produced the Pinball record for Hellbound Glory, a band that I love and is on my label. Hellbound did “Delta Dawn” on their record, and a friend had an idea that we should
Producer Shooter Jennings behind the board at Station House studios.
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do a seven-inch for Record Store Day that on one side has Hellbound Glory doing “Delta Dawn” and then get Tanya Tucker to do one of their songs called “You Better Hope You Die Young” on the B-side. I knew my mom and Tanya were in touch recently, so I reached out and I got Tanya to do it, with some reluctance. She was so cool, and I was just blown away by the power of her voice. A couple of days later, she was leaving, and I said, “I would love to produce a whole record for you.” What was her reaction? She said yes; I don’t think she thought much of it. A couple of days later, I flew to New York to play with Brandi on Colbert. When I got there, two things happened: In the hallway going up to soundcheck, Greg Nagel, who runs LCS, Brandi’s label, says, “Duff McKagan’s got a new record, would you be interested in producing it?” Then I went to the stage and Brandi was there, and I said, “Hey, I just recorded Tanya Tucker; she sounds awesome,” and she was like, “OMG! I love her!” I told her, “You should do it with me!” Immediately, Brandi and I started cooking up this thing without Tanya being involved yet, even though she knew I wanted it to happen. So I wrote her and told her about Brandi; she didn’t even know who Brandi was. Brandi and I were over here, cooking up this vision for the record; Tanya and The Twins, her writing collective, were writing songs. I was picking songs and finding old songs, and we kept trying to present it to Tanya and we couldn’t even get
it to her. We had to get a CD physically to her, and then she said, “I don’t like them, I don’t think they’re good.” We were supposed to record on January 7, 2019, and on Christmas Eve Tanya called and told me she didn’t think it was going to happen. She was halfway to L.A., but luckily her bus driver was sick or had a gig, and my bus driver happened to be driving for her. So I write to my bus driver and tell him, “If she turns the bus around, you tell me right away so I can at least call her and stop this from happening.”
Did he talk about his rock inspirations? My dad was obsessed with Buddy Holly, who had guided and mentored him. He was so into the sound of the drums, and blending that in country music. Richie Albright, who was his drummer, kind of invented that style of drumming for country. The two of them invented the sound that became the sound of country in the ’70s, and now people knock that sound like that’s old, traditional outlaw country. That was not traditional, that was way out of the box and created a new view for people.
It kind of sounds like you kidnapped her. A little! The night before, she came to my house and had a drink, and I said, “Please, just trust me. If you hate it, you can just throw it away.” The next day she met Brandi, and even in the studio she didn’t know what was going to come out of it. I think she didn’t have both feet in it all the way. That’s when we thought, “Let’s go ahead and mix it, and we’re going to play it for her in front of a small group of people so she could see their reaction.” We immediately mixed the record with Trina Shoemaker, who is an amazing mixer. We played that for Tanya in front of label people. When we did that, that was when she got it. That was Brandi’s idea, and it was brilliant because it showed her how other people would react when they heard it, and it got her to finally understand that she had done something really good. Also, this was the first record she had done since her father had died; he was always at the helm of her career. So when we did this, we were validating her and honing this record in with a lot of care.
I want to end with a quote from Brandi Carlile. She said, “I knew I wanted to work with Shooter the first time we discussed our hopes that our generation and peers would turn their heels on the dangers of disappearing down a path of retro-mania. Shooter knows that right now matters, that this moment is profound enough. What would Woody Guthrie say now? He’d probably look and sound a lot like Shooter Jennings.” That’s a very kind quote. I know what she means: She read an article where I was just spouting off, where I was saying that you run into these country artists who are dressing like it’s 1967, they’re dressing like gunslingers with long beards, and I’m like, “You were playing Pokémon six years ago!” That was my whole point: Being true to who you are is very hard to do, especially when you’re trying to create something. But, if you can do it, well, it’s the most unique thing you can do. It’s a long game, it’s not a short game. That long game, it’s going to come out that people are changed by you because you said, “It’s okay to be me.” Because at the end of the day, we don’t have to be anybody but ourselves around each other. When we make music, it’s the same way, you know what I mean? ■
It seems like you connect with artists who want to express themselves in a vulnerable or confessional way, or who want to make an album with a social conscience. What do you think is behind that? I don’t know, maybe it’s that the type of friendships that I’ve made have been with people that have something to say. I care about social issues, but I think it tends to be that I live in my childhood a little bit, and there’s some honesty about that. I’m attracted to people who share that. All of them are people who felt that the sky is the limit, and I’m that way, too. Do you feel like fans are more open today to nontraditional sounds in country or rock? Is it easier to get them to follow along when you make, say, a Giorgio Moroder tribute record? Yes, there were times, like the Moroder record and also my Black Ribbons record, that when I did it, they were not ready. I’m not saying this to toot my own horn, but Black Ribbons was definitely Dave Cobb’s and my creation. Then you look 10 years down the line and Sturgill did the Sound and Fury thing; that definitely helped people get in the mindset for things like that. I feel we were alone doing it. Just like Hank III was alone crossing metal and country and the satanic thing. Nobody was ready for that. But when he did, it led to bands and artists really expanding the concept of country. Look at when David Bowie did Ziggy Stardust, or even weirder, like he popped in China Girl the way he did, or like on [Iggy Pop’s] The Idiot, which Bowie produced. That stuff was out there at the time, and now people knock that stuff all the time, and say, “That was inspirational.” People like Pink Floyd, they redefined the boundaries of what music was. They were inspired by Syd Barrett, who was their predecessor. Guys like my dad, people said, “That’s really traditional country,” but when he came out, that was way rock for country.
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Richard Devine The Art of Manipulating Machines in a Modular World
Richard Devine in Studio A of his modular synth-based production facility. PHOTO: Austin Donohue
By Sarah Jones
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ichard Devine is in his element when he’s on the edge. For more than 20 years, the musician, producer and sound designer has stretched the ever-elastic boundaries of electronic music, releasing eight albums on Warp, Planet-mu, and Schematic Records, remixing the likes of Aphex Twin and Mike Patton, coding FFTs in Max/MSP and SuperCollider in his downtime. He contributed to the Doom 4 soundtrack, programmed sounds for Trent Reznor, and developed patches for Native Instruments, Moog and Korg. But Devine’s imprint goes far beyond music: He’s created soundscapes for apps, gaming platforms, and user interfaces for electronic devices, and he’s done sound design work for Nike, Coca-Cola, Lexus, HBO, Nestle and McDonald’s. When he’s not in his Atlanta studio, Devine is often on the West Coast developing immersive sound environments for tech giants like Google Apple, Sony, and Microsoft. That’s by day. At night, he reconnects with his own music, which lately focuses on the unpredictability and immediacy of modular synthesis, machine learning and generative composition. It’s a literal “hands on” approach that defined his most recent album, Sort\Lave (Timesig), a mutating collage of glitchy rhythms and richly textured soundscapes, crafted on a mountain of carefully curated Eurorack modules.
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The last time we talked, you were finishing up Sort\Lave. You said you wanted to get back to analog and you were sculpting things by hand, never touching a mouse. I did. I mixed Sort\Lave entirely using outboard analog compressors, EQs, pretty much everything that I would normally use as plug-ins; I just decided, “I’m going to go ahead and do everything with hardware just to see what happens.” It would have been easier in the computer because you have ability to use instant recall, obviously. But for this record I wanted to do everything with my hands and my ears and not really be thinking about music in terms of interacting with a timeline and a screen with the mouse and a computer keyboard. In my humble opinion, I feel like this is my best recording to date because it’s completely mixed with analog hardware. This record didn’t use any samplers at all. Every hi-hat, percussion sound or synth sound was generated with multiple modular systems chained together, sharing the same clock and tempo. I have gone full circle, as I originally started making music with analog synthesizers in the early ’90s. When did you decide you wanted to take a new approach? About two years ago I decided to take a few hours every single night after putting the kids to bed to focus on creating patches and music. I’d catalog and record, set up my systems here at the
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studio, and write a piece of music. I was trying to develop a system that would allow me to write very quickly so I could come up the ideas really fast, or have things set up where I could have some spontaneity; something could accidentally happen that sparks a whole entire composition, so I could drive the rhythmic sequences, the melodies, some of the sound effects, some of the textures and timbres very quickly. For about eight months I was figuring out which modules I was going to use for all of the rhythmic sequencing. I wanted to be able to program the data of the rhythmic sequences, and then take that data and repurpose it and play around with it live. Then I could run it through probability-based filters where I could either remove bits of that data or add other bits of data in real time. With all of these stored sequences, I could then alter them and mutate them, or do other strange things to generate new musical ideas. Are you applying these processes to other projects? For my new album that I’m working on now, I’m going back into the computer again. I want to use the computer to explore machine-learning based applications. I’m really interested in this idea of developing a machine-learning algorithm that learns things that you like to do, like sequencing in certain time signatures or at certain tempos, and then gives you different outcomes. I was inspired by the work of David Cope,
Wow, that’s pretty wild. We haven’t even dug into your rig. Well, for this last album I was mainly focusing on using analog outboard gear for the mixing and
Richard Devine’s nest of cabling and connections, which he calls his modular station.
mastering. A funny thing happened with a few pieces of hardware, like the Manley Vari-Mu and Massive Passive. I actually opened up the Universal Audio plug-in versions, and I would re-create the preset setting and then print out recall sheets. Those would be my presets for the real hardware. I did that with the API 2500 Bus Compressor and the Bax EQ. All of my settings, I could recall for each song. I also did that with the Pultec EQs and my API 550b EQ. It made things really fun. Now there is a much better solution called PatchRat App, which is a studio management app for iPad that can map out your entire signal chain, plus it has a huge database of recall interfaces for almost every manufacturer. Luckily, all the gear that I have here in hardware, I also have as plug-ins. I could reference back and forth, but also recall things very quickly. I wanted a record that had infinite detail but was also engulfed in this beautiful, warm analog, giant,
PHOTO: Richard Devine
an American author, composer, scientist and former professor of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involves artificial intelligence and music; he writes programs and algorithms that can analyze existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. I was able to get hold of his books The Algorithmic Composer and Experiments in Musical Intelligence; in them, he discusses basic principles of analysis, pattern matching, object orientation and natural language process. Experiments in Musical Intelligence includes a CD-ROM that contains the documentation for the program SARA, Simple Analytic Recombinant Algorithm, which produces new compositions in the style of the music in its database. David’s work has been around since the early ’90s, so this idea is nothing new, but it’s an interesting area to explore; not many people have tried utilizing this approach much with modern music. I think it will be interesting to create an algorithm that you can reward if it outputs something that you like, and then it stores all of these data streams of music in a database. Think of these music data streams as sounds, gestures, and sequences or arrangements and patterns. Then you can pull bits and pieces from that database to create entirely new compositions.
thick field of sound. I realized that you just get so much more depth and weight using the analog stuff than you do with plug-ins. I use this box called the HG-2 by Black Box that uses custom input transformers to feed two paths: The main signal path travels through a 6U8A pentode tube stage that drives into the triode stage that follows, resulting in everything from subtle harmonics to full-on saturation. I ended up using it every single track, and it just really brings things to life. How did taking this approach inform your mixing process? I think that by going more simple, I made the mixing process a lot easier. Usually when I would do stuff in the computer I’d have like 64 tracks and just crazy amounts of stuff happening. For this record, I really stripped things down. On average there are 16 to 24 tracks, and I was using Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ and 2-Bus LT analog summing mixers; I wasn’t even using a console. The only role the computer played was the end capture device. To capture material on the way in, I used two nw2s::o16 Eurorack modules; the ::o16 is a 16-channel, balanced line driver interface with 6dB of gain reduction in just a 10hp module. I would then go from the ::o16s into two Universal Audio Apollo 16s. From there I’d take all of the stems and mix them back through the Dangerous Music system. PHOTO: Merlin Ettore
Devine at work, from floor to ceiling.
Would you say you’re inviting chaos into your work? Yeah, I have always been a fan of using randomness, chaos, and probability in my work. I would
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Devine regularly performs live, putting into practice the spontaneous workflow he develops in the studio.
PHOTO: Merlin Ettore
love to explore using the computer for analyzing musical data, and then using machine learning, AI-driven algorithms, then somehow integrating that with my modular systems, integrating the two worlds and see what happens; see if I can get that spontaneity of the instant sort, of the physical interaction you get with the modular. That’s the one thing that the computer has difficulty doing; you just don’t have that immediate feedback that you get when you’re working with a piece of hardware like a real physical instrument. With a computer you can get similar outcomes by playing samples and things, but the modular gives you so much more. You’re making music with just electricity and control voltages that fluctuate and move around between these cables. It’s such a fascinating way to make music with one of the rawest elements. With a modular system it will never, ever play the same way twice, no matter how many times you perform the patch. There are so many variables that can shift the patch in any direction, like the temperature of the room, drifting of analog
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oscillators, unstable circuits. It’s like working with a living organism that is constantly moving and mutating. There are thousands of interactions in the little environment of nested cables that you’ve created. One knob twist can shift the whole thing in a completely different direction, and I love that. You just ride this super-fine line of losing it all. You’ve been exploring modulars since you were a kid; how did those early experiments inform the way you work now? I’ve been using these systems since high school. The first modular system I had was the ARP 2600. My 2600 was a Version 1.0 from 1971 with the 3604P keyboard; I bought it from a local pawn shop. I was buying a lot of the early portable modular systems that were made in the ’60s and ’70s, like the EML 101 and the EMS Synthi from England. On my early records I used a lot of the esoteric smaller, portable, semimodular systems available at the time. These are the machines I learned to patch and make music on in the early ’90s. I knew that format going into the modernday Eurorack modular synthesizers, which have
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become hugely popular over the past five to seven years. I was right at the beginning with that. Eight or nine years ago I started buying and building up two starter systems by Dieter Doepfer, a German Eurorack manufacturer. When you’re working with modular synths, unpredictability is the name of the game. Does AI bring a different sort of unpredictability? What’s interesting about modular is, you’ll come up with really cool stuff, but then you lose it. Even if you take patch notes and get everything perfectly, you’d still never get it exactly right. There are so many variables in putting together large, complex patches, like when I was writing the album. I wanted a machine-learning algorithm that would be able to analyze and record some of these things that would happen so I could recall and reuse that data and put it back into the modular systems. Otherwise, it would be gone forever as soon as I pulled the patch cables. I now have modules that can play back exactly millisecondper-millisecond if I want to. You could do it with harmonies, too.
Do you find that you’re shifting between macro and micro perspectives a lot? Do you have to let go of certain preconceived notions? Yeah, exactly. That’s the whole reason I got into creating music on the modular again—the idea that you might be able to get what you have in your head 100 percent, and you might not get it at all. Like you said, you can work it in micro levels, these infinite, crazy little microscopic worlds of sound. Usually with the computer I can get 90 percent of what I have in my head, but that’s kind of boring. There are no variables that will shift you off course. There’s no random, spontaneous thing that’ll explode right in front of you and make you go, “Oh, I didn’t even think to do that.” For all of this complexity, that concept of letting go is a lot like live recording, the days before multitrack, that feeling of, “This is what I have,
and I’m going to get some happy accidents and go with it.” That’s totally it. We got so far away from that with digital recording. Sure, with bands, you’re trying to get the perfect take, but you don’t get that random spontaneity that you do with the modular system. I just don’t know any other instrument in the world—and I have a lot of strange ones that I’ve collected all over the world—that has that feedback. You’re basically creating this environment. You decide the rules of
modular is just perfect for that because it can create such alien, strange sounds and timbres. You can work with custom tunings, and scales. Everything is just completely organic, raw, and hands on. I use a lot of plug-ins and other pieces of digital effects units. I’m not a purist in any way when it comes to my sound design. I use any sort of microphone: Ambisonic, binaural, stereo, mono, it doesn’t matter. Or any kind of mic preamp, recorder, or instrument. There is no right or wrong way to go about. I will use tanker truck for
PHOTO: Ricahrd Devine
What do you want to manipulate through machine learning? I want to develop an engine that can analyze every component of what I create spontaneously here with my system, and then take that data, repurpose it to create more music, and then improve that data, and even mutate it to generate other springboards of ideas. Then it’d just keep building from there. It took me almost a year to develop the system to where I can almost compose in real time, set up a couple of variables, set up a couple of modules, start patching, and things start happening. Then I’m composing, and I’m writing in real time and performing; I’m creating a track on the fly. I’ve been experimenting with Max/MSP Version 8. During my visits to Google headquarters, I was introduced to Doug Eck, a principal scientist at Google working on Magenta, which is a research project exploring the role of machine learning in the process of creating art and music. Doug’s focus is developing new deep-learning and reinforcement-learning algorithms for generating songs, images, drawings and other materials. Doug has inspired me to think about how I could use AI to help me to take ideas, reincarnate them, and then feed them back into my system. Then tripping the algorithms, in a way, just seeing what happens if I skew things or feed it all this nonsense, and then mix it up with all these things that I like. What kind of music would it create; what would I create, with all my favorite stuff jumbled up in this soup of craziness?
Richard Devine’s synth corner.
how that environment is going to react, and then you’re steering this ship of chaos and it becomes alive. It’s like an electrical organism that’s moving in the wires for this one moment in time. You have to record this crazy, alien creature that’s living in these cables before it’s gone. How do you apply these processes to sound design? I use the modulars for creating layers very quickly. They generate lots of great textures that help me with sound design, especially with gestures, like low-impact sounds. My sound effects get used in games and trailers, so a lot of risers, tensionbuilders, things that create unsettling feelings, the
my percussion sounds or the lid of a garbage can for a snare drum. Are you incorporating machine learning into shows? Not yet. I won't be getting into that until later in the year. Right now I'm recording and developing the system that'll analyze what I'll do. Then it’ll be figuring out how I'll synchronize everything to take all that data and feed it back into my system here.. ■ Sarah Jones is a writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s a regular contributor to Mix, Live Design, and grammy.com.
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Resurrection
of a Console Danny White, Geoff Frost and the Legend of Sound Techniques By Steve Harvey
W
A STUDIO AND A CONSOLE The sonic character of the recordings produced through the late ‘60s at Frost and Wood’s studio, which they named Sound Techniques, earned such a reputation that other London studios began clamoring for their own A Range desks.
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Frost set up a workshop upstairs and began to hand-build custom consoles for the likes of De Lane Lea Kingsway and Trident Studios, while Wood ran the studio below. When the red light went on in the workshop Frost and crew would set down tools until the end of the take. It wasn’t long before Tutti Camarata at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood heard about the Sound Techniques A Range and ordered one to enable his facility to work in the new 8-track format. Installed in April 1967, the desk was the first British-designed mixing desk ever sold in the U.S., according to an August 1968 article in International Broadcast Engineer magazine. Jac Holzman ordered the second U.S.-bound Sound Techniques A Range for Elektra Sound Recorders in West Hollywood in 1968. Elektra’s desk was almost identical to Trident’s, which was installed around the same time. But several years later, rather than buy a third Sound Techniques A Range, Trident Studios—where some of those classic tracks and albums were produced—decided to build their own console. Confusingly, they also called it the A Range. Later, Sound Techniques also introduced a simpler desk, the System 12, which they manufactured in Mildenhall, England. The desk was a particular hit with reggae studios in Jamaica. The Rolling Stones bought one for Kingston’s Dynamic Sounds Studio for their Goats Head Soup sessions; Paul Simon also used it to record “Mother and Child Reunion.” The famed Kingston facility Randy’s Studio 17 also installed a System 12. Sound Techniques’ studio and manufacturing ceased operations in 1974 after the Chelsea building lease ran out. Olympic Studios acquired
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PHOTO: Courtesy of Danny White
hat significant piece of audio equipment is common to “Hey, Jude,” several tracks off the White Album and a slew of career-defining LPs from the likes of David Bowie, Queen, Elton John, The Doors, Deep Purple, Genesis, The Rolling Stones and Nick Drake? While you think about that, let me tell you a story. In late 1964, Geoff Frost and John Wood, two staff engineers working at Levy's Sound Studio in London, decided to quit and open their own recording studio after the giant U.S. label CBS acquired the company. Both still in their 20s, they scraped together what money they could, found a space in a former 19th-century dairy near King’s Road in Chelsea and got to work. Having only a limited budget, they spent wisely, buying various high-end mics and outboard processors, but electing to build much of the rest, including the electronics for the Ampex tape decks they had acquired and a mixing console of their own design. That console, which they named the A Range, is what ties together those tracks by The Beatles and albums such as Hunky Dory, Sheer Heart Attack, Madman Across the Water, Morrison Hotel, Fireball, Nursery Cryme and so many others, which were all tracked or mixed, or both, through the desk. Of course, you say, the Trident A Range. Well, no, not that A Range.
Above: Detail of the famed Ernst Turner meters, incorporated into the new Sound Techniques ZR console.
the facility, running it until the early ‘80s. In all, Sound Techniques built just over a dozen A Range consoles. No complete functioning desks still exist, but two were broken down, and the input modules can still be found here and there. The upshot is that the Sound Techniques name has largely been forgotten. Indeed, engineer and producer Ken Scott, who worked with The Beatles, Bowie and so many others on the desk, told an interviewer a couple of years ago, “The most amazing array of albums were done through a Sound Techniques board, and no one knows it.”
Left: The beautiful new Sound Techniques console installed at Tweed Recording Audio Production School in Athens, Ga., in late 2019.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Danny White
Above: The original Sound Techniques console at Elektra Sound Recorders, West Hollywood. It was the second purchased by a U.S. studio.
Well, now the Sound Techniques mixing console is back in production, and not as a 500 Series module or a 19-inch rack unit— although the latter is also being manufactured— but as a custom-built desk, known as the ZR. The modern-day reproduction incorporates updated electronics that improve the operational efficiency, maintenance and product longevity while faithfully replicating the sonic characteristics of the original. What’s more, says Danny White, who acquired the company with his partners in 2015, “It looks very much like the original desks
that would have been built in the 1960s.” The aesthetic similarity is due in no small part to the desk’s classic Painton quadrant faders and Ernst Turner meters; the company acquired both brands and is remanufacturing the components. THE NEW-VINTAGE SOUND TECHNIQUES White, who has established Sound Techniques about 75 miles south of Los Angeles, was once a touring musician with a studio—Formula One, featuring one of Trident Studios’ Trident A Range desks—in Phoenix, Ariz. He later owned and operated 16 Ton Studio on Nashville’s
Music Row, home to RCA B’s famed 1971 API and the prototype Dymaxion console, built in collaboration with Steve Firlotte and Ian Gardiner, now partners in Tree Audio. “My passion behind Sound Techniques revolves around the magic that the English were able to create in the 1960s and ‘70s,” says White. Seeing the writing on the wall for Music Row as developers started moving in, White was getting ready to leave town when he heard that Frost was selling a recording console. “That turned into him wanting to sell the company and have it with a person who would rebuild it and bring it back,” he recalls. “Geoff and I got together in late 2014, and we ended up buying the company. Everything was in a 17th-century carriage house on Geoff’s estate in Norwich, England. We had a great week together, packed it into a shipping container, put it on a boat in Liverpool and shipped it through the Panama Canal to Long Beach in California. We had the original designs and blueprints and tons of company history. We had all we needed, including the original input and output transformers, to rebuild the Sound Techniques module the way it was.” White has designed the chassis and mechanical components of the new Sound Techniques ZR and builds the consoles in California. “But the design of this console, with regard to the electronics, is 100 percent English; we stayed true to the English heritage and to the original design,” he says. To that end, White enlisted veteran audio electronics designers Gareth Connor—with whom he had previously worked, restoring the Manor Mobile Helios board—and Graham Milnes, who set up the Sound Techniques Skunk Works at their homes in the north of England. Connor and Milnes each have decades of experience in audio product development, working for Soundcraft, Focusrite, AMS Neve, Calrec Audio and through their own companies. Additionally, Neil McCombie, whose background includes 25 years with Soundtracs and AMS Neve and as an independent contractor, has brought his technical services expertise to bear on the new venture. Basically, the ZR is an 8-bus, inline monitoring console with fader swap, six mono aux sends, two foldback sends with pan and eight mono/four stereo groups. But the crux of the classic Sound
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THE GUTS OF A DESK Connor started working on the ZR circuit design in early 2018, calling in Milnes for his inductor and transformer knowledge. “There’s nothing like having a close friend and really top designer having an extra eye over what has already been done,” says Connor. “Without Graham’s involvement, the console would not be as good as it is.” One of Milnes’ first tasks was to reverse engineer and replicate the Sound Techniques console’s original transformers. “We ascertained that the core material of the output transformer was 50 percent nickel laminate, and we found the gauge of the wire,” says Milnes. “We were able to ascertain all the parameters—the turns ratios, impedances, gain through the transformer— from the original transformers. And by doing comparative tests between the old and the new we got virtually identical results; we were very pleased with that.” Like the original desk’s channel strip, the new ZR has a nine-position switch for matching input impedance through a combination of 1.5k-, 600- or 60-ohm transformer tap selections, each with three level settings: 7 dB or 15 dB of attenuation, or out of circuit. “It’s quite unique,” says Milnes. “And it’s 100 percent original.” The input transformer is followed by a discrete amplifier with a line output transformer, a circuit known as the 3035 in Frost’s original design. “The transformer was a faithful reproduction,” says Milnes. “The line transformers have dual primaries, so it’s a class A, discrete, dual-drive circuit.” The original circuit has been slightly tweaked to balance up the power supply requirements and improve the input headroom, he adds. There is one 3035 between the input and the equalizer section and another following the EQ, both feeding an insert point. “To keep the essence of the original product we chose to leave the transformers in circuit all the time, even if
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PHOTO: Bill Gubbins
Techniques character is in the input module, specifically the transformer-balanced, variable impedance microphone amplifier, inductorbased EQ (thoughtfully expanded beyond the limited original A Range design to meet modern expectations) and the dual class A transformer drive. Beyond those fundamentals, choices such as input channel count, metalwork finish, wood trim, automation and other options, including a fully customized or even remote center section, can be supplied to order.
Above: This photo of Frank Zappa at Sunset Sound Recorders in 1969, at the first Sound Techniques console in the U.S., originally appeared on the front page of the Arts section of the L.A. Times.
“We were able to ascertain all the parameters from the original transformers. And by doing comparative tests between the old and the new we got virtually identical results; we were very pleased with that." — Graham Milnes the insert is switched out,” says Milnes. The original Sound Techniques inductor-based EQ was somewhat limited, with no highpass or lowpass filters, nor a mid-frequency section. In consultation with engineer/producers Ken Scott and Dave Cobb, the team have brought the ZR section up to date for modern day users while using the same passive, inductor-based topology. The LF section originally offered an 80Hz shelf or a 150Hz bell response. Milnes retained the historically well-liked 80Hz shelving frequency and added 30, 50, 90, 160 and 270 Hz bell response selections. “From experience and feedback, we settled on a Q value of 1.8 on the bell,” he says. The original Sound Techniques HF section gives a very high-Q bell response on the boost with a separate capacitor-based cut circuit offering a shelving response. Milnes has reengineered the circuit so that the Q broadens more subtly than the original as the selected frequency increases. “You have individual frequency selections for the boost and for the cut. It’s like having two bands, one doing boost only and one doing cut only. You can apply them simultaneously and get some interesting response curves,” he says. With such a flexible
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HF circuit available, a lowpass filter was deemed unnecessary, but Milnes added a highpass filter selectable to 40 Hz, 80 Hz or 120 Hz. There was no original MF section to copy. “That’s entirely of my own development,” says Milnes, who designed a circuit with separate low- and high-mid controls. “It’s inductor-based; I’ve used a series resonant topology.” High-mid covers the 900 Hz through 8 kHz range while low-mid extends from 200 Hz through 1.6 kHz. Both offer ±12 dB cut and boost. The circuitry that follows the input and EQ sections is all modern-day, high-spec operational amplifiers and surface-mount components, reports Milnes. “So it’s wide bandwidth, ultralow noise and ultra-low distortion. In other words, it’s as neutral as it can possibly be and shouldn’t significantly add any coloration—and I think that was what we managed to achieve.” One useful facility not often seen in music consoles, says Connor, is that the mix bus outputs, specifically the stereo mix and groups and the echo and foldback sends, simultaneously offer both an electronically balanced and a transformer balanced (via the 3035 dual class A amp) output. “This is good news for engineers
Danny White, co-owner of the new Sound Techniques and designer of the chassis and mechanical components.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Danny White
Above: Geoff Frost, founder and owner of Sound Techniques Ltd., was the designer of the original Sound Techniques A Range console.
The brand-new, just-off-the-line ZR16 console.
who like iron in their outputs,” he says. Because all of the controls are stepped, notes Milnes, “If you take a photo of the surface you can clearly see the settings, so you can get repeatability if you wish. It’s very quick to set up.” STILL BUILT BY HAND The original Sound Techniques A Range desks were all hand-built by Frost and his helpers with point-to-point wiring. Five-and-a-half decades later, Connor and Milnes have been able to leverage modern design and manufacturing techniques and components that make the new ZR a service person’s dream. This is where the third member of the electronics team, Neil McCombie, who maintains the consoles at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove facility, has provided design recommendations. “Neil’s input has been most useful in regard
to what a service engineer would like to see or expect to see,” says Connor. Circuits common across the console, such as balanced inputs, electronically balanced outputs and mix amps, are grouped together in blocks of eight paths on plug-in cards, Connor explains. Thus, complex systems can be created efficiently, with the advantage that much of the signal path comprises PCBs with dependable performance parameters. “Rather than having expensive, complete spares on the shelf you can have a handful of small circuit boards, like the equalizer,” says Milnes. “If you develop a fault, even someone non-technical could change that out. You don’t even need a screwdriver.” The modular construction also allows for consoles to be manufactured with a remote master section. “You have the master fader and
controls in what we call the RMS, the remote master section, so you bypass the expense of a center section,” says White. “We’ve already done that. It works very well with a DAW, and a significant amount of money can be saved.” Sound Techniques has also introduced two 19-inch rack units based on ZR circuitry. The first is the ZR7064CS channel strip, which offers the mic pre and EQ from the console, including the Z-Match impedance and level selector, in a 2U box. “The two-rack unit compressor is coming this summer,” White says. “We’ve already got the compressor/limiter module for the console, so we’ll just pull it out and plug it into a rack, old-school, like an old PYE or EMI compressor.” As White says, Sound Techniques ZR consoles are already rolling off the line. Indeed, anyone who attended the 2018 NAMM Show likely noticed the enormous 48-input example on display, which Ken Scott demonstrated with a mixing master class featuring several classic Bowie tracks. That console, which is configured for 5.1 work, is now at the Tweed Recording Audio Production School in Athens, Ga., shortened to 32 inputs to fit the space, along with several 8-input sidecars. Examples of the new Sound Techniques ZR in action can already be heard, too. For example, Bruce Botnick used a ZR sidecar while working on the 50th anniversary reissue of The Doors’ 1969 album The Soft Parade, which he originally recorded at Elektra. Bob Rock also used a ZR for parts of The Offspring’s upcoming record. And Dave Cobb tracked a large part of John Prine’s Grammy-nominated The Tree of Forgiveness through a ZR sidecar. n
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Supercharged MIDI
2.0
Promise of Vast Improvements... But It Might Take Awhile
Craig Anderton addresses the MIDI 2.0 panel at NAMM 2020. (Left to right), Athan Billias (Yamaha), Rick Cohen (Qubic), Phil Burk (Google), Pete Brown (Microsoft), Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut (Ableton), Lawrence Levine (Horn).
By Mike Levine
W
ith all that has been going on around the world these past six months, audio professionals will be forgiven if it slipped by that back in January 2020, at NAMM, the MIDI 2.0 spec was introduced, bringing with it the promise of significantly more powerful and expressive functionality. In a small way, this is a very big deal, as the new standard is finally real after years in development. At the same time, it doesn’t mean there will be a flood of MIDI 2.0 keyboards available for the holidays. Big deals take time. Good-old MIDI 1.0, which has remained surprisingly relevant for 37 years, isn’t going away anytime soon. Even when manufacturers and software developers start to put out MIDI 2.0 products on a regular basis, there will still be a massive base of MIDI 1.0 products out there that musicians won’t want to cast aside. Fortunately, one of the main pillars of the MIDI 2.0 project was to maintain backwardcompatibility with MIDI 1.0 gear and software. There are even some aspects of MIDI 2.0, such as its improved time-stamping, that can benefit MIDI 1.0 gear. TWO INTO ONE One of the problems with 37-year old technology is that, well, it’s 37-year-old technology. Although
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it’s still plenty usable, MIDI 1.0 lags far behind the times when it comes to data-handling. Back in 1983, 128 steps seemed like plenty of resolution. At today’s processing speeds, it’s just a blip. That will change in a big way with MIDI 2.0. To put it quite simply, says esteemed technology journalist Craig Anderton, “[MIDI 2.0] will provide an analog feel to controls where there isn’t stair-stepping or audible quantization.” “Just in terms of raw numbers, you’re going from 128 steps at seven bits of data to 4 billion steps at 32 bits,” says Brett Porter, lead engineer at Art+Logic, a software development company that has been a key partner in building code for the MIDI 2.0 project over the past couple of years. He was scheduled to do a presentation at South by Southwest before it was canceled. But before that cancellation, he recalls, there was a key MIDI 2.0 demo at NAMM that showed how the higher resolution would affect motorized faders. “An engineer from Roland had two motorized faders side by side, and he was driving one of them with 7-bit data, and one of them was 32-bit data. You could see the 7-bit one jumping, while the 32-bit one was smooth.” Oddly, whereas MIDI 1.0’s shortcoming was not enough data, MIDI 2.0 could have the opposite problem, says Porter. “If you’ve got that 32 bits of data and you’ve got a high-resolution encoder, it’s going to be easy to turn that knob
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and create way too much data. We’re going to have to start learning how to thin it out intelligently.” Another longtime complaint about MIDI 1.0 has been that 127 steps of velocity don’t provide enough resolution to faithfully reproduce the nuances of a performance on a MIDI instrument, particularly a piano. That number, of course, is going up in MIDI 2.0. The new spec calls for 16bit velocity, compared to the current 7-bit data. Under MIDI 2.0, velocity will offer a whopping 65,536 possible Velocity values. And that’s not all. “One other thing added to the note-on and note-off message was this idea of an attribute,” Porter says. “Every note has this other chunk of data that can go with it.” That chunk can hold additional note data, which Porter says will particularly benefit, “anybody who is doing microtonal music or Xenharmonic music. They’ll no longer have to set up a tuning table in a synth. They can send the pitch data out as part of the note.” FORWARD AND BACK Communication in MIDI 1.0 is strictly one way: MIDI In, MIDI Out. That changes in MIDI 2.0, with the adoption of bi-directional data flow over USB or Ethernet. If you’ve ever taken on the tedious job of mapping controllers to software functions, you’ll appreciate one of the most talkedabout additions in MIDI 2.0: Profile Configuration.
Image courtesy of MIDI Manufacturers Association
“When two pieces of gear connect under MIDI 2.0,” Porter says, “the first thing they’ll do is ask each other, ‘Who are you? What do you know how to do?’” The devices (or a device and a software application) will then automatically configure themselves to work together based on a series of standardized profiles. Anderton describes a keyboard controller connecting to a DAW running a virtual analog synth plug-in. “A controller can query the instrument, say ‘What are you?’ and upon receiving an answer, assign its controls in a logical way to common parameters like filter cutoff, resonance, envelopes, pulse width, et cetera. “If you opened a different virtual analog synth, the same controls with which you’re familiar would apply,” he continues. “You could control anything with relatively standard parameters—including amp sims, delays, whatever— similarly. Not having to customize hardware constantly to work with software will be a big deal for improving setup, as well as for workflow.” Another new feature, Property Exchange, goes beyond the generic configuration of Profile Configuration and allows The major components of MIDI 2.0. communication of specific data, such as patches, between over from Japan with prototype gear,” Porter says. “They were playing with devices. Porter gives the following example of how it might work: “My DX7 is sitting right next to me connected to a rackmount synth. a Yamaha-modified keyboard controlling a Korg-modified synth over MIDI When I press a patch change on the controller, there’s no way for me, when 2.0, with all the new expressivity and resolution, and it worked.” But there are still more hurdles preventing widespread adoption of looking at the keyboard, to know that patch 20 happens to be a Rhodes. It’s just a number. With Property Exchange being able to go across that, a the new standard. One of them is bureaucratic. “We have to wait for the keyboard with a much nicer display is going to be able to say to that synth, USB people to approve the way we want to send MIDI 2.0 data over it,” ‘What are your patch names?’ Which is so obvious. But now we have a Porter says. “And that’s in process. I have no idea how long that takes. Once that happens, then all the companies like Focusrite and MOTU that mechanism to do that.” “It will be easy to store hardware synth parameters within a DAW,” adds make interface boxes have to update their systems. Apple and Microsoft Anderton, “in a far more obvious—and human-readable—way than Sys Ex. have to update their operating systems. It’s a chicken-and-egg thing, and Signal processors will then become, as far as a DAW is concerned, a plug- everybody behind the scenes is doing what they can, waiting for those in. It would even be possible to retrofit some older synths to do this, but other pieces.” It appears that the adoption of MIDI 2.0 is going to happen gradually. whether there would be an economic incentive is questionable.” “It’s not like we can flick a switch and all of a sudden, MIDI 2.0 comes out the other end,” Anderton points out. “The prioritization on backwardWHAT’S THE TIMELINE? All of these new capabilities sound fantastic, but gear with MIDI 2.0 compatibility means new features can roll out over time. It will also be support isn’t yet available, nor is there support among DAWs and plug- possible to buy products where MIDI 2.0 is dormant, as it waits for other ins. One exception is the Roland A-88MKII keyboard. On its website, the products to appear. Then one day, that product wakes up to find other company says it is “ready to take advantage of the extended capabilities of MIDI 2.0 gear with which it can converse.” While we wait for MIDI 2.0 to gradually penetrate the market, we MIDI 2.0,” although it hasn’t specified what that readiness entails. Several companies have shown working prototypes, as was evident at the have time to say an extended goodbye to MIDI 1.0, and to marvel at its MMA annual meeting at NAMM. “Roland, Korg, and Yamaha sent engineers longevity. ■
The Roland A-88MKII keyboard is the first commercial product to offer MIDI 2.0 functionality.
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Tech
new products
Studio and Live Console Spotlight A Look at Some of the Latest Entries in These Categories STUDIO CONSOLES
AMS Neve Neve 8424 Small-Format Console AMS Neve has unveiled the Neve 8424 small format console with a large format sound based on the iconic 80-series console range. The 8424 console is designed to fit the needs of the modern hybrid studio. It provides a centralized platform with outstanding connectivity, facilitating an ergonomic link between the linear analog processing world of outboard gear, analog synths and instruments, to the digital world of DAW workflow, software plug-ins and session recall. Recording: The 8424’s dual-input channel strip allows for seamless switching between recording and mixing inputs without additional patching. Simple input connectivity via 24 line-level inputs, dual 1073 preamps, and dual Instrument DI channels makes the 8424 the perfect console for artists to connect and record their instruments, and performers can record directly from the control room, taking advantage of the 8424’s dual cue mix system with talkback/return talkback capability and dual headphone amplifiers. Mixing: The 8424 24 DAW returns across 24 channel faders or, for larger DAW sessions, a 48-Mix mode that allows a total of 48 mono inputs with individual level and pan controls to be mixed through the 8424’s Marinair transformer-coupled stereo mix bus. Engineers can take advantage of the 8424’s mono and stereo aux busses to connect to their favorite outboard FX units and route them back into the console’s two dedicated stereo reverb returns. Four mono groups with 2-band shelving EQ, Inserts, and Direct Outs make this console ideal for stem mixing.
Avid S4, S1 Control Surfaces Avid’s S1 and S4 EUCON control surfaces give users control of their favorite app’s as well as integrating with tablet devices. Features include motorized faders, touch-sensitive encoders, OLED display and modular scalability. The Avid S1 is the replacement for the older Artist Mix series, with new features, upgraded mechanics, and tablet integration. Along with OLED displays, the S1 works with the Pro Tools | Control iPad app, allowing integration of the touchscreen functionality of the app with the hands-on control of the surface. Up to four units can be linked
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together, along with the Pro Tools Dock. Since the unit is EUCON enabled, it supports multi-application control and switching. Use the S1 to control favorite applications for audio and video, all over high-speed ethernet control. The S1 can also be controlled with Mackie/HUI applications. The S1 can run either iPad or Android devices. Avid’s S4 is a smaller, more affordable solution to the larger S6, offering the same streamlined workflows, Pro Tools intelligent control and modular scalability to the budget-conscious production professional. Specifically aimed at smaller budgetminded production studios in music and post, the S4 allows for modular growth as client needs grow. Available in either a 3-foot eight-fader system, a 4-foot 16-fader system or a five-foot 16/24-fader base system, the units support the addition of Display Modules, Joystick Surround Modules, as well as the Post Module aimed at Post-Production facilities.
Solid State Logic’s Origin Analog Inline Console Introduced at AES New York 2019, Solid State Logic’s Origin fully analog inline console 16 buses, E Series EQ and the classic Bus Compressor with features and functionality for today’s hybrid workflows. The new PureDrive mic pre inherits the sound of previous SSL Mic Pre designs, that can also switch character to a warm, harmonically rich tone that varies with mic pre gain. Origin’s new mix bus and mix amp architecture reportedly delivers a low noise floor along with appropriate headroom for a summing bus, according to the manufacturer. Balanced insert points per channel path, dedicated channel direct outputs, stem-ready 0 dB fader bypass switches and a new configurable center section enable integration into a modern production studio. The adjustable center section features 12U of rack space, allowing the modular 6U master tile to be repositioned to create space for software controllers, a computer keyboard or additional outboard processing. The meter bridge can also be lowered into the center section, enabling a screen to be positioned so all your production software can be viewed just where you need it.
Yamaha Expands RIVAGE Systems
DiGiCo Spotlights Quantum 338 Mixing Console
Yamaha Corporation is introducing new additions to the company’s professional audio lineup-the RIVAGE PM5 and RIVAGE PM3 Digital Mixing Systems. The systems feature new CS-R5 and CS-R3 control surfaces, along with the DSP-RX and DSP-RX-EX DSP engines. The CS-R5 control surface for RIVAGE PM5 systems features three large touchscreens and a condensed selected channel section that contribute to smooth intuitive operation. The CS-R3 control surface for RIVAGE PM3 systems packs full RIVAGE PM series functionality and performance into a console that is only 45 inches wide, making it the most compact console in the series. The new DSP-RX engine provides 120 inputs, 48 mix buses and 24 matrices, whereas the DSP-RX-EX engine has 288 inputs, 72 mix buses and 36 matrices. The availability of two DSP engines with different mixing capacities, along with the two new control surfaces, offers greatly expanded flexibility for creating systems that are ideally suited to applications of just about any scale.
DiGiCo’s new Quantum338 mixing console is based on seventhgeneration FPGAs and includes 128 input channels with 64 busses and a 24 x 24 matrix, all with full channel processing. There is a new dark mode application and three 17-inch, 1000-nit high-brightness multitouchscreens, allowing both the meter bridge and soft quick select buttons to be displayed on each screen. There are also 70 individual TFT channel displays, and the floating Quantum chassis features 38 x 100mm touch-sensitive faders laid out in three blocks of 12 fader banks, plus two dedicated user-assignable faders, each complete with high resolution metering.
LIVE CONSOLES
Allen & Heath Avantis 96 kHz Digital Mixing Console Allen & Heath completed its trilogy of 96 kHz digital mixing consoles with the launch of Avantis, a brand-new desk based on the company’s XCVI FPGA engine. It places Allen & Heath’s next-generation technology in a 64-channel/42-configurable-bus unit, providing twin HD touchscreens, extensive I/O options and processing taken from the company’s flagship dLive mixing system. The console is part of Allen & Heath’s Everything I/O ecosystem, whose name signifies the idea that all the parts connect seamlessly. Avantis can be connected to a range of audio expander hardware and is also compatible with Allen & Heath’s range of ME Personal Mixers and IP hardware remote controllers. For local I/O, Avantis comes equipped with 12 XLR analog inputs and 12 XLR analog outputs, plus AES (stereo in, two stereo out). Two additional I/O ports ensure users can draw the full range of current dLive option cards, including Dante, Waves, gigaACE, MADI and more, expanding the scope for system integration, FOH/monitor splits and multitrack recording. The console is loaded with an array of processing tools, including compressors, EQs and Allen & Heath RackExtra FX units (12 slots). Upgrading to dPack expands Avantis further with additional dLive processing, including the Dyn8 dynamics engine (up to 16 instances), DEEP compressors and the Dual-Stage Valve preamp.
TASCAM Upgrades Model 12 With VAMP Feature TASCAM is adding the new VAMP feature to its Model 12 Integrated Production Suite. Designed for a wide range of applications including rehearsals, individual practice and live performance, the new VAMP feature provides a repetitive playback loop between two selected points in a song, enabling interactive live playback for extended solos and jams, plus repeated playback of a selected individual track for rehearsal purposes. Executing the new VAMP playback function—added by way of the V1.10 firmware update—can be accomplished via the Model 12’s LCD display or using the optional RC-1F footswitch.
Waves FIT Controller for eMotion LV1 Live Mixer Waves Audio’s new Waves FIT Controller for the eMotion LV1 Live Mixer is a tactile live sound controller created in collaboration with MidiPlus. FIT is designed to function as a 16-fader bank with the LV1 mixer, sporting 16 + 1 motorized 100mm faders, each featuring Mute, Solo and Select buttons, a multi-function rotary control and a display for each channel. Fader banks are controlled using eight dedicated layer switches for toggling between the eight factory or custom layers in the Waves eMotion LV1 Live Mixer. The controller weighs 4.5 lbs. and can be fitted with rack ears to mount into a 19-inch 7U rack space. Rear panel connections include a USB Type B port for computer connection, 12V 2A DC power input and two 5v 0.5A USB outlets for external LED lighting. ■
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Tech // reviews
PreSonus Quantum 2626 Interface Thunderbolt 3 Connection Puts Any DAW in the Fast Lane By Mike Levine In the competitive audio interface market, where manufacturers vie for who can offer the most comprehensive set of features, you might think that simplicity would be a strike against a product. In the case of the Quantum 2626, that’s decidedly not the case. What it may lack in bells and whistles it more than makes up for in the blinding speed of its Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The result is an interface for Mac and Windows that offers performance that’s in another league from its USB 2.0 competitors—at a surprisingly affordable price. The 1RU unit sports eight front-panel XLR-1/4-inch combo inputs. Channels 1 and 2 support mic or Hi-Z sources, and channels 3-8 are for mic- or line-level sources. You don’t see that many interfaces with eight inputs on the front. Particularly for home setups without patch bays, it’s a convenient design. Each channel also has its own front-panel Gain knob accompanied by an LED that lights up green, yellow or red, depending on the input level. Fancy metering it isn’t, but it’s sufficient. For more detailed input metering, you can open the included Universal Control software, which provides ladder-style meters for each input and output channel. The Gain knobs are staggered in their placement. Instead of the top row controlling channels 1-4 and the bottom 5-8, it alternates from the top to bottom diagonally. I found this confusing at first, especially when reaching for a channel while simply glancing to the side. But I got used to it. The preamps are PreSonus’ XMAX variety, which the company touts for their clean sound, low-noise and 115 dB of dynamic range. Phantom power is switchable in two groups: 1-4 and 5-8. The other front-panel controls include a large Main knob, which handles the monitor outputs, and a pair of gain controls that accompany two 1/4-inch TRS headphone outputs. A power-status light shows blue when the interface is properly synced to a clock
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source and red when it isn’t. The back panel features an array of analog and digital ports. For the former, you get eight TRS-balanced and DC-coupled line outputs, which you can address individually or in pairs from your DAW. An additional pair of TRS-balanced line outputs, labeled Main Out, are for your monitors. That leaves two more pairs of balanced 1/4-inch connectors: Preamp Out 1 and 2, and Line Return 1 and 2. These are sends and returns, respectively, for connecting outboard hardware processors, such as compressors and EQs. You can either connect two mono processors or one stereo unit. The returns are normaled to the outputs of the preamps for Channels 1 and 2. These inserts are a welcome addition and are not often found on audio interfaces in this price range. On the back panel, you’ll also find an array of digital I/O. A pair of ADAT-S/MUX inputs and outputs give you the potential to add additional channels of I/O via compatible outboard converter or preamp units. You can get up to 16 channels at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz, or up to eight channels at 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz. In addition, the Quantum 2626 sports an S/PDIF port on RCA connectors, allowing for an additional two channels of digital input or output to compatible devices. You also get word clock in and out ports on BNC jacks for synching external clocks or devices connected through the ADAT or S/PDIF ports. Another handy feature is a pair of MIDI In and Out jacks on 5-pin DIN connectors, allowing you to plug in MIDI hardware that you don’t (or can’t) patch into your computer through USB. The back panel also includes a port for the unit’s 12V DC adapter. It’s hard to get excited about a power port, but this one has a twist to it—literally. A clever Twist-to-Lock feature keeps the cable from getting accidentally disconnected. The one other jack on the back is the most important of all—the Thunderbolt 3 port. I love it! But I have a bit of a sticking point: Unlike most audio interfaces, the Quantum 2626 doesn’t ship with
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Dynamic Parametric EQ
www.dynpeq.com
“The DynPEQ plugins are so powerful and flexible that they’re not only the perfect rescue tools but also the perfect sound shapers. Quartet has become my go-to problem solver.” —Wes Maebe, award-winning producer and engineer New version 1.4.1 • Parametric EQ • Dynamics processing
• Fast and responsive • Precise controls
• Noise control, broad/narrow
• Effective with stealth
• Mic/acoustic correction
• Multichannel ready
• Spectral dominion A fine plugin from
“Wholegrain goodness in every byte...”
1 0
111 000
I tested the Quantum 2626 with my 2019 MacBook Pro, which has native Thunderbolt 3 ports. I tried the unit with several DAWs, including PreSonus Studio One 4.6.2, Apple Logic Pro X 10.5, Avid Pro Tools 2020.3.0 and MOTU Digital Performer 10.11. Because I was using a Mac, no drivers were necessary. Windows users do need to download and install drivers. Over several weeks, I recorded electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, electric bass and vocals through the 2626. The XMAX preamps were clean and neutral-sounding, to my ears. To see how the 2626 handled a relatively large session, I opened one in Logic Pro X that had more than 40 instrument tracks, all with plug-ins—sometimes more than one—as well as a couple of aux tracks with reverbs. Amazingly, I was able to set the buffer at its lowest setting, 32 samples, and overdub an additional guitar track with no latency and pristine audio quality. I would never have been able to set the buffer that low in a session of that size on a USB 2.0 interface. The result would be compromised audio and error messages saying I’d used up all the CPU power. I would have had to set the buffer so high that latency would be an issue. With USB 2.0 interfaces, adjusting the buffer size is part of the workflow. Typically, you lower it as much as possible when tracking and raise it to its highest when mixing. But with the Quantum 2626, I was able to set a low buffer and leave it there throughout the project. The Quantum 2626 works with any DAW, but you get additional integration when using Studio One. The Cue Mix feature, in particular, allows you to create cue mixes and adjust channel levels and pans for them from inside the PreSonus DAW. xCurrently, there are only a handful of Thunderbolt 3 interfaces on the market, of which the Quantum 2626 is the most affordable (on a per-input basis). The near-latency-free experience it provides is stunning when you first try it. Being able to monitor through plugins with no audible delay and set and forget the buffer at 32 or 64 samples was revelatory. Although the XMAX preamps don’t provide “vintage” sound, they’re clean, and you can add coloring with plug-ins or by patching in outboard hardware through the analog inserts. If you’re thinking of moving up from a USB 2.0 or FireWire interface, prepare to be amazed. The Quantum 2626 will change the way you record. ■
Wholegrain Digital Systems LLC
™
111 000
a connection cable. Instead, PreSonus leaves that to the user. Depending on what type of Thunderbolt port your computer has, getting the right cable or cable and adapter can be a tad costly. If you have a Thunderbolt 2 computer, the good news is that the 2626 is backward-compatible, and the speed of the connection, according to PreSonus, is the same. The bad news is that you’ll need a $50 adapter to connect the interface. The Quantum 2626 also supports Thunderbolt 1, but you won’t get the same performance. After plugging in and powering up, I installed and opened the Universal Control application, assuming it would provide a way to create cue mixes and provide other software mixing features, which is usually the case with units that offer this many channels. While Universal Control gives you more detailed input metering and a cool real-time analyzer feature for the inputs, it doesn’t offer a mixer. (It does allow you to control the preamps and phantom power of a PreSonus DigiMax DP88 connected through the ADAT ports.) But I soon discovered that the lack of mixer is a feature, not a bug. A software mixer would be superfluous, and it would require built-in DSP that would add to the cost of the unit and slow it down. The connection speed over Thunderbolt 3 (or 2) is so fast on the Quantum 2626 that you can create cue mixes from within your DAW—using the sends and returns in its mixer—without noticeable latency. You can then send them out of one of the Quantum 2626’s analog output pairs to a headphone amp. The connection speed allows you to monitor with effects from your DAW while recording. If you want a reverb plug-in on when singing, no problem. If you want to track guitar while monitoring through your amp modeler, it’s easy. In such cases, any latency that exists is not enough to be noticeable. One way that PreSonus kept it affordable was by not including much in the way of monitor control features. It lacks speaker switching, talkback, DIM and Mute switches, and the ability to independently assign the two headphone outputs. But to get this much speed at this low of a price, the trade-off is well worth it. You can always add an outboard monitor controller if those features are essential for your workflow. If you bought an economical one, you’d still be ahead of the game financially, compared to other Thunderbolt 3 interfaces on the market on a price-per-input basis.
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Tech // reviews Nugen Audio SEQ-S Plug-In Linear Phase Equalizer By Barry Rudolph
T
he SEQ-S and SEQ-ST are the two models of Nugen Audio’s new linear phase equalizer plug-ins. The SEQ-ST is for mono/stereo/mid-side processing while SEQ-S works with up to eight channels of audio although, as yet, there is no Dolby Atmos version available. Both the SEQ-S and SEQ-ST operate exactly the same; the SEQ-S version is reviewed here. The SEQs are called “spline, match and morph” equalizers, and they run as Native plug-ins in AAX, AU, VST 2 and 3 format for DAW hosts, and in Mac OS X 10.9 or later and PCs Win 7 SP1 or later. These equalizers use Fast Fourier Transform math rather than Infinite Impulse Response-based algorithms like most digital equalizers. Phase shift through SEQ is linear across the entire frequency range for a smooth, natural equalization, but at the cost of more processing delay or latency. A single stereo instance of SEQ-S will be 12,288 samples late and must be delay-compensated properly in your DAW. Compensation is automatic in Pro Tools HDX Ultimate or any modern DAW system. A NOVEL APPROACH SEQ-S uses a unique and all-new approach to the equalization process. I found that to get proficient at using SEQ effectively required a learning curve. The manual makes a good quick-start guide. The SEQ-S has a resizable GUI and allows using a mouse to directly draw the “spline” of a beautifully shaded EQ curve, called an EQ Envelope. An EQ spline has many consecutive Control points, or nodes, shown in a color of your choice superimposed over a matching color spectrum analyzer display. There are several choices for the spacing or banding of these nodes, with 1/3-octave as the default. As drawn, the spline is a curve that smoothly connects between points. You may add, delete and drag existing Control points easily, and if you make an unintended change, there’s no limit to Undo/Redo. There are also both Highpass and Lowpass filters represented by very small triangles the same color as the EQ spline representing the cut-off point for these filters. They are hidden at the extreme left and right lower corners, and you have to “mouse over” them for discovery and use. With this version, the analyzer display and its numerical scale values for amplitude (Y axis) and frequency (X axis) are too dim to see well, and there is no way to brighten them up. I always resized the plug-in as large as possible.
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ASSIGNING, MANAGING AND CONTROLLING There are three simultaneous color-coded EQ Envelopes available that are usable on any of up to eight channels in SEQ-S. Click on the Assign button and a routing matrix comes up to designate which EQ Envelopes are assigned to control which channel(s). The SEQ-ST variant could control L/R as one EQ Envelope, or the left and right or the mid and side components as separate EQ Envelopes. The stereo matrix/de-matrix process is automatic, and there is no way to control individual audio levels (in the plug-in) apart from just equalization. The Envelope Selector section in the middle of the GUI has three hide/show buttons labeled 1, 2 and 3 for managing the three EQ Envelopes. There are also three ON buttons that toggle the EQ Envelopes on/off and enable mouse control of its curve only, without inadvertently affecting the other envelopes. Both the ON button and EQ Envelope must be lit up to change and hear that particular EQ Envelope. So you can show/hide all three envelopes but only control one at a time. Because each EQ Envelope is controlling a separate audio source, there is no resultant graphic representation of the algebraic sum of multiple EQ Envelopes. Another helpful feature is called Zone. Zone uses two large white dots on the 0 dB axis line to put upper- and lower-frequency borders to prevent any changes outside the zone’s borders. You may also click Exclude and prevent any changes within the zone’s borders. The locked out zone(s) are dimmed in the display. BANDING At the top of the GUI is a pull-down menu of advanced Banding choices that fixes the positions, or Bands, between two control points. There is a choice between: Thirds, or equal 1/3-octave bands (default); Sixths, or 1/6-octave bands (my choice for mixing); and Chromatic intervals, which offer the finest overall resolution. Finally, there are three Bark and Mel scale banding choices. A Bark scale is the psychoacoustic measure of frequency divided into 24 bands that are equal in a physiological sense based on how well the human ear can differentiate frequencies. Looking at the 24 Control points while in Bark banding, you’ll see the bands come closer together, with more points in the mid-range from about 400 Hz to 4 kHz, where the ear is most sensitive. Bark Thirds doubles
the number of control points for even more resolution in the midrange. And Mel banding is based on a different academic study. EQ MATCHING EQ matching is a two-part process. Use the free Nugen Send utility to transmit audio from a reference track (in your session) to another track with SEQ-S placed on it. In this case, I wanted the EQ Envelope of a live drummer’s kick drum in place of the thin and small bass drum on another kit—there was no time to sample, trigger, replace and check accuracy.
Using the Send plug, I recorded and saved a few seconds as a “snapshot” of the live kick drum as reference. The Send Utility automatically routes the audio and mutes it from the mix bus. Next, I recorded a snapshot of the existing drum. Click on Match, and you’ll see the EQ curve instantly conform to the reference—it is like magic! Match EQ works especially well for audio with low harmonic complexity and minimal dynamic change. A great use is to create a “dip” in the entire track’s mix but only in the frequency range of the lead vocal. Once I recorded a snapshot of the track and another of the lead vocal, I inverted the results with the Invert button and, again, like
magic, a section in the midrange frequencies was carved out corresponding to the lead vocal’s frequencies. To facilitate the SEQ’s EQ matching feature are the “D” and “S” controls. The Depth is a +/control that changes all the envelopes’ intensities together like a Wet/Dry fader. The Sharpness up/down control works similar to a global Q for all EQ Envelope curves. Sharpness flattens/ sharpens the curves and Depth is the strength of them. Both these musical controls are very innovative touches I found useful all the time when using SEQ. Again, more digital equalizers should have these very handy features. EQ MORPHING Clicking the Morph button reveals another control bar to configure EQ morphing changes between temporary EQ memories resident in A and B. The Morph Play button is automatable like everything on SEQ, and, once you create an EQ Curve for A—let’s call it your “starting EQ”— and then your “destination EQ” in temporary B memory, you can program morphing between them. You can set up (and automate) a one-shot single transition from A to B or from B to A. Return mode means one shot and back again, and Loop mode is morphing back and forth between A and B. The time period it takes to morph is based on session tempo in any subdivision or multiplication, or free running. Rapidly changing freely or in sync with your session opens up another avenue for sound design or special effect. An excellent use for morphing is in postproduction where the ambience of the location sound (artificial or natural) changes drastically in level, noise floor and room tone from scene-toscene. Dialog editors could use EQ Morphing to lessen the abruptness of these transitions when editing between disparate scenes. REVERB EFFECT I was looking for a different and unrecognizable effect for a stereo pad. I split the stereo pad into two mono tracks panned left and right and put separate mono instances of SEQ-S on both sides set to morph between different A and B temporary EQ settings in each. I had the EQs loop morph at different tempo subdivisions of 115 BPM. Depending on the EQ differences between A and B and also the tempo differences, this produces an almost chorus-like or tremolo effect, but without any pitch change typical of
PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: Nugen Audio PRODUCT: Nugen Audio SEQ-S Linear Phase EQ WEBSITE: nugenaudio.com/seq-s/ PRICE: SEQ-S $199; SEQ-ST $149 PROS: Powerful linear EQ that accomplishes miracles! CONS: Dimly lit display, no way to type in EQ values, and poor manual chorus effects. This is a completely new effect that is controllable from subtle to drastically science-fiction sounding! MIXING AND BARK Using Bark Thirds Banding and full-screen GUI makes it possible to focus microscopically on the midrange frequencies. I had a mix to do with a singer who pushed certain notes and intense moments up to 15 dB. Previously, through clip gain, automation, EQ changes and compression, I could manage to get her vocal to “sit” well in the track. That took a lot of time over the course of the entire mix. I took all that processing off and started fresh using SEQ-S. For sculpting lead vocals, I like to view in Pre (but always hearing the applied EQ’s effect)—the incoming spectrum where I can see and hear the nasty bits and get confirmation of my changes on the Parameter readout. My singer had some nasty peaks at 2.3 kHz, 1.7 kHz, 1.1 kHz, and others but lesser so. When singing low, she had a big buildup (proximity effect or a wrong mic choice??) at 250 Hz. I put dips at all those specific frequencies and others—the biggest correction at -9.2 dB at 2.3 kHz! I liked to mouse over a spot (no clicking) to see what I had done and use both the Depth and Sharpness controls for fine-tuning this audio surgical procedure. This process took less time and sounded more natural and less “fussed with.” Once I got the hang of using SEQ-S, I got comfortable using it as an everyday precision mixing/mastering EQ and effects generator. Every time I use it, I save what I’ve done as a preset. I feel like I am developing a good collection of great tools I can use over and over by just slightly tweaking my saved presets. SEQ-S comes with 22 factory presets that’ll get you close to all possibilities. On top of that, the linear phase SEQ-S is an awesome-sounding equalizer up to the challenges and worthy of any audio source. ■
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Tech // back page blog The Trade Show Conundrum; The Arts Get No Respect Mike Levine: Mix Technology Editor, Studio
Steve La Cerra: Mix Technology Editor, Live
Must the Show Go On?: NAMM made a smart decision to cancel this year’s Summer show in Nashville because of the risk of COVID-19 transmission. But as of today, the organization has decided to proceed with its winter 2021 show in Anaheim. I think they’re making a big mistake. (Of course, tracking the virus is a moving target, and NAMM’s decision could shift to Plan B at any point.) AES, on the other hand, made a wise choice to turn its Fall 2020 Show to an entirely virtual affair, where they’re turning the convention into a month-long celebration called “Audio Engineering Month.” Anyone with an Internet connection and the bucks to buy a badge can log into the full convention content. But from January 21-24 in Anaheim, the NAMM show is going ahead as scheduled at the Anaheim Convention Center. To its credit, NAMM is making a big effort to make the show experience safer. But trying to mitigate the spread of the virus indoors is a tall order, no matter what measures are put in place. And what about the large contingent of exhibitors from Europe and Asia? Are they going to want to come to a country with such a huge COVID problem? As of this writing, the U.S. is restricting travelers from both the EU (Schengen-area countries) and China. Odds are very good that some of the attendees walking around whatever hall you’re in will be from areas of the country that are virus hotspots. Do you want to pick up a guitar or a saxophone or play a keyboard at a booth after who knows who has been playing it? Do you really want to touch the controls on that new compressor? C’mon NAMM. Why roll the dice when you have alternatives? Do the right thing and go virtual. It’s the only option that makes sense.
The Real Numbers: A few days ago, my friend Leslie, who works as an actress and producer in theater, made me aware of some sobering facts gathered from an international survey taken during the pandemic. When asked which types of workers are most and least valued to them, respondents indicated that health care workers are the most valued, and artists are the least valued. While the value of health care workers cannot be disputed (now or ever), the perceived value of art and artists among those who do not create is appalling—and has been for a long time. And yet what is everyone doing while they’re stuck at home, unable to safely venture out into the world? Streaming movies, listening to music, playing video games, watching theater performances on TV, reading books, and scratching for any kind of amusement they can get their hands on. Oh, yeah…they’re consuming art. When unemployment statistics for June were released, the report was that unemployment dropped to 11.1 percent. That’s a bunch of baloney. A June poll surveying independent contractors working in the pro sound and lighting industry showed that 97 percent had lost their jobs due to the pandemic; 92 percent do not believe that they will be recalled; 57 percent filed for unemployment; 47 percent have only enough money to pay their rent or mortgage for the next 30 to 60 days; 6 percent have lost their health care; another 21 percent expect to lose their health care in the near-future. When I read these numbers, and I see scores of my friends and colleagues unemployed and hurting, and then I see people ignoring social distancing guidelines, I am furious. Every time I witness someone in a social setting without a mask, I think, “Thanks, you moron. You’re preventing me from getting back to work.” Sure, everyone is suffering, but entertainment industry workers are the last in line because by its very nature our work requires large gatherings of people. And that simply won’t be happening safely any time soon on a consistent basis.
Product of the Month: PreSonus Studio One 5 Professional. The top-line addition is called Show Page, a live-performance environment that joins Song (recording, arranging, mixing) and Project (mastering) as separate-butintegrated sections of Studio One. You can create setlists that include mixer channels for live musicians to play through, backing tracks and effects, as well as extensive real-time controls for easy viewing onstage. If you mix in Studio One, you’ll love the new Scenes feature, which allows you to save and recall mixer snapshots. The update also brings a revamp of the application’s Native Effects plug-ins. PreSonus also announced a subscription plan called Sphere, which, for a monthly fee, provides full access to all the company’s software, including Studio One Professional and Notion.
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Product of the Month: API 312 Mic Pre. API has reissued its famous 312 mic pre, this time in 500 Series format (the original 312 was the first API mic preamp and was designed by company founder Saul Walker). It features a vintage-style VU meter and a distinctive API-style Gain control knob, as well as API’s traditional fully discrete circuit design, a 2520 Op Amp, and a proprietary AP2516 Input Transformer. The 312 Mic Pre also sports a Peak LED, a 20dB pad switch, switchable 48V phantom power, a polarity reverse switch and a 3:1 Output Transformer Tap Selector. The latter changes the output gain ratio from 3:1 to 1:1. n
9000