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FEATURES

0X.22 Contents

PHOTOS: Mark Danišík.

Volume 46, Number X

03.22 Contents

00 34

Volume 46, Number 3

TECHNOLOGY

MUSIC

40 New Products:

12 Jacknife Lee and Rokia

Studio and Sound Reinforcement

Koné Create ‘Bamanan’

BY ROBYN FLANS

16 The ‘Electric Cowboy’ Funk of Boulevards

LIVE SOUND

28 Getting to Know Guy Chambers: Songwriter, Producer, Studio Owner

BY STEVE HARVEY

34 IDLES Finds Room to Explore at Real World Studios

BY LILY MOAYERI

PRESENTED BY

22 Tour Profile: The War on Drugs Reach the MSG Milestone

BY CLIVE YOUNG

24 News & Notes: New Report Examines Live Sound Recovery Concerns; Astronomy Museum Goes Immersive; St. Louis Muny Enters The Matrix

BY BARBARA SCHULTZ

18 News & Notes: Berklee

Original Collection

BY MIKE LEVINE

46 Review: KIT Plugins BB N105 Channel Strip Plug-in

BY RUSS LONG

48 Review: Sound Anchors ADJ2 Speaker Stands;

BY ROB TAVAGLIONE On the Cover: British songwriter, producer and studio owner Guy Chambers took delivery of the first of the “new” Sound Techniques consoles, a favored board from the 1970s resuscitated and newly produced

by Danny White from the original designs.

Photo: Mark Danišík.

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DEPARTMENTS 8 From the Editor:

A Taste of Analog, Analog to Taste

10 Current: Manufacturers on the Move: Audix, Heil Sound, d&b Group

11 Innovations: Neumann Miniature Clip Microphone System

BY STEPHAN MAUER

50 Open Channel: Welcome to the Middle Ages

BY CRAIG ANDERTON

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22 Mix, Volume 46, Number 3 (ISSN 0164-9957) is published monthly by Future US, Inc., 130 West 42nd Street, 7th 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.

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PHOTO: Brandon Todd / MSG Photos

44 Review: Gibson Maestro

Turns NYC’s Power Station Back On

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Vol. 46 Number 3

March 2022

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Current From the Editor

A Taste of Analog, Analog to Taste Something is going on with analog, and I’m not entirely sure what. It’s not that there’s been a flood of new analog products or sudden breakthroughs in electronics technology. Sweetwater hasn’t seen year-over-year growth in sales of 24-track, 2-inch tape or Marshall Time Modulators. Everybody I know is just fine with Cat6 replacing copper.

And yet, swimming against a stream filled by every other technology-based industry, professional audio continues to embrace analog technologies, nearly 40 years after the introduction of the first digital audio workstation and nearly 50 years after the first digital delay. From a pure market and technology perspective, that makes no sense. From a musician, engineer and producer perspective, where words like warmth, tone and texture mean a great deal, it makes perfect sense.

Why it makes sense, of course, is because of the way that humans perceive sound, and how that sound evokes an emotional response. But I’ll leave that to academics and psychologists. I’m talking about why in a practical sense.

In the late 1980s, when DAWs started to emerge, into the early 1990s, when the first plug-ins began to appear, we as an industry tried very hard to have an Analog vs. Digital Debate, often devolving into a playground-ready battle and choosing sides. There was no debate. Digital was new and cool, but analog simply sounded better.

By the time processing power caught up and the sound quality of plug-ins became virtually indistinguishable from their analog counterparts, we talked of analog as “another color on the palette” or “essential on the front end,” seeming to reduce its overall importance in the increasingly all-digital chain.

Engineers with 64-channel analog boards were only using two faders, we were told. Everybody would soon be working entirely in the box. Analog wasn’t dead, but it had become a choice, one that was increasingly hard to justify for many based on the cost and convenience of an all-digital workflow.

Then a funny thing happened, and over the past five to ten years, the incorporation of analog technologies morphed from being a “choice” to being a “customized choice.” The recent boom in the sales and variety of 500 Series units, allowing artists to mix and match analog flavors at relatively low cost, started the trend, I would argue, while the resurgence of analog recording and mix consoles, most of them customizable and able to fully integrate into modern workflows, cements it.

This month’s cover story provides a prime example. While he might not be a household name here in the States, songwriter/producer Guy Chambers has enjoyed an incredible career from his home base in London, working with the likes of Robbie Williams, Rufus Wainwright, Carole King, Kylie Minogue

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and many others. He’s also owned a number of studios over the years, and he knows sound. He knows what he likes.

Recently, Chambers installed the first new Sound Techniques console manufactured in 45 years­—a 16-channel ZR SOHO built by Danny White and team in California from the original designs and continued collaboration of Geoff Frost and colleagues in England. It comes in 8-channel buckets, built to Chambers’ workflow, and it sounds incredible. It sits at the center of the main room in his four-studio Sleeper Sounds facility. He has a long history of owning-operating studios, and at this point in his career, he can buy anything he wants. He wanted this.

Last month, we ran a review of the Fix console from the legendary Paul Wolff. It’s hand-built to order, with customized channel-strip configuration, if desired, and swappable stereo and immersive audio modules. Greg Wells purchased one. Ronald Prent and Darcy Proper have a 64-channel version in their New York facility. Both are set up for immersive audio mixing.

It’s not just custom console makers. Rupert Neve Designs has been doing this for a while with customized 5088 channel strips and configurations. SSL continues its long analog lineage with the recent introduction of Origin, and it’s been selling faster than they can make them. API deserves special credit for flying the analog flag those many years when it seemed as if everybody else had abandoned the high-end analog console market. Larry Droppa and his team continue to innovate, most recently with a separate monitor controller based on the center section of its stellar large-format boards.

Analog technology will never disappear from professional audio. As long as there continues to be an analog signal captured by a microphone on the front end, and playback of an analog signal from a speaker on the back end, we’ll find ways to integrate even more analog in the middle.

Think about it: The most popular category of plug-ins today seems to be console channel strips. We have a review in this very issue of KIT Plugins’ emulation of Blackbird Studio’s famous Neve 8078 console in Studio A. You can even introduce hum into an all-digital track, if you like. In Silicon Valley, that might be considered the height of irony, or maybe a silly line of code. In pro audio, that’s a cool feature.

Damn, I love this industry.

Tom Kenny Co-Editor

Current // news & notes Manufacturers on the Move VITEC GROUP GRABS AUDIX MICS (Richmond, UK)—Longtime pro-audio microphone manufacturer Audix is being acquired by Vitec Imaging Solutions, a subsidiary of the Vitec Group. Based in the UK, Vitec focuses on products for content creators and will use the acquisition to create a new home base that will focus on R&D, manufacturing and sales for its various mic brands in the U.S. With the acquisition, pro audio-oriented Audix joins Vitec’s other mic brands—Rycote, specializing in mics for broadcast and film production, and Joby, which focuses on entrylevel users like streamers and gamers.

Going forward, the Audix team and its facility in Wilsonville, Ore., will become Vitec Imaging Solutions’ “Audio R&D Center of Excellence,” tackling in-house microphone product design, development and manufacturing across all Vitec audio brands. While Rycote windshields and mounts will continue to be made in the U.K., Rycote’s broadcast microphones are expected to benefit from the additional manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Similarly, the development of Joby microphones will move to the U.S. site, as well.

Above: Amnon Harman, d&b CEO, left, and Bryan Raven, White Light Managing Director Right: Heil Sound’s Ash Levitt, Bob Heil, and Steve Warford

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HEIL SOUND HAS NEW OWNERS (Fairview Heights, Ill.)—Bob and Sarah Heil have transferred ownership of pro audio manufacturer Heil Sound to current president and CEO, Ash Levitt, and director of Operations, Steve Warford. While Sarah Heil has retired, Bob Heil will continue with outreach work and product design within the amateur radio space under the title Founder and CEO Emeritus.

Founded in 1966 by Bob Heil, the company quickly made its mark in the early 1970s by building a new P.A. for the Grateful Dead, which Heil ran on tour for them. He soon provided the same services for other classic rock acts like The Who, ZZ Top, BTO, The J. Geils Band and Chuck Berry, among others. Heil Sound shifted to ham radio products in the 1980s before eventually returning to live sound in the late 1990s with the introduction of the PR 20 microphone.

Heil said, “My life has been about achieving great sound, whether on the concert stage or in the amateur radio world. I’ve watched Heil Sound go from a regional sound company to a world-class microphone manufacturer. This company has been my passion, but it is time for me to step aside. There is no better team to carry the company forward than Ash and Steve, and I have the utmost confidence in them.”

Both Levitt and Warford started working with Heil Sound as teenagers, building and packaging products. Levitt worked in academia for a number of years, but returned

to the company full-time in 2017 and assumed the role of president in 2020. Warford worked his way up in the company during his tenure and has been responsible for daily operations for the past several years.

D&B GROUP NETS UK-BASED WHITE LIGHT (Backnang, Germany)—d&b Group has added to its d&b solutions business with the acquisition of UK-based Audio Visual, Lighting and Media business White Light.

Founded in 1971, White Light is a production solution specialist operating in a range of markets, including theater, corporate events, broadcast, concert touring, leisure, education and trade.

Following the acquisition, the company will become part of the d&b Group and all existing staff will remain with the company.

Established in May, 2021, the d&b solutions division enables the d&b Group to serve customers end-to-end in the areas of system planning, installation, maintenance and managed services.

Eyeing new market potential for immersive AVLM solutions that can include d&b’s Soundscape immersive audio platform, one particular area of focus for d&b solutions is White Light’s SmartStage technology, which has been in development since 2017. SmartStage is an immersive video environment which uses XR technology to replace the traditional green screen element of a virtual studio. ■

Current // Innovations Neumann Miniature Clip Microphone System

By Stephan Mauer, Portfolio Manager - Live Sound & Broadcast, Neumann Berlin

A

coustic instrument reinforcement on stage is a complex and delicate task. And while several competitive microphone systems have been introduced to the market in recent years, sound engineers and musicians have been craving a high-quality, clip-on microphone system that is able to deliver superior sound across a broad range of acoustic instruments.

Neumann recently announced its Miniature Clip Microphone (MCM) system: an electret miniature condenser microphone on a flexible gooseneck. The system includes nine instrumentspecific clips so it can be mounted to a variety of acoustic instruments. While Neumann is known primarily for its studio condenser microphones, the company’s product portfolio has always included a number of high-quality microphones designed for live applications as well; the new MCM system sees this portfolio evolving even further.

In developing the MCM solution, Neumann explored the possibility of implementing true condenser microphone technology with a small form factor, but we eventually realized that this approach would introduce significant limitations— for example, in delivering substantial dynamic range while working on a low-voltage pocket transmitter.

The system’s dynamic range, however, is key in providing both extremely low noise floor and the ability to cope with very high sound pressure levels.

Therefore, we decided to invest in a completely new electret design to meet the market requirements and develop a brand-new capsule from scratch.

At its core, our new electret design presented several advantages, allowing the product to meet our stringent performance and form factor expectations, deliver consistently high quality in serial production and, at the same time, eliminate the phantom power requirement.

Sonically, we achieved a balanced, neutral frequency response as well as a refined impulse reproduction. When our new system was applied to diverse instruments such as strings, brass, drums, percussion and piano, the sound was both detailed and natural. Throughout our

The system features an all-new electret design and capsule, to go with nine instrument-specific mic clips.

design process, special attention was paid to properly capture the fundamental frequency of the instruments, which can be a challenge with competitive microphone solutions.

In tests and trials with accomplished musicians using the Neumann KK 14 electret capsule, a cardioid directional pattern was identified as the best solution to deliver both an open sound and a sufficient degree of isolation. The capsule’s directivity is constant throughout the entire frequency range and therefore offers sufficient isolation from nearby instruments, even in the fundamental frequency range.

At the same time, our new electret microphone design was developed to handle 153 dB SPL, while operating with very low self-noise—which again is important in capturing softer sounds. This is the result of the interaction between the relatively large diaphragm and circuit design. In this respect, the microphone benefits from our decades of development experience in circuit design, even if the power supply is limited.

To achieve the expected production consistency, the KK 14 capsules were designed with a layerbased construction involving eight individual components. As a result, the individual components can be optimally designed and independently

manufactured. In parallel, a new manufacturing process was developed by Neumann whereby the assembly of the components is done manually and is subject to stringent quality controls.

Aside from sonic requirements, it was very important for us to ensure that the new microphone also delivered on build quality and ROI—which is particularly important for rental companies.

Therefore, we chose a titanium housing for the capsule, which is robust and provides protection for all the internal elements. Meanwhile, a modular design allows the capsule to be separated from the associated gooseneck so individual components can be replaced if necessary.

Toward the end of 2021, and following several years of development and testing, we deployed several prototypes of the new microphone system among several orchestras and bands, which have subsequently used it in high-profile concerts and touring operations. So far, the response has been outstanding, with our customers describing the microphone’s sound as “smooth and open” with almost no proximity effect. Others indicate that they no longer feel the need to use EQ to correct frequencies or arrive at a great sound. At Neumann, we feel we have been successful in introducing yet another unique solution to the marketplace. ■

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PHOTO: Karen Paulina Biswell

Music Rokia Koné

Jacknife Lee and Rokia Koné Creating ‘Bamanan,’ From Mali to Topanga Canyon

By Robyn Flans

P

roducer Jacknife Lee never once spoke to the artist during the making of Bamanan.

He was riding out the early stages of the pandemic nestled in his Topanga Canyon home studio, near Los Angeles, while Rokia Koné was on the other side of the world in Mali, West Africa, where, besides also dealing with Covid restrictions, an actual coup d’état took place on August 18, 2020, moments after she recorded her vocal for “N’yanyan” in a single take.

Lee came to the project quite by accident. He happened to admire a guitar player named Salif while judging a remix contest sponsored by Real World Records and audio hardware company Universal Audio. When he inquired about Salif,

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he was led to Koné.

Koné is well-known in Mali. She got her professional start as a backing singer for Alia Coulibaly, one of Mali’s biggest stars, and quickly earned top billing as a solo performer.

In 2016, she caught the attention of French booking agency 3D Family’s Valérie Malot, who invited Koné to join feminist supergroup (and later, Real World Records artists) Les Amazones d’Afrique and make her debut on an international stage.

Eventually she ended up back in Mali, recording live in a Bamako studio, backed by the band she performs with in clubs several nights a week. It is that work that fell into Lee’s hands.

MEET JACKNIFE LEE The producer, writer and collaborator, known for work with such artists as R.E.M, Snow Patrol, the Cars and Weezer, is no stranger to working alone. He’s been working this way for a while now. “U2 would be on tour, and they would send me some demos and I would just work on them,” says Lee, whose work on the band’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb earned him two Grammy Awards back in 2004.

“You get great things when people are in the room together, obviously, but when I’m experimenting or exploring an idea, sometimes I have to go really far off the initial intention,” he explains. “If I love something and it’s not finished,

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“Then there is a vocal call and response with the background vocals, and I have a Korg Delta, which is a kind of string synth from the ’70s, and that’s doing a kind of hip hop, piano-y organ thing. Then more loops with this toy piano from Critter & Guitari, and then another sequence going through a Neon Egg Planetarium 2 pedal that has delays and reverbs and compressors.

Then a third pad comes in from my Oberheim OB8, a very ’80s thing, and then I took a guitar loop from Salif.”

The ending returns to Kone’s voice and the sequencers, Lee says, with her vocal track run through an Eventide Harmonizer 3000 (“to give it width”) and the lone piece of software he used on this track, a Valhalla Vintage Verb.

When asked how long the record took him, Lee says that he honestly lost all track of time.

KONÉ HEARS THE MIX Through an email exchange via an interpreter, Koné told Mix: “When I first heard Jacknife’s work on the songs, I was actually a little bit shocked because they sounded so different to the original songs. It is not a typical sound we hear in Mali. Before long, I really grew to love what he had done. He was very respectful of my music in the work he did.”

Bamanan was released in midFebruary on Real World Records, and Koné says she is proud of how the record came out.

“I hope that we can only bring more strength to Malian music and how it is viewed on the international scene,” she wrote. “I hope to show that our music is very versatile and can be presented in many ways—through jazz, blues, reggae or even electronic music. We can find ourselves comfortable in all of these forms.”

For Lee, work that involves a spiritual connection, something that stirs a feeling within, has become increasingly important to him.

“I have two girls, 19 and 20, and they are looking at their lives and I’m trying to be an example to them of what choices to make,” he explains. “There are good choices and bad choices, and if I say follow your heart or follow your passion and I’m not doing it, it’s a lie. I’m happier this way and bringing a lot more joy into my life, and I’m listening to music in a way that’s totally pure. And I’m making better records as a result.” n PHOTO: Jackie Radinsky

sometimes I have to be very bold with the idea. A he says. “It was in 3/4, and that isn’t an obvious lot of my breakthroughs happen when mistakes tempo, so I thought I would put an arpeggio from occur. Like with ‘N’yanyan,’ [referring to a song my DX7 and play it similar to how Conny Plank that ended up as a vocal-only track, though it used to do with D.A.F. records, where they’re doing didn’t start out that way] “If the room were full a sequence, but as a sequence is going, they’re of musicians, everyone would be playing and I playing a keyboard as well, so you get kind of would never have gotten to hear it with just the glitches. It stops it from being static.

“Then I ran a slightly different sequence vocal, and I wouldn’t have gotten the space to do on my Roland Super Jupiter, so they’re kind of it the way I did it.”

That makes sense, as it was her voice on phasing,” he continues. “They’re out of time the song “Anw Tile” that first captivated the with each other, and sometimes they’re going producer when he received the first batch of files and sometimes not. Then I’ve got my Arp-2600 from Koné’s booking agent, Valerie Malot. And it doing a kind of inappropriate string line.

“Then Salif Koné has an insanely good guitar was the vocal that became the focus throughout.

“I started with the vocal and built everything part that is kind of muted, and I chopped up around it,” Lee explains. “That was the goal from every single note so they are just blips, and I the beginning. Vocal front and center. I mix as I made another sequence that would go against go, so from the moment I’m working, the mix has the DX7 and the Jupiter. On the original session, begun. It’s not a separate process.

Most times, a vocal is put on the track last, so it can be difficult to place. This way prevented that from being a problem.”

Even though he had no clue what Koné was singing about, the meaning was conveyed in her soulful delivery. “This is gospel music,” he attests. “It’s meant to touch God. I’m not religious, but I do recognize spirituality when I hear it. She was unafraid of being out of tune. She was unafraid of not getting to the note she was going for. It was real, without any Producer Jacknife Lee affectation, and she wasn’t trying to impress anybody with her voice. someone played a Minimoog, which was a real She was singing because she needed to.”

Lee received the music in lengthy, unfinished, delight, so that’s on there, chopped up.”

Lee realized he had to add a beat in 3/4, so he jam-like songs. The musicians sounded much like a “bar band,” he thought, so the first thing he did was used his Arturia DrumBrute and then put a delay strip them from the files and start from scratch. “I on it in 4/4 with his Yamaha analog 1010E. “Then there’s an instrument on the original thought, ‘I’m going to have to be bold,’” he recalls.

“I was awed by her voice and thought, ‘I have to do version called a dunun, which I chopped up, and a djembe that I chopped up to be a rumbling, rolling something with this because I said I would.” thing, not in ¾ anymore,” he says. “Then I added my favorite snare, which is called a (Pearl) Firecracker BUILDING A SONG Lee records in Logic Pro, primarily using Universal with a super tight head, and it almost sounds like a Audio Apollo interfaces, but, he says, everything on snare drum mixed with a bell or a timbale.”

On the chorus, Lee uses pads from the Korg the the record was played—“a lot of technology, old synths, a mixture of tape loops, digital things.” The M1, which he says he ignored for years because song “Bambougou N’tji” provides a prime example he thought it sounded “cheesy,” but he now loves the sound all over again. He brings in another of his working method.

“It took me ages to figure out the tempo on the sequence, which provides counter-rhythm, a la original version because they were doing it live,” Steve Reich.

Music // news & notes Long-Distance Funk Boulevards’ ‘Electric Cowboy’ Comes Together in Raleigh and Chicago

By Barbara Schultz

W

AT HOME, IN TREEHOUSE “I didn’t work on the EP, but I joined in for the album and we built on what they had been doing,” says Croom, who is also the keyboardist/ producer of indie band Twin Peaks. “A lot of the writing happened last November and December [2020], when we were all still in the thick of [Covid], so there was a lot of file sharing and spitballing. Blake wrote seven or eight tunes, and I

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PHOTO: Jordan Rickard

hen Jamil Rashad, the artist known as Boulevards, first reached out to his co-producers, Blake Rhein and Colin Croom, he said that he wanted to make an album that echoed Parliament-Funkadelic. Not surprisingly, the two Chicago-based musician/ engineer/producers were all in.

However, like a lot of projects Mix has covered in the past year, the production started in the midst of a global pandemic.

“Boulevards messaged me on Instagram, I think, based on my being a core member [guitarist and engineer] for Durand Jones and the Indications,” Rhein says. “That was in April 2020. So I listened to some of his older material, which was aligned with what we had been doing with the Indications—kind of disco with lots of guitars and synthesizers.”

By summer 2020, Rhein and Boulevards had begun collaborating from a distance—Rhein in Chicago and Boulevards in Raleigh, N.C.—to create the soul/funk EP Brother! Along the way, they developed a songwriting process that would carry them into production of the album Electric Cowboy: Born in Carolina Mud. Each song typically began with Boulevards sending a reference song—something he liked the sound and vibe of—to one of the co-producers, who would then create an instrumental demo with a similar sound or feel. Music would fly back and forth until Rashad was ready to add lyrics/vocals.

wrote six, but a couple of songs didn’t make their way into the mix.”

“When we first started working this way, Jamil was going into a studio and cutting vocals, which was problematic because he would send me something and I’d be like, ‘Okay, can we try this part a different way?’ But he had left the studio,” explains Rhein. “So, I talked him into getting a cheap interface for home, but he ended up doing a lot of stuff on his phone. He would send me voice memos, and I’d bring them into a Pro Tools session and get some sounds, put some effects on, to flesh out a demo.”

Rhein worked in his personal studio, which at the time was in the basement of his home but has since relocated to a live-work storefront that houses his Pro Tools rig, instruments and a few mics.

“Here’s my entire microphone collection: two SM57s, an SM7B, and this condenser microphone I bought in high school that I loved, the M-Audio Solaris,” he says. “That is my go-to for a one-mic drum kit situation—I will lay it on the floor next to the drum kit because it’s a heavy mic and the shockmount is broken. That has been a workhorse for me on anything acoustic, and I’ll almost always use a 57 on my guitar cab.”

Meanwhile, Croom had use of the Twin Peaks studio space, which the band had installed in an unused portion of the commercial Treehouse Studios complex, kind of like a popup. “Treehouse Studios is on the west side of Chicago. We were looking for a larger space than just your routine practice space, where we could

PHOTO: Alec Basse

Artist Jamil Rashad is known as Boulevards.

also record and have some isolation,” Croom recalls. “So we found this room in the back that I think used to be a microbrewery, and we built out a dead room, a more live room, and the control room. It’s pretty bare-bones, but we do have a little bit of outboard gear, like the Warm Audio 1073s and some DIY color boxes that we used on a fair amount of things, like on snare bottom. We would use [Rhein’s M-Audio Solaris] as a sock mic near the bottom of the snare, just laying on the ground.”

TWIN PEAKS, PALISADE Once the project shifted to keeper tracks, Rhein and Boulevards joined Croom at the Twin Peaks space for the bulk of the recording, including guitars, drums, electronic keys and bass, and most of Rashad’s vocals, which were captured with Rhein’s SM7B or a Warm Audio U47 clone.

“On stuff where he was singing a little bit

louder, I’d definitely go toward the 7B, which has pretty low gain, and it has this nice kind of mellow effect where it accentuates the lower part of your voice,” Rhein explains. “He sings pretty low, so that mic was working really well for him. He’s also great at singing softly, almost like Marvin Gaye, and making his voice really effective in that way. In those cases, we used the Warm Audio mic.”

The recording process mainly consisted of replacing parts that needed to be altered or recorded better; some pieces were definitely kept from the demo phase. Finally the recording team decamped to Palisade Studios, also in Chicago, to capture a few elements that wanted next-level gear and a professionally tuned space.

“Palisade is a really nice old-school studio,” says Rhein. “We spent about four days there, using their grand piano on a couple of tracks, and it felt really good for recording horns. On a lot of that stuff, we were using their RCA 44 ribbon mic. They also have a rack of BAE 1073 preamps that I loved. I probably used them on almost everything we did there, but I remember specifically using those preamps on finger snaps to the song ‘Surprise.’ Fingersnaps are deceptively hard to record because they can sound so thin.

We put them through that preamp and pulled out the exact part that we wanted to hit the eardrum. That was game-changing.”

ALL TOGETHER AT THE MIX The finished record, mixed by Ken Oriole at Blue Room Studios in Atlanta, owes some of its cool guitar and keyboard sounds to P-Funk, in a uniquely Boulevards way. “God Bless Ya (Be Thankful)” rocks more than it grooves, and “Better Off Dead,” featuring a vocal duet with alt-country singer/songwriter Nikki Lane, is more laid-back. “‘Better Off Dead’ felt very natural,” Croom says. “A lot of times, when you’re writing and recording at the same time, it can be wearying figuring out how much to add. That song grew from some music that Blake wrote, and I think because of the composition references—I mean, there’s a lot of kind of ‘Superfly’ style in there, with a lot of low-bass-octave grand piano and wah-wah pedal—it has a lot stacked, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming. It was one of those sweet moments where you’re like, ‘Damn, this is huge, but I don’t have to take anything away.’

Then once Nikki sent her vocals, everything really clicked. I thought, ‘This is all we need.” n

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Music // news & notes Berklee Turns NYC’s Power Station Back On The legendary facility is “on a mission to reinvent the large-format studio business”

By Clive Young

S

ince founder Tony Bongiovi first opened its doors in 1977, the studio facility on West 53rd Street in New York City has been known as Power Station and then later Avatar, but mainly it’s been known as a place to make legendary music. Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Muse, David Bowie, Madonna, Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding, Bob Dylan and others have recorded countless classic albums within its walls. However, when Avatar was unexpectedly put on the market in the mid-2010s, many expected it to be turned into condos like The Hit Factory and other nearby legendary studios that had recently shuttered.

Instead, the facility is now busier than it has been in decades, having emerged from years of renovation to officially reopen this past fall as Power Station at BerkleeNYC. Purchased in 2017 by a unique public-privatenonprofit partnership between Berklee College of Music, the City of New York, musician/ investor Pete Muller and members of the Founder’s Advisory Board, Power Station at BerkleeNYC is still a working commercial studio facility, but that only scratches the surface.

“We’re on a mission to reinvent the largeformat studio business,” said Stephen Webber, executive director of BerkleeNYC and dean of Strategic Initiatives for Berklee. “Even though we raised a lot of money, our business model is that we’re still amortizing everything as if we paid for it. We’re trying to prove that if you include video, if you keep your eye on technology, you can make it work. In 1977, this was the highest tech place in town, but when we took it over in

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Stephen Webber, executive director of Power Station at BerkleeNYC, at the classic, custom-built 40-input Neve 8088 console in Studio A.

2018, it was a museum piece. Our philosophy is, ‘Let’s be the cutting-edge place again,’ adopting immersive audio, video and more. If you really want to do the high-end thing, you come here.”

Power Station may be looking forward, but its revered acoustics and legacy equipment haven’t gone away. Studio A still has its classic, custombuilt 40-input Neve 8088 console and unique orchestra-sized live room, while Studio B retains its Solid State Logic 9000J 72-input desk. Studio C, with its Neve VRP 72 console with Flying Fader automation, is also the same, with the exception that identical dead-stock 50-year-old linoleum and tectum tiles were sourced to slavishly restore a corner of the live room meant to emulate the sound and vibe of Detroit’s Motown Studio.

While the studios have been meticulously maintained, their surroundings inside the 33,000-square-foot building have been radically altered to add classrooms, a black box theater, VR and DJ labs, a video control room, dressing rooms, dedicated studio lounges, writing rooms, storage, performance spaces and larger hallways.

All spaces were designed with flexibility in mind, so classrooms and tech labs are modular, with gear from laptop stations to DJ rigs set up on wheels to accommodate everything from close collaboration to social distancing.

Video production is a key element as well; while Power Station has a number of RED cameras on hand, there’s also 26 PTZ cameras installed throughout the facility, linked to the video control room through a site-wide Dante network. “In Studio A, we can do a 10-camera shoot without setting up a single camera, all in 4K,” said Webber.

“In 1977, if you came to the studio to record, it was going to a vinyl record. Now if you can’t see it, it

didn’t happen, so if you’re capturing a live musical performance, it’s got to include video. Our in-house video services pros work here every day and know how to shoot the place, so it makes sense. And it became a lifesaver during the pandemic—almost every session had people beaming in remotely, so instead of a webcam of the session, we could send a live multi-view of eight cameras in Studio A to a client in L.A.” VR and immersive audio work is also on the agenda, as the facility has a trio of Jaunt cameras for making 360-degree immersive VR videos.

Each Jaunt sports 24 8K cameras that save to a 64GB SD card. Nearly a dozen music clips have been produced so far with artists like Victor Wooten, saxophonist Grace Kelly and Berklee’s own Indian Ensemble.

With all this plus multiple community outreach programs going on at once, Power Station never really powers down. The facility has been hosting engineers like Bob Clearmountain and Elliot Scheiner, the explosion of streaming services has led to a rise in orchestral sessions onsite, and the return of Broadway has likewise revived the studio’s cast album work as well.

The facility is still in demand by household names, too, and while they don’t typically interact with students, their subtle presence still quietly underlines Power Station’s continued relevancy.

“We’ve had Paul Simon, John Legend, Coldplay, the artist HER and more,” said Webber. “One of our students from the UAE is a total firecracker, and she hurt her foot so she had a cast on. She came up to me the other day and said, ‘So when we were in the elevator last week, and that guy asked me what I did to my foot—that was Sting, right?’ ‘Yeah. Yeah, that was Sting.’” n

Music // news & notes Powering a Studio in an 1820s Home Rethinking his facility’s power requirements gave Pete Morse’s studio a new lease on life

P

ete Morse is Red Vault Audio. The owneroperator does a little bit of everything in his Portland, Maine facility, from mixing, mastering and music production, to sound design and voiceover recording. He just wants to make things sound better.

The studio—a 540-square-foot, 2016 addition to Morse’s 1820s home, one of the oldest historical buildings in South Portland—gets its name from the simple fact that it’s painted bright red. “I had a commercial space,” Morse says, “but I wanted to be able to work near my family and mix into the night.”

The home is old, and naturally it has been through several renovations over the years. The basement, for example, has a stone foundation, later covered by concrete. “There is a crazy electrical system down there that I’m still trying to figure out, weeding out the old wiring and replacing it with new,” Morse says. ”The electricity was definitely affecting what I was hearing in the studio, where I have a pretty nice Hi-Fi system, with EgglestonWorks speakers, an expensive cabling system, and Jones Audio amplifiers.

“I have this thing called Hi-Fi disease,” he continues. “It’s a very serious thing. It has led me to experiment, and one of my biggest revelations was trying out different interconnects and even power cables.”

Morse consulted with Anthony Chiarella, who had previously worked with him on the purchase of his EgglestonWorks speakers and cabling options.

Chiarella told him that one of the most significant things he could do right away to “breathe life into the system” was to add a Torus Power toroidal isolation power transformer.

“I have some unusual equipment, like Jones amplifiers that run off 20-amp circuits,” Morse explains. “Also, the amount of juice I was getting to my studio was a challenge. I don’t think the amps were seeing what they should and were

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Morse shows off his Torus Power RM60 isolation transformer, among his EgglestonWorks Vigintis monitors and Jones amplifiers.

starved a little bit.”

The studio’s equipment list dictated a Torus Power RM 60 BAL, a 60-amp isolation transformer with three 20-amp output circuits.

Morse used two of the banks on the RM 60 to power each Jones amplifier.

“The amps before were fantastic, plugged directly into the wall, but they had a little bit of noise in them,” Morse says. “I did a bunch of tests, plugging them into the wall and then the RM 60 and back again, and the results were amazing. The impact of the bass with the RM 60 was just so riveting. With wall power, the transients weren’t popping out the way they did with RM 60, it was unbelievable.

“You get an unbelievable amount of separation between instruments, the stereo image increases, and transients in the lower register are able to hit hard, freeing up space….I could hear the dynamics come to life. Initially, I noticed the power it brought to my speakers and playback system, which blew me away.

Then I noticed improvement on the audio processing side of things, too, when mastering and mixing. Dynamics became clearer, the high-end smoother and a slight increase in perceived loudness. I think this had to do with

Pete Morse, owner-operator of Red Vault Audio

Red Vault Audio Gear List Red Vault Audio’s power transformer needs were determined based on the equipment he uses every day, which includes: Amplifiers: Jones PA M300s Speakers: EgglestonWorks Vigintis Preamps: Juggernaut JT656; Groove Tubes Vipre; Millennia STT-1; Great River MP2; Focusrite ISA 428; API Lunchbox Outboard gear: Dangerous: Master (separate power supply), Bax, Liason and Dangerous Compressor, 2-Bus +; Knif: Eksa (separate power supply); Vari-Mu II (tube compressor); Soma (tube EQ); L2M Mark III (separate tube power supply RTS-4A); Manley Massive Passive (tube EQ); Bricasti M7 reverb Converters: Crane Song Hedd Quantum; Dangerous Convert 8; Apogee Symphony; Avid HD IO Power Cables: Pangea Interconnects: Silver; Nordost; Shunyata Power: Torus Power RM 60 BAL the transient response really allowing more punch and separation within the elements of the mix. Therefore, the imaging became much more refined and lifelike, almost 3-D.” n

PHOTO: Brandon Todd / MSG Photos

Live

PRESENTED BY

Ready to roll at Madison Square Garden despite the foot of snow outside were (l-r): FOH engineer Matthew Walsh; monitor engineer Laurence Eaves; FOH engineer Bob Strakele; and A2 Ricardo Garcia.

A Tour of Duty with The War On Drugs

By Clive Young

P

laying New York’s Madison Square Garden for the first time is a landmark moment in any band’s career, and truthfully, the same goes for their production teams as well. For indie rockers The War On Drugs and their crew, that moment was set to finally happen in late January, only a few weeks into the group’s tour behind 2021’s I Don’t Live Here Anymore album.

Unfortunately, also scheduled to hit New York that day was a massive Nor’Easter that slammed the entire East Coast.

“There were many conversations while we were in Philly doing our show the night before,” recalled the band’s longtime monitor engineer, Laurence Eaves. “The general consensus was, if it’s safe, let’s go for it. The truck drivers and everyone were all in, so we showed up and it was Game On—a regular

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show day, but the first at MSG for the majority of us, so it was very exciting.”

Reaching that milestone was the latest success for a Grammy-winning band that’s released a string of critically acclaimed albums and toured behind them for more than a decade. The current year-long jaunt has Eaves and FOH engineer Bob Strakele, veterans of previous War On Drugs tours, returning to oversee monitor and control gear provided by Eighth Day Sound (Highland Heights, OH) with the help of A2, Ricardo Garcia.

However, due to schedule conflicts, Strakele will soon be handing over the house desk to another engineer—Matthew Walsh, who previously was Eaves’ monitor tech on the band’s last tour in 2018.

Strakele and Walsh both hail from Richmond, Virginia and already knew each other from the

local scene, but while Strakele is usually on the road with acts like Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold and Greta Van Fleet, the younger Walsh can often be found in Richmond, running his studio or doing post production audio. While he’s toured in various capacities, most recently as monitor engineer for singer/songwriter Julien Baker last fall, the jump to mixing house for an arena-filling band is substantial, so instead of Walsh getting thrown into the deep end, taking over at the end of Strakele’s stint, the tour is carrying two FOH engineers at the moment.

“On the technological side of things,” said Strakele, “Matthew’s an absolute whiz, but when you’re mixing a band with 110-plus inputs and seven people, a lot of what comes with the gig is learning their nuances and personalities as

A panoply of microphones, ranging from Josephson condensers to sE ribbons, are used to capture The War On Drugs onstage.

players, figuring out what they’re going to do at any certain moment—and that’s just something that comes with time. So every couple days, mostly when we do doubleheaders, he takes over the second show. We treat the day as if I’m not even there; he goes into the room, time-aligns the system, gets the console up, does line check, all that stuff—and so far, so good.”

The result is a unique collaboration between engineers that benefits everyone involved. “We’ve been working on separate show files,” Walsh explained, “but also discussing the overall aspects of the mix and what needs to get pushed. We’re able to address certain issues or discover, ‘Hey, this is really working well across both of our mixes,’ so we’re able to create an awesome show.”

Those mixes are being built on a Solid State Logic Live L550 console without the use of Scenes.

“I only dive into that stuff if I feel like I don’t have enough fingers to get the job done,” laughed Strakele. “Anyway, the guys have such a freestyle way of performing that I don’t think it would work.

It’s all hands on deck for the full concert, because you never know what’s gonna come at you.”

Well, most of the time, as Strakele’s tenure behind the desk has trained him to watch band leader Adam Granduciel to spot key moments before they happen. “We have a cool thing where after so many shows with him, he knows that if he makes a certain gesture or pick slide, I’m gonna effect it and treat it a certain way because I’m expecting it to come. We vibe off of each other that way. That being said, I’m not trying to make it bombastic the whole time; it’s a very dynamic band. When we do ‘Under the Pressure,’ that’s got quite a buildup and I’ll take it to 102 dB, but then the next song, we’re sitting under 90 and the crowd’s so quiet, you can hear a pin

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PHOTO: Brandon Todd / MSG Photos

drop. I try to make the mix emotional; that’s my goal with these guys.”

That’s accomplished without third-party plug-ins, it turns out, with the engineers leaning on the desk’s stock effects, and a small outboard rack outfitted with a pair of Bricasti M7s, two Empirical Labs Distressors and an SSL Fusion analog master processor. “When we were prepping at the beginning of January, we noticed that everyone had a Fusion in their rack, so we decided to try it,” said Walsh. “There’s not a lot of other mastering and finishing devices that fit such a small footprint; the stereo width controls and drive controls are the two highlights for us.”

Over at stageside, Eaves also works on an SSL Live L550, making the most of recent update features like the onboard Blitzer compressor and Sourcerer primary source enhancer as he creates mixes that the band hears via JH Audio ear monitors. “We’re using some old JH13s that I still think sound absolutely fantastic,” said Eaves. “They have a very flat, neutral response, so I can craft whatever I want from them and give the musicians more of a live experience. I want the band to feel like they’re part of the best live record they’ve ever heard.”

Helping make that happen is an 80-microphone arsenal—a mic locker more like a mic locker room.

Drums are captured by a variety of mics, starting with an EV N/D868 as the outside kick microphone and a Beyer TG D71 used inside. Drummer Charlie Hall uses a single snare drum, and the top is double-miked with an sE Electronics V Beats, used to give weight to the snare sound, and a Josephson e22 condenser mic; more e22s can be found on the toms as well. Strakele has been using DPA 4099s for underheads on Slipknot, so those are now on Hall’s kit, along with a Beyer M 160 used as a

central kit mic.

Beyer and sE mics appear again on the guitars, said Eaves: “sE kindly sent us some VR2s and I’m very impressed. I have four main channels for Adam—he’s running effectively two guitar amps with a Beyer M 201 and an sE VR2 on each. 201s give that brighter, more aggressive sound, while sEs have that smooth, thicker, ribbon sound, so as Adam’s messing with tones and progressing through the show, I can shape and push that into any direction I need to, blending between the four microphones.”

After years of always opting for a particular vocal mic, Granduciel’s voice is now nabbed by a DPA d:facto. “Eighth Day let us try one,” said Eaves, “and as soon as Adam sang a note into it, he said, ‘Okay, get a couple of these; we’re going to need them.’ It really does sound amazing; the rejection is incredible. My EQ with the DPA is almost flat, and it gives you a perfect picture of what Adam sounds like in front of that stage.”

A good-sounding rock show always sets the audience ablaze, but that January day at Madison Square Garden, it looked like there might not be much of a crowd to enjoy it. As snow piled up around the region, dumping nearly a foot on Manhattan and up to two feet in surrounding areas, most concerts around the city cancelled even as the War On Drugs team prepared for the evening inside the 20,800-seat arena.

“We were expecting maybe 1,000 people and a pretty empty large room,” said Eaves. “Instead, it was filled, so it felt great, actually. I lived in New York for a good few years, and I know that New Yorkers are maybe not always the most receptive, but that night, they were definitely ready to go!

Everyone was there for the same reason—which was to just have fun.” ■

Live // news & notes // presented by New Report Highlights Live Sound Recovery Concerns

By Clive Young

I

nternational event services and tech association PLASA recently teamed with online campaign #WeMakeEvents to conduct a global survey on how live event companies and professionals are continuing to be impacted by the pandemic. The Current Position and Future Recovery of the Live Events Sector provides an extensive breakdown of how Covid-19 has affected live events and touring around the globe, with input from pros, providers and pro-audio manufacturers in more than 40 countries. The report can be downloaded for free from plasa.org.

Conducted across the last two months of 2021, the survey gathered responses from 1,948 professionals in an effort to gain a clear picture of how the live events sector made it through 2021, and how it perceives the year ahead. Perhaps unsurprisingly, held while the Omicron variant was ramping up, the survey found manufacturers, and working freelancers in particular, with a dim view of the immediate future, though they did expect things to start turning around in late spring/early summer, 2022.

PLASA and #WeMakeEvents recently surveyed nearly 2,000 live production pros from 40 countries to see how the pandemic has affected live events and touring around the globe.

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Given that PLASA is largely a European and UK-oriented association, the report naturally slants toward those markets, and many sample quotes from those surveyed blame Brexit as much as Covid for their current employment prospects. Nonetheless, the statistics and opinions given in the report echo situations facing the North American corner of the industry and are worth noting.

The report found 45 percent of businesses surveyed had taken on debt, while the lack of work left many freelancers with little choice but to find employment in other industries, resulting in an exodus of 64 percent of the work force.

With that in mind, it’s not surprising that 74 percent of employers surveyed had their doubts about the availability of skilled workers as they began looking to staff up events and tours for the summer. At the time of the survey, 69 percent of companies reported a shortage of available crew, riggers, engineers and technicians.

Compounding the problem, an estimated 50 percent of available freelancers have not returned full time to the industry, with 17 percent migrating into film and television work. While the U.S. has

a robust audio education infrastructure that is helping develop the next generation of suitable audio pros, other parts of the world have fewer audio programs, and providers surveyed in those regions are less hopeful about new graduates being fully prepared for working in a professional environment.

As a result, there is no quick solution, particularly as 38 percent of companies reporting said they would have to take on trainees or new entry-level workers as they readied for the summer season.

PLASA noted that audio vendors felt there was a “real risk of not meeting the increasing audience demand for live entertainment and cultural events throughout 2022.”

Respondents to the survey did, however, note that the exodus had resulted in a rare opportunity for experienced freelancers to move ahead to higher levels of responsibility, as there are generally more roles available than people to fill them. The caveat, however, is that many of those roles are not paying as much as they have in years past. One respondent quoted in the report noted, “Pay and conditions are sufficiently bad that it is very difficult to be able to justify returning. I have applied for multiple positions which pay less than working fulltime for a supermarket.” If more seasoned pros don’t return to the workforce, that may provide opportunities for some, but it will also raise safety concerns, as comparatively inexperienced people may wind up having to fill positions with less training under their belts than their predecessors.

Despite the gloomy outlook, the report also noted that the pros surveyed expected to see the current situation turn around in seven-to-18 months—meaning from May 2022 onward. With pent-up demand for shows from audiences, the pervasive adoption of vaccines and boosters by the public, and the increased opportunity for outdoor events during the warmer months, that expectation is one that all pros in the industry can agree on, regardless of where they are on the globe. ■

Live // news & notes // presented by Astronomy Museum Gets Immersive Sound China’s Shanghai Astronomy Museum is a stunning new 39,000-square-meter museum devoted to the celestial sciences, designed by Ennead Architects of New York. Featuring three main exhibition zones centered around dominant architectural features—Oculus, Inverted Dome and Sphere—the museum also has two main venues that help visitors learn about the wonders of the sky via educational programs that make use of Meyer Sound immersive audio systems.

Occupying the interior of the Sphere is the 8K Dome Theater, which hosts an audience of 250 for a 20-minute The Shanghai Astronomy Museum’s 8K program covering 4.6 billion years of cosmic evolution.

Dome Theater uses 32 Meyer Sound UPJ-1P Designed using Meyer Sound’s MAPP 3D system design loudspeakers to cover up to 250 people inside. and prediction tool, the theater’s immersive audio system uses 32 Meyer Sound UPJ-1P loudspeakers that encircle the 20-meter-tall dome in three tiers. A cluster of four 900-LFC subwoofers for low-frequency effects. Loudspeaker optimization is provided by one deliver low-frequency emphasis, while three-dimensional spatial sound Galaxy 408 and two Galaxy 816 Network Platforms.

“The Shanghai Astronomy Museum is currently the largest museum trajectories are created using the Spacemap feature in CueStation. Up to 64 tracks of audio program source are available from the DWTRX recording/ focused on the astronomical sciences in the world, and we are honored to be part of the project,” says Zhu Sihai, managing director of Shanghai playback module of the D-Mitri digital audio platform.

Elsewhere in the museum, the Optical Planetarium re-creates Broad Future Electro Technology. “The linear sound reproduction and constellations and planetary movements with a film about nature and immersive technologies offered by Meyer Sound help make the experience the universe. Its audio system encircles the audience with 36 UPJunior here unique and breathtaking. We expect to bring this heightened level of loudspeakers on four levels, again augmented by four 900-LFC subwoofers experience to more venues around the country.” ■

St. Louis Muny Enters The Matrix The Muny outdoor musical amphitheater is a mainstay of St. Louis summers, hosting theatrical productions in the massive Forest Park venue that seats 11,000. With audio provided by New Jersey’s Masque Sound, the audio system centers around gear from Sennheiser, Neumann, Radial, DiGiCo, Meyer Sound and Eventide, and this past season, the venue added a pair of Allen & Heath’s AHM-64 audio matrixes for speaker processing and time management over Dante.

Sound designer David Patridge specified AHM-64 as the audio hub for the venue, replacing The Muny’s older distribution system with the nextgeneration 96kHz 64x64 audio matrix processors. Utilizing the 64x64 channel Dante option card allows AHM-64 to connect to amplifiers, microphones and other devices on a Dante network, including thirdparty audio consoles within the existing system design. AHM-64 deploys FPGA technology and a 96 kHz sample rate, and provides an 8-band PEQ, gate, compressor and delay on all input channels, as well as 8-band PEQ / 30-band GEQ, compressor, ANC, source selector, limiter and delay on all zone outputs.

“The AHM-64 user interface is extremely intuitive and clear,” says

St. Louis’ Muny is an 11,000-seat outdoor amphitheater that originally opened in 1917.

Patridge. “With AHM System Manager on a Mac or PC, we can easily handle sound management, paging, audio distribution, and speaker processing roles as needed. It’s a great system that we’ve put at the heart of the audio design at The Muny.” ■

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on the cover

Getting to Know

Guy Chambers Songwriter, producer, studio owner with a penchant for vintage sound takes delivery of the first new Sound Techniques desk in 45 years

PHOTO: Mark Danišík

By Steve Harvey

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G

uy Chambers, one of the U.K.’s most successful living songwriters, has a discerning eye to go with a dependable ear for melody. He also has an ear for audio quality, as demonstrated by the vintage and modern outboard gear and instruments arrayed around the mix position in Studio 1 at Sleeper Sounds, his production facility in West London.

“There are a lot of beautiful things in my studio; a lot of beautiful instruments, guitars and keyboards, and works of art and photos,” Chambers says.

Now there is one more aesthetically—and sonically—pleasing object in the room: a 16-channel ZR SOHO mixing desk from Sound Techniques, the first of its kind in the world. “I wanted something very simple and that looks beautiful. I also wanted to find something with a history,” he adds.

History is important to Chambers, certainly.

The new console replaces a vintage EMI TG12345 that was in Studio 3 at Abbey Road Studios before being outfitted with wheels to become part of a mobile rig that visited the country’s churches and halls to record orchestral music.

“One of the reasons I bought it was that my dad, a flute player, was in the London Philharmonic,” says Chambers, adding that he most likely was recorded through that very desk.

Modern console options were considered, including several of the usual suspects. “I also

looked at vintage desks,” he explains. “But to me, this Sound Techniques desk has all the qualities of a vintage desk without any of the headaches.

So I thought, ‘Why not get a new desk?’ Part of the consideration for me was the fact that Sound Techniques has backup in England.”

VINTAGE BECOMES NEW You could be forgiven for thinking that Sound Techniques is a vintage brand. The company first emerged back in 1965, when Geoff Frost and John Wood, former staff engineers at Levy’s Sound Studio in London, hand-built a one-of-akind mixing console at their new studio, Sound Techniques, in an old dairy near King’s Road in Chelsea.

Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others flocked to the studio, attracted by the sound quality of the productions coming out of the facility. As word spread, other London studios, including Trident and De Lane Lea, clamored to buy their own Sound Techniques A Range desks, as they were named, and a brand was born.

After a pretty good run, the Sound Techniques studio and manufacturing operation closed in 1976 when Frost and Wood were unable to renew the lease on their building, which was soon taken over by Olympic Studios. No functioning A Range consoles remain in operation today, so the Sound Techniques name might easily have faded away.

Guy Chambers at the 16-channel Sound Techniques ZR SOHO console in Studio 1 at his own Sleeper Sounds production facility, West London.

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PHOTO: Mark Danišík

Classic Telefunken and PYE compressors sit atop Studio 1’s wrap-around racks, which are stocked with an array of vintage and modern equipment.

The ceiling clouds were inspired by the acoustic treatment at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Chambers’ favorite venue in the world for classical music.

PHOTO: Mark Danišík

Drums are typically set up in one corner of the room, but Chambers is thinking of building a drum booth.

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Then in 2015, U.S. studio owner and English console aficionado Danny White and partners acquired the company and the associated intellectual property directly from Frost. White, based in Southern California, has re-engineered the mechanical aspects of the desk while producing a faithful, modern reproduction with updated electronics.

“To be a part of reestablishing one of England’s greatest audio brands has been a once in a lifetime privilege,” White says. “With Gareth Connor, Graham Miles and Neil McCombie in West Yorkshire working on the audio, and our group in the States working the mechanical, we created something special. What you see is all American. What’s under the hood, is all England.”

White heralded the return of the brand at the 2018 NAMM Show by displaying a huge 48-input ZR prototype board. Sleeper Sounds’ ZR SOHO is the first full production model to come off the line.

STARTING WITH SONGS Although Chambers has worked with a long list of artists, including Rufus Wainwright, Carole King, Hillary Duff, Kylie Minogue, Diana Ross, Tom Jones and dozens of others, his name is not that well known in the United States.

Elsewhere, Chambers came to prominence primarily through his collaborations with Robbie Williams, a former member of U.K. pop superstars Take That. Williams and Chambers first worked together in 1997 on the singer’s debut solo album, Life Thru a Lens, which went to Number 1 in the U.K. powered by the singles “Angels” and “Let Me Entertain You.” While recognition in the U.S. has largely eluded Williams, too, his next four albums—all collaborations with Chambers—also hit the top spot in the U.K. and variously charted at Number 1 in Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. Those first five albums are among the six Williams releases listed in the Top 100 best-selling U.K. albums of all time.

Chambers picked up an armful of awards for those early projects with Williams, including three Brits, three Ivor Novello awards and a Q Classics Songwriter award. One Novello was for “Angels,” honored in 2005 as the Song of the Decade. That same year, the British public voted “Angels” as the song they would most like to have played at their funeral. “It comes from a

tradition of hymn writing,” Chambers has said of the composition.

The pair went their separate ways in 2002 but reunited in 2013 and have worked together numerous times since. Williams was one of the first artists to benefit from the new Sound Techniques desk. “I used it on his next album, which hasn’t come out yet, which I produced,” Chambers reveals. “It has a huge number of musicians on it, which was a real joy—everyone playing together and trying out different things.

That’s my favorite way of making music, but I don’t often get a chance to do it.”

Dua Lipa used the ZR SOHO desk on her new record, he also reports. “She was in my studio for about seven weeks. Sam Fender is in there at the moment, for two months. He started on his own, with different writers, and now he has his band in there with tons of gear and they’re doing it live, too. That’s another good thing about my room, that you can have a band set up and everyone can see everyone else. It works really well, especially when you record drums.

That’s when it really comes into its own. The drum sounds I’m getting now are really quite something.”

studio,” he recalls. “There were only two of us using the 16-track studio at that time, and I was there for four years, so I got to use it a lot. That’s where I started to learn to produce.”

He’s had many studio setups since. “My first was a Fostex 4-track cassette,” he says. “Then I had an 8-track Tascam with ADATs and Cubase, back in the ’90s. I think those Tascams are fantastic; I got pretty good results from that.” He still has the Tascam TSR-8, he says, but it needs to be repaired.

His work with Williams led to bigger and better production facilities. “Once I got some

GUY IN THE STUDIO Chambers’ curiosity about all things audio started early in life, and his fascination with studios from about the age of 15. His dad’s work as a musician moved the family from London to Liverpool when Chambers was young, and while still a schoolboy, he joined a local band, Hambi and the Dance, on keyboards. At various times during the band’s relatively short existence, the lineup also included members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, China Crisis and The Mission.

The band, signed to Virgin, spent their album advance outfitting The Pink, a now legendary studio that was central to the Liverpool music scene of the day. Opened in the 1980s, the studio hosted early recording sessions by local bands such as Dead or Alive, A Flock of Seagulls and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The house engineer at The Pink, Steve Power, just three years older than Chambers, became his mentor in the studio. The pair later reunited to coproduce Robbie Williams’ first five solo albums.

It was at London’s Guildhall School of Music, however, where Chambers went to study composition and piano at age 18, that he really honed his production chops. “It was the only academy at that time that had a proper recording

success with Robbie Williams, I got a professional studio at Mayfair Studios in Primrose Hill,” which is just north of Regent’s Park in London.

“I had my own room there for quite a long time, but sadly that building got sold. Then I moved around the corner to another building in Primrose Hill, opposite Primal Scream’s studio.

That’s when I bought the EMI desk. That was a happy time; it was a really nice studio.”

BUILDING SLEEPER SOUNDS Sleeper Sounds opened nine years ago in a neighborhood Chambers selected for its

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PHOTO: Mark Danišík

Chambers personalized his Sound Techniques ZR SOHO with the inclusion of a compressor, lower left in the desk’s center section.

Sleeper Sounds houses a variety of instruments, including a Philips Philicorda organ and a vibraphone.

Discovering Sound Techniques Chambers was first hipped to the new ZR desk by English drummer Jeremy Stacey, who had recently come off tour with King Crimson.

“Jeremy heard [a demo desk] in Nashville and said, ‘If you ever sell the EMI, think about Sound Techniques; I think you’ll really like it.’ He knows my taste in sonics,” Chambers says, adding that Stacey works frequently with producer and engineer Ethan Johns. “And Ethan has heard a lot of good things about [the desk], so he’s coming to use my studio and try it out.”

Chambers followed Stacey’s recommendation and ordered the console before he had even heard it. “I committed to it in January 2021, so I did take a bit of a gamble,” he admits.

But he knew the gamble had paid off as soon as he received one of the demo ZR sidecars to test-drive. “The sound was exactly what I was hoping it to be—really focused, in your face and flattering. That’s what I want from a desk.”

He also wanted a bit of personalization, sonically and aesthetically: “I asked for the stereo compressor; that was an add-on. I obviously got involved with the colors, the leather and the type of wood, which is teak. It’s really beautiful.”

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proximity to other studios and for the community. “I like the area very much. It’s one of the few bohemian parts of London left.”

The building is a standalone freehold, a rare commodity in London, especially with parking.

No one has ever grumbled about the noise. “It doesn’t touch any other building, so we’ve never had a complaint,” he says. More importantly, perhaps, “It’s got a lot of natural light, which for me is essential, because it can be quite gray here.

You can see the sunsets from my studio, which is really nice over West London.”

Producer, mixer and sound designer Richard Flack basically built the studio, Chambers acknowledges. “I produced Robbie Williams with him, and he also builds studios. It was Richard’s idea for the island in the middle of the room,” encircling the mix position and housing much of the recording equipment and keyboards. “He built the vocal booth, and we’re thinking of building a drum booth.”

The ceiling clouds in the Country Life-like interior of Sleeper’s spacious Studio 1 control room are not only visually arresting but also acoustically effective, he says. “I’ve been going to the Royal Albert Hall since I was a kid. It’s my favorite venue in the world for classical music.

I’ve always thought the hanging saucers [there] are particularly fantastic, so I thought having a little bit of that in my studio was a nice idea—

and they work really well.”

With a long history of putting together personal studios, Chambers has, not surprisingly, amassed quite a collection of audio gear. Just a few of the vintage equipment highlights include Telefunken, Neve and Cadac mic preamps; Neve and PYE compressors; AKG and Great British Spring reverbs; and an enviable selection of mics, including a variety of Neumann U 47 FET, U 87 Ai and U 89 models, as well as examples from Telefunken, Coles and STC. The instrument list, especially the keyboards, is no less impressive. Chambers replaced an aging Mellotron with a potted plant, he admits, laughing, but there’s a new digital Mellotron M4000D available, as well as a 1922 Steinway Model D grand piano, a Hammond B3 organ and a Hohner Clavinet D6, among many others.

“I’ve been collecting for 25 years, and I still look out for stuff now,” he says, admitting that there is one unicorn on his list. “I’m always looking for a celeste; they’re very, very difficult to find in the U.K.” You might expect that for someone who spends all his time writing and producing with other artists, Chambers would want constant access to such a carefully curated collection of gear, but he is happy to share. “I actually have four rooms in my building,” he says. “When Studio 1 is being used, I go down to Studio 2.

So quite often I’m in a small room, but I don’t

PHOTO: Mark Danišík

Management By Miloco Sleeper Sounds Studios’ third-party bookings are managed by Miloco, which began as a single London studio in 1984 and now boasts a directory of more than 170 facilities worldwide.

The two dozen or so studios that Miloco works with in the U.S. range from Bear Tracks and Blackbird, through EastWest and Jungle City, to Sound Kitchen and Welcome to 1979.

Chambers has been working with Miloco for the past eight years, during which time Sleeper Sounds has hosted a who’s-who of music royalty, including Coldplay, Frank Ocean, Ed Sheeran, Nile Rodgers, Annie Lennox and James Blunt, to name a few. “Miloco manages the money,” he says. “That, for me, is worth their cut because I don’t have to worry about getting money from any of the labels. And quite often they get the money up front. It’s been a good relationship.”

The Miloco organization also encompasses design and construction division Miloco Builds,

new and used equipment seller Miloco Gear, drum sample library expert Drumdrops, and a new producer management division, Miloco Management.

“I used to engineer my sessions when I was a lot younger, but I don’t really like doing it now; I like just concentrating on the music. So I also use their engineers quite a lot,” Chambers says.

“That’s very handy for me. I get to meet young, talented people who have fresh ideas and keep me from becoming too set in my ways. I like having the energy of somebody who hasn’t got all the baggage that I’ve got. They’re very good at mentoring new talent at Miloco. I like doing that, too; I’m always mentoring people.”

WHAT’S NEXT? After 35 years on the pop merry-go-round, Chambers has been expanding his horizons.

“I find the whole co-writing thing now quite dispiriting,” he says. “I don’t really enjoy it anymore. I’m talking about trying to write a hit that’s going to go on the radio in the U.K. That’s not something that excites me, and I don’t think it plays to my strengths, so I’m at a point in my career where I’m focusing now on musicals.

“I did a musical with Robbie Williams, Boy in the Dress,” he continues. The show, adapted from the book by David Walliams, co-creator of the BBC’s Little Britain comedy series, debuted at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2019. “And I’m working on another one now. I’m more interested in the theater and getting my music out that way.”

Songs written and co-written by Chambers have also been featured on TV and in film, from 1997’s Picture Perfect to 2020’s Ted Lasso. “I did a film last year called Christmas Number One. It did really well in this country,” he reports. “It’s a Christmas film, but there’s a lot of comedy, so I could write funny songs as well, which I’m quite good at. That was really good fun.”

In short, he says, “I’d rather work on things that I really feel I can give value to.” n

PHOTO: Mark Danišík

mind; I like sharing my space. I like the fact that it inspires other artists.”

Movie one-sheets and prints of The Beatles and Serge Gainsbourg look down on the 1922 Steinway Model D concert grand piano in the corner of the room.

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PHOTO: Tom Ham

W

hen Kenny Beats traveled to England in February 2021 to work with the reigning kings of punk rock, IDLES, at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath for their latest album, he had one of the most productive 10 days of quarantine on record.

Two key things happened during this quarantine period for the producer, who is known for his work with Vince Staples, Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty and many others. First, IDLES sent Beats a playlist of reference music that was 27 hours long and included favorite artists, songs they are inspired by or love the sound of, and songs they don’t like but love the sound of. Beats didn’t listen to anything else for the duration of the quarantine, and he credits the playlist for setting him, and the band, up for success.

Second, prior to tracking, Beats spent a lot of time at Real World exploring the facilities and their capabilities with two extremely wellversed engineers—Oli Middleton, an alum of Real World, and Chris Fullard, IDLES front of house engineer—discussing a plan of action.

“Because of what the band gave me as examples, I had a pretty clear game plan for diversity, variety and versatility,” Beats says. “I

IDLES Finds Room to

Explore at Real World Punk favorites team up with producer Kenny Beats to push artistic and sonic boundaries on ‘CRAWLER’

By Lily Moayeri

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IDLES is, from left: Joe Talbot, Jon Beavis, Adam Devonshire, Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan.

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From left: guitarist Lee Kiernan, bassist Adam Devonshire and guitarist Mark Bowen in The Big Room.

knew we weren’t going to be able to set up the way they had for all their other albums, with everyone in the room playing together. We had to nail many different pockets and sub-genres in different stylings for a band that, up to this point, people have been trying to put in a box. We had to make sure we weren’t in that box from a recording standpoint so that they could get even more creative from a songwriting standpoint.”

Beats’ relationship with IDLES started with him sliding into their DMs on Instagram.

This led to producing their cover of Gang of Four’s “Damaged Goods,” with some additional production on their previous album, Ultra Mono.

The band later revealed to Beats that this was their vetting process that led to the collaboration on CRAWLER. IDLES guitarist and co-producer Mark Bowen says, “[Beats] was able to keep everything in control and headed where we intended, rather than getting lost in impractical production ideas. He constantly asked us questions, which caused us to ask questions of ourselves about where we wanted the album to go and how we wanted to present it.

“We wanted to push the boundaries of what the expectations of the band are from our listeners’ point of view,” he continues, “but also from our point of view. Can we write

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an electronic song, a slow acoustic number, something without any drums, a caustic hip hop song, and still maintain that sense of IDLES?” Bowen references Portishead’s album Third as the key touchstone for CRAWLER, with production at the forefront. As Bowen points out, Portishead has released three albums in a 30-year career while IDLES has released four albums in four years. By writing, recording and releasing music at a breakneck speed, the group hasn’t necessarily had the time to evolve much, which makes CRAWLER’s sonic evolution that much more impressive.

STEPPING INTO REAL WORLD CRAWLER turned out to be Beats’ first experience working completely outside the box. He credits Middleton and Fullard for their willingness to demonstrate the ease of using Real World’s extensive selection of outboard gear, and he noted the superior quality of the resulting recording.

“I’ve never had a more capable experience,” states Beats. “Every single thing I would reach out for from Soundtoys or Waves or Universal Audio, the real thing is right there at Real World. When you have the equipment and the engineering team who can set up 20 mics in 10 minutes with all vintage gear running through

Guitarist Mark Bowen takes a break in front of what IDLES came to find was a main attraction: The Big Room outboard rack.

Previously, it was songwriting, creativity and ideas that separated the songs, not the sonics, Beats says. On CRAWLER, the songs sound completely different from each other.

To record such disparate tracks but make them fit together sonically, Beats and IDLES compartmentalized the songs. They had a group of songs that had a vintage Motown, old soul, band feel because of singular characteristics. They had a “heavy” group of intense, gnarly songs like “The Wheel” and “Car Crash.” They had a group of songs that are ethereal and beat-free and don’t sound like a rock band at all, like “MTT 420 RR,” and another group of proto-IDLES songs, including “King Snake” and “Meds.”

“We decided that for three days, we’re going to record the songs in the heavy group,” Beats explains. “We’re going to set up the drums with the most amount of microphones, extremely HD. We’re going to use new guitars. If we’re doing the Motown group, we’re going to use a drum kit from the ’50s and use six microphones. We’re only going to use guitars pre-1970. We’re only going to use pedals and amps that existed pre-1970s.

We’re going to use recording techniques that they PHOTO: Aris Chatman

PHOTO: Aris Chatman

unbelievable preamps into an unbelievable desk, the idea of using a fake distortion reverb is stupid. They have a plate and a spring in a chamber. It really educated me as a producer. I learned so much during the recording process.”

“Real World has a lot of options when it comes to physical outboard and gear that people are so used to using plug-in versions of,” concurs Middleton. “It’s a real luxury being able to reach for these tools to get the sounds that the band were after without making compromises.”

Tracking took place in The Big Room at Real World, with most mics plugged into original Neve 1073s and other vintage preamps, then into the famed 72-channel SSL 9000K console. Also coming into play were an array of compressors and effects, including Distressors, vintage Pultecs, LA-2As, 1176s, AMS RMX16, Lexicon 480L, Space Echo, EMT140 and BX25.

For Beats, every single sound on CRAWLER, from the extremes of “Car Crash” to the tambourine and piano on “The Beachland Ballroom,” was about getting the best version of it, no matter how many takes or how many different instruments it took to find it.

would have back then. That was my whole game plan for this album, to give the band that variety.”

SPACE FOR DRUMS AND GUITAR Real World’s scenic setting and state-of-theart, well-appointed rooms provided an array of choice locations for IDLES to set up, and they took advantage of them all. A key decision was to record drums in The Wood Room for a “lively but natural sound,” says Middleton. “That room sounds beautiful on anything, but especially big-

Reduce an entire microphone section down to two channels Reduce an entire microphone section down to two channels.

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touring with IDLES for his miking techniques on Bowen’s and Lee Kiernan’s guitar amps.

Says Middleton, “We used a combination of AKG C 414, Xaudia BM9, Sontronics Halo and Sennheiser MD421 mics on the guitar cabinets, usually two on each amp. The amps were all in isolated booths so we could overdub if necessary.” They were.

For the overdubs, Fullard says, “We set up three mics and a DI for Bowen’s guitars: BM9, AKG 414, Oktava MK-012. On [Kiernan’s] guitars, we did the three mics and a DI: BM9, M88, AKG 414. We used Neve preamps for all channels. The DIs on the guitar, we used as part of the sum of the overall guitar sound, not as a re-amp channel.”

Additional guitar tracking was done at Holy Mountain Studios, where the demos were recorded. There, they recorded through an API 1608 32-channel console, making full use of its preamps and EQ. For both Bowen’s and Kiernan’s amps, they used Royer R-121, Oktava MK-012 and Sennheiser MD 421 microphones.

Co-producer Kenny Beats in front of the guitar wall in The Wood Room, where they also recorded drums. Inset: Guitarist Lee Kiernan lays down a part.

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PHOTO: Aris Chatman

PHOTO: Aris Chatman

sounding drums. We had a bunch of room mics to get as much life out of the drums as a starting point before any processing.”

A 24-track tape machine was used strictly for recording drums, and they used every channel.

“We sent a pre-fader submix of the drums to a Thermionic Culture Vulture and recorded the return to tape,” Middleton explains. “This was recorded along with the drums in real time.

Likewise with the snare plate, an EMT 140, on some tracks. We were using a Studer 2-inch machine for all the drum channels. We ran the Record level pretty hot to tape and got some really cool sounds from it. We used the taperecorded drums for most tracks, but we kept the straight-to-digital recordings, too, in case we preferred the drum tones that hadn’t been recorded via the tape machine.”

Quite a bit of the guitar tracking was done in The Wood Room, as well, taking advantage of the room mics to add “life and space to the sounds.” Middleton attributes Fullard’s time

Also used at Holy Mountain was a selection of vintage amps: Sunn Model T, Hiwatt, Mesa Boogie combo and Orange.

RECORDING VOCALS Vocalist Joe Talbot recorded his parts for different songs in different locations, both at Real World and at Holy Mountain. “Sometimes vibe, sometimes sound, sometimes just a change of scenery,” Beats says about the decision to change it up. “He wanted to feel like he was getting out of his comfort zone just as much as the band were.” “[Talbot] ended up doing most vocals with [Beats] in The Big Room, in front of the mixing console, looking out the windows across the pond,” says Middleton. “For a couple of tracks, like ‘Wizz,’ we used the main space in The Big Room where all the guitars and bass were tracked. This was the most ‘live’ setup.

“Most of the tracking was a Shure SM7B into a Distressor or LA-2A, or a combination of both,” he continues. “We tried a Neumann U87 on some of these vocals, but the capsule kept blowing out on some of his louder, more aggressive stuff, which was obviously a massive issue when trying to capture full takes.

“Then we did some of the more delicate stuff like ‘MTT 420 RR,’ ‘Progress’ and ‘The Beachland Ballroom,’ for instance, in The Wood Room with me and [Beats]. [Talbot] sang these with the U87 into a Neve 1073 and then an LA-2A, which we had to ride a fair bit because of how dynamic his performance can be. ‘The Beachland Ballroom’ was only one full take, so we were super-relieved to capture that cleanly.”

Fullard adds, “We also did a few vocal bits at Holy Mountain. The vocal chain for that was the SM7B, a Distressor, and we used a Chandler Looking at the glass windows of The Big Room from across the pond at the Real World Studios complex.

Remember Tape Machines?

then we can tell them what else we need to do.

By boosting the confidence first, everybody’s ready to work hard.”

“Writing four albums in such quick succession meant that we could pay attention as we were going through, and retain a lot of the knowledge,” says Bowen. “We know what we want from recording an album. We know what we want from producers and engineers.

We know what can be achieved. We know what aspects of rock ‘n’ roll we can ignore and what we can use in the modern world and open new doors and novel approaches to stuff, and what we can get out of that. It’s really exciting. I can’t wait ’til the next project.” n

Vocalist Joe Talbot most often worked in front of the SSL, looking out at the pond from The Big Room, here with Beats in the foreground. Inset: Depending on the intended sonics of the song, he would also sing in the middle of The Wood Room.

IDLES took advantage of Real World’s Studer 2-inch analog tape machine to record drums in The Big Room. Producer Kenny Beats was so blown away by the analog options at Real World Studios that for the first time in a long while, we decided to publish a 24-track mic input list:

PHOTO: Aris Chatman

preamp instead of the API’s pre’s.”

In the two weeks of recording, and week-anda-half of refining at Real World, IDLES and their recording team spend 12 hours a day recording.

Beats and Bowen spent an additional two hours a day listening to what they had done and discussing sonics and songwriting with the engineers.

“Every single night, we would sit there and say, ‘Did we hit the mark?’” Beats says. “What can we do to process and mix this stuff, put some panning in there, some effects of vocals, run things through echoes or tape delays or whatever it is? While the band is gone, let’s do all the work that makes stuff pretty, so every morning when the band gets back, they feel like it sounds great,

1. Kick In - AKG D12 (also a Shure Beta 52 depending on the kit we used) 2. Kick Out - Neumann Fet47 3. Kick Sub - Yamaha NS10 Sub 4. Snare Top 1 - Shure SM57 5. Snare Top 2 - Oktava MK-012 6. Snare Bottom - Shure SM57 7. HH - AKG C451 8. Tom1 - AKG C414 9. Tom2 - AKG C414 10. Tom3 - AKG C414 11. OH Centre L - AEA R88 12. OH Centre R - AEA R88 13. OH Spaced L - Elam 251 14. OH Spaced R - Elam 251 15. Ride - AKG C451 16. Mono Room- RCA DX77 17. Room 1 L - Coles 4038 18. Room 1 R - Coles 4038 19. Room 2 Mezzanine L - Schoeps CMC6 with MK2 Capsules 20. Room 2 Mezzanine R - Schoeps CMC6U with MK2 Capsules 21. Culture Vulture Return L 22. Culture Vulture Return R 23. Spare 24. Plate Reverb

PHOTO: Aris Chatman

PHOTO: Aris Chatman

Kenny Beats at the SSL 9000K, looking at Pro Tools, late at night in February 2021.

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Tech

new products

Meyer Sound PANTHER Line Array

Meyer Sound has unveiled Panther, its new flagship linear line array, designed to be a compact, lightweight, energy-efficient loudspeaker system for live event and installed sound. The three different cabinet models— Panther-M, Panther-W and Panther-L— comprise a system said to offer nearly the same acoustic output as Meyer’s larger, heavier Leo while occupying the smaller form factor of the existing Lyon line array loudspeaker.

Panther-M and Panther-W are 95 and 110 degrees, respectively, while Panther-L features an all-new long throw horn with an 80-degree horizontal pattern.

Panther weighs 150 pounds and draws less current than the previous generation flagship line array loudspeaker. It is also characterized as “substantially lower [in cost]” due to new designs and the materials incorporated into them. Sporting an Avnu Alliance-certified dual analog/Milan AVB network input module, Panther is the world’s first Milan-certified line array loudspeaker, offering users multiple signal distribution options, with the always-

Shure SRH840 and SRH440 Headphones Shure has introduced the second-generation of its SRH440A and SRH840A Headphones. The new models incorporate design upgrades, such as reportedly lower harmonic distortion and more precise left-right driver matching. The SRH840A offers a tailored frequency response powered by 40 mm neodymium dynamic drivers, while the

active parallel analog input assuring backward compatibility with existing hardware. Each cabinet comes standard with an IP55 weather protection rating, and uses Neutrik TOP series signal and powerCON connectors. No rain hood is required.

The electronics module in Panther features a four-channel Class D amplifier with advanced power factor correction and higher voltage rails. The loudspeaker itself is built around new,

longer-excursion 12-inch low-frequency cone drivers and new 3-inch compression drivers.

Combined with a new LF port design, Panther is said to have a maximum peak output greater than 150 dB SPL. The Panther loudspeaker is currently shipping, and United Kingdom-based rental company Major Tom Ltd., one of the initial launch partners, has announced it will deploy Panther on Ed Sheeran’s 2022 “Mathematics” Tour.

wide, padded headband and collapsible design are intended to provide a more comfortable listening experience. The SRH440A delivers frequency response appropriate for podcasting, home recording, and critical editing and mixing.

Both sets of headphones sport a new industrial design with matte finish; a straight cable is now standard for both models as well.

to every individual and is called the HeadRelated Transfer Function (HRTF). Aural ID calculates the user’s personal HRTF, and then uses it to enable precise rendering of audio in any direction. The plug-in is available from the Genelec Cloud platform.

Genelec Aural ID Plug-In Genelec has made its Aural ID software technology available in a DAW plug-in format, allowing users to create a customized HRTF of themselves to aid headphone monitoring of stereo or immersive audio via headphones.

Using provided video footage of a user, Genelec analyzes the way the user’s head, external ear and upper body affect and color the audio arriving from all directions. This effect is unique

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Audio-Technica ATND1061 Beamforming Ceiling Array Microphone Audio-Technica’s ATND1061 is intended for use in meeting spaces and conference rooms.

Roughly the size of a wireless access point, the ATND1061 can be used singly or in multiples to capture people spread around the room.

A total of six individual output channels are provided, which can be configured with up to 32 user-defined microphone pickup zones, making it usable in a variety of room sizes. The ATND1061’s voice activity detection technology reportedly enables it to discern between a voice and unwanted noises such as paper shuffling.

It also offers onboard DSP, including automix, acoustic echo cancellation, noise reduction, automatic gain control and a four-band EQ.

Yamaha VSP-2 Speech Privacy System Yamaha’s VSP-2 Speech Privacy System is intended for use in offices to reduce human voice intelligibility with customizable sound options. Components include the VSP-CU2 control unit with user-selectable sound types and volume levels, supporting two, four or eight VSP-SP2 speakers. From the control unit, users can power the system on and off, select their preferred sound effect audio and environmental sound, and set the performance and volume level for a personalized room environment. The speakers can be mounted with the included hardware and speaker cable (non-plenum rated).

The back of the control unit features a speaker switch (2, 4 or 8) and four EQ options based on speaker configuration.

Antelope Audio Zen Q Synergy Core Interface The Zen Q Synergy Core is a new 14 x 10 buspowered USB-C audio interface. The unit offers AD/DA conversion with a dynamic range of up to 127 dBA; recording, mixing and playback at up to

passive monitoring solution. The floor monitor sports two bass reflex-loaded 12-inch neodymium woofers, a single horn-loaded 6-inch mid-range woofer and a 1-inch compression driver, all situated inside a compact Baltic birch cabinet.

The ESM312 reportedly delivers 133 dB sustained

output, and 136 dB peak. The compact, wedgeshaped design incorporates rear-mounted flipout stands to allow for 35 or 45-degree angles as required. A specially designed acoustic fabric covering inside the grille protects against liquids, while a polymer coating is used to safeguard the outside.

TASCAM Mixcast 4 Podcast Station Update TASCAM’s V1.20 firmware update for the Mixcast 4 Podcast Station adds new features such as global voice effects for multiple mic inputs.

There’s also a new input gain control for the USB, Bluetooth and 3.5mm (1/8th-inch) Auxiliary input, commonly used for accommodating

PreSonus Studio One 5.5 Update Studio One 5.5 is the latest update of PreSonus’ long-running DAW. Under version 5.5, the Project Page now provides full track volume, master volume and insert-effects plug-in parameter automation. Users can write automation in realtime, while Clip Gain Envelopes have also been added to the Project Page, enabling users to fix gain issues while mastering without resorting to dynamics plug-ins. The new Listen Bus on the Project Page lets users monitor through roomcorrection plug-ins or headphone monitoring tools without affecting the Master output. Also, the Track Transform feature allows users to free up processing power for complex mastering chains without losing the ability to make adjustments later.

24-bit/192 kHz; and a proprietary 64-bit AFCTM technology and Jitter Management algorithm.

Connectivity is provided via two Combo XLR jacks; there is a stereo Monitor output and a separate Line Out pairing to connect another set of studio monitors or external outboard gear. It also comes with 37 bundled analogmodeled effects, providing equalizers, dynamic processors, guitar amps, reverb and more.

KV2 ESM312 Stage Monitor KV2 Audio has expanded its range of stage monitors with the arrival of the ESM312 3-way,

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outside calls or to serve as an additional input.

The update also provides for automatic mute on monitor out when microphone inputs are active.

Other changes include that the audio level display is now indicated in dB; the audio ducking control can be now applied to the sound pads for automatic ducking; and front panel channel buttons are assigned as a Jump function.

patterns (omni, wide cardioid, cardioid, supercardioid and figure-8), four different lowcuts and four attenuation settings can also be selected on the remote. The unit features two XLR outputs with Neutrik connectors. The “Mix” output delivers the ratio set with the Circuit control, a combination of the tube and FET circuit, while the “FET” output delivers 100 percent FET.

Techivation T-De-Esser Pro Debuts Techivation has introduced the T-De-Esser Pro audio cleanup plug-in. While typically used to de-ess voices, the plug-in can also be used for cleanup and sound-shaping work. The plug-in includes Side Chain Frequency Modes, which offer four specific side-chained frequency bands

Tracker will sound the same as plugging directly into a favorite amp.

Black Lion Audio Auteur mkIII Mic Preamp The Auteur mkIII is a transformer-coupled mic preamp in a desktop-sized casing. The preamp is based around an IC-based front-end, with the intention of providing a fast, transparent signal capture that, in turn, is matched with a vintageinspired output-stage design coupled with Cinemag transformers. The two channels come with rear panel-positioned Mic In connections

Focal Alpha 80 Evo, Twin Evo & Sub One Monitors Focal has introduced its new Alpha 80 Evo and Alpha Twin Evo powered monitors, joined by the additional debut of its Sub One subwoofer, designed for use with the Evo and Shape monitor lines. The Alpha Twin Evo has dual 6.5-inch Slatefiber woofers, while the Alpha 80 Evo has a 8-inch Slatefiber woofer; both sport a 1-inch Aluminum inverted dome Tweeter, a new 1/4-inch (6.35 mm) TRS jack input, a user-disengageable automatic standby power mode, and on Alpha 80 Evo, inserts for wall and ceiling mounting. The fully analog monitors are equipped with two class D amplifiers. Meanwhile, the Sub One features a 200 watts (RMS) amp, and has double-skinned Slatefiber cones.

Lewitt LCT 1040 Microphone System Lewitt’s new LCT 1040 microphone system consists of a tube/FET microphone with a goldsputtered 1-inch condenser capsule; a power supply; and detachable remote-control unit that can alter the microphone’s sound. Users can choose among four characteristics—Clear, Warm, Dark and Saturated—and mix between the tube circuit and the FET as needed. Polar

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to detect harsh sounds, and an Oversampling feature helps decrease aliasing by executing the internal process at a higher sample rate than the host. T-De-Esser Pro’s Mid/Side option lets users process a stereo track’s center and side signals individually, while the Stereo Link option balances the depth of processing between the left and right or mid and side channels, and can be A/B’d.

UnderTone Audio GB Tracker and Satellite UnderTone Audio has unveiled the GB Tracker, an instrument DI/re-amplifying device for capturing a line level DI signal and reamping it.

Another new product—The Satellite—essentially puts the re-amplifying half of the GB Tracker in its own box. The GB Tracker features detented gain-matching input and output level controls that allow users to maintain a precise unity gain through the DI to reamplification path. The unit is matched to numerous commonly used impedances on guitars, basses and amps, aiming to ensure an instrument going through the GB-

on XLR jacks and balanced TRS line output connections. The front panel features line level (TRS Engage) inputs and an associated HI-Z switch. Both channels also have front panel gain controls with up to 62 dB of gain, plus buttons for engaging PAD (-10 dB), 48V (phantom power) and Ø (polarity reverse).

Avantone Pro CLA-400 Studio Reference Amplifier Avantone Pro has released its CLA-400 Studio Reference Amplifier, a 400W RMS per channel Class A/B unit intended for use with large passive studio monitors. The amplifier was developed in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge. Weighing 49 pounds.,

the convection-cooled CLA-400 rackmounts into a standard 3U space. The amplifier includes analog VU meters, Japanese components and a toroidal transformer linear power supply, and additionally implements a bipolar transistor design. Tech specs include: 8Ω stereo power (1 kHz): 360W; 4Ω stereo power (1 kHz): 540W; 8Ω bridge power (1 kHz): 760W; slew rate (at 1 kHz): 28V/ us; input sensitivity (1 kHz): 0.775V (0 dBU); and Total Harmonic Distortion (1 kHz): <0.1%.

Zaor Miza 49 FLEX Recording Desk

Biamp Desono DX Loudspeakers

Zaor has introduced its new Miza 49 FLEX desk for use in recording facilities where space is at a premium. With a 105 cm width, the small-footprint desk offers a main surface, a shelf on top and a pull-out tray underneath. The desktop features six rack spaces in two columns. The main surface

Biamp has launched Desono DX, a new line of ceiling and surface mount loudspeakers, replacing the previous Desono D Series while integrating various features from it, such as coverage pattern and shallow back cans, with an edgeless magnetic grille design, uniform voicing across all models and installation features. The new loudspeakers have a CCEAcompliant design, reinforced SpringLock clamps and accessories including black edgeless grilles; high-humidity, corrosion resistant grilles;

continues beyond the racks, enabling it to be used as additional desk space when no rack space is required. The pull-out tray can be height-adjusted in six steps to accommodate equipment while still offering leg room. Built with wood. the Miza 49 FLEX can be finished in either Black Cherry or Wengé Grey.

48-inch tile rails; installation trim rings; and new construction brackets. Both Desono DX ceiling and surface mount loudspeakers include matching coaxial, HF compression drivers, as well as eco-friendly packaging.

Sound Particles Space Controller

API MC531 Monitor Controller

Sound Particles’ Space Controller plug-in simplifies panning in stereo, surround and immersive audio applications. The plug-in works in conjunction with an app that runs on iOS and Android devices, allowing a smart device to pan audio from a DAW in all three dimensions. Once Space Controller has been set up, a user simply points their phone in the direction that they want to pan a given sound.

Up to 128 transmission channels are supported, enabling the app to quickly switch control between different audio tracks without need to access the plug-in. Space Control supports simultaneous use of multiple smart devices, and connects to the device via Bluetooth or WiFi.

API has introduced the MC531 Monitor Controller, a stand-alone version of the monitoring functionality built into the center section of API’s analog consoles. Designed for DAW workflows, the MC531 can integrate into any audio production environment. The MC531 features a Main and two Alternate stereo outputs, the latter having individual trims for speaker level matching. Programmable subwoofer integration allows the user to link the Sub with the Main and/or either of the Alternate outputs.

KIT Plugins Core EQ KIT Plugins, the Nashville-based developer of audio tools, has released Core EQ, the second installment in the company’s Core Series line of plug-ins, following the recently released Core Compressor. Featuring “transparent sonics for ease in tonal balancing,” the 4-band EQ includes two fully parametric mid bands; Low and High Frequency bands (shelf or peak selectable); and highpass and lowpass filters. The low drain on CPU load allows for multiple instances across a mix; the 3D GUI is fully resizable in HD. KIT’s Core EQ runs on macOS 10.11 or later and Windows 7-10 (64 bit) and is compatible with VST3, AU and AAX.

Pyramix 14 Dolby Atmos Workflow Pyramix 14 brings in the next level of production by handling the most powerful Dolby Atmos Renderer automatically and behind the scenes, going so far as to discover any Dolby Atmos Renderers on a network—then offering a selection. Users can click on “Update renderer” and start working immediately. Pyramix 14 imports Dolby Atmos ADM files and then builds an entire mixer matching the ADM file and connects it to a renderer for playback in seconds. When loading multiple ADM files into a project, Pyramix can automatically map beds/ objects to existing mixer buses or leave it to the user to route them manually. Pyramix 14 also adds Dolby Atmos ADM export to its list of exportable formats, and incorporates naming conventions from Apple, Universal, Sony and Warner Brothers when exporting Dolby Atmos ADM files. ■

The unit features seven selectable stereo input sources (three analog line-level inputs, AES, USB, plus 3.5mm and Bluetooth), two independent headphone outputs, and a built-in talkback mic, along with the classic API 41-detent Control Room Knob.

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Tech // reviews

Maestro Original Collection Gibson Revives an Iconic Brand, With 5 All-New Effects Pedals

By Mike Levine

G

ibson’s release of the Maestro Original Collection marks the comeback of a long-dormant, legendary brand of effects pedals and units. The new line consists of five stompboxes designed to harken back to the sounds of the 1960s and 1970s, when the original Maestro pedals were in vogue.

The first Maestro effects pedal, the FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, hit the market 60 years ago, back in 1962, then took off in 1965 when Keith Richards used it for the main riff in the Rolling Stones hit “Satisfaction.”

During its first incarnation, Maestro was also responsible for the Boomerang Wah and several versions of the Echoplex tape delay—the tube-based EP-1 and EP2, and the solid-state EP-3 and EP 4. In the early 1970s, Maestro released the RM-1 Ring Modulator and PS-1 Phase Shifter pedals. Both were designed by a young Tom Oberheim.

Maestro continued to produce effects pedals until it was shuttered in 1979 by Norlin, the company that then owned Gibson.

Now, 43 years later, Gibson has brought the Maestro brand back. The new pedals offer all-analog circuitry with true-bypass switching, and tone that brings you back to the products of the original Maestro era. The new pedals include Invader Distortion, Fuzz-Tone FZ-M, Ranger Overdrive, Discoverer Delay and Comet Chorus. I had the opportunity to test all five pedals for this review.

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COMMONALITIES The first thing that struck me when looking at the Maestro Original Collection pedals as a group was their similarities. All five pedals are the same size and are housed in a sturdy metal casing. All have the same physical configuration of knobs and switches: a footswitch, three knobs and a toggle switch. The latter lets you change to a second operating mode on all but one of the pedals, providing additional functionality.

The pedals are powered by a standard 9V adapter (not included) or a battery, and feature a Maestro logo on the bottom left, replete with red, yellow and blue trumpets that light up when the unit is engaged. Each pedal has its own color scheme.

FUZZ-TONE FZ-M Loosely based on the original FZ-1, the Fuzz-Tone FZ-M provides an impressive selection of buzzy, distorted tones. Its three control knobs are Attack, Tone and Level. Attack governs the amount of fuzz and clipping, Tone handles EQ and Level is the master output volume.

The toggle lets you switch between Classic and Modern mode.

Classic is thinner and sharper-sounding, while Modern is fuller and warmer. I found Classic generally sounded best with the Tone knob

set somewhere below 12 o’clock, and Modern with it somewhere above. Otherwise, the former was too bright and the latter too round. Overall, I prefer the Modern tone, but I could see where Classic would come in handy if you wanted a cutting and raw sound.

I found the FZ-M to be a little tamer than expected when cranked, with less natural compression and harmonics. Its sustain wasn’t near-infinite like it is on many fuzz pedals.

Nevertheless, it sounds good on both lowand high-gain settings. It would be a valuable addition to any pedalboard.

INVADER DISTORTION Invader Distortion offers even heavier saturation than the Fuzz-Tone FZ-M and makes your guitar instantly sound like it’s coming through a superhigh-gain amp. Its controls include Gain, Tone and Level. Its toggle switch kicks in a noise gate, which silences the hum and buzz you can get on high settings with this or any other heavy distortion pedal.

You can change the Gate Threshold, but doing so requires removal of the four screws on the unit to open up its back plate. The attack and release are fixed, which somewhat limits the gate’s utility. At its stock setting, it cuts off pretty quickly and unnaturally. I wouldn’t use it in a song where my part was highly dynamic because it could cut off as a note or chord is ringing out. But for keeping things quiet when you’re not playing, or in between songs, the Gate feature is handy.

Invader Distortion is surprisingly versatile and could handle all of your distortion needs on a gig. I liked both the heavy and lighter distortion it produces. With the Gain knob set anywhere from its lowest point to about 25 percent, you get a warm and crunchy amp-like tone. Settings above that get you into high-gain land.

The (output) Level control is useful for compensating the output level when you turn up or down the Gain.

RANGER OVERDRIVE Probably the most “tubey” sounding of the three distortion pedals in this collection, the Ranger Overdrive gives you a lot of warm tone in the low-to-medium gain area. Like Invader Distortion, it has Gain, Tone and Level knobs.

Its Mode toggle switches between Hi and Lo gain settings.

Set it on Lo with a relatively low Gain setting

and it gives you a nice, amp-style breakup that would be great as a “set and forget” effect that you leave on continuously to add crunch to a clean amp. But when you turn the Gain knob up, it gives you a moderately distorted lead tone that would be great for blues or country or roots rock.

If you used it in a signal chain with a compressor or gain boost, you could push it to get even heavier. No matter how you set it, though, its warm tone is quite pleasing.

COMET CHORUS The Comet Chorus offers two operating modes.

With the Mode toggle set in the downward Earth position, it gives you what the manual refers to as an “optimized, classic heavenly chorus effect.”

Set to Orbit mode, it produces pulsing vibrato and rotary speaker–style effects. The adjustable parameters include Depth, Mix and Speed. An internal trim pot lets you adjust the amount of rotary speaker effect.

I definitely liked the effects in Orbit mode.

The vibrato is rich and variable, and the rotary speaker sounds are authentic and pleasing.

Having the Mix control is useful for adjusting intensity when you’re happy with the Speed and Depth settings.

I wasn’t as impressed with Earth mode. The straight chorus sounds didn’t have the richness I’m used to in a chorus effect. Chorus typically combines both delay and pitch modulation, but on this pedal, it sounds like there’s mostly the latter and not enough of the former. Don’t get me wrong; it doesn’t sound bad, but it lacks the complexity and warmth I was expecting. I compared it with other chorus pedals I have,

PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: Gibson/Maestro PRODUCT: Original Collection WEBSITE: www.maestroelectronics.com PRICE: $149 per pedal (Discoverer Delay $159) PROS: All-analog circuitry. Excellent tones.

True bypass on all pedals. Mode switches allow for dual operating modes on three of the five pedals. Solid construction. Reasonably priced.

CONS: Some parameters can only be changed with internal trim pots. No attack or release controls on Invader Distortion’s Gate. Chorus effect on Comet Chorus lacks sonic depth.

Power adapters not included.

which confirmed my initial reactions.

All that said, it’s still a versatile modulation pedal; it’s just better at creating vibrato and Leslie-style effects than it is at chorusing.

DISCOVERER DELAY If you like analog delay, you’ll love this pedal.

Controls include Delay, Mix and Sustain (feedback), and you can switch in modulation using the Mode toggle. The unit provides between 20 ms and 600 ms of delay. As you’d expect with analog delay, the brightness dissipates with each successive tap.

The first time I tried out this pedal with a guitar and amp, I lost track of time as I reveled in the rich-sounding analog delay it produces.

The name Discoverer feels accurate because it inspires creativity and experimentation.

Turning on the modulation adds another layer to the sound. You can set it to be subtle or heavy-handed, depending on how you set the internal Width and Rate trim pots.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE Maestro’s decision to build all the pedals with the same architecture of three knobs and a Mode toggle is a mixed bag, I found. On the plus side, it allowed the company to manufacture the units more inexpensively due to the economies of scale.

However, putting additional controls on internal trim pots on the Comet Chorus, Discoverer Delay and Invader Distortion is not convenient for the user. If you’re planning to use the pedals for live performance, that makes it virtually impossible to adjust the trim pots on a song-by-song basis. All you can do is set and forget your preferred setting.

I wish Maestro had made the trim-pot parameters adjustable via additional knobs on the face of the pedals. It would be worth paying a little more to have those controls available at any time, rather than only when you have the case open.

But my overall takeaway on the Maestro Original Collection is extremely positive. They’re solidly built, reasonably priced and offer plenty of sonic versatility. Other than my issue with the Earth Mode on the Comet Chorus, I found the effects they create to be authentic-sounding and their tonal quality to be pleasing. If you’re looking for distortion, modulation or delay pedals for your setup, I’d recommend checking them out. ■

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Tech // reviews KIT Plugins BB N105 V2 Stunning Emulation of Blackbird’s Legendary Neve 8078 Console

By Russ Long

T

here are at least a dozen plug-in emulations of classic Neve consoles available today, and while some are sonically closer to the hardware than others, often the developers appear to have spent more time making sure their plug-in looks like the original rather than sounds like it.

Enter KIT Plugins and the extraordinary BB N105, now in V2. This plug-in sets a new bar in classic console emulation.

The timeless Neve 8078 was the last of the Neve 80 Series hand-wired consoles, and while its 31105 EQ module is not as popular as the 1073, 1081 or even the 31102 that is found in the 8068 desk, it is revered by many as the ultimate recording console.

Studio A at Nashville’s renowned Blackbird Studio features one of only a handful of 8078 consoles still in use today. Originally built for Motown Records, it was later Donald Fagen’s console for many years before being purchased

by Blackbird owner John McBride in 2002. Since its purchase, the console has been restored and modified, and is now one of the top draws of the world-class facility.

When KIT Plugins decided to make a channel plug-in, it opted to model what is arguably not just the best-sounding console series, but due to its thorough restoration and modifications, what is likely one of the bestsounding consoles in existence today. Beyond the sound and performance of the 31105 module, the KIT Plugins modeling process incorporates the sound of the Blackbird 8078’s “Master Bus B” fed into Burl A/D converters.

UP AND DOWN THE STRIP The BB N105 features a line/preamp section

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that includes preamp gain, a switch to select between line and mic input, and a switch to turn saturation on or off. There are four bands of EQ, along with highpass and lowpass filters.

The High and Low bands each have five frequency options and are selectable between shelving and peak. The high-mid and low-mid bands each have 10 frequency options, as well as a Hi-Q option. Phase invert and EQ in/out switches are also provided, as is as an output fader. The plugin comes in VST3, AU and AAX versions.

As a workhorse, the BB N105 is wonderful.

I’ve been using it as my go-to channel strip for months now and it never disappoints. I have found that when I mix, using a 3-band EQ often requires the use of an additional EQ plug-in to yield the desired sonic result, so I love having the BB N105’s four bands at my fingertips.

As would be expected from a Neve module, the plug-in is ultra-musical. A smooth high-end, punchy mids, and a rich, full bottom make it perfectly suited for any sound source. The N105 turns drums into virtual putty, making it easy to mold and shape their sonic character into what the song needs. The plug-in works wonders on electric guitars and is perfectly suited for piano and acoustic instruments. During a recent mix, I added a significant amount of high-frequency gain to a dark vocal, resulting in a pristine, sparkling top end that wasn’t brittle or harsh.

COMPRESSION, SATURATION The flexibility yielded by the EQ is just the beginning of the BB N105. Where it really shines is when you switch to mic input and start driving the preamp. Pushing it with the saturation switched off adds harmonic content and subtle compression. This is fantastic with acoustic instruments and vocals, as it allows them to pop out of the mix without becoming overpowering.

They’re still sitting in the same place in the mix; they just speak better.

Better yet, turn the preamp saturation on and the possibilities are endless. Drums go from a subtle compression of rounding off the transients to extreme saturation where they take on an entirely different sonic shape. When I mixed on analog desks, I rarely compressed drums, but since I moved to mixing in the box, I almost always find myself compressing every drum mic. The BB N105 takes me back to the analog days: The saturation provided by the plug-in has eliminated my need for compression.

Of course, driving the mic input harder increases the channel’s gain. The Auto-gain setting will automatically ride the output fader down as you increase the mic gain, allowing the track to remain the same level while dialing in the exact right amount of saturation. The mic input is adjustable in 5 dB increments (like the console), but users who need more precise input control can switch to the continuous mode for subtle mic gain changes. The plug-in supports resizing, making it easy to have multiple instances of the plug-ins open simultaneously.

The fader colors on the plug-in can be changed (black, silver, blue or red), so you can easily navigate through plug-in instances assigned to various sound sources (red for drums, blue for guitars, silver for vocals, etc.). This doesn’t sound necessary at first, but you’ll be surprised at how

quickly this will become one of your go-to plugsins. My last mix included 25 instances of the BB N105!

A NO-BRAINER The plug-in’s analog hum option is a nice addition. Adding hum doesn’t necessarily sound logical to a mix engineer, but it’s amazing how adding a slight amount of hum across all the drum channels creates a sonic glue that makes the entire kit work together.

KIT Plugins has also provided the ability to adjust between three different oversampling

rates to provide superior sound definition or to provide a lighter CPU load.

The BB N105 is the ultimate DAW channel.

It is quick and easy to use. It’s musical. It’s extremely flexible, and it’s creative as hell. With a current price tag of $99, you’d be foolish not to make it the next addition to your plug-in arsenal.

I can’t wait to see what’s next for KIT Plugins! ■ Nashville-based Russ Long has been producing, engineering and mixing music for more than three decades. He spends the bulk of his time working in his Dangerland mix room where he also does console R&D for Yamaha.

Equipped by

The Premier Supplier of Pro Audio, Video, Lighting & Musical Equipment

PRODUCT SUMMARY COMPANY: KIT Plugins PRODUCT: BB N105 Plug-in WEBSITE: www.kitplugins.com PRICE: $99 PROS: True vintage performance.

Affordable. Creative.

CONS: Neve 31105 EQ module not as popular as 1073, 1081 or 31102

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Tech // reviews shorts Sound Anchors ADJ2 Speaker Stands

By Rob Tavaglione

I placed my monitors on the meter bridge area of my studio furniture for two decades before Panels for Install Strength and moving to a modern Stability ergonomic workstation as_aalchka_class.indd 1 7/14/21 12:03 AM (Argosy Console HaloK; see Mix January 2022 for review), necessitating heavy-duty stands to accommodate 80-pound Focal Trio11Be midfields. After a bit of experimentation I settled on the most expensive, heaviest-duty stands I could find anywhere: 44-inch Sound Anchors ADJ2 ($870 a pair, street).

ADJ2s are made entirely of steel except for the monitor platform shelves, which are ¼-inch aluminum. A large, squared-up, Pi symbol– shaped base (17 x 23 inches) is made up of 2 x 2-inch square steel tubes, which can rest directly on the floor or be slightly elevated with pointy mounting spikes, decreasing the energy transfer from vibrating speaker to the floor.

That base houses the vertical “beams” of the stands, which are a pair of equally large square steel tubes that move up and down to the necessary height (I chose 44-inch maximum height; 56-inch models are also available).

These square steel tubes are filled with sand to decrease resonance and prevent ringing. The monitor platforms (12 x 16 inches) attach directly to these beams, with a large Allen-head bolt, which allows height placement and optional tilt.

The entire stand has a flat-black, textured finish but does not have any wire troughs, cable management or cosmetically “stylish” features. The ADJ2s can be largely hidden when in use, with positioning possible from behind the monitor, or For more information from the side. I chose side about advertising mounting due to placement please contact limitations posed by the large steel legs of the HaloK console Zahra Majma workstation. zahra.majma@futurenet.com I was determined to achieve a 67-inch distance between

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MOST IMPRESSIVE FEATURE

tweeters, with the highs right at ear-level and a 30-degree toe-in for each monitor. Seems easy, right? Wrong! Maybe so with baby near fields, but not so with big-boy behemoths like Trio11s.

First, you can’t make any adjustments (height, angle or floor placement) with the monitors inplace; they must be removed from the stands.

Second, I’m directly on concrete, and you can’t slide the stands around at all with those spikes digging in. (Sound Anchors does provide small sorbothane pads for placing under each spike.)

Hoping to further isolate vibrations from the speaker platforms to the supporting structure, I installed a set of IsoAcoustics Iso-Pucks. These hockey puck–sized “shock absorbers” resist lateral movement and oscillation/vibration, handling 20 pounds each. So I overcompensated with six pucks per monitor—four in the front, where most of the weight lies, and two to the rear.

Frankly, the pucks made the installation more difficult, as they tended to stick to the bottom of the monitors each time we removed them to modify the stand. And getting those speaker platforms to sit either entirely flat or slightly angled downward (as some prefer) is not easy without a level and a helper. It was effort well spent, however, as very little vibration is felt in the vertical steel beams, even when the monitors are pumping out high-SPL, bass-heavy content.

Once installed, the look is simply perfect, with big monitors perched just above the workstation, neatly paralleling the angles and lines. Strength and sturdiness emanate from the stands, based on the square angles and thick (obviously steel) supports.

THE RESULTING SONICS All things considered, I’m very happy with the ADJ2s. They hold very large monitors firmly, exhibit no ringing or resonance, and look to be quite the long-term investment.

One less variable to think about in my quest for the perfect control room environment. ■

Open Channel Welcome to the Middle Ages!

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f you want to know where the record industry is created localized groups of communities with narrow loyalties—not unlike heading, climb into the wayback machine, set the the way streaming service algorithms box fans into localized musical controls for the 10th century, and check out where forms. Based on all this, it seems like right now, we’re somewhere in the feudal systems came from—but more importantly to us, middle of the music industry’s feudal period. So to see where we go from here, let’s look at where feudalism went. how they ended up.

Many factors helped end feudalism. One was that currency became The similarities are striking. Before feudal times, there the main means of transaction, so you no longer had to pay with military were powerful kings and emperors, with names like King

By Craig service (or goats, for that matter). A merchant class bubbled up, whose RCA Records and Emperor Polygram.

They ruled their Anderton kingdoms and expanded their territories by conquering loyalty went to suppliers and customers—not lords. What’s more, a push smaller kingdoms, like Lord MCA. In fact, some would say they expanded for individual rights took hold. People wanted control over their destinies.

Also, social unrest hit. The plague impacted much of the workforce, too much, and a combination of overexpansion and corruption led to the downfall of their empires. Invading hordes from the land of MP3 hastened making the workers that were left more valuable—but they still were that downfall by plundering the kingdom’s riches and giving their spoils paid the same (sound familiar?). However, as feudalism faded, society became more involved in trade and currency, governments coalesced into away for free.

Without powerful kings and emperors, “government” became fractured a centralized power instead of multiple lords grabbing their own power, and localized. Those living under the local lords could still stream—I mean, and individuals had more freedom with more rights. own—pieces of property. But that ownership was always constrained by Post-Feudalism the local lord’s rules.

(By the way, lest you think this will become a “dump-on-the-streaming- But the best part of our story is that feudalism was followed by the services” rant, it won’t. Never before could musicians get their music into Renaissance. As to what this would look like for the music industry, feudalism’s ending might provide the world so easily, nor do they have to deal with the “container charges” “What does the music industry have in some clues.

Music distribution could coalesce or prohibitive studio time costs common with feudal systems? More into a new, centralized entity that’s deducted from their royalties. Also, than you might think…” based on a model conceptually more the accounting for today’s streams like ASCAP and BMI than dozens doesn’t allow stashing records in a warehouse, then selling them off-ledger as “returns.” And the public has of labels or platforms. Artists will likely demand more rights and higher never had it so good—almost anything made since the history of recording payments, and when a more centralized service offers these as an incentive, it will start generating exclusive music that adds value—so fans would be is available.) willing to pay more (the Netflix “original content” model).

Anyway, back to our analogy.

Furthermore, it will be understood that feeding the goose that lays the golden egg is the best long-term strategy. Payments and rights Feudalism’s Beginning When the traditional music industry began unraveling in the late ’90s, it management will use blockchain-based smart contracts (not the same became more feudal in nature. Historians have never agreed on a precise thing as cryptocurrency), so songwriters, producers, and even session musicians can be represented. definition of feudalism, but here’s the gist.

Perhaps the biggest change is that these new, centralized entities won’t The lords held land from the king, in return for tribute—kind of like Lord Virtual Storefront paying tribute to King Amazon. Meanwhile, own any rights, or collect money and then disburse it. They’ll create the peasants (that’s you and me, folks) lived on the lord’s land and got a financial model where fans pay directly to artists via peer-to-peer protection in return for homage, labor and a share of what was produced. transactions, under terms decided by the artists—not some CFO. Of In our case, we peasants live on the land of Lord Streaming Services, who course, whoever creates this framework will take a cut to keep the lights holds that land by the grace of King Internet Servers. We set up our little on, and make a tidy profit.

Now before you think I’m crazy, remember that four years before streaming shops, provide the labor to promote our music, suck energy from the servers, and the lords get tribute from the music. We peasants also Napster existed, I said that physical media would disappear, and people would download music from a “celestial jukebox” (the term “cloud” didn’t receive the protection of the lords, who pay to keep the servers running.

Basically, we all have our own fiefdoms these days. Ultimately, feudalism exist back then). So, you never know… ■

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