Headliner USA Issue 7

ISSUE 07 / NOVEMBER 2021 HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET UK £3.95 / USA $6.95 / CANADA $7.95

SUPPORTING THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY

MAGAZINE / 07

LOOMING LARGE

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS TORI AMOS

GREGORY PORTER

PAUL EPWORTH

HARNESSING NATURE FOR HER NEW ALBUM

ON GRIEF, POLITICS AND STILL RISING

ON MUSIC PRODUCTION AND SONGWRITING

“Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.”

— Mick Jagger

©2020 QSC, LLC. All rights reserved. QSC and the QSC logo are registered trademarks of QSC, LLC in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other countries. Play Out Loud is a trademark of QSC, LLC. Artist: Printz Board. Photo by Mikel Darling.

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SUP P

IV E C EAT O CR

ING THE T R O

NITY MU M HEADLINER USA

07 For many years now, immersive sound, spatial sound, object-based audio, 3D audio, call it what you will, has been simmering gently on the pro audio industry’s back burner. That’s not to say it hasn’t been a major focus – virtually every leading manufacturer across the sector has either brought products and technologies to market that demonstrate their immersive capabilities or are in the process of developing such solutions.

But this year, it feels like that simmer has escalated to a full-scale bubbling over, with mainstream appetite finally starting to keep pace with the innovation driving this corner of the business.

What once felt like a niche audio concern is now being embraced by the wider music industry.

Prior to the pandemic, a steadily increasing number of live music shows and theater productions were incorporating immersive, or objectbased elements. And as the live sector continues to recover, we will no doubt see shows looking to explore these possibilities with greater vigor than has yet been seen.

leader Spotify yet to show its hand on matters high-quality audio.

Meanwhile, the recorded music business has immersed itself (pun very much intended) in the power of Atmos like never before. Just a few months ago, Apple Music announced that it was adding spatial audio with support for Dolby Atmos to its streaming service, with the tech giant’s VP of Apple Music and Beats hailing the development as its “biggest advancement ever in sound quality”.

With an ever-growing list of studios the world over now looking at how they can overhaul their existing setups to harness the power of immersive sound, even casual music listeners are likely to be exposed to the benefits of high-quality audio without having to go searching for it as some form of niche content.

Though not the first streaming platform to offer such capabilities, it is certainly the biggest, with market

And it’s not just the music business that is driving fans towards Atmos mixes. In recent weeks, Mercedes revealed that it would be incorporating Dolby Atmos within its top-of-the-range models, adding new meaning to the tried and tested ‘car test’ for creators and producers.

Are the days of the heavily compressed MP3 as the dominant format numbered? Perhaps not yet. But for those in search of something better, they may not have to look too far.

Daniel Gumble Head of Music, Headliner HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

18 / LUIS BARRERA JR 14 / KENNY GALBRAITH 08 / WOLF

30/ JESSICA WEISS

22/ ÓLAFUR ARNALDS

34/ TORI AMOS

40 / LAURENT VASSIE 46 / SAM TESKEY

58 / KYLE HAMILTON

50/ LIVE SOUND

54 / GREGORY PORTER

66 / NEAL POGUE 62 / CODA AUDIO X UTOPIA 70 / RICHARD JACQUES

78 / PAUL EPWORTH

74 / JOSHUA FAULKNER

88 / GIZMO VARILLAS

92 / THOMAS RIEDEL

84 / AUDIO PRODUCTION

122 / RECORDING

98 / SPOTLIGHT REVIEWS

126 / MAX ARUJ

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WOLF

Girls In Purgatory

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GIRLS IN PURGATORY

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ASPIRING HEADLINER

WOLF Her name is Julia, but you can call her WOLF. Based in Queens, New York, the singer-songwriter was one of the first independent artists to be featured in Spotify’s Fresh Finds program, landing herself a giant billboard in Times Square. The self-confessed shy girl explains how she nitpicked her way to carving out a space for herself – on her own terms.

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WOLF

Girls In Purgatory

“I’ve been doing all my creative work and all of my songwriting here in my bedroom; this is kind of where it all happens,” she begins, showing Headliner her room on Zoom. Today, the Italian-American independent artist is busy taking her own photos (“via self timer or I might drag my sister into it”), working on Photoshop, and is then putting some finishing touches to her debut EP, Girls In Purgatory.

She’s a true DIY artist – WOLF (full name Julia Wolf) writes her own lyrics (in both English and Italian), co-produces her music, and creates all her graphics, videos and photos herself. While she’s unquestionably resourceful and has complete control over her image and music, this self-reliance actually stems from being painfully shy. This is hard to believe from a woman who boasts more than 18 million streams to date and over half a million monthly listeners on Spotify in just over a year since releasing her first music.

“I started working on my own vision and learning how to do my own artwork only because I was HEADLINER USA

extremely shy in college,” she nods.

“In high school, I was so afraid of my own shadow, I couldn’t talk to people – I couldn’t make eye contact. I did everything I could to stay under the radar. Ever since I started putting music out, it has brought out a whole new side to me. It’s made me more in touch with my own voice and allows me to speak out about things that I’ve been through. My whole goal with music is to encourage others to be themselves, because I didn’t have that too much growing up.

The people that I idolised and the artists that I listened to never talked about eating lunch alone every day in school, and that’s why I try and reiterate that so much. Even after I graduated I couldn’t muster up the courage to ask people for help, so I went on YouTube and started teaching myself. And now it’s great because it’s made me a more self-sufficient person. If I envision something myself, I can just bring it to life on my own.”

She tells Headliner that she almost didn’t pursue singing. Approximately 10 years ago she was poised to move to Italy with her family to

open a pizza place, but her dad changed his mind at the last minute, sensing it wasn’t the right path for his daughter.

“Father’s intuition,” she recalls, fondly. “At the time, I was livid! I was very down in the dumps. It was years of frustration of not finding anyone to work with and just not being able to put any music out.

I think he saw how depressed I was for that whole stretch of time, and because of it, he offered this opportunity to move to Italy, back to his hometown. I took it, honestly within minutes of discussion because it was the first feeling of hope that I had had in a while and it felt like a new chapter. I told myself I was gonna make it over there and figure out my music and find my team overseas, because that happens to people. I thought, ‘why not me?’ Randomly, he just called it off. One day he came into my bedroom, and he was so dramatic,” she laughs. “He was like, ‘I just have this gut feeling – we need to stay.’

Two months later, I met Jackson, and it was so so wild.”

ASPIRING HEADLINER

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WOLF

Girls In Purgatory

“IT’S EASIER TO BE RESPECTED WHEN I LOOK A CERTAIN WAY; WHEN I PUT ON THAT FACE PEOPLE TAKE ME MORE SERIOUSLY.”

In co-writer and producer Jackson Foote, WOLF found a kindred spirit who just gets what she’s trying to express without having to explain it all – or be accused of nitpicking.

“Everyone was calling me nitpicky for being so on top of how the kick sounds, or how the bass tone is, or what the riff should be,” she shares. “No one was agreeing with anything I was saying at the time. I need the music to be a reflection of myself, and I’m putting my name behind it,” she explains. “So it has to be something I’m proud of.

That’s what makes it so easy to be vocal about what I want, because it’s just that important to me. That is why I never put music out for so long, because I stayed true to what I believed in and followed the gut instincts.”

She describes her first studio session with Foote as a dream – they immediately hit it off after he saw a video of her performing at an open mic night in Queens.

“Literally everything from that moment changed; I could feel it in the studio session because I actually didn’t have to say much, which was new. He already knew what I was going to say – he just anticipated everything. He would show me two different kick samples and we would both pick the same one, and that was it and we would move on. I left that studio session with the biggest smile. I just knew that from that point on that the music could finally exist, and that was all that mattered to me.”

WOLF’s Spotify Singles track, RBF: Part 1 provides a brutally honest take on society’s unrealistic expectations of women, which was followed up by Resting B*tch Face: Part 2 (there’s a lot to unpack there, after all).

“They both represent different aspects of having this resting bitchface,” she confirms. “Part one is more the pros of having it. I feel like it’s easier to be respected when I look a certain way; when I put on that face people take me more seriously, which is frustrating, but that’s just how HEADLINER USA

it is. Being too kind can have people walking over you and taking advantage of you, because that happened to me all the time growing up, so it’s just about owning it.

However, part two is the alternate side of having resting bitchface where it makes it hard for me to meet new people, specifically guys and dating, because people make an opinion about me on the spot. And because I am shy, it’s hard to break that ice with someone when they have already made assumptions about me. So it’s about that struggle.”

The second single is taken from her debut EP, an eighttrack record field with empowering, no nonsense anthems that puts shy girls at the forefront, drawing from WOLF’s own experiences of feeling in limbo.

“The name comes from this constant battle of having to choose between doing what’s best for myself, and then taking other people’s feelings into consideration. A lot of the time when I do what’s best for me I get pinned as the bad guy, and each song is a reflection of a different time I’ve been in that situation – that kind of purgatory where the road to take really isn’t clear. Because I grew up so shy, it is ingrained in me to make sure everyone else is okay and to do what I can not to step on anyone’s toes and just stay under the radar. That side of me is battling this new side of me that has found her own voice and understands how crucial it is to live life for yourself.”

A wise prophet once said, “There’s a she-wolf in your closet, open up and set it free”, and these days, WOLF is certainly doing that.

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KENNY GALBRAITH

HEADLINER USA

The Beatsmith

EMERGING HEADLINER

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The Beatsmith

KENNY GALBRAITH Up-and-coming producer and percussionist Kenny Galbraith tells Headliner how he first got into playing drums, finding his niche producing live loop sets, and reveals how he’s been experimenting with his sound lately...

Originally from rural Nebraska, Galbraith moved to Huntington Beach, California to pursue a musical career when he was just 18. Yet like many live musicians, the biggest change he’s had to navigate has of course been the pandemic, which, despite putting the brakes on his tour schedule, provided a period of reflection and restructure.

“It was a wild transition; I was doing at least a couple of shows a week playing with local bands to some big crowds – experiencing that is addicting,” he begins. “My passion for drums actually started in sixth grade when I heard my teacher play the snare. It was just something about the feeling and the energy contained within the rhythm.

“My music is a fusion of everything I listen to, from ska music, to liquid drum

and bass, to downtempo stuff. For me it’s about creating a certain kind of vibe. I love chill music and I love pretty melodies, but I also really like organic, earthy sounding vibes, without things sounding too electronic.”

In pursuit of said vibes, Galbraith has been busying himself doing weekly live streams, which he says have been a lot of fun.

“Lately I’ve been discovering some really awesome tribal Latin and African house music,” he reveals.

“Basically I’ll do a DJ set, where I’ll just play percussion on top of all these fire tracks that I’ve been finding, as well as putting together a live loop set. I think live looping is really where I’m finding my niche; I’ll play guitar and then loop it, and I’ll use a handpan and other percussion – that’s more on the mellow, downtempo side of things.”

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KENNY GALBRAITH

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Galbraith has also just started to record his own percussion sample packs, and through this venture has started tapping into the burgeoning NFT community.

“I sold a couple of NFTs of songs that I’ve made, and something I’ve been including in there is my Ableton set as well as the percussion,” he says. “In fact, people told me the reason why they bought it was because they wanted those percussion samples.

“In terms of my setup, I just have a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, with all the different inputs for my percussion going in. I have a collection of Blue microphones which are really nice, but my biggest inspiration as far as gear and VSTs goes is my Strymon pedals.

I have a BigSky, a TimeLine, and an El Capistan, and I mix those with a volume pedal to get these really cool ambient swells with guitar.

“On the production side I love Omnisphere; it’s hands down my favorite plugin to use. All my tracks have guitar in there somewhere without fail, and I love cinematic, orchestral music. I’ll use Omnisphere to get these pretty sounding strings or pads, or for my bass synths. It really allows you to create sounds and manipulate them however you want, it’s just endless.”

The last 18 months or so have proved particularly fruitful for Galbraith, and have given him more time than ever to experiment with and hone his sound.

He’s finally making the kind of music he always wanted to.

“Before the year is out, I’m going to be releasing some new tracks of my own, and then really just trying to build up my live streaming fan base,” he tells Headliner joyfully. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about where I’m at as an artist and a musician. It just feels good to share exactly what’s in HEADLINER USA

my heart; I’m fully stoked on where music is taking me at the moment, and I don’t even know where that is yet!

I’m just taking baby steps, and saying yes to whatever opportunities come my way.

“I really want to build a live loop set, and have that as something I take around with me and perform at festivals and different events. My main goal however is to become a master percussionist, and to master this craft.”

Headliner believes it’s fair to say Galbraith is well on his way to accomplishing that goal.

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LUIS BARRERA JR

Soothe Operator

SOOTHE OPERATOR

HEADLINER USA

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Positioned as one of the most well-known and successful mixing engineers on the international stage, multi Grammy-winning producer Luis Barrera Jr maintains nothing short of a true winners mentality. Here he speaks to Headliner about his creative process in the studio, what’s been keeping him busy of late, and why he uses oeksound plugins on every one of his mix projects.

During the summer of 2020, Barrera was called up to work on what would arguably become the most important track of his career so far. That track was Hawái by Colombian megastar Maluma, a song that took the Latin music charts by storm and one which also saw Barrera work with The Weeknd on the remix.

“I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by great artists and great producers, and to be able to keep working on great music,” he says. “That’s the most important thing to me; the relationships with artists and the fact that they trust me with their music.”

More recently, Barrera mixed a new track called Pendejo by Enrique Iglesias, has worked with popular Dominican songwriter Natti Natasha, and is in talks to resume work with the ‘King of Reggaetón’ Daddy Yankee.

“There’s a bunch of projects coming in, and I’m just glad to be part of all this new magic that’s being created in Latin music, especially now it’s become global,” he adds.

renowned producer Dan Warner, who first gave Barrera the chance to intern at his studio in Miami, FL in 2011.

Having worked with the whole gamut of big name Latin artists, from Maluma, J.Lo and Shakira to Camilo, Ricky Martin and Mark Antony, Barrera has become very well established in this world.

In 2013, Barrera returned to Miami, and has been there ever since. He started out mixing reference tracks for the likes of Sony Music and Universal, and once he started working on bigger records, the opportunities came thick and fast. “It has been a crazy ride, but it hasn’t been easy,” he admits.

Interested in the recording process from the age of 14, Barrera found himself under the wing of guitarist and

Whether it’s cumbia, reggaetón, salsa or a big ballad, the most important thing for Barrera is to know what’s

expected from each specific genre he’s working in.

“For me it’s basically about staying very versatile,” he tells Headliner. “It will have my sound on it, but also stay very true to the roots of what it’s supposed to be sonically. Most Latin music is designed to make you dance, whereas big ballads are meant to provoke some kind of feeling, so really it’s about understanding the mental aspect of each track I work on.”

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LUIS BARRERA JR

Soothe Operator

“Certain genres like salsa or mariachi have really strong trumpets, and I can use soothe on all those instruments too. It’s very versatile.”

Barrera reveals that he mostly mixed in the box up until around five years ago, when he acquired his own studio space. Nowadays, he employs certain pieces of outboard gear to help achieve his sound.

“I have my Mac Pro with Pro Tools Ultimate, and I’m using a SSL Sigma as my summing box,” he explains.

“Then I have a Lynx Aurora 16 as my D/A and A/D, along with two UAD-2 satellite DSP processors. I travel a lot, and artists are always asking me to record on the go, so I tend to keep my rig very simple. This is made easier especially with the Sigma, which gives me a very nice sound.”

Another set of tools which make Barrera’s life a lot easier are oeksound plugins, in particular soothe2 – which he uses to control unruly frequencies across his vocal locks.

HEADLINER USA

“If it’s a really harsh vocal, I’ll set the mix knob to 90%, but there are times when I might use it at 50% to let a little bit of that mid range cut through the mix,” he reveals. “I have my own presets that I’ve made throughout the years for vocals, acoustic guitar, and for brass, because certain genres like salsa or mariachi have really strong trumpets, and I can use soothe on all those instruments too. It’s very versatile, and I just love the way it colors the sound in a subtle way.

“Dolby has just finished setting up my room so I can start mixing in Dolby Atmos. I was going back into my sessions and printing some stems for Hawái, and noticed that I actually used soothe at 100% on the mix knob for both Maluma and The Weeknd’s vocals. The scooping itself wasn’t that strong – maybe negative one or two dBs – just controlling the mid

range from 200Hz up to around 3kHz; that area where things get a little aggressive. It’s for these reasons I’m using soothe on pretty much every project now.

“Besides all the usual great artists that I regularly work with, I also like working with new people, because I like exploring and discovering new talent and being part of their growth.”

As Barrera’s music continues to grace the Latin music charts, Headliner continues to support his journey.

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ÓLAFUR ARNALDS

Looming Large

Photographer: Anna Maggy

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ÓLAFUR ARNALDS HEADLINER USA

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LOOMING LARGE The success story of hardcore-metal drummer turned neoclassical composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds is perhaps an unlikely one, yet it takes another fascinating turn as the BAFTA-winning musician releases his new film on Amazon Prime, When We Are Born. Headliner catches up with Arnalds to discuss the creation of his stunning live performance film, how his influence is being heard in the strangest of places, and his thoughts on fake Icelandic composers in Spotify playlists.

Beyond his BAFTA win for his music for ITV’s Broadchurch and his significant discography making him one of the neoclassical music scene’s main pioneers and luminary figures (his breakthrough was parallel with the likes of Nils Frahm and Dustin O’Halloran), recent years have seen his success extend to headlining The Royal Albert Hall in London, a curated-takeover festival at the Southbank Center, and the release of his fifth full LP (amongst a myriad of soundtracks and shorter collections), the as-ever beautiful some kind of peace.

Headliner mentions a recent conversation with O’Halloran, who recently moved to Iceland and found it a relatively lovely place

to be in the midst of a global lockdown. Has Arnald’s experience been the same in his native Reykjavík, the country’s capital?

“It [the pandemic] goes by ‘the plague’ here,” he says with a laugh.

“I would say it’s been a relatively nice place to be. Dustin is actually in my old studio. I passed my old studio to him as he was moving to Iceland, which is on the floor above me. So he’s probably sitting above my head right now. We haven’t had too many Covid cases, but then Iceland is an island. It’s quite easy to isolate from the rest of the world.

But we’ve vaccinated about 98 per cent of the country!

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“There’s very little political polarization here, so very few conflicting ideas of how to handle all this. It’s actually not in the hands of politicians. It’s down to a committee they created to distance politics from it. It’s been handled in a very common sense way.”

Headliner can’t resist asking Arnalds for a little retrospective on how this tiny community of neoclassical composers have become among the most imitated musicians in the world, and the unlikelihood of everything from bank adverts, to Katy Perry songs, to films taking on elements of the neoclassical sound.

HEADLINER USA

“It’s definitely been a really interesting trajectory,” he says. “It’s somehow exploded. I think it’s largely thanks to people’s different ways of listening to music these days. We kind of got rid of the radio jockey. So we don’t need approval from someone who works at the national radio for anyone to hear my music, because it’s on Spotify. And if your algorithm knows that you like piano music, you’re gonna find more of it. I really think this changed everything for us because we would never have been played on the radio. This new way of listening to music has allowed us to become a genre that is not just some really niche thing, but actually semimainstream.”

But, like with any musical scene exponentially growing, with the good comes the bad. Once it was just a solitary group of Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Peter Broderick and others crafting this sound.

Now, as more and more playlists take up internet space such as ‘Peaceful Piano’ and ‘Classical Sleep’ on Spotify, more and more pale imitations make this once ethereal space feel a lot more crowded.

Headliner asks Arnalds if he’s aware of rumors that the streaming giants have even got composers to write music for these playlists under a fake alias, in exchange for a buyout instead of royalties.

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Photographer: Anna Maggy

COVER STORY

“THIS NEW WAY OF LISTENING TO MUSIC HAS ALLOWED US TO BECOME A GENRE THAT IS NOT JUST SOME REALLY NICHE THING, BUT ACTUALLY SEMIMAINSTREAM.”

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“I would love to comment on this,” he says with a hearty laugh. “They’ve never admitted to it. If you go through these playlists, like ‘Peaceful Piano’, you can find a lot of names, most of them Icelandic names; I guess that’s a total coincidence! You’ll find names like ‘Grímar Dittósson’ or something super Icelandic like that. And as an Icelander who knows every single person in the music scene here, I’m going through this playlist and thinking, ‘who is this?’

I would know this person if this was real. So you start googling and nothing comes up except their Spotify profile, with only one song – and it has 20 million plays.

“Someone researched this and wrote a big article about it a couple of years ago. It turns out Spotify is paying starving composers a sum of money to buy out a song from them to put in the playlist under a fake name. It saves them money because they need to pay out less money to the composers. It’s kind of shitty, isn’t it? [laughs]” Indeed, a quick scroll through the example playlist (‘Peaceful Piano’) and a click-through on a couple of the names — ‘Jenny Lange’ and ‘Zdenek Lemelin’ as two quickly picked-out examples, and there are one or two songs with millions of streams, yet no biography, and no social media or even internet presence to speak of HEADLINER USA

(whereas usually artists have to spend years building up to get on these ‘editorial’ playlists). It certainly seems fishy, to put it mildly.

When We Are Born is available to stream now on Amazon Prime, and is truly worthy of your time at a mere 25 minutes. Directed by the visionary Vincent Moon, it’s a wonderfully shot film in an intimate one-take style, and we get to follow Arnalds around for a day in Iceland. Although it’s no run of the mill day; self-playing pianos suddenly start performing around him, he passes a violinist in a suit and tie playing in the street, and Arnalds soundtracks a shamanic dance ritual in the stark Icelandic countryside, to name just a few of the film’s sumptuous moments.

Headliner puts forward the notion that, with the fact that streaming has, in some ways, helped new music and ideas come through, that perhaps the same is true for films such as this. In other words, had someone gone to Warner Brothers 20 years ago to pitch an arthouse film about an Icelandic pianist, they may have had a harder time getting a green light than today.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say convincing Universal to finance this way is an easy task,” he says. “But it definitely feeds into this conversation about the devaluing of music.

“Because on top of all these fake artists on playlists, music created by an AI, we also lost the ability to play shows a year and a half ago. We lost the value of going to record stores and going through the albums, we couldn’t look forward to seeing our favorite artists live. I had to do something in this pandemic, to help my album and help my music. To enhance that aspect of this being something larger than just 10 songs from Spotify that you can click on. This is someone’s life story. This is someone’s heart and soul. I needed a way to communicate that in some proper way. So that’s where the film came from for me.”

It’s not Arnalds’ first foray into films where he is the star, rather than the many films he has scored as a composer. There was the 2009 tour documentary, The Sky May Be Falling, which follows him on his tour bus as he tours the UK (spoiler: it probably isn’t his favorite tour he’s been on). The album Living Room Songs in 2011 saw each performance filmed in Arnalds’ living room (as the name suggests), eventually compiled into a full film. But he tells Headliner the main film project that left him wanting more was Island Songs.

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Photographer: Anna Maggy

“THIS IS SOMEONE’S LIFE STORY. THIS IS SOMEONE’S HEART AND SOUL. I NEEDED A WAY TO COMMUNICATE THAT IN SOME PROPER WAY.”

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that was amazing. And as we were preparing for our film, we definitely looked at the final scene in ANIMA, which I thought was so beautiful. We were totally inspired by it, I’m definitely not denying that.”

“It was kind of a live film, but also a documentary. And ever since I did that, I always wanted to see if I could take the concept further with these one-shot live takes but give it a narrative and a cinematic feel to it.”

And in terms of working with Moon as director, “he was on the top of my list.

I made a list of a few directors who it would be my dream to work with.

Dennis (Villeneuve) would also be on this list for sure. [laughs] But Vincent Moon was my top choice because of his work with one-shot live takes which he’s been doing for around 20 years now. And the challenge was that neither of us had ever done a narrative film. We both had to step very far out of our comfort zones and try something completely new. He was literally the first person we called, he said ‘yes’, and we just went for it.”

Headliner then asks Arnalds if there were any films that particularly inspired this project, with another great example being Thom Yorke and Paul Thomas Anderson’s collaboration for Netflix on ANIMA. In fact, both films use wonderful contemporary dance and stunning locations, although the key difference is that almost all the music in When We Are Born is performed completely live.

“That’s a wonderful, beautiful film,” he says of Yorke’s film. “I should note that I was already writing my film before that one came out, because I know there are similarities! [laughs] I find it so interesting how ideas are kind of just in the ether. And people tend to come up with the same things at the same time. I also made a 25 minute video counterpoint to my album the same year Thom Yorke did that. I thought HEADLINER USA

Then follows an expansion on Arnald’s notions about where ideas come from, as he says “there’s a YouTube documentary which was called Everything Is A Remix. The guy who made the documentary puts this really well. He made this hypothesis: you can see throughout history, people are having the same ideas at the same time, which means we are building them on something that is existing.

We’re always remixing old ideas. And you see this in every form of art. You

“It’s been a great collaboration,” he says. “We tend to make things together that are quite selfish for me! I make them with Spitfire because these are sounds that I need in my toolkit and I’ve ended up using them quite a lot. I use my string stuff all the time. I’m scoring two TV shows right now and the strings and textural stuff that I’ve done with Spitfire can be heard all over these projects.”

It’s mentioned that Headliner has interviewed quite the array of people who’ve used these sample packs, including Dutch techno producers.

Arnalds laughs and says “it’s quite a versatile group of people buying them!

Almost every time I watch Netflix I hear these strings, but I do also hear them in techno songs. So it’s really awesome and an honor to hear my sounds in other people’s music. If it’s inspiring someone to create something, that’s great!”

And, knowing Arnalds also has a big fanbase for his own techno sideproject Kiasmos alongside Janus Rasmussen, the final question is if we should get excited for that hugely anticipated follow-up to their 2014 debut self-titled record.

see this in every technology. There’s that famous story about two people inventing the telephone at the same time, on separate sides of the world.”

On top of this wonderful film collaboration, and all the featured guests on the accompanying album some kind of peace such as Bonobo, Arnalds also has a very special and ongoing relationship with UK orchestral sample merchants Spitfire Audio.

They now offer four products from their Ólafur Arnalds collection: Ólafur Arnalds Composer Toolkit, Evolutions, Chamber Evolutions and Stratus.

“We’re having this typical issue of the second album,” he says. “The longer it takes, the harder it becomes to make. The first album did so well, even though it was never meant to do well, and it’s still doing really well! And, of course, we don’t want to copy it. We have around 15 songs which we could release right now, only it wouldn’t be the album that I want to release yet.”

The wait is almost unbearable, as are those tantalisingly secret TV shows Arnalds mentioned he is scoring, but at least we have the blissful 25 minutes of When We Are Born to watch in the meantime.

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JESSICA WEISS HEADLINER USA

Photographer: Lindsey Byrnes

COMPOSER

Jessica Weiss recently finished cocomposing the score for Amazon’s new adaptation of beloved fairytale Cinderella starring Camila Cabello, with veteran composer and Oscarwinner Mychael Danna — but make no mistake, this is no sudden rags to riches story, as it was for Cinderella herself. New Yorker Weiss spent many years perfecting her craft as a composer and music editor, until a chance meeting with Hans Zimmer saw her commencing work at his famous Remote Control Studios.

Headliner speaks with her about working on this hit film, the long road it took to get there, and why she sticks with Genelec speakers.

“Growing up, I became more interested in music; I joined bands and was doing a lot of songwriting,”

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Weiss says. “Then I assisted a film composer in New York for a couple of years. I knew that film composition was what I wanted to be doing so I moved to London and got a job working at Warner Brothers – Hans Zimmer and his team came over to London to dub Sherlock Holmes 2, and I got to meet them. They were there for a few months and I made it clear what my goals were and at the time, I was doing everything from serving coffee there to patching in cables and writing music on my own.

“Then I was a very, very lucky lady and got an email from Remote Control asking if I’d be interested in coming to LA to work with Hans and the team. So I packed my bags and moved to Los Angeles.”

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“I REALLY LEARNED THROUGH OSMOSIS. IT WAS ABOUT BEING A FLY ON THE WALL AND ABSORBING ALL THIS INCREDIBLE TALENT AND CREATIVITY.”

Some of the biggest names in film composition have walked through Remote Control Studios’ doors, including James Newton Howard, John Powell and Lisa Gerrard. Weiss explains she had a slightly different approach.

“My main gig there was music editing. I worked with Hans exclusively, and I also worked with Lorne Balfe (Black Widow, Mission Impossible: Fallout), Steve Jablonsky (The Island and the Transformers films) and all these fabulous composers. I really learned through osmosis. It was about being a fly on the wall and absorbing all this incredible talent and creativity.”

Since venturing out solo from the haven of Remote Control, Weiss has got some pretty impressive credits together: the Netflix animated feature film Dog Gone Trouble, the drama Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men featuring a collaboration with pop sensation Sia, and Nicol Paone’s comedy Friendsgiving, produced by Ben Stiller.

And as wonderful as all those projects are, it’s no surprise that the Cinderella opportunity for Amazon Prime rocked her

HEADLINER USA

world. “I have friends who are sending me pictures of the billboards,” Weiss says. “And I’m thinking, ‘oh my gosh, this is happening’. It’s my first studio feature film. I’ve been working with Mychael (Danna) for a long time and he was approached by Sony to score this film. Initially, he asked me if I’d be interested in writing additional music. I of course said yes, but he then had several other projects going on so he asked me what my interest level was in cocomposing it with him – I was elated.”

Danna is a veteran to say the least — an Oscar and Golden Globe winner who has worked on huge works such as The Life of Pi, Stillwater and Moneyball. Having assisted Danna on many occasions, Weiss sees him as an indispensable mentor in her career.

“I really admire him,” she says of Danna. “He is one of those mentors that really demands excellence. And he is so supportive in making sure that the people that work under him thrive, and also stay true to their own voices and what makes them different and unique. It’s the best education one could ever hope for.”

COMPOSER

Weiss then discusses Kay Cannon’s fresh and progressive take on the story: “Otherwise, why are we telling the story again? There have been so many versions of it. Kay is so brilliant in that way. She felt it was important to tell the story in a new way in a way that could inspire young girls.”

We then switch from fairytales to talk of Weiss’ studio, quickly learning that Genelec speakers are a name she has very quickly become fond of in her work. “I use the 1031As and they’re fantastic,” she says. “Working with Mychael, we found that when you’re sending ideas back and forth and you’re trying to figure out sonically what’s going on, it’s really nice to both have matching speakers. We found that we could give each other music, and any issues had nothing to do with the sonics of either room.

“I’ve loved them. Another thing that I’ve become very aware of over the years is that I don’t want any monitor speakers that color the sound too much. It needs to be pretty transparent so that I know what I’m hearing is true and accurate. I don’t get in the car or put my earphones on and go, ‘oh, god! It’s just not speaking properly’. I’ve had them for just over a year and a half, and I’m totally comfortable with them. It’s such a balanced sound; Genelecs don’t overboost the lows or the highs too much, but it’s still a really pleasurable listening experience.”

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other streaming services, so get the orchestral soundtracks of Jessica Weiss into your life – no glass slippers required.

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The way Weiss’ career is going, it seems a safe bet that she’ll soon be tackling even bigger films and projects as the lead composer. In the meantime, much of her discography has just launched on Spotify and

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TORI AMOS

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TORI AMOS Tori Amos has spoken to Headliner about the making of her new album Ocean To Ocean, the traumatic circumstances that spawned it and how she had to “write myself out of my little private hell”.

Almost a year prior to the release of her new album Ocean To Ocean, Tori Amos was feeling the strain of 2020 more acutely than at any other point. The embers of a year of turmoil and devastation for so many were beginning to flare once again. The UK was readying itself for a long winter under lockdown, while in the US, a full-on assault on the nation’s democracy, the likes of which had never been seen before, was being whipped up by ringleader in chief Donald Trump. For Amos, an American who has called the UK – Cornwall to be precise – home for the past 15 years, the toll was significant.

people, I just kept thinking ‘when is this house arrest nightmare going to end’? Even though I was lucky enough to be in Cornwall, one of the most beautiful places in the world, I still became very sad and despondent. I was pushed to a place of emotions but also a state of mental paralysis. So I just sat in a chair. And all the energy I had had in willing America to hold on to her democracy through the election and for the election to count, whoever you voted for, had gone. By the end of January (2021), I didn’t have the energy to do a whole lot. The only way out was to write myself out of my little private hell.”

“I hit a wall,” she states, speaking to Headliner over the phone from a London hotel. “Like so many other

Ocean To Ocean, Amos’s 15th album in a glittering career spanning three decades, is a typically soul-

baring affair. It details undiluted the dense sense of loss and longing from which it was carved, as well as the reconnection with nature that pulled her out of her slump and inspired her to start writing again.

Lyrically introspective but sonically warm and expansive, all piano and acoustic instruments with electronic embellishment, it’s an album that entices rather than demands attention. There’s a lightness and a vibrancy to these songs despite the depth of emotion anchoring them.

For an album so entrenched in loss, its surprisingly full of life.

“The first song I wrote was a song called Metal Water Wood,” she explains, her tone contemplative and occasionally pinched with sadness. “That came to me and HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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TORI AMOS

“BY THE END OF JANUARY I DIDN’T HAVE THE ENERGY TO DO A WHOLE LOT. THE ONLY WAY OUT WAS TO WRITE MYSELF OUT OF THIS LITTLE PRIVATE HELL.”

then I started to go out into nature, and nature showed me that she wasn’t in lockdown but was alive, busy and rejuvenated. By writing this one song and then going out into nature, that began to show me possibilities.”

Metal Water Wood may have hinted at a way out of the psychological stasis Amos was suffering, but the path towards her own rejuvenation was never going to be completed overnight. What followed was a process of confronting her losses, among them, the death of her mother two years earlier.

“It’s a paradox,” she elaborates.

“You’re trying to change your frequency because you know it’s at such a low ebb, and you want to flip a switch and walk into something new. But I felt like I had to crawl out of it, I couldn’t just jump because I needed to acknowledge my losses.

I needed to acknowledge that I missed my mother who had died a couple of years before. She would have known what to say if I had called her.” Her voice falters for a HEADLINER USA

second before she continues. “She had that thing so many of us look to somebody for… and she wasn’t there. So, I had to really come to terms with that. There was a point where my daughter Tash came up to me and said, ‘listen, I know you miss grandma, I miss grandma too, but I need my mum back’. That was a big turning point.”

When asked if that pivotal moment reignited the spark that would spawn Ocean To Ocean, she explains that the process wasn’t quite so simple.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” she says. “You can only do what you can do. I’m not a fake it till you make it kind of girl. I’m more, ‘let’s sit down, have a shot of tequila and talk about it’. I had to go out and listen to the trees, sit with nature, watch how she was working this.

She became my mentor, my teacher.

Surrendering to those ferociously beautiful cliffs in Cornwall - they are powerful. When the gales are blowing, and the ocean is crashing in… it’s not for the faint of heart.

But it’s passionate and the Cornish coast owns who she is. There was

something about watching her, I just needed to accept this energy.

And by accepting it and being intimidated by the force of nature… it was humbling. I said, ‘I can’t do this without you, I need you to guide me’.

And things started to change from there on out.”

Like most music made during lockdown, the recording and production process was a fragmented one, existing solely in the realm of email and file transfers.

But having developed a finely tuned shorthand with her USbased bandmates – drummer Matt Chamberlain (California) and bassist Jon Evans (Boston) – over many years playing together, the making of Ocean To Ocean felt refreshingly familiar given the upheaval of the time.

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ARTISTS

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TORI AMOS

“We didn’t have the choice of working in a studio,” she notes.

“But we share a language that has developed over so many years, so we fell into that language and were able to communicate musically.

“That said, even though this way worked due to the circumstances, I’m not sure if I’d choose to do it this way again,” she continues.

“When you’re together you come up with new things because everyone is hearing what everyone else is playing. This way, Matt didn’t know what the bass was playing, and Jon didn’t know what Matt was playing.

And so I had to be disciplined and have that studio hat on, knowing that the clock was ticking. But when you’re playing together in a room, all kinds of things happen.”

Despite the geographical distance that existed between Amos and her bandmates, there’s a singular sonic identity to Ocean To Ocean that flows through each of its tracks.

HEADLINER USA

These bold, towering productions still manage to breathe and give room to the themes that tether them. As with all of her records, it’s a complete, unified body of work, right down to the artwork, depicting Amos stood at the top of those Cornish cliffs, dressed all in black with the ocean opening up behind her.

“I’ve always been interested in production and sonic choices, but it’s something I had to learn by trial and error, “she says. “Falling on my face, listening back to something and thinking ‘what was I thinking’?!

I had to learn on the job, and you realise the consequences of certain sonic choices. And you realise the consequences when you don’t pay attention to production.”

With a string of tour dates lined up across the UK and mainland Europe in the early part of 2022, Amos says she has been feeling the pull of the stage more than ever, eager not just

to get back to being in a room with other musicians, but to reconnecting with the intense bond that exists between her and her audience.

“I’ve been missing the other musicians and having that camaraderie,” she signs off, “but it’s just as much about missing the audience and playing live to people. The collaboration you have with the audience at a live show, that exchange of energy, I don’t feel anywhere else except in that setting.

If you ask any musician, they’ll tell you the same thing - they won’t take playing live for granted again.”

Ocean To Ocean by Tori Amos is out now on Decca Records.

TORIAMOS.COM

L-ACOUSTICS

Leading The Revolution

Photographer: Hal Horowitz

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LEADING THE REVOLUTION Try as one might, it’s all but impossible to broach any conversation about the current state of the pro audio market without at least mentioning the dreaded C word. From studio gear manufacturers to rental firms, to loudspeaker brands and system integrators, there isn’t a corner of the industry that hasn’t been touched by the pandemic.

Of course, the devastation and suffering it has caused has been documented far and wide, but in amongst the immense challenges, slivers of the artistry and innovation that the pro audio world was built on have been able to shine through.

The studio sector has seen music creators utilize their down time to upgrade their audio tool kits, while those on the live sound and installation side of the market, who have inevitably felt the brute force of Covid to the fullest, have found ways to diversify their offering and dip more than the proverbial toe into uncharted waters.

French loudspeaker giant, L-Acoustics, certainly falls into the latter category.

A company that has always been synonymous with audio innovation, L-Acoustics was already on the way to significantly diversifying its offering before the pandemic struck, but the grinding halt of live events in March 2020 allowed the business to recalibrate, see where it could fasttrack the moves it was making into certain quarters and explore new markets with a focus and lightness of

foot that it may not have been able to do otherwise.

innovations set to see the light of day over the coming months.

Last year, L-Acoustics launched its new L-Acoustics Creations division in earnest – a special unit within the company aimed at high-end commercial and residential customers. Chief among its offering is Island, an experiential product designed for the most aspirational of consumers and for the company to showcase its object-based L-ISA technology without the need for a theatre or concert venue in which to do so. Driven by the vision of L-Acoustics founder Christian Heil , Island takes the form of a literal island, surrounded by an arc of speakers to create a 360° sonic environment, bringing the listener inside the audio experience. A range of variations on the theme of spatial audio have been unveiled over the past 12 months, with new products and

Another significant breakthrough came in the form of L-ISA Studio, a software suite that offers and L-ISA 3D control interface and audio processing on a personal computer. Through L-ISA Studio’s binaural engine, users can produce immersive audio on headphones with headtracking, or for up to 12 loudspeakers in any studio. This too, will be elaborated upon yet further over in 2022 and beyond.

To find out more about where the company is headed next, as well as the market trends and insights that have informed its movements over the past 18 months, we caught up with L-Acoustics CEO Laurent Vaissié for an exclusive chat about the ever-changing nature of the business…

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Leading The Revolution

Let’s rewind to March 2020. What were you and the company thinking when you realised that Covid was going to be a long-term problem?

First of all, it was a health crisis, so we shut down operations for two weeks to allow us to regroup and see what health protocols we had to put in place to protect our employees.

We moved almost 300 out of 500 employees into remote work, which meant IT had to get everybody online very quickly. Two weeks later we started resuming operations with health protocols in place. These were limited operations, but we had some backlog and projects we had to fulfil.

How are things progressing now?

It definitely feels a lot better. Q1 2021 was still very difficult, everything was shut down and vaccinations were still starting to roll in. But we’ve seen a big shift in Q2 and Q3, especially in America, so as a consequence we’ve seen our backlog starting to increase in Q2. Some big projects that should have happened in 2020 were released, so June and July were very strong in terms of delivery, much higher than we expected.

We’re still seeing predominance of installation, around 60% of the business is still the installation market, but even on the rental side we’ve seen companies come out of the pandemic who are now very busy. International tours are still not happening on a big scale, but festivals are taking place and regional tours are happening, so we are in a good position compared to 2020. We planned for similar results to 2020 but we are going to be higher without a doubt. And 2022 is looking like a very active year, pending any new variants of Covid.

Many companies have been diversifying their offering during the pandemic. How much has this been the case for L-Acoustics?

It was an opportunity for us to take a step back and look at our mission statement to elevate the listener HEADLINER USA

experience. So, in the first stage of the pandemic, we were focused on something we started a few years ago, which is L-Acoustics Creations.

Suddenly, the idea of bringing the concert home became very relevant, and we had already prepared for that.

So, it was a chance to expand on that with some products for integration.

We continue to develop installation market products, so K3i and K3, which were in the works, were launched, but we also saw the opportunity to work more on the content creation side; we saw the push for immersive technology.

With L-ISA we’ve been leading the revolution for a few years, and we’re seeing this happening on the consumer side with Apple Music, Amazon and Dolby Atmos. So one of the missing pieces we felt needed to be addressed was in the workflow and the ability for engineers and creators to prepare immersive content in any situation. The pandemic gave us a chance to release this early with L-ISA Studio, which has been really well received and closes the loop for us in terms of the full workflow, from creating the immersive content, preparing for production, then getting the design into Soundvision and then implementing it onsite. This changes the type of discussion we have with artists, their teams and the production and FOH engineers.

We also developed a partnership with (IEM industry leader) JH Audio, collaborating with them on a professional in-ear monitor matching L-Acoustics live sound signature. This development was linked in part to the L-ISA Studio concept – it allows people to use L-ISA Studio anywhere with a binaural mix on a pair of professional headphones that would match the signature of our PA. It’s opened a new space for us and is a very interesting and successful collaboration.

Are you seeing an increase in interest from artists with regard to L-ISA? Yes, without a doubt. To take advantage of L-ISA it must be a

process that is thought out from the very beginning, so we are having these discussions earlier and earlier.

Implementing L-ISA and immersive sound is more involved, so it will happen in different steps. One of the first steps which we started seeing was an increase in residencies.

When artists go into a residency they really want to make a statement. The production level is high and they want to do something unique, so following the residency with Aerosmith and Lady Gaga in Las Vegas, we’ve seen an increase in these types of projects.

There’s the ABBA project in London, which is going to be fantastic, and there are a number of residencies in Las Vegas - these discussions are happening with the creative directors and FOH engineers to explore what is possible.

The tools are coming along as well.

We’ve just released L-ISA Processor II, which offers up to 128 channels at 96kHz. The workflow is very userfriendly. Some of the fears and preconceived notions around what it means to mix in an object-based way are disappearing quickly. It’s happening slowly, but the shift is there and is being pushed both in the consumer and professional world.

And when companies like Apple Music and Amazon Music see the benefits of spatial audio, then the consumers will be used to that.

What has the response to L-ISA Studio been like?

It’s been very positive. The community that is using the software still needs to be expanded and there is a lot of potential for content creators to use this tool to create their immersive mix, not only for L-ISA but also for Dolby Atmos. We need to communicate that a little better to expand the user base.

But we have met our targets and expectations and the response has been really positive.

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TECHNOLOGY

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Leading The Revolution

“CHRISTIAN’S VISION HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO FIND WAYS TO GET THE BEST LISTENING EXPERIENCE. WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ARCHITECTURAL OR COMMERCIAL SPACE, THE SAME RULES APPLY.”

How much of a focus will the residential and commercial markets be for L-Acoustics?

Christian’s vision has always been to find ways to get the best listening experience. When we talk about architectural or commercial space, the same rules apply. A product like Island is for a very niche market, but it’s a fantastic way to showcase the technology as well. It’s an easy way to show decision-makers, artists, people who aren’t technical but are involved in professional live entertainment to understand what L-ISA is about. It’s not only a way for us to penetrate a new market but also a way to communicate about our new technologies.

The focus is not to be just another residential loudspeaker manufacturer.

We would not enter this market for that. Christian’s vision is to create sound experiences: how do we transform private spaces into places where audio can be an integral part of everyday life and where audio can transform the space from both a resonance and content standpoint?

This is the vision that guides the technologies and products to come from L-Acoustics Creations in the coming months and years.

HEADLINER USA

What have been some of the key market trends you’ve seen in the past 18 months or so?

The first is the push for immersive audio. We’ve seen more and more venues, not just performance venues but houses of worship, requesting L-ISA. Sometimes that means we are deploying smaller lines but more points, and sometimes slightly smaller boxes but more boxes deployed in the space.

The other has been the success of the A Series that we launched. The form factor of that box gives a lot of flexibility to integrators and addresses a part of the market which could not access line arrays before and was always interested in L-Acoustics but was looking at other brands. Now with this configuration, we’ve seen a lot of demand from the sports market to theatres to clubs. That’s been a success, that transition from the ARCS family to the A Series, and there is a lot more we can do with this.

Where are the biggest opportunities in the market for L-Acoustics?

There is immersive, but there are also trends shifting towards more sustainable touring. We’ve been working on this for a long time, and now we’ll be looking to take the next leap and that will put us in a great position for touring.

As we start to expand through Creations we’ll see markets in the commercial space open up to L-Acoustics. We’ll always be a premium solution; we will never address 100% of the commercial market, but we will always be there with solutions for customers who want that premium experience, and we’ll be able to move into hospitality and commercial.

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SAM TESKEY

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HEAIN’THEAVY,HE’S MY(TESKEY)BROTHER HEADLINER USA

ARTIST

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You’ll know guitarist Sam Teskey as one half of the brothers Teskey, aka critically-acclaimed, blues-soul band, The Teskey Brothers. With his debut album Cycles released in October, Teskey reveals how an album of previously unfinished songs finally took shape during lockdown, into a record to be enjoyed as a complete body of work.

With Cycles, did you deliberately set out to make something that sounded different to The Teskey Brothers?

No, I definitely didn’t set out to do anything different. It’s something I’ve always really been into, and I guess I’ve been working at it for a long time. The stuff that we do with The Teskey Brothers is a different thing than I would normally go for, but it hasn’t felt like I’m trying to do something different from that sound, it just naturally fell into place. I’ve always loved this sort of music that I’m portraying on this album, and it was about time that I got in there and finished something, because I had lots of work that was half done! So I finished some of these old tunes off.

The Teskey Brothers is a collaboration of all of us and all of our sounds; Josh has got an amazing soul voice because his major influences were people like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder – all these kinds of great singers. I was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers Band – so these two worlds meet, but they’re all kind of from that same era. My album goes more towards my influences and Pink Floyd – it goes down more of a psychedelic road.

Where did the theme of cycles of life come from, and why did you take the unusual approach of settling on the album’s track-listing before recording a note?

I spend a lot of time touring with The Teskey Brothers; I write a lot of songs

“SOMEONE ONCE SAID TO ME, “A MIX IS NEVER FINISHED, IT’S JUST ABANDONED.”

on the road. Something just clicked during the lockdown when I was trying to piece all these songs together, and I just realised it’s actually two separate albums. As soon as I split them up it all unfolded from there.

So I had fewer songs, and then a lot more room to bring them together as one whole piece. I ended up using two reels of tape – one reel was for the A side and one reel was for the B side, so it worked really well in the production sense. I’ve never been able to do anything like this before because [The Teskey Brothers] will be picking the tracklisting after we’ve

done the recording, but because I had this pre-thought about it, I was able to record a song and keep that song rolling into the next song, and then into the next one after that. It was a really refreshing way to record because it naturally segwayed all the songs, and they all joined together really beautifully from a production sense and from a musical sense.

There’s a folky song on the album that has this concept of cycles of life – growing up and having a family and then saying goodbye to people. Then if you look at the whole album as a whole, it’s another bigger cycle.

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SAM TESKEY

HEADLINER USA

ARTIST

You were determined to capture the music in its purest form and you recorded the album almost exclusively live to tape at your analog home studio; what studio kit was essential in the creation of this album?

The Neve 1073 Mic preamp/EQ is one of those preamps that is one knob, and it just sounds great! I just know that when I plug something into it, it sounds good. I like it on a lot of close miked stuff, like the snare drum, the floor tom, and it’s great on guitar amps as well. It’s really great for anything – it’s just one of those classic preamps that is awesome. A preamp with an EQ on it saves me time later on because I really like to work in the moment to get the sound; I want to get it on tape and not have to worry

about mixing it later – I want to mix as much stuff as it’s been recorded, and that’s what I did a lot with this album.

To be able to commit to things in the moment is not as easy and there’s a bit more going on in the decision making, but it was awesome to be able to commit to things, like all the drums were mixed down to two channels on the tape machine.

In production there’s so many things you can do, and you can get stuck in mixing it later. Someone once said to me, “a mix is never finished, it’s just abandoned”, which is so true!

You could just keep reworking these things, but there’s a time where you just have to abandon it and just say, “that’s it; that’s how it’s gonna be”. I try to eliminate all those decision-

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making things in the recording process and because I’ve done the groundwork to start with. I’ve got all the instruments sounding how I want them to sound on the tape, so really all I have to do is push up the fader, and most of my sound is there. I love the process, I think it’s a much nicer way to do things!

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D&B

A Giant Leap For Spatial Sound?

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The new d&b Soundscape update marks the latest additions to its software toolkit - Soundscape Simulation, SPL and localization mapping within an object-based workflow.

As part of d&b’s ArrayCalc simulation software, the new visualization tool is designed to accurately model a Soundscape system’s real and perceived acoustical performance within a space.

“This new software optimizes the system approach to allow En-Scene to deliver even better results based on solid acoustical science,” Stummer told Headliner. “Sound reproduction is changing and finally there is a way to accurately demonstrate

how Soundscape will improve an overall production by incorporating psycho acoustic evaluation and the simulation of an auditory perception into the d&b workflow.

“The introduction of the En-Scene simulator is a major paradigm shift in the way we model sound,” he continued. “The software gives sound engineers and technicians a design and planning tool that matches their creative reality and makes the experience upgrade that Soundscape delivers more accessible than ever.”

The En-Scene simulation tool allows d&b users of all experience levels to evaluate how the spatialization created with a Soundscape system will be experienced by the audience, meaning that they can optimize the system design early in the planning phase of a production.

Furthermore, the En-Scene simulator also demonstrates Soundscape’s ability to improve the overall production and listening experience through object-based processing, according to the company.

MB GU LE

A GIANT LEAP FOR SPATIAL SOUND? German pro audio giant d&b audiotechnik has unveiled what it describes as “a big step forward for spatialized and immersive audio in live sound” with its new Soundscape Simulation software. Headliner hears from d&b’s product manager advanced systems, Georg Stummer, to find out what the launch means for users and audiences.

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“This is a big step forward for spatialized and immersive audio in live sound,” Stummer added. “Now, for the first time, we have a tool that models beyond the standard measurable audio parameters to consider psychoacoustic factors that affect the experience created and the audience’s perception of the sound.”

En-Scene simulation has been engineered to model sound pressure level distribution and perceived object localization for object positions. It creates a simulation of the entire system configuration: the acoustic performance of the loudspeaker system, combined with the En-Scene processing of the DS100 system processor - including all parameters already set by the user.

With regard to object localisation, En-Scene simulation predicts how effective the perceived localization of the sound object is for each listener in the audience area(s).

This psychoacoustic calculation is performed by two different models, in parallel Precedence and Binaural.

The former is an ‘empiric model based on precedence effect and HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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D&B

A Giant Leap For Spatial Sound?

“NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE HAVE A TOOL THAT MODELS BEYOND THE STANDARD MEASURABLE AUDIO PARAMETERS TO CONSIDER PSYCHOACOUSTIC FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE EXPERIENCE CREATED AND THE AUDIENCE’S PERCEPTION OF THE SOUND.”

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LIVE SOUND

law of the first wavefront’, while the latter is ‘an analysis of the interaural transfer functions and resulting binaural cues using the impulse responses of all sources and a generic set of binaural HRTFs’.

Users can switch between the visualization of the two models at any time according to their preferences and other requirements.

Meanwhile, direct sound SPL mapping of an En-Scene simulation will show maximum level and level distribution over listening areas depending on the sound object’s position. This means that the user can objectively verify the signal

distribution over listening areas for different sound object positions. What’s more, this simulation is also designed to enable them to enhance the efficiency of the system design, including number, type and positioning of loudspeaker cabinets.

This also means that a Soundscape system can be planned and evaluated as ‘efficiently and accurately’ as standard d&b system designs within the same d&b workflow.

“Every user in the production chain can now work with the simulation tool and experiment with Soundscape for nearly every application type”,

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Stummer concludes. “The simulations that are now possible answer the questions about distributed systems that we couldn’t before, like: If I add a loudspeaker, what difference does it make to the audience’s experience?

We have entered a new era of science, from measuring to modelling, where there is an accurate and easy way to show first-hand how a Soundscape system can improve overall production and the listening experience.”

The Soundscape simulation is part of the d&b ArrayCalc software and is available to download for free now.

DBAUDIO.COM

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GREGORY PORTER

‘This Is Not The Final Chapter’

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GREGORY PORTER

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‘THIS IS NOT THE FINAL CHAPTER’

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Photographer: Erik Umphery

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ARTIST

“Do you mind if I order a cognac?” laughs Gregory Porter when Headliner reaches him over the phone from what sounds like a bustling Central London hotel. He may be joking, but the image of him sat by the fire of the hotel bar, sipping on a drink as he regales us with tales of how his new record Still Rising came together is easily conjured. The Grammy Awardwinning artist is in high spirits, being just a matter of days away from the release of the new album and having just completed a run of four sold out shows at the Royal Albert Hall, his first live performances since March 2020.

“It was a wonderful time,” he says.

“They were my first big shows since the opening up of our lives; the revival of our lives. It was great to perform four packed shows and have that back and forth with the audience. It was amazing and quite emotional. The last time I played live was pretty much the last day you could do anything.”

Released on November 5, Still Rising is more of a Gregory Porter selection box than a new album or a best of.

Packing 34 songs over two discs, it features five brand new tracks, an assortment of greatest hits and an array of covers and duets with the likes of Paloma Faith, Moby, Jamie Cullum, Jeff Goldblum, Ella Fitzgerald and

many more. It is, he says, a project that would not likely have happened were it not for the pandemic.

“It’s a statement of my musical openness; my respect for music but having no respect for genre,” he explains with a delivery that is slow and considered. The rich, warm, honeyed tone that makes him such a compelling storyteller through song is just as powerful in conversation. “I love soul, jazz, dance, blues. This album is a full musical picture of who I am as an artist thus far. This is not the final chapter. I don’t even feel like I’m at the halfway point of my career. This is a picture of me at the moment. But if we hadn’t been faced with the pandemic, and had I not released my previous album All Rise just before it – and subsequently not been able to play those songs live – I don’t know if I’d have made this record.”

In addition to providing a fitting snapshot of his career to date, Still Rising also came to represent something of a cathartic project during a devastating period of loss.

Over the course of the pandemic, Porter was dealt the double blow of losing his brother to Covid and the death of his sister just one week later after a battle with cancer. Speaking openly about the grief he felt at the

“THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING MUSIC FOR SALES SEEMED FRIVOLOUS IN THE FACE OF WHAT WE WERE ALL FACING.”

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time, he says that music offered both an escape from the pain he was enduring, as well as a means to process and overcome it.

“I was buoyed by some of the things I said and sang to lift other people; I needed that for myself,” he elaborates.

“With the death of my brother and my sister, it was a very difficult time, and I realised the power and importance of music. In a way, Still Rising is a celebration of that and a statement of these musical gifts that I share with everybody.

“Music as a commodity was less important to me, so I wrote songs about my brother and sister and I don’t know if they’ll ever make it to the studio, I just wrote it for myself and maybe spiritually for them as well,” he continues. “I don’t care for that to be sold. Music is still a way of communicating without the need for it to have streams or purchases.

So, I communicated with my brother through music without the eyes and ears of critics or fans.

“There was another thing that happened due to the grief and pressure of the times and the anxiety that this situation has created. The importance of making music for sales seemed frivolous in the face of what we were all facing. We all had a knife at our necks, because a pandemic such as this, transmitted by the simple act of breathing and being close to one another, threatened all of our lives. That was vexing. Then I realised that the prescription for it was music.

I needed to hear some of my own music, some of which is on Still Rising.

I needed to hear No Love Dying, I needed to hear Mother’s Song. It was cathartic. My brother came to the studio whenever I recorded, so I remember him being in the room when I recorded some of these songs.

All of that was healing for me. I always felt it was my gift to heal other people with music, without considering one day I might need it as well. And I needed it.”

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GREGORY PORTER

‘This Is Not The Final Chapter’ Photographer: Erik Umphery

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HEADLINER USA

ARTIST

The songs Porter would write during this time were also informed by the escalating political and racial tensions that have shaped the past 18 months. Though not explicitly detailing subjects like the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement, or the attack on Capitol Hill, all of these, he says, permeated his creative process at the time.

“I just wanted to consider the turmoil that was happening during this time - the song I Will is about love, trying to think about togetherness, being children of the same God, thinking about the optimism I have about love,” he explains, his voice steely yet full of emotion. “I was wilfully naïve about love, wilfully in love with love, wilfully gobsmacked by its power and presence.” He recites the lyrics, “‘I will sell my soul, I will sail my soul down the river of love’. It’s about believing that through all the troubles we go through, racial strife, political differences, all of it is surmountable with love.

That’s what I feel is coming out of the times we’re in.

“The other lyric is they are children of a vain God, walking bold and wide to the rhythm of the gun. There are a whole bunch of places in the world where people feel empowered by brute strength, might and their ability to tear down doors, break down walls, walk into Capitols and control people with bombs and brutality. This is a real thing, even though it seems like something from 200 years ago.

Present day people are still trying to conquer other people with might.”

As well as documenting the challenges of the times, Porter also describes what he feels is a duty upon artists to offer hope and light during the darkest of days. From protest songs to feelgood escapism, the power of music, he suggests, is more potent than ever.

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way of life, for more fairness and a more reasonable, equal place. You can’t do it all in one fashion, it has to be different levels of pressure. Somebody has to go hard; somebody has to go soft. Art generally pushes towards making people better. You can use art in awful ways as well, but art generally pushes towards a higher, more positive mark.

“These vexing stories…[he pauses.] I’m a black person thinking of the black story. There is a lot of pain there. And sometimes there is a weariness that can happen even in the protester. Sometimes you just want to see black joy, black grace. My Babe is just a fun, blues song that is like something that would be played in a juke joint. That’s exactly what I’m doing with a song like that. Let’s just enjoy ourselves, have a cold beer and dance. There is no pain with that song.”

While the lyrical content and context of the new songs and the old favourites on Still Rising may vary, what remains consistent throughout is Porter’s ability to add a layer of contemporary sheen to traditional jazz, blues and soul.

Though rightly credited, along with many of his Still Rising collaborators, as one of the artists most responsible for bringing what some may consider niche genres to mainstream audiences, he claims that both music listeners and artists today are less tribal and more genre agnostic than ever before.

“You have to think about the way contemporary society listens to music,” he says thoughtfully, before signing off for that well-earned cognac. “The contemporary listener and singer has to have an understanding of so many different genres. You have to have a grasp and understanding of music as a whole, or you live in a hole.”

GREGORYPORTER.COM

“I hope to convey a message of hope and unity,” he offers.

“I feel like I’m on a team with a bunch of artists all over the world, and it’s the charge of the artist to try to make the world a better place. We protest and we push, however subtle, however overt, but we push towards a more perfect

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KYLE HAMILTON

Behind The Curtain

BEHIND THE CURTAIN RAMSEY

HEADLINER USA

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Front of house engineer Kyle Hamilton – who’s worked with some massive names in music including Janet Jackson, Usher, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams and many more – joins Headliner on a call from CenterStaging rehearsal studio in Burbank, CA where he’s gearing up for a string of one-off live shows with Doja Cat...

How’ve you been keeping busy lately? Can you tell us how you first got into mixing live sound?

Right now, I’m literally juggling three artists at the same time: Doja Cat, Lizzo and Usher. It’s about to be full throttle for the live music world for a while now, because everybody wants to get out and have a good time. I’ve been in live music for 28 years, and last year was the first time I’ve been home for that duration of time for at least 20 of those years.

“WHOEVER YOU’RE MIXING, YOU NEED TO KNOW THEIR CATALOGUE AND THEIR SONIC IDENTITY, BECAUSE THESE ARE HIT RECORDS FOR A REASON.”

My career really got going in 1994; I was working with a number of different artists as a system engineer just doing a little bit of everything – patching, setting up backline etc.

I started out doing gospel plays – that’s where I really cut my teeth, learning how to deal with multiple microphones, feedback, and all that other good stuff. When you’re in a theatre setting for two or three weeks at a time, that’s a good way to learn your craft and tighten things up.

My first breakthrough was when I graduated from system engineer to front of house mixer, and was called up to work on a show for The Isley Brothers. It was off to the races after that.

Tell us about your general approach to mixing front of house.

You have to do your homework.

Whoever you’re mixing, you need to know their catalogue and their sonic identity, because these are hit records for a reason. I’m not mixing them

from my perspective, I’m mixing them from the perspective of the producer or artist who intended to convey a particular feeling in the first place.

I listen to the music and then I talk with the MD, and ask – for example – ‘do you want the drums in Pro Tools to be more predominant during this part?’ It’s important to have these little conversations with the powers that be. They’re the ones hiring you

for your expertise, but at the same time, you’re there to bring their audio vision to life.

The audience wants to hear those signature sounds, like guitar solos and synth lines. If the band is doing something that makes it a special moment per se, you feature those little nuances, but for the body of the music, you keep it true to the record with a live feel.

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KYLE HAMILTON

Behind The Curtain

You’re somewhat of a JH Audio loyalist. Tell us how you use IEMs in your workflow.

I’ve got a couple of pairs of Laylas from JH, and I love them. For certain situations, like when we’re building the show, my approach is – if I know my desk sounds right, I’m never going to adjust the mix in the desk. I will adjust things in the room before I touch my console. When I give a mix to my client, they want it to bang in their headphones, their iPods, their car, their little Bluetooth speaker in the dressing room, and so on, so I use the JHs a lot to fine tune my mix within the desk and the sub to my own environment.

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My JHs are like my near fields, except they’re on my head. So if the background sounds low in the mix of my in-ears, it probably means that the background sounds low in the overall mix, so I need to push that up.

My Laylas are true, nicely balanced and add no color.

Any particularly memorable moments from your time on the road?

One was when I was on tour with Rihanna. She played the Stade de France, and she was the first black female artist to sell that place out at the time, by herself without support, and I was the first black engineer to

mix a gig of that scale in that venue.

Looking around and seeing 80,000 people, all for her, was breathtaking.

The one that really takes the cake though is The Isley Brothers, way back when the SARS pandemic was happening. We did a show in Canada for 500,000 people on an Air Force Base; I have a picture hanging on my wall of an aerial shot taken from that show. That was epic for me.

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CODA AUDIO

Hearing Is Believing

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IMMERSIVE AUDIO

A music festival like no other recently took place in the heart of the city of Marseille, bringing thousands of music lovers together for two nights packed full of unique sonic experiences, explosive DJ sets, and much more...

Utopia Festival, dedicated to the electronic music culture and solidarities of the famous port city in Southern France, welcomed more than 45 artists to play across seven ‘scenes’ (including two completely immersive stages) over two nights, as well as featuring a series of

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conferences, debates, and a haul of local independent retailers.

On the 24th and 25th of September, Utopia took over the historical site of the Friche la Belle de Mai, born out of the ashes of the Seita tobacco factory and transformed into a hub of creativity and innovation.

The venue had been redesigned to unite its people around a unique, multi-sensory experience, and so an equally unique sound system was needed to satisfy the festival’s demanding audio requirements.

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CODA AUDIO

Hearing Is Believing

“WITH THESE IMMERSIVE SOUND SYSTEMS AT FESTIVALS, SOMETIMES THERE IS DISTORTION INSIDE THE DJ BOOTH, BUT HERE IT WAS JUST SUPER CLEAN.”

Enter CODA Audio from Hannover, Germany and its patented loudspeaker technologies, constructed from raw materials at its dedicated production facilities, and designed to deliver exceptional outcomes in every sphere of professional audio.

Every one of Utopia’s stages were designed and implemented by systems from across the entire CODA Audio range. In every area of the festival, from front of house to DJ monitoring, CODA’s next generation products ensured that every beat, note and word was heard clearly and powerfully.

the next massive event that we could put on; we asked ourselves, ‘what is the best possible experience we can provide for an international audience?’ and from there started working on something quite special,” said Utopia festival director, Aurélien Deloup.

“A special line up with artists from around the world, but also a nice place for local heroes. We wanted some exclusivity with projects that have never been seen before. Lots of content was created for the festival and produced in this venue, and it’s been a long time coming to make it happen.”

Perhaps the venue’s most spectacular setting – the Eldorado roof terrace – offered a breathtaking panoramic view of the city and its sunsets. This truly was a new kind of festival experience, and Headliner was lucky enough to be invited to see and hear these impressive systems in the flesh.

CODA Audio’s new state-of-the-art immersive processor, Space Hub, played a vital role in making Utopia a complete immersive experience. The key, however, is in the bigger picture.

The linear phase response of all of CODA’s loudspeakers works in tandem with Space Hub to produce a first-ofits-kind immersive audio system.

“We’ve been working on regular weekend events for a long time at this venue, and we got thinking about

Featuring highly advanced spatial audio algorithms for the positioning and movement of sound objects,

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Space Hub can render up to 128 audio sources into 128 outputs to create what CODA describes as the ultimate 3D immersive listening experience in theatres, houses of worship, live venues and production studios.

An integral component of CODA’s Space Immersive System Solution, Space Hub was officially launched at the Tonmeistertagung 2021 event at the CCD in Düsseldorf at the start of November.

With Utopia Festival serving as the first real-world trial of Space Hub, all eyes and ears were on the audio quality and power of the system during the three-day event, and it certainly did not disappoint. The response was universally positive, with DJs, producers, engineers, and most importantly, the fans, declaring the audio to be something very special.

IMMERSIVE AUDIO

Libertalia, hosted within the Petit Plateau – one of Utopia’s two fully immersive stages equipped with Space Hub – welcomed incredible sets from the likes of Maayan Nidam, Sonja Moonear, and the UK’s own Archie Hamilton, a house and techno DJ/producer and label owner, who post-show offered Headliner his thoughts on the monitoring system: “The energy in that room was amazing; pretty much within the first two or three tracks, the room was full and for me the monitoring was perfect,” he said. “When you’ve got these immersive sound systems at festivals, sometimes there’s a bit of distortion going on inside the DJ booth, but here it was just super clean, and you could see everyone from the middle to the back and side to side having a good time and enjoying the music. So obviously whatever they’ve

done with the audio system is tip top – it sounds wicked.”

The immersive audio system in the Petit Plateau comprised a L/R 2 x 9 per side N-RAY system with four SC2 and six SCP for filling the room with low end. Meanwhile, 15 x HOPS8 and four TiRAY (CODA’s most compact line array system) mounted on 3D axes helped to create an immersive experience for all members of the audience, no matter where they were in the room.

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Solution as a whole,” he said. “The linear phase response of all our loudspeakers is also fundamental to the way we achieve the wave field coherency necessary for a truly immersive experience.”

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for Space Hub, coming to a stage near you in the not so distant future…

CODAAUDIO.COM UTOPIAFESTIVAL.FR

CODA Audio director of global marketing, David Webster, urges the audio community to hear for themselves: “Space Hub is certainly central to our move into immersive audio systems, but it shouldn’t be viewed as a single defining product.

Instead, it must be seen in the context of the wider Space Immersive System HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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NEAL POGUE

HEADLINER USA

Organized Noize

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ORGANIZED NOIZE

NEAL POGUE You might not know his name, but you’ll definitely know his music. Hailing from New Jersey, Neal H Pogue is an American producer, audio engineer and mixer who has worked with Outkast, TLC, Stevie Wonder, Common, P!nk, Nelly Furtado, Lil Wayne, Janelle Monae, and Earth, Wind & Fire.

The multiple Grammy Award-winner reflects on mixing mega hits Hey Ya! by Outkast and Waterfalls by TLC, and shares some Waves plugin favorites...

You’re known for your work with Outkast, mixing many of their albums, including the Grammy Award-winning SpeakerBoxx/The Love Below. Tell us about mixing Hey Ya!, and how you convinced André 3000 to use it as the album’s lead single.

He thought that Prototype was the single, and I was like, ‘no, it’s Hey Ya!, man – people are gonna go crazy over this because it’s different; it’s something that you don’t usually do’. He looked at me and kind of laughed – I guess he thought it was just an album filler or whatever – but I hounded him for weeks to finish the

song. When he first played it for me, it was just a verse and a chorus, and I said, ‘you have to finish this’, and after a while, I used to call him and say, ‘where’s my song?’ I kept calling it my song [laughs]. That was a fun period.

I’ve always had a knack for picking singles.

That song captured everybody – it wasn’t about the hip-hop crowd. I thought the hip-hop crowd was going to pan it, but at the same time, I knew that they were going to catch up.

Some people just want to be tough and don’t let their guard down and really show themselves, and we all HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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NEAL POGUE

Organized Noize

“WAVES IS THE STANDARD – THEIRS ARE MY GO-TOS AND ARE WHAT I REACH FOR FIRST.”

You mixed one of TLC’s biggest hits, Waterfalls and produced the song’s iconic horn part under the pseudonym Shock. Why was this?

I knew that was gonna be trivia at some point! I did that on purpose because I didn’t want people to see that the song was mixed by me and I did the horn arrangements. I wanted to do it under a different name and let people figure it out later, and it’s great that those horn lines are such a memorable thing. That hook gets you, but you listen to the verses and you’re like, ‘wow, this is talking about something deep’.

I was already working with Organized Noize on various records and albums, and then we got the gig to work with TLC. Organized Noize came up with this track, and they had hired one of their childhood friends – Marqueze Etheridge – to write the lyrics; he came in with this melody and lyrical content, and we were all just blown away by it. Deep down in my soul, I knew that it was going to be a hit because it touched on things that people didn’t want to touch on at that time, because we’re talking about HIV and AIDS and all these other things.

It was a bold statement to put it out HEADLINER USA

there for everybody, and I thought it was groundbreaking. Coming from TLC, I knew that it was going to take it to a whole new level.

on bass and it just brings out that low end. So whenever I need that thing that you feel from the bottom of your feet, I go to the Kramers.

How have Waves plugins shaped the renowned tracks you’ve worked on over the years?

Listen to the full podcast interview with Neal Pogue at Headliner Radio.

Oh, man, I’ve been using Waves for almost 20 years! The first mix I ever did on Pro Tools was Hey Ya!, so around the early 2000s is probably the first time I started using Waves plugins, and I’ve been using them ever since.

Even though we have other plugin companies, Waves is the standard – theirs are my go-tos and are what I reach for first, and I love them.

I came up working on SSL boards; my first pick is always the SSL EQs because that’s part of my sound – the SSL sound. Being at home I don’t have an SSL board, so my first thing is to go to the SSL EQ because that emulates that board’s sound, so that’s my go-to, and then I love going to the CLA-3A. I love the Manny Marroquin and Kramer plugins too – I have fun with all those. Using the Kramer HLS Channel, I love the EQ and that low end – oh my god, the sub on those EQs are amazing! I always use them

NEALHPOGUE.COM WAVES.COM

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Behind The Game Score

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COMPOSER

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BEHIND THE GAME SCORE

GUARDIANS OFTHE GALAXY Multi award-winning BAFTA and Ivor Novello-nominated composer Richard Jacques metaphorically dusted off his Walkman to get in the right mindset for his latest project: scoring Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy game, which melds ‘80s pop and rock masterpieces with gameplay to create an innovative interactive gaming mechanic called the Huddle.

He explains how he tied together three distinct musical styles in his soundtrack: an epic orchestral score, an all-star mixtape of licensed ‘80s tracks, and an original rock album created just for the game.

Music is intrinsic to the Guardians’ franchise; how did you ensure it was a key part of the gameplay experience?

When we first started looking at how we were going to score the game, myself and Steve Szczepkowski were discussing what we needed from the score, because we knew that we would be using some licenced music tracks and that they were gonna marry up together. Music is

a very big part of the Guardians’ DNA, from the movies and comics and animated series, so right from the get-go, we knew we wanted to create a very epic orchestral, grandiose, intergalactic symphony to accompany the Guardians and the player across the galaxy in this very strong, story-driven game.

Right from the beginning, we wanted to use very strong themes, both for HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Behind The Game Score

“IN TERMS OF MUSICAL SCOPE FOR AN ENTIRE PROJECT, IT’S CERTAINLY ONE OF THE BIGGEST ONES OUT THERE.”

the Guardians themselves and for some of the other characters that you’ll meet along the way, specifically for some of the villains as well. But we didn’t want to put too many themes in, because in my opinion as a composer, if you put too many in, you dilute what’s there. So we stuck to about four main themes, and there’s a couple of motifs that pop up every now and again for specific bits of the game.

Steve and his writing partner Yohann Boudreault wrote a full rock album within the game, because Star-Lord in our universe is also a band. The character Star-Lord already has it on the back of his jacket – that’s his inspiration and it’s his favorite band.

In terms of musical scope for an entire project, it’s certainly one of the biggest ones out there that I’ve seen, because you’ve got an almost six-hour epic orchestral score, then you’ve got a whole rock album, then you’ve got 30 amazing licenced tracks from the ‘80s.

So in scope, it’s pretty big!

How did you weave in the ‘80s soundtrack with the score?

It works really well because Guardians of the Galaxy has that fun element, and myself and the game team really wanted to recreate that.

Quite a lot of care was taken as to HEADLINER USA

how the score and the licenced tracks integrated with one another. So that’s not necessarily in combat, but you might be in a cinematic sequence where there’s a bit of narrative explaining the story, and you might have a piece of licenced music that then goes into my score. I took great care to make sure that it’s a seamless transition. So you might be playing Tears for Fears or something, and I start my cue in the same musical key and tempo, so there’s a very seamless transition. You might even get a slight echo of the licenced track that played previously in my score.

The game’s Huddle feature takes the licensed soundtrack further by allowing players to play an ‘80s song of choice on Star-Lord’s cassette player to inspire the Guardians while fighting. Tell us about this...

What happens is the player will build up a huddle bar, and then when that’s ready, they can activate it, and Star-Lord will have a team talk with the rest of the Guardians. He has to work out what they’re saying and gauge whether they need a speech that’s going to lift them, or if they’re being a bit too brash, then he needs to calm them down a bit. When the

player’s made the right choice, it goes back into the gameplay, and he hits play on his Walkman, and you get an array of these amazing ‘80s hits.

Sometimes my score might be playing during the first part of combat, and it’s very dramatic and epic, and then if you use the Huddle mechanic in a specific level, you might hear Rick Astley or something like that. That’s just part of the fun of Guardians – that dichotomy between the score and the tracks, and it works brilliantly.

RICHARDJACQUES.COM

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JOSHUA FAULKNER

HEADLINER USA

Creative Thinking

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CREATIVE THINKING

JOSHUA FAULKNER As has been the case for so many mix engineers and producers throughout the second half of 2021, mix engineer and producer Joshua Faulkner has found himself busier than ever. Since the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions at the start of the year, studios have been opening up and artists have been flocking to them in their droves. Yes, music creators have remained productive from home in the absence of a fully functioning, prepandemic studio sector, but there is no substitute for the creative spark that ignites when together in a room with another human being.

For Faulkner, a large slice of the past few months has been spent holed up at London’s iconic Battery Studios – part of the Miloco Group and established by legendary producers Alan Moulder and Flood – with UK grime pioneer Skepta. Having worked together previously, Faulkner and Skepta formed a ‘bubble’ during the most restrictive social distancing measures and have embarked on something of a new creative partnership, which has kept the pair active throughout the past year of the pandemic.

“This is where me and Skepta have been working,” Faulkner tells Headliner as we join him at Battery Studios, where he sits at an SSL 4000 console that we’re told was purchased by Moulder from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. “We were working on an album together and once that was finished, he called me and said, ‘I’d love to work with you full-time’. When I did the last EP with Skepta there was no stress at all; we finished it and we couldn’t believe how quickly it was out because the process was so seamless.”

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Creative Thinking

“ANYONE CAN DO TECHNICAL, BUT CREATIVITY IS SOMETHING YOU ALREADY HAVE TO HAVE WITHIN YOU.”

Despite his close partnership with Skepta, Faulkner has plied his trade across a vast array of genres, working with an eclectic variety of artists.

His working process, he tells us, is about being able to bring something fresh to any given project – a skill he developed from a young age.

wise it’s all just about cleaning things up,” he explains. “I always start on drums, then bass, then effects and then vocals after. Most of my vocal mixes are about cleaning it up and making it sound as if I had recorded it personally. From there I’ll start the vocal mix again from scratch.”

“I started when I was about 14,” he says. “I used to come home from school and my mum had this old PC and I had a version of FruityLoops. I would just crack on with music and try to make the best music I could.

It was a nice escape from school and the day-to-day. So, I went from making silly beats after school and just progressed. I tried every genre I could think of.

One of the most crucial pieces of kit in his audio arsenal, he says, is his Merging Technologies Anubis interface.

“I met a few people and it was all super natural. Then I started getting into recording, which I really liked. I thought, ‘This is easy’, but it wasn’t!

At first you think you know it all, but you don’t. So, I learned my craft, started recording a lot of bands and it progressed from there. Being a 17-year-old in a studio with a full band and trying to get a great sound is pretty stressful but it’s all part of the learning process.”

So what about his approach to new projects today?

“Most of the time I do a board mix on the SSL 4000, and then plugins HEADLINER USA

“I’ve gone through a ton of different interfaces and processes; I’m always trying to find the best sound – pres, EQs, compressors,” he elaborates.

“And just using the Anubis alone I was like, ‘Wow’! Even simple things like, on the interface you can switch into mono and then flip the polarity, which makes it easy to see if things are heavily out of phase. It’s a case of two clicks, checked, next. It’s become second nature – you don’t even have to think about it. That way, you can focus more on the creative side of things, rather than the technical side. The technical side is obviously a big part, but you don’t want to make things sound too technical. Anyone can do technical, but creativity is something you already have to have within you.

“The first time I used the Anubis was on the Sarz and Obongjayer Sweetness EP,” he continues. “It was very ‘80s sounding, and Obongjayer

has a very deep, full voice, and I wanted something that could capture the whole spectrum of his voice. It was great to use it on the project because it made his voice sound 3D, which was really interesting. And the way the low-end translated on the pres is so lovely, it’s like silk but you still get this huge warmth.”

Faulkner’s commitment to versatility and dynamism in the studio is clearly reflected both in his studio techniques and in the gear with which he equips himself. It’s a way of working that has served him well to date and looks set to do so long into the future.

“Some people look for a product that specifically targets their audience - I’m not really into that,” he concludes. “I want something that can be solid the whole way round. One day you could be recording a string section, the next you could be recording a rap vocal or a soprano. So having something as solid and easily portable as the Anubis interface, which sounds amazing every time, is priceless.”

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PAUL EPWORTH

HEADLINER USA

The Art of Music Production

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THE ART OF MUSIC PRODUCTION

PAUL EPWORTH Headliner catches up with seven-time Grammy-winning producer, musician and songwriter Paul Epworth on location at his stunning North London studio complex, The Church, to chat about life during lockdown, championing new talent, and the art of music production.

While the world waited in eager anticipation for the arrival of Adele’s fourth studio album 30 this month, it was late 2010 and early 2011 that saw the release of the acclaimed Epworth co-written and produced worldwide number one single Rolling in the Deep from the Tottenham singer’s second record, 21 - the best-selling album of the 21st century, the fourth best-selling album of all time, and the best-selling album by a solo artist of all time.

The pair continued to enjoy peak success together, bagging both the Golden Globe and Grammy Best Original Song Award in 2013 for Skyfall. Epworth also co-wrote and produced two tracks for Adele’s third album 25, which won Album of the Year at the 59th Annual Grammy

Awards. And as the release of Adele’s latest offering drew ever closer, the star once again stole the headlines recently when it was announced that she had signed a new deal with Columbia Records UK, making her a major label artist in her homeland for the first time, having previously been signed to independent label XL Recordings.

If there’s one thing that Epworth undoubtedly holds in abundance, it’s his incredibly strong work ethic – a trait that has resulted in him working with A-list artists including Adele, Florence and the Machine, Rihanna, and many more over the years. The UK lockdown however meant that for the first time in 30 years of working in recording studios, his focus fully shifted to his home life.

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The Art of Music Production

“Right at the beginning of March last year, a mutual friend dropped into the studio on a Friday night just to say hello,” he recalls. “I woke up to a text the following day saying he’d been with someone who’s tested positive, so I literally just shut everything down and sent everyone home, with a view to sit back and see how things gradually unfold.

The Church Studios was completely closed for around three months in the end, until the record label came knocking – saying that Epworth’s debut studio album, Voyager, had to be delivered soon.

moved. This year however, we have been incredibly busy. My main intention was to make sure that this piece of recording studio history didn’t go the way of so many others, and get turned into flats.”

The Name Of The Game Epworth realized when he was around 18-years-old that music was his calling in life, and understood that if he could record, produce and engineer records himself, he would never be beholden to anyone else.

“There was this two week period where just me and my engineer Riley came in and just steamed through it,” he says. “A lot of the stuff we were doing remotely with Mike Dean in L.A. so there were a lot of late nights. I finally handed this body of work in and then parked it for a bit [until its release in September 2020].

“It came from a sort of independent label, DIY punk aesthetic more than anything,” he explains. “I did a course to learn the basics and then ended up working in a local studio in Harlow for two years. There I learned about recording live to a cassette, different production techniques etc.

“In the run up to Christmas, we added quite a few big things that were loosely planned but which were eventually

“I never spent long enough in one studio or in one situation to specialise as a mixer, because my tastes are also

“YOU TRY TO GIVE PEOPLE THE CONFIDENCE AND THE COURAGE TO TAKE RISKS, AND TO BE THE MOST FULLY-FORMED VERSION OF THEMSELVES.”

HEADLINER USA

too diverse. I did a bit of live sound too, and just ended up being more about the sonic identity.”

One of the challenges for Epworth over the years has been the fact that so many massively successful records are now made in bedrooms on laptops, which means that he’s had to learn to under-produce, and better understand his limits.

“I think to be able to stay relevant enough for people to want to do stuff with you, you have to have the same hunger to learn all the time,” he considers. “You have to be ready to accept that everything you know is wrong, and that you’re making a fresh start every day to try and discover a new way of doing something.

“There’s no joy or challenge for me retreading old ground – I think it can be quite a soulless pursuit. I definitely set out to try and avoid being pigeonholed; all the producers I’ve loved over the years had a sound, but I didn’t want that, I just wanted to make really amazing records. I’ve always thought I’m quite a good enabler – you try to give people the confidence and the courage to take risks, and to be the most fully-formed version of themselves.”

When making a record, Epworth says there’s always techniques that can be employed to establish some context, or to help steer the sound according to your current taste, or the artist’s current taste, or to find the thing that both parties together view as viable.

“You might be into bitcrushed drums at the time, or you might be into a Fruity Loops mangled kind of sample that makes everything sound a little bit out of tune,” he says. “And sometimes, especially with rock records, it’s not about the things you add, but more about the timing and the really precise tonality of each part. Flipping between

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doing very grandiose productions to very stripped back stuff can be quite a challenge because of that context.”

Epworth believes his strengths have come from working with artists (such as singer-songwriter Kate Nash) in the early stages of their careers, encouraging fresh talent to get the best out of themselves.

“It’s just way more fun to be able to design the whole house in the way you want it, rather than just paint the window frames,” he analogises rather fittingly.

And talking of houses, Epworth’s Church Studios really does have a bit of everything, including a magnificent live room housing a 72-Channel vintage EMI Neve console.

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The Art of Music Production

“When you’re all working in one big room together and everything feels open, it’s a very transparent environment,” he explains. “Sometimes it’s hard acoustically to work in those big open plan rooms, because you’ll always get nodes or some reverb here and there. In Studio 1 we baffled it down, and once you get used to the fact that the base hangs around a little bit longer than anticipated up there, it makes you tighten up the low end on stuff. We set the space up so that we can hit that more open plan, spontaneous, super-creative kind of vibe, with great lines of sight if you’re doing jazz stuff for example.

“The last year has really highlighted to us as human beings how professionally adaptable we need to be all the time, because music and technology changes so quickly. You should go into a studio, and it should encourage you HEADLINER USA

to make something beyond what you imagined you’re capable of. I hope that The Church is testament to that really – I just want people to come in and feel inspired.”

Epworth goes on to highlight that there’s something very deep about the relationship between the artist and producer, especially when creating songs from scratch and seeing out every stage of the process together.

“You go into a room on day one with someone, with all their feelings and all their stories, and you’ve got to try and find a way to draw that out, and articulate it musically and lyrically,” he delineates. “And then you have to make sure that the sound and the identity is up and supportive of all that emotion; you’ve got to make sure there’s danger in things, and then make sure that it still has the potential to reach a

wider audience. And then you have to oversee the mixing and mastering stages etc., to the point where you’re still making sure that the seed of core intention is maintained, right to the end stage.

“You have to cajole and you have to support and you have to be sensitive and you have to counsel. I’ve always tried to be diplomatic because as soon as you raise people’s sensitivities, you start hitting people’s triggers, and can make them lose the confidence to bear their soul.”

You can listen to the full interview with Paul Epworth, live from Studio 3 at The Church, on Headliner Radio.

PAULEPWORTH.COM THECHURCHSTUDIOS.COM

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UNITING YOUR AUDIENCE FOR 50 YEARS

BAD SPORT

Hoop Schemes

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BAD SPORT Netflix’s new true crime-meetssports documentary series, Bad Sport uncovers the most infamous misdeeds and scandals in the sporting world, kicking things off with debut episode Hoop Schemes, which chronicles the 1994 pointshaving scandal that engulfed Arizona State University basketball.

For lifelong sports fan and sound

HEADLINER USA

mixer Nico Pierce, working on the show was a slam dunk.

“When you get the chance to work on a show like this, you have to say yes,” he tells Headliner.

“There’s nothing like being on set – the energy, the creativity – it’s intoxicating. There are so many stories in sports, good and bad, that

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have yet to be told, so having the opportunity to tell this story was an immediate yes. I was not previously aware of any of the scandals on this show; besides the episode I worked on, I got to sit back and enjoy the other episodes just like everyone else!”

Each episode of the series features a different crew, and covers scandals that took place in the worlds of ice skating, auto racing, football, horse riding and cricket. Pierce worked on debut episode Hoop Schemes, and for the episode’s many interviews, he relied on Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless, chiefly SMV and SMDWB transmitters paired with SRc receivers slot-mounted in his audio bag.

The wideband reception capability of the SRc receivers was the first feature Pierce found invaluable as production embarked on the road.

“We spent a week in Phoenix and a week in Vegas, shooting 12-hour days to get the episode done,” he recalls. “This was my first time filming outside of the L.A area since being in school, so being unfamiliar with the blocks and availability in these cities, going wideband let me not worry about finding frequencies.”

Shooting in casinos can be difficult, even if when shooting in a hotel room: “We filmed a week in Vegas, shooting at all times of the day,” he explains.

“If we used different wireless companies we would have run into some RF issues but once I locked in a channel in the beginning of the day, Lectrosonics never gave me any issues. They held the signal all day with no loss. You can’t say that about other companies.

“Plus, booms can pick up noises from other rooms, restaurants, etc depending on where you are, so having a reliable lav is extremely

important,” he points out. “The people in this story had serious consequences for their actions, whether it’s them losing their chance to go to the NBA, or going to jail, and talking about that time in their life got very emotional. So if there’s an unexpected noise near our set and I have to mix the boom down for a moment, I can’t afford to have any RF hits on the lav. The last thing I want to do is interrupt them telling their emotional story and have them

retell it again because of a sound issue. When you do that, you lose the rawness of the story and you might not get it back.”

The tight integration of the SRc receivers with Pierce’s trusty Sound Devices 688 field recorder and SL-6 powered slot-mount frame, which can accommodate up to three SRc units for a total of six channels of reception, make his on-set work a breeze.

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BAD SPORT

Hoop Schemes

“The Lectrosonic SRcs were extremely essential for my work in Bad Sport,” he stresses. “Having wideband transmitters and receivers gave me peace of mind going into the shoot, because I’d never worked in Arizona or Nevada before, so I wasn’t entirely sure what issues I might run into. I use the SRcs in my SL-6 and Sound Devices 688 mixer, and using their integration with the super slot plate, I have the ability to get the most accurate scan on my SRcs and I know I can find a clear channel in cities and states I’ve never filmed in.

I know no matter what, Lectrosonics are going to meet and go beyond expectations, and that’s why I use them.”

The nature of the job means that not every filming location is going to be as ideal as a sound stage away from the elements.

HEADLINER USA

“You go into each day needing to be prepared for whatever’s going to be thrown at you,” he laughs. “That’s why I use Lectrosonics, because whether I’m shooting at the beach near salt water, or if actors are mishandling and dropping the mic packs, I know that Lectrosonics will continue to work in any situation.’

NICOPIERCE.COM LECTROSONICS.COM

GIZMO VARILLAS

In The Loop

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Photographer: Kelia Anne Maccluskey

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HEADLINER USA

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The last few years have seen singer-songwriter and bedroom producer Gizmo Varillas successfully make the difficult transition from part-time to fulltime musician. The independent artist spent the lockdown period finessing his production techniques in his brand new home studio, which is now home to a Focusrite ISA 828 MkII mic preamp.

You’re now getting over a million monthly streams on Spotify; how has the streaming service been a useful tool for you as an independent artist?

It’s definitely a milestone for me – it’s a big one! There are a lot of mixed messages about how streaming works for artists. For me, it’s been a good experience because without the likes of Spotify and streaming, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do for a living, especially during lockdown with no gigs and not being able to promote my music as usual.

Streaming has really helped me to be the artist I am today. I’m fully independent, which has allowed me to do what I love. I’m seeing where this journey takes me. For example, in the past year I’ve expanded to writing with other artists, and that’s a whole new world unto itself.

For instance, I wrote Holding Onto The Feeling with Bobby Bazini, but two weeks before that I couldn’t write a song – it just wasn’t coming out at all, and it was really difficult.

Then Bobby came over, we started jamming, and we wrote that song really fast. Sometimes you can get in the way of yourself, and you just need that spark of inspiration to create a song. By working with lots of other artists, you’re pushing the boundaries of what you can do, and you learn in that process as well.

“Sometimes you can get in the way of yourself, and you just need that spark of inspiration to create a song.”

You’re not the kind of artist that likes to repeat themself; does this mean fans can expect something different in your next album?

I’m definitely pushing the boundaries of what I’ve done before; I’m halfway through my fourth album. Every song is revealing itself, and showcases a new side of me – which I like because if a song surprises me, I’m like, ‘well, I didn’t know I could do something like that!’ That’s what I’m striving for: to find a new sound that I haven’t explored yet.

You recently moved from London to Hove, transporting your entire home studio to a new seaside location. How has your bedroom production journey progressed with each album?

This is the first time that I’m able to actually set up the studio in a way that I can have everything here without it being cluttered – it’s a real working space for me where I can get the creative juices flowing.

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GIZMO VARILLAS

In The Loop

I’ve been building the studio since I started making music. I started off with a little old ThinkPad laptop and a really cheap interface – and I recorded my first album on that.

Freedom For a Change, which is one of the singles from that album, has reached over 15 million streams on Spotify, which is crazy for a song recorded in a bedroom on a laptop!

I had no idea about production, and I wasn’t an engineer. I literally just had a sound card, a cheap, entry level guitar microphone and HEADLINER USA

I layered up lots of guitars and percussion. I was recording without having a clue what I was doing.

Funnily enough, I was supposed to go to an actual studio and record with a producer, but the vibe just wasn’t there. So I ended up keeping the demo, and the songs that made it onto the actual album were the ones that I mixed without having a clue what I was doing!

I think the songs shine through and even though the production was more DIY, it had a charm to it and

rougher edges, and people like that.

It’s been an interesting journey from there. This last year I’ve really been studying and teaching myself how to build an actual studio, and what equipment you actually need. I’m learning how to become an engineer and how to shape sound. Ultimately the idea is for me to be able to produce music to a level that I can be really proud of. The beauty of music is that you’re always learning; I find that whole process fascinating.

PRODUCER

You recently added a Focusrite ISA 828 MkII eight-channel mic preamp to your studio’s arsenal.

How has it enhanced your workflow?

Focusrite is a classic audio brand and I used the ISA 828 MkII recently to make a loop video with a guitar, and I’ve got to say, I was really impressed with the sound of the preamp. Just by plugging my guitar straight in, it added a really nice character to the sound. You can definitely tell the difference when you’re plugging into a quality analog preamp – it gives the sound a nice warmth and texture.

That’s what you need from a preamp – for the source to be really good quality, so that was a big tick. One of my favorite things about the unit was that even though it’s got eight channels – because it has eight XLR inputs, eight jack inputs, as well as four instrument line inputs at the front – that adds up to 20 inputs. Sometimes

I’ll have a guitar, bass, vocal, percussion mic, a couple of mics for a drum kit and maybe an ambience mic, so with so many inputs, unless you have something like this Focusrite unit, you’re constantly having to plug things in, which breaks the cycle of creativity.

It’s high-end gear, and it’s worth every penny for quality. It’s really good for any kind of producer that has lots of different inputs that they need to connect, and don’t want to be moving cables all the time. It was so easy to use too, I just literally pressed a button, switching between the different inputs.

This unit is exactly what I needed last year when I was recording my own drums! With drums, you need so many different microphones, and sometimes it’s hard to be able to record simultaneously unless you have expensive gear. I only had my sound card last year – I didn’t have enough inputs. That preamp would have just saved my life because I could

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have recorded all the drums and still have my bass, guitars and my vocals plugged in, and not have to worry about plugging in and plugging out. It was a revelation!

It’s almost like having a mixer, because when I’m doing live loop performances, I just have the preamp connected to the looper and change the inputs to loop the sounds. For a studio setup it’s great because you can route all those inputs wherever you want to produce music.

Check out Gizmo’s loop video using a Focusrite ISA 828 MkII at Headliner’s YouTube.

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THOMAS RIEDEL

HEADLINER USA

Breaking Broadcast Barriers

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BREAKING BROADCAST BARRIERS

THOMAS RIEDEL

Thomas Riedel, founder and CEO of wireless networking solutions giant Riedel, has spoken to Headliner about the company’s plans to change the concept of what is possible in the world of broadcast and how its ability to identify new trends has put it on course for a year of recordbreaking growth.

Though already revered as a ground-breaking force across the industry, Riedel has spent the past 18 months honing and refining its technology and processes to offer ever-more innovative solutions during the biggest crisis the sector has ever seen. The company has invested time and resources into developing remote production capabilities that have changed the game since the onset of the pandemic. In some cases, Riedel’s latest breakthroughs have caused some partners to completely rethink their approach to production and comms operations, while its investment in R&D has led to a raft of new products and technologies

coming to market that have set new standards, not least through its work on the America’s Cup this year, where it helped the event achieve its most viewed outing to date.

Elsewhere, Riedel has added several new recruits to its ranks, particularly in R&D, utilising the lockdown period to introduce new technologies and improve existing ones.

Here, Thomas Riedel tells Headliner about the latest market trends, offers his take on the “conservative” broadcast market, and fills us in on what has been a truly pivotal time for the industry…

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THOMAS RIEDEL

Breaking Broadcast Barriers

How has Riedel been faring during the pandemic? What impact has lockdown and social distancing had on the business?

There’s lots to tell, and it’s not just negatives, but also some positives.

Obviously when the pandemic kicked in, it was a shock. At the time I was in Melbourne waiting for the first Formula 1, which was cancelled, so I just jumped on a plane home.

Since then I haven’t done more than 10 flights, when usually I’d be flying two times a week, so it’s been a very different life, that’s for sure.

I thought straight away that it was going to be really bad for the whole world, but specifically for our business with so many events being cancelled or postponed. For us it wasn’t as bad as we expected in the early stages.

We used the time to keep working on engineering, so 2020 wasn’t a hugely profitable year, but it wasn’t

a huge loss either. The measures we implemented were exactly the right ones to make sure we got through this. We used the time to do all the things we usually want to do but don’t have time for, things like product development. And things like Formula 1 and football came back after only a short break.

Personally, the way we were all slowed down in our lives was a very positive thing. When I think of my schedule before the pandemic, I was sitting on a plane most of the time. Now I spend a lot more time at home with family, but also inside the company to discuss things. It feels much better.

What has the company been focusing on during this down time?

There are two main aspects. One is looking at the product business of Riedel. Most people know us as a

specialist in intercoms and wireless systems. For several years now we have also been focusing on AV networks and that business grew to a certain size, so our strong belief is that these will merge into one another. In the future we believe it will not just be about buying an intercom system or an audio system, but it will be an all-inone solution.

We must think about how AV communications systems will look in the future. And there’s data as well. If you think about all the data in sports, things like telemetry, tracking and biometrics, that also has to be included in the big picture. That’s what we are working on and I’m very much looking forward to the next big trade show.

The other aspect is that there needs to be a much more holistic view of sports and entertainment. And we did a kind of rehearsal for this. During lockdown, we did the America’s Cup project, where we went in as a producer as part of a joint venture called circle-o.

And as that joint venture we have become the host broadcaster for the America’s Cup. That allowed us to bring in technology that is not just providing a service but really influencing that format and adding new features that had not been there before, and it resulted into the best America’s Cup ever in terms of viewers and numbers.

So that was a rehearsal but also proof of concept in my mind - these types of formats need to rethink their use of technology. All of that probably wouldn’t have happened in the same way without the pandemic.

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“THERE NEEDS TO BE A MUCH MORE HOLISTIC VIEW OF SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT.”

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Breaking Broadcast Barriers

Did the pandemic offer the chance to look at new markets?

If I name a number of companies like Netflix, YouTube, Apple, Microsoft, Google, you probably wouldn’t think Riedel is connected to those brands.

But in fact this group of companies are very large clients of ours and are probably bigger than all the public broadcasters we supply with kit altogether. So, I would say we are in the very fortunate position in that we still have all the traditional business, but we also have a big foot in the camp of these new media players, primarily in America but also in Asia.

How did you become involved with those clients?

I wouldn’t say it was due to lockdown.

We were in touch with all these companies already, but because the pandemic has given this push to the digital world, that rippled down to us and has brought us extra business.

But we were working with those players for a very long time, and we see the media world as being a wide spread of different players. The reason we are involved is because lots of people who used to work in the traditional broadcast world have joined these players.

The other reason is due to the level of technology we provide. We’ve always had a very innovative approach and we have looked to reinvent things. These types of players really appreciate that. The broadcast industry is very conservative, but the new players are not so conservative, and they want to look at new ways of doing things. That’s why we are in touch with them and are doing business there.

Why is the traditional broadcast market so conservative? Do you think these new players force the long-established ones to innovate?

I don’t know why that part of the industry is so conservative, I can just confirm that it is, and it’s hard to make it change. But I’m certain those HEADLINER MAGAZINE USA

traditional players have to change – it’s a matter of survival. It doesn’t mean that broadcasters will not be there anymore if they don’t change right now. It’s a little bit like climate change. Will climate change kill us all before the end of the year? Obviously not, but it’s a huge threat and we are running towards a huge problem. This is the case in broadcast as well.

How has the company innovated on the product front during this time?

One area of development which was definitely sped up was everything around remote productions and remote operations. The fact that people couldn’t travel and meet forced all of us to think about what we could do instead. Like we saw a huge explosion of video conferencing solutions, the broadcast industry was desperate for solutions like remote cameras, remote monitor systems, and we have done that big time. This has not only sped up development, but it has opened the minds of a lot of clients to do things remotely, where previously they would have accepted that. We are supporting IT and comms installations remotely from our remote operations centre around the globe, whereas before we had to send people on flights to do the same jobs.

You recently hired a new director of manufacturing. Does this mean we will see a surge in new products?

To be perfectly honest, it was overdue for us to get even more expertise onboard. Of course, that doesn’t mean we haven’t previously been making high quality products – we certainly have – but we saw there were improvements we could make and it starts with the whole supply chain management and goes to all the after sales service as well. That was the reason for bringing Oliver Zimmerman onboard. But he’s not the only one, we have added quite a number of resources and also tools to really keep improving and keep up with growth as we are growing yearby-year. We look like we are going to exceed the record-breaking figures we achieved in 2019 in 2021.

It seems there is a constant process of refinement and improvement across the business.

We have always developed the way we do things and tried to improve, and that’s certainly one of the factors in our success. We must not stand still. If you do, you are going backwards, so it’s very important to constantly improve in all areas. You might wonder how in a year in which the pandemic is still ongoing we are growing against the trend? I’d say it’s because we are open to new ways of doing things and because we are so innovative.

What market trends outside of the company have you seen during this time and where do you see the market headed?

One is the remote production developments I’ve already mentioned, and another is in automation. I believe that in the way we handle audio and video there are ways we can streamline operations. I believe there are lots of audio applications where audio mixing can be an automated process. Now, I’m not talking about things like FOH mixing of a band, I mean things like mixing of certain signals that can be done with the right input of data and be done so in a completely automated way. Efficiency is something we need to get, and at the same time, we need to find new features because all formats, whether sports or entertainment, are competing, so they are all looking for new things they can do, and using technology as a tool to develop your format is still something that has lots of potential.

Traditionally, tech people are brought in at a late stage of production. This is something where I am constantly preaching to people: ‘bring technology people in at an early stage’. The house you want to build might look completely different if you understand what tools and methods and technologies are available. People should talk to people like us, the tech guys, to help earlier in the process.

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SENNHEISER FA 500

Custom IEMs

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In the not too distant past, the big monitoring debate concerning live performance was generally around wedges versus IEMs (in-ear monitors). For many performers, particularly in the rock world, wedges were not only a tried and tested monitoring solution, but were almost part of the stage dressing, providing many a showboating guitarist or vocalist an extra pedestal from which to demonstrate their widdly-diddly chops. Of course, they are far more than just simple props, and for many they offer more of a ‘live’, perhaps less clinical feel when onstage.

However, particularly in the 21st century, the popularity of IEMs amongst performers has skyrocketed.

As audio technology has advanced and grown ever more sophisticated, the capabilities of in-ears have followed suit. The detail and quality that can now be found in these pocket-sized packages has not only prompted many a wedge user to make the switch, but also established the format as the go-to monitoring solution for most artists.

So – and again, not to diminish the qualities of monitor wedges in any way whatsoever – the debate

today is really IEMs: universal versus custom.

Which brings us on to the Sennheiser FA 500 Custom IEMs, made in conjunction with Fischer Amps.

Put simply, the debate just mentioned isn’t really a debate. Yes, there is a notable difference in price, but if we’re talking quality of product, for regular live performers a set of custom IEMs can be invaluable. And Sennhesier’s FA 500 Customs are just about as good as it gets. Here’s why…

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“I’m super energetic so I get hot and sweaty, so getting some fitted in-ears is going to change everything for me.” ~Wes Nelson

THE PROCESS For those who have never had an impression taken of their inner ear, the process can be likened to having your head slowly submerged in a vat of silly putty. In a good way. It’s a painless, rather relaxing procedure in which a syringe of neon coloured gel is pumped into each ear to create a mould of the ear canal. This is what the monitor is based around.

For the purposes of this review, I had the pleasure of having my impressions taken by the excellent Gisele Flower, founder of Aid2Hearing and ear care specialist to the stars. And I just so happened to be having my impressions taken alongside one such star in the form of chart-topping artist and former Love Island contestant Wes Nelson.

Firstly, there’s the initial cleaning of the ear, which I would recommend everyone has done at least once in their life, even if you’re not having moulds taken. The difference this can HEADLINER USA

make to your hearing is not to be understated – it’s completely pain free and left me feeling as though I had just removed a set of invisible ear plugs.

Once the ears have been given a thorough MOT, it’s then time for the moulds to be taken, at which point Flower talked us through why custom in-ears are so beneficial.

“You’re benefiting from cutting out all the background noise, so as well as not having to compete with all that noise, you’re also getting the health benefits of ear protection,” she explained. “I’ve noticed more and more people are getting custom-made IEMs from the beginning, as soon as their career starts. When I first started, it felt like it was just the established artists who could afford it, but that has changed.

Now, as soon as someone gets a deal, I’m getting a phone call saying they need custom in-ears. With generics, they don’t fit as tight, so there’s movement. As you sweat and move,

they come loose, so they leak and then you have all that noise coming in from the stage. That’s a lot of noise exposure, but also the artist is then not feeling as confident in their performance and not hearing their feed properly.”

Nelson, who at the time of our meeting was about to begin his first string of live dates outside of a TV studio, also chatted to me about why he was opting for the FA 500 Customs.

“I’ve performed live on The X Factor and done some other TV performances, but it’s always been with generics,” he said. “They don’t stay in, and I move around a lot. I’m super energetic so I get hot and sweaty, so getting some fitted in-ears is going to change everything for me. And I need that confidence; I need to be able to hear what I’m doing. To get these fitted properly and know I just have to focus on performing and singing makes me feel a lot more comfortable.”

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THE Performance While the merits of custom IEMs in general are undeniable, what about the FA 500 Customs themselves?

Unsurprisingly, for a piece of kit comprised of such high-end components, they deliver astoundingly on every front.

Combining Sennheiser’s TrueResponse technology with Fischer Amps’ custommade acrylic housings, they really are built from the ground up for each individual user to deliver a monitoring solution that is as powerful as it is natural and detailed. This is due to the implementation of a single unimpeded sound source, providing far greater subtlety and accuracy to the multi-way systems that can be found in many loudspeakers and universal IEMs. The first thing that struck me when popping these into my ears out of HEADLINER USA

the box was the comfort. Having had mould impressions taken in the past for ear plugs and other in-ear products from other brands, these are by far the most comfortable I have experienced.

Over several hours at a time, I never felt the need to take them out or reposition them. They sit perfectly snug without causing any discomfort, even when moving around at pace and at high temperatures. This means no unwanted noise leaking in mid-way through a performance, and total freedom for the performer.

technology and components on offer, is also an absolutely essential asset for performers and monitor engineers alike.

Then, of course, there is the audio quality. With true phase linearity provided via the single 7mm TrueResponse transducer covering the entire frequency range, the detail and intricacy of audio reproduction is outstanding. Even when driven to very high volumes, there is virtually no distortion to speak of. This, in addition to hallmarking the quality of the

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As a nice little extra, they are available in a variety of different color finishes at no extra cost, while Fischer Amps can also add personalized designs and logos on request.

In summary, if you’re looking to move on from wedges or universal IEMs, you cannot go wrong with a set of these.

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Native X-Echo

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SOLID STATE LOGIC SSL (Solid State Logic) has just released the brand new Native X-Echo plugin. Could this be the ultimate vintage tape echo? With all the classic features you’d expect (plus a whole heap more), we couldn’t wait to put this corker through its paces.

I first used a couple of SSL emulation plugins as part of the Universal Audio Suite with the legendary SSL E Channel Strip and the SSL G-Bus Compressor plugins, which both capture the flavor of the original consoles pretty admirably. However, when I started using SSL’s own Native and Fusion ranges, things got even better.

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If you’re not yet familiar with either of these ranges, SSL offers a 14-day free trial for a number of individual plugins, or a 30-day subscription trial on a per suite basis which requires an iLok account. All individual Fusion plugin perpetual licenses are available with an early adopters 25% discount for the first 30 days from their launch, while all are available as part of the SSL Complete Bundle Subscription, currently only $14.99 per month.

The SSL Native X-Echo is a vintage tape echo plugin with a twist. It clearly pays homage to those tape echo units of the ‘60s, specifically the EchoPlex, and features a set of controls like Wow & Flutter and SSL’s classic distortion style saturation to give you that analog hardware warmth. However, there are quite a few additional bells and whistles here that demand close inspection.

SSL Native X-Echo is by far the most comprehensive vintage tape echo plugin I have come across. Like all SSL plugins, the user interface just oozes class; it has the feel and lines of a highend device and even though you’re still dragging and moving faders and pots with a mouse or trackpad, you feel like your new tape echo unit is in another league, dare I say dimension.

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Tap in Sync The main body of the interface gives a graphical waveform visualisation of the audio. Down the right side are four tape head buttons below the green visualisation of the original signal. To the right of this, a dial displaying delay time in milliseconds, and below that a project BPM display followed by Sync and Tap icons. This affords quick and easy set up of echo, repeats, custom time, tap time, or sync to BPM. Along the lower section of the timeline are what look like tape head positions marked with musical symbols for beats in the bar, additional bars and a couple of rest symbols – all of which seem to define the number of musical note/tape head positions within the four-second timeline. This allows for rapid syncing to note values. By selecting one of these positions, you can in an instant become Brighton Rock-esque Brian May and with another, the nameless streets of The Edge.

Of course, by un-syncing and selecting something of a random nature, you can produce all manner of delay, chorus and flange style effects. During this review period I was forced to selfisolate when I tested positive for Covid;

you can’t imagine my joy at having such a good excuse to lock myself away with a couple of guitars and a set of headphones and the SSL Native X-Echo plugin!

Along the lower control panel I found the classic SSL Saturation control to add as much or as little of that vintage dirt as you like. I say dirt, it’s anything but dirt. It’s more peaches and cream or crumpets on an open fire; it’s all warmth and taste. If like me you were in and out of SSL-equipped studios during the ‘80s, you’ll know what I mean. It’s distinctly SSL and although it’s full of that SSL character, something you can add to excess, it never sounds over the top or anything other than transparent.

On the lower row of controls is the Wow & Flutter mentioned earlier, which is a real hats off to tape degradation and capstone style noise that you’d likely find on an EchoPlex or Space Echo. The one difference here is I don’t remember my old Roland sounding anywhere near this good, even without worn tape or a dodgy pinch wheel! The Wow & Flutter also lends weight to some unusually lush style chorusing, which is again something I don’t remember being able to do this easily on a Space Echo or the EchoPlex.

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Again, I really like the modulation and almost mechanical, rotary noise Wow & Flutter dishes up. Although I would question which actual tape echo device it is being authentic to – in terms of musicality and user friendliness – it’s really good to see a company pushing the boundaries and giving users a whole heap more than they bargained for.

Moving along the lower control panel, between the Wow & Flutter and Saturation controls are real-time Freeze and Kill buttons. Freeze holds the delay feedback at a constant rate, while Kill stops feeding the source signal and lets the current echo die. Following these two buttons is the feedback, which reads on a scale of 0% to 150% for more real-time effect manipulation, as well as reintroducing repeats.

Deep and Wide Along from the Saturation control is a Diffusion pot, which dials in a retro bucket brigade-style delay/ modulation sound to give the delays a varying amount of depth. In the off, hard left position the delay is distinctly prominent, and almost in your face. Dialling

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in the Diffusion sends it back behind the original signal, and sounds like it starts to dirty it up bucket brigade style, but then it changes to a spacey, airy reverb – thereby giving it a very modern sound.

The last control in this section is the De-Esser; not something you’d expect on a tape echo, but it proves very useful on vocals and guitars. I found that a little goes a long way, and it really took the sting out of aggressive guitar plucks as well as helping to blend the echo into a feature of the sound rather than an obvious effect; really capturing the mellow tones that are synonymous with vintage tape echo. This blend of modern control over vintage tone runs all the way through this plugin, and makes it just as easy for all skill sets – whether you have experience of tape echo or not – to quickly find your way around.

The output section starts with a width control which simply spreads the echo out into the stereo field. Its pot has a 0 to +200 value, and at 0 it reduces the field to mono. At 100, it maintains the current stereo field, and

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at 200 throws it to the extremes.

Next to it is a handy little Ping Pong button that sends your echo alternately left and right. The usual handy Bass and Treble pots are next to further shape your tone.

Finally, the mix control from Dry to Wet has a lovely little lock button next to it, so you can flip through the preset library for example while keeping the mix 100% wet, should your unit be on an FX bus rather than direct on an instrument channel.

This bottom control strip is preceded by an input pot and ends with an output pot, both with a range of -24 / +24, and both of which sit below a stereo level meter. SSL’s customary undo, redo, A and B icons sit across the bottom along with a pretty comprehensive selection of factory presets.

Let Me Repeat This It’s not often I’m so bowled over by the range and scope of a product that I simply don’t know where to start or what to praise first. But the more I play with this wonderful plugin, the more great new sounds, along with those very retro sounds of years gone by, I keep finding. Whether you just

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want a clean slap-back or a full on EchoPlex-style multi echo still sporting the original tape, then it’s highly likely this is the echo plugin you’re going to reach for.

As a guitarist, I found this plugin a real joy to use as I took it through a whole range of digital, bucket brigade, tape echo, reverb and chorus sounds. While

I’m in no doubt it’s a real professional’s tool, it was so inspirational that I was actually playing with it when I should’ve been writing about it! It really is excellent, and a whole heap of fun.

Pricing + VAT: £139 / €159 / $199 SOLIDSTATELOGIC.COM

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CenterOne

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Leapwing Audio is a developer that has come up with a number of truly unique products; tools which have found ways of tackling age-old problems with new ideas and a fresh new approach.

CenterOne is a spatial plugin designed to give you full control and manipulation of your phantom center.

Now, if you’re not familiar with the term ‘phantom center’, this is simply the audio that sits between the two speakers within a stereo image, and sounds as though it is coming from a non-existent center speaker.

Traditionally, spatial plugins use mid-

side techniques to manipulate the stereo image. The concept of mid-side can be a little difficult to get your head around, not to mention the fact that it can be approached in different ways.

It’s here again that Leapwing differs from the mid-side algorithms and actually sets up as a left-center-right rebalancing plugin, all while giving you a really comprehensive palette of tools with which to extract, control and manipulate your center image.

As with all the Leapwing plugins, there’s a clear and logical GUI which is fairly self-explanatory, easy to use and easy to read at a glance. In the center of the GUI is the left, center and right level faders, of which the left and right can be linked or unlinked.

There is a mute on each feed to allow for easy processing in isolation. On the left is a center prominence and a level trim to allow you to compensate when A/B-ing between processed and unprocessed, using the purple/ blue bypass button. To the right is the center channel width fader and along

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LEAPWING AUDIO Following on from Headliner’s recent look at Leapwing Audio’s excellent range of One plugins is CenterOne – an updated version of the company’s first plugin product which was launched some five years ago. This latest revision, available now, has added a number of really useful features, and this is what we’ll be looking at today...

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the bottom is the center bandpass EQ, but more about these later. At the top is Leapwing’s familiar preset system with a handy range of factory presets, along with the ability to create and store your own.

Bring it Back, Send it Forward One of the key features, should your DAW configuration allow, is the ability to create lossless left, center and right stems for individual manipulation and further processing. However, there is such a comprehensive range of tools onboard that simply using it on your stereo master channel gives you a range and scope of phantom center manipulation I have not heard from any alternative plugin.

For example, the Center Prominence fader, with its rather large cut and boost of +/-9dB is not simply an alternative center level control; it sounds like it is bringing prominent elements, like the vocal, forward in the HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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“THE ABILITY TO INCLUDE OR EXCLUDE SOME OF THE STEREO INFORMATION IS DEFINITELY A BONUS, AND ADDS FURTHER CONTROL TO A VERY CLEVER PLUGIN.”

mix or sending it back. Together with manipulation of the center bandpass EQ, you can focus on individual solo instruments – the voice or kick or bass – and rebalance them, all without affecting the overall stereo image.

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which widens or narrows the scope of what the algorithm defines as phantom center. This can be perceived as either a widening of the overall image, as the center channel width is reduced, or an increase in center weight as more off-center audio information is added.

Center Width adds yet another level of manipulation which I’ve not seen on other spatial plugins. Obviously, if you’re creating left-center-right stems, this ability to include or exclude some of the stereo information is definitely a bonus, and adds further control to a very clever plugin.

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One of the most impressive things about CenterOne is the sound quality.

Even the extracted center channel in isolation with a large amount of processing – while not completely free from artefacts – is still impressive, and when put back in context is quite remarkable. I can’t think of any other spatial plugin that behaves in this way, and while there are a fair few, I’m also unable to think of a single one that sounds as good as CenterOne. I can see this as a tool which could enhance modern dance, electronica and R&B with its ability to control and shape center bass information, as well as subdue a prominent vocal. Likewise,

it was also easy to lift a slightly lost vocal out of its stereo reverb, and bring out the vocal performance.

While CenterOne – like RootOne, StageOne and DynOne – is aimed squarely at the field of mastering, I wouldn’t be surprised if CenterOne, if not all of the aforementioned plugins have found their way into the armoury of mix tools being used by today’s engineers. Bearing in mind this version is pretty close to the original CenterOne plugin first released by Leapwing Audio some five years ago, I’m surprised someone else hasn’t attempted to emulate what is clearly a very useful and cleverly thought out audio tool.

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CenterOne is available in 64-bit only on Mac OS X and Windows in AAX-Native, VST, VST3 and AU formats. If you’re interested in trying out this plugin, I suggest you head over to Leapwing Audio’s website and take advantage of the free, fully functional 30-day trial.

LEAPWINGAUDIO.COM

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EVENTIDE

SplitEQ

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SplitEQ offers a new approach, featuring what Eventide calls a ‘Structural Split engine’ that divides incoming audio into separate transient and tonal streams feeding 8 bands. The result is a highly innovative EQ design for both corrective and creative EQ applications.

Eventide has a rather amazing history and holds a special place in analog studio mythology, with its range of harmonizers from the ‘70s and ‘80s.

More recently, the company brought these legendary units back to life in plugin form with a few added bells and whistles, designed to bring them up to date for the digital studio engineer.

One thing has remained, and that is the unique range of quality audio afforded by these plugins. So while they remain at the higher end of the market in terms of price, this also reflects their unique status and the esteem in which they are still held.

TWO SIDES TO EVERY STOREY For me, it was a treat to be asked to have a play with Eventide’s new SplitEQ plugin. The very concept is fairly unique and, at the point of putting pen to paper, I’m not aware of anyone else doing anything similar.

However, I don’t profess to know everything, and it seems that every day brings a new plugin of some description.

So what is SplitEQ? Quite simply, it’s two EQs in parallel. The incoming

signal is split into its Tonal and Transient elements using Eventide’s patented Structural Split. It then passes through the parallel EQs, one acting in a conventional way on the tonal source signal and the second on the transient element of the source. They are then combined at the output. This allows you to adjust transient or tonal signals independently or together.

Immediately you can see a whole host of possible applications for the SplitEQ. Two common examples are, you want to add some air to the mix but you want to avoid increasing sibilance. You can increase the tonal element of the top end but leave the transients where they are, or possibly reduce them slightly if sibilance is creeping in.

Alternatively, you want to increase the weight of the kick drum but don’t want to simply add a low shelf boost, as this will muddy the sound, so just add the low shelf boost to the transient signal - immediately you have a more potent kick drum with none of the headaches. If you want to hear some of these ideas in action, check out the Eventide SplitEQ Video on our YouTube channel Headliner Hub for examples of the above, along with a few other ideas.

SIMPLICITY A quick glance at the interface reveals eight bands of processing, the two extremes of which are by default high and lowpass filters, but the other six offer low/high shelf, peak, notch, tilt or bandpass filter types per frequency. Although each band is sweepable to a set frequency for both the transient and

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tonal splits, all other parameters are completely independent, so you could have a transient boost with a completely different Q to that of your tonal cut at the same frequency for example.

Again, by default the Q for each band was set at 1.0, but by simply moving the mouse over it, it splits into a Green and a Blue 1.0, allowing you to either click and type in a value or click and drag up and down to the desired value. The significance of the Green and Blue immediately becomes apparent, as all Transient processing is represented in Green and all tonal Blue. This is further emphasized by the master control section on the right, which has a Green and a Blue fader for each of the split EQ characteristics and allows you to really pull your mix apart to see what sits up and what gets lost. A real handy and very necessary master section.

On the right, below the master Transient and Tonal faders, is a value box for each should you find dragging the faders up and down a chore. I thought the calibration and ability to drag stuff about and hit precise values was excellent and probably quicker than typing in the values, but the option is there. Below that is a pan value, which would ordinarily be left at C for center, but you can drag your master processing HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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focus for either the transient or tonal processing off center should you wish.

Below that is an EQ scale control, which by default is at 100% but you can roll this back if you wish. In doing so, it slowly rolls back the level of processing you have applied, in essence behaving similarly to parallel processing where you are letting an increasing amount of the source signal through.

Below that is a bypass section that gives you the option of a global bypass for the plugin or just the EQ section.

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And finally, below that are a number of options for the Analyzer, which gives you a graphical representation of your audio in the GUI, and with pre and post option buttons you have a handy visual guide to the original and affected audio.

In the top right hand corner of each of the band information boxes is a headphones icon that brings up a further three icons - Green, White and Blue - when you hover over it.

This allows you to hear in isolation the effect of your processing choices

in each band, and although the Green transient selection can sound a little darker, this is fairly common in other transient design tools and is very much what you will hear when you’re attempting to isolate transient information. For an overview of the full frequency range of the transient or tonal elements of your audio there is a further headphone icon on the right side of the bottom panel that you can select, which then splits into a Green and Blue icon and you simply click the one you want.

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“THIS IS AN EXCEPTIONALLY USER-FRIENDLY PLUGIN, WHICH SOUNDS WONDERFUL AND IS SURPRISINGLY MODERATE IN ITS CPU USAGE.”

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SplitEQ

PANNING TRANSIENTS Now we come to the really clever part. Along the bottom panel are the EQ and PAN options, by default EQ is selected but if you select pan the boxes change to provide a transient and tonal balance control. Now you have a set of controls with which you can shape your audio within the stereo sound stage, providing you another dimension of control. By selecting an EQ band and dipping the transient off center in the area of the overly aggressive Tamborine, you can hold it back, making it part of the performance rather than a feature. I actually had a lot of fun playing with some well known songs just to see how manipulation in all the dimensions this plugin offers could have solved issues that at the time were left to creative licence.

Following on along the bottom panel is a small menu button next to the SPLIT heading, which gives you a selection of different algorithms for detecting and making the split for different instruments. By default it is HEADLINER USA

on full mix but there are a number of algorithms for drums, acoustic and electronic, as well as bass, piano, guitar and vocals, so there is very much a focus on this plugin being a mix tool as well as a mastering tool.

Following on from the Split algorithm is a Transient percentage, which by default was at 50% but I found when I increased the percentage I got much sharper transients when they occurred but less of them. In isolation, they sounded very metallic and unnatural but conversely gave the most dynamic and alive sound when brought together with the tonal alterations. Likewise, reducing the Decay time also helped to focus how long the transients stayed present.

Lastly, Smooth - in milliseconds - is the smoothing period of transition from transients back to the tonal regions.

Along the top is the familiar undo/ redo, a comprehensive range of factory presets, A/B buttons, a link for a very comprehensive user manual, which I’ve only just found, and a dB scale selection for the GUI. Of course,

there’s also a save and recall facility for creating your own presets, which can be recalled in the various different formats of this plugin.

This is an exceptionally user-friendly plugin, which sounds wonderful and is surprisingly moderate in its CPU usage. To try to emulate what this plugin does in one instance you might need to employ a pretty high quality EQ and possibly a number of instances of a good transient designer. While it’s clearly an excellent high-end mastering tool, its range of presets and the inclusion of selectable algorithms for transient detection would suggest this is far from being a one trick pony.

Eventide SplitEQ is available soon in all the usual formats, so head over to the company’s website and check it out.

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Volt

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UNIVERSALAUDIO Universal Audio has announced Volt, a new range of compact audio interfaces designed to let users easily record audio with a classic studio sound.

interfaces have been designed to add clarity and punch to voice, instruments, and other sources with an analog compressor based on UA’s iconic 1176.

Ready to capture music, live stream, or podcast content with professional studio tone, Volt

All Volt interfaces utilize classleading 24-bit/192 kHz audio conversion, and include a vintage

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mic preamp mode with tube emulation circuitry for a rich, full sound.

An essential suite of audio production software also comes packaged, including Ableton, Melodyne, UJAM’s Virtual Drummer, Marshall, Ampeg, and more.

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“Volt interfaces have been designed to add clarity and punch to voice, instruments and other sources with an analog compressor based on UA’s iconic 1176.”

The first and most compact model in the range – Volt 1 – is designed for singers, songwriters, guitarists, and podcasters who want to create classic-sounding music productions, live streams and podcasts on Mac, PC, iPad, and iPhone.

Universal Audio says Volt 1’s exclusive built-in tube emulation circuitry allows it to produce the rich, full sound of the UA 610 tube preamp, a classic mic/line/ instrument preamp used to record everyone from Ray Charles to Van Halen.

Volt 1 provides simple one-in/ two-out audio connections; those travelling light can plug Volt 1 into an iPad or iPhone to easily create beats and samples, record a band’s rehearsals, and edit songs anywhere. Volt 2 meanwhile provides increased versatility with its two-in/two-out audio connections.

Volt 176 is designed for singers, songwriters, musicians, livestreamers and podcasters who want to easily record audio with big studio tone. The unit’s onboard 76 compressor – an analog circuit inspired by UA’s classic 1176 limiting amplifier – features three tailored presets to tame voice, guitars, synths and drum machines. Volt 276 has been designed to the same standard, albeit with two-in/twoout connections.

Round back, there’s MIDI I/O and USB-C connectivity. Unlike other UAD interfaces, the Volts don’t have any DSP power of their own to run the suite of UAD plugins you might have heard of before; you’ll still need an Apollo or other UA interface for those needs.

Volt 476 includes four-in/four-out audio connections, as well as a 5VDC power supply.

Other key features include 48V phantom power for condenser microphones, direct monitoring for latency-free recording, one-in/oneout MIDI connections, and a USB-C to USB-A cable in the box.

Volt audio interfaces and Studio Packs – which include Volt 2 or Volt 276, a condenser mic with XLR cable, and closed-back headphones – are available for pre-order from select Universal Audio retailers, with general availability projected for late November 2021.

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The final model in the range is Volt 476, designed for musicians, producers and content creators looking to record larger projects with that same big studio sound.

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SSL

Solid Foundations

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RECORDING

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With a rollout of brand new plugins already underway and set to continue well into Q1 2022, SSL has been busier than ever on the new products front. Headliner speaks to the company’s director of new products, Niall Feldman, about what the market can expect over the coming months, how the home recording boom is shaping the pro audio market and what the future holds for the traditional studio sector.

As most studio product manufacturers will tell you, demand for smaller, home recording kit has skyrocketed over the past 20 months or so. Plugins, interfaces, monitors, microphones and everything in between have been the order of the day for so many music creators.

Through various lockdowns and the absence of live events, many decided the time was right to invest in some new studio gear, whether upgrading their existing setup or making their first steps into music production.

For a company like SSL, with an iconic status as a manufacturer of aspirational products, this presented an opportunity to broaden its offering and bring a raft of new customers into the fold.

Of course, this wasn’t merely a case of rushing a flurry of cheaper products to market, more a matter of re-evaluating its catalog and determining where they could add value.

Back in May, SSL unveiled its new UC1 plugin controller, a launch that would serve as a precursor to its current programme of plugin releases. In September, the company revealed its new Fusion Vintage Drive and Fusion Stereo Image plugins, followed last month by the release of the Native X-Echo.

But what’s next for SSL as we approach 2022? We caught up with director of new products, Niall Feldman, to find out…

What can you tell us about this rollout of new products?

We have a real focus on new plugin products at the moment. We’ve been pretty active with our studio products in the last few years, but the plugins are something we’ve put more of a focus on over the last nine months.

We’ve been working on these in the background for a while but not spoken much about them. So, we have a rollout of plugin releases, which we hope to be releasing every month or so until the end of Q1 next year. We’ve had a number of plugin products before, but this is a real body of work; we put a specific product manager in place to look after our plugin activity.

We also have some hardware work in development, which we tend to keep a bit closer to our chest before we release details to the public. With the shipping challenges we face we don’t want to announce anything until we know people will be able to walk into a store and buy it.

What can you tell us about the philosophy behind this new range of plugins?

We’ve always sold plugins and we have a number of licensed partners we work with who do plugin development as well. We do an awful lot of software development for some of our digital products that are prevalent in the live space and broadcast space, and there are some very sophisticated processing tools in some of those products.

Translating those into useful plugins was something we wanted to do as a result of that effort.

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Solid Foundations

How bright does the future look for the professional studio sector as we prepare to enter 2022?

“WE’RE NEVER THE CHEAPEST PRODUCT, BUT WE HOPE WE DELIVER VALUE, GREAT AUDIO QUALITY AND SOMETHING THAT IS NOT DISPOSABLE. THAT ETHOS INFORMS EVERY PRODUCT WE MAKE.”

You realise when you are completely remotely located that the one thing you can’t do is play music together; you have to be in a room with other people to get that spark. All of that does generate the need for these spaces and the tools that allow that to happen. There is definitely a recognition that spaces where people can get together are so important.

People working from home are also realising that recording yourself isn’t the easiest thing in the world.

It’s an awful lot easier when you have someone else allowing you to focus on a performance, rather than having to worry about whether you can hear spill from headphones and all those other things. These things have helped regenerate the studio business. And us developing a product like Origin is us recognising that that world is coming back.

What market trends have you been seeing? Any areas of business where you’ve seen increased demand for products?

There is also the fact that a lot of people are restricted with regard to the hardware they can get access to. Recently we looked at the plugins we’ve had for a little while and wanted to address some of the areas we were missing, like delays for example. We thought that would round out our plugin offering.

What other areas are you looking specifically to launch plugins into?

How did you identify the markets you wanted to target?

We put ourselves in the position of an engineer working in a room using only SSL equipment and thought about any tools or solutions that may be missing. That’s when you realise there are effects we could bring to the party that aren’t available as plugins. In simple terms that was the focus – to build a suite of plugins where if you wanted to use SSL for everything, you’d be able to do so.

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Is this an effective way of attracting new SSL customers?

It’s unlikely there are any audio virgins who will be buying SSL products because they are likely to start with something that’s a low investment.

What we want to do is offer something to those who have maybe dipped their toe in the water and want to take that next step. And we also like to think that when someone buys an SSL product, they don’t need to replace it again, they’ve bought the thing that will be with them for the rest of their life. That means we’re never the cheapest product, but we hope we deliver value, great audio quality and something that is not disposable. That ethos informs every product we make. Once people learn a bit about SSL and its heritage, they will discover that we are one of those brands that really defines professional audio.

Right now, it’s difficult to have a longer term perspective on things because the last 18 months have been so different to what our normal business activity would be. If it continues in this way, yes, we’ll be making smaller products to meet the massive demand that we’ve seen. But it may well be that life is coming back to some normality. One of the things lockdown has done is give people the time and focus to understand what they do and the way that they work at home, so there are probably more trained and more evolved users.

People have spent more time with their equipment and looked more at how they do things. And people are looking around their desks and thinking about how they can make their set up better. The reaction we’ve had to UC1 and UF8 has been amazing.

RECORDING

How will SSL continue to keep attracting new customers?

What’s been interesting is seeing people spend more time getting familiar with their equipment. That has generated a bunch of new customers. It may not be true

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for all businesses, but the thing we’ve been amazed by was that we launched the small interfaces just before the pandemic and that brought us a load of new customers and gave us a new audience. Long may it continue.

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MAX ARUJ

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Scoring The Ice Road

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SCORING THE ICE ROAD

MAX ARUJ The cynical could accuse some film composers as sounding a little onenote musically, but for the Los Angeles’ Max Aruj, his work across games (Assassin’s Creed), film (The Ice Road, Crawl, and additional music for The Crown and Mission Impossible: Fallout), it would be very hard to level that criticism at this multi-talented composer. Headliner speaks with Aruj about his recent projects, including the latest high-octane Liam Neeson thriller, The Ice Road.

“I started there as an intern doing food and coffee, starting from the bottom,” Aruj says as we wind back to his time at Remote Control Studios, owned by Hans Zimmer. “And it’s probably one of the only places in the world where it’s a professional environment and a young person goes to shadow professional composers who are writing at the highest level. You go there and you observe — every conversation is important. Then slowly but surely you get more and more responsibilities.

We would work seven days a week.”

Aruj’s biggest film since going solo is the latest high-octane film with the superstar Liam Neeson in the driving seat, Netflix’s The Ice Road. It

sees Neeson’s character daring an impossible rescue mission, involving driving over huge frozen lakes in lorries. Sounds like a walk in the park for him after Taken, surely?

“Meeting the director Jonathan Hensley, he knew from the start what he was aiming to do,” Aruj says. “And he made that so clear. I was able to just dive right in it. It’s a fun action movie with bold characters; the music needed to be exciting and have a driving rhythm, no pun intended! It seemed that having strong orchestral themes was the best way to get into their world. There is some synth in there as well, but the heavy lifting is done by orchestra.”

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MAX ARUJ

Scoring The Ice Road

“IT SEEMED THAT HAVING STRONG ORCHESTRAL THEMES WAS THE BEST WAY TO GET INTO THEIR WORLD.”

Aruj was working on this film at the same time as the recent gangster flick Lansky, but Aruj says that, having shadowed Lorne Balfe at Remote Control for many years, it’s very much the kind of stress he can now cope with. “I’ve been dealing with that stress for a long time now! It just seemed par for the course.”

And in terms of the timing for him being brought on to the project, he says “I got very lucky to be hired on that one, because they had already shot it right before the pandemic.

They had finished editing. So at first we had to do a lot of phone calls, and emailing pieces. But that’s kind of how it is sometimes.

“We recorded The Ice Road orchestral music in Bratislava. I’d actually been

there before to record Assassin’s Creed around nine years ago. It’s one of the best parts of being a professional musician, standing in front of an orchestra and listening to them. There’s really nothing like it.”

It goes without saying you need the right kit to achieve such enormous sounds, and for Aruj’s soundcard, he goes for an “RME Fireface. I like it because it does everything in one. It minimizes the amount of work in order for me to just get on with recording and mixing. So in that way, it really works well with my workflow. It’s just reliable. I don’t think anything has gone wrong with it ever.”

And no surprise when Spitfire Audio’s orchestral samples get a big mention from Aruj. “That’s the

way the landscape is now,” he says.

“What Spitfire makes is just so useful.

Using these high quality samples is absolutely part of the game now. Right before we got on the phone, I was working with Studio Strings and Studio Brass as opposed to Symphonic because I wanted a little bit of a tighter sound with a smaller group. I’m working with a couple of artists right now and working around vocals is an ever evolving journey, because each song is so different. It just goes to show that Spitfire are probably the best, as I use them in big film scores but on songs also.”

If you’d like to hear the fanfare of Max Aruj’s music, you only need to head to Netflix right now and hit play on The Ice Road, plus other films he has worked on such as Crawl. And of course, his music pops up in the major blockbusters he worked on above with mentor Lorne Balfe. But those film titles will surely get bigger and bigger as he continues to prove his potential as a solo composer.

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