REPORT
REVIEWS
REVEALED
/ Future: VR concert production / Neve 1073®: a legend turns 50 / Pop Music Production – Phil Harding
/ PreSonus Studio One 5: scores big / CEDAR Cambridge v13: powerful new tools / sonible smart:reverb
/ Segun Akinola: Doctor Who composer / Robert Sanderson: forensic audio / Martin Garrix STMPD recording studios
V19.4 | Summer 2020 | £5.50
The
Interview
Xxxxx Ben Hillier Xxxxxxxx Xxx
G A L A X Y 6 4 S Y N E R GY C O R E
64 CHANNELS OF ANALOG AUDIO. DANTE, HDX AND THUNDERBOLT CONNECTIVITY. ONE DEVICE. Galaxy 64 Synergy Core is a high-end recording system that connects your entire studio within a 2U rack space while providing high-fidelity audio and onboard plugin processing for your most demanding projects. With Dante, HDX and Thunderbolt connectivity, the world’s first 64-channel AD/DA converter offers unbeatable flexibility when moving sound around your high-profile production facility, live stage, broadcast, or other enterprise applications. One giant leap in the simplification of the most complex operations. Light years ahead in terms of audio performance and workflow possibilities.
antelopeaudio.com
GO BEYOND W H A T ’ S K N O W N.
/ Contents
28 V19.4 | Summer 2020
News & Analysis 5 6
Leader News News, studios, appointments 12 New Products 50 A Day In The Life The multi-skilled Emre Ramazanoglu, Noel Gallagher mix engineer
Columns 14 15 16 45
Business AvidPlay’s Atmos music distribution, Virtual Tomorrowland VR music Virtual concerts are the next big thing Crosstalk Rob Speight looks at moving audio round the world Playlist Crazy songs for a crazy 2020
Ben Hillier
Craft
28 Ben Hillier On the art of engineering, playing the Kitchen Sink, and recording Depeche Mode 33 Segun Akinola The Doctor Who composer has a fascination with electroacoustic techniques and a mix of musical influences 36 Robert Sanderson From music to forensic audio analysis: how a New York recording engineer ended up authenticating wiretaps 38 STMPD Studios Martin Garrix’ 7-room Amsterdam facility has built a new Dolby Atmos mix stage 42 Pop Music Production [book extract] Phil Harding, the hit-maker behind a host of ‘90s stars, swaps his mixing desk for a writing desk
Technology
46 Neve 1073® As the preamp & EQ celebrates its 50th anniversary, we look at how it came to dominate the sound of an era
33
36
38
42
REVIEWS 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
PreSonus Studio One 5 CEDAR Cambridge v13 DPA 4097 micro shotgun Tone Projects Unisum Brainworx bx_console SSL 9000 J PSP InfiniStrip IK Multimedia ARC 3 sonible smart:reverb Leapwing RootOne
46 Summer 2020 / 3
CR EATE. COM POSE. COLLABORATE. CO NNEC T. PreSonus Sphere includes licenses to Studio One 5
storage, access to exclusive trainings and events, and
Professional, Notion 6, and nearly every plug-in and Add-on
more—all for a low monthly or annual membership.
we make—including Audio Batch Converter, Deep Flight One, and Fat Channel Plug-ins, with more being added all the time.
Your creative expression has no boundaries— and neither does PreSonus Sphere.
In addition to these creative tools, PreSonus Sphere members are also given collaboration tools, cloud
Learn more at presonus.com/sphere.
©2020 PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Studio One is a registerered trademark of PreSonus Software Ltd. Notion is a registered trade mark of PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
/ Welcome
Leader
Nigel Jopson
EDITORIAL Editor Nigel Jopson nigel@resolutionmag.com
CONTRIBUTORS George Shilling, Jon Thornton, Dan Daley, Dennis Baxter, Danny Turner, Russell Cottier, John Broomhall, Simon Clark, Mike Aiton, Bob Katz, Bill Lacey, Piper Payne, Tim Oliver, Erica Basnicki, Catherine Vericolli, David Kennedy, Phil Ward, Rob Speight and Gijs Friesen
ADVERTISEMENT SALES EUROPE Sean Leslie +44 (0)20 7993 4704 sean@resolutionmag.com US & INTERNATIONAL Jeff Turner +1 415 455 8301 jturner@resolutionmag.com
PRODUCTION AND LAYOUT Dean Cook, The Magazine Production Company +44 (0)1273 467579 dean@resolutionmag.com
PRINTING Gemini Print Southern Ltd, Unit A1 Dolphin Road, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. BN43 6NZ
MANAGEMENT Publisher Dave Robinson dave@resolutionmag.com Published by S2 Publications Ltd +44 (0)1543 57872 info@resolutionmag.com 192 Longford Road, Cannock Staffordshire. WS11 1QN ©2020 S2 Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher. Great care is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication, but neither S2 Publications Ltd or the editor can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publisher. S2 Publications Ltd. Registered in England and Wales. REGISTERED OFFICE Gowran House, 56 Broad Street, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol, BS37 6AG Company number: 4375084
T
A new reality
he news that The X Factor man who launched countless Pop Idols has left the music industry seems to me like a milestone on the road to a new paradigm for pop production. Simon Cowell has left the building. What actually happened in mid-July, was that the man who changed the face of British Saturday night TV entertainment bought out Sony Music’s share of his TV brands, leaving Sony with Syco’s music catalogue. To label employees at the coalface, it probably passed like just another business deal or retrenchment of management power, but to me it feels like a changing of the guard. In 2001, Cowell and Simon Fuller launched Pop Idol on ITV. In 2004, Cowell created The X Factor featuring the terrifying trio of Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh on the judging panel. Leona Lewis, winner of the third series of The X Factor, was signed to Cowell’s label Syco. Lewis’ winning single broke world records by being downloaded more than 50,000 times in less than 30 minutes. The song became the 2006 UK Christmas #1, selling 571,000 copies in its first week and out-selling the remainder of the UK Top-40 combined. Sony Music then purchased Cowell’s share of Syco Music and Syco Television. In 2009, Cowell
launched a joint venture with Sony whereby this venture owned rights to several TV formats including Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor. From these TV shows, during the partnership, artists were exclusively signed to Sony Music Entertainment-owned labels including Syco Music, Columbia Records, Epic Records, Sony Latin and RCA Records. It was a pop ‘production line’ which has kept music producers busy for the last two decades. Cowell and Sony redrew the route to pop success. But it seems Cowell is no longer required. The ‘dream’ sold by reality TV shows, where talent (relatively speaking) negotiates a pantomime ‘will-he-won’t-he’ path to glory looks distinctly tired in 2020. Why bother to traverse a gruelling four-month stint in front of live TV cameras and mocking audiences when a fast track to pop stardom is one viral TikTok video away? Damon Killian is no longer required, as The Running Man now controls the camera. Curtis Waters (aka Abhi Bastakoti) started lockdown as a student making music in his bedroom, and emerged three months later as the next big thing in pop — all thanks to a 15-second music clip posted online — ‘Stunnin’ is a viral TikTok sensation, and has racked up 35 million streams on Spotify. “Simon, I don’t mean to be rude, but ...”.
Nigel
Editor
/resolutionmagazine
@resolutionmagazine
Summer 2020 / 5
News
AES AI in Audio virtual symposium
Continuing its growing series of virtual events, the Audio Engineering Society has set dates for a two-day virtual symposium Applications in Machine Learning in Audio, being presented online, September 28–29. The events’ technical programme, featuring a keynote address by electronic/AI composer Holly Herndon, will explore topics including automatic mixing, audio source separation, audio visualisation and effect control, audio capture and recording, and sourcing audio data, as well as legal issues created by this new form of science and art. Registration is just $25 for AES members and $150 for non-members, the latter includes one year of complimentary AES membership and access to full member benefits and resources.
AIR acquires Alchemy mastering
The new London mastering operation will be branded as Alchemy Mastering at AIR. The high-end audio mastering outfit has gone from strength to strength throughout its 22-year history, establishing a distinct reputation as one of the most forward-thinking studios in the industry. Following the acquisition, AIR will continue its mastering operations while expanding their current facilities at the iconic Lyndhurst site. Meanwhile, a part of the team led by Alchemy’s founder Barry Grint will remain at their current Hammersmith location with a view to joining the AIR headquarters in the near future. AIR Studios was founded by legendary Beatles producer and Oscar-nominated composer Sir George Martin in 1970, and started its mastering operation at the Lyndhurst site in 2006 with Ray Staff. ALchemy’s Grint has worked on over 20 UK #1 records and more than 100 UK Top Ten hits. 6 / Summer 2020
API for new Clive Davis Institute studio The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts has purchased a 32-channel API Legacy AXS console with Final Touch automation, plus two The BOX consoles, for its new campus in Brooklyn. API has history with the institute — in 2006, it purchased the third-ever API Vision console at the suggestion of associate arts professor and associate chair Nicholas Sansano. An engineer, producer and musician himself, Sansano started his career at Greene Street Recording in NYC working on the first Legacy console ever made. “API to me represented ‘colour’ and a certain added thickness; ‘added’ being the operative word — the console gave you back more than what you put into it,” he recalls. When the Clive Davis Institute moved to new premises in late 2019, Sansano again turned to API: “We needed the sound, but not the multi-channel capability. We also purchased The BOX consoles for smaller-scale production suites.”
Shoemaker’s magic Indigo mixes Engineer and producer Trina Shoemaker has been spending more time than ever in her private personal home mix room, riding out the coronavirus pandemic with a number of projects, including mixing a complex project for Indigo Girls, plus new sets for Tanya Tucker, the Wood Brothers, the Secret Sisters and Grayson Capps The new Indigo Girls album, Look Long, was a special mixing project for Shoemaker. “I added a few loop elements from my own library… It’s just a whisper, it’s very subtle — but listening on my Genelecs, it’s very clear what those elements are, and what they needed to be. I consider my relationship with my Genelec 8351s sacred and magical. They mean so much to me. I trust what they reveal, and I know my decisions made on Genelecs translate to any other listening device or environment.”
APPOINTMENTS
Lawo upgrades Mediapro Argentina Mediapro Argentina, the Latin American audiovisual services company, based in Buenos Aires, has recently turned to IP for a comprehensive technical upgrade of their facilities, where ESPN broadcasts sports-related programming for the region in Spanish. The new IP infrastructure has been integrated by UNITECNIC, the Mediapro Group systems integrator and engineering company, and is based on solutions and knowhow from Lawo. Lawo’s video, audio, control and networking solutions were chosen to ensure interoperability. In a first upgrade stage, Mediapro Argentina has installed a V__matrix IP video system for edge conversion and signal processing as well as an mc²-based audio infrastructure featuring six mc²56 production consoles, Nova audio routers, five Lawo Commentary Units (LCU), VisTool-based touchscreen control panels and several R3LAY virtual soundcards for for integrating PC-based audio solutions into the ST2110/AES67/ RAVENNA IP network.
Abbey Road Institute installs SSL ORIGIN Abbey Road Institute is opening its first music production and sound engineering school in the US, in partnership with multi-Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning producer, pianist, arranger and composer Julio Reyes Copello, at his Art House Studios near downtown Miami. “I’ve always been a big SSL fan,” says Latin Grammy-nominated mixing and mastering engineer Robin Reumers, who is director of education at Abbey Road Institute Miami. “In Amsterdam we have an SSL 4000. If we want to teach students on relevant mixing consoles, it makes sense to have an SSL, which can be found in many studios, especially in the US. We are glad to have ORIGIN as part of our program here.” Reumers was considering the purchase of a refurbished SSL 4000 for Abbey Road Institute’s Miami location when Solid State Logic announced the new ORIGIN console (review, Resolution V19.3). “It came at the perfect time. It makes sense to have something future-proof that also requires less looking after,” he says, noting the time and expense required to operate and maintain a vintage analogue desk.
Warner Music Group announced that Dr. Maurice Stinnett is joining WMG as Head of Global Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. In his new post, Stinnett will oversee WMG’s equity initiatives which are intended to foster diversity in the workplace and company’s culture. Stinnett comes to this new role from BSE Global, where he served as VP of diversity, inclusion, and culture. BSE’s operations include the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, the WNBA’s New York Liberty, and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Stinnett holds a doctorate in organization & leadership from Columbia University and a master of divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, is the recipient of the Jackie Robinson Trailblazer Award from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Rev. Jesse Jackson. Loudspeaker manufacturer PMC has recruited pro audio industry expert Ted White as director of operations/chief engineer USA. Ted’s appointment comes at a key moment in PMC’s development as the company is heavily involved in the supporting immersive audio by partnering with Dolby and Universal Music Group to develop and promote the Dolby Atmos format for music mixing. With extensive experience in mixing surround sound projects for Live Nation Studios — and as a longtime PMC user and client — Ted is ideally placed to uphold PMC’s position as a leader in this market. Samantha Moy has been named as the new head of station for BBC Radio 6 Music. Moy has been 6 Music’s head of content commissioning since 2018, having previously worked as the station’s network editor. Moy started her career in radio at Kiss in London, joining independent production company Somethin’ Else to produce programmes for Radio 1, Radio 2 and the BBC World Service. May joined BBC Radio 1 in 2002 where she produced the Evening Session, Jo Whiley and the Live Lounge, The Chris Moyles Show, Greg James and Annie Mac amongst others. Moy was also an event producer at the BBC Electric Proms in 2008-9, broadcast on BBC TV and radio.
Summer 2020 / 7
/ News
APPOINTMENTS The UK branch of systems integrator Broadcast Solutions is welcomed Kevin Fitzgerald as sales manager UK. Fitzgerald draws on significant experience in the broadcast market, having worked on many turnkey system integration projects in the UK, Ireland, Europe, the Middle East and Africa while working for companies like Gearhouse Broadcast, and Videlio, amongst others. JP Delport, MD at Broadcast Solutions UK: “Having Kevin with us as new Sales Manager is a further step to develop our subsidiary and will be beneficial for the UK branch and the whole Broadcast Solutions group. For us, this is a perfect match. Kevin is not only very well skilled in product sales but also system integration and consultation.” Immersive audio specialist Sonosphere announced that commercial director Jamie Gosney and creative director Henrik Oppermann have been appointed to the company’s board of directors. Jamie and Henrik’s experience places them perfectly to take the company forward. Gosney has over 40 years experience working in concert touring, theatre, for manufacturers and latterly as an audio systems designer, working on a variety of projects including immersive audio installations. Oppermann, meanwhile, is a 3D sound specialist who has worked as head of sound at immersive content production company Visualise, and has over 10 years of recording studio quality audio on location for film, advertising and music industry clients, as well as 3D sound installations. Atlantic Records named Keith “Keefa” Parker vice president of A&R. Based in LA, Parker most recently served as an executive producer on Roddy Ricch’s breakthrough album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial. He is currently working with Ricch on his second album as well as A&Ring the new Ty Dolla $ign album. “Keefa was literally born into LA’s rap culture, and he lives and breathes the music,” said Dallas Martin, Atlantic’s senior vice president of A&R.
8 / Summer 2020
New studio for composer De Robertis Florence-based acoustic design specialist Studio Sound Service has dramatically transformed respected film composer, Federico De Robertis’ personal studio, and the previous room’s many acoustic problems have been solved. “We designed a full acoustic treatment, starting with a new concrete and masonry front wall where we flush-mounted two Genelec 1237 Smart Active main monitors,” explains acoustician Donato Masci. “The front wall and the floor are the only solid surfaces, since the rest of the room is constructed with absorbent materials. We also used
some diffuser panels to improve low frequency absorption and diffusion.” Complementing the 1237 stereo setup is a 5.1 SAM system comprising five 8240 two-way nearfield monitors and a 7370 subwoofer. Masci used Genelec’s GLM software to configure and calibrate: “GLM is critical when monitors are flush-mounted in a solid wall — in this case the low frequencies were raised by as much as 12dB — but GLM controls the effect perfectly,” he says. “In an environment such as studio Aldilà, with so many compromises, GLM is of great help for fine-tuning.”
Captain Tom steps up to the microphone
New CEDAR DNS 8 workflow for French TV
War veteran, Captain Tom Moore, caught Britain’s attention by raising £32m for NHS charities by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday. Speaking to the BBC, his voice was loud and clear thanks to Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 system. “The mics needed to work on a short local range as the receivers were close to the action,” said broadcast sound engineer, Paul Cutler. “You don’t want lots of high power when you’ve got multiple frequencies plus IEMs — and Captain Tom’s Bluetooth hearing aid — all radiating in proximity, so low power output was important, combined with battery consumption and the crystal-clear audio quality.”
Pierre Laurens has spent a decade specialising in live and broadcast sound mixing, and uses the DNS 8 Live every day on French TV. Rather than assigning each of its eight channels to specific mics in the conventional fashion, he places each channel across the insert of a group that defines a geographical zone on stage. “Using the DNS 8 Live on the groups in this way gives me great rejection of the background noise with no artefacts wherever the anchors stand on stage. This approach ensures that clean speech is obtained consistently across the soundstage as well as providing increased flexibility for positioning the presenters.”
TRUST HONEST ACCURATE TRANSPARENT
35 Years of making monitors
quested.com | info@quested.com
/ News
Ayako Yamauchi: mastering for gaming & streaming Having won multiple awards for her audio post-production work, Yamauchi’s credits are filled with some of the world’s leading video games. Included among these are Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, God of War and Sekiro: The Shadow Dies Twice. “I have mastered more than 10,000 dialogues in each language for video game projects, and NUGEN plug-ins have been the most consistent solution for me while using Pro Tools. This kind of job always needs precise accuracy and I am very happy with the results I get using NUGEN.” She explains: “After Netflix changed its standards in 2018, many streaming services followed suit — opting to no longer use the simple broadcasting specs, and instead adopting new standards. This left audio post editors needing to work with new LKFS/LUFS, dBTP and LRA standards. AMB and LM-Correct make this easy for us and saves a lot of time.”
Studio 13: Miloco adds Neve tracking studio
West London recording studio, Studio 13, is now part of the Miloco family. Based around a huge Neve VR72 72-channel console, Studio 13 is a classic high-spec tracking and mixing studio, with a generous complement of vintage and modern gear. There’s a well-regarded live room full of guitars, amps, synths, a piano and loads more instruments and toys. The studio has played host to the likes of Gorillaz, Blur, Bobby Womack, De La Soul, Massive Attack, Brian Eno, Grace Jones and plenty more. The building also hosts producer Stephen Street’s space ‘The Bunker at 13’, along with other creative spaces and offices, creating a collegiate creative atmosphere. The 10.7m x 6.5m live room has been acoustically designed to offer a neutral sound that lends itself to everything from full band to brass and vocal recordings. 10 / Summer 2020
PreSonus introduces Sphere
PreSonus Sphere is a membership community ($14.95 per month or $164.95 per year) offering cloud collaboration tools and storage, access to Studio One and Notion experts from around the globe, plus exclusive promotions, training, and events. Benefits include licenses for all PreSonus’ software solutions for recording, mixing, and scoring — including Studio One Professional and Notion — plus over 100 libraries of samples, effects, and loops, including the complete Spark Collection sample libraries and Tom Brechtlein Drums. Members get every plug-in and Studio One add-on, including Ampire, Channel Strip Collection, CTC-1 Pro Console Shaper, Fat Channel XT, Presence XT Editor, and more. PreSonus Exchange has always been a great way for Studio One users to share presets and loops; Sphere users now have access to a ‘portal’ loaded with custom-designed tools and curated content by featured artists. PreSonus’ aim is clearly to transform Sphere into more than a huge toolbox, with the ambition to build a creative community for users.
Elstree £12m film studios expansion plans move a step closer Hertsmere Borough councillors agreed at an extraordinary meeting to approve £6m of extra match funding to build new stages and ancillary facilities such as workshops. The two stages are similar in design to the huge George Lucas studio building, and will be available for use combined to form a supersize soundstage. Before the pandemic lockdown, the plan was to fund the project through private investment. The agreement is subject to formal notification that £6m of UK government funding will be granted for the project via the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Elstree Studios is currently home to both
BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and hit Netflix series The Crown. The studio, owned by the council and managed by Elstree Film Studios Limited, is keen to expand after it says it had to turn away TV projects due to a lack of space, estimating around £30m of ‘lost revenue’ over the last 18 months. The Borough Council believes expansion at Elstree Studios will create at least 800 jobs per year, as well as apprenticeship opportunities for local school leavers and the unemployed. £100,000 per year of the project’s profits will be invested into the creative industries in Hertsmere, including local media and creative enterprises and initiatives.
LOOKING AHEAD FOR SHOWS (FINGERS CROSSED) AES AI in Audio, [Digital]
ISE, Barcelona
2-5 February
NAB, [Digital]
28-29 September 19-29 October
BPM, Solihull
March [prov]
AES, New York[?]
21-24 October
NAB, Las Vegas
10-14 April
BroadcastIndia, [Digital]
29-31 October
ProLight + Sound
13-16 April
SMPTE 2020, [Digital]
10-12 November
MPTS, London
12-13 May
Inter BEE, [Digital]
18-20 November
High End, Munich
13-16 May
CES, [Digital]
6-9 January 2021
Summer NAMM, Nashville
NAMM, Believe in Music [Digital]
18 January
PLASA, London
15 July 5-7 September
RootOne
LEAPWING.COM
New Gear
New products The essential briefing on the latest hardware and software Antelope Audio
PreSonus
Bulgarian manufacturer Antelope says the Galaxy 64 is “the first 64-channel A-D/D-A converter”, and it is also Antelope’s first Dante device. Featuring industry-standard I/O within a 2U rack space, the interface includes 64 channels of analogue in/out via D-Type connectors, Thunderbolt 3 (two ports), Dante, AES/EBU, HDX and MADI. The Galaxy features no less than four HDX ports — which will immediately draw the attention of users with big Pro Tools rigs. The Galaxy 64 is a Synergy Core interface running both ARM DSP and FPGA chips, all in custom configurations, processing tens of input/output audio streams, and hundreds of low latency studio effects, with the objective of un-burdening your computer CPU while employing a third FPGA chip to process the routing matrix and manage conversion. Offering a stated 124dB of dynamic range on the A-D stage, 128dB at the D-A stage, and 130dB at the monitor outputs, a release date for Galaxy 64 is soon to be announced.
Featuring a hybrid modular synthesis approach, Deep Flight One instrument library for the Presence XT sampler in Studio One (see review on page 18) draws on analogue and digital synthesizer samples and layered field recordings, sweetened with signal processing, to create a range of organic and inspiring sounds. Synthesizers employed for Synth Layers on Deep Flight One included the Oberheim Four Voice, Synclavier, and the rare Schmidt synthesizer. Eurorack and Buchla modular systems were sampled for the Modular Layers. Samples deliver raw material to be moulded with synth parameters like filters, envelopes, modulation, and effects. By using sample-start modulation, controlled in real time using velocity, no two single keystrokes sound exactly the same. Included with a PreSonus Sphere membership or available as a premium add-on for Studio One (for $99.95), Deep Flight One includes 131 presets for Studio One Professional’s Multi Instrument and 300 single instrument presets, created from more than 3GB of sample content. In addition Deep Flight One comes with a collection of 50 matching Musicloops that are perfect building blocks for arrangements, with full editing capabilities.
www.antelopeaudio.com
www.presonus.com
Galaxy 64 Synergy Core
Deep Flight One
Neumann
Solid State Logic
In the early ‘70s Saul Walker, founder of API, designed his first microphone preamp and named it the 312. Nearly 50 years later, API have introduced a recreation of this highly sought-after classic. Used as the front end of the first API consoles, the original circuitry was housed in card cages under the front ‘kneespace’ of early mixers, with only the gain pot on the control surface. The new $755 (£663) preamp module is designed to fit into API’s various rack configurations, and offers one of API’s most famous mic preamps in the popular 500 Series format. Utilising API’s 2520 op-amps and proprietary transformers, the 312 delivers the analogue warmth and unmistakable sound for which API is known.
Neumann’s first-ever stand-alone mic preamp is a dual channel transformerless unit designed to maintain the sonic integrity of the original signal. Equipped with a ‘studio grade’ headphone amplifier ensuring monitoring quality at the recording stage, independent volume controls for each channel enable a latency-free monitor mix without affecting the recorded signal. Featuring a switchable high pass filter and a -20dB pad, which allows the V 402 to be used with high-level sources up to a claimed 28dBu without distortion. Mic input maximum gain is +60dB, 10Hz to >100kHz (-3dB@ 40dB Gain). The V 402 comes in a 2U 19” rack enclosure, and the MSRP is €2,749.
Tom Knowles, SSL Broadcast product manager: “Our latest V3.0 release further enhances true IP integration with visibility and routing of ST 2110-30 or AES67 RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) streams from the console GUI. With this new level of management and control, the System T console becomes your routing control system for AoIP of any variety”. Clientrequested feature updates including enhancements to System T’s on-board Effects Rack with a new reverb with degenerative noise controls, a 10-band parametric EQ with FFT overlay, plus an overhaul of channel and bus path presets. This latest release provides new functionality across the whole System T range including the S500, S500m, S300 and TCR.
www.apiaudio.com
www.neumann.com
www.solidstatelogic.com
API
312 Mic Pre
12 / Summer 2020
V 402
System T V3.0
CEDAR Audio
AMS Neve
Machine learning and the AI capabilities of Retouch 8 are now available for the Merging Pyramix platform. Until now, unwanted sounds had to be identified individually, now you can mark an audio event such as hi-hat spill, sibilants and plosives, or repetitive noises caused by machinery, and then ask the machine learning algorithm in Retouch 8 to find all of the other instances within the recording. You can eliminate them individually or as a group using the appropriate Retouch tool. The AI in the new Repair tool can identify, suppress, or reveal sounds while leaving the background in a marked region untouched. Unlike other spectral editing tools, only the significant signal within the region is processed; all low level signals as well as ambience are left unaffected. CEDAR Audio’s partnership with Merging Technologies stretches back to the earliest Pyramix systems in the mid-’90s, when CEDAR developed their first broadband noise reduction system. Today, CEDAR for Pyramix is derived from CEDAR’s multi-award-winning CEDAR Studio and CEDAR Cambridge flagships, allowing users to eliminate problems and significantly improve the quality of their audio.
A “small format console with a large format sound”. Based on the 80-series console range, the 8424’s dual-input channel strip allows switching between recording and mixing inputs without additional patching. Input connectivity via 24 line-level inputs, dual 1073 preamps, and dual Instrument DI channels are complemented by two cue mix system with talkback/return talkback and two headphone amplifiers. The 8424 offers an analogue mixing platform with 24 DAW returns across 24 faders, or a 48-Mix mode that allows a total of 48 mono inputs with individual level and pan controls to be mixed through the Marinair transformer-coupled stereo mix bus. Engineers can take advantage of the 8424’s mono and stereo aux busses to connect favourite outboard FX units and route them back into the console’s two stereo reverb returns. Four mono groups with 2-band shelving EQ, Inserts, and Direct Outs equip the console for stem mixing. The 8424 stereo mix bus gives true voltage mixing into Marinair transformers, as found in the Neve 80-series consoles, while additional features include a Stereo Insert, 2-band shelving EQ and Neve’s proprietary Stereo Width control.
www.cedaraudio.com
www.ams-neve.com
CEDAR for Pyramix 64 v8
Neve 8424
Zoom
United Studio Technologies
Steinberg
With three appdriven modes that configure the colour touchscreen for podcasting, music production, or location recording, the Zoom H8 handheld recorder lets you quickly record up to eight simultaneous input signals. The £506 H8 is compatible with an array of Zoom capsules (available separately) for easy expansion into 10-input recording, Ambisonics 360-degree audio, and more. Like other H-Series Handy recorders such as the H5 and H6, you can hand-hold the H8, attach it to a mic stand or tripod, or shoe-mount it to a camera. Other features include remote control via an iOS app, a suite of guitar amp and effects modelling processors, and the ability to work as a multichannel computer audio interface over USB.
United Studio Technologies first launched the FET47 at the New York AES 2019, a condenser designed to emulate the sought-after sonic qualities of the vintage U 47 microphone. The FET47 Cinemag transformer features a striped core, compiled of interleaving sets of nickel and steel laminations wound to the specification of the German transformers used to power the original U 47s. The transformer utilises the core’s dual coil humbucking quality to deliver low-noise and better clarity. The HZ-Series capsule, forged from the ground up by manufacturer Eric Heiserman in partnership with United Studio Technologies, is a modern take on the original vintage K47 capsule, made in Germany. SCV are exclusive UK and Ireland distributors for the £950 (SSP inc VAT) FET47.
Immerse with VST AmbiDecoder is an ‘artificialintelligence personalised spatial audio solution’ developed by Embody for Nuendo and Cubase. “Adding Immerse to the VST AmbiDecoder tool kit means you can create immersive content with a higher degree of confidence because using your personalized HRTF unlocks the true power of spatial audio,” says Kapil Jain, co-founder and CEO of Embody. Steinberg say that AmbiDecoder generates a user’s personalised Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) in less than a minute. Converting ambisonics to binaural audio using a personalised HRTF “means the engineer will hear the clear spatial separation of each sound element and improved audio quality”. Immerse with VST AmbiDecoder is exclusively available from the Steinberg Online Shop for €189.
www.sound-service.eu
www.scvdistribution.co.uk
www.steinberg.net/immerse
H8
FET47
Immerse
Summer 2020 / 13
/ Review
Leapwing RootOne NIGEL JOPSON loves that low end
/ RootOne lowers bass-anxiety and stress
A
ll right, I admit it, the first time I fired this plug-in up I was addicted. First, an admission: I was the sort of engineer who thought ‘tightening up the bass’ meant selecting bell rather than shelf on an EQ. It was only after watching production pros whose background owed more to the turntable and dance floor rather than drums and guitar that I began to realise I needed to up my game. The problem is, the very granular process of laboriously combining miniscule elements of audio and layering low-end sample on sample is a rather opaque process to someone who thought a dbx 160 might do the job. Anyway… I’ve tried them all, those subharmonic synthesisers. As most of us have discovered, no ‘magic box’ will overcome the laws of audio physics. Some plug-ins generate sounds an octave lower than the input, others try to trick your mind into thinking lower pitches exist. Apart from a few felicitous accidents with such devices, I’ve always ended up with mud in my mix. After that initial euphoria of feeling the key has been found, there’s the tedious realisation that it’s more a case of a trade-off. The problem is, most of the controls and processing on bass-enhancing plug-ins are far too coarse. Leapwing have something of a track record of taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. “You will not find us creating analogue imitations”, the Belgian developers wrote on their website when they release CenterOne, a parallel centre image processor to shade typical ‘spatial’ plug-ins (review Resolution V17.3 by Bill Lacey). They went on to work similar magic with multiband compressor DynOne, and stereo enhancer StageOne (reviewed Resolution V17.5 and V18.1 respectively, by Piper Payne).
All your base are belong to us
Now it’s my turn! I dove in to heft-up my pathetically deficient recordings, using the clean and logical UI Leapwing have made their trademark. There are three faders (Sub, Thump, Punch) with adjustable crossover frequencies (32-56Hz, 62-104Hz, 110-196Hz). Perhaps the most important aspect of sub-synths is actually understanding how you are fuzzing up your audio, and the RootOne has solo buttons underneath each fader to help 26 / Summer 2020
with this. Alt-clicking on a solo button resets every solo button, but I found myself occasionally wishing for a mute button above each fader so I could hear small adjustments in context. Underneath each fader are Drive, Dynamics and Decay adjustments. With a short decay and transient material, the sub frequency will decay faster and won’t get in the way of musical dynamics: a nice UI touch is that clicking on the values beneath the faders makes a popup with a slider open, which allows faster adjustment. Dynamics is based on the amplitude tracking of the original signal, offering some element of extra control over the new low frequencies in each band. Drive is perhaps the most interesting extra control, as it acts as a post-fade send to the fourth fader, Harmonics Saturation. Instead of generating new sub frequencies, the Saturation channel generates new harmonics above the root tones of the input signal. The ‘sends’ from the other three Drive controls are mixed-in to the Saturation channel. RootOne is going to be used by some producers with just the Saturation fader up! It really adds something extra to some instruments, and there’s a low pass filter, adjustable from 100Hz-1kHz to tame the Saturation output if it gets a bit ‘buzzy’. I found myself using just the Harmonics fader on a rather plain Fender Rhodes. Cranking the Drive and Color, and setting the Low Pass to 450Hz transformed the e-piano into more of a ‘Rhodes suitcase’ vibe, without going the whole hog and putting the channel through an amp-sim.
Harmonics above as well as below The Harmonics channel can also play a really important role in conveying the ‘impression’ of burgeoning bass on small speakers, particularly with kick
drums and the like. Anything more than 50 on the Drive control really brings-on the ‘my boom-box speakers are blowing up’ effect of cone distortion, whereas single-digit drive adds a more subtle thickness — but still vibey even on the smallest of computer speakers. Next to the Leapwing logo there’s a very handy full bypass switch that maintains the plug-in latency, vital for checking in the mix. A and B memories automatically store settings as you adjust, and undo/ redo buttons are welcome in a plug-in with so many variables. RootOne comes with a selection of presets which provide good starting points, and ‘Electric bass thick’ became one of my favourites. I found RootOne most valuable on instruments which either had no bass at all (like a thin Stratocaster) or recordings with plentiful bass …but which really required different colour. The plug-in was very clever at bringing out those ‘overhanging’ drum skin tones from natural drums, and really excellent at enhancing the heft of electronic drums. With some subharmonic bass plug-ins, there’s definitely the feeling that you’re somehow upsetting the phase relationships of your audio to get a cheap boom, but RootOne remained phase coherent as I experimented on a variety of different music. Just don’t get lazy and slap it across the stereo bus with the ‘Beef Up Mix’ preset. Because that would be cheating …wouldn’t it?! RootOne is going to be worth every penny of its £179 to audio pros who (like me) have always had a bit of bother with their bottom end. Thanks to Leapwing, we can now be experts, even if our baseball caps have bendy brims. I found it particularly useful with electronic drum loops and basses, an area where too much processing with EQ and saturation often results in a floppy mush. As with CenterOne and StageOne, Leapwing have taken a process which is often relegated to the status of gimmick, and transformed subharmonic synthesis into a useful and very professional tool with RootOne.
VERDICT PROS We finally have a professional subharmonic generator, versatile enough to be used with any genre, which preserves phase coherence. CONS
I’d like mute as well as solo buttons on the faders. Next version?
www.leapwingaudio.com
Awards 2020
Resolution Awards 2020 Building on our extended voting audience with the best-informed readership in the industry
I
n human terms, it seems rather a long time since we announced our Resolution Awards 2019 winners at the 147th AES Convention. New York has had a whole lot of serious health concerns to deal with since our audio geeks voted for innovative gear in a dozen categories, and in 2020 the Resolution Award winners will be announced in a special end-of-year digital supplement. In 2019, we opened the Resolution Awards voting to a wider audience, resulting in many extra votes – more than ten times the usual amount. In previous years, in the interest of maintaining fair voting, we made voters log-in to the ‘my subscription’ area of our website, a rather arcane process involving the reader number on your magazine mailing wrapper. Visitors to our website and social media pages in 2019 were able to vote by simply entering their email. The IP address from which each vote originated was recorded, and only one vote per IP address was allowed in order to maintain a fair process. The 2019 Awards were promoted to our digital database of 9,000 audio pros (a supplemental audience to our printed magazine subscription base). The Resolution Awards recognise quality and innovation in professional audio, and in 2020, we’d thought we’d give readers the opportunity to email their suggestions for products deserving nomination to info@resolutionmag.com. Please remember: it’s quality and innovation in recently released products we’re asking you to nominate (NOT your ‘favourite gear’!). Readers’ suggestions will be combined with those from our panel of industry experts and practitioners to decide on the final products for nomination in each category. Just to remind you what happened last year, here are the 12 categories and 2019 winners: Analogue mixer = Rupert Neve 5088; DAW/Software suite = Avid Pro Tools 2019; Digital mixer = PreSonus Audio Electronics StudioLive 64S; Dynamics (hardware) = API Audio 529; EQ (hardware) = Rupert Neve Shelford Channel; Interface = Antelope Audio Orion 32+ | Gen 3; Microphone = DPA Microphones d:screet CORE 6060; Monitor = Genelec S360; Plug-in = FabFilter Pro-Q3; Preamp = SPL Crescendo; Processor = Audinate Dante AV; Recorder = Sound Devices Scorpio. We look forward to hearing from our readers! PLEASE respond by midnight, Friday October 9th 2020. Suggestions after that will not be validated. Email: info@resolutionmag.com
Summer 2020 / 27
The Interview
As a musician you very rarely get to work with an experienced engineer and I think it’s a skill we should fight to preserve
Ben Hillier
The producer behind Depeche Mode, Blur and Elbow, talks to DANNY TURNER
I
nitially engineering alongside renowned British producer Steve Osborne, Ben Hillier’s first big break came as a programmer for U2’s 1993 album Pop. This led to production/mixing duties for Blur and Graham Coxon (interview, Resolution V2.4), precipitating a lengthy career that’s seen Hillier work with the likes of Elbow, Clinic, Doves, Natalie Imbruglia, and on numerous Depeche Mode albums. A self-confessed vintage synth addict, Hiller co-owns two studios: London-based The Pool, which has undergone a major transformation with the injection of a vast collection of analogue gear, and the ecologically friendly Agricultural Audio facility based in Sussex. In recent years, Hillier has developed his collaboration with British singer/ songwriter Nadine Shah. Following Shah’s Hyundai Mercury Prize-nominated 2017 album Holiday Destination, Hillier found himself not just producing, but co-writing and playing most of the instruments on her latest ‘Long player’, Kitchen Sink.
I’m not into the producer/schoolteacher-type scenario — we work together apart and rebuilt in a slightly different way to take them to the level they needed to be at. That was always the hard part because Martin could be very attached to a song for a lot of different reasons. For example, a chord having to work in such a way that it blended with the vocal.
Is part of that reconstruction about having to fit in with the collective vision you have for an album? To a certain extent. Depeche Mode are an extraordinary band in that they’ll only give you the songs they want on the record, and I think Martin writes an awful lot more than that. He’ll
Were you a fan of Depeche Mode prior to working with them? I wouldn’t say I was a mega-fan. I really liked their first record but lost touch by the time they’d made their second or third, so there wasn’t a driving ambition to get them to sound a certain way or create a definitive Depeche Mode that I wanted to revisit. I tuned back into them when they started making records with Flood at a time when rock records started being made with synths. Is the desire to realise your own vision for a band ever a consideration for a producer? It’s very rare that you get that opportunity. I like to be driven by a band’s ambition, which could include them saying they’ve really like what I’ve done on a record. That’s happened before, but first and foremost I see myself as someone that helps a band realise their ambition and I find that’s the healthiest way to do my job. I understand Martin Gore had very welladvanced demos. How does a producer advance a song that’s already wellprogressed? That’s often the hardest thing, but it can work both ways. We did a song called Precious (Playing the Angel) and the demo wasn’t a long way from the finished version. When Martin [Gore] writes a song you need to make sure that Dave Gahan has bought into the treatment of it, but the demo was great right down to a lot of the key sounds so it was just a question of not fucking it up. You have to watch your ego a bit and make sure you don’t feel the need to have input when the best input you can have is to say, yeah, that’s brilliant! And with Martin, I’m guessing his demos were often brilliant? The flipside is that while his demos were very good, sometimes the songs had to be ripped
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Summer 2020 / 29
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/ Popped out for coffee
/ Emre was interviewed in Resolution V15.6
some creative processing of demo elements on the last of the four tunes of this EP, with combinations of pedals, amps and plugins. 1pm Lunch, I usually grab a few moments here to bother my manager with diary juggling, invoice queries and some general strategy chats. He has been the most supportive and smart partner you could wish for during this period! 6pm The session is usually wrapped up now and today I’m jumping on my bike again to head to Noel Gallagher’s new studio to check out an Apple Mac Pro we have on loan to test. I get there — and it’s the wrong machine! I jump back on the bike and head home.
9pm With my child in bed, some relative calm follows, so I check for any new cues or revisions from LA, mirror my home studio’s work drive and then spend an hour or so working on new products for my sample company Rattly And Raw. This slightly tangential coding and design work actually seems to keep me sane(ish). I’m just finishing our newest product: “The Celebrated Fictional Mega Organ Of Steamlord Cornelius”. It’s a huge 50 voice organ with a different take on sound choices… It includes, whales, elephants, car horns, screams, ship foghorns and many more!
FORWARD THINKING AUDIO GEAR
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TITAN
COMPRESSOR LIMITER
www.emremusic.com • www.rattlyandraw.com
JOSEPHSON ENGINEERING josephson.com
During lockdown, working entirely native with my computer at home, I decided it would be essential to incorporate a fully-native system into my HDX studio, to embrace the benefits this brings to mixing. After weighing up many options I built it round an Arturia Audiofuse with 8pre expander (review Resolution V18.7), and I’ve spent several mornings wiring and integrating this properly into my studio so I can still make use of the only hardware I use while mixing, the Roger Meyer 456HD-500 analogue tape emulator. These have been the single greatest benefit to my tracking and mixing I can recall. 10am I’m currently producing the first of several Steam Down EPs for Decca records, which is a powerful blend of grime, new UK jazz and hip hop. Each day is pretty varied and today we’ll be starting by recording a singer in the Netherlands using Audiomovers Listento with a method I worked out early in lockdown (see Resolution V19.3 Remote Production Special). Following the remote session, we’ll continue working on a rough mix of one of the more ambitious songs so we can get a clear perspective on the sound choices and final arrangement tweaks before cutting backing vocals and more horns next week. The rest of the day will be taken up recording sax and more vocals from the artist as well as refining other arrangements and getting into
C725
www.davehilldesigns.com
Dave Hill Designs SHW 0914.indd 1
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