Resolution V4.1 Jan/Feb 2005 by Resolution

JAN/FEB 2005 V4.1

THE NEXT GENERATION AUDIO PRODUCTION MAGAZINE

Bernard Löhr Mix scheme

Post: John Kurlander on ﬁlm score mixing Broadcast: Why DAB may ﬁnally come of age Optimising performance at the listening position EtherSound in a studio environment Rome’s Forward Studios moves ahead Ten location recordist essentials

REVIEWS • SADiE BB2J

• TC PowerCore Compact

• CEDAR Retouch V3

• Mackie Onyx 800R

• Drawmer 1968 Mercenary Edition

• Waves IR-L • UA UAD-1 Project Pak

• Crookwood Paintpot • SPL 2381

January/February 2005 v4.1

ISSN 1477-4216 THE NEXT GENERATION AUDIO PRODUCTION MAGAZINE

News & Analysis 4

Leader

News

Sales, contracts, appointments and the bigger picture

Products

Headroom

Sweet Spot

New introductions and announcements plus Digidesign and Steinberg platform news. Students and education, education, education.

Craft 14

Forward Studios

Rome’s ﬁnest proves that there is still life in the brand new build and still hope in an assault on the international studio market.

Bernard Löhr

Addressing the limitations of real-world control room environments and optimising performance at the listening position.

An in-demand mix engineer who can also handle a symphonic orchestral session shares his mix techniques with us.

John Kurlander

Ten

Your business

The top ﬁlm score mixer talks orchestral miking, riding and minding the click, and relationships with rerecording engineers.

Post

Procuring a suitable projection screen is challenging when cash is tight. Location recordist essentials.

Business 48

DAB’s coming of age

False starts and consistent criticism have not dented DAB’s potential to be a practical winner.

Checking the security of your facility’s media vault could save your neck in these litigious times.

Technology 52

EtherSound in the studio

Recent developments have made EtherSound an interesting alternative to traditional audio routing systems for studios.

Slaying Dragons

Watkinson asks what’s wrong with the dB and why do so many people still misunderstand and misuse it?

Reviews 22 23 24

SADiE BB2J CEDAR Retouch V3 Drawmer 1968 Mercenary Edition

Crookwood Paintpot

EDITORIAL Editorial Director: Zenon Schoepe Tel: +44 1444 410675 Email: zen@resolutionmag.com Editorial ofﬁce: PO Box 531, Haywards Heath RH16 4WD, UK Contributors: Rob James, George Shilling, Keith Spencer-Allen, Terry Nelson, Jon Thornton, Neil Hillman, Nigel Jopson, Andy Day, Kevin Hilton, Dan Daley, John Watkinson

28 30

Waves IR-L Mackie Onyx 800R

32 34 36

TC PowerCore Compact UA UAD-1 Project Pak SPL Model 2381

ADVERTISEMENT SALES European Sales Clare Sturzaker Tel: +44 1342 717459 Email: clare_s@tiscali.co.uk US Sales Jeff Turner Tel: +1 415 455 8301 Email: turnermarketing@comcast.net

PRODUCTION AND LAYOUT Dean Cook Dean Cook Productions Tel: +44 1273 236681 Email: dean@deancookproductions.co.uk

news APPOINTMENTS SONIC DISTRIBUTION has appointed Jim Motley as product placement and European sales manager. He joins from TC Electronic where he handled all UK pro audio sales, as well as training and technical trouble-shooting. Sonic Distribution has been appointed UK distributor for Apogee products. DAVID HAMILTONSMITH, owner of Soho audio postproduction facility China Blue, has been elected by the APRS Board to succeed Focusrite’s Phil Dudderidge as the new chairman of the Association of Professional Recording Services. His career started at Olympic Studios in London, followed by a spell as a freelance engineer/producer before joining Complete Video as head of sound.

Leader

It’s possible that the rather lacklustre imagination that peppers the record industry and manifests itself in interminable remakes and remodels of what were not very good songs in the first place has advocates in other lines of work. While music has emerged as an easy whipping boy, we should look at the atrocities of the film industry to fully understand just how uncreative things have become. While I can grudgingly accept the established practice of the perpetual merchandising, which tugs at every parent’s purse strings with the release of every children’s blockbuster, as a means of maximising return I can’t understand why grown ups must be so short changed on quality content in their film entertainment. It now seems that Hollywood has finally run out of ideas or is so scared of a flop that it will now plunder anything to give a film a rolling start of recognition among viewers. Thus we are subjected to remakes of films that don’t deserve or warrant them, books that should never have made the transition to the screen, or great historical yarns that deserve so much better treatment. Is it because nobody thinks that we remember the originals, that the art of original story and script writing has gone out with budgetary cuts, or that so few are allowed the indulgence of full vision and creative control that so many modern releases simply fail to satisfy or entertain? My suspicion is that the requirement for output quantity combined with restricted spending has cut just enough corners to take the creative edge off the film making process. It’s important that I state that I have proportionally few problems with the quality of sound or pictures on modern releases and this I believe is testament to the craftskills of the operators who have long since mastered the knack of performing these duties to the time scales and budgets involved. My issue is with the actual substance of the films; the stories that they tell. It comes to something if I would much rather watch a good TV drama than watch a Hollywood special. It comes down to a matter of scale and weighting. A good story, or a good song, is a much more robust starting point for any production. It is simply not about the money. Zenon Schoepe

Resolution Magazine website launched

Rooke and Cooper. AUDIO-TECHNICA LTD (UK and Europe Division) has announced the promotion to its board of directors of Tony Cooper as UK sales director and Adrian Rooke as European finance director. Other appointments to the board of AudioTechnica UK Ltd include Toshiyuki Hatakenaka and Shigeru Uzawa, representing two manufacturing divisions of the Corporation in Japan. THOMAS HOLM Hansen has been appointed deputy general manager at DK-Technologies and has also joined the board of directors. The son of the company’s founder and CEO Karsten Hansen, he was previously researching digital PWM audio ampliﬁers at Texas Instruments.

©2005 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 Publishers. Great care is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication, but neither

Resolution magazine has launched its website at www.resolutionmag.com The magazine’s web activity to date has been restricted to reader subscription and registration but the new site includes a wealth of content that will help to introduce the magazine’s message to a far wider audience. ‘It’s apparent that Resolution has achieved enormous respect as the deﬁnitive source of information among professional audio end users worldwide,’ said Resolution editorial director Zenon Schoepe. ‘The new website, which is loaded with varied

representative content from the magazine’s back catalogue, will serve as an excellent taster for potential readers in new territories who have heard of Resolution and want to investigate it for themselves.’ The site offers the facility to purchase back issues and whole Volumes of Resolution on CD-ROM. Existing readers must register to continue receiving Resolution by using their Unique reader number and post code, as displayed on the magazine wrapper, and going to the My Subscription section of the site.

RTM hall and Chinese TV go Lawo A Lawo mc266 has been delivered to Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) for its new concert hall in Kuantan. The compact console is ﬁtted with 24+8 faders with 72 DSP channels. The system can be extended to 3072 mono channels and 192 fully equipped DSP channels. The hall, which hosts 1000, is designed for rock and traditional concerts performed by the RTM in-house orchestra. • The largest Chinese provincial TV station Guizhou TV has installed a compact

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 Publishers.

Lawo mc266 in a new postproduction music recording studio. The console is ﬁtted with 16+8 faders and is prepared for 32+8 faders. Its HD core, with a routing capacity of 3072 mono channels, offers 48 full DSP channels at 96kHz. The desk was chosen by system integrator Rightway Audio Consultants for the 100% redundancy of the router engine, power supply unit, DSP board, I-O boards and networking capability with open protocols.

S2 Publications Ltd. Registered in England and Wales. Company number: 4375084.

Edwin is a winner

Edwin Pfanzagl-Cardone in Salzburg, Austria has won the SE Electronics Gemini microphone in our recent competition. Our thanks go out to Sonic Distribution for helping this to happen. Edwin is an engineer of some considerable note and recently returned to his home country to take up the position of head of sound at the sound engineering/acoustics department of the Salzburg Festival. The Salzburg Festival of classical music — with ten venues and 180 performances every summer — recently added six Yamaha DM2000s. Currently two of the three main halls are being rebuilt and they are in the process of buying new gear for the control room and production studio of the main hall. The recording and production studio is based around a DM2000, Lexicon 960L, three Tascam DA-98HRs, a Pro Tools system and Dynaudio BM6As and BM-10 sub surround monitoring. The installation of a 96kHz Stagetec Nexus digital routing system is scheduled.

Tascam controller is Public Enemy choice P u b l i c E n e m y ’s Chuck D and DJ Johnny Juice Rosado a re re c e n t converts to Tascam’s FW-1884 FireWire audio/MIDI interface and control surface, incorporating it in their Long Island NY studio where it controls Cakewalk Sonar. ‘Juice uses the FW-1884 to combine the elements of old and new equipment in our music without it being a headache,’ said Chuck D. ‘Among everything else he does well, he’s really good at keeping things smooth here.’ ‘I always have people coming over here to look at it because it’s a cool piece of gear,’ added Johnny. ‘The FW-1884 has a master fader and eight other channel faders, but mainly I love the way its faders feel and the touch and feel of the jog/shuttle wheel. As a recording engineer and producer, the Tascam controller makes complete sense to me because everything on it is placed right where it needs to be.’

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resolution

January/February 2005

news AES SF — a success

Attendance ﬁgures for the recent AES convention in San Francisco reveal that 16,153 attendees came to the event together with 415 exhibitors, just four away from an alltime AES high. ‘Only someone who has served on an AES Convention Committee can fully appreciate the personal satisfaction derived from a success of this magnitude,’ said AES executive director Roger Furness. ‘Committee Chair John Strawn did a superb job this year, and I invite AES members who have not yet volunteered for this arduous but supremely gratifying labour of love to join us for future events. The 118th Convention will be held in Barcelona, Spain on 28-31 May and the 119th Convention is set for New York City on 7-10 October 2005.’

Studio B Mastering moves with Berger

Studio B Mastering has been making records in Charlotte, US for 13 years and owner and chief engineer Dave Harris wanted to move from his small mastering room into a larger space and turned to the Russ Berger Design Group. In doing so he nearly tripled the space of his operation. RBDG designed a 1,600 square foot mastering suite composed of a 540 square foot mastering room, a centrally located machine room, a lounge, and support spaces while leaving enough remaining unﬁnished space to build another mastering room under the same roof in the future. Studio B offers SADiE, Crookwood, Cranesong, Manley, and Tube-Tech equipment.

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January/February 2005

Jam and Lewis choose AWS 900

Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, responsible for recordings from artists such as Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Usher, have taken delivery of five SSL AWS 900s with Total Recall from GC Pro for their new private recording facility in Santa Monica, due for completion early this year. Flyte Tyme, as Jam and Lewis’s team is known, is among the most successful production duos in contemporary music with more than 100 gold, platinum and multi-platinum records. ‘It’s nice to finally have a console that seamlessly blends the analogue and digital studio world,’ said Lewis. ‘The AWS 900 sounds wide, open, and punchy like an SSL should. We are loving it!’ While construction of the new studio is being completed, the pair and their longtime staff engineers, Matt Marrin and Ian Cross, took over the third floor of LA’s Village Recorder studio and have begun using their AWS 900s for projects. • 12 Girls Band, one of China’s most successful musical collaborations, has equipped its new studio in Beijing with an AWS 900 analogue workstation. The group uses traditional Chinese instruments to create Chinese folk music with a modern popular twist. • SAE Institute has purchased ten AWS 900 consoles to establish a network of ‘SSL Approved’ AWS 900-based training facilities.

APPOINTMENTS DIGIDESIGN HAS appointed Ken DeLoria as worldwide director of live sound sales and Mike Case as European live sound sales manager for its Venue live sound console. DeLoria founded and sold Apogee Sound, the manufacturer of loudspeakers and amplifiers. Case joins from Yamaha Commercial Audio and previously worked at Amek. UK-BASED BROADCAST equipment manufacturer Audionics has moved into new premises in Sheffield after 15 years at its original site. The business unit was fitted out to Audionics’ specification to provides a modern manufacturing facility and state of the art design and administration areas. Audionics, 31 Jessops Riverside, Sheffield S9 2RX ANSELM ROESSLER has taken over as MD of Celemony Software GmbH, the manufacturer of Melodyne software. He was formerly editor-in-chief and publisher of the German MI magazine Keys, which he joined in 1992. BEHRINGER HAS appointed Mathias Schmidt as general manager for Spezielle Studiotechnik GmbH and Behringer International. He was previously MD of Hoya Lens Deutschland. SMART AV has appointed Robert Smallwood as sales director, with responsibility for establishing and developing global sales channels for the company’s Smart Console product line. He has experience in senior sales and marketing in information technology, communications, and broadcasting. Smart AV Pty Ltd has appointed ForTune as its distributor for Germany and Austria and DSP Japan Ltd as its distributor in Japan.

Sennheiser has presented a visitor information system to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. The system consists of a total of 50 receivers with headsets. (L-R) Chris Alexander (Sennheiser South Africa); Nelson Mandela; Rolf Meyer (Sennheiser president marketing and sales); Dr John Kani, chairman Apartheid Museum.

DTS HAS appointed Don Bird as senior VP, Cinema. He was previously VP, marketing at DTS. DTS has completed the acquisition of QDesign Corporation, a Canadian audio delivery technology company, which is now formally DTS Canada ULC based in Vancouver.

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news APPOINTMENTS

Racing Stripes scores Tannoy

Q Cao, director of Loud China and Yugang Cheng, president of Jing Cheng Electronics Equipment Co. LOUD TECHNOLOGIES, in cooperation with Amoi Electronics, recently opened a distribution and sales office headquartered in Shanghai, China. The office will manage the distribution of Mackie, EAW, EAW Commercial, TAPCO and SIA branded professional audio products throughout China. Loud Technologies has appointed Carolyn Hommer as director of customer fulfillment and Paul Roberts as domestic sales administration manager at the company HQ in Woodinville. D I G I G R A M H A S appointed five European distributors: Apex for Belgium/Luxemburg; Techno Bulgaria for Bulgaria; Media Utilities for The Netherlands; Audio Media Professional for Norway; and Portela Associados Novas Tecnologias for Portugal. ON-AIR SYSTEMS has appointed Gary Lewis as solutions sales manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joins from Pinnacle Systems where he was regional sales manager. NVISION HAS appointed Arjen Hofland as program manager and Rob Fransen as support engineer for the EMEA region. Hofland worked previously for Axon Digital Design and joins from Thomson Grass Valley. Fransen previously worked for Sony Broadcast and joins from Imtech. A N D R E A S WEINGÜRTNER has joined DV2 (Adamson Support Europe) as the company’s European sales manager.

Stephen Krause scored the Racing Stripes ﬁlm at AIR Lyndhurst London with music composer Mark Isham on Tannoy 800A active monitors with Tannoy TS10 and TS12 active subwoofers. With the scoring completed, Krause returned to do the mix at his LA home in an old Spanish house where a 17 x 30 foot living room is used as a studio. ‘Where acoustics are concerned, I got lucky with the original size and layout of the room, and the building materials used. The room has arched ceilings, heavily plastered walls and conveniently cut angles in the corners of the room where I’ve hung curtains and placed additional padding behind, resulting in astoundingly ideal acoustics,’ said Krause who has worked on various Tannoy monitors over the years. He started out with a pair of Tannoy System 8s for stereo work and then went to surround and so obtained another two pairs of the 8s. When he works with Isham it’s typically with Isham’s own Tannoy Super Gold Monitors.

Ramone and Filipetti record Elton with A-T Audio-Technica mics were used at the Elton John Radio City Music Hall live-totape special for TV with the accompaniment of the London Royal Academy of Music’s Symphony Orchestra and New York’s Juilliard School of Music Orchestra. Phil Ramone was music producer with mix engineer Frank Filipetti. New York-based Effanel Music, with sub-orchestra mix engineers John Harris and Joel Singer, recorded all the audio and fed orchestral stems to Filipetti. Audio-Technica mics included 60 ATM35s, 21 AE5100s, and 20 AT4050s for the orchestra as well as 13 AE5400s for Ramone and Filipetti (Photo by Chuck Pulin). background vocals and brass.

resolution

DPA sums up classical spectacular

Three DPA MSS6000 microphone summation systems were used at the Royal Albert Hall for a series of Raymond Gubbay’s Classical Spectacular concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra — the first time that multiple systems have been used together. Designed to reduce 10 or more mics down to a single stereo pair, the MSS6000s meant that most of the string section of the RPO — miked with DPA 4061 miniature mics — could be mixed down to just six channels. The MSS6000s were used on the four firework spectaculars by freelance engineer Simon Honywill (pictured) working for sound hire company RG Jones. ‘The MSS6000 has enabled us to elegantly solve the problem of decreasing the channel count, and by combining a large number of microphones together it’s sonically invisible,’ he said. ‘Being DPA it’s properly engineered, so it’s reliable, works straight out of the box. ‘As for the 4061s, apart from the fact they’re the only miniature microphones that sound good when they’re close to a stringed instrument, there’s the issue of fixing of the microphone to the instrument itself,’ he added. ‘Musicians love this because there’s no physical contact; it sits on the strings mounted on a little piece of rubber and they can immediately see it’s not going to damage the woodwork on the instrument.’

ERTU commissions Leader analysers Spanish systems integrator Broad Telecom has completed commissioning of transmission monitoring systems at seven locations in Egypt. The installations include 11 Leader 5851 PAL vectorscopes and eleven 5861V waveform monitors, to be used by the Egyptian Radio & Television Union (ERTU), Egypt’s state broadcaster. ‘The Leader test instruments are installed at Asyut, Ben Ali, Isna, Komombo, Luxor, Qena and Sohag,’ said Magdy Menisy, ERTU general manager for transmission projects. ‘They are being used to monitor the quality of ﬁbre-based and microwave studio-to-transmitter feeds and to check the demodulated transmitter output.’

January/February 2005

news

news APPOINTMENTS AMS NEVE has appointed James Bradley as UK South sales manager.

Resolution buys into Icon

Weimann and DAS CEO Juan Alberola. DAS AUDIO has opened a sales and support ofﬁce in Germany headed by Lothar Weimann and supported by Manuela Sauerbrei. JBL PROFESSIONAL has appointed Perry Celia as director of sales, Eastern Region in the US and the Caribbean. He was previously VP and principle for rep ﬁrm Sound Marketing West. STUDIOCARE PROFESSIONAL Audio Ltd has become UK distributor of Royer ribbon microphones.

Digi’s Ben Nemes and Gable. Digidesign’s ﬁrst UK Icon installation is at Resolution’s post facility in London. Dan Gable, Resolution director and dubbing mixer, was keen to upgrade his studio after seeing Icon at NAB. His ﬂagship Audio 1 suite is now based around a 16-fader D-Control tactile worksurface with producer’s desk integrated with a Pro Tools HD Accel system, one of four recently upgraded Digidesign systems at Resolution. ‘ICON is a big step forward in terms of functionality and ergonomics and installing it was quick and straightforward, which is important for a busy facility,’ he said.

Alea Jacta employs DS-00s for ﬁlm post

RADIO SYSTEMS, manufacturer of the StudioHub+ wiring solution, has appointed Network Pro Marketing as its distributor in the USA. PA U L S C O T T h a s joined Pharos as sales support engineer. He was previously sales engineer for test-equipm e n t m a n u f a c t u re r Advanced Measurement Technology. Pharos Communications has relocated its headquarters in Reading, Berkshire to 83/85 London Street. The new premises provide 6,000 square feet of ﬂoor space, three times the capacity of the former offices. Telephone and fax numbers remain unchanged. KLOTZ DIGITAL has appointed PfaffBorgarjlös in Iceland and Audio AE in Latvia as its exclusive system providers for the territories. KRK SYSTEMS has hired Sinamex Electronics Pte Ltd to represent KRK products in Singapore and Malaysia.

Alea Jacta’s Brussels-based film post facility has updated its operation with two Soundtracs DS-00 consoles plus five expanders. The studio works for much of France and Belgium’s film industry. The studio was originally equipped with analogue consoles, but studio owners Franco Piscopo and Manu de Boissieu decided they needed something more flexible. ‘When we were working with the analogue consoles we were limited to 80 inputs and it wasn’t physically possible to

have more because of the width of the studio,’ explained Piscopo. ‘So we decided to go digital. We found the Soundtracs DS00 to be very user friendly, dynamic and really easy to use. As a rule, anyone who stands near the console understands what we are doing, which is great for us.’ The two DS-00s are linked via MADI to give 190 inputs, with 39 buses on each output allowing 80 plus outputs. They are connected to Pro Tools, Pyramix and two Tascam MX2424s.

resolution

DK-Technologies acquires Dag2000 DK-Technologies has acquired Dag2000, the Danish company best known for its digital bargraph and stereo peak programme meters for the broadcast market. Dag2000 was established in 2000 after the business was separated from its previous owners, NTP Electronics. DK’s acquisition of Dag2000 completes the circle by enabling the company to offer a full range of metering options with a variety of displays. These run from the simple and inexpensive MSD100 series, which incorporates functions such as PPM, phasemeter and phase oscilloscope on an LCD, through to high end products such as the MSD600M series. ‘Bargraphs are still very popular in a number of European territories, especially Germany,’ said DK CEO Karsten Hansen. ‘While this acquisition allows us to satisfy demand for bargraphs, we also hope that it will provide Dag2000 customers with an easy transition to DK meters equipped with LCD displays.’ Dag2000 products will be re-branded as DK products and will be manufactured and serviced by the DK team. Distribution will continue to be handled by Dag2000’s existing distributor network. Gerhard Hansen, who has been with NTP and Dag2000 for more than 30 years, has joined the company as a technician.

Soho Studios adopt CoSMOS Smart Media Solutions has installed its CoSMOS automation system at Zoo, Jungle and Marmalade (part of the Soho Studios group) in London. The 10-studio audio postproduction facility installed CoSMOS to solve its need to tie various media and network systems together while retaining the existing workﬂow and technical infrastructure. The facilities consist of a range of networks, servers, databases, audio and video workstations, most of which serve a dedicated purpose. ‘We wanted to streamline these different systems and to replace physical media with an electronic process. That’s where CoSMOS came into it’s own. It allowed us to install a complete managed solution,’ said Steve Pasek, technical manager, Soho Studios. ‘We discussed our vision with Smart Media Solutions and they customised CoSMOS specifically for our existing infrastructure, workflow and software to provide the complete managed solution we were seeking to achieve.’ Smart Media Solutions has sold its CoSTAR Radio Automation system into Wild FM, a regional radio network based in Amsterdam. ‘We evaluated a number of products for this project and the CoSTAR radio automation system offers a very good base automation product that enables us to develop our interactive systems and build the Wild FM brand,’ said Koen van Tijn, general manager, Wild FM Radio.

January/February 2005

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news

news THE BIG PICTURE • THOMSON HAS acquired The Moving Picture Company (MPC) from British broadcaster ITV, for UK£52.7 million. MPC, which is based in London’s Soho and employs around 400, is an industryleading provider of visual effects and postproduction services to the film and advertising industries. MPC will provide a strong complement to Technicolor’s Hollywood-based broadcast visual effects and Toronto-based VFX facilities. ‘We are delighted to be joining the Thomson/Technicolor family,’ said David Jeffers, MD of MPC. ‘The advantages of bringing together two organisations which are so focused on service and quality will be a huge benefit to our customers, and will help assure the success of our efforts going forward.’ Thomson has expanded its broadcast services activity with the addition of Corinthian Television Facilities in London. Corinthian is a leading broadcast television facilities companies providing live studios, graphics, video, audio production and postproduction and transmission playout to international broadcasters through long term contracts. • BROADBAND INTERNET in Europe has soared during 2004, according to the Broadband Subscriber Market Forecast: Europe report by Strategy Analytics. Nearly half of Internet households use broadband and the broadband subscriber base was predicted to reach 38 million households by the end of 2004 — a 61% increase over 2003. The leading broadband market today is the Netherlands, where 45% of homes had broadband by the end of 2004. Germany, Ireland and Greece have penetration rates below 20%. European Union countries currently make up the largest regional DSL population worldwide, adding more than 9.25 million subscribers in the first three quarters of this year, to reach 26.5 million, according to figures produced for the DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic. This represents growth of 53.5% and its total accounts for 31.1% of DSL global subscribers. ‘We can now see growth rates levelling off as leading countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong approach 30% market penetration,’ said Tim Johnson of Point Topic. ‘But there’s another cycle of growth still to come. We’ll see new broadband applications beginning to take hold, like voice and video that will drive the next cycle and then, in a year or two, broadband will be going into homes that have no interest in owning PCs or surfing the Internet.’

Biz bites

Apple announced iTunes music store sales topped 200 million, downloads are running at 793,650 per day, and UK artists like rapper Dizzee Rascal tell me they’re already seeing iTunes revenue on their royalty statements, writes Nigel Jopson. As hinted at in the business column in Resolution v3.1, UK distributor Vital:Pias has got into the online download business via a deal with iTunes Europe: all of the distributor’s indie music will now be sold through iTunes globally. This follows deals already struck with OD2, Sony Connect, Recordstore and Playlouder to supply tracks from high-credibility labels such as Domino, B-Unique, Global Underground and Southern Fried. And in December, Loudeye Corp announced a multiyear agreement with MTV to launch two new online music stores powered by OD2 services. Loudeye provides back-end server technology for Amazon.com’s music clips and earlier this year purchased OD2. Meanwhile Napster founder Shawn Fanning’s new company Snocap has signed the heavily-rumoured deal with Universal to deliver the major’s music ‘securely’ over P-to-P networks. Expect yawns from seasoned file-sharers and indifference from the great unwashed, the music industry has now kicked down the ladder on any option except Digital Rights Management. But to increase download sales, DRM needs to be properly explained, and leverage brought to bear on Microsoft and Apple to make their systems more interoperable. Perhaps the imminent inclusion of downloads in official charts will concentrate minds. The Chart Supervisory Committee has just approved inclusion of ringtones in the UK singles countdown for the first time. A new ‘Express Live’ system from The Harry Fox Agency will make US mechanical licensing for live concert CDs easier. Bands must submit playlists 15 days prior to the concert, with a grace period for spontaneous tracks. This will make life easier for groups like The Pixies, who deliver concert CDs to fans through DiscLive, with CD mementos available at the venue soon after the performance. These CDs could in future represent a significant income stream for artists. XM Satellite Radio may have a US subscriber base of more than 3 million by year end thanks to its agreement with General Motors. Rival Sirius has fought back, inking important contracts with dashboard

partners including Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Mazda, MercedesBenz, Nissan, Volkswagen, and Toyota. Massive subscriber increases in only 2 years prove listeners will pay to hear music playlists that improve on FM radio offerings. Hats off to Maxim Vengerov and the Smith Quartet for taking Steve Reich and Bach to Birkenau, staging an unusual musical memorial to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation — lest dreadful lessons of the past be forgotten.

Prof. Dr Fritz Sennheiser has been awarded a Diesel Medal award, which honours inventors and their enterprising work. Sennheiser is pioneer in the ﬁeld of radio frequency technology and electroacoustics and the founder of Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. ‘When I founded the company in 1945, I was an engineer through and

through,’ said Sennheiser. ‘As far as commercial issues and company management were concerned, I had to teach myself everything I know. Sometimes, I also had to learn from my own mistakes.’ The Diesel Medal Trust was established in 1952 by the son of the inventor of the diesel engine, Dr Eugen Diesel.

resolution

Kings Cross story on PMD670

The King’s Cross Voices Oral History Project in London has purchased five Marantz PMD670 solid state recorders to use in its 3-year project to build an oral record of life in the inner-city neighbourhood. ‘Originally, the Project intended to use MiniDisc systems but we were not happy about investing in technology that was a bit passé,’ said project coordinator Leslie McCartney. ‘We were also wary of the time and cost that we would incur if we had to digitise the material at a later date.’ The project records in MP2, switching to WAV for CD or into MP3 for the Internet.

Ray Dolby honoured Ray Dolby, founder and chairman of Dolby Laboratories, has accepted an honourary Fellowship to the Royal Academy of Engineering. The Academy, which aims to foster new engineers and supply the British government with advice, has elected 37 new fellows this year, of which three are Honourary Fellows. Apart from Ray Dolby, Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College London, and Sir Christopher Gent, deputy chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, have also received fellowships. ‘We invited Ray Dolby to become an honourary member in recognition of the invention of his ground-breaking noise reduction system, and also for his work in developing technologies that have become audio standards for the audio-visual industry. We are proud to have the founder of this international company join some of Britain’s brightest minds among the UK’s engineering elite,’ said president Lord Broers.

RTS Telex in Croatian deal

The Lisinski multifunction hall in the Croatian capital of Zagreb has been outﬁtted with EVI Audio equipment. The hall is used for concerts, conferences and theatrical productions. To cope with the communication requirements of the complex, the management invested in a Zeus matrix from Telex equipped with a variety of keypanels (2 x KP12+EKP20, KP12, MKP4). The matrix is linked up to three BTR-700 intercom systems for mobile use.

January/February 2005

news

WINDPAC. THE LIGHTER, MORE VERSATILE, SIMPLY BETTER WINDSHIELD.

· 50% lighter than competition · Unique collapsible windshield · Amazing audio transparency · Low handling noise

WINDPAC universal microphone windshield Check out the all-new WINDPAC and you’ll appreciate how fresh thinking provides a vastly-improved solution over conventional microphone windshield technology. Less than half the weight of its nearest competitor, WINDPAC utilizes a single universal shock mount to house all commonly used mics in single or dual configurations. The unique collapsible windshield simply clips into place, providing high resistance to wind. And, as you’d expect from a leader in microphone technology, low handling noise and audio transparency are standard.

SEE WINDPAC IN ACTION NOW! www.windpac.com DPA Microphones A/S, Ph.: +45 4814 2828 info@dpamicrophones.com www.dpamicrophones.com

news THE BIG PICTURE • THE STEERING BOARD of the Digital Radio Mondiale consortium has decided to bring a proposal to the DRM

Newcastle College equips £21m Performance Academy

API Legacy for Western Studio 3 at Cello

General Assembly to change the DRM Consortium Agreement to allow work to start on extending the DRM system to the frequency bands up to 120MHz. Currently, the DRM system covers the broadcasting bands below 30MHz. • BT IS CREATING a division called BT Entertainment within its Retail consumer business to drive BT’s broadband activities in entertainment and education. The new business will have a strategic brief to enable content providers to reach broadband customers through platforms and services backed by the BT brand. It will develop, license and bring to market content value added services such as on-demand music, gaming, TV and movies. The CEO will be Andrew Burke, currently director of value added services at BT Retail. He was previously CEO of eVerger and COO of eVentures. BT has also announced that Dan Marks, President of Universal Studios Networks UK, is to join to lead BT’s future interests in video-over-broadband services. • THERE WILL BE two billion mobile phones in use worldwide by 2006, according to Nokia, thanks to strong growth in highly populated countries,

Newcastle College in the UK has installed a selection of Mackie equipment in its new UK£21 million Performance Academy. The Academy has three performance venues, ten recording studios, a TV studio with pre and postproduction facilities and a radio station plus acting, music, dance, recording and media production facilities. Digital Village supplied the equipment, which includes two Mackie D8Bs two HDR24/96 hard disk recorders and ﬁve pairs of HD824 monitors. The studios are also equipped with Symetrix and TC reverbs/delays, Focusrite Mixmasters, Drawmer gates and compressors, Lexicon Multi FXs and AKA Prowave furniture. ‘When you are choosing equipment for an educational establishment it is vital that you take into account factors such as industry standards, ease of use, reliability and durability,’ said Tim Poolan, manager of the new Performance Academy. ‘The Mackie equipment we have chosen, particularly the D8B mixers, ﬁt our criteria perfectly because we know from previous experience that Mackie gear not only sounds great, but is also incredibly hard wearing.’

compared to around 1.6 billion subscriptions today. Previously, Nokia had forecast that this milestone would not be hit until 2008. • SYPHA HAS announced the 2004/2005 edition of its DAW Buyers Guide, which can be accessed, free of charge, at www.syphaonline.com. The guide has undergone a complete update. Each of the more than 300 product entries has been renewed, and the site layout has been improved. The Guide is described as the most comprehensive database of current professional digital audio workstation technology that exists in any medium. It covers every applicable product and all system types, including turnkey systems, desktop DAWs, audio cards/units, software packages, DAW controllers, disk-based multitracks and portable tapeless recorders.

Sphere and Isonic join forces for DVD After working together on numerous DVD projects, Sphere and Isonic have joined forces to set up a one-stop-shop for DVD production at Sphere Studios in London. By re-locating to Sphere, Isonic have completed the range of DVD production services on offer at the studio. The combination brings together a wealth of creative and technical (L-R) Ray Shulman, Simon Bohannon, Haley Glennie-Smith, Tom expertise. Tom Astor, Astor, Malcolm Atkin, Graham Carpenter, Francesco Cameli. formerly of Orinoco Studios, and Ray Shulman set up Isonic the rooms are the best in London, so we more than five years ago and have worked were very happy to move in,’ said Ray with artists such as Queen, Genesis and Phil Shulman of Isonic. Collins, all of whom have given them repeat ‘Isonic have produced some of the most business. Many of these projects were innovative DVDs that I have ever seen,’ mixed in 5.1 surround sound at Sphere. added Malcolm Atkin of Sphere. ‘I am ‘We have always encouraged our clients confident that our clients will appreciate to use Sphere for surround mixing because the benefits of our combined expertise.’

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An 80-channel API Legacy Plus with moving fader automation has been installed in Western Studio 3 at Cello Studios in Hollywood. The facility was once a part of the United Western Recorders complex established by industry legend Bill Putnam at the beginning of the 1960s. The installation combines the latest API technology with some of the company’s classic outboard components, including a rack of 550A mic pres. Thomas Johnson has installed a 48-input API Legacy Plus into his Effigy Studios in Detroit. ‘Twenty years ago, I started to get work recording bands around the Detroit area,’ recalled Johnson about the beginnings of his career. ‘I later got a job at a Boston studio, and then moved to New York. The whole time I was in New York I was looking to build a studio there until one Thanksgiving when I came back to Detroit. I happened to drive by a building for sale in a great area, stopped in, and bought it. Three years later, we finally have Effigy Studios coming together.’ Designed by Vantine/Guthrie Studio of Architecture, the 1400 square-foot studio features 17-foot ceilings in the main room with an isolation room and vocal booth. Recording engineer and producer Chris Phillips has selected a picturesque setting just north of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to build his dream recording facility, Cider Mountain Recorders. The studio is designed by Chris Pelonis and serves as ‘an all-inclusive recording retreat’ situated in 240 acres. ‘I wanted to give artists (and myself) the chance to get out of LA to get creative,’ said Philips. ‘And this area has so much to offer. We’re skiing in the winter and wakeboarding and fishing in the summer. Privacy, beauty, peace... it’s just a great place to make music. The hassle of the city doesn’t have to be part of the process, and many times works against it.’ Cider Mountain offers two control rooms, an editing suite, multiple flexible recording spaces, a collection of vintage recording gear and instruments, client accommodations, and a commercial kitchen. Studio A is fitted with a 64-input API Legacy Plus console, which replaces a Trident TSM that will be relocated in Studio B.

January/February 2005

news

Photos: Louis Ramon Austin

Forward Studios Studio builds traditionally sprout from previous studio connections and it is now rare to encounter a truly new enterprise. ZENON SCHOEPE travels to Rome to visit a genuine newcomer.

N A SOUTHERN suburb of Rome lies one of the nicest and, it has to be said, most ambitious studio build projects in Italy for a good many years. Operating one control room with a large accompanying live area at the time of my visit, owner Massimo Scarp aro is adding more rooms with another two expected to be functional shortly after you ﬁrst read this and another area planned to open in the summer. If the work to date is anything to go by, Massimo’s wish to put Forward Studios on the international recording map and to raise the ante in Italy looks fairly assured. It’s an unlikely site. Looking for all intents and purposes as a nicely refurbished period correct Roman Villa built on three levels, its sprawling basement area has been converted expertly into what will be a complex of rooms. The ﬂagship A room, called Caesar, will be joined by the Aurelius multifunctional room, 14

the Trianus multichannel digital control room and the Augustus pre and postproduction suite. Plans and building are advanced and I was able to inspect the isolation and ducting structures and the cut outs for the monitors in the work in progress. Massimo and his family lives above the complex and client accommodation is also being built on the site to supplement the high-end hotels that are situated within walking distance of the plot. All this in a facility that is 20 minutes to the Coliseum, very near to Ciampino airport, 25 minutes from the International Fiumicino airport and minutes away from the motorways that link to the rest of the country. Massimo has a background as a musician and gleaned his studio experience from production projects. To him, Forward is something of a dream but he can’t hide his belief that the complex could establish itself as a world player. He’s also a businessman, and a very resolution

January/February 2005

facility successful one. He’ll tell you that the studio will not represent a major source of income for him — he has made and continues to make his money in property management — but like all successful men he tells you that he’s driven by ambition and a passion for projects. They are the things he cares about and he wants to make a difference. Massimo also has impeccable taste and an eye for the finer things in life. You can see this in the landscaping of the plot, the elegance of his offices and his choice of equipment. The Caesar room, which opened in October, boasts Italy’s first AMS Neve 88R and the first installation of Genelec 1036s in a room that is multichannel with the use of a ‘mobile’ Genelec system. ‘To me Genelec represents the very best standard in monitors and reproducing sound. In the end it comes down to in fact that I really like them too,’ says Massimo. ‘I have a multichannel 1038 system planned for the Trianus room and we have 1031s and 1027s also available. For our clients we offer a variety of other nearfield monitors but for me Genelec remains the best and the world standard. I like the precision of them.’ There’s also a Gold Series final run Studer A827 and any variety of digital formats too. Aesthetics are important to him. Thus the 72-channel 88R is a semi-wrap configuration in a room that is impeccably finished and detailed. ‘It’s a functional and an aesthetic idea!’ he says. ‘It also makes the best use of the space in what is a 96sqm room so you can get a lot of people in there.’ Building started some four years ago and involved major restructuring of the villa. Acoustic design is by Guiseppe Zappata, who Massimo rates very highly. His designs are clearly to a high standard and are done properly. Zappata’s live room design was the product of his analysis of various recording situations and has resulted in a very large space that is also very flexible. It offers subtly different reverb characters throughout while also delivering four large and very usable booths. The control room is a work of art and one of the nicest spaces I have been in for a long time. Isolation

January/February 2005

is superb and is testament to the overengineering that has gone into the structure and the monitors sound simply fantastic. Outboard is in line with the choices of other top studios and the ubiquitous Pro Tools HD is in place with a ﬁne selection of exotic and rare instruments. Caesar would do justice to any scale of production. Massimo is still making decisions on the precise equipment choices for the rooms in progress but he is very exact about the functions that the rooms will perform. It’s the large area dedicated to the Aurelius room that clicks the pieces into place and reveals what Massimo is intent on achieving as it will sport a live production console as its centrepiece. The room’s position facilitates very easy loading-in enabling groups to use it as rehearsal and production area for live shows. What he is creating is a studio complex that could cater for all stages of a group’s production needs. The preproduction for the album, recording and mixing of the album, the mixing of the DVD and rehearsals and production work for the live show. He’s thought it out. He has on-site technical support but no house engineer, as his intended international clients are likely to bring their own. He knows a lot of engineers and between them they have a wide range of contacts with engineers and producers around the world. It’s how word of mouth starts. ‘Forward Studios is a new type of studio for Italy,’ he says. ‘It was not previously possible to ﬁnd rooms here that are as good as those in the best international studios in the world. I’ve always thought that it would be a good idea to build something like this.’ Bearing in mind the way that the studio industry has concentrated on consolidation in recent years, you’ve got to ask what he is doing building a brand new top-end complex at this point in time. What does he know that no one else does? ‘I suppose I’m a little crazy but I have a passion for this business and I believe that there is room for an international standard studio like this when you look at the global resolution

market,’ he explains. ‘The Italian market is not of primary interest to me. There is never a best time to build a place like this but it is always a good time to build top quality.’ He’s aiming high and believes he will also have the high-end market in Italy to himself. It’s a beautiful place, with smashing views, a great position, enormous character and an outstanding level of technology and build. His new rooms will combine to offer an unusual combination of facilities. One of the Caesar’s ﬁrst jobs was the mixing of an Andrea Boccelli project. I am really looking forward to watching progress at what will undoubtedly be Italy’s premiere facility. ■ Outboard — Lexicon 480, TC Electronics System 6000, MXR Flanger, Eventide DSX H3000, Eventide DSP H4000, TC Electronics 2290 (2), AMS 1580, Lexicon PCM70 (2), Lexicon PCM81, Sony DPS-V77, Yamaha SPX 90, Yamaha SPX 900, AMS RMX16, Yamaha DEQ5, GML 8200, Millennia Media STT1 (2), Manley Massive Passive, dbx 120 XP, SPL De Esser (2), SPL Transient Designer, GML 8900, Neve 33609 (2), Summit DCL 200, Urei 1178, Urei LA4, Empirical Labs Distressor (2), Empirical Labs Fatso, dbx 160a (2), API 550 PEQ (3), Focusrite ISA 130 (2), AMS Neve 1081, GML 8302, API 550 pre (2), Focusrite ISA 110 (2). Microphones — AKG C12, C414 (2), C451 (4), D12E (2), Audio-Technica 4050 (2), B&K 4009 (2), Beyerdynamic M88TG (2), Blue Bottle, Blue Mouse, Electrovoice EV PL20, Neumann KM143 (2), KM184 (2), M149 (2), TLM 103, U69, U87 AI (2), Schoeps CMC6 (2), Sennheiser 509, Blackﬁre (6), MD421 (4), Shure Beta68 (4), SM57 (8), SM58 (8).

Contact FORWARD STUDIOS, ROME, ITALY: Website: www.forwardstudios.com Tel: 069 454 6481

gear

Products Equipment introductions and announcements plus news on Digidesign and Steinberg.

TWO NEW SOLID STATE PORTABLES Marantz has launched two solid state recorders. The PMD671 builds on the PMD670 and shares a similar technological specification but has additions aimed at highend broadcast users. Among the features is 19-96kHz sample rate selection and 16-384 bit rate selection. With a 2-second delay, the PMD671 allows read-after-write monitoring and time shift during playback. Its screen is back-lit in and there are mic and line XLR inputs plus NiCad and NiMH battery power. Offering MP3, MP2, BWF, WAV formats, the PMD671 has 40 assignable quality settings and a FAT32 File Allocation Table. It has a computer I-O connection for file transfer. The small PMD660 records in MP3, WAV, and BWF formats with a single MP3 bitrate setting of 128kbps stereo/64kbps mono, and 44.1 and 48kHz sample rates. It will record to microdrive or Compactflash cards and has an EDL marking system for creating new files onthe-fly during recording. A voice activated recording mode can be selected and the unit has USB for downloading to PC/Mac, a built-in mic plus a balanced XLR mic input with switchable phantom. The unit can be mains or battery powered. www.d-mpro.eu.com

OXFORD RESTORATION TOOLS Sony has released the Oxford Restoration Tools bundle of three plug-ins. DeClick, DeBuzz and DeNoise take care of four processes in audio restoration since the DeClick plug-in combines the removal of clicks and the removal of pops. According to the company, unlike other de-clickers it is able to remove large pops and clicks and tiny crackles all with one plug-in. The DeBuzz plug-in has two modes (strong and weak) to minimise signal damage and is able to track automatically any slow drift in the fundamental buzz frequency. The DeNoise plug-in can automatically track noise in Auto mode but can also provide traditional Noise Fingerprint capture. There is also a MidSide button for de-noising FM broadcasts and a Soft control for reducing artefacts when working with heavy noise. The three-plug-in RTAS bundle is available for Mac and Windows Pro Tools systems. www.sonyplugins.com

Platform news: Digidesign The audio and MIDI feature set in Pro Tools has been expanded in 6.7 to deliver tempo-dependent audio placement, tempo-dependent automation, graphic tempo editing, precise control of meter changes, MIDI step input, enhanced support for instrument plug-ins, MIDI Detective, and Beat Detective LE. Pro Tools 6.7 also brings true cross-platform parity for simplified session transfer with major MIDI functionality enhancements to Windows. Pro Tools 6.7 enhances the feature set with features specifically designed for music composers. New support for RTAS instruments on TDM Aux inputs provides better instrument plug-in integration, session organisation, and LE/TDM session interoperability. Support for multiple plug-in outputs enables mixing and processing of individual sound sources from instrument plug-ins. MIDI Detective functionality allows generation of tempo maps and groove templates directly from ‘free’ MIDI performances while Beat Detective LE allows Pro Tools LE users to take advantage of many of the TDM Beat Detective features. Drawing and editing of tempo curves is facilitated through the Tempo Editor panel while flexible tempo curves, global insertion/deletion of time, and auto-editing of data when changing meter are now available through the new Tempo and Time Operations windows. An Undo History window enables you to return to previous stages of a session.There’s also enhanced Windows interoperability with legacy Macintosh sessions — open and convert older SD II-based sessions in one step. MassivePack 3, recently released for Mac OS X, is now also available for Windows XP-based Pro Tools|HDseries systems. MassivePack 3 is a powerful plug-in bundle that includes some of the most coveted plug-ins from Bomb Factory, Digidesign, Eventide, Line 6, Massenburg DesignWorks, McDSP, Sony, SoundToys, and Trillium Lane Labs. The MassivePack Pro 3 bundle includes a Pro Tools|HD Accel card along with all of the MassivePack 3 plug-ins. www.digidesign.com

NEXUS BOARD AND CAS REMOTE Stagetec’s XDA+ is an 8-channel D-A convertor board for its Nexus audio router. Compared to the 4-channel XDA board and its XDA-F version (producing higher output levels) the new board has improved performance. The dynamic range has been increased from 126dB(a) to 132dB(a) while latency has been lowered from 0.6 to less than 0.2 milliseconds. The maximum output level of 24dBu now exceeds the current studio standard of 22dBu supported by the previous XDA version. The power dissipation loss is just 5 Watts for 8 channels instead of 4 Watts for 4 channels as in the previous XDA board. A new remote controller for the CAS Mix digital mixing console allows control via Wireless LAN or a cable network. Two panels provide eight faders plus a master fader, all of which are freely configurable, and there are eight control layers for accessing 64 channels. Group conﬁguration and channel assignment for the controller is via control software running on the main console or from a laptop integrated into the network. www.stagetec.com

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NEW AT2020 Audio-Technica’s AT2020 sidefiring, fixed cardioid phantom powered studio condenser mic features a custom engineered, low mass diaphragm, that claims extended frequency response and high SPL handling. Supplied with a pivoting, threaded standmount and a protective carrying pouch, the AT2020 is 6.38 inches long and 2.05 inches in diameter. www.audio-technica.co.uk

BROADCAST MASTER STEREO DISPLAY DK-Technologies’ MSD100C Master Stereo Display is aimed at broadcast and uses a simple user interface with very few pushbuttons and three presets to choose from — two PPMs analogue input mode, two PPMs digital input mode, and four PPMs analogue and digital mode. It has a colour VGA screen and comes with two audio input pairs — one stereo analogue and one AES-3 digital. It accepts up to 96kHz on the digital input and has 24-bit A-D. The meter incorporates a Goniometer and a phasemeter. www.dk-technologies.com

January/February 2005

gear TRANSFORMERLESS 4006 DPA has released the 4006TL, which builds on the characteristics and qualities of the original while being equipped with a state-of-theart, transformerless preamp and 48V phantom power. The transformerless design of the 4006-TL removes the risk of saturation at high levels of low frequencies, giving an extended low-frequency handling capability (10Hz to 20kHz +/-2dB). Applications include AB stereo pairing for symphonic concert hall recordings, close miking on instruments such as grand piano, guitar, double bass and percussion, and speech and vocals. Seven different frequency responses and directional characteristics can be obtained from a 4006TL by using acoustic modiﬁcation accessories. www.dpamicrophones.com

VINTAGE MODULE RACKMOUNTING Because of the huge demand for vintage audio especially in Scandinavia, Benelux and the UK, HE Studiotechnik in Germany is now concentrating completely on selling, restoring and reanimating/ rackmount vintage audio equipment. It offers more than ten different standard rackmounts for classic modules and offers custom solutions for any modules on the market. He Studiotechnik rackmounts offer HE-designed internal PSUs with lower interference, 48V ramped phantom power that doesn`t harm transformers, 220V voltage regulation for correct heating voltage in tube modules, and engraved frontplates. HE also has a large selection of classic outboard and

vintage microphones. www.hestudiotechnik.de

SPIKE SHIPS Mackie’s Spike powered recording system is now shipping. It includes the hardware and software necessary to add 24-bit 96kHz production to a Mac or PC and comes with a Mackie XD-2 USB audio/MIDI interface and Tracktion audio recording and MIDI sequencing software. The XD-2 has two mic preamps, SPDIF I-O, MIDI I-O, stereo monitor outputs and front panel headphone jack and level control. On-board processing includes 4-band parametric EQ, a compressor/limiter and a gate/expander. www.mackie.com

AUDIENT MIXER WITH DAW CONTROL

Audient’s ACS8024 is described as a high resolution mixing console with an integrated hardware control surface that combines the sound and feature mix of the ASP8024 with an additional Command 8 bay ﬁtted for Pro Tools control. The worksurface has been shown with a 15-inch TFT display (17-inch is possible) and a keyboard and mouse. This model also sports black walnut side cheeks, armrest and top trim, with US-style knobs and caps. Control of other workstations, such as Nuendo and Logic Audio, is possible with the Mackie Control version, which ﬁts into the same bay. The ACS8024 comes in 36, 48 and 60-channel frame sizes. www.audient.co.uk

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gear AUDIONICS CONTROL AND MONITORING Additions to the Audionics range of Internet control and monitoring products include the CL10IP and the eXP16. The CL10IP is a ten-output mains switching unit, which can be controlled by local logic inputs or remotely via LAN/WAN. It is suited to interfacing software controlled studio equipment, such as digital desks or playout systems, to mains signal lamps, such as Mic Live, On Air, Tel Call, etc. The eXP16 is a logic to IP interface unit in which 16 logic inputs can be remotely monitored and 16 logic outputs can be controlled via LAN/WAN. Up to eight clients can connect to the unit and any changes to the logic input status are broadcast to all connected clients. Both units have a simple IP control protocol enabling users to develop their own software or interface it into existing software packages. Audionics also supplies a Windows GUI program. www.audionics.co.uk

REASON V3.0 Version 3.0 of Reason includes features that Propellerhead believes will make it a strong alter native to the hardware workstation synthesiser for composing, producing or live playing. A new module, the Combinator, allows users to build elaborate chains of Reason devices instruments, effects, pattern sequencer and Save As a Combi patch. With its ability to load-up complex instruments routed through effect units and dynamic processors in one go, the Combinator is described as an extremely performance friendly device. Other features include out-of-the-box integration with most major control surfaces, an expanded soundbank with increased focus on providing a wide palette of multisampled instruments, and a new browser. Mclass is a mastering suite with a 4-band parametric and shelving EQ, a stereo processor, a compressor and a maximiser with look-ahead limiter. www.propellerheads.se

SLS RIBBON MONITORS Incorporating Evenstar SigmaDelta digital amp technology, the PS8R from SLS Loudspeakers offers the S8R ribbon equipped reference monitor as a standalone, bi-amplified nearfield monitor system. The Evenstar technology lowers distortion (both harmonic a n d i n t e r- m o d u l a t e d ) , increases bandwidth and improves noise performance over traditional amplifier technologies, according to the company. The low frequency amp delivers 180W to the 8-inch woofer with an integral phase plug, while the high frequency ampliﬁer yields 40W to drive the PRD500 5-inch ribbon driver. A dispersion angle of 120 degrees horizontal and 30 degrees vertical is claimed. www.slsloudspeakers.com

Platform news: Steinberg Cubase SL3 is being billed as ‘technologically probably the most advanced software in its price class’ and is aimed at those who do not need Cubase SX3 functions, such as surround production or full score layout and printing. New features include the next-generation Audio Warp engine, which offers import of Acid ﬁles and timestretching and pitchshifting in real-time that free SL3 from the limitations of tempi; audio can now automatically follow almost any tempo set for a project in real-time. The Play Order Track feature offers new tools for pattern-style composers and additionally allows checking of alternative song arrangements. A new Pre-Record feature automatically records up to 10 minutes of audio. The Workspace concept allows layouts to be created for each step of the production process that can be recalled on a button press while user colour coding increases visibility and clarity. Featuring the talents of the programming team behind Virtual Guitarist and Groove Agent, Virtual Bassist provides a wide range of bass guitar phrases, sounds and styles. Using dynamic phrases based on real performances by top studio bass players, Virtual Bassist offers 25 styles with intros, ﬁlls and variations. GrooveMatch can mould the bass line to any existing drum groove. www.steinberg.net

TOOLBOX TRINITY The Audio Toolbox Trinity series retain the ease of use and multifunction nature of the Audio Toolbox, the Studio Toolbox and Audio Toolbox Plus while offering new features and capabilities at a more affordable price. Features include an enhanced graphic user interface, twice the DSP power of previous models, an onboard USB audio preamp with digital I-O, dual phantom-powered mic preamps created by Grace Design, an RS-232 port and 164x64 LCD monochrome or a 240x320 colour transﬂective screen. The secure digital card slot on the colour Toolbox offers 2 hours of audio storage at 24-bit/96k for ﬁeld recording or playback. When used in conjunction with surround setup waveform cards, the Toolbox can be used to setup and calibrate 5.1 and 7.1 surround systems. www.Terrasonde.com

DELEC VOICE OVER IP Delec has introduced a prototype of a voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriber unit for its Oratis digital intercom system that connects via a computer network and addresses using Internet Protocol. This approach allows the VoIP subscriber unit to be positioned anywhere in the world and still provides the same functionality as a traditionally connected unit. In combination with the PC subscriber unit introduced last summer, a journalist’s notebook computer can serve as a subscriber unit — the computer needs a headset, Oratis PC Talk software, and the VoIP module. Connection is then established using a standard Internet link. www.delec.com

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COMPACT DUAL 7-INCH WIDESCREEN LCD The Panoramadtv RM-3270W is a dual 7-inch composite LCD monitor in a 3u that is only 3.7-inches deep. RM series units offer two composite video inputs per screen, a highly adjustable front panel angle, and tri-colour tally lights. Users can opt to upgrade to SDI on purchase or as a retroﬁt by plugging a SDI module into the rear of the unit. www.wohler.com

NAUTILUS MONITORING AND MIXING The Nemo DMC-8 monitor controller from Nautilus offers discrete Class A circuitry and is more than a simple source-switcher. It solves problems when engineers need to compare their mixes with tone-accurate (not level-dominated) references. The precise level-matching A-B functionality and VU meters on the DMC-8 allow you to accurately gauge mixes with commercial releases. The unit has buttons to select a stereo bus output from a console or DAW, two balanced 2-track returns and a third 2-track return on phono. Each 2-track return has it’s own precision volume control. Pushbuttons select Mono, Mute, Dim (with front level control), and Speaker B (with front level control). The Commander discrete stereo mixer sums 12 channels for DAW users who want to integrate analogue gear into mixes. Mastering-style functions include separate LR mutes (followed by the mono feature to maintain better sonic orientation) and VU meters with range control. The unit has eight analogue pan and mute controls plus four dedicated LR inputs. With 4-way stereo insert functions, the Commander can switch from the 8-channel mixing section to an auxiliary Stereo B source that can serve as an aux bus-to-mix function. www.nautiluspro.com

January/February 2005

gear MLAN CARD The 24-bit/96kHz compatible MY16-mLAN provides all the interface hardware and connections needed to link a Yamaha 02R96 or 01V96 digital mixer to an mLAN network. Multiple channels of digital audio and multiple ports of MIDI can be transmitted and controlled through a FireWire cable. With the MY16-mLAN, you get 16 channels of audio I-O. Bundled mLAN Patchbay software provides convenient audio and MIDI signal routing on Mac and XP. The DME24N and DME64N digital mixing engines offer increased DSP power and the ability to control the system from Ethernet, USB, RS232/422 or MIDI, backed up by improved DME Designer programming and control software. The Riedel Artist 1D is a ﬁbre optic-based, long-haul cable

solution for the Yamaha PM1D mixer that was developed and manufactured by Riedel and produced in collaboration with, and distributed solely by, Yamaha. Yamaha’s DM2000V2, DM1000V2, 02R96V2 and MSP10Studio are now THX pm3 approved. www.yamaha.com

NETSTAR CODEC

BUZZ ARC AND MPE

CCS Musicam’s Netstar IP/ ISDN based audio codec can send and receive full ﬁdelity, real-time stereo audio via ISDN, dedicated data lines and IP. NetStar contains standard coding algorithms, like G.711, G.722, MPEG 1 and 2 Layer 2 and MPEG 1 and 2 Layer 3, and also the latest MPEG 2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and MPEG 4 AAC-Low Delay. NetStar can connect bi-directionally via IP with uncompressed linear audio and near-zero delay. It has full ISDN compatibility and full IP compatibility with automatic recognition of the calling codec and comes with its own built-in web server for remote control from any web browser. www.sonifex.co.uk

B u z z A u d i o ’s ARC1.1 analogue recording channel combines a mic/line preamp, a 5-band EQ, optical compressor and FET peak limiter into a 2u. With all the connection and routing options available, the ARC may be used as a separate mic preamp, DI box, EQ and compressor/limiter (optionally with sidechain EQ), all at the same time. The MPE1.1 mono parametric EQ incorporates a modiﬁed version of the company’s ARC EQ section and can be ﬁtted with optional Sowter input and output transformers. www.buzzaudio.com

GREAT NEWS FROM START TO FINISH

bsyo up ne do pel ne g w i nheoe rci an rge

We are proud to introduce two new additions to our Tube-Tech line of all tube-based studio equipment

LIPINSKI MIC PRES Lipinski Sound L-408 and L-409 microphone preamps offer four ways of adjusting gain: a three-position pad, two transformer ratios, and separate gain controls for the first and second electronic stages re p re s e n t e d b y t w o meters. The L-408 and L-409 pres offer two different low-turn ratio transformers. One has a 200kHz bandwidth and an acceptable input level of up to +16dBu. The other has an 80kHz bandwidth and an acceptable input level of up to +29dBu. The preamps have two amplifying stages. The first stage is built on discrete transistors and has Class A circuitry with minimal negative feedback, and with a separate unbalanced output. The second stage uses the fastest available current feedback integrated amplifiers and has a balanced output. Very low output impedance allows for very long cable runs. www.lipinskisound.com

MMC 1A

START HERE Microphone Preamplifier & Multiband Compressor Full-blown microphone pre-amplifier with outstanding sonic properties. An additional direct instrument input as well as a separate line input completes the frontend. The 3-band optical compressor is designed to maintain optimum summing of all three bands with a remarkably flat frequency response. • Mic. Gain in 1 dB and 10 dB steps • Selectable mic. impedance • Optical gain reduction elements • Low, Mid, High Output Gain: off to +10 dB • Master Output Gain: off to +10 dB

Stereo Summing Amplifier This new 16+4->2 channel down-mixing unit targets the critical mastering process. Sonically it easily outperforms the quality of digital audio workstations and even betters the performance of mixing amplifiers built into the most high-end of analoque consoles. • 8 stereo + 4 mono inputs, 1 stereo output • 23-step gold plated output gain control • Master Output Gain: -10 dB to +10 dB • Fully symmetrical circuitry from input to output • Low noise: < -90 dBU

FINISH HERE

SSA 2A

SONY SHOTGUN Sony’s ECM-678 shotgun mic measures 9.9-inches in length and will work with most professional cameras and camcorders. It comes with a range of accessories including a windscreen, holder, spacer and carrying case. www.sony.com/professional

January/February 2005 19

LYDKRAFT

Mose Allé 20 • 2610 Rødovre • Denmark • www.tube-tech.com

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gear TOTAL RECALL FOR AWS 900 SSL has announced the addition of Total Recall as an option for the AWS 900. It provides the ability to memorise the position of analogue pots and switches for manual reset. All electronically latching switches, such as channel bus and dynamics routing, can be automatically reset, as can the positions of the motorised faders. Total Recall set-ups can be stored in the host workstation as MIDI System Exclusive data. Version 2 software for the C200 increases the console’s capacity to 128 in-line channels by adding more Channel DSP cards to the Centuri Core. Higher channel counts, with full EQ, ﬁlters and dynamics signal processing, support larger productions with capacity for virtual premixing and processing of stem returns. A new option for the C200’s multitrack bus structure enables 24 buses to be accessible from large and small fader paths simultaneously. This feature signiﬁcantly increases the stem mixing power of the console, with the ability to route to a total of 36 mix buses (12 main plus 24 multitrack) from up to 256 potential channel inputs. www.solid-state-logic.com

V4.0 FOR VIP

BELDEN TRUCK COAX

Version 4.0 software for the VIP/digital Voice Processor from Yellowtec offers new functions and detail enhancements. The operation and external conﬁguration of the processor using VIPremote software is now simpler. A new limiter and AGC module with adjustable maximum gain provide reliable level control and the number of internally stored presets has been doubled to 100. Two new data formats have simpliﬁed the handling of stored settings. A GPI-controlled Input Mute allows easy control from a cough switch and the software provides new monitoring functions for control of data transmission between the PC and VIP/digital. V4.0 software is available for free download. www.yellowtec.com

8-CHANNEL PLUGZILLA

RESOLUTION AUDIO ELECTRONICS

CLEAR-COM’S CELLCOM C l e a r- C o m ’s C e l l C o m digital wireless intercom system is described as the first integrated licence free digital wireless intercom system to have been developed. The system consists of an intelligent base station that interconnects with wired communications, going beyond typical wireless party-line or even two-channel capability, with one-to-one and group conversations initiated from a belt pack. www.autograph.co.uk

Belden has added an RG-179 Type Coaxial cable to its Brilliance line of broadcast cables. Brilliance DigiTruck 179DT lightweight, precision video coaxial cable is designed speciﬁcally for use in mobile TV broadcast trucks where equipment load-weight is a prime concern and space in the truck is scarce. It claims high quality, reliable performance in analogue, SDI, HDTV and AES-EBU. In comparison to standard Mini RG-59/U type coaxes, DigiTruck 179DT weighs 60% less and requires up to 40% less space. Standard Mini RG-59/U type coaxes have a nominal OD of 0.159 inches; the 179DT has a nominal OD of 0.100 inches. www.belden.com

Manifold Labs’ Plugzilla now ships with 8 channels of audio I-O, additional software features, and a lower price tag. This gives users a path to surround sound and the ability to process more channels from a single location. The ‘Limited Edition’ offers tap tempo, more efficient CPU utilisation, improved routing, and slot solo. The list price of the Limited Edition Plugzilla is US$2995. www.plugzilla.com

PHASE FOR MAC TOO TerraTec Producer’s external Audio Interface Phase 24 FW now also supports the Mac platform with drivers downloadable from the TerraTec website. The interface has two balanced analogue I-Os, digital and MIDI I-O plus FireWire. The package comes with Traktor DJ software from Native Instruments and Steinberg’s WaveLab Lite. www.terratec.com

Resolution Audio Electronics’ ResoPre873 is based on analogue, discrete, Class-A mic preamp circuits and transformers. Control comes from computer, digital console, control surface or a remote unit as there are no knobs on the device. The ResoPre-873 2u has 8-channels of I-O with an optional digital output card. The planned DiPre-73 will come in one and two channel packages. The single channel device will be a standalone, desktop-type module in a metal chassis that uses vintage parts. www.axidistribution.com

BEYER CANS Created for DJs, Beyer’s DJX-1 headphones are described as lightweight, comfortable, and the ear cups swivel to the side. www.beyerdynamic.co.uk

the daddy. 2 channel JFET/tube stereo bus compressor .

C O M

Te l : + 4 4 ( 0 ) 1 9 2 4 3 7 8 6 6 9

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January/February 2005

gear TECHNICAL FURNITURE Module-R is an addition to the Custom Consoles range of technical furniture. Module-R technical control desks can be tailored to individual requirements from a range of desk pods, base sections, worktops, rear tops, end-panel modules and forward-angled silverpainted steel legs. The desk pods are available as single, dual and triple-bay sections with a choice of 3u, 6u or 8u chassis capacity. Cabinet construction is in grey-ﬁnished MDF with hard-wearing Linoleum worksurfaces. Cable management ducts are integrated into all desk sections. www.customconsoles.co.uk

MATRIX DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR BROADCAST Studio Matrix Designer V2.0 software for the Symetrix AirTools Studio Matrix series of audio DSP allows creation of signal pathways and provides a control interface for realtime adjustment of audio parameters. The software includes a toolkit for audio processing and manipulation. Virtual versions of real audio devices, such as mixers, matrix mixers, parametric and graphic equalisers, compressor/limiters, automatic gain controllers, and duckers, are available by dragging them out onto the software’s grid area. Once the desired modules are in place, audio pathways are created between them by drawing lines onscreen and connecting inputs to outputs. www.symetrixaudio.com

9-INCH TFT

Kroma Telecom has shown a 9-inch TFT monitor with what it claims is the widest view angle on the market of 85º horizontally and vertically. The LM5009A11 offers a solution for those looking to save space and power consumption but don’t want to sacriﬁce quality. Its increased XGA resolution (1024x768) delivers 16 million colours, 400cd/m2 luminance, 400:1 contrast or 50k-hour-long light bulb life. It has ﬁve inputs: two analogue (PAL/NTSC/SECAM), two digital (10-bit SDI, according to ITU and SMPTE) and one PC connection. It automatically detects when the video input is PAL, NTSC or SECAM and can extract the embedded audio and output it as analogue or digital (AES-EBU). www.kromatelecom.com

Rory Kaplan Brazilian Bossa Brazilian Romance David Alan

Ian Nelson Placebo

Dave Bracey Robbie Williams The Cure

John Pellowe

Simon Osborne Sting

Jim Ebdon Sting Annie Lennox Aerosmith

Dave Roden Stereophonics

‘Big’ Mick Hughes Metallica Slipknot

world class engineers...

Nathaniel Kunkel Sting Crosby & Graham Nash Lyle Lovett Fuel

SONIC DVD SOLUTIONS Sonic Solutions’ SD-series Encoder 3.0, Sonic eDVD3, DVD Producer 4.5, and DVD Producer — WMV HD Edition — are intended to increase the efficiency and capability of the DVD authoring process. The scalable solutions permit users to start producing titles incorporating the next generation of High Definition-based formats. The new SD-1000 and SD-2000 encoders bring cinematic quality MPEG video to Windows. eDVD 3 adds web and DVD-ROM links to DVD titles created by the majority of authoring applications available today. DVD Producer 4.5 is latest version of Sonic’s DVD authoring application, which now includes dual-layer (DVD-9) title production and compatibility with the new DVD+R double-layer DVDrecordable drives. DVD Producer — WMV HD Edition — is the first authoring system for creating HD titles on DVD using WMV high-definition technology. www.sonic.com

January/February 2005 21

Pavarotti

Chuck Ainley Mark Knopfler George Strait Vince Gill Trisha Yearwood

Moray J. McMillin Deep Purple

. . . who chose to specify audio-technica microphones when working with world class artists. Why not create your own world class performance by joining the ever increasing number of A-T users creating professional sound?

world class microphones

Technica House, Royal London Industrial Estate, Old Lane, Leeds LS11 8AG Tel: +44 (0)113 277 1441 Fax: +44 (0)113 270 4836 e-mail: sales@audio-technica.co.uk Web: www.audio-technica.co.uk

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review

SADiE BB2J Answering the call of new market directions is not just about price, it is also about serving the requirement. It’s small, blue, smart and even sensuous according to ROB JAMES.

IGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATIONS have a very short history, in practical reality, less than 20 years. Over the years a slew of manufacturers turned their attention to this new growth area. A few grew rapidly while many others equally swiftly fell from grace. A reliable and wellsupported product is one of the keys to success and longevity, listening to the users is another. But, by themselves, these are insufficient to guarantee continued success. There is a third, equally important, factor — keeping one jump ahead. By this I do not simply mean one jump ahead of the competition but, far more importantly, one jump ahead of the customers. Slavishly following the dictates of the ‘wish list’ will never produce true innovation. Without ‘blue sky’ thinking, the DAW might never have been invented in the first place. SADiE produced its first DAW in 1992, which makes it a veteran manufacturer by the standards of this market. Success has been achieved by following the key factors. Today, SADiE has a large and loyal worldwide following, especially in radio and mastering. The BB2 and BB2J are aimed squarely at radio and represent a departure for SADiE, one of those ‘missing link’ jumps in thinking. At fist glance the BB2J is desirable, and that’s even before you know what it is and does. There is rightness about the look and feel that puts a smile on the face and a hand on the chequebook. It looks for all the world like a ‘SADiE blue’, 9-button trackball with the ball replaced by a jog wheel. If it was just this, it would be desirable enough but it is a lot more than a simple hardware controller. The diminutive exterior conceals stereo audio I-O and Sharc DSP. Used with a suitable laptop or desktop PC, 22

the BB2J is a complete workstation. Three versions are offered. The BB2 lacks the jog wheel and buttons of its sibling, but comes with simple and quick BB2 software at UK£645 plus VAT. The BB2J with BB2 software is UK£945 plus VAT or, for more proﬁcient operators and situations that require more than simple editing the BB2J can be speciﬁed as the Sadie PCM2, at UK£1995 plus VAT with SADiE PCM V5.X software. This will be immediately familiar to SADiE users and opens up the

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BB2J to a wide range of optional plug-ins, even the CEDAR processors such as Retouch. At the front, the long black key toggles playback/stop and the rest of the keys fall easily to hand. The weighted jog wheel is positively sensuous (Steady Rob. Ed). Once I managed to tear my fingers away, a cursory examination of the rear panel revealed the I-O arrangements. Four phonos for stereo analogue input and output, with the latter doing double duty as SPDIF/AES-EBU I-O, 3.5mm jacks for stereo mic and headphones, a 4-pin USB socket and a 5V DC power socket. The BB2 software offers a simplified SADiE editing interface with a single window for recording and editing. There are a maximum of 8 tracks with level control, pan and master output level controls. You can record new material via the line or mic inputs, rip CDs without drama and import files in a variety of uncompressed and compressed formats. Editing is normal cut/copy and paste and Playlist and Region editing functions are supported. There is no ‘mixer’ window or automation to complicate life but, if you haven’t looked at SADiE software for a while, there are some useful innovations carried over from the full version. A rather fetching ‘yellow duck’ icon opens the Region duck window. Using this dialog, the level of a previously defined region can de dropped or ‘ducked’ — for example, if you need to lower music under a speech cue. The dialog enables you to set the amount of attenuation and the transition time and to select which streams are to be ducked. Much quicker and easier to do than describe and ideal for relative novices. Once set up, a single keystroke ducks a selected region using the same parameters. Next to the Duck icon you will find a cartoon speech bubble. This opens the Speech Edit window. Speech Edit performs two basic functions. It can ‘chop up’ a selected clip either by simply putting cuts wherever the analysis determines there is a transition from silence to sound (spliced edit) or by removing the sections identified as silence (Gated Edit). The second function alters the length of the silent sections to produce time compression/expansion or ‘scrunch’. If Gated Edit is chosen, compression and expansion are possible. With Spliced Edit only time compression can be applied (by automatically shortening the tail of

January/February 2005

review each of the generated clips). The dialog allows you to switch between Gated and Spliced Edits, set minimum clip and gap lengths, set the scrunch ratio from 0.5 through unity to 2.0 times and adjust the Gate on and off thresholds. The result can be placed on a new track or written back to the current Playlist. With careful adjustment, the Speech Edit function can make the more tedious aspects of speech editing a lot less of a chore. Playlist and region editing offer a subset of the full SADiE armoury of tools, easy to learn and productive once learnt. With editing completed, the Mix Program window enables the results to be mixed down — either in preparation for burning the files to CD, producing Master files for storage on a server or Playout system, or to bounce clips into a single entry in the Playlist. This is the equivalent of Bounce in the full SADiE software, but simpler. Once files have been prepared for CD writing, you use the CD writing software on the PC or Windows Media Player on Windows XP to actually burn the disk. The entire Playlist can be rendered as a single track or each yellow clip group in the Playlist can become a single CD track. If the edit needs further work, such as EQ, effects, automation, or needs to be integrated into a larger project then the entire BB2 project can be imported into a machine running a full version of the SADiE software, which could easily be the BB2J with SADiE V5. SADiE’s radio experience really shows in this product. Based on short acquaintance during this review, I reckon untrained, but computer literate, journalists and producers should be able to produce simple items after only a few hours instruction and practice, certainly far less time than learning to edit tape... The BB2-J Button Key window interactively illustrates the button functions to aid familiarisation. Thoughtful management tools help make the BB2J even more effective in multi-operator environments. For example, the BB2J buttons can be locked to the default set of commands. This guarantees every machine will work in the same way. Alternatively, via the BB2 Configurable Hotkey plug-in, custom assignments may be made by an administrator or free customisation by every user can be enabled. Although leveraging the company’s not inconsiderable experience in radio, the BB2 and BB2J represent something of a new direction for SADiE. A rinky-dink external controller/processor/audio interface/dongle is a very interesting move for a company best known for complete turnkey systems. It demonstrates a fine appreciation of where the market is heading and a determination to be part of that future. I suspect it may prove to be one of the best things SADiE has done for a long time. If it can repeat the ‘jumping ahead’ trick with similar diligence for other applications, I expect to hear a lot more from SADiE in the near future. No one involved in specifying editing equipment for radio production can afford to ignore the BB2J.

PROS

First of a new species; excellent jog; productivity.

CONS

Indicator LEDs for the buttons might be nice; price may seem high to people who don’t understand what they are getting.

Contact SADiE, UK: Website: www.sadie.com Tel: +44 1353 648888

January/February 2005

Retouch V3 for SADiE

HEN I FIRST looked at Retouch V1, some 18 months ago, I was more than a little impressed. At long last, here was a tool that intelligently addressed the removal of recorded problems such as chair creaks, coughs, mobile phones and similar fairly long duration disturbances. All previous alternative approaches share a common defect. The original material including the desirable parts is lost. Retouch is a time and frequency space editor. It moves sections of audio, precisely defined in time and frequency range, from one place to another. When a range is defined in SADiE, and the Retouch button pressed, the audio is copied and opened in the Retouch window. When Retouching of this section of the project is completed, pressing the OK button writes it back to SADiE and closes the Retouch window. In V1 there was one significant limitation, it was not possible to audition audio or the results of processing within Retouch. Now you can play audio in the window before and after Retouching it. In V1 there was only one process, Interpolation. This uses adjustable ‘wings’ either side of the defined problem area as a basis for synthesising new material to replace the area with the unwanted audio partially or completely. The level of synthesis determines what percentage of the original will be replaced. As an aid to productivity, multiple areas can now be selected by holding down the Shift key. So long as the Shift key is held down each of the areas can be individually adjusted before invoking Retouch. Multiple selections can be useful not only in the time domain for a repeated problem, but also in the frequency domain to deal with harmonics. What used to be known as the Select Area tool in V1 is now called the Interpolate tool. This has been joined by two new process tools, Patch and Copy. Patch allows you to replace a section of audio with another of the same duration and range of frequencies (although they can be different actual frequencies). The patch can overwrite the existing material or can be mixed with it in equal proportions by pressing the appropriate button. Patching begins with drawing a box around the offending area and adjusting as required. This time there are no ‘wings’. Once the selection is made the box is clicked and dragged to an area containing suitable replacement material. The original box shows a copy of whatever is under the moving box to help the visual match. For many purposes suitable replacement will mean a position earlier or later in time, so the Frequency lock button is active by default. Unchecking it can produce some creatively interesting (and/or horrendous!) sounds when material is moved vertically i.e. pitch shifted. The other variation, Copy has the same options as Patch but works in a slightly different way. It enables you to select an area of the Retouch screen and to duplicate it elsewhere. When a box is drawn while the Copy button is pressed, no wings appear. Left clicking and dragging the box will produce a copy of the originally selected area, where the mouse button is released. resolution

Apart from the obvious surgical repair applications, these processes can also be used to create new and interesting sound effects. Where V1 was limited to two channels, V3 deals with up to 64 channels of audio in one operation (depending on the capabilities of the host workstation). Retouch provides a simple drop-down list for selecting individual channels or All. If you wish to use groups, this must currently be done from within the SADiE environment. The gain of the replacement audio can now be varied from +20dB to -90dB. In V3 synthesis must be set to 100 if you wish to increase the gain. With synthesis set to zero, gain reduction can be used to attenuate or emphasise harmonics, breaths, etc. In each case the maximum duration of audio to be processed in one hit is 10 seconds. For problem ﬁxing you will generally use far less, but this longer duration can be useful for more creative activities. If the original was impressive, this new version is even more so. It will be a free upgrade for existing SADiE Retouch users and UK£2000 plus VAT for everyone else. Apart from the improvements detailed above there have also been a host of minor tweaks. Taken together, these improve the appearance of the interface and increase productivity. How else would you deal with a mobile phone ringing in the middle of a 48-track recording of a live performance of Wagner’s Ring? The new processes extend the repertoire considerably and not only for ﬁxing problems. Patch and Copy add some new colours to the sound designer’s palate. With these improvements Retouch remains in a class of its own. ■

PROS

Now you can audition results inside Retouch; up to 64 simultaneous tracks; useful new processes.

CONS

Legends can disappear off screen in Measure mode; it would be useful if track groups could be used inside Retouch.

Contact CEDAR, UK: Website: www.cedaraudio.com Tel: +44 1223 881771

review

Drawmer 1968 Mercenary Edition Take a box that was ahead of its time and get an industry shaman to suggest some modiﬁcations. Then take the result and split off the compressor. Before you know it, it’s 1968 and GEORGE SHILLING is suddenly a fan.

STONISHINGLY, THE DRAWMER 1960 has been around since 1983. Back then it was unique, and a forerunner of trends to come — here was a valve outboard compressor with mic preamps and DI built in, and it even included basic EQ. This was unheard of in the early 1980s — before the 1990s valve revival, and long before outboard mic preamps and voice channels were commonplace. Back then, a desk was usually used for pro recording! (Yes and sometimes they even recorded more one than one track at a time. Ed) But despite the valves and switched settings, I have never thought the 1960 compressor sounded that great. It is always a struggle to ﬁnd the ideal setting, and the compression is slow and gloupy. And early ones had crackly pots. However, the 1960 has some distinguished fans (And you don’t get much more extinguished than me. Ed) and is still in production. Fletcher, founder of Stateside pro-audio dealership Mercenary Audio (and also a knowledgeable recording engineer and notorious Internet discussion-board stirrer) shared my lack of enthusiasm for the 1960. The polite version of the story is on the mercenary.com website, but elsewhere I found a more illustrative quote. Drawmer’s US distributor responded to his original rec.audio.pro rant, and to the credit of all parties, the Mercenary Edition 1969 eventually appeared, with a familiar feature set, and a front panel almost identical to the 1960, yet with signiﬁcantly different circuitry inside. The 1968 is the compressor section of the 1969, with a few enhancements. On the rear are XLRs for line inputs and outputs, plus TRS jacks for sidechain inserts. This, of course, lets you use an EQ to emphasise frequencies to effect such things as deessing. On the front, each channel features pleasantly damped Threshold and Output Gain knobs and switched Attack and Release knobs. Toggle switches are provided for Power On and Stereo Link, and each channel features toggles for S/C Listen/Normal/ Bypass, Meter VU+10/VU/GR and Big On/Off. The fairly small VUs are clearly backlit using LEDs, and Ivor Drawmer has invented a clever system that gradually uses more red LEDs above 0VU — even in GR mode — you can’t really miss this! And the +10 setting allows for hotter output levels — these are useful features not found on the 1969, and even with ‘fully-red’ meters it never sounds nasty. Stereo linking disables the right channel controls for Threshold, Attack, Release and Big, making the Left channel the master control, although meter and output toggles remain separately available, plus, sensibly, the Output Gain knobs. Their ranges cover a useful +/-20dB, 24

while the Threshold ranges from -30 to infinity (via +10) which should be enough for anyone. Unlike the 1960 which uses a valve stage for the compressor, this uses a J-FET circuit for faster operation. And unlike the 1960’s three Attack settings, there are now six, labelled 1 to 6 and ranging from 2ms to 50ms. Release times are fixed at 100, 500 and 1000ms, plus three programme-dependent settings, 200ms to 2s, 500ms to 5s and 1s to 10s (again labelled 1-6). There is no ratio control; the 1968 operates using a very effective continuous soft-knee. The faster character of the J-FET makes this a much more useable compressor than the 1960 ever was. It is a completely different animal; the compression breathes and sounds great, forgiving and fluid. The whole sonic picture is snazzier, clearer and welldefined. Unlike the constipated 1960. If they looked as different as they sounded, the Mercenary Editions would be metallic orange with chrome knobs! When used with individual signals from vocals to bass guitar, the 1968 has a natural warmth with a classic American-style compression character — think UA 1176 or even Fairchild 670. The 1968 is perhaps crisper than those old models. It’s smoother than the 1176, snappier than the Fairchild, but it certainly sounds as ‘grown-up’ as these classics. The programme-dependent Release settings work really well, making heavy compression less obvious, the middle one of these working especially well on vocals. The Attack settings are quick enough to take the bulk out of drum hits — the fastest release settings are just about fast enough for any situation, and the slowest Attack and Release settings are certainly slow enough, with settings in between covering most eventualities. The 1968 also makes a terrific compressor for your drums group, allowing the kit to breathe and sound powerful.

Maniacal amounts of compression are possible without nasties, adding a friendly and forgiving crunch without horrid distortion. A gentle approach works fine, but it’s difficult not be tempted into cranking the Threshold further and further, such is the enjoyable nature of the compression. The tube output section adds a lovely warmth to the sonic character when driven. The Big switches on each channel take a chunk of low-end out of the compressor sidechain (it’s a 100Hz high-pass filter) allowing for a sturdier lowend and much less pumping when using the unit for bus compression, similar to the more complicated ‘Thrust’ function found on the excellent (but pricier) API 2500. I love this effect across the mix, it almost always sounds better than any complicated multiband ‘finalizing’. The 1969 featured just the one Big switch; having one on each channel gives more flexibility if you want to, err, ‘Big-up’ just one channel when working in dual-mono mode. The 1968 (UK£845 + VAT) sounds great on individual sounds and terrific as a mix compressor. Overall design is smart and easy to use, build quality is very high and audio performance is superb. Fletcher is keen to stress that Mercenary makes no royalty on these units, nor does the Mercenary dealership even get any special discount on them — they really do it purely for the love of having good gear available to use. It’s a heartening story of collaboration and the end product is truly superb. ■

Contact DRAWMER, UK: Website: www.drawmer.com Tel: +44 1924 378669

PROS

Half the size of the 1969; better value if you don’t need the 1969’s mic preamps; terriﬁc all-round compressor; ‘Big’ function makes it a fabulous bus compressor; British-ish!

CONS

Looks like a Drawmer (Pathetic. Ed)

EXTRAS

The DSL424 TwoPlusTwo combined dynamics processor includes two frequency conscious noise gates and two soft/hard knee compressors with variable threshold limiting. The channels may be front panel conﬁgured as four individual standalone processors, or as a stereo linked pair of compressor/limiters with a stereo linked pair of gates. Alternatively, any combination of processing can be achieved by rear panel patching.

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January/February 2005

review

Crookwood Paintpot It’s possible that many readers have never seen this particular interpretation of a dual mic preamp even though the concept has been around for a while. It’s now improved and cheaper. JON THORNTON dips his brush.

ORM AND FUNCTION — two words that a surprising number of audio manufacturers seem to forget to put together. In terms of form, Crookwood’s Paintpot has been raising eyebrows since its initial release in 1993. It’s now in its third revision, and at UK£995 (+ VAT) is now cheaper than previous models. This cost saving has been made by removing some little used features from the outgoing model (tilt EQ, MS decoding and an unbalanced output) and by revising the design to make it less labour intensive to assemble. Let’s deal with the form first — and yes it does look like a bucket of paint, complete with carrying handle (Paintbucket? I think you mean pot. Ed). Manufactured from anodised aluminium, all the analogue I-Os together with the controls are mounted on the top panel. Down one side of the device are the optional digital outputs, external Word clock input and mains power. At first glance, this may seem like a very inefficient use of space for what is, after all, a 2 channel preamplifier — but when you consider that it has been designed from the outset for location or ‘spot’ recording, it makes more sense. The idea is that you plonk it down next to your microphones or sound source, plug them in and away you go. Source cable lengths are therefore kept to a minimum, and the true balanced analogue output is a high current design, perfectly able of driving long cable runs effectively. On first unpacking the Paintpot, you’d be forgiven for assuming that there had been some sort of manufacturing error — hold on, where’s the legending for the controls? Inscrutable is probably the best way to describe the front panel with two big black rotary encoders and a number of momentary action pushbuttons. Plug it in and turn it on though, and the Paintpot temporarily lights up like a Christmas tree, revealing backlit control legending and a couple of digital numeric displays above each control knob. This excitement is short lived, as after a couple of seconds the unit reverts to a power saving state, which is designed to keep the audio circuits warmed up but puts the rest of the unit to sleep. Pressing the flashing power button again brings the unit back to life, accompanied by what sounds like dozens of relays switching. This is the first clue as to the integrity of the audio circuitry here — nearly every function is switched by gas filled relays — even the gains, which step through relays in dB steps. Not only does this approach keep audio paths as clean as possible, it also means that every control input on the device itself is ‘soft’, which in turn means that remote control of the device is easily achieved — more on this later. 26

solves this problem to some degree. Using standard XLR cables, this can be connected in daisy-chain fashion to multiple Paintpots, and allows control of all parameters — and it’s really in conjunction with this remote capability that the Paintpot’s form and function really start to come together. Of course, this would all be academic if it didn’t live up to expectations sonically, and it doesn’t disappoint in this respect. It sounds very neutral and honest with a range of microphones, but really works to extract the most low frequency information possible from small and large diaphragm capacitor microphones, together with an impressive amount of transient detail without ever sounding grainy or forced. But it’s the noise — or lack of it — that really stands out. This is an extremely quiet unit — even when really cranking gains on a distant stereo pair in a location recording. In truth, the impedance switching had little effect on modern capacitor microphones, and a marginal effect on dynamic microphones — but it worked well on the DI input for bass guitar, albeit a very expensive DI solution! While the form factor of the Paintpot might or might not work for you, it’s hard not to like this unit. It may not have the brand cachet of some other highend preamps that are out there, and it may be a little quirky. But it sounds fantastic, is designed and built in the UK, and above all is very intelligent little box (You mean pot. Ed). It’s deﬁnitely worth an audition. ■

PROS

Quirky design; very quiet, neutral and detailed sound; remote control option; intelligent user interface; easy to use in low light conditions.

CONS

Quirky design; lack of any metering on unit itself; digital I-O and remote options really bump up the cost.

EXTRAS

A quick tour of the front panel controls reveals a switch that steps through the possible input sources of mic, balanced line, unbalanced line and DI for each of the two channels. Mic and balanced line inputs to each channel are via a single XLR socket, DI and unbalanced line via a TRS jack input. Analogue outputs are on XLR. Gain ranges available for each input level are helpfully indicated on the display above the large control knob, and are +12 to +72 for microphone level, -15 to +24 for balanced line, -6 to +30 for unbalanced line, and +18 to +72 for the DI input. Each channel has the option of a phase reverse switch and a low or high input impedance setting — the values of which alter according to the source type selected. There are some nice touches too, for instance phantom power can’t be selected unless the microphone input is chosen, and the last settings are preserved in the unit’s memory when power is removed. All that fancy logic switching also allows it to do things like muting outputs as phantom power is turned on or off, or when input sources are switched. There is no real metering on the Paintpot, with the exception of a peak LED that lights when output levels exceed +20dBu. If you’re feeding a device with input metering this isn’t really a problem — but if you are trying to set gains at the unit with metering in a different place this can be kind of frustrating. The use of an optional (UK£345) remote control panel resolution

As an option (£199) a digital output card may be ﬁtted, which gives AES, SPDIF and optical (TOS-Link) outputs

at sample rates up to 192kHz. This is a Crookwood designed A-DC which always runs at either 192kHz or 176kHz, but sample rate converts its output together with setting appropriate status ﬂags to achieve lower sample rate outputs. Even when using an external clock, this is used simply to synchronise the output of the sample rate conversion — the analogue signal is still sampled by the internal crystal clock, which means that any jitter problems from external clocks are restricted to transmission of data, rather than inducing sampling errors.

Contact CROOKWOOD UK: Website: www.crookwood.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1672 811 649 Email: sales@crookwood.co.uk

January/February 2005

review

The neXt generation C 414

C 414 B-XLS

C 414 B-XL II

• Choose between the ultra linear C 414 B-XLS

• Two-color LEDs provide quick visual

• Higher sensitivity than on earlier models

• Five switchable polar patterns including a new generation wide cardioid for placement and application flexibility.

and transformerless C 414 B-XL II. and extremely low self noise.

• High sound pressure level capability, wide dynamic range, and low impedance over the entire audio spectrum.

• Special gold-sputtered plastic foil

diaphragm to prevent short circuiting if strong blasts of air are applied.

• Elastic capsule suspension greatly

minimizes structurally-transmitted noise from chassis vibration.

• All switchable components operate in low

impedance circuits for ultra-high reliability even in extremely humid conditions.

indication of selected polar pattern.

• Green to red LED change to give an

overload warning when the output signal is distorted.

• Complete immunity to electrostatic and

electro-magnetic interference from digital gear, computer monitors, etc. due to solid metal housing and transformerless output stage.

• Available in stereo pairs factory-matched for response and sensitivity.

• Complete with hard-shell carrying case,

• Three switchable bass cut filters and three

professional shock mount/stand adapter, external pop filter and windscreen. Stereo pairs include stereo bar for X/Y configuration and single stand placement.

• 3-pin XLR-type connector with gold-plated

• Optional remote control unit (available by

pre-attenuation pads with LEDs for quick visual indication.

contacts for loss-free signal connection to the associated equipment.

end 2004) offers full control of all switchable parameters via standard microphone cable and 3-pin XLR-type connectors.

15 new features combined with the legendary classic sound. Distributed in UK and Eire by: Harman Pro UK, Cranborne House, Cranborne Road, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, EN6 3JN

t: 01707 668222 f: 01707 668010 e: info@harmanprouk.com w: www.harmanprouk.com

www.akg.com

review

Waves IR-L Convolution reverb is the most signiﬁcant ambience processing advance since boxes went digital, yet there are still many more end-users who haven’t experienced it than have. With this is mind, Waves has addressed approachability. ROB JAMES watches the calories and goes for the Lite option.

AVES’ FIRST CONVOLUTION product, the IR-1 plug-in, was a highly significant debutante. Although the general idea of convolution was becoming familiar to a wider audience, the IR-1 was the first truly convincing product to enter society at anything like the price point (IR-1 V2 is now UK£495 native or UK£745 TDM). Superb impulse response samples and unprecedented control over reverb parameters are key to its success. The new IR-L (light) is essentially an IR-1 with fewer adjustable parameters and the RT60 ratio restricted to 0.25 — 1 rather than 0.25 — X4. It uses the same impulse responses and processing engine as the IR1. IR-L brings down the cost of entry to the world of serious convolution processing to a mere UK£245. Four versions of the plug-in component are provided. A single convolution gives mono to mono, mono input to stereo output uses two convolutions, ‘Efficient Stereo’ also uses two convolutions for multi-mono processing. Full stereo with left to stereo and right to stereo is the purist approach but also the most processing intensive with four convolutions. The control window has a pane with information about the sample recording and original and

current parameters. Full CPU toggles the CPU mode between Full and Low. The Low setting saves up to 45% of the CPU cycles. A simple IR graph with zoom and scroll shows the decay. A slider sets reverb time or this can be entered in the boxes as RT60 time or ratio. Convolution Start enables you to remove pre-delay of up to one second from the start of the IR. Length defaults to full but can be reduced to produce a gated effect. The Dry/Wet slider sets the ratio between dry and wet signal between 0 and 100%. Dry and Direct are not the same thing. Dry is the raw input signal whereas Direct is the input signal convolved with the first reflection in the impulse response. In a speaker/mic IR this will include the effects of air damping in the original room and the transfer function of the speakers and microphones used. For hosts with automatic delay compensation the IR-1 does not declare any latency because the dry signal goes to the output without any appreciable delay. However, the processed signal will be delayed by 5.6ms at 96kHz and 11.6ms at 48kHz. This is displayed as latency. Clicking on the Dry button allows up to 30ms of delay to be added to align the dry and wet signals (or even to advance the dry). A further fader controls the output level. When the ‘efficient stereo’ version is employed a further control, Crosstalk, determines the maximum amount of input summing. At 0.0 the process is left to left and right to right. At 100.0 the inputs are summed. As with the full IR-1, this plug-in really does have to be heard to be appreciated. Many of the samples produce an almost uncanny sense of ‘being there’. I am not so convinced of the virtues of using this technology to attempt to duplicate the characteristics of hardware. For one thing, the imitation always seems pale when compared with the real McCoy and I always feel it’s a bit of a cheat. On the other hand, the entire space sampling enterprise is entirely laudable

and a positive addition to the sum of our knowledge. The sampling process is both art and science. In acoustic spaces we’ve never heard, (at least from the best seat in the house) if the recordist gets it right, the result is a world-class effect and this is exactly what many of these samples represent. It works for post as well, with samples of more commonplace interiors. How long will it be before floor mixers are asked to record IR samples on location? The sampling sweep required is included, although you’ll need the full IR-1 to produce your own IR files. The IR-L’s limited controls could be a blessing for many users. Less scope for fiddling about equals less time wasting and less chance of making the sound worse rather than better. This is a simple and elegant device that conceals complex mathematical legerdemain beneath a simple and elegant user interface. The IR-L is an ideal way to experience Waves’ estimable convolution reverb at low cost. It can be upgraded to the full IR-1 V2 or IR-360 once you’re hooked. Considering that all the IR samples available on acoustics.net are currently free to download this has to be the bargain plug-in of the year. ■

PROS

The sounds; simplicity.

CONS

At this price there is no longer any excuse not to buy one; the short wait for recalculation before you can hear the result of control changes.

EXTRAS

The seminal IR-1 has been upgraded to V2 with the addition of a convolution Start control, which allows the beginning of an impulse response to

be trimmed to eliminate unwanted predelay. An ER (Early Reflections) Buildup Control lets you adjust the buildup slope of the early reflections to control their attack sound, from crisp to smooth. Dry Gain Mode offers enhanced control by enabling the wet and dry signal gains to be adjusted separately in addition to using the traditional dry/wet control. The IR-1 can now import your own sweep response files and use these to generate a ‘.wir’ Waves Impulse Response File, which can then be used just like any other IR.

www.acoustics.net

Waves has recently launched acoustics.net as the official source of IR samples for its convolution reverbs. This is already a ‘must bookmark’ site for anyone remotely interested in acoustics. The stated aim is to capture the sound signature of the most desirable acoustic spaces in the world, not simply for use in production but also as a source of invaluable information for architects, researchers and scholars. Waves’ sampling technique uses a 15-second swept sine wave signal that continuously changes from 22Hz to 32kHz to excite the acoustic. Waves uses the sweep because non-linear distortion elements are pushed in front of the linear responses after processing, making them easy to remove. 24 sweeps are recorded with the microphone(s) rotated at 15-degree intervals. The process is repeated with different source and sometimes different recording positions in the space. A Soundfield mic is used to produce a B-format output with a further two pairs of mics in different stereo arrangements. This lot gives a total of 288 samples per recording position that are later processed to produce the Waves impulse response files.

resolution

IR-360 (UKP745 Native, UKP1095 TDM) is the surround version with ﬁve channel processing. Currently Mac HTDM only, it includes an IR-1 in the package.

Contact WAVES, ISRAEL Website: www.waves.com UK, Sonic Distribution: +44 1525 840400

January/February 2005

review

Mackie Onyx 800R The reduction in the number of preamp channels on affordable digital desks has happily coincided with an increase in the number of channels of preamp now regularly offered on outboard. Flukey or what? JON THORNTON tests an 8-channel pre that would challenge the boutique set.

HERE’S NO DOUBT that ever since the introduction of the LM-1602 mixer, Mackie’s analogue products have been very capable technically. And, for a company whose marketing seems to very much address a mass market, many a Mackie desk has been incorporated into very highend pro audio applications. A winning combination of build quality, sonic performance and price has been the key to establishing the brand as one that crosses boundaries very effectively. So there’s something of a gauntlet being thrown down by Mackie when it refers to the 800R as a ‘premium’ 8-channel mic preamp, with claims that it offers comparable performance to what it describes as ‘boutique’ stereo units. Underpinning this claim is the development of the ‘Onyx’ preamplifier design. Used in a range of other Mackie products, this is a further development of the ‘XDR’ (Extended Dynamic Range) design used in Mackie VLZ Pro mixers. With impressive technical specs — a dynamic range of 123dB, Equivalent Input Noise of -129dBu and a frequency response that’s almost flat from 20Hz to 20kHz, with only a 3dB drop from 10Hz to 170kHz — there seems to be some substance to this on paper at least. Not only this, but the claim is that the Onyx preamplifier circuit design is equally good at handling ‘real-world’ issues such as RFI rejection and linearity of response. But as we know, there are lies, damned lies and audio specifications — so into the studio arena we go. In the blue corner is the Crookwood Paintpot reviewed elsewhere in this issue. In the red corner the Onyx 800R, and in the yellow corner a Focusrite ISA220. Before battle commences, a quick review of the 800R’s features (UK£935 + VAT). Packaged in a 1u rackmount that is surprisingly deep, each of the 8 channels has a gain control that offers 0 – 60dB of gain for a mic level input, and -20 to +40dB for a line level input. Each channel also has a line/mic switch, a switchable high pass filter (75Hz at 18dB/octave), a phase reverse switch and one for phantom power. Metering is rudimentary but sensible on each channel, with three LEDs indicating signal present at -20dBu, 0dBu and overload at +22dBu. Channels 7 and 8 also have a front panel, high impedance instrument level input with an associated switch, while channels 1 and 2 have the ability to switch their input impedances to one of four settings (2.4kOhms, 1.3kOhms, 500 Ohms and 300 Ohms). Another trick feature of these first two input channels is their ability to decode two microphones arranged in an MS arrangement such that AB stereo is output from 30

their associated line outputs. A neat function, but let down slightly by the fact that the button to select it is located on the rear panel — not especially convenient if the unit is permanently racked. Analogue interfacing is also on the rear panel courtesy of XLRs for the 8 mic level inputs, and the ever more ubiquitous 25-pin D-Sub connectors for line inputs and outputs. Unlike most of its direct competitors, the 800R features digital connectivity as standard fit, and perhaps as a result of this it seems very well thought out. A single front panel control selects sample rate (all usual rates from 32kHz to 192kHz) or external Word clock, and a single button allows the digital section’s output to be 24-bit or dithered down to 16 bits. Turning to the rear panel again reveals another D-Sub connector that can carry up to four pairs of AES-EBU or SPDIF format digital signals. In addition, two lightpipe (ADAT) optical outputs are provided. Switches on the rear panel allow selection of SPDIF or AES-EBU formats together with termination options for both and for the external Word clock input. Additional switches are also provided to configure the D-Sub and optical outputs for either dual-wire or dualspeed mode at higher sampling rates, which makes interfacing to other equipment very flexible with the proviso that at sampling rates of 176.4 or 192kHz, only the first four audio channels are output. Weighing in at 4.8kg, the 800R appears to be substantially and well built — although on the review unit a couple of the gain pots were very stiff and scratchy at various points in their travel but this didn’t

appear to have any effect on the audio. Nevertheless, back to the arena... First impressions are that on the noise front, the 800R at least matches the competition. With no source and 60dB of gain racked on each unit the Mackie was, if anything, a little quieter than the ISA220. All three contenders were significantly quieter than the (Audient) desk mic pres. The first round of tests were done with an AT4050/ CM5 capacitor microphone. Now, this is a fairly sharp sounding mic and can prove troublesome with some preamps. The Mackie was good at capturing transient detail, and was very revealing of some of the midrange harmonics in a voice. Surprisingly, adjusting the input impedance here had quite significant effects — softening the treble response progressively as it was lowered. In comparison with the other two units though, the 800R sounded slightly gritty against the Focusrite and wasn’t as good at recovering low frequency information as the PaintPot. It was a similar story with an SM57. In summary, the 800R is a well thought out, nice sounding unit. It’s certainly very quiet and it does seem to impart its own character to a microphone — particularly in the high-mid range. It’s impressive and it put up a good fight. ■

Contact MACKIE, US: Website: www.mackie.com

PROS

Extremely quiet; well thought out and implemented digital I-O as standard; useful additional features; resolves mid range detail very well.

CONS

Some tiny niggles in build quality; a little ‘hard’ sounding in comparison with more expensive competition; daft positioning of MS decode switch.

EXTRAS

Mackie’s Onyx 400F is a 10-channel, 192kHz-capable FireWire audio interface that features Onyx mic preamps as well as on-board DSP matrix mixing for latency free headphone mixing and routing independent of the DAW software.

Front panel controls include control room output level, dual independent headphone outputs with dedicated level control, dual instrument inputs, and four-segment metering for the mic inputs. The rear panel includes four combo mic/line inputs, balanced TRS sends and returns for the ﬁrst two mic inputs, four line inputs, 8 line outputs, control room outputs, Word clock I-O, MIDI I-O, SPDIF I-O and two FireWire ports.

resolution

January/February 2005

review

TC Electronic PowerCore Compact Look at it as your external processing in a box, a companion for your laptop or as a rather large dongle, TC is bringing the PoCo to more ordinary folk. ROB JAMES is eating sensibly and for the second time in this issue goes Lite.

HE WORLD OF OUTBOARD effects is changing. On the face of it an obvious observation but bear with me. On the one hand, the classic ‘one trick pony’ analogue box is experiencing a real resurgence in popularity. This is because its core virtues are being discovered by a new generation of engineers and rediscovered by the ‘older’ generation. On the other hand, the plug-in continues to proliferate. However, despite all the ‘jam tomorrow’ promises of the native processing advocates, workstations continue to use as much of the available computing horsepower as they can get their digits on. There are two commercially available routes around this problem. The workstation manufacturer can include hardware DSP horsepower and software hooks for plug-ins in its products. This tends to be an expensive solution. Alternatively an independent manufacturer can build a DSP card or box running bespoke plug-ins. These can be presented to the user in such a way that they operate just like any other plug-in with the particular application, for example VST, Audio Units or Direct X. The advantage is that the processing overhead to the workstation is minimised and that the DSP card/box manufacturer can maintain a much greater degree of control than is possible with Native plug-ins. If the DSP is in a box, connected via FireWire then it is likely to have a much longer useful life than any PCI card, especially since this ‘standard’ is effectively already obsoleted by PCI Express. TC Electronic’s earlier PowerCore FireWire has already proved the point. TC’s undoubted expertise in producing standalone effects boxes has been put to excellent use to provide plug-in effects with quality and reliability approaching that of a ‘dedicated’ hardware box.

The new PowerCore compact is a ‘light version’ of the PowerCore FireWire at an asking price of UK£515 + VAT. This time the box is the size of a hardback novel and the styling softer, making the unit more suitable for use with a laptop. Internally and functionally it is, in effect, half a PowerCore FireWire — it has two Motorola 56367 DSPs each with 512k Word SRAM instead of four. The plug-in bundle lacks the Dynamic EQ and DeNoise included with PowerCore FireWire, but otherwise you get the same processors. TC has kept its promise, not only has the library of optional TC and third-party plug-ins grown in size but there are new bundled plug-ins too. Installation is trivial. Launch the set-up application, reboot the machine and connect the hardware. Follow the on-screen prompts and that’s it. The Compact is also the security dongle, so there is no copy protection to worry about. Turn it on and a row of blue LEDs on the front scan quizzically from side to side. Once recognised by the PC it shows a solid blue line. TC includes a decent range of processors of its own devising and some good third-party examples.

Highlights

Megareverb uses the Core 1 and 2 algorithms taken from the M5000 with enhanced tail design and diffusion improvements culled from more recent products. Classic Verb is much less natural but arguably a more creatively interesting proposition. EQSat Custom is a mastering equaliser. The algorithm is borrowed from the Finalizer. Master X3 is also based on the Finalizer algorithms. Multi-band expansion, compression and limiting plus ‘Soft Clip’ and dither. Chorusdelay follows the functionality of the TC 1210 Spatial Expander providing chorus, flange and slap-echo. PowerCore CL is a general-purpose compressor. Voicestrip, as the name implies, has the tools commonly used for voice processing. Compression, De-Essing, EQ, Lo Cut Filter and Gate. 24/7C Limiting Amplifier is a software homage to one of ‘those’ compressors, including the ‘4-button mode’. The Compensator Native plug-in provides manual delay compensation for applications that do not include automatic plug-in delay compensation. Filtroid is a simulacrum of an analogue filter bank with LFO, etc. that is capable of some very tasty extreme effects. Character is a new and somewhat enigmatic inclusion from fellow Danes, Noveltech. Using Intelligent Adaptive Filtering technology it claims to enhance favourable characteristics in a signal without requiring much expertise from the operator. Whatever the implications of this, it certainly produces some very interesting results for little effort. Tubifex imitates three valve/tube stages and a speaker simulator to model amplifiers. Each of the three stages is based on a classic ECC83/12AX7 design. Vintage CL is a ‘DBX’ style vintage compressor/limiter.

resolution

If you like TC-style reverb and dynamics, these will not disappoint. A couple of unusual ones add interest (see panel). All are characterised by the same kind of easygoing tolerance you get from ‘hardware’ outboard. With native plug-ins I often have the uneasy feeling I’m close to the edge. In PC applications, processors are presented as VST plug-ins or, if you are feeling brave, you could try a third party Direct X wrapper. If it works for you, great, if not... For the Mac there is the choice of VST or Apple’s Audio Units. The PowerCore Control Panel enables you to check resources, change parameters and check version information. The range of optional processors is equally impressive. TC has updated its already useful Restoration Suite and introduced the MD3 Stereo Mastering package, which provides the same kind of multiband dynamics and brickwall limiting found in the TC 6000, and very good it is too. At a list price of UK£699 it needs to be. TC 30 is TC’s answer to Vox AC-30 nostalgia. TC Helicon offers its VoiceModeler and Intonator. Sony has ported its excellent processors to the PowerCore. I have always particularly admired the EQ. Waldorf supply the DCoder, a modernised Vocoder/synth, and DSound’s VL2 8-channel virtual valve interface is available. Strangely, the Surround reverb seems to have been dropped. Synths come courtesy of the included PowerCore 1 and the optional Access’ Virus and Novation V-Station. Compact extends the PowerCore range in a useful and sensible way. Not only does it lower the entry price for those with an eye on the future but it also opens up the PowerCore experience to Laptop users on the move. Given its considerable experience in producing standalone processors TC is in an excellent position to capitalise on PowerCore and appears intent on covering all the bases. The degree of serious third-party support helps consolidate this and increases conﬁdence. This entire shooting match, hardware and generous processor bundle, costs less than some single plug-ins. Its success should be a foregone conclusion. ■

PROS

Much ‘bang for the buck’; excellent bundled reverb and dynamics plug-ins; good looking design; ideal for use with a laptop set-up.

CONS

No surround effects; VST and Audio Units only; issues with some FireWire chipsets (not its fault).

Contact TC ELECTRONIC, DENMARK: Website: www.tcelectronic.com

January/February 2005

review

COOL - THE TUBETRACKER Digital Audio Workstations may offer unprecedented flexibility in multitrack recording and editing but the resulting audio mixes created by these digital audio systems seldom achieve an equal status to those produced by classic large format analogue recording consoles. However, by introducing a Classic M3 Tubetracker with its high quality pre-amps, musical equalisation, classic summing amplifiers and revered valve circuitry, to your DAW, you can now elevate your digital recording to a truly classic status. For full specifications, user info, stories, dealers and reviews, visit:

www.tlaudio.co.uk MAIN FEATURES • 8 Classic valve Mic/Line pre-amps • 8 Classic 4 band Equalisers • Classic design summing amplifiers • Compatibility with all DAW’s • Classic valve output stages • 24bit 96kHz stereo output option • Classic console circuitry and assembly • Classic console performance

Designed and manufactured in England

TELEPHONE +44 (0)1462 492090 // EMAIL info@tlaudio.co.uk //

PASSIONATE ABOUT TUBES

review

Universal Audio UAD-1 Project Pak It’s one of the fastest and most immediate ways of adding performance and variety to your workstation’s processing palette and it now comes with extra options and tweaks. GEORGE SHILLING searches for a little extra horsepower and ﬁnds deﬁnitive plug-in compression.

REVIOUSLY DISTRIBUTED BY MACKIE, the UAD-1 PCI processor card is now handled alongside the rest of the Universal Audio range by its distributors (SCV in the UK, for example). Although the hardware is unchanged, additions are continually being made to the range of plugs accompanying the card, and the software has just been tweaked for better G5 compatibility. The card comes bundled either as the Project Pak (UK£340 + VAT) with a large bundle of plugs, or as the Studio Pak which includes a premium bunch, each of which can be purchased separately by Project Pak owners — they can be trialled for free for 14 days. My attention was particularly drawn to additional claims of RTAS support for Pro Tools users (as well as AU, VST and MAS). Both Paks now bundle FXPansion’s VST to RTAS wrapper in a version that works only with the UA plugs. Installation is straightforward — load the software from the CD then pop the card in a spare PCI slot. For RTAS support you must also run the FXPansion software, which quickly detects and converts the VST versions. A small application, the UAD-1 Meter is available for configuring all aspects of the card, managing authorisations, showing card processor usage, and so on. Up to four cards can be run simultaneously on the same system. On launching Pro Tools 6.4 you find the UA plug-ins all collected in the ‘Other’ folder rather than categorised into the correct folders, and names all are prefixed with VSTW (the W presumably standing for Wrapped or Wrapper). However, apart from these very minor irritations, the wrapper works seamlessly with an additional bar appearing at the bottom of the plug’s window for loading (but not saving) VST presets. This does not stop you saving and loading RTAS settings, although the Compare button stays greyed-out. Automation of all parameters is also available, although parameter values simply seem to be displayed on a scale of 0 to 1000 rather than the actual value — not a problem. In Logic using the Audio Units versions, things were not quite so simple. Soon after instantiating a UA plug the Core Audio would fall silent. However, this was very rapidly traced by UA technical support to a PCI bus sharing problem with the Digidesign hardware, and simply changing a setting in the UAD-1 Meter configuration resolved it. Presumably the problem doesn’t occur in Pro Tools because the software addresses the Digidesign hardware directly (no Core Audio). Having resolved that, everything ran smoothly, again with full automation function and preset loading, with saving available using Logic’s built-in functions. So what of the plugs themselves? These cover all types of processor. Included in the Project Pak are about 15 different plug-ins. However, some of these are sections or cut-downs of others. Emulation of the 1176 is available as the 1176SE. The Studio Pak or optional upgrade 1176LN is a more accurate (and CPU-hungry) 34

rendition of the hardware original when pushed to extreme settings — the LN uses considerably more processing power. But it has a more juicy sound when you push all the ratio buttons in. And you have to turn up the input much further on the SE for that kind of needle-bending. Unfortunately LN and SE presets are not interchangeable. Using a fairly heavy amount of processing, the Studio Pak/optional Fairchild 670 is absolutely terrific. This is stunning, sounding more gorgeous and juicy than should be expected of a plug-in. I’m not often a fan of plug-in compressors (We’ve gathered that. Ed) — this type of processing is still something usually better handled by analogue hardware units. However, this truly brought a glow to the sound of mixes and individual instruments, and especially drums. Vocals sounded lovely and warm through it, and all aspects have been carefully modelled on a real ‘golden’ unit, including the bias and Lat/Vert settings. If I was to buy only one of the plug-ins over and above the basic Project Pak, this would easily be the one I would go for (and I might just do that!). A Pultec EQP-1A sounds sweet, and the Studio Pak bolts on the MEQ-5 midrange EQ section. The LA-2A emulation is also an optional extra, but sounds as big and warm and forgiving as you might expect. One major star of the show is Nigel, a CPU-hogging (you can only run two of these) guitar rig along the lines of McDSP’s Chrome Tone, with multiple Amp and Cab settings enabling two separate morphable amps for emulating a couple of different guitar amps, along with a whole host of FX-pedal type modules, some of which are available as separate plug-ins. The Phasor is particularly luscious, but you also get Gate, Compressor, Mod Filter, Trem/Fade, Mod Delay and Echo, all of which are very good indeed. Each includes On buttons and all the expected controls, with plenty of knobs with accompanying direct parameter windows, and drop-down lists galore. It sounds great. Realverb Pro has been around for a while but is still a terrific reverb plug-in, and Dreamverb is its (optional extra) big brother, with a huge range of luscious and rich reverb settings. Reflector provides simpler reverberation, and the wonderfully rich EMTresolution

emulating (optional) Plate 140 appeared during the course of the review. There are further limiters, compressors and EQs, plus the optional Cambridge EQ providing a lovely big graph display where you can grab nodes for precise and high quality tweaking. The last optional plug is the Precision Limiter for mastering duties. Delay compensation plug-ins are also provided, although Logic handled this perfectly well on its own. The reassurance of the UA name is borne out by this very attractive package. You could easily spend the price of the basic Project Pak on one or two rival plugs without acquiring the tremendously beneﬁcial processing power of the UAD-1 card. Although the additional plugs of the Studio Pak require considerably more outlay, they are mostly worth the expense — especially in the case of the superb Fairchild. ■

PROS

Extra processing Oomph for Nativebased systems; high quality effects; Fairchild is fab!

CONS

No AudioSuite versions.

EXTRAS

Universal Audio’s 8110 and 4110 multichannel mic preamps feature Class A, all discrete designs with dual stage level controls and 3-way ‘shape’ switching on every channel for a versatile tonal palette.

Contact UNIVERSAL AUDIO, US Website: www.uauadio.com UK, SCV London: +44 208 418 0778

January/February 2005

review

SPL Model 2381 You have the DAW but you need to be able to hear what you’re doing. Better still you’d want to be able to interact with proceedings in a logical and convenient manner. Some buy a desk for just these functions but ROB JAMES suggests you investigate a monitor and talkback controller.

ONITORING CONTROL. Two words that strike fear into the hearts of installation engineers. Choosing a console is a doddle by comparison. This subject can create more quiet (and not so quiet) controversy than all the rest put together. Don’t think it has gone away in the digital age. If anything, monitoring is even more of an issue than before. German manufacturer, Sound Performance Lab, SPL, has an interesting and original take on this scene. Eschewing the manifold options a digitally controlled monitor system can offer, SPL has instead gone back to basics. The result is a simple, uncomplicated solution to the many monitoring problems thrown up by digital workstations. At UK£499 (inc. VAT) the SPL Model 2381

Monitor and Talkback Controller (hereafter MTC) combines volume level control, source switching and loudspeaker management for stereo monitoring, with talkback and cue mix functions. The MTC shares a number of characteristics with its 2380 Surround Monitor Controller sibling. For a start it is built like the proverbial tank and is similarly challenging on the aesthetic front. Being charitable, there is a vintage look and feel to both units. The internal design philosophy is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the same. SPL’s renowned electronic balancing and a pretty purist approach with no VCAs, DCAs or active switching. This results in performance ﬁgures well within the desirable range for professional use and a subjectively excellent sound. The ‘vintage’ feel

Connection and operation

The steeply sloping front panel has a row of 12 light grey round latching push switches, each with an associated indicator LED above it, the Power LED and the talkback microphone. The ﬁrst six buttons select and sum sources to the MTC monitor bus, Musician, Mix, 2TrackA, 2TrackB, 2TrackC and 2TrackD. The next three buttons toggle the three pairs of Speaker outputs on and off, SP1, SP2 and SP3. Mono sums the left and right channels on all the three monitor outputs. Dim attenuates the level to all speaker and headphone outputs by around 20dB. HP On toggles the Headphone output on and off. Below, the three left-hand pots make up the Cue Mix section with individual control over the Musician and Mix input and an overall Volume control. The centre section has a light grey non-latching push-to-speak talkback switch, which also activates the Dim function when pressed, an indicator LED and Level control pot. The ﬁnal section contains the larger control room Volume pot, the Headphone socket and a Source Blend pot determining the balance between the Musician input and the summed Mix and 2Track inputs. The scale around the Volume knob is calibrated in percentage of maximum output. This can easily be calibrated and marked, using a pencil or tape, with your preferred SPLs. Like the 2381 Surround Monitor Controller, the rear panel demonstrates an unusual level of understanding of the way many people have to work. All the legends are printed the ‘normal’ way up and upside down so they can be read when peering myopically over the top of the unit. The majority of connections are 1/4-inch jacks, electronically balanced or unbalanced if a two-pole plug is used. The exceptions being 2Track inputs C and D on phonos with an extra 10dB of gain to bring consumer level sources up to a similar level as the rest. The three pairs of Speaker connections are XLR. An additional LR Slave output is provided for external metering or recording. This takes the summed output of all active inputs except the Musicians input, which is only intended for latency-free monitoring rather than recording. Two further jacks provide separate talkback output and enable an external switch to be used.

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extends to ease of use. This is true ‘one knob or button per function’ stuff. The switches need a firm press and, like the detented pots, are very positive in action. There are no monitor trim pots. As SPL correctly points out, the majority of active speakers and power amplifiers are already equipped with input trimmers so why compromise the signal path with duplication? In any case, if there are multiple, adjustable attenuation and gain stages in the path, there are more chances to get the alignment wrong. Everyone has their own idea of the ideal panel layout. Although I would lay the panel out somewhat differently, the control positions quickly become instinctive, a primary requirement of a monitor controller. Unlike a workstation GUI the MTC doesn’t move about or become hidden behind other windows. The MTC enables overdubbing with true zero latency and, if a little thought is expended on operational set-ups, covers most, if not all, requirements when using a workstation with real people and real external equipment — not just a bunch of files. The four stereo 2-track inputs simplify monitoring of outside sources and the stereo Slave output allows for external metering and/or an additional record feed. I suspect the MTC may also have applications in the theatre world thanks to its mix of features and especially the multiple speaker outputs. For workstation recording applications where a mixer would be overkill or where the existing mixer does not have anything beyond rudimentary monitoring, the MTC will prove ideal. For more complex applications I can see distinct possibilities in cascading an MTC with its sibling the 2381. The cost of both units together is still considerably less than the cheapest microprocessor controlled surround monitor controller and the sound will arguably be better. The world of the workstation is complicated enough without trying to perform real-time monitoring operations via the same user interface. If you routinely make live recordings into a workstation, do your working practices and productivity a favour and consider the benefits a monitor controller can bring, then put the MTC on the shortlist. ■

PROS

Price; simplicity; sound.

CONS

Love or hate the looks; chunky, if you’re short of space.

EXTRAS

SPL’s MixDream is a cascadable 16-in-2 analogue mixer in a 2u. It has active Class A/60V stages for analogue

summing, 16 balanced inserts for integrating analogue effects with individual and overall hard bypass relays, and all analogue tracks can be summed before A-D conversion. Channel adjustments and automation (level, pan) remain controlled from the DAW and units may be linked for expanding the channel count.

Contact SPL, GERMANY Website: www.soundperformancelab.com UK, Sonic Distribution: +44 1525 840400

January/February 2005

review

Bernard Löhr He’s one of the most successful mix engineers in the business yet he prides himself on also being able to take care of symphony orchestra recordings. He shares his mixing approach and ‘scheme’ with ZENON SCHOEPE.

ERNARD LÖHR IS a musician who got into working in a Gothenburg studio in his native Sweden after finishing his studies in mathematical physics at university. He moved to Stockholm to work at Soundtrade and in 1987 started as chief engineer at Polar where he helped refurbish the studio from its ABBA era. He went freelance in 1989, because he liked the idea of moving with an artist and seeing what was happening in the rest of the world, started working with Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and a lot of the top Swedish artists, and quickly developed a reputation as a mixer. Today he is based at Andersson’s studio in Stockholm where he runs a ‘portable’ SSL 9000 (‘We didn’t have a studio so Benny wanted a desk that could be broken down, flightcased and moved easily’) and a Genelec 1038 multichannel system with centre configuration models at the rear plus a 7000 series sub — ‘Benny is very keen on the Genelecs and I think they’re very good especially for his type of music. I’m doing a lot of surround now.’ 38

Notable multi channel projects have included ABBA In Concert with the next big project coming up being ABBA The Movie. His credits are impressive and include Ace of Bass, All Saints, Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Billy Crawford, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Gareth Gates, Il Divo, Will Young and Westlife among others and the cream of Swedish talent. He regularly lectures at music and technology courses and shared his approach to mixing with Resolution.

The fun part of recording is when you have time, good acoustic environments and good musicians but recording can also be boring when you’re doing a lot of overdubs and you’re just waiting for it to happen. But it’s the mixdown that I’d say I really work on. I thought about it in the early 1990s and have now worked out a scheme of how to go through a mix. There are millions of ways to mix but I’ve developed my own way that I stick to because when I do I know that I haven’t missed anything. It’s very detailed and I give courses on it!

Engineer, producer, mixer... what are you most comfortable with? I’m best known as a mix engineer but I have produced and engineered. I’ve also been writing a little, which I enjoy but have so little time for it. In terms of what’s most natural for me, then its mixdown and the recording process when I have a big project. I enjoy recording Symphony orchestras together with a rock group because I like those sorts of challenges. I do it all from the planning to the ﬁnal mixdown.

Share it with the readers! The ﬁrst thing is the planning of where you’re going to mix, somewhere that has all the equipment you need. Do they have the machines to play back the material that you’re going to be working from, is everything in good working order, is everything synced? It’s basic stuff but essential. The setup in the studio is very important to me and I always make the whole set up at the beginning of the job like the patch in the studio here — everything

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January/February 2005

craft is hooked up so if I need a quarter note delay it’s already there and I know what send it’s on. I need a lot of equipment to do my mixes but I also need to know where I have it when I sit down at the desk.

So you’re saying that your desk layout and your patch is always the same. If I was to walk in on your mix in any studio what would I find on fader 3, for example? Probably a snare. I do the same with the sends. I give the studio a list of equipment and I hook it up and that’s on the usual sends and on the multitrack routing to effects. I’ll have 30 sends on the list — at least. I also use the same order too — the Harmonizer should be on multitrack send 5 — I always use the same set up because then I can concentrate on the music. If you have a complicated mix and you sit there for hours and then you realise you should have a delay on this guitar and you’ve got a patchbay that is already hooked up with lots of cables, it’ll take you time to find the hole and you lose a lot of energy. It’s much better to know that I have an extra spare delay on this feed here. Is the outboard that you’re hanging on the sends always the same too and do you have them set on particular settings? Yes. Some of the effects I use are always the same — there are always the basic reverbs and delays I need to have to do my mixes. The old AMS reverb I use on the Ambience part as a bright reverb on pianos. I always use Tile Room on the PCM70, I never use any other program on that because it works as a great short room on acoustic guitar and percussion. There are programs that I always use on the 480. So there’s a list of equipment and settings that I like to have and if I don’t then I have to find a substitute, which I have in mind too. So far you’ve just planned out your desk and patch and you’ve got to the point where you can sit down and you know where everything is but you haven’t moved a fader in anger yet or hit a transport key. I haven’t even listened to the song yet. The next step is to get into the music and that also has to do with the planning — with 120 channels you have to have some type of grouping so you can see the structure and that’s do to with how I patch it up on the desk. The thing that I really work a lot with is vocals and I have that right at my side while percussion and effects can be further away. I try to learn the song by moving the faders up

just a bit and write a song structure list and then go into the sounds by bringing all the faders down and listening to each one for perhaps a couple of bars. At this stage it would be very easy to start EQing but because I don’t know how the material will sound together I don’t tend to do that unless I really fell that something should have a little more low end, for example. I’ll do the ﬁrst panning at this stage for the percussion with a brief thought about what each part should be in the song. At the same time with the effects I can see if a guitar needs a little help. Some of the channels take longer than others but at the start I leave out the vocals and the special effects as I’m beginning to create my backing track and to see how it will groove. The next pass would be to try and create a good backing track without any fader moves. Throughout my process I use different ways of listening and when I’m doing my backing track I always go down to my NS10s in mono, so my ﬁrst basic mix of the song is in mono at very low level even though when I was going through the sounds I was listening in stereo. When it sounds right to me, I start the automation and go right through the track together with any obvious moves and cuts but still no vocals and I leave out solo instruments and effects. If it’s a big pop song with a string section then I’ll probably leave that out too

because it can take all the energy out of the track. After a couple of passes with the backing track I start on the vocals.

Are you EQing on your backing track by now? Maybe a little but I don’t EQ a lot because there’s a lot more to come. The vocals are the main thing and that will set the tone for the whole track. I listen to the vocal in Solo and do the main processing for what I think is a good main processing — most of the tracks I mix I use two or three equalisers at different stages of the song on the vocals. What I try to find first is a good main sound to the vocals — the start of the song is often lower pitch with more proximity and what I do on the 9k, which is very easy to do, is to use a good outboard EQ as the main — something like an API and maybe an 1176 — and to get rid of a few of the low frequencies on the desk EQ using the automation. Then when I come to the last choruses, when they’ll be singing very hard, I use another EQ on the insert to maybe take some of the high mids out and low end too. I have a very complicated method of building up the environment around the singer, which is a Con, Extras Text PROS ofPro, combination five things. It’s a combination of the 480, the ambience from the AMS, different delays CONS — often one in the area of 200ms or an eighth as

EXTRAS

This is the new headline

One progressive chrysanthemum very easily telephoned the sheep. Five orifices incinerated Klingons, although two almost bourgeois tickets tastes one television. Five trailers abused one orifice. The extremely obese lampstand very drunkenly telephoned purple subways, then five wart hogs untangles Macintoshes. Five bourgeois tickets annoyingly marries subways, even though five fountains grew up. Two bureaux laughed noisily. The chrysanthemums lamely marries Santa Claus, then umpteen dogs laughed, however the silly Klingon annoyingly tastes one poison. The quite irascible Klingons abused Tokyo, although five progressive elephants easily bought two dwarves. Obese televisions ran away. The aardvark fights five pawnbrokers, but umpteen elephants almost lamely incinerated five chrysanthemums. Santa Clau

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January/February 2005

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craft better. I consider things like breaths, esses and I do a lot of passes and it will take me from one to four hours to do the vocal part.

You are working in a linear fashion running from Pro Tools? Yes, 90% is Pro Tools but I work a lot in Logic too. Things like the de-essing I do in Pro Tools or Logic — I go straight in and I can see them.

a predelay for the plate — and other programmable quarter note delays for the long phrases. I also have the sends and returns of the lead vocal automatable because it never happens that it’s the same straight through the song — probably it needs to be very dry in the verse with a little environment with more in the chorus, bridge and middle parts.

So have you now sorted out your vocal? I’ve got the sound of it but I still haven’t done the important thing, which is the levels. I go back to mono again and listen with my backing track and that’s when I write — a lot. I don’t want to take out the dynamics of the song but there’s always things you can do to make the vocal come through a bit

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Doesn’t having to go into the workstation detract from your creativity ﬂow? I do most of my main work on the desk but for some of the leveling for certain words I’ll go into Pro Tools. I do very little with plug-ins — only when I have a BV part, which I have good EQ on but there’s a middle part that needs some bottom taken out of, then I will. I’m comfortable working in the workstation but I choose to work on the desk. I’ll edit on the workstation when it’s the quickest way to do something. Once the level is there on the vocals then the fun part starts because you then have something to paint around. Once the vocal is there, then it’s the BVs and the solo instruments and maybe strings, which can take a lot of time particularly when it’s a crowded song. I do a lot of moves on those. At the end I’ll put in all the extra effects. I’m working mostly on the NS10 but I’ll go over to the big monitors for the low end. When everything is there I go through everything again and optimise every track. If there’s a rhythm guitar and it does a ﬁll in one spot at the same time as the bass and the piano I make a choice as to which

January/February 2005

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is the most musical and I’ll drop the others and let the piano come through. This is the part that I really enjoy and I’ll sit for hours and work out what I can do to make the parts obvious to the listener and add the little tricks and bits that make it all sound more expensive and interesting! I like the [Roland] RSS effect and I use that not on main parts but on synth pads. If you have the MIDI information you grab another synth that has almost the same sound, put it through the RSS and let that pan in tempo and you get a gorgeous sound. It’s a small part but it adds so much to the track.

How does that transfer to mono? Quite well, you won’t hear it in your radio in the kitchen but in cans it works. At this stage there is often still a lot to do with the vocal and the backing and I again I do a lot of moves. When you look at my faders at Document1 12/8/04 10:18 AM Page 1

the end, maybe they’re not going up and down all the time but you’ll see lots of small changes. At the start you can feel like 5dB here or there doesn’t really matter but by the end a quarter dB makes a big difference. At the end of this when I think I’ve done what I can I call the producer in. Because I’ve been through everything there often isn’t much to do — a bit more reverb on the snare, more of the loop here or there — and it maybe takes an hour to ﬁx and it doesn’t really hurt the picture. It becomes a matter of taste. It’s also not so much of a problem at this stage if they want, say, more piano than acoustic guitar, because you can do a little switch and the quality of the mix is still there. But it takes time.

How much time, from coming in in the morning with the desk setup correctly for you to you calling in the producer?

The next day at around 12 noon. One song. It depends on the number of tracks but most of the big songs are around 100 tracks. I need that time because then I know that I have gone through everything and I’m sure I haven’t missed anything. The problem today is that the producer comes in and you agree on the mix and we often put it down on a CD, take the car, go for lunch, go to the producer’s studio and listen to it, come back and maybe take the tambourine down 1dB or whatever. Then you have to send it to all the other guys in the world that have to approve it. It used to be easier before!

How do you ﬁnd the quality of feedback that you get? It differs but it’s often very small changes. It also depends on the status of the producer — when I work with Benny he just doesn’t ask anyone else! ■

PROS

Pro, Con, Extras Text

CONS EXTRAS

This is the new headline

PROfessionals need PROline MU Metal shielding

January/February 2005

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Contact

COMPANY NAME, PLACE: Website: www.XXXXXXXX.co.uk www.ultrasone.com Tel: +44 XXXXX XXXXXXX

craft Howard Shore, Resolution caught up with John shortly after an excursion to the Kremlin, where he’d been on sound desk duty for a concert of LOTR music with Howard Shore.

Have you got a particular formula for recording orchestral film scores? I have a set up for each composer or artist I work with, I try to find something that suits the composer. The way you lay out an orchestra physically is the way it voices for the microphones. With one composer I may have the brass positioned centrally behind the woodwinds, while with another I might position the horns in a conventional location on the left, with the trumpets and trombones on the right. It’s all tailored to how the composer writes, the orchestra positioning is more to do with that, rather than what sort of recording room we are in. For instance there’s a layout I use for Howard Shore, which doesn’t necessarily work with other composers. It’s basically an Eastern European string layout that’s popular in Russia and Germany. It has first violins on the left and second violins on the right, cellos and basses half left, violas half right, woodwinds in the middle with horns to the left, trumpets and trombones to the right. In Russia I believe it’s called the ‘Emperor’s layout,’ and a variation on it is found in a lot of opera pits around the world. It’s not something we just invented, but it voices very well for the way Howard writes. Do you rely on a central mic array to record an orchestra? The whole orchestra is taken from above and a little behind the conductor. I vary the mic positioning slightly for different composers. For Lord of the Rings I used a Decca tree with my three Neumann M150s, and a couple of Neumann TLM 50s as surround mics. If you are using three microphones on a tree they’ve got to be matched. It’s quite easy to find three new matched Neumann M150s: I remember we used to have about 15 (of the now legendary) M50s at Abbey Road, which we would then subdivide into sets of three. There were only 9 microphones that were close enough to give any sort of LCR focus. Howard Shore says you have a ‘sonar tape measure’ for mic positioning .... Once you start on a project then you’re locked in, and I become incredibly obsessive about accurate mic positioning when continuing the recording sessions. But no more obsessive than you’d expect the players to be about their tuning! One of the main requirements of modern orchestral recording — apart from sounding good — is that the recording is consistent and repeatable.

John Kurlander He is one of the world’s top scoring mixers yet his ﬁlm credits are underpinned by some of the fabest music work. NIGEL JOPSON talks to him about orchestral miking, the Emperor’s layout, riding and minding the click, and his relationship with the rerecording engineer.

N A CAREER THAT spans working with 1960s pop icons at Abbey Road (where he later became chief balance engineer), recording the world’s major orchestras for classical releases (including two Grammy engineering nominations for work with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra), and recording soundtracks for over 50 major feature ﬁlms, John Kurlander has carved himself a reputation as one of the world’s top scoring mixers. 42

John has a long association with composer Howard Shore, having worked on his scores for Se7ven, The Game, Analyze This, Panic Room and, most famously, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He has also worked with Marco Beltrami (Scream Trilogy, The Crow, Angel Eyes, Blade II, Resident Evil), Graham Revell (The Siege, Tomb Raider), and Iva Davies (Master & Commander). He has recently completed I Robot with Marco Beltrami and The Aviator with resolution

What arrangement of spot microphones did you use to supplement the tree? I used my pair of AEA 44 ribbons as string spot microphones. They were positioned on the floor behind Howard, at about head height, about four foot wide. With classical music albums, most scores were written rather a long time ago, so you know in advance if you’re going to need a second bassoon mic! With film, it’s only just been written for that specific picture, so you don’t know in advance what’s required. It’s a sensible safety precaution to put out more mics than are actually needed and record them onto spare tracks. I might have a spot mic for a clarinet that I will record for the entire score, I may never use it when I mix, but if I do it might only be for about 5 seconds. January/February 2005

craft Do you have special mic preamps, and do you have them in the control room or next to the microphones? I use the Avalon AD2022 preamps exclusively, I’ve got my own set of those, they are my mainstay. With the AEA ribbon mics, I do put a mic pre literally next to the stand — the mic comes hard-wired with quite a short cable and you’re practically near the top with the gain on those mics — about 56dB of gain, so it sounds better than putting the signal down a long extension cable. The other microphones that I own and am really, really happy with are the Neumann Solution Ds. Now that you record with Pro Tools, do you delay the spot mics to bring them in time with the main tree? That’s a real can of worms! If you’re doing a classical piece and you mic everything from a tree above the conductor, the natural sound of the percussion 60 feet away at the back is going to be around 60ms late to the conductor position, so if you put up a spot microphone it will be 60ms early. You can delay the classical spot microphones by the required amount and they will all be time-aligned to the tree. But with film, the percussionist will wear headphones and play exactly on the click, if you then delay his mic to time-align with the tree microphones, the percussion will be 60ms late! Pulling the tree forward in time is not a solution as that will mean the front of the orchestra are then playing 60ms early ... so it’s not really possible, we just have to make it sound as good as we can without using time correction. Do you have any special foldback/headphone tricks when recording large film scores? Most orchestral players like to use single sided headphones that are closed, and you have to ride the click level, which is an art in itself. There is an automated way of doing it, by feeding signal from the main room mics into a compressor/expander’s side-chain across the click channel. It’s quite fiddly setting the thresholds, sometimes you can spend as much time setting it up as just manually riding the level. For a big project I would have an assistant engineer who only does that — manually riding the click. It’s very important to the conductor and musicians that it is done in a sensitive way. There’s

January/February 2005

two schools of thought: one is that the guy listens on headphones to a stereo feed of the orchestra, and blends the click to that to control the level; the other method is just to listen to the orchestra on its own and make sure the click doesn’t bleed — I think that’s probably the best way. It’s very important because if you ride the click right up in a loud section, the musicians will tend to compete with it and play even louder. It has to be done in a very musical fashion. For the Lord of the Rings trilogy, where we were recording in several different locations, after the ﬁrst ﬁlm we decided that we were going to have Toby Wood as click-master for the whole of the rest of the project.

Do you specify particular digital audio convertors for your sessions? I like using the Prism Sound Dream ADA-8 when I’m working in London. Funnily enough convertors don’t seem to cross the Atlantic as well as other gear, you ﬁnd equipment like the Prism that is very popular in Europe, but doesn’t really have a presence in the US. In the US I’ve been using the Pro Tools HD convertors: I was never too fond of the sound of the Digidesign 888s, but I ﬁnd the HD sounds pretty good at 96k.

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Do you use a special master clock to sync all the digital gear? I think it’s vital to use an external clock, I use the Rosendahl Nanosyncs or the Apogee Big Ben. I think that a lot of people who are sceptical about the sound of digital audio should really be sceptical about the clocking, rather than anything else. I don’t have my own setup — in the US it’s more common for the Pro Tools operators to have their own rigs — so I can specify which external clock I’d like to use. Do you have your own monitors for 5.1 location recording? I do use my own monitors, ATC 20As. They’re much smaller than I originally thought I needed, but I’ve been very happy with the way the results translate. Because they’re small enough to sit on a meter bridge, I’m less inﬂuenced by room acoustics when recording. I have three ATCs I travel with, and then I use whatever surround and sub are built into the room, although sometimes I’ve brought in matching ATC units. In the ﬁlm world we’ve been working in 5.1 for many years, so in my approach to miking up an orchestra, I always think in terms of surround.

craft Where do you pan your surround mics in the mix? If I have a surround mic that sounds full and is making a nice contribution, I’ll actually pan it equally to the front and the rear. In other words, the left surround would go equally to the left surround and the left front. If I’m using a microphone that makes a good sonic contribution, I don’t want to risk only having it in the surrounds, where it stands a chance of getting eliminated, minimised or lost, depending on how it’s dubbed or played back in the theatre. When you make a stereo reduction, how do you fold in the surround and centre channels? The centre Decca tree microphone comes down a little in level, the formula is -3dB but sometimes I might want to come down 1dB more than that. A lot of the time I don’t use the sub and I don’t use the surrounds — those surround mics are already panned into the front left and the front right. If the budget or time isn’t there, it has to be a fold-down feed that’s done at the same time as the ﬁlm mix. If you’re listening to 5.1, to suddenly switch over to check the stereo — even if it’s wonderful — inevitably it feels like a temporary letdown. It’s very dangerous, actually, you might start trying to overcompensate for that letdown. Two speakers will never sound as full as 5.1, so it’s really much better to come back another day with a different mindset. If I do have to do it simultaneously, I’ll always put on a pair of decent headphones. Are you mixing in the box, or on a digital or analogue console? At the moment I think my favourite route is to mix on a good digital board. I quite strongly believe in only going from analogue to digital once, in the initial recording. Once it’s in there, I don’t like going analogue — for example, mixing on an analogue board. If that means mixing in Pro Tools, I feel that since HD the internal mixing does sound much better. On Lord of The Rings we got very good results using the Neve Capricorn, although as a design it was nearly at the end of it’s service life. Of current digital consoles, I think the Euphonix System 5 sounds good and is probably the most comprehensive desk DAC1 3rd Resol 10-6-04 10/6/04 3:37 pm available at the moment.

What sort of stems do you pass on to the rerecording mixers? Most rerecording mixers like to get as many stems as possible. I’ve heard of some projects where, because of reverbs and so forth, they’d end up with more stems than there were original recording tracks — like 32 wide from an original 24 tracks — that’s an extreme case! You don’t want to relinquish too much control over the balance, but with certain rerecording engineers, it’s actually advantageous to give them that freedom. A lot of credit for the impact of the Master & Commander score should go to Paul Massey, the rerecording mixer: he had a really tricky job because that white-noise type water sound was there all the time ... I think I gave him about three stems. Generally I make that decision the night before I go to mix, purely on a project by project basis — it could just be 6 tracks — and I’ve never supplied more than 24. But if it’s all 5.1, that 24 is only 4 splits. Do you make a point of discussing the project with the rerecording people? The relationship between myself and the rerecording mixer is very important. Some of the best results I’ve had is when I’ve done the music mixing physically very close to where they were dubbing the film. That brings a number of advantages: he’ll pop in to hear our mix and I will pop in to his dub. It never used to be this way but now, quite often, the dub gets started while the music is still being mixed. When I worked at Skywalker on the film Hell Boy, we were both actually mixing in the same building — every time they mixed a reel they would invite me in and ask for comments. Nowadays I find I’m getting much better dubs than when it was all done in advance. On the 14 April 1969 (according to Mark Lewisohn) you were recording The Ballad of John & Yoko/They’re Gonna Crucify Me at Abbey Road ... is that something you ever look back to? I only look back on it because people keep reminding me! I was 18 years old — it was a big deal at the time — but sometimes it seems like a bigger deal now! I hear Geoff Emerick is writing a book, and there are people writing about The Beatles equipment at Abbey Page (using 1 Road Mark Lewisohn’s book like a Bible)

and then questioning me: ‘... we have corroborating evidence that on this session this was NOT the case.’ It’s so long ago I almost feel Mark’s book has now become my memory! It was really all about the musical talent, and we were just using the studio equipment that was available at the time. People think if they use ‘vintage’ gear now it will sound great ... I feel perhaps it’s the best of the gear available today that we should be using. One of the most pleasurable things about working on Lord of the Rings is that people can now ask me about something rather more current. Instead of asking if Paul played drums on a particular take, they can say: ‘... in the second movie — does that old grey-haired guy come back?’ ■

DAC 1 Two Channel 24-bit, 96-kHz D/A Converter

Listening to audio from the DAC1 is an amazing experience. The distortion free output is so clear it feels as though someone has lifted the curtain! Now you can hear detail that was previously masked by jitter induced artifacts and distortion. If it was an exceptional recording, you’ll hear it, if it wasn’t, you’ll hear that too. The DAC1 offers just about the finest analog conversion available right up to 192-kHz, plus all sample rates playback with a 52-kHz analog bandwidth. Performance is unrivaled. THD+N is an astonishing low -106 dB (0.0005%) measured at 0 dBFS, at any playback frequency, at any sample rate, with any degree of input jitter, and it just gets better from there. For more information, contact your local dealer.

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resolution

January/February 2005

review

sweet spot

Headline The room and the monitor JBL’s LSR6300 Series studio monitors employ a variety of technologies that aim to Stand First address the limitations of real-world control room environments and to offer consistent PERSONS BY-LINE and optimised performance at the listening position. JBL Professional’s PETER CHAIKIN talks us through the thinking and the implementation.

T F

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The quite irascible Klingons abused Tokyo, although wider rangethe of silly environments. Linear Spatial five progressive bought two dwarves. Obese televisions ran away. The aardvark fights five design means the elephants loudspeakereasily is optimised to provide pawnbrokers, but umpteen elephants almostworking lamely incinerated five chrysanthemums. Linear sonic response Reference in the actual Contact SantaThe Clauresulting combination of speaker and work Space. space produces a neutral reference the operator can trust COMPANY NAME, PLACE: in making creative decisions. The curves in A represent the response of a system exciting a strong room axial mode at a frequency of about Website: www.XXXXXXXX.co.uk When JBL began designing its modern versions of 40Hz, with and without a single section of parametric equalisation via Room Mode Correction (RMC). Figure Tel: +44 XXXXX XXXXXXX cinema systems about 25 years ago, the concept of flat B shows the before and after EQ effect on the time domain response of the loudspeaker/room system.

This is the new headline

resolution

January/February 2005

sweet spot

Headline

Normal room furnishings, drapery, carpeting, and a Klingon incinerated five bourgeois trailers, but one handful of diffusing elements will usually ‘tame’ the subway perused Afghanistan. Quark mostly drunkenly room to about 100Hz or 125Hz. Below that, there is sacrificed five mats, because obese trailers bought not enough acoustical absorption to smooth out low Santa Claus, then one dwarf telephoned elephants. frequency resonance caused by room modes. One irascible dwarf untangles the pawnbrokers, Stand First In about 95% of monitoring spaces, particularly smaller yet elephants sacrificed the progressive television, PERSONS spaces withoutBY-LINE special LF damping, there is a troublesome however two slightly obese Macintoshes untangles dominant first-order axial mode, usually in the range umpteen botulisms, then Macintoshes easily towed between 25Hz and about 90Hz. The response peak due Batman. One putrid aardvark comfortably untangles The Curves shown are derived from a set of frequency response measurements takentelephoned every 5 degrees along to that mode may be anywhere from 3 or 4dB up to 10 or Minnesota, although Quark two almost two great circles (vertical and horizontal) about the loudspeaker. Thesubways, off-axis data is processed to give simu12dB, depending on the inherent damping of the room’s progressive but five putrid tickets tickled the latedJabberwockies, performance ofyet a loudspeaker at the centre of the IEC standard structural IVEelements. QUITEWhen PUTRID left untreated, dwarves standing fightswaves, one five two mostlylocated schizophrenic purple trailers, howeverlistening Batmanroom. towed one speedy or roombotulism, modes canalthough give a falseQuark impression drunkenly of low frequency abused fountains For a monitor untangles to beumpteen called accurate, tickets.itOne mustprogressive not merely sheep, the LSR6300 yet five goes botulisms ‘beyond annoyingly accurate’ to auctioned deal with the off contenttwo at the irascible mix position. lampstands, Low-frequency and onepeaks Macintosh caused chrysanthemum measure as accurate very —easily it musttelephoned be accuratethe in the sheep. room. one realities sillyofpoison, today’sthen workspace Afghanistan and noisily give the kisses mixer two a gossips. by room modes can cloud the mix and mislead the mix It is Five JBL’s orifices objective incinerated to produce Klingons, systems although that take two the cats. clear window One botulism at theuntangles mix position fiveinpartly a less-than angst-ridden perfect engineer, Poisons causing slightly himnoisily to misapply perused EQ, compression one wart hog. and almost room into bourgeois account and tickets make tastes mixing oneeasier. television. We believe Five pawnbrokers, environment. ■and one trailer grew up annoyingly, Umpteen miss the mark mats on overall easilybalances. abused Theaardvarks. problem is notFive the trailers abused one orifice. but the bourgeois dwarves gossips cleverly, however chrysanthemums program material, itmostly is a problem annoyingly in the room. incinerated The same one The extremely obese lampstand very drunkenly purple Macintoshes extremely drunkenly perused aardvark, program material because played two quixotic in another subways room would marries sound the telephoned purple subways, then five wart hogs Minnesota. wart quite different hog. in the low frequency area. untangles Macintoshes. Five bourgeois tickets Afghanistan auctioned off one obese botulism, yet One By matching Klingon auctioned the frequency, off five degree lampstands. of damping Two annoyingly marries subways, even though five the poisons untangles Quark, however one quixotic televisions (Q), and amount drunkenly of response tastes rise umpteen (dB), itsubways, is possibleand to fountains grew up. Two bureaux laughed noisily. The aardvark tastes the orifice. dwarves equalise out untangles a peak one caused elephant. by a standing wave with a chrysanthemums lamely marries Santa Claus, then One cat partly noisily bought five putrid mats, then single-section Botulisms very of parametric annoyingly equalisation. perused five To address bourgeois the umpteen dogs laughed, however the silly Klingon the dwarf ran away. Two Klingons towed Tokyo, yet trailers. effect of Two roomaardvarks modes, JBL towed integrated Tokyo.aOne system botulism into two ran annoyingly tastes one poison. The quite irascible five Jabberwockies grew up. away, LSR6300 then models Quark called cleverly RMC, or tastes Room five Mode Macintoshes, Correction. Klingons abused Tokyo, although five progressive Batman tastes bourgeois Macintoshes. even The RMC though system two obese is comprised dwarves of marries an application-specific schizophrenic elephants easily bought two dwarves. Obese televisions Five lampstands almost quickly auctioned off the chrysanthemums, parametric equaliserhowever in the umpteen speaker and progressive a calibration mats ran away. The aardvark fights five pawnbrokers, but orifice. Umpteen obese fountains gossips cleverly. Five laughed, kit that allows but two thebourgeois user to take poisons measurements tickled umpteen at the umpteen elephants almost lamely incinerated five schizophrenic Jabberwockies kisses the television. Five lampstands, mix position however and dial-in five filter televisions settings to gossips minimise lamely. the chrysanthemums. Santa Claus perused silly sheep. quite progressive fountains comfortably telephoned Chrysanthemums presence of low frequency untangles resonance. two quiteThe irascible equaliser tickets, has Five progressive fountains bought one silly elephant. the quixotic elephants. Five partly silly lampstands then 18 frequency one matcentres fights Batman. between 96Hz and 24Hz, variable Five botulisms sacrificed very irascible Macintoshes. tastes trailers. Five dogs almost annoyingly perused The Q from extremely 1/2 octaveprogressive to 1/20th octave elephant wide and telprovides The schizophrenic elephant slightly quickly umpteen schizophrenic poisons, but five Macintoshes ephoned up to 14dB umpteen of attenuation. aardvarks, It is important but five obese that the towed five tickets. One poison telephoned umpteen fights fountains. The silly elephant tastes five bureaux corrective equalisation towed onebeaardvark. minimum phase, Schizophrenic inasmuch as Macintoshes, however one fountain incinerated schizophrenic dwarves, because one quite speedy fountains the filtering effect quiteofquickly the modesacrificed itself is minimum umpteen phase. umpteen televisions. The pawnbrokers grew sheep tickled umpteen progressive dogs, although five orifices, You can see because how amplitude one very and putrid time domain mat behaviour comup annoyingly, even though one partly quixotic Macintoshes cleverly auctioned off one television. fortably have been auctioned ‘tamed’ by the offcomplementary the irasciblefiltering chrysanin the lampstand untangles the purple Klingons, however Cats fights the Klingons, even though two poisons themums. other diagram. Two slightly speedy Macintoshes two bourgeois mats marries umpteen putrid cats. ran away easily. Umpteen mats fights one quixotic bought The settings Minnesota. are normally Five progressive made once for mats a given Five dwarves extremely cleverly auctioned off subway, because five mats abused one dwarf, yet mostly loudspeaker drunkenly set-up, and untangles the time involved quixotic in making the umpteen trailers. Poisons kisses the purple dog, five orifices auctioned off the lampstands, because Macintoshes. adjustments is normally Two orifices no moregrew than aup. few minutes per yet two subways mostly comfortably tickled one Afghanistan abused Jabberwockies. Batman noisily speaker. The mats An analysis tickled two kit, irascible includingelephants. a sound level meter schizophrenic Jabberwocky. Two televisions noisily auctioned off five Macintoshes. Umpteen cats laughed andAfghanistan test CD, comes cleverly withperused each powered Batman, LSR6312SP although marries five botulisms. Almost silly dwarves partly extremely annoyingly, but five angst-ridden tickets umpteen subwooferangst-ridden and each pair aardvarks of LSR6328P abusedmonitors. Tokyo, then The easily untangles umpteen angst-ridden televisions, ran away, even though umpteen very quixotic two smaller subways 2-Waygossips, LSR6325P however and the schizophrenic 3-way non-powered bureaux because two sheep very quickly tickled five orifices, fountains laughed. ■ auctioned LSR6332 off enjoy oneRoom slightlyMode bourgeois Correction sheep,when then two the but two quite silly Jabberwockies very noisily perused irascible LSR6312SP Jabberwockies subwoofer with quickly RMC sacrificed is incorporated Minnesota. into the slightly purple televisions. Quite the system. obese fountains slightly drunkenly abused Two pawnbrokers towed umpteen quixotic fiveAllprogressive LSR products Macintoshes, are designedbecause to produce Jabberwockies a nominally aardvarks, because quite angst-ridden subways PROS Pro, Con, Extras Text tickled flat response Quark.when Two cats operated fightsinthea trailer. freestanding mode. telephoned one schizophrenic elephant, yet the TheTwo placement Macintoshes of loudspeakers ran away on stands comfortably, is the preferred yet silly orifice tastes two partly obese trailers, because CONS umpteen method ofputrid settingsubways up a surround laughed system. very Loudspeakers quickly. The umpteen aardvarks grew up lamely, and one wart hog dogs mounted ran on away stands partly at least noisily. 4-5 feet from a wall require bought two quixotic subways, although five dwarves EXTRAS no Five boundary obesecompensation. MacintoshesFortowed various one positions dwarf. in slightly easily towed extremely schizophrenic poisons, Minnesota close proximity laughed, to a wall however or cornerumpteen there will dogs be a general kisses however five subways untangles Tokyo, because one rise in LF below 200Hz, and it is desirable to reduce the One progressive chrysanthemum very easily system’s output in that range to avoid low-frequency telephoned the sheep. ‘thickness’ in the sound. The LSR6300 series has Five orifices incinerated Klingons, although twofor almost bourgeois tickets tastes one television. Five trailers integrated mounting points that provide more options abused one placement, butorifice. mounting puts the speaker close to the The extremely obeseLSR6300 lampstandmodels very drunkenly telephoned purple subways, then five wart hogs untangles boundary. The powered incorporate Macintoshes. Five bourgeois tickets annoyingly marries subways, even though five fountains grew up. Two switchable equalisation to compensate for placement bureaux laughed Theischrysanthemums marries Santa Claus, then umpteen dogs laughed, near boundaries. Likenoisily. RMC, this a one-time settinglamely for the silly Klingon annoyingly tastes one poison. The quite irascible Klingons abused Tokyo, although a however given location. five elephantsalso easily bought two dwarves. Obese televisions ran away. The aardvark fights five Theprogressive LSR6300 monitors benefit from ongoing pawnbrokers, umpteen elephants almost lamely incinerated five chrysanthemums. developments in but materials and magnetics. The application Contact Clau ofSanta JBL’s Differential Drive technology provides lightweight, high excursion capability in the woofers. The systems COMPANY NAME, PLACE: achieve unusual sound pressure levels, low distortion and Website: www.XXXXXXXX.co.uk low power compression to ensure the monitors sound the Tel: +44 XXXXX XXXXXXX same at all playback levels.

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January/February 2005

resolution

business

DAB’s ﬁnal coming of age After a trickle of a start that was greeted by a wave of lethargy and was followed by a rush of criticism and disatisfaction, the alignment of the heavenly bodies may at last be right for Digital Audio Broadcasting to realise its true potential. NIGEL JOPSON says that there are other deeper forces at work that may make it look like a practical winner.

S I SLOTTED predictive figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers into the 20042008 media market charts for ‘Tracking the Growth’ in Resolution V3.8, one mature segment of the global entertainment industry seemed to shrink into insignificance as the chart axis stretched to accommodate 20%+ growth for video games and broadband connections. The 5% compound annual growth rate predicted for radio over the next five years is not totally shabby as mature industries go, but certainly looked insignificant once the charts shrank to fit the magazine columns. However, predictive figures for the future only take into account possibilities suggested by past performance, and there’s a development in radio that’s been metaphorically treading water since its genesis some 17 years ago. Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) is a standard for radio broadcast originally developed under the aegis of EUREKA, an EU research and development initiative responsible for all manner of technological projects — from biotechnology to electronic passports for European welders. EUREKA 147 is a protocol for digital broadcasting, developed during 1987-2000, most often transmitted in the L band from 1452 to 1492MHz, but also capable of operation in the VHF and UHF bands. This standard uses MPEG-1 (ISO Layer 2) compression — rather pedestrian by current codec standards — but offering the possibility of reception free from atmospheric interference. Several radio stations share a single radio signal by multiplexing their digital audio bitstreams together, later decoded at the receiver. Other information may be sent along with the audio, such as text to identify artist and title, news headlines and other data. Data services are considered in two main categories: Program-Associated Data (PAD) and the so-called Packet Mode. PAD can include a number of data types. The two main formats are Dynamic Label Segment (DLS), a text-based system, typically for artist and song-title information, and the Multimedia Object Transport (MOT), used for graphics and other media transmission to DAB receivers. Tags may allow a digital radio receiver to scan

for channels by type of music, such as classical or jazz, or enable car radios to automatically change stations while travelling to stay with a particular network or style. All PAD content is carried inside the Main Service Channel frames of the EU147 format, which includes all the standard radio audio and data services of the ensemble. These are standard MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 frames that are extended in the EU147 format to carry DAB-specific elements. The audio in these extended frames can still be recognised and decoded by a standard Layer 2 decoder, which will simply ignore the DAB-specific bits. For most of the last decade the data aspect of DAB has been considered a sort of ‘super-RDS’ add-on to the audio. But, a decade after the pilot transmissions, data has acquired a new meaning and value. Ordinary people now routinely carry complicated communication devices in their pockets, and international telecom corporations have paid national governments small fortunes to acquire 3G bandwidth. The penny has suddenly dropped regarding the scope of data-push capability that broadcast organisations are sitting on. Jim Griffin, formerly head of Geffen Records technology department, and now heading up boutique consultancy Cherry Lane Digital explains: ‘Yes, I understand that it is a fat digital pipe that rides the radio broadcast channel. But that doesn’t make it radio. The data pipe feeds a buffer that uses a selective gateway. They broadcast a torrent of digits, and your receiver will play some of them for you, some of them for someone else, ignoring some, using others. It all depends on how they are addressing them, and how you are programming your DAB device to receive them. It can also depend on whether you paid for them, under the specification. So much for the CEA’s argument that it’s the music industry replacing the play button with a pay button: it was put there by the CE manufacturers and broadcasters. They programmed the specification to include one, not the record companies, because it’s a huge revenue opportunity for them (in addition to the revenue opportunity of replacing billions of analogue radios world-wide).’ In the UK, UBC owns the data streams to most

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of the DAB licences outside London, and has an agreement to work with Capital Radio, the London licensee. Early in 2005, UBC plans to launch a DABbased music download service, in direct competition with Apple’s European iTunes Internet store and Vodafone’s new 3G mobile phone service. ‘We paid about UK£130,000 for the licences that allow us to do this,’ says Simon Cole, UBC chief executive, ‘... unlike the mobile phone operators, who paid billions for thirdgeneration licences, we think it will be easy for us to make money!’ The idea is to use the 1.5Mbits/s data stream to download tracks in the background as they play over the radio. The songs are then stored on a memory card and can later be transferred to a computer or portable player. If this system works in practice it will cement the ultimate radio-to-music-purchase synergy (often thwarted by DJ unwillingness to back-announce cuts): hear music for free — enjoy it — buy it to keep. One sure sign that DAB’s IP datacasting capabilities are scheduled for takeoff is the presence of Microsoft, who this year joined the World DAB Forum (the international body which promotes awareness, adoption and implementation of digital broadcast). Erin Cullen, Microsoft’s lead product manager at the Windows Digital Media Division, explains: ‘We’ve found that, using the compression capabilities of Windows Media 9 series, it is possible to deliver 5.1 surround sound at 160kb/sec, which is comparable to the bandwidth required for regular stereo-only broadcasts.’ Anyone who’s watched video down a narrow Internet pipe can see where Microsoft is going with this. Meanwhile GWR, UBC’s business rival and the other UK national 8-station DAB license holder, has entered into an agreement with BT (British Telecom) to create a joint datacasting operation. The new operation will develop the capability to deliver a wide range of unique ‘one-tomany’ digital multimedia services in real-time to mobile phones and PDAs — presumably BT’s infrastructure will provide the client pull and GWR’s broadcast network will deliver the data push. Details are still sketchy, but GWR’s business plan forecasts a pre-tax revenue share in excess of UK£5m by 2008. Eureca Research predicts that the installed base of DAB receivers in Europe will increase from 512,000 at the end of 2003 to 39.55 million by 2010 (a CAGR of 86.1%), of which the UK will account for 17.5m, or 44% of the European total. The UK was a pioneer in DAB, with experimental transmissions started by the BBC in 1995, and the digital network now reaches 60% of the population. Early DAB receivers were expensive, and unfortunately the rather amateurish marketing focused on sound quality, with phrases

January/February 2005

business such as ‘CD quality’ and ‘Crystal Clear’ being bandied about by Corporation chaps. It’s easy to be wise after the event, but early-adopters willing to pay hundreds of pounds for their sets were likely to be hi-fi buffs with state of the art FM equipment and remote-control VHF aerials on the roof. The backlash from such an audience when faced with robot-down-a-tube artefacts from initial poor transmitter coverage was all too predictable. In fact, the less-than-FM performance had as much to do with spectrum limitations and national broadcaster commitments. The problem for corporations was that all services are delivered down the same multiplex: the BBC, for example, has to steal bit-rate from its other services when operating occasional services such as Five Live Sports Xtra and BBC Parliament. BBC Radio 3 (the highbrow classical channel) now runs at 192kbps, Radio 1 (UK national pop), Radio 2 and Radio 4 run at 128kbps. Radio 7 runs at 80kbps mono and the Asian Network and World Service have to get by with a mere 64kbps. This spectrum problem has just recently seen considerable progress, with a May 2004 meeting of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union, whose mission is to ensure all countries have equitable RF access) planning the technical basis of the DAB service for 174-230MHz and 470-862MHz in Europe, Africa and Iran. Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of the ITU, noted that: ‘Digital terrestrial broadcasting will be able to offer mobile reception of video, Internet and multimedia data. The result, when combined with digital storage technologies, will be applications, services and information that are accessible and usable, anywhere at anytime.’ It was the first ITU conference since 1989 to deal with planning a terrestrial service, a key driver being the more efficient use of precious RF spectrum by the digital services. In Germany all 16 Länder (states) are committed to DAB, and a target window for the end of analogue broadcast is already being discussed. There’s 85% coverage of Germany’s 80 million people, with 150 digital radio stations. Just as relevant to universal adoption are the 67 million cars, and Blaupunkt has developed a market-leading car radio combining DAB with MP3 technology — 12 months after it’s launch the Woodstock DAB52 has sold over 25,000 receivers. Now Blaupunkt has introduced the DAB53/55, the world’s first digital receiver with sound recording capability and storage on a MMC/SD card. However, the current standard is not without its critics in Germany. In December the influential media authority for Berlin-Brandenburg claimed DAB offered poor indoor reception, and looked to newer technologies such as DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) Res_horizontal_07-04 11/6/04 to 3:19 pm and DMB (Digital Media Broadcasting) provide greater capacity and integration with TV and mobile

equipment. Whether this is political manoeuvring or a serious threat, the sudden interest of nimbler media players in the DAB medium has certainly galvanised broadcast incumbents. One of the key barriers to the implementation of richer services over DAB has been the lack of a universal (and fully functional) electronic programme guide. Unique Interactive, in partnership with DeutschlandRadio and Bayern Digital Radio, demonstrated broadcasts of the new EPG during the 2004 Munich Media Days conference. This first-ever German EPG incorporates descriptive text, weblinks and graphics. Says Michael Hüther from DeutschlandRadio: ‘The EPG is an important tool for radio programmers, enabling us to provide our audiences with a far greater level of detail about the programmes currently on air and programmes coming up over the next 7 days.’ Matthew Honey, MD of Unique Interactive, adds: ‘We were in a situation before where broadcasters and receiver manufacturers were in a deadlock; there were no services on air and no receivers in the shops. However this year, using Unique’s EPG Management solution, we have demonstrated the value of the DAB Electronic Programme Guide, by launching EPG programme listing services on a number of multiplexes around the world, and extending the network in the UK to over 50 commercial radio stations. We are now starting to see a definite commitment from receiver manufacturers and I look forward to seeing EPG-enabled DAB digital radios in the shops in early 2005.’ It all looks very positive for DAB in 2005: chip manufacturers have developed circuits that promise longer battery life, standards organisations have been galvanised into positive action, there’s an EPG, cheaper (sub £50) and more functional radios are hitting the shops. It is not only Europe that will benefit from digital Page 1 broadcasting, neither will DAB be the only digital radio standard in Europe. Digital Radio Mondiale The first Windows XP based Pro Tools HD suite in the UK, incorporating a Carillon AC1 HD CPU and AVXL video hardware.

Audio PCs & Drives available for a wide range of applications including Digidesign approved ProTools HD.

January/February 2005

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resolution

(DRM) will replace AM broadcasting below 30MHz, and offers options for broadcasters with AM frequencies but no access to FM or DAB, especially in developing nations. The DRM system uses a type of transmission called COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex). Encoded audio and associated data signals are shared out for transmission across a large number of closely spaced carriers. The DRM system can use three different types of audio coding, depending on broadcasters’ preferences. MPEG4 AAC audio coding, augmented by SBR bandwidth extension, is used as a general purpose audio codec and provides the highest quality. MPEG4 CELP speech coding is used for high quality speech coding where there is no musical content. Coding Technologies has recently developed the Euro 199 World Traveller USB radio DRM receiver for connecting to a laptop computer without an additional PSU — the modern equivalent of LW world radio. The concept of pay-radio via Digital Satellite Radio has already been proved in the US with over 2.5 million subscribers in a little over 2 years. Selling the digital concept of diversity of service, universal access and rich media has more public appeal than selling a bofﬁn’s technical idea of ‘better sound.’ 78% of respondents in a Claritas survey of UK DAB radio buyers said they made their purchase to receive new digital stations, while less than 50% were interested in improving reception. According to Nick Cage, rapper Dizzee Rascal’s producer and manager, ‘DAB is a godsend for Hip Hop, Garage and D&B nationally. Because FM radio is not playing this stuff, BBC 1Xtra is a fertile ground, it’s the only place nationwide that people can hear a true representation of what’s currently happening on the underground music scene. I think that DAB will really come to the forefront over the next few years, it’s like manna from heaven, at last you can listen to some real music.’ ■

sales • support • training in the heart of soho systems specialists for music & audio post production AV Pro Dealer

020 7692 6611 www.mediatools.co.uk info@mediatools.co.uk

know how

Projection screens You’ve got the room and an affordable modern picture source to work to but you’re going to need something to shine it on. JIM BETTERIDGE says that procuring a suitable projection screen is challenging, particularly when cash is a bit tight.

The weave close up

ROGRESS IN VIDEO has created opportunities for smaller film dubbing operations to work with much higher quality images. For a medium sized dubbing theatre, working with a non-linear picture at DV quality is no longer an expensive option, and for around UK£1,000 you can pick up a compact DLP or LCD projector capable of quite respectable results. Then all you need is a screen to shine it at — and how expensive can that be? The answer is, very. You can of course pick up a fixed projection screen with a reasonable optical response for a few hundred pounds. The problem arises in wanting to have three speakers placed across the front of your room at the same ideal monitoring height: at least one of them will have to be behind the screen, which must therefore be acoustically cooperative. Dolby recommends that your left and right speakers be within the boundaries of your screen, but even if you don’t heed this good advice there remains the thorny issue of the one in the middle. You can place it above or below the screen level, but that’s an unacceptable compromise if you’re intending to achieve anything like a final mix for

theatre applications (occasional, uncritical playback applications is another matter). Until recently the only mainstream way to make screens acoustically porous was by peppering them with micro perforations and this is what you’ll find in all the major cinema chains and large film dubbing theatres around the world. Though simple in concept, the making of acoustically effective holes turns out to be unexpectedly tricky and so prices for similarly proportioned perforated screens can vary by several hundred percent. The cheapest I came across in the UK for a 2m wide screen was a little under UK£900 while the most expensive was in the region of £4,500. But even the best set of perforations causes comb filtering and a progressive high frequency roll-off requiring extra EQ, not to mention adding undesirable moiré interference patterns to the picture, especially when used with fixed-pixel projectors like DLP and LCD. An alternative has quite recently appeared in the shape of ClearPix2 from French company Screen Research. It uses a woven fabric rather

than perforations, producing an almost perfectly flat acoustic response that obviates any compensatory EQ. So far it has concentrated on the burgeoning home cinema market winning Best Product of the Year 2004 from US magazine Electronic House. More important from our perspective, it received THX certification in December 2003 with this comment from John Dahl, technical product marketing manager for THX: ‘No screen we’ve tested to date matches the acoustical transparency of the Screen Research ClearPix2 fabric’. That’s got to be good for consumers and pros alike. Not content with published figures we asked Roger Quested of Quested Monitoring to compare some fabrics for acoustic performance. He too was amazed at how much better they performed than the competition with his findings broadly supporting the Screen Research claims. The woven wonder is also claimed to eliminate moiré interference from the picture and received this comment from Joel Silver, president of the Imaging Science Foundation: ‘The Screen Research products have now been certified for Flat Spectral Response and White Field Uniformity. Many materials have been tested and have failed since the category was basically defined almost a decade ago’. Depending on your set up, the picture quality might be further improved by the use of a layer of equally acoustically transparent black material behind the screen to avoid reflections from light or shiny surfaces at the rear. This same material is used by Screen Research in its masking system, Xmask, which allows size and aspect ratio to be changed using a system of borders without worrying about whether they obscure the speakers. The screens come in various formats for home applications including simple roll-down, or a permanent model with electrically adjustable masking or alternatively a simple fixed frame with optional masking as mentioned. If you’ve got some cash left over after re-equipping your studio and want something unobtrusive for home, or need your meeting room to double as an occasional listening room, the new ‘Le Wing’ model might appeal. The whole unit fixes to the ceiling from whence the screen and the attached LCR speaker array descend for the duration of your viewing, sliding back up out of the way again when it’s over. I have no idea what it sounds like, but it certainly has a slick practicality about it. The fixed frame model that I plumped for arrives as a kit involving four very sturdy aluminium extrusions covered on the front side with a smart, matt black velvet finish. These quickly bolt together to form the frame and include suspension points to allow the screen to be hung very simply from a couple of chunky screws. The roll of material is then stretched across the back of the frame using special plastic tools provided to force it into the grooves on the back of the frame where, miraculously, it stays in place. It all feels slightly medieval to the nervous firsttimer, but it actually does work fine and presumably helps to keep the price down. That’s the final icing on the cake of this little find: the ClearPix2 is actually considerable less expensive than the top end perforated option — somewhere in the region of 65% of the cost. Now that’s progress. ■

Contact

Clearpix2 screen at 4 inches — red line is without screen, blue line with screen. 50

Microperforated screen at 4-inches — red line is without screen, blue line with screen. resolution

SCREEN RESEARCH, FRANCE: Tel: +33 2 40 77 87 89 Website: www.screenresearch.com UK, Pulse Marketing: +44 1279 655 955

January/February 2005

ten

Location recordist essentials The kit that any location recordist surrounds themselves with is highly personal, and just like those who ply their trade in various locations around the world — in all weathers and climates — such a list will always be idiosyncratic. Idiosyncratic NEIL HILLMAN prepares for the disagreement. A U D I O DEVELOPMENTS AD261 — As a reviewer, over the last 10 years it has been my privilege to try probably most of the serious over-the- shoulder location mixers available. Yet my own AD 261, number 007 off the Walsall Wood production line well over a decade ago, is still the one that I believe has yet to be bettered for the journeyman recordist. Offering 4:2 transformer balanced I-Os, MS matrix-decoding, unbalanced slave output, dual headphone feeds, XLR and Hirose multipin I-O connections, all the necessary adjustments to presets are easily accessible from the operating position — a significant advantage over its main UK-built rival. Sine Quo Non may be another’s claim; but my AD 261 is simply essential. It has never once failed. SENNHEISER 416 — A shotgun microphone built with the ruggedness of a bazooka, the MKH 416’s interferencetube design provides directivity, while still remaining reasonably compact. It has low self-noise, desirable off-axis rejection and in its 48V phantom power form, it has the ability to shrug-off the most extreme of climatic conditions. Discontinued by Sennheiser a few years ago in a fit of madness, it was quickly re-introduced to calm a panicking public. The newer versions claimed slight response improvements, but the thousands of 416s in circulation testify to it being the de-facto all-round microphone for film, television and radio; suitably dressed in a Rycote windshield. PEARL MS 8 CL — With its cardioid and fig-8 capsules combined within the same relatively light body, the Pearl MS 8 is ideally designed to work at the end of a boom pole, feeding the discrete M and S signals directly to the mixer input, removing the need for cumbersome and heavy extra hardware. The stereo imaging is clean and crisp, yet never unsubtle or harsh. The cardioid element on its own in mono mode can also be useful indoors, particularly in a low-ceilinged room, not suffering from the rear lobes of the interference-tube 416, which in a reverberant room can become a liability. The Rycote windshield is still obligatory, though. January/February 2005

AKG C460 — I have a real aversion to lavalier microphones, even though I feel obliged to carry two Tram TR50s and two Sony ECM 77s. And, at a push, I concede that a personal mic coupled to a radio microphone channel is sometimes a necessary evil; but for set interviews the difference between a stand-mounted cardioid condenser and a tie-clip microphone is like chalk and cheese. I actually have a pair of 460s, now discontinued by AKG, not only used in interviewer/interviewee set-ups mounted on K&M gallows-arms, but also as a supplementary crossed-pair for choral recordings, Christmas nativities and bar mitzvahs. SONY WRR 810 TRANSMITTER/WRT 820R RECEIVER — I have 3 channels of these UHF pairs; modified by the late, and great, wireless-wizard Ray Withers. Ray, on behalf of Sony, redesigned and modified the compander circuits of their poor original audio-paths and overnight made them the fastest selling UHF units. For the first time, matched-pairs were no longer needed — any transmitter could work with any receiver; and well. Such was the audio-accuracy of Ray’s modifications that his famous jangling-keys, HF compander test, caused industry-wide red faces. It still does; the ‘Rayresponse’ is still a wonderful test for a reviewer to carry out. Sony shamefully dropped him and their radio products would never be the same. But I, and countless other recordists, am the richer for him breathing on our rads. REALISTIC 33-1090B PZM — This is the cheapest microphone in my box, purchased years ago, and I can’t honestly remember how much it cost; but it probably tipped the scales at well under 50-quid when it was bought from Tandy. To disguise the ignominy of the Realistic branding, I even placed gaffer-tape over the engraved name; and yet there have been countless times when as a PZM it has proved to be an invaluable supplement to a boom mic: press conferences, boardroom round-table discussions or even hidden on-set in dramas. It’s not too late to get another one either, I’ve seen the 33-1090B make appearances on e-bay recently; at decidedly unrealistic bargain-prices. resolution

BEYER DYNAMIC DT150 — If any bit of kit ends up as a consumable, it’s headphones. Reluctantly being subjected to extensive wear-and-tear, leads get snagged and pulled, wires come adrift from the jack plug, ear cushions split, headband cushions become brittle. Yet a pair of DT150 cans can be re-assembled entirely from spares if necessary; an obvious help for failures on the road. Sonically they are no slouches either. As the topof-the-range to the music industry-standard DT100, the DT150 enjoys a greater frequency response, top-to-bottom, and is more comfortable for prolonged wearing than their film-industry fore-runners, the head-vice DT48 model. TASCAM DA-P1 — The Tascam DA-P1 integrates perfectly with the AD 261 mixer: it slips everso-neatly into the front pocket of the AD 261’s Portabrace soft case and it can be fed line or mic level through its XLR input connectors from the mixer’s XLR outputs; a return headphone feed can be plumbed in from the recorder to the mixer for monitoring ‘offtape’. Other features include a switchable limiter, a -20dB input pad and 48V phantom. There are digital I-Os too, but best of all though is its price: at around UK£1,000 it is between a third and half of its similarly specified rivals. Like its direct competition, it has no timecode; but separate recordings for commercials, still mostly shot on film, are always synced from a clapper-board anyway. SONY PROWALKMAN — The ProWalkman quickly became the de facto transcription audio recorder; robust, reliable and increasingly scarce to source these days. There was a fashion for a while to take timecode from the Camcorder and feed it to one of the input channels, to allow copytypists equipped with timecode readers to add tapetime references to their transcripts, and each of us made special dual input leads of BNC and 3.5mm jack to facilitate this; and to keep ourselves busy on long winter nights away from home. Thoughtfully built with a mic amp and even varispeed playback, if the Pro-Walkman could speak it would drone the immortal words: ‘brain the size of a planet and they have me recording interviews...’ SHARP MD-701 — Ok; it’s a domestic recorder, but this little device is simply superb for capturing wild tracks or sound effects at a moment’s notice, and providing accurate music playback cueing. The Sharp MD-701 is unashamedly a consumer device, yet at the time when these first MD recorders came on to the market, it was the only one I could find that allowed me to feed it at line or mic level, and adjust the input level while it was recording. ■ 51

technology

EtherSound in a studio environment Recent developments have made EtherSound, which is already an established technology in the live sound and fixed installation markets, an interesting alternative for studios dissatisfied with the cost and limited flexibility of traditional audio routing systems. An extended EtherSound specification along with its first implementation was recently released and this enables bi-directional audio distribution over the same cable and higher sample rate conversions at 88.2, 96, or 192kHz. Digigram’s CARL CONRAD puts it all into context.

HE PATENTED ETHERSOUND protocol provides deterministic, real-time transmission of synchronised audio channels and control data over standard Ethernet. 64 channels of 24-bit/48kHz PCM audio, plus embedded control and monitoring data, are transported via a single cable. Thanks to builtin clock recovery, an ultra-low jitter ensures the audio quality. Developed by Digigram and introduced in 2001, EtherSound has developed into an industry standard as companies like Fostex (which has created a division dedicated to EtherSound products called NetCIRA), Nexo, Innovason, AuviTran, CAMCO, and Bouyer have adopted the technology. All these manufacturers produce their own EtherSound-compliant products that can be combined into multivendor networks. Care has been taken to ensure Ethernet IEEE802.3x compliance. Only a technology featuring such compliance is able to leverage the huge R&D investments made by IT giants such as Cisco, 3Com, or Hewlett-Packard for the benefit of the pro audio industry. No specific and costly routing devices or convertors are needed. EtherSound networks support Layer 2 (physical) peripherals and can therefore use standard CAT5 or CAT6 cables, fibre optics, switches, media convertors, and other standard Ethernet components, that can be found at low cost at any IT supplier. As Ethernet technology evolves — for example, Gigabit Ethernet is on our doorstep, wireless technologies are developing apace while equipment prices continue to drop — EtherSound will be able to piggy-back on to these developments and constantly increase its capabilities. Today, EtherSound systems require a dedicated Ethernet network with a bandwidth of 100Mbps. EtherSound may also run within a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) and share the infrastructure of existing data or video networks. This means that if your IT department has scaled your internal LAN at a sufficient size, it is likely that you won’t have to pull a single cable to build your EtherSound network. Minimal latency was one of the key design requirements for EtherSound. No other technology offers such low latency with this many channels and at such high quality. The end-to-end transmission time between a network input and a network output is six samples, meaning 125 microseconds at 48kHz. Every device between the network input and network output, such as switches or other EtherSound devices, causes additional latency but only in miniscule amounts. Each module in a daisy-chain, for example, adds less than 1.5 microseconds, while switches contribute 2 to 20 microseconds. The latency is independent of the number of channels transmitted. Even complex digital networks feature a network latency of far under half a millisecond. In a system that include analogue devices, the biggest part of the overall system latency is due to the analogue to digital and digital to analogue conversion and that’s completely independent from EtherSound technology. EtherSound also offers great flexibility for system design. EtherSound networks replace traditional point-to-point connections by architectures that are easier to design, install, and maintain — daisy52

chain, star, or a combination of both. The extended technology speciﬁcation mentioned above, which enables bi-directional audio-distribution, has further improved system ﬂexibility. Before the release, the EtherSound protocol was restricted to unidirectional audio distribution. In unidirectional EtherSound all devices located ‘downstream’ from a source may playback audio from that source. Bi-directional EtherSound now allows the creation of a virtual bus between daisy-chained devices where a maximum of 64 channels of 24-bit/48kHz audio is available for inputs and outputs of all connected devices, be they ‘upstream’ or ‘downstream’ from the source. In both versions, control and monitoring data are bi-directional and use the same cable as the audio. Bi-directional EtherSound maintains the technology’s very low and predictable latency (125 microseconds).

New generation EtherSound networks are able to combine uni and bi-directional sub-networks and new generation EtherSound devices will be able to operate in uni and bi-directional mode. All EtherSound licensees will autonomously determine their individual product plan to implement the new features into their products. As this text is written, AuviTran’s AVY16-ES card already features bi-directionality. Furthermore, Digigram has announced an update for its ES8in, ES8out, ES220, and ES220-L audio bridges. The ﬁrmware of many EtherSound devices currently resolution

sold can be upgraded in the field to bi-directional EtherSound. Bi-directionality makes system design much easier for one of the most important audio transport applications: signal exchange between studios. EtherSound breaks through the limitations of analogue audio or AES-EBU installation schemes. It eliminates the need to bring all of the audio to a central switching or routing location, reduces cable run and installation expenses, and greatly simplifies system reconfiguration as every input can be routed to every output. AuviTran’s AVY16-ES card, with 16 EtherSound inputs and outputs, can directly interconnect to Yamaha mixing consoles, such as the DM2000, DM1000, or 02R96, as well as Yamaha signal processors (DME24N or DME64N), and all other professional products featuring the ‘miniYGDAI’ interface. To connect other analogue or digital devices to the network, Digigram and NetCIRA by Fostex offer product lines of EtherSound convertors with analogue (on XLR, Euroblock, or RCA), AES-EBU, and ADAT interfaces. Additionally, Digigram’s ES8mic features eight built-in microphone preamplifiers and switchable mic/line inputs. In a bi-directional EtherSound network, the units are simply daisy-chained with a single Ethernet cable and thereby form a bus with all signals available to all studios. The number of EtherSound devices in the daisy-chain is only limited by the needs of the system as technically more than 60,000 devices can exist on the same network. Obviously the advantages of such a system increase with the number of locations that need to be interconnected, but also with the distance between locations. Following the Ethernet standard, the maximum distance between two devices in an EtherSound network is 100m. Intermediate transceivers or fibre optic links might be used to increase this distance to 2km. As the audio signals travel as zeros and ones on the network, the audio quality stays the same from the first device to the last. And the properties of Ethernet cables (small diameter, no audible electromagnetic interference, etc.) allow for audio systems in areas where a traditional installation is difficult or impossible, as is frequently the case in retrofit projects. Broadcast studios (radio and TV) are therefore January/February 2005

technology more likely to adopt EtherSound than recording or postproduction studios. But even there, EtherSound can make the life of owners and users much easier when one-off projects require additional signal paths because the existing infrastructure doesn’t offer sufficient signal paths or because a new location, maybe a recording truck, needs to be connected. Rental companies could benefit from this technology by replacing their heavy, multicore cables with a single CAT5 cable. With EtherSound input devices in a rack on one side and EtherSound output devices on the other side, you can connect the analogue or digital sources and destinations in a very timely and flexible manner. Monitoring distribution to studios and lounges can be added very easily. In many cases, it won’t even be necessary to pull cables in between the devices as often the existing Ethernet infrastructure in the walls of the building can be used. Most EtherSound devices offer the possibility to configure the signal routing locally on the devices, so the system can work without the aid of a computer. Another interesting development in broadcast environments is the move to ban noisy computers running radio automation software from on-air studios. EtherSound devices would be placed in the on-air studio, either in or near the console, and transfer the studio’s microphone and line signals to EtherSound devices in the technical room, where the radio automation system server is located. Digigram’s miXart 8 ES multichannel sound card with 8/8 EtherSound I-Os is an elegant and cost-effective way to integrate the EtherSound interface directly into the computer. Additional signals from the radio automation server travel in the opposite direction via the EtherSound network and are inserted into the on-air studio’s console. Only the silent control interface of the radio automation system remains inside the studio. Other parts of the EtherSound network may connect the main control room as a link to the transmitter site or monitoring stations throughout the broadcast facility. The second aspect of the aforementioned technology extension will make EtherSound even more interesting for the recording process itself. From its beginnings

restricted to 44.1 and 48kHz sampling frequencies, EtherSound now offers the possibility to implement sample rate conversions at 88.2, 96, or 192kHz. All multipliers of 44.1 and 48 kHz are possible. Depending on the sampling frequency the maximum channel count per cable may vary, i.e. 32 channels at 96kHz, but the very low and predictable latency (125 microseconds) remains unchanged. As for bidirectionality, all EtherSound licensees will develop their product plans autonomously as to how they implement this new feature. Microphone preamplifier manufacturers, for example, see EtherSound as a way to distinguish

their products from the non-networked competition. EtherSound-enabled microphone preamps would replace massive amounts of high quality cable running from inside the studio to the console, especially in large facilities equipped for orchestral recording. As multiple microphone preamps can be daisy-chained, only one or very few Ethernet cables would be required to cover the distance between artists and console. This is possible because the preamps would be remote controlled. EtherSound embeds control and monitoring data in the EtherSound frame and thus eliminates the need for separate cables for this information. The entire network can be conﬁgured, monitored, and controlled from a single point using PC software or microcontrollers located close to the console. To facilitate the development of control applications, a Software Development Kit (SDK) that includes an Application Programming Interface provides simple control of the connected devices (including GPIO and RS232 management) via a vendor-independent set of commands. EtherSound licensees may extend this API with proprietary libraries to control advanced functions of their equipment. AuviTran’s ESMonitor Software is an impressive example of EtherSound’s potential as it allows remote control of distant Yamaha devices using Yamaha’s StudioManager through a virtual MIDI connection over the EtherSound network. As EtherSound spreads, every new manufacturer adopting the technology will bring new tools to the overall system. Previous digital audio distribution concerns, like latency, audio quality, and interoperability, are no longer an issue and authorised EtherSound Implementors can help manufacturers speed up time to market. EtherSound is a technology that is now poised to embrace broadcast, recording, and postproduction. ■

Contact ETHERSOUND: Website: www.ethersound.com

January/February 2005

resolution

slaying dragons

What’s wrong with the dB? Deeply misunderstood by many, misused by others, the deciBel sails serenely on, seemingly untouched by time. Is it time for a change? JOHN WATKINSON takes a look.

john watkinson

ONG, LONG AGO, when telegraph poles had to be extra tall so that woolly mammoths could get under the wires, someone noticed a strange phenomenon. The loss in a telegraph wire seemed to be a logarithmic function of distance. Thus in order quantitatively to compare systems, telephone engineers needed a logarithmic measuring system. They named it after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the hydrofoil. As there was already enough confusion between Bell telephones and telephone bells, they decided to leave the last ‘l’ off and the Bel was born. I think that one of the places where misunderstanding of the Bel sets in is that it can be a ratio or an absolute unit and it’s vital to know which. If it’s used unqualified, this used to mean the reader could safely assume it’s being used as a ratio. However, of late, the reader may also suspect instead that the person using it is ill-versed. One Bel is simply a ratio of 10 to 1, two Bels is 100 to 1 and three Bels is 1000 to 1. Thus the number of Bels is the logarithm (to base 10) of the ratio. Although simple enough, the Bel is a big ratio and so it was obvious to divide it into ten deciBels. And yes, the funny spelling is correct. The B is upper case because it’s a proper name like Ohm and Ampere, so it’s correct to have megOhms and deciBels. An amplifier can have a gain of 6dB and no qualification is needed because 6dB is the ratio between the input and output levels. In electrical systems we can consider power or Voltage. Measuring power is harder than measuring Voltage, so often cable loss would be assessed by comparison of input and output Voltages. As power is proportional to the square of the Voltage, it’s easy to convert, because in the logarithmic domain, squaring is achieved by doubling the logarithm. Thus if we compare Voltages, the number of Bels is twice the logarithm of the Voltage ratio; the number of deciBels is 20 times the logarithm of the Voltage ratio. It’s worth remembering a few simple examples. If we want to double the power, we have to multiply the Voltage by the square root of two or 1.4142136. The log of this is 0.150515 and 20 times that is near enough 3. Thus a 3dB increase in Voltage doubles the power. Measuring the frequency response of a device between the -3dB points is essentially measuring the half power bandwidth. Thus one could visualise a conversation between an audio engineer who understood deciBels and an intellectual speed policeman. I would immediately accept that the probability of such a conversation parallels the probability of a lottery winner being struck by lightning, but if Douglas Adams can get away with it, so can I: ‘You were doing 42.376mph in a 30 limit, sir.’ ‘Yes, officer, but that’s only 3dB over the speed limit.’ ‘Technically correct, sir, but I have to remind you that the kinetic energy of a vehicle goes as the square of the velocity, so your vehicle had twice the allowable amount of kinetic energy.’ Returning to the days of woolly mammoths, it was also found that wire strung on telegraph poles between cities acted like a transmission line

‘It was only when electrical signalling came to gramophones that the record industry grasped the opportunity to misinterpret the dB.’ • The fact that the sensation of loudness in human hearing is logarithmic is a coincidence. • A dB figure quoted without a reference is meaningless. • dB without a suffix is a ratio, with a suffix it’s absolute. • dBs are logarithmic. Add them to multiply. • Oscar Wilde’s views on journalists have never been proved wrong. • If you meet someone being pompous about audio, ask him to explain the deciBel. • Tradition is an alternative to thought.

having a characteristic impedance of 600 Ohms. Thus for maximum power transfer between the source, the cable and the load, along with freedom from reﬂections, the source and load impedance would have to be 600 Ohms. Thus a lot of people spent a lot of time measuring 600 Ohm systems and it became desirable to have a unit (as opposed to a ratio). The unit was based on dissipating one milliWatt in a 600 Ohm load. This requires 0.7745966 Volts RMS. Thus 0dB(m) was deﬁned as that RMS voltage that delivers 1 milliWatt into 600 Ohms. Logarithms are great because multiplying is achieved by adding. If a resolution

signal whose level is 2dB(m) is ampliﬁed by 6dB, its level becomes 8dB(m). This is why the deciBel is used so widely in electronics. The fact that the sensation of loudness in human hearing is logarithmic is a coincidence. Of course at one time telephony was the only electrical audio engineering that existed. Subsequent developments such as the acoustic gramophone had no need of dBs and it was only when electrical signalling came to gramophones that the record industry grasped the opportunity to misinterpret the dB. January/February 2005

slaying dragons Now the kind of distances involved in electrical record production are tens of metres at the most. Thus only a cretin or a hi-fi journalist would think that transmission lines exist at audio frequencies within production facilities. Typical analogue studio cabling has an impedance that is so high the dominant impedance is that of the source device. Consequently one would have to be educationally challenged to think that audio signal sources had to have a source impedance of 600 Ohms and load impedances had to be the same. The idea of impedance matching in active analogue audio production equipment is ludicrous. Signal sources having an output impedance of 600 Ohms simply waste half of the available voltage swing. Thus for some time, analogue production equipment has had a near-zero output impedance, and significant input impedance, so that one source can feed many loads. While the technical approach made sense, the undefined impedance left the deciBel in trouble. Thus it was necessary to redefine level in systems where the impedance is indeterminate. Enter the dB(u). This is a unit of voltage where 0dB(u) is 0.7745966 Volts RMS and the impedance and power are irrelevant. The u stands for universal, named after the film studio. This is the unit most commonly used in analogue audio equipment today. It’s kind of amusing that the

unit of signal level we do use, which is categorically not a round number, is based upon a Voltage that would deliver a round number of milliWatts, that don’t interest us, from a transmission line that we aren’t using into a standard load impedance that we don’t use. As a final flourish 0.7745966 Volts RMS was found to be a bit low for freedom from noise, so in practice an arbitrary increase of 4dB is used, making 1.2276529 Volts RMS what many people strive for. While our Voltage reference might be a bit questionable, it’s no worse than spacing rails four feet eight and a half inches apart, or separating one Volt of video between brightness and sync in the ratio of 10:4 and then dividing the brightness gamut by 100. The result of the latter is the IRE and it’s equivalent to 7.1428571 milliVolts. The advent of digital audio meant that level was determined by the size of a binary number, with no voltage, power or impedance in sight. The use of fixed wordlengths meant an absolute limit to the size a signal could have before clipping. Thus we were at once given the opportunity for a sensible unit of level. The level of 0dB(Fs) is the largest sinusoid that just fails to clip in a digital system. Bit activity in PCM goes in 6dB steps and no markings are needed on the display. I thought such a system quite perfect and use it with ease. Unfortunately those

who had grown accustomed to traditional systems in which the reference level was somewhere within the dynamic range of the system with headroom above it just couldn’t live without their headroom. The opportunity for a rational level measuring system was lost as arbitrary amounts of artificial headroom started appearing on digital level meters. As no-one can agree on the amount of artificial headroom, one now has the boring task of finding out what it is before an unfamiliar piece of equipment can be used. Human hearing has a difficult job because of the massive dynamic range of real sounds. Nature’s solution is to make the loudness sensation a logarithmic function of physical pressure. Thus our ability to judge sound level is extremely poor. In isolation it’s appalling, only if we can switch instantly between two levels can we detect a small difference. That doesn’t stop a number of people claiming that they can hear this, that and the other. These are often the people who erect a wall of mystique around what they do and make frequent reference to deciBels as if they actually understood them. This works most of the time, because the understanding of the dB in the wide world is even less. Thus there’s nothing wrong with the deciBel at all. The ratio between the number of people who use it and the number of people who understand it is so great it has to be expressed logarithmically. ■

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Check this, check that — checklist to cover your (increasingly exposed) rear While grazing the AES Convention in San Francisco DAN DALEY discovered something really interesting. It won’t mow your lawn, compress perfectly at the touch of a button, or do your edits while you have a cocktail, but it might save your ass one of these days, and it will certainly make you think.

they produce each year were manufactured without proper licenses, almost in all cases inadvertently so. The point is, the pattern of litigation has been established, and it is against both corporate entities and individuals; proof of intent to infringe is not required; and it’s moving through the production food chain. Are recording studios — and by implication, engineers and producers — next? I could only ﬁnd one reference to a recording studio being litigated against by the record industry, and that instance took place in 1936. Popular band leader Fred Waring found that disc transcriptions of his radio show were being played on small stations across America via a sort of primitive ‘ﬁle sharing’ of acetate records. Waring’s lawyers sued a recording studio in Pennsylvania that allegedly had made the transcriptions. They won, and

the ruling survived numerous appeals and led to a toughening of copyright law in the US. Since then, studios have been named as the source of some critical illicit leaks of recorded material, most notably a 2002 Madonna release whose rough and alternate mixes found their way onto the Internet. But I haven’t been able to ﬁnd an instance in which a recording studio or an engineer or producer has been accused of blatantly swiping music prior to its sanctioned release and distributing it for personal gain. Which means it’s only a matter of time before it does happen. Think about it: the recording studio is the central hub for the creation of music productions, both for the people involved in making the record and for the materials that come in by ﬁle and by tape from other studios. In fact, the recording process is now so diffuse,

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HE ASSOCIATION OF Professional Recording Services (APRS) has formulated a ‘Studio Security’ document: a checklist by which studios (and engineers and producers with home studios) can conduct self-audits to assess how secure, or not, their facility is when it comes to the ways mastered and rough mixes could find their way into the wrong hands. The Guidelines were first conceived in January 2003, in conjunction with meetings with the BPI, according to the APRS’s Peter Filleul. A final draft intended for UK studios was issued in mid-2004. The Society of Professional Recording Studios (SPARS) was expected to adapt the guidelines for use by its US membership by the beginning of the new year. The guidelines are voluntary and self-audited on the part of studios. ‘There was a concern always foremost in our thinking that we didn’t want to impose burdensome costs on already struggling recording studios’, Filleul says. ‘On the other hand, the need to address this issue was pressing and immediate’. The checklist is pretty comprehensive. Under rubrics including Physical Security, Data Security, Transportation and Personnel, it makes a series of statements — ‘Materials — working multitracks, hard drives, CD-ROMs, etc. — should not be left in control rooms overnight [and] should be secured in a lockable safe place’ — to which respondents rate themselves on a scale from 0 to 3. The checklist concludes that a score between 1 and 25 is ‘disappointing’; between 26 and 45 is ‘barely adequate’; and 46 and above ‘optimistic’. The rating conclusions are somewhat whimsical, but they’re not facetious. It’s nigh impossible to certify a place like a commercial recording studio as absolutely secure, but you’d best start trying. Here’s why. In September 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America began litigation against individuals in the US. The RIAA had previously been plenty litigious against companies that allegedly misused copyrighted music, ranging from downloading sites like MP3.com to file sharing systems like Morpheus, to out-and-out pirates. But the decision taken in 2003 made it personal. Since then, the RIAA has sued nearly 1,000 individuals for illegally sharing music files. It has settled most of the cases — reportedly in their favour, though terms of outof-court settlements are rarely disclosed. In the UK, the BPI followed suit, and in October 28 individuals were identified as prolific ‘file-sharers’, offering up to 9,000 songs illegally over the Internet, and traced through their computer’s Internet address. BPI has demanded compensation of several thousand pounds. (The Guardian’s been good on following this story.) At the same time, the RIAA and IFPI have been highly successful in litigating against the replication plants that manufacture CDs and DVDs. They have collected several tens of millions of dollars in fines, via court actions and settlements, against such giants as Cinram and Americ Disque. These are major corporations, publicly traded, where a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions of discs

‘What studio has never been plagued by clients who view their tape closet as a free storage locker? Being sued for a lost, damaged or discarded spool of media is one small step away from being sued for the content of that media ending up on KaZaA.’ ‘Every rough mix on a CD-R is a lawsuit waiting to happen.’

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with a single record passing through as many as a dozen commercial and personal studios, that pinning the blame becomes somewhat difficult in the event a leak of music occurs. You might think of that as a useful barricade against litigation, Stand First but quite the opposite is true. It simply makes for the attorneys what fighter pilots like to call a PERSONS BY-LINE Sue them all; some of them ‘target-rich environment.’ will settle. The solution is to litigation-proof you and your facility to the extent possible. In a sense you already do this when you log samples used on recordings. This is an extreme IVE extension QUITEof that PUTRID effort. APRS’s dwarves Studio fights Security one checklist botulism, is a veryalthough good placeQuark to start.drunkenly It helps determine abused how atwo facility irascible handles lampstands, media — how and one it’s stored, Macintosh who gossips. has access to it, how well that access and the media’s travels Poisons to andslightly from and noisily withinperused the facility one are wart monitored, hog. Umpteen and so on. mats easily abused aardvarks. Five chrysanthemums The APRS guidelines mostly came annoyingly about fromincinerated a fairly specific one aardvark, incident, according becausetotwo Filleul. quixotic ‘We were subways first alerted marries to the wart recordhog. industry concerns about leakage toward the end of 2003 One Klingon when weauctioned attended aoff meeting five lampstands. at the BPI, where Two televisions a high-powered drunkenly team oftastes record umpteen companies subways, [executives and dwarves and] lawyers untangles madeone presentations elephant. about how much money Botulisms was being very lost. annoyingly There was perused a distinct fiveimplication bourgeois trailers. that lax studio Two aardvarks security could towed well Tokyo. be toOne blame botulism or, at least, ran away, one of the then vulnerable Quark cleverly areas.’ He tastes went five on toMacintoshes, state that the even labels’though reps cited twothe obese casedwarves of Linkinmarries Park’s Hybrid schizophrenic Theory chrysanthemums, which, they estimated, however sold umpteen 4.7m copies progressive but hadmats 5m laughed, unauthorised but files two of bourgeois it downloaded. poisons‘At tickled the time, umpteen they lampstands, weren’t sure however where thefive vulnerabilities televisions gossips were but lamely. were Chrysanthemums looking at the entireuntangles production two chain quitehoping irascible to identify tickets, then holes one in security,’ mat fights he says. Batman. The The extremely label wentprogressive all out to make elephant sure ittelwouldn’t ephoned happen on umpteen their next album, aardvarks, Meteora. but It isfive reported obese they bureaux only made towed one master onecopy aardvark. and had Schizophrenic an individual carry fountains it around thequite country, quickly and imported sacrificed their umpteen own optical orifices, networks into because the studio. one very putrid mat comfortably Applying auctioned this heightened off the notion irascible of responsibility chrysan-to themums. what might Two have slightly heretoforespeedy been rou Macintoshes tine distractions bought makes them Minnesota. take on anFive ominous progressive cast. Whatmats studio has mostly never been drunkenly plagued byuntangles clients who view quixotic their tape closet Macintoshes. as a free storage Two locker? orifices What had grew been up. an annoyance now The becomes mats tickled a potential two lawsuit. irascibleInelephants. the US, studios have been Afghanistan sued based on cleverly the legalperused concept of Batman, ‘implied although bailment’ umpteen — even though angst-ridden the client aardvarks never explicitly abused contracted Tokyo, then to two leavesubways the tapesgossips, at a studio however for storage, schizophrenic there is anbureaux implicit auctioned responsibility offfor one theslightly studio tobourgeois keep themsheep, safe. then two irascible Being Jabberwockies sued for a lost, damaged quickly sacrificed or discarded Minnesota. spool of Quite obese fountains slightly drunkenly abused five progressive Macintoshes, because Jabberwockies tickled Quark. Two cats fights the trailer. Two Macintoshes ran away comfortably, yet umpteen putrid subways laughed very quickly. The dogs ran away partly noisily. Five obese Macintoshes towed one dwarf. Minnesota laughed, however umpteen dogs kisses

media is one small step away from being sued for the content of that media ending up on KaZaA. Producers and engineers should also think hard about the many ways in which content can get loose. Every rough mix on a CD-R is a lawsuit waiting to happen. The same goes for that reference mix loaded on your iPod. Music is now distributed in the same way biological viruses are: once a germ or a track is passed from one person to another, it can multiply exponentially and quickly. This is annoying, but it’s now a fact of life. In fact, Filleul asserts that the studio is probably the five least vulnerable Jabberwockies, stage yet of the two record mostly production schizophrenic process. fountains ‘Think of the untangles irresponsible umpteen behaviour tickets. of One someprogressive artists and chrysanthemum the lax practices in very some easily record telephoned companythe departments sheep. or Five the numbers orifices incinerated of individuals Klingons, involvedalthough in making two a almost video,’ he bourgeois says. ‘In tickets comparison, tastesstudios one television. generally have Five trailers tighter controls abused one andorifice. certainly a greater awareness of security The extremely issues thanobese most lampstand of the othervery contributors drunkenly to telephoned the production purple chain.’subways, That, however, then isfive of little wartcomfort hogs untangles in the US, where Macintoshes. the legal MO Five is always bourgeois to first tickets pursue annoyingly the entity withmarries the deepest subways, pockets even and/or though has the least five fountains ability to disappear grew up.suddenly. Two bureaux The latter laughed criterion noisily. fits most The chrysanthemums recording studios, even lamely if the marries former Santa does not. Claus, then umpteen Even the dogsAPRS laughed, checklist however has limited the sillyusefulness Klingon annoyingly against implied tastes liability one poison. in a litigious The quite environment. irascible Klingons IRMA, theabused trade group Tokyo, for replicators, although has five had progressive its Antielephants Piracy Programme easily bought in place two dwarves. since 2000. ObeseThe televisions IRMA ran programme away. The is more aardvark exhaustive fights five than pawnbrokers, the APRS one, but umpteen reflecting the elephants greater almost complexity lamely of aincinerated manufacturing five chrysanthemums. plant, and it requiresSanta a fee-based Clausinspection perused of silly eachsheep. plant Five to assure progressive compliance fountains where APRS’s bought effort one silly is self-policed. elephant. Five But the botulisms aims aresacrificed identical:very create irascible an audit Macintoshes. regimen that tightens The the schizophrenic ship, hopefully elephant beyond slightly reproach. quickly But the towed APRS initiative five tickets. and One the IRMA poisonprogramme telephonedshare umpteen one Macintoshes, other common however fact: they one are not fountain guaranteed incinerated shields umpteen against legaltelevisions. actions. In fact, The much pawnbrokers litigation against grew up replicators annoyingly, took place even subsequent though to one a plant’s partly becoming quixotic lampstand IRMA-certified. untangles the purple Klingons, however twoWhat bourgeois compliance mats with marries a programme umpteen putrid or regimen cats. like these Five willdwarves do, however, extremely is at least cleverly prove auctioned that you were off umpteen aware of the trailers. potential Poisons for a problem kisses and the that purple you dog, took yet proactive two and subways systematic mostly stepscomfortably to avoid thetickled leakageone of schizophrenic copyrighted content Jabberwocky. outside ofTwo yourtelevisions control. The noisily law marries is like water five and botulisms. electricityAlmost — it seeks silly the dwarves path ofpartly least easily resistance. untangles If a situation umpteen arises and angst-ridden someone istelevisions, looking for because damages,two theirsheep attorneys very willquickly look where tickled theyfive willorifices, find the but fewest twodefences quite silly against Jabberwockies their allegations. very noisily It’s not aperused perfect the solution. slightly Butpurple it’s as good televisions. as it gets these days. ■ Two pawnbrokers towed umpteen quixotic aardvarks, because quite angst-ridden subways telephoned one schizophrenic elephant, yet the silly orifice tastes two partly obese trailers, because umpteen aardvarks grew up lamely, and one wart hog bought two quixotic subways, although five dwarves slightly easily towed extremely schizophrenic poisons, however five subways untangles Tokyo, because one

Klingon incinerated five bourgeois trailers, but one subway perused Afghanistan. Quark mostly drunkenly sacrificed five mats, because obese trailers bought Santa Claus, then one dwarf telephoned elephants. One dwarf untangles the pawnbrokers, APIirascible ...................................................... 29 yet elephants sacrificed the progressive television, Audio two Technica 21 however slightly................................... obese Macintoshes untangles umpteen botulisms, then............. Macintoshes easily towed Dangerous Sound Classified 55 Batman. One putrid aardvark comfortably untangles Dean Cook Productions .... Classified 55 Minnesota, although Quark telephoned two almost Digital Village ....................................... progressive subways, but five putrid tickets tickled9the purple trailers,............................................ however Batman towed one speedy DK Audio 39 sheep, yet five botulisms annoyingly auctioned off DPA .................................................... 11 one silly poison, then Afghanistan noisily kisses two Drawmer ............................................. 20 cats. One botulism untangles five partly angst-ridden pawnbrokers, and one trailer grew up annoyingly, ESE ..................................................... 57 but the bourgeois dwarves gossips cleverly, however Euphonix ............................................ 13 purple Macintoshes extremely drunkenly perused Genelec ................................................ 2 Minnesota. Afghanistan off one obese botulism, Harman Proauctioned (AKG) ............................. 27yet the poisons untangles Quark, however one quixotic Jim Hawkins ...................... Classified 55 aardvark tastes the orifice. One cat partly noisily bought five putrid mats, then Loud/Mackie ........................................ 7 the dwarf ran away. Two Klingons towed Tokyo, Lydcraft .............................................. 19yet five Jabberwockies grew up. Media 49 BatmanTools tastes ........................................ bourgeois Macintoshes. Five .................................................... lampstands almost quickly auctioned off35the NAB orifice. Umpteen obese fountains gossips cleverly. Five PMI Audio .......................................... 40 schizophrenic Jabberwockies kisses the television. Five Sadie ................................................... 59 quite progressive fountains comfortably telephoned the quixotic elephants. Five partly silly lampstands SCV London ....................................... 44 tastes trailers. Five dogs almost annoyingly perused Schoepes ............................................ 17 umpteen schizophrenic poisons, but five Macintoshes Sonicfountains. Distribution fights The .............................. silly elephant tastes 47 five schizophrenic dwarves, because one quite speedy Sonifex ............................................... 43 sheep tickled umpteen progressive dogs, although five Sounds Expo ...................................... 45 Macintoshes cleverly auctioned off one television. Soundtracs 37 Cats fights the......................................... Klingons, even though two poisons ran away easily. Umpteen mats fights one quixotic Stagetec Salzbrenner Media Group .. 25 subway, because five mats abused one dwarf, yet Studer ................................................. 60 five orifices auctioned off the lampstands, because Afghanistan abused Jabberwockies. Batman noisily Studio Spares ..................................... 31 auctioned off five Macintoshes. Umpteen cats laughed TL Audio ............................................. 33 extremely annoyingly, but five angst-ridden tickets TL away, Commerce Classified 55 ran even .................... though umpteen very quixotic fountains ■ Turnkeylaughed. ............................................... 57

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of stereo are not touched and classical, folk music and voice recording are not covered. MIDI is cheap! Net result, a pile of under qualiﬁed graduates without jobs disillusioned with the education system and the media industry — see the Media Studies graduates as an example of a course that was popular, cheap and easy to ﬁll. What is the answer? I suspect a national crisis is all that will turn the inertia of education into something useful quickly, but the industry can and should help. Is there a College course near you, do you help out? Tell the students the reality, tell them about what the job needs, not everyone can be a producer — the humble maintenance dept. that can change a PSU at 3 in the morning is just as important and equally satisfying. Both lecturers and students would be grateful and even if they don’t enter the industry they will have learned some life skills and maybe retrained before the student loan crippled them! Name and details withheld for the writer’s contractual reasons

Rob James’ article on reality TV (V3.8) stirred a few thoughts in me as a former broadcast sound supervisor who became a full-time College lecturer after redundancy. We try our hardest to make students into the type of person we would have employed when working but it is very difficult, almost impossible. Students with any brains go to University where they are forced, with a few notable exceptions (Surrey, I find myself almost entirely in sympathy with this letter. LIPA, etc), to carry out analysis and production with Although there are a few honourable exceptions, the little or no practical tuition, one university tutor of my majority of university courses I have encountered in the acquaintance stated ‘they can learn practical skills in a video and audio fields raise unrealistic expectations in morning, it’s the idea that matters’. With that attitude their students and fail to train them adequately for any graduates entering the profession think little of their sort of real world occupation. In general, the lecturers technical staff and rarely value their opinion. are well intentioned and competent but frustrated by the Many students enter video and sound courses framework they are forced to operate within. because they see it as a way to be famous or ‘touch’ Many students I have met on sound for picture courses the famous. In Colleges remember we are now getting are more interested in music or production than sound. a much lower quality of student so Maths, Physics and A lot of students have no desire to ‘work their way up’. even social skills are often lacking and little time is They expect to start as ‘sound designers’ and have little available in courses to correct them. Like any business or no concept of the real nature of the industry. The ability today, the education business must increase throughput to deconstruct a soundtrack and describe it in words that and efficiency every year. We have a ‘bums on seats’ very few successful practitioners would understand will philosophy where we fill our courses to capacity and get you a degree even if you don’t have the faintest idea a bit more despite the eventual requirements of the why a balanced circuit might be desirable. Even at MA industry for entrants. level the story is similar. Very few of the MA students I’ve Couple that with a system where industry has no met 1have even a basic understanding of fundamental say in content or numbers recruited and courses Res_MTvertical_06-04 20/4/04 1:37 of pmall Page technical issues. Not even Ohm’s law or what a dB is, let sorts and qualities run and attract entrants. I know of alone sampling and quantisation in the digital sense. As a two-year sound engineering course where principles you say, MIDI is cheap! The result and the reality is that graduates entering the film sound industry discover that they must begin at almost exactly the same point as a school leaver. Their intellectual analytical abilities are all but useless until they have managed to acquire sufficient technical knowledge and operational discipline not to be a complete liability. Meanwhile, a school leaver, starting at the same time, will have managed to catch up and possibly overtake the graduate’s academic knowledge by reading everything available on the subject and attending workshops, etc. Always assuming they are really interested in what they are doing. As for the universities, I am appalled by the attitudes currently prevalent in the groves of academe. It is totally unfair to raise expectations in people in the certain knowledge that only a minute percentage of them will ever work in the field that they are studying. There seems to be a tacit conspiracy that ignores lack of practical aptitude and technical knowledge providing the students are capable of describing their activities in the prescribed Shop online or call for a free catalogue academic manner. Furthermore, universities have a vested interest in passing as many students as possible. Once you get to MA level, it seems almost impossible to fail. Unfortunately, I suspect this is all merely a symptom of a far greater malaise pervading most aspects of life in the UK. It began with the rise of management consultancy, the culture of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), ‘competencies’ and continuous performance monitoring.

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Putting monitoring systems in place does not guarantee that anything will actually change. Too many people have a vested interest in ensuring the paperwork says what is required whatever the reality. A good example of this was in the news recently. A hospital’s records showed that a toilet had been cleaned three times a day as prescribed, but several eyewitnesses testified that the toilet had actually been cleaned once in three days. In a country governed largely by lawyers, where there is little or no respect for scientists and engineers, this is to be expected. What seems to be happening is this; if somebody has an ‘official’ piece of paper saying something is yellow, it matters not one jot if it is actually blue. In short, providing there are reams of paper and endless statistics appearing to prove a thesis, reality has become irrelevant. Orwell’s 1984 nightmare is here and now, just 20 years late. Police, teachers, doctors, etc. are all forced to spend a ludicrous amount of time on paperwork noone ever reads until something goes seriously wrong and a witch hunt begins. This just covers up bad management. Good managers understand the activities and the people they manage. They recognise real problems and deal with them, without requiring people to waste precious time on unnecessary paperwork. However, I digress. The bottom line is that a degree is not an indicator of competence or aptitude. It simply means you can jump through a series of academic hoops that have little or no relevance to the real world. The industry does have some say on course content in a few institutions. But, almost by definition, the industry people involved in this liaison are the ones with time on their hands, not the current high-flyers. I would like to see university courses changing their admission policies to ensure potential students have a minimum technical knowledge or at least the aptitude to acquire it via a remedial foundation course. I would also like the balance of undergraduate courses changed in favour of a basic grounding in the relevant technologies, techniques and operational discipline, while retaining the analytical elements to provide the necessary academic rigour. There is nothing wrong with an academic approach to practical subjects; in fact it is thoroughly desirable. But, if the object of the exercise is for the student to eventually work in the relevant discipline, then teaching and testing operational competence should be a minimum requirement. Don’t even get me started on the commercial, so-called educational, profiteers! Rob James

META SCENE SETTER I am very pleased with the beautiful article and photo about our new mixing console in your magazine (V3.7 p5). My colleague/competitor Peter Warnier Studio will not be pleased by the title of this article because I think that he was the ﬁrst in Holland to install the Icon. In a very short period of time, three Icon’s were sold in Amsterdam. The SAE is the third client. Looking back to the time that we decided to buy an analogue console and not an expensive digital one (it is about 6 years ago that you interviewed me about this choice) I can say that I am glad that we did make that decision but we would have liked to switch to a digital console earlier. Patching and aligning the analogue console was very time consuming. Now everything is automated and we can work on a project in every studio and editing room. No copies need to be made in real-time. We can work very efﬁciently now on every kind of project. So that’s enough of the commercial! A d R o e s t , M D , M e t a S o u n d , A m s t e rd a m , Netherlands

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