Green Day Live I Secret Sisters I Ainlay on Nuendo 5

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CONTENTS
M I X N O V E M B E R 2010, VO L U M E 34, N U M B E R 11

:: features
22
22 New Classrooms
Why is there such a boom in new studio build-outs
within audio education facilities while the com-
mercial studio business is struggling? We explore
the reasons that these institutions are growing, and
take a look at a selection of the newest studios for
students.

26 Streaming From School

University of North Texas’ recording services direc-
tor Blair Liikala offers an inside look at the technol-
ogy and interactive capabilities behind UNT’s music
performance Webcasts.

:: music :: live
43 Green Day
BY SARAH BENZULY

46 Soundcheck: Renovations
at Juilliard, Jay-Z’s FOH,

33 Road-Worthy Gear

33 The Secret Sisters

48 All Access: Black Keys
BY STEVE JENNINGS 43
BY BLAIR JACKSON

36 Sessions: Al Schmitt and

Shelby Lynne, Megasonic 18 Gear Stories With Sylvia Massy
Sound, More Each month, Massy brings us her stories about the creative applica-
38 Classic Tracks: Metallica’s tion of a single piece of equipment. This month, she reveals the
“Enter Sandman” technology and mythology behind a certain Ampeg SVT amplifier
BY SARAH BENZULY and the Rolling Stones’ 1969 U.S. tour.

:: tech :: on the cover

52 New Products
54 Review: Steinberg
:: departments Record Plant president
Rose Mann Cherney
has built her career by
8 from the editor providing top-quality
Nuendo 5 DAW Software service to some of
10 on the cover the music industry’s
56 Review: Genelec 8260A biggest names. See in-
Three-Way DSP/Powered 16 current terview, page 10. Photo:

56
Monitors Charles Cherney.
66 marketplace
60 Review: Tascam DR-680 68 classifieds (Volume 34, Number 11) is ©2010 by Penton Media Inc., 9800
Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, KS 66212. Mix (ISSN 0164-9957)
Portable Recorder is published monthly. One-year (12 issues) subscription is $35.
72 Q&A: George Canada is $40. All other international is $50. POSTMASTER:
64 Review: TAC System NML Massenburg Send address changes to Mix, PO Box 15605, North Hollywood,
CA 91615. Periodicals Postage Paid at Shawnee Mission, KS
RevCon-RR and at additional mailing offices. This publication may not be
reproduced or quoted in whole or in part by printed or electronic
means without written permission of the publishers. Printed in
the USA. Canadian GST #129597951; Canadian Post Publications
Mail agreement No. 40612608. Canada return address: BleuChip
International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
6 MIX NOVEMBER 2010 I WWW.MIXONLINE.COM
Engineered
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from the editor
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Tom Kenny tkenny@mixonline.com
EXECUTIVE EDITOR George Petersen gpetersen@mixonline.com
SENIOR EDITOR Blair Jackson blair@blairjackson.com

Studio Business With Style TECHNICAL EDITOR Kevin Becka kbecka@earthlink.net

MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Benzuly sbenzuly@mixonline.com
COPY CHIEF Barbara Schultz bschultz@mixonline.com
ASSISTANT EDITOR Matt Gallagher mgallagher@mixonline.com
FILM SOUND EDITOR Larry Blake swelltone@aol.com
SOUND REINFORCEMENT EDITOR Steve La Cerra
CONSULTING EDITOR Paul D. Lehrman lehrman@pan.com

W
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Michael Cooper Eddie Ciletti
e love this cover shot of Rose Mann cherney. It was taken very early
Gary Eskow Barry Rudolph Bob Hodas
on a late-summer morning along the shores of lake Michigan in chi-
cago. The photographer was her brother-in-law, award-winning former ART DIRECTOR Isabelle Pantazis isabelle.pantazis@penton.com
PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Jennings
Chicago Tribune staffer charles cherney. The lighting assistant was her husband,
Grammy-winning engineer Ed cherney, in town for the premiere of his work with SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Kim Paulsen kim.paulsen@penton.com
wynton Marsalis on a silent-film-with-orchestra project. (Brief aside: chuck cher- GROUP PUBLISHER Wayne Madden wayne.madden@penton.com
PUBLISHER Shahla Hebets shahla.hebets@penton.com
ney tells us that big brother Ed should keep his day job.) SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, WESTERN REGION
The family connection was important to us in setting up the shoot because Janis Crowley janis.crowley@penton.com
EASTERN SALES DIRECTOR Paul Leifer pleifer@media-sales.net
that’s what Rose does best: She makes everyone who walks into Record Plant
EUROPEAN/INTERNATIONAL SALES Richard Woolley richardwoolley@btclick.com
feel like a member of the family. Interns, runners, assistants, techs, first-time INSIDE SALES MANAGER Corey Shaffer corey.shaffer@penton.com
producers, multi-Platinum producers and engineers of all stripes and sizes. From ONLINE SALES DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Angie Gates angie.gates@penton.com
CLASSIFIEDS SALES MANAGER Corey Shaffer corey.shaffer@penton.com
the day in 1976 when she walked in the door to meet with studio co-founders
chris Stone and Gary Kellgren, on through her rise to president under the guid- MARKETING MANAGER Tyler Reed tyler.reed@penton.com
ance of current owner Rick Stevens, she has consistently changed the game in
PRODUCTION MANAGER Liz Turner liz.turner@penton.com
studio management. She wasn’t the first to dive into concierge-style booking and CLASSIFIED PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Linda Sargent
hosting; she has just done it better than anyone else, to the point that artists, linda.sargent@penton.com

producers and studio managers across the country acknowledge and even praise EDITORIAL OFFICES: 6400 Hollis Street, Suite 12,
the sense of style she brings to the business. Emeryville, CA 94608; 510/653-3307; mixeditorial@mixonline.com
Make no bones about it, Rose can be as tough as nails on the business side,
especially when dealing with labels and payments. And don’t ever treat one of her
Record Plant family with disrespect; she has a memory like a steel trap, and if you
live and work in l.A., it’s good to have Rose on your side. At the same time, she
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Sharon Rowlands sharon.rowlands@penton.com
makes a killer risotto and a dynamite dirty martini, and she would walk on fire to CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER/EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Nicola Allais
help a friend or a client—big or small, regular or first-timer. nicola.allais@penton.com
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Jasmine Alexander jasmine.alexander@penton.com
There’s no console on the cover, which is something of a departure for Mix,
SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE: To subscribe, change your address or check
and no Grammy-winning engineer, producer or artist. So in a sense, Rose is on your current account status, go to www.mixonline.com and click on “Customer
representing all those who don’t usually make a Mix cover but who keep stu- Service” for fastest service. Or, e-mail mix@pubservice.com, call toll-free 866/860-
7087 or 818/487-2020, or write to P.O. Box 16886, N. Hollywood, CA 91606.
dios running, day in and day out. we’re talking Paula Salvatore, Jeff Greenberg,
BACK ISSUES: Back issues are available for $10 each by calling 866/860-7087
Shivaun O’Brien, candace Stewart, Dave Dubow. Sharon corbitt, Scott Phillips, or 818/487-2020.
Janet leese, Zoe Thrall, Troy Germano, Trevor Fletcher, Kirk Imamura and many, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Mix magazine, P.O. Box 638, Mt.
Morris, IL 61054.
many others. It hasn’t been easy of late, as the commercial recording business PHOTOCOPIES: Authorization to photocopy articles for internal corporate, per-
has undergone dramatic changes during the past decade, with shrinking bud- sonal or instructional use may be obtained from the Copyright Clearance Center
(CCC) at 978/750-8400. Obtain further information at copyright.com.
gets, shorter bookings and stay-at-home artists. Money is still there to be made,
REPRINTS: Contact Traci Mueller, traci.mueller@penton.com to purchase
and there’s more audio and music being produced than ever before. Just listen quality custom reprints or e-prints of articles appearing in this publication at
888/858-8851 (216/931-9623 outside the U.S. and Canada). Instant reprints and
to the world around you. It’s just not the same recording industry that it was in permissions may be purchased directly from our Website; look for the RSiCopy-
1976 when Rose took her first booking. But then it wasn’t the same in 1986 or right tag appended to the end of each article.
1996, either. ARCHIVES AND MICROFORM: This magazine is available for research and
retrieval of selected archived articles from leading electronic databases and online
Economic cycles come and go, technology forces change and the strong—and search services, including Factiva, LexisNexis and ProQuest. For microform avail-
ability, contact National Archive Publishing Company at 800/521-0600 or 734/761-
the adaptable—survive. with a little help from friends and family. 4700, or search the Serials in Microform listings at napubco.com.
PRIVACY POLICY: Your privacy is a priority to us. For a detailed policy statement
. about privacy and information dissemination practices related to Penton Media
Inc. products, please visit our Website at www.penton.com.
LIST RENTAL: Marie Briganti mbriganti@meritdirect.com
. CORPORATE OFFICE: Penton Media Inc., 249 West 17th St., New York, NY,
www.penton.com.
Tom Kenny
Editor
COPYRIGHT 2010, Penton Media Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
FOUNDED IN 1977
BY DAVID SCHWARTz, PENNY RIKER AND BILL LASKI

Mix magazine is affiliated with

8 MIX NOVEMBER 2010 I www.MIxONlINE.cOM

 Bil VornDick, Ronnie McCoury and
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ON THE COVER by Maureen Droney

Rose Mann Cherney

PHoTo: cHArleS cHerney
PHoTo: mr. bonzAI

R ose mann cherney is the quintessen-

tial studio operator. She’s spent the
also understands the value of privacy. A witty
conversationalist, she’s adept with entertain-
influenced studio managers and owners every-
where. She also shared some of that knowledge
bulk of her 30-plus-year studio career at record ing stories. but when it comes to things that with me one recent evening as we relaxed in her
Plant in los Angeles, and truth be told, the matter, her lips are sealed. patio garden overlooking the venice canals.
two are so intertwined it’s hard to imagine one now a partner in the business and compa-
without the other. And it’s not just a career; ny president, she’s a confidante of rock stars, a How did you end up in this business?
it’s a lifestyle. record Plant was the first stu- champion of assistant engineers, a savvy judge I fell into booking by accident, back in chicago.
dio to implement the philosophy that record- of character, a loyal friend, a fervent foodie I was working on a modeling career and sup-
ing clients should be treated like guests in a and great cook. but even though she’s lived porting myself as a bill collector. [laughs] I
fine hotel. originally, studios had been seen as an l.A. lifestyle for those same 30-plus years, had sort of an ethnic look—nobody wanted a
nothing but utilitarian song factories—a place mann cherney, who was born in chicago, is model that looked like me! I was also hang-
to get the job done where comfort and service still deeply attached to her roots. retaining ing out with a band called big Thing—which
were not priorities. At record Plant, all that the traits of a chi-town native, she can be as became chicago—and I met a lot of people
changed, and mann cherney was key to making bottom line as they come, she doesn’t miss a in the industry. bill Traut, of Dunwich Produc-
the new regime work. Her clients are welcome trick and she tells it like it is. married for 20 tions, asked me to come and work for him. He
guests, and she goes to great lengths to ensure years to Grammy-winning, multi-Platinum pro- thought I’d be good at booking. And I was!
that the rest of the studio staff treats them that ducer/engineer ed cherney, she’s assembled a That’s an understatement.
way. She understands the importance of com- large universe of friends and fans. She gener- I went on to work with curtis mayfield, and
fort, vibe and, most of all, good service. She ously shares her business knowledge, and has eventually had my own little booking agency

10 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

on the cover
New wave rocker
One day a producer asked me to make him
Billy Idol (left) and
producer Keith a screwdriver, and I made it fancy, like he was in
Forsey with Rose
a fine restaurant. He loved it, and that’s when
Mann Cherney
I got it: Treat the clients like they are in your
home.
a very reserved And that’s part of Record Plant’s philosophy.
businessman who That and “Everybody is a star; no one goes
turned out to be home unhappy. Whatever it takes to get the
hugely important job done.” Doing that has given Record Plant a
in my life, and re- reputation that has lasted. The look on a young
mains so. The next band’s faces or an intern’s face when they first
interview was with walk into one of the most well-known studios
Gary Kellgren [the in the world—just to feel it is exhilarating. It
other RP owner], gets me high—as does a full studio with artists
who was the com- jumping from room to room creating.
plete opposite. He Back to 1976.
was wearing a top I have to admit, when I started I didn’t know
hat, a long green anything. One day they sent me to get a dozen
with like 21 bands, which is how I met Al Koop- velvet coat, and had a cooler filled with cham- nanowebers. And everybody went along with
er. When I decided to move to L.A. and was pagne. Very eccentric. [Laughs] But Al had it. I called one of the rental companies, and
looking for a job, I ran into Al at the Rainbow. warned me about him. said, “I’m Rose Mann from Record Plant. I
He told me about a studio that needed a front I told them I could only promise a year. I just started here and I’ve been asked to order
desk girl/booker, and he arranged an interview wanted to work in music publishing and I a dozen nanowebers.” And the guy said, “You
for me with Chris Stone [one of the owners of thought the studio was a good place to learn. know what, let me check.” He must have put
Record Plant]. But the week I started, Stevie Wonder was re- the phone down, and gone, “Heh, heh,” before
While I was sitting waiting to see Chris, I cording Songs in the Key of Life and The Eagles he came back and told me they were all out. But
could feel the electricity and mystery in the air. were working on Hotel California. Within six you know, I’m engineer-trained.
I felt it from when I was buzzed in and I walked months I knew I had found my niche. I loved, What do you mean?
down the hall where Stevie Wonder was playing and still love, being in the studio surrounded Engineers taught me how to do my job. Like
air hockey with Glenn Frey. Amazing. [Laughs] by music and creativity. Musicians, managers, when someone’s mixing, you can’t just go in
There’s more to tell that I saw that day, but promo guys, stylists, designers—it was defi- the room and change things. See, in those days
that’s for my book. nitely the scene and you could learn a lot if you there weren’t lockouts—or Total Recall either.
The interview was pretty crazy. Chris was paid attention. It was hourly, with double shifts. Eight in the

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 BOB ROCK
Musician, engineer and producer
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 New from Royer
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“Another great mic from Royer!”

Joe Barresi
(Producer/Engineer:
(Producer/Engineer: Tool,
Tool,
Queens
Queens of
of the
the Stone
StoneAge,
Age, Bad
Bad Religion)
Religion)

Engineer Ed Cherney, Rose Mann Cherney and Record Plant

owner Rick Stevens.

morning until whatever at night, then whatever with me 10 years. We work hard, play hard, have
until morning. And when you had tracking, it fun and the client is always right!
was a problem because nobody wanted to tear But you’re also strict. There are things you just
down. It was the engineers who knew what was won’t do—or allow.
going on and taught me what you could and In the studio you have to have balls. Enough
couldn’t do. They also told me about client balls so that you don’t back down when some-
preferences and how to handle them. one tries to push you around. That was difficult
I would take my booking book and sit with for a woman in those days, and I think part of
them and they would explain things to me. why I excelled. I didn’t take shit from anybody.
Gary Ladinsky, for example, taught me about The first time I held tapes [as collateral until
microphones, about the difference between payment was received] was my first encounter
tube mics and what mics were good for snares, with bodyguards. Chris was worried about me
and how if you had to move mic stands you because I was so angry. The band’s manager
should mark where the stands had been so you is one of my good friends now, but that night I
could put them back properly—and to try not sat on those multitracks and dared those guys
to move the drum kit! I also learned a lot from to touch me. All 120 pounds of me—in my lay-
Gary Kellgren, who was a brilliant engineer. ered ’80s hair! I was sitting on them thinking,
And, of course, I learned how to juggle book- “I hope they don’t print through!” That was my
ings because when they said they’d be done at engineer training. They taught me about stack-
12, a lot of times they weren’t. ing tapes the right and wrong way.
Things are a lot different today. What’s still I’ve heard you can be tough.
great about your job? No one is ever going to tell me how to run my
It’s challenging but we are still doing what we studios. Nobody can pay me enough money
love—making music with will.i.am, writing to disrespect the studio or my staff. I won’t let
camps, DJ Steve Angello (Swedish House Ma- someone come in being disrespectful to my
fia), Lady Gaga, Ron Fair recording strings... kids. They work hard. The studio business—
My business is 50-percent songwriter- any good business—doesn’t run on one per-
based now. Instead of a rock band with all son. It’s a unit. We run as one entity, and if one
their techs, more often it’s one guy writing and little part of us is off kilter, even a runner, it

$895.00 working with five different artists. The creativ-

ity is there. It’s just different.
throws the whole thing off. I really, truly, believe
that you are only as good as your people.

Royer Ribbons You have a huge responsibility to keep multiple

studios booked and you have demanding clients
Good people aren’t easy to find.
You have to interview a lot of people. I’ll inter-
818.847.0121  Burbank, CA. to keep happy. How do you do it? view 25 before I find one runner. I’ve always
www.royerlabs.com I can do it because I have a really great man- been fussy and I’ve been doing this so long I
Visit us at AES, booth 613. agement team: Sayoko Rutledge, who is studio can spot things. When a guy is walking through
manager, and Jason Carson, VP, who’s been the hall, I can tell if he’s ready to leave the nest.

14 MIX NOVEMBER 2010 I WWW.MIXONLINE.COM

Or I can tell if they’ve lost interest, just by the why nobody gets into a studio for the first six
look in their eyes. I can spot it, and I’ll say, months except to clean it.
“What’s wrong? Let’s talk.” Some people are A lot of these kids come out of school and
just not cut out for studio work. And if they’re their teachers haven’t taught them what the
not, I try to help the good ones find jobs. music business is really like. Many of the stu-
You’re big on training. dios in town make interns work for free. I only
I have rules. I train staff by giving senior guys intern a couple of people, but I pay them. Af-
as much studio time as possible. The older kids ter six months they can go, on their own time,
train the younger kids. I also have studio eti- and shadow sessions that the senior assistants
quette classes. And no distractions allowed for do, then after that they assist the senior as-
the staff in the studios—they need to be pres- sistants. And the senior assistants can tell me
ent all the time. No hanging out on the Inter- what strengths the new people have. You have
net, no books, none of that. They have to be to do it that way. You can’t just throw some-
dressed a certain way—no flip flops; they have body in a room because you’ve known them for
to be shaven. If they want to have lunch with a month.
the client, they can if they are invited, but, es- You’ve been doing it so long, don’t you ever get
pecially if they are new, I say to them: “If I were bored?
you, I’d be in the studio thinking about what Never. Some days I look around, and say,
my next step is instead of sitting there having “What am I still doing here?” But I still get
lunch.” I want people who are going to work at excited about it. Because the Record Plant is
keeping their craft up. special. I lucked out to have worked for two ex-
I also work with label people. I’ll invite new traordinary, powerful visionaries who had great
admin people over for lunch and show them senses of humor. Both Chris [Stone] and [cur-
how sessions work. And I’ll advise having their rent owner] Rick [Stevens] were corporate in
own hard drive for security and labeling. With their backgrounds, and they are both marketing
things so songwriter-based and people work- guys. I learned a lot from them. Chris started
ing in different locations, it’s not uncommon me off and Rick fine-tuned me and has contin-
that people lose track of where their files are. ued to be a great mentor. I have an unorthodox
It’s important to control your hard drives dur- way of working. A lot of it is gut instinct and fly-
ing each session. If you don’t, 10 years from ing by the seat of my pants, which took a bit of
now you won’t have to worry about a greatest- time for Rick to get used to. Eventually, I think I
hits record because you won’t be able to find wore him down and he just let me do my thing.
anything. I have to give him a lot of credit. We still do our
If they take their hard drives home, the studio
has no collateral.
share of head butting, but in the end our styles
complement each other.
RECORD
There’s no collateral anymore. The last time I
had to hold something, it was a huge deal and
Do you have a secret weapon you’ll disclose?
I know people who can do things for me. If you
MIX &
I just locked up the entire studio with all the have a business like ours, you have to know MASTER
gear. But now the only collateral you have is
COD. Even with purchase orders you have to
how to find anything, from a sommelier to an
au pair. I like to think there’s almost nothing
ANYWHERE,
follow up. You always have to keep your eye on
things and you have to do your follow-up with
they can ask me for that I can’t figure out how
to get within minutes. We’re in a service busi-
ANYTIME
labels so you know how they do things. You ness. It’s service with artists, producers, even Ultimate Ears In-Ear
have to pay attention. Paying attention to detail the labels. People at labels really have it hard Reference Monitors
in the recording studio is the most important now. They have so many less people and so Developed in
thing. I keep riders for everybody, even A&R much more work to do. If you go out of your collaboration with
people. Notes on what they like. If you’re not way for them, they’re going to want to work Capitol Studios
paying attention to detail, you might as well with you again.
close your doors. The thing is, you have a team where people An industry first, tuned to
How about the ineffable skills—studio eti- care. That doesn’t just happen. It has to start a true and revealing flat
quette? with you. You lead, you train and then get out frequency response.
You have to be invisible. With an assistant, of the way. I want my people to be better than
The Ultimate Ears In-Ear
Reference Monitors
you want it to feel like he or she isn’t there I am. You have to be able to do that with your
isolates all outside noise,
until something is needed—then they are to- staff.
eliminating environmental
tally there. You can tell what kind of assistant acoustics enabling
someone’s going to be when they’re a runner. Maureen Droney is senior executive director of you to record, mix and
The mistakes they make when they’re running the Producers & Engineers wing of the Recording master anywhere, anytime.
are the same ones they’ll make later. That’s Academy.
www.ultimateears.com
1.877.458.1120
CURRENT compiled by Sarah benzuly

MICS tAke CenteRStAge

On August 22, 2010, members of the St. Louis Au- around four feet away,
dio Engineering Society section held a mic shoot- acoustic guitar (Maul-
out entitled “Secret Weapons Mic Shootout,” con- din) at about three
ducted by Larry Cowsert at 12 Bar Productions and feet, spoken word/vo-
Joe Blasingame of Blasingame Audio Productions. cals (Bill Schulenberg,
A sampling of the
The goal was to see what engineers were using as Jen Galinski and Justin mics used during the
their “inexpensive” secret weapon microphone. The Thompson) around two shootout

mics had to be $500 or less. There was an emphasis feet and drums/percus-
on cardioid condensers, but it wasn’t a prerequisite. sion (Dennis Stringfield) around six feet. phone foldback from the RME Hammerfall 9652
Mics were brought from various studios and engi- All microphones were connected using the card via a Gefen DIGAUD2AAUD A/D converter
neers around the St. Louis area. same custom-built 12-foot Canare Star-Quad ca- feeding a Gemini PS-121X mixer from the Nuendo
For the test, they captured the exact same per- bling with Neutrik connectors, created by Gateway DAW Toslink output. Reference mic was a B&K
formance for every mic, but with a more distant- Electronics tech Greg Meyers. The preamp used Type 4007; mics in the shootout included an ADK
mic approach to minimize the effects of not being was a Focusrite Octopre; optical outs were passed A-51, Avantone CV-12, Heil PR-30, Kel HM-1, Little
in the sweet spot. A single one-pass live capture to the ADAT input on a Pro Tools HD 96 I/O and Blondie, Octavia MK-219 and Studio Projects C1.
was their chosen modius operandi. Guitar (Tim a PC DAW at 24-bit/48kHz. Monitoring was via The results will be posted to aesstl.org for
Mauldin) and bass (Doug Moser) were miked from Control 24 on KRK V8 speakers and single head- a fee.

CRAS InStAllS APIs, ClASP

The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences (audiorecord
ingschool.com) purchased two API Legacy Plus consoles
for its C Studios and Endless Analog’s CLASP for the
A Rooms at the school’s two locations (Tempe and
Gilbert, Ariz.). “We went with API consoles because of
their solid history and build, and CLASP because we
feel it is the next step in audio production,” said admin-
istrator Kirt Hamm (pictured). The Conservatory is the first
Students working in the
Fusion Los Angeles school audio school to integrate CLASP into its curriculum and will
certify students in system setup/operation.
CRAS has long provided students with training in analog gear alongside
FUsiNg TEENs digital technology. Each studio offers Pro Tools HD and a 2-inch analog ma-
chine. “Our curriculum emphasizes clean analog signal flow and tape align-
WiTh MUsiC ment, as well as knowing your DAW,” says director of education and Mix tech-
Youngsters who want to get a head-start on their musical career should check nical editor Kevin Becka.
out Fusion Los Angeles (FusionLosAngeles.com), a school catering to students
in grades six through 12. The school includes a state-of-the-art professional
recording studio that houses an Avid 002 with PreSonus mic pre’s, a wealth
of outboard gear and mics from Sennheiser, AKG and Shure. Students and studio Unknown Update
local bands are invited to use the school’s pro software (Pro Tools LE 8.93, Small to mid-sized studios are springing up all over, but that doesn’t
Auto-Tune, Melodyne, Logic Pro 9, SoundForge, WaveLab, etc.) to record and mean they can do everything the “big guys” can. Sometimes, the little
create a CD. Also available is a full MIDI lab with software for film scoring and guys can only take a project so far before handing it off to a larger com-
other uses. mercial studio. The question is, how can studios of varying shapes,
All Fusion music instructors—led by Art Department head teacher Mary sizes, formats and delivery methods communicate effectively with one
Piazza Easton—are professional musicians. Each has played in various proj- another to ensure success and sanity? Find tips from studios that have
ects all over the country. They have extensive educational training, as well as developed effective working relationships with one another in “Confes-
first-hand, real-world experience. sions of a Small Working Studio” at mixonline.com.

16 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

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subject to a related license agreement. Avid, the Avid logo, Pro Tools, and Pro Tools|HD are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other
trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Gear StorieS Wi t h S ylv ia Ma SSy

Her Satanic Majesty’s SVT Beast

THe DangerouS aMpeg Tone

Okay, I totally accept that old amps have

their bad days, but this time she wasn’t com-
ing back. We were midway through bass
tracking with the band Dishwalla and my
sweet, sturdy old Ampeg SVT decided to take
a holiday. So we reluctantly pulled out “The
Beast”—my back-up SVT, which is rarely
brought out of storage because it’s just too
damn hazardous!
The thing was a nightmare. Not a stitch
of Tolex on it. Just a splintered bare-plywood
frame around an ancient SVT chassis held to-
gether with rusty nails. One of the handles was
broken—just try to carry a 95-pound SVT with
one handle! There was a no-logo tattered fab-
ric cover barely clinging to the front, and when
you turned it on, it sounded like a jet engine

pHoTo: geTTy IMageS

warming up. The fan on the back was so loud
you’d have to raise your voice in the room just
to have a conversation, and that even without
a bass plugged into it.
It was an orphan, an unwanted child. My The Rolling Stones onstage with all those beautiful SVTs, circa 1969
dear friend Josh Gordon had brought it to the Greta sessions at Capitol in the
mid-’90s to use for his bass tracks. Who knows where he got it, but the thing The Ugly Duckling
worked gloriously for about a day before it went bye-bye. Blown power tubes. Back at the Dishwalla sessions again, it’s one amp down, one more to go. Scot
He shook his head, and told me, “Take it, it’s yours.” I had to think a moment Alexander, Dishwalla’s bass player, was ready to take the challenge. We flipped
about how much it was going to cost to replace its six blown 6146 power on The Beast and its motors began to throttle up. We dared each other to do it.
tubes, and how the heck I was even going to load it into my 1970 Opel GT Scot grabbed the cable and jammed it in the front. He was immediately jolted
in the parking lot (with no trunk). But, of course, I took it. For the short time with an electric shock, but it wasn’t enough to phase him! He shook it off and
we were able to use it on the Greta sessions, its throaty squawk cut through his Fender Jazz bass guitar roared through the amp with a ferocious voice, a
layers of electric guitars beautifully. I knew there was a shining gem in there song so beautiful we wept with excitement and joy. We hurried to finish tracking
somewhere. I had The Beast the bass before something else happened, but The Beast worked only about 10
re-tubed and it became part minutes before it too was a smoking dead head. We sadly unplugged it. Scot
of my amp arsenal. A Fender said, “I can fix this thing.” I responded, “Well, you can have it,” and the old SVT
Jazz Bass and the Ampeg had a new owner once again. After the session, Scot packed up The Beast and
SVT: That is what a bass is took it with him.
supposed to sound like. Ask
anyone. The Beast worked A Stones Tale
great for years before resort- Fast-forward to two years later. Scot Alexander, now living in Idaho, called me un-
ing back to its bad habits and expectedly. “I fixed up that old SVT, and I did some research on it. I want to bring
I was forced to buy a slightly it back to you because I feel guilty.” Huh? He arrived with the amp, completely
newer and prettier SVT head beautifully refurbished with new black Tolex, a new
to bring to sessions. The ugly The Beast before its replacement cover on the front and a quieter fan, but
transformation, hold-
old SVT Beast was retired to still retaining all of its original attitude. An astounding
ing up a stack of other
the storage locker. old crusties transformation! Oh yeah, and The Beast didn’t bite

18 MIX noVeMBer 2010 I www.MIxonlIne.coM

 Gear StorieS
types for the tour. These amps were basically unproven, so Ampeg gave them
six of the prototypes and had a tech go along to care for them on the road. This
legendary Stones tour had all the stringed instruments being played through
these monstrous SVTs—both bass and guitars—and the Stones loved them!
After the tour was over, the response to the new SVT amp was so positive
that Ampeg went full-bore into production on these beasts, and they have be-
come the most recognizable bass amp in history. Today’s version of the original
SVT is the Ampeg SVT “Classic,” a far steadier version of the wild SVT, but still
retaining a degree of the throatiness that we love.
And then finally, after becoming intimate with the innards of The Beast, not-
Photo: StereoPath

ing its lack of serial numbers and the other roughly hewn elements of the amp,
Scot Alexander suspected this was one of those original prototypes. He felt com-
pelled to give it back to me. For that I will always be appreciative. I have continued
The Beast, gloriously restored the research on finding the original Ampeg prototypes but have been unable to
absolutely confirm the providence of this amazing amp. But unless someone can
anymore. Scot had lovingly brought it back to life and tamed its propensity for confirm that it is not one of the prototypes, the story will continue to be told. The
electrically charging human flesh. He then told me a tale about the Rolling Stones Beast very well may be one of those prototype amps from the Stones 1969 tour.
and the Ampeg SVTs. And now I’m probably in big trouble. Not simply for telling tall tales, but
Apparently, in 1969 someone forgot to let the Stones know about the differ- because my dear friend Josh Gordon is gonna kill me if he ever reads this article.
ences in international voltages, and when they switched on their Fender amps, No Josh, I’m not going to give it back. Nope. Just not gonna.
brought over from the UK, they wouldn’t function. About to go out on their “Her
Satanic Majesty’s Shakedown Cruise” tour, the Stones were desperate to get The unconventional producer and engineer of artists including Tool, System of a
enough amp power for their stage show. So Ampeg stepped in with its freshly Down, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and Prince, Sylvia Massy is
developed Super Vacuum Tube (SVT) bass amp, and as the Stones needed big, a member of NARAS’ P&E Wing Steering Committee and Advisory Boards, and is a
ridiculously loud rigs, Ampeg emptied out its workshop to provide SVT proto- resident producer at RadioStar Studios in Weed, Calif.

20 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

 sound reigns.

in sound design—film, television and video games.

SCAD offers the only B.F.A., M.A. and M.F.A. programs
Christine Smith, B.F.A. sound design student, Warner Robins, Georgia ©2010 Savannah College of Art and Design scad.edu/sound-design
New
Supporting Changing
cl assrooms
approaCheS to audio eduCation

F
or years, engineers out in the workforce ester, N.Y.) and Buffalo State College (Buffalo, bands, and for recording students to track artists
have been asking us, “Why are audio N.Y.). in the studio, but the project also responds to the
schools still turning out all these grad- “Peter Denenberg, who runs this program reality that SR engineers will be asked to record
uates when there are no jobs?” And for here [at Purchase], told me, ‘We’re turning prac- performances on the road, and it doesn’t hurt for
years, our answer has been the same as the tice rooms into acoustical studios,’ and brought studio engineers to learn remote recording.
schools’: “Not every audio graduate is going to me onboard because we have to train these kids “We used to offer a separate audio associate’s
record bands for a living; the industry is more di- to make their own environments down the road degree and a live associate’s degree,” explains
verse and robust than that.” Which is true. because the studios they’re working in will prob- session recording instructor Darren Schneider.
But lately that old question has been nagging ably be their own. They’re turning four of what “Recently, we switched to a bachelor’s program
at us, because in the past two years, in this econ- used to be strictly music practice rooms or class- where recording and live students first have 12
omy, we’ve watched a serious boom in recording rooms into production suites and training musi- months of core audio classes together, and at
studio build-outs within the audio schools. And cians to work in studios. month 12 they split off into a live track or a re-
it’s not like schools ever have money to burn. So “At Eastman, they don’t have a real sound cording track, but for the first year they interact.
why are there all these beautiful new studios/ tech program; this is an institution that’s private This is the first time everybody’s melding togeth-
classrooms? And why now? and classical in nature, but they’re hearing pres- er because that’s what’s going on in the business.
“I think it’s a product of the evolution of sure from their student body to get technology There isn’t a band out there that doesn’t have a
music production, the GarageBand generation into the program: ‘We need to know this stuff. live DVD, a live CD. We’re taking a more inte-
where we’re now producing musicians and com- That’s how we need to present ourselves to the grated approach.”
posers who need to be engineers,” observes stu- world.’ It’s not just going into a recital hall and At the Art Institutes schools, many cam-
dio designer Larry Swist. “Musicians need to playing anymore. You have to get to know media puses are adding a Bachelor of Science in audio
know audio and that didn’t used to be the case. somehow.” production, which has meant (mostly) Walters-
So within the music schools, these people who Multitasking, in other words, is the wave Storyk–designed studios opening up consistent-
are going to be musicians and composers are ac- of the future. And it’s one of the ideas behind ly during the past few years. Nathan Breitling,
tually asking the schools to provide these kind of the high-end Full Sail Live facilities at Full Sail academic director of audio production at the Art
programs because they want to know more.” University (Winter Park, Fla.). Full Sail Live en- Institute of California, San Francisco, says the is-
Swist teaches master classes in acoustics to compasses a performance hall and a pro-level sue of sending students out into today’s music/
the music students at the State University of New recording studio (see page 23), which is fiber- audio marketplace is “a thorny question, and I’ve
York at Purchase and SUNY Fredonia, and he optically linked to the venue. Not only do the put a great deal of thought into this.
has three school studio projects in the works at new installations add opportunities for sound “Ideally, I want them to be in a position
Purchase, the Eastman School of Music (Roch- reinforcement engineering students to mix live where they can, by the time they are in their

22 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

 Photo: helga SigvalDaDottir
senior year and working on final projects, have Art Institute of California,
developed a stance on what their future is, and San Francisco
they’re ready to go out and pursue their choice: As we’ve reported previously, The Art Insti-
Do they want to mix sound-for-picture? Do they tutes are adding audio technology programs
want to pursue music recording? Do they want to to their schools across the country. The San
get into game audio? We help them put together Francisco campus, in the city’s downtown
a portfolio that really leverages that particular in- Civic Center area, now includes new stu-
terest and talent they have. But at the same time, dios designed by the Walters-Storyk Design
students have to create their own demand. The Group. Like many of the other AI studios,
reality is that may mean freelancing—training this one includes an SSL Duality console, an
Director Nathan
them to be those owner/operators. You really Aviom headphone monitoring system, and Dynaudio and ADAM speaker sys- Breitling at the
have to zoom in on every student and help them tems. Director Nathan Breitling says that while some programming may differ SSL Duality,
Art Institute of
define what they want to do, and even help them from campus to campus, all of the Art Institute schools emphasize a strong California, San
define what constitutes success, happiness and background in electronics and acoustics, and hands-on applications in the Francisco

career advancement for them so they can pursue digital realm.

those goals even in this economy.”
Elsewhere in California, the struggling U.S.
economy has been a boon to some audio edu-
cation programs, such as the certificate-based Jacob Burns Film Center Media Arts
audio technology department at MiraCosta Lab, Pleasantville, New York
Community College (Oceanside, Calif.), where Francis Manzella designed this studio for the
35-year-old dilapidated facilities were recently re- Jacob Burns Film Center, a nonprofit institution
placed with large new studios, classrooms and a that offers film, video and audio educational
recital hall (see page 63). opportunities for youth and adults. Facilities at
“The State of California has mobilized itself JBFC include a green-screen production stage,
to get people work,” says Christy Coobatis, who multiple classrooms and audio recording/post
heads up MiraCosta’s audio department. “The studios. This control room includes a 24-chan-
California Multimedia Entertainment Initia- nel Avid D-Command control surface and Pro
tive was funded 13 years ago to set up regional Tools HD; the two iso booths pictured were
training centers for the entertainment industry, designed to serve interchangeably for Foley,
which is obviously an important part of the econ- ADR, music and voice-over work. This project
omy here in Southern California.” required the use of environmentally friendly
Thanks to vocational-training funds, Mira- materials and design, and the facility has at-
JBFC’s studio includes sightlines
Costa’s certificate programs in MIDI, song- to two recording rooms. tained LEED Gold certification.
writing, business of music, music technology
(analog recording) and digital audio (Pro Tools)
Photo: DaviD lamb PhotograPhy
are operating at full power, and the college is
able to keep tuition down to $26 per unit, which
is huge at a time when tuition at most public
and private four-year universities is high and
rising. Full Sail Live Recording Studio,
Coobatis emphasizes that under his guid- Full Sail University, Winter Park,
ance, MiraCosta has developed relationships with Florida
NAMM, technology developers such as Avid and Long known for its high-end, multimedia
even local theme parks to assist students in find- approach to education, Full Sail Univer-
ing internships and jobs. “It used to be that the sity recently completed installation of a
goal of community colleges was a transfer into 1,500-capacity performance venue, Full
a four-year program,” he says. “Here, that goal Sail Live (equipped with Meyer Sound
expanded to also include employability, which is MICA Curvilinear Array loudspeaker sys-
one of the mandates set by the State. Students tem and DiGiCo SD7 and SD8 consoles)
Students enjoy the
might still transfer and go on to get their bach- and the 5,000-square-foot Full Sail Live Recording Studio. The studio is spacious new SSL
elor’s, but our job is to give them vocational expe- fiber-optically linked to the performance hall to facilitate live recording, Duality-equipped
studio adjacent to
rience so they will be employable.” and it provides recording technology students with an additional studio/ Full Sail Live.
Check out photos of some of this year’s new classroom. The 30x30-foot control room includes a 72-channel SSL Dual-
studios within schools and read about the way ity, Studer A827s and a DAW running Logic, Nuendo and Pro Tools. The
they were designed to support audio education. tracking room features room-within-a-room construction, live-end/dead-
—Barbara Schultz end acoustics and a large iso booth.

www.mixonline.com i november 2010 MIX 23

 New
cl a ssrooMs

Honolulu Community College

MELE Studio, Honolulu, Hawaii

Photo: Beth Mchenry

An educational partnership with Belmont Univer-
sity (Nashville) resulted in the Mike Curb Family
Foundation (also a supporter of Belmont) help-
ing to fund a new studio that is part of HCC’s new
Music Entertainment Learning Experience (MELE)
program. A control room and two tracking spaces
center around a 64-channel Rupert Neve Designs
5088 analog console. Director Keala Chock says
that HCC is the only program in the state of Hawaii
that offers a degree in audio engineering. Designed
by local architects Shimokawa + Nakamura, the
studio offers a Pro Tools HD4 Accel system loaded
with Universal Audio plug-ins and an array of out-
board gear routed through a patchbay designed
and installed by Belmont dean Wes Bulla.

In the Mike Curb MELE Studio at

Honolulu Community College, faculty
member John Vierra (left) and student
Taylor Rohrbacker work on the new
Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console.

GAME CHANGER...
HEAR THE TRUTH
Model 42

AES BOOTH 1227

Contact Chris Pelonis- www.pelonissound.com
 PHOTO: CLAUDIA BURRIS
Mark Genfan of
Acoustic Spaces Studio 301, University of
designed this Texas, Arlington
Pro Tools–based
studio for UTA. Pictured is the new main studio within the
GIK acoustical
University of Texas, Arlington’s Music Me- Studio A, Webster University, treatments were
dia program. Designed by Mark Genfan of St. Louis, Missouri applied as part of a
redesign of Webster
Acoustic Spaces (Austin, Texas), the studio Webster University’s audio production department completed University’s Studio A.
is used for music recording projects and an overhaul to Studio A last summer. The studio was out of
instruction. The control room can accom- service while new GIK sound treatments were applied in the
modate up to 20 students, and the tracking tracking room and control room. Bryan Pape provided acousti-
room, which contains a Steinway A grand cal redesign services. Studio A features an SSL Duality, and con-
piano, is roomy enough for large ensembles. tains an Ampex MM1100 24-track 2-inch machine, two Studer
An iso booth, which can double as a drum 2-track recorders, Pro Tools HD and RADAR digital 24-track.
room, is attached. Equipment includes a Pro The studio supports Webster’s classes in multitrack recording,
Tools HD3 Accel system, a Yamaha DM2000 music recording, advanced audio mixing and audio aesthetics.
console and ADAM S3A monitors. Continued on page 63

WWW.MIXONLINE.COM I NOVEMBER 2010 MIX 25

Photos: courtesy unIversIty of north texas

During the 2009/2010 academic year, 30

interactive concerts were streamed from the
University of North Texas to more than 100,000
viewer/participants.

Streaming From School

University of north texas ProdUces interactive concerts
by blair liikala
Using the Internet to broadcast live events Live streaming at UNT began with a push platform, to provide the primary video distri-
has moved beyond being merely trendy to from the Wind Studies division, which was look- bution through the Internet and their mobile-
being expected or even essential. Public ex- ing for a means to reach a remote audience. With streaming possibilities, including their iPhone
pectation and desire have been proven by re- just four months on the job as director of record- app. Starting with a free service like Ustream
cord-breaking traffic for events like the World ing services for the UNT’s College of Music, one or Livestream allows anyone with a Web cam-
Cup and the Presidential Inauguration. Fortu- of my main global goals was, and still is, to transi- era to broadcast video, and that is where we
nately, live streaming is now becoming more tion from hard media to Web-based distribution. started—with just a little more equipment on
affordable than ever. The University of North The DVD market was too costly, with high pro- the front end. Once the enthusiasm took hold,
Texas (UNT) is one of a small group of col- duction costs and relatively few sales. Moreover, it opened the doors to expanded internal devel-
leges implementing this technology within many users ultimately encode these DVDs for opment of projects.
their music programs to broadcast concerts their desktop and mobile viewing.
live over the Web. To make the change, we had to construct Going Social
The major benefits are obvious: lower costs, a system that produced better than the stereo- Thirty classical concerts were streamed live dur-
larger audience, instant feedback. But they can typical small grainy video, with low overhead ing UNT’s 2009/2010 academic year, and more
also be more subtle. The National Endowment costs and without interrupting daily archival than 101,000 people tuned in from more than
for the Arts recently released a study suggesting recordings. The solution was a combination of 3,000 cities in 100 countries. The overhead cost
that the use of online media can more than dou- repurposing an older standard-definition vid- was just $1,000 per semester. A third of the audi-
ble concert attendance and interest in the arts. As eo suite and using remote-management tools. ence came in through Facebook wall posts from
one of the largest music colleges in the nation, UNT’s network was no match for a world- students and proud parents, another third from
UNT has seen dramatic success in the year since wide content delivery network so we connect- various links and the last third from e-mail pro-
starting online concert streaming. ed with Ustream.tv, a growing live-streaming motions. About a quarter of viewers were on mo-

26 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

streaming from school
bile devices; only one-third of total viewership was and chatting. With parents, potential students,
from our hometown of Denton. composers and even people at the concert partic-
Simply live streaming is old news to the ipating, an amazing real-time event evolved and
younger generation, so we made extensive efforts enhanced the concert experience.
to tap into the social-networking experience. Our Suddenly, a prospective student in Japan
goal was not to re-create the concert hall, but to who was interested in the UNT Wind Sym-
create a different experience on the Web by taking phony was chatting with a player sitting in the
advantage of what it does best: real-time interac- audience on their iPhone about how much he
tivity. Video, while forming the basis of our pro- liked the program. Parents used to seeing every
duction, became secondary. Students posted the high school concert could continue to see their
link on their walls shortly before the concerts (us- children play hundreds or thousands of miles
Cameras are remotely
controlled from an SDI-
ing mobile phones), and we got a rush of referrals away. Composers having their works premiered
based suite adjacent to the from “friends.” Ustream had us on a featured list, logged in and chatted with the students. Gram-
audio studio.
and we made use of their iPhone app for viewing my-winning and now Pulitzer-winning com-
poser Jennifer Higdon participated when her
percussion concerto was performed by UNT
with faculty Mark Ford premiering his cadenza.
Metropolitan and rural K–12 schools have had

New TLM 102 “band night” during which they assembled in

their gym and watched performances that oth-
Smart. Sweet. Powerful. erwise would have been out of reach.
The latest and greatest Neumann One of my favorite things to do at each per-
mic is now available! The formance has been to monitor the chat for parent
new TLM 102 brings the big requests. A parent or friend would make a state-
Neumann sound that you know ment that their son or daughter is a violinist in the
and trust into the smallest
first row, and I forwarded the request to the stu-
and most affordable package
you’ve ever seen for a Neumann
Large Diaphragm Condenser
microphone. Our goal was not to re-
Budget conscious without create the concert hall, but
compromising quality to create a different experi-
Tech specs make the TLM 102
incredibly versatile - your new
ence on the Web by taking
‘go to’ mic advantage of what it does
With a slight bump at 6 kHz, best: real-time interactivity.
vocals shine

A full 13% smaller than the TLM

103 makes the mic visually
unobtrusive An operator can zoom in on
viewers’ family members during
Max SPL of 144 dB means this the performance.
mic is great in front of loud
sound sources like drum kits,
guitar cabs and more!

4.6”

2”
Measures just 4.6” x 2”.

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NEUMANN.USA Also Available in matte black.
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Tel: (860) 434-9190

28 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

streaming from school

Suddenly, a prospective student in

Japan was interested in the UNT Wind
Symphony was chatting with a player
sitting in the audience on their iPhone
about how much he liked the program.

dent running cameras. With- audio can create a more enveloping experience.
in a few seconds, we had a This is especially true if the video quality is not as
close-up of the student player superb for some viewers. In the flagship hall, this
for a family member watch- is done from an installed Decca Tree with outrig-
ing live from, possibly, the gers of DPA 4006s powered by a Millennia HV-3R
other side of the world. fed into a LightViper fiber-optic system, provid-
ing the front-of-house and recording split. At the
Technical Lowdown end of the 600-foot fiber recording run terminat-
We started with the primary ing in a separate building is a split between a Pro
goal of providing exceptionally Tools HD rig and a Yamaha M7-CL, monitored by
good audio, not only because my personal favorite Grace M906 and 5.1 Dynau-
our content is classical and dio speaker setup. The M7 may seem like an odd
jazz, but also because good choice, but the purpose is to provide the live stereo
mix for the video suite, backup and return to the
An operator monitors the
performing arts center.
chat taking place during a
performance. Audio is run through a TC Electronic Fi-

30 MIX NOVEMBER 2010 I WWW.MIXONLINE.COM

 public for rebroadcast. We use a content-manage- camera system for recording and live stream-
ment system called ExpressionEngine to manage ing. The hall is set for live streaming to begin
the live queue, and we make archive recordings on the NEA-sponsored November series.
available to UNT staff, students and faculty via an With all the budget crunches facing higher
on-demand streaming section for desktop or mo- education, we will be looking at paid subscrip-
bile phones. Once a live stream is completed, we tions and pay-per-view-style systems for select live
simply drop the recorded file into a server folder and delayed content. But for now, to see a sched-
and it is available within a few hours. ule and watch performances, simply visit us at re-
Opening this fall at UNT is the newly reno- cording.music.unt.edu/live. Then go out and try
vated Paul Voertman Concert Hall, which fea- it yourself!
tures a multichannel Meyer FOH system with
a Yamaha M7CL-ES desk; recording with a Blair Liikala serves as director, recording services
Schoeps KFM Surround Sphere, Grace M802 for the College of Music at the University of North
preamps and Lavry A/Ds; and a high-definition Texas.

Video is carried from UNT’s Recording

Services over the Web via Ustream.

nalizer for just the broadcast side, with the idea

being that the intended listener is listening on
laptop speakers with limited dynamic range and
distortion in the very lows. I mostly monitor on
my Macbook Pro or iMac, along with earbuds on
my iPhone. Pro Tools also feeds a surround mix
to video for later DVD release using an RME AES/
EBU card.
The video rig comprises three permanent and
one floating pan-tilt-zoom cameras remotely con-
trolled from the SDI-based suite next to the audio
suite. It requires one student operator to control
shots and switch video while two Mac Pros provide
recording and encoding through Blackmagic SDI
cards. Encoding rates conform with several stan-
dards between Flash and HTTP Live. All audio is
sent as an AAC-LC, 160 Kbps at 44.1 kHz to con-
form with the iPhone. The internal source has four
bit-rate levels, from a 150Kbps iPhone feed to 1,500
Kbps for home-entertainment centers and limits
the number of connected users. Ustream requires
a 500Kbps feed and has great results for the major-
ity of users on the desktop and iPhone app.
With 30 streamed concert productions in the
past year, I have not always been available to physi-
cally be at every single stream. For technically sim-
pler concerts, I have remotely controlled the setup
with a student at the site controlling cameras. Ap-
ple Remote Desktop is used to control the Macs,
while the M7 can be controlled with Yamaha’s new
software. Website management is, by nature, re-
mote-accessible. With multiple M7 consoles be-
tween FOH and recording, it is simply a matter
of recalling the console settings that the FOH en-
gineer created that week and remotely changing
scenes with real-time feedback via the stream.
Most live concerts are not released to the

www.mixonline.com i noVemBeR 2010 MIX 31

You can’t mess with experience. Among our repertoire of fine products
sits a category that we’ve set the industry standard for — digital mixing
consoles. The M7CL-48ES is no exception. With the inclusion of a
built-in EtherSound interface that connects to up to three SB168-ES
stage boxes via a single CAT5 cable, a simple plug-and-play digital audio
network is at your fingertips. Toting Virtual Circuitry Modeling effects,
Centralogic™ functionality, 3 MY-card slots and the newly announced
M7CL V3 Editor for Mac, the M7CL-48ES continues to prove why our
position on top remains intact.

It’s good to be king.

Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. • P. O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90620-6600
©2010 Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc.
Photo: couRtesy uniVeRsal RePuBlic RecoRds music

The Secret Sisters are real-life sisters

Laura (left) and Lydia Rogers.

By Blair Jackson

The Secret Sisters

Duo upDates ClassiC Country anD pop sounDs
Considering the music industry buzz ra—got up and sang, and it was just the their early 20s, are from a musical fam-
surrounding the impressive debut al- most magical thing: She sounded like ily and had been singing for years infor-
bum by the neo-traditional country duo Snow White or something; I’d never mally in church and around the house,
the Secret Sisters, it’s remarkable to heard anything like it. It seemed very but as Laura Rogers says by phone from
think that a year ago the act didn’t exist different but also sort of timeless. And San Francisco where she was about to
and that real-life sisters Laura and Lydia she said, ‘My sister is coming in a cou- perform with her sister and T Bone Bur-
Rogers hadn’t been knockin’ ’em dead ple of hours and you should check her nett’s band at the famed Hardly Strictly
at talent shows or coffee houses in their out, too.’ So we paid attention to her, and Bluegrass Festival, “Up until the point
hometown of Muscle Shoals, Ala., the she was great, too, and then they sang to- we were ‘discovered,’ nobody had a clue
past several years. They’re that polished, gether and they were so good. But they’d that we were singers. I have friends from
that charismatic. never officially been a band or a group or high school who message me on the In-
Indeed, as their producer Dave Cobb anything and had never performed live. ternet, and say, ‘I didn’t even know you
recalls of their origins, “We discovered They didn’t consider themselves profes- could sing! You just played the Ryman,
them at an open-call audition in Nash- sional singers.” you recorded with Jack White, you made
ville in October [2009]. One sister—Lau- Laura and Lydia Rogers, both in a record.’” She laughs at the seeming ab-

www.mixonline.com i noVemBeR 2010 MIX 33

 music secret sisters
surdity of the Secret Sisters’ truly meteoric rise. originals written by the Rogers sisters. As Lau- they were just nailing the lead vocals on the
“It’s been a crazy year,” she continues. “Obvi- ra Rogers notes, “It was pretty cool to know that scratches. We set ’em up so they could maybe
ously, we never expected this. It’s almost like we songs we had written in the 2000s were compat- punch in or come back to something, but we
get these Christmas presents every few months: ible with songs from the 1950s.” Their sound at didn’t really need to. We did several passes on
‘Oh, guess what, you’re going to be doing a taping times resembles a female Everly Brothers (and most of the songs and every pass was good. It was
[for an upcoming TV special] with Jakob Dylan Louvin Brothers)—“It’s that thing where two just really, really easy for them. They actually told
and Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett’s going to voices sort of sound like one when they’re togeth- us after a couple of days, ‘This whole recording
be there. And then you get to play in San Francis- er,” Laura Rogers says. “Being sisters helps.” thing is really easy,’ and we were thinking, ‘Girls,
co for the bluegrass festival.’ It’s pretty humbling Cobb notes that at Blackbird, “We did it all you have no idea how laborious this usually is!’
and very moving for us emotionally to know that live in one room together, though the girls were I’m not kidding—it was like hearing a finished
these big names are inspired enough by two little in a booth separately but looking at the band the record by pulling the faders up. We actually had
girls from Alabama who nobody has ever heard of whole time. There was a lot of bleed. The first a few more days booked for [Blackbird] Studio B
before, to want to be part of what we’re doing.” for overdubs and fixes, but we mostly just ordered
For Cobb, after the Nashville audition had food,” he chuckles.
knocked him out, “We had to figure out what to Though Laura Rogers says she and her sister
do with them because it was so out of left field— had some typical first-time nerves in the studio,
it’s certainly not your Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. “Luckily, we really connected with all the session
What do you do with this? So my manager—An- players who were there and Dave [Cobb] was such
drew Brightman—and I flew them out to L.A. a huge source of comfort for us. It felt like there
and cut a couple of songs with them at my studio was no pressure. All we had to do was walk into a
[known as 1974, after the year Cobb was born] and room and sing, which wasn’t hard for us.”
they were signed within a week. They had a cou- About the only concession that was made to
ple of songs that they knew and we did an exper- modern technology was using Pro Tools as a stor-
iment with the recording and really had a good age medium, but even that had an old slant: Cobb
time trying to do something different. I love old and Bolas used Endless Analog’s CLASP system
records—I’m a huge fan of RCA Studio B [Nash- in which the recording signal bounces off the re-
ville] recordings of the ’50s and ’60s, and also the round of songs we did were with [engineer] Niko pro head of an analog tape recorder (in this case,
whole Wrecking Crew era in L.A., and that’s what Bolas, and he did a great job capturing everything. a Studer A27 2-inch 16-track machine) directly to
we tried to do with it [sonically]. I thought it would Once again, we stuck with the old equipment. a DAW so that the recording retains the favored
be cool to bring back a little bit of Skeeter Davis Blackbird really has anything you could want; it’s characteristics of analog tape without requiring
and a little bit of Patsy Cline, a little bit of George unbelievable. I stayed up at night dreaming about thousands of dollars of the medium. (For more on
Jones and kind of blend it all together. Country, the gear in the place! So we really took advantage CLASP, see the Mix June 2010 review at mixon-
but also pop. So we had some A-list guys here in of what they had there, plus Niko had some origi- line.com.) “We also had real slap going the entire
L.A. come down—some friends of mine—and nal tube mic pre’s from a DeMedeo desk here in time off a Studer B-67 and we printed slap live.
we did it really quick. We did the demos with this L.A. But the studio had some [Telefunken] V76s We were printing effects as we were going,” Cobb
engineer named Greg Koller, and he had access for the vocals and [Blackbird owner/engineer] says. The producer lauds Blackbird’s “incredible
to all sorts of original Universal Audio 610s and John McBride had these old RCA OP6 [pre’s] that chamber, which is like a two-story-high entryway,
Fairchilds and [RCA] BA6A compressors, and he recommended and sounded incredible. Then but the ceiling goes up and goes down so you can
we really tried to pick period-appropriate gear.” we used all period microphones: Greg Koller, change the size of it. It’s pretty magical.”
Though none of those tracks made the eventual who did the demo, had an original RCA KU3A In truth, the whole Secret Sisters “pack-
album, it set the tone for the duo’s aesthetic—ret- ribbon, which is a mic they used to use for film in age,” if you will—the name, the look—came af-
ro but with a modern twist. L.A., and it’s a great-sounding mic with a crispy ter the sessions for the most part. Laura Rogers
“Then we went to Nashville,” Cobb continues, top end, as well as the low end of a [RCA] 44; so comments, “Dave was especially instrumental
“and did the record at Blackbird, mostly in Studio we used that [as an overhead] on drums, a [AKG] in helping us hone what we wanted to do. We
A, with the help of this pedal steel player named D-30 on kick and then Niko also put up a couple knew that we loved that old kind of music and we
Robby Turner who used to play with Waylon Jen- of side mics—[RCA] 77s—to fill it in between the knew there wasn’t a huge amount of it out there
nings, and he suggested Pig Hargus as the pia- rack tom and snare, and one in between the floor for the general public to hear, so we really kind
no player. Pig was part of the whole RCA Studio tom and the kick. But in the final mix, it ended of blossomed in the studio sessions at Blackbird.
B scene, and he actually helped invent that style up being mostly the overhead and the kick. Near- That’s when we became the Secret Sisters. We re-
of piano along with Floyd Cramer. It was funny, ly everything else was miked with 77s, except the ally became ourselves in that moment. And then,
when we were going through and picking songs guitar, which was an RCA BK-5—a really cool once the music was there, that’s when the label
for the record, he’d say, ‘Oh, I played on that one.’ mic John McBride turned me onto. The girls stepped in and they wanted us to have a unique
‘Yep, I played on that one, too.’” [Laughs.] Round- were singing on a Neumann U48—just one mic look, so we decided the best way to go was let the
ing out the house band were guitarist Jason Cope, in cardioid—and then on one particular song, style of what you see when we come out onstage
bassist Brian Allen and drummer Chris Powell. ‘House of Gold,’ they were facing each other and match the music that you hear. So far it’s work-
The songs are a blend of old country nuggets by we did that one in figure-8. ing pretty well because people are starting to rec-
the likes of George Jones, Buck Owens and Hank “We did the bulk of the tracks in about three ognize that aesthetic of the Secret Sisters. When
Williams; a couple of traditional pieces; and two days together—three or four songs a day—and we walk out onstage, you’re going to see us look-

34 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

ing like we just walked out of 1957. At the same
time, in our regular everyday life, we don’t dress
that way and we prefer it that way because nobody
knows who we are whenever we’re dressed like
regular people and we like that anonymity. It’s
kind of like the only time you get to see the Secret
Sisters is when they come out onstage and per-
form. We like that mystery.” The name was sug-
gested by manager Andrew Brightman.
After the Blackbird sessions and some sub-
sequent mixing work by Darrell Thorp, Burnett
heard the Secret Sisters and was so floored that he
wanted to get involved, too, and signed on as exec-
utive producer of the fledgling act’s first disc. As
Cobb says, “T Bone really opened up a lot of doors
for people to pay attention to the record.” Burnett
suggested cutting one last song for the album—
the haunting Bill Monroe ballad “The One I Love
Is Gone” (which the Rogers sisters sing similar-
ly to duo versions by Hazel Dickens and Alice
Gerrard)—and also a couple of B-sides recorded
at Blackbird with Cobb producing and McBride
engineering. Burnett’s engineering team, in-
cluding Jason Wormer and Mike Piersante, also
supervised the recording of a few guitar and steel
overdubs (by Russ Pahl) and re-mixed the album
at Burnett’s Electro Magnetic Studios in L.A. on
an API console, with Piersante and Burnett tack-
ling four songs, Wormer the rest. Wormer says,
“T Bone wanted to change the aesthetic a little bit
and kind of bring it closer to what we do, which
is a very traditional sound, but a very modern tra-
ditional sound. It sounds old-timey, but it’s also
full-fidelity big. I think Dave [Cobb] and those
guys were going for more of a pure ’50s sound,
but when you hear the girls sing, they immediate-
ly take you to that era anyway, so T Bone wanted
to hear something a little different.”
Separate from all of these sessions was a day
the Rogers sisters spent cutting a one-off single
with Jack White, who had also become enam-
ored with the Secret Sisters’ sound. The feeling
was mutual: “We’re huge fans of his and had to
RecoRding ARts Offering a BM in Recording Arts and Sciences
pinch ourselves and try not to seem like girlie
And sciences (double degree in music and recording) in partnership with
fans,” Laura Rogers says. White and the ladies re-
corded the traditional “Wabash Cannonball” in a Scott Metcalfe, Director the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins,
fairly straight style, but transformed the Johnny A.T. Michael MacDonald and an MA degree in Audio Sciences with concentrations
Cash nugget “Big River” into a full-blown, White Drew Mazurek in Recording and Production and Acoustical Studies
Stripes/Raconteurs thrash number. “We were Neil Thompson Shade
Ed Tetreault
thinking it was going to be the same tempo as the
Johnny Cash version, maybe have Jack play some
Compose your future…
bluesy bottleneck guitar on it, but before we know
it, he’s got that guitar and he’s shredding!”
whatever your passion.
Not bad for a couple of unknown country
girls—and that was all before their first album
www.peabody.jhu.edu
For information, contact the Office of Admissions
even came out. Their performing career is
Toll Free 800-368-2521, in Maryland 410-234-4848
actually just beginning now. They’re off to a
1 East Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD 21202
good start.

WWW.MIXONLINE.COM I NOVEMBER 2010 MIX 35

sessions

CReDIT: vICTORy TISChleR-Blue

Al and shelby—
Together Again
In August “Editor’s Note,” Mix wrote about Shelby
Lynne and her love of analog recording, the sound of
which permeates her recent, excellent trifecta of Just a
Little Lovin’ (the Dusty Springfield tribute produced by
Phil Ramone), Tears, Lies and Alibis, and Merry Christ-
mas, her first holiday record, released last month. She
performed at Yoshi’s in San Francisco on the night of
our interview, then a few nights later was at McCabe’s in
L.A., where she took this photograph with her mixer on Shelby Lynne and Al Schmitt backstage
at McCabe’s in Los Angeles
the three discs, Al Schmitt. She’s a huge fan of Schmitt,
saying at the time that she “just sends him the reels of
tape and he sends me back CD refs. I don’t have to be there because I know Al “That’s her middle name: analog,”
is just the best.” Not surprisingly, Schmitt is a huge fan of hers. Schmitt jokes. “Through and through.
“What gets me the most about Shelby is her writing ability,” Schmitt says. On this Christmas record, she didn’t
“It’s just so real. The silver trailer—she has this love for real things, real feel- even run out to 24 tracks; a couple were
ings, and it’s there in her songs. But that’s who she is as a person, too. Real, only eight to 10. But she uses great mi-
warm, honest. I told her down here at McCabe’s that she should do a live crophones and a great tape machine.
album, just her and John Jackson on guitars, because the way she connects It’s just her, her guitar, the Studer and
with her audience through her voice, her guitar and her emotions is just so her dog Junior. [Ed. Note: She sings into
honest.” a Telefunken 251 and puts a Neumann
Schmitt has mixed the past three Lynne projects in his home away KM81 on her guitar, then to her new
from home, Capitol Studio C, on the 72-input VRQ. Lynne records to Studer favorite mic pre, a Karl Diehl NPNG, to her Mackie 24-channel board and
24-track at 15 ips, with guitar and vocals mostly done at her home in Rancho straight to the Studer. Those tracks usually make it through to the record.]
Mirage, Calif., then sends the ATR tape reel to Schmitt. He transfers it to Pro “I think we did a couple of overdubs on this last Christmas record,”
Tools, then mixes to a half-inch ATR analog machine. At the time of our Au- Schmitt recalls, “but not for anything in the performance. When we did the
gust interview, she took pride in being an analog girl in a digital age, and she Dusty record, and that is a wonderful record, there were no overdubs, no
joked about not knowing what to do with more than 24 tracks; she preferred pasting, no tuning. Very pure. There are very few artists today who can make
to commit to her decisions at the time of tracking. a record the way she makes a record.” —Tom Kenny

Studio Profile Megasonic Sound

Producer/engineer Jeremy Goody worked in and get high-quality audio. I think Mega-
PhOTO: JAMeS whITeheAD

helped build various studios in the San Francisco sonic is a nice bridge between custom-
Bay Area for more than 20 years before finally built facilities and project rooms.”
realizing a dream. In 2007, he collaborated with Goody’s budget for construction was
studio designer Chris Pelonis (www.pelonissound significantly lower than the budgets
.com) to transform a single-story office building that Pelonis typically works with, “so
in Oakland, Calif., into his own full-service studio, I had to do a hybrid [construction] ap-
Megasonic Sound (www.megasonicsound.com). proach,” Goody says.
Goody opened this facility in 2008, and in 2010 Pelonis conceptualized a design
it won an award from local newspaper East Bay and acoustic treatment using his pro-
Express for Best Studio. prietary semi-custom modular system,
“It’s my personal production space but it’s which is manufactured off-site by RPG From left: Brian Hood (who handled much of the
also open to other engineers,” Goody says. “This Diffusor Systems and delivered to the client. “My construction), Jeremy Goody and engineer Gilad
Gershoni in Megasonic Sound’s control room
whole place is built to be a cost-effective way to design fee on a project like this is a fraction of

36 MIX nOveMBeR 2010 I www.MIxOnlIne.COM

 Laughing Tiger Celebrates
15 Years in Marin

PHoTo: RAY VARGAS

Loudville Expands
Studios, Services
Mark Keller’s Loudville Studios (formerly Boom- eras: three in our big live room and one in the iso
town) in Sausalito, Calif., has received a thoughtful booth. Now clients can shoot their video, broadcast
makeover: The facility, which has been providing over TV or the Web in front of a live audience of up
music recording and mixing services for more than to 30, seated in our mezzanine area, or they can be Laughing Tiger owner Ari Rios
19 years, was rewired and re-equipped to add video creating B-roll during a recording session.” at the SSL G+ 4052 console in the
Studio A control room
On the audio side,
Keller purchased an Avid Laughing Tiger (www.laughingtiger.com) has thrived as a commercial fa-
D-Command and Pro cility in San Rafael, Calif., since 1995, serving a clientele that ranges from
Tools HD; monitoring is local musicians to San Francisco Bay Area luminaries Carlos Santana,
via Genelec 8240A 5.1 sur- Huey Lewis, Tommy Castro, DJ Shadow and Maria Muldaur, among oth-
rounds. Senior audio engi- ers. Owner/producer/engineer Ari Rios attributes his studio’s resilience
neers Paul Simmans and to a combination of timing and foresight.
Mathew Trogner are enjoy- “I got in right at the tail end of big record budgets, before the whole
ing the rush of applying thing fell apart,” he says. “You had 9/11, Napster and then [Digidesign]
their studio expertise in a released the 002 [audio interface/control surface in 2003]. When the
new setting. “With the live 002 was released, I said, ‘Everyone’s going to record at home now, but in
shows, we use a lot of the five or 10 years, a small percentage is going to realize you can’t do it all
same stuff that we would yourself at home.’ And that has become the reality. People do what they
in a studio recording,” says can in their own studios and then do what they can’t in a bigger studio.
Trogner. “So we’re using I welcome that thinking.”
our nice preamps and mics Laughing Tiger comprises Studio A downstairs, offering a large
and a lot of things that you tracking room, control room with a 52-channel SSL G+ 4052 console,

Mark Keller live and onscreen in Loudville Studios

might not typically see on live recordings.” dry iso booth, ambient iso booth and lounge; and Studio B upstairs, with
One thing that hasn’t changed at Loudville: The a smaller live room for “tighter” acoustics, a control room and a vocal
recording and broadcast capabilities. studio is still home to Keller’s voice-over work; he booth. Rios notes that “the plug-ins and amount of DSP in both studios’
“We wanted to evolve into something greater links via ISDN lines to studios on both coasts, pro- Pro Tools HD4 Accel rigs are identical, so you can move a project be-
that would make clients want to do their music viding narration for top clients such as the National tween studios with no issues.”
PHoTo: Nissa Brehmer

project here and capture as much as they want on Geographic Channel and CBS, for whom he recently Rios says his studio provides “world-class-quality gear, acoustics
video, or go live,” says Keller. “We added a video completed the new season of Undercover Boss. and service on a sliding scale so that every artist gets the same quality
control room; our video room and audio room talk For more about Loudville, check out videos and experience at a rate that they can afford, regardless of whether it’s a com-
to each other. We also installed four robotic cam- photos at mixonline.com. —Barbara Schultz munity or major-label artist. ” —Matt Gallagher

by Matt Gallagher

what it is when I’m designing everything to be the other treatments. The acoustic treatments summing, he employs a 16-channel Roll Music
built in,” Pelonis says. “But you still have to look showed up on a flatbed truck and were installed Systems RMS216/JCF LEVR combination. Goody
at the proportions, room ratios, cubic volume, inside of a day.” monitors with Pelonis Signature Series PSS110Ps
the HVAC, electrical, wiring, ergonomics, build- Goody sees Megasonic as a “mastering room based around 10-inch Tannoy dual-concentric
ing codes—all that stuff. We do a combination first with tracking rooms attached to it.” Mega- drivers, as well as Dynaudio BM s5s and Aura-
of built-in and geometrical construction and ar- sonic comprises a 21.5x18-foot control room, tone Sound Cubes.
chitecture with prefabricated modular systems. I 24x17.5-foot Live Room A, 14x10.5-foot Live Room In 2009, Megasonic hosted sessions for the
started doing that back in the ’80s, and people B and 11x7-foot kitchen/iso booth. Megasonic album La Guerra No by John Santos Y El Coro
are starting to recognize that this [approach] re- has no console; instead, an Avid Command 8 Folklórico Kindembo, which was nominated for
ally performs.” controls Pro Tools and Logic Pro software on a a 2010 Grammy Award as Best Traditional World
“The construction went quickly and easily,” dual-core Mac G5 with a Pro Tools HD2 system Music Album. “That stuff’s right up my alley be-
Goody says. “We only had to build rectangles and 24 channels of Apogee conversion. Master- cause it’s drums and voices—it’s all about mic
with good dimensions and isolation. We also ing equipment includes a Dangerous Music Box technique,” Goody says. “There isn’t much you
built a few rigid Fiberglas panels to complement EQ and Great River MAQ-2NV EQ. For analog need to do if you record it well.”

WWW.MIxoNLINE.CoM I NoVEMBER 2010 MIX 37

:: music

ClassiC TraCks

go in and play a rough guitar part, and then Lars

would go in and play the drums to that, but he
wouldn’t play from start to finish; he would play
the first verse until he got it right and then stop
and punch in and then do the chorus and stop
and punch in until eventually they got a drum
Metallica, circa track. And then they would do what are called
1990, from left:
Lars Ulrich, James
‘air cuts’: You physically remove a slice of tape
Hetfield, Kirk Ham- in front of a beat, a kick drum, and that moves
mett and Jason
Newsted
the kick drum up in time. So after Lars got the
drums done, James would go in and play all his
rhythm guitar parts, then he would sing, then

Metallica
they would put the bass on last. Everybody doing
it separately; nobody playing together.”
But for The Black Album, Rock and Staub
“EntEr Sandman” wanted to have all four members playing togeth-
er in the same room. “They thought it was a lot
by Sarah benzuly
of work,” Rock says, “and they didn’t understand
Today, San Francisco Bay Area–based band a choice opening slot on Ozzy Osbourne’s tour. it. This was the only way I knew how to make
Metallica are aptly called “The Monsters of But that high was soon crushed when a freak a record. To me it was about capturing the feel
Metal.” But that wasn’t always the case. Af- tour bus accident killed Burton. Still, the band that they wanted. I thought there was just this
ter finding their hometown not as receptive trudged on, enlisting Jason Newsted to fill the weight and size and heaviness in them that I
to their brand of metal, the then-current line- role. They quickly released an EP and then their never caught on their other records; not saying
up (James Hetfield, rhythm guitar/lead vocals; fourth full-length, …And Justice for All. It is at it wasn’t there. I think Kirk had the hardest time
Lars Ulrich, drums; Ron McGovney, bass; and this point where we find the band on the verge with it because he had to play solos for each take,
Dave Mustaine, lead guitar) headed down to of metal stardom. but as it turned out, when it came time to do the
L.A. in the early ’80s to make their way into the In 1989, the band called on producer Bob solos, we listened to everything off the floor, and
burgeoning metal scene. They amassed a fol- Rock, with whom they hadn’t worked before, to he got a lot of his ideas for his solos off of those.”
lowing but found themselves battling the ever- help sculpt their next masterpiece. Rock had just “It was pretty unusual for them to be sit-
rising hair-club bands for true dominance. So finished producing Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood, ting in a room and playing together,” Staub adds.
they headed back to the Bay Area, where they and the members of Metallica wanted to mim- “But the way they record songs, it’s a form of con-
caught a gig by metal band Trauma, whose ic that album’s bottom end. Rock brought along struction. They never play a song start to finish.
bassist, Cliff Burton, joined Metallica short- engineer Randy Staub to One on One in North The guys would play their parts and Lars would
ly after, replacing McGovney. Meanwhile, in Hollywood to begin the long and arduous pro- play the feel for the verse. We’d do that for two
New York, a copy of No Life Til Leather (their cess of recording The Black Album and its first or three reels of tape [on a Studer 2-inch] and
1981 demo) made its way to Jon Zazula’s record single, and this month’s “Classic Track,” “Enter then do the chorus and then drum fills. Eventu-
shop, the aptly named Metal Heaven. Zazula Sandman.” ally, we’d have all the individual pieces recorded
quickly had Metallica coming out east to play Not only was the band working with new and then Bob and Lars would go listen to them
some shows and record an album. creative types, but Rock and Staub brought along all and make a chart of the parts they wanted. I
Rumors abound on the actual reason why a new way of recording an album. “The pro- would go in and tape them together—physically
Mustaine was kicked out of the band after a few cess was very different from any other record cut the tape and put them together to make what
weeks in the Big Apple, but the guitarist was sent I’ve worked on—or since—in that the way they is almost the final drum track.
packing and replaced by guitarist Kirk Ham- had recorded their previous albums is that they “There were so many edits on the tape, I
mett. Metallica released Kill ’Em All and Ride would construct a click track because there was was scared to play the thing because almost ev-
the Lighting, and in 1986 Master of Puppets (pro- a lot of different tempo changes in their song ery beat had a cut or an edit on it. We’d transfer
duced by Michael Wagener) helped land them structure back then,” Staub says. “James would it to a 3224 digital machine at the time and that

38 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

 music classic tracks
became the master drum track, and then from machine that I ever felt comfortable with.” pre-production. Originally, Hetfield’s first set of
there James would go play his guitar parts, get It’s difficult to say exactly how they record- lyrics very blatantly talked about crib death. “And
the bass line down pretty soon afterward and ed “Enter Sandman” because the band would I had the wonderful job of telling him that they
then do the overdubs. It was quite the ‘construc- bounce from song to song during the recording, weren’t quite right, that maybe he could relook
tion.’ This whole process would take, oh, weeks. working on drums first. “I think [we recorded] at them,” Rock says. “I said to him, ‘I think you
[Laughs.]” half the record first and that took three months,” can find a way to get at what you’re saying with-
“I don’t think Randy had ever edited tape Staub says. “And then we started doing overdubs out being so direct.’ And that was the beginning
like that before,” Rock says. “The way we were and give Lars a bit of a break. And then we went of a wonderful friendship when we started talk-
editing tape is how many people do it now in back and did the second-half of the record. The ing that way.”
Pro Tools. We did a lot of editing; it’s legendary. whole record took six days a week for months on When Hetfield went back to the lyrical draw-
[Laughs] There were so many edits in the analog end.” ing board, he came up with the idea of having
tape that we had to transfer it to a Sony 24-track According to Rock, the demo for “Enter a classic children’s prayer in the middle of the
digital because we wouldn’t be able to play that Sandman” had the basic riff and feel, but the ar- song. So during Christmas break, Rock and his
tape back too many times. The Sony was the first rangements were worked out during much of son, Mick, went into his home studio and record-
ed the lyrics: “Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray
the Lord my soul to keep…” Upon returning to
the studio after break, Rock played the recording
to Hetfield, who was happy with the result.
Rock and Staub recorded via One on One’s
SSL using numerous Neve mic pre’s. As for

Naughty the room, it needed to be a bit doctored up as it

had numerous soft surfaces, so Staub and Rock
physically covered those surfaces with plywood

Dog (one side lacquered) to create more of a live room

for Ulrich. Much attention to detail was paid to
Ulrich’s massive kit, using 50-plus mic models

Studios for double and triple-miking the set and room

mics. Other mics include a Neumann FET for
Hetfield’s vocal (though he tracked with a 57).
“James had a very specific singing technique,”
Staub says. “He wanted to do a lot more actual
singing [than on other records]—and that came
a lot from Bob.”
Once drum tracks were laid down, the live
room was put to use for Newsted on bass—who
played through a few SVT cabs and taken DI—
and Hammet’s guitar; he played through Mar-
shall amps with Mesa-Boogie heads.
Hetfield’s guitar setup was a bit more in-
tense: “We ended up building this huge guitar
cabinet for him,” Staub says. “It might have had
an old Marshall head, and that would be just one
part of the sound. I think his standard setup was
this Mesa-Boogie head and then all these other
amps were there to fill in the sonic picture. It
would generally have a scooped kind of tone. I
think we had nine or 11 cabinets—some stacked
on top of each other, some on the floor, some baf-
fled off from each other—and then we’d get this
huge tent around this pile of cabinets curtained
because as we were getting James’ guitar sound,
he kept saying, ‘I want it to have more crunch.’
And to Bob and myself, crunch was more of a
high-end thing, but to him crunch was more
bottom end. What he wanted was when he hit

Pelonis Sound and Acoustics, Inc.

acoustical architecture
the low strings, he wanted to have some length
to it. And the only way to get that length was by
curtaining off this small room around the cabi-

contact Chris Pelonis - www.pelonissound.com

nets and we’d have some mics farther away to get out on it that I didn’t have any real clear view on departure of Newsted and introduction of Robert
some ambience.” it. But I knew it was really good. I’m proud of that Trujillo. The band and Rock parted ways after
This minute attention pervaded the making record—especially the amount of time I worked wrapping up production of Reload (1997). Rock
of The Black Album; Staub offers this example: on it. Bob and I joked that we never fully recov- continues to produce many great albums; he is
“When we were doing drums, we changed the ered from that record.” currently mixing the next Offspring offering.
snare drum head eight, 10 times a day, and he’d “When you’re in it, you just don’t know what Staub also worked on Metallica’s Load, Re-
play two or three takes on that snare drum head. it’s going to end up sounding like,” Rock says. “I load and Garage Inc., and has since made quite
And then when it was time to change the snare was just trying to help them make the album that a name for himself, including being nominat-
head, I’d take a sample of how that snare sound- they heard in their heads as best I could. At the ed for the Juno Award for Recording Engineer
ed and then half-hour to two hours to match how end, I told them, ‘This is great, but just don’t call of the Year nine times, and winning in 2002 for
the new snare drum sounded to the old one.” me. [Laughs.] I’m not into doing this again.’” his work on Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me”
Another example: “With James’ guitar, we But that obviously wasn’t true, as Rock and and “Too Bad.” He still lives and works out of
got to the point where instead of playing the gui- Metallica would continue to record albums to- Vancouver, working on such acts as Stone Sour,
tar part from start to finish for the song, we’d gether for several years—even through the rough Avril Lavigne and Alice in Chains.
play it from start to chorus, change the strings,
and then double it from the start to the chorus.
That way, the strings would be good by the time
we got to the end of the song. And that would
take days to do that.”
“I lean on Sonnox Plug-Ins”
“Enter Sandman” was the first track to be
mixed on A&M Studios’ (Hollywood) SSL 4000
Series console. And even mixing became a study
in microscopic perfection. “One of the big things
back then was that I would use the SSL 4000
compressor as the bus compressor,” Rock says.
“But James didn’t like what it did to his guitars,
which made me have to rethink the way I mix.
What I came up with was, the fact that the SSL
has three main buses, I could put an SSL com-
pressor across the drums and bass, and I could
leave the guitars uncompressed, which is James’
sound. That’s really the biggest part of how the
Metallica album sounds; that’s why it has that
weight.”
At this stage, Rock, Ulrich and Hetfield were
at the helm, deciding on how the mix would
sound. “Lars was a bit of a maniac about the top
end of his kick drum; we called it the ‘lead vo-
cal kick drum,’” Staub says with a laugh. “It was
sometimes a battle between James and Lars:
James wanted more guitar and then Lars would
say there wasn’t enough cymbals. We spent such
a long time on the sounds when we recorded
them; the sound was set in the recording, not in
the mixing. I think we spent a month mixing.”
Adds Rock: “What’s great about Metallica is
that they have this attitude that we have to make
something great; we have to break boundaries in
terms of what people think is great and we’re not
willing to compromise. In the end, we needed a
bit of a kick in the pants to finish [the album]. Rob Hoffman
Michael Jackson,
For the last four or five days, I think Randy and I
Christina Aguilera
were surviving on bubble gum and coffee.”
Did either of them have any idea how big
“Enter Sandman”—and The Black Album—
would become? “I certainly didn’t,” Staub re-
plies. “I knew it was a really good record, but by
the time the record was finished, I was so burnt

www.mixonline.com i noVemBeR 2010 MIX 41

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 Green Day,
from left:
Billie Joe
Armstrong,
Mike Dirnt
and Tre Cool
live
Photos: steve Jennings

Green Day
by sarah benzuly

Hi-Fi Sound THrillS THe Crowd

When Green Day finally hit the stage at Clair Global is providing all gear, in- for different rooms. We like the sound of
the Shoreline Amphitheater (Mountain cluding its new Clair i3 compact line ar- the older amplifiers a little bit better [than
View, Calif.), the sold-out crowd went ray. According to systems tech/crew chief Clair’s newer models] because Green Day
absolutely wild, eagerly anticipating Jason Vrobel, the P.A. comprises 20 i3 is a very analog-sounding band; no digital
what the punk-rockers would play from boxes per side with 12 Prism subs per consoles. They’re looking for a distinctive
their extensive catalog. Would the set list side. “In addition, we have four Clair R4s tone out of the P.A. so we’re going a bit
draw heavily from their latest, 21st Cen- and four S4 subs and some P2 boxes for more old-school.”
tury Breakdown? Radio hits from Dookie? front-fill, just to fill in some of the spots “We definitely want to make it a live
Would they pull out B-sides from back we’re missing with the P.A.,” Vrobel says. experience,” front-of-house engineer
in the days of slugging it through small “We’re also using eight Clair IDLs per Kevin Lemoine adds, “but we don’t want
clubs in their hometown of Berkeley? In side [the new two-way delay box] on some to alienate fans who are coming to the
fact, they chose a little bit of everything. shows to fill in the outside of the i3s. I show who are used to hearing the CDs
And Green Day, over the years, has tune the P.A. every day [using a rack full of and the songs and the videos. You don’t
finely honed their sound—a gritty blend Clair iOs]. With the shed run in the U.S., want to take them too far away from
of punk and rock. Sure, it’s a live show, it’s fairly consistent with the same sort that.” Lemoine, who has been with the
but they want their signature album of EQ we put on the P.A., but here and band for the past 10 years, mixes with
sound to pulse through the P.A. there we’ll change different frequencies that in mind, but is also contending with

www.mixonline.com i november 2010 MIX 43

 live green day
a few extra musicians to help bolster the sound. XL4 board. (He started using an API Paragon II then as monitor engineer since 2005—mans a
Jason Freeze plays piano, sax, accordion and Ham- at the onset of the tour but switched to the Midas Studer Vista 5 console, using the board’s 96 inputs
mond B3, as well as contributing background vo- about halfway through the North American dates.) and 56 outs. “A lot of the reason why I chose this
cals; Jason White offers his acoustic and electric “The Paragon is an older console and things just console initially is because of the outputs I have. I
guitar playing, as well as background vocals; and stopped working on it,” Lemoine says of the switch. wasn’t sure [at rehearsals for this tour] if we were
Jeff Matika, guitarist. The addition of these extra “We’d have to change out input strips and preamp going to use wedges or in-ears. When we first
touring musicians, says Lemoine, “fills out the modules a lot; maybe once every five days. I found started, I built mixes for wedges and in-ears at the
sound of the records that have come out since the sound of it to be true and uncolored while the same time.” Since then, the band has opted to all
2004. Their albums have gotten more advanced Midas brought a bit more grit to the mix. I like the go on in-ears (Ultimate Ears UE-11s), a switch that
and they wanted to [mirror] that live. It helps [my Midas a lot; it’s a 12-year-old console we’re using, was brought forth by the bandmembers them-
mix] a lot because there’s more things going on but it’s really held up well.” selves; previous tours saw Billie Joe Armstrong
and it makes it sound bigger. I’ve got a lot more Monitor engineer Beau Alexander—who is (vocals/guitar), Tre Cool (drums) and Mike Dirnt
channels, but that’s just fine.” also quite familiar with the band’s tone, having (bass) on wedges and the support musicians on
Those extra channels are housed in his Midas worked with them as a monitor tech in 2004 and in-ears. “I went from mixing wedges, where I basi-
cally had a fixed mono spot, to a big, broad stereo
mix, and they can run all over [the stage] and still

THANK
hear what’s going on,” Alexander says. “With a ste-
reo spectrum, I’m able to do a lot more with the
mix and create a bigger atmosphere, which is lot
more fun for me—getting creative with the mix.”

GOG!
Alexander is giving each bandmember a pret-
ty straightforward mix, but creating a stereo image
where each performer can hear everything. “They
like to be in touch with what everybody’s doing,”
Alexander says. “Now that we’re getting into more
background vocals, it’s a lot of spreading out vocals
so they can harmonize together. With each indi-
vidual input we have, they work really hard on cre-
ating a certain sound that they like to use for their
instruments. My job is to present them with the
way things are actually sounding instead of doctor-
ing it up. With Tre, he likes to hear what his drums
are actually doing, not like Kevin out front who is
EQ’ing to make it sound more like the record.”
Lemoine also keeps his mix pretty clean, in-
voking a few delays and reverbs, as well as an
Eventide Harmonizer on background vocals. But
where his mix gets a bit heavy is on the mic side.
Cool’s kit is miked with a Beta 91, a Neumann 170
The most advanced drum replacement and a Lawson FET47 reproduction on kick; a Tele-
software ever created has now arrived. funken M80 and an AKG 414 on snare top, and
a Neumann 184 for bottom; a Neumann 184 on

Drumagog 5
hi-hat; and Beta 98s on rack toms. Floor toms are
miked with Josephson e22S because “Tre is a very
dynamic player,” Lemoine explains. “He’ll hit with
the strength of an elephant and the next second
Featuring the most accurate triggering known to man it’ll sound like a fly just landed on the tom tom.
Automatic open and closed hi-hat detection We had to find a mic for the floor tom that would
Multiple room and mic samples • Plug-in hosting allow for that dynamic range. Cymbals are individ-

Built-in convolution reverb and morph engine ually miked with 184s underneath. Overheads are
Telefunken stereo single-source M215s—it’s their
Volume independant triggering • Automatic ducking version of an AKG C24. They’re placed four feet
Automatic left/right samples replacement above Tre’s head and bring in some ambience. ”
and much, much more Other mics include a Neumann TLM 103 on
bass cab (taken DI out of a Vintech 1073), an SM7,
Get the whole story at www.Drumagog.com a Sennheiser 421 and two Neumann 103s for each
of Armstrong’s two Marshall heads (going into
two 4x12s). Freeze’s piano is taken DI, while his

44 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

 Monitor engineer Leslie is miked with an old show. It sounds amazing.”
Beau Alexander at
the Studer Vista 5 AKG D12 (bottom) and “It’s a rock band and they have a lot of inputs,
Shure Beta 91 (top); his sax but I tend to lean more toward high-end micro-
takes a clip-on Audio-Technica mic. Guitarist Jeff phones and preamps just due to the nature of the
Matika plays his axe through a Fender BassMan, show,” Lemoine adds. “It’s a very hi-fi, traditionally
which has an SM7. Extra guitarist White has a inspired show. The audience has to be able to hear
similar setup to Armstrong’s, with the exception every little thing. Mike doesn’t play your tradition-
that each cab as a TLM 103 on it. “He also has al bass line; he’s more melodic. Most of the time
a [Placid Audio] Copperphone—an effects micro- he carries the song, along with the vocal. The two
phone—that sounds like a real telephone,” Lem- guitar players [Armstrong and White] have to be
oine adds. “I only use it on a couple of songs.” distinguished from each other so the tones have to
Everybody sings into Telefunken M80s, be pretty specific. And everybody’s vocal has to be
which were given a bit of a facelift. “Telefunken there. It’s pretty challenging to do that over 20,000
put their M80 capsule onto a screaming kids, but I love it, it’s a lot of fun!”
Shure handheld wireless for Bil- But what has Lemoine all excited is the
lie’s vocal because he uses a wire- prospect of his own FOH rig for the next tour.
less,” Lemoine says. “We’ve used Right now, they’re trying out different pieces
Shure 58 capsules on top of the of gear, including a Neve 5088 16-channel con-
Shure radio mics forever, and sole, a slew of Chandler Limited items—“the
we sent [Telefunken] a handheld best of the best,” Lemoine enthuses. “I don’t like
unit and they retrofitted it with the way digital consoles sound. And I’m taking
the M80 capsule on top. They cues from the guys back in the ’40s and ’50s who
sound amazing, so we got them were doing early recordings where things that
to do 40 of them for us because they needed to do their job simply didn’t exist.
it’s an aggressive show and Bil- That’s where I’m sitting right now. We’re going
lie goes through one every other to make our own stuff up.”

Jason Vrobel (left) and Kevin

Lemoine at the Midas XL4 Sarah Benzuly is Mix’s managing editor.

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Yamaha iPad StageMix for M7CL Mixer

Juilliard Gets a Facelift Yamaha’s Stage-

Mix (free from
The famed Juilliard School of Music in Lincoln “Altel also provided a substantial amount of the the Apple iTunes
Center (New York City) has completed a major initial work in the other facilities in the building such Store) iPad app of-
renovation. It now features 45,000 square feet of as the Black Box Theater, so the infrastructure got fers remote control
new facilities and 50,000 square feet of renovated handled during that first phase of the work. Then of the company’s
spaces—many of which were turned “inside out” so there was a secondary bid project, which came di- M7CL mixer func-
that the hustle and bustle inside the school can be rectly from the Juilliard School to outfit new gear for tions from anywhere
seen by pedestrians outside. According to system the main studio, rehearsal halls, music technology within a wireless range. Via iPad control, engineers
installers Altel Systems’ (Brewster, N.Y.) president/ suites and the Black Box Theater.” can set up monitor mixes from an artist’s position
CEO, Andy Musci, this two-step process was “origi- Juilliard’s longtime Recording Department onstage, directly controlling mix parameters: faders,
nally a bid project and we were awarded the initial director, Bob Taibbi, a 38-year veteran of the school, sends, EQs, mutes, buses, etc. To run StageMix, a
job four years ago where we worked with Turner says that the department’s role is not to teach wireless connection from the iPad to a WiFi access
recording, but “to record the public point and an Ethernet connection from the WiFi ac-
performances that we do here at the cess point to the M7CLv3 is required.
school for archival purposes, which www.yamahaca.com
include orchestral performances,
lectures, master classes and anything Soundcraft Vi/Si Compact Stagebox
they want for the archives. With the
renovation, the school was going to
build a new orchestra rehearsal room,
so attached to that—because I always
need more space—they gave us this
whole A/V suite that includes my of-
fice, two audio edit rooms, a video edit Soundcraft’s four-rackspace Compact Stagebox
room, a control room that’s attached for Vi and Si consoles offers 32 mic/line ins,
to the new orchestral rehearsal room eight line outs, eight AES/EBU outs and two
and a video control room.” expansion slots for Studer D21m I/O cards. The
Taibbi’s setup in the main control D21m I/O architecture interfaces with digital
Construction to fully fit out Alice Tully Hall with both room includes a Soundcraft Phantom console, platforms such as CobraNet, Aviom A-Net16,
a Performance Sound System and a Cinema Sound ADAM Audio monitoring systems, Millennia Ethersound, ADAT and RockNet. A MADI re-
System. Although housed in the same building, preamps, Aphex and Lexicon outboard gear, and cording interface is also available. The Compact
Tully Hall is managed separately by Lincoln Center Neumann, Schoeps, DPA and AKG microphones, Stagebox connects to the host console via Cat-5
for the Performing Arts and Juilliard is a separate alongside Middle Atlantic enclosures and furniture or fiber-optic MADI.
and distinct entity. in the audio and video edit suites. www.soundcraft.com

Nexo 45 N-12

fix it Jay-Z Front-of-House Engineer

Kenyatta “Kelo” Saunders
The Nexo 45 N-12 is
a 19.4x22.6x15.5-inch
package with a 12-
I break the band down as if it was a studio mixing session, with each inch, high-excursion
[Midas XL8] VCA group being a different instrument type and the last Neodymium woofer
two VCAs as master vocal and master band faders. This makes it easy and a 3-inch voice
to bring down the overall level of the band if I need the voice to stand coil, Neodymium
out a little more. The EQ, gates and multiple compressors are stellar. high-frequency driver on a 22.5-degree wave
When you EQ something, you can hear it changing just like on a Midas source with 140dB peak handling. Multiple
analog console. The multiband compressor is my all-time favorite. Jay-Z adjacent monitors can be used with stable fre-
naturally has this 2 to 2.5k thing on his voice, depending how hyped he quency response. The unpowered design can
is. The multiband compressor allows me to keep that under control be switched from passive to bi-amped inputs.
without sounding too extreme. www.nexo.fr

46 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

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:: live

ALL ACCESS Photos and text by Steve Jennings

The
Black Keys

The Black Keys—guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney—

have had a pretty packed few years. In addition to working on the highly
acclaimed Brothers album (released in 2010), last year saw Auerbach creat-
ing his solo debut and Carney playing bass in his own combo, Drummer;
they also fulfilled their Black Keys touring commitments, which included
a two-night stay at Oakland, Calif.’s Fox Theater, where Mix caught up with
the band.

As the tour is not carrying production— “We generally run about 24 inputs: A
nor a monitor engineer—production man- few DIs and a few mics, and we’re ready
ager/front-of-house engineer Jason Tarull to rock,” he continues. “We’re looking
is working with house-provided consoles into carrying our own production, in-
and P.A.s; at the Fox Theater, he mixed on cluding an Avid digital console at FOH.
a Yamaha PM5D. Tarulli does have his own Having a different P.A. and console setup
mics and racks (an Alesis HD24 as they every night keeps me on my toes. We
are multitracking every night, as well also don’t tour with a monitor engineer,
as Klark Teknik Square One splitters). “I which on occassion can stretch our our
also carry a rack of outboard gear—some soundcheck.
analog stuff, mostly compressors,” Tarull “To tune the P.A.,” he continues, “I’ll
adds. “There’s a Summit DCL 200 that I play a few tunes that I’m familiar with and
sometimes use on the main outs (usually work with the in-house audio tech and, if
when the desk is digital) and I like to use needed, work on some crossover settings,
the dbx 160As on snare drum, bass guitar do a line check and then do a full sound-
and vocals. check with the band.”

48 MIX NOVEMBER 2010 I WWW.MIXONLINE.COM

 Patrick Carney’s drum
kit takes Shure Beta
91 and Beta 52 on kick;
SM57 and Beta 56 on
snare bottom and top,
respectively; Shure KSM
137 (hi-hat); Sennheiser
e 604s for rack and floor
toms; SM81s on ride and
crash cymbals, which are
miked from underneath
using LP claws; and an
SM57 on cowbell.

Backing on keyboards and percussion is Leon Michels. His keyboards include a

Moog Little Phatty and a Farfisa, which are amped by a Fender Super Reverb
miked with an SM57. Both keyboards go through Countryman DI boxes. A Beta
57 is on hand for tambourine.

According to backline guitar/drum/keyboard

tech Dan Johnson, guitarist Dan Auerbach plays
a 1960s-era Harmony H75, a ’60s white Supro Bel-
mont, a ’60s National Newport in black and a Har-
mony Stratotone. Johnson built the pedalboard,
which comprises a Russian Big Muff fuzzbox, a
Rosac Fuzz wah, Shinee Japanese Fuzz wah, Sitori
echo unit, Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phaser, Auerbach’s Fender Quad Reverb (miked with a Shure
Analog Man–modified Boss tremolo, Radial Switch- SM57 and SM7) and 50-watt Marshall (SM57) amps
bone and Ernie Ball VP Jr. “The spools of tape, sol- rest on two large tires. The Marshall is a reissue
der and sharpie are to keep him from stepping on JTM 45 head into a vintage 8x10 cab.
buttons that he shouldn’t,” Johnson says.

WWW.MIXONLINE.COM I NOVEMBER 2010 MIX 49

 NEW | USED | VINTAGE
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 new products

Bringing HD to the Masses

Avid Pro Tools HD Native
Avid (avid.com) Pro Tools HD native comprises Pro Tools 8.5 software (Snow leopard and win-
dows 7) and a single PcIe card sporting two Digilink connectors, each offering 32 channels. The
new platform boasts a redesigned mix engine and most of the features of Pro Tools HD DSP
(except TDm plug-ins and Heat) at a fraction of the cost ($3,495). Features include 64 channels
across 192 tracks, 128 buses, delay compensation on hardware and software inserts, input moni-
toring, speed control, destructive recording and Quick/Track Punch. The card also offers support
Upmix Processor
for third-party ASIo and core Audio apps, and compatibility with HD Io, HD omnI, HD mADI, Soundfield
plus legacy “blue” I/os (192 Io, 96 Io, etc.), Sync HD and Sync Io, control|24, venUe D-Show,
UPM-1 Plug-In
mixrack and ProFile, Icon and video Satellite.
british mic manufacturer SoundField
(soundfield.com) offers a software ver-
sion of its hardware UPm-1 stereo-to-5.1
upmix processor. The plug-in ($975)
And Now Speakers! analyzes the stereo input material,
separating ambient sounds from the
Neumann KH 120 direct sounds for detailed adjustment
Primarily known as a microphone company, neumann (neumannusa of the relative levels of direct sound and
.com) has re-branded the Klein & Hummel speaker line and now offers front/rear ambient sound in the final 5.1
its first studio monitor. The neumann KH 120 ($TbA) features a math- mix. Features include width and center-
ematically modeled Dispersion (mmD ™) waveguide, flexible acoustical channel Divergence, plus level, mute
controls, analog and digital inputs, and an extensive range of mounting and solo controls for each channel. Sup-
hardware. The biamped KH 120 has two 50-watt class-A/b amps pow- ported formats include vST (Pc/mac),
ering the 5.25-inch woofer and 1-inch tweeter, providing a 52 to 21k Hz rTAS (Pc/mac) and AU (mac-only).
(±3db) response.

Backup Hat Trick

Glyph Triplicator
The Glyph (glyphtech.com) Triplicator ($399) saves time when you need to copy critical data to
multiple drives by making copies in a single action. when moving data to the Triplicator volume,
identical data is copied to all of the target drives. Simply connect two or three drives to Triplica-
tor’s eSATA device ports, connect the Triplicator to a computer via Firewire 800, USb or eSATA,
and then copy the data to the destinations, which are seen as one drive.

52 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

 Multichannel Wizardry
VRSonic VibeStudio 2.5 Mad About the Box
vibeStudio Designer 2 ($595) from vrSonic (vrsonic.com) is a spatial
audio design suite comprising two applications: vibeStation and
Solid State Logic MADI-X8
Profiler. Together, these apps create a one-of-a-kind spatial audio This versatile 8-port mADi audio router/splitter/aggregator from SSl
package with the ability to compose and render spatial audio scenes (solid-state-logic.com) delivers a low-cost, 512 crosspoint router with
to binaural headphones or 2.1/4.1/5.1/7.1/8.1/10.2 loudspeaker arrays in eight mADi i/os and clock distribution that can be controlled using
post, live audio, exhibition, immersive theater or virtual environment SSl’s cross-platform logictivity™ browser software from anywhere on
systems. vibeStudio Designer 2.5 features a detachable script editor, a network. The single-rackspace mADi-x8 has six mADi fiber and two
support for 8/10-channel speaker arrays, support for native audio driv- coaxial i/os, providing a 512x512-point routing matrix. Up to four mADi-
ers and a small library of sound effects provided by SFxsource. x8 units are controllable via a single browser, and multiple browsers
can control a single mADi-x8 over a wired or wireless network.

Keeping in Control
Coleman QS8

The QS8 master monitor controller ($1,400) from coleman Audio (colemanaudio.com) is a
single-rackspace solution for stereo studio listening. The unit features three switchable input
Studio/Live sources, with stereo analog summing from three aux sources, plus the stereo cue input, talkback
level control and switching from the (included) talkback mic, onboard headphone amp, main/alt
Ribbon Mic speaker switching, a passive stepped attenuator for the control room output and stereo/mono
Cascade Knucklehead monitor switching.

Knucklehead ($225) from cascade mi-

crophones (cascademicrophones.com)
takes the 1.75-inch symmetrical ribbon
element from the company’s Fat Head
microphone and incorporates it into a
brass-and-aluminum body with an inte- Retro Echo Chic
grated swiveling shock-mount. The mic
is offered in a 2.5-micron version as well Universal Audio EP-34 Plug-In
as in a 5-micron model for live applica- UA’s (uaudio.com) eP-34 Tape echo plug-in for its UAD-2 platform offers the warm tape delay ef-
tions. both versions of the Knucklehead fects and specific behaviors of both the eP-3 and eP-4 vintage echoplexes. The plug-in is available
can be ordered with a lundahl trans- as part of the new UAD Software version 5.7.0 release, or separately at $199. in addition to the
former as a $125 option. eP-34 Tape echo, v. 5.7.0 includes the officially licensed dbx 160 comp/limiter plug-in and perfor-
mance enhancements for all windows UAD-2 users.

www.mixonline.com i november 2010 MIX 53

 ReviewS

Steinberg Nuendo 5 DAW Software

User-Friendly Upgrade With New Features, Tool Sets, Plug-Ins

I started using Nuendo about 11 years ago, back

when state-of-the-art, tape-based digital record-
ing systems like Sony’s PCM-3348 seemingly
became obsolete overnight. You had a choice:
Use Pro Tools, or die the slow, painful death
of becoming an irrelevant recording engineer.
There were other DAW options at the time, but
computers were slow and not very powerful, so
host-based DAWs struggled. Pro Tools offered
a complete, proprietary system of software,
hardware interfaces and DSP cards that made
up for the deficiencies of the computer. There
seemed to be little concern about how it sound-
ed, as everyone just bought into the idea that it
was digital, so it must be perfect. To me, Digi’s
888 converter was far from perfect, and I was in
search of something better.
I heard a demo of Nuendo 1.5 and soni-
cally I was blown away. Everybody wants great
sound, right? Well, Nuendo 1.5 had its share of
Nuendo 5’s Mixer features the new Waveform view.
problems, like crashing in the middle of a great
take while tracking, but because I always seem
to support the underdog, I stuck with Stein- Steinberg has always been 100-percent com- with the new Scrubbing engine for super-
berg. Here we are all these years later with the mitted to backward compatibility, and V. 5 is no smooth functionality while editing. Once you
release of Nuendo 5, which is solid and loaded exception. I can still open one of my V. 1 proj- get going, V. 5 is immediately familiar to the V.
with great new features. ects in 5 without issues. In fact, I can still use 4 user and the learning curve is minimal. The
all of the same plug-ins and hardware interfaces most obvious change is a new easy-on-the-eyes
Easy Upgrade that I purchased all those years ago. Installation look, with softer graphics and fonts that are less
I should say up front that Nuendo 5 caters to on my dual-core PC running AMD’s latest 12- “childish”-looking. It’s so similar that I foolish-
the desires of post users, and the post engineer core chips (a total of 24 cores) was no problem. ly jumped right into a full-on Nashville tracking
will find many new benefits. A post engineer My entire plug-in, preference and template sets session; fortunately, there were no hiccups and
I’m not, although I’ve found many features like were automatically brought over. no one was the wiser.
direct busing useful for music production. I’ll Reassuringly, I didn’t have to uninstall V.
touch briefly on Nuendo’s post functions, but 4 to install V. 5, but I haven’t looked back since New Plug-Ins
will mostly restrict this review to features for doing so. All the great features like Lanes, Nuendo has always come packaged with a com-
studio recording. Folder tracks, unlimited levels of undo, vol- plete plug-in suite and a mixer with highly use-
ume handles on each region, drawing volume ful EQ on every channel. Nuendo 5 adds a few
PRODUCT SUMMARY curves directly on the region and the groovi- new, high-quality VST 3 plug-ins. Most impres-
ComPaNy: Steinberg est of all Zoom approaches have been retained. sive is the new convolution reverb called REV-
ProdUCT: nuendo 5 Many of these features have been copied by the erence. Its presets have all the expected IRs,
WebSITe: www.steinberg.net
competition. including Halls, Rooms, Small Rooms and
baSe PrICINg: $2,340 retail; $325 upgrade
from nuendo 4 Version 5 uses a brand-new mix engine. Plates. You can also import your favorite IRs
I initially thought this might mean sonic im- and use them with this interface. Pitch Driv-
ProS: Stable platform CoNS: Price is signifi-
with optimized multi- cantly higher than other provement (how could it though?), but what it er, another new plug-in, is a type of harmony
core processor usage. native DAw platforms. really means is a lower CPU drain due to bet- processor with a width control, and last is Pitch
Great new tuning and
reverb plug-ins. ter optimization of the multicore processors. Correct, a plug-in that’s similar to Auto-Tune.
There’s a new Native Video engine that works It has an additional Formant function that

54 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

 By Chuck Ainlay

tree so that previous passes can easily be 5, but it’s improved to include sharing con-
identified and returned to, subsequently tent from the Media Bay. I could spend an
creating a new stem to branch out from. entire article on the networking capabili-
Another handy addition is the ties and potential uses of the Media Bay, but
Waveform view in the mixer. This al- put simply, network collaboration is a great
lows for a visual per-track preview tool, particularly for the post environment,
during mixing. It’s also a great way letting multiple operators work on a single
to impress the producer and artist on project at the same time. Finding sound and
playback. Oh, how they love flashing project files is super-fast with V. 5’s Media
lights and visual distractions! Bay upgrade.
The addition of direct outputs was In recent years, the NARAS Producers &
originally conceived as a way for post mix- Engineers Wing and representatives from re-
ers to create the different stems required cord companies have produced comprehensive
in films like music, Foley, voice, effects lists of production guidelines, which have now
and more. In a music-mixing context, the been adopted by all the major labels. (Go to
direct outputs are useful for doing parallel “Mix Media” at mixonline.com for a PDF of the
compression. You can use direct outputs document.) Steinberg has incorporated features
either in the box with plug-in compres- that make it easy to comply with these guide-
sors or using the old tried-and-true analog lines, and the company is committed to improv-
compressors as an external effect, all with- ing its software to deal with this mountain of
out any adverse delay issues. For me, this metadata archival issues.
Nuendo 5’s Surround Panner is capable of
rotating the entire surround field.
has been one of the main sacrifices when For instance, from within Nuendo 5, you
mixing in the box; while doing parallel can select individual (or all) audio tracks to do
busing, I’ve always encountered timing a Batch Export. This will automatically “flat-
can maintain the integrity of the human voice discrepancies that created unwanted artifacts. ten” the audio files, virtual instruments and
through pitch change or manually be exagger- Another post-production idea that has a group outputs to include all plug-ins and in-
ated to make an older person sound younger, a place in the music production world is the de- line processing into the exported file. There’s
female voice sound male, or vice versa. sired capability of having multiple Marker even an option to create a new project full of
In addition to Pitch Correct there’s also a Tracks. This may seem insignificant until you stems that can easily be imported into any
tuning function called VariAudio. It’s unbeliev- do a live recording where you’d like to have a other application. If all you need to do is copy
ably easy to use: Double-click on the file region, Marker Track for each song, or perhaps you’d your session to a new folder and consolidate
click on the Pitch & Warp tab under VariAudio, like one Marker Track for your MIDI events and your audio files, just choose Backup Session
and Nuendo automatically analyzes the track’s another for the song format. If you’ve got a gazil- under the File pull-down. This will guide you
pitch. This is very similar to the Celemony Melo- lion tracks, it’s nice to have markers dispersed through setting a destination, creating a new
dyne approach. Each segment can then be high- throughout to reduce the need to scroll up and session name and options for exporting the
lighted and adjusted with two variable sliders, down. Now that they’re available, I’d miss them audio and video files. Once in the new folder,
one for quantizing the pitch and the other for if they were taken away. you can safely range the entire song to cre-
straightening. A judicious amount of either or Nuendo’s crossfades always amazed me ate consolidated, contiguous files with a com-
both can correct pitch discrepancies without de- because of what you can get away with and not mon start and end time. Once done, you can
humanizing and leaving the blue notes intact. have any audible artifact. Without bashing the delete the unused original files from the au-
And as VariAudio is part of the program, audi- other guy, crossfades in Nuendo simply work dio pool—and voilá—you’re ready to make
tioning can occur in solo or within the mix. better. Double-clicking on the fade puts you multiple copies in the different recommend-
into the Crossfade Edit window. Here, you can ed formats for delivery.
But Wait, There’s More adjust the style of fade and even draw a shape
I’ve had a bit of success with surround mix- to suit the situation. Within the Crossfade Edit Indulge Your Curiosity
ing in the past, and Nuendo 5 has a great new window, a new Chaining mode will keep track There’s so much more to Nuendo 5. I haven’t
Surround Panner that’s capable of rotating the of all your later edits and automatically bring even mentioned the sequencer capabilities for
entire surround field. All Surround Panner them along when you do consecutive edits. which Nuendo is famous for, but hopefully
functions are automatable. In fact, the auto- This saves time and makes you look like a star some of these new features will pique your in-
mation for Nuendo has been completely rede- when everyone’s standing around watching you terest and you will take a look at it.
signed and now has the most complete set of shorten a track that requires multiple edits.
functions found on any software or hardware Chuck Ainlay is a Grammy Award–winning en-
automation system I’ve ever used. The automa- Better Collaboration gineer who wishes to thank Greg Ondo at Stein-
tion passes can now be saved in a form of a mix Network collaboration is not new to Nuendo berg for his assistance.

www.mixonline.com i november 2010 MIX 55

 ReviewS By Bobby Frasier

Genelec 8260A Three-Way DSP/Powered Monitors

Tri-Amped Co-Ax Design With Auto Room Calibration

Genelec has been creating speakers for pro ap- tweeter construction of the coaxial MF/HF
plications since 1978 and “Minimum Diffraction coaxial. A 5-inch laminate cone is an integral
Enclosure” (MDE) cabinet designs since 2004. part of the waveguide. The embedded coax-
Sitting 23 inches tall and weighing 60.5 pounds, ial ¾-inch dome tweeter is an aluminum
its latest 8260A monitors feature the same MDE, design, with two 120W power amps driving
using the 8200 Series AutoCal software reviewed the midrange and tweeter. The low-diffrac-
in Mix’s January 2008 issue (read it at mixonline. tion design of the cabinet, with the integrat-
com). The new 8260A three-way design is an evo- ed waveguides, amounts to superb imaging
lution of the coaxial speaker concept, resulting in and a wide sweet spot.
accurate midrange reproduction, extended bass The back panel offers many features. The
response and a wide listening window. top of the back-plate assembly has RJ45 In and
Thru Ethernet connectors for use with the
Hidden Three-Way Agenda GLM (Genelec Loudspeaker Management)
The 8260A has the same overall look as the pre- software. Two sets of seven DIP switches are
vious 8000 and 8200 Series, except that what used for manual operations or selecting the
appears to be a two-way design is actually a three- stored software settings after running the
way system. Here, the tweeter (and the stealth GLM software. Manual settings include Bass
midrange driver) shares the same waveguide in Roll-Off, Bass Tilt, Desktop, Treble Tilt, Stored
what’s termed a Minimum Driver Coaxial (MDC) or Manual, AES/EBU Channel, Driver Mute
design. A virtually seamless, curved foam “skin” and System Level. Below these is the IEC AC
is part of the proprietary MF driver, whose out- connector, a 12V remote connection, AES/EBU
er ring smoothly attaches to the cabinet’s wave- input and thru ports, and the analog input. The 8260 cleverly houses the midrange
guide. The interior of this foam cone is joined driver and tweeter in one seamless piece.
to the interior tweeter, again making a smooth Smooth Operator
connection. This eliminates any subsequent rip- Running the optional GLM PC/Mac software
ples of diffraction off of an otherwise protruding is a breeze. The system includes a mic, USB
horn, maintaining the point-source coincidence interface for your computer (Genelec recom-
preferred by many recording engineers. mends the interface’s proprietary soundcard
All of the drivers are housed in the familiar for speaker calibration), Ethernet cables to
8000 Series extruded-aluminum enclosures, link the networked speakers together, a USB
providing rigidity and neutral resonant char- cable and a detailed 170-page manual.
acteristics. The 10-inch LF driver is rated down I easily installed the software on a dual
to 29 Hz (±1 dB), with a -3dB down-point of 26 2.5GHz Mac G5 PPC and set up the net-
Hz. A newly redesigned amplifier provides 150 work using the supplied mic, interface and
watts to the woofer below the 490Hz crossover cabling. The system scans the network and
point. The piece de resistance is the suspended tells you how many speakers are recog-
nized on the system; it then simply walks
PRODUCT SUMMARY you through the naming process. After sav-
ing this configuration, it offers the option to
CompAny: Genelec
run the Acoustical Setup Wizard. I selected
pRoDuCT: 8260A
WebsiTe: www.genelec.com the AutoCal mode for automatic implemen-
bAse pRiCing: $5,850 each; Glm software, $595 tation of the onboard equalization system.
This is a 6-point notch filter, along with two
pRos: Detailed, accu- Cons: Heavy; must
rate midrange. wide lis- have extremely sturdy LF and two HF shelves. Once the system is
tening window. Autocal speaker stands. beyond calibrated, you can go into these settings and Rear panel controls include Bass Roll-Off,
speaker calibration. the budget of the aver- Bass Tilt, Desktop and Treble Tilt, and Stored
age user. manually adjust the frequency, gain and Q.
or Manual controls.
After careful placement of both speak-

56 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

 © 2010 Full Sail, Inc.
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 REVIEWS

ers and mic, I had the option of calibrating from board and vocals. The 8260As gave me a
a single position (SinglePoint) or up to a total of truly transferable representation of what I
three positions (MultiPoint). The multipoint ana- was recording. I loved the delicate way in
lyzation will yield a softer, less-dramatic system- which they reproduced the midrange tim-
applied EQ to generally compensate for additional bre in the vocals. I’m going to miss these
listening positions. After typing in the mic’s serial hefty jewels when it comes time to mix. I
number, I chose the single-point option and the recommend these speakers for a mastering
system started its routine. It analyzed the sound- environment as they accurately handled ev-
card’s output, measured the room background ery type of music I put through them.
noise and conducted a sinewave sweep. The soft- I did an A/B comparison of the 8260A’s
ware then showed me the anomalies of my room digital vs. analog inputs by simultaneously
on a logarithmic graph and placed the compensa- taking a digital and analog output of my
tory EQ in place, complete with the resultant EQ Lynx Aurora converters and connecting to
response curve after the adjustments have been the corresponding inputs on the 8260As.
made. I then saved the settings and recalled them When switching back and forth, I preferred
every time I launched the GLM software. the sound of the Aurora’s analog inputs,
While operating the speakers, I launched even though the signal was going through
GLM software. Its main page shows the available two conversion processes—my Aurora
groups of speakers, network status and input au- ADC and the Genelec ADC, which is always
dio source (analog or digital). It also presents a in place on the analog input. Although the
large fader for variable level in 0.5dB increments, differences were slight, the separation of
along with three preset levels and a -20dB dim instruments appeared to be more accurate
control. The GLM System Setup can be launched with the Auroras, as was detail in reverb
from this page for manually tweaking the EQ. (space), cymbal swells, drum overtones and
piano harmonics. The Genelec converters
I’m Listening are quite usable and by no means second
The 8260s are simply remarkable. While lis- rate. I simply found the overall experience
tening to many different sources and types of of my outboard converters to have a bit
music, my first impressions were simple: ac- more detail. I was surprised that this “dual-
curacy and realism. Most notable was the vocal conversion process” sounded more musical
range. Vocal tracks were reproduced with an in- than the direct digital input.
credible degree of detail. Strings had detail and
separation, almost as though you could pick out A Beautiful Find
individual players in a section. The soundstage The 8260As’ three-way design is a thing of
is superb, and the imaging is tight and concise. beauty. The melding of the 5-inch MF driv-
In many instances, the imaging went beyond er with the waveguide, with no outer edge
the left/right boundaries of the speakers. The to produce additional turbulence, is intend-
phantom center is dead on, and the coaxial mid- ed to control midrange dispersion charac-
range places the vocalist right in front of you. teristics, and it works quite well, with very
Pianos had great detail and nuance; I could linear horizontal directivity in the critical
hear all the little resonances and pedal move- 1 to 8kHz midrange frequencies, thereby
ments, and the breathing of the wood. Acoustic increasing the sweet spot and providing a
guitars sounded powerful with all of their associ- wider, more accurate listening window in
ated harmonic structures intact, whether in deli- the horizontal plane. Given the extended
cate finger-style work or slammin’ rhythms. bass response, superb imaging and clar-
The low-frequency response begs the ques- ity in the midrange, plus the advanced net-
tion, “Do I need a subwoofer?” Kick drums working and calibration technologies, the
were punchy and tight, and I could really hear 8260s will no doubt be seen and heard in
the room around the drum on many tracks’ in- the most discriminate recording, mixing
formation that simply gets lost on other speak- and mastering environments.
ers. And these speakers can get loud (123 dB @
1m). They’re great rock ’n’ roll speakers. Bobby Frasier is an audio consultant, engi-
These speakers helped to make my deci- neer and guitar player/vocalist in the Beat-
sions more accurate while tracking guitars, key- les sound-alike band Marmalade Skies.
 ReviewS By Brandon Hickey

Tascam DR-680 Portable Recorder

Eight-Channel Unit With Six Preamps, Digital I/O, SD Card Storage

In recent years, Tascam has released a range of

portable, handheld recorders featuring built-in
stereo mics and limited I/O. The DR-680 ups the
ante, offering eight inputs, six XLR mic preamps,
dedicated outs for each recording channel, S/
PDIF digital I/O and the ability to sync to an exter-
nal clock. The I/Os will perform at 24-bit, 96kHz
rates, with the option of recording two channels
of stereo PCM at up to 192 kHz. Data is stored
to SDHC cards so there are no moving parts. On
Two DR-680s can be run together bringing the total track count to 12.
paper, I see all the makings of a respectable mid-
level field recorder, but how does it perform?

Recording Music, Voice and FX

My first test of the DR-680 was recording music
and voice. A friend wanted to record his grandfa-
ther performing some old-time country tunes to
be used as source music in an indie film. Grandpa
didn’t want to go to a studio so we went to him. I
used a pair of Mojave MA-101s in a tight X/Y place-
ment on guitar to avoid picking up too much liv- I/O includes six analog in/outs and stereo digital S/PDIF ports.
ing room and a JZ V67 for vocals. At 24-bit/96kHz,
I was impressed by the sound. Having great mics During this recording, I used the included able. I used the Holophone H3-D surround mic,
and recording a voice with wonderful texture cer- power supply, as the manual suggested that sup- which I thought would be a perfect match as the
tainly played a role. (You can listen to this record- plying phantom power to microphones would six available mic pre’s would nicely accommodate
ing at mixonline.com’s “Mix Media” section.) But significantly reduce the unit’s battery life. I was the H3-D’s six capsules. When recording louder
a great front end can’t hold up against poor A/D printing to a 4GB Class-4 SDHC card, which was sources, operation was successful, with impres-
conversion or inaccurate clocking. Fortunately, also suggested by the manual. At the time, how- sive battery life, fueling the six condensers with
this is where the DR-680 really shines. ever, I could not find a card that was included on phantom power. For quieter sounds, like rain on
The digital capture was executed with great Tascam’s rather short “tested media” list. I’m not pavement, a noticeable issue revealed itself, re-
transparency. The preamps offered plenty of sure which of these factors contributed, but I ex- sulting in unpleasant noise. This was perhaps an
gain without imparting excessive noise. I loved perienced an error saying “write timeout” several issue directly related to the H3-D as I didn’t expe-
being able to create a 2-channel stereo moni- times, and another saying “file not found in take” rience it with other mics. I also recorded sound
tor mix of my three mics and print it to a stereo at the end of a recording. Thankfully, the record- effects with a single phantom-powered shotgun
track while recording the multitracks. This way, ings were on the card when I dumped the files. mic. The batteries lasted a little longer than three
I could pull the stereo files and give the artist a Nonetheless, these errors were troubling at the hours, broken into several sessions. Again, the
reference on the spot without having to mess time. Lowering the sample rate did not solve the sound quality was impressive, and the device
around with printing a mixdown after the fact. problem. As the manual suggested, I reformatted proved light and comfortable to carry.
the card, which may have helped for a while. The
PRODUCT SUMMARY
problem reappeared other times, inconsistently, File Management, Transfer
COmPany: TAScAm
usually when recording uninterrupted for dura- The operating system lets you store three file-
PrODUCt: Dr-680
tions longer than three minutes. naming presets for easy file management. This
WEbSItE: www.tascam.com
baSE PrICIng: $1,399 Meanwhile, I had other successful, error-free way, scrolling through letters and numbers to
sessions recording sound effects while running create file names can be handled before the fact
PrOS: Great sound COnS: menus could the unit on eight AA batteries. When operated and then retrieved quickly as production moves
quality and plenty be aggregated for more
of I/o. convenient operation. this way, the recorder is fully functional, with from one scene to the next, or one song to the
all inputs, outputs and sample rates still avail- next. When recording WAV or BWF files, the au-

60 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

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 ReviewS

dio can be grouped into three stereo interleaved

pairs, a single 5.1 track or six completely separate
mono files. When the user is recording in the
MP3 format, recording is limited to four tracks.
Transferring files to a computer is very easy. Nat-
urally, you could just pull the SDHC card and

TRUST YOUR ROOM transfer the files with an SD card reader. I appre-
ciated the USB 2 connection and how it provided
for bus-powered file transfers, even without the
power supply connected or batteries in the unit.
Despite the DR-680’s elegant file manage-
ment and transfer functions, its menus were a
little clunky. For example, the menu for basic set-
tings like auto-shut-off, battery type or “Format
Memory Card” is available through a button on
the device’s large top surface. A completely dif-
ferent Home/Func menu for setting things like
low-cut filter and limiter is available from a but-
ton on the skinny front panel. And though the
front panel also provides access to the mic trims,
level controls and pans for the onboard mixer, the
track-arm buttons and sample rate selection are
stranded back in the menu on the top of the unit
wes @ weslachot.com • (919) 942-9434 • www.weslachot.com
(which might be preferable if you’re shoulder-bag-
ging the unit). While engaging the low cut actu-
ally takes place in the Home/Func screen, setting
its frequency happens in the Menu. It seems as
though two different teams worked on the OS in
halves and then the two were loosely integrated.
Furthermore, guessing which button would page
through settings in some of the nested menus was
somewhat unpredictable. Hopefully, these annoy-
ances and the actual OS errors I experienced will
be corrected in future software updates.

A Great Little Recorder

Aside from a few minor issues, my experience
with the DR-680 was very positive. Recording
quality is impressive and monitoring well-ex-
ecuted, as the headphone mixer is very easy to
grasp. A small speaker lets you reference record-
ings quickly without headphones. The unit is
light, portable and convenient, with enough in-
puts for most field-recording applications. And if
you need more, you can sync two units together
using a proprietary protocol. File management
and naming are well thought out, and though
there are no time-based sync functions, these fea-
tures are rare on a unit at this price point. If all
this suits your needs, then the DR-680 is worth
checking out.

Brandon Hickey is an independent engineer and

film audio consultant.
 New cl a ssRooms
Continued from page 25

New facilities at This new studio at

MiraCosta Community College, MiraCosta Community University of Lethbridge, the University of
Oceanside, California College include two Alberta, Canada Lethbridge supports
identical control the school’s four-year
After 35 years in operation, the music performance rooms, which offer Jay Kaufman of Kaufman and Associates designed Bachelor of Music/
and recording spaces at MiraCosta Community Col- sightlines into this studio, which is used in the university’s ad- Digital Arts program.
recording spaces and
lege have received a much-needed redesign by ac- each other. vanced recording, mixing and sound-capture labs.
oustician Mark Rothermal and architect Greg Beard It also features dedicated audio, video and Aviom lines to a 200-seat recital
of BP Architecture. Program director Christy Coobatis says that lines of sight hall for large-ensemble recording. Featured equipment includes a 48-channel
were essential to the redesign; these control rooms can accommodate up to 35 SSL Duality, Kaufman & Associates custom 5.1 monitoring, Dynaudio near-
students at a time, and class work requires the ability to observe the recording fields, Pro Tools HD2 and the Aviom Pro 16 personal monitoring system. The
process from any angle. The studios feature Pro Tools systems, Genelec 8050A University of Lethbridge offers a broad-based program emphasizing musical
Photo: Rose NuNes

and Yamaha NS-10M monitors, and a host of plug-ins and outboard equipment. and technical creativity, including courses in computer-assisted composition,
MiraCosta has relationships with local studios, theme parks and NAMM, and acoustic science, sound design and interactive computer music, as well as
uses those connections to help place students in internships and jobs. audio engineering.

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info@pelonissound.com
 ReviewS By Brandon Hickey

TAC System NML RevCon-RR

Plug-In Reduces Ambience Embedded in Recorded Material

One fundamental problem that has always

plagued audio engineers is the detrimental
impact of excessive levels’ reverberation on
the intelligibility of recorded speech tracks.
So what happens in a film or TV production
when a particular recorded take is the “best”
take, yet speech articulation is lost to excessive
reverberation? You can try to fix it in post-pro-
duction—maybe.
Removing excessive reverb from speech NML RevCon-RR offers simple or advanced controls for “de-verbing” a track.
tracks is the aim of NML RevCon-RR, a Pro
Tools Audio Suite plug-in designed by NTT job done. However, the struggle here is walk- its Release Suppression control allowed me
Communication Science Laboratories for man- ing the line between the desired effect and to tailor the cut-off of the reverb decay. With
ufacturer TAC System. The company’s Website an unlistenable, digital-sounding outcome— the proper balance of these controls—and
calls it the “world’s first plug-in for speech de- and, of course, this outcome is dependent on just the right amount of the basic reduc-
reverberation.” The only similar such product the source. tion—I was able to take dialog recorded in
I’ve come across is the “De-Verb” MicroPlug As with any plug-in processor, the quality a variety of reverberant environments and
from SPL, which offers a simple, single-knob of the original recording plays a big part in the successfully attenuate the echo to the point
solution for reducing the room’s role in a re- results of processing. In this case, noise in the of improving dialog intelligibility.
cording. On the other hand, NML RevCon-RR track causes inaccurate detection of the actual
is designed specifically to increase the intelli- reverb decay envelope. RevCon’s solution is to Did It De-Light Me?
gibility of speech, and it does so by offering ad- allow the noise to be analyzed and extracted RevCon does a standup job of reducing em-
vanced controls and powerful processing. before the de-reverberation processing is cal- bedded ambience in a track, but not without
culated, and then re-introduce the noise later some caveats. A fast machine with plenty of
Great GUI to add realism. While RevCon’s NR toolkit is RAM is recommended when using this prod-
The user interface of this Audio Suite–only good, I obtained better results when using uct, as processing on a slower machine is a
plug-in is large and eye-catching. It doesn’t of- BIAS’ SoundSoap 2 for my noise reduction bit sluggish. Also, the effectiveness of this
fer an overwhelming number of controls, but and then let RevCon apply the deverberation. process is heavily dependent on the quality of
does provide some complex and truly unique After this, I used a long sample of ambience the audio.
means of achieving its goal and making the recorded before the voice to add as much as I Don’t expect that NML RevCon-RR can
results sound better. The most apparent con- needed for dynamics back into the mix from suddenly transform ADR sessions tracked in a
trol is the largest knob in the window, which an extra track in Pro Tools. This was helpful in shower stall and universally translate them for
adjusts the balance of the original recording hiding the gating effect imparted by the pro- any physical space. Likewise, if you’re charged
to the processed version. For quick and dirty cessing and masking low-level sounds, which with the task of polishing poorly home-record-
applications, this might be enough to get the seemed to turn to artifacts very readily. ed music into a hit release, don’t expect that
this plug-in can resurrect super-roomy vocals
PRODUCT SUMMARY Deeper Controls and make them sound like those recorded in
If the first approach falls short, you can ap- a pro studio.
COMPANY: TAc System
PRODUCT: nml revcon-rr ply more advanced controls. This is where However, for well-recorded production
WEBSITE: www.tacsystem.com/en the GUI’s large, visual readout displaying sound that contains just a bit too much natu-
PRICE: $1,280 waveform envelopes and a spectrogram be- ral reverb to cut through the score and sound
came useful. By toggling back and forth effects in the finished mix, RevCon-RR might
PROS: Unique process. CONS: Successful out-
Flexible controls. come is contingent on between the before/after views, the actual be just the thing to help you create more dis-
quality of original files. effect of removing decay is visually evident. tinguishable syllables.
SYSTEM REqUIREMENTS: The Attack Suppression control let me atten-
Pro Tools HD/le/m-Powered version 7 or later, uate early ref lections that were not reduced Brandon Hickey is an independent engineer and
mac oS 10.4 or later, windows xP/vista
by the plug-in’s basic Reduction knob, while film audio consultant.

64 MIX november 2010 I www.mIxonlIne.com

© 2010 B & H Foto & Electronics Corp. JN674

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WWW.MIXONLINE.COM I NOVEMBER 2010 MIX 69
:: Q&A By Tom Kenny

George Massenburg
Recording Renaissance man you’ve also been an outspoken critic of audio
education. And now you’re on the inside.
gives back through teaching. This is the best time imaginable to be alive and
working in or around music. There are fantastic
So I just found out that your life changed pretty opportunities, a huge new constituency—the
dramatically. How did this move from Nashville world’s out there, man!—and great game-chang-
to Montreal come about? ing technology. But it’s really not the technologies
Well, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in class- themselves where we’re getting it egregiously
rooms, and I’ve been an adjunct professor here wrong. I think we’re missing the practitioners. And
at McGill for about 15 or 16 years. Finally, I suc- that reveals a gap in education, in my view.
cumbed to an invitation from Wieslaw Woszczyk How so?
to teach. We have a superb Sound Recording My problem is with anybody who tries to teach of innovation and presence, with the subtleties,
program up here, Master’s only, and a great infra- without knowing what the real gig is, anybody the idiosyncrasies, the unknowns—the unknow-
structure—the largest purpose-built scoring stage who tries to advance the fiction that you can teach ables. What the hell was John Lennon thinking?
to come online in North America in the past 40 without a real room (aka, a studio), without musi- [Laughs]
years. You have to have a music degree (perhaps cians, with no experience in critical listening. Stu- But seriously, we believe that there are plenty
for an instrument) coming in. It’s essentially mod- dents, interns, assistants—and you know me, I’m of jobs out there. And it’s clear that there’s specific
eled on the European Tonmeister track with an blunt—they need to sometimes just shut up, sit in training that’s required in an increasing number
added emphasis on practice. Our faculty includes the back of the control room and learn how to lis- of different “sound engineering”–related careers.
Richard King, formerly of Sony Classical, and ten. Listen to the music, the nuance, the lace and But in an era where the cosmos has the last laugh,
Martha DeFrancisco, formerly of Philips. These filigree, as Doug Sax calls it. And more—maybe there are less and less seats at a traditional record-
are serious producer/engineers who understand the bass player is talking about some cool track ing console in a traditional pop music recording
the importance of quality sound and meticulous they heard last night. That’s a clue you need to pick studio for a “fader-pusher.” Besides Al Schmitt,
methodology. I packed up my gear, found a nice up on. It’s that socialization that takes place in the few now depend on getting continued calls
apartment 10 minutes walking distance from the studio that’s missing. Any final advice to students, now that the real
facility and now I’m immersed. But then again, this idea of “training” a “re- George has had his say?
Did they go after you for the research or the stu- cording engineer,” well, who needs training in the [Laughs] Couple of things would help. Get a real
dio life? face of cheap access to self-prompting, some- education. Learn accounting—how to read a prof-
A little of both. McGill has solid research creden- times highly automated, tools? Go out and get a it-and-loss statement and a balance sheet. Get a
tials in many departments, including sound. Our cheap, no-support deal from Guitar Center, bring real career—work in a hospital emergency room,
Master’s students fall into one of three main ar- home a buncha boxes, plug ’em in, turn ’em on like my friend Luca Pilla, between sessions. Learn
eas. About a third go on to careers in education, and check Gearslutz or the DUC if you have any graphic arts, shooting and editing video. Oh yeah,
teaching and starting new Sound Recording glitches. Bring up the music creation software, would you please learn how to write? And, at all
departments at other universities. About a third the DAW, the plugs, the loops, the samples, more costs, avoid thinking about getting rich. When the
move onto a Ph.D. And another third will become plugs. Tweezer some song ideas together from a time is right, be ready to tell a real story, not just
practitioners, doing audio engineering for sound torrent of the more-than-accessible pool of “cur- some regressive, simplistic, emo drivel about the
and music recording, Internet, TV and motion pic- rent pop hits.” Sample some stuff. Get the babysit- bad hand that’s been dealt you at the hands of the
tures, and also doing R&D in industry. Also, I’ve ter to sing it, tune it, shift it and hit Record. Shit! powers of the universe.
agreed to supervise a Ph.D. candidate, one who Wait, don’t forget to squash the f*** out of the Then learn to listen. It’s almost a lost art. And
is doing advanced research testing in sound per- mix with some crappy plug with presets and how I mean critical listening to real musicians in a real
ception, and focusing on codec issues and other can you go wrong that that? Fan-TASTIC! Sounds space. But I also mean listen for subtlety, for nu-
artifacts that we’ve been suffering with as listeners. like a hit Lady Gaga record, right? No problem. ance. Listen to how producers interact with musi-
That’s something I’ve been casually trying to figure So why doesn’t it sound, uh, good? What’s cians, how musicians interact with each other, how
out for years—on the professional and consumer missing? Well, lots of stuff. A sense of a story engineers can make a big difference capturing real
sides. I’m also working with this terrific young art- that’s worth telling, maybe a melody, maybe not. performances. Maybe also learning how with a
ist named Marilou and her fantastic band, so I get But more than anything else, a killer performance. subtle placement of a microphone you won’t have
to keep my ears in the studio, too. Maybe a singer who can sing in tune or close to use a plug-in. Then, listen for the story in the
Even though you’ve been teaching for decades, enough to it; a performance with some sense song. That’s why we’re here.

72 MIX NOVEMBER 2010 I www.MIxONlINE.cOM

 We’re with the band.

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