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1/5/18 9:59 AM
03.18 Contents Volume 42, Number 3
Photo by Brantley Gutierrez
26
FEATURES MUSIC REGIONAL TECH
20 Power Station 12 I’m With Her: AUSTIN 32 Tech Feature:
Acoustic Supergroup Studio Microphones
New England Meets Ethan Johns at 30 King Electric Hosts BY STROTHER BULLINS
Back in the Game Real World Studios Refugee Musicians,
James McMurtry 36 Tech Spotlight:
BY TOM KENNY BY BARBARA SCHULTZ
Records at El Pres VR/AR/Pro Audio
BY ALEXANDER BRANDON
Plus Arlyn Studios,
Austin Signal, ’62 Studios, 38 Review: MOTU 8D Digital
Space Rehearsal & Audio Interface
Recording Studio, Eclectica BY MICHAEL COOPER
Studios, Altavista Studio, 40 Review: Crane Song Avocet
Estuary Recording, IIA Monitor Controller
5th Street Studios, and
14 Professor and Orb Recording Studios
BY BARRY RUDOLPH
the Madman 42 Review: Audio-Technica
BY LILY MOAYERI
5047 Microphone
26 Nathaniel Rateliff & 16 Classic Tracks: BY STEVE LA CERRA
The Night Sweats: Metallica 44 Review: Highland

“Master of Puppets” Dynamics BG2 Compressor
Bringing Soul Back BY SARAH JONES
BY BARRY RUDOLPH
to the Studio with 18 News and Notes: 48 Tech Talk: The Importance
Producer/Engineer Paul Weller in D.C.
of Protection
Richard Swift BY KEVIN BECKA
BY BARBA RA SCHULTZ, DEPARTMENTS
PHOTOS BY RICHARD SWIFT On the Cover: From left, engineers/producers Joe Blaney, Evan Bakke and Phil Joly seated
8 From the Editor in the main room at the recently revamped Power Station New England, Waterford, Conn.
28 NAMM Show 2018: 10 Current Photo: Jess Wilson.
Pro Audio Edition 46 Marketplace Mix, Volume 42, Number 3 (ISSN 0164-9957) is published monthly by NewBay Media LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th floor,
New York, NY 10016. Periodical Postage Paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send
BY KEVIN BECKA 47 Classifieds address changes to Mix, PO Box 8518, Lowell, MA 01853. One-year (12 issues) subscription is $35. Canada is $40. All
other international is $50. Printed in the USA. Canadian Post Publications Mail agreement No. 40612608. Canada return
address: BleuChip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
4 M I X | M A R C H 2 0 1 8 | mi x o n l i n e.co m
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Vol. 42 No. 3 March 2018
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MIX_FP.indd 1 10/23/17 12:44 PM
Current
From the Editor
You Have Arrived, Your Destination Is on the Left
I’ve been to a few destination studios over the years, from upstate New In the buildings beyond, a lot of high-level acoustic research and lab
York to just outside of El Paso, with stops in Mesa, Ariz., and a small town work takes place alongside animation, graphics and everything else needed
outside of Louisville in between. I’ve arrived by plane for an overnight visit, for high-end audio/video production. Sonalysts, the parent company,
and I’ve driven in by automobile to stay the week. I figured that to honor is a prosperous, well-established government contractor specializing in
the late, great John Candy and the crazy-talented musician/comedian/ underwater acoustic research, training and simulation.
author Steve Martin, it was time to take the train. So I did. Sonalysts Media, which has dabbled in Oscar-winning films and hosted
Two-and-a-half hours out of Penn Station, on the Amtrak line to television series, among countless other projects, has been reinvented
Boston, the train stops in New London, Conn., in the southeastern part of under the direction of Toriello as a destination facility for all types of
the state. Boston is about two hours further on, and Providence, R.I., is a high-end entertainment. That includes world-class audio, whether for
short, one-hour drive to the northeast. It’s October 2017, and Power Station records, commercial work or virtual reality, out of a replica of one of the
New England, celebrating 23 years by initiating a massive overhaul of its world’s most famous studios, with a meticulously restored and recently
technical backbone, is having an “opening” party. It’s about 10 minutes installed Neve 8068 console. Producer/engineer Evan Bakke came onboard
away by car, after a stop at the nearby hotel in Waterford. So smooth and in August to serve as its champion. Everything is set.
simple. I could smell the wind from the sea; even the landscape felt relaxing It hit me on the train back to New York that PSNE is a shining example
after a week in the city. It almost made me want to turn off my phone. of “the new destination studio.” Built in 1995, in a completely different
Then, a short time later, we walk into the studio, and ... Damn! It just era of the recording industry, it never really saw the two-month bookings
feels good. There’s a magic, a sense of vibe that makes you want to sit or the band locked out for two weeks. But it has the room. And the room
down on the couch in the big room, or maybe hop on the piano or drums is the new destination. In the new recording world, which has seen the
in one of the iso booths, and just hang out. Music is playing, a band is set disappearance of many large facilities, it’s the room that matters, not so
up. It’s a party, in a studio, and a lot of creative people are bumping elbows much the mountains of Colorado or the woods of New Hampshire. The
and having martinis. A young Bulgarian woman, at the prompting of her way music is made now, a lot can get done in a few long days or an extended
manager, sings to me in the hallway. I meet Alfonso Valdez, who a few week, with perhaps some B-roll video thrown in, a couple days of tour
weeks later will bring his four-piece group up from Brooklyn to record, rehearsal or even a livestream of an intimate performance for fans, to close
looking for that band-in-a-room sound. When the party is all over, Eric out the recording of a few tracks.
Toriello, one of the VPs, drives me back to the hotel. That type of thing The possibilities are endless when you have the full means of production
doesn’t often happen. Of course I went back, less than two months later. all around you. And it doesn’t hurt if your destination is a world-class room,
Now they’re on the cover. surrounded by a bunch of cool, creative folks who just want to make music.
The studio itself is located near the entrance to a small campus of
buildings that appears as a cross between suburban industrial park
and mini-Hollywood lot. It feels modern, fresh and discrete. A large
soundstage, one of five, is fitted with lighting rigs, a motion capture system
and extensive green screen and sits off in a building to the left, along with Tom Kenny
a separate, all-new SSL 4064 G-Plus mix room. Editor
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MIX_FP.indd 1 2/13/18 11:32 AM

Current // news & notes
“That One Time, When I Met Prince...”
During the course of putting together this month’s cover story, Mix learned that the three men pictured on the cover all had worked with Prince at one point or
another, a fact they discovered the first time they met each other a couple of years ago at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. While they all had memories to
share, producer/engineer Evan Bakke, now director of engineering at Power Station New England, took the prize.
To set the scene, Bakke cut his audio teeth in Minneapolis, then in his early 20s went nomadic and entered the freelance life, working all around the country
for the next 10 years. In 2013 he found himself back in Minneapolis working on a project when his car broke down, slightly delaying his plans to return to the
East Coast. We’ll let him tell the rest.
Just a day or two before I was going to leave, I got a

call from Prince’s manager. He was looking for an
old-school engineer who knew how to run the SSL
and record to tape. I actually called him back and said,
“I can definitely run your SSL, but I’m probably not
the guy if you’re looking to record to tape.” He goes,
“No, it’s all right. Just be here tonight and we’ll figure
it out.” I even warned him again.
Evan Bakke
So I go out to Paisley Park. I remember it being really
hot out, about 6:30 or 7 at night, and I walk into Studio A with the manager.
He asks me to pull up a vocal chain. He had a C12 hanging over the console,
Photo by Clive Young

and it wasn’t patched anywhere. So I put on a Neve-style preamp, I think it
was a Great River, then into an 1176. And then all of a sudden I turn around
and Prince is in the room. The manager is gone and we’re just standing
there. He literally looks like Prince. He has this silk jumpsuit on. His afro
is perfect. He could have just stepped right from there out onstage.
We shook hands, and I said, “Hi, I’m Evan.” He says, “Okay, what at the hotel, in my car in the parking lot, and the phone rings, and he says,
limiter are you using on my vocal?” And I point to the 1176. He goes, “Hi Evan, it’s Prince. I’m ready for you.” So I get back and the lights are all
“What about that one?” and he points to the LA-2A. I say that I can do out. It’s always pitch black in and around the studio when he’s working. I
that, but I just thought the 1176 would sound good on him. He nods okay go in, and man, I wish I could describe the smell of that place to you. I wish
and says, “Fine.” I could put it in a bottle. It was a magical smell.
He sat down at the microphone and started singing into it, and the Anyway, I walk in and he says, “Hey, can you make a mix of this for me
needle on the 1176 just dimed, completely pinned. I reached down to kind and then burn a CD?” Sure. So I mix the song—a couple of acoustic guitars
of back off the input and he says, “Don’t touch anything. It’s perfect.” and a ton of vocals—and I walk over to the CD player and hit Record. And
Then he walks over to the sofa and grabs a 2-inch reel and says, “Put he hit Play on the tape machine. He’s standing right in the center section
this song on.” I had never put a reel of tape on a machine before. Ever. It and I’m in the back of the room. He’s kind of staring at me and bobbing
was weird, because I didn’t feel scared. I walked into the room and just felt his head. I was staring back at him and bobbing my head. I still don’t
that I could do it. I went to the Studer A800, put the reel on, hit Play, and know why—it wasn’t a choice, it wasn’t something I wanted to do, it was
it frickin’ worked! Then, he’s listening to it, and he stops and says, “It’s the this gravitational pull—but I walked over to the center of the console and
wrong song.” So he gives me a different tape. I put that next reel on, and it grabbed the volume knob on his massive Westlake speakers and I turned
works. Then he asked me to leave the room while he did vocals, to go stay it all the way up. And we stood there bobbing our heads together through
at the hotel for a few hours and he would give me a call. the whole song.
So I walk out in the hall, and the manager is looking at me like I must So about two hours later, with the sun coming up, we were walking
have just gotten fired. He asked how it went. I told him that it went good out, and I told him that I really liked the song. He said, “Thanks, it’s for
and I was supposed to go to the hotel and wait for a call. He asked me somebody who sings much better than me.” Then there’s a pause and he
how much I charged, and we worked out a rate. Then I left and went to goes, “Wait, not really. But she’s a pretty good singer.” [Laughs] Then he
McDonald’s, I stopped at a gas station and got a scratch ticket. I couldn’t goes, “Can you clear your schedule?” And I said, “It’s cleared.”
go wait around at a hotel. Then I was his engineer for the next nine and a half months full time
It got to be about 3:30 or 4 in the morning. I’m still completely wired. I’m and about a year and a half total. n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 10 2/15/18 5:42 PM

MIX_FP.indd 1 1/17/18 1:28 PM
Music
I’M WITH HER
By Barbara Schultz 12
PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN
By Lily Moayeri 14
CLASSIC TRACKS:
METALLICA
“MASTER OF PUPPETS”
By Sarah Jones 16
PAUL WELLER AT
D.C.’S LINCOLN THEATRE
By Mark R. Smith 18
Photo by Lindsey Byrnes

I’m with Her, L-R: Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins.
I’M WITH HER

Acoustic Supergroup Meets Producer Ethan Johns
at Real World Studios
By Barbara Schultz
S
ara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife that when they combined their talents, they had
O’Donovan have co-founded beloved lightning in a bottle. The trio found that they
roots bands (Nickel Creek for Watkins, harmonize beautifully together, and they share
Crooked Still for O’Donovan) and have released not only superb musicianship, but also a subtle
nine solo albums among them. As is so common avant-garde bent.
among world-class bluegrass musicians, these It took a little effort, but last year, the three
multiple-Grammy winners have also shared the busy artists carved out the time to gather in the recorded those originals, plus a beauty written by
stage and studio with scores of other artists. studio. They took on the band name I’m with Gillian Welch (“Hundred Miles”), in Real World
But it was during an impromptu performance Her and, together, wrote 11 of the songs on their Studios (Bath, UK) with producer Ethan Johns,
at the Telluride festival in 2014 that they realized debut album See You Around. And then they engineer Dom Monks and assistant Oli Jacobs.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 12 2/15/18 5:42 PM

as in most lively spaces, is recording without
headphones so the players can really hear the
sound they are making in the space.”
Monks also mixed See You Around in the
Wooden Room, in RADAR, as soon as tracking
was finished. Playback was via a pair of Tannoy
Photos by York Tillyer
Producer Ethan Johns is seated in the foreground as Watkins, Jarosz and O’Donovan share one
Neumann M49C mic.
Monks is well acquainted with all of the thing for this project,” Monks says. “We also
rooms and gear offered at Real World; he started had the SSL AWS 900 console. That mainly
his career there as an assistant to Peter Gabriel’s operates as a monitor board.”
engineer, Richard Chappell. From that job, he Some of the songs on See You Around
was promoted to an engineering position on the were recorded with the three women The alternative setup with three U47s.
commercial studio side of Real World’s business. gathered around one Neumann M49C
A year and a half later, Monks was ready to move microphone, which Monks put through a Pultec System 600s and AB’d on the studio’s main ATC
on to a new opportunity at Abbey Road when he MB-1 mic preamp and then straight into RADAR. 25As. “There wasn’t a vast amount of time to do
started working with Johns. “For the songs that weren’t done with that it,” he says. “I think I did three or four mixes a
“I was working with Ethan on one record as an one mic, they sat in a triangle facing each other,” day. Then they were flying off on tours or to
assistant but ended up engineering on it,” Monks Monks says. “I had three U47s on vocals, and the solo projects.
says. “He asked me to keep going and do a Ray instrument mics would change depending on the “But it didn’t require a great deal of time either.
LaMontagne record [Gossip in the Grain, 2008]. song or the instrumentation. There was a U67 We had spent a good amount of time playing out
So I had to tell Abbey Road I wasn’t coming— around, a couple of ELA M 251s—the American in the room and playing with headphones to
luckily they forgave me. I’ve been making records reissues. I also had a little lapel mic, a Countryman, find the sounds that we wanted to capture. It’s
with Ethan ever since. Sometimes I go off doing inside of Sara Watkins’ ukulele. I will do literally unusual for us to decide to reinvent something
other things, sometimes he engineers himself, anything to avoid DI’ing acoustic instruments. in the mix. More often, the effort goes into
but it’s been almost 10 years now that I’ve been “But the essential thing is, they were live takes, making sure what they were doing came across
working with him.” which has always been Ethan’s mode. Their during the recording.
The I’m With Her project was set up as a live facility with their instruments is breathtaking, “There’s not that many record producers out
session in Real World’s Wooden Room, where really.” there who are also writers and accomplished
Johns and Monks elected to keep everything in Watkins, O’Donovan and Jarosz played nearly multi-instrumentalists, and great engineers and
the one room: musicians, amps, recording and all of the instruments on the album, though mixers,” Monks continues. “So it puts us in a
mixing gear. Johns played some weissenborn and harmonium. wonderful situation to get great sounds when you
“You can use that Wooden Room as a live “For the electric guitars, I think Ethan’s Vox AC4 have someone who completely understands every
room along with the big control room with the amplifier was around,” Monks recalls. “He’s also aspect of the process. It can be agony putting
wraparound SSL [XL 9000 K Series] console,” got a Lyric amplifier, which is an old licensed yourself out there as an artist and committing,
Monks explains. “We’ve done records like that, as version of a Magnatone. They got used. Sara saying, ‘This is the take.’ Ethan is fantastic at
well; you can set up cameras to see the musicians in Watkins played some of the electric guitar stuff. guiding people through that. It’s probably what
the recording space. But we like being in there with Ethan also had an Eastwood mando guitar that he’s best at: getting to the heart of who an artist
the players. That’s how we made the Ray record, as Sarah Jarosz played. is and what they’re trying to say, and doing it in a
well as the two Tom Jones records that we’ve done “In terms of control, I put up a baffle behind way that shows the beauty in such an honest way.
there. No heavy doors to go through. The players each of them to control how much room sound “It’s like taking a picture of someone and it’s
have only to turn around to listen to the playback.” was going into their vocal mics,” he continues. incredibly real: You can see the lines on their
Real World offers a variety of recording “The guitar amps would also tend to hide behind face. You really see that person for who they are,
platforms, but the production team elected to those screens, so we could run them a little and yet it’s still a beautiful photograph. Ethan,
bring in Johns’ RADAR V rig. “It’s a heavy thing louder. The room has very high ceilings and is as a producer, gets artists out there genuinely as
to lug around, but we decided it was the right very forgiving for this kind of music. The key, they are and as they sound.” n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 13 2/15/18 5:45 PM

Music
PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN
A Seemingly Quiet Daily Life, Filled With Rock Guitar
By Lily Moayeri
A
t first glance, many aspects of Alfie
Agnew’s life seem at odds with each
other. As the sometime guitarist for
the Southern California rock groups D.I. and The
Adolescents, Agnew is a punk rock institution.
He is also a math professor at California State
University, Fullerton. His Orange County home
is located on a quiet, removed residential street,
Photo by Frank Agnew

yet it is here that he makes wild noise with
his latest group, Professor and the Madman,
a venture with returning cohort Sean Elliott.
Disintegrate Me is the pair’s third album, the first
featuring The Damned’s Rat Scabies on drums
and Paul Gray on bass. Professor and the Madman’s Disintegrate Me was mixed and mastered by Mark Bolton at Orange County Arts
Center in Brea, Calif. Pictured there are (from left) Alfie Agnew, Mark Bolton and Sean Elliott.
Disintegrate Me is a bi-continental affair
whose songs go through many, many iterations and keep the articulation.” and we’ll do more stages of compression and
before they emerge from the mastering stage. It The two trade off laying down the scratch EQ during mixing and mastering. When we’re
is in Agnew’s studio, a small room in his home drum and bass tracks—to a strict grid—to getting to the final mix, we’ll throw on some
outfitted with foam sound absorption panels later be replaced by Scabies and Gray. Two reverb, delay, maybe saturation, which is really
and acoustic curtains, that song ideas begin to versions are sent to David M. Allen (The Cure, helpful for my voice—gives it a little sizzle and
form. Depeche Mode) in London, where Scabies does brings it out better.”
Both guitar players, Agnew and Elliott make his recording: one with the drum track, one Mark Bolton (45 Grave, Fredy Boy) is behind
good use of the former’s amp collection, choosing without. Unlike Agnew and Elliott, who record the mixing and mastering of Disintegrate Me.
a combination of Marshall JVM410H 100-watt their scratch tracks close-miked and dead- “It isn’t one of those albums where you create a
tube head and Vox AC30 for the heavier songs, sounding, Allen’s recording of Scabies’ drums template that you could plop on every song,” he
which they mike with a Shure SM57. includes many ambient mic tracks. says. “Each song is a brand new mix. I used a lot
“We find the Marshall overdrive and Vox “We had ideas for what the drums should of Softube Console 1, which is basically an SSL
overdrive blend sounds crunchier and more be like, but we told [Scabies] not to feel limited G channel strip. It has gating, compression, EQ,
powerful than doing a bunch of Marshalls,” by what we’d done,” says Agnew. “The whole harmonic drive, and you can blow through on
says Agnew, who used a range of guitars, from point of having him is for him to bring his every channel and grab hands-on control.”
a Fender Stratocaster to a Rickenbacker 360 interpretation to it. Sometimes he would follow The snare drums proved to be the biggest
12-string, on Disintegrate Me. “The Vox really it pretty closely, most of the time he would mixing challenge, as there were no stems for a
cuts, and it has a very specific narrow band completely reimagine it.” bottom microphone capture. To work around
so it doesn’t sound mushy at all. Sometimes Agnew and Elliott do another mix on these this, the snare top is gated and compressed to
high gain doesn’t translate when it’s recorded. versions, including final vocal tracks, alternating give it some attack, but that wasn’t enough,
You can have too much crunch and distortion. between the two leads. These are recorded using so some sound replacement samples were
Layering Marshall over Marshall starts sounding a Shure SM7 for Agnew, who sounds better with incorporated into the mix, though Bolton had
like a hum. proximity, and an AKG for Elliott, who has more to be careful to not end up sounding like a
“What I like about the Marshall is you have growl and edge to his voice. The microphones go machine gun. In contrast, Bolton used volume
to dig that pick in and get some articulation,” into a UA Apollo preamp, then into Logic. automation on the two different tracks of bass
he adds. “Like on ‘Nightmare,’ there is a lot of “If you don’t control some of the dynamics from Gray. That was a tedious process for him,
palm muting. We aren’t shy about laying down going in, you end up having to overdo it in the but one he was ultimately happy with despite
10 guitar tracks. Someone has to talk sense into mix,” Agnew says. “We try to smooth it out his initial concern about stacking that much low
us, making us use less so they stand out real big in stages. Compression going in, print that, end into the mix. n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 14 2/15/18 5:45 PM

Affectionately referred to as the “lollipop,” the SCX25A
is perfect for miking vocals, guitars, pianos, drums and
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MIX_FP.indd 1 2/16/18 12:56 PM

Classic Tracks
“MASTER OF PUPPETS”
Metallica
By Sarah Jones
I
n the spring of 1986, pretty-sounding pop ruled the airwaves. With Wham, Whitney Houston,
Sade and Dream Academy dominating the Billboard charts, you’d be hard-pressed to find a
distorted guitar anywhere in the Top 10. Over on MTV, “metal” music was a rotation of camera-
friendly bands slithering around in Aqua Net and Spandex, whipping their hair to shout-along
anthems about parties and girls.
Meanwhile, a dark fury was raging in the In the fall of 1985, the Bay Area band, then
music underground, and it was about to bust living in Los Angeles, returned to Sweet Silence
wide open. Thrash metal, with its face-melting Studios in faraway Copenhagen to reunite with The band was honing an aggressive, in-your-
assault of blistering tempos, heavy themes, producer Flemming Rasmussen, whom they face aesthetic, and “no reverb!” was the mantra.
chugging riffs and a caustic attitude borrowed had hired on their previous record, Ride the “But that meant instead that I recorded a hell of
from hardcore punk, was the antithesis of Lightning, after being impressed by his work a lot of ambience tracks,” says Rasmussen, who
glam rock, and it was being eaten up by the with Rainbow. took advantage of cavernous spaces at the studio
disenfranchised youth of America. Despite being vehemently “anti-producer” at to capture room sounds.
The pioneers of thrash—Metallica, Slayer, the time, the band members, who were barely Rasmussen recorded to tape through the 1976
Anthrax and Megadeth—were carving out a new in their 20s and still learning their way around Trident A Range console that he still works on
genre that was spreading like wildfire despite the studio, had an ideal creative partner in today. He used the desk’s preamps and EQs, and
the bands’ steadfast refusal to conform to the Rasmussen. “We wanted to do Ride the Lightning sent signals through a UREI 1176 compressor
music mainstream. Of these acts, Metallica better, louder, more well played, better songs,” to two synched 24-track tape machines. He
was the behemoth, building a massive cult Rasmussen says. “Just Ride the Lightning times generally committed to sounds before printing
following of tape-trading fans and blowing away ten in terms of sound.” them: “These were all recorded on tape, so the
crowds of 80,000, opening shows for Bon Jovi, This time, though, the band had a big- performances you hear are what was played,”
Ratt and Ozzy. Soon enough, Elektra Records label budget and nearly four months to make says Rasmussen. “My punching-in skills got
and Q-Prime Management took notice, and the record. It was the perfect arrangement: really fine-tuned on those albums.”
everything changed. Rasmussen lived five minutes away from the The album’s title track is a mighty epic, a shot
Master of Puppets, Metallica’s third album, was studio, and Q-Prime hired his wife and sister of adrenaline right out of the gate. With its grave
released in March 1986 as the band’s major-label to cook dinner for the band every night. They themes of drug addiction and control, it became
debut. Five years into their careers, they were would eat together, discuss the sessions, then a model for metal’s socially conscious messages.
maturing as artists, with all four members— head in to record, breaking just in time to catch And at more than eight and a half minutes,
frontman James Hetfield, guitarist Kirk the breakfast buffet at their hotel. “In those days, with complex rhythmic patterns, abrupt tempo
Hammett, bassist Cliff Burton and drummer the boys in Metallica called me ‘Dad,’” Rasmussen changes and three distinct movements—
Lars Ulrich—contributing equally to song says. “I’m four or five years older than them, so including a long instrumental interlude
material. (This would be the final project with I was kind of like the father figure in their life.” punctuated by soaring, melodic solos—it feels a
Burton, who was killed in a tour bus accident in Metallica showed up ready to rock, bringing lot more like a symphony than a single.
Sweden that fall.) along fully formed demos with fleshed-out Mostly, though, “Master of Puppets” is about
Puppets, which was written in eight weeks over arrangements; even their solos were composed. explosive guitar riffs, churning out of and over
the summer of 1985, saw the band become more This meant they would use their studio time to each other in dense layers. Metallica had just
refined, more powerful and more in control of focus entirely on their performances—which scored an endorsement deal with Mesa Boogie,
its direction, on a record that was more intricate, they did in meticulous, painstaking detail, and it took them a few days to dial in their new
complex and dynamic—more everything. stopping only for a two-day Christmas break. guitar sound in the studio. Then, getting that
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 16 2/15/18 5:48 PM

delay effects, reaching mostly for AMS and
Lexicon delays and UREI 530 and Orban 622B
EQs.
Although Wagener occasionally applied an
LA4A to tame dynamics, he generally approached
compression with a light hand. “I don’t subscribe
to the idea of putting compression on guitars
Photo by Chris Anthony
because, for me, the guitar amp is the best

compressor you can get,” he says. “Vocals, a little
bit more, because they’re much
more dynamic and they have to sit
in that certainly louder space.”
The Metallica boys in 1986, from left: Cliff Burton, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield.
More than three decades later,
thick, muscular crunch was all about double- ambience. “It was an SM57 on Master of Puppets has lost none of
tracking—dozens of times over, in mind- snare top and bottom, AKG D12 on its sheer power. “They certainly did
boggling detail. bass drum, one mic on each tom,” create a new genre,” says Wagener.
“The rhythm at no point was less than four says Rasmussen. “I had three mics “And they’re still in that genre, and
guitars, and at some points it’s eight guitars,” on the cymbals, and then four to that’s why it still sounds modern.”
says Rasmussen, who prefers double-tracking to six room mics, including a couple Rasmussen says he’s not surprised
applying tricks later on. “We’d do James’ sound of U87s.” that Master of Puppets became an
on his guitar with his amp, and he would double During Puppets, Hetfield was instant classic. “When I heard it,
Producer Flemming
that performance on Kirk’s guitar. We’d do Kirk’s still honing his signature growl— Rasmussen I thought, ‘Wow, this is a good
guitar, maybe find a new sound, and would “He was more or less the angry album,’” he says. “I think it was an
double-track that on James’ guitar.” young man,” says Rasmussen—and production album that everybody, once we were done, was
Rasmussen often used SM57s as both close was pretty straightforward: a Shure SM7B, so proud of. It just felt so good to do it, and it
mics and room mics, and would place an Aphex through the Trident desk and UREI compressor, felt right.”
studio EQ on a guitar amp’s insert to further to tape. “We’d do a lead vocal and would double- Master of Puppets would not be Metallica’s
fine-tune the sound. He printed verse guitars on track it,” says Rasmussen. “We’d work out some biggest record, but it opened up a new world for
one track and chorus and bridge guitars on other backing vocal parts where they decided they the band. It won mainstream critical acclaim,
tracks. “Then if the B part sounds different, should be, but that was about it.” reaching the Top 30 and selling a half-million
that’s a new batch of four tracks, and then the When recording wrapped, the tapes were copies in its first year despite the band’s refusal
chorus could be a new batch of four tracks,” sent to Michael Wagener at Amigo Studios in to make a music video or release a “radio-
he says. “Sometimes on top of that there’s Los Angeles. Wagener had produced records friendly” single. It would be the first thrash
power chords, and sometimes there’s four-part for Dokken, X, Stryper, Poison and Accept that album to go Platinum, and has sold more than 6
harmonies going on. Everything was written year; he was steeped in metal, yet he heard a new million copies in the U.S. alone.
down because otherwise we wouldn’t remember sound in Metallica. It wasn’t until Metallica released the self-
what the hell we had done.” “I’ve worked with a lot of metal bands before, titled Black Album in 1991 on Elektra that they
Recording Burton’s bass usually meant but Metallica was more of a heavy, heavy, heavy became one of the top-selling acts in American
capturing one single performance for each song. metal band,” says Wagener. “They had their very history, skyrocketing straight to Number One,
Burton didn’t like headphones, so Rasmussen own ideas about where they wanted to go. And selling 16 million copies and winning Grammy,
would set him up in the vocal booth with a it was, at the time, slightly different from what I MTV and AMA awards.
pair of big JBL 4333 speakers. “I’d blast the track would normally do, like the reverb-y drum sounds But Master of Puppets is considered by many
through that, and we’d do a DI and the amp, and and stuff. They didn’t want all that. They wanted to be the band’s greatest achievement, and it is
he would jump around like being at a gig, with it fairly dry, in your face, and everything loud.” certainly one of thrash metal’s most influential
the sound blasting from these speakers.” Wagener received reels of analog tape, which albums. Its legendary title track became the band’s
Burton was an excellent player, but had he transferred to digital tape. “We mixed from anthem, and it’s still their most-performed song.
slight timing issues, so to make sure the band the digital tape,” he explains. “But we had to line Today, it’s easy to take Metallica’s success
performed their machine-gun guitar riffs in up a bunch of tapes with each other, and it was for granted. But back in 1985, they were just a
perfect precision, Rasmussen had everyone a fairly extensive recording for the time. But, you bunch of 22-year-olds making music they loved,
detune slightly and play to a slowed tape, and know, massive amounts of equipment, and we without grander motives. “We were just kids,”
then he sped everything back up again. got a handle on it.” Ulrich told Rolling Stone on the 30th anniversary
Sweet Silence had a vast, 45-by-60-foot Wagener mixed the record in two weeks. of the release of Master of Puppets. “We were part
warehouse in the back; drums were recorded With much of the band’s signature sound already of a music scene, a movement. At the time, we
there to take advantage of the huge-sounding printed to tape, he focused on creative EQ and weren’t aware of the possibilities.” n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 17 2/15/18 5:48 PM

Music // news & notes
PAUL WELLER AT D.C.’S LINCOLN THEATRE
By Mark R. Smith
I
n recent months, new wave legend Paul
Weller has been presenting current
selections from his vast catalog—selections
that are, as always, mostly devoid of nostalgia—
during his “A Kind of Revolution” tour. The
tour concluded with a series of arena shows in
Photos by Mark R. Smith

the U.K.; the closing night performance was
scheduled for March 3 at London’s O2 Arena.
Weller is more of a cult figure in the United
States, which means the venues he plays here
Paul Weller and band during one of the more intimate acoustic moments of the show
are smaller. Case in point: Washington, D.C.’s
1,200-seat Lincoln Theatre. That’s where Weller’s the mic is swung around to after use. That can
longtime FOH engineer, Andrew “Ange” Jones, add that extra dynamic, which you need to be
got to work in what he termed a “unique” venue. aware of, though I have them fairly well trained
by now.”
TWO-DRUMMER SETUP
Jones’ two DiGiCo SD 10 consoles accommodated MIX EVOLUTION
96 channels in mono or stereo (with 12 flexi Another distinction of this tour was simply
channels, 108 total). He made use of both working in the Lincoln Theatre, Jones says.
onboard effects—hall reverb, drum reverb, band “We found that the house system was strangely
reverb, drum dub, delay and big reverb for special configured when we got there. There was a left FOH engineer Andrew Jones
moments—and outboard effects from his TC and right center hang of d&b V12s and 8s, which at the DiGiCo SD10 FOH setup
2290, Yamaha SPX2000, Lexicon PCM 91 and are way up in the air and angled at approximately
Korg RE20, with Avalon 737 for main vocal mic 110 to 120 degrees from each other, perhaps 12 to harmony vocals,” Jones adds. “So my approach
amp/compression; he doesn’t use plug-ins. FOH 15 feet apart. This caused phase/combing issues, is dynamic and subtle. I like the dynamics of the
accommodates 62 inputs. which the theater staff was aware of.” songs to come through, but try to limit excessive
The main vocal mics are Telefunken M80s, The result? “A very notchy EQ,” Jones volume, even though I have two extremely loud
with SM58s for backup vocals. Shure KSM 32s continues. “But we also needed to add a 9dB guitars to deal with. And we do still use wedges
for used for electric guitars. Elsewhere were the shelf from 4k to 16k in order to achieve any real and side fills, so the offstage sound is also a large
ubiquitous Shure SM57 snare top, B57s snare presence in the mix. We also had to reposition ingredient in the mix, especially in the smaller
bottom, with Sennheiser 904s on all toms and for stage width, with the subs off-stage in the venues.”
AKG 414s on cymbal work; then Shure SM 81s orchestra pit, in a sub line arrangement; due to
on hats and rides, 91s on inner kick, and M88s time issues, we did not get to tune fully. So we SETUP TIMES
for outer kick and bass mic, with a Leslie bottom. were kept pretty busy.” The biggest challenge was getting the various
There were also two SM 98s on the harmonium But really it was just another day with a new house P.A. systems to work. “We’ll go from a
and various Radial DIs throughout. twist for Jones, who has been mixing Weller full L-Acoustics line array one day to four Arcs
This setup interfaced with a monitor system for more than 25 years. “My mix has evolved per side, with not all the drivers working, the
that was provided by Sound Image. with him,” he says. “The band’s lineup has next day,” Jones says. “But the tour has been
In a departure from the norm, there were gone through many variations during that time, structured around playing venues that supply
two drum kits on the stage on this tour, “which with the present group a six-piece ensemble. a house system, so, of course, there’s a large
can have its inherent problems, as we used Two guitars, bass, two drummers, percussion variation in venue size and format, from the
mostly hired backline; the toms, especially, are samples, as well as traditional percussion, with a 2,000-seat theaters to the 600-capacity clubs.
variable in quality. So it’s a fine-tuning process. multi-keyboard setup. “I have to say, though, that the majority of
And because all the musicians sing, there’s the “The present show varies from full double- venues these days offer a very adequate house
issue with the drum vocals becoming the third drum heavy rock songs to a full-on acoustic system, and some are excellent,” he notes. “That
overhead or snare mic, depending on where set, including a harmonium on keys and multi- hasn’t always been the case.” n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 18 2/15/18 5:49 PM

MIX_FP.indd 1
SamAsh_Mix_MAR2018.indd 1 1/17/18 1:25
1/17/18 3:45 PM
PM
on the cover
Power Station
New England
Revamped Replica of Legendary New York Facility
Reopens in Connecticut
By Tom Kenny / Photos by Jess Wilson
W
hen Power Station New England City and everywhere in between. DAWs were the game, many thought. Who’s going to go to
opened back in 1995, two-and-a- in their infancy. The internet was just going Connecticut to record?
half hours east of New York City mainstream. Napster was still years away. In one sense, the cynics were right. Even the
in the bucolic seaside town of Waterford, The recording industry was booming, so owners would admit that the studio didn’t get
Connecticut, the music and recording industries it didn’t inspire that much interest when used to its potential over the years. The reason,
were in a much different place. The original an unknown company, one not even in the albeit with the benefit of hindsight, turned out
Power Station on West 54th St., one of the entertainment world, licensed the original to be that the timing was wrong, even during
best-known studios in the world, was still a year design and naming rights from Tony Bongiovi the boom-boom 1990s. It seems odd, and a bit
away from being sold to Avatar Entertainment. and Bob Walters for the famed Studio A, and counterintuitive, but now that the production
Multiroom commercial studios still reigned went about building a board-for-board replica. climate has changed, and many large facilities
from Los Angeles to Nashville to New York Just another outsider trying to buy their way into have been forced to close from a variety of
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 20 2/15/18 5:49 PM

Left: The spacious main room, set up for band tracking and making use of the two large variable iso rooms in
the rear for piano and drums.
Above: Joe Blaney at the reconditioned Neve 8068 in Control Room A, with PSNE’s Evan Bakke in the
foreground and producer/engineer Phil Joly to the back.
People build and run studios for any number At its inception, Sonalysts had a single client—
of reasons. Many are musicians, others come the U.S. Department of Defense—and its focus
from the entertainment side, a few have straight was on research and analysis in underwater
business backgrounds, and a handful simply acoustics, soon adding contracts for simulation
have very large checkbooks. All are valid. But and training. But there had always been plans for
you’d be hard-pressed to find another studio a diversified company based around a creative
whose roots can be traced back to underwater think tank–like organization, and long before
acoustic research and advanced sonar training the Cold War ended, Sonalysts had expanded
and simulations. Or to a founder who was its real estate investments, nudged its way into
commander of a submarine and who had a the commercial world and entered audio/visual
knack for gathering the best and the brightest production in a small way. In 1989, the Pentagon
of his colleagues, then pulling the best out of called and said that they had received an inquiry
them. The U.S. Navy is big in and around eastern from Disney, asking whether they had any
Connecticut, and Sonalysts founders Dave and expertise in underwater sounds.
Muriel Hinkle had a lot of talented friends
nearby when they formed the company in a SONALYSTS MEDIA
backyard cottage back in 1973. Today, roughly 350 “The sound team working on the movie The Hunt
people work for the employee-owned company for Red October came out here, and they asked for
pressures, the powers behind Power Station in locations throughout the United States. help with sounds for some of the special sound
New England decided that the time was right “It was meant to be an interim thing,” says Eric effects,” Toriello says. “Then the following year it
to rethink, revamp and essentially reopen their Toriello, vice president of Sonalysts Media and was up for an Oscar in sound, and they won! For
facilities, 22 years after their debut. son of one of the early employees. “Dave Hinkle the first foray into the commercial media world,
To understand why PSNE decided to zig when was a lawyer. Muriel had a sense for business. it’s a nice tip of the hat to the guys who did the
others have zagged, or why in 2017 they put down They liked working together and doing work work. Internally, it was pretty cool.
a relatively large investment in a nearly 40-year- that actually meant something. They brought “Then at the same time ESPN had located
old console, new-old outboard gear, a closetful together so many good people from all around to Bristol and needed some edit suites, so they
of mics and a complete wiring makeover, it helps the community. Many of them served together started to build some out here,” he continues.
to understand something about the company on the same submarines. It was a dynamic work “In parallel, Electronic Arts hired us to create
behind the facility: Sonalysts. environment, with some very smart people.” a submarine-specific, scenario-based game for
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 21 2/15/18 5:50 PM

them. We took the media creatives and put them
in a room with submarine guys. We set them up
and made the most advanced simulation game
ever made. The DOD later took a look at it and
modified it for training.
“From there, we even got into developing
a game that had our own game engine. We’re
developing things that aren’t narrow-use. Today,
we are very steeped in virtual reality, augmented
reality and human factors, all of which play into
next-generation decision making and immersive
experiences. It can have a DOD angle, but also
consumer aspects.”
For most of those early years of Sonalysts
Media, Toriello was a kid hanging out sweeping
floors, then pitching in during breaks from
school, learning about being on a crew. He left
for L.A. right after college to pursue a passion
for film, finding some success as a production
manager and line producer, living the good life.
Then, talking to his mom one day and hearing
the peeper frogs in the background, he decided
it was time to come home.
Some freelance years followed, then a number Vintage King found and restored the classic Neve 8068, with mods by original Power Station tech Ed Evans.
of “great years” at Hasbro, the toy manufacturer
in nearby Pawtucket, R.I.—all the while he kept the mic collection, the upkeep—it was all getting the space. At the time, Evan Bakke had been
tabs on what was going on with the media side a little long in the tooth. It wasn’t the type of bringing a few projects there, knew the room,
of Sonalysts. He eventually approached the CEO studio backbone that made producers want to was following the remodel and had even docked
in 2013 and suggested the types of changes that jump on a plane or drive a few hours up I-95. his mix rig in a spare production room. Toriello
would bring him back, specifically, reordering So Toriello started polling top engineers about proposed a deal that encouraged him to keep
the creative teams to bring different disciplines their wish lists, and it always came back to an working on his own projects. Bakke said yes.
together and remapping the workflow to take 80 Series Neve. Bakke is an old-soul engineer in a young
advantage of new technologies. “We challenged Vintage King to find us a man’s body. His father introduced him to The
“I wanted to bring the types of clients who board with a pedigree, and they delivered,” he Band, and he still blasts Little Feat. Having
appreciated the difference between a project says, noting that it was originally purchased by spent his teen years outside of Minneapolis, he
that is 80 percent there and something you Electric Lady Studios back in the late 1970s, then attended IPR recording school, then interned
might see on television, something that might housed for a while at Pachyderm. “It needed and was hired on by World Record Productions
win awards,” Toriello says. “So I presented to the some love, for sure, but VK rose to the occasion at age 19, mentored by engineer James Harley
company leadership and showed them a reel of and we ended up with a classic 8068, with Ed and producer Matt Kirkwold. The first record
the type of work I’d done and what I envisioned Evans mods. Now we have the heart of a facility, he worked on with WRP start to finish, by a local
for the company. They said, ‘Let’s do this.’ So we tied into an amazing room, and we start to have band called Quietdrive, had a song go gold. He
reinvented the workspace to an environment a draw.” gave up his girlfriend, his friends, and became a
where animators, motion graphics designers Ed Evans, one of the techs from the original studio rat.
and editors can all sit in the same room with a Power Station, was brought on to consult and to He went east a few years later and did some
producer right there. Our rooms aren’t defined supervise large portions of the revamp, from the work at Carriage House in Stamford, Conn.,
by a discipline—the rooms are defined by the installation of the Neve to a complete rewiring and all around New England, then went full
project. There’s a synergy that happens there, of the facility using all Redco cables. He then nomadic for about 10 years, with brief stints in
and it has proved hugely creative and efficient. helped to build a new SSL mix room and install South America, Nashville, back to New England,
Then as soon as we had the video side in place, a 4056 G-Plus board, with Genelec 1031 and PMC then back to Minnesota, where he stayed for
we turned to audio.” IB2S monitoring. He continues to lend his hands 18 months working with Prince. (See story on
and ears. p. 10, “That One Time, When I Met Prince...”)
STUDIO MAKEOVER Still, a studio doesn’t exist without people, In August 2015, newly married, he headed back
Without question, the live room and control and Toriello knew that he needed a producer/ to Connecticut. He had no job, but he brought
room were solid. But the Neve VR, the wiring, engineer with some passion to champion some mixing work with him.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 22 2/15/18 5:50 PM

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The Sonalysts Sound Stage, set up for a Maroon 5
tour rehearsal.
While doing odd projects and getting

reacquainted with the area, he got a gig through
one of Prince’s techs, who owns Atomic
Instrument in Detroit and was building a console
for Dan Auerbach to put in Electric Lady Studio
D. “I went out there and helped them put that
room together in early 2015,” Bakke says. “There
I met Joe Blaney [pictured on the cover], who was
coming in to record Bill Frissell in the studio.
The manager asked me if I could help run that
session, so I assisted Joe. That same day I met
Phil Joly [also pictured on the cover], who was
chief engineer at Electric Lady. At that point I
didn’t know that Joe had worked for Prince and
Phil had recorded Prince. We all found it out at
the same time, and we became instant friends.”
Soon after that, another friend called and
told Bakke that he should check out this place in Sonalysts VP of Media Eric Toriello seated at the SSL in the all-new PSNE Mix Room, talking to in-house
Connecticut that was an exact replica of Avatar. technician J.J. Johnson.
Bakke was skeptical. “It didn’t sound right to me,

like there wouldn’t be real wood on the walls,” The revamp was in progress, and Bakke getting along with the whole crew there,” Bakke
Bakke recalls. “I was just visiting as an engineer became friends with Ed Evans and started says. “A job opened up and it was about as close
who might bring projects. So I drove out there, bringing his own sessions there. to a dream job as I could ask for. They basically
walked in and it was just one of those moments “I think they saw that I knew the room, that I gave me the opportunity to continue building a
where I thought right away, ‘Yep, this is a place was teaching people at their place how to use it, career for myself and working on my craft, and
I’d like to work.’” they saw the work I was bringing in, and I was they considered it one of the most important
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 24 2/15/18 5:50 PM

parts of this job. in three days. Bakke worked multiple days with The Voice runner-up Billy Gilman, flying
“But I want to make it clear that the studio wouldn’t in a band and cutting six songs. It might not be the three-month bookings of yore, but
be functioning at the level that it is without Ed Evans,” the energy remains the same.
Bakke adds. “He did an amazing job of combining And there is a whole lot yet to come. Tour rehearsals in one of the five soundstages, with
traditional and modern recording techniques, taking the full lighting truss and multicamera 4K shoots. Café-style, intimate performances streamed
actual, fundamental mindsets of the amazing console, to Facebook fans from inside the studio. B-roll footage from the making of a record, handed
amazing room and the mics, and turning it into the off as the bus pulls away. There will no doubt be artist development.
perfect spot to record in 2018, or 2020. The point is that PSNE is a destination studio, though the definition of a destination
“And then Redco rewired the entire studio. They’re studio has changed. The two-month bookings are forever gone, but a heckuva lot can get
a cable company and their cables are just as good as done in a few days, or a week, when the band, producer and engineer are all in the same
Mogami. And they’re amazing people. The owner himself room. And if the tracks sound good, then they can be sent out that night, with video, direct
and an assistant would come out and solder. They redid to fans. That’s the new recording industry. And it sure makes a difference from inside a
the patch bay, too, this massive patch bay, and it’s all world-class studio. n
perfect.”
THE NEW STUDIO MODEL
S T L
Toriello and the team at Sonalysts have taken into
R U A
consideration that relaunching PSNE is a long-term
T G I N
game. With a solid company behind the facility, Bakke
R I
has been given the latitude to extend the studio’s reach
O
through his contacts, and to develop a foundation for the
THE
new studio model.
“It takes time to build a world-class facility,” Toriello
says. “It has to develop over time as people get to know it
and understand it. The company gets that, and Evan gets
it. And it’s already paying off. The folks who are coming
here and doing recordings right now—we haven’t seen
this level of talent before. I see great records being made
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MIX_03_18_v8.indd 25 2/15/18 5:51 PM
Nathaniel Rateliff
The Night Sweats
Bringing Soul Back to the Studio With Producer/Engineer Richard Swift
by Barbara Schultz / Photos by Richard Swift &
Photo by Brantley Gutierrez
Back row, from left: Scott Frock (trumpet), Mark Shusterman (keys), Patrick Meese (drums), Luke Mossman (guitar).
Front row: Jeff Dazey (saxophone), Joseph Pope III (bass), Andy Wild (saxophone), Nathaniel Rateliff (vocals, guitar).
W
hen Mix covered one of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night LP, Tearing at the Seams (out March 9, Stax Records), which builds on
Sweats’ sold-out concerts in San Francisco last year, the the sound and success of their debut.
group segued from their explosive hit “SOB” into The A solo artist and former member of The Shins, Swift has produced
Band’s “Shape I’m In,” and back again. This moment spoke volumes: numerous acts, including Damien Jurado, Foxygen and Laetitia Sadler,
Rateliff & The Night Sweats have taken a page from the legendary Band’s as well as his former band and Rateliff’s crew. Describing the writing
book, playing soul music through their own filter. and demo sessions for Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats, Swift
“Most people who work with me want something timeless, but not says, “The first record was basically just Nat and I, and Pat [Meese] the
completely retro or throwback,” says producer/engineer Richard Swift, drummer came in halfway through. It was still such a new idea.”
who helped Rateliff and company make their breakthrough eponymous Swift refers to the fact that Rateliff’s previous albums were more
album in 2015. Now the band and Swift are set to release the follow-up quiet and folk-based. The soul sound of the first Night Sweats album
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 26 2/15/18 5:51 PM

Rateliff (left) is pictured with Swift, who explains what’s
behind his choice to print all of his reverbs: “I taught myself
how to do all this stuff through trial and error. I know I’m
Through Swift’s fish-eye lens, we see the band tracking live in National Freedom. Swift describes the drum- doing it ‘wrong,’ but I don’t care. It sounds good at the end of
miking scheme: “There was nothing unaffordable, that’s for sure. I think my most expensive mic in the studio the day. You don’t listen to a Joe Meek record and say, ‘That’s
might be a stereo Cascade ribbon. I bought a CAD live drum setup—with clips and everything. It’s corny but I too much reverb,’ or listen to Pet Sounds and say, ‘That’s too
love how it sounds. I use the CAD kick mic and a clip-on under the snare, and then I use Coles overheads. Just a much reverb.’ The idiosyncrasies of my favorite records—a
few drum microphones, typically. I think one time I miked a floor tom, but that was a very radical decision.” lot of those might have been mistakes.”
During band tracking, Swift broke out the 57s. “With

guitars, organ and piano, most of the time it’s just
a 57 in the guts of whatever I’m recording. So a 57
“When Nate cut vocals, he would just sit at the drums and sing into the drum
on Nate’s guitar, 57 on [Luke Mossman’s] guitar,
microphone. Nate’s a drummer, like me, so he was really comfortable sitting at the
57 on [Mark Shusterman’s] piano, and I don’t use
drums singing. He had his back to us and I’d turn the lights off and make it vibe-y,
bass amps, so I just put a 57 on Joe—I call him Jose-
and he would just kill it. I think the most he sang any of the songs is twice.”
phine—Pope and he played through a Fender Deluxe
[guitar amp].”
was a departure, but by the time they were ready to record Tearing at Cottage Grove, Ore., where he tracked live band sessions, then overdubs
the Seams, the group had been touring with the first record for more (vocals, solos, horns), to Pro Tools 10. “I’m afraid to upgrade because I
than a year. feel like my sound is getting more and more dialed,” Swift says.
“They’d become a really solid band,” Swift says. “Not just in terms of Other key ingredients to Swift’s sound include his collection of
their songs, but there’s a very strong brotherhood. So when they started dynamic and ribbon mics (he doesn’t care for condensers), and spring
this record, they went out someplace in New Mexico. They had their reverbs, including a half-broken AKG BX10: “It’s a stereo spring reverb
sound guy [Jamie Mefford] with them and a portable recording setup. unit, and one side doesn’t work, but I’m afraid to get it fixed because I
They were calling what they were recording ‘demos,’ but some things don’t want to lose its mojo,” he says.
seemed finished.” Above, Swift shares his personal studio photos and more details about
The project then moved to Swift’s National Freedom studio in the production of this much-anticipated sophomore release. n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 27 2/15/18 5:53 PM

NAMM Show 2018:
Pro Audio Edition
By Kevin Becka
T
his year’s NAMM show was a jaw-dropper in many ways. It broke all records, with more than 115,000 attendees visiting more than 2,000
exhibitors showing 7,000-plus brands, while at the same time the new 100,000 square foot, two-story audio hall brought more exhibitor
organization, and lower SPL to the event than ever before.
On the downside, attendees entering the halls, especially in the mornings, passed through the new and tightened security, fraying a few nerves. But
the spirit of the event that brings music, musicians and audio professionals together eventually soothed the crowds. The following represents just some
of the great gear I saw at the show, much of it breakthrough technology.
KEVIN’S TOP 10 phone, featuring a Offering a sneak peek for NAMM-goers, the
Focal revealed the Shape Twin, a 2.5-way moni- 1-inch true condenser soon-to-be-released RMP-D8 from Rupert Neve
toring loudspeaker that offers ultimate perfor- capsule with eight Designs is an 8-channel, Class A, remote con-
mance, and from a distance of only 1 meter. It types of directionality trol Dante Mic Preamp. Features include a dual
offers a lot of the same breakthrough tech as the to choose from, plus power supply, operation up to 24-bit/192kHz,
Shape released last year, but in a new three-way three reverse polar and eight stellar 1dB stepped preamps with 60dB
design. patterns for higher of clean gain.
flexibility experimen- Audinate introduced Dante AVIO, a family
tation. It’s a great mic for customizing your feed of cost-effec-
Lynx Studio Technology broke new ground to the DAW right at the source. tive endpoint
with the introduction of its first-ever micro- The result6 studio monitor adapters al-
phone preamp. The Aurora(n) PRE 1608 features from PMC features a two-way lowing easy
16 inputs and 8 outputs, but can be configured design with a 27mm soft-dome connection of
through the newly formed Lynx Custom Shop. tweeter, dispersion grille, and legacy analog
R a d i a l a mid/bass unit composed of a and digital audio equipment to Dante networks.
Engineering doped natural fiber. The most
shocked many affordable PMC yet, it features QUALITY GEAR EVERYWHERE
with the news built-in dual Class-D amplifi- Steinberg demoed three (count ’em!) updates to
of the com- ers that supply 65W and 100W its software line, including WaveLab Pro 9.5 with
pany’s sale to of power to the HF and LF drivers, respectively. more tools than ever, Dorico 1.2 professional
Ultimate Sup- Raising the bar on the high end, and with mas- music notation software, and Cubase Pro 9.5
port Systems and the exit of founder Peter Janis, tering engineers in mind, Apogee announced the with a new 64-bit audio engine.
but as usual, they revealed a range of innovative 2x6 Special Edition AD/DA module for the flag- Pro Tools 2018
products, including the Radial Catapult Mini, al- ship Symphony I/O MkII Series, offering the from Avid in-
lowing users to drive four analog audio channels highest quality AD/DA conversion of any Apogee troduces a new
over a single shielded CAT 5 cable. converter. way of naming
Focusrite Antares Audio Technologies demoed an im- updates (Year/
showed the pressive ground- Month), the abil-
new Clarett up redo of Au- ity to capture MI-
2Pre USB (10- to-Tune at the DI performances,
in, 4-out), NAMM Show even when you’re
Clarett 4Pre USB (18-in, 8-out) and Clarett 8Pre that includes a not recording, Track Presets, and new comping
USB (18-in, 20-out), fleshing out an already whole new look, features and shortcuts.
impressive line of interfaces fitting nearly any ARA (Audio Ran- Bringing its top-quality transducers to the
budget. dom Access) support, and Classic Mode for get- masses, ADAM Audio introduced the T Series,
Lewitt launched the LCT 441 FLEX micro- ting that legendary Auto-Tune 5 sound. the company’s new affordably priced range of
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 28 2/15/18 5:53 PM

studio moni- at the show, AEA also brought the new half- In the bottom floor of the new hall, VUE
tors for audio rackspace, 2-channel TRP2 preamp. The gainer Audiotechnik
recording and offers 85dB of clean amplification and is a solid showed off two
production pros. companion for any ribbon, high-priced or low. new models in
Models include Audient expanded its audio interface range its premium h-
the 5-inch woof- with the USB 2 iD44, operating at up to 96k/24- Class family of
er T5V and the bit, sporting high-grade components, and with high-definition
7-inch woofer enhancements inspired by customer feedback. powered sys-
T7V. The package comes with more than $500 of tems. The hm-
Aimed at the desktop producer on the go, plug-ins and software. 108A is a precision slant stage monitor packing
Universal Audio bowed its new Arrow Thun- the full arsenal of VUE’s most advanced tech-
derbolt 3 au- nologies into a compact, fidelity-first monitor-
dio interface ing system.
for Mac and The busy PreSonus booth had the Studio Celestion launched
Windows. 1810 and Studio 1824 USB 2 audio/MIDI inter- two new small-format
Arrow fea- faces. Both feature XMAX Class A microphone coaxial drivers for fixed-
tures an on- preamps, audiophile-grade digital converters, install sound reinforce-
board UAD-2 low-jitter clocking and MIDI I/O. ment and cinema audio.
SOLO Core CEntrance announced the new MixerFace R4 Also in the booth was the
processor, letting musicians monitor and re- mobile recording interface featuring a built-in AF Line Array drivers, a
cord through the full library of UAD Powered rechargeable battery and the ability to pair the value-priced range of weather-resistant, com-
Plug-Ins. R4 with a smartphone or tablet. pact, low-profile drivers for use in compact line
arrays, column speakers and compact single-
FOR THE LIVE SOUND ENGINEER speaker applications.
There was plenty of live music at NAMM, both
at the Hilton and Marriot, plus the stages outside
the new hall and on Convention Way. Live sound
pros gawked at the new PreSonus NSB 16.8 and
Offering some high-end eye candy for at- 8.8 AVB-networked stage boxes, designed to
tendees, Eventide had its flagship rackmount work with the company’s StudioLive Series III
processor, the H9000, plus the recently released mixers/recorders. D.A.S. showed its new Event-212A powered,
Euro DDL module and Anthology XI plug-in The one thing the NAMM live stages had three-way line array employing two D.A.S.
bundle all on display. The H9000 features eight in common was Yamaha consoles at FOH and 12-inch loudspeakers in a dual-band configu-
times the processing power of the current-gen- monitors. New for the show was the RIVAGE ration in which each speaker operates in a
eration H8000, with the emote remote control PM7 digital mixing system, featuring the CSD- specific frequency range. The units have been
application available as a standalone app for R7 digital mixing console, the Rio3224-D2 and teamed with a single M-75 compression driver
Mac and PC. Rio1608-D2 Dante-equipped I/O rack units, and and purpose-designed injected aluminum high-
firmware V4.5 for the CL and QL Series digital frequency waveguide.
mixing consoles.
Back in Hall A, Allen & Heath had its SQ

Peter Chaikin from JBL showed booth visi- series consoles at NAMM for the first time. The
tors the HARMAN 3 Series MkII powered studio rack-mountable SQ-5 has 16 onboard preamps,
monitors featuring the JBL Image Control Wave- Great for getting plenty of boom out to the 17 faders and eight softkeys, while the SQ-6
guide and refined transducers. The models are back row and balconies, QSC introduced the provides 24 preamps, 25 faders, four assignable
available in three configurations including the newest K Family member, the small-footprint rotary controls and 16 softkeys. Both models
305P MkII (5-inch woofer), 306P MkII (6.5-inch) KS112 powered subwoofer. Features include a support up to 56 input channels via remote ex-
and 308P MkII (8-inch). single 12-inch transducer in a 6th order bandpass panders and both feature a networking slot for
Along with a full range of ribbon transducers premium birch cabinet. optional Dante, Waves and other cards. n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 29 2/15/18 5:53 PM

Mix Regional: Austin
By Barbara Schultz
Lazaro Martinez cutting

vocals in Justin Douglas’
King Electric studio. James McMurtry’s
“State of the Union”
“My brother’s a fascist,” sings James McMurtry in his new song “State of the
Union,” and then the gloves come off… His latest dark and uncompromising,
and brilliant, song was tracked live in Chris Fullerton’s El Pres studio. It’s an
18x15-foot backyard room that the owner/operator says is basically a Tough
Photo by Eric Lugo
Shed: a prefab building that Fullerton has outfitted with Pro Tools and two
Black Lion-modified interfaces and a pair of hand-me-down Mackie MR8s.
“I engineer and mix
my own records here,”
King Electric Hosts Fullerton says. “It’s

basically the antithesis of
a studio. “But people have
Refugee Musicians liked the sonics of my
own things, and I started
Justin Douglas searched long and hard for a building to house his new studio, getting jobs to engineer.”
King Electric. “The Austin real estate market might be as bad as Brooklyn,” he Fullerton rents a lot of
says. “Anything that would be remotely suitable has been turned into a brewery— the microphones he uses
which you can’t really complain about.” from nearby RocknRoll
Douglas did find a warehouse space in central Austin that he built out by Rentals. He recorded
hand, creating a 1,000-square-foot recording space and a 250-square-foot control McMurtry’s deep vocal
room equipped with his 24-channel Neve V51 console, ADAM S3H and Amphion dry, but to enhance it,
two15s monitors, and a Shadow Hills Oculus controller. he placed a Peluso U47
“All the walls [in the live room] are curved wood and they’re offset from each a few feet away from the
other, so it’s a pretty dramatic little place, and it sounds really good,” Douglas says. artist. Likewise, he put up James McMurtry
Douglas has stayed busy since he opened the space early last year. “But one an AKG Perception 170
of the best experiences in my 18 years of recording was over the last SXSW,” he room mic about five feet above and behind McMurtry, and another 170 as a
says. “I contacted a nonprofit called Caritas that resettles refugees in central Texas close mic on McMurtry’s ’70s-vintage Guild acoustic guitar.
and offered free recording time to any recently immigrated musicians. I figured “State of the Union” was mixed by Stuart Sullivan at Wire Recording,
it would be a nice way to show folks they’re welcome here, and involve them in one of the facilities within the Mosaic Sound Collective. The main rig that
the South-by experience. Sullivan uses includes a vintage API 32x12x32 quad console, Pro Tools HDX,
“We wound up recording a 13-piece Cuban jazz orchestra called Ivan Garcia Lynx Aurora 32 I/O, and UAD Octo with lots of plug-ins. “The vocal and
y Su Son Cubano; a Cuban hip-hop duo; and a traditional Iraqi musician who acoustic guitar were recorded together, and there was a great deal of vocal
played violin and oud, named Dr. Basim Lami. The Iraqi gentleman was older, bleed into the guitar,” Sullivan says. “I used an Eventide time-align plug-
but he had just been in the country for a couple of weeks.” in to find the most pleasing phase balance between the voice and guitar
On mic choices for the orchestra, Douglas says, “The instruments were so tracks.”
unique and so handmade, we just sat down and listened to them in the room and Sullivan also used a hardware 1176 limiter and FabFilter 2 EQ plug-in on
talked to the musicians about how they wanted to sound.” McMurtry’s vocal. On guitar, he employed an old Neve 2264 compressor,
Douglas was so enchanted by the microtonal scales that Lami used on violin as well as the FabFilter 2. “Both compressors were used lightly, as anything
that he invited the Iraqi musician to appear on the latest release from his own done to guitar would happen to the vocal also, and vice versa,” Sullivan says.
band, Royal Horse. “There was subtle use of UAD Cooper Time Cube, UAD Dimension D, and
“Part of the impetus for this was, I’m from Texas but I grew up partly in UAD Oceanway reverb.”
Jakarta,” Douglas says. “So I know what it’s like to be in a place where you don’t Many more ingredients were added judiciously to this spare but
feel welcome or like you don’t belong a lot of the time. Playing music was an outlet unsparing tune. “My job was to present the song and message as clearly as
for me then, and that’s what I was trying to offer.” possible,” Sullivan says.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 30 2/15/18 5:54 PM

SESSIONS
’62 STUDIOS
Engineer Tim Palmer is pictured here at the Recording
Academy’s recent Salute to Rupert Neve. Palmer’s recent
mixing projects in his ’62 Studios include Tears for Fears’
first new material in 13 years, a Hailey Tuck album that was
produced by Larry Klein and engineered by Rod Shearer, and a Blue October track that was
produced by Justin Furstenfeld and recorded by Eric Holtz.
SPACE REHEARSAL & RECORDING STUDIO

Frequent visitors to the Space Rehearsal & Recording Studio
complex include Austin artists Charlie Sexton, Jimmy Vaughn
and Alejandro Escovedo (pictured). Artists Joel Guzman and
Sarah Fox were also in, to mix and master their album Christmas
Miracles, featuring Delbert McClinton, David Hidalgo and others. House producer Tim Gerron
tracked, mixed and mastered Brazilian artists The Boogarins’ La Vem a Morte album.
Arlyn Studios Photo by Aaron Hung
ECLECTICA STUDIOS
At the venerable Arlyn Studios, the facility hosted Engineer Tim Dolbear’s projects include work with Kpop
a birthday bash for promoter Louis Messina, label 182project and producer Joseph Kim, who flew in artist
where performers included George Strait, Ed Kayy from Seoul, South Korea, to track vocals with producer
Sheeran, Shawn Mendes and more. Recent Justine OK. (Kim is on the couch in the photo. OK is sitting
recording sessions included Gary Clark Jr. with at the console with Dolbear, who mixed and mastered the
co-producer/engineer Jacob Sciba and engineer album.) Adrian Conner (Hell’s Belles) mixed tracks for her
Joseph Holguin; as well as an album Mix covered upcoming album Spaz Kitty.
last year, Steve Earle’s So You Wanna Be an Outlaw,
ALTAVISTA STUDIO
produced by Richard Bennett and engineered by Altavista Studio hosted UK artist Roger West cutting tracks
Ray Kennedy. with local band Cover Girl (Mandy Rowden, Melanie Zapata,
Heather Webb). Sapphire Kleft (pictured with assistant
Photo by Brandon Aguilar
Rebecca Risher) was in as well, working on a CD project with

producer Tom Johnson and engineer Josh Allen.
ESTUARY RECORDING
Chico Jones of Ohm Recording recently closed down his studio
and joined forces with Estuary Recording, allowing Estuary to
double its inventory of mics and outboard gear. Estuary’s John
Michael Landon recently produced and engineered Lola Tried
and Quin Galavis. House engineer Evan Kaspar engineered
albums for The Crack Pipes and Mark Deutrom, as well as new tracks for Mother Falcon.
Pictured are Claire Puckett and Isaac Winburne of Mother Falcon.
5TH STREET STUDIOS

Austin Signal 5th Street Studios manager Nick Joswick let us in on recent
In addition to plenty of tracking and mixing work, upgrades at the facility: The studio acquired some Epiphone
Austin Signal produces short-run vinyl releases. “I and Harmony guitars, vintage Altec 654A and beyerdynamic
have two cutting lathes in the studio, and I cut M69 mics, a Yamaha Electone organ, SSL X Rack with eight
dynamic buses, ADAM A77X monitors and more. Sessions
anywhere from one to 50-ish copies for people
include singer/guitarist Kevin McKeown of Black Pistol Fire and Andy Pickett with producer
all over the world,” says engineer Jon Niess. “I
James Petralli of White Denim.
did a short run for Universal Music Group and
Shania Twain a few months ago: a beautiful vinyl ORB RECORDING STUDIOS
picture disc, each with a personalized greeting Grammy-nominated artists at Orb: San Antonio band Nothing
from Shania. The other unique thing we do is More co-produced their session with producer Will Hoffman
single-mic recording: one microphone, and vinyl and engineers Charlie Kramsky and Juan Lopez. And SZA
cutting live.” Pictured is a single-mic direct-to- (pictured) was in, working with producers Sounwave and Al
Shux, and producer Matt Meli.
disc session with Graham Wilkinson.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 31 2/15/18 5:54 PM

TechSTUDIO MICROPHONES, 2018
Some Classics, Some Innovations, and a Nod to the Future
By Strother Bullins
I
t’s 2018, so you’ve surely heard the “paintbrushes” metaphor for make one choice ideal on this, serviceable on that, and maybe not so great
microphones by now. And though cliché, it remains the simplest way on another.
to describe the qualities of various studio microphones as applied Below are the latest offerings in studio microphones from some of the
in the recording process. The differences in what one microphone may best, most interesting and innovative manufacturers in professional audio
deliver over another can be explained as “texture,” a way of describing today. This is by no means a comprehensive list, as there are dozens of
what are essentially varying specifications—including frequency response other laudable mics out there. These are simply some noteworthy recent
and range and responsiveness, as well as other subjective qualities—that models that caught our eye.
Aesthetically best known for and Spark SL. Blue assures its
its tumbled solid stainless-steel Essential Series customers
chassis, Aston Microphones of thorough quality control
boasts bold, unique looks in its with a three-part inspection
roster, as well as a number of card—detailing frequency
interesting technologies. The response, noise specification
company’s latest, the Starlight, and fit/finish standards
is touted as “the first ever laser met—in every package. My
Aston Microphones Starlight
targeting pencil microphone,” colleague Rob Tavaglione
Blue Microphones SL Series
designed for careful placements and quick recalls. Other features of the notes, “I can recommend
cardioid condenser with 20mm capsule include useful parameters and the Baby Bottle SL over most similarly priced condensers for its wider
filters onboard and—most strikingly—its sintered head, in which small versatility, smoother than most top-end and an overall purity, with low
metal spheres are heated to form a “near perfect” porous yet ruggedly solid self-noise and low distortion.”
windscreen. Best known for its designation as “the only company in the world
At January 2018’s NAMM Show, Apogee unveiled its updated digital authorized to develop, manufacture and market the ‘official equipment of
MiC, which originally debuted in 2011, as the MiC Plus. Made in the USA, EMI/Abbey Road Studios,’” Chandler Limited rocked the pro audio world
the MiC Plus features “an entirely new design” and boasts improved sound in January 2017 with its unveiling of the REDD Microphone. The unique
quality, expanded dynamic range and a built-in headphone output for U47-style tube LDC includes its “REDD.47 Mic Amplifier circuit directly
latency-free monitoring while recording. It is interface-flexible, shipping coupled to a handmade premium platinum membrane capsule.” As such,
with three cables for Lightning/iOS, USB-C or USB the microphone can be used with or without an external preamp.
connectivity. Of Electro-Voice’s
Meanwhile, German manufacturer Beyerdynamic ND Series, the
debuted its FOX, a cardioid 24-bit/96kHz LDC mic ND66—a distinctive
with built-in Cirrus Logic conversion and USB port. small-diaphragm
Electro-Voice ND66
Also built-in is a mute button and latency-free condenser—is a must-
headphone monitoring capabilities. Best of all, it’s consider standout. The cardioid ND66 is clearly built for wide-ranging
priced affordably and promises the build quality and studio or live applications with a 50 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response,
reliability that Beyerdynamic has become known for. 146 dB max SPL and 126 dB dynamic range. Uniquely, the ND66 offers
Blue Microphones’ SL Series is a relatively a locking rotating head, or hinged elbow, approximately two inches
affordable collection comprising the company’s best- from its diaphragm-end tip. As such, the ND66 can go from straight to
selling condensers: the Baby Bottle SL, Bluebird SL Beyerdynamic FOX a 90-degree bend, with five positions in between. Squeezing SDC mics
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 32 2/15/18 5:55 PM

into tight positions—especially on drum set—is often a
challenge; this is where the ND66 may be a first-choice
application.
Lauten Audio Series Black
I recently had the opportunity to audition the

three-microphone Series Black by Lauten Audio. A
typically “higher-end” and all-original design-centric
manufacturer, Lauten delivers a significant value in
tonality in the Series Black; it’s far from the typical
“budget” microphones I have used in the past. While
“no frills,” Series Black mics are thoughtfully equipped
with what many modern (e.g., primarily residential)
audio engineers will need; filter frequency points were
chosen specifically by Lauten’s owner/designer, Brian
Loudenslager, to better serve those sheetrock-rich
customers. Somewhat like Henry Ford’s first factory-
built cars, these mics are comparably affordable,
relatively well constructed, useful to most users, free
of accouterments, and, well, black. The series includes
the flagship LA-320 tube LDC, LA-220 solid-state LDC,
and—my favorite bargain of the lot—the LA-120 solid-
state small diaphragm condenser stereo pair package
(pictured).
Lewitt Audio’s latest, the LCT 441 FLEX, is a 1-inch
multipattern studio mic touted by the company as
similar to its cardioid LCT 440 PURE. The LCT 441
FLEX provides eight polar patterns, including three
reverse polar patterns “intended to provide flexibility
without moving the mic.” The package ships with shock
mount and magnetic pop filter.
Miktek’s ProCast Mio is an LDC USB studio
condenser microphone (Windows or MacOS) that
incorporates a built-in headphone output and a twist:
it also provides a standard
3-pin XLR output. As such,
the ProCast may be built
for podcasting or recording
direct to CPU, yet it
can employed virtually
anywhere.
Mojave Audio’s MA-
1000 large-diaphragm
Mojave Audio MA-1000
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 33 2/15/18 5:55 PM

multipattern tube condenser is the first in the company’s new Signature new microphone inspired by the C-800G that, despite its super-high list
Series line, featuring a new old-stock 5840 tube, 251-style capsule and a price, remains on perpetual backorder to this day. Sony’s new offering, the
custom-designed transformer built by Coast Magnetics. It also features a C100, is a dual-capsule, transformerless, multipattern design with front-
remotely controlled, continuously variable polar pattern selector located switchable omni, cardioid and figure-eight patterns; it also provides a 10
on the mic’s power supply, a switchable 15dB pad and a low-frequency dB pad and low cut rolloff. Its 25mm diaphragm covers 20 Hz up to 25 kHz,
rolloff. and the 17mm capsule covers 25 kHz up to 50 kHz. What does that mean?
In the world of studio It’s ideal for “high-resolution capture.” Most importantly, the C-100 streets
microphones, the Neumann around $1,399 (rather than the C-800G’s over-$10K).
U67 tube condenser is a I first heard about Soyuz, the
fawned-over legend. As such, Russian boutique microphone
the company seized the manufacturer, from Tozzoli after he
moment at NAMM 2018 to had auditioned the SU-017 tube LDC
unveil its meticulous reissue, and its small cousin, the SU-011,
reportedly built to original at Clubhouse Studios in Rhinebeck,
specs to be “sonically identical New York, referring to them as
to the original 1960 version.” “absolutely ridiculous”—and in
Key features include three Neumann U67 a good way. Soyuz’s latest is the
switchable polar patterns, all-tube circuitry, low-cut filter, pad and SU-019 LDC, which uses a custom-
Neumann’s K67 capsule. The U67 reissue will ship with a NU 67 V power made capsule based on the Neumann
supply, power cable, connection cable, and shock mount in a handmade K67 design. Like its predecessors, it
vintage case. promises impeccable, beautiful build
Royer Labs’ hand-built R-10 ribbon microphone quality.
features a 2.5-micron ribbon element—reportedly Late last year, Sterling Audio—a
Soyuz SU-019
identical to the company’s R-121—and a David Royer brand of Guitar Center—announced
custom-designed transformer. Its ribbon transducer is a new series of high-value studio recording microphones. The line
wired for humbucking for low-noise performance, and includes six individual microphones, a two-microphone package, and two
impressively handles SPLs of up to 160 dB at 1 kHz. As new shock mounts. Most notable, Sterling’s ST169 Multi-Pattern Tube
such, it’s among the most durable ribbon microphones Condenser Microphone includes selectable cardioid, omni, and figure-8
on the market; it’s “next to impossible to overload the polar patterns, switchable HPF and attenuation pad. Handling up to 142 dB
microphone,” touts the company. SPL, the mic comes with the SM8 premium metal, band-suspension shock
Once again pairing up with Rupert Neve Designs, sE mount, aluminum carry case, and low-noise power supply.
Microphones offers its RNT, a 9-pattern LDC with built- Vanguard Audio Labs’ V44S is a
in tube circuit, separate “Floor Box” power supply with stereo large-diaphragm triple-pattern
Class A amplifier circuit from Rupert’s 5088 console, dual FET condenser microphone featuring
Rupert transformers, and more. The Floor Box provides a pair of coincident twin custom made
three gain settings and two HPFs. sE also recently multipattern capsules. As such, it can be
debuted its sE8 SDC stereo pair, featuring gold-sputtered Royer Labs R-10 configured for X/Y, Mid-Side, Blumlein,
capsules, dual HPFs and two pads, packaged with windscreens and a stereo and other less conventional stereo
bar in a rugged metal case. techniques.
Not necessarily for studio use, Sennheiser’s Ambeo VR mic uses four Warm Audio is now shipping its
pre-polarized KE14 condenser capsules in a tetrahedral array, making all new WA-47 tube LDC microphone,
of nature, not to mention all degrees of coverage, the soundfield. When inspired by the Neumann U47. An all-
processed with Sennheiser’s own ambisonic vacuum tube mic, the WA-47 offers nine
software and third-party downmix software, patterns, utilizes a custom reproduction
Ambeo VR’s signals can be decoded to stereo, of the vintage 47-style capsule, and is
surround sound or a fully spherical 360-degree designed with the same hole pattern and
soundfield, contained in four channels of frequency response as the original. The
B-format ambisonic audio as used in VR WA-47 also features a Slovak Republic
standards. Immersive music is coming! JJ 5751 vacuum tube; an American-
Vanguard Audio Labs V44S
Before January’s NAMM Show, my made TAB-Funkenwerk (AMI) USA
colleague, Rich Tozzoli, was beaming with transformer with large core-imported German laminations; and Swiss
the news that Sony would be unveiling a Gotham Cable for its 7-pin GAC-7 cable. n
Sony C100 Strother Bullins is a pro audio technologist and educator.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 34 2/15/18 6:06 PM

MIX_FP.indd 1 2/16/18 2:03 PM
Tech // spotlight
The VR/AR/Pro Audio Link
An Open Letter from Inside the Industry: More Tools!
By Alexander Brandon
I
have been a professional in game audio for nearly is present in an editor, there’s the context of the environment itself (game
25 years and have observed its tool progress since or other entertainment) and new factors to consider.
the formative years of the now-ubiquitous Unreal In a game, the player is (nearly) always facing the same direction as the
engine. (I even helped design the Unreal 1.0 audio camera and perspective of the game. Therefore, using Dolby and other
engine.) And because of how quickly game technology changes, it has taken panning technologies across whatever delivery systems are in place—from
nearly that long for pro audio and game audio to forge a relationship. headphones to 10.2 and up—will allow positioning based on whatever
The association between gaming and pro audio has developed in speed the game turns. If the player is in VR and AR, however, you add
proprietary ways since the late 1990s, with in-house teams rolling their the critical factor of head tracking. The players themselves need fast
own tools time and again, sometimes starting fresh with each new project. frame rates from the game or other interface for a variety of physiological
But only in the last four years has it passed to the commercial sector, with reasons, and this idea applies to audio as well.
the introduction of Steinberg Nuendo’s Game Audio Connect, now in its Therefore, panning in a DAW won’t perfectly replicate this tracking and
second iteration. rendering in the game engine. DAWs will need to be able to allow the sound
For the first time, a game audio engine (specifically Audiokinetic’s designer/editor/mixer to don a VR headset (HTC Vive, Sony VR or Facebook’s
Wwise) can interface directly with a pro audio DAW. Don’t get me wrong, Oculus) and track their assets and mix as the player “pans” by turning their
this is a really big deal, but the process of going from a DAW music or film head (head tracking), as well as movement of objects in the environment.
format into a truly nonlinear format such as game play is progressing even At least one tool has been developed to do just that: dearVR Spatial
faster with the explosion of virtual reality and augmented reality. Connect. This plug-in provides an environment that shows data that
Why has this taken so long? Games make a lot of money. For a little can be manipulated using VR equipment. Not only the headset but the
context, DAW developers tell me that it’s harder to pivot and move in controllers can be used to preview audio playback and adjust mix levels.
response to new game development environments. (Take a look at how This parallels something that is even now difficult to track in games.
long it took to move the film industry from Dolby For example, Audiokinetic’s Wwise has had
Pro Logic to Dolby Digital.) Yet most DAWs’ “Panning in a DAW won’t a profiler demonstrating all playing sounds,
functionality and environment during this time
has mostly stayed the same: tracking window and
perfectly replicate this and every piece of information related to those
sounds in a list format. But there is no easy way
mixing window. tracking and rendering to see the location of these sounds in the game
Game development platforms shift every three in the game engine.” environment without significant additional work
to four years, with updates on both the hardware from the game team. The same is true for any
and software side that require significantly more tool support, from game audio middleware: FMOD, Unreal and Unity typically don’t have an
scripting to mix control; VR and AR are changing even more rapidly. audio debug mode that displays easily discernible radii as well as property
Therein lies the problem. But there are fundamentals that don’t change, information near where the sounds themselves are playing.
and those fundamentals of nonlinear mixing and audio design, even The solution is clear: linear production is here to stay. No matter what,
composition and voiceover, can work their way into DAWs. sounds and music will take place over time. And their playback and initial
VR and AR technologies are being used for more than just games. They construction taking place in a tracking environment like today’s DAWs
are being looked at or implemented already for episodic television, film, will always have a spot in the production pipeline. But more than tracking
theme parks, military training and even new ways to experience music and mixing, we now need an environment mode—a way to organize the
(see TheWaveVR). And once again there’s a disconnect between creating sounds, music and voice assets we create, and to then hear them in context
content and experiencing that content in context. Using a DAW, it’s easy with appropriate data such as level, EQ, routing, and even a HUD that can
enough to sync to a film, but for a game or VR/AR experience, there are visually display 360-degree panning information. This will be the mixing
other factors at play. Three-dimensional positioning in real time has been experience of the future. It’s not just a need, it’s a must-have.
a factor for years, and even now there’s a lot of talk about ambisonics vs. We are on the edge of a huge leap forward in entertainment experience,
binaural or other recording methods for production. But once the content audio pros. Let’s build tools that let us take that leap! n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 36 2/15/18 5:56 PM

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Tech // reviews
MOTU 8D DIGITAL AUDIO INTERFACE
AVB-Ready I/O with SRC, Virtual Mixer and FX
By Michael Cooper
T
he outstanding MOTU 8D fills an important niche
unaddressed by other I/O boxes. Featuring no preamps
or converters (save for those serving a front-panel
stereo headphone jack), the 8D relies solely on digital interfaces
for I/O and networking. There are eight channels of AES/EBU
(four in and four out), eight channels of S/PDIF, high-speed USB
2.0 (compatible with USB 3.0 and iOS) and AVB-TSN.
With a round-trip latency as low as 1.7 ms, the 8D is a
great solution for studios that already have high-quality mic/
line preamps and A/D/A converters and just need digital
connectivity, without
redundant analog front- and
back-end circuitry. And using
the included 64-channel AVB/ The included MOTU Pro Audio Control Web app’s massive virtual
TSN Ethernet port (providing mixer includes faders, pans, solos, mutes, multiple monitor mixes,
32 ins and 32 outs) and an seven stereo aux buses, aux masters, three stereo groups, 4-band
EQs, reverb, compressors, gates and audio-analysis tools.
optional MOTU AVB Switch,
users can integrate the 8D The MOTU 8D’s front and rear panels sport LCD metering, stereo channel pair) and the current sampling
into a much larger system headphone output and a plethora of digital I/O, including rate, clock source and I/O activity over the
of computers and AVB- AVB/TSN networking capabilities. AVB/TSN port. Pressing buttons to the left
ready MOTU or third-party of the LCD lets you view the 8D’s current IP
I/O boxes, for tracking large ensembles and networking audio address and other network settings and change the clock source
throughout a multi-room facility. and sampling rate. The headphone (TRS) jack and its rotary volume
But the half-rack 8D is also a great standalone solution for small control, and a rocker-style power switch finish off the front panel.
studios and musicians to use for mixing, mastering, small post- The 8D’s rear panel is home to two pairs each of AES/EBU and S/
production projects, overdubbing and recording up to eight tracks PDIF I/O (on XLR and RCA connectors, respectively), providing eight
at once. A variety of clocking schemes allow use of all eight AES/ input and eight output channels; word clock I/O (on BNC jacks); a
EBU and S/PDIF input channels simultaneously—enough to record USB 2 port (up to 64 outputs and 64 inputs to and from a computer);
either a multi-miked drum kit or guitar, bass, keys and vocals live. A and an AVB/TSN Ethernet port. Signals in any of these digital formats
very flexible 48-input virtual mixer (served by the included MOTU can be converted to another on the trip from input to output.
Pro Audio Control Web app) provides seven stereo aux buses, three The AES/EBU and S/PDIF I/O can operate at all standard sampling
stereo groups, access to 32 network inputs, several audio-analysis rates from 44.1 to 192 kHz and feature independent sampling-rate
tools, and DSP effects (reverb, 4-band EQ, compression and gating), conversion (SRC)—allowing for recording via all 2-channel digital
with 32-bit floating processing providing sky-high headroom. The inputs simultaneously, even if the audio sources’ clocks aren’t resolved
mixer can mix previously recorded tracks from your DAW with to the 8D. The Ethernet port alternately provides industry-standard
live mic/line inputs, and use its aux buses for creating separate IEEE 802.1 network connectivity to other MOTU AVB-equipped
headphone mixes for musicians. audio interfaces; audio I/O with a Mac fitted with a Thunderbolt port
and running OS X v10.11 or later; or connection to a standard Ethernet
ON DISPLAY hub or Wi-Fi router, or to an AVB/TSN Ethernet switch serving a low-
A multicolor LCD on the 8D’s front panel shows level meters for latency AVB/TSN audio network. A co-ax power receptacle serves the
all I/O (including the headphones output, which can monitor any included external DC power supply.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 38 2/15/18 5:56 PM

The excellent MOTU Pro Audio Control outputs. I used a similar approach for stereo
Web app (included) provides control of utility, mastering, where I patched a couple of the 8D’s
routing and mixing functions, and is served 2-channel hardware outputs to separate D/A
from the 8D’s hardware; it doesn’t reside on converters, using them to hear A/B comparisons
your hard drive. There are several ways you of mastered and unmastered tracks.
can launch the Web app using a computer The 8D’s setup for overdubbing was a bit more
(Mac or PC), an iPad or iPhone. The app’s complicated. I first outputted each track in DP
virtual mixer can be controlled using any to a different input in the Web app’s mixer, using
Web browser with a computer, or a tablet or it to set up a main mix for myself to hear and a
smartphone connected to your local Wi-Fi separate pre-fader cue mix for the performer. As
network. You can use the 8D’s multichannel I preferred to make all fader and pan adjustments
audio I/O with iOS apps by connecting the for the main mix in DP and use Audio Units plug-
interface to your iPad or iPhone using a USB ins for processing, I set all the faders for the main
cable and a standard camera connection kit mix in the Web app’s mixer to 0 dB, so as not to
adapter. By the time you read this, a new user change the mix coming from DP.
interface dubbed Touch Console will have been I sent the main mix via the 8D’s AES/EBU
added to the Web app, providing multitouch 1-2 hardware outputs to a D/A for monitoring. I
mixing optimized for mobile devices. used the Aux 1 and Aux 2 faders in the Web app’s
The app has four different views. The Device Aux Mixing tab to set up the stereo cue mix.
tab lets you view and edit utility settings (such as The Aux 1-2 cue mix was routed via the 8D’s S/
the sampling rate) and recall factory presets for PDIF 1-2 outputs simultaneously to two places:
quickly setting up the 8D as a simple interface, a the 8D’s headphone output (for my confidence
standalone mixer and so on. Click in a matrix of monitoring) and an external D/A serving a
cells in the Routing tab to patch any 8D input to multichannel headphone amp for the performer.
one or more outputs. The Mixing tab provides The external D/A used for the cue mix could also
a comprehensive and flexible virtual mixer. The host a talkback mic—something that the 8D,
Aux Mixing tab provides long-throw faders unfortunately, does not provide, though I’m told
for the aux buses, groups and reverb bus. The there will be a firmware update soon.
Device, Routing and Mixing tabs all let you save The live performer’s stereo mic signal
and recall custom setups as presets. MOTU’s was routed through my outboard preamps,
streamlined, cross-platform AudioDesk 4.0 compressors and A/D converters to the 8D’s AES/
workstation is also included with the 8D. EBU inputs 1 and 2; those hardware inputs were
routed simultaneously to DP (to record to new
PRACTICAL USES tracks) and to faders in the Web app’s Aux Mixing
Using the 8D to do in-the-box stereo tab (to add to the performer’s cue mix with zero
mixing couldn’t be easier. I executed all level latency). The 8D’s cited ultra-low round-trip
adjustments and signal processing using Digital latency is no idle boast: I could process the live
Performer’s mixer and my third-party Audio track through a Lexicon PCM Native Reverb
Units plug-ins; the app-based mixer and effects plug-in in DP and monitor the effect in the
processing were not used. I monitored the 8D’s main and aux mixes without noticing any
master bus output via one of the 8D’s AES/EBU latency whatsoever. But I also appreciated the
convenience of having the Web app’s serviceable
reverb and EQ for use on aux mixes.
PRODUCT SUMMARY
The 8D’s generous allotment of digital I/O,
COMPANY: MOTU
ultra-low latency, freely assignable routing,
PRODUCT: 8D
sampling rate and format conversion, AVB/
WEBSITE: motu.com
TSN networking, flexible virtual mixer and low
PRICE: $595
price add up to a package that can’t be beat. I’m
PROS: Ultra-low latency. Freely assignable rout-
buying! n
ing and splitting. Comprehensive virtual mixer.
AVB/TSN networking. Independent SRC on all
Michael Cooper (michaelcooper@bendbroad-
AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs. Very affordable.
band.com) is a recording, mix, mastering and
CONS: No talkback facility. The company says
post-production engineer and a contributing
a firmware update will ship soon.
editor for Mix magazine.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 39 2/15/18 5:56 PM

Tech // reviews
CRANE SONG AVOCET IIA

MONITOR CONTROLLER
High-End DAC, Generous I/O, Level Matching, Talkback and 192 kHz
By Barry Rudolph
S
ince its inception in 2004 as a stereo-only unit, the Avocet The Avocet IIA can connect
Discrete Class-A Monitor Controller has evolved through three pairs of speakers,
each with a dedicated sub-
revisions and functional enhancements to become Crane woofer output
Song’s most successful product, with the Avocet IIA the pinnacle of
Dave Hill’s design. Reviewed here is the Avocet IIA stereo system,
comprising a two-rackspace audio chassis connected (over a 25-foot
cable) to the Avocet Remote II tabletop unit.
For surround sound monitoring, up to four 2U audio chassis
can be controlled from a single Avocet Remote to accommodate
up to 7.1 channels (three chassis required for 5.1). For surround
operation, the rear panel 25-pin D-sub accessory sockets are
repurposed (internal ribbon cable change) so that each chassis
is interconnected to operate in designated pairs of surround
channels. An experienced tech can handle the proper connections.
The Avocet Remote IIA (firmware 12) retains the familiar and
basic look of previous versions, with its 24 flush-mounted push-
buttons surrounding a large green master volume/gain parameter
control (encoder) knob and 20-segment LED level meter. The
horizontal top row of Left, Right, Center, LFE, SL, SR, EXL, EXR it possible to set individual subwoofer levels for each of the three
channel selection buttons includes an additional row of eight Shift- monitor speaker outputs. I like that the Avocet does not do bass
Setup Mode sub-functions. The encoder and all buttons are made management. I prefer to use a sub with a built-in variable low-pass
by Grayhill. The switches are rated at 500,000 cycles, while the filter.
encoder is rated at 1 million operations. When powered on, the Avocet comes up in Mute mode while
On the rear panel of the remote is a 15-pin D-sub for connection the saved settings and firmware load, with enough time allowed
to the audio chassis, plus an XLR input for a talkback mic. I have the for stabilization of the new Quantum digital-to-analog converter.
Remote II sitting on the right side of my desktop, angled slightly up. When powered off, all configurations and resident firmware
All behaviors, setups and configurations of the Avocet system version are held in an EEPROM chip.
are handled through the remote. After selecting a function and
then holding its button down until its LED flashes—about a half- AUDIO CHASSIS
second—you’ll be in Gain trim mode. There is also a blue Shift- I tested Avocet’s latest stereo audio chassis (firmware 13.1). The
mode button for setting certain functions, static configurations, entire audio path is discrete analog electronics with balanced
and Talkback mic level and monitor Dim level. The IIA allows all output amps and premium op-amp chips around the Quantum
output levels to be adjusted in .25dB steps DAC, the same converter and clock used
(maximum -15.75 dB), so there is no more in Crane Song’s standalone Solaris DAC
need of inline attenuator pads to match
TRY THIS and Hedd Quantum A/D/D/A and Clock
The Avocet has both a Phase flip and
different level requirements of powered Mono button. By pushing both buttons Generator products. It is the company’s
speakers and/or power amps. while listening to a stereo mix, you can fifth-generation design, with less than one
hear all non-correlated audio (L-R) in
The Avocet IIA (stereo version only) your mix or any other stereo source. It’s
picosecond of jitter that upsamples to 211
also adds a fourth full-range balanced revealing and another essential audio tool. kHz and uses a proprietary reconstruction
output, called Direct Sub Mode, making filter.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 40 2/15/18 5:57 PM

The chassis’ rear panel bristles with 12 The remote functions/buttons include: a
analog and five digital connectors. There 16-bit mode for hearing 24-bit audio dithered
are three stereo sets of XLR analog line-level down to compare to CD digital input;
inputs, each with recessed individual channel Phase (polarity) flip; a Mono (L + R) sum;
±8dB input trim pots and three sets of stereo programmable Dim level; and Mute and
monitor speaker XLR outputs. I use the three Talkback buttons. Talkback switching and
analog inputs for computer core audio output audio is available on the accessory socket, as
(bumped to +4 dBm), a 2-track analog tape are the metering voltage and the Direct Sub
deck, and my turntable’s RIAA preamp line out. Mode balanced outputs.
There are five digital input connectors with
up to 192kHz sample rates possible. The DAW LET’S GET TO IT!
input is an AES/EBU XLR connector, as are Having used my Avocet I since 2008, I am
Digital 1 and Digital 2. There are also S/PDIF familiar and happy with its operation as a
RCA and Toslink optical inputs. full-featured analog console “center section,”
Using the remote’s Setup mode, you can The Avocet has been critical for creating
designate the main DAW input to be either stereo mixes, as I require the ability to quickly
the AES, S/PDIF or Optical, while the Digital reference disparate yet level-matched digital or
1 and 2 remain fixed AES/EBU–only. I found analog stereo sources at any time quickly and
this to work out well by using the DAW input without compromise. I also like the precision
connected to my Pro Tools I/O’s Enclosure out of the volume control, as well as the stereo LED
XLR; my Tascam CD player’s output to Digital meter built into the Remote II. It is handy to
1; and a Panasonic DAT tape deck for Digital 2. log a specific number around the level knob to
Volume level is adjustable using the large reference the playback volume of various mixes
green encoder volume knob in 1dB steps. or music cues for comparison.
Level settings are accurate and repeatable, with Since switching over to the Avocet IIA, I’m
green LEDs surrounding the knob in 2dB steps. noticing a big improvement in the monitored
The relays switch in various precision, thin- sound of my mixes and other sources I know
film (1 percent and 0.1 percent) resistor values. well. With the Quantum, panned track
The channels match within 0.02 dB. elements are more stable laterally between the
The familiar sounds of relays clicking when speakers and the sense of stereo width, space
touching any button or adjusting volume up and the reconstruction of the sound stage are
or down are still there, though significantly much more vivid. In a recent mix I did, I heard
quieter than my Avocet 1. Even with the audio a distortion on the lead vocal I didn’t catch
chassis in my outboard rack next to my mix before. Going back and listening using my old
position, I couldn’t hear them. DAC, it was there but not as obvious and in
The rear panel finishes with a DB15 Remote my face!
connector, a power on/off switch, IEC/fuse I like the fidelity improvement when using
power jack, and a 1/4-inch jack (mirrored on the Direct Sub Mode since the entire stereo
the front panel) for the built-in headphone mix is not running through my subwoofer
amp. Headphone audio is also available as with my two Adam S2.5As running as “satellite”
unbalanced audio on channels 3 and 4 of the L/R speakers. Plus using the remote, it’s easy to
rear panel DB25 accessory socket wired in toggle the sub on/off and set its level for each
Tascam format. of the three monitor speaker outs. I can turn on
and set an appropriate level for my NS10Ms and
PRODUCT SUMMARY my little Reftone cubes—so much fun to hear.
COMPANY: Crane Song Ltd. I also found calibrating all outputs
PRODUCT: Avocet IIA Monitor Controller much easier. If you change power amps or
WEBSITE: cranesong.com/avocet.html powered speakers, you can get them dialed in
PRICE: $3,149 (stereo version) immediately.
PROS: High-fidelity, transparent analog With the Quantum DAC, Direct Sub Mode,
monitor controller; expandable to 5.1 or 7.1 and precision output level adjustment now
surround. included, the Crane Song Avocet IIA is the
CONS: None found. best version yet of this stalwart stereo, 5.1 or 7.1
monitor controller. I can’t work without it! n
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 41 2/15/18 5:57 PM

Tech // reviews
AUDIO-TECHNICA
AT5047 MICROPHONE
Cardioid Condenser
With Four Diaphragms,
Transformer-Coupled Output
By Steve La Cerra
A
udio-Technica’s AT5047 is the newest member of the
company’s 50 Series of premium, handmade condenser
microphones. Sharing a design similar to that of the
AT5040, the AT5047’s capsule features four rectangular diaphragms,
this time delivering their output via transformer-coupled circuitry.
(The AT5040 employed transformerless electronics.)
While the AT5040 was designed primarily as a vocal microphone
possessing the utmost sonic purity, the AT5047’s output transformer
imparts a bit of color while enabling the microphone to be less
dependent on the preamp for its performance. Compared with the
AT5040, the AT5047 has a higher output impedance (150 ohms as
opposed to 50 ohms) and is a bit less sensitive, allowing it to play
well with a wider range of mic preamps. Maximum SPL is stated as
148 dB, versus 142 dB for the AT5040.
Basic condenser microphone engineering dictates that smaller
diaphragms tend to have a faster transient response but produce a
lower output level, often resulting in a higher self-noise floor. The
AT5047’s four diaphragms function as a single, large membrane, but
because each is smaller than a single membrane of the same surface
area, they react faster to transients. Electronically summing the
output of the diaphragms enables the AT5047 to maintain the quick
transient response of a small-diaphragm capsule while achieving The AT5047’s four diaphragms function as a single, large membrane.
the low self-noise (6 dB) of a large-diaphragm.
The AT5047 ships in a sturdy, foam-lined plastic case with a AT5047 is capable of creating a very intimate vocal sound. Get in
cutout for the shock mount. Like its 50 Series brethren, the AT5047 close, and it can sound like someone is singing into your ear.
exudes elegance. The finish is beautiful, the AT8480 shock mount Used with a Great River MP-2NV preamp and a DeMaria Labs
is a work of art (a refreshing change from the junk packaged with ADL1000 for a bit of compression, the AT5047 didn’t get shrill
some rather expensive microphones), and the absence of screws when the singer opened up, as has happened when we’ve tried other
makes you wonder how the heck the thing was assembled. A large microphones. Changing the impedance switch on the MP-2NV
head basket protects the side-address capsule, which is internally from 1,200Ω to 300Ω resulted in a slight increase in the top end,
shock-mounted, and the overall feel of the mic inspires confidence. making the voice sound a tad more “hi-fi.” There was also a slight
The AT5047’s pickup pattern is fixed-cardioid. increase in gain.
I was able to compare the AT5047 with recordings made using I had the chance to record powerhouse female vocalist Ann
the AT5040 on the same male singer. No doubt the 5047 is a Marie Nacchio, who’s been known to break glass (figuratively) and
different animal, with more mojo in the low-mids and a very subtle blow out microphone diaphragms (literally). Patched through a
increase of presence in the highs. The AT5047’s low-mid presence, Focusrite ISA110 and the ADL1000, the AT5047 easily handled Ann
however, does not scream “proximity effect.” Like the AT5040, the Marie’s dynamic range, capturing all of the nuances of the parts
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 42 2/15/18 5:57 PM

she sang softly while standing up to the loud sections— “Given the pedigree of Audio-Technica’s 50 Series,
though, at times, I may have heard a bit of transformer it comes as no surprise that the AT5047 is
saturation. The same low-mid character that I noticed on
male voice was also evident in Ann Marie’s voice.
a serious studio tool for instruments and vocals.”
Moving the microphone off-axis, I noticed that the condensers make a tambourine sound like my nephew is crunching a bag of potato chips.
high-frequency response drops off rather quickly (about Not so with the AT5047. It’s one of the few condenser mics I’ve heard that gets tambourine
±30 degrees), reducing the sense of “airiness, so its pattern right. Top end is jangly but not crunchy, almost as if someone took a high-quality ribbon
is tighter than that of your average large-diaphragm mic and opened up the high-frequency response a bit. The AT5047 was crisp on a shaker,
condenser. All of the vocal recordings I made using the and you could clearly hear the change in timbre when the body of the shaker was rotated
AT5047 shared that same sense of intimacy, and I found in front of the microphone.
that if I moved the singer within about six inches of the To check the AT5047’s interaction with input impedance, I connected it to an Avalon
microphone, the room all but disappeared. Up that close, AD2022 mic preamp, which provides four different impedance settings. Output level from
proximity effect is audible but subtle. At times it sounded the AT5047 dropped as the AD2022’s impedance setting was switched lower (no surprise),
as if I were recording in a dead room, and though I did not but the timbre was consistent across all settings except the 50Ω setting, where the low end
get the opportunity, this characteristic would no doubt thinned a bit, and I could hear the AD2022’s transformer start to saturate on loud passages.
make the AT5047 an excellent tool for voiceover work. This tells you that the AT5047 should be very happy with a variety of mic preamps.
Placing the AT5047 as a mono overhead for drums, Given the pedigree of Audio-Technica’s 50 Series, it comes as no surprise that the
then through a Grace 201, my first impression was a bit AT5047 is a serious studio tool for instruments and vocals. No microphone sounds great on
surprising: The sound reminded me of a high-quality everything, through every mic preamp, but the AT5047 sounds excellent on a wide variety of
ribbon microphone. This may have been due to the off- instruments when used with a wide range of preamps. Did I mention that it was gorgeous
axis response to the crash cymbals, which were roughly on acoustic guitar? It’s as beautiful aesthetically as it is sonically, and if you’re shopping in
±45 degrees. The plastic tip of a drumstick on a ride the price range, you’d be foolish not to check it out. n
cymbal was clearly defined, yet the cymbals didn’t sound
bright or harsh like they might on a lesser condenser mic. Steve La Cerra is a New York-based recording and live sound engineer.
Nor did the it have the sizzle or “mid-scoop” sound
sometimes heard from condensers. The AT5047 captured
plenty of low end from the kick drum, and toms had
such impact that they practically sounded like they were
close-miked. Adding a bit of 12k EQ on a Pultec plug-in
yielded glorious results, and, perhaps most important,
the kit sounded balanced. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I
was recording a very good drummer!
Moving the AT5047 away from the kit and further into
the room delivered excellent results. The bottom end of
the kick drum was huge, and a touch of compression
provided plenty of punch (apologies for the cliché). I
briefly tried the AT5047 as a close mic for kick, which
created a retro, sort of mid-rangey, mid-’70s R&B vibe.
While the mic easily handled the SPL from the kick, the
timbre wasn’t particularly my cup of tea.
One of my acid tests for a condenser microphone is
recording percussion, in particular, tambourine. Many
PRODUCT SUMMARY
COMPANY: Audio-Technica U.S.
PRODUCT: AT5047
WEBSITE: www.audio-technica.com
PRICE: $3,499
PROS: Beautiful design. Extremely low noise floor,
consistent operation through a wide variety of preamps
and impedance loads.
CONS: Somewhat narrow sweet spot, no pad or HPF.
Quality like this doesn’t come cheap.
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 43 2/15/18 5:57 PM

Tech // reviews
HIGHLAND DYNAMICS BG2 COMPRESSOR

Hybrid, Old-School, Versatile Gain Reducer
By Barry Rudolph
T
he BG2 is a handmade, all-tube, single-channel compressor
that uses a twin-triode 6BC8 as a variable-Mu gain-
changing element followed by a push-pull pair of 6V6
beam-power pentodes for its output stage. The gain-reduction
stage and 6AL5 tube circuit are similar to the Abbey Road RS124
(which was adapted from the vintage Altec 436C), while the output
stage is like old RCA BA6-A or Gates Sta-Level units.
Under the hood, the unit reveals excellent point-to-point hand
wiring and large Altran Corp. output and input transformers. The
main circuit board attaches to the rear inside wall of the unit, with The BG2’s hybrid design harkens back to Abbey Road’s RS124, the RCA BA5-A and Gates
ceramic tube sockets that accept the horizontally positioned tubes Sta-Level.
on the rear panel. I like that the hot tubes are distanced from the
circuit board—users have to be careful when inserting the BG2 in a 436C worked as a line amp, but you had to pull out the 6AL5 tube.)
rack, as there is no cover or screen protecting the tubes. (This works I thought highly of the Feedback switch to choose between
out well for ventilation; tubes do generate heat.) There are also “American” and “British” feedback styles in the amplifier circuit.
smaller circuit boards for the output attenuator resistor network American mode is like the Altec circuit and is more aggressive with
and the power supply rectifiers, with a 3-terminal regulator for the more harmonics, color, gain and compression. The British mode
tube’s DC filament voltage. has less gain and a cleaner sound. Switching between them while
The electronics are housed in a rugged, two-rackspace cabinet, auditioning audio will produce a noticeable click because of the
and the dark gray front panel has a customized U.S.-made Simpson inherent circuit changes taking place inside.
gain reduction meter and large knobs for Input and Output gain
pots, to go with a six-position release time rotary switch. The six IN THE STUDIO
release times (1-6) are 270, 400 and 700 ms, then slower at 1, 1.7 and One of my first tests was on a female lead vocal track that was
2.8 seconds. Without a separate threshold control, adjusting the dynamically wild, requiring special treatment to blend well into the
Input gain control sets the compression amount, and the Output mix. In Pro Tools HDX 12.8.2, I placed the BG2 as a hardware insert
gain sets final makeup gain. after an EQ plug-in on the vocal track.
Other front panel controls include old-school on/off AC power I started conservatively: Brit mode, slow attack, slowest release
switch, pilot light and mains fuse; a Link on/off switch for stereo time #6, and 600 ohm input impedance. I set the Input knob to get
linking a second BG2; and a two-position attack time switch, with about a 3dB max of gain reduction (indicated) on the loudest peak.
Fast at 30 ms and Slow at 110 ms. There is a kind of gain range I was looking for clean and smooth leveling.
switch called Input Impedance to use either the 150 or 600-ohm While the EQ plug-in got the spectral balance dialed in, the BG2
impedance primaries of the input transformer. There is also a reined in the volume level differences and added a smooth, thick,
Compression On/Off switch—it’s not a bypass but just disables the “chesty” tone. The vocal sat in the track better with only minimal
sidechain so you can use the BG2 as a line amp only. (The Altec automation moves here and there. Far from a noticeable “squashed”
sound, I could now better hear the singer’s vibrato, glottal stops and
other nuances, even with a pounding rhythm track surrounding her.
TRY THIS Next, I tried a more aggressive treatment on the same vocal
The BG2 has enough gain to amplify a connected microphone
plugged directly into its input XLR. For direct guitar, I used
track, going to 12 dB or more of gain reduction. I changed to 150
the 150 ohm mode with a Jensen transformer DI (passive) box ohm impedance to push more level into the input stage and the
connected. My Fender Strat sounded super-clean with the detector circuit. I also switched to American mode, but kept the
BG2’s Input knob “dimed out” (10) and barely registered any
gain reduction. An all-in-one tube direct box/compressor is an
slow attack and used either release time #2 or #3.
asset in any studio. Loved it! This was where I would have liked a slightly different collection of
release times, as I could have used a #2.5. Based on the singer’s phrasal
MIX_03_18_v8.indd 44 2/15/18 5:58 PM

PRODUCT SUMMARY
COMPANY: Highland Dynamics
PRODUCT: BG2 Compressor
WEBSITE: www.highlanddynamics.com/bg2/ DRUM AND BASS amp with the Compressor Off mode. I was able
PRICE: $2,800 It’s a definite sonic statement to use the to get a grainy tone on a direct, five-string bass
PROS: Super-versatile and useful tube BG2 heavily on individual drum kit tracks or recording, anywhere from an overdriven guitar
compressor; lots of sounds possible. overheads. I used the maximum Input gain amp to a fuzz-tone bass to a fairly clean tube
CONS: Pricey but worth it! control setting (10), 600 ohm, American mode, hi-fi sound. Start with 150 ohm and British
slow attack and release #1 for a healthy “snare mode—Input was at 4 and Output was at 3 to
drum smackdown.” Using British mode offers a match the duplicated bass track in my Pro Tools
spacing, I was looking for a release time slow close, drier sound with less kit and room leakage session. American mode bumps level up and
enough that the BG2 did not re-attack in between brought up in between snare drum hits. This is adds more dirt in the bottom octaves, especially
short phrases. There should be more release-time all fun, and using the BG2 is very natural, with when an open B string was played. You can
choices at the faster end of the six positions and lots of variability as each control interacts with (unintentionally) thin out the resultant bass
fewer slow times. (Highland Dynamics’ Bryce the others. sound if you overdo this processing effect.
Gonzales has offered to modify the release times Like most vintage-style compressors without The BG2 marries the sound and operation
and the two attack time choices on request.) threshold and ratio control knobs, there is no of a couple of classic tube compressor circuits
I should also note that the subtle nuances hardware bypass on the BG2. My workaround in a reliable and modern unit. Its versatility
brought up in the first setup are more pronounced is to duplicate the track in Pro Tools—one with and simple operation combined with a first-
here—most noticeably breath inhalations as the the BG2 inserted and the other without. I could class quality build make a solid marriage. As
BG2 attacked at the start of each new phrase switch between them as I did for processing a an investment in great sound, I can highly
after the release time expired. If the inhalations bass guitar track. I was sold immediately after recommend this hot-rodded compressor for
became a nuisance, I would go in and automate the first A/B comparison. The BG2 is great for vintage tone shaping and processing. n
or clip-gain those moments down as part of the bass guitar; you can go clean or dial in enough
mixing process. With this artist, the finished sonic grit and color for edge, and always get good Barry Rudolph is a Los Angeles-based audio en-
sound was worth this extra tedium—it’s part of leveling with increased sustain. gineer and educator. You can visit him at www.
the mix! I also tried the BG2 simply for color as a line barryrudolph.com
FAIR USE IS FAIR PLAY
Whether he is recording Mark Knopfler or

learning a new plug-in, award-winning
recording engineer Chuck Ainlay always
acquires the music software he uses
from legitimate sources.
Chuck believes in fair play and works
exclusively with legal software.
Respect yourself, your craft, and the work of others.

Buy the software you use, and buy the music you love.
www.imsta.org
International Music Software Trade Association New York • Toronto • Hamburg • Tokyo Tel:mixonline.com
416 789-6849 •| Fax:
MAR 416
C H789-1667
2018 | MIX 45
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Tech // talk
The Importance of Protection
By Kevin Becka
A
s I write this, everyone is getting back content. Most past attempts to ‘lock down’ content have failed
from—and getting over—NAMM. primarily because they are frequently circumvented—and this is
(Check out my show report starting due to their unacceptable impact on the creative workflow.”
on p. 28.) For me, show survival and protection To that end, Scaeva has come up with a process whereby
start before travel begins. I always get a flu shot all digital content will be created in an encrypted form, with
months before and wear noise-canceling, circumaural headphones encryption and decryption capabilities built into the DAW, as well
on the plane. That way I feel less stressed after four-plus hours in as simple standalone decryption modules. The innovation is an “on
the air. Whenever I wonder, “How bad could it be without these?” the fly” low-latency encryption feature using fewer than 64 sample
I slip them off for a reality check. It’s always a shocker. I’d guess it’s buffers within the DAW’s signal path. Curd explains, “With this
20 dB louder without them. capability, a key can be designated at the beginning of a session, and
I usually wear silicon earplugs on the show floor, but this year tracks are automatically encrypted with this key during the tracking
was different thanks to the new audio hall, which was delightfully process. As the tracks are mixed and edited, they are decrypted in
quiet compared to the old digs in halls A, B, C and D. The ceiling in memory before processing, then re-encrypted before saving.”
the new hall is 25 feet tall and curved at the corners, which helps, All that sounds cool, but there’s more: a hardware decryption
but that’s not all that kept the SPL in check. NAMM has strict new component to the process that overcomes an inherent weakness
rules for loudness, and I saw more than one booth alerted that in current encode/decode processes. Curd continues, “Regardless
they were not in compliance—everyone took it very seriously. The of the strength of any encryption method, audio content must
consensus among the exhibitors I polled was that they love being be converted into an analog signal before it becomes sound. This
able to carry on a conversation without having to raise their voice. ‘analog loophole’ exists because humans possess analog senses. Since
Another weapon in combating ambient noise at NAMM probably the dynamic speakers we use today were invented in 1925, it turns
went unnoticed by most attendees. The overhead signs hanging on out that the physics behind them creates an enormous vulnerability.
the aisles flagging each row’s number served as additional acoustic A quality sound system results in a near-perfect analog signal at the
treatment for the hall on both floors. GeerFab Acoustics manufactured speaker terminal regardless of any digital encryption, which can
all the signs for the project. There were 101 signs in total, measuring 48 then be sampled and copied in full fidelity with ease.”
x 96 x 2 inches. Hanging from them at a 90-degree angle on aluminum Enter the Scaeva ActiveMag speaker driver, which eliminates
t-frames were another 101 at 48 x 24 x 2 inches, along with an additional the common magnet and replaces it with a patented active field
nine 96 x 36 x 2 and six 96 x 48 x 2 for the lower-ceilinged rooms. coil assembly. Curd says, “This results in a doubly-fed speaker
The signs were printed on acoustically transparent fabric from motor, relying on two separate signals to drive the voice and field
Guilford called Paradise. About its dependability, GeerFab’s Eric coils. From a content protection perspective, the relationship
Geer says the fabric “lets me sleep at night.” The fabric was custom- of these two signals can be derived from an infinite number of
printed at GeerFab in Milwaukee using a dye sublimation process mathematical equations, as long as the product of these two
on both sides. Fabrics were then sewn together with seams along equations results in the desired signal.”
sides and then grommets punched through for mounting, fully The bottom line is the speaker won’t play audio unless it’s fed
encapsulating 2 inches by 2 pounds (pcf, or pounds per cubic foot) by the two signals through the decryption key from the DAW.
fiberglass. It worked! Scaeva is also planning on having a decryption chip within the
“Protection” as a theme covers more than just ears. File company’s MagPlanar headphone drivers, where the headphones
protection was the topic at hand when I visited exhibitor Steve and a corresponding key would be required to reproduce encrypted
Curd, CEO of Scaeva Technologies. His company puts a new spin content—like a hardware dongle that’s also a headphone. Smart!
on the idea of protecting digital content. Curd has some great Using earplugs, noise-canceling headphones, acoustic treatment
insights into what has made past attempts at copy protection fail. at a noisy trade-show, or high-tech digital file protection like
He says, “Prior to the content’s release, any encryption process Scaeva’s groundbreaking software and hardware, we can all
must respect the workflow of the creative professionals: the benefit. In the end, it makes us all happier, healthier and better
artists, producers and sound engineers creating and managing the audio pros. You’ve got to love technology! n
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Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats w NAMM 2018 w Studio Mics w Paul Weller Live in D.C.

March 2018 \\ mixonline.com \\ $6.99

THE MAGIC IN A ROOM

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