Producer, film and TV composer Matt Robertson chooses “performance” products from sE…
Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under Mic's and Headphones, Studio Shenanigans | Leave a Comment
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Matt Robertson has worked with the UK’s biggest producers, on films like Hot Fuzz and The Other Boleyn Girl, as well as producing the music for over 100 TV ads including campaigns for Mercedes, Pepsi, HP and Land Rover. With such a myriad of different musical projects, Matt demands the best gear and says of his sE purchases: “price v performance really is that good.”
Matt Robertson learned his production skills from one of the best in the business: Prodigy producer Neil McLellan. “We started a music production company and he basically taught me pretty much everything I know about recording and producing and makes amazing records,” says Matt.
The company they founded was bought by New York based The Lodge with whom Matt now produces, arranges and orchestrates music for film and TV including the aforementioned smash hit films and TV adverts. Part of Robertson’s philosophy is to make the best of his surroundings and gear when recording…
“I’m a firm believer in the fact that you can get good results out of less than ideal recording situations with a bit of knowledge and patience,” he says. “However, having the right tools on hand makes life very much easier. Packages like the sE4 mic pair and the sE Reflexion Filter definitely fall under the category of ‘making life easier’. They are good, solid products that perform very well.”
So how is Matt specifically using his sE gear? “I’m using the sE4s as instrument mics and also as close drum mics,” he says. “They are great on snare drums. I’m also using them a lot on acoustic guitar and was using them as a cross pair somewhere in between room mics and close mics on things like piano and glock and when re-amping stuff. With the sE4s I really like the whole package: stereo bar, shock mounts and all. It’s good quality hardware.”
“I have been using the Reflexion Filter for vocals in less than ideal recording environments,” he continues, “where it really does help a great deal in getting rid of bad room sounds. It has made it possible to do credible vocal work in very much less than ideal rooms and is a good workaround for many situations.”
Finally one of the other sE items that Matt is a fan of is one of the company’s simplest: a mic stand! “Yes, but good mic stands are very hard to come by,” he laughs, “and is a very welcome addition to my recording gear!”
Over all Matt simply judges the sE range on its quality and astonishing price…
“The last studio I was in,” he recalls, “the studio owner refused to believe that any good mics could be that cheap, but I proved him wrong. Price v performance really is that good.”
Matt is currently finishing an album with Kelly Malone, recording with composer Michael Price for the film Wild Child, and working on a project with producer Damian Taylor for the artist Atarah Valentine.
Matt’s top recording tip
“I love recording the sounds of instruments in real places. I think the sense of space around recordings is very important in setting up a mood and a sense of integration between instruments. Obviously this depends a lot on the kinds of projects that you are working on, but if at all possible I like to be able to record in a good sounding room where you are more likely to want to keep the room sounds than try and turn them off!”
Sony Acid Music Studio: Review
Posted on April 24, 2008
Filed Under Software And Plug-ins | Leave a Comment
Sony, bless ‘em, sent me some stuff aaaaages ago to review, and been very patient in waiting. Bait your breath no more, oh company of many pies, for here is your first review.
It’s the Acid Music Studio software - designed for the bedroom guitarist types amongst you really. But you get a lot more than that for your money. This software is a powerful tool for recording and editing audio multi tracks, meaning that you can get commercial results for pocket money. All you need in addition is a half decent computer… and me to mix it for you. Arf.
So - start her up. The explorer window at the bottom of the screen means you can search (AND preview) the media on your computer, and easily drag and drop items into the channel strips, which is a really good feature - saves messing around with two windows. You can change this explorer window later to become a wave editor tool - cut/paste or draw, all are easy functions.
- Sony include a beatmapper, which you can toggle to come on at this time, which is really cool for quantizing your drum tracks
The interface put me off, for a while, until I realised that you can drag each of the four windows around a bit in order to make the controls more versatile. For instance, if you need to change your gain by a fraction of a db, just stretch out the fader window to make it more versatile (otherwise you’ll find yourself jumping 2db at a time).
It’s little things like this which give the Acid Music Studio its individuality. Or so I thought, until I started messing around with the VST plugins, provided.
- Sony make it really easy to incorporate other plugins. I use Waves, and the program actually found them for me automatically.
Sonically, Acid Music Studio allows for true response if you’re using EQ graphs, which is a massive asset for a tool priced at amateurs. Similarly, the build in compressors and gates are the same as the aforementioned Waves tools I regularly use.
These VST’s, along with the seperate editing window (the same window where your explorer window was) are my favourite tools on this package. Other things are standard, and nothing out of the ordinary. The fact that I managed to mix material to release quality using nothing else is truly amazing.
- The bad bits (and there aren’t many)
I almost feel guilty for mentioning any negatives. I’m still astounded by the price:quality ratio with this package, but there are a couple of things I need to mention in case anyone thinks it’s plausible to do anything and everything using something which costs around £40.00
No mix bus support!!!!
This means that if you want reverb on all of your drum channels, you’re going to have to set up a seperate reverb (or a saved preset) on every single channel.
By the time you get to your guitars, things start to get a bit jittery. I’d not been too greedy with gates or anything, but I’d set up a compressor on a few channels, and eq on everything.
Add to that an amp simulator, and we’re in stuttersville.
I know I cannot complain, but Sony - I’m mixing 25 tracks here!!! I’ve still got good results, but it’s meant soloing specific tracks, balancing them with guitars, and then balancing them with something else,THEN rendering them down to an mp3 file to listen. THEN going back, making the corrections.
A mix bus would have meant I could let several channels share at least the reverb, saving a lot of processing power.
Having said all that, on my previous go (when a part of me fell in love with the Acid Music Studio) I was mixing something like 16 tracks, and I only managed to make it jitter right towards the very end. And I DID get about the best mix I’ve ever done out of it.
Unfortunately, I’m unable to publish the audio results at this moment in time due to copyright and licensing issues, as the tracks are not released as yet.
Please take my word. This is only one step away from being as good as software which costs hundreds more!!
Audio Tech News on tour
Posted on April 24, 2008
Filed Under Take A Walk On The Live Side, You Might Not Care But We Do | Leave a Comment
And so it is, and has come to pass, as it has been before, and will come to pass again, that Audiotechnews is off on tour. Bitchin’ schedules mean I only get to use free WiFi for around HALF of the 24 hours that calendar days give us, so don’t expect miracles.
The first few dates are already behind us, and we’re already into the swing of things. Gladly, Cheltenham Town Hall is out of the way, and can keep its slapback reverbs. No thanks, I’ve done Arenas you know!! 
Out in the party town of Llandudno, Venue Cymru served us well, and thanks to the boys at Atlantic Audio, I not only got the band sounding really hot, but really really loud. I’m an earth mover, for sure.
So news will once again be coming at you between intervals of irregular occurence .
Only 2 months to go, and its all over 
Sound Assistant Wanted - London
Posted on April 16, 2008
Filed Under Jobs | Leave a Comment
UK Music Jobs has a new job on its board - Sound Assistant.
Role Objective:
• To assist in the smooth running of our warehouse and in ensuring that an excellent standard of service is provided for clients.
Duties
1. To prepare equipment for events, including the loading and unloading of vehicles
2. To undertake housekeeping and general duties
3. To undertake the maintenance and testing of equipment
4. To drive vehicles as instructed
5. To undertake routine maintenance of vehicles
6. To undertake installation of audio systems and equipment at customer’s premises
7. To assist engineers on site in the provision of event services to clients
8. To carry out any other reasonable duties requested by the proprietor
Qualifications
At least five GCSEs at grade C or above, to include English and Maths
Full, clean drivers licence.
Some experience of p.a. or of servicing events
Location: London
Salary: 16,500 pro rata
You’ll have to get yourself over to UK Music Jobs to find out more, but this is a very good opportunity for someone who wants to break into the industry.
James Blunt taking up too much of the crap vibe
Posted on April 15, 2008
Filed Under You Might Not Care But We Do | Leave a Comment
Noel Gallagher has put his Ibiza villa up for sale, as James Blunt is stealing his mojo.
The Oasis star is apparently sick of the competition.
To read something approaching more detail about this, visit Kerrang.
Don’t worry Noel, you’re rubbish too.
iZotope Unveils Adaptive Noise Reduction Unit At NAB
Posted on April 14, 2008
Filed Under Broadcast | Leave a Comment
iZotope today unveils the ANR-B - an adaptive realtime noise reduction unit at NAB, bringing the company’s signature to a dedicated hardware unit for use in real-time broadcast applications.
ANR-B intelligently identifies and suppresses environmental broadband noise, hum, phone line artifacts and more, dramatically increasing the quality of audio broadcasts involving radio call-in programs and on-location broadcasting. iZotope’s ANR-B actually detects noise in real-time and adapts to changing noise over time, allowing for automatic operation with little to no input required from the user.
“Broadcasters face realtime noise challenges ranging from cell phone call-ins to noisy air conditioners and bad wiring,” says Mark Ethier, CEO of iZotope, Inc. “ANR-B automates the process of high-quality noise reduction in realtime so noise issues no longer make or break a segment.”
WGBH Boston, America’s preeminent public broadcasting producer, has been employing a prototype of the ANR-B in its state of the art facility to produce the renowned radio program “The World,” a co-production of Public Radio International and the BBC.
“At WGBH Radio our reporters and guests are often interviewed in war zones and some of the most remote locations on Earth,” says Ray Fallon, Engineer at WGBH. “These places are only accessible by phone line, ISDN and satellite phone, leading to audio quality that is far below the standard for our award winning news radio programs. iZotope’s ANR-B reliably and quickly removes ambient and path noise automatically, allowing us to focus on getting the interview completed instead of fiddling with controls to get usable audio.”
Key Features
• Automatically removes noise from audio in real-time
• Two channels can work independently or as a stereo pair
• Includes presets for specific scenarios
• Residual Noise switch lets user quickly preview the noise being removed
• Single knob controls noise suppression on each channel for fast operation
• Learn button allows for manual operation by capturing a noise profile
• PC/Mac interface for managing presets and designing advanced programs
• Remote control capability
Specifications
• Power - 110/220 VAC, 50/60 Hz
• LAN - (PC/Mac host connection)
• Analog Audio - Balanced XLR, Conversion: up to 24-bit, 96KHz, Output +4 dBu
• Digital Audio - AES-EBU, Impedance: 110 ohms, Interface: Balanced, transformer coupled
• Sync – DARS, AES-EBU
Pricing and Availability
ANR-B will be available in Summer of 2008 for $4995 MSRP.
SAE gets into bed with Audiocourses for on-line learning
Posted on April 11, 2008
Filed Under Technical Education | Leave a Comment
SAE Institute have teamed up with Audiocourses.com to launch a new distance learning education division.
In theory, anyone, anywhere in the world will be able to access the an SAE education… but things don’t really work like that. It’s the practical, hands-on nature of audio courses which make them worthwhile.
Let’s face it, you can find just about anything out on Google for free, including a massive array of tips, tricks and rules of the trade, all ready to be broken.
While SAE in the real world craves dominance, opening up schools on just about every street in the world, its founders are hoping to get a piece of the online action too.
Audiocourses has become a number one location for distance learning with several courses available in areas such as music technology, recording techniques, digital audio and audio for video. In many regards it’s a natural evolution as SAE already provide groundbreaking ‘offline’ courses in these areas, among others.
Audiocourses’ Chris Hambly says:
“The merging of SAE Institute, with its world leading face-to-face brand identity, and AC, with its pioneering methods and credibility for early adoption of online delivery, is a mouth-watering prospect. Bringing together these dominant brands really does provide a win- win situation for students globally, whereby regardless of location the student is able to immerse herself in the world’s best solution for media related education both offline and online. It’s perfect!”
Of course it is Chris…
Inspiration Sounds reviews - Funked Up Acid and Apple Loops
Posted on April 9, 2008
Filed Under Software And Plug-ins, Studio Shenanigans | 1 Comment
Jan from Inspiration Sounds was kind enough to let me have copies of some of its latest releases; namely the wonderful Funked Up Apple Loops and Funked Up Acid Loops!
Following the initial unzip into wav files, these loops are just pure quality, with everything neatly labelled; drums, percussion, bass, horns and voice all in their own individual files, and labelled with their individual BPM as they were recorded.
So it’s just a case of drag, drop, try it out. If it’s good, copy it, and paste the hell out of it!
I’ve made a demo track which you can listen to below. All of the instruments on the demo are pretty much straight out of the box - no fx, compressions, EQ - nothing.
The only two things I did to any of the tracks on here are:
1. Time stretch in order to make some of my favourite samples fit into the 120BMP tempo. All the loops that I tried still sounded great after doing so.
2. Cut and splice a couple of bass and horn parts together to get the notes/rhythm I wanted. I did that in Audacity, so it’s about as simple as you’re going to get!
Note - you might hear a horn part towards the end which sounds like I’ve put some ambience on it. Not so. It was just a case of staggering where I inserted the loop by a couple of milliseconds or so.
This was done in about an hour. I’m really happy with where it’s going, and fully expect a chart hit in about 6 weeks.
Enjoy!
Jazzmutant Dexter review
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Computers & Hardware, Digital Demons, New Technology, Software And Plug-ins, Studio Shenanigans | Leave a Comment
There’s been a lot of talk for the last 9 months about the Jazzmutant Dexter, and yet the obligitory chinese whispers that come along with this kind of technology haven’t really developed past:
‘Have you seen the Dexter?.. It’s touch screen’.
The videos dotted around on Youtube and various blogs made us literally dribble with the excitement at the futuristic light show that is the touch-screen DAW of the now. It’s currently available for use with Sonar, Cubase, Nuendo and Logic Pro.
In the beginning…
On connection to your computer, the Dexter prompts the user to sync the unit via IP. Connect that up and your main user interface appears before you, and your trousers start to feel the cream.
The 8 channel strips in front of you consist of a meter/fader display a set of Mute, Solo, and Record buttons, which are toggled by one touch. The color of the channel indicates its current state with regards to the aforementioned touch controls.
Switching through the 64 channels is easy, via the 8X8 fader display above your main interface. From here you can choose which of the 64 channels you’d like to assign to which group (if you so choose), although as I’ll point out again later, you can’t save your stored groups. That sucks. As does this fact.
To control more than 64 channels, you have to access the DAW’s interface.
Touch the EQ symbol above each channel fader for a great parametric Q, which has all you need - Gain, Q and band selection. If you’re into EQ automation, you can freeze certain parameters in order to edit certain others, so in essence create a manual ‘Wah-Wah’ sound, and get it down to disk exactly how you want it. This is a very good inclusion.
The main benefit of the Dexter, as I’m sure you’ve read before, is that it is absolutely amazing for surround sound mixing, and this is where it’s true strengths lie - possible taking away hours of work (and doing a damn fine job).
Truly, this editing function is superb, allowing quick and easy experimentation for placing individual tracks anywhere in a 360 degree field. Similar to the EQ, you can then lock these tracks in place, but keep one paramater open, so move everything closer/further away’ from the central point.
If only that was an automated feature too…
I’m at a bit of a loss as to whether or not I like the Dexter or not. On the one hand, it’s an incredibly clever and impressive piece of kit which essentially brings up all your editable parameters onto its tablet form screen.
On the other hand, I somehow expected more to happen. Maybe I expected some built in effects, so that the unit had a character of its own, some reverbs, some compressors and gates to rival the big boys. A medium between your VST plugins and something by Focusrite, whilst offering the versatility of being, effectively, a touch screen monitor.
The bad news is, it isn’t. You can’t assign your variables from the unit, which means you’ll still be switching back to mouse and keyboard quite a bit.
Built in wireless mode would have been nice too, guys, especially for the price.
I’m told by Jazzmutant that there is a software upgrade being worked on right now to sort out the assignable parameters problem, which would go some way to making this unit a lot more popular, I’m sure.
Now, I should make it clear that apart from the aforementioned issues, there is not much that isn’t possible with this unit. But of course, it’s possible to do it without the unit as well
For instance, (told you I’d come back to this) - you can group your faders for more control on your overall sound, which is a nice little feature. Unfortunately, this isn’t storable (although, again, Jazzmutant is working on it with the software upgrade).
Now, another issue with this little baby is that Digidesign hasn’t allowed Jazzmutant access to it’s SDK, meaning that the controller isn’t supported by Pro-Tools. I can well understand that Digidesign consider the Dexter a threat to its own Pro-Tools supported hardware, and that’s just something everyone will have to live with, although I do feel that if Jazzmutant could focus on developing touch screen technology, it would open up the market an incredible amount.
In summary, the Dexter is a great piece of kit, despite my issues with it, and if the price was dramatically reduced, I would
certainly buy one.
Which brings me to this
I can’t help feeling the Dexter would be of more use in a live environment. Either way, though, I’m pleased to report that you can also install the Jazzmutant Lemur software onto the tablet (as well as!!). This is free, by the way, which does go an incredibly long way to making this unit worth the money.
If that wasn’t the case, I can’t forsee a great end to the review, as it’s the price as opposed to the yet-to-be-fully-developed
product which, for a while, made this unit a mystery to me.
But now you can throw the Lemur into the equation as well, so if you do some sums, the Dexter costs around $400.
Think about that, and you’ve got an amazing bargain on your hands (as long as both are of use to you). See, now I cannot find a single reason not to get one.
Damn you, Jazzmutant.
Transcom Capital completes aquisition of Blue Microphones
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Business News | Leave a Comment
It’s all business news today folks.
Transom Capital Group announced recently that it has completed the acquisition of Blue Microphones
Skipper Wise and Martins Saulespurens, the founders of Blue, will retain an ownership interest in the Company.
Russ Roenick, Managing Director at Transom Capital, said:
“This transaction presents an excellent opportunity to work with the team at Blue to achieve the next stage of growth for the Company,” Mr. Roenick said. “Relationships with major retailers and artists based on its history of design, innovation, and great products. The Company has several extremely compelling growth opportunities.”
“We chose Transom as our acquisition partner because they provide the operational expertise that will allow us to create value while continuing to focus on what we do best – making microphones with the best look and sound in the world,”
says Skipper Wise, President and Co-founder of Blue. “From our first meeting they demonstrated that they really understand our business and were willing to roll-up their sleeves to help us grow the Company.
