Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 132 i AudioTechnology

THANKS LIKE SOME KINDA MAHARISHI: GOODBYE & GOOD LUCK MARK 12 years. That’s how long I’ve had the privilege of contributing to AudioTechnology in one way or another. Six years steering the ship. I should have left myself more time to write my last editorial, but why change now? I’ve got nothing poetic to say, no insightful sign off. I just wanted to say, ‘Thank you!’ Thanks for subscribing to a print magazine just because you love music and audio enough to read about how it’s put together. Thanks to Chris and Phil for having me. Thanks for letting me loiter around your front of house tents and monitor positions. Thanks for answering all of my questions and being so gracious about it. Thanks for showing off your amazing studios…

For anyone who’s invested in the Native Instruments ecosystem, the king of keyboards is undoubtedly the new S88 MkII. Its NI’s answer to many a musician’s demand for a full-sized hammer-action keyboard controller that plays like a grown-up piano. Like its smaller unweighted synth action siblings, the S88 MkII is a purpose-built dashboard for driving NKS-compatible instruments via the Komplete Kontrol platform. You’ll see from our review of the S49 MkII in Issue 125 that the S Series boards are a dream to use thanks to the blazingly fast workflow and those beautiful colour screens. Deep DAW control is available for Maschine, Logic ProX, Ableton Live, GarageBand and more. The primary point of difference on the S88 MkII is the weighted Fatar keybed which promises an improvement over the S88…

When faced with these kinds of fly dates these are some tips and rules I try to follow: • Keep mic choice simple or carry your own mic kit. If you’re using local microphones each day try and keep your choices to something that the majority of audio companies will carry. • Get it right at the source. If something isn’t sounding right when you bring your gain up, check the source. Move the microphone around, tune the drum kit or have the guitarist adjust their tone. • Keep your mix simple. Once your sound source is right you should only need to high pass filter, use some light compression and then balance faders. Diving into a mess of bussing, plug-ins and effects can only complicate your mix, especially in…

There’s no denying that podcasting has now turned into an enormous industry. Stats from mid-2018 confirm there were over 550,000 podcasts available online with over 28 million episodes on virtually any topic imaginable, with the numbers climbing daily. To endorse those stats, Spotify recently purchased a four-year-old podcast publisher, Gimlet Media, for the impressive sum of $230m. While top end podcast production can make for scintillating audio, the podcasting world is still largely untouched by the pro audio industry — it’d seem listeners will forgive poor sound quality if the content is unique and relevant — but that’s changing. With great foresight, Røde Microphones has jumped in with easy-to-use audio tools. Like its move into the video world, this has already proved very lucrative. RØDE’S GOT IT IN THE BAG…

Prior to the Moog One, Moog’s releases had centred around those poor pups without much expendable cash, ie. musicians, not dentists. There were a few vibey sub-$1k products such as the DFAM (Drummer From Another Mother) and Mother-32 that were still fully analogue, and all Moog. Coming in at around $1300, the new ‘Mother’ — the Grandmother — joins this lineup of affordable synths, with clear influences from far more expensive Moog monophonic and modular varieties. The Grandmother synth falls under the semi-modular category; which basically means it doesn’t need friends, or patch cords, to generate cool sounds of its own. The modular side of the ‘semi’- equation means you do get enough patch points to make your own circuit, or plumb it into a larger modular system. Grandmother looks…

DAMIEN GERRARD’S The year was underway so quickly it hardly felt like the engineers had a break at all. Sessions were even running between Christmas and New Year for the first time in a while. Notable artists coming through in January included: Spike Vincent finishing some vocals for his new release; Crosson band working on the new album to be mixed in Germany where they have achieved commercial chart positions; Daxton remixing some acoustic tunes for a ‘best of’ acoustic compilation; Big Merino mixing a new single Hummingbird; Youth Band winners Deafening Silence from the Randwick battle of the bands tracking their debut release; Peter Colquhoun continued work on his new project with some great slide guitar courtesy of blues man Mick Hart; drummer/producer Mick O’Shea brought in Sydney band…

Pigments is a surprising first for Arturia. The company ostensibly built a reputation on its realistic software recreations of vintage synthesisers, and it’s carved out a name for itself in the hardware synth realm with the Brute collection. So why has it taken this long to develop a software synth of its own creation? Perhaps because it already has a wealth of ‘flavours’ covered in its V Collection series, Pigments is less about mastering a particular style of synthesis and more about giving the modern creative a ridiculous range of options. Having spent a little while with Pigments, it certainly takes the cake as Arturia’s most impressive all-in-one synth instrument. You’d be forgiven if you felt a little overwhelmed the first time you laid eyes on Pigments. It’s a busy…

It wasn’t perfect conditions; outdoors on a sweltering 40-degree day, with the slatted roof of Melbourne’s M Pavilion the only respite. Nevertheless, it’s the proving ground for Yamaha’s cobbled together object-based spatial audio system and their claims that it’s possible to build one anywhere — even in punishing conditions — for the price of a conventional PA system, and with readily available parts. “It’s the next thing,” was Simon Tait’s matter-of-fact summarisation of why he, Mick Hughes and the rest of Yamaha Australia’s pro audio division decided to try the DIY approach. “Stereo is a format that has served us well since the ’60s, but as a presentation canvas, it’s 60 f**king years old! It’s been done.” OBJECT OF THE EXERCISE Yamaha isn’t new to the spatial audio game. Its…

Big Picture had the no small task of running all the outside broadcast elements, as well as event network and communications backbone of Australia Day Live. Big Picture is a part of the NEP Worldwide Network and has a warehouse full of Riedel inventory which they supplemented with Riedel Australia’s rental stocks for the event. Seven Riedel Artist frames were located at key operational areas across the Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay precinct to handle all communications, and 25 Riedel MediorNet MicroN nodes were utilised for all video and audio transport between broadcast and event sites. All this was connected with over 7km of OpticalCon Quad Fiber, and over 7.5km of 16 Core Fiber that was run between Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay, Hickson Road, the Harbour Bridge and…

I recently ended up spending some time investigating the playback chain of my little studio, after missing a couple of anomalies on a recent mix. The first was a section of string bass that proved to be noticeably louder than during the rest of the song, and which was plainly audible through my hi-fi system, yet I hadn’t noticed it in my studio. The second was at the other end of the spectrum; I’d been experimenting on the mix bus with an EQ plug-in renowned for adding ‘air’ to a mix while still sounding effortless, yet could hear little difference after adding a conservative +2dB at 10kHz. However, on my other playback system the top-end improvement was as clear as day. I obviously had some issues to explore, and wondered…

I want to start this review by responding to some statements I have heard about Zoom devices. They often get labelled as ‘cheap’ alternatives, or only suitable for amateurs, with critics citing various issues from noisy preamps to build quality and just a general feeling that Zoom products are not suitable for professionals. I have been recording sound for 20 years, my libraries are used by many of the biggest producers in the world and yes, a significant number of those sounds were captured on Zoom devices. I am not going to claim that a $1000 Zoom recorder is in the same league as a $6000 Nagra or Sound Devices machine, but if you are obsessing about the ticket price of equipment then I would suggest you are focusing on…

April 1st 2005, 11am. I’m pushing bacon around my plate with a disinterested fork. I’d just lost years of emails, followed by my appetite. “They must be on my hard disk somewhere,” I pleaded, hoping it was a date prank. “Yes and no,” my IT buddy replied, sipping his third short black. “That’s what happens when Outlook crashes — they’re there, but they’re irretrievable. You eating that bacon?” “Nah...” It vanished in a blur of cutlery, caffeine and disgruntled seagulls. “It’s 2005, dude. The internet is fast enough. You should be on webmail...” Back at the IT workshop, I’m expressing my disdain at the clutter and clunkiness of Hotmail and Yahoo. Webmail? Urgh. “Have you heard of Gmail?” he asked. “It’s coded to be fast and light, with none of…

MICROFREAK IS SUPER FREAKY $549 | www.arturia.com Nothing ‘me-too’ about this new Arturia release. Say hello to the MicroFreak, Arturia’s first digital hardware synthesizer. Combining the best of both worlds, MicroFreak includes a multi-mode digital oscillator with an Oberheim SEM-inspired analogue filter. Seven of the oscillator modes are the result of a collaboration between Arturia and Eurorack specialists Mutable Instruments, and hence let users control the sound of its Plaits module in the comfort of an all-in-one hardware synth. One of the most striking features of MicroFreak is its PCB keyboard. Despite having no moving parts, it’s pressure sensitive and, according to Arturia, lightning-fast, and also offers poly-aftertouch, making the ‘Freak a more than capable MIDI polyphonic expression controller when connected with USB-MIDI. At its price, MicroFreak is a worthy…

I always open tour-routing emails with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. This December when I got the dates for Elle King’s string of back-to-back Christmas radio shows, I immediately went into attack mode. Getting consistency across this crazy schedule was going to take some figuring out. First, we were heading 1000 miles west from the Great Lakes to the middle of the country, then scooting down south to Florida, before returning to pretty much where we came from for a final date in Chicago. Meanwhile, the four dates would include three of the main touring food groups — large clubs, an arena and an open-air amphitheatre. Keeping consistency on and off stage with varying gear, an ever-changing venue type and size, with little to no sound checks is always…

Where’s the new Mac Pro? The fabled successor to the Trash-can released in late 2013 is still yet to materialise. That’s five entire years — then some. It’s incredible behaviour from Apple, a company which prides itself on its penchant for innovation. Being 2019, the year Apple promised a new Mac Pro after initially announcing and reneging on a 2018 release date, there’s now some credible rumours coming to light as Apple reaches closer to releasing a professional spec workstation. Revered Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, has recently prophesied Apple is about to release either a 16-inch or 16.5-inch display MacBook Pro, a 31.6-inch 6K display, and of course, a new Mac Pro. One would imagine the 31.6-inch 6K monitor will be arriving to run alongside the Mac Pro. Mr Ming-Chi…

The IEM market is becoming as saturated as a sturgeon tank in a caviar farm [huh? —Ed.]. It’s teeming with generic models pitched at teenage commuters, audiophiles, touring musicians and everyone in between. Interestingly, Sennheiser has appealed directly to stage musicians with its IE 40 Pros. For those already jamming with ears, does this single dynamic driver design improve on the stalwart balanced armature heavyweights? SENN-DING THE RIGHT MESSAGE At first impression, these in-ears tick all the boxes for a pair of stage monitors. Detachable cables? Tick. Flexible ear loop? Tick. The medium size tips fit me perfectly from the get-go, not even budging during a quick jog. I can’t say the same for my weightier Shure in-ears which would wiggle out over time. The time since I purchased them…

Every time you see a review comparing a Neve clone to a vintage 1073, the reviewers typically give a similar disclaimer. It goes something along the lines of having used, hired, borrowed, or stolen a number of vintage 1073s over the years, and no two sounding the same. To try and dodge that issue, we hired a pair of vintage 1073s from Kaj Dalstrom at Sing Sing. Sure, these two came from the same generation, but having survived almost 50 years, they undoubtedly have a completely different service history. Nonetheless, these were a pair of well-preserved, studio-bound, looked-after vintage 1073s. And they proved themselves to be fairly well matched. In the other corner we had the Warm Audio WA273-EQ. It’s basically two channels of 1073 clone stacked into a 2U…