FEATURES
David Kahne Dives Deep Into Surround
By Gary Eskow. A lot of David Kahne’s time over the past couple of years has been taken up with his work creating a sonic environment for National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey, a Times Square installation designed to give viewers the most dramatic sense of the ocean experience possible. Mix spoke to Kahne, who runs both the publishing company E=Music and production company SeeSquared Music out of Flux Studios on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
The Long Road Home: The Chaos and Uncertainty of War, Depicted by Sound
By Jennifer Walden. The National Geographic biographical miniseries The Long Road Home, based on the book by war reporter Martha Raddatz, was mixed at King Soundworks on an Avid ICON D-Control surface. supervising sound editors Gregory King and Gregory Brown at King Soundworks in Van Nuys, Calif., and showrunner/writer Mikko Alanne studied a map of Baghdad and reviewed old news footage of the event, and then used that research while building the environmental sounds.
Leon Bridges Finds a “Good Thing”
By Ken Micallef. Ricky Reed’s Elysian Park studio looks out over the rolling hills of L.A.’s Echo Park, the tri-level facility’s live room filled with natural sunlight streaming in from two large windows. In this retro studio milieu, youthful soul singer Leon Bridges found a path to reinvention and regeneration, trusting Reed’s skills and Elysian Park’s old-school accouterments to create a thoroughly modern recording, Good Thing.
MUSIC
Johnny Marr Finds His Voice
By Lily Moayeri. Johnny Marr’s name is synonymous with guitar playing, though these days the one-time sound sculptor for The Smiths thinks more like a singer and a lyricist. Currently on tour and having just released his third solo album, Call the Comet, Marr has been in the frontman position since about 2011. And before that, he was filling the same role with his Johnny Marr and the Healers project some 15 years ago.
Classic Tracks: The Replacements’ “I’ll Be You”
By Barbara Schultz. We talk a lot about “paying your dues” in the music business. Producer/engineer Matt Wallace paid his back in 1988 when he produced The Replacements’ raw, charming and clever album Don’t Tell a Soul. “I was basically hazed for most of that record,” he says.
Live—All Access with Pink on the Beautiful Trauma Tour 2018
By Steve Jennings. Pink is in the midst of one of the biggest tours of the year, having left the States recently for a summer in Australia, then back again in the spring of 2019. Mix caught her during a two-night stand at Oakland’s Oracle Arena. Production is provided by Clair Brothers, with an ace sound crew headed by FOH engineer Dave Bracey (Adele, Depeche Mode, Björk), Pink monitor engineer Jon Lewis (AC/DC, Cher), band monitor engineer Horst Hartmann (Sade, Cher), systems tech Johnny Keirle (Foo Fighters, Adele), and playback tech Joe Wolfe.
REGIONAL: BAY AREA
John Vanderslice and Tiny Telephone
By Barbara Schultz. John Vanderslice doesn’t mince words, and he doesn’t compromise his standards when it comes to audio. “I try to work only with people I’m really invested with aesthetically,” he says. “And I never use computers.” Vanderslice owns and operates three analog-focused Bay Area facilities—two in San Francisco and one in Oakland, all part of his Tiny Telephone business.
Mix Regional: Bay Area
By Barbara Schultz. Updates from Fantasy Studios, Different Fur, Hyde Street Studios, Skyline Studios, Lightrail Studios, Prairie Sun and The Grill.
TECHNOLOGY
Tech Feature: Portable P.A. Systems 2018
Only a few years ago, there was a pretty clear distinction between a professional touring loudspeaker and a “portable P.A. system.” The former went out on tour, packed in trucks, and required a crew to handle, while the latter took only one pair of hands and a semi-strong back to load into a van and then unload 15 minutes later at a coffee shop. Things have sure changed.
New Products: InfoComm 2018 Report
By Tom Kenny and Clive Young. Here we present the InfoComm Best of Show winners in pro audio, along with one editor’s sampling of some cool products that make sense to the studio engineer who sometimes mixes live, or the FOH engineer who also works in a home studio. Audio and visual technologies are merging, and networks will soon connect them all.
Review: Lectrosonics Duet IEM System
By Steve La Cerra. Lectrosonics has been building high-quality RF gear here in the United States, in the Albuquerque area, since 1971. While initial efforts targeted the film and theater markets, the company has expanded its presence in live sound over the past ten years. The introduction of the M2 Duet system is a shot clearly aimed at the touring IEM market, though the system is equally at home in IFB applications.
Review: Sound Devices MixPre-10M
By Steve La Cerra. The MixPre-10M from Sound Devices is a portable recording device, but labeling it simply a multitrack recorder shortchanges its capabilities. The 12-track recorder is integrated with a 12×4 USB audio interface and a 10-input mixer, making it musician-friendly for applications such as songwriting, multitrack recording and overdubbing, DAW interface/file transfer, and live mixing for small groups. This unique combination of features makes the MixPre-10M a versatile audio tool.
Review: PreSonus Quantum Thunderbolt Audio Interface
By Brandon T. Hickey. PreSonus has rolled out a whole control room of gear in recent years, from mic preamps to monitors, with mixers, interfaces and control surfaces in between. While all of the company’s digital products acknowledge the importance of integration and provide DAW-agnostic compatibility, they go above and beyond when interacting with the PreSonus-branded DAW, Studio One. Quantum, PreSonus’ new flagship recording interface, is no exception
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor: All My Best Memories
By Tom Kenny. I can remember pretty vividly walking across City Park in New Orleans at the second Voodoo Fest and hearing Paolo Nutini’s voice for the first time. It was late afternoon, cloudy and still warm in October, and this silky, soulful, wise old voice is coming from a second stage. Sherri and I went to listen, and there’s this 22-year-old Scottish boy on stage. Mesmerizing. I also remember the blueberry bread pudding. Voodoo Fest has the best food.
Need to Know: Cybersecurity
By Paul McLane. “We keep building new things on old infrastructure that never seems to get fixed.” Chris Wysopal is a hacker who was quoted in a Washington Post article (“Hackers: Internet Security Threats from 20 Years Ago Persist”) about the state of internet security (or perhaps we should call it “insecurity”). In May, Wysopal—also known by his hacker name, Weld Pond—joined several others in a return visit to Capitol Hill, where 20 years earlier they’d testified in a congressional hearing about the insecurities of software and networks.
Need to Know: Cybersecurity and Pro Audio
By Tom Kenny. Even when artists recorded in a single room, with a single producer and master tapes locked up by the label, there was theft, which today we call piracy. Even at a top-selling concert, with an all-analog signal chain, there were bootlegs made, later to be sold. The human factor in the entertainment media security chain hasn’t really changed, but today there are far more points of access and far more ways to pilfer a project.
Back Page Blog: July 2018
By Mike Levine and Steve La Cerra. Notes on smart software EQs and showing up for the gig.
