eq magazine feburary 2010

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YEASAYER’S GUIDE TO SOUND MANGLING

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FEATURES18 NORAH JONES

Norah Jones wanted to explore a darker, stranger

sound for The Fall and got just that from producer

Jacquire King and engineer Brad Bivens. The trio

discusses recording with a rotating cast of musicians,

Jones’ vintage mic collection, live vocal takes, pro-

gramming unusual textures in preproduction, and

overcoming “demo-itis.”

28 EDITORSTired of pushing a guitar-centric agenda in their

music, Editors pulled synths to the forefront for

their latest album, In This Light and on ThisEvening. Producer Flood and Editors’ Russell

Leetch and Chris Urbanowicz talk about making

synths dirty, recording in big spaces, and appreci-

ating imperfections.

PUNCH IN8 YEASAYER10 JAMES PANTS12 BLOCKHEAD13 LAURA VEIRS

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CONTENTSFEBRUARY 10

TECHNIQUES34 GUITAR

Taming the Wild Leslie Cabinet

36 BASSFavorite Studio Gear of the Stars

38 DRUMSBig Boom in Small Places

39 VOCALSOmnidirectional Bliss

42 TRACKINGToo Much Information

GEARHEAD48 ROUNDUP: THE RULES OF THE MIXING GAME ARE

CHANGING—check out our exclusive tips, and

reviews of Waves Vocal Rider, iZotope Alloy,

Focusrite Scarlett plug-in suite, Cakewalk V-Studio

100, and three hot Universal Audio plugs.

62 GADGETS Shure X2u USB mic adapter, Zoom H4n

recorder, Monster Turbine Pro Copper earbuds

POWER APP ALLEY44 PRESONUS STUDIO ONE PRO46 NATIVE INSTRUMENTS GUITAR RIG 4

DEPARTMENTS6 TALK BOX A Light at the End of the Torrent?

16 TOOLBOX66 ROOM WITH A VU Rhyme Cartel Studios

Cover photo by Autumn DeWilde

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Talk BoxA LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TORRENT?

From the extreme of the RIAA suing someone’s mom for a

zillion bucks, to big-name artists giving away music for

free, digital technology has turned the music industry on

its ear—and revenues have spiraled down year after year,

while illegal downloads kept accelerating.

So it was significant when the Guardian (UK) ran the

following headline: “Sweden Sees Music Sales Soar After

Crackdown on Filesharing.” From April 2009 (when strict

anti-file-sharing laws were put into place and judges ruled

against Pirate Bay) to November 2009, sales of music

went up 18% after seven straight years of decline.

Case closed, right? Bring out the stick, and sales

magically go up.

But hold on a second. Sales of physical media were

only 9% of that increase; paid digital downloads

accounted for a whopping 80%. Interestingly, coincident

with the crackdown, several new legal, digital download

options (like Spotify) appeared. This adds credence to

the theory that one reason for file-sharing is a paucity of

legitimate, appealing, economical options for digital

downloads. Sure, the Swedish experience doesn’t mean

the end of stealing; but if it signals the start of people

gravitating toward legit download sites—free of viruses,

awkward interfaces, and the chance of getting busted—

that’s a good thing.

However, this also underscores just how badly the

music biz blew it back in the days of Napster by pretend-

ing that file-sharing didn’t exist, instead of embracing it

and innovating (remember, it was a computer company

that came up with a viable model for selling music online).

Record labels had resources—back catalogs, alternate

takes, 360 artist deals, and much more—they could have

exploited to create ultra-cool online buying sites that

would have squashed the torrents. But they didn’t, and

they’ve paid dearly. Sure, we need the stick to keep peo-

ple from breaking the law; but perhaps even more impor-

tantly, we also need the carrot to give people a strong

incentive not to break the law.

What’s happening in Sweden suggests that maybe the

traditional record companies are not at their greatest risk

from the admittedly problematic “pirates,” but from smart,

legitimate competitors with new ideas and sales models.

Stay tuned; this story isn’t over yet.

EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com6

www.eqmag.com Vol. 21 No. 2, February 2010

Executive Editor Craig Anderton, [email protected] Kylee Swenson, [email protected] Editor Debbie Greenberg, [email protected] Kent Carmical, Ken Micallef, John Payne, Mosi Reeves,Mike Rozkin, Patrick SissonArt Director Patrick Wong, [email protected] Photographers Paul Haggard, [email protected], Craig Anderton, [email protected]

Group Publisher Joe [email protected], 770.343.9978Advertising Director, Northwest, Northeast, Canada, & NewBusiness Dev. Greg [email protected], 925.425.9967Advertising Director, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, & Southeast Jessica [email protected], 661.255.2719Advertising Director, Southwest Albert [email protected], 949.582.2753Specialty Sales Associate, North Reggie [email protected], 650.238.0296Specialty Sales Associate, South Will [email protected], 650.238.0325Production Manager Beatrice Kim

MUSIC PLAYER NETWORKVice President John PledgerEditorial Director Michael MolendaSenior Financial Analyst Bob JenkinsProduction Department Manager Beatrice KimDirector of Sales Operations Lauren GerberWeb Director Max SidmanMotion Graphics Designer Tim TsurudaMarketing Designer Joelle KatcherSystems Engineer John MenesesAssoc. Consumer Marketing Director Christopher Dyson

NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATEPresident & CEO Steve PalmChief Financial Officer Paul MastronardiVice President Web Development Joe FerrickCirculation Director Denise RobbinsHR Manager Ray VollmerIT Director Greg TopfController Jack Liedke

Please direct all advertising and editorial inquiries to:EQ, 1111 Bayhill Dr., Ste. 125, San Bruno, CA 94066(650) 238-0300; Fax (650) 238-0262; [email protected]

Please direct all subscription orders, inquiries, and address changes to:800-289-9919, outside the U.S. 978-667-0364, [email protected]

Back Issues: Back Issues are available for $10 each at 800-289-9919,978-667-0364, [email protected]

EQ (ISSN 1050-7868) is published monthly by NewBay Media, LLC 1111 BayhillDrive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. EQ is a trademark of NewBay Media. Allmaterial published in EQ is copyrighted (©) 2009 by NewBay Media. All rightsreserved. Reproduction of material appearing in EQ is prohibited withoutwritten permission. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EQ., P.O. Box 232,Lowell, MA 01853. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicitedmanuscripts, photos, or artwork. All product information is subject to change;publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. All listed model num-bers and product names are manufacturers' registered trademarks.

Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns tobe sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.

Periodicals Postage Paid at San Bruno, CA, and at additional mailing offices.

Follow us on Twitter!Craig Anderton twitter.com/Craig_AndertonEQ magazine twitter.com/equpdates

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PUNCHIN


SONIC OPTIONSYeasayer Edits and Processes SoundsInto Oblivion for Odd BloodBY PATRICK SISSON

After a season spent playing songsfrom their woozy, soaring debut, AllHours Cymbal, at outdoor festivals,Brooklyn’s Yeasayer wanted to recorda sophomore album that was boldenough for the big stage. Odd Blood[Secretly Canadian], the result of astretched-out yet deliberate recordingprocess, reflects the band’s constanttinkering and drive to one-up theirelectric debut.

“There was so much creativity increating new sounds,” engineer BrittMyers says. “I’ve done sound designand a lot of music mixing and engi-neering, and this was really the firstrecord that combined both of thosebackgrounds.”

Vocalist/guitarist Anand Wilder,vocalist/keyboardist Chris Keating,and bassist Ira Wolf Tuton began witha set of initial demos, some recordedas early as 2007. They reworkedthem in a rented house inWoodstock, New York, owned bydrummer Jerry Marotta (PeterGabriel) before re-recording and mix-ing with Myers at Great City Produc-tions in Manhattan. Marotta’s

relatively remote home studio wasfully wired and boasted a cache ofgear, including Taos drums and vin-tage synths, such as the Prophet-5and Prophet-VS, which augmentedthe Clavia Nord Lead, Nord Wave, andRoland XV-5050 used on the album.

But Yeasayer hunkered down withPro Tools and a Digi 002, painstak-ingly laying down and tweaking onetrack at a time. Notes blur, melt, andreform, partially due to the band’shabit of recording to Ableton Live,then adding glide between notes.

“Rome,” with its jaunty mix ofspastic keyboards, is an example ofthe studio mangling that wasinvolved. The native piano riff waschopped up, the attack removed, andthen sent through filters before beingplayed on another keyboardaltogether by Wilder, who also sped itup. On “Ambling Alp,” a Moog MF-102Ring Modulator and the SoundToysCrystallizer plug-in, a pitch-shifteddelay, gave extra dimension to theviscous yet charging sax-propelledsingle. And on “Madder Red”—inspired by the soundtrack to LostBoys and the guitar thrashing of War-ren Ellis, Wilder says—a Gibson ES-335

is threaded through Frostwave’s SonicAlienator pedal.

“Our manager was laughing at us,”Wilder says. “He said, ‘You can’t seri-ously consider changing this little lovesong.’ But we wanted to do balls-to-the-wall production. We thought of itas making a movie: Get as muchfootage as possible with the idea thatlater on you’d edit the hell out of it.”

To anchor the album’s uniquesounds, Wilder says the band soughtto emulate hip-hop and dancehallproduction, especially Timbalandtracks. “We were trying to get a lotmore bass, aiming for somethingmore clear and spare,” he says. “But

Yeasayer (left to right)—ChrisKeating, Ira Wolf Tuton, andAnand Wilder.

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then we always end up adding moreand more shit.”

Low-end theory was consistent onOdd Blood, even though bass notescame from both keyboards and Tuton’srange of bass guitars, including a FenderPrecision and a G&L Semi-HollowASAT. At Woodstock, synths weresent directly to Pro Tools, but if Tutonwas playing bass, he would send itthough an Ampeg B-15 flip-top, mic it,and send it though an API 560 EQ.Wilder says they removed the attackand plucking but made sure theprocessed sounds didn’t get too syn-thetic. A Peavey Kosmos brought outextra sub tones.

When Myers was mixing, he ranbass tracks through the SSL Duality48-channel analog board and used theconsole’s built-in EQ. He’d then send itthrough a Neve 33609, a Urei 1176, anda Moog MF-101 Low Pass Filter.

“I’d also send it through the Stan-dard Audio Level-Or for morecrunch—same thing with syntheticbass, ” he says. “It has this crunchycompressor that sounds awesome.Distortion can be a mixed bag. Youcan lose control of your mix easily,and things can sound grainy andharsh. The Level-Or does a nice job ofkeeping things crunchy in acompressed way.”

Myers also amped up percussion toprovide more power to the tracks, andhe uses lots of parallel compression,alongside an API 2500, to providepunch and warmth to rhythm tracks.According to Wilder, the real drums oncertain songs, including “Madder Red,”needed the “movement of air that thesynthetic pieces were missing.”

“When you have a band workingwith a lot of f**ked-up, lo-fi sounds,you need to have the power a big kickor snare brings to the track,” Myerssays. “If you just have the big stuff, itsounds clean and generic. Like the restof the album, here it’s all about theright combination.”


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BY MOSI REEVES

James “Pants” Singleton has befuddledlisteners since his 2008 debut,Welcome, a cryptic mélange of early’80s “boogie” R&B and electro. It wasfunky, for sure, but it begged the ques-tion: Was he really serious?

“A lot of those songs were from mycollege years,” says Singleton from hishome in Colorado. “Some were reallyserious, and some of them were mejust joking around in the studio. But Iwasn’t trying to be ironic, and a lot ofpeople perceived it as such. All mymusic is me being a different character,whether it’s a doomsday prophet orsome dude trying to pick up chicks. It’sjust me trying to create a fantasy.”

Seven Seals [Stones Throw], whichSingleton quips is “a soundtrack to acult,” is an attempt to evolve beyondthe electro-fied nonsense of Welcome.He incorporates a wider palette into hisquirky persona, from the familiar synth-pop to ’70s Christian rock, psychedelia,and Goth darkwave. Through apocalyp-tic numbers such as “Sky Warning” and“Wash to Sea,” and with vocal tonesranging from a low falsetto to a deep,ominous baritone, Pants portends abattle between heaven and hell. Influ-ences include cult horror films such asThe Bird with the Crystal Plumage,Suspiria, and The Wicker Man.

“I was getting a little tired of thedisco-boogie stuff, as much as I lovethat genre,” he says. “I grew up listeningto a lot of psych music. My parents wereboth Presbyterian ministers, so I’ve

always had a fascination with the end ofthe world and that kind of thing.”

However, Seven Seals retains Single-ton’s playful vibe and appreciation fornovelty, recording his vocals directlyinto a built-in microphone on a Pana-sonic RX-5100 boombox. “I just put atape in and press record,” he says. “Forsome reason, that boombox has a lotof compression, so I can be really faraway and sound really close.” Singletonalso uses a “generic/no brand SM57knockoff” microphone.

Echo and reverb predominatesSeven Seals’ ghostly sound, which isdue in part to his Roland RE-201 SpaceEcho. “I use that on almost everysong,” he says. “It’s got a reverb settingthat you can tack up a lot.” For addedeffect, he relies on the spring reverbfunction on his ’70s-era Peavey mixingboard, which he bought for $70 at apawnshop.

And using a Boss SP-303 Dr. Sam-ple’s tape echo and distortionfunctions, James mutates his vocalsand applies the reverb function toinstruments he samples. “I’ve beenusing the 303 for so long that I feelcomfortable with it,” Singleton says.“Between the 303 and a Dell [Dimen-sion] XPS T550 Pentium computer, Ican pretty much get anything.”

For “A Chip in the Hand,” Singletonhad saxophonist Paul Flores playdirectly into the boombox, resulting ina strangely muffled sound reminiscentof Pink Floyd’s “Us and Them.” “I usu-ally try to [apply reverb] while I’mrecording through the 303 or the

mixer,” he says. “If not, I use digitaleffects with [Sony] Acid after the fact.Those usually sound real sterile, so Idon’t like them, but it worked out withthe saxophone.”

For drums, he uses a GibsonSlingerland Gold Sparkle Jazz kit as abase. “I usually [record drums] withone microphone and lots of compres-sion, and then I go back tediously andadd an 808 kick drum under each bassdrum hit because when I do the com-pression, the bass drum just soundstoo weak,” Singleton says. Sometimeshe places the boombox close to the kitand angles it toward the snares; othertimes he’ll place it several feet awayand “jack up the compression setting”on the 303. “The farther away I am, ithas a much bigger sound, huge likeJohn Bonham-style,” he adds.

Keyboards in Singleton’s arsenalinclude a Hohner String Performer,Roland JX-3P, Korg MicroKorg withvocoder, and a Radio Shack custom-tone synthesizer he bought for $40.The Radio Shack synth came in handyfor the simple string-plucked melodyon Seven Seals’ first single, “ThinMoon.” “I used the ‘pizzicato strings’preset, and then I put the keyboard’s‘stage’ setting reverb on it,” he says.

Singleton likes to make music asfast and as cheap as possible so hedoesn’t forget any ideas, painting pic-tures of the visions in his head. “I thinkI’m just more impulsive,” he notes. “Itcan be a completely messed-up soundquality-wise, but the sound should bean experience or a fantasy.”

DIME-STOREDAREJames Pants Brazenly Uses aBoombox to Record His SonicFantasies James Pants.

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PUNCH INPUNCH IN

BY KYLEE SWENSON

Blockhead, a.k.a. Tony Simon, is a col-lage artist in the truest sense of theword. With 85 percent of his soundcoming from samples, his is a differ-ent kind of talent: It takes a finelytuned ear to fit together dozens ofsonic puzzle pieces that weren’t origi-nally made for one another.

It also requires a lot of patienceand skill to get sounds from varioussources to lock in place and form atotally new composition. InBlockhead’s case, he made it particu-larly difficult on himself by settingharsh limitations, including a “no timestretching” rule.

But then he fell in love with Able-ton Live, and his whole processchanged with his fourth solo album(he’s also done production on eightAesop Rock albums), The Music Scene[Ninja Tune]. “I’ve never used timestretching before until this album,” hesays. “It was a lot of trial and error,but I got it tuned over the years toreally pick out which sounds wouldsound good with what.”

Using Live, Blockhead opened up aworld of possibilities. “I thought byusing time stretching, it takes awaythe skill of what I’m doing,” he says. “Ipurposely wasn’t doing it in the pastbecause I thought it was cheating. Buton this album I was like, ‘I’ve proventhat I can smash samples withoutcheating, so let me try to take this toa new level.’ Why be held back byconstraints that I’m putting onmyself that don’t apply to everyoneelse? And it made these songs soundbigger and more epic.”

Blockhead still limits himself in

terms of what he samples, though. “Idon’t really mess with stuff that’smade after like 1982,” he says. “I justthink that’s when the sound of musicchanged, and I don’t really like thatsound in sampling so much.”

He used to go to the 99-cent binsfor records, but these days, he’ssearching online because he saysobscure records are out of his pricerange. Lately, he’s found a wealth offodder on rare-music blogs. MutantSounds (mutantsounds.com) forexample, has a blogroll that led him toother sites. “It takes a lot of snooping,”Blockhead says. “An hour later, I’m 20steps away from where I started atsomething I’ve never seen before.”

Now he weaves together wholesections of sounds that previouslyhad nothing in common. “I couldmake my whole album one song if Ireally wanted to,” Blockhead says.“That would be awful, but I probablycould do it.”

Instead, he’ll try meshing two orthree separate beats together (eachone containing various musical andrhythmic samples), using one particu-lar sample as an anchor, then pitchingand changing the tempo of the othersamples to fit the main sample. Buteven when he can get two sections inkey, if the vibes don’t match, hemoves on.

Blockhead still edits, pitches, andtweaks samples with his EnsoniqASR-10 sampler (using floppy disks).To stay organized, he labels potentialsamples for different purposes, suchas “transition” or “shift/tempochange.” “I sit there with a pen and apad and pretty much map out thesongs like an equation,” he says. “It’s

funny that making music, at least withsamples, is a lot more mathematicalthan you’d ever think it should be.”

“The Daily Routine,” “It’s RainingClouds,” and “Farewell Spacemen” areexamples of three-part Abletonsmash-fests. “It’s Raining Clouds,” whichfeatures a menagerie of samples andstyles—flute, sitar, horns, synths, piano;drum ‘n’ bass, rock, jazz—started froma scratch sound and backwards vocal,and kept building from there.

Blockhead also had his friendDamien Paris record bass and guitar,and Wilder Zoby from the band ChinChin played/sang a DigiTech Talkervocoder through a Moog Liberationon “Four Walls.” Then Blockhead tookhis computer to producer BabyDay-liner’s house, dumped tracks into ProTools, added more parts, and mixedit using plug-ins such as JoemeekMeequalizer, Tel-Ray delays, and Tril-lium Lane reverbs.

But they didn’t get too heavy witheffects. The emphasis was on EQ.“Sometimes samples are trickybecause they can have a wide palate,frequency-wise,” Baby Dayliner says.“You might find yourself dipping cer-tain EQ ranges of a sample in order tolet other stuff be heard better in themix. We definitely wrestled with thatissue a bit.”

Overall, Blockhead kept thewrestling to a minimum. “It’s funnybecause mixing has always looked likethis thing that’s so anal, like, ‘Let’sspend an hour on this snare and get itto sound right,’” Blockhead says. “AndI’ve never thought that way. I don’tlike to dwell on a sound for hours andhours because really it’s the overallpackage that I’m looking at.”

Blockhead Takes the ShacklesOff of His Super-RestrictedSampling Process

PRISON BREAK

Blockhead.

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BY KYLEE SWENSON

When folk/country artist Laura Veirsbegan writing for her seventh album,July Flame [Raven Marching Band],things didn’t go exactly as she hoped.She wrote a lot—80 songs—but it wasn’tuntil she got to about song 40 that shestarted to like what she was doing.

“I wrote so many that were notreally appealing to me,” she admits. “Idon’t think it was just a matter of mebeing overly self-critical. I was rehash-ing the same old stuff and I wasbored, and boredom in your craft isdangerous and probably inevitablebecause I’ve been doing this for along time.”

After months hunkered down inher “barn” (a converted garagebehind the house she shares with herproducer, Tucker Martine, in Portland),she broke through to new territory.Her goal was to create songs thatwould stand out with just a guitar andvoice. “It takes more work to get tothose types of songs,” she says. Veirs’

old, “falling apart” Mac runningGarageBand actually helped mattersby only allowing her to record fourtracks per song.

When it came time to record thealbum, Veirs and Martine set otherlimitations by mostly avoiding synthsand drums. Other instruments werefair game. “When I hear a song thatshe’s written that I really love, usually alot of the instrumentation is suggestedon the first listen,” Martine says.“Sometimes she’ll have acountermelody idea that she’ll mock upon the demo [as a vocal] that we usu-ally will assign to another instrument.”

Conversely, a guitar part on thedemo of “Life Is Good Blues” endedup becoming a vocal line so it wouldn’tinterfere with another, more intricateguitar line. After trying horns and“whatever was nearby,” Martine hadbass player Karl Blau sing layers ofthe part through an AKG BX10 springreverb. The end result sounds a lotlike The Muppets. “We were laughingso hard the first several times we

heard it,” he says. “We were like,‘We’re probably just doing thisbecause it’s fun and we need somecomic relief after working so hard.’But when we tried to listen without it,we missed it. I think it’s important tochallenge your own idea of whatappropriate instruments are and notalways get caught up in being toofamiliar or too tasteful, because thingsstart to sound precious.”

Consequently, they broke the “nosynth” rule. On the title track, whichfeatures a beautiful, doubled GibsonES-175 guitar part, there’s a buzzingsynth that’s a combo of a Crumar Per-former through an overdriven CarrMercury amp (also used for guitars)and distorted bass that Blau playedon a beat-up Telecaster bass—“withrusted strings that haven’t beenchanged in 15 years,” Martine says—through a Big Muff pedal and AmpegB-15 amp.

Veirs, who grew up in Colorado andstudied Mandarin Chinese and geol-ogy at Carleton College in Minnesota,

Laura Veirs Burns Through 80 Songs toGet to the Gold

RARE RESOLVE


Laura Veirs.

Cast your votes for the Readers’ Choice Awards (including best 2009 coverartist and best producer) now at www.eqmag.com!

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recorded many songs on the old nylon-string Goya guitar she’s had since shewas a kid. Otherwise, she played a Mar-tin Smartwood steel string, Gibson LesPaul Classic and ES-175 electric guitars,and an Enoch banjo she borrowedfrom one of her students (she alsoteaches guitar, banjo, songwriting, andvocal lessons).

To record acoustic guitar and banjo,Martine set up three mics—an RCA 44ribbon mic for darker sounds, and amodified Neumann U 87 and a B&K4011 for brighter detail (panned leftand right on sparser songs)—andchose different blends. “I had the U 87on her guitar just below where theneck meets the body,” he explains.

“The B&K 4011 was toward the boomierside, behind where her hand was hit-ting the strings, and then usually Iwould bring the RCA up the center tofill it out.”

Vocal-wise, Veirs sang throughthe U 87 (or occasionally a ShureSM7 or Telefunken M49) through aTelefunken Siemens V72 preamp intoa Urei 1176 silver face and anEcoplate III reverb. She sings wholepasses of leads, doubles, andharmonies quickly, but she ensuresshe’s in a good headspace beforestarting. “Recording is so mental andemotional,” she says, “and if you’renot quite there, it’ll be apparent.”

Martine does “superquick rough

mixes” (using a Neotek Elite board)leading up to the final mix because ofthe unusual choices he’ll make on awhim. “Sometimes I pull up a roughmix and think, ‘Man, did I have thebackup vocals loud, but that soundscool!’” he says. “I might discover thatnotching out a little bit of 300 on theacoustic guitar helps and then do thatwhen I pull up each song that wasrecorded that same way. But I like togive each song its own treatment andnot fall into habits. It’s so easy to getbogged down in thinking, ‘I’m going toEQ everything perfectly and use justthe right compression.’ It might soundmore hi-fi, but the excitement of thesong is gone.”

PUNCH IN

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Waves Vocal RiderWhat Plug-in for mixingWhy Sets steady vocal anddialog levels automatically.How The user sets the targetrange of the vocal level inrelation to the rest of the mix.Vocal Rider then compensatesfor all deviations from the tar-get, raising or lowering thevocal volume, instantly. Unlikecompression, Vocal Rideradds no coloration to thetrack.Price $400 Native, $800 TDMWeb www.waves.com

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Roland SP-404SXWhat Linear wave samplerWhy Offers 44.1kHz/16-bit sound quality, improved DSP effects, a moreversatile pattern sequencer, and easier data management.How Includes 29 DSP effects (filter, delay, unique voice effects,subsonic, and looper) that switch seamlessly for a smoothperformance. Twelve trigger pads, three control knobs, and a SubPad for rapid triggering allow DJs, musicians, and sound engineers totrigger samples and jingles, and apply effects on the fly at a club, gig,or theater.Price $465Web www.rolandus.com

All prices are MSRP except as noted.

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Voxengo GlissEQ 3.0What Dynamic equalizer plug-inWhy Boosting up the highs will not create thefatiguing effect of overload; boosting up thelows will not make things sound mushy. Instead,you get a transient-emphasizing effect bringinglife and dimension to your tracks.How Filters with dynamic behavior, realtimespectrum analysis, up to 32 filter bands, inter-nal channel routing, and 64-bit floating pointprocessing. Price $99, $59 for upgradeWeb www.voxengo.com

Square State Solid State Equalizer model one bWhat Hardware EQWhy Combines inductor-based topology with a high-speed op amp design.How Low, mid, and high bands offer a substantial amount of cut/boost (nearly 20dB) at useful frequencies (six perband), while still behaving musically when pushed to extremes. The switchable low and high frequency bands offerbell and shelf shapes for maximum versatility.Price TBDWeb www.squarestatesolidstate.com

Yamaha DTX-Multi 12What Electronic percussion padWhy Responds to the dynamics of a drummer’s perfor-mance and the staggered layout makes it easy to hit theright pad.How Split-level multi-pad that adapts sound technologyfrom the flagship Motif XS synthesizer and theDTXTREME III drum trigger module, and lets drummersand percussionists enjoy three modes of play: with sticks,hands, or fingers.Price $899Web www.yamaha.com

JZ VintageMicrophone SeriesWhat Vintage-stylemicrophonesWhy New microphone line witha unique design and the well-known vintage sound.Series The new mics have a flaskshape with built in shockmountand unique capsule. JZ hasthree different models, the V-67, V-47, and V-12. Each mic isintended to have a vintagesound reminiscent of the U67,U47, and C-12.Price TBDWeb www.jzmic.com


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You think you know Norah Jones? Sheof the 36-million-selling albums, lan-guorous songs, and deep blue vocals?Well, think again. After three sweetreleases of soothing tones in songs sosummery it’s like dipping your toes ina warm country pond, Norah Joneslocates her inner darkness on The Fall.

Inspired in some part by herbreakup with long-term beau andbassist Lee Alexander, The Fall [AngelRecords] casts the Norah we onceknew into a strung out, deliciouslydark world of torrid drumming, sultryWurlitzer (often played by keyboardwizard James Poyser), angelic spacesounds, and the strange, nightmarishguitars of Marc Ribot and SmokeyHormel, creating an aura of sonic hal-lucination and mental dislocation.Norah’s always gorgeous vocals anddarker subject matter are encapsu-lated anew in a kind of beat-driven,electric swamp music. It’s likeLouisiana by way of England: NewOrleans-era Daniel Lanois productionsmeet Dusty Springfield and a post-modern Massive Attack.

Norah Jones achieves a delicatebalance with The Fall. Produced, engi-neered, and mixed by Jacquire King(Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Mutemath),The Fall veers wildly between the newdarker, weirder Norah and the wide-eyed ingénue who stole the hearts ofmillions on her 2002 debut, ComeAway With Me. First single “ChasingPirates” tricks the ears with a funkybackward beat before straightening

out to include gritty guitars andcrunchy Wurlitzer, all delayed andtreated, yet never harming Jones’lovely vocal lines. “Even Though” getsstranger—reggae bass dollops drivingfractured guitars and a childlike key-board. Queen’s “You’re My BestFriend” comes to mind when “It’sGonna Be” bounds from the speakers,all gut thumping, shuffling drums,voodoo keys, and guitar, Norah sailingabove it all like some beautiful phan-tom describing the future. “Stuck”recalls The Beatles final organicrooftop gig, Norah pleading with somedude to leave her alone while hermusicians lay it behind the beat like abar band on narcotics. “Tell Yer Mama”kicks that same loser dude to the curb,Norah refusing to “cry for you.”

But Norah Jones hasn’t completelyforgotten her old fans while cultivat-ing new ones. “December,” “Man ofthe Hour,” and “You’ve Ruined Me” willappease those who still prefer theirNorah sweet and simple.

Demos for The Fall began at Jones’Manhattan home studio in May 2008,with engineer Tom Schick manningher custom Neve console (with 1073modules), Otari 2-inch 24-track MTR-90, and a sumptuous collection of vin-tage tube mics (Neumann M 49, U 47,and Telefunken ELA M 250). Knowingshe wanted to create a differentsound for her fourth release, Jonesconsidered some of her favoritealbums—Tom Waits’ Mule Variations,Santigold’s Santogold, and MGMT’s

Oracular Spectacular—and called onproducer/engineer Jacquire King (whoworked on Mule Variations).

Recording in mid-2009 at NewYork’s The Magic Shop, Studio A(Neve 80 Series console with 1079modules to 16-track Studer A827 2-inch24-track to Pro Tools|HD3) andL.A.’s Sunset Sound, Studio 2 (Neve8088 with 1073 preamps and EQs toStuder A827 2-inch 24-track to ProTools), Jones and King adopted aquasi Steely Dan approach, oftenrecording the same song with differ-ent groups, then cherry-picking thebest performances.

Jones’ vocals were taken from thefirst two or three takes. And in an erawhen everyone comps or overdubs tosome degree, Norah Jones cuts hervocals live, with the band, typicallyfinding her sweet spot by take three.Assistant engineer Brad Bivens mar-vels at Jones’ mastery in the recordingstudio.

“She is very in control of what ishappening,” Bivens remarks. “So evenif her voice sounds very kind and gen-tle, she is very in control and the musi-cians are aware of that and how she isdirecting them. Her efficiency in thestudio is incredible.”

After platinum- and diamond-sellingalbums, a romantic breakup, and anew producer who helped her forge afresh recording approach, The Fall isNorah Jones’ most daring album todate. Even Norah Jones must admit—things are looking up.

NORAH JONES ON LIVETAKES, VINTAGE MICS, &ROTATING MUSICIANSHow did you envision this different-sounding recording?I’ve always been drawn to these kindof sounds. This time I thought moreabout what I wanted sonically. On myother records, I would just go to thestudio and play, mostly on acousticinstruments with an occasional elec-tric guitar or Wurlitzer. But this time Iwanted the sonic landscape to be aspecific thing. I wanted heavier drumgrooves, and to experiment with key-boards and have weirder soundsweaving through the background. Iplay more guitar [a Gibson ES-335 and1960s Guild archtop] and I wanted thebackgrounds to be dirtier than any-thing I’d done before.

Touring bandmate Sasha Dobson(left) and Norah Jones playing atLe Poisson Rouge in New YorkCity, September 24, 2009.

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How did you decide on JacquireKing as producer?

Jacquire is a great engineer and hewas a wonderful producer. I wantedsomebody who could really help meget that sound I wanted. I like analoggear and recording on tape and old-sounding recordings, but I don’t knowhow to get it on my own. I wanted togo in that direction with some songs,then bring the other songs into thesame zone so they all fit together.

Part of the danger in trying thisnew direction was doing all that andnot covering up my voice, which is thething that needs to shine through. I cansing out but I sing the way I sing andin a very intimate way. We discussedall the interesting sounds I wanted toget while still leaving room for myvoice. That was important.

You record your vocals live withthe band?

I love live takes. It’s always betterwhen you can get it that way, right?It’s easier and more natural. I willpunch in sometimes. Usually I hopefor a live take, but before we move onto overdubs I’ll do a couple of takes inthe same space if I’m singing okay.Then if we need any fixes, we have thetakes without having to go back andre-sing everything later.

How do you prepare to recordvocals?

Hot whiskey or hot tea! Some kindof hot beverage that will open up thevoice if I am tired. On my first recordwe really got into Lagavulin. I like Irishwhiskey. It’s smooth. Definitely notsomething I can drink too much ofwithout getting sloppy. Hot waterworks as well, something to help mebreathe. Beyond that I just stayfocused and think about the song andtry to be present.

You have a great collection of vin-tage mics. How did you choose them?

I bought the Neumann M 49 fromSorcerer Sound where I made my firstrecord. It has a quality with the way Ising that just works. I realized on mysecond record [2004’s Feels LikeHome] that it was pretty special. Icouldn’t get that same quality as easilywith another mic. I love the M 49 and Ialso used a Telefunken ELA M 250 onmy third record [2007’s Not Too Late].It depends on the type of song and theway I am singing for which one soundsbetter. I love the 49 ’cause it gets all

the grit and warmth, but sometimes itcan sound a little too muffled if I amsinging a certain way. Then the 250gives some nice high end and a lot ofair. And I like to be close to the mic tocatch all the nuances.

After three records, do you have ageneral recording concept?

The only thing that I have doneconsistently that works is to have twodifferent sessions spread out over afew months. My first record we meantto record all in one shot, but we endedup going in twice. It helps with per-spective. You need the luxury and thetime and the budget to do that, ofcourse, but for me it’s been reallyhelpful to go in for a week and getwhatever creative ideas you havedown, then take some space from itfor a few months. For The Fall, I had allthe songs demoed in May of 2008.Then it was helpful to listen to them,see what worked, what I liked, what Iwanted to change. That’s when Ihired Jacquire; we went in for amonth with four different groups ofmusicians to experiment. We hadenough knowledge from the demosthat we knew exactly what we weregoing for.

Why did you record with multiplegroups of musicians?

I was experimenting. But I alsoused a couple of the demos (“Wait-ing,” “December”) for the final record-ing. We didn’t need to re-record them.We added little things to the demos. Ihave really bad demo-itis. I get reallyused to demos. And even if they’reimperfect, I usually like them. Some-times I will try to perfect something

that isn’t exactly what I wanted, butthen I will go back to the demobecause I really love it.

JACQUIRE KING ONPREPARATION, DELAYS,& NEW DIRECTIONSWhy did Norah contact you?Stylistically, her demos were in areasthat were very familiar to her. Shewanted to get away from that. Shewas looking for someone to get herout of her comfort zone and exposeher to a new way of working. The MuleVariations record was a good startingpoint for us; that’s how she found me.

How did you develop the demosfrom the familiar Norah Jones soundto this heavily delayed guitar, funkyelectric Wurlitzer thing?

I did a lot of preparation. Thereare 20 musicians or more on therecord and four different rhythmsections [including drummersJames Gadson and Joey Waronker].I was arranging certain sessionsaround particular musicians. But Ididn’t have a plan, per se. I wasthere to coach her and create anopportunity for her to feel inspiredand to help bring about somethingnew for her.

Also, [keyboardist] Matt Stanfieldand I did programming to all of herdemos as preparation. That enabledme to create some dark rhythmic tex-tures to the songs based around theconversations I was having withNorah. Very few of the finished songsincluded those elements. But it letme present her with something to fur-ther get inside where we needed to

Norah Jones performing atLe Poisson Rouge.

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go. Also, being ready to capturesomething in the moment is as impor-tant as the sonic picture you paint.

Did you bring your own mics andpreamps to the sessions?

The only thing I brought along wasthe Universal Audio 2-610. [“And theMassenburg MDW Hi-Res ParametricEQ to add extra fluidity to every chan-nel,” Brad Bivens adds.] The MagicShop and Sunset Sound have wonder-ful Neve desks and lots of outboardgear, and Norah has wonderful micro-phones. So instead of carting thingsaround, I just brought guitar pedals[i.e.: Boss CE-1 Chorus], speakers, andthe 2-610, which is a tube mic pre withEQ. It was used for Wurlitzer, guitars,and bass. The vocals were recordedthrough a Neve 1073 module. AndNorah has an ELA M 250 mic and aU 47; then we chose the 250 pairedwith a Placid Audio Copperphone. It’sbasically an old pay phone telephonevoice element in a custom copperenclosure. I put that right next to the250. It has a very frequency limited,old time gritty, edgy sound and gavethe vocal a little more texture. Some-times I leaned heavier on backgroundvocals to give them a different textureand separate it from the lead vocal.

What ideas did Norah have aboutrecording her voice?

She was into adding delay on her

voice, trying not to just make it prettywith reverb. The delays were bothanalog and plug-in. I use Audio EaseAltiverb, SoundToys EchoBoy delay,some of the UA plug-ins—they have anice EMT 140 emulation—and theCooper Time Cube Delay. We usedThe Magic Shop’s Marshall Tape Elimi-nator AR-300, a tape slap simulator.And Norah had an old Ibanez analogdelay. We used a Roland Chorus Echoand EMT 140 plate reverbs, too. Some-times I will use an Eventide H3000 forharmonic delay effects, and as I getthem going I will print them in ProTools with the transfer from analog.

How did you record “ChasingPirates,” the first single?

We recorded that fourtimes; the third version iswhere the drums, bass,and Wurlitzer camefrom. The programmingthat we did prior torecording was kept andused to play to. I usedthe vocal from the sec-ond version and got itgoing with the band. Wegot some interestingsounds going and built avibe where we were cre-ating something differ-ent from other versions.It’s a combo of differentbands and differentrecordings.

Overall, how did youhelp Norah find a newdirection while retainingher signature vocalsound?

I had to pay attention

to what felt comfortable and whatNorah reacted to and what she feltinspired by. I wasn’t there to tell herhow to sing in a new way. It was aboutsurrounding her vocal and letting herreact to the change in the music anddirection. I wanted to create a differ-ent vibe to support her voice and haveher follow that lead. A vocal perfor-mance is about words and conveyingan emotion and supporting that withthe right kind of sonic atmosphere;that’s what gave her the result of hersounding different vocally.

ENGINEER BRAD BIVENSON ISOLATION, MIKING,& QUICK TAKESHow did the tracking break down?We did three weeks at The MagicShop and one week at Sunset Sound.Half of the vocal takes you hear arewhat Norah sang live with the band.Every time we tracked, she did multi-ple vocal takes just to see if she couldbeat what she’d already done. But sheis so quick and precise that oftenwhat she sang with the band was byfar the best version.

When tracking vocals live with theband, how do you adapt?

We knew what Norah wassinging at any given time wouldpotentially be on the record. Wemade sure she was isolated fromthe group. At The Magic Shop shewas in the live room with half themusicians, but their amps were iso-lated. When she played piano[recorded with Neumann U 69 andU 67, Soundelux E49, and NeumannM 582 mics], we covered it withpacking blankets to isolate her mic

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Norah Jones (far left), Jacquire King,and Brad Bivens at Sunset Sound inLos Angeles.

Brad Bivens.

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piano mic. Getting levels set before-hand was important, and Norah worksvery quickly. We were ready ifanything went wrong, and we hadbackup scenarios.

What did you use to record bass,and how did you approach compres-sion and blending?

We used an Avalon U5 DI with adbx 160 for electric, and a NeumannU 47 with a dbx 160 for upright. Basi-cally, just having a subtle compressionon the bass from the 160 helps whenanyone is digging a little more. It con-trols the level a slight amount before

going to tape. We don’t want to over-compress the bass because the tapewill do that for us.

How did you mic and recordthe drums?

We used a Sennheiser MD 421, AKGD 12, and a GML 8200 EQ for the kickdrum; Shure SM57 and SM7, Altec633A, and GML 8200 for snare; MD421 for rack tom and floor; NeumannU 67 for overheads; and two Coles4038s through Urei 1176s for roommics. We ran them all through thesame Neve module on the console.We chose mics on how they helped

the drum translate. We would changeout the drum before changing the mic,like switching a smaller kick drum for alarger one or how much the head wouldring. The GML 8200 changed accordingto the song. The drum mic choices arepretty go-to for what we do along withwhat was available at the studio.

Are we hearing more close mikingor room sound on the drums?

It’s an equal balance. Certain songsyou can tell that they are leaningtowards the close miking. It’s a muchdrier, pointier sound. “It’s Gonna Be”was a double-tracked drum scenariowhere we added toms to double upthe sound. That song has more of aroom mic sound. We used a ’60s Lud-wig and Gretsch kit. Everything wassong dependant. As you go throughyou can hear the focus on a driersound versus a wider room-micsound. “Chasing Pirates” is moreroom-mic sound. More decay trans-lates into more room mics and over-heads than close miking.

Do you mic amps direct to thecone or off-axis?

We used Neumann U 67, SennheiserMD 409, Beyerdynamic M130, andAKG C 414 TL II mics on the guitaramps. The guitars are mostly upfrontin the tracking scenario because wehad to isolate the guitar amps to keepthe main room quiet for her vocals.There’s a lot of close miking, and ifthere’s any space to it, that’s donewith guitar pedals. We never micguitar cabs at a distance, but weshift it around on the cone to find thebest sound. But mostly right up onthe grill.

What was the main key to captur-ing Norah’s vocal?

Finding the right mic. After tryingout several, we ended up with theones she’s used on her earlier records.And the Copperphone gave her a newedgier character. She is so quick in thestudio; it doesn’t take her long to naila take. We rarely did more than threepasses of vocals, including the track-ing take. And it usually ended upbeing the one she did with the bandthat we used. That is pretty rare. Usu-ally the vocal you hear on record isthe result of numerous takes after theband tracks the song. People mightcomp together the vocal from differ-ent takes, but for Norah, what youhear is one full pass.

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Whether you’re rocker or folkie, a jazzbo or DJ, the ultra-competitiveworld of popular music demands creative evolution to ensure your bestshot at longevity. This is the realization that Editors came to as theyprepared for the release of their latest album, In This Light and on ThisEvening [Fader], a darkly atmosphere-laden experience that largelyforegoes the band’s more high-sailing guitar dramatics in favor of asynth-laden world, framing singer Tom Smith’s portentous tales of life inthe gray-orange glow of London at dusk.

The follow-up to 2007’s platinum-selling An End Has a Start, the newalbum was produced by the Grammy-winning Mark “Flood” Ellis, hailedfor his work with U2, Sigur Rós, and Depeche Mode. The recording tookplace at Flood and partner Alan Moulder’s Assault & Battery studio inNorth London, and the intention was to create a space that would propelthe band deeper into the industrial, mechanical landscapes that previousalbums had hinted at, but to leave no doubt that Editors are still a full-blooded, fire-breathing band.

“Before we started off,” Flood says, “Tom played me the demos, andI just thought as a body of work it had a character to it. And Tom wasvery adamant that he wanted to try a synthetic factor to the album,which was music to my ears, to hear those songs in a very sort ofsynth-driven way.”

Bassist/keyboardist Russell Leetch was keenly aware of the need toadvance the group’s sound beyond its earlier parameters. “With our previousrecords, we’d stretched the guitars a little bit too much—they were used a


bit too frequently to add a force,” hesays. “This time we got the grit andthe playing from the synths. And sinceit was recorded live, mostly played inone take, it’s still the band playing.That’s what we wanted to capture.”

DDIIRRTTYY SSYYNNTTHHSSThe band came to the sessions fullyloaded with mountains of electronicgear, fully cognizant of the sonicclichés that can swiftly dominatewith the superficial use of E-Z-to-use effects.

“One of the things that I don’t likewhen synths are badly used is whenthey sound overly sterile,” Flood says,“because they just haven’t beenworked in an organic way. So what wedecided to do was to set up the bandin the studio and have them play thebasic tracks live. We had three differ-ent drum kits [played by Ed Lay], andthen Russell was playing bass andkeyboards, Chris [Urbanowicz] wasplaying guitar and keyboards, andTom was playing guitar, piano, andkeyboards.”

Flood installed a house PA forthe band, with everyone on moni-tors, so it was as if they were play-ing in the rehearsal room as he andhis engineers recorded it. “We reallytried to make an effort to get thisfeel of human machines and to tryand make it as graceful and emo-tional as possible—in a really starkkind of manner.”

“We did the demos before we’deven met Flood,” Urbanowicz says,“and we’d had a kind of industrialsound already and done seven oreight songs with that kind of sound.But Flood guided us in the right

direction. We have a pretty good‘shit’ filter, but Flood has an evenbetter one. Anything that got a littlebit too sweet, the alarm bells wouldgo off and we’d try and make it a lit-tle bit dirty.”

The band’s slew of synths,sequencers, and drum machineswere often strung together to get asonically ambiguous mashup thatwould add to the burnished, other-worldly ambience.

Leetch made extensive use of theARP Odyssey for bass-synth propul-sion, Urbanowicz tapped into hisMoog Minimoog, Smith played a

TAPE TO DIGITALFlood recorded Editors’ basic foundation of tracks for each song live totape and kept going until they nailed the right takes. “If you’ve got to editit, do it on tape. And then when you’ve got your final version, then I wouldstripe the tape and then run Pro Tools as a slave at 96kHz, and then justdump the 24 tracks straight into Pro Tools,” Flood says. “I’ve found that ifyou record on tape first, then transfer it all straight into Pro Tools at 96,then you’re getting the best of both worlds. You end up with everything inPro Tools, but you have all the benefits psychologically and sonically ofworking on tape.”

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Roland Jupiter-8, and the band reliedheavily on Roland Juno-106s to get aTerminator effect. Leetch also favorsthe Korg MicroKorg for the presetsthat model the Moog Voyager effects,and for In This Light’s big sheen ofstring sprays, he got a lot out of hiscirca ’76 Oberheim keyboard.

EEPPIICC SSPPAACCEESSFlood and Moulder’s spaces at theAssault & Battery studios complexinclude a couple of rooms upstairswith varied dimensions; the mainrecording was done in the big room,which is almost double-story high. Thesound contained in that room, as wellthe smaller spaces, was critical to InThis Light’s grandly epic aura.

“We did experiment,” Floodreveals. “Chris set up in one of themedium rooms with all his amps, andthen we would try putting keyboardsor guitars through four or five amps.We tended to mic him fairly close, butif we wanted the sound of him in theroom, I would send that out backthrough the monitors or PA stack to

give that sense of ambience.”Flood combined the miked

sounds with a little direct inject intothe studio’s Neve analog console.

“We tended to take all the keyboardsDI and through amps so that wecould have the option,” he says. “Andthen I also was running about three

Editors (left to right)—Edward Lay, Russell Leetch,Tom Smith, and Chris Urbanowicz.

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or four different room mics, so Iwould be doing the monitors out inthe main recording room, and you’dbe bleeding things out through themain PA, which would be picked upby the room mics, and then you havethe DI and un-amped sound fromthese keyboards.”

The Battery studio’s classic Neve52 analog board, a mid-’80s modelwhich Moulder had picked up at NewYork’s Soundworks studio, actedalmost as a fifth Editors member.Flood is unstinting in his praise ofthis old machine, with a couple ofqualifications.

“It’s got all the classic Neve—goodtop and bottom, a bit scooped in themidrange, so I tend to I push them quitehard,” he says. “For me there’s a verysmall window where everything’s justsort of cooking nicely, where everythingis just on the point of harmonic distor-tion—and then you go one step overthat and it all starts to break down.

“In the end, it was almost as if theboard had become the sound of therecord. With tracking and overdubbingin that room, then trying to mix it in acouple of places, that didn’t work. Wedecided to go back and mix it in thesame room.”

MMIICCSS AANNDD MMIISSTTAAKKEESSGetting the right combination of inti-macy and a mechanized alienationsuitable for Smith’s vocals requiredFlood’s trusty battery of cheap staplesand supervintage mics.

“In the last 20 years, 95 percent ofthe people that I’ve worked with usedthe Shure Beta 58 for vocals,” he says.“And 50 percent of them would be inthe control room next to me. In thisparticular instance, we tried to do thevocals mostly on the floor, with themusic coming out of the PA, no head-phones. And then there were a coupleof times when we tried a Shure SM57,which also sounded good on his voice.”

For a close, “human” vocal sound,Flood also relies on three or four rela-tively ancient Neumann Gefell micro-phones, including a CMV563 with anM7 capsule.

“Often I will go to the Shure 58because the voice will always cometo the front and will work and pushwith the music and can help to solid-ify the whole sound, act as sonicglue,” Flood says. “Of course, if you’re

the singer listening to a 58-recordedtrack in solo mode, you’ll probablyhang your head in shame the way itmight sound, but in fact that is how99.9 percent of the population isgonna hear it.”

The relationship between band andproducer is always critical in the suc-cess of the resulting creation. It seemsproducer Flood was just what Editorsneeded at a crucial time. It didn’t hurtthat they shared a vision about theband’s ideal future-sound—and thatthey got along like good old mates.

“Flood was so down to earth, it

was ridiculous,” Leetch says. “I waslike, ‘Do you want me to make you asandwich?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’llhave one bacon sandwich and onesausage sandwich and a cuppa tea,please, no sugar—no, two sugars.’”

And Flood was no perfectionisttaskmaster, either. “There’s quite afew errors on the album,” Leetchadmits, “but the takes on the wholeworked, so we kept them. And thatwas something that Flood drovethrough to us: that it doesn’t have tobe perfect to be great. We think it’sby far our best record.”


by Kent Carmical

A guitar pushing a Leslie cabinet toits full-tilt-boogie max is an experi-ence to behold. The sound appearsto emanate from multiple locations,slathering a searing solo with a deli-cious mid-high sizzle, and transform-ing a rhythm track into a psychedelicswirl circa 1967, activating some pri-mal lobe of the brain to squirt groovyjuice to your neurons. No wonder thecool studios have them.

Unfortunately, attempting to inter-face a guitar with a Leslie can be abum trip. Your guitar has a 1/4" plug,but a 6-, 9-, or 11-pin Hydra is waitingfor you from the Leslie. Unless youpossess mad electronics technicianchops, buy a preamp box—either bytracking down that elusive artifact ofrotational sound lore, the LeslieCombo Preamp (which has 1/4"inputs and accepts the Leslie 6-pinconnector), or by investing $550 in aTrek II UC-1A Combo Preamp(www.trekii.com). Today, Hammond-Suzuki (www.hammondorganco.com)also makes smaller Leslies designedespecially for guitar with the appro-priate inputs—the G37 ($1,495) andG27 ($1,325).

Record Me Right RoundBaby Right RoundMost engineers record the Lesliefrom the rear—with the backremoved—for a direct and well-defined tone. For a mono recording,you can get great results with the

Leslie cranked to the gills, and bypositioning a single Shure SM58 upto a foot from the treble horn. If themic is placed much closer, a gnarlyamplitude-modulation effect—com-bined with the wind noise from therotor—makes a sound so foul you’llwant to cut out your ears with aplastic spoon. If you want amellower sound, position the mic atthe louvers cut into the sides of thecabinet. If the Leslie is in an openspace, add a large-diaphragm con-denser set to its an omnidirectionalpattern about eight feet away tocapture additional ambiance.

However, if you want to capture thetrue spatial glory of a Leslie, stereo isthe way to go. Due to the Leslie notproducing much sonic energybeyond 12kHz, a lack of condensermics is not a handicap. I achievedgreat sounds using dynamic micssuch as Shure SM57s/SM58s andSennheiser MD421s—all placed abouta foot away. Here’s my basic method:Place a pair of SM57s on each side ofthe top rotor, and the MD421 pointedat the bottom rotor. Create a stereomix with the top rotor mics pannedleft and right, and keep the MD421track panned center. Of course, youshould definitely experiment withother panning positions until thedesired stereo image is achieved. Ifyou want to really blow the soundup, try positioning a stereo pair ofmics at the top and bottom rotors.During mixdown your options forsonic perfection or mutation are

exponential, as, for example, youcould process one of the top andone of the bottom mics (add distor-tion, delay, etc.), leave the other twomics unaffected, and blend the foursignals to taste. For additional spa-tiality above and beyond the call ofduty, set a large-diaphragmcondenser set to its omnidirectionalpattern about six to ten feet awayfrom the Leslie cabinet at a height ofabout five feet.

The Frequency andDynamics of SpinOlder Leslies roll off the highsaround 12kHz, but highly reflectivespaces can benefit from an extra dBor two of additional gain reductionin this area. Also, as guitars producea less harmonically pure sound thanorgans, low notes can wash out atmid to high volumes. If you dedi-cate your Leslie to guitar only, youmight consider removing the beltand disconnecting the lower rotormotor. If not, experiment with cut-ting around 700Hz to 800Hz toremove the grunge.

To manage dynamics, a goodplace to start is to set compressionratio at 4:1. Keep the threshold low,and experiment with more severeratios, because the sound starts toget real interesting the more yousqueeze it. Now that your Leslie is allmiked up and humming, don’t juststop at plugging your guitar into it.Get all Beatle-y and run everythingthrough it.


GUITAR For More Go To www.eqmag.com

Check it Out!Got any cool Leslie-miking tips? Share

them in the EQ forum atwww.eqmag.com.

TAMING THE WILDLESLIE CABINET

from denisbul

by Chr is J is i

These hip insights are excerpted fromBass Player’s Session Legends & Stu-dio Gear supplement. For morerecording tips, check it out on thenewsstand, or go online atwww.bassplayer.com.

Meshell Ndegeocello“Most essential for me is my righthand and my left hand—it’s all in myhands. I don’t mean to sound arrogant,but I had a piece-of-crap bass foryears, and I had to make it sound likewhat I wanted. I’m not a tech geek, so

I think a compatible engineer is alsoessential. I do like the Aguilar DB 680bass preamp, though.”

Larry Klein“It’s a good idea to have quality DIsand analog compressors handy. I lovethe Eclair Evil Twin tube direct box,and I also use some old Simon Sys-tems DIs and the Avalon U5. Thereare so many great tube compressors.I like the dbx 160x for some tracks,and I’m really digging the compres-sors and mic preamps made by acompany called Inward Connections—they’re really soft and warm sounding.And you can’t beat the Teletronix LA-2A for some things. I definitely think itpays off to put the bass through ana-log gear on the way to Pro Tools. Tome, none of the plug-in compressorscome close at this point.”

Randy Jackson“I’m a very hi-tech/lo-tech kind of guy.I need a bit of ghetto in my sound,because that’s what makes it work inso many different styles. I like the com-bination of a direct signal and themiked sound of a vintage Fender Bass-man or Ampeg B-15. Plus, I’m neverwithout my Demeter tube DI and Nevemic preamps and compressors.”

Steve Rodby (Pat Metheney Group)“Generally, the only two pieces ofgear I find essential are your bass andyour fingers. But for amplifying orrecording acoustic bass direct, the

one essential that is so often over-looked is matching the outputimpedance of the upright’stransducer pickup with the inputimpedance of the first device it’splugged into—be it an amp, a pre-amp, a DI, or an effect. If the device’sinput impedance is too low, as it fre-quently is, you’ll lose the bottom.What I did was build a box that variesthe input and allows the transducerto be loaded with the correct imped-ance for the sound you want. Now Ihave variable inputs built into all mygear, and you wouldn’t believe thetone difference. I’ve become knownfor playing my upright through anamp or through the board at loudvolumes, and that’s my secret.”

Marcus Miller“The two most essential pieces ofgear are your ears. Beyond that, it’s agood instrument and good strings.The benefit I had, from being a studiomusician back in New York, wasspending eight hours a day listeningto my bass through headphones, so Ireally got to know how to tweak mysound. These days, I like the RadialBass Bone DI and the API Lunchbox,which I use as a mic pre. As for com-pressors, I still like the dbx 160 forsubtle compression and the EmpiricalLabs EL8-X Distressor for moreextreme compression.”

Mark Hoppus (Blink-182)“An Ampeg SVT rig and a Fenderbass—the best bass sound ever!


BASS More on www.eqmag.com

FAVORITESTUDIO GEAROF THE STARS

HIP TIP!Strings As Tone ControlsStrings are the most basic formof EQ. New roundwounds havemore highs, and old stringssound more dull (or mellow,depending on your taste) andmay also have tuning inconsis-tencies. Flatwounds have lesshighs and produce fewersqueaks. Also, playing fingerstylegenerally produces less highsthan using a pick.

To make sure your new stringsstay in tune while recording, aftertuning a string to pitch (prefer-ably with an electronic tuner),pull hard on it to take up anyslack on the tuning machine.Retune, pull again, and repeatuntil the pitch stays constant.

from denisbul

“For those who never buy a 1.0 product, just on principle, now might be the

time to break the rule…Studio One Pro 1.0.1 has an arguably more appealing interface than Logic Studio, the one-screen approachis easy to use, yet really powerful and the app is a solid and stable performer. Plus the musical results are impressive.”John Brandon Macworld.com November 2009

For full info and a free trial download of Studio One Artist, visit our web site. Or visit your PreSonus dealer to experience the more intuitive, better-sounding alternative to Big Bloated DAWs.

www.presonus.com •Baton Rouge USAwww.presonus.com •Baton Rouge USA

Read John’s complete review at www.m

acworld.com/article/143596/2009/11/studione.htm

l ©2009 PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Studio One is a tradem

ark of PreSonus. Logic Pro is a registered trademark of

Apple, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other product names m

entioned herein may be tradem

arks of their respective companies. Sorry about the nam

ing names thing, but John nailed it and we had to share this review with you.

™

™

“Studio One provides a unique workfl ow that produces excellent results. While it’s a 32-bit app, the program actually processes audio in 64-bits, so it is using smarter, more reliable programming routines…

I’ve also used Cubase on a PC, and to further test the capability of Studio One, I recorded the exact same song using both programs. With Studio One, the process was faster — thanks to the one-screen workfl ow. The fi nal sound also sound-ed much better when produced with Studio One. ”

®

Read John’s complete review at www.m

acworld.com/article/143596/2009/11/studione.htm

l ©2009 PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Studio One is a tradem

ark of PreSonus. Logic Pro is a registered trademark of

Apple, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other product names m

entioned herein may be tradem

arks of their respective companies. Sorry about the nam

ing names thing, but John nailed it and we had to share this review with you.


by M i c h a e l M o l e n d a

Recording huge drum sounds in ahome studio is something like TheUltimate Struggle. You typically don’thave fabulous microphones, and therecording space is usually your diningroom, living room, or garage. So youmay decide to go the loop-and-sam-ple route, royally pissing off your(hopefully) loyal drummer, and caus-ing the band to perhaps revise all theparts the members had worked outto groove with the drummer’s feeland his or her specific input into thesongs. You don’t have to do that—unless you want to, that is.

It is totally possible to get somebombastic drum sounds at homewith less-than-insanely expensemicrophones if you follow a few sim-ple recording and processing guide-lines. You can record your songs theway you’ve always played them,keeping your drummer rocking to thematerial the band has worked ontogether, and retaining that wonder-ful vibe that occurs when a goodband plays a good song. Here’s oneway to go about it. . . .

MicrophonesDon’t worry about them. Greatmics are wonderful, but if you don’thave them (or can’t borrow them),don’t sweat it. Except for almosttoy-like models, most mics can atleast deliver a clean and relativelyclear sound.

Start with the snare. Find a suit-able dynamic mic, and position it

about a half inch off the drumhead,pointed from the drummer’s left armtowards the kick pedal. Look for arelatively dry and clean swack. Thenext critical element is the kick drum.If all you have is another small- tomid-sized dynamic mic, don’t sweatit. Larger models, such as aSennheiser MD421 or an AKG D112can capture great wallop and boom,but even a Shure SM57 can give youenough kick attack and bass to serveup a rockin’ drum sound. Tighter kicksounds can be achieved if the fronthead is off (or if there’s a “mic hole”cut into the head), and more boomyand resonant sounds are producedwhen the head is left on. Start bypositioning the mic somewhere nearthe midpoint of the drum shell, andangled inward towards the rear head.Amend the positioning until you geta nice, big smack or punch.

Finally, position a mic in front ofthe kit, three feet away, and at aboutthe height of the drummer’s chest.This mic will capture the overallsound of the kit, as well as some niceroom ambience. If possible, keep theambience to a minimum. A little iscool, but too much may wash out thedrum sound, and we need to getmaximum impact from the three micswe’ve used.

ProcessingAt this point, your unaffected drumsounds should be tight, clear, clean,and punchy. If not, reposition themics until you hear some slammin’tones. Try to avoid using EQ, but if

you hear too much mud or edginess,go for subtractive EQ at the offend-ing frequencies. In other words, tryto cut, rather than boost, but dowhatever is needed to make thedrums rage.

A decent compressor or compres-sion plug-in will help dial in punchand impact. Set compression to tasteon each track (a good start for aggrosounds is a 4:1 ratio at a –10dBthreshold with a fast attack andrelease), but route the compressionreturns to dedicated stereo tracks. Atmixdown, you’ll want to be able toblend the uncompressed drum soundwith the compressed sound to taste.It’s kind of like “doubling” the drumtrack, although this trick works bestwhen the compressed sound is justaudible enough to add punch.

Now, let’s go after some JohnBonham-style ambience. Find a niceroom or hall program, assign it pre-fader to the “room-mic” track (so youget all effect and zero dry sourcesound), and, once again, return thereverb signal on separate stereotracks. You’re working with some bigwet stuff, and you don’t want to washout the drums. The trick is to subtlyfade in the reverb so that you initiallyhear the dry-ish impact of the kit, andthen perceive a beautiful decay in thebackground. If everything works outright with your blends of sourcesound, compression, and reverb, youshould get a marvelously articulatepunch that sounds Zeppelin big—andall recorded in your home with threemics and some studio magic.

DRUMS For More Go To www.eqmag.com

BIG BOOMS INSMALL PLACES

Your Turn!Give up your drum-miking techniques in

the EQ forum at www.eqmag.com.

from denisbul


by M i c h a e l M o l e n d a

An omnidirectional microphone“hears” sound from every direction,so it wouldn’t seem like the bestchoice for capturing clear, clean, andisolated vocals in the studio, and onlya lunatic would sing through oneonstage amidst blaring amps, drums,and monitors. But this doesn’t meanthat omnis should be avoided as ifthey just caught very bad cases ofH1N1. These mics—or, more accurately,these polar patterns—offer somevery attractive characteristics tovocalists of all genders, styles, anddynamic levels.

Om-ni-liciousMany musicians are introduced to theomni pattern via multi-pattern, large-diaphragm condenser mics such asthe AKG C414 (omni, figure-8, hyper-cardioid, cardioid, wide cardioid),Shure KSM44 (omni, cardioid, figure-8), and Audio-Technica AT4050(omni, cardioid, figure-8). Those whonever move the pattern switch off“cardioid” are missing a fair amountof aural treats. Sure, the heart-shapedcardioid pattern may appear to bemore of a “useable” option forrecording vocals as it mostly picks upsound from the front, and rejectsmuch of the sound occurring at itsrear and sides. But while cardioidpatterns minimize ambient noise andfocus on what’s coming out of thesinger’s mouth, they also exhibit off-axis coloration (where the tone of thevoice changes as the singer moves

away from the front of the mic) andproximity effect (where low frequen-cies are intensified as the singer’smouth gets closer to the mic), andare susceptible to plosives (thoseannoying popping “p” sounds).

Meanwhile, the omni pattern isoften considered the purest-soundingpolar pattern because it adds very lit-tle coloration to the original sound.Omnis are also less sensitive to plo-sives, and, by virtue of the fact theycapture sound equally from all direc-tions, off-axis coloration is negligible.So if you desire a relatively pristine,accurate, and balanced vocal track—along with the bonus of some naturalambience that might make reverbunnecessary at the mixdown—theomni starts looking like an option oftrue genius. Here, then, are a coupleof tips to maximize the pattern’s ben-efits, while minimizing its potentialshortcomings.

Circle of SoundAs stated earlier, omnis capturesound from all directions, so you haveto be very conscious of your record-ing environment in order to achieveoptimum results. However, I view the360-degree audio field as a benefit.As long as your housemates aren’tcranking up the big-screen TV’s sur-round sound, environmental noisesshouldn’t be too much of a problem,and gaining some ambience is a niceaural homage to the days whenvocals were sometimes cut in big stu-dio spaces. Look for a spot in yourhome that offers the most pleasant

ambience. Do some test recordings,and listen to how the environmentaffects the tone and vibe of thevocal. Take care not to go too crazy,as you can’t remove the reverbera-tion once you record it down with thevocal, so what you get is what you’llhave always and forever. Too muchambience, for example, could soundunnatural in a mix where the otherinstruments are rather dry. I like tohear a clear, dry-ish vocal with a hintof air and decay, so my favorite“vocal booth” is my home office,where a hardwood floor is about40-percent covered by a rug.

Mouthing OffWorking an omni mic is a prettyorganic experience, because youdon’t get that annoying proximityeffect, and breath pops (wind) areminimal. I start about one foot fromthe mic to get a good blend ofroom and vocal, and then move in abit for softer phrases. If you’ve cho-sen the right space to record in,cutting vocals can be that easy. Idig visualizing Frank Sinatra singingfreely in the big room at CapitolStudios and just work the mic. Ofcourse, I don’t sound anything likeFrank—sadly—but bringing someRat Pack vibe into a vocal sessionhelps my performance. Your experi-ence will likely be different, butmost singers feel pretty good aboutbeing able to move around a bit andachieve good results, rather thansticking close to a pop screen whenusing a cardioid pattern.

VOCALS

OMNIDIRECTIONALBLISS

More on www.eqmag.com

Your Turn!What’s yourfavorite mic for

recording vocals? Post yourchoice in the EQ forum atwww.eqmag.com.

from denisbul

b y M i c h a e l M o l e n d a

In a world where bling is king, amass-ing more stuff than your neighbor isthe surest path to celebrity. But domore tracks ensure more-betterrecordings? Layering sounds is atime-honored technique in the studio,and scores of popular albums arestuffed to near bursting with stacksupon stacks of MIDI and audio tracks.The technique is so established, infact, that many recording peepswouldn’t even consider something asmad-crazy as releasing a track popu-lated with just a single guitar, key-board, or vocal.

And yet, have you ever askedyourself whether an audio productionreally needs the equivalent of 13 dia-mond rings crammed onto ten stubbyfingers? Are the gaudy gold baublespurchased at a mall jewelry shopobscuring the elegant and beautifulglow of a bona fide Tiffany design?

Metaphors aside, the test here iswhether you’re actually thinkingabout your sonic spectrum, or auto-matically defaulting to methodologiesyou read about in magazines such asthis one. Overdubs, sweetening ele-ments, textures, layers, doubles,counterpoint lines, and so on canabsolutely add interest and vibe to arecording. But that doesn’t meanthese tasty morsels of aural candy arerequired ingredients of any musicalproduction. Heck, that approach is notmuch different than believing the sen-tial rock-guitar sound is always a LesPaul through a cranked-up Marshall.

A curious engineer/producershould constantly seek to discover

which performances, tones, andarrangements bring a song to life. Inthis creative arena, there is no “default.”What worked on one song, might notbe the best initiative to foist on anoth-er. And avoiding safe, conventionalpractices should not be a process limit-ed to musical parts. It should alsoinform mic selection, mic placement,signal processing, and every otheraspect of life in the home studio.

Challenge Your Need toProcreateAfter I finished basic tracks on arecent studio project, the band’s tal-ented and inventive guitarist was des-perate to overdub counterpoint linesand noises under a rhythm riff thatabsolutely ruled all by itself. The tonewas fat and sassy, the part was mem-orable and propulsive, and the overallgroove was Led Zeppelin good. Sowhy did this artist feel the part need-ed so much more support? Well, Iasked him. And he had no answer. Nooverdubs were tracked. Happy ending.

The “takeaway” on this point isthat I was around to ask the criticalquestion and demand a reasonableanswer. It’s obvious the artist wouldnot have forced such a conceptualconfrontation on his own—he was tooabsorbed in the idea of laying downtextures. As a result, there was zeroconsideration of whether those over-dubs would truly pump up the impactof the track, or serve to needlesslyobscure the kick-ass lick that wasalready front-and-center.

Of course, enforcing productivedebate is one of the producer’s jobs,and it’s easier when the producer is an

outside party who is solely evaluatingthe quality of the recording. But if youare the decision maker, then you haveto train yourself to ask and answer anycritical arrangement questions.

Here’s a tip: Try allowing at least aday where you don’t record anything,or even listen to the tracks. Then,write down a few annoying questionsas if you were a complete outsider tothe project: Are all the parts neces-sary? Does anything sound too thick,too muddy, or too thin? After thevocal (or lead instrument), what isthe main element of this work? Is thatmain element clearly audible anduncompromised by other elements inthe mix? Be brutal. Regard nothing asprecious. If you go into the processknowing that you want to keep cer-tain parts, then the exercise is use-less. The goal is to surprise yourselfwith a more objective assessment ofwhat’s in front of you.

The Old Quality vs.Quantity BattleBack in the days when 4, 8, 16, or 24tracks was all the real estate you got,people still managed to create somepretty astounding records. But, heck,maybe you believe “Day Tripper”would have sounded better with 16more guitar tracks, or that “FoxeyLady” would have been much sexierwith undulating layers of synthstrings. The perception of audioexcellence is obviously subjective, butyou should at least determine asong’s basic needs before you blindlypile on guitar, percussion, keyboard,and vocal tracks for no other reasonthan habit.


TRACKING

TOO MUCHINFORMATION

For More Go To www.eqmag.com

Check it Out!Share your mostobsessive overdub

tales in the EQ forum atwww.eqmag.com.

from denisbul

OOBBJJEECCTTIIVVEE:: Control various parameters within Studio One Pro using a hardware control surface.BBAACCKKGGRROOUUNNDD:: Studio One Pro’s “Control Link” protocol makes it easy to define controllers on a control surface, then assignthem to parameters within the program. In this example, we’ll use Line 6’s KB37 as the controller, but the same principles applyto any control surface.

44

PRESONUS STUDIO ONE PROBBYY CCRRAAIIGG AANNDDEERRTTOONN

SSTTEEPPSS

POWER APP ALLEY

■ In Step 1, if the mixer isn’t visible, type F3.■ In Step 7, an alternative assignment method is to drag the “hand”

icon in the left parameter window on top of the desired control inthe Device Control Map.

■ Assignments are context-sensitive—for example, if you make one set of assignments to the mixer and another to the Impact drum synth, controls will affect the mixer if it has the focus, and Impactif it has the focus.

TTIIPPSS

11.. IInn SSoonngg mmooddee,, cclliicckk oonn ““EExxtteerrnnaall”” iinn tthheeCCoonnssoollee nnaavviiggaattiioonn ccoolluummnn ((ttoo tthhee lleefftt oofftthhee mmiixxeerr))..

22.. UUnnddeerr EExxtteerrnnaall DDeevviicceess,, ddoouubbllee--cclliicckk oonntthhee eexxtteerrnnaall ddeevviiccee yyoouu wwaanntt ttoo sseett uupp aass aaccoonnttrroolllleerr.. WWhheenn tthhee DDeevviiccee CCoonnttrrooll MMaapp ((aarreepprreesseennttaattiioonn ooff tthhee ccoonnttrroolllleerr)) aappppeeaarrss,,cclliicckk oonn ““MMIIDDII LLeeaarrnn..””

33.. OOnn tthhee hhaarrddwwaarree ccoonnttrroolllleerr,, ttuurrnn tthheeccoonnttrroollss aanndd ppuusshh tthhee bbuuttttoonnss yyoouu wwaanntt ttooaassssiiggnn.. AAss yyoouu ddoo tthhiiss,, tthheeyy aappppeeaarr iinn tthheeDDeevviiccee CCoonnttrrooll MMaapp..

44.. CClliicckk oonn tthhee ssmmaallll aarrrrooww iinn tthhee llaabbeellbbeellooww aa ccoonnttrrooll,, aanndd aassssiiggnn tthhee ccoonnttrroollttyyppee ((kknnoobb,, ffaaddeerr,, bbuuttttoonn)) ffrroomm tthhee ppoopp--uuppmmeennuu.. TThhiiss iiss aallssoo wwhheerree yyoouu ccaann rreemmoovvee aaccoonnttrrooll..

55.. DDoouubbllee--cclliicckk oonn aa llaabbeell aanndd ttyyppee iinn tthheeddeessiirreedd nnaammee.. WWhheenn yyoouu’’rree ddoonnee wwiitthhaassssiiggnnmmeennttss aanndd nnaammiinngg,, cclliicckk oonn MMIIDDIILLeeaarrnn aaggaaiinn ttoo eexxiitt sseettuupp mmooddee..

66.. TToo aassssiiggnn aa pphhyyssiiccaall ccoonnttrroolllleerr ttoo aa ppaarraa--mmeetteerr,, cclliicckk oonn tthhee ppaarraammeetteerr ((tthhee ssccrreeeennsshhoott sshhoowwss FFiilltteerr CCuuttooffff)).. IIttss nnaammee aanndd ccuurr--rreenntt vvaalluuee aappppeeaarrss iinn tthhee uuppppeerr lleefftt PPaarraa--mmeetteerr WWiinnddooww..

77.. MMoovvee tthhee pphhyyssiiccaall ccoonnttrrooll iinntteennddeedd ttooccoonnttrrooll tthhee ppaarraammeetteerr;; tthhee ccoonnttrrooll nnaammeeaappppeeaarrss iinn tthhee rriigghhtt PPaarraammeetteerr WWiinnddooww..CClliicckk oonn tthhee ““LLiinnkk”” ssyymmbbooll bbeettwweeeenn tthhee ttwwooppaarraammeetteerr wwiinnddoowwss——tthhee hhaarrddwwaarree ccoonnttrroolliiss nnooww lliinnkkeedd ttoo tthhee ssooffttwwaarree ppaarraammeetteerr..

EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com

Set up a hardware control surface for more expressive control

from denisbul

OBJECTIVE: Take advantage of Guitar Rig 4’s features to modify drum loops—expressively—in real time.BACKGROUND: Guitar Rig’s “Pre” Tape Deck feature makes it easy to load drum loops, which you can process with Guitar Rig’svarious sound processing components. Change processor parameter settings—over multiple loop iterations, if desired—as yourecord the results into the “Post” Tape Deck. You can then save the post Tape Deck file, and trim it into a loop in a digital audioediting program.

46

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS GUITAR RIG 4

BY C RA I G A N D E R TO N

STEPS

POWER APP ALLEY

■ In Step 1, make sure the Pre Tape Deck Play switch is set to “At Input.”

■ In Step 3, remember you can tweak the Pre Deck’s Transpose, Tune, and Tempo controls.

■ You can reset either deck to the start time (0.00) by clicking on Stop.

TIPS

1. Open Guitar Rig 4 in standalone mode;with both Tape Decks in the rack, click onthe Pre deck’s open file button (circled),navigate to the loop you want to process,then load it.

2. Drag the processors you want to use intothe rack.

3. Enable looping on the Pre deck, thenclick on Play. As the loop plays, adjust thecomponent parameters for the desiredsound. Click on the Pre deck Stop buttonafter getting the sound you want.

4. When you’re ready to record theprocessed sound, set the Post deck Syncswitch to On, then click on the Recordbutton.

5. Click Play on the Pre Tape Deck. Play asmany iterations of the loop as you want,and tweak away on the various parameters.

6. After recording as many loop iterationsas you want, click Stop on the Pre Deck.

7. Click on the “Save” (floppy disk icon) tosave the file that was recorded into thePost deck. Now you can bring it into a digi-tal audio editor, and trim for the desiredloop length.

EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com

Warp and process drum loops in new, original ways

from denisbul

BETTER PLUG-INS, AUTOMATIC MIXING,COMBO CONTROL SURFACES—THE RULESOF THE MIXING GAME ARE CHANGING


GEAR HEAD

by C ra i g A n d e r to n

Mixing is the penultimate part of therecording process, just before youentrust your music to mastering. But

we’ve come a long way from huge con-soles and racks of outboard gear—nowplug-ins provide powerful processingat a petite price, compact control sur-faces give hands-on control, and some

mixing tasks are turning robotic. So,let’s look at ten new products that takeus into the future, while respecting thetraditions of the past (and we’ll throwin a bunch of useful tips, too).

TIP: THE “HALFWAY RULE” FOR ADJUSTING EQSuppose an instrument doesn’t sound bright enough, so you boost a 3kHz high shelf by 4dB. Okay, but immediatelycut the boost in half to 2dB, and live with that for a while—it takes time for your ear to get acclimated to changes.The “halfway” rule applies to cuts, too.

If every vocalist you work with hasperfect mic technique, you can skipthe rest of this review. But for everyoneelse, there’s the Vocal Rider plug-in(VST/AU/TDM/Audio Suite/RTAS).

The concept is simple: Plug VocalRider into a vocal track, set a targetlevel range for the vocal, and VocalRider analyzes the vocal level as youmix. If the vocal level goes down,Vocal Rider brings it up, and vice-versa.

In practice, though, you havequite a bit of latitude for opti-mizing the target level and gainrange. For example, if you don’twant to bring soft sections uptoo much, you can restrict themaximum amount of gain. Or,you might want to do the equiv-alent of compression, but with-out the artifacts—just use a widegain range. In any event, it’s

WAVES VOCAL RIDER(Native $400 MSRP, $200 street; TDM $800 MSRP, $400 street)

NEW TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FORMIX MASTERY

The Vocal Rider GUI is toward the right,while on the left, you can see the automa-tion (blue line) generated from Vocal Riderriding the gain.

from denisbul


TIP: YOU CAN’T FEATURE EVERYTHING, SO DON’T EVEN TRYThe singer wants the vocals louder, and the drummer asks, “Shouldn’t the snare be more prominent?” Pick theinstrument that needs to be featured at any moment, and let the other instruments play a supporting role.

TIP: START YOUR MIX IN MONOIf all the panpots are centered, you’re forced to use methods other than placement to differentiate instruments—such as EQ. Then, go for stereo and enjoy how the mix opens up.

easy to try out Vocal Rider settingsand if you need to tweak them, that’sequally easy.

I tested Vocal Rider with a “problemchild” vocal that had multiple levelvariations. I had already done levelautomation, and added substantialcompression to even out the dynam-ics—and thought I had done so rela-tively successfully. But tossing out theautomation and starting over withVocal Rider was a true revelation:Notes that were substantially lower hitthe proper level, compression becameredundant, and the vocals had an over-all consistency that made them fitsuperbly with the mix.

Waves recommends putting VocalRider last in a chain of plug-ins; if youwant to add a compressed quality tothe voice, you can do so prior to VocalRider, and it will still know how to react.However, I also had good luck puttingan L2 Maximizer after Vocal Rider (withconservative gain reduction settings) toadd a bit more “punch.”

With a few programs (Pro Tools,Nuendo, Cubase, and Studio One), you

can even feed a mix of the music intoVocal Rider’s sidechain. This insures thatthe vocal is not only consistent with itself,but can change if the music changes—louder during loud parts, neutral (noboost) during softer passages.

Although Vocal Rider does itslevel-changing automatically, youcan write the automation data it cre-ates to a track, then fine-tune thelevel manually, as needed. Also notethere are a few other ways to cus-tomize the response, such as anAttack parameter that modifies howthe vocal is detected, and a VocalSensitivity parameter that determineshow much of the detected vocal istreated (i.e., how sensitive it is to thevocal envelope).

While Vocal Rider works extremelywell for sung vocals, it’s equally effec-tive with narration. Prior to Vocal Rider, Iused to go through narration phrase-by-phrase and normalize or change gain asneeded for consistency—no more.

There is one caution: Vocal Rider ispart of Waves V7 plug-ins. If you’rerunning V6, no problem; but if you’re

running version 4 or 5, installing V7 willremove older installations (with aprompt, of course). To run VocalRider and your older plug-ins, you’llneed to upgrade them to V7 versions(not a bad idea anyway, as V7 offersseveral performance enhancements;besides, it’s free if you’re on the Wavesupdate plan).

In a way, Vocal Rider reminds meof Gibson’s Robot tuning technologyfor guitars: It doesn’t do anythingyou couldn’t do yourself, but accom-plishes the task with far greaterspeed and accuracy. Think abouthow much time you put into gettingvocal levels right, and how manytimes you just piled on the compres-sion when deadlines loomed. Even ifyou value your time at minimumwage, Vocal Rider would pay foritself relatively quickly—and moreimportantly, your vocals would sit alot better in the mix.

There are very few plug-ins I wouldrate as “indispensable” for mixing, butVocal Rider earns that label easily—itdoes its job transparently and effectively.

IZOTOPE ALLOY ($249 MSRP, $199 street)Platforms: Windows (XP, x64, Vista, 7),Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Universal Binary)Formats: VST, Audio Units, DirectX, MASPC, Pro Tools 7+ (RTAS/AudioSuite)

iZotope’s Ozone has been a favoriteamong project mastering engineers, butas DAWs started using more powerfulcomputers, people started using thissuite of software processors as a chan-nel strip. Which is cool, except that’s notwhat it was designed for, and it’s not

exactly light on your CPU.So iZotope added somefeatures, removed others,put it on a CPU diet, andvoilà—Alloy, your new bestfriend channel strip.

Alloy has eight proces-sors that connect in series:EQ, Exciter, multiband Transient Shaper,two Dynamics processing stages (whichcan work in parallel), De-Esser, PhaseTools, and Limiter. What’s more, you can

put these in any order. It also has abunch of presets; these include an extra,way-cool feature called “MacroFaders.”When you call up a preset and click on

This is one of those products where you want toinclude a dozen screen shots; we’ll settle for show-ing a Macro page.


GEAR HEAD

the Macro button, you’ll see a mini-userinterface incorporating multiple mod-ules, with controls for the most crucialparameters. Some faders even controlmultiple parameters to produce a partic-ular effect.

Now let’s check out the highlightsof individual modules.

EQThis 8-band EQ has the expected fea-tures—choice of filter response,boost/cut, etc. What keeps it frombeing boring is the excellent spectrumanalyzer display, with my favorite fea-ture being the option to average theresponse from real time to infinite. Thisgives a really good indication if thereare frequency response anomalies(e.g., room resonances) that might notbe discernible with a realtime display.

It’s easy to go for fine-resolutioncurves, as you can change the x-axisamplitude readout from +5dB to+15dB. Furthermore, you can eventhrow in saturation, and “audition” partof the spectrum without actually hav-ing to change EQ settings.

Speaking of spectrum analysis,Alloy can show a “mini-spectrum” aspart of every effect display (other thanlimiting, which has its own, moreappropriate display). However, thespectrum options are global, so youcan’t see a different resolution withone effect compared to another.

METERINGThe meters can read the overall inputand output, or the signal going intoand coming out of individual modules.Meter resolution is editable, too.

MULTIBAND TRANSIENT SHAPERThis is one of those effects you didn’trealize how badly you needed it untilyou have it. What it can do with drums

is mind-boggling: Sharpen the lower-mid kick beater click, while addingbody to the kick’s bass range via sus-tain. You can also do the reverse, andsoften percussion transients on signalslike synth bass if it’s too “aggressive.”You’ll love this module.

By the way, the “multiband” aspect ofall multiband modules is optional—you canremove bands to have a one- or two-bandprocessor, or go for the full three bands.

MULTIBAND EXCITERHere’s another winner. It combinesparts of Ozone’s Harmonic Exciter andMultiband Stereo Imaging, but folds ina variable distortion/enhancementalgorithm controlled by a virtual x-ycontroller, allowing you to customizethe harmonic distribution. The spec-trum display really comes in handy forseeing how the bands are affected;each band also has a width control, butthis can narrow as well as widen. I usenarrowing a lot in the bass range topull the bass toward the center.

MULTIBAND DYNAMICSThere are two dynamics sections, eachwith a Gate/Expander and Compres-sor, that you can place anywhere in thesignal chain; this is good news forthose who prefer using two gentlecompressors instead of a more drasticsingle stage. Otherwise, the parame-ters are pretty much what you’d expectto find in a dynamics processor—ratio,attack, release, knee, auto gain, thresh-old, etc.—with the exception of “Vin-tage” mode, which adds character andsome program-dependent characteris-tics compared to the “Digital” mode.

One limitation: The number ofbands you choose applies to both sec-tions, but that’s because you can putthe two compressors in parallel—yes,parallel compression within a single,serial-oriented processor.

DE-ESSEROkay, it’s a de-esser, but I’ve also used itto rid of an annoying percussion soundin an otherwise really good drum loop.It also has a multiband/broadbandoption, which basically means it canaffect only a particular frequency range,or changes in that frequency range canapply to the entire signal.

LIMITERThis is like the one in Ozone, withoutthe “intelligent” mode to eliminateinter-sample distortion. Why? Becausewith almost all DAWs, individual chan-nels have gobs of headroom, whereasa master out that feeds a hardwareoutput does not. The Phase Tools sec-tion hangs out with the Limiter sec-tion, and lets you flip phase onindividual channels or both channels,as well as “rotate” phase to correct forasymmetries. This section can alsofilter DC offset.

CONCLUSIONSThere’s plenty more, like multibandsidechaining support (really) fromother tracks for the Dynamics sec-tion. Or try “crosschaining,” whichfilters out part of the input beingprocessed through the dynamicsstage for use as the control signal.Parameter automation? Yup. And theuser interface is outstanding, withclean, readable controls and readouts,as well as a sweet graphic look andsuperior workflow.

These days, quality plug-ins are thenorm rather than the exception, soyou might not think you need Alloy.But for all-around native processing,Alloy is the channel strip to beat. Itdoes everything you want, but whatmakes Alloy unique is that it does awhole lot more you didn’t know youwanted. Download the demo, andyou’ll be convinced.

TIP: THE MAGIC OF THE MUTEDon’t try to mix your way out of a cluttered arrangement—enable automation for the mute button, then mute any-thing that doesn’t contribute to a cohesive mix.

TIP: DO YOU REALLY NEED TO WATCH?If you have a good control surface, turn off your monitor screen, and mix with your ears. This isn’t just about “don’tmix with your eyes;” dividing your concentration between two different senses diminishes each of them.

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GEAR HEAD

Yes, we’ve figured out that the state ofthe economy is even more annoyingthese days than a late-night celebritygossip TV show. So we like to reviewproducts that have multiple purposes—like if the same box you use live to mixyour guitar rig or keyboard setup, or useto play backing tracks, can be the samebox that serves as a DAW controller andprovides plug-ins for mixing. Well, theV-Studio 100 is that kind of box, and iteven accommodates laptop fans.

We’ll concentrate on the DAW/mixingaspects, but let’s at least mention theother functions. The V-Studio 100 is across-platform, 8-in+mix/6-out USB2.0 audio interface with guitar input,two XLR inputs, two 1/4" TRS ins, andresolution up to 24/96kHz. It’s also adigital mixer with eight ins, two outs,and headphone out, as well as sixchannels of onboard, hardware DSP-based digital EQ, compression, andreverb. And, it’s a portable recorderthat records to SD card while alsoserving as a portable juicer for servingup refreshing fruit smoothies. Okay,well maybe it doesn’t do the juicingthing, but it does do everything else.

MACKIE CONTROLThe key to using the V-Studio 100 as acontrol surface is that it works with anyprogram that speaks Mackie Control(i.e., just about everything, includingAcid, Live, Sonar, Logic, DigitalPerformer, Record, etc.). For tactile con-trol, the V-Studio 100 has a 100mmmotorized, touch-sensitive fader, fiverotary encoders, 11 general-purpose but-tons, programmable footswitch, andtransport buttons. You can switch thecontrols among tracks and buses, withthe fader and some of the knobs serv-ing as a basic channel strip. There’s alsoan LCD screen that can switch between

showing levels, or displaying what canbe controlled with the various knobs.

Of course a single-fader solutionisn’t as comprehensive as somethinglike a Euphonix Artist Series controlsurface or Cakewalk’s own VS-700Cconsole, but in use, moving amongoperations is surprisingly fluid. Wherethe single-fader approach works bestis when you’re tweaking a mix ratherthan starting out. My preferred work-flow is to set up a rough mix on the on-screen faders with the mouse, thenswitch over to the control surface faderto optimize one track at a time.

SONAR CONTROLThe V-Studio 100 comes with its ownDAW software, Sonar VS (Windows-only; it’s similar to Sonar Home Studio7 with some Sonar 8 elements thrownin). The software bundle also includesseveral independent cross-platformplug-ins, including the VX-64 VocalStrip, Channel Tools, Boost 11 Maxi-mizer, Guitar Rig 3 LE, and severalvirtual instruments—StudioInstruments suite (drums, bass,strings, keyboard), Rapture LE, andDimension LE. So what does this haveto do with mixing? Well, if you’reusing Sonar VS or other Sonar vari-ants, the V-Studio 100 recognizesCakewalk’s ACT (Active ControllerTechnology) protocol. This brings outvarious signal processor and softsynth parameters to hardware con-trols that you can re-assign at will;you can even choose an “extended”V-Studio 100 mode that maps themixer section’s input level controls toadditional ACT parameters (althoughyou then can’t then use the hardwarelevel controls for altering V-Studio100 mixer levels).

The coolest thing about ACT for

mixing—aside from the immediacy oftweaking parameters for whateverwindow has the focus—is that you canrecord the knob movements asautomation, which of course is alsopossible with the motorized fader andother controls.

CONCLUSIONSIf all you want is a single-fader automa-tion control surface, then either theAlphaTrack ($200 street) or FaderPort($130 street) is far more cost-effective.However, they don’t include a solid-state recorder, digital mixer, audio inter-face (that sounds very good, by theway), and the V-Studio 100 softwaresuite. What’s more, the V-Studio 100 isan interesting kinda animal: It workswith or without a computer, and doesMac or Windows (including 64-bit ver-sions). When you start factoring allthose features into the price, the cost-effectiveness increases dramatically.

Another V-Studio 100 plus is that itseems built to last; the case is metal,and you could likely even allow aColumbia Records union engineer fromthe 70s to punch the buttons andthey’d survive. As to the footprint, theV-Studio 100 fits conveniently betweenyour QWERTY keyboard and monitor,assuming the monitor is raised some-what off your desk’s surface.

The bottom line is that if you need abox that does the control surface thingfor mixing but can also do a whole lotmore, the V-Studio 100 stakes out aunique position in terms of combiningmultiple functions into a well-integrated,cost-effective audio toolbox.

TIP: BOUNCE VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS TO AUDIO TRACKSThis lets you disconnect the CPU-sucking virtual instruments. And when you back up the project, the audio trackwill be backed up too, so you can resurrect the track in several years even if the virtual instrument is just a memory.

CAKEWALK V-STUDIO 100 ($599 street)

Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 wears manyhats, but one says “mixing machine.”

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Michael Duff is a singer/songwriter/producer living in Los Angeles and is the former lead singer/songwriter of Chalk FarMApple – Logic Studio, Mac Pro & MacBook Pro Euphonix – MC Mix controller Apogee – Duet audio interface Avalon – VT-737SP processor M-Audio – Axiom 61 USB keyboard Zoom – H2 recorder Digidesign – 002 Rack with Pro Tools LE

Line 6 – Pod & Bass Pod Pro Marshall Electronics – MXL V77 tube mic Fender & Taylor – guitars Tannoy – speakers

To locate an Apple Pro Audio Reseller near you, please go to: musicplayer.com/appleaudioresellers

With the i r expert knowledge, product se lect ion and pass ion for music, Apple Pro Audio Resellers are the perfect destination to build your dream studio.

©2009 EUPHONIX INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MC MIX IS A TRADEMARK OF EUPHONIX INC. APPLE, LOGIC STUDIO, MAC PRO AND MACBOOK PRO ARE TRADEMARKS OF APPLE INC.

ALL OTHER TRADEMARKS ARE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

Studio Solutionsfor creative musicians everywhere


GEAR HEAD

You want plug-ins that go beyond thefreebies included in your DAW, butdon’t want to bust your budget—meetScarlett (VST/AU/RTAS). You getdynamics, EQ, reverb, and gating forcheap, and you can’t argue with theFocusrite pedigree: It’s the same brandbehind the ISA console modules, theRed hardware range, and the FortéSuite of plug-ins.

EQWith the EQ, Focusrite has ripped offitself—specifically, the Red 2 and ISAEQs. There are two parametric mids(100Hz–3.2kHz and 2–12 kHz), andhigh and low bands. These have tworesponses, shelving and cut (e.g., lowcut filter on the low band). In addi-tion to each band having a frequencycontrol (40–320Hz low, 6–18kHzhigh), another knob controls shelfboost/cut for the band, or the cutfilter slope.

The EQ does have a sort of “hard-ware” vibe—no brittleness in thehigh end, a smooth low end, and a“warm” character. Although I haveplenty of EQ plug-ins, this has a dis-tinctive character that’s a usefulalternative to the average EQ bun-dled with DAWs.

DYNAMICSThe dynamics plug-in is designed toemulate the vintage 1960s “opto”sound. When pushed, it does have arecognizable vintage sound that’s goodfor “sucking” effects; it also handlesbeing pushed more elegantly than manyother compressors I’ve used. However,you can also apply a much lighter touch,and add pretty much transparentdynamics processing. It has all the usualcontrols: threshold, ratio, attack, release,input/output gain, and metering.

GATEThe outstanding feature here is multi-ple modes. Both channels can triggerthemselves (like a standard noisegate), or one channel can trigger theother. Furthermore, with the latter, youcan listen to the triggered signal justby itself, or with the “trigger” channeltoo. However, it doesn’t do this bysidechaining; you need to have sepa-rate left and right mono channels, thenload the Gate into this stereo track.

Aside from the mode options, Gateoffers gain reduction amount, thresh-old, and attack/hold/release times.

REVERBThe control set is limited, but effective.

There’s no choice of algorithms, but youcan change size and there’s a dry/wetmix. The Pre-Filter control is very useful,as it can emphasize (via lowpass orhighpass filtering) which part of the fre-quency spectrum gets the most reverb.An “Air” parameter controls damping.

While not very versatile, Reverb is agood match for certain sounds—partic-ularly drums and voice. I had less luckwith guitar, where the periodicity ismore obvious.

CONCLUSIONSGiven the price, there’s no disputingthe value. There’s also no disputingthat the Dynamics and EQ offer a wor-thy, useful character that even thosewith lots of plug-ins might want for a“vintage” type sound; they certainlycomplement more “clinical” plug-insvery well. The different Gate modes arealso interesting, although beingrestricted to using only mono sourcesfor these gating effects is a limitationcompared to VST3-style sidechaining.But of course, it also does the usualgating functions very well. And while Iwouldn’t buy Scarlett just for thereverb, it never hurts to have morereverb options. Overall, Scarlett pro-vides exceptional value for money.

TIP: THE OUT-OF-TUNE GUITARIf there’s a track with an out-of-tune guitar, as a workaround add some chorusing. This detunes the guitar in acontrolled way, which might make the “out-of-tuneness” less obvious.

TIP: EMULATE THE “LISTENING IN THE CAR” EXPERIENCEMany people don’t think a mix is truly complete until they’ve heard it in the car, because the road noise maskslower-level audio, thus making it very clear which instruments stand out and which ones don’t. But, you can saveon gas by injecting pink noise into your mix as you set levels. Set the noise level fairly high, and you’ll be able totell which instruments cut through.

FOCUSRITE SCARLETT ($99 street)

This cost-effectivesoftware suiteoffers four groovyplug-ins.

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UNIVERSAL AUDIO’SLATEST PLUG-INS

Universal Audio introduced some newplug-ins for the UAD2 platform during2009, which are well worth coveringdue to their appropriateness for mixing.

TRIDENT A-RANGE EQThis EQ is all about character. It emu-lates the inductor-based design of theoriginal, including the quirky ability tocreate really unusual curves. Part of this isdue to the lowpass and highpass filters;there are buttons for three different cut-offs per filter, but you can enable morethan one button at a time, which steep-ens the cutoff and changes the overallcharacter. Of the four main bands (highshelf, low shelf, and two bandpass),your choices are limited: four frequen-cies per band, and a boost/cut slider(no Q)—but they can also interact ininteresting ways. The chosen Q is mild,so you can boost without the soundgetting “annoying;” the cut seems moredramatic than the boost.

I feel the A-Range EQ is at its bestwhen used subtly, as it can add char-acter without creating an obvious“EQed” sound. It’s not a replacementfor a “surgical” parametric EQ, butthere’s a reason why the Trident A-Range EQ is held in such high regardby mixdown engineers; in typical UAfashion, they’ve brought that analogquality to the digital word.

EL7 FATSOFatso is one of those “magic wonderboxes” and again, UA has nailed whatthe original is all about—but also gonefurther, by including a “Fatso Sr.” ver-sion with additional controls fortweaking compression that aren’t inthe hardware version. Part saturatorand part compressor, Fatso can makedrums bigger, basses rounder, andvocals stronger.

It’s important to compare thepeaks with bypassed and processedversions, as the effect can be subtlebut if the output control is up, you’llbe fooled into thinking it’s more exag-gerated. Of course, you can makeFatso into a caricature of “fat” sounds,but to my ears it’s at its best whenused to add a few pounds rather thangoing the obesity route.

Fatso is quite complex, as there aremultiple elements and they all interactto some degree—for example, theTranny (transformer) option adds anentirely different quality to whateverelse is dialed in. Fortunately, there’s asolid collection of presets that you canuse without even knowing how Fatsoworks “under the hood.”

To get into all of Fatso’s detailswould take a couple pages, so here’sthe bottom line: Anyone who’s a fan of“the analog sound” but uses digital

TIP: DON’T MIX WITHIN 24 HOURS OF FLYINGAirplanes mess with your ears, even if you wear earplugs, and it takes a whilefor them to bounce back to normal.

The three UA plug-insfeatured in this review:EMT 250, EL7 Fatso, andTrident A-Range EQ.

TIP: USE MARKERS FOR NAVIGATIONIt’s much easier to mix when you can jump instantly to particular sections andcompare them to other sections.

GEAR HEAD

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because of cost and conveniencewill welcome what Fatso brings totracks. The careful control of dis-tortion, tape saturation emulation,“transformer sound,” and a very“analog-like” compressor can bedownright magical for smoothingout any of digital’s rough edges.Granted this is Universal Audio’sforte, but even so, this is a veryimpressive plug-in.

EMT 250The EMT 250 is the antidote tocrummy-sounding digital reverbs.It really does have that “plate/ana-log quality,” even though the origi-nal wasn’t a mechanical plate, butan early digital reverb. When I firstcalled this up, waves of nostalgiakicked in—few digital reverbs trulycapture the warm, envelopingsound quality of analog reverb,but the EMT 250 does anoutstanding job—probablybecause it adapts the same codethat powered the original.

For those unfamiliar with theEMT 250, it wasn’t just aboutreverb, but also included effects likechorus, delay, phasing, ambience,and echo. These processors areused to good advantage in the pre-sets, which do a fine job of showingoff what the EMT 250 can do.

If you want to take your reverbto the next level, this is a plug-inwhose full, spacious sound adds anoverlay of reality that many digitalreverbs lack.

CONCLUSIONSIt’s no secret that Univseral Audioknows how to translate analogmojo to the digital world. Whenapplied to mixing, this is crucialbecause mixing is an additiveprocess—if each plug-in you usesounds “X” amount better thanthe norm, and that’s multipliedover several tracks, the overallimprovement in sound quality issubstantial. Although some ofwhat accounts for the quality ofUA plug-ins is having their ownhardware platform, I’d have togive the lion’s share of the creditto those working on the codelevel—you can’t go wrong withUA’s plugs, and these three areno exception.

GEAR HEAD

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M A R K E T P L A C ES P E C I A L A D V E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N


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GADGETS & GOODIESREALLY COOL TOOLS FOR AUDIO-TO-GO

GEAR HEAD

From mics to monitoring to multitrack recording, we’ve unearthed some greatgoodies for mobile audio.

Shure X2u XLR-to-USB Adapter ($130MSRP, $99 street; www.shure.com)

Got XLR mic? Got USB on your Win-dows Vista/XP/7 or Mac OS X laptop?Then plug the mic into the X2u, andthe X2u into a powered USB port—instant USB mic. The X2u sports threecontrols: mic gain, headphone volume(there’s an 1/8" jack), and monitor,which blends output from thecomputer with the mic audio. There’salso a +48V switch, peak LED indica-tor, and USB activity indicator.

So how does it stack up to Blue’sIcicle ($60 street) or CEntrance’s Mic-Port Pro ($149 street)? The X2u hasbetter build quality than the Icicle,which also lacks monitoring (there’sonly a gain control), has no phantompower, and is about an inch longer. TheIcicle also uses a mini-USB jack,whereas the X2u uses any standardUSB cable. For the extra bucks, theMicPort Pro gives 24-bit/96kHz resolu-tion; the X2u tops out at 16/48kHz, andIcicle at 16/44.1kHz. You can alsoaggregate two MicPort Pros for stereorecording, and if size matters, it’s thesmallest of the bunch—but it uses amini-USB jack, and while it provideszero-latency monitor, blending needsto be done in your software app.

So if you ever needed proof that“you get what you pay for,” these threeprove it. The X2u is positioned exactlybetween the Icicle and the MicPortPro, and for most people, provides allthe essentials for transforming what-ever mic you use into a USB mic—withnotable build quality.

Zoom H4n ($549 MSRP, $300 street,www.samsontech.com)

Zoom’s H4n has nailed the portablerecorder. The sound quality is excep-tional—not just “good for a portablerecorder”—even with the internal con-denser mics, which you can rotate tooptimize positioning for close-up orwide-field recording. When using yourown mics, there are dual “combi” XLRmic/high-Z 1/4" ins (with phantompower and a built-in mid-side stereodecoder), and the H4n can record fourtracks simultaneously as well as over-dub and mix those tracks.

For “instant monitoring,” there’s abuilt-in speaker. Battery life? Up to 11hours if you don’t need more than 16-bit/44.1 WAV or MP3 recording. Stor-age? The H4n records to SD/SDHCcards; a 32GB card (1GB is included)means 15 hours at 24/96kHz or in MP3mode, weeks of continuous recording.A pre-record buffer covers you for twoseconds prior to hitting record, andyou can also trigger recording basedon level.

The H4n includes several extras, like50 built-in DSP effects (including ampsim emulation) and a variable-speedphrase trainer; the USB 2.0 interfaceisn’t just for transferring audio, but letsthe H4n serve as a cross-platformaudio interface or card reader . . . all ina package only slightly larger andheavier than Zoom’s H2.

What’s not to like? Maybe someday,I’ll find something. But overall, the H4nhits an undeniable home run—youwon’t find better at this price.

Monster Turbine Pro Copper In-EarSpeakers ($299.95 MSRP, $270 street;www.monstercable.com)

We reviewed the Turbine Pro Gold ear-buds last issue, which are designed morefor high-end consumers. Within hours ofthe magazine going to the printer, wethen received the Turbine Pro Copperearbuds, which are designed specificallyfor pro mixing—and they’re so goodthey merit their own mention.

The differences between the two aresubtle, but significant. Gold emphasizeslow bass, with a little less high end;Copper is more neutral overall. How-ever, this is not a night-and-day differ-ence—it’s more like the differencebetween two excellent sets of speakers.

Like the Golds, the Coppers arebeautifully constructed (with a lifetimewarranty—that’s confidence!), andexhibit the same imaging, detail, trans-parency, and superb transient response.However, the same caution applies toboth products: Selecting the correct tipfor your ear is crucial, so take the timeto check out all the options.

Can’t decide between them? If youwant to mix, have your MP3 playersound transcendent, and truly enjoythe movies on planes, go for the Gold.You can easily learn to compensate forany response differences. But if you’reinterested solely in the most accuratereproduction when mixing (or evenmastering) with a mobile studio, theCoppers get the nod. In either case,these are astonishing transducers thatwill cause you to re-evaluate just howgood “earbuds” can be.

by Craig Anderton

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHTSPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

To advertise in this section contact; Will Sheng at 650-238-0325 [email protected] www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2010 EQ 63

ASC Quick Sound FieldAcoustic Sciences CorpNow AvailableQSF takes the room out of the mic andputs the talent in the mix. It's a freestanding live room, where you'll lovethe mics you used to hate.SRP: $3,245 for set of 8 traps.

www.asc-studio-acoustics.com/qsf.htm1-800-ASC-TUBE (272-8823)

The S7 Family of MicsADK MicrophonesNow AvailableThe S-7, S-7B and S-7C are the only mics that you need tomake pro-quality recordings. From screaming guitars towhispered vocals, each S-7 mic has a specific character thatwill give you the ultimate flexibility and the best results.SRP: S-7 = $479; S-7B = $479; S-7C = $479

www.adkmic.com805-644-6621Winter NAMM booth #5561

The Control 2P CompactPowered Reference MonitorSystemJBL ProfessionalNow AvailableDelivers accurate performance in a compact form-factor.Internal 35 watt/ch. amplification, and professionalfeature-set make the Control 2P ideal for desk-topproduction, A/V and broadcast applications, andmonitoring of electronic musical instruments.SRP: $249.00

www.jblpro.com818-894-8850Winter NAMM booth # 7800

AT4050ST Cardioid CondenserMicrophone Audio-Technica Available NowOffering the realism of a live sound field, the new AT4050STis an innovative stereo condenser with independent cardioidand figure-of-eight elements configured in a mid-sidearrangement with switch-selectable internal matrixing.SRP: $1,625

www.audio-technica.com 330-686-2600

CLASSIFIEDS


GETITSOLD INEQCLASSIFIEDS!CALL REGGIE SINGH AT: 650-238-0296

OR WILL SHENG AT: 650-238-0325

CATEGORIES

STUDIO FURNISHINGS

MARKETPLACE

EDUCATION/TUTORIALS

ACOUSTIC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

MIXING/MASTERING

ACCESSORIES

DUPLICATION

Buying or selling instruments through our Classified

Ads offers you convenience, a big marketplace, and

a wide range of instruments and prices. However,

buying mail-order does have its drawbacks, too. EQ

Magazine suggests the following guidelines to help

the buyer and the seller in these transactions: 1)

Get a written description of the instrumentshould

include the serial number. 2) Get front and back

photos of the instrument. 3) Get a written purchase

agreement, with a 24-hour approval clause allowing

the buyer to return the instrument for a full refund

if it does not meet his/her reasonable expectations.

ACOUSTIC PRODUCTS & SERVICES

ACOUSTIC PRODUCTS & SERVICESMARKETPLACE

MARKETPLACE

EDUCATION/TUTORIALS

from denisbul


skinny ads work too

GET IT SOLD INEQ CLASSIFIEDS!

CALL Will Sheng650-238-0325 or EMAIL at:

[email protected]

ACCESSORIES

DUPLICATION

MIXING / MASTERING

An ad in EQ’s Classifieds reaches more than 34,500* serious musicians for only $2.40 per word plus $7.00 for an address. Minimum

charge: $25.00. Please underline words to appear in bold type and add $0.50 per every bold word. Please indicate clearly any words

to appear in all caps and add $0.25 per every cap word. Each phone number, e-mail address, or website address counts as one word.

Call for display rates. 3 months minimum schedule required. Deadlines are the 8th of the month, 2 months prior to cover date (for example,

April 8th for the June issue, on sale in early June. Businesses must list business name in ad.All ads must be received in writing, paid

in full in advance.All ads must be music-related. Retail advertisers may not list discounted prices or percentages on specific models,

unless items are used or discontinued.Advertisers must provide us with complete name, street address, and phone number, whether

or not included in the ad copy (you may list a PO Box address in your ad, however). Mail ads to: EQ Classifieds,Attn:Will Sheng, 1111

Bayhill Dr., Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. FAX (if paying by MasterCard, or Visa): (650) 238-0263. For more information, call Will

Sheng at (650) 238-0325; E-mail: [email protected]. (*Audited circulation; does not include pass-along rate.)

AD ORDER FORM

Category: ❒ Marketplace ❒ Duplication ❒ Talent and Employment ❒ Sounds/Sequences/Software ❒ Mixing/Mastering❒ Instruments ❒ Accessories ❒ Gear for Sale ❒ Acoustic Products & Svc’s ❒ Studio Furnishings ❒ Other

Company Name ________________________________ Contact Name __________________________________________________

Address __________________________________________________ City ________________________ State ______ Zip __________

Telephone ____________________________________________ E-mail__________________________________________________

Please print your ad clearly. Use a separate sheet of paper if you need more room.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

TO COMPUTE COST OF AD#______words x $2.40 = _______

#______bold words x $ .50 = _______#______ ALL CAPS wds x $ .25 = _______

Address $7.00 = _______Total cost per issue = _______

(minimum $25.00)

x number of issues to run x _______

Total payment = _______❒ Payment enclosed, or Charge my

❒ Visa ❒ MasterCard

Card #

Expiration date:

Signed:

_________________________________________

__________________________________

________________________________________

(do not include address when counting words)

STUDIO FURNISHINGS

Studio Name: Rhyme Cartel StudiosLocation: Auburn, WA Key Players: Producer/engineer Sir Mix-A-LotLatest Project: Outtasite, Careful What You Wish ForComputer, DAW: Apple Mac Pro (8-core), (2) Digidesign192 I/Os, Digi Pre, Pro Tools 8Console: 32-channel Digidesign Icon D-Control ES WorksurfaceSoftware/plug-ins: BIAS Peak; Digidesign D-Verb, Impact,Maxim, and Structure; Native Instruments Battery andKontakt; Redmatica Compendium Bundle; SpectrasonicsOmnisphere; Waves C4 Multiband Compressor; and moreSampler, Mixer, CD Turntables: Akai MPC2000XL, Mackied.2, Pioneer CDJ-1000MK2sSynths/Modules: Roland HandSonic 10, MC-909, V-SynthGT, XV-5080; M-Audio Evolution UC-33 and Keystation Pro 88Guitars: Ibanez 7-String (all played by Joel Davila)Amps: (2) Crown Micro-Tech 600s and (2) 1200s Kits/Snares: Roland V-Drums TD-20 brain with doublekick, snare pad, hi-hat, (3) cymbal pads, and (4) tom padsMics: Blue Kiwi Room Treatment: Baffled ceilings, 3-inch floors, (3) 6-inchpipes filled with sand running through the floor intoconcrete for subwoofersPower Conditioning: 600 amps serviced to the house—125 amps dedicated to the studio with independentgroundingMonitors: JBL 4430s and 10-inch sub (for nearfield), KRK V88s Headphones: Sennheiser HD 280 Pro, Sony MDR-V900HDHow have your years of experience as an artist/rapperhelped you as a producer and studio owner?My first love was always the production side of music. Istarted with the old [Boss] Dr. Rhythm DR-55 and neverstopped. I was a DJ for years and was able to witness thethings that made some songs work while others didn’t.Buying gear is easy, but it’s how you hear that dictates howyou sound. I am not a purist when it comes to how a studioshould sound. When I hear someone bragging on howgood a room sounds, I immediately wonder what “good” isto him/her. I see a lot of hot shots track a song at someinsanely high resolution, then they call me over to listenand, wow, it sounds great, but when it’s mixed down itsounds like crap to the consumer. Why? It’s because theirroom was built to sound like a great studio. My room is

built to sound like a massive car stereo or club. When I mix,I keep the consumer in mind and not other engineers.What were your goals for running your studio? I built my first studio in the mid-’80s. Once I saw hourlyrates of some studios, I realized my creative process wasaltered greatly because of the clock running. Initially, I onlywanted a place to work with no time limitations then takemy work from the root to the fruit. I eventually ended upwith a couple of the old 2-inch MCI machines and a hugeboard. With the studio I have now, I decided to mix theusual rap sessions with some more challenging stuff. I haveactually taken some of the things I use to make a rap songpump and applied it to rock. For years a lot of the rock stuffwas warm, rounded-off sounding material that was alwayslightly rolled off from about 150Hz on down and from about5kHz on up. I decided to open it up and came up withsomething far more dynamic and explosive sounding. What was the process of choosing gear for the studio?I had a Pro Tools system back when it wasn’t cool to haveone. The editing power alone sold me on it. No morecutting tape, cleaning heads, aligning, etc. So the migrationto PT8 and the D-Control came quite natural for me. TheD-Control gives me the freedom to dig into Pro Toolswithout slowing my workflow. I purchased a pair of the30-inch Apple monitors because I love visual real estate.

I have been looking for a good soft sampler that’s easyto use. Omnisphere has the features laid out perfectly forme, but it won’t allow me to import any of my 5,000-plusWAV files. [Cakewalk] Rapture is cool, but try to import amulti-sampled sound into Rapture while maintainingoriginal mapping. For now, I am using Kontakt 3, but it’sexposed my new problem: [my need for] a MIDI controllerthat will allow me to do all my MIDI learns, then name all theencoders for visual feedback—LCD windows under eachencoder! Mackie got close with the C4, but you can’t use0–127 on all encoders. For some reason, it makes you chooseyour parameters from some dated list of synths. I havedecided to make my own controller. Watch out M-Audio! What piece of gear couldn’t you do without?The one piece of gear that I absolutely have to havewould be the HandSonic. Give me some good-soundingdrum samples in NI Battery and I will take that HandSonicand go f**king nuts!


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HEY, EQ READERS. WANT US TO FEATURE YOUR STUDIO?

SEND PICS AND INFO TO [email protected].

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eq magazine feburary 2010

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