The award-winning neo classical composer was inspired by Disney’s Fantasia and is a fan of The Clash, but says the jury’s still out when it comes to AI. Steve May reports

“I’m the sort of person, who when they first look at a property, is thinking ‘where do the speakers go?’ That’s literally the first thing I’m thinking about.”

Max Richter is speaking with us in New York. The composer is talking about his influences and inspirations, the way he likes to listen to music.

Richter’s compositions have been heard in films as diverse as Ad Astra and Mary Queen of Scots. He composed the soundtrack for the HBO series The Leftovers, while ‘On the Nature of Daylight,’ from his second album The Blue Notebooks, featured prominently in the hit Sci-Fi film Arrival.

In addition to his work for stage and screen, he has recorded eight solo albums. His reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons) is a contemporary twist on the popular classic.

It’s a diverse catalogue.

“I’m wide open to all types of music – utility music, dance music,” he says, as long as he can listen on really big stereo speakers.

“For me it’s really important to be able to experience the full dimensionality of music. I also listen in the car, but it’s not the same. I do listen on headphones, but I feel that there’s an element of being disembodied with headphones. When you’re mixing or mastering, headphones can be really useful, because of their incredible forensic detail – but basically I’m always trying to listen to speakers.”

Richter’s album work is eclectic and challenging. His eight-and-a-half hour concept album, Sleep, is based around the neuroscience of snoozing.

Richter says Sleep is as much an artwork as a musical composition.

“It’s intended to be slept through,” he says. “It’s using all sorts of things from neuroscience inside a composition. It’s about fostering slow wave sleep; it’s a pause, for getting back to fundamentals and origins. The piece is modelled on the sonic spectrum that the unborn child hears inside the mother. There’s no high frequencies, but a lot of sub-sonics, low frequency pieces at 2 – 30Hz. You need enormous loudspeakers to hear it properly. They work on you by a process called rhythmic entrainment; you get your brain waves in tune with the pulses of music. At 40 BPM, the piece is really slow. Dance music is 150 BPM.”

When it comes to influences, he cites Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, and The Clash’s London Calling.

“For me, punk came along at just the right moment. I really appreciated the experimentalism of punk, the idea that music could act as a social critique, that it could be a way to comment on the world. I was in my early teens, living in the UK. It was a call to arms, a scratchy, inspirational, lo-fi resistance movement and for me it made sense to get behind that.”

Richter is agnostic when it comes to playback technologies. When asked what can be done to stop kids using TikTok as their musical source, the composer merely shrugs, and says he’s fine with all types of music discovery.

He certainly approves of vinyl. “It’s important to make time, to give music your attention. You discover more in it. The ritual of listening (to records) puts you in that receptive state.”

“We had a record player when I was a kid, but it was one of those suitcase players with a speaker on the front. That was what I thought recorded music sounded like. Then this enormous box arrived, with cables and flashing lights, which I just found l exciting. My chosen career path at that time was astronaut! But when I kind of started to hear music coming out of this thing, it was utterly transformative.”

He says the creative floodgates opened after seeing Disney’s Fantasia in the cinema for the first time. “Just hearing The Rites of Spring blew my mind.” As soon as young Max left the theatre, he demanded that he be taken straight back for the next showing.

“My family were not musicians. They were playing The Beatles, Beach Boys, that kind of thing. The greatest hits of Beethoven. Fairly mainstream.”

Bach was another early inspiration. “Hearing Bach’s Double Violin Concerto on that little record player was an incredible, multidimensional experience. I had an intuition that there was a grammar governing the music, and I wanted to discover what that was. The music is so incredibly well constructed. That’s what gives it power.”

The composer says hearing electronic music for the first time was a light bulb moment.

“I first heard Kraftwerk in my early teens. I heard this sound coming from the radio but I didn’t know what instrument was making the sound. So I wrote a letter to the BBC and asked what it was.”

Six weeks later he received a reply and promptly bought the vinyl. “It was like being struck by lightning,” he recalls.

We ask Richter about his approach to cinema, and what persuades him to take on a project.

“I do projects that I just kind of fall in love with really,” he says. “The creative process is collaborative. Discovering the material and discovering the language, the music, that feels like it’s inherent in the world of the film in some way, so that it feels like it’s part of that universe, and then trying to find ways that the music can bring qualities that the other elements are not doing. Say you need to change your point of view, to move from inside one person to inside another. That’s the kind of thing that music can do in a way which the audience won’t even know is happening. That puzzle-solving aspect of working in cinema is fun.”

On the contentious subject of artificial intelligence, he says the jury’s still out.

“I don’t have a single position on that. I think it depends on how it is used. I’m interested in applications of AI which do not simulate what humans do.”  If you’re simulating what humans do, then that’s misunderstanding the creative process, he reasons.

“For me creativity is about encountering how another mind experiences being alive. When a composer writes a piece of music, or a singer is singing, they are telling you how it is to be them, as a person. AI can simulate that, but it is not a person. So for me, that’s not interesting. However there are all kinds of computer systems that can generate material in a way that a person could not do, and that might be interesting…

“Ultimately, all of us working within classical music are looking for ways to dissolve boundaries. If you put a bunch of kids in a room with an orchestra it blows their minds. It’s an incredible thing. A human, physical thing.”

Interview: Bernard Butler on Recording at Abbey Road in the new look Studio 3

Interview: Grace Davidson on new album and her work with Max Richter, Julie Cooper and Harry Gregson Williams

Welcome to issue 7 of Audio Media International

MPG Producer of the year Marta Salogni on Tape, Black Midi’s Hellfire, and Choice Plugins

The post Exclusive: Max Richter interview – inspiration, AI, cinema and subsonics appeared first on Audio Media International.

Breland live: “I can rap, but I’m a singer first” insists cross-genre country sensation

One of the hottest young stars on the Country scene, Breland, is in the UK to co-host the  C2C festival at the O2 arena – and he’s got a beef.

“I was seeing a lot of chatter in the press over in the States about ‘Breland Country rapper, Country Rap, Country Trap!’” he says. “I can rap, I have a lot of fun with the vocals, but hey, I’m a singer!’ People don’t realise I can sing, I’m a singer first!”

He launches into ‘For What it’s worth’, and his vocal is as sweet as molasses. “I wanted a song that showcased the vocal,” he says. Job done.

We’re in Koko’s Private Member’s Club, where Breland is performing at an industry showcase in the run up to Country to Country. He’s flanked by Christian Crawford on guitar and Harley deWinter on box drum.

“London is easily my favourite place to perform in the world,” says the singer. “We’ve played here twice  – once for C2C, and then for a little run with (American country singer-songwriter) Russell Dickerson.”

He tells the small but appreciative crowd that the opportunity to co-host C2C this year with Bob Harris was “obviously a no-brainer. I’m really pumped!”

As well as opening the festival, he’s bringing his Breland & Friends show to the Indigo O2 as one of the  official afterparty for C2C.

Y’see, Breland has momentum. The cross-genre artist has just launched his first album, Cross Country (Atlantic Records), featuring a distinctive blend of country, pop, hip hop, and gospel. His breakout single, ‘My Truck’, went platinum, and he’s touched gold twice with ‘Throw It Back’ featuring Keith Urban and ‘Beers On Me’ with Dierks Bentley.

Industry accolades cast his way include Amazon Music Breakout Artist, and Spotify’s Hot Country Artists To Watch 2022.

He segues into ‘Natural’, a slice of effervescent country pop with a familiar riff. It samples ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman’ by Shania Twain.

“I didn’t really think she would approve the interpolation, because she historically doesn’t do that,” he says. “Not only did she approve of it, she enjoyed the song so much she invited us out on tour with her. A pretty crazy opportunity!”

In addition to supporting Shania Twain on her forthcoming tour, he’s also touring with Walker Hayes.

“One of my favourite things to do as an artist is to collaborate with other acts,” he says. “I also have this uncanny habit of writing songs with soon to be sober artists…”

The trio break into ‘Told you I could drink’, co-written with Charles Kelley, and recorded with country music trio Lady A, one of this year’s C2C headliners.  Kelley makes no secret of his struggles with alcohol. Back in August 2022, Lady A postponed their Request Line Tour tour so that he could focus on his sobriety.

The short Koko set continues with current single ‘What it’s Worth’ and ‘Good For You’, co-written with Tyler Braden, who joins him on stage to duet. Braden is also in town to perform at the festival.

“The last time I came out here, we didn’t have an album out. We did the afterparty at C2C last year and that set was 45 minutes, at the time that was tough as we only had 10 songs! Now we have a project out, and it’s like we only get 45 minutes?”

Given Breland has just landed from the US, he’s on remarkably good form. “I feel like a good 97 per cent right now. We were in Florida two days ago, and flew in on the Red Eye. I was like, I’ll be fine, I’ll sleep on the flight, I’ll be in London, and I’ll have an amazing day. Only I didn’t sleep on the flight at all and I then proceeded to sleep through 16 of the last 22 hours. I was knocked out. But the benefit is I feel totally vocally healthy.

“I just feel like showing off right now!”

The post Exclusive: Breland on rap, country and Shania Twain support: C2C special appeared first on Audio Media International.

Apple is having another crack at the smart speaker market, with a second generation HomePod. Has this new high-end all-in-one got what it takes to succeed? Steve May reports

“Hey Siri, impress me with some spatial audio…”

With its second generation Homepod smart speaker, Apple hopes to seduce music lovers already sold on the convenience of voice control, with the immersive allure of spatial audio and higher-fidelity.

Smart speakers may have sold in their millions, but this particular combination has been difficult to crack.

Outside of the Echo Studio from Amazon, well regarded because it touts a trio of 51mm mid-range drivers (one of which is up-firing), a downward-firing 5.25-inch bass woofer and 25mm tweeter, smart speakers are largely cheap and monophonic.

Those that want to enjoy spatial audio, will probably listen with headphones, taking their chosen Dolby Atmos streams as a binaural render.

It would be nice to think consumers are lining up to buy the HomePod Mk 2. The smart speaker market could do with a fillip.

According to the analysts at Futuresource, the sector is currently in the doldrums, as ownership levels in the Western world, and China, reached saturation. Back in 2021 Bloomberg reported that Amazon had concluded that the market for smart speakers had already ‘passed its growth phase.’

Analysts estimate that around 104 million smart speakers and displays shipped last year, with the market expected to decline slightly to 103m in 2023. The category appears to be at something of a crossroads, says Guy Hammett, Senior Market Analyst Futuresource, with both Google and Amazon seemingly questioning the benefits of the current business model which sees them selling devices at or below BOM (Bills of Material) cost.

Could spatial audio provide a much needed growth spurt? Even as users were tiring of asking Alexa to jump through hoops for fun, a shift to Dolby Atmos music production was already well underway.

Amazon may be the market leader in the smart device industry, selling nearly 10 million smart speakers in the first quarter of 2022 alone, but Apple remains in a strong position, thanks to its smartphone dominance.

So does this second gen HomePod have what it takes to untether spatial audio from headphone ubiquity?

Retailing for £299/$299, the new speaker certainly ticks a lot of boxes.

Design is an obvious Apple strong point – available in white or Midnight, the latter made with recycled mesh fabric, the new HomePod looks suitably premium – but there’s some solid audio hardware under the hood, too.

To bring spatial audio home, the new Homepod employs a custom-engineered high-excursion 20 mm woofer, with a fistful of beamforming tweeters arranged around the base.  The speaker is able to determine if it’s up against a wall or freestanding, recognising sonic reflections from nearby surfaces, and then adapts its sonic output accordingly. Buyers are promised ‘a groundbreaking listening experience’ through advanced computational audio. Not exactly a rock ‘n’ roll endorsement, but we’ll take it.

Dolby Atmos audio can be delivered by a single HomePod, or from two paired speakers. It’ll also do whole-home multiroom audio using AirPlay.

We asked John Johnson, Chief Technology Officer at pro audio equipment supplier HHB, if Apple has got the mix right with this pricey new smart speaker entrant…

“I think Apple has done a great job delivering what is essentially a Dolby Atmos immersive audio experience from a single box,” he told us, “while integrating with the wider Apple ecosystem – much in the same way that Amazon had the Echo Studio as an enhanced and immersive audio version of its Echo speaker range.”

As for the asking price, Johnson is sanguine: “Very few smart speakers which are capable of spatial or immersive audio are cheap. While the binaural headphone experience is easy to deliver to the mass market with a low barrier to entry, smart speakers have to do the heavy lifting in a very different, competitive and variable consumer space.”

While Amazon’s Alexa may boast the lion’s share of skills, this new HomePod channels smart home automation with equal conviction. It can notify users if it hears a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, and it will issue temperature checks. The HomePod also integrates with accessories that conform to the Matter smart home interoperability standard. It’s eyes are very much on the future.

However, Ardit Ballhysa, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, believes that Siri is still too basic, and this second-generation HomePod too expensive, for it to significantly shake up the smart home speaker status quo

“It offers no features that are not present in either the original HomePod or the HomePod Mini. Moreover, at $299, users will do well to avoid it, particularly during the current economic climate,” he says.

“After experiencing low sales driven by its high price, Apple discontinued the original HomePod in 2021. Therefore, its decision to re-introduce the HomePod into its portfolio at exactly the same price, with no exclusive features, is worthy of a good head-scratch.”

For the same price, suggests Ballhysa, consumers can purchase three Nest Audio’s from Google or one Echo Studio and an Echo from Amazon.

“Aside from having multiple products, consumers would also get smart home speakers that are compatible with thousands more smart home accessories.”

Ballhysa believes that Google Assistant is far superior to Apple’s Siri in terms of its smart features and capabilities.

“Competition aside, Apple’s decision to remove the number of tweeters in the new HomePod from seven to five does not serve it well. Yes, there is a case to be made that software is just as important to sound quality as the hardware itself, but would it have been too much to ask if, alongside the new software, Apple kept the same number of tweeters as before?”

Clearly, Ballhysa doesn’t put a great deal of store in the HomePod’s spatial audio talents.

Is this indicative of public awareness when it comes to spatial audio? Johnson tells Audio Media International that the business is getting there, albeit at a leisurely pace.

“In my opinion, Apple more so than any other company, is pushing spatial audio,” he says. “If anything, they took a technology with roots that go back a long way and rebranded it with a modern production twist.”

Ironically, Apple is also helped by having Amazon champion spatial audio. “Realistically, not everyone is part of the apple ecosystem, and Amazon is probably the next biggest player in that market, which covers a good percentage of the population.”

Of course Dolby Atmos isn’t the only immersive music format in town. Sony continues to push its own 360 Reality Audio standard with a gusto that recalls the format battle heyday of VHS and Betamax. It has also released its own 360 Reality Audio compatible standalone smart speakers, including the compact £234 SRS-RA3000 and the living-room centric £499 SRS-RA5000. The Sony system is also supported by the Amazon Echo Studio.

Creative traction for Sony 360 Reality Audio seems to be low, though, according to HHB’s Johnson.

“Speaking honestly, it’s pretty rare that people come to talk with us about Sony 360 Reality Audio who haven’t already been delivering in Dolby Atmos, though it has happened!  Most of our clients have a tendency to be working in Dolby Atmos first due to its wider adoption in industry and being a more mature tool set for content creation.

“360 Reality Audio can usually be re-rendered (broadly speaking) from the Atmos mix and use a subset of a standard Dolby Atmos speaker layout. It’s also more headphone oriented and works on smart speakers, whereas Dolby Atmos came from a theatrical cinematic background and then scaled to home entertainment for film, television and eventually music. Very generally when it comes to resolution of audio or video, it’s easier to scale down than up…”

When asked about the future of spatial audio, and the appeal of products like HomePod, Johnson suggests the industry should actually be looking beyond music.

“I believe that podcasts could be the next platform to benefit from spatial audio branding,” he says. “There’s plenty of binaural content already out there. Platforms like YouTube also have  a lot of content that is flagged as ‘headphone only’ or ‘best experienced on headphones.”

Indeed, Johnson believes there needs to be a genuinely platform agnostic standard which can fully recognise the presence of headphones (wired or wireless) in order to better optimise the consumer experience.

Futuresource Consulting’s Simon Forrest agrees. As clever as the second generation HomePod is, smart speakers need to evolve further to stay relevant and allow the spatial audio business to thrive.

“To really take off again and reach the next stage of growth a new approach may be needed,” he says. “The underlying voice technology needs to advance to a stage where it becomes truly conversational and anticipates the user’s needs as opposed to the current command and control model.”

“Siri, what’s your favourite spatial audio album – and why?”

The post Can the new Apple HomePod reboot interest in smart speakers and spatial audio? appeared first on Audio Media International.

From Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to Ozzy Osbourne’s Patient Number 9, we take a look at the ten best spatial audio music albums and why you need to listen to them.

Tears for Fears – The Tipping Point 

The seventh studio album from the prog pop rock duo, since 2004’s Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, proves to be a stunning showcase for Dolby Atmos, and a great jumping on point for anyone interested in the art of spatial audio. Mixed by Steve Wilson, founder of Porcupine Tree, it’s at times disorientating and intense, then stripped back and expansive. Standout Atmos tracks include My Demons, with its soaring synths, and the final surround swirl that is Rivers of Mercy. At times The Tipping Point recalls the giddy heights of Trevor Horn and Yes, and then it opens the door to somewhere new entirely.  

Def Leppard – Diamond Star Halos 

While some spatial mixes assume the listener wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with the musicians, others opt for a more conventional front-of-stage approach – and that’s what we have here: this is unapologetic rock and roll, and the resulting soundstage is huge and enveloping.  

Here Dolby Atmos is used to emphasise space, giving more air to Joe Elliott’s vocals and a sharper edge to the riffing axes of Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell. The opener, Take What You Want may be vintage pop rock Leppard, but the spatial audio mix has the band sounding fresher than ever. 

The Porcupine Tree – Closure / Continuation 

A mulch of clanging riffs, soaring choirs and propulsive rhythms, Closure / Continuation is an exciting, exhaustive, exhilarating listen.  It’s prog for the spatial generation. Tracks that demand to be demo’d in Dolby Atmos include the dynamic Harridan, and the epic Chimera’s Wreck,  a spatial tour de force that delights with guitar arpeggios and bludgeoning rhythms. Fans have waited more than a decade for this, the band’s eleventh studio album, but they’re sure to feel it was worth the wait. 

The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band  

This radical 3D redux was masterminded by producer Giles Martin at Abbey Road (where the original was recorded), utilising the original four track master tapes from the studio sessions. First released in mono, with the stereo iteration a bit of a throwaway, this latest iteration of the legendary album shouldn’t work – yet somehow it does. 

The original recording didn’t have a lot of bass, but Martin has used elements of the kick drum to add weight. His spatial mix places you at the heart of the concept. The result is endlessly fascinating. 

Tom Petty – Live at the Fillmore 1997 

Oozing atmosphere, this Dolby Atmos mix of Tom Petty’s legendary Fillmore residency sounds as live as they come. Crowd noise is omnipresent in the mix, but held apart and aloft from Petty and the band. Slaughter on Tenth Avenue sits you between Petty’s dancing licks, with drums just behind your head, while I won’t back Down, is gloriously immersive; the crowd whooping and singing along to the rear and up high. 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Original Score 

Original soundtracks are natural candidates for Dolby Atmos music release, but few are as sonically inventive as Ludwig Goransson’s score for this Marvel sequel. The album opener, Nyana Wam, presents tribal chants and rhythms, courtesy of vocalist Baaba Maal and drummer Massamba Diop, in a three dimensional wrapper which then blooms into poignant orchestration, while the Namor theme drops such a heavy subterranean bass beat from on high you’ll stagger under its weight. 

The latter track adds reverb to create a sense of space and grandeur, while pipes and other Mayan musical instruments add authenticity.   

There’s even some propulsive dance tracks in the mix: listen to They want it, but No (by Tobe and Fat Nwigwa), here given a cinematic sheen, and Rihanna’s end credit offering Lift me Up, which appears to be a direct instruction to the mix room. 

REM – Automatic for the People 

One of the first 3D remixes of a recognised rock classic remains one of the genre’s most entertaining. Reimagined by engineer Mike Mills, along with original producer Scott Litt and producer Clif Norrell, this spatial mix from 2017 has been hailed by some as the definitive way to enjoy this album – and we’re not going to argue. From the pirouetting piano of Nightswimming, with Stipes slightly croaky vocal swamped by a tide of strings, through to an almost ethereal presentation of Man on the Moon, the album invites clinical analysis, with every aspect of its recording identifiable for discussion.  

Kraftwerk – 3-D the catalogue 

This Grammy award-winning electro-dance concert album was tailor made for Dolby Atmos. Mixed by Tom Ammermann, it features live (but not so much that you would notice) versions of many the band’s crowd-pleasers, so there’s plenty to enjoy. If you went to a disco in The Matrix it would probably sound like this.  

Radio Stars makes full use of the Dolby Atmos platform, with bleeps and pulses orbiting your head space, while Trans Europe Express directs its synth train right to left, arcing high.  

Moanin’ – Art Blackey and the Jazz Messengers 

Time travel is possible – at least it is if you shut your eyes and let this remarkable remix of this 1958 Blue Note recording wash over you. Dolby Atmos isn’t just about engulfing audio. Here it’s stripped back and used primarily to create dimensionality when there was precious little to begin with.  

As the titular jazz drummer provides a perfect backbeat to saxophonist Benny Golson, you can sense the physicality of the recording venue in the mix. There’s room to bop between trumpet and piano, but the separation never sounds gimmicky. The 3D presentation is always restrained and artful.  

Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9 

Spatial audio isn’t just about Dolby Atmos, there’s also Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format, and it can be every bit as immersive. While we wait for the Black Sabbath back catalogue to get a 3D long overdue remix, this new album ticks all our metal boxes. The title track, with its ear candy hook, is a dimensional treat, from the opening madhouse cacophony, to the crunching Jeff Beck riff, it occupies every available inch of 3D space. For a real whiff of Sabbath gone spatial, try Degradation Rules, in which Ozzy reunites with Tony Iommi. Binaural audio benefits headbanging, who knew? 

The post Top Ten Spatial Audio Music Albums appeared first on Audio Media International.

The festival scene returned with a vengeance in 2022, largely powered by the acclaimed Martin Audio WPL Wavefront Precision Line series, recently recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation.

Powerful, versatile and scalable, WPL provided the sonic backbone for many of this summer’s biggest musical events.

All Points East made a triumphant return to Victoria Park in 2022, with The National, Gorillaz, Chemical Brothers, and Nick Cave headlining. Sound specialists Capital Sound (part of the Solotech UK Group), had the tricky job of delighting music fans without annoying local residences.

Regular All Points East attendees would have failed to notice a slight reorientation of the East stage away from the most sensitive flank of the site.

Coverage pattern duly tweaked, Wavefront Precision technology was used at the event for the first time.

The main hangs on the East stage comprised 13 MLA and a single MLD downfill box per side, with side hangs of nine MLA stage right, and eight on stage left. Frontfills comprised eight Martin Audio XD12, with a castellated cardioid array of 20 MLX subwoofers up front.

Five delay points were set, taking 46 MLA Compact speakers, with six MLX subwoofers in a cardioid design on the last two positions. Stage sidefills comprised four SXHF218 subwoofers, and a pair each of Martin Audio TORUS T1215 and T1230 constant curvature boxes.

Over on the West Stage, which has the luxury of being surrounded by trees, WPL was used as the main PA, along with WPC, with SXHF218 subs in a castellated cardioid array.

Here, levels of up to 104dBa were achieved, without breaching offsite levels.

Main hangs comprised 12 WPL per side, with 10 WPC side hangs and 14 stage left, boosted by eight WPS. The broadside array of subs comprised 11 SXHF218. Two delay masts each supported 12 WPC.

Monitors on West stage comprised 12 Martin Audio LE1500, four SXHF218 subs and a pair each of TORUS T1215 and T1230.

At Worthy Farm, Somerset, SWG Events used its considerable Glastonbury Festival experience to provide technical support for Pilton Party 2022.

The event occupies the same site as the John Peel Stage, and this year it was the turn of Elbow to headline.

The Martin Audio’s WPL Wavefront Precision line array system was actually the same one used for Glasto’s Pyramid stage.

SWG head of audio, Simon Purse, had no hesitation about this repeat booking.  “We have now done so many shows this summer with WPL that sound engineers have built confidence playing through it, and have got used to the workflow,” he said.

Either side of the stage were 12 WPL components, ran in 2-box resolution from iKON iK42 amplifiers. Frontfills comprised eight W8LM Mini line arrays. A dozen Martin Audio SXH218 subs were configured in a monoblock across the front. Stage monitoring came via eight Martin Audio XE500s. The WPL easily threw to the 90 metres necessary for audience coverage.

Meanwhile, at Brighton & Hove Pride, Christina Aguilera and Paloma Faith headlined the 63-acre Preston Park site.

Returning after a COVID-enforced break, Capital Sound took the opportunity to deploy a Wavefront Precision (WPL system) for the first time.

The sound design was based around main hangs of 18 WPL per side, with a stage right side hang of six of the smaller WPC, and a larger drop of 12 WPC elements stage left.

Deep bass was delivered via 20 Martin Audio SXHF218 subwoofers, configured as a castellated cardioid broadside array across the front of the stage. Providing front fills were eight WPS.

Stage monitoring was provided via 16 x LE1500 floor wedges, four SXHF218 and six TORUS T1215 constant curvature arrays.

Three delay masts, positioned 70 metres from the stage, extended the coverage. These comprised 24 more WPS split across the three positions, with a trio of SXHF218 subs on each mast.

The site, in a noise sensitive area near homes and shops, required constant level adjustments of both side hangs and delay hangs during the day.

The decision was taken to use the ‘Hard Avoid’ feature of DISPLAY 2 for all overhangs, to keep coverage and non-coverage areas clearly defined.

Joseph Pearce, who optimised the sound using Martin Audio’s DISPLAY software, said: “It worked really well. The software-based techniques we use to reduce offsite noise levels are the same as those we use with MLA. All the tricks Capital Sound have learnt over the years at events such as BST in Hyde Park and others could be used with the WPL and WPC hangs in Preston Park.”

Across the pond, Martin Audio partner Soundworks of Virginia, equipped all five main stages of the long-running Richmond Folk Festival with WPL speakers.

Held in the city’s downtown Riverfront Plaza area, the free event attracts upwards of 200,000 visitors.

To cope, 130 Martin Audio components were specified site wide. Soundworks CEO, Steve Payne says this took all 124 available channels of their 31 iKON iK42 amplifiers, used to drive the various PA rigs in 2-box resolution.

For the main Altria stage, Martin Audio’s large format WP did the heavy lifting, with a dozen WPL enclosures per side, supported by three SXH218 subs. Four WPS were deployed for front fills, with an additional CDD-LIVE 15 on top of an SXP218 on each stage for sidefills.

The tented Dominion Energy Dance Pavilion utilised eight WPC flown per side over two SXH218 subs bridged per side, with CDD-LIVE 15 over an SXP218 on each wing providing sidefills. Ten Martin Audio XE500s acted as stage monitors.

Soundworks’ Steve Payne reflected: “Having run Wavefront Precision systems for over two years we have become accustomed to achieving a high level of performance with 100 per cent consistency. It is a very gratifying situation.”

Given the sheer size of the park, interference between main stages wasn’t an issue, so there was no need to use Hard Avoid, although it did prove helpful on the four tented stages, to keep the sound off the tent roof and reduce reflections.

Production manager Colleen Arnerich, from the National Council for the Traditional Arts, declared: “It sounded awesome everywhere on site! The upgrade on the Folklife Stage from CDD-LIVE last year to WPS this year made a huge difference.”

The post Festivals returned with a vengeance in 2022, powered by Martin Audio appeared first on Audio Media International.

The Japan Audio Society (JAS) has certified MQA’s latest scalable codec, SCL6, for use with its Hi-Res Audio Wireless logo. It will be marketed as MQair.

The new codec aims to improve wireless audio quality by focussing on the time domain, which it says is a critical factor when it comes to our perception of high-resolution sound.

“High resolution isn’t necessarily defined by the big things, it is shaped by small elements in the sound that convey details, separation, colour, and space,” explains Bob Stuart, MQA Founder & CTO. “Our reference for transparency is air itself. With MQair we can extend the MQA ecosystem to wireless devices.”

The technology is another solution to a better audio experience from consumers, says MQA.

Working over Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Wi-Fi, MQair supports both MQA and PCM audio up to 384kHz. The encoded data rate can be scaled from 20Mbps to below 200kbps. Benefits include low latency, and extended battery life.

Wireless devices now account for a huge segment of music listened over headphones, earbuds, and wireless speakers. According to market analyst Futuresource, Bluetooth speakers and wireless headphones are forecast to have a combined annual retail value of $69bn in 2022, with wireless headphones securing a market penetration rate of 85 per cent.

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Steven Wilson is the go-to guy for Dolby Atmos audio. Having remixed a string of classic albums, from the likes of King Crimson, Hawkwind and Roxy Music, as well as new releases for Tears for Fears, Def Leppard and his own band, Porcupine Tree, he’s at the forefront of the spatial audio revolution.

But other ambitions remain. Talking exclusively to Audio Media International, the award winning musician, producer and engineer says he hankers to compose for the silver screen.

“Top of my list of unfulfilled ambitions is to score a movie,” says Wilson. “I’ve never been invited to do that. I’ve scored a game, which was a lot of fun a few years ago. It was called Last day of June. It was based on one of my songs, Drive Home, and it was a beautiful game.

Wilson admits that while he’s not a gamer, he greatly enjoyed the process. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s really beautiful. The soundtrack came out on vinyl a few months ago.”

“One word that gets thrown at my music a lot is ‘cinematic’, so it almost seems like a no brainer that I should have done more in the world of cinema. When I started out most of my income was coming from TV commercials. I love the idea of music and image working together. In many ways that’s the ultimate art form. It’s incredible.”

Just don’t expect a blockbuster anytime soon. “My life is pretty full as it is, but I like to think that one maybe I’ll retire from touring, and do a movie.”

As for the immediate future, Wilson is heading back out on the road.

“Porcupine Tree is going on tour for the first time in 12 years, and probably for the last time as well. We’re going to do about two months of shows in America and in Europe, to present the new album, Closure / Continuation. Then I’ll be releasing my new solo project, which is almost finished. It’s something which Dolby Atmos is going to be a very big part of. It’s probably the first time I’ve actually created an album with Atmos in mind, thinking in terms of what I could do with Atmos rather than it being something I think about in retrospect.”

Wilson is excited for its release. “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s certainly the most creative from a sonic point of view – a very conceptual 54 minute epic”.

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The award winning composer joins Bowers & Wilkins at Abbey Road to celebrate 60 years of James Bond.

“I can’t believe I became part of this film series,” says composer David Arnold. “I did five Bond films – Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace – and it still feels like an enormous honour.”
Arnold is in Abbey Road Studio Two, reminiscing as part of a 60 Years of Bond shindig. There’s a Martini Bar in one corner of the studio and Bollinger on tap in another, while a sizzle reel loops on the wall.

The themes for Spectre and Skyfall were recorded at Abbey Road. What’s more, the recently released Bond 25 album, featuring Bond themes played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with brand-new arrangements, was also recorded in Abbey Road Studio One.

The orchestra is on hand for the night, playing Monty Norman’s theme, as well as the themes from Goldfinger and Skyfall, for specially invited guests.

David Arnold says that his first encounter with Bond was at a Christmas party when he was eight years old. “I saw it projected (on 16mm film) at a children’s party and within the first five minutes I had heard John Barry’s extraordinary strings for that amazing opening song, Nancy Sinatra singing, and saw a giant spaceship eating a smaller space ship; a hollowed out volcano and ninjas!

“I’ve always said that when you’re from Luton, everything seems exotic, but this was truly exotic. Ever since then Bond has been a part of my life. Bond has become a cultural touchstone. An icon. It’s remarkable.”

“A common criticism of song writing can be ‘this sounds like a Bond song.’ It’s an easy thing to say. Whenever a new Bond movie comes out, someone will produce a list of songs that could have been a Bond song but weren’t…

“Yet it’s evasive. McCartney’s Live and Let Die sounds nothing like Billie Eilish’s No Time to Die, and neither of them sound like The Spy Who Loved Me, yet they’re all Bond songs. The Bond name shoulders an awful lot.”

Talking about the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Arnold says: “The RPO made me want to be a composer. I wanted to be a part of something that made such an incredible noise. When you’re in the studio with the RPO at full blast, it’ll make you want to become a composer. Just don’t become too good. I can do without the competition…”

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Why pay a significant price premium for a classic microphone when there’s a more cost effective solution available at a fraction of the cost?

JZ Microphones Vintage Series offer a sound profile similar to iconic microphones from AKG and Neumann, with a sound described as ‘Silky- smooth, warm with the right amount of detail,‘ but boast unbeatable advantages in price, durability and versatility.  

They’re ideal for anywhere you want to add extra soul and a little bit of coloration, Andris Zemmers, JZ’s Head of Marketing & Ecommerce, told Audio Media International.

“I think every microphone company must have its own line of unique products. So that’s why we have Black Hole series, it’s our unique sound using the unique Golden Drop Capsule technology.  Vintage series is a different story; if you’re not making mics with that warm vintage sound, you’re robbing yourself and your clients. Everybody is looking for a new, better twist for that classic sound!”

The JZ Microphones Vintage Series comprises the Vintage 12 cardioid condenser mic (V12), which clearly pays homage to the AKG C12, which first saw duty in 1953; the JZ Vintage 47 (V47) which takes inspiration from the Neumann U47, launched back in 1947, and the JZ Vintage 67 (V67), which apes Sixties favourite, the Neumann u67. 

“The V12 is a workhorse on acoustic guitar and  definitely does magic on not-so-bright vocals,” says Zemmers. “Its brightness can help those darker vocals to stand out.

 “The V47 is a true vintage gem. It’s really warm, smooth and not as bright as V67 and V12. V47 will be a top choice if you’re working on brighter vocals or blighter acoustic guitar. It works really well on brass instruments!

“And V67 is a kicker on any vocals, grand piano and drum overheads. It’s a real winner when you’re looking for versatility. You can’t shoot wrong with either v12 or v67. It depends on characteristics. V67 is a bit darker, smoother, V12 is brighter and a bit more airy.”

Of course, while the JZ Vintage Series go a long way to replicating the sound of these classic microphones, they’re built using solid-state transistor technologies and construction techniques.

They also share the same retail price, just 1,299 Euros/$1,199 (hint – make sure to subscribe to their newsletter as they do massive storewide sales a few times per year!). 

This is a huge saving, when compared to the mics they take inspiration from. By way of comparison, a vintage original C12, U47 or U67 can run you the best part of $30,000, while new iterations sell from $8,000.  

Discovering you can achieve similar results with JZ Microphones Vintage Series, at a price that won’t cause bean-counters to hyperventilate, comes as something of a revelation.

“On the availability aspect,” says Zemmers, “not all people are willing to spend five  or six grand per mic;  I also have to mention that the majority of the classic legends are not available anymore, the models available now are modern remakes.”

The JZ Vintage Series also boast another advantage over their iconic predecessors – they’re free of the reliability issues associated with tube technology.

“Some people just don’t want that hassle that comes with a tube mic, its not as durable, you can’t travel with it and it adds extra cost in using the mic (like a car). I don’t say that tube mics are bad, I love how those tubes sound. It’s just – not all engineers are willing to spend 5x more for a mic and trade in that hassle.”

JZ Microphones Vintage Series: their sonic characteristics explained

The JZ V12 emulates the famously flat frequency response and sonic signature of the C12, as favoured by the likes of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. 

Sonically, it’s neutral but has a rich low end, albeit with more detail. Some might even suggest that it sounds more agreeable to today’s listeners.

Says Zemmers: “I think this trio 12, 47 and 67 covers the whole vintage spectrum without going too much in niches. V12 was the hardest one, it has much more ‘special’ capsule design to match that sound.”

All JZ Mics utilise the Golden Drop Capsule patented by company founder Juris Zarins, so named because they use gold sputtered diaphragms in their capsules. Ingeniously, drops of gold are spaced across the diaphragm to reduce its weight. 

This lighter diaphragm can vibrate faster and therefore capture more detail.  

The V47 and V67 boast similar response curves to the Neumann U47 and U67, but bring their own benefits.

The JZ V47 shares that tubed mic’s neutral smoothness, but adds its own treble brightness, a benefit of its solid-state transistors and electronically balanced outputs. Producers tend to favour the V47’s extra high-end detail.

 Rafa Sardina, recording engineer and record producer, said this of the V47 and its V67 stablemate: “Having worked in so many session over the years I have to say it was really exciting to do some out of the ordinary sessions for Lady Gaga using some of my new toys, the JZ mics V47 and V67 microphones. They excel in so many uses, from acoustic bass, to amplified bass, or vocals, strings, and guitar. I ended up naturally gravitating towards them, even though I had a great vintage microphone selection at my disposal.”

The V67 is designed to be a little brighter than the V47, and works particularly well on electric guitars.   

“A few weeks ago I spoke with our friend, engineer/ producer Romesh Dodangoda (Bring Me The Horizon, Motorhead, Twin Atlantic), he told that he has those classic legends in the locker, but they are eating dust,” recalls Zemmers, “because with our V67 or V47 he can achieve much greater results, he is planning to sell them as they are not in use. I’ve heard it a bunch of times. During the Namm show I had around eight clients coming to our booth telling me that they just sold their original C12 or U67. I think that’s the biggest compliment!”

Adds Zemmers: “Choosing a mic for your locker is not a zero sum game. There is no perfect mic that fits everybody and every application. Engineers are looking for a variety, so when the situation comes, they have the right tools available. JZ Vintage series are not clones, they are fresh versions inspired by these classic legends tuned for the modern day ear.” 

All JZ Microphones Vintage Series are hand-crafted and tested in-house in Latvia, and come with 5-year warranties. 

The post JZ Microphones Vintage Series: Classic sound for today’s recording professionals appeared first on Audio Media International.

Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision optimised line array series has won a slew of industry awards, and been a best seller for the pro audio specialist since its introduction. Partnered with the brand’s innovative DISPLAY 2 software, the range offers installers and engineers a uniquely flexible live sound solution by customising audience coverage to each venue and using scalable resolution to build systems to suit users goals and budget, in venues from outdoor festivals to worship halls.

To learn more, we quizzed Robin Dibble, Product Support Engineer at Martin Audio.

AMI: One key advantage offered by the Wavefront Precision range is that it can deliver consistent sound quality for every member of an audience or congregation, by reducing the influence of room acoustics. This is a game changer for live venues, places of worship etc. What’s the underlying science behind this line array range – is it a perfect marriage of hardware and DISPLAY software? 

Robin Dibble, Product Support Engineer: In a word – yes!

Our technology allows us to use the vertical line of drive units not entirely as a traditional line source, but as an opportunity to play with the acoustic relationship between vertically aligned speakers to change the directivity of the array in the vertical plane. Horizontally, the fixed angle directional control comes from Martin Audio’s lifelong experience with horn design.

DISPLAY 2 software looks at the vertical coverage of the array, using virtual microphone points through an auditorium’s audience regions and building profile to examine the likely output of an array in multiple physical arrangements and processing arrangements to achieve the goals set by the system designer.

These goals include the sound level attenuation from the front to back of the audience, consistent frequency response and tonality throughout the audience space and reducing the level in areas where there are no audience by as much as 20dB broadband. This significantly reduces the influence of the room’s acoustics on the sound heard by the audience.

Then we have the cherry on the top, a function we call Hard Avoid. It allows users to nominate a particular area of the venue where the system will actively reduce levels by as much as 30dB broadband with respect to the level in the audience space. This is invaluable in keeping stages quiet for cleaner mixes for better gain before feedback, or reducing reflections from a troublesome back wall, or in the case of festival sites, reducing the sound levels escaping into the surrounding environment.

The results of this processing can further be examined in a three dimensional model of the room or site in our new DISPLAY 3 software, by importing the details of the room and arrays from DISPLAY 2.

Scalable Resolution explained

AMI: Can you explain what you mean by Scalable Resolution, and why it’s a significant advance for sound professionals?

Robin Dibble: To achieve what we do with vertical control, it is necessary to process the sound differently to different regions of an array. Depending on the model of loudspeaker, we can do this by processing blocks of four, three, two or single cabinets separately using the powerful DSP in the output of our iKON amplifiers. These work according to the parameters set in them by our DISPLAY 2 software and VU-NET control software.

For example, we can drive an array of eight WPM array loudspeakers with between two and eight amplifier channels. The more amplifier channels in use, then obviously the finer degree of control we have over the sound in the room, and the more effective the achievement of each of the goals.

This allows decisions to be made by the system designer about budget vs. room requirements, with the added advantage that more amplifier channels can always be added at a later date to improve the existing system.

As an example, a couple of dance stacks in a club may not need the highest degree of control, the requirement there is for volume and impact. Whereas for a concert held in an historical church building it would be necessary to minimise the effect of the room acoustics on what the audience hear, requiring more control from the loudspeaker arrays and therefore more channels of amplification.

The commercial advantages of the approach are substantial. When it comes to system rental, users can design systems that can exactly meet specific client budgets and tour technical needs, while installations have the option to start at lower budgets and add amplification at a later stage to improve pattern control and thereby sound quality in the venue.   

Wavefront Precision case studies

AMI: Can you point to some real world case studies?

Robin Dibble: The first installation of WP series was in First Pentecostal Church in North Little Rock, Arkansas by Clark. Arrays of 16 WPC and 8 WPM provide exemplary venue coverage in a challenging environment for up to 4,500 congregation members across music styles from choral to rock. The environment included domed ceilings, stained glass windows and marble surfaces, yet using our optimisation and scalable resolution, sound quality described as comparable to that of studio monitors was achieved throughout the room.

AMI: Do the advantages offered by the Wavefront Precision family create new installation opportunities?  

Robin Dibble: It’s not so much new installation opportunities, but obviously the flexibility and affordability of Wavefront Precision system does open up more venues to be able to access array optimisation, rather than compromising the system they install with standard line array. 

AMI: Has the trade taken to the idea/freedom of incremental upgrades, as and when? 

Robin Dibble: Yes, very much so. At a rental level, live sound companies are regularly interchanging the number of amp channels used to either suit client budget, the needs of the venue or the requirements of the performance. Similarly, we see many installations starting at two box resolution with a view that in a few years’ time they can upgrade the performance of the line array system yet further, extending its life and value. 

AMI: When it comes to touring sound and corporate event hire, what are the key benefits offered by the Wavefront Precision Series?

Robin Dibble: The unique tools already outlined have the same advantages in these environments, for example with noise control and exceptional audience coverage giving any rental house deploying WP an advantage.  Scalable resolution is allowing providers to tailor rental packages to different customers’ requirements through scalable resolution, making meeting tour budgets easier whilst providing successful events.

AMI: The series is already comprehensive, but can sound pros expect some new loudspeaker additions to the range? 

Robin Dibble: As it stands the Wavefront Precision series is complete. However, as mentioned earlier we are continuing work on our 3D prediction software, DISPLAY 3 (D3). We can already import DISPLAY 2 data into D3 to showcase the system design in a 3D environment, but we are obviously working on full optimisation of line array systems natively within D3. Equally, we will be adding sound prediction for our subwoofers and point source line up, so any system can be viewed in a 3D environment, ahead of time.

Defeating sub-optimal acoustics

AMI: Many installations will be in venues with sub-optimal acoustics – which is where DISPLAY software, and features like Hard Avoid, come into their own. Can you cite any projects that could only have been served by the Wavefront Precision range?

Robin Dibble: There are a number of venues which have significantly benefited from Wavefront Precision systems, that otherwise would have probably comprised their sound system.

Jonava Cultural Centre, with its rake seating and series of arched ceiling mounts was highly susceptible to sound reflections. But the introduction of a WPC system with two box resolution and the Jonava Cultural Centre sound engineer, Valius Strakalaitis, commented, “The overall system intelligibility and consistency of coverage is just outstanding. I am very proud and delighted to be working with this system.

Another example is Oak Point Church in Michigan, a venue that had low ceilings, poor sight lines, and a dynamic stage, and the existing PA system was lacking intelligibility, pattern control and musicality.

We needed control and directivity to avoid coverage where we didn’t need it, which we get from the system’s Hard Avoid capability. The surfaces are brick and steel with a huge reflective wall at the back of the room and the PA system drops coverage a few feet beyond the operator at the back of the house while staying off the ceiling as well. “With Martin Audio, the intelligibility is so much more impressive than the previous PA. It’s an impressive sounding system by any standard. Everyone is over the moon and we’re very proud of it.” Trent Keeling, Senior Design Consultant for Advanced Audio. 

Finally, to the Shibata Civic Cultural Center in Japan. A venue is a semi-circular-shaped hall with upper balcony seats. 

Mr. Inomata from Niigata Shomei Giken, who is in charge of sound operation in the hall, commented, “This audience area has quite a unique shape, and you can see the stage from wide angles, almost 180 degrees. On the other hand, it is generally difficult to create consistent sound in a venue of this shape.”

In particular, the venue suffers acoustic problems caused by reflections to the stage, he continued. “Up to now, I had given up solving this problem because it was outside the range of adjustment. However, with the introduction of a WPM system it’s a different story, as it can clearly handle these issues and totally give the same audio experience in all the seats.

The sound characteristic is similar everywhere in the auditorium, as WPM is deployed for both proscenium and as side columns. To combine the system depends on the performance, and the ability to control between loud volume and a much smaller sound. With WPM we can provide top-class sound quality to audiences at all events.

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