Dua Lipa producer Andrew Watt was crowned Producer Of The Year (non-classical) at last night’s socially distanced Grammy Awards, while Beyoncé and Taylor Swift both set new records. 

Watt, who has worked with the likes of Miles Cyrus, 5 Seconds Of Summer and Ozzy Osbourne, emerged victorious in a category that also included Jack Antonoff, Dan Auerbach, Dave Cobb and Flying Lotus.

Making Grammys history, Beyoncé become the most decorated woman in the event’s history, winning her 28th gong. She won Best R&B Performance for Black Parade – a celebration of black power and resilience released in 2020.She is now equal with legendary producer Quincy Jones and just three behind classical conductor Sir Georg Solti, who has won 31 Grammy to date.

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It was also a historic night for Taylor Swift, who became the first female artist to win Album Of The Year three times  – this time for Folklore.

The socially distanced show was held in LA and featured performances from a raft of mega stars, with  Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Dualists Lipa, Taylor Swift and BTS among the standouts.

See below for the full list of winners in the main categories.

Album of the year

WINNER: Folklore – Taylor Swift

Chilombo – Jhené Aiko

Black Pumas – Black Pumas

Everyday Life – Coldplay

Djesse vol. 3 – Jacob Collier

Women in Music Pt. III – Haim

Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa

Hollywood’s Bleeding – Post Malone

Record of the year

WINNER: Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish

Black Parade – Beyoncé

Colors – Black Pumas

Rockstar – DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch

Say So – Doja Cat

Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa

Circles – Post Malone

Savage (Remix) – Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé

Song of the year

WINNER: I Can’t Breathe – H.E.R

Black Parade – Beyoncé

The Box – Roddy Ricch

Cardigan – Taylor Swift

Circles – Post Malone

Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa

Everything I Want – Billie Eilish

If the World Was Ending – JP Saxe and Julia Michaels

Best new artist

WINNER: Megan Thee Stallion

Ingrid Andress

Phoebe Bridgers

Chika

Noah Cyrus

D Smoke

Doja Cat

Kaytranada

Best pop solo performance

WINNER: Watermelon Sugar – Harry Styles

Yummy – Justin Bieber

Say So – Doja Cat

Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish

Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa

Cardigan – Taylor Swift

Best pop duo/group performance

WINNER: Rain on Me – Lady Gaga with Ariana Grande

Un Dia (One Day) – J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny and Tainy

Intentions -Justin Bieber featuring Quavo

Dynamite – BTS

Exile – Taylor Swift featuring Bon Iver

Best pop vocal album

WINNER: Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa

Changes – Justin Bieber

Chromatica – Lady Gaga

Fine Line – Harry Styles

Folklore – Taylor Swift

Best progressive R&B album

WINNER: It Is What It Is – Thundercat

Chilombo – Jhene Aiko

Ungodly Hour – Chloe X Halle

Free Nationals – Free Nationals

F*** Your Feelings – Robert Glasper

Best rap song

WINNER: Savage (Remix) – Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé

The Bigger Picture – Lil Baby

The Box – Roddy Ricch

Laugh Now Cry Later – Drake featuring Lil Durk

Rockstar – Da Baby featuring Roddy Ricch

Best rap album

WINNER: King’s Disease – Nas

Black Habits – D Smoke

Alfredo – Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist

A Written Testimony – Jay Electronica

The Allegory – Royce da 5’9

Best melodic rap performance

WINNER: Lockdown – Anderson .Paak

Rockstar – Dababy featuring Roddy Ricch

Laugh Now Cry Later – Drake featuring Lil Dur

The Box – Roddy Ricch

Highest in the Room – Travis Scott

Best dance recording

WINNER: 10% – Kaytranada featuring Kali Uchis

On My Mind – Diplo and Sidepiece

My High – Disclosure featuring Amine and Slowthai

The Difference – Flume featuring Toro y Moi

Both of Us – Jayda G

Best dance/electronic album

WINNER: Bubba – Kaytranada

Kick I – Arca

Planet’s Mad – Baauer

Energy – Disclosure

Food Faith – Madeon

Best rock performance

WINNER: Shameika – Fiona Apple

Not – Big Thief

Kyoto – Phoebe Bridgers

The Steps – Haim

Stay High – Brittany Howard

Daylight – Grace Potter

Best metal performance

WINNER: Bodycount – Bum Rush

Code Orange – Underneath

The In-between – In This Moment

Bloodmoney – Poppy

Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe) – Live by Power Trip

Best rock album

WINNER: The New Abnormal – The Strokes

A Hero’s Death – Fontaines DC

Kiwanuka – Michael Kiwanuka

Daylight – Grace Potter

Sound & Fury – Sturgill Simpson

Best alternative album

WINNER: Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple

Hyperspace – Beck

Punisher – Phoebe Bridgers

Jaime – Brittany Howard

The Slow Rush – Tame Impala

Best R&B performance

WINNER: Black Parade – Beyoncé

Lightning and Thunder – Jhené Aiko featuring John Legend

All I Need – Jacob Collier featuring Mahalia and Ty Dolla $ign

Goat Head – Brittany Howard

See Me – Emily King

Best country album

WINNER: Wildcard – Miranda Lambert

Lady Like – Ingrid Andress

Your LIfe is a Record – Brandy Clark

Nightfall – Little Big Town

Never Will – Ashley McBryde

Best Country Solo Performance

WINNER: When My Army Prays – Vince Gill

Stick That in Your Country Song – Eric Church

Who You Thought I Was – Brandy Clark

Black Like Me – Mickey Guyton

Bluebird – Miranda Lambert

Best Country Duo/Group Performance

WINNER: 10,000 Hours – Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber

All Night – Brothers Osborne

Ocean – Lady A

Sugar Coat – Little Big Town

Some People Do – Old Dominion

Best musical theatre album

WINNER: Jagged Little Pill

Amelie

American Utopia on Broadway

The Prince of Egypt

Soft Power

Little Shop of Horrors

Producer of the year, non-classical

WINNER: Andrew Watt

Jack Antonoff

Dan Auerbach

Dave Cobb

Flying Lotus

Best Engineered Album

Beck – Hyperspace

Engineers: Drew Brown, Julian Burg, Andrew Coleman, Paul Epworth, Shawn Everett, Serban Ghenea, David Greenbaum, John Hanes, Beck Hansen, Jaycen Joshua, Greg Kurstin, Mike Larson, Cole M.G.N., Alex Pasco & Matt Wiggins

Mastering engineer: Randy Merrill

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An array of Digico desks were recently deployed for Beyonce and Jay Z’s On The Run II tour.

The highly complex production, featuring a live band, an entire horn section, and back-up dancers equipped with in-ear monitors, was connected via an Optocore HMA fiber loop between two Digico SD7 consoles for the FOH mix (one primary console and a second for use by supporting acts on the tour) feeding a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA system.

Four SD7 desks are assigned to the monitor mixes, while another SD7 combines full-band rehearsals as set lists are due to change and songs from the couple’s new album Everything Is Love – which dropped during the tour – are added.

A Digico SD12 console is used to mix vocal rehearsals. The five primary consoles on the tour use five Digico SD-Racks, with a sixth used as a support rack. The SD7s are connected to an Optocore fiber loop – a double loop in the case of the monitor consoles, two of which are primarily dedicated to the band members and two more for the artist on stage, with one for each task assigned as the primary console and a second as a spill-over deck for ancillary inputs such as talkback and audience mic inputs.

“The Digicos are the only consoles that can do this show, Stephen Curtin, FOH engineer, uses a lot of subgroups to keep and manage all of the stage inputs on a single SD7, with the second SD7 on the same fiber loop and with the sessions loaded and ready there as a spare. No other desk could touch what the SD7s are doing here,” said Jason Kirschnick, the international operations officer and global project manager at Eighth Day Sound, the sound-reinforcement provider for On The Run II.

“The wireless and in-ear counts are enormous,” he continued. “Everyone is sharing fiber on this tour, that’s one of the reasons that it’s the preferred console for the FOH and monitor mixers: its work-surface flexibility makes it the only console that lets them set up the exact custom workflows they need. It just has more options than any other console. That’s why it’s number-one on all the riders.”

The SD consoles are also used for recording the live shows, using Digico’s MGB MADI interface at FOH and Optocore DD4MR network MADI interfaces in monitor world. This will convert the MADI output from the consoles to a network signal for input to a Mac Pro running recording software. “This is a very complex tour,” added Kirschnick. “It couldn’t have been done as reliably or effectively without what the SD7 brings to it.”

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UK-based Grammy award-winning mix engineer Wez Clarke (Beyoncé, Jess Glynne, Clean Bandit, Craig David, Tinie Tempah), recently replaced his first-generation SSL AWS 948 with a new 48-channel SSL Duality δelta SuperAnalogue hybrid console.

Clarke was mostly attracted to the console by the additional flexibility offered by it’s full-featured channels. Every Duality input channel comes with twin-curve SSL E and G Series 4-band parametric EQ, full dynamics (gate, expander, compressor/limiter), and Variable Harmonic Drive (VHD) preamps.

VHD introduces either 2nd or 3rd harmonic distortion or a blend of the two to the audio and brings a wide range of colouration to the clean SuperAnalogue Duality input. "I use VHD on most things actually – though subtly," said Clarke. "It gives things a bit of crunch or presence that’s difficult to describe… that was a big selling point for me. It brings something to the table that I didn’t have before… It’s exciting."

Much of Clarke’s source material arrives as stereo stems, which means that the ability to mix up to 24 stereo pairs is an important requirement. The Duality uses two physical channel strips for a stereo pair, which can be fader-linked (ganged) as required (includes Cut, Solo, Cue, FX, Insert In, and EQ In switching).

Clarke has been pleasantly surprised at how easily he has made the change: "I was worried about the mono faders, coming from the stereo faders on the AWS – which I was a big fan of. Strangely, I actually prefer the two faders now. Of course, I’ve worked on desks with mono channels since a very young age, which is probably why it feels natural. It’s almost like rediscovering a workflow that worked perfectly, before getting side-tracked by the convenience of in-the-box mixing during the late 90’s.

"I don’t know why, but it brings more out in me… It’s a lot of fun mixing on this

– Wez Clarke

"I really love the Group Control Faders as well. I normally assign everything to those… The first group is kick drum, then snare drum, then hi-hats, then bass… it goes on like that. I do the levelling there – right in the sweet spot all the time,” he explained.

Clarke uses SSL δelta-Control technology for automation – recording, editing, and saving analogue console automation inside his DAW using the δelta-Control plugin, while another important logistical advantage comes from the Duality’s direct channel outputs, which can be fed from several points along the channel strip. In this case, Clarke uses a post-fader send from each channel to print fader-panned stereo stems in a single pass – an important delivery requirement for most clients.

"I don’t know why, but it brings more out in me… It’s a lot of fun mixing on this,” Clarke added. “You can mould things more, and believe it or not, it has sped things up. You might think it would have slowed things down, but the recalls are fast and everything is to-hand."

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The iconic SugarHill Recording Studios in Houston, Texas has been sold by it’s parent company RAD Audio Inc. to an undisclosed buyer.

The studio was founded in 1941 as Quinn Recording by Bill Quinn.

It was acquired by producer Huey P. Meaux in the early ’70s and given it’s current name. SugarHill has welcomed various lengandary artists since then, from Lightnin’ Hopkins and The Big Bopper to Willie Nelson, Beyoncé, and Destiny’s Child.

The Studio’s president and owner for over two decades Dan Workman posted the following statement on Facebook on December 17:

I want all my friends and family to know about a very big change in my life.

Last Tuesday, Dec 12th, RAD Audio, Inc. sold SugarHill Recording Studios, and I officially stepped down as SugarHill’s president. The studio was purchased by someone who is dedicated to continuing the time honored legacy of the business, has a solid business plan, and who is keeping our awesome staff intact while bringing new talent into the fold.

I’m happy about the sale. This is a good thing!

I have been at the studio for 23 years and have been one of the owners for 21 years. I’m proud of what we accomplished at SugarHill. Now, I am super happy to have an opportunity to find out what the next stage of my life will look like.

I plan to continue producing and composing as well as doing my work in the art world. I have other ideas in the works, but I’m not going to rush to fill my time—I’m going to make room in my life for new and unexpected opportunities.

For now, I’m going to relax and spend time with Christi, Joe Ann, and the rest of my family.

I can’t wait to see what happens next!!!

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Mastering engineer Dave Kutch is celebrating the tenth anniversary of his Mastering Palace studio in 2017.

Kutch has mastered some of the biggest records of the past year, and has over the past decade earned the trust of artists such as Beyonce, Chance The Rapper, Justin Timberlake and Alicia Keys.

A Bronx native, Kutch began his career in 1992 at 19, assisting Tiki Recording Studios’ owner/engineer, Fred Guarino on a Debbie Gibson album being produced by the legendary Phil Ramone. That led to an assistant engineering slot with the late Hit Factory owner Eddie Germano, and to an opportunity to work with some of the best producers, tracking and mixing engineers of that era. An early collaboration with Alicia Keys led Kutch to brokering a deal for her to buy Tiki Studios, and provided him with the seed money needed to gear up a studio of his own.

“I’d been busy long before opening the doors of my own studio,” he says. “It felt like only months ago that I discovered a decommissioned firehouse a few blocks from Harlem’s Apollo Theater and turned it into a mastering studio. But it was 2007!” 

Today, the Mastering Palace features two custom mastering studios, piloted by Kutch and his talented cohorts Tatsuya Sato (A Tribe Called Quest), Mark Santangelo (Metallica) and assistant engineer Kevin Peterson.

The recent Grammy Awards provides a telling illustration of the span of Kutch’s client base. “We mastered 14 2017 Grammy nominees,” he reports. “Beyonce’s Lemonade was up for nine, including Record of The Year, and Album of The Year, and won two. Coloring Book, Chance The Rapper’s debut won for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Album.”

Biding his time as he searched for an appropriate site, Kutch began gathering gear for his own studio. In 2005 he left Masterdisk and signed on with Sony Studios. In 2007, when that studio was sold to condo developers, Kutch purchased all the gear he’d been using in his Sony Suite. In a flash of perfect timing, Alicia Keys, her then producer/partner Kerry Brothers and engineer/studio owner Ann Mincieli asked him to master Keys’ As I Am album in her Oven Studio – the same room where he began his career as an intern 15 years earlier.

Setting up on Long Island provided Kutch with a temporary home for his gear and enabled the Keys team to quickly provide custom mastered remixes of her hit No. 1 single on request for radio play. “They’d finish mixing a cut at noon, I’d master the song at 1pm, and it would be on the air at 2pm,” he recalls. “It worked so well I mastered Alicia’s next album the same way.”

The process inspired Kutch to design a ‘Private Mastering Service’ for other artists who prefer to master in their own studios. “I can have the entire studio ready to begin work anywhere in the world in two days time,” he says. “It provides artists with the comfort, and security of their personal listening environment. In fact, I mastered Beyonce’s Lemonade album this way.”

Above: Dave Kutch

By 2007 when he was ready to settle into his new Harlem digs, word was out on Kutch’s skills and service. “The vibe was right at The Mastering Palace,” he says. “Artists and record labels got what we were doing. They heard it! I was amazed when I took a step back and realised this is my tenth anniversary.”

To help grow his business, Kutch reached out to accomplished mastering engineer Tatsuya Sato. “Tats had worked on some incredible projects as a recording engineer including Michael Jackson’s Invincible and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Kutch says. “He’d also been Grammy nominated for Kanye West’s The College Dropout. We have a simpatico work ethic and mastering philosophy. We added a dedicated studio for Tats in 2015.”

Mastering engineer Mark Santangelo rounds out the engineering team with his extensive rock background and credits that include Slipknot and Metallica.

Assistant engineer Kevin Peterson began working with Kutch in 2012, and quickly became a crucial team member by building mastering credits like Tinashe’s Nightride.

“Over the past ten years we’ve cultivated an exceptionally talented team at The Mastering Palace,” Kutch concludes, "[and] clients pick up on it immediately. Artists know their music and their messages will sound exactly the way they envisioned them and with five winning Grammy nominations this year, it looks like the rest of the industry agrees."

http://www.themasteringpalace.com

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Prior to NAMM 2017, Adam Savage asked recording engineer Tom Syrowski, one of the TEC Awards nominees, to tell us about his work on the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show – the job that led to him being shortlisted for the prestigious accolade…

Tell us a bit about your role on the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show broadcast. What were your responsibilities?

My primary responsibility was making sure everything worked and sounded good once it got to the truck. As you can probably imagine there are a lot of people involved and most have never worked together before. Making sure everyone was on the same page was important. We had sound checks everyday the week leading up to Sunday to make sure we were all good.

What were the main challenges that you faced? Did you have to overcome any unexpected problems/obstacles?

Luckily I had done Bruno [Mars]’s Super Bowl previously so I knew what to expect, and it was great that Chris Martin and Coldplay were so easy to work with. And Bruno and Beyoncé having done their own Halftime Shows were pros as expected. Equipment and backup equipment was checked and double checked every day so we didn’t run into any problems.

How did this year’s show compare to your first Super Bowl? Were there similarities in the way you approached both jobs or did you have to come up with a completely different game plan?

The main difference with this Super Bowl was the weather. In 2014 the Super Bowl was held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. It was freezing everyday of rehearsals that year and extreme temperatures and electronics don’t go well together. So this year was great because we were in San Jose and had beautiful weather. We also had the amazing Le Mobile truck, which is one of the coolest and most reliable location audio trucks in the business.

Could you run us through some of the main equipment/facilities that you used? If you had to pick just a small selection of gear that you found yourself relying on most what would they be, and was there anything that you tried out for the first time or had to use in a different way to how you would normally?

The Le Mobile truck has a Neve 8058 48-channel console installed in the back. As an audio engineer, seeing this was incredible. Seeing a console like this in a world-class studio is not uncommon, but in the parking lot of Levi’s Stadium it is. As for gear, I relied the most on the equipment used for the vocal chains. I used a channel on the Neve, an LA-2A and a dbx 160. This is the same thing I would do in the studio and it has never failed me so there was no question as to what to use.

What was it like working alongside Brendan O’ Brien and Guy Charbonneau? We understand you and Brendan have been a duo for some time now and Guy has had such an amazing career so you must’ve been pretty happy with the team you had around you?

I have been working with Brendan O’Brien for the last ten or so years in some capacity or another but I’ve been his recording engineer for the last seven years. It’s because of the things I’ve learned over those years that I am the engineer I am today. I can remember when I was a kid and the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Blood Sugar Sex Magik came out, and back then I would read every last bit of the liner notes over and over again and Brendan’s name was on the back of that. So I feel like since the very moment I started truly loving music I knew his name and his work. Guy Charbonneau is a classic audio guy. His whole life is that truck and what it can do and I truly appreciated his help and experience.

How does it feel to be a TEC Award nominee?

I was very flattered and I am glad that the NFL, Coldplay, Bruno, and Beyoncé gave us the opportunity. It’s great to have our hard work appreciated.

What are you working on at the moment, and have you had any other big projects come up recently?

I have been working with some virtual reality companies lately helping them navigate the audio part of that experience, which is very exciting because it’s so new. I worked with Chris Cornell on his latest solo album Higher Truth, which was a dream because he is a hero of mine (I am a 13-year-old grunge kid at heart). I’ve also been producing some tracks for Joe Sumner who is a great friend and a very talented artist.

http://www.tomsyrowski.com

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Miloco has added one of New York City’s most prestigious recording facilities, Jungle City Studios (JCS), to its studio directory.

JCS studio director Ann Mincieli, long-time engineer and studio coordinator for Alicia Keys, has dedicated much time developing the studio and its catalogue of equipment, turning it into one of New York’s finest studios.The impressive four-room facility is located on the tenth floor of a mid-town building, which boasts sweeping views of the city surrounds.

One of the largest of the four rooms is the 2,400 sqft Penthouse East. Described as a ‘retro-futuristic’ room, it blends vintage and modern gear to accommodate any project and sound. With custom dual 15" Augspurger monitors, a 48-input SSL Duality desk and a vintage EMI TGI12345 Mark III console (one of only 20 built for EMI Studios in Europe) it is an ideal space for recording, mixing, video shoots or private events.

Penthouse West mirrors its Eastern counterpart with the same SSL and vintage EMI consoles. The Augspurger monitors were built specifically for the dimensions of both Penthouse rooms, and are complemented by Pioneer 1801 subwoofers powered by Bryston amplifiers.

In addition to these two larger rooms, JCS is home to two mix/overdub/production suites – the North Studio and South Studio.

The North Studio, designed with mixing in mind, is equipped with a 32-input Avid D-Control and Pro Tools HD4 with Expansion Chassis, and centred around Digidesign’s Icon D-Control. It also features gear from the likes of EMI Chandler, Antelope, Augspurger and Pioneer, making it suitable for mixing or vocal recording.

The versatile South Studio features custom work counters, perforated absorbing diffusers and acoustically-tuned walls covered in Louis Vuitton fabric. A dual functional Euphonix S5 Fusion console sits at the heart of the room, which uses Avid’s latest MADI converters. It also offers a slew of outboard gear, effects processors, up-to-date plug-ins and custom 15" Augspurger main monitors with 18" Pioneer subs.

As well as Alicia Keys, JCS is thought to be a studio favourite for artists such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kanye West and Rihanna.

http://www.milocostudios.com

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Waves Audio is preparing a series of small-group master classes on mixing, recording, production and other music and sound topics hosted by several well-known ‘audio visionaries’.

Set to take place at a luxurious estate in Franklin, Tennessee, near Nashville, Wavesland will see musicians, producers and engineers spend a weekend with leading professional in the field, immersing themselves in a collaborative educational environment complete with high-end studio and premium recording and mixing gear.

Each Wavesland master class is limited to 13 participants, allowing for an intimate, hands-on encounter with some of the industry’s biggest hit-makers.

Those taking part will benefit from privileged personal access to the professional secrets of the audio masterminds behind Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, U2, Adele, Led Zeppelin, Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters, Coldplay and many more, learning firsthand from the master instructor of their choice in a luxury environment with VIP accommodations.

The first Wavesland master class, now open for registration, will be led by Grammy-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge (Bruce Springsteen, Green Day) from 22-23 October 2016.

Other upcoming master classes include:

• Kevin Madigan: “The Art of Live Sound Maintenance” – 29-30 October
• Jack Joseph Puig: “The Art of Record Making” – 4-6 November
• Dave Audé: “Remixing vs. Producing” – 12-13 November
• Greg Wells: “Make Your Mix Come Alive” – 19-20 November
• Michael Brauer: “Making Your Mix More Emotional” – 3-4 December
• Greg Price and Brad Madix: “From the Stage to the Studio” – 10-11 December
• Eddie Kramer: “Mixing in the Modern World from a Vintage Guy’s Point of View” – 17-18 December

For more information on Wavesland, visit www.waves.com/wavesland.

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Powersoft provided audio for a crowd of over 70,000 that gathered for Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium last week, using over 120 of its K10 high-performance power amplifiers and eight custom subwoofers featuring Powersoft M-System drivers.

The pre-game and halftime entertainment portions of the event – powered solely by Powersoft amplifiers – featured energetic performances by Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, and reached no less than 111.9 million viewers.

Audio services provider ATK Audiotek provided system integration and audio services for the landmark event, creating an audio solution that consisted of 18 mobile speaker carts – each equipped with JBL VT4889 line array elements, JBL VT4880A subwoofers and Powersoft K10 amplifiers. The speaker carts were rolled onto the field for the pre-game, halftime and post-game portions of the event.

During the event planning processes, efficiency and footprint were key concerns, as Kirk Powell, systems designer of ATK Audiotek explained: “For events of this size, there is enormous power usage so efficiency is absolutely key. The Powersoft K10s minimise our power draw and provide maximum output efficiency,” he said. The small size of the amplifiers also significantly reduces truck weight and transportation expenses. “We had five packed semi tractor trailers carting gear up to the stadium, and every bit of space counted," he added.

The compactness of the Powersoft amplifiers – which occupy approximately one third the space of conventional amplifiers, the company says – helped enable a smooth transition during set up from game time to halftime. “They were able to set up and tear down the K10s really fast – and there was absolutely no shortage of power in the stadium," said entertainment FOH engineer Toby Francis.

In addition to harnessing Powersoft’s amplification capabilities, ATK also leveraged the firm’s Armonia software to handle tuning and DSP settings for the halftime show. "All of the system tuning – including filtering – was done in Armonia," explained Pat Baltzell, sound designer and FOH mixer for ATK Audiotek. "By using the filters in Armonia, we are able to attain a much finer resolution in the DSP than if we were using a standalone device.”

Pre-game programming included performances of "The Star-Spangled Banner", "America the Beautiful" and the Walter Payton award presentation; the much anticipated halftime segment included performances by Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars; the post-game programming featured the presentation of the Vince Lombardi trophy and Most Valuable Player award.

http://www.powersoft-audio.com/en/

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Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum engineer, producer, and songwriter Smith Carlson has voiced his approval for the PreSonus Sceptre S8 CoActual two-way studio monitors, which have become a major part of his set-up lately.

Carlson began his career at Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles, working on projects from Dave Grohl, Kanye West, and the television show Glee. He went on to work under Danja Handz, spent six months working with Pharrell Williams, and engineered for Sean “Diddy” Combs. In recent years, he has worked with such acts as Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Beyoncé, U2, and Demi Lovato.

“The Sceptre S8s are very flat and accurate, which is what I look for,” Carlson commented. “But they’re not boring; my mixes still have life. In fact, it’s exciting to produce with Sceptres. I don’t even know how it’s possible to be flat and accurate and still exciting but S8s accomplish it. I haven’t found that in many other speakers. Once I’m finished mixing on the S8s, I don’t have to check on different speakers and then go back and remix. I end up with a great mix that translates to anywhere.”

Many Sceptre users use the speakers’ rear-panel tuning controls to adjust to their spaces. But according to Carlson, his room is so well designed and tuned that the Sceptre S8s sound accurate with only one minor tweak. "I filtered off the bass a little bit, and it worked really well. Otherwise, I don’t change the settings because I don’t need to, and besides, I don’t really know what that would do to my signal,” he explained.

Carlson appreciates the S8s’ low-end reproduction: “Recently, I’ve been using S8s for every hip-hop project because the low end comes through really nicely,” he enthused. “They were a lifesaver! Nothing comes close to S8s sonically at their price point.”

PreSonus’ ADL 700 preamp/channel strip is another Carlson favourite: “I mostly use my ADL 700s for instrumental foundation tracks,” he stated. “The preamp sounds very clean, and it seems to help tame the highs, which makes it great on acoustic guitar. It’s also great for electric guitar and fantastic for DI electric bass. I use the ADLs for synths all the time, as well.”

One of the features Carlson is most impressed by is the ability to switch the order of the EQ and the compressor in the signal chain. He rarely uses the compressor, “but the EQ is fantastic. It’s really easy to use and the frequency bands are spread out nicely.”

http://www.presonus.com

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