Dharawal composition commission

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I love composing to picture, and in Sept 2022 I was asked to create the sound track for a short promotional documentary on Dharawal country. The job was commissioned by Wollongong Council and produced by Mane Collective.

 

The budget was such that it afforded being able to record local indigenous performer Dale Wright on Yidaki and boomerang clap sticks. Yidaki, or as it is commonly know, Didgeridoo, is not actual an instrument the people of Dharawal country played, but rather originates from the north eastern Arnhem land. Nevertheless, Dale has been bless by the north eastern mob to carry the sounds of Yidaki south, and rightly or wrongly, it is a sound that evokes a sense of the indigenous people and history of Australia at large.

In talking to Dale, I was excited to come to a better understanding of the musical history of Dharawal country, and was told that the men usually played boomerang clap sticks and the women drums made from possum skin.

In trying to be aware and sensitive to all parties viewing and using the documentary, the sound palette that was chosen included:

  • a bed of skin drums, clap sticks, yidaki and field recordings taken from the area. Such sounds were used to place the view on country
  • a range or transitional synth sweeps and synthesizer effects that capture the movement of the weather patterns over the escarpment
  • a chord progression or two that used traditional folk and pop stylings to create a light uplifting emotion
  • and lastly a few modern electronic or dance music influenced drum patterns and techniques to give the product a contemporary flavour.

The direction that the composition and overall sonic arch of the documentary was informed by Jamie LePre, Mane Collective Director. His sense of country and understanding of the task on hand made his direction specific, inspired and a pleasure to work with. I think both Jamie and I enjoyed the back and forth of compositional ideas as the pictures rolled in, and I hope we get to work together on more projects soon.

Below is a few pictures from the recording session with Dale Wright at Stranded Recordings in Bellambi.

 

 

Mixing SääD’s Never Come Back

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Earlier in 2022 I mixed a new collaborative EP by neo-folk artist SääD and jazz musician Johnathan Holowell.

The beautiful first single, Never Come Back is out now

This is the second EP I have mixed for SääD, and was not without some interesting production challenges worthy of discussion in this production blog.

Firstly, the collaborative nature of this record, involved a lot of lo fi, iPhone recordings of Johnathan on keys or double bass. Whilst, full of atmosphere and vibe, the recordings were at times very resonant, by this I mean a lot of concentrated frequency content, often in the mids, such resonances causing distortion problems for smaller speakers at the start of the mixing process.

For example, the main piano / keys featured in this single were recorded via an iPhone at a distance from Jonathan’s keyboard / keyboard speaker. Due to the frequency response of the iPhone’s inbuilt microphone, and due to the proximity effect, the keys have a majority of frequency content concentrated between 500Hz and 2kH.

To solve such issues of resonance, my production tools relied heavily on multi-band compression, and frequency specific compression, such as Fab Filter Pro-Q3’s dynamic EQ, and Oaksound’s Soothe 2. This somewhat modern ability to compress certain frequencies enabled me to control certain frequencies that were causing distortion in smaller speaker types. See the images of such plugins below.

Further, to address the lack of frequencies in other areas of the spectrum, due to some of the lo fi recording techniques, saturation, was used to stimulate and inflate both the bass and high frequency content. Currently, my tools of choice in these areas of saturation are Waves’ Vitamin, for multi-band saturation, and Slate Digital’s Fresh Air for more high frequency simulation.

I’ve also made a quicktime screen grab of a technique that I often use to create space in a mix for a vocal. Check that video out below

It’s always a pleasure to work for the artist SääD, and I hope this short article inspires other producers out there.

 

Open Spaces – The Wandering Mind EP

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One of my ambient music aliases, Open Spaces, has released a new EP of works titled The Wandering Mind. The EP is released by the Australian imprint, lo fi spiritual, and can be found on all digital platforms.

This alias focuses on creating ambient spaces and moods that engage the listener in a two way relationship rather than the usual one way consumption of pop music. This ambient release aims to have an ambiguous edge to the music, in other words to create a sonic environment where the listener is unsure of what is part of the music and what is sounds from the outside environment. A metaphor if you will, for the wandering mind, that is shaped and influenced by both the internal and external environment.

The moods of this record therefore rely on a combination of field recordings, synthesis and 360 mixing to create immersive sonic environments.

For those interested in such concepts of ambient music, here’s a great introductory video of one of the ambient music forefathers, Brian Eno, talking about such concepts.

 

Sound West – Immersive Sound conference presentation

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In August I was invited to speak on Immersive Sound at the Sound West conference at the CommBank Stadium at Parramatta.

Chaired by Radovan Klusacek (SAE Sydney Campus Manager) and joined by Stewart Gedes (301 Studios), we covered many aspects of the emerging field of 360 audio.

The session gave a history of immersive 360 audio, from university based researched through to the easily available plugins and DAW enabled 360 tools available to the modern producer.

The Q&A at the end of the panel was interesting in that it definitely appear that we had engaged some of the young producers in the room to experiment with some of these new production tools and capabilities.

If you are a producer and are interested in the creating 360 music and audio, here are a few links to get you started.

Ableton Live user try the open source freeware – Envelop For Live

All DAW users try the free dearVR micro plugin

ProTools users try the FB360 suite

Logic Users – enjoy the fact that as of Logic Pro 10.7 (2021) dolby atmos spatial mixing is now native to Logic. Here’s a quick youtube tutorial to get you started.

 

Solfeggio Sculpture in 360 audio

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During 2021 I wound back most of my freelance work in order to finish my masters. For my final masters project I focused on creative research into the emerging technology of 360 audio spatialisation. In particular 360 spatialisation that can be encoded to binaural format for headphone listening.

I reviewed the literature on human spatial perception and looked at what is and isn’t possible within the 360 compositional space.  

This creative experimentation within the 360 space explored concepts brought forward from the literature review, and resulted in 4 EPs of spatialise compositions for headphone listening. Some of the compositions have become quite minimal in order to leave space for perception of the 360 space, in particular 360 parameters such as azimuth, elevation and radius. Further, the academic atmosphere of the research has put me in the mood to return to my on going interest in the esoteric side of audio, ie binaural beats, solfeggio frequencies and the like.

The first of these works has recently been released through lo fi spiritual and can be heard below. The title of this first release is Solfeggio Sculptures and is released under my own name rather than any of my previous aliases.

Mixing Scott Ferrier EP

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Earlier this year I was sent a bunch of Pro Tools sessions to mix for the singer songwriter called Scott Ferrier. The sessions as per usual were a bit of a brain dump of a whole bunch of ideas, but buried within all the tracks was a beautiful heartfelt simplicity and vocal tone that was honest and charming.

The record was a good learning curve as to the benefits of the mix engineer, myself in this case, taking on a more produce type role. The tracks were bubbling with possibility, but often the verse and chorus were hidden within the session and the tracks and instrumentation weren’t fully formed to compliment the verse chorus structure.

I’m thankful for the confidence that both Scott and recording engineer Joel King put in myself, allowing me to strip back the recordings and structure them to best compliment the timeless verse chorus format.

Scott’s release Garageband is not out at Spotify and beyond, and the title track also has had a video clip made for it as well. Check it all out below.

Enjoy!

Organica Compila 3 – Remix Collection

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Out now is a remix I did for the Italian label Organica Sounds on Organica Compila Vol 3, listen at the below Spotify link.

I was asked to remix a track from Kurl‘s recent release Visions of an old man and decided on remixing the track Dub Trip, listen at the below Spotify link

The track is released under my more Dub Techno orientated alias TEChSLo and is featured as the second release on Organica Compila Vol 3.

It was an interesting journey, label head Pascal had initially asked for a clubby remix, which under the influence of some of my students at the time resulted in a more Tech House remix. After providing a sketch of the direction the remix was taking, Pascal kindly replied, “you’re professional as usual! So, to be honest this is not my favourite kind of music, but if this is your interpretation, it is! I would prefer something more housy and groovy….but, as I said, you are the remixer, so you can do what u want!”

Wanting to execute the brief and satisfy the label I asked for a reference track to avoid any further misunderstandings. Pascal provided some great mellow groovy house references and I used that as an opportunity to map out some of the “grooves” / quantisation patterns in the references. In particular I was trying to capture the shuffle or groove in the hats of reference tracks such as the below track.

For my students I created a Youtube video on how to map out such groove templates within Ableton, that can be found below.


The second version with a more funky groove and less hard hitting drop met with the following response from Pascal, “This is fantastic! Huge work on it! Perfect!”

In reflection I feel that I satisfied the brief, but on listening to the whole record I feel that my track could have been a bit more dubbed out and ambient. That would have fitted better with the overall sound of the compilation and also been more inline with the TEChSLo sound.

I feel that this has been a good lesson in asking for exact reference tracks and the importance of groove templates. Further, I feel it is also a good lesson in not always following the stereotype of a remix being a more banging version of the original track.

Ambient music mastering

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Last week a new release which I mastered came out by Broken Chip called Winter Rain on the lo fi spiritual imprint.

I mastered both this record by Broken Chip as well as his 2020 release Small Shrine, and in reflection I feel the mastering of both of these records was a significant learning curve.

Firstly, when mastering ambient music one has a different set of concerns to when mastering more beat-based music. I have found that ambient music without transient heavy instrumentation such as kicks and snares, enables one in the mastering process to get uniquely high volumes whether one be metering via RMS or LUFS.

As streaming is setting new standards of LUFS, and arguably undermining the previous era of loudness wars, the ability to get such high volumes is actually a concern that I’ve found I have to be aware of.

Such issues I am familiar with from previous ambient music mastering sessions. However, these last two records by Broken Chip provided a new challenge. Both records were both created from a live improvised performance and contained overly resonant filter sweeps, cut offs and EQs. The files I had to work with couldn’t be remixed as the performance was only captured in a summed stereo recording. The resonances I speak of were creating all types of distortion when played back on smaller systems such as laptop speakers.

In practice EQ, compression and even dynamic EQ was not getting the tonal results that I wanted. Distortion was still occurring on smaller systems. The solution that I ended up going for was the relatively new era of what I’ll call spectrum wide dynamic EQ, in other words smart new plugins such as Soothe 2 by oeksound that enable frequency specific compression across the whole audible spectrum. See the Soothe 2 plugin pictured below.

I found this plugin to be essential in taming the spectrum wide resonances that were present in the original recording. I had only used Soothe sparingly before and this particular mastering session has really cemented it as one of my go to plugins for such situations.

Finally, it is indeed fun to be an engineer in an era of new gear and technological revolutions. The past 2-3 years has seen some very unique new digital plugins hitting the market.

 

Drums with Nick Cassey

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Recently, I had the pleasure of getting Nick Cassey down for a late night drum session for a record by Michelle McCosker. The musical vibe we were after was warm, laid back, country and reflective pop with an openness to a contemporary tone.

The session input list was, as below, using the pre amps in the Neve Custom 75 in Retro Mode:

  1. Kick In – Audix D6 – JLM FC500A Fet Compressor
  2. Kick Out – Electro Voice RE20 – Distressor
  3. Snare Up – SM57 – Distressor
  4. Snare Down – SM57
  5. Hat – AKG 451
  6. Rack Tom – Sennheiser MD421
  7. Floor Tom – Sennheiser MD421
  8. Overhead L – AKG414 B-ULS – AMS Neve 33609 Limiter / Compressor
  9. Overhead R – AKG414 B-ULS – AMS Neve 33609 Limiter / Compressor
  10. Crotch mic – Sennheiser 441  – JLM FC500A Fet Compressor
  11. Blumlein room Mid – Nuemann U87 – JLM LA 500A Opto Compressor
  12. Blumlein room Sides – Nuemann U87 – JLM LA 500A Opto Compressor

Wins from the session included:

Nick Cassey’s performance and his array of home made brushes made from various natural grasses from his adventures through the Australian landscape.

The D6 and RE20 combination of mics and processing on the kick. We had a scooped sub and tap from the D6, which was complemented and filled in nicely with the warmth from the RE20 on outside kick duties.

Further, I really enjoyed the warmth and tone of the pre amps in this console in general.

Other wins include the darkness and warmth of the old AKG414 B-ULS compared to the newer ones. That tone worked well on the overall drum sound.

Lastly, both the JLM 500 series compressors were enjoyable to work with, and I look forwards to understanding their tone better across future sessions.

A big thank you for Nick’s time and drum work on this record.

Below are a few pictures from the session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neve Custom 75 w Brani Gerun

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It’s in between trimester break, and as well as finishing some mixes for clients and a variety of my aliases, I have decided to finally take Senior Lecturer Brani Gerun up on the generous offer to have a quick crash course / masterclass on the Neve Custom 75 at SAE Sydney.

Below are a bunch of notes for myself, and any who may benefit:

  1. As with any console, especially one that gets used by a lot of students, it is good to know how to recall the initial setting – To do so hit RCL, then O and then RCL (recall) again in the centre of the console. The console will now be in record mode

 

2. The main input path has 4 option, selectable by the input button – Mic, DI (no 48v automatically activated), DAW & line. Note the input paths can be changed globally for the desk by using the Channel Modes in the centre of console and holding down the CH INPUT button till all channels switch to the next input option. Also note that each channel strip has the usual Neve 6dB steps, a trim pot, phase flip, +48V and a HPF.

 

3. Auxes and headphone mixes – Aux 1 at the bottom, 5 Auxes, with Aux A & B being stereo. Note the gain pot when pressed will switch the Aux send from pre fader to post fader, for both channel path (default) and Monitor paths. Note Aux A & B share a gain pot, but can be isolated via the master Aux section in centre of the console. You can listen to the any of the Aux via choosing the Aux from the Monitor Source (note usually on Retro OP default). After dialling in the level you desire from each channel, turning up master Aux, potentially soloing / auditioning that Aux, the you need to allocate that Aux to the relevant Headphone channel in the Headphone section of the console. Note the green volume control increases will be effective for the listener on headphones but won’t be heard on the console. 12 o’clock is a good starting point. Re communicating to a performer on that headphone send you can hold down the relevant headphone channel or Aux in the communications part of the console, again 12 o’clock is a good starting position.

4. Neve EQ section, mirrors the 1081 EQ, note the EQ section, even individual parameters within the EQ, are only in the path when engaged. Also the EQ in only in the channel path not the monitor path (below the EQ section), so one must change the console input mode to DAW to use the EQ in a mix senario. Note the EQ section also contains the INSERT button and the INSERT is after the EQ. The patch bay is half normaled so the signal will go to the DAW regardless. Note the insert button can be used as a bypass button when judging an outboard compressor setting or equivalent patching decision.

5. Second Audio Path, generally used as the monitoring path:

Solo, Cut, Level and Pan, you can choose select and change it in the centre of the console, DAW return is the default with no line light on. Note in default mode the big fader is input to DAW level the pot is the return from the DAW

6. Solo Section:

You have AFL (after fader listen), PFL (pre fader listen), SIP (keeps the signal where it is panned), SIF (solo in front) dims the rest of the mix.

7. Speaker selection:

8. Faders and possible FEEDBACK! Each channel goes to the master bus and direct out, so if both faders up can cause feedback. You can select one channel at a time and take it out of main mix, but for now, Brani recommends we just use the Mon fader for most options. So leave all channels on main, and just use the monitor main red fader, and have the Monitor Source section of the console set to Mon Mix (see below).

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In default mode, the long faders feed tape / Pro Tools, but note the fader and pot relationship can be flipped globally in the Console Modes centre section via the Fader Flip button (see below). In that state, the bottom pots are feeding the recording medium and the fader is the return from that medium. NB in the Console Modes control section we can engage Fader Swap by holding it in, so that the small pots feed Pro Tools and the big faders return from the Pro Tools session. NB the HPF per channel also engage per channel the Fader Swap mode.

9. 2254 compressor / limiter: Note the Right VU meter is not working. The unit is available on the patch bay. Using the metering button you can meter the input, GR or output. Note left is on the bottom, it will take the compressor threshold from the side, left or right that has the lowest threshold. Also NB that the compressor make up gain is prior to the Limiter, so you can drive into the limiter if required.

10. Rev / Returns. The console has 4 reverb returns which are available on the patch bay, so the operator can for example set up a reverb on an Aux and then feed it back via the REV/RETs and then can choose via buttons whether that gets routed to Mon Mix, Main Mix or HP 1 or HP 2, there is a gain pot as well per channel to determine the level.

11. Traditional Neve design sums voltage, SSL sums current (voltage remains same), voltage summing uses transformers, current summing uses Op Amps, hence the more coloured sound of Voltage summing. On the patch bay the Retro Mix sums via transformers (Iron based), whereas the Modern Mix sums via op amps. To send to either summing path you can select per channel via the Retro button, note if not engaged it goes to the op amp / modern path. Note these can be change globally in the centre console modes.

To sum mixes chose your summing mode and patch from that and into “To DAW” channel desired, and then out of the “From DAW” channels.

And then patch to 2 Track Mon In, that way you can monitor post Pro Tools and really understand what is being recorded. NB don’t pull faders up of the channels as that will create a feedback loop.

…….

There is a long way to go but with this console, but I’m very grateful to Brani for helping start me on my journey with this console.