Tag Archive for: Chris Hancock

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.

 

The Reckoning live session

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Last weekend, The Reckoning asked to do a live session where the focus was a live vibe, hopefully good drum takes, and if we got any good bass, guitar or vocals, well that would be a bonus.

It was a reasonably busy session with the mic input list being as follows (note I was on a Neve Custom 75 so used the console pres).

1: KICK IN – Audix D6 – JLM FC500

2: KICK OUT – Electro Voice RE20 – JLM FC500

3: SNARE UP – SM57 – JLM FC500

4: SNARE DWN – SM57

5: HAT – AKG 451

6: RAK – Sennheiser 421

7: FLR – Sennheiser 421

8: OH L – 414 B—ULS –  AMS Neve 33609 Limiter / Compressor

9: OH R – 414 B—ULS – AMS Neve 33609 Limiter / Compressor

10: Crotch – 441 – JLM FC500

11. BASS DI – Radial – JLM – LA500

12: BASS AMP Shure Beta 52a- JLM – LA500

13: GTR 1 A – Shure SM57

14: GTR 1 B – Royers 121

15: GTR 2 A – SM57

16: GTR 2 B – Royers 121

17: VOX – SM7B – Distressor

18: Room – Neumann U87 – JLM MAC stereo Opto compressor

19: Room – Beyerdynamic M58 – Distressor

 

The session went very well, and multiple great performances were captured. I think the band was of the general consensus that at least 5 great drum and bass tracks were captured, and that some of the guitar and vocals were perfect to.

Here are a few pictures from the session

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.

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In The Making Podcast by Make Shift

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Recently I’ve been doing the audio post production on a new podcast by Make Shift called In The Making.

I’m really enjoying the content; it’s all about the arts and the use of creative practices for best mental health. Within each episode, the host, Jennifer Macey interviews artist from various disciplines about their creative practice and the role of creativity in their mental health.

The first two episodes are currently available from all the usual outlets and feature the fabulous Australia creators, Kirli Saunders and Drew Fairley. Click on the images below to access the podcasts from Spotify. Alternatively here’s Make Shift‘s page on Spotify.

       

From an audio production perspective, it has been enjoyable to ponder best practice for podcasts, and as a result below is a reflection on my current signal chain.

For the main interviewee and interviewer audio, the processing and order of processing that has been working thus far is:

1. UAD SSL G Bus Compressor with a quick attack time and a gentle ratio to control the dynamics

2. Waves DeEsser to tame any sibilance

3. Fab Filter Pro-Q3 to add some warm in the low mids, some articulation in the mids and some further control of the sibilance/ high frequencies around 8-10kHz via dynamic EQ, see the EQ curve pictured above.

4. Waves Vocal Rider to level the differences in levels through the recording

Beyond that chain of plugins, a further bit of volume automation has helped control perceived levels that the AI of Vocal Rider hasn’t addressed. Secondly, some Izotope RX 7 De-Clip has also been used to remove any clipping that occurred mid interview.

All the vocal content/ channels have then been bused to a Vox Bus channel where a touch more compression and EQ has been applied to polish the sound.

Beyond vocal content, the podcasts have all made use of some atmospheric sounds and music. These channels of content have been routed to a Music Bus where some side-chain compression has been applied so that the Vocal Bus will compress or duck the musical content to ensure that the vocals are always the focus or dominant sound.

Both the Vox Bus and the Music Bus then route to the master bus. The processing on this final bus is pictured below.

The master bus chain is currently:

  1. UAD Studer 800 – applying some gentle harmonic warmth and some dynamic and upper frequency gentle moulding
  2. Oeksound Soothe 2 – a dynamic EQ, for lack of a better description, that looks for resonances. In this case Soothe 2 has been used to reduce resonances that plague the type of playback devices that podcast listeners will typically use, ie laptop speakers and earbuds.
  3. Slate Digital VBC FG-Grey – this compressor is one of my favourite mix bus compressors and in this case has then been used to glue the whole mix. The setting used are a slow attack and quick release with a gentle ratio for minimal gain reduction.
  4. Fab Filter Pro-L has finally been used to bring the level up to the desired professionally competitive level. Generally it is held that podcasts only require an RMS of between -16 to -12dB. So this was the level aimed for.

I hope you enjoy the In The Making series, I know I’m enjoying the content as I polish it.

For more tips on podcast production, there is a good introductory article by Izotope that I would recommend reading entitled 10 tips for a great sounding podcast.

Recording the NHSPA Choir

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This week I had the pleasure of recording the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts Choir.

The recording was for the theme music for a forthcoming animation series by Mat McCosker and colleagues. The animation is currently in the second round of animation funding with Screen Australia has has a uniquely Australian look and story. Good luck Mat and co, I hope to see this animation up their next to the likes of other internationally successful animation series such as Bluey.

Back to the recording, the theme music was written by Elana Stone and the choir’s was conducted by  Tanya Sparke. These two women are great Australia vocalists in their own right, please check out their works on Spotify by following the links.

To achieve the desired standard choir sound, I used distant micing as typical of standard choir recordings. In particular I used a ORTF pair of Sennheiser MKH8040 small diaphragm condensers at 4-6 feet from the choir, coupled with a spaced pair of Neumann U87s slightly deeper in the room. To provide a sense of depth, reverb and greater distance, I used a Rodes NTR Active Ribbon microphone to capture the room reflections. This figure 8 microphone was placed at the furthest point from the choir, and was hidden behind a baffle in order to prevent any direct source from the choir. The null of the figure 8 was pointing towards the choir / baffle, the polar pattern of the mic therefore only picking up reflections of the choir. This was compressed to taste and used in the mix to add depth and a natural reverb / room tone.

The transient response for the small diaphragm condensers, ie the MKH8040s was excellent, and for a more detailed overview of the differences between small and large diaphragm condensers, see this below article by Neumann.

All mics were tracked directly into the SSL924 at SAE Sydney. The cleanliness of such pre amps was deemed appropriate for the desired tone colour of the recording.

Below are a few pictures from the session.

Binaural Field Recording

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For those that don’t know, I have been a lecturer in the Audio department at SAE Sydney for the last 5 years. At the close of campus 2020, I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow some field recording gear, namely a Zoom F8 (multi-channel recorder) and a 3DIO binaural microphone. A big thanks to Akshay Kalawar and Mel Bertram for enabling me to access Brisbane’s 3DIO microphone, see the microphone type pictured below.

For those unfamiliar with binaural microphones, they replicate the human binaural (two ear) experience. The presence of two ears enables the microphones (placed in each ear) to capture aural cues such as ITD (interaural time differences) and ILD (interaural level differences). Simply put, the two ear microphone captures differences in arrival time of sounds positioned in space around the listener. For example, a sound to the right of the listener or microphone would arrive at the right ear/microphone before it arrives at the left ear/microphone. Such cues we call ITD (interaural time differences). Similarly, the microphone will pick up level differences between the two ears, for example, a sound to the left of the microphone will be louder in the left ear than in the right, hence capturing ILD (interaural level difference) cues.

There are also microphones such as the Neumann KU-100 that also emulates the shadowing effect of the head in the human aural experience, but will a price tag of 12K or thereabouts, I as yet haven’t had the fortune to use such as a mic. See the KU-100 pictured below.

The objective over the summer break was to capture some natural bush and ocean environments with the equipment on loan from SAE. I am grateful to be living these days on the South Coast and the natural soundscapes in my day-to-day life no only have a calming effect on my person, but an inspiration in my creative audio work. Elements of these recordings will inevitably find themselves woven into future electro-acoustic compositions that I will create.

Until then, I have minimally and cleaned up the recordings for public use and access. The recordings have been minimally edited to remove noises such as mic bumps and wind distortion. A touch of RX 7 Spectral De-Noise has also been used with a Reduction curve to focus on any low-frequency rumble from neighbouring highways and urban noise pollution in general.

If you would like to use these recordings, please do so as I have put them up on freesound.org with the Creative Commons license 0, ie you may use them commercially and do not need to credit me.

For those interested further in binaural recording, I have found on my journey both the written work and field recordings of Gordon Hempton to be highly inspirational. You can listen to his work at his website soundtracker.com, and to hear more about his efforts to preserve silent spaces, spaces devoid of any industrial noise, I’d very much advise listening to a great podcast, One Being, where Gordon is interviewed by the wonderful Krista Tippet.