Chris Hancock Archives - Page 3 of 5

Ars Electronica (Austria)

November 2, 2020/in academic, art, news, sounds/by chnetwork

Late 2019 / early 2020 I collaborated with Grace Kingston & Josh Harle (Tactical Space Lab), creating sound designed / composed sonic elements for their project, On Eco-Sensualities with Untethered VR.

I’m happy to hear that the project is currently exhibited at the prestigious Ars Electronica, the Austrian museum dubbed “Museum of the Future”

Due to COVID-19, the work is mostly only accessible on line at https://ars.electronica.art/keplersgardens/en/eco-sensuality/

The project involves live mapping of the VR users environment, accompanied with triggered audio that increases and decreases based on the user’s interaction with their environment. Grace and Josh demo the work in Centennial Park earlier this year.

Below are some images from the project, courtesy of Grace Kingston’s website, that give an understanding of the immersive, arguably trippy experience.

Great work Josh and Grace.

Mastering new EP by LeStrange for Germany Techno imprint Black Snake Recordings

September 21, 2020/in academic, news, recording mixing mastering, sounds/by chnetwork

Recently I mastered the new EP, Drench for rising Australian Techno producer Lyndsay LeStrange.

The three track EP is released by German label, Black Snake Recordings, and was an interesting mastering job from a loudness perspective.

Despite many articles about the end of the loudness wars, many artist and labels are still requiring masters that have higher LUFS or RMS than those being quoted as the new standard.

There are many informative videos, such as Dave Pensado interviewing Maor Appelbaum that suggest mastering is reforming and aiming for around -14LUFS, in line with streaming volume automation.

Personally, I’ve been loving new technologies such as the Meter Plugs’ Loudness Penalty plugin which shows how much various streaming services will be turning your masters down by. For an online version of that plugin visit https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/

Despite such things, labels are still requesting masters in the realm of -8 RMS, or if you belong to certain worlds / genres, this can even go higher. Check out the RMS reading of the reference tracks provided for this latest mastering job.

Needless to say, the client is always right, and similar levels were obtained via the combination of a few industry standard limiters.

Nainiouman – Dominion

September 9, 2020/in news, recording mixing mastering/by chnetwork

Early this year I mixed the track Dominion for the Central Coast artist Nainiouman.

It was released earlier this year with quite a graphic film clip on the label Pink Side of Purple. The subject matter was based on the 2020 Australian fires and the management or mismanagement of the our environment.

Due to the subject matter it created quite a bit of heated debate. The film clip is below.

Danga Island Drum Session

June 22, 2020/in academic, art, recording mixing mastering, sounds/by chnetwork

I recently had the pleasure of 3 days of recording drums with session player Mark Spence and producer Joel King.

Mark and I were put up in a lovely house a short stroll across the island from the studio. We worked into the early evening each day and enjoyed an open fire and island life after hours. The studio as you can see from the pictures is a garden studio set amongst fruit trees, a chicken run and a host of vegetable gardens.

Over the three days, we tracked drums for an electronic record, a country record and a pop single. Quite prolific!

Due to the project studio nature of the studio, we only had 8 channels in, but they were very decent indeed, 4 channels SSL Alpha VHD and 4 channel Warm preamp WA412. Both preamps performed well and it was certainly fun exploring the variety of tone colour possible with the VHD (variable harmonic distortion) in the Alpha VHD. For those that haven’t used these preamps before, the control allows you to shift between 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion, in short, a thickness through to a brighter harmonic saturation.

Other than that it was nice to work in a small room for a change. The surfaces were well treated, not too reflective and not too dead. As a result the drums were tight and had that classic small room drum sound.

Fortunately, I took personal protection earmuffs, as I was sitting within a meter of the ride and floor tom. Loud it definitely was, but with the earmuffs, not ear damage occurred and on a positive note, communication with the drummer was immediate and easy and even allowed giving hand signals to alert the drummer to changes in the tracks.

Below are a few images from the session and the mic input list. The studio boasts a good range of mics, mostly from Audio Technica, baring the very fancy Telefunken U47.

There’s only one beautiful compressor, the UA LA2A, but that wasn’t much of an issue as most of the mixing and compression will be done after the fact.

Due to the vibe, beautiful guitar collection, U47 and LA2A, I can’t wait to return with a folk artist of some description and spend a few days recording vocals and guitars.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, between takes, if one needs inspiration or a break, there is always a boat ride up the Hawkesbury River.

MIC INPUT LIST:

Kick – Audio Technica AE2500 – Warm Audio WA412
Snare Up – Shure SM57 – Warm Audio WA412
Snare Down – Shure SM57 – Warm Audio WA412
Rack Tom – Audio Technica – ATM250 – SSL Alpha VHD
Floor Tom – Audio Technica – ATM250 – SSL Alpha VHD
Overhead L – Audio Technica – AT8471 – SSL Alpha VHD
Overhead R – Audio Technica – AT8471 – SSL Alpha VHD
Room – Telefunken U47 – LA2A – Warm Audio WA412

South Coast Dreaming

June 9, 2020/in academic, art, recording mixing mastering, sounds/by chnetwork

My ambient project The Horizontal Society, has released their second record titled South Coast Dreaming on the lo fi spiritual label.

The record is a tapestry of field recordings, bamboo flute, tamboura, and some minimal chanting. Blissed out major scale drones attempt to communicate a deep gratitude for my recent sea change.

My move from Redfern to the NSW South Coast is definitely impacting my art and the sounds I am creating

I hope you find the record to be relaxing, immersive and that it transports you somewhere beautiful.

The release is digitally available from all the usual outlets.

Dub Techno release on Organica Sounds

June 9, 2020/in academic, art, recording mixing mastering, sounds/by chnetwork

In recent news, my Dub Techno alias TEChSLo had a release on Italian label Organica Sounds.

Titled Redfern Nights, the release is somewhat of an ode to my old Redfern neighbourhood. The record takes field recordings taking during the wet Redfern winter of 2018 and weaves them with more typical dub techno instrumentation such as dubbed chord stabs and 4×4 kick patterns.

The record is available on DJ friendly platforms such as Beatport and streaming services such as Spotify.

A film clip was also created which was mostly used for Instagram. I have recently posted a long play version on Youtube for those interested.

The rest of this post shall involve a reflection on the production:

I used field recordings of rain to emulate the noise floor and textural sounds that I have always loved in seminal records from Basic Channel and other alumni such as Echospace Detroit.

To achieve the maximal width, these stereo recordings have often been split into mono and placed out of sync to maximise left and right channel differences.

Embracing the Dub Techno emphasis on shifting tonality rather than chord structures, I have used a lot of the Max for Live LFO tool on this record. Specifically, each track has used multiple LFOs to slowly shift filter cut off frequencies and other variables. See my Youtube channel for tutorials relating to such techniques.

Tracks 4 & 5 are interesting to me and reflect my interest in the idea that a remix can be an opportunity to take a reductionist approach to the original sounds; stretching and turning them into their most basic tone or texture. These two reductions were heavily inspired by the works of Variant.

In researching many of my favourite Dub Techno producers, it has been noted that many of them have used reel to reel tape machines in their production. To emulate this analogue tape warmth, I have recorded all the audio stems to cassette tape and then re-digitised before the final mix. From a production standpoint, it has been interesting to see the harmonic stimulation and the softening of transients that such a technique has resulted in.

That’s probably enough of a nerdy audio reflection on the minutiae. If you have made it this far, I hope some of the above-mentioned technique inspires your own production.

Cassette & digital release Opening Spaces on Constellation Tatsu

March 9, 2020/in Uncategorized/by chnetwork

Hooray! I have a new ambient release, this time on the Californian label Constellation Tatsu.

The lovely folks at the label have just released my EP as part of their Winter Batch of cassette releases. It can also be found at all the usual stream sites, such as Spotify below.

I have put this new EP out under a new alias, Open Spaces. Both this work and future works under this alias will be used to explore the realms of 360 audio. This EP was largely written as part of my Masters research into 360 audio techniques such as binaural recording and ambisonic spatialisation software, such as the open source freeware from Envelop.

A big thanks to Steven Ramsey and the rest of the Constellation Tatsu folks for believing in this record.

Binaural sounds

October 21, 2019/in academic, art, news, recording mixing mastering, sounds/by chnetwork

In recent sonic research I have been experimenting with the Hooke Verse binaural microphones.

Coupled with a portable recorder, I have been capturing some 360 sonic panoramas of the south coast coastline, weather & bush environments.

Due to wind & background noise, some of the recordings have needed a bit of RX7 Spectral De-Noise and post production in general. As a result I have recorded a Youtube video which serves as a good intro to Izotope’s RX7 De-Noiser.

Lastly, a few of my favourite immersive 360 recordings from the session can be found at my freesounds.org page. Be sure to check the file titled trying to record 360 sound in the bush with the kids. Whilst unusable for what I intended the audio for, it does demonstrate the Azimuth abilities of the microphone set up, by that I mean the variable that can position sound spatially behind the listener.

From a binaural sound recording angle, Gordan Hempton, has been a bit of an inspiration of late. You can hear some of his super high resolution Neumann KU-100 Dummy Head binaural recordings through Quiet Planet, and their Soundcloud.

On a more beats tip, I’ve been revisiting Yosi Horikawa and his use of 360 field recordings within electronic music. The below 2018 Red Bull documentary shows him busy in field-recording mode with what looks like a strange DIY four capsule mic build.

Safe travels and happy adventures in sound to you all.

M. McCosker Fith Studio Session

September 23, 2019/in news, recording mixing mastering, Uncategorized/by chnetwork

A graduate of SAE has set up a studio down the road from my newish residency in Thirroul, namely, Fith Studios.

I’d been looking forward to taking a session down there, and some vocals and guitars for Michelle McCosker’s debut album seemed the perfect combination.

Fith Studio is a small, one live room, one control room set up, featuring a TLA Audio console, a small selection of outboard, and owned and run by some lovely crew.

How did it sound? The room was small enough, and live enough that when the vocalist hit their louder notes, the room sound became quite present in the recording when using condenser mics. Fortunately, the room reflections suited the tracks, sounded pleasant, and therefore the recording became a recording in the old fashion sense of the term; a record of a particular performance in a particular room / acoustic environment.

The stand out signal chains from the session included Fith’s in-house Neumann TLM 49 combined with their Neve 1073. The TLM 49 shares the same capsule as the famous U47 & M49, and approaches the warm sonic signature of the tube-based U47, but from a transformer solid-state technology. This into the legendary 1073, was a lovely coupling for a classy vintage vocal tone.

Also sounding great was a combination of gear that I brought down to the session, that being a pair of Sennheiser 8040s, coupled with a pair of Telefunken V672 preamps. The warm, classy definition of the 8040s combined with the vintage quality and character of the V672s was a great stereo A/ B micing combo on acoustic guitars.

Reflections; the studio is cool, but suits louder music generally. Those TLA preamps in the console need a bit of volume to get them going as they have a max of 60 dB of gain. Further, the slight sound bleed from outside noises and weather means that again, loud sources are the safest best for recording in this space.

Nevertheless, stoked to have such a studio within walking distance from home, and stoked to be recording the great vocals and songs of M. McCosker.

Below are a few shots from the session.

The Grove Studios

September 12, 2019/in academic, news, recording mixing mastering/by chnetwork

Recently, I visited The Grove Studios, Studio 1, to record drums for a client’s record. We stayed at the studio over two days, loved the studio, pulled some great sounds and had a great time. A big thank you to Scott, Izaac and Owen for having us.

The input list for the session is at the end of this post. Stand out signal paths from the session include; the Crunch / Crotch mic, our Gabriel Roth / Daptone, one mic technique, and the Kick Out signal.

For a crunch mic, I usually will use a Sennheiser MD441-U (left), but went with a MD421 (right) as despite The Grove’s great mic locker, they were without a 441.

The mic worked well, but the real gold within this signal chain was a Neve 1064 (Pre-amp and EQ), and DBX 162 Stereo Compressor.

The Neve 1064 has that lovely colouration that has been commented on by many, and the DBX 162 can be driven into harmonic colouration as well. All up, it was a tight, warm and coloured signal that proved very punchy within the overall drum sound.

On a similar one mic technique, we used Gabriel Roth’s one mic trick, that being a mic placed side of kick, almost under the snare. The mic chosen was a vintage Reslo ribbon, notorious for a mellow lo-fi high-end frequency content, or lack thereof. The Reslo was patched into the SSL 4000 G console to balance the mellow top end of the ribbon with the brighter SSL preamp and EQ options. Further, an 1176 Silver Face was inserted to smash the signal, apply colouration, and to compress the signal and bring forth all the drum sounds into a tight image. Again, within the drum mix, this particular mic gave us access to a punchy, lo-fi, coloured overall drum sound.

The kick-out signal was comprised of a Rodes Classic in Omni (for a larger bottom end), a blanket to help the kick have separation from the rest of the drum kit, and the Neve 1064 preamp for a coloured and thick low mid. The signal was then routed to Empirical Labs Distressor; a slow attack, quick release applied. The high pass button was engaged in the signal detector to allow the bottom end under 80Hz to not trigger the compression and result in a larger uncompressed low end.

In conclusion, what a live room and control room. Very highly recommended for any studio needs. Lovely grounds, functional kitchen, and accommodation to boot. Below are some pictures from the session and the input list.