Now in the hands of veteran mastering engineer Michael Romanowski, San Francisco’s Coast Recorders Studios has returned to the city’s recording scene with its huge live room restored to the original Bill Putnam design with materials from the late 1960s.

‘I have always wanted to offer the San Francisco music community more than just mastering services,’ Romanowski says. ‘I have an acoustic band myself and love to record live. Coast Recorders’ live room is a perfect place for that. It also has the right vibe and acoustics for rock recording, as well as jazz and small chamber music ensembles. By expanding our mastering services to two rooms we can cover more projects from start to finish all within the facility simultaneously. Mix One is stunningly appointed and sounds really great as a mix room. We’ve got a huge variety of outboard gear that even the biggest gear-head will be pleased with.’

The updated studio boasts a redesigned control room called Mix One, equipped with a new Rupert Neve Designs 5088 analogue mixing console and a wealth of analogue and digital outboard gear. The key audio equipment has been relocated from a private mix studio owned and operated by Tom Richardson.

A 32-channel Rupert Neve Designs 5088 analogue mixing console provides critical summing, routing and mixing functionality in the newly refurbished control room, along with high-end analogue mic preamplifiers, equalizers and dynamics processors, as well as an array of reverb options, a 48 I/O Avid Pro Tools|HDX system and a pair of ATC SCM150ASL main monitors.

Chief Engineer Sean Beresford had no previous experience with the desk, but has already found time to mix several projects on it ‘It doesn’t have that thick muddiness that, for me, some newer consoles have,’ he says. ‘Some people might consider the 5088 to be coloured in some way, and I guess it does have a kind of warmth and depth you’d expect from anything Rupert Neve designed. But, honestly, I find it to be really transparent and open and airy sounding. The depth of field and stereo imagery on the console is fantastic, and I’m finding that I’m able to get to a good point in a mix very quickly. I wasn’t sure what to expect of a modern day Rupert Neve design after having used his vintage ones for so long, and I’m very impressed.’

The console is configured without the optional Rupert Neve Designs mic preamp and EQ modules in order to take advantage of outboard equipment from manufacturers such as Chandler, Daking, DW Fearn, Focusrite, Langevin, Manley, Pendulum, Vintech, Wunder and others. Jeff Briss and the team at Cutting Edge Audio Group consulted on the project and supplied the majority of the control room equipment.

‘It really fits our workflow,’ Richardson says. ‘Once we come out of the DAW we want to stay analogue. We can patch any of the outboard gear between the outputs of the DAW and the console, and we can interface any of the dynamics into the buses. Whatever we want to do, it’s all on the patchbay.’

In addition to Romanowski’s own mastering suite, he has added a second mastering room and mastering engineer Piper Payne to the staff. The complex is a busy yet comfortable environment with recording and mixing engineers on the staff, including Beresford (Third Eye Blind, Vanessa Carlton), and Chief Technical Engineer Desmond Shea. Also within the complex are two independently operated mix rooms and the analogue two-track dub room for The Tape Project – an audiophile tape-based record label owned by Romanowski and noted engineer, Paul Stubblebine.

Romanowski has already begun a new series of recordings called the Live at Coast series, where artists perform and record in the Coast Recorders’ live room with a live audience. ‘There are so many great bands of all styles in the Bay Area, I want to give them a controlled live environment to make a record in,’ he says. ‘We’ve already had great success with it, the live audience has added a lot to the performances.’

Existing users of Yamaha’s LS9, M7CL and PM5D live digital mixing consoles are being invited to upgrade their systems to Dante working with the latest release of the Rio Series remote I/O boxes.

To mark the release of the upgrade to Dante, Yamaha Commercial Audio Australia is giving away Dante-MY16-AUD expansion cards with each purchase of Rio Series I/O. Each card provides 16 inputs and outputs per card slot, and Yamaha is giving away however many are needed for the I/O.

In addition to the ability to transmit unlimited channels of audio over standard Ethernet hardware, the I/O allows recording of up to 64 channels at 48kHz directly into a DAW via a computer's LAN port without the use of an external audio interface.

Dante is rapidly being adopted in the broadcast industry due to its AVB compatibility, providing unlimited audio transport available via standard Ethernet hardware including fibre. ‘Yamaha digital consoles equipped with Audinate's Dante-MY16-AUD will gain the ability use the head amp control feature and integrate with the new the Rio I/O racks,’ says Lee Ellison, Audinate CEO. ‘This enhancement further extends the complete Dante network ecosystem for Yamaha products.’

More: www.yamahaproaudio.com

Sold-out across several continents, Madonna’s MDNA Tour is taking her 11 musicians and 22 dancers around a succession of stadia and arenas. Along with costume changes, lighting effects and ground-breaking graphics, the tour’s audio system includes two DiGiCo SD7s – one at FOH and another on monitors.

The SD7 represents a step up for monitor engineers Matt Napier and Sean Speuhler, who were using a D5T on Madonna’s previous Sticky & Sweet Tour. ‘There are two of us because Sean exclusively mixes Madonna’s vocals and her vocal effects, all of which she insists be done live,’ Napier explains. ‘We effectively share the console – I use the SD7’s control surface and Sean uses an EX-007 expander unit to mix on.’

In total the SD7 has 114 inputs coming in from the stage rack. including effects, Matt is using 100 channels with Sean adding 30 more: ‘I think the SD7 is the only desk that can handle the amount of inputs and outputs we’ve got,’ Napier says. ‘In terms of surface channels on the desk, we’ve got about 160. In terms of outputs, I know there are over 50 mono sends by the time we take into account the musicians, dancers, side fills, subs, speakers for the MD, feeds for the video and recording. I don’t think there is anything else available that could do it.

‘Because Madonna is running on the left right buss, I’m using VCAs and groups to control and mix various elements for her. All of the music is routed through a group, which is delayed as she walks down the catwalk. When she uses the catwalk, everything other than her vocals is incrementally delayed up to a maximum of 30ms. It’s a 60-ft catwalk, but doing this acoustically reduces the length of the catwalk by about 30 feet, which helps her significantly.’

Tim Colvard is mixing the house sound alongside Mark Brnich (of the tour’s sound company Eighth Day Sound). A DiGiCo user since 2003, his use of dual SD7s on Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour was an unqualified success, making a similar set-up an obvious choice for this tour. The two SD7s are networked and mirrored, giving full digital redundancy – and peace of mind.

On mic...

Essential to the stage set-up is a large Sennheiser microphone and RF system, with Madonna using six SKM 5200 mics for each show.

‘The 5200s get a real battering,’ Napier says. ‘The whole first section of the show is highly stylised with an almost comic book aggression. There is, a lot of staged violence and the microphones get hurled around and are frequently being thrown to and from dancers and onto the floor.

‘We’re going through a new microphone every ten shows or so but, given that the 5200 is not a microphone designed for such abuse, I think they are standing up remarkably well. Of course we have a whole drawer of spares from Sennheiser...’

The tour uses six further 5200s with MD 5005 capsules for backing and guest vocal microphones. Together with Madonna’s vocal mics, these are paired with 12 MkII 3732 wireless receivers. Fourteen 2000 series wireless systems are used for in-ear monitors, with 14 more for guitar systems. In addition, the band’s percussion trio uses SKP 2000 plug in transmitters, taking the overall wireless channel count to around 50.

‘The plug-in transmitters are a very useful solution, because the trio comes on stage, does its section and goes off again,’ napier explains. ‘There’s no time to cable the musicians up. It’s a very neat way of using RF. On top of everything else, there is also a wireless comms system, so we are probably up to 70 channels of RF at each show – and we have had no problems at all.

‘MDNA runs through December this year, finishing in South America,’ Napier says. ‘Everything is working really well so far – and that’s exactly what you need on such a long-running tour.’

More: www.digico.org
More: www.sennheiser.co.uk

Theatre, event and broadcast sound specialist Orbital Sound has announced a training course in show mixing for aspiring theatre sound operators.

The two-day course is being staged at Orbital’s purpose-built training centre in Brixton, UK, and focuses on the practical skills and theory behind the best-practice FOH mixing requirements of musicals. Its emphasis is on what is required to achieve sound operating excellence, with principle tutors Marcus Wadland (UK tours of Blood Brothers, Never Forget, Whistle Down The Wind) and Daniel Bailey (West End productions including High School Musical, Rent and Fame) bringing their extensive mixing experience to the table for an intrinsically hands-on curriculum.

As well as the essential theory behind mixing, Bailey and Wadland will introduce students to the latest digital mixing technology from a variety of console manufacturers, whether the application is large-scale West End/Broadway shows or smaller regional productions.

The course numbers are limited to 12, with a low-cost non-refundable registration fee of £55 + VAT required to secure a place.

More information is available from Alex Waddle at Orbital Sound.

Cadac reports that its CDC Four console is now in full production and shipping to distributors around the world.

The CDC Four is a compact digital mixing console with 16 analogue mic preamps with gain control, fully emulated Cadac EQ, and an expandable input count of up to 64 inputs with a dedicated stage rack. ‘We have kept pretty quiet until now about just how good the CDC Four actually is,’ says Cadac Marketing Manager Patrick Almond. ‘But with the final production version successfully rolling off of the line in numbers, we can state categorically that this is an amazing sounding – truly Cadac sounding – desk. As our first digital production console, and a ground breaking, proprietary compact design, the success of this product development is a major milestone for Cadac.

All mic preamplifiers are 96kHz/24-bit. SHARC DSP is fourthth generation with 40-bit floating-point resolution, four of which are used in the desk.

The onboard 16 mic inputs, eight stereo inputs, six output buses and eight auxiliary sends are further expandable by connection of the dedicated stage rack, via Cadac’s proprietary Megacomms twin coaxial transmission system. Uniquely this allows the stage rack to be positioned up to 300m away and provides an additional 32 mic

inputs with digital control of the preamp functions and 48V phantom power, signal present and overload indicators, and onstage access to up to 16 outputs with signal present and overload indication.

‘The CDC Four gives an exciting new high performance offering across the widest range of pro audio and A/V applications and installation environments,’ Almond says. ‘While the wide ranging specification includes a number of features and functions, the relevance of which that might not seem readily apparent to a traditional mix engineer, these ensure the console’s effectiveness in other A/V orientated sound design and installation applications. Equally, within certain given constraints, there is no reason, in terms of sound quality, I/O count and configuration and mix operability, why you could not mix a West End show or a front line sound touring production on the CDC Four. In terms of sound quality, it would easily be the equal of or an improvement on the console you might normally use.’

In the UK, Cadac distributor CUK Live has already taken delivery of its first CDC Fours. ‘As a standalone digital console the CDC Four delivers Cadac quality and performance at a previously unheard of price point,’ Applications Manager Iain Cameron says. ‘However, the real strength of the CDC Four comes to light when you use it as a system, packaged with the stage rack. With the CDC Four as a package, you get a Cadac quality digital console, a Cadac quality stage box, linked together via Cadac proprietary transmission system. No other manufacturer offers this quality, this feature set and a transmission solution that allows the user distances of up to 300m between console and stage box for around £9,000 ex VAT.’

In use the CDC Four approximates analogue operation to a degree not previously achieved with a compact digital console; the desk is operable by someone who has never used a digital desk before. This is achieved via its intuitive interface and less menu-dependent operating system, 7-inch high-resolution TFT colour display and fully-motorised channel faders. Central is the extended channel strip, of which the control screen is effectively an extension; even the outputs have their own channel strip with access to the same processing power and facilities as the inputs.

The Central Assignment Module (CAM) controls Equalisation, Group Assignment, VCA control, Effects, Auxiliary sends and Dynamics. Each of these functions has a discrete control with no ‘doubling up’ or menu scrolling, enabling the desk to be operated as quickly as any analogue counterpart. Complex buss routing, auxiliary pre/post assignment and detailed dynamics are shown in the display, leaving more front panel space for quick access to real time functions.

Beyond offering 16 channels of Cadac mic inputs and EQ at such an astonishing price point, the CDC Four is uniquely specified in several other respects, compared with other compact designs, and mix consoles costing far more. These include the eight true stereo inputs, inserts on all inputs, direct outputs for all mono channels, and a full input meter bridge. Other top end features include eight dedicated Aux busses, two FX busses, four independent Group outputs, LR monitor output mono sum output, and line level LR output.

The CDC Four is competitively priced with UK pricing on a complete console and stage rack system coming in under £9,500; the CDC Four costing £5,799 and the CDC Four 32/16 stage rack £3,299 (ex VAT).

More: www.cadac-sound.com

Midas has given a VeniceU mixing console to Malawi’s Lake of Stars arts festival.

The gift of the newly launched desk is a symbol of the ongoing relationship between Midas and the festival following show director Will Jameson's use of one of the first Midas Pro2C desks to be shipped after its 2011 launch.

The award-winning festival takes place in the heart of Africa on the shores of the continent’s third largest lake. A year-round project, its mission is to promote Malawian arts and tourism through international interaction and exposure.

‘The Lake of Stars project gave the Pro2C its first real world challenge,’ says Midas Brand Manager, Richard Ferriday. ‘It had to handle FOH sound in extreme conditions including: hot air-born sand, high temperatures – up to 42°C – and high humidity. We hope the VeniceU will be equally useful to the Lake of Stars team.’

The VeniceU made its European at London’s Plasa 2012: ‘The VeniceU expands the Midas range of’ Digi-log hybrid consoles,’ Ferriday says. ‘It offers a user-friendly, high-quality analogue audio console with integrated 8x8 USB digital audio interface. Applications include multitrack recording, playback from computer, and live inclusion of third party plug-ins.’

The console continues Midas’ engineering concept of a hybrid mixer, using both analogue and digital technology. ‘The VeniceU offers a wider accessibility to Midas’ Digi-log technology than ever before,’ says Will Jameson. ‘It represents a comprehensive, integrated audio mixing, recording and processing package ideal for our intended use in training local Malawi technicians and aspiring engineers.’

More: www.midasconsoles.com

London’s Hippodrome has reopened as the Hippodrome Casino, following a multi-million pound conversion by leisure and gaming entrepreneurs Simon and Jimmy Thomas.

Alongside its casino, this incorporates an intimate 182-seat cabaret theatre – The Matcham Room. Set on the footprint of the venue’s original stage, responsibility for the technology infrastructure fell to Willow Communications, who called in Harman Professional UK & Eire distributor Sound Technology to provide a Soundcraft digital mixing desk at very short notice. Realising the urgency and with a show scheduled for that night, Willow MD Stephen Barlow contacted the company first thing in the morning and by 3pm a 32-channel Soundcraft Vi1 had been installed.

Good news for Willow Communications Project Engineer, Chris Hampson, who had recommended the desk, and head sound engineer Danny Kissane. Both men had previously used the larger Soundcraft Vi6, and Kissane had taken it on tour with Roots Manuva (having first discovered it while stage manager at Ronnie Scott’s club in London).

‘Having read reviews about the Vi1, to get 32 channels in such a compact footprint made it a logical choice,’ Hampson says. ‘The footprint was an important factor – but so was the need for a recognisable front end as there would be visiting sound engineers. Sound Technology’s speed of service was fantastic and it got us out of a tricky situation.’

‘I love this desk – it is perfect for a small, multipurpose space,’ adds Kissane, who moved from BBC Drama Birmingham to live sound. ‘It’s just a very easy desk to use as everything you need is on the top page. The preamps are jgreat, delivering lots of low-end body with rich highs that seem to go on forever without getting glassy. And with the Lexicon FX onboard, I no longer have to carry my PCM81 reverb.’

The Matcham Room is named after the theatre’s architect, Frank Matcham, while consultants on the build project were Charcoalblue. Artists who have already appeared at the venue include Tony Christie, Dionne Warwick, Janie Dee and Maria Friedman.

More: www.soundtech.co.uk

Designed by Rudolf Steiner, Switzerland’s Goetheanum is the global HQ of the Anthroposophical Movement, where an upgrade to the house sound system has recently been completed with the installation of two Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing systems.

Dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, founder of the philosophy of anthroposophy, the iconic building now boasts two iDR-32 MixRacks configured in DualRack mode with an iLive-T80 Surface in the control room in its main 1,000-seat auditorium. A smaller iDR-16 MixRack has also been purchased as a portable system to be used with a PL-10 remote controller in the venue’s smaller lecture and conference theatres, or added via the network for additional I/O in the main auditorium.

The Goetheanum hosts performances by artists from its in-house community, including the eurythmy dance troupes, as well as visiting performers from around the world. There are also conferences focusing on themes of general interest several times a year, as well as a regular schedule of conferences for teachers, farmers, doctors, therapists and other professions.

Anthroposophy, meanwhile, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development, and aims to develop faculties of perceptive imagination, inspiration and intuition through cultivating a form of thinking independent of sensory experience...

More: www.allen-heath.com

Recording specialist Chandos Records has invested in a 32-fader Studer Vista 5 digital mixing console, increasing DSP and I/O capacity over the company’s previous desk, which had ‘served it well’ for a decade.

With an eclectic and award-winning catalogue of classical music – much of it orchestral, choral and chamber music – the UK-based operation is renowned for its natural sound quality. Founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens, the independent label is now run by his son Ralph: ‘We needed 96kHz, 24-bit capability, which is our standard for recording,’ he conrifms. ‘Although our old desk would support 96kHz, this was only by halving the number of available channels and buses. We were faced with cutting it down to 48kHz or linking two desks together with Madi cards – but that would have meant buying a second desk.’

The 32-fader desk has 20 channel strips, optimised for input channel operation, and 12 additional versatile strips for operating output and input channels. By using the standard Vistonics screen, up to 52 outputs are under immediate control. Up to 240 channels can be accessed from the desk and laid out in any order, with the Vistonics system giving instant control over all related channel functions. The DSP power and I/O are configured to customer requirements.

The path that led Chandos to Studer paved with extensive recording work with the BBC Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras, the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

‘We were aware that all their resident BBC facilities were equipped with various Vista consoles,’ Couzens says.

It was at BBC Wales that one of the resident technicians recommended that Couzens try their in-house Vista 8, and offered to walk him through the operating process. ‘I instantly fell in love with the way the desk worked,’ he recalls. ‘I saw that Studer produced a Vista 5, which was portable – this was vital with location work.’

He and assistant engineer Jonathan Cooper attended a Studer Broadcast Academy event when Studer volunteered a demo rig for evaluation. Chandos Records set it up at Watford Colosseum – and Couzens was convinced.

Typically, Chandos records orchestral ensembles in excess of 100 musicians plus chorus – which places a heavy requirement on the I/O count. One such instance was at Watford Colosseum where the new console was used to record the complete orchestral works of Witold Lutoslawski by the 100-piece BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner – for release later in 2012.

‘We had 40 mic preamps and eight line outputs in the stagebox and record via Madi to our Sadie LRX2. Sound quality is so important and the Studer A/D converters [the most important stage in the process] in the Stagebox are also fantastic,’ Couzens says.

‘With DSP power you are mixing complex sound into a stereo bus but with the Vista 5 the sound and image stay true whatever the content you are mixing,’ he adds. ‘With our previous desk the sound could run out of steam with the combination of DSP power and A/D’s but with the Vista 5 everything remains crystal clear whatever the circumstances. I also love the desk’s EQ, its operating system is intuitive and it’s so configurable if we need to duplicate and expand.’

More: www.studer.ch
More: www.sadie.com
More: www.chandos.net

Counting more than 20,000 people attending its 14 Sunday services, Jiguchon (지구촌교회 – Global Mission) is one of South Korea’s evangelical megachurches.

With four buildings to serve – the main Bundang church and the GMN Chapel in Bundang-gu, the Suji church in nearby Suji-gu and the Gyeonggi University Chapel in Suwon-si – the church manages its audio with a newly installed DiGiCo SD7 console with EX-007 expander.

The SD7 and EX-007 provide two discrete mixes. The first –from the SD7’s surface – is for the congregation, while the other is a ‘broadcast mix’ which is routed to different rooms and the church’s other buildings from the EX-007.

‘The acoustics in the main hall are quite difficult, so if they transmit the front of house mix to the other rooms and buildings it can be quite a harsh sound,’ says Chanwoo Kang of DiGiCo’s South Korea distributor, Soundus Corporation. ‘Because the SD7 has such a high channel count and, by using it with an EX-007 they could produce two completely separate live mixes, mixed by two different engineers, from a single set of rack inputs.’

A key feature of the system’s flexibility is that the SD7 and EX-007 are installed in different locations – the SD7 is in the main body of the church, while the EX-007 is in a separate broadcast room. An additional DiGiRack in the broadcast room provides extra audio inputs and outputs, which are handily placed for the EX-007 mix engineer.

‘The church is using around 70 channels for the FOH mix and another 70 for the transmitting mix,’ says Chanwoo. ‘The channels are split into different layers, which allows them to perform the independent mixes at the two positions. The SD7’s dual redundant engines are mirrored for the utmost stability and the brilliant sonic quality means that both the FOH and the broadcast mixes deliver superb results.’

In addition to the Sunday services – which include gatherings for children, youth, university groups, young adults, foreign language services in English, Chinese, Japanese and a specific service for foreign workers – the Bundang church holds prayer meetings every day except Sunday and additional Wednesday services.

‘Initially, rack sharing and redundant mirroring were unfamiliar concepts to the church’s sound engineers, but they learned mixing on the system very quickly and they are very happy with what is a uniquely flexible set-up,’ Chanwoo reports.

More: www.jiguchon.org
More: www.soundus.co.kr
More: www.digico.org