Filmed over nearly five years across all seven continents, the BBC Natural History Unit’s Seven Worlds, One Planet wildlife documentary series features a theme and score composed by Hans Zimmer and Jacob Shea of Emmy- and BAFTA- nominated Bleeding Fingers Music. For this latest series, Shea – who also shared music credits with Zimmer on the the BBC’s Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II series – made a significant change to his workflow, implementing Eventide’s flagship H9000 multi-effects processor and Emote control software.
‘The H9000 is just so deep, and so thoughtful, in terms of the way that these effect algorithms are built. I’ve had it for a year now and I feel like I haven’t scratched the surface,’ says Shea, who integrated the processor into his studio at Zimmer’s multi-room Remote Control complex in Santa Monica, California.
Shea opted for the H9000R, a version of the 2U-high processor unit with no front panel controls. Control of all the settings and parameters is handled by Emote, which is available as a standalone Mac and Windows application and as an AAX, AU and VST plug-in. When instantiated as a plug-in, all of Emote’s parameters may be automated within the DAW session. ‘I use a two-screen system; one screen has Logic and the other has Emote in full view,’ he says.
The H9000 introduces a new paradigm, FX Chains, that allow connection of any set of four effects from the H9000’s 1,600-plus algorithm library. As a guitarist, says Shea, ‘what I enjoyed doing when I first got it was just building weird chains of stuff’.
He says he has found the reverb algorithms in the H9000 particularly inspirational. He employs a Session preset loaded with eight reverb algorithms, including halls, rooms, plates, Blackhole and Shimmer: ‘A lot of times, when I was working on an emotional piano-and-strings piece, those H9000 algorithms beat anything I had in-the-box.’
Shea began using Eventide plug-ins long before adding the H9000 and says that one of his favourites is still the SP2016 Stereo Room. ‘I use that all over,’ he says, typically to reposition a close-miked source in a larger space. ‘It feels like you recorded it in a more expansive place than where you actually recorded it. Alan Meyerson hipped me to that process on Planet Earth II, when he mixed the score for that series.’
As a composer, Shea says that he really appreciates the musicality of the H9000: ‘It was a breath of fresh air when I pulled up the pitch-shifting algorithms. I can just focus on my idea as a composer and not have to worry about a wrong note jumping out and taking me out of it. It has made playing with the thickening of harmonics effortless.’
Seven Worlds, One Planet debuted October 2019 in the UK and on multiple outlets in the US in late January 2020.
