Entering a vast, uncharted cave system, the team suddenly lose contact with their advance reconnaissance. A broken fibre-optic link has them fearing the worst, but our man is safe and the link is quickly repaired – then the real trouble begins.
If the monsters we later encounter as the team explore the secret depths of Bruce Hunt’s The Cave are somewhat far-fetched, terminating fibre with crimps and electrical tape is simply ridiculous…
The phrase ‘poor relation’ is uncomfortably familiar to most audio professionals. Whether in broadcast, live sound, club installations or even games, the achievements of audio technologies and technicians are regularly obscured by everything from lighting to CGI. Even conferencing systems suffer the same injustice – as elsewhere, audio gets most attention when it fails.
But conferencing is presently a hot topic – particularly for Symetrix.
Richard Ferriday and James Godbehear are in agreement – while their recent move from Midas to Cadac took the industry by surprise, it also presented them with something of a culture shock.
‘We’re now in a place where our contribution can make a difference to what goes on,’ Ferriday says. ‘It’s nice to be back in a position where you can make decisions and live or die by them.’
‘I’d say I am a bit of a gear geek – I am obsessed with mics and preamps,’ confesses Audio Dynamite founder Marcus Attwood – the man behind the Vintage Rock Drum Loops range.
‘Recording drums is my favourite part of a production – you get the chance to get all your favourite mics out and experiment with them – I think it’s a bit of a dark art really…
While geographically expansive, the world of pro audio is modestly populated. In any specific sector, the key players comprise a small but extremely mobile club. It’s a ‘people business’ – perfectly suited to a trade show’s ability to bring people together.
In reality, while a show might appear big and busy, it can easily be exhausting, exasperating and expensive. Now there’s an alternative…
Stepping in where magazines and manufacturers’ own channels of communication have failed, Technicians Crew Pass is a new social website expressly aimed at Australian audio and A/V technicians.
‘The aim is to help better the industry by having the most up-to-date information about what is happening in the industry right now, and by working with technicians from all over Australia,’ says Chris D’bais.
‘It is inherent in the nature of this business to hoard equipment’ – this business being equipment rental and the speaker being Chris Headlam. Specifically, high-end theatre equipment rental, as dispatched by Headlam’s London-based Orbital Sound operation.
Clearly, any rental company’s inventory is essential to its operation. But what happens when the inventory begins to handicap the company?
‘Almost from the beginning, there were students who were interested in learning in the studio, so an apprenticeship programme developed. Music technology courses developed and we added – to our knowledge – the only Master of Music Jazz Studies Degree with a Major in Music Production in the US.’
From the outset, Jazz Lab Recording Studio Director Brian Gorrell was central to the action and to recent developments...
John Leckie has produced or engineered records for everyone who’s anyone in rock’n’roll. He’s picked up countless awards and accolades along the way, and been inducted into the Record Producers Hall of Fame by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.
He has also been in the front line of just about every technological change to impact on the way music is recorded…
‘I hate the term audio postproduction. I hate it!’
The head count at the table of the very agreeable Soho restaurant has temporarily been reduced to two, as the smokers take a break outside.
That leaves Hackenbacker head Nigel Heath making a confession he might have found less easy in front of studio staff and PR.