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Category Archives: World News

Waveform Free DAW Debuts from Tracktion

Seattle, WA (March 27, 2020)—Tracktion has launched Waveform Free, a new version of its professional DAW that is free to all music creators.

Tracktion Unveils Waveform 9 DAW

The new DAW is released with no restrictions, offering unlimited track count, the ability to add as many plug-ins as the user wants, and a sizable feature set. The new DAW is suitable for all three major desktop operation systems; Windows, OSX and Linux as well as the Raspberry Pi.

It is compatible with current-day expressive instruments and also supports MPE. Waveform Free includes many of Tracktion’s recent offerings and features, such as the MIDI Pattern Generator to create synchronized melodies, chord progressions, bass lines and more, the 40SC Virtual Synthesizer and Micro Drum Sampler.

The DAW is supported with a dozens of tutorial videos as well numerous templates such as EDM production; band recording and mixing; location recording for churches, schools and others; and more.

Waveform Free Download • https://marketplace.tracktion.com/shop/free-daw

PhantomFocus System Studio Monitors Review

PhantomFocus PFM UHD-1000 monitor
PhantomFocus PFM UHD-1000 monitor

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone more passionate about audio than Carl Tatz. Not only is he serious about it, he knows it inside out. I got to know him before Recording Arts, his legendary Nashville studio, wound up in the hands of Sheryl Crow nearly two decades ago. Even in those days, more than anything else, Recording Arts was known for its exceptional monitoring. The fundamentals of the PhantomFocus System (PFS) were developed during Tatz’s Recording Arts tenure. That system has evolved into a portfolio of both physical studio designs and products that hold their ground against anything in the world today. The number of top engineers around the world who use Tatz’s talents to ensure their mixes accurately translate anywhere—be it streaming, on television or in movie theaters—continues to grow every year.

While Tatz often designs recording studios from the ground up, the PFS branding includes various pieces of hardware that are configured and “tuned” by his process, which combines physical properties, hardware design and system settings. Tatz can be hired to build a PFS studio from the ground up, but an existing studio can also bring him in to transform the facility into a PFS space through the integration of specific hardware that he configures via a combination of physics, software and his golden ears.

While the PFS process can be applied to any high-performance studio loudspeakers, Tatz had historically gravitated his clients toward the now-discontinued Dynaudio M1s because of their sound quality and their adaptability to the PFS process. The M1s were never perfect, but Tatz was convinced that they were the closest thing to perfection available on the market at the time.

Never one to settle for the status quo, Tatz began developing his own monitors. After finessing his dream over the years, the PFM UHD-1000 and PFM HD-1000 Professional Reference Monitors and PFM ICE Cube-12 Subwoofer are finally ready for public consumption. Tatz boasts that the monitors’ accelerated response times, phase linearity and tightly controlled mid-bass response result in high confidence, better and faster mixes, and increased enjoyment. My own extensive listening supports my assertion that this isn’t hype.

The Carl Tatz Interview, by Russ Long, Feb. 11, 2015

Carl Tatz Design PhantomFocus Monitor Optimization System (PFS), by Russ Long, Oct. 21, 2011

PhantomFocus PFM HD-1000 monitor
PhantomFocus PFM HD-1000 monitor

Both monitor models are passive and share nearly identical 8.2 x 17.8 x 12.2-inch cabinets with a built-in custom integrated IsoAcoustics pistonic decoupling system with a studio black luster finish. The UHD version, which is designed to be biamplified and features upgraded low-frequency drivers, weighs 24.1 pounds. The HD version is offered in two configurations: the PFM HD-1000A is actively biamped, requiring two channels of amplification per monitor, and the PFM HD-1000P features an internal Straight Wire passive crossover, requiring one channel of amplification per monitor.

The PFM ICE Cube-12 subwoofer is a 15.75-inch cube weighing 55 pounds. It incorporates a 700-watt amp that provides 120 dB maximum continuous SPL. It includes typical subwoofer functions including 40–140 Hz LPF with LFE Bypass and 0–180 Phase Switch. It’s important to note that both the PFM HD-1000 and UHD-1000 monitors are part of the PFS turnkey precision monitoring instrument ensemble and can only be purchased with the installation of a PhantomFocus System using the proprietary PFS tuning process.

I’ve spent a lot of time in PhantomFocus rooms around Nashville and my only complaint had been the rapid degradation of sound quality as you move away from the sweet spot. When you’re in the sweet spot, you’ll likely be experiencing the best monitoring situation of your career, but once you begin sliding one direction or another, the sound quickly deteriorates. I had always attributed this to PFS processing, but after spending time listening at The Upper Deck, one of the first studios to install PFM HD-1000 monitors, my tune has changed. The sweet spot of that room is still precise, but as you move in and out of the sweet spot, the transition is smooth, natural and subtle—an entirely different experience than listening in other PFS rooms with other monitor models.

The Ultimate Home Studio? Upper Deck Hits It Out of the Park, by Steve Harvey, Nov. 29, 2018

PhantomFocus PFM ICE Cube-12 Subwoofer
PhantomFocus PFM ICE Cube-12 Subwoofer

This was confirmed when I spent time listening at Doug Sarrett’s Uno Mas studio. Sarrett was an early adopter of the PhantomFocus System, and he updated the Tannoy Super Gold monitors that he’d been using for over two decades to the premium PFM UHD-1000 monitors; the results were stunning. The complete system has excellent imaging, pristine depth of field and accurate, extended low-frequency response regardless of monitoring volume. As is always the case with a PFS implementation, the speakers magically disappear, leaving a detailed sonic landscape. While the difference was subtle, the upgrade to the UHD version of the PFM monitor that I auditioned at Uno Mas in comparison to the HD version that I listened to at The Upper Deck was a definite improvement in both depth and clarity.

The new PhantomFocus monitors and subwoofer elevate monitoring accuracy to yet another level. Regardless of whether you are upgrading a current room or planning to build a space from the ground up, PFS along with PFM monitors and subwoofers should receive top consideration.

Carl Tatz Design • carltatzdesign.com

New Halo Music Studio Inspired by Legendary Le Studio Facility

The SSL 4000 Console at Halo Studios was originally commissioned and installed at Doppler Studios in Atlanta in 1985. The console was fastidiously maintained for 31 years by multiple Grammy Award-winning chief engineer Joe Neil before being purchased in 2016 by Roman Marcone at Halo Studios Hamilton.

Hamilton, ON—Almost exactly one year after Roman Marcone had to shut down his Halo Music Studio in Hamilton, he and business partner Corey Stevens are about to relaunch at a new location. If you’re a fan of Rush, The Police or the Bee Gees, you may get a sense of déjà vu about the place—and for good reason.

Marcone’s relationship with his former landlords began to sour in early 2019 after they tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the building out from under him. Then a heavy rainstorm in April nearly turned a minor roof leak into a major disaster, damaging some of the equipment.

“People were unsure about booking us,” not knowing if Halo would remain open, says Marcone. “We said, alright, we’re out.”

He put the gear into storage and—once bitten, twice shy—went looking for a building to buy. He eventually found a single-story commercial building designed by Trevor Garwood Jones’ firm in 1972. (An award-winning architect, Garwood Jones designed some of the most prominent buildings in Hamilton.) “It’s the only one on the street that’s not a Victorian home,” he says.

The other SSL console at Halo Music is a 1985 SSL 4000E, which was modded in 1994 to 4064 Balanced G+.

Recording Engineer Nick Blagona, Dead at 74, by Clive Young, Jan. 6, 2020

While finishing an album he’d started at Halo at the home of longtime friend Nick Blagona, an engineer and producer who worked with the Moody Blues, King Crimson, The Police, Deep Purple and numerous others, they discussed the design of the new building. “He said, ‘Le Studio’s control room was awesome and there isn’t another one like it. Let’s do that.’ I’d never even thought of that,” says Marcone.

Blagona had been chief engineer at Le Studio in Morin Heights, north of Montreal, and had designed the facility with owner, engineer and producer André Perry in the early 1970s. Le Studio hosted many major artists over the years, including Rush, who recorded seven albums there, and the Bee Gees, who worked on Saturday Night Fever at the studio. The Police tracked “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” there. Derelict since 2008, the studio burned down in 2011.

The idea began to make a lot of sense. “We went over his plans and photos and I made a 3D rendering and managed to make it fit exactly in our new building,” says Marcone.

As for the requisite gear, “We had the SSL that they’d had,” Marcone says, an E/G series previously owned by Atlanta’s Doppler Studios. Halo already had a Studer A80 MkII multitrack machine, too. To complete the signal chain, he needed a pair of Urei 813c main monitors. “I did a quick search and found a pair in Toronto for sale. They’d been discounted because they’d been on sale for a year and nobody had bought them.” Likewise with the Studer A68 amplifiers: “They’re hard to find, but some came up on eBay from British Columbia. So it all fell into place,” he says.

Sacrificing a Ferrari for Halo Studio’s Sound, by Steve Harvey, Jan. 12, 2018

The console in Halo control room 1

But the reborn Halo is not an attempt to replicate Le Studio. “We managed to make the control room the same size and shape, but we’ve added modern principles for speaker placement and whatnot,” he says.

The live room’s shape is similar to the Morin Heights space as well, just a little smaller. Anyone who has seen a Rush video recorded at Le Studio will remember the wall of glass. Halo has that covered, too. “The whole front of the building is glass,” says Marcone. “We’ve built a second wall, so we have an entrance foyer, then there’s a wall of windows set back from the front, so you get the light but there’s a sound buffer.”

As planning progressed, Marcone found himself working with more Le Studio alumni. “I started talking to Roger Ginsley, who has always maintained my gear. Roger was also that guy at Le Studio; I didn’t realize.”

Ginsley had been a junior engineer with Blagona in the UK and moved to Canada to replace Jean-Luc Louradour, now an electroacoustic engineer, at Le Studio. “Roger said, ‘Talk to Jean-Luc, he knows a lot about studio design, speaker placement, room shapes and dimensions,’” says Marcone.

“They’ve all been super helpful. Roger has helped get all the tech and gear organized. Jean-Luc designed the control room with me, helping with the principles of floating the room and the materials to use. He took the design Nick and I had made and turned it into something a little more modern, and very accurate. Then Nick was helpful with the layout, the flow, the vibe and the considerations for artists. And Mary Jane Russell, Nick’s 35-year partner and wife, has been instrumental in helping with the decor and vibe.”

He adds, “I should mention my amazing wife, Neva, for being so wonderfully understanding and supportive in the creation process of our space. It’s half hers, in reality.”

Marcone and Stevens did the lion’s share of the general contracting work to keep the project within budget. “We’ve focused on the right things that they did back in the day,” he says. “It was still way more than I expected to spend, but I own the place, so it’s a forever studio.”

Like Le Studio, Halo’s control room walls are cedar clad. “And we’re getting a neon sign with the Halo logo,” he adds. A former board room is now a “vibe spot,” complete with a black and white checkerboard floor like the original Motown room, inspired by an eight-year-old Facebook memory posted by Blagona.

Halo’s 1985 Studer A80 MkII transformer-balanced 2-inch tape machine. Paired with a Dolby MT24 A/SR Noise Reduction System. Calibrated and serviced by Roger Ginsley of Tekx Electronics. This machine comes from Prince’s home studio in Bridle Path Toronto.

“Nick’s had a hand in a lot of this. He brought it to life for us, in a sense. It’s a shame he didn’t get a chance to see it,” says Marcone. Blagona passed away on Jan. 4 from complications resulting from kidney, heart and lung diseases.

“Even to his last day, he was talking about how excited he was for this to exist. We’re holding Nick’s celebration of life on his 75th birthday, May 24, at Halo as our grand opening.”

On that final visit to the hospital, “He asked me to finish the records he was working on. He trusted me and my ears. As an audio engineer, that’s one of the highest compliments and honors,” he says.

“Nick meant a lot—to music, this city and me.”

Halo Music • www.halomusic.ca

Producing Rolling Stone’s Podcast During COVID-19

Brian Hiatt (right), host of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, often talks with guests, such as Questlove on the show.
Brian Hiatt (right), host of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, often talks with guests like Questlove on the show.

New York, NY (March 27, 2020)—The familiar becomes ever-more important during times of crisis, and for many people weathering the current COVID-19 global pandemic, that means taking deep dives into streaming TV shows, movies, music and podcasts. For a weekly podcast like Rolling Stone Music Now, that means the show must go on, with its production team creating new episodes to answer demand, despite the added hurdles of lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders.

On the March 23 edition of the podcast, four of the magazine’s staffers—two in New York and two in Los Angeles—discussed the industry’s current troubles in the first remote-recorded edition of Rolling Stone Music Now, “Cancellations, Chaos: How the Pandemic Halted the Music Biz.”

Instead of tracking the podcast in Sirius XM’s New York studios, as they’ve done on previous episodes, each journalist sequestered in their apartments and communicated through the Zoom web conferencing platform. With all four of them on the call, an engineer recorded them from a fifth location and began the editing process before the episode hit Sirius XM.

The results kept the wheels on the train for the first episode, but the show’s host, Rolling Stone senior writer Brian Hiatt, is already planning ways to improve the audio quality to something more akin to the podcast’s typical production values.

“I’m going to attempt to separately record my audio using a high-quality [Apogee MiC Plus] microphone I have at the same time I’m speaking in Zoom, and allow my engineer to use my more studio-sounding microphone along with everyone else’s phone call,” he explains. “For the first episode, that didn’t work out, but I think I figured it out now.”

Once an engineer takes a first pass at the edit, Hiatt, a guitar player and home-recording hobbyist, makes the episode’s final cuts. “We haven’t actually [tried using the second mic] yet, but I’m fairly confident it’ll work,” he says. “The problem is I can’t monitor it, so that’s annoying for various reasons—in part because there’s a local delay so I can’t listen and monitor at the same time. I just have to hope for the best that it’s coming out okay.”

Rolling Stone Music NowSince the first episode premiered in January, 2016, the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast has consistently dropped content that mirrors the boundary-blending range of music, politics and pop culture long established as hallmarks of the print magazine.

The March 23 episode explored the effects of the pandemic on the music world. According to Forbes, overall internet use is up 70 percent in countries under lockdown, particularly in Europe, driven in part by a 12 percent-spike in streaming entertainment. As mandated shelter-in-place orders are implemented in more places in the U.S., experts expect those numbers to follow suit. Unfortunately, the live entertainment industry is suffering in opposite proportion to those online gains.

“It took a while for [COVID-19] to hit the concert industry, and when it did, it was like a chain of dominoes,” said Hiatt during the episode. Longer-lead festivals were first. SXSW and Ultra both cancelled on March 6, followed by Coachella on March 10. Pearl Jam threw up a white flag on its major North American tour March 9, followed by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on March 17. After that, the entire concert industry effectively shut down in short order—providing plenty for Hiatt and Rolling Stone senior music business editor Amy X. Wang and staff writers Samantha Hissong and Ethan Millman to recount and discuss.

In the past, Rolling Stone Music Now has also covered historical topics such as the making of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, hot takes on current artists like Taylor Swift and Lil Nas X, as well as self-deprecating episodes like “Classic Albums We’ve Trashed,” in which a team of staffers revisits underwhelming reviews and atone for their predecessors’ questionable judgment calls.

Moving forward during the current COVID-19 crisis, though, Hiatt says they’re considering new themes and ways to bring fresh content to their audience under these less-than-ideal circumstances.

“I think going forward we’re going to have to reconsider exactly what we’re doing,” he says. “I like maybe the idea of pulling back and doing some deep dives on some artists’ catalogs, some kind of timeless stuff. And people can be really into that idea. It might be the right time for that kind of thing, so I’m sure it will affect how we do things.”

2020 Editors’ Choice: Disc Players Under $2,000

2020 Editors' Choice: Disc Players Under $2,000

NAD C 546BEE $549 This entirely new design sports the latest 24-bit Wolfson DAC chips. The disc player’s sound is extremely natural, with rich detail, excellent retrieval of ambient information, deep black backgrounds, and a somewhat crisp overall presentation. Rotel CD14 CD $799 The CD14 CD player doesn’t try to be anything but a CD player. It uses a highly regarded Wolfson DAC chip, which is capable of sampling rates up to 192kHz; of course, as the sampling rate of CDs is 44.1kHz, the DAC’s capability is overkill. The CD14 will also play MP3 files, but you’d need to burn …

Mojo, Hugo & Co. wechseln zu CMA

Zum 1. April 2020 teilt der britische Hersteller Chord Electronics den Vertrieb seiner Produkte in Deutschland und Österreich auf: Den Vertrieb der Portable-Modelle übernimmt die cma audio GmbH in Gauting. CMA ist dann für alle Fragen zu Bestellung, Garantie, Service und Produktsupport der portablen DACs und Streamer Mojo, Hugo 2, 2Go und 2Yu zuständig. Alle HiFi-Produkte der Serien Qutest, Table Top, Choral, Full Size und Reference werden weiterhin von der G8 & friends GmbH exklusiv in Deutschland und Österreich vertrieben.

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