A CENTURIES OLD PRACTICE

The Sámi, an Indigenous community from Northern Europe, have been herding the reindeer every year for centuries — well before the onset of modern technologies and the climate crisis. “The reindeer have been following the same migration routes for generations, so the Sámi know where they are going,” Eaton explains. “They have this intertwined relationship with the reindeer and find them in the midst of their migration journeys and bring them together into the corral.” The herding, which takes approximately two weeks, is carried out by several multi-generational families within the community, according to Eaton.

ANIMATING SOUND SOURCES WITH L-ISA STUDIO

Eaton appreciates the broad feature set in L-ISA Studio, including the updated FX Engine and low frequency oscillator (LFO) control capabilities. “Our last major project, Sleeping Tree, took place in the forest so it was very reverb-y. We used the FX Engine in L-ISA Studio for that, and this really helped gel the sounds together,” he says.

On May 6 and 7 of this year, Invisible Flock presented The Sleeping Tree (Pohon Tidur) exhibition at the Brighton Dome as part of Brighton Festival. The Sleeping Tree, a long-form, durational sound experience designed to connect audiences with a distant and fragile ecosystem, was developed from environmental data and more than 5,000 hours of data collected over the course of a three-month mapping process in the Indonesian forest. The Sleeping Tree was also the first project on which Eaton used L-ISA Studio to map his recorded soundscape: “It wasn’t until we really started playing with the FX engine in L-ISA Studio that that show really felt like it gelled, and the sounds were able to coexist in a nice way,” Eaton recalls.

For The Sleeping Tree, London-based Solotech supplied an L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive sound system and integration services. On Boalno, Eaton used very little reverb, since the recording space was vast. “The airiness of the ambisonics really helped give you a sense of space,” says Eaton. He used L-ISA 3.0’s LFO controls to animate the signal of the parabolic microphone within the soundscape.

“In Baolno we used a lot of LFOs because we had a lot of rotating objects,” says Eaton, who appreciates that these LFO features are now available in L-ISA 3.0. “We used LFOsat different speeds, overlapping them and phasing them in and out. That’s how we could really generated this trance-like, strange sound that kept moving. Ultimately, the motion became a defining feature of this project.” Eaton says that he also achieved workflow efficiencies while using L-ISA Studio: “I really enjoy all of the newly added effects in L-ISA 3.0. These are a real time saver, which I valued on this project.”

A LIVE EXHIBITION WITH L-ISA 3.0

On the final evening of The Sleeping Tree Invisible Flock collaborated with musician Nabihah Iqbal to create a 55-minute live performance featuring guitars, vocals and modular synths against a sonic backdrop of apes and monkeys, juxtaposed with the sound of humans and airplanes. Ben and his team also built the live performances using L-ISA Studio and other tools. “All of our live elements were brought into L-ISA Studio and combined with our field recordings,” says Eaton. “We were using all of these sources at once, but manipulating them in real-time using L-ISA. Being able to do that was really exciting and we appreciate how versatile L-ISA Studio is.”

While projects such as Boalno and The Sleeping Tree require enormous effort, including extended travel and many hours of recording and mixing, Eaton says he remains very attached to the work and finds the exhibits rewarding: “Each of these presentations are very moving and it’s enlightening see how different audiences respond. The last one always hits home when that final reverb trail echoes out.”

EARLY REFLECTIONS

I met on-site with Roy Cressey, then Head of Sound & Audio Visual. Roy’s tenure in the top audio job almost exactly matched the duration of the Concert Hall project. He started by nutshelling the acoustics fix:

Roy Cressey: “The general consensus for a while has been that the hall’s RT60 time was too long. The truth is: it wasn’t inappropriately long. Instead, a lack of early reflections presented the main acoustic challenge.”

Müller-BBM was engaged as the acousticians and set about remedying the deficiencies in the early reflection component of the room acoustic, with minimal changes to the overall reverb time.

The most visible intervention, are the 18 teardrop reflectors over the stage, which can be raised, lowered, and angled to respond to the type of music performed — six presets in all. The SSO now enjoy an acoustic canopy over their heads, while in amplified mode the stage sound gets reflected into acoustic drapes which are deployed from the crown and side walls above the stage.

Another big-ticket ‘early reflection’ response. The majority of the walls around the stage and stalls of the auditorium have changed from a flat surface to a diffused design, surface milled according to Müller-BBM’s specifications for optimal dispersion. Each 1m-square panel took some eight hours each in a CNC machine to complete!  In addition, there are convex acoustic panels that are deployed from the side walls over the stage and auditorium when in acoustic mode that return to a flat stowage in amplified mode.  The engineering behind how they’re stowed then deployed is quite something as well.

Another big piece of the acoustic puzzle was the stage design, the new stage was lowered 400mm, a new acoustic slab underneath and an automated set of stage risers that allow for a horseshoe configuration for orchestral music.  These changes give the orchestra and audience an improved visual and sonic line of sight

Roy Cressey: “Remedying the acoustics was a massive project, but all within the constraints of minimising any changes to the appearance of the room. The work Müller-BBM has done has not only made the Concert Hall a more pleasing acoustic space to experience unamplified music, it’s also made a significant improvement to the linearity of the decay when in amplified mode with the automated absorption deployed — which has made the Concert Hall a far better room to mix amplified sound in. It’s a great improvement that has been well-received by our in-house and touring engineers.”

PA UPGRADE

The Concert Hall has a new PA, based on d&b KSL, which replaced the d&b J-Series system installed in 2008.

“What we really wanted to focus on, was making sure the true fundamentals of the system coverage were absolutely exemplary,” explains Roy Cressey. “In a room like the Concert Hall, it’s easier said than done to ensure we have speakers in all the positions they need to be.”

The design is based around left/centre/right arrays of d&b KSL, a flown array of KSL subs, all complemented by distributed fills. The flown arrays are on winches to respond to the automated scene changes. The three KSL arrays are permanently flown (lifted up and largely out of sight in the acoustic modes, and lowered for amplified performances) while the subs are rigged and flown when needed. It’s a very neat, well-resolved look.

“The overriding factor behind the KSL choice was its pattern control, and in that regard it’s exceptional. We wanted to ensure we had a good line length of speakers [10 per hang] to give us that control, as well as give us all the headroom we could possibly need.

“There are general benefits of flying the subs. A single source for coherence in this room is fantastic. And then having the distributed fills all around the room has been a significant improvement to the consistency of coverage across the auditorium.”

KSL TALK

“When you hear the difference between KSL and J, it’s remarkable — J is a great product but KSL is an improvement in a smaller footprint,” continues Roy Cressey. “I remember when we first tuned the system and we were working through a bunch of sources. One of the team put on a lavalier mic and started talking to the engineer who brought it up on the console: ‘Yeah, that’s great for a headset — it’s a good start’. Of course, it was a lav, not a headset, and it blew his mind. Here’s someone who had worked in the building for 15 years, and such was the difference the new PA made — he nearly fell over.

“The amplifiers are a new generation as well. The old system was on D12 amps and we’ve now incorporated Array Processing, which is the icing on the cake. We don’t want to use Array Processing to fix any problems — such as improper speaker placement — but we want Array Processing to electronically make up that last 5% for the deficiencies in the mechanical deployment of a line array. Amplifiers are a mix of d&b 40D, D80 and 10Ds.”

SPACE & TIME

So does the loudspeaker upgrade include include d&b’s audio spatial platform, Soundscape? No, not really. Well, kinda. But not. I’ll let Roy explain:

Roy Cressey: “We’re using the d&b DS100 as the crosspoint matrix, time alignment and equalisation of the loudspeaker system. And we also use En-Space [enhanced acoustic platform] for contemporary music but we’re not using En-Scene [object-based signal manager].”

In other words, FOH engineers are given the option of pushing some of their mix into d&b’s convolution reverb… to taste.  In the DS100, there are a variety of busses that are pre-configured, level matched and aligned to cover the typical console output busses of shows.  There are also utility busses available that allow designers and engineers to place spot effects or custom busses as required.

Roy Cressey: “The sound of the En-Space algorithm in here is phenomenal. Obviously, we don’t use it for the unamplified orchestral program but for amplified material that needs a light lift when we have the acoustic absorption deployed, maybe on a vocal, for example, it’s a beautiful de-correlated convolution reverb. Apart from the actual tonal quality of the sound, it’s very hard to locate. It’s just one of those things that you put in just enough, and you don’t notice it until you take it away.”

OUT OF SIGHT IMPROVEMENTS

A huge aspect of the Concert Hall renewal has occurred out of sight, up in the ceiling cavity, where you can find a phalanx of new stage machinery. Undergirding the upgrade, the builders installed 174 tonnes of new structural steel and 70 tonnes of new reinforcing steel. A quarter of the new structural steel was coated in hot pink paint to distinguish it from the primary steel that holds up the building. As you can see from the images, it’s not a standard performing arts ceiling grid. The constraints of the ceiling space and the unusual geometry, exponentially raised the level of difficulty of the installation. But the new capability gives the Concert Hall what it needs to meet the challenge of modern productions with heavier sets, increased lighting demands, LED walls etc.

Seeing the machinery squeezed into the ceiling space, cheek by jowl, also demonstrates how important it was to be precise with the position of the ceiling penetrations above the stage.
Prior to finalising the hang positions of the KSL arrays, Roy and his team did a test hang — dropping the J Series loudspeakers then using a temporary grid to hang the KSL and run a bunch of tests and measurements to validate the design.

“d&b has been great through this. We’ve got a great working relationship and they’ve gone above and beyond, We had some unique requirements with the rigging and their engineering department was of great support in developing custom flying frames for the line arrays and subs. Gareth Kelbrick from d&b, Doug Pringle and Dave Jacques from NAS joined us for commissioning and product training and they’ve been of great assistance as well.”

EVERYONE’S HOUSE

To talk about the success of this project we need to return to the key drivers. The Concert Hall is a very different venue to the one that debuted in 1973. The Sydney Opera House has opened it up to a whole host of different programming, but often they still had to say ‘no’. Now with the vastly expanded capability in the stage machinery and theatre systems that allow for streamlined resets, ‘no’ won’t be a word the Sydney Opera House will need to use very often in the future.

“We’re now far more efficient, which gives our team more time to focus on the creative side,” reflects Roy Cressey. “Tight timelines are a part of the job, by reducing our top of day set up and touring integrations, our in-house and touring engineers have more time in the day to get comfortable and focus on the art, and making the show the best it can be.”

And it’s paying off. The bush telegraph is already very positive: a gig at the Concert Hall is a great experience for everyone concerned.

As for Roy Cressey, after seeing this huge project through, he’s moving onto other challenges.

“This has been a massive project and a great journey. Obviously, the new Concert Hall opening night represented a huge pinnacle, but what I’m probably even more proud of is how all the work we’ve done and the systems in place have stacked up over the ensuing months. We’ve not had to go back to the drawing board anywhere, the systems have seen a wide variety of genres come through now and have catered to all with great results. All that painstaking planning and execution has paid off. That’s a real credit to everyone involved.”

Story: Derek Powell

GETTING TO WORK

Between the regular day to day tasks and the production demands of the musical rehearsals, Dave has made full use of the various software features in the Heritage D.

He nominates the new Manchino feature as a great time saver. “It’s been very useful actually. It’s basically a bulk assign for certain parameters. So for instance, if you want to put a high pass filter on your 28 radio mic channels, for instance, you select all the channels and then just roll your high pass filter in; or turn your compressor on; set a threshold; set gains. And then numbering and naming channels as well. Rather than having to name radio mic 1 through 28, you can just bulk assign the name and it’ll number it for you, which is super handy. You can save a substantial amount of work on those repetitive tasks. Rather than having to copy and paste certain things across channels, you can just do a bulk assignment on that Manchino page.”

The Flexi Aux has also proved its worth for monitoring. “We’ve got 17 channels of in-ears for the band. Each one of those would normally need its own individual mix. But by creating a Flexi Aux for the overall band mix I can then send the Flexi Aux to each one of those band members and it saves having to copy and paste that mix across everything. Then if I change anything in that mix, it changes for everyone.”

LEARNING BY DOING

A state of the art console has been of amazing value to the students working with Dave – something that is not lost on the teachers and the leadership team at the college.

“I’m fully supported by the leadership here at the school. They’ve been really great,” says Dave. “They’re fully invested in the arts programs and giving kids the best opportunities they can to experience really good productions. And from my perspective, the opportunity to work on industry standard gear is hugely beneficial and inspiring for students that are interested in production.”

Genesis Christian College: www.genesis.qld.edu.au
Midas: www.midasconsoles.com
Australis: www.australismusic.com.au

GIVE IT A BURL

Underland Studios adopts a very contemporary in- and out-of-the-box approach: Tristan employs a Pro Tools HDX system, a chunky MacPro and UAD DSP to take care of the legwork and automation moves, while using the SSL Origin and its extensive patching capabilities to provide the summing, and stem mixing. In between Pro Tools and the SSL console is a Burl Audio B80 Mothership, which provides the conversion into and out of the box along with adjustable transformer-based flavour.

“Investing in the Burl Mothership was a big decision. I’m going for more of an organic, big sound and I want things to be very punchy and full, and not clinical. If you hit the Burl converters you do get some of that analogue transformer-based colouration. Back off and get a clean a sound if you want as well.”

WORKFLOW

Underland is a work in progress. The next key addition will be a drum room. Within the control room, Tristan records guitars and vocals using the SSL Origin preamps. “The preamps have a drive option, which I thought I’d lean towards, but I’m favouring the pure setting.”

The Origin’s 32 channel outputs are routed to Pro Tools via the Burl Mothership converters. 

For monitoring, outputs from Pro Tools return to the SSL Origin via the Burl Mothership D/As.

The final summing of the mix exits the SSL Origin via two stereo stems — instrumental and an acapella mix. The vocals go through a BDA4M module on the Burl Mothership, while the rest of the mix is routed through the console’s mix-bus compressor. Both are printed back into Pro Tools. 

The two-track master out of Pro Tools goes through a final transformer-led Burl Audio stage. “It’s like a final two-track tape recorder stage.”

It’s a workflow that allows Tristan to incorporate some choice items of outboard, including a Retro 2A3 tube EQ over the master bus. “It’s a broadbrush EQ that can sound heavy-handed if you overdo it. But it allows me to nudge the mix-bus lows and highs in a very musical way.”

LAYOUT

The layout of the console is entirely designed around Tristan’s desire to work efficiently and reproduce mixes without messing about too much. Anything that needs automation is all completed in Pro Tools (the Origin doesn’t feature automation or moving faders). Once it hits the mixing console, all the drum inputs are to the left of the centre section; guitars are to the immediate right; with vocals etc filling out the remainder of the 16 channels on that side.

Tristan relies on the Origin filters to give his mix an immediate advantage. He’ll often use the rest of the channel EQ rather than stare at a looping Pro Tools timeline for an hour. 

The bulk of the time, Tristan will be sat in the sweetspot with fingers on the centre section faders, fine-tuning the balance of the VCAs and effects returns.

The ADAM Audio S2 nearfield two-way monitors aren’t worked too hard. Tristan keeps levels at a level you can talk over. For a genre characterised by distortion, and fast-paced guitar and drums exchanges, the task of the mix engineer is to ensure instruments don’t step on each other’s toes. It’s quite often a highly technical challenge as much as it is about feel. So, sure, Tristan might give the mix the occasional blast ‘for a vibe’, but otherwise he’s acutely aware of protecting his hearing.

ORIGIN STORY

Tristan’s band, Growth, released its debut album back in 2020 (on Wild Thing Records), peak pandemic. With plenty of time to reflect and write, Tristan and his brother Nelson have amassed a mountain of second-album material, which will be refined, recorded and released, probably early 2024.

The pandemic resulted in much-publicised chip shortages and supply chain woes, which meant Tristan had plenty of time to dream about the delivery of the SSL Origin. “I had about eight months to think about it, and read the manual cover to cover. That homework helped to flatten the learning curve when the desk was installed. It’s quickly become integral to my workflow and sound. I’d recommend people order the full SSL patchbay — it opens up a whole world of flexible routing.”

Underland: www.instagram.com/underlandrecordings

RINSE & REPEAT

Power and clarity are key and the fundamentals of the live show mix have been fastidiously fine-tuned and balanced to within an inch of their lives. It’s a ‘unity mix’ as Cam describes it. Spark up the Avid S6L, set all the input faders to unity and let ‘er rip.

It doesn’t mean that Cam gets to phone his mix in from a room at the Hyatt. It just means that anything and everything that can be nailed down has been… meticulously. Instead, Cam spends the show with all eight digits hovering over the centre section faders. All eight faders pertain to Tyrone’s vocal performance, including FX returns. The way Cam describes it, his routine sees his focus flip from mixing those faders and tweaking the system EQ: “I’m balancing the subtleties of all of those effects returns; precisely anticipating the delay throws; and then constantly critiquing the tonal balance of the front of house mix like a mastering engineer. I’ll always flip between the graphic EQ, the parametric EQ, then the system EQ and I’m forever massaging it; I’m making changes throughout the whole show. I never sit static: mixing the vocal, tweaking EQ, mixing, EQ.”

VOCAL SIGNAL PATH: WAVES

Now that you’re getting a sense of Cam Trewin’s perfectionist tendencies, you won’t be surprised to hear that his vocal signal path is specific and involved.

Cam relies on a suite of Waves plug-ins that take care of all the corrective EQ and dynamics… actually, I’ll let Cam explain:

“I run two lots of inserts. Some primary Waves plug-ins that are hosted inside of the S6L and I use these tools more for sonic surgery or noise suppression. The chain starts with the Waves C6 multiband compressor and then goes into an instance of Waves Tune vocal pitch correction. All these plug-ins are snapshot recalled between each song, depending on how much time Tyrone spends in falsetto, for example.

I then go into a Waves WNS noise suppression plug-in. It’s intended more for post production dialogue work but the fact it’s multi-band works for me. You can target specific spill areas and dial that band’s fader in and out. That said, I also use the Waves NS-1 noise suppressor. It’s bit of a push/pull relationship and I juggle them to find the best balance. Get it wrong and you can really choke the tone. Those settings are automated from song to song as well.

“Next is the Waves F6 dynamic EQ. I love this plug-in. It’s really subtle and really transparent but does its job really, really well. Post that, I have a high-frequency limiter that works as a de-esser. Finally, there’s just a little bit of channel EQ and I tend to chase this from show to show, depending on the spill and how Tyrone’s feeling on the night.”

VOCAL SIGNAL PATH: UAD

“Post that insert, I go into a separate Universal Audio chain and this is not snapshot recallable — effectively, it just sits like a hardware insert over his vocal throughout the show. First up, I’ve got a Fairchild 670 (the Legacy version) applying a little notch EQ. That goes into an 1176 (the AE version) and I really like the sound of this. And then at the very end is the Chandler Limited Curvebender with just a little bit of air and some other little bits and pieces to restore some frequencies that may have been hit by previous processing. And that’s obviously all fed back into the console.

“From an effects perspective: vocal effects include a short room and a longer verb, in this case a UAD EMT140, which stays pretty static throughout the show. I really love the sound of that. I have a couple of delays as well, which change from song to song: a high- and low-passed ping pong quarter-triplet delay that I throw and another, long-note delay.”

What about Tyrone’s vocal mic? It’s a Shure KMS9HS and has been for more than five years. “The KMS9 has won multiple shootouts we’ve conducted. It sounds good but it’s the off-axis rejection that is the biggest winner. I recently tested a new DPA de:facto handheld and it’s a gorgeous-sounding microphone but we were picking up too much spill — when you’ve got James on drums smashing 16ths on the hi-hats right next to him, that’s a big factor, in fact, it’s a bigger deal than subjective sound quality.” 

AVID CONSOLE CONSUMER

Cam’s S6L is pivotal to his workflow. He was an early adopter, touring the first mixer in Australia, and willing to forgive the odd quirk in exchange for the seamless ProTools integration, just for starters.

“We tour a full content team — videographers, photographers, a creative director, and more — which means all the socials, every piece of content, is generated internally. That, of course, includes audio. So I record each night into Pro Tools and I can generate broadcast mixes for whoever needs it based on the desk mix — I have a portable Pro Tools rig in my hotel room that allows me to do a quick master on the two-track mix. I’ve managed to automate/sidechain the level of the ambient mics in the mix and that saves me time finalising those two-track mixes.

“If someone needs something specific, then I can generate a multitrack mix as well. That said, the desk mix actually translates really quite well and I often end up using that as a reference on my multitrack mix. I think because it’s just so refined — there’s so much programming that’s gone into that desk mix.

“So you can see why I’m so wedded to the S6L, it’s not just a mixing console to me. Saying that, it’s a damn good mixing console. The level of programmability, in the snapshots, even through to the event control, is amazing. For example, I have a Show Start event that will prompt the console to put Pro Tools into Record, and it will flash the console to tell me that we’re in Record. Plus, it’s the only console that allows me to host the Waves plug-ins inside the console.”