SPRING IN HER STEP

I love that Grandmother has a completely analogue six-inch spring reverb tank built in. It’s a single-knob affair placed in the right hand corner of the dash and it affects all oscillators equally. The reverb has an appropriately wobbly sound that adds a watery vibe to most synth tones. Dial in anything from a drip to a drenching.

Sounds can be manipulated to great effect just by twiddling the reverb and cutoff knobs over a looping arpeggio or sequence. I spent a fair amount of my time with the Grandmother using the reverb to push tones forward and back. It’s very well-suited to live applications.

ARP & SEQUENCER

The arpeggiator and sequencer section adds an extra bucket of fun to the Grandmother, and it’s worth noting that more expensive Moog models (such as the Minimoog) don’t include such luxuries. Three arpeggiator modes are accessed with a switch: Order, Fwd/Bkwd and Random. You can hold a chord by pressing the Play button to the left of the keybed, then the blue Hold button — freeing up both hands for entertaining LFO and filter manipulation. The three-position switch at the bottom of this section either sets the number of octaves when in Arpeggiator mode, or selects a recorded sequence to play back. Sequences can have up to 256 notes and the Grandmother lets you store three of them internally.

Punching in a sequence is as easy as switching over to REC mode, then selecting position 1, 2 or 3 on the OCT/SEQ switch to dictate where the sequence will be stored. The keyboard is now armed, so whatever you play will be stored as steps. The left hand control buttons double as Tie, Rest and Accent options to spice up a sequence. Once you’ve locked your sequence in, flick back over to SEQ mode, press Play and hit a note. You can edit a sequence in real time by switching to REC mode while a sequence is playing.

GO MODULAR

Moog designed the Grandmother to be playable straight out of the box. Notwithstanding, it bears the ‘semi-modular’ title because it contains 41 patch points (21 inputs, 20 outputs) which, when patched, override the Grandmother’s internal signal flow allowing you to treat the individual sections of the synth as independent modules. While it’s capable of a massive spectrum of sounds as is, the patch cables (included) really expand Grandmother’s sonic horizons.

You can make use of the keyboard’s velocity sensitivity with the KB VEL OUT patch; for example, connecting it to CUTOFF IN on the Filter section.

Moog generously included a Utilities section where you’ll find an assortment of non-wired, patchable resources at your disposal built right into the Grandmother. At the top is a four-point Mult for sharing and distributing control signals. Next is a high pass filter (-6dB/octave slop), then a bipolar Attenuator, both of which have In and Out patch points. Putting together all the options, you soon realise this unassuming little synth is far deeper than it lets on.

PROCESS VS PRACTICALITY

As far as making sounds goes, the Moog Grandmother is more than a means to an end. It’s about the joy of the journey — exploring sound creation— because, let’s face it, practicality is not its forte. You can’t save a preset and recall it for a performance. You can’t quickly go from a searing lead to an ambient arpeggio without reconfiguring the whole panel. While Grandmother has its place on stage, that’s not its M.O.

Grandmother is Moog’s most accessible leg up into the world of modular analogue synthesis; but it offers things that much more expensive Moog instruments, like the Minimoog, don’t. Things like a built-in spring reverb tank, arpeggiator and sequencer. Whether you’re new to the modular environment or a synth nerd with lots of gear already, the Moog Grandmother promises a wealth of possibilities in the creation of new sounds.

MODULATION GALORE

Say you’ve got the Wavetable Position knob tied to Env 3, and now you want to change Env 3’s shape. The tabs just below the strip of blocks let you do just that. Colour-coded according to the blocks, click on one of these tabs to deeply configure any of those modulators, be it any of the Envelopes, LFOs, Functions or Random oscillators.

The potential for modulation is truly endless, with three envelope generators, three LFOs,  and three ‘functions’; all of which can be deeply customised and assigned to virtually any control. There are even three constantly chugging Random modulators (Turing, Sample & Hold, and Binary) waiting to add some instability to a parameter of your choosing.

Four macros give quick control and the graphical displays of all these modulators let you keep an eye on what’s happening to your sounds.

FX & ARPEGGIATION

In appropriately OTT fashion, the FX section of Pigments has two discrete effects buses (A and B), both of which can run up to three effects in any sequence, with 14 effect options in each. By ‘effect’, that includes things like a parametric EQ, compressor, stereo panner and multi filter. Of course among the 14 options are all the usual suspects like reverb, delay, flanger, phaser, overdrive, bit-crusher and more. They all sound great and provide a comprehensive and configurable toolbox to enhance a tone.

The final feather in Pigments’ hat is the arpeggiator and 16-step sequencer, accessed via the Seq button at the top. There’s plenty of flexibility here.

FLYING COLOURS

The Pigments experience is utterly immersive and engaging simply because there’s a massive amount of control at your disposal. The presets list is an effective way of quickly ‘getting to work’ with this instrument, rather than building your ideal sound from the ground up each time. Because of its sonic breadth, it’s impossible to single out a type of sound this instrument excels at, besides the fact that its wavetable roots dictate a part of its sonic imprint. Notwithstanding, it’ll effortlessly generate anything from fat EDM basses to atmospheric pads to sweet arpeggiating plucks to completely weird and chaotic leads.

After spending hours trawling through its tones and taking a step back from it all, I’m convinced Pigments has a freshness about it. There’s many soft synths on the market today and it’s not too often that one is strikingly distinct from the pack. By combining Arturia’s own characterful wavetables with classic analogue subtractive synthesis, you can create unique and extremely usable sounds that all have a vaguely dirty and unrefined edge, in the best possible sense of those words. The result, is an incredibly powerful tool with sounds that’ll make a statement, whether that’s producing an album or scoring a film.

SPEAKERS CORNER

Having got these improvements between my ears, I demoed Sonarworks’ Reference 4 Studio Edition Plug-in, which effectively performs the same function for loudspeakers as its headphone counterpart — following a calibration process using the associated Reference 4 Measure utility and a suitable omnidirectional microphone. I already had an old Radio Shack SPL Level Meter that I’d modded to extend its response down to around 20Hz, so I used that to start with. I would rarely recommend using any form of EQ to ‘flatten’ the response of a room without first installing some acoustic treatment, because otherwise you’re just EQ’ing the direct sound while still hearing unbalanced reflective sound bouncing off all the walls. In my case, I’d already installed some reasonable acoustic treatment (10 bass traps of various descriptions plus a large ceiling cloud, and had also done plenty of Room EQ Wizard (www.roomeqwizard.com) plots to minimise the peaks, dips and decays in my waterfall plots.

The Reference 4 Measure process proved simple to run through, and far easier to understand than other room correction utilities I’ve used in the past. It builds up its accuracy from a total of 37 measurement points around your listening position, all with on-screen visual feedback of where to move your microphone next. At the end of this sequence, Measure presents you with a frequency response plot of your loudspeakers in situ, and then generates a corresponding filter profile to flatten everything out.

The frequencies of my overloud string bass notes corresponded with a couple of measured dips at 100Hz and 300Hz, and with the correction curve in place the required loudspeaker mixing tweaks now became obvious. Measure also noticeably improved my stereo imaging, which had previously been a little lop-sided due to a large window on one side of my studio, leading to various differences in left and right channel playback response between 100Hz and 1kHz. Frankly, I was shocked at the measurements, since they also largely explained why I’d missed the 10kHz air EQ in my mix – with a 6dB peak centred around 1kHz it’s hardly surprising that high-end subtlety was being masked.

CALIBRATED MIC

After some on-line investigation of just how hugely budget measurement mics can vary in response from unit to unit (there’s a sobering set of results at www.cross-spectrum.com/weblog/2009/07/), I subsequently ordered one of Sonarworks’ own XREF20 microphones, which are individually calibrated against an ANSI-certified measurement microphone so their unique response is known and more accurately compensated for. Although the Tandy and XREF20 frequency responses proved to be similar up to around 1kHz (which is why my Tandy SPL meter had already improved my low end anomalies), above this they diverged significantly. I had already suspected that the Tandy response might be falling rapidly above 10kHz, so had already limited the Sonarworks correction curve to ignore this anomaly. Nevertheless, I was surprised that the Tandy mic response had such a large low-Q bell curve between 2-8kHz, peaking at around +4dB at 5kHz. Thank goodness I hadn’t attempted to compensate for this! The correction curve of the accurately calibrated Sonarworks XREF20 mic proved that my little studio was already reassuringly flat above 2kHz, requiring just +2dB shelving lift from 8kHz up, which restored the ‘air’ I’d previously been missing in my mixes.

My top end now sounds beautifully silky and flat, while the lows are now extended to -3dB @ 37Hz (pretty good for my tiny ATC SCM10 loudspeakers). I could switch to a flat response down to -3dB @ 27Hz by changing to the Sonarworks Aggressive low end response, but that would require up to a 9dB boost at 20Hz, and I really don’t think the extra 10dB of low end would benefit my music, or the longevity of my monitor speakers. However, the most remarkable improvement is that my stereo imaging is for the first time razor sharp. Acoustic treatment should always be your first port of call, but with the basics in place I can heartily recommend the Sonarworks Reference 4 Measure software, although switching to the XREF20 mic gave me improvements in high end smoothness and stereo imaging that were nothing short of remarkable. I am now able to hear further into my mixes and feel significantly more confident in my future mix decisions. That’s a result!

Story & Photos: Ben Tolliday

CLEAN & UNCOLOURED APPROACH

Before the musicians arrived on the morning of the first orchestra session, Meyerson had made educated guesses at the mic preamp levels, using his arsenal of Grace, Pueblo, Manley, Forssell and AEA preamps. As the players began their warmups, he quickly soloed each mic and fine-tuned preamp levels. Meyerson’s 30-plus years of experience was apparent in how fast he set an overall balance during the first take. All mics and outboard preamps on this session belonged to him, giving him an intimate understanding of their characteris­tics and parameters. He prefers preamps to be set up in the live room to avoid long cable runs between mic and preamp. Meyerson’s recording approach is simple: choose the appropriate mic, then capture as cleanly as possible through uncoloured preamps.

When tracking the orchestra, he used Bowers & Wilkins 802 D3 speakers as his LCR monitors, paired with the studio’s own surround monitors and subwoofer.

Henry Jackman and his team spent three and a half months composing the score for Jumanji, which fuses influences from Copland and Scriabin, plus a mix of African and Asian percus­sion styles. Jackman prefers the control room perspective during tracking, where he can control the pace of the session. His energy was quite remarkable. He’d of­ten jog around the control room during a take, somehow listening closely whilst simultaneously having a conversation with his music department. His feedback was concise, yet he was very detail-oriented with phrasing, at times having the orchestra record nu­merous takes of a particular passage to achieve his desired outcome.

MONITORING THE MIXING PROCESS

The mix sessions for Jumanji required a lot of preparation, but Meyerson and Christenson show great synchronicity. Meyerson began mixing just a few days after the final recording session, while Christenson edited and prepped the remain­ing music cues, racing to keep a few cues ahead.

Meyerson’s 7.1 channel surround monitoring set-up includes ATC SCM100ASL Pro speakers (LCR), with left and right running via two Bowers & Wilkins active subwoofers with built-in crossovers, plus a pair of ATC HTS11 speakers (side channels), a pair of ATC SCM20PSL Pro speakers (surround channels), and a Kreisel DXD-12012 Duo subwoofer.

The mix rig comprises two Avid Pro Tools HDX systems connected via a Digital Audio Denmark MADI interface, clocking via an Antelope OCX-V, with the capacity to capture up to 128 channels in one pass. Meyerson’s control surface is the Avid S6.

Outboard hardware includes six Bricasti M7 reverbs, three Manley Massive Passive EQs, an EAR 825Q EQ, and a Manley Vari-Mu compressor.

Aside from this outboard gear, most of the mixing happens in Pro Tools. Meyerson owns just about every plug-in available, and he uses a wide range of them in his workflow.

He began by listening to the orchestra mics, balancing and panning the main array, then removing unnecessary mics and filtering low end rumble. He moves fast to create momentum, adding plug-ins and twisting virtual knobs in a stream-of-consciousness fashion.

I didn’t notice a formulaic approach — he would experiment with a variety of processing. For example, at times he used the Fab Filter Pro-Q 3 plug-in, yet other times he’d opt for the Massenburg MDW EQ to perform the exact same task. He’d alternate merely for the sake of tonal variation. Seeing as engineers have access to the same plug-ins, Meyerson places a higher value on creativity to execute sonic ideas.

Meyerson regularly compared his mixes with the composer’s reference mix so as not to lose sight of the composer’s intent and head out on a tangent. He’d also often check his work at a lowered volume, while cross-checking the reference mix.

ADDING CHARACTER

Generally, Meyerson would use auxiliary sends to reverbs and delays, blending the effects returns on auxiliary tracks. Sometimes he inserted the effect directly on a track or an instrument group’s auxiliary bus, adjusting the wet-dry balance to taste. On Jumanji, he inserted a D-spatial reverb plug-in directly on the aux of a snare drum overdub, spreading it around the surround image and pushing it deeper into the sound field.

Saturation plug-ins appeared frequently in the mix, adding grit and analogue flavour, and helping to shape tonality. For example, he would insert a Plugin Alliance Black Box Analog Design HG-2, plus a Fab Filter MB compressor to control the resulting resonant frequencies created by the saturation. Occasionally he would insert a saturation plug-in after a reverb, to darken its tone and sheen.

On a quiet cue, Meyerson employed a great technique to minimise low frequency rumble. Some engineers might use iZotope RX, and/or insert a high-pass EQ for the full duration of the cue. Instead, Alan automated a high-pass EQ for just the exposed start of the cue, leaving the full frequency range otherwise untouched.

Meyerson and Christenson created a tree-like structure for his VCA groups, starting with an ‘ALL’ VCA group, controlling the overall level of all musical elements. Next they branch out to VCA sub-groups: all orchestra, all choir, all percussion and all else. Below these were another set of sub-groups: live orchestra, sample orchestra, live choir, sample choir etc. At the bottom were VCAs controlling effects returns: all reverb returns, then sub-groups of the individ­ual reverbs and other effects. These VCAs are organised so Meyerson can select any VCA group, and easily access all of its spill tracks via the Avid S6 control surface. This workflow is key, especially given the high track count. He made all of his volume automation moves using VCAs, greatly enhancing the dramatic impact.

REVISION DECISIONS

When Meyerson was ready to present his work to Jackman, a playback review was scheduled. During the review, Jackman was active on the console, doing subtle, yet very musical volume rides. To accommodate this, separate VCAs were created, so Meyerson’s automation wouldn’t be over-written. This workflow could eas­ily have gone awry, but Jackman and Meyerson are masters of their craft, and they’re quick to call each other out if a volume ride sounds forced.

Jackman’s mix revisions often called for subtle subtractive changes. For example, reducing a guitar level to serve the orchestra melody, or removing some 700Hz from the violin spot mics to create space for other parts. Meyerson’s goal when preparing for a playback review is to make each cue highly presentable, whilst leaving room for the composer’s revisions. Meyerson has learnt not to aim for perfection before the first playback review with a composer. Earlier in his career, he would get too emotionally invested in his mix balances. Taking it personally when revisions were inevitably requested by the composer.

At the end of the session, after the mixes were approved by the composer, Christenson printed the 25 stems for the dub stage, and 29 stems for the composer’s soundtrack mix. This process requires great attention to detail. On large-scale scores like Jumanji, having an assistant who can carefully execute this volume of work is essential.

HAMMERING OUT THOR

Thor: Ragnarok’s film score was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, whose previous score credits include Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic. Mothersbaugh was previously the co-founder, singer and keyboard player for Devo.

In Thor: Ragnarok, the protagonists travel between fictional planets Asgard and Sakaar, so orchestra and choir featured more prominently for the Asgard scenes, while electronic synthesiser elements were at the forefront for the Sakaar scenes.

Mothersbaugh and Meyerson chose to record orchestra and choir at Abbey Road Stu­dio 1, London. The orchestra comprised 89 players, recorded live in a single pass on all but one of the cues.

ABBEY ROAD MIC COLLECTION

Abbey Road Studios has one of the world’s finest working collections of vintage mi­crophones, maintained by micro­phone technician, Lester Smith. On set-up day, the jovial and eccentric Smith gave me a personal tour of his staggeringly impressive domain. There were 19 Coles 4038s, 18 Neumann U67s, 15 Neumann M50s, 13 Neumann U47s, and eight AKG C12… to name a few.

Meyerson’s main microphone array for Thor: Ragnarok included: a Decca Tree of Neumann M50s, four Neu­mann U67 ‘midfield’ cardioid mics, two wide-spaced Neumann M50 outriggers, two Brüel & Kjær 4006 side mics, two Sennheiser MKH800 hypercardioid surround mics, two more pairs of Brüel & Kjær 4006 height mics, and three Royer R121s as woodwind/choir LCR overheads.

For spot mics, Meyerson used: AKG C12s in cardioid (French horns), Neumann U47s and Sennheiser MKH800 Twin cardioids (double basses), Neu­mann U67 cardioids (celli), Coles 4038s (trumpets and trombones), a Neumann M49 (timpani), Schoeps CMC6 MK4s & MK21s (violins, percussion section and violas), Neumann KM84s (woodwinds), Neumann U87 cardioids (piano) and Brüel & Kjær 4011s (percussion).

For preamps, he used Neve AIR Montserrat preamps on the main array mics, remote-controlled via the Neve 88RS console. For all other spot mics, he used the built-in Neve pre­amps on the console.

The magnificent acoustic quality of Abbey Road Studio 1 was another x-factor. It was originally built for Sir Edward Elgar in 1931, with a 40ft ceiling height and 92ft by 52ft floor plan.

POSITIVE RECORDING PROCESS

The full orchestra was recorded in one pass, with harp set up in a separate isolation booth. Given this approach, balance and arrangement decisions were committed during re­cording.

The level of musicianship from the orchestra was fantastic, with many of the players either current or past members of the London Symphony Orchestra or London Philharmonic.

On day 2, I met associate principal violist Pete Lale, who has been a regular on London film score sessions for approximately 20 years. He mentioned how much the players appreciate some positive reinforcement from the control room first, before getting any constructive criticism. He said the musicians’ vibe sinks fast when all of the feedback is negative. Pete was very complimentary about the positive energy coming from the control room on these sessions. It was a great reminder that even the most experienced top-level session musicians are human. Respect, decency and positivity goes a long way towards getting the best out of the players.

LONDON VOICES

The choir was made up of 32 singers (12 gents and 20 ladies) from London Voices — the UK’s premiere choir for film score sessions. London Voices comprises a pool of professional singers, so the ensemble for a session can be tailored to the specific needs of any given project.

The main mic array captured most of the choir sound. The addition of three LCR Royer R121 mics, set above the gents in the back row, gave Meyerson flexibility to boost volume and presence of the tenors and basses in the mix.

Meyerson used a vintage AKG C12 cardioid mic for the solo soprano, set approximately three feet from the singer, with a Neve AIR Montserrat preamp, plus he captured the room sound with the main mic array. It was the only occasion I observed Meyerson using compression during recording — he ran the C12 through a Teletronix LA2A compressor.

MIXING TWO WORLDS

Compared to Jumanji, the list of stem deliverables for Thor: Ragnarok was quite compact, due to the orchestra mostly recording live without overdubs.

Also, Mothersbaugh didn’t request additional stems for a separate soundtrack mix. Because of that, Alan routed a folddown stereo mix through his analogue mastering chain — Manley Vari-Mu compressor and EAR 825Q EQ — printing stereo mixes for the soundtrack release, in addition to printing stems for the dub. His three Manley Massive Passive EQ units were inserted over the LCR and side channels of the main orchestra stem, for added warmth and sheen.

On the electronic music cues, Meyerson used modern ap­proaches to classic 1980s pop mixing tricks. If a synth part or drums needed more weight, he might try duplicating the track, pitching it down an octave and blending it with the original. Alternatively, he might add subharmonic synthesis via Waves R-Bass or Refuse Lowender plug-ins.

When Mothersbaugh came in to review mixes, he was very happy with the results, and made just a few minor changes. With the first review completed, it meant Meyerson could confidently proceed onto the remaining cues with his mix aesthetic calibrated to Mothersbaugh’s taste.