After recently bringing the software across to its own portfolio of products, Shure has introduced WAVETOOL – the ultimate, game-changing solution to transform your audio monitoring. Effortlessly keep an eye on every wired and wireless audio source across various brands on a single screen.

WAVETOOL is trusted by industry leaders from the West End to Broadway, live sound, broadcast, and major sporting events worldwide. When perfection is the only option, WAVETOOL delivers.

Seamless monitor and listen to up to up 128 channels remotely.

Identify and fix faulty sound sources quickly and efficiently.

Streamline communication between teams with an integrated chat feature.

Welcome to the future of sound and advanced audio monitoring.

Yamaha Corporation has announced the HS3 and HS4, new models in the HS series of studio monitors.

HS Series speakers have become the standard in studio monitors, trusted for many years by the world’s top audio engineers, producers, and artists. Now Yamaha has redefined their essence in a compact housing. The HS3 and HS4 are powerful tools to help create a wide range of audio content—from music production to video editing—that meets the expectations of creators who have limited space and need to keep the volume down but do not want to compromise on monitoring quality.

The HS3 and HS4 continue the design philosophy and know-how of previous Yamaha studio monitors. No effort has been spared in the pursuit of the optimal product, and the resulting speakers comprise carefully selecting parts such as a high-performance class-D amp, a highly resilient cabinet, and woofers and soft dome tweeters that deliver a sound that is faithful to the source despite their small size. They also feature proprietary “Twisted Flare Port” technology that reduces air turbulence noise in the bass reflex port, providing clear and accurate bass. That’s the secret to why the HS3 and HS4 deliver outstanding resolution, sound image, and depth, with a flat response across all bandwidths without any colouring of the original sound.

The HS3 and HS4 are equipped with ROOM CONTROL and HIGH TRIM functions that allow you to make adjustments to achieve the ideal sound for any environment, such as reducing the unneeded, exaggerated low-end that can often occur when speakers are placed next to walls.

The rear panel of the HS3 and HS4 is equipped with combination XLR/TRS phone, RCA, and stereo mini connectors, allowing you to connect to a wide range of professional and consumer equipment such as computers, audio interfaces, audio mixers, and electric instruments. The most commonly used features—power button, volume knob, and headphone connector—are located in the front for easy access.

The compact size of the HS3 and HS4 was made possible thanks to the highly efficient class-D amp. Using one amp for two speakers has enabled us to both reduce the weight of the speakers and simplify the cable connections. They take up little space even in a small bedroom studio, and are easy to take with you on the road.

“We are pleased to announce the addition of a new model to the HS series,” says Yoshiyuki Tsugawa, Senior General Manager at Yamaha Creator & Consumer Audio Division. “We look forward to supporting the creative work of more people than ever before by offering even more ways to use the HS Series’ renowned high sound quality in a compact chassis.”

You can find out more HERE.

Australian music and film industry veteran, Lachlan Carrick has been recording, mixing and mastering records for the past two decades, from working with Australian music legends like Paul Kelly and Missy Higgins, to most recently mastering the GRAMMY-nominated soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. Throughout his journey, Lachlan has consistently relied on the dependable and poised audio quality delivered by Neumann studio equipment.

Lachlan’s introduction to the world of music production occurred during his early teens, thanks to his jazz pianist father, John. Lachlan was immediately fascinated by the technical side of music production. “I’d bug my parents to let me go and see my father’s gigs, and the only place I was allowed to sit while he performed was in the sound booth. As young as 14, I remember nights spent looking over the shoulder of the engineer mixing in this small club and found myself excited by the impact that well-crafted mixes could have on the audience, and the band,” Lachlan reveals.

From there his interest in music production became a driving force, and Lachlan seized every opportunity to learn the intricacies of audio engineering. Not long after completing high school, Lachlan was working professionally having scored a job at the Canberra Theatre in his hometown. This is where Lachlan’s introduction to Neumann gear transpired. “The Canberra Theatre had this crazy mic cabinet including five or six U 89s, which was really fun. I may have even borrowed a pair from time to time to sneak into the studio. Using classic Neumann microphones in multiple contexts gave me a great appreciation for their exceptional performance.”

Over the years, Lachlan honed his skills and established himself as a respected engineer, working in recording studios across the country. During this journey, he developed a deep admiration for Neumann’s renowned production quality. Lachlan first purchased his own Neumann microphone fifteen years ago, the TLM 67, and hasn’t looked back since. Recently, he added to his collection “a bucket list mic, the U 67 reissue, which has been one of my go-to choices for recording vocals over the years.”

Following an esteemed collection of studio mixing credits, by 2023 Lachlan has established a niche specialising in mastering immersive formats, the latest disruptor to the recording industry. Nestled in Melbourne’s north, Lachlan has recently built his own state-of-the-art studio that is fitted for Dolby Atmos featuring a carefully selected array of Neumann studio monitors.

“When planning my Atmos setup, the Dolby Audio Room Design Tool (DARDT) was very handy. It allowed me to input my studio’s parameters, including ceiling height and monitor angles, to align with Dolby’s recommendations.” Selecting Neumann gear for its reliability and guaranteed audio quality, Lachlan’s studio is home to three KH 150 and eight KH 80 DSP Neumann studio monitors, working in perfect harmony with the Neumann KH 870 G subwoofer. “Neumann ticked all the boxes with their wide range of options that are all very well voice-matched,” Lachlan explains. “What I appreciate most about Neumann is their commitment to maintaining high specification standards with their speakers, akin to their microphone production philosophy. They’re also great value.” These factors amde Neumann the ideal choice for his Atmos facility.

Speaking to sonic performance, Lachlan explains that “the imaging of the KH series is such an asset for an Atmos setup. With object-based production you really need to hear solid phantom imaging. I want to hear an object sitting between a pair of speakers, so it creates a believable position and fluidity of movement. The strength of imaging on Neumann speakers was a big selling point for me.”

On the film side of things, he works regularly with composers David Hirschfelder (The Dressmaker, Ride Like a Girl, Escape from Pretoria) and Nigel Westlake (Blueback, Ali’s Wedding, Paper Planes). Recent Atmos music projects include mixing Melbourne-based composer/pianist Luke Howard’s new work for Birmingham Royal Ballet, remixing Emma Donovan & The Putbacks’ “Under These Streets” album for NAIDOC week and mastering the “Lost at Sea” album from Rob Grant, featuring his daughter Lana Del Rey. Lachlan has found his Neumann Immersive 7.1.4 Atmos System invaluable on many of these projects, and notes that his productions are translating well into mix theatres and Airpods alike.

Lachlan’s talents extended to mastering the soundtrack album of the highly anticipated Elvis feature film, directed by fellow Australian and film director, Baz Luhrmann. “Compilation albums can be the trickiest records to master because they’re often a huge mashup of genres, and files are being shared by numerous teams. It’s a big challenge with mastering to make sure that this very diverse collection of songs still feels cohesive as a record.”

Reflecting on this remarkable project, Lachlan expressed his gratitude for the opportunities it brought. “I never thought I’d have the chance to work on an Eminem or Doja Cat track. The Elvis project was certainly both rewarding and challenging. Some tracks came from the best mix engineers in the world, and others were from relatively up and coming artists. Then of course there was the iconic original Elvis material. It was an intense and fun experience to bring it all together, along with my friend and colleague Francois Tetaz,” shares Lachlan.

The ELVIS (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) featured 37 songs and 200+ of Lachlan’s mastering hours, followed by a DELUXE EDITION being released just eight months later with a massive fifty-two songs. Lachlan is one of the many artists who breathed new life to the music of Elvis Presley, with the soundtrack being nominated for two GRAMMY Awards, including Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Rap Performance (“Vegas”).

Extending beyond just microphones and studio monitors, Lachlan has been using Neumann’s recently launched NDH 30 open-backed headphones in the studio. Designed for the most demanding mixing and mastering applications in both stereo and immersive formats, the NDH 30 have quickly captured Lachlan’s attention for what they bring to the table. “It was a surprise at first just how un-hyped these headphones are and that’s a major plus for me. They’re great for another perspective on mixes and are comfortable to wear. The build quality also seems very serious.”

As the audio industry continues to push boundaries and innovate technology to enhance the immersive listening experience, engineers like Lachlan are at the forefront of this movement mastering major music and film productions in Dolby Atmos. Neumann’s distinguished quality across its lineup of monitors, microphones and headphones extends to the emerging multi-dimensional format and is designed to allow every sound to be accurately captured, heard and placed.

 About Neumann

Georg Neumann GmbH, known as “Neumann.Berlin”, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of studio-grade audio equipment and the creator of recording microphone legends such as the U 47, M 49, U 67 and U 87. Founded in 1928, the company has been recognized with numerous international awards for its technological innovations. Since 2010, Neumann.Berlin has expanded its expertise in electro-acoustic transducer design to also include the studio monitor market, mainly targeting TV and radio broadcasting, recording, and audio production. The first Neumann studio headphones were introduced in 2019, and since 2022, the company has put an increased focus on reference solutions for live audio. Georg Neumann GmbH has been part of the Sennheiser Group since 1991 and is represented worldwide by the Sennheiser network of subsidiaries and long-standing trading partners. www.neumann.com.

If you’d like to know more about Lachlan’s work and projects, his website is at www.lachlan-carrick.com

Mixing in small rooms is a fact of life. Not everyone has a perfectly treated mix environment where sound waves have the room to develop and the pesky problem frequencies are addressed with their own Helmholtz resonators. 

The issue is, how can you trust your mixes if you’re in a room that’s acoustically tarnishing the true response of your expensive studio monitors? Or if the room’s modest size means you’re sitting half a metre too close to your monitors than their optimum listening distance?

Option one: mix on headphones. Option two: drop a couple of grand on acoustic treatment. Option three: try some ultra nearfield studio monitors. 

GET CLOSER

The Kali Audio IN-UNF studio monitors occupy this ‘ultra nearfield’ category. A clue is its unconventional form factor, which diverges from a typical rectangular speaker cabinet with forward-facing drivers that’s placed at least a metre away. Rather, with an ideal listening distance of 0.8m, the IN-UNF is designed to be up close and personal. It’s the audio equivalent of ultra short throw projection in the sense that it’s optimised for a short ‘throw’ distance. This configuration achieves a couple of things. Firstly, it means you can monitor at lower levels. Secondly, it reduces the influence of a room’s acoustics to the degree that the proximity means your ears receive more direct sound and less reflected sound. 

The IN-UNF is a three-way monitoring system in Kali’s Project Independence line of products. The two ball-shaped satellites house the same coaxial drivers used in Kali Audio’s IN-5 and IN-8 with a four-inch midrange driver and one-inch textile dome tweeter extending up to 25kHz (±3dB). The subwoofer (which could be mistaken for a CPU tower) is designed to sit on your desk – not on the floor. Two horizontally opposed 4.5-inch drivers cancel out vibrations transmitted to the desk’s surface and supply low frequency extension down to 47Hz (±3dB). Crossover points are at 280Hz and 2.8kHz.

Hooking the system up begins with the subwoofer. Once powered via IEC cable, plug the two passive satellites into the sub using the included banana connectors. Audio input options include balanced 6.5mm TRS, stereo 3.5mm, USB-C, and Optical. The USB-C input means you can use the IN-UNF without an audio interface.

ALL ABOUT LOCATION

Positioning of each unit is of crucial importance. One thing I appreciated about the Kali Audio IN-5 was its hyper accurate stereo imaging. To achieve the same precision with the IN-UNF, Kali Audio insists the satellites must sit in a very particular spot relative to the subwoofer, denoted on the included A4 placement card with traced positions. Aiming the satellites directly up at your ears is important, too, and easily done thanks to the rounded silicone pads they sit on. The subwoofer can sit vertically or horizontally. I elected to use the sub horizontally as a monitor riser. It’s a big unit (49cm wide, 29cm deep, 13cm tall), so sitting it vertically may be your only option if your desk isn’t very deep.

A series of dip switches sit next to the input connectors. Settings for different placements and configurations (boundary EQ) are available here, including 2dB boosts for bass, mids, and treble, and a 4dB bass boost on its own.

Kali Audio’s Project Watts, the WS-6.2, is a studio subwoofer with two 6.5-inch horizontally opposed woofers. Taking up less than half the space of comparably performing subwoofers, it is ideal for stereo mix setups where space is at a premium. The WS-6.2 is tailor-made to be a companion sub to Kali’s LP-Series and IN-Series monitors, but it will also integrate well with just about any pair of studio monitors.

Project Watts
The WS-6.2 is only slightly larger than an 8-inch studio monitor, making it the perfect choice to sit under your desk, or in other tight spaces. The horizontally opposed woofers in the WS-6.2 present as much radiating area as a 10-inch woofer, but in a much smaller package. As an added benefit, the configuration of the woofers cancels out net vibration, so the sub won’t scoot, buzz, or rattle, even at high SPLs.

With 120dB max SPL, the WS-6.2 will be more than sufficient for most stereo setups, and will work well in small multichannel setups as well. If more SPL is needed, a second WS-6.2 can be added without taking up very much space. You can also look at using Kali’s larger WS-12 subwoofer.

Project Santa Monica
Project Santa Monica is Kali’s finest speaker yet, and combines its proven 3-way architecture with uncompromising components and craftsmanship. The SM-Series delivers unrivalled imaging, accuracy, and detail for the most critical applications. Project Santa Monica debuts with the SM-5-C, a passive 5-inch 3-way coaxial monitor for immersive mixing applications. The SM-5-C features tunings for LEA Connect Series amplifiers for high power with plenty of headroom.

Kali’s founding principle is to deliver the best possible product for the price, and its speakers have always been praised for their accuracy, translation, and ease of use. The SM-Series builds on these ideals, and incorporates the best available materials, components, and manufacturing. The result is a high performance studio monitor that is ready for the most demanding mixing and mastering applications.

The SM-Series speakers are acoustic point sources, and particular care has been given to the transition from the midrange to the baffle. This transition is seamless to the edge of the speaker, resulting in an engrossing stereo image where details are lifelike and crisp.

Project Watts
WS-6.2
Starting at US$499

Project Santa Monica
SM-5-C
Starting at US$999