The Doldrums hail from Wombarra, on Dharawal country, and consist of two long-time friends, neighbours and musical compadres; Michi Hirzel (Sealife Park, Spiderling) and Matt Steffen (Decoder Ring, Toby Martin, Jim Moginie’s Electric Guitar Orchestra).

We first started talking about recording their sound in early 2024, and jointly felt that a live to tape machine session at their local South Coast studio Stranded, would be best to capture their dreamy, meandering blend of guitars, drones, drum machines and hazy vocals. We felt that the Doldrums‘ sound would be complimented by the vintage tonal warmth of Stranded Recording Studios‘ MCI JH24 16 Channel 2” tape machine.

As the duo’s rhythm section is based around drum machines, it allow me to set up Michi and Steff and their guitar amps in the live room at Stranded Studios. Their amps where placed left and right, firing up the length of the live room. I used some baffles down the centre length of the room to reduce the spill at the close mic stage (see the below image). This studio positioning helped to facilitate a nature stereo image of the two guitar sounds, Michi left and Steff right. This was captured via stereo room mics placed left and right at the end of the room. Blending the close guitar mics into the room stereo image was a particular fun aspect in the mixing stage of the record. A full list of the mics used can be found at the end of this post.

The main beds of tracks were captured on 2″ tape and then recorded to Pro Tools. Any further guitar solos and vocals were recorded directly to Pro Tools. The mixes were then taken to completion at my home studio, with a few visits from the lads at the studio.

My main reflections on co-producing the record with Michi and Steff include:

It’s both extremely satisfying, and tricky, to work with guitar tones that are breaking up at the amp level. The lads pull some great guitar tones and aren’t afraid to push there small diaphragm amps to the point of breaking up. Heroes in the production suite to control such edgy tones were firstly, the medium of 2″ tape , and then within the mixing phase, modern plugins such as Fab Pro Q3, and frequency specific dynamic control in general.

A second take away would be, not everyone wants or needs Hip Hop drum fatness! Hearing the lads drum machines driven to tape and coming back with a fat, warm tape saturation initial inspired me to make the drums huge via some EQ, compression and parallel compression. Michi and Steff had to tell me to settle down on at least one occasion, and to sit the drums more equally in the mix. At the end of the day the client is always right, and their vision needs to be delivered.

Another reflection would be, it’s a fun challenge working with introspective musicians come vocalists! Steff occasionally graces the tracks with some heartfelt vocals which are meant to act as both a lyric and another instrument layer. Steff was definite that the vocals had to not stand up front like a Pop vocal, but rather, sit right back in the mix and be as hazy and washed out as possible. In this balancing act, I had to incorporate quite a few extended mixing techniques. Firstly, to keep Steff’s vocal audible while using so much reverb and delay, I used side-chain compression on the FXs so that the vocal ducked the FXs volume just a bit to keep Steff’s vocal from being swallowed by the said FXs. Further, to keep the vocal from getting lost in the wall of guitars, I resorted to using Waves F6 on the Guitar Sum Bus, and routing the vocal as the key input/ side-chain compression signal for the guitars, so that the guitars ducked slightly when Steff is singing. I particularly like the F6 plugin as it’s easy to set the compression to occur only in the mids/ and or sides, and at whatever frequency band the vocal is most dominant. As Steff was panned centre, I applied only frequency specific compression in the mids, and at around 2-3kHz.

Michi  and Steff, have been active musicians in some notable Sydney bands, see their credentials at the top of this post, and as such, were very good at communicating their aesthetic and sonic desires. They were heavily involved in directing the mixes and co producing this record.

For more information and music from the Doldrums, head to their Instagram, or check them on Spotify. The tracks are being released one by one as singles on Spotify, and the Doldrums’ Bandcamp.

Here are some pictures from the studio sessions

INPUT/ MIC LIST:

Drums:
Radial stereo DI –

Steff Guitar:
Close mics – Shure SM57, Neumann KM84, AEA N-92 ( 1 foot back – to one protect the ribbon, amps were LOUD, and to reduce proximity effect)
the 57 gave bite,  the Neumann gave full frequency pick up and shimmer, the B-92 ribbon gave warmth, body and glue.

Michi Guitar:
Close mics – Shure SM57, Neumann KM84, Royer R-121 ( 1 foot back – to one protect the ribbon, amps were LOUD, and to reduce proximity effect)
Similarly, with this array of mics, the mix had tonal options, the 57 gave bite, the condenser the upper brilliance, and the ribbon gave warmth, body, and glued the other mic sounds together.

Live Room Sound:
Neumann U87 stereo pair
as mentioned these were placed at the back of the room, and captured the stereo spread of Michi and Steff’s amps, and provided a natural reverb that was used in most of the mixes.

Steff Vocal:
Neumann U87 and Shure SM57
I love blending these mics. The U87 give a full classy body and clarity, whilst the SM57 give that almost nasally mid poke when a sound needs a bit more rawness.

Steff Acoustic Guitar:
Neumann U87 and Senheisser MKH 8040 stereo pairs
Both condenser types worked well, but I think the U87s mostly made the record due to it’s crisp and slightly vintage tone

The post Doldrums Singles appeared first on chrishancock.network.

The audio course is titled Making Sense, and is a nine part audio course on creative first aid, designed to listen to while you’re walking, driving, cleaning the bathroom, cooking dinner…. Making Sense explores what creativity is, the neuroscience of what happens when we practice, the role of the nervous system and the five elements of creative first aid.

A free episode can be found on substack.com here https://substack.com/home/post/p-147355790

This was an very interesting job. The content was great, the hired talent Elana Stone (intro track) & Tom Maclachlan (Narrator/ Voice Over talent) were excellent, and there was a lot of music and sound to create.

As this is my production blog, I will keep the post nerdy, and most relevant to aspiring creators of Podcast like material and content.

My mic choice(s) for the vocal/ voice over was a Neumann TLM107 + Shure SM7B + Pop-shield. The Neumann lent clarity and upper frequency sheen, whilst the SM7B gave a warm and intimacy. The mics then hit a signal chain of Vintech 573 pre-amps, Warm Audio WA2A compression and then into my DAW on the day, Ableton. The recording was done @ Stranded Recording Studios in Bellambi, see pictures below.

Once all the editing was finished, my vocal processing chain in the DAW employed the following concepts: (in order of processing) High Pass Filtering unwanted low frequencies, boosting presence(5-6kHz ish), boosting air (10kHz and above), compressing to control dynamics, de-essing to control sibilance, de-reverbing to remove reflections, more EQ to sweet the vocal, limiting for volume boost, mouth de-clicking, and finally more frequency and band based compression to control any final sibilance and harsh resonances.

The exact plugins used in the process are pictured in the below audio effects chain screenshot

The settings can be seen to some degree in the below screenshot

 

Beyond the vocal recording and production, about 2 hrs of original music had to be written for the audio series, this became somewhat reduced as I realised the comfort in recurring themes and songs/ sounds to evoke the right atmosphere. Generally though, as the audio series in reflective, more gentle genres were engaged, such as ambient, folks and chilled beats. When juggling a range of foley, pre composed music and music gestures that were required to be composed within the mix session, I found having Bus or Groups enabled in Ableton very valuable. My main groups were Music, Foley and Instruments, as can be seen below. Such a process allowed me to control the automation of more macro level fades, reverbing and filtering out of sonic elements so ensure the most fluid delivery of the content.

The audio series is a paid series, but the generous folks at Make Shift have made available one of the episodes for free, see below

Read on Substack

More information about the audio course can be found here, https://www.makeshift.org.au/making-sense

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Over a high paced session, Elana laid down an assortment of haunting keys, synths, vocals, harmonies and even great vintage drum machine parts. She was a delight to work with, effortlessly jumping from layer to layer, capturing the sound that was in her head.

Early 2024 I was in the mix process, the track was shaping up beautifully with a misty Twin Peaks 80s favour. Elana, however, could hear the possibility of the second half of the track lifting with a layer of some organic drums and bass. Elana’s longtime collaborator, Kieran Parker, quickly recorded some great new bass and drum layers, and then came the tricky job of finding space for two bass lines and drum parts.

Production-wise, we got there with some aggressive EQ shaping, sidechain compression and more conceptually, really allowing each of the basses and drums to have a unique character. The new drums eventually adopted a quite psychedelic layer. It was fun to be treating a whole drum bus with flangers, phasers and over-the-top psychedelic treatments in generally.

The result is below

Come the release of the track within an album setting, it was amazing to find myself in the album credits alongside a host of my favourite Sydney-based engineers and producers, such as Tony Buchen, Antonia Gauci and Richie Belkner, as well as a gun line up of musicians, including Josh Pyke, Luke Moseley, Justing Stanley, Zoe Hauptmann, and Keiran and Lachlan Parker.

Below are a few images from the session. Elana’s album tour dates are also below.

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The budget was such that it afforded being able to record local indigenous performer Dale Wright on Yidaki and boomerang clap sticks. Yidaki, or as it is commonly know, Didgeridoo, is not actual an instrument the people of Dharawal country played, but rather originates from the north eastern Arnhem land. Nevertheless, Dale has been bless by the north eastern mob to carry the sounds of Yidaki south, and rightly or wrongly, it is a sound that evokes a sense of the indigenous people and history of Australia at large.

In talking to Dale, I was excited to come to a better understanding of the musical history of Dharawal country, and was told that the men usually played boomerang clap sticks and the women drums made from possum skin.

In trying to be aware and sensitive to all parties viewing and using the documentary, the sound palette that was chosen included:

• a bed of skin drums, clap sticks, yidaki and field recordings taken from the area. Such sounds were used to place the view on country
• a range or transitional synth sweeps and synthesizer effects that capture the movement of the weather patterns over the escarpment
• a chord progression or two that used traditional folk and pop stylings to create a light uplifting emotion
• and lastly a few modern electronic or dance music influenced drum patterns and techniques to give the product a contemporary flavour.

The direction that the composition and overall sonic arch of the documentary was informed by Jamie LePre, Mane Collective Director. His sense of country and understanding of the task on hand made his direction specific, inspired and a pleasure to work with. I think both Jamie and I enjoyed the back and forth of compositional ideas as the pictures rolled in, and I hope we get to work together on more projects soon.

Below is a few pictures from the recording session with Dale Wright at Stranded Recordings in Bellambi.

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The beautiful first single, Never Come Back is out now

This is the second EP I have mixed for SääD, and was not without some interesting production challenges worthy of discussion in this production blog.

Firstly, the collaborative nature of this record, involved a lot of lo fi, iPhone recordings of Johnathan on keys or double bass. Whilst, full of atmosphere and vibe, the recordings were at times very resonant, by this I mean a lot of concentrated frequency content, often in the mids, such resonances causing distortion problems for smaller speakers at the start of the mixing process.

For example, the main piano / keys featured in this single were recorded via an iPhone at a distance from Jonathan’s keyboard / keyboard speaker. Due to the frequency response of the iPhone’s inbuilt microphone, and due to the proximity effect, the keys have a majority of frequency content concentrated between 500Hz and 2kH.

To solve such issues of resonance, my production tools relied heavily on multi-band compression, and frequency specific compression, such as Fab Filter Pro-Q3’s dynamic EQ, and Oaksound’s Soothe 2. This somewhat modern ability to compress certain frequencies enabled me to control certain frequencies that were causing distortion in smaller speaker types. See the images of such plugins below.

Further, to address the lack of frequencies in other areas of the spectrum, due to some of the lo fi recording techniques, saturation, was used to stimulate and inflate both the bass and high frequency content. Currently, my tools of choice in these areas of saturation are Waves’ Vitamin, for multi-band saturation, and Slate Digital’s Fresh Air for more high frequency simulation.

I’ve also made a quicktime screen grab of a technique that I often use to create space in a mix for a vocal. Check that video out below

It’s always a pleasure to work for the artist SääD, and I hope this short article inspires other producers out there.

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This alias focuses on creating ambient spaces and moods that engage the listener in a two way relationship rather than the usual one way consumption of pop music. This ambient release aims to have an ambiguous edge to the music, in other words to create a sonic environment where the listener is unsure of what is part of the music and what is sounds from the outside environment. A metaphor if you will, for the wandering mind, that is shaped and influenced by both the internal and external environment.

The moods of this record therefore rely on a combination of field recordings, synthesis and 360 mixing to create immersive sonic environments.

For those interested in such concepts of ambient music, here’s a great introductory video of one of the ambient music forefathers, Brian Eno, talking about such concepts.

The post Open Spaces – The Wandering Mind EP appeared first on chrishancock.network.

In August I was invited to speak on Immersive Sound at the Sound West conference at the CommBank Stadium at Parramatta.

Chaired by Radovan Klusacek (SAE Sydney Campus Manager) and joined by Stewart Gedes (301 Studios), we covered many aspects of the emerging field of 360 audio.

The session gave a history of immersive 360 audio, from university based researched through to the easily available plugins and DAW enabled 360 tools available to the modern producer.

The Q&A at the end of the panel was interesting in that it definitely appear that we had engaged some of the young producers in the room to experiment with some of these new production tools and capabilities.

If you are a producer and are interested in the creating 360 music and audio, here are a few links to get you started.

Ableton Live user try the open source freeware – Envelop For Live

All DAW users try the free dearVR micro plugin

ProTools users try the FB360 suite

Logic Users – enjoy the fact that as of Logic Pro 10.7 (2021) dolby atmos spatial mixing is now native to Logic. Here’s a quick youtube tutorial to get you started.

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I reviewed the literature on human spatial perception and looked at what is and isn’t possible within the 360 compositional space.  

This creative experimentation within the 360 space explored concepts brought forward from the literature review, and resulted in 4 EPs of spatialise compositions for headphone listening. Some of the compositions have become quite minimal in order to leave space for perception of the 360 space, in particular 360 parameters such as azimuth, elevation and radius. Further, the academic atmosphere of the research has put me in the mood to return to my on going interest in the esoteric side of audio, ie binaural beats, solfeggio frequencies and the like.

The first of these works has recently been released through lo fi spiritual and can be heard below. The title of this first release is Solfeggio Sculptures and is released under my own name rather than any of my previous aliases.

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The record was a good learning curve as to the benefits of the mix engineer, myself in this case, taking on a more produce type role. The tracks were bubbling with possibility, but often the verse and chorus were hidden within the session and the tracks and instrumentation weren’t fully formed to compliment the verse chorus structure.

I’m thankful for the confidence that both Scott and recording engineer Joel King put in myself, allowing me to strip back the recordings and structure them to best compliment the timeless verse chorus format.

Scott’s release Garageband is not out at Spotify and beyond, and the title track also has had a video clip made for it as well. Check it all out below.

Enjoy!

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I was asked to remix a track from Kurl‘s recent release Visions of an old man and decided on remixing the track Dub Trip, listen at the below Spotify link

The track is released under my more Dub Techno orientated alias TEChSLo and is featured as the second release on Organica Compila Vol 3.

It was an interesting journey, label head Pascal had initially asked for a clubby remix, which under the influence of some of my students at the time resulted in a more Tech House remix. After providing a sketch of the direction the remix was taking, Pascal kindly replied, “you’re professional as usual! So, to be honest this is not my favourite kind of music, but if this is your interpretation, it is! I would prefer something more housy and groovy….but, as I said, you are the remixer, so you can do what u want!”

Wanting to execute the brief and satisfy the label I asked for a reference track to avoid any further misunderstandings. Pascal provided some great mellow groovy house references and I used that as an opportunity to map out some of the “grooves” / quantisation patterns in the references. In particular I was trying to capture the shuffle or groove in the hats of reference tracks such as the below track.

For my students I created a Youtube video on how to map out such groove templates within Ableton, that can be found below.

The second version with a more funky groove and less hard hitting drop met with the following response from Pascal, “This is fantastic! Huge work on it! Perfect!”

In reflection I feel that I satisfied the brief, but on listening to the whole record I feel that my track could have been a bit more dubbed out and ambient. That would have fitted better with the overall sound of the compilation and also been more inline with the TEChSLo sound.

I feel that this has been a good lesson in asking for exact reference tracks and the importance of groove templates. Further, I feel it is also a good lesson in not always following the stereotype of a remix being a more banging version of the original track.

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