Tag Archive for: Chris Hancock

Recording the NHSPA Choir

This week I had the pleasure of recording the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts Choir.

The recording was for the theme music for a forthcoming animation series by Mat McCosker and colleagues. The animation is currently in the second round of animation funding with Screen Australia has has a uniquely Australian look and story. Good luck Mat and co, I hope to see this animation up their next to the likes of other internationally successful animation series such as Bluey.

Back to the recording, the theme music was written by Elana Stone and the choir’s was conducted by  Tanya Sparke. These two women are great Australia vocalists in their own right, please check out their works on Spotify by following the links.

To achieve the desired standard choir sound, I used distant micing as typical of standard choir recordings. In particular I used a ORTF pair of Sennheiser MKH8040 small diaphragm condensers at 4-6 feet from the choir, coupled with a spaced pair of Neumann U87s slightly deeper in the room. To provide a sense of depth, reverb and greater distance, I used a Rodes NTR Active Ribbon microphone to capture the room reflections. This figure 8 microphone was placed at the furthest point from the choir, and was hidden behind a baffle in order to prevent any direct source from the choir. The null of the figure 8 was pointing towards the choir / baffle, the polar pattern of the mic therefore only picking up reflections of the choir. This was compressed to taste and used in the mix to add depth and a natural reverb / room tone.

The transient response for the small diaphragm condensers, ie the MKH8040s was excellent, and for a more detailed overview of the differences between small and large diaphragm condensers, see this below article by Neumann.

All mics were tracked directly into the SSL924 at SAE Sydney. The cleanliness of such pre amps was deemed appropriate for the desired tone colour of the recording.

Below are a few pictures from the session.

Binaural Field Recording

For those that don’t know, I have been a lecturer in the Audio department at SAE Sydney for the last 5 years. At the close of campus 2020, I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow some field recording gear, namely a Zoom F8 (multi-channel recorder) and a 3DIO binaural microphone. A big thanks to Akshay Kalawar and Mel Bertram for enabling me to access Brisbane’s 3DIO microphone, see the microphone type pictured below.

For those unfamiliar with binaural microphones, they replicate the human binaural (two ear) experience. The presence of two ears enables the microphones (placed in each ear) to capture aural cues such as ITD (interaural time differences) and ILD (interaural level differences). Simply put, the two ear microphone captures differences in arrival time of sounds positioned in space around the listener. For example, a sound to the right of the listener or microphone would arrive at the right ear/microphone before it arrives at the left ear/microphone. Such cues we call ITD (interaural time differences). Similarly, the microphone will pick up level differences between the two ears, for example, a sound to the left of the microphone will be louder in the left ear than in the right, hence capturing ILD (interaural level difference) cues.

There are also microphones such as the Neumann KU-100 that also emulates the shadowing effect of the head in the human aural experience, but will a price tag of 12K or thereabouts, I as yet haven’t had the fortune to use such as a mic. See the KU-100 pictured below.

The objective over the summer break was to capture some natural bush and ocean environments with the equipment on loan from SAE. I am grateful to be living these days on the South Coast and the natural soundscapes in my day-to-day life no only have a calming effect on my person, but an inspiration in my creative audio work. Elements of these recordings will inevitably find themselves woven into future electro-acoustic compositions that I will create.

Until then, I have minimally and cleaned up the recordings for public use and access. The recordings have been minimally edited to remove noises such as mic bumps and wind distortion. A touch of RX 7 Spectral De-Noise has also been used with a Reduction curve to focus on any low-frequency rumble from neighbouring highways and urban noise pollution in general.

If you would like to use these recordings, please do so as I have put them up on freesound.org with the Creative Commons license 0, ie you may use them commercially and do not need to credit me.

For those interested further in binaural recording, I have found on my journey both the written work and field recordings of Gordon Hempton to be highly inspirational. You can listen to his work at his website soundtracker.com, and to hear more about his efforts to preserve silent spaces, spaces devoid of any industrial noise, I’d very much advise listening to a great podcast, One Being, where Gordon is interviewed by the wonderful Krista Tippet.

 

Ars Electronica (Austria)

Late 2019 / early 2020 I collaborated with Grace Kingston & Josh Harle (Tactical Space Lab), creating sound designed / composed sonic elements for their project, On Eco-Sensualities with Untethered VR.

I’m happy to hear that the project is currently exhibited at the prestigious Ars Electronica, the Austrian museum dubbed “Museum of the Future”

Due to COVID-19, the work is mostly only accessible on line at https://ars.electronica.art/keplersgardens/en/eco-sensuality/

The project involves live mapping of the VR users environment, accompanied with triggered audio that increases and decreases based on the user’s interaction with their environment. Grace and Josh demo the work in Centennial Park earlier this year.

Below are some images from the project, courtesy of Grace Kingston’s website, that give an understanding of the immersive, arguably trippy experience.

Great work Josh and Grace.

Mastering new EP by LeStrange for Germany Techno imprint Black Snake Recordings

Recently I mastered the new EP, Drench for rising Australian Techno producer Lyndsay LeStrange.

The three track EP is released by German label, Black Snake Recordings, and was an interesting mastering job from a loudness perspective.

Despite many articles about the end of the loudness wars, many artist and labels are still requiring masters that have higher LUFS or RMS than those being quoted as the new standard.

There are many informative videos, such as Dave Pensado interviewing Maor Appelbaum that suggest mastering is reforming and aiming for around -14LUFS, in line with streaming volume automation.

Personally, I’ve been loving new technologies such as the Meter Plugs’ Loudness Penalty plugin which shows how much various streaming services will be turning your masters down by. For an online version of that plugin visit https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/

Despite such things, labels are still requesting masters in the realm of -8 RMS, or if you belong to certain worlds / genres, this can even go higher. Check out the RMS reading of the reference tracks provided for this latest mastering job.

Needless to say, the client is always right, and similar levels were obtained via the combination of a few industry standard limiters.

Nainiouman – Dominion

Early this year I mixed the track Dominion for the Central Coast artist Nainiouman.

It was released earlier this year with quite a graphic film clip on the label Pink Side of Purple. The subject matter was based on the 2020 Australian fires and the management or mismanagement of the our environment.

Due to the subject matter it created quite a bit of heated debate. The film clip is below.

Danga Island Drum Session

I recently had the pleasure of 3 days of recording drums with session player Mark Spence and producer Joel King.

Mark and I were put up in a lovely house a short stroll across the island from the studio. We worked into the early evening each day and enjoyed an open fire and island life after hours. The studio as you can see from the pictures is a garden studio set amongst fruit trees, a chicken run and a host of vegetable gardens.

Over the three days, we tracked drums for an electronic record, a country record and a pop single. Quite prolific!

Due to the project studio nature of the studio, we only had 8 channels in, but they were very decent indeed, 4 channels SSL Alpha VHD and 4 channel Warm preamp WA412. Both preamps performed well and it was certainly fun exploring the variety of tone colour possible with the VHD (variable harmonic distortion) in the Alpha VHD. For those that haven’t used these preamps before, the control allows you to shift between 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion, in short, a thickness through to a brighter harmonic saturation.

Other than that it was nice to work in a small room for a change. The surfaces were well treated, not too reflective and not too dead. As a result the drums were tight and had that classic small room drum sound.

Fortunately, I took personal protection earmuffs, as I was sitting within a meter of the ride and floor tom. Loud it definitely was, but with the earmuffs, not ear damage occurred and on a positive note, communication with the drummer was immediate and easy and even allowed giving hand signals to alert the drummer to changes in the tracks.

Below are a few images from the session and the mic input list. The studio boasts a good range of mics, mostly from Audio Technica, baring the very fancy Telefunken U47.

There’s only one beautiful compressor, the UA LA2A, but that wasn’t much of an issue as most of the mixing and compression will be done after the fact.

Due to the vibe, beautiful guitar collection, U47 and LA2A, I can’t wait to return with a folk artist of some description and spend a few days recording vocals and guitars.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, between takes, if one needs inspiration or a break, there is always a boat ride up the Hawkesbury River.

MIC INPUT LIST:

  1. Kick – Audio Technica AE2500 – Warm Audio WA412
  2. Snare Up – Shure SM57 – Warm Audio WA412
  3. Snare Down – Shure SM57 – Warm Audio WA412
  4. Rack Tom – Audio Technica – ATM250 – SSL Alpha VHD
  5. Floor Tom – Audio Technica – ATM250 – SSL Alpha VHD
  6. Overhead L – Audio Technica – AT8471 – SSL Alpha VHD
  7. Overhead R – Audio Technica – AT8471 – SSL Alpha VHD
  8. Room – Telefunken U47 – LA2A – Warm Audio WA412

 

South Coast Dreaming

My ambient project The Horizontal Society, has released their second record titled South Coast Dreaming on the lo fi spiritual label.

The record is a tapestry of field recordings, bamboo flute, tamboura, and some minimal chanting. Blissed out major scale drones attempt to communicate a deep gratitude for my recent sea change.

My move from Redfern to the NSW South Coast is definitely impacting my art and the sounds I am creating

I hope you find the record to be relaxing, immersive and that it transports you somewhere beautiful.

The release is digitally available from all the usual outlets.

Dub Techno release on Organica Sounds

In recent news, my Dub Techno alias TEChSLo had a release on Italian label Organica Sounds.

Titled Redfern Nights, the release is somewhat of an ode to my old Redfern neighbourhood. The record takes field recordings taking during the wet Redfern winter of 2018 and weaves them with more typical dub techno instrumentation such as dubbed chord stabs and 4×4 kick patterns.

The record is available on DJ friendly platforms such as Beatport and streaming services such as Spotify.

A film clip was also created which was mostly used for Instagram. I have recently posted a long play version on Youtube for those interested.

The rest of this post shall involve a reflection on the production: 

I used field recordings of rain to emulate the noise floor and textural sounds that I have always loved in seminal records from Basic Channel and other alumni such as Echospace Detroit

To achieve the maximal width, these stereo recordings have often been split into mono and placed out of sync to maximise left and right channel differences.

Embracing the Dub Techno emphasis on shifting tonality rather than chord structures, I have used a lot of the Max for Live LFO tool on this record. Specifically, each track has used multiple LFOs to slowly shift filter cut off frequencies and other variables. See my Youtube channel for tutorials relating to such techniques.

Tracks 4 & 5 are interesting to me and reflect my interest in the idea that a remix can be an opportunity to take a reductionist approach to the original sounds; stretching and turning them into their most basic tone or texture. These two reductions were heavily inspired by the works of Variant

In researching many of my favourite Dub Techno producers, it has been noted that many of them have used reel to reel tape machines in their production. To emulate this analogue tape warmth, I have recorded all the audio stems to cassette tape and then re-digitised before the final mix. From a production standpoint, it has been interesting to see the harmonic stimulation and the softening of transients that such a technique has resulted in.

That’s probably enough of a nerdy audio reflection on the minutiae. If you have made it this far, I hope some of the above-mentioned technique inspires your own production.

Cassette & digital release Opening Spaces on Constellation Tatsu

Hooray! I have a new ambient release, this time on the Californian label Constellation Tatsu.

The lovely folks at the label have just released my EP as part of their Winter Batch of cassette releases. It can also be found at all the usual stream sites, such as Spotify below.

I have put this new EP out under a new alias, Open Spaces. Both this work and future works under this alias will be used to explore the realms of 360 audio. This EP was largely written as part of my Masters research into 360 audio techniques such as binaural recording and ambisonic spatialisation software, such as the open source freeware from Envelop.

A big thanks to Steven Ramsey and the rest of the Constellation Tatsu folks for believing in this record.

Binaural sounds

In recent sonic research I have been experimenting with the Hooke Verse binaural microphones.

 

Coupled with a portable recorder, I have been capturing some 360 sonic panoramas of the south coast coastline, weather & bush environments.

Due to wind & background noise, some of the recordings have needed a bit of RX7 Spectral De-Noise and post production in general. As a result I have recorded a Youtube video which serves as a good intro to Izotope’s RX7 De-Noiser.

Lastly, a few of my favourite immersive 360 recordings from the session can be found at my freesounds.org page. Be sure to check the file titled trying to record 360 sound in the bush with the kids. Whilst unusable for what I intended the audio for, it does demonstrate the Azimuth abilities of the microphone set up, by that I mean the variable that can position sound spatially behind the listener.

From a binaural sound recording angle, Gordan Hempton, has been a bit of an inspiration of late. You can hear some of his super high resolution Neumann KU-100 Dummy Head binaural recordings through Quiet Planet, and their Soundcloud.

On a more beats tip, I’ve been revisiting Yosi Horikawa and his use of 360 field recordings within electronic music. The below 2018 Red Bull documentary shows him busy in field-recording mode with what looks like a strange DIY four capsule mic build.

Safe travels and happy adventures in sound to you all.