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Mix Live Blog: By the Students, For the Students

On Friday, December 16, the Mercy College Department of Music Production and Recording Arts presented Lies in High Fidelity, a showcase for electronic music composed, recorded and performed by Mercy students. The production was a collaboration between three classes—Electronic Music Production III (a.k.a. MTEC-212), Electronic Music Performance (a.k.a. MTEC-318) and Live Sound Reinforcement (a.k.a. MTEC-345)—and was held in the Lecture Hall of the college’s Main Hall.

Guided by associate professor and program director Stephen B. Ward, associate director Music Studios Sam Stauff, adjunct professor Jarrod Ratcliffe and myself, students were responsible for both sides of the equation—performance and production—and were encouraged to treat the showcase as any professional production would be handled.

Studio night managers AJ Chiarella and Zaire Smith were an important part of the event, with Chiarella directing video for the livestream feed and in-house screen, and Smith solving a multitude of technical issues, as well as wrangling students when necessary(!).

Mercy students used a variety of tools to create their electronic music projects. As Ward explained, “All Electronic Music Performance solo and collaborative performances ended up as Ableton Live sessions. In several cases, the projects originated in other DAWs (FL Studio, Reason, Logic Pro X and so on) and were ported over to Ableton Live to take advantage of its performance capabilities and its easy integration with hardware controllers.

“There were also cases in which students started in Ableton Live but used particular plug-ins in their home setups that we don’t have, so they froze those tracks as audio files,” he continued. “Some performers simply used Ableton Live to launch a stereo mix of the project while they performed live on virtual instruments in Ableton Live. Other students used Live to add live effects to pre-recorded tracks as a way of remixing the project in performance.”

Students in Electronic Music Production also relied heavily on Ableton Live, though according to Ratcliffe, “One student, Stephen Burney, triggered his backing track and played/sang on top with live effects using Mainstage. Another student, Bobby McPadden, had created scenes in Ableton and triggered those live directly from Ableton for his performance. We use a lot of Ableton in the class, but I also like to let my students use tools they are most comfortable with when they are making songs for the showcase.

“A lot of people used a combination of DAWs, some starting with Ableton’s sampler or synths, then moving to Logic or Pro Tools to mix,” he added. “At least one student, José Uezyoga, started in FL Studio for a lot of his sound design, then brought his bounced stems into Ableton Live for performance in session view.”

Noe Defranc performs his composition, “Riot Beneath The Grave.”
Noe Defranc performs his composition, “Riot Beneath The Grave.”

In addition to the audio recordings, students in Electronic Music Performance created video content for the showcase. “The pre-show,” Ward explained, “began with a series of Ambient Music videos from MTEC-318. Students created each of the videos for these projects. The show began with Prologue, featuring the voice-of-god (a.k.a. me), and the abstract video was created in Ableton Live Suite using Vizzie, a collection of video generation and processing plug-in objects included with Live. Many of the students’ ambient videos were also created and/or processed using Vizzie.”

“Most of the students in Electronic Music II worked in full-featured video editors including Final Cut Pro, Da Vinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere,” Ratcliffe noted. “Videos were created after they had mixes of their songs, and they just pulled their mixes into the video editors. The footage was mostly royalty-free footage they sourced online. Two of the students had fairly involved performances and did not make their own videos, so I served as VJ for them, utilizing Resolume Arena Media Server software.”

All of the projects were pre-loaded into two master playback computers, one for each class. This enabled the Live Sound students to minimize changeover time between performers. A few pre-production meetings enabled the Live Sound students to generate an input list and create scenes in their digital mixers (Behringer x32s).

Several performers used live instruments along with their electronic content, so inputs were added for electric guitar, live toms and two vocal mics for announcements (two additional vocal mics were processed live via Ableton or Mainstage; audio from these mics was merged with the backing tracks by the respective performers). I explained to the Live Sound students that even though they did not yet have access to the audio sources, they could still do “grunt work” on the scenes—i.e., naming channels, linking stereo pairs, and turning on HPFs and compressors for inputs where they’d likely need them.

An important component of the event was a livestream broadcast for the Mercy College YouTube channel, and—having been made aware of the perils of creating a livestream mix from FOH by a recent guest lecturer—my class decided it would be a smart idea for them to use a separate console in an off-stage location to mix the livestream (gently nudged in this direction by me, of course).

This opened the door to the concept of audio networking and using a common stage box connected to two consoles via AES50. It was a great opportunity for the students to learn about clocking, shared head amps, local versus remote inputs and more. Prior to the event, they spent a class creating a mock setup so that they’d be ready to deploy the gear on location.

Their planning paid off: Within about an hour of load-in on show day, the FOH console was passing audio. Initially they had some trouble getting the livestream console to recognize the digital stage box, but this was simply a matter of turning the console off and on again. Ideally, they’d have set up the console for the livestream in an isolated room well away from the stage, but they had to settle for setting it up backstage, with student Emma Armus mixing the stream using headphones.

Emma Armus mixes the livestream offstage.
Emma Armus mixes the livestream offstage.

Another task for the Live Sound students was recording the event in Pro Tools for archival purposes, as well as for a possible remix for the YouTube channel. This recording was facilitated by using the x32 USB port, which allowed the mixer to show up as a valid interface in Pro Tools. As soon as the FOH console was up and running, my two students overseeing the recording were asked to create the PT session and figure out how to route the x32 inputs to PT via AES50 (which they did).

When soundcheck began, one of the Live Sound students was attempting to communicate from FOH to the performers on stage when another student suggested connecting a talkback microphone. One mic, one cable and two minutes later they had the talkback mic routed into the monitors and were running soundchecks for each performer, including routing a fairly painless stereo monitor mix.

Mercy Live Sound students at the mix position running the FOH console and Pro Tools.
Mercy Live Sound students at the mix position running the FOH console and Pro Tools.

The Live Sound students encountered a few speed bumps, some of which I allowed to happen so that they would have a solid learning experience, as opposed to me constantly dictating what they should do. They responded like pros, taking the necessary steps to iron out audio issues such as monitor feedback, adding effects to the FOH mix as requested, or tweaking levels. And they finished soundcheck with plenty of time for the dark stage/dinner break.

It was great to see students from all three classes interact and work together with the common goal of making the production a success. As Professor Ward mentioned that evening, “It takes a village to create a really good production.”

Open Channel: The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta…Write About It

Craig Anderton
Craig Anderton

We’re in the golden age of gloom and doom. It’s hard to make money from recordings anymore, and bands often can’t justify touring—the numbers don’t add up, and many professionals left the industry during the pandemic. Social media is an increasingly frustrating experience for getting your music heard (if a tree falls in the forest…). More live venues are closing rather than opening, and local music and pro audio shops, where you could enjoy hands-on experience with gear in order to make an informed buying decision, are an endangered species. Add the background noise of current events, and it’s no wonder people are living in Anxiety Central.

Yet history does repeat itself. Someone, somewhere is coming up with something that we never knew was possible—but will change the world of music.

Who in 1965 thought that a high-quality recording studio could fit in a backpack? That you could carry all the music you want to hear in a shirt pocket? That new instruments like synthesizers would enrich our tonal landscape beyond anything ever imagined? That you could tap into a “celestial jukebox” and, in seconds, access any music ever recorded, with master-quality sound. Or that science would continue to make startling discoveries about music’s impact on the brain?

True, some current music industry models are unsustainable, but every pandemic has restructured society—for better or worse. Concerning our industry, one potential scenario could not only have an immense impact on music and recording, but extend to society at large.

THE UNIVERSALITY OF MUSIC

Everyone likes music, but many people think musicians are a rare breed, with talents mere mortals could never attain. Hold on. Let’s separate the concept of playing an instrument from making music. Playing an instrument requires years of arduous physical practice. Some musicians dismiss DJs because they don’t play “instruments.” Yet creating a seamless, flowing integration of multiple musical styles is indeed about making music.

A fascinating article by Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, director of the music cognition lab at the University of Arkansas, refers to studies done by a team of researchers at the University of Rochester that “demonstrated infants and adults alike track the statistical properties of tone sequences. In other words, you don’t have to play the guitar or study music theory to build up a nuanced sense of which notes tend to follow which other notes in a particular repertoire—simply being exposed to music is enough.”

To demonstrate how exposure feeds a person’s innate musical tendencies, Margulis writes, “Play someone a simple major scale, Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti…but withhold the final Do and watch even the most avowed musical ignoramus start to squirm or even finish the scale for you. Living in a culture where most music is built on this scale is enough to develop what seems less like the knowledge, and more like the feeling, that this Ti must resolve to a Do.” (Italics mine.)

THE MUSIC INSIDE

So what does this have to do with us? There’s little doubt that listening to music has beneficial effects on the brain; listening back to music you create or mix—music that’s a product of your brain—sets up a feedback loop that benefits you even more. This isn’t about narcissism. First of all, if you make music, it’s customized to your tastes. Second, it’s like a Rorschach test— feeling the emotions in your spontaneous musical expressions provides insights you’ll never get from therapy. Now imagine no barriers to everyone being able to do that.

Music, and the general population, are reaching a tipping point. We’ve gone from music being only of the moment, to recordings, to the select few being able to afford music libraries, to being able to hear any music we want at any time. And, we’ve gone from recording studios being available only to a wealthy élite, to GarageBand being bundled with every Mac. Progress along these lines is not going to stop. We’re starting to see instruments and recording tools that require only imagination, not physical dexterity, to create music. That’s not a bad thing. Several years ago, I was invited to write a review about one of the early music cruises. Well, cruises aren’t my thing, but a gig is a gig—and being in a place where every one of 2,000 people was devoted to music and knowledgeable about it was an astounding experience. There were very few that were “musicians,” but each person had music in them, recognized the nuances of good players, and, perhaps most importantly, connected through music. Although they’d love to be able to make music, they think it’s out of reach. Maybe it won’t be. What happens when anyone can be a musical participant, not just a bystander? It will weave what we love into the fabric of society, instead of being a diversion on a Saturday night.

I have no idea what the endgame will be, but I suspect there will be a deeper respect for music, and a greater appreciation of those individuals who have honed their musical and recording skills. I can’t wait to find out what’s next.

Find Your Next Gig Now! The Complete ‘Sounding Board’ Series

Sounding Board: Networking From Six FeetAs the live sound sector gets back to work, working your connections to find your next gig has never been more important. Who’s left the industry? Who’s moved up in the world? Who’s looking for pros to fill spots right now? You need to work your network to find out—which means you need to read the ‘Sounding Board’ series.

This limited, eight-part series by audio industry veteran Mike Dias shows you specifically how to career network in the pro audio industry; this is not generic, ‘one size fits all’ advice from someone who doesn’t know a cable snake from a garden snake. Whether you want to find your next gig or just expand your professional network, here’s how to do it—read on!

Sounding Board: Networking From Six FeetIndustry veteran Mike Dias debuts his audio career column, looking at how live sound pros can approach the toughest job of all: networking.

Sounding Board: Networking Works When You Know Your PartMike explains why career networking works best when you know your part.

Sounding Board: 5 Steps to Become A Skilled NetworkerMike breaks down his five crucial steps to advancing your career through networking with peers.

Sounding Board: Know Who to KnowHere’s how to know who to know—and why that knowledge will help you get things done.

Sounding Board: Networking Without Audio Trade ShowsReal networking opportunities happen every day, all year, independent of time, space or location. Here’s how you can make them happen for you.

Sounding Board: Networking is Knowing How to Map Your ConnectionsMike Dias explains why networking isn’t just something you do when you’re looking for a job; it enables you to do your job.

Sounding Board: Networking in Three Dimensions — For networking to be effective, you need a simple way to document, store, and access contact information, your notes and records of correspondence—a CRM.

Sounding Board: Community Is Why We Network — Audio industry veteran Mike Dias closes out his ‘pro-audio career networking’ column with some final thoughts and thank-yous.

Mike Dias writes and speaks about What Entertainers Can Teach Executives and Why Nobody Likes Networking. He is the executive director for the In-Ear Monitor International Trade Organization and the vice president of sales for Earthworks Audio. He loves to trade stories, to talk shop, and to hear about your networking successes and failures! [email protected].

Sounding Board: Community Is Why We Network

Sounding Board: Networking From Six FeetWant a quick and easy way to figure out who’s in your first-degree network? Want to know who’s in your inner circle and who has your back? It’s simple. Look around when things go sideways, when things tank and go south. Your colleagues who are there for you when you’re down—when you get fired, divorced, jammed up or any other bummer—those are your people. Let’s refer to this core group as your network foundation. The people in this group are your rocks that everything else builds upon.

And being that we’ve all just gone through a global pandemic and have been hit left, right and center with the difficult and unexpected, what better time to take stock? I want you to really think about this. Who checked up on you during your darkest times? Who has been there in big ways and in small, both visibly and behind the scenes? Who has made community for you and provided the comfort and distractions that you needed?

Here’s why I want you to take a few minutes to do this mental exercise. For the last seven months, we’ve been talking about how to authentically expand your network—but before you can grow, you need to know where you’re starting from, and this is the perfect mirror for seeing where you are at. Don’t look outward without first looking inward. Who’s in your network foundation?

Try to identify everyone, then take a minute to thank them. You can do it silently or publicly. Expressing gratitude does two significant things. It lets you close the open loop on these last 15 months—and it provides a deep sense of warmth and community. Community is why we network.

Sounding Board: Networking in Three Dimensions

I’ll start, but as a quick disclaimer, I need to admit that my natural tendency is a bit of doom and gloom, and that at the very beginning of all this, I had some pretty challenging moments thinking that I’d made every bad career choice only to lead me into a dead end. I probably have a longer list than most of you; I needed a little more help. It took the love and support from family and the inspiration from friends to snap out of it all and to put my big-boy pants back on.

With great pleasure, I’d like to first thank every manufacturer and publisher who kept staff employed and every artist who kept crew on as long as possible. Huge thanks to the stimulus dollars and benefit programs that kept the economy afloat and to all the heroes who pivoted and did what they needed to do to take care of family and to stay sane. To all the pioneers and innovators, the broadcasters and live streamers, the hustlers and hitmakers—the ones who refused to take no for an answer—the future is yours and you all have my deepest respects.

On a personal level, I’d like to thank my wife and daughter for their patience and love, my employer for bringing me on during the pandemic and all the IEMITO members who continue to thrive under the worst of conditions. A special thank you to Ryan Huddleston for being a shining light during the very beginning and to James McCullagh for going down the rabbit hole with me. Russ Long, Tiago Costa, Greg McVeigh, David Hatmaker, Jason Batuyong, Kenny Sharretts, Andrew Bellavia, Ben Keys, and Moto Yamasaki always had perfect timing and collectively were there whenever I stumbled. And this list wouldn’t be complete without singling out Kevin Glendinning by name for his vigilant nearly weekly check-ins. With this network foundation, I feel like I can literally do anything. It’s like I have a team of the world’s most talented cheerleaders.

Speaking of community, there are three other individuals who need to be thanked publicly for going above and beyond; for literally creating the social fabric that held us together this last year. Courtney and Paul Klimson from Theory One Productions started The Roadie Clinic to ensure that touring professionals have a safety net, and Karen Dunn started an online “experiment” that Clubhouse only wishes it could tap into.

If you ever need great examples of marvelous networkers, look no further. Paul, Courtney, and Karen exemplify the motto of giving more than taking. They bring others together and create joy and value for everyone who’s along for the ride. Networking is not about who you know, it’s about identifying what you can give—and whenever things go badly, that’s the perfect time to give extra.

Mike Dias writes and speaks about What Entertainers Can Teach Executives and Why Nobody Likes Networking. He is the executive director for the In-Ear Monitor International Trade Organization and the vice president of sales for Earthworks Audio. He loves to trade stories, to talk shop, and to hear about your networking successes and failures! [email protected].

Why are PSN and Mix Merging?

psn and mix

I’m writing this editorial the night before we go to press with the June 2021 issue of Pro Sound News, and by the time you read it, you may have already heard about what’s happening here at PSN. It’s big: Pro Sound News and Mix are merging.

Starting in July, you’re going to find the news, content and feel of Pro Sound News infused into everything Mix does—its magazine, website, social media, email newsletter, events and more.

It’s a big step—and no simple trick when you’re dealing with two iconic brands, each with its own viewpoint and way of doing things. Still, the word I want to emphasize here is “merging.” As an industry, we all like to interpret or tell ourselves we can “read between the lines” when major news breaks (certainly that’s a big part of what PSN does), but this is a case of WYSIWYG—what you see is what you get. PSN is not shutting down and no one is getting axed. We’re merging.

Beginning with its July issue, Mix magazine will be larger, because we’re going to cram two magazines’ worth of content into it. Pro Sound News has always served up news and insight, particularly in live sound, and pros everywhere trust our Real-World Reviews. Meanwhile, Mix has always been known for its longer, deep-dive features and heavy focus on the recording world. Each brand has always played to its strengths—and now all those strengths are going to be under one banner.

Another example: PSN’s email newsletter comes out three times a week, while Mix’s comes out twice weekly; put them together and you get the new Mix SmartBrief newsletter. Starting July 6, it’ll move to a full weekday schedule (amazingly, 3+2=5). It will also adopt the format of PSN’s newsletter to bring you the latest pro-audio news, reviews and more, along with relevant articles from around the internet, hand-curated by audio pros, not algorithms.

Both brands started as magazines back in the 1970s, with Pro Sound News based in New York City and Mix set up in the Bay Area. You could probably make an argument that each one was a product of its surroundings, with PSN reflecting the scrappy, get-to-the-point attitude of the Big Apple and Mix sporting an immersive West Coast vibe captured in its longer articles and rich photography.

Of course, the industry changed dramatically in the decades that followed, and so did the two magazines. Mix and PSN were always competitive, but for the last nine years, we’ve actually been under the same corporate roof. In 2012, our parent company at the time bought Mix and told both brands to get along in a state of “co-opertition.” As time wore on, our editorial staffs discovered we had a lot in common … starting with a distaste for corporate jargon like “co-opertition.”

Now we get to be colleagues instead of competitors. Mix’s longtime leader, Tom Kenny, is rightfully respected across the industry, and going forward, we’ll be co-editors for all of Mix’s print, digital, social and event platforms. Things will be different, but they’ll also be exciting: We’re taking the best parts of Pro Sound News and Mix and creating a next-generation brand that can lead the industry for the next 40 years.

And that’s just the start. See you next month.

Sounding Board: Networking in Three Dimensions

Sounding Board: Networking From Six FeetFor networking to be effective, you need a simple way to document, store, and access contact information, your notes, and past records of correspondence. You need an organized Customer Relationship Management system or CRM for short.

A CRM system is more than a contact list in a spreadsheet. It’s more than an address book. It’s more than LinkedIn or your Instagram account. It’s a dynamic system that has structure and logic.

A good CRM system is able to make complex connections. It can help you map who knows who, who works where, where you met someone, and how all the various companies you know are interrelated.

A great CRM system is flexible enough to grow with you over space and time while giving you the ability to think three-dimensionally. A great CRM design allows you to sort contacts based on the degree of the relationship, to pivot on mutual overlapping shared interests and to filter based on occupation.

Since the whole point of effective networking is turning contacts into relationships, you need to incorporate a sliding scale that helps you track the degree of the relational bonds. Think of this like a game. Complete strangers start off at level zero while your closest friends and family are at the top, level five. The goal is to try and slowly move strangers up the ladder to higher levels.

For example, people that you read about in your trade publications and who you want to meet one day rank at zero. People that you casually meet once or exchange business cards with are a one. People who know your name and who know a little bit about you are a two; twos are casual. To bump up to a three, you have to have a lot of interactions but they don’t all need to be positive; they just have to be familiar. That guy you don’t actually like at the office; he might just be your three! Fours are people whose company you genuinely enjoy. And fives are your inner circle. Build this scale into your CRM system and you have a foundation for what networking success looks like.

Sounding Board: Networking is Knowing How to Map Your Connections

As your system evolves over time, it becomes more intelligent and robust. You’re moving contacts along two axes. You are measuring quantitatively how well you know someone and then qualitatively how you know them. As you move strangers from zeros to fours and fives, you’re also learning about what makes them tick and you’re filling out their interest-profile. The sheer act of doing this allows you to deepen the relationship simply by sharing things that are meaningful and useful.

The third axis that you need to track is occupation—as it relates to your professional world. Your position requires you to interact with many similar yet different job titles. List them all and add them to your database system. If you’re a front of house sound engineer, your database will be full of tour managers, monitor engineers, lighting directors, production managers, and many other FOH engineers. Be very specific with occupations that relate to your world and be broader the further you get from your center.

When you start to organize by profession, you see just how small and limited your world really is. We group together—so if you really want to get good at this, master your world first and then become an explorer. Jump universes and go to different pockets. Hang out with different people outside of work completely. That’s why whenever anyone asks me for career advice, the first and only thing I say is to double down on your hobbies and extracurricular activities. Those will always be your biggest assets over the course of your lifetime.

Putting all this together, when you systematically organize your contact database on these three dimensions, you can contextualize anything and you become a super connector. When an associate asks you if you know a great drum tech from Philly who’s a good hang, a vegan and available, you’ve got that. When someone asks you for a guy who knows IEMs and who loves bar-b-que chicken and cacti and will talk your ear off about Why Nobody Likes Networking and What Entertainers Can Teach Executives, you know right where to look!

Book Review: Major Label Mastering—Professional Mastering Process

Major Label Mastering: Professional Mastering ProcessMastering is one of those corners of pro audio that everyone knows about, but doesn’t necessarily know what it truly entails. Shedding some light on the subject is Evren Göknar’s new book, Major Label Mastering: Professional Mastering Process (Focal Press/Routledge; $42.95), which breaks the topic down into understandable concepts and actionable steps that can be grasped by everyone, whether they’re students, musicians or fellow pros.

Göknar knows from whence he speaks—a Grammy winner, he’s worked more than 25 years in the mastering field, spending much of that time at Capitol Studios where he mastered everyone from Mariah Carey to the Beastie Boys in addition to putting his talents to work for TV shows like The Voice. During that time, Göknar developed the centerpiece of his book, The Five Step Mastering Process—a thorough system of considerations and procedures for crafting and implementing a mastering game plan will best serve the music. Readily acknowledging that there can be as many subjective assessments to be made (“Does this approach fit the genre?”) as there are technical ones, Göknar finds ways to help readers determine what’s necessary and bring quantifiable logic to more nebulous parts of the process.

That said, there’s plenty of straight-forward ‘how-to’ content, from best practices for documentation, to equipment sequencing, to a go-to section on advanced mastering chain tools and techniques. The book is also filled with cool gear photos, informative screenshots, useful illustrations, documentation examples and more, providing additional clarity and insight. Whether a budding engineer or a seasoned pro, readers will come away from Major Label Mastering with far greater understanding and appreciation for the newly demystified process of mastering.

Evil Audio Pros are Back with ‘Sound of Violence’

Sound of ViolenceAt PSN, we’re always looking for new trends in pro audio, but one of the most surprising new ones is that audio pros are evil. Not you, of course (unless you happen to be evil). Rather, we’re talking about the ongoing trend in movies and TV where characters who are audio pros tend to be terrible, often violent people. The latest example can be found in a new indie horror flick, Sound of Violence, about an engineer over the edge.

Hitting theaters and On Demand on May 21, 2021, the film uses the audio aspect in a novel way, as indicated in the trailer’s synopsis on YouTube:

Alexis, a sound engineer, helps an aspiring musician, Josh, win the drum machine of his dreams in a competition at a mall. She mentors him and helps him find his groove to compose the winning beat. Once he submits his creation, it triggers a chain reaction revealing the competition booth to be a gruesome contraption. Through Josh’s beat and a horrific death, Alexis’ creative design comes to fruition, directing the macabre music she envisioned.

A film about killer sound design? Sure! Here’s a ‘more to the point’ Sound of Violence synopsis from the 2021 SXSW Film Festival:

A young girl recovers her hearing and gains synesthetic abilities during the brutal murder of her family. Finding solace in the sounds of bodily harm, as an adult, she pursues a career in music, composing her masterpiece through gruesome murders.

If that whets your appetite for more sound professionals doing terrible things, here’s some additional selections to cue up for your own personal audio-related horror festival:

• Shudder Network’s 2018 microseries Deadwax follows a vinyl collector tracking down an evil mastering engineer who created a record that kills anyone who listens to it.

• The creepy 2013 Scandinavian film, LFO, centers around a widowed amateur scientist who discovers that his experimental solution for tinnitus gives him total control over his neighbors.

• Also worthy of cuing up is 2012’s Berberian Sound Studio, starring Toby Jones as a horror film audio post engineer who can’t tell what’s real and what’s on the screen.

• And if you’d prefer a film where you can root for your fellow sound pro, you can always turn to Brian DePalma’s underrated 1981 thriller, Blow Out, where noble soundman John Travolta is on the run after he accidentally records evidence that a tragic car accident was in fact no accident at all.

 

Peek Inside Hitmaker Taio Cruz’s Home Studio

Taio Cruz's Beverly Hills mansion
Taio Cruz’s Beverly Hills mansion, complete with home studio looking out on to the pink hot tub. Keller Williams Beach Cities

Producer and singer/songwriter Taio Cruz put his Beverly Hills, CA mansion on the market in early March, 2021, asking $8.5 million for the five-bedroom, 5,691-square-foot compound built in 1955. While the real estate listing shows off the house’s vaulted ceilings and chef’s kitchen, let’s take a closer look at what really matters—Taio Cruz’s home studio.

Cruz had a string of international hits in 2009 and 2010, including a pair of U.S. number ones, with “Dynamite” and “Break Your Heart.” While he’s still releasing albums, in recent times, Cruz has spent a lot of time writing tracks performed by other acts, including Jennifer Lopez, David Guetta, Usher, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Nick Jonas, Olly Murs, Cheryl Cole, McFly and others. No doubt, a few of those songs came to life in his home studio.

Taio Cruz's home studio.
Taio Cruz’s home studio. Keller Williams Beach Cities

One of the coolest things about this room is the table, because it tells a story. Sure, it’s a nice, big space to work on, but look at its edges—the paint is worn away, chipped and accidentally scraped off over time, because this is a real work room, not just a bit of showmanship for when guests come over. Despite how tidy the room is for photos (and one of the overhead LED lights is out, by the way), clearly a lot of time has been spent here, dragging songs kicking and screaming into existence.

Studio Monitors

Dominating the well-soundproofed room are a massive pair of PMC MB2S XBD Studio Monitors, towering over everything else. Right beneath them are another pair of loudspeakers—in this case, they’re ADAM Audio S3X-H Horizontal Active Nearfield/Midfield Monitors.

The PMC monitors dominate taio cruz's home studio
The PMC monitors dominate the room. Keller Williams Beach Cities

Table Top

At the center of the table space is an ultrawide-class Benq monitor, sitting behind a Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S49 Mk2 Keyboard Controller. To the left sits a wireless phone and both a PreSonus Monitor Station V2 Desktop Monitor Controller and an Apple MacBook laptop. Right next to them on a Lucite stand is an Ableton Push 2 MIDI Pad Controller. Meanwhile, on the right side of the table sits another MacBook, and just behind that is a MacMini.

Home Studios of the Rich and Famous: The Complete ‘Peek Inside’ Series

Below the Table

Under the table on the left in a rack hangs a Samson S-Patch Plus 48-Point Balanced Patchbay, while the power gear lying on the floor between the two racks includes a pair of APC AV Black 1.5 kVA H-Type Power Conditioners.

The right-side rack has some interesting equipment in its grasp, too. At the top is a Universal Audio 1176LN Classic Limiting Amplifier, while beneath it sits a Chandler Limited TG 2 Pre Amp/DI. The next RU down holds an Apogee Electronics Ensemble Thunderbolt Audio Recording Interface, placed just above an Avalon Design VT-737sp Channel Strip. The lowest spot is taken by a dbx 286s Channel Strip with De-Esser.

taio cruz's home studio
A Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A61 Keyboard Controller and a Kawai VPC1 digital piano are kept close by.

There’s no knowing what the microphone might be behind that pop filter, but the two keyboards on the right are a Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A61 Keyboard Controller atop a Kawai VPC1 digital piano.

 

Elsewhere

ADAM Audio monitors seem to be the speakers of choice for Cruz. In the small hallway leading into the studio, there’s a Pioneer DJ rig with yet another MacBook, bookended by ADAM Audio T7V 7-inch Powered Studio Monitors, with two pairs of Roland’s V-Moda brand headphones casually placed atop them. Elsewhere in the house is a spare bedroom with its own small recording setup—another ultrawide monitor, a PC of some description, a Focusrite Scarlett interface…and more ADAM Audio T7Vs.

Even a spare bedroom gets used as a secondary recording space.

Cruz bought the property in 2012 for $4.05 million, and it has plenty to offer the next occupant—five bedrooms, views overlooking Los Angeles, floor-to-ceiling glass doors, a guest suite in its own wing, massage room, private gym, and right outside the studio, an infinity pool, hot tub and cabana. No doubt the next owner will also benefit from the good vibes from all the creative work that happened in that home studio as well.

Prep for a Post-Pandemic World at the Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit

Clive Young
Clive Young

For the pro-audio world, March marks the one-year anniversary of everything getting turned upside down by COVID-19. Since then, we’ve all been on a rollercoaster of times alternately hard and hopeful, but things are tentatively starting to look up. With the U.S. now vaccinating more than 1.5 million people a day and Dr. Fauci predicting all Americans could be eligible for vaccination as soon as April, “normal” isn’t around the corner, but it is finally on the horizon.

That means it’s time to roll up our sleeves—not only to get a shot, but to start preparing. “Normal” doesn’t happen with the flick of a switch; you won’t wake up one day and start mixing for a packed house again or find your studio booked solid just because the pandemic has subsided. It could happen—but only if we work for it, laying out the foundations for that kind of success, brick by brick, in the months leading up to it.

A big part of getting ready will figuring out how to incorporate all the radical pro-audio changes and advances we made over the last year. Frankly, that topic is so big that you can’t get all the insight you need from just Pro Sound News—which is why PSN has joined forces with Mix and Radio World to create the Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit, an online expo taking place on Thursday, April 1 (no, this is not an April Fool’s joke).

The free one-day event will feature an exhibition floor, panel presentations, chat rooms and a host of media presentations showcasing the latest technologies and trends in pro audio and radio. Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit will feature two individual program tracks within a single exhibition hall—in each program track, industry experts will explore how manufacturers and users are making use of both current and emerging technologies in order to keep the media coming.

Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit Announced

The Pro Audio Track will feature sessions on remote production, the multipurpose House of Worship studio, the rise of immersive music, audio networking technologies, podcasting and Improved Audio for Education. Through expert panel presentations, sponsor demos and attendee networking, Pro Sound News and Mix will bring manufacturers, engineers, producers, musicians, educators and industry experts together to look at the state of music production as we come out of the most disruptive year in memory.

The Radio Track will feature sessions on hybrid radio, AoIP, virtualization, streaming, business continuity and trends in transmission. These topics will be of interest to any radio broadcast manager or engineer who manages technology or uses it to advance their careers and business missions.

One of the best things about a virtual event is that the doors don’t close at the end of the day; all of the content—and exhibit booths—will be accessible on-demand to attendees for a month after the event, so if you can’t make April 1 (or more likely, if there’s just too much good stuff to absorb in one sitting), you dig into the offerings at times that work best for you. Head over to www.proaudioradiotechsummit.com to sign up for free, and I hope you’ll join me and the rest of the team from Mix and Radio World on April 1.

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