SSL Nucleus at Nidaros Studio

(SSL Nucleus demo-session in Trondheim, Norway)

The Norwegian company Benum is distributing SSL’s new DAW controller Nucleus. Together with SSL’s own Nathan Hernando they are currently doing a tour of Norway where they are exhibiting the unit. My first hands-on introduction to the Nucleus was with Gary Bromham from Sound Technology at the Music Production Show in Leeds earlier this year. But when SSL made the journey to Nidaros Studio in Trondheim we didn’t reject the offer to get even further under the skin of it.

What is striking with the Nucleus is how much control it provides over the computer domain. Not only can it control different DAWs that run at the same time, but it can also flip between different computers in just the push of a button. Where different computers are connected to the same screen, keyboard and mouse, it’ll make the KVM controller switch for you in the same go. Not exactly rocket science, but it is a welcome feature for those of us who used to push buttons on switches and screens to get there.

To ensure compatibility with all major sequencers the Nucleus supports both HUI and MCU protocols, while also working as a midi-interface if you still need one. The audio interface has two lines in and two lines out and the input boasts SSL’s SuperAnalogue™ pre-amps.

Two other features to be mentioned is firstly how you can programme it to do a standard task (or a number of them) that you perform a lot. There are several ways of doing this on most DAWs and controllers. But with the ability to programme a number of commands in a long sequence, the Nucleus stands out with the share extend of what can be done in just one click. A funny story from a trade show is how the SSL-crew programmed the “play” button on the transport section to “highlight all, and delete!” A poor fellow walked up to the rig and hit play. One of the day’s highlights, the staff was almost rolling on the floor with laughter watching it!

The other aspect that caught my attention was how every tiniest controllable option in the DAW can appear on the Nucleus’s menus. The way the Nucleus picks up everything that can be changed or automated definitely makes it Euphonix’s most worthy competitor (or vice versa).

Dreaming about the future; imagine a Nucleus with 8 I/Os or more. It could be used for both tracking and connection to your favourite outboards. It would tidy up your racks and be great as a complete solution for travelling producers or small studios. The SSL Matrix isn’t exactly portable, and if you’ve already got a speaker controller and the I/Os and pre-amps you need, the Euphonix banks are serious contenders. The Euphonixes can also be purchased one module at the time for a more gradual investment or a tailored solution. Another thing I would really love to see is an alternate monitor switch in the listening section.

Dreams aside, the Nucleus is one of the best options on the marked if you’re not looking for a larger console to control your DAW. About ten of these have already been sold in Norway and I believe a steady stream of them will be sold into education, production rooms and well-stocked home-studios in the time to come. Every sale is well deserved, for it is a great piece of kit that makes mixing in the box a whole lot more organic!

(A couple of days later…

I walked into a music store and suddenly found myself standing in front of a Euphonix artist series controller. With its plastic fader-caps and none of those big chunky transport-buttons of the SSL I felt I was definitely missing something. Maybe the race is closer now than what I first thought.)


(Two generations of SSL in one room.)


(The Mynx gives you SSL SuperAnalogue™ stereo Eq and Compressor in a small desktop unit.)

Views of Nidaros Studio:

Skogbrannfestivalen

Half a year ago Tanya and Hans Jakob Winsnes at Alive Dance Ministries in Norway, shared their vision of a brand new festival with a small group of people. Half a year later the Skogbrann Festival was a reality. After much effort from the many volunteers and swift planning as the project came along, the festival could receive its first ever delegates on August 27 and 28.

My role in the team was as a technical consultant and sound-designer. A challenge we came across from the outset was to plan the stage, rig and sound-system to the right size. It needed to fit with both the number of delegates and the acts going on stage. With a versatile Meyer sound-system and a stage that could easily fit our most spacious acts we could cater to a large span in delegate numbers.

The festival aimed to gather U.S. and Norwegian artists together for praise and worship from across different Church communities. Amongst the artists were:
Amber Brooks (Morningstar Ministries, U.S.)
CJ Hardee (Morningstar Ministries, U.S.)
David Vallier (Morningstar Ministries, U.S.)
Liz Fox Stillwell (Life Church, U.S.)
Impulsbandet, Norway
Marion Winsnes, Norway
And several others…

For the tech-heads:

All performances were taped right to ProTools from three Dante MY16-AUD extension cards at the back of the front-of-house mix (a Yamaha M7CL with stageboxes). The cards were connected to a router, and further to a MacBook Pro by Cat 5 cable. The data was sent from the Mac to an external hard-drive with a RAID 0 setup to swiftly push away as much data as possible. Connection to the hard-drive was done on FireWire 800. The Dante cards lock you to 48 kHz and 24 bits and are hence predominantly aimed at the film and broadcast marked. After some installation headaches with the Dante-software the recording-rig eventually ran smoothly. The OS Snow Leopard had to be run as a 32-bit system in the end but this also worked fine. The Dante cards were great but installation and licensing could have been made a lot easier. Many thanks to Norsk Produksjon who put in a lot of effort to make sure our recording-rig got up and running. A lot of great music was played over the weekend and it’s gonna be exciting to get the final mixes done.

A rainy weekend in a muddy field gave many a musician associations to Woodstock. Even more reason to come back next year!


Early in the morning: Big stage alone in the woods of Norway


Amber Brooks, CJ Hardee & David Vallier in action


View from my office


The work desk

Photo Exhibition & Raphael Saadiq at Olavfestdagene 2011

From July 28 to August 4, the annual St. Olav’s Festival, or Olavfestdagene, in Trondheim, Norway, was arranged. I had the privilege to help with the installation of ultra-sound loudspeakers that were used at a photo exhibition. The sound installation was produced by a team from Soundscape Studios, lead by Robin Støckert.

The photo exhibition entitled “hope” was a collection of pictures from Afghanistan. (Click here for Norwegian news report from the event.) The Red Cross and Red Crescent handed out single-use cameras to mothers in Afghanistan, who passed them on to their children. The children were encouraged to take pictures from their local communities that symbolized hope to them and it were these pictures that were displayed at the exhibition.

The sound installation was a comprehensive blend of sound-sources. At the entrance there were several display mannequins dressed in traditional Afghan clothing with speakers mounted under the veils. The speakers would play back whispers of the word hope. Further on, several of the photographs had contact speakers attached so the pictures themselves would actually vibrate with sound. This is a brilliant way of confusing the listener with the location of the sound source, since there is no speaker to be seen. The result is a full integration of the sources of the experience, in contrast to the traditional dislocation of sound and image. Several other speakers were hidden behind the walls and in the ceilings of the display area. On top of two of the display walls there were motorized ultra sound speakers panning back and forth. An ultra sound speaker doesn’t emit any audible sound per se, but when the carrier waves hit a medium, audible sound appears. With these speakers panning back and forth well over people’s heads the sounds were moving back and forth on the walls across the space. But the most interesting effect is when you walk through the beam. You start off hearing the sound on the reflecting wall, then it literally moves through your head (audible sound occurs when it hits your cranium), before it dies out behind you or reflects off another wall.

The sound works that were installed were a combination of atmospheres, atmospheric music, words and vocal sounds, and the sound of children playing. The various sound events were playing back at random times to make an organic atmosphere.

Big shout out to the Soundscape Studios team for making a very smooth integration between sound and image! –and thanks for letting me get my fingers dirty in the installation process!

Raphael Saadiq

While being involved with the “Hope” exhibition I got the chance to attend one of the concerts at the Olavsfestdagene festival. One of my songwriter heroes, Raphael Saadiq came to Trondheim. Saadiq started out as a bassplayer for Prince and his 2000 collaboration with D’Angelo won a Grammy Award. Over the last decade he has operated both as a solo artist and a producer in a number of high profiled collaborations.

Saadiq’s support act were none other than the M.G.’s minus Booker T. They’re also known as STAX and the band from the Blues Brothers films. A star-spangled night, Eddie Floyd was also there to perform some of his original hits with the STAX band.

Here are some pictures and a short video-cut from Raphael Saadiq’s performance.

The Music Production Show, Leeds, UK

The Music Production Show took place in Leeds on May 13 and 14. The show boasted a number of essential distributors in the music production industry, along with academic institutions and a good range of seminars. It’s a first time event in Leeds, organized by UK Music Shows Ltd and sponsored by The Production Room, KMR Audio and MusicTech Magazine. The next show will be in London in November.

An updated list over exhibitors associated with the show at any give time can be found here.



Propellerheads ‘Record’ seminar.



Not really having had a chance to try out Propellerheads' critically acclaimed ‘Record’ software yet, we got an up-close look at some of its features in this seminar. The interface is familiar to anyone who has used a traditional mixing console and the wiring of the different units within the software builds on the same idea as in ‘Reason,’ also from Propellerheads.

The analogue SSL-looking interface should appeal to anyone who likes working on a traditional desk. For traditional mix down the Harrison Mixbus Console software is also a good solution, but Record is a much more complete DAW. Record seemed annoyingly good for a devoted ProTools user and I suspect I will end up owning a copy some time in the future.



(DJ and producer Stephen Lynch taking interest in the PreSonus’ Studio Live console.)

Having only seen the PreSonus Studio Live consoles in reviews and in videos I had found them a bit untidy. The signal path that is usually placed vertically or accessed through a menu is laid out horizontally across the desk. This is making one channel cross all other channels at the same time, but all my worries were in vain! It is a very simple console to get into and if it sounds anything as good as the reviews say, it is a bargain! On the wish list, a screen with better resolution would be in order and so would fully automated faders. But then the price wouldn’t be such a steal anymore and it’s original appeal partly lost. However, it would be great to see a new top of the range in the future with the functions mentioned, thunderbolt plug, 32 lines and some extra pro-functions. Especially in a time when rack mounted converters with PCI cards are starting to see competition from various expansion cards and FireWire solutions. Such an upgrade could buy the Studio Live range a place in more professional environments than at current. It would also be a great semi-professional and affordable console for the education sector. Anyway, it’s worth the dream and the current consoles are fab!

Another desirable piece of kit at the Source Distribution stand was the Universal Audio 4-710d. With four Twin-Finity preamps, digital outputs and 1176-style compression it is a versatile workhorse for people who need more lines than the average stereo pre-amp can provide. For anyone recording drums, live strings or bands through Digi 003s and Focusrite Liquid Saphires and the likes, this is one of the best next investment stages for their recording chains currently on the marked.



(Neuman KH 120 A)

With one of the strongest brand names in music production gear for close to a hundred years, German microphone manufacturer Neuman has recently moved into the monitor marked.



(New old classics.)





The Neumann Solution-D system encompasses digital microphone interfaces that uses the AES/EBU format and a range of microphones with digital outputs. Solution-D microphones can be distinguished by their blue label, as opposed to the regular red label of Neumann microphones, and they have a ‘D’ added to their model number.



Since the first news of its arrival over a year ago I have wanted to get my hands on the new FireWire mixer from Allen & Heath. The GS-R24 builds on the success of the Zed R-16, which has been praised both for its great sound and functionality. When Sound On Sound Magazine tested the R-16 a couple of years ago they suggested that the preamps might actually sound better than the old Digidesign Control 24. The Control 24’s Focusrite preamps were never known for being the best, but they were of a very respectable quality non-the less. That a little pad with a computer-cable running to a laptop could possibly do better sounding recordings at a fraction of the cost was indeed interesting news back then. But now there is a big brother! It’s got more tracks, midi-functions, two tube channels and a meter-bridge. Of you also include the optional FireWire card and fader-automation, the price is roughly around six and a half thousand Pounds in the UK. This is the same prise-bracket as the old Control 24 and the newer C24, now from AVID. But in the C24’s case you might have double the amount to include a converter system with the same track count. And then off course, you’ll need a big computer where you can fit the PCI cards. With the top-spec GS-R24 you’ll need a cable and a laptop and you’re ready to go.

I’m a big fan of AVID’s hardware and in many ways there’s nothing just like their complete systems for the professional studio. But if you’re looking for a cost-effective tracking system or enjoy working on analogue consoles and maybe even once used DA-88s and ADATs; Allen & Heath potentially just cut your new investment costs in half for a 24 channel multi-track system. And that, while maintaining a high sound quality.

The user-manual for Mackie’s once very successful 8-bus series said that no other console had ever produced so many hit-records. The Mackie was affordable and good enough. The new GS-R is affordable and better sounding. For smaller studios and colleges I believe expensive solutions based on PCI-systems are about to be substituted with new FireWire systems (and possibly RJ-45) and Thunderbolt in the future. This mixer helps to define that emerging bracket.

An exciting feature with the GS-R24 is the two valve channels that you can mix through. We loaded up a Bob Marley master-tape in a Logic session and had a play with the channels. At low drive the valve-channels sounded nice and clean, but when we pushed the drive to the max it really brought the sound out in the mix. There was no real sense of distortion (though louder sounds may react differently), but a real sense that the instrument came out of the speakers and into the room. Playing an electric guitar through the valves at high drive made our small PA speakers sound like there was an additional valve-combo hidden behind the mixer.

For further information on this mixer, Sound On Sound Magazine has just done a comprehensive test. For link, click here. For more information on the Zed R-16, click here for the 2008 test of this mixer by the same magazine.



SSL Nucleus is a great DAW controller that includes two SSL preamps. It comes bundled with SSL Duende Native plug-ins. But the most interesting feature is possibly that it can juggle between several different DAWs at the same time.

Though it would increase the cost I would love to see this machine with 8 or more preamps in the future. Just think of the possibilities if it could track a whole drum kit and had an additional 8 lines in and 8 lines out, and a FireWire connector.

Audio-Technica

Audio-Technica had a stand with a great selection of microphones and headphones. Being a brand that have made their mark with high quality at competitive prices, microphones like their AT-2020 has received a lot of positive talk in the industry press.

I was keen to test out the ATH-M50 headphones, which is the only studio-headphone they make that I had no experience with. The exhibitors had set up a MacBook Pro with an Apogee Duet interface so we could try out the headphones we wanted. I found a familiar track in their iTunes and plugged the headphones in. What struck me at first was how ‘open’ the M50s sound. Compared to the harder sounding M40s there is an extended bass range and they are less mid-heavy. Going from M40s to M50s is really a bit like switching from small near-field monitoring to big main or mid-field monitoring. The only thing I would like differently with the M50s would be a little more definition in the mid-range. A little touch of Adam’s well defined midrange monitor-sound would be a great help when working with vocals.

At loud volumes I find that the M40s have a tendency to distort quite a bit. I pushed the M50s slowly up as loud as my ears could stand. There were no tendencies to distortion and they gave me a big smile on my face! I tried to do the same with the M40s and quite swiftly found their faults.

M50s will be great tools as studio fold-back, and for editing and listening. When mixing, you might have to pay attention to the seemingly soft mid-range. This is not a big issue and the headphones are more than good. If you’re a student who’s mixing on cans by night and speakers by day to not get evicted from your house, this is a perfect tool! The listening experience, volume-tolerance and dynamics are fantastic and the applications it can be used for are diverse. I own several pairs of Audio-Techinca headphones, and I have been much fond of the M40s. –but I have never thought the time for an upgrade was as ready as now!

(M-Audio makes surprisingly good monitors nowadays, even for picky ears.)

New M-Boxes

AVID’s new M-Boxes have grown up for real! There’s only one line of preamps in the new models and they are the same as the ones in AVID’s top consoles. The M-Box Pro (3rd gen.) has hence truly become a piece of pro-equipment for serious songwriters, producers with space limitations and small production suites. Its connectivity makes it ideal for anyone with a few pieces of well-chosen kit, the new studio matrix makes it ideal for a double speaker set-up, and its pre-amps are the same as you’ll find in big studios with AVID hardware. Not to mention, the new improved casing seems to be bombproof! The M-Box pro-model just went from semi-pro to pro!



(We all fell in love with the Euphonix control surfaces once again. Music producer and creative entrepreneur Philip Edwards and Stephen Lynch at the AVID stand.)

Academic Institutions

My own college, Leeds College of Music was naturally present at the show. It was also great to get to meet representatives from Hull College. With a broad range of courses at Hull School of Performing Arts, they offer a versatile platform for educating creatives. They also offer evening courses and summer school in ‘Electronic Music Production’ and ‘Music Recording.’

Final Remarks

The Music Production Show in Leeds was clearly a big hit! Leeds is a city with a well-developed music scene. Both thanks to the community itself and Leeds College of Music, this city is literally bursting with musicians from all over the world. Still, the international music-scene output from Leeds is comparatively small besides London and the likes. With some top class suppliers of equipment in town, a music industry in global change and a local music community in growth, there could only be a question of time before an initiative like this hit Leeds. Moreover, it shows that there is a growing recognition for the potential in Leeds amongst suppliers, creative academia and other important players. With a well-educated and well-equipped musician’s community, the next big step for Leeds is to communicate to the world what it is up to.

If I wanted to start a UK-based production house with top-notch access to musicians and suppliers, but avoid the competition in London, this would be the place. It is great to see the production-industry thinking the same, and I’m looking forward to future Music Production Shows up North!

Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition

The Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition (FIMPaC) took place at Leeds College of Music on May 12 and 13 in association with Journal of Music, Technology and Education. It is an annual academic conference where the goal is to: “bring together composers, producers, music industry representatives, academics, educators and research students to discuss their practice, research and industry experiences.”

For music academics it’s a great place to exchange thoughts and get introduced to new research from our peers out there. The event is a combination of paper presentations, demonstrations of new technology, poster presentations and top quality mingling. Personally it also is a much-appreciated return to my Alma Mater, Leeds College of Music, the Hogwarth’s of Music. And yes, the first time I travelled there, I boarded a train from a platform at King’s Cross Station in London!

Some speakers at FIMPaC 2011:

Keynote by Professor Leigh Landy of De Montfort University and editor of Organised Sound.

Bill Drummond of 'KLF' and 'the K Foundation.' (More on him at the bottom of this post.)

Dr Mark Slater and PhD candidate Adam Martin of the University of Hull. Respectively a former tutor and fellow student of mine.

The main topic of this year’s papers was to investigate the idea of ‘liveness’ in performance, production and live music. For conference overview and schedule, please click here. For abstracts, please leave me a note.

Poster presentations:

Amongst the poster presentations it was great to see Dr Bruce Wiggins back at FIMPaC. He has formerly presented a paper on his work with Ambisonic, and for those of us just briefly acquainted with mixing in surround-sound, his astonishing level of technical insight can be hard to follow in a half an hour paper presentation. His new invention however, a VST plug-in to work in surround with Ambisonic while listening on stereo headphones, is both very useful and very easy to understand when you get your hands on it. As Dr Wiggins himself pointed out, it is not really a tool to produce final mixes on, but it is a great tool to do parts of the mixing process while being on the fly. It also provides students the possibility to work on their mixes while sharing only limited surround-studio facilities.

Another poster presentation was by electro acoustic composer Louise Rossiter from the University of Edinburgh. She has previously done an acoustic ecology research-project at the University of Aberdeen called ‘Projekt Berlin.’ Recently she has been engaged with her ‘Life Story Work.’ This builds on the experiences from Projekt Berlin. She is researching on the use of acoustic ecology as a therapeutic and educational tool for children and young people with troubled backgrounds. Her research paper ‘Acoustic Ecology as Therapy?’ is by the time of this writing due to have come out and I’m looking forward to reading it!

Bill Drummond at FIMPaC 2011:



This year was especially interesting to me because the ‘headline act’ was the unpredictable and thought-provoking Bill Drummond. After having made a fortune on pop-music production and taught everyone how to have top-chart hits the easy way, he has turned completely in his views on pop-music and is calling out for a new approach to music all together. His current stand on music and my own are quite far apart, but I find his writings thoroughly entertaining and his call for authenticity is a great input to the debate around music production. The material for his presentation was gathered from his book ‘17’ and was presented in a very theatrical way. Seeing his presentations and reading his writings it appears he has moved from pop music into pop theatre and writing.

I can’t help but think that Drummond is expecting more from music than what music presumably ever can deliver. I get a sense that he is trying to do with music what Nietzsche and Solomon was doing to life. Setting out from the same nihilistic place, Nietzsche tells us we’re doomed and Solomon tells us how to find hope. For Drummond, music seems to become life, and recorded music has become nihilistically meaningless to him with consumption. After his session I asked him if he ever thought he would find the answers that he was looking for (since I think he is looking for more than answers regarding music). He paused, looked puzzled and said: “Well, a spiritual journey is never over, is it?” I believe we hold different views on that, but his point is clearly taken. He did reveal though, that the ‘17’ project has a finite date (when he is even going to burn his Land Rover!).

Drummond likes to do things with a big bash and he likes to provoke. He used to sell a lot of records, but now he sells a lot of books where he makes a case against the record. His appeal against recorded commercial music has become so commercial that even record shops and branded clothing stores sell his writings! –Writings that are calling for a year zero approach to music that are being sold in already dying record shops! I find it humorous!

Whatever his conclusions will be after the work on ‘17’ I am really looking forward to see what it is! Drummond’s stories and arguments are truly enjoyable even if one is inclined to think differently than him. Maybe especially then!

Recording in Norway

While being home in Norway the last couple of months I’ve been involved with a local studio that produces for selected artists from the region. It feels good being back in the habit of tracking and working on recording sessions again after a period of mixtapes and DJ-ing.

The studio is run by former radio-engineer Geir Simonsen who is also working on setting up an independent music distribution platform called ‘Bandshop.’

We’ve been working on productions, arrangements, tracking and finding optimal microphone techniques for the gear and rooms we have available.

Snowdrift News 1 – Music News

2010 was an action filled first year for Snowdrift Productions and Harald Haltvik (aka. DJ Snowdrift). Here is an update from the projects of 2010, especially the latter ones:

1. Pre-Production:
Snowdrift has been working with a handful of songwriters at various stages of developing their original material. The activity has mainly revolved around arrangements and production planning and has run through the whole year.

2. Runway mixtapes:
DJ Snowdrift has made mix-tapes for several events by hair-stylist Andreas Constantinou throughout 2010. The aim of the collaborations has been to create a complete experience in sound, vision and modelling around the hair-styles that have been exhibited. Dave Sander of 1ClickPhotography has captured the events beautifully through the camera.


With some of the models after a show.


Model line-up after show.
(Photos by Dave Sander)


3. Hope For Justice charity gig:
Big happening at the charming Old Tramshed in Saltaire. Featuring DJ Agent M & DJ Snowdrift, Starling, Marmozets, The Coopers, Dolly Peters, Mark Stevens and Kate Walker. One amazing night!


DJ's view: panorama of the Old Tramshed.

4. DJ-ing:
DJ Snowdrift has appeared at several events in the UK through 2010. The repertoire has been from the 60’s and 70’s and containing Soul, R’n B and Funk, with the occasional added flavas’ of neo-soul, modern R’n B and Hip-Hop. Most of the events have been collaborations with the one and only Steven Lynch, aka. DJ Agent M.

Stephen Lynch - DJ Agent M

Harald Haltvik - DJ Snowdrift

5. London Jazz Festival:
On the more relaxing note I had a great time attending a concert by one of my former lecturers. Mr. Jeremy Monteiro, aka. “Singapore’s King of Swing” played in Soho one night during London Jazz Festival.


Jeremy Monteiro Trio at London Jazz Festival

Snowdrift News 2 – Professional News

Professional and academic events at the tail-end of 2010:

1. ‘From File to Feature’ Industry Workshop, London:
In mid-November Tyrell CCT arranged a showcase for several new media products at Soho Theatre in London. Amongst the products were: Avid's Media Composer 5 and ISIS 5000, Object Matrix's disk-based repository, Parking from Marquis' archiving solution and more. The event was especially interesting for former Digidesign customers who wanted to see what systems now will be in family with Pro Tools music production software. A personal favourite was Object Matrix who presented a very versatile data-safety system that would work excellently as a shared central storage for smaller studios with multiple suites.


‘From File to Feature’ event at Soho Theatre Bar

2. Pro Tools 9 presentation by AVID:
With a brand new generation of Pro Tools just hitting the marked, AVID invited their customers to showcases around the UK. In early December 2010 they were at Production Room in Leeds to introduce us to the new features of their software and hardware.



Pro Tools 9 demo at 'Production Room' in Leeds. Shout to James Ivey who ran the demo.

3. Paper presentation by Arild Berg, London:
Former Norwegian Radio journalist Arild Berg presented his research-findings on the correlation (and the lack thereof) between public funding of ethnic music-projects and social integration. My friend Dr. Shzr Ee Tan of the Royal Academy of Music was one of the hosts.