Three Fresh Shouts (Music & Photography)

A couple of years ago I wrote some ‘shouts’ to people I knew or had met who was doing something creative worth mentioning on this blog. The shouts are back and there should be another post before long. This time I cover new music from Leeds-based producers, and a recent Norwegian photo exhibition. The key people are Daniel Woodward, Neil Innes at ATA Records, and photographer Theodor With. Hope you enjoy!

Daniel Woodward – New Album

In the Funk, Soul and Jazz community in Leeds, Daniel Woodward is probably best known as a top-of-the-range drummer, and for Groove Labs Studio. Last year Daniel released his solo album 'The Long Walk Home.’ On ‘The Long Walk Home,’ we get introduced to Woodward the composer and keyboard-player. Woodward plays keys and drums on all tracks. The album features a variety of jazz vibes from the contemplative and atmospheric, to vintage Blue Note moments and up-tempo tracks. His star-spangled team include Joe Tatton, Malcolm Strachan, Atholl Ransome, Kenny Higgins, Simon Beddoe and Garry Jackson. Between them they have an impressive list of credits which include (to name far too few!): New Mastersounds, Haggis Horns, Jamiroquai, Corinne Bailey Rae and Submotion Orchestra. The album was recorded at Daniel’s own Groove Labs Studio apart from the track ‘Sunday Sermon’ which was recorded at ATA Studio (more on ATA elsewhere in this post). Being deeply in love with the Hammond-sound since childhood, I fell totally in love with ‘Sunday Sermon’ and played it again and again when Daniel first shared the YouTube link before the record was released. The sound is recognizable to lovers of Hammond-jazz, and the drive and feel is reminiscent of Quincy Jones’ ‘Killer Joe.’ In spite of the jazz-scene of Northern England holding an internationally rather anonymous position, ‘The Long Walk Home’ is a an album that displays not only the quality of the North-English jazz music scene, but also flickers of its diversity in both styles and personnel.
Link to album on Tidal, Link to album on Amazon, Link to album on Spotify.

ATA Records - New Tracks

One night some years ago I was introduced to Neil Innes at the Sela Bar in Leeds. We swiftly got talking about music and recording. Neil had just set up his recording studio 'All Things Analogue' (ATA), which as you might have guessed, is an analogue recording studio. In 2014 the studio expanded to include its own record-company (ATA Records). The vintage gear collection includes RCA R44 microphones, germanium pre-amps from the original desk at Olympic Studios, a Swedish radio-broadcast console from the 1960s, and naturally, tape-machines. The instrument collection is equally vintage. Recently, ATA Records have started on an ongoing album of free downloads appropriately named ‘Hard Work, No Pay.’ The tracks are soulful and danceable retro-tracks and few will guess they have been recorded recently. They will eventually be pressed to limited edition on vinyl. The tracks include:

· ‘Somebody Stole My Thunder’ with The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra feat. Martin Connor. —Imagine an alternative Starsky and Hutch theme with vocals!

· ‘The Name Game’ with Maggie Somers. —­­Fun track that it’s very hard to sit still to!

Theodor With Photography

Theodor is not only my brother-in-law, but also a dashing and talented young photographer. He recently held an outdoor exhibition at the area of ‘Nyhavna’ (literally: New Harbour) in the city of Trondheim. It was covered in an article in the Norwegian newspaper Adresseavisen (see article on this link). Humans of Nyhavna has its own web-page and Facebook-page, and the name is as you might have guessed inspired by the famous photo-blog ‘Humansof New York.’ Theodor's recent exhibition was set up as a part of a festival celebrating the creative talents in the area of Nyhavna. The area houses a wide pallet of small-scale creative industry. In addition to professional photography, Theodor has run a small web-design company together with a friend for years, and his wife (my little sister) is a costume designer who works with stage, film and TV. This naturally produces the potential for broad collaborations and a portfolio where theatre and creative costumes is a common feature. Theodor has also turned his camera on myself and other friends for collaborations. Some of these will be featured in blog-posts to come.

Find ‘Theodor With Photography’ here: Webpage, Facebook-page.

(Photo: Finn Walther for Adresseavisen)

(Photo: Theodor With from Humans of Nyhavna)

Visit to Leeds College of Music

This is a blog-post from a visit to Leeds College of Music (LCoM) in 2012. LCoM was in 2012 in the process of transforming its programmes. They were cutting down on the number of degrees and made the degrees they provided more flexible. They also opened for more studio-time for everyone and much longer opening-hours. Mac-labs, studios and rehearsal rooms are now also open till 3am! Level 1 and 2 HE students now had access to facilities only level 3 students and above had access to before. Music students also had access to more of the technical facilities that only technology and production students used to have. You may think this makes everyone fight more for studio-time, but I won’t believe it. Last time I checked LCoM had about 60 teaching and practice rooms, seven recording studios, three mixing studios, a large in-house venue and a small recital-hall. The college is not lacking in facilities. The library is well-provided in literature for practical skills and academic knowledge. There is also a substantial collection of printed and recorded music—especially the latter category was important for us production students. (Although, today most music can be streamed if you risk the lower resolution for critical listening.) In 2012 Leeds College of Music also got its ‘all Steinway status,’ which means that close to all pianos are made by Steinway.

My 2012 visit to the college was part of a private study-trip in the UK for a prospective student. At LCoM we had an appointment with lecturer Brian Morell to talk about admissions and student life, and we met with a number of other staff. I am not going to present the current line-up of degrees here, but I’ll rather provide a few highlights from my own experience as a Leeds College of Music student (I graduated autumn 2009):

- The college is a dedicated music conservatory and it is strong in both jazz, pop, classical and production studies. This meant that I always had access to top-of-the-range musicians for collaborations. LCoM’s old slogan ‘where music happens’ described our student-days spot on.

- Leeds is a great city for music, and the legendary venue ‘the Wardrobe’ is just across the street.

- LCoM always had great facilities. Significant upgrades have been undertaken in recent years. If I have any critique on the current state of the studios, may I suggest that they are so well-equipped that no studios now represent the lower end of the industry? Though that luxury is hardly a problem!

- During my post-graduate studies in Music Production our little class had four doctorate-holders overseeing us. That gave us a density of PhDs to Masters-students of almost 3 to 1. That’s even before counting visiting lecturers.

- Several of my friends from LCoM have gone on to great places in both music and academia. For me, being linked to the LCoM-community today means I’m linked to a living organism of musicians and producers. And it means being linked to a college that is big enough to conquer new ground and increase my CV-prestige as a degree-holder, but small enough to receive us alumni back in a family-like fashion.

…but then again, I’m the wrong guy to ask for an objective outside-perspective! Cause I loved it too much!

Big thanks to Senior Studio Technician Keith Smith and all the other staff who spent the day with us!

Norwegian Singer/Songwriter, up-and-coming Producer

and future LCoM Student Oda Kveinå Tonstad

in the G-series SSL studio.

Film meets music and sound. This suite has quite a big canvas

and a Genelec surround-system built into the walls

Studio 113 used to have a TOFT ATB when I was a student.

Now it has an Audient 8024 and the college uses Audient

consoles in several studios.
Read more about the relation to FunkyJunk here.

Here’s an updated picture from Studio 422.

From the musical scores section of the library. On the far wall you
can see parts of the extensive record collection.

The library's wall of magazines and journals

Read more about the College's facilities on this link.

Visit to School of Sound Recording SSR, Manchester

This post is from a 2012 visit to School of Sound Recording (SSR) in Manchester. I first visited SSR in 2008 during a workshop on new features in Pro Tools for the launch of PT 8. Back then it was an industry training academy with no degree programmes. They were quite clear on it: ‘we don’t want any red tape!’ Four years later they had welcomed the red tape (even though you can’t record on it!) because many students want academic credits to show if they spend a year or more studying something. I would want the same thing! SSR has been broadening its appeal in several ways. Currently, I can’t see the name ‘School of Sound Recording’ anywhere strategic on their web-page, and their logo has gotten four new words attached to it: ‘Music, Film, Games, Education.’ Evidently, SSR isn’t just a school of sound recording any more.  But true to their beginnings, the school still offers short courses and industry training. Notably amongst these is an impressive range of Avid Pro Tools certifications.

I was travelling with two Norwegians and we had booked an appointment to see the school, since one of them considered applying. We got a full private tour of the facilities and a long talk with (then) Vice Principal Ian Carmichael. Big thanks to everyone, as we were incredibly well received, and especially to Vicky Batrak (link to her company) who gave us a glimpse of what a student’s life is like at SSR.

Since I first set foot there, I have liked SSR. It has a number of studios spread across three floors. All smaller recording-studios are set up with Soundcraft Ghost consoles. These are easy and intuitive to use, while teaching in-line work-flow. Different Ghost-studios are set up with different tasks in mind: tracking or mixing, compact studio or larger studio with more outboard. Beyond the Ghost-studios we find consoles from Avid, DigiCo, Amek and Neve, plus a live venue with several traditional analogue consoles, a large analogue Midas and an Avid Venue system. The whole building is served by an Avid ISIS shared storage server and the venue has lines running to several of the studios.

SSR has long-standing collaborations with the audio industry and have very close ties with Wigwam. I believe there has also been some donations of gear towards the school from the industry who recognises that it attracts a lot of young talents. In my last post I mentioned how Leeds Beckett University has been teaming up with accrediting body JAMES. SSRs close collaboration with the industry is the traditional way of handling industry-connections in music and sound production. For prospectus students who might wonder, in my opinion there is no need for further validation of SSR Manchester’s various audio-courses as the institute has always been closely woven into the fabric of the industry.

Over the last few years SSR has branched out from Manchester to London, and further on to Asia. As a former resident of Singapore myself, I am really happy to hear they have set up a school there. Another school is set up in Jakarta. Both the Asian campuses are distinctly simpler than the UK campuses, but they provide a valuable addition in a part of the world that has a very short history in educating audio engineers. One of the areas you can specialise in at the Jakarta campus is live sound for ‘Houses of Worship.’ Let me put this into context for you! When I studied Music Technology in Singapore one of my classmates came from Jakarta. His cousin is from Surabaya and was one of my best friends. After Christmas brake I asked my classmate what he had been up to over the holidays. He said he had played at a festival. Ok, festival sounds good I thought! How big? Sixty thousand people, came the calm reply! I was a bit taken aback and later told his cousin. She just went “oh, well… it was just for his Church” (we attended a pretty big Church ourselves). “Just Church” doesn’t make the crowd smaller. Live sound for Houses of Worship in Jakarta makes great sense! Indonesia is also a great place for live music (think: Jakarta Jazz Festival) and has a music scene prominent with funk, RnB and soul.

SSR in Manchester is on my shortlist over great places to do professional courses and industry-training. It sports up-to date and extremely varied facilities for teaching sound engineering for both venue and studio. It also has computer-labs and short courses for certification on DAWs and the likes. I have never studied at SSR myself, but visiting always feels like coming home!

Studios

SSR use Soundcraft Ghost consoles in a number of studios.
It is a simple console with good pre-amps that teaches the use of
traditional analogue in-line consoles without too much clutter. Consoles
are set up with patch-bays and a few pieces of nice outboard.

Amek Einstein console. The room is well-stocked with outboard
and has lines running to the live venue and one of the other studios.

Judging from the SSR web-site, it looks like this Control 24 is now
changed to a newer C 24. These are great little consoles for integration
with ProTools and represent a cost-efficient solution for students
eventually setting up their own facilities. The room is set up with
screen and projector.

ICON studio with screen and projector. The current incarnation of
Manchester SSR's ICON studio looks a bit different. It sports both
a stereo and a 5.1 monitoring system.

A room set up with a DigiCo mixer. It has lines to the live venue.
This is a great facility for anyone wanting to record live concerts
or train for working in high-end sound-trucks or modern theatres.
Interestingly, the room also has synthesizers and software for music
production, so this will also work as a place for music-creation.

The Neve studio is said to be 'loosely built on Abbey Road Studio 1.'
It is a desirable recording facility and it has been attempted booked
by the recording industry in Manchester several times. Often they are
turned down, since it would interfere with student-work. This studio
is for training of advanced students.

It is set in a large room where you can record without having to
be separated by a wall of glass. There is an isolation booth
for when separation is needed.

 Venue and Live Sound

DigiDesign Venue

Midas Verona

SSR have several analogue consoles on tables with wheels.

The workstations have HD recorders with multi-track recordings
of performances in them for mixing-practice.

Monitor mix at the side of the stage

Thanks again to everyone we met during our visit for their generosity with time!

Visit to Leeds Beckett University

(For pictures, scroll to the end of this post)

Leeds Beckett University changed name in 2014 and was still Leeds Metropolitan University when I visited in 2012. With its Headingly Campus set in the charming old Beckett Park area, the name-change makes good sense in connecting with the local history.

Leeds Beckett is a large modern University with a wide range of courses on offer. The challenge for music students at a large university is often that music takes a minor role after business, law, medicine and other high-profile programmes. Leeds Beckett has no music stream as such and music production and technology is a part of the performing arts department. It also sports a number of other creative programmes, including dance, film, animation and various media technologies. This indicates what kind of collaborations you can make. For example, at a dedicated music college you will have plenty of musicians to collaborate with. But if you are more inclined to work with filmmakers, dancers, animators and media students, Leeds Beckett provides a community for you. And after having lived in Leeds for many years myself, one thing I can say that the city does not lack is musicians!

On my tour of the performing arts department, the staff was keen to promote the quality of the university library. The academic focus of the performing arts courses thus seems central (this will suit some performing arts-students well (such as myself) but others less well). At any rate, the library has staff who is prepared to assist students in their literature-searches, which is absolutely a good thing. Another thing they were keen to promote was the fact that two of the Kaiser Chiefs were alumni. Successful Alumni is always good, but perhaps there were a few other non-study-related criteria behind the Kaiser Chiefs’ success? Though hear-hear, every university should be proud of its alumni indeed!

Leeds Beckett University provides four undergrad degrees central to my blogging (and several related ones).

BA (Hons) ‘MusicProduction’

BA (Hons) ‘MusicProduction and Performance’

BSc (Hons) ‘MusicTechnology’

[BSc(Hons ) ‘Audio Engineering’ was added after my visit in 2012]

-plus four post-graduate courses along the same paths (I won’t cover these here as applicants will be more aware of what they are looking for). All courses are accredited by ‘JointAudio Media Education Services’ (JAMES). The performing arts sector has little tradition in industry-accreditation and some institutes rather have their own strong industry-links. Thus, performing arts accreditation won’t weigh in as heavy on your CV as industry-accreditation on an MBA. But the JAMES-accreditation is a confirmation to prospectus students that industry-relevant knowledge is being taught in audio-courses. It confirms that the university maintains a dialogue with a respected organisation about the industry’s development.

BA Music Production and Performance: There is no traditional main-study instrument-tutoring on this programme. This means the degree will fit best for performers who already have some ideas of where they are headed. The degree aims at establishing a wide production-toolbox (arranging, recording, industry knowledge, etc.), while letting you develop your current level of performance more independently. The degree is less flexible than the others with regards to optional modules, but the real flexibility is found in your personal choice of performance-style.

The Bachelor of Science in Music Technology will suit students wanting to work with music and sound in the media sector, or students who go on to study other branches of engineering and technical research. A Bachelor of Science (BSc) is preferable in some lines of work and for some types of post-graduate studies. If you think this might apply to your intended post-graduate studies or for your professional aims, you should investigate this further. With the introduction of the BSc in Audio Engineering there is now also the option of focusing solely on the engineering and science of sound, without studying music-topics. As a general rule of thumb, I would recommend the BA courses to students who actually want to create music, and the BSc courses to students who want to work with technology for manipulating or distributing sound and music. The exception to the rule is often production of music for computer games and new media. Music technology courses can here be a better choice since both sound, music and complete product is entirely technology based.

TheBachelor of Arts in Music Production explains itself best of the three, and I’ll leave it up to the university’s web-page to describe the current course content. If you enrol on this course and you’re not primarily a musician, your task number one should be to create connections with good performers around the city. As mentioned, Leeds is a great place to make such connections.

Here are my condensed impressions of Leeds Becket’s music production and technology courses:

-       - The university has invested in very good studio-facilities (in fact, it was this rumour that first made me want to visit).

-       - It has a number of (non-music) programmes well suited for collaboration (I do not know to what extend such collaborations happen, and it is often up to you as a student to initiate your own collaborations).

-       - Established community for music producers and technologists (three undergrad and four post grad programmes) with external accreditation.

While not having a dedicated music-programme, Leeds Beckett has well-established courses and above average facilities for both music production and technology. It is a university worth a visit.

The main building at the Headingly Campus in the beautiful area of
Beckett Park

A 19th Century courtyard surrounds a central lawn

 Studios

Several mid-sized studios are set up with small Allen & Heath consoles.
They don't have the analogue in-line architecture usually associated with studio
consoles, but they provide an intuitive front-end to the recording-chain. The
R16 depicted has digital functionality similar to that of an in-line console.
Dynaudio BM15s provide full-range listening, and a simple collection of
outboards provide training in traditional work-flow. In spite of their simple
set-up and relatively compact size these studios are well equipped to
provide basic training.

The larger studios are equipped with Audient ASP8024 consoles. The
Audient consoles have traditional in-line architecture and provide a
natural progression from the smaller A&H Zed-based studios. The
Audient-equipped studios are also set up with more backline and
outboard than the smaller studios.

The largest of the Audient-consoles is a 32-channel frame. That is,
32 lines of recording and 32 tape-inputs for mixing, plus returns.

Always nice to see analogue tape being available

Hammond & Leslie

Computer Labs

Work-stations

All workstations in this lab had both extra USB and analogue connectivity
below the interface for better ease of use. All stations were set up
with headphones.

Years ago I went to FE college in Norway studying electronics,
a background that has often come in handy while working with
sound. Computer labs like this one provides a tangible proof that
Leeds Beckett takes the link between sound and electronics seriously.

Breakdown of work-stations:
Oscilloscope, signal generator and multimeter...

...midi keyboard, mixer and headphones in the same set-up.

List of Mac Labs and available software

Binaural recording facility. If I'm not much mistaken there's
an ultrasound speaker hanging on the wall behind.

Big thanks to all academic and library staff that made the day at Leeds Beckett University interesting!