Stanmore, New South Wales

Mixosmosis is a music and post production, 5.1 surround sound, mixing and overdub facility. Two purpose built, acoustically designed and balanced mixing rooms with an outdoors courtyard, cafe, natural lighting, free parking, and only minutes from Sydney’s CBD.
The Mixosmosis equipment roll-call includes a ProTools 8 HD Accel 3 system with Waves Mercury, SCC, Massenburg, Eventide, EMI Chandler, and Sonnox plug-ins, with a Digidesign C|24 control surface. Mixosmosis uses a Crane Song HEDD and Aurora Lynx 16 and 8 convertors. Monitoring is via Focal Twin 6 BE, Focal SM8, Focal SM8s sub, Event 20-20 Bas, KRK, and Auratone. Additional outboard includes API preamps and EQs, Empirical Labs Distressor, Joe Meek, DBX160, Lexicon and Focusrite. the mic cupboard is populated with microphones from Neumann, AKG, Sennheiser, Rode, Royer, and Shure. The facility also incorporates Bridge Road Post.

Mixosmosis: 0417 144 290 or contact the studio.

Tennant Creek, Northern Territory

Winanjjikari Music Centre’s auspicious beginnings were during July 2006, when a share responsibility agreement was formed between twenty indigenous musicians and numerous government departments, as well as local Tenant Creek community organisations including Barkly Regional Arts.

Barkly Regional Arts managed to secure a Key producer status with the Australian council for the arts, alongside Winanjjikari music centre who have then worked towards many community partnership programs.

Winnajjikari Music Centre currently employees 10 aboriginal staff, from ages 17 through to 60. This has added to the eclectic range of influences that emanate from the throbbing heart of the Winajjikari studio, which caters to recordings of traditional music through to modern contemporary productions.

The W.M.C. ‘Rock Squad’ offer skilled production and corporate AV services for local and remote gigs. W.M.C. assists artist in some of the Northern Territory’s most remote areas utilising the trusty ‘Troopy’; a trailer bursting with equipment and trained personal.

The Rock Squad Bush rig consists of four BOB Audio 18-inch subs, four BOB Audio 2×15-inch and two-inch horn cabinets, a Yamaha MG 24 FX desk with DBX loaded FOH, 45 meters of 16:4 muticore with splitters for foldback or the Winanjjikari OB rig, and four sends for monitors. The studio comprises a Mackie 32:8:2 console, an Apple MacPro eight-core 3.2GHz laden with 16GB of RAM, a Digidesign 002 with additional Presonus preamps for 16 I/O. Plus the studio incorporates full access to Dr Fluorides Lair. Check out the goings on via the WMC’s website.

Winanjjikari Music Centre: 08 8962 2799 or email the WMC

Surry Hills, New South Wales

BJB Studios is a music recording, mixing and production facility based in Surry Hills, Sydney. The studio is renowned internationally and boasts credits for many award-winning records.

BJB’s three large recording and mixing spaces serve as a home to many award-winning producers and engineers, and all three are filled with loads of gear, and sunlight (and a whole hunka burnin’ love so the BJB crew inform us). In the main tracking room you’ll find a vintage 1977 Quad Eight Coronado analogue console, plenty of mics and outboard, and two huge naturally-lit recording spaces. The mix room features a 60-channel Neve V1 console with full automation, almost too much outboard, and a recording booth for extra tracking. The ‘Playroom’ is a cosy setup for overdubs and editing, and provides access to a wide selection of mics, instruments, and sound toys. All instruments are available to studio patrons at no further cost. Both main rooms utilise ProTools HD3 Accel systems and use Mytek and Digidesign 192 interfaces. Monitoring is via Adam A7X, KRK V8, Richard Priddle custom made nearfields, Yamaha NS-10M, Quested VS2108, Tannoy Reveals, Avantone Mixcubes, and Mackie HR824 nearfields.

For the complete lowdown on the extensive array of outboard and microphones, head over to the BJB website.

BJB Studios: (02) 9211 5434 or contact BJB via the web

Nunwading, Victoria

Oaklands Productions was established in 1996 and has been in full operation ever since. The Oaklands crew are nearing completion of a new state-of-the-art recording facility designed by Graham Thirkell, featuring an orchestral room capable of holding over 50 musicians and a Yamaha C7 concert grand piano.

Control Room A features a 128 channel Harrison Series 10 console with flying faders, full automation and a 96 I/O Pro Tools v8.0 HD3 Accel system running on an eight-core MacPro (by the way, that’s 96 channels of I/O – not the ProTools ’96 I/O’ audio interface). The Studio A main tracking space is a purpose designed room for recording large ensembles and features a permanently flown Decca-tree mic setup using Neumann microphones.

Control Room B is a smaller mix room and edit suite, and doubles as Oakland’s main video editing suite. It features a Yamaha 02R96 56 channel console and full 5.1 surround mixing facility. Three recording spaces are available to both control rooms; a vocal booth, a drum booth, and a guitar booth.

The studio also offers a green screen for video compositing and some recently acquired toys in the video department, including a live video mixer and chroma keyer, with a broadcast shooting set to be opening in the coming months.

For the full run-down on Oakland’s extensive equipment selection, and a sneak peak of the facility courtesy of some excellent 360° tours of each and every room, head over to the Oaklands website.

Oaklands Productions: 0438 583 893 or see the Oaklands website

Howdy folks.

Issue 75 of AudioTechnology has had its shirt tucked in, its shoelaces tied, and given some lunch money before being dropped off at the school gates. Subscribers will also be receiving AT75 in the post any second now, and you can grab a copy in the newsagency early next week.

In Issue 75, Andy Stewart ponders the vuvuzela, and whether falsifying reality in broadcast audio can really cut it. We feature the influential, experimental indie-rock act, Tortoise, and spend some time with Jacquire King, the engineer/producer behind Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, Norah Jones, and Kings of Leon. We also check out sound mixing and composition for the Australian hit television series, Underbelly: The Golden Mile, and we go behind the scenes of the Blue Man Group, only to discover that their heads really are blue!

Of course, there’s our regular inclusions; there’s a stack of news to whet your gear appetite, Home Grown features the Eddy Current Suppression Ring tracking to eight-track tape, and (gulp) cassette four-track, PC and Mac Audio, while Rick O’Neil pulls things apart quicker than you can put them back together.

Our tutorial section has Michael Stavrou discussing his love of M/S recording, Sound Designer extraordinaire, Dennis Baxter, offers some expert insights into live-to-air surround sound, and Rob Squire talks about ears, namely his. We review the Quested V3110 three-way active midfield monitors, the sE Gemini III valve condenser microphone, the DPA 5100 Mobile Surround Microphone, the incredible Lexicon PCM Native Reverb Plug-in bundle, Dynaudio Acoustics’s BM5A MKII active nearfields, and JLM Audio’s FC500 Analogue FET Compressor, which, incidentally, is our subscription prize for Issue 75!

We reckon you’ll enjoy Issue 75!

The AT-Team.

Recently were were over the moon to present a lucky subscriber with a fantastic prize; namely a Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 digital console.

Scott Smith, an avid KISS fan and guitar shredder extraordinaire, was more than stoked to be picking up such an awesomely versatile mixing console, simply by subscribing to AudioTechnology.

The console was a more than welcome supplement to his existing recording rig. In fact, Scott was so thrilled he wore his KISS neck-tie for the handing over ceremony, and shouted Brad a coffee following the auspicious occasion. Scott treated himself to a hot chocolate.

A very large thank you goes to Presonus Australia distributors, Rode Microphones, for this incredible prize.

Mount Barker, South Australia

Savill Sound caters for voice-overs, new media applications, music, pod-casting, effects, post production, video, mixing, and mastering. The list is endless according to the multi-talented Chris ‘Savvy’ Savill, who cordially invites all and sundry to drop in for a coffee and a Tim-Tam – dunking is optional, and we hear the coffee is a darn fine drop.
Gear at Savill Sound consists of a dual processor Mac G5 (with dual screens), hitched to a Digidesign 003. Edirol PCR-30, Phonic 32 band EQ, and Yamaha MG16/6FX console. BEhringer is well represented, with the MDX440 Dynamics Processor, V-amp Pro (bass), V-amp Pro (guitar), EX3200 exciter/enhancer, Virtualizer Pro, Modualizer Pro, Pro-8 ADAT interface, and a Behringer PL2000 power distribution unit (including light!). Microphones include an sE Electronics, Shure SM58s and 57s, Behringer B-1, Sampson CO1, various shotgun mic’s, and a full compliment of drum mic’s. For location recording, Chris uses a 16 -channel stage box, two FOH speaker systems, an Apple Powerbook G4, Digidesign Mbox 2 and 003, and a Sound Devices 302 with full location audio kit for TV and new media productions. Check out Chris’s work at www.livewire.podomatic.com

Savill Sound: 0417 527 538 or email Chris

Culburra Beach, New South Wales

Studi01-Oz resides amongst the tranquility of the N.S.W. south coast, and offers mixing and mastering services in-house, plus full live recording at a nearby facility.
Studi01-Oz utilise an ‘in-the-box’ approach to production using primarily ProTools, which is then Rewired with Reaper. Consequently studio owner and engineer, Hercules Robinson, can take advantage of each DAW platform’s respective suites of plug-ins and instrumentation. The system in its entirety is controlled via a Mackie MCU, with outboard units integrated via a Mackie 48 I/O analog console. Hardware outboard consists of ART valve pre-amps, TL Audio valve compressor, dbx 266XL Pro compressor/limiter/gate, Fostex DE-1 Pro multi-effects, TC Helicon Voiceworks Autotune/Harmony, and Wharfdale 1/3 octave graphic equalisers. Recording and overdubbing services, along with backing or feature musicians can be provided for: piano, guitar, bass, saxophone, bass clarinet, and drums. ‘Herc’ is the studio’s resident drummer, and offers percussion services featuring
the latest Roland TD-20X electronic drum-kit and SPD-20 pads, an acoustic Gretsch Mahogany drum-kit with selected Turkish and Chinese cymbals, a ProKeys 88 fully weighted MIDI piano serves the keyboard needs of Studi01-Oz and is also available.

Studi01-Oz: email Herc on Hercules@studi01-oz.com

The following statements were issued:
“This is a tremendous victory for the studio recording industry and Waves in particular,” said Waves’s lawyer, Mr. Guy H. Weiss, of the international business law firm Adorno & Yoss. “The Courts are serious about protecting the rights of copyright holders, whether they are singers and musicians, or the software companies that allow the recording industry to mix and record their music,” Mr. Weiss explained. “In the Skyline case, the jury found Waves had valid copyrights and that the defendant infringed on those copyrights. The law is clear: A recording studio is responsible for the copyright infringement committed by its employees, independent contractors or customers.”
Accordingly, James C. Francis, IV, United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern Federal District Court of New York, instructed the Jury, “[a] person is liable for copyright infringement by another if the person has a financial interest and the right and ability to supervise the infringing activity, whether or not the person knew of the infringement.”
Weiss continued, “Thus, Skyline could not rely on the defence that it did not know that its employees, engineers or customers were using cracked software.
It had an absolute duty to stop the copyright infringement committed in its studios. In the Quad Studios case, the defendant admitted liability. At settlement, Quad’s owner committed to run a 100 percent crack-free studio in the future.
“The judgments obtained in these two court cases should send a targeted message to all users of illegal software that Waves is very serious about defending its rights and will continue to fight against the use of cracked software,” stated Gilad Keren, CEO of Waves. “In the long-term, illegal software does not benefit anyone, as it hurts not just Waves, but all developers and manufacturers of software products including their distributors, retail partners and of course, loyal customers who have purchased legitimate versions of the product. We consider a lawsuit the very last resort, but unfortunately it is a course of action that can protect our intellectual property and ensure that we can continue to develop and bring to market the right tools for the recording, broadcast and post-production industries.”
‘nuff said.

We’re keen to hear your comments regarding software copyright infringement, so please feel free to add your opinion below…

A pair of Dicers requires one USB socket; an included mini-jack cable provides data connection and bus power to the second unit. As standard MIDI devices, Dicers can be programmed to control any MIDI-compatible software. Price: $170.
Innovative Music: (03) 9540 0658 or www.innovativemusic.com.au