Soundscape SSHDR1

Continuing our occasional series of reports from long‑term users of studio equipment, this month Brian Heywood talks to two producers about their Soundscape digital recording system, and how they used it to put together a hit track.

One of SOS's main roles has always been to look at and test new technology as it appears, and to bring readers up‑to‑the‑minute information about the latest new equipment. Whilst this is very useful, it is also interesting to see how technology is used out in the real world. The real test of any piece of equipment is how it performs over a period of time in the hands of a user.

This article looks at the work done by two producers using a Soundscape SSHDR1 hard disk recording system — Kirk Zavieh and Charles Hodgkinson of London‑based Adelphoi Records. Kirk and Charles started Adelphoi about three years ago, when they began working from the basement of Kirk's flat. If you are an avid watcher of Top of the Pops, you may have seen and heard some of the pair's material during a few of the playouts last year.

Why Soundscape?

As producers who do a lot of work with acoustic, non‑MIDI instruments and live vocals, Kirk and Charles felt they needed a hard disk recording system so that they could have the same degree of flexibility in their editing and arrangement of acoustic material as they were used to with MIDI sequencers and instrumentation. When they were kitting out Adelphoi at its current location near Covent Garden in late 1993, the pair were given demos of various PC‑based systems in London (though impressed by Digidesign's Pro Tools, it was out of their budget at the time). Soundscape had recently been released, and Kirk and Charles were impressed by its "capabilities, speed, and ease of use", as well as the level of product support — their demo was conducted by actual members of the Soundscape team.

Since their purchase, the SSHDR1 has become the heart of their recording system, synchronised to their Power Mac‑based sequencer (Emagic's Logic v2) and/or their Alesis ADAT. At the time of my visit, they were looking forward to the introduction of the Soundscape timestretch module (which is now available — see the 'All About Soundscape' box for more details); much more so than the reverb module.

The fact that the Soundscape system did not depend on the host PC's processor also contributed to the pair's purchase decision, as they felt this was likely to lead to less system crashes. Since they bought the SSHDR1, these hopes have been borne out — as Charles enthusiastically puts it: "There has never been a problem; it has crashed twice in two years! We've never lost anything!". This comment is a fairly telling recommendation in an area where both hardware and software are pretty renowned for their crashes. In fact, Kirk and Charles were keen to point out that they felt their ADAT had proved less reliable than their Soundscape system, and that as a result they relied on the Soundscape more for critical work.

Taking Five

Kirk and Charles agreed to explain how they had put together a track from scratch, and how the SSHDR1 fitted into their recording process. The track they told me about was a jungle version of Dave Brubeck's jazz classic 'Take 5', but in this case assembled by Kirk, Charles and a long‑time close collaborator known only as DAL. They had the idea one afternoon whilst working on another project, and felt "it sounded like a great idea, which would capture people's imagination, and be good fun! The fact that it was in 5/4 time made it even more interesting and challenging."

The first thing the pair did was set up the backing track using Logic — the non‑audio, MIDI‑only version (see the 'Unerring Logic' box). The rhythm track was constructed by taking some drum loop samples and putting them into 5/4, which was not a trivial task, considering they were originally 4/4 jungle‑type samples. The breakbeat for the track was assembled by editing these samples and playing them back in sync on their Roland S750 and S760 samplers. Bass and piano parts were then played over the top on synths. To get a 'sample' feel for the piano part, Kirk and Charles sampled some track noise from an old record, and combined it with the nastiest piano sound they could find — a detuned 'school piano' patch on their Yamaha TX81Z FM sound module. The end result is that the piano sounds as though it has been sampled from an old record — thus lending it an 'authentic' sound that is in fact totally inauthentic! The bass sound was created by layering a number of synth basses — a 'Sine bass' patch to give the depth required for jungle tracks, combined with a higher, more refined bass to cut through on a small radio speaker.

Once the rhythm track was complete, two sax players (Mark Waterman & Danny Langsmen) were bought into the studio to play the lead lines. Adelphoi have a pool of session musicians that they use to play on tracks as required. The final performer was one Llewgo‑Ranks, who was brought in to record a ska‑type rap in typical jungle fashion over the top of the music. The saxes and vocal were recorded straight onto the SSHDR1 hard disk system, using an AKG C414 mic, and were then compressed using an Alesis 3630 and a Urei 1178 — the last of which they describe as a "superb piece of equipment".

Editing, Arrangement And Mixing

Considerable time was taken in recording and editing the acoustic recordings so that they hung together well with the MIDI backing. Fortunately, as Kirk and Charles explained, they find Soundscape editing fast enough to allow them to edit during the recording session — there are no long delays while audio data is shunted around.

All the 'Take 5' audio was recorded on the Soundscape, although in the end Kirk and Charles only needed to use six of the eight tracks. As the hardware only has four individual outputs, a certain amount of the audio was mixed in the digital domain. The pair usually work by looking at the tracks individually and then doing stereo merges. This has the advantage of reducing the number of outputs required, while still maintaining control over the level and pan position of each instrument. Once you've got the sound onto the hard disk, not only is the sound quality better, but you can do whatever you want with it in terms of its arrangement.

When it came to the final mix, the acoustic tracks had been reduced to four; lead sax, another sax and alto sax for the chorus, and a track for the vocal. Kirk and Charles automate their mixes using MIDI volume commands, either from within Soundscape or using Logic. This gives them a fine control over the audio without the need for a fully automated desk.

The 'Take 5' tracks were equalised using the EQ on the Adelphoi Mackie 32:8 desk, rather than using Soundscape's internal digital EQ section, since Kirk and Charles both feel the latter is more "unwieldy" and less immediate than twiddling a knob on the mixing desk. Nevertheless, they do sometimes make use of Soundscape's EQ to correct audio data on disk before getting to the mixing stage. In this case, however, the Soundscape was used very much like a traditional multitrack recorder, and most of the mix was performed on the Mackie desk, giving a much more 'hands on' feel. As Kirk observes of Soundscape's built‑in EQ, "it's too fiddly, you want to be able to listen, close your eyes and find a nice EQ manually". Charles concurs. "It's not advanced enough yet, so that as you twist a knob you can hear the difference".

At the time of my visit, Adelphoi mixes were usually 'performed' straight down to an Aiwa DAT machine and then copied back onto the Soundscape in the digital domain via the S/PDIF inputs. This had the advantage of generating an instant backup of the mix, but both Kirk and Charles were finding that their consumer‑quality machine was giving them reliability problems and was not always compatible with other DAT recorders. I was not surprised to learn recently that they have since changed the Aiwa DAT for a Sony.

Once complete mixes are back on the Soundscape, they can be edited together, shortened or lengthened, and then passed back out through the Mackie desk and/or any further external processing as required. The 'Take 5' CD had no less than six separate mixes, which shows the flexibility of this approach.

It's A Hit!

Once the 'Take 5' tracks were complete, Kirk and Charles presented the material to various record companies and broadcasters. The response, as Kirk explained, was "amazing. The producer of Top Of The Pops contacted us, and we agreed to them showing the video behind the closing TOTP credits. This was before it was even released." In the end, the track was signed to and released on Arista Records, under the group name Teknicolour. The greatest compliment came from Dave Brubeck himself, who declared it his favourite tribute to 'Take 5', saying it represented everything he looked for in modern music: "enthusiasm, energy and innovation". It goes to show — you can still get results with good material if you present it to the right people!

Adelphoi's success is not limited to 'Take 5'; they are also the producers of Gena West's new single 'Joy', which is enjoying the view from no.7 on the Record Mirror dance chart as this feature goes to press!