Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/54443
Unsung AUDIO GEAR For the past two months, Robertson has Luke Harper's Unsung Picks Owner, Audio Altimeter, (www.www.audioaltimeter.com) Minneapolis AudioFile Engineering Sample Manager 3 $80 www.audiofile-engineering.com "Sample Manager 3 is a batch audio file processor for Macs that is $80. For that, it can perform over 50 processes, and you can chain these together as workflows. With one click you can apply complex processes to as many audio files as you like. It's fast, cheap and extraordinarily useful every single day." Behringer Cable Tester CT100 Around $20 www.behringer.com "The people that know about it are reading this like, 'Of course, dude.' This small six-in-one wonder can handle XLR, TRS (1/4- inch, 1/8-inch and TT!!), RCA and MIDI, and also has a test tone mode. It does a bunch of things, it's inexpensive, it's tough and it's easy to use. Why not?" used the Anthony DeMaria Labs ADL 1000 Tube Compressor (www.anthonydemarial- abs.com) on just about every vocal track he's recorded. "What I love about the ADL 1000 is what it does to vocals. It adds this amazing pres- ence and warmth, which I haven't really been able to get out of other compressors. It's a vacu- um tube compressor and it's very much warm overall. It's one of those things, where, when you hear it, you can really sense the difference. It's pretty much the only thing we use on vocals now because it really adds this other dimen- sion to the sound." The Anthony DeMaria Labs ADL 1000 tube compressor ($1,450) is a mono tube compressor/limiter that boasts an all-tube design with no integrated circuits or chips. Using a vacuum tube in place of integrated circuits creates a naturally "warmer" sound. It also has an opto electrical attenuator that eliminates the typical "pumping" sound you might find with other compressor/limiters. Robertson recently worked on a cam- It's kind of an old-school compressor in the sense that it really just has Peak Reduction and Gain on the front. So, the simplicity is really what I like about it." Nylon's Dave Robertson. They really are working on making it more and more user friendly. I've been working with Kontakt for the past four or five years as a composer and I started using it for sound design over the past year. I just keep leaning on it more all the time because it really delivers." NYLON Dave Robertson is a sound designer/mixer at Nylon Studios (www.nylonstudios.com) in New York. Nylon Studios creates original music and sound design for TV commercials. They've worked on spots for Smirnoff, Cadil- lac, Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Snickers, and Mercedes to name just a few. Nylon Stu- dios has facilities in both New York and Syd- ney, with clients throughout North America, Australia and Asia. 36 Post • February 2012 paign for the African telecommunications company, Airtel. Instead of a :30 or :60 track typical of television commercials, Robertson had to create a full-length track, which Airtel plans on making available for purchase. "We created a song in the style of Taio Cruz or LMFAO, with that ravey-pop sort of sound. We used it for a vocal on that, and it came out really nice. We really got to give the com- pressor a workout on the full-length track and it worked really well in that situation." The ADL 1000 interface has a simple, two-knob design, a VU meter and two toggle switches. The Peak Reduction knob sets the amount of gain reduction as indicated by the VU meter. The Gain knob controls the amount of output from the ADL 1000. The VU meter displays two different levels, depending on where the toggle switch is set. It can display the output level or the amount of peak reduction. For Robertson, the simple design makes the ADL 1000 even more appealing. "It's very simple to use. It's pretty much two knobs. The actual compression settings are all internal. They sell it as 'invisible' compres- sion, so, all of that works in the background. www.postmagazine.com BAD ANIMALS Tom McGurk is a co-owner and Emmy- winning composer at Bad Animals (www. badanimals.com), a studio in Seattle that focuses exclusively on audio post for film, television, videogames and corporate video. McGurk has been using Celemony's Melo- dyne (www.celemony.com) since the first iteration of Melodyne Editor came out. "I've been using it for a few years now and I just got the upgrade to 2.0. I don't use it as a standalone. I use it as a plug-in. Also, I haven't had to use the polyphonic feature of it, but it sounds amazing." Celemony's Melodyne Editor 2.0 ($399) is software that allows you to edit audio material in a musical way. According to Cele- mony, Melodyne recognizes the notes in audio material and displays them on pitch and time grids, allowing you to see where notes begin and end, as well as the pitch of the note. You can then edit the notes to fit whatever pitch and time you need. From simple pitch correction to an entire overhaul of the melody or song, Melodyne can be used as a standalone application or plug-in. It even works with polyphonic audio material, allowing you, for example, to change a single note within a chord from a major to a minor third. Celemony refers to this feature as Direct Note Access. McGurk is currently working on Biz Kid$, a national PBS show that teaches kids about money. (Last year, McGurk and Bad Animals were nominated for an Emmy for their sound work on Biz Kid$.) He loves the flexi- bility that Melodyne gives him when it comes