PROJECT
FILE
Sound designer, re-recording mixer, composer, writer, director, and editor
Graham Reznick mixes using the Waves Nx Virtual Mix Room monitoring
plug-in and Nx Head Tracker for headphones.
“One of my favourite ways to use Nx is to get a new perspective
on my in-progress mixes – both with tricky mixes and with mixes that
already sound great on my speaker monitors. It can reveal problems that
I wasn’t aware of, as well as helping me figure out problems I couldn’t
crack. Being able to simulate different-sized rooms and listening posi-
tions lets me hear how all the frequencies and instruments will gel (or
not) in different listening environments,” says Reznick. “The first project
that I sound designed and mixed using Waves Nx was a very early VR
series called GONE… There weren’t many VR-oriented/360-audio mixing
programs available at that time and Nx was a great way to get a sense of
how the head tracking and spatial implementation of the audio would
be experienced.”
Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. seats 20,000 fans and is home
to the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the NBA’s Washington Wizards,
as well as the Georgetown NCAA men’s basketball team. Recently, its
two-decade-old sound reinforcement system was replaced with EAW
self-powered Anna and Otto adaptive line array elements, which were
installed by Pennsylvania-based AVL integration firm Clair Solutions.
At the heart of the new system are six self-powered EAW adaptive
line array clusters. Each cluster uses nine Anna full-range components
and five Otto subwoofer components. To minimize runs, Clair Solutions
built and installed custom equipment racks to fly behind each cluster
for I/O, power distribution, and network switches and ran new fibre from
the mix position to the equipment racks. The fibre carries signal from a
BSS Blu DSP and networking system that in turn takes its feed from an
existing console at the mix position. For fills in various positions there
are 24 EAW QX364 full-range loudspeakers, 16 Fulcrum AH463 horns,
and eight Fulcrum CX 1265 speakers.
62 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
For two consecutive three-day weekends in April, 125,000 music fans
per day flocked to Indio, CA’s Empire Polo Club for the 20th annual
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which featured more than
160 artists and bands performing on multiple stages throughout the
site. The festival’s characteristically diverse lineup included Childish Gam-
bino, Tame Impala, Ariana Grande, Janelle Monáe, The 1975, Kacey Mus-
graves, and many more. For this marquee event, Rat Sound Systems
relied on Digico SD-Range mixing consoles at nearly all of the stages
across the festival grounds.
With additional console inventory and support from Hi-Tech Audio,
Rat Sound deployed a total of eight Digico SD10 desks for FOH and eight
SD12 desks for monitors. Two pairs of SD10 and SD12 for fast set switch-
overs were utilized on the two main stages, plus a single SD10/SD12
combo on three smaller stages. All of the SD10 consoles were paired with
a Waves package and a total of 14 SD-Racks were deployed throughout.
The smaller Yuma stage was supplied with a compact SD11 console.
At his Krematorium Studios in New York City, recording and mix engi-
neer Michael Ashby recently upgraded to a pair of ATC SCM25A com-
pact three-way monitors. Ashby has five platinum albums to his name
and has been nominated twice for a Grammy Award for his work with
rap superstar Cardi B.
“I can use the ATCs to be super surgical or I can use them to bump,”
Ashby says. “I can listen in-depth by myself, but sometimes I’m forced
to do a rough mix when the room is filled with people. The ATCs let me
satisfy the client while still giving me the clarity and balance I need to
deliver an effective mix. I think it’s important to point out that they aren’t
dangerously flat-sounding. They’re really fun to listen to, but everything
I do still translates. For monitors to sound great and bump in the room
but still translate perfectly outside the room… that’s everything!”