UA Universe
By Marsha Vdovin and Joseph Lemmer
WebZine Subscription Winner
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Here's April's WebZine subscription winner, Bernhard Drax, digging his new UAD-1e Expert PAK. All he did to win this fabulous prize was subscribe to the WebZine mailing list! You could be next. Subscribe now! . As if winning an Expert PAK is not enough, check out Bernhard's movie score premiere below, featuring UAD plug-ins!
Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip . . .
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| Bernard Drax hitting the red carpet at the premier of the Disney movie Sommer in Munich. |
Bernard Drax Flexes his UAD-1 on Disney Film Score
“I used the UAD-1 throughout the tracking and mixing of my latest scoring project. The Disney feature Sommer, made for the German market, came out April 17. It's a romantic comedy for teens that called for a lot of big emotions. I prepped the music at home on a Mac Pro using the DreamVerb and LA-2A plug-ins on almost everything. I have some stuff from Native Instruments, but Nigel beats them on the guitar front tone-wise. When it came time to replace the samples with real instruments, I was surprised to learn that my engineer Flopsi Oestreicher is a UAD junkie as well! Fairchild on the Kawai grand, Pultec EQ on drum overhead and vocals. The Roland Dimension D really made the (somewhat) cheesy Digidesign synths I brought in from home sound great! For a Morricone-inspired (some say 'ripped-off') cue we used the Boss CE-1 on the Velvet (a Digidesign Rhodes instrument ) and on the spaghetti guitars as well.
“I don't know a project studio that can afford to pre-produce a project of this magnitude without the UAD. The only reason I sold a bunch of music cues to studio execs in production meetings (before the real instruments replaced the samples) was the realism that the UAD plug-ins added. And the only reason the final product sounds as 'Hollywood' as it does (despite the small number of actual players making up for the absence of a full orchestra) is the clarity and flexibility of the UAD.”
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| Adam Vanryne |
Mixing the Dave Clark Five With UAD-1
Adam Vanryne has completed a major project for The Dave Clark Five, which culminates in the exclusive iTunes release of The Hits album, and coincides with the induction of the DC5 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The album features digitally remastered songs, including two unreleased tracks: "Universal Love" and "Every American Citizen." Adam used UAD-1 extensively throughout every process of the album that entered into the US charts at number 8.
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| Phil Greiss |
Zaho's First Single "C'est Chelou" Mixed With UAD-1
We heard from French composer/producer Phil Greiss this month. “I'm writing to you now because I've just released an album under my own production company, Down Lo, for a new artist named Zaho. The album, licensed with Capitol (EMI) came out March 10th and went straight in the top 20--200 copies short of beating Snoop Dogg's newest release. Zaho's first single, "C'est Chelou," is number 2 in digital sales (SFR). Both the album and the digital single are EMI's number-one best-selling entries. I still can't find any plugs that compare to their UAD equivalent, sound-wise. My favorites are the Pultec Pro: amazing space-opening tool, especially the mid EQ. Whenever I deal with track-heavy tunes, this EQ is my go-to tool to carve out large chunks of meat while retaining musicality. The LA-2A is my go-to compressor for vox, guitar and pretty much anything else. I'm not sure if people out there are aware of the amazing power of the gain knob. Coupled with a Pultec Pro placed before it, I am able to push the signal into harmonic distortion reminiscent of well known tube gear.”
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| Composer Sheridan Tongue (left) and Steve Parr mixing an episode of BBC's Silent Witness. |
Hear No Evil Mixed 3 out of 4 BAFTA Nominees
Steve Parr at Hear No Evil in London recorded and mixed three out of the four nominations for this year's BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Television Award for Best Original Music. The nominations were:
Paddy Cunneen, "Boy A" (Channel 4/Cuba Pictures)
Carl Davis, "Cranford" (BBC One/BBC Drama Productions/WGBH Boston in association with Chestermead Ltd)
Adrian Johnston, "Capturing Mary" (BBC Two/A Talkback Thames Production for BBC Films and HBO)
Murray Gold, "Doctor Who" (BBC One/BBC Wales)
Steve says, "The one we didn't do was Murray Gold, but don't worry, I've already had words with him! We did John Adams too."
"And if anybody ever gives me any trouble I'll frighten them back into subservience with Nigel...”--Steve Parr
"I have a total of four UAD cards distributed around my various Macs, because I have now become so reliant on the plug-ins that it's hard for me to imagine anymore mixing without them. And almost invariably, about three days later after I've finished a mix the client phones up and asks 'by the way, what were those plug-ins you were using; where can I get them from?' And so they get a UAD card and then they can mix at home. Damn!"
"With orchestral soundtracks, I frequently run an instrument through a Pultec without even any EQ just to warm it a bit; or I'll EQ the piano with the Neve 1073 to give it some focus and then compress it a little with the 1176. Quite often I'll use the Cambridge to very precisely find the frequencies that will let a guitar or mandolin sit unobtrusively but securely in the mix. And vocals just gravitate seemingly of their own accord to the LA-3A, where they seem to bathe luxuriantly in their own audio nirvana! And if anybody ever gives me any trouble I'll frighten them back into subservience with Nigel."
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| Mark Hawley behind the scenes on the Tori Amos tour. |
LA-2A Rocks the FOH on Tori Amos Tour
Tucked away down a dirt road and a stone’s throw from the coast of North Cornwall lies Martian Engineering, a former barn converted into a modern recording complex. The facility is attached to the remote Cornish farmhouse that recording engineer Mark Hawley and his wife of ten years, Tori Amos, call home--when they're not at their Palm Beach residence or on Tori's latest world tour that is.
Shortly before starting work on last year's Tori Amos album American Doll Posse, a friend recommended that Mark try out Universal Audio's classic LA-2A compressor on her vocal. "I had been using various 'quality' compressors on Tori's voice over the past 12 years with varying degrees of satisfaction," says Mark. "I got hold of a unit and gave it a try, and immediately liked what it was doing. As a result, I bought one for the studio and used it throughout the recording process, where it made a significant contribution to the vocal sound on the record."
Hawley is also Amos' front-of-house engineer when the American singer/songwriter heads out on the road. As the recording of the album neared completion, Mark decided he'd like to add the LA-2A sound to his audio arsenal for the live shows. "I called up SSE--our regular sound company--and asked them to supply a pair of LA-2As for me to use with my front-of-house setup: one for each of Tori's vocal mics," says Hawley.
When specifying touring compressors, a Universal Audio LA-2A may not be the first unit that springs to mind. To ensure they could handle the rigors of international touring, SSE rackmounted the units with custom rear supports in their own custom shockmounted racks. "Eight months and 150 shows later, the LA-2As have been around the world and back, performing faultlessly without a hitch," says Hawley.
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Lawmaker Wants to Tax Online Music Sales
A Los Angeles-area lawmaker trying to help raise money to eliminate California's $8 billion budget shortfall thinks consumers should pay sales tax when buying from online music stores. Some avid iTunes users, not to mention other state legislators and tax regulators, disagree.
siliconvalley.com
Music Labels Win Ruling on Kazaa "Shared Folders"
Major labels recently prevailed in a New York federal District Court on a controversial legal question over unauthorized sharing of music files. In denying a motion to dismiss the labels' complaint, the court provided specific language for the labels to use when suing a file-sharer for simply making an unauthorized music file available in a Kazaa "shared folder."
Billboard
U.K. ISP Leader Criticizes Music Industry
The trade body for UK music, the BPI, asked internet service providers to disconnect people who ignore requests to stop sharing music. But Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse, which runs the TalkTalk broadband service, is refusing.
BBC
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