People & Music Industry

McDSP founder Colin McDowell chats to Sam Inglis about his career at the cutting edge of plug-in development. Colin explains his approach to plug-in design, and talks about the revolutionary Analog Processing Box — a plug-in co-processor that employs configurable analogue circuitry rather than DSP.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:17 - Getting Started Creating Audio Products
01:08 - The Necessary Training
02:01 - Algorithm Development
05:40 - The User Interface
07:26 - Vintage Emulation
09:30 - 20 Years Of Plug-in Development
11:32 - How Useful Is Machine Learning?
14:10  The APB (Analog Processing Box)
17:07 - Analogue Electronics
18:31 - Component Tolerances
20:28 - Emulating Tubes
21:51 - Combining Signals
23:04 - The Capabilities Of APB
24:58 - Extending The Capabilities Of APB
25:46 - APB For Atmos
26:30 - APB For Mastering
28:11 - Other Analogue Effects
31:02 - Using The APB For Saturation
32:02 - Future Developments At McDSP

McDSP Biog
McDSP is an innovative Emmy award-winning Silicon Valley audio software and hardware company founded in 1998 by Colin McDowell.

McDSP technology can be found in pro audio plug-ins for popular digital audio workstations including Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, and Avid live sound systems. McDSP audio algorithms are also used by companies such as Audiokinetic, Bioware and Microsoft, and in consumer products like the LouderLogic iOS audio player.

In 2019 McDSP introduced the world's first programmable analogue processor, the APB-16. The McDSP Analog Processing Box (APB) combines the flexibility of software plug-in control with the fidelity of premium analogue processing. Options include compressors, mastering limiters, transient enhancement devices, multi-channel and multi-band applications.

https://www.mcdsp.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Aki Mäkivirta, R&D Director at Genelec, talks to Sam Inglis about the latest developments in immersive audio, from calibrating your system using their GLM software to personalising your headphone monitoring experience with Aural ID technology.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:34 - Immersive Audio
02:07 - Loudspeaker Density
05:44 - Automating Calibration With GLM
08:10 - Choosing Your Speaker System
11:27 - Mixing Immersive Music
13:29 - Aural ID For Audio Professionals
18:45 - Mixing For Different Surround Formats
20:57 - Improving How Audio Is Received
22:19 - The Future Of Immersive Audio

Genelec Biog
For over 40 years, Genelec studio monitoring solutions have delivered truthful, neutral sound reproduction — enabling engineers and creatives to make accurate and reliable mix decisions, even in challenging rooms.

Founded in Finland by childhood friends Ilpo Martikainen and Topi Partanen, the company’s first monitor, the S30, instantly became the blueprint for Genelec’s future direction. Its active design delivered consistent performance, total reliability, and the ability to adapt to the acoustic environment it was operating in.

Genelec’s growing range of Smart Active Monitors work closely with GLM calibration software, allowing each monitor to be completely optimised for the room, producing mixes that translate consistently to the outside world - from stereo to immersive.

For headphone users, Genelec’s latest Aural ID software development delivers a more truthful, reliable and completely personalised listening experience, allowing the user to switch between monitors and headphones seamlessly.

Aki Mäkivirta Biog
Aki Mäkivirta joined Genelec in 1995. He originally worked for the Nokia Research Centre and teamed up with Ari Varla of Genelec during a joint venture between the two companies, where Mäkivirta demonstrated how to replace analogue filters with digital processing using the 1031A nearfield monitor. As a result, Mäkivirta joined Genelec to pioneer the creation of the original 8200 series of Smart Active Monitors, before becoming R&D Director in 2013.

https://www.genelec.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

LEWITT Audio Founder Roman Perschon (CEO) and Moritz Lochner (COO / Head of Product Management) chat to Hugh Robjohns about their approach to developing, innovating and engineering their range of home, studio and live microphones.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - Lewitt Audio Beginnings
04:42 - Creating Unique Products
08:19 - Engineering Focussed
09:34 - Circuit Control | Remote Control
11:37 - The LCT 1040 Microphone
13:35 - Working With External Engineers
14:25 - Expanding Into Other Areas
15:29 - The Electronics
16:28 - Industry Areas Needing Improvement
18:59 - Recording Environment Acoustics
19:56 - Company Expansion
23:29 - An International Team
27:12 - Development and Innovation
31:15 - The 10 Year Warranty

Lewitt Audio Biog
Designed and engineered in Vienna, Austria, LEWITT microphones set new standards in sound capture as a modern, innovative alternative to traditional technologies. Founded in January 2010 by entrepreneurial audio pioneer Roman Perschon, LEWITT is a dedicated and diverse team of audio experts with a passion for quality and in-house engineering capabilities to focus entirely on customers' needs. Today, LEWITT is considered one of the fastest-growing microphone brands with a diverse team of over 100 employees with offices in Europe, China, and the US. Each microphone model results from a consultative process including many of the world's most respected producers, sound engineers, and musicians – the growing worldwide community of audio enthusiasts who trust the sensational sound of LEWITT.

Roman Perschon, the CEO of LEWITT, studied Electronics and has been in the audio industry for 20 years. Twelve years ago, he founded LEWITT to push microphone design forward. Today, the brand is primarily oriented towards the user's needs. 

Moritz Lochner, COO and Head of Product Management at LEWITT, studied Audio Engineering and gained experience in the studio, live, and broadcast. He joined LEWITT in 2015 and quickly evolved to a leading personality within the company.

https://www.lewitt-audio.com/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

CEDAR Audio has led the world in audio restoration and noise suppression for over three decades. Hugh Robjohns talks to their Managing Director, Gordon Reid about their technologies.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:19 - CEDAR Audio Beginnings
01:45 - The National Sound Archive
06:15 - Cleaning Up Old Recordings
08:12 - Working In Real-Time
10:36 - Developing Rackmount Units
11:52 - Making User-Friendly Products
14:27 - Building A Team Of Developers
17:06 - Introducing Machine Learning and AI
21:25 - The Move Into Post Production
25:34 - The Invention Of Spectral Editing And Retouch
29:26 - Algorithmic Technology
36:10 - Involvement In Forensics
39:02 - Blind Source Separation And AudioTelligence
44:04 - Future Opportunities

CEDAR Audio Biog

CEDAR Audio is committed to furthering the science and art of noise suppression, audio restoration and speech enhancement in all of their forms, and actively pursues research into each of them. The company pioneered real-time audio restoration, spectral editing, zero-latency dialogue noise suppression, and many other processes that are now industry standards. It has worked closely with the world’s most famous studios, record companies and bands to ensure that they obtain the highest audio quality, not just from vintage material but also from audio recorded today that suffers from some sort of noise problem. If you enjoy a trip to the cinema, you're almost certainly listening to sound that has been perfected using CEDAR and, from the newsrooms of major broadcasters to reality TV, to studio-based shows, to sporting events such as the Olympics, the World Cup and Premier League football, CEDAR is the standard for noise suppression. The company is also proud to include many of the world's archives and libraries as well as law enforcement agencies and security organisations as customers and friends.
https://www.cedar-audio.com/

Gordon Reid Biog

Gordon Reid is the Managing Director of CEDAR Audio and has helped guide the company to an Emmy®, an Academy Award®, two Cinema Audio Society Awards and numerous other accolades. He is widely known in the fields of audio restoration, noise suppression for post and broadcast, audio forensics and speech enhancement, and he co-founded AudioTelligence, which develops technologies for applications ranging from hearing assistance to advanced surveillance systems.

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Back in 1996 Hugues Vinet of the IRCAM electronic music institute in Paris, was interviewed by Paul Tingen for an article in Sound On Sound magazine. Now the two are back together discussing the musical and technical innovations of the past 25 years.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:43 - Hugues Vinet and IRCAM
02:38 - How IRCAM Has Changed
06:02 - Partners and Community
09:03 - Music Styles and Technology
10:56 - Working With Ableton
12:56 - Musical Developments
18:49 - Sound Design
23:05 - Defining Sounds
26:04 - Using Different Tools
28:07 - AI Development

Hugues Vinet Biog
Hugues Vinet is Director of Innovation and Research Means at IRCAM, a world-leading institution associated with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which is dedicated to music production and research. He has managed all research, development and innovation activities at IRCAM since 1994. He co-founded and ran for several terms the STMS (Science and Technology of Music and Sound) joint lab with the French Ministry of Culture, CNRS and Sorbonne Université.

Hugues previously worked at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales of National Institute of Audiovisual in Paris, where he managed the research and designed the first versions of the award-winning real-time audio processing product, GRM Tools. He has coordinated many collaborative R&D projects, including recently H2020 VERTIGO in charge of the STARTS Residencies program managing 45 residencies of artists with technological research projects throughout Europe. Hugues is currently in charge of the artistic residencies program of the MediaFutures project. He also curates the Vertigo Forum art-science yearly symposium at Centre Pompidou, and participates in various experts bodies in the fields of audio, music, multimedia, information technology and innovation.

Main Ircam site - https://www.ircam.fr
Ircam Lab Software - https://www.ircamlab.com
Free Ircam Technologies - https://forum.ircam.fr/collections/detail/technologies-ircam-free

Music Credits:
Répons by Pierre Boulez
L'esprit des dunes by Tristan Murail
Côte des Bars - by sound designer Roque Rivas for Krug Champagne

Paul Tingen Biog
Paul Tingen has been a contributor to Sound On Sound since 1990. In addition to his regular artist and producer interviews, he began writing the Inside Track: Secrets of the Mix Engineers series in January 2008.

He is also the author of a book, Miles Beyond: the Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991 (Billboard Books), a producer, and a guitarist with one album to his name.

Paul maintains two web sites: www.tingen.org and www.miles-beyond.com, and an Instagram page: @paultingenmusic

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

David Gould, Director of Audio Content Solutions at Dolby Labs, chats to Hugh Robjohns about creating content in Dolby Atmos. Although used extensively in film, Dolby Atmos is now becoming a popular format for musicians. David and Hugh discuss how you can incorporate this technology in your own studio.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:01 - Working With Headphones
07:45 - Beds and Objects
12:26 - Storing The Data
15:39 - Practical Applications
20:15 - Musicians Using Atmos
23:42 - Musical recommendations

David Gould Biog
Director, Audio Content Solutions

In his role at Dolby, David is responsible for creating products and solutions that will enable and inspire the music and audio post production community to create content in the Dolby Atmos format.

Prior to joining Dolby in early 2012, David was a Senior Product Manager at Avid Technology, where he was responsible for Pro Tools software.  David started his career in London as a recording engineer at Abbey Road Studios, specialising in orchestral film scoring; he joined Avid in 2005 where he held various positions in technical sales before moving into product management.

Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos goes beyond the capabilities of stereo and surround sound, unlocking a richer, fuller, and more immersive experience. Artists can now place individual elements of a song, revealing details with unparalleled clarity and depth.

https://professional.dolby.com/music/create-music-in-dolby-atmos/
Production Suite 90-day free Trial download: https://developer.dolby.com/forms/dolby-atmos-production-suite-trial/
Getting Started - Pro Tools: https://professionalsupport.dolby.com/s/article/Dolby-Atmos-Music-Getting-Started-with-Pro-Tool-Ultimate
Getting Started - Ableton: https://professionalsupport.dolby.com/s/article/Dolby-Atmos-Music-Getting-Started-with-Ableton-Live
Getting Started - Logic: https://professionalsupport.dolby.com/s/article/Dolby-Atmos-Music-Getting-Started-with-Logic-Pro
Tutorial video series: https://www.dolby.com/institute/tutorials/

Hugh Robjohns Biog
Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

It's 10 years since Focusrite launched their best-selling Scarlett range of audio interfaces, now into its third generation. CEO Tim Carroll and Will Hoult, Head Of Product at Focusrite and Novation talk to Sam Inglis about what's behind the success of the Scarletts, the principles of interface design, how the company has negotiated the pandemic and the silicon shortage, and Focusrite's vision for a greener future in this Behind The Brand interview.

Chapters
Tim Carroll
00:00 - Introduction
00:31 - From Musician To Manager
04:43 - Changes In The Market
07:20 - The Scarlett Range
10:20 - Removing Barriers To Creativity
11:29 - More Home Studios
15:03 - The Chip Shortage
18:10 - Why There's Not A Focusrite DAW
23:32 - The Family Of Brands
27:24 - Sustainability In The Audio Industry
Will Hoult
29:43 - Role At Focusrite
30:40 - The Intimidation Factor
32:58 - Driver Performance And Latency
36:56 - Simplicity And Product Longevity
39:47 - USB As The Dominant Protocol
43:09 - The Challenges Of Designing Mic Preamps
46:39 - Determining The Number Of Inputs
50:19 - Rackmount Vs Desktop
52:24 - The Benefits Of Upgrading Your Interface

Focusrite Biog
Focusrite is an award-winning recording and production equipment brand established in 1985. The initial focus was on high quality recording and production equipment for industry professionals, but in 1989 they began to broaden the range of products to serve a wider customer base of professional, commercial and hobbyist musicians.

Novation Electronic Music Systems Limited was acquired in 2004 and extended the Focusrite range and customer base into the electronic dance music segment of the market. Since then Focusrite has continued to innovate, with the introduction of Launchpad in 2009 and the Scarlett USB Audio Interface range in 2010, one of the top selling product lines for home studio recording. In 2019, Focusrite acquired ADAM Audio and Martin Audio, adding professional studio monitoring and touring speaker systems to the range.

Optimal Audio was launched in 2021, an initiative from Martin Audio which aims to make the world of commercial audio installation less complex. Optimal Audio manufacture high-quality loudspeakers, amplifiers and controllers for commercial audio applications. Focusrite also acquired Sequential, the respected American synthesizer manufacturer led by legendary electronic instrument designer and Grammy winner Dave Smith. The acquisition brings the total number of Focusrite Group brands to eight.

https://focusrite.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Daniel Blackmer, CTO at Earthworks Audio, chats to Sam Inglis about the company's distinctive approach to microphone design — and explains how a quest to improve loudspeaker quality convinced Daniel's father, David Blackmer, of the need for mics with better phase linearity and impulse response.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:19 - David Blackmer
02:24 - The Prototypes
03:31 - Phase Response
06:14 - Live Vs Studio Sound
08:23 - Miniature Capsules
10:26 - Back-Electret Mics
12:13 - Benefit Of High Polarisation Voltage
12:36 - The Electronics
14:54 - Adapting The Tech For Different Uses
17:18 - Manufacture In The USA
19:22 - Innovation And Development
22:15 - The Ethos
23:37 - Aesthetics
24:47 - The Rest Of The Recording Chain

Earthworks Audio Biog
Earthworks Audio was originally founded to design and manufacture audiophile loudspeakers by David Blackmer who had previously invented the DBX noise reduction system and was the founder of dbx.

David Blackmer’s goal when starting Earthworks was to make the best sounding speakers on the planet. When the journey began, he used measurement tools that were accepted to be the world standard. After the first few steps he realised that the measurements he was getting were not as good as he believed they could be. He analyzed these tools carefully and realised that new standards would be necessary if he were to even come close to achieving the results he knew were possible.

The first tool he designed to this new standard was an omnidirectional microphone. This led to the manufacture the OM1. David now thought that he could get back to designing his “dream” loudspeaker. His colleagues, however, persuaded him to design other microphones and preamplifiers. These products would soon set a new world standard for realism in the art of recording music. While the years passed and these new microphones and preamplifiers were being manufactured, David constantly worked on his goal of designing the best sounding loudspeaker for true audiophiles. He died in 2002 leaving the company in the hands of his family.

While they no longer make the loudspeakers, the principles that David first envisioned when the journey began can still be seen in their microphones. Precision engineered and hand assembled, Earthworks microphones represent the pinnacle of technology and art in microphone design. Each microphone is hand-tuned and tested to ensure the purest and most realistic capture of your sound, be it live on stage, recording in the studio or out in the field.

https://earthworksaudio.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In this Behind The Brand interview, René Mørch of DPA Microphones chats to Sam Inglis about DPA's involvement in the NASA Mars 2020 mission and the challenges involved in capturing audio on another planet for the first time.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:15 - Working With NASA
02:20 - The Mars 2020 Mission
05:20 - Preparing Equipment For Space Travel
07:53 - The Seven Minutes Of Terror
11:45 - The Surface Of Mars
17:08 - Atmospheric Pressure
19:33 - Building Robust Microphones

DPA Microphones Biog
DPA Microphones draw on more than six decades of world-class microphone design experience, starting back in the 1950s, when their predecessor, Brüel & Kjær, developed the first, precisely accurate measurement microphones. In 1992, Ole Brøsted Sørensen & Morten Støve left Brüel & Kjær and developed their first product, the 4006 Omnidirectional Microphone.

DPA mics became popular across a number of sectors, including the theatre market, who needed a solution that, while still capturing clear sound, was flexible and easily concealable. DPA also collaborated with the Danish hearing aid manufacturer Muphone, who were looking to create better sound in smaller units. DPA minimised the capsule size into a miniature package that was so clear sounding and yet unobtrusive, it could support creative expression on the stage and work began on creating headset versions of the miniature mics. After years of shared success, DPA and Muphone merged in 2005.

Since 2015, DPA has intensified its focus on new product development and has increased its investment into research, creating concealable miniatures, flexible headsets and top-of-the line vocal microphones. CORE by DPA was introduced in 2017 in the miniature lavalier and headset capsules. This preamplifier technology minimises distortion and expands dynamic range.

Each microphone is assembled by hand at DPA's factory in Denmark. During the process, which can take up to 200 steps, each one is calibrated up to 15 times before final approval.

https://www.dpamicrophones.com/
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

In the 20 years since its introduction, AMS Neve’s 88R has proved that there is still a market for top-flight, large-format analogue consoles. In this episode, Robin Porter tells Sam Inglis how Neve built upon their design heritage to create what might be the ultimate analogue mixer and how they’ve adapted its state-of-the-art technology to bring to market a range of desirable project-studio equipment.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:19 - Robin Porter Background
02:50 - Working With Rupert Neve
06:19 - The 88R Console Design
09:04 - How The 88R Differed From Other Consoles
14:46 - Voltage Mixing vs Current Mixing
20:18 - Improving Dynamic Range
23:24 - Benefits Of Analogue Over Digital
25:01 - The Role Of The 88R In Immersive Mixing
28:00 - Other AMS Neve Products Using 88R Tech 
32:00 - Expandable Products
33:00 - UK Manufacture
35:24 - The Next Generation Of Engineers

AMS Neve Biog
Engineering led and dedicated to advancing the art and science of recording, AMS Neve is a privately owned, British manufacturer that focuses on providing the best possible audio tools for creative professionals, in both the analogue and digital domains.

Historically, AMS Neve is the fusion of two distinct companies – Neve, which was founded in 1961 by British electronics design engineer Rupert Neve, and AMS, which was founded in 1976 by electronics engineer Mark Crabtree. After undergoing various ownership and management changes, it became wholly owned by Double Oscar® winner Mark, who has run the combined company since 1992.

With a reputation for innovation, attention to detail and for creating the world’s finest sounding, longest-lasting analogue and digital consoles, AMS Neve stands at the pinnacle of professional audio design and engineering. Its products consistently top the desirability list among discerning artists, producers and facility owners and for more than 50 years it has driven significant technological advancements in the audio field.

https://www.ams-neve.com/

Robin Porter Biog
Robin Porter was 18 when he joined Neve in 1973 and, apart from a brief sabbatical to study engineering and acoustics at university, he has been with the company ever since. During his career he has held a number of different positions – from working in the Test department to engineering in the custom engineering department and eventually moving into Analogue R&D.

He has been instrumental in the design of many of Neve’s most iconic products including the 88 Series of consoles, the Genesys and Genesys Black consoles and the recently released 8424 summing mixer. The projects he is most proud of include designing the Aux module for Sir George Martin’s Air Monserrat console, on which he was also Test engineer, and the design of the 88R console and SP2 scoring system, which is used on 80% of all film music recorded today.

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts