25/08/2009 [Music Production]
One might expect the corridors and classrooms of a university to be some what scarce during the months of July and August whilst the students of this land enjoy a well earned break of Ibiza holidays, fruit picking, and general relaxation. But this was not the case when we visited Derby University to check out their recently completed ‘Studio 2’ – MSP7STUDIO equipped surround sound production suite, as workmen, technicians and summer students all contributed to the buzzing environment that greeted us on arrival.
Musician, engineer, producer and now Senior Lecturer of Music Production and Music Business at the University, John Crossley has spent a long time working in the industry and knows his stuff. When it came to talking about studio’s, monitoring, and music technology in general John is always happy to oblige.
Tell us a bit about yourself & how you came to be in your position at Derby University today?
Hmm, where do I start! Like most people in this industry I started 'in bands' and was fortunate enough to be able to start a small professional studio (8 track analogue!) This developed until it was 48 track digital with all the bells and whistles! I got involved in production and remixing working with a whole range of people from local bands to David Bowie! Back many years ago I was asked to put a course together to teach Arts students how to use a studio and my interest in Music tech education grew from that. I started up a Music tech HND in Nottingham and then was 'Poached' by the university here in Derby. I really enjoy working with enthusiastic and talented young people. The only difficulty is managing to fit in the production and writing work that still makes up an important part of my life.
What do you consider to be the high and low points of your career?
There have been many great points: Working with Bernard Sumner from New Order, Being flown out to New York to produce a Carlene Anderson Album, Meeting Diane Warren (famous songwriter) during a session in Paris, and she complimenting my guitar playing!
I suppose one low point that sticks in my memory is spending four weeks over one christmas wiring up an entire studio, three of us did continuous rotating 8 hour shifts to get it done in time - and for some reason we only had three albums on continuous repeat!
You have used the classic NS10's throughout your professional career - how do you find the MSP7STUDIO in comparison?
“Oh yes, I have been using the NS10’s for many many years now.” laughs John
The NS10’s are so peculiar … in a nice sense, that actually I think it would be a difficult comparison to make. I’m glad to say that the MSP’s don’t really sound like the NS10’s and if they did that would be a problem in a way – the thing about NS10 that certainly everybody in the studio world knows is that they are not flattering speakers in any sense, nor are they particularly true speakers and yet they just happen to be perfectly brilliant in one particular way which is - NS10’s just have the ability to help you focus on the mid range which is where your vocals, important bits of guitar and snare drums all hang out. Its like you're building a model and then pulling in a big magnifying glass because you want to see the detail – it’s a bit like that with the NS10.
The MSP7’s are much more like a proper flat, true monitor speaker.
I don’t think anybody could seriously ever say these are the new NS10’s…..but they are a very impressive speaker!
With so many studio monitors available on the market today, what was your main reason for choosing MSP7STUDIO?
Firstly let me say that choosing and setting up monitoring is critical. If you think about it; any and every judgment you take, whether it be the type of reverb or the amount of boost at 2.5kHz is done using your monitors to evaluate that judgment. If you can't have faith in your speakers you can't really have faith in your recordings or mixes.
At the University we have several studios set-up for surround sound.... and even a room for ambisonics! Essentially each one of these rooms has a different speaker type and configuration since we do not necessarily believe it is a good thing to have an identical speaker system in every room. If someone did ever make the perfect speaker then that would be the only speaker you’d ever need….However the reality is that all the different systems have their own advantages as well as their own compromises. Different engineers and producers do find their own preferences although at the end of the day a good, experienced producer or engineer should be able to work with any decent monitors. I would also add that a little time and effort spent improving your listening environment can make a significant improvement to any monitors.
The students that come here need to be able to experience 1st hand the differences with working on various models of studio monitors.
Studio 2 however is our main 5.1 surround sound studio though and this is where the Yamaha MSP7STUDIO’s reside. The decision to use these particular monitors in here was not a quick one but having researched the market thoroughly they ticked all the boxes.
What I would say is that these speakers have a good, reasonably flat sound. They generate a good amount of power in this situation which is ideal as we’re not having to drive them to hard and they seem to be very good for mixing on.
How are you using the MSP7STUDIO on a day-to-day basis?
Studio 2 is used for all types of projects from stereo recording and mixing, sound to picture, 5.1 listening and of course 5.1 mixing and production. During term time students have access to an online booking system so they can take advantage of these studios and brush up on their techniques in their own time. Then there are many lectures and assignments set for our students that are focused around the studio and encourage them to get their hands dirty!
Can you talk about some typical examples of surround sound projects you have asked your students to work on ... what are you trying to achieve as the end goal?
Well, there are many examples but for instance we may provide some pre-recorded tracks to our students and ask them to produce a stereo mix, an album mix and finally a 5.1 surround mix. It is also important that the students spend time listening to commercially available 5.1 material - of which we are building an impressive library - in order to appreciate how others are working with surround sound. For example if we take this Talking Heads track.......the effects are quite subtle but taking the rear speakers in and out will have quite an impact to the dimension of the mix. Another extreme example would be the Mike Oldfield sessions we have. On the Oxygen track you'll notice that the surround imagery is very apparent - almost like a sonic rollercoaster as your never quite sure where you are ...... its good though, I like rollercoasters!!
Can you give any examples of projects where students have taken it upon themselves and produced outstanding results?
Of course there are many examples but one project which springs to mind is the ‘Mindfields’ multimedia project from Stuart Davies, a BSc Multimedia Technology and Music Production graduate.
If you recall the game ‘minesweep’ and then imagine that brought to the three-dimensional world….where you as the player are at the heart of the action!
Its an interactive multi-media game which mixes hi-tech music, video and sound production with computer game and even security industry technology. It explores new methods of controlling interactive physical game environments using cutting edge open source software. The project caused quite a stir around the campus last year with sessions being opened up for the general public to come along and get involved.
Click here to find out more about the Mindfields project.
Where do you your graduating students end up working ..... any specific success stories?
Derby University has some great success stories. We work closely with many people throughout the industry and encourage our students very early on to start networking for themselves.
It is important to have the technical knowledge you can gain from a course at the University, and in order to succeed in the real world it is also important to back this up with practical experience.
For example our Sound, Light and Live Event Technology course encourages our students to get out there and work in real life situations - this could be in designing a sound system for a theme park, mixing for a band at Glastonbury or recording a church organ performance in town. The main thing is the students are getting out there and doing it.
We have graduates working in all areas of the industry; Production, Software and Hardware design, engineers, acoustic technicians, performers and a couple have even stayed with us at the University and now lecture themselves. One of our students is currently working out in New York at Motown records, so really if you aim high, work hard and are committed the sky's the limit.
If you could offer any advise to an aspiring producer or music tech enthusiast about studio monitoring....what would it be?
Buy the best speakers you can afford. In general your set up will only ever be as good as the weakest link ..... so this statement is true for all components in your studio. However the monitors are so critical to achieving a good sound. If your monitors are constantly lying to you how can you ever know what you are listening back to is true.
Also think about how you position them in your studio (or spare bedroom). If you have a small box room that you mix out of there is no point having a massive pair of monitors set to high volume. A more adequately sized pair of monitors positioned close in to your listening position will give you a much better result without introducing too much of the nasty room sound. There is loads of information about monitor positioning on the web so my advice is simply to read up and try out different techniques to see what works. Listening is of course the true answer in this situation.
John, thank you for talking to us about your reason behind using MSP7STUDIO in your Music Tech facility.
