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"You have used various systems over the years and decided
on Cubase. What were the major reasons behind this?"
"The first sequencer I used was back in 1997 when I was
doing my masters degree up at York University. When I started
working for Coldcut / Ninja Tune two years later, I used a different
sequencer then switched to yet another."
"One of them I liked and I found it quick to use but there
was always a point somewhere into a session, where no matter how
large I'd made my initial template I'd end up running out of tracks
and have to wire more of them up! It absolutely killed the workflow
especially as it usually happened when I was on a roll. Also at
some point, I'd always find myself rendering some or all of it
out as stems and importing them another programme because this
one wouldn't let you to zoom in and edit at the sample level."
"I'd had my eye on Cubase SX for quite some time before
we moved over. I'd enviously read about it being a complete re-write,
leaving behind the legacy code and design decisions from the MIDI-only
days that all the major sequencers were carrying."
"In 2003 we then made the decision to stay with the PC and
move over to Cubase SX2 because of the dramatic workflow improvements
I could see it was going to offer us.
For the first time we could start and complete whole projects
entirely within the one piece of software."
Matt Black and Jon More - Coldcut
(Click image to enlarge...)
"Tell us about some of the projects you have been using
Cubase 4 on..."
"In December, I produced the sound and music for 'Coldcut's
Christmas Message', a short piece for the Culture Show on BBC
2 in which George bush performs 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas'
whilst we watch a montage of video clips of environmental disasters
and global warming! It was my job to produce a Bing Crosby-esque
version of the music (but more cheesy!), put sound effects on
the video montage and mix it all together with Bush's vocal. I
did the whole thing from start to finish in Cubase 4. It was really
great to be able to manage such a large project in one self contained
session. Because of this, I was able to quickly keep up with all
the alterations made necessary by the evolving nature of the project."
"78 audio tracks of sound effects (for the 28 different
video clips). 20 MIDI tracks playing 3 Kontakts, 2 Halions and
an Absynth."
'"47 audio tracks of Bush (partly because different speeches
needed EQ'ing differently), and a video track. A total of 208
tracks including groups, FX channels and folder tracks."
"These days I'm using Cubase for all my production jobs,
small and large, and with the help of a template session I can
really fly through some jobs. For example I produce a 1 hour podcast
(Solid Steel, available on iTunes and from the Ninjatune website!)
and can have it on a CD in less than an hour. I have a track setup
for recording the voiceover, with EQ, compression and a reverb
send ready and waiting. The track below has the intro theme with
the volume automation already ducked. I just record the voiceover,
slip in the fresh mix, edit it down, beef it all up a bit and
we're done!"
"I have another template for mastering albums. It has an
extra output 'Processing' bus with a collection of my favourite
plugins for mastering. Then I have 15 tracks (enough for most
albums), each with a send (set at 0db) to the Processing bus.
With the Main outputs muted, I can start working on a track via
the Processing bus, then solo the Main outputs to compare, pulling
the volume down on the Processing bus until they sound the same
loudness. That way I can really listen to what I'm doing both
tonally and to the dynamics. When I've finished, I copy and paste
the processing channel to the track channel and move on to the
next track."
"Similarly whether its for mixing, programming drums, audio
restoration, re-working or editing tracks for radio / licensing,
or replaying samples, everything I need is right there at hand
(my synths, samplers and plugins) and I don't have to worry about
running out of tracks or plugin latencies or matching bit depths,
I can just get on with the job at hand."
Coldcut's Christmas Message project sounds interesting. Which
of the Cubase 4 features did you find most useful with that?
"Well some of the new features really made this possible.
One that readily springs to mind is the silence detection feature
of the new VST engine. I was using masses of plugins but many
of them (especially those on the sound effects and on Bush) were
only used in one specific part of the project and then nowhere
else. I think that if they had all been active all the way through
the project it would simply have collapsed under the strain!"
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Jamie Hogg in his Studio with Cubase 4
(Click image to enlarge...)
"Then of course there's the SoundFrame media bay. This is
ideal for dubbing sound effects. I'd go through listening to see
what samples I had, then I could attach keywords as metadata which
made it easy to access the right sounds when it came to layering
up the backgrounds. And of course as I build up more in the future,
sound effect dubbing will continue to be a quick and easy process.
Once the project was over, I spent a little while saving the instruments
(and the plugins I used with them) as presets too and I'm looking
forward to all the time this is going to save me in the future."
"You also do recording sessions. I bet the control room
section is a dream comes true for you!"
"Yes indeed. I've actually recently sold Coldcut's mixing
desk and moved their studio 'in the box'. I'm very much of the
opinion that this is the best way forward for a production studio
like theirs. You need good monitors, a good listening environment,
a few good preamps, a control surface if you like and a quiet,
powerful computer. They wanted of course to keep their favourite
sounding outboard FX units and synths (easily done via the VST
Connections window), but this way everything's simple, to hand,
totally recallable, and you get a nice short signal path to the
monitors."
"Cubase makes this possible by moving the control section
of the mixer into its software. I've been using this on some recording
sessions recently for The Cinematic Orchestra (recording Phil
France on double bass), Coldcut (Pase Rock, vocals), DJ Kentaro
(New Flesh vocal duo) amongst others. My needs are fairly basic
compared to what the control room can offer (I just need to patch
up a headphone monitor mix for the performers), but it's very
simple to use and good to know that if I need more, this will
effortlessly provide for me."
"Cubase seems to be a favourite amongst the Ninja Tune
artists too, so compatibility is not an issue for you then?"
"That's right. Nor are there any problems moving sessions
between Macs and the Windows based studio PC. I don't even have
to think about it. Which is nice!"
"You also have a mobile setup, what does that all consist
of and do you record / mix with it?"
"I have a Macbook. The 'low end' one, but its quite new
so it has a Core2 Duo CPU.
I use it to do editing, setup rough mixes and rough out ideas
when I'm out and about, or at someone else's studio. I just use
the internal sound card which is fine for rough stuff. I like
to keep things compact. The only outboard equipment I take with
me is a Mighty Mouse and a pair of headphones! I don't tend to
use it for recording sessions (though I occasionally sing into
its built in mic!). When I'm recording in the studio I use the
desktop PC / interface setup that's already there, plugged up."
Sound Mirrors - Coldcut
(Click image to enlarge...)
"What's coming up?"
"Well, since November I've been working freelance. At the
moment I'm recording and mixing a band called Minima.
They have a really interesting project performing music they've
written to a silent film from the 1920's called The Seashell and
the Clergyman. They're well worth checking out."
"I'm continuing to provide Ninja Tune with production work
and I also have more recording sessions and live recording work
around the corner."
"Thanks for the interview."
"Always a pleasure!"
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