Banff Centre Work Studies celebrate surround sound success

By David Gleeson
Producer, Xani Kolac ‘Slowly’
Former Senior Recording Engineer, The Banff Centre

Take a cold winter, borrow one of the many inspired musicians from The Banff Centre’s Music & Sound program, add a couple of Audio Work Studies, and combine generously with the talents of a Film & Media Work Study. Mix in a measure or two of the finest faculty, allow a term to develop, and the end result will be a project of outstanding merit. At least that was the recipe for Xani Kolac’s recording of ‘Slowly.’

Of course, it helps if you’re driven by a need for something of this nature, and the Audio department at The Banff Centre not only needs projects like this, but thrives upon its production.

At the start of each term, asking Audio Work Studies what they’d like to achieve elicits as many different responses as there are Work Studies. Given they’re such a cosmopolitan bunch, it’s not difficult to imagine how varied and audacious the answers can be. Yet, there is one unifying response: surround sound. They all want to record, produce, and mix music beyond the limits of two loudspeakers — which highlights the necessity for good working material.

But there is a problem. As much as up-and-coming producers, engineers, and composers are eager to explore surround, opportunities for production remain few and far between. Classical music has its surround devotees, and although they may be an elite group with high disposable incomes and even higher expectations of finished product, a typical budget affords precious little surround recording. To an even greater extent, budget constraints tend to limit popular music to no more than two channels. And, despite the fact that broadcast technology is in place for transmitting and receiving surround, television producers (known more for their expedience than for being innovators or paragons of quality) have remained steadfast in adherence to mono or stereo at best.

The one area to have championed surround is film — in both music and sound design. As its name suggests, surround delivers a fully immersive theatrical experience, allowing directors to captivate their audience beyond the two dimensions of a silver screen. Unfortunately, cinema audiences, like CD sales, have seen steep declines in recent years. At the same time, production costs have soared (film scoring is an extremely expensive proposition requiring massive budgets and production teams).

However, as cinema audiences have declined, other means of content delivery have gradually been coming to the fore. Two notable examples are iTunes Movies and Netflix — both capable of delivering 5.1 audio via internet streaming into home theatres across the world.

The Banff Centre already has a well-established presence on iTunesU, YouTube, and its own website, but given these new, flourishing outlets for creativity, it made good sense to produce audio to demonstrate the prowess of our team.

This need was very much in mind when Xani, a self-titled electric violinist of Australian provenance, showed up and performed in the Rolston Recital Hall during The Banff Centre’s Winter Concert Series. Using only her voice, a fiddle, and a scattering of foot pedals, this one-woman-act proved capable of creating a sound bigger than a band. For the proposed surround demo, it couldn’t have been a better fit.

During an open studio later that week, I found Xani in her practice hut and asked if she’d be willing to help create a demo. An hour or so later we had the makings of a plan.

Having discussed how to adapt her compositions to multiple speakers, we realized we were up against a fundamental problem. We were about to create music in a format destined for home theatre, but people with home theatres don’t go there to listen to music alone — they expect to be kept in their seats by something, preferably moving, on their screens.

At lunch that day, Albert Picknel, Head Piano Technician for Music & Sound, happened to mention a spectacular video he’d watched online showing string vibrations in a contrabass appearing as though they were animated sine waves. Having already witnessed some great camera work by Film & Media Work Study Craig Hall, I asked him if he knew how this effect was achieved, and if he’d be interested in trying to adapt it for violin, and if he might have time to get involved in making a video to go with a surround project? He did, he was, and he would.

“I was looking to shoot a music video while at The Banff Centre. When David asked if I'd be interested in shooting a piece for their surround sound recording, and that it was for Xani — an artist I'd seen perform in the Rolston Recital Hall — I was completely stoked and jumped at the opportunity,” said Craig. “As the cinematographer, I designed the lighting, created a look in the camera, and shot all of the video. I was also, for the first time, the picture editor. I spent countless hours, not only learning the tools, but editing and re-editing the footage to arrive at a finished piece.”

In between the hectic workloads of countless other projects, we managed to find downtime in the Luscar Recording Studio one Saturday afternoon. Temperatures outside were in the minus-30s, so there was no great incentive to play outside. I could think of no better way to spend time off. Along with Work Studies Tom Geiger, Dominica Kortarba, Alex Ashcroft, and Nolan Bouvier, we rallied to prepare the Luscar Control Room and Telus Studio for the recording and shoot. By noon we were ready, by the time the sun went down we had our first take, and not long before the sun came up again we’d completed the first stage of the process. The next objective would be mixing.

When I first came to The Banff Centre, Theresa Leonard, Director of Audio, told me about a Work Study who’d come to her office years ago with a dossier of material he’d compiled on a musician/sound-designer. It was part of a lobbying campaign by the work-study to bring out one particular faculty by the name of Ren Klyce. Naturally, Theresa read the material, recognized its merits, and followed up by inviting Ren — the timing wasn’t right so the visit didn’t come about then, but it was the beginning of a sound relationship.

When I arrived here in Spring 2010, that work-study, Shawn Everett, had gone on to pay back the Audio program in the best way he could, which is simply by becoming successful in his craft. Furthermore, Shawn had become regular and celebrated faculty at The Banff Centre himself.

Having known and worked with Ren for nearly two decades, it seemed like the perfect opportunity was brewing for me to have a friend visit, and for The Banff Centre to have a world-renowned surround mixer as faculty, and to combine these skills with the emerging talents of a stellar pop engineer — thereby also satisfying Shawn’s wish to work with Ren, and Theresa’s wish to have Ren as guest faculty, and my wish to get the best mixers for Xani’s project. Theresa readily backed the visit.

Given the schedules and delivery pressures these factions are routinely exposed to, it is a remarkable achievement in itself that Simon Gamache, Audio Production Coordinator, managed to bring together everything to coincide with the start of a new term, thus providing a new crop of Work Studies with the chance of a lifetime.

The mix went like clockwork. Work Studies were thrilled to be in the same room as Ren and Shawn, the music came together from all six speakers, and at the end of a marathon four days I called Xani in Melbourne, Australia. Her voice on speakerphone was cracking, partly from a show the night before, but mostly overjoyed at the sound of her music mixed by these titans.

Meanwhile, Craig had been busy in a dark room armed only with mouse, keyboard, and manual, teaching himself Final Cut Pro. Before long his editing skills were equal to his already excellent cinematography. With some input via Skype from Sara Hegarty (filmmaker in her own right, also known for her work with Antony and the Johnsons), some helpful discussions with Ren, and the support of fellow Film & Media Work Studies Morgan Brown and Price Morgan, Craig had soon completed a picture edit to go with the surround mix.

“While the shoot challenged my technical knowledge of cameras and lighting, and the editing was a sink-or-swim process, this experience taught me the importance of maintaining a sense of play with one's work, “ said Craig. “Without this, it would not have been possible to explore and learn as much as I have on this project.”

Within days of Ren and Shawn’s faculty visit, a presentation by Dolby had arrived, led by another of Theresa’s highly successful former Work Studies, Poppy Crum. By coincidence, the Dolby presentation had been sound designed and mixed by Ren, and Telus studio was setup for HD screening and 5.1 playback. Naturally, team-Dolby was curious to hear Ren’s latest mix, and suitably impressed when they had their private screening. I also played the result to President of Music for Warner Pictures, and within hours had an all-capitals/exclamation marks response — entirely positive I might add.

All in all, the project has proved a glowing endorsement of The Banff Centre’s motto, Inspiring Creativity.