Greetings all,
Kasson here from the band Symbion Project.
First off, big thanks to Piotrus for spreading the word of this album to this wonderful forum of surround audio aficionados!
When the album was released back in 2009 I did endeavor to locate some online surround sound communities and press but wasn't too successful.
I'm now really glad that I've found such a community. Thank you all for picking up the cd/dvd and supporting the music I make!
I wanted to share a few thoughts I had about the creation of this album and once you've had a chance to listen to it, I'm very much looking forward to hearing your feedback/critiques (positive and negative!).
Symbion Project has been making music now for over 20 years, although the first album was not officially released until 1997. Since then I've released 6 full length albums with the newest one "Semiotic" being released in just a few months. The pre-order for that album (digital, vinyl) is here:
https://symbionproject.bandcamp.com/album/semiotic
Unfortunately, there won't be a surround version of this album, although I bet it would sound pretty amazing.
Symbion Project's music covers a diverse variety of electronic music styles ranging from dark, haunting downtempo to classical-inspired albums in the same vein as my hero Wendy Carlos and Vangelis.
the "Semiotic" album strays pretty far into IDM territory with instrumentals featuring dark complex drum patterns and edgy synths.
I'm also in the synthpop band Rocococo which has their debut album also coming out this summer:
https://soundcloud.com/r0c0c0c0
I was the founding member of the synthpop trio Freezepop and my day job for many years had me leading the teams making RockBand and DanceCentral video games.
Misery in Soliloquy was the most complex album I've created thus far. It took me 5 years to compose, record, mix, master and produce the stereo CD and QUAD 4.0 DTS surround mixes.
Here are a few (blurry) pix of my studio at the time. As you can see I'm an avid collector of vintage analog synths from the late 60's through the mid 80's, as well as newer gear as well.
The album was composed mostly in Reason 5/6, and then properly mixed with tons of additional production and DSP in Digital Performer.
The album was first mixed and completed in stereo, then I converted the stereo mixes over to Quad and mixed the Quad versions also in Digital Performer.
My front speakers were ADAM P22a and rear speakers Genelec 1030a - both are powered near-field monitors.
This was all mixed in a pretty small, sound treated room with the speakers roughly 5-6 feet from me. I mixed the album with the intention that the listen would be as centered as possible from the 4 speakers.
I chose Quad 4.0 as the setup since I don't trust the levels that subs and the center channel would be at. For me, the center channel is for movie dialog and not for music and can hurt the proper stereo field of the mix.
You also never know what volume some people have the center channel at. My intention for the quad mix is that all 4 speakers are calibrated to be the same volume with the listener in the center.
The album features programmed drums and synths, with vocals by myself and the wonderful chanteuse Melissa R Kaplan of the band Universal Hall Pass. Melissa and I have been creating music together for 15 years now and were in the 90's electronic rock band Splashdown for many years. The strings on the album are all real strings, recorded one take at a time in England. Some of the synthesizers used on the album are Alesis Andromeda, ARP Odyssey model 2810 (w/infringing Moog filter), Sequential Circuits Prophet10, Moog Voyager, Moog Sonic6, Roland Jupiter8.
I had been listening to some surround mixes leading up to working on Misery in Soliloquy and was very inspired by the challenge and opportunity that surround audio presents. One of my favorite surround albums was Beck's "Sea Change" mixed by Elliot Scheiner who I met years before when he taught a class I was in at Berklee college of music. First off, for me… come on.. 4 speakers! way better than 2, right?! And because I make experimental music, I knew I could take some interesting chances with the mixes and didn't have to conform to any rules about what should go where. Of course, immersion and fullness surrounding the listener was essential. The music I make is full of rich sounds and interesting effects so I knew I could play to those strengths for the surround mix as well. My aim was keep the listener interested and engaged with the songs, so using surround panning, motion and unexpected placement of sounds was both an important element. When you listen to the album, you could really face any direction. there is no front or rear with the mixes, just 4 channel immersion. I hope this translates to you all when you listen to the mixes on your setups.
The stereo and surround versions were mastered at WaltzAudio in Boston, MA.
Well, I hope you've all found this behind the scenes info interesting, and feel free to post questions and thoughts. I would really love to hear from you all about the album when you've had a chance to listen to them.
This is the only surround album I've ever mixed so it was definitely a learning experience. I've contemplated doing another in the future, but haven't yet found the right album to do it with. Also, the making of the DVD itself (menus, etc) was not super fun and I'd have to find someone else to do that part of the process.
Ok, thanks again for the support! I make my living off creating and producing music and your support helps me do that and not be a complete starving artist!
cheers,
Kasson
ps- feel free to join the other online symbion project communities:
https://www.facebook.com/symbionproject
https://twitter.com/symbionproject
https://instagram.com/symbnprjct/