David Newman

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

"There's no real mixer any more — we have a Mackie 3204, but that's really just for monitoring."

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

An Apple laptop for mobile work and an Emagic Logic Control fader surface occupy the left-hand part of the desk. Visible behind the laptop is another rack containing a Roland XV5080 module, Akai Z8 and S5000 samplers, Lexicon PCM91 reverb, Yamaha FS1R FM synth module, MOTU 828 FireWire interface and Denon CD player.

An Apple laptop for mobile work and an Emagic Logic Control fader surface occupy the left-hand part of the desk. Visible behind the laptop is another rack containing a Roland XV5080 module, Akai Z8 and S5000 samplers, Lexicon PCM91 reverb, Yamaha FS1R FM synth module, MOTU 828 FireWire interface and Denon CD player.

"I love the Aeon Melodic library, and it´s so easy to use and program. When I am writing I just want stuff to "work". "Advanced Performance Options" allow me to explore very contemporary soundscapes which is great in augmenting live musicians and orchestra. I love how easy it is to use. The sounds seem to fit seamlessly into my orchestrations. Great Work!!"

Fantastic library - just started playing with it and came up with tons of great ideas - it is SO evocative and beautifully recorded and laid out."

"Five years ago I had nine computers running GigaStudio. Logic Pro was my DAW, which, of course, ran on a Mac, and I had some outboard gear, as well. Today, I can do 10 times more with only two networked computers tied to a 12-core Mac Pro. RAM capacity has expanded dramatically, and 64-bit plug-ins have been a game-changer. It’s getting very close to being transparent, where every sound you need is available at all times."

"Five years ago I had nine computers running GigaStudio. Logic Pro was my DAW, which, of course, ran on a Mac, and I had some outboard gear, as well. Today, I can do 10 times more with only two networked computers tied to a 12-core Mac Pro. RAM capacity has expanded dramatically, and 64-bit plug-ins have been a game-changer. It’s getting very close to being transparent, where every sound you need is available at all times."

David Newman says in this interview that he uses EastWest Hollywood strings.

David Newman says in this interview that he uses EastWest Hollywood Brass.

David Newman says in this interview that he uses Project SAM brass.

"Pro Tools is great for recording and editing audio, but I write in Logic and then when we're done and the director signs off on everything, we make audio files of everything — of all the synths that won't be replaced by the orchestra. From then on we work in Pro Tools."

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

David Newman's main workstation in the composition room, with no fewer than three computer screens and two video displays. Visible in the rack are (from left), Korg Triton Rack and TR-Rack modules, Yamaha CS6R module, Mackie line mixer, Emu Proteus 2000, Audity 2000 and Planet Earth modules, Roland XV5080 module and VP9000 processor.

An Apple laptop for mobile work and an Emagic Logic Control fader surface occupy the left-hand part of the desk. Visible behind the laptop is another rack containing a Roland XV5080 module, Akai Z8 and S5000 samplers, Lexicon PCM91 reverb, Yamaha FS1R FM synth module, MOTU 828 FireWire interface and Denon CD player.

An Apple laptop for mobile work and an Emagic Logic Control fader surface occupy the left-hand part of the desk. Visible behind the laptop is another rack containing a Roland XV5080 module, Akai Z8 and S5000 samplers, Lexicon PCM91 reverb, Yamaha FS1R FM synth module, MOTU 828 FireWire interface and Denon CD player.

An Apple laptop for mobile work and an Emagic Logic Control fader surface occupy the left-hand part of the desk. Visible behind the laptop is another rack containing a Roland XV5080 module, Akai Z8 and S5000 samplers, Lexicon PCM91 reverb, Yamaha FS1R FM synth module, MOTU 828 FireWire interface and Denon CD player.

"I'll tell you what I'm in love with — that Emagic Clavinet. It sounds so cool. I just got the OS X version and it's inspiring. Their electric piano is also very nice and I think the Native Instruments B4 is great. My great concern at the moment is that when I start piling up all these virtual instrument and plug-ins as well as the video, the computer is going to reach its limits. Hopefully they will let you chain up a bunch of those XServe rackmount Macs to get around this. I'd like the whole system to be scalable. OK, you have to learn how to use the software, but beyond that, the technology should just disappear — the technology should be transparent. I don't want to have to think about anything other than my musical ideas."

Both the composition and mixing rooms at David's studio are equipped with surround monitoring systems. The mix room is again based around a big Pro Tools system, but this time controlled from a large Pro Control work surface. The removable drives from the mobile system can be slotted in here, whereupon the orchestral recordings plus the synth tracks (saved as audio tracks) can be mixed into five-channel surround plus any discrete tracks that may be needed for break-outs. The recording system can output up to 64 discrete tracks at once.

David Newman uses the Spectrasonics Symphony of Voices, as highlighted on the Spectrasonics website. He praises the exceptional recording quality, noting its significant benefit for accessing high-quality vocal samples.

“Symphony I/O is a revelation. I rely on samples to give the director an idea of how the cues for the movie will sound. They need to sound as realistic as possible. That means, beauty of sound, punch, and very importantly – sound staging. Symphony I/O is fantastic in all these aspect of the sound. It a big step forward. I use Symphony I/O with Logic in my writing room. Many things inspire me, but what “irks” me is when the gear doesn’t work and sounds bad. That’s why a piece of gear like the Symphony I/O is really important to me. It’s more “fun” and inspiring to work when everything sounds better.”