David Newman

"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.

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.

"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'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.

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.

“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.”