L-Acoustics L-ISA Studio helps Richard Devine mix ‘epic’ album

Atlanta-based musician and sound designer Richard Devine, who is in the process of mixing an 'epic' album slated for release next year using L-Acoustics’ new L-ISA Studio spatial audio platform, says that the software 'could not have come at a better time'.

A modern-day pioneer in the world of electronic music, Devine is known for his multi-layered, long-form electronic compositions — which fuse IDM, experimental and electro acoustic elements. With six critically acclaimed albums under his belt, he is well known as a commercial sound designer, and has composed and designed commercials for some of the largest companies in the world. Devine is also an electronic music futurist and thought leader, having coded his own applications in SuperCollider — a programming language for real-time audio synthesis.

Recently, Devine began exploring L-Acoustics' new spatial audio platform for music creation and mixing: L-ISA Studio. He has spent his career pushing the envelope on what is possible with immersive audio at his Devinesound studio in Atlanta, routinely working in binaural, 5.1 and 7.1.4 audio formats.

"The playground has just become so much bigger, and there are no limits to what you can do with it," commented Devine. He says his forthcoming album — which will be mixed entirely in L-ISA Studio — will feature 'epic adventures' and make the listener feel like he or she is "inside this entire cerebral world of soundscapes and textures." ​

Devine says that L-ISA Studio has given significantly more control over his object-based audio mixes. "What’s great about this platform for the kind of music I make is that there is so much gestural movement in the soundscapes I create," he says. "I can have each sonic element on a different axis, flying different paths around the room, or I can have sounds collide with each other and explode, melt and morph. It is probably the best format I could have graduated to as far as taking my music to the next level for the type of music I am making."

Once he began running the software, he ran it alongside Ableton and Logic and was pleased with its intuitive layout and extensive control over various sonic parameters: "I guess the best way I can describe L-ISA Studio is that it is very clever and elegantly laid out," he explains. "The visual representation of the controls — where you can see all your sound sources, trims, monitoring and your group lists — is very hands-on and immediate."

Devine was especially impressed with L-ISA Studio's flexible built-in reverbs: "The large warm church and the concert hall are probably my two favourites, and you can really tailor the room and spatial characteristics and acoustics to directly correlate with the sound objects in your space," he says. "If you ask me, the reverb alone is worth the price of admission. It is one of the most gorgeous sounding spatial reverbs I’ve ever heard in Dolby or surround."

Since Devine spends much of his time on the road, he is pleased to be able to work on his mixes on a laptop while in transit, and then seamlessly translate his mixes to his 7.1.4 studio monitoring system using L-ISA Studio at any point. Another big differentiator for Devine is L-ISA Studio's ability to process and render audio with greater efficiency: "With object-based audio, there can be walls you can hit very quickly on things like buffer size and processing speed. Other platforms can be very clunky, and sometimes you actually need two computers just to run the renders. L-ISA Studio is integrated into a single, completely software-based controller / processor environment. Everything should be so easy."

​The sounds that Devine uses for his compositions originate from a variety of sources — these include his own sample libraries and a vast array of electronic instruments — including several purpose-built modular synthesiser cases. From his modular synthesiser, Devine is bringing in 32 tracks at a time into the DAW via two nw2s output modules along with each of his other sound sources. He then runs his tracks through a pair of Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ analogue summing mixers and uses a Flock Audio PATCH to route any of these 32 channels through analogue hardware devices in his studio.

When it comes to creating and mixing in spatial audio, Devine says there are really no rules. "It's not like a pop track where you always have the vocal in the centre and the drums in a static position. With experimental electronic music and the tools we have now, nothing is too wild or strange. I want to provide audiences with interesting auditory experiences to make them feel like they are literally inside this cerebral world of soundscapes and textures." He says with L-ISA Studio, "I want to push my music to the edge and to the extreme, so there are no limits."