In-house AIM sound engineer David Richards has been invited to work with renowned Dutch composer Andre Rieu in Europe.
It won’t, however, be the first time David works with the Dutch composer. “I have now worked with Andre on four separate concert broadcast/cinemacasts. The first was in 2008, doing a live broadcast for Foxtel Main Event (Foxtel’s first music broadcast in 5.1 sound) from what was then the Telstra Dome in Melbourne,” explains David. “I also worked with Andre in 2009 at the Acer Arena in Sydney, for a live cinemacast to theatres across Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands via satellite. “Andre has since had me over to his hometown of Maastricht in southern Holland in July 2010 and July 2011. These concerts took place in the old and beautiful Maastricht City Square (known as The Vrijthof), and were cinemacast across Europe, South Africa, Canada, USA and Australasia, again via satellite.”
David’s work involves mixing the music being broadcast from a state-of-the-art recording studio truck, and working closely with Andre's sound engineer and music director.
“I was chosen because prior to working with me in Australia in 2008, Andre had never done a totally ‘live’ entire concert broadcast. It was also the first live 5.1 (Cinema Surround Sound) broadcast he had done,” explains David.
“Since I had pioneered Live 5.1 (Surround Sound) music broadcast in Australia with Australian Idol in 2007 and subsequently with So You Think you Can Dance, I was the only broadcast music mix engineer with this experience in Australia. Having designed the only audio/music broadcast/recording truck that could do the job, and meeting with them earlier that year, they chose me for the event.”
The shows David has worked on were also multi-tracked (recorded in multi-track form) for Andre and his people to post-produce his DVD. “The 2008 show had a total recording track count of 126 audio tracks. For the Maastricht show this year we totalled 189 tracks of record, also 189 tracks of backup record.
My previous ‘maximum track count’ was recording Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics DVD in 2007 which was 108 tracks plus backup. I thought that was a lot!” says David.
“It feels wonderful to be invited to work with Andre,” says David. “He is a perfectionist and has an amazing company of people working for him full-time, every one of them is the best of the best in the world. They were all very welcoming on my first arrival in Holland and are now my Dutch friends. I have been invited back in July 2012 so I must be doing something right I guess.”
“David adds “His orchestra is extraordinary and very unique in the way they work; very clever and fast and they know pretty well every popular orchestral piece ever written. They can perform at the drop of a hat and they often do, charts or no charts. They truly love what they do and exist in a beautiful extended family environment that Andre has created.”
David joined AIM in late 2010 in a role that saw him sorting new sound production ideas and mixing recitals. “I loved it,” says David. “Jamie Rigg then asked me if I would like to continue through 2011 in a sound production role in the JPH. This involves working with student ensembles and making them sound great. They also learn from me what sounds good and pick up some invaluable tips that will serve them well.” David has also lectured at UNSW in Music Technology years ago, so feels right at home with all the great young up-and-coming talent at the Australian Institute of Music.
I have also commissioned a multi-track recording system in the JPH that interfaces with the live sound console. Earlier this year I recorded our Showcase concerts, and I remixed a couple of songs recently for our ‘Best of AIM’ CD. That was ‘The Woodstock Experience’ concert, a great show believe me. Our students really shone,” says David.
David’ background is musician/music store owner first, and then touring and studio session guitar player turned sound engineer/producer. “I studied music throughout my schooling, playing piano from the age of five and taking up guitar at 10. There were no degrees in music production back then so I played with the best musicians and worked with the best engineers and producers around. I then got into record production, writing and playing music for film and television, advertising and anything else I could possibly do that was related to music. I owned a ‘boutique’ record label and publishing company throughout the 90's, developing and producing young artists. I returned with my family to Sydney in the late 90's, designing digital recording studios and working extensively on music for television again, producing music for McLeod’s Daughters, Getaway, and Good Medicine.
“Tiring again of being chained to the ‘studio wheel’ I saw an opportunity to try to make live music for television sound and work better. The technology was now available to make it work. I put together a ‘music specific’ digital recording truck for Chris Kennedy of Norwest Productions and worked on Popstars in 2002. I then continued on to do six years of Australian Idol and X Factor in 2005 and last year.
I also mixed many Arias, MTV awards and other live music television events, working with and mixing everyone from Green Day, Kiss, Christina Aguilera and Lady GaGa to Michael Buble, Diana Krall and Burt Bacharach, as well as World Youth Day with the Pope at Randwick. I thrive on the variety,” says David.
“Apart from the music, ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ was a world stadium show I sound designed in 2006-07 in Australia that is still touring the world today. It encompassed every aspect of modern audio technology available and still stands out as a feat of audio automation not matched on that scale. Cirque de Soleil has since taken on many of my ideas for their shows, which are always spectacular.”
With such a busy and varied schedule, David is not about to quieten things down now. “I have been offered both Young Talent Time and The Voice next year and can't really do both as I'd be working seven days a week, so we'll see. I will work with Andre in Holland again and I have a lot of records people want me to mix at my studio at Circular Quay. There is only so much one can take on of course, but if there's great music and musicians and new technology to work with, then I'm a happy man.”
Article by Natalie Raad
Perfect Words
perfectwords@bigpond.com |
 |
