Production power trio tackle Titanfall gaming blockbuster OST using ATC monitoring | SoundsAndGear.com Press Release Site
9/20/14 6:21 AM
SoundsAndGear.com Press Release Site
music production news and press info
Production power trio tackle Titanfall gaming blockbuster OST using ATC monitoring
Posted on September 15, 2014 by soundsandgear.com
“We all came to these monitors from different paths — writing,
5
mixing, and mastering, which I think is testament to their
Like
versatility as a range.”
– Stephen Barton, 2014 (Composer, Titanfall)
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, USA: specialist British loudspeaker
drive unit and complete sound reproduction system manufacturer ATC is
proud to announce that film and video games composer Stephen Barton, music scoring mixing engineer
extraordinaire Alan Meyerson, and Grammy® award-winning mastering engineer Gavin Lurssen professionally
pooled their formidable resources and talents to complete the recently released Titanfall original soundtrack
album using an all-ATC selection of reference monitors…
Titanfall is the latest gaming blockbuster from one of the co-creators of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, which
has spectacularly sold over 14-million copies to date. Crucially, it, too, benefits from another superlative score
from film and video games composer Stephen Barton, a British émigré who headed for the Hollywood Hills back
in 2002 to work as an assistant to fellow Brit composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who has won numerous
awards as well as receiving widespread critical acclaim for his film and video game scores, including The
Chronicles Of Narnia, the Shrek movies, and the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
Today Barton works out of his own well-stocked studio setup in a leased room within Lurssen Mastering, a fullservice mastering studio on the famous Hollywood Center Studio lot, a location steeped in over 80 years of
entertainment history, which, of course, is precisely where the Titanfall composition success story began,
skilfully and sympathetically mocked up on an all-singing, all-dancing DAW. Here he hears exactly what he
needs to, thanks to a revealing pair of ATC SCM50ASL Pro three-way active monitors. “The ATCs are nothing
short of phenomenal,” Barton begins, before continuing: “There’s nothing out there that equals them to my
mind in terms of clarity, lack of fatigue over long-term listening, and truthfulness, which is the most important
quality of any studio monitor. I’ve been using them for nearly seven years now, so, when I started working out of
Lurssen Mastering a few years ago, the fact that Gavin Lurssen was using the bigger brothers to those in my
setup was actually a big influence, and a great indication that we were like-minded in our listening approach.”
Cue Gavin Lurssen, Chief Mastering Engineer at Lurssen Mastering, whose sought-after skill-set
brought the Titanfall original soundtrack production to its natural conclusion: “I have a strong relationship with
Stephen Barton, who wanted me to do what we do to his music that was being released on Titanfall. When
you’re also dealing with some orchestral music — beautiful stuff like this that was done in Abbey Road, it clearly
http://press.soundsandgear.com/atc-launches-scm20asl-pro-v2-active-and-scm20psl-pro-passive-reference-nearfield-monitors-2/
Page 1 of 3
Production power trio tackle Titanfall gaming blockbuster OST using ATC monitoring | SoundsAndGear.com Press Release Site
9/20/14 6:21 AM
falls into the high standards and practices of what we normally do — creating a total spectrum of balance that’s
going to translate into all consumer listening environments, which includes mobile devices with little earbuds
all the way through to audiophile listening environments.”
Sited within that historic Hollywood building — formerly used to fashion movie sets, Lurssen’s listening
environment is naturally second to none with larger ATC SCM150ASL Pro three-way active and smaller ATC
SCM25A Pro three-way compact active monitors at its heart: “The way that I ended up with ATC was that I was
working at another mastering facility and a client came in with a pair of ATCs so that they could complete a
project. Within seconds of hearing them I knew that something magical was happening and also knew that
when the time came to open my own place then that’s where I’d turn to. So when that happened eight years ago
their US distributor hooked me up with the 150s and I’ve used them ever since. There’s no doubt in my mind
that they’re the only thing that I can use to create my audio balances. They’re smooth and not fatiguing, and,
somehow, make digital sound like analogue. I can sit in a room all day long and not burn out.”
Outside the mastering and compositional confines of the Titanfall soundtrack-spawning Lurssen Mastering
building, those epic-sounding orchestral music scoring mixing sessions at London’s legendary Abbey Road
Studios fell upon the seasoned shoulders and exemplary ears of Alan Meyerson, one of Hollywood’s top scoring
engineers, with extensive credits including the majority of Hans Zimmer’s movie music. “Alan also uses ATCs,
and it’s just been a case of coincidence that this amazingly huge project was done down the line on these
speakers,” summarises Lurssen.
Coincidence or otherwise, in this case, there’s no doubting the benefits of an all-ATC reference monitoring
experience in Barton’s finely-tuned musical mind: “The translation across the entire range made the entire
workflow incredibly smooth. On mix down there were maybe two or three cues out of 30 or 40 for the IMC
(Interstellar Mining Corporation) — one of the two factions in the game — that needed small tweaks. The
majority of them were perfect straight out of the gate. Obviously a major part of this is down to awesome mix
talent, but I think the fact that we weren’t adjusting to an entirely new monitoring approach meant that it was a
much more cohesive process without any of those ‘I didn’t think that sounded like that’ moments. That’s
especially true in important aspects of the frequency spectrum for a game like this, which is generally in the low
end. Crucially, the translation to the game is superb. We did a direct shootout between the 25s and 150s whilst
mastering Titanfall and it was stunning how consistent the sound was. All of these monitors simply tell you
what’s there, and that’s a rare quality that’s vital, whether composing, mixing, or mastering.”
The SCM25A Pro three-way compact active monitors carry a UK RRP of £5,963.00 GBP (plus
VAT) per pair; the SCM50ASL Pro three-way active monitors carry a UK RRP of £8,891.00 GBP
(plus VAT) per pair; and the SCM150ASL Pro three-way active monitors carry a UK RRP of
£11,577.00 GBP (plus VAT) per pair. All are available worldwide from any authorised ATC
stockist.
You may also like -
http://press.soundsandgear.com/atc-launches-scm20asl-pro-v2-active-and-scm20psl-pro-passive-reference-nearfield-monitors-2/
Page 2 of 3
Production power trio tackle Titanfall gaming blockbuster OST using ATC monitoring | SoundsAndGear.com Press Release Site
ATC launches
SCM20ASL
Pro (V2) active
and ...
Awardwinning
Alchemy
Mastering
engineer Matt
...
iZotope Ships
Ozone 5 and
Ozone 5
Advanced
Win ESI
monitoring
speakers and
iZotope ...
9/20/14 6:21 AM
Plugin
Alliance
announces
availability of
two ...
This entry was posted in General, Hardware and tagged atc, scm20asl pro v2, titan fall. Bookmark the permalink.
SoundsAndGear.com Press Release Site
Proudly powered by WordPress.
http://press.soundsandgear.com/atc-launches-scm20asl-pro-v2-active-and-scm20psl-pro-passive-reference-nearfield-monitors-2/
Page 3 of 3