BrooksAudio

Making music out of thin air…

For recent run at the Saudi Pavilion, Expo 2025 in Osaka, produced by BrooksAudio was brought in to offer the ‘Spatial Artist Support’ service. The brief was to build the instruments to be controlled by Cosmicat, using the custom gesture control system built by .ldn

Her concept for the pavilion show was a blend of traditional Saudi instrumentation with environmental sound from the Red Sea. I took these samples from Cosmicat, processed, mixed and spatialised them, and built an Live performance project around them.

The process also included creating a set of bespoke Max for Live devices that ingested data from the laser harp instruments and a “conductor” controller, via Grid, and translated that data into control of the musical elements.

Gestures felt like a natural way to morph between sample layers, changed filter cutoffs, launched one shot music stabs or SFX, changed spatial FX sends, and created textural transitions all whilst maintaining a strong musical feel to the performance.

The whole performance system / sound design was then fed into the venue’s d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system, with various parts of the instruments and bed spatialised around the audience area. Of course PrePosition version 2 was on control duty here!

There is also video on my Patreon for subscribers, showing how the controller worked - patreon.com/brooksaudio

Some festivals feel like work; Houghton Festival has always felt like home. As soon as I’m stuck behind a tracktor in Norfolk, I know it’s nearly time...

I’ve been there since the first edition, doing those late FOH shifts on Pavilion and Quarry for Encore, then helping commission systems and running the early NoizCalcs when I was with d&b EAS.

This year I was back working directly for the festival, managing the sound team on the Warehouse Soundscape stage, and it reminded me how many corners of this site I’ve been lucky enough to see up close.

What keeps me coming back is the people and the care they put in. You feel it in the way the team looks after the details and in how the crowd responds. Houghton has become a real marker in the UK club scene, and that’s down to the quiet graft as much as the headline moments.

Thanks to Craig, Bobby, Ben and Matt from Houghton, Art & all at Encore, Wayne and Ayumi from d&b, and to our sound team this year - Dan, Ken, BJ & Callum for being solid all week.

Full d&b article - https://lnkd.in/eKw33_GV
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Here’s to many more Houghtons.

When Soundscape audio goes beyond 2D...

I caught Wayne McGregor’s ‘On the Other Earth’, presented by Somerset House at Stone Nest on Shaftesbury Avenue last week.

I was struck by the unique cylindrical design of the performance space and was impressed by how tightly the generative visuals and supporting sound design worked together. I particularly enjoyed the ‘dancing on the ceiling’ section!

The system ran on d&b audiotechnik Soundscape, but what really elevated it was the use of independent high and low height rings of loudspeakers - literally adding an extra dimension compared to standard Soundscape 2D setups.

The active 3D glasses were also a technical highlight - at times the visual depth and the audio field genuinely snapped into a single, convincing space.

If you’re around the west end with an hour to spare, I highly recommend it!

When someone beats your d&b invaders high score…

If going to the dentist gives you a sawtooth… what does going to donate blood give you?

BrooksAudio just delivered another successful 2 day Soundscape training - this time with the live sound students at dBs institute, Bristol, UK.
We spent a day covering the why's and how's of soundscape theory, then a day looking at the WOWs with dBs own T series and B4-Subs, and some E5 surrounds, installed into dBs dedicated live sound training room. The students had a blast, and were really enthusiastic about having some time to mix on the system.
We can deliver bespoke training on live sound, spatial audio, and more - please drop us a line to discuss your requirements.


d&b audiotechnik dBs Institute of Sound & Digital Technologies

This week I returned to my old school The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, as a Visiting Lecturer to teach a very enthusiastic bunch of 2nd and 3rd year students about the joys of d&b Soundscape and spatial audio.
We covered the why's, the wows and the how's of this kind of system!
This included system design considerations, software design, remote control, audio and control integration and operation, and plenty of listening and discussion about sound design, content the details of configuration of the system.
A great time was had by all. Thanks to d&b EAS for supporting, LIPA, and to the wonderful Chris Layton for being the host (and teacher) with the most. Already looking forward to industry week 2025!

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts d&b audiotechnik

This week I visited dBs Institute Bristol to share my various experiences across a 20 year career in the world of sound, which has seen me work as an electronic musician, educator, sound engineer, system tech and sound designer. I did a couple of dives in to projects I've worked on and venues I am affiliated with.
The students were brilliant, very engaged and asked some great questions!
Institute of Sound & Digital Technologies

Fully enjoyed the Kagami show at The Roundhouse yesterday! Lovely concept by Tin Drum - a great mix of AR and spatial audio from d&b Soundscape. Highly involving! Ryuichi Sakamoto 坂本龍一 d&b audiotechnik Tin Drum Roundhouse

was FANTASTIC as always. It's taken a few days to recover but I have to add a photo of The Comet is Coming headlining the d&b audiotechnik stage on the Saturday night. My favourite band combined with the most 'out there' use of a 360 degree spatial audio system (using my 'PrePosition' control software too!). Total all time festival highlight moment! WOW! WOMAD Festival