Risk management

Ben focused on TV commercials for the first couple of years, but having weathered several union strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and other aspects of economic unrest, 9/11, etc., he learned that it would be better to be diversified if he was to make a stable career in a very unstable business.

“I started to spread my wings and seek out other work, doing themes for TV shows and eventually morphed that into creating entire custom music libraries and scores for TV shows. Today, I would say my time is mostly taken up by creating music for TV shows, including seven seasons of ‘Moonshiners’ on Discovery Channel, as well as numerous other shows on other Discovery channel outlets, three seasons of ‘Live Free or Die’ on National Geographic and ‘Lone Star Law’ on Animal Planet.

I also create a large amount of music for big corporate events for brands such as Toyota, Lexus, Land Rover and Lenovo. Last Summer, I also created a new sonic signature for the United States Tennis Association to be used for the US Open. 

Finally, I’ve also been fortunate to co-compose a few films with Lions Gate, such as ‘Spare Parts’ and ‘Aztec Warrior’ over the past few years, working with my amazingly talented friend, Grammy Award Winner Andres Levin.

Every day is a new creative challenge for a different medium, but at this point, I compose approximately 60% for TV shows, 20% for TV commercials, and 20% for corporate events.”

Getting into the gear

Obviously, Ben is driven by his passion for music, but given his type of work, his arsenal of tools includes much more than ‘just’ the keys on his piano.

“I have been using the Digital Performer DAW since 1999. For scoring music to picture, it can’t be beat.

My main microphone preamp is a Persons ADL 600, which along with my LYD 48 studio monitors, are my most recent studio upgrades. And these are super-important pieces of gear! 

I also bought into the Universal Audio Apollo 8P audio interface and plugin ecosystem. The output feeds a Grace m905 reference monitor controller that I use to switch between the Dynaudio LYD 48’s, Dynaudio BM5 (Mk I) and Avantone mix cubes. Also, this past year I added a Slate Raven MTi2 to my workflow, which has been an awesome addition too.”

Thinking outside, but working inside, the box

Creatively, Ben often thinks outside the box, but when it comes to his technical setup and workflow, he has moved everything inside the box, which represents a very valuable benefit.

“Because of my insane production schedules, which often involve very tight content delivery deadlines, I need to be able to move fast in the studio. For instance, I might get a call from someone saying: “We would love to use that piece of music you wrote a few years ago, but adjusted for a new picture.”

It’s situations like these that made me move towards an entirely in-the-box studio infrastructure. Having ‘Total Recall’ ability – being able to open older sessions and maybe only have to address a few out-of-date plugins – is amazing.

So, relying entirely on working with plugins, I do all I can to always have the best plugins out there. For instance, I bought the package where you get every single UAD created plugin when I got the Apollo 8P. It wasn’t cheap, but this isn’t a hobby for me! I couldn’t make a living without Digital Performer, Native Instruments Komplete, UAD, Slate, Waves and of course my Dynaudio LYD 48 monitors. Those are the technology brands I spend the most time working with on a daily basis.”

Working with LYD 48

“I love my LYD 48’s. Period! I have been producing and mixing music that has been heard all over the world on TV and in arenas for dealer conventions on my Dynaudio BM5 Mk1’s since 2006. The only thing I didn’t love about them was that they didn’t go super low bass-wise. I never had an issue with my mixes not translating in other places, but particularly when writing for TV shows, where I use a lot of low ‘booms’ and more low sound-design-y- sounds, I felt like I kept monitoring at louder and louder levels to feel that sort of in-the-chest impact when composing and mixing. I was beginning to get a bit worried about my ears.

I almost pulled the trigger a number of times on buying a subwoofer to pair with the BM5’s, but then got nervous about what potential mixing complications that might introduce. I considered a 2.1 system from another well-known monitor brand a few times, but could never talk to people without the word ‘fatiguing’ creeping in. And then that made me realize that I have been working on Dynaudio monitors for nearly 12 years, often for 14 hours a day, and ‘ear fatigue’, or having a sense of fatiguing was never on my radar.

That made me think maybe a smooth pleasant revealing high end was just part of the Dynaudio DNA, and maybe I shouldn’t stray from it. So, when pre-sales info started coming out about the LYD 48, and from what I was reading, it seemed like this monitor was built for me. Smooth Dynaudio top end, true midrange and an extended low end that touches in the sub-woofer space.

The three-way speaker design was intriguing to me, as the mid range could focus on the mids, letting the woofer do what the woofer is supposed to do. So, I got on the wait list at Sweetwater for the first pairs they were to get in. When I got them, I set them up and ran a few days of tunes through them so that they would open up properly. 

I immediately heard a tremendous clarity and detail that my BM5’s just simply couldn’t produce. Of course it was particularly in the mid range – right where you decide the level of the vocal, the snare drum, the electric guitar chords, etc. 

Then for the fun of it, I Googled ‘great bass reference mix’ and came up with the Jamiroquai song ‘Cloud 9’ mixed by Mick Guzauski. The bass is so true, and I soon realized that subwoofer bass is different from tight musical bass. Then I simply knew that I made the right purchase.

I had a few big jobs for a number of clients in Canada at a huge music production company up there and after sending in my mix and stems, I checked in with the final mix-down engineer to ask how my ‘stuff’ sounded in his big mastering room. He said everything was fantastic ‘as usual’. But I pressed him further, asking if he used my stereo wav file, or if he went to the stems. He said: “No need for the stems, it sounded great as is.” No doubt, the LYD 48’s translate perfectly to other playback systems.” 

Since working at loud volumes was part of what triggered the urge to look for a monitor upgrade, we were curious to hear if Ben was now able to work at lower volumes while still being able to deliver reliable and great-sounding mixes.

“Yes, absolutely!  To avoid high volume from creeping in, I’ve always kept a radio shack dB meter handy. But now, since installing the Grace m905 that has a realtime dB meter built in, I got the whole thing calibrated. And for my room, I find 78 dB to be a good working volume where the low end has zero interaction with my room. 

This is much lower than when I had my BM5’s where I worked more typically up around 88-90 dB.  The LYD’s have imperceptible self-noise, which is also really important to me. I hate room noise. The adjustable dipswitches on the back are super-musical and useful too. In fact, I have my left speaker, which is positioned near a corner, dialed in slightly different than my right speaker and still the balance is amazing!

Perhaps most important of all, I average around 14 hours a day of near-constant sound, and I have never in all of my years working on Dynaudio studio monitors sent out a dud of a mix to a client. I haven’t checked a mix in my car in 13 years. It goes from the Dynaudios on to TV, Cinema… Wherever!

Finally, I want to point out that the price point is amazing – because if these were $4000 per side, I wouldn’t have bought them. Without Dynaudio figuring out how to make this monitor financially accessible, I wouldn’t have checked it out in the first place. This isn’t a hobby for me, and every purchase is carefully weighed against being able to consistently deliver to my clients, and being able to buy the car, take the vacation, feed the kids, pay for college.”

Improve your skills and produce for your life

To wrap it up, we asked Ben if he has any advices and tips that he would like to share with young producers who are looking for a chance to get into this side of the music business.

“Well, if you are serious about getting into the ‘game’, then you must do it like your life depends on it. Because someday it just might if providing food, shelter and financial security is important to you. Having said that, here are 7 key things that I have found very useful to live by professionally during my career:            

1) Be friendly, versatile, prompt and curious.

2) Make sure to fill up your tool belt with skills. For instance, if you are a good instrumentalist, but can’t read music, then learn how to read music. If you only mix music, figure out how to get involved with mixing radio commercials, TV commercials and TV shows. Give yourself as much versatility as possible so that you are as unemployment proof as possible. 

3) Learn your gear – every bit of it. But keep your setup simple and become an expert with what you have. 

4) Surround yourself with the most talented people that make you really insecure about your skills. It may sound harsh, but if you are the smartest person in the room, then it’s time to go find a new room...

5) Listen to as much music and sound as possible. 

6) Pay attention to – and be aware of – how music sounds on different systems in different rooms. What is most important is that you know how YOUR speakers sound in YOUR room and how that translates to the outside world.

7) Spend time mixing in mono. If you can make it sound good in mono, you won’t believe how good it will sound in stereo.”