Music Production
Welcome to Our Audio Suite
No, Stefan Antonin isn’t wearing a cook’s outfit. Neither does his equipment include pots, hot plates, casseroles, whisks, or pepper mills. Yet one can nevertheless compare the work of our studied sound engineer at Rondeau Production with that of an award-winning chef: he also ‘cooks’ for a demanding audience, and the company which houses his ‘kitchen’ (his studio) enjoys and excellent reputation which is easily spoilt in the long term by foul fish or overly salty soup. Like a chef is dependent on high-quality ingredients, fresh vegetables, tender meat, spicy herbs, and on ‘good materials’ more generally, the artistry of Stefan Antonin is equally reliant on what he can find at the market. Many choirs and vocal ensembles claim to offer precisely such good-quality material – and those who don’t promise too much in this respect are welcome guests at Rondeau Production. Once the microphones are in position and Antonin has pressed the record button, his stroll across the market begins: then the sound engineer has to collect, discard, hoard until he is sure to have in his bag all ingredients needed for a delicious, nutritious meal. From there, he heads straight into his kitchen, his sound studio, where these ingredients are processed. Antonin prefers to call this room the director’s room or the audio suite. Instead of a hob, an oven, and a sink, his work space features a computer and high-end speakers, all of which find their home in a sound-proof room at Leipzig’s Petersstraße. Here, the sound engineer seals himself off from the outside world in order to do his work: to produce a coherent whole from the large number of audio tracks, individual takes, run-throughs and sections, the tremendous number of which baffles the mind of any lay person.
One might say that Antonin begins to compose, for his job is that of an artist. Yet everyone who listens to a CD knows that this product is not just art, but also artificial. Unless dealing with a live recording, in which all coughing and every rustling noise has been properly suppressed, then it is his job to create an artwork to be enjoyed via the private hifi-system, rather than be studied as an archival document. The final result of a CD recording has little to do with the impression of a live concert: while the latter emphasises the immediate experience of sound, the direct impact of music, and the visual contact with the artist, the former needs to concentrate on the purity of sound – which is precisely what Stefan does in his studio. After he has captured the recordings on his hard drive, it’s time for technical and musical prowess: tracks are cut, noises removed. Little by little, the music is revived. In addition to the technically perfect sound, Antonin is in search for one thing in particular: the music that will later be heard on the CD is supposed to enrapture the listener. Of course, the sound engineer can make use of technical aids such as reverberation; he can also sharpen one or two notes in order to enable a smooth transition to the next couple of bars. Yet the interpretation itself can no longer be changed. The elements that might enrapture the listener need to be produced in front of the microphones.
Stefan has the score of the recorded piece in front of him: if anyone would like to perform from it now, they would have to play past innumerable comments and numbers. The sound engineer listens to the material as if holding a magnifying glass, and ascertains which takes can be used, which rifts need to be covered, and which technical aids might be used. The tempo can be increased or reduced by up to five percent, and pitches (if recorded in high definition) can be sharpened or flattened by up to half a tone. However: there is no fraud involved, for the artists can also achieve in reality the high quality that Rondeau Production captures on its CDs. Surely, no one would magic a picturesque sunrise onto a rain-drenched holiday photograph with the help of photoshop. Nevertheless, Stefan views his work with a healthy dose of realism: in his view, a recording is always an illusion. Producing such an illusion, however, is the realm of experts. Five minutes of vocal music take Stefan an average of an hour. 60 minutes require roughly 1,000 cuts.Mastering the balance between space and sound is a recurring challenge for Stefan. It would, of course, technically be possible to move a recording from a small chapel into a large cathedral; yet Rondeau places great emphasis on the authenticity of any CD recording. How is the ensemble presented? Can the artists’ positioning in a semi-circle also be heard on the recording?
The sound engineer is fascinated by the opportunity to recreate music through recording, to help artists achieve their full potential in the moment of performance, and to prepare and preserve these exceptional achievements in the studio. Stefan can literally pull out all the stops here: he can choose between multiple takes for any section, from which he can pick the most musical. This process requires a great degree of trust on the part of the artist, for they must be able to recognise themselves in Stefan’s selection. The reason why artists that have worked with Rondeau Production in the past choose the label time and again is to be found in Dominik Stefan’s work in his audio suite. As a chef, he would deserve more than just one star!
