The QuickSoundField (QSF) is a near-field recording environment that allows professional studio microphones and techniques to be successfully used in most ordinary rooms or even outdoors. And in the best of live rooms, it dramatically improves the sense of intimacy without any adjustment in mic or talent position. Inside the QSF the mic is recording what the talent is hearing. Adjustments are quick and easy and there is no surprise in playback.
StudioTraps setup around the mic and talent create a recording space that is sonically decoupled from the room acoustics. Inside the QSF the sonic quality remains consistent from one setup to another without the need for studio notes. The talent is free to move around while recording and no one can hear the change in position. Most important is that what the talent hears inside the QSF is what they hear in the control room.
Originally patented in the early ’80s, and ubiquitously also known to engineers, producers and artists as simply, “TubeTraps” (owing to their tall and slender cylindrical shape), many recording engineers as well as numerous custom-designed commercial studios use them to achieve better recording (and mixing) results.
One of the strongest benefits of the Quick Sound Field is its ability to be reconfigured into an AttackWall, a legendary producing space. When you’re done recording your talent with the QSF, move your StudioTraps into the control room and place them around the speakers. Now watch and hear the mic placement in the mix become more clear than it has ever been before, while it simultaneously improves the sound from your speakers.
Summarizing his affection for ASC’s products, the famous producer Bruce Swedien wrapped up a recent interview by once again offering his personal endorsement of the system:
“ASC’s StudioTraps have been one of my ‘secret weapons’ all these years. They are an incredible product—durable, portable, extremely flexible and most important, they give me the ability to achieve precise, repeatable sound results with whatever microphones I choose, wherever I work. I haven’t done a project without them.” – Bruce Swedien
These projects include albums by Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and LL Cool J.
Why Do You Need a QuickSoundField?
The QSF is a nearfield acoustic environment that improves the quality of the signal at the mic. It uses StudioTraps to surround and separate both mic and talent from the room. The QSF creates a controlled and very stable acoustic workstation and completes the missing link, the acoustic part of the mic environment in todays digital studio. Sonic structure inside the QSF is so consistent, you can break the kit down, put it away, days later you can casually set it back up anywhere and get the same sound you had before.
The QuickSoundField is an amazing resource for producers. Ask your talent to step into the opening at the base of the QSF setup and drop your mic into the middle. The mic becomes decoupled from the room. That means that you can finally free your tracks from that close mic, proximity sound effect. Dig out your good figure 8 or omni, don’t be afraid to back it off the talent, up and away into that dense set of early reflections that live, alive and well, inside the QSF.
And then, ask your talent to project, to play into and fill up the QSF space in front of them. They should also feel free to move around, because the sound inside that space doesn’t change at the mic, it just stays there, rock solid. Best of all is that what the talent hears is what it sounds like on playback. And, yes it pans, mixes and runs through the effects rack just like ay other dry signal, except better. Remember: “you gotta hear it to believe it.”
Keeping the Dream Alive- produced/engineered by Bruce Swedien at West Viking Studio
ASC is proud to announce this incredible video showing off ASC-TubeTrap acoustics. Lead Vocals by Brent Carter. Drums by Josh Garneau. Guitars by Jordan Garneau. Pianos/Keyboards by Mason Embry. Written by Kent and Jordan Garneau and Darren Corlew. Orchestrated by Jeremy Lubbock. Produced/ Engineered by Bruce Swedien. Co-Engineered by Keith Henderson.
