“A very easy decision in the end” | String and Tins chooses Dynaudio M-Series Mk-II Monitors

Inside the String and Tins Post-Production Studios in Soho

Will Cohen is a Supervising Sound Designer and co-founder of String and Tins, a post-production studio based in Soho, London. His career in audio post spans over two decades, covering advertising, documentaries and feature films.

Over the years Will has been involved in shaping both creative and technical workflows, from managing teams to specifying and integrating studio systems. We sat down with him for a chat about his career in post-production, and to find out why he chose to upgrade String and Tins’ main mix room with Dynaudio M-series MkII Monitors.

From Music Tech to Post Production

Will’s path into post-production began almost by accident. “I first got into it by mistake actually,” Will says. “I’d come off the back of a music tech course and was looking for a job in a music studio.

“This was back in 2001. I just applied to every single music studio I could find in London, hand delivering letters and that kind of jazz. I got an interview at a post-production facility, and I turned up in my suit haha. And they were like ‘we do documentaries and episodic stuff’. And I thought, ‘you know what, this is something I could actually see myself being interested in for the next 40 years.’”

At the time he had little understanding of the scope of sound design. “I didn’t even really realise that people were adding footsteps and sounds on to people walking around – it just didn’t really cross my mind,” he confesses. “But I quickly realised that a life in music studios working in pop music probably wasn’t for me. So yeah, I got in like that.”

Starting out as a runner at M2 Television, a Soho facility near Berwick Street, Will gradually moved into the studio. Under the tutelage of Richard Lambett – then Head of Audio at M2 – Will gained exposure to long-form and animated series work. Lambett then established his own outfit – Marmalade, a division that became part of Jungle Studios – where Will spent seven and a half years developing his skills.

Building String and Tins

In 2013, Will joined forces with a couple of fellow engineers to found String and Tins, with the goal of creating a flexible, technically capable studio. “We were chatting in the pub, and were like ‘we can do this differently’. Or at least we thought we could,” he laughs.

The early days were modest: a short-term let with partitioned walls, limited equipment, and learning quickly as they went. Like the famous story about advertisers Saatchi & Saatchi – who in their early days hired volunteers and friends, to sit in their office to make the agency look larger and busier than it actually was when clients visited – Will says they had a single sofa that had to be quietly shuffled between rooms during client visits.

Over the years the studio evolved into its current Soho location, a multi-award winning studio that features five mix rooms: two Dolby Atmos-enabled, three stereo rooms, two additional recording booths, and a wide selection of gear: microphones, studio outboard, and other toys like classic synthesizers – a Sequential Pro 3, a hidden modular Eurorack, and a Waldorf Quantum – plus a piano in the lobby.

“All our rooms are on a Dante network, and we can remote into the booths from any room,” explains Will. “We have something called an NTP Penta pre, which is an 8-channel preamp made by the parent company of DAD, and that comes up on the Avid S6 in each room. We’ve got DAD Matrixes in pretty much every room, and every room has Dynaudio monitoring.

“We’ve got some other nice pres – all the rooms have Neve 1073s. The compressor/limiters are called 2206s I think, and we’ve got API pres as well depending on what clients want or what we want. The APIs have loads of clean gain – the Neves have a little bit more flavour. Some people seem to want the Neve for ADR. So we have things to suit whatever people want.”

Projects and Experiences

Will’s work takes him into a wide range of projects – from advertising and branding, to feature-length documentaries. Notable recent works include Kensuke’s Kingdom, an animation based on the novel by Michael Morpugo – where Will acted as both Sound Designer and Mixer – as well as a documentary for Adidas about Paralympic athlete Lauren Rowles.

Among his earlier work, Will cites advertising short Audi Birth as a stand out. “I wrote the music for that,” recalls Will. “I had a lot of fun with Zynaptic’s Morph plugin, morphing this Audio R8 car with horses screaming and other unusual sounds. It all came together really nicely.”

Currently, he is working on the new full-cast audio books of the Harry Potter books for Audible, which features actors such as Hugh Laurie, Kiera Knightley, Kit Harrington, James McAvoy and Matt Berry. All fully realised in Dolby Atmos.

Choosing Dynaudio M-series

Will’s experience with Dynaudio monitors dates back to the early 2000s. “When I first got a job as a runner, I moved in with my mate Tom,” he says. “He was doing remix work and making a bit of money, like his remix for Jamiroquai. And the first thing he did was bought a pair of Dynaudio BM5As.

“It was like the most open listening experience I think I’d had to date. They just were so clean and crisp, and the image was pinging. And yeah, from that moment on I’m like, ‘I’m going with Dynaudios’.”

Over the years Will has owned BM6s and BM15 passives. When it came to outfitting String and Tins, he considered a couple of alternatives such as Meyer and Genelec. “I had a room at Jungle Studios that had Genelecs, and to be honest I didn’t always have the best time in there. Whereas Dynaudio to me sounds very natural. The top end feels nice. They’re very unfatiguing – it was a very easy decision in the end.”

The main mix room features a 9.3.6 Atmos custom configuration from the Dynaudio Acoustics M-Series: M3Fs in the screen, MA15s in surrounds and ceiling, and MS15s for subs.

Dynaudio Acoustics provided custom cabinets for the studio, as well as handling the installation. Will notes the reliability of the system, and the support from Dynaudio and Synthax UK: “As you can imagine, our speakers get a lot of use. We’ve only had two speakers have any damage, almost certainly from our doing, and both of them have been fixed very quickly.”

Dynaudio M-Series Mk-II M3F and MS15 subwoofers mounted in the ceiling

Working in Dolby Atmos

Will is an advocate for Dolby Atmos, highlighting the creative flexibility it offers, as well as the immersive headphone mixes, and consistent translation across multiple platforms. “The development of Atmos as a format has really benefited us creatively,” he says.

 

“a more interesting sonic experience”

“I really like working with a 3D panel and not having to think too much about channels. Atmos enables you a more free-thinking method of mixing. That person walking and talking in my tracks is an object, right? You’re not thinking about what channel it’s coming out of; you’re thinking about where it is on screen, and how that should play out in a real-world space.

“Creating binaural work in Atmos is also really exciting. It allows us to give someone listening on headphones a much more interesting sonic experience.”

Advice for aspiring Sound Designers

Will’s advice is straightforward: enthusiasm, practice, and loving what you do are all essential. “Primarily, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘Do I love what I’m doing here?’” he reflects.

“If you love making noises, recording sound, mangling stuff, computers, then stage one is complete. Then get on with it – collaborate, have something to show for yourself, and keep making things. The more you make, the more threads of life expand in front of you.”

“It’s very easy to be anxious or afraid of putting yourself out there. It’s scary not knowing people, and not knowing where to go. But I think you’ve just got to be brave.

“Just make sure when you do, you’ve got something to show for yourself. Because if someone gives you that time… I mean it’s happened to me before. I’ll meet up with someone and say ‘okay show me what you’ve got, show me your SoundCloud’. And they’re like, ‘oh no, I haven’t got anything public yet’. I have some music going on, but it’s not ready yet.’

“Then two years later they say the same thing. So you’re never going to be ready? It’s like, that’s really game over… So yeah, make sure you’ve got something to show for yourself. And then hit it hard. Be brave!”

To finish off, Will reflects on what first drew him to sound design. Despite continuing to produce his own music, ultimately it’s his interest in creating new sounds that keeps him coming back for more.

“I came to realise quite early on in my adult life that I’m not primarily a composer,” he says. “I’m more interested in mangling something than making an arrangement. I don’t have that desire to create big musical structures. I can do it, but it’s not in my blood. Some people just have to, it’s like their calling, they have to get these ideas out.

“I mean I’ve got a friend of mine, Max Cooper, he’s a relatively well known electronic musician. I remember meeting up with him, we were in our 20s and we’d left uni, and suddenly he’s on Radio One, doing a Radio One mix. And I’m like, what the hell? And we were chatting and he says ‘I’ve written 50 tunes this year.’

“It’s like, no wonder he’s successful – he’s just absolutely living and breathing his music, churning out tracks. Not all of them will necessarily be amazing, but there’ll be some great music in there. And then there’s me like, you know, ‘I’ve made three things this year and I don’t want to play them to anyone…’. I guess that’s what made me realise I’m not really a composer.

“I’d rather download Radium (Soundminer Pro) and mess with that. Work out what else it can do. For no real reason haha. And I’m totally cool with that. That’s part of why I’m a Sound Designer. You have to work out what your superpower is.”

Our thanks to Will Cohen and String and Tins. To find out more about their latest work, head to over www.stringandtins.com

See the full range of Dynaudio M-series monitors

Want to know more about Dynaudio M-series?
Give us a call on 01727 821 870 or contact us here.

Will Cohen, Supervising Sound Designer and Co-Founder of String and Tins

Read Next: Other Dynaudio User Stories

---

Dynaudio is world-famous for making hand-crafted high-end loudspeakers for living rooms, home cinemas, cars and professional recording studios.

Since the beginning in 1977, the company has made iconic products rooted in a love of music and film – reproducing exactly what the artist intended. Nothing more, nothing less.