{"id":48409,"date":"2023-01-25T15:17:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T15:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/?p=48409"},"modified":"2023-02-17T13:06:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T13:06:45","slug":"dynaudio-studio-masters-steve-mazzaro-core-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/2023\/01\/25\/dynaudio-studio-masters-steve-mazzaro-core-59\/","title":{"rendered":"Studio Masters: Steve Mazzaro on the Dynaudio Core 59 studio monitors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48419 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Studio-Masters-Steve-Mazarro-youtube.jpg\" alt=\"Film composer and recording engineer Steve Mazzaro in the studio for Dynaudio Studio Masters\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Studio-Masters-Steve-Mazarro-youtube.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Studio-Masters-Steve-Mazarro-youtube-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Studio-Masters-Steve-Mazarro-youtube-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Studio-Masters-Steve-Mazarro-youtube-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><em>Images courtesy of: <\/em><\/strong><a title=\"Henrik Kastenskov | World Press Photo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.worldpressphoto.org\/henrik-kastenskov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Henrik Kastenskov<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>You might not have heard his name, but you\u2019ve definitely heard his work. Dynaudio sits down with the man behind the music of <em>Bond<\/em>, <em>Boss Baby<\/em> and <em>Dunkirk<\/em>\u2026<\/h3>\n<p>Steve Mazzaro is a musician, a composer, engineer and musical programmer. A natural creative who needs to work in an environment free from practical barriers that stop him committing his ideas to reality. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/dynaudio\/dynaudio-core-series\/dynaudio-core-59\/\">Dynaudio Core 59<\/a>-powered studio is exactly that place \u2013 which he proves to us in just 15 minutes and 9 seconds\u2026<\/p>\n<p>When you work with music or any form of audio professionally, you know that optimised workflows make the difference between meeting the deadline comfortably and delivering something sub-standard, just in the nick of time. And when you hold multiple roles \u2013 including composer, producer, engineer and programmer, like Mazzaro does \u2013 you need to be able to immediately express your ideas when inspiration hits.<\/p>\n<p>And then, when another idea inevitably comes along straight away to punt the first one out, you want to be able to quickly change direction. An optimised workflow saves the day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"display: flex; justify-content: center; margin: 0 auto; text-align: center;\">\n<div>\n<h4>Dynaudio Studio Masters | Steve Mazzaro<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dynaudio Studio Masters | Steve Mazzaro | YouTube\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GmpLWfXhVQA\" name=\"Dynaudio Studio Masters | Steve Mazzaro | YouTube\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">See more videos at <a title=\"Subscribe to the SynthaxTV YouTube channel\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/subscription_center?add_user=synthaxtv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Synthax TV<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<h2>Who is Steve Mazzaro?<\/h2>\n<p>He\u2019s a film-, TV- and game-score composer and performer. You\u2019ve heard his work, even if you haven\u2019t heard his name. Mazzaro started playing the piano at the age of five and, like many successful pro musicians, picked up pretty much every other instrument he could lay his hands on: alto sax, French horn, drums, guitar, bass&#8230; And, again, like so many seasoned pros, it\u2019s fair to say he walked a well-trodden path to Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>After leaving high school in Ohio and considering the likes of Boston\u2019s Berklee College of Music and the Eastman School of Music in New York, Mazzaro settled on composition over performance. \u201cI felt like I had a good foundation from playing piano when I was young, and from all the writing that I\u2019d been doing for six or seven years, so I decided to move out to Los Angeles on a whim,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8220;Hans just wanted to hear it because, \u2018Oh, this\u2019ll be good\u2019. He was taken aback that it was just a mock-up, so he said: \u2018Cool, let\u2019s sue this guy\u2019.&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p>Soon he ended up getting a gig re-creating pre-existing film music for a UK-based company called Silva Screen: \u201cI would recreate everything you heard as closely as I could get. I got really good at it, and I was particularly good at doing Hans Zimmer\u2019s stuff.\u201d Mazzaro had done a piece from Angels and Demons called 160BPM which, unbeknownst to him at the time, was intended to be impossible to play by real musicians. \u201cHans just wanted to hear it because, \u2018Oh, this\u2019ll be good\u2019. &nbsp;He was somewhat taken aback that it was just a mock-up, so he immediately said: \u2018Cool, let\u2019s sue this guy\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt started off as an email from his assistant: \u2018Hi Steve, Hans would like to speak with you when you have a moment, please call us\u2019. I\u2019d get emails from a lot of composers asking me what samples I\u2019d use in my mock-ups, because they\u2019d hear that through the Silva Screen work, so I just thought it was another one of those. At the time he was thrilled! \u2018It sounds great! Are you in town? I\u2019d love to meet,\u2019 and all that stuff. It wasn\u2019t until a year ago that I found out that he actually was going to sue me. Thankfully he did not!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Zimmer hired Mazzaro, and since then he has worked on the scores for films like <em>The Dark Knight<\/em>, <em>Man of Steel<\/em>, <em>Interstellar<\/em>, <em>Dunkirk<\/em>, <em>Dune<\/em>, <em>Top Gun: Maverick<\/em>, <em>The Amazing Spider-Man 2<\/em> and the first two <em>Boss Baby<\/em> films, to name but a few.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-44854\" src=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Dynaudio-Core-59-Front-Synthax-Audio-UK.jpg\" alt=\"Dynaudio Core 59 - Front - Synthax Audio UK\" width=\"160\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Dynaudio-Core-59-Front-Synthax-Audio-UK.jpg 798w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Dynaudio-Core-59-Front-Synthax-Audio-UK-160x300.jpg 160w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Dynaudio-Core-59-Front-Synthax-Audio-UK-768x1444.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Dynaudio-Core-59-Front-Synthax-Audio-UK-545x1024.jpg 545w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/>A creative playground<\/h2>\n<p>The location for Dynaudio&#8217;s rendezvous with Mazzaro is in his own home studio, which is clearly a creative space set up for tracking ideas in the writing process and arranging parts, rather than multitracking bands or orchestras. But given Steve\u2019s history with getting his hands on basically whatever musical instrument he could find, it was no surprise to find that he has a vast collection of guitars, basses and other stringed instruments, as well as electronic drums and keys for triggering a wealth of massive sound libraries on the computers via MIDI.<\/p>\n<p>On the studio monitor side, Dynaudio&#8217;s Core 59 speakers handle his main left and right channels, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/dynaudio\/dynaudio-lyd-series\/\">LYD speakers<\/a> at the rear to support mixing for surround sound. \u201cI would sum up the listening experience of Dynaudio speakers as clear and neutral, but not in a bad way,\u201d Mazzaro says. \u201cAny time I&#8217;m listening to stuff, I want to know what it sounds like, I don&#8217;t want a lot of hype, and I really want to know how it&#8217;s going to translate \u2013 and the Dynaudio speakers do translate very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The main computer runs Cubase, as well as the already-mentioned sound libraries, and just above the main keyboard there\u2019s a second computer with a touchscreen. Mazzaro uses this for triggering a wealth of predefined shortcuts that support his workflow. It quickly becomes obvious that he has a host of tactile remote-control devices at his fingertips \u2013 and that he \u2018plays\u2019 those devices with just as much virtuosity as he does his musical instruments.<\/p>\n<p>One of these devices is, of course a full-size, 88-key MIDI keyboard, which sits just below the desktop. Right above the keyboard is a Contour RollerMouse and a Trackball mouse. On the right-hand side there\u2019s a Stream Deck remote control, and on the left, a custom-built ChoiSauce MIDI fader controller along with his ARC USB \u2013 an advanced remote control for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/rme\/firewire-usb\/\">RME audio interfaces<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_48441\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48441\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-48441\" src=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Steve_Mazzaro_BW-1577-2.jpg\" alt=\"Composer Steve Mazzaro looking pensive\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Steve_Mazzaro_BW-1577-2.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Steve_Mazzaro_BW-1577-2-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-48441\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nothing by halves: Mazzaro started off just riffing out a few ideas for Dynaudio\u2019s video crew. Then, after his inner perfectionist took charge, he went at it with all the dedication you\u2019d expect from someone working on a telephone-number budget blockbuster. And, of course, he\u2019s monitoring on a pair of Core 59s<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>The &#8216;Grumpy Kid&#8217; challenge<\/h2>\n<p>We decide to give Mazzaro a challenge: create a character theme for a petulant kid who will never exist, in an animated film that will never be made. But do it on the fly \u2013 right here and right now.<\/p>\n<p>He accepts immediately, and while he does spend some 30 seconds in silence with his eyes closed, imagining this made-up character, he completed the theme \u2013 fully orchestrated, mixed and mastered \u2013 in just 15 minutes and 9 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>After his initial moment of silence, he starts to build up steam \u2013 messing around with a few chords in C-minor on the piano before alighting on a chord progression with the right vibe. And then it\u2019s as if the floodgates open, with Mazarro becoming increasingly inspired by the second. His fingers dance around the plethora of remote controls punching keyboard shortcuts, Steam Deck presets and the tilted touchscreen.<\/p>\n<p>ChoiSauce faders and mice are handled with ease and elegance; it\u2019s obvious that this became second-nature to him a long time ago.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, he doesn\u2019t touch the remote piano controller for quite some time \u2013 instead simply copy\/pasting, moving, deleting and drawing notes in Cubase MIDI tracks. It\u2019s much like you might imagine Mozart writing notes on paper and knowing exactly how they would sound without having to listen to it over and over.<\/p>\n<p>Once the chord progression is moulded to perfection on the piano, Mazzaro immediately starts breaking it down to parts, allocating different orchestral sounds. He prefers to start in the low-end of the frequency spectrum and does another round of splitting the MIDI information to new tracks, loading sound libraries and moving this way through the entire theme and frequency range. Again, this is mainly happening using the remote controls: swells, fade-ins, velocity-tweaking, composing, producing and engineering are all happening in real-time.<\/p>\n<p>It already sounds amazing, and Mazzaro could have called it a day here. But at this point, he&#8217;s so deep into the process that he just keeps going \u2013 adding string arpeggios, doubling with a kid-like flute sound, and embellishing the end with a flourish of timpani and cymbals.<\/p>\n<p>The result: a six-second piece of \u2018unapproved music\u2019 that perfectly captures that scene in our imaginary film where the grumpy kid stomps down the hallway\u2026 and you instantly know trouble is waiting just around the corner.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Character building<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s one thing to do a fun challenge for an imaginary, animated character. Doing it for major cinema productions is something entirely different. One of the big pictures Mazzaro worked on was Man of Steel, where he was able to write new material \u2013 sometimes based on taking Zimmer\u2019s themes and stretching them, writing suites of them and so on. Or sometimes piling into a room with all the other composers and coming up with stuff together.<\/p>\n<p>A film score isn\u2019t like an album. You don\u2019t have a series of tracks \u2013 more a series of ideas that flow across the whole thing, ebbing and flowing with what\u2019s up on screen. \u201cWhen you\u2019re writing a theme for a character, a lot of what you end up doing is just navigating through the film and piecing together their scenes to get a sense of the character arc,\u201d says Mazzaro.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo for instance, if it\u2019s a super-hero theme and the main character has a lot of trauma and the whole movie is about that trauma, there are a lot of chords and note movements and things that give certain emotions \u2013 so you\u2019ll gravitate towards a thing. Sometimes you\u2019ll have the instrumentation first, and you\u2019ll just write with that in mind. For a lot of scenes, you\u2019ll end up changing it all the time \u2013 even though it\u2019s the same concept or emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<h2><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-48469 core-small\" src=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AdobeStock_442331872.webp\" alt=\"Landscape shot from behind the Hollywood sign in California, USA\" width=\"401\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AdobeStock_442331872.webp 1200w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AdobeStock_442331872-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AdobeStock_442331872-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AdobeStock_442331872-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px\" \/>Building sound stories<\/h2>\n<p>A lot of the time, Mazzaro will create the base of a theme and then explore it: a big version, a \u2018B-theme\u2019, little riffs and motifs. All of which goes towards building the character\u2019s musical toolbox.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of storytelling. There are so many little things that 99 per cent of people don\u2019t know that\u2019s in film music that we spend so much time trying to figure out. It\u2019s good storytelling, and it creates an arc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes that storytelling is almost subliminal, coming from tiny musical cues. A pensive chord-change here, a little flourish there \u2013 always a variation on a central theme. It gently steers the viewer in the direction the character\u2019s emotions are facing. But sometimes, it\u2019s a much bigger beast. And big beasts are harder to fight.<\/p>\n<p>Take <em>Dunkirk<\/em>, which has music throughout. No gaps. \u201cSomebody on the team \u2013 and we all collectively agreed \u2013 had this idea where we would make the music constantly speed up. Like a Shepard tone, in rhythmic form,\u201d Mazzaro says. The aim was to create a relentless sense of tension: the music would get faster, the fastest bits would fade out, and different, slower patterns would replace them. Then the cycle would continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem with that is, we\u2019ve mapped the whole film out to get faster and faster. There\u2019s never a second of silence. When you\u2019re working on a film, they make a lot of edits. When they edited out a second in the middle, we had to re-do the entire film. Every single time they changed the film, we had to re-do everything. And this isn\u2019t just, like \u2018Oh, OK, just change the tempo\u2019. No no no. It took hours, and then we\u2019d have to plan on where the note would be at the current frame rate, to get to the next scene \u2013 but what tempo would that start at? It was pure agony!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Removing the barriers<\/h2>\n<p>And that\u2019s where a solid workflow comes in. For guys like Steve Mazzaro \u2013 and probably most audio pros out there \u2013 creating optimised workflows is all about removing whatever barriers there may be that could block creative processes. Mazzaro has put a lot of effort into making his system all about shortcuts that can be triggered on remote-control devices.<\/p>\n<p>But another piece of that puzzle is his choice of studio monitors, which he simply needs to provide the confidence that he can trust what he hears. And Dynaudio are honoured to have that role to fall to the Core 59 and LYD monitors.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and in case you wonder how that 6-second \u2018grumpy kid character theme\u2019 sounds, you can <a href=\"http:\/\/dynaud.io\/stevemazzarotheme\">hear it right here\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow Steve on Instagram <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/steve_mazzaro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, and on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stevemazzaro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>. Visit his website at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stevemazzaro.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.stevemazzaro.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on <a title=\"Studio Masters: Steve Mazzaro | Dynaudio.com\" href=\"https:\/\/dynaudio.com\/magazine\/2023\/january\/studio-masters-steve-mazzaro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Dynaudio.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Additional Links:<\/h4>\n<p><a title=\"Dynaudio Core Series | Synthax Audio UK\" href=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/dynaudio\/dynaudio-core-series\/\">See the full range of Dynaudio Core Series Monitors<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Dynaudio LYD Series | Synthax Audio UK\" href=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/dynaudio\/dynaudio-lyd-series\/\">See the full range of Dynaudio LYD Series Monitors<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<p>To find out where to buy Dynaudio studio monitors in the UK, visit our <a title=\"Dynaudio UK Dealers | Synthax Audio UK\" href=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/dynaudio-uk-dealers\/\">Dynaudio UK Dealers<\/a> page.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"core-small alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Dynaudio-Logo.jpg\" alt=\"Dynaudio PRO Studio Monitors logo\" width=\"177\" height=\"23\"><\/p>\n<p>Dynaudio is world-famous for making hand-crafted high-end loudspeakers for living rooms, home cinemas, cars and professional recording studios.<\/p>\n<p>Since the beginning in 1977, the company has made iconic products rooted in a love of music and film \u2013 reproducing exactly what the artist intended. Nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<style>\n\n.eightCol {\n  padding: 0 !important;\n}\n\np {\n  font-size: 120%;\n}\n\nhr {\n  margin: 1em;\n}\n\n#attachment_48441 p {\n  font-size: 16px;\n  font-style: italic;\n}\n\n@media only screen and (min-width: 600px) {\n  .sauk-main-img {\n  border: 20px solid white;\n  float: right !important;\n  width: 55%;\n  }\n}\n\n@media only screen and (max-width: 768px) {\n\n.core-small {\n  width: 98vw !important;\n}\n\n\n}\n\n\n<\/style>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Images courtesy of: Henrik Kastenskov You might not have heard his name, but you\u2019ve definitely heard his work. Dynaudio sits down with the man behind the music of Bond, Boss Baby and Dunkirk\u2026 Steve Mazzaro is a musician, a composer, engineer and musical programmer. A natural creative who needs to work in an environment free&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4,494],"tags":[2105,614,2106,587,592,2107,2051,575,1984,2052,2104,563,299,478],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48409"}],"version-history":[{"count":72,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48974,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48409\/revisions\/48974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}