Berlin, Germany; July 2023 – Music producer and film composer, Hendrik Nölle is a staunch Audient audio interface fan, co-writing and producing the soundtrack for the recent German Netflix hit movie, Blood & Gold with iD14 in his setup. He also has an iD4 “for travelling” and is very keen to start working with his new iD24 which has just been delivered.
Having worked together a couple of times already, Hendrik was already on director Peter Thorwarth’s radar when it came to Blood & Gold. “He wanted two composers on this movie, which was a gift. Jessica de Rooij wrote the emotional pieces and I composed the more action-driven scenes,” says Hendrik, who produced it all.
He and Jessica spent a total of four months working on the soundtrack, and found an easy synergy. As a result of their collaboration, they have joined forces to work together on future projects as well. “She’s a brilliant and educated composer who writes great themes and emotional cues,” he says. There is no shortage of either emotion or action in this film which is set in the last days of the second world war – and topped the Netflix international movie charts when it was released last month.
So what is it about these audio interfaces? “I picked Audient for a couple of reasons,” explains Hendrik. “I appreciate rugged-built stuff – which the Audients definitely are, whilst not being super expensive. I like the sound of the preamps, and the converters are fine for me. Also, when I go to recording sessions I just plug in an ADAT cable and have enough channels for pretty much everything.”
Reflecting on his setup, he realises how he has come full circle over the years. “Fifteen years ago I started by building my first small studio together with my friends. Later on I moved, and the studio got bigger and fancier. Now I’m returning to a minimal setup, as most of my work happens ‘inside the box’ – especially when I’m writing.”
His kit will soon shrink further, as he has decided to get rid of his current monitor controller in favour of the built-in ‘user defined’ monitor control of the new iD24. “That functionality will come in very handy,” he says. His new Audient audio interface allows him to connect and listen to his mixes through two sets of speakers via the four line outputs. He can also assign any of the advanced monitoring features – Speaker Select, Talkback, Polarity Invert or Mono Sum – to any of the F-buttons to take control of his session.
“Little things like the two headphone plugs and the inserts are highly appreciated as well,” he adds. “I’ve also been reading good stuff about the converters. I think that’ll be a nice update, too.”
Right now he’s finishing off an EP for his friend, Cologne-based electro producer, Mazemirror. There are a few new things in the pipeline, too. “We are just starting to work on two different series. I can’t talk about the names yet, but one is a Netflix production, the other one is for German television. Both of them are pretty dark!” he says.
At least with the iD24’s optical input and output connections he can boost his I/O by adding up to eight channels of mic pres to his setup. So he’ll be ready to expand his setup if necessary.
Find out what Hendrik’s up to by visiting his IMDb page or click through to his website here.
