| Influences |
Soundcraft Ghost LE analog mixing console (with classic British EQ and automation). Not to be confused with older or live Soundcraft consoles, this recording desk sounds very much like vintage British consoles without the huge pricetag.
Mic preamplifiers
Manley TNT (either tube or SS, gorgeous)
AMS-Neve 4081 modern 1081's, clean and tight)
Earthworks 1024 (very low noise, straight wire gain)
True Precision 8 (mildly gritty character, discrete)
Sytek MP4x (Russian/American, Class A, very fast)
TL Audio VP2051(British, tube, very colorful)
Presonus Digigmax (not bad, seldom used)
ART (tube, surprisingly dirty & good for cheap).
That's over 32 channels of choice mic pres ... more than you typically see and more than we ever need!
Microphones (condenser, tube, ribbon, crystal, stereo and dynamic)
Berliner U77 (incredible vocal clarity, ideal on men and women)
AEA R92 ribbon (modern ribbon, delicious drum roomage and female vocals)
Neumann TLM 103's and KM184's (LDC's and SDC's)
AKG C422 (stereo C414), C451's (industry standards), C3000's (the black originals), D12E (Motown bottom end), D112 (modern kick standard)
Sennheiser MD421's (ideal for toms) and MD504's (for tighter spaces)
Beyer M160 (hypercardioid ribbon!), M201 (snare specialist)
EV ND408 (the egg), 635A and PL9 (dirty little omnis), 649B ("lavalier" from the 60's, gritty nasal hell)
Shure Beta 87C (cardioid, much smoother than 87A), SM 58's and 57's (rock standards), Beta 91 (punchy kick drum)
Audio Technica AT4033 (nice guitar tones)
Equitek E200 (super smooth female vox)
Plus our collection of oddballs, vintage Ampex dynamics, Lafayette crystal (for telephone or walkie-talkie sounds), Realistic omni handheld (no proximity effect) and more plastic/toy mics than you can throw a windscreen at)
Digital editing via Digital Performer 6.02 running on OS X Snow Leopard 10.6, very much like ProTools (far and above their affordable but way too compromised LE version). Not all computers (or software) are created equal ... we use a state-of-the-art Mac Pro that is loaded with Waves Master series mastering plug-ins and two of the UAD-1 from Universal Audio ... this is the right stuff.
Classic 1980's analog Ampex master tape recorder (not to be confused with an Otari or similiar budget 1/4" machines). Custom refurbished by analog expert Wayne Gunn of Audio Village (Palm Springs CA), this beauty was modified for 1/2" tape, 30 IPS high speed operation, new old-stock Nortronics heads, new capstan and B series transport with the C series electronics and transformerless input option. The resulting sound is marvelously colored; warm, smooth, pleasantly fat and just generally nicer sounding. She's so "clean" that the use of noise reduction isn't even required.
Signal processing from Universal Audio, Lexicon, Yamaha, Valley, Symetrix, Alesis, Antares and others. Compression and dynamics from Chandler Limited (two of the mighty Germaniums), Empirical Labs (the Fatso), Waves, MOTU, Brooks Siren (BSS), Symetrix (with the revered Valley People VCA), dBX (the classic 160X), Valley, FMR (both the RNC and the RNLA) and ART (optical, tube).
Monitoring from JBL 4328 (LSR series) with room mode correction and subwoofer, Avantone Mixcubes (active, modern Auratones) and Cerwin-Vega. Headphone monitoring from Grado, AKG, Fostex and Sennheiser via high powered amps from Behringer and Fostex (up to 5 separate mixes). In-ear monitoring for drummers (this is THE future of monitoring) with both Shure's and Future Sonics.
A multitude of guitar amps from Rivera, Marshall, Fender, Mesa Boogie, Univox, Roland, Peavey and Crate. Active guitar splitting for multi-amp recording setups. More guitar pedals than you could ever use including pedalboard/9V supply/patchbay, switchless wah, many distortion boxes, modulation and rack-mount guitar processors too. Guitars from Paul Reed Smith, Taylor (great recording acoustic), Fender hollowbody Telecaster (gorgeous feedback heaven) and a personal fave "Frankenflame" for drop tunings. Classical C-128 from Takamine.
Bass rig includes SWR400S amp with tube preamp and powerful sweepable/graphic EQ, ADA preamp with crazy bass distortions and speakers from JBL. Basses from Kubicki (an "original" Factor - incredible for recording), Fender, Godin (fretless), Ventura (gorgeous Gibson copy) and others.
All cabling from Monster Cable, Mogami and Canare. From studio to control, from mic pres to tape, from top to bottom. Patching from ADC TT bays, utilizing all Mogami cables and silver solder for superior conductivity and low capacitance. (No budget Hosa stuff here). |
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