Studio Equipment
High quality digital recording with the ease and automation of a computer audio workstation is the way studios all over the world have gone in the last few years. Though analog tape can be a great sounding medium, especially for bass and drums, not many engineers or recording artists would want to return to the days before automation.
A state of the art Digidesign ProTools HD3 Accel system is at the heart of the studio's recording equipment. Dave has used ProTools for over 10 years and has lots of experience getting sounds quickly and editing performances to showcase your best playing. ProTools allows all aspects of signal processing, fader levels and anything else associated with a mix to be automated and stored in the computer. Mixes can be auditioned and minor changes made without needing to do extensive work re-setting analog console channels and outboard hardware. Digital recording also allows for types of editing that have never been possible before. Expertly done edits between takes are seamless and inaudible, and allow the artist to work at greater speeds and achieve levels of playing finess that were unattainable in the past. We've found that our artists love the ability to speedily and easily sound their best with our digital audio editing skills. Currently the system has two Digidesign 192 modules capable of 24 simultaneous analog audio inputs and outputs. As with all digital audio systems, once you've recorded the tracks to the computer you can build up just about as many as you want. The 192 I/O is capable of recording resolutions up to 24 bit, 192 kHz. Lots of plug-in programs are available for effects processing, specialized editing and mastering. A Glyph hard disc rack provides hot swapable SCSI-2 drives of tested reliability as the recording medium.
The recording chain starts with a high quality microphone, and the studio has an extensive collection of high grade tube and solid state microphones, all chosen for their excellent sound quality. All cables between the rooms and the interconnects in the control room are ultra high grade, low capacitance wire from Mogami. An extensive collection of high grade microphone preamps provides the link between the mic and the ProTools system. The studio's monitoring sytem from Lipinski Audio and CraneSong has been selected by several other audiophile-oriented studios nationwide, and by the renowned mastering engineer Bob Katz of Digital Domain, author of Mastering Audio. |
