ProAudio Review - March 2009 - (Page 17)

At Paragon Studios, owner Fred Paragano has observed clients using his studio’s outboard equipment less and less, in favor of their own hardware or software plug-ins. microphones, which we send to a local mic tech.” Like Blackbird Audio Rentals, Blackbird Studio boasts an equipment list that would fill this magazine and then some. “We have one of the largest selections of outboard gear in the world,” says Blackbird’s chief recording engineer, Vance Powell. “Things that get used often, we have a lot of. I had to look it up the other day; we have 28 [Urei] Blackface 1176s. I think we’ve got about 40 Pultecs.” When it comes to the tools people use to make records, he says, “We have a lot of some of them, and some of a lot of them.” Blackbird Burgeons with Choices in Hardware Located in the Berry Hill community, Blackbird Studio, says Powell, is more than likely to have whatever boutique item one could want. DW Fearn compressors? Check. Great River preamps? Check. Universal Audio LA-1A, BBC compressors, Decca compressors? EMI Curve Bender, Eventide 2016, Quantec Room Simulator, Marshall Time Modulator? You get the idea. There is a near-infinite supply of standard and boutique processing gear at the studio and Blackbird Audio Rentals, owing to John McBride, owner, longtime live-sound engineer and spouse of country superstar Martina McBride. “I think John has $3 million in vintage guitars,” says Powell. “Forty vintage Gretsch drum kits. We have a storage building onsite, and a 13,000-square-foot warehouse that has two [Sony] Oxford consoles, a Trident 80B, a Neotek console, several tape machines that were just overflow, and all of Martina’s touring gear. We have a lot of stuff.” For all the gear, however, the tried-and-true, meat-and-potatoes Gear for The Raconteurs sessions in Blackbird Studio D also claim an enviable ability to satisfy an engineer’s deepest yearning, via hard- or software. “It’s unbelievable,” says Rolff Zwiep of Blackbird Audio Rentals’ exploding business, which serves the entire U.S. as well as the local community. “We all know there are studios closing. There are businesses related to the industry closing, too. Obviously, budgets are down; big-project budgets are as much as split in half now. So rather than investing in the gear, people are renting for a fraction of the cost, and leaving the maintenance and upkeep of the gear to the person who owns it. We don’t have a problem with that, because we’ve got our own tech shop within the studio complex. They maintain all the gear in our inventory, except for a few select www.proaudioreview.com March 2009 | ProAudioReview 17 http://www.proaudioreview.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProAudio Review - March 2009

ProAudio Review - March 2009 Contents Technically Speaking New Studio Products Opinion: Studio Sense Gear Trends In Nashville Focusrite Liquid Mix HD TDM Plug-in Daking Mic-Pre One sE Electronics RNR1 Active Ribbon Microphone WAVES Tony Maserati Plug-in Collection KRK Systems Rokit 8 G2 Monitors and 10s Subwoofer JBL Control 2P Powered Desktop Monitors Neumann TLM 103D Digital Microphone System Violet Design “The Wedge” Condenser Microphone New Live Products Opinion: Worship Audio Fender Passport Deluxe PD-500 Portable PA PAR Contributor Of The Month Behringer 2442FX 10x4x2 Analog Mixer Single Slice

ProAudio Review - March 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.