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A Designs P-1

Welcome all to the latest installment of The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio’s audio-fueled, music extravaganza AKA our BEHIND THE GEAR series!!!   Today we’re very happy to talk with y’all about two very neat gizmos in our creative arsenal; our two A Designs P-1 Pre-Amp Modules.   We’ve already talked about a few of our many different Pre-Amps – please click the link above to read about them! – and the wonderful qualities each one adds.  What sets the P-1 aside from the rest of our outboard gear is it’s incredibly simplistic layout and functions.  Strap yourself in, loyal reader, and let’s dive into the A Design P-1 Pre-Amp!A Designs P-1 Mic Pre

A Designs P-1 Mic PreQuality Without Compromise

“Quality Without Compromise,” is A-Designs motto, and boy do they mean it.  Their dedication to creating high-quality audio equipment for live performances and studio recording is only matched by their determination to keep their amazing products as affordable as they can.  As you can see from their website’s About Us Page here, they understand the changing landscape of the audio market and they wish to aid those in need.  A Designs also maintains a fantastic relationship with their customers.  This, along the amazing sound and clarity of A Designs products, is why these modules have been used by professional engineers like Al Schmitt and Dave Pensado to musicians like Rob Wasserman and Justin Medal-Johnson!  Check out who else uses A Designs here!

The P-1 & A Designs’ 500 Series

A Design P-1 & the 500 SeriesA Designs did the world a favor by creating their signature 500 Series Mic Pres.  Though similar in their lunchbox look and minimalist features, each one of the five different mic pres (the blue box, second from the left excluded) was tailor made to capture the timbre of certain instruments and to attenuate specific frequency ranges.  To achieve these separate functions each lunchbox is equipped with its own custom-wound transformers.  The P-1 was designed to emulate the very popular Pacifica mic-pre.  The fidelity of the P-1 is incredible; in fact, it has the highest fidelity of all the 500 series mic-pres.  It mostly accents the low and high-end frequencies with tremendous accuracy, but don’t fret, there is still a fantastically noticeable presence to the mid-range.  The P-1 is so versatile too; you can use it on practically any sound source.  The Record Shop’s henchmen are quite keen to the way the P-1 brings out vocals and hi-hats; it’s perfect for capturing transient sounds.  As you can see from the photos, the P-1 has 5 main components: +48V phantom power, a 20dB pad, phase reversal, mic/line compatible input jack, and a big ol’ red gain pot.  For more information on A Design Audio’s 500 Series click HERE!

 

 

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That wraps up today’s chapter of Behind The Gear!  Thanks for tuning in.  We hope it was informative.  Please feel free to roam around the rest of our blog.  Click here to see The Record Shop Nashville’s complete gear list.  And hey!  Don’t be stranger!  Follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop

 

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Steinway Baby Grand Piano

Nashville Recording Studio Steinway Baby GrandpianoBrace yourselves people because The Record Shop is tackling one of our Nashville Recording Studio’s most prized possessions in today’s BEHIND THE GEAR: our 1923 Steinway Baby Grand Piano.  You heard me.  A 1923…Steinway…Baby…Grand…Piano!  Just look at this gorgeous piece of music-making heaven.  LOOK AT IT!  It’s hard to describe just how incredible this piano sounds.  The slightest tickle on those ivories sends the hair on the back of your neck straight up while it covers your body in goosebumps.  It’s no wonder that these pianos were the preferred piano by past music greats like George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Cole Porter.  Even today, Steinway pianos are beloved by artists like Henry Connick Jr., Diana Krall, and Billy Joel.  Check out their Steinway’s website for a full list of artists.Henry Steinway

 Steinway & Sons

In 1853, Heinrich Englehard Steinway and his five sons C. F. Theodore, Charles, Henry Jr., William, and Albert founded Steinway & Sons.  Over the next three decades, these six men revolutionized the modern piano to what it is today.  During this long, developmental period they patented almost half of the company’s 127 inventions based off of the acoustical research done by one of music history’s favorite physicists Hermann von Helmholtz.  If you want to dive deeper into the pure awesomeness that these six men radiated check out these links to their History page and their 161 Facts page!

Peter KeysPeter Keys & His Steinway

 Like our Hammond Organ, The Record Shop’s baby grand was entrusted to us from Rock n’ Roll great Peter Keys!  “..[I]t was my parents, and when I was a baby, I’d crawl under it and fall asleep while they played classical duets.. It was the first piano I ever played. When my father passed away in 1989, I inherited it, had it shipped from New York to San Francisco where I lived until 2000, when I shipped it to Detroit and had it in my studio there until 2008. I then moved to Nashville, and brought it to The Record Shop. I have written and played it on thousands of tracks over the years. It was fully restored and restrung in 1975, and refinished in 2006. I had a new set of bass strings put on last year.”  The Record Shop is very fortunate to have such an incredible instrument within out Nashville Recording Studio, and we are lucky to see and hear the new songs that continue to be played on it.  

Thanks for tuning in for The Record Shop Nashville’s Behind The Gear!  We hope it was enjoyable and informational.  Feel free to check out the rest of our site, and please, don’t be a stranger.  Follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop for daily updates, photos, and videos!  Have a nice day y’all!

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API 512c Pre Amp

API 512c, Destressers, Purple Audio MC77Hey there friends!  The folks here at The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio have been slaving away making some music that should be hitting your ear drums ASAP.  For now though, we are very happy to continue our never-ending series BEHIND THE GEAR!!  So far we’ve talked about a lot of great gear, but today we’re going to talk about a piece of equipment that is universally acclaimed for its sound and versatility.  The one, the only API 512c Pre Amp! 

Did we say universally acclaimed?  You’re darn tootin’ we did.  In a subjective world of personal tastes and preferences it is hard to come by pieces of gear that practically every person likes, but the API 512c is definitely one of those that breaks the mold.  Engineers have been using these puppies since their creation in the 1970’s by Saul Walker.  The 512c was so perfect that, to this day, it’s design has remained the true to Walker’s classic lunchbox design.API 512c Creator Saul Walker  512c’s have been used on countless recordings by artists such as Prince, The White Stripes, Fleetwood Mac, Jack Johnson, Van Halen, and The Rolling Stones.  This mic/line/instrument pre amp sounds great on literally everything. Drums, vocals, guitars…EVERYTHING. 

Now comes the real fun; the API 512c’s wonderful features!

  • Mic preamp with 65dB gain
  • Front- and rear-panel mic input access
  • Line/instrument preamp with 45dB gain
  • Front-panel line/instrument input
  • LED VU meter for monitoring output level
  • 20dB pad switch, applies to mic/line/instrument
  • 48V switchable phantom power
  • Proprietary API fully discrete circuit design
  • Uses the famous API 2520 Op-Amp

 Us Record Shop Nashville natives absolutely love how much punch and clarity you can achieve with the 512c, which is why we installed six of them into our system.  The transparency of the 512c is something that needs to be talked about more.  These pre-amps bring out every harmonic overtone without adding any coloration to what’s being sent through it.  We highly recommend the 512c to anyone and everyone!

Thanks for tuning in for today’s Behind The Gear.  Feel free to check out The Record Shop Nashville’s full gear list here, and come say Hi to us on Twitter @therecordshop!

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Fender Champ 600

Good morning, noon, or night music fans!  Thanks for coming back to The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio for yet another installment of out never-ending, musically-sensational, out-of-this-world series BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  Today’s episode is for all you amazing guitar slingers out there strummin’ and pickin’ them strings ery’day. images-2  We have many great guitar amps inside The Record Shop Nashville’s hallowed halls, but amongst our larger 2×12 and 4×12 amplifiers sits the tinier Fender Champ 600 reissue.  Don’t let its size fool you; this little guy has been putting out sounds that have bewildered and inspired guitar players since the 1940’s!

A Champ’s Journey

The Fender Champ 600 was first manufactured in 1949.  It was the second Champ design; it’s predecessor being the original Fender Champ 800 amplifier that was manufactured one year earlier in 1948.  Like the 800 model, the Champ 600 is a 4-watt amplifier with 3 tubes and an angled rear panel with two inputs and one volume control knob.  It also had the famous diminutive “TV-front” look with the tweed covering, though the 600’s vinyl covering is a two-tone brown instead of the greenish tweed of the 800 .  The only significant difference in the Champ 600’s design is that it has a 6″ speaker cone instead of an 8″ cone.  As time went on the Champ was continuously redesigned with different color vinyl and tweed covering, alternate speaker cone sizes, input & volume control placement, and even being renamed to just The Champ or Champ Amp.  In 1982, the Fender Champ series was discontinued until 2006, when an updated version was released as part of Fender’s Vintage Model Line.  To see a more in-depth history and evolution of the Fender Champ from the company itself click here!

The Record Shop Nashville is glad to have added one of the reissued Fender Champ 600 amps to our gear roster.  Though it is cosmetically similar to the original 600 there are some differences in the specs listed below.Fender Champ 600

  • Available as a 6″ Combo, features an internal 4 ohm speaker output jack
  • 5 Watts RMS
  • Volume Control
  • Power Switch
  • 2 Input (high, low), 1 Channel
  • 1x 12AX7 and 1x 6V6
  • Solid State Diode Rectified
  • Class A, Single Ended

Internally, the Champ reissue has modified Blackface Champ circuitry.  The tone stack settings are hard-wired rather than adjustable via the Treble and Bass controls.  Additional resistors were also placed in the circuit to reduce input gain.  Lastly, Fender switched to solid-state rectification as opposed to the original 5Y3 tube.

We love using this amp for recordings.  Since it’s a smaller speaker, the Champ naturally sounds a little bright, but that is easily cured with proper mic placement.  Regardless, this amp can turn out classic, clean Fender tones just as well as other models.  Crank this puppy up, and you can get a unique blues overdrive tone too; however, this overdrive isn’t as crunchy as most players would probably prefer.  Either way, the Fender Champ 600 is a bonafide tone champion in The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio.  Come on in and see what this little giant can do!

That’s a wrap on today’s installment of Behind the Gear.  We can’t express how much it means to us that you decided to spend some time with us today.  If you’d like to see The Record Shop Nashville’s complete gear list here.  You can follow and chat with us any time on Twitter @therecordshop for updates on our studio projects and blogs!  See you next time.

 

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Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass

Hey y’all!  Welcome to another jazz-tastic edition of The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio’s multi-faceted, never-ending series BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  Boy, Oh Boy do we have a fun one for y’all today.  The Fender Jazz Bass has been heralded as one of the greatest bass guitars ever created (read RHCP’s Flea thinks about Jazz bass’s greatness here).  That statement is hard to deny when you think about the long lists of musicians who use them like Geddy Lee, Steve Bailey, and Noel Redding.  The Jazz was also monumentally important to the development and sound of funk, reggae, blues, and fusion music.  So put on your black turtlenecks and berets, and lets dive in to the wonders of this spectacular instrument. 

(Below: Sam ___  inside The Record Shop w/ his Fender Jazz)

NASHVILLE RECORDING STUDIO jazz bassAnd All That Jazz

 Every musician and music lover must pay their respects to Leo Fender for revolutionizing the bass guitar forever by making it smaller and amplified.  The Precision Bass, created in 1951, allowed the bass guitar to actually be heard amongst the Big Bands of the day.  Nine years later Fender changed the game again when they produced the first Fender Jazz Bass.  The Jazz became the new standard to which all electric bass guitars were to be compared to.  It’s tapered neck, off-set waist, and two-set pickups made the Jazz more sonically unique and allowed for faster, easier playing!  The Jazz’s sound, in comparison to it’s predecessor, is much brighter and full in the mids and treble with less emphasis on the fundamental frequency.  The the strength of the mids and treble came from the double, single-coil pickup’s having two pole pieces per string, which Fender used to compete with the famously bright tone of Rickenbacker basses.  It also made the bass perfect for slapping!  From 1961-1963, the newer Jazz models became equipped with new features like going from two control knobs to three (two for pickup volume, one for tone control) and “Spring Felt Mutes“, but the Jazz received some major cosmetic alterations after Fender was bought by CBS.  For a more in depth look at the history of the Fender Jazz Bass click HERE!

Fender Aerodyne Jazz BassEMG Jazz Bass Pickups

 

 

The Record Shop’s Aerodyne Jazz Bass!

 

The Aerodyne series was first introduced in 2004, and they are still being manufactured today!  Here, at The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio, we have a 2007 model in our possession.  Like other Aerodyne Jazz models it has the typical Jazz shape but with some differences.  For one, it is much lighter than your normal Jazz bass weighing about 7lbs whereas the standard is about 10lbs.  Secondly, it is thinner than the standard Jazz because of its 39″ top radius.  Other notable design features are its 1.5″ nut, slim “C”-shaped neck, 20 medium-jumbo frets, fret markers on the side only, cream binding, and its Telecaster input jack.  A stock Aerodyne bass has the split single-coil P-Bass pickup in the middle position and a J-Bass single-coil pickup in the bridge position with volume controls per pickup and one master tone tone knob.  Our Aerodyne has been modified with EMG bass pickups (pictured above).  We also switched out the Master Tone with a concentric pot (the bottom of the pot controls the bass frequencies and the top pot controls the treble) allowing you to have more tone control! 

That wraps up another edition of Behind The Gear!  We thank you so much for spending part of your day with us here at The Record Shop Nashville.  Feel free to explore the rest of our blog, and click HERE for a complete list of our Nashville Recording Studio’s gear!  Also, don’t be such a stranger!  Follow and chat with Gio and his merry henchmen on Twitter @therecordshop!

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Furman HDS-6 & HR-6

Hey gang, thanks for stopping by The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio for another installment of our world (in)famous, heart-exploding series BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  Today we would like to give some time and recognition to one of the most crucial pieces of equipment in a studio that often gets unnoticed; the studio cue system.  Here in the our Nashville Recording Studio we utilize the Furman HR-6.  Having a good cue system is vitally important for artists and musicians because without them there would be no music for them to play along to when they track.  More importantly, these boxes allow the musician to hear only what they want to hear when they track without having to waste time yelling at the engineer which instruments they want more or less of.Furman HDS-6  So let’s take a dive into the Furman HR-6!

Furman Sound

Furman Sound has been aiding musicians and engineers alike by producing premium Audio/Visual signal processors since 1974.  That’s not all the company deals with though.  They also manufacture “energy management solutions” that use their incredible BlueBOLT® platform, which you can learn more about on their website HERE!  Furman also produces “AC conditioning and distribution” products (a fancy way to say surge protectors y’all), which is what they are actually best known for making!  Follow this link HERE to learn about why it is important to utilize AC conditioning in your power system.  Furman is now apart of Core Brands LLC, a subsidiary of Nortek’s Technology Solutions Group, which combines the product and marketing power of ten separate audio and power brands.  These kings of power supplies are also well-aware of the responsibility they have for power conservation and the environment .  A few of their “Internal Initiatives” from their website are as follows:

  • RoHS compliance. Our entire 220V-240V Export product line is 100% RoHS compliant, greatly reducing the use of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) in our components. Further, we have been one of the leading voices in pushing overseas manufacturers to develop RoHS-compliant manufacturing and assembly facilities. Because of this, development of RoHS-compliant 120V domestic products is no longer cost-prohibitive, and we are specifying RoHS-compliant components into all new products beginning in 2009.
  • Packaging, product literature: All Panamax/Furman products are packaged using 100% recyclable materials (including recyclable foam inserts and plastic bags). Marketing materials are printed with FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) and RFA (Rain Forest Allliance) Certified Vendors on recycled paper with biodegradable inks.
  • Scrap materials at our QA and repair facility are recycled. All employees within the office are provided recycling bins and large recycling bins are placed throughout our facility.
  • Motion sensor lighting is used throughout our facillity and lighting/HVAC usage is cut back during peak power demands.
  • An aggressive paper reduction initiative has resulted in the development of a paperless fax system and a company wide intranet to facilitate paperless communications.
  • Sales trainings and offsite meetings utilize teleconferencing technologies to reduce travel and further reduce paper consumption.

NASHVILLE RECORDING STUDIOHDS-6 & HR-6 Cue System

The Cue System in our Nashville recording studio, like many other professional studios, utilizes the Furman HDS-6 Headphone Distribution System & the HR-6 remote mixing stations.  The HDS-6 is a rackmount system that is very easy to connect to your studio console or patch bay.  Our HDS-6 is plugged into our system’s patch bay, as is recommended by Furman.  These systems is designed to be a low-distortion line driver and power supply that provides signal, power, and ground to HR-6 remotes.  You can connect up to eight HR-6s to the HDS-6, and you easily daisy chain multiple HR-6s!  The HDS has several, simple features like Level Set control, Overload indicators for setting the best signal-to-noise ratio & headroom, MON/EFF pot controls the gain for the L/R stereo inputs, Ground Lift switch to switch the audio ground off the chassis ground to prevent that awful hum, and they even built in a LED light that warns you if you linked your HR-6 cables (one blue and one gray) into the wrong ports!  The HR-6 mixing station features include volume pots for each of the four mono channels arriving from the HDS-6, the MON/EFF pot controls the level of the stereo main mix, a Submixes Included/Excluded button that allows the listener to hear only the main stereo mix by muting the four mono channels, and of course it has two 1/4″ stereo headphone jacks.  For more information on Furman Sounds follow this link HERE, and for a PDF file of the HDS-6/HR-6 follow this link HERE!

Thanks for coming back for The Record Shop Nashville’s Behind The Gear!  We hope we’ve been helpful in one shape or another.  For a complete list of our Nashville Recording Studio’s gear click HERE.  And don’t be a stranger; follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop!  See y’all next time!

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Vintech Audio 273

Well hey there ladies and gentlemen!  It’s time for  another rumblin’, tumblin’, spittoon-spittin’ edition of The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio’s BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  And boy howdy, if today’s installment ain’t a doozy folks.  We are very proud to talk to you about our lovely Vintech Audio Model 273 mic preamplifier.  Vintech Audio 273

A Little Bit About Vintech!

Vintech Audio has been producing high-end analog outboard gear since their formation in 1997.  The young company makes each of its devices right here in the United States.  Each of their products are class A, discrete transformers-balanced mic pres whose circuitry is based off of the great Neve 1073 modules (pictured below).  The names of each Vintech Audio 73 series models (i.e. the Vintech 73, 273, and 473) are named after the amount of channels each has; clearly out 273 is a two-channel with a fantastic built in EQ.  That’s it!  The 273 has no other built in effects.  Neve 1073 Module

 

Give Us The Specs!!!

The Vintech 273 has two instrument inputs on the front and XLR inputs in the rear.  The parameters of the 273 are pretty standard: there are gain, output, and two-band EQ controls per channel.  Each channel also comes equipped with a set of switches for phantom power, phase in/out, EQ in/out, and a 5k/10k shelf for the EQ.  Lastly, Vintech installed push-push pots to alter the impedance and to switch the channel from a mic to line input.  Neat and organized, the Vintech 273 has been a great addition to our Nashville Recording Studio’s rack. 

Well that wraps up today’s Behind The Gear.  We hope we’ve given you a little bit more insight into the wonderful Vintech Audio model 273 mic preamp.  Be sure to check out The Record Shop Nashville’s complete gear list.  And don’t be a stranger y’all; follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop for daily updates from your friends at The Record Shop!

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Orange Rockverb 50 MKI

Hey there handsome!  Guess what time it is!  That’s right, it’s time for yet another installment of our Nashville Recording Studio’s never-ending series BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  What could we possibly have in store for you in today’s episode?  Why, it’s only one of the most used guitar amplifiers in rock n’ roll history; the Orange Rockverb 50 MKI guitar amplifier!  Nashville Recording Studio orange

What tone are you looking for for that awesome new track your working on?  Do you need a harmonically enriched, clean tone, or do you need some extreme crunch that would make Jimmy Page shed a tear of joy?  Well back in 1968, Cliff Cooper gave the world a gift when he founded Orange Amplifiers during the final leg of the swingin’ 60s.  What made these amplifiers an instant hit with guitar players around London was that Cooper developed his first amplifiers based around the needs and wants of actual guitar players.  Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green and Free’s Paul Kossoff both plugged into the earliest Orange amplifier models and their opinions practically shaped the design of the amp’s circuit board.Peter Green & his Orange Amplifier  The unique tones combined with the instantly recognizable orange enclosures, and Peter Green’s onstage use skyrocketed these amplifiers popularity.  By 1969, musicians like Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown converted.  Orange amplifiers then shaped the sound of the 1970’s and are clearly still one of the most popular amplifiers used today. 

So let’s dive a little into the specs of our Orange MKI, 50-watt amp head.  It is an all tube amp with two channel selection (clean and dirty).  As you can see from the photo above the Dirty Channel has a three-band EQ, while the Clean Channel only has bass and treble.  The reverb knob controls the amount of verb in both channels.  Each channel has its own volume control, but the Dirty Channel also has the classic Orange Gain control that can give you that famous crunch.  For a full view of the specs you can check out Orange’s owner’s manual here.Nashville Recording Studio guitars

Thanks for tuning in to Behind The Gear.  We hope you’ll check out the rest of our blog.  And hey!  Don’t be a stranger.  Follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop!

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Taylor Guitars

Hey there music fans!  Did ya miss us?  Well don’t worry, The Record Shop Nashville is back to bring you another segment of our Nashville Recording Studio’s series BEHIND THE GEAR (and the crowd goes wild!!!).  Today’s BTG is about not one, but three of The Record Shop’s favorite pieces of gear; our beautiful Taylor Guitars.

 We are all aware that music and sounds are subjective.  Each person has their own personal tastes.  The man, the myth, the luthier legend Bob Taylor acknowledges that not every one is going to prefer the sound of a Taylor guitar over other guitars, but there is no denying that a Taylor guitar plays well; which, we all know was Bob’s ultimate goal.  Taylor Guitars: Bob TaylorHe is a personal hero to us at The Record Shop because of his dedication to the design and advancement of guitar manufacturing.  Typically when you think of a product going into mass production, the quality tends to get worse as costs are cut to make profit.  Bob understood that mass production meant that Taylor Guitars had an obligation to their new customers to make the quality of his guitars even better than when he was making them individually by hand.  So, as the legend goes, he and a team began designing his own factory machines to supplement the increase in demand.  Taylor Guitars developed things like their own steam presses whose heat is adjusted depending on wood type, assembly lines of saws and files to cut the neck and head stocks, and even lasers that can make cuts thinner than a stand of hair!

!!!! L-A-S-E-R-S !!!!

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Bob’s humility.  Most companies try to keep their trade secrets hidden, but Bob has always been animate about sharing his process and knowledge.  You can watch his great factory tour videos at Taylor Guitar’s website here!Nashville Recording Studio  Taylor Guitars, along with many other guitar manufacturers, also have a strong passion for the preservation of the world’s forests so they can keep building guitars out of the best woods from around the world.  One last great thing about Taylor Guitars is their effort for obtaining ebony for their guitars by only ethical means.  Have we mentioned the lasers yet?!?!

For these many reasons, and simply because we love the sound, we have acquired our Taylor Guitar Triple Threat! Nestled in the halls of The Record Shop Nashville you will find our Taylor 914c, Baritone, & T5!  The 914c is a special edition, made out of cholla wood, and can achieve any genre-defining sound for your track.  Have you ever played a Baritone guitar before?  The tonal depth that this unique design creates is unparallelled.  Lastly, the T5 is electric-acoustic powerhouse of tonal versatility with two sets of humbucker pickups, a body sensor, 5-way pickup switch, and 2 preamp tone control pots.  Playing these Taylor guitars is one of the most addictive things in the world.  It’s a miracle we get any work done with these beauties batting their eyelashes at us all day. Nashville recording studio

Thanks for tuning in to this session of Behind The Gear!  Feel free to peruse our Nashville Recording Studio’s complete Gear List, and don’t be a stranger!  Follow & chat to us on Twitter @therecordshop.

 

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Preamplifier: Avalon VT-737

We have a tasty treat for y’all in today’s installment of our Nashville Recording Studio‘s series Behind The Gear!!!  The Avalon Vacuum Tube 373 preamplifier, the world’s first Direct Recording Channel, is hands down one the greatest Microphone Pre-amps to have ever graced the walls of a recording studio.  Everyone who is anyone in the recording biz – like Abbey Road Studios, Prince’s Paisley Park, and Walt Disney Imagineering, just to name a few – have used this preamplifier to record hit after hit.  This preamplifier can make any voice or instrument sound absolutely unremarkable.  Here, at the Record Shop, the AD VT-737 has done just that time and time again.   Sound Engineer Rick Camp & his AD VT-737 preamplifier

Avalon has been known for making fantastic Microphone Pre-Amplifiers since its founding by Wynton R. Morro.  The company proudly boasts that each of its products, “…utilize 100% discrete, high-bias pure Class A audio amplifiers. These pure Class A amplifiers are incorporated into minimal signal path designs which include sealed silver relays, balanced DC coupled high-current “outside-world” drivers, fully discrete linear DC regulators, low noise toroidal power transformers and selected high quality active and passive components.”  In our Nashville recording studio, we love using this beast to get that classic, warm tube sound when tracking, especially on bass and vocals.  It has come to a consensus that female vocals are probably our favorite thing to run through with this preamplifier.  Personally, day dream about how heavenly the world would sound if every persons’ voice was put through the 737.A Front view of the Avalon VT 737 preamplifier

What’s so special about it already!?!?

Okay, okay, sheesh.  This baby packs a punch into your recordings using a combination tube preamplifiers, opto-compressor, sweep equalizer, output level and VU metering.  It has three, count them 1-2-3, different input selections; 1) a microphone input transformer with +48v phantom power, 2) an instrument DI input with jack on front panel, and 3) a balanced line input. The opto-compressor has amazing dynamic range.  You can obtain everything from soft compression to hard knee limiting with the threshold, ratio-compression, attack and release controls. The 4-band EQ control on this guy is bananas. You can also enhance mid bands with the X10 frequency multipliers.  The multipliers ever-so-sweetly enhance the high and low ends too!  One of our favorite features are the high-voltage circuits inside of the 737.  They reduce the amount of noise tremendously (-92dB) and leave you with ample headroom (up to +30dB).  Rear View Panel of Avalon VT 737 PreamplifierYou can go here to see ALL the specs & features of this incredible piece of machinery.

Thanks for checking out this segment of Behind The Gear!  If you’re interested in learning more about the rest of the gear at The Record Shop click here to view out complete gear list!  Don’t be a stranger; you can follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop!

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