Macartie - So eloquently put sir. We didn't get here on the same ship, but we're obviously in the same boat.
Teacher - I also don't have a "personal" inventory of gear like I used to have access to at JEM. My favorite "in house" compressor used to be
an ART Pro VLA. Now, the guts and sound more resembles that of an LA2A. My preamp guts are stuffed into an old Behringer chassis. Same with my (AKM) converters (What can I say, they won the shootout). I even have one of those Behringer 2496 ultra-thingys. It was a "gift" from a band - I figured that other than the occasional live gig, it would collect dust. But once in a while, I actually use the beast. It's got some bad-ass sounding A/D converters if you don't try to smash it to death. Whooda' thunk it? On the other hand, if a client requests particular gear, I get it for them. However, my in-house rates no longer apply, and literally NONE of my repeat clients EVER request particular gear anymore. I've finally got them understanding that a base of "quality" (not "esoteric") gear combined with the right ear is what's important. But once in a great while, someone will want me to master on the "boutique" stuff. There's a place less than an hour from me that I'll go to do it (at $230 an hour including the room). The customer is always right.
That being said, probably about half my mastering projects I do completely "in the box" nowadays. I also get far better results now using state of the art software than when I was using the state of the art hardware. That could easily be attributed to "gear familiarity" as I'm self-employed AND full-time employed (by a municipality / governmental department) as an audio engineer, and work on a fairly consistent collection of gear. I'm also faily consistently backed-up. So, if someone doesn't want to use me for their project, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
But for the most part, no one's ever complained about the list or lack thereof. Scratch that - Manowar* wanted NS-10's for reference. They got 'em, too. Metal Militia* (2 Grammy entries on that one) was done 100% in the box. Hell, I mixed Jacco Muller's* "Silueta" CD in Vegas using Echo (probably AKM) converters, totally in the box, with Sonic Foundry's STOCK DX plugins, and mastered it in WaveLab. WaveLab, to me, is BARELY more than a PQ editing program. I think ANY program called a "mastering" program is... not properly named. Mastering, to me, is much more than a program or piece of gear that says "mastering" on it... Forgive me, I'm rambling.
Anyway, I haven't seen a review on that album that doesn't have the words "World Class" or "Recording Masterpiece" or "Reference Quality" or something similar in it somewhere. It's actually going to be released in North America some time later this year (on
Centaur, I think). I'm pretty anxious to see some U.S. reviews on it. Obiviously, I can't take all the credit, it was recorded in 3 studios on two continents by very competent recording engineers and then comped in Vegas (hence why I had to mix it in Vegas). Silueta was a prime example of getting it right in the first place (the talent and the instruments).
So basically, it's true. I'm just not that "into" gear. If people want samples, I invite them to send a tune, a CD-R and a SASE and I'll send them an A/B to listen to. Or look at the client list. Or read any of the 50 or 60 published articles. ESPECIALLY the ones about people who go out and buy CD Architect and some plugins and then call themselves "Mastering Engineers" - I've got a bone to pick with them myself...
John
*
No, I'm NOT trying to get into a "credits & clients" name-dropping thing here... That being said, I've been doing this for quite a while. I'm a long-time ASCAP member, a voting NARAS (Grammy Association) member with several U.S. & (mostly) international single, album & compilation credits. I'm not trying to rip anyone off. I'm trying to make them wonder why they'd go anywhere else, while trying to inspire them to do the best they can with whatever they have.
