Documental Baja Prog 2013

Documental del festival de música progresiva más importante del país.

Cesar Huesca signature guitar (Distorted Branch)

En el siguiente video el guitarrista mexicano Cesar Huesca demuestra su guitarra fabricada bajo sus especificaciones por la compañía Distorted Branch. Excelente ejemplo de talento nacional.

Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood

En este post quiero compartir algo que no está tan relacionado con el contenido de este blog. Quiero compartir un concierto de Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood, músicos de una genialidad impresionante y con una capacidad de expresión artística increible. Espero que lo disfruten.

Bass Tasters

En este post quiero recomendar otro sitio con muy buen contenido. Se trata de Bass Tasters, un lugar en donde podrás escuchar "shootouts" de TODO lo relacionado al bajo: bajos, pastillas, cajas directas, efectos, cuerdas y gabinetes. Lo mejor es que cada shootout contiene información muy específica del equipo utilizado y que para cada pieza de equipo hay varios shootouts con diferentes variables, además de que podemos escuchar ejecuciones de estilos diferentes con cada combinación, lo que hace que estas comparaciones sean bastante precisas.

A continuación podrán encontrar el link a la página, espero que les sirva y que lo disfruten

http://www.basstasters.com/

Eficiencia dentro de Pro Tools

El día de hoy les comparto un video en el cual se muestran varios de los shortcuts más útiles de Pro Tools. Creo que es de gran ayuda utilizar shortcuts ya que nos permiten ser más eficientes y aprovechar al máximo las capacidades del programa.

Propellerhead anuncia Rotor

La empresa desarrolladora del reconocido software de producción musical Reason anunció una nueva extensión de rack para Reason llamada Rotor. Se trata de una emulación del sonido clásico de los 40s de la bocina rotatoria Leslie 122 que también incluye varios "patches" de organo para el Combinator de Reason.

Rotor permite controlar todos los parámetros clave de una bocina Leslie y además lo lleva al siguiente nivel permitiendo configuraciones imposibles de realizar en el modelo original, tales como dos "colores" de distorsión del preamplificador, control sobre el efecto doppler, la longitud de la bocina y la velocidad de aceleración, así como salida CV de la rotación que permite sincronizar otros dispositivos con la velocidad y aceleración de Rotor.

Comprendiendo cómo los ecualizadores afectan la fase

En este post quiero compartir un video que acabo de encontrar y que me pareció increible. Las explicaciones no podrían ser más claras y  las demostraciones me dejaron con la boca abierta. Comprender cómo los ecualizadores pueden afectar la fase de una señal puede ser algo difícil (lo fue para mí) y creo que este video es la explicación perfecta. Espero que les sirva.

Coeficientes de Absorción mayores que 1

En este post daré una explicación de por qué se pueden encontrar coeficientes de absorción mayores que 1 en las especificaciónes de absorción acústica de algunos materiales.

El coeficiente de absorción de un material se define como el coeficiente de la energía absorbida entre la energía incidente para una banda de frecuencia determinada. Esto significa que un coeficiente de absorción 0 para una banda de frecuencia determinada representa un material sin capacidad de absorción (refleja toda la energía) y un coeficiente de absorción 1 representa un material que absorbe toda la energía incidente (no hay reflexión).

Entonces, si un material con coeficiente de absorción 1 absorbe toda la energía, ¿cómo es posible encontrar valores mayores que 1? ¿Cómo se puede absorber más energía de la que incide sobre el material?

Hay que recordar que la unidad de medida para el coeficiente de absorción es el Sabine. Estos se pueden calcular tanto con medidas del sistema métrico como con medidas del sistema inglés. 1 Sabine puede representar 1 metro cuadrado de material 100% absorbente o 1 pie cuadrado de material 100% absorbente.

Cuando la absorción en una o más bandas de frecuencia es muy elevada, puede ocurrir que el coeficiente de absorción sea superior a 1. Ello no debe conducir a la interpretación totalmente errónea y carente de sentido desde un punto de vista físico de que la energía absorbida en dichas bandas es mayor que la energía incidente. La justificación proviene de la existencia de un efecto de difracción que hace que la superficie efectiva de la muestra de material utilizada para la medida sea mayor que la superficie real.

La determinación de los coeficientes de absorción se lleva a cabo en una sala denominada cámara reverberante. Dicha sala es asimétrica, presenta unas superficies límite revestidas con materiales totalmente reflectantes y dispone de un conjunto de elementos convexos suspendidos del techo con una orientación y distribución completamente irregulares, cuya misión es la de crear un campo sonoro difuso.

Las matemáticas utilizadas en el análisis presumen que el sonido viaja con la misma probabilidad en todas las direcciones. Esto es más o menos cierto a través del cuarto con excepción del lugar en el que se encuentra la muestra. Con una muestra que presenta mucha absorción, el sonido viaja hacia la muestra pero muy poco es reflejado. La discontinuidad en el campo de ondas al borde de la muestra crean un efecto de difracción  que deforma el campo sonoro y hace parecer que la muestra es hasta 1/4 de la longitud de onda más grande en cada dirección.


Referencias:

CARRIÓN ISBERT,  Antoni. Diseño acústico de espacios arquitectónicos. Primera edición. Barcelona:  Edicions UPC, 1998. 433 p.

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/AbsorptionsgradGroesserEins.pdf

Meyer Sound's Constellation

Constellation es la solución de Meyer Sound para conseguir una acústica óptima en recintos pero que a la vez pueda ser variable. Es muy impresionante. Este sistema permite alterar las propiedades acústicas de un cuarto para que éstas sean adecuadas para el tipo de evento que se lleve a cabo.

Se colocan diferentes micrófonos y altavoces en varios puntos del cuarto y lo que sucede es que los micrófonos capturan el sonido ambiental, el cual es procesado digitalmente con un algoritmo patentado para después reproducirse a través de los altavoces. Los tiempos de reverberación se pueden alterar por medio de una sencilla interfaz de usuario.

Obviamente, la instalación y calibración del sistema debe de ser realizada por gente calificada para ello.

Les comparto algunos videos para que puedan conocer un poco más sobre esta tecnología.

AudioCheck

En este post quiero compartir una página web que, en mi opinión, es una herramienta invaluable para cualquier entusiasta del audio. El nombre de la página es AudioCheck y en ella podemos encontrar muchísimos tonos de prueba y tests a los cuales les podemos sacar provecho para evaluar y calibrar equipo, entrenar nuestro oído y aprender.

También podemos encontrar reseñas muy completas de diferentes marcas y modelos de "Earplugs" en las cuales se incluye una descripción, una tabla con la atenuación correspondiente a 9 bandas de frecuencia que van de 60 Hz a 16 KHz, una simulación de desempeño con 8 fuentes diferentes, comentarios y conclusiones.

Les recomiendo visitarla.

http://www.audiocheck.net

Oz Noy Studio Pedal Rack

Los guitarristas a los que les gusta utilizar pedales como parte de su sonido y que tienden a tocar con varios de ellos conectados al mismo tiempo siempre la han tenido difícil. En el siguiente video, Oz Noy (uno de mis guitarristas favoritos) demuestra cómo un rack que fue diseñado y construído para él por John Clark de Voodo Lab resuelve los problemas que le causaba utilizar tantos pedales conectados al mismo tiempo.

Oto Machines Biscuit

De vez en cuando encuentro piezas de equipo que me parecen muy interesantes y ésta es una de ellas. Se trata de un procesador llamado Biscuit, fabricado por Oto Machines, un "bit reducer" con frecuencia de muestreo variable que utiliza verdaderos convertidores de 8 bits, procesamiento digital y filtros análogos resonantes para ofrecer una gran variedad de sonidos que van desde distorsión áspera hasta efectos de aliasing y cálidos sonidos de 8 bits.

Der OTO es la nueva mejora de firmware que convierte tu Biscuit en un sintetizador monofónico con un secuenciador de 16 pasos. Además, ¡es gratis!

Entrevista a Richard Barbieri (Keyboard Magazine, Febrero del 2008)

En este post quiero compartir una entrevista que hizo Keyboard Magazine a Richard Barbieri, tecladista británico conocido por haber pertenecido a la banda de new age Japan y por ser un miembro actual de la banda de rock progresivo Porcupine Tree.

Desde mi punto de vista, lo que hace que este artista sobresalga es su habilidad y creatividad como diseñador de sonido y programador. Siempre he admirado a los músicos que no sólo se preocupan por componer o interpretar, sino que también se preocupan por descubrir o conseguir un sonido específico, independientemente del instrumento que ejecuten, ya que al hacer esto nos recuerdan que las fronteras de la música se expanden hacia el infinito.

Living Sound: Richard Barbieri brings years of synth programming mastery to progressive rock and cutting edge electronica – by Scott Healy

Richard Barbieri breathes life into the circuits and transistors that create electronic sound. His career spans four decades and bridges many trends and eras in electronic music production, and fans of post-punk British pop and electronica will fondly remember the work he did in the ‘70s and early ‘80s with the seminal band Japan. His first solo release, Things Buried, is a lush sonic journey whose intensity comes from Richard’s craft of sound design and manipulation – and draws a compelling contrast to the edgy progressive art-metal-pop band Porcupine Tree. His palette with the group varies from thick prog pads and strings to icy pianos and burning leads, an arsenal he constantly tweaks in real time on stage. In the studio, his approach is similar, but regardless of location, for Richard, the performance of the sounds is the key.

Electronic pop music was born in the world of bulky modules and messy patch cords, and soon became the realm of those who could consistently coax musically useful sounds out of some early synthesizers, most of which were underpowered, quirky, expensive, and built with obtuse interfaces. Players like Barbieri, who came up in this challenging age, have a different outlook than the archetypal modern music superstore shopper. The programming techniques that, at the time, seemed the invention of necessity (or perhaps of sonic deprivation) became valuable skills which electronic pop and rock musicians would later turn towards. And Barbieri’s work remains true to that pop-electronica lineage. You won’t hear solos, or even standard song form. But what you will hear, like in good orchestral music, is the beauty in the details. Rich sound layers meld, while sonic motifs build and morph into other musical textures as the track moves through the electronic landscape.

To some digerati, the onset of digital synthesis, sampling, and now inexpensive one-touch synths might render Barbieri’s hard-won skill set quaint at best. But the variety, depth, and the intensity of the sound design and realtime sound manipulation on Things Buried and Fear of a Blank Planet amply demonstrate how his abilities are more relevant now than ever; with so much sonic clay commercially available, it falls on artists like Barbieri to express and codify electronic music, to make it organic and real.

We caught Richard one afternoon on one leg of Porcupine Tree’s worldwide tour.

Things Buried is recorded digitally. That means nothing analog, not even synths?

Basically, it means I didn’t use any analog synths, for the first time on any recording in my career. I had gotten into a real comfort zone with the old analog stuff and, as much as I love it, I thought this would be a good challenge. I want to embrace the new technology as well as the old. I thought, well let’s do the whole album with software, and see if I can get it sounding warm, if I can work with the textures the way I always used to.

What specific software instruments did you use?

A lot of it was Native Instruments software, like the Pro-53 and Absynth, but I’ve also been using the synths in Reason quite a bit. I’ve been doing some programming for Reason and I really got into Subtractor and Maelstrom. And to be honest, if you’re working with subtractive synthesis in a software format, then I think you can more or less get what you want. I can make it sound like a Prophet-5 if I want to. If you know what you want to do, if you have the sound in your head, then you can achieve that.

You obviously spend a lot of time on your sounds, probably more than most keyboard players.

It’s manly because of lack of ability. I’m self-taught and I’m not a technical keyboard player. I didn’t grow up knowing the scales and I didn’t know how to play blues progressions, jazz progressions – all that was completely alien to me. So I just started making the sound do something, rather than my fingers. So I would create sounds that evolved over ten or so seconds. I would put more features into the sound, more modulation, various kinds of effects that would come and go, filtering, panning and LFOs. That for me was the way forward, especially hearing what Brian Eno was doing with Roxy Music in the ‘70s. I thought, well this is interesting, because it’s quite abstract, but it’s working in the context of pop music.

When your parts move and change over a few seconds, the effect is an undulating and moving part or layer. Where most keyboard players might cut and paste or loop a section, you seem to perform it.

I do. I try to avoid MIDI, to be honest. I like the performance aspect, so I don’t want to get caught in that cut-and-paste kind of thing that people do sometimes when they’re working with computer software. And I try not to look at the screen – people now are watching music more than actually listening, working with chunks of information and blocks and passages. I like to do most things manually, so I’ll set the bpm, and I don’t care if it’s a half-a-millisecond out of time. I’ll just try to get a groove going and play right through the track, but play with the synths in real time as I go. That way when I listen back to something, I’m thinking, “It’s nice that changes there and this happens here.” It wouldn’t work in a cut-and-paste way where, well, once you’ve heard eight bars, you’ve heard it.

You seem to be discovering new aspects of a sound as you’re playing it, as the sound morphs and changes. I’m thinking in particular of a sound on “Medication Time” from Things Buried, a warbley, lowpass filter thing with a cool envelope. It starts off as a melodic idea, then it becomes a bass. It sound improvised.

Yes, that formed the basis of the track. It was improvised. That was on an Access Virus Indigo.

In addition to the virtual instruments, what other synths are you using for recording?

The hardware synths that I use are the Virus, the Roland V-Synth series, and the new Roland SH-201. And then I use the 201 to control the computer and the software. I also use the M-Audio Radium 49.

There’s tremendous layering in your music. How do you go about achieving a balance and finding a space for each sound?

It’s tricky if you’re just working with synths. They’re not as defined as guitar, bass guitar or drums. They have their place and their own frequency. With synths, anything goes, so it is a lot harder. In the end, unconsciously, I probably work out the frequencies and what needs to happen – I just go with whatever works, what things are working well in context with others, what creates nice combinations of sounds and textures.

I heard a tweezy, distorted layer spread across the whole mix on “Fear and Trembling” also from Things Buried. Another of your tunes has two bass lines rubbing together. You’re not afraid to take chances in combining sounds and layers.

That’s the advantage of a solo album. You get to do these things.

Do you sample?

I don’t sample that much. I tend to sample voices more than anything else. My wife’s a singer, and usually I grab vocal samples of work she’s doing. I’ll run them backwards, or through filters and LFOs, and they sound quite a lot like instruments. I’m probably late to using sampling but it definitely has a place in my future albums.

It’s interesting that you mentioned your comfort zone earlier; you and other artists in the early days of keyboards were all working beyond your comfort zones.

All those keyboard players who were great in the beginning with the limited analog stuff – when digital came along, to me their work became less what I wanted to hear. Not so many people took to the digital era, whereas now, the people pushing the envelope with digital synthesis are groups like Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada. These kinds of artists love the analog stuff, but they embrace the digital because it’s what they’ve grown up with, in the way that Edgar Froese would have had the huge modular systems.

Describe your creative role in Porcupine Tree, how you take part in the writing and arranging.

Porcupine Tree has now settled into a way of working, and Steven is the main songwriter, but the band co-writes probably about 20 percent of the material. We all arrange the material together. So it has a leader, but on the other hand, we’re all very involve dint he music arrangements and writing as well.

Regarding your own work, in writing music that doesn’t have traditional song form or solos, how do you sustain interest over a long song? What do you listen for when you write?

That’s the whole artistic dilemma, isn’t it? Is what we think of as interesting to us, personally, interesting to people listening? I suppose when I’m writing, I just do what keeps me interested. It sounds a bit pretentious, but it’s almost like going into a trance. You start something, and you take it down a certain path, and you see if that’s an interesting journey, or whether there’s nothing there. That’s why making a solo album is always something I was a bit apprehensive about, because you’re working on your own. Working with people is a lot easier, because you’ve got things to play off of, and you’ve got feedback. Whereas when you’re on your own, you know what you’re going to play, and you want to surprise yourself – and that’s a lot harder to do.

Do you think it’s ironic that some of the best music was made with some of the worst gear?

You’re right. That’s how I feel. I know everybody’s nostalgic for the music that was there when they were growing up, but I firmly believe that the 70s were such a great time for all kinds of music – electronic, soul, heavy rock, progressive rock, dance, anything. There was such a variation of sounds and artists at that time.

It’s hard to recapture that spirit because so much of that music came from artists working within strict boundaries.

Absolutely. Going back to Eno again, that was one of the things that he was interested in – using the studio as an instrument. You just kind of accepted what you were working with and that was it. That was the limit. And you just did everything you could to get every variation out of those instruments and out of those effects.

I read a quote by Steve Wilson in which he was talking about the idea behind Fear of a Blank Planet: “Everything has become so easily accessible that none of it means anything anymore.” I imagine this might apply to you as an electronic musician. How do we find true meaning in sound among the vas amount of available sonic technology?

It comes from within yourself. I don’t think the actual gear, software, and designs are important things. The important thing is the idea that you have in your head, or the emotion that you have in your heart, and your relationship with music. I believe that the personalities of musicians are very mush part of the music that they make. If you have an idea about what you want to do, then it doesn’t matter what particular instrument you play. I read these synth forums and I hear kids saying, “Wow, man, I’ve got to have that synth because I need to make dance music!” or “No, I can’t do this track until I get this new software.” Or “I can’t write a bass line unless I have this keyboard.” They get it in their minds that it’s all about the gear and that gear is going to be their answer. You get a piece of equipment, or any technology, and you think, “Right, this is going to make my life easier.” But in the end it’s nothing to do with that. It’s what’s in your own mind and what you’re going to do personally.

***

Who are Richard’s sonic influences?

“From an experimental point, Stockhausen, and all the early electronic experimental stuff he was doing in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” says Richard. “From an abstract sound point of view, Eno and Ryuichi Sakamoto in the early days were quite an influence on me. In terms of playing and playing sounds, Joe Zawinul. I’m not a great lover of jazz keyboards, but for me Zawinal was so different, because he used to create these sounds and then play them as the sounds should be played – he would get a beautiful flute sound, or some kind of exotic wind instrument sound, and he’d just play it right, with sensitivity. And that’s really amazing programming. Early Vangelis – I was listening to the Blade Runner soundtrack the other day and it’s just amazing. If you really want some saturated analog sounds, that’s a beautiful album. And the early stuff from Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese, the early analog sequencer music, Kraftwerk. I loved all those sounds and approaches.”

Playing the Porcupine

Porcupine Tree has no lack of technology on stage. “People say we’re a progressive rock band, but we’re not looking back to the ‘70s for the inspiration,” says Richard. “We’re progressive in the way we’re using today’s technology, and we’re trying to find new ways of making our music sound interesting.”

Barbieri’s live keyboard rig includes analog and digital synths, effects, processors, and a laptop running Reason instruments. “That’s pretty safe,” he says. “I’m also using a Yamaha CS-01 for the lead lines through a distortion modeler, then through an SPX90, that always sounded really nice and warm.”

The band plays along to tracks and sequences as well as to a click track, all generated from an offstage laptop running Logic. But Richard’s setup offers a certain flexibility and room for improvisation within the strict confines of the show. Within his complex rig, he finds his own sonic and creative space. “This is the first time I’ve worked with dynamic rock music and obviously, for a keyboard player, it’s not always easy,” he says. “You have to find you space within that. You have to find the right sounds and the right frequencies.”

He’s Big in Japan

Richard’s work with the band Japan was very influential. “The Tin Drum album was an important one in terms of the synthesis, because we were working with real limitations,” he says. “I had two synthesizers, and Oberheim OB-Xa and Roland Sytem 700, and David Sylvian had a Prophet-5. That’s a really valuable process for keyboard enthusiasts to got hrough, to try to do something working with limitations, maybe working with only one synthesizer. Then you tend to find things within it. You can get very lost because there’s so much available now. In the end it’s better to keep to two or three instruments and really get to the bottom of what’s going on with each, and not just play a few presets.”

Programming and Sound Design

Barbieri recently designed 40 factory sounds for the Roland V-Synth GT. “They got me involve din the early stages,” he says. “I’m a little surprised it didn’t happen in the ‘80s, really. I’ve been using Roland keyboards right from the beginning.” Also, Propellerhead Reason 4’s Thor synthesizer comes with a “Barbieri” folder. “It’s nice to be part of something – I guess it sounds corporate – but they’re all sounds that I enjoyed making, and they’re out there in the world. There’s some kind of recognition there for me as a programmer, and I feel proud, because I’ve never really been a player. That’s something I’ve had to fight with for my whole career.”

Entrenamiento Auditivo para Ingenieros de Sonido

Hola, el día de hoy quiero compartir un par de videos del reconocido ingeniero de mezcla Dave Pensado, en los cuales explica el método que él siguió para entrenar su oído. Además de que Dave en persona nos cuenta cómo desarrolló sus habilidades auditivas, también nos explica cómo y por qué decidió "practicar" de ésta manera.

Creo que debemos de apreciar y aprovechar información como ésta, a la cual podemos tener acceso de manera completamente gratuita y legal a través del internet.

Dave Pensado ha trabajado con artistas como Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey, Elton John y Michael Jackson, entre muchos otros.

Espero que les sirva.

Saludos.

 

El regreso de Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath regresa con "13", un disco de estudio que cuenta con la alineación original (Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler y Tony Iommi) a excepción del baterista Bill Ward, quien anunció públicamente que no participaría en la reunión a menos de que se le diera un "contrato firmable" y cuyo puesto fue reemplazado por Brad Wilk (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave). La producción está a cargo de Rick Rubin y las fechas de lanzamiento son 10 de junio de 2013 en Europa y 11 de junio en Estados Unidos.

 

Avid anuncia Pro Tools 11

Hay que estar conscientes de que la tecnología avanza a pasos agigantados y que no podemos quedarnos atrás. Sin embargo, siempre hay que tratar de utilizarla sabiamente.

Avid anuncia el lanzamiento de Pro Tools 11, el cual incluirá nuevas características muy útiles como un motor de audio completamente rediseñado, arquitectura de 64 bits, "offline bounce", diferentes opciones de medición, flujos de trabajo directos para video HD, entre otras.

Una desventaja es que ahora sólo se podrá utilizar el formato de plug-ins AAX, limitando la lista de plug-ins que podrían utilizarse con el "DAW" más conocido del mundo.

Live Sound Mixing Strategy (Dave Rat)

Hola, el día de hoy quiero compartir un video sobre sonido en vivo. Se trata de la "estrategia" que utiliza el ingeniero de FOH Dave Rat (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Blink 182) para sonorizar grandes shows de rock. En esta estrategia se ven involucrados subgrupos, compresores y VCAs.

R.I.P. Storm Thorgerson

El pasado 18 de abril falleció el diseñador británico Storm Thorgerson a los 60 años tras luchar contra un cáncer. El artista fue miembro del grupo de diseño artístico Hipgnosis y trabajó con bandas como Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Scorpions, Genesis, Europe, Dream Theater, The Cranberries, The Mars Volta, Muse, Biffy Clyro, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Anthrax, Audioslave, Rainbow y Alan Parsons.

Yo sigo comprando discos en su formato físico y el diseño gráfico es una de las razones por las cuales lo sigo y seguiré haciendo. La combinación de la música, el concepto, el orden de  las canciones, las letras, la calidad de grabación, el empaque y el arte visual completan una experiencia que creo que aún no se puede replicar con las descargas digitales, sobre todo por la parte física que comprenden el empaque y el arte visual.

Aunque la música es el factor determinante durante la elección de un disco, el arte gráfico ha hecho que en más de una ocasión descubra nuevos tesoros. Para mí, el diseño gráfico de un disco es una especie de portal que nos conecta con el mundo de lo intangible.

Los siguientes son algunos de los trabajos realizados por Storm Thorgerson.

 

 

1176: Un clásico (Parte 3/3)

Por último, quisiera hablar un poco sobre los intentos que se han hecho para replicar el sonido del 1176. Es muy común encontrar versiones DIY de un 1176. Éstas están basadas en diferentes revisiones y muchas veces son sometidas a modificaciones.

Además de estas réplicas DIY, también están las emulaciones digitales (plug-ins). Se pueden encontrar diferentes plug-ins del 1176. Universal Audio ofrece emulaciones de las revisiones A, E y AE, Bomb Factory ofrece una emulación del MC77 de Purple Audio, además de otra del 1176 original, Waves ofrece una versión “Bluestripe” y otra “Blackface”,  las cuales fueron desarrolladas a partir de las mejores unidades del estudio del famoso ingeniero de mezcla Chris Lord-Alge, IK Multimedia ofrece su versión y Roland también ofrece su versión.

Para cerrar con esta serie de posts, les comparto lo que los grandes tienen que decir sobre este compresor:

“I love them on vocals. All of the Michael Jackson and James Ingram vocals that everyone has heard so much were done with at least one of those 1176s. I couldn’t part with them for anything. They sound fabulous.”

Bruce Swedien

“I grew up using 1176s—in England they were the compressor of choice. They’re especially good for vocals... most anything else I can do without, but I can’t be without at least a pair of 1176s and an LA-2A. The 1176 absolutely adds a bright character to a sound, and you can set the attack so it’s got a nice bite to it. I usually use them on 4:1 [ratio], with quite a lot of gain reduction. I like how variable the attack and release is; there’s a sound on the attack and release which I don’t think you can get with any other compressor. I listen for how it affects the vocal, and depending on the song I set the attack or release—faster attack if I want a bit more bite.”

Producer/engineer Mike Shipley (Def Leppard, Shania Twain)

“I find that I actually use 1176s more now than I ever did,” he says. “I like them because they bring out the brightness and presence of a sound—they give it an energy. It seems like when I’m mixing I end up using an 1176 on the vocals every time.”

Producer/engineer Mike Clink (Guns N’ Roses, Sammy Hagar)

“I use 1176s real conservatively and they still do amazing things. I always use them on vocals.... I’m always on the 4:1 [ratio], and the Dr. Pepper [Attack/Release settings]—you know, 10 o’clock, 2 o’clock, and it does everything I need... They have an equalizer kind of effect, adding a coloration that’s bright and clear. Not only do they give you a little more impact from the compression, they also sort of clear things up; maybe a little bottom end gets squeezed out or maybe they are just sort of excitingly solid state... The big thing for me is the clarity, and the improvement in the top end.”

Grammy-winning engineer  Jim Scott (Tom Petty)

“I’ll always place one big mic, like a U47 (Neumann) or a ribbon mic such as a Coles or Royer, five or six feet in front of the drums. I try to get the whole drum set to sound good through that one mic and then put it through an 1176. That’s the secret weapon track. The 1176 compresses and makes it sound bigger and more present and a lot more exciting without having to crush it. I just it give a healthy 3 - 5 dB of compression and turn up the gain a little bit—it sounds great! If I have that mono track, where the whole drum kit sounds balanced, then I can build a decent drum sound with whatever else I have.”

Grammy-winning engineer Jay Newland (Norah Jones)

“The 1176 is standard equipment for my sessions. I mult the left and right [drum] overheads and bring them back on the console, then insert a pair of 1176s [in All-button mode] into a pair of the mults. [That] puts the unit into overdrive, creating a very impressive sound.”

Studio owner / engineer and well-known industry “golden ear” Allen Sides (Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day)

“What you do is, you run your room mics through a couple of 1176s, just so that they are nudging a bit. This brings up the decay time of the room when your guy hits the bass drum or the snare. If it’s a very quick tempo it won’t work, but at medium or half-time tempo it brings up the room. It’s wonderful and there is not another compressor that will do it the same way as an 1176.”

Andy Johns

“The original [1176] was often... celebrated as a compressor for bass, and I certainly found the re-issue’s compression to cope wonderfully with the wildest excesses of electric or acoustic string basses, without changing the inherent sound or losing the essence of the player’s dynamics.”

Hugh Robjohns (Sound on Sound magazine)