Q and A

Thru my research and friends, the answers will be short to some of the questions I always run into.
How to succeed in recording in 5 easy steps!

1-No one start out a producer or audio engineer without going thru some sort of basic skills or understanding of audio basic and music. You can side step all you want with new expensive gears, forum advices, hip new DAW, and tricks from your friendly neighborhood engineers, but all will collapse on your head one day or hit the wall, it will come. When it comes, you will look like a "midget". Learn your audio basic, signal routing, and the most important...Stage gain.

2-Get yourself a "solid" studio set up within your financial mean, if engineering is what you are you dream or goal.

So you need a studio setup that consists of a good vocal mic, a decent preamp or audio interface, versatile recording and mixing software (or standalone DAW), equalizers, compressors and reverb units or plug-ins. Software to burn CDs. And of course instruments

3-Learn to listen and train yourself to listen to the nuances in music. It is right in front of you in the music Cd you are listen everyday of the best producer and engineer...oh yeah, the song writers too. No it is not an easy task to do but learn it. Basically learn what you "can't hear" in a record. Eventually you will listen to music with an acute ears and determine your own sound or color of your strength.

4-Let your work out of the cage. Let professionals listen your music or work and listen to what they have to say. Let's say you have achieve the commercial sound and somewhat the work are comparable with the commercial sound. GET IT OUT!

5-Let's say the god are smiling on you and you are now successful. Work work and work harder than before.

these are giant steps but they are not easy. I hate to be vague but it is basic and personal. DO IT!

If you can only buy one channel strip

This isn't just another 2 RU signal path... the Quartet is an all-purpose recording tool designed with the ultimate in sound quality and flexibility in mind. We have combined four elements - Mic/DI preamp, Opto-compressor, EQ, and De-esser -into a fully integrated package that it makes it easy to track any source.

It's the mic pre from an MDP-1A, a channel of compression from the OCL-2, with a brand new equalizer design and one of the least offensive 'de-essers' we've ever encountered. The mic pre is very detailed an opulent sounding (as one would expect from Pendulum Audio), the compressor can go from nearly seamless and transparent to being a very audible effect by altering the 'time constant presets' or using the fully variable attack and release functions.

The equalizer is a brand new design that offers 3 frequency selectable shelving on the top and bottom bands, and a rather musical selection of 'peak/dip' midrange selections. All in all, this is very possibly the best value we've seen in an "all in one box" with absolutely no sonic compromises. A true original, with a remarkable pedigree...

FEATURES

• The tube Mic/DI Preamp from the MDP-1
• The tube Opto-Compressor from the OCL-2 using our proprietary optoelectronic cell
• A new three band tube EQ with HI and LO shelving and peaking MID band
• A new de-esser design using opto-inductive filtering and a highly selective detector
• The Mic/DI, EQ and Compressor/De-Esser can be patched out and used independently.
• Transformerless or transformer output
• Gold-plated switch contacts, I/O connectors and tube sockets
• Polypropylene caps and metal film resistors (pairs matched to 0.1%)
• Fully regulated high voltage (300V) and filament power supplies with soft-start warm-up and muting
• Custom toroidal power transformer with shield for minimum hum
• 120V or 240V ac voltage switch on the rear panel.

The Mic/DI preamp, borrowed from our acclaimed MDP-1, can handle mics, pickups, keyboards, or line-level signals. It features phantom power, input pad, phase reversal, and a switchable lo-cut filter. Independent gain and output controls permit overdrive of the tube stage to vary the harmonic content of the preamp.

The Opto-Compressor, derived from the popular OCL-2, uses our proprietary optoelectronic cell, and has a sound all its own. It can be used in one of four modes: Fast (for 'invisible' compression), Average (rms responding), a new Vintage mode (with program-dependent response), or full manual operation.

Our new 3 band tube EQ, a modifed Baxandall design, is simple but very effective. The HI and LO bands have up to ±10dB of shelving at 15, 10 and 7 kHz, and 50, 100 and 200 Hz respectively. The MID band has a broad ±10dB peaking response centered at 0.7, 1.6, 2.2, 3.3, 5.0 and 6.5 kHz. The EQ can be placed before or after the compressor with the flip of a switch.

The new De-esser, which is implemented within the opto-compressor, uses a novel approach. A highly selective inductor-based detector triggers a very fast opto-inductive notch filter. The user can control the depth of the notch, which in turn controls amount of sibilance to be removed. When not triggered, the de-esser is out of the signal path entirely.

You can use this unit with an 'external pre-amp' [if desired], you can use this unit "line in", or access the EQ and or 'dynamics section' from an external source while in use with another sound... the flexibility of this unit is absolutely astounding!!!