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USERS
AD & DA-16X
BIG BEN
Duet
Ensemble
Mini-Series
Symphony
Rosetta Series
Legacy Hardware
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Apogee Users: Hank Linderman
Hank Linderman:
Home Recording, Big Time, with Apogee's
BIG BEN
by Sean McArthur
The music business has a laundry list of problems,
most glaringly the recent and exhausting focus on illegal downloading and
copyright infringement, which has essentially pitted the business against
its customers. Technology has enabled, and some would argue, created many
of these problems but technology may also alleviate them.
The ability to make quality recordings has never been so accessible. And
never has the home recording facility been such a viable force. Furthermore,
if you are a seasoned engineer (producer and musician) like Hank Linderman
with the will, the way and the tenacity to keep up with the ever changing
landscape of digital audio you-to can have members of the legendary
bands Chicago, America and the Eagles tracking in your living room.
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SUBTLETY&PASSION Session Photos 2003
(L-R) Larry Klimas, Lee Loughnane, & Nick Lane |
Hank reflects, “The music business has changed so much and the mistakes
of the past have really come home to roost. This has given rise to the home
recording phenomenon and independent artists doing records… artists
who are less concerned with becoming zillionaires and instead, have focused
on making music to please themselves. The technology is such that with a
few pieces of proper gear especially quality converters you are gonna notice
a huge difference in the way that your stuff sounds.” Hank goes on
to say, “I’m a big fan of home recording. Besides the
obvious cost benefits, I find that musicians relax more easily and play
better in a home environment. The tea cups are cleaner too.”
Hanks Basic set-up
Logic 6, an RME interface card, Apogee’s AD-8000 SE and DA-16 converters,
the Dangerous 2 bus, various keyboards, guitars, vintage amps and most recently
Apogee’s BIG BEN, Master Digital Clock.
“It was fairly dramatic
when I hooked it [BIG BEN] up. It was very, very obvious.
There were essentially three differences that I noticed. First, the
coherency of the sound… the dimensionality, all that improved
dramatically. Secondly, there was extension at the frequency extremes
mostly in the high end and a bit in the low end. And finally, the
focus and clarity in the mid-range was improved. And I am very sensitive
to mid-range.” |
- Hank Linderman-
Engineer, producer, musician |
“I became a big Fan of Apogee during a project with Steve Levine
[Culture Club Producer] when I borrowed an AD-1000. We were tracking vocals
and when I began using the AD-1000 it became immediately apparent that
the Apogee conversion was far superior. This really made me a believer
and inspired me to buy an AD-8000, which drastically changed my system.
And now, the BIG BEN changed it yet again.” Hank goes on to talk
about the enhancements that BIG BEN made. “It was fairly dramatic
when I hooked it [BIG BEN] up. It was very, very obvious. There were essentially
three differences that I noticed. First, the coherency of the sound…
the dimensionality, all that improved dramatically. Secondly, there was
extension at the frequency extremes mostly in the high end and a bit in
the low end. And finally, the focus and clarity in the mid-range was improved.
And I am very sensitive to mid-range.”
The importance of good clocking is an often misunderstood and undervalued
quality in the digital recording environment. Hank, however, is
aware of the significance but was surprised by BIG BEN’s ability
to actually improve the sound quality. He elaborates, “Digital
routing can be very confusing. In the old days, clicks and pops were more
pronounced and disruptive. This helped you to track down poor configuration.
As systems and clocking have gotten better the clicks are more subtle,
making the problems harder to identify. This makes it important to have
a proper clock. And the BIG BEN is definitely a superior solution. The
funny thing is that it [BIG BEN] shouldn’t affect your sound quality
this much but it does. I thought well, ‘my system will just become
more stable’. But instead, BIG BEN tightened everything up and even
gave it more of an analog like sound. It affected the sound stage and
everything.”
BIG BEN's VSO mode
As far as favorite features, Hank says he looks forward to using BIG BEN’s
VSO (variable speed operation) capability. “VSO is a feature that
I was looking for, not that I’m an old time analog guy, I’m
an old time home recording guy. Some ADATs had VSO and even though it
was cumbersome and did not work great I liked it. One of my favorite
things to do is to record an acoustic guitar part and VSO slightly out
of tune then record the double to it. It makes this really stable chorus
like sound that is much better than any kind of processing.
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| SUBTLETY&PASSION Session Photos 2003 (L-R)
Robert Lamm & Jason Scheff |
Another great VSO trick… One time I was doing a session where we
wanted an unusual drum sound, so we laid down a click track, learned the
song at that tempo then, we sped up the 2” tape machine and recorded
the drums. When we slowed it down to the real tempo we had that sort of
"Strawberry Fields"- slow motion drum sound.” Another
obvious use for VSO Hanks adds is vocals. “To help a singer struggling
to hit a high note you can say, I’ll just detune it for you. John
Lennon used VSO to slow down "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
while recording the vocal and when it’s played back at the regular
tempo you get this kind of odd tonality and dreamy quality with the vocal
performance that really enhances the song.”
Hank came across a very practical application of VSO [prior to purchasing
his BIG BEN unfortunately] while recording Robert Lamm’s latest
project “subtlety&passion”. He reflects, “When I
was Doing Robert’s record he brought in a song on cassette that
he had written a while back and he could not remember how to play it.
As he went about relearning the song we realized that the cassette demo
was slightly out of tune. So, I tuned the midi keyboards to the cassette
version, Robert relearned and sequenced the entire song, put a rough vocal
on there and before you know it we were making the actual recording. The
problem was that it was a quarter-tone flat. Retuning guitar and
bass, is not a big deal but the brass guys, legendary trombonist Jimmy
Pankow and arranger/trombonist Nick Lane were not thrilled with my suggestion
that they ‘pull their slides out a little further’. BIG BEN’s
VSO would have handled this with no problem.”
Hank Linderman’s ability to assemble a pro recording set-up on a
budget, his experience as an engineer and a musician, and his contagious
enthusiasm for a DIY atmosphere makes one realize that creating professional
recordings in the home studio is truly the positive side of today’s
troubled music business.
To contact Hank Linderman: hlinderman@comcast.net
Hank Linderman’s most recent project is:
Robert Lamm’s “subtlety&passion”
Check out the web site for sound samples: www.robertlamm.org
Other artists that Hank has worked with
America: www.venturahighway.com
:
Timothy B. Schmit: www.timothybschmit.com
Jeff Larson: www.new-surf.com/jefflarson
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