For Immediate Release
Rhapsody Street Makes Masterpiece The Centerpiece Of Studio Conversion
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - May 2005 -- Rhapsody Street Studios, a recording and mastering studio in San Antonio co-owned by producer/engineers Mack Damon and Ken Branca, has recently converted its Studio B into a new mastering room that now revolves around a new Legendary Audio Masterpiece two-bus analog processing system.
Being less than an hour's drive south of Wimberley, Damon has, over the years, called upon Legendary Audio Founder Billy Stull to master projects recorded at Rhapsody Street. Consequently, when he initially had the chance to sit down with Stull and use the prototype Masterpiece just prior to its official AES launch last year, he was extremely impressed.
"From the first time we passed audio through it, I thought the Masterpiece was just fantastic," says Damon. "Its phase-coherent independent processing of bands is nothing short of completely amazing. When Billy previously explained it to me, I didn't believe that it could be done, quite honestly. I know a little bit about electrical signal theory and I was thinking 'there's no way you can do that; it's not going to work!' And so when I actually heard it - and we put things back and forth in mono and made sure that nothing was canceling out - I was ecstatic. One of the biggest complaints, especially when you do a lot of rock music, is that the kick drum is sucking the whole mix up in the mastering process. So if you can bypass and then choose the frequency of that bottom octave from hitting the program compressor and just let the limiter deal with it, the difference is amazing. It's affords a much better and more transparent mix."
Damon was similarly awed with the Masterpiece's EQ section - particularly the 'glow' and 'sheen' buttons. "Those two circuits are absolutely glorious. When I heard them, I knew I had to have this product because nothing else on the market does that. Not everybody wants to spend an entire day mastering a record, as we prefer to do, but even on the 'set it and forget it' type of scenario, the difference that those buttons make is phenomenal. By just using glow, sheen and a little tape saturation, even the most intellectually challenged clients remark how much better everything sounds.
"In my opinion, the Masterpiece is an essential mastering tool for three reasons. First and foremost is its sonic quality, which is stunning. Second is its flexibility; the ability to physically take the processing modules out and rearrange the signal path as desired is pretty amazing. And, third, is the enormous degree of control as far as what gets processed and what doesn't. Like the fact that the two mid bands overlap as much as they do, which allows you to really get in there and do some surgery. There's just such a massive amount of flexibility with the ratios chosen for the compressors; they didn't just give you five or six of them. All of those things combined, you can definitely find the sound you need with this box. And if you can't, you're probably an idiot," he laughs.
Introduced last fall at the 117th AES Convention in San Francisco, the Masterpiece is a highly comprehensive and unique two-channel analog audio processing system conceived by Stull with all circuitry designed by audio legend Rupert Neve. A powerful tool for mastering, mixing, broadcast, restoration or live sound, the product's 6U chassis is equipped with four-pairs of vertically-oriented filter modules that are reminiscent of vintage Neve designs and collectively offer a wide palette of sonic amenities, including precision peak and shelving equalizers, a full-featured dynamics section, highly authentic tape texture (thanks to a real tape drive circuit), incremental phase rotation, various classic audio functions and more.
The Masterpiece empowers the audio engineer to enhance, restructure, or repair stereo audio, be it digital or analog. Ambience can be increased or decreased, vocals brought forward or back, bass tightened and maximized, digital harshness made smooth and warm, offending frequencies tamed, sonic spectrum improved, gain maximized, or just overall sonic enhancement added to create a competitive, professional product.
With quarter and single db resolution on the most critical controls, plus the ability to insert circuitry across either specific bands or the entire signal path, the Masterpiece is capable of either the subtlest correction or radical re-shaping of the material. The unit has the ability to take a lifeless digital recording and create warm, improved tonality, depth and space.
For more information on Rhapsody Street Studios, log on to www.rhapsodystreet.com .
Legendary Audio is a boutique manufacturer of high-end audio products for mastering, archiving, recording, broadcast and live sound applications. Located in Wimberley, Texas, the company is the manufacturing sibling of Masterpiece Mastering and shares close R&D ties with Rupert Neve Designs, also of Wimberley.
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Reader contact:
Legendary Audio
P.O. Box 2130, Wimberley, TX 78676
Tel/Fax: 512.842.1431
Email: info@legendaryaudio.com
URL: www.legendaryaudio.com
Editor contact:
Chris Shuler, Public Address
Tel: 574.287.8410 / Cell: 574.514.7131 / Fax: 574.287.1522
Email: christophershuler@comcast.net |
