Studio Gear

Equipment: Our Philosophy

Like other studios, for most of GilderSound’s history the centerpiece of the studio was a large mixer. In our case, it was a Yamaha 02R 40 channel digital mixer with moving fader automation. However, the move to Pro Tools HD changed the way we work in three important ways.

First, most signal routing, mixing, and automation tasks moved inside the computer. Second, our growing collection of mic preamps became the main source of input into Pro Tools. Third, we began to do a lot of recording at high sample rates such as 24 bit/ 96k or 24 bit/88.2k, and the 02R was limited to 24 bit/48k.

So, in 2006 I decided to sell the big mixer. In our control room we use a Digidesign Command 8 for "hands on" access to Pro Tools and a Mackie Big Knob does a great job handling monitor routing, talkback, etc.

With our current setup we can create many signal paths - tube, solid state, colored, uncolored, British, American - whatever it takes to create the best sound for your recording.

Our equipment was carefully chosen to bring you the best quality for a reasonable price. We also have a collection of outstanding instruments, including drums, bass, guitars, amps, keyboards, and percussion available. Read on to check out our extensive list of gear.

Inventory of Gear

In-Studio Pro Tools System
Pro Tools HD3 Accel version 9.x running on a Mac Pro Quad Core computer. This system has 32 inputs and is capable of playing back 96 tracks.

Interfaces - A/D & D/A
Apogee Symphony I/O
Apogee Rosetta 800/192
Digidesign 192

Plug-ins
Bomb Factory classic compressors bundle
Antares
Avid Air Effects and Instruments
Celemony Melodyne (pitch correction)
Digidesign DINR
Drum Core
Eventide
Focusrite d2/d3
Impact
Line 6 Echo Farm
Massenberg DesignWorks EQ
Princeton Digital
Pultec bundle
Reverb One
ReVibe
Sound Toys
Sound Toys Echo Boy
Trillium Lane
URS bundle
Waves Platinum
Additional plug-ins available

Control Surface
Digidesign Command 8
Great River MixMaster 20

Acoustic Treatments
Acoustic treatments by Ahl, Inc. and RealTraps. Acoustic consulting by Dave Ahl.

Portable Pro Tools System
Pro Tools Digi 002Rack with with Black Lion Audio Signature upgrade running on a 2GHz MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo with 1 gig of RAM. This system has 16 inputs and can play back 32 tracks.

Plug-ins, Virtual Instruments, and Additional Programs (portable system)
Bomb Factory
Celemony Melodyne
Digidesign
Funk Logic
Garage Band
IK Multimedia
Live
Reason

Additional Recorders
Alesis ADAT 20 bit digital tape recording (24 channels with BRC controller)
Alesis Masterlink stereo recorder/CD burner
Panasonic SV-3700 DAT recorder
Tascam 102 cassette decks (2)

Microphone Preamps/Channel Strips
AEA The Ribbon Preamp
Aphex Model 107
Atlas Pro Audio Juggernaut
Focusrite ISA 428 (4 channels with optional ADC)
Great River MP2NV
Great River MixMaster 20
Millennia STT-1
Summit MPC-100A
Symetrix 528
Tech 21 SansAmp PSA-1
Universal Audio 6176 (2)
Universal Audio LA-610

Mixers
Mackie 1402VLZ Pro
Yamaha 01V

Direct/Reamp Boxes
Aguilar DB900 Tube DI
Behringer Ultra DI-20
Horizon Phantomline
Little Labs Red Eye 3D Phantom
Radial J48 (2)
Radial SGI system
Rapco DB-100
SansAmp Bass DI

Other Outboard Gear
A-Designs Nail stereo compressor
Antares ATR-1 Auto Tune
API 5500 dual equalizer
BBE 822A sonic maximizer
Bricasti M7 Reverb
Burgin-McDaniel Komit compressor/limiter
Buzz Audio SOC 1.1 stereo compressor
Furman PL8 and IT1220 power conditioners
Inward Connections Brute compressor
Lexicon MPX1
Lexicon Vortex
Lexicon LXP1
Maag EQ4 equalizer stereo pair
Redco patchbay
Retro Doublewide compressor
TC Electronic Finalizer Plus
Vestax BDT-2000 turntable

Monitors/related equipment
ASC Tubetrap monitor stands
Focal Solo6 Be
Genelec 1030A and 1092A sub
Rane HC6 headphone amp
Sony boombox - big and ancient

Headphones
AKG K240
Audio-Technica M40 (2) & D40
Sennheiser HD280
Shure SRH440
Sony MDR-7506
Yamaha RH5m (4)

Microphones
Audio-Technica 4051 (2)
Audio-Technica 4050
Audio-Technica ATM25
Audio-Technica ATM23 (2)
Audio-Technica ATM61
Blue Blueberry
Neumann KMS 104
Pearlman TM-1 tube microphone
Royer R-121 ribbon
Sony C-48
Shure KSM32 (2)
Shure VP88 stereo
Shure SM57 (2)
Shure SM58
Yamaha Subkick

Other
Fender Rhodes Stage 73 Mk II electric piano
Guitar and bass amps by Fender, Mesa, and SWR
Kurzweil K2500X 88 note keyboard/midi controller
Yamaha Maple Custom drum set
Zildjian cymbals