Musician, engineer and producer Johnny Sandlin (pictured), who has 10 Gold and Platinum albums to his credit, recently worked with Bonnie Bramlett on her album Beautiful, which is due for release on the Rockin’ Camel label in February 2008. Sandlin works in his own project studio, Duck Tape Music, in Decatur, Ala.
For Bramlett’s album, Sandlin employed Heil PR 30 and Heil PR 40 large diaphragm dynamic mics. “The Heils have the edge of a condenser, the bite of a 57 and the smoothness of a ribbon,” Sandlin says. “There’s no other microphone out there that has all of those qualities rolled into one.”
Sandlin used the PR 30 for electric guitar in a close, on-axis position. From there, he used a custom JMK Audio preamp and a touch of compression from a Urei LA-4 before bringing the signal into a Steinberg Nuendo system.
“Those tracks sound so good and stand out such a nice way, I don’t know if they will need any additional processing,” Sandlin adds. “The Heil microphones are now my go-to mics for guitar. I’ve used them on every guitar part since I received them. Seriously, these are the best guitar sounds I’ve ever gotten.” He has also used the PR 30 and PR 40 on Leslie cabinet overdubs (PR 40 on the bottom, PR 30 on the top) and has plans to use them on snare and bass drums the next time he tracks.
For more information, visit www.heilsound.com and www.johnnysandlin.com.
