Scotts Valley, CA (May 25, 2011)–Michael Brauer recently won the 2010 Best Engineered Album Grammy Award for an album on which he used Universal Audio hardware.
Mix engineer Michael Brauer recently won the 2010 Best Engineered Album Grammy Award for John Mayer’s Battle Studies. The project is the latest in a long line for Brauer, who has enjoyed a 30-year music career, mixing albums from Coldplay, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones.
Brauer recalls specific events in which UA’s hardware was used when he, Steve Jordan and John Mayer were searching for a particular sound: “There’s a tune on the album called, ‘Who Says?’ that I first tried mixing using my multi-buss compression technique. When John heard it…he thought that track needed to sound more honest…I went back and [used] one stereo compressor [a Neve 33609], going into a couple Pultec EQ’s, and [put] the vocals through my hardware UA LA-3A–which is just a great-sounding simple compressor. When John came back in a half hour later, he said, ‘That’s it.’ We were done.”
Brauer holds court over an amperage-busting, NASA-like collection of vintage outboard gear at New York’s Electric Lady Studios, but still uses numerous Universal Audio UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins. “They have the sound I’m looking for,” he says. “And for me, it’s all about sound.”
Brauer’s collection of analog hardware includes UA’s 1176LN, LA-2A and LA-3A compressors.
Universal Audio Inc.
www.uaudio.com
