Hollywood, CA (February 15, 2022)—Producer and engineer Thai Long Ly, recording engineer for Postmodern Jukebox, a musical collective that reworks popular modern music into different vintage genres, has added a Neve 1073DPX dual preamp/EQ to his mobile recording rig.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ly was based at Bell Sound studios, a commercial facility in Hollywood, CA. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the studio switched its focus to recording voice overs and ADR, which forced Ly to relocate his equipment to his own home.
“I have a large mobile recording rig and passport at the ready so I can go anywhere I’m needed,” he explains. “With my current set up, I am mainly mixing — I don’t do much tracking here, just the occasional vocal or instrument overdub.”
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Ly has been the official recording engineer for PMJ since 2018. The collective regularly releases new videos on its YouTube channel and has now amassed over 1.4 billion views and five million subscribers.
Adding a Neve 1073DPX was a crucial step, as Ly explains, “I already had 26 channels of various mic amps in the mobile rig, but I wanted to incorporate the fatness and warmth of Neve’s 10 series circuits into both of my setups so I could use them for tracking and mixing. With a pair of line ins, the 1073DPX is the perfect solution because it gives me two channels of the classic 1073 sound with that EQ, all in a two-space rack. And for just $3,000 it was a total no-brainer.”
As a bass player, Ly says he is very sensitive to low frequencies and the impact they have on depth. “The DPX always nails it,” he says. “With the high shelf you can dial in the right amount of air and presence, without any spiky nonsense. Subtle broad cuts with those sweet midrange bell curves creates clarity while still retaining tone. The front panel DI means I don’t have to crawl around for a direct box, and the independent masters allow me to smash the inputs hard while still maintaining proper levels to tape. The build quality also feels chunky and the layout is logical — everything I expect from a Neve.”
