Carlsbad, CA (December 11, 2018)—Producer and mix engineer Michael James has worked with a long and varied list of artists in addition to carving out a separate career as a guitarist of note. Having produced or mixed hits for artists like Kalimba, New Radicals, Hole, Edwin McCain, Chicago and Robben Ford, he’s built his own mix space in recent years, and powered it with Furman.
“The foundation and life line of my studio is clean, reliable power,” James explains. “It’s an often-overlooked part of the equation, but it’s absolutely critical to what I do.” Accordingly, his go-to equipment includes the Furman F1000-UPS, and the IT-Reference 20i with Power Factor technology.
“I have a few very essential pieces of equipment that answer my clean, reliable power call and the first is the Furman F1000 UPS – it’s a battery back-up and a critical component to have if you’re working with intellectual property,” James says. “At any given moment, I may have millions of dollars of intellectual property on my hard drives that I can’t take risks with. The Furman F1000 UPS gives me time to safely shut down my computer and hard drives and save all that data.”
Meanwhile, the Furman IT-Reference 20i is another key to his work. “The IT-Reference 20i is a balanced power isolation transformer and I love it because it is super clean power that gives me an additional 10 dB of headroom – allowing me to hear more low-level detail, like reverb tails or really emotional vocal phrases,” James emphasizes. “Ultimately the IT Reference 20i helps me make better sound decisions and make them much more quickly.”
Even with his own guitar work, Furman gear still comes into play as he uses his older Furman Power Factor PRO, particularly for working with guitar and bass amplifiers. “Guitar amps, especially vintage ones, can be susceptible to current swings, which explains why one day an amp sounds great and the next day it doesn’t sound so good,” he says. “The Power Factor PRO always keeps that sound in the sweet spot – so when you adjust your tone with this on it’s going to sound the same all the time.”
Furman • www.furmansound.com
