Los Angeles, CA (July 2, 2012)—Hoobastank’s new album was partially tracked at drummer Chris Hesse’s studio, where he employed his A-Designs Hammer equalizer and new Nail compressor.
Hoobastank recently put the finishing touches on Fight or Flight, which makes its official debut in late August. Nearly two years in the making, the album was partially tracked at Woodland Hills-based studio The Lighthouse, owned by Hesse. Although a fair amount of the new record was recorded at producer Gavin Brown’s studio in Toronto and mixed by Paul Hager in Burbank, Hesse points out that the band tracked guitars, bass, keyboards and many of the album’s vocal tracks at The Lighthouse, while some of the drum tracks were laid down at his old house in Malibu.
“My friend, Peter Stengaard [producer at Diane Warren’s RealSongs Studios], owns a Hammer and Nail and has raved about them for a long time, and now I know why,” says Hesse. “I really like using the Hammer for tracking overheads and especially vocals. When mixing, I’ll use it for pretty much anything because it’s a no-brainer for breathing life into tracks. It’s an impressive piece—so much so, in fact, that I sold my previous main stereo tube EQ to buy it, and I still had a load of dough left over for other gear.
“I didn’t actually get the Nail until recently, but I instantly fell in love with it, too. It’s fantastic across the mixbus—almost as if there’s an EQ hidden in the product because simply running things through the Nail gives mixes added air. It polishes things so nicely that I’m not at all inclined to go exploring other avenues at this point.”
A-Designs Audio
www.adesignsaudio.com
