Chris Harris (Hadley, Mass.), who played guitar in heavy metal bands such as Doom Nation, has moved from behind the mic to behind the mixing board in his full-fledged sound production/engineering company, Planet-Z Recording.
The studio has recently added a Lucid ADA8824 converter and a Lucid GENx6 wordclock generator to its growing equipment list. For recording and producing in a digital format, Harris (or Zeuss, his industry moniker) uses two Mackie D8Bs, as well as Mackie HDR 24/96 recorders, Great River mic preamps, Empirical Labs distressors and a Universal Audio1176 limiter, among others.
“There’s more inputs and outputs available with the 8824, making it easier to get things into and out of the recorders and the mixing console,” Harris said. “I also like this unit because it can transform the signal in both directions–from analog to digital or vice versa.
“The 8824 was more expensive than some competing models, and less than others,” Harris continued, “but I feel it really captures the sound I want without having to spend a very high dollar amount. I like it because it’s very clean, open-sounding and less grainy, and the top end that’s produced is very smooth. That’s key to me because I want the music to sound like how I hear it in analog format, and that sound can change because of converter circuitry. Essentially, I really like analog sound, and this converter captures that sound for me.”
According to Harris, the GENx6 has allowed him to more accurately align and synchronize his console, converter and recorders. “It makes everything in my digital system run in the same timing. If the equipment is not running at a good solid speed, snapshots are not being taken accurately and pieces of the audio are missing. The GENx6 is very stable, more so than the one in the console’s converter.”
For more information, visit Lucid online at www.lucidaudio.com.
