For recent projects with Vince Gill, Joan Osborne and Mindy Smith, Nashville recording engineer Neal Cappellino (pictured) relied heavily on the latest version of the Geoff Daking & Cso. Mic-Pre/EQ. The Vince Gill project (which includes a duet with Diana Krall) will be featured on Gill’s forthcoming four-CD box set of all-new material, These Days, due for release by MCA Records in October. These Days was produced by Justin Niebank and John Hobbs. Osborne’s album, her first for Vanguard, is expected to be released later this year or in early 2007.
Cappellino purchased two Daking Mic-Pre/EQ units earlier this year. “I had the opportunity to use them a few times and I liked the combination of the mic pre design and the EQ,” he says. “It has become a go-to mic preamp for me. I do my share of bluegrass and acoustic-based music in Nashville. The Daking Mic-Pre/EQ has a real clarity and responds well to transients, but also offers a robust low-end, so it’s great on everything from drums to mandolin to vocals. [It’s] really very versatile, and the EQ section is responsive and musical.”
Acquiring the two Mic-Pre/EQs in time for the Mindy Smith and Joan Osborne recording projects also allowed him to get the most out of his current favorite transducers. “Ribbon mics have been more prevalent in my palette recently,” he explains. “And for those particular transducers it helps to have high-gain mic pres that are fast and clear. I also prefer the transformer-based input and output design for many applications. It’s such a versatile preamp, it has to be in my arsenal.
Daking’s mic preamp and four-band equalizer combines all-discrete transistor circuitry and transformer-balanced inputs and outputs in a Class-A amplifier that is said to be reminiscent of the classic Trident A Range mixing console, renowned for its sound by many top engineers.
For more information, visit Daking’s U.S. distributor, Las Vegas Pro Audio, at www.lasvegasproaudio.com.
