Dangerous Monitor ST Key to 1960’s Style Mixes for Aerosmith Guitarist’s Release
Edmeston, NY – October 6, 2009 – Engineer Pablo Arraya recently completed Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry’s solo record, “Have Guitar, Will Travel,” where he acted as both the recording engineer for the final tracks and the mix engineer as well. Perry’s solo album was released today, October 6, 2009. Arraya, a Grammy-winning engineer, brought his newly purchased Dangerous Monitor ST monitor controller to Perry’s Boneyard Studio in Boston for the project. “The decision to buy the Monitor ST was directly related to working on the Joe Perry album,” states Arraya. “His vintage Neve console has an amazing sound, and I wanted to add a more modern and flexible monitoring path. When I came in to the studio, Joe asked me to listen to a lot of Hendrix, Doors, AC/DC, and
a lot
of early Rolling Stones. He told me he wanted to get that sort of sound and feel. Perry told me ‘I don’t want it to sound pop-y and modern’ – that was his vision at first, and things evolved from there.”
At his Audio Piranha Group studio on Park Avenue in Manhattan that Arraya shares with several engineers, they recently added both the Monitor ST and the Dangerous 2-Bus LT analog-summing amp to their mix room. The room is focused on mixing but is also set up for overdubs, especially for vocals, “which sound great,” says Arraya. The studio is growing quickly, “We’ve added a lot of gear and another room already and can now track drums too,” he added, commenting on the new Park Avenue location.
On the Monitor ST choice, Arraya says, “Of all the things in a studio, the monitor section is an important one. It was time to do an upgrade to a better monitoring section – I had used the ST at a different studio and I loved how it felt, and Dangerous Music has a reputation for making great sounding gear.” Arraya had been speaking with mastering engineer and good friend Dave Kutch, “He literally sold it to me on his recommendation – it was a no-brainer.”
“When I got the Monitor ST, I hooked it up at Joe Perry’s studio first,” says Arraya about working on the Aerosmith guitarist’s solo album. “I chose the Dangerous Music Montior ST over the Neve consoles’ controls. I knew a lot of the mixing we were going to do was going to be like Hendrix-stlye, Doors-style, very 60’s style mixing, where your drums are panned to one side, the bass to the other, your vocal shows up half way through the song. So I wanted to be able to have something to mute the left and the right speaker easily. On Joe’s Neve console, you can’t do that.”
Having recently done some mixes through the Dangerous 2-Bus LT analog summing amp for Colombian group, Doctor Krápula (Sony), Arraya relates his first impressions, “The 2-Bus is extremely clean, has huge headroom, and it’s easy to use – it has one knob. If you’ve mixed in Pro Tools before, and if you’ve mixed on an analog desk before, the amount of steps that you have to go through to even approach getting the same sound are many. Having a 2-Bus gets you there quicker, and this is a huge advantage! I think the flexibility of being able to mix continuously in Pro Tools, but having analog summing on the outside is a huge part of the process. I’ve tried other summing boxes and they don’t compare as far as the headroom and how hard you can hit it. The harder I hit the 2-Bus the better it sounds. I love this box, it’s staying in the system!”
Comparing the Monitor ST to the sound of a large format console’s monitoring, Arraya added, “When you bring the volume on the ST all the way down you still feel the punch of the kick and the power that’s coming through the mix. And it doesn’t matter what level it’s at. That transparency for me is very, very important. Especially when you are doing rock and hip-hop. Where you feel the difference is when you have the drums banging, and then you bring in the guitars and then you bring the volume down on a low-cost monitor controller and all of a sudden, your guitars are too low or your drums are too loud – the balancing of the mix is not accurate,” continued Arraya complementing the Montior ST on it’s ability to hold a mix’s clarity at low levels.
Explaining that their Audio Piranha studio now has three totally different pairs of speakers to switch between and a sub, Arraya says, “I think having the Monitor ST in the middle [of the listening chain] has made a huge difference in what you are hearing. Even how it drives the speakers, you hear them in a different way. Like now the Genelec’s sound warmer than they did before we added the Monitor ST, and the ST allowed us to add a third pair of speakers in the room.”
Since the studio does a lot of vocal overdubs, the headphone out puts and talkback get used a lot at Audio Piranha, “One of the things I like about the Monitor ST is that the mic for talkback is very dynamic, the person in the vocal booth can hear real well on their headphones. It sounds great. The headphone amp is really clean too. The Monitor ST is a very flexible box. I love the fact that you can do mono, the Dim function works really well, the ability to add the sub-woofer with the filter – that’s a great option – calibrating the speakers is really easy; and the options for the inputs are super easy to use too.” Another thing he likes about the Monitor ST, “When we want to update to 5.1, it’s adding a box and you’re there, you don’t have to buy a whole new setup.”
Pablo Arraya started his career with Sony Music Studios in 2000 after graduating from Middle Tennessee State University. The Native Bolivian quickly moved up the ladder to become one of the most requested engineers inside Sony’s wide stable of talent. His diverse cultural background made him a versatile engineer. His engineering experience brought him to the attention of some of the most demanding international acts leading to a Grammy(r) in 2006 for Nancy Wilson’s Turned To Blue album. Arraya leads sessions for all styles of music, and handles any studio situation with ease. He recently opened a new studio with the Audio Piranha Group on Park Avenue in Manhattan. Contact Pablo Arraya through the Audio Piranha Group website: http://www.audiopiranhagroup.com
Visit Joe Perry’s website for the latest news about his solo album Have Guitar, Will Travel at: http://www.joeperry.com
About Dangerous Music, Inc.
Dangerous Music, Inc. designs and builds products that are indispensable to any DAW-based recording environment. Dangerous Music electronics designer Chris Muth has spent over 20 years working in and designing custom equipment for top recording and mastering studios. Muth and company founder Bob Muller pioneered the concept of the dedicated analog summing buss for digital audio workstations with the Dangerous 2-Bus in 2001. Today the company offers a wide range of products for recording, mastering, mixing and post-production facilities, all designed and built with mastering-quality standards and a practical aesthetic. Key products include the Dangerous 2-Bus and 2-Bus LT, Dangerous Monitor ST-SR and its Additional Switching System expansion units, Dangerous D-Box, Dangerous Master, Dangerous S&M, Dangerous Monitor and Dangerous MQ. For more information visit http://www.dangerousmusic.com phone 607-965-8011 or email: [email protected]
