GEAR

Great sound inspires the musician and the listener

Majestic Music Factory is a veritable toy store for the creative musician! The studio is set up with 3 principles:

1. GREAT SOUNDING GEAR

2. EXCEPTIONAL ACOUSTICS

3. QUICK WORKFLOW

1. GEAR: This is the result of my never ending quest to find the best gear for recording and mixing. I even started a rental company in the mid 90's with engineer Al Schmitt as an excuse acquire more high end gear! Everything in the studio from the 2" tape machine to the Neumann tube mics to the Moog synths to the special JCF AD/DA converters represents gear that not only sounds great but also has soul!

2. ACOUSTICS: Acoustics have a huge impact on sound quality. Our live room is praised by player after player for its rich and balanced acoustics and can be configured for a lively or tight sound with our custom made diffuser/absorber wall panels.

3. WORKFLOW: It's important to record when the inspiration hits. Having great gear doesn't help if you spend so long setting it up that you forgot what you wanted to record! The studio is set up move quickly. Mics stay on the drums and on the piano. There is a keyboard station, an amp station, a guitar FX station always ready for recording.

Check out our gear list below. The studio features 15 Synthesizers, 14 vintage guitar amps, a Yamaha grand piano with Disklavier, a Vintage Gretsch drum kit, a collection of vintage Neumann as well as many modern microphones, an Ampex 16 track 2" tape machine and world class outboard gear.

THE LIST

Analog Recorders:
Ampex MM1200 2" 16 track (optional Dolby SR)
Ampex 351 tube 2 track (1/4" and 1/2" headstacks)

Digital Recording:
Pro Tools HD4 with 32 channels IO
(Plugins by Sony, Waves, McDSP, Massenberg, Altiverb, Autotune, Bombfactory,Drawmer, Eventide, Sound Toys, etc)
Logic
Akai MPC 4000
Apple G5

AD / DA Converters:
32 channels IO:
16 ch: JCF mastering quality AD / DA (tube and solid state, hand made)
16ch: Lynx Aurora
2ch Lavry (DB Tech) Gold MKII AD
2 ch Benchmark DA (monitoring)

Monitors:
ADAM S3A (pair)

Mic Pre's:
2 Neve 1272's
6 API 312's (from vintage console)
2 Mastering Lab tube
2 Langevin AM16's
2 RCA BA 73 vintage
2 RCA BA 31 vintage
2 Langevin 116 vintage tube
2 Langevin 117 vintage tube
4 RCA BA-21 vintage tube
1 Gates vintage tube
2 Ampex 351 vintage tube

Compressors:
Manley Variable Mu Limiter (6386 tubes, hi pass sidechain mod)
Pendulum 6386 Vari Mu
Urei 1176 blackface (vintage D model)
Urei 1176 silverface (vintage, highly modified)
Thermionic Culture Phoenix
Summit TLA-100
Drawmer 1968 Mercenary Edition
Chandler TG-1 EMI recreation
RCA BA6A vintage tube
Empirical Labs Fatso
(2) DBX 160's
SPL Transient Designer TD4 (4 channel)

Equalizers:
Manley Massive Passive
Sontec MEP250 (similar to gml 8200 but more vibe)
Amek Medici (stereo mastering EQ)
(2) API 550a
(2) Mercury EQ-H1 (Pultec replicas)
Pultec EQP-1A
(2) Altec 9061

Effects:
EMT 140 Plate with Martinsound upgrade
Lexicon 480L
Lexicon PCM60
Ursa Major Space Station (vintage)
Sony R7
TC Electronics 1210 Spatial Expander
Neve Portico tape simulator (2 channels)
RSP Saturator (tape, distortion effect)
Motion Sound R-3 147 rotating speaker
Echoplex tube tape echo (vintage)
Guitar Effects:
ADA flanger (vintage), Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man (vintage), Tube Echoplex, Analog Man stereo chorus, H & K Rotosphere, Heil Talkbox, Maestro Phase Shifter (vintage), Roger mayer Voodoo Vibe, MXR Flanger (vintage), Foxx Tone Machine (vintage), Roland Dimension C (vintage), TS7 Tube Screamer, Dunlap Rotovibe, Dunlap Wah, RMC3 Wah.

Microphones:
(2) Neumann U67 (1 stock, 1 moded by Toby Foster for more open high end -like a U67 with a C12 top end. A go to mic)
(2) Neumann KM54 (cardiod, nickel capsule, tube, small diaphragm)
Neumann KM-88 (multi pattern, nickel capsule, small diaphragm -like a multipattern KM84 with more detail and open high end)
Neumann KM184 (cardiod condenser, small diaphragm)
Soundelux U99 (multi pattern, tube, large diaphragm)
Horch RM2J (Neumann U47 replica)
Royer R121 ribbon
(2) Royer R122v tube ribbon
Audio Technica AT4047 (large diaphragm condenser)
(2) Sure SM57
(2) Sennheiser 421
AKG D112
Audix D4
EV RE-20
Yamaha SKRM-100 Subkick
Copperphone Mic (lo-fi vintage mic for telephone sound, loop effects etc)

Guitar / Bass Amps:
Marshall JMP (vintage 1969 "Plexi" era)
Marshall JMP (vintage 1974)
Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb (vintage 1965)
(2) Fender Blackface Bassman (mid 1960's)
(2) Ampeg Gemini (mid 1960's)
Ampeg V4 (mid 1970's)
Ampeg VT-40 (combo 4x10" version of V4)
Ampeg Reverbrocket (mid 1960's)
(2) Ampeg Jet (mid 1960's)
Silvertone Twin 12
Ampeg B15N fliptop bass amp (mid 1960's)
Magnatone combo (1956)
THD UniValve
Marshall 4 x 12 cab (mid 1970's greenbacks & JBL silver bell alnico)
Marshall 2 x 12 cab (Vintage 30's)
Mesa Boogie 1x12 cab

Guitars:
Martin D-18 acoustic (vintage 1942)
Breedlove SC25/R acoustic
Fender Telecaster (vintage 1966)
Fender Telecaster (vintage 1960)
Fender Telecaster (vintage 1952)
Fender Stratocaster (vintage 1957)
Stratocaster (30th Street Guitars, NYC custom relic)
Gibson Les Paul Jr (vintage 1959)
Kelly Telecaster (Built by Carmine St Guitars, NYC)
Fender Precision Bass (1974)
Hamer Special
G&L ASAT maple neck, Tele style

Keyboards:
Yamaha Baby Grand Piano with Disklavier system
Yamaha CP33 88 note weighted action keyboard
Moog Minimoog (rackmounted)
Moog Memorymoog
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5
Access Virus T1
Roland Fantom (sample playback option)
Yamaha Motif rack
Oberheim Matrix 1000 (analog)
Voce V5 drawbar B3 organ module
Roland MKS 70 analog (mid 80's)
Roland JD990
Roland MKS 20
Yamaha TX 816 (8 dx-7's in a rack)
Korg Wavestation
Korg MicroKorg
Korg O1/W
Softsynths:
Sonik Synth 2
Kontakt
Hybrid
Atmosphere
Colossus
Exotic Instruments Library

Piano:
Yamaha baby grand with Disklavier Self Playing/Recording System: receives and sends midi. The piano can play itself from a computer midi track. Also, you can record your performance while playing the piano (via midi), edit the performance in the computer then play it back through the piano.

Drum Kit:
Gretsch 60's Round Badge kit (a "holy grail" kit for many drummers)
8x12 high tom, 14x14 flr tom, 14x20 kick
Snare: GMS 5 x 14 maple
Snare: Beier 2mm 6.5 x 14 brass snare
High Hat: Zildjian 14" medium
Ride: 20" Bosphorus
Crash: 16" Dream Bliss

Misc:
Radial JD7 Guitar DI, reamp, splitter
JCF 4 channel guitar reamp for using guitar fx boxes with Pro Tools tracks.
Direct Boxes made from vintageUTC and Lagevin transformers
Indian hand drums,bongos, frame drums, exotic percussion, bells, tambourines

Every aspect of our signal path is scrutinized with the thought of, "How can this be better?"

Electrical System:
Good sound starts with clean power and grounding. We use a military grade Staco 8kva computer controlled motorized variac that maintains constant voltage with 0% distortion. Further, the studio is fed by an Equitech Balanced Power Transformer with thick guage (10g, 12g) custom made JPS electric wire, dedicated ground and all silver connections. It makes an audible improvement.

Audio Wiring:
Our facility is wired with Mogami snakes. In many cases we use the Mogami Digital 110ohm AES snakes as they have better specs (lower capacitance) and therefore are better for analog audio. Connections are all silver.