FEATURE STORIES

MASTERPIECE 2

School of Mastering at South Padre Island, Texas
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High Fidelity Mastering opens in Albuquerque
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Puget Sound Studios, world class mastering studio, opens in Seattle
full story

Arf! Digital shows off New York's first Masterpiece
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NEWS ARCHIVES

• Sonic Ranch ropes world's first Masterpiece story below
• Rhapsody Street Studio - San Antonio: Popular Texas studio expands with a new Mastering room! story below
• BNB Productions adds Masterpiece to new studio facility. story below
• Crystal Clear Sound - Dallas, Texas: Upgrades their Mastering Lab with a MASTERPIECE! story below
• Legendary Audio unveils the MASTERPIECE at AES San Francisco, story below
• MASTERPIECE warms up Vince Gill/ Amy Grant Christmas concert broadcast to U.S. troops: story below

Rhapsody Street Makes Masterpiece The Centerpiece Of Studio Conversion

Billy Stull, Ken Branca, Rupert Neve and Mack Damon

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - June 2005 -- Rhapsody Street Studios, a recording and mastering studio in San Antonio co-owned by producer/engineers Mack Damon and Ken Branca, has recently converted its Studio B into a new mastering room that now revolves around a new Legendary Audio Masterpiece two-bus analog processing system.

Being less than an hour’s drive south of Wimberley, Damon has, over the years, called upon Legendary Audio Founder Billy Stull to master projects recorded at Rhapsody Street. Consequently, when he initially had the chance to sit down with Stull and use the prototype Masterpiece just prior to its official AES launch last year, he was extremely impressed.

"From the first time we passed audio through it, I thought the Masterpiece was just fantastic," says Damon. "Its phase-coherent independent processing of bands is nothing short of completely amazing. When Billy previously explained it to me, I didn’t believe that it could be done, quite honestly. I know a little bit about electrical signal theory and I was thinking ‘there’s no way you can do that; it’s not going to work!’ And so when I actually heard it — and we put things back and forth in mono and made sure that nothing was canceling out — I was ecstatic. One of the biggest complaints, especially when you do a lot of rock music, is that the kick drum is sucking the whole mix up in the mastering process. So if you can bypass and then choose the frequency of that bottom octave from hitting the program compressor and just let the limiter deal with it, the difference is amazing. It’s affords a much better and more transparent mix."

Damon was similarly awed with the Masterpiece’s EQ section — particularly the ‘glow’ and ‘sheen’ buttons. "Those two circuits are absolutely glorious. When I heard them, I knew I had to have this product because nothing else on the market does that. Not everybody wants to spend an entire day mastering a record, as we prefer to do, but even on the ‘set it and forget it’ type of scenario, the difference that those buttons make is phenomenal. By just using glow, sheen and a little tape saturation, even the most intellectually challenged clients remark how much better everything sounds.

"In my opinion, the Masterpiece is an essential mastering tool for three reasons. First and foremost is its sonic quality, which is stunning. Second is its flexibility; the ability to physically take the processing modules out and rearrange the signal path as desired is pretty amazing. And, third, is the enormous degree of control as far as what gets processed and what doesn’t. Like the fact that the two mid bands overlap as much as they do, which allows you to really get in there and do some surgery. There’s just such a massive amount of flexibility with the ratios chosen for the compressors; they didn’t just give you five or six of them. All of those things combined, you can definitely find the sound you need with this box. And if you can’t, you’re probably an idiot," he laughs.

Introduced last fall at the 117th AES Convention in San Francisco, the Masterpiece is a highly comprehensive and unique two-channel analog audio processing system conceived by Stull with all circuitry designed by audio legend Rupert Neve. A powerful tool for mastering, mixing, broadcast, restoration or live sound, the product’s 6U chassis is equipped with four-pairs of vertically-oriented filter modules that are aesthetically reminiscent of vintage Neve designs and collectively offer a wide palette of sonic amenities, including precision peak and shelving equalizers, a full-featured dynamics section, highly authentic tape texture (thanks to a real tape drive circuit), incremental phase rotation, various classic audio functions and more.

The Masterpiece empowers the audio engineer to enhance, restructure, or repair stereo audio, be it digital or analog. Ambience can be increased or decreased, vocals brought forward or back, bass tightened and maximized, digital harshness made smooth and warm, offending frequencies tamed, sonic spectrum improved, gain maximized, or just overall sonic enhancement added to create a competitive, professional product.

With quarter and single db resolution on the most critical controls, plus the ability to insert circuitry across either specific bands or the entire signal path, the Masterpiece is capable of either the subtlest correction or radical re-shaping of the material. The unit has the ability to take a lifeless digital recording and create warm, improved tonality, depth and space.

For more information on Rhapsody Street Studios, log on to www.rhapsodystreet.com.

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BNB Productions adds Masterpiece

Brian Moritz (left) and Bryan Mitchell (right) flanking their new Legendary Audio Masterpiece

NEWARK, Illinois - May 2005 -- Producer/engineer Bryan Mitchell and fellow native Chicago producer/engineer/musician Brian Moritz have teamed up to form BNB Productions, Inc., a new company dedicated to artist development, jingle and soundtrack creation, and audio/video recording services. As part of the partnership, the duo is currently in the process of converting a 4,200-square-foot building 60 miles southwest of the Windy City into a three-studio facility that will serve as its primary headquarters when it opens in mid-July.

Although much of the recording and mastering gear going into the new studio complex is from their own equipment arsenals — including a 60-channel Audient ASP8024 console, Digidesign Pro Tools|HD system, Sony APR24 and Ampex ATR-102 tape machines and copious quantities of classic outboard mic preamps, compressors and processing — the two BNB principals recently chose to purchase a new Legendary Audio Masterpiece boasting an all-Rupert Neve circuit design.

Mitchell recalls, "I had read about the Masterpiece’s AES launch in one of the industry magazines, was intrigued, and called up Billy Stull at the company to see if I could try one out. At the time, I was working with a local rock band called Monkey Paw that had previously done an album with Steve Albini. The band wanted to salvage a few tunes off of the half-inch reels from those sessions and add them to some new recordings that I had done for them. My initial task for the Masterpiece was to create an overall sheen that would both preserve the characteristics that are unique to Steve’s work and ensure that our two recordings were complimentary. The Masterpiece did a magnificent job, becoming that critical audio link."

Although Mitchell’s first use of the Legendary Audio product was, indeed, for mastering, he believes that the product is too versatile to be strictly dubbed a ‘mastering system’. "There are so many things that can be done with this box; you can really get lost in it," he says. "Aside from mastering with it, I’ve both tracked and mixed through it and found that whatever I use it on — even simply running signals through its transformers with barely any tweaking — sounds incredible. It can completely heal the harshness of digital sources. By making a few knob adjustments, you can give new character to the sound. The sonic landscape of anything going through this product just explodes!

"The level of control on this box is pretty staggering, too. EQ adjustments can be made in super-precise quarter-decibel increments. Sometimes it’s just that tiny little edge that makes all the difference.

"I really take my hat off to Billy and Rupert. The Masterpiece continues to blow away anybody that’s thinking solely in the digital realm. Before we took delivery of the product, I told my partner, Brian, that we had to own at least one more of Mr. Neve’s designs because his audio genius has made the rock and roll world sound the way it does. Billy’s expertise and insight compliments this signal path by creating unbelievable mastering flexibility, allowing the user to tackle even the toughest mastering problem. Even from the very first moment we started pumping two-track material through it, I knew that it wasn’t going back to Texas — no matter how hard Billy tried to get it back. The Masterpiece greatly enhances what we’re doing. When the day comes that Brian is mixing something and I’m mastering something else, there’s probably going to be a wrestling match over who gets to use it. We might just have to get another one."

A powerful tool for mastering, mixing, broadcast, restoration or live sound, the Masterpiece is a highly comprehensive and unique two-channel analog audio processing system. The product’s 6U chassis is equipped with four-pairs of vertically-oriented filter modules that are aesthetically reminiscent of vintage Neve designs and collectively offer a wide palette of sonic amenities, including precision peak and shelving equalizers, a full-featured dynamics section, highly authentic tape texture (thanks to a real tape drive circuit), incremental phase rotation, various classic audio functions and more.

The Masterpiece empowers the audio engineer to enhance, restructure, or repair stereo audio, be it digital or analog. Ambience can be increased or decreased, vocals brought forward or back, bass tightened and maximized, digital harshness made smooth and warm, offending frequencies tamed, sonic spectrum improved, gain maximized, or just overall sonic enhancement added to create a competitive, professional product.

Over the past year, Mitchell and Moritz have been working with the Chicago-based band Balance on its second release. The album features the virtuosic rhythm section talents of bassist Dave LaRue (Dixie Dregs, Steve Morse Band) and drummer Rod Morgenstein (Dixie Dregs, Winger) and will be available this August via www.balanceweb.com.

For more information on BNB Productions, Inc., visit www.balanceweb.com/bnb.html.

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Masterpiece Sounding ‘Crystal Clear’ In Dallas

Keith Rust (standing) and Nolan Brett (seated) at the Masterpiece in Crystal Clear’s Studio B

DALLAS, Texas - May 2005 -- Crystal Clear Sound, a fixture on the northern Texas recording studio scene since 1979, recently upgraded its Studio B Mastering Suite with the addition of a Digidesign Pro Tools|HD system, B&W 805S monitors and the new Masterpiece from Legendary Audio.

The Masterpiece, conceived by veteran mastering engineer Billy Stull with all circuitry designed by audio legend Rupert Neve, is a two-channel analog mixing/mastering system equipped with four pairs of vertically-oriented filter modules aesthetically reminiscent of vintage Neve designs. These modules collectively offer a wide palette of sonic amenities, including precision peak and shelving equalizers, a full-featured dynamics section, highly authentic tape texture (thanks to a real tape drive circuit), incremental phase rotation, various classic audio functions and more.

"The Masterpiece is, in many respects, a magic box," says Crystal Clear Sound Studio Manager and Senior Engineer Keith Rust. "The classic circuitry and tape texture sections are amazing additions to any project, but features like image control, which lets you alter the ambience in a recording, are absolutely mind-boggling. I don’t have a clue how this product can pull that off in the analog domain."

Aside from being able to enhance or reduce the level of natural ambience inherent in a recording, the Masterpiece’s image control feature can also be used to increase or decrease the width of the stereo sound image, and even alter the placement of elements on the sound stage — such as dramatically moving instruments from one position in the stereo field to another, or sending vocals forward, backward or completely out of the mix.

According to Rust, Crystal Clear Sound purchased the Legendary Audio unit largely on Mr. Neve’s reputation for excellence. "I never buy things that I haven’t personally played with — with this exception. When I first saw the product on Legendary Audio’s website, I knew it would be fantastic so we sent Nolan Brett, our primary mastering engineer, down to Wimberley to check it out. He came back saying that it was very impressive and that everything that went through the unit sounded more transparent and brighter. Not brighter in the sense that someone has simply turned up the knob at 10k, but, rather, just open. And with a 100k bandwidth, there’s a pretty good chance that that’s possible.

"Plus, being well aware of Rupert’s design aesthetic and what he’s going to insist takes place on the manufacturing end also gave us a great deal of comfort in knowing that we could wisely invest in this product, even though I had not personally seen it. After all, what can you say about the guy? He’s the Picasso of analog circuitry design and this product is his Masterpiece, quite literally."

Rust largely views the Legendary Audio unit as a tool to help Crystal Clear Sound adjust to accommodate the massive proliferation of home studios. "The evolution of the studio business is pretty bizarre," he notes. "It seems that everyone and their neighbor and their uncle and their uncle’s neighbor’s dog has a studio in their living room, which has adversely affected the big rooms, including our own Studio A. But now all of these guys who are recording their own projects at home are wanting to end up with a finished product that sounds as good as they can get it. So, by choosing the right gear — namely the Masterpiece — for our mastering facility, we have become a viable solution for those guys, as well as for the people who track and mix in larger Texas studios that would have previously thought they had to go to Nashville, New York or Los Angeles to have their projects properly mastered."

Aside from its recording and mastering studios, Crystal Clear Sound also provides CD, DVD and cassette duplication, music distribution, band wear and other services. For more information, visit the company online at www.crystalclearsound.com.

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Legendary Audio unveils the MASTERPIECE at AES San Francisco.

Conceived by Billy Stull (left), with all circuitry designed by Mr. Rupert Neve (right), the Masterpiece is an extremely comprehensive and unique modular analog mastering system housed in a 6U frame.

SAN FRANCISCO, California - October 28, 2004 -- Legendary Audio announces the worldwide launch of its aptly-named Masterpiece analog mastering system at the 117th AES Convention. Conceived by veteran mastering engineer Billy Stull, with all circuitry designed by audio legend Rupert Neve, the Masterpiece is simply the most comprehensive and unique analog mastering processor available today.

Nearly three years in the making, the product is a 6U frame equipped with eight vertically-oriented filter modules that are reminiscent of vintage Neve designs. In the Masterpiece's standard configuration, these modules are comprised of four stereo pairs collectively offering a wide palette of sonic amenities, including precision peak and shelving equalizers, a full-featured dynamics section, highly authentic tape texture (thanks to a real tape drive circuit), incremental phase rotation and various classic audio functions.

Although many of the modules' topologies are based upon older designs, every circuit was meticulously updated to attain the highest modern specifications. "By reworking the ICs, transformers and such we've really coaxed a lovely sound out of this box," says Neve. "In many respects, the Masterpiece reminds me of the famous consoles I made for George Martin in the late '70s and I'm very pleased with the pristine audio quality we've managed to achieve with it."

The right side of the Masterpiece's chassis is home to the processor's master section, which boasts an extremely innovative new feature known as image control. Neve explains, "Image control is quite remarkable in that it can be used to increase or decrease the width of the stereo sound image, enhance or reduce the level of natural ambience inherent in a recording, and even alter the placement of elements on the sound stage, such as dramatically moving instruments from one position in the stereo field to another or sending vocals forward, backward or completely out of the mix. It's rather stunning. Once engineers have had the opportunity to experiment with this feature, they'll very likely never want to switch it off!"

Both Neve and Stull view this product as a particularly ideal solution for breathing more life into projects that have been recorded in home studio setups. "Seeing that the price of digital recording gear has come down to the point where many amateur engineers and musicians are now doing their own sessions at home, the quality of these recordings can sometimes be rather poor," Stull notes. "However, the Masterpiece provides an arsenal of tools that is very effective in enhancing, restructuring and repairing those types of recordings. In the right hands, this product can make even relatively lackluster stereo tracks sound like they were recorded in a world-class studio. And, of course, it can do some equally amazing things to projects recorded on half-million dollar desks as well."

Sets of high pass, band pass and low pass filters can be inserted in the path of each circuit block except, of course, the EQ sections, allowing fine adjustments to be made in any part of the high, mid or low bands or across the full frequency spectrum. "This is another very unique feature and allows you to do some things that can't yet be done in a recording studio environment," says Stull. "For example, you can choose to fatten up only the bottom end of a song with a classic tape saturation, spot in compressors on just the midrange if vocals are a problem and so on. Auxiliary inputs even allow you to insert another piece of equipment, such as a favorite compressor, into the system and similarly use it on any part - or all - of the three bands."

The level of precision that the Masterpiece affords is downright surgical. Most of the significant controls allow changes to be made in not only 1 dB increments, but in 1/4 dB steps as well via 'zoom' buttons.

The signal flow can easily be modified by simply rearranging the positions of the modules, and users can elect to further customize their systems by installing more than two of any specific module if desired (albeit at the expense of removing something else).

All inputs and insertion points feature accurate 'transformer-like' topologies and the main outputs use new toroidal transformers. A massive linear toroidal-based power supply is also employed, as are many illuminated pushbuttons (over 140!) and precisely calibrated controls that clearly reveal the status and performance to the educated user.

Stull sums up his impressions by adding, "The Masterpiece can make recordings sound so clean, and yet offer so many different ways to color audio. This product truly provides mastering facilities, audio restoration houses and other professional users with more possibilities to extract just the right sound from a recording than ever before possible."

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MASTERPIECE warms up Vince Gill/Amy Grant Christmas Concert

Malcolm Harper (left) of Reelsound Recording Company and Brad Ervin (right) of Showco/Clair Bros. with the Legendary Audio Masterpiece (blue/gray faceplate) at the SBC Center in San Antonio.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - January 2005 -- The San Antonio stop of Amy Grant and Vince Gill's 14-city Simply Christmas tour last month with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra delighted not only audiences at the SBC Center on December 6 but American troops in Baghdad, Iraq, and outposts in 176 other countries around the globe thanks to an exclusive satellite broadcast via the Armed Forces Radio Television Network.

Concert sound provider Showco/Clair Bros. and Hugh Johnson, Vince Gill's FOH engineer and production manager for the past 15 years, called upon Malcolm Harper of Reelsound Recording Company to provide the audio mix for the broadcast. When Harper learned that Showco/Clair would be furnishing him with a DiGiCo D5 Live control surface that would tie into Johnson's identical house console via Ethernet, he chose to employ Legendary Audio's new Masterpiece two-channel analog mixing/mastering system to lend some analog warmth to an otherwise all-digital signal path.

"Although we barely scratched the surface of what the Masterpiece can do on this project, it's easy to see that it's a fantastic tool for broadcast work, mastering and other stereo applications, especially with so many things being done exclusively in the digital domain these days," says Harper. "It's like having all of the best modules Rupert Neve ever designed - plus some really cool new stuff - in a single box.

"We utilized the Masterpiece's limiter, peak equalization and classic section, which really warmed up the broadcast feed nicely. If I would have had a little more time to experiment with it, I would have liked to have used the unit's vari-phase and tape texture controls to give it a little more of a saturated analog tape sound. But as it was, just using what few features we did on the stereo bus through the console's inserts really enhanced the quality of the audio and sounded so nice.

"Both Hugh and Brad Ervin from Showco/Clair were really knocked out by it, too. Neither of them had seen one before - although they were certainly very familiar with Rupert's reputation for excellence - and they were just as impressed as I was with it."

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