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OLD LYME,
CONNECTICUT: Recording engineer Rob Griffin's background
as a professional acoustic musician prepared him
to specialize in acoustic instrumentation recording
where purity of sound and recording quality are
high on the list of desired production values. One
of Griffin's favorite personal memories and recordings
was with guitarist Michael Hedges and the 1997 Grammy-winner
"Oracle" on Windham Hill Records. "Since
then I work almost exclusively in Jazz and I'm very
fortunate to work with some of the greatest guys
on the planet with Wayne Shorter at the top of my
list of clients. I do all of Wayne's tour sound
and studio recordings as well as mix live and in
the studio. As for some of my other clients, this
year I was fortunate to win a Grammy for Best Instrumental
Jazz Recording this year for "Directions In
Music" by Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker,
and Roy Hargrove," says Griffin.
"The majority of my record work at the moment
is live recording. All of Wayne Shorter's Quartet
performances are now recorded. I feel as though
I am recording history. And that was my main reason
for looking into the True Systems Precision 8 mic
pre-amps. I wanted world-class, multiple channel
pre-amps that sounded great and were rugged enough
to hold up on the road. The compact P8 is an extremely
well made and stable piece of gear. I've never had
any chassis bending, knob problems or any other
things go wrong - and we keep crazy schedules with
flying everyday all over the world," says Griffin.
The P8's one rack space size, with all controls
and metering on the front panel, factored into Griffin's
decision. "I severely needed to trim and slim
my gear load since it gets ridiculous to travel
with excessive amounts of equipment. But most importantly
I needed to still maintain the highest possible
sound quality. I like the P8s because, unlike a
lot of transistor mic pre-amps, they don't accentuate
or have any 'bumps' in response. They really don't
have a 'sound' of their own. They're just extremely
smooth. I also no longer feel the need to use or
match different pre-amps with certain microphones.
I'm happy with this pre-amp for all my mics,"
explains Griffin.
For recording Wayne's quartet, Griffin has two Precision
8 units in two rack spaces for a total of 16 channels.
He records to a Tascam MX-2424 at 24-bit directly
connected to the P8s. Griffin elaborates: "I
use them as the front end - like a mic splitter
- for the concert's whole sound system. The MX-2424
connects with DB25 connectors and the other XLR
outputs go directly to the monitor and FOH mixer
at line level. It's incredible the difference in
quality of the whole sound system by putting this
level of mic preamps on the front end."
The True Systems Precision 8 has eight channels
of transformerless mic preamps each with five-segment
level indicators and a selectable peak-hold feature.
Two channels are fitted with direct instrument inputs
while channels one and two also function as a dedicated
M/S (mid/side) stereo pair with the touch of single
button. Designed for use with today's modular digital
multi-track units and hard disc recording systems,
the Precision 8 easily connects to TASCAM or Mackie
digital products via a DB25 connector.
The Precision 8's low noise floor allows Griffin
to use certain microphones on his live recordings
that he normally reserves for studio work only.
"These pres are so quiet that I can use ribbon
mics on the piano," he continues. "This
application requires a lot of gain and most other
pre-amps are too noisy. I always use the P8's M/S
feature for piano recording and I split the side
mic to another channel for convenience in live mixing.
The P8's peak hold function metering comes in handy
in live recording as it's virtually impossible to
monitor the meters constantly."
Griffin is very excited about the performances he
is capturing from Wayne Shorter's group with the
Precision 8 pre-amps. He goes on to say: "We're
working on a new Wayne Shorter live record. The
last record, "Footprints Live," was extremely
successful - it won numerous awards including the
New York Times Record of the Year.
This new recording strives to be even better. We've
recorded in the some of the finest concert halls
in the world including Amsterdam's Concertgebouw
and Vienna's Konzerthaus. Yet, musically and sonically,
the differences between "Footprints" and
this one are incredible. I credit it all to the
P8."
The Precision 8 is designed and built by Sunrise
Engineering, a design and build manufacturer located
in Tucson, Arizona. Neumann distributes True Systems
in the USA.
Neumann's award-winning line of microphones has
set the standard in the industry since 1928. In
1999, Neumann received the prestigious Technical
Grammy(r) for their 70 years of innovation in microphone
design and contribution to the music industry. A
continuing commitment to provide innovative, technically
refined products and engineering solutions of proven
quality ensures that Neumann's stature will remain
unassailable. Neumann USA is owned and distributed
in the U.S. and Latin America by Sennheiser Electronic
Corporation based in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
www.sennheiserusa.com
www.neumannusa.com