Every songwriter has their own personal influences.  For me, it was a steady diet of British bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd that most influenced my musical tastes and sparked my interest in songwriting and production.  By the time I left Berklee in 2001, computer recording had become ubiqutoius and recording albums the “old-school” way was generally reserved for artists with larger budgets. Fast forward more than a decade later, and many of the largest and most famous recording studios in NYC, LA, and elsewhere have closed due to the high operating costs. It’s expensive to run a studio. And now you can do it for less at a smaller budget studio or even at home with the right gear. But at what cost? Has something been lost in the process? When I go back and listen to the old records that made me first fall in love with music, I hear something special. It’s hard to say what’s been lost exactly in the transition from the analog days to the digital world we live in now. It’s not just the performers, or the equipment used to capture them. There was a method behind recording that made it, at the best of times, worthy to be called art.

Needless to say I’ve obsessed about trying to get my productions to sound more like the records I grew up listening to.  It’s been a long, slow but often rewarding process and it’s always great when another break-through comes along – something that makes you feel one step closer to achieving that sound you’ve been hearing in your head the whole time.  This past weekend I had such a break-through when I gained access to two channels of vintage Neve 1073 mic pre’s.  These pre-amps have been used on countless famous records since the 1960’s.  They are sometimes described as having that “British sound” due to it’s British inventor Rupert Neve followed by a long list of English bands who solidified it’s legacy with a virtually endless supply of hit records that are still adored to this day.

Here are a couple tracks we recorded with the Neve 1073.

“Crazy Hearts Don’t Fall In Love”
by Nathan Castle & Laetoli Music

“Want You To Make Me Feel”
by Gilfi Dan Pol & Laetoli Music