Since 2007, Daryl Hall has opened up his home to host a diverse selection of contemporary artists who walk in the front door, with these golden moments presented on the monthly webcast “Live From Daryl’s House.” Hall’s long-time engineer/producer Peter Moshay has had the sound dialed in since episode one.
According to Moshay, who’s worked with Hall (and John Oates) for 20 years: “The sound of the show was always in my head as soon as we had the idea to do it. I just had to figure out a way to make it happen on the recording and mix. It took a few shows to nail it down for me, but it was not far off from the start since we were all working together for the same goal/sound.”
Hall has recently relocated to an old night club that he’s having renovated for future episodes of the show as well as live concerts, but Moshay has been long working with the unique characteristics of Hall’s renovated yet historic home in Millerton, New York.
“[The Millerton shows are] all challenging due to the volume in the room,” he says. “It’s always on the edge of feedback due to so many monitors that have to be pretty loud to beat the room’s ambient qualities. I’ve had many monitor people try to help me make it better, but it is what it is.
“Realistically it should not be setup the way it is with so many mics and monitors all right next to each other, but that’s what people need to do it. As much as I would love for everyone to wear IEMs, it’s not really suited to the shows concept of people just jamming and getting together to play and talk. IEMs stop people from having normal conversation and would impede the shows natural vibe.”
A key to his approach are Radial Engineering DIs, which are a constant. “I choose my audio tools based on my experience and taste in how I want to hear it,” he says. “I’ve heard all the DI boxes that exist and it was no contest to choose the Radial JDI (passive DI) and the J48 (phantom powered active DI), they just sound more musical and pleasing to us. The most important choices are made before the microphone, but after that all choices make an impact so I scrutinize everything down to the cables.”
Moshay also works with Radial 500 series gear for the show: “I have a Workhorse (8-slot 500 series rack with built-in mixer) that I have some API modules and EQs in as well as a few audio manglers.” The mixer on the Workhorse has even gotten him out of a jam: “I’ve run out of channels before and the mixer in the Workhorse is fabulous to mix mic pre’s to record a mix of inputs. It does not sound like a compromised mixer.”
For the new night club/show stage, Moshay ordered a 48X16 splitter: “There was no choice other than a Radial for me. I have always been in love with the way all their boxes sound and the transformers they choose have always been the most musical choice. Of course we have digital gear in our setup, but not only is Radial analog the best sounding audio path, it is also a time tested proven path.”
