“When I’m evaluating gear I want to be inside the music, I don’t want to feel that it’s a straight line in front of me. And when gear steps on the audio or degrades it, it tends to turn things into more of a straight line,” states Vosgien.
The room design process was fairly extensive.
“We basically took out the disk cutting console that’s been here since about 1972,” recalls Vosgien, explaining the room redesign. “It’s been modified many times over. We’ve got some great vintage Neve EQs in here that we kept, and the original first generation Sontec MES-430Bs that we kept.
“And I don’t cut lacquers, there used to be a lathe in here when I came on board in 1998. We just wanted to streamline things, clean up our signal path and take out the extraneous gear that was not really being used.”
Although the Dangerous Master has the built-in S&M mid-side processing, Vosgian reveals, “I had the dedicated Dangerous S&M box for many years. That was one of my secret weapons that I would use.”
Years ago, Vosgien had read about Dangerous Music, then tried the S&M. “I ended up buying it, and I was impressed right away with the sound quality, I should say, ‘lack of sound coloration.’ “
He now appreciates the integration of the technology in the Dangerous Master, “To have the S&M function there at the flick of a switch is just awesome. If I don’t need it: it’s not in the circuit, and when I want it: it’s in the circuit. Which is what you really want in a mastering suite.”
When choosing the Dangerous Music products for his mastering setup, flexibility was also a key to the equipment, with the addition of the Dangerous Liaison programmable analog router.
“I wanted flexibility in a console that would allow me to quickly audition different EQs and compressors when I am running down a mix. The Dangerous Music setup totally allows this luxury with the Liaison. It’s a great piece of gear.
“To be able to choose between different outboard gear immediately, and change the order of it in the signal path immediately is so useful. Choose one compressor, put an EQ in front of it, choose another compressor, put an EQ behind it – without doing any patching – is just pure luxury.
“The Liaison is such a hip device. Now I have the Master, Monitor and Liaison and I’ve hooked up my Sontec and Neve mastering EQs along with other analog outboard gear to the Liaison,” says Vosgien.
When a live recording came through his studio to master, Vosgien immediately found the Liaison’s parallel processing the perfect solution to problems in the mix.
“After having the Liaison only a month I used the parallel processing loop for a project,” says Vosgien. “A band that did some live recording 25 years ago had only a live board tape of their show, but the vocals were really peaky.
“So I was able to dial in some parallel limiting with the blend pot on the Liaison and get those vocal peaks really tamed. I did that first in the chain, then dealt with the overall EQ and mastering. That just worked really well. I was creating a more balanced mix first, and then I could master it. And I could do that at the same time with the Liaison.”
Capitol Studios
Dangerous Music