Producer/engineer Matt Molchany, who in addition to having played drums on multiple album projects is actively involved in studio recording, sound creation, and a variety of other musical endeavors that include owning Shards Recording Studio in Bethlehem, PA, keeps a TASCAM Model 24 multi-track live recording console at the heart of his workflows.
Sound design is an important part of Molchany’s activities. He produced the Sample Pack Analog Haze for Bandlab by Cakewalk and has more projects in the pipeline. He also works in live on location video recording, and has produced 60-plus live sessions for the video series Tape Swap Radio. Further, he has engineered several sessions with Grammy-winning producer/mixer Phil Joly among his many activities.
“For my work at home,” Molchany says, “I use the Model 24 as an interface and submixer for all my instruments, as well as to grab audio via Bluetooth, which is surprisingly handy. On location, the Model 24 enables me to build a main mix, a monitor mix for the artist, then record multi-channel audio right to my laptop.
“Live or at home, being able to give myself or an artist a great sounding monitor mix is huge. That’s what they’re responding to when performing or recording, so being able to EQ, compress, and run great sounding and inspiring effects on sources helps me to build a mix that sounds close to finished. It gets me fired up, which helps me stay inspired and get great takes from artists. Having a Bluetooth input on the Model 24 for live work is another great feature for running music between sets and when we’re at home recording. It’s great to be able to get ideas off my phone and into my DAW. The Model 24 also enables me to stream beats off my iPad right into it, which I can improvise to along with all the instruments connected to the mixer.”
Molchany cites as an example a project he was involved with at Temple University. “For my filmmaker friend’s senior thesis at Temple,” he explains, “he produced a live show and recording that consisted of six bands playing live in one part of the venue, with an elaborate theatrical side show between bands. With the Model 24, we were able to record every single input and feed high quality tracks to my computer—all while providing a great sounding main mix for the show’s attendees as well as a monitor mix for the bands. Further, all the images that were used were mixed at my studio and synced to video.
“Over the year that I’ve had it, the Model 24 has served me very well as a mobile recording rig as and as a Swiss army knife when doing both a live show and live recording. It’s been equally valuable at home, where I like to have lots of instruments and keyboards plugged in so I can get inspired and hop from idea to idea. For all that it offers, the Model 24 is a really great value and is easy to use. You really can’t go wrong with the Model 24.”
