In a recent article on recording the just released debut CD from Mary Pastorius, producer/musician, Eric Young spoke about the gear they used—over a ten year period.

There was so much we needed a part two. When we left off they were moving to recording everything inside LAP—using their Mackie Digital 8 Bus board as an expensive set of preamps!

We continue with Young speaking about the Apple takeover of Emagic.

“Well, as you probably know, Apple bought Emagic and not soon after discontinued any support for PC versions of LAP. I continued to use it, but the lack of any kind of effective Rewire support left me very frustrated when trying to use Reason inside of LAP. I searched about and made the switch over to Steinberg's Nuendo and after a bit of serious tweaking, was able to take my projects to the next level.” Says Young.

The song Feeding the Disquise—2006 was Young and Pastorius’ most extensive undertaking.

“At the end, I was pushing 96 tracks of 24bit audio and running about 20 some odd vsti plug-ins and soft-synths. Mary's vocals alone took upwards of 12 tracks. Three part harmony, each recorded 4 times for thick layering are noticeable at the beginning and throughout the track. The guitar and bass tracks were sometimes doubled or tripled with different aspects of the frequency range accented on each take, says Young. “The drums were recorded live and I had Derek record about 5 takes, all of which was kept and then I edited together the final result. Each take was about 9 tracks worth of audio. Overall, I think I ended up making roughly 2,000 edits to the drum and percussion tracks until I was satisfied with the result. I got to be VERY efficient and confident when working in Nuendo during and after that song. I don't ever want to do that again. That was kind of like an experiment to see just how far I could take my equipment. Not on purpose, mind you, but that's just how it ended up.”

.When it comes to mics Young is adamant about his Blue and Avalon preamp.

“Mic-wise, I absolutely rely on my Blue Cactus mic run through my Avalon VT-737sp preamp/eq/compressor. That combination right there is worth gold. The completely variable pattern switching on the Cactus is brilliant and the EQ on the Avalon is just sick. I also ran the bass guitar directly into the Avalon through its Instrument/DI input and ran the guitar through the same many times,” says Young. “Oddly enough, the vocal track that is heard on the opening tune,Backwards World was captured in the control room as a scratch vocal that Mary sang through a Shure SM-57 with the speakers up quite loud. We did more takes with the Avalon/Cactus combo, but that particular performance was just spot on.”

Mastering was done right on the LAP or with Steinberg’s Wavelab (with ME mastering plug-ins). There was a lot more gear, software, etcetera used recording this disc.

“Honestly, I've barely scratched the surface of what was used and how. I could go on for days on this stuff.” says Young.

Young says he is a creature of habit but one that is not afraid to experiment with new technology and make it part of the habit. From the LAP to Nuendo and Ableton Live and Reason. He has moved around to suit the sound he is looking for and the features he needs to get at it. Sometimes all the available products become a burden. He says he plans to simplify.

When it comes to instrument mics Young swears by the Cactus.

“I use the Cactus for most everything. It's just like the chameleon of mics. Plus, in my opinion, the pre-amp, input channel makes way more difference once you have a passable sound from whatever mic you're using, “ says Young. “Bottom line, if the mic sucks, sonically for the input source, you're not going to polish a turd. I've gotten great vocal tracks from the Sennheiser, from both SM-57's and 58's, from AKG's and from the Cactus. It's just whatever works. I'm no microphone snob, but I wouldn't say no to a great ribbon mic or a phat Manley reference mic. I'd love to get a hold of some Earthworks. Anyone want to spare a couple of $10K?”

Bass tracks were recorded straight through the Avalon and tweaked. No amps were used recording.

“This is a keyboard/synth house, baby! I use a Hafler amp for my near-fields, which are Tannoy System 800 Dual-Concentric passives. I have always loved the sound of the Tannoys. They're not the cheapest by far, but they're definitely not the top of the line, either. I actually use a Mackie powered live sound sub (SRS-1500) but strongly attenuated and I wired it up through my patchbay, so with the changing of two patch cables, I can switch between the Tannoys by themselves or the Tannoys with the Mackie Sub. It's saved my ass more than a few times. I love that deeeeeeeep booty bass sound and it can be difficult to set levels appropriately down at 55Hz and below for playback on a wide variety of systems. A little too much, and somebody's got a toothache. Too little and somebody's not moving their money-maker on the floor properly!

The CD is available now.