When recording, your equipment becomes an interconnected chain. One weak link in that chain will cause the sound quality to degrade. At Solitaire, everything, from the microphones, Converters, outboard gear, and even down to the cables that connect the equipment, were designed to give the cleanest, warmest sounding recordings, possible. All the equipment and cabling is routinely maintained and checked to insure everything is in first class working condition.
TL Audio Ivory series 5001 quad valve mic preamps.
At Solitaire we have 2 units of these giving 8 channels. These pre amps are extremely quiet, and the level to the valve can be adjusted giving control over the amount of warmth that you get.
The Classic Series TL Audio CL2 Compressor and EQ2 are both 2 channel units. Both are equipped with valve preamps on each channel, giving an extra 4 for use, even if you don't want to use the compressors or eq itself.
The EQ2 sounds outstanding and is very flexible and especially good for mastering. The C1 Compressor s equally good on all applications.
At Solitaire we have 1 of each unit.
Lexicon make some of the best reverbs in the professional recording market, and the MPX-1 is one such unit. It has a dedicated chip for reverbs and a second for other effects. Running up to 5 stereo effects in each patch, this unit is very versatile and sounds great.
The Eventide H-3000DSX is to multi effects what Lexicon is to reverbs. Amazing delays,pitch shifts and an extremely versatile machine for all the weird and wonderful effects you can think up.
At Solitaire recording is done on Several formats.
Lynx Aurora AD/DA converters, some of the best available today, handle the conversions running up to 24 Bit 192khz sampling. Recording goes straight from our mics through high quality valve preamps straight into the Lynx converters and then into a very very powerful Mac Pro 2.8GB, 8 core procesor (4 dual core) with 10GB of Ram and over 2.3TB of storage. The Mac runs either Digital Peformer V.6 or Protools 8. This way of working insures the highest quality recordings with no external degradation of audio quality.
Also available are 2 Alesis HD24 recorders giving up to 48 tracks for location recording. This machine is also recomended for soundtrack playback during live shows. Solitaire prepares a lot of multitrack masters for live performance playback. The system is extremely stable and inexpensiove and also sound remarkably good.
Microphones are the first and most important link in the chain. At Solitaire we only use the best mics from the best brand names. Neumann, Audio Technica, DPA, Sennheiser, AKG etc etc.
Official website of Solitaire Residential Recording Studio Ltd. Copyright 2005.
All information, photo's and soundbites used by kind permission.