     
Lucid uses some of the best high-end studio recording equipment in the
industry for our mobile recording studio equipment and our post-production
studio as well. Unlike many
other mobile recording services who bring light-weight portable equipment with
them to the recording sessions, we usually bring the 'big guns' with us to
ensure the absolute best recording quality. The quality of this equipment
is better than what you would normally find in most
studios.
Location Equipment
- AKG C414B-XLS Microphones. Another excellent
large diaphragm matched pair with an adjustable pickup pattern that allows
us to narrow or widen the audio pickup zone
to match the needs of the situation. This microphone is seen in many
studios as well as on TV in many live musical performances.
- Langevin CR-3A Microphones. An excellent
matched pair of large diaphragm cardioids that we usually set up in an ORTF
arrangement to provide an excellent capture of the sound in the hall.
Recording with a single pair of mics such as these provides the ultimate in
"Purist" recording techniques - very simple, but incredibly
musical and lifelike in reproduction.
- Soundfield ST-250 Surround Sound microphone.
An incredible microphone that captures sound from all directions into 4
channels (B format) and allows the production engineer to mix incredibly
realistic surround sound masters. Often used in conjunction with other
stereo pairs and spot mics to produce a beautiful and natural front stereo
image with the spaciousness and surround effects provided by the Soundfield
B-format microphone. Useful for both stereo and surround recordings.
Manley Baby Tube Microphones.
Matched pair of rare baby tube mics from one of the world's best microphone
and recording equipment manufacturer's, Manley. The Baby mics have
excellent electronics and condenser capsule; however, we felt that the
housing could be improved to minimize coloration. We worked with a
machinist to develop new housings for our Babies to resolve the coloration,
and it makes these mics much better! Warm and tubey (not tubby), the
way tubes are supposed to be! The images below show the original and
modified Manley Baby mics.
Various Dynamic microphones for
vocalists and instruments for jazz, pop, and rock recordings: Shure SM-57,
Shure Beta 52, Audix i5, AKG D-112, Sennheiser e-906, Shure 565-SD, Shure
545SD, Electrovoice RE18, etc.
AEA SMP-17 Microphone Positioner. Simply the
best commercial microphone positioner available, providing the most accuracy in ensuring that the
most common stereo pair alignments, such as ORTF, are set up exactly
right. This results in realistic 'soundstage' presentation of the
audio when you're sitting directly in front of a well-set-up set of
speakers. The performers are spread out left to right between the
speakers on the virtual 'soundstage'.
- Grand Piano Microphone Mount. The Mirizio Piano Mount allows
microphones to be safely mounted inside Grand Pianos with lid open or
closed, with minimal visual impact for the audience, and with positioning of
the microphones for great sound.
- Wireworld Atlantis Microphone Cables. Cable
really does make a big difference in sound. And this is some of the
best microphone cable in the world.
- Canare StarQuad Microphone Cables. High
quality, low noise, and rugged microphone cables.
-
Merging Horus and Hapi Audio Interfaces.
Ultra-high-quality Swiss microphone preamps with embedded analog to digital
and digital to analog converters. 24 preamp & A/D channels and 8
D/A output channels. Supports all sampling rates from 44.1 KHz to 384
KHz, plus up to DSD-256. This is the primary mic preamp and A/D
converter used by Lucid for most of our recordings.
-
Millennia Media HV-3R Microphone
Preamp. An eight-channel microphone preamp known world-wide as one of
the cleanest, most natural sounding microphone preamps for classical, jazz,
and choir recordings. Lucid has two of these.
- Manley Dual Mono Microphone Preamp. One of the
world's most musical vacuum tube microphone preamplifiers. Provides a
crystal clear, yet spacious and warm sound. Especially musical for
small ensembles and soloists. Modified by
Brook Burson to lower the noise floor.
- Focusrite Red 1 Microphone Preamp. A four
channel mic preamp that is considered to be among the top solid state
preamps available in studios around the world. Modified by Brook
Burson to lower the noise floor.
Alesis HD24XR Hard Disk
Recorder. The "XR" version of the Alesis is one of the
absolute best sounding Hard Disk recorders available on the market. It
allows recording of up to 24 channels at 24 bits / 44.1 or 48 kHz, or up to
12 channels at 24 bits / 88.2 or 96 kHz. Primarily used as a backup
recorder with the Merging Horus, or to record additional channels beyond the
24 supported by the Horus. Has been modified by Brook Burson with higher grade op-amps,
much better power supply decoupling, and high quality audio capacitors.
-
Steinberg Nuendo Software. This software is
used to record, edit, mix, and master the final recordings - especially
multi-channel or surround recordings. Nuendo is an incredibly powerful
tool that allows the operator to have a complete digital studio in a PC.
-
Adobe Audition Software. This software is an
excellent tool for recording, editing, mixing and mastering stereo
recordings, and includes many wonderful features that allow Lucid to edit
out unintended noises on recordings with little to no audible effect on the
actual music. Lucid calls this process "Audio Detailing",
and it a service we provide that most other recording and mastering services
simply can't or won't provide.
- Stax SRM-1 Electrostatic Headphones. Quite
simply, some of the worlds most transparent transducers.
- RME Digiface ADAT interface for PC. Sits
between the Alesis HD24XR and a laptop PC to bring up to 24 channels of
audio into the PC where it can be recorded directly to hard disk.
- Three Laptop PCs. Two Laptop PCs to receive
network audio from the Merging Horus, recording in parallel to hard disk for
safety and redundancy. An additional PC to bring audio in via ADAT
from the Alesis HD24XR using the RME Digiface. All three laptops runs
Nuendo, Audition, or Reaper to record the audio to hard disk.
-
Yamaha 01v96v2 Mixer. An
excellent mixer when one is needed. Used to create 'live mixes' that
are available immediately after the show, as well as to interface to PA and
house sound systems as needed. Lucid also provides Live Sound mixing
services, and can utilize this mixer or a house mixer for the purposes.
-
Other equipment. Lucid has a
wide variety of other equipment, including standard and tall microphone
stands, a grand piano mic mount, Jecklin disk for recordings, a variety of other microphones including ribbons, condensers, and
dynamics, Mogami and Canare cables, Focusrite Octopre mic preamp, Presonus
Central Station, Radial DI boxes, mic splitters, etc.
Editing/Mastering Room and Equipment
Lucid is designing a state-of-the-art audiophile
quality mastering room for acoustic recordings. However, in the mean time,
we have taken a smaller room and set it up for this purpose.
The current room has had extensive acoustical treatment
applied to turn it from an ordinary room into an excellent acoustic chamber for
mastering and post production. In addition, the room was acoustically modeled using CARA
software to determine the proper placement of speakers and acoustic treatment,
resulting in an excellent and neutral sound, ideal for mastering. We have
over $20,000 worth of audiophile quality playback equipment and acoustical
treatment in this room, not counting the actual Digital Audio Workstation PC,
including software and sound cards.
- Rhintech CARA Acoustic Modeling and Simulation
software. Used to optimize the layout and acoustics of the mastering
room, which results in better final master recordings.
- Steinberg Nuendo DAW - Described in Location Equipment
Above.
- Adobe Audition DAW- Described in Location Equipment
Above.
- Reaper DAW
- Voxengo Convolution Reverb including Pristine Space
to produce exceptionally musical and natural sounding reverb
- Voxengo and Melda Noise Reduction, Equalization,
Compression, and Sample
Rate adjustment plugins for premium post-production sound.
- Ability to add instrumentation to recordings using
advanced Midi instruments:
- Native Instruments NI Komplete
- Virtual Pianos: Bosendorfer, Steinway, etc.
- StudioLogic 88 key weighted midi keyboard
- Garritan Personal Orchestra
- Stax SRM-1 Electrostatic Headphones - Described in
Location Equipment Above.
- Lipinski L-707 Monitors - Superb and accurate
monitors for post production. Rated Class A by Stereophile Magazine.
- Clearfield Diplomat loudspeakers. Heavily
re-engineered and modified by Brook Burson for incredible neutrality and
clarity.
- Counterpoint SA-220 Solid State/Tube Hybrid Power
Amplifier. Modified into an NP-220 by Alta Vista Audio.
- Counterpoint NPS-400A Solid State/Tube Hybrid Power
Amplifier.
- Counterpoint SA-5000A Vacuum Tube Preamplifier.
- Cables by Straight Wire, Wire World, and Canare.
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