ELECTRIC MASTERING REFUSE TO LET GO OF PYRAMIX SYSTEM
After completing a demonstration of Merging Technologies' Pyramix DAW to independent West London facility Electric Mastering, Paul Mortimer of eMerging, the UK distributors for Pyramix, was surprised to be told that eMerging couldn't have their demonstration system back. Electric wanted to upgrade to Pyramix, but they wanted to do it immediately, and what's more, they wanted the very unit that had just been used for the demonstration.
"We've seen lots of people who have been impressed with Pyramix following a demonstration," comments Mortimer somewhat bemusedly, "but we've never had to give up a demo system before."
Electric Mastering was formed just over two years ago by Peacefrog
record label owner Pete Hutchinson, and grew rapidly, taking on two
experienced mastering engineers, Mandy Parnell and Guy Davie. The
stylishly furnished, heavily soundproofed mastering studio, situated in
an office complex next to London's elevated Westway dual carriageway,
now plays host to clients from France, Italy and Canada as well as the
UK, offering them an impressive blend of classic vintage analogue and
digital mastering technology. Like most modern professional mastering
facilities, Electric uses high-quality analogue EQs and compressors for
most of their mastering work, coupled with a digital audio workstation
to run out digital masters for CD manufacture or for on-line use
(although disc-cutting facilities are also available for those who
prefer their music to be released on vinyl). Accordingly, the recently
acquired Pyramix
DAW, along with an associated Prism ADA8-XR A-D/D-A converter,
nestles alongside classic Studer and EMI BTR analogue tape machines, an
original Fairchild and Manley compressors, and an EMI mastering console
and vinyl cutting lathe sourced from EMI Nigeria in Lagos, and lovingly
restored by vintage equipment specialists Funky Junk.
The Pyramix demo was organised by eMerging when Electric began looking for a replacement for their original DAW, as Electric Mastering owner Pete Hutchinson explains. "We had an older SADiE DAW, but we were aware that it wasn't the most up-to-the-minute technology, so we decided to audition a couple of newer digital systems. "We ran extensive A-B tests alongside our older DAW, using the same Prism ADA-8XR A-D converter so we could make direct comparisons, and Pyramix seemed better with every kind of music we tried. There was more headroom, a better sense of dynamics... and yet somehow it seemed more analogue at the same time! But we didn't want another system which might not have sounded as good as the demo one..." "We thought it sounded great, but we've all bought kit that sounds good in a demonstration, and then sounds different when your unit arrives," chips in mastering engineer Guy Davie. "So we insisted on having the demo unit!"
Davie has now been using the Pyramix system at Electric for over six
months, mainly to compile completed tracks into an album master, but
also to carry out any editing or cross-fades as required. "Obviously, by
the time it's in the DAW, we've already mastered the audio, so 95
percent of the time I'm just using Pyramix to compile or cross-fade
tracks," he explains, "but I do use it to create broadcastable radio
edits, and that's very easy — I just line up the mastered instrumental
backing track alongside the vocal version, and then drop backing track
over any swear words in the song! I have occasionally used the on-board
EQ, too — sometimes you find that one of the songs on an album needs a
touch more top end when it's put alongside the others, and the EQ in
Pyramix is very nice."
Davie was new to Pyramix, having seen it in action but not used it when he worked at the Exchange in Camden. "It was a steep learning curve for me at first, but it's very intuitive, and the eMerging team, particularly Johan Wadsten, was very helpful in getting me underway with it. It's now the heart of our system, as most of the time we play the mastered audio out to the vinyl lathe from Pyramix as well."
