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Recording/Mastering engineer, Barry Diament
finds Metric Halo's Mobile I/O 2882+DSP perfect for direct
to stereo location recording.
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK: After more than three decades in the
business, engineer Barry Diament recently expanded his services
to include direct to stereo location recording. Searching for
a portable and sonically transparent interface for his PowerBook,
he heard about Metric Halo's Mobile I/O 2882+DSP and was thrilled
to discover that it lived up to its reputation.
Diament was initially looking for an interface between his PowerBook
and studio reference system for playback, he explains. "I wanted something that was up to the level of my reference
system - something that would be as revealing. The first things
that attracted me were the features, but the final decision was
made after an audition."
Commenting on the MIO's sound quality, he says, "The D-to-A
converters in the MIO are just beautiful. Connected to the system,
the converters are really sweet and three-dimensional. They reveal
the character of a recording, the low-level details and they preserve
delicate spatial information."
"The monitoring system I use in the studio," he continues, "is very revealing
of very small changes in level and EQ. I started playing with
the EQs and I found they're really nice sounding and easy to work
with. The MIO's transparence helps make processing decisions really
fast and leaves me confident that I made the right decisions."
Plus, he adds, "I like the whole layout of the MIO console
and the way it operates - it just feels good. I'm pretty knocked
out by the box and can only wonder what B.J. and the folks are
going to come up with in the future."
Diament has been in the business for over 30 years and mastering
CDs for more than two decades. In 1983 he became one of the industry's
first engineers to master for CD while working at Atlantic Records.
He went independent in 1987.
"What my experience taught me was that once the signal leaves
the microphones the ultimate quality of the recording has already
been determined. Now, I'm starting to gravitate toward where I
started, staying with the mastering but doing the whole recording,
from the microphones all the way to the mastering," he says.
Diament's studio is essentially a post-recording,
post-processing and mastering facility. He says, "My preferred
method of recording is on location and direct to stereo, rather
than in a studio. I prefer to work where a musical performance
would be heard, preferably without an audience, because that's
where the music sounds best."
The Metric Halo system proved to be ideal. "The portability
of the MIO is very important to me, as I do a lot of location
recording. Though I tend to work direct to stereo, one of the
nice things about the MIO 2882 is that if I need any additional
microphones there are inputs to spare."
Diament reports he has been working on several projects with
Art Halperin, the last artist to be signed by John Hammond Sr.
before he passed away (Hammond, a producer and talent scout, discovered
Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and many others). "I think he's
one of the more musical and gifted guitar players I've heard in
quite a while," he comments. "We first met a year ago
when I mastered an album he'd been working on with Onyan, called
'Reggae Rock.'"
Indeed, the engineer's resume demonstrates a great affection
for music from the Caribbean. "I was very fortunate when
Island Records came to me and asked if I would re-master the 13
original Bob Marley albums," says Diament. "While it
was over six very intense weeks, working with the original recordings
was both a gift and a privilege."
More information about Barry's work can be found at his website, www.barrydiamentaudio.com.
Metric Halo provides the world with high-resolution metering,
analysis, recording and processing solutions with award-winning
software and hardware. As a proven industry leader, Metric Halo
has developed a product line so powerful and versatile, its applications
range from live sound reinforcement, CD/DVD mixing and mastering,
film and broadcast production to forensic science, airline safety
investigation, medical research, and designing the next generation
Ferrari and BMW automobiles.
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