The most important pieces of gear I have are my ears and experience. Over the last fourteen years I have acquired a lot of wisdom on where songs are and where they need to go. This then dictates what gear to use or more importantly what not to use. But I also love gear.
I mainly work with analog gear. I do finishing touches with digital.
Lynx Hilo Mastering Grade Convertors
Custom cables from Grimm and Mogami
Monitoring: Custom-made speaker set - think of it like a tailored suit verses buying something off the rack.
Metering: Vintage Dorrough Loudness Monitor and Bettermaker Digital Meters
Outboard Analog:
Pultec EQP-1A3 Stereo Pair EQ Vintage with original 1960s transformers, NOS, and API Gain Stage.
API 2164 Amps racked up from Mastering Labs studios from the Sax Brothers console (1970’s) Used on Steely Dan Aja, Pink Floyd, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan and many other hit records.
Manley Massive Passive Stereo Equalizer Original Hardwired Silverface with NOS Tubes.
Tube Tech LCA 2B Compressor/Limiter
Urei 1176 Peak Limiter, Blackface, Matching Pair
Bettermaker Mastering Limiter
Overstayer MAS Mastering Edition
Stam SA4000 with 4 VCA Chips
Black Lion AM/CHA 1 Mastering EQ with Vintage Cinemag Transformers and modded power supply.
Elysia Xpressor Class A Stereo Compressor
Vintage Meyer CP10 EQ Modded
Vintage CBS FM Volumax Multi-Band 4110 modded for higher headroom for max loudness.
Vintage Shure M63 EQ, modded (Pultec Style)
Vintage Loft Limiter
Vintage Aphex Exciter
Vintage Aphex Tube EQ
Vintage Yamaha Stereo EQ
A bunch of other old quirky gear, tube boxes, and saturators for all the indie or coloring vibes that are needed.
Every project is different. I pick gear based on what will serve the project the best. I also can rent any piece of gear you could want as I live five minutes from Black Bird Gear Rentals if there is something specific you want.