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Top 5: Magoo
Dr Lachlan ‘Magoo’ Goold is a two-time ARIA award-winning producer, engineer, and now academic. Credits include work with Midnight Oil, Regurgitator, and Powderfinger, The Cruel Sea, Renee Geyer and many more. He reveals his Top 5 studio tools.
By Joe Matera
30 June 2023
NEUMANN U87 MICROPHONE
I like it for its versatility, and it just has a great tone. I had quite a collection of studio gear throughout my career. It all culminated in a studio I ran with my wife from 2008 to 2014 called Applewood Lane on the outskirts of Brisbane that was formerly a church. I needed to get myself a good, trustworthy vocal microphone and I found this one on eBay and I have since worked out that it must have been stolen because the serial number has been ground off, so I can’t work out how old it is. I do know it’s pre-1987 cos it’s a battery model. It has a way to push a vocal to the front of a mix and it’s very reliable. Despite having sold most of my equipment around 2019, I kept my favourite microphones — I couldn’t part with them. My U87 is still reliable, and the collection is by my side in case any tracking needs to be done. I’ve compared it with the new 87s, and it just sounds better with a much richer tone.
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![2.UA-Apollo-Twin-pichi](https://www.audiotechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2.UA-Apollo-Twin-pichi.jpg)
UA APOLLO TWIN AUDIO INTERFACE
I just love the UAD platform and the Console app. I did my PhD in looking at the traditional large-format recording studio, like the University Recording Studios which had a Neve console, and a heap of outboard gear, and a DIY scenario. I recorded some bands at the University, and then I recorded the same bands in a DIY home-based scenario, using a laptop and Apollo gear. And then I asked various producers if they could tell which songs were recorded DIY and which ones were recorded in the large-format studio, and the results were just completely scattered — there was no clear answer; no one could tell where I had recorded the songs. And although the PhD wasn’t looking at the technology per se, for me it was a bit of a personal test to see if I could get a similar sound quality to the large format console and all the hardware gear. I even used cheap microphones, in the DIY scenario. I put the UAD system through its paces and basically decided the Apollo Twin was the go for me. You could say I did my research before selling all my hardware!
MY MIX TEMPLATE
My Pro Tools template brings together my favourite ways of working — a virtual recreation of the outboard and routing from working in my favourite studios down through the years. It means I can boot up a session and have my vocal chain, mix bus chain… it’s all set up ready to roll. It just saves me a heap of time having all my favourite things to play with in one place and establishing a ‘sound’ for the song quickly.
![3.Mix-Template-pichi](https://www.audiotechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/3.Mix-Template-pichi.jpg)
![4.Space-Echo-pichi](https://www.audiotechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/4.Space-Echo-pichi.jpg)
ROLAND SPACE ECHO
I’m sure anyone that’s listened to the work over the years would be familiar with the swooping and pitch-bending sounds of my Space Echo. I just have never been able to part with it despite it not actually working properly for more than 10 years. I’m reticent to get it fixed because every time I use it, it just does something magical. Every now and then when you’re using it, the tape stops, and you know when it stops, it doesn’t just stop, it pitches down, like someone turned the power off. And though you can start the tape going again, the number of times it’s stopped in a musical spot and with a magic bit of wow and flutter, I can’t justify getting it repaired! I’ve just hung on to my Space Echo and I don’t know if I’ll ever sell it. You’ll see in the picture there’s some white bits of tape on it. That is from when Radiohead were in Melbourne and hired it on the ‘Hail to the Thief’ album tour, where they did two shows. That white tape are Johnny Greenwood’s settings, and I’ve never taken them off.
MY CONTROL ROOM
I call it the Lodge and it is such a valuable space for me. It’s tiny (3m by 3.3m) and has a concrete floor with a rug on it. I’ve got a little bit of acoustic treatment in there but the room has proven to me to be quite true sounding. And it has become my ears. I’ve got my NS10s in there along with a subwoofer, so when I do a mix, I know that it’s going to translate. I just love my little room. I kind of like small tight rooms for mixing.
![5.MixRoom-pichi](https://www.audiotechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/5.MixRoom-pichi.jpg)