Top 5: Ed Stasium

I mix everything in the box with Pro Tools these days, but when I first adopted the format I was bouncing directly to disc. During a conversation with my mastering engineer pal Greg Calbi, he suggested that I try a process of using the analogue outputs of Pro Tools. Greg then put me in touch with Dangerous Music founder Chris Muth who set me up with one of his 2-Bus LT summing mixers. Running analogue from Pro Tools into the 2-Bus, and then recording back into Pro Tools through inputs 1 and 2 has made such a big difference, and is how I do all my mixing now.

Since moving to San Diego about eight years ago the majority of my work was done at home, and for years there I didn’t have a multi-channel headphone system. Not having a separate cue network for artists to hear and control their own monitor mixes was proving difficult, but my friends at Vintage King recommended Hear Tech’s easy-to-use Hearback system. As my home studio isn’t set up like a major studio — with the ‘control room’ being in a spare bedroom — running something like this is essential. The system is fantastic. It sounds great, and has a compressor so you can add a little bit to prevent the artist from blowing out their headphones. This is especially useful for drummers and aggressive vocalists who like to crank it!

I love Trident as I used to work at Le Studio Morin-Heights where they had the first of the original thirteen A-Range consoles in North America. I have a set of four Trident Fleximix modules that I purchased from eBay and am told that they came out of Queen’s first touring desk. I’ve had these modules for fifteen years now and they sound fantastic. They have a unique clarity that sees them used on hi-hat, tom toms, ride cymbal and acoustic guitar. In fact, they are permanently routed from those drum mics. They’re crystal clear, and have 3-band EQ with a parametric mid-range, and they’re nicely made so they don’t break down.