Tim de Paravicini of
E.A.R. supplys recording studios with custom equipment. Some info
here. .
Some tubes are in the mix somewhere. Interesting comments.
"Users of his tape recording systems, microphones, and other recording technology include performers Pink Floyd and Lenny Kravitz, and the Altarus and Water Lily record labels. One of the world's highest-ranked mastering facilities, The Exchange in London, uses two playback systems in which the entire chain--from tape machines and equalizers to cutter amplifiers and monitoring equipment--is E.A.R.-designed and built."
"Oh, God, I hate DATs. Stopping and starting with those things is a pain in the ass."
"
Any warmth in the tube sound is a defect, but listeners don't want to know that."
"I don't have to use tubes in my designs; I only do it for marketing reasons. I've got an exact equivalent in solid state. I can make either type do the same job, and I have no preference. People can't pick which is which. And electrons have no memory of where they've been! The end result is what counts."
"You have seen my 549s driving the Ortofon cutting head on the Neumann disc-cutting lathe at the Exchange in Camden Town, London. PUK studios in Denmark use my equipment too. I do disc cutting myself at The Exchange for various record companies.
I have two cutting lathes that are driven by my valve amps, and I have designed a unique way of driving the cutting head to get better accuracy. It is cleaner than normal, but I do ensure that the old digital delay lines for Varigroove are not used. Most of the stuff cut nowadays is constant pitch anyway, so we dispense with that sort of thing. I produce new cuts from old master tapes and it revives them. A lot of those old recordings were of fine quality, providing they are replayed properly on recorders having the right equalisation. I believe EMI got the replay equalisation wrong with some of the Beatles reissue CDs, which is why they sound so bad."
It's only a google away!
