Santa Cruz, Calif., Mar. 21, 2001 -- Steve Earle, hillbilly rocker, blues countryman, poet and author has relied on the classic 1176 for some time as part of his trusted arsenal. It is an integral part of his muscular, punchy sound. Recently, Earle acquired two Universal Audio 1176LN compressors for his current European and US road tours.

Faced with the task of keeping Earle's vintage 1176s in shape on an extended tour, front house engineer, Matt Svobodny, opted for the Universal Audio new releases. The true test was whether they would pass muster with Earle and his Nashville compatriots, Ray Kennedy and Richard Dodd - all experts on every nuance of the 1176. Earle gave the thumbs up, and the new models were added to the road rack, currently touring the US.

Said Svobodny, "I use the 1176s live much like an effects unit, one for drums, the other for Steve's vocals. I don't use any reverb or delay on Steve's vocals - just the 1176. It sucks the spit out of the vocals. I set the attack pretty slow and the release really fast. When he hits a vocal, the low end is right there, then it clips quickly so that the sibilance is there too."

"On drums, you can really push the 1176 hard - it gets really boombastic. With the 1176, I can get a real aggressive drum mix without it treading on all on the vocals. They're great for the road, I've run them any possible way you can think of and they don't pick up noise at lower levels. You can drive them insanely hard and not get bad distortion. They always performs just great - they've been around the world and back.

The Steve Earle road tour continues through March, 2001.

Universal Audio, headquartered in Santa Cruz, CA, develops classic analog recording equipment and cutting edge digital signal processing tools. The company's slogan - Analog Ears, Digital Minds - reflects its devotion to bridging the best of analog and digital recording technologies.


Source: Universal Audio
Web: www.uaudio.com