I wanted to try a mix using all factory presets, and that's what I've done. I wanted to see if these presets alone would add up to a good mix, and if they could be trusted. They can.

I'm on Protools LE and I have that damn AMD-8131 chip in my Mac, so as soon as I decided on which preset or presets, I bussed the audio to a new track and made the old one inactive, therefore making cpu usage a non issue. This took some time, but was well worth it.

I used the new Neve 1073 EQs, a UAD compressor (LA-2A or 1176) if needed, and the Plate 140 on a couple tracks. I used the Nigel for the lead guitar, Roland Dimension D on the clean and 12 string guitars. I also used the Dimension D on the lead and harmony vocals, oddly enough [that's not too odd -ed].

I was looking for that 70's Ted Templemen vibe, and using just presets, I got it. The Precision Multiband, Precision EQ, and Precision Limiter are used on the master section with selected presets only. I discovered that not only is UAD making the best plug-ins available, but they are taking some serious effort in designing presets that can save us from ourselves! Thanks UAD.

Rich Ayres, owner/operator of River City Recording in Sacramento California.