UA WebZine "UA Universe" August 03 | This is a monthly roundup of Universal Audio News including comments from reviews, forums, emails, and calls we receive from both our loyal UA users and people new to UA. You will also still find our Employee Feature here so you can get to know the folks at UA a little better.

UA Universe - This Month at Universal Audio

Hi, welcome to “UA Universe”. This is a monthly roundup of Universal Audio News including comments from reviews, forums, emails, and calls we receive from both our loyal UA users and people new to UA. You will also still find our Employee Feature here so you can get to know the folks at UA a little better. If you don't have time to keep on top of the media overload, this column is the fast track to what's being said on the street.

This Month in UA Universe

Dave Crane: UA Software Products Manager

Dave Crane, Playing a Les Paul
Autographed by Les Paul

David Crane joined Universal Audio in March of 1999 as a product specialist and tech support guru for the Kind of Loud software plug-ins. At that time, UA was primarily a software company- the 1176LN re-issue was still on the drawing board.

David first picked up a guitar at age 13, and has rarely been seen without one since. Wondering how to make his amp really loud led to an AS degree in Electronics Technology with a minor in music at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, near Santa Cruz.

“I’m totally psyched! The best part about working for Universal Audio is the feeling of camaraderie. Most of us are musicians and/or engineers.”

David went on to San Jose State University to study music and recording technology where he gained his first experience with digital audio editing systems. He was hooked. After graduating from San Jose State, David held various jobs, such as writing music for a CD ROM developer, working at a post-production studio, and even managing the service department of a Mac repair store. It was there that David met UA co-founder Bill Putnam and after some lengthy and animated discussions about Macs, music and professional audio, David found himself as a happy new UA employee. Four years later, David is now the Product Manager for Digital Products and is looking forward to new challenges in the complex and competitive world of computer-based digital audio.

Dave & Suzanne's Bluesdog, "Precious"

“I’m totally psyched! The best part about working for Universal Audio is the feeling of camaraderie. Most of us are musicians and/or engineers. I work with analog electronics, and computers, and talk to other engineers about how they work. Then I use what I’ve learned to create music and capture it the best way I can.”

Dave's band, Pearl Alley, which features the hard-driving, Janis Joplin-like vocals of his wife Suzanne St. John, is developing quite a following here in the Monterey Bay Area. Pearl Alley has just released their first CD, and as you might expect, UA preamps and compressors as well as the UAD-1 with Powered Plug-Ins figured prominently into their tracking and mixing.

For more information on Pearly Alley’s CD or gigs go to:
http://www.pearlalleyband.com/

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Matt Ward (President), Jack Casady (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna), Mike Barnes (Director Of Marketing) in the UA Factory

Dennis Fink (2nd from left) & George Takayoshi Azuma chow down with the UA team.

Honored Visitors to UA
Jack Casady dropped by to see us en route back to LA with a copy of his new CD “Dream Factor” out on British Label, Eagle Records. Jack recorded all his bass parts DI’d through the M-610 and he just loves the sound. Thanks for dropping by Jack !

Other illustrious visitors to UA HQ this month included our Japanese distributor, the one and only George Takayoshi Azuma and engineering guru Dennis Fink, who brings with him a wealth of audio industry experience from the original UREI days and Crest Audio.

2192 Master Audio Interface on Tour
Recently, we did a mini-tour of several mastering studios & tracking facilities in New York & the Bay Area getting feedback on our 2192 Prototypes which are shortly due to go into final production. We put the unit up against units costing up to 8 times more and the 2192 held its ground. Suffice it to say that we think that after a great deal of careful design work and tweaking, the 2192 safely beats out all DAW AD & DA up to and including ProTools HD, and even stands its ground against premium converters such as the Prismsound AD2 & DA2.

Elliot Mazer in New York currently working on a 192k surround re-master of Frank Sinatra and a new 96k Santana 5.1 mix, already put in a pre-order with his dealer for a rack of 2192’s after our auditioning session. Thanks Elliot – the production units are going to be even better!

We used John Cuniberti’s excellent $25000 Krell/Nautilus monitoring system at The Plant Mastering to carefully audition both the AD & DA conversion of several prototype 2192’s. John also gave us a tour of Studio B, where classics such as Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” were recorded and there is still a vintage Neve 8068 desk and a whole collection of vintage outboard gear including LA2A’s & 1176’s.