Imaginary Cat

Imaginary Cat Recordings

A complete, creative, solution for all audio recording needs

FAB GEAR

Here's a list of some of the gear we have to offer

Firstly, why does the studio have so little digital gear? The Studio’s digital recording rig is modest but dependable and is used as a “tape machine” would be. It’s a hybrid of Digidesign gear and MOTU gear, and most tracking is done in Protools, although Cubase and Audigy are also available, and I usually mater with Wave Lab. Digital gear can be overly expensive and quickly outdated, therefore I have concentrated on the great analog gear which is timeless, and which is what really leads to exceptional results. I won’t go as far to say “digital is digital,” but a simple 24bit 44.1khz session is a fine enough canvas on which to create a great sounding track; the magic is in the front end. Therefore our vintage and high end preamps, outboard gear, microphones, instruments and amplifiers is where the studio's strengths shine through. I hope you'll enjoy the tour of the great gear I have been lucky enough to find over the years and you agree I was right not to buy that pimped out G4 years ago.

Mixing Console

Neotek Series I - Hand made early Neotek board. Lately Neotek has been getting some really big attention in the recording world and people are bustin' up these boards to make expensive high end preamps. Most everything we do is tracked through this board, with some very inventive and intense patching, these preamps can be used anywhere in the recording process.

Microphones

(1) Lomo 19-02 - This is essentially a 19A19Y2 There's an ex-Lomo engineer who has a company building reproductions of classic Lomo's in modern Lomo body. He's also the guy who builds those black Lomo replacement blocks with vintage parts that many people prefer.

(1) Lomo 8A5 – medium diaphragm condenser - The 8A series is solid state brother to the legendary 19A series. Lomos are legendary for a good reason, sounds so smooth and warm. By the way, I personally hunted my Lomo mics down on the streets of Russia.

(1) Nelson Tube Condenser – custom made 100% discretely wired, high quality tube condenser mic based on the legendary Royer design, which has been modified to take a variety of capsules from Red and Oktava.

(1) Lomo 8A13 – shotgun condenser - amazing mic – good for guitar amps, room miking, high hat, and in combination with any mike for instant ambiance.

(1) CAD Trion 8000 - Bottle mic. This is great multi patern tube microphone with a classic bottle design, with a NOS mil spec tube and some modifications to make it even better.

(2) Oktava MK-012 – small diaphragm condenser mics - modded, each with three capsules and a pad. Vintage, domestic issue, not ASM, I bought them in Russia and was told they were military spec and were used on a submarine. The cases did have traces of diesel oil on them.

(1) Oktava MK-102 - large diaphram condencer on the famous 012 preamp-body. This has the famous "Lomo" capsule, an exact replication of the famous 19A21.

(2) Oktava 219 – large diaphragm condenser mics – modded – this isn't an Oktava Mod mic, but a decidedly different mod thought up independently, but Oktava Mod rocks.

(1) Red 012 - "Red Head" - a capsule from the same people who brought you red, they made mostly high end bottle mics, but made affordable capsules for 012 Oktavas. The Red division is in hiatus and may not make microphones again, but this is a future classic.

(1) Vintage Oktava 219 (silver body) - an early domestic issue of the 219. With Oktava mod, even better.

(1) Oktava ML-51 - vintage ribbon mic with an on board preamp. Of coure with some modifications to make it even better.

(1) Blue Ball - The orginal Blue dynamic mic with a phantom powered on-board preamp.

(2) Audio Technica ATM31- Small diaphragm electret condenser mics. A condenser that can handle close address, also great for acoustic guitar, remember "electret" is no longer a dirty word.

(2) Telefunken MD-21 - These are those famous 60's hard wired telefunken dynamics that people say are "great on guitar cabs." "Great on guitar cabs," usually means un-sensitive and not very dynamic, but this is not the case with these mics, they are a great dynmaic mic.

(2) RFT DM - 2414 - RFT was the East German electronics company which was comprised of a few different factories, one of them being a former Neumann factory. These are odly cool vintage dynamic mics with plastic housings.

(2) EAG 14N - Hungarian made dynamic mic. One good thing about comunism, it's price controls allowed companies to produce great mics without endlessly cutting corners to keep costs down.

(2) AKG 310 - close address, unidirectional, dynamic mics - a great alternative to the SM57.

(1) Steadman dynamic - close address, unidirectional - another great alternative to the 57.

(1) Shure SM57 - you've gotta have one, so here it is. This is an older American made one.

(1) Shure SM58 – yep, gotta have it.

(1) Beyer M-81 - vintage dynamic, looks weird, sounds good.

(1) Sennheiser MD 214 N - vintage laviler that is a little limited but with enormous presence.

(2) Tesla AMD 411 N - cardoid dynamic mics from the 70's.

(3) EV N/DYM - close address dynamics, I like them better then the 58 personally, they have a little more brightness and a bit more oomph.

(1) Apex 205 Ribbon Mic - Yes, one of the new generation of Asian made, cheap good ribbon mics, with all the nessacary modifications that make people compare it to the vintage ribbons.

(1) RCA – vintage dynamic lavaliere – high-fi? No, cool-fi, definitely!

(1) Oktava MKE 204 - electret condenser microphone from Oktava. It's superior on board preamp limits the noise problems that electret condencers have and gives a nice bright sound.

(1) Lomo MKE 100 - electret condenser mic. This also features Lomo's unique onmi capsule design. This mic is also super-quiet for an electret due to the Lomo transformer based onboard preamp.

And many more….

Compressors/Limiters

Urei LA-4A – stereo pair – Urei compressors are legendary; there’s nothing else like them.

Altec/Lansing Broadcast Limiter – mono – The original green machine, this is a solid state version of the classic 60’s compressor, it’s subtle, but that’s good.

DBX 266 – stereo pair – The updated DBX comp, not the Urei knock off, but we’ve got Urei’s already, this comp is very modern sounding, because sometimes that’s what you want. Also the “over easy” feature is a handy little auto-comp thing.

VNC - Very Nice Compessor - Just like the name says it's a very nice comrpessor, with lots of features.

ART Tube Compressor - Early ART rack compressor, two channels, with upgraded tube makes a good thing better.

Reverb

Mix Master - Master Room spring reverb – stereo – a great sounding spring reverb, with eq-ing that actually does something.

BEAG – AKX-200 tube preamp/tape reverb – Can your plug-in do this? No! It has three seperate playback heads which are blendable to create a variety of great sounds. This unit also makes the vintage 70’s “John Lennon” vocal/piano sound.

Furmann Spring Reverb - vintage Furmann, it exists. Before becoming famous for power conditioners Furmann made other high end rack gear. This is a great sounding reverb.

Soviet Made Digital Delay - my ONLY piece of digital outboard gear, this is a crazy 80's reverb delay unit with optional chorus built in. Move the knobs and you'll get some of those crazy sounds you get when you play with an old Lexicon.

Multi-Effects

NOT! Gimme a break. Kurt Cobain said it best when he said he’d rather plug his guitar into his ass rather than a multi-effects unit. I've been known to patch in some cool guitar petals for crazy effects, but most multi-effects are noisy and flattening.

Preamps/EQ’s and DI’s

RFT tube mic pre - early 60's, it uses the EF86 and EC92 tubes found in it's Western German cousin's (the Neumann U47) preamps.

Siemens V274 - one of those famous German broadcast standard modules, this was originally a splitting amp, now an all purpose preamp.

(2) ART tube MP – yes one of those, I’m serious, this is a cool little box. I put in a vintage Mullard 12AX7, that helps, and this box is a good all purpose DI/preamp, good for goosing up the Hammond or Fender Rhodes, or plugging in any of our stranger vintage mics. Yes, they can be hissy if you don't know how to set them, and if you don't change the tube, but I've figured that out.

Belarri Tube Channel - One of those moden preamps, sort of a highbrid, it has a tube, as well as a lot of complicated solid state curuits, has a nice built in compresor.

C.B.I. DI – invisible, like a good DI should be.

2 customized DI – These are two customized Asian made DI’s, with upgraded parts and features.

Vintage Instruments and Amps

1948 Hammond with a Leslie 145 - Modified to have a 60's style 12AX7 preamp and 6L6 outputs, the only question is: would you like to use one Leslie or two?

1958 Hammond M-3 with a Leslie 145 - For those who must have percussion and some of those warmer Booker T. sounds.

1970 Fender Rhodes Electric Piano - A great Rhodes from the best era for the instrument, with very little of the road abuse that haunts so many of these otherwise beautiful instruments

1960's Ludwig 4 piece drum set - a great sounding set.

1964 Ampeg B-15 - "The" bass amp for the studio.

1970 Fender Bassman - "The Other" great bass amp, also great for guitar when plugged into a 2x12 cab.

1965 Vox Cambridge - Absolutely wonderful classic tube tone.

1966 Vox Pacemaker - It's a Cambridge without the reverb, but still has that great British sound.

1960's Silvertone Twin Twelve - Legendary all tube head. Called the poor man's Bassman at the time, but not really true, massive tube comression makes for amazingly expressive overtones, it's a very unique amp. With killer vibrato. I don't have the original cab, but I do have a 2x12 Fender Bandmaster cab for it which is by all rights better.

Citation by Excelsior - This is a great old tube 12" combo with tons of biult in compression. Like an old Gibson combo, but better.

Lots of great guitar pedals, too many to list!

...and many more!!