Geoff Daking: Behind the Gear

A character, genius and great host are just a few of the words to use in describing Geoff Daking. A resilient man having survived an entire US tour with The Who opening for his band, The Blues Magoos, Geoff immediately strikes you as a man who could easily survive a nuclear war.

I recently had the opportunity to have dinner, get drunk and do this interview with Geoff at his beautiful home in Laguna Beach, CA. Hopefully this can be as educational for you as it was for me, of course without enduring the pain that was inflicted on me in doing this interview.

When and how did you begin recording?

My first session was doing a jingle for TWA Airlines in 1970 at Sound Ideas, in New York.

Did you have any previous background in recording?

Well, I learned a lot playing drums in The Blues Magoos. We did three albums on Mercury and I learned by watching. It was really different then. We started on three track and graduated to four track. Our third album was mostly eight track. At that time, we had a big house in the Bronx that we sublet from Gram Parsons. We did some recording at home with a remote recordist called Reiss Hamel. He was the guy who did all of the great live jazz records in the 60s. He did Cannonball, that sort of stuff. We recorded on two four tracks on a home-made Nuvistor board. By then, I learned enough to b.s. My way in, but actually, I had no idea what side of the machine the tape went on.

So you're one of those bullshit artists who's smart enough to catch up.

Exactly, never tell the boss that you don't know how to drive the truck!

That was more than thirty years ago, you are now well known as a great engineer, you must have done some kind of recording since that TWA jingle.

I did everything from film scores to Meat loaf to records for artists like James Brown, Roberta Flack, Paul Desmond, Foghat, Hall & Oates, Donny Hathaway, Rod Stewart, Tom Dowd and many more.

So you're a badass — recording engineer and then at some point you began to build bad ass recording equipment. What inspired you?

It was a lot of things; mainly it was the fact that all the new gear sounded like crap! It all began with the MCI consoles. Then transformers were replaced by cheap integrated circuits. In 1993, I was still in the studio business. I sold out of that and started this.

Don't transformerless circuits spec out better and are more efficient at retaining signal integrity?

Number one! Transformers are the most efficient way to achieve their number one function, impedance matching. They are the best in eliminating noise due to grounding. A transformer eliminates the hard wired connection between the output and the input. This eliminates ground related noise. Transformers are electrically bullet-proof, retain their performance forever, and consume no power even at high signal levels. Anyone choosing not to use transformers is doing so to save money. Input transformers retail for fifty to a hundred bucks a pop, whereas cheap integrated circuits are what, fifty cents each? Transformers are bulky and expensive, but you tell me, would you rather record on a Mackie or a Neve?

Point well taken, but there must be reasons other than economics why so many equipment manufactures design their gear so differently than what you feel sounds good.

Most audio equipment is designed by people who have no idea what's going on in a recording studio. Unlike Bill Putnam [ Tape Op #24 ], who designed the 1176 and LA-2A limiters, most designers work for big companies driven by ad and marketing departments. The gear he [Bill] designed was based on his needs in the studio. He was a great recording engineer. George Massenburg [ #54 ] is a great engineer and builds great stuff. At most electronics companies, you may find someone with a home recording studio, but nowhere at a company like that are you going to find someone who is a serious professional recording engineer. I would challenge any manufacturer to show me an employee that designs recording equipment that has ever done a recording session other than vocal overdubs in a home studio. As Russ Hamm once said, "This is no longer an industry of professionals".

I tried your mic-pre/EQ on vocals recently and found them to really have a great sound! I used your EQ to bring in some of the most beautiful musical sibilance I have ever gotten out of a U-67.

That is because they are modeled after the Trident A- range. A mixing board designed by engineers better than you or I will ever be.

Did you make any changes and or improvements?

No. It is a Trident A-range module. There were a few components they just don't make anymore like we had to use newer Motorola transistors, slightly fatter inductors in the EQ. But the few components that aren't exactly the same have been matched as closely as possible.

I also enjoyed using your compressor, and it has to be one of the best sounding compressors I have ever used. Very, very clean. I enjoy using compression as an effect for coloration. But sometimes I want some kind of compression for dynamics control with no coloration. I'm usually disappointed due to the coloration caused by the effect of the compressor. I found I could use your compressor to control dynamics with only a very subtle and pleasant coloration. Tell me about the guts and how you designed those wonderful little babies.

I began by creating a list of limiters people like and ones people don't like. On the list of limiters people like are the Fairchild, 1176, LA-2A, API-525. And on the list of limiters people don't like, DBX-165, Behringer, and many more. So I began by looking at what components all the great compressors had in common, and what components all the shitty compressors had in common. For example the great compressors all have peak detectors, as where all the shitty compressors have RMS detectors. Looking at these common features I was easily in the ballpark of what I wanted and did not want.

So what components did you end up using?

The gain change element we use is a FET, with an all discrete peak detector like a 1176 or A&D Compex. The Compex is one of the best sounding compressors ever made, but limiting in bandwidth. What we did was create a limiter that did not chop off bandwidth while it was limiting. It will limit 25dB of gain reduction and still be flat to 65kHz. We used the exact same amplifiers as the our mic-pre/EQ, the gain change method of a 1176 and the peak detector similar to a Compex. Some of the most important specs are the time constants, the attack and release parameters. We studied these from vintage compressors like the Neve 33609, the Compex, and three of the most popular Fairchild settings.

So now you've taken the huge leap from making mic pres and compressors to building consoles. What possessed you to do this and how do you manage to pull it off being a small husband and wife company working out of your house?

Well, we don't just work out of the house, we work wherever we are. We are on the road a lot. All of the stuff is built by a contract manufacturer in Huntington Beach. Once again, we got into the console business because of an equipment vacuum. If you want a discrete recording console, where do you go? Vintage? Most of the good 30 year old consoles have been parted out or need complete refurbishing. API is in the high 200 to 400 grand range. We can make a 32 input/8buss/24 monitor console with patchbay for less than 90k. We're small with low overhead.

I assume you've modeled portions of your console from the A-Range, can you explain your design philosophy behind the console?

The console circuits are virtually identical to the mic-pre/EQ. It has almost no wire. Everything plugs into mother boards. It has very short signal path with Jensen transformers in and out. It is not very deep, so you can reach every control without standing. It's built to last. All of the metal is stainless steel with powder coat finish. Most of the parts are off the shelf. Any TV repairman can work on it.

How long did it take you to design the console and get it into production.?

We started back in '98 with a much larger version that was too expensive. In the Spring of 2000 we got an order for a 16 input sidecar. We had it ready for Summer NAMM. This year we delivered an 80 input, 2 32's and a 24. We are building more 32's now. That seems to be the optimum size.

Were there any major stumbling blocks?

Nothing but the usual. Our old contract manufacturer went Chapter 11, the sheet metal guy retired. There is always something.

OK, what's it gonna cost me to put one of these babies in my studio and who or what do you see as the marketplace for a console like this?

The prices start at about 25k for a small sidecar to about 90k for a complete 32 input console, The small ones are for studios that just need a few good inputs and/or to mix Pro Tools. The bigger ones can be used for real studio recording.

There are very few professional level consoles made in the USA, why do you think that is?

Few is an exaggeration. There is API and us. There used to be lots of them, Sphere, Flickenger, Datamix, Bill Windsor, Audio Design, Quad-Eight. Suburban Sound... it's a tough business. The demand for large format consoles is small in our sector of the business. SSL continues to sell lots of 9K's at $750K and up, but I don't see how you can make any money with them unless you get mega budgets like Disney or hip-hop acts with money to burn. In our sector, $1000 a day is a big budget. To make money here, you need one of those old consoles that you can nurse along. Let me digress a little and lay out a small business plan for a small studio. Here's how I see the small studio business. Let's say you wanted to build a professional studio that could track, overdub and mix (without automation). Assume that you could find a space that cost $1250, and a loan or lease that would cover $230,000 of construction and equipment. By the time you add all of the fixed expenses, utilities, professional, insurance etc, your nut would be about 7 grand. So, if you work weekdays only, your fixed cost is about $350 a day. This does not include any costs pertaining to the recording, just what it costs to have the studio sit there. Obviously you should open a Mexican restaurant instead, but that's not going to happen. A studio is not a business, it's a way of life. So, if you worked 15 days @ $800, you go home with about three grand. (see spread sheet at left)

Thanks for your time as well as all the good wine, any parting thoughts before we end this interview?

I'd like to see the return of the real studio, the studio that has a staff and a sound. And, for better or worse, the big labels are starting to look at smaller acts. Some of that will go to the big guys, like AFI recording at Cello with Butch Vig [ Tape Op #11 , #115 ] , but maybe this will be also be good for the small to mid range studios.