Cliff Maag | TapeOp

Some audio equipment becomes more sought after once it goes out of production. A small company from Utah called NTI (later known as Nightpro) introduced the EQ3, PreQ3 and EQ3D in the '90s and then disappeared. But the uniqueness of their AIR BAND equalizer feature lived on, with many well-known engineers and producers using the units for tracking and mixing. NTI/Nightpro's founder and inventor Cliff Maag, a recording engineer for over 35 years and owner of The Record Lab studio, got back in the game in 2009 with his Maag Audio at the urging of his son, Ryan. Soon another son, Cliff Jr., joined up; meanwhile electrical engineer Travis Allen was also brought into the company. Maag Audio has released the new EQ4 [see Tape Op #88 for a review] and PREQ4 in the 500 Series format and a plug-in of the EQ4 is available from Plugin Alliance.

Your original company, NTI, when did that start?

Cliff: That was in '92 or '93.

You were running the studio, and you also had a day job before?

Cliff: Initially I did. I still have the studio job — that's my main job. I'm cutting vocals for Marie Osmond's next album right now. I just finished an album, about a year or so ago, for Buddy Cannon. I did all of Marie's vocals for a Donny & Marie album; the first one released in years. I am a recording engineer, first. I started out with a TEAC/Tascam 80-8. I had people that wanted me to record them. Before you knew it, I had a Stephens 24-track, a Stephens 16-track [Tape Op#54], an [Ampex] ATR-102 2-track, and ATR-104 4-track. Then I had to get a console.

You bought a custom console from a friend who built it initially, right?

Cliff: Yeah! I couldn't afford to buy a Neve. The people I was working with had a Neve console in their studio, but they ended up coming to my studio to record. That was The Osmonds. I did a bunch of work for them, back in the day. When you're trying to do an independent thing, you don't have a sugar daddy handing out the dollars to go buy a Neve console.

And you're waiting for someone to pay you for the job you just did!

Cliff: Exactly! But you do it because you love it so much, and you learn from that passion. We ended up developing gear so we could come closer to what others were doing in the studio. We learned some things that hadn't been thought of, and those contributed to the creation of the EQ3 and the PREQ3. It came from that desire to compete and have those great pieces of equipment that we could only dream about having. When I started back in the late '70s, in L.A., they were cutting a lot of vocals with [UA] LA- 2A compressors and using a [AKG] C 12 mics with Stephen Paul [mic] mods. Remember the Boulder [Jensen] Twin Servo?

I don't know that preamp. [It was a precursor to the John Hardy M-1, using the 990 op amp.]

Cliff: That was the bomb back in that day — Jensen transformers and a twin servo preamp. To get the vocal sound with that "L.A. quality" you had to have those three elements; I learned that from Csaba Petocz. He worked out of Ocean Way [Recording] a lot; he and Lisa Petocz. So, I did a project that Csaba was involved in, and then he got me lined up to get an AKG C 12, as well as the Boulder preamp. That C 12 mic I got was absolutely phenomenal. It still is, to this day. I put four other preamps in the Boulder rack. We built our own, and that's where the AIR BAND was born — in that preamp. It led to the AIR BAND that's in all of our gear.

What led to the AIR BAND?

Cliff: I always said, "I gotta put more air in it!" I said, "I love the sound of my [Neumann] U 87, but I want to put a little air in it." So, I ended up calling it the AIR BAND. Initially we had four different types of filtering that we had done. We got to where our preamps were in the same league the Boulder, but with the ability to open up the top-end with our AIR BAND. That's what we put in our console!

What made you decide to take the leap to build and sell the NTI preamps?

Cliff: We realized we had a unique and beneficial product. We came up with things that hadn't been seen before.

Is the AIR BAND kind of like a Baxandall curve? Like a long, slow, gentle rise?

Cliff: It's a long curve up; then it's a shelf, but it rides on top of the original signal.

Travis: The beauty of it is the lack of phase shift. Everything is kind of complementing each other, and adding together in such a way where you're not doing harsh textbook EQing, which usually creates a lot of phase shift. Each band complements each other so all the bands blend together to create that signal.

What happened to Nightpro?

Cliff: There just came a point where we weren't selling enough to be able to survive. You can't hire people if you're not bringing in money — you can't stay in business.

Was it just in the marketing end of things?

Cliff: One of the things I've learned since is that the engineers that got these [NTI/Nightpro] units originally kept it as their secret weapons.

I've got a couple of pieces of gear like that!

Cliff: You know what I'm talking about! I totally understand that, but it discouraging to see the original company suffer. All of those guys that I got to know back in the '90s are still my friends to this day.

Cliff Jr.: Now they say, "Yeah, the AIR BAND was our secret weapon."

Cliff: Now I'm hearing that all these records, huge records from U2, to Snow Patrol, to Mariah Carey and different genres — they'd been using our gear all those years. Ryan said, "Dad! Look at the talk about your gear. People are blogging about it. They're trying to figure out how to build it." I said, "Oh, I don't know if I want to get back into that again." He stuck on me, and I said, "If we get the right team together, we can do it." In the NTI days, Cliff Jr. was in high school and Ryan was in junior high. Cliff Jr., at 18 years old, built most of the EQ3s, EQ3Ds, and PREQ3s. Ryan helped build the gear as well. Travis was there with us too, troubleshooting and fixing things.

Do you have an EE degree?

Travis: Yes. EET [Electrical Engineering Technology].

Cliff: Travis knows the equipment and gear. He understands the circuitry inside and out — he's just an incredible engineer — for over 30 years now. That's been his life. He also works for a corporate Motion Picture Studio in Provo. Another thing that's just as important is that he is like a part of our family.

Well, it's mostly family here!

Cliff: Cliff Jr. is our president and CEO. He manages our dealer network, advertising, and general running of the business. Ryan is our marketing director — he's on top of all the trends and things that are going on in the industry. He keeps us on our toes so that we're on top of the market. Travis, Cliff Jr. and Ryan, create the team that I need, that I can count on. They all come from the background of the original gear. The studio's still there. We're still developing these products from the same place.

So, all the new products are 500 series format?

Cliff: Right now the are. What we wanted to do was to get things back to where they were with the NTI EQ3, the Nightpro EQ3D, and PREQ3. We feel like we've taken the idea to an even better place with the Mäag EQ4 and PREQ4.

Cliff Jr.: We wanted these in the 500 series. Travis got our EQ4 to that form.

How many people are working in the company now?

Cliff: The four of us. We assemble the gear; we test the gear; we do everything.

Ryan: When we started out, we stuffed every component on the first few hundred boards. Now we have a company in the States doing the circuit boards.

Cliff: We dial in each product. Literally, each one has to be set exactly. If I grab an EQ that we made seven months ago and put it next to one we just made, they will match and pair up exactly. It's just neat to have that confidence about what you're putting out there.

I've seen you mention you found a better way to pick the right electronic components.

Cliff: Back in the day we were working with an engineer and he said, "Boy, wouldn't it be great if we could just tell the difference between this IC and that one?" And I said, "Well, I can show you how to." In a few minutes I came up with a way with my old console, and with the things we had, where we could literally check which component sounded better. But I can't tell you what the process is!

You've gotta listen. You can design a circuit to hit the numbers...

Cliff: Exactly, and the signal looks good on the scope.

Is there a plug-in version of the AIR BAND?

Cliff: Yes. We partnered with Plugin Alliance to create the EQ4 plug-in. It was their highest selling plug-in of 2012.

Cliff Jr.: It's been phenomenal because they both complement each other. Sales have been about the same. Plug-in sales have been right along the lines of what the hardware is. It hasn't hurt the hardware at all.

Someone might get the plug-in and use it, but in their mind the ultimate goal is most likely to actually have the hardware.

Cliff Jr.: Yes. The plug-in version complements the hardware version very well.