Arrow Manual
Universal Audio History
263
Allen Sides
Allen Sides has always been known for having golden
ears when it comes to the sound of equipment. The
owner of Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles and
Nashville, he’s also a speaker designer and engineer who
is especially respected for his work with live musicians,
including orchestra and string dates. Among his
recent credits are work with the Goo Goo Dolls, Alanis
Morissette and Green Day. Sides brings his different
perspectives into play when he talks about using the
1176.
“The 1176 is standard equipment for my sessions. I just
used them last night, as a matter of fact, on a project
for singer Lisa Bonet that Rob Cavallo was producing
at Ocean Way. We were recording drums and I used
them on the left/right overheads as effects limiters. It’s
something I learned from (engineer) Don Landy, who
worked with Randy Newman a lot. I mult the left and right overheads and bring them
back on the console, then insert a pair of 1176s into a pair of the mults. Push in 20
to one and four to one simultaneously and it puts the unit into overdrive creating a very
impressive sound.”
Murray Allen
Murray Allen is a veteran engineer and Director of Post Production for the San Francisco
Bay Area company Electronic Arts. He has a fascination for gear both old and new and
he explains why he thinks the 1176 has been so popular for so long. “It has a unique
sound to it that people like, it’s very easy to operate, and it does a great job. You have
just two controls relative to the ratio of compression. You have input and output and you
have attack and release. That’s all there is. It’s still my favorite limiter for Fender basses
and string basses, because you don’t know it’s working. It doesn’t change the way the
bass sounds, it just keeps the level at a more controllable place.
Ken Kessie
Mixer Ken Kessie (En Vogue, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Celine Dion) is known for being
experimental. “Seems like everybody knows the basic tricks for the 1176,” he says,
“But here are two that might be lesser known. If you turn the attack knob fully
counterclockwise until it clicks, the 1176 ceases to be a compressor and acts only as an
amplifier. Sometimes this is the perfect sound for a vocal. And of course the unit can be
overdriven, adding another flavor of distortion in case your plug-ins are maxed out!
“Then, for that hard-to-tame lead vocalist (the one that backs up from the mic to whisper
and leans in for the big ending chorus), try an 1176 followed by a DBX 165. Use the
1176 as a compressor, and the DBX as a peak limiter...it’s guaranteed to be smooth as
silk.”
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