Monstereo Music’s Phil Rigger relies on Metric Halo
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Monstereo Music, a music and video production company headed up by ‘industry veteran’ Phil Rigger continues to rely on a collection of Metric Halo interfaces. In addition to the intangible aspects of music production, Monstereo Music possesses a full-fledged recording studio and video production suite in Sydney.
Mr Rigger started his career in the music business in rock band, Outline as the front man and lead vocalist, and has written hit songs for other Australian artists, produced and engineered a number of albums and has composed and produced for television and film. Along the way, he found Metric Halo and is now a dedicated user of Metric Halo’s hardware interfaces, its sound analysis program SpectraFoo, and its flagship plug-in ChannelStrip.
A collection of Metric Halo interfaces handle input and output conversion, as well as preamplification when Mr Rigger is using a tube mic. The collection includes one ULN-8, one 2882 and two ULN-2s.
‘I got my first Metric Halo 2882 over a decade ago when my friend and frequent collaborator David Quinn discovered it,’ said Mr Rigger. ‘Because Metric Halo so faithfully supports its products with hardware and software upgrades, I’m still using that same 2882 today! What other piece of computer-related equipment evades obsolescence for so long? Between David and I we have three ULN8s, three 2882s and three ULN2s all with 2D cards.’
The studio is home to a collection of tube mics from BeezNeez, Groove Tube, Neumann, and Rode, as well as microphones Shure, AKG and Sennheiser. Outboard gear includes dual-channel Peach Audio tube preamps, Groove Tube SuPRE preamps, a Groove Tube MP-1 preamp and a six-channel Audio Developments Class A mixer. The main Mac runs Cubase 7 and possesses 32GB RAM, 20TB of storage, and a Blackmagic video input card and 3GB output card.
Event Electronics Opal studio monitors provide transduction at the other end. The video production suite possesses a cyclorama, three cameras, monitoring, and video switching. The video room and the control room are connected optically and via analogue so that users can monitor video input/output, as well as multichannel audio for webcasting and in-house shoots.
‘The reason I like Metric Halo interfaces is because they have that solid, high-quality sound,’ he continued. ‘I’ve worked on a bunch of different high-end consoles over the years, and Metric Halo easily has the sound quality to compete with any of them. Of course, the portability is also fabulous. I’ve recorded so many live sets with my Metric Halo interfaces. They’re always solid and reliable. I’m a fan of the Classic British Pre emulation,’ he said. ‘It adds a nice warmth to the recording that isn’t overbearing. In combination with a nice tube mic on vocals, the Metric Halo preamps produce a beautiful, rich recording.’
In the studio, he keeps a second Mac up that runs SpectraFoo, digitally connected to the main system for mixing and mastering, and uses ChannelStrip as his go-to equalisation and compression plug-in.