“Dictator which is on all the vocals and I want I just wanted something that would be really smooth to kind of glue all those vocals together. We have a lot of background vocals during the show and this kind of brings everybody together. It adds a little presents, softens everything. It does what a vari-mu is supposed to do and it’s it sounds incredible. It’s been you know as soon as I put it on, it just it’s like oh yeah, there there it is that’s the magic I needed.

Empress, so I chose this to use on the guitars. I wanted to have a little bit of EQ control to the group. We have two electric guitars, mostly what I’m doing here is I have a 2dB Boost of low end at 100, doing nothing to the mids and I have a 2dB boost of 8K and I have the tube boost engaged. It has just made the guitar sound huge, lots of low-end, really pretty tight big sounding guitars.”

“I’m using Dictator for my mixbus compression. It’s nice and gentle. You don’t hear it working too hard, but it adds a nice thickness adds a lot of body adds a lot of harmonics depending on how you like to drive it. You don’t really hear it working too hard until you turn it off and then everything kind of gets smaller and more boring. I’ve been using it all year never had one problem with it. The most important it all sounds amazing so check out and maybe see at a Slipknot show.”

“I only had to hear the Empress for about 1 minute to know this thing wasn’t ever leaving my mix bus. This thing is that good!! A new standard for mix eq.”

Chris Rakestraw has been a music professional for over 25 years. Recording engineer, mixing engineer, and producing records since the early 2000’s. Additionally, Chris Rakestraw is the currently touring the world as the monitor engineer for the band Megadeth. When Rakestraw is not touring, he’s producing records out of Nashville, TN.

“The Empress EQ is one of my favorite equalizers of all times. It has been on every mix since the day I got it. Absolutely beautiful top end, big and warm low end and the mid band is just magic. This really is THE improvement on a classic design. The Dictator is one of the best sounding tube compressors out there. Velvety sound and a ton of control, more than most, if not all, other vari-mu compressors.”

“The Bishop microphone preamp is one the warmest, most pristine channel strips I’ve ever used. The compressor section offers tons of flexibility in shaping the sound and vocals sit perfectly in the mix. Personally, I love driving those tubes hard and getting that extra grit! The drive control on the instrument input is also amazing on bass and guitars.”

“My job grant me the possibility to tryout high quality studio gear and when I tried the Empress EQ I was left speechless! Is like having a modern Pultec style EQ with more versatility at a fraction of price without compromising the immense quality. Now it is in all my Mastering chains and my clients are always super happy of the results!”

“About the Dictator it’s really brought a lot of new characters into the Left Right Mix the Dictator If you’re running about a 2dB gain reduction and 2dB makeup in its high comp mode – it seems to be working so far for me – the best and then the Empress is really where the magic is happening. I’m me running obviously the tube boost is in and just some high and low lifts and it really just takes the mix… just punches it out. I didn’t know how aggressive it was going to be and how how much it impacts.. I’m mixing into it more and using it as a main chain or a main part of the sound.”

“Using the Dictator and Empress on my Master Bus instantly led me to the sound I had been trying to achieve with plugins for so long. Right from the get-go, there was a warmth, along with an all-too familiar saturation and glue that reminded me of how I had previously felt mixing into some rare and sought after analogue summing matrices.

I love the inclusion of a HPF on the Dictator. As I’m using this compressor mainly in the live realm on my Master Bus – I crank it up to 80Hz or sometimes 130Hz to allow some of the low peaks through. This helps me keep some extra emphases in the subs and the lows of the main PA hangs.”

“I am absolutely thrilled with the Dictator! I am using it on my band bus, and loving the life it brings to the mix. It not only helps glue the band together, but adds a liveliness that really makes the mix pop.”