Nashville studio owner, Tim Dolbear has upgraded his monitor controller to Audient Nero at Eclectica Studio. “We wanted something that was reliable in both sound reproduction and longevity, and the Nero fits perfectly into that,” says Tim, also the chief audio engineer. He saw a ‘null test’ online, which compared the difference between the Nero and just using a straight line cable. “They completely nulled out which really intrigued me,” he said. Ever since his purchase, he can’t fault it. “The sound quality has been absolutely first rate and the routing is wonderful.”
Nero: “The sound quality has been absolutely first rate”
Tim has been in the studio business for over two decades as a producer, mixing, mastering and recording engineer, so he knows what he’s talking about. He’s worked with everybody from Grammy winners to indie artists and his records receive airplay worldwide. Satisfied customers include Tony Harnell (TNT, Starbreaker, West world, Skid Row), Jamie Oldaker (Eric Clapton, Frampton) and Larry Thompson (James Brown, Otis Redding).
Working in both the music and the film and video post-production world, Tim has built up a range of equipment to serve him over these last 22 years. “On the music side, which is where most of the gear that you see in pictures of our studio get used, we use preamps from Great River, Manley, SSL and of course Audient. I work exclusively in a Sequoia DAW and have since 2002 and we mix in the box.
“Our mixbus then leaves the computer and travels through our analogue mix bus processing. Our analogue mix bus contains Mytek converters feeding a Great River MAQ-2NV Mastering Equalizer, into a Manley Mastering Edition Variable Mu Compressor with TBar Mod, into our modified MCI JH110B ¼” tape machine which has API 2520 OpAmps on the ins and outs. We print to 1/4” ATR Tape at 15IPS.
About Nero: “the routing is wonderful”
“On the film side all of our work is done inside Sequoia and we mix stereo and 5.1 surround.” Tim underlines that the monitoring system at Eclectic Studio starts with a professionally designed room – ““the most important part. Stereo D/A conversion is all done by Mytek converters feeding our Nero controller, which handles all of our different routing needs for the many different monitoring setups we have. The Nero also handles the various Talkback and talent Talkback duties.”
Tim likes to use Nero’s routing capabilities a little differently. “We basically use the Nero as a seven output monitor controller with multiple inputs. We have the normal stereo signal from the Main Mytec D/A feeding our Neumann monitoring, as well as our midfield mains, it also feeds our Crimson Audio headphone amp and some Bose computer speakers. The Nero also sends our Talkback mic signal to various places that we need it to go. We also have our talent Talkback mic from the live room coming in on a different input and going out to a separate set of speakers on their own volume control via HP out 2.” Interesting!
Clients come from all corners of the world to work with him. “I had a label in Seoul, South Korea fly an artist to work with me to record vocals and then have me mix and master the project. They flew in the vocal producer from New York City and the producer from Canada.” His long list of glowing testimonials say it all.
“We basically use the Nero as a seven output monitor controller with multiple inputs.”
Tim has just finished working on Byron Nemeth’s new single “You Know It’s True” (see below video showcasing some of the production as it happened).
He has also just finished mixing the newly released album, Walk Alone by pop/rock outfit, C.K. Baker Band. For a full list of Tim’s filmography, head over to his IMDb page where the newest films he’s worked on will be added as they are released.
Despite the recent challenges for the music industry as a whole, Tim is pleased – and hugely thankful – to report that 2021 has been his “biggest year yet”. Audient wishes him every success into 2022!
