Tad Rollow, Research Engineer

07/16/20 • 59 min

My Take on Music Recording with Doug Fearn

Tad Rollow is a research engineer who has worked at companies like Eventide, Avid-DigiDesign, and Sennheiser. You probably own hardware or software whose design Tad has been part of.

Tad has a wide range of interests and experiences, including hardware, software, and chip design. He’s been recording music since high school and continues to do that. He has a degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in acoustics.

Tad understands the intersection between engineering and art, and knows that a product not only has to have great specifications but it also must sound good.

Our conversation was recorded at 24-bit/ 96kHz PCM. Tad was recording in his home studio in San Francisco, using a Sennheiser MKH8050 mic into a D.W. Fearn VT-2 microphone preamplifier, and recording to ProTools. I am using an AEA R44 microphone, a VT-2 preamp, and a Merging Technologies converter, recorded to Pyramix.

The mix was processed through a D.W. Fearn VT-5 Equalizer and a VT-7 Compressor.

Your comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcomed. You can send email to [email protected]. The link is also available at https://www.dougfearn.com

This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcast, and many others.

Their apps allows you to listen at any time, automatically download new episodes, and even receive a notification when a new episode is published. And you can rate the podcast and leave a review.

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/

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Tad Rollow is a research engineer who has worked at companies like Eventide, Avid-DigiDesign, and Sennheiser. You probably own hardware or software whose design Tad has been part of.

Tad understands the intersection between engineering and art, and knows that a product not only has to have great specifications but it also must sound good.

The mix was processed through a D.W. Fearn VT-5 Equalizer and a VT-7 Compressor.

Your comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcomed. You can send email to [email protected]. The link is also available at https://www.dougfearn.com

This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcast, and many others.

Their apps allows you to listen at any time, automatically download new episodes, and even receive a notification when a new episode is published. And you can rate the podcast and leave a review.

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/

Previous Episode

My Conversation with Dom Morley

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Dom Morley is a Grammy-award winning British engineer, producer, and mixer who has worked with artists such as Amy Winehouse, Adele, Sting, Nick Cave, and many others. He has worked as a staff engineer in several top studios in London and now has his own studio in Oxfordshire. Educating aspiring engineers and producers is important to Dom, and he is in demand as a teacher and lecturer. He often conducts workshops at the NAMM Show.

An educational service he offers is the Mix Consultancy, where anyone can submit their mix for Dom’s personal evaluation and suggestions. https://www.themixconsultancy.com/

I recently spoke with Dom about his early influences, breaking into the business, working with artists and producers, and helping those coming up with solid advice on developing their craft.

For this conversation, Dom was using a vintage RCA 77 microphone into a Wunder Audio PA-Four mic preamp and D.W. Fearn VT-7 Compressor.

I am using my usual AEA R44 mic into a D.W. Fearn VT-2 mic preamp. Both mics were sent through individual D.W. Fearn VT-4 Equalizers, and the mix goes through a VT-7 Compressor. The conversation was via Skype, so there is an occasional delay of my voice audible in Dom’s mic when we overlap. The recording is 24 bit, 96kHz PCM digital before the podcast conversion to MP3.

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/

Next Episode

Vacuum Tubes: Why They Sound Better for Audio

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My recording career started with vacuum tube gear, and it’s a sound I still prefer. In this episode, I tell the story of my early experience with a homemade mixer using tube mic preamps, and my reluctant transition to solid-state audio equipment and my eventual return to tubes.

There may be many reasons why tubes sound different than transistors (solid-state), and I explore some of those differences. The biggest reason may be the distortion products that exist in all amplifiers, whether they are tube or solid-state, and why our ears prefer the even-order harmonic distortion of tubes.

But tubes are not the best choice for everything, and I explain why solid-state integrated circuit op amps are a good choice in some applications.

And tubes are not appropriate for digital electronics, even though the first digital computers used vacuum tubes. I tell the story of going inside a Univac tube computer while it was operating.
Recorded with an AEA R44CXE microphone through a D.W. Fearn VT-2 vacuum tube microphone preamplifer, a Merging Technologies Hapi converter, and recorded at 24 bit/96kHz PCM. The audio was processed through a D.W. Fearn VT-5 Equalizer and VT-7 Compressor.

email: [email protected]
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/