Sound on Sound published a great article on Recreating The ’80s Home Studio Experience that had me reminiscing. I came along later, but in the late-’90s we used a lot of similar tricks, and I would have loved to have had access to some of the tools they used in the article.

The first record I made with my band was recorded to EMagic Logic version 3.6, with six SM57 microphones directly driving the line inputs of the ISIS XL (we didn’t know about mic preamps!). We took DI feeds for the bass and used the speaker emulator outputs of a Marshall JMP-1 for guitar sounds. I think we ran our ‘mix’ through a BBE Sonic Maximizer, too, because someone told us we should. Every aspect of trying to make a record was a struggle, but it was that challenge that led me into the world of audio technology.