AUSTIN, TX – An annual onslaught of bands during the the South By South West Music Festival, Good Danny’s recording studio plays host to 40 bands in 5 days. Managing so many musicians in such a short span of time has its share of headaches, but one thing the staff at Danny’s doesn’t have to concern themselves with is the microphones and headphones that are their brand of choice – beyerdynamic. This year beyer brought in 20 pairs of the new Custom Studio headphones for the Day Trotter series at Danny’s.
More details from beyerdynamic (www.beyerdynamic.com):
Located a short walk from the heart of downtown East Austin, Texas is a 1600 square foot recording studio known as Good Danny’s. Good would seem to be an understatement given that the studio and its engineer/producer, Danny Reisch, have been honored as Austin’s best recording studio by his peers at the Austin Music Industry Awards.
A yearly event during the South By South West Music Festival is a literal invasion of 40 bands in 5 days at Danny’s, courtesy of the Daytrotter Music Service. That’s eight bands; recording two to three live tracks per day, in 45-minute segments in case you want to do the math. Now, think about this; some recording set ups can use as many as 40 microphones, along with all the gear musicians normally travel with, and you get the picture-an invasion of gear, artists and sound compressed into short segments of time-just the nightmare that can wake a recording engineer in the middle of the night.
One thing the staff at Danny’s doesn’t have to concern themselves with is the microphones and headphones that are their brand of choice – beyerdynamic. This year beyer brought in 20 pairs of the new Custom Studio headphones for the Day Trotter series at Danny’s. Wait a minute, new gear for a world-renowned music festival with artists ranging from Spandau Ballet and Against Me!, to up and coming three-piece punk bands? Could be a recipe for disaster or some serious trepidation at the very least right? Well consider this; the new Custom Studio headphones from beyer have a four setting adjustment feature specifically designed for a variety of musician’s tastes.
The beyerdynamic Custom Studio headphones have a sound slider feature allowing four different sound signatures and applications. For instance: A fully closed headphone is typically used when tracking live instruments and voice to minimize bleed. Fully closed headphones also have an inspiring hyped-out low-end.
“One thing I really like about these new phones is the adjustable bass ports, which allows you to smooth out the excessive bottom end. I mean for a Bassist or a drummer its great; they want that big low end. But for a vocalist it can be distracting, they can’t hear themselves the way they want to. The settings right on the headphone fix that instantly.”
An open headphone is often used for mixing due to it’s inherently flat tuning. The Custom Sound Slider allows for fully closed, fully open and two additional voicing’s in-between. As Danny puts it: “These headphones are way tougher and can handle a lot more low end, plus they are more comfortable, they have the DT 770 style ear cup. It’s a huge step up in low end and they can really handle signal-you can drive them hard and they can take it.”
“The Custom Studio is literally four headphones in one. Additionally, the removable coiled cable can be replaced with flat, straight and even iPhone remote cables. The Custom Studio also includes a handy travel bag,“ says David Hetrick of American Music And Sound-beyerdynamic’s representative at the South By Southwest Music Festival. “The Custom Studio headphones are a perfect match for many different recording situations. Especially since they can be self adjusted on the fly, saving the engineer’s valuable studio time.” he adds. The new Custom Studio headphones will be available exclusively at Guitar Center Stores nationwide in June.
