Reel To Reel

I purchased my first "reel to reel" directly from Georges Quellet in Hauterive, Switzerland in 1986. At the time, I was using 3 Goldmund Turntables [2 Studios and a Reference with T3 arm and Clearaudio cartridge] as my audio references, but as soon as I recorded my first concert with the portable Stellamaster and a pair of B&K4133 microphones, that was it for me. The difference in sound quality was dramatic. The tape machine produced a much bigger, deeper and far more realistic sound than I was able to obtain with LPs on a turntable. I dabbled with recording over the years, but it wasn't until the end of 2003 when I returned to Australia after a brief stint in NY and then London, that I decided to take things more seriously.

The recordings you will hear are produced as a joint project with very gifted local and international performers including Tim Ries [Rolling Stones], James Morrison, Pascal Schumacher. Fritz Hauser, Il Giardino Armonico, Takacs, St Lawrence Quartet [Musica Viva], ACO, Australian Opera and many others.

Since early 2004, I've recorded over 150 concerts [RECORDINGS BLOG] and used my 30 years of playback system design experience to make incremental adjustments to my recording equipment and chain to produce the most natural sounding acoustic recordings in a natural acoustic space.

Happy listening!

Kostas Metaxas

Equipment:

Microphones - 1 pair Neumann M150 [valve], 1 pair Neumann TLM50s "titanium",1 pair Neumann TLM50s "nickel" , 2 pairs B&K 4135s, 2 pairs Gefell MK301s, 2 pair B&K 4133s, Gefell M296 pair

Cables - Metaxas ENOSIS , Van Den Hul MIC Hybrid, Mogami 2534 Neglex, Gotham

Mic Pre's/Mixers - Metaxas GQT and Stellavox AMI48 [Metaxas-modified]

Tape Recorders - modified Stellamaster SM8, Stellavox SU8, Stellavox TD9 [1/4" & 1/2" tape]

Digital Back up - Metaxas "WOLF" ADC [24b/96k using Wolfson ADC and proprietory circuit/clock] with ENOSSIS digital link to SPDIF input of Sound Devices SD744T[4-channel] & 722[stereo] as "storage".

	Every recording is an opportunity to conduct a few experiments and comparisons. Here you see three microphones - an Earthworks QTC-1, our acoustic reference microphones Bruel & Kjaer 4135s and musical reference microphones - Neumann TLM50s [or our recently purchased Neumann M150s].
	A heavily modified Stellavox AMI48 mixer receives the microphones [mostly a stereo AB pair unless I'm recording voice] and feeds them to a pair of modified Stellavox SM8s using 1/4" BASF 468 tape at 15ips. Digital back-up is with a Sound Devices 744T, which is also fed from the Stella-mixer.
	I experiment with stereo miking for vocals to try to "flesh-out" the performers in space.
	The amazing Stellamaster SM8 - the genius of Georges Quellet.
	Recording two of my favourite female vocalists - Alison Wedding and Gian Slater. This was my first session with Composer/Double Bass player Belinda Moody - WOW!