Daniel Yaari (pictured above with a Neve console) is visiting CBC Radio from Israel to help us perfect some DaletPlus software.  But although Daniel works for Dalet these days, he’s really a recording engineer.

He sent me this picture today which I thought was kind of cool.  The console he’s standing behind is a Neve, which is one of the finest names in recording consoles.  I had the pleasure of flying a Neve Capricorn for several years in studio 212, the radio drama facility, at CBC Radio.  It was a fine sounding console, if a tad flaky paired with a Sonic Solutions digital editing system.

But the really cool thing about the console pictured above is that before Daniel’s studio in Israel got their hands it it belonged to The Record Plant.  Apparently tracks for John Lennon’s Imagine and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance (among many others) were recorded on it.

Take a look at the small set of speakers Daniel’s leaning on.  Those are Auratones.  We also have a set in studio 212.  I was giving Daniel and his family a tour of our facilities and when he saw the Auratones he laughed.  “Always have to check your mixes through Auratones!” he said, and he’s right, we frequently checked our mixes on the little Auratones to see what they sounded like on something a little closer to the kind of stereo people had at home.

One of Daniel’s favourite tricks was to dub his mixes to cassette and listen to them in his car.  I used to do exactly the same thing (only on CD) because there’s no better way to tell what your mix sounds like in a crummy listening environment than listening to them in your car.  I remember subjecting my sister Shawna to a night of driving around listening to an episode of the radio play Steve the Second in my Sienna.

Ah the good ol’ days…