Producer Eugene Toale never considered himself a vintage preamp guy.
“I’ve been engineering since 1999 and never really reached for vintage
pres,” Toale says. “I’m kind of a hi-fi person, so I worry about what
transformers are in line and what I’m giving up and how much distortion
I’m causing.” But when a friend suggested he try the BAE Audio
1073DMP, he agreed to give the vintage design one last shot. “To my
surprise, I completely fell in love,” he says. Now the 1073DMP has
become the workhorse of his studio inside the Bedrock LA complex, where
he has developed a reputation as the go-to producer for Latin
Alternative music. The 1073DMP was featured heavily on Buyepongo’s Todo Mundo,
released in late 2015, and was used on all sources for the upcoming
record by Las Cafeteras. “Using the 1073DMP has been like a revolution
for me,” he says. “I’m using it for everything.”The Sound of a Burgeoning Scene
Toale, who cut his teeth as an engineer in New York City working with top hip-hop artists including Kanye West and Raekwon, relishes the opportunity to use the 1073DMP in his work with the up-and-coming Latin Alternative music scene in Los Angeles. “I’m now producing 12 of the Latin bands that are coming out of here,” Toale explains. “We’re not talking regional Mexican music. It’s more like the alternative music that the kids in Silver Park and Echo Lake are doing but sung in Spanish and always incorporating traditional influences.” That unique blend of influences has provided Toale with an opportunity to test the mettle of the 1073DMP on a wide range of sound sources, including some traditional instruments less common to American studios. “I’m recording everything from high-tech dance sounds to indigenous Mexican instruments, and the 1073DMP has been amazing at capturing the nuances of all of them,” he says. “It has been an incredible addition to my toolbox to have a preamp that I could lean on in new ways.”
