Mastering Engineer Jonathan Wyner Explains the Dangerous Liaison
- Signal Chain
- Dangerous Music LIAISON
Special ends:
$2,899.00
Price: $3,199.00
Many of us don’t realize that when we’re making comparisons between two or more sounds, we’re relying on our short term memory. Research has shown that the length of time between exposure to two different sounds greatly determines our ability to make useful judgments. The shorter the gap, the more reliable our judgments are, and for tonal judgments, we start to lose discernment after just fractions of a second! In the analog environment, we’re usually forced into physically repatching gear when comparing different sounds, causing gaps so big that the human brain simply can’t make much use of the comparison. With the LIAISON, you get to compare your analog patches with no gap, making A/B comparisons in the analog realm far easier – and actually useful. the LIAISON takes the guesswork out of your critical decisions, helping you make the most of your analog investments.
With the LIAISON, previously complex patches of analog equipment are made simple, and they can be instantly recalled with the sophisticated, yet elegant, signal routing and user interface.
Six Insert Loops – The topology of the LIAISON is built around six high-grade stereo insert loops, each of which can be switched in and out of the signal path at the touch of a button. Use the “Flip” switches to reverse the order of inserts 1&2, 3&4 or 5&6, allowing for immediate auditions of new routing possibilities (compress that EQ or EQ that compressor?).
Two Main Busses – Two main stereo busses (A & B) allow you to route different analog gear chains simultaneously. For example, plug your mic pres into the input of Buss A and keep your favorite EQs and compressors ready for tracking while your favorite stereo mix buss processors live on Buss B. Or perhaps route your drum stems to Buss A, while simultaneously routing your entire stereo mix to Buss B. For even greater versatility, chain Buss A and B together!
Parallel Processing Loop – Send any combination of gear to the LIAISON’s onboard parallel processing loop, allowing latency-free blending of the processed and unprocessed signals. Parallel processing is standard practice today, but in the analog realm often requires a large format console and patchbay. With the LIAISON you can switch between in-series and parallel patches at the push of a button, and then blend to taste! Slam that buss-compressor and bleed in just a bit for sustain and edge. Put an extreme EQ curve on a vocal and blend it into the main signal to create urgency and articulation. Whatever you dream up, the LIAISON’s parallel buss will open up a whole new realm of creative uses for your analog gear. There’s even a polarity reversal button for the parallel processing loop, allowing you to correct phase or use phase cancellation creatively for various results.
Four Monitor Channels – Each of the two busses can be monitored before or after the insert loop, allowing you to hear the results of your inserted processing on either buss instantly. Intelligently routing these four monitor channels in your studio will open up all kinds of uses that minimize patching work and maximize your ability to make fast, reliable comparisons.
Programmability – Once you’ve got a patch you want to keep around, store it on one of the four program channels for instant recall. Thinking creatively, you can use the two busses to accomplish any number of elaborate patches for tracking, mixing and mastering that you can recall effortlessly.
A MASTERING-GRADE SIGNAL PATH AND SWITCHING SYSTEM
At the core of the LIAISON is a set of no-compromise analog circuits developed by our head designer, Chris Muth. Audiophile-grade components are used throughout the LIAISON’s 100% passive analog relay switching system, offering up a truly transparent and robust topology for seamlessly hosting all your outboard gear. True hard-wire bypass relays remove any gear entirely from the signal path, including analog units that lack an integrated bypass, or hard bypass, circuit. All of the LIAISON’s components switch instantly and silently, providing true A/B comparisons without coloration, latency or disruptive noises.
STAY NIMBLE, STAY ANALOG
It seems ironic, but as digital audio continues to make leaps and bounds, we’re witnessing a simultaneous renaissance of analog gear. Now with the LIAISON, your analog gear can perform as nimbly as your digital plugins. the LIAISON brings the ease of programmable patches, hassle-free rerouting, plus the undeniable benefit of instant A/B comparisons, all in the analog environment. With the LIAISON you’ll unleash your creativity while keeping your studio primed for whatever tracking, mixing or mastering task comes your way.
AWARDS
TEC Award (nominated)
Resolution Awards (nominated)
♦ Hand built in the USA.
♦ Audiophile-grade components throughout.
♦ Chris Muth designed analog circuits.
♦ Six stereo insert loops with true-bypass.
♦ Two independent stereo busses.
♦ Parallel processing loop on Buss B.
♦ Four monitor outputs for pre- and post-insert monitoring of both busses.
♦ Instant A/B comparisons in the analog realm.
♦ Four onboard memory slots for instant recall of patches.
♦ Seamless integration with the Dangerous MASTER or another LIAISON.
The company’s mission is to solve the problems of the ‘hybrid studio’ by leveraging the best of both worlds: seamless integration of analog and digital equipment’s strengths and eliminating their weaknesses. Since product designer Chris Muth’s time has been spent almost exclusively designing custom equipment for many of the world’s preeminent mastering engineers and facilities, the combination of a mastering quality audio path with an intuitive feature set became the company’s baseline. It is worth noting that these designs evolved not in a vacuum but with input from some of the best ears in the business, refined in a working mastering environment instead of on paper. In the end, listening makes all the difference.
Born out of the shop at Dangerous Music recording studios, the equipment company was officially founded in 2001 with the commercial release of the Dangerous 2-Bus analog summing amplifier. Dangerous Music product designs were created to answer the sonic and ergonomic challenges presented by the changing studio environment as it moved from analog consoles and analog multi-track tape recorders to hard-disk recording and software-based digital mixer/editors, collectively known as digital audio workstations, or DAWs.
The process of recording and mixing without an analog console or tape deck created the opportunity to develop products that allowed engineers to embrace all the power and convenience of a DAWs automation, editing and recall, while continuing to work as they had, with console-style tone and headroom, hardware monitor control, metering, speaker and input source switching, and the ability to insert analog processors into the signal path easily and with the highest quality results.
Company co-founder Bob Muller says, “The ideas behind Dangerous Music products are driven by the needs of the music community, who continuously finds new ways to work in the studio. Early on we concluded that once the smoke cleared it was not going to be an all-analog or all-digital studio, but a hybrid environment. We all embrace the benefits of new technologies, but the inevitable problems that arise need to be solved. As the analog console yielded to the DAW mixer as the focal point of the control room we recognized that certain equipment was now missing that is required to actually make a studio fully functional, sonically pleasing and ergonomically sensible. When you aren’t spending all your time clicking around computer menus, you can actually concentrate on the performance, the music, and the other creative elements of what recording and mixing is supposed to be.”
Frequency Response (Passive Section) +0, -0.1dB from 10Hz to 100kHz
Frequency Response (Active Section) +0, -0.1dB from 10Hz to 100kHz
Maximum level > +28dBu
Noise floor < -94.5dBu 22Hz-22kHz bandwidth
THD+N < 0.002%
IMD < 0.003%
Crosstalk rejection (Passive Section) > 124dB
Crosstalk rejection (Active Section) > 113dB
Input Impedance: 20K Ohms
Output Impedance: 20 Ohms
Replacement Fuses:
USA 500mA fast blow for 120V
Europe 250mA fast blow for 240V
Warranty: Free 2 year extended warranty with online registration.
Standard warranty: 90 days parts and labor, subject to inspection. Does not include damage incurred through abusive operation or modifications/attempted repair by unauthorized technicians.