LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 2008: Indie pop sensation and Aussie-born singer-songwriter Ben Lee had already recorded four of his six major full-length efforts, including his best-selling and most-celebrated, "Awake is the New Sleep," with producer/engineer Brad Wood, when plans were made to record his forthcoming "The Rebirth of Venus" at Wood's Seagrass Studios in Los Angeles. With over 500 albums to his credit, Wood is best known for his work with Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Say Anything. Though much had not changed since the pair recorded "Awake is the New Sleep" in 2004, Wood's signal path definitely had. In particular, his Tonelux mic pre and compressor outperformed the very respectable outboard gear that Wood had been using to record Lee's voice since the two first worked together in 1994 on "Grandpaw Would."

"Having worked with Ben for so long, I'm very familiar with every nuance and quirk of his voice," said Wood. "Way back in 1994, when I was still at Idful Studios in Chicago, we had a Telefunken u367 - one of only 103 that were ever made. We determined that the u367 in combination with an Amek Neve 9098 mic pre and a Urei LA-3A compressor highlighted Ben's strengths. When I moved to my own studio here in LA, we switched to a custom microphone that was designed to have a similar sonic response as the u367."

That was, of course, the go-to setup when Lee arrived this time around. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? But it would be a rare engineer indeed who would not at least try the brand new Tonelux signal path that had since become the pivot around which everything else at Seagrass turned. Designed by Paul Wolff, the engineering mastermind behind API and other high-end analog gear, Tonelux modules benefit from a brilliant merging of modern design and manufacturing processes with old school knowledge and intuition. Wood's customized two-rack console consists of eight MX2 mono line inputs with sends, four FX2 dual line inputs with sends, four MP1a mic preamps, two TXC compressors, and one SM2 stereo master.

Recalled Wood, "Just for comparison... just because it was sitting right there... just because I had fallen so in love with the Tonelux sound... we tracked the first song again through the Tonelux MP1a preamp and the Tonelux TXC compressor using the same mic. Because I had always regarded the Amek/Urei tone with Ben as excellent and in no need of improvement, I was shocked at how much better he sounded through the Tonelux. As best I can put it into words, the sound was more present without being any brighter. It was precise without being over hyped."

In fact, Wood had difficulty believing that the compressor was even working on the first pass. "The meter suggested it was doing a hefty amount of gain reduction, but I couldn't hear it," he said. "When I later compared at the uncompressed waveform, which I also recorded, to the output of the TXC, it was clear that the meters were telling the truth. It had the evenness and consistency of compression with very few audible artifacts." Wood concluded that the TXC is capable of more musical, less obtrusive, compression than the revered units he has been acquainted with during his long career.

However, Wood was quick to point out the tremendous flexibility afforded by the TXC's comprehensive parameter controls could also "destroy a signal with obvious compression" if that was the desired effect. He advised that the TXC is not for the sort of engineer who shrinks from choices. "I was intimidated by the TXC when I first got it," Wood admitted. "Paul Wolff makes every possible control and link available. They're all smart options, but still, it can be a lot to take in." As evidenced by his success with Lee, learning to harness that flexibility was well worth the effort.

Joining Lee and Wood in the studio were Lara Meyerattken and Nic Johns bringing the total multi-instrumentalist count to four. "We all played whatever... whenever it was necessary," laughed Wood. "Amid the chaos I maintained my two general recording principles. First, I recorded room mics with any sound loud enough to excite the room." The room mics usually required some low-end roll-off, and the Tonelux "tilt" EQ on the MP1a preamp fit the bill perfectly.

He continued, "Second, I avoided EQ, although with the Tonelux I'm starting to relax that rule a bit. Nevertheless, I'll almost always changed the settings on the amp or moved the mic before I EQ'd. During mixdown, I sometimes pulled frequencies out, but the goal through the whole process was to find the right spectral space for everything during the recording phase."

"The Rebirth of Venus" will hit record stores in February 2009. By that time, Wood will likely have expanded his Tonelux system to include more preamps and, as odd as it was for him to admit, some EQ modules!