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Doug Hamblin, an award-winning blues guitarist and producer who has toured as a headliner and on bills with blues giants such as Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Koko Taylor and Dr. John, has installed a pair of Daking FET Compressor/Limiters at his private studio facility - The Dugout - in Los Angeles.
Hamblin, who has led his own band and also
performed, written and/or toured with Southside Johnny Lyon, Stephen Stills,
Johnny Rivers, Bruce Willis and Ivan Neville, is utilizing the two Daking
FET Compressors in the mixdown signal path from his digital audio
workstation.
"I'm using them to go from my digital multi-track to my mix bus, mixing down
to tape," explains Hamblin. "I am always trying to get the mixes to be more
punchy and warm, and less of that digital thing. It seems to me that with
these Daking boxes and going to half-track tape it pulls everything together
just right."
Hamblin, who began busking as a teenager in the streets of San Francisco,
continues, "As a musician/producer, as opposed to an engineer/producer, I
guess I'm partial to the vintage gear and analog stuff. I've tried to marry
that to digital technology and use what's good about both. I have this
theory that the more knobs an amp has, the worse it sounds. I like gear
that's straight up, and does the job, and has some character to it. That's
how I ended up with the Daking compressors."
Hamblin happened upon the Daking FET Compressor/Limiters while researching
the optimal units to install in his mix chain, as he recalls. "I had an idea
of what I was looking for in my sound chain and I was reading an interview
with Chris Lord-Alge where he mentioned these Daking units. He was raving
about them. I thought, they sounded pretty good, so I gave them a shot. And,
you know, I'm glad I did. They sound fantastic!"
The Daking FET Compressors are getting a good workout at The Dugout, where
Hamblin is typically found busy juggling several client projects along with
his own solo recordings. "I'm currently co-producing an album of roots music
with Johnny Rivers. I've worked with Johnny on the road, writing, in the
studio, for years and years. We started out just sort of kicking ideas
around, almost demo style, but the vocals and guitar sounds we were getting
were just so good, we had to finish them. We called Jim Keltner in on drums,
and two tracks finally ended up on the 2-CD Secret Agent Man Anthology,
released last fall on the Shout Factory label. "I was at Capitol when JR was
doing the remastering - from the original vault tapes - of "Secret Agent
Man," "Poor Side of Town," and the others. It was encouraging to hear how my
tracks stacked up alongside them!" Other musicians featured on the Rivers
project include Chris Hillman, Herb Pederson and Bob Glaub. "Tweaking the
room and the mics is an ongoing process, and I'm feeling really good about
the way it's sounding," says Hamblin. "I think the Daking compressors have
definitely taken the quality of the mixes up a level."
Hamblin has also been working on some jingles with Bobby Hart, formerly of
Boyce & Hart, the songwriters, performers and producers behind the early
Monkees albums and TV series soundtrack. For the past 15 years Hamblin has
also played with Bruce Willis' band, The Accelerators, touring with him
worldwide, and now and then supplying guitar for Willis projects such as
"The Whole Nine Yards," and the animated "Bruno The Kid" series for Film
Roman. "I've also cut some back porch style blues tracks with just myself on
Dobro and Bruce on harmonica, that is so cool. It shocks people, when I tell
'em who it is. Who knows, maybe someday he'll decide to release it!"
"I'm really impressed with Geoff's product, and with Geoff," comments
Hamblin. "I think that the customer support is excellent and he is very
personable. Maybe its because he's a musician himself, so he 'gets it'. It's
not like some of these companies where you can't get hold of anybody on the
phone."
Hamblin first recorded in 1977 with the late Bay Area blues man Stu Blank,
and the new wave band, Jo Allen and The Shapes. After a stint in New
Orleans, he became a fixture in the Bay Area blues circuit and, in 1988, he
teamed with vocalist Jan Fanucci and released a critically-acclaimed debut
album of blues originals that reached Billboard Magazine's Top Ten Radio
charts, receiving a BAMMY nomination for Blues Artist of the Year in the
process. Doug relocated to L.A. in the early 90s. In 1998, he served as
music director at the 4th Annual Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement
Awards, backing R&B legends Ruth Brown, Bobby 'Blue' Bland and Ray Charles.
Hamblin's original score for POV documentary, "Tobacco Blues," received a
2002 New York Times Critic's Pick.
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