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Interview with Michael Wagener
CL: Some Background. How did you get your start?
MW: It evolved basically in three phases. The first
was when I got my first guitar and started a band with singer
Udo Dirkschneider. That band turned into ACCEPT later.
The second phase started with me working in a German company
called STRAMP. We built guitaramps, speaker cabs and later
studio and live consoles. And the last phase started with my
first own studio called Tennessee Studio in Hamburg Germany.
All three phases have a significance to me and all contributed
to what I’m doing today. The band phase gave me great input
from the musical side, during my work at STRAMP I got my degree
in electronics and by owning a studio I could combine it all
together.
CL: Tell us about your studio.
MW: My studio is called WireWorld and is just outside of Nashville
Tennessee. I built it 8 years ago and I am currently running
Version 2.0. Version 1.0 was a basic recording/mixing setup
with a couple of Yamaha 02Rs and Tascam DA-88s. Version 2.0 is
fully 5.1 surround equipped and now I am using two Sony DMX R-100
consoles and a Euphonix R-1 as the centerpieces. There is tons
of great outboard gear and a nice list of microphones. WireWorld
is finally where I want it, technically and sound wise. It took 8
years and a lot of fine tuning and a lot of help of great gear
(like all the Chandler stuff) to make it a pro environment. You
can find some more detailed info here:
http://michaelwagener.com/html/ww.html
CL: You have a long history of successful projects. Can you brag a bit
and give us a nice list of them and how many records you've sold?
MW: There are too many to list here, but you can check out my
discography right here: http://michaelwagener.com/html/dtp.html. I think all
together I’m close to 60 million units sold with my name on it.
CL: Your most memorable/fun project?
MW: They are all memorable (for different reasons), and most of them
were a lot of fun, but the ones that will always stick out in my memory are
the first SkidRow album, the first Raven album and Ozzy’s No More Tears
album. All of them were very intense albums to make, but all of them were
intense in very different ways.
CL: What are your favorite Chandler pieces and why?
MW: Now that’s a hard question, because all my Chandler gear is my
favorite. On the top of my list would be the TG-1. It makes it onto every
record, sometimes twice. At first I mainly used it for drum-sub compression,
there is nothing better for that in my book. Lately I have been using it on
Lead vocals, overheads, guitars. You can really squeeze the heck out of the
vocals and they just become bigger and more in your face. That also means now
I need a second one :-}
Next on the list are the TG-2 and the TG channel. The TG-2 is my absolute
favorite mic pre for electric guitars. Combined with a Royer ribbon mic it is
Harmonics City. The TG-Channel is seeing a lot of use on snare. It has a
certain depth to it, kind of 3D, without loosing the crack on the top. If you
turn the output down and crank the input on the Channel your snare will come
alive and it sounds like the drummer is using telephone poles instead of sticks.
The TG-Channel is also amazing on electric guitars.
LTD-2 is being used on every bass track that enters or leaves the studio and
the LTD-1 is my “universal” pre, good for everything, but especially on bass,
percussion and vocals. But I’m sure the biggest champion will be the Mini TG
module frame filled up with a bunch of goodies, can’t wait.
CL: What are your favorite non-Chandler pieces?
MW: CraneSong HEDD, CraneSong STC-8, GreatRiver MP-2NV and EQ-2NV, SPL
Transient Designer and the GrooveTubes VIPRE.
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