Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon and Chris Brown help Dangerous Music dominate The Grammys

A number of high-profile artists such as Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters and Chris Brown recently received Grammy nominations for projects undertaken in 2011, with a substantial amount of equipment from Dangerous Music at their core.

Both Foo Fighters and Kings of Leon picked up Rock Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album, while the Foos’ album Wasting Light and its songs also received nominations for Album of the Year, Best Rock Performance, Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Long Form Music Video. Wasting Light, which was produced by fellow Grammy nominee (Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical) Butch Vig, was mastered by Emily Lazar and Joe LaPorta at The Lodge Mastering in New York, using Dangerous Music equipment. Furthermore, Kings of Leon’s Come Around Sundown was co-produced and mixed by Jacquire King using the company’s gear extensively throughout the production process.

The Lodge studios hosts the highly analogue Dangerous Master in its mastering studio. "I have always favored gear that allows me to effect changes without artificially coloring the sound too much," stated Lazar, chief mastering engineer at The Lodge. "My choice pieces from our arsenal are both musical and clean but without being too clinical – with that in mind, I can always rely on the Dangerous Music Master with its S&M capability to give me a true and desirable result.

“The versatility and overall transparency of the Dangerous gear has allowed me to remain flexible regardless of the genre of music that I’m mastering. The Dangerous S&M process found its way into the analog chain on the Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light quite a bunch. I’m a huge fan of its circuitry. It always seems to add an elegant width and depth to the mix and can at times even fix mixes that lack dimension. It’s super versatile with its side-chain capabilities, and I even love running things through it flat."

Engineer and producer on Kings of Leon’s Come Around Sundown Jacquire King, used the Dangerous 2-Bus analogue summing amp and Monitor ST monitor controller. "Using the 2-Bus and ST in a hybrid setup with my analog outboard pieces is absolutely comparable to mixing on a great analog console. I can hear things very accurately, the Dangerous Music gear is not a colored, tricky sound, it’s transparent and true," said King.

Mastering engineer Glenn Schick is nominated for the artist Canton Jones for Best Gospel Song. "I used the Dangerous Bax EQ as well as the Dangerous Master on the Canton Jones album," commented Schick. "I love the Bax EQ. It’s the cleanest and most musical piece of gear that I own."

Nashville producer and engineer John Schirmer of Twelve Tone Music studios recorded and mixed the new Keb Mo album The Reflection, which is up for a Best Blues Album Grammy. Schirmer made use of the Dangerous D-Box integrated analogue summing and monitor controller. "There are few things in my studio that are not replaceable. My ears, my record player and my Dangerous D-Box are the three most irreplaceable tools in my box," explained Schirmer.

"I draw inspiration from all three on a daily basis and I couldn’t possibly do what I do with any one of the three unavailable to me. Together we work and function as a team and the Dangerous D-Box is the nerve center to all things Twelve Tone Music, the D-Box is an extension of who I am as a Producer/Mixer/Engineer and its addition to Twelve Tone Music is priceless."

Engineers and producers at New York’s Stadium Red studios turned out a host of Grammy Award nominations this year for Best New Artist: J. Cole, Best R&B Album: Chris Brown, Best R&B Performance: Marsha Ambrosius; and Best Engineered Album, Classical: Steven Mackey: Lonely Motel – Music From Slide, which was mixed by Grammy nominated engineer Tom Lazarus. "All of our Grammy nominated projects at some point were worked on in Stadium Red’s Studio A and Studio C4 with the Dangerous Monitor ST," said Claude Zdanow, Stadium Red’s founder and CEO.

Studio Red’s Grammy nominated engineer Ariel Borujow, who has worked with P. Diddy, T.I., Chiddy Bang, and Black Eyed Peas among others, utilises three key Dangerous Music products – Monitor ST, 2-Bus LT analogue summing and BAX EQ – in ‘Studio C4’ at Stadium Red. "With the Monitor ST I can finally hear my mixes they way I always wanted to," said Borujow. "Along with my Dangerous 2-Bus LT, and BAX EQ, I have the perfect rig with instant recall capabilities. With the BAX EQ last in my chain, I know when I print my mixes I can give them the extra umph they deserve. I won’t mix without it."