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Company Success Stories - Music Producer Greg Ladanyi
Legendary Music Producer Breathes New Life Into Old Recordings Using Digital Equipment
Profile
Music Producer Greg Ladanyi
October 3, 2002
"Legendary Music Producer Breathes New Life Into Old Recordings Using Digital Equipment - Greg Ladanyi "
Music Producer Greg Ladanyi has been nominated for 16 Grammy’s during his storied career, working with the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Warren Zevon and Don Henley. Running on Empty, the groundbreaking album he recorded with Jackson Browne in the 1970s, became a classic concept album that recorded the life of a successful musician on tour, including not only live concerts, but also hotel rooms and even the tour bus.
More than two decades later, when Ladanyi set out to re-record Running on Empty, he knew the challenge required a digital solution to upgrade the original analog recording. And as Ladanyi soon discovered, AMD Athlon™ MP processors would play a significant role in recreating the magic he felt the first time around.
“When I started with Jackson (Browne) it was an exciting time in an exciting industry. I loved being in the studio, hearing people sing and play and then mixing it to really bring the music to life on record. Back then, analog was great.”
Ladanyi’s remix of Running on Empty would rely on the PC as the tool of choice. He consulted with Steinberg, a company highly regarded by Ladanyi as a creator of music and digital audio software, and with hardware system builder Soundchaser. Both companies recommended the benefits of using AMD Athlon™ MP processor-based systems for his digital remake.
"The AMD Athlon MP processors excel at 32-bit floating point calculations, which is the basis of the audio engines in our Cubase, Nuendo and WaveLab software," said Greg Ondo, National Product Specialist at Steinberg. "We've done many optimizations in multi-processing computers and our customers have been ecstatic with the performance that they are getting with dual AMD Athlon processor-
based machines."
"We decided through research that AMD processors would give us the best performance," said Paul Erlinson, President of Soundchaser. "In the digital audio world, strong floating point performance creates the ability to mix numerous tracks and do special digital effects on a single machine. Traditionally, in addition to a recording machine, music producers had to rely on additional equipment for reverb effects, equalization, and the rest of it. Now, by using software plug-ins, we can run more of those effects simultaneously with AMD Athlon MP processors. That's important when we're working with guys like Greg Ladanyi who use lots of effects."
The digital audio workstation, built upon an AMD processor-based platform and relying on software designed for recording studios, offers a new experience to the studio professional. Veterans such as Ladanyi can realize greater levels of productivity because they no longer have to cut and rerecord. Digital recording is quieter than tape, provides almost instant feedback, and production effects are easier to add. All this equals less time in the studio and a richer sound experience for the listener.
"Today, our entire industry is structured around the digital platform because it is so versatile," said Ladanyi. "In analog, when you run out of tracks, you have to erase something to record more music. With digital, we're able to record almost endlessly. You can review all the moments that can be assimilated to create the best performance. Of course we look for reliability because we can't afford any kind of glitch or computer failure. That's why we love the
AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems from Soundchaser. When it comes to reliability, our systems are rock solid. We end up enhancing every aspect of making music, and the AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems are a huge part of the reason why."
Working with technology leaders such as Steinberg and Soundchaser, AMD is providing the technology that allows the entire music creation process to take place inside today's digital audio workstation and to capture the magic of the moment without compromise.
Ladanyi knows advances in audio technology in the near future will place ever-greater demands on computer hardware. "I'm eager to try the upcoming AMD Opteron™ processor based on Hammer architecture," said Ladanyi. "I expect its combination of high I/O bandwidth and low memory latency will enable more tracks and effects as well as meet the demand for higher performance from digital formats of the future."
"Ultimately, it's my job to capture what the artist offers to the listener," said Ladanyi, who continues to create new recording magic… whether the music recorded is live in the studio or pulled from dust-covered tapes of bygone decades.
© 2002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, AMD Opteron, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product names used are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
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