Catalyst Recording - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Owner Rob Tavaglione has worked on nearly 400 recording projects since starting Catalyst Recording in 1995.
Rob wrote the popular column "Home Recording" for Tangents Magazine in the late 90's and today is a freelance audio writer and frequent contributor to Pro Audio Review Magazine (visit www.proaudioreview.com for archival articles and subscriptions to the glossy, print edition).
A veteran of many bands singing, playing guitar, bass, keys, or percussion, Rob currently plays guitar in award-winning progressive rock group Black Lagoon.
Those interested in a career in audio please contact Rob about Audio Engineering courses he teaches at CPCC (Central Piedmont Community College).
Rock Recording Artists
Aither: modern rock
All Is Well: rock
Angwish: rock
Apoza Threat: rock
The Balsa Gliders: guitar pop
Dave Barry (DB): power pop
Beautiful Evil: modern rock
Bessie Mae's Dream: jamband
Big Al: Americana
Black Acid Disco: hardcore
Black Lagoon: heavy psychedelia
Black Ritual: metal
Blakrayn: funky R-n-B rock
Erika Blatnik: neo-folk
Boaliri: rock
The Blue Dogs: Americana
Bumrush: hardcore
Bums Lie: reggae/ska/punk
Burn: rock
Carmona: guitar rock
Channel Black: rock
Chief Joy: rock
Cronic Disorder: metal
A Closing Skyline: Christian screamo
Closure: heavy rock
Clout: hardcore
Dead Beat Baby: rock
The Dead Kings: metal/punk
Defusion: modern rock
Drat: punk
Dying Scene: hardcore
Eddie's Wake: rock
Etheric: modern rock
Epycentre: modern rock
Face the World: electronica
Facegrind: Hardcore
Falls Too Far: rock
Falter: rock
Fat Tortoise Butcher: hardcore punk metal
Lenny Federal Band: Americana
FE26: hardcore
Five Times Down: rap metal
Flojo: funky rock
Furbis: rock
Good Not Evil: rock
Grand Society: rock
Wes Grasty: trip hop/ shoegazer
Gutwrench: metal
Hardcore Lounge: jazzy rock
Hate By Design: hardcore
Holster: rock
Hydrosak: rapcore
Hutch: rock
Ilium: hardcore
Interlude: rock
Ironhead: heavy rock
Ishi: jazzy pop
Jagfu: rock
Joshua's Whisper: nu-metal
Juggernaut:Hardcore
Jyn: rock
Jason Kempton: jam-pop
Kettle Black: hard rock
Kojiki Ri: jazzy rock
Kryonik Immortality: prog-core
The Lights, Fluorescent: indie-rock
Tricia Lyons: piano pop
Mr. Drysdale: power-pop
Machine 7: rock
Chris Manley: acoustic rock
Jay Mathey: acoustic pop
Mego Dirge: modern rock
Method 51
Mitchell: hardcore
Moonburn: shoegazer
My So Called Band: punk
Murdercycle: hardcore/punk
Neglected Sheep: power pop
The New Blacks: rock
Nute: rock
Anders Olson: acoustic rock
One Day Lost: acoustic rock
One Six Conspiracy: emo
Orange: alt rock
Orange Envy: rock
Order of Chaos: hard rock
Patheon: metal
Parallel: rock
Pavlov's Dog: hardcore
Permanent Midknight: hardcore
Dave Petty: rock/pop
Pinkwood Flat: adult contemporary rock
PSF: punk rock
Pull of Gravity: Christian rock
RC86: punk pop
Safe Return Doubtful: indie rock
Saltlick: Southern rock
Scapegoat: modern rock
Setback: hardcore
Shemoan: rapcore
Slo: power pop
So Actuate: modern rock
Status Flow: rock
Steel Standing: modern rock
Stella Kidd: rock
Stephen Fell Asunder: alt-country
Stronghold: Christian hardcore
Sudden Fear: metal
The Superficials: classic pop
Team Discoveree Channel: nu-metal
Ten Missing Days: emo-core
Tradeskin: metal
Tryte: rock
Tucker's Fault:Americana
The Turnstiles: Americana
Ultralush: rock
Unit 47: hardcore
Velocet: progressive rock
The Verses: power pop
Via: indie rock
Vox Pops: alt pop
Luke Warm'z Reception: punk/satire
Wideload McKenna: rock
The X-Periment: total fusion
Zippy the Chipmunk's Family Thrash Band: hardcore/punk
14 Feet Wide: rap metal
More Recording Artists
Audioform: jazz/funk
Tara Allison & the Road Less Traveled: country
Samuel Obie: Gospel
Arlie Conner: folk
Wolf Cell Solid: straight edge-vegan-rap
JoAnne Williams: Gospel
Ganden Jangtse Monks: Tibetan chants
Alex Mauldin: neo classical piano
Katsckillz Project: alternative rap
Bishop Ronald E. Brown & Faith Tabernacle Deliverance Choir: Gospel
Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra: classical pops
Stuart Grasberg: Emmy winning TV composer/director
Darrel McFadden: Gospel
Kevin Cloud: Gospel performer/producer
Doc McKenzie: Gospel
Finnery: folk
Ronica and the Blazing Stars: Gospel
Eva Gael: folk
Carlos Guerra: contemporary Christian/ Latin rock
The Lyin' Dogs: acoustic rock
The Hebrewettes: Gospel
Erin Fisher: dark piano pop
The Gospelettes: Gospel
Bill Maddrey: Americana
Ernest Pearson: Gospel
Tropical Flavor: steel drums
Transfiguration: Gospel
First Presbyterian Church of Concord: choir/ classical
Erica McGee: CC/pop/Broadway
The Arts Experience: teen choral groups
Macedonia Baptist Church: Gospel
Christine Navarro: chants
Ty Cobb: singer/songwriter
Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor - Image Hosting

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/9/2004
Band Website: catalystrecording.com
Band Members: Rob Tavaglione - engineer, producer
Influences:
Soundcraft Ghost LE analog mixing console (with classic British EQ and automation). Not to be confused with older or live Soundcraft consoles, this recording desk sounds very much like vintage British consoles without the huge pricetag.
Mic preamplifiers from Manley (TNT - either tube or SS), Earthworks (very low noise), True (very neutral, discrete), Sytek (Russian/American, Class A, very fast), TL Audio (British, tube), Presonus (with limiters and digital outputs), ART (tube, surprisingly good for cheap). That's over 28 channels of choice mic pres ... more than you typically see and more than we ever need!
Microphones (condenser, tube, ribbon, crystal, stereo and dynamic) from Neumann, AKG, Sennheiser, Beyer, EV, Shure, Rode, Audio Technica. Heil Sound PR-30 electric guitar mic (ideal for metal). Including the AEA R92 ribbon (ultra-modern ribbon design, delicious drum roomage and female vocals), Neumann TLM 103's (very clean, crisp and pristine), Neumann KM184's (smooth off-axis), AKG C422 (a stereo C414!), AKG Solidtube (very nice on vocals), AKG D12E (old-school Motown bottom) and D112 (today's kick standard), Shure Beta 91's (for that aggressive, double-kick sound), Sennheiser MD421 and MD504's (tom tom heaven), Beyer M201 (better than a SM57 on snare), Rode NT1A (the world's quietest condenser), A-T 4033SE (electric guitar perfection) ... no cheap Chinese mics here, because transducers really do matter more than anything else. Ask about our "vintage plastic" or 70's EV "news gathering" mic(s), or new Lafayette crystal mic, for cool and unique filtered type response.
Digital editing via Digital Performer 5.1.2 running on OS X Tiger 10.4.10, very much like ProTools (far and above their affordable but way too compromised LE version). Not all computers (or software) are created equal ... we use a state-of-the-art Mac Pro that is loaded with Waves Master series mastering plug-ins and the UAD-1 from Universal Audio ... this is the right stuff.

Classic 1980's analog Ampex master tape recorder (not to be confused with an Otari or similiar budget 1/4" machines). Custom refurbished by analog expert Wayne Gunn of Audio Village (Palm Springs CA), this beauty was modified for 1/2" tape, 30 IPS high speed operation, new old-stock Nortronics heads, new capstan and B series transport with the C series electronics and transformerless input option. The resulting sound is marvelously colored; warm, smooth, pleasantly fat and just generally nicer sounding. She's so "clean" that the use of noise reduction isn't even required.

Signal processing from Universal Audio, Lexicon, Yamaha, Valley, Symetrix, Alesis, Antares and others. Compression and dynamics from Empirical Labs, Waves, MOTU, Brooks Siren (BSS), Symetrix, dBX, Valley, FMR and ART.

Monitoring from Dynaudio, Event (including 15" powered subwoofer) and Cerwin-Vega. Headphone monitoring from Grado, AKG, Fostex and Sennheiser via high powered amps from Behringer and Fostex (up to 5 separate mixes). In-ear monitoring for drummers (this is THE future of monitoring) with both Shure's and Future Sonics.
A multitude of guitar amps from Rivera, Marshall, Fender, Mesa Boogie, Univox, Roland, Peavey and Crate. Active guitar splitting for multi-amp recording setups. More guitar pedals than you could ever use including pedalboard/9V supply/patchbay, switchless wah, many distortion boxes, modulation and rack-mount guitar processors too. Guitars from Paul Reed Smith, Taylor (great recording acoustic), Fender hollowbody Telecaster (gorgeous feedback heaven) and a personal fave "Frankenflame" for drop tunings. Classical C-128 from Takamine.
Bass rig includes SWR400S amp with tube preamp and powerful sweepable/graphic EQ, ADA preamp with crazy bass distortions and speakers from JBL. Basses from Kubicki (an "original" Factor - incredible for recording), Fender, Godin (fretless), Ventura (gorgeous Gibson copy) and others.
All cabling from Monster Cable, Mogami and Canare. From studio to control, from mic pres to tape, from top to bottom. Patching from ADC TT bays, utilizing all Mogami cables and silver solder for superior conductivity and low capacitance. (No budget Hosa stuff here).
Sounds Like: Tastefully enhanced reality
Record Label: Independent
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Catalyst in new Mix Magazine

Check out the new issue of Mix Magazine with Catalyst's Rob Tavaglione and Creative Loafing's Jeff Hahne...Rob and Jeff Hahne in new Mix Magazine Homebrew is still accepting submissions, so if you REL...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:46:00 PST

New reviews for gearheads

Gearheads,Hungry for some new pro audio reviews? Check out the new issue of Pro Audio review Magazine, in it Rob has two reviews ...Avantone Active Mixcubes - modern day self-powered Auratone 5C...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:48:00 PST

Catalyst Recording press release, May 2008

PRESS RELEASE, MAY 2008re: CATALYST RECORDINGFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECatalyst Recording along with rock band The Lights Fluorescent were recently featured in Pro Audio Review Magazine's February issue, i...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Fri, 02 May 2008 08:36:00 PST

Would you like airplay? ...

... then consider making your next record at Catalyst Recording. Working with producer Rob Tavaglione has it’s benefits, like getting lots of FM spins. Check out this playlist from W...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:24:00 PST

Catalyst on WEND, Sunday night

Tune in to WEND 106.5 FM on Sunday night for their "90 Minutes" show. Host Divakar is going to interview Catalyst's Rob and play lots of new music. Expect to hear everyone's secret favorite song from...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:41:00 PST

Two new articles

Hey yall,Here's a couple of tasty new articles to feast your eyes on.Check out The Lights Fluorescent in Mix Magazine ...Catalyst and TLF in February Mix MagazineCheck out Rob's new review of the Blue...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:41:00 PST

Catalyst on Charlotte Talks, Tuesday morning

Hey yall,If you're interested in hearing more about Creative Loafing's Jeff Hahne's Homebrew Winter Harvest 2008 (new compilation CD) tune into 90....
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:09:00 PST

Homebrew Winter Harvest 2008 mastered by Catalyst Recording

Creative Loafing is back into local music again with their new compilation CD release Jeff Hahne's Homebrew, Winterharvest 2008. Expect these comp's to come out each quarter (4 times yearly) and feat...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:42:00 PST

The Lights, Fluorescent in Mix Magazine

Check it out, TLF made it into Mix Magazine ...Catalyst in February '08 Mix Magazine
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:36:00 PST

New reviews for audio gearheads

Audio engineers,Here's links to the last two issues of Pro Audio Review Magazine and my reviews of new compressors, preamps, headphone amps and mics.Rob reviews Manley TNT preamp and FMR's RNLA levell...
Posted by Catalyst Recording on Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:43:00 PST