ADAM > A5

Lap steel by itself can be quite a lonely sound, but its a great deal better when played along with a rhythm section.

Lap steel by itself can be quite a lonely sound, but its a great deal better when played along with a rhythm section. So for this session, Chris brought in an acoustic guitar and bass. Chris works unbelievably fast, so we simply started by miking his acoustic guitar. Five minutes later, we placed a mic in front of the guitar amp to record the bass guitar. If you want to tell me how I shouldn’t do this, go ahead. There are no rules in this game aside from getting a good level, which I overloaded at one point. After getting this part, Chris simply plugged his 54 Fender Dual Professional into the same amp and we were five minutes away from finishing one more masterpiece.

ADAM

List Price: $699 Pair

Website: http://www.adam-audio.com

Recording in an office or bedroom on a small budget (as many are doing) has paved the way for the A5, ADAM’s latest and smallest installment to date. Those who are familiar with ADAM monitors can expect the same (ART) ribbon tweeters. This is one way that ADAM stands out against its competition. Recording with Chris Scruggs gave us our first opportunity to try these out firsthand. We used these speakers for playback when multi-tracking guitar and bass so Chris could have a bed to lay down his amazing steel parts. Headphones can be an annoyance, so we placed the mic close to the amp and turned the speakers up enough to hear, not worrying too much about the bleed into the mic. The speakers did an amazing job-so did Chris. After the take, we cranked them up to hear what was recorded and they gave more than enough headroom. I was satisfied with the mid-range and high end, and liken them to the larger models I have used before. Other small speakers we have used crap out and distort when pushed too hard. This lead myself and others (OR “us”) to listen back at quieter levels or with headphones on to make sure the distortion wasn’t in the track itself. I must comment on how this can turn an otherwise great time into a stressful mess of explanations. I was greatly impressed with the bass response of the 5″ carbon fiber woofer. I must add how handy both the unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR inputs can be. I used these speakers along side my Event’s for mixing, and I couldn’t get over how they sounded in my home space. I messed around with the tweeter/6 kHz/150Hz adjustment pots on the back, and ended up putting them back to zero. I really regret having to take them back, but hope to be able to use them on future sessions. They were perfect for this application.

A quick explanation of the ADAM ribbon tweeter technology: in a conventional transducer (tweeter), the driver-to-air ratio is a 1:1. This is how fast the driver can move compared to the air. ADAM technology claims a 4:1 ratio, thus moving the air in and out faster, which creates the clarity and definition these speakers are known for.