Lacquer Channel - Right At Home
- Pat Wright
- 18 hours ago
- 5 min read
A great feeling occurs when you go somewhere new and end up feeling right at home. Now, granted, I’m a ’70s baby, so when I was greeted by the super-friendly Noah Mintz and his super friendly and enthusiastic K9 Analog, at Lacquer Channel and, entered the ’70s-era-style lounge, I just loved the vibe. Straight away, Noah fixed me up with a delicious cappuccino. So right off the bat, things were shaping up quite nicely.
As we entered into conversation, my eyes wandered around the interesting artist lounge/living room. There were so many interesting pieces of nostalgic gear, knick-knacks, albums, and of course, the luscious orange shag carpet. Yes, indeed, I was feeling right at home — my folks had our entire house done in orange shag when I was a kid. Needless to say, I was eager to explore and learn more about Noah and Lacquer Channel. And in a space like this, as all professionals know, the hang is nearly as important as the session or gig itself. This space really lent itself to getting
comfortable and settling in.
A STORY TO TELL
Over the years, I have heard many clients, bandmates, and engineers mention Lacquer Channel. What I never knew is that Lacquer Channel is celebrating 50 years of mastering in the GTA. Take a moment to put that into perspective — I believe Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister, cars still ran on leaded fuel, and people were smoking on airplanes and in hospitals at that time. The world has changed a lot since then, but what hasn’t changed is Lacquer Channel’s commitment to quality and music over the decades.
TAKING PRIDE IN HISTORY
How many of us can say that we were directly involved in Canadian music history? I mean, everyone who creates music should be given props. In my opinion, songwriting and creativity all contribute to the whole. However, mastering and cutting vinyl albums for 50 years is another story.
Lacquer Channel started in November 1976 by Paul Gross at Phase One Studios, running 24 hours a day cutting lacquers and mastering while working on artists like The Beatles, U2, Metric, Pink Floyd, The National, Leonard Cohen, Sharon, Lois & Bram, ABBA, Black Sabbath, Strumbellas, Rush, Eagles, Marvin Gaye, Iron Maiden… the list continues on and on. There’s no way you haven’t tapped your foot along to material they’ve worked on.
In 1989, it moved to its current location, George Graves was the chief engineer from 1978 until 2010, when Noah took over as Chief. Recently deceased, Terry Medwedyk, designed this location along with Noble Studios, and many others. Lacquer Channel is still using some of the same gear from when they first opened, including their Neve 2087 and Sontec 432B Mastering EQ. They specialize in vinyl mastering since they have so much experience with lacquer cutting over the years. “A vinyl master separate from a streaming master is really important to getting a great sound on vinyl”, says Noah.
WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS
As I followed Noah down an interesting, winding hallway adorned with many Gold records — and a pretty cool motorcycle at one turn — I was eager to get to the mastering suite to where artists may have sat in to make final tweaks before sending their work off into the world.
As we entered the mastering studio, much like their ’70s lounge, the first thing I felt was calmness, peace, and a sense of tranquility. Of course, for a gear-head like myself, I was immediately eyeing the copious amount of great gear on display. I have been in mastering studios before, but if you haven’t, it’s quite a different vibe from a regular recording studio. As with every mastering studio, the console configuration is different from a recording studio and, packed full of big, beautiful knobs. And these are good knobs indeed. Let’s talk about them.
KNOBS TO DIE FOR
The first piece of gear that catches your eye is the wonderfully coloured knobs of the Sontec 430B Parametric Disk Mastering EQ. Just Google that EQ and see what results come up. Oh yeah, it’s a classic — a very rare, prized piece of gear — and not the only one at that.
“The ‘father’ ITI 230 Mastering EQ (Designed by Burgess McNeal and George Massenberg) and the ‘sons’ Sontec 432 (McNeal).”, Noah informed me. LC’s mastering arsenal also includes a GML 9500, the ultimate King Daddy Topper EQ. The 9500 is the Mastering Version of the 8200. The Gain, Frequency, and Q controls are fully-detented for absolute precision and repeatability. With 1/2dB steps of Boost and Cut and 24 different frequency choices per band, the 9500 is a powerful and comprehensive workhorse for Mastering Engineers around the world.
“This dual-mono, 3U King of All Equalizers requires two 8355 power supplies.” – George Massenburg Labs
We here at LM Pro, had a GML 8200 here in the LM Pro shop for a spell. What a silky-smooth yet precise EQ. So very musical and never harsh. An absolute pleasure to test.
At the top of the desk EQ section is the Terry CEQ. “The CEQ is a fully hand-built, inductor-based discrete equalizer using true ‘Western Electric’ era inductor design, expanded and adapted Pultec passive resonant shelves & boosts, a Neumann PEV lacquer/vinyl cutting midrange control, and a novel tailored active mid-cut circuit that adjusts not only frequencies but also the reactivity of audio and music.” – Terry Audio
There’s so much more gear to gush over… so let’s continue a bit longer!
How about Manley Pultec EQs or an actual Pultec MEQ-1? Want to talk dynamics? Go to the trusted go-to API 2500+, Manley Vari Mu, or a Dave Hill Titan… and of course, there’s a Rupert Neve Master Bus Transformer too. Take a closer look at all the pics for more gear. Cool stuff here.
“Our 2nd Ampex 102 machine acquired from the late Andy Krehm is equipped with audiophile Aira (Dave Hill – Cranesong) electronics and is one of the best sounding tape machines in the world. Our speakers are custom designed by Steve Kranis specially for the acoustics of the studio. They are over 200 lbs each and sound very natural. Not hyped or too hi-fi.” – Noah Mintz
FLEXIBILITY
After we finished listening to some great reference tracks and realized that we both had one of the same taste in go-to reference tracks in Beck’s “Already Dead,” Noah showed me around to another production suite and, then a couple of other utility rooms that they rent out to various clients.
We made our way back to the lounge and sat on the couches for a bit, chatting about music and his team. They currently have 2 male and 2 female staff mastering engineers. And, as it turns out Mariana Hutten and I live in the same condo building, how about that, as the saying goes small world! One thing that really stuck out to me was how accessible, cool, and friendly Lacquer Channel feels. I do appreciate studios with all the modern finishings and expensive trim, but here I felt right at home. The cool thing about that is, while you’re hanging in that space, it invites you to explore and touch. That’s exactly what I ended up doing; there’s a really interesting blue glowing tube thingy that I just had to check out. And that in turn, just ads to fostering a creative interactive environment.
IS 50 JUST A NUMBER?? I THINK NOT!
As I mentioned earlier in this article, Lacquer Channel is celebrating 50 years in the GTA cutting lacquers and mastering, and therefore celebrations and special events are in order! They are planning a live-to-tape series and in-studio listening sessions, and I am proud to say that there are plans for LM Pro to join in on one of the sessions and bring some substantial prizes.
HAPPY TRAILS
As we said our goodbyes, I felt great about the experience, what a cool facility but, I had also made a great new friend… Sorry Noah, not you— I’m talking about your dog, Analog! ;)
As always,
Happy recording!
LM Pro
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