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Employee Profile: Will Shanks
Will Shanks has developed quite a reputation at UA for "getting around". Since he came to work at Universal Audio in July of 2000, he has gone from line worker, to production lead, to bench testing and tech support for the analog department, to a product specialist and tech support for the digital department.
"I love working at UA. Put me anywhere, I don't care! I just love the people and the products we make, and there's nowhere else I'd rather work," says Shanks. "I always had a huge respect for the history of Universal Audio, it was pretty exciting when I heard the company was being brought back. I thought it was such a great idea to put the 1176 and the LA-2A back into production. Then I found out the new Universal Audio was right under my nose in Santa Cruz!"
"there's nowhere else I'd rather work"
Audio became a part of Will's life in high school. He started playing in bands when he was 14. "I was always the one to bring along a tape recorder or boom-box to gigs and jam sessions. I was always fascinated by the raw edginess of what was captured by the cheap internal microphones on those devices. I started fooling around with 4-track recorders later in high school. I was working delivering pizza and a coworker lent me a couple of 4-track albums recorded who once worked at the place. They changed my life. The guy's name was Mike Barber, and he actually came back to work over the summer. We hooked up and collaborated on my first album project. I had no idea how much could be done with as simple a device as a cassette 4-track. Bouncing tracks, using guitar sounds as keyboards, creating reverse effects simply by flipping the tape over, it was all so fascinating. He really got me started." That was in 1990.
Will's notoriety for "getting around" may be due to the fact that he's also a user of UA's hardware and software products. In addition to working at UA, he also owns Ear to the Ground, a recording studio located in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He started to studio in late 1999, recording and producing bands. Since starting at Universal audio, he has amassed quite a collection of gear. The 2-610, 2108, 1176 and LA-2A all have homes in his rack.
"I recently did an album with The Stranded. They are hard rock, along the lines of The Replacements and White Stripes. This was the first time I had taken the 2108 to the studio. I went to 16-track tape and I used the 2108 and 1176 almost exclusively on the front end. I then dumped my project into Digital Performer, where I once again used the 1176 extensively, only this time the UAD-1 version. Let me attest to the notion that the plug-in version sounds utterly like the hardware piece. When you push it into extreme settings such as the "All Button" mode, it sounds just like the real deal. I've tried other 1176 plug-ins out there, and they just don't sound like an 1176 when you hit them hard this way. And this was exactly what this recording needed. It is the most authentic rock and roll sounding album I've done. This had much to do with the sound of both the 1176 and the 2108.
Go to Ear to the Ground's website for more info including rates, gear and MP3's: www.eartotheground.com
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