With online shopping being the norm for most of us, it's easy to forget that knowledgeable salespeople exist in the pro audio industry. Meanwhile, our recording rigs are composed of computers, interfaces, and software that interoperate using a dizzying array of technologies and protocols with cryptic names and acronyms. I had several detailed discussions recently with engineer Phillip Smith (Historic RCA Studio A in Nashville) about the pros/cons of Dante, AES67, Ravenna, AVB, and MADI connectivity. Phillip was about to spend a month in a lake house recording the award-winning band Old Dominion, and he needed assistance putting together a stable high track-count portable workstation. After our first talk, I brought in Ani Davis from Custom House at Guitar Center <custom-house.co>, who joined us for our subsequent meetings to help with gear selection, compatibility checks, package pricing, and timely delivery. Ani's commitment to making sure Phillip had what he needed – on time and under budget – truly set up Phillip for success. In addition to being a sales professional, Ani is a musician who's spent years in recording studios on both sides of the glass, and before she took on her role as an account manager at Custom House, she was my studio manager and business assistant. She joins a very capable team led by Guitar Center VP Greg Glaser, whose primary objective is to build and support a community of creatives – not just product sales. Despite being Guitar Center's smallest sales office in terms of personnel and retail space, Custom House generates the most revenue for GC by far; that's how productive they are serving their customers. The next time you need something, whether it's a single Shure SM57, a limited-edition Neumann mic, a Focusrite USB interface, a zero-latency video monitoring system, or a whole studio build-out with design, construction, gear, and integration, make your life easier and save some money by contacting Ani Davis <ani@gcpro.com> and her team. ••• I can't emphasize enough that anyone who owns or operates a studio should have a trusted provider of custom wiring. When I needed to install a new Wolff Audio MeMore artist-monitoring system [Tape Op #173] with only one week's notice, Ani introduced me to her friends at Trace Audio <traceaudio.com>. They were very helpful in specifying the wiring strategy, cable type, and fanout lengths; and the quality of the cable looms they delivered just a few days later exceeded my expectations. All the connectors were even laser-etched with prominent labels specific to the MeMore, minimizing mishaps when moving and reconnecting headphone stations. ••• Custom House happens to be two doors down from Blackbird Studio [Tape Op #97] and Blackbird Academy [#125]. The educational video platform Inside Blackbird <insideblackbird.com> is another exceptional endeavor from John McBride and his staff. I joined the Inside Blackbird team last year as a content strategist, and one of my goals has been to further diversify our offerings. Recent episodes have featured electronic musician, producer, and college professor Julie Kathryn (I Am Snow Angel) [#129] using multiple DAWs on a single project; mastering engineer Shay Obray <infrasonicsound.com> participating in a roundtable about the path from internship to staff engineer; and Thai Long-Ly [#166] presenting a deep dive on recording bass. Many more people, projects, and topics are in the works. For example, Creative Director Matt Bender and I took a tour of the Trace Audio factory, and we were fascinated with their operation; we think you will be too when we shoot an episode about studio wiring. I'm especially excited about our upcoming collaborations with Tape Op. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. Email andy@tapeop.mom or Instagram @TapeOpGeek.
-AH