INTRODUCTION TO WHAT THIS WHOLE THING IS ABOUT:

Welcome to Redsecta.com. I started Redsecta back in '91-'92 when I began working on my own projects from my bedroom studio at my parents' house with a bunch of friends. I had my first "real studio" experience in '93 when we tracked a 4-song demo on 2" tape and got a taste of what it's like to record material on a 2" tape machine, and it was an experience that I knew I wanted to build on for the rest of my life.

Back then, Mastering wasn't being done by a lot of people. This was a while before High Speed Internet and the powerful DAWs we have available today. Most people couldn't afford to have professional mastering done on their music, since back in those days, digital mastering wasn't entirely digital until the very last step, which was to get the material ready for CD replication. Mastering until only recently had been a "secret art", done by people who had customized gear you couldn't find in a typical gear shop, and in my early years, whenever I would ask an engineer at a studio about the Mastering process, I would be brushed off with things like "Oh, it takes decades to learn to do that, there's no school for learning how to master, you just eventually land those high-coveted jobs."

Then computers started to become more sophisticated and it wasn't long before they found more purpose in Professional Audio. Outboard digital processors, hardware and software for computers began to be taken real seriously by the industry with platforms such as the UAD suite of DSP processing and effects that (when used properly) sound quite a bit like the real thing. Over the last few years, the argument of "analog vs digital" has diminished (most blind testing done on engineers shows they can't tell a difference between high-end analog and high end digital processing tools!)

Another reality is that today, not all artists have the kind of budget to go and get something mixed and then mastered at 100% analog commercial facilities, not to mention there are hundreds of albums out there that have some degree of digital processing with these kinds of effects and many of them sound great! All this said, I do use a couple of choice pieces of analog gear that I think work well for the genre of music I work with. If you're looking for quality sound, and someone who knows what your projects are supposed to sound like, you've come to the right guy. To keep the rates low for my clients, I have to make wise choices in gear purchases (so if you're looking for pictures of tons of really expensive and rare analog equipment, you HAVEN'T come to the right guy!)

Respect,

L. Franco, a.k.a:

Upated: May, 2011

Feel free to hit me up with questions anytime at 323-574-5008 or L-ROX @ redsecta.com
Twitter: REDSECTA

Luis L-ROX Franco,
Rapaudiologist

CONVERTERS:
Crane Song HEDD 192k ADC/DAC
Lucid 88192 ADC/DAC
Crane Song Avocet DAC/Monitor Controller

MONITORING (MIXING):
Original Mackie 824s, Active Avantone MixCubes, Custom Beyerdynamic DT770s

MONITORING (MASTERING):
Bowers & Wlkins 685 w/608 Sub, Emotiva amps, Mixcubes, AKG 240DF (custom modded), Sennheiser HD650 (custom modded), Grado SR80i

PROCESSING:
Enough UAD-1 & UAD-2 DSP to do anything, and almost all the UAD effects (everything that I consider useful), a couple of DIY Analog Processors, Elysia hardware, Crane Song HEDD 192k, Massey, Flux::, Pro Tools. Self-Built PC DAW.

Tara labs cabling, Monster Pro conditioning and Custom Length Interconnects all throughout the entire system using Neutrik gold, Cardas solder (not that lead-free crap), 18awg SPC, Canare and Mogami cables, all built by me.