‘I was raised as a Christian but I’ve since converted to a different religion – the religion of Miles,’ says the multi-talented Hiroaki Honshuku. ‘Miles taught us that music has to be fun, and that we should not play meaningless notes. And he also taught us not to play the old shit – don’t play what’s been done before.’
A graduate of both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, Honshuku has heeded the teachings of Miles Davis with his involvement in traditional jazz and classical music groups and alliances inside the New York/Boston corridor. Today, he is melding improvisational jazz with Brazilian grooves in a band called Racha, whose latest release, Racha S’Miles, is a re-imagining of Miles Davis classics.
In addition to being a gifted and practiced wind instrumentalist, Honshuku is a technophile and intuitive recording and mixing engineer. The band rented Dreamworld Studios in Lynn, Massachusetts to record Racha S’Miles, and Honshuku brought in his collection of Metric Halo interfaces to handle apreamplification and conversion. ‘No other equipment records as cleanly as Metric Halo,’ he says ‘Everything I do with my Metric Halo gear sounds so realistic and detailed.’
Honshuku was introduced to Metric Halo and the company’s founders BJ and Joe Buchalter when he was recording student recitals at the New England Conservatory. ‘I was using Metric Halo’s SpectraFoo sound analysis software, and I was so impressed by the brilliance of Joe and BJ,’ he revclls. ‘They told me about their first FireWire interface in 2000, and I jumped on it. The serial number on my first 2882 is 099, the last beta unit before they went into production.’
He presently has two 2882 interfaces, including his original, that he uses for large recording projects like Racha S’Miles – both have been updated several times by the company. In addition, he has Metric Halo’s flagship ULN-8 for his daily recording and audio tasks, and a ULN-2 that serves as the nexus in his elaborate live performance rig.
‘My ULN-2 with the Jensen transformer modification makes my flute and Akai EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) sound sweet,’ he says, of using one channel for flute and the second for the EWI. ‘The signal goes into MainStage 3 where I do crazy real-time effect on flute. You can hear this on the Racha S’Miles track, ‘Wood Row.’
For the EWI, MainStage 3 hosts various sound modules, as can be heard on the tracks ‘ESP’, ‘Wood Row’ and ‘Footprints.’
One of the keys to the otherworldly sounds that Honshuku coaxes from his otherwise traditional instruments is Metric Halo’s MIO Console, the free Metric Halo software that allows users to route and mix signals or to add DSP using the interface’s resources. He controls his rig’s output volume using MIO’s Midi infrastructure and a Midi controller. In addition, he uses the ULN-2’s onboard DSP to equalise his powered monitor signal using SpectraFoo.
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