Hazelrigg Industries
hazelriggindustries.com
Association with legendary designer Doug Fearn: With extensive experience in live performance and production, brothers Geoff and George Hazelrigg, founders of Pennsylvania-based Hazelrigg Industries, design and manufacture professional recording equipment designed for modern production techniques. Previously, during Geoff’s tenure as lead assembler for DW Fearn (founded by Doug Fearn in 1993), the Hazelriggs began combining different aspects of Fearn’s offerings to create the VLC. This “Swiss army knife” production tool was launched under the Hazelrigg Industries banner, under a license agreement with DW Fearn. Hazelrigg Industries eventually took over manufacturing and distribution of both brands, with Fearn remaining as lead designer.
Products: Hazelrigg Industries currently offers three products: the VDI, an all-tube direct injection (DI) box, and the popular VLC, an all-tube pre/DI/mic inductor EQ, and the all-tube VNE single-channel compressor. Combined like a channel strip, Geoff describes them as “the best front-end anyone has ever heard”.
Hazelrigg Industries and Dolby Atmos: Hazelrigg Industry products are also particularly suitable for working in Dolby Atmos, a revolutionary spatial audio technology, because every sound source in these immersive mixes must be of the absolute highest fidelity. At the heart of the VLC, VNE and VDI (all direct box tubes) is an amplifier circuit designed by Doug Fearn. This reinforces the even-order harmonics of any signal that passes through it. The result is that any signal passing through one of their products outputs an enhanced version of itself, with a powerful fundamental tone enhancement.
Many of today’s top Atmos mix engineers, including Mike Miller, now consider Hazelrigg Industries equipment essential to their workflow. Prior to any mixing session, stems received from customers are run through their VLC/VNE “Atmos channel” banks to ensure they sound as good as possible – or simply tracked through the VLC/VNE to begin with. This latter approach was put to good use during a groundbreaking session at Sweetwater Studios where the Hazelriggs and Mike Miller teamed up with Sweetwater Studios’ Shawn Dealey and Jason Peets to record an album while making mixing decisions in Atmos by real time.
Quote from the Hazelriggs: “The reason our approach is so different from other preamp and compressor manufacturers is that the vast majority of them reuse designs from decades ago that were designed for a tape-based ecosystem. . For our part, we design with a telescope rather than a rear view mirror, creating products for the workflows of today and tomorrow.
Contact Hazelrigg Industries, 567-393-3276
