American Contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist David Crowder, best known by his stage name Crowder, along with his friends, 2-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Jacob ‘Biz’ Morris (pictured) and Gavin Haverstick, have assembled a state-of-the-art studio for Crowder’s production work. With a wealth of guitar and keyboard equipment to contend with, the studio is an exceptional production environment. Equipped with two TASCAM Series 8P Dyna 8 channel mic preamplifiers with analog compressors plus multiple ML-16D and ML-32D 16- and 32-channel Analog/Dante converters, the studio was designed to foster creativity, while also being a model of efficiency.
With two Grammy Awards for his engineering efforts on American Christian hip hop recording artist Lecrae’s hit song Messengers and his highly received album Gravity, Jacob Morris is a proven studio pro. His inclusion of the TASCAM 8P Dyna and the ML-16D and ML-32D Dante units in Crowder’s studio are, in his own words, “key to creating an incredible studio that makes working there so inspiring.” He discussed his experience with the TASCAM gear.
“The TASCAM ML-16D and ML-32D Dante converters are, in many ways, what really bring the entire studio together,” Morris says. “There’s a lot going on in this space. We have a lot of synths and other toys that are being sent to the console via the ML-32D—all with a single CAT-6 cable! It’s crazy! Then we have the guitar room. David can be playing a guitar that is hitting 6 different amps inside another room in the house, and the output of those amps is being sent back to the DAW—all via a single CAT-6 line—with no latency. Wrap your head around that! The ML-16D/32D Dante units saved us from running tons of cables. We tried a few other products out there and they just didn’t work at all.”
Morris also pointed out that the TASCAM gear is in use constantly. “David uses this equipment every day. If he touches a synth or plays a guitar, he’s using the TASCAM gear. And I’m not joking… When we first hooked everything up to test it out, it all just worked. David’s face just lit up—as did mine!”
With electronic music equipment, questions inevitably arise, so responsive and capable support services are crucial. In this regard, Morris was very complimentary of TASCAM. “The company’s support services are first rate,” he reports. “Their support staff are musicians and audio pros, so they understand what you’re trying to accomplish. They get it.”
According to Morris, David Crowder’s studio was completed roughly six months ago and, since that time, it has become one of his favorite places to work. “The TASCAM equipment is what brings the entire studio together so efficiently,” he said. “It fosters creativity and sounds terrific. Make no mistake, the TASCAM equipment is solid gear with great sound..."
To learn more about David Crowder, visit crowdermusic.com. For information about Jacob ‘Biz’ Morris, go to jacobbiz.co and for information about Haverstick Designs, go to haverstickdesigns.com.
