Chandler Limited’s Wade Goeke

Welcome to the first installment of GC Pro’s look at some of the people behind the knobs and switches. We start with Chandler Limited’s Wade Goeke, one of those names that comes up when the tech talk gets heavy. Combining classic elements of the past with technology of the present, he has designed some of todays most sought after modern recording gear. From the LTD-1EQ/pre to the latest line of Abbey Road Special Edition limiters and plug-ins, he’s always seeking the high ground when it comes to sound. Rich Tozzoli: So how did it all begin? Wade Goeke: After high school I moved to the LA area and was playing in bands. At the same time, I was really into recording – I had my eight-track reel to reel and was making demos for people. Gradually, I started to get more and more into the studio world and held a few jobs that were electronics related - having already had a bit of a background in that area. After 10 years or so, the studio, band and electronics thing eventually all came together. During that time I was also assisting at some bigger studios, and just happen to build 5 or 6 Neve modules from spare parts that I had gotten – many of which came from Brent Averill. When I finished one, I took it to show him and he said “I should give you a job”. So I ended up working at Brents for about a year and a half, doing things like testing, fixing and running the shop. During that time I was still designing my own gear, and eventually was just ready to do my own thing. Then around ‘99, I just went out on my own with no prospects at all. I was building our first LTD –1 module, which is kind of like a 1073 unit. Luckily, I had a guy named Doug Gorlin buy six of them off the bat, and that really got me started. I invested that money back into more modules – and I think I made around 20 in that batch. So it just kind of took off and around that time I met my now wife and mother of our two young boys. We then moved to Orange County where she was from, and was doing most of my work in my mother-in-laws garage while we got on our feet. Next, around 2000, we moved to Iowa – which is where I’m originally from. We did it because shop space was cheap and I needed to hire some people to help me. In some aspects, it was an easier way to get going, but in some was it was scarier – moving to the middle of nowhere. So we just went and did it and luckily it worked out.

Chandler LTD-1

RT: How did you get the word out from Iowa? WG: Luckily I knew guys like Ross Hogarth, Joe Barresi and John Paterno, and they were really instrumental in helping me to get my gear around. I just gradually moved forward from LTD-1 into LTD-2 - and then we started getting into the EMI units – the EMI limiter and TG-2. RT: How did the whole EMI connection happen? WG: That was just plain old dumb luck. About 12 years ago, I stumbled on a pair of EMI limiters that had that cool, old vintage sound I had heard in my head but couldn’t quite ‘get’. They just had that special something to them. They were pretty aggressive sounding, but in a beautiful, musical way. So once I got those, since I was already fussing with electronics at the time, I knew I would build something like that someday. I didn’t know how or when, but just knew someone had to hear them. You could only get them as being part of an EMI owned studio at the time - so there was very few of them and it’s amazing that I was actually able to get a hold of a pair. That’s what really started it all. RT: How did it progress from there? WG: After I made the LTD-1 and the LTD-2, I started digging into the TG units. This was actually prior to any talks with EMI and before they really knew about us. So I put one of those together based really closely on the original circuit board. The artwork and drawings were even really spot-on and I went to the n’th degree to make sure it was just right. I even had find transistors that weren’t made anymore, but luckily I had the schematics. I started making a few units, and our distributor in England took one over to Spike Stent at Olympic Studios. Since EMI and Abbey Road own Olympic as well, they were able to check one of them out. We just kind of talked from there, and coincidentally they themselves had been talking about making hardware based on their classics. It took us a while to get the contract done, but it’s been great. I got to look at a lot of their information and units, and I’ve managed to collect quite a bit of old EMI stuff at this point. It’s mutually beneficial. RT: How did you make the move from hardware to software? WG: When we contracted with EMI, again, it was something we had both been thinking about. At that point, I already had developer status from Digidesign and had hot code programmer picked out. So about 12 revisions later it came out. Obviously, I don’t do any of the coding, it more of a managerial and ‘ears’ thing. Of course I also rely on the guys at Abbey Road, especially Pete Cobbin, who is their chief recording engineer. We would listen, and note things like the release times not sounding right, or it being too clean - or whatever. We all wanted it to be ‘spot on’.

Chandler TG12345

RT: Did you model based upon a specific hardware unit? WG: Yes, we modeled four different ones. The TG Limiter pack has two different versions in it; the 2005 and the 1969. The 2005 was modeled after two vintage EMI units of mine, which were modified to be like our TG-1, with extras like increased gain and some of the things that make it slam real hard. The ‘69 is from a completely stock old original pair that EMI had. So between those units you get two versions in the package. The Mastering Pack was modeled after a pair of Abbey Road units. We all just listened and went over and over it until it was just right. The cool thing about those Mastering EQ’s is they still have something like 12 of those desks in daily use, since 1974 when they were installed. RT: How about the Germanium Series? WG: That was just kind of like ears leading the way, which I hope most of our stuff is like. I had always loved the old Neve germanium transistor stuff. The earliest Neve modules were all germanium, 1053’s, 1057’s, etc. although they look like a 1066 module. The germanium is not a copy of that, but I really like how those sounded. However, they are really funky and have a lot of noise along with low headroom. I wanted to take that kind of neat interesting sound and take it to the next level. Also, a lot of the early EMI stuff was germanium transistor-based as well, and that also helped push me to explore that sound. RT: How come they stopped using it? WG: The germanium transistors were mostly abandoned because silicon came out right after the first germanium ones were introduced. Silicon could take a lot more heat and was generally more stable. The GERMs are just totally original sounding and by far our most successful pieces. Its just all about a different sound that I liked. An old Neve 1057 preamp only has about +22 output before distortion, whereas a 1073 or API would have +28, but we got the germanium up to +34. We could have got it even higher, but it made it noisy so we kept it lower. RT: What was your basic approach with those units? WG: We really try to approach it from a user standpoint, especially me being a musician and engineer kind of guy - almost before I hit electronics hardcore. I also always approach from what does it sound like first, and then what do we have to do in order to clean up electronics? I try to minimize the use of equations and physics to keep as much musicality as I can. Like when I was picking EQ points on the germanium tone control, I would go in with inductors and capacitors and some music, and just switch all the values until it sounded great. Then I would work in reverse and go do the math on that combination. RT: What are the most important aspects that you deliver to your gear? WG: One thing that I’ve always said is that I don’t make gear that I wouldn’t want to have in my rack and use every day. The other thing is that we just really use our ears. In one way were lucky that I hear things a certain way that other people have attached to as well. Most of these units I’m really building for myself and luckily people are getting what I’m doing. It’s seems to have worked, so we’ll continue that way for now.

Chandler Germanium Pre