During a recent soiree at The Bomb Factory Recording Studios we were fortunate to speak with Tchad Blake, 1999 Grammy Award winner for Best Engineered Album. While nibbling on strawberries and chocolates, Tchad shared some of his SansAmp secrets: Bomb Factory: How did you discover SansAmp? Tchad Blake: I saw the prototype at Guitar Center. They had it behind the counter, mounted on a huge plastic sheet so people wouldn't try to steal it. I tried it out and talked Andrew at Tech 21 into letting me borrow it. I brought it into the studio and hooked it up immediately. How did you use it? We were working on bass that day so I gave it a shot. I haven't used a bass amp since. And it just stopped there, right? [Laughs] I've got every version, four or five of the original SansAmp Classic. I've used it on flute, sax, percussion, a ton of keyboard stuff. When you were recording the Ron Sexsmith record, I noticed a half dozen scattered atop the meter bridge. I use them on sends during tracking and mixdown. After bass, drums are the most common thing I use it on. Listen to the Soul Coughing "Ruby Vroom" LP--the drum and bass sound, that's SansAmp. In fact, there are no amps used at all on that record. And your work with Los Lobos? On Kiko and Colossal Head, I don't think there's a single drum track that doesn't have SansAmp mixed in. It's on 50% of the instruments in one way or another on those recordings. Okay, I confess. I bribed Courtney from the Dandy Warhols with unspeakables in order to find out how you got that drum sound. Do you want to say it or should I? Well, if the secret's out--try throwing it out of phase on the kick. It drops the kick drum down an octave and you get a really weird tapery top. It does some really strange, amazing things. Editor's note: Our marketing department snagged this and SansAmp'ed it to death. As a result, I feel compelled to mention that Tchad Blake is one of the most innovative thinkers in studio engineering today, and his work merits the close attention of anyone trying to learn new techniques in recording. Visit Tchad's website for a full discography and other information.