Caldwell Plus ProductionsPuts Power in their Studio with ADAM Audio A77X Monitors

The rainfall and subsequent flooding that hit Nashville at the beginning of May 2010 was a thousand-year event that caused in excess of $2 billion in private property damage, including to the production studio owned by the Caldwell brothers, Cedric and Victor. Fast-forward to 2016 and the brothers have completely revamped and rebuilt their Caldwell Plus Productions facility, recently adding a pair of ADAM Audio A77X near-field/mid-field powered monitors in the control room.

Victor Caldwell already was using ADAM Audio A7X speakers, including a pair at his home studio, when he began his search for a pair of mid-field monitors for the main studio. “I was looking for something that could be a mid-field and a near-field monitor at the same time,” he reports. “Mainly because I wanted to have something that had the power to be cranked up while cutting tracks, but that also sounded good and comparable to near-field monitors at more subdued volume levels.”

A7X and A77X: Perfect for Surround-sound

More importantly, as he explains, the new speakers needed to fit seamlessly into a 5.1-surround sound system. “My center channel and my rears are A7Xs and I have the A77Xs as my left and right near-field/mid-fields. The A77Xs sound comparable to the A7Xs but have more power. That was one of the keys to why I chose the A77Xs. I can use them as my mid fields and my near fields, and they work perfectly in my 5.1 set-up.”

The brothers installed a 5.1 monitor system in the rebuilt studio as a result of past projects, which have included contributions to movie soundtrack such as The Bodyguard and Jumping the Broom. More recently, the Caldwells completed a new project by Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum using the new A77Xs, which were purchased in March 2016.
“With Kirk´s album mixes and the new stuff I’m working on now, the A77Xs sound amazing,” says Caldwell. “The low end, the mids, the highs — I love the way everything sounds. I get exactly what I’m looking for out of them.”

A near- and midfield monitor which fits the bill

Finding a speaker appropriate for both near- and mid-field applications was not easy, he comments. “I’ve had them all in here and listened to them; I went through a whole lot of alternatives.” Near-fields and mid-fields tended to be in two very different price ranges, but with many of the alternate mid-field choices, he says, “It’s not like I would hear it being a little bit better and the price being an enormous difference — I just didn’t hear it being better. It would be a much more expensive speaker and that was it. But the A77Xs, for me, were the ones that fit the bill. I love them.”

Working faster than before

The revamped facility is now based around an Apple Logic DAW with Avid Artist Mix and Control surfaces, Lynx Studio Technology audio interfaces, Manley Labs microphone preamps and Focusrite Red mic preamps and compressors. “We are more compact now than we used to be,” says Caldwell, “but we’re able to do the same work and get it out just as fast — if not faster — than before.”

The Caldwell’s credits as producers, songwriters and musicians, and Victor as an engineer, also include numerous recording projects and performances with Grammy Award-winning artists such as the legendary Winans family of gospel singers, Take 6, Stephanie Mills, Whitney Houston and many others. Cedric Caldwell is married to Angie Winans and, with her sister Debbie, plus his brother Victor, founded a record label, Against the Flow, in 1997.