Vertical Horizon Expands With Yamaha AW4416

BUENA PARK, CA (May 7, 2001) Rock group Vertical Horizon earned its success the old-fashioned way: playing gig to gig, building a fan base one by one. It's been ten long years since the New England-based group met at Georgetown University and began to play in local pubs. Fast-forward to 1999, when Vertical Horizon's platinum-selling Everything You Want was released, spawning the hit title track. The song skyrocketed to the top of the charts, giving the band the notoriety they worked so hard to achieve.

Vertical Horizon have 'Everything They Need' with Yamaha AW4416.

Since its late '90s breakthrough, Vertical Horizon has toured coast to coast, sharing the stage with the likes of the Dave Matthews Band, Third Eye Blind, The Allman Brothers Band, Train and Shawn Colvin. And they're still on the road only now, they're headlining. With the band's third single "The Best I've Ever Had" saturating the airwaves and a vigorous road life of sold-out shows, Vertical Horizon's lead singer Matt Scannell took time out of his busy schedule to discuss how he's been using Yamaha's groundbreaking AW4416 digital workstation.

"I've been interested in getting an all-in-one digital recorder for a while, and am a big fan of the (Yamaha) 02R (digital recording console)," Scannell says. "When I found out how great the quality was, I knew the Yamaha AW4416 was the right one. I've had the unit for about two months now," the Georgetown graduate explains, "and so far, I've used it to record some sketches of demos."

Since its release at Winter NAMM 2000, the Yamaha AW4416 has gained a reputation for being feature-rich yet affordable. Targeted toward musicians and engineers alike, the unit provides an all-in-one user-friendly means of recording, mixing and mastering a project. "I love the mixer section," Scannell continues. "The automation is really cool and the moves are recalled very accurately. The EQ is great; much more musical than most digital EQs I've heard, and it's wonderfully flexible as narrow or broad as you'd want. The CD mastering and onboard burner is also incredibly convenient." The singer notes that he sees himself using the AW4416 to record lots of different treatments of songs at home and then using some of them as final tracks on Vertical Horizon's next CD as well as film scores and solo projects.

The busy frontman reveals that Vertical Horizon will be touring heavily until September and that "it's too soon to tell" when their next CD will hit the shelves.