What the Ekadek is that?

 

 

When we needed a recording console that could handle vintage Martins, kooky microphones, and everything in between — and sound incredible doing it — we called Greg Brice. What arrived was part 1972, part spaceship, and entirely AWESOME.

There's a huge 400mm square aluminium box sitting in the recording corner at Studio 1. Four VU meters across the top, each one twitching in response to the signal passing through it. Brushed metal faceplate with hand-stamped lettering. Four channel strips, each one topped with a tube or a transistor preamp depending on which channel you're using. A headphone section. A small onboard speaker. And a set of controls that look like they were designed by someone who's spent forty years in recording studios and has no patience for features that don't earn their keep.

This is Mr Chunky — a custom-built, hybrid tube-and-transistor recording console designed specifically for Studio 1 by Greg Brice of Ekadek.

We now use it for all our content capture — product videos, in-store demos, and our Live at Studio 1 recording sessions with visiting artists. Every guitar that goes out to the webiverse with sound attached now goes through Mr Chunky first. And the difference between what we were using before and what we're using now isn't subtle.

Why We Wanted It

Let's be honest — we didn't need it. We already had a good workable solution in the form of a MixPre 6 portable digital audio recorder, which has pretty good preamps on board, 32-bit float recording, all the sensible stuff. It was fine.

But if you run a vintage guitar shop specialising in non-digital gear, how could you not have something so incredibly analogue — and a statement piece at that?

A 1949 Gibson J-45 doesn't sound like a 2015 Martin D-28. Heck, two guitars made on the same days to exactly the same specs don't sound the same. A Brazilian rosewood Martin doesn't sound like a mahogany Santa Cruz. A fingerstyle player doesn't sound like a flatpicker. And if you're recording demos for social media or product listings, you need gear that gets out of the way and lets the instrument speak for itself. Not to mention the Live at Studio 1 recording sessions we create for New Zealand artists — having a proper console on board turns this into so much more of a true recording experience. We've even had artists wanting to release some of their live recordings out of S1.

Most digital recording interfaces compress the signal to make it "broadcast ready," add EQ curves to make things sound "full" or "warm" or "present," and use op-amps and integrated circuits that smear transients and flatten dynamics. The result is a $20,000 vintage Martin ending up sounding like every other acoustic guitar on YouTube, or a sterile artistic performance where the room and the moment get lost.

We wanted something that could handle the full tonal range of what comes through the shop — from bright, percussive mahogany dreads to dark, complex Brazilian rosewood OMs — without imposing its own character. Enough clean headroom that you could plug in a hot-output electric and it wouldn't compress or distort. Real VU meters so you could see what was actually happening to the signal. And flexibility: sometimes we're recording a single guitar, sometimes two guitars and a vocal, sometimes we want stereo, sometimes mono, sometimes individual tracks, sometimes a stereo mix.

We looked at what was on the market and nothing quite did the job — not at the level we wanted. So we got one built.

Greg Brice and Ekadek

Greg Brice of Ekadek

Greg Brice has been building recording gear in New Zealand since 1982. He started at Last Laugh Productions in Vulcan Lane, Auckland, recording experimental acts like The Kiwi Animal, Fetus Productions, and From Scratch. In 1989 he moved to Melbourne and spent a decade "making music and films and shows and cars and recording gear." In 2001 he returned to New Zealand and founded Ekadek.

The philosophy is blunt: no chips, no shortcuts, just transistors and tubes. Everything Ekadek makes is built from discrete components — Class A transistor amplifiers inspired by vintage Neve circuits, tube preamps, heavy-duty transformers, and switches that'll outlast their owners. It's gear built the way it was built in 1972, before integrated circuits turned audio into a commodity.

"Ekadek controllers contain NO CHIPS," Brice writes. "Only ekadek's own sweet neve-ish transistor amplifiers. The result is just clear clear fat sound."

That approach has earned him a serious following. Dave Dobbyn owns a Klankaloopa preamp and calls it "amazing." Nathan Haines has two custom Ekadek units and credits them with "character and warmth and those magic extra harmonics you only get from great gear." Ruban Nielson from Unknown Mortal Orchestra used an Ekadek Kaimaitron on Multi-Love and said "this thing has become a centrepiece and I've done everything on the new album through it."

When we got in touch about building a custom console, Greg didn't hesitate: "I'm ready to go."

The Design Process

The brief was straightforward: four channels, individual outputs plus stereo mix, onboard monitoring, professional metering, and enough clean gain to handle everything from ribbon mics to hot humbuckers.

Greg came back with a sketch — a hand-drawn schematic showing four channel strips, each with:

• Mic input (XLR) with 48V phantom power and PAD
• Direct input for instruments
• GAIN control
• Semi-parametric EQ (swept high and low frequency)
• EQ bypass switch
• Volume with phase flip
• Pan control
• Individual VU meter per channel
• GO2MIX routing switch

The master section included individual outputs for all four channels, stereo mix outputs (L/MIX/R), a stereo headphone amp, and a small onboard mono speaker for quick checks.

Then came the question: all-tube or hybrid?

Greg offered two options. An all-tube console with four tube channels would have required 13 tubes total, an external power supply, upgraded cabinetry, and a higher price tag. It would have sounded incredible, but it would also have run hotter and cost more.

Or we could go hybrid: two tube channels and two transistor channels. Same functionality, less heat, more flexibility.

We went hybrid. Tube channels for sources that benefit from warmth — acoustic guitars, vocals, anything with natural overtones — and transistor channels for when you want pristine clarity: electric guitars with hot pickups, line-level sources, anything where transparency matters more than colour. Best of both worlds.

Under the Hood

Four Sifam R22AF professional VU meters with extra-fast ballistic action

Mr Chunky uses Sifam R22AF VU meters — professional "taught band" movements with extra-fast ballistic action. These aren't the cheap meters you find in most budget gear. They respond instantly to transients and give you an accurate picture of what's happening to the signal in real time.

Channels 1 and 2 are discrete tube preamps — not op-amps pretending to be tubes, not hybrid designs with a single tube in the signal path for marketing purposes. Full tube circuits with warmth, bloom, and harmonic richness that never sounds "tubey" or artificial. Greg describes them as "big fat smooth tube channels."

Channels 3 and 4 are Class A transistor preamps — the same circuit used in Ekadek's Kaimaitron and other gear. Greg calls these "big fat potential very MF gnarley — if inclined." Translation: they can be clean and transparent when you need that, or you can push them hard and get controlled saturation. They're not trying to be tubes — they're doing their own thing.

The EQ is semi-parametric — you can sweep the frequency and cut or boost. It's there to solve problems rather than shape tone. If a room mode is making a guitar boom at 120Hz, you can sweep to it and pull it out. If a pickup is harsh at 3.5kHz, you can find it and tame it.

The construction is pure Ekadek: all-aluminium chassis, letter-stamped and anodised, built to survive decades of use. The panel is 400mm x 400mm, and the unit is 250mm deep to accommodate the tube amps, transistor boards, and internal power supply. It weighs enough that you wouldn't want to drop it on your foot.

And it looks like nothing else in the room. Industrial, utilitarian — just controls and meters and a faceplate that could have been made in 1972 or 2026 and you wouldn't know the difference.

What It Sounds Like

Mr Chunky in action at Studio 1

The first time we fired up Mr Chunky, we ran an A/B test. We recorded a Martin D-35 through an Ear Trumpet Labs Edwina large condenser mic — first through the Ekadek's tube channel, then straight into a Mix Pre digital recorder. Same guitar, same mic, same room, same player.

The difference was immediate. The Mix Pre sounded clean, clinical — perfectly fine, and not what most people would call "bad." But through Mr Chunky's tube channel the guitar sounded warmer and gooier. More body, more harmonic complexity, more of what makes a Martin sound like a Martin. And the Ekadek has only opened up further with use — tubes need time to settle in.

We recorded a 1967 Martin D-28 next, running it through channel one (tube). We'd recorded this guitar a dozen times before on our old interface, but through the tube channel it sounded fuller. The low-end had definition instead of mush. The top-end had air without harshness. The tubes added bloom without imposing character — it just sounded like a better version of what was already there.

We tried a 1959 Gibson ES-335 next. Plugged straight into channel three (transistor), it sounded balanced and open — warm without muddiness, bright without harshness. Clean and transparent — the kind of tone you'd hope for from a $30,000 guitar that's been played for sixty-five years.

Then we switched and ran the Martin through the transistor channel and the 335 through the tube channel. Both sounded great — just different. The Martin was tighter and more articulate through the transistor. The 335 was warmer and rounder through the tube. Having both options on the same console means we can match the channel to the source instead of forcing everything through the same sonic lens.

The biggest difference is harder to pin down in words. Mr Chunky adds colour and richness to our recordings — not artificially, but the kind of harmonic complexity that comes from discrete circuits doing what they were designed to do. When you play back a recording made through it, there's depth and body and air around the notes. The guitar sounds like it's in the room with you.

Zebulon Bult, a mastering engineer who works with Serato, put it well after trying an Ekadek monitor controller:

"I instantly noticed the mid range was not smeary, snare drums sounded tighter & overall it sounded like there was more space & depth. It sounds like I have removed a kind of hifi emulation from my signal path."

That is a good description of what Mr Chunky does. It removes the emulation.

Why It Matters

When you're recording a $50,000 vintage Martin for a product demo, you want people to hear what it actually sounds like. When an artist sits down for a Live at Studio 1 session, the recording needs to capture the room, the moment, the performance — not flatten it into something sterile. And when those artists start asking whether they can release what you've recorded, you know the gear is doing its job.

Mr Chunky wasn't cheap. But you wouldn't easily find four channels of hand-built preamps (two tube, two transistor), professional Sifam VU meters, flexible routing, onboard monitoring, and a design philosophy that puts signal purity ahead of feature lists. And you wouldn't get something designed specifically for how we work. Greg didn't build a generic 4-channel console — he built ours.

The Ekadek Philosophy

Ekadek's aesthetic: repurposed chassis, industrial components, timeless design

Greg Brice builds gear the way it was built before audio became a race to the bottom — no integrated circuits, no cost-cutting, no features that don't earn their keep. Transistors, tubes, transformers, and switches that'll outlast the people who use them.

He builds many of his units into repurposed chassis — old tape recorder cases, portable amplifier cabinets, 1960s public address enclosures. He calls it "junk audio pimping," and the result is gear that looks like it was salvaged from a Cold War listening station and refitted with the best components money can buy.

The aesthetic is deliberate. Plain metal faceplates, industrial switches and knobs, no branding or unnecessary graphics. It doesn't look "vintage" in the nostalgic sense — more timeless. Could have been built in 1972 or 2026 and you genuinely wouldn't know.

It's not retro. It just is what it is.

We could have gone anywhere for a custom console — there are plenty of boutique builders doing excellent work. We chose Greg because we wanted all-analogue, we wanted to work with a New Zealand designer whose reputation among engineers and musicians is rock-solid, and we wanted something that would make visiting artists and musicians stop and say "what the hell is that?"

You Can Get One Too

Ekadek Klankaloopa preamp — now in stock at Studio 1

We're now carrying Ekadek gear at Studio 1. We have a Klankaloopa in stock — a single-channel preamp with mic and instrument inputs, high-gain transistor amplifier, and an adjustable effects loop so you can run your pedals through it. Price: NZ$1,700. It's sitting in the shop now, ready to try or take home.

And if you want something custom — a preamp, a console, a monitor controller, a phono stage, whatever you can dream up — we can put you in touch with Greg. He'll design and build exactly what you need, the way you need it.

Nick Brightwell, who works with us on Tuesdays and Saturdays, has been using an Ekadek "Brenda" as his acoustic guitar preamp for years. He swears by it. That's the kind of gear this is: the kind you buy once and keep for decades.

Does It Matter?

For most people, most of the time, "good enough" is good enough. A decent audio interface will get you 90% of the way there. We know — we were using one.

But if you're dealing with instruments that cost $10,000, $30,000, $80,000 — if you're trying to capture the sound of a 1946 Gibson or a 1929 Martin or a modern handmade archtop that took a luthier six months to build — if you're recording live sessions with artists who deserve better than a sterile digital signal path — that last 10% matters.

The clarity, the headroom, the sense that you're hearing the instrument rather than the electronics. The confidence that what you're recording is honest. And honestly, the sheer joy of having something this ridiculous and beautiful sitting in the corner of your shop.

That's what Mr Chunky does. It tells the truth — and it looks incredible doing it.

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Studio 1 is New Zealand's home for vintage and premium acoustic guitars. Visit us at Victoria Park Market, Auckland, or browse our collection online at studio1.co.nz.