Rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis’ most recent release, The Heist, grabbed the number one spots on the Billboard U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap charts and quickly sold its way to Platinum status. It was a fast start that shows no sign of letting up, as the duo recently garnered seven Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year (for “Same Love”), Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Album. That’s an incredibly rare feat for any artist, let alone a duo whose inspired musicianship and honest lyrics leave their street credibility untouched by such towering industry benchmarks. Perhaps just as telling, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were “the most streamed” artists on Spotify in 2013. Although they spent the fall of 2013 packing arenas all over the U.S. in support of The Heist, in the downtime between gigs they turned their attention to the music that will form its follow-up, and Metric Halo is with them along the way.

“I had two Grammy nominations in 2013, and our company, Sono Luminus, had a total of seven,” said Daniel Shores, managing director and head engineer of Sono Luminus, with modesty and a hint of awe in his voice. “It seemed like everything was packed into last year, so we really weren’t expecting anything this year.” Contrary to expectation, however, Shores and Dan Mercerio Sono Luminus managing director/head engineer shared a nomination for “Best Surround Sound Album” at the 2014 Grammy Awards for Sprung Rhythm, a collection of new works performed by the Washington DC-based ensemble, Inscape. “It’s such an amazing honor,” continued Shores. “Not only is this the category that is so close to my heart and so identifiable with the DNA of our company, but we are included among other nominees with such legendary talent. Indeed, the other nominees included the winners, Al Schmitt and Tommy LiPuma, for their work with Paul McCartney.

Beauty Pill is the musical brainchild of veteran producer and engineer Chad Clark, who founded the band in 2001 shortly after the dissolution of Smart Went Crazy. Both bands have received heaps of critical praise from outlets local to Washington D.C. and from the national press. Solid songwriting has turned Beauty Pill’s on-again/off-again status into something that promotes, rather than detracts, from its cult following. Beauty Pill recently teamed up with the Arlington, Virginia-based Artisphere museum to take on a unique artistic, musical, and sociological experiment. The band set up in a large room inside the museum with a windowed overlook and spent two weeks on display recording an album. Although they went in with racks of borrowed A-list studio gear, their initial recordings fell flat. It was only after Clark stripped everything down to just his Metric Halo ULN-8 interfaces that the recordings came alive, a testament to the ULN-8’s fantastic sound.

Nick Franglen is best known as founding member of the British electronica duo Lemon Jelly, releasing three albums on XL Recordings that sold half a million albums worldwide and earned Franglen and band mate Fred Deakin nominations for the Mercury Music Prize and the Brit Awards. “Lemon Jelly’s style is electronic music that doesn’t sound particularly electronic,” explained Franglen. “We’d pull together sounds from a wide range of genres to see what would happen when we mixed them up. They could be sampled or played – it really didn’t matter where they came from – the more diverse the better.” Although Lemon Jelly are currently on a happy hiatus, Franglen maintains an outrageously busy schedule – as he always has – that feeds his creative need to keep things fresh and interesting. “Creativity is all I’m interested in. I hate repeating myself (I get bored very quickly) so I’m constantly challenging myself into innovation. I like being out on a limb – that’s where the exciting things happen.”

Although the path to Micah Kovacs' relatively new and successful freelance venture, Micah Kovacs Audio, was not clear to him at the outset, his dedication, professionalism, and knack for making audio work transparently with images guided him down it, nonetheless. Already, his ten-plus years in the advertising and film post industry have earned him Addy, Promax, and Mercury awards, and several awards at juried film festivals. His clients include the Sundance Channel, VH1, L’Oreal, Verizon, NBC, and many other high-profile brands. Whether working out of his home studio for smaller projects or temporarily relocating to a client's facility for more involved projects, Kovacs relies on the superlative audio quality and reliability of his Metric Halo ULN-2 mic-preamp/converter to maintain a pristine signal path at all times. Moreover, Metric Halo's commitment to future-proofing the ULN-2 with software and, when necessary, firmware upgrades – together with Metric Halo's commitment to making the ULN-2 work robustly with any and every piece of audio software in the Mac universe – guarantees that Kovacs' investment will continue to work for him indefinitely.

Eric Racy made his entrance into the world of high-profile mixing and producing via the underground world of dance music, a pivot that allowed him to leverage skills and perspective honed by the diverse tones and influences of EDM. He has gone on to mix Robin Thicke, Lil’ Wayne, Pharrell, and Busta Rhymes, along with dozens of other big name artists, and a host of indie and underground artists that deserve to have “big” names. His intuitive, yet technically precise mixing on Tyga’s “Faded” helped propel it to Platinum status, and his affable nature and unfailing ability to work magic with all things audio earned him mission-critical playback positions on tours with 2NE1 and, most recently, Katy Perry. He’s also half of boutique analog signal processing manufacturer Black Box Analog Design and thus aware of tone on a level transcending that of most mix engineers. Racy’s faithful reliance on Metric Halo’s ChannelStrip plug-in, which has been present on most channels on every (yes, every) song he has mixed since discovering it four years ago, speaks to ChannelStrip's unique musicality and usability.

Michalis “MsM” Michael is a UK-based mix engineer with a growing and eclectic list of credits that includes several Top-20 singles, a number-one single, notable work on Diddy's Last Train to Paris and going on to assist the chief engineer of the Grammy Award-winning J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. His work while assisting necessitated travel, which motivated Michael to shift his workflow from reliance on hardware processing. These days, he mixes almost entirely in the box (ITB) and relies on Metric Halo plug-ins to deliver sonically-solid sounds with zero hassle. His recent work on Tom Prior's Bad Advice EP to be released later this summer, which was produced in part by former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson, exemplifies Michael’s new workflow.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK: Sune Snellman Jakobsen is a live mix engineer stationed in Copenhagen, Denmark whose credits include world tours with The Raveonettes, Mew, Mercury Rev from NY, Kashmir from Denmark, and, most recently, Trentemøller. An avid Metric Halo user, Jakobsen owns a ULN-8 interface and a LIO-8 interface and regularly uses their SpectraFoo sound analysis software to set up shows and to help identify and solve problems while mixing. His interfaces carry Metric Halo's optional +DSP, which allows him to run their powerful plug-ins on critical live channels (including the whole mix!).

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Klaus Hill is the go-to guy for mixing and mastering dance music in Australia. He’s been involved in the scene for over two decades, first as a producer and DJ on labels such as TCR, Mob, Bedrock Breaks, Distinctive, and his own Title Fight and 2S2 Recordings. He made the shift to mixing and mastering ten years ago and counts among his clients Felix Da Housecat, Yolander Be Cool, Ministry of Sound, Sony, Ubderjack'd, SCNDL, Dub Phizix, and countless others. But beyond his success – Hill has been involved in dozens of Australia’s ARIA Club #1s and Beatport Hits – the well-rounded engineer relishes the opportunity to work with sound every day. “I’m a studio geek,” he laughed. “I love finding the best hardware and the best plug-ins to make other people’s creativity shine! I’m grateful that I get to do this for a living. It’s a job I really love.”

When Hill needed a new interface several years ago, he spoke with the folks at Australia’s Audio Chocolate.

SAFETY HARBOR, FLORIDA:  Jody Elff is a multitalented audio professional with over 25 years of deep and diverse experiences in venues of almost every shape, size, and quality. He cut his teeth in the late 80s and early 90s in Boston, and then after moving back to the New York area, working front-of-house for leading-edge jazz acts like The New York Voices and Diana Krall. In the late 1990s, he earned a privileged spot with New York’s avant garde guru Laurie Anderson, serving as the lead engineer on her concert tours, the designer for her computer programs, and the recording and mix engineer for her acclaimed album, Laurie Anderson, Live At Town Hall, New York City, September 19-20, 2001. From there, he developed another long-lasting engagement with Bang On a Can, the visionary contemporary classical music organization that has revolutionized the relationship between popular and classical music. One thing leads to another, and Elff signed up to work front-of-house for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. He later recorded the group’s Grammy nominated Off the Map and is currently in the midst of recording the group’s newest work. Other high-profile clients include Ethel, Tan Dun, Paul Winter, Hothouse Flowers, and Anderson’s late husband, Lou Reed.