About Jesus Agnew…

Jesus is a Greek-American engineer who specializes in electronic and mechanical systems related to sound recording and reproduction. Studied both in Greece and the UK, where he earned his MSc. and Ph.D. degrees, he manages to combine music technology with art as he has studied music and has toured as a musician for more than ten years.
As an engineer, he has worked in various companies in the field, as an audio engineer, in recording and broadcasting studios, but has also taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level at the University of Sheffield.
In recent years, he has been intensively involved in analog audio recording technologies, tube-based electronic circuits and modular analog synthesizers, having designed a large number of audio circuits, from cutting amplifiers to signal processors for mastering, audio effects, synthesizers, musical instrument amplifiers, and recording device control circuits. He also deals with the repair, restoration, and upgrades of old record cutting laths, tape recorders, and tube-based audio devices, with extensive experience in handling of the precision machine tools that are often required to manufacture components for these systems. He is also involved in designing professional-level studio facilities and is a devotee of high precision monitoring, having designed his own full-range model.
As a sound and mastering engineer, he is engaged in Magnetic Fideltiy's vinyl record productions, which are fully analog at all stages. He has made a series of direct-to-master recordings, always with minimalist techniques and often using unusual equipment.
He is a full member of the AES and the IEEE and has recently published a study on cutting amplifiers titled "An Investigation of Motional Feedback Disc Recording System Design" in the JAES Magazine. For more details take a look here.

About Sabine Agnew-Steldinger…

Sabine was born and raised in Berlin where she studied Physical Medicine but was also trained in DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) and was involved in the processing of radio jingles and then in pre-mastering/authoring of compact discs and other digital media.
She has worked on many important albums released on CD as well as high resolution, PCM and DSD formats. Sabine also worked as a musician and participated in the first album of Naxatras, playing keyboards at "Waves". She is one of the few women in the production of analog records, she has been trained in the use of cutting lathes by working on Magnetic Fidelity, and she has already made several cuts. She also deals with analog tape editing (using the traditional splicing technique) and operates the company's duplication equipment.
Mrs. Steldinger is an accomplished graphics designer, having created the artwork for commercial album releases and doing layout work for booklets and magazines. Doing the product photography for Agnew Analog Reference Instruments, she uses her skills as a photographer and photo editor. A record collector from an early age, she was also writing and publishing poetry, and stories as well as doing artistic performances and painting. Samples of her work can be seen here.

About Naxatras…

To be completely honest, I had never heard of Naxatras (on oversight, for certain!). They are a very active band from Greece, consisting of John Delias (guitar), Kostas Harizanis (drums) and John Vagenas (bass and vocals).
They describe themselves as follows: "Naxatras is a hard psychedelic rock band from Thessaloniki. Their music consists of dynamic rhythmic motifs, dreamy melodies, heavy riffs, and trippy guitar solos, all with a strong atmosphere and aesthetics of the 70's.
They were founded in 2012 and they cultivated their sound until 2015 when they released their first album ("Naxatras") recorded totally in analog and during a live session. In April 2016, the second album of the band, entitled "II", was released on more experimental space rock paths, after a 2-track EP, all of which was recorded direct-to-master, in tape.
In September 2017, they released the single "All the Stars Collide Into a Single Ray" and went on to their third European tour, having played almost all over Europe, as well as in well-known festivals such as Desertfest, Lake on Fire and Sonicblast Moledo.
In February 2018, their third album, named "III", was released and they made their fourth European tour, which lasted 50 days.
The band incorporates elements from psych/progressive rock, blues, funk, stoner and oriental music along with a psychedelic video show for full sensory stimulation."

About Naxatras III…

The technical aspect, associated with the sound of the band, and especially with the recording of Naxatras III, is quite interesting. Here are some details about the instruments, effects, and amplifiers used in the Magnetic Fidelity studio during the recording:
John Delias had a custom guitar made for him by Vagabond Guitars in Thessaloniki, Greece, and he used a selection of great-sounding analog effect units by manufacturers such as Electro-Harmonix, Magnetovolt, Jim Dunlop, and Marshall. The Magnetovolt FudGe effect unit, particularly audible in the second half of "The Prophet", invented by J. I. Agnew: Vintage NOS germanium transistors and diodes with an internal positive feedback loop for a distinctive tone. For amplification, he used the heavily customized Fender Twin Reverb at Magnetic Fidelity, running NOS US Military 5881 output tubes, along with NOS RCA 7025 and GE 6201 preamp, phase splitter and reverb driver tubes.
John Vagenas used his Jaguar bass, through a chain of analog effect units by Electro-Harmonix, Jim Dunlop and a vintage Boss PH-1r (of Japanese manufacture) which he borrowed from the studio pedal board. Some months before the recording, he took delivery of the Magnetovolt Beyonder, an absolute monster of a vacuum tube instrument amplifier, weighing 70 kg. The circuit is unique and designed by J. I. Agnew. It starts with a Tung-Sol 6SL7 preamplifier tube, transformer coupled to a miniature push-pull power amplifier using Tung-Sol 6SN7 tubes. This in turn power drives a pair of Tung-Sol 6550 output tubes, biased by an unusual combination bias arrangement, operating in Class AB2 and capable of delivering a continuous 200 W of power to the loudspeaker cabinet. The power supply unit uses a pair of 5U4G rectifier tubes and plenty of iron (big heavy transformers and inductors).
Vagenas also played an Arturia MiniBrute analog synthesizer, hooked up to the big analog modular synthesizer system at Magnetic Fidelity. This is a 12 oscillator beast which Agnew designed and built-in 2003 to tour with, long before the modular synthesizer hype started. The synthesizer chain was also amplified by the Beyonder.
Kostas Harizanis brought in his newly acquired Ludwig drum-kit with a selection of cymbals by Paiste and Zildjian.
Filon Geropoulos played a rare and vintage Magnatone Tornado guitar (found in England by Agnew and dating from the early 1960s), through a chain of effect pedals Magnetic Fidelity always keep in the studio for special occasions. It was amplified by a heavily modified Ampeg SuperJet amplifier. J. I. Agnew's favorite modification of this amplifier is to convert the output stage to run cathode-biased 5881 output tubes, wired up for triode operation in Class A. Filon also played a Fender acoustic guitar and bowed some cymbals to get the excitement going.
J. I. Agnew played the tape machine, generating the analog tape effects audible throughout the album, in real-time, while the band was performing.

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