Counting than 1,000 students have through its doors to date, the Record Factory Music Academy offers hands-on workshops ranging from Midi production to studio engineering and music video creation at its HQ in Seoul near the renowned Seoul Arts Center – one of the largest private music production facilities in South Korea,

Its latest acquisition is a Solid State Logic AWS 924 hybrid console/controller, which is now installed in its newly built studios. ‘We considered a number of other consoles to equip Record Factory’s studios, but the AWS was the only one that could meet our expectations,’ says Hee Park.

The academy is building a strong reputation for its advanced programmes and authoritative lecturers. ‘Our mission is to give students real-world experience in a rapidly changing music scene, so we needed to build a very modern and innovative studio,’ Park continues. ‘The AWS is perfect for our studio because of its hybrid design that excels in both analogue and digital-based production. It’s like having both an analogue console and a very well made DAW controller together. It allows our students to concentrate on the sound, rather than struggling with a mouse and keyboard.

‘The console’s small footprint allowed two additional isolation booths to be added in the control room,’ he says. ‘Our instructors and students are amazed by its clever ergonomic design, flexibility and, of course, signature sound, which is absolutely amazing. We especially love the high-input headroom and pristine signal path. The AWS has the warmth and musical harmonic character that we expect from a highly respected analogue console.

‘We remixed some of our in-the-box mixes because we love the extra sparkle that we get from the AWS. The clarity was so great that it felt like we had removed curtains from between the mix engineer and the loudspeakers.’