York St John University has upgraded the console in its studio to an Audient ASP8024 Heritage Edition, adding analogue back into the mix after years of teaching on digital desks. ‘It was important for us to continue to have similar integration within the Audient Heritage, which is working well, as it supports more of the flavours of DAW that we support,’ says Russ Hepworth-Sawyer, Mastering Engineer and part-time Senior Lecturer.

‘For us, it’s about clean, robust mic preamps which now give us a slightly different character to our other preamps’ he continues says. ‘The EQ is really important to the students, who use the multiple returns from the DAW as group buses much of the time on larger mix projects. The integration of the Heritage has allowed students to explore many different workflows with great results.

‘The rationale for us to get the Heritage was the integration with the DAWs, and also to permit a large number of mixes for headphones alongside that extremely solid sound. I was fortunate enough to use one of the first ASP8024s in one of my early part-time teaching jobs some 20 years ago. The desk was a dream to teach on: clear and solid for teaching as well as a professional sound.’

With the new console, the university can provide students have experience of the analogue workflow as well as being proficient in the digital domain. Hepworth-Sawyer is keen for York St John to build on its growing reputation for teaching music production in a different and more ‘real life’ way.

‘Students work with industry partners on live projects with real outcomes, work with real, live artists they find and write with, and work on their portfolio careers from an early point in the course,’ he says.

‘Our courses have been running for a little over a decade now and Programme Director Ben Burrows has created a fresh approach to Music Production in higher education. A comprehensive suite of Bachelors and Masters courses at the University make use of the console, including combined courses such as BA Music Production & Creative Business and BA Independent Music Production. Together with a high staff-to-student ratio, York St John University gets results. ‘Our students are resilient, focussed and business savvy. Many go into the wider area of music and media and are often self-starters.’

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