Moving on from his time as drummer with New Order and Joy Division, musician, composer and producer Stephen Morris has installed a Neve Genesys G48 in his home studio, a ‘much needed upgrade’.
Morris has worked from the Macclesfield-based studio daily since the early-90s and upgrading was an essential step in meeting industry demands: ‘My studio was flung together [nearly thirty years ago] and has been in constant use,’ he explains. ‘An update was long overdue. It was time to join the 21st century.’
The space is mainly used for mixing and, initially, Morris was unconvinced he needed a console: ‘In a modern DAW-centric world, the largest and most underused item in my old studio set-up, was the desk, after the analogue 24-track tape machine. Probably the most difficult question I asked myself was what to replace it with. I wasn’t entirely sure I need to at that point.’
After consideration, Morris was concerned that eliminating a console from his set-up entirely would be limiting for him. ‘I mainly mix in the box but for recording – especially recording drums. To me, it falls naturally into the domain of a desk, a nice big analogue desk preferably. I wanted to have that option available to me and so I decided I definitely needed to consider building the studio around a console.’
Morris recognised that he needed something powerful, flexible and expandable: ‘A studio is never finished, always a work in progress,’ he reflects. ‘I had to have recallable flexible routing, DAW control and above all, great analogue sound. I needed something that combined the best of analogue with the best of digital and Genesys was it. I’ve used a lot of AMS Neve gear over the years and the sound is always impeccable.
‘The Genesys has made everything I do easier and faster. But most importantly everything sounds better. The Genesys has that great Neve sound combined with flexible control.’
More: www.ams-neve.com
