The latest of Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts’ recording rooms to be refitted is now centred in an Audient ASP4816 Heritage Edition mixing desk. More compact than the rooms in the institute’s main studio block, this studio provides extra space for students during LIPA’s busier periods and is home to a growing the synthesiser inventory.

‘Our two entry-level studios are both based around ASP8024-HE consoles,’ LIPA Head of Sound Technology, Jon Thornton, explains. ‘We’ve had ASP8024s in those rooms since the console was first released – we’re now on our third consecutive pair.

‘Those rooms are used not only by our students studying Sound Technology, but also by Music students taking a specialism in production. As a result, they can get incredibly busy at certain times of year, so we needed an overflow. So building the studio around the ASP4816-HE was an obvious choice.’

An in-line, fully analogue recording and mixing console, the ASP4816-HE provides everything expected of a large-format console but in a space-friendly format.

‘The control room wasn’t really large enough to house another ASP8024, but the ASP4816 is so similar in layout and signal flow that students can be up to speed in no time,’ Thornton says.

Previously, this was home to a 5.1 postproduction studio, after the main post space was upgraded to Atmos. ‘Taking the monitoring back to stereo only, improving the acoustic treatment and equipping it with a subset of the same outboard in the main studios means that it can be used for overdubs and mixing during extremely busy periods.’

‘There was also clear demand from some students for a facility where they really explore synthesis and sound design beyond software synths,’ Thornton says. ‘So the control room is now “synth heaven”, with a range of analogue and digital hardware synths and associated Midi control and patching.’

Among the studio’s collection of synthesisers are a Korg MS-20, Roland Juno X, Sequential Prophet 5 and Moog Subsequent 37, as well as a Moog rack comprising a Mother-32 semi-modular synth, DFAM (Drummer From Another Mother) and Subharmonicon Polyrhythmic Synthesizer. A second rack houses Roland’s Tr-08 Rhythm Composer, Tb-03 Bass Line Synthesizer and SH-01A synth module.

This latest refit also includes the upgrade of the facility’s Foley capabilities.

‘We’ve been including Foley work in the curriculum for decades, trying to give students a very broad experience of postproduction workflows,’ Thornton says. ‘Indeed, some have gone on to forge very successful careers as Foley recordists and editors for feature films, episodic television and computer games.

‘We’ve never had a dedicated Foley floor with dedicated pits for different surfaces for footsteps, though,’ he continues. ‘Up until now that’s all been very improvised. We took the opportunity in the refit to build such a floor. It has six pits with different surfaces – concrete, wood floor boards, solid wood, gravel/stone et cetera – all of which can be covered with removable lids to give a flat floor when the room is used for other functions such as instrumental overdubs and ADR.’

The new console has already proved an excellent choice according to Thornton, thanks in part to the high-grade hybrid discrete and op-amp design of the preamps. ‘Recording Foley needs two things. The first is a really quiet signal path and room – you’re often dealing with relatively quiet sounds that need a lot of gain. The preamps on the Audient HE consoles really shine here, adding tons of very clean gain.

‘The second is speed – you need to move quickly and be ready to record almost anything in an instant. The simplicity of operation of the ASP4816-HE really helps here too.’

Overall Thornton is pleased with the new room, which has been home to different set-ups over the years since it opened in 1996 including Kenny Everett’s home studio at one point. The students are equally excited about the refit. ‘The anticipation among them is palpable,’ Thornton says.

More: https://audient.com