Forty years after qualifying as a sound engineer, Greg von Menge is finally writing and producing music in his own studio. Key to his new set-up is a recently refurbished Audient ASP8024 Classic mixing console. It is installed in a large, stand-alone studio in his backyard, built to accommodate the host of vintage synths and studio hardware when they outgrew his original space indoors,
The large-format desk is now central to own creative endeavours, which accompany a smattering of commercial work. It took four decades to get here though…
Life took a very different turn for Greg when a serious motorcycle accident put an end to his dreams of live audio work. Based in Melbourne, Australia, he started an art services and picture framing business to keep bills paid. He never strayed far from his love of music, however, continuing to write and record music from a small home studio, picking up freelance work for Australian broadcaster ABC and writing soundtracks for indie films and documentaries. He also kept his hand in with studio work by freelancing out of a commercial 24-track analogue studio.
In the intervening years, he steadily accumulated a variety of analogue synthesisers, audio equipment and musical instruments, setting up a small home studio centred on an Audient Zen compact 16-channel desk bought new from local Audient retail outlet, Awave in 2010. ‘The Zen is a fantastic compact mixer with 32 channels at mixdown. I love that you can flip the channels, hit the flip fader button and your 16 DAW channels are now on 16 faders,’ he says.
His connection with Awave owner Lewis Chiodo recently led to a fortuitous opportunity to acquire the ten- year-old ASP8024, which had originally been purchased in 2012 for the Victorian College of the Arts new studio was starting to show signs of wear and tear. ‘Electronically it was perfect except for a few LEDs on the meter bridge,’ he says.
Aesthetically it needed a more TLC – he stripped off the timber, sanded and re-stained it; and removed all of the faders and knobs, and washed them with a toothbrush. Windex took care of the aluminium and then he opened up each bay to give it a vacuum. ‘It was actually very clean inside,’ he recalls. ‘When I put it back together it looked brand new.’
The console includes Dual Layer Control and a patchbay, and is now the centrepiece of the studio, taking the role from his Zen. ‘It is a fantastic addition to the studio, everything revolves around the ASP8024,’ he enthuses. ‘With more than 80 channels at my disposal, everything can be plugged in at all times ready to record at the push of a button.’
His set-up in includes more than 24 vintage synthesisers and drum machines patched directly into the console. He runs two Mac computers both with separate AD/DA converters – the first, a 24-channel Lynx, serves Logic, Cubase and Reaper DAWs, with Dangerous Convert 2 and Dangerous AD+ running as a two-track recorder with Cubase and Wave Lab Pro providing the other path.
Menge also has hardware compressors, numerous mics, guitars and bass guitars, and Focal Trio 11, Focal Solo 6 and Yamaha NS10 monitors. The mastering chain is all patched via a Dangerous Liaison, which is subsequently patched to the Audient patchbay.
‘The Audient console is effectively acting like a big router that gives me the flexibility to run all the synths live with Midi and audio from the multitrack, and catch it on the two-track. I think in America the process is called pitch-and-catch, when mastering. I am fortunate that my console came with the patchbay,’ he continues. ‘There are 24 – eight channels D-Subs on the back of the console – super-easy. The ASP8024 is an inline desk and just like the Zen has the flip fader button, making it very flexible.’
While refurbishing the desk, Menge took the opportunity to upgrade the ASP8024 power supply. ‘The original was still working fine, but I was told that the new model was virtually silent – and they weren’t wrong. Anybody thinking of upgrading should, because it makes a big difference in a soundproof room.’
Singing the praise of all his Audient gear, he continues: ‘I still use the Zen almost every day. The main thing about all Audient products is the build quality and reliability. My Zen has been switched on pretty much every day since 2010 – that’s 15 years without a problem.
‘There are so many things that stand out with Audient. I know I can turn on the ASP8024 console every morning and it’s just going to work every time. It’s low cost to run and uses surprisingly little power. It’s also very easy to use: well laid out with a very logical signal path. Best of all, it sounds great.’
It has a little longer than anticipated, but Menge is finally able to focus on writing and producing music, which he does with Ben Coe, a talented composer, recording, mixing and mastering engineer, and Head of Broadcast & Digital at Arts Centre, Melbourne. When not engaged in his own work, Menge has taken on a smattering of commercial projects including voiceovers, mastering work and sound design.
‘My last job was writing the soundtrack for a documentary film on the building of the Victorian Pride Centre in Melbourne,’ he says. ‘I’m also working on mastering some of my older soundtracks with Ben to put on my new SoundCloud, and I’m currently writing music for an upcoming architectural documentary film.
‘I’m going to work on a sample library for Kontakt as well as some soundscapes,’ he continues, now looking to the future. ‘I plan to build a Foley studio next door to my main studio and produce a new sound to replace that seatbelt “ding” on planes. I would also love to build an Atmos studio incorporating the new Audient Oria Immersive Audio Interface and Monitor Controller.’
More: https://audient.com
