Using its exclusive Dorian Gray Studio as a design standard, the Music Support Group (MSG) is expanding its Deutsche POP Academy of Music and Media, and opening new teaching studios in Nuremberg and Vienna. At the centre of the POP Academy work will be two new SSL Duality consoles.

The Dorian Gray Studio blueprint includes high-end monitoring systems and accurate acoustical treatments.

‘The founder and owner conceived MSG as a company that would encompass all aspects of the media business, including an educational initiative,’ says Dorian Gray Studios Manager in Chief, Gerhard Wölfle. ‘I joined the company in 2003 at the time when MSG’s original commercial studio was being rebuilt in a new facility in Eichenau featuring an SSL C200 Digital Production Console. After many planning sessions for that studio, the Dorian Gray Studio design standard was born to represent a uniformly high-quality, professional facility, whether used for educational or commercial purposes. When the educational branch of MSG started to take off, the Dorian Gray Studio concept meant having an SSL console for each Deutsche POP location to maintain that reputation. For our educational goals, Duality was the best choice.’

Deutsche POP Academy was inspired by the need to find skilled engineers for the original Eichenau commercial studio operated by MSG. The inaugural academy location was Berlin, which has a Dorian Gray Studio with a 48-channel Duality console. Over recent years, the academy has expanded to the other locations featuring 24-channel Duality consoles in Hamburg and Eichenau. Continuing the tradition, the Dorian Gray Studio in Vienna, set to open in the second half of 2011, will also feature a 24-channel Duality console. While beginning with courses in engineering for the recording studio, the academy has expanded to teaching all aspects of the media business to include music composition, film and video production, graphic and web design, event managing, marketing and live sound. For the recording studio locations, Duality was seen as key to an enhanced educational experience.

‘A central concept for Deutsche POP was to deliver as much hands-on training as possible for the students,’ Wölfle explains. ‘Duality had an incredible reputation on the world stage, so by purchasing the consoles, we gave our students the very best experience available while putting us ahead of the curve with other schools. Duality allowed us to teach traditional analogue workflow, which gave students a strong operational foundation about how sound was recorded, routed and shaped. Because of the integrated DAW control, we could now relate our students’ existing experience with programs like Cubase and Logic to a high-end professional environment. With Duality, we could teach both techniques from the same console surface.’

While education was the primary mission of the Deutsche POP Dorian Gray Studios, commercial sessions have been booked to further benefit the education of the students. Duality’s SuperAnalogue sound quality has provided an exceptional experience for students and professionals alike.

‘Because Duality-based studios were in high demand in the commercial market, our educational studios have had the opportunity to attract commercial sessions,’ says Wölfle. ‘While the primary use of our studios was for the students, the occasional commercial project gives them real-life experience working with professionals. Hearing the difference between straight DAW recording and recording through Duality was a real eye-opener. When working with a DAW, getting the right sound always became a task. With Duality, our students immediately heard the better sound quality. A professional engineer commented recently that with Duality he no longer had to work hard to get the right sound, as the quality presented was great right from the start.

‘Since Duality, I have seen how the students have changed their way of thinking and working,’ Wölfle claims. ‘For example, before Duality, the sessions captured on our Pro Tools system lacked proper automation implementation for the mixes. With Duality, they began learning about proper automation techniques because they were working with real faders and knew what was going on in the mix. They enjoyed moving the faders and touching controls and, because the sound quality was so pristine, really hearing the differences between levels and automating those changes. There is no other console on the market that can do what Duality has done for us.’

More: www.musicsupportgroup.com
More: www.solidstatelogic.com