LA’s ES Audio has he installed an Audient ASP4816 analogue mixing console alongside the Pro Tools HD3 system in its Studio A, joining a selection of Neve, API, SSL, Avalon and Universal Audio preamps, EQs and compressors, and Adams, KRK, Yamaha and Auratone monitors. For analogue recording, the studio also offers Sony MCI JH-24 2-inch 24-track and Otari MTR-12 half-inch tape machines.

The facility’s Studio B is built around a ‘refreshed’ Tascam M-520, while Studio One – aessentially a writing room – has a Pro Tools syem fed my Audient’s iD22 AD/DA interface. ‘We had been wanting to get back to analogue basics for quite some time, but most larger format consoles with enough I/O out there today were out of our budget range,’ explains Studio Manager/lead sound engineer, Donny Baker.

After looking for a used console, Baker considered building a summing path with rack gear (‘so at least our mixes would be analogue’).

‘Donny was looking for an analogue console with a small footprint, packed with features that would help differentiate ES Audio from other digital studios in Los Angeles,’ says Audient owner, Simon Blackwood. ‘ASP4816 ticked all the boxes with its 4-band EQ, VCA bus compressor and 48 inputs at mix, which together with Audient’s classic English sound and the console’s headroom, made it the ideal choice.’

‘The desk offers all of the features and routing capabilities of larger, more expensive consoles, and was within our budget. After hearing about what it could provide for our future clients’ projects, we knew we had to go with the Audient ASP4816,’ Baker says.

One of the first ASP4816 desks in the Burbank area, it was supplied and installed by the Los Angeles outlet, Vintage King, with VKLA’s Chris Bolitho on hand to ‘help with the purchase, design and building of the new patchbays and cabling.

‘The guys at Vintage King made the decision easy for me because they helped pretty much every step of the way,’ says Baker. ‘VKLA staff were very knowledgeable and made sure that we had all the parts we needed to get the swap done easily. The whole transition took only a week. Therefore, we were able to schedule around the transition smoothly, without having to disrupt the work flow of the other rooms here at ES Audio.’

For almost ten years, Baker has taught and mentored students at ES Audio, through The Recording Connection Audio Institute of Los Angeles. From a teaching perspective, he felt it was important that the console bridged the gap between old school analogue and a DAW with ‘the newest features to help make teaching recording as straight–forward as possible’.

‘It’s all about the signal flow and being versatile, so that we can send the signals where we want, when we want,’ Baker adds. ‘Having access to this kind of analogue signal path is awesome.’

Now Studio A is now up and running with Audient ASP4816 at its heart, coupled with Pro Tools HD. In addition – thanks to new TT patchbays from Redco – the desk has access to the MCI JCH24. ‘The signal can also be sent over to an old Otari MX-12 half-inch 4-track that we acquired from Sony when they were decommissioning some of their old gear,’ Baker says. ‘Apart from the cool vintage outboard gear, everything is new, including patchbays, wires, cabling and the new Argosy desk that holds the ASP4816.’

ES Audio Recording Studio reckons to having ‘a rocking year’, tracking clients including Tionne ‘TBoz’ Watkins of TLC, YouTube sensation Shane Dawson and the Irish Duo, Jedward. Previous clients include artist Brandy, guitarist Manny Charlton of Nazareth and actor Matthew McConaughey.