Oxygen College is reporting increasing numbers of students enrolling in its audio engineering courses, prompting the construction of a new studio at its favilities in Geelong West, on the Australian coast 47 miles southwest of Melbourne. Central to the new studio’s control room is a 36-channel ASP8024 analogue mixing console with Dual Layer Control (DLC) and patchbay now takes centre stage.

Opened in May, this latest addition to the Geelong West music facility is in the care of Head of Audio, Tom Isaac: ‘It is used predominantly by our Advanced Diploma of Sound Production students.’ he explains. ‘The students and staff are very excited and cannot wait to get in there to record. We have other analogue studios here at the college but none as large as this.’

Keen to develop the students’ understanding of signal flow, Isaac reckons that the fact that the studio is analogue is a decided advantage: ‘The Audient desk fits in with our needs for a training platform which teaches students “out-of-the-box” mixing, as well as being a great sounding desk,’ he says.

‘In this very digital age, it’s important that students still understand analogue workflows, routing, gain structure, TT patchbays and so on. It’s amazing to see their reactions when we say, lets mix this, but you cannot use any plug-ins – only the Audient and the outboard in the rack. It really gets them thinking about their mixing craft and how records have been mixed in the past. We have some great outboard units from TubeTech, Universal Audio, Manley, API, Drawmer, Lexicon and Eventide to work with giving students all they need to pull together a great sounding mix.

‘Flexible routing is one of the key strengths, having so many inputs available on mix down is the main reason the ASP8024 got the job,’ he adds.

Keeping the students’ minds open to analogue has certainly had an interesting effect: ‘While they appreciate our studios based on a control surface, Pro Tools and in-the-box mixing, a lot of students are passionate about classic analogue outboard and an analogue summing environment. They may not be able to pinpoint specifically what exactly they like better about the sound of an analogue summed project versus an in-the-box summed project, but as their critical listening skills develop, it’s been a great conversation starter.’

As the largest studio at Oxygen College with a large live tracking room, plus vocal and isolation booths, it helps to teach the finer points of running a commercial facility – students have simulated budgets, work out a cost-per-hour of hire, and have strict deadlines for recordings. They also work in tandem with Advanced Diploma of Music students, who release EPs as part of their course. ‘The Sound Production Diploma students record and mix these with guidance from their trainers. Some go on to be released and enjoy radio play,’ says Isaac.

The console’s patchbay is getting a thorough workout as well: ‘Students look forward to combining their favourite plug-ins with some high-end outboard dynamics that they can insert via the ASP8024’s patchbay.’

Oxygen College has been a creative arts training hub for five years now, providing state-of-the-art, industry-standard and ‘real-world’ education, for a range of arts including music, photography, painting and drawing. The college’s commitment to a low student-to-facility ratio, ensures students have excellent access to studios, equipment and training staff.

The Audient ASP8024 desk was supplied to Oxygen College by Audient distributor, AWave.