The new 24-channel Audient ASP8024 is not the first such analogue mixing console to be installed at Studio Humbug. Based in a Victorian water tower on the Isle of Wight, Studio Humbug boasts a 900-sq-ft live room and a character that suits owners Jim and Rob Homes’ passion for vintage gear well. They had previously owned a larger ASP8024 that they’d sold due to ‘moving about a lot’.

‘Things that leave our studio never come back,’ confesses Jim. ‘The Audient is the first time. After a while, we realised that it solved a lot of the problems we had. We also re-listened to some of the mixes we did on the Audient and they sounded great.’

The desk also complements the studio’s growing collection of vintage mic preamps: ‘The pres we have are from 1961 and are very coloured,’ says Jim. ‘This is a wonderful characteristic, but not on everything. The ASP8024 has allowed us to integrate the sound of the pres while using the headroom, EQ and reliability of the Audient. The two worlds marry together perfectly.’

The return of the Audient – albeit in a smaller form – seems to be working: ‘The ASP8024 is a fantastic central hub for our studio,’ Jim says. ‘The built-in routing makes selecting signals easy and also encourages us to make decisions to tape. It also allows us to work quickly. Its fidelity lets us make better decisions at the tracking stage and hear more of the mics we are using.

‘We are slowly working towards a sidecar,’ he adds. ‘We have 16 channels and in a few weeks’ time will take delivery of the first eight EQs to complement them. In time they will be split across the two rooms we have, eight up and eight down.’

Projects in the pipeline for Studio Humbug include albums for Champs, Wolf People and Eilmer Reed, lots of single mixes for other acts ‘and our ongoing work with the EMI music library team’, Jim says. ‘Then there are more studio improvements, some interesting live sessions and our continuing threat to start a small label.’