The UK’s Middlesbrough College has claimed its place as having the largest collection of Audient iD14s interfaces in one education facility – 54 of them shared across three Music Labs.

‘The iD14s offer seamless audio experience between both our PCs and iMacs.’ Says technician and lecturer, Jamie Donnelly. ‘Also, 16 out of the 24 available channels in four out of our five control rooms are Audient [ASP800] desks, taking us up to 64 channels of Audient preamps.’

With each iD14 offering two channels of Audient-designed console mic preamps and Burr-Brown conversion, Donnelly is impressed: ‘They’re used in every module of the course that requires audio,’ he confirms. ‘Students think they’re great – indeed there are a number of students who’ve purchased their own.

‘They just sound great,’ Donnelly continues. ‘I compared one to a dual-channel mic preamp costing in excess of £1,500. Given the choice between the two, I’d take eight channels of Audient over the two channels offered in the expensive preamp. The Audient held up sound wise, and is easily more bang for buck.

‘A favourite feature of the iD14 has to be the big knob,’ he adds. ‘It’s nice to know there’s a sturdy knob for controlling the output as opposed to the finicky ones found on other units.’

The same knob can also be switched into Audient’s ScrollControl mode, which turns it into a virtual scroll wheel for control of host DAWs and plug-in parameters.

With places limited to around 30 seats per year, Middlesbrough College’s BSc (Hons) Music Technology degree course (accredited by Teesside University) is in the strong position of having more UCAS applicants than places available. Successful applicants are chosen on the basis to their performance at interview, at which they get the opportunity to visit the facilities.

‘Having top-quality, reliable audio heavy-hitters as part of our audio infrastructure is key to being a successful, worthwhile course, and Audient is without doubt part of that picture,’ Donnelly opines.

More: https://audient.com