Seven ASP8024s and two ASP4816s, plus a number of ASP510 5.1 monitor controllers and an ASP800 put the University of West London in the running for the facility with the most Audient desks in the world. Recently, the London College of Music (LCM – part of the university) opened the Paragon Annex studio complex, representing an investment of more than £1m in the development of seven new recording studios, which includes two each of these Audient consoles.
The consoles were supplied by educational technology company, Academia. ‘Audient desks reflect a very clear design ethic in terms of the signal flow through the desk,’ says Richard Liggins, UWL Technical Production Manager. ‘We teach audio studio recording from first principles, and that means an understanding of signal flow through a traditional multitrack studio as a base for all other techniques in audio recording. The architecture of the Audient range supports that teaching very well.’
With this latest development, LCM’s studio complex – just down the road from the university’s Ealing campus – is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. And reckons to measure up technically…
‘Audio-wise, the desks hold their own in a professional studio environment,’ Liggins says. ‘We decided to standardise our main rooms onto a single platform some time ago, to allow better transfer of technique from the teaching studios, and to allow the students more time to concentrate on their recordings without needing to learn multiple platforms and workflows.
‘We wanted to present a consistent approach for the students in the main studios, so the choice of an analogue console was made partly for financial reasons, but also because the traditional recording approach is the backbone of everything we do in audio teaching,’ he continues. ‘Personally, I prefer large chunks of good analogue kit in my signal paths, the quality of the audio and the ability to drive circuits into soft clip at a number of stages is invaluable. Digital desks are much less forgiving for developing technique.
‘Getting a new student to engage with such a large console can be something of a challenge, particularly for those used to working in-the-box, and we have found that the clear and logical layout of the ASP8024’s channel and monitor sections allows clear delivery of signal flow classes. The mic preamps are clean and accurate, the EQ is flexible and supports the teaching of parametric EQ well, and the usual complement of auxes etc are well ordered and clearly marked.’
As the facilities grow, so the courses evolve: ‘We have just launched a multi-pathway variation of our venerable Music Tech Specialist BA (hons), the students study a common first year, then specialise into a number of technique based pathways, including Electronic Music Production, Recording and Mixing, Live sound and Audio Post Production,’ Liggins reports. ‘Interest has jumped by 300 per cent at application, and is holding up very well. We’ve been running studio degrees for 25 years, this is the next phase for us.’
In excess of 500 students will find themselves in one or more of the university’s studios over the course of a year, with all specialist music tech students required to take a Level 4 module in Studio Techniques, regardless of the course that they specialise in later in their studies – so the recording gear is put through its paces. ‘The desks are very keenly priced for such large-scale systems, and are very robust indeed – we have a 12-year-old ASP8024 that is only just coming up to retirement.’
