Opened by resident producer and founder Kevin Energy in 2016, the UK’s DeeVu Studios ‘strives to be the perfect rural location for uninterrupted creativity’. Purpose-built, the facility has put a Neve Genesys Black G16 console at the heart of its operation.
Energy, began his career working with dance/rave producer Austin Reynolds in the mid-90s, and has worked with hundreds of producers and artists around the world. His experience of these studios involved the use of a wealth of high-end recording equipment including Neve outboard – most memorably the 33609. ‘It was so impressive,’ he recalls. ‘Having been a lifetime music anorak, I had always read up about the qualities of Neve consoles but had never had the chance to use one.’
Both Energy and business partner, DeeVu Records co-founder Lee Rose, visited AMS Neve to discuss their options. According to Rose, the choice of console for their vision was an obvious one: ‘The studio needed a DAW controller, quality mic pres, as well as an analogue summing solution and high end conversion. The Genesys Black has all of this and more.’
The studio – located on the south coast of England – is primarily designed for tracking vocals and was custom-built around the Genesys Black console to a design by acoustic engineer Howard Turner. ‘The room sounds amazing,’ Energy says. ‘No frequency is hyped or lacking, so it’s the perfect place to sit and create a dream mix.’
Speed and ease of use was of paramount importance to the team, as was longevity and the ability to grow with the desk. ‘We really like the Recall functions of the desk. It’s great to know that every session is backed up and saved so that we can open a mix at any point and make small adjustments after road testing different material in different environments and gaining feedback from different ears,’ Rose explains.
‘We also love the fact we can quickly reference a mix straight out the convertors to the speakers at the touch of a button which makes AB’ing reference tracks seamless. The routing functions of the desk are off the scale for what we need at the moment, but we know that the desk can handle whatever we extend to in the future.
‘Mix-wise, I can safely say the Genesys Black has made an instant impact on the quality of our mixes. Something inside that desk enables me to mix with clarity, precision and form a final sheen to my mixes, which I have been unable to achieve elsewhere. The tracking and quality of the vocal recordings we are getting is second to none. All the detail and air is coming through perfectly which makes big vocal productions a dream to orchestrate through the Genesys.’
