Studio Humbug owners Jim and Rob Homes have taken delivery of a 24-channel Audient ASP8024 analog mixing console, complementing their growing collection of vintage mic pres.
“The pres we have are from 1961 and VERY colored, this is a wonderful characteristic – but not on everything,” says Jim.
“The ASP8024 has allowed us to integrate the sound of the pres whilst using the headroom, EQ and reliability of the Audient. The two worlds marry together perfectly.”
Audient wasn’t an uninformed choice of desk; Jim & Rob had previously owned a much bigger ASP8024 that they’d sold on, due to “moving about a lot. Normally things that leave our studio never come back,” confesses Jim.
“The Audient is the first time. After a while, we realized 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 return of the Audient – albeit in a smaller form – seems to have worked out just right.
“It’s perfect for us. The ASP8024 is a fantastic central hub for our studio,” continues Jim.
“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 high fidelity lets us make better decisions at the tracking stage and hear more of the mics we are using.”
Based in a Victorian water tower on the Isle Of Wight, Studio Humbug boasts a 900sq ft live room and a certain eccentricity, which suits the boys’ passion for vintage gear rather well.
“We are slowly working towards a sidecar. We have 16 channels and in a few weeks’ time will take delivery of the first 8 EQs to complement them. In time they will be split across the two rooms we have, eight up and eight down.”
There are a few projects in the pipeline for Studio Humbug, including 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,” details Jim. “Then there are more studio improvements, some interesting live sessions and our continuing threat to start a small label.”
With so much on their plate, Audient recommends they keep it simple, and hang onto the desk this time.
