New Audient ASP8024 console-owner Michael Chiklis has spent the last few weeks getting acquainted with his 24-channel Audient desk before hot-footing off to New Orleans to start shooting the television series, “American Horror Story: Freak Show”.
“I recorded the first tracks through the ASP8024,” enthuses Chiklis, who is better known for his acting career than for his high spec, Los Angeles home studio. “I recorded a cover of a Police song just to test the system and it really went beautifully.”
“Very basic bass, drums, guitar and vocal tracks sounded warm and clean through these mic pres,” he continues. “In fact, I’m very impressed just how good everything sounds with no compression or effects, just solid musicianship captured with Bob Heil mics through the Audient pres into ProTools 11—gorgeous.
“I’m very excited to start recording originals now. We have some soundproofing and trapping tweaks to finish, but we’re essentially ready to go at this point and now it’s all about the music.”
Chiklis grew up in a musical family and is himself an accomplished drummer and vocalist, and also plays guitar and bass with his band MCB.
“I am over the moon with this console! I even engineered one of the songs myself,” he confesses. “I am definitely not an engineer but between the intuitive lay out of the board and the relatively self-explanatory new ProTools 11 HD, I was able to do it – the tracks sound amazing!”
The British-made desk in Chiklis’s studio comes complete with ‘Dual Layer Control’ module, allowing the console to operate in both the analogue and digital domain. The pres are warm and lush and with no added compression or plugins – the sound is gorgeous! So far so great!
“The three engineers that I work with can’t wait to really put the console through its paces. They seem to all be very impressed with the clean, simplicity of its layout as well as its warm analogue sound,” adds Chiklis. “I have a number of incredible musicians waiting in the wings to lay down tracks as soon as we are up and running.”
