The recently opened Thunder House Studio in Saint Lucie County, FL, which is the newest element in Thunder House Sound (THS) owned by Nick Diiorio that also comprises a live sound company and backline equipment rentals, has been equipped with an Audient ASP8024 analog console.
“I wanted to be able to give bands a better opportunity than I had to make great-sounding music,” Diiorio explains, noting that numerous “unremarkable” studio experiences in recording his own bands led him to target local, unsigned artists. “The local band may not always be local,” he adds. “They always have the most to learn about anything in the music world. I love being able to teach and help them evolve.
This concept of offering better service, information and support mechanisms to these musicians is already bringing in business, he notes. For example, pop-punk band Point of View is a regular Thunder House Studio client, recording one to two songs a month, and Diiorio has also just started tracking the latest album for ambience pop-rock band Sandman Sleeps, which is due to be mixed by multiple gold record producer James M Wisman.
His own “audio journey” began back in high school when he joined a punk band playing drums or whatever other instruments were lying around in his basement. Back then he would record the music using a cassette recorder with dual 1/4-inch jack inputs using a couple of Radio Shack microphones. “There was a lot of experimentation,” he says. “The punk world showed me there are no boundaries in music and DIY became my standard operating procedure.”
Time passed and he continued on that route, starting out with an 8-channel interface. “The first time I had a console in front of me, I knew it was the way I wanted to work,” he says. “I’ve had analog and digital consoles over the years and when I got my first look at an Audient console, I felt like it was the perfect professional desk to meet my needs and budget. I had been eyeing the ASP8024 with DLC for about seven years and when I found what I was looking for on the used market I jumped at the chance to bring it home.
“My basic tracking setup is 24 buses plus the eight subgroup buses for 32 in, and I use the additional x8p for any extra like DI signals or other secondary signals that may not need to be heard through the console during tracking,” he continues. “I have a basic signal flow with outboard preamps and other analogue boxes pre-patched to most of the channel inserts. I am also running a few analog reverb and delays. My setup does exactly what I need it to.”
Audient
