Mix engineer Ben Capp recently employed his portable Audient kit comprising an iD44 MKII and a new pair of EVO SP8 eight-channel preamps in a recording session with three-piece instrumental band Los Dedos at Giant Wafer Studios in Bristol, UK.
“The results were great and this is thanks to Audient,” says Capp, who’s also the owner of his own studio in addition to serving as front of house engineer on the road with jazz trio Mammal Hands and as in-house sound engineer for the 650-capacity Trinity Centre as well as the smaller Jam Jar venue.
However, more recently he has started to outgrow his city-center studio space, challenged by noise from neighbors, building work, reduced parking/loading and rent price hikes, and as a result has started to adapt his kit and become more flexible. “I’ve welcomed other ways to work, namely building a mixing space at home and investing in equipment which means I can be extremely mobile with recordings,” he says.
Of the iD44 MKII interface, he adds, “This was a bit of a game-changer for me. I can use it at home with its four great-sounding preamps and everything I need from a monitor controller. I can also take it to any recording session with a laptop in a small Peli and I’m away!”
However, he neeed a channel count for recording a larger ensemble” “I’d been keeping an eye out for a set of ADAT preamps that I could integrate into the system, and control with the brilliant and intuitive iD software. I naturally looked at Audient, having had good experience with their products. I discovered that the EVO SP8s could cover everything I was looking for in a small unit, with jack outs, the intriguing Smartgain function and all for a really good price. So I took a chance.”
Pleased with the first two EPs Capp had recorded, when Los Dedos approached him to record and mix their third, he used it as an opportunity to test out his new setup. So he took it all with him to a Giant Wafer Studios, where he had worked in a few times before.
“The 24-channels of installed Neve and API style preamps run into an Antelope Orion HD system via a patchbay so you can really get all the character you want from this studio and the well-treated rooms,” he explains. Despite this, he decided to bypass the Orion/RME MADIFace option, running everything into the iD44 and two EVO SP8 mic pres, giving a total channel count of 20 inputs.
“It went really smoothly and I’m really happy,” he concludes, adding that he used the ADAT outs to run into the studio’s Behringer P16i and out to individual P16 headphone mixes. “That worked perfectly. The iD app made setting up the mixes extremely easy, grouping channels into the ‘Cue’ mixes whilst running some things directly from Reaper, such as a click, guide and the recorded tracks for overdubs. I reserved a channel on the SP8 for my talkback, which again was simple to route.”
