Roland Worton, a musician, songwriter, author, worship pastor at Sojourn Church in Carrollton, TX, and the founder of Soundforgers, a non-profit organization dedicated to mentoring musicians and other creative individuals, has integrated an Argosy G22 desk into his new private production facility.
The Argosy desk, configured for the Avid Artist Control system and optionally outfitted with two onboard 9RU racks and a dual-monitor arm, is the centerpiece of the new facility, which also incorporates a live recording space.
“Argosy has been the centerpiece of many of the commercial studios that I have used. I was attracted to it because I’ve seen it in operation before,” comments Worton. “I’m loving the console. It’s an excellent design and very, very sturdy. They’ve thought of everything, in terms of the design spec, from cabling to covering, right down to the little pieces of Velcro. I’m putting the whole control room into the Argosy desk. That’s really exciting for me; it’s going to be great.”
Worton chose Argosy’s G22 model — which he acquired through Spunky Barone at Audio Dawg in Irving, TX — for its layout, which is specifically designed to accommodate Avid Artist work surfaces.
“I’m using it with three Avid Artist Mix panels, and the Avid Artist Transport.” Having been using a generic desk setup until now, he says, “I love that the Argosy desk is totally modeled for the Avid Artist. I can’t say enough about how much of a difference having something that is totally integrated for workflow is going to make to the creative process.
“That’s why I went with Argosy; it’s not the cheapest or the fastest route, but for me, it’s totally the centerpiece of what I’m doing.”
Currently in the final stage of putting his control room together, Worton details the onboard equipment complement for the two nine-space racks: “I’m using it for lots of mic pres, compressors, my digital I/O and some hard drive space. I’m running Logic and Pro Tools|HD.” He also opted for an optional monitor display arm. “I’m doing two Apple monitors on an arm. With my software instruments, VSL [Vienna Symphony Orchestra] Strings and other stuff, I really need two windows.”
The new facility will bridge the secular and religious worlds, explains Worton, who relocated to Texas from the U.K. in 2003. A published author with a 2008 record release, “Speak,” to his name, “I also do some commercial writing for media and commercials,” he says.
When he was in his late teens, a U.K. management company selected him for development. “From that I got a record deal, a management deal, did some publishing. It all crashed after a couple of years; they were looking for more of a pop artist to develop, and that wasn’t the direction I was going in.”
He continues, “This is going to be a production studio for songwriting, too. This is going to be a hybrid place for writers, producers, creative people, young guys who can get involved with writing for media and marketing that can come in and use all the software and get familiar with it. And on the side, I’ll develop some artists. I’ve been involved in the worship and church realm for a long time, but I really feel that there’s some cool stuff in the music industry to do. So this is an eclectic, creative venture.”
