An Audient ASP8024 Heritage Edition console complete with patchbay and Dual Layer Control (DLC) has been installed at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), to “…upgrade the studio facility to a more professional and commercial level” according to the Music Tech department’s team, Rab McQueen, Robert Goldie and Colin Grassie.

“Our Studio A runs 32 channels of mastering grade conversion which have been phenomenal, so we felt that the replacement console needed to be up to that same standard and quality,” they explained. “The Heritage’s feature of the mix bus compressor and “Retro Iron” go without saying but what really stands out to us is the versatility of the entire console.”

Although it is primarily used on the Music Technology course for larger music recording and production projects, the Audient console doesn’t power down too often, as students from Games Design and Creative Animation have started requesting dialogue and Foley recordings on a regular basis.

The arrival of the ASP8024 Heritage Edition has also opened the door to commercial projects. “We are seeing more paid work for the students coming through our doors. We’re currently looking to expand more of this kind of work during the teaching down time, enabling album projects coming through,” added the Music Technology team. “The layout of the desk itself is very straightforward and logical which lends itself well to a teaching environment. Our students have also commented on how the desk layout and the naming convention make it much easier and quicker to learn than other desks.

“Being able to track to the DAW and mix the tape returns simultaneously saves a tremendous amount of time during the recording and mixing process allowing our student engineers to provide initial control room mixes almost as quickly as they are performed. Additionally, the ability to throw the mixed individual channels, subgroups and final bus mix back to into the DAW again with the Copy LF feature in one pass, also means that archiving a full analogue mix is painless.”

“We aim to attract up and coming artists to work with our students (and staff) supporting new music talent, primarily in West and Central Scotland. The Campus is 10 minutes commute from Glasgow which has a wealth of musical talent, a vibrant music scene and industry representation,” continued McQueen, Goldie and Grassie. “As the programme continually develops to include new technologies and industry practices, the new console will be a large part of this, highlighting the importance of analogue and digital integration for music production.”