An Audient ASP4816 console has been installed in Parisian studio Jolokia, offering "many possibilities" for its engineers despite its compact size. 

Studio owner and sound engineer Dany Maatouk, who’s been running the studio with his girlfriend Katia Pereira de Almeida since 2014, said there were a few desks in the running, but after relatively few weeks of research, choosing Audient was “…an easy decision".

“It is the only console that offers 16-channel strips with inline architecture, giving you the option to use it as a 40-channel mixing desk," Maatouk said. "In addition to all that you add an amazing bus compressor, some very high quality preamps and a ton of monitoring possibilities. For me, the only console that answered my every need was the ASP4816.”

Describing Jolokia Studio as a hybrid studio, full time sound engineer (and some time musician) Maatouk prides himself in being able to offer both fully analogue as well as ‘in the box’ mixing services. 

The studio has a range of analogue gear to complement the Audient desk, along with a number of plugins and an Icon Control Surface. “What I really like to do is to use the best of both worlds. I’ll start a mix entirely analogue style out of the box, and then continue it in the box using some crazy effects and automations,” Maatouk commented. 

The ASP4816’s EQ sections are one of his "favourite" features of the Audient desk. “They’re those kind of parametric EQs where you can boost any frequency of 12dB and it will still sound amazing – very musical and easy to use. Also the monitoring section is very well made and thought out.”

 “The compliment we get a lot is that the musicians feel great with us in the studio and they can’t see themselves recording in another place," he concluded.