Just a year after opening, Skillman Music studios is using a small format Audient ASP8416 analogue mixing console to attract clients to its urban, high-end professional studio space, located just a stone’s throw from New York City’s Union Square.

The studios have already racked up an impressive client list, including celebrated concert pianist, Lang Lang, as well as various members of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

"It suited my budget and the review was great," explained Wei Wang, Skillman Music studio owner. “For me, it’s all about transparency. We use a lots of omni-directional small condenser microphones, lots of ribbons too. The Audient console on board preamps are also very good, we use them a lot on strings. We just love to capture the real sound. It’s very important in classical music recording."

A large number of Skillman Music’s clients are classical musicians, and according to Wang, they and their respective engineers/producers have given very positive feedback about the desk too. "The sound is super clear. The routing is insanely great – we can route anyway we want and use outboard gear very easily," he said. "For example, we normally patch our reverb, stereo compressor into different Aux sends and returns, so we don’t even need to patch sometimes for some classical sessions. Time is money and we have to act fast."

Making Skillman Music a reality in the first place was not all plain sailing however. "We didn’t want to be the next studio to get kicked out by its landlord, so we purchased the whole building and built the studio from the ground up,” explained Wang. ”The entire studio is made from portable panels so we can adjust it acoustically. Everything is measured and frequency is controlled as needed."

Wang has great ambitions for the recording studio, which continues to evolve as the client list grows. At the moment, Wang is working on "pretty big" violin and viola records, which are due out in a few months. "We are building a vocal/drum booth. We are getting more and more jazz and pop gigs, therefore we need a booth,” he concluded. “We are also wood paneling the entire studio for acoustic reasons."

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