Music artist Steve J Brown has been using his Audient ASP4816 to work on a collaboration with Corinne Bailey Rae and internationally acclaimed drummer, Myke Wilson. Inspired by a residency he took up in Chicago earlier this year, he’s now back in his northern England studio, getting that record ready for mixing, as well as developing other ongoing projects and working on Corinne’s next album.

Steve describes his studio as a ‘creative workshop environment’, comprising a hybrid front end which feeds into either 16-track tape or digital – or both – with the new Audient mixing desk functioning as a hub for routing, in tandem with a patchbay.

“I was looking for a mixer which could integrate the hardware so there’s less patching needed,” he explains, recalling his old setup, which needed everything patching individually. “It was super-flexible, but in practice it meant I would opt against experimenting in the flow of a tracking session.”

Nowadays he uses the 16-way bus routing system of the Audient ASP4816 to route to a choice of hardwired chains of outboard EQ and compression. “I can track the chain and a clean, pre-processed direct out (via a track’s insert send) simultaneously. So I can really overcook the outboard knowing the pre-processed track is there if I went too far. This is helping me get to know the more extreme reaches of my gear in a real session environment.

“I love the flexibility of that routing. It’s just a button push to throw a track or group of tracks into a hardware chain and it comes up on its own fader and normals to a soundcard input.” This way of working draws on his years of trusting his creative flow.

“Routing via chains of outboard allows me to bring up a vibrant sound on first playback. The players can hear their performance with some extra flavour,” he explains. “If you can keep the energy rising on playback it’s a virtuous cycle. We can be surprised how good something sounds and bring that confidence into the next performance.” He fully appreciates that the desk “has been designed from an engineer’s perspective.”

Steve is comfortable in all elements of music production from writing, arranging and performance through to engineering and mixing. “I’ve spent time in all these roles over the years and been inspired by some amazing people. Each role informs the others in useful ways,” he says. “Learning to cover many roles on a session opens up the freedom to work more experimentally and have more autonomy.”

You can read more about Steve’s creative flow in the full article on the Audient website and more about Corrine Bailey Rae on her website.