Award-winning music agency SMP Amsterdam recently invested in four new Yamaha Nuage systems to be used in its refurbished master studio and three of its smaller studios.

The company, which produces music for broadcast, channel branding, commercials and movies, was founded 20 years ago by composer Martijn Schimmer.

Located close to the city centre, SMP employs 11 people and its premises include seven studios, six for individual engineers and a master studio with a large live room. Schimmer’s music for televised singing competition The Voice is currently heard in around 160 countries, as well as being a familiar part of many Dutch TV idents, series and adverts.

Installed by studio and broadcast integrator Maartens Sound & Vision, the Nuage system in the main studio features a master unit and three fader units, with systems comprising a master unit and single fader unit in two of the smaller studios. The fourth Nuage system is installed in a basement studio at Schimmer’s home, with a master and two fader units. It is directly connected to the studio, allowing him to work on any project at any time, from either location.

“When I started as a composer, I was using Steinberg Cubase – firstly with MIDI only, then increasingly using it to record audio as well,” explained Schimmer. “Cubase got so good with audio that I crossgraded to Nuendo and now I couldn’t live without it.

“One of the many great things about Nuage is how much you can do with the jog wheel. It is so intuitive, I do hardly anything on mouse and keyboard any more,” Schimmer continued. “I really like the way the physical channel strip runs up into the screen. You don’t have to stray from where you are sitting or keep looking at the main screen – you can stay in the sweet spot, which is really important.”

SMP usually has 20-30 projects running at the same time, all at different stages, so the Nuage systems help to keep them moving along quickly and are flexible enough to still speak to other DAWs.

“The ideas never stop,” remarked Schimmer. “I can write at home in the evening, or if I want to be undisturbed, then come into the studios and seamlessly continue, or vice versa. Nuage is making a real difference to how efficiently we can work, at no cost to the quality of our creativity. You feel like you are on a console, not a controller. To be honest I didn’t expect it to be this good!”

Schimmer talks about the way he set up his studio and why he chose Steinberg’s Nuendo software and Yamaha’s Nuage DAW controller in the video below:

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/