Calling it “the most wonderful learning and teaching tool” in a recent interview, programme lead for the BSc (Hons) in Music & Sound Engineering programme Michael O’Dowd had nothing but praise for the ASP4816 installed at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Athlone Campus.

Recommended by many commercial professional engineers and academics in Ireland, who cited its “compelling price point, excellent quality and overall utility versus the other competition”, the desk continues to delight staff and students of the Music and Sound Engineering programme.

The music technology department is a brand new, state-of-the-art facility comprising two music labs with 17 PCs in each, a control room and live room, and all of the main spaces are multi-functional. Michael explains further: “Each room is an independent recording room, mixing room and lecture space, and all of the rooms are connected back through an extensive patchbay that is in turn connected to our ASP4816 console.”

Third-year student, Michael Cannon says, “What I love most about the console is how easy it is to use for all my project work. It doesn’t matter if I’m recording instruments, mixing tracks, or doing sound to picture work like foley or voiceovers, it has all the preamp gain I need, the EQ is great, and it’s simple to route in and out of ProTools…I’m looking forward to spending as much time as I can with console over the next couple of years.”

Echoing his student’s thoughts, O’Dowd continues, “Not only does the console sound great, we find that our first-year students get to grips with the basic operation of the console very quickly. Students in later years can also comfortably dive into more complex signal routing, incorporating outboard signal processing going to the DAW, as well as full analogue mixing. It just works for every situation we throw at it.

“I think the Audient preamps are wonderful, the console EQ to be very sweet and musical sounding and a sprinkling of the bus compressor really adds a gorgeous weight and glue to any mix we run through the console.”

Recently joining together with the Limerick Institute of Technology to form TUS, Michael has high hopes for the amalgamated educational facilities. “We all have the opportunity to plot and plan a very rich and vibrant future for our respective programmes that will only be limited by our ambition to create meaningful contributions to our students, the professional creative industry and to the communities in our areas.”