York St John University has upgraded to an Audient ASP8024 Heritage Edition, adding analogue back into the mix after years of teaching on digital desks.

“It was important for us to continue to have similar integration within the Audient Heritage, which is working well, as it supports more of the flavours of DAW that we support,” said Russ Hepworth-Sawyer, mastering engineer and part-time senior lecturer. “For us it’s about clean, robust mic preamps which now give us a slightly different character to our other pres” added Hepworth-Sawyer. “The EQ is really important to the students, who use the multiple returns from the DAW as group busses much of the time on larger mix projects. The integration of the Heritage has allowed students to explore many different workflows with great results. “The rationale for us to get the Heritage was the integration with the DAWs, and also to permit a large number of mixes for headphones alongside that extremely solid sound. I was fortunate enough to use one of the first ASP8024s in one of my early part-time teaching jobs some 20 years ago. The desk was a dream to teach on: clear and solid for teaching as well as a professional sound.“Our courses have been running for a little over a decade now and Programme Director Ben Burrows has created a fresh approach to Music Production in higher education,” continued Hepworth-Sawyer. “Our students are resilient, focussed and business savvy. Many go into the wider area of music and media and are often self-starters.”