Currently setting up a studio in New York, Will Holland has previously been busy in the UK and Bogota. Better known under his working name Quantic, his background spans instrumental hip-hop and electronic music, and more recently soul, jazz and Latin.
‘Over the past couple of years I’ve been trying to centre on the concept of clarity and quality in the mixing setting,’ he says. ‘My recordings are comprised of different elements, often from a variety of sources. These may be recordings from tape, record and various sounds recorded on location, so it’s important to maintain a noise free, clear and undistorted sound at all times. I’m also doing a lot of work with very tonally rich sounds, acoustic instruments and percussion with a lot of upper register harmonics. It’s important to have a soundcard that makes the musicality shine without harsh digital edges or muddy sound.’
This thinking was behind his choice of Prism Sound’s Titan USB multitrack audio interface, which is aimed at music and sound recording, mixing, multitracking, overdubbing, stem-based mastering, analogue summing and critical listening applications – in a dedicated unit compatible with both Windows and Apple platforms (Apple in Holland’s case). He has used Prism Sound converters in mastering sessions before, but this is the first time it has appeared in his own studio set-up.
‘What really appealed to me was the software management and the fact that all of the mic and input preamps were software controllable,’ he says. ‘This makes the unit very attractive to travel with because it is so quick and easy to set up. I find everything works instantly and the setup is quick and without glitches or tech issues. In my studio, space is also important, so the fact that Titan comes in a 1U package is very important.’
Holland’s most recent large-scale recording and music production Ondatropica, a collaboration with Mario Galeano, a musician and arranger from Bogota. The initial album was recorded in Medellin at the Colombian studio Discos Fuentes, and has since been toured for two years. His fifth solo record, Magnetica, is about to be released on the Tru Thoughts label and he is currently playing a series of European gigs.
‘I believe the Titan will add a new dimension to my work,’ he says. ‘I mixed a song with it last night and the whole mixdown process was infinitely easier than normal. The clarity in sound was excellent. It made the whole process much easier and quicker. I’m very satisfied with my Titan and am now looking forward to trying it out in some live sessions.’
More: www.prismsound.com
