The first Audient ASP8024 Heritage desk to be installed in Germany can be found in Freiburg, where Markus Heinzel has recently upgraded his Liquidstudio recording and music production studio.
Wishing to ‘rely on my technology, so that I can get on with making music’, Heinzel organised the finances necessary for the improvements to his space in 2016 – the largest single investment being the console. It took him the best part of a year to find the desk that suited both his needs and his budget. ‘The combination of a well processed and proven, big analogue desk with DAW integration is perfect for me,’ he says. ‘I use the DLC module mostly to make automations, it’s great to play with that.
‘After working with a digital console for ten years, I wanted to come back to analogue,’ he explains. ‘I wanted to record using the excellent analogue EQs and shape the incoming signals directly. When I mix, I create stems and sum through the desk which gives me the option to fine tune things with the Audient channel EQs. I then use the Retro Iron and the Low Bump/High Lift EQs on the mix bus when printing a mix, as they lift everything up a bit and add power and clarity. Another great feature is the mix bus compressor, which adds a nice glue to the final mix.’
The new console joins Liquidstudio’s Event TR8 Tuned main studio monitors, and Cubase 9 DAW software and Waveleab 9 editing and mastering software. Conversion is handled by RME ADI 8 DS MkIII and RME ADI 2 converters, which are clocked by an RME WCM HDSP 9632. Recording is supported by a Universal Audio UAD-2 Quad Nevana 128 system running a range of channel strips, processors and effects, as well as a well-stocked mic cupboard.
Evenings see Liquidstudio double up as a non-commercial live venue called The Slow Club. Th this end, Heinzel has designed the whole space to flip between its two distinct roles, while managing to use every inch of space. When he’s not running the live shows – of which there are upwards of ten each month – the function room is the recording room. ‘I work with a couple of sonic walls with diffusers, damping elements, bass traps and so on, and the stage also turns into the vocal chamber when you close the sonic curtain,’ he says. He even built frames for the portable acoustic elements out of the wooden crate that the Audient desk arrived in, continuing to ensure that nothing goes to waste.
When asked, he suggests that it’s his latest work that he’s most proud of. ‘It’s not been released yet, but it was all produced using my new set-up. I have to say the change in my studio has definitely been worth it,’ he reflects.
