In a pandemic-defying move, Kevin Short’s Mid South Audio recording studio opened in Milton, Delaware, to great fanfare in September 2020 – with A-list musicians flown in from Nashville to be recorded on the facility’s new ASP8024-HE Audient mixing console, and showcasing the stage, sound and lighting abilities.

Owner Short had called in Gavin Haverstick of Haverstick Designs for the studio’s ground-up design, which includes a spacious live room for large ensembles, three separate Iso rooms, two control rooms and a smaller studio for voiceovers and additional mixing.

‘Since our opening, we have run full-on Nashville-style tracking sessions with as many as nine musicians playing at once, as well as streaming live concerts online,’ says Studio Manager and chief engineer, Frank Marchand. ‘The studio acoustics are such that we excel at quiet, acoustic-based music all the way to full band situations with loud amps – and anything in between.

‘In-house items also include a 9ft Baldwin concert grand piano, loads of microphones and amps, and a 16-channel headphone mixing system,’ he adds, noting the 20ft high ceilings in the main tracking room as a particular highlight. ‘Also installed is a two-video system for both streaming and communications between different parts of the facility and all of the recording spaces.’

The difficulty of opening a recording studio against the backdrop of a global pandemic has escaped neither Marchand’s nor Short’s attention, yet they are resolutely positive. ‘Given the ever-changing music scenarios, we have to be a recording studio, a broadcast facility, a small concert venue and a voiceover facility as well on any given day.’ And that’s exactly what they have been doing. ‘The ASP8024-HE has given us the flexibility to do this in a hybrid – analogue/digital way.’

Short chose the DLC (Dual Layer Control) option for his Audient desk, which is designed to integrate with the DAW. ‘With our ASP8024-HE we can both run complete analogue sessions or complete Pro Tools sessions with just a few switches on the desk. This was very important to us from the start,’ he says, explaining their choice. ‘The desk hit our price point as well. This is not an expensive mouse that will go out of date in a few years.’

The studio is part of a larger retail and showroom space comprising 20,000sq-m, which is where Short operates his event production and audio-video-lighting integration company.