Regarding his space as a writing room rather than a studio, composer and producer for film, television and games Hilgrove Kenrick has a tendancy to streamline his technology wherever possible. One example of this is the Audient Oria he recently installed in his new Oxfordshire studio.
Kenrick was already working in 5.1 with Steinberg Nuendo and a PMC monitor set-up when he heard about the immersive audio interface and monitor controller from Audient and felt that it would slot right in. ‘It would simplify everything and allow me to monitor stereo, quad and 5.1 – no extra gear needed,’ he explains.
Originally concerned about how he was going to flip between stereo and surround formats, he realised Audient had solved that problem for him: ‘When it became clear that SoundID Reference was going to be integrated directly into the Oria, it really did seem to be pretty much unique in this sector of the market.
With design help from Roomsonics and the Professional Monitor Company, Hilgrove has now got the control he wants and the monitoring he needs.
‘It was all done and dusted with the room tuned within an hour,’ he says. It was so easy in fact, he did it again a couple of days later. ‘I felt it wasn’t as accurate as it might have been because of my placement of the measuring microphone. Definitely responded well to the extra care taken.
‘Everything has collapsed into simplicity,’ he continues. ‘With one fell swoop the Oria has simplified everything – one volume knob, one button to flip profiles, a couple of lovely Audient preamps for quick takes of instruments and the Adat inputs to take wider mic inputs from my ASP800.’
With his new space now somewhere he feels inspired, enthusiastic and at peace, he can get on with the business of further exploring what can be done with immersive audio. ‘Suddenly, with spatial audio, we’ve been handed the tools and just left to get on with it with no historical shackles around our feet. I find that creatively so exciting and technically thrilling that I dived straight in, and the Oria is the right tool for the right job.’
More: https://audient.com
