APSoon Recordings recently installed a Harrison 32Classic analogue console in its studio in Estonia, chosen for its lack of colouration, responsive EQ and filter section, and input channel and group insert capabilities.
A trained electronics engineer, company founder Aular Soon purchased the 32Classic sight unseen after researching his options and speaking to several engineers and producers. ‘Everybody said that if I wanted a console with warmth, clarity and zero coloration, then I had to choose the Harrison. So I placed the order, and I’m very happy.’
APSoon Recordings specialises in jazz and classical ensembles – as well as church pipe organs – recorded in acoustically suitable halls and churches using a mobile DSD (Direct Stream Digital) system. Soon produces and engineers the projects alongside fellow engineer Priit Kuulberg.
‘I make my recordings in the hall or church, using the natural reverb as much as possible,’ he explains. ‘The DSD format is not editable, so I use it just to capture the purest sound. After that, I need to do some mixing.’
It is important, therefore, that the console should not introduce any coloration to those initial recordings. ‘The Harrison EQ is awesome, because if you turn it even one decibel, you can hear it,’ Soon says.
The 32Classic’s filter section is also critical to the productions: ‘I need to use the high-pass filter to clean up some sub low frequencies such as rumbles and so on.’ he says, ‘It’s exactly what I was looking for, a warm and silky sound.’
There was one other feature that attracted Soon to Harrison’s 32Classic, something that was completely missing from one of the other, more expensive console options he had been considering – inserts on the input and group output channels.
‘How can you work without inserts?’ he questions. ‘Sometimes, when recording jazz, the musicians might not play at an equal level and then you must use compression. That’s normally what I do if it’s necessary and, therefore I need inserts.
‘I will mix the three different mics together and get a special, special sound,’ he continues. ‘I never use just one mic to capture acoustic guitar. I always use two, then I can mix them together and have all the details covered. But if I just use one mic then I insert a single compressor on the input channel.
‘I will use a special vintage compressor to keep this smooth and level sound. But, of course, I never use a compressor to the extent that there is no dynamic left. For me, music should be dynamic.’
The label’s projects are sometimes mastered to a Studer 810 2-track tape machine, and released on vinyl through APSoon Recordings’ online store. The first project mixed through the new Harrison 32Classic, the Gourmet Quartet’s Fragments of Time, an unedited and uncut live performance of jazz standards recorded at an Estonian music school, was released as a DSD 256 download on Native DSD’s online platform.
‘The sound of the Harrison console is delicious,’ he says in conclusion. ‘I really like that you can use any type of mic using its transformer-balanced mic pre, and you can bring sounds together so easily. The 32Classic is exactly the tool I need.’
More: www.harrisonaudio.com