Part of the Southampton creative community since opening in 2008, SoCo Music Project’s mission is to ‘change lives through the power of music’. A recent upgrade to the recording facilities used to support its efforts has seen the arrival of an Audient Evo SP8 8-channel mic preamp.
Based at Planet Sounds, SoCo’s mission spans supporting young people at risk of exclusion to providing professional development for emerging artists. The music charity delivers more than 1,000 creative sessions every year. For a busy community studio, workflow is everything. The Evo SP8 was chosen to integrate directly with their existing Audient iD48 audio interface, allowing for a fast and straightforward installation.
‘The SP8 has allowed us to put in eight more inputs to the studio, making it easy, quick and simple to set up and route recording sessions that require more inputs such as live sessions and drum recordings,’ explains Lead Studio Engineer, Lou Sawdy. ‘Having something that integrates so easily with the iD48 has meant the installation was incredibly fast and straightforward, and the iD software works seamlessly with it.’
The addition of the SP8 has also allowed SoCo to integrate external preamps via Adat, bringing the total input count up to 24. This flexibility gives the best of both worlds – modern efficiency and the option for a vintage sound when needed.
‘For our young producers, using the Smartgain feature is a really helpful way for them to understand how to set the input gain when recording,’ Sawdy says. ‘It’s incredibly intuitive and with the LED screen, makes it really easy to see and understand what you’re doing.’
Beyond the smart features, the SP8 provides practical peace of mind. ‘Being able to turn on phantom power to individual channels was really important to us,’ Sawdy notes. ‘The previous interface we had didn’t allow that and we were worried about microphones getting damaged - something we no longer need to worry about.’
When it comes to the most important factor - the sound - the SP8 is already delivering professional results for SoCo’s Sounds of South Central programme, an initiative helping emerging artists across the region.
‘The SP8 sounds great – crystal clear recordings, great tone, plenty of headroom and no noticeable noise floor,’ Sawdy says. ‘So far we’ve had two of our bands come in and record EPs, and they are sounding huge. We’ve just wrapped up the recording and are on to the mixing, so we’re very excited to share that when they are released.’