With a Graduate Program in Sound Recording that ranks among the most prestigious audio engineering programmes in the world, McGill University has recently completed a new building that extends its recording facilities. Key to the technical installation is a 64-channel API Vision console installed in the Schulich School of Music control room.
‘We now have three recording studios, four concert hall recording spaces, an ear-training lab, postproduction suites and a multichannel audio research laboratory,’ says  Professor Wieslaw Woszczyk, who founded the recording programme in 1979. ‘The scoring stage with which we have paired the API Vision is 80’ x 60’ x 50’, and is acoustically stunning. Its control room is the largest in our facility and, when it is not being used as the meeting space for classes, it’s used for internal and external recording projects.’

Other options were investigatted before settling on the new desk. ‘Professors George Massenburg and Richard King recommended the API Vision initially,’ says Woszczyk. ‘Everyone agreed it would be good to have a high-end analogue front end that was not slave to a particular digital word length and sample rate. The Vision’s unique ability to deliver stereo and surround mixes was very attractive because, in addition to its obvious advantages on a sound stage, many of our PhD students research multichannel delivery systems.’

Several McGill classes are already using the console, including Audio for Video Post-Production, Music for Films, Sound Recording Theory and Practice, as well as Ear Training and Critical Listening. ‘It is very easy to explain the all-important concept of signal flow using the API Vision,’ says Woszczyk. ‘Students gain a clear idea about how to organise a recording session because everything is clearly laid out. At the same time, the Vision embodies the API sound that is one of the benchmarks of the industry.’

The recording programme is limited to seven new students each academic year, all of whom must hold bachelor’s degrees in music. Because the programme is part of McGill’s Schulich School of Music, its students have numerous opportunities to record top-tier musicians and ensembles from many different genres and backgrounds, giving the desk an important role

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