$15000 Worth Of Recording Studio Hardware Won In Our Holiday Draw - We Announce The Winners
During December 2020 we had $15000 worth of recording studio hardware to win in our holiday draw with prizes supplied by our friends at Audient, Avid, Focusrite and PreSonus. We can announce the four lucky winners.
The prizes were for the following hardware bundles;
Audient ID44 and two Audient ASP880s bundle.
Focusrite Red 16Line and Focusrite RedNet R1 bundle.
PreSonus Quantum 4848 and PreSonus Quantum 2626 bundle.
We have selected the four winners and once they respond we will be posting their details in this article.
Max Hervé Hamard - PreSonus Quantum 4848 and PreSonus Quantum 2626 Bundle.
Max is a composer and bass player living in a house in French Riviera, doubling his small office as a studio.
Max began playing the piano at 7-years old, then took to the bass guitar at 18-years old, learning to work and mix sound and lighting through his job at an intimate theatre near Paris.
Max studied computer science at school, and now works full time in the field. In his time off work, he records with several bands - currently working with Zippy Limit (modern jazz), who recently released 'Rencontre' – mixed by Serge Fernex and mastered by Jean Ristori.
Max told us what winning the PreSonus Quantum 4848 and PreSonus Quantum 2626 bundle means…
The hardware I use is quite old. The PreSonus Bundle from the Production Expert Christmas competition 2020 is what I need to upgrade my system to progress my recording capabilities. All I need to do is buy some mics and cables, and I'll ready to go!
The Presonus Quantum 4848 is a pro level interface for a relatively low price. A 48 in, 48 out interface with 32 analogue in and outs and 16 ADAT in and outs which can offer latency close to that possible with Pro Tools HDX or UA Apollos. Is there a downside? Paul Drew takes it for a spin and gives his conclusion. Read more
Jason Sonier - Winner Of Audient Bundle
Jason Sonier started by studying both flute and bass guitar at Carleton University in the 90's and now plays any wind, string, percussion or electronic instrument he can get his hands on, from harp to theremin. He has worked as a multi-instrumentalist, performer, and composer in Ottawa, Canada, and has performed, toured and recorded with several Canadian contemporary folk artists, including the Heather Dale Band Fiddlehead Soup.
Jason has collaborated with contemporary and cultural dancers, film-makers, theatre productions, poets, and storytellers, and loves to play with the juxtaposition of acoustic and electronic, traditional and innovative sounds into beautiful and strange works and mysterious new genres. Early involvement in production in college radio led to a parallel career as a live event and studio audio engineer, and then as a sound designer, he has shifted into work in film, video, and other digital media in recent years. He is currently recording some of his musical imaginings and is about to delve into the world of immersive podcasting and aural storytelling.
Jason told us what winning the Audient bundle means…
I am thrilled beyond measure to be the winner of the Audient prize package. Audient has long been on my radar as my next step-up for my project studio, given their reputation for well-designed tools that offer great sound, beneficial functionality and solid dependability. I look forward to hearing Audient's legendary warm and clear preamp tonality on my various acoustic instruments for my first (and subsequent!) albums. And I am very excited to have that same clarity being applied to my monitoring setup, for mixing and mastering my music, podcasts, and film projects. I am just about to take on some work on a friend's web series and rely on Audient's clarity for the work I will be doing on the dialogue, sound design, and soundtrack composing. I can't wait! Many, many thanks for this opportunity to rise to the next level in my work.
We Test The New iD44 From Audient
When the team at UK console and preamp manufacturer Audient brought out their first audio interface, the rather brilliant iD22 back in 2013 (no I can't believe it's that long ago either) I could not wait to get my hands on one as they promised the same stunning quality mic preamps as can be found in their consoles and rack mounted mic pre and A-D boxes. After all, why bother to make different circuits when the one you have sounds fantastic. Fast forward to 2018 and finally, I have my hands on the new Audient iD44, a USB-C interface, or is it in fact, much more than that? Read more
Audient ASP880 8 Channel Microphone Preamplifier and ADC - Review
You may be getting the idea that I like the Audient ASP880 and I do, it was one product I was looking forward to reviewing and my expectations were met with an excellent experience at every level. Read more
Phil Freudenfeld - Winner Of The Pro Tools Carbon Bundle
Phil is a freelance Sound editor / Dubbing mixer, who specialises in sound design for Drama, Film, Advertising & Factual programs.
He has a varied & diverse experience in sound post-production. He designed the sound effects for 'Ripper Street' Season 3-5 which re-launched on Amazon Prime. He has mixed & created sound design for adverts, such as Land Rovers online 'Hibernot' campaign & for 'Playstation'. He has worked on feature films such as Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' & 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory'.
Before going freelance he worked at one of London's most famous post facilities, De Lane Lea, where for over 5 years he worked back to back on many features & dramas with some of the finest & talented sound people in the industry, on films such as 'Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban', 'Children of Men' & 'The Corpse Bride'.
Past selected projects include: Mixing 5 episodes of the BBC1 drama 'Talking Heads'. The sound design for series 1 of the BBC1 drama 'Line of Duty' & the sound effects for ITV's adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'. Phil also makes music in his spare time. His music can be found on iTunes & Spotify amongst other platforms, under the name: ‘The Dub Punk’.
Phil told us what winning the Pro Tools Carbon Bundle means…
“For me having the Pro Tools Carbon bundle, will allow me to explore creating music with near-zero latency monitoring & allow me to push my computer & music making software such as Pro Tools & Ableton to the max. I hope once Covid has been tamed to record other musicians with the Carbon, as I would really like to record some live drums, which I could use as loops & break down into individual sample hits to use in my music.”
Pro Tools Carbon - Everything You Need To Know
Pro Tools Carbon (or to be precise Pro Tools|Carbon) is the new interface from Avid who have announced AND released it on the same day. Pro Tools Carbon is a new hardware product, which is potentially their most significant hardware product in years and ironically it's a return to what put Pro Tools into the majority of pro music studios in the first place. Read more
Mark Roscoe - Winner Of The Focusrite Red 16Line/R1 Bundle
Mark Roscoe is a professional audio post production specialist with 16+ years experience in the UK TV industry. He graduated with BSc in Creative Music and Sound Technology from Leeds Beckett University in 2004. Over To Mark:
I started my career and received my formative training at ITV Manchester working broadly across a range of genres including Drama/Continuing Drama, Factual,and Entertainment, on the likes of Coronation Street, You've Been Framed, You Saw them Here First, The Big Quiz, Judge Rinder’s Crime Stories, Countrywise, 56Up etc, working my way up to Dubbing Mixer/Editor before going freelance in 2016.
Subsequently I have worked for major British Broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 as well as other online streaming content (northern heart films being a regular client).
I’m a self confessed 'Jack of all trades' for post audio, my skill set includes Mixing, Editing, Sound design, V.O./ADR Recording, Audio Conforming, Sound restoration, and even a bit of Foley in my Granada days.
I'm able to turn my hand to most anything.... from building a big, Entertainment 'As for Live' Audience from scratch to mixing an emotionally exposed 2 hander on a Drama or cleaning up crucial degraded audio so the Documentaries narrative makes sense. etc.
A brief snapshot of what I've worked on in the last 12 months include Hollyoaks,(C4) It'll be Alright on the Night, (ITV) Coronation Street: Compilations (ITV) Jason Manfords Worlds Funniest Add's (C5)
Up until the pandemic I almost exclusively worked in professional post production facilities in and around the North West of England however (like most of us) when it hit at the end of March last year my box bedroom studio became invaluable overnight. Though the type of work I was processing was primarily for stereo delivery it did get me thinking about what the workplace (and my box bedroom) might look like in the future. Given the push for Dolby Atmos, the latest Netflix delivery standards not requiring a certificated room and the proliferation of AV over IP.... the Focusrite bundle when it came up as a prize seemed like a great way of future proofing for its sheer flexibility, connectivity and audio quality... I feel incredibly lucky to have won it.
Review - Focusrite Red 16Line - 64x64 Mini DigiLink and Thunderbolt 3 Interface
It was a little under 2 years ago, back in April 2016 that I first reviewed the Focusrite Red 4Pre and to say I was impressed and loved it would be an understatement. Little did I know then that the Red range would grow to include the Red 8Pre, reviewed in May 2017 and now the new Red 16Line the latest in the Focusrite Pro Red range. Read more