Students at work on Tisch’s new Daking console.
While digital audio has its benefits for many aspects of audio-for-video production, many filmmakers prefer the sound and feel of a high-quality analog signal path for their soundtrack, Foley and dialog. At New York’s NYU Tisch School of the Arts, a new Daking 16×8 analog console was recently been purchased and installed for teaching purposes, as well as for production of student films and radio plays.
According to John Gurrin, who teaches Sound/Image and Studio Recording as part of the faculty of undergraduate film and TV, “A quality analog console can last 20 years and still be completely viable. It allows me to teach something that is still an integral part of the professional sound industry.”
The NYU Film Programs’ sound post-production facility includes a 15-workstation lab, 10 small edit/mixing rooms, a Foley studio, an ADR studio, a listening/teaching room and a film mixing theater. The Daking console is installed in the music recording studio, where it serves as the front-end for the room’s high-powered DAW system. “The Daking console is the front-end for a 24-bit/96kHz G5 DAW and also serves as a mixing desk with all of the advantages of hardware EQ, compressors, reverbs and summing buses,” says Gurrin. “The digital part of the studio–the computer–will be replaced every five years or so. The foundation, where sound is captured and reproduced–the Daking–will last much longer.”
The Film School’s Daking console features 16 inputs and eight output buses. Gurrin’s favorite features are, “the discrete mic pre’s, the stepped EQ. It’s a real console, not a prosumer disposable toy.” He continues listing the console’s strengths, naming the “high-quality analog audio, and simple layout and operation” as primary features in the Film School’s decision to go with the Daking.
While the console is new to the NYU Film School, it has already seen extensive use, both for teaching purposes and for the production of a wide range of projects. “We recorded the Momenta Quartet performing music by Mena Hanna, the Michael Evans Trio, and Pete Galub and the Annuals, all of whom are not well-known yet, but are truly amazing groups,” continues Gurrin. “We’re hoping to record Zemog, El Gallo Bueno soon. Plus we have a one-hour HD dramatic project that we are doing ADR for now and plan to record the score for later this year.”
Gurrin concludes, saying that, “Geoff Daking was helpful and had good ideas. He has a real music and engineering background, which makes a big difference. He’s not a software guy developing audio applications, he’s a musician making sound recording equipment.”
For more information, please go to www.daking.com.
