Toronto, ON, Canada (March 20, 2012)—Kühl Muzik Studios in Toronto has installed a 16-channel Rupert Neve Designs 5088 discrete analog mixer as part of a hybrid digital/analog workflow.
The 5088 provides summing, mixing and routing functionality at the facility, which is owned by producer and engineer Gary Honess. The new 5088 desk is part of a custom-made, wraparound stainless steel console—a Zin-de-Zine design and creation—that has been ergonomically designed to place the principal components of Kühl Muzik’s hybrid digital/analog workflow within reach.
Honess, who has been engineering and mixing for 15 years, began evaluating analog console options last year. “I had been recording the same mix each time I had a new console in, summing it down through as many channels as possible. So I had references to go back to and hear the different characteristics of these consoles. As soon as I heard the 5088, I thought, this is the one I want. I loved it right away,” he says.
His hybrid digital/analog setup, designed primarily for mixing music for film and television as well as for bands, combines the Rupert Neve Designs 5088, an Avid Pro Tools|HD workstation, panels from a ProControl, analog microphone preamps and equalizers, digital reverbs and other ancillary equipment. A Genelec 5.1 monitor system and Quested stereo main monitors complete the setup.
“It’s still a work in progress, but all the main bits are in there,” says Honess, who assumed ownership of the facility in November 2011. “There are a few more renovations I need to do, which will happen this year, then I’ll go into full launch mode.”
Meanwhile, Honess has given Kühl Muzik a soft launch, introducing his clients to the new 5088 desk. “All of my clients love it,” he says. “It does the job nicely. As soon as I run my mixes through it, it’s quite a big hit. Most of the time they hear it as making everything sound more musical.”
Rupert Neve Designs
www.rupertneve.com
