COLCHESTER, United
Kingdom — With an eclectic and
award-winning catalogue of classical music—much of it consisting of orchestral,
choral and chamber music—UK-based Chandos Records is renowned for its natural
sound quality and prides itself on
capturing superior audio with first-class balance. Founded in 1979 by Brian
Couzens, the independent label is today run by his son Ralph, who knows that
sound is only as good as the production facilities, and his quest for a
state-of-the-art digital mixing console to complete the equation led him
recently to a 32-fader HARMAN Studer Vista 5.
The Vista 5 has the
combined effect of greatly increasing the DSP and I/O capacity over Chandos’
previous desk, which had served them well during the previous decade. “We also
needed 24-bit, 96kHz capability, which is our standard for recording,” confirmed Couzens.
“Although our old desk would support 96kHz, this was
only by halving the number of available channels and busses. We were faced with
cutting it down to 48kHz or linking two desks together with MADI cards—but that would
have meant buying a second desk.”
But
the path that led Chandos to Studer was due to the extensive recording work
they undertake with the BBC Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras, the BBC
Concert Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. “We were aware that all
their resident BBC facilities were equipped with various Vista consoles,”
Couzens noted.
It
was at BBC Wales that one of the resident technicians recommended that Couzens
try their in-house Vista 8, and offered to walk him through the operating
process. “I instantly fell in love with the way the desk worked,” he said. “I
saw that Studer produced a Vista 5, which was portable—this was vital with
location work.”
He
and assistant engineer Jonathan Cooper attended a Studer Broadcast Academy day
in Potters Bar and Studer volunteered a demo rig for evaluation. Chandos
Records fired it up at Watford Colosseum and Couzens was convinced then and
there.
The 32-fader desk
consists of 20 channel strips, optimised for input channel operation, and 12
additional versatile strips for operating output and input channels. By using
the standard Vistonics screen, up to 52 outputs are under immediate control. A
total of up to 240 channels can be accessed from the desk and laid out in any
order, with the Vistonics™ system giving instant control over all related
channel functions. The DSP power and I/O are configured to customer
requirements.
Typically Chandos will
be recording orchestral ensembles in excess of 100 musicians—plus chorus—which
places a heavy requirement on the I/O count. One such instance was at Watford
Colosseum where the new console was pressed into service to record the complete
orchestral works of Witold Lutoslawski by the 100-piece BBC Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Edward Gardner—for release later this year.
“We
have 40 mic preamps and eight line outputs in the Stagebox and record via MADI
to our Sadie LRX2. Sound quality is so important and the Studer A/D converters
[the most important stage in the process] in the Stagebox are also fantastic,” Couzens
continued.
“With
DSP power you are mixing complex sound into a stereo bus but with the Vista 5
the sound and image stay true whatever the content you are mixing,” Couzens
said. “With our previous desk the sound could run out of steam with the
combination of DSP power and A/D’s but with the Vista 5 everything remains
crystal clear whatever the circumstances. I also love the desk’s EQ, its operating
system is intuitive and it’s so configurable if we need to duplicate and
expand.”
“Already I am noticing the improved sound
quality of the recordings,” summarised the Chandos Records MD. “And I expect
audiophiles will too.”
HARMAN (www.harman.com)
designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment
solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by
15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and
Mark Levinson. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple
generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where
they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped
with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about
13,400 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $4.4
billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.
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