Music industry arts program introduces new recording equipment
The music industry arts program sprang for a new Solid State Logic Duality Console that gives students a more authentic recording experience to prepare them for the work force.
“It gives us an advantage over others, who haven’t worked with something this professional and state-of-art, especially when we apply for that first job,” said Samantha Daviau, music industry arts student. “It’s awesome to have experience with a console record company’s actually use in their studios.”
“It’s the brains of the studio, the in-between that controls and manipulates the sound when recording,” said Colin Mills, coordinator of the music industry arts program.
The console was built in England and cost $400,000 to make, install, maintain and accommodate. It was brought to the college over the summer.
It has 48 channels and can control 48 microphones at once, which is an upgrade from their last console that only had 32.
“It’s very well made and transparent, which means it doesn’t colour the sound that goes through it. It mixes modern and older technology, both analog and digital,” said Mills. “It’s way more in depth with more features and controls. It makes teaching a lot easier.”
MIA students get hands-on experience with the console several times a week to learn about compression and equalization and to test out microphones and signal flow from a variety of instruments. They also get to record songs and mix takes together.
“We have to do a lot of trouble shooting,” said Daviau. “There are a lot of little things you need to know to work it.”
The MIA program was created in 2010 and since it was a new program, it didn’t have much funding. Fortunately a friend of Mills donated their first console, so they could use their budget on microphones and other equipment.
“The program ended up being a huge success so we decided to spend the money. It’s a big investment, but turned out to be worth it,” said Mills.
The console is not a simple piece of equipment and it might take a little while before students get used to it, but so far it has contributed greatly to the program.
“There’s been a huge learning curve working with a piece of equipment this advanced. The first day I was very intimidated working with something that had all these knobs and switches and buttons,” said Jaian Mascotto, music industry arts student.