When it came to setting up a recording studio for teaching purposes based around an analogue mixing desk, the staff at the recording facility at Boston University's Center for Digital Imaging Arts chose the Audient ASP8024 as the centrepiece. We find out why...
Strange as it may seem for a city with such a rich musical history and heritage, and for one with such a well-established higher education establishment, it's only in recent years that Boston University has begun to offer its students access to a range of high-quality studio recording facilities, and recording courses to go with them. However, since 2006, they've been more than making up for lost time. In June that year, a fabulous recording complex opened as part of the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University, or CDIABU, and in the two years since, it's continued to get bigger and better.
Itself an offshoot of Boston University's School of Communications, CDIABU, as its name suggests, was founded to offer Boston students courses in the graphic and photographic arts. Beginning with photographic and film courses in 2004, the Center rapidly expanded, and today offers courses to around 500 students in five main creative disciplines: Digital Film-making, Photography, 3D Animation, Graphic and Web Design, and Audio Production, the most recent addition to the Center's curriculum.
On its opening in 2006, CDIABU’s Audio Production Program had just one recording studio based around a digital mixing console, but from the beginning, there were plans for more facilities. Today, there are around 50 students taking full- and part-time courses in the Center's two edit suites, two computer-based recording labs, and two recording studios, including the jewel in the Center's crown, Studio D, which opened in September 2007.
Liz Teutsch joined the Center in 2006, and was recently promoted to become CDIABU’s Program Director of Audio Production. "As well as giving students access to professional recording facilities, the recording studios complement CDIABU's other activities and courses. We create and record audio for the animations, games and films made by students in the Center's 3D Animation and Digital Film-making programs, and we also offer post-production services so that the audio can be incorporated into the projects," she explains. "And of course, our students use our facilities to record stand-alone music projects as well."
CDIABU's full-time audio production courses last two semesters, with students undertaking a series of one-week intensive modules covering all aspects of recording, including microphone placement, mixing, digital recording, computer-based editing, sound design, audio post-production and live sound recording. The idea is to prepare them for work in the audio production field in an environment that most closely resembles a professional one. The modules are taught by specialists in each subject area; so the week of classes on post-production, for example, will be taught by a film post-production dubbing engineer. Towards the end of the course, students must pick a four-week project focusing on one module that they have most enjoyed. They also participate in the Practicum, where they work on a real-world project for a non-profit organisation outside CDIABU, to give them a taste of what working in the world of commercial recording or post-production can be like, whilst still enjoying the Center's support. Students have undertaken Practicum placements with organisations including Children's Hospital Boston, and Zumix, a music school that provides courses and space for inner-city children from low-income families to study music.
Liz Teutsch teaches some of the fundamental courses in the Audio Production program, and Studio D lies in turn at the heart of that tuition. When you walk in, it looks like a well-equipped studio based mainly around carefully chosen analogue and discrete hardware processing, with an emphasis on mic-based recording (there’s a well-stocked mic locker) and a variety of real-world amplification. There’s plenty of space for drums and pianos, and for musicians to interact, play and record, and rather less emphasis on the 'virtual' computer- and software-based recording and production techniques that have become popular over the past few years. As Liz explains, this was very much a conscious decision during the design of the studio. "Audio recording software is based on traditional concepts of signal routing and processing derived from analogue mixing boards and discrete processing units, such as hardware compressors, gates and EQs. That's why computer-based audio recording packages often include software versions of the same devices: mixer pages and software plug-in processing and effects, often with front-panel software graphics that resemble the original hardware units. Computer-based recording is very popular, but we thought we would give our students a better understanding of the principles underlying this approach if we started by teaching them about the real-world equipment which those computer-based systems were designed to emulate.
"This philosophy also comes into play with the console in Studio D, our Audient ASP8024," continues Liz. "Digital consoles are extremely powerful, but they are easiest to understand when you already have a good grasp of the concept of signal routing — and signal flow is much easier to understand on an analogue board than on a digital board. There's nothing masked, no virtual layers and no hidden routing or assignable controls. Thus, from the beginning, the plan was to have a high-quality analogue mixer in Studio D, to complement the digital mixer in our other studio. I understand the Center had discussions with the big-name manufacturers of several analogue consoles, but the Audient was the final choice. I can see why: it's simple to navigate and not as intimidating as some of the other analogue boards, which makes it ideal for teaching. It's also very cost-effective, and it sounds great. I teach our students the second module they encounter in our curriculum, which is on basic signal flow, and since installing the Audient in Studio D, the same phenomenon occurs each semester: the students easily understand the digital mixer in our other studio once they've learned basic signal flow on the Audient. Back when the Audio Production course started, we only had the digital mixer, and starting with that was a challenge. Having the Audient now makes things a lot easier; it's an invaluable resource."
For more information on CDIABU, see the Center’s web site at www.cdiabu.com. For more specifically about Studio D and to see what it looks like, see: http://www.cdiabu.com/podcast/video/movie/CDIA-video-034-AP-Studio-Intro..., a short video created by the Center all about the Studio to mark its opening.
