Brett Orrison Installs a 5088 at The Austin Recording Service

Feb 1

After a 16-year journey to find the perfect console, Austin-based producer and front of house engineer Brett Orrison recently installed a 16 channel Rupert Neve Designs 5088 Console, loaded with 16 of the company’s Shelford 5052 mic preamp / EQ modules.

“I’ve been shopping for a console for sixteen years – and after a ton of research, I found the 5088. I met Rupert at NAMM a few years back and after hearing the thought process behind the board and the pedigree, I was sold. I took a trip to Wimberley, Texas and got to play around with the 5088 being built for Willie Nelson – I had to have one!”

Orrison, best known for his work with The Black Angels and Widespread Panic, built his studio The Austin Recording Service from the ground up in 2017. The studio’s name pays homage to The Memphis Recording Service (and later Sun Studios).

The studio’s design and interior was inspired by the movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, according to Orrison. “The live room has a sixteen-foot ceiling and three iso booths. One of the iso booths is an all-aluminum room used as a reverb chamber…and I finally got to purchase a console – the Rupert Neve 5088.”

Brett recently finished up his first record on the console with producer Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers, Sublime, Melvins, U2) and had this to say about his new setup: “The console sounds incredible! The EQ is unbelievable. I couldn’t be happier and more confident about my setup. He [Paul Leary] absolutely loved the sound we captured with the 5088 and the Studer A827! It was an amazing experience.”