Counterpoint Studios Switches to 90V Analogue
CEO and engineer Giancarlo Skolnick at Counterpoint Studios in Salt Lake City, Utah has replaced an all-digital system in Studio A with a 32-input Rupert Neve Designs 5088 discrete analog mixing console. The facility, which boasts architectural and acoustic design by studio bau:ton, primarily focuses on music production for local area musicians.
The console purchase was made in order to realize the studio’s true potential, according to Skolnick. “We were mixing in the box and I really wanted — as an engineer, and from the standpoint of making the studio what I thought it always needed to be — to move back toward an analog mixing situation. We have all this incredible outboard gear and no one was really using any of it. It didn’t seem to make any sense. Even something simple like running your reverbs and delays outboard through an analog circuit just seems to sound better to me.”
The 5088, which was purchased from David Lyons at recording equipment specialists Sonic Circus, won out over the competition following careful evaluation and a trip to the Rupert Neve Designs facility, which is located in the Texas Hill Country between Austin and San Antonio. “One of the main reasons I picked this console was because of the sonic quality,” he says. “That was a huge priority for me when I was looking at the different console options. That’s the thing I love about this console; it’s extremely clean. It was amazing — as soon as we put it in everything sounded better: the monitoring, the CD player, the headphone system.”
Compared to mixing in the box an analog console is not only a different way of working but actually makes the production process easier, according to Skolnick. “I’m still getting used to it but my initial impressions are that it’s almost like cheating, because mixing is so much easier now. You just put the faders up, add a little bit of reverb and maybe some EQ and, wow! That’s it! Whereas before, in Pro Tools, I felt I had to constantly finesse plug-ins and try tons and tons of different things to get it to work.”
The 5088, which was installed in the 28 ft. x 20 ft. control room at the end of 2008, was an immediate hit, he reports. “Right away, everybody was really enjoying going back to working that way. There was some debate about whether to go with something that is essentially pretty old school. It really is a throwback, but it’s great because of that. When you’re working on it, it feels like a real desk — I don’t know how else to say it. It feels substantial; it’s not like working on a control surface.”
Going back to using an analog console also has a positive impact on the engineer’s creative process, Skolnick believes “The tool affects the end result to a certain extent. When I’m making EQ or level adjustments I’m not staring at a screen and fiddling with a mouse. My head is facing forward and I make EQ decisions based on what I’m hearing rather than what the graph looks like.”
Studio A’s 30 ft. x 20 ft. live tracking space, which also features two iso booths, features a Fazioli F278 concert grand piano that is a big draw for some clients. “We’re mostly doing music production, although we do everything including voiceovers, but it primarily revolves around the local band scene. Salt Lake City is growing pretty quickly so it’s getting better and better. And we have a beautiful piano so we do a lot of classical music.”
Owned by Rupert and Evelyn Neve, Rupert Neve Designs Inc. was founded on passion, experience and a desire to build products embodying the highest musical quality. In continuing his legacy as a pioneer in audio circuit design, Mr. Rupert Neve is currently focusing his talents on creating innovative analogue solutions to the issues facing the modern recording engineer.
