Audient's Zen Desk Has "All Mod Cons" for Natt Weller

Daddy Was a Pop Star and Mama Was a Rickenbacker!

Musician, songwriter and producer David P Goodes has recently used Zen to record and mix the ultramodern pop track Tallula for rising star Natt Weller. *Scroll down to see Natt's Tallula Vid.

Son of Paul ‘The Modfather’ Weller of the Jam, Natt is carving out a style very much of his own - not only with his androgynous looks but also in his musical taste. Goodes has worked with Natt and co-writer/producer Judie Tzuke on five tracks so far, and a month after its arrival said of the desk: “Zen has made a big difference sonically. I really love the sound of it; the mixes have more depth and clarity and the top end is cleaner too.
“I was mixing in the computer before I had Zen. I now have 16 high quality analogue outputs going through Zen from Apogee DA 16X which show off the desk’s abilities even more.”

According to Goodes, Zen’s features are manifold. “I love the built-in mix bus compressor – I use it on all my mixes now. Having faders and mute and solo is so useful for quickly checking things whilst mixing. It’s also really handy to have the busses as well.

This is the Modern Zen!
See Zen here: Zen

“The centre console section is very comprehensive: things like the mono switch, 3-way monitor selection and dim switch really streamline my workflow. The cue section is great too, and means I can give my vocalists no compromise monitor mixes to work with,” he enthuses.
“Everything feels more hands on and real, having a proper mixing desk in my studio,” confirms Goodes.

Verdict? The ZEN JAMS!

Audio Zen, by Audient

"Ohms...Ohms...Ohms...Ohms..." Enlightened Mixing with The Zen.

EXCITING NEW PRODUCT ALERT! The new Zen analog console from Audient is a truly trancendental piece of gear, offering in-demand analog features and DAW control for a really affordable price. How would you like 16 dual-path channels, WITH mic-pres, DAW-control AND moving faders for $15K? And that's dollars, not Pounds! And the best part is Audient's high-quality sound -- clean but with a hint of classic British color. My mixing chakra is resonating with joy!

Here's the Zen of Zen

You know what I like about Audient? And what I have ALWAYS liked about Audient? They make useful gear at the right price. The price-point vs the high-level of performance is always great with Audient. The gear always sounds excellent, works well (good ergonomics) and it's never the most expensive gear in the store. That's what ya call VALUE, son!

Audient doesn't make something and put it out there and hope people buy it-- they look at what studios need and what kinds of budgets are there and then they make gear that answers the call.

Always great bang for the buck -- That's Audient.

With Zen, Dave and Gareth have done it again. The mixer is a perfect example of Audient's smart marketing. Form and function!

Can't wait to get my hands on it, and I'm psyched to be a dealer for it!

Drewcifer’s Recording 101 Primer

Spring Mixing Tip: Pre-delaying the Reverb

You don’t hear a lot of heavy or obvious reverb on modern pop recordings. The vocals tend to be very up-front and dry. But are they really dry? Is it possible to add depth and dimensionality to vocals using reverb that is extremely subtle? Absolutely! It’s done all the time. One way to accomplish this is to pre-delay the ‘verb. That’s why that “pre-delay” parameter is a feature on most modern reverbs, be they plug-ins or outboard. It wasn’t always so easy: Back in the days of the analog pioneers, the mixing guy would send the vocal-signal through a delay unit, usually a tape delay, which was daisy-chained in-front of a plate reverb. This delayed the onset of the reverb by 50ms to 100ms or more. The gap between the dry vocal and the reverb makes the vocal stand forward more, sound “drier”, and not be “swamped” by the ‘verb. In the end result, the reverb may not be obvious at all, but if it was removed you’d definitely notice something was missing.