Prism Media Products
Recording and Production News
Peregrine Andrews Uses Orpheus To Record David Tennant For The BBCCambridge, UK: Long-time SADiE user Peregrine Andrews has now added a Prism Sound Orpheus FireWire interface to his equipment list to help tackle recording, digital to analogue conversion and monitoring with 5.1 capabilities.
Renowned for his high-end radio and TV mixing work for clients such as the BBC, Mentorn, Wall to Wall and Falling Tree Productions, Peregrine Andrews operates mainly from his own private studio, Moving Air, which is based in west London. "I spend about half my time mixing, and occasionally producing, radio (documentaries and drama), and the other half mixing TV (documentaries and comedy)... and the odd film," he says. "Recently, on the new series of the BBC sitcom Twenty Twelve, I used the Orpheus to record David Tennant's voiceover. I also used it for all the ADR on the new BBC Dickens-style comedy Bleak Old Shop of Stuff. As a straight wire device, I don't really expect the Orpheus to have a 'sound', but the voice recordings I've done where I've plugged the mic straight in have sounded excellent with very little EQ added in the mix." The Moving Air studio is equipped with SADiE, Nuendo, PMC monitoring and a Smart AV Tango control surface. His reason for buying the unit was to access a high grade DA/AD converter and monitoring controller so that he could replace the old Yamaha O1V desk that had previously been performing that function. "I mix in the box so I don't need any kind of console in the room," he says. "The Orpheus is three things in one box - Preamp, AD/DA and monitoring controller. Prism Sound loaned me a unit and it worked well, sounded good and looked great, so I decided to buy it. I like its precise volume control of multiple outputs and its ability to derive an independent headphone mix. It's a single box solution and removes any requirement for a separate soundcard, preamp/mixer, volume control etc." Andrews adds that although he had good practical reasons for buying an Orpheus, there were also more sentimental concerns at stake - not least his long association with SADiE, which is now part of the Prism Sound group. "I've been a SADiE user since 1995 and rely heavily on it to make my business work," he explains. "For precise speech and music editing it's unequalled. The slip function and the trim editor alone make intense speech editing and assembly very fast. A lot of radio now is recorded in stereo by default (e.g. using flash recorders with built-in mics) but sometimes only one leg is really useful. SADiE allows stereo pairs to be split or re-joined in a keystroke. Also, the ability to have multiple EDLs is very useful at the assembly phase of documentary-making." Given this background, it's no surprise that sentiment played a part in Andrews' buying decision. "Prism Sound has an excellent reputation - I've never read a bad review and I know, from talking to them, that they design their products using a sensible engineering approach," he says. "I admit I was looking for a way of continuing to invest in Prism Sound/SADiE because it's been a long time since I sent any money their way, yet I use their systems almost daily with fantastic support." |
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