Recording and Production in the News

A little magic from Prism Sound for Harry Potter

UK – October 2005: Prism Sound has notched up yet another feature film success after its ADA-8 converters were used during the creation of 5.1 surround sound mixes for the new Harry Potter movie, due for UK release in December.  

The converters formed an integral part of the audio chain during the mixing of a number of Jarvis Cocker tracks for the movie.

The tracks also feature Radiohead and were originally recorded at Westside Studios, London, by producer Mike Hedges. After they were accepted for the film, former Metropolis sound engineer Matt Howe was given the task of converting the stereo stems into 5.1 surround sound mixes. This process was carried out at a studio at Red Kite Studios, Wales, using Howe’s own Pro Tools HD system in conjunction with the ADA-8 converters.

“I first experienced Prism Sound converters while I was working at Metropolis,” Howe says. “What I really like about them is that they are neutral and transparent – nothing is added to the sound and nothing is taken away. This is important if you are making a copy because you want the sound to remain identical to the original. If I want colour I’ll use an effect – I certainly don’t want to be getting it from any converters.”

Prism Sound’s ADA-8 converter is widely regarded as an industry standard when it comes to analogue and digital processing and is already in use at many of the world’s top recording facilities including Metropolis, Air and Abbey Road in London; Sterling Sound in New York and Marcussen Mastering in Los Angeles.

“Another advantage of the ADA-8 is that is has a modular configuration, so you can build your system to whatever specification you want,” Howe adds. “In my case I have three units – two with eight inputs and eight outputs and one with 16 outputs because I need more output channels for the kind of work I do. However, if I were recording an orchestra, for example, where there would be a requirement for more inputs it would be very easy to configure the ADA-8 chassis to suit.”