Recording and Production in the News

ADA-8XR converters win over a music industry legend

London - May 2006: "We tried them and they were better." That was (Dire Straits) Mark Knopfler's straightforward reason for choosing Prism Sound ADA-8XR multi-channel converters and processors for his British Grove Studios in Chiswick.

Mark Knopfler with a couple of ADA-8XRs

The two-studio complex has not only acquired six new ADA-8XR units, but it has also upgraded its two existing Prism Sound ADA-8 units to XR specification. The facility is now running all eight units between both studios, which are equipped with Pro Tools HD and Nuendo systems.

Studio manager David Stewart says: "These new additions give us a full suite of Prism Sound converters that can be used with either system. We chose them because they operate at sampling rates of up to 192kHz and give us even greater analogue performance than their ADA-8 predecessors. They also sound fantastic, which is a major consideration for Mark and for our commercial clients."

British Grove Studios bought its first two ADA-8 units some time ago and has successfully used them to monitor and master a number of projects including Knopfler's last solo album, Shangri-La, and the 20th anniversary re-mix of Brothers In Arms, which won a Grammy at the 48th annual award ceremony which took place on February 8th in Los Angeles. The award, for Best 5.1 Surround Mix, was presented to Chuck Ainlay, Bob Ludwig and Mark Knopfler.

The ADA-8s were also used to master All The Roadrunning, the album Mark Knopfler recorded with Emmylou Harris, which was mixed at British Grove in February 2005 and released in April 2006.

Prism Sound director Graham Boswell says: "All of us at Prism Sound are very proud indeed to have been selected to provide the interfaces for Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios. When you first enter the building it immediately becomes clear that British Grove is a very special place. David Stewart's design team included Dave Harries and Malcolm Atkin, both formerly of Air Studios. There has been incredible attention to detail and quality in the design and build of the studios and we are pleased that the ADA-8XR was selected to fit into this environment."

Recently awarded the coveted PAR Excellence Award 2005 by Pro Audio Review and nominated for the 2006 TEC Awards, Prism Sound's precision eight-channel ADA-8XR is already proving popular with a variety of recording studios and mastering facilities around the world. To date it has been used for film scores, music recording projects and, most recently, for a prestigious computer games music project for Sony's soon to be released Playstation 3.