Recording and Production in the News

Clubland phenomenon Deadmau5 invests in Orpheus

Cambridge, UK: Toronto-based DJ and remixer, Deadmau5, aka Joel Zimmerman, is the latest clubland star to invest in Prism Sound's Orpheus FireWire recording interface.

Deadmau5 and his Prism Sound kit

"I first heard about it at 2009's WMC where I had a chat with one of the reps at a booth at the National Hotel," he says. "I did a lot of online research about A/D D/A quality and Prism Sound just kept coming up at the top of the list, so I finally pulled the trigger on one last month!"

Over the last four years, the Grammy-nominated Zimmerman has become something of a clubland phenomenon, releasing a string of hits including Faxing Berlin, Ghosts N Stuff, and I Remember, a collaboration with American producer Kaskade. He's currently at work in LA with various artists on his next album. His favourite feature of the Orpheus is the driver support for x64 operating systems on both Windows and Mac. "I tend to swing both ways when it comes to my operating systems of choice for both live and studio use," he says. "And the fact that it only took me two minutes to migrate the same card from PC to Mac made me smile a bit."

Zimmerman was most recently seen performing live at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and a UK tour in early May is already nearly sold out. To date he has been mostly using the Orpheus as an A/D converter in the studio, but has plans on using it as a D/A for his new live show too. "The Orpheus gets 9 out of 10 for ease of use," he says. "Having been around the block a few times with various DADs it was pretty easy to just plug it in, boot up the control panel and just start rocking out with it."

Orpheus provides Prism Sound's renowned performance, sound quality and state-of-the-art clock technology in a dedicated FireWire unit compatible with both Windows (XP & Vista, ASIO & WDM) as well as MAC OS X 10.4.11 and later (Intel & PPC). Once configured with a computer, Orpheus can also operate stand-alone using its S/PDIF or AES3 I/O. It features line, microphone and instrument inputs, selectable RIAA Equalization for turntables, a built-in premium-quality monitoring mixer for each output providing for performer foldback and surround monitoring, and concurrent ADAT and switchable S/PDIF or AES3 digital I/O plus support for outboard MIDI devices. Dual headphone outputs are provided each with its own volume control, both monitoring the same headphone feed.