Recording and Production in the News

Orpheus makes the grade in Sharooz's project studio

Cambridge, UK: When DJ, producer, remixer and writer Sharooz wanted the best audio converter that money could buy he turned to the world-renowned Prism Sound product range for inspiration.

Sharooz

"I'm a strong believer in buying UK brands and supporting the pro-audio industry in this country," he says. "Prism Sound's products fitted all my criteria so I bought an Orpheus FireWire computer interface. This is ideal because I'm increasingly mixing and doing my own mastering 'in the box', so it made perfect sense to have the best possible quality D/A conversion and clocking."

Sharooz has worked with many internationally acclaimed artists including tackling remix projects for Moby, Robyn, Craig David and Howard Jones. His most recent projects include a remix for David E.Sugar for the Sunday Best label and a remix of the latest Bryan Ferry record with Mylo. As a producer, he has recorded for some of the world's best known dance labels and DJ-ed all over the world, recently appearing in the USA, Russia, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Italy and, of course, the UK. Sharooz also writes music for TV, film and video games and his work has appeared on MTV, in EA Games, on BBC 1, Channel 4 and virtually every other TV broadcaster.

"I have a project studio in central London, which acts as a hub for all my production work and writing," he explains. "The studio is equipped with a Macbook Pro i7 running Cubase 5.5. This now goes through the Orpheus and into Focal Twin 6 speakers. I've never heard music sound so clear and detailed. This is my first piece of Prism Sound equipment, but it's definitely not my last!"

Sharooz adds that having a UK-based manufacturer to deal with brings other benefits, not least the fact that Prism Sound is only a short journey away and its team have been happy to help with support.

"The build and QC standards are second to none and it's helpful that the manufacturers are true audio enthusiasts," he adds. "Obviously, when I chose an Orpheus the sound quality came first, but I've also discovered that it's also a very competent monitor controller with great headphone amps and very good build quality. The Orpheus has made a huge difference to my sound and is flexible enough to take with me all over the world."

Alongside his production and writing activities, Sharooz is also co-owner of Sample Magic, a company he established in 2006 with fellow producer, remixer and composer David Felton. Sample Magic supplies copyright-free 24-bit samples and loops across a variety of musical genres, all of which are recorded and mixed by professional producers and programmers. Sample Magic's releases have won the Remix magazine Product of the Year award and virtually every other accolade including numerous five star reviews in Sound on Sound and 10/10 reviews in Computer Music and Future Music.

And if that wasn't enough strings to one bow, Sharooz has also recently launched his own record label, La Bombe.