Recording and Production in the News

Lyra finds a home in Steve Mac's studio

Cambridge, UK, 3 July 2013: Producer Steve Mac has become one of the first people in the UK to take delivery of the new Lyra audio interface, which began shipping in June.

Steve Mac and Lyra

Already a firm fan of Prism Sound's high quality Orpheus FireWire computer interface, Mac has incorporated Lyra into his equipment list because he loves its portability and can now access the Prism Sound audio quality he loves, even when he is on the road.

"Apart from touring with my Lyra, I also plan to use it to master in the studio," Steve Mac explains. "I record all my masters back into my Prism Sound Orpheus, but having a Lyra as well gives me the option of mastering onto another computer and at a higher rate. I can now record my masters at 96 kHz and still leave my projects running at 44.1."

Based on the award-winning and critically acclaimed Orpheus interface, Prism Sound's Lyra allows music recording professionals to access the power and sophistication of the Orpheus audio path and clock circuitry, but in a smaller package and at a much improved price point.

Steve Mac is using a Lyra 1 interface, which has two analogue input channels - one for instrument/line and one for mic/line - plus two DA output channels and optical-only digital I/O. Prism Sound also offers Lyra 2, which has two AD input channels with switchable microphone, instrument or line input modes and four DA output channels. Both versions incorporate new ARM Cortex processor design offering class-compliant USB interfacing that allows for seamless integration with both Macs and PCs. Both versions also offer digital volume control, a low latency 'console-quality' digital mixer for foldback monitoring and optical SPDIF capability.

Now working as a solo producer, Steve Mac began his career in audio production in 1990 when he and Rob Chetcuti formed the hugely successful production/DJ duo The Rhythm Masters. They had enormous success with smash remixes such as Todd Terry's 'Jumping' and Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams', before cemented their position by winning Music Week's Remixers of the Year in 1997 and being voted one of the top five Remixers of the Decade by DJ magazine.

These days Steve Mac is usually found in Brighton, Sussex, where he has his own recording studio equipped with a vintage MCI console, Genelec monitoring, lots of outboard gear and an extensive list of vintage analogue synths.

"I have many converters in my chain but I use the Prism Sound Orpheus to record into because I love the sound of this machine," he says. "Since acquiring Lyra, I've been experimenting with it on a number of projects and I am finding the software really great. It is very versatile for routing signal paths and I also love the fact that it has a the main volume control, so for a small set up ( like the one I have at home ) I don't have to have a separate volume controller."

Mac has recently established a new record label called Black Rock Records with Mark Lawrence from PRS and the label is now signing young, talented acts as well as releasing Mac's own material.

"Our first release will be one of my own tracks called Ghetto Party and this will be out at the end of July," he says. "It is an exciting time for us - and a busy one as I've also been working on several other projects with various bands, as well as doing my own Dance tracks."