Recording and Production in the News

Steerpike Studio Stays Committed To Prism Sound Converters

Cambridge, UK. July 9th, 2015: Despite a pedigree that goes back nearly 20 years, Prism Sound's ADA-8 multichannel converter has maintained its status as an outstanding piece of technology and a prized item in many top end recording facilities, including Sterling Sound, Cornell University, British Grove Studios, Lucasfilm, Sony and Walt Disney.

To misquote Shakespeare, age has not withered this versatile unit– indeed its exceptional audio quality has made it so well respected among recording professionals that many refuse to use anything else.

A case in point is Donal Hodgson, Sting's recording engineer, who has been a fan of Prism Sound ADA-8 converters since 2000 when 10 of them were installed in Sting's Steerpike Studios in Wiltshire. In recent months Hodgson has undertaken a major upgrade of Sting's Pro Tools rig, transforming it from HD to HDX.

Donal Hodgson With Prism Sound Units

"I was very keen to ensure that we could still use our ADA-8 converters with the new system so I ordered nine Pro Tools HDX cards from Prism Sound. I am delighted to say that, after changing the chips and the DIO interface cards, the converters worked first time."

Prism Sound's HDX compatible interface cards were launched 18 months ago as a direct response to the changes Avid was making to its Pro Tools system.

"The release of Pro Tools V11 on HD Native and HDX hardware saw the legacy Digidesign 96 and 192 interfaces no longer supported on these Pro Tools hardware and software systems," says Graham Boswell, Sales and Marketing Director for Prism Sound. "Avid also declared that Pro Tools V10 software would be the last to support these legacy interfaces. Our response was to create the Prism Sound HDX compatible interface card. This connects directly with the Pro Tools|HDX interface cards and emulates the behaviour of the Avid HD I/O interfaces, allowing Prism Sound conversion quality with Pro Tools software. Each card allows the connection of 8 channels of digital audio. With four cards in two ADA-8 units, a 32-channel recording system is possible."

For Hodgson and many other Prism Sound ADA-8 fans, the cards have proved to be a godsend.

"I could have taken this opportunity to swap from Prism Sound conversion, but why would I want to do that when the sound quality I get from my Prism Sound units is better than anything else on the market?" he says. "In my opinion Prims Sound is the best. I have travelled all over the world and worked in many different studios but I still haven’t found an interface that comes even close to the quality I get from my ADA-8s."