News
Aquarium invests in AMS-Neve’s DFC Gemini
08.07.08
Aquarium studios, based in the centre of London’s post production community, has recently expanded its operation to take on additional studio capacity in nearby St. Anne’s Court. The property, constructed some 40 years ago, originally formed part of what was Worldwide Studios and played an important role in the production of many influential feature films and TV dramas including Letter to Brezhnev, A Room with a View, Inspector Morse, several of the Catherine Cookson dramas, and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.
Studio 1, the main studio within the new facility, has been fully refurbished and is now equipped with a 24 fader, 260 audio path AMS-Neve DFC Gemini. This Dolby accredited room is now more than capable of handling high end dramas for TV work and with the inclusion of the integral 35/16mm projector, feature films too. In addition, the studio boasts a voice over booth large enough to handle the many animation productions that Aquarium service.
Peter Joly (Aquarium, Managing Director) explains why the investment was necessary. “Up until now we’ve had relatively small 5.1 rooms, but the client base we’ve held over the years has become attuned to larger projects, so now we can provide the larger environment they need.”
Ben Baird (Aquarium owner and BAFTA award winning mixing engineer) has been getting acquainted with the DFC Gemini over the past few weeks. “I’ve worked on many consoles over the years, including the Logic 2 and I was pleased to find that the DFC was very intuitive to use. I was able to mix on the console fairly effectively within the first few hours of use.”
Ben continues, “I gave the EQ a pretty good work out and pushed the compressor/limiters quite hard. What I found was that the robustness of the dynamics is a significant improvement from what I’ve been used to. I was able to maintain a good dynamic on the dialogue whilst still retaining its punch. The compressor/limiters have really exceeded my expectations.”
“Workflow on the console is also very straight forward. Routing channels and assigning I/O is logical, while reconfiguring the desk to a prior configuration is simple and efficient.”
Common to most DFC equipped studios is a ProTools system, as is the case at Aquarium. Ben currently makes good use of the facilities within ProTools to generate the submixes and uses the DFC to add the polish. “Over time I want to take more off ProTools and perform more of the work on the DFC. Currently for example I’ll have 24 submixes on ProTools and then mix down on the DFC, but for dialogue, music & spot effects you need to be on the fader and use the console rather than work within ProTools. This gives you the best level of control.”
“As I’ve only used the console for a few weeks I’ve really only just scratched the surface of what the DFC can do, but I’m really happy with it and feel that it is built for people to use. It feels good and sounds good!”
Ben, whose BAFTA awards include War Oratorio; Tsunami – Seven Hours on Boxing Day; The Genius of Mozart and a BAFTA nomination for ITV’s Prime Suspect, is currently working on the film Hippy Hippy Shake. Directed by Beeban Kidron, the film follows counterculturist Richard Neville’s misadventures in London in the late 1960s. “The room and desk are more than capable of handling a film of that scope” explains Ben.
Peter feels that the investment in the DFC was well worth while. “There is a growing community of DFC users now in Central London. This allows us to co-operate to a greater degree which can be useful when scheduling issues arise as we can interchange mixes between studios if required. Before, with analogue consoles, this was generally possible, but digital consoles changed that as their methods of operation varied so much. Now it is returning to how it was, all due to the number of DFCs installed in London. As for Aquarium, we are looking forward to making the best use of the desk with a wide variety of projects currently in our diary for the rest of the year.”
Aquarium can be contacted on +44 (0)207 734 1611 or via their website www.aquariumstudios.co.uk.
