iFi Studio and Solid State Logic teamed up to host a hugely successful ‘recording and mixing with headphones’ masterclass with legendary producers Stuart Bruce and Gary Langan, at London’s World Heart Beat Studios.
Around 60 invited guests, comprising established and newly emerging engineers and producers, plus music technology students, attended the afternoon event. Gary Langan (Art of Noise, Queen, ABC) and Stuart Bruce (Band Aid, Stevie Wonder, Madeline Peyroux), recorded and mixed a jazz trio, made up of students from the World Heart Beat Academy, in the SSL equipped studio.
Control room monitoring was undertaken using the flagship iFi Studio headphone amplifier, the Pro iCAN Studio, and the latest Audeze headphones, the MM-100. The audience, who were assembled in the live room, listened to the trio during the recording, with Stuart Bruce providing explanations about two different microphone techniques being employed across two takes. The audience then monitored the results during playback using headphones connected to the iFi Studio ZEN CAN high-quality headphone amplifiers.
“We were delighted to team up with SSL and World Heart Beat Studios to present this masterclass,” says Miles Roberts, iFi Studio’s global head of sales. “Stuart and Gary did a fantastic job of engaging with our audience to explain what they were doing with the different mic techniques, and the resultant playback through our headphone amps really helped reinforce the differences and how they can be used in a creative environment.”
The Zen CAN Studio was perfect for the job and certainly impressed Gary Langan, who says, “It is clear, warm and precision enhancing, with little or no colouration and it’s got great clarity at low volumes.”
World Heart Beat Studios was set up by Sahana Gero MBE, who originally founded the World Heartbeat Academy in Wandsworth. It features a stunning live room that often hosts music events and also provides stunning acoustics for recording. The World Heart Beat Academy is a charity focused on developing music playing and production skills for disadvantaged young people from the local area.
