Wez Clarke, Mix Engineer, has a rich pedigree of success that spans many genres,
from his DJ foundations and early production work and hits under Speed Freak
Records, to Mixer and Production credits on 14 number one albums so far…. Most
recently, he has mixed top-sellers for Naughty Boy, Beyonce, Jess Glynne,
Rudimental, Little Mix, Duke Dumont, Tinie Tempah, Ella Eyre – and this year, along
with Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne, collected a Grammy for Best Dance Recording of
2015 (Rather Be).
Clarke recently refurbished his London studio, with acoustic design by Munro
Acoustics, ME Geithain monitoring, and an SSL AWS 948 console with δelta-Control.
Clarke needed a space (and equipment) that would work in any genre, and for him
one of the primary strengths of the AWS is its sonic versatility: “Because it’s so
clean, you don’t have to imprint the analogue desk sound,’ he explains. “People
don’t necessarily want a sound printed on a project at the mixing stage. They might
like their sound – they just want it sharper and punchier, and so on – so I need to be
quite careful. I think the desk gives you the best of both worlds; you can get either
sound you want.’
Clarke ’s working method has evolved significantly recently, as he used to do most
mixing in-the-box with Pro Tools: “I basically have everything in Pro Tools at zero
and do it all on the desk in the analogue world… Once you get the bug – once you
hear the sound – it’s difficult to go back; and now I’ve got δelta-Control and I can
automate using that, I hardly do anything in-the-box.’
δelta-Control is a plug-in that enables automation of an analogue console (SSL AWS
or Duality) as if it were a DAW plug-in. The automation system in the DAW is used
to record and playback control data from the faders and switches on the console as
an alternative to using the SSL legacy automation system.
In addition to the AWS 948, Clarke has also installed an SSL X-Rack – a 4U modular
system with a variety of analogue modules available. This one has five Stereo
Dynamics Modules, one Stereo EQ module, and a Stereo Bus Compressor (G-Series
console centre-section compressor).
Enhanced 64bit plug-ins have been appearing over the last year culminating in the
new Cedar for Pyramix 64 suite which has drastically enhanced features compared
with the former Cedar Tools offering. In addition to Retouch 7™, Auto and Manual
Declick, Auto Decrackle, Auto Dehiss, and Dethump have all been significantly
improved and benefit from the 64bit transition.
The increasing popularity of Horus and Hapi in the Pro Tools community led to
requests to improve the latency when used with HD systems. The PT64 card is the
perfect plug in solution for HDX connectivity. PT64 takes one card slot in Hapi or
Horus and offers a 64 channel bi-directional connection. The cards can be doubled
up to provide 128 channels in a single device. In addition to the obvious
performance improvements, PT64 brings Pro Tools into the RAVENNA/AES67 world,
as well as being able to utilize the vast array of digital I/O that comes as standard
on these converters. The astounding quality and headroom of the mic preamps and
the state of the art A/D and DA conversion is a further bonus for the serious Pro
Tools user. PT64 is shipping now.
Claude Cellier, Merging’s President, had this to say; “You are never sure what each
year will bring but we could not have planned a better time to reach our quarter
century. Pyramix still advances year by year and V 10 is a significant release for
us; Ovation sales are growing well; 500 Hapi units shipped; the successful launch of
NADAC. I think we can certainly claim that 2015 is a vintage year for Merging.’