The setup at Falmouth University featuring RME M-32 AD and DA converters
David Prior, Associate Professor of Music at Falmouth University, speaks to us about the role RME is playing at the university's campus recording studio.
Falmouth University in Cornwall is spread over two campuses. With the first located in Falmouth itself, it is the nearby town of Penryn which is home to the Academy of Music and Theatre Arts department, where the organisation's excellent recording facilities are housed. David Prior, Associate Professor of Music, spoke to Synthax Audio about the challenge of providing the best possible recording options for the students, and how RME provided the ideal solution.
He explained, “we needed a solution whereby we could go between the studio computer and a user’s laptop quickly, without having to reset the whole system or running the risk of compromising reliability. The studio in which the RME setup is installed has an SSL AWS 924 (mixing console), and while we have a wide range of software installed on our studio computer, we had received a number of requests from students who wanted to work on their own machines, with their own software and workflows. Our students move fluidly between our different studios and their laptops and home environments, and for some time we have been looking into the best way of designing our studios around this.”
In order to achieve this desired flexibility, David chose to use two RME MADI interfaces connected in parallel to a rack of high-end RME AD and DA converters. “We have an HDSPe MADI FX card in the studio computer and a MADIface USB interface installed in a rack to host laptops. Both interfaces link up to the M-32 AD and M-32 DA converters via MADI BNC and MADI optical respectively. Switching between the two computers is, therefore, very simple.” By configuring things in this way, studio users are able to quickly swap from one MADI interface to the other by toggling the MADI format between optical and BNC on the front of the M-32 AD and DA converters. This made it easy for a laptop to be connected, enabling the students to make use of the SSL desk whilst recording directly into their own preferred DAW.
The RME M-32 AD and M-32 DA converters in the rack at Falmouth
David says he has been pleased with the reliability of the system, as well as the performance of the RME drivers. “We have found the system to be totally reliable. This is particularly impressive in terms of the wide variety of laptops students have brought in to use with the MADIface USB. Students using both Macs and PCs, old and new and with a wide variety of audio software have been able to simply download the RME drivers and get straight into using the full functionality of the SSL. The only thing that took a bit of getting used to was the double and quad speed settings on the interfaces. Until the students became familiar with this, there was some scratching of heads!”
So, what made David and Falmouth University decide to use RME for their recording studio?
“We went with RME because the solution we have arrived at is a great combination of sound quality, reliability and functionality. We really needed the system to provide all three things in balance. We had quite a specific goal in terms of what the system needed to do, but we weren’t prepared to achieve this at the compromise of the system sounding fantastic or occasionally not working. Fortunately, the RME system has been totally solid, super flexible and sounds stunning.”
Thanks to David Prior for providing us with the information for this article. For more information about Falmouth University click here.
The system was supplied and installed by Studio Creations.