{"id":3843,"date":"2022-03-16T11:37:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T16:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/?p=3843"},"modified":"2022-04-19T11:41:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T16:41:44","slug":"new-zealands-university-of-otago-makes-connections-with-solid-state-logics-duality-delta-superanalogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/16\/new-zealands-university-of-otago-makes-connections-with-solid-state-logics-duality-delta-superanalogue\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand’s University of Otago Makes Connections with Solid State Logic’s Duality Delta SuperAnalogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Otago in Dunedin, on New Zealand\u2019s South Island, opened a new School of Performing Arts building in 2020, a purpose-built, two-story complex that features a Solid State Logic Duality Delta SuperAnalogue<\/strong>TM<\/strong><\/sup>mixing console, supplied by Amber Technology NZ, in the spacious main recording studio. The studio supports the school\u2019s teaching program while also accommodating national and regional music industry projects and encouraging community engagement through workshops and other events.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reputation of the Duality precedes it, both in terms of the package \u2014 the workflow and how it sits in the room \u2014 as well as how it sounds,\u201d says Stephen Stedman, studio manager and music technician at the university\u2019s new Te Korokoro o te Tui studios. \u201cWe had a really good look at what other educators are doing around the world, where they want a real-world professional studio console. Dualitys are highly regarded and are in some of the best facilities in the world, so what we are teaching to students is relevant and aligned to what they might encounter in the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fostering a real-world experience<\/strong>
\nThere were a couple of other reasons to choose the Duality, he continues. \u201cWe definitely wanted an analog workflow and that sound. And we wanted something that would demonstrate to students how a large-format console works, how it\u2019s laid out and why so many of the software applications that they use in-the-box are built the way they are built and why the plug-ins look the way they look. They can take that real-world experience and the in-the-box stuff starts to make more sense for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Stedman says, the school wanted to increase engagement with the New Zealand music industry: \u201cSo we wanted a console that would be attractive to producers, musicians and publishers, and agencies like the Australasian Performing Right Association and the NZ Music Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A city with roots<\/strong> and influence<\/strong>
\nThe University of Otago \u2014 New Zealand\u2019s oldest, having been established in 1869 \u2014 is located in a city that captured the world\u2019s attention in the late 1970s and early \u201880s with the influential \u201cDunedin sound,\u201d which made its mark through bands initially championed by the Flying Nun Records label such as Toy Love, The Chills, The Verlaines and Straitjacket Fits. \u201cThe explosion of music in Dunedin was a contributing factor to us having a contemporary music program at Otago, which led to us having this studio, because we needed somewhere to run that program,\u201d Stedman says.<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s contemporary music program was housed until 2020 in an aging former New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation radio studio complex, now demolished, on Albany Street in Dunedin. \u201cWe moved there in 2000 and we had an SSL C200 that we bought in 2010. That was our first foray into a serious large-format console. The C200 was a phenomenal piece of equipment. That experience with SSL informed the decision to buy the Duality,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re around the other side and down the bottom of the world, so the tyranny of distance is always a problem for us,\u201d Stedman continues, using the popular phrase coined by historian Geoffrey Blainey, who wrote about the impact of geographical isolation on Australia, and by extension, New Zealand. \u201cWe carry comprehensive spares and we\u2019re trained to swap boards if we need to. But knowing that there are some people that you can send an email to and you\u2019ll get a reply that evening, and the level of service that we had from SSL at Albany Street, was also part of the decision process for the Duality.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That ‘lovely, big, fat sound<\/strong>
\nStedman enjoyed his time with the C200 but, unsurprisingly for a man who collects vintage tape machines, is happy to now be working on an analog desk. \u201cWhen we track on the Duality, we get that lovely, big, fat sound coming off it. You can wind in some harmonic distortion if you want to, but it also has a clarity, so it\u2019s got the best of both worlds. It\u2019s really musical \u2014 that\u2019s the quality that I experience with it,\u201d he reports.<\/p>\n

The new control room overlooks a 1,000-square-foot, two-story-high live space as well as two iso booths, one with an amp locker. Connector panels in the space feed 128 mic lines to the control room, 48 of them normalled into the Duality. The studio is well stocked with a variety of acoustic and electric instruments and amplifiers that have been collected over the years. A gantry around the upper level of the tracking room enables microphones, lighting, video screens and other equipment to be suspended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a camera above the Duality so we can throw an image of the console up on the big screen for Lectures or Lab work. We\u2019ve got cameras all through the building, so we can live stream. And we can route audio all over the building,\u201d over a Dante network, Stedman also notes.<\/p>\n

Various faculty and staff collaborated on the technical design of the new complex, which includes eight other purpose-built teaching, practice and rehearsal studios for music, dance and theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Colleague, Danny Buchanan, hails from Los Angeles. He has a tremendous background in studio operations. He had a senior technical role at A&M (Henson) Studios before he came to us and he brought significant expertise and experience to the build of this studio. Recently retired senior lecturer John Egenes, also a US \u00e9migr\u00e9, provided guidance and attended countless meetings with the university\u2019s leadership team. And Graeme Downes of The Verlaines was also until recently a member of our faculty here,\u201d says Stedman, who has been the live sound mixer and a record producer for the band for many years. \u201cGraeme was also a very big influence on the development of our contemporary music program and recording culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nA healthy mix of technology and philosophy<\/strong>
\nThe music production part of program is a mix of technology and more philosophical thinking as Stedman explains: \u201cWe start by recording some people playing music. You learn all the technical stuff along the way, but the further you go into it the more sort of philosophical it becomes. It\u2019s about the bigger questions. What is production? Why do records sound the way they sound? Deeper into the course, it becomes about the impact of music and where it\u2019s going and what our response to that might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recording studio is kept busy with teaching and with student projects during the semester but can accommodate some outside production projects at other times of the year, he reports. \u201cWe also have postgraduates doing their master\u2019s and we have a Doctor of Musical Arts program, which you can do in music production, where you produce three or four albums in the process of building your doctorate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the university hosts various events to engage the community at the facility. \u201cIf we have the Australasian Performing Right Association people here doing a series of workshops, then the outside community can come and participate, and our student can be involved as well,\u201d Stedman says. \u201cIt\u2019s all about helping people make connections.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Otago in Dunedin, on New Zealand\u2019s South Island, opened a new School of Performing Arts building in 2020, a purpose-built, two-story complex that features a Solid State Logic Duality Delta SuperAnalogueTMmixing console, supplied by Amber Technology NZ, in the spacious main recording studio. The studio supports the school\u2019s teaching program while also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[782,259],"class_list":["post-3843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-duality-delta-superanalogue","tag-solid-state-logic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Tui-Control-17-2-22-1_0002__GWP9646.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestudiolounge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}