Click photo to enlarge
University of Otago studio technician Stephen Stedman
(left) and Richard Wand, an operations engineer at English
music equipment firm Solid State Logic, yesterday examine
the new mixing desk installed in a university music studio.
Photo by Peter McIntosh.
The installation of a state-of-the-art music console at
the University of Otago's Albany St studio is a "fantastic"
move which will help Dunedin strengthen its place as a force in
music production, the university says.
The mixing desk, the only one of its kind in New Zealand,
significantly increases the studio's capability as a major
recording facility for albums and live performances.
The console and associated top-line equipment is believed to
have cost almost $1 million.
It is understood the university provided more than $600,000
through a special equipment fund grant.
The humanities division also contributed.
University officials yesterday declined to discuss the costs.
The purpose-built former Radio New Zealand recording studio
was already outstanding in its size, being capable of
recording large groups of musicians, Otago music department
head Prof Henry Johnson said.
"We're introducing 21st-century technology to a vintage 1960s
studio built originally to record an orchestra."Members of
the university's music department have established the New
Zealand Music Industry Centre, in collaboration with music
company dunedinmusic.com.
The new centre, announced by the university yesterday, will
enable the department to engage with the music industry and
foster research and recording and pursue other commercial
opportunities.
It is hoped the centre will, in the long term, help enhance
overall career and employment prospects for University of
Otago music graduates.
"We want to promote Dunedin as an industry hub, with the
university and local music industry driving it," Prof Johnson
said.
"It's fantastic that we have this opportunity to interface
between university education and people working in the music
industry."The new music console had been bought from Solid
State Logic, an English firm co-owned by British rock singer
Peter Gabriel.
The mixing desk can record from nearly 100 inputs or
microphones at once, meaning it can handle big bands and
orchestras.
It is also planned to link the machine to the high-speed
fibre-optic KAREN network, through which the country's
universities share information.
This will enable "real-time" collaborations of groups of
musicians between Dunedin and a film or music studio in any
other major city in New Zealand or even abroad.
Dr Graeme Downes, a senior lecturer in music, said the new
console, combined with the KAREN network, would help
eliminate "the tyranny of distance", enabling music
researchers and other Dunedin musicians to collaborate on
creative projects more widely with fellow musicians elsewhere
in the country or overseas.
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