UK - Composer and producer for film, television and games, Hilgrove Kenrick has recently installed Audient Oria in his new Oxfordshire studio. He was already working in 5.1 with his Steinberg Nuendo and PMC setup when he heard about the immersive audio interface and monitor controller from Audient, and realised “it would slot right in.”
“It would simplify everything and allow me to monitor stereo, quad and 5.1 – no extra gear needed,” he added. Which led to him taking the leap into spatial audio. Originally concerned about how he was going to flip between stereo and surround formats, he realised Audient had solved that problem for him as well. “When it became clear that SoundID Reference was going to be integrated directly into the Oria, it really did seem to be pretty much unique in this sector of the market,” he says.
Setting up was simple. “It was all done and dusted with the room tuned within an hour,” he explains. It was so easy in fact, he did it again a couple of days later. “I feel it wasn’t as accurate as it might have been because of my placement of the measuring microphone. Definitely responded well to the extra care taken.”
With design help from Room Sonics and PMC Speakers Pro, Kenrick now has the control he wants and the monitoring he needs. Conscious that his space is a ‘writing room’ rather than a ‘studio’ he confesses to a tendency to streamline his technology. Oria has certainly helped with this. “Everything has collapsed into simplicity,” he says. “With one fell swoop the Oria has simplified everything – one volume knob, one button to flip profiles, a couple of lovely Audient preamps for quick takes of instruments and the ADAT inputs to take wider mic inputs from my ASP800.”
With his new space now somewhere he feels inspired, enthusiastic and at peace, he can get on with the business of further exploring what immersive can do. “Suddenly with spatial audio we’ve been handed the tools and just left to get on with it, with no historical shackles around our feet. I find that creatively so exciting and technically thrilling that I dived straight in, and the Oria is the right tool for the right job.”
