DJ and former Happy Mondays guitarist Kav Sandhu has installed a Prism Sound Titan audio interface in his UK project studio so that he can record ‘release quality’ vocal when he isn’t able to access a commercial recording facility.
Sandhu set up the band Blitz Vega in 2018 with bassist Andy Rourke, formerly with The Smiths, and the band was recording a new album in Los Angeles and New York when the Covid pandemic forced the world to close down. The band scattered to various parts of the world with Kav returning to the UK where he set up a project studio and put a Prism Sound Titan at the heart of it.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the Titan saved me,” Sandhu says. “Without it, I would never have been able to capture high quality vocals and guitar at home. Thanks to Titan I was able to continue working and being creative during lockdown, which was really important to me.”
Prism Sound’s Titan is a multi-channel audio interface that offers high quality analogue and digital I/O for Mac or Windows PC. It delivers sample rates of up to 192kHz via a simple USB interface and was specifically designed for recording professionals who use external hardware devices such as Pro Tools but want easy access to Prism Sound’s internationally acclaimed high quality audio. Titan offers all the award-winning features of the company’s competitively priced Orpheus, but with USB connectivity and an MDIO interface expansion slot that allows for direct connection to Pro Tools|HDX systems.
Kav Sandhu’s project studio is, he says, ‘really nice and basic’. He uses Pro Tools and Logic on his iMac and listens to everything through Yamaha and KRK monitors, powered by Yamaha amps, as well as some old school big PA DJ speakers. A wide range of other equipment is also being used – some in Sandhu’s studio and the rest in project facilities owned by Andy Rourke and Will Kennedy.
“Nothing can replace the vibe of working with a full band, but the Titan has made recording remotely as good as recording vocals and guitar parts separately in any full working studio,” Sandhu says. “It’s great because you can capture something as soon as you get that creative spark. You don’t have to travel anywhere. It’s changed my life because I can capture everything I need, and sometimes it’s better than recording in a recording studio.”
Working remotely, and with band members in so many different locations, required Blitz Vega to think outside the box. Producer Will Kennedy ran recording sessions via Zoom and then pulling everything together in his studio in LA.
“It was good that a lot of the bands parts were done before we left LA last spring, but since then I’ve personally been adding vocals, extra guitars and keyboards on the tracks for our forthcoming album and EPs,” Sandhu explains. “Once Will has finished with the recording sessions, we send the tracks to Jagz Kooner and he mixes them.”
Sandhu adds that the Titan interface is very easy to use and took very little time to set up. “It captures the audio exactly how I want it and it doesn’t mess with the sound. It’s direct, so everything we record sounds the way we want it to sound. From a creative point of view it has made life massively easier. These days, instead of recording demos at home, I can record finished and complete audio as soon as I feel that creative spark and the quality is good enough to use on the final record.”
Blitz Vega’s new album is nearing completion and a release date will be announced soon.
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About Prism Sound
Founded in 1987, Prism Sound manufacture professional digital audio equipment for the international broadcast, film and music production sectors. The company's products are renowned for their exceptional audio quality and are the converters and interfaces of choice for many of the world’s top artists, producers, composers, mixing and mastering engineers. They are also the mainstay of many internationally acclaimed audio facilities including Metropolis Studios, Sony, ESPN, the Library of Congress and Walt Disney. Prism Sound also produces SADiE audio production workstation software, which is used by major national broadcasters such as the BBC and Radio France, as well as many of the world's leading mastering houses and classical and live music recording engineers.
For more information: www.prismsound.com
