Audio Education 2024, Pt. 6: Stephen F. Austin State University

Stephen F. Austin State University’s School of Music unveiled a new recording studio equipped with an SSL T S500 console and a 7.1.4 immersive monitor speaker setup at its East Texas campus at the beginning of 2024. The room, Studio B, is part of an expansion of the school’s Griffith Fine Arts Building, which houses the sound recording technology, filmmaking, theater, dance and musical theater programs.

James F. Adams, associate professor of music, director of sound recording technology at the School of Music, says that the new room complements Studio A, an all-analog facility, though he adds, “We wanted Studio B to be our modern studio. We knew that we needed to be on the cutting edge for tomorrow’s professionals. We also wanted it to be an Atmos room.” Studio B’s control room measures approximately 400 square feet and is attached to a 500-square-foot live room with a single iso booth.

Adams explains that the sound recording technology program is designed to empower musicians with a confident command of technologies so that they can excel in their artistry. “All our students are music majors. In addition to their audio technology courses, they’re taking music theory; they take instrument lessons and they’re in ensembles, so they’re all very active, trained musicians. Our students at the undergraduate level are pursuing a Bachelor of Music, then our graduate courses are Master of Music degrees, where we take things to a more advanced level. Usually, our graduate students want to work in music production, at higher levels of studio recording, get involved with record labels or aspire to be teachers one day.”

The new 64-fader System T console, which offers immersive monitoring and busing as standard and was supplied by Vintage King, is paired with a Focal 7.1.4 monitor setup in the room. The console was chosen because, while Atmos is a focus, the room is multi-functional, Adams says, so it also must handle tracking and post-production mixing. “We also found that SSL’s flow and routing and everything about the System T fit our pedagogical styles and our goals. Plus, it’s a Dante console with the ability to control Dante-enabled stage boxes, et cetera, and our whole facility has a Dante backbone.”

Making the most of that network, he says, “The grand plan is to one day have our orchestra upstairs feed everything into the System T and be able to manage a live broadcast mix from the SSL in addition to recording it. Hopefully, one day in the future, we’ll be able to stream in spatial audio.”