James High, Marketing Specialist and sound designer for synthesiser manufacturer Modal Electronics, has made a Prism Sound Titan audio interface the centrepiece of his recording studio because he is so impressed with the audio quality it delivers.

From his studio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, High produces engaging video content around Modal technology and helps to design factory pre-sets for all of Modal’s upcoming synthesisers. The Prism Sound Titan is a recent addition to his equipment line-up, which also includes a Mackie VLZ4 1604 mixer.

“I had no idea how good Titan was until I got one into my studio,” James explains. “All the reviews I read about Prism Sound products agreed on their quality, but once I learned more about the company and its expertise in converters, especially clocking, buying a Prism Sound unit made even more sense.”

High’s work for UK manufacturer Modal has included pre-set designs for the company’s ARGON8 synthesiser, which was released in 2019 with the aim of delivering immediately recognisable Modal sounds that cut right through the mix. He has also designed factory pre-sets for the company’s latest synth, the COBALT8, and put together 30 second demo songs of COBALT8 for use in a video commercial.

Having access to the highest quality audio conversion is key to High’s sound design work and this is why he wanted a Prism Sound unit for his own studio. After researching various units he chose a Titan multitrack interface with a built-in digital mixer that can be configured to provide a range of ultra low latency feeds, including stereo and surround outputs. Titan’s flexible expansion path and connectivity to a wide range of computers via a standard USB connection was also appealing, along with the option of adding ProTools HDX and Dante modules if he needed them in the future.

“Over the years I’ve noticed that, with other interfaces, there is always a drastic difference between live monitoring a synth on the interface and listening to it after I’ve recorded it,” High says. “Something gets lost in the conversion and it sounds flattened and bland, as though it has lost all its energy. But when I recorded with Titan, the first thing I noticed was the quality I was getting out of the A/D converters. It was unbelievable. It’s the first time I’ve ever used an interface where there was no discernible difference between live monitoring and the recorded end result. I cannot begin to stress just how good things sound going through this interface.”

In his studio High brings all hardware synths into his Mackie mixer and puts 8 channels post EQ/Fader into the Titan’s 8 inputs. He then loops back via S/PDIF to capture audio directly from the synths or, if necessary, from the DAW output.

“Recording on the Titan is very low latency and it’s rock solid on a Mac,” he adds. “Getting results is easy. Sound Design is often done with live monitoring engaged but recording the sounds at the highest possible quality ensures Modal synths sound their absolute best at all times, in any of our videos and sound demos.”

The company’s best performing product to date, the ADA-128 is the latest in Prism Sound’s internationally acclaimed range of Dream A/D and D/A converters. By applying the same ‘no compromise’ design philosophy, Prism Sound has created a product that complements its existing range, which includes the popular ADA-8XR multichannel converter that can be found in many audio facilities worldwide. This new converter brings exceptional levels of flexibility, functionality, and cost effectiveness to the professional audio market without any compromise in sound quality.

Mark Evans, Prism Sound’s Sales Director, says: “This is the first product of a new generation of Prism Sound converters and we are confident that it will be well received by audio professionals across many different disciplines, including music recording, post production, broadcast and installation. It builds on everything that is great about Prism Sound conversion but takes it to a new level in terms of power and flexibility. It is also a very cost effective solution for people who require a high channel count – to put this into perspective, for 128 channels of our flagship ADA-8XR conversion it would cost approximately £25,000 more and take up a lot more space in a rack!”

Designed as both a conversion system and a high-performance, networkable audio distribution and processing system, the ADA-128 is built around a flexible 2RU mainframe that can be fitted with up to 16 analogue and digital IO modules (each of which nominally provides eight input or output ports, or both). Up to four Host modules provide bidirectional multi-channel connections to host computers, workstations, networks etc. The ADA-128 provides free routing between all of these inputs and outputs under detailed user control, as well as a wide range of processing functions.

“The ADA-128 has a host of exciting features including low-jitter master clocks, flexible routing and synchronization options and a comprehensive store system for fast-access factory and user pre-sets,” Mark Evans adds. “However, one of its key benefits is the ability to independently synchronise the I/O cards to create four different domains, each with its own sample rate and clock. This will definitely appeal to facilities with more than one control room, as well as projects requiring a large amount of I/O.”

The inspiration for the ADA-128 originally came from discussions between Prism Sound’s Managing Director Jody Thorne and The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, a faculty of Birmingham City University.

“The Conservatoire were looking for high quality converters and knew Prism Sound’s reputation in this area, which is why they approached us,” Jody Thorne says. “Our discussions identified the need for a high channel count conversion system that could be networked across their entire facility. As this didn’t exist, we set about designing it and that project formed the basis of the ADA-128.”

During the development period, The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire have installed Prism Sound ADA-8XR converters in its studios but will now take delivery of the first ADA-128 units to roll off the production line. Another early adopter is the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Other facilities are also specifying the unit and eagerly awaiting delivery.

Prism Sound’s new ADA-128 will be officially unveiled this month during the (online) 149th AES Convention. An ADA-128 chassis will retail at £5,000 with Host cards from £750 and I/O cards from £1,650. 

Prism Sound is a benchmark for digital audio recording and playback. There’ll be no argument there. For years the company released industrial strength A to D and D to A converters which kept the bar at prodigious heights. Like all best-in-class technology, however, Prism Sound converters were always far too expensive for the aspiring recording enthusiast. Thankfully the cost of Prism Sound’s technology has lowered appreciably in recent years, with the company’s initial foray into ‘affordable’ converters being the Orpheus back in 2008. While still a top-shelf set of converters with an equally top-shelf asking price, the Orpheus was streets more affordable than the Dream series of converters the company rose to prominence with — those units will set you back a staggering $13,000.

Now you’re back in your chair you’ll be refreshed to learn Prism Sound’s latest offering doesn’t come near those price figures, although it certainly isn’t a budget interface. The Titan is a continuation of Prism Sound’s USB-based interfaces reviewed a couple of issues back such as the Lyra and the Lyra 2. However, connectivity with the Titan is more than mere USB, and includes some versatile options for connecting to various systems. Pricing is described as ‘accessible’, which is a fair assessment considering the Prism Sound pedigree, and especially when compared with Prism’s high-falutin’, and for most, inaccessible Dream ADA-8XR.

USED ANYWHERE

In use the Titan arcs up immediately. No install issues at all. Connection is via USB 2. Yep! All this I/O is shunted to your laptop or desktop CPU via the truly universal serial bus. I had no trouble whatsoever recording 18 tracks at 44.1k to a machine running OS X 10.8.4 with a 3.2GHz i5 processor. 14 tracks went down happily at 96k, and 10 tracks at 192k. The Titan swallowed it all whole at a buffer size of 128 samples. Speaking of platforms, Windows (Vista, 7 and 8, 32- and 64-bit, ASIO and WDM drivers), as well as OS X 10.4.11 and later (Intel) are all supported. Once configured with a computer, Titan can also operate as a stand-alone unit using analogue, ADAT, S/PDIF or AES/EBU I/O. I must say, until recently I’d never expected USB 2 (and 3) audio interfaces to be this bulletproof, but it appears the slow demise of Firewire has increased manufacturers’ development processes toward this ubiquitous bus system. That said, the MDIO slot could be fitted with a Thunderbolt interface option, eradicating bottleneck concerns pretty much completely.

Equally versatile is the unit’s ability to have I/O mixed and routed allowing low-latency mixes to be bused to any of the unit’s outputs, including the digital outputs and headphone outputs. This abundance of functionality is accessed via a software control panel that appears to work flawlessly upon first install. As you can see, this is a professional recordists’ piece of interfacing, covering every possible function you could reasonably expect, and unlike many ‘pro’ interfaces, most functions are available across all analogue inputs — for example, the high-pass filters and phase reversal included on the TRS inputs should your outboard preamps not include these features. Considerate indeed.