“It was a product that really surprised me actually,” says producer and mix engineer, Damien Lewis about his recently acquired Audient Nero monitor controller. “It punches way above its price point. It offers all the functionality you could possibly need for your studio. In addition to that, it’s built really nicely and looks great on my desk.”
His LA home studio is where he spends the bulk of his time, and is still his preferred mixing space, where he’s worked on music by Justin Timberlake, Lizzo, Kehlani and Justin Bieber, amongst many others. “I have little desire to mix at any studio and it’s been that way for many years now! I know my speakers and I know my room. I get to hang out with my dogs Whitney and Clive.”
“[Nero] offers all the functionality you could possibly need for your studio.”
Now he has Audient Nero helping him centralise, connect and control all of his monitoring there too. “It blows away the competition in similarly priced monitor controllers and rivals products that are many times its price, like pretty much all Audient offerings.”
Nero joins his iD44 which is also a firm fixture in his toolkit. “It’s always in the Pelican case!” he says. Typically spending two days a week engineering sessions all over LA, Damien is happy to rely on his Audient audio interface.
“It just sounds great, it’s easy to use, the mixer app is simple and straightforward. I love that I can bypass the mic pres/ line inputs by patching into the insert return. I always cut vocals with a Neve mic pre and this gives me the cleanest path to the computer.”
Damien on his iD44: “It just sounds great”
With sessions booked at Conway and EastWest coming up – “both fantastic places” – Damien continues to move in legendary circles in his hometown of Los Angeles.
Audient caught up with him and his trusty iD44 at MAPS studio in Fullerton recently, to chat about how he goes about recording a pop vocal. He shared many insights, such as: “Your job as a recording engineer is almost part psychologist, part vibe master and part engineer.”
Hear more of his top tips on running a successful recording session in the following video recorded whilst Damien was tracking MISY (pictured above) and her song, American Spirit.
Find out more about Damien on his website or by following him on Instagram.
