Ever since he got his hands on EVO 16 audio interface, independent musician, producer and synthesizer wizard, Jasper Wijnands – aka Shook – has been locked in the studio with it. “I love how easy everything is,” he says. He attributes a lot of that to the Motion UI: the full colour LCD screen which helps the user navigate hardware features, without having to look at the computer.
First impressions of EVO 16: “a really nice clean, rounded sound”
“I love the screen. At first I was a little cautious, as I don’t like to look at lots of screens all the time. But to be honest, it only shows the information that you need. It works very intuitively. It’s not too big either; it’s the right format and the colours and meters look very fancy too! I really love the playfulness of it, like the cheeky phantom power icon. Literally a ghost. I quite like that!”
The EVO 16 sits neatly on top of his ASP880, which is connected via ADAT, and under his monitor screen. “The size of the EVO 16 is great. It doesn’t need much space and it fits nicely on my desk,” he says. “When I need a quick input, I can plug in a synthesizer or desktop synth whenever I feel the inspiration to record something.”
He utilises the two JFET inputs at the front of the unit “which give a really nice clean, rounded sound.” Jasper is currently using the Prophet as his main synthesizer. “I use the front input for that to record directly. Input two is a Neumann mic which feeds off the phantom power from the EVO 16.”
First impressions of Smartgain: “I was amazed how good the results were! It really is ‘smart’”
He has also found himself using the Smartgain feature a lot more than he expected – especially when recording vocals for songs or voice overs for video. “I was amazed how good the results were! It really is ‘smart’ in that regard, and saves me a lot of time compared to setting the levels myself.”
He’s found it particularly useful when inspiration strikes unexpectedly. “Sometimes when you are in a hurry and in this creative rush, you can get a little bit too excited and forget to check the levels, which can ruin a good take. Maybe the signal came in too hot or you recorded it too softly. With the Smartgain function, it feels like there is an extra brain in the studio that can help you with that. That is really awesome.”
It all seems to be working out well for Jasper, as he’s been using the EVO 16 exclusively for all things ‘music work’ related. He’s aware that this is more than just making and recording music, these days. “Today we can do so much as musicians,” he muses. “Think about the occasional tutorials, podcasts, social media videos we are creating. EVO 16 fits perfectly into this ‘new’ way of doing things as a professional musician. It makes things easier to get the best results without thinking too much about the technical side of things.”
“I love how easy everything is!”
Jasper confesses he’s not quite exhausted all its features just yet. “Still on my to-do list is to connect all my other synthesizers to the back of the unit.” EVO looks forward to hearing what comes of that!
Head over to his website or Instagram to stay in touch with what Jasper – and Shook – are up to. Make sure you have a listen to his music on Spotify, too.
