I had worked in quad and 5.1 in my previous room, but of late have been purely stereo. I had the opportunity for a clean-sheet design moving into my new space and intended to go 5.1 but was actively encouraged by colleagues to take the next step… so I did.

About 5 years ago my setup consisted of Steinberg Nuendo, RME MADI interface, TC Electronic monitor controller and PMC speakers for 5.1. In the intervening period my writing room was based around Steinberg Nuendo, PMC speakers and an Audient iD44 bought during lockdown. I was so impressed with the iD44 I ended up buying a couple of iD14s for portable / location recording.

The iD44 served me exceptionally well for my stereo setup. When I decided to expand to 5.1 I needed a solution that could handle multi-channel monitoring seamlessly. When Audient announced ORIA, I approached them for information and it rapidly became clear that it would slot right in. It would simplify everything and allow me to monitor stereo, quad and 5.1- no extra gear needed. So then I bit the spatial bug…

I knew coming into the new space that with the brilliant design help of Roomsonics and PMC Speakers Pro I’d have a lot of control over the room and exceptionally clean monitoring, but I was concerned about flipping between stereo and surround formats – the space responds differently depending on whether it’s 2.0 / 2.1 / 4.0 / 5.1 / 7.1.4.

When it became clear that Sound ID Reference was going to be integrated directly into the ORIA it really did seem to be pretty much unique in this sector of the market. I’m a composer first and foremost and this is a writing room, not a “studio” – I want a space that is inspiring to write and work in so I don’t want something absolutely dead to the world and entirely tightly controlled.

This way I could have the best of both worlds – enough control to be confident in what I’m doing and what the monitors are telling me, but enough life and breath still in the room to feel free.

Long in the words, short in the telling. I was eager to get noise out as soon as possible, and it felt like forever and yet it was all done and dusted with the room tuned within an hour. It was a real confidence boost to have the right measurement mic in the box and save an extra purchase.

I went back and did it again a couple of days later to fine tune placements as I feel it wasn’t as accurate as it might be because of my placement of the measuring microphone. Definitely responded well to the extra care taken. I was glad to do it in a reasonably empty room though, particularly with 12 speakers to account for, you really don’t want too many things to trip over.

Everything collapsed into simplicity: while the iD software was simple enough when I was using the iD44, obviously spatial audio and room correction adds layers and layers of complexity. With one fell swoop the ORIA has simplified everything – one volume knob, one button to flip profiles, a couple of lovely Audient preamps for quick takes of instruments and the ADAT inputs to take wider mic inputs from my ASP800. I do use the ORIA software on one screen purely to monitor pre and post meters just so I can keep an eye on what’s going on, it’s a handy feature.

Since it was installed, I’ve mixed two albums in stereo, recorded and mixed three EP’s in Atmos, completed the score to a film in stereo, started previews and score drafts for a film in Atmos and two documentary series in stereo. It’s been worked pretty hard from day one and has just sat and taken it and delivered. That’s the definition of seamless. Whilst this was a fresh build for me, I could see it’d really only be an hour or two away from unboxing to spatial audio, even in a busy room.

I was hoping for a 1U Swiss army knife… it has peeled all the apples I could have asked for, and I know moving forward that someday I’ll figure out how to open the scissors. It’s a bit cumbersome for getting a stone out of a horse’s hoof though.

It’s not often a product comes along at just the right time, so often they have features you don’t need, complexities you can’t fathom or are somehow unobtainable. The lure of the shiny object is strong, especially among the pro audio fraternity. I’m so grateful to Audient and PMC Speakers Pro for encouraging me to take that one step further and go from surround to spatial audio.

I’ve heard spatial audio referred to as the Wild West: we are so set in our ways with stereo mixing, we’ve been doing it for 50 years and the rule book is as long as many, many arms. Suddenly with spatial audio we’ve been handed the tools and just left to get on with it with no historical shackles around our feet. I find that creatively so exciting and technically thrilling that I dived straight in, and the ORIA is the right tool for the right job.