Steven Cauwenberg has added a Prism Sound Dream ADA-128 modular conversion system to his studio in Duffel, Belgium.
Cauwenberg, who holds a producer position at the Belgium public broadcaster VRT, uses his own studio for podcasts, audiobooks, audio guides for museums and also recordings and editing for stage productions.
The facility, which is built around a Macbook M1 MAX, has an extensive microphone collection including Josephson Engineering C700S and C715 models, which reflect his philosophy of only choosing high quality equipment.
He also has a selection of outboard equipment from Cranesong, Universal Audio, Tubetech and Bricasti Design.
Aimed at audio professionals across many different disciplines, Atmos mixing, postproduction, broadcast and installation, the ADA-128 builds on Prism Sound’s ‘no compromise’ design philosophy
This modular audio conversion system offers up to 128 channels of 32-bit A/D and D/A conversion at sample rates of up to 768kHz.
It is designed as both a conversion system and a high-performance, networkable audio distribution and processing system, with 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, with the ADA-128 providing free routing between all of these inputs and outputs under detailed user control, as well as a wide range of processing functions.
“The fact that the ADA-128 is a modular device also determined my choice,” Cauwenberg adds.
“With this unit, my home studio is futureproofed because I don’t have to build everything from scratch whenever I change my setup.
“The ADA 128 can simply be adapted to my future projects. Currently I have one AD line in card, one DA line out card, one AES card and a Pro Tools card, but I can easily expand that in the future, depending on my needs.”
As a producer, Steven Cauwenberg likes to combine working in the box with a more traditional workflow that incorporates outboard hardware.
The ADA-128 gives him the worry-free option of carrying out additional AD/DA conversions whenever he wants to use external hardware.
“It is particularly good with my Cranesong Spider and works better than my previous set up,” he says. “I use the clock from the ADA 128 and let the Spider follow. For me, that works very well.”
Integrating the new Prism Sound ADA-128 into his studio proved straightforward and only required some re-cabling work, which was carried out by Jo Heijlen who has previously cabled studios for the rock group dEUS.
Joystick Audio’s Diederik Van den Broeck took charge of connecting the device and showing Cauwenberg how to use it.