EMERGING UPGRADE PYRAMIX SYSTEM AT LIPA
eMerging, the UK distribution company for Merging Technologies' respected Pyramix DAW, has supplied a MassCore mix engine and version 6 software upgrade for the Pyramix digital audio workstation at the Liverpool Institute of the Recording Arts (LIPA).
The Pyramix system was installed last year, providing another DAW on which students can gain vocation-orientated recording experience, and to complement the Institute's existing RADAR and Pro Tools recording systems. "LIPA aims to provide its students with experience of as wide a variety of recording equipment as possible, so that they're best prepared for a career in recording, live sound or post-production after college," comments Jon Thornton, LIPA's Head of Sound. "In keeping with this idea, we have 'traditional' studios with analogue consoles and tape machines, digital control surfaces, hardware digital recorders and also DAW production environments such as Pro Tools and now Pyramix."
LIPA's Pyramix system was configured for post-production, with a single
Mykerinos DSP card and Post Pack software, and was installed in the
Institute's surround-capable post-production suite. "It was the third
major overhaul we've done on the post-pro studio since we opened in
1996," explains Jon Thornton. "We needed to replace an Akai DD1500,
which was well-used in post circles when LIPA opened, but was coming to
the end of its useful life. We could have opted for another Pro Tools
system, but when we looked into it, it seemed to us that Pyramix was
making large in-roads in the world of film and TV post-production, and
because we like to provide equipment that our students can reasonably
expect to find in the world of work after they graduate, Pyramix seemed
like a good choice. As well as providing another DAW for our students to
work with, it handles things well that Pro Tools struggles with a bit,
like 9-pin machine control. That's important on our courses, where
students learn dubbing with linear tape decks as well as using
non-linear systems.
"We ran the Pyramix with the older version 5 software all through last
year — I was keen not to carry out the significant upgrade to version 6
and MassCore in the middle of a teaching year — and then I upgraded the
systems over the summer break. It's been running fine so far. The new
MassCore mix engine makes a huge difference to the processing
capabilities of the system — you can now build mixers that seem
impossibly huge or complex. Mind you, our students will always do a good
job of pushing the boundaries of what's possible...!"
