How to resolve AdBlock issue? Focusrite "Inside the Signal"
Focusrite presents "Inside the Signal", a new video series that, in this episode, takes viewers to Reality Exists, the studio of Mark ‘TIEKS’ Tieku, to learn how he hears and mixes records and explains why ISA C8X became the centrepiece of his studio. TIEKS is a record producer, mixer, and sometimes songwriter whose credits include Jax Jones, Chaka Khan, and Jess Glynne. He started as the industry was moving from analogue to digital, working on tape machines and desks, and has worked with many influential producers including Mike Chapman.
In the video, TIEKS recalls his first music memory, from around the age of three: his sister’s friends playing Chaka Khan vinyl downstairs, how it sounded like “something from space,” and how the light from outside shining through the curtains, turned his room a shade of crimson. TIEKS talks about hearing records in colour, starting a mix with one colour in his head. “When I start seeing that colour, I know I’m near the end of a record,” he says.
When it comes to the equipment he uses, TIEKS says he “never wanted [his] studio to be a museum piece”. He only keeps equipment in his studio that he uses regularly, and his select compressors and EQs stay in the settings that give him the exact sound he wants from them. His initial interest in ISA C8X was the RedNet conversion it offers, along with the potential he saw in it to bring his separate recording and mixing rigs into one unified setup. “I can hear it’s clean, it’s immediate,” he says of the conversion quality. Coming from his old interface, “everything’s better than before”.
ISA C8X has eight digital controlled preamps, two of which are ISA transformer preamps, which in TIEKS' opinion “sound incredible”. He values the detail he gets from them, and likes being able to dial in as much or as little saturation as he needs. “It’s a really, really carefully and diligently made box,” he says. With the eight preamps in one place, his other preamps are sitting with his assistant. “Now it’s the centrepiece of my studio,” says TIEKS. “It’s probably going to be the centrepiece for the next 10 years.”
ISA C8X is available now. Inside the Signal with TIEKS is available to watch at 4PM UK time, Thursday 12th November on the website below.