Canadore College Embraces Solid State Logic ORIGIN for its Recording Engineering — Music Production Program, Providing Students with Analog Console Experience

“I wanted to get the ORIGIN because of the EQ on each channel, and how you can shape the sound with the four bands, just like you can in the computer,” he says. “So we’re able to show students how to apply EQ manually with a physical piece of equipment. Another big thing is getting students to understand how the routing works, and how it’s very much the same in a DAW and a console, and having that lightbulb go off.”

For a generation of students that has only ever worked on a computer, the console also enables faculty members to highlight some of the differences between analog and digital audio processing. “Sonically, you can crank the console’s EQ knob all the way and it still sounds good, as opposed to digital, which sometimes doesn’t do the same thing,” says Leggett.

Canadore College was able to maintain in-person instruction during the pandemic for the duration of the academic year, which ended in April. “We had to reduce our class sizes,” says Leggett, due to the pandemic. “But it worked out for the better because smaller class sizes meant more hands-on time with the console for students.”

ORIGIN is ideal for educational institutions, incorporating much of the audio mixing console functionality that students are likely to encounter when they go on to pursue a career in music. “We take one button at a time,” he says. “We learned the basics this year, and there’s still room to learn on the console for the students in the second year. It’s good just to be able to teach everything possible and to show the value of a console.”

Even if graduates don’t go on to work on a console, learning the basic operations of an analog desk gives them a solid foundation in music production technology. “If you want to pursue this as a career, you have to know how they did it in the beginning and how you can do it now and everything in between,” says Leggett.

Canadore College trains people through applied learning, leadership and innovation. It provides access to over 80 full-time quality programs, has outstanding faculty and provides success services to students from nearly 400 Canadian communities and 15 international countries. The College, its students, and alumni add $369 million to the Nipissing Parry Sound service area economy. Approximately 1,000 students graduate from Canadore each year, and they join 47,000 alumni working across the globe. Canadore receives less than 50 per cent of its traditional funding from the provincial Ministry of Colleges and Universities and relies on its own innovation and entrepreneurial endeavours and generous donors for the balance.