Ben Wever has built one of the most impressive pro audio spaces in Australia, possibly even the world.
He has four studios filled to the gills with tried-and-true equipment for mixing and mastering, housed in world-class acoustic environments that combine a handful of Ben’s own designs, like speaker stands, and industry standard acoustic products from companies like Autex.
The space combines the production, mixing and mastering rooms into showrooms, with all the gear being available to try and test in a real world context, rather than fumbling with a piece of gear in a shop and hoping you’ll be satisfied with your purchase. This is especially true for monitors, as sometimes you really need to spend some time, or do an entire project on monitoring to find out how it works, or doesn’t work, for you.
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The gear ranges from more accessible like Warm Audio in Showroom 4, right up to flagship equipment in Showroom 1 from the likes of Bricasti, Manley and ATC, a staple of Ordio Productions’ facility.
Showroom 1
Showroom 1 is Ordio Productions’ biggest and most high-end room, with the ATC SCM110ASL for main monitors. The room is treated for a balanced sound, without being overtly dead, the ATCs being pleasingly accurate, though not clinical or draining to listen to for long periods in Showroom 1.
ATC SCM110ASL
A dedicated space for mixing and mastering, Showroom 1 combines a range of equipment for either heavy handed compression and saturation (either tube or solid-state), or clean, transparent equipment used to feather a mix into shape with full confidence that every step of the gear is additive and won’t detract from your final product.
Showroom 1’s workflow is based around a handful of incredible pieces from SPL. The SPL DMC Mastering Console serves as the heart of your mix or master, allowing you to toggle between speakers, input sources, as well as having insert options for patching in equipment like the SPL PQ Mastering Equaliser or SPL IRON Mastering Compressor— in no particular order!
ATC monitors are mounted on Ordio Technology OTA-110 Speaker Stands, serving to give you the best possible experience when listening to the world-class speakers.
Ordio Productions’ Showroom 1 is designed to serve as a showroom for some of the audio world’s best equipment, racked and ready to go, patchable via Flock Audio’s Patch VT system, giving you the best possible chance to experience, hear and feel some world-class equipment. This room is acoustically treated with Autex Groove panels.
Showroom 2
Showroom 2 serves as a more dedicated mastering suite, with the gear, monitoring and treatment being curated to generate world-class masters. The gear in here is mastering grade, and generally feature detented controls for better recall. With Autex treatment and bass trapping, Showroom 2 is a haven for analogue processing, with the likes of Neve, Dangerous, Manyley, SPL and more available to try, test and buy. Again, monitoring is ATC, with a stereo pair of ATC SCM45A Pro Studio Monitor.
Showroom 3
Equipment aside, acoustic treatment is as important a part of any and every studio as the gear in the racks, so Showroom 3 serves as an acoustic showroom, with a comfortable ambience to enjoy music on either the ATC SCM20ASL Pro Studio Monitors, Dynaudio BM5 MkIII Nearfield Monitor or Dynaudio Lyd 5 Nearfield Monitors. This room is also treated with Autex Groove 12mm panels as well as additional wooden diffusion for an accurate and balanced listening experience.
Showroom 4
Showroom 4 is Ordio Productions’ most accessible studio, but this doesn’t mean it’s basic or entry level by any means.
“It’s not for Fisher Price engineers or for dummies.” Ben laughs. But he also acknowledges that it’s plenty for emerging engineers to get their hands (and ears!) on.
Flock Studio Patch system
Racks of gear are available via the Flock Studio Patch system, a digitally controlled, analogue switching system, with gear from Neve, Warm Audio, SPL and Universal Audio all within reach. A true champion of ATC monitoring, Ordio Productions also employs ATC in Showroom 4 with a pair of ATC SCM20ASL Pro Studio Monitors nestled between a pair of ATC SCM25A Pro Mk2 Studio Monitors.
Showroom 4 is an incredible opportunity to get to grips with analogue gear, tying together some of the more accessible bits of kit with a world-class room, acoustically treated and built for the best possible experience, while also offering more recording capabilities with mics from beyerdynamic, Audio-Technica and more.
Ben at Ordio Productions understands what a huge investment some of this gear can be, even regardless of the price tag. Emotionally and professionally this is the gear we’ll be trusting with our careers, as musicians trust you with their music, so you’ve got to make the right choice.
Ordio’s four showrooms give you the opportunity to ensure you’re making the right choice, and hey— it’s not our fault if you stumble upon something you didn’t realise you needed!
For further details, gear lists and more, keep reading at Ordio Productions.
