Serving around 15,000 students, Canterbury Christ University operates across five locations in Kent, England and offers a wide range of subjects, including music related courses. Recently, Soundcraft provided a live sound tutorial at the Broadstairs campus followed by an evening of live music with the new Si3 at FOH.

There are approximately 120 students in the Commercial Music Program with another 30 currently in the first year of the University’s new Creative Music Technology and Music Production programs.

Live tutorials like this provide the students with invaluable access to new audio technologies and provide an opportunity for them to get hands-on experience in a real mixing environment. Of the Si3, according to lecturer Andy Hurst, “The Lexicon effects units sounded great and were so easily accessible from the console. The facility to store parameters and recall at will for each band setup was also a great feature and with so many input and output options we couldn’t have been more pleased with the desks comparatively easy to move size.�

“It’s great to see up-and-coming musicians and engineers being inspired by the latest technologies, and we’d like to do more educational sessions like this and the Si3 is a perfect vehicle,� said Richard Ayres, Product Manager for the Si3. “This was also a perfect example of why we designed the Si3 the way we did, just take out your analog desk drop in the Si3, connect it to the existing snake and you’re mixing!�

As a follow-up to this session, the students will be invited to Soundcraft Studer’s UK headquarters in Potters Bar to familiarize themselves with the latest mixing technologies and get to know more about the design and manufacturing processes that go into making consoles like the Si and Vi Series.

“The experience gained by the students in having an industry manufacturer contribute to the module is invaluable,� said James Dean, Program Director for Commercial Music. “It provides an alternative perspective on industry practice, tuition on cutting edge hardware, and enhances industry links for prospective work experience. We aim to prepare our students to be self sufficient and well motivated when they graduate, and tutorials such as this raise further the student awareness of the theoretical and practical elements that they would be exposed to within an industry context.�

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