“Transparency and ease of use,” are just two of the things that record producer and songwriter and Paul O’Duffy loves about his iD22, the USB AD/DA interface and monitoring system from Audient. “I don’t want to hear it colouring the sound too much,” he says, explaining how he’s been using it to record lead vocals and also as an interface to mix through. “I want the flexibility to colour the sound elsewhere post or pre. The iD22 is very clean to record through, as is the monitoring output options which has gotten rid of my external monitor selector, giving me a direct, truer signal path to my preferred KRK VXT8’s monitors and my old NS10’s.”

 

iD22:  “This interface more than meets my requirements.”

 

This all takes place in O’Duffy’s north London studio – located in his home – which he uses primarily for writing, recording vocals, mixing keys and guitars as well as smaller overdubs. He is keen to sing the praises of his new piece of kit: “The design is very clear and functional,” he begins. “You taste with the eyes, the quality of the finish from the metal casing to the aluminium volume knob suggests that what’s inside will conform to this same design philosophy – and I’m happy to say it does.”

 

O’Duffy’s career started in the late eighties, and he has a glittering back catalogue of credits, including, Swing Out Sister, John Barry, Dusty Springfield, Was Not Was, Lewis Taylor, Amy Winehouse, and most recently, new talents including Ella Eyre, Charlotte OC, Will Heard and Purple Ferdinand.

 

“When deciding to upgrade my interface I made a short list of the main features most important to me: clean sounding ‘Class A’ preamps, a minimum of two multi inputs and a balanced insert point for external analogue compression/efx before digital conversion, ADAT light pipe to connect to my analogue setup for more inputs when required and a balanced monitor output if possible – oh and the given of very low latency. The iD22 offers all of that in one sweet little box.  Yes, there are some others (competitors) that are close in spec on some features and functionality, but not all had what I was looking for in the same box,” adds O’Duffy. “This interface more than meets my requirements.”

 

“It gives me the flexibility to take a project elsewhere and recreate my set-up”

 

Ruminating on how he works, O’Duffy says, “I’m mostly ‘in the box’ as much as I can be these days. It gives me the flexibility to take a project elsewhere and recreate my set-up fairly easily. For the first time recently, I found myself comping performances in my laptop on a plane and wondered how much gear would I have needed to do the same thing 20 years earlier? A lot – and my own jet!” he laughs.

 

How things change…

 

First published March 2015