Audient was founded in 1997 by David Dearden and Gareth Davies, previously of Soundcraft. They had been founding partners of DDA – a company known for designing good value mixing console in the 1980s and 1990s. The company was later purchased by Simon Blackwood in the winter of 2013. The company carried on that philosophy, producing professional equipment at a mid-range price. Flagship designs include the ASP8024, a large format inline mixing console with up to 80 inputs on the 36 channel version. Recent development has seen the company branch out into the audio interface market with the addition of the iD22 followed by the iD14 and iD4. The company is based in Herriard but has employees in Bulgaria and throughout the UK. A widespread global distribution network is in place outside of the United Kingdom, with Audient taking British distribution in-house as of July 2010.
Mixing consoles
ASP8024-HE
Audient's flagship analogue console is the ASP8024 Heritage Edition. This desk can come with a DAW control platform, the DLC. The configuration of the desk is fully customizable and can have up to 60 channels, all complete with equalisation.
ASP4816
The ASP4816 is an inline console and the little brother of the ASP8024-HE. It has a total of 48 inputs with 16 mic pres each with a 4 band splittable EQ, a bus compressor and 4 stereo monitor outputs.
Audio Interfaces
iD22
The iD22 was Audient's first venture into the audio interface market. The high performance A/D and D/A interface with a comprehensive monitoring system hit the shelves 2013. The iD22 uses the class A preamps of the ASP8024-HE large format recording console, top of the range Burr Brown Analogue to Digital and Digital to Analogue converters, optical input and outputs and also a JFET DI input. The iD22 remains the flagship interface of Audient's range of iD audio interfaces.
iD14
iD14 was Audient's second interface. Its features two of the same world-famous preamps used across all Audient products and the harmonically rich DI. It also boasts an ADAT input in order to connect external optical preamps such as the ASP880 and ASP800. The iD14 is also the first interface to features Audient's innovative ScrollControl. The iD14 remains the best selling interface of the Audient line.
iD4
The iD4 is the latest edition to Audient's iD range. It is a 2 in, 2 out interface. It has independent microphone/line and DI inputs and two balanced speaker outputs. It also features the same Scroll Control function used on the iD14.
David Dearden famously worked on the console at Ascot Sound Studios during the recording of John Lennon's album, Imagine. Following the sessions, which were produced by Phil Spector, David went on to design and build consoles for George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
