Santa Monica, CA, June 11, 2013 – Last month, the new Antelope Audio Orion³² multi-channel interface was put to the test during a live recording of blues maestro Ray Fuller at one of the premier blues club destinations in the United States: Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago. The recording, which consisted of non-stop 60 and 90-minute sets before a live audience, was captured in its entirety using the Orion³², which recorded 26 tracks of audio in 96k to a MacBook Pro running Pro Tools.
 

 
For freelance engineer, Mike Picotte, the benefits of the Orion³² were immediately apparent from the moment he began setting up the remote recording rig — which was situated several flights of stairs above the venue. «I didn’t want to have to carry a lot of gear, and for this particular project, I wanted to keep my set-up lean, yet powerful,» he says. Since the Orion³² is able to handle 32 tracks of 96k audio in a single rack space, Picotte was able to maintain an extremely compact set-up, with zero compromise on sound quality. «I just ran a USB from the Orion³² to my laptop, and recorded the whole show,» he says. In addition to the Orion³², Picotte also had an Antelope Audio 10M Atomic Clock in his rack to maximize the fidelity of his rig even further.
 
Picotte, whose day job is with audio retailer Sweetwater Sound, acquired the signal by placing a splitter snake onstage, so he could access all of the venue’s microphones, then supplemented the house mics with his own — creating a fully redundant set up with plenty of alternate audio source possibilities. «I wanted to have everything covered and then decide later what I actually needed, so I brought my own mic locker with me just in case,» he recalls. Picotte ran the snake up the stairs into a small room where he was able to record and monitor the performance using a Dangerous D-Box system and a pair of Sennheiser HD 380 closed back headphones.
 
At the preamplifier stage, Picotte employed two TRUE Precision 8s and an Audient ASP008, which he then connected to the Antelope Audio Orion³². He then recorded the entire performance over USB 2.0 at 96k to the MacBook Pro via the Orion³², without incident or interruption. «Performance-wise, the Orion³² was amazing,» Picotte recalls. «There was no lag time on the screen, and no hiccups at any point during the entire gig. I ran 26 channels at 96k without stoppage and had no issues whatsoever.»
 
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