Mac Pro 8-Core 2.8GHz - 12Gb RAM

A powerhouse of a machine capable of performing complex mixes in its own right, and that's before being helped out by the additional horsepower of our Pro Tools DSP cards and Focusrite Liquid Mix.

Although most software cannot access more than 4GB of RAM, the latest 64-bit virtual instruments such as East West's Play engine can, and so we've fitted a massive 12GB to allow huge virtual orchestras of instruments to be loaded up simultaneously.

MAC PRO 4-CORE 2.66GHZ - 4GB RAM

For peace of mind, we maintain a second Mac Pro with a mirror-image install of the all the software on our primary machine. By virtue of keeping our Pro Tools cards in an Expansion Chassis and audio and virtual instruments on external hard drives, switching machines in the event of a problem is an operation that takes minutes rather than hours.

LaCie d2 Extreme 500GB Hard Drives

5TB (that's Terrabytes) of drive space! 3 drives are used via FireWire 800 for audio backup (mirroring the 3 internal 500GB primary audio drives) allowing complex projects to be spread across them. 4 are used for virtual instruments and backup via eSATA (this offers higher bandwidth but is not used for audio drives as it is not supported by Digidesign) and 2 are used for mobile audio recording. The last is used as a further backup of the system drive. We also have custom-written scripts which allow rapid incremental backup of material with a single click during short breaks in a session.

20" Cinema Displays

Apple's Cinema Displays are rather more expensive than the average computer screen, but when you're working at them for long periods, you'll appreciate the difference - crystal-clear and glare-free. Two screens are provided at the tracking/mixing position, whilst there is a duplicate of the primary monitor at the MIDI programming station - this saves having to continually move back and forth, and is also very handy when working as a team. We also have video feeds to enable a monitor to be repositioned in the live area or vocal booth for voice-overs, or when working solo.

Digidesign MIDI I/O

Strangely discontinued by Digidesign and highly sought-after as a result. The MIDI I/O offers 10 ins and outs which we have pre-routed to convenient locations around the studio, and also features Digidesign's proprietary MIDI time-stamping protocol to ensure your performances are replicated with rock-solid timing.

Pro Tools HD Accel 5 Card System & Magma PE6R4 6-slot expansion chassis

The largest standard system Digidesign sell has 3 cards - we have 5. In practice this means a huge number of plug-ins can be run simultaneously, even at 96kHz. As Macs only provide 3 card slots, ours are housed in the Digidesign-approved Magma PE6R4 expansion chassis, giving the added advantage of being able to rapidly move the whole set between machines.

MacBook Core2 2GHz, 2Gb RAM, 100Gb HD, 13.3"

This machine is set aside for mobile recording - read all about our mobile facility here.

PowerBook G4 1.33GHz, 768Mb RAM, 60Gb HD, 12"

Internet access and office duties are kept strictly away from our primary machine, which other than offering much greater security also means it can be used for research etc while someone else is mixing. Additionally, this machine hosts an iTunes library of over 500 (legitimately owned) CDs covering a wide variety of genres, all losslessly encoded as WAV files and played back via an Apogee Mini DAC - an ideal reference resource.

Apple Slim Keyboards & Mighty Mice

Our primary machine has no less than 3 Apple Slim Keyboards and Mighty Mice connected to it, so that whether you're programming at our MIDI station, editing at the main console or mixing at the C|24, you'll always find the controls you need to hand. The Mighty Mouse facilitates left and right clicking, as well as horizontal and vertical scrolling which greatly speeds operation, and the keyboards are all fitted with ultra-thin silicon covers which prevent grime getting in, and also feature all the shotcuts for either Pro Tools or Logic.