Quality Matters At Starmount Studio

Leading Malaysian studio adopts Pyramix/Horus combination

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. March 2015: - Switching DAW platforms is not a trivial undertaking but to switch from Mac to PC at the same time really needs a good reason. StarMount is justly famous for its excellent quality recordings of jazz, classical and regional music (and great coffee and pastries). So when Merging Product Manager, Johan Wadsten demonstrated Pyramix to Alex Tan, StarMount’s owner, neither party could predict the outcome. Alex liked the look of what he saw and embarked on a trial period with a Pyramix and Horus on loan from Merging’s local distributor, Stagetec Asia. Alex takes up the story; “I have been a Pro Tools user for more than 8 years. The time came when the studio was ready to upgrade to the latest HDX and the meeting with Johan together with a product demo period was a total game changer. The only thing that really mattered was the superior audio quality but the sheer power of the DAW in handling high track counts in high sampling rates was really surprising. It was so good that we made the bold decision to migrate our on-going session, halting it, rewiring to Horus and recording the rest of the tracks entirely with Pyramix at 192khz. That was WVC TRiO+1 "Waiting For That Day".

The drive for the ultimate sound quality prompted StarMount to order the Horus with the Premium converter cards and the Pyramix with MassCore so that DSD recordings can be done in the future. With the increasing enthusiasm in Asia for Hi-Res Audio, this looks like a smart move, but surely the change of operating system was a difficult decision. “I do not deny that it was a leap of faith and tough shift from OSX to Windows. It’s all worth the pain as not only my team and I have gained from this new change but our clients are improving on each session because they like what they hear and that drives them to be better!”

“I like the way Pyramix is presented. The proprietary audio processing is far superior to any DSP cards in my own user experience. All in all, we are still learning, exploring within the Pyramix and constantly in contact with your fantastic tech support to make the most out of our workflow. Again, it’s all down to dollars and cents and I think it’s the best system at an affordable price point.”

Having great gear is one thing but the studio location and the atmosphere is just as important. “Like many others, it all sparked from the flame of passion towards crafting my own music masterpiece. We didn't start lavishly like those big establishments; the studio is camouflaged in a shopping area in a residential neighborhood in Taman Sri Bintang, Kepong in KL. The main reason for this location is the lower overhead expenses that allow us to invest in the best gear. The perks are lots of eateries with wide variety of local delicacies to choose from and a friendly and quiet neighbourhood.” And those pastries: “We love coffee and pastries but it has become so popular with our visiting clients that our pantry became completely overloaded. We are starting our own StarMount Café very soon.”

The final word from Alex Tan: “We are truly pleased with the amount of headroom available. The audio fidelity from the Horus converters is truly amazing as well. The audio engine of Pyramix is the most powerful yet versatile DAW we have come across so far. I feel this is the best purchase to date for our studio.”



Download related file(s):






Starmount Logo



Horus in Rack



Merging Horus



StarMount Reception



Studio Shot