Robertson Art Space Thrives with DL32R

In Industry Newsby tfwm

Like a lot of people, artist and musician Ilan Laks came to Los Angeles with a dream. The owner of Audio Cinema, an art space in Portland, OR, Laks moved to Los Angeles with a goal of establishing a similar space to cater to the thriving Southern California art scene. Honing his focus to a few square blocks along the artistically fertile Pico-Robertson corridor, Laks found the space he’d been dreaming of – a former 1920s cinema house that offers a cozy and welcoming vibe with the versatility to cover a wide range of uses.

“We offer music and movement workshops, art classes for kids and adults, songwriting classes, we hold performance events, parties, and a number of other functions,” Laks explains. The storefront that is home to Robertson Art Space (RAS) has long ago been converted from a cinema to a more multi-purpose use, but the stage itself retains its original character. “The stage just sounds amazing,” Laks enthuses.

Among the regular events at RAS is a monthly showcase called Live at RAS, where local singers, songwriters, and other performers can come in and present a short set in front of a live audience. And thanks to their new Mackie DL32R digital mixer, every performer gets to leave with a full multitrack recording of their set.

“We were originally looking at the DL32R at the NAMM show and thinking it was an ideal fit for RAS,” recalls Matthew Shterenberg, RAS Technical Director and Songwriting teacher. “And the more we looked into it, the more certain we were.”

“We were originally drawn to the DL32R because of the iPad control,” says Laks. “This is not a very large space, and there’s really nowhere to feasibly fit a full size Front of House console. So the concept of having the rack on s

tage and being able to mix on an iPad from anywhere in the house was very appealing.”

“At NAMM, the Mackie guys were showing us through the DL32R’s feature set, and the more we saw, the more perfect it was for us,” Shterenberg continues. “Usually there are two of us, myself and another engineer, and the idea that one of us could be mixing the mains from somewhere in the house and the other up on stage doing monitors would really make a difference.

But it was the DL32R’s plug-and-play recording functionality that has become the icing on the proverbial cake. “I can just plug in a drive and get a multitrack recording, or I can plug the DL32R directly into my laptop and capture and edit the show in Logic,” says Shterenberg. “It really streamlines the whole process. We can literally give people a recording before they leave.”

Laks agrees. “For our performers, it’s great for them to know that anytime they play here at RAS, they can come away with a great sounding recording. For an artist, that’s just ideal, and for us, it’s such a wonderful thing to be able to offer our performers and our students.”

For more information visit: www.mackie.com