He records two full band sessions every working day with his Yamaha DM2000 mixing console. "When I first went to work for Global, I was presented with a Yamaha 02R, which was later replaced with the DM2000," he says. "They were originally chosen because they delivered the best performance for the available budget and I can honestly say that over 10 years they have fulfilled every requirement I have had of them."
He continues: "Another advantage was space. The old Xfm studio was tiny and I was basically in the same room as the band. I was monitoring on headphones, mixing the band as live and recording a stereo mix direct to DAT. A small format digital console was ideal because rolling around the studio tweaking/patching analogue gear just wouldn't have worked.
"In addition, every night I'd take a band live to air. I'd end up mixing each track individually at sound check (making the band play the track three or four times) and scene save, then recall these mixes on the fly live. "It was real seat-of-your-pants stuff, but great fun."
Recently Denman's working life has subtly changed, having added the multi-track recording option to the DM2000, meaning his days of doing a live mix to two track DAT are over.
"At the beginning of this year I was very lucky to have a new studio built at Global Radio, so I now have a separate control room and the multi-track add-on. But otherwise I haven't changed my system. Why change a great way of working?" he says.
"I have the DM2000 interfaced to an Apple Macintosh running Logic recording software via ADAT cards. But it's more-or-less the same as before. The only major difference is that now I can do more editorial changes (for example salvaging takes). I still record stuff 'as live', due to the workload and pressures of time."
(Jim Evans)
