Watch: Inside the Signal with TIEKS and ISA C8X
Producer and mixer TIEKS shows us around his studio, Reality Exists, and explains why ISA C8X became its centrepiece.
Inside the Signal takes us to Reality Exists, Mark ‘TIEKS’ Tieku’s studio, to learn how he hears and mixes records.
TIEKS is a record producer, mix engineer, and sometimes songwriter whose credits include Jax Jones, Sky Ferreira, Chaka Khan, Popcaan, and Jess Glynne. He started out as the industry moved from analogue to digital, working on tape machines and recording desks, and has worked with producers including Mike Chapman.
“When I start seeing that colour, I know I’m near the end of a record.”
TIEKS talks about hearing records in colour. He starts a mix with one colour in his head and knows he’s near the end when he starts to see the one the record needs to finish on.
TIEKS only keeps the equipment in his studio that he uses regularly, and his select compressors and EQs stay in the settings that give him the exact sound he wants from them.
His initial interest in ISA C8X was the RedNet conversion it offers, along with the potential he saw in it to bring his separate recording and mixing rigs into one unified setup. “I can hear it’s clean, it’s immediate,” he says of the conversion quality. Coming from his old interface, “everything’s better than before”.
TIEKS says the two ISA preamps in ISA C8X “sound incredible”. He values the detail he gets from them, and likes being able to dial in saturation as much or as little as he needs. With the eight preamps in ISA C8X in one place, his other preamps are sitting with his assistant.
“Now it’s the centrepiece of my studio,” says TIEKS. “It’s probably going to be the centrepiece for the next 10 years.”