John Lunn Selects Prism's MEA-2 On Downtown Abbey

TV and film composer John Lunn has recently acquired a Prism Sound/Maselec MEA-2 analogue equaliser for use when creating his score for the popular ITV period drama Downtown Abbey.
Lunn, who received Emmys in 2012 and 2013 for the show, said: "Most of it is analogue, as I'm not convinced by digital emulations. A couple of months back, I bought the Maselec MLA-2 tri-band compressor for a project I was working on, The White Queen, which used lots of low percussion and sound design, plus a real orchestra.
"However, the mastering EQ I had been using up to that point suddenly needed repair and I thought I would take the opportunity to try a few things out."
As an existing Prism Sound user - he already owns a Prism Sound ADA-8XR multichannel converter and an Orpheus FireWire interface - Lunn needed little persuading to try the company's Maselec MEA-2. Once he did, he says it was immediately obvious that this was the Equaliser he was looking for.
He explains: "It was particularly relevant for Downton Abbey where I needed a very clean and totally transparent treble boost for the piano and strings to cut through the dialogue. KMR gave me the unit to demo and it worked immediately with absolutely no problems."
Lunn says that he now uses his MEA-2 unit as mastering EQ for all of his film and TV work.
The latest series of Downton Abbey, mixed using Lunn's MEA-2, has been a runaway ratings hit, peaking at 10.4m viewers, a 39.4% market share of the British TV market (source: The Hollywood Reporter).
Prism Sound's MEA-2 is a stereo or two-channel, four-band precision analogue equaliser with stepped Q/shelf, frequency and cut/boost controls on each band.
The MEA-2 is extensively used in mastering but also works well on an insertion point in recording or mixing. It a fine 0.5dB gain adjustment at low cut/boost settings, and a maximum cut/boost per band of 8dB. The MEA-2 can provide precise equalisation with minimal side effects, as it is designed to provide a very transparent signal path where only the desired equalisation effect is obtained without adding any particular sonic signature.
www.prismsound.com
(IT/JP)