AUDIENT Nero £375

Back in the mists of time when I first started noodling around in recording studios, the places I was working in were often very cramped and uncomfortable: large mixing desks, bulky open-reel multi-track and 2-track tape recorders and racks of equipment, all taking up space and pumping out heat.

What I do miss about those days, however, is a good slab of mixing console to work on. And what I miss in particular – which DAW controllers don’t really cater for – is a good monitor section from where I can switch sources, drive different monitor systems, talk to ‘the talent’ and so on. This is the exact