Stefan Konstantopoulos is a Music Producer and Production Consultant based in Nashville, Tennessee.
As a producer and consultant, he offers clarity where inspiration meets technology to help both emerging and established artists bring their creative ideas to life.
On his website www.producerstefan.com Stefan wrote his thoughts on the Prism Sound Atlas Audio Converter.
It was the late ‘90s when I first learned about Prism Sound. Ever since then, I have heard only high praise for their products from audio elites. In January of this year, Prism Sound reached out and asked me if I would like to demo an interface.
After making all the requisite arrangements, an Atlas arrived at Stefan’s door, fresh from the 2024 NAMM Show.
Atlas is a world class multi-track interface offering flexible expansion and unsurpassed sonic clarity. Using Prism Sound’s trusted conversion, Atlas provides 8 ultra-clean, low-noise microphone preamps, making it suitable for a wide range of recording scenarios. Atlas has options for ProTools HDX and Dante modules, for the most flexible and professional solution.
Atlas is typically marketed as an 8- channel, USB 2.0 interface but it’s not that simple... Rather than turn this review into a spec sheet I want to talk about the sound and how it fared in both tracking and hybrid mixing at my studio.
The Atlas offers 8 XLR combo jacks (mic preamps on each and TRS for line inputs), 2 Hi-Z instrument inputs, 8 TRS line outputs, two headphone outputs (each with dedicated volume), S/PDIF (with AES adapters included), ADAT, Word Clock and DIN MIDI.
We were floored by the tighter bass, more open top end, depth of the stereo field and overall “wow” factor. Needless to say, we printed that version for the artist to use.
We heard details we had never heard before. Every time we worked on another song we marveled at the effortless clarity, dimension and separation of instruments.
Atlas’ front panel gives continuous visual indication of the unit’s main settings and levels, but in-depth control is managed from the Atlas Controller applet. This runs on the DAW computer, and can be popped up whenever adjustments are needed.
I decided to try out the Atlas mic preamps with a familiar set of mics. The Atlas preamp absolutely delivered the big, velvety vibe of my Cloud 44A and all of the other mics used for character were especially distinct. I must infer that the preamp is truly neutral without sounding impractically perfect.
Atlas is a joy to work with. The sound quality is stellar and the ample I/O makes hybrid mixing a lot more efficient than what I’m used to. I needed a little time to adjust before I understood how versatile it is for most musical genres.
