How to catch up?
Well, without rambling, I want to update my blog which has already fallen behind much to my chagrin. So, without further ado... Thursday night I was working on a Solid State Logic Duality console.
The following paragraph is my quick opinion of SSL and their current line up of Music production consoles, so feel free to skip down if you get bored or if you simply already know what I am talking about.The Duality is an amazingly versatile console. It is the big brother to the AWS900 and (I'd say) the 9k's cousin. The Duality, with a price under half a million and a power system that is "Green" is the new flagship console replacing the 9k serious. Now, A lot of people dislike the Duality simply because SSL figured out that an inline console design is simply not necessary in the digital age. The Duality, is named such due to its double functionality. Not only does it have that very distinct and analogue, (spelling provided by the Brits) SSL "sound" it also has a handy HUI layer. I also routinely work on an AWS900... John Merchant loves this little console, and considers it sonically to be one of the best out there. He mixed one of Barbara Streisand's albums on one (He was a beta tester for SSL as well) and for about $100,000 (US) its certainly more attainable than a console that sells for 10 times that price. But I prefer the Duality, maybe I'm just overcompensating, or maybe I just like having dynamics on every channel!
Ok onward to more exciting things. Thursday night I was doing a mix on the Duality for John Hill professor at MTSU and Recording Engineer for Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Hall. There is a specific piece of gear that I used on this project that I want to highlight today... the Ursa Major Space Station SST-282... This little puppy is multitap delay with Reverb... I used it on a Wurly and a lead EG panned out, and was thrilled with the results... forget the fact that I'm a "geek" and love to patch anything into something called a space station! I'm using a vintage one of these things, but googling around i'm discovered that there is a fairly new (couple of years old) "foot pedal" edition of this unit, which is produced by Seven Woods Audio as the SST-206... Unfortunately it looks like this unit has also been canned as their website is stating that it is no longer in production. It's definitely not a "clean" unit, but it does what it does well, and I am thoroughly impressed. definitely one of my core spatial units to at least tryout in the mix...
I begin preproduction and principle tracking on the Duality for a Nashville based band by the name of Starlume in the middle of this month, until then, we will be doing a lot of pre-studio preproduction. As engineer, I am incredibly excited about Starlume, they are fantastic musicians who play with a click live. They have a great sound and it will be a blast to track and mix their songs. John Furr, the producer, is eager to begin, working with the band and finding the best songs to develope. All this pre-preproduction will be being rocked on a handy convenient m-box 2. In all both John and I are incredibly excited about the opportunity to work with Starlume. One final note, Starlume just sold a sync license for one of their songs to One Tree Hill on the WB. their song will be aired on the new episode on 2/2/09 (Screenwriter's Blues). Enjoy!
Mark Zellmer.
Zoundguy says: