Famed for its unique recording areas – The Gallery and The Pond – and the long list of international artists who have worked here over the past 25 years, Starstruck Studios opened in the mid-1990s on Nashville’s Music Row. Having launched with two recording studios designed by Neil Grant, the facility recently opened a new Dolby Atmos for Music mix room by Michael Cronin Acoustic Construction featuring an SSL System T S500-32 console.

An all-SSL facility, the The Gallery and The Pond feature identical control rooms, each with a 72-input SL9000J analogue console with Total Recall and Ultimation – alongside Starstruck Entertainment’s management offices.

Starstruck Entertainment was founded in 1988, and is owned and operated by Narvel Blackstock. The company develops and manages a roster of artists including Blake Shelton, Carly Pearce, Maggie Rose, Emily Ann Roberts, as well as producers and recording engineers. The facility’s quarter-century relationship with SSL meant that the choice of mixing console for the new room was arrived at very quickly, according to Starstruck’s studio manager, Torey Harding. ‘Narvel said it would be nice to keep it all SSL in-house,’ he says. ‘Plus, Shawn Daugherty, Starstruck’s technical engineer, knew what that System T was capable of and realised its potential.’

The new mix room opened in April, and was first used by Derek Bason to mix tracks from Carrie Underwood’s catalogue into Dolby Atmos for release to the immersive audio streaming platforms. Bason is long-time recording engineer and mixer for producer and songwriter Mark Bright, who produced Underwood’s first five albums at Starstruck Studios beginning soon after she won American Idol in 2005.

Nashville-based acoustician Michael Cronin of Michael Cronin Acoustic Construction designed and built the new mix room, which was previously a lounge and listening room. Cronin also expanded the room’s floor area to better meet the Dolby Atmos guidelines, moving the rear wall into an adjacent former technical area. Currently, the remaining area of that tech shop is being used for the preparation of projects scheduled for mixing in the Atmos room, such as stemming out older material from the original multitrack recordings.

Daugherty oversaw the technical installation and integration in the new immersive mix room, which also features a 7.1.4 loudspeaker system from ATC. ‘The System T is Dante-based, and we’re using SSL’s conversion, which is also Dante. We also have an Avid MTRX to handle Pro Tools, so everything is Dante,’ he says.

Daugherty was also key to the decision-making process, along with Starstruck Chief Engineer Todd Tidwell. Daugherty and Tidwell visited SSL retail partner Westlake Pro Nashville for a demonstration of the System T console and consulted with Mills Logan, a local mixer with extensive experience working in Dolby Atmos at his own facility and around town.

‘After seeing and – most importantly – hearing SSL’s demo console in an immersive environment, we were reminded why SSL continues to be at the forefront of any market it is involved in,’ Tidwell says. ‘The tight integration with DAWs, the familiar onboard SSL processing and the power and flexibility to tackle recording and mixing duties across multiple formats put the S500 ahead of the competition. SSL has a clear winner here already and the updates that are coming will continue to innovate this console for immersive music for many years to come. System T is my first foray into a digital console, but the SSL conversion emulates the SuperAnalogue sound from the J series. I think it sounds really good.

‘Derek Bason has been a client of ours forever and ever and mixed those Carrie Underwood records originally on the 9000J. He’s one of the last holdouts for mixing completely on a large-format analogue desk of any of our clients. Obviously the ATCs are great loudspeakers and it’s a Michael Cronin room, but Derek said he’s been blown away by how great it sounds in the room as well as the fact that he’s able to match mixes that he did years ago on a fully analogue console.

‘We’ve owned SSL consoles for many years and the company continues to offer the level of support that a 24/7 recording studio requires,’ Daugherty adds. ‘Not only are the products of the highest quality from the outset, they continue to be supported by a team of capable and, most importantly, accessible support engineers. Once we saw that this console was everything we needed it to be, and more, the fact that it was an SSL made it an easy choice.’

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