Founded by Daniel Saiz, Alicante’s Estudio Sacramento has been operating as a commercial recording studio for 20 years, and has recently installed a 48-channel SSL Duality δelta SuperAnalogue console. ‘It is like an injection of adrenalin for my business,’ says Saiz.
The founder and ongoing owner recalls that when he first started the studio, it was rare for a high-end facility to be located so far away from Spain’s traditional centres of music production in Madrid and Barcelona. ‘I fought to keep the studio in Alicante, my home town,’ he recalls. Eventually he proved that combining the right service and equipment, and the lure of the location was a winning strategy.
When the studio first opened a large-format analogue console helped to attract clients from outside Spain and outside Europe, and after a while he switched to a large format digital console – An SSL MT Plus – which, again, revitalised the studio and kept the clients coming. Now with the Duality, Saiz has returned to analogue but with all the advantages of the console’s hybrid technologies, including comprehensive DAW control and the new workstation-based automation system – δelta-Control. ‘I’m using that a lot,’ he says. ‘You can easily and quickly save everything, edit it. You can copy-and-paste automation really quickly.’
With δelta-Control, the plug-in automation system in the DAW is used to record and playback control data from the faders and switches on the console as an alternative to using the legacy automation system. With the Paste Special function, existing DAW fader automation can quickly be turned into Duality console automation – ideal for a busy control room. However, simply getting back to an analogue sound was the priority for Saiz: ‘I wanted the analogue SSL sound,’ he says. ‘In the past I have worked a lot with the 4000 G and E consoles, as well as the 9000. In my opinion the Duality has more of the 9000 sound about it. Very clean, but of course if you want to dirty the sound up a bit, you can do it with one button – VHD.’
The SSL VHD circuit (Variable Harmonic Distortion) uses analogue harmonic distortion to introduce varying amounts of second and/or third harmonic effects for anything from valve-style warmth to fierce grunge.
Estudio Sacramento has several purpose-built live recording spaces _ a large main space and smaller room – both with sightlines to the control room – plus a live room and additional booth. The Studio Lounge is a comfortable space for clients to relax in.
Saiz notes that his studio needs to remain competitive, and the Duality is part of that strategy: ‘With record company budgets getting lower – even for the bigger artists – we need to fight for the right budgets for the best productions. The SSL is a major influence in that. It’s about how you feel when you’re working with something like this. There is no struggle, it is real, truthful. You’re not going to get anything that you’re not expecting from the Duality.
‘I’m receiving a lot of calls just because I have changed the desk,’ he adds. ‘The clients love it.’
