The songwriting and demos for Depeche Mode’s thirteenth release are now complete – after sessions in New York City’s Schtudio Blanco, where engineer Kurt Uenala has just installed an SSL Matrix.

Working with Depeche Mode front-man, Dave Gahan, Uenala chose the Matrix as the hub of the new studio after Gahan asked him to put together a ‘dream studio’ to streamline production. Although it was the unit’s small footprint that sealed the deal, Unenala was first attracted to the sound and flexibility of the Matrix.

‘For me the analogue summing was eye opening – it is beautiful,’ Uenala says. ‘Even with demos, it sounds majestic. When we mix, it makes a huge difference in the spatial placement of the sounds, even when it’s all synthesisers and samples. It is perfect for that. And it looks fantastic, which is important too.’

The pair met in 2005 when Uenala was asked to engineer demos for Depeche Mode’s Playing the Angel and went onto engineer Gahan’s solo project, Hourglass. He subsequently worked on Depeche Mode’s Sounds of the Universe and is now working with Gahan on the band’s next release.

‘We just talked to the producer, Ben Hillier, and we’re going to track a substantial amount of the new Depeche album here, including vocals,’ Uenala ebaborates. ‘It’s the perfect thing to have here for electronic music. The Matrix is extremely high quality, and I had heard from friends that it has the same sound as SSL’s larger format consoles. We don’t track large bands; we have only three preamps, so the Matrix is fine for what we do. It’s just a couple of synthesisers, a drum machine here and there, and the vocals.

‘The whole architecture of the Matrix lets you use outboard gear like plug-ins,’ he continues. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. When I was told about its functionality, I was sold, because I’m more of a computer guy, working in the box, working on laptops. To have Total Recall available with outboard gear is wild and I make use of it constantly. I also wanted to have a good monitoring section for A/B-ing stuff. When I do mixes, I love to go back and forth between different speakers, and the Matrix monitoring section is really good.’

Despite its features, Uenala had no problem becoming familiar with it: ‘It’s quite easy to use,’ he reports. ‘And the customer service is very helpful when I had a question. The Matrix is pretty intuitive if you know your way around a mixing board. It was no big deal to learn. Especially the automation and the Total Recall for getting your settings back.’

Originally from Aadorf, in northeastern Switzerland, Uenala attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston before relocating to New York in 2000. Since then he has worked on albums, singles and remixes for Erasure, Moby, The Raveonettes, Yelle, Nellie McKay and Soulsavers. He also works on his own all-electronic solo project, Kap10kurt, when his production schedule allows.

Martin Gore, a founding member of Depeche Mode and songwriter for the majority of the band’s songs to date, has also installed an SSL Matrix in his home studio in Santa Barbara. The forthcoming Depech Mode album is due for release in Spring 2013.

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