Oahu, Hawaii, is home to a new recording studio complex that has been opened by Wash-House Music.
Specialising in rap, reggae, hip-hop and music from different urban cultures, the record label intends the new facility to be the high-end recording division of its core business located in San Francisco. At its centre is a Solid State Logic Duality SE console, installed in Control Room A, allowing it to handle the diverse styles of music and recording/mixing demanded by its diverse artist roster.
Presently, the studio is the creative refuge for J Boog, best new artist winner at the 31st Annual International Reggae and World Music Awards, and George ‘Fiji’ Veikoso, pioneer of the Lost Coast Sound.
‘Five years ago we decided to expand our catalogue to include artists from Hawaii because my partner, Jonas Teele, is from Oahu,’ says Brian Foster, co-owner of Wash-House Music. ‘As things progressed, we decided to build a premiere studio, and that meant getting an SSL console. In the world of hip-hop and rap, the SSL J Series was always the console of choice because of the SuperAnalogue sound quality. When we did the research, we found that Duality offered us a refined version of SuperAnalogue, so we had the same sonic signature, but in a package that was kicked up to work with a DAW in a modern setting – definitely the best choice for our new venture.’
The Wash-House complex includes a new building housing Studio A – a room large enough for a six-piece ban –, as well as Control Room A, which features the Duality, outboard gear and a 5.1 surround monitoring system. A large pre-existing house next to the new construction has been converted so that all the rooms can be used as recording spaces. The complex is connected to the Duality via fibre-optic link.
‘We decided to build a big studio concept because Hawaii is a destination area where many artists come to write music, but do not necessarily have a facility adequate enough to complete a project from start to finish,’ Foster continues. ‘We are also catering for the artist who wants to drop tracks here before they continue on tour. We have surround sound in the control room and are set up to work with TV and movie sound bites and the like. In past, those projects were handled off island. We wanted a state-of-the-art studio that could handle multiple missions. That is another reason we chose Duality.’
Unsurprisingly, some of the projects completed in the San Francisco facility are brought to the new studio and run through Duality – with encouraging results: ‘We have brought in work recorded in the San Francisco studio and we were blown away by the incredible sound quality, depth and imaging we experienced with Duality,’ Foster confirms. ‘Now, we insist that all our artists come here to record and mix projects. We wanted to offer the best studio to attract the best artists. Duality helps to sell the studio and meets our needs for now, and the future.’
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
