Mixer/producer Bruno Ellingham has installed a a suite of Solid State Logic equipment in his mix room within Massive Attack’s UK studio complex. Comprising SSL’s X-Desk, X-Logic G Series compressor, X-Panda summing system and Alpha-Link I/O system, the set-up has quickly seen service giving Massive Attack’s classic Blue Lines album a contemporary makeover for its 20th anniversary re-release.
All but two tracks from Blue Lines were originally mixed on a large-format SSL console in London’s long-gone Matrix Studios, but this did not prevent him from calling on SSL for the project: ‘The new SSL technology enabled me to easily match the large-format console sound that we wanted,’ he explains. ‘[The reworked Blue Lines] just feels a bit stronger and punchier.’
Ellingham’s use of SSL began in 1996, with the large-format SSL console installed at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios: ‘I instantly fell in love,’ he says. ‘It felt very solid, and the sound that you got back from it was really crisp and exciting.’
Ellingham’s connection with Massive Attack came about through his association with Tim Goldsworthy (Mo Wax, U.N.K.L.E). ‘I met Tim Goldsworthy when we were working on the last Goldfrapp record, Head First,’ he recalls. ‘Tim had also been working with Massive Attack, and suggested the relocation to the Massive Attack studio complex in Bristol. ‘I’ve been a fan of Massive over the years, so it was quite an honour to get to share a studio with them.
‘My move happened to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the album, and a suggestion came up to try and do a new mix,’ he continues. ‘At which point, I seized upon the idea that maybe it would be an interesting experiment to see if it could be done with a more DAW-centric approach considering the fact that it was originally mixed on a large-format SSL.’
He began with a set of SSL Duende Native plug-ins running in Pro Tools: ‘While I could match the sound of the Blue Lines mixes, I couldn’t match the shape or size of them; I couldn’t get them as deep or as expansive as the original mixes were.
Moving to the SSL set-up brought quick rewards: ‘I got the X-Desk and an X-Panda, so that I’d have 20 faders available to me for whatever scenario, plus some SSL Alpha-Link audio interfaces, which weren’t something I’d ever come across before. But when I plugged in the audio interfaces and summed my mixes through the X-Desk, suddenly I was able to get that size, depth, and breadth that I’d been missing. The X-Desk also has a very good, fast transient response, so you can make things very punchy. It really does have that SSL sound.’
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
