Featuring a large collection of synthesisers and a sunlit live room with vintage drums, guitars, amplifiers and mics, Transmitter Park Studio attracts electronic and indie artists and projects to Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighbourhood. Headed by Abe Seiferth, Danny Taylor and Matthew Patterson Curry, the studio has recently made a Solid State Logic XL-Desk the centrepiece of its Studio A.
‘Our reactions [to its release] were very much alike,’ Taylor recalls. ‘It was exactly what we were looking for – not only for our workflow, but in terms of the way it’s put together and laid out, and fits with our set-up.’
Following its installation, the console has has an immediate impact on the facility’s production methodologies: ‘The XL-Desk has improved the workflow, amplified the way we work and made the creation and mixing of music easier – which is what any good piece of gear should do,’ Taylor says.
‘You’re able to audition different colours so quickly, without patching, and it’s just a more intuitive and tactile way to work,’ adds Seiferth. ‘Being able to hear things better and audition things quicker saves time.’
Transmitter’s XL-Desk is fitted with four of SSL’s 500 format E-Series EQ modules and a selection of modules from other manufacturers. It also features SSL’s Stereo Bus Compressor and eight built-in Variable Harmonic Drive (VHD) preamps for audio capture and processing. ‘Engineers that typically work in-the-box get frustrated when they have to spend time patching outboard equipment just to find out how something sounds,’ Taylor says. ‘With the XL-Desk, they can instantly audition any mixture of equipment and sounds.’
The desk’s routing that allows the studio more impatient clients to toggle between bus compression, ‘to see how it’s reacting and how it sounds, whether in the tracking or mixing process’, Seiferth says. ‘It adds a little extra magic. We still do a lot of in-the-box processing too, and the hybrid workflow really made sense for us.’
The XL-Desk’s fully featured monitoring section and bass management (it accommodates three sets of speakers plus a subwoofer) is another benefit to Transmitter Park. ‘You hear the speakers better from the first moment,’ Seiferth enthuses. ‘They even perform better, with the way the crossover happens. It’s great to be attached to more than one set of speakers, and to be able to toggle the subwoofer in and out.’
Being able to access the SSL SuperAnalogue big console sound in a compact frame was key to its selection: ‘That lineage and technical pedigree can be found in this form,’ Taylor says of the XL-Desk. ‘You don’t have to have a Duality to still get that response. It’s great that SSL was able to translate that.’
‘You do feel this bigness,’ Seiferth agrees. ‘There’s a high-fidelity about the console – it’s this quiet, beautiful, clean thing. I got used to the dead-quiet noise floor of working in-the-box. That hasn’t changed while working on the XL-Desk. Instead, I hear all of the new sonic colour. It makes it very easy to just keep on working.’
More: www.transmitterparkstudio.com
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
