Toronto, Canada (December 23, 2021)—Engineer and producer Eddie Kramer reinvented his entire workflow with modern technology when he set up a small mix room at his home in Toronto during the pandemic.
“I had just finished a bunch of sessions at Capitol Studios in Hollywood for a Hendrix release, came home and then COVID hit. I said, ‘OK, I’m not going anywhere. How am I going to work?'” Kramer recalls. “I’d been hearing information about the different ways of working remotely and decided I needed to do a 180° pivot — so that’s exactly what I did. I set up my office as a small studio. I upgraded my laptop, got a larger monitor for my Pro Tools sessions, a couple of speakers and eventually the Solid State Logic UF8 controller. That was pretty much it.”
Before COVID, Kramer, who was living in Toronto, never even had a home recording set up. During lockdown, he decided to partner with engineer/friend Jason Burgos from Twin River Studios: “I made a deal whereby I brought in about 60 percent of my analog gear in racks, including a nice ATR tape machine.”
SSL UF8 Advanced Studio DAW Controller – A Real-World Review
At about the same time, Kramer learned about Audio Movers’ collaboration software and how he could run sessions remotely with little latency: “I tried it out, and I couldn’t believe it; I thought, this is how I am going to be working.” After setting up his new system, he began missing the tactile feel of faders. “I had already seen the SSL UF8 in action, so I got in touch with SSL and they told me all about it and sent one over. As soon as I tried it, I said, ‘That’s it; I’m in.'”
Very soon thereafter, Burgos acquired one as well. The duo are now able to work in parallel on tracking and mixing projects in real time. “I can set up a mix of, say, the drums in real time, send it to him, and then he does tweaks. I can watch and listen to these tweaks in real time, then we go back and forth between the two of us.”
Kramer says he was most impressed with the device’s ergonomics and tactile feel. “The best part about the UF8 is the ease of operation and the feel of the faders, which is great — I just can’t say enough about them,” he says. “I’m doing eight tracks at a time, and then cascading to my second fader bank layer if I need it. If I’m doing drums, I can do all the moves I used to do and it is such a relief.”
