Los Angeles, CA (July 7, 2022)—German-born artist, composer and producer Sascha Dikiciyan has been using Solid State Logic gear while creating electronic synth soundtracks and organic sound design for video game titles such as Deus Ex, Mass Effect, Tron and Quake.
“I wouldn’t want to work without the Fusion,” says Dikiciyan, referring to SSL’s analogue stereo outboard processor. “Because it’s at the end of the chain when I print, Fusion has allowed me to omit any mastering plug-ins.”
According to Dikiciyan, Fusion has helped add tonal character, weight and space to his stereo stems and final mixes: “Vintage Drive is great for adding that little bit of saturation. The Transformer button is very subtle, but you can hear a bit of crunch, especially in the low end. The ‘hidden’ compressor feature, the Listen Mic Compressor, is really great and adds a nice punch when it’s just kissing the source,” he says.
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He typically dials in just a modest amount of Space and Width in the Stereo Image section, too. “It seems like very little, but you can really hear the difference.” In fact, he says, “You don’t have to move any of the knobs too much to hear something.”
Dikiciyan, who also uses the moniker Sonic Mayhem, has additionally produced dance remixes for BT, Celldweller and others under the name Toksin. He moved to Los Angeles 28 years ago to study. “I went to Musicians Institute in ’94 and learned on an SSL board,” he says. “So I’ve always had a thing for the SSL sound.”
As for SSL’s compact mixer, he says, “I’m using the SiX to put some of that SSL fairy dust on all my synths and to keep the noise level down and keep the sound at its most pristine. I have a lot of boutique tabletop synths that are mono. Some of them are pure analogue, so they emit a lot of noise when I turn up the volume. But when I put those synths through the SSL, they are quiet. And I put the G-Series Bus Compressor on everything.”
