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SSL Looks to the Future in Atlanta

At the 5 Star Production Studios complex in Atlanta, Solid State Logic mixing consoles are used for work with Future and other artists.

Studio A at 5 Star Production Studios in Atlanta is centered around an SSL AWS948 delta console.
Studio A at 5 Star Production Studios in Atlanta is centered around an SSL AWS948 delta console.

Atlanta, GA (December 22, 2020)—At the 5 Star Production Studios complex in Atlanta, engineers and producers use the DAW control and automation capabilities of Solid State Logic mixing consoles to keep pace with prolific rapper Future and other artists as they work around the clock.

Since springing onto the Atlanta trap scene in 2010, Future has delivered eight solo full-length releases, six collaborative albums plus numerous mixtapes and other projects. Three years ago, Future moved his team into a building that had originally been producer and songwriter Dallas Austin’s DARP facility, which he opened in 1993. “We took it over and did a whole renovation, top to bottom,” says Eric Manco, Future’s Grammy-winning engineer.

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Through his former colleagues at South Beach Studios in Miami, where he used to work, Manco contacted SSL’s regional sales representative and ordered an AWS 948 δelta for the A room, an XL-Desk for the B room, and two Nucleus consoles, for the C and D rooms. While rap and hip-hop productions typically require minimal channel counts during the tracking phase, Manco says having the AWS 948 in the A room is necessary when it comes to mixdown. “There’s nothing like having a board,” he says.

Manco, who trained at Full Sail University in Florida, prefers to work on a compact desk, he says. “My main problem with using a big board is I don’t want to be running around from one side to the other. But with the AWS, I have 48 faders in the space of 24 channels. The fact that I have everything within reach, and I can control 48 channels if I really need to, is insane.”

But it’s the AWS 948’s hardware control of Pro Tools and plug-in integration via SSL’s δelta-Control software that Manco finds most useful during tracking sessions. “Having the digital control side is really the main reason I got the board. It’s cool to be hands-on with stuff,” he says.

In the B room, says Manco, the ability to select outboard processing directly from the XL-Desk speeds up the workflow, too. “Being able to do inserts on your mixes without having to patch out — you just hit a button — makes it easier for people to discover the benefits of analog. And the faster you can get this stuff done, the better,” he says.

Solid State Logic • www.solidstatelogic.com

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