Philadelphia, PA (June 25, 2020) — Adam Blackstone, go-to musical director for some of music’s biggest stars and highest-profile events, recently integrated Solid State Logic’s SiX SuperAnalogue desktop mixing console into his workflow.
Blackstone was exposed to top quality gear early, having played on Jay Z’s “Fade to Black” tour when he was just 21. “The studios we were working in at the time were all SSL consoles, so SSL was a big part of my musical upbringing,” says Blackstone, who employs the SiX in his home studio and on the road. “It just does so much,” he says. “I’ve used it as everything from preamp, to a summing mixer, to an analog mixer, to a master bus.”
Blackbird Revamps Studio F Mix Room
Monitoring through his home studio’s Genelec G Five monitors and KRK Rokit 10s subwoofers, Blackstone says he feels the SuperAnalogue circuitry of the SiX conveys the sound of SSL’s large-format consoles. “SSL has really done an amazing job at translating that big-console sound into this little mixer,” he says. “I’m trying to get the best audio capture possible into my DAW. That’s the foundation, and the channel strip on the SiX is great for that. It’s that SSL sound.”
He then turns to the G-Series bus compressor for the analog coloration he needs. “I mix a lot of television shows at my home studio, and I like throwing the G Bus compressor right on the master,” he says, citing a recent example of BET’s special Saving Ourselves: A BET COVID-19 Relief Effort. “Just printing the two-mix from my DAW back into it, that’s where that classic radio-ready SSL color really comes into play. It’s been really cool to use it that way.”
Blackstone’s frequent collaborator, guitarist Clay Sears, adds, “We do a ton of touring and live TV work but also a lot of pre-records. Pre-recording tracks for live events is kind of where it’s at now, so your recording game has got to be on point… With the high-quality signal path of the SiX, I know that my tracks are going to sit in the mix with stuff that’s recorded at big commercial studios.”
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