Mixing Electronic Music on a 1980's Analog Console (SSL 4000E)

Listen to our album "Possession With Intent To Sell," out now on Girlfriend Records! open.spotify.com/album/3ADu0D...
girlfriendrecords.bandcamp.co...
My modular synthwave band Dialectixx just recorded an album, and we decided to mix it old-school, on a large-format console, the SSL 4000E at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco. We recorded at home on a multitrack interface, but the main reason we mixed at a studio was that neither of us had very good acoustic spaces or speaker setups in our homes, and we kept getting unsatisfactory results when we tried to mix in-the-box. But to be honest, another good reason is that it's heaps of fun to spend a day in the studio tweaking knobs and patching in exotic rackmount equipment!
Different Fur is available for tracking, mixing, and full-service recording/production:
differentfurstudios.com
Because we were able to travel with our tracks on a USB stick, we also mixed some songs across the bay on an even bigger Neve 8048 at Tiny Telephone Recording, and on a similar Neve desk at their neighbor studio Brothers Chinese Recording (formerly New Improved Recording).
www.tinytelephone.com/
www.brotherschineserecording....
Overall I much preferred the SSL workflow and layout, but my bandmate Mike really got into the Neve sound and make a lot of use of those 3-band EQs. Both are great choices, but from what I gather, the conventional wisdom is that if money is no object, you track and record on the Neve for the great transformer preamps and high treble EQ, and then mix on the SSL for the surgical parametric mids EQ and extensive dynamics section. Maybe next time!

[@makximumlive]

The only video I can see with an SSL 4000E console where the don't display Pro Tools.

[@DJDangerousNile]

Nice video bro, love the retro setup

[@preciseaudioblog]

Fantastic video! Thank you!

[@cholkymilkmirage4984]

checking out the album rn. Love the sounds and way this album was arranged.

[@ZeroesandOnes]

Excellent content

[@klassisch3039]

Sick video!!

[@rayz5508]

These old analog consoles will make great boat anchors!

[@Schmahonni01]

Niceeeee One!!
very happy to find this video and your music.

[@Schmahonni01]

Volatile Asset

[@ryanedwardmusic]

Great idea

[@vigilantestylez]

Cool. What we want to see is a plugin shootout with the console. 😎

[@tygoldsmith8896]

Very cool

[@wildchurch]

I’ve got one of those……..lobsters!
Great stuff!

[@quantika72]

Is this from the 90s? Cool video though 🤙🏼

[@hosedog99]

This is very helpful. Do you think it would be possible to mix EDM on a 24-channel console like the SSL-XL Desk? If so, how would you allocate the 24 channels?

[@extralifedisco]

Yes, of course it's possible. I would probably set up 8 channels for drums and percussion, 2 channels for a stereo drum bus, 2 for a side chain bus, and 1 for a mono bass buss if needed. The rest you could allocate for individual tracks and FX returns. A pultec style EQ would be good for bass, a distressor or 1176 pair for drums, and 3630 for sidechaining would be a classic hardware pairing

[@DG-ss1gc]

I can’t tell if you reconfigured the ns10s for “portrait mode” , and I’m not sure about the barefoot.
Is it only ribbon tweeters that must be oriented properly?

[@Groovychu]

Wow I couldd do analog