Hi Campers!

I recently embarked on an expedition in the to unknown, to that mysterious "hole full of money..." building my own recording studio.

First, I'm not an engineer, I'm a guitarist.

Second, I have a good designer in my camp. Wes Lachot.

Third, I already have a building, and it's undergoing modification as we speak.

Here's my questions for you guys;

If you had your choice between an SSL 9000j series console, and a SSL Duality, which one would you choose, and why?

Previous to this, we had an SSL AWS 900+, but it's been sold. It just wasn't up to the job.

And question number two;

Does anybody know of a source for information (besides each and every product manual) that has a compilation of power consumption requirements for studio gear?

I have a lot of "vintage gear" that I may not even deploy, because it's "newer" counterparts are more "power efficient."

Maybe I'll build a "mobile" with the old stuff... Hmmm...

On the farm where this studio will exist, we make our own power using PV panels and generators.

I'm told that the Duality uses about half the power of the 9000j.

If I could get a good number on power demand, that might just define which console I use.

(After all, would you rather spend countless thousands of dollars beefing up your power grid, or use that money on a less "power-hungry" board that costs more money. In the end, it'll be a wash, I suspect. If I'm guessing right, I might as well just buy the Duality, and have that newer, cool board in my CR.)

Thanks for the opinions.

Do you have the business to support such a console? I ask only because, if I was buying a console for -my- studio, just to be used by me and my friends, I would not go for an SSL,it would be something more like an API; but if I was in business and looking to have an efficient place to work and a board with which a lot of producers were comfortable, I'd go for the J.

Bill

Hey Bill,

I suspect that the word will get out quick. I was just doing some work in L.A., and people were asking me when I'd be open and taking reservations on the space. I've been around long enough that I know a lot of people. Between the novelty of "recording in a cave fed by the sun and cooled by the earth" in the middle of the woods, but close to casinos, and airports... and the fact that I'll have a great designer's name stamped all over it... I'll do okay. We won't be so heavily invested that we'll have to sweat the bottom line.

The only beef I have with the 9000j series is that they absolutely suck down the power. Which we have to make, locally, to get to it. I'm not worried about support, or service, I'm close enough to Warren in Nashville to insure that I can get help if I have to fire off a flare.

Well, I'm the first guy to tell you to buy the right equipment for the job. If you need a big iron SSL, that is exactly what you should have.

However I believe that you cannot stint on the power side. If you need to bury a propane tank and generator to insure that you have the power that you need, then you had better do it. Because it will only take one bad session to scar your reputation forever, and you will loose a lot of that business that you think you can grab now.

Bill

I couldn't agree more, and especially if you intend to include some of that vintage gear in the equation, you need a lot of good, clean power. You absolutely do not want to be figuring your power needs and supplying just that, gear, especially analog gear, will draw peaks far beyond what is their nominal. Plus you have the unknown factor of what the artist might be using. A B3 and a couple 100w marshalls change the equation dramatically, not to mention that B3 is going to be very fussy on the accuracy of the cycles of your power as well.

yeah, and my lava lamp....

Just make sure the lava lamp has it's own UPS!!!!!!!!!!!

Gawd, what a bunch of whiners!

Okay... after long negotiations with my designer, the SSL guru in NY, and every power engineer in the western hemisphere, we're going SSL... but it'll be a 48channel Duality.

That damned lava lamp just put us over the top! Now I have to spend another $150k because of you. I hope that you're satisfied!
My wife is gonna kill me.

The prospect of Power shortages isn't an issue, Redundant generator backup and a beefed up PV array grid will resolve any of those obstacles before they are even molehills.

Plus, going Duality means less A/C, and that means less power, too. And, I won't need a machine room the size of another cave! LOL!

Must be nice.

Personally I'd a gone for a nice old Neve.

Me too.