X-Dance? By Damien

So, after a relaxing vacation in Barcelona I’m back on the road with X-Desk, Duende V3 & X-Verb.

Not content with just showing the exciting new comings from SSL I thought I’d spice up my presentations by teaching the attendees some unique dance moves.

SAE Ljubljana hosted our Slovenian visit with a mixture of tutors, students and end users coming to play with our new toys. Whilst in the midst of demonstrating the wonders of X-Desk I suddenly felt compelled to break out into my Big Fish – Little Fish rave dance.

Big Fish

Little Fish

Next stop Serbia.

After last years workshop I was quite excited to see if Vlada could manage another impressive turnout but, due to the hot weather and semi-dressed women on the streets of Belgrade we couldn’t quite reach 100 again. Unfortunately the serious Serb men were not keen to learn the Reggae Bogle so we kept it to a simple Waltz.

Anyone care to dance?

Last stop Hungary.

A big thank you to Peter @ AudioMonde for organizing the event and ensuring that nobody went Hungry in Hungary with those fantastic sandwiches!

With 2 fun packed sessions it didn’t feel right to go away without teaching the dance known throughout the Uk, perfected by drunken uncles and one that even Granny can participate in. Yes….you got it. The Hoki -Koki.

You put your right arm in, right arm out, in out in out, shake it all about.

Dzien dobry from Poland ! – Posted by Richard

That exhausts half of my knoweledge of the Polish language….. the rest is to follow.

A great day at Polish Radio and TV today. Their Symphony recording hall with it’s Duality powered control room played host to our event. Many exisiting happy SSL customers along with a pleasing number of new-comers to the brand came to see our new products. X-Desk was the main focus visually, however it was MX4 which seemed to receive the most attention. Alot of guys out here seeing it as the one-stop-shop in terms of I/O and SSL processing and mixing.

Thanks or should that be Dziekuje to Anna and the guys from AudioTech for arranging an interesting venue , sumptuos buffet and a really succesful event.

Off back to blighty tomorrow for a couple of days in the office and then on to Madrid for the SES Audio event as previously posted. Please do not hesitate to contact SES Audio if you wish to visit during the event taking place next Thursday and Friday.

Bye for now.

Ronaldo isn’t the only one going to Madrid!

Unfortunately for me, I won’t be getting £80million to go there!!!

SES Audio of Madrid will be my host for 2 days on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th June 2009. SES’s demo studio will be furnished with all the latest SSL wares including Matrix, X-Desk, X-Rack, Duende V3, MX4 and our I/O range. Our ‘Take Me Home’ rack will be at the store for the event and for the month of July enabling would-be customers to try before they buy in the comfort of their own studio. I will be there along with Raul Marin of Lexon (our Spanish Distributor) hosting workshops and to provide hands-on demonstrations of the range.

For more information and to register your interest in visiting, please contact SES Audio, C/ Lanuza 23, 28028 Madrid, Spain. +34 913 561 285.

Look forward to being there!

Richard

Duende V3 at the London Music Show – by Jim

While Richard is out eating chocolate and driving a car with clean farts (see below) I’m at the LIMS show at London’s Excel Centre with our UK distributor Sound Technology. Today has been “Trade only” day, and tomorrow is Education day – usually a signal to be invaded by rampaging hoards of 14-year-olds demanding free T-Shirts and posters.

The show has been quiet, probably due to the considerate action of London Underground whose staff are on strike because they think they deserve a pay rise. Anyone reading this who lives in London will be feeling the same pain as I am! For those of you who (quite wisely) have never experienced a London Tube strike, the city pretty much grinds to a painful and delay-ridden halt, the roads become car parks, and everyone generally becomes either aggressive or suicidal. And there are 10 million people who end up one way or the other. Not entirely fun…

However, the show is the first public showing of Duende V3 and X-Verb. Those of you who are planning a visit to the show this weekend should come by the booth (booth F6 for you map-spotters) to come and check it out.

If you’re going to be at the show tomorrow, come by and let me know you’re a blog reader – you might even get some swag out of it!

Setup day - a work in progress

The finished article

Day 2 – Switzerland

Another fun packed day expertly chauffered by Florian Blattner of J+C Intersonic. We kept our carbon footprint to a minimum whilst travelling this beautiful country as Peter the CEO of J+C entrusted us with his Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicle as our tour bus.

We started with a visit to the guys at Musik Produktiv in Niederlenz just outside Zurich http://www.musik-produktiv.ch/. MP are a key dealer in CH for SSL and have seen considerable success with Duende and Matrix in particular. Sandi, Andy and the guys were excited by the baby SSL and can’t wait to get their hands on one for the showroom.

Our next stop was back to Zurich for a visit with Tonstudiosz in Zurich http://www.tonstudiosz.com/. These guys are a major player in post pro in Switzerland and are currently trialling X-Rack in VHD pre-amp configuration for their V/O studio. Thanks to Renzo for his kind hospitality.

Finally off to the mountains and to Bad Ragaz, the inspiration for Johanna Heusser Spyri’s Heidi and also home to Ted Ling and his studio uniTED LINGdom Projex Studio. Ted is a former Londoner who happened to tour CH with his band in the early 70’s, met his wife at a gig and never returned to London. Ted has a really cool studio in the basement of his house and has recently purchased MadiXtreme and AlphaLink SX as his preferred I/O solution after trialling them all. Ted was keen to meet us to see how we can help further improve the quality of his setup which is used for mainly his own projects and a little commercial work and following the meetinng is currently making some space for X-Desk, Duende and an X-Rack. Thanks to Ted for his warm welcome and the trip he gave us of his village which is currently hosting their annual arts festival. The festival consists of 400 exhibits positioned strategically around the village. The picture below shows a Cadillac sculpted from a 60 ton solid block of marble. The car itself now weighs 20 tons and is available to purchase at a cost of 750,000 Swiss Francs or 500,000 Euro. Let me know if you are interested and I’ll be happy to broker a deal for a small fee!

Off home tomorrow after an AM meeting with J+C. Next stop, Warsaw for Tuesday’s workshop as previously posted.

Richard

SSL Event at Westlake Studios this week

SSL Event at Westlake Studios this week

Chocolate Heaven

Well, here I am in Zurich and I arrived at our Swiss distributors office this morning at exactly the same time as the UPS driver delivering the first X-Desk in CH.

Following a catch up meeting with the team we headed off out with the new arrival to Synphonic Rercording Studios in Etzgen. Synphonic is the home and recording facility of Producer Thomas Lumholtz and is also incidentally home to the first commercial installation of Matrix in Switzerland. Thomas primarily uses the facility for his own production work, but also offers the studio both commercially and for training. Thomas was keen to see the X-Desk as he is often asked to spec equipment by for his diploma students and sees it as a perfect training complement to the Matrix.

Thanks to Thomas for his hospitality and the proud father can be seen below:

More info regarding Synphonic can be found at http://www.synphonic.com

Back in the truck and off to Basel for a meeting with pro audio dealers, House Of Sound. Great to meet Levi and the team and show off the new desk. Check back at House of Sound soon as they will be one of the first dealers in Switzerland to take stock. Levi will be setting up a demo workstation in the shop and will be happy to let you have a play! Check out their website at http://www.houseofsound.ch/

More dealer and studio visits tomorrow.

Richard

Big in Japan

X-Desk replaces “giant mouse” at RockOn Pro

X-Desk has “the Power(Rec)”

X-Desk “speaks” to MusicVox

X-Desks are now leaving SSL Towers every day, and starting to find their way into the slightly moist hands of customers eagerly awaiting their units. We encourage you all to get in touch with us to show us how you’re using your X-Desk, and as a monday morning treat here are some pictures from Japan! For those of you looking for a demo of X-Desk, you could try visiting RockOn and PowerRec in Shibuya, Tokyo, or Music Vox in Akihabara, Tokyo.

Send your X-Desks pictures to jamesm@solidstatelogic.com if you’d like to join our hall of fame 🙂

Going to the Poles!

How long did it take me to come up with that?…..not that long actually!

Just a heads up to those of you able get to Warsaw, Poland for Tuesday 16th June. We have an event hosted by our Polish Distributors, AudioTech Pro and the invitation can be seen here. SOLID STATE LOGIC oraz AUDIOTECH zaproszenie2a

Would be great to meet some our blog followers in person.

I’m just about to start packing for my Sunday departure to Switzerland to accompany our Swiss Distributor J+C Intersonic on a hectic schedule of dealer, college and studio visits.

Will catch up from Zurich next week. Have a good weekend.

Richard

SSL pioneers automated mixing using brain waves

Inspired by a trip to McGill University in Montreal (see previous post), SSL’s white-coated boffins have been beavering away adapting some of their secret technology projects into new and far-fetched ways to create music. Combining the “Automix” function to be included in the new C-10 digital broadcast console with sensitive Alpha-Wave detectors and the multi-layer control of the SSL Matrix, those clever chaps have developed an astounding new interactive way to make music that makes Guitar Hero look like a cheap toy for children.

Installing this incredible new system in their controlled environment test field, the cranium-enhanced MENSA members at SSL Towers have retro-fitted a pocket-sized and portable brain wave detector to the Matrix’s automation controls to allow the producer or engineer to mix without touching the console. While many high level mix engineers in SSL’s beta test group have commented “I dont make an album by gesitulating wildy, looking like I’m falling off my Wii fit platform thank you” the R&D team in Begbroke seem undeterred and are convinced that they should be able to turn the prototype into a real-world solution sometime in the next 18 months.

Wide spread applications can be forseen for this unobtrusive technology, and the technicians see no reason why this could not be developed further. Lead developer Dr J Hieatt-Smith told us “This technology brings unparalled control to musicians and non-musicians alike to make some of the most immersive music creation experiences imaginable. Just as long as you don’t think about what you want for dinner or what plans you have for your girlfriend this Friday night as this tends to throw the parameters out a bit… Simply training your mind to think of nothing else but the music you mix should be emminently simple for anyone with an IQ above 150 and the patience of a Bhuddist monk”.

When asked how DJs might be able to use this system, Dr Hieatt-Smith commented “You’ve got me there. Hmmmm, maybe we haven’t thought this all the way through.”

Watch out for further updates on how this development progresses here on the XLogic blog.

Perhaps not for bass players or DJs