JBJ Studio has recently invested in an SSL AWS 924 console to help transform its UK production studio expansion. The The Hillingdon-based facility’s acquisition has also prompted a partnership with Miloco, making 2019 look like being its busiest year to date. Having Miloco onboard is a great move for us as they’re an amazing organisation, and they’ve been pushing great new clients our way,’ says owner, James Brown.

JBJ was up and running after started out as a small creative studio 12 months ago, but Brown was prepared to take a risk and invest to create something special. ‘I have always wanted an SSL and been fortunate enough to mix on a G Series previously,’ he says. ‘Ever since SSL introduced the AWS range, I’d been thinking “that looks a bit good, but I’m never going to be able to afford one”. Over time, I kept discovering that it did other things that I didn’t know it was capable of. In the end, I just had to have one, and it’s been a total game-changer for JBJ.’

According to Brown, just having the SSL AWS924 desk gives his studio kudos amongst clients, but it’s ultimately the combination of features and sonic performance that have made such an impact in his production workflow. ‘It’s essentially a classic analogue board with excellent digital features – quite literally the best of both worlds – and I love the way that it speaks with Pro Tools in particular.’

JBJ offers both a Pro Tools HD with AD/DA converters and Studer A80 quarter-inch tape deck for recording, allowing clients to combine the best of digital and analogue domains. The AWS 924 extends this hybrid offering. Monitoring options include PMC TB2S+ Studio Monitors and Yamaha NS-10s.

‘There are some people who say the AWS doesn’t have the grunt of an old E or G Series console, and although it might not crunch like those boards, it still has an SSL sound, and it’s much cleaner in terms of the SuperAnalogue preamps, which gives you headroom for days. I also love the SSL X Rack analogue outboard too– the way you can recall all of the compressor settings is fantastic.’

Brown finds the EQ on the AWS particularly musical, and loves being able to switch between the E and G Series at the push of a button. ‘This EQ is so responsive; you don’t need to do too much at all,’ he confides. ‘The two EQ options are so different, bringing such individual character; the E is brittle and hard, and the G is soft, but depending on what it is I’m trying to feed into the track, they’re two different flavours, which is like having two EQs.

‘For vocals, I tend to use the G to kind of soften them up a little bit, but for guitars, I’ll tend to use the E. It’s really cool. Then we are mixing into a GML8200 [parametric EQ rack], which is sat on the mix bus output – and obviously, I use the SSL bus compressor. I just love that thing.’

There are three rooms at JBJ: the control room, a fairly small live room, and a larger live room. It can play host to pretty much any audio application, from mix sessions and overdubs to drum tracking and full live band recordings.

‘Our control room was treated by [the late] Graham Whitehead, who was an acoustician at the BBC,’ Brown explains. ‘He did some work at Maida Vale, and the Royal Opera House, so it’s not an overly-treated dead room, but it’s fairly neutral, which is just what we wanted.’

Which means a day in the life at JBJ can be pretty eclectic. ‘This week, for example, I am tracking an artist called Kasiika, along with her group of musicians; and next week, we have Tim Rowkins [Two Door Cinema Club] in mixing,’ Brown says. ‘Then I am also working on an album with a band called Freeman, who are doing great things. It’s already the busiest year we’ve ever had by some way, and our investment in the studio has paid off. I can only put that down to the SSL, really.’