Studio A at the Brandon’s Way production facility in Hollywood has seen the installation of a 48-fader Solid State Logic Duality Fuse SuperAnalogue console with SSL δelta-Control and integrated Fusion coloration processor, joining an SSL Duality already in place in Studio B.
The two-room private complex, which opened in 1996, is the private studio facility of Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, who has an extensive portfolio of production work that includes the likes of Toni Braxton, Mary J Blige, Madonna and Mariah Carey. Most recently, Babyface released his 11th solo album, Girls Night Out, a 13-song collection featuring iconic R&B most singers including Ella Mai, Kehlani, Ari Lennox, Muni Long and Queen Naija – which was written and produced at Brandon’s Way.
‘We had a 96-fader SSL 9000 J Series console in Studio A – one of the first,’ recalls Paul Boutin, who has been chief engineer at Brandon’s Way for more than two decades. ‘This replaced the SSL 4080 G+ that was originally installed.’
Studio A eventually became a writing room with Babyface favouring Studio B for most of his production projects, and the 9096J was used less frequently.
‘I have a Duality in my room, so I know the board,’ he says, so he suggested we get a second Duality to replace the aging J Series desk. The recently installed console in Studio A is SSL’s newer Duality Fuse version, which features a Fusion analogue processor integrated into the centre section.
The new Duality Fuse is fitted with angled producer’s bays at each end, matching the footprint of the previous installed9096J. The new console also includes SSL δelta-Control to integrate SSL’s analogue console automation with DAW-based workflows.
Boutin had been working on a project with Babyface at Record Plant for about six months when he was invited to take a full-time position as an assistant at the new facility when it opened. At Brandon’s Way he has collaborated with Babyface on two dozen Gold records, 15 Platinum records and 16 multi-Platinum releases, and has participated on three Grammy-winning albums while garnering a further 18 Grammy nominations.
Babyface, an 11-time Grammy-winner, four of them for Producer of the Year, a Recording Academy Trustee Award-winner and a 2017 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, has worked with a who’s-who of pop and R&B royalty, including artists such as Boyz II Men, Bobby Brown, Aretha Franklin, Katharine McPhee, Vanessa Williams, Celine Dion and Phil Collins.
Babyface’s history of making hit records with SSL consoles dates back to the mid-1980s, during his collaboration with Antonio ‘LA’ Reid. ‘SSL has always been at the forefront of my hit-making formula,’ he says. ‘Nothing else allows me to achieve the same level of production excellence.’
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
