The largest regional station in Poland’s national public broadcasting network, Polish Radio Katowice marked the 95th anniversary of its founding with a total renovation of its Concert Studio control room, including new acoustic treatment and a Solid State Logic Duality Fuse 48-channel SuperAnalogue mixing console.
The station was established in 1927, and its current building, constructed after WWII, has undergone several renovations since. The Concert Studio, a two-storey-high, space with seating for up to 180 people, was modernised in 2001. ‘We tore the control room apart and redid the whole thing from scratch,’ says Krzysztof Kurek, principal sound engineer at the facility.
When the control room was refurbished 20 years ago along with the Concert Studio space, a new workstation and surface were installed ‘It’s great as long as it’s modern, but once it’s not, you can’t update it,’ Kurek says.
In place of the previous digital audio system, the sound engineering team decided to install an SSL Duality. Warsaw-based Audiotech Commercial supplied the latest version of the SSL console, the Duality Fuse, which features an integrated Fusion multi-processor that provides control of drive, equalisation, compression, image width and other sonic colour enhancements with flexible routing and patch access from the desk’s inputs and buses.
‘One of the reasons we chose the desk was because it’s analogue,’ Kurek says. ‘Duality can work with a 24-track tape recorder instead of a computer – that was one reason why we didn’t choose a hybrid solution. ‘We also wanted something that we could use for ten or more years. Also, the old system was 32 channels and we thought we needed more. Now we’re very happy to use 48 channels.’
‘I tested the Fusion rack unit and when I listened to how it sounded, I thought it would be great to enhance rock music or other modern music,’ he continues. ‘I didn’t think I would use it here at the studio, but once you have it on the desk, and it takes just one push of a button to use it, well, I’m even using it on choirs. Once you turn it on, it always makes things better.’
For many years, venues such as the Radio Katowice Concert Studio were the only places in Poland that could record live performances by large orchestras, choirs and big bands. Over the years, the Radio Katowice performance venue has hosted some of the country’s most notable singers and songwriters, including Ewa Bem, Krystyna Prońko, Stanisław Sojka and Józef Skrzek.
It was only after 1989, when the country began to transition to democratic government and a market economy, that private individuals could build a studio or have access to quality audio equipment. But even modern private studios in Poland are unable to accommodate large ensembles, Kurek says, so the radio station’s facility still plays an important role in the culture. Since the Duality Fuse was installed, Radio Katowice has also presented renowned poet and lyricist Jacek Cygan and composer Jerzy Filar, celebrating 50 years in the music business, performing live in the Concert Studio.
The seating on the lower level of the studio can be pushed out of the way to provide a larger floor area for especially big ensembles, with adjustable acoustics. ‘We split the signals for the desk doing the live mix for the people and I do the mixing for the radio or the internet,’ Kurek says. ‘We knew that we would need the desk for that kind of live mixing as well, so having a full channel strip on every channel was an important thing for us. We also have some outboard gear, but since there’s a whole channel strip on every channel of the Duality, I can mix the whole thing using just the desk. Plus, it has the SSL bus compressor and the Fusion.’
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
