Away from te Low End Theory dance party at the Airliner nightclub in LA, producer engineer and Alpha Pup Records label co-founder Daddy Kev, retreats to his Cosmic Zoo recording studio, to work on acts such as Flying Lotus, Mr Oizo, Thundercat and Shlohmo. To keep up with the ever-changing sounds of the underground electronic movement, Cosmic Zoo recently became one of the first studios to feature SSL’s new XL-Desk.

Kev’s first encountered SSL in the late 1990s at Paramount Recording Studio B. With the XL-Desk, he calls himself a ‘low rider’, positioning his monitors at 36 inches, so the console is customised to accommodate the way he works. The set-up includes the ability to have his 500 modules within reach – particularly for his mastering projects, which are his primary workload at Cosmic Zoo.

‘I have mastered more than 40 albums this past year alone,’ he explains. ‘As soon as I installed the XL-Desk, I took the 500 modules and installed them in the console’s built-in 500-format rack. Now, I’m able to access those modules – as well as the new SSL bus compressor that comes with the XL-Desk – through the console.

‘I think that the genius of the XL-Desk is the ergonomics of having the 500 rack in-line with the channels. In the past, I’d sit at the mix position with my outboard processors on either side of me. I’d always have to move a few feet in either direction to access the outboard gear, which would take me out of my ideal listening and operating position. Now, my Focal CMS 65 monitors are on 36-inch stands, putting the tweeters perfectly at my ear level. So, I’m right on top of the console, but nothing blocks the monitors and I have everything within arms’ reach.’

Location isn’t the only element that has changed the mastering process: ‘The integration for controlling multiple monitors on the XL-Desk is fantastic,’ he says. ‘I’m using the speaker switching and LF management to run between both my Focal monitors or QSC KW153s three-way monitors and a pair of JBL SRX728S subwoofers, and the monitor path is still very clean. This might be the only XL-Desk wired to four 18-inch subwoofer drivers – so we can probably levitate the room if necessary.’

Incorporating this new technology enables, rather than, replaces the old: ‘I’ve been collecting outboard gear for years, and in my old situation without a console I was really just doing a lot of two-bus treatments,’ Kev reveals. ‘This is literally the first time in more than ten years that I’m back to a true analogue workflow. Now, when I mix, I can group or submix tracks in Pro Tools and send them in stereo groups to the XL-Desk. I have all of the 500 module inputs, outputs, send and return insert points – as well as all of the XL-Desk’s channel insert points – on my patchbay, giving me a very easy way to integrate that outboard gear into my mixing and mastering processes.

‘I can insert the 500 module that sits inline with a particular channel simply by pressing a button or using the patchbay to patch it into another channel,’ he continues. ‘With the INS button, I can have two processors on a single channel. The four 500 buttons in the master section connect the mix buses to the 500 modules without the need for patching. This gives me a wide range of options to best suit each project.’

In addition to his 500 modules – EQs from Avedis, Electrodyne, Rupert Neve Designs, Elysia and Empirical Labs, Kev also has an SSL X-Rack with two 9000 compressor modules and an SSL FX G384 bus compressor.

‘I have three different SSL compression options to work with during mixing or mastering and it’s very nice,’ he says. ‘I feel like I’m just barely scratching the surface of what I can do with the XL-Desk; it’s incredible. It’s very inspiring for me to come to the studio and want to work as much as I can on such a beautifully-designed piece of gear.’