AWS 900+ Brings Large Recording Studio Quality Home
Carl Tatz Design recently completed two dream studios for Rascal Flatts’ band members Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney in their respective home environments, each centered around a Solid State Logic AWS 900+ console. The AWS 900+ delivers the power to track, mix and run Pro Tools™ from the console surface in a small footprint package that brings large recording studio quality home.
The Grip Studios, a complex of rooms in the home of Jay DeMarcus, features a control room with the AWS 900+ and associated tracking room and isolation booths, a production room called the Wine Cellar with vocal booth, and a screening lounge. The Panic Room is the creative space for Joe Don Rooney and features a control room with associated tracking room and isolation booths. Both studios feature Tatz’s trademark PhantomFocus™ System tuning protocol for critical monitoring, allowing the full quality of the AWS 900+ to shine.
“I highly recommended the SSL AWS 900+ to Jay and Joe Don because of the flexible power and incredible sound of the console,” says Carl Tatz, who designed two earlier incarnations of the two studios in different locations. “While the AWS has a small footprint, all the sonic quality and functionality of an SSL console is immediately apparent from the minute you start a session. The AWS is a very real console.”
In the planning stages for the new facilities, Tatz impressed upon DeMarcus and Rooney the extent of the power of the AWS 900+ and the extra facility the console offers not only for their own projects, but for the other acts each one produces.
“When we were in the planning stage, Jay needed to track and mix, while Joe Don simply wanted to track,” Tatz relates. “I pointed out to them that with the AWS, you will not only track, but you also have the power to mix projects in each studio. While other manufacturer’s consoles get half way there with a smaller footprint design, the AWS goes all the way to the finish line.”
The experience with the AWS is not lost on lead engineer, Sean Neff, who works with Jay DeMarcus. “The sonic experience of using the AWS is an absolute pleasure,” says Neff. “After so many years of working in the box and using other summing mixers, it is just wonderful to be working with a real console and especially an SSL console. The AWS embodies the sonic characteristics of the current SuperAnalogue™ consoles and we are very happy with the results.”
Solid State Logic is the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals.
