Jungle City installs world-first SSL ORIGIN EVO

Ann Mincieli has installed a Solid State Logic ORIGIN EVO console in the North Studio at Jungle City in New York, marking the first ORIGIN EVO installation anywhere in the world.

The console joins three existing SSL Duality desks at the multi-room studio complex. Mincieli, a producer, studio owner and engineer for Alicia Keys, made the move as part of a refit of the North Studio.

Jungle City opened in 2011 and occupies the upper floors of a building on West 27th Street in Manhattan's High Line area. Its Penthouse East and Penthouse West rooms each contain a 48-input Duality console, while the South Studio has a 24-input Duality. The North Studio now houses a 32-channel ORIGIN EVO.

Mincieli has worked with SSL consoles since the start of her career at New York studios, including Skyline, Right Track, Axis and Quad. She also oversaw SSL installations at Keys' recording facilities in Long Island, Manhattan and California.

She said the North Studio was designed to support a wide range of recording and mixing needs.

"I thought the ORIGIN EVO was a great fit for my North Studio at Jungle City, and I was ready to redo that room," said Ann Mincieli, producer, studio owner and engineer at Jungle City. "Alicia has a creative hub out west where we have an ORIGIN that we purchased last year, and we also have a Duality there that packs up in a case. When Phill Scholes of SSL hit us up at the NAMM Show about the new ORIGIN EVO design and enhancements from the original ORIGIN, it was perfect timing."

Studio Layout

North Studio is one of four control rooms at Jungle City and includes a small isolation booth for vocals and drums. The wider facility also includes two penthouse live rooms, lounges and a rooftop deck.

Mincieli said the room is used for recording, mixing and editing, and that the desk's size suits the space. The installation was also intended to support both her own work and that of outside clients.

"North Studio is one of our premier mixing suites," she said. "We record, mix and edit there. It has a small iso booth, so we can also do vocals and drums. I wanted flexibility in my room, because I record every single day of my life, and I work with an artist who is a producer and a musician who works every day of her life on music. The ORIGIN EVO fits perfectly in the room, size-wise. I built my own monitor arm and speaker stands, which really feel like they're part of the desk. It's not only me that's going to work on it, so it also gives my clients 32 mic pre's, SSL EQ and dynamics. The headroom is also really good on the ORIGIN. That's something else that I really pay attention to."

The ORIGIN EVO includes E Series dynamics on each channel strip, along with an E Series Black Knob 242 EQ, high-pass and low-pass filters, and a PureDrive mic preamp. Its bus compressor adds new compression ratios, an insert return for external processing and a built-in sidechain filter.

Mincieli said the desk's inline design was a key attraction because it delivers a high input count in a relatively compact footprint. She also highlighted the fader layout and the similarity between the mic preamps and EQs and those on the Duality consoles already in use at Jungle City.

"You get twice the number of inputs, and I love that you also get small faders. I also love the mic pre's; the mic pre's and EQs really sound just like a Duality. I just love everything about it," she said.

Daily Workflow

The installation reflects the way Mincieli and Keys build sessions, routing instruments and processing into Pro Tools during both recording and mixing. She said that approach requires a desk that can handle drum machines, keyboards, virtual instruments and analogue synths within a single workflow.

"Because we're honing in on our tone. We're painting the sonic picture as we go along. That's what I love about the ORIGIN and the Duality - you have the flexibility to use the mic pre's and EQs on the way into Pro Tools as you record," she said.

She added that North Studio can support Keys' writing and programming setup with 32 mic preamps and routing for both hardware and software instruments.

"I have 32 mic pre's, so the desk allows us to have all her drum machines, keyboards, like Jupiters and Junos, and her own virtual rig connected. She uses a combination of virtual synths and real analogue synths, and the desk gives me so much flexibility, with twice the number of inputs and small faders and large faders. Having the mic pre's and compressors and being able to patch everything up and follow her creativity, and EQ and compress on the way into Pro Tools, is pretty amazing," she said.

Mincieli said her preference for SSL equipment has been shaped by decades of work on the company's consoles and by formal training in the UK on the Axiom and 9000J.

"The point is, I use SSL rooms. Those are pretty much the only rooms that I work in," she said.