Steve “Griff” Griffin, who specializes in corporate audio production for clients in the pharmaceutical, tech and automotive industries, recently implemented a Solid State Logic Live L650 mixing console in his workflow.
“Pharma and tech are the big players in the corporate world,” says Griffin, who is based in South Florida. “But I also do a lot of car shows, which are a little more exciting to me, I love cars! The events are five-to-seven-day one-offs, just a quick in and out.”
He’d been working with Live L500 and L550 consoles for the past eight years and has been an SSL user since the E Series days back at Unique Recording assisting engineer such as Chris Lord-Alge and his brother Tom. Previously worked with L500 and L550 consoles for clients in the pharmaceutical, tech and automotive industries; cites the L650’s triple-wide fader banks as being the right fit for his mixing style.
Griffin notes that the layout of the L650, with its triple-wide fader banks, works well for his mixing style. That configuration is slightly different to the L500 and L550 models that he has been using, which place two 12-fader panels under his hands with the third panel in the angled upper section. “I’m old school. I like to be able to touch everything,” he says. “The L650 is a little more powerful and the layout is better. The muscle memory is a little different, but it has the same features, just in different places. As far as the sound — there’s nothing close. So, for me, the L650 is ideal.”
The extra DSP of the L650 also helps keep things more compact at his front-of-house position, with little need to surround himself with outboard effects and processing racks. He does carry an outboard effects server, he says, “But I can get by without it. Anything onboard the L650 is more than powerful enough.”
The presentation and discussion segments of corporate events involve people wearing wireless lavaliers, headset microphones or handhelds. To optimize intelligibility and the quality of presenters’ voices, Griffin employs a variety of onboard processing in his L650: “The onboard stuff is insane. I’ve got a bunch of stems with a parametric EQ and a dynamic EQ on every channel, which is ridiculous. The Sorcerer and de-noiser are critical in these noisy ballrooms and I’ve got the bus compressor everywhere.”
