Tom Rowlands, member of innovative and Grammy Award winning group The Chemical Brothers, is using a newly-installed 48-channel Solid State Logic Duality console as a creative tool for his private studio, Rowlands Audio Research.
Duality provides the signal routing, channel count and DAW integration needed for new The Chemical Brothers projects covering writing, production and mixing.
Duality also delivers the coveted SSL SuperAnalogue sound used by The Chemical Brothers on previous projects.
“As we got into ever larger creative sessions, it became clear that we needed the 48-channel Duality over our original AWS 900,” says Tom Rowlands, studio owner and member of The Chemical Brothers.
“As we capture to Logic, Duality has the same on-board DAW control features as the AWS, so we did not need to learn an entirely different system.”
“Essentially, Duality gives us what we had with the AWS, while delivering the added channel count we needed to move forward in our work.”
Since the Duality was installed, it has been put to work for the duo’s soundtrack and album work.
Duality was used on The Chemical Brothers’ contribution to composer Clint Mansell’s (Requium for A Dream, Sahara, The Fountain) score for the recently-released psychological thriller Black Swan and the complete score for the upcoming release of director Joe Wright’s (Atonement, The Soloist and Pride & Prejudice) first action movie Hanna.
“Duality was a good choice for us on many levels,” asserts Rowlands. “It is a very powerful console, yet it is straightforward and easy to use.”
“We did not need to have a dedicated machine room as the console does not draw too much power, so it fits perfectly within our existing facility. The transition from the AWS to Duality was smooth and allowed us to take on projects immediately.”
“Beyond the two movie soundtracks, we have mixed some of The Chemical Brothers material and the results were great.”
“We like playing with our outboard gear, combining sounds with plug-ins in Logic and running multiple channels on the console,” Rowlands explains.
“Duality gives us more routing options and the multiple mix buses necessary for our expanded use, so we are really using it as creative tool. The sonics Duality offers are essential for us to capture the right sound for every track we produce.”
“We spent a lot of time looking at console options to replace the original AWS 900 and the Duality was really the only choice,” says Nick Clarke, owner of Tech Nick Clarke, the systems integrator for the Rowlands Audio Research project.
“Tom is now bringing up all his favorite keyboards into all the places he wants them, while retaining the option to use submixes to bring up banks of keyboards. Duality tames the very complex mixes necessary to complete a Chemical Brothers production.”
