Estudios El Dorado Opens World Class Studio in Ecuador, with Solid State Logic ORIGIN at its Core

Multi-room, multi-purpose production facility serves artists across a range of genres, both domestic and international: “The pure sound of SSL has its own identity."

Quito, Ecuador, August 14, 2024 — When Willan Farinango and Jorge Luis Serrano returned to their native Ecuador after years in France, they were determined to build a unique multi-studio offering an all-analogue workflow - epitomising the “British sound.” Their new venture, Estudios El Dorado, a multi-room, multi-purpose production facility in the centre of Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, opened its doors in early 2024 to reveal a Solid State Logic ORIGIN 32-channel analogue mixing console as its centrepiece.

“This is a multi-studio because it is three in one,” explains Jorge Luis Serrano, co-founder and CEO of Estudios El Dorado. “And all of these rooms are interconnected to the SSL ORIGIN console.” Serrano, formerly the Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Ecuador in France, and Farinango, who studied classical guitar, composition and arranging while living in France for 20 years, believe that Estudios El Dorado is one of only a handful of facilities in South America to offer such a variety of audio and visual services under a single roof. Producer and co-founder Farinango notes that the facility was custom-designed and constructed from the ground up as a versatile audiovisual production studio. “It is unique in Ecuador,” Serrano adds. “There is nothing like this in the rest of the country.”

Word class sound with SSL
As a premier world-class studio in Ecuador, El Dorado is one of the first in the country to feature a large-format analogue SSL mixing console. “The concept in the control room was to offer a 100% British sound in Quito,” Farinango says. “That’s the main characteristic that differentiates us from other studios here in Ecuador — or anywhere in Latin America, I would say.”

While they had a choice of U.K.-manufactured mixing console brands, Farinango continues, “The pure sound of SSL has its own identity. We chose to buy an SSL because of the quality of the sound and the variations in sound that you can achieve with SSL equipment.” He first had an opportunity to experience the ORIGIN console at a studio in Belgium while he was living in Europe.

The PureDrive feature on each channel’s preamp is very attractive, he says. “PureDrive gives us more possibilities to work with different kinds of sounds, from brighter and more transparent to more bass or body. There are more colours available to us.” In practice, he continues, “In recording sessions, the E Series 242 ‘black-knob’ EQs give us the versatility to surgically correct a specific band or add tones when an instrument needs it. We usually run stems through the PureDrive and EQ to add colour and texture to mixes that, in Ecuador, usually come from home studios. What a gift to have them on all 32 channels!”

SSL’s renowned Bus Compressor also gets used a lot at El Dorado, Farinango reports. “The Bus Compressor is used on the mix bus, generally to fill and glue sounds together, as well as add a bit of drive and character. With 3 dB or 4 dB maximum reduction, we get very satisfactory results.”

Advanced bus routing system
Farinango has been particularly impressed by the routing flexibility across ORIGIN’s 16 track buses: “The system allows for dynamic assignment, which makes routing extremely quick and reduces bottlenecks, it’s more efficient than traditional methods. The trims on each track bus are also very useful.” Plus, he says, “All these controls are kept within the centre section of the console – it’s an intuitive user interface that ensures a minimal learning curve for operators. Overall, ORIGIN's approach simplifies the process, offering us significant improvements in speed, flexibility and reliability over traditional routing methods.”

Beyond its audio performance, ORIGIN also offers features that should be of interest to any studio owner concerned about running costs and staying competitive. “One of the very appreciable qualities is the Auto Sleep, which generates energy savings, something that a few years ago would have been considered unrealistic,” Farinango comments.

The ORIGIN is installed in Studio A’s 450-square-foot control room in a piece of custom studio furniture that incorporates a wing on either side of the console to house a collection of outboard analogue processors. There is also multi-bay credenza behind the console operators packed with more outboard gear. The control room acoustic design features a reflection-free zone at the engineer’s listening position. British-made ATC SCN110ASL Pro midfield reference monitors are soffit-mounted in the front wall. There is an adjacent 625-sq.-ft. live room with variable acoustics and a 12-foot ceiling, and a collection of very high-quality microphones. The spacious tracking space features a Yamaha G5 grand piano. “This is the only Disklavier in Ecuador, maybe in South America,” Serrano says.

Studio B, a 235 sq. ft., all-analogue mastering suite, is equipped with a variety of British-made processing devices. A third space, Studio C, measuring 430-sq.-ft., is outfitted as a set for photo and video shoots and audiovisual productions of all kinds and offers LED lighting and 4K cameras.

El Dorado officially launched on the last day of January 2024 but was open for sessions for several months before that. Serrano says that two features of the studio are proving to be a significant attraction for clients. “The piano in the live room and our SSL ORIGIN are really working well together. They are attracting a lot of people who thought that they might have to make their records outside Ecuador. But when they discovered El Dorado, they made the decision to make their records here.”

Diverse music genres, international clientele
Since El Dorado opened Serrano and Farinango have seen a variety of artists working across a range of music genres pass through their facility. Serrano reports, “We have worked with every kind of artist — classical, jazz, folk, popular music and what we call chicha in Ecuador,” cumbia-based electronic music that is also popular throughout large parts of Latin America.

“Our key goal was to have an analogue workflow and to bring the British sound to the heart of Quito,” Farinango says. “We have musicians from cities outside Quito that are coming to record with us. Ecuador is about the size of the U.K., so one of our goals was also to attract people from outside Ecuador to record with us. We are getting good responses and attracting interest from musicians all over Latin America. We hope that we will soon have musicians from the U.S. and Europe work with us here too.”

In general, Farinango says, El Dorado is marketing its facilities to professional musicians anywhere in the world who are looking for a very high-quality, professional sound at an attractive price. “Something that we always tell our clients is that our prices are Ecuadorian, and that allows us to compete with the rest of the world,” he says. Being able to offer the authentic SSL sound to clients gives El Dorado an additional edge over the competition, he believes: “It allows us to offer the best of the British sound industry to Ecuador and to the region.”

About Solid State Logic
Solid State Logic is the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast, live and post production professionals. For more information about our award-winning products, please visit: www.solidstatelogic.com.