Southern University Launches New Recording Facility for its Music and Media Programs, Anchored on Solid State Logic Duality SuperAnalogue™ Mixing Console

Alma mater of jazz greats including Alvin Batiste, Branford Marsalis and Donald Harrison Creates State of the Art, Immersive Recording Studio, furthering its academic programs 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, December 5, 2024 — Southern University, the alma mater of such jazz greats as Alvin Batiste, Branford Marsalis and Donald Harrison, has launched a new recording studio centered around a Solid State Logic Duality Pro-Station SuperAnalogue™ 48-channel mixing console. The new facility will support two new Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Digital Media Arts programs that focus on music technology and recording arts, starting in fall 2024 and fall 2025, respectively.

Rick Camp, owner of Las Vegas-based RC1 Productions & Designs, notes that the project, conceived as a stereo studio, was delayed by the pandemic. He was never in doubt about the choice of console, he says: “The Duality is the most common and widely used console in professional studios around the world.” But by the time construction began, Apple Music’s Spatial Audio platform had launched and demand for Dolby Atmos music was exploding. “So I went back to Southern University and said, ‘You'll be behind the times if I just make this a stereo studio. We really need to bump this up and make it a 7.1.4 studio.”

To that end, Camp designed and integrated a custom immersive production and mixing solution for the Duality Pro-Station that combines the console’s functionality with a Pro Tools system and third-party, Dante-enabled converters, speaker optimization and monitor management hardware components. Camp’s technical design for the room includes a Genelec 7.1.4 speaker system plus George Augspurger-designed and manufactured soffited main monitors. A credenza is well stocked with high-end compressor, limiter, reverb and microphone preamp options. WSDG Walters-Storyk Design Group provided the control room’s acoustic design and construction.

The new SSL-equipped control room is adjacent to the Recital Hall in the Tourgee A. DeBose Music Hall on the university’s main Baton Rouge campus. “It was my idea to use our performance hall, and we turned what was basically a storage room into the recording studio,” explains Harry Anderson Sr., bassist, composer, arranger, bandleader and Co-Director of the new Digital Media Arts Program at Southern University.

Camp installed a Dante network between the large stage in the Recital Hall and the control room: “They can take their two SSL SB i16 16-channel Dante stage boxes, which use the same SuperAnalogue^TM mic pre technology that is in the Duality console, and plug them into the Dante network – it’s great they have mic pre’s with the same sonic quality available outside of the console.”

Anderson was the driving force behind the new studio project. “But the idea was put in my head by one of my professors when I was at Southern, Alvin Batiste, one of the great jazz musicians and jazz educators from New Orleans,” says Anderson, who attended class alongside Branford Marsalis and Donald Harrison and was Director of The Alvin Batiste Jazz Institute for 21 years. After Anderson returned to Southern to teach in 2003, he was able to secure some federal funds earmarked for HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) to build a studio.

The new facility will act as both a recording studio and a music technology lab for students studying one of two new programs at Southern. The first is a Bachelor of Music with a concentration in music, technology and entrepreneurship, which started the fall 2024 semester. The second is a Bachelor of Digital Media Arts, with a concentration in recording arts, slated to begin fall of 2025.

“The SSL Duality console is an incredible tool for teaching the technical skills essential to modern studio work, and we use it to dive deep into every aspect of audio engineering,” says Gerren Porch, M.M.Tech, Recording Studio Manager & Instructor of Music Tech/Recording Arts in the Music Department. “For example, students learn advanced signal flow and routing techniques on the Duality Fuse, including complex bussing, parallel processing and how to effectively use aux sends and inserts. The Duality is the most efficient teaching tool available.”

One of Porch’s favorite features is Duality’s seamless integration with Pro Tools, he says. “We use it extensively in our curriculum to bridge the gap between analogue and digital workflows. The powerful DAW control allows us to teach a range of advanced production techniques. Each week, students use the Duality to track audio through its pristine analogue signal path and then control Pro Tools directly from the console’s faders and knobs. They can automate tracks, add plug-ins and manage entire sessions without needing to touch the computer — exactly like it’s done in many top-tier studios.”

The Duality Pro-Station’s hybrid workflow allows students to strike the perfect balance between analogue and digital, he continues. “It integrates with our outboard gear and digital plug-ins, so whether it’s mixing, editing or applying effects, students learn how to efficiently run large sessions. They handle dozens of tracks with the precision of digital automation alongside the warmth of analogue processing.”

Ultimately, Porch says, by the time students complete the program they will have mastered not only the technical aspects of audio engineering but also how to work fluidly between the SSL Duality and Pro Tools. “This hands-on experience in hybrid workflows gives them the real-world skills they’ll use throughout their careers,” he says.

In Camp’s custom-engineered immersive production and mixing system, the Pro Tools DAW feeds convertors which then send the analogue audio onto the console. “In the Duality, I'm using a 5.1 panner output with a stereo cue output to feed the side speakers. I'm using auxiliaries one to four to feed the ceiling speakers.” The Duality then feeds the analogue signals to the Galaxy 64, which converts them to Dante and sends them to the Dolby Atmos renderer. “I love the warm and refined sound that the Duality gives via its analogue signal path to the Dolby Atmos format,” he says. Signals from the Dolby renderer pass to a DirectOut Prodigy, which handles speaker tuning and delays. The Prodigy feeds those signals over Dante into a Grace m908 for speaker switching and volume control.

With this custom setup, Camp says, users have full access to Duality’s fader control, dynamics and EQ. “And, they can still get to the object channels,” he notes. When in object mode, signals pass over Dante straight to the renderer. “So they have to use the fader and a plug-in on that particular channel to get to the object, but after that it's the same route,” he says.

Camp, who also owns and operates Master Mix Live in Las Vegas, which features an SSL System T and handles in-house and remote immersive mixing projects, could not be happier with the way that the SSL Duality and the facility perform: “When I first talked to Harry, I said, ‘What kind of studio do you want?’ Because I didn't know anything about Southern University. And he said, ‘Build me your dream studio.’ So that's what I built — my dream studio.

Credit is due to Thomas Dawson, music director for The Commodores for the past 34 years, for bringing him into the project, Camp says. “Thomas, a music major alum of Southern and Harry Anderson’s frat brother and longtime friend, was the catalyst for this whole project. He brought my company to the table to do the gear design and purchases and deserves all of the credit for making this project a reality, along with his brother, Ken Dawson, another SU alum, who facilitated the financial inner workings of this project.”

The Southern University and A&M College System is the only historically black university system in the United States. The System has a diverse enrollment of more than 12,000 students with locations in Louisiana’s capital city of Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport. A law school and agricultural and research center also are located in Baton Rouge.

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.