HKAPA upgrades to SSL Duality
Published: ASIA
HONG KONG: Situated on the Wan Chai waterfront, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) has been providing undergraduates with education and performance-based studies since 1984. The HKAPA also provides the city with world-class performing arts venues, including the 382-capacity concert hall. Local distributor DMT has just upgraded the control room of this theatre, replacing the SSL 4000 G-Series it installed 16 years ago with an SSL Duality 24 and upgrading to a Pro Tools HDX system.
The control room is used for recording around 10 classical concerts per year, as well as graduation recitals. It is also used for mixing and mastering outside recordings. Aside from working on these productions, the control room also functions as a teaching space for students taking the music recording option as part of the degree course.
‘Our old SSL 4000 console served us for more than 16 years,’ said Albert Ho, lecturer at the entertainment and design technology department of the HKAPA. ‘Although the sound quality was still very good and we all liked it very much, most of the parts had become very old, and problems were arising that affected the teaching and learning process. Another major reason for upgrading was that almost every modern recording engineer uses a digital workstation, and what we really needed was an analogue console that could be digitally controlled and integrated with our Pro Tools system.’
This is where the SSL Duality’s hybrid design comes into play, combining a traditional analogue path and signal processing with DAW control and integration.
A recent graduate, Axel Kwok, is now working at his alma mater and getting to grips with the SSL Duality, having spent his three years of study learning on the 4000 G-Series.
‘I particularly like the Duality because it’s a new generation console and works more closely with the DAW, allowing us to have an easier workflow than with analogue,’ he said. ‘In the past, if you used automation you had to do it in Pro Tools, and if you wanted to control the faders in Pro Tools you had to go back to the computer and the mouse; now you can simply use the faders on the desk. Meanwhile SSL has retained its traditional sound quality. I can still use the signature compressor and EQ, plus a selection of the G Series and E Series EQs. So the Duality sounds very good while giving us more flexibility and more features. It’s been easy to move onto as the very fundamental workflow hasn’t changed, just the design of the desk.’
The Pro Tools HDX system supplied by DMT includes two HD I/O 16x16 interfaces to give a total of 32 channels of analogue I/O and a SYNC HD interface, plus a Magma ExpressBox 3T to allow the PCIe cards to be connected to the new Mac Pro via Thunderbolt.