Studio Monitor: Ssl, Guitar Center Form Distribution Pact

Solid State Logic, the leading manufacturer of large-format recording and mixing consoles, is once again making news.

The Oxford, England-based company introduced the AWS 900 Analogue Workstation System at the National Assn. of Broadcasters' spring convention April 19 in Las Vegas (Billboard, April 24).

But a follow-up announcement is also noteworthy: SSL's distribution arrangement with musical instrument retailer Guitar Center and its GC Pro professional audio division.

The AWS 900, the first SSL product of its kind, is an integrated hybrid of its SuperAnalogue consoles and a digital audio workstation interface. At $87,000, the AWS 900 costs substantially less than SSL's large-format consoles, but it provides the SSL signal path and processing that audio professionals revere.

The establishment of GC Pro was a clear sign of the musical-instrument retail sector's increasing attention to high-end recording equipment, accelerated by the rapid evolution of the DAW.

The GC Pro division formed when the retail giant formalized what many of its sales representatives already practiced: outbound business-to-business service to professional audio clients.

"Many of the people who need the same high-end systems and system integration also happen to be drummers, guitar players and keyboard players," Guitar Center executive VP David Angress says. The chain's distribution agreement with SSL, he adds, "really does make Guitar Center a one-stop shop."

SSL will also sell the AWS 900 directly to its core client base and broadcast clientele. SSL and Guitar Center will jointly offer product training, system consulting and installation services.

In 2003, SSL introduced its XLogic line of rack-mounted outboard signal processing equipment developed from the XL 9000 K Series console. That product line, also available through Guitar Center, similarly acknowledges the emerging dominance of DAWs in professional recording.



MODERN JAZZ: The search for an operator/tenant of the recording studio under construction in Frederick P. Rose Hall at New York's Time Warner Center is nearing conclusion (billboard.biz, Feb. 13).

The operator will be responsible for recording and archiving many performances at the hall's Rose Theater, Allen Room and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola venues.

Candidates submitted bids through Request for Proposal to Chris Stone, founder of Record Plant Studios and World Studio Group. Stone is serving as contact for Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC), the nonprofit arts organization conducting the search.

"We've got a great group," Stone says of the candidates. "The final choice, which then has to be submitted to the City of New York, is going to provide Frederick P. Rose Hall the finest sound and video that's possible."

Stone adds, "The quality of operator we're going to get is going to give jazz a whole new look and sound that's going to take [JALC] forward into the 21st century."