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

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!”

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.

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.”