Jason Aldean's Full Throttle Tour in Full Swing, Featuring Two Solid State Logic L550 Plus Mixing Consoles

Live Sound

09/01/26

Nashville, Tennessee, January 9, 2026 — When Jason Aldean kicked off his Full Throttle Tour in May, front-of-house engineer Chris Leonard was behind a Solid State Logic L550 Plus mixing console for the first time with the country music star. The tour is also carrying an L550 Plus for monitors, with Evan “Snapper” Richner mixing, and four SSL stageboxes networked via a Blacklight II MADI Concentrator, plus an X-Light Bridge at FOH, all supplied by Aldean’s longtime production provider, Nashville-based Spectrum Sound.

Leonard, a live sound and studio engineer, took over at the front-of-house mix position in early 2024 with Aldean, who has toured with SSL consoles at FOH and monitors almost since the Live console was introduced. But having had limited experience with SSL’s Live console and with relatively little time to prepare before his first show, Leonard initially opted for a desk with which he was more familiar. Meanwhile, Spectrum account rep Bobby George delivered a Live console to Leonard’s home studio in Nashville. “I lived with it for about a month and built a show file,” he says. When he eventually switched to the L550 Plus, he says, “Within four shows my mix was better than my best mix with my previous console.”

Something magical about the SSL sound

He continues, “There's just something magical about the way the SSL sounds. One of the big things I noticed was how tight the low mids were. I used to have to really carve out the 100, 120, 150 Hertz range. Switching to the SSL, I’m able to leave more of that in, and it's got a warmer sound. I also feel like the low end’s got more extension. It definitely makes mixing easier, in the sense that things just sound more natural through the desk.”

Having spent so much time in the studio, he says, “I like to treat my console structure the same as I do in Pro Tools, so I use a lot of bussing. Everything gets grouped out, such as kick mics to a kick bus and snare mics to a snare bus. I route those to a ‘drum dry’ and a ‘drum crush’ bus and then I typically do a drum final bus, because there's so little latency, bus to bus. I also group all the electric guitar mics — we have a dynamic, a ribbon and a direct out on each of those.”

Scaling with SSL stageboxes

The tour travels with three SSL ML 32.32 MADI analogue stageboxes. “We recently switched all the IEMs over to another wireless system, so we're feeding all of those right now with AES,” Leonard says, using SSL’s D 32.32 MADI AES/EBU stagebox. “As we increase our channel count, with the PSMs getting their firmware updates to do eight and 16 channels, we'll probably move those over to Dante eventually.”

Leonard augments the capabilities of the Live console with 16 channels of outboard analogue processing for Aldean and his five-piece band. That equipment is converted within the rack then transported in and out of the L550 Plus through an SSL X-Light Bridge. An outboard server hosts a variety of plug-ins, including duplicates of his analogue chains for redundancy. “That's 72 channels,” he says, “then I've got roughly 80 channels coming off the X-Light and going into a Mac Mini and DVS Pro for a virtual soundcheck and record.”

Harrison Audio MR3eq on vocals

One critical piece of outboard gear is a Harrison Audio MR3eq, which Leonard puts on Aldean’s vocal mic. “You can make really big dips, like -8 dB or -10 dB, and it still sounds musical. Jason has got a ton of 400 Hz in his vocal so I can cut a ton of that, and it doesn't just fall apart. I’m a huge fan of that EQ.”  

SSL plug-ins are always in the mix, he says. “The Channel Strips are amazing, and I use the Fusion plug-in on a lot of different things.” The Bus Compressor and VHD Saturator, a digital emulation of SSL’s highly regarded Variable Harmonic Drive (VHD), also get heavy use. “And I love the Dynamic EQ. I've got that inserted on each electric guitar and on bass. I'm constantly tweaking with that thing, depending on the room.”

Rock solid mixes on the L550 Plus, night after night

The entire production — sound, lights and video — runs on timecode, Leonard reports. “It feels a little like cheating sometimes, but it helps me replicate the same show every night, and ultimately that's what I'm here for. I had timecode issues with my previous console, but the SSL is rock solid. I don’t have to think about hitting the next cue while riding the faders.” Integrating ipMIDI into the L550 Plus enables him to drop markers while recording. “I can fire a snapshot, hit play — because I've got the transport on my console as well — and I can run virtual soundcheck without even touching the computer.”

Leonard’s experience with the SSL Live console before this tour was largely limited to a few services at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, where his father, Mark Leonard, is Director of Audio. “He has L550s at front-of-house and monitors that he got around 2016. He’s been after me to switch to SSL ever since he got them. During COVID I’d get a call on a Friday night, and he’d ask if I could be on a flight the next day and mix church on Sunday. So I'd fly in and mess around. I got comfortable pushing faders and making mix tweaks, at least.” Now that he’s had plenty of time to get familiar with the L550 Plus on tour, he says, “It's frustrating to think I waited this long to switch over!”

Jason Aldean recently announced that his Full Throttle world tour has been extended into 2026, adding shows in New Zealand and Australia in January and February.

SSL at NAMM 2026

Solid State Logic looks forward to meeting its customers and partners at the NAMM Show 2026 and is offering live demonstrations during each day of the show. To learn more, register for NAMM, or book an appointment with an SSL Live expert, please visit SSL's NAMM event page.