He may be a digital native, but Badal, still in his mid-30s, is old school when it comes to mixing, relying on his ears, not his eyes. “Frankly, my mixes have gotten better because of SSL 360°. I don't have any other software open. I don't have my plug-in’s open. I listen to the mix, looking at the SSL 360, UC1 and EQing as I go, just using my ears,” he reports, rather than be influenced by the look of an EQ curve on the screen. “It also makes it faster, just dialing the channel knobs and going from one channel to the next, doing everything with my hands, as opposed to with a trackball or a mouse.” He also takes advantage of the 360° Link facility to map third-party plug-ins to his SSL control platform, he says.
Mixing hands-on and using his ears goes back to when he started in the industry, he says. “I am a Millennial, but I grew up on faders and knobs when analogue was still the thing.” With the eight-fader UF8, he says, instead of thinking he should dial in the kick drum at -10 dB, for example, “It’s more about how it sounds. It’s the same with panning, using the encoders at the top of the UF8.”
The UF1 DAW control center also helps streamline and speed up Badal’s workflow, just like a console center section should. "What has been really helpful with the UF1 is the jog wheel, which I use for scrubbing or finding the point just before a transient where I need to cut, as opposed to zooming in and out with a trackball.”