For Award-Winning Composer Michael Price, Solid State Logic's UF8 and
UC1 Controllers are the Perfect Combination of Form and Function

Elegance in design and software functionality

A graduate of the Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey, Price stands astride the two worlds of engineering and creativity, which enables him to appreciate a piece of equipment’s aesthetics just as much as its functionality. “I’m fascinated as much by elegant design in music technology as I am in furniture or composition,” he says. “It’s so beautiful when a company can take a design approach and a form and function approach to a problem, or a particular facility to add to your setup, and solve that problem in such a way that the box has an intrinsic beauty or elegance as well — particularly if you’re going to use it every day. Hats off to the SSL designers.”

He continues, “The UF8 solves a problem better than anyone else. And the build quality and functionality are great.”

The 'Golden Strip' and SSL 360 Software

“I instantiate a Channel Strip 2 plug-in across everything; that’s built into my DAW templates,” he elaborates. “I’m using the 360 software then as a mode switch, moving from composing to mixing by tabbing onto the 360 screen. I’m not looking at the waveforms anymore. I’ve got the UC1 to hand, where it’s a very tactile, immediate, ‘golden strip’ approach to having the things that I’m focusing on on-screen. I haven’t seen anything that elegantly contains as much information on the screen as the 360 Plug-in Mixer. And you have that overview and a sense of implicit geography that connects you back to that flow state that I’m always looking for.”

Price has also experimented with pretty much everything he could find in terms of ‘coloured’ channel strips, he says. “Whatever console you’ve ever had, someone’s made a channel strip of it. But I found with some of the console emulations that there was a darkness starting to creep in.” Now, he says, “SSL’s Channel Strip 2 with the 360 software is across everything. I’m happier with a cleaner, slightly more transparent world of working in-the-box.”

Tactile control and sonic transparency

Price has also noticed that, because he’s not looking at a graphic when he’s using the UC1’s EQ controls, he’s happier with the choices that he’s making. “It has clarity, and if it’s just a knob in front of you, you turn it until it sounds right. I want to avoid building up grit that I can’t lose. But I can then choose to put in the grit if I need it as a specific colour.”

He reports that he typically puts the Bus Compressor across all his stems. “We usually have between eight and 12 stems that we deliver for most things. Often, the compressors are doing almost nothing, with the threshold set so that they’re compressing only at very high levels. Or, if it’s a percussion stem, I might crunch it a little bit.”

Price hadn’t planned on setting up a music and recording room at the new location, he admits, having long preferred keeping work and family separate, as he had in London, where he still maintains a 600-square-foot production facility. But his planned sabbatical was interrupted when the deadlines for a couple of TV scoring projects, including ITV’s BAFTA-winning crime drama Unforgotten, returning for a fifth season, began to approach. “The net result was that I’ve set up in the study at home,” he says. He adds, “My template is built for Unforgotten, which is filming now, so the SSL controllers are in place to do that.”

A bespoke study, outfitted with fine furniture and SSL controllers

Overall, the new study studio needed to accommodate Price’s three creative endeavors. “One is, I play the piano, often in an improvised way. Then, I write film and TV scores. I also write contemporary classical music, predominantly on paper with a pencil. That’s like trying to construct beautiful architectural musical buildings with proportion and interesting number patterns, and an analogue process,” he says.

“So when I was putting this room together I wanted it to reflect those three things more closely — the piano, pencil and paper, and recording and producing film and TV music. I’ve also got a selection of very comfy leather chairs in here. I’m a mid-century modern furniture fan, so there’s an Eames Lounge chair and a beautiful Eames Lobby chair in a very striking red leather.” Taken together with the two SSL controllers, Price says, “It’s a very tactile room.”