One of the most successful recording studios in the United States, Criteria Studios, established in 1958, has produced hundreds of gold records, along with chart-topping albums and singles too numerous to count. This year the multi-room facility renovated and upgraded Studio D, installing a new Solid State Logic ORIGIN 32-channel analogue mixing console fitted with an SSL UF8 advanced DAW controller and eight 500 Series E-DYN 611 E Series dynamics modules.
“It has been marvelously received,” says Trevor Fletcher, VP/General Manager of Criteria Recording Studios, of the new ORIGIN. “The console is easy to use and perfect for the modern hybrid workflow. Studio D has been packed since we reopened it. Now my problem is that I don't have four of those rooms.”
Studio D was designed and built in the late 1970s primarily for vocal and overdub recording as well as mixing. “We were doing a lot of vocal-oriented work at the time, between Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Bee Gees, Julio Iglesias and so on, so it worked out very well,” he says.
More recently, artists working across a range of music genres have booked time on the ORIGIN in Studio D, including Alicia Keys, who worked on her recently released Christmas album, Santa Baby, in the room. “On more of the urban side, we did a few days with Rod Wave in there,” Fletcher reports. “Then, on the Latin side, we did a project for Anuel AA and are currently mixing a project for Yandel, of Winsin & Yandel, in Studio D. Shenseea, a pop and R&B artist on Interscope, also did some work in there. So, it has been a pretty wide range in terms of stylistically, from pop to R&B to Latin to hip-hop.”
Founded by jazz trumpeter Mack Emerman in 1958, Criteria has a long history of being the first in the region to adopt new record production technologies. The facility has also had a long relationship with Solid State Logic, installing its first desk — and the first SSL in Florida — in 1984, in Studio E. A second SSL was installed two years later. The complex currently houses two SSL 9096J consoles in Studios A and E, an SSL Duality in Studio F and an AWS 900 in Studio B in addition to the ORIGIN.
