Bandleader and percussionist Ras Ujimma (left) of Black Circle Symphony. Picture courtesy the artist’s Instagram (@blackcirclesymphony).
This past week, Dubway’s largest room became an impromptu venue to host reggae group Black Circle Symphony for a livestream concert–the first one we’ve hosted in our Mezzanine studio since the pandemic moved all concerts online. The eight-piece group played an uplifting 30-minute set, tracked live through our SSL 4064 G+ Series console, with the band’s engineer Alex Elsammak mixing and Dubway engineer Keenan DuBois assisting.
In preparing for the livestream, the band set out to sound just like they do on record. With a band of this size and musicianship, it follows that the engineering quickly became quite involved, using absolute heaps of outboard equipment and mixing from the board to both a recording computer and a separate streaming computer with an additional independent gain stage. Take a look at the pictures below to see the outboard rack and several extra sets of preamps set up and ready for the stream (left), and the corresponding patch on the console’s patchbay (right).
You can also check out a live video from the session at Alex Elsammak’s Instagram (behind the image of the Mezzanine’s console), and catch Black Circle Symphony at their Instagram (linked above) where they announce upcoming live shows.
