Buying a recording console is usually a studio’s single largest investment, and you need to get it right. At its simplest, a console purchase involves making sure you get the right desk with the right options; getting cabling, patchbays, and interfaces right; and making sure the dimensions and furniture are all accounted for. Commonly, it’s a more complex affair that requires room design, construction, acoustic consulting, testing and tuning new monitors, and financing the project. That’s where Sweetwater’s Console Specialists come in. They’re a small, specialized team that can quarterback a simple drop-in replacement, a new facility’s design/build/install, or something in between. In this article, we’ll meet the members of this team and explore what they can do for you.
Assembling the Team
Sweetwater’s Sales Engineers are a diverse group with varied backgrounds and talents. Everyone is an industry pro in his or her own right with a handful that have more extensive knowledge and experience in studio console integration. Those Sales Engineers make up our new Console Specialist team, a team that handles most of the high-end console purchases at Sweetwater directly and also teams up with the entire Sales Engineer crew to offer support and training in the high-end console world.
Meet Sweetwater’s Specialists
Sweetwater’s Console Specialists serve and advise some of the most high-profile engineers and musicians in the world and are responsible for heading up the construction of many world-class spaces. They have spent thousands of hours behind industry-standard desks — SSL, API, Rupert Neve Designs, AMS Neve — and understand the finer points of what makes a desk really work in the studio.
Mike Picotte is the Sweetwater Console Specialist team lead. Mixing and mastering commercial projects daily on an SSL AWS 948, PMC 6-2 monitors, and an excessive amount of ever-rotating outboard gear that lives in his very pro home studio, his true functional understanding of studio gear and studio glue is second to none. Mike’s been a guest on Pensado’s Place; and he’s installed countless consoles, has wired countless patchbays, and has integrated hundreds of Pro Tools TDM/HD/HDX rigs over the years.
Mike Arango has a full multiroom studio in his home centered around an API 1608 console. Prior to his career as a Sales Engineer, Mike worked on staff and freelance at numerous LA studios. Mike spends many nights and weekends engineering sessions in his home studio. He tracks and mixes for paying customers locally and globally.
Anthony Longano has owned many consoles over the years, most recently working on a Trident desk in his personal studio. Anthony has a deep catalog of mixes under his belt. He can build a studio to suit any need and has a special affinity for recording, mixing, and mastering metal.
Jim Swain is a Sweetwater veteran who’s been here since the company operated out of Chuck Surack‘s home. Jim is our resident educational expert. If you want to install a console in an educational or corporate environment, then you’ll want Jim in your corner.
Nitish Kulkarni is a multidisciplinary pro audio aficionado with extensive experience as a musician, mixing engineer, and mastering engineer. No matter what your dreams are, Nitish will enlist his enviable system-design skills and encyclopedic knowledge of gear to bring them to life.
Keith Owen is a multilingual high-end gear specialist. Keith is fluent in Spanish and serves English-speaking and Spanish-speaking clients both domestically and abroad. His most recent projects include outfitting the studios of reggaeton royalty in and around Miami and Puerto Rico.
What Do Sweetwater Console Specialists Do?
Like any Sales Engineer, our specialists maintain their own group of customers whom they serve directly. Beyond that, our specialists support and develop the rest of the Sales Engineer team and consult on hundreds of projects annually with other Sales Engineers and their customers. They also facilitate training sessions for the sales force and communicate the needs of customers to our vendors. They have their fingers on the pulse.
Giving credit where credit is due, there are hundreds of Sales Engineers who have trained with SSL, API, Rupert Neve Designs, AMS Neve, Trident, Avid, and the other key studio brands. Between our specialists and our larger team of vendor-certified Sales Engineers, Sweetwater will always make sure you’re getting the expertise you need to get the console you need when you need it.
It’s the Little Things That Count
There are a lot of details involved in buying a recording console that have nothing to do with signal flow, and our Console Specialists are on top of them. Your team will be ready and able to aid you in finding the right desk for your console (or building a custom desk, if necessary). We’ll also ensure that you have a properly designed patchbay and cabling for your rig. We’ll help with monitor selection and provide professional monitor placement and installation. Need an architectural consult or acoustic design? We can hook you up. Installation services? We can help with that. We’ll also walk you through easy financing and discuss any tax breaks that might be available to you. After all, we want you to get up and running as quickly — and cost-effectively — as possible.
At the end of the day, Sweetwater’s Console Specialists are prepared to help you at each and every stage of your console-buying journey.
We’ve Got the Right Connections
It’s not just Sweetwater customers who have recognized our superior console expertise. Our vendor partners appreciate it, as well. Consequently, Avid, AMS Neve, Rupert Neve Designs, API, SSL, Audient, Trident, and other major console manufacturers go out of their way to ensure that our Sales Engineers and Console Specialists are able to get hands-on experience with their products.
What’s more, we have easy access to companies like JUMPERZ, who can get you top-quality, custom-made tie-line cables, wall plates, snakes, harnesses, and more, plus acousticians like Haverstick Designs, who are one of the top room designers in the industry. We’re also in direct communication with the folks at Ocean Way, PMC, and other manufacturers to ensure world-class monitoring for your studio build.
Sweetwater’s Campus Is the Ultimate Laboratory
Nobody buys a Maserati without a test-drive, and buying a high-end console should be a similar experience. Luckily, taking a console for a ride is a piece of cake on the Sweetwater campus. Sweetwater Studios‘ Studio A houses a custom Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console, while Studio B houses a 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos system built around an Avid S6 M40. We also have a private demo room on our sales floor currently centered around an SSL Origin console and Ocean Way monitors with a Focal-based Atmos system in the works. Beyond that, we have a massive, 480,000-square-foot Fulfillment Center right here that has more additional inventory than any other place in the US.
If you’re ready to outfit your studio with a high-end console, then Sweetwater’s team of Console Specialists offers a level of expertise you won’t find anywhere else. Plus, you’ll get the same legendary level of customer service you’ve always received from Sweetwater. Sound good? Give your Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700 to get started!