A brand new Brazilian residential facility has opened its doors following the installation of a new SSL AWS 924 δelta SuperAnalogue recording console.

Sonastério is located 30 minutes from Belo Horizonte and the Serra do Rola-Moça State Park, carved into the mountains of Minas Gerais. The studio was a joint design project between João Diniz architects and Renato Cipriano of WSDG that has taken around two years to complete.

According to Bruno Martins, Sonastério joint owner, producer, and musician, Belo Horizonte is a musical area, the heavy metal band Sepultura originates locally, and there is a healthy jazz community, supporting an annual jazz festival. "They can just relax here," he said. "It’s got a great vibe that will attract musicians from all over Brazil and from all over the world. Sonastério has residential facilities available with full catering, so no one needs to leave the mountains if they prefer it that way… I think this is the first studio of its kind in Brazil."

Martins, himself a long-time musician, spent time in the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles and went on to produce a number of local artists there. "I wanted to see the music scene in Brazil become just as professional as the LA scene,” he added. “We have a lot of professional musicians but the business side is still growing.”

Sonastério has a main live room, a generously sized control room, and an additional three booths including a 12 square metre space that is enough for drums, or a brass section, for example.

Martins finds the console, an SSL AWS 924, great for its hybrid operation capabilities. “No other consoles we looked at could offer the local technical support and the wide freelance support. And the AWS is so easy to understand – very practical; any engineer or producer can step up to it and get working straight away."

SSL’s AWS 924 combines SSL SuperAnalogue console technology with comprehensive DAW control in a single work surface. It features 24 SSL SuperAnalogue mic pre’s, classic SSL dual curve EQ on every channel, two assignable SSL Dynamics channels, Stereo Bus Compressor, TotalRecall, and full 5.1 monitoring. In addition, as well as having motorised fader mix automation based on the SSL G and K series Ultimation technology, AWS now incorporates δelta-Control (δ-Ctrl) technology, which allows storage, recall, and editing of console automation inside the δ-Ctrl DAW plug-in.

Concluded Martins: ”We wanted to build a studio unlike any other. We want to have the artist escape the city life and relax and focus on the music. Clients who have visited have told me that our city deserves a place like this."