Mixer and producer for the likes of Pearl Jam, U2 and most recently Tears For Fears, Tim Palmer established his own studio, Studio 62, some 13 years ago and has just purchased his very first SSL (Solid State Logic) products in the form of the firm’s UF8 and UC1 controllers. Here, he opens up about his approach to working with the biggest names in the business and the gear that is so central to his workflow…
Over a career spanning 40 years and counting, Palmer has worked on some of the biggest releases in rock and pop in both the 20th and 21st century. He earned his first BPI Gold Disk in his teens, before registering his first UK No.1 single at the age of 21 working on Pearl Jam’s Ten. He also received a Grammy nomination for U2’s 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
In 2009, he set up Studio 62 as an analog/digital hybrid mix and overdub room, to which he recently added two new SSL controllers, replacing an older set of faders on his workstation. “The quality of the build on these SSL faders has been really nice,” he says. “They react really well to the touch, which is important to me.”
Since starting as an assistant at London’s Utopia Studios at age 18, Palmer has spent decades working on mixing consoles, initially with tape machines. “I was contemplating the other day that for most of the early part of my career I rarely looked at a screen,” he says. “I never had to look at audio wave-forms or a computer monitor.”
With the new UF8 and UC1 installed, he remarks that “it's refreshing to not have to use your eyes and just concentrate on listening, and to be able to physically touch an EQ or a fader is a welcome return”.
Palmer previously had a fader controller in his setup, but the upgrade to the UF1 and especially the UC1, which provides dedicated hardware control of the SSL Native Channel Strip 2 and Bus Compressor 2 plug-ins via the SSL 360° software has, he explains, taken his workflow to another level.
“Getting away from the mouse and being able to manipulate the EQ has been rewarding. It's nice to be able to close my eyes, turn the EQ and say, ‘OK, that sounds good,” he says. “And having multiple bus compressors available to insert onto my sub-groups is an added bonus.“I use the ‘Focus’ feature [on the UC1] a lot. Being able to hover over a parameter and turn an actual knob is a much nicer feeling than using the mouse. Most times, when I’m checking the final mix, I'll switch off the monitor and just sit and listen and not get drawn into what’s on the screen. It makes a bigger difference than you would think – you hear it in a very different way.
Furthermore, with the UF8, he says he now has more power at his fingertips than he had at his first job.
“It’s nice to have the controller and be able to use the SSL automation,” he continues. “When I began in 1981, one of the first records that I ever got the opportunity to mix was a solo record by Rick Wright, the keyboard player from Pink Floyd. He wanted to work in Studio A at Utopia, which had an SSL without automation. So I cut my teeth mixing on an SSL, but in a manual, all hands on deck kind of way.
"I've mixed and worked on SSL consoles ever since I began in the music industry 40 years ago, and this is the first time I've ever purchased anything from SSL! I was very fortunate to grow up in the generation where it was the studio’s responsibility to own all the gear. It was only when the music industry changed and Pro Tools arrived on the scene that we mixers built our own studios. That’s when I began to have to buy my own equipment.”
Palmer has been keeping busy at his own Studio 62 since SSL released the controllers in early 2021, mixing numerous projects from several high profile artists, including the title track from the new Tears For Fears album The Tipping Point, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's top album sales chart on March 12. He has also been working with many local and international up-and-comers.
“One of the great things that has changed in my career is the ability now for artists to contact me from other countries; that was never feasible before,” he says. “It gives me the opportunity to work on music that was previously unreachable, so I really appreciate that change.”
As result, he’s been mixing projects by Cinthya Hussey from Brazil; Slavia, an artist from Russia; Ireland’s Rowan; and Kelly Monrow from New York City. Palmer also recently finished mixing a new album from The Polyphonic Spree and a record for Australia's The Butterfly Effect.
Another project Palmer has been working on is a new solo album from Ville Valo, a former singer of Finnish band, H.I.M.
“I made a lot of records with H.I.M. back in the day,” he states. “Ville has set up his studio in Helsinki in a similar fashion to mine; he was very kind to buy me some of the smaller Genelec 8341As that he has been using, so now we can critique the mixes using the same reference points”
After decades of working on SSL analog desks, Palmer has now grown comfortable using today’s hybrid workflows where, at Studio 62, his SSL controllers and his DAW sit alongside a modest collection of analog outboard equipment.
“I must admit to being a bit of a Luddite in the sense that it took me a little longer than some to be convinced that this was the right path.” he concludes. “But once I got my head around it and understood how it all works, I became a big fan of the new approach and gear,” he says. “Now we can get the best of both worlds and have less compromise.”