We are very pleased to announce the five lucky winners of the Waves SSL 4000 Collection Competition. They are Chase Bader, Michael Leo, Scott Montgomery, Arvid Nielsen and Brysson Rockwell.

They all answered the question "Which of these tracks was made using the Waves SSL 4000 and NOT the original SSL 4000 console?"  correctly along with 47% of those of you who entered the competition. The correct answer was Rihanna – Unfaithful.

Chase Bader

Thank you so much! I must say I'm incredibly stoked to know I'm a winner! A little about me...I am an Audio engineering student at Belmont University in Nashville. I primarily record and mix fellow students and my own band Koa. Just recently I recorded a Colorado based electronic band called Skydyed and I am getting ready to mix the full length we recorded live drums for here in town.

I have worked on an SSL 4000G before and LOVED the flexibility of the desk and the incredible crisp tone. There's so much history behind those boards and with that sound I can understand why. This collection will totally open my mixes and help give them that flexibility and classic sound I know I can rely on. Thank you so much for doing this competition!

Michael Leo

Firstly may I start with a big thanks to both Pro Tools Expert and Waves. I'm a bass player who has spent the last few years playing around Australia. Driving a whole day to get to a gig is normal for me so the PTE podcasts make for great driving companions. I'm always writing and trying to record my ideas and turn them into songs and I do a little bit in the video world with occasional post production audio for band promo videos and the like, as well as capturing live performances. 

Funnily enough just last month I was trying to clean up a live recording and was struggling a little with the drums and thinking I really have to look get myself a good gate. I recall Russ mentioning the gates on the Waves SSL channel strip as being particularly good which prompted me to enter this competition in the first place. 

I'm thrilled to now have the chance to take the experience I have with working with a live console and use the Waves SSL bundle in a more intuitive way as my home studio is mostly ITB. The only channel strip I have is the Avid one and it's alright but to be honest I don't find it very inspiring, or the workflow to be natural for me, so hopefully the Waves SSL bundle will not only be a handy tool but also an inspirational one as well. 

Scott Montgomery

My name is Scott Montgomery. I run a project studio called Blue Wave Recording outside of Birmingham, AL with my partner/engineer Jacob Cooke. I started 10 years ago in a backyard shed with a Pro Tools HD 96, as a means to help my friends and church record their musical ideas. Over the years we added additional tracking rooms, top quality mics and pre's, and 2 tape machines. Today our primary focus remains on serving the local musician, providing them the tools and environment that brings out their best performance.

Blue Wave makes heavy use of digital technology. Plug-ins are essential to our recording and mixing workflow because of their convenience and sound quality. Waves plug-ins have been in our arsenal for years and always find their way into any given session, the Hybrid series being the studio favorite. Our experiences with Waves plug-ins are great! They have longevity (never sound outdated), astounding cohesive ability, low cpu usage, and are very stable. The SSL bundle is going to inject that punchy and glued character into our mixes the console is known for. The E & G channel strips I look forward to the most; one window for all processes and breathing a little analog life into the DAW. Thank you Waves and PTE for all you do for us engineers/musicians!

Arvid Nielsen

Music has been my life and my livelihood for over 25 years, now. After a brief stint as a very young and even succesful solo recording artist and the ensuing legal tribulations - anyone in the business who hasn’t had those :-), I decided to educate myself. I left my place of birth, Aarhus, Denmark, and went to Copenhagen.

I soon became first call male backing vocalist in Denmark and made a rather decent living as such for a number of years doing hundreds of sessions as a backing vocalist, studio, TV and live.

As time went by, the idea of returning to being an artist in my own right, re-appeared. So, I produced and recorded an album between 2004-2006. In the process, I had the unique privilege and honor to have my childhood idol, Bruce Swedien, mix two tracks on the album. Other amazing musicians, engineers and arrangers contributed. With that album I went with my lifelong love of what is today known - at least in the US - as smooth jazz.

A couple of years in the UK and the US made me realise, country music has a special place in my writer’s heart. So, that’s what I am doing today, while also diving into the crooner genre.

From my first experiences in professional recording studios, it was clear that a few brands dominated the realm of the big desks. I understood even then that SSL to many engineers was like a holy grail among those desks. Of course, the prize tag was astronomical.

Waves have been at the forefront of a development, which today makes it possible for little people like myself to have access to the sounds and tones of these amazing, but still otherwise hard-to-come-by tools of the recording and mixing processes.

Now, with the SSL 4000 Collection, I can, basically, start my mixing process by instantiating a full SSL desk in the box. And it gets even better. The presets made by one of the music industry’s most legendary engineers, Chris Lord-Alge, will have my mix up and sounding amazing very quickly, or give me a tremendous head start toward this end, all based on the sound of the iconic SSL 4000 series. That’s a pretty big helping hand for someone like me to achieving great sounding tracks.

Brysson Rockwell

I am a full time touring musician and session player from Tampa, FL, performing over 200 dates a year around the globe. I also run a fully mobile recording studio that goes on the road with me. I do session work while on the road, as well as track artists on location in rehearsal spaces, home studios, churches, etc., around the world.

I do my mixes either in studios in Nashville and Los Angeles or in studios along my tour routes, using a combination of analog gear and plugins. The amount of outboard gear that can travel with me at any given time is limited by space, so high quality plugins are essential to my productions. Adding the Waves SSL 4000 Collection to my arsenal will be a wonderful asset to help me in getting great results both in the box and in combination with outboard gear. A huge thanks to Pro Tools Expert and Waves for this!

It Could Be You?

If you would like the chance to win a prize like these 5 guys have done then pop over to our Win page and see if the prizes we have on offer this month take your fancy.

If you are interested in the Waves SSL Collection then until Sept 30th Waves are offering it at $299 instead of $749.