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Located in Robbinsville, New Jersey, BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham is a Hindu mandir (temple) campus established by Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu socio-spiritual organization based in India. In addition to the temple and its grounds, the sprawling campus features a state-of-the-art multimedia studio designed by Walter Storyk Design Group, a renowned firm whose clients include Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, Green Day, and Jay-Z. Here, BAPS records and mixes everything from traditional Indian instruments and playback singers to video podcasts and multimedia content for the on-site museum.
In an effort to modernize and streamline recording and mixing workflows, Aksharmurtidas Swami, the Hindu Swami in charge of studio operations, recently worked with Vintage King Audio Consultant James Good to equip the studio with a new SSL Oracle console. We spoke with him to understand why the Oracle was the right choice for the studio, how its features allow him to work more efficiently, and why analog sound was just as important as digital flexibility.
What was behind the decision to upgrade the studio’s console?
“The way I was using the old console was not how I originally envisioned it because it was so hard to recall everything,” says Aksharmurtidas Swami. “For most projects, I was basically using it as a glorified DAW controller with just two or four channels going out to it. So, when the Oracle came out, I was like, ‘This is basically what we wanted from the very beginning, but it didn't exist.’”
When choosing a new console, high-quality audio was non-negotiable, so the decision came down to usability and efficiency. Combining an all-analog signal path based on the legendary SSL E, G, and J/K consoles with advanced digital capabilities like Total Recall and Dynamic Automation, the Oracle provided the perfect balance of top-notch tone and extensive control.
What convinced you that the SSL Oracle was the right choice?
“The main thing is the usability and the instant recallability,” Aksharmurtidas Swami explains. “You can send all your tracks out to the console and pan them and use all the auxes and all of the analog goodness that it offers and not worry about, ‘How am I going to recall this when I move to another session?’ That definitely was the reason we switched to it, and it delivered on that.”
But why was analog sound important when a control surface could have provided the same level of control? Part of the reason is consistency. Because the Robbinsville studio often collaborates with BAPS’ main studio in Mumbai, India (also based around an SSL console), the Oracle helps maintain a cohesive sound as tracks are passed back and forth.
Why is analog sound—and specifically the SSL sound—important for this studio?
“In our Mumbai studio, we have an SSL AWS, so we've always been big on making sure that our published recordings sound very good and have that depth that analog can give you,” Aksharmurtidas Swami says. “They'll record some parts of a recording, and I'll be recording the rest of it here, so we want to make sure the sound signatures are the same and that things sound like they were done in one place.”
In addition to the Oracle, Vintage King furnished the studio with top-of-the-line monitors, monitor correction connected by a Dante networked audio system, and a Trinnov Audio Nova provides calibration and room correction for a pair of ATC SCM 25A Mk2 nearfield monitors and soffit-mounted Ocean Way HR3.5s for far-field monitoring. To ensure smooth integration with the existing equipment, SSL sent Support Engineer Andrew Hollis to the BAPS studio for on-site support.
What kind of support did SSL provide?
“We had Andrew from the New York SSL office come and teach me a few things, but it's so easy to pick up and just start using right away,” says Aksharmurtidas Swami. “Before even Andrew came, I was able to figure out 80 to 90 percent of everything I need to do without opening the manual. I'm actually learning new things every day because this console is very deep. There are quite a few cool things that it can do, and they're telling me that they're going to add a lot of new features. Because it's digitally controllable, they can pretty much do anything your mind can think of.”
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