LEARN - Everest 701
Enrico 'Kikko' Sesselego
In listening: It was an interesting experience for me over Red Bull studio in Shibuya, Tokyo, when I got the call from the Abendrot crew asking me to have a listen to their new master clock unit. During my around-the-world mixing gigs through the years I never really have the chance to stop and concentrate on an (important) device like this one, so I was really curious about it, for sure. And it was a blasting experience indeed. I first had the chance to have a listen with different units (the studio built-in and another external one) to then listen with Abendrot machine. In the beginning I was kinda worried since during testing we needed to unplug every time one of the machines and plug the new one over to test it, plus configuring the Pro Tools rig and then listening again: therefore we had to stop each time for about 1-2 minutes, which is an enormous amount of time when you compare audio equipment units back to back...! But, even then, I was surprised and delighted of the Abendrot unit performance: I finally enjoyed the song we were using as test-bed, with enhanced hi's and warm lows and ultra-lows, but keeping the overall mix unchanged and natural: it was an upgrade to the tune, completely giving justice back to the original work. I really had a blast from this experience, for sure. And I will keep in mind this unit as a reference, and try for recording in next Japan trip.
Check the Abendrot - Internal vs External Clock Shoot-out Session
Kikko spent many years in Los Angeles, USA, working with top notch musicians such as Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Appice -amongst the others- and performing assistant and second engineering gigs with names such as Ken Allardyce, Jeff Peters and world renowned Eddie Kramer. He's been Vai's personal assistant for few years as well. He teached at Musicians Institute, Hollywood, USA, -for the Recording Department- for 6 years and he also teached at SAE (School of Audio Engineering) in Nashville, TN. Nowadays Enrico not only has been working as an engineer and musician but also he's been doing a lot of teaching and seminars activities over Europe, South America, Asia and Africa, where he works for Academies and Conservatories. He just came out of last Paul Gilbert's tour as FOH engineer. He writes for music magazines and he's endorsed by IK-Multimedia and Extreme Headphones.
