Smart, Dumb or Just Pure SSL?

SSL has dubbed its new XL desk the ‘smart, dumb’ console; which is a ‘clever, stupid’ way of putting it. On the one hand, SSL is right, it’s a particularly well-thought out smallish analogue console. The sort of console where you ask a question of it and it’s ready to spit the answer out at you on a DB25. But it’s ‘dumb’ because it’s analogue, so they say. The only digital provision on it is a ‘dumb’ piece of plastic serving as an iPad mount.

It’s a positioning issue for SSL, wanting to kill those ‘but will it interface with?’ questions before they hit the forums. 

What I feel SSL missed by doing that is exactly what makes this console smart in the first place — it’s the mini-SSL you’ve never been able to get your hands on. Let me explain:

SSL’s reputation began and skyrocketed with the 4000 series console. Big, clean mixes; an EQ that was undeniably musical; super flexible routing; and a bus compressor that became an instant classic.

But it was as big and expensive as it sounded — strictly the preserve of big studios. SSL continued this trend with more extravagant installations of its 9000 series consoles, before breaking down its consoles into modules and letting smaller studios get their hands on the SSL sound one channel at a time. But it was still nothing like the big desks. Since then, there’s been the digital broadcast desks, the small-format DAW controller/summing mixers, and a re-shaping at the top end with the Duality. But the closest you could get to an analogue SSL console at the lowest end was the AWS 924, and that’s still a large outlay for a smaller studio.

Throughout this time, while Neve had a lock on broad buzzwords like transformer saturated harmonic colour, SSL’s signature sound was being defined by the elevation of certain gear, happy accidents, and some good friends’ techniques. And this small, relatively affordable XL desk pays tribute to them all.

COMPRESSED HISTORY

The SSL bus compressor is probably the most copied in history — both in hardware and software. It’s the glue of the SSL sound, and it comes pre-patched into the master bus of the XL. This is the 500 series form factor version, which SSL has souped up to coincide with the XL release, adding a sidechain hi-pass filter to the unit.

Underpinning the sound of any SSL console is its punch and clarity. Basically, super clean and plenty of transient detail. SSL has dubbed the circuitry behind that pursuit Super Analogue, and all SSL desks meet this fundamental criteria, including the XL.

The SSL EQ is also world renowned, it was a huge part of what made the 4000 console so attractive. Along the top of the XL desk are 18 x 500 series slots. A pair come pre-loaded with the bus compressor, leaving one slot for each of the 16 channels. Here, for a premium, you can opt to get the slots filled with SSL 500 series EQs, choosing between the brown or black variants of the E series EQ.

One of the more famous proponents of SSL consoles is mixer Michael Brauer. He developed his Brauerizing technique based around the multiple buses on his SSL. These days he uses four buses on a 9000 console, each set up with different compressors, so he can send different instruments to different buses and mix into the compression. It all folds back into the master bus of course. The XL does all the legwork for you with its A, B, C, D bus structure. You can assign any channel to whichever bus you like, and with the flick of a button each bus can borrow a pair of 500 series slots from channels 9 to 16. An instant mini-Brauerizing machine.

The last little bit of history is the listen mic compressor. One of the most famous happy accidents in audio history saw Phil Collins playing drums while his producer and engineer struggled to get it sounding how they wanted. They took a break and the assistant flicked on the listen mic, with its high ratio, low threshold compressor smashing the drums. The producer came back in, couldn’t believe how good it sounded and had the compressor custom patched into the desk for good. The guy who did the patch, Chris Jenkins, is still with SSL and so is the listen mic compressor. It’s now patched into the desk just like Phil Collins’ setup, so you can access it any time on one of the miscellaneous I/O.