No One's Talking About SSL's Duende?

[Scot Solida]

There's not been too many new things coming out that have me itching to whip out the credit card, but this SSL thing and the new Apogee Ensemble are going to be very tempting. They look to be making a big step towards delivering some high-end pro goodies at prices that at are within shouting distance of the home recordist. 32 channels of 96Khz processing ripped right outta the 9000XL console? If it's what it claims to be, it'll be on my shopping list.

I think we are seeing some important shifts in the high end manufacturers' approaches. Both Apogee and SSL seem to be acknowledging the desktop recordist's prominent role in the industry. I hope this is a trend that others follow. I can't help but think back to when the popularity of ADATs influenced manufacturers like Neumann to put out good products at signiciantly lower prices to reach the resulting market.

[hifiboom]

will it look like this?



Yeah it will I guess ....

[Alan]

FW/performance remains a question at the moment.

I forgot to add that if it uses the same motorola DSP chips as PoCo,there's going to be some type of copy protection here. Let's hope it's reasonable.

[Funkybot]

There's not been too many new things coming out that have me itching to whip out the credit card, but this SSL thing and the new Apogee Ensemble are going to be very tempting.

Too bad the Ensemble is Mac only if I'm not mistaken. On a side note I'm still waiting for a good PC competitor to the RME Fireface. Eventually I'll just end up breaking down and buying the Fireface though, hopefully Duende will be good enough to make me break down and purchase that too.

[kritikon]

In fact, UA is the only company who I think can compete but the fact that there's still no word on a UAD-2 isn't helping them any. Basically though, since SSL has gone VST it's going to help further legitimize the format, for both other companies as well as for those professionals who've been using stuff like SSL consoles and bitching that software just can't compete with hardware. The popularity of DSP solutions is gonna shut a lot of people up.

I fully agree it's a very good step forwards. And yeah, if it encourages companies like Lexicon and Eventide to dip their toes in the water too, then I applaud SSL. And it can't be a bad thing for a bit more competition to the likes of UAD...I see their prices creeping up, so hopefully there will be a limit, as other quality names like SSL creep down in price. Maybe the market is almost ready for Lexicon to re-dip their toes into the PC-DAW market. I really have no problem using DSP powered stuff - the format is not too important (except for PACE...but that's just a personal thing) if it keeps the company in question feeling safe re piracy. It's the quality of the plugins that count.

There's almost a benchmark being set - not quite sure where it'll settle at though. There is now a reasonable set of quality plugins that you would actually call pro. UAD, TC, Focusrite, now SSL, even maybe the URS ones you could include. Obviously there will be native plugins that (I personally also rate up there in quality) such as Kjaerhus, to keep the big names real (and thankyou Torben for doing so).

There are a few of these products that I really fancy - some I'll definitely end up buying, but I'm going to hang on at the moment. The prices will almost certainly settle into a natural bracket within a year or two. And personally I'm happy to wait for that long if need be...I've leapt in quick far too many times in the past, only to see prices halved 3 months later (which is a risk you take every time you buy anything, admittedly). But as mentioned - maybe there's a UAD2 just around the corner - and they have a long record of providing quality plugin emulations. I feel sure TC will respond within a year, and very possibly SSL might "adjust" their prices and/or product range...for example - I really don't give a stuff about having 32 channels of Eq/dynamics. As stated, I've used DAWs long enough for rendering not to be even a minor issue. It ain't that unlikely that they'll want to entice a few more semi-pros in the home market, by offering a cut-down version - maybe UAD-equivalent price for something with only 8 channels or whatever? That, I would find very hard to resist - it would have all the SSL character without the bloat of extra Sharcs that I really don't need or want. Whenever do I ever bloody well mix down 32 channels, for god's sake? You're absolutely right...never.

But I could use an 8 channel setup over groups, and render it down on channels. I'd like that, I'd use it all, and it'd fit my wallet more.

See...if SSL are enticing the home users (whether amateur or pro - it doesn't matter) or project studios, they must eventually realise that we don't now use 32channel desks and bloated RADARs as big as the tardiss. That's for serious studios - and this SSL thing doesn't appear to me to be aimed at the pro studios - somewhere right in the middle, perhaps (although for sure a big studio would sneeze at $2000...in fact, they could probably buy it with the tea-boy's spare petty cash). But if they were aiming at the big studios...SSL know for damn sure that they could charge more for something like this...so they must be after a less wealthy market, no?


Anyway....a waiting game, for me, I think...

[stag]

I still want a UAD-1, does that count a testament to it's appeal?

Of course, if anyone owning one feels it doesn't live up to their requirements and wants to hand over...contact info is on my webpage.

I got four of them stached on a Magma chassis, Studio Pack + Plate.

The Magma comes with both connectors, PCI and Cardbus.

Hand me €2000 and they're yours... unless you're not living in Europe that is.

UAD is not par with modern technology, ence stuff like focusrite, SSl and others that acknowlledge that portable and silent is the way are welcome by me.