By Hugh RobjohnsThe XL-Desk is the first Solid State Logic mixer that can host hardware processors in the ubiquitous 500-series format.SSL describe their new XL–Desk as the “smart dumb analogue console” and that sums it up pretty well, because although it’s a traditional old–school console in many ways, it’s also the result of some very smart design. There are two common trends in analogue console design at the moment: the integration of increasingly comprehensive DAW–control and automation facilities, and the inclusion of API 500–series slots, to allow the user’s choice of preamps and processors to be incorporated into the console. For now, at least (I detected hints of future possibilities), the XL–Desk ignores the world of DAW control and automation.
Instead, the design team’s focus has been on creating SSL’s first console to cater for the 500 series. Sixteen module slots are placed in–line with the console channels, and there are two more which, by default, house the most recent version of the company’s G–series stereo bus compressor (which now boasts a high–pass filter in the side–chain).The XL–Desk may be purchased with all 500–series slots empty, or with all 16 slots pre–loaded with SSL’s E–series EQ modules. That said, as the EQ modules are available separately, it should be a trivial matter to configure a version with, say, eight EQ modules. The XL–Desk may be purchased with all 500–series slots empty, or with eight or all 16 slots pre–loaded with SSL’s E–series EQ modules.
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SSL’s VHD mic preamps (of which more later) are built in to the first eight of the 16 mono input channels, but any 500–series mic preamps can be plumbed and patched in. If you really wanted to, you could fill all 16 slots with preamps, patching the last eight into the four stereo line inputs, giving you a possible total of 24 mic preamps for tracking, with all preamps hosted in and powered by the console.In essence, the XL–Desk is a generously expanded version of SSL’s X–Desk , but with scope for yet more expansion.
So regardless of its €16k+VAT price, the SSL Matrix console should honestly be considered more as a €25-40k console -just like an API 1608 or Portico 5088 -, because that amount is precisely what the Matrix plus the required outboard, necessary for tracking and mixing as in any desk, would go for. Designed to be at the heart of your everyday creative process, SSL Matrix 2 Analog Recording Console is built to meticulous SSL hardware standards, to withstand even the most intensive studio use. Fully equipped to partner your monitors, workstations and outboard gear, Matrix lets you shape your project studio around the way you work. Welcome to SSL Shopper. We've got the best SSL comparison tools for finding the perfect SSL Certificate for you. You can learn about SSL, compare SSL certificates and providers using our SSL reviews, and use our SSL Tools to take care of all your SSL needs.
In a way, the XL-Desk is aimed at a similar market to that catered for by API’s The Box : the sort of smaller professional studio that’s becoming increasingly common these days. While that device has plenty to commend it, including the signature API sound, the XL-Desk offers its own sonic signature — and far greater versatility. There are several consoles that offer 500–series slot options in various formats and channel counts. For example, the Ocean Audio Ark provides two 500–series slots per channel, six auxes, eight buses and a stereo master. The Inward Connections Tree 500 console provides three 500–series slots per channel, with four auxes plus a stereo cue, four mix buses and a stereo master.
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API’s The Box console provides four mic preamps with two 500–series slots, plus 16 summing channels, with two mono and two stereo aux/cue sends. Purple Audio, AwTac, Tonelux and Pete’s Place Audio are among the generous handful of others who offer consoles based on the 500–series format. MDAC is an acronym for ‘Multiplying Digital to Analogue Converter’, a unique technology which SSL introduced with the Duality console. Despite the name, the audio signal path is entirely analogue, but it’s governed by a digital control signal that’s derived from the fader (or an external data signal). You can think of the MDAC as a kind of voltage–controlled amplifier or VCA (although strictly, it is a DCA).In a conventional D–A converter, a digital audio sample describes the required amplitude of the output voltage corresponding to a specific moment in time, and the D–A converter essentially attenuates a peak–level reference DC voltage to deliver the required output voltage for each sample — thus producing the varying analogue audio output. The MDAC system works in a similar way — the channel’s analogue audio signal effectively becomes the ‘reference’ instead of a fixed voltage.
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However, the digital control data still instructs the DAC to attenuate the signal by the required amount, so the audio signal itself remains entirely in the analogue domain.The benefit of the MDAC approach is that it provides excellent distortion and noise performance, while attenuation settings can be recalled precisely, and are easily controlled from a DAW or other remote device. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2019.
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