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Solid State Logic UC1
I have extended my controller setup with the Solid State Logic UC1 in an attempt to minimize the use of the mouse and, more importantly, to make mixing a better experience by having more ‘direct control’ over EQ and dynamics (hopefully resulting in better mixes). I use this controller in combination with the AVID S1, Steinberg CC121, Softube Console 1 Fader, KORG nanoKontrol, MP Midi Controller, nOb, and the Stream Deck XL).
The UC1 is a hardware plug-in controller representing one channel strip of an XL 9000K analogue SSL console within a DAW (Cubase) project. This hardware device controls the SSL Native Channel Strip 2 and Bus Compressor 2 plugins. The device comprises dedicated knob-per function for the EQ and dynamics. It also contains all of the bus compressor controls including an authentic and illuminated moving-coil gain reduction meter. Channel navigation, phase inversion, solo/mute, side-chain listening, routing of the filter, EQ and dynamics, and preset selection are handled by the buttons and encoders at the bottom, with visual feedback of parameters coming courtesy of a hi-res LCD screen. The UC1 connects to the computer via a USB, and communicates with it using the SSL 360 application that was introduced with the SSL UF8.
SSL Native Channel Strip 2 and Bus Compressor 2 plugins
The device
Image: The SSL UC1.
Setup in my studio
The software and plugins
SSL Native Channel Strip 2 plugin (SSL 9000K console channel strip)
The SSL Native Channel Strip 2 Plug-in delivers the legendary tone, features and workflow of an SSL 9000K console channel strip, now featuring SSL’s proprietary ‘Anti-Cramping’ technology (see below) and external Side Chain input.
The EQ section is a classic 4-band design with parametric LMF & HMF and shelving LF & HF sections (LF & HF switch to Bell). The whole EQ can be switched between E & G Series characteristics and can be applied to the dynamics side chain.
The Dynamics section offers separate Compressor and Gate/Expander. The Compressor can be switched between soft and hard knee. Both the Compressor and Gate/Expander sections feature fast/slow attack switches and independent side chains. The plug-in also features High and Low Pass Filters which can also be applied to the side chain. Perfect for smoothing, controlling and adding presence to any source material.
Image: SSL Native Channel Strip 2 plugin
What is anti-cramping?
All digital audio systems have a finite frequency bandwidth dependant on the sample rate. The upper limit of this frequency bandwidth is known as the Nyquist frequency.
At the most commonly used DAW session sample rates of 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz, the upper limit of the frequency bandwidth is close to audible range of the human ear (22.05kHz /24kHz). In a traditional digital EQ design, as you approach this upper limit a phenomenon called ‘cramping’ or ‘wrapping’ occurs, whereby bell-shaped boosts or cuts at the upper-end of the frequency spectrum (around 15 – 20 kHz) begin to suffer and become affected. The effect of EQ cramping may not always be immediately obvious but listen more carefully and you will hear distortion, ringing and other artefacts that make an EQ sound unpleasant e.g. lack of smoothness in the top end. This can be particularly frustrating when trying to get some nice ‘air’ out of a vocal to name one real-world example. Or perhaps, you are trying to add some overall brightness/air to the whole mix. The solution that most manufacturers use to get around this issue is to implement ‘oversampling’; the audio entering the digital processor (in this case, the plug-in) is upsampled to a higher sample rate, processing is applied without the audible cramping issue as the upper bandwidth limit has moved further away from the audible frequency range, and then downsampled back to the original sample rate. Whilst this works, it’s often at the expense of CPU usage for the user in their DAW and therefore ‘costs’ a lot more processing power. The SSL’s own proprietary ‘anti-cramping’ algorithms to prevent the unpleasant artefacts of EQ cramping, particularly those which cause asymmetrical response curves for bell boosts at around 15 -20kHz. Unlike standard digital anti-cramping, SSL’s proprietary solution achieves this without any additional CPU cost. How do they do this? Well, you’d have to ask the SSL DSP experts but this will be kept a secret…
SSL Native Bus Compressor 2 plugin
The centre section compressor from SSL’s 1980’s G Series analogue console is an audio production legend. It is the secret behind countless classic recordings. It is a simple unit with a simple purpose; it makes complete mixes sound bigger, with more power, punch and drive. It brings cohesion and strength to your mix without compromising clarity. Bus Compressor 2 Plug-in boasts a host of enhancements, including new Attack, Release and Compression ratios for added flexibility with individual sounds and subgroups, in addition to inbuilt wet/dry and S/C HPF control, as well as switchable 2x and 4x Oversampling.
Image: SSL Bus compressor 2 plugin
SSL 360 software
The SSL 360 software is a consolidated view of all your SSL Native 2 plugins that are currently active in your DAW. It does not replace the DAW mixer but can be used to make a mix solely based on the channel strip and bus compressor plugins.
Image: SSL 360 software
Video
Powering up the SSL UC1
Experience in setting up
Setting up the hardware and plugins is straightforward. To enable the transport function in the SSL 360 software, I have added a Mackie device in the Studio Setup of Cubase (see also this [video]).
Unfortunately, at this moment (30 April 2022) the hardware device/SSL 360 software does not follow channel selection in Cubase. This is not a big problem since channel selection using the rotary control on the device is very quick (in particular when you standardize the organization of your mix projects). There were some rumors on a forum that SSL is working on track following, but we will see what the future will bring us.
One other thing to keep in mind is that, at this moment, only 8 bus compressors can be controlled by the UC1 (these would be the first eight in your DAW project). You can insert more bus compressors in your project, but these will be invisible to the UC1.
Documentation and Manual
Last updated on December 20th, 2023 at 09:12 am
