This is the console my recent desktop screenshot was based on, the
Solid State Logic Duality SE model mixing desk. The original photo can be found
here.
This is
SSL's top-of-the-line desk. It features flying faders and full control surface automation with multifunction glass cockpit style meter bridge. Up to 96 channels with 48 busses can be ordered.
These desks are built by hand in Oxford, England by top notch engineers who take great pride in the craftsmanship of these wonderful machines.
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Sta.sh
I have heard records made on these and you easily forget you are listening to a mixing desk and feel more as though the sound is live, clean and transparent. When you look inside the beautifully built unit, the parts are top grade and it becomes immediately obvious why the dollar sign is high for one of these great machines.
The SSL Duality is a new bread of desk that is at home both in an analogue studio or a DAW environment in the digital world. It has its own computer built in, running Windows XP Pro that has been expertly customized specifically for this task. The OS is embedded. It can be upgraded or serviced many different ways. The entire control surface can be stored as a file for later recall, including all automation and manual changes.
The meter bridge takes monitoring audio visually to the next level. Each channel has a colour LCD section on the bridge. You can get a LOT of information at a quick glance. This board is Dolby THX certified and can serve many roles including broadcast, remote, live, and studio in a 5.1 channel output configuration for movie soundtracks with bluray quality. The unit synchs easily with other industry tools, both audio and video.
There can only be one top desk. This is it. The Rolls Royce of mixing consoles, aye. Built by British engineers who have a reputation for excellence and are known worldwide, their desks being installed in some of the finest studios around.
I wish I could afford one, Mate... Then I wish I had the place to put it in, right there next to my Mighty 4/36 WurliTzer TPO...!
Is this the super-analogue version?
Yes, this is the Duality SA version. Best console on the planet. This desk is so transparent sonicly that you forget it is in the signal path. The sound is completely faithful to the original signal. The EQ's are so musical that you have unlimited choice of tone. And there are enough aux mixes to do any routing task such as broadcast sends, and goms of effects, etc. The best part is this console will speak directly to a DAW or PC and act as a HUI in said programs.
I recently had the chance to work on an old 4000G with kinoshita monitors in a hidley designed room, and I gotta say the SSL is unbelievable. The EQ's are stunning and the transparency is great. They have another studio there with a Neve VRP96 and it gives too much saturation on ya mixes. I really wanna give the duality a bash.
You are a fortunate engineer to have sat at this desk. IMHO, this is the finest desk ever made. It has all the knobs and switches exatly where they should be and the sound is so tranparent you forget about the board, hearing nothing but what you put in. Nothing sounds like a good British board, and this one is the finest. I must have one...
what a gorgeous piece of machinery.
This is the finest board made, in my humble opinion. It is an absolute joy to look at and to operate. The desk is huge, so this is not going to fit in your average control room.
After you order one of these, it comes in crates. Rhey bring it in in peices and put the thing together after hauling the parts in to the room. It is very heavy, so once assembled, you ain't gonna be moving it.
Automation is thorough, allowing every knob, switch, and fader to be placed in memory and instantly recalled or updated. You can store as many snapshots as youneed and keep them online indefinitely. The controls are silky smooth and the knobs are big enough to get a gripon but small enough to allow lots of them in a small area.
To buy this board, you need about a half million. To purchase, you pay half down and the other half when the console is delivered and installed. Since each desk is built by hand, there is a long waiting list, especially if you want a custom setup not in stock at any of SSL's retail outlets.
Good deals can be had by buying one second hand. They hold their value, so do not look for a cheap used model.
for half a million though (am i right to assume that's pounds?), i think I'll be sticking with something far less awesome for a very long time.. though i could always forgo a house and just live under the desk. I'm sure it's big enough.
Price is in US dollars, fully loaded, all the options on a 96x48 frame, the biggest desk they make. This desk in the picture is that one's little brother and about half that price. I am thinking in the neighborhood of around. 75,000 pounds UK.
Thank you much, my brother. Yep, the SSL Duality is the coolest desk on the planet. I want one.
Well, dear Tammy, I must be honest. No, I do not get the urge to randomly tweak the knobs and faders. I do bring all the controls to a null value before each session though. The desk has lots of controls, so nulling all of them takes some time.
To null a channel, you start by putting the fader at -70dB. You off the autimation and routing switches. Then you take down the busses. Next you flatten the EQ boost/cut knobs to 0dB and take the filter Q to 1, and finish by selecting a center frequency on the sweeps. Then, you debuss the channel and down the mic preamp and off the tape send.
Move on to the next channel and do it again. There are fourty-eight channels on this desk, and each channel has about fourty controls to visit. So by the time you get it nulled, you do not want to twist another knob or flick no more switches. You want a nice fat joint and some steamy joe. Break time.
Of course, about that time, the clients come in. Skip the joint. Gulp the joe.
Well, Hon, once you learn the functions of one channel. the rest is easy. That is, until you get to the producer's master panel in the middle of the desk where all the routing functions are. This is the hardest part of the desk to master, no pun intended. Hold that tiger.
Right-O.