#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS SERIAL#
#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS MANUAL#
#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS SOFTWARE#
#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS SERIES#

#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS SERIES#

The Buss Compressor is another familiar looking design, with a lineage going back to the famous Quad Compressor of 4000 Series desks. ItвЂ™s all thoroughly convincing no doubt more вЂdigitalвЂ™ sounding than a 4000E/G, but powerful and super sounding processing for any kind of music. Both the Compressor and Expander/Gate work just like the original desk sections, with similar LED indications of gain reduction. There is an obvious difference between the E and G modes as expected the technical differences are well documented, suffice to say that the G is glassier while the E is more вЂrock and rollвЂ™! The Dynamics section is excellent and familiar to SSL console users, switchable Pre-EQ (there is a useful signal flow display at the bottom).

Nevertheless, it has a very powerful analogue feel to it, just slightly smoother and sweeter than using an analogue SSL. Watch our video interview with SSL's product manager talking about Duende The four band EQ is smoother and cleaner than the Waves SSL 4000 collection version вЂ“ there is no modelling here of analogue distortion, but it sounds silkier than I recall the Waves version, even with the latterвЂ™s Analogue emulation disabled. Just like on a K Series, the Filters can be switched to the Dynamics sidechain, or moved to the first point in the chain (instead of after the EQ). The Input has a polarity flip, and the output a Sidechain Listen button.

+/-20dB Gain knobs are provided on input and output, both accompanied by level metering. EQ can be switched between E-Series and G-Series style. The Channel Strip looks rather familiar, and is based on the EQ and Dynamics section of the C200 digital console, which was itself modelled on analogue SSL desks. As with other wrapped/powered plugins, these still seem to use some of the host computerвЂ™s horsepower, although Duende is slightly less taxing than the UAD-1 PCI card, for example. Numbers are halved for 88.2/96kHz operation. One Duende allows 32 mono or 16 stereo plugins at up to 48kHz - the four different plugins each use one of the 32 memory slots available.

#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS SERIAL#

There is nothing to control here, but the page that appears displays DSP slot usage (there are eight slots across four chips), along with driver and firmware versions, and serial number. On a Mac the control panel is installed to the Other section of System Preferences.

#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS MANUAL#

There was little indication in the manual that Duende needed to be first or have its own dedicated Firewire buss, but perhaps this should have been obvious. But when the problem returned, two reinstallations failed to cure it, and it turned out that chaining the box after a DVD writer on the Firewire buss was causing bandwidth choking. I suffered stuttering audio problems that SSL initially ascribed to buffer problems, and a reinstallation seemed to cure it. Installation is straightforward and quick. Included with the unit are Channel Strip and Bus Compressor plugins, optional add-ons currently comprise Drumstrip and X-EQ which demo for a short time unless purchased. These are Audio Unit and VST as standard, the latter wrapped into RTAS versions using a second installer.

#SSL DUENDE PLUGINS SOFTWARE#

Accompanying the unit in the elegantly packaged box is software which installs the accompanying plugins onto your computer. The box is very light, and apart from the DC connector, the rear simply provides a pair of Firewire 400 connectors (which normally makes the PSU redundant). Despite the manual talking of squeezing the processing into a 1U rack, there is mostly air inside: this could easily have fitted into a rather smaller package, but the smart 19вЂќ format means that most studios can screw it into the bottom of a rack and impress clients. Duende is a Spanish word вЂ“ вЂњA mysterious power that all may feel and no philosophy can explain.вЂќ But IвЂ™m going to try anywayвЂ¦ Duende comes as a 1U rackmount box which houses a board with 40-bit floating point DSP processing engine chips.

Ssl duende plugins