Sinius wrote:My setup is: MPC4K- into the SSL Fusion with Trident-filter-inserts - into AbletonLIve.
My technicals skills are minor and so is my sound: Kind of weak and still muddy - and i am thinking it is my "gainstaging and mixing" in the MPC itself.
My samples are OK...
Tbh I‘m not a big fan of SSL and their „driving“ devices (remembering a horrible preamp with that feature).
But aside from circuits you may reconsider the strategy of a master processor in general.
If the
sources are right, there isn‘t much needed at the final stage (at least for someone not interested in loudness battles).
I usually throw something like FabFilters ProL2 on the output and that‘s about it.
(using moderate settings, no squashing)
But I‘m really picky with channel content, in particular room effects. They must match the source.
I avoid compression to control signal level, if it‘s applied then for character and at a prominent location.
(instead I frequently use the ProL2 approach with even more moderate settings to get track level/impact right
before it even enters the mix bus. I pre-process most track content)
Similar with EQ: sources are choosen for their specific content and I‘d rather pick a different mic for a guitar or a bass with different strings instead of twisting a filter.
I prefer
different processors instead of plugins from the same origin.
That‘s why I have 2 DSP systems and still some outboard (Lexicon Vortex, Intellifex, SRV2000, SPX90).
I could buy Valhalla Delay (phantastic), but I already have all their reverbs, so that job goes to the Vortex with it‘s crappy fixed point DSP.
As you may guess I don‘t mix in the 4k, which isn‘t even latency compensated internally (iirc from testing of the fx board).
If you use that without paying attention it may in fact ruin a mix under certain conditions.
But I wouldn‘t expect the engine to be generally inferior than most current DAWs.
It‘s a kind of vintage design, though, that may collide with some „modern“ sounds... which is a completely different topic (or matter of taste).
None of this is any kind of rule, but just what happened to be „my style“ or mode of operation.