For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
By HBIII Fri Jun 03, 2022 8:42 pm
Hi all,

I want to get a few pieces of nice outboard gear to run stuff through. For sample based music (with some added synths and drum machines mixed in) what are you all thinking would be at the top of your list? Right now I am using an mpc live ii and an isla s2400 for most of the sampling (usually from vinyl), and I am using an ssl big six for my mixer/interface and I have an ssl fusion on the mix bus. I also have a few effects boxes (reverb, delay, a tape echo, oto boum, etc.}

I see a lot of you have racks of outboard gear so I was wondering what you would recommend I go for next?

Thanks!
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By Lampdog Fri Jun 03, 2022 9:20 pm
You have more than the basic needs covered. Anything else is a want.
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By Lampdog Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:58 pm
What I’d go for is something I don’t already have. Not much sense in feature/option redundancy unless specific pieces are just something you’ve always wanted and drooled over.
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By v00d00ppl Sat Jun 04, 2022 1:28 am
Have you tried processing your stems through the fusion ? There’s a lot of sound shaping tools in that processor. The transformers on the fusion are suppose to compete against the Neve Portico line. Tracking and stem processing days are as zen as folding my clothes with a folding board. My blood pressure drops and I just run through material.

You could also run your stems through the superanalogue SSL channels of the six, you can run the levels high before you get odd harmonics from the six.
By HBIII Sat Jun 04, 2022 1:54 am
v00d00ppl wrote:Have you tried processing your stems through the fusion ? There’s a lot of sound shaping tools in that processor. The transformers on the fusion are suppose to compete against the Neve Portico line. Tracking and stem processing days are as zen as folding my clothes with a folding board. My blood pressure drops and I just run through material.

You could also run your stems through the superanalogue SSL channels of the six, you can run the levels high before you get odd harmonics from the six.


You bring up some good ideas. I love the fusion but it has been glued to my mix bus. I should try processing stems through it more often.

Any outboard gear you like using specifically on your drums?
By terry towelling Sat Jun 04, 2022 5:09 am
that's quite a set-up -- ssl desk and ssl fusion. that must sound so good.

the best piece of outboard gear i have is a pultec valve/tube eq. when sampling, I run all my records through it. it transforms kicks and basses and makes high hats sound so beautiful. but it's a lot of money when you already have pretty damn good eqs on the ssl desk.

I built mine -- if you're handy with a soldering iron it's a pretty easy build. https://gyraf.dk/gy_pd/pultec/pultec.htm
otherwise, there are quite a few very hi-end clones available.

Image

oh wait -- just thought of something -- berhinger have made a clone of the mu-tron bi-phase. it's a stunning bit of gear, and dirt cheap now.
By HBIII Sat Jun 04, 2022 4:52 pm
terry towelling wrote:that's quite a set-up -- ssl desk and ssl fusion. that must sound so good.

the best piece of outboard gear i have is a pultec valve/tube eq. when sampling, I run all my records through it. it transforms kicks and basses and makes high hats sound so beautiful. but it's a lot of money when you already have pretty damn good eqs on the ssl desk.

I built mine -- if you're handy with a soldering iron it's a pretty easy build. https://gyraf.dk/gy_pd/pultec/pultec.htm
otherwise, there are quite a few very hi-end clones available.

Image

oh wait -- just thought of something -- berhinger have made a clone of the mu-tron bi-phase. it's a stunning bit of gear, and dirt cheap now.


Tracking samples through it, you arebraver than me lol. I was actually thinking about the tegeler creme which has a pultec style eq and a vca compressor. So it is good to hear you are liking the pultec!
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By v00d00ppl Sat Jun 04, 2022 4:56 pm
HBIII wrote:
v00d00ppl wrote:Have you tried processing your stems through the fusion ? There’s a lot of sound shaping tools in that processor. The transformers on the fusion are suppose to compete against the Neve Portico line. Tracking and stem processing days are as zen as folding my clothes with a folding board. My blood pressure drops and I just run through material.

You could also run your stems through the superanalogue SSL channels of the six, you can run the levels high before you get odd harmonics from the six.


You bring up some good ideas. I love the fusion but it has been glued to my mix bus. I should try processing stems through it more often.

Any outboard gear you like using specifically on your drums?


Don’t listen to me. I’m a bad example.
Here’s the three outboard I use on drums.
1. Rupert Neve Designs 5254 compressor. I send my drum bus into this and smooth out the transients a little. In general I can master tracks with this or just send my bus tracks into it. Diode bridge can get agressive and smooth.

2. Chandler microphone cassette x2. I will add gain from line level on the TG2 section and connect it into the TG1 compressor with a hard knee. When I track my Roland TD50K2 into these channels it sounds like a record I’m sampling.

3. Rupert Neve Designs Portico Master Bus processor ii. The compressor is clean sounding like the modern SSL G compressor. However you can use feedback compression and put a little bit of either red silk (high frequency harmonics) or blue silk ( low frequency harmonics). I really think this is where SSL got the fusion idea from. They wanted a box that can make the stereo field wider or narrow, a good way to thin out the low end while adding even order harmonics from the transformer. It took me about 30 hours of tracking into the Portico to realize how I can polish stems and also masters.

You got me drooling talking about outboard.