Solid State Logic Duende

Jul 28, 2008 5:36 PM, By Nick Peck

MIXING IN THE BOX NEVER SOUNDED SO GOOD

MIXING THROUGH THE BOX

DAWs are terrific tools, but they are not the only way to work. Many people like the immediacy and convenience of tracking to and mixing from dedicated hard-disk recording systems. Others like the classic sound and feel of using analog tape recorders. If you have a DAW and a preferred playback recorder, then you are in luck. You can use your DAW to build a virtual SSL console with Duende, running the signal out of your recording device and into your DAW, and then back out again to a 2-track recorder (or you can simply record the mix to an audio track within your DAW), without ever actually recording or transferring your multitrack audio into the DAW. Using this technique, your DAW is processing the incoming signal in real time, much as a mixing console does. I like to call this “mixing through the box.”

For our example, let’s say that you have an 8-track analog recorder and a 2-track mixdown recorder. To mix through the box, connect the outputs of your recording device into inputs 1-8 of your DAW’s I/O. Next, create a project or session in your DAW at 96kHz, 24-bit resolution (or 48kHz, 24-bit if you are using the unexpanded Duende Mini). Create eight auxiliary inputs (not audio tracks) and a stereo master track. Now create an instance of Duende Channel Strip on each of the aux tracks and then strap a stereo instance of the Bus Compressor plug-in across the master bus (see Fig. 3).

Start playback on your recorder and begin adjusting track EQ and compression within Channel Strip, and set gain using the DAW’s faders. Use the Bus Compressor on the master bus to create a cohesive, bigger-than-life sound. Route the stereo signal to your 2-track recorder, making final adjustments with the bus compressor’s makeup gain or the master fader’s level to get optimal gain structure. You can add reverb or other processing to the mix by creating additional aux tracks fed by sends from your input tracks. Congratulations—you are mixing on an SSL console! For added fun, throw a MIDI controller in for tactile control of levels and EQ/compression settings. For me, there is an immediacy about working this way that is a refreshing change from the standard DAW paradigm.

LATENCY

Plug-in latency is an unavoidable aspect of host-based processing systems, even with plug-in accelerators like Duende. These days, most DAWs have delay-compensation features to keep your tracks in sync. If you are using a system that doesn’t have this feature, Duende offers a workaround. Simply run an instance of Channel Strip across every track or bus. This will ensure that all tracks are delayed by the exact same amount of time.

If you don’t need Channel Strip for a particular track or bus, engage the Bypass All button within Duende’s interface (not your DAW’s plug-in Bypass button). This will disengage any processing of your audio while maintaining the same amount of delay as tracks that are actively using Channel Strip.

EXPANDING YOUR SYSTEM

If four SHARCs are not enough processing horsepower for you, you can expand your system to two units. Any combination of Duende Classic, Mini, and PCIe will work.

As I like to work at 96kHz, 24-bit resolution, a pair of Duendes would give me a good-sized virtual mixing console: 28 input channels, along with a bus compressor for the drum group and another bus compressor for the master output. Or perhaps a 24-channel console with the same bus compression, plus a pair of channel strips on the master and a pair for the main reverb return. And needless to say, if you work at 44.1 or 48 kHz, a pair of Duendes will build you a hefty mixer indeed.

ADDITIONAL PLUG-INS

Though Channel Strip and Bus Compressor are the meat and potatoes of any mixing situation, SSL has been creating additional plug-ins to expand Duende’s capabilities.

Drumstrip. Drumstrip is a stereo plug-in specifically oriented toward shaping drum tracks. It features a sophisticated gate, a transient shaper, high- and low-frequency harmonic enhancement, and the listen-mic compressor that created the famous gated drum sound of the '80s.

Each of the functions has its own bypass switch. This makes it easy for you to concentrate on a single process at a time, and then try them together to see how they work toward creating an overall sound. The high-frequency enhancer is great for bringing out definition in drums, while the low-frequency version works well in adding weight and power to the sound.

X-EQ. As a ten-band mastering-grade parametric EQ designed for the highest-caliber signal processing, X-EQ features a real-time spectral analysis display, high-resolution input and output metering, six bands of parametric EQ that can be set to nine different EQ curves, low- and high-shelving EQ, and lowpass and highpass filters with five different filter types each.

The plug-in offers two processing modes: serial and parallel. The serial mode is the more common, traditional approach to parametric EQ design, where the signal flows from one band into another. In the parallel mode, the signal flows through the pass and shelving filters serially, but then enter all six parametric bands in parallel. Some famous vintage passive equalizers used this approach in their design, and the result is a markedly different sonic signature than the serial mode.

X-Comp. X-Comp is a versatile mastering-grade compressor with all the conceivable bells and whistles. It includes a dual-knee control for creating complex compression curves, a maximum gain-reduction control, sophisticated metering and gain-reduction graphs, and a frequency-dependent pass-through control. Both X-Comp and X-EQ come with a series of musically useful presets that you can use to get started with.

PUT TO THE TEST

I had a rather challenging mixing task that turned out very well when using Duende’s plug-ins in tandem. I had to take a kick drum track recorded in the '70s and remix it for use in a modern project. The problem was that there was tons of electric guitar bleed in the kick mic, which could not be audible in the finished track.

I started by using Channel Strip’s downward expander to create a greater dynamic separation between the kick and the guitar material around it. I used the expander gently with the fast attack setting so that the attack and release characteristics of the kick were not affected at this stage.

Next, I used X-EQ’s shelving and parametric bands to create fairly steep filtering, which rolled off the majority of the guitar sound in the signal. Unfortunately, it also removed the beater click portion of the kick drum. I used X-EQ’s Analyze function to help visualize and locate much of the guitar’s frequency range, which made it easy to remove it without losing more of the kick drum than necessary.

Next up came Drumstrip. I used its Gate function to remove the offending noise between kick drum hits. This was made easier by the fact that Channel Strip’s expander had already increased the track’s signal-to-noise ratio. It still took a bit of fine-tuning to make the track sound natural and to ensure that all quiet kicks were heard. Now I had a good low-frequency kick-drum sound, but there was no beater to cut through the mix. Liberal use of Drumstrip’s high-frequency enhancer solved this problem, deriving new upper-harmonics from the existing kick-drum sound. I also added a touch of the low-frequency enhancer to blend in a bit of gut-rumbling lows that were not feasible when this track was originally recorded for LP. For the final icing on the cake, I called up the “Punchy BD” preset in X-Comp. This patch further enhanced the sound of the beater click and tightened up the amplitude envelope a bit more.

Once I came up with a working process, I applied it to kick and snare tracks from another song, fine-tuning the parameters to their needs with similar excellent results. Though I’m a big fan of analog hardware, I couldn’t imagine coming up with this type of solution outside of the digital domain. The flexibility of using specific aspects of each of these plug-ins with each other made for an elegant solution to a thorny audio problem.

SOLID CHOICE

Duende isn’t about endless bells and whistles, which is why I like it. The Channel Strip and Bus Compressor plug-ins have enough control to sculpt your sound effectively without getting caught in knob-twiddling minutiae, though if it is fine-grained control you need, then Drumstrip, X-EQ, and X-Comp are terrific. Duende delivers the big, punchy, larger-than-life sound that can be hard to find in the world of plug-ins.

The fact that SSL has now made its famous sound available to everyone for less than $1,000 marks the company's serious entry into the entire project studio market. If you are looking for a way to take your mixes to another level, then Duende is a rock-solid choice.

PRODUCT INFO

SSL Duende Classic, Mini, and PCIe
www.solid-state-logic.com/music/Duende