Solid State Logic's Duende: EQ Compression Gate Expander Tutorials

If you're not familiar with Solid State Logic... get familiar right now. They are hands down one of the most sought after brands in the audio industry and continue to evolve as the market advances into the digital realm and beyond. Solid State Logic's consoles and gear can be found in studio's at Capitol Records, Dr. Dre's house, Sasha's project studio and Timbaland's tour bus. Not to mention the rest of SSL's history scattered about the planet in some of the most legendary studios known to man's ear. The sonic character, quality, unique features, and intuitive use of Solid State Logic's gear make it the obvious choice for professionals looking for that special touch on their production & mixes.

Solid State Logic has done some interesting things over the past few years to bring the legendary sound and quality of their products to a new market. A market fraught with creativity and independence, this would be where you would input your own name ______ ________. Because, chances are, if you're reading this blog you're precisely the person SSL has marketed their latest line of gear to. Gear like their X-Rack which allows users to custom build a small analog 500 series rack outfitted with any combination of SSL's dynamic processing and input modules. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what SSL manufactures that one could consider affordable. Cheap... No. The legendary sound you've heard on countless hit records since you've exited the womb... Yes! Obviously it's not "cheap" you're paying for quality, that quality is just now more affordable and more available to the public than ever before.

The Duende is mainly why we're here though. Solid State Logic released the first version of Duende in 2006, it's built on the same technology available in SSL's "C" Series Digital Console. Basically, it's a box with an SSL DSP engine that hosts SSL Plug-Ins for your DAW.  It's a baby SSL that lives in a box and connects to your computer, turning your laptop into a mult-core resource eating beast! The Duende comes available in a small FireWire desktop box and also a rack sized PCIe version for you HD users. Most of you will most likely benefit from the Duende Mini. Especially laptop users considering Duende lightens the CPU load when you're using the SSL Plug-ins specific to it.

I almost forgot to mention latency... Sloppy.  Let's say you have some outboard gear, for this example since we're in SSL land we will assume you have two SSL Super Analogue EQ's in a Mynx rack.  Now, assume you'd like to process the Moog synth line you just recorded into Pro Tools.  Before you do that though you slap a plug-in compressor on the synth track inside of Pro Tools.  So you've got the synth recorded into pro tools (at as high of quality possible cause you're a geek) Being processed by the plug-in compressor and you're ready to route it out to your interface so that you can run it through the SSL outboard EQ to sculpt the low end and bring out that high end analog noise post compression.  After some tweaking you decide that it's now sounding nice and you're ready to record it back into Pro Tools.  You record it back into PT, play it back with the rest of your mix and you will notice your synth track is now delayed and playing behind everything else.  You're now thinking... WTF???

This is because of the delay introduced by the plug-in compressor on the original recorded synth track.  It can only work so quickly to process the audio and spit it back out.  By the time it does this and the track is sent out to be processed and recorded back to PT it is behind the other tracks in PT.  This isn't really a problem in Logic and other DAW's because most have automatic delay compensation.  Pro Tools LE does not though and you have to either adjust the timing by hand and move the recorded waveform back in time or find out the delay time and then add digi's delay compensation plug-in (I will do a tutorial on this process very soon)  Now hopefully you see why this is a problem and can be quite a pain in the ass.  Not all plug-ins create delay but most native ones do and you can check in Pro Tools by "apple" clicking on the digital scribble strip in Pro Tool's Mix Window (see picture).   The Duende however introduces no latency whatsoever!  Case & Point: Solid State Logic's Duende DSP powered plug-ins mean no delay compensation hassles!  Now you're most certainly wondering why you're here since I've yet to show you any tutorials. Stop wondering, just one more paragraph and you'll be on your way to audio knowledge heaven.

Solid State Logic has created a series of tutorials for Duende that cover everything from basic EQ knowledge to more advanced techniques like parallel compression. While these tutorials are specific to the plug-ins available with Duende, they also have a ton of information packed into them that is useful to anyone searching for audio processing knowledge. A compressor is a compressor weather it's the stock Logic Studio Compressor or an SSL Compressor. Same goes for EQ's and other plug-ins as well.  The following little bit of info comes from some of the greatest minds in the audio industry and is certainly more than worth your time.  If you've got a Duende then it's just like a double whammy as you'll be trained in the recording arts (EQ, Compression, ETC.) and get a product specific tutorial for use with your software!  Sorry to spit so much promotional SSL jargon at you but it's all honestly how I personally feel.  The main goal of this blog is to spread awareness regarding quality gear, SSL is quality gear and I felt I needed to respectfully give the brand the attention that it deserves.  Now, without further a do; I give you Solid State Logic's Duende Tutorials!

Duende Tutorial 1: Compression & Limiting

Duende Tutorial 2: Using the Gate/Expander Section

Duende Tutorial 3: Basic EQ

Duende Tutorial 4: Using the Duende Channel Side Chain

Duende Tutorial 5: Duende Bus Compressor

Duende Tutorial 6: Advanced EQ

Duende Tutorial 7: Parallel Compression

Who Says Distortion Can't Be Beautiful! knøx - mummy (original mix) Mastered @ ZeSoundSuite

I've got a really great track I had the pleasure of working on for you guys today.  When I first heard it I was beyond stoked to get cracking on it because it possessed quite a unique and diverse sonic character.  Unfortunately it took me a bit to get it as I was swamped with other ongoing projects.  When I finally sat down to work and gave the song a few listens I immediately thought and focused on three things.  First and foremost make that kick as mau5 like as possible.  Say what you want about the mau5 his kick is perfect! (Thanks in part to the SSL Stereo Bus Compressor)  Secondly, I knew I had to push the low to mid range pretty hard to bring out the grit that was such a prevalent sound in the track.  Finally I had to sculpt and bump the highs up just enough to bring out all the grimy noise whilst still keeping the epic progressive synth leads in check.  I also added quite a bit of character and extra noise with the URS Saturation plug-in and Digidesign's Reel Tape Saturation plug-in @ 15ips.  Long story short I made the adjustments I saw fitting; EQ, Compression, M/S Processing and preapred the track for limiting.  I knew this had to be loud to sound good, it's just one of those songs that without a lot of amplitude would loose a lot of it's meaning and purpose.  I pushed the L316 hard to the paint and made some final release time adjustments to keep the harmonics relatively in tact.  The result is what you're about to hear, all in all it came out great and still has a lot of the original dynamics despite it's loudness.  The kick is beautiful, the  low-mid range grit grabs your soul and the highs are perfectly balanced keeping the progressive synths bright and comfortable while showcasing just enough of the added noise to bring the whole track together.  Give it a listen, it's beyond a sonic experience!
knøx - mummy (original mix) by knøx

Robotic Pirate Monkey Debut EP: Disturbing Pleasant Streets! Mastered @ ZeSoundSuite

Below you'll find a link to a blog post from ThisSongIsSick.com featuring the new Robotic Pirate Monkey EP.  I mastered the entire album and have to admit that I had a fucking blast doing it.  No doubt this will remain a memorable moment in my career as it was really the first full length album I've ever mastered from beginning to end.  The first CD I burned of the EP to check in my car is currently hanging on my wall if that gives you an idea of how important this craft really is to me.

It was honestly quite the challenge balancing all the intense heavy sounds that is RPM but all in all I'm very pleased with the result and feel it represents Robotic Pirate Monkey's character and style, as well as my own personal sound I like to create during the mastering process.  Crisp & bright, present yet spread out highs with a massive detailed low end and a mid range full of so much grit you'd swear you needed a shower after hearing it.

Six of the ten tracks I ran through a Neve V3 to pick up on the dark sonic qualities that console is famous for.  I pushed the preamps fairly hard and left the sends to the Pro Tools HD system relatively low to grab some of the natural compression that's impossible to replicate without a large format console.  You can do this with any large format console by driving the preamp's relatively hard while leaving the faders (sends to tape) at a lower amplitude.  Try it out next time you get your hands on a large format desk.

After the work on the Neve was finished up everything was sculpted at 24bit/96kbps on my Pro Tools LE system with the aid of software plug-ins & DSP from: Solid State Logic, Waves, Sonnox & URS.  Solid State Logic's Duende & it's plug-ins (Bus Compressor, Channel Strip, X-EQ) played a massive role in mastering this album and without them I'm almost certain the final product would've been much less impressive.  Equally important was the Oxford EQ & Filters from Sonnox.  This is an old school software EQ that's still in use by many of the major studios in the world today.  Just use it, you'll understand why it's so popular and sought after.  Finally I slapped Wave's L316 Limiter over all the tracks to get them up to their final volume level whilst still having the multi-band control to maintain the original dynamics.  Beyond that was the final dither process to get the album to 16bit/44.1kbps and ready to be converted to mp3's for distribution.  That pretty much sums up two weeks worth of work in a couple paragraphs as best as I can. :) 

Honestly though, that's a fairly good general explanation of how I mastered the EP, hopefully it will give some of you at least a little idea of what the mastering process involves and how I went about finalizing Disturbing Pleasant Streets.  Be sure to support Robotic Pirate Monkey & Join their Facbook Page.  

Link to Download Robotic Pirate Monkey's Disturbing Pleasant Streets EP

Free SSL Compressor!

Nothing sounds quite like a Solid State Logic console, period. I've had the pleasure of working with their AWS 900 console and I really must say that nothing even comes close. I might even argue that I like the SSL sound better than that of Mr. Rupert Neve's. (this probably just made some old school engineer cringe) Nonetheless SSL has crafted quite the sound. Solid State Logic has become a legendary brand in the audio industry and despite the high cost of most of their equipment you too can have a little piece of SSL in your productions. How? Simple, SSL makes a few plugins available on their website for FREE!

This free plugin is a model of SSL's "E" series from the late 1970's. The actual LMC-1 compressor was used to heavily compress the signal coming from musicians in the sound booth so the engineer and them could communicate during the recording session. Leave it to some engineer to figure out that the insane compression of this listen-mic compressor sounded fantastic on drums. The engineer had the desk re-wired so he could send signal to and from this listen-mic compressor. Thus, the legend of the "E" Series Listen-Mic Compressor was born.

You don't have much control with this plugin over compression as your used to with normal compressors. Remember this wasn't originally designed to be used with music. The attack and release curves are set, and the only control you have is with a "less-more" control which I'm assuming adjusts the threshold and ratio values of compression. However control, isn't really the point with this plugin. Every plugin is different and is created to address specific tasks in your productions or mix. The advantage of this plugin may not be control, but it certainly has it's own character and feel, unique to SSL. Plus, did I mention it was FREE!!!

Follow the link below to go to SSL's website and download the LMC-1 as well as a couple other plug-ins they offer for free.
SSL's Free Plug-Ins