NEW DOORS
SSL 2/2+
USB AUDIO INTERFACES
BY SOLID STATE LOGIC
UAD Luna
Recording System
A LOT FOR LESS! ANALOG SOUND AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT
The audio landscape is permanently changing - from large
scale consoles in studios to a fully-fledged one right in your
bedroom. If you are still not convinced, take a look at the
latest offering from SSL. A manufacturer is renowned for
its amazing consoles through which a lot of the hit records
we’ve known and loved were made. UAD had a small surprise at NAMM this year with the
announcement of the Luna Recording System. It's designed
to be like a DAW and works with their Apollo and Arrow
Thunderbolt interfaces. It looks to integrate UA’s interfaces
and plug-ins further into workflow seamlessly. The routing
and setup with UAD plug-ins are quick and easy for front-
end recording— and it’s essentially latency-free, thanks
to Accelerated Real-time Monitoring. There’s analog tape
emulation on every track which they call ‘Oxide’, the
result of which is the classic tape warmth and “glue” that
engineers have described for years. If you want to expand
your tape options, you can add the optional Studer A800
Tape Recorder extension (available separately). As a
good combo to the tape emulation, they offer Classic Neve
summing. So inside Luna, you’ll find emulated summing
circuitry from the revered Neve 80-series console. These
boards were staples in the ’60s and ’70s and famous for
thick, punchy recordings. With built-in Neve 1272 summing
onboard, you can take your mix from squeaky clean to big
and beefy, right inside LUNA. To top it all off there’s a list
of exclusive virtual instruments including the Minimoog,
a model of the Steinway Model B grand piano at ocean way
studios and a collection of VIs, with vintage
The SSL 2/2+ are two versions of twin-channel USB audio
interfaces. SSL know a thing or two about high-end design so
it is great to see then forging a path into the smaller interface
market with a pair of small form factor USB of interfaces
with class-leading mic preamps and the addition of the 4K
analogue enhancement which we can only hope are direct
descents of the 4000 series consoles. They also offer studio-
quality monitoring along with an SSL Production Pack
software bundle, which includes the SSL Native Vocalstrip
2 and Drumstrip plug-ins. They claim that the converters
are straight from the alpha link so it should be a really good
deal at that price point. And for what it’s worth, it looks
cool sitting on a desk. The form factor, while its nothing
new, looks solid and well built. The SSL 2 offers 2 x SSL-
designed microphone preamps, a Legacy 4K - analogue colour
enhancement for any input source, inspired by classic SSL
consoles, one high-grade headphone output, 24-bit / 192 kHz
AD/DA AKM Converters, monitor mix control, Balanced
monitor outputs and is bus-powered. The 2+ in addition to
this offers an additional set of outputs(unbalanced RCA for
DJ mixers), an extra headphone out and MIDI connectivity.
Most people might opt to spend a bit more and just get the
2+ as it offers a bit more at a very small price bump. We are
quite excited to see what else SSL decides to make for the
home studio market if this is their first official foray into the
same.
keys, drums/percussion, guitar/bass, orchestral content,
and real-time synthesis. These sounds are culled from
Spitfire Audio, Orange Tree Samples, Loops de la Creme,
and more. We’ll have to wait to see how well this plays out in
terms of people using it and finding it to be an integral part
of their workflow. But the initial impressions seem pretty
good!
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
45