BUSTIN’ A GUT FOR A GREAT RECORDING…

In the middle of a covid 19 pandemic, AudioTechnology’s founding editor Greg Simmons spent one week in a public hospital in Bangkok. It all started with a recording in Laos. Simmo tells the story…

There are many monasteries in Luang Prabang, Laos. I had been searching for one in a quiet area with less visitors and passing cars, and, most importantly, that didn’t use a PA system – so many monasteries use PAs now, and they totally ruin the natural acoustic. I found one alongside the Nam Khan river, a drop away from the Mekong. It ticked a lot of boxes for recording, and there was no sign of a PA. After chatting with the monks I was invited in that evening to record their chants. In fact, I sat there recording for three evenings in a row – every time critiquing how I was doing it and planning how to do it better next time. There are no soundchecks, no false starts, and no interrupting with this stuff, of course, so getting it right is purely a matter of successive approximation through multiple attempts. By the third night I’d settled on a pair of Sennheiser MKH800s spaced 34cm apart, cardioid, facing forward. I recorded into a Nagra 7 field recorder with peaks reaching my target of -12dBFS, and monitored with a pair of Etymotic ER4 microPro canal phones. Nailed it!

Riding the high one gets after making a successful recording under such conditions, I decided to walk back along the banks of the Mekong rather than getting a tuk-tuk or boat. It was a 30-minute walk but the weather was perfect, the sun was setting beautifully over the Mekong, and I was feeling pumped and invincible. Unfortunately, instead of my usual daypack I was using a small duffle bag that hung over one shoulder. I had a lot of gear and it was getting quite uncomfortable, but in true Aussie male style I told myself “She’ll be right!” and pressed on. In the shower that night I noticed two small lumps bulging out of my groin, one on each side, and ended up in a public hospital in Bangkok for a bilateral inguinal hernia operation. Right in the middle of a pandemic.

I still love the recording, though…

DG’S SSL DELIVERY

Damien Gerard Studios: The SSL stork has arrived. Damien Gerard Studios, now residing one hour north of Sydney on the Central Coast, has recently taken delivery of a brand new all analogue SSL Origin 88-input recording console, delivered in record time by Aussie distributor Amber Technology. Read the full story here.

With the board arriving last week the current control room has been de-commissioned for the changeover and the installation will happen over the next two weeks to be up and running for new bookings from October. We’ll no doubt follow this story closely.

Some of the other new arrivals include a Neumann FET 47, 4 x Neve 1073 preamps and a highly sought after Pultec EQP1A tube EQ. 

DG’s spent time checking and lining up the old faithful MCI two-inch 24-track tape machine and it’s settling into the new Central Coast digs well. Most of the old tape will need baking for any transfers and there’s some new tape on the shopping list.

DG’s is particularly proud of the new studio’s diffuser wall which debuted on the Luke Escombe live show. Having these finished and installed now gives us the classic LEDE (Live End Dead End) Space.

Big Sky Audio recently added two new Royer dBoosters to the inventory, and prior to Victoria’s second wave lockdown, got to try them out with an almost ‘co-incident pair’ of vintage B+O BM6 ribbons as overheads for some live demos with Melbourne band Clowns. The verdict, very impressive! Trying to make the best of quiet times, the resurrection of the Wertheim upright piano has commenced. Wertheim pianos were made in Melbourne, in a state-of-the-art factory in Richmond, which operated between 1908 and 1935. The original buildings, in Bendigo St, eventually became the home of Channel 9. They were known for their quality build and we are looking forward to hearing it in all its glory.

MELBOURNE & SYDNEY: TALE OF 2 CITIES

Marks is from Melbourne, and Hope grew up in Sydney. They both furthered their careers by heading overseas, with Marks since 2005 based in London, working mostly at the Assault & Battery studio complex; while Hope moved to LA in 2014, where she tends to work from her home studio. Talking from their respective studios, the two producers elaborated on their work with Alanis Morissette, which, entirely in line with the singer’s penchant for introspection and personal growth, also led the two producers on a path of self-development, and a widening of their horizons.

On Instagram, Marks calls working with Morissette, “one of the highlights of my career. Getting to work with such an incredible voice and human being”. On the same platform, Hope remembers that when she received the news of Morissette’s camp making contact in 2018, she was “running around the hotel room like a lunatic until my manager thought I’d truly lost it (…) I’m often asked what my dream project would be. That one artist. That one storyteller. That one voice.”

Via Skype, Hope added, “Yes, Alanis has long been a hero of mine. And working with her was incredible. I never even thought that me working with an artist like her would even be a possibility. She is amazing, as a person, as an artist, as a writer, just everything.”

Marks and Hope clearly are big fans. They both relate that Morissette making contact with them was in part driven by a conscious decision on the singer’s part to work with female producers for this album. “This obviously was great,” commented Marks, “because it gave me the opportunity to work with her. But I didn’t think of the album as being made by women. Obviously, this being Alanis, the songs were very personal and sensitive, and as a woman I could relate to the female point of view that’s expressed, and could treat that with a certain amount of sensitivity. But I think it’s more about being the right person for the job, rather than being male or female.”

Once contact was made, finding the right person involved Morissette choosing which songs were to be produced by Marks, and which by Hope. “When she played us the songs,” elaborates the latter, “we had to be on the same page as her in terms of the artistic visions for each of them. I also think that for Alanis, it’s about the human connection, as much as the same musical vision. At the same time, she gave both of us a lot of freedom. She was very trusting in saying: ‘do your thing’. So I was given the space to make things a bit poppier or whatever. I think she wanted me to bring those aspects in. I feel I had her blessing to play around in my safe space, even as she would obviously tell me if something did not feel right to her.”

CREATIVE TRUST

The five songs produced by Hope on Such Pretty Forks in the Road are indeed ‘poppier’ and have more of the instant impact that is the hallmark of 21C pop production styles. One assumes that it is for this reason that the choice was made to sequence four of these songs at the beginning of the album, and that three of them were released as the album’s first singles: Reasons Why I Drink, Smiling, and Diagnosis. By contrast, the songs produced by Marks are more like deep and offbeat album tracks. 

“Alanis was brilliant in the way that she divided up the tracks between us,” explained Marks. “My first track was Pedestal, and I think Ablaze was Alex’s first song. From that, Alanis was able to gauge what we did to those songs, and she then assigned the songs according to how suitable she felt our ways of production were. It was obvious that Alex and I had different approaches in the way that we treated and constructed the productions of the songs. Alanis is an indie girl at heart and she loves ‘weird’ as much as I do, and I think my production style on her songs reflects that. After sending Alanis the first draft of Pedestal I remember she sent me a message saying how much she loved it and for me to keep doing my thing. The creative freedom and trust she gave us was incredible.”

WORKFLOW

Over the long period that Hope and Marks worked on the album, off and on over nearly two years during 2018 and 2019, Morissette sent each producer piano/vocal demos of the songs, which she had recorded at her home, using an AKG C12 on her voice, with co-writer Michael Farrell on piano. At this point, Hope and Marks worked separately. Hope would load Morissette’s piano/vocal demos into Logic, her preferred DAW, and she then arranged and produced them to full-blown tracks.

“Catherine and I had agreed that we did not want it to be a piano record, so we each set about creating arrangements with many other instruments. On Smiling, for example, I replaced the piano with a guitar. In fact, I played all guitars on the tracks I produced, using a combination of my pedal board and amps, and DI and plug-ins for the cleaner sounds.”

“My reference, also for my guitar sounds, was the sonics of Jagged Little Pill, while still making things sound current. I also programmed drums, bass, and synths, and I wrote string arrangements. I did not want to use tons of synths and make it sound too like the pop of today. So I did mock-ups of the arrangements in Logic, and then later a number of these parts were replaced by real players, at drummer Victor Indrizzo’s Sage & Sound studio, while live strings were overdubbed to one of my songs and one of Catherine’s songs at United Recording in Hollywood.”

“I could hear the groove I wanted in each song, so I programmed that, and then later in his studio I let Victor play around with it. I told him to go crazy on his drums at the end of Smiling, and that’s what he did, and I loved it. Michael [Farrell] also added piano. My friend Tyler Last, with whom I want to college at the Australian Institute of Music came to my home studio to play bass in a couple of songs.”

Hope spent a lot of time in her studio selecting the best takes, comping and treating the recordings. “I’d go through everything in Logic, and I’d then work on bringing the track to a place where I could give the mixer, Chris Dugan, a reference mix. I worked extensively on that, using my favourite plug-ins. I particularly love the Waves RCompressor, H-Delay, and Q10, the Soundtoys Decapitator, particularly on drums, the FabFilter Pro-Q3 EQ, and the Valhalla Room, Vintage Verb, and Shimmer.”

In addition to Logic, with a large selection of plug-ins, Hope’s studio consists of an Apollo x8p interface, Dynaudio BM6A monitors (though she recently obtained Barefoot Sound MicroMain 27 gen2 monitors), quite a few keyboards, amongst them a Roland Juno, Korg MiniMoog, and Korg Sub 37, tons of electric and acoustic guitars, guitar pedals, an upright piano (“game-changing”) and a small drum kit. Hope says she’s a big fan of both hardware and soft synths, and her favourites amongst the latter are Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Korg Polysix, everything by Arturia, Native Instruments Massive and Xfer Serum, while she’s built up a huge sample collection over the years, augmented by samples she downloads from Splice.com.

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE

For Hope, several aspects of working on Such Pretty Forks in the Road were unusual. “Yeah, this definitely was a new experience for me,” agreed Hope. “Normally, artists come to my studio, and we start from scratch. The artist may come in with a feeling, or a sentence, or a story of an experience, or a verse idea, and I try to connect with that and then help them flesh out the song. I prepare sessions with drums and other sounds that work together, so that I can load these once I know where the artist is at. Usually, the artist initiates the direction, but I am very much part of helping them develop that.”

“When I work with artists I am a little bit like a therapist, because I want to make sure that we’re writing about something that comes from a real place, and is not just generic. I want to work on stuff that’s like therapy for the artist, and therefore relatable and hopefully therapeutic for anyone who listens to it. But Alanis came in with fully written songs, and she also is someone who is arguably the best at telling the unfiltered personal truth. I just loved that. We had long conversations because I really wanted to hear what the songs were about before I dived into producing them and creating musical worlds for them to sit in. All this definitely was a very different process for me.”

“My main focus was not to get in the way of Alanis’s storytelling. I did not want to re-write or anything, or my production to compete with Alanis in any way, but instead I wanted it to enhance the feel and meaning of her songs. This meant that I used many of her demo vocals, because they were recorded in the moment when she just had written the song. I loved these performances, but because they were spontaneous, it meant that I had to use Melodyne to tweak some details.

“There were some background noises on some of these demo vocals that I had to EQ out. I did put everything on a grid, so I nudged some vocals around in time to get them to fit. In the places where I couldn’t, we’d punch in a word or line here and there during sessions later on. I didn’t time stretch any of these original vocals. One song for which I didn’t use the demo vocals is Reasons I Drink, for which Alanis later re-sang the entire song, with Michael on piano, to a click.”

FINISHING IN L.A.

Like Hope, Marks travelled to Sage & Sound and United Recording Studios in Los Angeles to track guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, strings, and also many of Morissette’s vocals. “We retracked her vocals for Her and Nemesis entirely,” explained Marks, “eventually settling on a Shure SM7 for her — I think we used an AKG C12 on Nemesis. The demo vocals were gorgeous but I had adjusted some of the tempo shifts a little and these vocals didn’t scan as nicely. I had tempo mapped both the demo piano and vocal, therefore, if anything was overdubbed, whether it was keys or vocals or drums, it was played to the original performance of the demo.

“Sometimes we used a click, sometimes we didn’t. It felt natural to play to the performance of the original vocals and the keys in this way. It worked great with Nemesis, with Victor’s drums being his first take, and he coped wonderfully with the intense tempo shift before the middle eight. The guys jammed together on that song, with David Leita adding an offbeat guitar part, Michael playing synths, and Cedrik Lemoyne on bass. The very end of Nemesis is a brilliant performance from the guys. The jam at the end felt so good we decided to leave it in.”

Like Hope, Marks returned to her studio in London after the LA recording sessions, where she said she “mucked around with the tracks some more, getting them ready for Chris Dugan to mix. Though actually, I didn’t do that much to the tracks, as I had prepped everything before I went to LA. I’d more or less rough mixed everything in LA, either in the studio, or on my laptop in my hotel room using my Sony MDR-7506 headphones or a pair of Beats by Dre. In my studio it was more about final arrangement choices and vocal tweaking.”

Before sending their sessions to Dugan for mixdown, Marks and Hope came together to compare notes. “We spent a couple of days together to make sure the entire album sounds cohesive and to smooth out all the edges, and to do final touches and finish stuff off,” recalled Hope “This was when Alanis came in, and she was listening to everything and giving us her notes and feedback. Catherine and I also really wanted to make sure we matched the vocal sounds we got for Alanis.”

Today’s pop vocals are very bright, so it’s unsurprising that Hope went for this sound. In this case Marks followed suit. “I had gone very dark initially on Alanis’s vocals, heavily compressing them and pushing the midrange tone a lot. But even though our production of the songs is very different, we needed a vocal sound on the album that was continuous. It was a creative decision to make things cohesive, and I made the vocals in my sessions sound more like those in Alex’s productions. In the end we used the same plug-ins, which were the Waves RCompressor and Q10 EQ, and the Valhalla Room. But ultimately Chris and Alanis were in charge of how the vocals sounded, as they finalised things.”

MARKS ON TARGET

Over in London, Catherine Marks related a similar tale of having to stretch and learn new approaches to production, but in the opposite direction. Where Hope had to explore 20C production methods, Marks was thrown in the deep end in having to quickly develop a very 21C skillset.

“My process in my career has been helping and directing musicians and bands, and in this case I had to be the band, in a way. I’d look at the piano/vocal demos I had been given and what I could add to enhance the song. So I was demoing the arrangements in Pro Tools, which I had never done before. For Alex it was part of her remit, whereas I had to suddenly use a different part of my brain.

“I’m classically-trained as a pianist, and I played in bands when I was younger, but since I have been producing, my role has been more about guiding and facilitating the artists. Years ago when I was working with Alan [Moulder], I remember he suggested that I focus on one particular discipline, mixing, and that I become really good at that, and he said that everything else then will fall into place. That is exactly what happened. Over the years I have little by little been able to explore different sides of production. And mixing to me is finishing, and when I am recording and producing it is going to tape the way I want it to sound at the end. I want all solutions to have been achieved in the production process, and the final mix is just to enhance that.”

In building arrangements and a production in-the-box for Morissette’s piano/vocal demos, Marks worked in a similar way to Hope. But there were a few differences, informed by her experience as a producer. “Before anything,” began Marks, “my reactions to Alanis’s songs was quite emotional, and I was trying to eke out every emotion Alanis was trying to convey. I was trying not to overpower the songs and be tender and sensitive with the production. The only exception is a track called Nemesis, in which we went all out.

“When working on the songs, I first had to figure out what the chords were. Next was figuring out an appropriate groove. When I’m working with bands in pre-production, the first thing I often do is break down what the groove is, and help them build it up, so it supports the vocals and the song. With Alanis, I made the decision not to put songs on a grid. There was a rising and falling of the tempo in the piano/vocal demos that I liked, and when I put them on a grid, it did not feel the same to me. There was something about the natural performance that felt really right, and that I wanted to keep. So I tempo-mapped the songs which involves manually finding the one of each bar. It was a lot of work. The smartest thing Alex did was put everything on a grid!” (laughs)

“After tempo-mapping and treating the piano and the vocal sounds, I started experimenting with sonics and textures. I first reached for what I was familiar with: guitars. So I invited Chris Alderton from The Amazons and Frank Turner, who I had just done an album with, to come to my room at Assault & Battery. I knew what tones I wanted and what the notes were, and they then created their own guitar to parts around that.

“I also programmed drums, which I wanted to be delicate, almost percussive. I used samples I had previously made and I processed them out of the box with pedals and outboard gear, trying to get the most organic sound possible, with the idea of eventually replacing the programmed drums with live drums. When Alanis had heard the initial production ideas we discussed replacing a lot of the programming with live drums using the programmed grooves as templates. This was exciting to me as I love the natural performances of human players.

“Then I played some piano and wrote some string lines, using a soft synth or a Solina or keyboards. I also did a lot of backing vocals, which I tuned and processed, again using pedals, so my vocals were more like sonic textures. The two pedals I used the most were the Cicognani Limited Edition Echosex 2 and the ElectroHarmonix Holy Grail.”

CHANGING TRACKS

With all said and done, both Hope and Marks feel working on Such Pretty Forks in the Road changed them, with the former ready to take on more 20C-style productions, while Marks added, “It definitely change the way I work. I feel a lot freer with much more of a no-rules approach. Since the Alanis record I have been playing a lot more, and I have started doing a lot of song-writing with other artists. I am also working more on indie pop mixes with female vocalists. My confidence is up, and this has inspired me to explore other sides of my creativity.”

And finally, on the topic of Such Pretty Forks in the Road having been made by three women, one hopes that this will soon be so commonplace that it no longer needs addressing. Looking back, do Hope and Marks feel that it made a difference? “Yes,” replied Hope, “although I’m not sure the end result is necessarily different. Men and woman can all make music in similar ways. I think it just felt really comfortable for me to work with another woman, despite me being such a big Alanis fan and feeling this was like the biggest thing ever!”

“I don’t think the end result was necessarily different,” echoed Marks. “but I feel very fortunate to have explored something I have always wanted to explore, and Alanis took a chance and gave me the opportunity. Her songs spoke to me, and what I did with them spoke to her, thankfully. So there was a genuine connection, through music.”

Battle of the Microsynths

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CONTESTANT 2.0: MODAL CRAFTSYNTH 

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: Modal 008… Monster analogue synthesizer… A synthgeek’s dream machine… This isn’t that, but it’s also way easier on the wallet.

Traditionally, analogue synths were cherished for their warm, thick sounds while their digital cousins were regarded as thin and cold. Modal, the makers of the amazing 002 and 008 synths, decided to break some rules with their Craftsynth 2.0, offering an entry level monophonic synthesizer based on Wolfgang Palm’s wavetable synthesis.

The diminutive size of this device belies the enormous amount of synthesis it contains, and its ‘futuristic toy piano’ look certainly caused some prolonged chin stroking early on in my voyage of discovery. (As an interesting side note, Modal’s first two products in their Craft range, Craftsynth 1.0 and CraftRhythm were both in kit form, similar to Korg’s NTS-1.)

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LITTLE BIG SYNTH

Products of this size are often dismissed as being limited in their capabilities, simply because of the limited visual feedback, but spending time with the Craftsynth opened my eyes to the sonic possibilities.

I definitely preferred monitoring the results of my wanderings by having the unit connected to the editor app on my MacBook — the visual software provides reassurance of the flexibility and scope of the architecture. It also helps with the learning curve when you can view the sweeping of the wavetables with an envelope generator or LFO, with visual feedback of what your parameter changes are doing. Even more essential is the view of its routing capability, with 16 modifiers to modulate the eight oscillators. This is stunning synthesis, and is difficult to picture when using the hardware on its own.

You can program and transpose patterns with the built-in sequenced arpeggiator, which in combination with the Glide, Scale and Root controls gives some interesting, and very musical results. There are 64 preset storage locations for capturing the mayhem that you can reap with all of this synthesis power.

EDITOR SOFTWARE

The free software editor, available for MacOS, Windows, iOS and Android, is essential to get at the multitude of parameters available, especially the selection and modulation of wavetables and routing of modifiers in the modulation matrix. The ModalApp has four pages: Editor, Live, Preset Management and Settings. I particularly enjoyed working with the editor as it gives perspective to the sheer power of this little module. In fact, the CraftSynth 2.0 is, to me, more like a plug-in with a built in controller, with a staggering number of parameters.

AND THE WINNER IS

And the winner is: you! CraftSynth and NTS-1 aren’t the only contenders but they do provide first-time users and seasoned professionals alike have access to a smorgasbord of synthesis techniques and tonal variety available at an unprecedented price. And you can power both with a portable battery.

In fact, why not buy the NTS-1 and the Craftsynth 2.0, and throw in the Unosynth from IK Multimedia, or Korg’s Volca Modular and you’ll have the unbeatable synthesising power of a god.

Production Workstation

Let’s not kid ourselves – going standalone is a big deal. Gone is the risk of unexpected software updates, mid-gig crashes, buffering issues… the list goes on. Then there’s the portability and reduced rig footprint for those garage jams with the mates or, of course, at shows.

For a powerhouse like Maschine+ to function without a computer, it needs a fair amount of built-in grunt. Thankfully, Native Instruments hasn’t skimped. A quad-core CPU and 4GB of DDR3L RAM are packed into Maschine+ along with 32GB of internal flash storage to hold instrument samples. A real-time CPU percentage readout on the screen lets you keep track of how Maschine+ is coping. A 64GB SD card is included as additional storage to carry sounds to/from your computer, and the SD slot is compatible with cards up to 1TB. Whizzing around the navigation and loading up projects and instruments are commendably quick, however, don’t expect it to match your $6k Mac Pro. Loading projects took some time for me. 

MASCHINE LEARNING

Nine instruments are pre-loaded into Maschine+ to get you making noise right out of the box. NI calls the 24GB bundle Maschine+ Selection and it also includes 35 effects and seven Expansions. There’s a wide variety of sounds in here, thanks to beastly instruments like Massive, Monark, Prism, FM8 and more. The Maschine Factory Library alone was enough to keep me perusing for ages.

Connect the device to your Native Access account via Wi-Fi and it’ll wirelessly install your personal library of expansion packs and select Komplete plug-ins. Note: if you want to use the full gamut of your NKS instruments/loops/effects/plug-ins, you’ll need to use Maschine+ in Controller Mode (ie. not standalone).

Two USB ports allow you to connect to a computer (in the aforementioned Controller Mode) or external MIDI controllers such as a keyboard. The former means Maschine+ can function just like its PC-reliant sibling in partnership with Maschine software. It’s also a cool way of bringing your Maschine+ project into a computer for integration with a DAW. The latter means you can have physical keys to play synths while using Maschine+’s pads to play drums. Neat.

MAKING BEATS

Native Instruments hasn’t messed with the workflow. If you’re at all accustomed to working with a Maschine controller, Maschine+ will feel right at home under your fingertips. The 16 backlit pads are ultra playable and operate in four modes (Pad/Keyboard/Chord/Step) for inputting notes. Sifting through the plethora of sounds is lightning fast thanks to NI’s category- and tag-based filtering via the encoders. The whole experience really keeps your head in the creative zone – I had a blast dialling up a drum kit one sound at a time and perfecting each sample with the many processing options available. Don’t forget the macros for each instrument are auto-mapped to the encoders; an easy way to sweep broad brushstroke flavours across an instrument or sample without diving too deep.

Maschine+ will also happily talk to all your outboard synths and drum machines via MIDI, turning it into the control nexus of a larger hardware setup. Play and sequence your favourite analogue gear from the familiar Maschine+ surface. 16 channels of MIDI means the sky is the limit here. You can even record the results using the line inputs.

Once your tune has shaped up, Maschine+ is well equipped to take it to the stage. All the usual performance controls are there. The Smart Strip ribbon feels great to use and is easily assignable to whatever form of craziness (or subtlety) you choose via the Perform option. With the new Clips features you can arrange your sequences into the perfect order and add or tweak the transitions to make smooth songs and sets.

A pair of line inputs and a TS microphone input allow you bring audio into Maschine+ from the outside world. (How nice would’ve an XLR mic input have been?) Once inside, you can slice the audio up, run it through effects, or just generally mangle it to your heart’s content. The sampling section is nicely appointed – I love the way it cascades over both screens letting you stretch, squeeze, chop and dice audio as if it were putty in your hands.

ALL YOU NEED?

Maybe you’re new to the Maschine world and Maschine+ has perked your interest. Be prepared to be overwhelmed at first. It’s quite literally like learning a new DAW from scratch or learning how to drive. But once the muscle memory develops it’s insanely fun. It’s pure joy sitting on the couch with nothing but the Maschine+ and a pair of headphones tinkering endlessly. If you can swing the $2k price tag, Maschine+ won’t leave you with an ounce of regret.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Recording a solo acoustic song with the SSL 2+ was an absolute blast – you’ve got to love the simplicity of a plug ’n’ play box without excess electronics or DSP distractions. Basic five-stage metering on each input is sufficient to set mic gain, which, by the way, is plentiful and clean. The Monitor Mix knob (takes me back to the MBox days) lets you dial in a desired balance between your DAW output and interface inputs, with a Stereo button to pan stereo sources hard left/right.

Onto the prized jewel of the 2+; the preamps. Why else would anyone buy an SSL interface if not for the promise of that classic, punchy, in-your-face character over all your recordings? SSL knows this, which is why the preamps on the 2+ feature a 4K button designed to mimic the sound of the SSL 4000 series console. A 4000 Series preamp hasn’t been copy/pasted into the 2+ but SSL states the 4K switch uses the same components to amplify the high frequencies and add subtle harmonic distortion.

In testing, the difference it makes is far from subtle. Comparing double-taked recordings with 4K on and off revealed a substantial treble boost which in turn tightens the lows and generally sizzles up the track with hints of distortion as the input level increases. Similar to the ‘Air’ switch on Focusrite interfaces, the 4K option matches certain sources better than others. For example the high end boost thinned out a shaker track too much but introduced a sophisticated-sounding sheen and aggression to male vocals. With 4K disengaged, the SSL 2+ preamps still have character and are robust, perfectly capable of being an all-round pre for the majority of acoustic sources. They have a rich and creamy sound that, in my tests, stacked very well and responded favourably to all manner of EQ and compression. I see myself using the 4K emulation as a nice fairydust sprinkle on a lifeless instrument but I fear that running all your tracks through it will sum into overly pronounced highs. Note that it acts on DI and line inputs as well.

Monitoring with the SSL 2+ has its ups and downs. The hefty knob is entirely ergonomic but I’d have liked to see at least a Mute button, or even better, Mute and Dim buttons. As it stands, going between headphones and monitors requires a big twist of the blue knob each time. Sonically, the conversion is nothing to rave about. Admittedly, comparing it with my Antelope Audio Zen Tour isn’t fair but the lack of detail and zest afforded by quality conversion is all too apparent in the SSL 2+.

PRE-REQUISITES

The best feature of the SSL 2+ are those preamps. They’re a noticeable step up from most onboard interface varieties, with the bonus of having a dash of SSL vibe from that 4K button. Otherwise, the SSL 2 and 2+ aren’t going to win any feature-driven or software freebie contest.

It will be the preamps that win the day for songwriters and producers with modest I/O requirements who are after a no-fuss, uncomplicated, bus-powered interface to lay down ideas. It also makes a great portable interface for tracking overdubs or living room vocals through the capable preamp. And perhaps most obviously, it’s aimed directly at those starting out on their recording journey who don’t want a limited budget to limit the quality of their recordings.