Recreate the Unique Sound of the SSL 9000J Console!

hi everybody I hope you're staying safe you're happy you're healthy and you're doing marvelously well we've got an exciting one here because maybe it was a year or two ago I tried out the brain works SSL plugins for the first time and I threatened to use them in an SSL situation what do I mean by that well if you see over here I have a lovely SSL 4000 and now they've released SSL and 9000 J which many of you probably know as being one of this sort of ultimate R&B pop hip-hop mixing consoles of all time when they came out I think in the mid 90s through like mid 2000s pretty much everything was mixed on those I remember Marc ender moving from a 4000 to a 9000 I remember he mixed a fry album for us with the 9000 so this is a very exciting plugin for me so I'm going to use it on the end of a chain of my da W and mirror what would happen on the SSL but this is the 9000 which has a very very unique much cleaner sound to it so I'm very excited to hear what we're gonna get [Music] so two great things about this is number one Michael Brauer helped in the development of this which is fantastic he's mixed a whole bunch of Records for me one of which of course being the second freight album which he absolutely killed that records sound phenomenal so thank you Michael to that so it's exciting that he is involved in this it gives it a lot of credibility a lot of jitter maseeh but also gives it really good ears that are used to a 9j and we'll know how close this is so that makes me excited to hear secondly they're giving away ten copies of this ten copies so you've got a chance to enter to win ten you've got a really good chance of winning this so please enter to win one of ten copies so reading the blurb here it says the plugin was created using the original solid state logic 9000 J schematics was built using component modeling with the assistance of SSL engineer so it's completely done with SSL's blessing and SSL's help features original eq dynamics and filter sections with plugin only enhancements by brainworks engineers gives you the unique brainworks features such as changing THD and v gain across all plugin instances so total harmonic distortion in the virtual game so we can double check that in a second list the help of michael brauer to test and match against his ssl 9000 j console shorted out against the console he uses at all times which is great and features powerful presets created by Michael ok now many people make SSL plugins and there's some really great ones out there what we have going on here is channel emulations and i believe there are 72 of them so it's not just a channel strip as it were it is 72 different emulations of a console so it's emulating 72 different strips the thing is in the world of analog no matter how you shake it every single piece of analog equipment it's going to sound ever so slightly different it's not digital it's not an exact replication so it gives consoles kind of an advantage because there's going to be all those different pieces of random those Rana fiying as we like to say so this plug-in is doing it for you if I click here from 1 to 2 to 3 for you there is risk through it 72 different variations of this so we can just open this up and put it anywhere we randomly like so I'll go to 42 just for the heck of it what I'm going to do is I'm going to open up a base channel here and putting this the end of my base auxilary and this is the channel strip that's going to be on the base so summer listen [Music] first thing I did was just bring the input gain down just a little bit I mean I smashed the shnizzle out of my my console but I'm just gonna for the sake of not seeing the overload red light so I'm just going to bring it down slightly that is kind of a nice sound if you want to hear what it sounds like destroyed have a listen [Music] that's cool isn't it you also have a fader here which is really nice so anyway we've randomly picked channel 42 let us do a little bit of high passing [Music] so once you go out to 45 the high and low pass function on SSL especially the 9000 is second to none listen to how effective this is I'm going to take this control here and wind it up [Music] so for nothing else alone the high and low pass is frickin spectacular so I'm gonna low pass the base at about 5k I don't need any more clique eNOS above that [Music] I got 46 on the back so maybe 45 now I'm gonna go down here on the EQ and I'm gonna grab about 80 ish and boost that [Music] bringing the gain down a bit next time now I'm starting to add a lot of level [Music] there's something about that SSL sound that kind of I don't know how to explain it it's just a nice Sheen that it almost has it's probably the wrong word but that's what I'm using [Music] I'm sending it to a fast release time the ratio 3 2 1 [Music] [Music] [Music] it's really controlling that high-end really nicely it's got a lot to do with the high and low parsing and the focus on it but I can bring in some of that mid-range so if I go down to 7 800 [Music] nice [Music] so what I like is it's a more focused version of what I want so it's got that I want that attack but I don't want too much at the high end so have a listen to what's what this sir the 9j is done [Music] [Music] it's definitely more consistent it's more focused and that high-end click click click click click which sort of messes with my ears and I'm not sure what it's supposed to be has been removed with low passing and with the boost of the mid-range about 700 and about 1k ish fat yeah and that's really yeah 1 1 and 770 and then a lot of boost at about 80 but also a high passing at 45 so I'm now got this therm a low-end round that's really really really nice that's sort of focused and control of high and high-end low-end and just the way that the compression works that gives you a really really controlled sound because remember most compressors don't have auto gain functions built into them they may have a button to do it the SSL does it for you it does all the clever thinking for you it's always been fantastic I can just push into compression but keep my mix the way I want it to be because yes SL is smart and does that work for you so listen to the drums one of the things that I love about my SSL what I love about the 9js and frankly is the sound of SSL is the way the compression works so I let's just play this back and bring in the compression pretty quickly [Music] [Music] getting that right spot on the attack so I hear a bit more that Papa [Music] I'm not gonna be afraid to high-pass it a little bit because it focuses the low-end so much you come up to 33 but I'm boosting really heavily at 57 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I mean it's got a very sophisticated SSL kind of Papa this too it doesn't it just works great [Music] now on our squash bus here which I do often on the console is I have a parallel bus it's it's I've copied over those setting but it's get a little bit more aggressive [Music] [Music] together [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's amazing you know how they captured that characteristic of the ssl it's it immediately sounds like it's going through my console now I have a four thousand so it gets a little dirtier and I'm probably could back this off just a little bit you know you can see I'm pushing it super hard but that's honestly I don't think the SSL comes to life until you hit it quite hard doesn't mean you should be like having a red light on solidly and but this is something about smashing an SSL that just sounds musical so it's put on the end of our acoustics [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so now putting on the end of my vocal chain [Music] [Applause] we [Music] I selected channel 5 I mean I could sit there and figure out what's gonna be one what's going to be 2 whatever but this is how I mix I'll get my vocal settings and I'll go through the console and typically I'm getting quite bright on it so let's do that [Music] something about high-end on SSL which is quite remarkable if I go to 10k here and boost it 3 or 4 dB [Music] [Applause] [Music] I mean that's the SSL isn't that's silky-smooth I say all all of the reviews when it comes to SSL silky smooth high-end I mean it is it's really really smooth you know a lot of people design plugins will they'll take like the EQ the high end from one thing the low end and the mid-range from others and there's a reason I mean SSL have the sweetest high end so I boosted her voice on like 7k and 10 a couple of DB and each [Music] [Applause] [Music] take it [Music] [Applause] [Music] I mean that base is so consistent almost too much it's almost too good I feel like I want to back it down just a little bit on the boost all right so now I have a guy vocal song Robert John on the wreck good loving [Music] so let's try it on the snare bus here okay so let's listen to the snare with no compression and EQ yet so in bypass [Music] let's try the expander first so we have a loop section here the expander solar cells are just so good the 9000 is greater for thousands great it's just I don't know what kind of magic and voodoo is in there but it just I'm getting a little lost because this sounds like an SSL I mean I've been using this SSL which is also written Lee a $4,000 9000 for about 10 years now just in this location and I know what it does and it's so quick and easy to get a sound that I like bypass some compressional I pass a bit the body on the bottom 7k [Music] overloading it like crazy but it sounds fantastic oh let's find a random number channels nine and ten and stereo just crank the total harmonic distortion there down maximum so the digital mode means that I can have the channels be exact so if I bring there there C nine and nine so basically the left and right exactly the same channel so that identical hence digital I'm going around look I like things being slightly wrong [Music] [Music] [Music] so I brought it down there just to see if there's any clipping I'll bring it up on here [Music] okay so I've put like some crazy mid-range in here much exaggerating that ring shift really upset [Music] [Music] it's really interesting is I never boost that but inside of the drum sound it sounds fantastic [Music] [Music] [Music] it's interesting with SSL's I would do all kinds of craziness that I absolutely love when it's inside of the track I can just have fun [Music] it's super aggressive on the expander which I would never logically do with individual plugins but because this is how I treat my ass or cell it works it's a completely different way of thinking it's because I'm emulating using a console I'm getting a little lost in this and I feel like I'm tweaking my own console [Music] it's pretty awesome I mean it's really a bratty bratty sound it's not super clean it's not really super pop R&B at all it's quite disgusting in a really cool way which is what I love about it I've got just a little bit of boost their tiny bit of 500 believe it or not which is actually exaggerating the ring but I like it a ton of boosts at about a hundred and then a tiny bit of 7k and that's it but the expanders super aggressive and I seem to be really liking what it does because in the context of the whole drum kit it's splatty and disgusting but the reverb that's that's being sent to it and the rest of the room mics sort of bounce it out in solo I might not like that snare sound but inside of the kit I absolutely love it that basically sounds like what the drumkit sounded like in the room all right let's take that very dull sounding guitar and go for it [Music] the low-mid boost is so good listen to that turn it off [Music] you know people say this but yes that EQ is musical [Music] [Music] okay done I've done some low passing here about six seven K I've done some high passing here at about 120 yet 120 and I boosted a shnizzle ton of to 230 I've done a little bit of a cut at 2k a quite a big boost at about five and a double boost at about four and a half there so I tend to do that [Music] let's get to the base [Music] I do think the low-end on the nine might be a little nicer than the four in a way it's always been the high mids and the high-end on SSL's which you typically you know feel like it's like giving you kind of that you know shimmer and that's this has got that in abundance but I I'm not heard the low-end be quite so nice [Music] bypassed in [Music] like that [Music] [Music] adding tons of energy to the mix really really nice [Music] [Music] fantastic well great work brain works very reminiscent now I've only mixed a couple of Records on that 9000 J it's the 4000 has been living in my studio now for about ten years here and I know it intimately and I know how to hard to push it the 9j I can definitely hear a lot more fullness in that low-end the low-end is pretty darn special so last thing wanna try is just see if we can get some real ultra low end out of that kick so we're just gonna take all of the kick elements this is no EQ no compression on it's going to use its trade well [Music] low ends great it's very musical [Music] [Music] I'm smashing it but it sounds good [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] great low-end really really good low-end that's something that the nine has that's really just maybe it has the edge on the four I love what I like about the 4000 as I can like I said earlier I can hit it super super hard and the harder I hit it the better I guess you know the old red light cut well not the old light red light pretty much every transient when it goes red I'm happy with its when that red light stays on it doesn't actually distort so much as gets spongy sounding but this I was smashing pretty hard there and I really liked it in the low end kept full so it's pretty darn good so great great work thank you brain works thank you michael brauer for being involved in it and of course don't forget you can enter to win one of ten copies of this plugin which is huge so don't forget to hit the link down the bottom there to enter to win a copy of brain works it's SSL 9000 J plugin when you try it and if you've been using it during the video leave us a bunch of comments and questions below have a Marvis time recording a mixing we'll see you all again very very soon [Music] [Applause] you [Music]

Channel: Produce Like A Pro

Views: 71,282

Keywords: Warren Huart, Produce Like A Pro, Home studio, Home recording, Recording Audio, Music Production, Record Producer, Recording Studio, Plugin Alliance, Plugin Alliance BX Console SSL9000, Giveaway, Plugin Review, SSL Plugins

Id: VSRsl8LNOpM

Length: 32min 48sec (1968 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 08 2020