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is ssl duende worth it


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Had a buddy of mine who got one, and then returned it. He said that it was a difficult unit to get used to .... then he got the Waves SSL plugin and loved it.

FWIW .... I would like to know how this unit works w/Logic too.

For a while I was interested in it myself.

Sorry I couldn't have been more helpful!

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I saw on here that Dave said that the UAD neve is pretty sweet. How much does that thing run?

 

It is really interesting that your friend liked the SSL waves plugin better. It is modeled right?

 

I LOVE the SSL channel strip setting on my liquid channel. Deffinitely sounds similar to the SSL I've used in the past tho kind of hard to tell without the tanoy monitors:)

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From what I hear about the AUD card: it is the cats meow! I haven't heard anybody complain about it (if that says anything!). It can run up to $2000 if you want every plugin UA has to offer. But there are packages to choose from.

As for the SSL plugins: it's a Waves product! Knowing them, I'd say it will be pretty darn accurate to the real thing. That's just my opinion, though!

Take care!

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And you'll have to buy three or four UAD cards in order to run anything near the number of plugs you could run natively on a powerful machine. UAD plugs sound great but their DSP card is very old. True they have light versions of several plugs to save on their DSP. But the ones that you really want to run are the ones that sound good and you just can't get enough instances of those using 1 card.

 

Only my opinion but at this point in time I would advise against investing in UAD. Wait and see if they come out with a new card soon or if they write native version of their plugs.

 

There are currently so many great native plugs that there is no reason not to go that route. Sonnox and Sonalksis are two producers that offer excellent packages if you want just great sounding plugs that don't emulate anything in particular. Otherwise if you want something that sounds like the tried-and-true days of old, Waves SSL and API bundles and any of the URS stuff can't be beat.

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And you'll have to buy three or four UAD cards in order to run anything near the number of plugs you could run natively on a powerful machine. UAD plugs sound great but their DSP card is very old. True they have light versions of several plugs to save on their DSP. But the ones that you really want to run are the ones that sound good and you just can't get enough instances of those using 1 card.

 

Only my opinion but at this point in time I would advise against investing in UAD. Wait and see if they come out with a new card soon or if they write native version of their plugs.

 

There are currently so many great native plugs that there is no reason not to go that route. Sonnox and Sonalksis are two producers that offer excellent packages if you want just great sounding plugs that don't emulate anything in particular. Otherwise if you want something that sounds like the tried-and-true days of old, Waves SSL and API bundles and any of the URS stuff can't be beat.

 

I have 2 Uad-1 cards and the plug-ins are spectacular. Along with my Sonaksis plus they are the ones I use most.

 

There are 2 important strategies for using them well with Logic.

 

1. Don't use them until the mix stage. This is fine for an old school guy like me but I understand it is a disadvantage to a serious "mix as you go" person.

 

2. Save the really demanding ones, Neve comp, 1073, for what is important to have it or freeze tracks, and use the others more liberally. The new Neve channel strip btw sounds great and is not that taxing. Once again, having come from a world where we had to use limited hardware wisely this is not a big deal for me.

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I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner:

In the July issue of Electronic Musician, there is a review of the Duende.

The guy that did the review was running a 3Ghz Quad Mac Pro w/ Digital Performer (I think). the reason that I mention this is he is (at least) using our type of machine!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh yeah....one thing...

 

If you are (by any chance) an MLAN user or firewire.....Get rid of that before installing Duende. I even got rid of my fw lacie drive and had it replaced by a usb lacie hd.

 

Besides that...Duende kicks ass! Just don't forget to turn it off when you are audio recording! Just put it on in the mixing stage and you are good to go! :lol:

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II can only think of one downside...and that is the price of the extra plugin (Drumstrip) SSL raised their price even before it came out (after three delays)

 

But....you will do fine with the 'normal' duende, the compressor is really really good. I have mixed a song for a client yesterday and put some on the kick and we were blown away :!: :!: :!:

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