Review: Mixing a Song Using Only SSL (Solid State Logic) Plugins

In this video, I review the Solid State Logic (SSL) subscription plugin bundle. I evaluate what’s good and what is missing from this plugin bundle. The usefulness, as an audio mixing tool for these plugins is evaluated to find the strengths and weaknesses of this plugin bundle and whether or not it is a good value for the consumer, especially when faced with competition from several professional audio plugin companies.

The devices evaluated include: SSL Native X-Echo, SSL Fusion Vintage Drive, SSL Fusion Stereo Image, SSL Native X-EQ 2, SSL LMC+, SSL Native Channel Strip 2, SSL Native Bus Compressor 2, SSL Native Drumstrip, SSL Native Vocalstrip 2, SSL Native X-Comp, SSL Native FlexVerb, SSL Native X-Saturator, SSL Native X-Phase, & SSL Native Valve Comp.

My criteria for evaluating each subscription bundle are as follows:
What are the strengths of these bundled plugins?
What are the weaknesses, what’s missing or needs to be supplemented to be a complete solution?
Who is the target audience for this subscription?
Can an entire song be mixed using only this Bundle?
Do I think that it’s a good value?

So Who do I think is the Target Audience for this Subscription?
This plugin bundle is designed for the serious audio engineer or music producer. It actually sounds like you are mixing on an analog recording console.

Can an Entire Song Be Mixed with this Bundle?
Absolutely. The only real tools that I found were missing in order to be a complete solution would be pitch correction, like Antares Autotune (Auto-tune). As well as some digital tools like an audio exciter.

Do I think this Subscription Bundle is a good value?
This pricing seems to be on par with other plugin companies. Some have more plugins, but most of them are not as usable as the plugins found with this bundle.

Hopefully you’ve found this information helpful. Stay tuned for more audio subscription bundle reviews. I’ll try to post a new one every week, so if you know of one you want me to get to, leave a comment below, or just let me know what your thoughts are.

This video was written, edited, and produced by Lorne Bregitzer, an Associate Professor for the University of Colorado.