- Sound Quality
- Ease of use
- Features
- Bang for buck
- Overall:
Waves SSL 4000 Collection Plug-in Suite at a Glance: Glue your mix together with the G-Master Bus Compressor Two iconic channel strips modeled in detail G-Equalizer is a workhorse EQ for any application. Glue your mix together with the G-Master Bus Compressor.
Like so many other people that are into music production, when I buy a CD (yes it sounds better than iTunes so I still do it), the first thing I do is pop it in my car stereo and read the liner notes while listening to the first few songs. And it never fails, if in the first 30 seconds I think 'wow that sounds good', it is almost always mixed by someone like Ben Grosse, or CLA who use an SSL. Having been a studio owner for about 7 years now and having a good number of my mixes commercially released, it has always frustrated me that I could never get 'that sound'. The only thing that I can think to call it is 'bite'. SSL 4000's have an aggressive quality that in my opinion nothing else has, And thats where the waves bundle comes in. I decided to pull the trigger and buy the 4000 bundle out of frustration, not that my mixes were not good, but they never had the flavor that I was looking for. After installing the bundle I opened up a session that was waiting for me to mix and slapped a few E Channels on the Kick and Snare top channels, and fell in love. All that bite and color that I never had was instantly there. The EQ in the E Channel is very aggressive, almost adding a hint of pleasant distortion when the highs or mids are pushed. The compressor on the E Channel is very handy and easily dialed in, as is the on board gate/expander. There is an input and output gain controls and a phase switch. Sweepable high, and low pass filters, along with sweepable high, high/mid, low/mid, and low filters make for a powerfull EQ all in the same plug. Adjustable Q on the mid filters, and bell or shelf settings on the high and low filters make it even more usefull. The G Channel is more or less the same setup, with a much cleaner, un-colored sound. The SSL Master bus comp is included and is a fantastic sounding compressor on anything you throw at it.
At first I was a little taken back by the fact that there was no graphic display of the EQ curve that was effecting the audio, but then I realized that I had been partially relying on my eyes to mix... Not a good thing.
My first mixes with the SSL bundle were in some ways the best I've ever done. They make you rely on your ear instead of your eyes and your ears to mix. The mixes done with the SSL channel strips had more space around each track in the final mix than I was used to, which is a good thing in my mind.
Will these plugs make your mixes better? Yes and no. No because you are still mixing, they are not a magic wand and you still have to turn the knobs and make them work. But if you mix in the box and have been missing that bite and color than these are WELL worth the cash. The fact that I had to rely more on my ears was a great eye opener, and my mixes were instantly better because of it. Happy Mixing!!!