Ableton Forum

not that i could afford it...

any Ableton user's heard (sound wise) or have used SSL Duende? opinions?

just curious

I have zero experience with real SSL consoles but when I went to the local music store, it was pretty nice to see and hear it in action. The sales guy a/b'd some strange funk/jazz mix and without it the mix was pretty stale. Just with modest compression and eq curves, the tracks seemed to not occupy any unwanted space. Better separation, I guess you would say. I compared it with the Liquid Mix and the Duende was 200% better.
Didn't try it in Live, though I'd love to have a rock-solid 32 channels of eq/dynamics with my setup.

ultrasource wrote:I compared it with the Liquid Mix and the Duende was 200% better.
.

dont tell Roach808 that, holla!!!!

Contra wrote:

ultrasource wrote:I compared it with the Liquid Mix and the Duende was 200% better.
.

dont tell Roach808 that, holla!!!!

lol, no shit i could have told u that. its actually SSL compression not emulations of it.

altho, i am quite happy with my liquid mix but i know i shall be happier when i have the duende to go with it.

guess I'll go venture out to my nearest dealer and check out the sound too,
maybe if i get "hooked" it will be an incentive to actually finish projects, songs, etc.

Caymus Cab wrote:guess I'll go venture out to my nearest dealer and check out the sound too,
maybe if i get "hooked" it will be an incentive to actually finish projects, songs, etc.

whatever brings home the butter.

Caymus Cab wrote:not that i could afford it...

any Ableton user's heard (sound wise) or have used SSL Duende? opinions?

just curious

Yes, its far better than the "Waves SSL" Suite etc... Better bottom end and compression all around. Draw back is only 32 Mono/Vs/16 Stereo instances of it up. Otherwise its flawless.. If your real hyped on a solid "mix' with the money to spend its the way to go... If you need all kinds of help on a mix via different plugs/inserts, think about a UAD card instead.

JACKAL & HYDE wrote:

Caymus Cab wrote:not that i could afford it...

any Ableton user's heard (sound wise) or have used SSL Duende? opinions?

just curious

Yes, its far better than the "Waves SSL" Suite etc... Better bottom end and compression all around. Draw back is only 32 Mono/Vs/16 Stereo instances of it up. Otherwise its flawless.. If your real hyped on a solid "mix' with the money to spend its the way to go... If you need all kinds of help on a mix via different plugs/inserts, think about a UAD card instead.

me me memememe me me me me meeee

i am thinking of getting a duende, but i have a question first: it is limited to 32 instances of the plugins, but is it 32 MONO instances?
how do the units behave on stereo track? does it take 2 slots?

another Q: i'm not really interested in the cards DSPs, as i have a lot of CPU headroom. is there any cheaper alternative to the duende in this case?

thanks

duende with the drum comp/plug/thingy is what it WILL be for me.

There is the little part of the 1800'ish bucks for it.........

I believe it's 32 mono tracks......if I'm not mistaken.......and at 48k it goes to 16 and at 96 it goes to 8.............or am I confusing it with other fw load plugs?

32 mono instances.

dont get it

its loaded with bugs when it comes to Ableton.

plugins sometimes dont remember settings when loading projects

renders are crackly

few little things like that which render it pretty useless for heavy duty work and recall.

sound quality is amazing

really?
that's weird.
is it a known issue, or is only happening with your setup?
are there any other user experiencing problems?

I've heard many reports that that Waves SSL bundle sounds just as good, if not better, although it depends on your computer's cpu, unlike Duende. Personal taste I suppose...

eyeknow wrote: There is the little part of the 1800'ish bucks for it.........

I think that's way too much for a dsp unit. With computers getting faster and more powerful, I don't really understand the need for a separate dsp hardware. For 1800, you could almost get a MacPro.

UAD and Duendo are just trying to hold on to their hardware dsp business model. I wonder how these companies will evolve in the future. I assume at some point they are going to go all software, or they are going to significantly reduce their prices.

As soon as Live/Logic/etc... start completely utilizing all 4, or 8 cores in the MacPro, the need for an external dsp is going to be eradicated. At some point, people are more interested in the plugins that UAD/Deundo provide, not the hardware.