This looks interesting: SSL Duende

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:31 am

http://www.solid-state-logic.com/music/duende_home.html

Site says it works with DP.

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:02 pm

Someone posted that in passing last week when we were in the middle of the "Refuting the external analog mixer theory" thread. Indeed, I think it looks interesting and deserves its own thread. And I wonder if we're going to see Neve plugins, or Otari, Trident, etc. If there is a certain sound to be obtained from summing externally, why not bring that sound ITB? Isn't that basically what this is doing? Of course, technically it's expanding the box with another box, but it's still ITB, because there are no analog connections.

Shooshie

MattC · Post by **MattC** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:45 pm

I agree - very interesting, although I'd want to let it go around the block once and see what people think. Thus far, a lot of "emulation" plug-ins have seemed to fall a little short, but I wonder if that's partially because of the compromises necessary to allow them to be hosted on the computer. Maybe a set of plug-ins that ship with their own host could be more efficient, more powerful, and more accurate in their emmulation. I'd certainly be interested to hear from anyone who tries this system!

Matt

gseibert · Post by **gseibert** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 7:57 pm

Since it's emulating the C200, which is a digital console, then theoretically, it should be a completely accurate emulation. The question then becomes, how does the C200 sound? If I recall correctly the C200 is the SSL digital console targeted for post production work. Sort of like the Waves expander box stuff, or the Powercore firewire.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:52 pm

No doubt, Dunede looks very tempting. Looking over the site, I noticed that such interfaces as the MOTU 2408 or any of the Apogee devices are not mentioned, although the 828 and the HD192 seemed to have made the cut.

I'd also be curious to know exactly what's inside the box. This is a new product, and any manufacturer will claim top shelf performance, but I've yet to see anything that comes closer than 50% or so. At this price range, they really need to make more info about it available.

In the same breath, if this thing does just what it says it will do it could open up a whole new avenue to DAW signal processing. I like my UAD-1, for example, but even that only goes *so far*. I wish I had a real Oxford EQ or a real 1176, but there's nothing like the real deal.

I can't help but to wonder if Duende is really *that* good..

I hope so.

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:57 am

It had better be *that* good, at $1,599.97! That's the street price. Sweetwater's price. Suggested retail is $1,899.00.

Of course, when I put it in context of the DX7IIFD-E! that I bought in 1988, it doesn't seem so bad. But it had better deliver some value at this price, and not just a bit of coloration easily achievable with some careful EQ and compression.

That brings up an idea. Do you suppose one could take a Duende unit and reverse engineer it using some good plugins? The basic parameters include:

Reverb
EQ
Compression/expansion/gating
Stereo enhancement
Dithering

Best I can tell, this only does the middle three; possibly only EQ and Compression. Can that be so hard to emulate? Could whatever this box does be worth $1900? The sound originates elsewhere, and returns elsewhere, meaning that at best, this is just a filter. I'd be very curious to see if I could reverse-engineer the sound. It's hard to believe that there could be a box that does something that is not achievable with the many great plugins at our disposal.

Shooshie

azusa749a · Post by **azusa749a** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 1:35 pm

There's a remix competition and the price is a Duende.

Shock the Monkey.
http://www.realworldremixed.com/competition.php

Check it out.

chrispick · Post by **chrispick** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 1:47 pm

azusa749a wrote:There's a remix competition and the price is a Duende.

Shock the Monkey.
http://www.realworldremixed.com/competition.php

Check it out.

The price is Duende or the reward is?

Peter Gabriel owns SSL now, doesn't he? Or at least some majority stake?

azusa749a · Post by **azusa749a** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 1:48 pm

Oops, it's the prize.

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 5:49 pm

Frodo wrote:I'd also be curious to know exactly what's inside the box. This is a new product, and any manufacturer will claim top shelf performance, but I've yet to see anything that comes closer than 50% or so. At this price range, they really need to make more info about it available.

If you pull the manual it lists the tech specs. 4 - 333 Mhz 40bit Sharc DSP Chips. ARM 7 Risc processor (main CPU)