SSL SiX Desktop Mixer

For most professional engineers the name ‘SSL’ (Solid State Logic) conjures up a heady blend of sonic excellence and commercial success, based on their legendary large-format consoles. The SSL sound was, and to a large degree still is, the sound of big-time hit records across the world. If you’re listening to current commercial Hip Hop, RnB, Rap or Pop, there’s a good chance you’re listening to the sound of an SSL console.

With manufacturing based in sunny Oxfordshire, England, the price of entry was never cheap, but over the years the company has done its best to cater for well-heeled owner/operators with the streamlined yet powerful Matrix line. For the budget-conscious, the X-Desk and Sigma models offered stripped back feature sets with high-calibre back-end summing. With the rise and rise of the DAW-based home studio and the drop in recording budgets across the industry, SSL have responded by establishing a second manufacturing base in China, allowing them to bring a new suite of budget-conscious designs to market. The SSL SiX ‘minimixer’ (I have to call it that because it’s too petite to refer to even as a ‘mixer’) is an interesting offering that has been brought to market below the magical US$2000 mark, and aims to give the masses a taste of big-time SSL magic.

ALL ABOARD

So what is this ‘SSL magic’ we speak of? Is it the sound of the channel EQ with its powerful tone-sculpting capabilities and pleasing top-end fizz? Could it be the wallop of the famed mix bus compressor? Perhaps it’s the channel dynamics, or the happy accident that the talk-back compressor begs to have drums smashed through it? Maybe it’s the musicality and high headroom of the mix bus itself? I suspect these are all questions that the boffins at SSL asked themselves repeatedly when designing the SiX. Going by its layout and feature-set, it seems they’ve decided that the ‘SSL magic’ is, in fact, all of the above. By means of some