Karen is the person who taught me how to use my SSL console in my studio here in Decatur, Alabama. I couldn't help but be wowed again, even with the technology being terribly outdated, it's just so neat to see it at work again.
@@MikeBaas I understand it, and know it like the back of my hand. My studio was one of the absolute first studios to record digitally. I helped design and test the first DAWs. Kurt Cobain recorded a couple of guitar tracks in my studio, which forced the Nevermind album to be recorded digitally in a DAW, at Sound City. It was extremely slow to record digitally in a DAW, back then. In some ways it was better than modern DAW digital recording; just extremely slow. For those reasons: rare, misunderstood, and outdated. It would take a year to record a modern album, where they record each track separately, and have around 40 to a hundred or more tracks per song. That's why it's outdated. It is an amazing console, you just couldn't run a professional studio with it. You could definitely use it in a home studio, or just to get a song started; but it would slow you down too much if you were trying to run a business with it, as your only console.
The work done in this video is SO important. I'm a DAW baby, have never touched a console. I use software emulations of this and other consoles all the time. This is literally the first time I've seen a real working ssl in action and I am so very humbled. I love that Karen is so patient and concise with her explanation of all the features. This really is world class instruction and we're getting it for free in a TH-cam video. Wow. Thank you so much for putting this together. I would love to see you break down workflows of other consoles and tape setups.
If you've never gotten hands on a console I'd highly suggest messing around with even a smaller mixer. Particularly if you don't have a ton of analog outputs on your interface, having physical busses, plenty of sends/returns, and some added analog summing is awesome. Something like a Mackie 16 channel will always be welcome in my setup. Back before there were a million high quality, reasonably priced, high channel count interfaces available most home studios had a small Yamaha/Mackie etc. to help out.
I am kind of in the middle. At home of course I use DAWs since I cannot afford a console but I've tracked and mixed at studios with SSL and API consoles. I knew about the total recall system and used some times but I never imagined how much automation it could do ON TAPE!! That's absolutely genius.
Damn. Absolutely mind-blowing for a 23 year old producer. We have it so easy today! this technology was fascinating. I now see where the backwards tape sound comes from haha.
Love Karen to bits, had the pleasure of her help, knowledge and experience when I worked in the industry. No matter what problem I had, Karen always had the answer. :)
We’ve come so far, so fast! SOS…Please do more of these kind of Documentaries. TH-cam is fantastic for a new generation of audio engineers, but it lacks the kind of historical context that’s needed for them to understand why the new tools work the way they do. For example, It still amazes me how much SSL is in ProTools. And how much ProTools is in Every Other DAW.
Fast for some of you, for many of us it’s been a 40 year slog watching massively incremental changes. In my experience, especially the past 5 years, “engineers” don’t care how something got to where it’s at, history is irrelevant to them, they just push buttons. It’s why I don’t really consider most modern engineers as engineers, they’re more administrators. The current under 25 generation seems to believe nothing existed prior to them, almost zero concept of the past or history, nor do they care.
@c1ph3rpunk Not sure if I agree or disagree with you more. I agree that it's all about perspective. And that there are Pros and Cons to today's landscape. However, on net the Pros blow the Cons completely out of the water. While it's true that the democratization of Pro Audio has led to an amateurization within the community, because there's infinitely more people playing this game, there's undoubtedly way more Professionals than ever before. And those Pros have access to So many more resources than was even imaginable back when SSLs were bumping Neves out of control rooms across the planet. One example: I work hybrid and have a ton of Analog gear right along side a ton of digital (both algorithm and convolution). But I invested in the Console 1 system from the beginning (when it was made in Sweden and dropped from $1,150 to $999). They then moved manufacturering to China and dropped the price to $500 AND made it control my UAD Console & plugins as well as if Softube and Universal Audio were 1 company. Over the years I've accumulated all of the channel strips from both companies, but if you were to go today and buy it all at full price you'd spend $5-6Gs......for emulations of Millions-of-dollars worth of the best gear ever made. Go to Sweetwater or Vintage King and tell me what Analog gear you can buy for that money. I don't mean to imply that this is about money or that $5-10,000 isn't a lot of it. But when I started Recording Studios might as well have been nuclear power plants and now an M1 laptop, a copy of Reaper, and an endless supply of FREE plugins can compete with the best studios in the world. (And they do. Check the sales, downloads, streams, and Grammys.) Where we agree (ish) is that the tools don't make the engineer. I often wonder if I was 14 again (when I started), and had All the things I have now, how would I Know what I know now. That said, coming full circle, the learning resources have also grown exponentially. Hence this TH-cam channel among many others. When I started, (and when that SSL Reigned Supreme), there was no Internet. I spent my time sneaking into places I didn't belong, and at the public library reading every (maybe a dozen) book, and most importantly every Magazine on the subject. So as to perspective, for Christmas I just bought three of my nephews 4-9 years-old, Keyboards, Drumpads, and DJ Equipment to interface with each of thier iPads running GarageBand, Serrato, and Melodics. Yeah, things have changed.
The SSL represents two decades of my life. I recorded orchestras, techno deviants, folk singers and rock stars through them during the 80s and 90s. Karen's right about the muscle memory that developed operating the automation system, and I still remember some of the movements. And no assistant ever wanted to hear the phrase "total recall" banded about at 3am, that's for sure. It was a nightmare. The floppies we used were much bigger though, and much more floppy! Somewhere between A5 and A4 sized and square. I loved the G series. SSL were the best laid-out of the studio consoles, they really nailed it.
I watched this a year ago, but stumbled upon it again, and just wanted to share how much I appreciated Karen being on the other end of the phone, often picking up late technical support calls in the 90s and early 00s when things went wrong and I needed help. From E to G to K, I've seen my share of SSLs, and the amount of abuse thrown at this machines only demonstrated how well designed and resilient they were.
Karen and Chris were a great support team, had huge respect for them back then. Seeing Karen flawlessly recall these operations on their earliest console blows me away.
This video is going to be a lifesaver for someone who may score a functioning SSL in the year 2047. Also, incredibly fascinating to me as I never got a chance to work on an SSL. It's a bucket list item ("mix a song on an SSL"), but I don't think there's any studios within 3hrs of Boston. I suppose of anyone knows of an SSL studio in the Boston area, let me know because I'd probably book a day there!
I got the chance to learn how to use an SSL mixer while studying at SAE Amsterdam about 15 years ago. Of course this experience had no actual bearing in my eventual audio production/mixing career because DAW lol. But it definitely gave some insight into the way people worked before the DAW revolution which I find very valuable.
@@thisgoestoeleven That place looks killer, and I'll keep it in mind, although I was definitely thinking more along the lines of a 4k or maybe a 9k. I'm sure the Duality is great, but I'm looking for that classic SSL experience, as if I had started my career in the late 80s instead of the late 90s.
@Stacy Babst Sounds right about Normandy...I'm friends with some of the folks that worked there (engineer Phil, assistant Joe) and that thing is long gone. The studio's still there, and pretty sweet (called Triad as I'm sure you know), but no SSL console the last time I was there. Anyway, would you be interested in renting out your console to a total internet stranger for a mix sometime? I'd totally understand if no is the answer, but if yes, let me know how to get in touch. I'm an actual engineer for a living, although I have zero experience on SSLs. thanks!
There used to be one at Blue Jay Studios in Carlisle, MA but the studio was sold many years ago and I don’t know what happened to the gear. Rob Jaczko, now head of the Music Tech program at Berklee, recorded my band there in 1986 when he was early in his career. It was mind blowing.
It's videos like these that make me stop and realize how lucky we are these days, while also being able to appreciate how lucky people were in the late 70's to be able to do these seemingly "archaic" things that were not even possible before. I had to remind myself that while watching and thinking how complicated this was, and then the thought of NOT being able to do this at all!
Karen is an absolute beast here, knowing every single feature of the admittedly obsolete computer interface. Wouldn't it be cool to have another video where she demonstrates all this stuff in a more practical way with actual tape tracks on the mixer?
Beautiful! I'm wondering how many folks who actually ran one of these beasts years ago, just watched this, and said "OMG, I didn't know I could to that with it!" (Those were the folks who didn't have training from the best Karen ever!)
8:05 "this is a job for the assistant engineer...very slowly-one key at a time..." I'm amazed that it had been economically feasible for any SSL 4000 to sit idle (for the most part) while a studio grunt performed such tedium. Also this is easily one of the best TH-cam videos ever and I'm only 8 minutes in.
I mean, that thing seems wider than the cockpit of an airliner; and has more knobs and buttons and displays to read back info... so unless someone already had some previous experience with slightly similar mixing consoles, once they found themselves sitting at its commands, no one would take off with it anytime soon...
Instantly shattered emotionally. With Karen's triumphant knowledge, I immediately wanted to meet her with 100+ questions ready to go. Audio Production, Mixing and Engineering will constantly evolve. However, the roots of where it all came from glorify where we are today and with everything readily available. Cannot wait; my fingers are crossed for this one - Abbey Road! Also, thank you, SOS.
As someone who sort of "grew up" on SSL 4000s this is such a great video! I was just a session musician, but sometimes I would assist in the control room for mixes and there was always a dedicated assistant who knew the automation software and ran it. Seemed like magic at the time... MAN have we come far since those days! And yet, I still miss them!
Great to see Karen. Having maintained SSL consoles in a major pop studio in the 1980s & 90s, then BBC Radio OBs until 2021 (when I retired) I will be eternally greatful for the training and telephone support she provided.
We "inherited" a SL6000E as well as a recording studio at my church here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It's basically just been sitting around waiting to be used. This video gets me excited to jump into it and start making projects! This is so crazy what kind technology was able to accomplish back then
I am a tech who worked on SSL and others. Before you put a lot of time and money in it, you may want to do some quality checks. I found lots (and lots) of degraded components since the newest of these would be, what, 30 yrs old? The aural performance was not very good because of the age. Switches and controls pretty ratty. It would take a complete rebuild, possibly costing as much as the desk cost new. And you still would have an old desk. It might be viable if the labor is free (yours!).
@@garystrucklaterin9310 yeah basically haha. We’ve been slowly getting it up and running with the intent to record with it. But is has been sitting for quite some time
What an incredible amount of work involved. I can see how this would have been revolutionary but it truly puts into perspective how "easy" it is to work within a DAW.
Very impressive how karen is able to explain such an archaic system so clearly. It's one thing to understand how everything works but another to convey that.
We used the original SSL automation for 15+ years @transientsound and it always worked like a charm. A few years ago we upgraded to the Tangerine system which also integrates with our daw and we absolutely love it. The sound of our 4048 e/g combined with fader automation is why I still mix on this console. Karen is a true gem- I just wish this video was made 15 years ago when we were learning all of the tricks ourselves.
Thanks for this. What a pleasure to have what is a rare thing to witness shown to all aspiring engineers today. I do wonder if they ever produced desks with motorized faders for use in film mixing. Bloody hell, the work people had to put in to mixing compared to today. SOS, you should try to do a similar video for Harrison MPCD consoles. They took automation to a new level.
I used G series in the 90s, always thankful for help by the studio assistant when it came to automation or advanced editing on 3348 recorders. Much preferred Neve VR though, it had a color display Total recall was a nightmare on both consoles, because it also implied resetting all the outboard gear.
Incredible video. We used to have 2 VRs in the 90s. Got them because all the big names were demanding automation. Soon as we got them we did land the big names, but i much preferred the SOUND of the Trident 80Bs we had before then! This coming from a guy who just ordered an SSL Origin...maybe i'm nuts but i can can hardly wait! 😎
This is a magnificent documentary. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this available for us out here working with modern equipment. It's breathtaking to look back at how far we've come in the way we record these days. In a way it's sad, at the same time though, it's exciting to consider where we will be in another 20 years. Thanks again for the video.
wow blast from my past, I dont remember a Karen, but I do remember the consoles, as I was working in the manufacturing department, to this day I still remember all the cables ! some later consoles had many more channels than this, great part of my life, tinged with some sadness now I remember.
Wow!, isolated in my little lounge room, I did not realise that there was so much more to the console than a simple preamp-Eq-Com-fader item like the ones we see in the shops. So much knowledge - so confusing! What a talented teacher. Well done Karen. Thank you SOS.
Thanks Karen and SOS. This video put a smile on my face, after I just re-commissioned an SSL 4000 yesterday. All channels are fully functional and calibrated and ready for mixing. Wonderful consoles, and EASY to maintain.
I got into music production via computer daw systems and you'd always hear about the SSL desks and their legendary status on hit records. I could never afford an SSL console desk but owning Softube plugins, specifically the SSL 4000 and SSL 9000 emulations I guess we get a taste of that sound but there's nothing like the real thing. Seeing Karen Down doing this walk through really does fondly take us back in time and really makes me appreciate how far we've come with technology and how lucky we are right now to have all these modern tools at our fingertips. Absolutely amazing stuff and thank you Karen and thank you SOS.
I'm amazed at how much detail she can remember. I've done training on various kit and software over the years and there is no way I'd remember so much detail about anything I trained people on. A fantastic memory Karen has.
I was playing drums in a digital studio in 2007 and listened to the take on headphones in the live room. I talked back to the people in the Control Room and voiced the sound the sound of a tape machine rewinding back, slowing down and playing back which they found funny as they hadn't heard that before but, as I was at SSL from 1980-87, I knew of that sound working on the console at Acorn Studios (SSL's original work place) with a Studer 24 track tape machine. The computer insults were interesting to begin with but became a bit tedious once the novelty wore off a few times.
That was a treat. I just had to watch the whole thing. We probably should have had an exam on this in school, but it was in the twilight years just after the millenium. Thanks for making this, and for devoting yourselves to the craft.
This was one of my all time favorite videos. Karen is so good at keeping things interesting and moving forward. I love everything about this video. Brings back wonderful scared shitless memories of being an assistant on the SSL of yesteryear.. we really need more docs like this.. to thoroughly go through the extensive process of our love of making records. Absolutely brilliant SOS. 🎚
Thanks so much for this look back in time! So well done all round SOS- ::BOWDOWN:: Ms Down's wonderful coverage - her endearing demeanor and knowledge seals this as a top most memorable! PS: seriously geek crushing on Karen ::BLUSHING not BLUSHING:: 🥰🥰🥰
This was an amazing video. This is something that young people may never appreciate - real studio environments and real engineering. I would love to meet Karen. What incredible knowledge and wisdom!
WONDERFUL!! I also have Issue 1 of SOS from way too far back to be proud!! Has been a great part of my life for a damned long time, and this is a fitting doc. THANKS!!
Great tutorial! Never saw info on SSL automation on TH-cam. For the time it is the state of the art software. The weakest link to the system is the floppy disk, I think. Thank you for such a deep dive!
It's amazing for me, someone who went through music at college raised on DAW and doing everything in the box, what that just-before-DAW world looked like. I'm very glad I never had to spend an eternity just setting up the individual tracks & updating things. Looks like an absolute pain. You must had to have had the absolute patience of a saint to sit there and type everything into the system, before you even did anything! Bless any assistant engineer who had to go through that. That's one aspect of old tech like this I don't think will be missed, haha.
Thanks Karen! An useful reminder of the basics of the SSL 4k automation. Even if I had Ultimation at the Capri Digital Studios I was more into the VCA version. In fact I was keeping the Ultimation in Absolute Write mode all the time 😛 until the very end of the mix, and doing little touch changes when really near to the very end. Yur video is perfect. Thank you!
Man, does this ever bring back some terrible memories. Waiting a seriously long time for my assistant to recall a song, then knowing for a fact it wasn’t right. Recall was the time everyone lost. Studio, engineer(s), invoice.
Engineered/assisted on an SSL throughout the 90s. They really were every bit as glorious as she makes them look. As far as recalling the mix, if you had enough weed you could set the console up about 2-3 channels per minute. What really took time and attention was documenting/recreating ALL the patch connections and ALL the gear settings (drawn by hand on a recall packs). As far as the technology being terribly outdated, absolutely not!!! We're not talking about reverbs or delays, we're talking about dynamics/eqs/levels done top-most shelf.
This video was dope as hell and Karen was AWESOME!!! I'd love to see how a modern SSL works in a future video...again this was Dope as Hell. More Please! .....and now I'm going to go kiss my Mac, SSL UC1 & UF8's and praise God for modern computing.
Is there a preset to call the blow connection, or one to call some fine ladies to come and hang? Did they make a version in American English? Yes, this is fantastic I watched the whole thing, and probably will again. I would watch as many of these as they can create. Keep them coming please!
Karen's demeanour shows a life time of educating and knowledge. the only Karen I could listen to all day.
Ha ha! I'm surrounded in my neighborhood, so I understand.
HAH
Me too 😍
Let me see your manager I don't like your comment
Ha Ha! I'm surrounded by Karens in McMansions, I needed t(at.
Karen is the person who taught me how to use my SSL console in my studio here in Decatur, Alabama. I couldn't help but be wowed again, even with the technology being terribly outdated, it's just so neat to see it at work again.
Lol women can't lead a horse to water
@@catsbyondrepair Terrible troll. Try again.
Luckyman
NOT OUTDATED JUST TERRIBLY MISUNDERSTOOD AND FOR THAT REASON NOW RARE
@@MikeBaas I understand it, and know it like the back of my hand. My studio was one of the absolute first studios to record digitally. I helped design and test the first DAWs. Kurt Cobain recorded a couple of guitar tracks in my studio, which forced the Nevermind album to be recorded digitally in a DAW, at Sound City. It was extremely slow to record digitally in a DAW, back then. In some ways it was better than modern DAW digital recording; just extremely slow. For those reasons: rare, misunderstood, and outdated. It would take a year to record a modern album, where they record each track separately, and have around 40 to a hundred or more tracks per song. That's why it's outdated. It is an amazing console, you just couldn't run a professional studio with it. You could definitely use it in a home studio, or just to get a song started; but it would slow you down too much if you were trying to run a business with it, as your only console.
In 1995 Karen came to Brussels and trained us how to use our new SSL 4000 G+ - brilliant lady and much fun
The work done in this video is SO important. I'm a DAW baby, have never touched a console. I use software emulations of this and other consoles all the time. This is literally the first time I've seen a real working ssl in action and I am so very humbled. I love that Karen is so patient and concise with her explanation of all the features. This really is world class instruction and we're getting it for free in a TH-cam video. Wow.
Thank you so much for putting this together. I would love to see you break down workflows of other consoles and tape setups.
If you've never gotten hands on a console I'd highly suggest messing around with even a smaller mixer. Particularly if you don't have a ton of analog outputs on your interface, having physical busses, plenty of sends/returns, and some added analog summing is awesome. Something like a Mackie 16 channel will always be welcome in my setup.
Back before there were a million high quality, reasonably priced, high channel count interfaces available most home studios had a small Yamaha/Mackie etc. to help out.
I am kind of in the middle. At home of course I use DAWs since I cannot afford a console but I've tracked and mixed at studios with SSL and API consoles. I knew about the total recall system and used some times but I never imagined how much automation it could do ON TAPE!! That's absolutely genius.
So in a way, Karen changed the recording industry, she after all is one who travelled and taught people to use this.
One of the ones, but yeah she certainly was a part of it.
Damn. Absolutely mind-blowing for a 23 year old producer. We have it so easy today! this technology was fascinating. I now see where the backwards tape sound comes from haha.
I don't know who this lady is...but I like her! She is an excellent teacher.
Love Karen to bits, had the pleasure of her help, knowledge and experience when I worked in the industry. No matter what problem I had, Karen always had the answer. :)
We’ve come so far, so fast!
SOS…Please do more of these kind of Documentaries.
TH-cam is fantastic for a new generation of audio engineers, but it lacks the kind of historical context that’s needed for them to understand why the new tools work the way they do.
For example, It still amazes me how much SSL is in ProTools.
And how much ProTools is in Every Other DAW.
yeah this is the best content
What actually DAW stands for ?
@@DerekHundik Digital Audio Workstation.
(Don't know that I've ever typed that out before. Workstation is a strange word.)
Fast for some of you, for many of us it’s been a 40 year slog watching massively incremental changes.
In my experience, especially the past 5 years, “engineers” don’t care how something got to where it’s at, history is irrelevant to them, they just push buttons. It’s why I don’t really consider most modern engineers as engineers, they’re more administrators. The current under 25 generation seems to believe nothing existed prior to them, almost zero concept of the past or history, nor do they care.
@c1ph3rpunk Not sure if I agree or disagree with you more.
I agree that it's all about perspective. And that there are Pros and Cons to today's landscape.
However, on net the Pros blow the Cons completely out of the water.
While it's true that the democratization of Pro Audio has led to an amateurization within the community, because there's infinitely more people playing this game, there's undoubtedly way more Professionals than ever before.
And those Pros have access to So many more resources than was even imaginable back when SSLs were bumping Neves out of control rooms across the planet.
One example:
I work hybrid and have a ton of Analog gear right along side a ton of digital (both algorithm and convolution).
But I invested in the Console 1 system from the beginning (when it was made in Sweden and dropped from $1,150 to $999). They then moved manufacturering to China and dropped the price to $500 AND made it control my UAD Console & plugins as well as if Softube and Universal Audio were 1 company. Over the years I've accumulated all of the channel strips from both companies, but if you were to go today and buy it all at full price you'd spend $5-6Gs......for emulations of Millions-of-dollars worth of the best gear ever made. Go to Sweetwater or Vintage King and tell me what Analog gear you can buy for that money.
I don't mean to imply that this is about money or that $5-10,000 isn't a lot of it. But when I started Recording Studios might as well have been nuclear power plants and now an M1 laptop, a copy of Reaper, and an endless supply of FREE plugins can compete with the best studios in the world. (And they do. Check the sales, downloads, streams, and Grammys.)
Where we agree (ish) is that the tools don't make the engineer. I often wonder if I was 14 again (when I started), and had All the things I have now, how would I Know what I know now.
That said, coming full circle, the learning resources have also grown exponentially. Hence this TH-cam channel among many others.
When I started, (and when that SSL Reigned Supreme), there was no Internet. I spent my time sneaking into places I didn't belong, and at the public library reading every (maybe a dozen) book, and most importantly every Magazine on the subject.
So as to perspective, for Christmas I just bought three of my nephews 4-9 years-old, Keyboards, Drumpads, and DJ Equipment to interface with each of thier iPads running GarageBand, Serrato, and Melodics.
Yeah, things have changed.
The SSL represents two decades of my life. I recorded orchestras, techno deviants, folk singers and rock stars through them during the 80s and 90s. Karen's right about the muscle memory that developed operating the automation system, and I still remember some of the movements. And no assistant ever wanted to hear the phrase "total recall" banded about at 3am, that's for sure. It was a nightmare. The floppies we used were much bigger though, and much more floppy! Somewhere between A5 and A4 sized and square. I loved the G series. SSL were the best laid-out of the studio consoles, they really nailed it.
That would have been the 8inch floppies, that came before the 3.5inch versions.
ANd the5.25 inch between :-)
Legendary stuff there. Well done SOS and SSL. Those were the days..!
I watched this a year ago, but stumbled upon it again, and just wanted to share how much I appreciated Karen being on the other end of the phone, often picking up late technical support calls in the 90s and early 00s when things went wrong and I needed help. From E to G to K, I've seen my share of SSLs, and the amount of abuse thrown at this machines only demonstrated how well designed and resilient they were.
More Karen please, 10/10 content
Wow!. Amazing computer automation for the era. An incredible desk and an incredible person. Mind blown.
Karen and Chris were a great support team, had huge respect for them back then. Seeing Karen flawlessly recall these operations on their earliest console blows me away.
Assistants...
This video is going to be a lifesaver for someone who may score a functioning SSL in the year 2047.
Also, incredibly fascinating to me as I never got a chance to work on an SSL. It's a bucket list item ("mix a song on an SSL"), but I don't think there's any studios within 3hrs of Boston.
I suppose of anyone knows of an SSL studio in the Boston area, let me know because I'd probably book a day there!
Old Mill Road Recording in Arlington, VT
I got the chance to learn how to use an SSL mixer while studying at SAE Amsterdam about 15 years ago. Of course this experience had no actual bearing in my eventual audio production/mixing career because DAW lol. But it definitely gave some insight into the way people worked before the DAW revolution which I find very valuable.
@@thisgoestoeleven That place looks killer, and I'll keep it in mind, although I was definitely thinking more along the lines of a 4k or maybe a 9k. I'm sure the Duality is great, but I'm looking for that classic SSL experience, as if I had started my career in the late 80s instead of the late 90s.
@Stacy Babst Sounds right about Normandy...I'm friends with some of the folks that worked there (engineer Phil, assistant Joe) and that thing is long gone. The studio's still there, and pretty sweet (called Triad as I'm sure you know), but no SSL console the last time I was there.
Anyway, would you be interested in renting out your console to a total internet stranger for a mix sometime? I'd totally understand if no is the answer, but if yes, let me know how to get in touch.
I'm an actual engineer for a living, although I have zero experience on SSLs.
thanks!
There used to be one at Blue Jay Studios in Carlisle, MA but the studio was sold many years ago and I don’t know what happened to the gear.
Rob Jaczko, now head of the Music Tech program at Berklee, recorded my band there in 1986 when he was early in his career. It was mind blowing.
It's videos like these that make me stop and realize how lucky we are these days, while also being able to appreciate how lucky people were in the late 70's to be able to do these seemingly "archaic" things that were not even possible before. I had to remind myself that while watching and thinking how complicated this was, and then the thought of NOT being able to do this at all!
Even with the crazy budgets back in those days it’s hard to imagine making any profit with the equipment overhead and the trained staff to run it.
Absolutely loved this article … sent me back a few decades to those noises of tape machines in hot dimly lit control rooms … ahhh… more please 😊
I could listen to Karen talk forever. A master educator!
Amazing video. We often forget how many of the things we take for granted in our DAWs today were mind-blowing just a couple of decades ago.
Karen is an absolute beast here, knowing every single feature of the admittedly obsolete computer interface. Wouldn't it be cool to have another video where she demonstrates all this stuff in a more practical way with actual tape tracks on the mixer?
Beautiful! I'm wondering how many folks who actually ran one of these beasts years ago, just watched this, and said "OMG, I didn't know I could to that with it!" (Those were the folks who didn't have training from the best Karen ever!)
Great video. I'm going to share this with my audio students. (Most have never even seen an analog tape, much less an SSL console.)
8:05 "this is a job for the assistant engineer...very slowly-one key at a time..."
I'm amazed that it had been economically feasible for any SSL 4000 to sit idle (for the most part) while a studio grunt performed such tedium.
Also this is easily one of the best TH-cam videos ever and I'm only 8 minutes in.
I mean, that thing seems wider than the cockpit of an airliner; and has more knobs and buttons and displays to read back info... so unless someone already had some previous experience with slightly similar mixing consoles, once they found themselves sitting at its commands, no one would take off with it anytime soon...
Instantly shattered emotionally. With Karen's triumphant knowledge, I immediately wanted to meet her with 100+ questions ready to go. Audio Production, Mixing and Engineering will constantly evolve. However, the roots of where it all came from glorify where we are today and with everything readily available. Cannot wait; my fingers are crossed for this one - Abbey Road! Also, thank you, SOS.
As someone who sort of "grew up" on SSL 4000s this is such a great video! I was just a session musician, but sometimes I would assist in the control room for mixes and there was always a dedicated assistant who knew the automation software and ran it. Seemed like magic at the time... MAN have we come far since those days! And yet, I still miss them!
Amazing how she really seems to love every aspect of it all. The light in the eyes reveal it all, really. Great video!
Great to see Karen. Having maintained SSL consoles in a major pop studio in the 1980s & 90s, then BBC Radio OBs until 2021 (when I retired) I will be eternally greatful for the training and telephone support she provided.
We "inherited" a SL6000E as well as a recording studio at my church here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It's basically just been sitting around waiting to be used. This video gets me excited to jump into it and start making projects! This is so crazy what kind technology was able to accomplish back then
I am a tech who worked on SSL and others. Before you put a lot of time and money in it, you may want to do some quality checks. I found lots (and lots) of degraded components since the newest of these would be, what, 30 yrs old? The aural performance was not very good because of the age. Switches and controls pretty ratty. It would take a complete rebuild, possibly costing as much as the desk cost new. And you still would have an old desk. It might be viable if the labor is free (yours!).
Id be terrified to even take on such gear. You know this system has got to be incredibly maintenance intensive.
Y’all just have this sitting around? That’s mind blowing lol but I understand
@@garystrucklaterin9310 yeah basically haha. We’ve been slowly getting it up and running with the intent to record with it. But is has been sitting for quite some time
Karen Down is incomparable. This an amazing insight into an incredible inflection point in recorded music.
What an incredible amount of work involved. I can see how this would have been revolutionary but it truly puts into perspective how "easy" it is to work within a DAW.
I love this Vid... I'm currently recording on a few SSL UF8s with the UC1 with pro tools. This is a great tutorial/intro of the OG Console.
So satisfying to watch, I revised those assembler codes at some point years ago for at Stockholm based studio 🙂
Infectious enthusiasm is a good thing.
Karen is amazing and I just can't believe I watched to this awesome content for free.
This level of clarity has never been achieved in a console automation video before. Ever! Congrats, SOS 👋👋
Very impressive how karen is able to explain such an archaic system so clearly. It's one thing to understand how everything works but another to convey that.
very easy if you do sonething about 40-years. very easy.
What an interesting watch! How easy we have it these days with software such as Logic or ProTools etc!
This is fascinating. I had no idea this level of digital automation existed.
Analog Automation by way of Digital
This was an era where you really were an engineer, in the practical sense. Today all of the rote stuff is done for us.
We used the original SSL automation for 15+ years @transientsound and it always worked like a charm. A few years ago we upgraded to the Tangerine system which also integrates with our daw and we absolutely love it. The sound of our 4048 e/g combined with fader automation is why I still mix on this console. Karen is a true gem- I just wish this video was made 15 years ago when we were learning all of the tricks ourselves.
Sound on sound really are the best. Thank you for more excellent content like this.
What a great video and what a comforting, professional tutorial. Thanks for this piece of history...and a bit of tech ASMR to boot!
absolutely great feature well done! we also still use a 4000 sometimes and the software runs still stable.
thanks so much karen. an incredible console
Thanks for this. What a pleasure to have what is a rare thing to witness shown to all aspiring engineers today. I do wonder if they ever produced desks with motorized faders for use in film mixing. Bloody hell, the work people had to put in to mixing compared to today.
SOS, you should try to do a similar video for Harrison MPCD consoles. They took automation to a new level.
They did - it came later and was called Ultimation, which from memory combined moving faders with VCAs.
Karen is amazing and exactly the type of woman we need to see more of!
My first SSL was the B series. It didn’t have automation. I assisted a brilliant tech in the construction of a bootleg SSL automation computer.
I love those old VU meters. They certainly bring back some good old memories. For a mixer that advanced, it is incredibly sophisticated.
I used G series in the 90s, always thankful for help by the studio assistant when it came to automation or advanced editing on 3348 recorders. Much preferred Neve VR though, it had a color display Total recall was a nightmare on both consoles, because it also implied resetting all the outboard gear.
Incredible video. We used to have 2 VRs in the 90s. Got them because all the big names were demanding automation. Soon as we got them we did land the big names, but i much preferred the SOUND of the Trident 80Bs we had before then! This coming from a guy who just ordered an SSL Origin...maybe i'm nuts but i can can hardly wait! 😎
This is a magnificent documentary. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this available for us out here working with modern equipment. It's breathtaking to look back at how far we've come in the way we record these days. In a way it's sad, at the same time though, it's exciting to consider where we will be in another 20 years. Thanks again for the video.
Great tutorial, if I only had one...!
Thanks so much for this SOS for organising this, thanks Karen, this was fantastic!!
Fantastic demonstration by a professional. Today’s producers and staff are standing on the shoulders of giants.
My first console I was trained on was a SSL 4G+! These days I'm completely ITB, but this is a GREAT video/doc. More of these please!
Me too
wow blast from my past, I dont remember a Karen, but I do remember the consoles, as I was working in the manufacturing department, to this day I still remember all the cables ! some later consoles had many more channels than this, great part of my life, tinged with some sadness now I remember.
Wow!, isolated in my little lounge room, I did not realise that there was so much more to the console than a simple preamp-Eq-Com-fader item like the ones we see in the shops. So much knowledge - so confusing! What a talented teacher. Well done Karen. Thank you SOS.
...When analog first met digital... or thereabout. Lovely video.
I love this console. Worked several years on this console with the Otari MTR-90. Good times.
Just got into mixing but after watching Karen I wish I could go back to those days, amazing.
Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful!! She is as legenadary as the console itself.
Karen does such a great job of presenting this information; wonderful history lesson.
This is INCREDIBLE thank you! What a privilege to learn from someone with this level of expertise and experience.
Best TH-cam video of the year. By far
Karen is the wizard! I loved this video so much.
Love this video, so insightful 🤓
Thanks Karen and SOS. This video put a smile on my face, after I just re-commissioned an SSL 4000 yesterday. All channels are fully functional and calibrated and ready for mixing. Wonderful consoles, and EASY to maintain.
I got into music production via computer daw systems and you'd always hear about the SSL desks and their legendary status on hit records. I could never afford an SSL console desk but owning Softube plugins, specifically the SSL 4000 and SSL 9000 emulations I guess we get a taste of that sound but there's nothing like the real thing. Seeing Karen Down doing this walk through really does fondly take us back in time and really makes me appreciate how far we've come with technology and how lucky we are right now to have all these modern tools at our fingertips. Absolutely amazing stuff and thank you Karen and thank you SOS.
Amazing, concise, professional. We do not need to drink water from a firehose for memory/cpu folks
Ahhhh. Those were the days. I thought they’d never end 🎉
I'm amazed at how much detail she can remember. I've done training on various kit and software over the years and there is no way I'd remember so much detail about anything I trained people on. A fantastic memory Karen has.
Because software is updated so gd much. A system like this is like an airliner... You could spend an entire career on something that never changes
@@BobbyGeneric145 Also she is a women
very easy to remember if you do something 40-years
This fabulous, elegant and charming video feels like watching a time machine invented in 1979 to travel to the future.
that sound of rewind.... love. I learned on these at Berklee, and remember the computer starting to insult you when you repeated wrong commands...
I was playing drums in a digital studio in 2007 and listened to the take on headphones in the live room. I talked back to the people in the Control Room and voiced the sound the sound of a tape machine rewinding back, slowing down and playing back which they found funny as they hadn't heard that before but, as I was at SSL from 1980-87, I knew of that sound working on the console at Acorn Studios (SSL's original work place) with a Studer 24 track tape machine.
The computer insults were interesting to begin with but became a bit tedious once the novelty wore off a few times.
That was a treat. I just had to watch the whole thing. We probably should have had an exam on this in school, but it was in the twilight years just after the millenium. Thanks for making this, and for devoting yourselves to the craft.
This was one of my all time favorite videos. Karen is so good at keeping things interesting and moving forward. I love everything about this video. Brings back wonderful scared shitless memories of being an assistant on the SSL of yesteryear.. we really need more docs like this.. to thoroughly go through the extensive process of our love of making records. Absolutely brilliant SOS. 🎚
Hey Marc!🫡
This is gorgeous. Thank you for posting this. This one goes in the Time Capsule for sure. ❤
I was in awe by her level of knowledge, passion and competence. She seem a genius.
This is BRILLIANT, and brought back so many happy memories (of working in RG Jones back in the early 90s)
Thanks so much for this look back in time! So well done all round SOS- ::BOWDOWN::
Ms Down's wonderful coverage - her endearing demeanor and knowledge seals this as a top most memorable!
PS: seriously geek crushing on Karen ::BLUSHING not BLUSHING:: 🥰🥰🥰
This is so cool to watch
This was an amazing video. This is something that young people may never appreciate - real studio environments and real engineering. I would love to meet Karen. What incredible knowledge and wisdom!
WONDERFUL!! I also have Issue 1 of SOS from way too far back to be proud!! Has been a great part of my life for a damned long time, and this is a fitting doc. THANKS!!
AWESOME VIDEO , THANKS FOR SHARING ❤️
Great tutorial! Never saw info on SSL automation on TH-cam. For the time it is the state of the art software. The weakest link to the system is the floppy disk, I think. Thank you for such a deep dive!
We love you Karen!!!!!!
This really put things in perspective, It's incredible. Thank you Karen
It's amazing for me, someone who went through music at college raised on DAW and doing everything in the box, what that just-before-DAW world looked like. I'm very glad I never had to spend an eternity just setting up the individual tracks & updating things. Looks like an absolute pain. You must had to have had the absolute patience of a saint to sit there and type everything into the system, before you even did anything! Bless any assistant engineer who had to go through that. That's one aspect of old tech like this I don't think will be missed, haha.
Fantastic history flashback, and reminder about where we came from looking at where we are today! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Simply the best....yesterday....today...and tomorow....
Also note that some consoles have motorized moving faders that are considered less noisy than a VCA... Flying Fader Automation is one...
She is brilliant and this is a great bit of history ❤️
Thanks Karen! An useful reminder of the basics of the SSL 4k automation. Even if I had Ultimation at the Capri Digital Studios I was more into the VCA version. In fact I was keeping the Ultimation in Absolute Write mode all the time 😛 until the very end of the mix, and doing little touch changes when really near to the very end. Yur video is perfect. Thank you!
Man, does this ever bring back some terrible memories. Waiting a seriously long time for my assistant to recall a song, then knowing for a fact it wasn’t right. Recall was the time everyone lost. Studio, engineer(s), invoice.
Holy @$%& I've never ever ever ever with all the SSL videos I've seen had my mind blown like this. Never ever ever ever.
Engineered/assisted on an SSL throughout the 90s. They really were every bit as glorious as she makes them look. As far as recalling the mix, if you had enough weed you could set the console up about 2-3 channels per minute. What really took time and attention was documenting/recreating ALL the patch connections and ALL the gear settings (drawn by hand on a recall packs). As far as the technology being terribly outdated, absolutely not!!! We're not talking about reverbs or delays, we're talking about dynamics/eqs/levels done top-most shelf.
This video was dope as hell and Karen was AWESOME!!!
I'd love to see how a modern SSL works in a future video...again this was Dope as Hell.
More Please!
.....and now I'm going to go kiss my Mac, SSL UC1 & UF8's and praise God for modern computing.
wow shes so cool, and a great teacher, i love her voice, so soothe
That was really cool - thank you
I don't have an SSL but i have that same clipboard with the storage section and pen compartment under the white lid.
Is there a preset to call the blow connection, or one to call some fine ladies to come and hang? Did they make a version in American English? Yes, this is fantastic I watched the whole thing, and probably will again. I would watch as many of these as they can create. Keep them coming please!