Anyone who's ever talked to me about music production knows I'm not a big fan of computers and plugins in the studio. It's a difficult argument these days - the convenience of recording straight to hard disk and instantly sending files across the ether is undeniable, and the sound of plugins in some cases is meeting what you can achieve with hardware, with the added bonus that you can have multiple instance across all of your tracks (one physical API 500B: $1000. Waves native API bundle - which sounds almost indistinguishable in the mix: ~$750 for unlimited instances, and that's not including the 550A, 560 and 2500 that are also included).

 

For me though, there are two things that still make hardware much more attractive than software. The first is maintenance. Yes, hardware might require a service now and then, but for the most part it will always just work whenever you need it to. With plugins you have to deal with compatibility issues, crashes, relicensing when moving to a new computer etc. There's always something that isn't working right and is waiting on the next software revision to address it, which will invariably break something else.

 

The other thing is the feel of using hardware. Cuing up a tape, turning a dial, plugging straight in and making music. By the time I've booted up my DAW, loaded up plugins, selected my settings, and clicked on various icons to get a sound out, staring at the screen has pretty much sucked all the inspiration out of me.

 

All of which is a roundabout way of introducing one of my favorite bits of gear in the studio: one that successfully marries the world of computerized convenience with the magic of hardware. The SSL X-Patch.

 

I first learned of it just before Winter NAMM 2010 and got a demo from SSL at their booth at the show. My pre-order was in the next day.

 

The X-Patch is basically a patchbay, which is nothing new, but instead of lots of patch cables it sports an Ethernet port and an internal 16x16 routing matrix. What this allows you to do is patch eight hardware boxes into your desk inserts, and then be able to move them around to any channel and create chains on the fly, instantly, just by using a very simple software remote on your computer desktop. There's even an iPhone remote to use when you're away from the machine in a live room.

 

The convenience of this is amazing. Although it does nothing you can't achieve with a conventional patchbay, dozens of cables and a lot of patience, this is one instance where the latter is actually the one capable of sucking out inspiration. A single click to create a hardware chain vs. pulling and plugging a fistful of patch cords.

 

In my studio, I have the X-Patch connected to my Wi-Fi network via an Apple Airport Express, which means I can control it from anywhere I have a wireless connection. Plumbed into it are various EQs and compressors all of which are now able to be instantly and silently moved around, alone or in chains, to any channel on my desk.

 

Technology isn't so bad after all.

 

 

Latest addition to the studio is the brand new Alta Moda Hippo stereo compressor. It's a double-wide 500 series module that I have slotted into an API 500VPR frame.

I bought this to use as a mix bus compressor; since I gave up on mixing inside the box and started bringing everything back out to an SSL X-Desk, a hardware bus compressor has been conspicuously missing. So I've plumbed it into the mix bus inserts at the front of the chain, which now looks like this:

  Alta Moda Hippo -> Thermionic Culture Vulture (mastering version) -> API 5500 - > Korg MR-2000S

The Hippo is VCA-based and very transparent sounding, though it does have a Warmth function to add some harmonic distortion and beef things up a little. At lower settings this is very subtle, but cranked all the way up it adds some definite thump. I'll probably leave the Warmth function disengaged most of the time since the output goes straight into the Culture Vulture (and there's such a thing as too warm), but this feature could be very useful to anyone using the Hippo on a drum sub.

Other controls are fairly standard: ratio goes from 1.5 to 20 in stepped increments. There is an auto release setting, a high pass filter on the side chain that goes from 60-300Hz to help with bass-heavy material, and a Wet/Dry blend control - something that's become very popular on this type of compressor over the past couple of years. It allows for very simple control of parallel compression effects - again a very useful feature for drum subs to quickly get the "New York" sound.

Another welcome and less common feature is found on the stereo link control - here you have the option to have a Soft or Hard interaction between the left and right channels - in Hard mode, the detectors are linked so that the dynamics on one side will affect the other equally, but in Soft mode the detectors exert less control over each other even though they are linked. There is also an option to unlink them entirely and have it act in Dual mono mode.

Unlike EQ, compression is one thing that I think still can't be modeled quite well enough in software yet (distortion is another). There are some plugins that have come very close for me (SSL Duende Bus Compressor and Waves API 2500 to name a couple of examples), but they still don't quite compare to the real thing.

So overall, the Hippo is a very welcome addition to the studio and one I'm looking forward to using on all future mixes.

 

My main DAW is Logic Pro 9 and I love it dearly. I've been a Logic user since the early Emagic days, and despite some a rough start when Apple first took over (Logic 7.0 ... shudder) it's progressed well to the point where Logic Pro 9 is really very stable and has a great workflow.

Can you feel the "but..." coming?

BUT - Logic 9 has a very nasty "feature" that I believe Apple have implemented to dumb it down a bit and ease the transition from GarageBand, and it causes terrible problems if you work with direct ins and outs on a desk and expect audio to be routed out to the same channel it came in on.

Specifically, Outputs 1 and 2 are essentially permanently reserved as a stereo pair. Not only can you not rename "Stereo Output," but you can't actually separate the channels - it looks like you can, but the audio doesn't get routed as you would expect. So if you want to work in mono on those first two channels, you're pretty much screwed. There is a workaround by messing with the environment (details on request) but it's very easily overwritten by creating a new track assigned to Stereo Output.

I've had to resolve this by just not using outputs 1-8 at all. Luckily I have an SSL MADI/AlphaLink setup with plenty of channels, so I now have channels 9-16 plumbed into channels 1-8 of my desk, and channels 17-24 into my summing box. I've adjusted all the I/O labels in Logic and now I'm free of the "Stereo Output" tyranny. The cost being that I am wasting 8 channels of conversion.

I really hope Apple address this in a future release; I'm not really sure it dumbs things down in a useful way, and this is supposed to be "Pro" software. Do it in Express if you want to, but in Pro let me route my audio how I want it.

 

I'm starting to track a new Earth Calling Angela song tonight. Usually these are guitar driven, but I'm starting with a keyboard pad sound this time, amped up through a Marshall. I'm mic'ing the cabinet with a Blue Kiwi through an Avedis MA5 preamp and a Distressor. The keyboard is a Korg Trinity playing a home-grown string patch.

 

I'm going to start posting about the various goings on in the studio. The odd thought on new and old bits of gear, what recording chains I'm trying out etc. It's probably an attempt to keep track of my own thoughts more than anything, but everyone's welcome to read along and comment.