Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

Hey Guys...

Thanx for the replies. Waves won't extend the trial period. Sweetwater is offering a 1 year 
no interest, no payments on their internal credit card, with instant approval. Yes... I know, 
another card.. But it made it easy for me to get it, so I did...yikes ! Within a half hour of 
purchasing the SSL 4000 plug-in, they emailed me my serial number.  I downloaded the 
plug-in off the waves site and authorized online, in 3 minutes I was up and running. Really 
smooth way to go !

My first impressions:

I of course threw up a few old mixes and stayed up half the night tweaking tracks and 
getting a feel for the plug-in. I've mixed on SSL boards before, and my first impression is 
WOW ! It definitely had that "hit making SSL analog sound" that you hear on major records. 
They apparently worked on this for over a year to get it exact, and I think it's completely 
on the mark !

The plug in [ like the board ] adds a slight 'color' to your tracks which is a good thing if 
you like that analog/warm saturation sound. In fact, if you drive the plug-in a little hard, it  
totally imitates the hardware version and produces a warm, smooth distortion that is 
actually pleasant in certain situations, like overdriving bass or drums. Also the [like the SSL 
board] the eq's are quite 'musically pleasant' with out sounding too harsh at extreme 
settings.  I have a maxed out G5 tower and Intel 17" powerbook pro for the road. Both 
versions [ppc and intel] ran fine. On the intel side, I had about 10 stereo instances running 
on various tracks, along with the "famous" master bus compressor and it barely hit the 
CPU processor meter... nice !

Did I get a $250,000 SSL board for the price of a $750 plug in ? Hmmm... maybe. Sounds 
pretty damn close on first impression ! Funny, I actually modified my Autoload mixer to be 
more "SSL-like" with the audio strips to the left, master fader in the center and busses, 
instruments to the right. [I can dream, can't I ...?  lol]

If you have an i-Lok dongle, you can get a 7 day trial from waves. I had a nightmare with 
it, but I did completely wipe out the install [hidden files too] and re-installed which 
probably trashed the 7 day authorization. It's definitely worth the trial to check it out. If 
you're not familiar with thay 'old skool' analog sound, you might be a bit confused at what 
all the hype is about on this plug-in. But if you crave that warmth and awsome punch in 
your tracks that you hear on records, this is off the hook.  Gee... they should be paying me 
for all this good hype... lol.

The demo and info is available at waves.com. Oh yeah, they throw in a chunk of presets 
from mix master Chris Lord Alge [and I thought my name was weird..] which are great 
starting points to twark your tracks.

Thanx for letting me bend your ear, I'd be curious about tips and comments from others 
that either try the demo, or have the plugin.

Thanx again [love this logic group!]

-Man Parrish
http://www.ManParrish.com






--- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, "Man Parrish" <realnyc@...> wrote:
>
> Hey Guys,
> 
> Anyone own or have experience with the Waves SSL 4000 Plug in, that emulates the 
channel 
> strips from the big SSL boards ?  I got a 7 day demo, but went thru hell activating it, and 
it 
> returned as a zero day activation, so I can't really test it out. It's a $750 plug-in, so I'm a 
little 
> cautious, obviously. 
> 
> I see all kinds of reviews online, but most mimic the details word for word from the 
Waves 
> site. If anyone actually uses it in Logic, any feed back would be great !  Also is it only 
"seen" 
> by Logic and Pro Tools and Peak, or can any AU/Vst host see it as well [Live, Cubase, 
etc].
> 
> Thanks in advance !
> 
> -Man Parrish
> http://www.ManParrish.com
>