
Lovers of authentic plug-in emulations and real-life hardware will rejoice at Solid State Logic’s UC1, a hardware control surface that combines an old-school workflow with the only SSL plug-ins modeled in-house at Solid State Hardware headquarters. If you have ever found yourself frustrated by using the mouse to control your SSL channel strip or bus-comp plug-ins, the UC1 is for you.

The UC1 draws on years upon years of SSL console design to give you a control surface that feels just like the real thing. All encoders, switches, and color groupings are meant to achieve one purpose: the feel of the original gear, right at your fingertips. Multiple parameters can be controlled at once, in a way that inspires your muscle memory to take over, and ensures you focus on the sound, not the gear.
Tweak your EQ, adjust your compression, set up the gate, and watch the meters—just like how you would on a real analog board. You even get a classic moving-coil gain reduction meter, like the ones found on 70's SSL consoles, showing you exactly what your bus compressor is doing with excellent and time-tested visual feedback.
Accompanying the hardware controls is a high-res display that lets you move quickly between instances of the channel strip plug-in and bus-compressor in your DAW. Furthermore, you’ll note the 360° Plug-in Mixer, which gives you the means to control multiple plug-ins at once.
None of this would be usable without the included plug-ins, so SSL has gone ahead and included them: You get full licenses of SSL Native Channel Strip 2 and Bus Compressor 2, with modern-day features such as extended parameter controls, oversampling, and external side-chaining.
All of this is presented to you in a sturdy metal enclosure you can trust, functioning with your DAW of choice. Whether you use it on its own or combine it with the company’s UF8, you’ll be able to take your mixes to the next intuitive level.
What excites you most about the UC1? Let us know in the Comments section, below.
0 Comments