greetings earthlings today I'm back with a review of a brand new audio interface from freakin solid
state logic how cool is that so today we're reviewing the SSL 2 plus not to be confused with
the SSL 2 however I will discuss the differences between those two interfaces a little bit later
in the video if you are interested in this audio interface it will set you back around 280 dollars
like always I'll throw some links down below and for the majority of this review I have the rode
nt1 connected directly to the interface 48 volts turned on and my gain set at around 11:45 without
the analog 4 case which enabled I won't do any kind of post-processing but I might boost it in
post so check the doobly-doo to see what I did he did now let's talk about what comes in the box of
course you are going to get the interface a USB c2 USBC cable a USB C to USB a cable and some
compliance information with a URL to download all the manuals and software then as far as the build
quality of the interface it feels good for the most part it does have a plastic housing around
the side with a metal faceplate the dials are all well attached with minimal wobble to them
and all of the buttons have a really nice tactile feedback but the XLR port has a tiny bit of give
to it on the top of the interface you'll find two identical channels each which have independent 48
volt phantom power switches which is always amazing to see you'll also find a line and
Heisey button you'll need to press the line button to change from the XLR to quarter-inch line level
input and you'll need to press the line and Heisey button to change from XLR to the quarter inch
instrument level input then you have somewhat of a lackluster meter which goes in 10 decibel
increments you'll find the gain dial for each of the channels and lastly you'll find this really
cool legacy 4k switch which adds a high frequency EQ boost and as ssl describes it finely-tuned
harmonic distortion then when you move a little bit farther to the right you will find an LED
indicator to let you know if the interface is plugged in and getting power from the USB port
you'll find this giant blue monitor level control which goes to 11 how cool is that you'll also find
two headphone volume controls for headphones a and B as well as a three and four button which
is next to the phone's B volume control and this allows you to change what is being output to the
second set of headphones if you don't press this down phones B will just get the exact same mix as
phone's a but if you do press this down and you set up a separate mix in your DAW it will allow
the second headphones wearer to get a separate mix next you'll find a monitor mix dial to mix between
zero latency monitoring as well as computer playback and next to that you'll find a stereo
button which allows you to monitor your inputs as a stereo pair or down mix to a mono signal then
on the back of the interface you'll find a USB C port to connect it to your computer a pair of
midi in and out ports to connect any kind of MIDI devices two sets of headphone outputs two sets of
RCA outputs a set of balanced quarter-inch monitor outputs and a set of nitric XLR combination jacks
four XLR or quarter-inch inputs and to wrap up the walkthrough on the front of the device where you
typically find headphone ports there is nothing there is nothing on the front of this thing next
up as far as the specs of this interface it has a bit depth of up to 24 bit and a sampling rate
up to 192 kilohertz it has a gain range of 62 decibels an EIN of negative 130 point 5 DBA a
dynamic range of 110 point 5 DB an input impedance of 1 point 2 kilo ohms plus 48 volts phantom power
and here is some headphone output specs if you're interested in that information now I want to do a
very quick test to demonstrate what the legacy 4 case which does for spoken-word so right now
I'm speaking into the rode nt1 and I do not have that switch enabled and here is how the audio is
sounding and to now have engaged the legacy 4k switch and you can hear in the upper frequencies
that it is much more pronounced and you can also start to hear a little bit of distortion
or grittiness or graininess if you're looking for that kind of character for your spoken word
recordings and now just to see what a classic microphone plugged into the ssl 2 plus sounds
like i have connected the noi minh u87 in cardioid mode with no filters on directly to the device and
here is how the audio sounds with my gains set at around 11:45 on the gain dial without the
for case which enabled and now I have engaged the 4k switch on the SSL 2 plus for the Noi minh u-87
and here is how the audio sounds with that analog circuit engaged now to really test out the preamps
of the ssl 2 plus i've connected the sm7b directly to it without any cloud lifter or fat head i had
to increase my gain to about 9 on the dial and here is how it sounds without the 4 case which
enabled but when I engage that 4 case which you can really start to hear the sm7b open up and I
actually really think that this 4 case circuit complements a darker microphone like the 7 be
quite nicely but now I've switched that back off and I will go ahead and be quiet so you can hear
what kind of background noise is generated by the preamps with the gain set this high
now let's go ahead and measure the noise floor
of the preamp with and without the four case of which enabled
you
now let's go ahead and see what this interface does in terms of latency so first up with a sample
rate of 48 kilohertz and an i/o buffer size of 64 samples we have a round-trip latency of nine
milliseconds and an output latency of four point four milliseconds when we jump up to 128 samples
we have an 11 and 1/2 millisecond trip latency and 5.7 milliseconds output and then when we jump to
256 samples we have a 17 millisecond road trip or 8 and 1/2 milliseconds output then when we jump to
a sample rate of 192 kilohertz and an i/o buffer size of 64 samples we get a round-trip latency of
6.9 milliseconds LeMay as well as a round-trip latency of 3.3 milliseconds when we jump up to
128 samples we have 7.6 milliseconds round-trip or three point seven milliseconds output and at
256 samples we get nine milliseconds round-trip or 4.3 milliseconds output now I want to go ahead
and test out the instrument performance of this device so I will play an electric guitar and an
electric bass directly into it with and without the four case which enabled and without any kind
of amp simulator so you can really hear what the input sounds like and then I will turn on the amp
Sims and put it into a full mix so you can hear what it would sound like in that kind of scenario
for Davi now let's briefly talk about the differences between the SS l2 which unfortunately
I don't have and the SS l2 plus first thing I want to point out is the preamps on both the SSL
2 and SSL 2 plus are the exact same so you're not really sacrificing anything in that department if
you go with the cheaper unit but where they do start to differ is the SSL 2 only has a single
headphone output it also only has a single set of balanced quarter-inch monitor outputs so if
you're looking for a pair of RCA outputs to run to your DJ deck the ssl 2 plus is the one that
has those and the last difference that I'm able to spot is that the SSL 2 plus has the MIDI in
and out while the SSL 2 completely lacks that option alright so I have been waiting ages for
one of these classics studio gear manufacturers to release an affordable audio interface and I am
beyond thrilled that they finally woke up and did it and I can honestly say I think it was totally
worth the wait and first up in terms of pros the preamps on the ssl 2 and 2 plus are insane with
a gain range of 62 DB and an EIN of negative 130 point 5 DB you it is perfectly capable of driving
even at sm7b cleanly without the need for a cloud lifter or a FET head additionally I love the fact
that they have individual phantom power on/off buttons for each channel that makes it really
easy to run a condenser microphone mixed with a ribbon microphone without having to worry about
accidentally sending phantom power to a microphone that could be damaged by it also the DI inputs on
this thing sound insanely good on the electric guitar and electric bass it also has a feature
that mutes the channel when you turn on or off 48 volt phantom power to avoid any kind of pops or
clicks going into your ears or coming out of your studio monitors which is a really neat thing to
add another Pro is the fact that they a mixed dial to mix between zero latency and computer playback
which is a feature that I think every single audio interface needs directly next to that it
also gives you the option to monitor your inputs as a stereo set if your stereo miking something or
as a mono mix down if you have two microphones for spoken word going into it and another Pro because
this video isn't long enough don't worry I know it's really long I love the versatility and the
addition of the analog legacy for case which it gives some really nice character if you want it
and I really liked it on the sm7b because the boost in the upper frequencies really opened
up the darker sound of that microphone you also have two sets of RCA outputs which can be really
beneficial if you're a DJ because you can send two separate mixes to each of those outputs I love the
fact that there are two sets of headphone outputs which is great if you have two people recording
and if this matters to you at all it is bus powered meaning you don't need to have any
kind of external power brick to power it it is just powered over the USB cable and is then in
terms of cons the first thing I don't like is the meters I would like to see a lot more detail on
there because jumping from negative 10 to zero DBS is quite a drastic jump I would have liked to have
seen negative 6 and negative 3 and there as well I also would have liked to have seen the headphone
ports on the front of the device for easier access and so you don't have to route the cable all the
way around to the rear of the device it also lacks an on/off switch which is a huge bummer sadface
and this last one really isn't a con it is more of a suggestion for SSL since you have to push the
line and Heisey buttons to engage the instrument input it would be nice to be able to push the high
Z button and that changes the impedance of the XLR microphone input to allow you a little bit
more versatility in the tones you're able to get out of it and the character you're able to get out
of your microphone like some vintage preamps had so what I recommended the SSL to and SSL to plus
absolutely I think this is an insanely good sounding audio interface especially at the
price however I think a lot of the features are mainly geared towards musicians and they're not
something that you would really use in a day to day voiceover situation so why would you pick one
of these SSL devices over a more feature-packed device like the mo - em - mainly because of
the preamps they have 62 DB gain range an EIN of negative one thirty point five and the coolest and
most unique feature is the analog legacy 4k switch and since the majority of audio interfaces preamps
and ADA D converters are so clean and distortion free now it can get a little bit boring or sterile
in the box so that for case switch allows you to bring back some of that analog distortion that
people seem to like so much and breathe some life back into that sterile recording alright
so that was the SSL - plus I would love to hear from you in the comments do you think this is a
cool interface are the features things that you would use in a recording session or is it just
something that would not benefit you at all and if you found this video fun interesting or helpful
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