Derek Sherinian ist einer dieser legendären Keyboard-Wizards, die ein vielfarbiges, spieltechnisch virtuoses Prog-Album ganz im Alleingang aufnehmen könnten.
Das Besondere an Derek Sherinian (56): Er verliert sich nie in gekünstelter Pseudo-Klassik oder synthetischen Bombast-Orgien, sondern liebt die harten Rocksounds, wie man sie aus den Siebzigern kennt: heftig, pushend, riffig, mit viel Improvisation. „Heavy Fusion Prog“ hat man seinen Instrumentalstil einmal genannt. Zu den seiner beeindruckenden Karriere gehörten Kiss, Alice Cooper, Dream Theater, Platypus, Planet X, Billy Idol, Black Country Communion, Yngwie Malmsteen, Whitesnake, Sons Of Apollo … Der Schlagzeuger Simon Phillips (65), Sherinians Hauptpartner auf Vortex, kann sogar eine noch weit umfangreichere Diskografie vorlegen – sie reicht von Mike Oldfield über Toto bis zur Jazzpianistin Hiromi Uehara.
Gut vernetzt jedenfalls sind beide Protagonisten, und da ist es kein Wunder, dass sie eine größere Schar namhafter Feature-Gäste aufbieten können – in erster Linie natürlich internationale Super-Gitarristen für sensationelle Virtuosensoli, darunter Steve Stevens, Steve Lukather, Joe Bonamassa, Michael Schenker und Mike Stern. Die Synthie-Soli des Bandleaders wetteifern mit diesen großen Saiten-Heroen und nähern sich sogar im Sound stark der Gitarre an. Ein Hardrock-Blues steht neben indischen Klängen, Metal-Riffs wechseln sich ab mit Fusion-Improvisationen. Es rockt und rockt.
SSL Fusion Stereo Outboard ProcessorSalim Akram is a live sound engineer. He currently works as the monitor engineer for Grammy Award-winning artist Billie Eilish and Grammy Award-winning producer and artist Finneas. In 2019, he was a Parnelli Award nominee for Monitor Engineer of the Year.
Without a doubt, 2020 was one of the most challenging years for all of us. There were highs and lows, ups and downs, and a lot of uncertainty for those of us in the music industry. For those of us used to being on the road often, we found ourselves suddenly grounded at home, trying to figure out which yeast to buy for a bread recipe or whether we could squeeze in three Zoom dinners in one night. If there’s any silver lining we can find, it would be that we’ve been gifted with an abundance of time to refocus our attention and energy.
Even with Zoom fatigue, there’s always one I look forward to the most: the weekly catch-up with my touring buddies, where we can nerd out on what we’re working on and what gear we’re using. One piece of gear that has come up more than once in our conversations is Solid State Logic’s Fusion. Introduced in late 2019, Fusion is an all-analog, two-rackspace, stereo outboard processor that has a half-dozen tools for adding tonal character, weight and space to a mix bus or stereo stems. As you can imagine, I was stoked when the opportunity came up to play around with one.
My first impression of the SSL Fusion was that it wasn’t flashy, but straight to the point. The knobs and buttons are cosmetically consistent with what you’d expect from SSL, and they were sturdy with almost no wobble. The simplicity and layout itself make you want to start twisting knobs straight out of the box.
If you’re more in the habit of reading a product manual first, the user guide is a helpful read, with some good documentation and some context for starting points. The SSL Fusion has the option to be a hardware insert to an audio interface as well as an insert to an analog desk or summing mixer. As a matter of fact, there are so many different applications for this unit, I’d suggest doing a search online for some ideas of different uses available.
For me, I ran it through three scenarios—raw drums, guitar/bass stems and unmastered mixes—and everything that went in came out with a considerably more desirable sound. It absolutely made a noticeable difference to my sessions.
After setting the input trim, the first stop in the chain was the Vintage Drive. I kept the Drive level (which literally goes to 11) between 3-6 and the density level from 3-7, keeping the LED in the green and driving a solid orange at the most extreme. I had it on my drum bus and a kick/snare combo, and it added wonderful harmonics while hyping up overall volume and color. Vintage Drive is probably the most musical part of the unit—if SSL shipped Fusion as solely this one section, it would still be worth it. When used conservatively, it added smooth/warm saturation, and when slammed aggressively into the red, it produced a gritty overdriven drum tone that could be musically desirable in the right context.
SSL Fusion Stereo Outboard Processor (rear view)
Violet EQ, the next section, was precise and subtle. I ran it at 30/50 at +2 db for a low-end bump to some unmastered reference mixes; the difference was subtle, but without it, you missed it. Personally, I have a low threshold when it comes to untamed high-end, but the 8-12 k that I introduced at +2 db was smooth and added definition to the overheads where my mic choice had produced dull and washy tones. I found that +2 db – +4 db was the sweet spot before my additions became undesirable for my particular scenarios.
As I mentioned before, my preference is to shy away from aggressive high-end, so generally speaking, I don’t find myself compensating or correcting the top too often; as a result, my experimentation with the HF Compressor section was purely for musical purposes. The compression was dynamic and surprisingly musical, and by playing with the X-Over and Threshold parameters, I was able to shape my drum bus to have a nice vintage tape vibe and give some guitar and bass stems a little more percussive elements that weren’t as pointy.
My favorite part of this unit is Stereo Image. As someone who has worked with artists that are extremely sensitive to separation and panning, I loved how much space this created. I started with 2 o’clock for the space and width, and the difference was extremely noticeable. It was the audio equivalent of putting everything in its own column, but staying glued together. That said, I always tend to pan my guitars 40-60 percent off center to the left or right, and with the style of music I play, the guitars can sometimes get lost in the vocal panning and keyboard midrange.
In some circles, the subjective argument for what sounds better, the hardware vs the plug-in, could be debated for hours (or years). In my day-to-day creative and professional setting, I’m swimming in a sea of digital. Likewise, with my home studio being used for tracking guitars, bass, DJ mix tapes and remixes, considering all of the digital options out there, one could ask why I would want/need an analog hardware unit at this price point.
However, what I found after using the SSL Fusion, is that this piece of hardware completely sidesteps that argument. Fusion’s versatility, ease of use and musicality makes it perfect for the hobbyist, the professional and everyone in between. With it already being called a classic, I can certainly see myself and my home studio benefiting greatly from using this in 2021 and beyond.
New York, NY (October 13, 2020)—Secret “Easter Eggs” have been a staple of pop culture for decades, rewarding those with an eye for minutiae with cool surprises, like hidden features or modes in games, cameos or in-jokes in the background of movies, and more. Now Solid State Logic has revealed its own Easter Egg—a “new” capability hidden inside every Fusion unit since the outboard processor was launched two years ago at the AES Show.
Intended for use in tracking, mixing and mastering, Fusion shipped with five “colors” to help users add tonal character, weight and space to stereo stems using real analog circuits. Now it turns out there’s a sixth color hidden in there—a full-band LMC processor with wet/dry control.
HOW TO ACCESS THE SIXTH COLOR
Fusion’s HF Compressor button.
Push and hold the HF Compressor button on Fusion’s front panel for five seconds. This will unlock “full band LMC mode.” When in LMC mode, the X-OVER knob turns into a ‘Wet/Dry’ control, providing LMC processing with parallel control.
Andy Jackson, studio product manager of Solid State Logic, explained, “During the development of Fusion, we experimented and trailed many variants of the five analogue circuits. One variant of particular interest was an alternative mode for the HF Compressor section, making it operate across the full audio spectrum. As the design of the HF Compressor section was based on the legendary SSL Listen Mic Compressor circuit, it came as no surprise that this alternative mode sounded damn cool. Two years on, it’s finally time to reveal this special audio treat to our Fusion family, giving everyone a sixth “secret” color to get creative with.”
The SSL Listen Mic Compressor, based on the SSL 4000 series consoles, was originally designed to prevent overloading the return feed from a studio communications mic, but the LMC’s fixed attack and release curves were soon discovered to be suitable on drums, and equally interesting on guitars, vocals and many other instruments.
