SSL's Odyssey puts instant recall behind an all-analogue signal path

Solid State Logic has launched Odyssey, a large-format recording console whose audio path is entirely analogue but whose settings can be stored and restored the way a plugin preset is. Systems run from 24+8 up to 96+8 channels.

The recall is the reason it exists. SSL’s ActiveAnalogue system puts digital control behind analogue circuitry, with 16,000 steps across every controllable parameter, and keeps the processing itself in separate racks while the surface handles motorised faders and displays. A project restores gain, EQ, dynamics, filters, insert assignments, routing and fader positions together, so coming back to a mix three weeks later is an operation rather than an afternoon spent with photographs and a notebook.

Each channel carries a PureDrive mic preamp with a Drive control, compressor and gate processing, and a four-band parametric EQ switchable between E and G Series curves. The architecture is in-line: a 100 mm Large Fader and a 60 mm Small Fader on every strip, insert points that move between the record and monitor paths, and odd/even linking that SSL says matches pairs to within a hundredth of a dB. Routing covers four stereo mix buses, 16 track buses, ten aux buses, eight stereo Flex groups and three stereo foldback feeds, with THE BUS+ and an analogue dynamic EQ in the centre section.

Two pieces of software sit alongside it. O-Motion writes console automation into Pro Tools or Logic as moves you can edit like any other automation. O-Control handles configuration, projects, presets and snapshots, and runs offline, so a session can be built before anyone reaches the studio. Projects carry across to SSL’s smaller Oracle desk.

Odyssey ships in straight, curved ProStation and custom frames. SSL publishes no pricing and configures systems through its console specialists, which tells you most of what you need to know about who it is for.

Producer’s note

Instant recall covers what the console knows about, which is everything inside it. Those moveable insert points are the gap. Whatever is patched into them is outboard, and outboard does not recall. On a desk like this the discipline worth keeping is documenting the rack rather than the surface, because the surface is now the part that looks after itself.