SSL X-Desk

Get the actual hardware in front of you, though, and it’s not the super-charged desktop mixer you might initially expect: there appear to be only eight channels, there are no preamps, no EQs, and all but a handful of the audio connections are on 25-pin D-Sub connectors. So is this latest addition to the X-Logic range actually worth making a fuss about? Let’s poke around it in more detail and find out.

Three send buses are available per channel: one stereo send with level and pan controls (Cue St) and per-channel pre/post-fade switching; and two mono sends (FX1 & FX2) with level controls and global pre/post-fade switching. All three of these buses have master level knobs and AFL switches in the top right-hand corner of the master section. If you choose to send FX1 and FX2 to external effects units, you can return those in mono or stereo to the main mix and/or Cue St buses via dedicated level and pan controls — so it’s easy to set up monitor effects in the cue mix that you don’t want to hear in the control room, for example. You can, though, also use those inputs for any other stereo source.

On the face of it, there’s nothing too surprising about things so far — it all seems to resemble the kind of basic layout we’re all familiar with on more affordable small-format mixers. However, if you scrutinise the front panel of the X-Desk more closely, you’ll see a few extra Cue St switches, and these expand the versatility of the X-Desk enormously. Firstly, another Alt button on every channel lets you feed that strip’s Cue St send directly from the Alt input, rather than from the main channel path; and, secondly, a master-section Cue To Mix button routes the Cue ST bus directly to the main mix.

A more intriguing alternative, though, is that you could treat the desk effectively as an in-line design, feeding mic/instrument signals to the recorder inputs from the main channel path’s direct outs, and then routing the recorder returns to the Cue St bus via the Alt inputs for monitoring purposes. In this case, the performers and engineer would all have to monitor via the Cue St mix (the latter using Cue St AFL), but the pay-off would be that you could take advantage of your recorder’s automatic input/playback monitor switching for doing drop-ins, or even connect the X-Desk’s main output to your recorder to mix multiple mic signals to a stereo track pair.

So, in short, you can decide whether you want the X-Desk to function as a monitor mixer with direct outs, a larger-scale line mixer, or an in-line recording mixer — and just by pressing a few buttons. Can’t make up your mind? Not to worry, because the per-channel Cue St and direct output setup also allows any number of less clear-cut hybrid configurations as well.

For me, it’s this kind of flexibility that most clearly highlights the X-Desk’s celebrated lineage, capturing in miniature one of the essential concepts behind SSL’s large-studio consoles: if you have several alternative methods of carrying out a given studio task, you can choose the approach best suited to your engineering style and the specific needs of the session in hand. In particular, the way you can decide to use the faders for either recorder sends or monitor returns reminds me a great deal of those big in-line designs.

There was one functional quirk I came across, though. If you’re not planning to use the Cue St feeds as separate channels, but intend simply to use the mixer to deal with monitoring duties on a multi-mic ensemble-recording session, your natural inclination would be to feed the recorder returns to the Alt inputs so that you can listen back to the multitrack machine via the main channel Alt buttons. The problem with this is approach is that if you have any polarity-invert buttons engaged, you’ll find that the signal is re-inverted on the way back from the recorder, changing the polarity relationships between the channels on playback. There’s actually a way to work around this issue, though, by using your channel insert connections as recorder sends and returns instead. As usual on SSL gear, the insert sends are always live, so your recorder will be fed regardless of the front-panel Insert switch positions, which means that you can use those switches to route either the mic-input or record-monitor signals into the remainder of the channel instead, without passing the latter through the polarity switch a second time. Of course, in this case you’d need to connect any insert processing for recording between the mic/instrument preamps and the X-Desk’s line inputs, but I’d have thought that’s unlikely to cramp anyone’s style unduly in practice. Furthermore, the fact that this kind of workaround is possible at all constitutes another example of this unit’s chameleon-like adaptability.

There’s a solid line-up of monitoring and communication facilities. The monitor matrix can be fed from three different sources, either one at a time or, if another sigma-labelled button is lit, in any combination. Besides the main mix bus, the two other sources are externally fed, one via the rear-panel balanced D-Subs, and the other through a front-panel unbalanced stereo mini-jack (or ‘iJack’) designed for portable music players and the like. I’m not sure that mini-jack connections of any type really belong on a unit of this calibre: I’d personally be much more convinced of the robustness of phonos or quarter-inch jacks for a consumer-level unbalanced connection, and I certainly find it hard to believe that anyone in the market for an X-Desk would baulk at the expense of a phono-to-mini-jack adaptor lead!

A large Monitor Level control is at the front of the mixer, close at hand, along with large Dim and Cut buttons, the former reducing the monitoring level by anything up to 30dB, depending on the setting of another rotary control. There are also switches so that you can monitor in mono and/or via a second set of loudspeakers. Hitting the T/B button feeds a built-in talkback mic via predictably draconian compression to Cue St, as well as dimming the monitor level. The button action can be toggled between latching and momentary if you hold it down as the console powers up.

While the talkback mic seems to do its intended communication job fairly efficiently, I have to say that it does, nonetheless, sound pretty horrible, and also picks up quite a lot of mechanical noise from the T/B switch and the X-Desk’s front panel. There’s no way to plug in a substitute either, and there’s also no access to a post-T/B-switch signal for slating takes. As it is, if you wanted to slate the main mix via the internal talkback mic, you’d have to use Cue St for that purpose exclusively, perhaps feeding it to a powered speaker in the recording room (to be picked up by your mics) or combining it directly with the main mix bus using the master insert’s summing facility.

On the bottom right-hand corner is a stereo headphone output, with a rotary level control above it. This normally follows the main monitoring source selection, but is otherwise independent of the other Monitor-section controls. The button above its level control, however, allows you to substitute the Cue St signal instead, obviating the need for an additional headphone amplifier in simple overdubbing situations.

When you look at the X-Desk’s price, however, and scale that up to factor in the cost of building in all that extra circuitry, the whole concept begins to make much more sense. What SSL have realised is that people willing to spend this kind of money on a small-format mixer are also likely to have strong views about the subjective merits of different preamp and processor brands. Their specific requirements in terms of processing facilities and socketry will also vary tremendously. So why try to second-guess the customer? Let them decide which kind of preamp they want, what complement of EQ/dynamics is beneficial, and what socketry is actually necessary in their setup, so that they only pay for what they’re actually going to use; then let the X-Desk concentrate on glueing the user’s chosen outboard together into a mixer which, while small, offers professional-grade features, flexibility, and sonic transparency well beyond the scope of most small-format designs.

The design is also, I think, a canny move on SSL’s part, in terms of luring in new project-studio custom — because it provides a way for the less flush audiophile to gradually build a small recording system that offers no-compromise audio quality and routing flexibility from the outset, but allows considerable expansion of its feature set as time and funds allow. Right out of the box, the X-Desk will do your DAW summing and cue mixing (with talkback) in the studio, and will also double as a first-class monitor controller into the bargain. Save up for a worthy multi-channel preamp and you suddenly have a serious tool for small-scale studio or location recording; add in a couple of headphone amps, and multi-room studio sessions move within range too. From there you can add channel processing in increasing quantities (and in line with your own unique and discerning taste, of course) to enhance both tracking and mixing results, or specify separate A-D/D-A conversion units for the resolutions and output formats that make most sense.

You can also pay for, say, insert sockets only when you need them, and then you can use a D-Sub connection loom which suits your needs. Indeed, you’d feel justifiably cheesed off if you’d paid good money for jack or XLR direct outs on your mixer and your choice of multi-channel preamp or recorder sported D-Subs. In addition, by using D-Subs SSL can provide the extensive connectivity you’d expect of a large-format console without dramatically increasing this mixer’s small footprint.

Visual feedback from the console is good, on the whole, especially the colour-coded rotary controls and nice bright backlit buttons, but I’d have liked clearer indications of unity gain for some of the knobs, and the little grey status buttons would have benefited from status LEDs or a two-tone button colour to make it easier to take in the console’s configuration at a glance. Given the lack of any built-in recall facilities (this is an all-analogue desk, remember) I’d also have liked white colouring around the faders, as pencil marks won’t stand out well on the grey background. In an ideal world, we’d all carry around a rainbow selection of chinagraphs, but do you? A recall-sheet template in the manual assists with reinstating complete mixer setups, should that need arise.

Given SSL’s reputation, and the fact that the X-Desk incorporates the same Super Analogue-brand circuitry as that which inhabits the company’s latest top-end Duality consoles, you shouldn’t really need me to tell you that the sound is as clean as a whistle (bar the talkback signal that I’ve already mentioned, of course). In terms of usability, the full ramifications of the Cue St routing options may take a little time to sink in, but one of the things that I think is great about the X-Desk design is that you can pretty easily just ignore all that to start with, and you can be up and running with the console’s basic eight-channel configuration in seconds flat if you have any previous experience of small-format mixers. Once you do get more in-depth with it, though, the open-endedness of the design manages to feel both liberating and logical.

Even if the audio quality and routing capabilities of a more affordable 8:2 mixer are enough to meet your needs, the X-Desk still scores strongly in terms of feature set. Yes, I know, you have no preamps or EQ; but what you do have is a whole load of other features that, while perhaps less thrilling in the abstract, really make a difference when you’re actually on a recording job. I’m talking about proper 100mm faders, channel polarity inversion, pre/post-switching for all sends and direct outs, switchable input selection, switchable channel/master inserts, built-in talkback with adjustable monitor dim, decent source and speaker selection, a mono button, AFL for all send masters, and the ability to get balanced audio in and out of the mixer at practically any point in the signal path. While the X-Desk’s innovations are certainly appealing, it’s the way it handles the worthy but dull majority of mixer tasks that unmistakably marks it out as a tool for professionals.

Within the limits of what the company are trying to achieve here, the few criticisms I’ve made don’t stack up to much, the lack of talkback I/O and a proper master fader being my main concerns. The design manages to be inventive without losing sight of the importance of robust efficiency, and the lack of onboard processing and socketry makes sense as a design choice (not just as a cost-cutting measure), allowing impressive expansion possibilities without simultaneously rendering previous investments redundant or, for that matter, locking you into SSL’s own product line. The X-Desk is a brilliant product which, despite its considerable price, nonetheless represents an excellent long-term investment. I want one!  0