And while we are focusing on the Brainworx SSL 4000 E and SSL 4000 G, pretty much everything you see can be applied to the other Plugin Alliance channel strips, and channel strips from other companies as well (i.e. IZotope, Waves, etc) We will cover everything: Filters, Compressor, Expander, EQ, Side-Chain, TMT, all the buttons, and more. Brainworx bxconsole 4000 E & bxconsole 4000 G ($299 each) Winner: Best Overall SSL Channel Strip Plugin. The bxconsole channel strip plugins—newly revamped with help from SSL's own engineer—are arguably even more powerful than the original SSL hardware channel strips.
bx_console SSL 4000E is a channel strip modeling the filters, compressor, gate, and EQ section from the venerable mixing console by Brainworx.
The legendary sound of the Solid State Logic 4000 series consoles brought to you by Brainworx. With the power of TMT this officially licensed SSL plugin allows you to build a 72 channel analog console in your DAW. Harness the power of the most famous British console ever produced.
BrainworxStripped Bare
East west colossus torrent. On my journey to obtaining mixes that don't sound like the inside of a dumpster fire, I've messed with a lot of tools meant to make things 'easier' for lack of a better word. Fancy equalizers with spectral visualization, compressors that show you exactly where the knee and slope of the compression activate, and a litany of other devices have graced my DAW and none have ever really stuck.
Enter the channel strip, I believe I was introduced to my first one with Audio Track by Waves back in 2013 or so. I didn't quite grasp the appeal, but I liked how immediate everything was. If you're new, or perhaps skeptical, a channel strip combines all the core functions of a mixing console in a handy dandy little plugin that you just insert on individual channels during your mix session.
Now, my mixes sound more like inside of a clean dumpster, and that's largely thanks to trusting my ears and leaning heavily on tools like a channel strip, and this particular one is among my absolute favorites.
Solidly Stated? Where's the logic in that?
The bx_console 4000 E by Brainworx is one of those remarkable tools that you don't quite understand you need at the time, but by golly did I need this as soon as I heard it on a bass channel.
The 4k E, as I'll refer to it because the whole name is a bit of a mouthful, is a channel strip running in VST2, VST3, and AAX for Windows and OSX. It's officially endorsed by Solid State Logic, which has its perks if you operate on name recognition or you're a brand snob I suppose.
When you initially launch it, you're presented with a very cozy little arrangement, with a pair of filters on the upper most left, the legendary dynamic section directly below, an EQ to the right, and a gigantic fader to the extreme right. There's also these funky little buttons for something called TMT and stereo mode, but we'll get to those.
Where's the glue? I thought there was supposed to be glue
The dynamic section is comprised of two sections, a compressor and a gate/expander. The compressor itself operates from 1:1 ratio up to extreme limiting at an infinity:1. The attack is fixed but you have the option of a fast attack in addition to the release. There's also some other nifty little knobs like a wet/dry mix for parallel compression on say a particularly lifeless kick, a high pass filter for letting some of those extreme lows escape, and a secondary release setting for fine tuning the action of the compressor itself.
This comes in two flavors, an E and a G. Now you might be asking yourself, what on earth is the difference? The E is an earlier revision of the 4000 series console, and I find the compressor lends a darker tone overall. It's a smooth and pleasant operator, but it isn't what I'd call in your face. The G on the other hand is perhaps its more famous sibling, and has a nice snarly midrange and overall brings things slightly more forward, not unlike a more polite API 2500.
The gate/expander is also rather full featured. In gate mode it allows you to dial in hysteresis, the range of the gate, and the threshold. The expander operates largely the same but you miss out on the aforementioned hysteresis control.
The dynamics can also be set to operate on an external sidechain, which is highly useful.
All Frequencies Created Equal? Wouldn't that sound muddy?
The equalizer section is rather magical, as it models two different E consoles. In its default state, it's the black knob filters, mash the button and it becomes brown. If you're not versed in vintage audio consoles this could be pretty confusing, but each option has different tonal characteristics.
You've two shelves, which can be set to peaks, and two filters with adjustable bandwidth. In black mode I found the EQ filters to be rather aggressive, with larger adjustments grabbing my frequency selections out and slapping me in the face. The brown mode is smoother, while those big jumps are still noticeable, it isn't nearly as aggressive.
The EQ can be placed before or after the dynamics, I won't start that fight on where it works better because people get passionate and I'm just here for the channel strip honestly.
TMT? Where's Raphael and Donatello?
The master section has some unusual choices, and some rather obvious ones. The input gain does what it says, but the knobs next to it bear some more mention. V-Gain can be characterized as the noise of the console. There's a low operating cycle that gets very very evident when you have this cranked up across a large project. If you don't like a bit of that old analog grit, it's easily bypassed.
THD is total harmonic distortion, and functions as the desk's color or saturation. It defaults very demurely to a reasonable position, but I'm an unreasonable person so I just crank it to get things going.
These last two puzzled me however, the TMT and the stereo mode. The stereo mode in practice is modeling nonlinearities in the volume of the left and right channels of a console. In analog mode this effectively means the compressor might be doing 3dB of gain reduction on one side and 1.5dB of gain reduction on the other. This can be readily disabled for more uniformity by switching to digital mode.
TMT, or tolerance modeling technology as the good folks at Plugin Alliance call it, is modeling 72 different stereo channels on the SSL. This boils down to 36 stereo pairs in analog mode, or 72 in digital mode. If you're familiar with Waves NLS, it's the same sort of functionality, but just right there and ready for you. I have noticed on larger projects this makes a massive difference just hitting random across the entire project.
Bx Console Ssl 4000 E
Automated Processes? Never heard of them
This is a fantastic little strip, and I have done entire projects with just this and a bus compressor to control everything at the 2bus level. It normally retails for $249 over at Plugin Alliance, but if you're diligent you can easily grab it from anywhere from $29 to $49.
It does take a bit of manual reading to get the absolute most out of it, but I like reading manuals so this isn't a huge issue to me. I would love to see an independent attack control on the dynamics, I understand this is supposed to be an accurate emulation but I get fussy about fixed attacks.
If you're in the market for a great general-purpose channel strip well suited for any sort of material you can toss at it, this would be at the top of the heap.
- Sound Quality
- Ease of Use
- Interface
- Presets
- Value for Money
- Turtle Power
Summary
Would I recommend bx_console SSL 4K E to anyone? Absolutely, it's a great bundle of useful processors that can be as colorful or as clean as you could desire. Being able to randomize certain parameters in pursuit of that ever magical mojo from yesteryear is just icing on the cake.
SSL 4000 E
Thank you thank you thank you. I almost cried when i re-did a mix with this plugin all over the tracks, just beyond imagination,
Though it was not possible to ' home studio' mix this quality. But this is it!! Thank you again you masters. Sound and music!TOP Channel strip
I use it on everything. It's now part of my mixing process and use on every mix. Great EQ, great overall sound. Very easy to operate, scalable interface and TMT is great for that 'console sound' on a mix.
A must have.I'm blown away again!
Like with console_n THIS is different and I really like all about it! I really do! Those bx_consoles and in particular the SSL E Channel are the best strip emulation plugins I've ever seen and heard! Very useful, very well thought through and great sounding. I love the saturation and harmonics that make all sound less sterile and like a 'real thing' actually. Best regards from Frankfurt am Main.Great Under Limited Resources
As a student working from a computer with limited resources to drive larger projects, the SSL 4000 E is the CPU-light Swiss Army knife I've been looking for. Brainworx has not only built a great sounding plugin but has also incorporated some nice-to-have features like the compressor's mix control, invertible expander/gate, TMT options, THD controls including the THD all knob, and V Gain controls. Even the user's manual is well laid out for quick access, something which is appreciated when I don't want to be fiddling through its pages instead of using the plugin. Overall, this plugin is great in sound, features, and usability, which is why I look forward to purchasing BX's SSL 9000 J in the future.Fantastic
Just the best plugin version of a SSL console. It works great and it sounds great too.My go to channel strip
I've been using the Waves E channel plugin since Waves 5.0 but this one.. oh this one! This one is the shnizzle with ice cream on top. I like the TMT feature and the UI is bigger and easier to see than the Waves one. I also own the genuine SSL E channelstrip but that's in last place. Well, it took SSL YEARS to get it to work without crashing Pro Tools or corrupting session files so I've given upin them. I don't even have it installed anymore. The Brainworx version has been rock solid and sounds great. Great job!SSL E Serious
This is the plugin I always wanted and needed to make my mixes really come to life. It's a one stop shop. I print all my tracks initially with a little outboard eq and compression. Then I treat my DAW like an SSL with one of these on each channel and one each bus. Nothing more. And yup..it works. I know the E series inside out and this plugin has it nailed enough. It may even be slightly better. No longer any need to smack any of the modules anymore , unless you want a broken screen.SSL 4000 E
Cool plugin. I compared it to waves 4000 E. I cant say one was better than the other because in my opinion they both have a 'sound'. I do dig PA 4000 E for the fact it seems way less CPU hungry than the waves and has more cool options to tweak a sound. Definitely a good one to have in the tool box especially for the sound and the light cpu usageSSL 4000 E..
Drums, drums, drums and more drums..
This is a great plug for drums.. all drums, any drums.
The EQ has a magic genie built in to it.. apparently.
The force is strong with this one!
Drum on!bx_console SSL 4000 E
Yes of course there are many good SSL E channel emulations out there. But none of them sounds as good, warm and 'analog' as the bx_console SSL 4000 E from Brainworx. Just try it out!
Reviews of
- Brainworx
- ★★★★★
- Officially approved by SOLID STATE LOGIC (SSL) - 72 channels of 4000E series, injected with patented Tolerance Modeling Technology (TMT).
- Hardware Emulations
- TMT inside
Ssl 4000 Console For Sale
4.9 out of 5 stars
Ssl Plugins Review
133 total reviews
Ssl 4000 Plugin Free Download
SSL 4000 E
Thank you thank you thank you. I almost cried when i re-did a mix with this plugin all over the tracks, just beyond imagination,
Though it was not possible to ' home studio' mix this quality.… Read More
