Get the SSL Sound For Free

Solid-State-Logic LMC-1 compressor plug-in – given away

LMC-1 did we mention its FREE!

It’s no coincidence that SSL mixing consoles are often the desk of choice for the final mix stage of a recording project. The sound that many producers crave is due in part at least to the Listen Mic Compressor. Originally designed to prevent overloading the return feed from a studio communications (reverse talkback) mic, its fixed attack and release curves are eminently suitable for use on ambient drums mics and so became abused by SSL users for that very purpose.

SSL have modeled the LMC-1 as a plug-in in AU and VST formats (Mac only folks – sorry) and are currently offering it as a free download via their website. Free stuff? Where do I get it? Right here: http://www.solid-state-logic.com/

About SSL Long-time SSL user Hugh Padgham was one of the first to capture this new drum sound on tape,while working with Steve Lilywhite on Peter Gabriel’s ‘Intruder’, he told Mix magazine:*

"On a normal console, you have a button to press to talk to the musicians in the headphones, but you did not have a button to press for us to listen to the musicians. To do that, you'd plug a microphone into a spare channel on the desk and listen to your musicians through that. But the SSL had a reverse talkback button and there was a microphone hanging up in the studio already, a dedicated input into the reverse mic input on the console. And on this microphone, they had the most unbelievably heavy compressor, so you could hear somebody who was over in the corner.

"One day, Phil (Collins) was playing the drums,” Hugh recalls, “and I had the reverse talkback on because he was speaking, and then he started playing the drums. The most unbelievable sound came out because of the heavy compressor. I said, 'My God, this is the most amazing sound! Steve, listen to this.' But the way the reverse talkback was setup, you couldn't record it.

So I had the desk modified that night. I got one of the maintenance guys to take the desk apart and get a split output of this compressor and feed it into a patch point on the jack field so I could then patch it into a channel on the board. From there, we were able to route that to the tape recorder."

Now you can experience the Listen Mic Compressor within the comfort of your own workstation software and see what sounds it’ll lead you to create. If you discover something really great – like a radical new distorted oboe sound then be sure to let us know.

* View the original MIX article: mixonline.com/mag/audio_phil_collins_air/