ACCESS ANALOG HARDWARE VS PLUGINS || SSL FUSION vs Celestial || Xlogic G bus vs TimP Lbus v2 & more!

SSL ANALOG HARDWARE VS PLUGINS || SSL FUSION vs Acustica audio Celestial || ACCESS ANALOG ssl g bus compressor shootout vs xlogic g series compreasor vs TimP Lbus 2

SSL FUSION

To save time I thought this week I would simply combine Access Analog's 2 SSL hardware units; Solid stage logic Fusion & xlogic g bus compressor, and create a plugin shootout against relative ssl plugins. Acustica Audio Celestial (which comes as a free plugin with Acustica Big Ceil) is going head to head with the fusions violet eq, and slate digital fg-grey, Plugin Alliance townhouse compressor plugin, SSL native bus compressor and Tim Petherick's lbus2 which also features a seperate pre and rare vintage gold can compressor.

All shootouts will be on a mix bus over an entire track which was a produce like a pro session, band were called We Came From Astronauts.

I love these audio plugin shootouts / analog vs plugin comparisons as they also act as analog reviews so this ssl fusion vs plugin / ssl fusion demo is also a wee ssl fusion review as well.

[PaulThird]

What's everyone's thoughts? Share share share 🤓🤓

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[dustincicero]

I loved how TimP’s LBus sounded. Low end was grippy and punchy. Thanks, Paul!

[mpathy]

haha 2024 anyone?

I got waay more into Nebula this year with the release of AlexB's consoles and Ultimate AI stuff and these Nebula shootouts are golden!

Thanks Paul!

[states]

Fusion sounds fantastically analog like a finished record. The imaging is so good.

[MojoRisingUK]

I am completely blown away by the TimP one....I was 100% sure that the TimP comp was the real SSL.. Holy cow.

[zeno.y]

Thanks for making this shootout. Thankfully I was able to pick out the SSL XLogic 100% accurately from all the blink tests.
However I agree the differences are subtle with the Tim's LBus and on the other hand the FG-grey is different but as good. I would not spend 3000 for the HW BUT I would definitely get the XLogic in 2nd hand if it's in reasonable price.
On a side note, most people don't know that the XLogic was actually based on 9000 console bus comp, not 4000(it's written on Xlogic manual), which explains why the XLogic performs cleaner sound (NOT a bad thing) than the 4000 copies that most companies build.

[Vwrrwvu]

My impression was that the hardware was quite a bit more "spacious-sounding" as in there was more separation between sounds, although the low mids seemed a bit muddy at the same time. Celestial seemed to accentuate the punch of the kick drum at times in a nice way and it didn't quite bring the nasty stuff in the highs forward as much as the hardware which IMO works in the favour of Celestial. I'd still pick the hardware based on the sound since Celestial sounds a bit flat to me, but it has its perks as well.

[laddieervin]

Thanks for another great vid. Really digging your tune.

[dirkchurlish]

returning to this shootout today, it's a good one. i would love to hear 30ms attack 100ms release on the access g bus versus tim p l-bus and any other SSL plug-ins you fancy--busterSE is one of my most used ones. auto-release is so slow and i never use it. tone generator plus metering plug-in for precise GR matching? i think this area deserves another Paul 3rd pass someday. l-bus did so well in this video, therefore we should go another round! please and thank you <3

[byus]

The fusion sounds far better in my opinion. Warmer, the highs are smoother, more depth. The plug in sounds flat. Maybe if you backed off the hf compressor or boosted more high it would bring the high end closer to your preference for the plug-in. Idk pretty easy choice imo for the fusion

[mitch_davis]

Great great video. The bus compressor shootout was very enlightening. One thing to remember - the hardware is being run through 2 stages of conversion. Converters are supposed to be 99% ‘transparent’, but every time you listen to hardware you are also hearing that conversion process. If the L-Bus comp was sampled from the hardware, then you are also hearing the characteristics of the converters, even if they tried to correct the difference. At the end of the day, if you can get a plug-in that sounds that great and that close to the hardware in the box... geez, that makes me second guess some of my purchases. This is the first time I’ve heard an emulation that close to the original. Very, very impressive.

[MixedByDotRob]

Thank you for this comparison! The TimPs sound great! And the Slate is actually pretty good too ... I would never have expected that!

[Barncore]

4:30 Wow! I was certain that #1 would be the hardware! It just sounds more weighty and solid, and the hardware one sounds flatter and less punch/impact, more dull. The width seems unnatural in the 2nd one too, but maybe it was just overused in the settings. On 2nd listen through, i guess the 2nd one sounds more spongey and has more depth. But i only thought that after i found out which was which.

As for the G bus compressor, I had a really tough time telling the difference between any of the plugins and the hardware. Lol. I chose the opposite one to you every time.

This is Nic B from the FB groups btw, just so you can put 2 and 2 together ;)

Edit: Btw which group is this poll in? Must've missed that

[Fwuzeem]

Couldn't agree more with each point in this video

[photicsonar]

Hey Paul, as far as I know, Celestial is not an emulation of the Fusion but inspired by it. That would explain the differences in sound. I read it somewhere in a commentssection.

[dirtydollarbeatz]

Nice reviews bro ! Dope channel ! Subbed and liked ! You deserve more subs ! 💯 💪

[Folk]

On the bus compressor the Ssl mix bus seemed to grab the low frequency more. And take some of punch out of the kick. but the townhouse seemed to create too much harmonics making it sound too muddy.

[Jonas-jqxl]

In the TimP example, there was an obvious higher gain reduction, it was way more aggressive. I find that this is the case with a lot of the AA plugins as well, that they start compressing long. before the needle starts moving. Don't know if it's on purpose or not.

[amalgami]

would be interesting to see plugin doctor analysis of L Bus, comparing harmonics and aliasing. I picked L bus for SSL mix bus in blind test.

[imif_music]

Hi Paul, something you did not mention in the video is the attack and release time of the compressors, above all I am interested in knowing how you configured Tim P's Lbus and also how you used the pre-amp to have that extra analog feeling. great video, personally I liked the Lbus more than all the others.