Thank you for this! You are one of the few producers sharing content about the XL-Desk. I plan to get the XL-Desk soon. I have been planning out the patch bay configuration. I think I might go with a combination of a few traditional TRS patch bays with the Flock Audio system for inserts and effects. I would be curious to know how you planned and setup your patch bay. There are lots of DB-25 inputs and outputs to deal with with that desk...
Do you still strongly recommend the 310As if you don't have the budget for ATCs or did you find others in your search that were also much better than the 310As but more budget friendly than the ATC? Are the ATCs not a bit quiet and lacking bass compared to the Neumanns?
The Neumann’s are probably the best in that price range. The ATCs are wonderfully balanced. Not sure why I’d need them to be any louder, I try not to go over 85dB anyway.
@@davespeakmanmusic I make house and techno so I want a more club like perspective at times. Did you try the focal trio 6 or 11? I county have cms65 and Dynaudio Bm15a (the latter are certainly loud enough to damage hearing if cranked for long periods)
@@davespeakmanmusic I’ll have to give them a try. I think studiocare Liverpool is going to be my best bet too I didn’t know it existed - Is the demo room good? I need to sort out my acoustics before buying anything else though. What kind of music do you make/mix?
Thanks for posting this Overview video on the SSL XL DESK. Seems like a great way to work and with 500 rack seems like a great package. I'm thinking of grabbing one for my Studio. Subscribed.
Telefunken m60 for everything EXCEPT brushes the U87 had better pickup on the individual strands of the brush! Although this is a mono mic test and i either record in stereo or 3D Surround Sound dolby Atmos but i think in combination with the lauten tom and snare mics the m60 would work well!
The M60 is a great mic! Yes, I tend to use stereo overheads but it’s tricky to set up all pairs for a comparison like this. Perhaps I’ll try to give it a go. 😀
@@davespeakmanmusic have you ever used the Lauten snare and Tom Mics? They are side address mics that have 135 degree area around the mic literally you can put them NEXT to hi hats and crash cymbals and there's minimal bleed! They are the best sounding drum mics I've ever heard for the bass drum I use a Sennheiser e906 on a Shu inside a Lauten Ls208 at the hole pointing inside on a 45 degree angle and a Telefunken tf29 copperhead or a Lauten Eden on the outside mounted just left of center I also like a pair of Neumann TLM 107s as overheads, best combo I've found SO FAR after 38 years of drumming!
Yea but the 906 is really versatile too. I always forget to try it on anything but a guitar cab! They’re great on snare drum and lots of stuff. I get locked into the idea that a particular mic is for a specific application too easily! 😀😀
@@davespeakmanmusic Agreed but Ive found that these aforementioned mics just make the kit sound PHENOMENAL I run it into multiple API 3124s I have found that to me they work the best on drums! The mics slow the bleed down to a papercut and give a deep deep tone like the old 70s Rogers and Ludwig kits used to have in a lighter and easier carrying kit!
For my commercial studio the answer is ABSOLUTELY! Having the Wow factor when people come in for the first time is a big sales point. Plus the majority of patch points, CR monitoring, head phone mixing and inserts all happen on the desk and that’s waaay more fun. I edit and automate in the DAW….
KM184 sounded the most like the kit was in my listening room. Had the most detail especially when the sound field was dense with different parts of the kit sounding at the same time.
At around 11:15 he says u cant use the reissue with a drummer. Imo thats the speaker. If you get a more efficient speaker you can do that. Unless he means clean. If its about clean youll need at least 20-30 watts of headroom. Dirty these amps out of the box can hang but with a more efficient speaker can guarantee the volume. But headroom is different. For gigging youd need an extension cabinet with mics or just mic the front end but that depends on what sound someone is looking for. After all he said the old one was louder which comes down to the changed out speaker. Green and creambacks will be the same volume roughly. But a 10 inch alnico gold is a little louder. I know eminence makes a 10 inch speaker with around 100 db sensitivity. But i dont like eminence speakers.
@@davespeakmanmusic i think the one tube amp for all purposes is really a myth. Speakers is one thing but you need at least two. A small one for home use and a larger one for gigging. Luckily fender hot rods are cheap used. It’s worth while to spend more on a good amp for practice and rehearsals.
@@davespeakmanmusic well I’d say that’s overkill but you always need more tonal options. I’d recommend a good solid state like a jc120 as well because sometimes the pristine cleans are just what you need for things like jazz. But lab series amps are great too because you can dial in that compression and get a very tube like sound. One of the best tones I’ve heard was bb king live in japan and that was a solid state amp just before he got into lab series amps but the very slight breakup was amazing. The way i see it I’d rather have one guitar and a bunch of amps rather than one amp and a bunch of guitars. Theres nothing a strat or tele can’t do anyways.
yup.. just get a decent mic.. and it really does not matter much which you pic and no one will know. Maybe except for the Josephson which is noticeably different. But other than that. Get a better drummer that knows how to balance himself , and then just the cheapest mic here. The AT Pro37 is more than fine.
Line Audio have the CM4 now, replacing the CM3. I bought some recently from jam, in Sweden. They're really good. I really like them as a mid-way between the SDCs I like (KM184, then Oktava which had a nice vintage character, albeit some 'graininess' apparent in crash). My favourite was the cheaper of the ribbons, the versatile Beyerdynamic M160 - they kept clarity and their great on guitar amp too. Whereas the Royer sounds fantastic on driven cab, but I don't love it as much on overhead. I disliked the U87 & 414, a U47-type would be better. The Coles sounded dark, as is, but I'd imagine with EQ would sound great. AEA was really good too. Now there's the Soyuz 013, which sound awesome as the SDC option.
I’ve been trying to explore beyond my normal go-to overheads, and I have to say that after watching this video, in my opinion, the Milab DC-96C beats all of these mics by a landslide.
Can you use the mix outs to create a surround mixing 5.1 or even 7.1? you have 3 stereo and you can run 2 feeds into a sub or run one of the outposts in mono mode. - thoughts?
I’m not sure how you would pan things in surround. I believe some people have used the desk like that but most people mix surround in the box as I understand.
@@davespeakmanmusic thanks - so you cannot depress mini 1 and mini 2 then add a sub by using the sub as the crosser? I know that I can send the balance to stereo pair 2 differently in the DAW... OR can I send the outputs in the DAW to channels and then use the direct outs of those channels?
@@davespeakmanmusic Thanks I spoke to the VP of SSL and he confirmed that you can send from the DAW to individual channels and then patch those to direct outputs on the channels... you can only do it with a patchbay but you would patch your speakers accordingly. Thanks though
Thank you. To be honest I don’t use the BM5s very often (I think they’re MkIIs). I find their sound to be fairly hard and really enjoy using the Adams. I use the little mix cube far more than the Dynaudios. That might change in the future though!
What would I need to record myself playing acoustic guitar and singing? I would imagine the clip on mic would not be ideal because it would not be an ideal mix? And, how far away would P3 have to be from me to frame shot of head to bottom of guitar? I keep thinking the dji mic is going to be limiting down the road. I think I need two more mics, one for doing video content from computer, recording, and one for recording myself playing guitar. I’m a noob to all this do please forgive me. Thanks.
I would record the audio (live at the same time) on to your computer for something like that with typical studio mics and then sync that to the video in post. Do you already have an audio interface? You’d probably need to be about a meter and a half away for that shot.
@@davespeakmanmusicHi, yes! Sorry for not being more clear. Let’s say I’m at the park or beach? Would I be able to use the built in mic, the wireless dji wireless mic on a tripod or possibly buy another shotgun mic to sit upon P3? I’m thinking the clip on mic would pick up mainly the voice and not enough of guitar.
I really appreciate the XL-desk content. It seems like an underrated piece of gear that doesn’t get much attention. I am curious to know how you would approach mixing EDM using the XL desk.
I’d approach the mix fairly similarly to most stuff. Stem the tracks out to the desk and then apply my mix bus stuff and probably parallel compression on the drums.
Consoles are definitely not necessary but part of me gets a tad confused seeing some setups where someone has spent more than the cost of a good console just to have various products that together basically mirror a console. Monitor controller, lots of the same preamps and eqs, summing mixer with faders, it ended up being more expensive than an audient asp4816he! That being said, I still find i work significantly quicker on a mix in the analog domain but I've also managed to acquire gear in disrepair amd fixed myself so i have a lower investment. These days a few ssl controllers and you're like 90% of the way to console workflow and sound.
I think there was something seriously wrong with the recording. Every one of these sounded absolutely horrific. I know these mics do not sound like this.
I see ppl putting speakers high up on the wall, on the right and left front channels, does go plugged into the same channels of front right and left? an addition to the floor standing right and left?
The 4 stereo channels do not seem to switch between line in and daw, like the 16 mono channels. Also, the xl has just a single tri-colour led instead of a proper meter.
I love our XL desk. Makes recording workflow smooth, sounds amazing and is super fun to mix on. I can get close in the box but it just doesn’t compare to the analog mixes on the board.
I'm really tempted to invest in this console, but my priority is time! I know a console can really speed things up and essentially have its own character, but biggest worry is if it truly will be redundant in 5+ years time. These days things are changing so fast and I'm seeing many studios and my colleagues in the business ditch their consoles, but keeping hold of their analogue processing gear. What do you think?
02:16 - Oh yes! Totally agree. People were asking me _"Why would you spend £939 just on the CPU alone?!"_ My answer _"Divide the power of a top end CPU across the years I'll be using it and what I can get from it, and it's worth a LOT more than using a slower CPU with limitations and constantly having to upgrade it every year or so."_ Top tips! 👌
I’m trying to connect my UAD apollo x8p to my ATEM so that it captures whatever is coming out of the Apollo. ATM the only way I can figure out how to do this is to use the headphone jack into the ATEM mini line input (mic inputs set as line) but there is a pretty noisy noise floor. Any tips to eliminate this noise?
Are you live streaming straight from the ATEM? I think that’s how I did it (I sold my ATEM a while ago). Might just be a case of experimenting with the output and input levels until you find the quietest solution.
Great video! I appreciate you showing the recording process of this type of music. It’s hard to find any jazz type recording videos. I’m subscribed! Keep it up!
Not personally but many of the mixers/producers I follow say they are amazing. I want the Gainlab audio Empress cause it's tube and has mid band, Stereo too. 19 inch though@@davespeakmanmusic
@1loveMusic2003 thank you for your advice. I’ll definitely consider them. Everything’s just so expensive! The prices have gone up too which has thrown my budget slightly!
I would be interested to know how you’re using all of your I/O of the console. It has been said the you could use some of the other the I/O for a lot more than 24 channels. I haven’t really seen videos of how people are putting that to use.
