SSL Duende Mini vs SSL Waves 4000

[AshM]

So I was just about to buy the Waves SSL 4000 Collection when the owner of the studio says to me he can get me a discount on the Duende Mini.

Comparably, I could get the Waves for £330 or Duende Mini for about £280. Here's the thing...

The Duende Mini only comes with the E and G channel strips, no G-Master Bus Compressor! Plus its limited to 16 mono channels. But it would take the load off of my already strained Macbook.

What do you guys think? Is the G-Master Bus Compressor worth paying £50 more and using up my Mac's resources?

 

[Metaltastic]

The G-Bus Comp is the only reason I'm really interested in any of these SSL sims tbh!

 

[AshM]

Yeah I me too was hoping someone would convince me otherwise!

 

[joeymusicguy]

i use the master bus comp more than the channel strip, by far

 

[AshM]

Ah well, fuck it I'll get the bundle, cheers guys

 

[kaomao]

g master comp is magic... really!

 

[TheDude]

It's possible to upgrade the Duende mini to 64 channels with all the Duende Plugins, including the bus compressor. Also, are you sure that the Waves bundle SOUNDS better than the original?

I'd go with the Duende, save up and upgrade it. Easy.

 

[Erlend_]

Not to hijack the thread but what are you guys using the master bus comp for?
Other than the master bus of course

 

[gabriel g.]

I had the same problem with my decision!!!!
After reading and reading and ..........I went with the waves studio bundle.

The reason:
Waves SSL sounds great. Duende sounds great too!!!!
Some people say the duende is better, other people say Waves is better...
But the main reason was:
The duende is buggy!!!!
A lot of people having problems with bugs!!!!
So I went with native unbuggy solution!!!!

The Waves E-channel is amazing for toms.
The Waves G-channel is awsome for bassdrums and snare
The Waves Bus-comp always finds it place in my mastering chain!!!!

To the Off topic question:
I always use the Waves Bus-comp at the first comp to glue everything together (with very little settings)
Then I use the Waves API 2500 for character, volume and punch.
You can boost the make-up gain on the Api up to 10-12dB.
So it is very easy to get the industry standard volume

 

[xFkx]

Some people say it's buggy, some don't.

Personaly i haven't found my duende pcie to be buggy at all, any problems i've had with it were solved by just tweaking a few settings in reaper

And yeah, the bus compressor is awesome, and right now i'm rockin' the X-EQ

 

[gabriel g.]

Cool that it works for you!!!
How about buffer sizes?
Can you use the plugins WHILE tracking now?

cheers

 

[xFkx]

Cool that it works for you!!!
How about buffer sizes?
Can you use the plugins WHILE tracking now?

cheers

Nah, both the Duende and UAD induce some extra latency so there's no point in using them while tracking, but I see them as mix only tools anyway. Besides, I like to keep plugin count while tracking to a minimum to have a stable session.

 

[AshM]

Nah, both the Duende and UAD induce some extra latency so there's no point in using them while tracking, but I see them as mix only tools anyway. Besides, I like to keep plugin count while tracking to a minimum to have a stable session.

Thats exactly what I'd heard which is annoying.

Yeah, I am gonna go for the Waves bundle. I've also heard that the Duende can be buggy and would rather not risk it. Plus, if I want the bus comp I have to expand the Duende, which is another £200 or so! Ridiculous...

 

[Ermz]

I use the Waves SSL E-channel on almost every track. It's my go-to processing chain. The bus comp is great too but since buying the GSSL I haven't really used it.

I haven't tried the Duende but the latency combined with some weird stuff going on in Duende 3 (they decided to share processing load with your CPU, hence defeating the point of being DSP-based) keeps me away. Plus Waves has nicer GUI

Anyway I don't think you can go wrong with the Waves SSL collection. It's my go-to pack without doubt. I prefer it over both the API and Neve (Vintage) collections. We really need more quality channel stip plug-ins.

 

[gabriel g.]

I dont know if it is ridiculous...I heard very good things about the duende bus-comp!!!
But I heard the waves ssl and the duende ssl are totaly different sounding.

But I´m soooo happy with my waves studio classics collection!!!
The SSL, API and Neve (sorry V-series) stuff is so different sounding, sometimes I cant choose which one I take

And I do all my stuff on my macbook pro, so didnt have any slots for the DSP stuff. (the express slot is used for lacie HD with eSATA) Firewire slot is used for the mackie onyx 1640...

I also heard that the Duende makes problems in slave mode. xFKx can you confirm that?

 

[jangoux]

Waves SSL is great but i've been using it less since my boss bought a SSL compressor for the studio. I use it a lot for drums groups and parallel compression on a lot of things.

 

[Ermz]

^ Likewise, since getting a GSSL. However the channel strip still gets regular use everywhere.

 

[AshM]

This all confirms it then, I shall be buying the Waves bundle.

 

[Endure]

Just to clear it up the difference between the Waves SSL 4000 Collection and the Duende is the Waves bundle is based on the 4000 E and G series analog boards and the Duende is a port of their C series digital board.

They sound completely different. The Waves has more character since it's adding all the glue from the analog board. Not to say the Duende is bad, it's just different.

First post.....good to be here.