Solid State Logic Fusion Vintage Drive and

through yellow to red, in response to the
saturation level. There’s also a Mix control,
which allows you to create a blend of the dry
and processed signals, and an ECO mode that
switches the plugin into a zero-latency reduced
CPU mode, ideal when tracking.
Vintage Drive’s smooth, convincingly
analogue response results in a processor that is
often very gentle, but that brings fullness and
cohesion to mixes and stems, and warms and
fattens individual instruments. At high settings
the sound does break up and distort, but this
happens in an amazingly analogue-like manner,
with a labby, blown-out, over-saturated
mushiness rather than a harsh distortion.
The soft compression characteristics add
body and weight to kicks and crispness to
snares; vocals gain distinction and air, bass parts
are more rounded… there really isn’t anything
that doesn’t beneit from at least a tickle of
Vintage Drive!
Fusion Stereo Image
Fusion’s Stereo Image processor is the next to
get the modelling treatment. The processor
works in the mid-side domain, but processes
only the side signal, leaving the mid untouched
so that it retains consistency and focus in the
stereo image. The plugin’s Width dial is self-
explanatory, and acts as a simple gain
adjustment for the side signal, with a maximum
of 6dB of cut/boost available.
This is reasonably efective just taken on its
own, but the processor is also designed to take
advantage of “stereo shuling”, a technique for
manipulating the stereo ield that has its roots in
the work of the EMI engineer Alan Blumlein, the
inventor of modern stereo. In the most simple of
terms, this is all about the psychoacoustic
impact of lower-end frequencies within the side
signal: enhancing lower frequencies will tend to
smear and defocus the central core of the stereo
image; reducing lower frequencies will help the
core to retain its central focus, with the sense of
width and space that you would get from the
higher frequencies.
In Fusion Stereo Image, then, we ind dials
labelled Space and Shule, and these control a
low/low-mid EQ band which operates on the
side signal. The Shule dial controls the
frequency of the EQ, from 40Hz to 400Hz,
whilst Space controls the amount of cut or boost
applied at the Shule frequency, with a range of
12dB. The plugin also allows you to solo the side
signal so that you can hear more clearly the
results of your adjustments.
The plugin’s input and output meters can be
switched between L/R and M/S modes, but what
really stands out is the wonderful stereo image
graphic, which gives one of the best stereo ield
visualisations we’ve ever seen. Sonically, the
plugin demonstrates an almost magical ability
to bring out the space and ambience in a mix or
stem; doing all of this with modelled analogue
circuitry only adds to the luscious character of
the results.
Fused together
The perpetual licence pricing for these plugins is
bang-on what you’d expect, and very much
worth it given how universally useful they are,
with no particular preference for the style of
production or genre of music they work with.
SSL’s subscription bundle pricing is pretty
attractive too, and will only become more so as
more Fusion plugins are released over the
coming months.
If we were forced to ind fault, we’d say that
the plugin windows are a bit on the large side,
and so would beneit from being resizable, but
this is a minor niggle. From the Solid State Logic
badge, through the wonderfully convincing
analogue modelling, to the sumptuous,
expensive-sounding sheen that they add to your
music, these plugins exude true SSL quality
from every pore.
Web solidstatelogic.com
Info £139 / €159 / $199 per plugin (+25%
discount for irst 30 days on sale) $14.99/month
as part of SSL Complete Subscription Bundle
Solid State Logic
Fusion Vintage Drive
and Fusion Stereo
Image
£139
Verdict
For Fusion’s brilliance in plugin form
Natural, convincing recreation of
analogue saturation
Simple, efective stereo manipulation
Intuitive visualisation of stereo image
Against Window resizing
The irst pair of processors from the
upcoming suite of Fusion plugins shows
SSL’s digital modelling prowess keeping
pace with their analogue design mastery
10/10
Alternatively
bx_console SSL 4000 E
274 » 9/10 » $349
This oicially licensed model will
add a dose of SSL’s signature
analogue sound to your sessions
Waves S1 Stereo Imager
$129
Using psychoacoustic spatial
imaging techniques, S1 provides
clinical control over the stereo ield
In any critical listening test, digitally-
modelled analogue circuits will always
fall short of the equivalent hardware,
no matter how advanced or intricate
the model. But with modern modelling
techniques, the diference can be tricky
to put a inger on: the original source
hardware sounds unquestionably
better, but not in a way that renders the
model any less astonishing.
It’s therefore easy, when weighing-
up the pros and cons of hardware vs
plugin, to allow oneself to be swayed by
that additional soupçon of je ne sais
quoi, and thus judge digital models to
be inferior.
It’s not as clear-cut as that, though,
as digital plugins of course come with
certain beneits that are all their own.
The most obvious is the versatility of
something that can be called into
virtual existence within the conines of
a computer, with each new instance
costing nothing more than a bit of
system overhead, taking up no physical
space, and requiring no dedicated
audio I/O.
When the quality of the modelling is
as good as SSL have achieved with the
new Fusion plugins, that scalable
versatility is arguably preferable to the
sonic beneits of hardware.
Digital modelling vs analogue hardware
Real or imposter? The answer is a bit of both with these home-grown models
“The sound does break
up and distort, but this
happens in an
amazingly analogue-
like manner”
December 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 69
solid state logic fusion vintage drive and fusion stereo image / reviews <
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