SSL

Solid State Logic was founded by Colin Sanders in 1969 to solve a very specific problem: producers needed to be able to recall the exact settings of a mix session the following day. The SSL SL 4000 B, introduced in 1977, was the platform on which SSL proved the concept of large-format console automation. Total Recall — the ability to print every fader and knob position to paper and restore it exactly — arrived with the later E Series (1979) and became the defining feature of SSL's dominance through the 1980s.

The ripple effect was immediate. Major studios invested in SSL desks, and through the 1980s, almost every number one record on both sides of the Atlantic passed through one. The 4000's centre section bus compressor — a single compressor across the entire mix — gave records a particular glue and density that became the defining sound of commercial pop and rock.

The great debate between SSL and Neve engineers became one of the defining conversations of the industry. SSL was brighter, more clinical, more controllable. Neve was warmer, more musical, harder to tame. In the end, most successful studios owned both.