Rule Britannia! Solid State Logic has amazed us through the years with classic-sounding consoles like the E, G, J and K series. Now we have proof that a desk doesn’t need to be the price of the two-bedroomed flat you had to buy to house the console. The X-Desk is SSL’s answer to the in-the-box/small format/summing market segment.

As a freelancer, I often get asked to do budget mixes for clients who don’t yet have the finances available to take me into a mix room. Being an analog head, I like to mix out of the box as much as possible, so I have various fader packs, but I was still on the quest for a box that would provide me with direct outs and inserts on every channel, more than two auxes, phase reverse, insert bypass, pan, cuts, solos and a nice fader to round it off nicely.

Plenty of manufacturers out there have all this available for us, but you’re always stuck with their eq and mic pres. For those of us who have the pres we like and the outboard we swear by, it always seems a bit of a stretch to fork out for components that we’re not going to use anyway – and then SSL introduced the X-Desk.

This little beast is exactly what the doctor ordered. With its 17.1 x 12.25-inch footprint it can pretty much sit anywhere you like it to live in your set-up. The connections on the back further ensure that your set-up stays neat and tidy. All the line inputs, inserts, direct outs, which can be switched pre or post fader, auxes, centre section I/O and X-Desk links are on 25-pin D-type connectors. 

The only other connections are the four XLRs for your main and alt monitors, a quarter-inch jack for headphones and an i-Jack for (the now ubiquitous) iPod connection.

The X-Desk arrived just in time for the mix of Specimen’s new recording of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
The installation couldn’t have been easier. Everything was plugged up in no time and all the input and output levels matched up nicely when we ran the test signals through it. The track was recorded in an analog and old-school environment, namely The Doghouse Studio in Henley, so I wanted to keep that vibe and do as much as possible out of the box.

We ended up bussing the drums, bass, guitars and vocals through the X-Desk. It immediately hit me that this little box has the punch and crispness of its bigger brothers, which was exactly what we were after to retain the character of the session.

This was a fairly concise mix job, but on top of the eight on-the-surface inputs, each channel boasts an additional alternate input, which can be routed to the ‘cue stereo’ pot, thus providing an additional eight channels on mixdown. Add to that the two stereo FX returns and if you sum the main mix insert returns as well, the X-Desk gives you 22 channels of mixdown.

Working your way down the channel strip, you’ll immediately feel as though you’re driving one of the bigger SSLs. First you’ll hit the input trim with +/– 20dB gain and a centre detente at the zero point. The line in section also houses a phase reverse, the alt switch and (in my opinion) the X-Desk’s coolest feature, the insert switch.

The aux section consists of a stereo cue with a pan and pre/post switch and this one can double up as the alt fader on mixdown. You then have two further FX sends, which can be switched pre or post globally. In addition, pan pot, brightly lit cut and solo buttons precede the smooth, long throw alps faders.

I think a lot of users would agree with me in saying that the X-Desk is worth it just for the comprehensive monitor section.

The in-built talkback mic works well and its function is easily accessible. The monitor level knob is big enough – and goes up to 11.  Dim level and latching button is another one of those unexpected luxuries the X-Desk provides.

All in all, this baby SSL is so versatile and has such a plethora of tricks up its sleeve that it is hard to believe it comes with a more than affordable price tag. Some may say that it lacks a recall function, but hey, you’re not recalling a huge 72-channel J-series console. Cribbing this one equates to the good old tape rewind time, a valuable analog thinking slot in a digital world.
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