SSL history and Revisions

[Matt Sartori]

Hi Everyone,
I have tried to put together a bit of history of SSL consoles and revisions of cards / computers and so on.
Been thorough google and the various sources and had a few email exchanges with Andy (amillar) and we came up with a good starting point.
I am going to lay it out here and would love feedback, input and any comments you guys might have.
I am finishing off a video that will make all of this very enjoyable to watch, so I am trying to secure correct dates and information.

Looking forward to your comments guys!

-1969 Solid state Logic Founded by Colin Sanders CBE. First product was a revolutionary FET switching system for pipe organs.
-Sometime in the early 70s Colin Sanders started Acorn Studios in Stonesfield Oxfordshire
-1976 Colin Sanders designed and built 2 SSL4000A 
-1977 Colin Sanders designed and built 6 SSL4000B. notably sold to the following studios
US (Producers Color),
Denmark (Tocano)
Germany (Country Lane)
Virgin’s Townhouse Studios in London. This console is currently owned by "The konnektor" inventor Werner Freistaetter in Austria
This is the "in the air tonight" by Phil Collins desk.
http://www.thekonnektor.com/history/               

-1980 SSL4000E released featuring:
   -Dual inline design
   -32 Buss routing
   -4 Main Outputs LF RF LR RR
   -Dynamics and EQ on each channel
   -82E01 Input card
   -82E02 Brown EQ
   -82E10 Dynamics card with 1537A VCA Chip.
   -82E11 Group card
   -82E12 Logic card
   -82E13 VCA card with “black” DBX 202 VCA
   -Tantalum capacitors (briefly)
-Early Computer (with 8” floppy) had 430 processor then 490, which with a memory upgrade could handle G series software for up to 56 channels.
   -3.5” floppy could be used with 490 processor with SASI card
   -VU meters

-1984 6000V was introduced which add the following extra features:
   -3 Stereo Output Busses A+B+C
-3 Stereo busses could be summed on SL688V Mix Matrix Module to feed stereo output.
-1980 until approximately 1987 SSL4000E & SSL6000V were manufactured with various modifications both from SSL and clients/users.
-082E01 Jensen 115 transformer OR 82e149 Dual line input (1984) OR 82E241 (?) transformerless input card available
-082E01 available with “switched gain” mod
-82E13 VCA card with “gold” DBX 202C, changed to “PCB” DBX 202X in about 1985.
   -Any EQ card 82E02 Brown, 82E132 “Pultec” Orange, 82E242 Black
-Channel input to meter option
-Stereo channel (611S) introduced 1984
-Plasma bargraph meters introduced 1981
-PPM (Black) meters introduced c 1982 for broadcast desks
-1986 quasi-balanced mix busses introduced
-82E11 card fitted with additional trim pot
-Aux bus balancing resistors added to 611
-New lower backplane with mix bus balancing resistors

-1987 SSL 4000G and SSL6000G were introduced. Grey paint, plastic trim. Upgraded 611 electronics. No change to existing centre section audio electronics. G series computer. Full size keyboard. 
-82E291 “high input level” transformerless mic and line input card, switched mic gain
-82E292 EQ card, high boost midrange, midrange frequency shift switches, “peaking” LF and HF sections (other EQs remained as options)
-82E293 logic card, internal -25V rail for improved FET switch drive
-82E294 group card, “high input level” group and tape inputs, “channel input to meters” as standard.
-Computer system would now accept 8” and 3.5” floppies plus the newly introduced Bernulli drive would be extra 20MB of space.
-Split cues system
-Patchable VCAs

(Not sure when the following came in)
   -Balanced Main and Monitor Outputs
   -Post compressor output
   -Phase scope
-Solo link (with G series?)
-Master Ready group (with G series?)
-Processors could have been 490, 4100A or Forman Hart.

-1993 SSL 4000G+ and 6000G+ introduced (Starting with serial number #1000) Bought by Townhouse Studios London.
Currently owned by Joe Barresi

   -Phase scope standard fitted
   -2 x PPM meters fitted on the centre section
   -post talkback compressor output on patchbay (“in the air tonight”)
   -LED meter illumination( no more bulbs)
   -Additional Mini Loudspeaker Output
-oxygen free cables
-4100C or Forman Hart/490/SASI processors and options.
-uses 3.5” floppy



-1996 SSL 4000 and 6000 G+ SE (Special Edition) introduced with new features
   -Ultimation and Total Recall as standard
   -New Group SOLO system AFL and PFL
-SOLO modes could be toggled between: (destructive SIP, Stereo AFL, Mono PFL)
-Bus output Matrix Providing 24/48 Multitrack routing
-8 A-H Busses introduced to provide 4 extra Stereo Aux Sends or extra 5.1 Mix Busses.
-Improved Track Bouncing and Grouping
-Switchable independent PAN control
-4 channel main monitor system with switchable INS point (pre post VCA).

[marcmozart]

G+ was much later, it was G first

[Clip6]

G+ started at serial #1000 which went to Townhouse that Joe Barresi now has. 1993

[Matt Sartori]

Hi guys, thank you for this. post updated.
I wonder if anyone has got more feedback?

Matt Sartori

[Max]

First 4000 consoles date back to 1977, consoles built before that time were actually called "Acorn"

The 4000A Series console's first public presentation was at the AES Convention in Paris early March 1977

I have attached a picture of the first hand-written order book. From what I remember being told many years ago, Colin Sanders bought back the 4010 console for his private collection. Millstream was Dik Cadbury's private studio.

The 4012 gone to Tocano was the only A/B console ever made - essentially an A Series with B Series power supply if memory serves. It was an ex-demo console and was working up to a few years ago in Denmark, albeit with newer power supplies :-) I don't know where it is now and if it is still working. Svend Christiannsen from STC (ex-Sun) Studios in Copenhagen has (not) fond memories of working on that console in the late '70s at Tocano. Ask him to tell you about it when you meet him and he'll tell why he would never buy another SSL console (he only bought a dozen or so since 1994).

Once again, if memory serves, A Series had a 3-band parametric EQ and B Series had a 4-band parametric EQ, that was later found on the first E Series as the 002 card. Channel Dynamics on the A and B Series are of the type later called "Bus Compressor", not gate/expander. And finally IIRC, multitrack assignment was done via a rotary selector not far away from the main fader on A and B Series, before becoming the 32 top-of-the-channel switches we are familiar with from E Series onwards.

The 4013 gone to the Townhouse was used to record Peter Gabriel's "Melt" album (around 10 months after commissioning) and is the console that originated the Gated Reverb drum sound, after Chris Jenkins modded it overnight so the Listen Mic Compressor could be recorded to one track of the multi-track. It took AMS another few years to emulate that sound with the RMX16

#4016 was the last B Series to leave the factory and went to the Record Plant in August '79 - the Record Plant's first SSL console.

Only 7 A, B or A/B consoles were built, with the first E Series being #4017 and going to Sierra in the USA late September '79. It had been shown as a prototype at the APRS in London in June earlier that same year.

Total Recall™ was introduced late 1979 with console serial #4020 going to CGD in Milan Italy. It took another 9 months for it to ship on the second console, one going to the Power Station in June 1980 on console #4028a, the only one with a repeat serial number (see BBC below)

#4022 is the reason why the owner of Epah! Estudios in Săo Paulo fell in love with SSL and now owns four SSL consoles (and counting). He was an engineer at Peppino di Capri's studio in the early '80s. #4022 was the first SSL console to sport bargraphs (Plasma, fed by a separate PSU @ 250 Volts). Yet another Italian SSL first!

#4028 went into a BBC mobile truck (first console to the BBC, before the ones to Maida Vale), and upon seeing it working, Denmark's Radio ordered their first SSL in 1980 - serial #4031, 44 modules wide, to be fitted into an OB unit as well. It stayed there until the mid '90s when it was replaced by a replica, albeit G+. That one went up in flames a couple of years later due to the truck's heating malfunction, and was yet again replace by another 4K G+ #4028 was the first SSL console fitted with mechanical PPMs BBC-style instead of VUs or Plasma Bargraphs.

#4030 was one of two consoles sold to RCA in Mexico, the only ones delivered with custom Spanish Language software. After the studios closed, the consoles were left outside and took rain. One of the consoles ended up in Rio de Janeiro, at the then BMG studios, now Cia dos Tecnicos. The console was never recommissioned but they still have refurbished modules. The other one ended in the mid-'90s at El Pie in Argentina and was never recommissioned either - it ended-up in a skip as El Pie bought a brand new SL 4048/40 G+TR. #4030 was also the second console to be fitted with Plasma Bargraphs.

At some point, around 82/83, pots were changed from Sfernice to Clarostat. To retrofit a Clarostat on a Sfernice console, one would have to enlarge the front panel hole on the channel strip. Around the same time, the graphics for TR changed from the "pong" style (a bit like an AWS TR today) to the "Pacman" style as it stayed to the last of the G+ Series.

Many G and G+ Series consoles were sold with E Series EQ on some channels albeit the silk screening would be that of G Series EQ. The frequencies are a bit off, leading to cognitive discrepancy by many engineers. This had a major impact on the design of the EQ on Axiom MT starting with V2 Software.


Your mileage may vary

[Max]

Picture of the #4012 A/B console taken at Greenhouse some years ago.

[Max]

SSL ad with the Country Lane console #4011 - the first B Series.

[jimlfixit]

Hi Matt, Max and others

Thanks for this post and long overdue. I worked at SSL from 1980-87 have have my own history there with some interesting stuff to add at some point.
Meanwhile, I have seen the various posts and am in contact with several ex SSL designers etc who are mentioned in this post (Jim Smith who designed a lot of the new computer stuff etc is under the radar but certainly deserves a big mention as well).

I will contact John East, Chris Jenkins, Jim Smith plus George Gilbert about these posts. Either they will join this website or send feedback to me so I can post their thoughts and I will let you know in due course when they get back to me.

Meanwhile, if you need any DL to XLR's or 25 way Connectors made, contact me via my Facebook page, mentioned below.

Regards from Jim Lassen in the UK (also the wiring moderator on here).

[Richealey]

As I remember, Kendun Recorders ( Sierra ) had the first SSL in North America. The B series.
The first E in North America also went to Kendun. The 2nd E series went to Le Studio Morin Heights in Quebec. It was the console shown at the AES convention in 79. A 4040E.  It did not have recall. That came shortly after, much to the new owners dismay. Rush’s Moving Pictures was one of the first albums recorded and mixed on that console in 1980. You can see the console in Rush’s Vital Signs video. The console didn’t have buckets of 8. It was one wide opening between ch 1 and ch 24.
We replaced the entire 651 for an updated one in the early 80s. In 1987 the E series at Le Studio was replaced with a 4056G. That E series is now at Tree Studios in Atlanta. They call the room “Studio 11” after the SSL serial number. 
Here’s an advert from Recording Engineer Producer Aug 1979.
If you go to worldradiohistory.com they have an archive of old magazines including 20 years of REP starting in the 70s and 30 years worth of Mix starting in 1980.

[jimlfixit]

Hi Richealey

Interesting SSL history from you. I worked there from 1980-87 and remember the Le Studio console.
As I recall, SSL only started having buckets of 8, as opposed to a wider space with 16-24 channels, when they started making consoles to go into mobile trucks like the BBC versions about 1981-2.
This is because the console would flex when the truck was moving, so they then made 8 buckets to give the frame more rigidity. At the same time they secured power supplies and other 19" rack equipment at the back of the racks in the truck as well and also applied screwlock to the patchbay screws to stop them coming loose although that was a problem many years later when someone tired to remove a jack!

[Clip6]

worldradiohistory.com

Wow. Thanks for that Rich.

[MarconeMusic]

Wild info guys! Just saw this tonight.

Love it. So, my mentor and good friend Nick Blagona brought that console up to Le Studio back in the day.
He was the head at morin heights. He spoke about it a lot. He said it was the first in North America. But second is close enough. Haha.
It’s the reason I have an SSL. Because Nick wanted to have one at our place we were working at.

Very cool stuff!

[BN1studio]

The first 4000E I know of in London was at RG Jones. It was unusual in that it was supplied with a printer

Second was at Eden, where I worked, and that may have been the first Studer A800 / SSL 4000E combo in the UK

Sarm East followed fairly soon after with a 4040E with a remote patchbay

After that they started popping up everywhere!

[tlmaen]

I recently bought the old Denmark Radio 44 Channel Console with Serial #4031.
It was sold to Feedback Recorder Studios in the late 90s were Jakob Erland of now Gyraf Audio was the maintenance Engineer.
He designed the DIY G-Bus Compressor with this very console in front of him...
Then it was sold to Soho Sound Kitchen (Goetz Botzenhard) in London. I bought it from him.
Regarding to the Page from the order Book, its the 15th E-Series that were made.
All of the Channel PCBs are clear not green coated.
Also the diameter of the routing switches have a smaller Footprint.
All of the roughly 1600 holes were drilled to a larger diameter so that the later used switch caps will fit in.
Must have been a massive amount of work and cleaning.

Little Anekdote, I assisted Goetz on an 9k 20 Years ago in Hamburg where I was the Assistant at that time...
At that time I couldn't understand why he is using the vca automation instead of the Flying Faders Automation.
Seems that he was so used to the VCA Automation and also the Sound of it. Small world.

Another little Anekdote, I found a handwritten tech paper in the documentation, it was Singed with Jakob E.
I was curious and contacted him on instagram. It took weeks for us to get in contact.
He then told me that he still has the original Documentation of this particular Console, as well as some rare spare parts and a whole spare Channel!
He offered it to me for free if I picked it up. So I drove from Germany to Denmark and picked up the parts.
He kept it for almost 25 Years...
We had a very nice and nerdy afternoon in his workshop/Studio. Very Nice guy!

Very interesting to dig in the history of these Consoles.
Keep it going!

Best,
Tilmann

[Matt Sartori]

I recently bought the old Denmark Radio 44 Channel Console with Serial #4031.
It was sold to Feedback Recorder Studios in the late 90s were Jakob Erland of now Gyraf Audio was the maintenance Engineer.
He designed the DIY G-Bus Compressor with this very console in front of him...
Then it was sold to Soho Sound Kitchen (Goetz Botzenhard) in London. I bought it from him.
Regarding to the Page from the order Book, its the 15th E-Series that were made.
All of the Channel PCBs are clear not green coated.
Also the diameter of the routing switches have a smaller Footprint.
All of the roughly 1600 holes were drilled to a larger diameter so that the later used switch caps will fit in.
Must have been a massive amount of work and cleaning.

Little Anekdote, I assisted Goetz on an 9k 20 Years ago in Hamburg where I was the Assistant at that time...
At that time I couldn't understand why he is using the vca automation instead of the Flying Faders Automation.
Seems that he was so used to the VCA Automation and also the Sound of it. Small world.

Another little Anekdote, I found a handwritten tech paper in the documentation, it was Singed with Jakob E.
I was curious and contacted him on instagram. It took weeks for us to get in contact.
He then told me that he still has the original Documentation of this particular Console, as well as some rare spare parts and a whole spare Channel!
He offered it to me for free if I picked it up. So I drove from Germany to Denmark and picked up the parts.
He kept it for almost 25 Years...
We had a very nice and nerdy afternoon in his workshop/Studio. Very Nice guy!

Very interesting to dig in the history of these Consoles.
Keep it going!

Best,
Tilmann

Nice Acquisition Tilmann,
I was called in to do some work in Tileyard from Goetz and ended up recommending a full refurb as it looked a bit tired ( especially the PSUs)
if i remember correctly it's the 16 channels buckets one.
such a small world