Farther back in time than I’d like to admit (or can believe), I was the president of my college’s Audio Engineering Society chapter. During one lucky semester, we were able to make a trip to the AES Convention being held in Los Angeles. In the process, we were fortunate enough to tour a handful of well-known studios in the area. It was during this trip that I first became aware of the name Solid State Logic and the reputation of the company. I remember discussing and learning of the impressive and varied list of bands that had been mixed through SSL boards: Genesis, Bryan Adams, AC/DC, Metallica, and Nirvana. Learning of Andy Wallace’s [Tape Op #25] use of an SSL to mix Nirvana's Nevermind was a revelation. Despite that early introduction, I’ve never had the opportunity to work with a large-format SSL desk. My SSL experience has consisted of a period of mixing and analog summing through an SSL Sigma and years of various SSL channel strip plug-ins. When SSL announced the Revival 4000 Signature Analogue Channel Strip, I put it in the back of my mind to inquire about doing the Tape Op review. Months later, the opportunity came up, and much to my amazement, SSL sent over two units!
On paper, the Revival 4000 is essentially a single SSL 4000 E channel strip that’s been shoehorned into a 1U rack space with additional features: a Jensen transformer 4000 E Series mic pre, an impressive one-knob De-Ess derived from the earlier 4000 B Series console, a full E Series discrete Class A VCA dynamics section (compressor, gate, and expander) with a hard/soft knee option and logarithmic/linear release modes, along with a compact LED meter showing gain reduction and gate activity. Possibly the standout feature of the Revival 4000 is its versatile four-band EQ, featuring switchable “brown knob” or “black knob” flavors. This EQ is the same general design that’s been used on countless records, but here with two distinct personalities in one box. Brown knob mode gives a pair of fully parametric midrange bands built around SSL’s symmetrical curves, with high and low shelves that can flip into bells. In black knob, mode the EQ provides a 3 dB wider boost/cut range and a 6 dB steeper high-pass filter. Between the two are some flexible options that seem to run the gamut from tone shaping to problem-solving. Rounding out the front of the unit are LED meters that can be flipped between input and output signal monitoring, as well as the bulk of the unit's flexible routing facilities. This small-but-powerful section provides some next-level versatility, letting you place the high- and low-pass filters at the front of the signal path, run dynamics pre- or post-EQ, and use De-Ess pre- or post-EQ. You can even move the insert point locations. Check the manual for signal routing and sidechain processing options. The back of the unit has separate Mic and Line Inputs, balanced Inserts, a dynamics sidechain input, a sidechain link jack for stereo pairing two units, and a balanced XLR Output. There is enough connectivity and versatility for the Revival 4000 to be used anywhere in the recording chain.
I pulled up a previously tracked session with a somewhat minimal but full drum spread in Avid Pro Tools. The kit had been tracked using a pair of mics in a Glyn Johns [Tape Op #109] configuration for capturing the essence of the kit, a pair of mics on snare (top/bottom), a dynamic and a sub/speaker mic on kick, and a front parallel wall-mounted PZM for trashy room-mic chaos. Inside Pro Tools I treated each “pair” of mics as a single source. Each stem was sent to a passive summing mixer, with everything getting its turn through the SSLs, and then back into Pro Tools. Using the overheads as the foundation, I bussed them out as a stereo pair, hitting each Revival 4000 pre just a bit shy of too hard. This provided a favorable and familiar “politely pushed” SSL sound. The Jensen transformer input and E Series circuitry alone were already netting me noticeable gains, presenting a big and open sound that added tight low end and forward midrange. Proceeding with the EQs in brown mode, I set the low band to shelf around 60 to 70 Hz and added about 3 to 4 dB, adding some weight to the kick. From there, the two mid bands did most of the shaping, with the lower mid parked between 200 and 300 Hz, a middle-of-the-road Q, and a gentle 2 to 3 dB bump adding a thicker and more refined bit of body to the toms and some meat to the snare. Bumping up the upper mid band at roughly 3 to 4 kHz with a narrowish Q and pushing a few dB helped the snare attack poke through the guitars without making the cymbals or hats get spitty. To keep cymbals from taking over, I shelved the high band around 12 to 14 kHz and pulled them down a hair, smoothing out the top end without killing the sense of air. At this point, having only started to use the Revival 4000’s mic pre and EQ, I was already impressed. The EQ moves were subtle but made a big tonal difference, and the drum mix was beginning to get a “finished” sound. This felt very much in line with what I’ve liked about various SSL-derived plug-ins over the years, but it was providing three-dimensional depth and more pleasurable sonics. I can only assume these added benefits were coming from the subtle harmonic distortion derived by pushing healthy amounts of signal through real nickel-iron core transformers and from processing tones with actual analog filters.
With the tone shaping handled, it was time to dive into the dynamics section, which ended up doing as much of the mixing as the EQ. With the pair linked for stereo, I set the compressors to a modest ratio and brought the threshold down until I was seeing 3 or 4 dB of gain reduction on snare and tom hits. In the soft-knee, slower-attack mode with a quick release, the drums started to move toward me a bit and take on an even more familiar SSL sound. The drum mix seemed to be slightly lifted and forward but didn't squash the cymbals, once again reinforcing the Revival 4000’s three-dimensionality. To hear what the compressor could do should I want a more heavily compressed stem for paralleling, I kicked in the FST ATK switch and nudged up the ratio with a slower release, making for a more aggressive sound. This also provided a much punchier snare that started to give me a satisfying “papery pop.” When it got a little too thick, I revisited the EQ section, flipping both units to black mode, which let me use the steeper high pass and tighter mid bands to shave off a touch of mud from the kick and some low-mid buildup from the toms. Exploring the differences between the EQ modes in this way showcased not only their differences but also their independent merits as sculpting tools.
Having printed the stereo foundation stem and my parallel compression stem back into Pro Tools, it was time to move on to the other elements. The kick stem went into a single Revival 4000 channel, where I again used the unit’s preamp as both makeup gain and tone control to bring out more body and punch. A healthy dose of compression with the high-pass filter in the detector tightened the low end so the low kick's sub content didn’t make the envelope pump. The EQ in black mode let me carve a bit of boxiness out of the low midrange and push some nice, focused thump and beater click. The Gate was handy here for cleaning up some spill from the rest of the kit between hits. With a full and tight-sounding low end, I moved on to snare. The De-Ess and Comp combo did a nice job of controlling the top-end bite of the top/bottom snare mic blend while letting me push some upper-mid “crack” so it sat perfectly with the overhead's foundation. On the PZM room track, a combination of high-pass filtering, brown EQ mode top lift, and medium-ratio compression turned what had been a fairly raw, trashy room signal into a controllable “more/bigger/excitement fader” that I could use to taste within the mix. By the time all the printed stems were back in the session, the drum kit felt like it had been mixed through a real SSL desk, giving me a full and cohesive “mix-ready” sound that made it easy to balance with everything else.
With some real-world SSL hardware mixing under my belt, I now wanted to take a crack at a bit of tracking guitars and bass through the Revival 4000. Doing so only reinforced my sense that these are very much “real deal” SSL channels. On guitars, the input stage proved it could provide both pristinely clean tones and chewy, upper-mid saturation. On a multi-mic’d Orange head/cab combination, tracks sounded immediately more like polished recorded guitars, with the brown/black EQ options both handling the tones well. On bass, splitting up a clean passive DI signal path and a dirtier Tech 21 Bass Driver pedal DI feed, the two SSL channels covered a full spectrum of punchy clean warmth and ’70s-inspired bass growl at the same time. Working through the filters, compressor, and expander to keep the low end tight and the distortion under control, I was rewarded with a pair of mix-ready bass tones. In both cases, tracking with the Revival 4000 units reliably added weight and that focused, slightly forward clarity that I associate with SSL-derived mixes. The added bonus in using these units for tracking was the immediacy with which I made dynamic and EQ choices – versus doing so with similarly voiced plug-ins after the fact. Making “set-and-forget” decisions during tracking is nothing new to me; doing so with instantaneous SSL sound quality was.
In my time spent working with the Revival 4000 units, what I liked most was how quickly they stopped feeling like “new gear to test” and started feeling like a small chunk of an SSL desk I wanted to regularly rely on. The versatile brown/black EQ options, the flexible routing, and the familiar “mix glue” VCA dynamics all combined to do exactly what I hoped they would. All these pieces working together made tracks easier to live with, giving me some surprising “radio-ready” vibes. If I had a wish list, it would mostly be about convenience rather than sound. A dedicated wet/dry mix for the compressor would be nice for quick parallel tricks, but it was easy enough to set up in the DAW. Also, the front panel is very busy – you do have to be a touch careful and deliberate with your fingers – but the payoff is useful control packed into a single rack space. The more time I spent using the Revival 4000, the easier it became to navigate. Sonically, the pair exceeded my expectations, delivering a distinct and recognizable SSL “pushed and polished” sound I’ve chased for years with plug-ins. I truly heard impressive results with the Revival 4000 Signature Analogue Channel Strip, proving there’s still an argument for a piece of hardware sitting in front of you.