Recording - August 2019 - 39

first new EQ design in 25 years, the Violet
EQ, a phase coherent, two-band shelving
EQ. The low shelf control is purple and
the high shelf comes in fusion-fuchsia. The
shelves offer stepped choices of 30-50-7090Hz and 8-12-16-20kHz respectively,
each with ±9dB of attenuation. The sound
is gentle overall, but Violet can still add a
fair amount of low thump and glorious air.
Bypass button provided.

High Frequency Compressor

Fusion's HF Compressor section is not
your typical bus compressor. Rather, this
simple dual-control process performs
compression of high frequency material
only, to smooth out harshness and bite.
It can even offer tape machine-style high
frequency rounding. Its two orange controls are a ±10 threshold and a variable
crossover spanning 3-20kHz. An LED
indicator lets you know if maybe you're
getting a bit too heavy handed with the
effect! A bypass switch lets you compare
and contrast. Note: there is no make
up gain control. In use, HF Compressor
works great for taking just a little off the

top. HF Compressor works hand-in-glove
with Violet EQ's high shelf, to craft the
perfect top-end signature for your mix.

Stereo Image

The last full section on SSL Fusion
is Stereo Image. Again, this is a twocontrol, bypassable section that uses
mid-side (MS) processing to alter the
perceived width and depth of your
tracks. The blue knob on the left is
'space', which boosts or cuts low frequency information from the side signals
±12dB. The blue knob on the right alters
the width of your image by adding or
subtracting the side signals ±6dB. This
is my second favorite feature after the
Drive section, and just like with Drive, a
little bit goes a long way.

Transformer

The last tone shaping control on Fusion is a 600Ω, 1:1 transformer that can
be added last in the chain with the push
of a button. Use this to add classic lowend punch, harmonic richness, and a bit
of sparkle to your sound.

Insert and Master Bypass

Fusion's insert allows you to patch
external hardware into the process chain,
such as the famed "Magic Box" SSL XLogic
G Series bus compressor. In my studio,
I use the A-Design HM-2 Nail tube compressor (reviewed October 2011) for all
my master bus work. The HM-2 integrates
perfectly with Fusion. The insertion point
can be placed pre-Violet EQ or post-HF
Compressor, and it can also be set for
MS use. A master bypass control for all
processes is available with two modes:
bypass all, and bypass everything after
the input level control.

Fusion Conclusion

In today's world of increasingly inthe-box work, SSL Fusion checks all the
right boxes for adding analog mojo
to your master bus. Easy to use and
possessed with a broad throw of tonal
sweetening capabilities, this is a very
impressive piece.
Price: $2495
More from: Solid State Logic,
www.solidstatelogic.com/fusion
http://www.solidstatelogic.com/fusion http://www.cloudmicrophones.com/cloudlifters
Recording - August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2019
