SSL L200 Angle with armSince their introduction in 2013, SSL Live consoles have earned the recognition and praise of a large number of audio engineers around the world. Now SSL, through Zentralmedia, is distributing in Spain the new SSL L200, a mid-format console that offers the superb sound, optimized workflow and advanced feature set of SSL Live consoles at a far more affordable price than has been usual.

SSL Live consoles have been designed to ensure optimal results in the most demanding touring sound, installation, theater and house-of-worship applications. As with all SSL consoles, the L200's secret lies in SSL's obsession with high-quality sound. Part of this secret can be attributed to the extraordinary performance of the hardware throughout the signal chain, which starts with SSL's studio-quality preamps and ends with impeccable summing quality, by way of exceptional-quality audio conversion and superb 96 kHz processing. The sound of the L200 is characterized by its sublime transparency, definition and detail, hard to describe in words but immediately recognizable as "the SSL sound". But the other part of the secret of the L200's power, perhaps the most important, lies in the way the operator interacts with the console: the excellent ergonomic simplicity that comes from combining the touchscreen with assignable hardware controls, the use of color coding, the open architecture that lets engineers configure the console to suit their working style, the arsenal of processing tools, the precision and depth of those tools... and so many other factors that combine so that the operator gets the desired sound in the shortest possible time. As with the best examples of creative audio technology, SSL Live consoles are instruments in the service of the engineer.

The L200's architecture

The L200's processing allocation and architecture are extremely versatile. The console offers up to 600 inputs and 600 outputs, with 144 mix paths at 96 kHz. These paths can be defined as Channels, Stems, Auxes or Masters as needed, and configured as mono, stereo, LCR, 4.0 or 5.1. A mono channel uses one path, a stereo channel two, an LCR channel three, a 4.0 four and a 5.1 six. All 144 paths are processing paths. Insert effects have their own dedicated processing, also allocated dynamically.

Solid State Logic L200, a New Mid-Format Live Console

The L200 features an output matrix with 4 x 32 inputs and 24 outputs. All 24 matrix output paths have high-pass and low-pass filters, 4-band EQ, 2 seconds of delay and SSL's exclusive "all pass" filters. All of this in addition to two inserts that can be used with either the internal effects rack or external processors.

L200 local I/O connectivity

The L200 offers numerous input and output connectivity options to meet the many needs of live sound, in both FOH and monitor applications. The L200 features a versatile collection of local I/O built into the control surface that can be used without the need for stageboxes. The L200 also offers good connectivity for local peripherals when used in pure FOH applications. SSL Live consoles feature auto-detection, so they can identify any SSL Live I/O from the software's routing pages.

SSL L200back

Local analog I/O configuration
  • 12 mic/line inputs (two of them in parallel with the talkback inputs)
  • 2 front-panel XLR mic/line talkback inputs
  • 12 line outputs
  • 4 headphone/monitoring outputs
AES/EBU digital I/O configuration
  • 4 input pairs and 4 output pairs (the AES/EBU I/O offers fully variable sample rate conversion).
Standard MADI port configuration
  • 8 MADI ports
  • 6 coaxial pairs and 2 fiber pairs (can be used independently or in a redundant configuration) Additional effects loop
  • 1 independent optical MADI port (output/input) designed for connecting an external effects device such as a Waves MultiRack or VST system
  • 1 redundant pair of SSL Blacklight II fiber connectors provides 256 bidirectional channels at 96 kHz between the console and the stage.
Other
  • 1 Dante card provides 32 channels of I/O at 96 kHz (64 channels of I/O at 48 kHz) via a redundant Dante connection. The Dante interface offers sample rate conversion between all the rates supported by the Dante network.
  • MIDI, LTC, Wordclock and GP I/O connectors on the rear panel.
  • The L200 ships as standard with a second, redundant power supply.