MusicRadar

The Nucleus offers a convenient solution for a range of DAW needs.

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• Review

SSL have successfully implemented comprehensive multi-DAW control across their range of analogue consoles, and with the Nucleus they've taken one step further into the project studio world by combining a 16-channel controller with an analogue monitoring path, two preamps and a USB soundcard.

Of course, this is SSL - so the preamps and monitor amplification use the SuperAnalogue signal paths (like the Duality and AWS consoles), the control is networkable to switch between three different DAWs, the preamps have balanced inserts and the soundcard offers up to 192kHz sample rates.

"Right off the bat 75% of our editing/mixing needs were met, leaving over 32 controls for assignment."

The Nucleus looks and feels much like its bigger siblings, from the faders and knobs to the jog wheel and transport controls. The control surface has two eight-channel sections flanking a centre section that houses the transport controls, utility function buttons and preamp/monitor controls.

Each channel comprises a fader, rotary pot, backlit buttons for cut/mute, solo and channel select, and a 10-segment level meter at the top. The two channel sections also feature a row of eight buttons for assignable functions. The analogue I/O at the rear is accompanied by the soundcard USB socket, four USB sockets for keyboards/mice/hubs, optical S/PDIF I/O, an RS-232 terminal (for SSL only - do not touch!), a quarter-inch TRS footswitch jack (for play/record), an SD card socket for set-up storage and an Ethernet socket for the controller data linkage.

Networker

The DAW control uses Ethernet-based ipMIDI to connect to up to three workstations, which the user can switch between using two buttons in the centre section (DAW 2 and DAW 3) - a function suited to post production studios, for example.

USB ports at the rear of the Nucleus allow a keyboard, mouse, memory stick and dongle, for example, to be routed to the recipient workstation without the need for duplication - though a USB switcher is necessary to re-route the Nucleus to each DAW.

For a single workstation, a direct Ethernet crossover cable between the Nucleus and the computer is the simplest and most effective method.

So which DAWs can be controlled via the Nucleus? Any that allows remote control via HUI, MCU or MIDI CC protocols. The unit ships with base set-ups for Pro Tools, Logic and Nuendo/Cubase, as well as a MIDI CC set-up. These can be copied and customised via the Nucleus Remote interface and stored on the supplied SD card for transportation.

For this review we used the Nuendo template for our DAW, as well as creating a custom MIDI CC set-up, which was also used to control synths. From the Nucleus Remote utility, the basic template can be quickly loaded to the unit and - provided your DAW is ready for remote control - work can begin.

Like any new control surface, it takes a little time to get oriented, but after a couple of hours' work we were familiar enough to start customising the control layout.