Take that, Focusrite! SSL DSP box on the horizon...

No photos yet, and the SSL site has no information on the product, but it looks like SSL is going to release a Firewire DSP sidecar to compete with the offerings from TC, Waves, UA, and Lexicon. Called the Duende, it will come in a 19” 1U rack form factor, and initially have two plugins:

Xlogic Channel Strip: Up to 32 channels (it’s still not clear whether they mean tracks or channels on either this or the Lexicon box) of this plug, an EQ/Dynamics strip, can be hosted on the box. From the press release: 4-band EQ, switchable characteristics between E and G series EQ, variable hi- and low pass filters, an “over easy” soft ratio compression characteristic, independent side-chains for compressor and expander/gate, plus a link bus option to connect individual channel strips.

Stereo Bus Compressor: This is obviously the classic SSL 2-buss whacker, love it or hate it. (I’m in the former catagory.)

So, I imagine news of this, and pictures, will start making the rounds pretty quickly. As of right now, the only thing I can find is this press release on ProAudio.de. MSRP of ~1600 Eu, so a street in the 1400 Eu range. This is getting interesting, what with all the sidecar options.

EDIT: In thinking about it, how is this not the functional equivalent of having a 32-channel 9000 Series inside your DAW, sans the mic pres? The more I ponder this, the more I think that this might be the product to beat.