SSL AWS-924
A 24-fader analog console that reaches into your DAW. It is a hybrid desk that let studios keep one foot in the transformer and one in the timeline.
Overview
Solid State Logic built the AWS-924 as the smaller sibling in its Analogue Workstation System line. The "924" tells you most of it: 24 inputs, 24 faders, one desk. The flagship AWS-948 doubles the input count. The 924 is the compact version of the same idea, with SuperAnalogue circuitry married to DAW-control hardware. A real analog signal path that also drives your software is the whole pitch.
The channel strip is where the SSL DNA shows. Each of the 24 channels carries 4-band EQ with two selectable classic EQ curves - the same "which flavor of SSL do you want" choice found on the brand's large-format desks. There are also two assignable SSL Dynamics processors across the console, and the legendary Stereo Buss Compressor. That last item is the reason a lot of people bought the thing in the first place. The bus compressor is the sound that made SSL famous, and here it sits on the master section of a desk that fits a project room. Monitoring runs to 5.1 with bass management, so the 924 was built for surround work as much as stereo tracking.
The DAW side is where the 924 earns the "Workstation System" name. It talks to your computer via MIDI over Ethernet, and it has dedicated transport controls - play, record, rewind, fast-forward, stop - right on the console surface. The rotary encoders are LED-fitted V-Pots, the scribble strips are digital, and a TFT display shows plug-in parameters as you work. The faders speak the Mackie Control protocol, so they can grab your DAW plug-ins from the desk instead of the mouse. Owners who have described the workflow put it simply: the faders control the Pro Tools faders, and with a push of a button those same faders control the analog signal path of the console. It is a regular 24-input, 8-bus analog desk when you want one, and a controller when you don't.
Middle Tennessee State University reopened its Studios D and E in August 2013. The identical rooms were built around SSL AWS 924 consoles alongside Pro Tools 10 HDX systems. The same magazine's studio coverage placed a 924 in a 350-square-foot control room at Baoli Records in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, redesigned by Jeff Hedback and reopened in August 2012. A desk that lands in both a major university recording program and a Caribbean control room is built to a price and a footprint, not as a vanity flagship.
The 924 doesn't pretend to be a 9000. It's a 24-input, 8-bus console with a fixed frame, and anyone expecting to grow it into a large-format desk should look elsewhere in the line. What it does offer is the SSL bus compressor and the SSL EQ curves in a package small enough for a home addition or a teaching room, plus the DAW integration to keep it relevant when the tape machine is long gone.
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