Mod Audient SUMO w/SSL Style Compressor

A guy sold it to me for 100€ as he was disapointed in it. I guess he read a lot about it at GS forum. Or expected too much from it.

Anyways, as there's naked no pics available on web i post some here. I am tempted to add some output transformers. I was thinking about modding compressor as well, but i can't seem to find anything wrong with it's sound. It got a lot of negative reviews, i really have no idea why.

It uses THAT 2180.

Vca section

kingkorg said:

It got a lot of negative reviews, i realy have no idea why.

Click to expand...

I never trust reviews. I buy electronics like I buy my clothes. If I can't try it, I walk away.

After a day of playing with it i am really impressed. VCA circuit looks similar to GSSL. In addition it has a peak limiter.

I compared it to all VST SSL emulations i have. LIQUID MIX convolution vst both Smart Research and SSL models, Cytomic Glue, Waves, Slate and Duende.

Sumo has correct attack/release times, ratio, meter is correct. I did even null tests. Sounds great, and matches original SSL parameters.

The part where SUMO shines compared to VST is like with any hardware, it's when it's pushed hard. It can saturate output nicely, and can be quite agressive. Fenomenal on room mics. Vst can't come even close in this regard. It has better stereo impact than any of the vsts.

I just used it as a stereo unit, not even trying summing with it.

These guys can be found very affordable these days, i am quite surprised they are so overlooked. Could be people are purely interested in summing option, not caring about it's compressor which is awesome.

And here is schematics of vca part, any ideas?

Well i came up with low cut sidechain modification and it works awesome.

Quite simple. Add two 100nF capacitors in series with CD9 and CD11. Add switch which bypasses new 100nF caps to turn off sidechain HPF.

100nF caps create gentle slope HPF filter starting at about 500hz rolling off 60hz for about -16db.

I'm open for other sugestions

And here's the pic. I don't have digital out card, so i placed the switch on the back panel.