I agree that SSL should compensate the clients who had or have to buy a better PSU – and should make a public statement about it. But to be fair: The fact that most of the recent posts (including mine) in this thread were about noise issues might suggest that this is just a bad product, which is clearly not true imho. Since I solved the problem of my Prophet 10 channel by using a TRS cable my Big Six is dead quiet – with the original PSU.
And even if I would decide to buy a better PSU in future to optimize things further it wouldn’t change the fact that I’m really happy about this purchase: sound quality, hardware, layout, routing features, USB connectivity… everything is up or beyond my expectations and a joy to work with.
I hope once the dust has settled we can return to discussing workflows and use cases. For instance I’m curious to hear how others here are using Bus B? I consider to use it as a switched “Patchbay” to send channel signals to inputs of hardware processing or sampling devices. Any thoughts?
That’s right, the B6 is really really good! Otherwise, we would have all returned it instead of spending ages finding solutions! I use Bus B just as you suggest, to send audio to the Octatrack’s A and B inputs for sampling, processing, looping etc. It works great as when you send AB→Out you can seamlessly switch any of the inputs for sampling and looping live.
Also, I am finding myself using software instruments like Omnisphere, Kontakt, Knifonium etc through the USB connection and EXT2, with the computer’s screen off. Very convenient and great sounding. For that I kind of missed a Midi connection, but then just use the Analog Rytm as a USB-midi interface, and to record separate drum tracks if needed.
My Bus B is going into my Akai s6000. It is nice that routing to Bus B automatically mutes it in the main bus. With the way I had to have it routed with my old mixer if I forgot to mute my s6000 channel before I went to sample something OMG the feedback would scare the bajeezus outta me.
I actually had an SSL Fusion on order for a while before the Big Six came out and I recently got it as well. With the Big Six and now the Fusion on the main bus insert I am in heaven. Maybe one day if I can ever save up enough money again I will even put a nice compressor on the insert of the fusion lol.
nice compressor like dis:
? : )
Happy to know ppl are happy with Fusion + B6 combo.
Going to get mine as soon as I can.
More affordable in 500 series:
Haha that’s a little rich for my blood lol. I would have to be making some real money mastering to put down a house down payment on a compressor.
Edit: well houses where I live doubled in price last year so maybe it is half a house down payment now 
hihi… yes… probably Shadow Hills not the best option to take to club gigs to enhance my next noise performance : )
My Big Six landed yesterday and this is one piece of serious studio gear. I’m cabling all the inputs and outputs into my patch bay, so that’s a project in itself. I had a Six for a couple years and the Big Six feels like a bigger step up than I anticipated. It’s a lot bigger than the Six and this thing kicks out some serious heat. The Six felt like a nice little bundle of studio processors that easily fit in anywhere and didn’t call much attention to itself. The Big Six is making me rethink my whole studio workflow, especially with the integrated audio interface. I guess the idea is having a seamless bidirectional workflow between the mixer and a daw, but that’s not the way I’ve been working—so it’s a big experiment. The Big Six sounds beautiful, just like the Six. I sold my Six as soon as the Big Six was announced and boy, I missed that sound!
Hey there guys, my big six arrived yesterday and I love it!
BUT, I am having a really weird issue with my Korg prologue 16 when using the Super analogue Pre amp inputs. synth sounds fine when using the Ext ins at the top, however when using Super analogue channel 1&2 or 3&4 the signal sounds distorted almost ring mod like. These are unbalanced cables as the prologue only has unbalanced outputs.
anyone else have any similar issues at all?
Some users above were talking about potential cable issues which might be exacerbated by the PSU. Read through those posts and maybe @ one of those users if you have questions from there. Sorry, I don’t have one of these mixers, but remembered reading about the possible cable issues, so sharing.
I had a similar effect when I accidentially used a balanced cable from a Big Six Cue out to the unbalanced input of an externel fx device. “Distorted, almost ring mod like” was exactly what I heard then. Switching to an unbalanced cable solved that.
On the other hand I had significant noise issues when I used an unbalanced cable from the unbalanced output of my Prophet 10 to a Big Six channel input. So using the “right” cable is not always the way to go. Just try to use balanced when unbalanced doesn’t work and vice versa.
Yeah I thought my prologue had kicked the bucket at first and was about to call Korg’s service centre near me! Althought it did sound quite cool on some presets I’d made so I might end up using it in the future 
I just used a couple unbalanced 1/4" into a normal stereo channel and it sounds as good as ever.
Thanks for the sanity check hahaha.
So unbalanced into channels 1 and 2 gives issues but not unbalanced into 5 and 6? Is this with 1 and 2 set to line input? Strange. Maybe something to do with the superanalogue preamps is what is causing everyone’s unbalanced synth woes…
I imagine using a DI box would fix this issue, however I dont think its really worth it as I have other stuff that needs buying first at the moment lol.
Using unbalanced cables from my prologue into the superanalogues, I am not able to replicate.
Using unbalanced cables on my monitor outs did produce a bubbling alien noise, but was fixed with balanced cables.
I have unbalanced cables on my cues and external inputs and everything sounds ok.
That’s not what I experienced. When there was a problem with a balanced or unbalanced connection it was the same in all channels.
Thanks rklem, good to know!
Strongly considering selling my UAD Apollo x8 & SSL SiX to fund this. I have gear daisy chained into the SSL SiX now to compensate for the small amount of inputs (for example Tracker -> Digitakt -> External Input 1) and a Cue output running into two inputs in my Apollo. Essentially the x8 is super overkill.
I just want to make sure I have a few things correct (and I’m aware of the noise issues upthread but that seems to mostly be resolved by diff cabling / power supply?)
- I can have 8 instruments (4 mono / 4 stereo) with dedicated faders plugged into the mixer sending to 8 separate channels in a DAW. And then route one of those live feed channels to an FX bus in my DAW with effect plugins on it (for example Valhalla)? Do I need to worry about latency?
- And I suppose essentially the inverse - send a DAW channel with an audio track on it into USB mode on the mixer and then route it to one of the Cues to send to an FX box (for example a Monome Norns) and bring that in on a separate channel back into the DAW?
I believe these two workflows are kind of the whole purpose of this hybrid setup, but I just want to ensure before I take the big plunge.
Thanks in advance for anyone that can confirm these for me!
Same same… would love to hear more feedback from people who records with it like using all channels at once, what are real world issues etc…
Want one : )
Been going through the manual today - to answer my own questions:
Re: sending hardware to plugin FX - I believe the input from the mixer interface functions the same as any other multi input interface. You just select which input you want to use in your DAW and then setup your sends that way.
Re: sending DAW tracks to outboard FX - you can use the Cue sends with USB so this should be possible as well.