SSL Native VocalStrip 2

The all-in-one solution

A while back, I stumbled across Native Vocalstrip 2 by SSL. Like most channel strips, it’s intended to be a fairly comprehensive mix of the most commonly used tools, but it’s targeted specifically at vocals and speech. If you’re wanting to trim the fat a bit on your vocal processing chain, this is a solid choice (it’s lived in my chain for most the last two years!).

What do you get?

Vocalstrip 2 includes four separate modules (from left to right) in the UI. These are:

Compander

De-esser

De-ploser

Equaliser

The UI

Vocalstrip 2 UI

Like pretty much all SSL channel strip plugins, the UI is pretty great, with plenty of small details that make it nice (e.g., hovering over a control reveals its value). The controls are all simple and clear, and the metering at the top is informative without being a huge distraction. It’s a pretty plugin. One thing I would change is that you can free rearrange the four modules, but they don’t actually move in the UI. When each one is a rectangle, I’d find things a little more intuitive if their order in the UI reflected the processing chain. As a software engineer, I totally get why they wouldn’t bother with that, though.

Compander

The compander module is a combination of a compressor and an expander (similar to a gate, in that when the input signal drops below a threshold, the expander lowers the gain further). For me, this is sort of the star of the show. On the left, are the standard attack, release, and ratio controls. Interestingly, these affect both the compression and expansion behavior of the module, simplifying the workflow a bit. Unfortunately, that means that if you don’t want that, you’re on your own, but I’ve never really found it to be a problem. On the right, you have separate threshold settings for compression and expansion, along with a makeup gain button. There’s also a “soft knee” button to change the shape of the compression curve (but not the expansion curve) and a “drive” button which introduces a small amount of distortion.

The compressor sounds fine and clean, while the expander sounds great. SSL can do a pretty great expander.

De-esser and de-ploser

The de-esser module isn’t the best I’ve used, but it’s very quick and easy to dial in. It reigns in “ess” sounds nicely without making things sound dull or muted.

The de-ploser module is a bit different. It acts like a virtual pop filter, helping to tame any low-frequency plosives that you might run into. The module does a great job cleaning these up cleanly. I can’t think of another plugin that does the same thing without a fair amount of initial setup.

Equaliser

The EQ module is my least favorite of the bunch. It sounds okay, but I’d prefer a little more control. You get a high pass filter with only a frequency control (no slope or resonance) for removing unwanted rumbles, a simple notch filter for removing a single problematic frequency, and a bell without a Q control for general shaping. It works okay for quickly tweaking your sound, but I’d kill for a low pass filter and a Q control on the bell. It’s not unusual for me to drop another EQ right after Vocalstrip in my DAW, just to get a little more control.

Overall impressions

My only major complaint is about its stability. Once every month or so, it (and every other SSL plugin I have) just randomly decides it can’t find my license, and completely shuts down, effectively muting me until I reboot. And of course, because I use it for meetings, I don’t notice until right when I need it and don’t have time to reboot, so I have to scramble to disable it (because it doesn’t let any audio through if it can’t find a license) and quickly replace it with more reliable plugins. It’s a rare enough to not be a huge problem, but it’s incredibly annoying when it happens.

Vocalstrip 2 isn’t perfect, but it’s small, fast, pretty, and generally gets the job done without any fuss. The vast majority of the time, it’s the only real sound shaping tool in my chain (everything else is de-noising and just making things louder). I generally have tools that can do a better job than each individual module, but I really appreciate the simplicity of a single tool that gets me 95% of the way there without much effort on my part. It’s also pretty handy on my audio output chain, for processing other people’s voices in meetings. Notably, of my many channel strip plugins, it’s the only one that I actually use on a regular basis. It’s one of those purpose-built things that does its job well.

Buy SSL VocalStrip 2 here