SSL Nucleus $2700 yes or no?

[IVcrane]

I know there are mixed feelings about the SSL Nucleus, and one being that it is severely overpriced.

I have the opportunity to pick one of these up today for $2700. I wasn't even looking to add to my rig right now as I just made the upgrade to PT HDN, but at that price it seemed that it may be a good idea to just grab it. I realize it is HUI and therefore not as integrated into ProTools as say the Artist Mix stuff, but it also has 2 SSL mic pres built in. I can't find much info on it, and from what I do find the reviewers either love it or bash it.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

[Ienjoyaudio]

2700 is a good grab for a nucleus. I would agree that it is over priced. 2 SSL mic pre's, While cool, seem to be the only other feature of it besides DAW control. Not sure if it has a monitoring section?

Its still a cool piece. But with HUI being phased out hopefully it doesn't become unable to control PT at some point in the future. IF you just need faders and pans, I would think you'll be fine but plug-in control or any other indepth stuff might not work.

[IVcrane]

It has monitoring... Not sure how I would use it though as my current monitoring is through my Dangerous Music Dbox. Since I want to keep the summing aspect, I suppose I may be able to do a headphone out to the inputs of the Nucleus Monitoring section and then I could use the SSL pres with 0 latency through the SSL headphones.

[tamasdragon]

Frankly I don't really like it. Had the opportunity to work with one, and it was quite unstable, many times loosing the usb devices attached to it, imho the build quality is not great, the whole unit felt like a flimsy budget controller, while the price is high.

[albee1952]

Hmmm, that same $2700 might buy an Artist Control and Mix