54 thoughts on “Solid State Logic Intros UF8 Advanced Studio DAW Controller”

1. Love SSL but this..

   No OLED displays? Beside the mouse scroll emulator knob what makes this worth the buy?
   This product already looks very outdated or am I missing something?

   If they included a build in audio interface so it became a small Nucleus or something now that would be something worth buying!

   1. This is not for bedroom producers or beginners where an included audio interface would make sense. This is for the professional market, where everything is much more modular. Separate preamps, separate converters, separate monitor controllers, separate DAW controllers… Including an audio interface just would not make sense as the professional market has no need for it.

      Anyways, the price seems fair for a high quality flying fader controller with nice extras. It is cheaper than the most expensive Mackie or Avid 8-fader controllers, and offers more functionality.

      1. That’s nonsense. Like I said it could be a small Nucleus. Or do you think the Nucleus is also just for bedroom producers? Are you in the impression that everyone needs a giant million dollar big studio to be called pro?

         The whole idea that pro equipment must be modular and can’t include more than 1 feature is complete marketing bs and worse if the rest of us pushes that ridiculous claim further. Studios have become pocket sized and some do their mixes on Tablets. (like I’m doing) And that base is a fast growing number while those giant studios are becoming more and more difficult to maintain by the day.

         1. Champ, what’s the deal with the inferiority feeling about the word “pro”, its just saying you make money with it. “it’s your profession” it doesn’t even mean you good at it.

      2. This is clearly targeted at the amateur and semi-professional market segment though. Not saying that professionals will not buy and work with this, but SSL position it right in their range of entry-level gear such as the SiX mixer and SSL 2 audio interfaces. Including an interface in this would make it too expensive for the target audience, which will be home studios, smaller project studios, podcasters, content creators etc.

         1. That’s also not true. A interface build in doesn’t cost a arm and leg more.
            The SSL2 is less than 200,- Building it inside a controller like this it wouldn’t cost more I presume.

            1. “or am I missing something?”

               I’m shore you are. You see a picture and a couple of sentence and quick to judge a product you don’t really know.
               If you really want to know it, RTM (we don’t need the “F” here)
               But we both know this product is probably not for you.

               adding an audio interface doesn’t make much sense. It will make it much more expensive and people who looking for controller don’t usually need audio interface, they already have one. The market for both is very small and maybe SSL learn this with older products.

               I guess this controller don’t have the SSL sound 🙂

               1. “You see a picture and a couple of sentence and quick to judge a product you don’t really know.”

                  Right, that’s how promotion and advertising works. If the price of something is high, that picture and a couple sentences are supposed to justify the price.

                  I don’t understand the people who leave comments on here rushing to defend these companies. If they don’t make good promotional material, that’s on them. There isn’t a splash page on synthtopia saying that if I’m an ‘amateur’, or my budget isn’t a certain size, that I don’t have a right to read and gawk at the price of some midi mixer controller if it just looks ridiculous.

                  1. I don’t know why people are so quick to judge now days,

                     – Maybe they want to show their knowledge or status

                     – Maybe they are threaten by new information and try to “compress it- “it sucks! so now can we move on”

                     – Maybe they are threaten by the price – “i can’t afford it but anyway it sucks”

                     – Maybe they love to bash others creation to feel better about themself – “I’m not productive so I’m leveling the ground with whoever is”

                     – Maybe they think the world is coming to get them and every new offer conceal devilish interest – “everybody try to f@ck us”

                     – Maybe they just love to talk about thing and saying something negative is easier, quicker and more likely to attract replays

                     feel free to add more 🙂

            2. You seems to be really knowledgeable about product development. Can you break down all the likely R&D costs for developing a product like this? I think everyone would like to get a better grasp of your thinking.

      3. How expensive do you gather would 8 quality faders be?

      4. I’m a semi-pro with 35+ years in electronic music production and I would say this thing is aimed squarely at me. I already have a pro-level multichannel audio interface, a dedicated MIDI interface, several keyboard controllers, etc etc. What I don’t have is good a good tactile mixing front end. At this price point, the target market is people who already have all that other stuff.

         1. If you have a midi controller with faders, and you have a mixer, what would you need a “good tactile mixing front end” for?

            I am a hobbyist and this is an honest question, not rhetorical. Thanks.

            1. well, there’s the giant behemoth Mackie, the problematic Avid, and the jenky Behr- and a few others that are too small/niche to want to mess with. many people just want a good daw controller with 100mm good resolution faders. maybe this is the one?

      5. > This is for the professional market

         LOL.

         > Anyways, the price seems fair

         LOL.

         1. pro is just a ward to say you make money with it, you don’t need to feel inferior if you don’t, you can still buy it, or not.

      6. It doesn’t look pro to me at all. Good luck in a post-Covid world.

         1. I wander who research the market better, SSL or you 🙂
            good luck in the post-pessimistic world.

   2. I prefer my DAW controllers not to have audio interfaces.. It just complicates connecting things together being forced to route audio via the controllers.

      1. I don’t see why it would make things more complicated. If its on a device it doesn’t mean you have to use it. But when you do it will be great to have. On Apple computers you can route anyway you like while multiple interfaces are connected, not sure how that is in Windows though.

         1. aggregate device is not all it is cracked up to be. why would i want substandard preamps when i already have quality preamps is spades?

   3. You see the screens, right? So your issue is just that they aren’t OLED?
      An audio interface? 2×2? 8×4? Did you think it through or it just sounds “better” to you?

      1. They went for a premium look so yes OLED should’ve been there.
         Not sure what you mean by 2×2 8×4?

      2. He missed that ssl try to make a product with attractive pricing that will sell allot.
         so no 8 big multi colored oled’s and audio interface.

         mass manufactured product made in china but with the “ssl” name on it

         made in china is not necessarily worse quality but it is necessarily cost less to manufacture and this is a fact they do try to conceal.

2. Or for similar money you can get an X32 producer with similar DAW controls and is a full digital mixer with Touch Sensitive Faders, DSP FX, 16 Midas preamps, 32 channels and 32/32 AISO audio interface!

   1. Exactly X32/M32 would be far superior to this. I am actually surprise more people don’t start with these options as they cover so much.

      1. wobbley cheap faders are not what we are looking for

   2. you have a pretty good point here, that’s feature-rich stuff. If behringer worrier more about *not* constantly trashing their reputation, people would probably consider them in these contexts more frequently lol.

   3. I don’t think quality product should try to compete with the cheapest product in the market.
      The x32 is not a quality product. It’s coming from a brand that known by cutting corners wherever it’s possible to be the cheapest possible.
      The more advance and complex a product the more reliable you want it to be.
      I for one will not trust the support and reliability of the x32 for years to come.

      1. I had an X32 Producer and 3 X32 racks in my studio for about 5 years. I never had a problem with any of them and their build quality was on par with a myriad of other devices in my studio. The only reason I sold them was to go AVB. So, now I have 4 StudioLive 32R and a Digiface AVB.

         1. maybe you don’t know how to assets quality. the x32 is clearly a low quality product and after experiencing all the issues for several years given support for it i must think you didn’t use them much or you are a very lucky guy.

3. It amuses me all the software users wanting to look like they are using hardware..
   I have seen friends spend more on the latest controllers than a decent synth might cost.
   Sort of weird for me to try to understand the controller people.I have enough friends turning back to hardware.

   1. what makes you think it’s for the ‘Look’?….. the main difference between software and hardware is not the ‘Look’…. it’s just weird that you would say something like that, when hardware controllers are in the most basic of terms all about ‘hardware’ control of software ?
      If your friends are telling you the look is the reason why they use hardware controllers then I def agree, that is weird.

4. For that price you can buy Softube console 1 knobs + faders. I don’t see how this is much better than that combo tbh

   1. you can check the manual of both, see some video and really get to know what every product is about.
      off course you don’t see nothing it if you “virtually compare” products superficially.
      nothing is the same when you check it closely (and you don’t need to go so close to see they are completely different products)

   2. No display on Console 1.
      For me, a product like this is near worthless without displays. This is the main appealing factor about this product, for me.

5. DOA

   1. wait and see, it will be a hit, ssl are very smart.

6. Honestly it looks like a winner, save for the lack of a master fader perhaps. I do wonder why they didn’t bundle two better plugins from the SSL Native Bundle (EQ and Comp make more sense). Just thinking out loud because I’m interested in the product.

7. At a glance – the text on the displays should be centre-justified, not climging to the right side.

8. With 6u rackspace it is the perfect fit for their Origin console!

9. There’s a thousand of these products. None of them work well unless you have exactly the same setup the developers used to test. All of them the drivers etc stop being supported after a few years and you’re SOoL.

   This one is $1300 with 8 sliders and 8 encoders. OK.

10. I agree with Champ. It’s a decade late, maybe two…Yawn.

11. it looks great, it’s SSL so I’m sure the built quality is top notch. the only issue is that it doesn’t have transport control 🙁

12. I was super excited at first, because I was looking for a solid centerpiece DAW controller. but after watching some demo videos I’m afraid the workflow is cumbersome due to poorly designed layout with buttons scattered all over this thing.

    Behringer X Touch has a better design IMO.

    This unit fails to meet my requirements:

    8+1 Faders
    dedicated transport buttons
    big jog wheel

    the two tone color of this unit is also not well executed.

    1. so you wanted them to make exactly what you know from other products? 🙂

       most of us never touched the master fader on the daw and have computer keyboard for transport
       i don’t see how jog wheel can be a must, I never used it for it’s intended use anyway…
       and what about all the advantage? check the list of features, most of them are not comparable to nothing on the market right now.

       I agree about the colors, it is ugly.

13. I am sure there’s a niche for this. I think SSL missed a trick with putting not audio interface or even the option of me with their Six mixer

    1. why people expect to have an audio interface from a controller? Will they say that about a keyboard controller?
       my monitors and my mice don’t have an audio interface too.

       1. Yes there are many keyboardcontrollers with build in audio interfaces, as do some monitors.
          If the S61MK2 from NI had one build in I would’ve kept it.
          And as mentioned before the Nucleus (now discontinued) had a build in audio interface.
          The UF8 is the Nucleus replacement so people asking for a build in audio interface isn’t a silly question at all.

          1. so i guess this is the mistake. uf8 is clearly not a nucleus replacement. it’s a controller that cost less then 1/3 the price of the nucleus.
             that is the main idea, a simple but smart controller with attractive price and with the SSL name on it.
             the nucleus (and nucleus2) was considered by ssl a failure, it didn’t sell well mostly because of the price of the combined devices.

             its nice to think that what ever suit you will be “better” but for ssl it just means it will sell less.

             and they are right, give me a name of one controller product with audio interface that was successful.
             ever.

             most combined controller with audio interface aimed at mobility, low price and they considered inferior to a dedicated devices.

             Anyway, most of the people who wants controllers like this needs multi channel audio interface.
             this will rump up the price, make it much larger and less flexible.

             if your controller malfunction you can send it to repair but you still will have your audio interface to continue the work.

             1. SSL calling the Nucleus a failure?

                Well IPMIDI sucks yes, but many liked the Nucleus (including myself).

                Never did SSL call the Nucleus a failure. You’re just making that up.

                And yes the UF8 is replacing the Nucleus and most people don’t like that.
                Most prefer the Nucleus but wish it didn’t run on IPMIDI and that SSL offered extensions.

                I also read you think OLED is like extremely expensive. You clearly don’t know much.

       2. Have a quick re-read of my post. I was talking about an audio interface on their Six mixer. I would like a decent mixer, SSL are quite good at that, I have an older focusrite interface. to avoid extra boxes and to have SSL all the way- put an interface in the mixer. have it as an add on card so you have the choice.

          1. i did missed you talk about the six but it’s the same idea like a controller.
             It is much more reasonable to have a 2×2 audio interface on a 6 channel mixer for recording and playback then on a controller, for shore.

             1. The Six is not a 6 channel mixer.