Top Producer & Artist Developer Sal Oliveri Brings SSL Performance to His Studio Adding SSL 18 Audio Interface as New Centerpiece

Music & Audio Production

10/07/25

Sarasota, Florida, June 10, 2025 — After opening a second studio location on Florida’s Gulf Coast in Sarasota to complement his ongoing work in Nashville, Sal Oliveri wanted to take the sound quality and recording capabilities of his creative space to the next level. Following the launch of Solid State Logic's next-gen SSL 18 rack mount USB audio interface, Oliveri chose to make it the centrepiece of his creative space, joining his SSL UC1 plug-in controller and UF8 DAW controller already in his room.

“It's as though SSL designed this interface for me, because it's perfect for my situation,” Oliveri enthuses. “I feel like it's a Swiss Army knife. It serves all the functions I need.”

Oliveri, a producer and songwriter who focuses on artist development, has worked with some of the biggest names in the business across multiple music genres, including P!NK, Jack Antonoff, Billy Joel, Chris Stapelton, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, CeCe Winans and BeBe Winans, to name but a few. “I came into engineering through the musician’s chair,” says Oliveri, who is a multi-instrumentalist, taking his first step into the production world by purchasing his first audio gear in the mid 1990s. While he still works at commercial studios, Oliveri uses SSL 18 primarily for capturing ideas, overdubbing and editing at his home studio and while on the move.

The right kind of design

He first heard about the new interface from a friend who works at SSL. “When he started telling me about all that it could do, the number of inputs and outputs, the headphone cue system, the 360 software, the Listen Mic Compressor, I went, ‘Oh, man, that sounds like something I could really use,’” he recalls. “It has eight preamps/lines and two Dis, as well as MIDI I/O. The headphone outs can double as line outputs/monitor mixes. SSL could have easily charged double what they're charging for all the features that are in it. The way they make gear at a consumer price point is totally different from the consumer companies; they know how to bring the right kind of design and features that matter.”

At his room in Sarasota, Oliveri continues, “The SSL 18 is a hub that everything gets plugged into. I have microphones patched in. I have a couple of keyboards, a Roland and a Hammond, and I just leave those plugged in all the time. I'm constantly using it as my Pro Tools playback device. I don't have to patch; it’s just ready to go so I can be creative. It's just perfectly set up for me and has been rock solid.”

In or out of the rack

The SSL 18 may be racked and wired into his studio setup, but it’s a simple matter to unplug everything and take it on remote sessions, he comments. “I can pack it up, bring a microphone and two pairs of headphones, and cut a vocal with a local artist at their house. And that's what I've been doing with great results.”

In fact, he has been developing a Sarasota artist, who goes by the name FLEMING, who recently released his first single, “Siesta Key,” and is about to release a second titled “Sarasota Skies.” Oliveri had previously recorded his vocal with an outboard mic pre that he has since sold. He used his SSL 18 to record a new vocal and was thrilled with the quality of the unit’s mic preamps: “I plugged my Neumann U67 mic into it, set up a cue mix for him, had it mixed alongside the other vocal, and they both sounded fantastic. The pre-amps on the SSL 18 are solid and worked amazingly with the U67.”

The interface blends SSL’s next-generation digital technology, like their 32-bit/192 kHz converters, with classic analogue circuitry inspired by their legendary consoles. It offers the ability to introduce subtle saturation and a refined high-frequency boost, reminiscent of the iconic E Series console. “Pressing the 4K button with a Shure SM7b mic adds sparkle; it sounds great and does give you some of that older SSL flavour,” he reports.

Coupling with UC1, UF8, and SSL 360 software

The first piece of SSL gear Oliveri bought for his new room was a UC1 hardware plug-in controller. “I made SSL’s Native Channel Strip my main channel strip that I work with.” He then replaced his previous fader controller with an SSL UF8. “It's fantastic. And with the SSL 360 software, I can simulate a lot of the things that I did with the previous controller, like VCA spill, with the UF8.”

Installing the UC1 proved to be something of a revelation, he says. “What I found when I got the UC1 and used it with Native Channel Strip was that I wasn't looking at the screen. I was solely using my ears. What an incredible difference and improvement! So I did a test. I took a Pro Tools folder of 12 guitar tracks that I had on this big rock tune and I EQ’d and compressed them using the mouse. Then I muted that folder, duplicated it and did it again without looking at the screen. Using the UC1, it sounded far better, because I was just doing it based on the heart and the ears, not on what I saw.”

Top Producer & Artist Developer Sal Oliveri Brings SSL Performance to His Studio Adding SSL 18 Audio Interface as New Centerpiece

The right kind of design

In or out of the rack

Coupling with UC1, UF8, and SSL 360 software

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