PureDrive Octo

Mic Pre’s with Prestige

The PURE DRIVE OCTO harnesses Solid State Logic’s renowned SuperAnalogue PureDrive™ microphone preamp technology, originally featured in the ORIGIN console. This advanced unit introduces a new DRIVE mode, comprehensive connectivity, and state-of-the-art digital conversion, all within a compact 8-channel 2U rackmount format. The ORIGIN recording console, a contemporary-classic from SSL, first introduced the groundbreaking PureDrive™ microphone preamplifier. This innovative preamp maintains the clarity and punch of SSL’s previous designs while also offering the flexibility to switch its character to a warm, harmonically rich, and driven tone that varies with gain.

Analogue Obsession 

PURE DRIVE OCTO continues the legacy into rack format, delivering eight microphone preamps with ORIGIN’s renowned PURE and DRIVE modes, but takes it further, adding a new ‘Asymmetric’ DRIVE, advanced digital connectivity, and an onboard USB interface.

PURE DRIVE OCTO offers four mic preamp input impedance options, enabling engineers to explore various tonal possibilities or match the mic pre’s impedance closely to the microphone. Additionally, each mic pre includes independent +48V phantom power, polarity inversion, and a High Pass Filter.

PURE DRIVE OCTO stands as one of the most capable and feature-rich outboard microphone preamplifiers available, introducing a host of new sonic possibilities and workflows for the discerning producer and recording engineer.

3 Flavours, 1 Mic Pre

PURE DRIVE OCTO is a testament to SSL’s commitment to progressive analogue circuit design. No electro-mechanical components (potentiometers, mechanical switches, relays etc) are used in the critical audio signal path of PURE DRIVE OCTO, increasing product longevity, and allowing impeccable ‘matching’ between all channels – not just a stereo pair. The use of digitally controlled analogue circuits, controlled by detented pots and electronic switches simplifies recall and precision of settings. Each of PURE DRIVE OCTO’s mic pre’s can be independently switched between three distinct DRIVE modes: Clean, Classic Drive, and Asymmetric Drive.

Mic Impedance Input

PURE DRIVE OCTO offers four mic preamp input impedance options, enabling engineers to match the mic pre’s impedance closely to the microphone or even change the tonality of the input signal (on ribbon and dynamic mics), giving further creative control when recording with the PURE DRIVE preamps.

Advanced connectivity

PURE DRIVE OCTO’s advanced connectivity opens a world of recording possibilities. Its comprehensive selection of analogue and digital I/O offers microphone preamps with exceptional performance and flexibility, whether you’re tracking a band in a world-class studio or adding warmth to stems in a production scenario. It’s also ideal for project studios and on-location sessions where quality cannot be compromised, thanks to its integrated USB sound card.

PURE DRIVE OCTO features eight rear-mounted combo XLR inputs, four front-panel Hi-Z/DI instrument inputs with automatic input detection, and three sets of D-sub connectors for line-level inputs, as well as insert send and insert return. PURE DRIVE OCTO’s insert returns/ADC inputs operate up to full +24 dBu line-level, for interfacing with other professional equipment.

PURE DRIVE OCTO’s versatile digital connectivity features an integrated USB soundcard providing eight channels of audio into your DAW up to 32-Bit/192 kHz. Four AES/EBU output pairs, and ADAT out, offering eight channels at 24-bit/48 kHz, or up to four channels at 24-bit/192 kHz via SMUX. The AES and ADAT outputs can even be individually repurposed to be fed from the onboard USB soundcard as outputs from your DAW. Finally, there’s an auto-ranging word clock input and output for robust digital clocking.

Key Features

• 8 channel high-performance PureDrive™ mic preamps
• +48V phantom power, polarity invert and 3rd order hi-pass filter
• Stepped Gain control up to +65 dB Gain
• 31-step Trim control, with precise 1 dB increments – overdrive the signal with the Gain control and then reduce to a suitable level using Trim.
• 3 modes for each preamp – Clean, Classic Drive and Asymmetric Drive
• Mic/Line Input Switching
• • Mic via XLR
  • Line via choice of TRS Jack or dedicated D-Sub connectivity
• 4 x front panel Hi-Z/DI Instrument unbalanced inputs with automatic input detection
• 4 mic preamp input impedance options – explore new tonal possibilities from your dynamic and ribbon microphones
• Balanced analogue outputs/insert sends for external processing
• +24 dBu professional line level insert returns/ADC inputs
• Analogue to digital connectivity via ADAT, AES and USB
• Ability to switch ADAT and AES connections to source audio from DAW outputs (USB) instead of the A/D converter
• USB soundcard mode: OCTO – 8 in / 24 out (@44.1/48 kHz) ; 8 x analogue / 8 AES + 16 ADAT outs
• Stepped pots and digitally controlled analogue electronics for precision, stereo matching and ease of recall
• Up to 192 kHz and 32-bit conversion, professional I/O levels (+24 dBu = 0 dBFS).
• Selectable Auto-Sleep mode
• Auto-ranging Wordclock In and Out