SSL X-ISM [Freeware]

The process of installing the SSL X-ISM was quick and easy as after I downloaded it from the SSL website.  It is a free piece of software so anyone can go to the website now and install this within a few minutes - all you have to do is sign up on their site and you can get this and a few other free plug-ins.  The purpose of the SSL X-ISM is to monitor inter-sample peaks which can add distortion to a mix.  The interface is quite basic as it simply has a few meters and no real parameters.  A manual isn't necessary at all for this plug-in as there isn't anything that you can do with it that it doesn't do own its own.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

While I only use the SSL X-ISM plug-in on the master fader of a session, I've never had an issues running this.  It doesn't take up much processing power at all and I can't imagine that anyone would be using more than one of these in a single session anyway.  While they don't offer an RTAS version of this, if you have the FXpansion VST to RTAS wrapper like I do you can run it in Pro Tools.  I am currently running it on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM while I run Pro Tools LE 7.4 with a Digi 002R audio interface.  Even if you have a lesser system, this won't present any problems in terms of performance.


OVERALL OPINION

I've had the SSL X-ISM for a few months and I'm definitely glad to have it in my arsenal.  While I tend to use it sparingly if at all, it does do a great job of monitoring the inter-sample peaks and is a lot of help to limit distortion.  I would definitely recommend downloading the SSL X-ISM plug-in as you never know when you might have a need for it and its free!