For more electronic styles, it's not quite as vital, but don't let that put you off if you have the cash to spare. We'd hesitate to say you actually need a Duende, but if you're going for that genuine 'pop' sound, you'll make your life an awful lot easier if you do get one. In the end, you wouldn't regret buying both or either, so if you're lucky enough to be facing such a dilemma, don't complain too loudly! Nucleus sales that included Duende Native were valid for the original sale only.
SSL offered a free crossgrade from CodeMeter from 2011 to 2018. CodeMeter was the copy protection system used before iLok on Duende V4. However, the variety of plug-ins in the Liquid Mix (plus the promise of more) and its lower price will make it a more appealing proposition for many users. In some cases you may have received a card with a CodeMeter Ticket ID instead of an iLok Activation Code. What's more, Duende seems to offer slightly smoother transitions between settings. Its original inception as a 1RU FireWire DSP box with a couple of SSL plug-ins has. While Duende has been around for a while now, it is a product that is growing and changing. Both offer stunning emulations of classic hardware, but the interface and overall power of the SSL is better. The Duende Mini, in short, is SSL ‘s magical sound housed in a 1/3 rack sized metal box that houses 4 proprietary DSP chips the size of an average external hard drive. However, it's hard to say which would win a fight between this or Focusrite's Liquid Mix. We'd like to be able to surprise you in these closing lines, but we have to say that Duende is one of the most sublime sounding and ergonomically beautiful items you could add to your studio. Another potential source of frustration is that only one Duende can be used at a time, and there's no provision for adding expansion DSP packs.
If you run the first version of the software, you get glitches galore when this feature is in use, and even with the v1.1 update installed, it still only bounces at real-time speed.
One slightly irritating quirk, though, is that Duende doesn't seem to like offline bouncing. Besides, given that this is a mixing tool, latency shouldn't really be a problem - providing you don't call on Duende until you've finished recording, that is. Whenever you put audio equipment on a FireWire bus, you run the risk of latency problems, but we didn't experience much trouble in this area, even with Duende daisy-chained after a Focusrite Liquid Mix. When you alter a parameter, the action is so stunningly smooth that you'll probably spend five minutes staring at the screen just twisting knobs and pushing buttons before you even think about doing anything practical with them. The GUIs are beautifully rendered - complete with shadows and perspective - and you sometimes feel like you're leaning over real hardware.
One aspect of the Duende plug-ins that can't be overlooked is their appearance and feel.