A single-fader DAW controller with a 100 mm touch-sensitive motorised fader, dedicated transport, a weighted jog/shuttle wheel, two colour displays and 46 assignable keys, driven by SSL's free 360° software over Mackie Control or HUI. Sources agree on the hardware: build quality, the fader, the transport and the jog wheel are praised almost without exception, and the large screen running the included SSL Meter plug-in is the feature reviewers single out. They also agree on two small annoyances — an external supply with a short lead and no power switch. Opinion splits on three things. DAW integration works well for Logic, Bitwig and REAPER users but frustrates Cubase/Nuendo and Live owners, whose MCU setups follow the selected track only within a bank of eight, and Pro Tools users limited by HUI. Desk footprint reads as compact next to a UF8 but large and heavy next to other single-fader boxes. Value divides along whether you already own a UF8, since much of what the UF1 adds is already there.
About this product
The single-fader UF1 (2023): one 100 mm touch-sensitive motorised fader, 4.3-inch and 1.77-inch colour displays, five push encoders plus a notched Channel encoder, a weighted jog/shuttle wheel, dedicated transport and 46 assignable keys, over USB-C with an external power supply. Not the eight-fader UF8 or the UC1 plug-in controller, which share its SSL 360° software.
The UF1 completed Solid State Logic's U-Series of DAW controllers in June 2023, two years after the eight-fader UF8 and the UC1 plug-in controller. It is the piece the UF8 left out: a proper transport, a weighted jog/shuttle wheel, a large colour screen that doubles as a hardware meter, and a single 100 mm motorised fader, all in the same brushed-metal casework. It can run on its own or sit beside its siblings as the centre section of a virtual SSL desk.
Like the rest of the range, it makes no sound and carries no audio. It talks Mackie Control or HUI to the DAW through SSL's 360° software, which means its reputation depends heavily on which DAW is at the other end of the cable. And at roughly three times the price of a PreSonus FaderPort or a Behringer X-Touch One, it has to earn its premium through feel and the screen rather than features nobody else has.
