Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machine: Released

[MickGael]

For example, RC-Tube's saturation is not at all as good as real tube saturation, and it doesn't have the unique frequency balancing/harshness taming effect. Audio on tape is way more complex than any of their other processors, so I would not just be surprised, I would be truly amazed if they got it right. I sure hope to be.

I own the plugin, and that has been my experience, as well. Curious to see what this new one does.

[Trakstar]

Just wondering since you guys appear to know the sound of the VCC stuff and i haven't had chance....
"How do you rate TB Reelbus and sonimus satson as viable alternatives" for say someone who does not have the funds for the steven slate collection.
Thanks in advance...trakstar

[3ee]

^PM sent!

[Trakstar]

I completely agree, I have the TB reelbus and just wondered how it compared to the big dogs. It really is something special, the impulse response really imparts the sound of the unit onto the samples. I had a studer impulse and it was immaculate for getting the sound, but Ive taken to using the reelbus instead. I dont think its that far off the waves one in terms of sound and quality. Concerning the price, its ridiculous. Thanks for the PM!

[AudioGuy720]

A plug-in dealer on another forum confirmed that TODAY is the day this plug-in will go on sale. I assume that also means a demo will be released today as well.

[4damind]

They updating the site this time... Demo download link should be available in a short time:

http://www.slatedigital.com/products/vtm

2 new videos they added:
http://youtu.be/mELbye5uqLU?hd=1
http://youtu.be/wq3NegtutXM?hd=1

[4damind]

Demo is ready to download (needs iLok2)

http://vtm-demo.dl.drumclassroom.net/download/

[Kaboom75]

Got my discount coupon code emailed to me :) Anyone tried it yet?

Get this the reels spin :) CPU ussage is what I expected though CPU meter in Live 8 goes from 46% - 72% but it lifts up the music in a really nice way.

[MickGael]

Got my discount coupon code emailed to me Anyone tried it yet?

Trying it now.

[kmonkey]

Got my discount coupon code emailed to me Anyone tried it yet?

Get this the reels spin CPU ussage is what I expected though CPU meter in Live 8 goes from 46% - 72% but it lifts up the music in a really nice way.

Do you have an i7 or similar family processor?

[Kaboom75]

My CPU is i7 920 3.7Ghz i wont be able to play the keyboard while VTM is enabled just no where near enough CPU for that I will be fine using it with a finnished song with the latency set higher just for finalising the mix.

Will have to wait for Intels 3d transistor CPUS to be a one man band with VTM, VCC and FG-X, Soundtoys on at the same time while playing demanding instruments.

[Kaboom75]

proper way to use Virtual Tape Machines.


Insert VTM on each track set them all to group 1 and 2"16 machine type.
The VTM on the Master is not in the group set that to ½" 2 machine type.


VTMs proper place in the the track & Master

Tracks VTM / VCC / effects plugs

Master / VCC / VTM / FG-X = limiter last.

Turn mess with groups input knob Aim for 0 on the meter.

[kmonkey]

Got my discount coupon code emailed to me Anyone tried it yet?

Get this the reels spin CPU ussage is what I expected though CPU meter in Live 8 goes from 46% - 72% but it lifts up the music in a really nice way.

CPU meter will jump high if you have latest i7 or similar family CPU but if you actually disable some power saving features (ie CPU won't donwclock itself all the time). It was 21% on my CPU as well and it jumped all the time. Go to (win7) Control Panel- Power Options - and enable High Performance mode.

After that one instance is taking 6% on my overclocked i7 sandy bridge.

So far i have very mixed feeling.

It does have nice sound to it, however it is expensive, it is CPU intensive especially when compared to TB Reelbus.

Folks i am not trying to ditch anyone work or something like it but i actually like TB Reelbus better. It have more coloring options, it can sound VERY similar to Slate VTM and it's only 15 EUR.

When i compare sound and price ratio of one vs another my brain simply is not giving me green light for VTM.

Only thing which i like more is grouping feature (TB Reelbus don't have it) and surely GUI is nicer but i have zero emotional feeling for photorealistic GUI since i actually care about sound..

It's nice but that's it.

I was far more impressed with UAD Ampex which did something totally different to my sound. It is still benchmark of all tape plugins IMHO.

Btw what's that with simple tones test in their promotional video Didn't we already get over it in past? I was under impression that simple sine or square tones are far from being accurate test for something as tape,compressor, saturator etc..

[Shy]

The emulated tape frequency response (with the second tape type) is very accurate, but it just matches a good old EQ preset I made (for PEQ Blue) based on a Telefunken M15 almost perfectly.
There's no "widening" side-effect as on real tape at all. There's no harshness taming side-effect. The saturation is basic and unlike real tape saturation, no "smearing" and no "airy" compressor/limiter-like side-effect, and there's a "linear" response of the saturation instead of an accurate response (same problem in your tube emulator, not to mention the harmonics are very different).

In short, obviously, the most important tape side-effects weren't emulated, as always. The good thing is that this is the first "virtual tape" plugin that doesn't destroy the audio in some way and is better left off. It's actually usable and can sound nice, mainly because of the frequency response equalization and the proper transient preservation during saturation, which is similar to the real thing and which all others fail miserably at.

Fabrice, you can talk about saturation behavior with continuous basic waveforms, but you know that's uninteresting compared to the other effects I mentioned which are what really defines "tape sound", not to mention that your saturation doesn't respond like the real machine at different frequency ranges either. You don't have anything even close to a proper tape emulation, just a nice basic special effect. I may spoil the fun for someone (who may feel obliged to make a personal attack, as is usual), but I'm not gonna join the imminent choir, since I care about authenticity just like you but the difference is that I don't have a product to sell and I don't have to focus on merely a couple of effects related to this kind of emulation, but on -all- of them, including the more important ones.

[chokehold]

If I get one more f*cking eMail from Slate about this thing in the next days, I'm going to mark them all as spam. 4 alone TODAY!