Slate Virtual Console Plugin is now available

[Slate]

bmanic.. rhythmaster is our favorite conspiracy theorist who has made it his mission to tell the world of our evil plans to take over the galaxy... you may want to do a search and you'll get it really quickly.

You make great points about this type of thing in other fields.. and I just experienced this during a wine tasting in Nappa valley. I was with several experienced wine people who tasted various years of one winery's merlots and would explain major differences in them. Being a skeptic, I made them do a blind taste test, and sure enough they could all immediately tell the 2003 from the 2005 from the 2007. It was pretty amazing.

But I bet they couldn't hear what the VCC does for the life of em!

[bmanic]

I hear ya. I'm actually a chef/cook/whatever by trade but I have to admit that I'm not a good one. Mainly because it's obviously not my field. I went to a restaurant school just because I couldn't get into the local music university and had to wait two years for the next time they enrolled new students! So I was with barely half a heart in the restaurant school and didn't really pay attention to cooking or the small details that become apparent for the people who do it with a passion. I just followed the recipes to the letter (well no, that isn't true.. maybe THAT's why I'm such a crappy cook! ) but still some of the other pupils had a certain "magic" touch to their food.. at least according to the teachers/master chefs.

Could I taste the difference? Not always.. to me chicken is chicken no matter what.

NOTE! I'm NOT trying to generalize that somebody is "better" or has more "passion" just because they can appreciate the small details. That would be elitist and silly.. but I'm not going to pretend like there aren't people on this planet who have heightened senses (highly trained, there's no magic) when it comes to the details and subtleties of any given trade. Those details matter and have a purpose.

It's the exact same with musicians. In my opinion it's especially noticeable when listening to a drummer and bassist combination. The backbone of a lot of music. Some pairs just work extremely well together. Some less so. When you start analyzing what is going on there might be just the tiniest difference in timing (meaning the START of the note, the note length and the micro-dynamics of each note and phrase) and still the difference is quite tangible.

Same with sports.. especially tennis or golf. Some people just have that magic "touch" and fluid motion which looks incredibly effortless. Some don't and use a more brute force approach. A good example would be Justine Henin. Her motion and the way she hits the ball is almost magical.. that tiny little woman hitting the ball like it were a butterfly and off it goes.. like a rocket.

Cheers!
bManic

[Compyfox]

Steve, since you're here, can you maybe go a bit more in-depth about the new calibration mode and how to properly set that one up?

I still don't have access to the users area, so I can't access a more recent version or a manual (even with iLok 1).


Oh, and is a feature request like "gain compensation" for the input gain knob (much like the drive knob for the tube of Variety of Sound's BootEQmkII) a good idea? Of course the gain range would needed to be enhanced (from +/-8dB to like +/-16dB?) in this case, but it would save you from using a gain plugin pre and post VCC CHANNEL, no?

[4damind]

Ok, played a bit with the VCC and added the other types to my examples. Now it's complete

Without VCC
With VCC - SSL
With VCC - Neve
With VCC - API
With VCC - Trident

[bduffy]

Well, now that the demo's available, I'm going to wade in here...

Much like the UAD Studer, I think we're going to have some problems between peoples' expectations and the actual sound of the product. Your mix probably won't sound as instantly "better" as you want, but I think the results are apparent.

Personally, I'm loving the sound I'm hearing. All the console sounds seem to enhance the transients, making you realize why it's maybe less challenging for pro engineers to keep those drums "above" the mix, even with today's punishing masters. And they all add a beautiful girth to the low end, without sound muddy or enhanced/exciter-y, and they all seem to clear up some of that DAW fogginess. Some of it is easy to miss at first, except for the "Brit N" and "Ψ", which have pretty obvious effects on the audio. I did my own A/B since I have some free time and the iLok2 at work.

1. Dry mix.

01-Slivers_No-VCC.mp3

This is an old rough mix, just a little track EQ'ing and leveling so I could quickly bypass the VCC's in Cubase, so mix isn't as energetic as it should be, and no vocals, coz I can't deal with that now.

2. Brit 4k:

02-Slivers_Brit4k.mp3

This seemed the most subtle of all the consoles, but might be my favourite for staying truest to the source material whilst adding the aforementioned girth and transient focus. Seems to clear some "cloudiness" from the mix too.

3. US A Discrete:

03-Slivers_USandA.mp3

I had to keep checking my RMS levels to see if the US A was louder or not! Adds a wonderful energy around the mids/high-mids. I can see right away why this would be a sturdy rock choice, it loves guitars.

4. Brit N:

04-Slivers_BritN.mp3

This one might have the "smoothest" sound of them all; really seemed to remove mud, make for a more pleasant mix with less harshness. Seemed to be closer to what we expect to hear when we think "analog". Very nice indeed.

5. Ψ:

05-Slivers_%CE%A8.mp3

This is the most dramatic of all of them; there is no missing the instant lift in the highs here, almost like your mix got send through a mastering chain. It's just depressing going back to the dry mix after this (however, the other VCC mixes still sound surpringly present, compared...), and I can see this being the go-to for pop mixes.

So all in all, I'd say this is a great plug-in that I want quite badly. The only downside I'd give it is a) it's a shame it's iLok (iLok2 only??), because the slower loading time is a bit of drag when you have to copy instances to 70+ tracks! and b) I wish, like UAD Studer, Slate had priced this a litte more inside the prosumer market. Seems a shame that the people who could benefit most from an ITB analog-path solution probably won't be able to afford it.

Then again, some things are worth pinching your pennies for, and Steven deserves as much recompense as the market can bear, so all the best hopes for sales with this. I will be picking this up, as soon as I can figure out how to talk the wife into it....and after I get Cubase 6....

EDIT: sorry 4damind, didn't see your post there. Sorry to steal. Now I'm gonna check out your demos!

[Compyfox]

Actually:
a) if Steven and Fabrice didn't kill that feature, configuring all plugins globally should still help. But I can relate in terms of copying over tons of plugins or manually alter the input gain/drive according to each signal. Then again, creation of a global project should do the trick.

b) 249USD is actually quite fair for what you get. Personally I'd have raised that price a tad to go out of the "everyone can get it" reach. But who am I to complain. And there're still upgrade packs planned - for some pocket money of course.


Sure is not the holy grail, but it's getting you a tad closer at least.

[bduffy]

Actually:
a) if Steven and Fabrice didn't kill that feature, configuring all plugins globally should still help. But I can relate in terms of copying over tons of plugins or manually alter the input gain/drive according to each signal. Then again, creation of a global project should do the trick.

Yeah, my main complaint (and only minor) was the lag-time when you instantiate the plugin, which is normal for all iLok plug-ins. The global thing worked fine, provided you copy a "grouped" instance each time. I didn't do this at first and had to manually active the Group setting on 60-odd instances. I don't know if there's a way of activating "all" to group at once? I might've missed it. But really, it's just the iLok loading time I was talking about specifically.

b) 249USD is actually quite fair for what you get. Personally I'd have raised that price a tad to go out of the "everyone can get it" reach. But who am I to complain. And there're still upgrade packs planned - for some pocket money of course.

Yeah, what can I say? Couple this with having to get an iLok2, and you're looking at $300, and that's on top of my now-obsolete iLok, my second one, because the first filled up with demos. Just seems a little higher than I would've liked to see, I think he could sell more and discourage piracy at a lower price, but that's totally MHO, probably wrong, and almost completely motivated by envy.

Sure is not the holy grail, but it's getting you a tad closer at least.

Agreed. I would never tell a noob to run out and get this, it'll fix all your problems. But I think those of us who've been coming up against the limitations of DAW mixing and yearning for something more will get a lot from this.

That being said, I have to try a mix from the ground up with this. I wonder if my ears will just adjust and I'll turn out muddy mixes with nice inserts?

[4damind]

@bduffy
It's great to hear it also on other styles of music, this gives a better idea how it works.
Also with your demos, Neve sounds very different Has a interesting and pushed bottom-end. The other types are a bit more subtle but also different enough to hear a difference.

[bduffy]

@bduffy
It's great to hear it also on other styles of music, this gives a better idea how it works.
Also with your demos, Neve sounds very different Has a interesting and pushed bottom-end. The other types are a bit more subtle but also different enough to hear a difference.

Yeah, it's funny: to me, the differences between some of the consoles weren't that apparent to me with your music as they were with mine! Guess it's a matter of perspective. But a couple were obvious, again the mid/high thing on the last two consoles sticks out.

I really like how it gathered the low end on your mixes, you get the impression they'd be less plosive on a big sound system. Again, some quite subtle once I matched the RMS, but definitely not as boomy. But your mix was great to begin with, so it makes sense.

[mr jkn]

Shiee, Bduffy I listened to the original and tri mix on my Iphone
expecting no difference whatsoever. I was wrong. Now, I have to
buy this plugin. + an ilok2. Sigh.

What about the CPU-hit? I'm on a mb pro core2duo.
Do you guys put it as first plugin channels? If that is the case,
I guess one could batch render the tracks before doing the mix,
If the CPU isn't up to the task.

[bduffy]

Shiee, Bduffy I listened to the original and tri mix on my Iphone
expecting no difference whatsoever. I was wrong. Now, I have to
buy this plugin. + an ilok2. Sigh.

I'm glad they were of help! But I apologize for adding to gearlust...

What about the CPU-hit? I'm on a mb pro core2duo.
Do you guys put it as first plugin channels? If that is the case,
I guess one could batch render the tracks before doing the mix,
If the CPU isn't up to the task.

I found it quite reasonable. In Cubase 5/6, Win 7 32-bit, in a song with about 70 audio tracks + one master buss instance, the CPU was generally around 40% at 512 ASIO buffer. Except for the Ψ, which shot it up to about 60-70%.

I did put it first in the channel, as recommended.

I could not use group oversampling, that just destroyed my CPU. But for a final mix, if you plan it out, you should be OK. Might get a bit hairy, but just plan for some initial headroom.

[monkeymanx]

So when using this on the master buss is it the first or last in the chain? Also it is first on single tracks and then add your effects? I thought it would come last, as in, you are running effects into your channel on the console. Maybe I'm wrong here.

[bduffy]

So when using this on the master buss is it the first or last in the chain? Also it is first on single tracks and then add your effects? I thought it would come last, as in, you are running effects into your channel on the console. Maybe I'm wrong here.

On the master buss, I would definitely put it first, the manual recommends this too. But I'm not sure, if you had an EQ/effects on the 2-Buss...would you want to affect the virtual console signal or the other way around? Probably best not to put anything on the 2-Bus except the VCC, I would think. Besides, it sounds better already, right?

I put it first on my channels, but I didn't have any other insert effects. According to the manual, there is no rule, though. For something like an amp sim, I would think you'd have to put VCC after, as the amp sim is the "recorded signal" that would first hit the console in the real world. So I'd probably keep the VCC as first insert at the input point, because any effects I use will be summed at the VCC on the 2-Buss anyway; so you're getting your analog summing either way.

[Lenticular]

So when using this on the master buss is it the first or last in the chain? Also it is first on single tracks and then add your effects? I thought it would come last, as in, you are running effects into your channel on the console. Maybe I'm wrong here.

Don't over think or over complicate this, there several ways you can set it up to function for your particular daw but in general:

Put an instance of the vcc channel on each track channel (doesn't matter first or last if there are any comps/ efects on the channel.)

Put the mixbuss on your master out fader track.

GO!..Start mixing using the settings, groups etc..

Myself I use subgruops- i.e.all guitars to a buss with an instance of the mixbuss, same with vox, main instruments, bass/ drums. I submix these groups to stems then if I want I can put vcc channel on those tracks & to another instance of the mixbuss as well then bounce to the source track ..

Then I master that track w/o the vcc using limiters (FG-X)other comps, lin eq's etc..

[Slate]

Guys, please go to USERS area and download yet another update, the 1.06!

The following things were fixed:

- 10.5 compatibility ( MixBuss validation / crash )
- 10.5 Font display issue
- some option problems (strange oversampling config display -
sync beetween option used & option displayed)

To install, simply delete the old 1.05 versoins from your VST, AU,
or RTAS folder.. then replace with the new 1.06 version. The reason
we are not posting the updates as installers is because installers
take a long time to compile and test.. and we want to get you these
updates FAST!

for bug reports: www.slatedigital.com/support

There *should* be a CPU decrease in either this update or the next (I forgot to ask my programmers who are now rightfully passed out after coding for 48 hours straight).