![]() My Top Tips for Using the Virtual Buss Compressors Plugins ![]() Long story short, if you’re really hearing it, you’re probably using too much! In small doses, console and tape saturation can add wonderful warmth, smoothness, punch and glue to a mix, but when pushed too hard, can totally undo all of your work towards achieving a tight, clear and transient mix. SLATE DIGITAL VMR MANUAL SOFTWAREToo much of a good thing: the key to getting the best results out of pretty much all analog emulation software on the market is to use it tastefully. Whether you’re after the punchy, in-your-face sound of SSL, the warm, “round” sound of Neve, the smooth high end sheen of +9 tape, or the fat low end of 456, these two plugins have you covered, and will do wonders towards bringing your mixes to life! My Top Tips for Using the VCC and VTM Plugins While I’m not going to go into a ton of detail on the individual usage of each plugin, the general idea is as follows: choose the console and tape type you’d like to use, then play around with how hard you’d like to hit/saturate said console or tape via the drive and/or linked in/out knobs. In my book, VCC and VTM were the plugins which really sparked the “emulation revolution.” This was the first time that mixers were really convinced with the results, without feeling like there was a huge compromise to be made on CPU usage or latency. While audio gear and plugin manufacturing in the 90s and 2000s was all about trying to make things sound as “clean” and “flat” as possible, by the time we actually achieved the goal of “digital perfection,” we realized that the end results were, quite frankly, a bit dull and boring.Įver since, software engineers have been painstakingly trying to recreate all of the subtle imperfections, abnormalities, artifacts and distortion characteristics of analog gear in the digital realm with the end goal of merging the best of both worlds: the user-friendly functionality of digital, and the listener-friendly sound of analog. So I’ve decided to bundle them together for the sake of this article. While these are two separate plugins, in my mind, they’ve always been an inseparable pair when looking to impart “the sound of analog” onto a clean, “digital” mix. ![]() Virtual Console Collection + Virtual Tape Machines On that note, let’s take a look at 5 Slate Digital plugins which every mix engineer should own: 1. While audio plugin technology has come leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, the fact that I’m still using both of these plugins in every single mix I do says a lot about their quality. It’s gotten to the point that nowadays, their emulations are “virtually” (get it?) indistinguishable from the real thing. We're still quite disappointed at the lack of internal rack routing options in VMR though, and the inability to use the plugins on their own away from it (or at least to collapse the interface down to show just the modules you're using, for instance).Įven so, we'll park that thought for now, and sum up by saying that this trio of new modules makes an excellent addition to the lineup.Ever since the release of their groundbreaking Virtual Console Collection back in 2011 and Virtual Tape Machines plugin the following year, Slate Digital have been working hard on bridging the gap between analog and digital. Put it on the slateĪll three of Slate's new plugins make worthy additions to VMR, offering a fresh take on analogue-style audio processing. However, a little Intensity (up to 20%) livens up loops and submixes nicely. ![]() In all cases, keeping the Intensity to around 30-40% achieves the best results by far and on fully mixed material, extra care is required to avoid pumping. On both synth and electric bass, the Present Tone setting adds real bite, while the other two Tone settings increase weight. SLATE DIGITAL VMR MANUAL MANUALAs the manual says, a little goes a long way. On mixed drum material, high Intensity settings can easily suck the life out of the signal, and once again, playing it safe pays dividends in the form of a more energetic sound. For isolated kick and snare drums, light Intensity settings bring up the tail, but as you wind the intensity up, transients are increasingly squashed and the Tone setting simply focuses this effect towards its designated frequencies. Clearly, FG-Bomber is one of those 'black box' processors, but it's one capable of doing good things to a range of sources when handled with care. ![]()
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