I found it cute but a bit limited. I like to have a spectrum analyser, some multiband compressor and/or limiter etc...
Instead I chose T-Racks, but Izotope Ozone is well regarded.

Slate Digital FG-X is very punchy and it manages rock hot levels very well. But, it does this at the expense of a lot of phase shift and clipping. It's a good tool, but it's only good at rock stuff.

I just switch to Ozone !! Without pretending I'm doing mastering, it gets me going for small projects and demos.

I've been keeping an eye on the Slate stuff; as of this writing I haven't seen anything they offer that I would consider to be a "must have".

I've used it on a hard rock mix and it helped get me closer to the refs than any other limiter. I like the Constant Gain Monitoring switch that makes it easy to hear any undesired artifacts by comparing before and after at the "same" level.

bouldersound, post: 415939, member: 38959 wrote: I've used it on a hard rock mix and it helped get me closer to the refs than any other limiter. I like the Constant Gain Monitoring switch that makes it easy to hear any undesired artifacts by comparing before and after at the "same" level.

It sounds as if you were able to hear differences between the two, at least on the mix you spoke of - was it a substantial difference?

You mentioned the Constant Gain Monitoring....were there any artifacts in particular that became apparent?

I've been watching Slate lately. As of yet, I haven't really come across any "must haves", but I'm keeping an eye on them. I have several engineer friends who use and like some of Slate's processors. although I can't be specific as to which.

Is there any way you could post a before/after sample of the mix you mentioned?

d/

DonnyThompson, post: 415940, member: 46114 wrote: It sounds as if you were able to hear differences between the two, at least on the mix you spoke of - was it a substantial difference?

You mentioned the Constant Gain Monitoring....were there any artifacts in particular that became apparent?

That's the thing, I was able to push the gain until I heard it start to cause problems, and then back off and/or make other adjustments to prevent bad stuff or make improvements. Too much gain could definitely get grungy, distorted etc., but with Constant Gain on you can bypass the processor and compare.

DonnyThompson, post: 415940, member: 46114 wrote: Is there any way you could post a before/after sample of the mix you mentioned?

I assume at some point the finished song will be out. I can see if they (the band, the studio I work for, the mix engineer) are okay with posting a sample the unmastered version. Also, there was more than just the Slate in the signal path.

Being the reminder of "less is more" Slate falls into the world of just more needless code being slummed off for the crap Avid can't get right. It sure looks pretty though.

My question, how many digital effects do we need. How many plug-ins do we need to keep buying? I don't get it.

UAD, Waves, Slate, Fabfilter, Avid... OMG, how many more ways to use a limiter and a few other bells? I need to cut 6k because I hate the sound of crappy conversion, okay, open up the stock EQ and do it. Move on. I need to chop 12 db off the transients, pretty easy. Ya do it until you can't stand the sound of that and then back off a notch lol.

I'll say it until I'm blue in the face, buy Samplitude Pro X and you don't need UAD Ozotope, Slate, Waves etc.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Slate has never got my interest.

audiokid, post: 415963, member: 1 wrote: Ya do it until you can't stand the sound of that and then back off a notch lol.

Not what I said.

Boulder, just saying this about Slate and mastering software in general, not to anyone specific. Mastering (not restoration) is really a limiter and some minor EQ that is left for the ME ears. To others, its some magical process that repairs a turd or a mistake that the mix couldn't get. On the other hand, Mastering is also using analog gear to do something plug-ins will never do imho, so Slate code is again, nothing but a waste of money to me.UAD, Slate, PT, etc.. reminds me of Walmart shopping.

Sorry, I'm so sick of the hype.

Buy Samplitude Pro X or even better, Sequoia 12, learn how to use that and be done with it. You'll get what I mean then. ;)

audiokid, post: 415965, member: 1 wrote: Mastering (not restoration) is really a limiter and some minor EQ that is left for the ME ears.

On that we agree. That's typically my starting point anyway, once I've listened carefully to the track(s). To me the FG-X is just a limiter, one that the studio asked me to try out. I don't always use what they suggest. Fancy plugin du jour not working? Gone.