I personally have never even heard of Salvador Mix....but the reason why Im poking my head in this thread is to suggest puting the question in the Subject line so it would draw the necessary attention.
BTW I just googled "salvador Mix" and nothing came up

it was a mix that allowed most non condenser mics to sound like true condensers..

it was a very nice thing to have especially when you have the low end gear that i have!

thanks

Found this reviewing the archive. The questions was to emulate a condenser mic. So in other words, an SM58 could sound like a Telefunken Ela M 251. What a deal! I want it now. :D

Think that day will ever happen?

He might have been using the old Antares Mic Modeler software, which would have been popular at the time of his post for home recordists.
I used it a few times, I didn't think it worked.

The current modeling that is happening now, with the Slate VMS system, seems to be making the most positive buzz in terms of customer reviews.
But ... it's not just software driven, it involves hardware too. The $999 package comes with a preamp that is claimed to be ultra transparent, and a mic that is ruler flat in terms of freq response.
Eight mic sims ( and two preamp sims) are included with the mic and the pre.

http://slatedigital.com/virtual-microphone-system/

The negative comments I've read are nay-sayers ... who haven't even tried it, ( which I don't get at all... I don't know how you can review something, either positively or negatively, that you've never worked with).
But, there are many who are just convinced it won't work. The majority of these posters had some of the mics that the system models ( C-12',s Sony 800's, etc.), so maybe it's out of fear that the system did sound accurate and they now have to justify buying a $10k Sony Mic.

Is it possible that it works? Yeah, I think so, just like I think it's possible to model different room responses and acoustic characteristics, reverbs and spaces.
Do I think a software program alone can do it? I can't say for sure, but I doubt it. It seems to me that it takes a flat response on both the source mic and pre in able to have a ground-zero to start with, and from which to add character, color, saturation and harmonics of the classic mics modeled.

I know two people who have bought the Slate VMS system. One of them owns a U47, that has been his "baby" for many years.
He claims that the differences between his U47 and the Slate 47 were so close that it was hard for him to hear any noticeable difference, and that once it would be set into a mix, he doubts he could hear the difference at all.
He's not going to sell his real 47, because he says it now has a sentimental value that he can't put a price on. It sounds a little too sentimental to me, but I get it.
The other person who bought the system doesn't own any of the real mics that the system models, but is claiming that for the first time, he is having to do next to nothing to his vocal tracks in terms of EQ, after using the virtual ELAM 251 model.

Me? I can't say personally, because I haven't tried it.

But ...I'd be lying like a rug if I said I wasn't more than just a little intrigued. ;)

-d.

DonnyThompson, post: 447571, member: 46114 wrote: The current modeling that is happening now, with the Slate VMS system, seems to be making the most positive buzz in terms of customer reviews.
But ... it's not just software driven, it involves hardware too. The $999 package comes with a preamp that is claimed to be ultra transparent, and a mic that is ruler flat in terms of freq response.
Eight mic sims ( and two preamp sims) are included with the mic and the pre.

cool

DonnyThompson, post: 447571, member: 46114 wrote: I know two people who have bought the Slate VMS system. One of them owns a U47, that has been his "baby" for many years.
He claims that the differences between his U47 and the Slate 47 were so close that it was hard for him to hear any noticeable difference, and that once it would be set into a mix, he doubts he could hear the difference at all.
He's not going to sell his real 47, because he says it now has a sentimental value that he can't put a price on. It sounds a little too sentimental to me, but I get it.
The other person who bought the system doesn't own any of the real mics that the system models, but is claiming that for the first time, he is having to do next to nothing to his vocal tracks in terms of EQ, after using the virtual ELAM 251 model.

I am intrigued as well. Thanks for chiming in on this.

We have a RO member who may buy the VMS system (Letouch) but he plans to plug it to a Behringer UM2.. I'm curious how it's gonna turn out.

pcrecord, post: 447573, member: 46460 wrote: We have a RO member who may buy the VMS system (Letouch) but he plans to plug it to a Behringer UM2.. I'm curious how it's gonna turn out.

Hmmm... that sounds a bit odd to me, like he's kinda defeating the purpose, but I have no experience with that pre, so maybe it'll be okay (?)
I wonder if the line in's on that pre detour past the preamps and go straight to the conversion...

And even if it's not the optimal chain - if it's still an improvement, and he likes the results, then I'm in no position to criticize it.

I have to follow my own words and not speak negatively of anything that I haven't tried myself. ;)

DonnyThompson, post: 447575, member: 46114 wrote: Hmmm... that sounds a bit odd to me, like he's kinda defeating the purpose, but I have no experience with that pre, so maybe it'll be okay (?)
I wonder if the line in's on that pre detour past the preamps and go straight to the conversion...

And even if it's not the optimal chain - if it's still an improvement, and he likes the results, then I'm in no position to criticize it.

I have to follow my own words and not speak negatively of anything that I haven't tried myself. ;)

We'll see. The good thing is, he didn't want to go to the store or a studio and try a bunch of mics.. so the VMS will give him plenty of choices.. I just fear the converter quality, but hey ! We'll see (or hear if he puts samples up) ;)

pcrecord, post: 447577, member: 46460 wrote: We'll see

I'm right there with ya. I really hope that this system does turn out to sound fantastic.

For those who are thinking that "there's no possible way..." I understand your hesitancy, and that those who are in serious doubt and are thinking "how could I get a collection of mics for this price, when even the cheapest of those mics would cost way more than $1000, it can't be legit..."

It's understandable to think that way.

The thing is, even if the sims aren't precisely exactly like the real mics they are meant to simulate ( and honestly, you could take any two of those real mics, same model, and they wouldn't sound alike either), if they still sound great, ( and I don't mean "for the money" but that they honestly sound great, and they work for what you are doing, then it's a very cool technological advancement, as far as I can tell.

We need to remember that for everything that works, for every invention, or design, or advancement in mechanics, or transportation, or communication, or any technology that we now take for granted, there was a time when stuff didn't work, and plenty of people who were convinced that it never would... electricity, the telephone, televison...even the first home computers, all had their fair share of critics.

Things take time. But as they evolve, sometimes other uses for the technology is found along the way, to either do something entirely different, or to improve on what it was supposed to do to begin with.
We didn't make it to the moon a week after JFK said we would, and I'm sure the first cell network was probably fraught with issues and failures, too... but eventually, things were improved upon, smart people got working on how to make them work, or, make them work better, and then the day eventually came when everyone was carrying around a portable communications device in their pocket - that was also an internet access tool, that also had instant messaging, and that could also call anywhere in the world... and it was great. But, it too eventually became something we took for granted.

I look at the advancements in audio in the same way... so maybe not everything about the Slate system ( or analog/digital modeling in general) is perfect, or exact; but just the fact that they can get close, or hell, that they can do it at all , bears appreciation, and I think, excitement.

Those of us members who are old enough to remember the days of tape and consoles, of huge OB racks filled with processing, never foresaw what we have now. The very astute among us might have had an inkling, but most of us never thought that a day would come when you would have a recording studio at your kitchen table, in a box no bigger than a bathroom trash basket, with unlimited track counts and processing sims and great EQ... and incredible sounding sampled drums and guitar amps, and....

Maybe the Slate system isn't precisely as good as those real vintage mics - but for a thousand bucks, and including the hardware that comes with it for that price ( so you're also getting a clean transparent condenser mic and transparent preamp, too) if they were able to even just get 80% of the way there, and what you hear sounds great to you....

Then is it really something all that bad?

I have no clue personally if the system works or not... But I've been mighty impressed by what Slate Digital has done so far in modeling technology ( and that their stuff is also as affordable as it is), that I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, until I have a reason not to.... until I can try it for myself and come to my own conclusions.

In my extremely humble opinion,

-donny