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Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack and FREE Revival Plugin - Available NOW

Progmatic-Studios

Established Member
After two years of tireless development, the long awaited Virtual Mix Rack and Free Revival plugin is now available.

The Virtual Mix Rack is a modular plugin system that will allow you to have a virtual 500 series right in your DAW. But more importantly, the initial Mix Bundle that is available for the VMR contains some of the most authentic emulations of classic EQs and Compressors.

These processors will allow you to work faster, more creatively, and you'll have amazing analog tone on your mixes. Plus, given our new native optimizations, you'll be able to run VMR channelstrips all across your mix, and even track directly through them.

products - Slate Digital



What do you think of this plugin compared to the UAD 1176, SSL EQ and Neve EQ?
 

yettibrad

Active Member
Picked it up yesterday, impressed so far. Great sounding emulations with very low CPU hit.
 

kj.metissage

Active Member
This is THE SHIT.

Top of the league emulations. As good as the UAD mkII stuff.

And a versatile package.

Crazy it's only $149 !!!
 

DrewMazurek

Venerated Member
This is THE SHIT.

Top of the league emulations. As good as the UAD mkII stuff.

And a versatile package.

Crazy it's only $149 !!!
SSL for sure. 1073? Don't think so. I like UA's saturation much better and it just feels more like the real thing to me. The 1176 is quite good, not sure if it's equal to UA. The 401 comp is REALLY good though!!

And yes, at that price, you'd be silly not to have them.
 

spherop

Member
Haven't used - have been tempted, But couple downsides have held me back after reading about on GS.

The main issue is the rack itself, which prevents seeing -- at the track level -- exactly what modules you're using. Ie., which comp, etc. You just see as one plug: VMR. So I guess other than price/bundle level, what's the value of the rack aspect vs the potential downside of less flexibility than with individual plugs. Slate is clearly angling towards a mini platform of sorts with this. But does it really benefit the user? Yeah great intro price. But... unless you can un-rack em, not sold on it yet.

The other issue mentioned frequently is lack of trims - hard to AB vs the volume bump of the plug.

Sound quality widely considered great.
 

and3x

New Member
This are the kind of releases that makes me wonder if staying with the UAD-platform is a viable option for me. Cant complain about the sound im getting out of UAD´s offerings but the native side is closing the gap so fast right now. I mean, look at the complete package, you get like all the slate plug ins for well under $1000. That gets you about 3-4 UAD plug-ins. Sound quality wise, the competition is right up there with UAD but more so, in terms of innovation and flexibility, UAD cant seem to compete with FabFilter, Slate et al.

Not to forget lesser known options like the new releases from Lindell. Many of these guys are releasing top notch vintage emulations but also innovate upon the old goodies, adding new features and taking that much loved sound into the features and work flow enhancemets demanded today. Dunno... this is no rant, just an observation. How do you guys feel about the apparent rise native has come to see as of late?
 

SG1

Active Member
Just picked up Revival for free. Pretty cool. Definitely has the sparkle and warmth thing down. I wish it could run as a standalone plug and not in the rack, but whatever. Gift horse and all that. :)
 

DrewMazurek

Venerated Member
How do you guys feel about the apparent rise native has come to see as of late?
I see it as a positive. UA is going to HAVE to step up or lower prices or lose users. I think they will lower prices slowly. I hope anyway. I haven't bought anything in a while and don't plan to. Even if I never bought another UA plug and got to use what I have for the next 3-5 years, that's a huge win for me. And now Slate can start to take some of my CPU cycles. I'm good!! :)
 

Kcatthedog

Hall of Fame Member
well remember that slate is not paying any fees to anybody, so has a different price model,

we only pay full UA pop if you buy when plugs are first released,

you can certainly manage ua costs down just by being patient and by being prepared to invest in their HW plug deals and then sell the HW

UA plays the "oh,, so you you want to save a buck game" a little differently, but the savings are certainly there and significant.
 

DrewMazurek

Venerated Member
well remember that slate is not paying any fees to anybody, so has a different price model,

we only pay full UA pop if you buy when plugs are first released,
Good pont on the licensing fees.

I've never paid full price for any UA plug. I think if I average it out, I'm at around $150 per plug which seems reasonable to me.
 

masque

Venerated Member
ya know here's my thing.......when I delved into the computer world of recording and plug-ins I went all in right away with UAD.......and now a couple of years later I have no regrets because I think they are the best plugs in the business..........I base this off of my use, use of other companies plugs and a little of what I read.

between the hardware and the cost of the plugs I will admit that it's not cheap but I have not overly concerned myself with their costs to this point.....with that said, you do have to take notice on occasion to what is being offered elsewhere and take the best care of your wallet you can.

for example, i REALLY want and plan to buy the Vari-mu.......with my coupons I will spend about $250 on it. but there are a few others I want as well and even with the x-mss deals they will still be fairly expensive. recently I had gotten interested in the Brainworx V2 mastering eq.......but at $330 along with wanting the vari-mu etc.....i was really worried about that total costs.

but thanks to a good tip from another person on this board I was able to find the Brainworx for like $118 last weekend.........and it was literally too good to pass up. it sounds great and works great.

I won't abandon UAD as long as they dont change to drastically because I love what they do.......but there are times that the savings outside of UA are just to good to pass up.
 

mpayne0

Venerated Member
The one thing about UAD is that their stuff works. Every time.

No countless threads of users beta testing, very few OS conflict, I have never called support, I am not waiting around for Slate to answer an email or reply to a thread, etc..
Some of these brands obviously are making great sounding tools, but not without issue. IK makes good stuff, but I would not touch that company with a 10 foot pole.
 

simonzc

Active Member
........I won't abandon UAD as long as they dont change to drastically because I love what they do.......but there are times that the savings outside of UA are just to good to pass up.
For some reason (lack of funds at sale time or whatever) I never got the SSL channel strip or bus compressor, so this month I'm looking at the alternatives and what with the amazing Duende offer this month and the arrival of VMR there's no way I can justify getting the UAD versions.
It always used to be that UAD would win me over with the quality gap above the competition, but now, that gap has all but closed.
So you demo them all, and they all sound different kinds of very good, then you look at the prices ......
 

DanButsu

Administrator
Forum Admin
Moderator
Good pont on the licensing fees.

I've never paid full price for any UA plug. I think if I average it out, I'm at around $150 per plug which seems reasonable to me.
Same here. $150 is average for me too.
 

Eric Dahlberg

Purveyor of musical dreams fullfilled.
The one thing about UAD is that their stuff works. Every time.

No countless threads of users beta testing, very few OS conflict, I have never called support, I am not waiting around for Slate to answer an email or reply to a thread, etc..
In all fairness, the issues that had plagued Slate before were for VCC, which was an ambitious project that required much more DAW integration than almost any other plugin. Nothing of its kind existed before they did it. Slate's other plugins haven't had those issues AFAIK.

I've heard of IK Multimedia having issues with SampleTank 3 but the T-RackS stuff is solid.
 

slamthecrank

Hall of Fame Member
Finally got some time with the VMR today. My thoughts are that it is a very nice suite of plugins. The SSL/FG-S sounds great, but the Neve/FG-N doesn't really match up too well to the UAD MkII 1073 (nor should it, since the VMR "Neve" isn't really based on anything in the 'real world'.) Same goes for their 401. It's nice, but I'm not sure exactly what it is that I'm hearing in the 3-6k range that isn't pleasing. Nothing that couldn't be tamed by chaining another EQ after it. The "116" (1176 module) is nice and reminds me of the hardware.

All in all, I'm impressed with their quality, and I feel like they could be a nice compliment to UAD's products. I didn't find anything with the VMR that I couldn't do with UAD, though; nor did I find anything that made me want to use VMR instead of UAD, if that makes sense. I do feel like they work well together, especially on projects where UAD instances/DSP might be scarce already.

In regards to other Native offerings, I will say that VMR sounds a lot better to me than IK's counterparts or Waves. Slate definitely has produced the best sounding Native suite that I've heard in these flavors.
 

jfjer

Active Member
Finally got some time with the VMR today. My thoughts are that it is a very nice suite of plugins. The SSL/FG-S sounds great, but the Neve/FG-N doesn't really match up too well to the UAD MkII 1073 (nor should it, since the VMR "Neve" isn't really based on anything in the 'real world'.) Same goes for their 401. It's nice, but I'm not sure exactly what it is that I'm hearing in the 3-6k range that isn't pleasing. Nothing that couldn't be tamed by chaining another EQ after it. The "116" (1176 module) is nice and reminds me of the hardware.

All in all, I'm impressed with their quality, and I feel like they could be a nice compliment to UAD's products. I didn't find anything with the VMR that I couldn't do with UAD, though; nor did I find anything that made me want to use VMR instead of UAD, if that makes sense. I do feel like they work well together, especially on projects where UAD instances/DSP might be scarce already.

In regards to other Native offerings, I will say that VMR sounds a lot better to me than IK's counterparts or Waves. Slate definitely has produced the best sounding Native suite that I've heard in these flavors.
really ? you dont think fg-s is just as good as uad 1073 pre eq collection .
i really wanted the ua 1073 to be better specially with the black friday deals but it is not ,
i tried to make a better sound with the uad 1073 vs fg-n on a vocal track and let me say
they are so close that i dident hear a clear difference , i really dont think i heard a difference at all, you cant set both on the exakt settings though,
i mean you have to boost a little more on the fg-n to get the same sound on same frequensys
for the first ua 1073 reacts a little faster than fg-n and is a coupple db`s louder so those db`s almost fooled me to think ua`s 1073 was better,
but as soon as i used my ears and level matched them i got exactly the same beatiful sound ,
i really wanted the ua 1073 for a long time but must say that if you isen`t gonna use this with unison,
for me the fg-n is the clear vinner,
and it uses so little cpu its insane .
but if you have one of the apollo`s i would go for the ua`s 1073 :)
if you guys dont belive me . trye VMR youre self , level match te 1073`s and be prepared to not belive what you hear
and as a bonus the fg-n has a extra mid band + you dont have stepped frequensyes( the orginal frquensys are clearly marked on fg-n) that makes it alot more useful 1073 than the ua one
But im not saying anything wrong aboth the sound in ua`s 1073, because it was the first itb eq that really made me go wow , but its eats just to much power for me

yeah i love slate digital
but i love UAD just as mutch if not more :)
so i`m not a fanboy , i just want you to be able to run as many 1073`s as i want :)
and use more of my dsp for other goodys uad plugins
i still love my mk2`s( have all mk2`s exept 1073 ) still love ocean waves, emt 250 , emt 140 ,lexicon 224 , and harrison eq , that harrison is really not bad
so on this Christmas sale i think i possibly go for the manley massive passive ( that one is going on the master ) , i think its better than the NI one and i just hate NI activations lol
i also have more ua plugins and one that i hope get a mk2 soon is the neve 88rs
HAVE A NICE DAY ( sorry for bad English )
i don`t mind if anyone could prove me wrong aboat the 1073 tough :)
 
Last edited:

jfjer

Active Member
Haven't used - have been tempted, But couple downsides have held me back after reading about on GS.

The main issue is the rack itself, which prevents seeing -- at the track level -- exactly what modules you're using. Ie., which comp, etc. You just see as one plug: VMR. So I guess other than price/bundle level, what's the value of the rack aspect vs the potential downside of less flexibility than with individual plugs. Slate is clearly angling towards a mini platform of sorts with this. But does it really benefit the user? Yeah great intro price. But... unless you can un-rack em, not sold on it yet.

The other issue mentioned frequently is lack of trims - hard to AB vs the volume bump of the plug.

Sound quality widely considered great.
there will be a trim module for THE VMR , its on its way already :)
and i seen many requests for using the plugins as single plugins on the gearslutz thread and slate tougt it was a good idea :)
they maby going to add trim knobs on the plugins also so im very exited aboaut that :)
im a very happy uad and slatedigital user including VMR :) (sorry for bad English)
 

jfjer

Active Member
ya know here's my thing.......when I delved into the computer world of recording and plug-ins I went all in right away with UAD.......and now a couple of years later I have no regrets because I think they are the best plugs in the business..........I base this off of my use, use of other companies plugs and a little of what I read.

between the hardware and the cost of the plugs I will admit that it's not cheap but I have not overly concerned myself with their costs to this point.....with that said, you do have to take notice on occasion to what is being offered elsewhere and take the best care of your wallet you can.

for example, i REALLY want and plan to buy the Vari-mu.......with my coupons I will spend about $250 on it. but there are a few others I want as well and even with the x-mss deals they will still be fairly expensive. recently I had gotten interested in the Brainworx V2 mastering eq.......but at $330 along with wanting the vari-mu etc.....i was really worried about that total costs.

but thanks to a good tip from another person on this board I was able to find the Brainworx for like $118 last weekend.........and it was literally too good to pass up. it sounds great and works great.

I won't abandon UAD as long as they dont change to drastically because I love what they do.......but there are times that the savings outside of UA are just to good to pass up.
they actually sell the native version of bx_digital V2 on plugin alliase right now for 89$

https://plugin-alliance.com/en/xmasc.html?door=3

and they got really good deals on a new plugin every day trough desember til 24th

the native ones sound just as good as the ua ones :)
 
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