I bought VTM, VCC and VBC waaay back in the day... long before they ever had subscriptions. I'm just not a sub guy, so never jumped onboard, but still use VTM on every mix. Hey Mathew, I would love to see one of these Is it worth videos on Kush Audio plugins in the future. Gregory Scott is an awesome dude and if I were to ever get a sub for plugins, it would probably be from Kush.
I'm enjoying this new series. As far as Slate Digital, I pretty much have little experience with them--the only thing I have and use them for is the ML-2 mic emulation, which I enjoy lol
Not what anyone wants to hear, but you can create a DAW-specific blank VMR preset if your DAW allows it. Studio One Pro can do this IIRC; as well as Live (make it a device) and Reaper (make it an FX Chain).
I’ve been with them a long time and they’ve continued to get better and deliver awesome products that are affordable. Admittedly, I haven’t tried a lot of other companies though.
0:22 "everything I'm about to say is simply opinion" 1:00 "hopefully I don't loose my endorsement" well, you said it all in the first minute of the video:-)
Slate Digital is owned now by Solid State logic. Has been for a while. If you have been a yearly subscriber, you will eventually get all the SSL and Harrison plugins as part of the All Access Pass with no change in your yearly sub.
I actually canceled my sub earlier this year. I like Slate Digital plugins a lot, but I started moving my thought process over to "own outright", and for that, the outright prices are unfortunately way too high. Once they went sub, clearly they just ignored competitive pricing on the outright section. The fact is I already have too many plugins anyways, including UAD and a bunch of PA plugs I rent-to-owned, so I couldn't justify keeping my subscription around. That being said, the number one thing I miss so much from Slate is VMR as a production tool. The ease of drag and drop, mix and match, and having all those plugin UIs in front of me was a great workflow, especially for production. I suppose I could replicate that with MixBox from IKM (IKM bundle is what I replaced my Slate sub with), and it's close but not quite up there with VMR. Make the outright prices more competitive and you'll see me back slowly scooping up VMR modules :)
Ya, it is annoying they program it by default to open with all those modules. I changed the default to a blank rack haha! Also agreed about the customer service! I beta test for Slate (as well as many other large developers) so I know some of the guys pretty well and they are a good group of dudes! Care a lot about the products they make too.
do you prefer the slate custom opto compressor sound on vocals over the plugin alliance xla-3? would love a highly nerdy and in-depth video on vocal compression, how to use them in combination, your experience with vocal them, your expertise, your taste.. thank you for sharing this video
He does have a class on his website about compression. The two comps youre referencing are different, the XLA is wayy more colored, the Custom Opto is based on more neutral hardware. You can expect more saturation and mid forwardness from the XLA, more openess from the Custom Opto
do you use the custom opto after tracking artists with the xlm-3 or is the xlm-3 a default starting point when tracking Akon specifically? thank you so much for your responses =]
Have You tried bx_opto? Its clean a Well and The speed dial that controls The speed of The simulated Photo sensitive is amazing! You can literally dial the speed of the opto compression. The algo is old though but it’s my go to opto these days
Won a Slate ML-2 Mic a couples of years ago not sure where or why but anyway I tried to load the plugins that was included with the mic and out 3 times that I did it crash twice so that was it for me
Dang Matt ... U are on it! Ok ... quick question: What is your preference btwn Slate & PA if you had to drop one of them? Would you consider keeping them both?
That's a tough one. Personally I find myself using more Slate plugins on a day to day basis. So for that reason I'd go with Slate. With that said, if I had to drop Slate I'm sure I could find PA plugs to pick up the slack.
I thiiiiiiink I prefer the Gem Overloud 1176, but it's pretty close. The Slate 1176 is very good, you just have to stick a piece of tape over the "VU Meter" part LOL
I am off Slate, because I wanted to actually own some plugins and not just rent, but this is where I started and I made some great mixes with it. I am eventually going to get an iLok because I need to get the VBC back!
I'm going to second that comment about mix rack coming fully loaded. I'd rather start from scratch, also. Not a massive issue. But I wish you could tell it somehow to load up blank.
imo if you have one sub and your stock plugins from any daw then you cant go wrong with the slate package. im not using them currently but the price is fair, good quality good service ....good review
I agree. I ended up doing my sessions in Mexico with only Slate plugins and stock PT, and it was fine. I never really felt like I was in need of anything (except Waves InPhase - I need that thing).
I'm enjoying this series, thanks! However, perhaps you should restrict it to evaluating subscription plans (as you are in fact doing so far)? If not subscription, you are in no way tied to a whole product line, nor does it need to cover all types of products. Just a thought.
I know LOL. I've been mistaken for Matt Weiss many times. Cool dude (thankfully). I always say you can tell the difference by the hair - as in he has hair, and I don't.
I'd say you were a little generous on the workflow side of things. I really don't like how the Virtual mix rack is a wrapper. I'd rather use them all as individual plugins/instances, rather than have them all trapped in one plugin instance, so that when i'm navigating my session i can see what processing i have on my tracks. That's not a 5/5 workflow imo, more like 3.5. But i guess it's subjective I'm also not sure Slate are in the same league as PA and Waves as far as selection/versatility, but they all got 5's. But hey it's your ratings not mine. Imo, Slate have an awesome selection but there's definitely holes in it. They're mostly analog emulations, but there's less in the way of "utility" stuff. I'd say they're more of a 4/5, for me anyway You're definitely right about customer service. I bought VSX 2 weeks ago and now i see first-hand how much they value the customer journey. I know VSX is from a different company technically but you can tell that they have the same principles with prioritizing customer satisfaction
I like the VMR workflow a lot. Slate is not in the same camp as Waves as far as selection - I definitely agree there. PA is a little limited in the reverb department, while Slate is limited in the multi-band department, and PA has a wider selection overall. I was a bit on the fence between a 4 and a 5 on selection with Slate. I ultimately said 5 because I feel that even though the selection isn't as broad, everything within the selection is quality, and multiband compression is not crazy important to my workflow.
I only have the freebie Fresh Air plugin from Slate Digital. I don't understand the connection between Slate Digital and Slate Audio but I do have SSD5 from Slate Audio and I like that quite a lot. I did have a problem with graphic resolution (which turned out to be an obscure setting in Windows) but the customer support I got from Slate Audio was excellent via e-mail and then over the phone and remote access so they get 5 stars. If I had a bigger budget I might subscribe to Slate Digital but in my situation I have the bases covered with other vendors and I really prefer to buy outright rather than subscribe. I am tempted by Trigger 2 but I don't ever work with live drums, hence SSD5, and the price point, though fair, is just outside my budget so hard to justify. The free version will probably cover my needs...
This is the only subscription I have. I just wish there were perks like eventually owning some of the models, discounts on perpetual licenses, or little perks like PA does. But their subscription makes so much more sense to me that companies that fill my plug-in library with tons of confusing models I’ll never get through. Basically unlocking the entire 500 series a lot along with a few very usable extra modules like the reverb or dynamics, feels worth a monthly investment (even though to be honest, I don’t use them as much as I’d like for the amount I’ve spent on them over the years… I probably have spent enough on my subscription that I could have just out that money aside and eventually bought their whole library
My personal experience with Slate Digital has been bittersweet. I like their plugins a lot. I find their GUIs and workflow somehow very inconsistent. My beef with them comes from the fact that they take a long time to release plugins and when they do there's no intro sales price. For old plugins, they should put those on sale pretty much all year around. I'm big on permanent licenses and I'm obviously let down daily by then. Thankfully there are other plugin manufacturers that have stayed faithful to their licensed products.
Guess we can absolve you of being just a shill for Slate Digital. At least from my side, if that's worth anything. Shilling is more hyping in the sense of : "If you get this, your track will sound pro!". Such lines i have not heard from you. Since i am a subscriber since they started i attest to your statements about Slate Digital. I had two interactions with the customer service and in both cases they responded within the same day. I got the Subscription since they started it. Except from those Slate plugs i got b4 FGX, VBC and Eiosis EQ, i rely solely on the subscription bundle. The price of 150 $ is a no brainer, so i am not afraid that i may end up pulling up a track and not having a valid license. If they had a similar voucher bonus as PA does, i had a hard time finding any downside to Slate. As them being a S...late; i guess that came because of the FGX being promised for over 3 years.
I try to keep my opinions on the product separate from my incentivizes, it's part of my endorsement agreement. It's why I turned Waves down (the first time) - they said I can't say anything negative and I said "that's a you problem", back in 2012. Similarly, Plugin-Alliance was extremely rude to me, treated me like dirt as a content creator. But I still gave them a favorable review because objectively I feel they provide good products and service.
"I really prefer to just start from a blank SLATE🥹" Jokes aside I totally agree. The default for virtual mix rack should just be no modules at all. I think it used to be like that actually before a certain update came out.
![[Bad] - YouTube ВСЁ? (победа VK и прощание с подписчиками)](/img/n.gif)
Been loving this series... really looking forward to your thoughts on softube and acustica audio
I made an Acustica one. It's... not exactly the nicest things I've ever said.
Im also really enjoying this series you are doing :) @@WeissAdvice
@@WeissAdvicecant seem to find it
Same here! I'm hoping for a UAD edition down the line
@@WeissAdviceI can’t wait. I have such a love hate relationship with them haha
Your rankings so far (based on 5-star averages)
#1) Slate - 4.8 avg
#2) Plugin Alliance - 4.6 avg
#3) Waves - 4.0 avg
Your transparency and expertise is why I keep coming back again and again, thank you Weiss!
I bought VTM, VCC and VBC waaay back in the day... long before they ever had subscriptions. I'm just not a sub guy, so never jumped onboard, but still use VTM on every mix. Hey Mathew, I would love to see one of these Is it worth videos on Kush Audio plugins in the future. Gregory Scott is an awesome dude and if I were to ever get a sub for plugins, it would probably be from Kush.
I haven't checked out Kush stuff in a while, but I used the UBK-1 quite a bit.
@@WeissAdvice Hi, I'd love to know, what is your go-to plugin for parallel drum compression?
I'm enjoying this new series. As far as Slate Digital, I pretty much have little experience with them--the only thing I have and use them for is the ML-2 mic emulation, which I enjoy lol
Not what anyone wants to hear, but you can create a DAW-specific blank VMR preset if your DAW allows it. Studio One Pro can do this IIRC; as well as Live (make it a device) and Reaper (make it an FX Chain).
I’ve been with them a long time and they’ve continued to get better and deliver awesome products that are affordable. Admittedly, I haven’t tried a lot of other companies though.
0:22 "everything I'm about to say is simply opinion"
1:00 "hopefully I don't loose my endorsement"
well, you said it all in the first minute of the video:-)
True.
Slate Digital is owned now by Solid State logic. Has been for a while.
If you have been a yearly subscriber, you will eventually get all the SSL and Harrison plugins as part of the All Access Pass with no change in your yearly sub.
I actually canceled my sub earlier this year. I like Slate Digital plugins a lot, but I started moving my thought process over to "own outright", and for that, the outright prices are unfortunately way too high. Once they went sub, clearly they just ignored competitive pricing on the outright section. The fact is I already have too many plugins anyways, including UAD and a bunch of PA plugs I rent-to-owned, so I couldn't justify keeping my subscription around.
That being said, the number one thing I miss so much from Slate is VMR as a production tool. The ease of drag and drop, mix and match, and having all those plugin UIs in front of me was a great workflow, especially for production. I suppose I could replicate that with MixBox from IKM (IKM bundle is what I replaced my Slate sub with), and it's close but not quite up there with VMR.
Make the outright prices more competitive and you'll see me back slowly scooping up VMR modules :)
Ya, it is annoying they program it by default to open with all those modules. I changed the default to a blank rack haha! Also agreed about the customer service! I beta test for Slate (as well as many other large developers) so I know some of the guys pretty well and they are a good group of dudes! Care a lot about the products they make too.
These videos are absolutely amazing thank you for your time.
Thank you you just saved me $10 a month. I just switched my slate plan.
do you prefer the slate custom opto compressor sound on vocals over the plugin alliance xla-3? would love a highly nerdy and in-depth video on vocal compression, how to use them in combination, your experience with vocal them, your expertise, your taste..
thank you for sharing this video
He does have a class on his website about compression.
The two comps youre referencing are different, the XLA is wayy more colored, the Custom Opto is based on more neutral hardware. You can expect more saturation and mid forwardness from the XLA, more openess from the Custom Opto
Easily prefer custom opto over xla-3. I've done a few videos showing how I use custom opto on vocals.
do you use the custom opto after tracking artists with the xlm-3 or is the xlm-3 a default starting point when tracking Akon specifically?
thank you so much for your responses =]
Have You tried bx_opto? Its clean a Well and The speed dial that controls The speed of The simulated Photo sensitive is amazing! You can literally dial the speed of the opto compression. The algo is old though but it’s my go to opto these days
Won a Slate ML-2 Mic a couples of years ago not sure where or why but anyway I tried to load the plugins that was included with the mic and out 3 times that I did it crash twice so that was it for me
That's wild - I've never had so much as a blink of cpu issue let alone a crash with VMS. That was my backpack-mic for like three years.
Dang Matt ... U are on it! Ok ... quick question: What is your preference btwn Slate & PA if you had to drop one of them? Would you consider keeping them both?
That's a tough one. Personally I find myself using more Slate plugins on a day to day basis. So for that reason I'd go with Slate. With that said, if I had to drop Slate I'm sure I could find PA plugs to pick up the slack.
My only problem with them is that I can't make presets amd have all my modules inside VMR stay in place. It defaults every time.
There 1176 is the best to my ear, especially the blue one. The transient design that thing does is stunning.
I thiiiiiiink I prefer the Gem Overloud 1176, but it's pretty close. The Slate 1176 is very good, you just have to stick a piece of tape over the "VU Meter" part LOL
@@WeissAdvice I’ll have to check it out, I close my eyes when I compress, anything moving on the screen fools me lol.
I am off Slate, because I wanted to actually own some plugins and not just rent, but this is where I started and I made some great mixes with it. I am eventually going to get an iLok because I need to get the VBC back!
This is my only minor gripe with Slate. The price to purchase the plugins is high. Or let's say, not competitive.
Thank you for your professional opinion on this series.
I'm going to second that comment about mix rack coming fully loaded. I'd rather start from scratch, also. Not a massive issue. But I wish you could tell it somehow to load up blank.
imo if you have one sub and your stock plugins from any daw then you cant go wrong with the slate package. im not using them currently but the price is fair, good quality good service ....good review
I agree. I ended up doing my sessions in Mexico with only Slate plugins and stock PT, and it was fine. I never really felt like I was in need of anything (except Waves InPhase - I need that thing).
I'm enjoying this series, thanks! However, perhaps you should restrict it to evaluating subscription plans (as you are in fact doing so far)? If not subscription, you are in no way tied to a whole product line, nor does it need to cover all types of products. Just a thought.
Not every company has a subscription plan. But I agree, there's some clumsiness in my evaluations.
Slate is that one company that always comes with the craziest marketing claims but somehow 90% of the time their products actually hold up to them.
I know LOL. I've been mistaken for Matt Weiss many times. Cool dude (thankfully). I always say you can tell the difference by the hair - as in he has hair, and I don't.
I'd say you were a little generous on the workflow side of things. I really don't like how the Virtual mix rack is a wrapper. I'd rather use them all as individual plugins/instances, rather than have them all trapped in one plugin instance, so that when i'm navigating my session i can see what processing i have on my tracks. That's not a 5/5 workflow imo, more like 3.5. But i guess it's subjective
I'm also not sure Slate are in the same league as PA and Waves as far as selection/versatility, but they all got 5's. But hey it's your ratings not mine. Imo, Slate have an awesome selection but there's definitely holes in it. They're mostly analog emulations, but there's less in the way of "utility" stuff. I'd say they're more of a 4/5, for me anyway
You're definitely right about customer service. I bought VSX 2 weeks ago and now i see first-hand how much they value the customer journey. I know VSX is from a different company technically but you can tell that they have the same principles with prioritizing customer satisfaction
I like the VMR workflow a lot. Slate is not in the same camp as Waves as far as selection - I definitely agree there. PA is a little limited in the reverb department, while Slate is limited in the multi-band department, and PA has a wider selection overall. I was a bit on the fence between a 4 and a 5 on selection with Slate. I ultimately said 5 because I feel that even though the selection isn't as broad, everything within the selection is quality, and multiband compression is not crazy important to my workflow.
@@WeissAdviceBut there's already a category for quality :)
I only have the freebie Fresh Air plugin from Slate Digital. I don't understand the connection between Slate Digital and Slate Audio but I do have SSD5 from Slate Audio and I like that quite a lot. I did have a problem with graphic resolution (which turned out to be an obscure setting in Windows) but the customer support I got from Slate Audio was excellent via e-mail and then over the phone and remote access so they get 5 stars.
If I had a bigger budget I might subscribe to Slate Digital but in my situation I have the bases covered with other vendors and I really prefer to buy outright rather than subscribe.
I am tempted by Trigger 2 but I don't ever work with live drums, hence SSD5, and the price point, though fair, is just outside my budget so hard to justify. The free version will probably cover my needs...
I think the only connection is that they're both started by Steven Slate.
Slate Digital is plugins, and Slate Audio is physical products + niche software
Yesssssiiiiiiirrrrrr!!!! I APPROVE OF THIS MESSAGE!
This is the only subscription I have. I just wish there were perks like eventually owning some of the models, discounts on perpetual licenses, or little perks like PA does. But their subscription makes so much more sense to me that companies that fill my plug-in library with tons of confusing models I’ll never get through. Basically unlocking the entire 500 series a lot along with a few very usable extra modules like the reverb or dynamics, feels worth a monthly investment (even though to be honest, I don’t use them as much as I’d like for the amount I’ve spent on them over the years… I probably have spent enough on my subscription that I could have just out that money aside and eventually bought their whole library
In other words I’m just very sad that this isn’t a pay-to-own model
Companies like Sonimus, Red Rock Sound, Meldaproduction would be nice. Thanks
My personal experience with Slate Digital has been bittersweet. I like their plugins a lot. I find their GUIs and workflow somehow very inconsistent. My beef with them comes from the fact that they take a long time to release plugins and when they do there's no intro sales price. For old plugins, they should put those on sale pretty much all year around. I'm big on permanent licenses and I'm obviously let down daily by then. Thankfully there are other plugin manufacturers that have stayed faithful to their licensed products.
Why can't I delete my slate plugins of logic pro even when I uninstall them?
I think we can buy perpetual licenses via 3rd party vendors ie Guitar Center, Sweetwater, etc...do I have that right?
Great series! Curious about your thoughts on Baby Audio, DMG Audio, Melda, and HoRNet.
SO many companies. Baby Audio I'll do a video. I've had enough experience with them. The other companies, I'm not sure I could really comment.
Slate has the best distressor in the plugins market for sure
I've never heard a distressor, hardware or otherwise that I've been a fan of. But I guess if I have to pick one...
Better than Empirical Labs' own Arousor?
Slate Digital's Mix Rack has nothing on Ik Multimedia's MixBox. No comparison
A comparison between Slate, IK, and PSP mix racks would be awesome!
Great video. Thanks very much dude
I’m not that sub guy either but rent to own is a good choice if there’s any ❤
They kept charging me after canceling my subscription 3 times. I had to threaten to sue to get a full refund
Yikes
Slate is the best!!!
Yeah, I'm keeping my Slate / SSL Sub.....!!!
I gotta put this out here now Matt Weiss did you talk to Matt Weiss? Yes they also have a Matt Weiss.
I've met Matt several times. Cool dude. He's the one with hair, in case there's any confusion LOL
They're great if you decide right then to NEVER purchase expansions for the standalone, because those won't work with the Slate Editions.
Would be great to hear what plugins of all these thousands today you're using regular and for what!?
That'd be the majority of this channel.
Guess we can absolve you of being just a shill for Slate Digital. At least from my side, if that's worth anything. Shilling is more hyping in the sense of : "If you get this, your track will sound pro!". Such lines i have not heard from you. Since i am a subscriber since they started i attest to your statements about Slate Digital. I had two interactions with the customer service and in both cases they responded within the same day.
I got the Subscription since they started it. Except from those Slate plugs i got b4 FGX, VBC and Eiosis EQ, i rely solely on the subscription bundle. The price of 150 $ is a no brainer, so i am not afraid that i may end up pulling up a track and not having a valid license. If they had a similar voucher bonus as PA does, i had a hard time finding any downside to Slate. As them being a S...late; i guess that came because of the FGX being promised for over 3 years.
I try to keep my opinions on the product separate from my incentivizes, it's part of my endorsement agreement. It's why I turned Waves down (the first time) - they said I can't say anything negative and I said "that's a you problem", back in 2012. Similarly, Plugin-Alliance was extremely rude to me, treated me like dirt as a content creator. But I still gave them a favorable review because objectively I feel they provide good products and service.
I do the sub it only makes sense. In 10 years you've only spent $1500
💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
Worth it? Absolutely
Slate isn’t all that good, it sounds cheap. Now if you’re doing podcast it’s good but music nahh. I’ve been forcing myself to like them for a year now
Lol what? Their plugins sound great. Clean your ear dude.
😂@@i_jetlag
"I really prefer to just start from a blank SLATE🥹"
Jokes aside I totally agree. The default for virtual mix rack should just be no modules at all. I think it used to be like that actually before a certain update came out.
I saw that when I was doing the edit and facepalmed immediately LOL