Slate Digital

The FG-Stress is a digital replication of one of the industry’s most highly coveted analog compressors, the Empirical Labs Distressor.

Every aspect of the Distressor has been modeled, which is no simple task due to the Distressor’s unique topology where every ratio is essentially a different compressor! Like the hardware in which it models, the FG-Stress can mimic the tone of some of the industry’s most famous compressors like punchy VCAs, fat tube compressors, and even vintage opto units.

After two years of development, we are so proud of how precisely the software can match the hardware.

Features

• Compressor module for the Virtual Mix Rack (basic rack included)
• Software module of one of the most coveted compressor
• Eight unique ratios including 10:1 “Opto” ratio
• Every ratio emulates a different compressor
• Detector options to customize compression tone
• Three different audio paths options to add color and warmth
• HP filter for the audio path
• HP filter for the detector path
• Mix Knob

The most legendary opto-compressor in the history of recorded music.

We spent over a year modeling every peak, curve, and sonic nuance with unparalleled accuracy. Add incredible warmth & tone to your tracks within seconds.

Every Little Detail

We spent over a year measuring, analyzing, and obsessing over every aspect of the 2A. From its characteristic saturation to the magic of the T4 optical attenuator to the signature release response—we spared no expense.

Start With The Best

Because every 2A is different, we started with the best. We listened to a ton of units until we found one that captured all the warmth & tone we knew producers would love. FG-2A captures the warmest, most musical opto compressor we’ve ever heard.

The New Standard

There are lots of 2A plugins out there—no one gets it right. With saturation that’s peak-for-peak accurate to the original hardware, nobody else comes close to FG-2A.

Turn Your DAW Mixer Into One Of Six Legendary Analog Mixing Consoles

There is a reason why many top hits continue to be mixed on analog consoles – much like tape machines, the top large-format analog consoles have a sound and a vibe that has been impossible to achieve in the world of computer recording… until now. The Virtual Console Collection allows your DAW to take on the personality of a real analog mixing desk, improving the imaging and depth and making instruments sit better in the frequency spectrum. Mixing becomes easier and more musical, and you can even push the DAW faders up to find each mixer’s “sweet spot”.

Large-Format Authenticity

The behavior of an analog console is immensely complex, because the individual channels contribute different things sonically than the summing busses do, and the number of individual channels in use matters to the overall sound of the desk. To accurately emulate all of this complexity, the Virtual Console Collection consists of two separate plugins – the Virtual Channel and Virtual Mixbuss – both of which allow the user to choose from one of six analog console emulations. Virtual Channel is applied on individual mixing channels in your DAW, and Virtual Mixbuss is intended to be placed on the first insert of the master fader.

Choose The Best Console For Your Mix

Virtual Console Collection contains emulations of six classic inline recording consoles, including the most sought-after models from Britain and the US. These emulations are sonically indistinguishable from the original desks they model, so your mixes will come together quicker, feel more even and exciting, and require less work than ever before.

Easier Auditioning

To make Virtual Console Collection easier to use, up to eight separate control groups can be created in your mixing session, allowing you to manipulate multiple channels from any module assigned to the same group. It’s a snap to audition different console emulations across multiple tracks in order to select the right one for your mix, as well as bypassing all group members to A/B as well.

What is MO-TT?

MO-TT, ‘MOre than oTT’, is the first true recreation of the iconic OTT Preset in Ableton’s Multiband Dynamics processor—a sound quickly prized by producers to make tracks sound brighter, fuller, and larger than life. But the original OTT suffered from several limitations. It took a lot of work to customize your sound, and you could only use it in Ableton – Until now.

A One-to-one Reproduction of Ott

Our engineers studied OTT obsessively, teasing out every sonic characteristic until they fully captured its legendary sound. We figured out why other attempts to recreate OTT were never able to capture its elusive lightning in a bottle. And then we went even further by adding new ways for producers to shape their sound.

All New Features

Want that classic OTT sound? Or massive, demonic low end? What about adding vast, spacious presence to vocals? Use Quick Set Modes to instantly dial in the sound you want: OTT, Hip-Hop, or Vox. Adjust finely the behavior of the dynamics and transients by flipping through Classic, Smooth, or Smack Timing Styles. And tweak your sound as much as you want without ever breaking the preset thanks to Global Macros.

Liberate Your Tone

You’re no longer limited to simply controlling the overall amount of the effect: MO-TT lets you dial in the amount of compression for each frequency band. And you can shape your mix to perfection thanks to the additional High Pass and Low Pass bands.

Get to Know MO-TT

MO-TT offers Easy and Advanced views that put you in the driver’s seat.

Easy

Advanced

Virtual Buss Compressors is a suite of three unique-sounding dynamic processors that are modeled from some of the most classic mix buss compressors in the audio industry.

Careful attention was paid to recreating the unique nonlinearities of the circuit paths that give each compressor its distinct tone – including their transformers, tubes, VCA’s, amplifiers, phase distortions, harmonic distortions and timing. VBC is perfect for adding a professional final touch to your mixes.

FG-Red

This compressor is based on the classic RED-faced compressor that has been a favorite of mix legend Chris Lord Alge, who first showed it to me when I visited his studio years ago. I thought it was odd actually: here was this compressor that nobody else seemed to really use, and it was on a setting at 1.5:1 and the attack looked very fast for a Mix-Buss compressor. This was puzzling because I usually associated a faster attack with a loss of transient punch, but if you’ve heard Chris’s mixes you know that they are the exact opposite of that! So being the classic gearslut, I bought one, (I got the unit with both input and output transformers). The first thing I did was put it on my mix in the settings that Chris showed me… 1.5:1, attack around 10/11 o’clock, auto release, compressing just 2-3db tops. And…. WOW! One of the clearest, punchiest sounding rock mixes I’d ever heard come out of my own speakers. This unit was amazing!!!

FG-Grey

The FG-GREY starts off with a very precise model of the classic British “4000 series console compressor”. I’ve used the hardware model for many years but I never fully appreciated just how magnificent the piece is until studying it during the modeling process. It has a way of being able to tighten and ‘gel’ the components of a mix in ways that can go from fairly transparent in auto-release mode, to very aggressive in manual mode.

FG-Mu

I’ve been lucky enough to hear and use some of the most classic and hard-to-find tube buss compressors on the planet (like the Fairchild 670 and Manley Vari Mu), and let me tell you, there is some real magic that happens when your mix goes through a brilliantly-designed piece of tube gear. The midrange thickens, the lows get tighter and rounder, and the top end opens up with a beautiful sparkle… even better, those harsh upper mid overtones seems to get tamed too. For the FG-MU, we put all of these wonderful qualities into the algorithm. To experience FG-MU for the first time you don’t even have to do any compression, as just going through the processor without any gain reduction will reveal a beautiful open sound due to the modeling of the tube circuit path. Even when I’m using the FG-GREY or FG-RED, I love using the VBC Rack just so I can have the audio pass through the FG-MU!

We modded one of the most classic vintage Opto compressors in history by adding timing & ratio controls plus 4 new tone settings so you can shape your sound to perfection in seconds.

Hot Rod Your Sound

Decide how quickly the circuit responds with Speed, and dial in just the right amount of compression with Ratio. Get all the smoothness of a Classic Opto with the controls you need to hot rod your sound.

Dial In Your Tone

Choose from 4 new custom vibes to breathe life into your mix. Open up your top end with Airy. Take out harsh frequencies with Smooth. Bring snap & punch with Aggro. Add vintage fatness with Warm. The Tone knob is your new best friend.

Dynamic Duo

FG-2A gives you that smooth, classic 2A sound that’s been shaping music for over half a century. Custom Opto goes even further & lets you shape your tracks—including full mixes—to perfection. Together these two Optos give you total control of your mix. And you get them both in the All Access Pass.

The Slate Digital VIRTUAL TUBE COLLECTION is a set of three plugins for Virtual Mix Rack that recreate the sound of classic vintage tube circuits.

Each module can act as a preamp, a saturator, and even a virtual tube summing console. Using VTC, you can add color, warmth, depth, and vibe to your mixes and masters. VMS users can also use VTC preamps with the microphone models for rich and vibey tone on their tracks.

The Modules

London: London is inspired by some vintage tube circuits originating from Europe. The sound is big, warm and bold in the lows and low mids, and slightly smooth in the top end. The transient response has a slight thickness to it without being overly aggressive. London sounds amazing for fattening up tracks in preamp mode, or thickening things up with it’s preamp saturation, and can add fat analog body in Console mode on the whole mix.

New York: New York is inspired by some vintage tube circuits with a hint of inspiration from some New York solid state discrete circuits to give it some tightness and impact. New York is aggressive in the mids, and tighter in the lows due its unique dynamic harmonic saturation. It can add incredible focus and punch to tracks in preamp mode, especially in boost mode. It’s also an all around winner for many genres in console mode when used on the master fader. You really dial in the saturation with New York and then find the perfect blend with the mix knob.

Hollywood: Hollywood is perhaps the most colorful of the three modules, and it’s got some beautiful air, depth, excitement, and some really big bottom! Use it on boost mode and make your tracks come alive. It’s fantastic when paired with some of the vintage VMS mics to add some extra top end flavor and warm lows. In console mode, it can simply transform a lifeless mix into something larger than life.

Example Uses

• Use Preamp with Boost across tracks to add vibe and color and remove digital cleanliness.
• Use Console as first insert on mixbuss with a bit of saturation to add weight, glue, and analog color to whole mix.
• Use Preamp or Console saturation on drums, vocals, guitar and keys.
• Use Preamp distortion with mix knob to add thickness and warmth to tracks like vocals, snare, toms, drum buss, or even whole mix.
• Use Console saturation in mastering chain to reduce peaks in a warm and punchy way.

Four Modes: Endless Possibilities

Infinity Bass is powered by four (4) unique modes that deliver a wide range of processing potential. Whether you need a bass exciter, a dual-band subharmonic synthesizer, a clean sub-bass generator, or a bass-focused all-pass filter, this plugin does it all.

Punchy: This is a bass exciter mode perfect for treating electric, acoustic and synth bass lines as well as kick drums that could use more transient presence.

Warm: This dual-band subharmonic synthesizer introduces an octaver-style effect that’s great for adding dimension and color to bass and synth stacks.

Deep: Deep mode is a clean sub-bass generator with dynamics control that unlocks new layers of depth in your kicks and bass lines. It’s also good for treating full mixes that could benefit from enhanced low-end frequencies.

Phased: This is a bass-focused all-pass filter that helps boost any weaker bass and low-end transients in your mix. The result is subtle but essential for mixing.

Go Deeper: The Frequency knob sets the frequency range that 
will be used to generate subharmonics and influence overall tone processing.

Listen Up: The Listen button solos the affected portion of your source so you can dial in exactly what Infinity Bass is adding to your sound.

Build Better Character: The Character control shapes your bass tone in a variety of ways. From blending and adding saturation to further enhance signals or affecting your generated sub’s decay and dynamics, this single knob is a vital piece of 
the puzzle.

Virtual Tape Machines

Digital recording is now the standard for professional music production, but many engineers and musicians still long for the days of analog recording. And they do for good reason – Analog Tape Machines have a SOUND.

Big, fat, warm, deep, rich and exciting are just some of the terms used to describe what recording onto a piece of magnetic tape sounds like. To those that know, tape is simply more musical. So we modeled two of the most famous tape machines in audio and provide them both along with options like bias, tape speed, tape type, and more in Virtual Tape Machines.

World-Class Tape Machines For Your DAW

VTM has been praised by pro engineers for its extreme authenticity, because every aspect of tape is carefully reproduced. This authenticity is due to years of intense study from Slate Digital CTO Fabrice Gabriel. Using VTM on your tracks and mixes will make your mixes warmer, smoother, punchier, and more analog!

Choose Your Favorite Machines & Tape Stock

VTM emulates both a 16-track 2-inch tape machine and a 1/2 inch stereo mastering deck. Not only that, you can also choose between the two most popular tape formulations. Different formulations have different properties and headroom, and ultimately will give you different sonic results.

Control Your Speed

Virtual Tape Machines accurately emulates the behavior of both of the most common tape speeds of 15 and 30 ips. Engineers who use tape sometimes choose which speed to use based upon the material they’re recording, since the bass response can differ a great deal between the two speeds. You can further refine the bass response using the bass alignment slider in the Settings module.

Solid State Sound That Packs A Punch

Get the punch and snap of one of the most legendary solid state consoles of all time. FG-Dynamics captures the iconic sound of the VCA channel dynamics section featured on countless hit albums from the 1980s right up to today. FG-Dynamics packs a powerful compressor and expander/gate into an all-in-one, easy-to-use package that will quickly become an invaluable piece of any producer’s toolkit.

Authentic Analog Flavor

With its unique combination of classic color and real-time response, FG-Dynamics is one of the most accurate solid state dynamics emulations available. Our engineers worked tirelessly to deliver all the warmth, color, and responsiveness found in the legendary analog hardware to the comfort of your DAW.

Your Workflow, Simplified

FG-Dynamics is as straightforward as it looks. Unlike most compressors, FG-Dynamics adjusts your makeup gain automatically, so you can hear the tiniest changes in character with each adjustment. Trying to capture all the subtle nuances of a particular track? We’ve got you covered: the gate/expander introduces a whole other level of sonic flexibility. Plus, rather than rely on a simple fader, the new mix knob allows for instant parallel compression, meaning tighter tones and crispier results.

Presets, Presets, Presets

Whether you’re a seasoned studio veteran or just getting started, FG-Dynamics will easily find a home in any producer’s workflow thanks to its wealth of expertly-crafted presets. Whether you’re tweaking controls or partnering up with a VMR module like FG-S, you can’t go wrong.