Eq

Jkuehlin, have you ever used the Slate EQs- FG-S (SSL), FG-N (Neve), Custom EQ, or his new FG-A (API)?

Personally, I think they're fantastic.

I used them pretty heavily when they first came out. I have nothing but respect for Steven and what he's doing with his company. And I think he's a tremendously gifted mix engineer and a great visionary.

I'll tell you why I don't use them anymore, but this by no means implies that you shouldn't. :)

SSL:
To me, the qualities that made the E,G,K and J series SSL consoles truly legendary has to do with the way the channel strip and summing bus interact as a whole. The reason I never use the FG-S is because I rarely ever use the EQ by itself. Usually what I do is load the entire UAD strip because the EQ gives you a breathtaking sound when the input source is pegging the saturation at the front of the strip perfectly.

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Also, there's something unique about the way the dynamics push and pull on the EQ curve. I can't get that sound with any other channel strip or by stacking slate plugs say Virtual Channel (Brit 4K E) -> Filter -> Comp -> EQ -> Trimmer -> Virtual MixBuss (Brit 4KE) in the Slate virtual mix rack.

So when I tried to re-create the SSL sound that I know and love using the Slate VMR, the individual components (since they are all pretty much there) didn't give me the cumulative sound that the real SSL strip and the UAD did.

There's a couple of the SSL's I've worked with in past year. (They're both 9J's)
...those pictures are totally a pose (as you can tell from all faders down), but I have spent a good number of years with those boards.

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Neve:
Regarding the Slate Neve, the lack of surrounding channel strip features isn't a big deal because the actual Neve channel strip is pretty bare. The reason is that going FG-73 -> FGN is usually the reason someone buys a 1073 or 1081 module. I grab the UAD one because I prefer the added oomph of the non-linearities (as mentioned above).

Custom EQ:
This one is a VERY amazing EQ. And when I first acquired the bundle, the Hi/Lo lift module was what sold me on the entire slate collection. I probably would have bought it just for this. Sadly, I stopped using it when I picked up the Kush Clariphonic Mk2...it does a very similar parallel EQ thing but I feel I have more control with the Kush. I also stopped using the Slate Custom because I picked up the UAD bundle with the Curve Bender, Millenia, Massive Passive, and Maag. All of those do a HF 'lift' in a real neat cool way.

I never tried the API....I didn't realize he'd added it! I'll go check it out! Hope this helps a little.
 
Yeah. My old Tascam board sounded like a guitar amp when you cranked it up and played with the EQ. That was fun. I get distortion anytime I want. It's all just filters and nonlinearities and I prefer put them where I need them most of the time rather than letting somebody else decide which goes where.

One thing I won't fuck with is the fft/fir type "linear phase" EQs. A lot of people love that fabfilter thing, but I see it as resynthesis, which is always lossy and prone to artifacts. They have found brilliant ways to avoid, suppress and generally minimize those things, but I just don't trust it. I'm not really a Luddite, but "minimum/natural phase" has been good enough since we started recording things, and its good enough for me.
 
I never tried the API....I didn't realize he'd added it! I'll go check it out! Hope this helps a little.

Yea it just came out last week, finally downloaded it a few days ago (I have the Everything Bundle). It's pretty nice, different flavor from the other three.

I tend to use the 4000 G Series in the Bus Collection more than the others for some reason.

Slightly off-topic, but how do you feel about his 1176's compared to the CLA's? I mix it up and use both.

His Virtual Tube Collection is sick (London, Hollywood, New York) You ever use those?

I haven't made the UAD plunge yet. I've been eyeing the Apollo 8, but I'm still on Windows 7, and I think you need Windows 10 for it. And instead up upgrading my current PC with Windows 10, I'd rather just get a new computer, even though the one I'm on now is still relatively new.

Most importantly now though, I'm looking at external hard drives for backup. Got probably 30 sessions going right now with no backup drive.

I do all my subtractive eq with the EQ3 in ProTools, and boosts with all the Slate stuff.

Sorry, this post was kind of all over the place...
 
Yea it just came out last week, finally downloaded it a few days ago (I have the Everything Bundle). It's pretty nice, different flavor from the other three.

I tend to use the 4000 G Series in the Bus Collection more than the others for some reason.

Slightly off-topic, but how do you feel about his 1176's compared to the CLA's? I mix it up and use both.

His Virtual Tube Collection is sick (London, Hollywood, New York) You ever use those?

I haven't made the UAD plunge yet. I've been eyeing the Apollo 8, but I'm still on Windows 7, and I think you need Windows 10 for it. And instead up upgrading my current PC with Windows 10, I'd rather just get a new computer, even though the one I'm on now is still relatively new.

Most importantly now though, I'm looking at external hard drives for backup. Got probably 30 sessions going right now with no backup drive.

I do all my subtractive eq with the EQ3 in ProTools, and boosts with all the Slate stuff.

Sorry, this post was kind of all over the place...

Haha. My rig is tied up at the movement...I'm bouncing some folds for a movie that I finished a couple days ago. I'm basically stuck while this 2 hour long thing prints...I pulled up that Slate API just for a sec but I really need some more time with this thing before I can comment anything meaningful. I will tell you this though - in my opinion, Slates biggest competitor for a stellar API EQ is gonna end up being the Kush electra. If his is anywhere near as good as that thing, I'll be VERY impressed. But he does seem to get better and better over time at writing code for those emulators.

I've been listening to demos of the Slate API while I'm waiting for these bounces...but its really hard to evaluate it without turning knobs myself.

...on the other stuff, I'd love to throw my thoughts out there, but I'll take it on another thread. Give me a few hours and I'll check back in.
 
Slates biggest competitor for a stellar API EQ is gonna end up being the Kush electra.

Love the KUsh stuff...have almost all of the plugs, but the Electra and Clariphonic are absolutely stellar.
I loved the plugs so much that I added the hardware versions to my racks, since I still mix OTB...with a pair of the Electra 19" units, one of the original Clariphonic EQs, and one of the new Clariphonic MS EQs.
Great stuff.

Oh...Kush is doing a sale on the plugs right now.
 
I think there's more to it than just that, and you're kinda going on the assumption that just by changing parameters, you can always get exactly what you want with that EQ and that no others are ever needed or can give you options that you don't have with ReaEQ.

As a general follow up to the comment above that Miro replied to Ash earlier, a good example of an EQ that the ReaEQ has no shot in hell at emulating is the A-Designs HM2EQ unit. Tubes and 2nd harmonic additive artifacts aside, the thing self-adjusts its Q settings based on incoming program material. Sort of like how the Manley Vari-Mu and Fairchilds re-bias themselves based on signal intensity through the course of a track. This is a good example of how EQ is not just a matter of settings. It comes down to the core functionality and anatomy of the plugin.

You could make some contorted signal chain I suppose...where you side chain/automate the Q value in the ReaEQ through a bus thats strapped to the Waves Vocal Rider with a parallel multi band tube saturator (like the Waves Saphira) that has every harmonic except for the second order muted. Then you'd also have the use the Waves Q clone to snapshot the curves if you can even it that to work (I don't know how the Q clone would possibly adapt to a floating Q though lol). But like...thing about all the time you burn getting all that shit set up, it that chain still isn't gonna behave or sound anything like the hardware or the plugin.

So case and point, there really are limits to what you can do with any one digital EQ. It really comes down to studying EQs and what they specialize in. A highly specialized tool is limited in its use, but its just amazingly effective when implemented creatively on a source!
 
Yeah...I have that Kush plug too...the Hammer DSP.

You gotta listen pretty close to hear what its actually doing. As unique as the design is, it sure doesn't sound that different from a normal EQ lol. I don't think I'd ever pay $2000 the hardware. It took me about a weeks worth of working with it before my ears caught on to the subtle shifts in the floating Q.
 
You gotta listen pretty close to hear what its actually doing. As unique as the design is, it sure doesn't sound that different from a normal EQ lol. I don't think I'd ever pay $2000 the hardware. It took me about a weeks worth of working with it before my ears caught on to the subtle shifts in the floating Q.

Yeah...I wasn't ever going to get the Hammer hardware either. The Kush plug just came up on a sale, so I grabbed it.
AFA the Kush Electra/Clariphonic hardware, I'm quite glad I picked it up...great EQs that really let you mold/create, and not just something to use for fixing issues.
I find them very interesting how unlike a lot of other EQs, where as you sweep around with some decent boost many frequencies will tend to sound ugly and you end up looking for that band that is complimentary to your source...but with the Kush EQs, it's like you're uncovering new tones from the source as you sweep, and any of them can work quite well, so it's more a matter of deciding which direction to take with the tone.

They just don't sound like most other EQs...and it's truly hard to get something bad out of them. On many other EQs, when you start boosting/cutting by 10-15 dB, it has a dramatic effect, and often you're already getting into the "ugly"...but the Kush stuff just seems to sound good even at more extreme settings.
Whatever they've done to them...it's great, both with the plugins and the hardware. There's an slightly enhanced quality to the hardware, otherwise, the plugs are pretty close.
 
I loved the slate bundle. The mix rack and tape emu were a lot of fun. I eventually quit though because I was having so many issues with gobbler.
 
Yea Gobbler's a pain in the rear. I've recently just been updating/getting new releases directly from the Slate website. Started an account there and it's been much less of a headache than silly Gobbler.
 
Yea Gobbler's a pain in the rear. I've recently just been updating/getting new releases directly from the Slate website. Started an account there and it's been much less of a headache than silly Gobbler.

Now that I recall...yeah, the Gobbler nonsense. Wen they first started using Gobbler, it certainly added to my lack of interest in getting more Slate plugs.
Initially Gobbler was having issues, and continued, with Slate sending out "sorry" emails....but just in general I hated the idea of having to register my stuff on yet another website in order to by Slate products. :facepalm: So I just walked away.
I mean, it wasn't just because of Gobbler...I was also trying to minimize how many different vendors I was going to deal with for plugs. The Gobbler nonsense just helped me to decide. :D
Besides that, I was amassing a large Wave plugin collection, plus the Plugin Alliance stuff, and a few others...and I just didn't really see anything substantially different/better from Slate, so I subconsciously walked away. I still get Slate emails because I have an account, and I look to see what they're selling...and so far, nothing has attracted my attention enough to buy again...and certainly not to subscribe.

But it's not like Slate stuff is bad...it's just what people connect with and then you're kind of locked in with the whole thing.
I've seen people lately walking away from Waves...because of their Upgrade/Update plans, and the fact that if you have old working plugs, you may get screwed down the road if OS changes, or some other things, because you'll have to pay up again to Waves. I mean, you're OK if you stay put, but for guys who are doing more commercial recording, the idea of being sorta at the mercy of the next Waves Vxx...it's not comforting.
Which is why I like plugs I can just buy and use wherever...etc.
 
People walking away from Waves? Let's be real here....

I had access to the full Mercury Bundle when I first started my 'home' studio 8 years ago. They were cracked. Makes sense why the company is using new means to secure their product. Hell, I would surely secure the rights to my product and be fucking pissed if someone stole my software!

I built my now 'semi professional' studio and system with the intent of using what I learned from others. One of them was to never introduce cracked versions of anything. I purchased a few of the plugs because I was used to them and they worked for me. Yeah, $199 I think I paid for the API 2500. I find that worth the money as I use it consistently. Way cheaper now sadly...

It seems to me that the reason Waves is discounting is because their software was free to the fucktards that already stole the software and they now need to sell it to the honest guys just to make some profit.

Poor security was obviously an issue for Waves. It is sad.

The fact that that happened made things like Ilok a necessity.

BTW, if you don't like Ilok, well then you either are not honest or don't want to bother protecting your own security.

I personally have no issue having my authorization credentials for paid software in one place.

Target, Home Depot, Wallmart, and Paypal have all fucked up and allowed scammers to rip me off with my credit cards...

That is a different story altogether...

BTW, my password is Scorpio!!257

LOL!
 
I’ve had the least trouble with iLok of all the schemes. But I have total sympathy for the unlucky folks it causes problems for. DRM just sucks, wish we all could just be honest.

The internet is full of the “I’m only using the cracked version until I start making money” excuse. But then people like avicii and kanye were pirating even after making gold records.
 
I don't use much EQ at all. It's kind of a thing for me to get it right at the capture.....That being said, even though I do have a large library of stuff to choose from, I find I only use a few and only for specific things. I never use anything else on bass except the API 550a or 550b. It just sounds "right". I like a 1073 on some things and the Scheps73 gives me that "grit" on others. I have the UAD Harrison 32 EQ that I find will add that little "something" when a tracks needs to pop. I have the Waves Abbey Road collection and will use the RS56 to get a sheen on a drum sub-master. Thats mostly it though on occasion I'll need the MAAG or something very surgical especially when I'm sent tracks I didn't track in my room.
 
People walking away from Waves? Let's be real here....
If we're talking about people by large, and we're talking about the money they spend, then people are NOT walking away from Waves. Nor are they walking away from Pro Tools or from Avid. That isn't a statement I'd take as any kind of truth.
 
I generally use one linear phase eq for surgical processing and a ton of minimum phase designed eqs for different tasks. Now start to add dynamic eq to the list and it can get a touch big!
 
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