He did it again Slate

[James Steele]

Steven also does his best to make his products
work with DP. Not every vendor bothers to take care of us DP users.

^^^^ THIS!!!!! That is NO small thing these days! Thank you, Steven!!

[labman]

Hey Wax, Buzzy et al. Do you find the sibilance bothersome in the VMS mic?

[buzzsmith]

Hey Wax, Buzzy et al. Do you find the sibilance bothersome in the VMS mic?

I've only recorded vocals using it twice and both were male voices.

So, no, I haven't noticed any bothersome sibilance yet.

But, unlike others, I'm not hearing anything spectacular when trying out the different mic sims post recording. I haven't had my "Oh, wow!" moment yet.

So far, in my case, I'm not hearing a great difference with any of the mic modules when playing back a vocal with and then bypassing the plugin.

And I am following the instructions about using the Trimmer first so that the sim is getting about -10 to -12 dB as its input.

I have excellent monitors (Focal Twin 6be) and it could be my hearing "ain't what it used to be"!

Maybe I was expecting something more dramatic from the VMS system than it was designed to deliver.

I'll do more research and experimenting.

Buzzy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[waxman]

Hey Wax, Buzzy et al. Do you find the sibilance bothersome in the VMS mic?

I have not noticed a sibilance issue. Have you?

Where are you located? If your close take it to Slate... if not ship it in and have Steven try it along with another. If yours is overly sibilant he would want to know. He would send another or help figure out what's happening...

[labman]

Hey Wax, Buzzy et al. Do you find the sibilance bothersome in the VMS mic?

I have not noticed a sibilance issue. Have you?

Where are you located? If your close take it to Slate... if not ship it in and have Steven try it along with another. If yours is overly sibilant he would want to know. He would send another or help figure out what's happening...

Hiya Wax. Thanks for responding. Mine is still in box. (believe it or not! LOL) My question about sibilance stems from my studies this week of all the 'shootouts' and demo file downloads with the VMS and the original mics the VMS models. I feel like there is something going on in high end that is more sibilant or whiny. My guess would be its the capsule itself, like how some of the the chinese model capsules have a 'pingy' sound to them. But I dont want to assume anything. Hence, my asking those of you who are already using yours.

Also of big interest for me is the Townsend Labs Sphere L22. Having both to work with should be quite interesting.

[Killahurts]

Steven also does his best to make his products
work with DP. Not every vendor bothers to take care of us DP users.

^^^^ THIS!!!!! That is NO small thing these days! Thank you, Steven!!

I just want to pile on about this.. I very much appreciate that Slate cares about our DAW. I use many (actually most) of his plugins.. they are among my best, go-to tools!

I'm becoming more interested in his touchscreen lately, and I would likely jump on this mic if I had a newer computer. I just don't want to futz around with the latency and cripple my system to track with the models. I guess one could track with the bare mic and apply the goodies later, but where's the fun in that?

I know this is insane, but I would love it if the mic/pre had it's own processing built inside, so one hooks it up to a computer via USB to control it, but the mic itself has the processors and works as a stand-alone unit, almost latency-free. You could even not hook it up to a computer at all, and it would be set on the last model you used. So, you could take your 47, or 67 or whatever to another studio, and use it like a mic, with no computer. Of course, if it worked like that it would have to be substantially more than a thousand, but still..

[waxman]

Steven also does his best to make his products
work with DP. Not every vendor bothers to take care of us DP users.

^^^^ THIS!!!!! That is NO small thing these days! Thank you, Steven!!

I just want to pile on about this.. I very much appreciate that Slate cares about our DAW. I use many (actually most) of his plugins.. they are among my best, go-to tools!

I'm becoming more interested in his touchscreen lately, and I would likely jump on this mic if I had a newer computer. I just don't want to futz around with the latency and cripple my system to track with the models. I guess one could track with the bare mic and apply the goodies later, but where's the fun in that?

I know this is insane, but I would love it if the mic/pre had it's own processing built inside, so one hooks it up to a computer via USB to control it, but the mic itself has the processors and works as a stand-alone unit, almost latency-free. You could even not hook it up to a computer at all, and it would be set on the last model you used. So, you could take your 47, or 67 or whatever to another studio, and use it like a mic, with no computer. Of course, if it worked like that it would have to be substantially more than a thousand, but still..

Why don't you use the UAD mixer to track through? I am not getting any latency regardless... But I put a Neve pre on while recording which does not go to the track then for playback I start trying different models. It goes pretty fast. You can kinda tell by the singer which one will sound great. 9.12 on 128 has no latency even if you don't use a software mixer....

[waxman]

Hey Wax, Buzzy et al. Do you find the sibilance bothersome in the VMS mic?

I have not noticed a sibilance issue. Have you?

Where are you located? If your close take it to Slate... if not ship it in and have Steven try it along with another. If yours is overly sibilant he would want to know. He would send another or help figure out what's happening...

Hiya Wax. Thanks for responding. Mine is still in box. (believe it or not! LOL) My question about sibilance stems from my studies this week of all the 'shootouts' and demo file downloads with the VMS and the original mics the VMS models. I feel like there is something going on in high end that is more sibilant or whiny. My guess would be its the capsule itself, like how some of the the chinese model capsules have a 'pingy' sound to them. But I dont want to assume anything. Hence, my asking those of you who are already using yours.

Also of big interest for me is the Townsend Labs Sphere L22. Having both to work with should be quite interesting.

The thing I noticed the most is the importance of the intensity slider which is saturation. That for me is the secret sauce that makes it sound great. I've had a few Chinese mics like the Sputnik. I know what you're talking about but there is no tinky sounding stuff happening with the VMS. Also I find if a simulator gets you 80 to 90% there then eq or fx will do anything else. Just being able to get that rich mic vibe is amazing. I have the Blue Bottle with all the caps which was a $10k retail system modeling all the great mics like Slate. The VMS is every bit as great sounding. If you try 10 vintage 251's, U47's, U67's etc. It would be tough to find 2 that sound the same. The VMS is the real deal.

Sidebar:
In watching this business evolve over the years. Used to be state of the art was $1m. Then it got down to about $250k when the Otari 24trk's and economic Trident's became available. Then it dropped to about $100k when the computers got fast enough to handle great plugs and tracks. About 5 years ago I would say state of the art could be had for $50 to $60k. About a year ago with Slate and other manufacture's break throughs, along with DP 9.12, a $3k interface, $3k on monitors, VI's and cabling anyone can get state of the art for under $20k. This is a HUGE break though. Again the Biz will need to adjust.

[buzzsmith]

Sidebar:
In watching this business evolve over the years. Used to be state of the art was $1m. Then it got down to about $250k when the Otari 24trk's and economic Trident's became available. Then it dropped to about $100k when the computers got fast enough to handle great plugs and tracks. About 5 years ago I would say state of the art could be had for $50 to $60k. About a year ago with Slate and other manufacture's break throughs, along with DP 9.12, a $3k interface, $3k on monitors, VI's and cabling anyone can get state of the art for under $20k. This is a HUGE break though. Again the Biz will need to adjust.

Well said. And I've been around all of those years!

I call it the "democratization of audio production".

Buzzy



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[waxman]

Thanks Buzzy... I remember being so amazed when it broke the million dollar barrier and I could get in on gear that did not hold things back. Now anyone can do this. But the common denominator is you better love it cause you'll be working hard.

[HCMarkus]

Thanks Buzzy... I remember being so amazed when it broke the million dollar barrier and I could get in on gear that did not hold things back. Now anyone can do this. But the common denominator is you better love it cause you'll be working hard.

Some ears and a little experience might come in handy...

[waxman]

Thanks Buzzy... I remember being so amazed when it broke the million dollar barrier and I could get in on gear that did not hold things back. Now anyone can do this. But the common denominator is you better love it cause you'll be working hard.

Some ears and a little experience might come in handy...

hahah... well I meant financially. But that said yes... ears, brain, diligence, personality, patience, psychology, education, pragmatism, laser focus, secure significant other, luck, etc...

[mhschmieder]

I am very much on the edge at this critical juncture where I am barely back from my usual L.A. Thanksgiving visit, at the office and away from my home studio notes, and hours away from Cyber Monday sales ending.

After reviewing a lot of studio notes during my time off, I made a firm decision that I need to complete my mic collection for some upcoming sessions with a Neumann M49 clone (rather than going for U47 or U67 -- or even Telefunken ELA 251 -- clones or the like, to augment my AKG C-12 clone).

I did a VERY quick review today and it seems that Peluso's P49 would be the best bet of the hardware clones, then stack that up against the Slate Virtual Mic option. Has anyone done an M49 shootout yet with VMC in the mix?

[mhschmieder]

Looks like the Neumann M49 is not yet part of Slate's Virtual Microphone, and after even more research and listening last night, I decided that I need an M49 way more than a U47 or U67 (or even ELA 251) for upcoming work, alongside the C-12 emulation from Peluso.

Although hesitant to order a similarly-constructed mic using the same power supply and other shared components, there just aren't many tube-based M49 options out there (some older ones are no longer in production), so I decided on the Peluso P-49 over the ADK choices (for instance) or the expensive FLEA.

By the time I get around to wanting to fill out the collection with more classic mics, I may at that time decide that Slate is the way to go about that.

For now though, I look forward to my Peluso P-49 hopefully arriving by this weekend so that I can use it on sax and vocals.

[mhschmieder]

I ended up deciding against the Virtual Microphone System from Slate, for practical reasons alone.

Everyone's needs are different, and especially for those who ONLY want to use tube mics on vocals, it may make more sense to buy into VMS.

The problem for me is that I am now at the point where I prefer tube mics on several simultaneous sources, so the economy of scale quickly disappears as I would have to buy multiples of VMS.

Instead, I just recently added two more Peluso tube mics (22 47SE and P67) to the two I already had (P12, and as of December 2016, P49). I may eventually buy the 22 51, and the VTB.

I am now using a tube mic (the P49) on outside kick, as room mic for guitar amp (P67), and as room mic for bass amp (22 47SE), along with any of those four on lead vocals, saxes, and upright bass, among other possibilities as I get around to recording more of my own stuff vs. local rock bands.