Slate Everything Sale, which free plug? i'm away from studio

[dave pine]

so, just found out i have to choose a free plug without being to actually use or hear them first, sucks, any suggestions guys?

[mhschmieder]

If you don't yet have any of them, I'd say the mastering plug-in (FG-X is the name, I think, but I too am away from my production desk), as it would be the most likely to need to continue to be part of your workflow (as a perpetual license) should anything weird happen.

I use FG-X for all of my rock projects now. Not so much for pop, jazz, classical, etc. -- yet, at least. But definitely for rock. It seems to take to limiting without artifacts the best of any, on harder-edged material, and is really easy to learn and tweak (I never use presets for FG-X).

Mostly, I consider it the "most different" from other choices, vs. other categories of offerings.

OTOH you might want to maximize your "value" by scanning and comparing the prices of each.

There's a time limit, and I may miss mine, as I never received my voucher during the week I was gone (including spam) so had to send an email due to the timing. I think here's only a few hours left to grab the free perpetual license from the subscription deal.

[dave pine]

i onlyy have fgx

[dave pine]

i tried fgx on the last rock/reggae/ska project i did, but got better results from ozone for the level they wanted it.

[mhschmieder]

I much prefer Ozone on reggae/ska myself.

[dave pine]

hmmmm, interesting, how do you feel about waves L-3, LL-3, L-3 16?
i prefer the sound of the LL-3 followed by L-3 and not a fan of the L-3 16

[mhschmieder]

I hate Waves due to their policies. Due to having tried some of their plugs many years ago, I can never try any again (they lock you out once you've done one trial run). That bothers me WAY more than the "UP" fee.

My recollection when I tried one or two of their "L" series was that it could get better results (at the time) on quieter material, by a hair, than earlier versions of Ozone or Sonnox Limiter.

A lot of products have come along since then. FG-X continues to blow them all away for my rock projects, and sometimes other genres if I take the time. I always end up pulling back on FG-X and being glad that I did; whereas with other limiters I may tend to keep pushing as the "magic" doesn't happen as easily. That includes PSP Xenon, which I no longer use much but which was my go-to for cinema, jazz, and much else at the time.

One thing I'll say about FG-X is that it's nice to have the Compressor available, but I find it tends to muddy things due to the workflow, unless splitting to two instances so you can deal with other stuff in the signal chain between the compressor and the limiter. So I rarely use that part.

If you try to quickly evaluate FG-X before making a decision, don't forget to check the semi-hidden preferences pages -- especially for the limiting range, which may be the one weakness of FG-X as it doesn't let you set a very low threshold overall.

Many well-known pros now say to leave -1.2 dB headroom vs. the long-suggested -0.1 to -0.3 dB (you need that much just for conversion headroom, even beyond musical reasons). But for lighter fare (all-acoustic e.g.) you might want more headroom still, and it isn't available AFAIK in FG-X. I think overall it really is intended for heavier music styles.

[dave pine]

as i said before, i already have fgx, thanx for the tips, i just went with the reverbs because anything else i fall in love with can be bought easily enough

[mhschmieder]

Yeah, I was just trying to write in a way that helped other people as well.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I was just now successful in finding my voucher, and like you, spent it on VerbSuite Classics.

I have so many reverbs it isn't even funny, but even if this one is "no better" than Lexicon (already saying a lot), it is QUICKER to work with, and time is money.

I really appreciate how Slate makes his plug-ins friendly to the workflows of people at ALL levels of knowledge and experience. Fewe vendors do that, but his pal/collaborator Fabrice Gabriel does as well (in his Eiosis plugs).