Using Slate VMS and VMR

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philbrown
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Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by philbrown »

This started in another thread with an excellent post from Waxman.
I'll quote from there to get the party started.
waxman wrote: Moving the intensity slider on the VMS (virtual) power supply changes the sound of all the mic models pretty dramatically. They set it at 100%. I'm not sure what setting intensity setting would match the other mics but that is always an option.

I really like the VMS. Soon as I got it I put the mic pre directly into the Apollo 16 which is just an A to D with no pre. All 8 microphones came up in one module in the VMR. You can scroll between them like a address book on the iPhone. I recorded a vocal one pass no fixing. I listened back to the 47 and was underwhelmed…

So I started cycling through the mics. There was a line I did that sounded kind of harsh. I looped it.

When I got to the 251 the harshness was completely gone. It was a little freaky. Then I listened to the whole chorus and it sounded like a different singer. I almost fell over. I cycled back through and the other mics characters were immediately apparent. I was like holy cow how did Slate do this?

So after the mic slot in the VMR I put the Slate Neve pre and it got BETTER by A LOT… I goosed the intensity drive a bit and also the amount on the mic… holy #@%!#… then I added the VCC and it sounded better still. Then I added The MONSTER… boom sounded like a record. Then I tried the MODERN compressor and for what I wanted it was an even better sound. I was amazed. On the next insert I put the slate tape plug and it flipped my wagon. This was so fast and so easy it literally saved the vocal.

Last night my client came over and I did it again. DUDE… same thing. But his voice sounded better on the Sony mic. There is no latency and no issues at 128 buffer.


For the client I put a NEVE pre 1073 on the input stage of the UAD mixer and a LA2A grey. He was singing and it was perfect for him. It sounded like the playback. I also added the comfort aux verb and delay. None of the UAD stuff goes to the recorded audio track but when you play back boom… your going through whatever Slate VMS mic and mix rack gear you have inserted. That means you you can wait to commit to the final vocal audio at any time. It becomes a DI vocal just like a DI electric guitar.

So for me once again Slate is on to something very cool. It’s his vision of all in the box digital recording sounding as good or better then the vintage stuff. When you couple that with ease and flexible operation it is a TOTAL GAME CHANGER… It’s like a $200k mic locker for $999. Steven Slate is the very definition of a disrupter. If I was one of the big companies I would be buying him out for whatever it took. Just give him an Island with a hotel and great studio and make him go away and promise not to make any more killer stuff for 10 years. hahahah This guy in 5 years could literally wipeout a half dozen companies.

So the Blue Bottle and mic caps are going on sale immediately. It reminds me of when I got the Raven. I sold the 24 ch of Mackie MCU pro and ended up making $1,500. The Blue bottle and caps should fetch about $4k... at least $3k... that leaves 2 or 3 large for more gear. (Or therapy.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

philbrown wrote:Thanks Waxman for all the excellent info about VMS! I took delivery yesterday and only messed with it on one vocal but I'm impressed so far. I'm not a big Neve guy for vocals generally so it's no surprise I liked the tube pre better - BTW does anyone know what hardware the tube one is emulating? Just curious. It's really smooth in a good way without sounding muddy at all.

We scrolled through the mics after tracking into my Apollo. What a treat to do a mic shootout after the fact- especially when you're recording your own vocals! The models are noticeably different as you would expect– you don't have to squint and strain to hear the differences. We chose the 251 and the M7 for this particular vocal but I could see making different choices per song, even on the same vocalist– why? because we can! I don't own Slate's other VMR plugs but I may invest, but I own so much UAD stuff I don't know if there would be enough difference to warrant the $200. Opinions?

Re-reading your post Waxman I realized I should be EQ'ing at the Apollo (for monitoring but not to the track) as the dry mic sound is BRIGHT to my ears anyway, to the point of unpleasantness IMO. I usually don't need to do that but this calls for a slightly different workflow at least for me.

I've been using the Unison plugs in my Apollo (especially for DI guitar but that's another thread) which I really like so I also want to try this mic through those as well. I'll report back if there's anything interesting to report. Still lusting after the UA Manley Voxbox plug- just waiting for that magic coupon.

Should we start another thread for VMS? I'd like to share info and see what others are doing since it's a rather new approach.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
waxman wrote: Thanks... yep I am digging the Slate VMS...
- FG-73 is supposed to be a NEVE 1073 Mic Preamp (Transistor, 70ies)
- FG-76 is aimed to be a Siemens/Telefunken V76 preamp (was used a lot in German broadcast consoles, and the infamous Abbey Road REDD.37 - so, tube and 60ies) See Pic below

I was and still am totally addicted to UAD. I have 95% of them. Now I am using UAD 50/50 with Slate. There is a vibe to Slate VMR that is amazing and different from UAD which I like better... I wish UAD would adopt the 500 rack idea. I think that would make it much faster. I would suggest getting the VMR before a Manley Voxbox. I have used the Manley Voxbox on the front end with the Slate M1 but not in the unison position. But any of them work on the front end... neve, uad, ssl, api. It does not matter because none are in the unison slot.

I have not been able to beat the UAD API for drums.

If you get the Slate VMR I would suggest getting CLA Mix tutorial. It would be a great investment. You can probably get a package deal if you look around. You got it going on with some great gear with UAD and Slate. I don't need anything else to make a record.

Yeah go for it! Do another thread on techniques using the VMS. A bunch of people are getting them or have them... but it will need to be based around techniques in DP if you want it in this section of the forum...

This is a good video on the VMS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS33eJY ... chaelWhite

Found this info on the Telefunken mic pre
http://www.tab-funkenwerk.com/id9.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WUUVa9 ... intageKing
https://www.google.com/search?q=abbey+r ... Z0QtFQM%3A

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philbrown
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by philbrown »

waxman wrote: Moving the intensity slider on the VMS (virtual) power supply changes the sound of all the mic models pretty dramatically. They set it at 100%. I'm not sure what setting intensity setting would match the other mics but that is always an option.
The manual says:
Intensity
This Slider will act as a boost on both harmonics and saturations.

The don't mention a power supply, but is that what you're talking about Waxman?

My day job is doing audio editing and mastering for an author that travels around the world doing seminars every week. She uses a headset mic that's pretty bright and not terribly flattering. As a lark I tried the VMR and it sounds wonderful by comparison to other stuff I've used. The mic thing is pretty magical. I ended up liking the FG-800M > FG-S > FG-116. It pays to try out all the mic models at least at this early stage of learning.

I'm really liking the mix rack approach more than I thought I would and it really is a different way of working. My only complaint is I wish the mic you've selected was visually highlighted so you know what's selected. There's a little icon you can click at the bottom of the mic list, but am I missing something there?

Thanks again Waxman- interesting seeing the original Telefunken mic pre. I wasn't familiar with that one at all. Still can't figure out what the heck the tab thing is on the front panel though.

A few days ago I did something really counter-intuitive for some reason - I slapped a mic pre plug (UA 610-A) on a drum bus. It worked great. Just what the track needed. The next day I was watching a Slate video and to my surprise he suggested the same thing, although I don't recall if it was a drum bus or master fader, anyway just a non-obvious idea to try. Or maybe everyone know that but me!
2020 iMac 27" 3.6GHz 10 core i9 • Mac OS 12.2.1 • DP 11.04 • UAD-8 Octo card • Midas M32R

Plugs: UAD•Slate•Scuffham•Flux IRCAM•NI Komplete•Klanghelm•Waves•Spectrasonics•Arturia•Soundtoys•Nomad Factory•PSP•Stillwell•Cytomic•Korg•Five12•GForce
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waxman
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by waxman »

philbrown wrote:
waxman wrote: Moving the intensity slider on the VMS (virtual) power supply changes the sound of all the mic models pretty dramatically. They set it at 100%. I'm not sure what setting intensity setting would match the other mics but that is always an option.
The manual says:
Intensity
This Slider will act as a boost on both harmonics and saturations.

The don't mention a power supply, but is that what you're talking about Waxman?

My day job is doing audio editing and mastering for an author that travels around the world doing seminars every week. She uses a headset mic that's pretty bright and not terribly flattering. As a lark I tried the VMR and it sounds wonderful by comparison to other stuff I've used. The mic thing is pretty magical. I ended up liking the FG-800M > FG-S > FG-116. It pays to try out all the mic models at least at this early stage of learning.

I'm really liking the mix rack approach more than I thought I would and it really is a different way of working. My only complaint is I wish the mic you've selected was visually highlighted so you know what's selected. There's a little icon you can click at the bottom of the mic list, but am I missing something there?

Thanks again Waxman- interesting seeing the original Telefunken mic pre. I wasn't familiar with that one at all. Still can't figure out what the heck the tab thing is on the front panel though.

A few days ago I did something really counter-intuitive for some reason - I slapped a mic pre plug (UA 610-A) on a drum bus. It worked great. Just what the track needed. The next day I was watching a Slate video and to my surprise he suggested the same thing, although I don't recall if it was a drum bus or master fader, anyway just a non-obvious idea to try. Or maybe everyone know that but me!
Yeah their intensity slider is a Virtual Power supply. The Blue Mic power supply's have a big knob you can saturate the tube with.

The tab on the front of the Telefunken was to pull to take off the house if you wanted to work on it. It was just a latch.

Exactly so putting the 610 just saturated the drum track. Do you have the VMR everything bundle? If so there is a preset called Crush in the drum preset group. Do a send to an aux bus and put the VMR with the Crush drum setting on and fade in to taste. It's so wicked... If the song is needs to pump that will do it...

Try CLA's mix course from Slate. Alge is a madman. The guy does all kinds of cool stuff that is easy to incorporate into your flow. Slate does a pre video to explain it and between the two it will be well worth the $75 bucks gives you the plugs for a month or if you don't have the everything bundle for $229 you get the course and the Everything bundle. The course is basically $49 bucks but you gotta have the plugs to work with it. http://www.audiolegends.com/courses/
waxman
DP9.5, Macbook Pro (2018) Mojave, Slate VMS mic, Everything Bundle, Dual Raven MTI 2, Apollo Twin Quad, UAD Arrow, UAD Satellite Octo Tbolt and all the UAD plugs, NI Komplete 11 Ultimate & Arturia V Collection 6, Maschine Studio MK3 Hardware, NI Komplete Kontrol 61s MK 2, Spectrasonics Ominisphere, Superior Drummer, BFD3, Ozone 7, Altiverb, Sound Toys, Waves, Final Cut X. PT 11.
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by supersonic »

What is the proper workflow when working with VCC and multiple nested busses? I route tracks into busses into busses and into busses :-). I understand the idea behind the first step - between the tracks and the first bus. But what next? Do I then put the channel plug in and then bus plug in again at the next stage?
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waxman
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by waxman »

supersonic wrote:What is the proper workflow when working with VCC and multiple nested busses? I route tracks into busses into busses and into busses :-). I understand the idea behind the first step - between the tracks and the first bus. But what next? Do I then put the channel plug in and then bus plug in again at the next stage?
1) VMS Input- inserts that do not go to record. Recorded track playback - Insert with desirable mic and pre. aux to reverb etc.

another way would be VMS input to recorded track. Recorded track playback insert mic type and pre.
waxman
DP9.5, Macbook Pro (2018) Mojave, Slate VMS mic, Everything Bundle, Dual Raven MTI 2, Apollo Twin Quad, UAD Arrow, UAD Satellite Octo Tbolt and all the UAD plugs, NI Komplete 11 Ultimate & Arturia V Collection 6, Maschine Studio MK3 Hardware, NI Komplete Kontrol 61s MK 2, Spectrasonics Ominisphere, Superior Drummer, BFD3, Ozone 7, Altiverb, Sound Toys, Waves, Final Cut X. PT 11.
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supersonic
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by supersonic »

waxman wrote:
supersonic wrote:What is the proper workflow when working with VCC and multiple nested busses? I route tracks into busses into busses and into busses :-). I understand the idea behind the first step - between the tracks and the first bus. But what next? Do I then put the channel plug in and then bus plug in again at the next stage?
1) VMS Input- inserts that do not go to record. Recorded track playback - Insert with desirable mic and pre. aux to reverb etc.

another way would be VMS input to recorded track. Recorded track playback insert mic type and pre.
I wasn't talking about VMS - I was talking about VCC :)
Music is movement in silence
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waxman
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by waxman »

supersonic wrote:
I wasn't talking about VMS - I was talking about VCC :)
Sorry watch this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdODmoL ... el=SlateTV
waxman
DP9.5, Macbook Pro (2018) Mojave, Slate VMS mic, Everything Bundle, Dual Raven MTI 2, Apollo Twin Quad, UAD Arrow, UAD Satellite Octo Tbolt and all the UAD plugs, NI Komplete 11 Ultimate & Arturia V Collection 6, Maschine Studio MK3 Hardware, NI Komplete Kontrol 61s MK 2, Spectrasonics Ominisphere, Superior Drummer, BFD3, Ozone 7, Altiverb, Sound Toys, Waves, Final Cut X. PT 11.
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supersonic
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by supersonic »

waxman wrote:
supersonic wrote:
I wasn't talking about VMS - I was talking about VCC :)
Sorry watch this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdODmoL ... el=SlateTV
Thanks. That still isn't it though. My question was how to use the VCC where the track goes subsequently through more then just one bus. Here CLA only explains what he does to the drums tracks with a VCC track plugin at the beginning. What I am wondering is how to treat each subsequent bus that busses other busses :-)
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waxman
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by waxman »

Just keep putting VCC inline. I send busses to aux tracks with Tape and VCC's on them even though they are coming from the channel with VTM and VCC already on them. Load up as many as you want to get all the vibe you want. For instance I use the VCC on API mode for a kick. But then I send it to a parallel aux with a Tape then VCC on the SSL mode. Then all that goes to to a buss out with Tape and a VMC that is routed to an output to a channel of the 8816 Neve Summing mixer.

Same with Verb sends for drums and vocals, delays etc. I put the VCC on every channel and every aux. I've seen Slate put a tape in the #1 insert then a VCC in #2. Then a VMR loaded, then another VCC with a Trim and then a compressor. So just load it up anyway anywhere you want. There is no right or wrong. Just watch the levels don't distort the next plug in the chain. If you get the sound you want but it's to hot toss a trim in and keep going... the more vibe the better. Just make it happen...
waxman
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Re: Using Slate VMS and VMR

Post by supersonic »

too true :-). Thanks. Slate have told me to go easy on them within every next nested bus and perhaps only use the Bus plugin once but as you say - no harm in trying ;-)
Music is movement in silence
My day jon - http://www.audioplanet.pl
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