Slate Digital RC-Tube - Manual (Page 4)

4
Slate
Digital
RC-­‐Tube
I.
I
NTRODUCTION
Thank
you
for
purchasing
the
Slate
Digital
RC-­‐Tube
plug-­‐in.
This
plug-­‐in
suite
brings
the
sound
of
a
legendary
tube
console
to
your
digital
audio
workstation.
In
order
to
precisely
reproduce
the
dynamic
nonlinear
characteristics
of
the
analog
desks,
Slate
Digital
CTO
Fabrice
Gabriel
has
developed
innovative
new
analog
modeling
techniques
that
combine
circuit
path
modeling
with
actual
hardware
response
testing.
The
result
is
a
digital
plug-­‐in
that
recreates
the
analog
properties
of
the
consoles
in
an
extremely
realistic
fashion.
ANALOG
VS
. DIGITAL MIXING
Despite
the
digital
revolution
in
the
pro
audio
industry,
many
of
today’s
top
albums
are
still
mixed
on
analog
consoles.
When
we
asked
some
of
the
world’s
top
mixers
why
they
still
preferred
to
mix
into
an
analog
console
rather
than
have
the
ease
of
digital
mixing,
the
responses
we
received
were
universal.
“Mixing
into
an
analog
desk
just
sounds
better.
Everything
sits
better
in
the
mix,
there
is
more
weight
to
the
bottom,
and
the
overall
sound
is
more
three
dimensional,”
says
Grammy
award
winning
producer
and
mixer
Jay
Baumgardner.
After
hearing
this
same
answer
from
so
many
mixers,
our
first
assumption
was
that
there
must
be
something
“wrong”
with
the
summing
of
a
digital
mixer.
So,
we
built
several
digital
mixers
so
that
we
could
test
them.
We
also
ran
some
tests
through
analog
consoles
in
order
to
test
hardware
summing.
The
result
was
surprising.
What
we
found
was
that
there
was
absolutely
nothing
wrong
with
digital
summing.
In
fact,
it
was
fairly
straightforward
math.
The
problem
was
in
the
analog
summing.
In
all
cases
of
analog
summing,
we
noticed
that
the
analog
circuits
imparted
nonlinear
artifacts
to
the
audio
such
as
harmonic
distortion,
noise,
crosstalk,
and
component
saturation.
However,
we
soon
realized
that
these
nonlinear
artifacts
produced
a
sound
that
was
sonically
pleasing.
The
Virtual
Console
Collection
plugins
recreate
these
analog
nonlinearities,
giving
your
DAW
the
classic
“vibe”
of
the
real
desks.
You
may
notice
that
when
using
the
Virtual
Console
Collection,
your
mixes
take
on
a
subtle
enhancement
in
punch,
glue,
and
dimension.