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FG‑2A’s handy Stereo Link control is also retained in this new plug‑in.īut while Custom Opto shares plenty of DNA with FG‑2A, there are several important departures.
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(For clean gain, you can always use VMR’s free Trimmer plug‑in).Ĭustom Opto also inherits FG‑2A’s wet/dry Mix knob, for parallel compression, and with this you can, for instance, bring up lower‑level details without squeezing the life out of the transients. The former is essentially a threshold control, but the latter does more than simply dictate the output level: as you turn it, the balance of distortion harmonics - and thus the audible character - changes a hint, rather like it does when you drive an output transformer that bit harder. There’s nothing wrong with a compressor preset including make‑up gain to offset the envisaged gain reduction, but you’re definitely going to want to dial it back a bit for this purpose.Īs on FG‑2A, the main controls for dialling in gain reduction are the Peak Reduction and Output Gain knobs. If you want make A/B comparisons with the unprocessed signal, though, note that quite a bit of make‑up gain is applied in the default preset. In practical terms, this has the effect of making things seem a hint more ‘forward’ in the midrange and it can be a lovely, flattering effect. Overviewīefore you start tweaking, it’s worth listening out for the general tonality of Custom Opto, which can be useful even when it’s not compressing: there’s a touch of subtle but pleasing harmonic distortion and a slight EQ curve being applied all the time. As with all Slate’s plug‑ins, you can purchase Custom Opto outright if you prefer, but it is also included in their All Access Pass, a subscription bundle with an impressive and growing range of effects, instruments and sample libraries, which seems to me to offer remarkably good value for money.
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Like FG‑2A, Custom Opto is a module that’s hosted within Slate’s Virtual Mix Rack (VMR), itself a host plug‑in available for Mac and Windows hosts (VST, AU or AAX).
If you simply want a great LA‑2A plug‑in, the latter remains, in my view, one of the most convincing around, but Custom Opto opens up so many more possibilities! In answering that question they’ve developed Custom Opto, which joins, rather than replaces, FG‑2A in Slate’s range.
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But in the software world, developers have more scope to tweak things, and Slate recently asked themselves if it might be possible to augment the FG‑2A with new features that would make it more versatile, without sacrificing its overall tube opto vibe. Typically, if when using an LA‑2A you find you want more control, you’d turn to a different sort of compressor altogether or use the LA‑2A along with something else it’s often partnered with an 1176, for example.
For instance, it offers very little by way of control over the attack and release timings or ratio. But, while its operational simplicity and relatively relaxed optical compression can be just the ticket in some scenarios, in others they can render it of more limited use. At heart, it models the same hardware as Slate’s FG‑2A, but Custom Opto’s tweaks make it useful on so many more sources!īack in SOS June 2021, I reviewed Slate Digital’s FG‑2A compressor plug‑in, and judged it to be amongst the best software emulations of the Urei/Teletronix LA‑2A tube opto hardware currently available.Īs I explained in that review, there’s an awful lot to love about the LA‑2A, not least the subtle enhancement that it seems to deliver alongside the compression.