VCC 2.0 out now

Thanks Les. I hate to beat a dead horse here, but in my particular case, I was falsely promised 64 bits twice by phone, once in an email, so it might have been a mistake, but misleading would be an understatement. What I'd really like is the chance to apply the cost of FG-X toward the VMS system, should I like it. Now THAT would make me happy.

Slate over promises and under delivers. However This is nothing like an oil change. When I purchased my slate products and others they worked great RTAS It was my choice to migrate to AXX I lost a lot of legacy plugin's their fault? No they all still work great in my old DAW. When you buy a product thats working in one format and you change to something else don't complain when it stops working and the upgrade doesen't happen or take's a long time. No one forced you to change.
It's more like buying a car then moving and requiring it to go on water as well. The company up-grade’s your vehicle to do both and in slates case for free.
I have a lot of sympathy for the plugin company's. The constant whining from customers who "upgrade" change their systems and expect instant free fixes for a problem they produced. I like UA's response mine would have cost them a heap more customers.


P.S in Martin's case I have a little sympathy he did contact slate and ask if they where going to get it working. But why purchase a product that doesn’t actually work for you now?

formatcyes said "When you buy a product thats working in one format and you change to something else don't complain when it stops working and the upgrade doesen't happen or take's a long time. No one forced you to change."

I completely agree, FG-X does what people bought it for. But you're right, in my case I checked first, in fact I checked three times before buying. When I bought it I was still using Logic at 32 bits, but was knew I'd be changing to Logic X soon, so that's why I checked first. So I was misled, perhaps not intentionally, but that's the bottom line. I can forgive mistakes, and don't hold grudges, but Slate does need to reign it in a little, otherwise their promises promises schtick will catch up with them. Steven's basically a well intentioned guy and his company's work is impressive, and I wish them all the best.

The issue that we all have is the constant missed deadlines. In December 2013 he told us VCC would be here in February. At that time, I decided to move to PT11 and live without Slate for a couple months. It turns out that February was true, just a year late.

kcatthedog said. "it is not the plug developers fault that a big daw company switches things up on them . Then people expect all their plugs to be compliant and up dates for free, but who actually pays for all the coding and production QC, the 3rd party developer."

I understand that and don't disagree. I never said people have a right to free updates. In fact, I wouldn't have minded if Slate had an update charge if they delivered 64 bits in a timely fashion, but 25 months, in DIGITAL WORLD, THAT'S AN ETERNITY, and that's basically just incompetence.

my comments were simply intuitionally observational, certainly not directed at anyone in particular. Perhaps I am just getting more sanguine but I sometimes forget that Steven is actually a younger guy growing a real world class business on the bleeding edge 24/7 !

I think the delay resulted from underestimation of the true total work, under resourcing and finance. I think Steven's nature is to love a challenge and to really want to deliver on all these things and maybe just learning the hard way to temper his natural well intentioned exuberance with a little more pragmatism.

Its seems over the last year, Slate has taken a number of steps to strengthen his company's development and delivery capacity and he is heading in the right direction. I think he really is trying to state more realistic deliverables but I must admit I feel for the guy cus i think he really wants to promise the moon and work his ass off to get there or trying to get there , so it must be tough to rein himself in ?

I just read these 4 pages... guys, is it better?

the new ssl is new and different and my fav, and two others API and Tube were updated so better

many on threads say they think all sound better( I did too) but slate says others weren't changed

most like running it in vmr some don't

most like new gui ( features more accessible) but most muss the old grouping naming function now just numbers

try the demo its free !

Personally i think Slates products are top class. It all comes down to personal taste. Yeah he makes silly early announcements etc....
But I have never had a single issue with one of his products. They sound great, stable and gets the job done.
Tried something different on my last mix. This weekend I did a whole mix with just VMR,VCC, VTM and VBC. Also used his blackbird drums. Only exception was reverb, used Phoenix and Valhalla. Was very happy with the end results.

Personally i wont invest in UAD. The whole platform. I think its silly. Im sure their plugs are good, but way overpriced. Ive heard their tape emulations against Slates, and i preferred VTM. plenty other native plugs that are great. Also Think waves have some really good plugins.

Been using VCC for a while now and love the the neve console. Briefly listened to V2 and the new SSL sound pretty good to my ears.

I sometimes feel like you do lolo, and I could probably get along just fine without UAD. The Waves Kramer tape work well, I have 75% of the Waves plugs available, but mainly use their SSL, Api strips, and the CLA 1176, which by the way, works just as well as UAD's 50% of the time. The thing about the UAD plugs is those that sound good, really sound good, and become indispensable.

Decades back, I used to produce music for commercials. My basic signal path included a DBX compressor, Lexicon reverb, a Lexicon delay, an aural exciter, a board, tape machines and a Neumann U87. I did everything for ten years with variations of those combinations, and never once did I feel it didn't sound right.

In my case, I like to create one very basic sound design, and stick to it most of the time, and I needed an interface anyway, so the Apollo made sense UAD's EMT-140 for all intents and purposes of mine IS a plate reverb, and the updated LA2 is on most every vocal I do and works flawlessly. Just those two sounds alone are worth the cost of the entire platform for me, because in my case, they might as well be hardware. I'm looking forward to trying the Ocean Way soon as well. It seems to be one of the most original effects made in a long time.

I try to find the middle, where I use what sounds good without too many complications. I asked a well know engineer/producer friend of mine to come by my place this week for just that purpose. I got some new monitors and when listening to a vocal done six months back, I hear some nasty things I didn't notice on my previous monitors. I want to find the best vocal chain I can, then forget about it and get busy using it. I can do what I need to do with between 5-10 plugins easily, but I do enjoy having more options, but find I use them only occasionally.

Now, as for Slate & Co., I don't know what to say anymore, other than I ain't buying $hit from them for a long time, I promise. After waiting for more than two years, and being promised his "whole team" has dropped everything to finish up the plugins that weren't working in 64 bits, he finally gets it working in 64 bits, only to tell us that the promised new and super duper upgrade won't be done until later this year. Two years, just to get a plug working in the 64 bit environment? That's just awful, and Mr. Slate knows it and has apologized, but it's small compensation that it's just working in 64 bits and sounds the same. Meanwhile other companies have moved forward. Apples new compressor might be all I ever need in a plugin. I'm looking forward to seeing if Slate's resident genius really does come up with something that tops the competition. Obviously, Fabrice isn't the only digital genius in town.

From Slate today:

Dear FG-X:
I'm pleased to announce that FG-X 1.4.0.4 is in your Slate Digital User Accounts.
This FG-X Update will provide 64bit support for AAX, AU, and VST. I want to be clear that this is NOT FG-X 2.0, but rather an updated version of your current FG-X plugin.
Important Q&A:
Q: Where is FG-X 2.0 and what is the difference between FG-X 2.0 and today's 1.4.0.4 release?
A: FG-X 2.0 is going to be a brand new, completely reworked plugin with new algorithms, created from the ground up in our new framework. It is being developed right now, and will be a free update later this year. The FG-X 1.4.0.4 in your user account is the same algorithms as your current FG-X, but with added support for the 64bit DAW formats.

Q: What is the difference between FG-X 1.4.0.4 and the old FG-X 32bit version?
A: Not much besides the 64bit support. However, users in beta did claim that their CPU usage did go down, but it is not an official feature that we are advertising. If you found a few bugs in your current FG-X, you'll likely see some of these same bugs in the 1.4.0.4 version. But rest assured, the FG-X 2.0 update will also be FREE, and will fix all of these issues.

Q: Will the FG-X 2.0 still be FREE?
A: Yes, when the FG-X 2.0 comes out later this year, you will get it for FREE.

Q: How do I get FG-X 1.4.0.4?
A: Go to your Slate Account, it is waiting for you right now.

Folks, we've learned a lot over the past year about how we can be a better company for you. As I've said in the past, we did not prioritize things properly and thought we could achieve big feats without having the manpower to do so. Well, this is a thing of the past. The Slate Digital Team has grown significantly. I too have grown as a CEO, and can better appreciate the responsibility of running a complex and often unpredictable technology company. Therefore I can assure you that delays like this will never happen again, no matter what new plugin format may be sprung on us! Although I really hope there are no more new plugin formats!!!

I wish you peace, love, and happy music making!