- Technology's a funny old thing. Sometimes it seems that whenever a significant technological development takes place, there'll always be a group of people lamenting its arrival, keen to stress that things were much better back in the day. I remember the first time I heard a vinyl crackle deliberately super-imposed upon a CD, for instance. And you don't need me to tell you that synth plug-ins which recapture the spirit and behaviour of '70s classics are all the rage.
A further indication that our shiny digital studios are in some offer "less" than the sound of their analogue forebears is obvious when you look at recent offerings from software giants such as Waves, UAD and SoundToys. All of these companies produce tape emulations, saturators and other products designed to mimic the signal paths of the circuits and technology of yesteryear. The subject of this review is another to adopt a similar approach: Slate Digital's Virtual Console Collection, or VCC for short, allows you to bring the sound of four classic consoles to your mix in a bid to avoid the sterility which can afflict in-the-box DAW mixes.
Before discovering exactly what VCC does, it's worth expanding a little on that point. An analogue console is of course constructed of specific "audio parts"—transistors, voltage controlled components and so on—which are specifically tailored to handling audio signals. If that seems an obvious point, consider for a moment that this isn't true of your computer. While you can use it for audio recording, sequencing and mixing, you can also use it to send emails, play games and browse the internet, so your use of it as a virtual studio is precisely that—a virtual experience.
So many of the plug-ins we use are sufficiently convincing that this doesn't matter and as the majority of the music heard today is mixed in-the-box, as much for convenience as for any other reason, it's easy to think that you've got all the tools you need. However, even this isn't necessarily true. The majority of the most in-demand mix engineers use some analogue circuitry at some stage while mixing, whether by mixing a Pro Tools session out to tape or, in a more popular move, using summing devices to pass the mix through classic analogue devices to deliver a more rounded result.
So, to VCC and its possibilities. It offers two main components: a Virtual Channel plug-in and a Stereo Buss processor. The Virtual Channel is designed to be inserted on every channel of your mix and, thanks to low demand of your computer's CPU, this is perfectly possible, even for lower-spec'd computers. It's a 64-bit plug-in (with a 32-bit mode also available for those who need it) and is supported across all of the major plug-in platforms for Mac and PC. The only technical specification particularly worthy of note is that you'll need an iLok 2 key to enable operation.
Once inserted, the control set is as easy as pie to use. You are given a choice of four classic consoles whose circuitry has been modeled and, to avoid legal issues, these feature nickname versions of the desks they mimic. While you'll see Brit 4K, US A, Brit N and a three-pronged symbol, you're actually toggling between SSL "E" series (with the "G" series upgrades), API, Neve 8048 and Trident 80B consoles. However, VCC doesn't offer EQ or dynamics modeling behaviours, so the remaining controls are simple—an Input dial and one for Drive, which captures the non-linear distortion types afforded by the modeled desks.
At this point, you may well be wondering why this would be of benefit—after all, isn't "the sound" of classic consoles determined by features such as tone and compression? Well, in two words, not exclusively. The components used to construct these classic desks represent a huge part of why they sound the way they do and, in developing this product, Slate Digital discovered that simply passing signals through these consoles, without additional processing, yielded wildly different sonic results. However, the common theme is that the much-seeked sonic "glue," which most mix engineers pinpoint as the missing link in DAW-based mixing, is present in classic analogue consoles and that's what's offered here. Of course, it's perfectly possible to choose different console emulations from one channel to the next, so if you want an SSL sound on vocal parts but a Neve bottom end, no problem.
The second processor is the Virtual Mixbuss, which offers one less control. It too offers the four emulation styles and Drive but, as analogue consoles don't offer an independent Input stage at the main stereo buss (as input levels are controlled by the accumulation of channel signals), that dial is missing here. The only other main feature of VCC is that it's possible to combine sounds into Groups. At the bottom of each channel processor, there's a toggle switch to enable group assignments which launches a side-window. This offers the Input, Drive and console options again, and disables those available on a per-channel basis but, of course, you can use your DAW faders to set volume offsets from one channel to the next. Within the Group window, you can decide which channels will be assigned to which groups, rename each Group and configure parameters such as Calibration, Oversampling and output offsets for different consoles.
The big and most important question is does it work? There are so many ways of bringing colour and depth to clean digital mixes that this product might seem niche, and I think it's only one to consider if mixing to high standards is your goal. If that sounds like you, though, VCC is highly impressive.
There's a noticeable difference between the console emulations, with the performance of bass, low mid range and treble obvious from one to another, but what's really pleasing is just how unflashy this plug-in chooses to be. You can increase Drive a long way without showy distortion taking over and, as you add the channel strip processor to one track after another, you might even question whether it's making any noticeable difference. A quick bypass of all plug-in instances confirms the result though, with clear new levels of warmth flooding through your mix, a tighter stereo picture and a distinct reduction in the sterile nature of in-the-box mixing. Of course, there's no need to add this plug-in to every channel of your mix but I'd strongly recommend doing so, as this achieves Slate Digital's desire—to provide you with an emulated console (or even a hybrid group of them) for every sound within your mix. Noise levels are pleasingly low too, so download the demo and try it out. I was impressed and think you will be too.
Ratings
Cost: 4/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Versatility: 3.5/5
Ease of use: 4/5