Slate Digital Is Awesome

The Mastering Software is "OFF THE CHAIN". My cousin purchased the Mastering software and told me how great it was. I was hesitant at first and did not purchase it for 2 months later. I wasted 2 months of time in my life with regard to my music by not purchasing it right away.
The software is AWESOME!!!
This is the best software for Mastering on the planet right now and believe me i have tried at least a half dozen of the industries considered "best". If you are hesitating to purchase this software for your mastering needs, then you'll be making the same stupid mistake i did in the beginning.

wow...wow...wow

the cleanest mastering plug-in ever, sheer volume at its best without those nasty distortion,this is a must if you want to get your master hot, worth every penny, what a clean compressor,love everything about this plug-in sweetwater rocks thanks Stuart niven once again.

Great For Professional Demos!

I must say that the tracks I mastered with the Slate FG-X, simply using their presets as a quick test, blew me away. Sorry Ozone, but the slate plug sounds way closer to real, much closer to full, and more closer to warm. I put up a song that I had mastered with the FG-X against the same song mastered by a very popular mastering lab, using outboard analog and tube gear, and it holds it's ground nicely. It might even sound better. Plus, this is a crazy funk- rock, acid-jazz, warmly recorded tune with a lot going on, not just a simple pop tune. I can't believe my ears, but it's true. My Focal monitors don't lie. If you have the money you still might want to get your record done by a professional with awesome analog gear, but if that's not in the cards this is the next best thing. It's def great for professional demos!

So user friendly, a small studio's must

Most of us aren't actually mastering engineers. We don't have the room for it, the monitoring, the gear. Heck, many people who have completely legit studios and mixing setups don't have all the tricks of the trade for the best mastering.

That being said, having a high quality, professional sounding plug-in for ITB mastering is absolutely essential these days. I've used T-Racks (both old and new) and the usual Waves suspects (l2,L3, etc.). I've also used some of the MCDSP stuff, too. Personally, i find the Slate FG-X the easiest to use out of the group. MCDSP is awesome, and the Waves stuff is emblematic of digital mastering. That being said, you can get just as good of a sound (if not better) out of the slate stuff and it's so user friendly that I find it preferable. The metering is super useful. The "Constant Gain Monitoring" option is also awesome so you can master your track without a volume increase that makes it incredibly hard to hear the subtle differences between the master and mix. Finally, the shaping capabilities afforded by the FG-X equals the same power found in a variety of different MCDSP and Waves plugins . . . except you get it all in one plug.

The ITP lets you morph between nice soft clipping saturation or extremely hard and punchy limiting. Vintage and modern combined. The Low Punch and Details transient controls allow you to tweak the EQ ever so slightly if you think a certain frequency is being crushed or overwhelmed too much. It's works like subtle multiband compression, but is much more user friendly for the small studio. However, best of all, this thing sounds great even if you never tweak that stuff. Simply increase the gain until the meters reach the desired RMS level. The manual has nice suggestions about RMS levels and the "Loudness Wars," too. The meters are also completely customizable.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the mixbuss compressor. I actually like it more than Waves emulation of the famous SSL compressor. The controls are more delicate on the Slate comp, in my opinion, allowing more fine-tuning.

So, if you have a small studio and want to be able to give your clients who don't want more expensive mastering competitive sounding masters, this is the one-stop plugin. If you're a songwriter who wants to produce his/her own music, this is perfect. Finally, even if you often send your stuff to a mastering engineer for the highest possible quality master, this is useful to give clients mixes that sound closer to what they'll sound like when the songs are mastered so you don't get clients who are turned off by a mix simply because it's not as loud as his/her favorite album.

This is better then over $10,000 worth of plug-ins I have used!

If you are reading this there is a reason! You want to make recordings.
I can tell you this plug-in hands down blows everything else away. I have used it on everything, to just find something that it sounds bad on, and I can't. Let me just say on DRUMS this thing is awesome!!!!! I know everyone that reads this is thinking, I don't know on my budget I can buy something more useful....DON'T. This will change the way you work forever. I promise!!!

FG-X is Amazing

everything you heard about it is true...try it and be prepared to pick up your jaw from the floor

Transparent mastering without getting into the volume wars.

Fantastic transparent mastering without coloring you mix or crushing it with compression of limiting. Will get you the volume and punch you are looking for. Now this will not fix a bad mix but will make a good mix sparkle.

Also putting this above other mastering plug-ins is the instructions tutorial. Simple, straight forward, and to the point of how things work and why.

A great tool!

It sounds great- the metering is just what I needed and I like the dynamic perception, low punch and high detail adjustments. I mostly do live recordings as I am a live mix engineer and this plug-in makes putting a polishing touch on my recordings quick and easy.

Digital mastering at it's best!

The most transparent mix bus compressor in plugin format that I have used. The amount of sheer volume you can get out of this bad boy is incredible. It gives my clients a great idea of what the mastered record will sound like. And a lot of clients are just havingme master their project now! The metering is an amazing tool, and the constant gain monitoring is super handy. If you are on the fence give this bad boy a try. You won't be sorry. Digital delivery is hassle free too! Enjoy.

This is the shape of things to come - here now!

Coming from an analog background as early as the '70s, the digital age has presented both great joy in creativity unbound and an extreme struggle to get warm, smooth sound without ugly digital artifacts.

The loudness wars only increased that struggle... more so with plugins than hardware - but an issue either way (thank goodness people are starting to get back to dynamic masters). The FG-X is the FIRST plugin I have ever used that transcends the gap between analog & digital; producing compression, limiting and transient design that is pure pleasure to my ears.

Whether mastering a mix or detailing a track (you should hear this thing on drums!), you'd have to go a long way to prove it's equal in OR out of the box. I could not imagine mastering without it.

If I might add - the support I received from my Sales Engineer here at Sweetwater (Trent) getting this delivered and registered was top notch... like having a local music shop online. Thanks!

Essential tool!

The FG-X has replaced at least three plug ins that have been in my mix buss chain for years. It's an amazing, must have tool. 5 Stars if they make it a little less CPU intensive!

I detest Plug-Ins................but.

My first plug in. I use hardware interfaces; tubes and such and I leave Mastering to a mastering engineer. However, I needed to master a project for a friend (not a big deal) so I downloaded the FG-X. After 10 days I still thought this was a great product. The sound is quite good and it has some nice tweaking elements I've not seen in hardware compressors. It doesn't "sound" like a digital toy.