Six Impactful, Professional-grade Mixing Plug-ins
Built for producers and engineers who need high-impact results without complexity, the VMR Essentials bundle from Slate Digital comprises a powerful introduction to virtual mix racks and modern mixing workflows. This streamlined collection of workhorse plug-ins equips you with the essential tools to shape, refine, and polish your tracks with precision and clarity. Start your signal chain with Trimmer for gain staging, then carve out frequencies with the punchy, American-style FG-A equalizer. Choose between two distinct flavors of compression with the smooth, optical-inspired FG-2A or the aggressive, in-your-face punch of The Monster, a modern take on classic parallel compression. Add clarity and presence with Revival, Slate’s harmonic enhancement tool, and take control of sibilance and harsh transients using FG-DS 902, a versatile de-esser modeled after an iconic dynamic EQ. Whether you're mixing vocals, drums, guitars, or full productions, VMR Essentials gives you a professional-grade foundation for building your virtual rack and elevating your tracks.
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FG-A
Harness the power of a tone-sculpting classic! By employing its proportional Q curves and trademark saturation, the Slate Digital FG-A Vintage American Equalizer re-creates one of the industry's most coveted track-sweetening EQs. Shape your tracks using four frequency bands with continuous control. Add color and vibe with a spot-on op-amp emulation. You can also bypass the op-amp if you need to make clean, surgical adjustments. Want to make a vocal pop out of a mix? Want to add muscle to a guitar track? Want to inject sizzle into a snare? The FG-A can do all of that and more.
FG-2A
Slate’s FG-2A re-creates what is arguably considered the most famous opto compressor of all time. Every peak, curve, and nuance of the original hardware was modeled, providing you with warm, saturated textures that are guaranteed to impress. This plug-in includes familiar Peak Reduction and Gain knobs, along with a true-to-the-original Limit/Compress switch and HF/Flat sidechain pre-emphasis control. You also get Stereo Link operation and a Mix knob for dead-simple parallel processing. A responsive analog-style gain reduction meter rounds out the FG-2A’s features. If you’re craving vintage dynamic control with a tried-and-true classic sound, Slate’s FG-2A is begging for a place inside of your plug-in folder.
FG-DS 902
Dialing in the ideal vocal mix is no small task, and with a world of analog and digital options available, making the right choice is tough. Fortunately, Slate Digital have combined the best of both worlds into a singular plug-in that faithfully and meticulously recreates the quality and nuances of an iconic analog de-esser, resulting in the FG-DS 902. The intuitive interface streamlines the process of sculpting vocals, boasting an organic output that emulates the musicality of an analog de-esser. This means zero artifacts, preserving all the clarity and character of your vocals, minus the unwanted frequencies. Slate Digital’s take on this classic hardware includes a new “Listen Mode,” allowing you to invert your output to hear only what you’re cutting out. Sweetwater’s sound engineers agree that this addition is essential to obtaining precise results with pinpoint accuracy.
The Monster
Based on the “all buttons in” or British mode of a classic FET compressor, The Monster offers dramatic compression with plug-in specific features from Slate Digital that can rein The Monster back in when you need to. Sweetwater engineers find this compressor plug-in to be ripe for applying hard compression on a drum bus or putting some extra power into a vocal track. Remove excess low frequencies with the Hi-Pass Filter, add some intensity back to transients with Punch, and dial in compression values with Mix. With all this power in one virtual compressor, The Monster is a great addition to your plug-in arsenal.
Revival
Slate Digital’s Revival plug-in is a powerful tool for adding clarity, warmth, and energy to your mix. Designed for simplicity and versatility, Revival excels both on its own and as part of a plug-in FX chain. Its streamlined interface features just two knobs — Shimmer and Thickness — making it easy to dial in professional-sounding enhancements in seconds. Shimmer lifts the high end by adding airy, harmonic brilliance, ideal for brightening vocals, cymbals, and acoustic instruments. Thickness reinforces the low end with added weight and warmth, helping basslines and ambient textures feel fuller and more present. With Revival, you can breathe life into dull tracks and enhance your mix’s overall sonic character with minimal effort.
Trimmer
Accurate meters and efficient level monitoring are an important asset with any mix rack, virtual or otherwise. Trimmer from Slate Digital aims to provide you with a precise representation of your signal and some tools to help dial it in, too. Ideal for use in a Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack, Trimmer lets you define how the signal will flow into the rest of the modules, with precise output monitoring from the prominent VU Meter that displays the RMS level of the module’s output signal. Beneath the VU meter is an LED meter that lets you monitor peak signal at the output of Trimmer, a handy tool for many mix engineers at Sweetwater. Following that is the Trim knob that gives you -24dB to +24dB of gain control. Finally, the Phase Reverse switch can reverse the polarity of a signal if you find your audio has some conflicting polarity issues.