Slate Digital Virtual Buss Compressors VBC
3 Mix Buss Compressor Plugins
Three legendary mix buss compressors
Virtual Buss Compressors is a suite of three unique-sounding dynamic processors that are modeled from some of the most classic mix buss compressors in the audio industry. Careful attention was paid to recreating the unique nonlinearities of the circuit paths that give each compressor its distinct tone - including their transformers, tubes, VCAs, amplifiers, phase distortions, harmonic distortions, and timing. VBC is perfect for adding a professional final touch to your mixes.
FG-Red
This compressor is based on the classic Red-faced compressor that has been a favorite of mix legend Chris Lord Alge, who first showed it to Steven Slate when visiting his studio years ago. Slate thought it was odd, this compressor nobody else seemed to really use, and it was on a setting at 1.5:1 and the attack looked very fast for a mix buss compressor. This was puzzling because Slate usually associated a faster attack with a loss of transient punch, but if you've heard Chris's mixes you know that they are the exact opposite of that! Slate bought the unit with input & output transformers, put it on his mix in the settings that Chris showed him. Ratio 1.5:1, attack around 10/11 o'clock, auto release, compressing just 2-3db. WOW! One of the clearest, punchiest sounding rock mixes he'd ever heard.
Slate Digital analyzed the Red and found out that it was indeed a very unique beast. The attack and auto-release work in an interesting way and are very musical, but the real magic they found was in the output section! They found that just pushing the makeup gain a few dB did some insane things to the sound! A little push and things got a ton more punchy, fat, and aggressive. After more examination, we realized that this was due to a series of nonlinear reactions caused by the output transformer. Howie Weinberg, the famous mastering engineer who has a studio on our campus, let us in on a little secret: He uses his Red not for compression, but just to use the output gain to get that amazing effect! So Slate decided to do something that the original unit cannot, put that output transformer effect on a knob called Drive. When you push the Drive knob, you get a beautiful punch and articulation of the transients, and you can control just how much you want, regardless of whether or not you use the makeup gain! Famous rock mixer Justin Netbank beta tested the FG-Red and loves the drive, suggesting '6.6' as the magic number. But you can try cranking it all the way for an interesting effect!
System Requirements
- MacOS 10.14 Mojave and above
- Windows 8 and above (64-bit only)
- Intel, AMD, or Apple Silicon CPU
- 4GB RAM or more
- Free iLok account and iLok License Manager
- An iLok 2 or 3 USB key is required. iLok Cloud and iLok Machine licensing methods are NOT supported
Plugin Formats
AAX Native, AU, VST2, VST3