Slate Digital & FG-Bomber

a peak ilter, HMF combines peak and shelving
shapes. The behaviour is more typical in cut
mode, with broad, predictable dips that are
good for taming harshness in cymbals and
electric guitars, but not narrow enough to notch
out speciic problem frequencies. Boosting with
the LMF band delivers an incredibly broad peak
that ills out the low mids, while the LF band
boasts quite a steep shelf, aiding low-end
weight. The low- and high-pass ilters are very
gentle, rolling of at about 6dB per octave.
Going up
Custom Series Lift is a two-band boost-only
sweetening EQ based on the same hardware
analysis behind Custom Series EQ. Each band
(High and Low) has just two frequency settings
and delivers up to 10dB of boost. The result is
upper mid articulation at 5kHz (Present), high air
at about 10kHz (Silky), overall low end weight at
90Hz (Big) and peaking lows at 90Hz (Punchy).
It’s a simple concept with a musical sound that
we fell in love with instantly, and although it’s
tempting to ‘hype’ everything with it, if you just
stick to key elements such as vocals, beats,
submixes and mixes, it’s incredibly efective.
Bomber command
Achieving punch, depth, liveliness and impact in
sounds and mixes requires tailored use of
compression, saturation, transient processing
and, often, iltering. FGBomber combines all of
these in a single plugin with just three controls:
Drive, Intensity and Tone. The irst two set the
input level and efect blend, and the meter
includes a handy target marker for optimising
levels. Meanwhile, Tone ofers three options,
focusing the processing on the mids (Present)
and lows (Fat and Tight).
Clearly, FGBomber is one of those ‘black box’
processors, but it’s one capable of doing good
things to a range of sources when handled with
care. For isolated kick and snare drums, light
Intensity settings bring up the tail, but as you
wind the intensity up, transients are increasingly
squashed; and the Tone setting simply focuses
this efect towards its designated frequencies.
On mixed drum material, high Intensity settings
can easily suck the life out of the signal, and
once again, playing it safe pays dividends in the
form of a more energetic sound. As the manual
says, a little goes a long way.
On both synth and electric bass, the Present
Tone setting adds real bite, while the other two
Tone settings increase weight. In all cases,
keeping the Intensity to around 3040%
achieves the best results by far; and on fully
mixed material, extra care is required to avoid
pumping. However, a little Intensity (up to 20%)
livens up loops and submixes nicely.
Put it on the slate
All three of Slate’s new plugins make worthy
additions to VMR, ofering a fresh take on
analogue-style audio processing. We’re still
quite disappointed at the lack of internal rack
routing options in VMR though, and the inability
to use the plugins on their own away from it (or
at least to collapse the interface down to show
just the modules you’re using, for instance).
Even so, we’ll park that thought for now, and
sum up by saying that this trio of new modules
makes an excellent addition to the lineup.
Web www.slatedigital.com
Verdict
For Excellent hybrid EQ
FGBomber is a solid alternative to
regular dynamics processors
Lift is a great sweetening tool
Integrated output trim
Against Rack still lacks lexible routing
Plugins only work in the Rack
With Custom Series EQ and Lift, and
FGBomber, VMR becomes an even more
lexible, interesting mix processing system
FG-Bomber 10/10
Custom Series Bundle 9/10
Alternatively
Soundtoys Decapitator
152 » 10/10 » $199
A seriously useful fattening
processor with ive preamp
styles, drive and EQ shaping
Softube Tube-Tech Classic Channel
N/A » N/A » $489
Full-on valve EQ and opto
compressor experience
If you like the look of Slate Digital’s
various plugins but can’t aford to buy
them all outright, you might consider
their new subscription option. The
monthly subscription (currently $25)
enables access to the full current range
as well as any new ones introduced
during your subscription period. That
means all the VMR modules, Virtual Bus
Compressors, Virtual Tape Machines,
FGX Mastering and LX480 Reverb.
They’ll even throw in the required iLok
2 key for free if you don’t have one.
On the upside, you can pay for your
subscription annually or monthly, the
latter including the option to pause and
resume at any time – very welcome for
sporadic users. However, the beneit
in paying a whole year up front equates
to a saving of about 50 pence, which
isn’t much of an incentive.
Also on the downside, although
Slate are quite proliic in terms of
adding to the product line, ultimately
you have no control over how many
new plugins you’ll get each year. It’s
also obviously impossible to insure
against subscription price rises or
plugin discount purchase deals, both of
which will inluence the long-term cost
of each purchase method.
However you look at it, getting ready
access to Slate Digital’s entire stable of
plugins is seriously enticing.
Sub machine
The new modules have integrated output trim, but VMR
Trimmer is there if you need it, complete with metering
Slate’s subscription option kits you out with some of the inest mixing plugins on the planet
“All three plugins make
worthy additions to
VMR, ofering a fresh
take on analogue-style
audio processing”
April 2016 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 97
slate digital custom series bundle & fg-bomber / reviews <
CMU228.rev_slate.indd 97 2/4/16 4:14 PM