Virtual Microphone System new from Slate Digital

[Ostinato Rubato]

I also want this.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiprqGn65nI&utm_source=streamsend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=25234729&utm_campaign=Slate%20Official%20AES%202015%20New%20Product%20Announcements[/video]

[nightflameauto]

It's a neat concept, and probably adds some interesting flavor. Wonder how it'd do with a guitar amp smacking it around? Probably more fun to futz with on vocals than instruments.

Not sure I have huge faith in this one. I'd be curious, depending on the price of the hardware.

[Ostinato Rubato]

Yes from a purely vocals standpoint I think it'd be fun, depending. IMO they seem to price things appropriately.

[Markdude]

I really love Slate Digital stuff but I've been hugely skeptical about this one since they announced it.

[nightflameauto]

How about something far, FAR more exciting:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fITppH6lTbY[/video]

Getting legit sessions from legit producers and having them walk you through the entire thing? Fair priced I'd jump all over that shit. I'd love to learn better production technique.

And yeah, it'll probably drive sales of Slate Digital product, but fuck me, what an awesome idea.

[JerEvil]

I wanted to post about both these things this morning. Both the mic and classes look fantastic. Slate is killing it right now.

[overdrivenel34s]

Seems like cool concept. $999 appears to be the price for the starter pack...

[JiveTurkey]

Cool product but the presenter (who I assume is Slate?) bugs the fuck out of me with his Americas Most Wanted meets infomercial delivery.

[Ostinato Rubato]

Seems like cool concept. $999 appears to be the price for the starter pack...

$1K?

I'm gonna pass lol

[JerEvil]

Seems like cool concept. $999 appears to be the price for the starter pack...

$1K?

I'm gonna pass lol

Yup. Prices me out. If it was about half that I'd be "all in"

[nightflameauto]

Yeah, that price is a bit rich for me.

[Ostinato Rubato]

I guess if you've gone "pro" or have discretionary income like Ruiner then it'd be worth a try.

As for me, I'll wait until the industry concludes that it blows... In the good way, before I spend another minute thinking about this.

[overdrivenel34s]

There are competitors. For approx $130 or less ( i think ive seen it on sale for $99 before). It comes with "125 historical classic and exotic microphones" unlike the slate that comes with 3 and you have to pay more for more mic models...Of course, for all i know the slate could be way better (ie kemper vs early digital artifact filled line 6 amp modeler).

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alXd5wQri3U[/video]

[Ostinato Rubato]

They do good work and typically on the software end their pricing is good, but this is pricey

[Cirrus]

Thing is... if you're going to do it at all, you need a very well engineered mic that's basically totally flat with no resonances, no phase shift and clearly engineered and understood on and off axis response - over the whole frequency and volume range. You need to do that because you're then going to apply those imperfections via software for loads of different mic models.

You can build a mic like that but it's going to be pricey, so I think $1k is the LEAST you could imagine a system like this costing.

With the cheaper ones, how are they going to model, say, a Coles 4038 ribbon mic if you're using an MXL mic with a cheap chinese capsule? The mic has already filled the sound with resonances, peaks and troughs in the EQ, phase shift, distortion... you can't UNDO that shit. You can only apply some generic "ribbony" post processing like rolling off the EQ and hope that the user is fooled.

So yeah, I'm sceptical too, though at least with Slate they've got a proven track record of making stuff that can sound good.

[Ostinato Rubato]

I understand there's a reason for the price and I'm sure it's correct pricing but I simply can't afford it at this point. It's one of those things that's like "Man that sounds like it might just be awesome"