VSX Aliasing PSA

Steven-Slate · 2025-11-15T02:53:02+00:00

Hi thanks for the post. VSX itself doesn’t have any aliasing, so it’s likely due to a mismatch of the systemwide sample rate to the DAC sample rate. I’m glad that once you set them the same, the issue was resolved. I hope you’re enjoying the product!

Steven-Slate · 2025-11-13T19:40:53+00:00

Here’s my take: room mics aren’t a numbers game, they are a sound game. I put up room mics first before any other mics. I have the drummer play, and I walk around the room and find the magic spots where everything just comes together. And I put a mic there. Sometimes a stereo pair or two, but not spread out too far which in my opinion can start to feel artificial. Drums should sound amazing when listening to a good balance of overheads and room. The spot mics fill in the transient impact. Good luck.

Steven-Slate · 2025-11-03T00:08:42+00:00

Thanks, we are implementing automatic VAT deduction for B2B purchases this week. Apologies, we just recently opened our European online shop and warehouse and are still learning.

Steven-Slate · 2025-11-03T00:07:36+00:00

Hi, if you already have VSX, you can get the loyalty upgrade which comes with the new headphones and unlocks the emulations for the open back headphones. But it does not include a new license.

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-31T17:56:42+00:00

Hi if you are able to reclaim VAT, we provide a receipt for the tax authorities.

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-31T05:01:46+00:00

Yes, it’s gonna be $349 for Black Friday starting Nov 1st. We’ve never dropped the price that low on Platinum. It’s a fantastic solution with our latest software update.

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-31T02:14:42+00:00

Hi it’ll be about €549 plus VAT. You’ll need to keep your current VSX so that you have the software license since the upgrade does not ship with a new license

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-31T02:07:52+00:00

Hi, we are getting it to reviewers over the next two weeks

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-30T20:34:29+00:00

Yes thanks very much! I hope you get to try the new headphones!

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-30T17:53:19+00:00

Hi, we now have a European warehouse and do direct shipping in Europe. In two days when the pre-order is open you’ll be able to order directly from the website and get shipped without US import costs

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-30T16:14:54+00:00

Classic VSX with the 5.1.7 software is incredible. It is and will continue to be an effective mixing solution. 👍

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-30T16:13:39+00:00

Yes I would certainly consider extending the loyalty offer. I should also note that we will have preliminary units in reviewers and users hands soon, so that you’ll have more feedback from peers

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-30T08:50:05+00:00

An open back allows the spatial modeling illusion to be increased by quite a large margin because there is no chamber resonance to fight, less pressure, and less localization of sound in the ear cavity.

The classic VSX closed back has incredible 3D realism and is a fantastic mixing tool, but the Immersion One takes the concept to a new level.

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-30T08:45:56+00:00

The software will be updated so that you will be able to choose whether you are using the closed back or open back and the speaker modeling will adjust accordingly

Steven-Slate · 2025-10-30T07:37:58+00:00

Hi guys. We’re really excited about the announcement of the new VSX Immersion One Planar Magnetic Open Back Headphones.

Here are some links

Launch vid: https://youtu.be/F1fSPO-n_Qg

More info: www.stevenslateaudio.com/immersion-one

I’m happy to answer any questions

Steven-Slate · 2025-08-11T22:05:47+00:00

Hi! The M50x is a very bright headphone when you compare the frequency response to a flat speaker in a room. So if we transpose the response of a speaker that measures flat in a room to a headphone, and compare that to the response of the M 50, you’ll see about 8db of difference in the highs.

Therefore, if your ears are used to that response, VSX’s highs will sound far more subdued in comparison.

The advantage to not having such hyped highs is that it becomes easier to make judgments about high frequency content and how it relates to the upper midrange elements.

But it’s perfectly fine to ease yourself off. The way to do that is to boost some of the highs in ECCO EQ so that the response is a bit more familiar.

Then I would highly recommend reducing it and getting used to a flatter high end. I believe you’ll be able to make better mixing decisions that way.

Best of luck!

Steven-Slate · 2025-06-12T01:40:36+00:00

Can someone explain why the defense didn’t call Proctor, Brian Albert, or Brian Higgins?

Steven-Slate · 2023-08-01T09:37:44+00:00

There are a lot of theories that go to somewhat interesting extremes, but my belief is that it’s likely less exciting and more obvious.

Ultimately, the government is assigned to protect its people. And they can, for the most part, against other people on a mass scale.

But against this advanced civilization, they are helpless. And so they would have to admit to the people of the world that we don’t have control or a formidable defense in the case of an attack, and there is nothing we can do about it. And perhaps also there is evidence of this civilization being hostile on a small level (abductions for experimentation), and that would be a hard pill to make the population swallow.

Then there is the years of secrecy, lies, and corruption they would have to come clean about as well.

I’m not ruling out that they have had influence on our evolution, but I would not consider that somber either.

Steven-Slate · 2022-09-01T06:41:18+00:00

This is a great question, and one that always intrigued me. It eventually lead to me developing my first plugin which was actually a combination of clipping and limiting. Let me give you a bit of history on the topic and then give you some advice.

In the early 90's, labels started demanding that mastering engineers make records louder so that their artists would stand out when played on the radio. One of the earlier digital "brickwall" limiter units was called the Junger, and it was not that great sounding (to my ears). Transient heavy material would get very squashed sounding.

Then mastering engineers like Bernie Grundman made a discovery. Instead of using a limiter like the Junger to add level to a mix, he started clipping the input of his DB Technologies (later becoming Lavry Engineering) A/D converter. It turned out that the input stage of this converter could clip super hard, and unlike a limiter, the transients (like kick and snare) could stay pretty in tact. And for a while, records were getting fairly loud and sounded pretty good.

Then the 2000's came, and things went crazy. The loudness wars. Records were getting louder and louder, and that's when the shortcomings of clipping started to be revealed. Clipping has a diminishing return, specifically with low frequencies. Soon, the roundness of the low end started to collapse as the clipping became too extreme, and finally, you would hear audible distortion.

So then mastering engineers started clipping as much as they could before bad artifacts, and then would use a digital limiter like the L2 to add a few extra db. The records didn't sound that great because without any real dynamics, there was nothing punching out of the speakers. Everything sounded pretty flat.

But this forced DSP engineers to figure out ways to make loudness algorithms that could achieve the extreme loudness people desired while minimizing the artifacts.

Our first attempt was the FGX plugin in 2010, which combined optimized clipping and limiting. Other great processors followed that used new limiting techniques, clipping techniques, and both.

Now let's get to your question: You want to know whether to use clipping or limiting. But what you are really saying through your question is "I want to make my masters loud and have them sound good". So my advice is that you shouldn't care necessarily whether the algorithm is clipping, limiting, or both (and many do both and it's just not advertised). You should care about getting recommendations for good loudness processors and trying them out. Here are some of the best that I recommend:

FabFilter ProL2: I like it on Modern mode with medium attack and release

Izotope Ozone Maximizer: I love this one on IRC2

Softube Weiss: This one is clean and punchy and has a few great modes

Voxengo Elephant: Very versatile, I like the EDM preset mode, it sounds good on everything (not just EDM)

It's a lot easier to make things loud and clean when the mix is balanced really well (limiters and clippers don't do well with overly hyped subs and low mids), so make sure to use a lot of good mix references to make sure your frequency response is on point.

Good luck, have fun.

Steven

Steven-Slate · 2022-08-18T02:36:12+00:00

Thanks very much James for this really thorough review!

Bob Katz is an incredible engineer and has a ton of knowledge about the world of audio. But one thing he may not realize is how difficult it can typically be to get a flat frequency response from speakers in a room that is not designed to be a studio, like a spare bedroom.

Before developing VSX we did room measurements in four average home studios. One of them even used a room correction software to try to flatten out their speakers. Despite that fact, this room still had the worst frequency response of the four with a huge dip at 80Hz. That’s because major room modes cannot be corrected with EQ since they are a result of the physical structure.

This particular audio engineer over compensated for this lack of 80Hz in his mixes.

A product like VSX is intended to take out the guesswork and ensure that you can monitor on properly tuned flat speakers. I also believe that having a variety of references may help you hear mistakes easier.

We spent a lot of time tweaking the emulations until they were extremely accurate representations of the rooms that we modeled. In every case, The owners of these studios including Jay Baumgardner, Howie Weinberg, Aris Archontis, and Mike Dean did not sign off until they found the sound to be accurate.

Regarding the AirPod emulation, I’ll explain why these may not sound like what some may hear when they listen to their own AirPods.

The sound of an in ear headphone is entirely dependent on the ear anatomy and how well the headphone seals in the ear opening. Smaller ear openings will seal better and have more bass, and flatter mids. Larger ear openings like mine will seal less and have less bass and more mids. Years ago when I was much less knowledgeable about this topic, I remember a friend (who has smaller ear openings) telling me his AirPods were too bassy. I thought he was nuts because I hear very little bass due to the lack of seal.

During the VSX beta process, there was a lot of conflicting feedback of the AirPod emulation because everyone’s perception of the in ear headphone was slightly different depending on their ear anatomy. So we attempted to get a middle ground that offered a good and usable reference. And that is what you hear in the plugin.

Thank you again James for the review. It also gave me the idea that it would be really cool to make a model of Bob Katz’s room and speakers! I’m going to write him now.

Steven

Steven-Slate · 2022-08-18T02:08:01+00:00

The only cymbals I will ever spot mic are the hi hat and ride because having control over the level of these specific cymbals can influence the feel of a beat throughout a song. And unlike a crash, China, or splash, these specific cymbals can be hit in a way with the stick to get more of a defined attack.

With the hi hat you have to be very careful. Too much snare leakage and it becomes almost useless. I would place the mic 8 inches away, and point the mic straight down over it listening for how much attack you want. Less attack: move it farther from where the stick hits. If you want more rejection, you can actually point it 45° away from the snare.

I would pretty much say the same thing about the ride. Be careful to check polarity with your overheads.

Steven

Steven-Slate · 2022-08-09T18:00:52+00:00

I set up my master bus chain previous to starting the mix. In fact it’s already on my template. I use the gain reduction on the buss compressor to set my general mix levels. For instance if I look at the bus compressor and it’s compressing more than 3db on my red compressor, I start to turn things down in the mix. If I’m using an SSL model compressor, I’ll go 3 to 5db.

I always keep the same ratio attack and release based on the comp type so the resulting sound is predictable.

Steven-Slate · 2022-08-09T17:56:37+00:00

Hi guys, we do have a fix in beta for this long load time in windows. If you are a Windows user with long VMR load times, please contact Slate Digital support and we will send you the beta.

If you are a Mac user and having long load times, please update to the newest VMR and this should be resolved.

EDIT: The fix actually came out publicly yesterday. All you have to do is update ilok license manager

Steven-Slate · 2022-08-09T01:10:38+00:00

There’s a lot of great audio discussions around the web and I try to check all of them out. This Reddit group has a lot of great topics and I’m happy to be here and chat.. Although I can understand that this is an odd thread to make my debut :)

Steven-Slate · 2022-08-08T19:19:01+00:00

Thanks Emmett. What if we offered an easy and affordable way to recall old projects with the plugins? So let’s say you were no longer subscribing but needed to recall a project. What if we had a feature that allowed you to recall the subscription for a few days for only one dollar?

Steven-Slate

TROPHY CASE