V
For the price I expected more
I have experience with Sonarworks headphone calibration and Waves Nx Virtual Studio, using both with the Sennheiser HD 650.
I was looking for a review comparing Nx Virtual Studio with the Slate VSX and couldn't find one, so here's an opportunity to write one and help anyone with similar thoughts.
Slate's marketing is massive, literally every influencer concludes that the VSX is great and worth buying, but you know it's hidden advertising when no mention is made of alternatives that are equally good or even superior.
The Essentials Edition provides two studios, one club, one car interior, and some headphone simulations. The studios are what matter most since that's where the main mixing process happens.
The two rooms provided (Steven's Mix Room & Sonoma) failed to impress me at all compared to Abbey Road Studio 3 and CLA Nx. The Waves rooms sound more realistic, partly due to their higher default reverb which can be reduced with the Ambience knob to make them as dry as the Slate ones. Waves has calibration for specific headphone models, and when I enable the EQ for the Sennheiser HD 650, Waves wipes the floor with the VSX there's simply no comparison; the HD 650 + Waves solution is levels above.
Waves also has a gimmick with head tracking I haven't tried it, but by manually moving the virtual head I think would be an interesting experience and would add to the existing realism.
In short, if you already have good headphones (and most headphones are better than the ones bundled with the VSX) that are supported by Waves' EQ, your experience will without a doubt be noticeably better.
There's also Nx – Virtual Mix Room over Headphones, where, as far as I understand, no specific room is simulated, and I believe it's an even better solution because all rooms, no matter how well designed, inherently have problematic frequencies.
And to take it one step further, you don't even need specific room simulations. With good headphones, their corresponding Harman curve, and a crossfeed plugin, you touch a level of perfection that major studios could only dream of having in their physical mixing rooms.
I sent the VSX back. I might have kept it if:
- The Platinum software were included at the current Essentials price
- iLok didn't exist (it's terrible for well-known reasons)
If there were no alternatives, I'd agree with the influencers as you can definitely get work done with the VSX but Slate needs to step up its game.
I was looking for a review comparing Nx Virtual Studio with the Slate VSX and couldn't find one, so here's an opportunity to write one and help anyone with similar thoughts.
Slate's marketing is massive, literally every influencer concludes that the VSX is great and worth buying, but you know it's hidden advertising when no mention is made of alternatives that are equally good or even superior.
The Essentials Edition provides two studios, one club, one car interior, and some headphone simulations. The studios are what matter most since that's where the main mixing process happens.
The two rooms provided (Steven's Mix Room & Sonoma) failed to impress me at all compared to Abbey Road Studio 3 and CLA Nx. The Waves rooms sound more realistic, partly due to their higher default reverb which can be reduced with the Ambience knob to make them as dry as the Slate ones. Waves has calibration for specific headphone models, and when I enable the EQ for the Sennheiser HD 650, Waves wipes the floor with the VSX there's simply no comparison; the HD 650 + Waves solution is levels above.
Waves also has a gimmick with head tracking I haven't tried it, but by manually moving the virtual head I think would be an interesting experience and would add to the existing realism.
In short, if you already have good headphones (and most headphones are better than the ones bundled with the VSX) that are supported by Waves' EQ, your experience will without a doubt be noticeably better.
There's also Nx – Virtual Mix Room over Headphones, where, as far as I understand, no specific room is simulated, and I believe it's an even better solution because all rooms, no matter how well designed, inherently have problematic frequencies.
And to take it one step further, you don't even need specific room simulations. With good headphones, their corresponding Harman curve, and a crossfeed plugin, you touch a level of perfection that major studios could only dream of having in their physical mixing rooms.
I sent the VSX back. I might have kept it if:
- The Platinum software were included at the current Essentials price
- iLok didn't exist (it's terrible for well-known reasons)
If there were no alternatives, I'd agree with the influencers as you can definitely get work done with the VSX but Slate needs to step up its game.
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O
Left unused after 2 weeks trying everyday
Not bad but not as good as I imagined. I produced better music without it.
I wished I didn't buy it.
I wished I didn't buy it.
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