Slate Digital’s FG-X Mastering Processor Rocks

We’re really excited about a new mastering plugin from Slate Digital called the FG-X Mastering Processor. Slate Digital is the creator of the awesome Trigger Drum Replacer plugin, which we’re fans of.

For quick mastering or reference mixes we usually use Massey’s L2007 Mastering Limiter (demo never expires!), which does a great job of getting a mix louder without squashing the mix audibly.

When we heard about FG-X, we thought it sounded too good to be true (on paper, at least).

• Worldclass mastering compressor with transparent and articulate sound
• Revolutionary ITP process to make your mixes louder without degradation
• Controls for low and high punch

Awesome. But does it work? You bet. The key is in the ‘intelligent transient saturation system’, with which Slate has created Intelligent Transient Preservation (ITP). Essentially, ITP means constantly varying, or dynamic, saturation curves. Static saturation curves have been used along with peak limiting in traditional ‘loud’ mastering. For more info on saturation curves, see the “How Much Headroom Is Enough?” section of this article.

The FG-X manual makes it very clear that Slate Digital does not want engineers using the plugin as yet another tool to be used in battling the loudness war. The manual guides the user through a typical mastering project, detailing the setup and recommended parameters for each control. We went through the typical setup, and it made one of our rough mixes sound awesome. We’ll be posting some final mixes with FG-X and L2007 applied so you can judge for yourself.

Is this ITP a bunch of BS? No. The results are real. And, our octocore Mac’s processing power was pegged, so Slate must be doing something right. There’s talk about Izotope’s new Ozone 4 mastering plugin bundle, but we haven’t checked it out yet. Let us know if you’ve tried it, or FG-X. Or perhaps you’ve got some other killer mastering plugin chain you’d like to share.

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