Slate Digital Virtual Buss Compressors User Manual
Page 6

FG-RED
This compressor is based on the classic RED faced compressor that has been a favorite of mix
legend Chris Lord Alge, who first showed it to me when I visited his studio years ago. I thought
it was odd actually. Here was this compressor that nobody else seemed to really use, and it was
on a se_ng at 1.5:1 and the aSack looked very fast for a Mix-‐Buss compressor. This was
puzzling because I usually associated a faster aSack with a loss of transient punch, but if you've
heard Chris's mixes you know that they are the exact opposite of that! So being the classic
gearslut, I bought one, (I got the unit with both input and output transformers). The first thing I
did was put it on my mix in the se_ngs that Chris showed me... 1.5:1, aSack around 10/11
o'clock, auto release, compressing just 2-‐3db tops. And.... WOW! One of the clearest, punchiest
sounding rock mixes I'd ever heard come out of my own speakers. This unit was amazing!!!
When Fabrice and I analyzed the RED, we found out that it was indeed a very unique beast. The
aSack and autorelease work very uniquely and musically. But the real magic we found was in
the output secKon! We found that just pushing the makeup gain a few db did some insane
things to the sound! A liSle push and things got so much more punchy, fat, and aggressive.
A]er more examinaKon, we realized that this was due to a series of nonlinear reacKons caused
by the output transformer. Howie Weinberg, the famous mastering engineer who has a studio
on our campus let us in on a liSle secret. He uses his RED not for compression, but just to use
the output gain to get that amazing effect! So I decided to do something that the original unit
cannot.. I put that output transformer effect on a knob called DRIVE. When you push this DRIVE
knob, you get this beauKful punch and arKculaKon of the transients, and you can control just
how much you want, regardless of whether or not you use the makeup gain! Famous rock
mixer JusKn Neibank beta tested the FG-‐RED and loves the drive, suggesKng '6.6' as the magic
number. But you can try cranking it all the way for an interesKng effect!
Slate Digital -‐ Virtual Buss Compressors
6