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Ross Hogarth Never Leaves Home Without the Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack

Slate DigitalMakersRoss Hogarth Never Leaves Home Without the Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack Multi Grammy-Winning Producer/Mix Engineer on Making Classic Records in the Digital Era and Being a Slate Digital ‘OG’ Los Angeles, CA, August 19, 2026 —Producer/Engineer/Mixer Ross Hogarth is the sonic architect behind

Parallel Compression Explained (and how to use it)

Slate DigitalMakersParallel Compression Explained (and how to use it) Parallel compression is a mixing technique where you blend a heavily compressed copy of a track underneath the original, uncompressed signal. You get the punch, density, and sustain of aggressive compression while keepin

What Is Gain Staging (and why your mix sounds muddy)

Slate DigitalMakersWhat Is Gain Staging (and why your mix sounds muddy) Gain staging is the practice of setting an appropriate signal level at every stage of your recording and mixing chain, so nothing distorts unintentinally and nothing gets buried in noise. In simple terms: keep your level

How to Build the Perfect Vocal Chain with Plugins

Slate DigitalMakersHow to Build the Perfect Vocal Chain with Plugins A vocal chain is the sequence of plugins on your vocal track, in a specific order, from raw recording to finished mix. The order can matter just as much, sometimes even more than the specific plugins you pick. Get it bac

Vocal Tuning Without the Robot Voice: A Producer’s Guide

Slate DigitalMakersVocal Tuning Without the Robot Voice: A Producer’s Guide Pitch correction has a branding problem. Mention vocal tuning to anyone outside the studio and they picture the T-Pain effect: glassy, quantized, the vocal sounding like a synth patch. That sound is a real creative choic

Eric Emery Keeps Tracking Sessions Dialed in With Slate Digital ML-1A and Virtual Microphone System

Slate DigitalMakersEric Emery Keeps Tracking Sessions Dialed in With Slate Digital ML-1A and Virtual Microphone System Slate’s large-diaphragm modeling microphone helps the Grammy-nominated producer and mix engineer maintain creative momentum, quickly matching the right microphone sound to every artist Los Angeles, CA, June 10, 2026 —2x

Slate Digital vs Waves: How To Pick the Right Plugin Suite

Slate DigitalMakersSlate Digital vs Waves: How To Pick the Right Plugin Suite What you get: Slate Digital’s Complete Access includes 150+ plugins. The catalog leans into analog-modeled processing: console emulations, tape machines, vintage compressors, EQs, and tools like Fresh Air, Infinity EQ, a

How we designed the Bus Clipper

Slate DigitalMakersHow we designed the Bus Clipper This article presents some technical aspects and challenges that we faced during the development of the Bus Clipper. It complements the user guide by bringing more DSP details on the main Clipper and Booster sections and

Come and see Slate Digital at NAMM 2026

Slate DigitalMakersCome and see Slate Digital at NAMM 2026 NAMM 2026 is now less than a week away and we are hugely excited to see all of you at the show!We will be exhibiting from booth 18303 and will be showcasing our latest production tools: the ML-1A and ML-2A modeling mics,

SSL autoSeries plugins joins Complete Access

Slate DigitalMakersSSL autoSeries plugins joins Complete Access SSL autoSeries joins the ever-growing Complete Access subscription.The new SSL autoSeries features 3 brand-new plugins – autoBUS, autoDYN and autoEQ – and are the first plug-ins to combine SSL’s best-in-class 4000 E mode

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About

XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.