Slate VMS ML-1 fans?

[permanent hearing damage]

been curious about modeling mics a good while and took advantage on the sale price on the Slate in the last couple weeks. used it in a few capacities and have been pretty underwhelmed so far. drum room, guitar and bass cab, vocals. will try it a little longer, but really not feeling it. the mic, itself, is pretty decent sounding, without the modeling tech, but nothing special. no "wow" or "a ha" moments for me, thus far.

maybe i just record too much dense rock nonsense to appreciate the subtleties? anyone else found use for these things in loud rock productions?

not giving up just yet, but likely putting up for sale soon.

[digitaldrummer]

a lot of the vocal tracks here were recorded with the ML-1 -- https://themthatknow.bandcamp.com/

It's rock but probably not what you'd call loud/dense. I agree it's a decent mic on it's own and It really depends on the singer. Also I don't have the Slate preamp and instead I use a "neutral" preamp (a Danfield Audio MX20vpr, which is no longer made). Mostly what I get out of it is the ability to change the tone slightly while listening in context of the entire mix. Could you do the same with EQ? Maybe. The transient response changes a bit too and there are other subtle differences that would be difficult to achieve with just EQ. I still do use some EQ along with the models once its in the ballpark.

btw, I got mine on a previous black friday sale where they included all the mic models (expansion kits) so I've got them all to choose from. I also have a pair of the ML-2's and many of the guitars on the above link had at least one ML-2 on the amps. And same thing, I scrolled through until I found a tone that sat well and then did any remaining EQ and compression, etc.

[permanent hearing damage]

ah. interesting. i can certainly hear the difference with the switching of emulations, but not as much of a "wow" as i had hoped for. i initially was going to buy the ml2s and maybe should have gone that route first. jealous you got all the mic models. i'll give those tunes a listen. curious.

[digitaldrummer]

btw, at $149 for the ML-2 I think that's a steal too. the mic itself is decent once again. I've not tried it on drums - at least not yet - since I have other mics I like on drums, but I have put it in front of guitar cabs, used it for percussion, etc. there is a M 260 model in there and R121 that I find myself using a lot to tame shrill/piercing guitar tones (where I'm guessing they blew their hearing out already...), but if you have the opposite problem there are some that can put some pop back into it as well. recently I just did a "live off the floor" session and I had the ML-2 and a ribbon mic on one amp, then used both for a stereo mix (since no overdubs) and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I can't remember which model I'm using, but it was great to be able to switch until I found one that really complemented the ribbon.