The knobs can either be controlled by scroll wheel or clicking and dragging. Size will be your friend with Satin due to some of the smaller controls across the bottom “Service” panel. This is one of the few plugins in my toolbox that I do not have to inch ever so close to the screen to tweak settings. Just be wary of clicking close to those areas by switches of knobs or the “Midi Learn” will pop up. The window can be resized to several different sizes with a simple right click of any part of the background. The interface has a very cool classic vibe but modern features and functions that I really wish other plugin manufacturers would take note of. Satin even has a “groups” setting so you can meld all of your tracks together with the same setting just like if you were working on a real reel-to-reel machine (try saying that one 5 times fast). So what all do you get that the others can’t provide? Well… you get a tape delay, tape flanger, as well as tape saturation all in one plugin. There are so many things good about all of the individual Tape emulation suites I mentioned before, but Satin combines each of these great features and even adds the kitchen sink. Don’t get me wrong, what Slate has done for mixes with his version of a tape machine is astonishing, but I was looking for was something that was a veritable “Swiss Army Knife” of tape. Hopeful because even though I already own plugins like Slate Virtual Tape Machines, Reel Tape Suite and both iterations of Nomad Factory’s Magnetic, I was looking for something a little different. When I initially saw the press release for Satin, I was very hopeful. We all know the adjectives surrounding analog so I will try my hardest not to use them for the rest of the interview… This is going to be really tough. The name alone already implies smooth connotations of very buttery, rich audio. Push that even farther and you can use this to alter the sound completely and change certain colors of the view and give a whole new perspective. It can be thought of as an overall rounding off of an already great view. This is where tape saturation works its magic. This may be very well and good but sometimes throwing some window tinting on there can tame some of the overbearing light and glare. Digital technology is best described as looking through a big window outside everything is very crisp and transparent. Our ears work very similar to analog gear and having something that behaves like our ears at the source helps us to translate it better. Some of the things we left behind though are very fundamental principles that (albeit weren’t the easiest to understand and sometimes best avenues to record) are essential to creating a mix that is pleasing to the human ear.
It truly is the age for the “everyman” to record. We all love the fact that we can record audio straight into our computers, mold the sound with all sorts of different tools, and put out a near big-studio-quality track.