INTERVIEW with STEVEN SLATE
Steven Slate discusses the inception of the DRAGON DYNAMICS PROCESSOR
Q: Tell us about the origins of the DRAGON
A: I've always loved the sound of classic analog compression. I use it and abuse it happily on everything from vocals to drums, and I noticed that there has been no innovative new analog compresser products since the Distressor. So I started writing up some ideas.
Q: And what were the initial ideas?
A: Initially I wanted to make a box that, like the Distressor,could have a lot of options that would allow it to have many different sounds, but instead of using a VCA based detector, I wanted to use a FET like the classic 1176.
Q: Why the FET instead of VCA?
A: Because VCA had been done already, and the FET style compression was extremely musical and I felt that it was a bit of an untapped resource because very few popular designs besides the 1176 used a FET.
Q: So what were your first ideas about the new compressor?
A: Well the very first time I sat down to think about the various things I wanted it to do, I wrote many of the options that are currently available on the DRAGON. The three character switches, the vintage switch, mix knob, and the saturation.. I had it all written down from the start. I even knew that I wanted to do something cool with the faceplate that hadn't been done before.
Q: So how does it go from a drawing to reality?
A: I met up with Greg St. Regis and Tim Caswell from Studio Electronics, who are responsible for quite a lot of fantastic analog designs, and we talked about the idea and it instantly clicked. Tim is the electronics designer, and first thought the idea was a bit nuts and that it possibly should be broken up into two seperate devices, one more for compression and the other a tone shaper. But eventually he began to like the idea of having it all under one hood.
Q: So what do you use the DRAGON on?
A: Well, everything. Thats the idea. You got a dull vocal? Squash it 20db and then add bite and sheen and voalla, it comes to life! Drums need some personality? Slowest attack, fastest release, boom bite and sheen character switches, 4db of compression, and all of sudden they got some life to them like you'd never believe. Even on full mixes, just moving the needle a db can add some extra mojo to a mix. For bass, I love the extra sub depth that the boom switch adds. The saturation also adds a unique fatness and I'll use setting 1 on almost everything.
Q: Whats next for Slate Pro Audio?
A: I've got some more crazy ideas that I hope will be as well received as the DRAGON. We'll see.