Imagine mastering your mixes without causing the lifeless, squashed, and over
compressed sound that has become so common in modern music. We have all been
at the mercy of the "loudness wars" for over ten years now. Masters have become
louder and louder, at the expense of the music becoming harsh and lacking punch
and dynamics. One of the main causes of this epidemic is the use of the Peak
Limiter to achieve increased levels in the mastering stage. Peak limiters
attenuate transients and often reduce punch, stereo imaging, can greatly alter
mix balances, and cause a fatiguing result to the ears.

Some of the top mastering engineers have found ways to combat this sonic
degradation by using techniques other then Peak Limiting. One of the more popular
techniques is the use of saturation in both the analog and digital domain. Another
popular method is clipping the front end of expensive A/D converters. However,
both of these methods, while better then peak limiting, have their downfalls.
Static saturation curves are not universal in their ability to sound good on all
transients. Clipping greatly reduces low end punch and is very poor at retaining
sub bass. Both static saturation and clipping have a small window of gain
maximizing before audible distortion. Enter SLATE DIGITAL.

Two years ago Steven Slate and expert algorithm engineer Fabrice Gabriel started
working out the concept for a digital audio process that could increase the level
of a mix without altering the punch and dynamic feel, or make the mix sound
squashed and lifeless. They started by researching saturation curves and their
effect on various types of transient material. After several months of study and
hundreds of listening tests, they made some fascinating discoveries. What they
found, was that in order to transparently add level to a mix, a dynamic and
intelligent transient saturation system would have to be developed.
New ADVANCED ALGORITHMS were created to execute the extremely complex
communication system that would be needed to properly perform the new dynamic
operations. A new algorithm was formed, and the process was named "Intelligent
Transient Preservation", or ITP.

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