We may have seemed a little quiet about the Slate Raven, but as there seems to be various views on ‘the future of mixing’ we think it only right to give you the Slate vision of the future as well.

In their view a control surface sits between you and the DAW, so they ask ‘what if you could do away with the control surface altogether? Enter the Slate Raven, in their words, a fully integrated solution. 

We spent some time in London with Steven looking at the Raven before it went to market and it is indeed impressive - perhaps the hardest transition for most is the idea of having the screen and control in one solution. We hope to get our hands on one soon to really give it a run for the money.

Most of all the price is very attractive and is targeted in such as way so that both aspiring engineers and producers and top artists, such as Will-I-Am can invest in the Raven solution. This is very smart thinking, Steven and his team seemed to have figured out that there is a big group that sit between Disney post houses and the ‘bedroom boys’ (not our words by the way), we agree, there are indeed a lot of people who are professional and who sit in the middle of both start-up and million dollar facilities - giving them solutions is very smart. Slate Ravens start from £13,350, so the pricing is hugely attractive, especially for those making money (and more importantly paying for) the gear they own.

So it seems we have 4 options;

• In-the-box
• Raven
• Control surfaces 
• Analogue boards 

If you think this is just for music production then look at this quote from award winning TV and Film dubbing editor Mike Aiton when he reviewed the product for Audio Media magazine…

“This has been one of the hardest reviews I have ever had to write – where to start? I have reviewed (and predominantly bought with my own hard-earned cash) many awesome pro-audio products, but none has left me with such a complete sense of “this is where it is at, this is where it is going and I want one NOW!” The Slate Pro Audio Raven MTX is by far the most unique and paradigm-shifting product I have ever tried”

Which one is for you? 

Who do you think has the the future of mixing figured out? Discuss.