Anybody check this out yet? Curious to hear your thoughts.

I downloaded the demo and I just don't "hear" the sound of vinyl when using it. This is coming from someone who dj'ed for years, so I feel confident in knowing what I believe it should sound like and it just doesn't hit the mark for me. There are some features on it that I thought sound pretty convincing and even creatively useful like the wow and flutter options, but things like the noise and crackle options sound a bit cheap and unconvincing to me.

Overall, it does shape the character of the audio depending on what settings you use it can give a pleasing and overall smoothness to the mix but if I'm being honest, its a bit meh.

Maybe I just need more time to play around with it but first impressions didn't leave me an overwhelming desire to buy it in the same way something like the U-he Satin or the UAD Studer & Ampex plugins did, which are completely different plugins but sound absolutely authentic to me.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2016

Maybe some random vinyl like yours don't sound like some random vinyl waves model.

I believe all hardware sounds different and I do not have any experience with the Abbey Roads Vinyl hardware so I can't make any comparison.

Maybe that is how Abbey Roads Vinyl Sounds like?

 

To my old ears, the most valuable thing in this baby is the "stop" effect which is, for the very first time, perfectly reproduced.
Other than that, defects like wow and flutter and crackles must be avoid since they only helps to degrade the sound in an unpleasant way.
Of course this is an opinion based on my very personal tastes... which I always share with absolutely no restraint .

 

I understand what you mean. But if you're a company releasing a product that states "Give your music the vintage warmth of vinyl records played on classic turntables and needles", and you know what that is supposed to sound like, you expect it to do what it says. Maybe its just me expecting something more than the digital platform can deliver, and yes I don't have a point of reference for what Abbey Road Studios’ vinyl cutting and playback gear sounds like, but I've owned thousands of records and dj'ed for years in my youth, so I feel confident in knowing what it should sound like. For the same reason a banana from south america and a banana from the canary islands might taste different, but at the end of the day, they taste like a banana lol.

+1

I'm not for features that degrade the sound either... unless they can be used creatively, which is of course in the eye of the beholder. I was really hoping for this plugin to bring something new to the table but I just feel it missed the mark.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2016

I'd say there's no single "perfect" plugin. For more realistic effect I'd rather use a chain of 2-3 different ones, like:

- Sonitex STX-1260 (pops, crackles, sibilance, wobble)
- AlexB Vinylizer For Nebula 3 (noises, hum, dust, scratch)
- Waves Abbey Road Vinyl (wow, flutter)

 

Fuck the pops and crackles sonitex is fucking unbeatable for that. Fuck the dj modes and the turntable arm.
For me it's the desk, the drive, wow and flutter. The distortion is fucking ace too.

 

Why not just download the iZotope Vinyl plug for free from their site? It does exactly what you describe (plus other things, like "warping", specifying whether the record is a 45 or an LP, etc.). The only bummer is, they took off the presets when they released the 64-bit version, so I've had to use the 32-bit version running under 32Lives on the Mac, but it's still a great plug.

 

I think its awesome.

 

I've got an oldish sounding Country tune that I wanted the intro to come in "LoFi" like an old turntable with needle drop, and pops, etc. Then after the first bar in, HiFi. I know, it's cheesy, but I think it would really fit the song's character perfectly.
Was going to use Izotope for it. I like the AlexB too, especially for the needle drop. Might have to check into this and the Sonitex offering to see how they stack up.

 

When I tried it on a track and heard the cracks I thought wtf is that horrible noise? My speakers blown, a plugin demo time limit noise? and then I said oh..the noise dial is up a bit. Other than a special fx of an old scratched record, I can't imagine what that dial would be good for. The rest of the plugin sound ok for what it is.

 

Have'nt tried it yet...and hope it can be better than this one wich so far to my taste is the best out there in this category
https://www.audiothing.net/effects/vinyl-strip/

 

I agree. If talking just Waves plugins alone.. Even on an entire mix, that damn GW Tone plugin is like a secret recipe for unity/consistency when you inch it up to it's sweet spot. And followed by this Abbey Road Vinyl plugin the mix can literally become alive and still not sound like it's all over the place. It's a much better practice and result than the sound of overly forcing things together with compressors. If the good ear allows people to use the Tone and Vinyl plugins together with scrutiny they'll experience the awesome sound they can achieve.

 

I could see myself using it in this way. Pushing it to the limit and torturing my selfmade samples with it. Instead of endless searching for that classic sample to use in a hip hop track you can now make the classic sample yourself

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2016

Yup, I like that STOP effect too. Whilst slowing down I didn't noticed any digital artifacts.

BUT: the slowing down takes waaaaaaaaay to looooooong for the "DJ" Turntable. It resembles the classic Technics 1210 MK II. And that stops like in a quarter of a second if not less in RL.

 

Maybe we need to learn how to program the different aspects of the plug. Im gonna spend time with it automating and getting the sound i want out of it, so far learned the stop effect has different timing, and how to use pop, crackle and noise in and out at different parts of song sounds great to me.

 

I personally don't enjoy this. I'm getting much more depth out of Slate's Tape machines. I second GW's Tonecentric though. Greg's plugins are really the only thing I like out of Waves, but they sound amazing and add so much character and life.

 

Looks nice. Expensive for what it is though. I won't be supporting Waves' business model of pricing stuff at insane and then bringing it down to expensive when it's on "sale" because OMG look what a bargain that is.

I recall Von made a thread about this a while back and I predicted the base price would be $250. I hate to say I told you so but... no I don't.

 

Some bright spark thought "Oh I know, people love vinyl lets make a pluging that replicates the distortion cracks pops and noise floor, people will think it's a sick ass pluging and we can reap in the $$$ for showing the public how great that old shit sound from a crappy medium. Just in case lets make a GUI that uses "ALL" their CPU so they think it's doing something really special. We can't fucking lose, people are honestly that stupid".

And as if on que the forums are now littered with "OMG this is awesome" BS that people who didn't have to grow up buying rercords every year because you've worn them out, buying needles because they get worn out, having to put up with that phasey nonsense that would happen on the inward section of the record because the needle was at an angle. Kiddies spoilt with the near infinity Db noise floor they are blessed with these days, which people worked very hard to bring you and you want to fuck it up by going back to the dark ages and introducing fucking spastic noise that we tried so fucking hard to eradicate.

I wouldn't be surprised if sometime soon we have an "Abbey Roads Tin Can and String" Plugin with an amazing GUI that spikes the CPU to 120%, but gives you that "Authentic" Tin can and string sound we remember back in the day. You can even change the string type to wire, guitar strings, fishing line. The tin can can be changed to plastic cup, foam cup. You honestly can't make a major hit without that "String and Tin Can" sound.

Fuck me.

 

"BS that people who didn't have to grow up buying rercords every year because you've worn them out, buying needles because they get worn out,"

Every year?Did you play frisbee with them?
I love everything about Vinyl.Sill have many of my fathers 40 year old LPs which most still play nicely.

 

When I used to DJ in the mid-to-late 90s I always bought my vinyl in twos. One for performing and one for personal listening. Fun times, we knew what days the local dj/music shops got their deliveries and would race the flock to be the first there on those days. Some labels you didnt even have to demo, you just grabbed the record, like skint, zone, halucination, because you already knew it was quality breaks. But we were always trying to demo evey white label (with black handwritten info) to have that exclusive track in your set.
My Ortofon cartridges never wore out and were still mint when i sold my 1200's and numark mixer to fund my monitors and sub.
What really stood out to me about the vinyl is the silence. When you listen to djs and mixes on mega watt PA systems even the silence and quiet parts of the songs had a denseness to it that you could literally feel like pressure on you when you were surrounded by bass bins and huge pa's on the dance floor. The thickness of the analog blanketed you. It almost felt like you were underwater.
I actually know of famous producers that would sample the lead in and lead out silent parts of records, and then loop them in their tracks to try to get that same feeling in their music.
If you've never experienced it first-hand you probably would have no idea what I'm talking about.

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2016