This is half a serious question. The guys at Acustica Audio, the team of beta testers, and everyone involved are kind of spoiling us with Acqua offerings almost on a monthly basis. The only downside is being able to stretch ones pockets to get all those puppies because once you try them, GAS rears its ugly head and food then stops being a priority.

On a more serious note, what are the AA team up to? What is to be expected? Any insider news?

Now being totally serious, thank you AudioSex for being the great place you are with all the great people here who are always supporting us. The in-house AA community is top notch. Just thank you all.

Peace

 

I would like to see a mixbus/master console/channel strip/tape emulator all in one plugin. Something like a combination of Slate VCC, TG12345 and Satin in one.
So you could really push the mojo to where it was now impossible.

 

TBH, I would really like to see Knif and Foote gear being sampled. OTOH I'd like to have 1176, LA, Cl1B alternatives to my trusted UA plugins.

I'd like to see them coming back to where they started from, simpler, not so resource demanding plugins. I think they focused too much on very complex strips and the individual modules are lacking (no distortion on eqs, no internal sc on compressors). It seems somehow they tend to lose the big picture. It's nice to have those huge complex strips but similar attention should be dedicated to bread and butter stuff. Updated Honey, Navey (keeping the preamp inside the eq) etc.

 

after I bought Amethyst3, it is really hard to put any other plugin in my signal chain... now I "Just" need some solid acqua tape and I'm done... (I'm simple guy... what a lie, I want everything from AA)

 

I'd personally wouldn't want to have the classics: LA2As and 1176s abound in software land and some offerings are just so good that adding them after an AA pre or EQ they just shine without taxing computer resources, and I don't mind their complex channel strips. Since they offer standalone plugins in the same batch, you get a lot of dough for your buck.

I second The idea of a tape machine. I guess UAD Ampex 102 would finally have a real competitor. My money is that an AA tape or console plugin would throw the Ampex off the water. I'd also love to see a Neve or SSL approved plugin. AA gets closer to the real deal than Waves or UAD, which officially endorse their products. On a second thought, that'd throw the price to the roof. Forget I said such a thing.

 

Ebony emt console with emt 140.
Ruby
And a couple others, check Gian carlo instrgram page as well as join the acustica forum for all up to date stuff. Tim p has the j37 tape plus the varilevel and a sort of 1176 as well as a la3a which is fantastic, prime studios did the tg12345 with the sparkle plugins as well as others. Alexb has the cl1b as well as all sort of goodies. All for nebula of course.

 

Last edited: Jun 4, 2017

There's also the acustica audiophiles page on Facebook

 

That plugin is still on the market and it's called N4.

 

Check the comp ROSE that comes in bundle for free with N4, it's in both Acuqa and N4 library formats, and it features an opto and a FET compressors + their matched preamp. I'ts a little more complex to tweak than UAD LA2A, for example, but the result is awesome.
I replaced easily my UAD LA2A with the opto and the 1176LN with the FET.
To be honest, I'm keeping the UAD dsp cards just because I can spare some CPU power...

 

Do you know for sure that it is a 240? Was hoping for a 140... I'm sure it will be great either way.

Similarly, anyone have experience with the Verbsuite from Slate? It seems to use similar tech to AA afaik and gives one much more control compared to the historical verbs in N4... Any other preferences for reverb?

 

Sorry meant 140
also there is a product "a" as its called so far on forums, that will most likely be something to do with api, on gian's instagram he has Capi eq's that he was sampling, so that would be awesome

 

Last edited: Jun 4, 2017

EMT channel strip and EMT verb is next, it's called Ebony. After that we are expecting the update to Ivory with an added comp and Pink 2, with added pres, a re-sampled comp and more accurate API sound quality with Core X.

 

Verbsuite is based on the Liquidsonics IR tech which brings control and modulation. AA's IR tech uses ultrasound and can capture up to 9th order harmonics, Ebony is coming and will be AA's first verb, let's see what they bring with their first official reverb Acqua.

 

So they are two different beasts... I saw in the AITB reverb thread that you use Nebula libraries with Alti and Valhalla. Have you had the chance to use Verbsuite or LS? Given your choices, it seems Nebula is the preferred option (better quality) and Ebony should be very interesting - esp for the verb.

From what I see, I wouldn't use the filter on verbsuite. Too ambiguous. Not sure I would use the chorus or width either.

How do you control the pre-delay and decay time in Nebula? I suppose I could double the track, use a delay plug-in, and automate the output?

Sorry to detract OP.

 

You have that, with the separate modules, allowing for as simple or complex a combination as needed..... which IMHO is soooooooo much better than how they started.

 

Rose is nice, but it's a very different device. I found out it can complement the UA 76 and LA2 stuff, but not really replace them. I use it quite often. But for 'that' sound, I still want to find something that simply behaves like that, but sounds better and until this day, the only tech that can deliver a superior sound to the excellent UAD emulations is AA's one.

@WillTheWeirdo, my point is, just leave the distortion inside eqs and compressors as they used to be, so I don't have to open two plugins for one job. Ironically, doing that (2 instead of 1), despite having the new 'core' version, is also more cpu taxing. I really hope they won't break Honey and Navy with this way of overcomplicating everything. I love complex stuff, but I also need bread & butter stuff. Speaking of... I appreciate they already did that in Cobalt (having the distortion in all plugins), I hope it won't be something they will forget, like they tend to do with other good things (remember input trim?).

 

Last edited: Jun 5, 2017

After Cobalt, AA will collab with K.L.F. , burn a million dollars and say goodbye to the industry.
They will return after the nuclear winter, on motorcycles.

 

We each have our tool preference, I personally love the new Acqua's..... I don't use Honey or Navy, but to each their own.

 

I use Navy, not Honey, I would prefer the eqs and pres to also come separated and be able to use those fine pres with algos or heck other acquas/nebulas. I prefer the formula they offer now (separated pres). On Cobalt I use the separated one with the eq (I love the comp pre), using a separated pre adds maybe 0.10 percent on my track next to using the pre inside the eq in Cobalt. If they implement a pre per separated element like they did lately with cobalt, I'm fine with it (pearl also has a pre on each element), but the pre isn't what takes the most juice and I like to compare when they offer several models and the separate pre unit also offers that comfort and that flexibility. I can spend a while comparing the different colors I get with the many pres in Lime or Gold, I love it, if this concept was extended to Navy I would actually like that

All together the tech moves forward, the evolution of the cores testifies of that, because they don't always do the same thing and they have expanded the original concept. Acquas came where they are with a lot of the work accomplished with nebula and around it so far, Nebual will benefit from the new features that are being developped. I would be frustrated if we only had the strips, but we get the strips and the bread and butter in nifty nice separated elements. Many companies would sell the strip and separated elements independantly to make more bucks, and the way AA do things now is both to our benefits in term of choice of tools and in term of cost (well there are more and more, and it costs, but the concurence offers less in quality much more expensive).
I think they are on a roll and I hope they keep it up.

 

True, but I'd still rather mix than "digitally solder" my plugins.