Please reread what you just wrote.. The technology you seem so flippant about is kind of unique at the moment, have you tried one of these? Definitely not algo. Harmonics separate isn't a bad thing as far as I can see, and I'm only speaking up because of the lack of recognition for a new concept, ya'll sound really flat earther's right now

 

I think the problem is that their whole tech is being lauded as the best thing that is being offered right now, within the plugins.
As soon as you get good monitors and train your ears you can hear that they are just another plugin maker.
Some of the plugins they offer are good, some not.

My opinion is, that their tech showed a lot of promises in the beginning, yet algo plugins have made bigger gains sound wise at the same time minimizing the cpu consumption.
Again, not hating on AA, just my own personal opinion, use whatever you desire.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 21, 2019

harmonics separated is a bad thing when you do not market it that way and you pride your self as being the most authentic. I do own some earlier aquas and a lot of nebulas, but it is true that the algos have caught up much faster than expected and it seems that acustica not having enough time time to keep up is swimming for their lives.

 

Last edited: Jan 21, 2019

harmonics are variable in the unit based on the parameter adjustments.. The tone changes with how much you adjust the parameter.

 

I agree 100% but are we talking about consoles with multiple pre amp variables in a chain or a standard compressor emulation? If you activate the pre before compressing there definitely is a tonal character that changes with the ratios. On some AA consoles you can switch preamps according to different consoles for more variation. I'm not speaking on the Varidian mentioned in vid, this one didn't work for me. I still use algos but they're great for a different sound when compared with AA kernals. Then considering AA gives separated modules including the pre amps, an added advantage is given for uses outside of compression as well. I'm probably out of context on this because I use outside the scope of a standard vintage emulations.

 

How is it a bad thing? Having the option to turn off harmonics makes the plugin more versatile imo...

 

Exactly... It is a strong selling point, and a big advantage of our approach: you can have a perfect emulation, or detatch a component (ie preamp) and mix wth a different one for maximum flexibility
There was a product - el rey - where we disabled this behavior and there was a little insurrection: they still ask for a detached preamp!

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2019

Having the option is not a bad thing, but being mislead into thinking you are being given the option to turn it off, (when you do not even have the option to turn it on and still being charged for it), is a bad thing.

 

When they change we do it.
It can't happen in viridian: it is a passive eq, so harmonics don't change at all at different eq settings (or they do in negligible ways) But in several designs we take it in account, for example diamond eq - solid state distortion is pretty different when you dial the eq

 

The only time where we disabled the option people complained

 

I was literally gonna say that El Rey harmonics can't be turned off and people complained about it on the gearslutz forum lol... Can't please everyone I guess. AA is dope, fuck the haters.

 

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2019

They are good sounding plugins but they do come with issues of their own, its funny reading responses from folk who have guzzled the AA koolaid though, especially those using the age old "appeal to authority" argument of "i do this for a living you wouldnt understand etc etc...". This is faulty logic, the vast majority of commercial music releases are processed by plugins at some point, and the vast majority of those releases havent been anywhere near AAplugins , thats worth remembering.
If the AA plugins were everything that their most ardent supporters claimed to be sales of algo plugins and real hardware woud be trending to zero, but its not, not by a long chalk. Much in the same way that convolution reverb has failed to replace bricasti, eventide , lexicon ,strymon etc.

I feel well placed to offer this opinion as i own high end and also low mid end hardware, algo plugins and AA plugins and also do music commercially. My honest feeling is that if you really want the sound og analog hardware with all the benefits that it may impart then your best bet is still analog hardware. As always your milage may vary.

 

Soft like compressors I like? "Vibe" offending me? I use Waves?
Are you drunk?

 

I hate these kind of comparisons like rubber doll vs real woman, driving car vs playing NFS, be a gangsta vs playing GTA...when we talk about gear vs plugins.
Because in our case we work with emulation or real gear, BUT the end result is mostly digital audio song with all these processes included, who will never notice, either that was hardware saturation or digital emulation. Can you explain what i use in my tracks? Who cares? Or another question - will you count harmonics or measure the warmness? Or you dancing more and feel groovier with track done with real 1176 than vst emu? Who dictates the rules that i must use only neve, api, ssl, 1176 and not digital? Today your music probably cool, tomorrow not. You are get forgotten faster than spending time at studio while adjusting gear, rerecording, engineering etc. All that gear doesnt worth time, money you spent and your nerves spent in that all. Plugins are faster, better for workflow and not so shitty sounding. And who said that real 1176 always 100% fits in the mix and digital clones doesnt? What if i can do better with stock plugins?
And i hate most engineers do use gear to achieve subtle difference vs plugins, but do nothing for editing/restoration. I mostly hate all that clicks, bad edits, background shit sound and i dont count harmonics of gear they used. I notice problems only that are obvious, not that are harmonics under the noise and in bat hearing ranges...

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2019

"mild pump" my friend you are off topic..
It's not about do you hear it, or not, the subject is the plugin real, or snake oil. Is it living up to the hype as it is advertised.

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2019

As long as a piece of gear doesn't get in the way of creativity then it doesn't matter what you use to get to the finish line. There might be a 3-5% difference in sound quality (which is itself rather a moving target) between let's say a UA 1176 Rev. D and a good emulation, but for most people, they can neither hear it or care as long as they can musically fuck up their drum buss with all buttons in. Technology has come a long way these last few years, and even the hard core analog adherent is now feeling good enough about plugins to have a hybrid studio. The real place in my opinion that might never do it is with microphones. So far they fall far short of putting a smile on my face trying to do the emulation thing. It probably has to with the cheap capsules of the microphones they are using. 90 percent of a microphone's sound is the capsule.

 

This centerpiece of PLUGIN suit is a beautiful emulation of rare vintage British console 1972, used to shape ionic albums. I would say AA equalizers are mostly better than algo plugin technology. Acustica Audio has released BASSTARD, a freeware Pultec-style Equalizer effect in VST, AU, AAX plugin formats for digital audio. It's indeed a very convincing tool.

 

Ceil is also very impressive, it literally marks all checkboxes I dislike about the sampled the eq.
The w952b eq can do stuff I simply can't replicate on a software eq.

I'm slightly ashamed for that white sea studio guy not recognizing the Acustica tech.
the format of his channel makes it almost inherent to this kind of 'misunderstanding'
and whith real hardware at hands, who could really blame him?

My first purchase, it really changed my vision on metering as a whole.
my take on it is, that it is super aggressive. One will need determination and balls to dial it in the correct way.
all the gain dials serve very different purposes. the LMf frequency dial has a very interesting but useful response, Love it

Very interesting, with what frequency did you hit it at the time? did you test how it sounds at the level where the spectrum is starting to breakdown? I'm curious how it holds up.

 

Last edited: Aug 27, 2019

This kind of frequency breakdown is kind of a common occurrence when they first release something and fixed if it was indeed an issue. I believe this post started in the earlier stages of El Rey, at the time I wasn't too sure about this purchase either but now it's a godforsaken Bushido warrior