useless "Snake Oil" vst's

Discussion in 'Software' started by sms2000, Sep 3, 2019.

  1. Rockseller

    Rockseller Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Aug 2, 2019
    Messages:
    284
    Likes Received:
    160
    all these kontakt pseudo sample synths :dunno: what is this ?
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Funny Funny x 1
    • Interesting Interesting x 1
    • List
  2. Blue

    Blue Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2015
    Messages:
    1,807
    Likes Received:
    954
    On Ebay or Reverb.
     
  3. 5teezo

    5teezo Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    2,063
    Likes Received:
    1,172
    As far as the Butch Vig Vocal chain is concerned: the GUI is horrendous and confusing, but you can achieve great sounding distorted vocals.

    As I get older and have seen hundred of companies and plugins buy now, there's not so much new stuff coming out, that iimpresses me

    My all time favorite snake oil company has been without a doubt Studiolinkedvst for years. Just horrible Instruments with snakeoil textbook "you can become a star with this" marketing. A well-deserved #1 Spot, imo!

    The next ones are not really snake oil, but far from being "tha shit" ;)

    Beatskillz
    is right on the edge – they seem to try at least. Another one of those Companies which seems to have better Graphic Designers than programmers. ;)
    Soundspot – I bought Soundspot Kickbox because it was dirt cheap and also part of a pluginboutique deal. Didn't impress me. Boz Sasquatch does a better job on Kickdrum treatment. Soundspot is another one of those componies which tries to hide mediocre processors behind slick, futuristic GUIs, imo.
    Klevgrand is another company whos products don't convince me. Everything they do comes across very esotheric: from the colors, to the GUIs to the names of the Plugins.

    I am undecided about this one, though:

    Process Audio Sugar – Fab Duponts attempt to enter the plugin market and another one of these do-it-all-on-the-mixbus "Magic Plugins". I mean it does work, but I beleive you don't need it if you know what you are doing.
     
    • Winner Winner x 1
    • Interesting Interesting x 1
    • List
  4. livemouse

    livemouse Producer

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2016
    Messages:
    284
    Likes Received:
    132
    Remember that one really exensive plugin that made you feel stupid because you couldn't hear what it did on the track? And even after 10 more years of experience you still can't hear what it does to the track? That one was snake oil.
     
  5. 5teezo

    5teezo Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    2,063
    Likes Received:
    1,172

    Luftikus is a freeware alternative of the Maag 4 EQ. And for what it is, it's really okay. When thinking about Air bands up to 40 k you don't have to think about the frequency but rather the broudness of the curve instead. Meaning, the curve behaves like its center frequency was 40 k, but what it's all about how smoothly the frequencies below the center frequency are boosted by the ultra wide curve. And that's exactly what is shown on the spectrogram. That's how a mastering engineer explained it to me. In the analog world it's not a problem, in the digital world it is an issue.

    So with regards to the way Air bands are meant to work, this is not snake oil. If he would it "Air" or "Shine" and not a frequency you wouldn't have called it snake oil. BTW, to display this curve correctly it would have been necessary to use a sample rate of at leat 88.2 kHz to represent the curve correctly (Nyquist Theorem).
     
  6.  
  7. No Avenger

    No Avenger Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2017
    Messages:
    8,911
    Likes Received:
    6,110
    Location:
    Europe
    Although this claim is correct, your assumption that I haven't done it, is not. Please have a look at the horizontal scale at the bottom (of my post https://audiosex.pro/threads/useless-snake-oil-vsts.49972/page-2#post-421993). :yes:

    Your 'mastering' engineer is wrong, sorry. You may like to show him the following pics.
    Please mind the different vertical scale and the manually adjusted output. And of course the changed horizontal scale to my above mentioned post to proove your 'ME' wrong.

    Here I raised '40k' by 5. As you can see 20k is risen by ~1dB. What's that useful for??? Means, half of the range doesn't do anything.
    You can also see that the curve's peak is way above 100.000Hz!
    [​IMG]

    FWIW, same horizontal resolution with +10
    [​IMG]

    Additionally and again, 'Analog' doesn't change anything and 'Mastering' only switches from continuous to discrete values. So at least these two are definitely snakeoil.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2019
    • Interesting Interesting x 1
    • Useful Useful x 1
    • List
  8. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2012
    Messages:
    6,956
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Location:
    Europe
    OMG... it's true... it's a thing!!! :deep_facepalm::crazy::suicide:
    In any case, these "TrackGod" plugins are NOT snake oil.
    They are... "holy shit"
    I mean literally :lmao::hahaha:
     
  9. devilorcracker

    devilorcracker Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2013
    Messages:
    516
    Likes Received:
    263
    They have beautiful GUI.
     
  10. DoubleTake

    DoubleTake Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2017
    Messages:
    2,184
    Likes Received:
    1,147
    That "one"? I was thinking,"All those ones..."
    Now i think,"Snake oil might not be my problem...." :grooves: :speaker::metal::break::boombox::drummer:
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
    • Love it! Love it! x 1
    • List
  11. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2012
    Messages:
    6,956
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Location:
    Europe
    The story of my life... :deep_facepalm:
    :lmao:
     
  12. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2012
    Messages:
    6,956
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Location:
    Europe
    I'd say that's a good point if you don't use Bias Amp along with Bias Fx.
     
  13. wouala woualouf

    wouala woualouf Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2015
    Messages:
    297
    Likes Received:
    240
    I stopped watching his videos ...
    1st, i could no longer stand that sandstorm-darude song...
    2nd...3rd...144th.. reason: the guy can't accept any criticism at all. By the way, he is constantly saying 'ohhh, i dont know this/that, according to the comments'....'oh, some comments say this and this, they know better than me'...'oh, some comments claim i should do this or that, because, apparently, i....bla bla'.....

    Fuk, you either disable your comments, and you are sure nobody will say something negative about you/your videos/your work...or you enable the comments...and you risk some users, among your 40 or 50'000 subscribers, might not 100% agree with you.

    He hates when someone disagrees. He can't accept or tolerate it.

    Then, you have 50% of the video is spent on criticizing the interface, whether it is too white...too dark...to many screws. .not enough screws...3d look is useless. .it should look more 3d.... bla bla bla.....

    He is becoming like all themother youtubers: everything he does, it's for more cash. Always the frekin cash.

    And , fuk, there are pieces of software where you absolutely need to read the manual...specially when they use some abstract concepts... you can't just run a plugin, with 60 different buttons and sliders, crank ALL buttons to -/+300 , and hope the plug-in will do something great. Total BS, imho.

    Another thing, why keep spelling 'idea' as 'ID', when hundreds of users already told him he was misspelling it...?

    I give him another month or two, before 9 videos out of 10 are just 'sponsored products presentation'...... kind of 'mixbus tv', with david... every single day, there is a new plug-in that he 'adores '... or rather... 'adores' the 5'000 or 10'000 €/$ he received, to talk about that product (strangely, he never dislikes whatsoever, from the plug-in he is presenting. ..everything is perfect, no flaws....)

    No doubt, the human race is what it is. ..
    As soon as those youtubers start making some money, the greed that was sleeping inside them, wakes up.
     
    • Like Like x 2
    • Dislike Dislike x 1
    • List
  14. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2012
    Messages:
    6,956
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Location:
    Europe
    I agree with the majority of your points, both with the guy's channel and the sponsored YTubers in general.

    For me the worse is the first part of the quote. The guy says kind of: "well, I'm mostly a recording/sound hardware guy and I'm not gonna look at the manual of this plugin". Can you make a video like this using the very strong expression "snake oil" on the title?
     
  15. DoubleTake

    DoubleTake Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2017
    Messages:
    2,184
    Likes Received:
    1,147
    Earlier I was going to reply trying to tag him with snake oil, but I couldn't really make it seem appropriate.
    There are lots of better examples to work with out there.
    There DOES seem to be an element of snake oil in so many things ...
    But often the transaction never leaves our own brains.
    Our expectations of what a plugin, a tutorial, a book, meal, drug, life partner, etc will do for us can be the snake oil we well ourselves.
    Buyer beware...of yourself!
     
  16. 5teezo

    5teezo Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    2,063
    Likes Received:
    1,172
    I just came across another top contender for Snakeoil VSTs:

    Soundevice Digital Front DAW
    (what's wrong with spelling it Sounddevice?)

    It's a pseudo anologizer (and a bad one at that) with top notch snake oil tech and marketing: "VARM (Variable Analogue Random Modeling) technology is based on knowledge of chaotic behaviour and randomness of the analogue world. Thanks to VARM, each plugin instance acts slightly different. VARM models randomness of the subtle differences of the values of the electrical parts - exactly as in the real electrical units and the real console channels."
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
    • Winner Winner x 1
    • List
  17. 5teezo

    5teezo Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    2,063
    Likes Received:
    1,172
    When I was refering to what the Mastering Engineer told me about Air Bands, I was not talking about this specific plugin but rather how 40 k Bands work in general in the analoge realm.

    Your new screenshots with a wider frequency range proof exactly what I said: the center frequency of the super wide bell is well above 20 kHz and it does in fact boost 40 kHz - so you debunked your own claim of it beeing snake oil.

    To see if "Analog" does anything to the signal or not, you probably should have taken a look at the "Harmonic Analysis" instead of "Linear Analysis". So your claim of snake oil is unproven.

    "Mastering" is a confusing term here, I agree. But it refers back to the actual hardware unit which is stepped in .5 dB increments.
     
  18. No Avenger

    No Avenger Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2017
    Messages:
    8,911
    Likes Received:
    6,110
    Location:
    Europe
    As well as a highshelf at 100Hz does.
    And once again, it can be seen in my first post, but obviously not by you.

    And exactly this I have done! But I didn't know that I have to prove every statement with a screenshot. :facepalm:
     
  19. Joe_sleaze

    Joe_sleaze Producer

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2016
    Messages:
    324
    Likes Received:
    149
    Location:
    010
    The Royal Compressor, by Sounddevice digital and Firecobra by Firesonic
     
  20. r4e

    r4e Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2014
    Messages:
    851
    Likes Received:
    1,201
    All the plugins from Full Bucket Music and Infected Sounds - ok, they're free but not even worth a download. Everything sounds the same.
    And then all plugins by Thenatan (not the skins, they're overpriced but kinda nice).
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2019
    • Interesting Interesting x 2
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • List
Loading...
Similar Threads - useless Snake vst's Forum Date
Uselessness of Dolby Atmos Lounge Jun 15, 2023
Its About Time Cubase Hits up with a Useless Update Cubase / Nuendo Jun 13, 2023
is iPad worth it or useless? Mobile Oct 31, 2022
disc.series CUBA for kontakt: this feature makes it USELESS Software Aug 1, 2021
Is it just me or are metropolis ark libraries totally useless? Software Feb 28, 2020
Loading...