I'll stop eventually. Maybe after just a few more.

 

For a real world comparison that translates very well through the youtube algorithm, check out this video from Streaky.
PLUGIN OR HARDWARE - SOUND TEST | Maselec ML3 vs. Acustica Ivory Multiband Compressors

Done 10 months ago. Comparison starts around the 5:08 mark

 

In this example,
Maselec mix sounds Wider and more Dynamic, more alive..

In terms of overall color and saturation of the mix, they're very similar tho..
But yeah we don't know where that is coming from, it could be any other process/chain at any other point..

 

Well to be honest that is not a good comparison. Is the Maselec not one of the finest, super clean and noiseless hardware multi band compressor units ever made? Correct me if I am wrong. Any good algo these days can do clean pretty good.
I like AA plugins especially for the more vibe stuff with color and personality. Often more than the algo Counterpart

But to be honest, algos made the better development the last 10 years. They became fantastic while AA is still suffering the same main problem. Resource hogs.

 

Curious why you think it is not fair.

• Level matched using same reference source
• Software emulation of hardware vs the actual hardware
• difference can even be heard through youtube compression algo

Agree that AA plugins are resource hogs for the most part.

 

The overall tone & sound just seems more open/clear through the hardware unit.

 

True, it is, but we do not know what is hidden behind the scenes...
How can you take our word for it that everything is rightly compared?
For example, contacts could oxidize :DDD, a million reasons, It could be anything. ,
and give a significantly different result, it's all very individual.
But honestly it sounds approximate...)

But you will know this for sure if you carry out the experiments yourself, it is always better!
Right?

 

I have many AA plugins and I assure you Analog Obsession have way more character than Acustica, I don't say that I prefer them over but that guy improved a lot ...there are very few I like from AA and lately I quit buying since i get the feeling I keep buying the same stuff

 

I think it might be due to the fact that AA is not sampling everything in dynamic mode. As far as I know, they are sampling Preamp in dynamic but not EQ bands, because there is no computer that handles it.

I quote here Cupwise:

"very few or almost no Nebula EQs have dynamics of any kind, neither in the harmonics, or in the fundamental. having harmonics doesn't mean they have to be dynamic. i'd firmly say the vast overwhelming majority of EQ programs out there, even the ones *with* harmonics, have no dynamics at all. the harmonic impulses are just as 'static' as the fundamental ones.

having dynamics in an EQ is possible but it would require lots of planning and decision making about where to make other compromises. it would also almost always result in loads and loads of impulses in the final program. lets say you have a 1k program with 500 sample position combos (i'm not even sure there's an EQ out there with this many combos sampled in one program.. maybe?). no dynamics. that'd render out to 500 impulses in the program. lets say you add dynamics but only have 2 dynamic steps. so you have one at a higher level and you put the other say 20dB below that. yeah there is a lot of interpolation between there, but it could still give you some sense of 'motion' or 'change'.

you just increased the amount of impulses to 1000. low lets say you want to render it with 5k for four orders of harmonics above the fundamental, and the harmonics will have the two dynamic steps also. now it's 5000. but ideally you'd have more than just two dynamic steps. so let's say you did 'only' 10 steps. now it's 25,000. Nebula will break somewhere around 8,000 impulses in a program, i'm guessing. (and i don't think many programs out there go over 1000)

of course there are other ways of doing it. the above examples are considering that your harmonic structure is such that the harmonics are reacting to the control changes just like the fundamental impulses are. in other words, you get sampled harmonics for every sampled setting combo. combined with dynamics that would lead to the huge impulse count i gave the examples of. BUT you could actually have the harmonics work entirely differently from how the fundamental does, and have a much more simplified harmonic set, where it's always giving you harmonics for a 'no-eq' setup, like a 'pass through' or whatever you'd want to call that. in that case the harmonic impulses never change when you adjust controls (arguably could be a big compromise, depending on the EQ). that could allow dynamics in the harmonics and minimize the end impulse count. the problem with huge count would still exist with the fundamental though, if you had dynamics there, and many sampled control combos in the program. (because again, you're multiplying the sampled positions by however many dynamic steps)

it also costs lots of CPU to do this kind of thing, having adjustable controls and dynamics."

 

Last edited: Dec 4, 2021

They are improving. I use a lot of different plugins especially for fx, envelope shapers, distortion, delays, reverbs.
I try not to buy too much of AA.
If you need character, Water, Viridian, Blond, Desert, Magenta, Purple, plenty of character.
Just tried Softube pultecs again yesterday and they are lifeless so its not fair to say AA has no character and i love some Softube plugins.
AO is a mixed bag, some very nice some average plugins.

 

Well to be fair, Analog Obsession plugs are made by one guy and are all free/donation based. Also his approach is doing emulations based on schematics rather than buying a unit just for a plug-in (and I doubt he’s rich enough to do that).

 

Slight different hardware. According to this list :

Ivory (13) - Maselec MEA-2 equalizer (IAE2, year 2017 model), Maselec MLA-4 (Mac-3, multiband compressor/limiter), COMP 1B is a single band derivative of the MLA-4, DynEQ is a dynamic eq derived from MEA-2 & Comp 1B and DynEQ Stereo is a dynamic eq derived from IVORY3 STEREO and
Comp 1B.

 

@ us1095067 -

It is for this reason that I suggested to Giancarlo the use of a SpectralEC engine using multiple FFT threads.
This is similar to using Spectral EQ in conjunction with VVKT and spectral compression.
Quite a difficult and resource-intensive task.

But we can reduce the sampling rate, which allows us to increase performance.
Machine learning tools are also now available to make the job easier.
This can entail a number of difficulties and puzzles that have to be solved in the course of doing things.

(huge advantage of this is that we can receive nonlinear and ***dynamic characteristics of harmonics and magnitudes In a given mutable array of numbers) -
We can also apply mathematical operations to this array, (for subtracting equalizer bands for example)
(***time-varying, frequency dependent dynamic characteristics)

But this is really moving forward

I'm not talking about giving up all the old ideas. Everything that was done earlier is also possible to use.

We also discussed earlier that Aqua plugins have limited functionality,
It would be better if we give all Aquas a deeper setting and add more customization...

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS GIANCARLO HIMSELF!

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 4, 2021

They were commercial but let's say people wasn't obsessed with buying them so now he gives them away for free. Karma's a bitch

 

Analog Obsession - are indie plugins not created by any company.
NoiseAsh as well as the more successful - which are completely created by Beyhan Kilic
WavesFactory plugins have the same roots as the above
Korneff Audio also comes from these nasty places.....
It all has its origins in HISE.audio

And soon there may be a line of new developers
who are currently training with Christoph Hart
who beats them with whips, and they ask for more ...... :"D
(They want to look like handsome Slate)

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 5, 2021

The smart thing is to bypass the "best" talk almost every company serves you on their web page and demo it.
Demo against your own plugins, does it do anything better, can you achieve the same sound with your own plugins ?
Go to sleep, rest your ears, chill out demo again. Is it still worth it?
You will eliminate at least half of purchases this way.
Even i fall into this trap here and there so thankfully we have R2R and other teams giving us extended demoing.

 

No, sorry @quadcore64 you got me wrong, it is fair. But a comparison of this clean unit with a AA plugin is not doing AA plugins a favor.
AA plugins are better with transformers and tubes etc. in my opinion. if I want clean as possible, no tube, no transformer like the Maselec does, I go with a fab filter MB nowadays.

 

Yeah, making $7,000/mo as a one-man operation on Patreon... must suck