SHINY crap, buddy.

 

Acustica is somewhat a scam. It has been from the beginning.

 

I would disagree.
I own several pieces of hardware eqs and compressors and comparing AA to many other companies they are very good plugins.
Cobalt, taupe, salt, desert, viridian, so many great plugins.
The thing with AA is you have to kind of know the palete of colors it offers, new users might have problems jumping on the AA wagon with too many options.
Have you heard the updated compressor on Cola? It behaves like hardware.

 

I don't have the curated ears to recognize hardware sound. I trained my ears to hear frequencies, and compression. not subtle analog character. And i don't care that much about the hardware thing: i like digital flawless mixes. If a piece of equipment doesnt fit my style, hardware or plugin, i will just skip. Even pros are humble enough to turn off their expensive Masalecs when they are not working.

Maybe you're totally right: Acustica is possibly the closest thing we have in the box that sounds like analog, besides UAD. BUT: do we really need it to make great mixes just because they sound close to real deal? I don't really make music for people that pay attention to those details. Not even myself that work with this shit can recognize the difference between some plugins and hardwares. They just want a banger, digital or analog. And that's what i'm training to make. If a thing doesnt inject the power i need to my records, i don't care how close it sounds to the real deal, i will just follow my life and do my thing until something that will add that extra power (FOR ME!) appears. And that thing deffo wasnt AA.

 

can be. the point with the hype is more or less the same that has happened with plugin alliance on others: finally having available, what it was thought to be uncrackeable

 

Yeah, you can make a track sound right using just stock and waves plugins, it all depends on the user.

 

Would someone please enlighten me what this thread is about?

 

Well I gotta say, I have tried a couple of these - "fire the pump" and "taupe" so far... To preface, I work at 96Khz and 192Khz entirely. "Fire the pump" sounded horrible. All it did was distort audio being fed to it to varying degrees. Maybe that is its sole function? I didn't run any tests on it because frankly it wasn't worth the effort. CPU consumption was low maybe 1-3% max... Taupe was meh...OK. I have other plugins that do an as good or better job of mimicking tape saturation that requires much less system real estate. CPU was also low at 2-3% max... IMO, neither of these plugins, for what they actually do, are worth the amount of system real estate they take up.

I think a great idea would be for those who are familiar with acustica stuff to provide a list of plugs that are worth trying out and that work well at sample rates higher than 44/48khz for those of us who detest oversampling modes on plugins.

 

Code:

A witch says,

Library is completely decrypted, decompressed, DRM related bloat removed, and built to the clean one.


Mr.Acustica says :
> they packaged the products the same
> way we do for testing.

Thanks for clarifying that our release is as pure as your developing version (without any protection).

> we've become disinterested in
> piracy.

As we explained in our AA Framework release, they continuously updated the DRM. 
(From NFO : Anyway, there are many small differences in the protection between product A and B.)

We saw DRM update in the last month too. The new way of dual-scorpion definition :
[1,2]

But let's say, he can update his sweet DRM without being interested in piracy :)

 

there are many people in here who have a hard on for hating acustica. I have spent over 20 years, working in some of the best studios in the world, using all of the hardware acustica has sampled. Their plugins are insanely accurate. They are not shit plugins at all. Storage consuming? sure. CPU consuming? Sure, sometimes, but they are the most accurately modeled plugs to date. Acustica dev isnt even that much of a dick, he just seems a little autistic or something, and i dont mean that in a mean way. I just think he is passionate about his products, and tech, and that sometimes comes across as pretentious. Bloating plugins down because of DRM is annoying, but i suspect that will change due to the good folks at r2r.


Now, can you get a great mix using abletons shitty stock eq8 or fab filter? sure! if you have the ears, you can do anything. Do good mixes really even matter? no, not really. Not nowadays. Just listen to any song that went viral off tiktok, it sounds like SHIT!! Nobody is forcing you to use these tools. I use them because they sound great, they are fun to use with interesting interfaces, and i get them for dirt cheap due to my loyalty pricing and sales. I still often use UAD, waves, Pro q, etc etc etc. There are no rules in mixing, have fun, make good music with friends, and hopefully make some money!

Im hoping that the people who have turned away from and written these releases off will give them a second chance, make sure they use the right sample rates etc, and that these tools can help elevate their mixes. Also hoping the ones who do find joy in them, will eventually become legit customers, and email support about the bloatware DRM etc, because i can tell you, they do listen, sometimes they are slow at fixing bugs, but they often do VERY fast, faster than any other software company i can think of.

just my two cents, hope everyone has a good day, and a safe and fun holiday season with friends and family. The world has too much hate right now, lets do our best to support each other, (including shitty dev's) and all have more empathy for everyone, from r2r , to shitty dev's and ceo's to the newb in the forum with a stupid question to the experienced engineer with a hot take.

 

Yea, use whatever gets you inspired and get the work done.

To me, AA plugins aren't worth the hassle. The EQ curves can easily be copied to another EQ. If I copy the curves and do not enable the preamp or whatever in a AA plugin, ProQ or any digital good EQ sounds the same if you match the curve. There are no magic dynamic behavior of transients from what I can hear or measure... Maybe my ears are too old to hear it and I'm not measuring correctly. ;)
In the plugins I tested so far there are no harmonic distortion going on at all without the preamps enabled. It seems to be just different EQ curves.

The compressors are just beyond weird ... I can not believe that some top engineers endorse AA (some of them are getting a paycheck from AA, that's a fact since they make plugins "together"). I have yet to see one of these top engineers use them in their own workflow or real productions.
Personally I have only tested one hardware of the things they "emulated", but the hardware does not behave like the AA plugin. The sound is very near, but the behavior of the knobs and stuff are way off.

 

To OP: If they were ”junk” they wouldnt have a business going. You might not need them or like them or maybe you have found plugins/software that better suit you - thats all fine. But there are a long list of plugins that you dont need or like. And to vomit dislike of the fact that they were cracked for the reason YOU think they are shitty. Please climb back under the stone you crawled out from and rename you thread: ”Look over here people I am a stupid troll”.

 

As for now the one you test Fire The Pump is a freebie, a simplified version of the PUMPKIN that IMO isn't that good, other saturation plugins own it for days, Taupe is not my thing either, I prefer tape emulation that I couldn't hear the FX. So both are kinda their weaker ones.

maybe you should try those that really bring a lot of fame and money for the whole company, the vintage gear emulations. So far the good one IMO is the GOLD (Neve) that I believe is one of their best selling plugin that's been updated to their newest Hyper tech. I am liking the Ultramarine (Fairchild) it does something on the low end unlike all other Fairchild plugins out there. At least the way I'd use the Fairchild which doing close to no compression, it fits my need and usage. I remember Paul 3rd (some youtube guy) did a blind test and Ultramarine did do better than the hardware that pretty much the real deal assembled by Access Analog. Here's the video anyway.

AA how mad they are with R2R they should just shut up, imagine if every single hardware companies out there stand up and make a noise about not being compensated for their hardware being sampled and someone made a fortune out of it, Giancarlo will be in Arkham Asylum real quick for not being able to handle it now that he ripped-off close to 100 companies. I never seen other dev that doing unlicensed emulation ever being this loud, the last one was Trident but it's his company, that's a different case.

 

Did you guys happen to notice, the newest r2r drop is Sienna, and Jet also?

Now he is certainly going to be posting some more.

"Sienna is an Acqua plugin suite available in VST3, AAX, and AU formats. It’s an ambitious project that represents a massive investment of time and energy, as well as years of painstaking design and development. The outcome of this effort is one of the most extensive, complex, rich plugins that Acustica has ever created: Sienna completely changes audio engineers’ capacity to mix on the go.
It recreates the very same listening experience as if you were mixing in top-tier, acoustically designed studios or mastering in audiophile-grade rooms. It also gives you the option to play back your tracks through the “speakers” of various hi-fi systems, car stereos, boomboxes, and more — all through your headphones.
Sounds too good to be true, right? Sienna includes over 200 true-to-life emulations from the world's most famous headphone brands, which we carefully measured and profiled. In addition, it contains accurate models of 3 world-class studios (the Acustica Control Room, HOG Studio Control Room 1, Spitfire Mastering Atudio), 8 sets of high-end monitors, 2 consumer devices, and 3 new HOG Studio 1 room emulations based on the newly installed Dolby Atmos Sound System (stereo, surround sound, and surround sync).
Notes: Unlike other available Volumes, Sienna Volume A is not available as a separate download in Acquarius. The only way to obtain this Volume is through the installation of the Sienna plugin.
Additional Volumes or packs will require Sienna to be pre-installed on your computer."

PROTECTiON : BLOATWARE.

Ouch.

 

Last edited: Nov 25, 2023

wdym by same plugins ? havent downloaded any, am busy with ARP Soloist

 

If anyone is interested: all the new releases today contain all frequencies (44, 48, 88, 96).

 

Solid State Logic staff member downloads SAND from R2R with Aquarius app installed and get a ban and a sue:

Gianka: - you used warez and now you owe me money

SSL: - You literally sold our boards as plugins with another name! We spent DECADES developing those techs, that, quite honestly, we could build only for ourselves! But, instead, we put it to public, and YOU profits with the things we (the product builders) made with our effort, waking up 5am and not even having sex with our wives/husbands while we develop such products"

Gianka: - Yeah, but your board works at 48K, mine doesn't, so it's not the same thing, give me my money! MY KERNELS!

SSL: - Our battle it's not against the Samplers. Samplers will remain Samplers, not product builders. We are the builders. By supporting hardware sampling, people encourage mechanisms that are not fair with the product that we, the builders, did. YOU OWE US MONEY!

Gianka: - Nooooo, IT'S SAND not SSL, and doesn't work at 48khz! How it can be? Never! Solid State Logic Consoles doesnt have Volterra Kernels, i'm am the builder, i'm the creator, i'm the owner of the audio production scene and if you're not by my side you will have to go without us FOREVER!

SSL: - WTF...

 

Oh, I just meant more of the older Aquas.

 

That's typical from him.
Exactly like that since the beginning.
But fanboys still "don't see the problem with Giancarlo attitude" ...

 

Code:

According to the developer :          
 > Our protection system WORKS. The    
 > crackers exploited an obvious    
 > vulnerability: ... It's not hard:  
 > the files all come out in the    
 > clear at the same time.          
                                   
 We are very sorry to announce that
 every single behevior of your DRM  
 is defeated. Rebuilding the library
 is the hardest achievement for your  
 protection, because we need to know  
 every single encryption layer and Nebula2/4
 Image structure which is not publicly    
 documented at all. People can say it's      
 fully reversed / cracked - minor DRM change
 can't stop us anymore. You need to change
 everthing from scratch :) 

Witch Knowledge :               

 We recommend VST2 for Acustica Audio.  
 Their AAX and VST3 are just wrapper   
 (made with JUCE). You can find         
 ACQUA.dll or ACQUA.engine file in     
 *.aaxplugin / *.vst3 folder. That   
 is the real plugin (VST2).