It's been almost 2 years since the Acustica Audio plugins were released via King R2R

The thing that has been bothering me is that when I open the plugins without changing the plugin parameters, the plugin itself changes the tone and a little bit of the harmony. With this logic, I was listening to the signal, maybe the plugin is changing the equalizer, saturation, and dynamics a little bit to simulate the hardware version, which is completely normal and correct.(That other companies do the same thing.)

The problem started when it occurred to me. Yesterday, I was watching one of Luca Pretolesi's MyMixLab videos. When he opened a plugin, it didn't change much on the sound signal. But when I opened R2R's version of the plugin, some plugins changed the equalizer a little, some changed drastically.

For example, when Luca opened the Diamond Transient plugin, it didn't change much on the sound signal at first, But when I opened the same plugin(R2R's version), the high frequencies were very low, the mid frequencies were boosted, and the bass frequencies were cut. But the sound I heard in the tutorial video didn't really change like the one I heard in my own project. (I know sounds vary, but I understand the difference between cutting and boosting frequency ranges)

With this example and seeing those tutorial videos, this question came to my mind: Maybe R2R made some changes when cracking, because as far as I remember, R2R said I left out some extra things (software codes) that actually consumed more RAM and slowed down the speed, Library is completely decrypted, decompressed, DRM related bloat removed, and built to the clean one., did this cause this problem...?

I wanted to know your opinion. Does anyone here have the legal version to analyze? Are the ratios different or does R2R's version have any problems or...

By the way, I wrote the thread title in a way that users would click on, not to make a wrong judgment.

 

I was literally planning on making a thread like this soon. Over the past couple years I've gone crazy mode downloading plugins (mostly for fun and to see what's out there), while keeping my main tools that I actually use in sessions pretty consistent (not adding all the latest warez plugs).

Well, it got insane so I started going through and shooting a bunch of them out, reading gearspace threads about lots of them to see what the consensus on them is, etc.

In the Acustica masterthread here by Stevie dude, and the overall consensus of the board, is that the plugs released by R2R are trials. A lot of these plugs have glaring issues that I have noticed in my even limited usage. In reading the gearspace threads about the plugs individually, (especially more recent ones), it pretty much goes like this:
Release - pg. 1 people are stoked - pg. 2 people are reporting issues - pg. 3 Giancarlo is arguing these issues - pg. 4 Acustica fixes these specific issues in an update - pg. 5 arguing - pg. 6 - more bugfixes etc

I've come to the conclusion that some of them are in a broken/unfixed state, possibly most or all of them are version 1.0 of the trials which can be incredibly buggy. So the only way to know which ones are working fine would be to painstakingly go through them and see which ones work as expected and be prepared to delete a good portion of them.

These are my conclusions, and yes I know about which ones to oversample to 2FS (I changed the names of each of them in Reaper to say 'OS!' if they are ones that don't run in 44/48), and I also made notes about issues others have reported. But I have come to the conclusion that many more of them simply aren't working as intended, and judging these plugs based on some of these cracks is perhaps ill-advised.

And some/all (can't remember specifically) of the Diamond ones were the ones I deleted.

We need more specific user information to decide which ones are worth using in this state. Ironically, I may end up going legit for AA via secondhand market as prices are good and I have come to liking a few a lot (Gold Pre specifically, and that one is working well btw)

 

Last edited: May 10, 2025 at 7:09 AM

Oh, and another thing I've noticed is that when AA announces bug fixes, it will be like this:

Where they are showing that the trial plugs are different builds altogether, and sometimes they fix bugs only in the trial versions (or only in the full version), which leads me to feel even less confident in using these in sessions that matter ($$).

 

Legal Diamond Transient defo changes the sound with the factory's def setup simply because three parameters are not set to zero:
And this is clearly audible especially on full drums.
I assume Luca adjusted his def setup.

EDIT: Oops, I made a mistake, the output is at unity gain, it just looks as if it's raised and I misinterpreted Reaper's iternal view. Sorry.

 

Last edited: May 10, 2025 at 10:24 AM

Every last one of them ended up deleted. A few quick comments in reply to the above posts. I never expect what I hear in videos to be even close to 100% accurate, ever. A decent representation is good enough. Using BlueCats Patchwork to "oversample" to match the existing files sample rates does not work correctly. If the session sample rate does not match the files, they are most likely not working as intended. Simple functions that do not require matched files for processing will work. There are many other options available to substitute for them, if that is what you want to do.
Re: MyMixlab videos, it's funny but if you watch many of the other videos from Luca; he never even uses them.

 

If anything all of this has just caused me to assess them a tad bit more objectively than the opinions I've heard/read. I think there is something special to a portion of their plugs, but overall their execution is just messy, messy, messy. I mean, right off the bat, why have trial versions be a whole different version of the plug and create double work for yourself when the catalogue is bug-laden to begin with? In reading these users' experiences there are many, many unresolved bugs in the full versions that have been known and unaddressed, and yet AA just keep churning out new plugs and new emulations to keep the cash and the hype up.

And yet, their loyal fanbase will praise them like crazy for certain plugs because they are indeed quite good. And for that I can't blame them. But the workflow is just so dogshit let's face it. If you have an intensive session it's better to just print them when you can. Which is fine, but yeah most of the pros (and Luca) probably won't bother.

I kind of want to go legit to feel good about using some of their plugs in the most stable version available, but I'll probably only do it if I can get a decent deal on Nebula. I feel much better supporting the Nebula devs who need it, and if I'm going to go through the hassle of having really intense, latent VVKT plugs in my session I'd rather just use Nebula most of the time anyway.

It's a shame AA is seemingly fading out Nebula by not upkeeping it like they should.

Beyond all of that they just make very baffling and hilarious decisions to me, like all these regular, ultra, flat, quick, fire the, ZL, versions where you have fucking 5 versions of the same plug in the folder... and when they "sampled" a Pulsar Modular Abyss compression curve for Tiger and put it in as "Deep Space" lmfao

 

I was analyzing the behavior of the plugin with the Doctor plugin (Diamond Transient). At 48, it's a completely different thing, at 44 and the other sample rates, the behavior is almost the same with some minor changes.

The problem I had was that I had set the DAW to 48 and that plugin didn't work properly at that sample rate. Of course, the version I have may have fixed the bug in its new updates.

 

What you are saying is “Demos don’t work correctly and/or have bugs!”. A demo is supposed to present the potential buyer with a product that works - except some limitations which are mentioned beforehand. It doesn’t make sense if the demo is bad. What is really happening, there are users that expect their below average samples, VSTI instruments and bad recordings to sound better if they use AA plugins. Is the same analogy with polished turds vs not polished turds. If you have a decent recording, many of the AA plugins will make it better - or else use a normal plugin that is made to cover up mediocre sounds. YMMV

 

The problem I had was that Video Luca's project was most likely at a sample rate of 96 or, very rarely, at 44, which is similar in tone and equalizer. My project's sample rate is at 48, which is exactly what happens at 48, which is not at all like the other sample rates.

 

as noted, the r2r versions are indeed trials.

They have some really incredible plugins. The ones that are the best from their catalog, are the best of any plugin in my opinion. Their latest offerings are insanely good. They still need to figure out compression as a whole, but there are some really great dynamics tools within their plugs as well.

That being said, there are also plenty of great algo plugins, and algo is becoming better every day. I use both algo and AA every day, best of both worlds. I still find AA and Nebula to be 5% better when it comes to eq, pre's, and lately even saturation. That 5% adds up across a mix.

I bought a large majority of their catalog over the years, and while i really only use a handful regularly, i dont regret the purchases, as its nice to have flavors to reach for to either change things up, or if im after a particular vibe / sound.

 

Yes, it uses most of the AA plugins that were created in collaboration with the company, of course, it's for advertising and revenue, etc. Luca really likes Fab filter Pro C2.

 

R2R doesn't only crack the plugins, they revolutionize .

 

I see. You must differenciate between the cracks/demos which do not provide all sample rates and naturally cause issues when 'misused' with the wrong SR and a basic effect a plugin causes when loaded.
I just checked various SRs and it's the same with all of them. The factory def setting changes the sound audibly, but when you turn down these parameters there's hardly a difference noticable.

 

Acustica Audio plugins are overrated.

 

So Diamond Transient is one of the ones that does not work in 48k. The R2R release only has the programs of DT for 44.1 and 96, if you're on 48 it won't work. In Reaper, some of the ones like this did work for me running at 48k and running Reaper's 2x oversampling. According to another post in this thread they say a wrapper doesn't work, I haven't tried that.

Refer to Stevie Dude's thread for a list of which ones work at which rates
R2R 2023/2024 AA Guides, Bug Reports, Issues & Fixes Megathread (WIN)

but again, I'm not convinced that there aren't more bugs in some of these than are listed in that thread

I mean, I agree to an extent with the sentiment of your post but that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying this company's beta phase must be laughable because in the first week there are a lot of breaking bugs that they fix hurriedly, check the release threads of any random plug of theirs and you'll see what I mean.

 

The problem you are describing is precisely the sample rate. R2R versions are not different from the legit. But they work perfectly at 44.1k and 96k. It's all explained well in our official thread here on AA. I repeat, the R2R versions are identical to the legit ones, but only in the two sample frequencies that I wrote previously.

 

For convenience here's the section from SD's thread:

List of R2R's AA Plugins & Its Sample Rate Compatibility (11/06/2024)

Spoiler: Click To Expand

WORKING AT ALL SAMPLE RATE (HYPER + OLD PLUGIN w/ FULL FREQUENCY PACK)
1. Fire The Pump
2. Black Bundle - Full Frequency Pack
3. Space Control
4. Salt
5. Magic Flow
6. Gold 5
7. Ash Ultra
8. Ash
9. Pumpkin Pro
10. Jet Bundle
11. Arctic
12. El Rey 2
13. Aquamarine 5
14. Sienna Bundle
15. Midnight
16. Sounda
17. Diamond Lift 4
18. Diamond Dynamic Saturator
19. Coffee The Pun - Full Frequency Pack
20. Coral Baxter - Full Frequency Pack
21. Lava
22. Eminence
23. Voxa
24. Water 3
25. Frost
26. Opal Comp
27. Scarlet 5
28. Olive
29. Mystic
30. Druma
31. Tiger
32. Tiger Ultra
33. Jam
34. Sunray
35. Cardinal
36. Cherry

WORKING AT 44.1KHZ & 96KHZ ONLY (CAN WORK AT 48KHZ w/ OVERSAMPLING)
1. Amber 3
2. Howie Weinberg Mastering Console
3. Sand 3
4. Pink 4
5. Gainstation 1 & 2
6. Ultramarine
7. Taupe
8. Honey 3
9. Amethyst
10. El Rey
11. Blond
12. Big Ceil
13. Diamond Transient
14. Diamond 3
15. Amethyst 4
16. Azure 2
17. Ruby 2
18. Coral 2
19. Brown
20. Camel
21. Coffee
22. Cerise
23. Cobalt 2
24. Jade 2
25. Snow
26. Maize
27. Ivory
28. Nickel
29. Smoke
30. Tulip
31. White 3
32. Green 4
33. Green Zen
34. Titanium 3
35. Titanium Basstard
36. Ebony
37. Erin (HYCOMP & HYCOMPST are using Hyper Tech but still not running correctly at 48kHz)
38. Opal
39. Lemon
40. Cola 2
41. Mint
42. Emerald 2
43. Fire Filters
44. Magenta 5
45. Aero
46. Cream 2

 

In the original thread a workaround was mentioned, using BlueCat's Patchwork's oversampling feature in non-matching session sample rates. I cannot say anything about Windows, but on Mac with AU .component format Patchwork; it does not work. The thing that is a bit confusing at first, is if you expect parameters where the correct sample rate file is not present, to behave like Nebula and snap back. Enough features will work that people who asked him about it were told to buy new monitors. Helpful guy that he is.

 

good luck

 

Last edited: May 10, 2025 at 12:34 PM