This is what I did recently, after the R2R releases. Uninstalled all AA plugins and went back to N4 for TP, ALexB, Cupwise, etc..The only reason I jumped the AA wagon was LAVA, but now I use UAD Sphere.. I will keep my AA licenses to see if the company changes its ways...in the meantime, I wait until the issues with the R2R versions are settled to see witch AA plugins fit my workflow/taste..for now, AA will get 0 dollars from me..

The only ones I want to add are:
- El Rey, although TP's version is just as good
- Titanium: love the comps and (Pultec) eq
- Gold Preamps: although Ownhamer's BA-73 is just as good or better
- Amber: HF (for R&B vocals)

 

hello guys, i've been wondering why there is no new acustica r2r releases in sister site for almost two days? i thought there will be a new release everyday, is something happened that we don't know? if anyone knows something that would be great to explain it

 

Maybe the constant complaining and nasty comments from some users under the releases might have contributed to that.

 

too much Clara & Clarette (basically a Karen, but fascist and just weirder) in here and sister's site both, R2R probably had them enough. 1 release each day was already too slow if they are gonna finish the entire catalog but now all those shitty feedback they got probably demotivates them to release more. They are human being after all. Still hoping all those community supply actually made their way to R2R and fingers crossed they are working on it. Maybe dump them all on Xmas or something although it seems very unlikely. Or maybe R2R is focusing on their Xmas releases and delay the AA release for a while. Dunno. Jam, Tiger, Titanium, Scarlett, White, Purple, Sunray are some of that I want. Not sure we are gonna see them soon.

 

I hate Karens. Always f'up for other people. Let's hope R2R are not stopping the uploads. The MB comp in Titanium is a must have Thcx for all your work, byw

 

Let hope R2R is working on something else more worthy of their talents...

 

a new one added today. You guys should be patient when hoping for stuff like that. After the 10th one or whatever, it probably became boring repetitive administrative work. Not fun, certainly.

 

I liked the slow down, because i can learn the shit ton of plugins R2R provided for now. Not expectating the plugins i actually WANT brought me some good surprises like Brown, Tulip, Amethyst, Smoke, Aquamarine, Ultramarine EQ that are already tools that are part of my AA arsenal for now and i didn't knew before.

The ones i want (mods, this is not request!) the most for now are Pensado EQ (AKA The Drum Bus God Particle), Desert and Magenta. But i'm ok with the fact they can not be released soon because i'm on my creative nirvana right know, can't stop working. Proteus, AA, FAL, PA... So much stuff that actually sounds good and wanted to be used...

 

yeah, it took me 2 days to went all the TAUPE models and figure out that they all doing different thing under the hood, some compress, some clip, some filter. One would assume it's just EQ and saturation while every single of of them break/clip at different levels, some compress from beginning, some doing absolutely nothing to low end, just mid range etc etc. WHITE will get a lot of hate today since it wont do the usual pillow-y Pultec sound. This is a transient-expanding Pultec style EQ, add that double stage HPFs (weird that it sounds good on the low end tho) on the side that cant be seen under PD (on normal setup), it will be crazy. Haha. Can't wait.

also wtf with the 14kHz & 17kHz LPF Brickwall on both mode ? hmm

 

I use Taupe a lot for reamping and overdubing. TUPE from Ghz will be my favorite one forever for this task at the mixing stage, but Taupe is shining at my soundcraft stage. I love how it can dirty up my drums with the ampex infamous tube amp (everyone on GS hates this piece of HW), chilling down some strings with the pulp fiction preset, grit on horns on Rocky and Final Countdown and an oldschool afrocuban/jamaican sound on 90210. Rock guitar gets bigger and fatter with the Ampex 1200 one and dirty with the 7.5 Paranoid preset (also useful for dark synths). Synths love japanese tape, that's a fact. Anything synth i would jump on the Japan ones because of Yellow Magic Orchestra.

I think it's some sort of way to shut up the mouth of Pro-Q 3 users, don't know, Gianka is nuts...

EDIT: Poor Gianka, those slopes were created by the hardware dev, sorry signore.

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2023

I'll back you up as I also use this Taupe a lot, it always helps me add a little character and create the final picture of the mix.
I also use Taupe when recording guitar and bass, it helps me achieve the necessary soft sound that you could hear in the early tracks.

The only thing I'm not happy with about it is the rather high load on the processor (I have a not very powerful i5 9400f processor and only 16 GB of RAM)
but I use it on rendered tracks, so it's fine.

 

I want to play some guitar before going to sleep but i did some interesting tests on plugin doctor with CoralBaxter (PRE on, since without the PRE, the plugin 100% digital enviroment), since Variety of Sound upgraded their bax with impulse responses (and is sounding pretty dope).


First, the level of harmonics are really LOW; i consider -150dbfs range at a -18dbfs sine wave unaudible. Like the noise floor (that's even LOWER!)




But the funnier part is that the IR seems to be doing most of the job:

With a low input it seems like this:


With a 3 more db on the input it looks like this:



And the level of the harmonics with the same 3db of input gain:





I'm just asking to myself now: wtf is this? 3 db changes the whole spectrum and almost nothing on harmonics? I knew that the spectrum would change acording to the input gain with IR's, but the IR's are doing the hardest task here? So Acustica is basically PastToFuture with a nice desguise? WTF.................

I'm not the best plugin doctor manager ofc but this seems to be really weird. Just a thing to keep an eye on ;)

 

What you can observe on the PD is not part of the emulation of a real device.
This is a mathematical error in sampling.
This Chirp is also a consequence of an error in working with the Hillbert engine, which I mentioned earlier

 

That's entirely possible, but it could also be a number of other things. I saw a post by Olymoon a few days ago saying some of the sister site difficulties over the past days were a ddos attack. Could be a coincidence, but it wouldn't surprise if that was instigated by Acustica. Maybe they're taking a few days to beef up some of the site security before releasing a lot more stuff. I'm sure they want everything working smoothly at sister site for a big time of year.

2nd possibility.. R2R is generally a wildly meticulous release group. Maybe they're taking some time to see if there's something they can do about lack of functions in the trial versions. Who knows, maybe they didn't even know they were trial versions until it was discussed here.

I could think of 4 or 5 other possibilities, could be a lot of different things.

 

Filter and cut modes apparently intended for vinyl “mastering”? Bruuuuh

I think it's the famous warlock with whom they worked for the creation of the latter who gave them his tricks... lol

18.5khz or 19khz with a fairly severe slope and a low Q I agree but 14khz is the equivalent of putting your ears in a vice to be gently

One thing is certain, there are some who take themselves too seriously, all the same in different ways

Spoiler: Extract Story Manual White 3

"Sgroove was his name, a strict and straight-laced man, outspoken enough to alienate his peers in the industry; colleagues, sound engineers, producers.... Everyone one knew his name not because of his skills, but for his temper."


”These are the shadows of your past that have been cataloged and are what they are, do not blame me. I am only providing the mirror to your own soul.....”

"But instead of a sad and dreary room, this room was filled with bright sunshine, and with it was a feeling of hope, joy, and an excitement to mix that Sgroove had not felt in years! “ I want to live in the past, present and future......”
Sgroove repeated over and over, leaping out of bed....In a very short time, with his new vigor and open-mindedness for audio,
Sgroove had his studio re-equipped with the newest and best software emulations from Acustica Audio."

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2023

Off topic: Stevie, check your conversations section and answer me when you have time please, thank you.
https://audiosex.pro/conversations/

 

Josh Gudwin's Magic Flow - A Guide



I've learn everything about this plugin few weeks ago and been using them whenever I got the chance to and must say right now I kinda understand how to get the best out of it. So since I got nothing better thing to do while waiting for football games later, maybe I'll just share how I use it.

WHAT
- it's a plugin that combines all Josh Gudwin's hybrid analog + digital workflow in one that capable of giving the user his signature sound.
- me personally I think it excels at taking a pop mix up a level effortlessly to make it sound familiar like every other big pop mix out there, it can't fix a bad mix of course, but it can make an already good mix, great just by itself.
- 100% I use it as Stereo Bus processor, the plugin however was initially designed as vocal processor but ended up as Stereo Bus processor
- the plugin consists 8-10 sections (depends on how you view it) that can be turned ON/OFF by clicking the Spiral/Cyclone at the top of it.

OPERATION
1) launch the plugin, find all 6 of the Spiral/Cyclone logo and turn them OFF. Turn off the MID BUMP at the Output section too. Find the loudest part of the song/track, loop that part.

2) turn on PREAMP, set INSERT to ON, QUALITY to GOOD, DRY/WET to 100%

Spoiler: CLICK TO EXPAND

- PREAMP & INSERT is basically Josh's analogue signal flow that involves his usual gears in his signal flow, it's AA plugin so it's a good idea to turn them on to get the best out of AA plugin, 95% of the time you'd want to turn them on all the time. It's high quality, high fidelity SPL gears, so not doing anything too obvious.
- QUALITY - GOOD is good enough, you may change it to SUPERB before render if you wish but don't use the NORMAL quality at all because it will introduced EQ cramping and that's a big no.

3) set the INPUT LEVEL (bottom left), when you hover your mouse on the slider, the display section at the center of the plugin will show SUGGESTED LEVEL set the input to the suggested value.

Spoiler: CLICK TO EXPAND

- as with all AA plugin, gain staging is the most important first step when using any of their plugin, bad gain staging, bad result.
- the Suggested Level is where the plugin is optimized to work at, to give the best result it could

4) turn ON the FILTERS, set the HIGH CUT to 16kHz (will explain later), leave LOW CUT alone or if you need to set it, do it, no problem. If the music is in the "Lo-Fi" genre, turn it down to 10kHz and go below from there.

Spoiler: CLICK TO EXPAND

- LOW CUT is a 6dB/octave steepness, so it's smooth.
- HIGH CUT is 12dB/octave but a little special. From 20kHz down to 10kHz it behaves normally, but when it reaches 10kHz it will turn ON a Lo-Fi effect which is some kind of mid bump, it's Josh's thing, dunno much about it but can be cool for Lo-Fi music. It looks like this :


- 16kHz so it won't mess up with the dynamic processing too much. Not sure if it's true or applicable for every situation but during my usage when I don't set it to 16kHz dynamic processing becomes weird and too sensitive sometimes and hard to get good result. For now for leave it at 16kHz, will revisit later.

5) turn on the PEAK LEVELLING and.. level some peak, you'd not want to go more than 1.5dB GR. If you can hear the compression, it's already too much, back it down. If you can see it's moving with the groove of the song, also it's already too much. The goal is to level some random peaks that you can't hear because our ears can't detect it, that's why compressor is invented.

6) go to the DYNAMIC RESONANCE CONTROLLER section and turn it on.
- there are 4 of them -> A,B,C are general resonance tamer that react where you set it, while the D is a wideband compressor that compress the whole track when the the signal at the selection crossed the threshold.
- goal is to fix! you don't have to use any of these at all if the mix already good enough
- keep the GR within the 2dB range

Spoiler: SUGGESTIONS - How I Use It

A - for De-essing job, i will set the range to 7000-9000Hz depending on the vocal and see if it helps the mix
B - for De-Harsh job, this is optional, for Hi-Hat and Cymbal excessive harsh if there's any, the range is around 10kHz-16kHz. Other frequency you might want to check between 2-4kHz.
C - for De-Boxy job, it's either around the evil 400Hz or if the low-end feels too big, 250Hz. I will only set this after the next stage.
D - this is the most interesting and dangerous band, it has so many usage but for me, I use it to add some nice pumping effect like all modern Pop songs. I will find the Bass Instrument range (it can be anywhere from 250-800Hz) using the slider and let the track pump with it. 1dB GR is enough, you go more, things will get weird. Experiment but be moderate with it.

7) move on to the heart of the plugin, the sections that will get you the character of the plugin or maybe close to Josh's sound. DYNAMIC EQ, EQ, MID BUMP & DYNAMIC BALANCE.
- I like to dial them up together and treat it like a one big tone control section

Spoiler: SUGGESTIONS - How I Use It

DYNAMIC EQ
- there are 4 Mode to choose from, A to D which all is Josh's go-to settings on his dynamic EQ plugins.
- think of it like a sensitivity tilt from A which focuses on controlling the Low-end the most to D that leaves the Low-end alone, if it makes any sense.
- D is always the better choice for me since I don't want it to mess up with my low end.
- pay attention to the amount of gain reduction on the display, keep it below 2dB, if you need more, the mix is problematic.

EQ
- It's a collection of 4 of his go-to EQ style/curves for every possible situation during his mixing. The curve will be shown on the display at the center of the plugin when you hover the mouse on the Gain slider with the module turned on.
- based on Josh's elysia museq settings.
- together with the DYNAMIC EQ it will get you closer to Josh's sound, tonal-balance wise, well, that's the whole idea.
The styles, how I see it :
1 - balanced, half of the time it just work but not everytime.
2 - if the mix feels too open, too airy, this will pull it back a bit
3 - add clarity, for me, this one works best with the D selection on the DYNAMIC EQ
4 - add brightness, if the mix is too dark
- adjust the amount of Gain with the amount of Compress on the DYNAMIC EQ module and turn on the MID BUMP
- find a nice balance between them.
- MID BUMP has some complex texture, saturation and stuff that programmed to push the mid up, as per Josh's suggestion try to get it to work, but sometimes the mix is just better without it, don't force it. Me, I force it, lol.

DYNAMIC BALANCE
- basically a leveling digital compressor, transparent enough it could be Opto style, or the traditional Waves Renaissance compressor, use it to add final polish. You'd always want to stay with A because B is the same thing but higher ratio. I suggest to always use turn it on and let it do its thing, it adds a nice polish to the sound and keep everything together especially when the MID BUMP is turned on.

8) FILTER, OUTPUT and DRY/WET
- the Output gain slider works 100% like the Input where on mouse hover you'll get Suggested Level on the display but different from the Input it's not important at all, you set how loud you want but always a good idea to level match.
- me personally, this is where I revisit the 16kHz High Cut filter I've set earlier. I will compare with the filter on 16kHz to 20kHz and see if added fidelity hurts the mix or the dynamics, does it improves the mix. I'll listen to my reference track to see where I am on the track balance, will adjust the filter accordingly plus some other minor tweak to make sure I'm not too much on the bright or dark side of it.
- DRY/WET if you have to.

9) SONGS MIXED BY JOSH GUDWIN
- here is a Spotify playlist of songs mixed by Josh Gudwin for reference. : Spotify Playlist
- sorted by release date, the newest releases on top.

 

Last edited: Dec 22, 2023

what I meant was, why both, V is for Vinyl Mastering, M is suppose to be for modern, why brickwall at 17kHz for modern ? I can understand 14kHz for vinyl as it will help with the groove creation as the details above it wont be stored accurately anyway.

 

It seems Reddit says that this is for mastering EDM Pop tracks.
In any case, let it be, it seems to sound good if your track has a lot of “sand” and itches like a mosquito)

 

yeah that's the idea but a minimum phase brickwall LPF at 17kHz does more than just removing area above it, that's what baffles me. If a proper mastering engineer could explain this would be lovely.