Plugin Alliance - Black Box Analog Design HG-2

[Caine123]

just released with introduction price, i wonder how it is compared to Tube Saturator 2!

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... _hg-2.html

[greenfly]

I tried it last night. Sound nice but it didn't blow me away to a point where I thought it is a must have even at the introductory price. I'll stick with Decapitator but would probably buy it at $59 one day in the future.

[shroom81]

I'm really liking it on the mix buss think I will not pass up the intro offer if I ever get the damn newsletter...

[cprompt]

Email them if you think you owed a voucher, they seem pretty receptive to that.

[kj.metissage]

Density control is a key element on that plugin. Don't forget to tweak it if the effect is "too much".

It has found its place on my mix bus. Mixing through it, or using it for mastering gives great results IMHO.

[shroom81]

Email them if you think you owed a voucher, they seem pretty receptive to that.

Yes I did but only asking about the newsletter, I'll ask when they reply as I own 25 of their plugins.

Kj it really glues the mix together somehow doesn't it ?

[db3]

I tried it last night. Sound nice but it didn't blow me away to a point where I thought it is a must have even at the introductory price. I'll stick with Decapitator but would probably buy it at $59 one day in the future.

+1

[incubus]

Well, the "hardware" version is 3,000 bucks, so I guess this has to be a good deal?

[pekbro]

Nice plug-in, and it sounds great. I'm not really finding it significantly better
than FF Saturn. In fact, in terms of efficiency and flexibility its losing pretty
badly against the FF plug. Its definitely got some interesting features and
sounds a bit sweeter than the tube model in Saturn (IMHO). Theres also
a lot of dynamics going on that you don't seem to have a lot of control over.
Not necessarily a bad thing, but a limitation as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, if youre in the market for a great "set it and forget it" tube saturater
and happen to have a hundred or so bucks burning a hole in your pocket,
or snagged a nifty $75 voucher. Its definitely worth checking out.

For me it would cost $114, so I will likely skip it until a decent sale comes
along.

My 2 cents...

[MogwaiBoy]

Mildly tempted - mildly. I have master bus saturation duties pretty well covered (Reviver, Saphira, Saturn).

Probably more tempted by that latest Kush Omega plugin at $29....

[incubus]

it's tough. It's about 115 usd for those of us with the discount. And against the "hardware" unit it's a bargain, but most have something in this ballpark. So............

[JohnnyA]

Here are my preferences as far as my distortion-plugins go, in order of preference from best to good:

- Black Box HG-2: Incredibly realistic tube warmth for mixing and mastering. There's nothing else that comes closer to real tubes in the box. It sounds exactly like the tube hardware I've recently sold off!
- Vertigo VSM-3: Beautiful sounding distortion for sound design. One of my favorite plugins of all time.
- FXpansion Maul: Wild, modulated, filtered, crazy distortion effects. Absolutely amazing and way too underrated. Does both insane digital distortion and warm analog circuit-modeled distortion.
- FabFilter Saturn: Analog multiband saturation/warming (it's ultra-clean at that). Can also do wild modulation.
- SoundToys Decapitator: Clean/heavy distortion. Kinda dated now but still sounds good.

[plexuss]

Yeah. But you know how people are about hardware emulations.... it's nice to have such a wide range of tools available. None of them are essentially for everyone but each one is essential to someone. Some peeps have been raving about HG-2 and how its transforming their audio work and other's are saying the opposite. Try the demo. If it blows you away, buy it. if not, don't.

[JohnnyA]

Yeah. But you know how people are about hardware emulations.... it's nice to have such a wide range of tools available. None of them are essentially for everyone but each one is essential to someone. Some peeps have been raving about HG-2 and how its transforming their audio work and other's are saying the opposite. Try the demo. If it blows you away, buy it. if not, don't.

Yes, this happens every time. The hardware emulations always do 1 piece of hardware really well, without any extra bells and whistles possible in plugin-land. Some people love that and perhaps want that exact hardware unit in the box, and others want more flexibility. I'm usually in the latter group.

The same thing happened when Universal Audio released Thermionic Culture's Culture Vulture. People went nuts for the plugin for about two weeks. I owned the actual mastering version Culture Vulture hardware. And then I subsequently sold it to use the 4 plugins I listed above instead. When UA came out with their clone, I spent a few days listening to it and finally said "Nah, it's good at a few tones but it's mostly stuck with a single sound with no multiple bands or anything else to make it more flexible, which is exactly why I sold the hardware in the first place. To get away from the limitations of hardware!"

I wish hardware emulators would start adding features instead of cloning the limitations of the hardware. For instance, in hardware you can't add 20 knobs on the front because you need the equivalent circuit boards inside to make all of that work. But in a plugin you could easily add modulation, multiband, etc.

[softska]

My biggest gripe with HG-2 is the gain is PITA to adjust back and forth, A/Bing different amount of tube drive takes more work than I care for.

Saturn can nail the "HG-2" saturation sound easily.

Saturn can't do tube drive in series (yes I know you can just use 2 instance). Saturn gets used often here but I never found the tube option sounds all that good. If you want to destroy audio/sound design HG-2 isn't going to make anyone happy.

Have to admit the Saturation option + air on HG2 is so lovable thou