ArtsAcoustic CL Series released

[djanthonyw]

We're on it, we're on it hard.

That's what she said.

[simesf]

Sorry to say but I downloaded the demo off the website today and it froze both Cubase 5 and Acid Pro 7 (both latest versions) and knocked out the sound on my system after selecting a couple of presets. I'm using an athlon dual core XP (auto up to date) with 2gig ram and an Emu 0404usb external soundcard. It's a pity because I would like to like it and have respect for ArtsAcoustic products. Btw; how many presets come with the full version? I saw only 4 on my browser for each of the 2 versions of the plugin I tried to demo.

[alex at artsacoustic.com]

Sorry to say but I downloaded the demo off the website today and it froze both Cubase 5 and Acid Pro 7 (both latest versions) and knocked out the sound on my system after selecting a couple of presets. I'm using an athlon dual core XP (auto up to date) with 2gig ram and an Emu 0404usb external soundcard. It's a pity because I would like to like it and have respect for ArtsAcoustic products. Btw; how many presets come with the full version? I saw only 4 on my browser for each of the 2 versions of the plugin I tried to demo.

Hello,

could you send me more details concerning your system setup (either via this forum or email support@artsacoustic.com).

If I understand this issue correctly you can load the plugs and sometimes it freezes your host when loading the presets. Is this correct?

The presets in the demo version are actually the same ones we are shipping with the product. We might add some more with one of the next updates, but this is yet not finally decided. The main reason for this is that it does not make a lot sense to ship presets with compressors in general. Every compressor is heavily depending on the signal it is working on and therefor one has to tweak at least Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release and Gain to fit in the mix. So best is to learn how a compressor behaves and then get used to work with it.

[simesf]

could you send me more details concerning your system setup (either via this forum or email support@artsacoustic.com).

If I understand this issue correctly you can load the plugs and sometimes it freezes your host when loading the presets. Is this correct?

Yes, you got it right, & thanks for getting back to me. I'll send more details to the support email.

[djanthonyw]

Sounds good! Would there be a possibility of a group buy once the OS X version is out?

[hoth]

Sounds good! Would there be a possibility of a group buy once the OS X version is out?

+1

[zzalpha]

It's been a while now since the last post, but i guess there are still many people interested in the OS X version. We hate to see the n/a on your download page!

I hope you're still after it.

[JeffSanders]

64 bit Windows? Can has plz?

[alex at artsacoustic.com]

Actually we are in the last beta phase of the OS X version of the Cl Series.

We need three (3) more beta testers for some final tests. The beta test requirements are:
* OSX 10.5 - 10.6.3
* Cubase 5 (32 bit) or Digital Performer 7 (32 bit) or Ableton 8
* Some time to do real world test this friday and saturday
* Some beta test experience

Simply reply if you want to apply (First come, first served).

[alex at artsacoustic.com]

64 bit Windows? Can has plz?

We already have the 64bit versions running in our lab.
Right after releasing the OS X version we are going to finalize the 64 bit code.

[fradoca]

I'm a former audio mastering engineer(i still do some mastering).
After a long period of demo testing of these fantastic plugs
i've decided to purchase them.They're really excellent plugins.
They remind me a lot of the analog compressors i've used in the past.
The sound can be from really clean to fat and very analog.
The bottom end is well mantained.Tje m/s feature is also excellent
and mainly used for my little mastering jobs.
The price is really good and for me the cl series beats a lot of more
pricey stuff out there.

Big Kudos to Artsacoustic for delivering such an excellent product!!!




Francesco

[t3toooo]

hi

i'm testing the compressor at the moment and there is a strange behavoir in buzz.
i'm using the latest polac vst loader and normally vst plugins working very well.

CLMS-1 and CLMS-1 xl working fine but somehow it seems i'm very new to this kind of compressors,
i can't get a stereo signal out of it (?)

the output shows L and M for both left and right out (so i can select it)

cl-1 isn't working until i switch the solo knob on,in the filter section and change the lever to external but then i only get the filters to work and it seems cl-1 does no compression at all,i can't get it to work.

can you help?

[t3toooo]

a short reply in between.

i know installing buzz can be a bit confusing,:hihi:

i'm glad,the loader dev. take a look if the problem is up to the current loader. i will inform you.

[t3toooo]

glad it is fixed !

that was darn fast...

i would like to write my first impressions.

first of all,today it is my third day testing the compressor after two days testing it only in mono.

interestingly,
today i thought that when the red input led is lightening,the compressor gets to much signal and is more coloured,it also tends to distortion,i don't like this to much for a cleaner processing.

isn't this a bit confusing for a "normal user"?

also it is surprising how agressive and clean the sound can be with the right level adjustments but from there on carefully tweaking is the way to go.
this compressor is much more meant as scuplting tool than a compressor,imo.

i failed trying to use it as a brickwall compressor unless i want heavy pumping.

don't know if this plugin is easy for me ,yet i think this tools needs time to find the right values and is not at all a fast daily work horse,until you exactly know what you're doing.


yet i think,to get a analogish and not toyish feeling,carefull tweaking is indispensable.

definitely,there is something i never heard in software world and this makes it very fascinating and difficult at the same time,i don't think difficult must be a bad thing at all,it's more a question how to learn to ride a bicycle.

[brok landers]

>snip< interestingly,
today i thought that when the red input led is lightening,the compressor gets to much signal and is more coloured,it also tends to distortion,i don't like this to much for a cleaner processing.

no. the red led indicates the tube saturation at the input stage before the compressor section. in real analog compressors this is done by overloading the input, so a clipping led often was the indicator that the signal is overloaded. in a tube cirquit there's a definitive range, in which the saturation of the tube is close to nonexistent. if you go over that specified range, the signal starts to get saturated, that's what the led indicates.

isn't this a bit confusing for a "normal user"?

no, this is usual on analog gear. think of a gain control on an analog mixing console - as opposed to the digital domain, the signal on an analog path isn't necessarily audibly degraded in a negative way when cranking up the input stage (actually on most consoles the signal starts to sound way better when driven "hot"), but the overload led is already going nuts. the ammount in which it sounds good is generally signal dependant and variies a lot. you always have to try around to find the sweetspot. that's perfectly normal.

also it is surprising how agressive and clean the sound can be with the right level adjustments but from there on carefully tweaking is the way to go.
this compressor is much more meant as scuplting tool than a compressor,imo.

just as an old analoge diode compressor (of which the cl series is modelled of). and it's actually marketed as such. i don't know if you have ever had the chance to use a real tube opto compressor. they're extremly colouring mostly, especially if they're older. that's actually what made them famous - their own distinctive character, their own, very colouring sound. a lot of engineers did just run the signals through those, just in order to get that colour, even if the signal itself wasn't actually in need to be compressed.

i failed trying to use it as a brickwall compressor unless i want heavy pumping.

easy - if you don't want pumping from the limiter, set the release to 0. then it'cannot pump, as the release is completeley deactivated, it's a sample accurate clipper then.

in general, the way to go with the cl series (in fact, with all compressors) is:
- turn off the limiter first, and turn both, ratio and threshold to minimum.
- then adjust the input signal, before the signal hits the plugin to around 0db in peaklevel.
- after that, get the input levelling right on the cl series (to get the sound of the tube) by adjusting the input knob on the plugin itself, and accordingly lowering the compressorstages output, so that you have the peak at where it was before the plugin.
- then, when the input is right, start compression (always compensate the compressore stages output level to the same peaklevel you have before the compressor), still leaving the limiter off.
- after the compression is done and you're getting that coloured smack you want, turn on the limiter, set the release to 0 if you want no pumping at all to be introduced by the limiting, and raise the output of the compressor, effectiveley driving the compressed signal against the brickwall clipper.
- use the attenuator to regain the cl series output to _audibly_ the same felt level you are hearing when the whole cl series is bypassed. that way you're not fooled by the loudness increase that is introduced when driving the compressorstages out into the limiter, and you're able to clearly hear what the cl series does to the signal _exept_ the rms gain change (loudness-fooling).
- then, when sure about the sound, you can set the atennuator back to max again.

don't know if this plugin is easy for me ,yet i think this tools needs time to find the right values and is not at all a fast daily work horse,until you exactly know what you're doing.

a good, complex compressor is never easy when it comes to the finetuning. it is imminent that, for good results, you have to check out how the signal interacts with the compressor, you cannot know this before you try, as compression is always, without exeption, highly input dependant. what i'm trying to say is, there's signals that would not benefit of any compression at all, be it whatever compressor, no matter if deadly cheap or highest price. you always have to try, there's no way around it. after 30 years of studio experience, i still try around. this is not an indication of the user being uneducated, but the fact that he cannot know the complexity of the signal, as well as the behave of a compressor on that particular signal... of course, experience helps to know in which direction you have to go, but you always have to try around and hear the results...

yet i think,to get a analogish and not toyish feeling,carefull tweaking is indispensable.

yes and no. the "analogish" behaviour is omnipresent in the cl series, just like in any old analog compressor, it's just that this might not be always the solution for the input signal.

definitely,there is something i never heard in software world and this makes it very fascinating and difficult at the same time,i don't think difficult must be a bad thing at all,it's more a question how to learn to ride a bicycle.

it is. see, the cl series is different. as opposed to a lot of compressors that claim to emulate analog behaviour, the cl series does it actually. you should, even if you know compression basics in theory, read the manual of the cl series, to understand what happens in the cl series... the artsacoustic guys indepthly explain how to get max out of them by describing what actually happens in the component-modelled sections. it's a good idea to understand that first.