I agree. Disappointed in the VC160

...
- From our tests it was more important to SOUND like the original hardware than to add harmonics that were not there in our maniacal measuring and testing with the real units, and we preferred to go this way because the models sounded nearly identical to originals this way, and without excessive (meaning not there in the hardware unit) distortion...

At first I thought Theo decided on ours, but not so sure now... I hope so, though, as we do stand behind both the White 2A and the Black 76 and I don't think I stressed enough some reasons:

- Our models sound nearly indistinguishable from the ORIGINAL units and that the models should be compared to originals and not to other plugins, for the most realistic comparison.
- Compared to the original hardware, others may be distorting much more and sometimes perception and reality are a bit different as we found that for example the 1176 most of the THD is generated by the attenuation FET that is distorting the incoming signal when this gets of a comparable magnitude with the FET thresholds. We wanted to be more similar to the original units (of course) regardless of what extra "coloration" may be added by others (as we'd stand on our own against the real units and still do).
- From our tests it was more important to SOUND like the original hardware than to add harmonics that were not there in our maniacal measuring and testing with the real units, and we preferred to go this way because the models sounded nearly identical to originals this way, and without excessive (meaning not there in the hardware unit) distortion.
- You can hear in the processed material from the original units and our plug-ins (via the Slate shootout) and I could have Brian work with our development team to send get similar from the unit we modeled and our plugins for a blind listening test if people are interested in that.
- In our opinion, distorting way too much vs the real unit is contrary to how the real units distort so we respect how others may do it but we don't want to provide something of an extra overdrive unit to you, we want to provide something that SOUNDS REALLY GOOD and we feel we provided that.

Again, if interested we can have some sound files generated. With the upcoming updates and new gear, I hope it can come as quickly as you may or may not like (might not generate any interest, I've seen it go either way with blind comparisons) but we'll see what we can do.

Will also have to see what waves offers this black friday.

I have to demo the waves and really pit all three against each other before i make a decision. I *really* do like the ik white though.

Sorry but so far i do prefer the NI 1176.

cheers

It also offers variable ratio and sidechain AND parallel AND HPF. so...

...but still I would prefer CLA2A anytime

^ The CLA2A also doesn't seem to have that "polished" attack IMO.
Of course I'm not saying that the CLA2A is bad, but for me, I surely would go with something else... like the VC2A for example.

To my ears, CLA removes way too much bottom end and is a bit on the brittle side.
Both IK White and the NI don't do that, they sound much better in that regard.

its strange,becouse so far I thought that 2A when driven should have such impact on low frequencies-can anybody here with real hw confirm this?

yes,I prefer that smoother attack over polished IK white,which sounds maybe good for some drums but hardly anything else
but I have to try NI VC2A to get the full picture...

I got them. I am getting real used to them and just felt good with them. The NI/Softube are sensationally strong contenders with tons of extra features, and actually cheaper when you factor the vc60 all for $120 for the three,
but, i went for the IK's. it just "felt" right I guess

cheers