KVR Audio

Tp3 · Post by **Tp3** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 3:17 pm

Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote:I honestly feel like $99 + a demo is the right price point for these things.

But then again, EQualibrium costs 175£ and FabFilter Pro-Q 2 180$....

Breval · Post by **Breval** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 3:18 pm

To add with these new Acqua models there's usually significant bugs or issues when released.
For these price-points it shouldn't be a beta product or in development. It should work as advertised period.
That goes with any plugin co., not just Acustica.

This in addition to no demos?

Those are just several reasons as to why there hasn't been a thread or much interest in it from users on this board.
Good plugins however there's more to it than just closely emulating hardware.

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 3:30 pm

Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: The prices are a bit to high too considering how quickly they seem to be able to turn out units at this point.

I agree with you about a demo be great to have one. But I don't really see how a quick product turnaround should effect their cost. As op has stated that Equilibrium is expensive and so is Fab Filter Q2 (FF is worth every penny imo).

You could argue that they do more and that'd be true. But the character from AA newer stuff is excellent. I think around the 150e is not too unreasonable as far as high quality eqs go.

And if you don't like the product you can get a refund (within a short time frame) which is fair.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 3:32 pm

Tp3 wrote:
Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote:I honestly feel like $99 + a demo is the right price point for these things.
But then again, EQualibrium costs 175£ and FabFilter Pro-Q 2 180$....

and mostly +200$ majority of UAD, Waves, Sonnox...

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 3:39 pm

Zexila wrote: Sonnox...

Good god are they overpriced...

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Sat Apr 18, 2015 4:25 pm

Robmobius wrote:
Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: The prices are a bit to high too considering how quickly they seem to be able to turn out units at this point.
I agree with you about a demo be great to have one. But I don't really see how a quick product turnaround should effect their cost. As op has stated that Equilibrium is expensive and so is Fab Filter Q2 (FF is worth every penny imo).

I realize it's not the most rational argument in the world, but it just seems (from the outside) that their process is something like:

1. Rent high end EQ
2. Sample high end EQ
3. Wrap it up in a nice UI
4. Sell
5. Repeat

The pace at which they're able to do this, it seems a bit odd that they charge as much as companies that could be spending months and months building virtual circuit models of a single piece of gear. For instance, there are already what, 7 "aqua" EQ's that were released in about a year? How many plugins have UA coded in that same time period? Cytomic has been around since like 2010 and released two plugins. The 7 Aqua EQ's are probably more plugins than DMG Audio's entire product line. Again, I know the whole technology took a ton of development, but it seems like they can turn out plugins quickly, which indicates the effort and cost of current development is fairly low, which isn't reflected in the price. But then again, they spent years and years developing the Nebula technology, which is a great counter argument to everything I just said.

But in the end, yeah, they'll be successful as long as the quality is high enough and people are willing to pay. If they'd get their act together and figure out a demo process, I'd definitely take some of these for a test run to see for myself if they're worth the high price.

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:32 pm

Robmobius wrote:
bmanic wrote:
You really really like being a complete douche, don't you?

I use Amber EQ, Titanium, BlueEQ, Trinity EQ v2 and now Ivory EQ without any issues at all. I've used Nebula itself with AlexB and Tim Petheric programs for YEARS without any issues at all.

Sure, it can cause issues if you are technically inept or just unlucky but your generalization of everybody having issues is just plain stupid.. but it's to be expected. You like being a dick.
Yes BM he was a bit of a tit for saying that.

Anyway, I stand by all the new AA stuff. I have most of their new plugins. And they sound fantastic.

And I never really had a problem using trinity (great EQ).

It's not the first time this guy has come with this attitude. I'm just fed up with it. There's no point with political correctness at this age and these forums. I'm polite when other people are polite. I'll be a dick when others are being dicks. That guy was a real douche with his first post so I'm not giving him any slack at all.

I took my time in creating the first post, composed a quick little song, did a quick little mix as a favor to my fellow musicians on these forums.. and that post is one of the first I got? You bet I'm going to respond in kind.

Wont happen again though as I've ignored him. Forgot about that feature here.. had I remembered it earlier I might not have even replied to him. But I'm not going to start self-censoring any more. What I write here on the forums is and always has been my own opinion. I'm not a talking head for any company (the developers who have had me as beta tester or co-developer know that all to well.. I can be highly critical even if I'm "on the payroll") so I have no ulterior motives. I am what I am and write as I write. Take it or leave it.

Cheers!
bManic

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:33 pm

cfanyc wrote:Bmanic I have a question: if someone disagrees with you and believes you are hyping a product, and lets even say they are wrong
for arguments shake, that gives you the right to call them 'douche'
and a 'dick'?

When they are being a douche and a dick?

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:40 pm

Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote:I've always said Nebula would be successful when they got rid of the awful UI and built plugins that look like the original units. I'm glad they've been doing just that, while lowering CPU and latency but they need to figure out a proper demo process. I'm still not ready to drop that kind of cash without a demo.

The prices are a bit to high too considering how quickly they seem to be able to turn out units at this point. Obviously the R&D that went into making this technology a reality should be compensated, but it just feels like they're an EQ releasing machine at this point, and all the EQs are pretty darn expensive.

I honestly feel like $99 + a demo is the right price point for these things.

Yeah, the lack of demos is a real bummer and something I've been highly critical about. We've made quite a lot of noise on the forums for this and managed to get a 1 month weird exclusive "february" demo thing working for Magenta.. or was it Titanium? Can't remember. But yeah, I agree very much that there should be a demo.

However, as for the price, here I disagree. I don't think you guys understand how much time and resources it takes to create these. We are talking about hundreds if not thousands of man hours to get these done! I've done a few EQ samplings of my own and it is a complete nightmare!!! Granted, they probably have much better tools available to them but it's still manual labor that takes a long time to do.. which means high studio costs and rental costs for the equipment.

Also, this price for Ivory EQ is pretty much on par with IK Multimedia's version and cheaper than the UAD one. It's also superior sounding than both previously mentioned ( in MY opinion! .. and I have only had a brief go with the UA version EDIT: On the UAD I mean the Precision EQ because AFAIK it's inspired by the sontec/maselec type EQ).

One thing is certain: The new Core 6 engine is a lot faster and smarter than any of the preceding engines which means a lot lower CPU and somewhat lower latencies, without compromising the sound quality. Nebula technology has always been a future tech and we are not quite there yet when it comes to commonly available hardware but it's not long now before these plugins start to make a lot of sense.. and they are still way ahead of the game when it comes to sound quality (again, my opinion).

Cheers!
bManic

Tp3 · Post by **Tp3** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:59 pm

My only gripe is that at this point, I don't know what to choose among the EQs...

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 7:07 pm

Well if you only go for one I'd definitely recommend the Ivory EQ as the first one. It's a "go-to" EQ for so many tasks and it's clean enough to be useful even in delicate situations. It also uses the least CPU and has the lowest latency of any of the released EQ plugins from Acustica.

Also worth of note to all reading this: Acustica Audio really do honor the full refund if you are not happy. This like Audio Damage's system where you get fully refunded if you don't like the plugin after trying it out for a short time. You can quite safely use this system as a "demo".

Zaphod (giancarlo) · Post by **Zaphod (giancarlo)** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 7:18 pm

bmanic wrote:
Robmobius wrote:
bmanic wrote:
You really really like being a complete douche, don't you?

I use Amber EQ, Titanium, BlueEQ, Trinity EQ v2 and now Ivory EQ without any issues at all. I've used Nebula itself with AlexB and Tim Petheric programs for YEARS without any issues at all.

Sure, it can cause issues if you are technically inept or just unlucky but your generalization of everybody having issues is just plain stupid.. but it's to be expected. You like being a dick.
Yes BM he was a bit of a tit for saying that.

Anyway, I stand by all the new AA stuff. I have most of their new plugins. And they sound fantastic.

And I never really had a problem using trinity (great EQ).
It's not the first time this guy has come with this attitude. I'm just fed up with it. There's no point with political correctness at this age and these forums. I'm polite when other people are polite. I'll be a dick when others are being dicks. That guy was a real douche with his first post so I'm not giving him any slack at all.

I took my time in creating the first post, composed a quick little song, did a quick little mix as a favor to my fellow musicians on these forums.. and that post is one of the first I got? You bet I'm going to respond in kind.

Wont happen again though as I've ignored him. Forgot about that feature here.. had I remembered it earlier I might not have even replied to him. But I'm not going to start self-censoring any more. What I write here on the forums is and always has been my own opinion. I'm not a talking head for any company (the developers who have had me as beta tester or co-developer know that all to well.. I can be highly critical even if I'm "on the payroll") so I have no ulterior motives. I am what I am and write as I write. Take it or leave it.

Cheers!
bManic

I confirm. Bmanic is extremely critical and sometimes we had even discussions. If he does not like a product he does not wait a single minute on choosing friendly words...

but I like him, he is very genuine

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 7:20 pm

Here's another demo. This time a quick mix of the publicly available North to Alaska multitrack. Did a quick mix of the thing (no vocals) using just Pro-Q 2 and some IK plugins (mainly the British channel). I've then done a "quick master/bus polish" with two instances of Ivory EQ. Nothing else.

Here are the before and after with screenshot of the settings. Signal flow is from top to bottom so top EQ was first then immediately following the bottom one.

Original mix

2x Ivory EQ quick polish

If any of you have audio material you want me to process then feel free to send me some. I've only got a limited range of stuff here on this home laptop of mine but I'm free this weekend so now's your chance.

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:24 pm

Another, more delicate, example. This is a song I composed for a short film a while ago. It's piano only so really delicate processing is needed and Ivory EQ works brilliantly for this kind of stuff. This file has the following chain of effects: Aquamarine very light compression -> Ivory EQ (single instance, no preamp, all 4 bands used but only tiny bits of EQ.. about half dB except top shelf which was +2dB from 14kHz) -> AlexB's N14 API console Master Bus (clean version)

Delicate piano, original mix

Delicate piano, Aquamarine+Ivory+N14

Selfik · Post by **Selfik** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:40 pm

sounds nice...bmanic what reverb did you use on that piano?

Ivory EQ by Acustica Audio! (Aqua plugin)