Any suggestions regarding to Acustica Audio?

[10bd01]

My advice: DON'T.

Check out this thread: https://gearspace.com/board/music-compu ... n-922.html.

Look at how many issues people have. This company clearly doesn't care about testing their own software adequately before releasing it and think it's okay to give their paying customer a deluge of issues that they then suggest they start tickets for - they basically use their paying customers as beta testers. The Cubase issue has been going on for YEARS, and they've known about it for YEARS, and instead of fixing the issue for a significant portion of their user base they create more buggy, glutinous software. They are quick to pat themselves on the back publicly for their customer service when it's clear to anyone following along that they have some of the worst customer service in the business. I've seen them rationalize and excuse themselves for their lack of customer service over and over to customers emphatically asking them publicly to be heard, to have their issues resolved and to have their weeks-old ticket answered. Notice in that thread above how many times they ask their customers to re-download/re-install gigs and gigs of data for a bug fix and fathom how much time is wasted due to their neglect.

I would seriously consider their products as artificially hyped as well - look long enough and you'll start seeing a lot of single-post accounts that drop in out of the clear blue sky to sing their praises on a mountaintop only to never be heard from again. Super sketchy forum activity, bad customer service, voodoo and mysticism in their marketing speak - do yourself a favor and - if you're moving in the analog emulation direction - save your money for a UAD interface and start buying UAD*; minus the interface and with sales you'll pay approximately the same IN MONEY (more on that below). You'll have a functioning product that sounds good, you won't need to spend half your time in AA's ticketing system getting something resolved that they were too incompetent or careless to resolve in the first place, and rather than have your system resources sucked bone-dry by interfaces that look great but are 100% not worth the performance hit, you'll have outboard DSP that actually relieves your system of the burden and look A-OK.

For AA you pay heavy in system resources, time, frustration, money. They are an EXTREMELY expensive product if you include all of these expenses, not to mention their ticket prices are high as well, though they have finally woke up to the idea of sales. Even if all of the hype - much of which is artificial or suspicious - gives you 1% - IF, that's an IF - is that 1% worth all of the expenses? UAD is LESS EXPENSIVE than AA with all of these costs and frustrations involved, and is at least competitive if not out-competing of AA.

Take any AA plugin and multiply the list price by 2 or 3. Ask yourself if you're willing to pay that much for this plugin, and that may give you a more realistic idea of what you're actually paying.

I don't think so. Keep an eye on it - they are maturing VERY slowly. Like I said, sales are something they only recently woke up to and until recently their software was a complete nightmare to install and use; they are still making excuses and giving rationalizations for their terrible customer service and are still releasing beta products to paying customers and aren't honoring their customers with an appropriate level of customer service IMO, so I wouldn't expect much movement there until they open their eyes and stop patting themselves on the back for what is clearly a problem. Things may get better in a decade, or not.

I learned - for myself - that I'm going to move in the UAD direction and leave Acustica where they leave their paying customers - in the dirt with bugs.

*This is for general users - I understand the OP already has UAD and my advise is still DON'T - buy more UAD plugins you like or upgrade your interface and drop the AA idea like a hot potato. Come back in a decade and see if they've improved.

[dionenoid]

After some testing it seems that the Core17 update fixed the Cubase on Windows issues. It should also fix some issues for other systems as the releasing of memory should now be as expected.

It took about a year to fix this. Which is way too long, but as i understand even Microsoft couldn't pinpoint the exact issue at first. I'm just happy it's fixed now.

[10bd01]

After some testing it seems that the Core17 update fixed the Cubase on Windows issues. It should also fix some issues for other systems as the releasing of memory should now be as expected.

It took about a year to fix this. Which is way too long, but as i understand even Microsoft couldn't pinpoint the exact issue at first. I'm just happy it's fixed now.

Thanks for the update. My perception of this is - because they were getting pummeled by Cubase users around their most recent Sienna release - they decided to finally look into it and solve what they likely could have solved a year ago.

I'm happy it's fixed now as well, but am totally unwilling to do anything but warn people about them until they show they can act like professionals.

[plexuss]

Thanks for the update. My perception of this is - because they were getting pummeled by Cubase users around their most recent Sienna release - they decided to finally look into it and solve what they likely could have solved a year ago.

I'm happy it's fixed now as well, but am totally unwilling to do anything but warn people about them until they show they can act like professionals.

Won't happen: AA leadership think they are already professionals and have an excuse for every critisism thrown at them.

My advice is to research AA in the forums to understand what you will be getting yourself into and purchase based on the products as-is.

[jancivil]

used a couple of things around 12 yrs ago. Far too dear for what it does, and what it did was fine. Wasn't instantly replaceable in the project, was pretty replaceable in itself. It stopped working one day as though suddenly unlicensed. The dev was, as always very slow getting back to me so I'd had to find a way out anyway, I sold my license here.

[jancivil]

I was interested in tape type saturation. It made a difference, but using it was a drag, a weird, weird kind of 1990 UI on top of needing tons of latency on top of what I had to deal with, and I can't wait two weeks for support with something that quit working mysteriously

[pixel85]

I would seriously consider their products as artificially hyped as well - look long enough and you'll start seeing a lot of single-post accounts that drop in out of the clear blue sky to sing their praises on a mountaintop only to never be heard from again. Super sketchy forum activity

Recently, there was a call to action on their FB "fanbase group": because people were criticising their latest plugin, fanboys were called by other users to go to forum and defend it. Everybody went to do it. Some even created account on the forum just to do it.
It's sick. Their fanatics reminds me teenagers "fighting" for their favorite boysband.
I quit the group immediately. I don't like to use word fanboy to describe people who simply love hw/sw they use but in this case it's more thqn that. It's pure fanboyism.

Ps. also AA fanboys hate anyone who dare to mention that AA plugins cause issues in Cubase. It's forbidden. Feels like a sect

[plexuss]

I would seriously consider their products as artificially hyped as well - look long enough and you'll start seeing a lot of single-post accounts that drop in out of the clear blue sky to sing their praises on a mountaintop only to never be heard from again. Super sketchy forum activity

Recently, there was a call to action on their FB "fanbase group": because people were criticising their latest plugin, fanboys were called by other users to go to forum and defend it. Everybody went to do it. Some even created account on the forum just to do it.
It's sick. Their fanatics reminds me teenagers "fighting" for their favorite boysband.
I quit the group immediately. I don't like to use word fanboy to describe people who simply love hw/sw they use but in this case it's more thqn that. It's pure fanboyism.

Ps. also AA fanboys hate anyone who dare to mention that AA plugins cause issues in Cubase. It's forbidden. Feels like a sect

Just know there are those of us (me) that have and use AA products and enjoy them but simultaneous have little to nothing good to say about the company. We tend to keep a low profile for obvious reasons.

[10bd01]

Recently, there was a call to action on their FB "fanbase group": because people were criticising their latest plugin, fanboys were called by other users to go to forum and defend it. Everybody went to do it. Some even created account on the forum just to do it.
It's sick. Their fanatics reminds me teenagers "fighting" for their favorite boysband.
I quit the group immediately. I don't like to use word fanboy to describe people who simply love hw/sw they use but in this case it's more thqn that. It's pure fanboyism.

Ps. also AA fanboys hate anyone who dare to mention that AA plugins cause issues in Cubase. It's forbidden. Feels like a sect

I've had the same feeling of cult-ish behavior. Seriously, anyone who's interested in this company scour the forums and it becomes clear some super weird activity is going on. Someone will all of a sudden pop into a conversation, will have like 1-50 posts (often 1), will make a post that amounts to a marketing blurb for Acustica (all over-the-top marketing-speak praise and absolutely no criticism despite the issues the company is known to have), and poof, they're gone. To me it looks like a marketing tactic of "buying up" forum accounts with the intention of using them later on as a type of army to squash dissent. Can't confirm motivations, so this is speculation, but whatever the situation is it's disturbing to see.

I also heard rumblings about the Facebook shenanigans. They simply can't take criticism and respond to it like professionals - they often pass the blame along to a third party instead of taking responsibility for their products on behalf of their customers, other times it's the customer's themselves that they pass the problem to; in the FB group I heard a few users who simply thought they were being silenced when they had valid concerns, I believe a few of them were blocked as well for posting their valid concerns.

Unlike plexuss, I would be weary of even advising purchasing their products with the intention of purchasing it "as-is". There are a number of mac users that appear to be eating dust and bugs as Acustica wastes no time blaming Apple for changing their install folder configurations and make no motions whatsoever to fix it - meaning, if you purchase it "as-is" don't expect it to work next month and - if it doesn't - don't expect Acustica to do anything to fix it, expect them to spend their time writing a diatribe about Apple's folder configurations and rationalizing their incompetence instead of spending that same time just fixing the damn issue (see the GS thread I posted above and how - on p. 922-923 origin35 gets completely burned by Acustica, even after patiently working with them and expressing their support of them - as of now it's on post 27672, just in case they read this criticism, decide to help the individual out and then post a defense of themselves back here, which I've seen them do often as well - singing their own praises for fixing problems THEY are either creating or perpetuating).

I've seen a number of companies send out emails when they were having issues with Macs, telling the users they were working on it, and then having a fix a few days later - like actual professionals that care about their customer's experience and the quality of their work. Not with Acustica - they blame Apple for making changes and basically tell their users to eff off while defending themselves for not being able to compete and code competently in an industry that has always worked this way - new operating systems always introduce possible issues, it's how the companies respond to those issues that shows their mettle.

So, maybe besides multiplying the list price of an Acustica plugin x 3 to determine how much you'll ACTUALLY be paying for it, maybe it's worth considering that you may be paying that much for a plugin that may not even work next year. At that point, either they won't fix it or you'll be waiting a long time to get it fixed, as jancivil described in their experiences earlier and which I've heard a number of times now.

I feel like they would all benefit from getting tossed into some sort of business professional customer service boot camp or something. I began this journey really curious, supportive and fascinated by their approach. After a few years I feel like I'm finally seeing it for what it is - a company selling magical mystical fantasies, bad customer service and gear-porn interfaces with an extremely high total cost with very little pay-off in comparison with the competition, if any. I hope I'm proven wrong because I'd love to see them behave better, but as plexuss said it probably will never happen if it hasn't happened already. The fact is - they don't listen and don't acknowledge their own deficiencies. If they can't even get through that first step then in their eyes there's nothing to fix, so things will continue like they are indefinitely.

I'd love for them to prove all of this wrong, though! I'd love to come back to them in ten years and see pages and pages of legitimate forum conversation, fast responses and fixes on the very few customer complaints they receive because they're actually testing their own software adequately before shipping. No more magic speak, no more cult members chiming in to drop a marketing blurb, no more CEO on the forum all the time typing diatribes when he could be fixing his buggy plugins, etc.

What a wonderful world that would be!

[10bd01]

You can see it even in this thread - neylago at the bottom of page 7 with a whole 2 posts, one of which is extolling the virtues of Acustica. I've seen this DOZENS of times now, and not for ANY other company. This one was fairly light, but keep looking and you'll see MUCH more of this. And yes, they will often defend themselves with an explanation after getting called out and lean on the plausible deniability, but I no longer believe them - I've see it far too often for it to be coincidental in my experience. It's my opinion that Acustica is leveraging these forums to direct individuals out to curb dissent and over-hype their own products.

CAVEAT EMPTOR!

[plexuss]

[snip...] Unlike plexuss, I would be weary of even advising purchasing their products with the intention of purchasing it "as-is". There are a number of mac users that appear to be eating dust and bugs as Acustica wastes no time blaming Apple for changing their install folder configurations and make no motions whatsoever to fix it - meaning, if you purchase it "as-is" don't expect it to work next month and - if it doesn't - don't expect Acustica to do anything to fix it, expect them to spend their time writing a diatribe about Apple's folder configurations and rationalizing their incompetence instead of spending that same time just fixing the damn issue[ snip...]

Yes. Except. Apple has screwed audio software developers and users alike, with their constant changes and not fixing existing problems. So when you put that kind of OEM failure in front of a developer like AA, well you get a non-stop series of excused and non-action. Some of the blame is on Apple and some is on AA in this regard.

For me, on an old 2010 macpro running an old macPOS 10.13 and Reaper, the AA Acquas run fine. Why do I bother with AA? To me they sound great and enhance my music and audio.

But... I wouldn't recommend AA to anyone. I'm willing to manage the AABS. Afterall I was victimized by AA already through their horrible Nebula 4 product and the hidden issues it has. I DO NOT RECOMMEND NEBULA 4 especially for Apple users, its buggy and it's broken.

Knowing all there is to know now about AA feel free to jump in but set your expectations of AA very low. I mean, VERY low. If you try some of the trials and they work for you no problem and you like the products, then go for it but expect a fight from AA if you need anything from them. Sometimes they are fine and sometimes horrible just keep that in mind.

[10bd01]

Yes. Except. Apple has screwed audio software developers and users alike, with their constant changes and not fixing existing problems. So when you put that kind of OEM failure in front of a developer like AA, well you get a non-stop series of excused and non-action. Some of the blame is on Apple and some is on AA in this regard.

Understood, thanks for sharing this plexuss. I can see shared responsibility here; I do see other developers dealing with Apple issues as they arise despite Apple screwing them and I see a different behavior and response from AA altogether, which is why I guess I feel comfortable placing the onus on them.

In a perfect plugin-dev world plugin devs would have operating systems and hosts that were totally stable and changed little, but that not being the case, I feel the responsibility is mostly on the plugin publisher (in relation to the customer) as they can either mitigate or exacerbate whatever issues they're handed from the other parties. Even though they're not responsible for the OS or DAW, they ARE responsible to their customers and for providing a functional product on the platforms they claim to support - this responsibility to their customers IMO would push a considerate and thoughtful developer to solve the issues they were handed, not pass them along to the people paying them. Looking at it from the customer perspective I really do feel like AA is more culpable than Apple, regardless of the role Apple plays in the issues (to an extent).

I guess with other companies I can imagine both users and plugin developers feeling a mutual frustration with Apple - that they're in it together because the users see the developers get handed problems but THEN they see those developers fix those problems, which probably makes them feel like they're all in the fight together and Apple is the big bad guy (to an extent). But with AA I get the impression that AA turns themselves into the enemy in relation to their customers by not dealing with the issues. This likely gives their customers the impression that Acustica's the enemy, not Apple, because yes, Apple has handed them problems, but then NO, Acustica didn't do all they could to mitigate those problems and decided instead to pass them on to the customer while AA then goes on to develop a new product that carries that same issue forward.

I think though, that to anyone reading, between the two of is: to be cautious and well educated before proceeding with Acustica is the way to go, for sure!

[The_Ogre]

Just know there are those of us (me) that have and use AA products and enjoy them but simultaneous have little to nothing good to say about the company. We tend to keep a low profile for obvious reasons.

Same here! I'm a bit new to Acustica's world, as I changed my computer recently, and now I can use them. Unfortunately, earlier my old laptop didn't them very well, it struggled to run even the freebies, so I avoided to know them more. All I can say is, 'til now, I'm really liking their preamps and EQs, but their comps are kind of trial and error (Coral, Pink and Aquamarine are the ones I'm liking the most). I can't say where, but I think they still need to improve somewhat these ones.

But I'm not joining the love / hate bandwagon. I like them, just like I like some PA stuff, some Softube stuff, some Sonimus stuff (and the list goes on)... in the end, they're just tools - maybe better, maybe equal, maybe worst ... who knows? As my computer handles them, and I'm liking to use them, it's what matters to me. If I was use just what the forum users praise, I won't probably using nothing.

[The_Ogre]

But... I wouldn't recommend AA to anyone. I'm willing to manage the AABS. Afterall I was victimized by AA already through their horrible Nebula 4 product and the hidden issues it has. I DO NOT RECOMMEND NEBULA 4 especially for Apple users, its buggy and it's broken.

Knowing all there is to know now about AA feel free to jump in but set your expectations of AA very low. I mean, VERY low. If you try some of the trials and they work for you no problem and you like the products, then go for it but expect a fight from AA if you need anything from them. Sometimes they are fine and sometimes horrible just keep that in mind.

I tried most of the ones I grabbed prior to buying them, and I'm liking them so far. Not payed the full price in none, all was bought through license transfers. I read a bunch of threads here, but specially on GS (the one 10bd01 posted was just one of them, I read the entire threads about the Acquas I was looking for). But, I must agree that there's a bunch of strange things running, and their behavior isn't exactly what I call "the best support for the consumer" for what I could see (not have any trouble myself). I any case, I'm running Windows 10 and Reaper, and just Acquas (not Nebula), and this system seems to be "the best" for running them. Users with newer Macs and Cubase users appear to be the main complaint base today.

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

I would seriously consider their products as artificially hyped as well - look long enough and you'll start seeing a lot of single-post accounts that drop in out of the clear blue sky to sing their praises on a mountaintop only to never be heard from again. Super sketchy forum activity

Recently, there was a call to action on their FB "fanbase group": because people were criticising their latest plugin, fanboys were called by other users to go to forum and defend it. Everybody went to do it. Some even created account on the forum just to do it.
It's sick. Their fanatics reminds me teenagers "fighting" for their favorite boysband.
I quit the group immediately. I don't like to use word fanboy to describe people who simply love hw/sw they use but in this case it's more thqn that. It's pure fanboyism.

Ps. also AA fanboys hate anyone who dare to mention that AA plugins cause issues in Cubase. It's forbidden. Feels like a sect

We simply had a new product that needed minimal evaluation time and was labeled by some in a few hours as bad. The market ultimately proved us right.
Very often in the forums some people who have a dislike for a company create a big evaluation problem in products in the early stages. If some people tell you something sucks you don't even try it.
Our product was not so different from that of slate, which on the contrary for a series of different dynamics (related to a hardware that you had to buy, while in the early stages spoke only beta who had time to try and appreciate it) had a positive response.
There was no logical reason why our product couldn't work. And so it made sense to make people think: try it and take some time, because this kind of product requires adaptation. We simply asked people who had a positive opinion to balance the first moment, before everyone had a chance to try it carefully.
In the end, we were right: people did try it and found it good.