KVR Audio

bugs · Post by **bugs** » Fri May 13, 2005 2:08 pm

Anyone have experience with the Sony Oxford Inflator?

Stupid American Pig · Post by **Stupid American Pig** » Fri May 13, 2005 2:39 pm

no way, its made by sony...

JonnySun 2.0 · Post by **JonnySun 2.0** » Fri May 13, 2005 3:28 pm

It costs about 350 Euro, so watch out for the Poco Elements-Version with it. (got my for 455 Euro at musikcomputer.de ;incl. shipping)

In this package it's worth to buy it; in any case

kritikon · Post by **kritikon** » Fri May 13, 2005 10:36 pm

I'm with S.A.P - I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. A real shame, as there seem to be only good reviews written about it - I'm sure it's a quality item. But I won't buy anything Sony ever again. Haven't done for about 12-13 years now. I really wanted one of those Sony M7 modulator unit thingies in the past, but just wouldn't because of Sony. I'd buy it if anyone else released it and it had nothing to do with Sony - the sooner they go out of business, the better for everybody IMO.

My loss...but I still won't buy it. Some comanies are just so bad, that they deserve complete embargo irrespective of how good (some of) their products may be.

akisd28 · Post by **akisd28** » Fri May 13, 2005 10:54 pm

Inflator is freakin' awesome. It can give you that extra couple of dB's to make your mix stand out, if you want it to.

bugs · Post by **bugs** » Fri May 13, 2005 11:34 pm

S_A_P® wrote:no way, its made by sony...

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the rub again Sony?

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Sat May 14, 2005 12:42 am

Although out of my price range, f**k Sony anyway. I wouldn't buy from them if I COULD afford it.

kritikon · Post by **kritikon** » Sat May 14, 2005 12:47 am

For me the rub was several years ago when DAT was the main archiving format. To cut a long story short, Sony made DAT players that broke down remarkably quickly then refused to fix them. They claimed that recording music on them was "professional" and DAT players weren't meant for recording music, even if you never moved it from your own studio and nobody else used it but you. If you were within the statutory 12 months guarantee period (and many did break down very soon after being bought), they still refused to fix faulty gear (although some retailers shouldered the bill). Basically. So you had to throw away your consumer DAT and pay triple for a "pro" one which was just the same thing but made properly. Bear in mind that even consumer DATs were going for 500 quid or more at the start. It would be identical to buying a DAW PC, it not being able to record or playback audio, even though it was setup correctly, and the manufacturer saying that it was not a professional PC, therefore won't fix or refund.

Of course, after Sony got away with that, every other manufacter almost followed the same tactic. So Sony started the ball rolling with "we are not responsible for our own shoddy product". Amazing, eh? And I'm sure others have different reasons for not liking Sony. They basically just have the worst manufacturer support ever implemented. They broke several laws and somehow got away with it. And their attitude has never changed with any of their other products as far as I can see.

bugs · Post by **bugs** » Sat May 14, 2005 1:36 am

kritikon wrote:For me the rub was several years ago when DAT was the main archiving format. To cut a long story short, Sony made DAT players that broke down remarkably quickly then refused to fix them. They claimed that recording music on them was "professional" and DAT players weren't meant for recording music, even if you never moved it from your own studio and nobody else used it but you. If you were within the statutory 12 months guarantee period (and many did break down very soon after being bought), they still refused to fix faulty gear (although some retailers shouldered the bill). Basically. So you had to throw away your consumer DAT and pay triple for a "pro" one which was just the same thing but made properly. Bear in mind that even consumer DATs were going for 500 quid or more at the start. It would be identical to buying a DAW PC, it not being able to record or playback audio, even though it was setup correctly, and the manufacturer saying that it was not a professional PC, therefore won't fix or refund.

Of course, after Sony got away with that, every other manufacter almost followed the same tactic. So Sony started the ball rolling with "we are not responsible for our own shoddy product". Amazing, eh? And I'm sure others have different reasons for not liking Sony. They basically just have the worst manufacturer support ever implemented. They broke several laws and somehow got away with it. And their attitude has never changed with any of their other products as far as I can see.

Well that sucks. I didn't know that. I haven't done much business with Sony recently except for a set of Fontopia earbuds. Any recommendations for something comparable to the Inflator?

JonnySun 2.0 · Post by **JonnySun 2.0** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:34 pm

Hm, you could try to combinate tools like spectralive with several saturation effects and brickwall-peak-limiting.
But i don't know if it's the same. Haven't tried to reproduce it with some of usual tools. As an included item it's worth it's price imho but as a single plugIn .. hmmmmm .. different question.

I can upload a mp3-file processed with Inflator. On Tuesday .. if there is interest for it.

z15 · Post by **z15** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:40 pm

now that you mentioned the sony DAT thing...

i remember my former music tech teacher mentioning that stuff recorded with their DAT decks usually played pretty badly on other manufacturers' units for some reason - as the result, studios that had to be ready for clients bringing in their own tapes actually had two DAT decks just for that reason: one good and one sony.

Hovmod · Post by **Hovmod** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:45 pm

SONY had a crappy A/D converter for years, which gave a very audible tone at 3-4 kHz or so. I talked to a guy at a record company who said that after years of claiming they were wrongly accused, SONY admitted to it, but chose not to do anything about it. This was early in the digital era, late 80s I would guess...

Edit: the playback equipment manufacturer also owning the record companies was a SONY idea as well, wasn't it? The beginning of the monster media corporation?

flex42 · Post by **flex42** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:52 pm

bugs wrote:Any recommendations for something comparable to the Inflator?

I haven't used the Inflator but i guess Voxengo's Elephant and the Waves L3 are supposed to be the best native alternatives.

egbert · Post by **egbert** » Sat May 14, 2005 3:16 pm

Hovmod wrote:Edit: the playback equipment manufacturer also owning the record companies was a SONY idea as well, wasn't it? The beginning of the monster media corporation?

Funny thing was that Sony, Phillips and the Japanese electronics firms had planned that DAT would replace the compact cassette in the same way that the CD replaced Vinyl. They were all screwed by the record labels who refused to release music on DAT due to fears of perfect copies being exchanged by end users. DAT didn't become a standard consumer item but instead remained a niche product at a high price point.

Sony, Panasonic and the rest had done the R&D and got no payday with DAT due to the labels - which was reminiscent of earlier (failed) attempts by the Hollywood studios to kill the VCR .

It was after this that Sony decided it should buy CBS so that it would never again be beholden to the studios and the labels.

Sony has screwed itself because now has the content tail wagging the consumer electronic dog: look at the whole iPod thing. Portable music players was Sony's domain and they have until recently held out against the mp3 format and let Apple steal their lunch. Why? Because Sony records wants to stop piracy - this from a company that was instumental in bringing the cassette recorder and the VCR into every home - with a toy cutlass, an eyepatch and the Jolly Rodger in every box.

Surely somebody on the Sony board ought to speak up <ahem> Sony Records is tiny compared to Sony Electronics - why don't we let them twist in the wind? Sony ought to spin the record label f**kers off.

munchkin · Post by **munchkin** » Sat May 14, 2005 3:28 pm

The Inflator is useful if you plan to push your sound higher than everyone else but when everyone else is using it anyway what's the point? I have the Poco version and my advice is not to bother unless you are trying to compete in the dB game.

If you simply must buy an Oxford plugin (and they are good) I would recommend buying the EQ or Dynamics instead. The Poco is the 'poor' musicians gateway into the Oxford range. If it's a case of boosting levels then there are lots of other options (already mentioned in this thread) at a fraction of the price.