KVR Audio

zmora · Post by **zmora** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:33 am

http://www.nomadfactory.com/ new serie of plugins.
I don't like behavior of compressors but aside this all plugins sounds to me very nice.Also very nice GUI and VERRRRRY friendly for CPU, Blueverb too.Amazing.

championrabbit · Post by **championrabbit** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:44 am

I always found their stuff totally underwhelming. The 'Rock Amp' thing is hopeless...

Also, I really don't like this as a catchphrase:

"Designed by musicians for musicians".

I'll stick with my 'Designed by techie-nerds for audio engineers' kit I think...

championrabbit · Post by **championrabbit** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:52 am

The Rockocaster: designed by guitarists, for guitarists!

If you catch my drift...

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:11 am

zmora wrote:very nice GUI

All their plugs have nice GUI's.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:14 am

championrabbit wrote:I really don't like this as a catchphrase:

"Designed by musicians for musicians".

"Designed by Graphic Artists for anyone who like pretty graphics" is probably closer truth.

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:21 am

I just finished a short demo session with the new plugins (all except EQP4 which I couldn't download). GUI is quite nice but again there seems to be some weird harshness to the sound. It reminds me a bit of the Blue Tubes bundle plugins general sound. For instance, the LM-662 does something to the sound even without having any gain reduction going on. It has a slight top end boost and tames the bass a bit (the real fairchild cuts quite a bit of bass away and hence seems brighter). However, the subtle thing that it does is not very pleasant IMHO. It's more of a brittle character, easily noticeable on a track that already has some high frequency problems.

I kind of like the compression action on these plugins. Much more so than the blue tubes bundle but this might be just my memory telling me that the blue tubes compressors sucked. Maybe I have to demo them again? Anyhow, the compressor can easily be heard, they are NOT transparent at all and are quite hard to tweak for transparency too.

The EQs are a big minus again. I don't know what Nomad Factory do with their equalizing code to get it so harsh. They seem to do more damage than good. This is also the case with the new SC-226 "recording channel" plugin. Try boosting 6-10dB at around 10kHz on some hihats.. ouch! (do the same with Posihfopit or Nyquist EQ and you'll see that these are far superior).

Each plugin also has a control labeled 'warmth' for some pseudo-wannabe-tube drive. Well again, it kind of sounds thereish but ends up doing more damage than good. One would be much better off with Voxengo warmifier + lampthruster for these tasks or in the case of wanting that harsh kind of sound then go get Bram's Cyanide 2 and shape your hearts out!

Finally, the reverb. Well, this one could even be a keeper. It has a quite special character to it that I haven't found anywhere else. It also doesn't sound metallic or annoying in any way. As an added bonus it's quite light on the CPU too. It will not replace convolution reverbs nor does it replace Arts Accoustic or the other quality reverb plugins as it sounds so different to these but it could add something new to the mix. Overall the most impressive plugin of this bunch, IMHO.

Cheers!
bManic

PS. I've only demoed these plugins for about 20 minutes so take this little mini review with a LOT of salt.

arturmeinild · Post by **arturmeinild** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:22 pm

I think their Liquid bundle at least *looks* interesting (haven't tested it). And don't tell me the Liquid plugins sound brittle, if that's the case I'll laugh my ass off...

verstaerker · Post by **verstaerker** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:26 pm

nice GFX

M'Snah · Post by **M'Snah** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:31 pm

Thanks for the mini-review

. I had received their marketing email, but since I don't have 'golden ears', and the price was too high for an impulse buy, I didn't really look into it.

vic_france · Post by **vic_france** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:37 pm

It's amazing how peoples' opinions vary, with something as subjective as sound

. I have, and love, the BlueTubes bundle, but thought that the Liquid bundle was a waste of space, and I just downloaded the demo of Blueverb.. beautiful interface, as always, but boy was I disappointed in the sound! (exacly the opposite opinion from bmanic.. I found there was a metallic ring to it that was most unpleasant, and didn't like the stereo image from it either). I'm not short on software reverbs (and CSR is on its way to me!), but I'm such a reverb slut that I was quite prepared to go for the BlueVerb too, but having tried the demo (I still have 8 usable days left, but I'd be surprise if I even load it up again) I can easily pass up on it.
But, like I said, it's all subjective.

verstaerker · Post by **verstaerker** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:08 pm

did someone notice that:

the Graphics in the LM-662 (Fairchild 670 emulation) shows a 12AX7 tube -
but in the Fairchild a General Electric 6386 Tube is used (wich sounds very diffrent to the Electro Harmonix 12AX7)

dogod · Post by **dogod** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:20 pm

What I noticed is the total lack of audio demos....hehe

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:31 pm

thanks bmanic,

saved me the trouble.

confirmed my expectations.

bleh.

verstaerker · Post by **verstaerker** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:37 pm

dogod wrote:What I noticed is the total lack of audio demos....hehe

i wonder why

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:34 pm

vic_france wrote:It's amazing how peoples' opinions vary, with something as subjective as sound . I have, and love, the BlueTubes bundle, but thought that the Liquid bundle was a waste of space, and I just downloaded the demo of Blueverb.. beautiful interface, as always, but boy was I disappointed in the sound! (exacly the opposite opinion from bmanic.. I found there was a metallic ring to it that was most unpleasant, and didn't like the stereo image from it either). I'm not short on software reverbs (and CSR is on its way to me!), but I'm such a reverb slut that I was quite prepared to go for the BlueVerb too, but having tried the demo (I still have 8 usable days left, but I'd be surprise if I even load it up again) I can easily pass up on it.
But, like I said, it's all subjective.

Yes when it comes to reverb it varies a lot. However I'm suprised you found a bad metallic ring in it. Maybe we use the same term for different things? Sure there is a bit of a buildup of resonances, it's no lexicon, but it's no where near as bad as a lot of other reverbs. It fails quite miserably on percussion though, just like most other reverb plugins, but it did work quite well with guitar, vocals and synth sounds. Btw. I'm quite jealous of your CSR purchase! Wish I had the money for that thing. Based on the few mp3 demos it sounds superb! Once you receive it can you please make some proper audio examples and show us mortals what it can do?

After some more testing of these plugins I have to say that Nomad Factory are trailing behind the competition and their prices do not help at all either. Stick with the high quality free stuff and the humanly priced and better quality Voxengo, Kjaerhus, WWaym, Elevayta etc. plugins. This is my conclusion to the now un-installed new Nomad Factory plugins.

Cheers!
bManic

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