New version freeware TubeDriver VST plug-in by Nick Crow.

[Atomsplitter]

Nice plugin thanks, i think i remember getting a way earlier version, looks very different now, anyway many thanks for this

[Kingston]

Thanks Nick for PMing me about an update, but...

1) the GUI is still not the digital one I kinda expected
2) the sound is completely different compared to v0.74 or earlier versions (there's even the "voltage" dial missing.


IMO it degraded to a harsh distorion now rather to the advertised "warm tube amplification". Not to mention that some of the dials are hard to read, and IMO the cutoff/resonance is totally useless (you could use anything in chain for that).


Started off great, turned into something completely different. The only thing I like though is the reduced CPU usage.

A pity, but can't be helped.

and i thought i'm the only one noticing that

what the heck do you mean folks?

It's not like the difference to the older versions is dramatic at all, apart from slighly reduced parameter ranges due to the omission of the voltage control. The overall sound remains the same.

[verstaerker]

for my ears it sounds much more digital and harsh

[Compyfox]

Same for me, Kingston. If I'd A/B v0.73 with v0.94 (soundwise), the sound is totally different. More harsh indeed.

Maybe it's just my "imagination", but usually I trust my ears in this section as engineer. And sorry Nick, I don't know what you try to tell me with this picture.

[Kingston]

And sorry Nick, I don't know what you try to tell me with this picture.

and you call yourself an engineer?

I think this whole situation is a near perfect example of the placebo effect of GUIs on people.

for my ears it sounds much more digital and harsh

ie. the gui looks rough and handles a bit edgy compared to the old one. Will you people ever learn?

[Compyfox]

And sorry Nick, I don't know what you try to tell me with this picture.

and you call yourself an engineer?

All I see is a sinewave in the background, and some bass response on an FFT. The plugin itself has a setting going on, but the Sine (if this is the output showing) didn't show anything on the meter.

I am an engineer (though I don't know all tools or "mechanics" behind them myself - or do you?), but from just a small snippet of the screen, and no further info, even I can't know what's going on.

I think this whole situation is a near perfect example of the placebo effect of GUIs on people.

Oh please! As if the look of a tube and the big knobs compared to the isometric-type look now has anything to do with it. Even if I'd switch the GUI's off, the sound was still different to my ears. As if the earlier versions had more lower end.

And this is what's important - the sound, not what's up on the meters or how the GUI looks like. Please stop acting so uber-big for at least once, Kingston. Not everyone is 50years in the bussiness and only 30 years old!

[Kingston]

or do you?

yes. It's a sort of a requirement of being an engineer, let alone graduating as such.

engineers apply established principles drawn from mathematics and science in order to develop economical solutions to technical problems.

the term 'engineer' is often mistakenly used to describe a technician or a person that mends and operates machinery.

there used to be a time when the title "studio engineer" could be taken literally, or seriously. Since the DAW explosion every little hack straight from high school with dad's computer adopted the term. I wouldn't trust one to press a friggin' rec button these days.

Don't even get me started on "producers".

[loopdon]

Compyfox, i think the reason (some) people jump at you is because you seem
to feel the need to tell the world that you are an engineer in what seems to be
a 50+ percentage of your posts.
This reminds me of the saying:

"Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash."

Of course all of this is entirely subjective but i'd at least give it a thought.

[Compyfox]

So you're a total crack in voltera kerneling, know every secret about convolution, created your own fingerprints and sold them, you know everything about every host out there on the planet (even the most smallest ones), you can mix a 64channel song in 5.1 in the K-System in like 5 hours - BLIND, with one hand tied on your back?

Kudos to you - I'm doing this for like 3 years now so please excuse my noobishness and being green, but I'm no god or friggin machine to know everything and beat you in Kung Fu in the Matrix. I'm learning something new every day myself.


*I really should go back to the orchestra rehearsal recordings I still have to mix up, rather than hanging around all day at KVR...*

[Kingston]

classy Top Gun reference there.

and calm down Compyfox. Things aren't as serious as you make them out to be.

[Compyfox]

Uh okay... whatever (still you comment wasn't nice - but okay).

Anyway, to get back to the screenshot.
Let's say the input is a sine wave, the settings are as shown, shouldn't the output sine (if this is what's shown) altered at least a bit?

Maybe this picture is giving a wrong impression, but if we go by theory, it should be this way, shouldn't it?


And you can call me insane, or blame this on being placebo - but the latest version really sounds less warm as v0.7x to me.

[laputa_sync]

Comyfox the sine is altered.

[Kingston]

and quite the hefty amount as well!

I guess it's still just not warm enough. say, 40% less warm, maybe? but Celsius or Fahrenheit? neither? well, Kelvin maybe?

[Compyfox]

If you mean that the negative side of the amplitude is not exactly on the y-line of the X/Y field, and the sine itself has not the the maximum amplitude, then it is.

Unless I totally interpret it wrong - again.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I'm with Compy in that I don't know what I'm seeing there.

From what I can gather it's measuring total harmonic distortion. For instance in that graph on the right, are we seeing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th order harmonics being added? Would there otherwise have been none? What would a simple waveshaper look like put up against this TubeDriver example.

I don't think this new version is harsh, and have been using this plug-in a lot since first release (in fact I think I have every version on my HD, and I'm certainly not dumping .76), so I'm not going to suddenly stop using it or anything.