KVR Audio

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 5:11 pm

Goes to show, it's good to test out your (expensive) demos!

jazztard · Post by **jazztard** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 5:54 pm

Shy wrote:The single prices are bad. They want you to get the bundle. I wouldn't get it because I have it all covered. The protection is crap. X-Verb is a high quality reverb (unlike others people usually mention as alternatives), it's far from "not bad". The other plugins are also very good and some of them that seem to have decent alternatives, well, they're much better than the alternatives. I think people expect a "wow" kind of impression that in most part can't be had by tools like these in the first place. If you want a real "wow", there's some hardware that will give you it instantly, but that's usually in another price range than this entire software bundle for one type of processor.

People have been spoiled - there's so much supply, a lot of quality for free/cheap, but some things should STILL cost a lot. Obviously, SSL marketing is not targeting bedroom "producers" with their understanding of what's "good" and "bad" in terms of both technology and sound.

sounddesigner · Post by **sounddesigner** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 6:45 pm

jazztard wrote:
Shy wrote:The single prices are bad. They want you to get the bundle. I wouldn't get it because I have it all covered. The protection is crap. X-Verb is a high quality reverb (unlike others people usually mention as alternatives), it's far from "not bad". The other plugins are also very good and some of them that seem to have decent alternatives, well, they're much better than the alternatives. I think people expect a "wow" kind of impression that in most part can't be had by tools like these in the first place. If you want a real "wow", there's some hardware that will give you it instantly, but that's usually in another price range than this entire software bundle for one type of processor.
People have been spoiled - there's so much supply, a lot of quality for free/cheap, but some things should STILL cost a lot. Obviously, SSL marketing is not targeting bedroom "producers" with their understanding of what's "good" and "bad" in terms of both technology and sound.

People are not comparing apples to apples either with different plugin pricing. A one man operation will generally be cheaper then a larger company. SSL prices are no different then other larger companies such as Waves, UAD, Sonnox, etc. A one man show often is'nt selling plugins as a full-time job and only has to maintain a website for downloads. Bigger companies have many employees salarys to pay, manufacturing costs (boxed versions) , more advertisement, also SSL bought algorithms from Algorithmix, etc. Also SSL has a famous name and sound that many other companys are trying to emulate so naturally one should expect to pay a little extra for their products name brand when bought directly from them (name-brand tax is sad but a reality). I don't like paying for names but i know its smart business move by many companies to charge for it, aswell as create emulations wich seem to be what many people want. I feel chasing after emulations in general is not good and leads one to paying for brand-names, largely false-emulations, etc at some point.

I don't believe SSL's drumstrip and x-comp are overpriced at $199 each when i look at other plugins on the market and listen to their quality. The busscomp and channelstrip are high-priced at $329 each but their also the true name-brand products and flagships, i would'nt expect them to be low-price.

EDITED

b-pole · Post by **b-pole** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:13 pm

here we go again

XVerb - 279 euro - pooed on by RP and artsacoustic at half the price, and i am sure the upcoming $50 valhalla room and of course the similarly priced lexicon LXP bundle (although it's not a bad verb but geez it's expensive for a single verb plugin)

Vocalstrip - 159 Euro - voxengo voxformer destroys it

SSL Console Strip - 249 EU, for a limited eq and a compressor/gate? Get friggin Mixcontrol for $39

Native Bus compressor - 249 Euro - One answer - The Glue for $99

X-EQ - 229 EUros! What drugs are they on? Get ddmf for $20, or Equality, or even Fab Filter. Ridiculous for a standard digital eq.

X-Comp - 159 Euro - Fab filter Pro - C, plenty of $99 URS offerings, plenty of voxengo offerings

Drumstrip - 159 Euro - Kind of cool, but transient designer outclassed by SPL, plenty of alternatives for lo end boom

and to top it all off, a proven resource hogging codemeter protection. I think SSL are smoking crack or think their shit really doesn't stink.

And just to add, flux are equally overpriced lard also. In fact their most useful, easy to use plugins, are their free ones. Go figure!
----

Dear ttoz,

nice to meet you here again.

Nice to say that I have another opinion.

I bought the Duende Mini Musician's Bundle at a discounted and no longer produced product for $560 with
- Classic EQ and Dynamics Channel Strip
- Stereo Bus Compressor
- Vocalstrip
- Drumstrip

I was informed here...

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/new-prod ... ction.html

Jim@SSL promised that all owners of Duende Hardware will get free cross grades to Duende Native.
All was true, it is offered now here...

http://www.solid-state-logic.com/music/ ... _grade.asp

The plugs are criticized, I know.

Duende DSP v2 - all rendering was done in the DSP card
Duende DSP v3 (Hybrid) - rendering was splitted, DSP and CPU in the mix
NOW: Duende Native

But it was only the question of time.
The CPU's are faster, no need for external DSP's.
So why not Duende Native?
Have you really tested all plugs intensively?
In my opinion, all the plugs I own are really outstanding, not cheap, but not overpriced, too.
What about the Lexicon reverb you wanted?
$1300 for a reverb?
Could be strange, too.
At the moment I do not use other plugs than my Duende Plugs and the Waves SSL Plugs.
I am very satisfied.
I will cross grade, soon, because you can still use your Duende DSP stuff.
Native on my iMac, DSP with my MacBook Pro.
Because of the known bugs: SSL knows about it already and will fix it.

But as a summary: I do not get money from SSL.
Use them, test them, demo them. If you do it you cannot say they are not good.
For me they are great.

People have been spoiled - there's so much supply, a lot of quality for free/cheap, but some things should STILL cost a lot. Obviously, SSL marketing is not targeting bedroom "producers" with their understanding of what's "good" and "bad" in terms of both technology and sound.

I have the same opinion.
Good plugs cost money.
The same for "Soundtoys" or "Softube".
If you really test them, you know why they are not cheap.
Please do not understand we wrong.
I have nothing against Glue, Aether, good freeware etc.
But only say "no big companies" (e.g. Waves, UAD, SSL) is not fair, too.
Waves was overpriced, indeed, but SSL is not, in my opinion.
About the copy protection.
Why is it crap?
I ordered the dongle from SSL already.
Better good protection for good plugs than nothing.

I hope nobody is angry about my words now, but "only" saying - use freeware and support small companies and criticizing big companies - is not fair at all.

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:28 am

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Artgiver · Post by **Artgiver** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 4:13 am

..that was well said ttoz!

A.M. Gold · Post by **A.M. Gold** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:54 am

I've talked to very experienced professionals who think SSL hardware is overrated (well, their exact words were "it's crap") so I guess I'm not at all surprised to see that their plug-in foray is disappointingly average but carries a premium price tag.

I have the UAD SSL Buss Comp and I never use it. Not sure why I bought it---impulse buy I guess. That was also overpriced at something like $200, but I think I got a discount.

Honestly, the main comps I use now are the $20 no-brainer channel strip thingy from Nomad and the UAD LA2A (why mess with perfection?) and I think I also got the LA2A at some kind of discount, so it was very affordable.

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 6:38 am

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jazztard · Post by **jazztard** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:03 am

jazztard · Post by **jazztard** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:06 am

jazztard wrote:

A.M. Gold · Post by **A.M. Gold** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:08 am

Flarp.

jazztard · Post by **jazztard** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:22 am

A.M. Gold wrote:Flarp.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flarp

Which one?

4damind · Post by **4damind** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:30 am

ttoz wrote:Actually unlike ilok and even syncrosoft, codemeter remains totally and utterly uncracked to this day.

This isn't true anymore, SSL Duende native cracked is flying around the web this days. It was cracked in the shortest time, so you get the picture about the "code meter" copy protection.

Anyway, with the existing bugs SSL plays only at average quality level this days. Also more and more people get the experience that there is not really a outstanding "SSL sound". If professionals said in the past the SSL is crap and they used it only because of the amazing automation capabilities, everybody can now form their own opinion if this this could be true.

A.M. Gold · Post by **A.M. Gold** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:36 am

jazztard wrote:
A.M. Gold wrote:Flarp.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flarp

Which one?

Not the scrotum/nail gun one.

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:12 am

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SSL Duende native - worth it?