KVR Audio

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 11:16 pm

VariKusBrainZ wrote:Im going to buy Cubase in the hope it can be used as a word processor

LOL!

But, yeah, I have no FOMO with this and that's the only reason for the silly retail price.

lae777 · Post by **lae777** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 11:46 pm

After playing with it a few times now, I like Oracle and I can definitely see it having a place in my future projects (mostly film sound design) but, I emailed Soundspot almost a week ago via their website contact portal to ask about the preset manager (it's terrible), and whether there is a manual, and I haven't heard anything back from them. Given I only paid $13 I'm OK with that but I would be really annoyed if I had paid full price. Customer service matters!

Bodhisan · Post by **Bodhisan** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 11:57 pm

I listened/watched Soundspot's video on Oracle and thought it not only sounded good, but had some neat tricks, then read this thread and saw people I respect trash it.

I simply must have shotty ears and taste...

Armagibbon · Post by **Armagibbon** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:53 am

Nah man peeps got opinions. You like it? Get it. You're the boss of your tastes.
And it's the cost of a f*ckin coffee. I mean there's not much to regret if you gotta throw it out after. It's whatever.

My opinion? Not like it matters over here... but I got no place for it. Already got a buncha verb plugs I like. Already got plugs that do this kinda modulation too and I'm good with them already. What's your take on it? You try doing that kinda thing with what you got already?

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:53 am

Armagibbon wrote: My opinion? Not like it matters over here... but I got no place for it. Already got a buncha verb plugs I like. Already got plugs that do this kinda modulation too and I'm good with them already. What's your take on it? You try doing that kinda thing with what you got already?

So, yes, the reason for calling it out as a bad reverb isn't so much to say "look how bad it is", rather, it's "geez, who doesn't have reverb that sounds this bad already?" Beyond that, there is an expectation that anything priced at hundreds of dollars is going to be competitive with other similar products priced at hundreds of dollars.

So, as a $200 reverb, it's simply not good. As a $13 reverb it's pretty much a "who cares." It's a weak reverb followed by some other simple effects, some of which are equally weak, the rest of little interest. You can easily set up chains like this in most DAWs and save it as a preset. So other than a certain amount of convenience factor, which you trade for the inconvenience of trying to get that reverb to sound good, there's just not much going on. I'd rather give the $!3 to someone else who's a bit more conscientious about the quality and depth of their algorithms, e.g., Sean from Valhalla, who only charges three or four coffees for his reverbs.

Russell Grand · Post by **Russell Grand** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:05 am

To answer your (rhetorical) "who cares": many people here obviously care as Oracle is getting plenty of love along with the hate. I'd also be inclined to say that you care, considering how much time you have spent in this thread.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:13 am

Russell Grand wrote:To answer your (rhetorical) "who cares": many people here obviously care as Oracle is getting plenty of love along with the hate. I'd also be inclined to say that you care, considering how much time you have spent in this thread.

Nice try. I care about chatting about technology and that includes talking about bad products as well as good. However, make no mistake about it, I wasn't suckered into giving up a coffee or two for this thing. I'm never surprised when people buy weak products, especially weak flashy products, they've been doing that since time began.

If I really cared about demonstrating how bad this is, I'd buy and make a couple of videos pointing out how weak it is. I can't be bothered. Hell, I didn't even bother to shoot IRs of the demo before it expired.

Russell Grand · Post by **Russell Grand** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:17 am

It's clear that you dislike Oracle and I have no problems with that. I also have no problem with you posting that you dislike it, and I'm glad you didn't end up wasting money on something that turned out to be a total disappointment to you. However, there was no trying on my part - I'm simply calling it what it is. For disliking something so much that you never even purchased, you've spent a helluva lot of time in this thread.

But no worries, just ribbing ya a little bit

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:30 am

Russell Grand wrote:Simply calling it what it is.

Except that you didn't. You're projecting meaning onto my words that aren't there. Here's the dictionary definition for you.

used for saying that you do not think something is important and that you are not worried about it

So now, read that in context, "as a reverb, who cares." Don't confuse yourself in an effort to make yourself feel better for buying weak products. I don't think that this is an "important" reverb and I'm not worried about "not getting it." My choice to talk shit about it doesn't reflect an inner desire to purchase it. That kind of interpretation is something that your mom probably tried on you to manipulate you into doing things her way, only neither of you were smart enough to realize that it's nonsense on its face.

BRBWaffles · Post by **BRBWaffles** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:46 am

ghettosynth wrote:
Russell Grand wrote:Simply calling it what it is.
Except that you didn't. Your projecting meaning onto my words that aren't there. Here's the dictionary definition for you.

used for saying that you do not think something is important and that you are not worried about it
So now, read that in context, "as a reverb, who cares." Don't confuse yourself in an effort to make yourself feel better for buying weak products. I don't think that this is an "important" reverb and I'm not worried about "not getting it." My choice to talk shit about it doesn't reflect an inner desire to purchase it. That kind of interpretation is something that your mom probably tried on you to manipulate you into doing things her way only neither of you were smart enough to realize that it's nonsense on its face.

Leaving the ridiculous retail price aside, are there examples of paid reverbs in the ballpark of $13 that perform better? Notwithstanding the fact that I feel that OrilRiver is a stronger reverb and it's free. But if someone was looking for a good paid reverb of comparable price, $13, what would you recommend? Or would you submit there is likely nothing but weak products at that price point? Also, I agree that Oracle is a weak product for $13, and it's an insanely inadequate product for the retail price.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:11 am

This is not a $13 Product. How does it compare to a very expensive effect plugin? That's the question.

In April of this year, Soundspot replied to me, with a thank you for letting them know about the lack of manuals.

At around that time I also made mention of the crappy preset management system.

These little things become annoying over time. Now with their latest release, the preset management is still crap and there are still no manuals. I think what happens is that people start to see a trend.

I've purchased most of their plug-ins at this stage but my enthusiasm is starting to wane.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:18 am

BRBWaffles wrote: Leaving the ridiculous retail price aside, are there examples of paid reverbs in the ballpark of $13 that perform better? Notwithstanding the fact that I feel that OrilRiver is a stronger reverb and it's free. But if someone was looking for a good paid reverb of comparable price, $13, what would you recommend? Or would you submit there is likely nothing but weak products at that price point? Also, I agree that Oracle is a weak product for $13, and it's an insanely inadequate product for the retail price.

Yes! Either of Toneboosters' reverbs are better value. Either the latest version or the one that comes with Track Essentials. The Track Essentials reverb comes with other great tools for $20 so you can't really separate the price of the reverb, but, seriously, it's better value all the way around. Given that this reverb is on sale it's fair to compare it to other reverbs on sale. Abbey Road Plates and H-Reverb are certainly "better", and I don't really like H-Reverb, in fact, I've turned it down twice now at $29. There's a new reverb from a smaller dev that was posted a few days ago, someone will link it, I can't recall, that sounds better to me and they clearly put more effort into the reverb algorithms than SoundSpot did. I plan to demo that before the intro period is over. I think that I mentioned Dreamscape which is an, unfortunately, 32-bit only reverb earlier in this thread. It is fun as an experimental reverb, but not so good at convincing spaces. I paid about $5 for that on sale and I think that it's in the same ballpark normally.

As part of other bundles that usually sell for a bit more you can get several reverbs as well as a bunch of other interesting plugins with AIR's bundle for about $60 when it's on sale. That price includes a bunch of synths as well so you're getting the reverb for a buck or so, or less. I'm not a super fan of the AIR reverb, but, it's WAY more flexible for something that is bundled in such a cheap package. It even has a rather cool delay for the highpass lowpass so that you can shape the frequency response in time. The Korg MDE-X recently went on sale for $10 IIRC.

The thing is, if you want "bad" reverb, it's a bit of a challenge to find something as bad that people charge money for. There are more than a few weak reverbs out there for free. I'm not a fan of Voxengo's little freebie, but, it's free, so I'm not complaining so much as I'm saying that if you're looking for weird/weak reverbs that I think that it meets that definition. One reverb that meets the definition for me is KR-Space by K-Research. It's really hard to like that thing and it has been on sale at Guitar Center for $10. Another weird reverb that I demoed but ultimately didn't purchase is Rayverb.

If you're looking for spacey/creative reverbs, then CloudSeed is free and awesome. Uhe's experimental reverb can also get you crazy textures for a bit of exploring and it's also free. Of course, almost every DAW reverb is better.

I'm just not impressed with the level of care that Soundspot put into this. The fact that they were surprised about the response just speaks volumes about where their focus and skillset lies. If you don't know how to assess this before you release then you're not the vendor that I want to purchase a reverb from.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:24 am

^^^ I'll add Riviera, which has a really fun UI:
https://nuspaceaudio.com/2017/02/07/riv ... al-spaces/
Riviera is free, but it has a Donate button on the plugin that accepts $13

BRBWaffles · Post by **BRBWaffles** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:27 am

Aloysius wrote:This is not a $13 Product.

I acknowledge that it isn't a $13 product, but I'm speaking within the context of this sale. What comparable or more capable reverbs could be found for a similar price if we're only discussing the sale price? I think it's plainly obvious that this thing is not worth a 10th (or even a 20th) of the full price in its current state, but that's not really what I was trying to ask about.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 8:06 am

I acknowledge what you acknowledge.

As a follow on question: What comparable or more pretty GUI could be found for a similar price if we're only discussing the sale price?

Soundspot Oracle