Empirical Labs Arousor is on sale for $149, worth getting?

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Arousor

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axb312 wrote:
Beatworld wrote:
axb312 wrote:Waiting for it to be ilok free...
Never going to happen.

Fantastic ITB Compressor, absolute bargain at this price.
Definitely needs to happen....

Else never going to buy this...and I buy there are a lot of people in the same boat...
Don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
Don't worry, just buy/use something else - if you will not get this because of iLok. :party:

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i think it is a fine compressor and should not be compared to the hardware though. i am considering it and luckily they were nice enough to let me demo it a second time since i demo'd it two years ago but couldn't see paying the price asked (i will not and have not paid full price for anything) this price is more reasonable especially with the discount down to $134 @ JRR

as for ilok.. i was one of the most against it but got it free with a plugin a few years ago and have not turned back. i know this is only my opinion and my taste is subjective but imo... you can't get better sounding plugs that don't use the scheme. they are imo the best to be had and that is why they themselves (developers) invest in the protection scheme. i was scared off by all the horror stories in the past about folk losing licenses but in my experience in the last 3+ years... i have never once had a hiccup from the system and i really love the fact that i can carry my tools anywhere i go and don't need an internet connection. cheers
"There is no strength in numbers... have no such misconception... but when you need me be assured I won't be far away."

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+1
Also the op doesn't care about Ilok so not the subject here.

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... Because if you don't use iLok, your plugin might get cracked. Bwa ha ha ha!

The guy who cracked it would have just said "Hmmm. looks like I'm just going to have to buy it now."

Keep dreaming.

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Just checked PluginDiscounts and turned out that the price is $133.99... which is barely a difference from the offer by JRR. But since they are selling E27 a few bucks cheaper, my money went to them and bought the two together.

Endor-8o8 wrote:Also the op doesn't care about Ilok so not the subject here.
And that's right, I don't care about iLok. Call me weird, but I actually kind of like iLok. I can forget about all the serials or license files and just carry a USB stick with me and I am all set! Plus, I produce at many different locations with different machines, so there were times that I had to worry about how many authorizations the software offers. But with iLok, that's not a problem at all!

Anyway, I completely understand those who dislike iLok. But it just works perfectly for me and my special situation.
Trance, Trance Is Life

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I have this thing called a laptop. And it has all my plugins, sessions, plus my tracking/mixing software. Even my operating system.

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I don't have Arousor but I do have SKNote Disto. I demoed Arousor last night pitting it against Disto... they are slightly different but I can dial in something close with Disto compared to Arousor... leaves me on the fence for now. I'll spend more time with it to discover anything that is unique enough to warrant the cost.

What aspects of Arousor do you feel are unique to it compared to other software compressors? I know its an emulation of the Distressor but I have not used a hardware Distressor so I am unaware of it's unque features. :phones:

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Another factor to bear in mind: Kush has had Novatron on sale for under $100 (in fact, they just did less than a month ago). It's supposed to be pretty nice, might be worth waiting for it to go on sale again. I can guarantee it will happen this Black Friday at the latest.
A well-behaved signature.

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JerGoertz wrote:Another factor to bear in mind: Kush has had Novatron on sale for under $100 (in fact, they just did less than a month ago). It's supposed to be pretty nice, might be worth waiting for it to go on sale again. I can guarantee it will happen this Black Friday at the latest.
I take it the Novatron is similar to the distressor, then? I remember something about the UBK-1 being very similar, but the Novatron is based on a Vari-mu tube comp if I'm not mistaken.

Not sure if I mentioned this, but been messing around with the Pensadia SOR8.

It's not a dial-for-dial copy of the distressor by any stretch, but it's very effective as a drum smasher.

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Etienne1973 wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIY31lSxWfY

Question: What do you think after carefully listening this comparison?
Are you sure it is an emulation of the hardware or the GUI? the Plugin eats the transients for breakfast.

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Studio Saturn wrote:
Etienne1973 wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIY31lSxWfY

Question: What do you think after carefully listening this comparison?
Are you sure it is an emulation of the hardware or the GUI? the Plugin eats the transients for breakfast.
Eats more than that. Bass gets chewed up and shat out.

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badass_billy wrote:
JerGoertz wrote:Another factor to bear in mind: Kush has had Novatron on sale for under $100 (in fact, they just did less than a month ago). It's supposed to be pretty nice, might be worth waiting for it to go on sale again. I can guarantee it will happen this Black Friday at the latest.
I take it the Novatron is similar to the distressor, then? I remember something about the UBK-1 being very similar, but the Novatron is based on a Vari-mu tube comp if I'm not mistaken.

Not sure if I mentioned this, but been messing around with the Pensadia SOR8.

It's not a dial-for-dial copy of the distressor by any stretch, but it's very effective as a drum smasher.
You might be right about the Novatron, I know it's supposed to be versatile with a lot of compressor types as options, but whether it covers the same ground as the Distressor, I don't know.
A well-behaved signature.

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The most "Distressor inspired" UBK product is clearly the Sly-Fi Deflector, a very nice compressor indeed.

As for what aspects of the Arousor are unique, well the AtMod (Attack Modification) is and it was VERY quickly "cloned" by Acustica (who call it Shmod). AtMod allows you to fine tune attack behaviour in a useful way.

While you might not call them unique, the Detection Sidechain EQ and Soft Clipping functions being built in to Arousor are really handy and make it more likely that you will not need to add other plugins in the chain to do those jobs.

Having used Arousor since it was first released I can say, from experience, that it is a joy to use and gives stellar results.
It works on pretty much anything but has real strengths on things like kick, snare, bass, vocals and percussion.

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I have the Kush/Sly stuff. Novatron and UBK are not like a Distressor. Novatron apparently take the compression characteristics of a number of different compressors and offers a sort of blend or morph through their parameters as you sweep the controls. UBK is it's own animal and is more than only a compressor - i use it when I want to work the distortion that compressors are capable of, while compressing. It's more a distortion/saturation/compression tool. As mentioned Sly-fi Deflector is more of a Distressor derivative. :phones:

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plexuss wrote:Novatron apparently take the compression characteristics of a number of different compressors and offers a sort of blend or morph through their parameters as you sweep the controls.
So in other words, it's like a distressor.

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