iZotope bought Exponential Audio

[robotmonkey]

EA products at 29$ coming soon to music store near you. I'm ok with that.

[jens]

Anyone have opinions on Excalibur? Mostly seen chatter about the EA reverbs on this thread. Aside from the fact that the engines are mono it looks pretty interesting.

Excalibur has one strength IMO: the sound quality is very high. The GUI doesn't work so well for fast programming of presets.

when it was on a sale a while ago I demoed it and I really wanted to like it - I read a lot of high praise for it, such as yours, but then - in all brutal honesty - ended up finding it very bland and generic sounding. So I could not for the life of me comprehend how this praise came about, almost-legendary reputation of the developer aside.
And in addition to that the GUI/architecture didn't invite me to explore much of the modular possibilities.

(I ended up purchasing B2 instead - and that's a semi-modular beast that really delivers)

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I demoed Excaliber on release, and was crazy impressed with the sound. Everything had a very high-end, modern, sheen to it. That won't always work, nor would it be everyone's cup of tea, but it was something I felt I was missing. Of course, I didn't buy it because the GUI/workflow was just horrible IMO. So much so that it didn't make up for the excellent sound quality.

B2 you say Jens? You know, as much as I have a million plugins, I never demoed any of the 2c stuff and I know it's supposed to be excellent. Maybe I gotta finally give them a chance.

EDIT
I gotta be honest though, I didn't even know what B2 is and still don't. Just went to the website to check it out. This is terrible copy:

B2 is a modular dual-engine, non-linear spatial processor featuring built-in harmonic distortion and flexible dynamics. It is our most advanced plug-in to date and is capable of both mind-bending creative effects that defy classification as well as stunningly lush reverbs. Its modular design enables an almost infinite variety of sonic possibilities. It is arguably the most sophisticated processor of its class available on the market today at any price.

Say what? Is it a reverb? A dynamics processor? Saturator? If they said, "B2 is a modular multi-fx unit that includes reverbs, modulation effects, dynamics, and saturation and allows you to combine these for mind-bending creative effects" [one sentence] I'd think, "oh, that sounds like an Excaliber compitetor." Right now, I don't know what it does. Figuring it out from their website requires way too much reading too. Look at the Features page for B2. Geez, just give me some bullet points about what it does, how it works, what's included, and why it's great. It could be exactly what I wanted Excaliber to be, but I'd need to read 10,000 words to maybe figure that out.

So what I know about 2C at this point is they make excellent reverbs (based on what I hear), love lots of words, small fonts, and should probably overhault their website to do a better job at selling their products.

Still, will add B2 to my list of plugins to checkout. Whatever it does.

[jens]

I really didn't hear any "highend sheen". This might very well be me, but what I seemed to hear instead was very simple and rudimentary digital effects.


I didn't mean to say B2 an Excalibur competitor - it's a bit less flexible/versatile and a lot weirder and more special.

it's basically 2x :

- a super flexible and great sounding reverb unit that can cover some delay territory too and it includes
-- a modulation module
-- a damping filter module
-- a post filter module

- a saturation/distortion module

- a super flexible dynamic module (which has its own presets)

All this is combined into one concise product with every possible function/process reachable with a few clicks.

[Caine123]

I really didn't hear any "highend sheen". This might very well be me, but what I seemed to hear instead was very simple and rudimentary digital effects.


I didn't mean to say B2 an Excalibur competitor - it's a bit less flexible/versatile and a lot weirder and more special.

it's basically 2x :

- a super flexible and great sounding reverb unit that can cover some delay territory too and it includes
-- a modulation module
-- a damping filter module
-- a post filter module

- a saturation/distortion module

- a super flexible dynamic module (which has its own presets)

All this is combined into one concise product with every possible function/process reachable with a few clicks.

jens, sorry to ask, did you mean B2 or Excalibur is "was very simple and rudimentary digital effect"?

[jens]

Excalibur - but again, that could just be me. What I did is to load up a few of the included modules and test them on their own merits. So how was the delay sounding?, how was the chorus sounding?, and so forth...

I feel a bit uncomfortable slagging off the product like this here, but at the same feel a desire to counter-argue the praise for it I read. So my advice is to take my opinion of it - just like the praise - with several grains of salt and to try the demo. But do it as I did: test the modules individually. And if you test multi-fx presets, try to recreate the chain with your favorite individual plugins for the job (You can start by just duplicating the track for this and after mimicking the chain switching back and forth between both tracks)

[MogwaiBoy]

EA products at 29$ coming soon to music store near you. I'm ok with that.

OMG YES!

I only have R2 and it is exquisite, maybe the best reverb I've ever heard. Very interested in EA's other stuff.

[MogwaiBoy]

Phoenix is $49 at Pluginboutique - maybe for existing customers.

What's the difference between R2 and PhoenixVerb? Looks like a similar feature set.

[chk071]

R2 = Lexicon style (think chorus-y) reverb. PhoenixVerb = realistic sounding room reverb. At least that's the way i understood it.

[JerGoertz]

Phoenix is $49 at Pluginboutique - maybe for existing customers.

What's the difference between R2 and PhoenixVerb? Looks like a similar feature set.

Phoenixverb is supposed to be more natural and transparent.

[MogwaiBoy]

Thanks bros

[RobGee]

Anyone have opinions on Excalibur? Mostly seen chatter about the EA reverbs on this thread. Aside from the fact that the engines are mono it looks pretty interesting.

I have Excalibur, it was okay when it was released but there are much better options available for multi effects now. The gui is terrible, the routing is limited, a lot of the modules do not sound good and the lfos/modulators only sync to 1 bar maximum. I emailed Exponential about getting longer sync times on the lfos and Michael was worried it would make the plugin more confusing, hilarious considering the state of the gui

If you’re looking for a multi effects plugin, I’d advise you to try Hofa System. It’s better in every aspect, it has more modules, infinitely better sound quality, gui, routing and modulation options.

Try the demo of each.

[jens]

a lot of the modules do not sound good

So it's not just me then...

If you’re looking for a multi effects plugin, I’d advise you to try Hofa System. It’s better in every aspect, it has more modules, infinitely better sound quality, gui, routing and modulation options.

Try the demo of each.

Yes, the Hofa System is amazing and all the individual modules sound great indeed.

[RobGee]

a lot of the modules do not sound good

So it's not just me then...

If you’re looking for a multi effects plugin, I’d advise you to try Hofa System. It’s better in every aspect, it has more modules, infinitely better sound quality, gui, routing and modulation options.

Try the demo of each.

Yes, the Hofa System is amazing and all the individual modules sound great indeed.

It’s very disappointing considering Michaels Lexicon background, I’d have hoped the modules would be better quality. Nowhere near the level of the PCM 81 or PCM 96/PCM Native.

The Hofa plugins/modules such as the Multi Mod, Chorus, Flanger and Phaser are some of the best available and stand upto the best dedicated plugins imo.

[Mushy Mushy]

EA products at 29$ coming soon to music store near you. I'm ok with that.

$9

Just bought Excalibur. Is it just me or does it take an age to change presets? Timed it now and it's 8 seconds on average to change.

EDIT: Fine in Cubase just an issue in Live.