[Intro pricing extended] Available now: T-RackS Sunset Sound Studio Reverb

[Squids]

I have this side project called Sonic Elements where I produce tribute albums with a few twists like some of the elements being the actual musicians from the band we're paying tribute to. One of them is a Pink Floyd tribute album where I recorded Nick Mason with Alan Parsons (the original engineer of Dark Side of the Moon) and we did it on an original EMI TG12345 mixing console like the one that was at Abbey Road in the early 70s. I finally had the chance to run those drum tracks and other instruments through both the Waves Abbey Road Plate and the plates of Sunset Sound Studio Reverb. Both sound absolutely gorgeous!

I have all kinds of reverb plug-ins including some really useful clever ones like the Fab Filter Pro R. I also like CSR for its Lexicon-ness (and I also have all of the Lexicon stuff too and all of the Waves and Avid and more). I do enjoy having this variety of reverbs when they may be needed but I'm starting to gravitate toward using these studio ambience emulation plug-ins, especially SSSR. There's an organic musicality to them that is hard to describe.

[Squids]

Yep...Katsu-ya on Ventura...

That's the one I was thinking of when I mentioned Studio City...

Get some wasabi into the engineer and that'll get his motor running

It's a great place. That was the first one and I was actually the second customer who walked in the day Katsu opened it in the late 90s. I lived up the street near Mulholland in this crazy house on stilts where we had a recording studio (and one of my roommates was Gavin Lurssen and another was a guy named Robbes who ended up being an engineer at Van Halen's studio... we had all kinds of interesting people living there on Wrightwood Drive!).

Anyway, I had a mailbox next to Katsu-ya and I walked in for lunch randomly the day he opened. No one was there except this drunk guy at the end of the bar saying with a slur "Katsu make him the bla bla roll" (I guess he was a fan of Katsu who followed him from the place he was a chef at before and this was his first self-owned restaurant). Anyway, Katsu was really nice and that meal was the best sushi I had ever had. I was in disbelief because it had outdone my favorite places (and for anyone who knows LA and The Valley there's literally a sushi restaurant on every corner of Ventura Blvd and lots of choices).

So, I went back the next day to see if it was still as great as I thought and I tried new things and it still was. Plus, each time I went Katsu would give me something on the house (those days are over! haha) if I had never tried it before. Really cool guy and great to know him during his humble beginnings (now he's like the sushi Godfather over there and many people who work at the various Katsu-yas around LA have never even seen him in person... like the Keyser Soze of sushi! Haha.)

I learned a lot of interesting bits of wisdom from him too. One time I asked him why he had these giant live prawns, and they weren't even that expensive, and none of the other sushi restaurants had it. He said "Oh that's because I lose money on it. But, people come here because I have things that no one else has". Brilliant example of the loss leader (which is much like the music business is now with streaming services... although I have a harder time accepting that!).

Anyway, we all seem to be bonding over sushi, fish n' chips and lobster rolls so I suppose it's a welcome OT! haha. Where it ties into music making the most is you get better results from engineers and musicians you work with if you feed them well!

[digitalboytn]

I used to go over there and eat with a Japanese friend and he thought it was pretty kosher...

As you know,there's less activity in Studio City these days,so many of the places have gone to God,but a few of the old favourites are still there....

The good thing is that unless the traffic is bad,it's only a short hop over the hill to Sunset,but if the sushi gets cold,you could always pop it in the microwave

[Squids]

I used to go over there and eat with a Japanese friend and he thought it was pretty kosher...

As you know,there's less activity in Studio City these days,so many of the places have gone to God,but a few of the old favourites are still there....

The good thing is that unless the traffic is bad,it's only a short hop over the hill to Sunset,but if the sushi gets cold,you could always pop it in the microwave

You're quite a character digitalboytn! Haha. But, yeah it's great that it's still around and doing well. I actually saw Katsu years later because he was eating at the Sepulveda one quietly and when he saw me he went behind the bar and called me over to give me a few things on the house for old times' sake. The manager told me he never saw Katsu even go behind the bar. But, in the first years of his business there was just the Studio City place with him behind the bar and it was insanely good. There's actually a Katsu-ya here in Miami where I live now but it's nowhere near as good as the original and it's way over-priced. Katsu was always cool about the pricing... just like IK is with this $149 intro price on the plug-in. BOOM!!! He brings it back on topic! haha (just kidding of course)

[Saukar30]

It's here!
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/t ... unsetsound

[Kaboom75]

Just try piano in the Mad Chamber.

[Bombadil]

Trying it out in CS. I like it, but I don't have the money to spend on it, unfortunately.

However, I have rarely, if ever, gone into CS, so much to my surprise, I had 60 gear credits. I never purchased them, so I was a bit incredulous when I was offered the tape emulations for 50 credits. I chose the 24 track Studer. Unless there's a catch somewhere, I seem to have gotten a freebie.

[Elektronisch]

So i demoed and i dont like it. Sounds a bit sterile. Imo something like valhallaroom gives more convincing sound. Other then that its insanely CPU intensive.

Just my first impression. Skip for me.

[jinotsuh]

Other then that its insanely CPU intensive.

What CPU are you running, a Pentium2 233MHz ?

I have been demoing all afternoon and I can hardly notice it at all, strange.

From what I have experienced it wasn't until after I had been through the presets and started checking things out and tweaking stuff myself that it came to life (not that the presets are bad or anything, they are not, but you know) To me everything sounds very nice and far from 'sterile' I actually dial it down somewhat, (so if you think it's sterile as is, I'd hate to see what you would think of my settings )

The Spring and Plates are pretty tasty, as is everything else, not really anything I don't like thus far, except that it looks like I'll be parting with around $170AU after full Jampoints deducted, but more demoing to go yet, but so far I really like it.

[Elektronisch]

Other then that its insanely CPU intensive.

What CPU are you running, a Pentium2 233MHz ?

I have been demoing all afternoon and I can hardly notice it at all, strange.

its old i7 4790k but still enough powerful.Sunset takes here ~x5 times more then Valhallaroom with Large Chamber algorhytm.

[jinotsuh]

That's probably technically potentially more powerful than what I have on the machine I am demoing it with, it's a i7 4790 (non k version), I honestly couldn't even remotely say that it was "insanely CPU intensive".

But your just saying that it takes more CPU than other plugs, Valhalla Room in this case, I was thinking by your "insanely CPU intensive" comment that it was like bogging you down or something, or was like the IK Tape plugs where you couldn't run to many at a time, that's what I would call "Insanely CPU intensive"

All good

[Elektronisch]

That's probably technically potentially more powerful than what I have on the machine I am demoing it with, it's a i7 4790 (non k version), I honestly couldn't even remotely say that it was "insanely CPU intensive".

But your just saying that it takes more CPU than other plugs, Valhalla Room in this case, I was thinking by your "insanely CPU intensive" comment that it was like bogging you down or something, or was like the IK Tape plugs where you couldn't run to many at a time, that's what I would call "Insanely CPU intensive"

All good

Indeed everyone has its own definition of whats CPU intensive for me its very way too intensive, because i use alot of chanels in my projects and something like this reverb is quite an overkill (even for send fx).

Anyways, the sound of this plugin is not for me, so dont care that much, but doing my duty as the community member (also IK should know)

[Squids]

I think the general consensus so far is actually that the plug-in sounds AMAZING so I'm not worried to hear some people don't. It's subjective. Most will find that it's anything but sterile. It's very vibrant and full of vibe. It has the character of this specific studio's ambience and that has its own signature sound. But, you either like that sound or you don't. So many artists have for decades and I can totally understand why both from working at the studio myself and then from having the ability to use some of the character in a reverb plug-in such as this.

Also, regarding CPU, I know everyone has their own budget limitations, but out of all the gear I've purchased over the years I finally focused a bit more on the computer and got a 12 core Mac Pro per Tom Lord-Alge's suggestion who did the same. I was trying to mix an album on my laptop (in fact I did and I kept reaching its limitations) and, after that frustrating experience, I finally just laid down the cash for a computer that will let me run as many tracks and native plug-ins as I'm likely to want to do. I can't even imagine choosing a plug-in just because it's less CPU intensive. The sound, to me, is king. Even if it took the entire CPU power to get a sound I liked I'd still use it and print it. But, nothing takes up that much power and this relatively speaking is not CPU intensive. It's about a third of what Tape Machines is and that too is a plug-in I would use because of its sound regardless of what CPU it takes.

At the end of the day, most of us just want the listener to hear the best sound. Efficiency and workflow is important though I agree... that's why I think it's so worth upgrading one's computer if they can afford it. I'd say if you're a professional musician who actually releases music commercially or gets hired to do music for things or sessions then it's really a must - an important cost of doing business to have a computer with enough CPU and Ram and HD speed to handle anything you throw at it.

If it's just a hobby, well I suppose that's different. Maybe it doesn't matter as much what you use. It depends on what aspect of plug-ins you love. If I was a hobbyist but a fan of any of the artists who recorded at this studio I'd probably just get it to be able to hear what I sound like playing my guitar through the same chamber Eddie Van Halen used and enjoy it for those kinds of things. But, this plug-in is not CPU intensive anyway. I'm just saying in general when there's a sound you DO like and it takes up some power... just make sure your computer can handle it all so you can enjoy all this stuff. That is if you're pro, semi-pro or a hobbyist who likes to collect and play with vintage virtual studio gear.

[0degree]

I think the general consensus so far is actually that the plug-in sounds AMAZING so I'm not worried to hear some people don't.

I'm sorry, but where exactly did you find this "consensus" ? The plugin was just released and maybe it's worth to wait for actual user opinions?

[jinotsuh]

Yes the CPU hit isn't what I would remotely call bad, even with my i7 4790, I can't see any issues using as many instances of the verb as I am likely to need for my use. As for the Tapes, like you say, the sound you can get from them is worth the hit even if you have to print to disk, at least that's been my take.