KVR Audio

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 1:30 am

Anyone tried this yet? I had a bit of a play around with it yesterday and it seems pretty good. I was particularly impressed with a few presets that had a saturation control on the front panel - it seems to do a good job of fattening things up. I'm going to play with it more today before I decide on buying it but $49 (intro discount + loyalty discount) is a pretty good price for what seems like it might be their best FX unit yet. They seem to get better with every new one - Neo didn't do much for me but Voodoo has some interesting presets, Fluxx is even better and it seems Retro might be better again.

I'm starting to feel like a Ujam shill, though, as I'm already well into double-figures with their plugins. If I buy this I'll have 14 of 'em. It doesn't bother me because I use most of them very regularly and there isn't one I paid anything like full price for.

jens · Post by **jens** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:52 am

If something seems to good to be true, chances are it isn't after all - and that applies to Finisher Retro, I think.

Amongst a number of other things, it claims to:

- "ridiculously meticulously recreate" a Small Stone

- "hilariously meticulously recreate" a P90

- emulate a Memory Man

- emulate a physical plate reverb

- emulate a spring reverb (4 different types)

- emulate a Uni-Vibe

- emulate tubes, transistors and what not

The desctription seems contradictory, as it talks about chains fo different effects, and a P90 certainly is not a chain...

the manual clears that up then:

they use combinations of 26 generic effects to come up with the 50 different modes - and amongst the modulators they use doesn't even seem to be an envelope-follower.

And hence you do not really get a spring reverb, a plate reverb, a Small Stone, a P90 and what not that way -. far from it - "meticulous"? That's laughable at best.

The Finisher knob seems to be weird too - it doesn't seem to be a simple wet/dry knob but use with increasing amount more extreme settings of whatever they seek to do with the mode in question. And thus the phasers for instance are too little at first, then suddenly too weridly extreme. It's not really possible to dial in subtle but nonetheless obvious settings.
The tube, etc. are really laughable as well - I don't know what they were thinking. It seems like they must have never tried any tube gear at all.

My verdict is to stay away from it - I guess the credits don't mention Paul Kellett because he wanted to have naught to do with it...

jens · Post by **jens** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 12:48 pm

Oh, I forgot to mention:

- the CPU consumption is also often much too high for what it does

- the arbitrary restriction of VAR1 to exactly four settings is absurd too. Especially for the delay that leaves far too few sync options (e.g. no tripplets at all).

dionenoid · Post by **dionenoid** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 2:45 pm

Using the other "Finishers" quite often. Very good sound quality and very inspirational to use. Have yet to try this one but even if it's only half as good as the others it becomes highly recommended.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:34 am

^^^^^ THIS! ^^^^^

jens wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:52 amAmongst a number of other things, it claims to:
- "ridiculously meticulously recreate" a Small Stone

Satire, clearly, is lost on you. Overall, your post doesn't make much sense - this is what a P90 looks like:

Why would they be emulating that? I couldn't care less what it purports to emulate, all that matters to me is how it sounds and how easy it is to get good results from. So far, it sounds pretty good and is very easy to get good results from. And why would the credits mention PK? I don't know why you'd even bother to read the spiel when you can download the demo and discover for yourself. That said, the spiel sounds hilarious, I am off to read it now.

jens · Post by **jens** » Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:32 am

A Phase 90, you genius. My post didn't make sense to you because it went straight over your head (and you are even bragging about this - pure gold) and I knew it would do when I was writing it. Adressing you with it would be like trying to explain the relativity theory to a toddler...

I was instead adressing anyone else who might be interested in this. Most will have no problem comprehending my post.

elxsound · Post by **elxsound** » Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:41 am

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:05 am

jens wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:32 amA Phase 90, you genius.

Yes, and... ? Still nothing I've ever heard of, although at least it is something I was able to look up, assuming you are talking about the MXR guitar pedal. I used to use guitar pedal effects before I could afford anything better. I'd never want to go back to anything as noisy again.

I'd also like to know where you read this screed that got you so hot and bothered. It's not in what was included in the listing here and there is nothing even remotely like it on Ujam's website. I've not read a word to suggest Ujam have tried to emulate anything, they just mention chaining up to 20 effects.

jens · Post by **jens** » Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:40 am

BONES wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:05 am I've not read a word to suggest Ujam have tried to emulate anything, they just mention chaining up to 20 effects.

Seriously???

It's all over the plugin itself and I even quoted bits of it here in this very thread - how can you make music for so long and know so little?

If one looks up the word "ignorance" in a dictionary your image appears.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:21 am

Oh, that's stuff from the preset descriptions. I thought you read it somewhere on the internet. Those descriptors are often amusing, I don't think they expect anyone to take them seriously. So if I'd seen the reference to the MXR Phase 90, I'd have assumed it wasn't a very good pedal and they were making fun of it, even if the preset sounded good. Was it a good pedal back in the day?

I think if they were really trying to make accurate emulations, they'd mention it on their website and other marketing materials. Anyway, I bought it last night. It's definitely the most usable of their multi-fx so far, although I think Fluxx will come into its own after we've recorded vocals for our next project.

jens · Post by **jens** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 8:47 am

Oh well... the Phase 90 was - and still is to this day - one of the two most popular and highly regarded phasers - it's has been famously used on numerous classic albums/songs by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Van Halen and so forth.
The other modtz popular phaser would be the EHX Small Stone, which Ujam also claim to "recreate" - they also make a lot of other quite specific references to other classic gear and there is nothing that would indicate that they are just kidding .

Rediscovering glorious tones

Do you ever play classic records and think “That. Sounds. GREAT! How do I get that 60s (or 70/80/90s) vibe in my track?” With Finisher RETRO, it’s easy. Our experts have done the hard work and captured the classic reverbs, delays, flangers, tubes, tape hiss and magic for you. Just load RETRO and go!

They also talk a lot about this in their videos btw.

And to reiterate my original point again:

If you look for these classic tones then look elsewhere because the Finisher Retro is not going to deliver in that regard.
It is just a few fixed presets for a modular multi-fx (think HOFA SYSTEM, Kilohearts Multipass, Nomad Magma, Blue Cat PatchWork) and it has quite a limited set of parameters and these parameters are on top of that even partly severely limited in their range/settings. It mostly doesn't sound at all as it claims to do and it uses too much CPU for what it does.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:16 am

Are you sure? Because to me they offer an excellent way of getting great effects chains with almost no effort and plenty of adjustability so you can tailor them to your needs. Kind of like the effect equivalent of Analog Lab, only even better. Not as cheap, though.

soulata · Post by **soulata** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:44 am

BONES wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:16 am Are you sure? Because to me they offer an excellent way of getting great effects chains with almost no effort and plenty of adjustability so you can tailor them to your needs. Kind of like the effect equivalent of Analog Lab, only even better. Not as cheap, though.

Ditto. Sounds good and it's not too expensive.

k

jens · Post by **jens** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 3:28 pm

BONES wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:16 am Are you sure?

Sure about what exactly?

That I do not think it really nails these classic tones it seeks and claims to nail? Yes, absolutely.

That I think it uses too much CPU for what it does*? Yes, absolutely.

That I think the arbitrarily limited parameter-set is a bad thing? Yes, absolutely.

I never said nobody can or should like its sound, like what it does. I depends on your own preferences and experiences.But you yourself admitted that you don't even got all these references to classic gear, so perhaps you simply are not the most competent person in judging this in the light of what it attempts to accomplish? Simply because it is vastly outside your operational range and interest?

I always thought your music was cold, clean and mechanic on purpose so I would have assumed you are pretty much "mojo"-agnostic, if not even outright averse to it - so in the light of this you liking it might be the best proof that the plugin is basically a complete fail.

Many users however are all over vintage sounding stuff that's full of "mojo"** (there, I said it again - for lack of better terms, not because I like it very much), and yet the reception of this on has been pretty poor so far, here and over at Gearslutz. I'd say that says a lot already.

*one reason I mentioned Paul Kellett is because his stuff always used to be so efficient - besides doing exactly what it claims to do.

**e.g. quite recently there was a thread in this very forum that asked for the best Small Stone emulation. That thread received a lot more interest that this one here btw. .

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 3:39 pm

BONES wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:34 am ^^^^^ THIS! ^^^^^
jens wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:52 amAmongst a number of other things, it claims to:
- "ridiculously meticulously recreate" a Small Stone
Satire, clearly, is lost on you. Overall, your post doesn't make much sense - this is what a P90 looks like:

Why would they be emulating that? I couldn't care less what it purports to emulate, all that matters to me is how it sounds and how easy it is to get good results from. So far, it sounds pretty good and is very easy to get good results from. And why would the credits mention PK? I don't know why you'd even bother to read the spiel when you can download the demo and discover for yourself. That said, the spiel sounds hilarious, I am off to read it now.

did you also think small stone was a pebble?

uni-vibe some sort of intimate massage device?

New Ujam Multi-Effect - Finisher Retro