Any suggestions regarding to Acustica Audio?

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

You can see it even in this thread - neylago at the bottom of page 7 with a whole 2 posts, one of which is extolling the virtues of Acustica. I've seen this DOZENS of times now, and not for ANY other company. This one was fairly light, but keep looking and you'll see MUCH more of this. And yes, they will often defend themselves with an explanation after getting called out and lean on the plausible deniability, but I no longer believe them - I've see it far too often for it to be coincidental in my experience. It's my opinion that Acustica is leveraging these forums to direct individuals out to curb dissent and over-hype their own products.

CAVEAT EMPTOR!

We have haters and lovers like every company on this planet.
As a company culture, none of our employees post in the forums anonymously. On top of that, our employees are lazy and have little appreciation for forums as a means of communication, and I assure you they think their paycheck money grows on trees.
But it is undeniable that we have lovers who consider our products as a religious object.
Objectively we can't do anything to stop them from being fanboys.
All I try to do is to educate as much as possible our user to be kind in being a fanboy. For example, we ban all people who badmouth our competitors on our Facebook pages. I don't think a climate of hatred towards someone else's product is good for our company.
On more than one occasion I have tried to speak well of other companies' products, and personally it is not my style to denigrate a competitor.
When I don't like something, I simply don't talk about it. When I do like it, I say so publicly.
Obviously, when I create my products, I am the one who considers them the best possible, I think that's human.

[pixel85]

Just know there are those of us (me) that have and use AA products and enjoy them but simultaneous have little to nothing good to say about the company. We tend to keep a low profile for obvious reasons.

Same here! I'm a bit new to Acustica's world, as I changed my computer recently, and now I can use them. Unfortunately, earlier my old laptop didn't them very well, it struggled to run even the freebies, so I avoided to know them more. All I can say is, 'til now, I'm really liking their preamps and EQs, but their comps are kind of trial and error (Coral, Pink and Aquamarine are the ones I'm liking the most). I can't say where, but I think they still need to improve somewhat these ones.

I was in the similar situation recently. I built new powerful PC, happy to finally be able to use a lot of AA plugins without seeing my CPU crying in pain ... But I'm Cubase user and I find out that their plugins crash Cubase when there's around 12x same AA plugin in tge project. So not much use of new PC for AA. Then I saw in their group on FB, how anyone who said anything about Cubase/AA issues to be treated like a pest and lethal enemy. With AA response that "Cubase bad, we innocent"
Their only solution is to use Reaper. I'm not gonna do it. I know Cubase so well, with muscle memory gained over the years, it's the fastest DAW for me to use so I'm not gonna change DAW to Reaper which UX doesn't work well with me. Even my wife use Reaper (on Mac) but for me it's like using CAD or some advanced lab software

[pixel85]

Just know there are those of us (me) that have and use AA products and enjoy them but simultaneous have little to nothing good to say about the company. We tend to keep a low profile for obvious reasons.

Naturally as I also was AA user and I was even praising here and there, their plugins for the sonic qualities. If they fix issues with Cubase I'll be happy to use them again.

Recently I quit all FB groups of this type, not only AA because for example PA group is no better
Often it's better to simply use the software without being part of a "fanbase groups". Especially when they're becoming " Happy fans of X company" where any criticism or asking for help because of issues is forbidden.

[The_Ogre]

I was in the similar situation recently. I built new powerful PC, happy to finally be able to use a lot of AA plugins without seeing my CPU crying in pain ... But I'm Cubase user and I find out that their plugins crash Cubase when there's around 12x same AA plugin in tge project. So not much use of new PC for AA. Then I saw in their group on FB, how anyone who said anything about Cubase/AA issues to be treated like a pest and lethal enemy. With AA response that "Cubase bad, we innocent"
Their only solution is to use Reaper. I'm not gonna do it. I know Cubase so well, with muscle memory gained over the years, it's the fastest DAW for me to use so I'm not gonna change DAW to Reaper which UX doesn't work well with me. Even my wife use Reaper (on Mac) but for me it's like using CAD or some advanced lab software

Damn man, I can almost feel your discouragement with this situation. Aparently, the last updates seem to mitigate some issues on Cubase, don't they? I'm really liking them, and am glad they work so well on Reaper, which is the DAW I'm working on since I started my journey in this world. My computer is not a monstruous build (the one in my signature), but it's handling pretty well what I'm throwing in it.

Naturally as I also was AA user and I was even praising here and there, their plugins for the sonic qualities. If they fix issues with Cubase I'll be happy to use them again.

Recently I quit all FB groups of this type, not only AA because for example PA group is no better
Often it's better to simply use the software without being part of a "fanbase groups". Especially when they're becoming " Happy fans of X company" where any criticism or asking for help because of issues is forbidden.

I'm not on AA FB group, but I totally understand what you're saying about PA group. We need to filter every post to not get the hell out of there as soon as possible. I think I'm getting old.

[pixel85]

Aparently, the last updates seem to mitigate some issues on Cubase, don't they? I'm really liking them, and am glad they work so well on Reaper, which is the DAW I'm working on since I started my journey in this world. My computer is not a monstruous build (the one in my signature), but it's handling pretty well what I'm throwing in it.

In my case Sand 3 is still causing the same issues - and it's the one that I would like to put on every channel to simulate full SSL console.
I sold Navy which is one of my favorite, so I couldn't test that one. The "non-channel strips" seems to do fine but i don't remember if those were causing issues before.

Oh well, I'm working now without AA and to be honest I don't feel like I miss much (sounds a bit like drug addict talking about his abstinence ).
There's plenty of awesome plugins fron otger companies that can compete with AA.
I wish Reimunt Dratwa could do more "modern" emulations - his programming is exceptional and plugins as good as AA but unfortunately he's doing mostly 50/60's emulations which have not much use for me.

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

Just know there are those of us (me) that have and use AA products and enjoy them but simultaneous have little to nothing good to say about the company. We tend to keep a low profile for obvious reasons.

Same here! I'm a bit new to Acustica's world, as I changed my computer recently, and now I can use them. Unfortunately, earlier my old laptop didn't them very well, it struggled to run even the freebies, so I avoided to know them more. All I can say is, 'til now, I'm really liking their preamps and EQs, but their comps are kind of trial and error (Coral, Pink and Aquamarine are the ones I'm liking the most). I can't say where, but I think they still need to improve somewhat these ones.

I was in the similar situation recently. I built new powerful PC, happy to finally be able to use a lot of AA plugins without seeing my CPU crying in pain ... But I'm Cubase user and I find out that their plugins crash Cubase when there's around 12x same AA plugin in tge project. So not much use of new PC for AA. Then I saw in their group on FB, how anyone who said anything about Cubase/AA issues to be treated like a pest and lethal enemy. With AA response that "Cubase bad, we innocent"
Their only solution is to use Reaper. I'm not gonna do it. I know Cubase so well, with muscle memory gained over the years, it's the fastest DAW for me to use so I'm not gonna change DAW to Reaper which UX doesn't work well with me. Even my wife use Reaper (on Mac) but for me it's like using CAD or some advanced lab software

At the moment the "Cubase" error has been reported as fixed by everyone.
If there is still a problem please contact support, because the problem you are talking about is apparently closed.

On our products, there remains a limitation that only happens in windows on the number of total instances that can be opened now. We make extensive use of threads and some versions of windows are more limited than others by a counter called FLS, which is a number of allocable slots that change from version to version. This unfortunately is not something we can change, other than radically changing the architecture of what we are using.


About the Cubase problem specifically: actually it was a very rare problem that affected a very small part of the users. For example, we have at least 20 computers in our offices and we have never been able to replicate it. The error became particularly evident from one version onwards, and it was clearly identifiable because Cubase would crash when closing.
It wasn't just us involved, but other developers as well, and it went on like that for a while. We have been in contact with Cubase support for a long time to understand the cause, but the error happened AFTER the closure of one of our plugins, in a portion of code to which we do NOT have access.
So it's not that we wanted to evade the problem, but we didn't have the debugging tools, assuming we were at least able to replicate it.

It slowly emerged that the problem might have been related to an open-source library from Steinberg that we were using with other developers. Probably the handling strategy of DirectX is the same, and explains the reason why the error was visible only in Cubase.
Actually the graphics library forgot to release a library, and it was also a rather inconspicuous problem. We looked everywhere, but we never dreamed of looking in a graphic library for such a trivial error. Besides, debugging a library written by others is not exactly easy, especially if you don't know where to look.

Some developers upgraded to the latest version of this library and from there we realized that the problem could be related to it, and we started a slow debugging process. Upgrading to the latest version is easy when the library is used in a straightforward way, but usually, these kinds of releases are used by building components on top of it, which lose compatibility from one version to the next. This means that sometimes, to change the version, you have to rewrite or adapt the objects that were created on it.
It was easier for us to debug, and we assume that we will switch to another library for this section as well (actually we already used the other library for other sections).

Since we corrected the problem we realized that the plugins worked better also in other very old hosts (e.g. a spectrum analyzer) that had given us crash problems in the past. In that case we had blamed their unmaintained code.
After correcting the problem some users also confirmed a zero crash in other sequencers: in that case we blamed the crash on specific plugin problems, sometimes random and which we fix from one engine version to another. From there we realized that the problem was widespread.
These kinds of problems are intermittent and it's usually difficult to understand the cause. People who don't know the process think that it is always our responsibility or power to understand the source of the problem, but in this case without having access to other people's code we were entering an area where it was difficult to understand the problem.

In fact, we can understand a resource release problem in the following ways
- an area of memory is not released, for example, a memory leak. In this case, we can verify that all the memory is released. This happened, so we were comfortable
- by debugging our code at the crash point. The problem, in this case, is that the crash occurs in portions of the code that are not ours. For example, the spectrum analyzer was crashing randomly when it too was releasing resources.

The error, in particular, was related to a DirectX-related dll that simply was not deallocated, but theoretically was shared via a static object between all our plugins that used the same engine. So it was normal that it remained open, but it was not normal that at the closing of each instance it remained open again. When also Cubase released the same library probably in some circumstances something happened to block this closing mechanism because our processes had not released the dynamic library. The reason why it affected Cubase is simple: probably, being written by Steinberg also they used the same objects. Paradoxically, when they fixed the issue on their side the issue become more visible on our side.

[The_Ogre]

In my case Sand 3 is still causing the same issues - and it's the one that I would like to put on every channel to simulate full SSL console.
I sold Navy which is one of my favorite, so I couldn't test that one. The "non-channel strips" seems to do fine but i don't remember if those were causing issues before.

Oh well, I'm working now without AA and to be honest I don't feel like I miss much (sounds a bit like drug addict talking about his abstinence ).
There's plenty of awesome plugins fron otger companies that can compete with AA.
I wish Reimunt Dratwa could do more "modern" emulations - his programming is exceptional and plugins as good as AA but unfortunately he's doing mostly 50/60's emulations which have not much use for me.

I didn't tried to use one of the CS on every channel to simulate the analog console, as I don't know if my computer will handle that much 'abuse', but I certainly can try putting at least the preamps (the CS uses about 2.4%, while the standalone modules uses about 0.7% - minus the multiband compressors, which are pretty heavy)! But, for the "simulate an analog console" stuff, I using Soninus Britson/Satson with good results. Perhaps in conjunction with one of the AA preamps, it could turns to be an even more better result.

About Dratwa stuff, I'm a user of Fuse Audio too and I really like his stuff. The comps and preamps are awesome. Different stuff. And yes, it seems he turns out preffering to code more "obscure old" stuff, which is cool, as it deviates from the common point - something that I also notice in some of Acustica's products.

[The_Ogre]

On our products, there remains a limitation that only happens in windows on the number of total instances that can be opened now. We make extensive use of threads and some versions of windows are more limited than others by a counter called FLS, which is a number of allocable slots that change from version to version. This unfortunately is not something we can change, other than radically changing the architecture of what we are using.

That's good to know! Will take a look when using them here!

[pixel85]

Just know there are those of us (me) that have and use AA products and enjoy them but simultaneous have little to nothing good to say about the company. We tend to keep a low profile for obvious reasons.

Same here! I'm a bit new to Acustica's world, as I changed my computer recently, and now I can use them. Unfortunately, earlier my old laptop didn't them very well, it struggled to run even the freebies, so I avoided to know them more. All I can say is, 'til now, I'm really liking their preamps and EQs, but their comps are kind of trial and error (Coral, Pink and Aquamarine are the ones I'm liking the most). I can't say where, but I think they still need to improve somewhat these ones.

I was in the similar situation recently. I built new powerful PC, happy to finally be able to use a lot of AA plugins without seeing my CPU crying in pain ... But I'm Cubase user and I find out that their plugins crash Cubase when there's around 12x same AA plugin in tge project. So not much use of new PC for AA. Then I saw in their group on FB, how anyone who said anything about Cubase/AA issues to be treated like a pest and lethal enemy. With AA response that "Cubase bad, we innocent"
Their only solution is to use Reaper. I'm not gonna do it. I know Cubase so well, with muscle memory gained over the years, it's the fastest DAW for me to use so I'm not gonna change DAW to Reaper which UX doesn't work well with me. Even my wife use Reaper (on Mac) but for me it's like using CAD or some advanced lab software

At the moment the "Cubase" error has been reported as fixed by everyone.
If there is still a problem please contact support, because the problem you are talking about is apparently closed.

On our products, there remains a limitation that only happens in windows on the number of total instances that can be opened now. We make extensive use of threads and some versions of windows are more limited than others by a counter called FLS, which is a number of allocable slots that change from version to version. This unfortunately is not something we can change, other than radically changing the architecture of what we are using.


About the Cubase problem specifically: actually it was a very rare problem that affected a very small part of the users. For example, we have at least 20 computers in our offices and we have never been able to replicate it. The error became particularly evident from one version onwards, and it was clearly identifiable because Cubase would crash when closing.
It wasn't just us involved, but other developers as well, and it went on like that for a while. We have been in contact with Cubase support for a long time to understand the cause, but the error happened AFTER the closure of one of our plugins, in a portion of code to which we do NOT have access.
So it's not that we wanted to evade the problem, but we didn't have the debugging tools, assuming we were at least able to replicate it.

It slowly emerged that the problem might have been related to an open-source library from Steinberg that we were using with other developers. Probably the handling strategy of DirectX is the same, and explains the reason why the error was visible only in Cubase.
Actually the graphics library forgot to release a library, and it was also a rather inconspicuous problem. We looked everywhere, but we never dreamed of looking in a graphic library for such a trivial error. Besides, debugging a library written by others is not exactly easy, especially if you don't know where to look.

Some developers upgraded to the latest version of this library and from there we realized that the problem could be related to it, and we started a slow debugging process. Upgrading to the latest version is easy when the library is used in a straightforward way, but usually, these kinds of releases are used by building components on top of it, which lose compatibility from one version to the next. This means that sometimes, to change the version, you have to rewrite or adapt the objects that were created on it.
It was easier for us to debug, and we assume that we will switch to another library for this section as well (actually we already used the other library for other sections).

Since we corrected the problem we realized that the plugins worked better also in other very old hosts (e.g. a spectrum analyzer) that had given us crash problems in the past. In that case we had blamed their unmaintained code.
After correcting the problem some users also confirmed a zero crash in other sequencers: in that case we blamed the crash on specific plugin problems, sometimes random and which we fix from one engine version to another. From there we realized that the problem was widespread.
These kinds of problems are intermittent and it's usually difficult to understand the cause. People who don't know the process think that it is always our responsibility or power to understand the source of the problem, but in this case without having access to other people's code we were entering an area where it was difficult to understand the problem.

In fact, we can understand a resource release problem in the following ways
- an area of memory is not released, for example, a memory leak. In this case, we can verify that all the memory is released. This happened, so we were comfortable
- by debugging our code at the crash point. The problem, in this case, is that the crash occurs in portions of the code that are not ours. For example, the spectrum analyzer was crashing randomly when it too was releasing resources.

The error, in particular, was related to a DirectX-related dll that simply was not deallocated, but theoretically was shared via a static object between all our plugins that used the same engine. So it was normal that it remained open, but it was not normal that at the closing of each instance it remained open again. When also Cubase released the same library probably in some circumstances something happened to block this closing mechanism because our processes had not released the dynamic library. The reason why it affected Cubase is simple: probably, being written by Steinberg also they used the same objects. Paradoxically, when they fixed the issue on their side the issue become more visible on our side.

Thank you for your extended response about the issue.
At this point, I don't have time to deal with support. Sweet crunch time is coming. I'll come back to AA when I'll see that Cubase users are happy with the fix and the issue is, indeed, a thing of the past.

Btw. this topic deserves an award for the number of very long posts

[JayVH]

I'd say definitely know what you're getting into first. They can get a bit pricey, but personally I love Acustica Audio. CPU heavy and slightly buggy at times but overall great sound. Especially GAINSTATION. Favorite distortion of all time.

[dionenoid]

Been experimenting with AA plug-ins in Audiogridder (free) running in local mode. It's shocking how much less cpu they use that way. It's a bit weird to work with tho, as Audiogridder is a bit buggy sometimes (it's still in Beta mostly) and the UI's don't always load the way you want, but results are quite shocking.

For example : A chain of heavy cpu hitters El Rey, Gold4 Eq and Diamond Transient will use around 15 - 20% on my system (in Cubase). Using Audiogridder, the same chain uses only about 3 - 5 %. And opening the same chain on multiple channels even reduces that cpu useage per chain.

[plexuss]

AA strikes again. Basically their products dont work in anything but 44k. I suppose there are details like, specific use cases as to when it will work and specific machine/DAW configurations. I dont have time to catalogue all the variables. But suffice to say that it's not clear if AA products are actually switching to the DAW sample rate. The upshot of this with EQs is that your selected band frequency will get shifted if you set it one rate and then switched your project to another - this is something I do a lot so I can mix in real time at 44k and thenr render out a 96k master.

So much for "Dreamware" - unless the idea is you dream that one day AA products will work as advertised.

https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... ount=27744

[10bd01]

AA strikes again. Basically their products dont work in anything but 44k. I suppose there are details like, specific use cases as to when it will work and specific machine/DAW configurations. I dont have time to catalogue all the variables. But suffice to say that it's not clear if AA products are actually switching to the DAW sample rate. The upshot of this with EQs is that your selected band frequency will get shifted if you set it one rate and then switched your project to another - this is something I do a lot so I can mix in real time at 44k and thenr render out a 96k master.

So much for "Dreamware" - unless the idea is you dream that one day AA products will work as advertised.

https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... ount=27744

What a disaster. It's a shame they have such amazing graphic designers or this may have resolved itself years ago. Snow looked so awesome and sounded so interesting I was - again - excited about an Acustica product. Having my common sense and wits about me I didn't purchase it. Nice to see that choice validated almost immediately.

I was even thinking about purchasing Mantis because there aren't many PWM compressors on the market. Waves PIE is looking better than ever right now. Sad to see a company with so much potential come up so short on the basic courtesies of business - deliver a product that works and provide responsive customer service.

[massiv musik]

I really love the idea of AA plugins, always enjoy demoing them and they look and sound great, but I find myself never using them in real work because they slow down my workflow to much. Slow bouncing, high latency and laggy gui is what stops my from using them.

[perpetual3]

I think they sound great, but use too much CPU in my case (top spec MBP 16”). I also am waiting for Lemon to be updated and it seems that it never will.