Pulsar Modular P42 Climax Line Amp

[itanever]

was wondering where all the reviews were coming from, from P900 @ GS:

we will draw one free copy of P42 for every 4 reviews at KVR Audio (this Sat. and Sunday only. Negative reviews are also eligible!).

That's some pretty sketchy behaviour from the dev. The dev has stopped contributing here and is pretty dismissive of KVR in his GS posts and now he's doing what essentially amounts to sending his fanboys over here to brigade the reviews section. Nicely done!

[dermage]

I anyway tested it now.
Not for the coupon or so, but just was curious, why so many people do positive reviews.
What I found was mostly with the GUI, which looks quite unfinished/amateurish.
Also the workflow is not as intuitive as with my other premium saturators (VSM4, Kelvin, Overstayer)
I did only mention the points I myself experienced, so did not bring in the things I mentioned here which I heard from others/GS thread. The negative points currently overweigh with these things. If I factor in the other things mentioned here, the price is very high for that stuff offered and need to be addressed first.

[Effectsworks]

The dev has stopped contributing here and is pretty dismissive of KVR in his GS posts and now he's doing what essentially amounts to sending his fanboys over here to brigade the reviews section. Nicely done!

As I said on GS, the dev is waaay out of touch with the plugin market. And I think paying full price for this plugin, is reserved for the Elton Johns of this world.

There were quite a few of us trying to give him solid advise, but we were just hand waved away. So, I've stopped posting in the thread.

I still stand by my review, I think it's a good plugin, but not worth the full price tag. And it's certainly not the best saturation plugin I have (in my opinion).

[dermage]

I still stand by my review, I think it's a good plugin, but not worth the full price tag. And it's certainly not the best saturation plugin I have (in my opinion).

Yeah, there are some plugins released in recent years which can give a similar effect. Eg. had great use of BRA Omnitec lately. VSM-4 also, which both I think have a better behavior when saturated heavily. Especially VSM-4's tubes behavior is awesome when doing high saturation.

I gave it 4/5, maybe 3.5 /5 is better (but can't vote that, only full stars), since the GUI is quite bad compared to the other premium saturators. And as said, for that price tag, the other saturators work better/more intuitive.

I will not buy it for the 215€ - 20%. The price where I'd consider buying would probably be far below 100€.

[itanever]

The dev has stopped contributing here and is pretty dismissive of KVR in his GS posts and now he's doing what essentially amounts to sending his fanboys over here to brigade the reviews section. Nicely done!

As I said on GS, the dev is waaay out of touch with the plugin market. And I think paying full price for this plugin, is reserved for the Elton Johns of this world.

There were quite a few of us trying to give him solid advise, but we were just hand waved away. So, I've stopped posting in the thread.

I still stand by my review, I think it's a good plugin, but not worth the full price tag. And it's certainly not the best saturation plugin I have (in my opinion).

My comment has nothing to do with neither the plugin nor the price though. And as I said it before, I have no doubt that the plugin sounds good. I just find this tactic shady to say the least.

What rubs me the wrong way is that the dev is trashing this place on another platform and then announces a giveaway there (where the fanboys are, ofc) to get people to come here and write reviews. To be fair the dev explicitly said that the reviews could be positive as well as negative. But it's obvious that this is not going to generate very neutral reviews, at least I wouldn't trust these. Not to mention that many of the reviews are devoid of any content beyond "cool plugin, bro". Ofc this does not mean that all of the reviews are a sham, but it devalues the review section as a whole and makes it harder to take seriously. And it is orchestrated on a different site by a person who doesn't like KVR.

Also, engaging in forum wars is pretty stupid. I personally like both KVR and GS.

And looks like the dev found my post in here and instead of replying to me here, he decided to try to ridicule me on GS. So hi, p900!

[Razordog]

With so many new plug-in companies folding or going defunct these days it’s really hard to justify spending hundreds of dollars on a company that has not yet displayed long-term commitment to support. Arts Acoustic made phenomenal plugins but were priced at a premium and they just abandoned them. I suppose it’s fine if you never update your system, but personally I plan on buying new computers with new OSes in the future.

Yeah valid point and something to consider. Camel Audio was a bit of a surprise when Apple took them for logic several years ago. Slightly different but still a bit of a pain. The old ones run on my system but the UI can't be displayed on any of my sequencers, so can only be used using the generic editor.

[Effectsworks]

What rubs me the wrong way is that the dev is trashing this place on another platform and then announces a giveaway there (where the fanboys are, ofc) to get people to come here and write reviews. To be fair the dev explicitly said that the reviews could be positive as well as negative. But it's obvious that this is not going to generate very neutral reviews, at least I wouldn't trust these.

Yeah, it's a little silly alright... And KVR peeps tend not to like that type of stuff and they have very looong memories. The fanbois won't be doing the dev any favors in the long run.

[Effectsworks]

Yeah, there are some plugins released in recent years which can give a similar effect. Eg. had great use of BRA Omnitec lately. VSM-4 also, which both I think have a better behavior when saturated heavily. Especially VSM-4's tubes behavior is awesome when doing high saturation.

Indeed! I bought the BRA Omnitec as well, and it's getting used on everything. Vertigo's VSM-4 is a beast, and definitely one of the best saturators I own. And that was 149e!

[masterhiggins]

With so many new plug-in companies folding or going defunct these days it’s really hard to justify spending hundreds of dollars on a company that has not yet displayed long-term commitment to support. Arts Acoustic made phenomenal plugins but were priced at a premium and they just abandoned them. I suppose it’s fine if you never update your system, but personally I plan on buying new computers with new OSes in the future.

Yeah valid point and something to consider. Camel Audio was a bit of a surprise when Apple took them for logic several years ago. Slightly different but still a bit of a pain. The old ones run on my system but the UI can't be displayed on any of my sequencers, so can only be used using the generic editor.

Oh yeah that was extremely surprising to me as well. I don’t blame them, though. Someone waves 7-8 figures under your nose when you’re a relatively small developer, I’d be hard-pressed to find a small dev that would say no.

[Omkar]

It`s a pity to be sandwiched between the chairs of forums.
What to deal with?
The chairs or the product?

What is ethical,
to get a discount for a review
or thumbs down just because of the deal?

Anyone who buys a product just by reviews does have deep-seated problems anyway.
So please stay open minded, demo & then judge at least the product itself ... 40 days fully functional.

And btw, I reviewed a line amp not a distortion unit
and I use a line amp for mixing, not the developer.

Reminds me of Acustica Audio at KVR once discussed.
I asked "what`s the impression after 30 day trial?"
"oh I don`t like Giancarlo`s nose so I don`t touched it" ...
or it was the price or it was the company or it was the cpu.
Basically everything except your own patterns.

Sincerely yours, Omkar,
member of the Pulsar Modular fanboi brigade.
Береги себя.

[CrystalWizard]

It`s a pity to be ...
What is ethical,
to get a discount for a review
or thumbs down just because of the deal?...

Thumbs down.

[NinjaToon]

Forum wars now? This guy is something. LOL

[Vortifex]

Edited

[n9n]

I dunno -- it is basically the same thing Goodhertz does. They will give you a discount for a youtube video, positive or negative. They were pretty direct about it on GS: they were happily surprised that the thread over there was positive and lead to sales and were looking for a way to encourage a discussion over here as well.

ANYWAY. What is it about this plugin? The saturation and breakup are to my ears actually best in class. I have a great number of saturation plugins, tape emulators, preamp emulators, etc. As in a LOT of these and I really know them inside and out as this edge of distortion quality is the key to my sound. Before DAWs I played guitar and I was always chasing the perfect spot where you have a clear preamp and are pushing the power tubes just past the edge...

Anyway, this thing reminds me of that. I didn't want to buy it though because it costs $250 and the UI is hard to use. So I sat down with what I've got and ABd. I'm pretty good at this and have avoided a lot of purchases in the past and found a lot of snake oil, too. I was able to get close with Kush REDDI and some careful eq and compression, I was able to get close with Saturn (v1) using the excellent dynamic tube presets there, I was able to get close with the new Softube Overstayer plugin and Harmonics plugins and Goodhertz Taupe. But it didn't matter what I did I couldn't get the thing that normally happens to happen. Normally I either find a better sounding effect with what I've already got and then save the preset and stop thinking about the new software or I nail it. At the very least I usually get a better understanding of what I'm hearing.

This just didn't happen with the p42. With fender rhodes and acoustic piano and guitar inputs it just always had a much more pleasing sounding overdrive and saturation than anything I could cook up myself. I guess my question now is this: if a small shop in Turkey can make a plugin like this that sounds better than anything else I could find from the likes of Waves, Softube, IK, Goodhertz, etc... well... why is that? What is special about them?

Anyway. I think I'm going to sell a couple licenses and buy it. At full price.

[NinjaToon]

The GS thread really shows how GS operates the last 5 years or so. The two biggest promoters in the thread (and boy have they promoted the plugin, I haven't done a word count but it is a lot) have received a NFR copy for free.

When Slate did his VSX testing he rounded up all of the high-post-count established "influencers" on GS and gave them beta testing kits for free (to keep). What happened; whispers on GS for months about a new product that's going revolutionise the market. On launch day? Every single beta tester falling over themselves to tell the forum how it's an essential purchase (that they got for free remember) and it removes the room from mixing: game changer. VSX sold out.

Then the first real purchasers report in about how the build quality is trash (but that's ok... I guess?) they are only $500 after all.

Price something high, hand it out for free, watch people enthuse about it. Not exactly rocket science.

If this plugin was $30 I wonder what the GS thread would look like right now?

PS: I just realised I was calling VSX, VMR edited.