Pulsar Audio Smasher € 9 only

[Plugintester]

Summer Flash Sale.
Well, there are so many 1176 emus,
what's your opinion on this one
compared to Waves, IK Multimedia,
Arturia, NI, DMG etc.?

[kevingham]

Pulsar Smasher isn't a straight 1176 clone, since it's only two knobs (input and output gain) and only emulates all buttons in mode. Saying that, I compared it to the IKM 1176 in the same mode, and the Pulsar sounded more stable, the IKM sounded like it was struggling at that extreme setting and had tiny little drop outs. Tonally they sounded v similar. I use the Pulsar on my Drum Bus to blend some parallel smash, it works really well.

It all depends on what else you have. I imagine Arturia 1176 could do the same job. I got the Pulsar for free when buying something else from Plugin Boutique. I don't think I'd buy it otherwise, but it does its one job very well if you do decide to get it.

[Unaspected]

I got the Pulsar for free when buying something else from Plugin Boutique. I don't think I'd buy it otherwise, but it does its one job very well if you do decide to get it.

Same.

Tested it but it hasn't seen use in any projects yet. I'd sooner reach for NI's Supercharger.

[dionenoid]

Yeah same, got it for free (it was free after introduction i believe) but never gelled with it. I don't think i even bothered to install it on my current system.

[legendCNCD]

Wanna smash something to pieces? Smasher. Works great as parallel mixed with various sources. Not as versatile as their good 1178

[MJACau]

No I don't wanna smash anything to pieces, I treat Smasher like a Vari-mu compressor because it only has two main controls.
Gain match Output, then bring up Input just so the needle start to move then back it off a little.
So any swells and fast transients are 'Smashed', more like a limiter.

Interestingly their Vari-mu compressor 'Mu' doesn't sound anything special to me.
Smash a great freebie when I got it.