Antelope Synergy Core FX

[baggio]

Anybody have experience of these plugins. There is a deal on where you get the complete set with the purchase of new interface. Wondering how they compare with the likes of UAD plugins.

[trusampler]

I use them frequently with my Interface for tracking, and monitoring. Definitely as good as my UA plugins.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Just from my own anecdotal reading of forums over the years, it seems like about half the people who buy an Antelope interface have bad things to say about them, while another half will tell you they're wonderful and had zero issues. And they seem to put out new interfaces very frequently (i.e. they're constantly moving on). To me, it seems like the interface would be a big gamble regardless of the plugin quality.

But no, I have no experience with the plugins. Just want to make sure you do research on the interfaces (check forum threads - read actual user reviews) before you go and buy one for some plugins they added as sweeteners. But then, maybe they've improved or maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones.

[SoftSynthLover99]

Antelope Interfaces have some of the best converters that I’ve heard, definitely better sounding than the Apollo X8. I had an Orion Studio thunderbolt interface and the sound was amazing, no bugs or issues and the plugins were IMO better quality/sounding than UAD.

Really an underrated company and the 1 issue I had (user error) I just called customer support and he walked me through troubleshooting and fixed my issue on the spot. Never had any other audio company offer that kind of support before.

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online. If you are interested in a new interface and they are offering all plugins they have with a new interface, I say go for it if the price is right.

[jens]

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online.

That is such a dumb fanboi comment right there:

So you think it's completely impossible that there are genuine people who purchased genuine Antelope hardware and subesquently encounter genuine problems with it?

And you know this how? What's your source of knowledge, what's your expertise here?
(Besides an unresistable and very sad urge to defend your precious love interest, I mean)



Wasn't Musician's Friend the retailer who completely stopped selling Antelope because of the high number of returns?

[bmanic]

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online. If you are interested in a new interface and they are offering all plugins they have with a new interface, I say go for it if the price is right.

Yeah, no. Ironic isn't it that it's actually YOU who is parroting the Antelope Audio marketing slogan by saying just that?

Antelope Audio is an absolutely HORRIBLE audio company. Reliability of their stuff, unless it's used purely for AD/DA (which does indeed sound exceptional!), is extremely poor. Period.

Several retailers stopped selling their stuff due to the amount of returns.

It's also worth remembering Antelope Audio history. The CEO of the old company (forget their name now) is the same for Antelope Audio and they had the exact same reliability issues and constant excuses for everything, instead of fixing it... oh yeah I think they were called Aardvaark audio or something like that. Supremely capable soundcards on paper, horrible reliability, horrible company to deal with returns or any issues.

When you get an online 50/50 ratio of horror stories vs good stories, you know something is seriously problematic. That's not a good ratio no matter how you look at it. Another red flag is the amount of products and revisions a company puts out in a short period of time and how quickly and how often they dump the support for and discontinue their "flagship" products.

Antelope Audio have thoroughly deserved their reputation. It's as simple as that.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Yep. They were Aardvark. They had the same issues at the time by most accounts. Great looking interfaces on paper, but dodgy.

[zerocrossing]

When you get an online 50/50 ratio of horror stories vs good stories, you know something is seriously problematic.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, as they say. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. Also, where there’s rainbows, there’s leprechauns. Leprechauns are even worse, because they’ll lie to your face about the pot of gold you’ll find with your new gear/software and feel no guilt… because they also believe the pot of gold is real. I once got convinced that a SonicCore interface was the one for me. People on the SonicCore forum would have probably written sworn affidavits about how amazing the platform is… and it sucked. Sucked hard. The converters were fine, and the hardware was generally decent build quality, but the software was outdated garbage.

[jens]

It's also worth remembering Antelope Audio history. The CEO of the old company (forget their name now) is the same for Antelope Audio and they had the exact same reliability issues and constant excuses for everything, instead of fixing it... oh yeah I think they were called Aardvaark audio or something like that. Supremely capable soundcards on paper, horrible reliability, horrible company to deal with returns or any issues.

Yes - and word on the street is that he already registered both the trademarks "Alpaca Audio" and "Armadillo Audio".

[vurt]

It's also worth remembering Antelope Audio history. The CEO of the old company (forget their name now) is the same for Antelope Audio and they had the exact same reliability issues and constant excuses for everything, instead of fixing it... oh yeah I think they were called Aardvaark audio or something like that. Supremely capable soundcards on paper, horrible reliability, horrible company to deal with returns or any issues.

Yes - and word on the street is that he already registered both the trademarks "Alpaca Audio" and "Armadillo Audio".

armadillos can catch leprosy.
that's my sunday fact!
enjoy.

[SoftSynthLover99]

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online.

That is such a dumb fanboi comment right there:

So you think it's completely impossible that there are genuine people who purchased genuine Antelope hardware and subesquently encounter genuine problems with it?

And you know this how? What's your source of knowledge, what's your expertise here?
(Besides an unresistable and very sad urge to defend your precious love interest, I mean)



Wasn't Musician's Friend the retailer who completely stopped selling Antelope because of the high number of returns?

Have you ever used Antelope Audio studio gear? If not then you are doing exactly what I said people do. Repeat nonsense. I’ve actually used the gear to make records, many of my colleagues use them and a lot of recording studios are powered by them, and they work well and sound better than a lot of the audio interfaces on the market. I’m speaking from personal experience and hands on use, what are you speaking from?

[SoftSynthLover99]

Negative comments are from people who likely haven’t used any Antelope Audio studio gear, or are just repeating things they’ve heard online. If you are interested in a new interface and they are offering all plugins they have with a new interface, I say go for it if the price is right.

Antelope Audio have thoroughly deserved their reputation. It's as simple as that.

Well the reputation Antelope Audio have among my colleagues who are professional mix/mastering engineers, producers, songwriters, touring musicians, is that they are amazing sounding interfaces with amazing converters!

I know it’s hard to believe everything you read on Internet forums may not be true. But as always the loudest people are always the negative ones. So sometimes I feel compelled to post to even that out.

[SoftSynthLover99]

Great looking interfaces on paper, but dodgy.

That’s really an unfair statement for you to make. You admitted you have no experience with the interfaces or plugins to know how good or bad they are, so how do you know they’re dodgy? Based on what you read on Internet forums?

As I said I have experience with the interfaces, the sound is well above most interfaces out there, they just work and work very well without much issue in my experience and from what I hear from friends who use them.

A lot of misinformation being thrown around so hopefully the OP can listen to those who actually use Antelope gear before making a decision. Happy Monday!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Great looking interfaces on paper, but dodgy.

That’s really an unfair statement for you to make. You admitted you have no experience with the interfaces or plugins to know how good or bad they are, so how do you know they’re dodgy? Based on what you read on Internet forums?

As I said I have experience with the interfaces, the sound is well above most interfaces out there, they just work and work very well without much issue in my experience and from what I hear from friends who use them.

A lot of misinformation being thrown around so hopefully the OP can listen to those who actually use Antelope gear before making a decision. Happy Monday!

Again, I stated very clearly that some people have great experiences with these interfaces and others have terrible experiences with them. You're clearly in the first camp. That's great. Good for you! Maybe the OP will be too! But that doesn't discount the vast wealth of information out there from other customers with the opposite experience or from the retailers who dropped these products.

I base my "dodgy interfaces" opinion (and it's just that) off the total sum of information I've come across in my own research with these interfaces. I wouldn't buy one of these. Wouldn't even consider them. But if you handed me one for free and it worked great, I'd tell the world.

Simply put: reliable products that do what they say on the tin, don't have these reputations. No one's rooting against Antelope. I hope they put out a killer product with great driver performance and long support, at a great price. That benefits everyone. I'd even consider buying one myself. But it's going to take a long time of doing things the right way and word getting out about for them to rebuild their reputation. Maybe they've already started that process, I don't know.

But if someone says "hey, should I buy this interface because they're throwing in these plugins to sweeten the deal" I think it's absolutely fair to say that person, "hey, those interfaces are very hit and miss by various accounts". I'd want to know before I plunked down the cash!

[SoftSynthLover99]

Great looking interfaces on paper, but dodgy.

That’s really an unfair statement for you to make. You admitted you have no experience with the interfaces or plugins to know how good or bad they are, so how do you know they’re dodgy? Based on what you read on Internet forums?

As I said I have experience with the interfaces, the sound is well above most interfaces out there, they just work and work very well without much issue in my experience and from what I hear from friends who use them.

A lot of misinformation being thrown around so hopefully the OP can listen to those who actually use Antelope gear before making a decision. Happy Monday!

Again, I stated very clearly that some people have great experiences with these interfaces and others have terrible experiences with them. You're clearly in the first camp.

But isn’t that true for all companies? I don’t know of any manufacturer that has 100% success rate. You can go to the UAD forums and see users who can’t get the UAD plugins or Apollo interfaces to work correctly, does that make UAD interfaces dodgy? I don’t think so.

And the reviews I see don’t support your “dodgy interface” opinion anyway. Looking on Thomann the Orion Studio Synergy core is sitting at 4.8/5 stars rating with 37 reviews for example. Could you find another website with bad reviews? Probably so if you looked. But Thomann is a well respected retailer so take that for what it’s worth.

Everyone has opinions so no worries there, but your opinion should end at “I’ve never used the plugins or interface so I don’t really know”. Anything you say after that in regards to the company or quality of the products they have is just hearsay. That’s all I’m saying!