Why do people here hate on cherry audio?

[Examigan]

In 2023, there’s an expectation among people who use analog synths that an emulation will have a level of detail and lack of artifacts that are as good as Repro, Model 72, etc. While Cherry Audio plugins can sound very good, they don’t provide the same level of detail and sometimes show noticeable artifacts. When that’s stated, it’s not taken as an unemotional observation, but as an attack.

I don’t think that an emulation has to be accurate to be useful for making music. I don’t even think everything should sound “analog.” However, when you announce yourself as an accurate emulation, you have opened the window to analysis and criticism.

Personally I tried them out for the first time when they released the Memorymoog clone, and frankly it's absolute garbage, it sounds nothing like a Memorymoog, it's an insult to us as customers that they even claim it comes close. It sounds like someone used the basic ensemble parts in Reaktor and made a Memorymoog GUI and called it good. It's also CPU heavy, even though it sounds like a cheap knockoff in SynthEdit from 2003.

I like their non emulation plug ins so far, their modular system has PSP plugins as add ons which is really cool, but so far I haven't bitten, I'm still insulted by the idiotically bad cash grab emulation that their "Memorymoog clone" is.

Just curious, do you have a Memorymoog to compare it to?

[Meester Smeeeth]

I don’t dislike CA and have a fair few of their synths. I am not too bothered about how accurate they are, especially at the price I tend to pay for them (we’re talking humble bundle prices).

But one thing that really annoys me is their licensing/authorisation system which is unreliable in my experience and has been for years. Many times I’ll wonder why a project doesn’t sound right and I’ll find a CA plugin has disabled itself and is silent. I then have to go through the tedium of finding the password, logging in and waiting for it to load. It happens enough times for it to become very annoying. I’m starting to swap out CA plug-ins when it happens and the more it happens the less I use CA stuff.

And whilst I’m in moan mode, it’s a pet peeve that they make out their plugins are on sale when they’re not. They never, ever charge the MSRP price they pretend they have. Therefore Discounts, when plugins are genuinely reduced, appear to be bigger than they really are.

It’s very misleading and that kind of fake discounting is illegal in much of the western world.

Oh and one more thing LOL

VM still doesn’t work with Logic. Not blaming CA entirely for that but again, it means I have to swap out vM for other plugins and eventually I’ll just end up not using CA anymore.

1st world problems.

On the plus side I really like PA-20 as even though it’s generally regarded as not being accurate (I don’t care) it’s capable of some lovely nasty sounds none the less. I love it for spitty unruly synth basses. And with a bit of processing, I can load up a Vox Humana preset in the moog emu and pretend I’m Gary Numan for 10 minutes lol

[funky lime]

1st world problems.

pretty much sums up most of the "hatred" for any developer or plugin out there

[davidka]

I came to have Cherry Audio stuff through bundled discounts. I was not sure at first, but I found them fun and musical after all.

[Meester Smeeeth]

I came to have Cherry Audio stuff through bundled discounts. I was not sure at first, but I found them fun and musical after all.

That’s the main thing ain’t it.

I find they often make their way into finished songs. Nobody ever gets to hear them so it doesn’t matter anyway.

Some people like comparing plugins. I don’t have the time or inclination. Can’t think of a better way to waste what little time I get to make music than to pore over the tiniest details. Even when you can pick out A from B every time when comparing, I would rarely know A from B in isolation a week later. It’s not like Cherry are bad. Some synths are definitely better when directly compared, but for me, unnoticeably so in a mix.

‘Good enough’ is more than good enough for me.

If you’re making the kind of music where it really matters you won’t be on this thread complaining about the plugins you don’t use after all

[zerocrossing]

They can’t hold two things in their head at one time: Cherry Audio plugins sound good, and Cherry Audio Plugins are not great emulations.

Zero - not being a spring chicken any longer, I've started to realise that very few people can hold two things in their head at the same time. Especially when it at first glance seems the two are seemingly opposing each other, which more often than not, is just an oversimplification of the mind.

^Thisx1000.

I’m constantly amazed at how binary people’s thinking is. Like a child. Another thing that kills me is that, unlike a child, most adults have about zero imagination or creativity in them, including so-called “artists.” We hired an Art Director (against the advice of most of the art department) whose idea of art direction is “make it look like ___ (insert name of another video game.)” When I assumed he meant “inspired by that style,” I was wrong. He meant, make it look like something almost exactly like that video game. Surprise! Our publisher is unhappy with the art in the game because it looks generic as all f, and it doesn’t even support the games story. No one seems to notice this but me.

[machinesworking]

Just curious, do you have a Memorymoog to compare it to?

Yep, I’ve owned a Memorymoog since 1986. I’m not “picking on” CA here, they just didn’t even try to come close, the filters, oscillators, absolutely nothing sounds like a Memorymoog.
IMO people get strung out on bargain basement pricing, and put up with far more than they should because of that. At least on Mac OS they suck up CPU, don’t sound like what they claim to emulate, and apparently don’t even work in popular DAWs like Logic. It’s very possible the CPU hit and stability are better on Windows, CA is supposedly made up of ex Cakewalk employees.

[Examigan]

Yes CA has a couple people from Cakewalk IIRC.

[GGaudio7]

... Cherry Audio (silently) modified their license transfer terms during a humble bundle offering and a diligent KVR user (BBFG#) here let everyone know. All CA licenses, even ones purchased before the change, are now non-transferable. This is hostile to users. CA could have made the humble bundle licenses NFR and CA could have informed people directly of the upcoming change -- instead we found out via KVR without an official statement.

I was happy with CA, but then I realized I wasnt using their tools as much as I had hoped I would. Its past the point where I could have transferred my licenses, even with fees its not like the profit margin would have been more than $5-10 anyway. SO... in the interest of moving on, giving tools to someone who may want them, AND heading off the whiners who will say "dur you had ur chance", Ill go ahead and put my money where my mouth is.
...

Absolutely the same for me! Did not bother about `most accurate´ emulation of existing synths, but was/am more interested in music software, that brings in some sound possibilities that are useful to ME, as CA did with their MPE capeable stuff - but with this change in company policy I also say: This is hostile to useres, so non of these cherries for me any more, there are other companies that `deserve´ it more ...

[BBFG#]

Oddly enough, it was their transfer policy/charge that originally kept me from buying into it. What was it? 10 or 15 bucks to transfer a 30 dollar plug-in? I stumbled on their intent to go NFR while trying to see if that exorbitant fee was still there while considering the Memorymode. (I owned one from '83-'94.) I do find some "accuracy" in the higher mid range. At least enough to consider it. Granted, it lacks something in the low range where the feel of a synth grabs me. But nothing as serious as others demand. TBH, when I want the 'feel' I got from my Memorymoog, DIVA does the trick for me.

But once they did go NFR and removed the transfer fee, it somehow felt more honest and direct to me. But even as cheap as they are, I still wasn't ready to get anything of theirs.

Until the Humble Bundles where you can cost average them for down to less than a Starbucks Frap.

I know I'm the outsider on Juno 106 emus, but I'm glad they don't sound like the original since I've always considered them to be weak and thin. IMO, even the bad emus sound better.

And I'm now waiting for someone to emulate an accurate "Camel Alchemy" since everything promising to surpass it, doesn't.

So I have a few CA sunths now and they're enough to occasionally get me distracted with from time to time when I need a break but don't want to make it too long and lose focus from what I'm taking the break from. I still have a problem with their price that keeps me from getting more. They're worth their ever discounted prices, but I just feel they're too much for what I use them for. (A mitigating distraction.) I have been pleasantly surprised by a couple of what I now own. And the new Korg plugin and the Novachord, regardless of accuracy are on my watch list.

What I wonder about them now is what will be their next four to Humble Bundle out with.

Perhaps tied to their low sales...
Lowdown seems an easy pick, maybe their Mini and Elka. These two for bundles seem as they're trying to increase their sales somehow, but it would have to be more like a BOGO of my own choosing to even consider it. And I'd still be going with an online dealer to get the in cart price.

I like them pretty good, but they found a way to point out how cheap I can be in my shopping habits.

[Gavincoolguy]

The Novachord was the biggest surprise for me which I never see anyone talking to. It just fits in dreamy, cinematic stuff. All of their emulations come to life with some saturation or any of the other 200 fx I can choose from and throw on everything else anyways.

[jens]

Just curious, do you have a Memorymoog to compare it to?

Yep, I’ve owned a Memorymoog since 1986. I’m not “picking on” CA here, they just didn’t even try to come close, the filters, oscillators, absolutely nothing sounds like a Memorymoog.

lol...

I guess we'll just have to take your word for it then, despite them having a video where they literally compare it side by side to the MemoryMoog they modelled it on (which they say belonged to Chick Corea)

IMO people get strung out on bargain basement pricing, and put up with far more than they should because of that. At least on Mac OS they suck up CPU, don’t sound like what they claim to emulate, and apparently don’t even work in popular DAWs like Logic. It’s very possible the CPU hit and stability are better on Windows, CA is supposedly made up of ex Cakewalk employees.

There's also side by side comparisons for other CA emulations (done by others such as Starsky Carr) which don't quite match your claims here...


Oh, just to make sure: I'm not claiming they absolutely nail it in all regards... some patches are obviously way off - but so are your claims.

[Gam456]

I don't hate Cherry Audio, I just think they could do a better job at modelling the original synths their emulations are based on.

Cherry Audio release new synth like burger in a fast food... quantity vs quality
It's cheap, functional, sterile.

[machinesworking]

There's also side by side comparisons for other CA emulations (done by others such as Starsky Carr) which don't quite match your claims here...


Oh, just to make sure: I'm not claiming they absolutely nail it in all regards... some patches are obviously way off - but so are your claims.

So Jens you own a Memorymoog? you compare it directly with the CA plugin?

You're just regurgitating advertising directly from Cherry Audio and making childish allusions to disclaim my own observations why? what does it get you? I've posted here for nearly two decades, I've posted for two freaking DECADES that I own a Memorymoog. You can choose to disbelieve me all you want, but you just look silly.

I really wanted to like the plugin, it's terrible, it's a bad emulation, there's no kind way to put it. The flack back from my direct observation is just weird to me. Flatly the filter sounds absolutely nothing like a Memorymoog filter, stripping the filter out and leveling the oscillators they sound nothing like the Memorymoog. Yes, anything even close in setup to a particular synth can make "some" sounds that are the same, it's not the trump card you think it is, when you put electric piano sounds in a comparison for how
"close" it is... The MM shines for thick complex sounds, the CA version can't do those.

It is what it is, bad news and people want to shoot the messenger. What do people expect? bargain basement prices are there for a reason.

[Gribs]

Harmonium is a really fun synth and it sounds crystal-clear. I have only scratched the surface. I did try loading a vocal sample in to see what I could get from it and it is impressive. The point is to make cool new sounds, and I am getting that in spades for a synth that cost a little over 40 bucks on sale. I confess that I haven't used VM in a long time; I downloaded it and my licensed module packs just in case. I am invested in Softube Modular and VCV-Rack Pro pretty heavily. I dunno; I think it is time to start paying attention to CA again.