Pulsar Modular P450/P455 MDN Plugin Bundle

[jens]

Pulsar Modular delivers audio plugins exceeding analog audio hardware sound and workflow.The sound is unbelievable!

(Pulsar Audio about Pulsar Audio)

Wrong company. Pulsar Audio are innocent bystanders in all of this.

(Pulsar Modular about Pulsar Modular)

FTFY

yeah, thanks - my bad! I can absolutely tell them apart,
I just somehow typed the wrong name...

[Vortifex]

I've listened to the various demos, and for me its subtleties are not worth paying such a high price for. In a world of VoosteQ, Klanghelm, Toneboosters, £29 sales etc it's really difficult for me to justify paying as much as a decent pair of headphones for an effects plugin.

[audenso]

As I said, on GS two plugins were declared broken on their release because of misuse of PD, one of them being most used saturator in my toolbox, so I must be deaf or something because PD is objective truth, innit? More recently Softube clipper was declared broken as well thanks to misinterpretation of PD analysis (thankfully, nobody pulled out PD on Model N because it would look even more broken in same vein), and one person here on DSP forum was puzzled why do they hear audible difference when in PD looks like plugin is doing almost nothing.
I find PD use (somewhat frequent on GS) more objectionable then fanclub salivations over new release, although none really affects me personally, I tend to very thoroughly test and stress tools I'm interested with.
BTW, I sometimes use PD myself (after assessing with my own ears), but I'm very very very very careful about interpretation of results for anything other than very linear EQ/filters. Not because PD is broken, it is mostly fine, but because no analytic tool will provide insights simple to interpret as long as any kind of significant nonlinear behavior is involved, and lot of people are confused by stuff they see for linear effects.

Absolutely mind-blowing to witness people getting hurt over someone else's perspective on a plugin they cherish. Ultimately, the power resides within us to determine our preferences and the components we integrate into our studio arrangements. Frankly, I couldn't care any less about external opinions regarding my studio software, as long as it impeccably caters to my needs. It's utterly inconceivable that a mere Plugindoctor analysis could shatter hearts and dismantle relationships.

[bmanic]

I was going to post some more audio demos but I got distracted and ended up making a short little jam instead. P455 all over the place here.. maybe you can hear the creamy smooth goodness of this <insert hyperbolic description here> plugin.

Thursday night jam (Google Drive link, mp3 3.8mb)

1st second: instant feeling sounds like a record goodness --> good hw
3 seconds: the width! It lives! --> good hw
20 seconds: ah, cymbals creamy but hit of the snare not annoying --> good hw

Remove the P455 and I would not be surprised, if the extreme analog hw like sound, these positive attributes, will become reduced significantly, maybe even vanish.

Naah, I could easily remove P455 and still keep the overall vibe of it. Look.. the plugin is awesome, as I have been saying all along but please don't attribute the sound of the mix to just one plugin. The real heavy lifting is done by the combined amount of plugins each doing a lot. If you want to get to the real meat of the sound shaping going on here, it's mostly Kirchoff EQ and Cenozoix compression.

There are plenty of plugins that do their own "smoothing/analogue hardware" sound in their own way and you'd end up with similar results. For instance Toneprojects Michelangelo is a bit similar in the way it's pillowy and soft like P455 can be. Another one is the Silver Bullet plugin, or a myriad of other plugins.

The absolute biggest key factor here is monitoring. I've now fully acclimatized to the Slate VSX system and can make extremely confident and quick decisions. That is by far the biggest factor in the end. For instance, the main drumloop is a crappy sample that is stretched in Reaper. I did _a lot_ of massaging to get it to sit in the mix. There are 3 different all-pass filters on that damn loop just to get the lows and low-mids to gel with the rest of the bass heavy instruments. All of this contributes to the overall sound. With good monitoring I am able to carefully explore phase relationships of instruments and that plays a huge role in the overall sound.

[bmanic]

Sick tune dude. Really enjoying it.
How are you liking Cenozoix? I have it but I'm noticing that I'm reaching for MDWDRC2 more often.
Silve Bullet hardware? software?
Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!

Cenozoix is absolutely amazing in my opinion. It's unfortunately quite buggy still.. but apparently the guys over at TBT Tech are on it. Also the UI is a bit frustrating in it's layout and has those typical TBT Tech issues with consistency, a bit same as Kirchoff EQ. Still it's way too awesome to not use it. Also it's a real chameleon of a compressor. It can be soft, smooth, transparent, chunky, snappy and pumpy.

However it does seem to have a sort of "sonic fingerprint" of it's own (or I'm getting hit by mr placebo again.. which is very possible) so it's not a replacement for MDWDRC2. I use George's compressor when I want absolute transparency and 100% effortless gain reduction (or sometimes Unisum instead if I want a bit more "liquid" sort of feel).

I only have the Silver Bullet plugin.. never even owned the hardware but am seriously contemplating getting it for my DAWless rig as the plugin is just so damn impressive.

[urosh]

Absolutely mind-blowing to witness people getting hurt over someone else's perspective on a plugin they cherish

I have nowhere mentioned anyone's perspective or personal opinion. Folks pulled out PD to claim that Cassiopeia or Taip are objectively broken. If somebody doesn't care about plugin X, fine. But PD is not interpreted as personal opinion, unfortunately (at least) 99% of the audience is under impression that PD provides objective, indisputable and simple truth, which it does not.

[bmanic]

Just for fun and context as we are discussing plugins and their effect on production, I just rendered the Thursday night jam without any mixing plugins at all. These are just the raw instrument tracks provided by Triaz, Diva, Axxess, Knifonium (forgot I had it there, it just has a slight pulsating bass underneath it all) and Omnisphere, plus that one crappy drumloop from Noiiz.

Thursday night jam, all mixing and mastering plugins removed! (Google Drive, mp3 3.8mb)

Changes the vibe a lot but I kinda like it this calm. Guess I went way overboard with the processing eh?

[stillenacht]

Unless the company does something morally reprehensible I don't have any problems purchasing a product from them even if the developer is eccentric. And really, the only part people TRULY have an issue with is his pricing. But as already mentioned, it is not that far out of touch considering some other options. Heck if you go back just a decade or so, these prices were par for the course. His refusal to change with the times and the dime a dozen pricing of plugins is what seems to make people really angry. And when he defends that position you all crucify him for it.

Have you ever asked yourself, is he really the baddie in all of this? Just look at the ridicule he has gotten simply due to his plugin pricing. I'd say the morally reprehensible stuff is skewed more towards the mob rather than this one developer.

Its because P900 is not being truthful, he evades saying what is in his plugins but then it turns out Lunar Landar has a significant amount of public domain code freely available (its in posts by original dev). Or when he says he doesn't use JUCE DSP (from first page of GS P42 thread) when his dev is in fact on the JUCE forum posting JUCE DSP code.

He can use as much hype as he likes but giving incorrect info is mis-selling

[bmanic]

Sounds great! Where can we hear more of your music?

Sorry I haven't really made any publicly available music in years and years! It's just hundreds of short snippets and loops. The only recent official music stuff is for FabFilter's 1 minute intro videos for Pro-R2 and Twin 3.

I also released a 18min long silly experimental track in the music cafe here on KvR back in 2018.

Oh and some movie sound tracks for various local short films over the years that can maybe be found on youtube and a bunch of beats for various local rap artists in the late 90s and early 00's.

And you can possibly find some age old parody tracks that I made with my Roland XP-50 while serving in the Finnish armed forces back in 1998 (yes, I had a Roland XP-50 in my utility closet in the army! Everybody else had sports gear, I had a synthesizer! ). Here is a direct link to one of the tracks Miles Away bM (parody on Robert Miles' "children"). Recorded straight out of a Roland XP-50 with some badly done mastering by myself back when I didn't know what I was doing.

And possibly the best track I've ever made, composed and recorded in just a few hours, for some silly "make a track in 24 hours" competition on some IRC music channel back in the days (#midiwarez I think, or was it called something else back then? I don't remember.. it's so ridiculously long time ago.. 20+ years) at almost the end of the deadline. This one I'm super proud of as the lyrics are deep and the recording and playing is as raw as it gets (I happened to have a bunch of Schoeps microphones at home, on loan from the music school.. plugged into a 100$ shitty mini mixer). This is a song I'm always contemplating on redoing but the original just works as it is, even if it's super bare bones and badly mixed.

Trampa Vatten

Song is sang in Swedish so anybody who understands that gets an extra kick out of the lyrics.

Sorry, that's about it. I know.. I know. I should do more music but I'm just so incapable of finishing tracks.

[bmanic]

Its because P900 is not being truthful, he evades saying what is in his plugins but then it turns out Lunar Landar has a significant amount of public domain code freely available (its in posts by original dev). Or when he says he doesn't use JUCE DSP (from first page of GS P42 thread) when his dev is in fact on the JUCE forum posting JUCE DSP code.

He can use as much hype as he likes but giving incorrect info is mis-selling

I've never used or even heard about the Lunar Lander plugin and don't really care.

That still doesn't negate that this plugin, discussed here, sounds absolutely fantastic. I don't really care how or what he uses to program these plugins. There are plenty of stories of people not really knowing what they are doing and still end up as fantastic developers. Like with mixing, or art in general, the talent is not always found with the tools but with time, patience and a keen sense for detail.

Tunca (aka Analog Obsession) didn't know at all what he was doing either and wasn't truthful nor a good business person.. yet through sheer perseverance he has now become a fantastic developer and releases absolutely fantastic plugins through his Patreon (and they can be downloaded for free! Though I highly recommend signing up for at least a few years to support him in his efforts).

Point is: If you dig for dirt, you'll probably find it hidden in all our closets. What matters is the now, today. And in this very moment, this P455 plugin is undeniably a good one. Period.

[plexuss]

Tunca took public responsibility for their actions and publicly apologized. Pulsar guy did not and instead stepped up his bs. Pulsar fannois its ok you dont have to rationally justify yourself we all know and understand the biases at play.

[stillenacht]

Its because P900 is not being truthful, he evades saying what is in his plugins but then it turns out Lunar Landar has a significant amount of public domain code freely available (its in posts by original dev). Or when he says he doesn't use JUCE DSP (from first page of GS P42 thread) when his dev is in fact on the JUCE forum posting JUCE DSP code.

He can use as much hype as he likes but giving incorrect info is mis-selling

I've never used or even heard about the Lunar Lander plugin and don't really care.

That still doesn't negate that this plugin, discussed here, sounds absolutely fantastic. I don't really care how or what he uses to program these plugins. There are plenty of stories of people not really knowing what they are doing and still end up as fantastic developers. Like with mixing, or art in general, the talent is not always found with the tools but with time, patience and a keen sense for detail.

Tunca (aka Analog Obsession) didn't know at all what he was doing either and wasn't truthful nor a good business person.. yet through sheer perseverance he has now become a fantastic developer and releases absolutely fantastic plugins through his Patreon (and they can be downloaded for free! Though I highly recommend signing up for at least a few years to support him in his efforts).

Point is: If you dig for dirt, you'll probably find it hidden in all our closets. What matters is the now, today. And in this very moment, this P455 plugin is undeniably a good one. Period.

We do have laws about this. Is it time for a car analogy?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

If you think laws are being broken, then contact a lawyer who specializes in the field or the appropriate regulatory agency in your jurisdiction. KVR isn't a legal forum or a place to seek legal advice. So let's not go any further down that rabbit hole.

[stillenacht]

It also makes a mockery of the prices and is dissing the DSP community if he is selling stuff back to us that was given for free.

[bmanic]

It also makes a mockery of the prices and is dissing the DSP community if he is selling stuff back to us that was given for free.

Is this really true?

Also, what about the RBJ filters? Those were used extensively by pretty much everybody without any backlash. As has other classic code snippets from the old dsp mailinglist. Are you absolutely sure you aren't on a witch hunt here?