Pulsar Modular P42 Climax Line Amp

[kvry train]

Actually the first thing that happened was a paid "mod" upgrade. For an extra filter iir.

music scientology

[Funky40]

@P900

i waited for the sale to happen.You sayed in juli.
Now it is, the sale is on, and all i can say is:
are you kidding me ?

you had it going for 147.- at BF .
thats allready quite a bit overpriced, but i´d had jumped on that, since i found my uses for P42.
I see where it´s strenght is vs. my needs and uses.

I waited, i was there ! you were NOT !

yes, i just had me some GAS. And: i really waited for this one -sale- to happen.
not doing that twice

/ pricetag rant ( read: valuable userfeedback )

[sihoja]

nevermind

[QCGroove]

If you don't this plugin, don't worry. You aren't missing anything. It's a cumbersome saturation/eq/preamp style thing that is absolutely not necessary to mix a hit song. Focus on what you do have access to. I own this plugin along with many other saturation distortion and tape/preamp plugs ( I have 103 if you count preamps/tape/drive/sat plugs and this does not include amp sims) and it is EASILY in the bottom 25%. FWIW

[Kretch]

If you don't this plugin, don't worry. You aren't missing anything. It's a cumbersome saturation/eq/preamp style thing that is absolutely not necessary to mix a hit song. Focus on what you do have access to. I own this plugin along with many other saturation distortion and tape/preamp plugs ( I have 103 if you count preamps/tape/drive/sat plugs and this does not include amp sims) and it is EASILY in the bottom 25%. FWIW

What’s your top 5?

[El°HYM]

These plugins are actually pretty good (at least the ones I have tested so far). The asking Price is too high regarding the Competition of similar Quality, imho. It somehow seems to work though as people are praising quite a few of PM's stuff.

[QCGroove]

What’s your top 5?

Currently my top 5, in order from favorite to less favorite:
LTL Silver Bullet mk2 (got it for $30)
Saturn 2 (Fabfilter loyalty discount ~$70)
Kelvin (intro pricing $74)
T-Racks Saturator X (IK group buy - 25 products for $110 so $4.40)
T-Racks Tape Machine 24 (bought in the Power Reels Collection with 6 plugins so about $17)

The first 4 sound amazing and are very versatile. The top 3 especially. I could easily mix with just Silver Bullet, Saturn and Kelvin as my saturators.

Honorable Mentions:
Apogee SoftLimit (was free for a time I think)
SPL TwinTube (you can probably pick this up cheap during a sale)
Voxengo Tube Amp (free)
Kazrog True Iron (I think it's around $29 on sale)

Average price of my top 5 - $39
Average price of my honorable mentions - about $15

So my point is, for at least *what I like* I don't have to spend too much money for good saturation. (aside from the fact that I have over 100 of these things I've collected over the years) There's quite the following on the Pulsar Modular bandwagon but I didn't drink the kool aid on the sound or the workflow. GUI is cool in some ways but very cluttered. Anyway I hope this helps to dispel some of the mythologic legendary mystique surrounding P42 and it's astronomic price tag. But don't take my word for it, Marc Daniel Nelson claims he uses it sometimes and there's always the incredibly subtle demos on the Pulsar product page. It might be your favorite plugin even, but even as an owner, I'll pass on that.

[Uncle E]

I'm glad I only paid $30 for Silver Bullet. It means I only wasted $30.

[QCGroove]

I'm glad I only paid $30 for Silver Bullet. It means I only wasted $30.

I mean, I know you’re old and grumpy but at least list your top 5.

[Igelhaft]

I'm glad I only paid $30 for Silver Bullet. It means I only wasted $30.

You definitely need to elaborate on that one! Not a lot of people hating on that plugin.

[Uncle E]

I mean, I know you’re old and grumpy but at least list your top 5.

Ozone
UA Ampex
UA API Summing
UA Verve
Inflator

Silver Bullet is fine, it just doesn't fit in with all the other processing I'm already doing, hence $30 wasted.

[Funky40]

If you don't this plugin, don't worry.

I totally disagree with you ! (the whole post)
thats the short form.
I felt like answering to your statement, and just lost the 2nd time a quite long post.



No, Kelvin and the likes are something else.
It´s just not the same thing ! period

i have an exqusite HW tube based pre setup.
Even with HW was it a looong walk to setup up something like that.
I wanted to be able to dial in my sound in the subtleties.
I have that with my HW.
And even there in HW realm, that´s all definitly not just a given.
I had to work it, ...... over months to get there. (repeating myself)

in SW, P42 was the first plugin that gave me a similar feel, beeing able to adjust the things within the subtleties.
for me, it´s mostly the "bevore break" sounds i want to have.
And 2nd: it´s about to "slip" "as subtle as possible" into the "breaking it up" area.....and 3rd, to take it slowly further.

Its to me about how subtle you can delve into....and how subtle you can adjust the things further.

To me, that´s an obvious one that the developers of P42 tryed to gain "there" something !
They tryed to deliver, .....and -to me- they did.

P42, worked for me ONLY in context ! ...and NEVER on its own.

And thats how my HW setup works too.
It´s never one pre alone. It´s allways a chain.

P42 is good !
It can handle some subtleties in the sound.



.....but the price is a bad joke. Anyway the sale ! which just putts me off. ymmv


/ Grumpy Blue Gremlin

[QCGroove]

i have an exqusite HW tube based pre setup.

Pics? I would love to see the setup.

You post kinda reads like “p42 is like super premium non aliasing hardware (that’s one of the main benefits of hardware - no nyquist to worry about with saturation) but that price tag gee golly it’s too high but don’t you just desire it more because of the high price? Wink wink”

in fact p42 is pretty much just a waveshaper like everything else. In fact when it first came out it aliases like crazy and the dev said “oh I tuned it by ear and it sounds perfect” only after customers asked for AA filters did he put them in.

Also does anybody else get the feeling this dev has multiple sock puppet accounts on KVR and GS?

Also there’s such a strong cultish vibe. Nichttuntun was the main one to help get the cult going by gaslighting people into thinking they were hearing these “subtleties” and to fork over a bunch of money for an aliasing plugin. And if you didn’t hear the subtleties, you weren’t part of the “in” crowd.

Someone did a test with p42 and a bunch of other saturation plugs on GS and maybe one person picked p42 on the blind test. It’s the same as the free mwaveshaper or whatever melda calls theirs.

[Igelhaft]

Also does anybody else get the feeling this dev has multiple sock puppet accounts on KVR and GS?

No. I've always had the impression that this dev is extremely forthright, to an occasionally insulting fault, and sock puppets seem a bit out of character.

Giving discounts for people giving reviews is more their speed (though to the best of the knowledge, the discount wasn't contingent on it being a positive review), but they've recently stopped doing that.

[Uncle E]

Also does anybody else get the feeling this dev has multiple sock puppet accounts on KVR and GS?

Who've been here since before Pulsar Modular's current owner bought the company? Talk about playing a long game!