Audiority Space Age 555 v1.0.3 - Vintage Tape Echo / Chorus / Reverb (AAX, AU, CLAP, VST3)

[Mr Arkadin]

Yes, it's all about the sound. However, as an RE-501 owner (there, that should give me some cred points!), the GUI isn't quite there yet. It feels a bit grey and flat. Could be blacker. Also, for the space available, the knobs could be bigger, especially the Mode knob. That's my minor gripes.

Now if Luca can just model a Roland DC-50 and RE-3, I can start selling some bits of kit

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Yes, it's all about the sound. However, as an RE-501 owner (there, that should give me some cred points!), the GUI isn't quite there yet. It feels a bit grey and flat. Could be blacker. Also, for the space available, the knobs could be bigger, especially the Mode knob. That's my minor gripes.

Now if Luca can just model a Roland DC-50 and RE-3, I can start selling some bits of kit

Blacker doesn't translate well to 2D screens IMO. We don't have true 3D perspective and natural lighting so when you've got a dark black background and dark knobs that's a recipe for a low contrast GUI. If anything, I think it's already a touch too dark, and right up against the line of going almost going too far. For me, it's ok as is but darker background and knob elements would be a mistake IMO.

[Mr Arkadin]

Yes, it's all about the sound. However, as an RE-501 owner (there, that should give me some cred points!), the GUI isn't quite there yet. It feels a bit grey and flat. Could be blacker. Also, for the space available, the knobs could be bigger, especially the Mode knob. That's my minor gripes.

Now if Luca can just model a Roland DC-50 and RE-3, I can start selling some bits of kit

Blacker doesn't translate well to 2D screens IMO. We don't have true 3D perspective and natural lighting so when you've got a dark black background and dark knobs that's a recipe for a low contrast GUI. If anything, I think it's already a touch too dark, and right up against the line of going almost going too far. For me, it's ok as is but darker background and knob elements would be a mistake IMO.

Nembrini's 501 looks fine here and it's darker. It does have lighting effects which lighten it up, but it gets away from the dull matte grey I'm seeing with 555. It's not going to stop me using 555 though

[Lotuz2019]

So here's another thing to make the GUI look cooler, Luca. Right click on a knob, button, meter, letter, etc. and customize its color.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Luca, the "Open Online Manual" link goes to 404.

[JerGoertz]

Just wanted to say, Luka, that I love your plugins and your company.

Great customer support, great pricing, great plugin quality.

I especially like the fact you keep the noise that analog gear would have. Please don't ever get rid of the noise! (Maybe have a volume knob for it, but don't eliminate it entirely! ). The little things that make the experience of using your plugins feel "authentic."

[v1md]

Great job on this one. Instant purchase! Been playing around with it for a couple of hours and it sounds great. Loving the lofi spring reverb above all things.

[jamcat]

How is the spring reverb produced?
Is it an IR? Is it modeled? Or a hybrid of both?

[Niowiad]

Nembrini's 501 looks fine here and it's darker.

You can clearly see which one is darker.
But Nembrini's GUI has better contrast, saturation and "overall lighting".
.

555-501_GUIs.jpg

.
Luca said he sucks at 3D, but to me it's mostly a matter of art fundamentals (color theory and lighting).

I would consider myself a happy Audiority customer. I bought basically every new release of the last 2-3 years and I'm likely going to buy this one as well.
I didn't want to sound negative. Just wanted to say that making that GUI darker is definitely not going to improve it.

[dreamvoid]

I especially like the fact you keep the noise that analog gear would have. Please don't ever get rid of the noise! (Maybe have a volume knob for it, but don't eliminate it entirely! ). The little things that make the experience of using your plugins feel "authentic."

If the noise cannot be switched of, it would be a clear no to a purchase from my side, no matter how good it sounds (I owned original 201, 301, 501 in the past). Noise adding if the user wishes is ok, but not mandatory.
All my arguments against noise in plug ins are expressed clearly in the article:
https://www.production-expert.com/produ ... fessionals

[Lotuz2019]

This is really nice. Love the way the age control affects it.

I'm surprised by how loud the noise is on the delay even with the noise at zero, is that how the original unit is? I checked some videos and they didn't seem to be anything like as noisy.

Are you sure it's on zero and not on 5.0 %?

Yeah, it's on zero. Have a listen:

https://soundcloud.com/vortifex/delay-noise

Noted. I've adjusted the compander to have a better SNR. The noise floor on the hardware is around 60dB, but on the plugin sounds worse than that. Will be fixed with the first update.

When Noise is set to 0, will the repeats be completely without noise then? Or will there always be noise in the repeats (like the hardware) and can the user add more noise with Noise?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Nembrini's 501 looks fine here and it's darker.

You can clearly see which one is darker.
But Nembrini's GUI has better contrast, saturation and "overall lighting".
.
555-501_GUIs.jpg
.
Luca said he sucks at 3D, but to me it's mostly a matter of art fundamentals (color theory and lighting).

I would consider myself a happy Audiority customer. I bought basically every new release of the last 2-3 years and I'm likely going to buy this one as well.
I didn't want to sound negative. Just wanted to say that making that GUI darker is definitely not going to improve it.

Agree. In general, I find the Audiority GUI's a little bit on the low-contrast side. Not enough to make a stink about, but I think the feedback is good and worth sharing. I don't necessarily want dark black knobs on a dark black background with hard white text (thinking SoundToys), but lighter light portions of the text with better lighting might be a worthwhile improvement. I personally prefer when black background panels are a little more on the gray side and the knobs darker so you can clearly see where the background ends and the knob begins. But like I said, I don't feel the Audiority GUI's are bad or anything, but a little better lighting and contrast would offer some improvement IMO.

[Audiority]

Luca, the "Open Online Manual" link goes to 404.

A typo Thanks for the heads up.

How is the spring reverb produced?
Is it an IR? Is it modeled? Or a hybrid of both?

It's an IR sampled from the original hardware.

If the noise cannot be switched of, it would be a clear no to a purchase from my side, no matter how good it sounds (I owned original 201, 301, 501 in the past). Noise adding if the user wishes is ok, but not mandatory.
All my arguments against noise in plug ins are expressed clearly in the article:
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https://www.production-expert.com/produ ... nals</span>

The background noise of the machine can be zeroed via the NOISE knob on the footer; the noise you might hear from the overall circuit, tape and (especially) the BBD chorus cannot be switched off, since there's no "noise generator" in there. When we do simulations, we follow the schematics and that implies amplifying, attenuating and filtering the signal several times. It would be WAY easier to just wrap up a clean digital delay and colour it with an impulse response, but it wouldn't be a simulation... just a travesty, in my opinion.

My 2 cents,
Luca

[Audiority]

Hey guys, we have been asked why the SonS head is always so low, so I took more measurements with the hardware and found a bug.
Basically, what's wrong on the plugin is that the measurements I took on the SonS head happened on a deteriorated portion of the tape, resulting in a lower output volume. I took more minutes of measurements and the SonS should have a volume closer to the individual heads when engaged alone.

This will be fixed in v1.0.1

Cheers
Luca

[midi_transmission]

As always, I appreciate the dedication to quality and detail.