Acustica Audio debuts THING - Iconic '80s Synth Reimagined for a New Era

[JanuszPelc]

As a result, the synthesizer behaves differently—it’s not just a matter of higher quality like sharpening a pixelated photo. The content of the “photo” itself changes.

Thank you for the detailed response and especially for the picture analogy. It really helps clarify the reasoning behind your decision. The comparison resonates with me because, when working on visual projects like game scenes, movie effects, or animations, we often deal with a similar concept in layers, much like tracks in music.

When composing or arranging scene layers, we frequently work with something far from the final result, such as wireframes, reduced colors, or limited geometry. These are optimized for the workflow but look drastically different from the finished product.

The crucial point is that rendering the composed layers is an expected step where we anticipate drastic changes for the better. If the result doesn’t look great, we revisit the wireframes and make adjustments.

This is why we’ve deprioritized this feature for now.

That said, I would like to kindly ask you to reconsider its priority.

This functionality is essential for certain workflows, particularly for movie and game cues, which often require a higher track count and uncompromised quality to meet industry-standard results.

I understand the challenges involved in balancing quality modes, but having this option would make a significant difference for users with demanding projects.

[UltimiGiorniRecords]

Faced some crashes on win 11 Fl studio 24.2.

Also tested against my roland JUP 8.

It is not bad at all but definitely unpolished product.

But even if I had all the worst experience with AA I have to admit that this product is better then what they released so far. That is a good direction.

[trusampler]

Anyone else tried layering this synth with any other, and notice the tunings are off ? I've even tried layering it with my analog synths, and the same thing. Is this only an issue with the demo ?

[db3]

Haven't noticed any general tuning issue with my own presets. I just went through the factory leads bank and a handful of those were out and needed tuning.

[mambo888]

Personally I have not noticed tuning issues, when playing unison with Diva and Op-X. Everything was in tune on the presets that I liked.

Regarding performance, Logic Pro is very bad at managing CPU. I use Logic Pro only to play and have fun. For serious workload it’s better to use Reaper, no clicks and pops. TH8 is comparable to other plugins in terms of CPU usage. It’s very sad that apple can’t optimise their own software.

I don’t have any issue with the plugin, I just feel that sonically I already have everything, what I’m looking for now is either a good deal (eg. 50 USD) or wide library (1-2000 presets). When the demo period runs out I will be very sad though

[fisherKing]

Regarding performance, Logic Pro is very bad at managing CPU. I use Logic Pro only to play and have fun. For serious workload it’s better to use Reaper, no clicks and pops. TH8 is comparable to other plugins in terms of CPU usage. It’s very sad that apple can’t optimise their own software.

i earn my living working in logic pro; apparently others do as well! perhaps there are issues with your own setup that you should investigate (or stick with reaper, a perfectly fine app).

going to check out the demo this weekend. a friend collects vintage synths, has a jupiter 8, and it's pretty great.

[Uncle E]

That said, I would like to kindly ask you to reconsider its priority.

This functionality is essential for certain workflows, particularly for movie and game cues, which often require a higher track count and uncompromised quality to meet industry-standard results.

100% agreed. It doesn't matter that it will sound different, we can always render the lower quality version if we end up preferring it.

[db3]

Anyone know where Thing user presets are stored on Mac?

[Acustica Community]

Anyone know where Thing user presets are stored on Mac?

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Acustica

Windows: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Acustica

[mambo888]

Regarding performance, Logic Pro is very bad at managing CPU. I use Logic Pro only to play and have fun. For serious workload it’s better to use Reaper, no clicks and pops. TH8 is comparable to other plugins in terms of CPU usage. It’s very sad that apple can’t optimise their own software.

i earn my living working in logic pro; apparently others do as well! perhaps there are issues with your own setup that you should investigate (or stick with reaper, a perfectly fine app).

going to check out the demo this weekend. a friend collects vintage synths, has a jupiter 8, and it's pretty great.

Thanks for gaslighting me. So because your earn your living with logic pro, it cannot be badly written or slightly inefficient when handling cores? It is commonly known for example that it does not use efficiency cores. It runs out of resources faster than Reaper for example. I don't have issues with my setup, a pro software should be able to utilize 100% of the resources. Many soft synths show 100% resource use in Logic, while only using 5% in Reaper.

In this case I have to defend this plugin, the resource use is not high or higher than any other soft synth, but it will still stress Logic Pro as many other soft synths do. My point is that we commonly blame the plugins when in reality the daw should be blamed. I didn't know until I tried Reaper.

[Uncle E]

Several of us reported clicking and CPU issues, including non-Logic users.

[db3]

Anyone know where Thing user presets are stored on Mac?

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Acustica
Windows: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Acustica

Thanks. I see it's in the 'hidden' library on mac.
I was expecting to find files which I could manage, but only see a single NUB_TH8T x64_au.presets file. Is that correct?
NB) I've only installed AU version currently, does this mean there's a separate preset library file for VST?

[Acustica Community]

Anyone know where Thing user presets are stored on Mac?

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Acustica
Windows: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Acustica

Thanks. I see it's in the 'hidden' library on mac.
I was expecting to find files which I could manage, but only see a single NUB_TH8T x64_au.presets file. Is that correct?
NB) I've only installed AU version currently, does this mean there's a separate preset library file for VST?

If you want a file you can share (even between different DAWs) go to the preset browser and at the top of the menu click on "Export" then you can choose the location you want the preset file to be exported.

[db3]

Anyone know where Thing user presets are stored on Mac?

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Acustica
Windows: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Acustica

Thanks. I see it's in the 'hidden' library on mac.
I was expecting to find files which I could manage, but only see a single NUB_TH8T x64_au.presets file. Is that correct?
NB) I've only installed AU version currently, does this mean there's a separate preset library file for VST?

If you want a file you can share (even between different DAWs) go to the preset browser and at the top of the menu click on "Export" then you can choose the location you want the preset file to be exported.

Ok, so you can export individual files as .acquapreset files. Might have been better if all non-factory files existed in this file format by default rather than in some master file. Easier to manage, backup, and share banks — like most other synths.

I've just installed the VST3 version...and I have no user presets as they are stored in the AU master file. Even more reason to have a common folder for user banks.

[twal]

Sounds dam* good tho'.