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

[AdvancedFollower]

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.

Many plugins end up sounding quite different when rendered offline so it's an expected step IMO to double check that the rendered version sounds the way you expect it to. Sometimes I render the entire project multiple times because they sound slightly different each take and certain transients or phase interactions are just a tiny bit different each time.

You can seamlessly freeze and unfreeze instrument tracks in most DAWs, so you can quite easily work in the highest quality mode and freeze tracks as you go rather than changing the quality setting of many instances as a last step. However I think I kind of subconsciously expect offline render to always use the highest quality setting, so having one plugin that doesn't do this is an extra thing I have to remember while working.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I've been listening to youtube demos and I must say I'm very impressed. Whatever technology they use and however samples are used, I don't really care, as long as it can do what the original did, such as pwm, sync and cross mod. And those seem to sound quite good here. The addition of the sub seems extremely useful for a jupiter, and some different filter models is welcome as well!

I've never been completely happy with any of the existing Roland Jupiter-8 emulations. They all are alright in different ways, but roland cloud, arturia and Tal, even Diva, just don't fully do it for me as a Jupiter-8. Some too clean, some lacking punch, some lacking the roland shine. This one seems to sound like what I'd want out of a jupiter. But we'll see how the demo goes. Installing now. I do wonder whether the sound examples I've beeb hearing on youtube have been using the mega mode or regular mode.

[plexuss]

Just a warning to those considering being Acustic customers for the first time. There are a lot of potential points of frustration and disappoinment. You are well to read through AA threads and decide if its something you want to be involved with. One thing I'd say is, if an AA product has issues you dont like, you may have to live with them for the life of the product. Good luck!

[dionenoid]

There sure are a lot of points of frustration and dissappointment with this synth.

Initially i was impressed with the sound, but after some hours of testing i ran into more and more issues. It's simply not reliable, lacks a lot of basic functionality, and overall feels unfinished.

[Echoes in the Attic]

There sure are a lot of points of frustration and dissappointment with this synth.

Initially i was impressed with the sound, but after some hours of testing i ran into more and more issues. It's simply not reliable, lacks a lot of basic functionality, and overall feels unfinished.

Yeah a few observations after testing:
-Crackles and spikes aren't great, however I've seen that the devs say they are addressing this soon, so looking forward to that.
-The control values exposed to the host aren't very useful. Most things are a range of 0 to 1. This is not how you do it. When you automate a waveform parameter that has 4 settings (se.g. sine/square/triangle/noise), you don't expect to see 0, 0.3333. 0.666 and 1. Use the actual words so we know what we are automating. If the fine tune goes from -10 to +10, use those values, not 0 to 1! I cant' believe any dev still does this and thinks it's ok. This isn't just about seeng the real value of the parameter when you are writing automation (although that's reason enough), most hardware also uses these value ranges, such as Ableton Push, Ni Maschine and Komplete Kontrol, Novation, Nektar etc.
-The sensitivity of the controls are inconsistent for trackpad scrolling. The upper slider type controls and the knobs aren't bad, but the jupiter hardware style sliders are very sensitive to trackpad scrolling. Would be good to calibrate for using on a laptop.

I'd need to see the first two fixed before paying, but if those were fixed I'd buy at the intro plus black Friday price. I would not pay full price.

[trusampler]

Anyone have their Sustain pedal working with this yet ? I’ve tried several different pedals, different synths, including the Komplete Kontrol mk3 with this, and the sustain pedals not working.
Any ideas, they say they fixed the sustain to work with cc64 , but it’s not working.

Anyone figured this out yet ?

Nevermind, got it working

[dionenoid]

There sure are a lot of points of frustration and dissappointment with this synth.

Initially i was impressed with the sound, but after some hours of testing i ran into more and more issues. It's simply not reliable, lacks a lot of basic functionality, and overall feels unfinished.

Yeah a few observations after testing:
-Crackles and spikes aren't great, however I've seen that the devs say they are addressing this soon, so looking forward to that.
-The control values exposed to the host aren't very useful. Most things are a range of 0 to 1. This is not how you do it. When you automate a waveform parameter that has 4 settings (se.g. sine/square/triangle/noise), you don't expect to see 0, 0.3333. 0.666 and 1. Use the actual words so we know what we are automating. If the fine tune goes from -10 to +10, use those values, not 0 to 1! I cant' believe any dev still does this and thinks it's ok. This isn't just about seeng the real value of the parameter when you are writing automation (although that's reason enough), most hardware also uses these value ranges, such as Ableton Push, Ni Maschine and Komplete Kontrol, Novation, Nektar etc.
-The sensitivity of the controls are inconsistent for trackpad scrolling. The upper slider type controls and the knobs aren't bad, but the jupiter hardware style sliders are very sensitive to trackpad scrolling. Would be good to calibrate for using on a laptop.

I'd need to see the first two fixed before paying, but if those were fixed I'd buy at the intro plus black Friday price. I would not pay full price.

Yeah i reported the parameter issue on GS. The dev didn't even understand what i was talking about. So i explained what the problem was in more detail, even linked to the VST3 SDK pages where it's explained for devs how to fix it (using 1 or 2 lines of code). But still silence.

Fixing the parameter issue would also fix Midi program change issues, as well as other Midi CC issues which are being reported all the time. It only shows how bad AA is at coding a synth.

The parameter issues have been reported many times before btw, as it's a ongoing issue with all their products. Still no fix after many years, and AA being the only one who still has these issues.

The crackles are due to cpu issues which are supposed to be fixed. I don't have high hopes for that tho.

The clicky behaviour is still not fixed, and that seems to be completely cpu unrelated. That one alone is reason enough for me to not buy this synth. Weird however, is that ppl reported this including sound examples, yet some fanbois and "beta-testers" don't even hear those clicks in the audio examples

The worst thing however (and i don't understand how that went through beta) is that offline rendering doesn't work ; automation and Midi control is not rendered correctly, unless you use real-time rendering/export. This means that anything you do can sound different after rendering, which is ofcourse a complete no-go.

There's many more issues btw. If i had more trust in the dev i would probably report them. But unfortunately my years long experience with AA, and the constant denial of issues by the dev, makes me simply not care. This post is already way too much attention for this trainwreck....

[kmonkey]

So I just noticed that the plugin does not report parameter changes to a host when you change preset

Another jewel by Acustica

On the other side, even though I despise Acustia's handling of things, in my testing this instrument is marginally better sounding than pretty much all of my synth plugins and I do have a lot of them.

Even without FX turned off, this thing is special. I realize this is their first adventure in the instrument world. The sound potential is huge. If they get their sense together and actually fix most of the issues reported - they will have a winner now and onward.

A TB 303 from acustica

[Echoes in the Attic]

There sure are a lot of points of frustration and dissappointment with this synth.

Initially i was impressed with the sound, but after some hours of testing i ran into more and more issues. It's simply not reliable, lacks a lot of basic functionality, and overall feels unfinished.

Yeah a few observations after testing:
-Crackles and spikes aren't great, however I've seen that the devs say they are addressing this soon, so looking forward to that.
-The control values exposed to the host aren't very useful. Most things are a range of 0 to 1. This is not how you do it. When you automate a waveform parameter that has 4 settings (se.g. sine/square/triangle/noise), you don't expect to see 0, 0.3333. 0.666 and 1. Use the actual words so we know what we are automating. If the fine tune goes from -10 to +10, use those values, not 0 to 1! I cant' believe any dev still does this and thinks it's ok. This isn't just about seeng the real value of the parameter when you are writing automation (although that's reason enough), most hardware also uses these value ranges, such as Ableton Push, Ni Maschine and Komplete Kontrol, Novation, Nektar etc.
-The sensitivity of the controls are inconsistent for trackpad scrolling. The upper slider type controls and the knobs aren't bad, but the jupiter hardware style sliders are very sensitive to trackpad scrolling. Would be good to calibrate for using on a laptop.

I'd need to see the first two fixed before paying, but if those were fixed I'd buy at the intro plus black Friday price. I would not pay full price.

Yeah i reported the parameter issue on GS. The dev didn't even understand what i was talking about. So i explained what the problem was in more detail, even linked to the VST3 SDK pages where it's explained for devs how to fix it (using 1 or 2 lines of code). But still silence.

Fixing the parameter issue would also fix Midi program change issues, as well as other Midi CC issues which are being reported all the time. It only shows how bad AA is at coding a synth.

The parameter issues have been reported many times before btw, as it's a ongoing issue with all their products. Still no fix after many years, and AA being the only one who still has these issues.

The crackles are due to cpu issues which are supposed to be fixed. I don't have high hopes for that tho.

The clicky behaviour is still not fixed, and that seems to be completely cpu unrelated. That one alone is reason enough for me to not buy this synth. Weird however, is that ppl reported this including sound examples, yet some fanbois and "beta-testers" don't even hear those clicks in the audio examples

The worst thing however (and i don't understand how that went through beta) is that offline rendering doesn't work ; automation and Midi control is not rendered correctly, unless you use real-time rendering/export. This means that anything you do can sound different after rendering, which is ofcourse a complete no-go.

There's many more issues btw. If i had more trust in the dev i would probably report them. But unfortunately my years long experience with AA, and the constant denial of issues by the dev, makes me simply not care. This post is already way too much attention for this trainwreck....

I'd be very worried if they couldn't figure out true reported parameter ranges. Definite no-go. But I'll give them a chance if they can try to address that and crackles during the black friday sale period. Otherwise missed sale.

[bmanic]

If they get their sense together and actually fix most of the issues reported - they will have a winner now and onward.

.. a sentenced not said ever since they started as a company almost 20 years ago.

I'm sure they'll get their house in order soon! There's still hope!

[kmonkey]

I'd be very worried if they couldn't figure out true reported parameter ranges. Definite no-go. But I'll give them a chance if they can try to address that and crackles during the black friday sale period. Otherwise missed sale.

FYI I am unsure if this is related but they improved parameters based on user feedback. Try to update the demo if you haven't. I am unsure if is this related or not but I have seen people on Gearspace reporting improvement in the parameters area.

I am worried that their synth not reporting parameters change to the host on preset change.

I have my hate relationship with them but I suggest you trial this. Some quirks here and there but it's more than a decent-sounding synth.

[kmonkey]

.. a sentenced not said ever since they started as a company almost 20 years ago.
I'm sure they'll get their house in order soon! There's still hope!

Hehe, you never know. That little stubborn zaphod sometimes surprise everyone haha

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'd be very worried if they couldn't figure out true reported parameter ranges. Definite no-go. But I'll give them a chance if they can try to address that and crackles during the black friday sale period. Otherwise missed sale.

FYI I am unsure if this is related but they improved parameters based on user feedback. Try to update the demo if you haven't. I am unsure if is this related or not but I have seen people on Gearspace reporting improvement in the parameters area.

I am worried that their synth not reporting parameters change to the host on preset change.

I have my hate relationship with them but I suggest you trial this. Some quirks here and there but it's more than a decent-sounding synth.

I just installed it yesterday afternoon. You mean they updated the demo today?

[db3]

I just installed it yesterday afternoon. You mean they updated the demo today?

Yes, and they are planning another tomorrow. I love how this sounds but it is very much a beta release.

[Acustica Community]

As stated in the main product announcement, this procedure applies to all our releases. For the first four weeks, the product will be in an introductory phase. During this time, updates and improvements may be offered through Aquarius Desktop.