ALA-101 Hybridization (copy protection updated!)

[bmanic]

UPDATE:

As of version 1.3.0 of the plugin, the copy protection has now an additional offline challenge and response system. I can confirm that this indeed works. It now makes it possible to use the plugin on an offline computer and makes it possible to freeze a system in place in case the developer decides to call it quits. Thus I can now once again cautiously recommend the plugin.


OLD POST BELOW:

https://nk-productions.net/products/ALA ... idization/

Just a heads-up as this hasn't been mentioned here as far as I know. I'm in no way affiliated with the developer (not even beta testing). I found the demo annoying (noise burst) but the audio quality of the subtle nuances of "mojo" was astoundingly good.. so I bought it.

Note: This plugin will absolutely thoroughly eat your CPU for breakfast. At the highest possible settings, I can NOT run even a single instance on my ageing Mac M1 Mini. However, those settings aren't even meant to be run realtime. The default settings are good enough for experimentation and great mojo for mixing purposes.. and you can always test the extreme settings and render offline (though the sound does change a bit).

Still, even with it's quirks, in my opinion this is definitely worth a test.. if you can get past the demo versions noise burst. I really hope the developer ditches the noise burst demo as it's stupid as f**k. I hate those kinds of demos.

[billinder33]

the audio quality of the subtle nuances of "mojo" was astoundingly good.. so I bought it.

I'm sure you have dozens (hundreds?) of character plugins at this point. What makes this one special? Why would someone grab it over something like Sitral, VSS-2, True Iron, Michealangelo or any number of other 'analogizers'?

Also, could you dig a little deeper into the CPU usage? How bad is it at normal settings against the M1? Would you have concerns about running multiple instances of these at the track-level? Or would you keep it more as a buss-level processor where you'd just run an instance or two?

This looks very similar to a plugin concept I was kicking around in my head. But envisioned something like this being priced at around $30. Not $70 intro/$130 full. Yikes!!

I'd demo myself, but you make the demo experience sound so appealing... lol.

[Uncle E]

"ageing Mac M1"

[bmanic]

the audio quality of the subtle nuances of "mojo" was astoundingly good.. so I bought it.

I'm sure you have dozens (hundreds?) of character plugins at this point. What makes this one special? Why would someone grab it over something like Sitral, VSS-2, True Iron, Michealangelo or any number of other 'analogizers'?

Also, could you dig a little deeper into the CPU usage? How bad is it at normal settings against the M1? Would you have concerns about running multiple instances of these at the track-level? Or would you keep it more as a buss-level processor where you'd just run an instance or two?

This looks very similar to a plugin concept I was kicking around in my head. But envisioned something like this being priced at around $30. Not $70 intro/$130 full. Yikes!!

I'd demo myself, but you make the demo experience sound so appealing... lol.

I can't explain it. It just sounds good, that's about as much as I can say. Totally subjective of course.

When rendering things at the maximum fidelity + 2x oversampling, it has an uncanny way of making things sound more "real" in a strange way. It's also a very effective "make things dense", eating peaks like it's nothing (and I don't mean literally, overall peak energy stays about the same but the psychoacustic perception is that of softened peaks/transients).

.. but this is definitely an acquired taste and most definitely not a "must have" plugin. It's best when it's used subtly and when I mean subtly, I really do mean 90% of users won't even hear it working nor would they care.. but those that do hear it will know instantly what I'm talking about.

I'll try to create a few audio examples in a day or two.

"ageing Mac M1"

.. well it IS more than 5 years old by now! I'm just waiting for the M5 pro Mac Mini/Studio to hit the market, then it's time to upgrade for me. Those new M5 single core numbers look absolutely bonkers!

[Uncle E]

My M2 Pro trade-in only gets me ¼ the way to an M5 Pro, so I'm stuck.

[billinder33]

I can't explain it. It just sounds good, that's about as much as I can say. Totally subjective of course.

When rendering things at the maximum fidelity + 2x oversampling, it has an uncanny way of making things sound more "real" in a strange way. It's also a very effective "make things dense", eating peaks like it's nothing (and I don't mean literally, overall peak energy stays about the same but the psychoacustic perception is that of softened peaks/transients).

.. but this is definitely an acquired taste and most definitely not a "must have" plugin. It's best when it's used subtly and when I mean subtly, I really do mean 90% of users won't even hear it working nor would they care.. but those that do hear it will know instantly what I'm talking about.

I'll try to create a few audio examples in a day or two.

Decided to demo it this morning, mostly because I think we have have similar tastes in character plugins.

I agree this one sounds very good. Also very, very subtle. I tried it on a vocal (M/S mode) that has some excessive sibilance, the kind of track that would benefit from being run through a hardware unit with a heavy transformer. Very useful in this context. Again, subtle. Pretty sure your average listener wouldn't be able to identify it in an A/B, but I certainly can.

Then I put it on the master buss (L/R mode), and found it to be quite a bit less obvious. Which I was surprised given that I didn't reduce the input gain and the manual states that more input will increase the compressing aspects up of the effect. Maybe it makes sense in relation to your comment about the ALA eating peaks because there are less dramatic peaks to eat on a 2-buss. But I still liked it there. Maybe a 1% improvement over bypass? More subtle even than Buzz Cut here.

I'm running on a Mac M5 right now, and it's hitting 8-13% CPU at Pro/2x, up to 24% at Pro/4x, depending on the track.

Not sure what the voodoo magic is behind this, but it sounds like a HF slew rate limiter. However, I shot it out against Darkplace Sloth (clipper off), which is my current go-to for this kind of thing. I could get close but it didn't quite have the 'smeariness' and 'centering' feel of the ALA. So I definitely like this plugin and would use it. But really struggling with the price.... if this was from one of my go-to developers like TB-Pro Audio or Tone Projects, I'd just grumble and pay up because I know the developer and binary downloads won't just disappear one day. But $70 for an extremely subtle plugin from a rando developer... tough pill to swallow, but I'll sleep on it for a minute before likely caving.

[bmanic]

You can still cook your CPU if you want. The "Professional" algorithm is just the middle one.. there is an extreme one.

If you click the little preferences icon in the top right corner, you can tick the "Secret Mode" tickbox. This lets you run the highest possible algorithm in real time (good luck!!).

Yeah, this is definitely subtle in way that is quite deceptive. At first it will feel "Wow! This gives some kind of subtle sheen/feel".. then you'll be "Hmm.. I'm 100% sure I can duplicate this with something else".. and then finally you accept "Nope, can't..".

It's also got that very strange analogue fluctuation knob (which in my opinion sounds absolutely nothing like any kind of thing I've ever heard in the analogue domain) which is super unique. I think it's some sort of Sine LFO applied to the side signal only and it gently pans it around by subtly changing the harmonic series.. maybe? Just a guess. Still, it's absolutely unique sounding and worked wonders on some pads and things in a project.

Also I was able to abuse the transformer emulation so that I actually got a very solid "octave below" type of effect on various sounds.. something I've only been able to do in the hardware domain and usually by accident while abusing mixing desks or strange hardware boxes.

This is for sure a very strange plugin and most definitely only for a select niche of crazy enthusiasts of subtlety.

But really struggling with the price.... if this was from one of my go-to developers like TB-Pro Audio or Tone Projects, I'd just grumble and pay up because I know the developer and binary downloads won't just disappear one day. But $70 for an extremely subtle plugin from a rando developer... tough pill to swallow, but I'll sleep on it for a minute before likely caving.

100% agree with you there! I considered the exact same things. Unknown developer, no idea if the plugin will work down the road. Also the demo is annoying as heck with the noise burst. Usually I would not reward this kind of setup from a developer. I'm still unsure if I made a mistake or not. There's absolutely no way in hell I'd pay the full price for this though. Good luck selling it for over 100 euros. Not going to happen.

[bmanic]

Also a little note to everybody.

The copy protection is quite invasive with a 30 day phone-home system.

So if the developer just disappears and decides to not support the plugin any more, you'll be shit out of luck or have to sail the high seas.

I'll add this to the original post as this kind of behavior from developers should NOT be encouraged.

[pekbro]

I like the sound, but yea not for $70 and the current cp scheme.

[pekbro]

Doh, sounds like the dev is sympathetic and is going to change the CP to satisfy offline usage. Says as much over at GS.

[billinder33]

Doh, sounds like the dev is sympathetic and is going to change the CP to satisfy offline usage. Says as much over at GS.

After going through that GS thread and getting a feel for the dev, I'm in on this one. It has a sound and options I've been looking for but haven't really found anywhere else.

It's also very close to a plugin concept I recently considered trying to build for myself. Glad someone actually brought a similar idea to life!

[Uncle E]

It's also very close to a plugin concept I recently considered trying to build for myself. Glad someone actually brought a similar idea to life!

Can you bring it to life without the CPU hit?

[pekbro]

It's not doing a whole lot for me I guess, likely gonna pass on it myself. I opted for the completely unrelated Teuri from Lese.io which is a bit more my speed.

[billinder33]

It's also very close to a plugin concept I recently considered trying to build for myself. Glad someone actually brought a similar idea to life!

Can you bring it to life without the CPU hit?

lol, not sure I have enough skills to bring a one knob gain plugin to life without vibe coding it!

From the GS thread, it sounds like the underlying tech is computationally heavy, even more so in x86 chips than Apple's ARM chips.

[bmanic]

Doh, sounds like the dev is sympathetic and is going to change the CP to satisfy offline usage. Says as much over at GS.

As GS is on my shit list and I don't follow it, I'll keep an eye on the FAQ on the developers webiste. Once it's confirmed that the copy protection is changed to be less invasive or more usable for offline use, I'll edit the topic and first post again.

If any of you guys are posting regularly on GS, by all means, let the developer know there is a thread over here as well, in case he wants to keep us up to date as well.