TritoneDigital.. hydratone, Voxengo and Kjaerhus, Fear it!

[bmanic]

bmaniac,
Funny, I would describe the sound as 'warm'.
Whatsoever, it sounds great.

I agree that it sounds great indeed but compared to Voxengo's HarmoniEQ it definately isn't "warm". I'd describe it rather as "transparent". It sounds very different to any of the plugin EQs I've ever tried. It has a very 'hardware' sound to it IMO. Actually the perfect pair would be HarmoniEQ + Hydratone as they have so different character!

Cheers!
bManic

[pough]

Ah... 'warm' and 'transparent'. Two words without meaning, whispered and shouted like our lives depend upon them. I think that HarmoniQ sounds 'ovoid', but Hydratone sounds 'wet'. And the Kjaerhus stuff definitely sounds 'vaginal'.

[bmanic]

Actually, they most definately DO have meaning. At least 'transparent'. Go demo the Weiss EQ and you'll know what that means. As for warm, once it became a "hip magic" word it's meaning got blurred. Also, with the digital revolution the word 'cold' got a negative stain on it even though it's not always bad.. at all! But just like colours, how do you describe warm/cold (red/blue) colours to a blind person?

Cheers!
bManic

[putte]

for the first time ever i´m euphoric about an EQ .. hurrayhajha!

wow, what a plug. i already loved their valvetone, and now this. first i thought "okay, another EQ", but now i´m just impressed.
transparent and very warm, thats it for my ears.
at the moment i´m comparing to the pultec from my uad-1 .. and hydratone wins. (gonna get pultec pro early next week, and will compare again).

top stuff tritone! thanks a lot .. .. ordered my copy

putte

[electro]

At what samplerates are we comparing Hydratone and Pultec Pro?

[brianbrian]

Pultec and PultecPro always upsample to 192Khz. I like the sound of Hydratone more on certain applications, and this is at 44.1Khz.

[electro]

can Hydratone do 192Khz?

[defjamm]

can Hydratone do 192Khz?

no but it sounds better at 44.1Khz than the rest at 192khz.

[bmanic]

Hydratone can do 96khz and sounds even better then. Try the high-shelf at 96khz, it's gotta be the smoothest shelf ever in a plugin.

Cheers!
bManic

[brianbrian]

Hydratone can do 96khz and sounds even better then. Try the high-shelf at 96khz, it's gotta be the smoothest shelf ever in a plugin.

Cheers!
bManic

Haha, wait until you hear the Millenia mode in Angeltone!

[Kingston]

Hydratone can do 96khz and sounds even better then. Try the high-shelf at 96khz, it's gotta be the smoothest shelf ever in a plugin.

aren't you forgetting something? the harmoniEQ.

it's in a whole another class when it comes to smoothness with any settings.

Hydratone falls to the category of forced, aggressive, sometimes even harsh and hard (in a bad way). Granted, it's devoid of many of the phase artifacts of a generic digital EQ. That still doesn't make it the best thing since sliced bread. IMO harmoniEQ gets closer to that.

The best way to describe Hydratone is 'midclass parametric hardware mixing desk EQ'. Yes, it sounds like some hardware, but the latency and the horrible CPU usage (for what it does) don't make it very practical.

[putte]

The best way to describe Hydratone is 'midclass parametric hardware mixing desk EQ'. Yes, it sounds like some hardware, but the latency and the horrible CPU usage (for what it does) don't make it very practical.

cant second that. on my g5 2,0 latency isnt a problem, and cpu hunger isnt low but though not THAT much. i just love it ..

putte

[brianbrian]

I love HarmoniEQ too, but Hydratone only has 32 samples of latency (under 1ms @ 44.1Khz), and uses less CPU. This is without PC optimization too, which I hear they are working on. HarmoniEQ seems to have a tiny latency due to its upsampling. Also, 2 more color modes are planned for Hydra, so we have really only heard half of its capabilities. The phase control it has is incredible too, you can often use it in place of certain EQ adjustments, or really enhance the trebel in a nice way. Then there's the Fire knob, with a bunch of extra colors coming, so it is quite a bit more versatile.

I would not call it "midclass". It is a very good EQ to use alongside HarmoniEQ. From the samples I have heard, Angeltone seems like the king of HF boosts though. You might like it more than Hydratone or HarmoniEQ if smooth sheen is what you're after.

[electro]

Hydratone can do 96khz and sounds even better then. Try the high-shelf at 96khz, it's gotta be the smoothest shelf ever in a plugin.

aren't you forgetting something? the harmoniEQ.

it's in a whole another class when it comes to smoothness with any settings.

Hydratone falls to the category of forced, aggressive, sometimes even harsh and hard (in a bad way). Granted, it's devoid of many of the phase artifacts of a generic digital EQ. That still doesn't make it the best thing since sliced bread. IMO harmoniEQ gets closer to that.

The best way to describe Hydratone is 'midclass parametric hardware mixing desk EQ'. Yes, it sounds like some hardware, but the latency and the horrible CPU usage (for what it does) don't make it very practical.

CPU shouldn't really be an issue now because there is freeze. Focus primarily on the soundquality of the plugs.

[Kingston]

The reason I said midclass is because it sounds like midclass hardware (ie better than mackie mixer channel EQ). It's, of course, the first plugin to do this. It's just not good enough as there's better sounding digital EQs around, just not many (gliss and harmoniEQ).

To my ears when testing midclass hardware vs. harmoniEQ(although they're not directly comparable soundwise), and I'll take harmoniEQ anyday.

That still puts hydratone to top3 in my chart.

If they can fix the awful beta UI(lag) and make it more CPU efficient it might even work as a track EQ, which is what it's trying to be