UAD digital plugins vs KVR developers brightest minds!

[drinelli]

LiteOn Wrote:

Hi drinelli,

I was refering to my typo "RoomVerb" instead of "RealVerb". And, of course, DreamVerb is missing from the ProjectPak, not the StudioPak.

LiteOn

Ok, sorry I did not understood you at first.

[Uncle E]

The Roland CE-1 is easily the best chorus available for that warm, analog, Juno-style sound.

[fgimian]

cool topic guys, just been reading it at work (great way to pass the time lol). Ages ago, I had heard the Bomb Factory plugins which are apparently not as good as the UAD-1 so I can only imagine how great it is!!

I recently purchased Cubase SL3 and was obviously looking to buy some great plugins. Of course, the UAD-1 was the first that came to mind. The main thing that worries me is that I keep everything I record. I still have stuff from many years back I did in studios. What happens when the UAD-1 card becomes obselete ? Support will probly continue for 1 - 2 years after that if your lucky. But, when Microsoft changes OS architectures again, there's a very big possibility that your UAD-1 won't work anymore. So what do you do ? Remix all your projects with the new UAD-1 ? I just would hate to be in this situation.

So the choice came down to Voxengo, Waves, Kjaerhus & Sonalksis. I absolutely love the Sonalksis stuff but not the price tag. I think that Waves are wondeerful (regardless of what everyone else says ) but then you have an additional dongle ... no thanks :S seeing as dongles may also not be supported in the long run if a new type of dongle is released. Kjaerhus & Voxengo complement each other very well I find. Aleksey takes a futuristic approach while Kjaerhus takes an analogue approach. In the long term, I think I have more chance of moving my old projects to new OSs with native plugins by these developers (as long as they continue doing what they do).

Having begun my production around 10 years ago in a digital environment, I must say that I have become rather accustomed to the fact that my projects will be useable down the line. Until today, 90 % of my work opens fine under WinXp using previous versions of software or newer versions of software. Will this also be the case in 10 years if I buy a UAD-1 ? That's the sorta thing I'm thinking about.

Besides, with companies like Sonalksis, I think that native plugins have definitely got somre serious analogue emulations. Kjaerhus have produced awesome emulations of modualtors and Voxengo's Pristine Space will sound like any Reverb on the planet (including the wonderful Plate verb).

I do appreciate the sexier GUIs on the UAD-1 though, a lot more inspiring ... :')

Just my 2 cents, thanks for reading my rant lol

Cheers
Fots

[Uncle E]

Besides, with companies like Sonalksis, I think that native plugins have definitely got somre serious analogue emulations.

The Sonalksis is definitely the best native compressor I've heard. It's a totally different vibe, though, because the SSL bus compressor is relatively clean & transparent compared to the sound of overdriven tubes & transformers that you get with the 1176, LA2A, & Fairchild that the UAD-1 plugs emulate. Distortion is the area where native plug-ins consistently fall flat, they just never sound smooth, fat, or warm in the way that real analog can. When I did a head-to-head with the Sonalksis & a real Alan Smart/SSL compressor, the Sonalksis held its own well but still lacked the warmth, stickiness, & sponginess of the real thing.

But, when Microsoft changes OS architectures again, there's a very big possibility that your UAD-1 won't work anymore.

What leads you to believe this? As said before, my Pulsar card has done well for me since 1998, starting in Win 98 & moving on through ME, 2000, & XP. The Korg & Lexicon dsp cards were NOT future-proof but all that tells you is to watch out for computer products from Korg & Lexicon, not to avoid DSP cards altogether. btw, now that both companies have native plug-ins, who's to say they don't fall flat there, too?

[kylen]

When I did a head-to-head with the Sonalksis & a real Alan Smart/SSL compressor, the Sonalksis held its own well but still lacked the warmth, stickiness, & sponginess of the real thing.

Uncle E - have you ever heard a native plugin that passes this test for you? That is the "warmth, stickiness, & sponginess" test? Thanx & have a vari-mu day! - Kyle

[cptgone]

Could be like:
Double click a frozen track to edit. (midi ect.)
(Track gets instantly unfrozen)

Close the editor, track freezes again, automatically.


I sugested this to Steinberg more than 4 years ago...

You can tell 'm again in their survey:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=103342

[Uncle E]

Uncle E - have you ever heard a native plugin that passes this test for you? That is the "warmth, stickiness, & sponginess" test? Thanx & have a vari-mu day! - Kyle

Even though the Sonalksis falls flat from the original in this regard, it still has it more than most native plug-ins. The other good one is Voxengo's TapeBus in the Analogflux Suite. Vari-MU = UAD-1 Fairchild.

[Silent Mind 2005]

I remember talking about warm sound, many years ago.
I've become quite a purist though.
Now I'm talking about warm dither, thats how much distortion I allow into my sound.

I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on the dynamics of this track though. (sometimes)

Ofcourse the dynamics processor there uses precision digital algorithms, and not analog imprecision. (Which is one of the main contributing factors to many psychoacoustics of analog, including warmth.)

[Uncle E]

Is it possible for you to put it somewhere we can download from without having to register on Acid Planet?

[Silent Mind 2005]

Try this link.

http://www.ihsan-dsp.com/temp/Afrodite% ... metimes%20[Blue%20Days%20Softcore%20Remix].mp3

[joachime]

I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on the dynamics of this track though. (sometimes)

There is none!

[omo]

There is none!

[bmanic]

Uncle E - have you ever heard a native plugin that passes this test for you? That is the "warmth, stickiness, & sponginess" test? Thanx & have a vari-mu day! - Kyle

Even though the Sonalksis falls flat from the original in this regard, it still has it more than most native plug-ins. The other good one is Voxengo's TapeBus in the Analogflux Suite. Vari-MU = UAD-1 Fairchild.

One thing I do not understand. Why do you think the Sonalksis tries to model SSL compression? IMHO it doesn't sound anything like the SSL 4000 (E) series master bus compressor that I've fooled around with. And AFAIK sonalksis just made their own compressor, inspired by the sound of good compression. They didn't really model it on anything.

EDIT: and speaking of that "warmth and stickiness..", here are some examples of the Sonalksis Compressor, one is x4 oversampled, just to show what it does to native compressors.

Sonalksis A (2mb .wav file)

Sonalksis B (2mb .wav file)

Here's an interesting thread with lots of compressor examples (there are some from joachime made with the UAD-1, we are still lacking the fairchild ones though!)

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... c&start=30

Cheers!
bManic

[Guitarjeff]

I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on the dynamics of this track though. (sometimes)

No dynamics to speak of and Lots of distortion. Painful in a word.

I'm hoping this is maybe your example of how to MISUSE a compressor?

[Uncle E]

IMHO it doesn't sound anything like the SSL 4000 (E) series master bus compressor that I've fooled around with.

We were able to get it to sound pretty close to the Alan Smart C1. As said, the Sonalksis couldn't match the color & "stickiness", but then the C1 is a more colorful compressor than the C2 or the SSL rack unit. Come to think of it, isn't the C1 basically the compressor from the E?