KVR Audio

e@rs · Post by **e@rs** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 8:38 am

Fleer wrote:Wow, talking ‘bout artist and engineer endorsement. Way to go, Mr. Costello!

Not sure I get what you mean... Sean sent free copies to all those guys, and bought their praise with like $50-100?

Acknowledgement · Post by **Acknowledgement** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:17 am

+ https://www.gearslutz.com/board/showpos ... 1b6f3af9f6

But I guess those reverbs aren't stellar...

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:41 am

e@rs wrote:^Got it. I noticed that CM doesn't have such a great reputation around here, but never understood why (probably by association, because its sister magazine FM made it on Urs' black list?). It actually doesn't matter much to me, as I enjoy reading it, and always take the reviews (not only in CM, everywhere) with a grain of salt anyway.

There are reasons for that and Urs, is not one of them. When you grow up a little more and know a little more, you'll understand why. CM is for real magazines as Facebook is for newspapers.

Didn't you ever found strange those "analysis" articles with two pages (of which half of the space is taken by pictures) and invariably end up with a 10/10?

Halonmusic · Post by **Halonmusic** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:59 pm

Signaldust Abstract Chamber:

http://www.signaldust.com/p-abstractchamber.html

...and Tila2:

http://www.signaldust.com/p-tila2.html

e@rs · Post by **e@rs** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 4:01 pm

fmr wrote:
e@rs wrote:^Got it. I noticed that CM doesn't have such a great reputation around here, but never understood why (probably by association, because its sister magazine FM made it on Urs' black list?). It actually doesn't matter much to me, as I enjoy reading it, and always take the reviews (not only in CM, everywhere) with a grain of salt anyway.
There are reasons for that and Urs, is not one of them. When you grow up a little more and know a little more, you'll understand why. CM is for real magazines as Facebook is for newspapers.

If you say so... Please, a few real magazines recommendations?

fmr wrote:Didn't you ever found strange those "analysis" articles with two pages (of which half of the space is taken by pictures) and invariably end up with a 10/10?

Actually I didn't. In the latest issue of CM there are 2 products with a 10/10 rating, one on a page review. There are 7 products that get 9/10, 11 products with 8/10 and 2 rated 7/10. I included the sample packs too.

martinjuenke · Post by **martinjuenke** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 5:00 pm

e@rs wrote:
fmr wrote:
e@rs wrote:^Got it. I noticed that CM doesn't have such a great reputation around here, but never understood why (probably by association, because its sister magazine FM made it on Urs' black list?). It actually doesn't matter much to me, as I enjoy reading it, and always take the reviews (not only in CM, everywhere) with a grain of salt anyway.
There are reasons for that and Urs, is not one of them. When you grow up a little more and know a little more, you'll understand why. CM is for real magazines as Facebook is for newspapers.
If you say so... Please, a few real magazines recommendations?

fmr wrote:Didn't you ever found strange those "analysis" articles with two pages (of which half of the space is taken by pictures) and invariably end up with a 10/10?
Actually I didn't. In the latest issue of CM there are 2 products with a 10/10 rating, one on a page review. There are 7 products that get 9/10, 11 products with 8/10 and 2 rated 7/10. I included the sample packs too.

The reviews here on KVR are obviously more positive...
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... of+reviews

onerob · Post by **onerob** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 6:10 pm

Film score composer Junkie XL is a big fan of Valhalla Room.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 6:21 pm

Waves OneKnob Wetter

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 7:00 pm

e@rs wrote: Actually I didn't. In the latest issue of CM there are 2 products with a 10/10 rating, one on a page review. There are 7 products that get 9/10, 11 products with 8/10 and 2 rated 7/10. I included the sample packs too.

To get closer to a true rating on almost any ten point scale, subtract five from the rating and then multiply by two. So a seven is actually (7-5)*2=4. A ten is still a ten and anything less than five is dog shit that basically doesn't exist. Ten point scales are almost always left skewed.

e@rs · Post by **e@rs** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:35 am

^How did you come up with that formula? I sincerely find it funny...

I NEVER buy blindly just based on reviews, so that doesn't help me much, but thanx anyway. I always demo the software (no demo, no buy). And whenever possible, the hardware.

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:46 am

ghettosynth wrote:
e@rs wrote: Actually I didn't. In the latest issue of CM there are 2 products with a 10/10 rating, one on a page review. There are 7 products that get 9/10, 11 products with 8/10 and 2 rated 7/10. I included the sample packs too.
To get closer to a true rating on almost any ten point scale, subtract five from the rating and then multiply by two. So a seven is actually (7-5)*2=4. A ten is still a ten and anything less than five is dog shit that basically doesn't exist. Ten point scales are almost always left skewed.

It depends on what you mean by a "true rating". If you work on the basis that the scale is for the whole spectrum of products, then a one- or two-star review is basically "does not work, do not walk, run away from this as fast as you can". Up to five, you're getting stuff that's flawed but you can get something out of it. Beyond five, it's worth looking at but here are the problems.

Maybe there's a problem with the idea of "stars" implying quality. If mags called them "points" maybe the scale would seem more appropriate. But I remember the editor of Sound on Sound making the point when asked why reviews are so often positive that they don't normally bother doing reviews of complete stinkers.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:48 am

e@rs wrote:^How did you come up with that formula? I sincerely find it funny...

I made it up, but, how is just a simple application of shift and rescale. With ten point scales the responses are often skewed and so the lower part of the scale is less used. You can get a more uniform distribution over the scale but just lopping off the bottom half and rescaling the result.

But here you go, links directly to pdf (academic paper):
https://bit.ly/2NkHnE9

The essence:

The results show that the eleven point scale produces data that is
essentially the same as that produced by the five point scale in terms of mean, after allowing for the five point scale to be re-scaled for comparability

There were some other differences that were significant (variance), but essentially, people just move the scores into the upper half when the scale is too wide.

The differences aren't surprising to me. I suspect that there is some connection to bimodality, that is, people who are pissed off jump to the bottom half of the scale regardless of the scale. I also suspect that people connect a 10 point scale to their own academic experience, i.e., 7 is a C, 8 is a B, 9+ is an A, roughly speaking. So, in essence, everything below a five or six is an F and people don't like Fs.

I NEVER buy blindly just based on reviews, so that doesn't help me much, but thanx anyway. I always demo the software (no demo, no buy). And whenever possible, the hardware.

Nor I, but, TBH, CM reviews are mostly shit. They're often simply wrong or so simplistic as to be useless. I see them as a glorified advertisement. That said, I haven't purchased a copy in a LONG time. I think the last time there was something free that I wanted, perhaps the focusrite bundle.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:53 am

Gamma-UT wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:
e@rs wrote: Actually I didn't. In the latest issue of CM there are 2 products with a 10/10 rating, one on a page review. There are 7 products that get 9/10, 11 products with 8/10 and 2 rated 7/10. I included the sample packs too.
To get closer to a true rating on almost any ten point scale, subtract five from the rating and then multiply by two. So a seven is actually (7-5)*2=4. A ten is still a ten and anything less than five is dog shit that basically doesn't exist. Ten point scales are almost always left skewed.
It depends on what you mean by a "true rating". If you work on the basis that the scale is for the whole spectrum of products, then a one- or two-star review is basically "does not work, do not walk, run away from this as fast as you can". Up to five, you're getting stuff that's flawed but you can get something out of it. Beyond five, it's worth looking at but here are the problems.

But that doesn't really happen.

Maybe there's a problem with the idea of "stars" implying quality. If mags called them "points" maybe the scale would seem more appropriate. But I remember the editor of Sound on Sound making the point when asked why reviews are so often positive that they don't normally bother doing reviews of complete stinkers.

Fair enough, but if CM has given anything a five or lower I can't remember it. I take your point that "true rating" is a flawed descriptor, but scales that are too wide aren't generally giving significantly more useful information. Keep in mind that my comment was at least 50% a dig at CM and not meant to be taken as serious content.

IOW, I think that a three of five point scale will be more useful and so by "true rating" I mean the scale that puts the dud products at one star whether out of three or five.

e@rs · Post by **e@rs** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:16 am

RP's RAW synth got a 5 in CM...

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:17 am

e@rs wrote:RP's RAW synth got a 5 in CM...

So that would be a zero, perfect. Anything lower?

A Good All-Round Reverb Plug-in