Pulsar Modular P450/P455 MDN Plugin Bundle

[P900]

...
P900 is also economical with the truth about his company name. Pulsar Audio set up in 2017 with their 'P' logo and released an echo plugin early 2019. Pulsar Modular existed before this but when P900 bought the IP late 2019 he didn't have to go with the name and ...

Why don't you ask the other company why they chose Pulsar knowing that Pulsar Modular exists?
When we bought the IP, we also bought the brand name and the website address. We chose the name Pulsar Novation, since we are planning to move in multiple areas not limited to plugins.
Again, why not look at the other Pulsar where if you go to their website and scroll down, you will see that their registered actual name is Pulsar Digital SARL
Let's go further, when we took over P900, we were planning to do a fast turnaround and continue selling it through the website and through the distributors that were already in place. And Eric from JRR Shop can attest to that (as we contacted him to get him to know that we will pick up where Peter left and update P900). Eric even sold few copies after we took over and we generated licenses. Eric still has a link in his store
https://www.jrrshop.com/pulsar-modular-p900

Now why things did not work as we want to? Moving P900 code written in 2014 in Objective-C in xCode to JUCE was taking time then few months from setting our operation and hardly having time to know each others, Corona happened and the whole team went to their homes for over 1.5 years! With depleted cash, we decided to switch to producing audio plugins to generate enough sales to cover our monthly expenses, and return to our ultimate target which is reviving Pulsar Modular P900 soft synth.

[Rivertropic]

Hello everyone, I am here to say that I’ve never bought BALENCIAGA shoes because I don't feel the need to, however I never wrote to them to let them know that they are expensive and not to my taste, do you think I should?

[eecrumjr77]

At the risk of adding fuel to the fire:

If you're following the GS thread on this release, you'll see a recent post of an audio clip both pre- and post-P455. A second poster responded with praise about how P455 took a good song and made it "sound professional" with imaging that he's only heard in recordings from "huge studios."

Turns out the non-P455 version of the track was posted in mono. Oops.

It's that kind of bizarre hyperbole and lack of discernment (distance from obvious reality?) that strikes me as prevalent in PM threads and it's the main thing that I dislike in trying to understand what others might value in their products. Lots of static.

But we do have the demo period which has been quite helpful.

[Barbarossa]

So, as long as people "hear mojo" and "feel unique curves", there is nothing anyone can tell them.

Absolutely, I agree. It's unfortunate that some individuals are driven by financial incentives to believe in the "mojo" and "unique curves" narrative. It's disheartening to see genuinely excellent, albeit expensive, plugins being overshadowed by the allure of such snake oil marketing tactics.

According to the signature you have HS7 as "studio monitors"? Not really a surprise that you do not hear when a track sounds like a record. Let me guess: never worked in a studio, too.
Probably even a room with a RT60 of 400 ms and never had a need for hw, because you have the bestest plugins already.

I think its really funny: after - how long? 20 years? - of plugin makers' claims of hw-sound, including to this day hailed plugins on KVR-forums, which never was true, finally a plugin comes along, delivering in an astonishing way, for the very first time ever(!) for a plugin, a true hw like sound like a record, without any need to touch hw anymore, and the true experts with their HS7 and Eris "monitors" in their echo chambers lecture the world that this plugin was overpriced and not useful.

[audenso]

I think its really funny: after - how long?

Coming from someone who mixes on headphones, trying harder than ever to impress me.

[idoru97214]

Hello everyone, I am here to say that I’ve never bought BALENCIAGA shoes because I don't feel the need to, however I never wrote to them to let them know that they are expensive and not to my taste, do you think I should?

What are you waiting for?!

[Uncle E]

But we do have the demo period which has been quite helpful.

Exactly, which is what makes the vitriol seem especially strange. At its worst, marketing can only trick you into trying the demo, you have every tool you need to make an educated decision on your own after that.

[pekbro]

It's impossible to exactly model what HW does since modeling the chaotic behavior of electrons would be too computationally costly. Say what you will, it cannot be done realistically, a facsimile is all you can really hope for. Modern physics can only barely quantify that behavior as it is.

[Septic Underground]

^
This must be some sort of humour I do not understand.

First time ever for a plugin to sound like a record..okay

All this for a EQ and Compressor. The whole aura on this brand is really weird.
I dont mind if Pulsar Modular is proud of their plugins and bold enough to say it. That's okay by me.
Confidence is a good trait. Why would you release something anyways.

I did try some of em, I dont get really excited by it, but I don't really produce rock and pop muzak.
The extreme and over the top reactions make it all very unbelievable.

How excited can you really get over a freaking EQ? It is a piece of correctional software for something that was not good to begin with, why do you need eq at all EQ as an effect is cool etc, but just a correctional device, what more do you need than that it adjusts to audio on how you set it?

All this mojo stuff is just too much.

But here and on GS it is a strange thread

[audenso]

All PM threads are strange IMHO
It’s probably a cult.

[eecrumjr77]

Exactly, which is what makes the vitriol seem especially strange. At its worst, marketing can only trick you into trying the demo, you have every tool you need to make an educated decision on your own after that.

The vitriol and the hyperbole look like two sides of the same coin to me.

[SV1080]

Pointless

Why is it “pointless”. Congratulations on your 11 months old, 1st post profile on KVR Feel free to share your conflict of interest story with us.

Because most of you seem convinced it's terrible and you have not even demoed it.
So it seems like pitching water to a well...

Some of the responses of those who have demoed it seem very strange and totally at odds with my experience. 100% negative reviews just also seem odd. (So are 100% glowing ones tbf) Even lowly Cubase plugins can have redeeming features but P455 that was developed for over a year is just 100% no good?

You have somehow missed the $189 part of the equation, but it's ok, it can happen to anyone.

Considering the amount of "game changing" plug-ins and "unique EQ curve" generators being released every month, I am not quite sure anymore what game is it we (well, plug-in developers, rather) are playing nor whether we will have any available unique curves left soon.

This whole thing reminds me of a guy convincing me how he could hear a difference in sound depending on whether he was using Monster ethernet cable, or "generic" one. Never mind that I've spent 30+ years in networking, nothing I would say was stronger than belief in Monster marketing material.

So, as long as people "hear mojo" and "feel unique curves", there is nothing anyone can tell them.

So, maybe it's for the best to just let them feel special and enjoy it

For me the price if I buy will be $151, due to loyalty discount.

I will add that Fabfter Pro Q3 is 169 Euro = $183. Normal price.

So we are hardly in ridiculous territory here regards pricing.

I have ~ 200 plugins plus the Cubase ones. I don't buy new plugins every week, or even every month. I prefer to buy ones that will truly elevate things for me. So if someone is buying 2 plugins every week for $100 then of course they'll cry PM plugins are expensive won't they? Being conditioned that plugins must only be super cheap and expendable. Even UAD have sold their souls gone native and jumped on the super sales band wagon.

I still use P42 a lot and I got that when it came out. It's a few years old now I think. I still use VOS Nasty DLay freeware over all the Soundtoys delays, Valhalla delay and PM's Lunar Lander quite often as I enjoy the sound of it.
So price is not always the important thing...

The value a tool brings to you is important. Does it help you work faster? Does it help you improve your sound? Can you retire other plugins and trim down your folder? Does it make you smile and have more fun? These are more worthwhile and deeper considerations than just price.

Of course I get that it's not a cheap one but having 4 different cheaper plugins that don't quite do the same thing is not better in my opinion.
That's 4 instead of one so you'll work slower and faff more trying out the best combo of those 4 to achieve the similar but less pleasing result of the more expensive plugin. It seems counterproductive to me.

That is not just regarding Pulsar Modular but a general point.

[pekbro]

Better than HW, I find pretty farfetched, really good in comparison is more probable imo...

[bmanic]

Demoed. Nothing special. One-trick pony, narrow sweetspot, thins out most sources. Compressor useless, eq sounds nothing like API (not like my hardware at least).

Overhyped. Overpriced.

Hard pass.

Well well well.. what have we got here? Hyperbolic language! Could it be truth, or could the motivation be some much needed anti-hype?

So, as so many here have asked for "proof" in form of audio examples when there is hyperbolic language used (which I did and literally nobody commented on them or even tried to match the results with any other plugins or hardware) may we have some examples of the compressor being totally useless and how the plugin is only a one-trick pony and has a narrow sweetspot? Please also make sure you post the raw audio files so we can compare to make it fair (like I did).

I have to try it with different material (only tested on the drum-bus so far) but tbh I have to pretty much agree with dioneoid's assessment so far. I didn't manange to come up with a setting where it didn't sound much better (opening up, kind of as if I lifted a veil and removed a rigid clamp) whenever I switched the compressor off.
(Something I very rarely experience normally; these days there's imo very few really bad-sounding compressors and (at least in my use case) this is one of them.)

Disclaimer: Of course I don't consider my verdict to be universally valid. I rather assume the compressor's possible sweet-spot is so narrow and so specifc that it only applies under certain conditions which I did not meet.

That's fair enough description. The compressor, especially in Ratio A mode, has a ratio of 1.2:1. Thus I find it rather funny how sweetspot was mentioned. It's literally setup to be extremely large without really doing much. The range of the attack and release knobs are similarly large in their spread. The only area where I think it "chokes" a little is when you set the attack to around -9 or -10. It gets so fast that it can produce some smeared and slightly weird results. But from -8 to +10 it's all good. Same goes for the release control. I find it works better at longer ranges. I often find myself using Ratio A with attack close to maximum (7 to 10 range) and release set to +10 and then just dragging the threshold way down.

Ratio B is 1.8:1 ratio. It's only issue is one of usability. I had hoped the transfer function was more closely matched to Ratio A so that it would be easier to switch between them. As it is now you get huge differences in amount of GR at equal threshold positions.

One feature of the compressor that is super useful and kind of unique (at least to my limited knowledge/memory) is that the threshold is constantly auto-compensated for when you tweak the various input level controls. This means you can setup the compressor as you want it and still experiment with internal gain staging without having to refine the threshold position. This is super handy!

Overall, the plugin does have a particular sonic fingerprint to it that is sort of "soft". It can not do the modern API or SSL type of aggressive smack.. or at least I haven't been able to force it to do such things. You can sort of hear that softness in all of my audio examples. This does mean that it's definitely a character plugin that isn't suitable for all material. For instance, if I wanted a snare or kick, or a drumbus, to become more "clicky" and upfront in an edgy manner, this would definitely be the wrong tool for the job. There's a slight overall "smear" to it all. Very similar to some other plugins like LTL Silver Bullet (though you can sort of force it to be "hard" if you have the patience to go through the different serial numbers and gainstage it internally "just right") or Knif Soma EQ or the Harrison Doyle EQ plugin.. or a myriad of tape plugins (for instance Softube Tape).

I happen to be a huge fan of plugins that "soften" things so it's no wonder I gel with it so well.

Speaking of such plugins, anybody seen a Kiive Audio NFuse thread here yet? Yesterday I installed the demo for that and so far I'm really impressed! It has a similar softness when it's in the N configuration but can also do the more clicky upfront hard thing when it's in SSL mode. Very impressive plugin for sure.

[bmanic]

Better than HW, I find pretty farfetched, really good in comparison is more probable imo...

Depends on the hardware and ones own taste. Heck I'd take any basic stock compressor in a DAW (especially if it's Reaper's excellent ReaComp) over the extremely expensive and in my opinion useless Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor if I could only work with a single compressor. I had that on loan for quite some time many years ago and absolutely hated it. It was just plain weird and almost useless unless you absolutely tickled it and only used it for mojo.

The times of sound aesthetic is also constantly changing. I find quite often that young people who are into various modern genres and sound aesthetics don't really like what I consider "luxurious" in terms of mojo. They use tools much more utilitarian like. Lots of clippers, complex side-chained dynamic EQ and compression setups, lots of time synced LFO and Envelope shapers all over the place. This is super cool as the real reason for any tool is to get you to where you want to be, or sometimes just give inspiration.

I'm quite self-aware of the fact that I'm now past the age of "thinking with a fresh mind" so I'm already a bit stuck in my ways. Thus I'm always thinking of tools in terms of how I remember them in hardware form. Saturation, compression, clipping etc. These are all the same tools we have as plugins but they operate very differently to the analogue domain. They are both more and less forgiving in that domain, depending on what part of the equation you consider a win (meaning noise floor vs shaping vs how "damaged" did the audio become?).

I have a feeling that many of the very skilled younger producers are real perfectionists when it comes to sound. They know exactly what they want and do whatever it takes to get there, no matter how strange the plugin chain may look. They also aren't afraid of really mangling things, much more so than ever before. It's no wonder the OTT preset in Ableton Live got so popular and can now be found as a feature almost everywhere.

This does have it's downside too. There's a bit of a struggle to find "nuanced" mixes. Everything is extremely polished and packaged in a way that it can feel a bit fatiguing. Even really sparse productions, a simple singer/songwriter + guitar + a simple drumloop can sound huge and super polished in a way that sometimes distracts a bit. I suspect this is why youtube channels like NPR's Tiny Desk Concert or Live on KEXP have become so popular. It's super refreshing to hear just the bare bones version of songs. Perhaps minimalist productions will return one day into the mainstream? Or perhaps it never really existed and that's just imagination playing tricks on me?


.. sorry. Got way off tangent there.