Soundspot Oracle

[hivkorn]

Be ready , soundspot will unleash a very intersting reverb tonight , they usually offer a 90 % promo sale when they released new plugins.
No i don t work for soundspot but they released plugins wich are really very good with an insane intro price.
Just keep an eyes on their website or on plugin boutique....

[BRBWaffles]

I just demoed it. Unfortunately, it's easily one of the worst sounding paid reverbs I've ever used. No matter what decay setting, it sounds like everything is in a tin can. At the highest decay setting, it just sounds like a very large tin can. I know nearly all algorithmic reverbs suffer from artifacts and lack a certain compelling tonal quality, but this one sounds like the developers made no attempt to mitigate that. I mean, comparing it to OrilRiver or DD Reverb, I would actually say the OrilRiver is better and the DD Reverb is on par.

Here's a signal chain to save you some money:

OrilRiver
A1StereoControl
ReaEQ
SGA1566
TAL-Filter-2
DD Flanger
ReaComp

If you really wanted that much crap on your reverb channel, you could do it all for free, and it would probably actually sound better. I don't mean to be negative, and I actually own most of SoundSpot's catalogue, but this one is severely underwhelming.

[yellowmix]

I downloaded a whole bunch of trials from the website and Oracle as the first one I installed and demoed. I hope this isn't a reflection on all the other plugins, but I have to agree with BRBWaffles. The reverb is atrocious. It's extremely metallic and thin even with with the most favourable settings using the additional signal chain.

Attached is an impulse response with settings of predelay 3ms, 25% time, 50% damping. You can clearly hear the individual taps creating a brutal graininess. It's simply unusable.

While we're here, the spatial imaging being a separate section would lead one to think it's important. Yet there is no way to specify how the room is modelled. I'm not going to bother talking about the other sections as it fails at its fundamental purpose.

[DJErmac]

Unfortunately, it's easily one of the worst sounding paid reverbs I've ever used.

The reverb is atrocious. (...) It's simply unusable.

Can't wait to try it !

[heyitsjimi]

Thanks for the warning you guys !! You saved me 13 bucks.

[BRBWaffles]

I hope this isn't a reflection on all the other plugins

I own most of their stuff. Some of it is good. Some of their plugins are just inane, like Propane (which basically does half as much as your average free stereo utility plugin). Kickbox is on the cusp of what I would consider useful, sometimes it sounds great, other times I just can't find a way to apply it. Cyclone is pretty cool. It's a stereo bus compressor that seems to have some non-linearities working with some saturation. Definitely not worth the asking price, but I managed to get it for, like, $15 for being a SoundSpot customer. Halcyon is the apex of this company's arrogance and greed, though. It's a $200 multiband saturator with only one band, and it has an LFO stage. Nothing you couldn't do with the right free plugins. Oracle seems to be the perfect marriage of arrogance, neglect, and misplaced self-confidence. It's like the Dunning-Kruger effect embodied in a VST. It's really quite astounding.

[Russell Grand]

It's simply unusable.

Unusable? "That's just, like, your opinion, man."
I purchased Oracle, but I never expected it to be a reverb workhorse going into it. That's not what it excels at and was not intended to. The reverb on it's own is nothing to write home about, but it's certainly usable here in my studio. If I wanted an incredible reverb, I'd just pull up a Valhalla plug. For what Oracle does with the LFO and flanger, I'm loving some of the sounds that come out of it!

[robotmonkey]

Unusable? "That's just, like, your opinion, man."
I purchased Oracle, but I never expected it to be a reverb workhorse going into it. That's not what it excels at and was not intended to.

Literally the second paragraph from their marketing blurb:

The Oracle is a one stop shop for all your creative reverb needs and can be used on any sound source to great effect. From adding a sense of depth to piano melodies to making synthesised soundscapes sound huge, the Oracle has it covered.

[BRBWaffles]

Unusable? "That's just, like, your opinion, man."
I purchased Oracle, but I never expected it to be a reverb workhorse going into it. That's not what it excels at and was not intended to.

Literally the second paragraph from their marketing blurb:

The Oracle is a one stop shop for all your creative reverb needs and can be used on any sound source to great effect. From adding a sense of depth to piano melodies to making synthesised soundscapes sound huge, the Oracle has it covered.

That's hilarious. I didn't even read their advertising summary. If this plugin was advertised as a general FX-strip sort of plugin with a focus on spacial processing, then I could see it being a cool idea (though I still think it would still actually be a poor plugin). But, it's literally being advertised as something that can stand alongside Pro-R, Valhalla Room, or IQ-Reverb. That's pretty bloody laughable, haha.

[Aloysius]

for all your creative reverb needs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFHDDCz4pFw

[Russell Grand]

Unusable? "That's just, like, your opinion, man."
I purchased Oracle, but I never expected it to be a reverb workhorse going into it. That's not what it excels at and was not intended to.

Literally the second paragraph from their marketing blurb:

The Oracle is a one stop shop for all your creative reverb needs and can be used on any sound source to great effect. From adding a sense of depth to piano melodies to making synthesised soundscapes sound huge, the Oracle has it covered.

Ooooooh I can use a shitload of eyeroll smilies too.

But you're right and I stand corrected. Thanks for setting me straight. I tried out the demo and got the impression it wasn't meant to be some holy grail reverb, and instead I viewed it as a nifty fx chain plug that can do some fun lfo stuff. Ciao!

[robotmonkey]

[Russell Grand]

Unusable? "That's just, like, your opinion, man."
I purchased Oracle, but I never expected it to be a reverb workhorse going into it. That's not what it excels at and was not intended to.

Literally the second paragraph from their marketing blurb:

The Oracle is a one stop shop for all your creative reverb needs and can be used on any sound source to great effect. From adding a sense of depth to piano melodies to making synthesised soundscapes sound huge, the Oracle has it covered.

That's hilarious. I didn't even read their advertising summary. If this plugin was advertised as a general FX-strip sort of plugin with a focus on spacial processing, then I could see it being a cool idea (though I still think it would still actually be a poor plugin). But, it's literally being advertised as something that can stand alongside Pro-R, Valhalla Room, or IQ-Reverb. That's pretty bloody laughable, haha.

Yeah, Soundspot might consider changing up their wording because they're missing the mark on that one.

[Russell Grand]

[double ]

[yellowmix]

I purchased Oracle, but I never expected it to be a reverb workhorse going into it.

Perhaps if I bought it blind I'd think so too. I got the email from Plugin Boutique and looked up the company, went to their site, watched the promo video and read the marketing information. I wasn't enthused with the reverb I heard in the video but assumed there was a way to adjust it, and the plugin chain got me excited enough to go through the trouble of demoing it. It's sold as an excellent reverb and it just isn't. It's not even average. They raised expectations so it was a letdown.

If it were sold as a permanently £13 plugin that wasn't marked down from a price more than Exponential Audio PhoenixVerb and AconDigital Verberate then maybe my expectations would be have been met.