PA Blackbox - can you explain me what's special?

[midi_transmission]

I have the PA hg-2 and hg-2ms. They are good, the MS function is handy.

But I still don't see what's special with them. I tried a lot and watched a lot of youtube demonstrations to understand the hype, but there isn't anything magic happening for me. It's just a good sounding saturator.

It's sometimes said how it handles transients, but I did not notice anything special compared to other well made saturator plugins.

Would be great to hear some experiance and advice from someone who loves this thing. Do I miss something?

[Tj Shredder]

The hype is purely marketing driven. Maybe its a good thing, it makes you feel better in case you accidentally bought it…; - )

[Azbest]

The hardware is excellent, the plugin in supposedly almost as good. Either you like it or you don't. I find it useful on 2bus adding some triode saturation.

[pixel85]

It's just a good sounding saturator.

It's exactly this. For me, for example, it does very good saturation and is good to replace a compressor in some situations. It was my favourite bus/master bus saturation for quite some time. Today I prefer other newer plugins for saturation tasks but sometimes I'm coming back to BlackBox because it barely uses CPU.

[legendCNCD]

If it sounds good it sounds good.

[vurt]

If it sounds good it sounds good.

what about the sirens

[nathanj]

I really like it for making drum hits pop out a little more. Use it subtly and it can really help highlight otherwise hidden sounds.

That said, there's probably a dozen or so other plugins that can do this just as well

[_leras]

It's a decent sounding saturator. Imparts a nice sounding improvement on groups or buses at mix time. It's subtle but adds a bit of perceived gain and can add a bit of presence.

It's not a.magic bullet, but it is one of those many small changes that helps add up to a better sounding mix.

I like ita flavour of saturation. I think it can also be used on an instrument as the distortion is pretty good when pushed, though I use it a bit less for that as I have some other good distortion options.

[legendCNCD]

You can really make peaks die with this one too

[briefcasemanx]

I can name like 8 saturators I like better. It sounds like a saturation plugin from 15 years ago to me. I didn't spend that much time with it, maybe I should retry it and the MS version.

[gaggle of hermits]

If it sounds good it sounds good.

what about the sirens

well, it's all good up to the eating part.

blackbox? it works fine. I agree, I don't think it's more special than a number of others out there.

[AKJ]

I can name like 8 saturators I like better. It sounds like a saturation plugin from 15 years ago to me. I didn't spend that much time with it, maybe I should retry it and the MS version.

please, do so. But it has to be exactly 8

[dangayle]

Some people like Decapitator on everything. I think it sounds terrible. Some people like Black Box HG-2 on everything. I think it sounds wonderful, and I find it pretty easy to add some subtle hair to things.

It is definitely a personal preference thing.

[briefcasemanx]

I can name like 8 saturators I like better. It sounds like a saturation plugin from 15 years ago to me. I didn't spend that much time with it, maybe I should retry it and the MS version.

please, do so. But it has to be exactly 8

Tone Projects Kelvin
Goodhertz Tupe
IK Tape
Klanghelm SDDR
PSP Saturator
Waves Abbey Roads Saturator
Voxengo crtiv tapebus
Neold Big Al

I can actually name more but I'll stop at exactly 8.

[Bulbizarre]

It's just a good ITB saturator. Saturation always sound better OTB, especially on high-end gear. If you want the real deal on your tunes you can pay for pro mastering or use online rent-to-use services (I never tried it).