Just bought Acustica "Snow" and Sienna Free

[KVRstudent1]

Hi to KVR –

I recently purchased Acustica “Snow” and also downloaded Sienna Free. I had some general operational questions that I could not fully understand form the manuals, and the Acustica help desk process is kind of convoluted, so I thought some of the KVR experts would have the knowledge I am seeking. Here is what I asked them. Any hands-on expertise from the Forum would be awesome.


Question1 (Sienna):
If I purchase a paid Sienna package Should I uninstall Sienna Free to avoid conflicts? Also, what is the preferred uninstall method?


Question 2 (Sienna)::
In Sienna the explanation of “depth” is confusing. Can you please explain more fully:

a) Depth control all the way to the left (“Filtering”)
b) Depth control all the way to the right (“Translation”)

What does “filtering mean? What does “translation mean?


Question3 (Sienna):
In the “Perfection” slider
What is the full right “linearized” setting? Is this an “ideal” speaker created from Full Left setting of Perfection?

Question4 (Snow)
In the Snow Mix buss plugin, quick transients overshoot the Brick wall. It goes above “0VU”. Also, unlike most limiters, the BrickWall does not make the sound louder as you pull the threshold down. Also, I can get the limiter to reduce the gain but only by dialing it very far to the left (counterclockwise). Is this behavior correct?

[Frankie.T]

Question 1
The free package of Sienna is required for other packages, so it should stay installed

Question 4
It's a limiter, not a brickwall limiter, think about it as a compressor with high ratio, not not "infinite" like a brickwall limiter

[KVRstudent1]

Thank-you Frankie T . The manuals for these products are still confusing me on this issue.

You write:
<<<The free package of Sienna is required for other packages, so it should stay installed>>>

However
From the Sienna Free page:
https://www.acustica-audio.com/pages/sp ... ienna-free

About Sienna Free:
• While it is compatible with the Sienna commercial version (Volume A), we strongly advise all owners of the Sienna commercial version not to install and download this version since it may cause a downgrade of the Sienna commercial.

This suggests that it is not good to have Sienna Free installed. What do you think?

Also...you write
<<<It's a limiter, not a brickwall limiter, think about it as a compressor with high ratio, not not "infinite" like a brickwall limiter>>>

However, the Snow User manual states:
From “Snow” User Manual section 3.4.1
Control 29 “Sets the threshold of the by passable and independent brick wall limiter”

Again...your thoughts would be very helpful.

I tried contacting Acustica but I don't anticipate a prompt reply.

[Frankie.T]

About Sienna you are right, i was confused by their reverb plugin "Silver" where the "base" it's free, my bad sorry for that.

About the limiter, they are wrong, cause as you noticed (and i noticed too) does not catch certain peaks, cause it's not fast enough, so cannot be used as a brickwall limiter such Pro-L. In other suites they offer, there are other "limiters" they can call it whatever they want but they don't catch all the peaks (i tested myself). This isn't something bad, sometime you want it, just be aware to use it with this behavior in mind

[KVRstudent1]

Thank-you Frankie T. It is a pleasure to get feedback from an Acoustica owner. I am interested on all of your thoughts on this developer.

[Frankie.T]

Thank-you Frankie T. It is a pleasure to get feedback from an Acoustica owner. I am interested on all of your thoughts on this developer.

Well i own different stuff from them. I think the quality of their EQ are just the top, i love indigo eq (pretty versatile and it sound good) and white eq for higher frequencies, with the push pull you can have a very clear high end without getting harsh. I also like a lot pensado eq, i use it on every project.
Not a big fan of their compressor, i've tested a couple of them pretty intensive with pro-c and at the end i wasn't really impressed, i mean they are good, but doesn't worth the extras.

Unfortunatly nothing is perfect, the main "issue" for me is the cpu usage, their plugins are very heavy on cpu, i.e. i use the first version of pensado eq, cause on my system use 33% less cpu than the version 2, even if don't enable the newer features.
Than there are some of their plugins that are damn heavy so i usually avoid it or just use them with care just because of that, like Erin.
Unfortunatly there are also some buggy stuff, their comp "Smoke" it's completly bugged i.e. you can watch these 2 videos i made about this plugin


I really do not understand how can be released something with these issue.

In the following video i've reviewed Maze, a good one, but i found another annoying issue and a weirdness on OS


Anyway fortunatly it's an exception, i mean most of their stuff work as intended. All the other test and review i made on their products are positive, i cannot think to work without their product, they became part of my sound and i love them, and i consider myself a fan of this company, just not a blind one anyway, my critics are always with the hope to help them to improve, cause if they could fix them, imo they could just reach the perfection. I usually try and test everything they release, they got my complete attention, and there is for a reason, as i wrote i became a fan of them.

Anyway my suggestion is always to try it yourself, they offer demo version (not everyone do that), test what you think you need with multiple sources, compare with tools you have and make yourself an idea. With "Smoke" i realized reading comments on another forum, and watching other video review, people it's really out of the reality.
Even with so bigger issues you can see in the video i linked, i've read amazed comment, saw video reviewer that told nothing about issues, and this was attonishing.
Fortunatly someone noticed the issues on the forum, but generally speaking my thoughts on what i read online were changed a lot, i stopped to trust people out there because of that.

[KVRstudent1]

I look to forward to watching the videos. Thank you. I will try the EQs. Here is another question: a KVR person is offering to sell me licenses for some Plugin Alliance plugins. He will properly transfer the licenses to my email upon payment. Have you ever done this process on KVR?

[Frankie.T]

No, i usually prefer to buy them from devs

[HAL76]

I look to forward to watching the videos. Thank you. I will try the EQs. Here is another question: a KVR person is offering to sell me licenses for some Plugin Alliance plugins. He will properly transfer the licenses to my email upon payment. Have you ever done this process on KVR?

No. But a transfer is unproblematic for PA. Just read their terms. The Problem with PA is that the buyer pays activation fees (25?).