Acustica Audio Nebula

That's kind of what I was getting at the 12khz while may not sound like doing much, once you A/B a few times with the 12khz boost in vs out I'm sure you would start to hear it. Also, who is to say you would be wrong for adding 3 more Db than you were using at 12khz... if you boosted 1.5db boost 4db and A/B til you find your sweet spot...

With the clipping lower the output/ ceiling to -.5 to -.8dbfs you should be good even for MFiT/ MP3 's ....

BTW - I have no idea what I'm doing with the whole mastering/limiting/.whatever shit...

And keep in mind that I didn't send the Pearl version to Aria for mastering. I have a feeling leaving the limiting to Aria would work even better.

lol

I haven't used it yet, but I gather there's a bug in the standalone compressor of the Pearl 2 bundle where the phase gets reversed when the preamp is engaged. Don't think that's the case with the strip compressor. A fix is supposed to be forthcoming. I will say that the compressor in the strip sounds totally unique from every other plugin compressor I've ever heard. Don't know what it's good for yet, though!

You're probably right. I probably use too much m/s witchery. But I did turn up the sides on the Vari Mu. I could see the Pearl replacing the MusEQ in my chain, though.

Jeepers, just spent the last hour trying to get pearl to generate an ser. file. It seems to spit the dummy if you install in to any other than the default programme file suggestion. Tried my normal plug in route and it wouldn't play so had to go with program files/vst which the installer created.

I got the channel strip to trial. Probably need to read the instructions but Compressor / Limiter on that is really good. EQ is another level from the Magenta. avgatzeblouz  & ludwigvanbeartrap thanks for your gentle persistence with this, really positive so far. 
JK, just ran a mix through this that I had also ran through aria. Stuck a limiter after the Pearl  and compared the 2. 
Gonna play a bit more, but might have to join this cult real soon.

I don't mind cults lol. Seriously, I was holding back on my comments until I've slept on it and listened again tomorrow. But right now my thoughts are that the Pearl blew the other mix out the water.

I do mind cults ! Especially for a software, or a brand (like windows vs mac) it is an ego battle I can't stand with. But I will say loud what I think is the best. And Tchad Blake or Tom Elmhirst must not even know about Acustica and yet deliver the best mixes ever. So... no cult !

Digital, amazing since 1982... ;-)
0 and 1 can bring emotion to life, otherwise we would have to work in the analog domain from recording to media. The idea of reducing complex real world phenomena into a chain of only 2 states always tends to mislead to the idea of unsufficency. But it works. Sufficiently. As good as the converters.
The main idea behind dynamic convolution technologies for recording and reproducing processors is as simple as it is hard to implement in realtime ...
What kind of transfer function / algorithm brings material in the audible domain nearest to the analog chain processing? If you come to the idea of sampling/digital recording, coming to convolution and dynamic convolution seems like a logical evolutionary sequence of digital processing techniques that evolves with the progression of modern electronics and it's resulting available computing power.
The most amazing thing about this for me personally is the demystification of audio itself. It is hard to discuss esoterical, superficial ideas about sound if you can process and reproduce it with digital math / 0 and 1 and prove the success e.g. with ABX tests. (Yes, i know, some do not find this valid. I do.)
The restricted quality of the early digital era and wrong usage of digital signal processing which induced unpleasant digital clipping distortion led many to the impression that digital CAN not be as good as analog for audio. Most of the time it is not better or worse in terms of fidelity, just different in handling.
Of course. the big advantage is the fidelity of the media, especially in regards to cost.

Been testing the Pearl2 strip quite  bit. It is very good. There are a couple of things that I'm not too keen on though. Firstly it will change the shape of the stereo image (narrows the image and pushes the mids up) which is something that can be fixed with another plug if you think it necessary. I also found a slight slurring / smearing of the audio (faint but noticeable). Both these characteristics are probably consistent with the hardware that was modelled and in that respect the question is do you like the hardware?
I wasn't able to get it to behave in the zero latency mode at all, and would incur clicks and pops however I set my interface (have no problems normally) so maybe don't have enough CPU for this (quad core 3.2 overclocked to about 3.8)
This couldn't live with a mix I put through my hardware chain however much I wanted it to, and it still sounded slightly flat in comparison.
I then used a mix I stuck through the Aria online mastering process to test it against. As above it was narrower but also lost some of the verb tails compared to the Aria.
Finally (on a buddies machine) I made a channel strip up out of Slate VMR / VBC, and also Kush Electra / UBK and put these up against the Pearl2 and the Aria mix.

All the plugs will get you there, they're close and all good, but I preferred Kush, followed by Acqua then Slate . UBK / Electra are incredibly versatile comp and eq's, and so easy to dial in a great sound . To me the sound quality was up there and easily as good as Acqua but friendlier CPU wise.