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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 2, 2020 16:56:39 GMT -6
Hey everyone, RGO has long been my go to audio forum, so I wanted to introduce anyone who may not have heard of them to Sonimus. They’re a relatively new plugin company I only recently found out about, and while they may not have the worlds crispest GUIs yet (though they’re still definitely solid), the sound is phenomenal. Oftentimes a combination of both algorithm and sampling based modeling. A lot of their products have slowly replaced or augmented some of my favorite plugins in similar categories (many costing much more), and they do a great job combining modeling for a piece of hardware we see all the time like a G-Series or 1073/81, and altering it based off of other hardware and their own ideas, often resulting in some increased versatility. For instance, their Satson CS plugin not only models crosstalk in addition to THD and everything else (same with their Satson and Britson console emulations), but also replaces the channel compressor with something more closely resembling a G-Series bus compressor, but with tonal/response changes to both make it unique and to make sure it can handle all of the channel compression tasks just as easily. I’ve found myself using it as much for program/bus applications as I do for channel applications. Their SonEQ Pro originally looked like a standard EQP-1A emulation too me, but upon trying it out I found it is like this brilliant mix between a EQP-1A and a modern, parametric mastering/bus EQ, both sound and feature wise. It can still add plenty of color if you need it too, but with low drive/input can also stay surprisingly transparent and crisp with a much more accurate transient response than my hardware Pultec. Plus all of the bands are fully parametric opposed to your standard 20Hz, 30Hz, 60Hz, 100Hz, etc. SonEQ is still capable of pulling off the simultaneous boost + cut Pultec trick as well, and with a wider variety of frequencies to choose from and experiment with. Since Sonimus came to my attention, I’ve been helping them spread the word, so if anyone has any questions I’ll do my best to answer them. They also have timed demos on all of their plugins to check out as well until I release some full length reviews with audio examples, etc included. Including SonEQ which is 100% free, and gives a good idea of what to expect with SonEQ Pro in a more standard passive EQ package. Anyone else have a personal favorite out of the line up so far?  |
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Post by tkaitkai on Aug 2, 2020 17:11:59 GMT -6
Huge fan of Satson/Britson. I use them all over the place for quick HP/LP filters that sound excellent. Satson is probably my favorite software HPF.
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 2, 2020 17:24:18 GMT -6
Huge fan of Satson/Britson. I use them all over the place for quick HP/LP filters that sound excellent. Satson is probably my favorite software HPF. Awesome to hear! I've really been enjoying the filters also since I normally have Satson or Britson high up in whatever chain anyways. I've been enjoying just throwing SonEQ Pro on a track too for the bit of color, and then using the filters there as well. I appreciate that they included the filters in with both SonEQs since a lot of Pultec/passive EQ plugin lines put the filters in it's own plugin since the old Pultec filters are selling for quite a lot anymore. I'll be sure to play around more with the Satson HPFs in particular on a wider range of applications. |
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Post by sirthought on Aug 2, 2020 23:19:25 GMT -6
I've been trying to tell folks to buy Britson for console-like summing rather than the $300 Neve summing extension from UAD. I believe they sound very close in what they add to a mix and the Britson is overall more versatile in the end.
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 3, 2020 10:14:11 GMT -6
I've been trying to tell folks to buy Britson for console-like summing rather than the $300 Neve summing extension from UAD. I believe they sound very close in what they add to a mix and the Britson is overall more versatile in the end. You've got the right idea haha, I wish I found out about them sooner than I did. I recently discovered that their Tuco compressor lets you switch between "modern" and "vintage" stereo modes too, which is cool since even sequential pairs of old (and even some newer) hardware is rarely perfectly matched. On a drum or guitar bus it adds that little bit of extra width in a way I've rarely (if ever) seen a plugin offer, and is also just an extra nod towards authenticity whenever needed. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Aug 3, 2020 11:37:24 GMT -6
I've been trying to tell folks to buy Britson for console-like summing rather than the $300 Neve summing extension from UAD. I believe they sound very close in what they add to a mix and the Britson is overall more versatile in the end. I'll have to try that out. I still haven't found anything that does what the Neve summing in Luna does along with dropping the 1073/1084 on the same channel. |
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Post by phantom on Aug 3, 2020 13:42:36 GMT -6
I've been trying to tell folks to buy Britson for console-like summing rather than the $300 Neve summing extension from UAD. I believe they sound very close in what they add to a mix and the Britson is overall more versatile in the end. Yeah, there was a shootout on another forum and most have preferred Britson over UAD Neve Summing and some other plugin. I think they all do the job fine. Sometimes I use Lindell 80s Bus here, but I don't usually rely on this kind of plugin. |
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Post by drumsound on Aug 3, 2020 14:00:35 GMT -6
I use the Sonimus SonEQ and StoneEQ (SSL ish model) a lot. They are a great company.
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 4, 2020 18:46:20 GMT -6
I use the Sonimus SonEQ and StoneEQ (SSL ish model) a lot. They are a great company. I agree, I personally find it cool that instead of just offering full emulations of both Brown and Black EQ types, they take their favorite parts of each and combine them with some unique aspects here and there. So instead of flat out getting double the options to mess with which seems most common anymore, it is a single EQ that allows you to achieve aspects of both EQ models. |
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Post by robertg on Aug 6, 2020 17:16:08 GMT -6
Does Satson and Britton use oversampling? 2X or 4X?
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Post by viciousbliss on Aug 6, 2020 20:18:31 GMT -6
Got Britson a few months ago. It really does make stuff sound a lot better and the crosstalk is quite valuable. Have StoneEq4k and use it here and there. One of these days I'll complete the collection.
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Post by sirthought on Aug 7, 2020 2:17:10 GMT -6
Does Satson and Britton use oversampling? 2X or 4X? I'd ask them directly. I think Satson talks about oversampling up to 16x. |
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 7, 2020 18:39:09 GMT -6
Does Satson and Britton use oversampling? 2X or 4X? I know that Satson CS has up to 16x oversampling. I'll double check for you if that's also the case with Satson and Britson. Both definitely have internal 64-bit floating point and zero latency though. |
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 7, 2020 18:49:40 GMT -6
On a side note, I just found out that there is a 30% off bundle deal going on with Burnley 73 + Britson for the next couple days. Both together for about $70 here for anyone looking into them. |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 8, 2020 9:14:49 GMT -6
I've been curious about summing for years. I'd buy a Dangerous 2 Bus + in a minute if I could. UAD usually wins plug-in shootouts by a nose. I have the Relab XL480 since it came out and cost $400. I'd bet the UAD version is a little better, but will I buy it, no way, especially since I have Liquid Sonics 7th Heaven, Sound Toys Little Plate, UAD's EMT-140, the Relab, Phoenix Verb and a few others.
Thanks for the heads up here topshelf. I might just try the Brtson summing plug. I can see the interface is a little pedestrian and confusing, but it looks like it's learnable. I have some plug-ins I bought for their sound quality and they're so confusing to use I don't touch them. The Elysia EQ comes to mind.
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 8, 2020 19:19:20 GMT -6
Does Satson and Britton use oversampling? 2X or 4X? I just confirmed that Satson CS is currently the only plugin with oversampling currently, though now that they've implemented it into whatever backend they use to create the plugins. So you'll probably start seeing it a lot more often all over the place with their products. I haven't noticed any high end/anti-aliasing issues personally though, and 48k and up it should be a non-issue. |
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 8, 2020 19:29:34 GMT -6
I've been curious about summing for ears. I'd buy a Dangerous 2 Bus + in a minute if I could. UAD usually wins plug-in shootouts by a nose. I have the Relab XL480 since it came out and cost $400. I'd bet the UAD version is a little better, but will I buy it, no way, especially since I have Liquid Sonics 7th Heaven, Sound Toys Little Plate, UAD's EMT-140, the Relab, Phoenix Verb and a few others. Thanks for the heads up here topshelf. I might just try the Brtson summing plug. I can see the interface is a little pedestrian and confusing, but it looks like it's learnable. I have some plug-ins I bought for their sound quality and they're so confusing to use I don't touch them. The Elysia EQ comes to mind. Awesome to hear! Yes, definitely not the prettiest plugins in the world, but very usable and straight forward still. The only thing that wasn't immediately apparent to me is how they handle their grouping, but then I found out every group needs it's own instance of the bus plugin (which I was already using, just not linked to the channel plugins). It is very easy to do, just a little different than how I've seen it handled before but no less effective. I love the 2 Bus+ and was very close to getting one myself, but very narrowly ended up getting the Looptrotter Satur-8/24 in the end. I love how the op amp-based saturation on the first 8 channel sounds, plus the extra 8 channels and ease of expansion. I typically run it pretty clean with subtle saturation here and there, and the Sonimus virtual console line honestly reminds me much more of the results than most other virtual console/summing options I have. It just took me forever to find out about Sonimus haha. Big fan of the reverbs you mentioned as well, Little Plate is one of my most used plate verbs at this point and ends up somewhere on almost every mix, same with Relab. Phoenix Verb is one of the major reverbs I have yet to try out though. And I'm glad, always happy to share my findings here! |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Aug 8, 2020 20:32:53 GMT -6
The Phoenix Verb to me is he "cleanest" reverb. It's very natural and halls sound like halls. Well worth having as an option. They had a sale on couple of months ago for $29, and I snagged it. I almost bought it when it was $200, but liked the Relab Lexicon sound a little more for what I was doing musically.
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 10, 2020 21:24:54 GMT -6
The Phoenix Verb to me is he "cleanest" reverb. It's very natural and halls sound like halls. Well worth having as an option. They had a sale on couple of months ago for $29, and I snagged it. I almost bought it when it was $200, but liked the Relab Lexicon sound a little more for what I was doing musically. Very cool, I'll give it a go next time it's on sale or something. I've heard it mentioned quite a lot recently. |
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Post by topshelfmg on Aug 27, 2020 19:25:55 GMT -6
Hey guys, posting this in the same thread as to not clutter up the site. SonEQ Pro and StonEQ 4K are currently on sale here and here. SonEQ Pro is the product that I first tried out from Sonimus, and is what originally lead me to wanting to help them spread the word a bit in the first place. Instead of just letting you know it’s on sale and being done with it though, the least I can do is share my experience with SonEQ Pro as I aim to do when recommending anything. That way you can better determine if it’s a tool that could potentially benefit you, or at least make for a solid $34 impulse buy haha. When I first tried out SonEQ Pro, I went in expecting a run of the mill EQP-like, but I found it to have equally as much in common with solid state stereo bus/master EQs like a GML or something else in that ballpark (minus fully variable Qs). With the variable drive (which does not alter gain) turned up you can definitely get a passive, inductor based tone with a bit of low end fullness and “tube sparkle” up top, but it is also capable of surprisingly transparent processing with a transient response that's night and day compared to my hardware MEQ-5, or the EQPs I used to own. In addition to this, every single band is parametric, instead of the standard 20Hz, 30Hz, 60Hz, 100Hz, etc selections. Not only is this great paired with the extra 3 bands (5 in total + filters, mid bands have 2 Q positions) to get really surgical with tone shaping, but since the low band allows you to boost and cut simultaneously like a Pultec, you can get very selective when using the EQP boost/cut truck. Instead of having to settle for 30Hz, 60Hz, or 100Hz when I feel like a kick drum or bass could benefit from this technique, I can dial in any intermediary frequency to ensure that I’m not causing the bass to step on the kick's toes, or vice versa. Or I can better match the fundamental of a vocal if it’s too thin for my taste. I also appreciate that unlike most plugins that take even a bit of inspiration from Pultec, they did not separate the filters into an additional plugin. I mean, you can’t blame companies for doing so, the original Pultec filter units sell for a ton anymore, but Sonimus didn’t go that route. As far as a personal wishlist, I would love to eventually see fully variable Qs with SonEQ Pro to really drive home the improved precision, and maybe a \2 switch for extremely subtle boosts and cuts for bus/mastering work. But even without this, I’ve found that this EQ goes the extra mile as is, and the lack of those features haven’t prevented me from enjoying it on everything from drums, to guitars, to vocals, and mix buses. Hopefully this gives you a better idea of the product than I originally had trying it out for the first time. I’m happy to answer questions about either plugins to the best of my ability, and if I don’t know the answer to something I’ll shoot an email over to Sonimus. Like all of their products, both have timed demos if you’d like to try before you buy. Have a good weekend everyone! Attachments:
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Post by sirthought on Nov 14, 2022 2:45:46 GMT -6
FYI---
Sonimus has a new A-Console, which is an API emulation. They've updated the layout a bit from past other attempts at this tech, and oversampling is included. $39 right now.
A reminder for those who forgot or don't know: The product includes a channel plug and a bus plug, and they can work together. It's pretty amazing workflow, if you've tried their other two console products: Britson (Neve) and Statson (SSL).
They also sell a bundle of the API, Neve, and SSL for $104 right now. It can really add summing detail and color to a mix and they sound different. And unlike doing something like Kazrog True Iron on multiple tracks, this allows you to apply global controls to groups of tracks, meaning you can make adjustments faster and not tweak the plugin on every track.
Oh, and the word is that updates to the Britson and Statson are going to drop soon. It likely is because they aren't yet M1 native, but I'd guess with some of the changes in the A-Console product, these will get some feature tweaks.
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Post by bgrotto on Nov 16, 2022 8:34:13 GMT -6
I did a quick n dirty shootout of a-console against uad vision (which had been a fixture of my mix template) and shared over on gs, in case anyone is curious to hear a-console in action. And if you’d rather skip the purple site, files are here: we.tl/t-RBTBBmdy8N |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2022 15:31:10 GMT -6
I did a quick n dirty shootout of a-console against uad vision (which had been a fixture of my mix template) and shared over on gs, in case anyone is curious to hear a-console in action. And if you’d rather skip the purple site, files are here: we.tl/t-RBTBBmdy8NBoth the UAD and Sonimus distortion bring out the guitars and clean up the mud of the kick. Both of them universalize the timbre of the different drums a bit though. |
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Post by bgrotto on Nov 16, 2022 21:40:25 GMT -6
I did a quick n dirty shootout of a-console against uad vision (which had been a fixture of my mix template) and shared over on gs, in case anyone is curious to hear a-console in action. And if you’d rather skip the purple site, files are here: we.tl/t-RBTBBmdy8NBoth the UAD and Sonimus distortion bring out the guitars and clean up the mud of the kick. Both of them universalize the timbre of the different drums a bit though. Agreed. They're both doing a pretty good API impression. For me, the Sonimus edges out the UAD a bit, because the UAD lends a certain "haze" to the tracks that I don't love. The Sonimus feels a bit more open and clear. I also like the Sonimus' presentation of the soundstage; it's a bit more exaggerated in a way that I like; sort of reminds me of the "A" setting on my Silver Bullet. |
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deif
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Post by deif on Nov 16, 2022 22:10:49 GMT -6
Both the UAD and Sonimus distortion bring out the guitars and clean up the mud of the kick. Both of them universalize the timbre of the different drums a bit though. Agreed. They're both doing a pretty good API impression. For me, the Sonimus edges out the UAD a bit, because the UAD lends a certain "haze" to the tracks that I don't love. The Sonimus feels a bit more open and clear. I also like the Sonimus' presentation of the soundstage; it's a bit more exaggerated in a way that I like; sort of reminds me of the "A" setting on my Silver Bullet. Interesting. Are you not using e the API UADx for EQ and compression, etc? Curious what you would replace them with when using the sonimus. Currently The UAD is my default channel strip. |
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