|
|
Post by Johnkenn on May 7, 2024 10:01:21 GMT -6
Just looking at this now...WHO KNEW? About to download and try. Never heard of it before!
|
|
|
|
Post by seawell on May 7, 2024 11:27:50 GMT -6
|
|
|
|
Post by copperx on May 7, 2024 11:32:32 GMT -6
You have a Sta-Level, right? How close is it?
|
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on May 7, 2024 11:39:17 GMT -6
YEah Smoke is kind of a disaster...meter doesn't work on double or triple...
|
|
|
|
Post by seawell on May 7, 2024 12:21:03 GMT -6
You have a Sta-Level, right? How close is it?
It's pretty darn close at lower gain reduction levels. It's CPU hungry and to get the full emulation you have to use 3 separate instances which is annoying, the compressor, the preamp and a clipper version. Having said that, if you want the Sta Level territory in the box it's the best I've found for sure. My hardware Sta Level is on the way back from Retro after a routine check up so once it's back, I'll do a comparison video and I also want to trace it with STL Controlhub and see if that is even closer than the Vari Level plug-in. Hopefully I can put all that together in the next couple of weeks. |
|
|
|
Post by seawell on May 7, 2024 12:22:04 GMT -6
YEah Smoke is kind of a disaster...meter doesn't work on double or triple... I love the sound of a lot of their plug-ins but it's wild to me how they continue to put out such buggy software. |
|
|
|
Post by Quint on May 7, 2024 13:34:07 GMT -6
I swore off all things Acustica a while back. However, I checked in recently to see what this new Ultra stuff was about. In a nutshell, the Ultra line of plugins are maybe supposed to be working a little better (not as buggy or laggy), but at the expense of not sounding as good as the older stuff (cleaner, less vibey).
Which is a big letdown and kind of defeats the purpose of using Acustica in the first place, which is for sonic reasons. And it sounds like Acustica is kind of quietly abandoning (not updating) a lot of the older plugins either. Ultra is the way forward, it seems. Throw in all of the other usual Acustica shenanigans and plugin bugginess, plus Zaphod's usual ego trip stuff, and I think I'm gonna continue to stay away. Plus, I don't use Nebula, but it seems like it's maybe kind of getting slowly abandoned as well?
|
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on May 7, 2024 14:22:22 GMT -6
You have a Sta-Level, right? How close is it?
It's pretty darn close at lower gain reduction levels. It's CPU hungry and to get the full emulation you have to use 3 separate instances which is annoying, the compressor, the preamp and a clipper version. Having said that, if you want the Sta Level territory in the box it's the best I've found for sure. My hardware Sta Level is on the way back from Retro after a routine check up so once it's back, I'll do a comparison video and I also want to trace it with STL Controlhub and see if that is even closer than the Vari Level plug-in. Hopefully I can put all that together in the next couple of weeks. Oh man. I need to get a refresher on the Tonehub plug. It’s something you can model your own hardware? Can’t remember. |
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on May 7, 2024 14:24:18 GMT -6
I swore off all things Acustica a while back. However, I checked in recently to see what this new Ultra stuff was about. In a nutshell, the Ultra line of plugins are maybe supposed to be working a little better (not as buggy or laggy), but at the expense of not sounding as good as the older stuff. Which is a big letdown and kind of defeats the purpose of using Acustica in the first place, which is for sonic reasons. And it sounds like Acustica is kind of quietly abandoning (not updating) a lot of the older plugins either. Ultra is the way forward, it seems. Throw in all of the other usual Acustica shenanigans and plugin bugginess, plus Zaphod's usual ego trip stuff, and I think I'm gonna continue to stay away. Plus, I don't use Nebula, but it seems like it's maybe kind of getting slowly abandoned as well? I bought the clipper and it’s Ultra. It’s pretty killer. The last time I compared a couple of their plugs, there were a few I did think might sound a little better, but they’re just so clunky. |
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on May 7, 2024 14:28:16 GMT -6
m03 was kind enough to ahem…loan me the Arturia FX bundle version 1 (so maybe there have been improvements) so I’ve been playing around with the sta-level. Does it sound like all the sta-levels I’ve had? Ha - no idea. But it does sound good and I noticed it sounds really good pushed, so it’s currently beating out my usual LA2A (UAD gray) on bass. Nice midrange fuzz
|
|
|
|
Post by Quint on May 7, 2024 14:36:59 GMT -6
I swore off all things Acustica a while back. However, I checked in recently to see what this new Ultra stuff was about. In a nutshell, the Ultra line of plugins are maybe supposed to be working a little better (not as buggy or laggy), but at the expense of not sounding as good as the older stuff. Which is a big letdown and kind of defeats the purpose of using Acustica in the first place, which is for sonic reasons. And it sounds like Acustica is kind of quietly abandoning (not updating) a lot of the older plugins either. Ultra is the way forward, it seems. Throw in all of the other usual Acustica shenanigans and plugin bugginess, plus Zaphod's usual ego trip stuff, and I think I'm gonna continue to stay away. Plus, I don't use Nebula, but it seems like it's maybe kind of getting slowly abandoned as well? I bought the clipper and it’s Ultra. It’s pretty killer. The last time I compared a couple of their plugs, there were a few I did think might sound a little better, but they’re just so clunky. Fire the Clip? That one? I can't keep it all straight. There is such an endless stream of new releases from Acustica. If it's Fire, I believe that plugin is actually a departure from the usual convolution thing that Acustica does, and is all or at least partially algorithmic. |
|
|
|
Post by niklas1073 on May 7, 2024 14:52:14 GMT -6
m03 was kind enough to ahem…loan me the Arturia FX bundle version 1 (so maybe there have been improvements) so I’ve been playing around with the sta-level. Does it sound like all the sta-levels I’ve had? Ha - no idea. But it does sound good and I noticed it sounds really good pushed, so it’s currently beating out my usual LA2A (UAD gray) on bass. Nice midrange fuzz As a big fan of arturia plugs I use their sta all the time. I alter between that and uad la2a. The uad has sometimes an annoying harshness in it which sometimes sounds lively in a good way but many times does not work, while the sta usually does the job great. |
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on May 7, 2024 15:50:25 GMT -6
I bought the clipper and it’s Ultra. It’s pretty killer. The last time I compared a couple of their plugs, there were a few I did think might sound a little better, but they’re just so clunky. Fire the Clip? That one? I can't keep it all straight. There is such an endless stream of new releases from Acustica. If it's Fire, I believe that plugin is actually a departure from the usual convolution thing that Acustica does, and is all or at least partially algorithmic. I think I got Fire the Clip in a bundle with Ash...but Ash is then name of it. It's awesome...although I've gone back to mostly using Izotope and then Stealth. |
|
